OT: A note from Amy P. :: nUSEweb.com

Bonnie,

I was googling the days board and saw that Jen was wondering how we
faired though the floods. Thankfully we were fine. Greg was laid off
for 3 days due to the floods and we were on water restriction for
about a week (not fun when you have a 3 year old who has just been
potty trained less than 2 months and a 2 year old who is potty
training). My two brothers work in a building that is right on the
bank, while they still have work, they won't be in their building
until the end of September at the earliest. Anyone can go to www.kcrg.com
and click on You News TV and search Floods 2008 and see everything.

I am completely amazed at how well this town pulled together during
this trying time. Everything was clicking like a well oiled machine,
well that is until a few wks after the floods. Residents want to
rebuild but there are some homes down town that the city hasn't
decided if they want to just bulldoze it and code it as city property
or allow the resident to rebuild. It seems to be taking so long. FEMA
was/is here and is doing what they can but it doesn't seem to be good
enough. They brought a bunch of trailers in and set up at the local
trailer parks and alot of them are moldy so they can't be lived in
now. Caiti and I went to see High School Musical Thurs night with my
SIL and my niece. ORginally it was to be downtown at Theater Cedar
Rapids but since that building was under water, they had to move it to
a local high school. THe show was amazing. Next year TCR will mark 75
years but they won't be back in the building next year either.

Greg and I are doing great. He now works locally for a cement place.
He works long hours and since it's a union job, the money and benefits
are great. We celebrated our 10th Anniversary July 3. My parents took
my three kids for us and we went to see Hancock and went out for
dinner. It was a nice evening.

Caitlin is now 9 years old. About 18 months ago she was diagosed with
ADD/ADHD. While we have struggled a lot with her, she has made great
strides as far as school goes. She was the most improved student in
her class last year. She is a Hannah Montana and High School Musical
nut. We have searched all over to find her a Hannah Montana Swim suit
and had no luck until my SIL just happened to be at Kmart getting
something for their vacation when a HM display caught her eye. She
grabbed me a suit for Caiti. She is now Caitlin's favorite Aunt LOL.

Harli is my 3 year old. She is also a HM nut. She runs around singing
'I Gotta Work It, I gotta work it" then for her finale she puts her
hand on her hip and says Oh Yeahh!! LOL Like I said earlier, she is
now potty trained. We had her 'potty party' back in May. A friend of
ours was to be in town for work but he had an emergancy at home and
didn't want to lose his room, so he gave it to use for the night.
Harli LOVED it.

Izzabella is the baby of the family. She turned 2 in Jan. She has the
cutest smile and giggle. She can be royally pissed off, I can tickle
her and she will start laughing so hard :). We have begun potty
training her. She has been easy thus far but I won't get serious about
it (putting panties on her all day) until school starts when I have
the time to spend with her on it. Between Harli and Belle, I am so
worn out that I am glad we decided no more kids after Belle. I am
completely content with the decision we made to have a tubal done. I
was worried that I would get that baby itch again but thankfully I
never have.

I am busy from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed, (thus
the reason I don't post any more). I get on the computer when the kids
are napping or playing nicely. We still live in the 2 bedroom
townhouse that we moved into almost 7 years ago. We want to buy a 3-4
bedroom house but our credit wasn't that great so we are working on
that and are hoping that in another year or two we can get preapproved
again. I am still a SAHM but have been looking for work since October
last year. Since I haven't worked since March 01, it's hard. People
don't want someone who hasn't worked in 7 years. Doesn't help though
that I am picky about what I want. I need nights and weekends but want
every other weekend off because with Greg working 6 days a week, I
wouldn't get to see him at all if I worked every weekend.

Guess that's it from here. Please tell people that have been wondering
about me, to feel free to email me at RmDghtr@aol.com and I will
respond when I have a moment. I can't promise that it will be today,
tomorrow or even this week but I will when I have the time.

Amy

OT: A note from Amy P.
23 Jul	Bonbon
OT: A note from Amy P.
23 Jul	$\$ KAT