Wayne and I have gotten the kids to sleep finally. Connor had a tough go of it. They are both asleep inside the same sleeping bag. I'm okay with that. Easier to protect them. revia  is sleeping or at least trying to. I think krisravenna  is as well.  We're sleeping in shifts. It's better that way. Wayne is watching the door. I know he's tired so I will let him take the next sleep shift. Really hoping this nightmare will be over soon. Somehow I don't think it will be......

Wayne decided we would head out first and check out the land in Kentland. Much to our dismay, the Step Monster and her ilk were already there. But imagine how thrilled we were when we found out that they were all zombified!! 

Right now, Wayne is dancing on Lydia's dead zombie body singing a little song. It sounds a little like a cross between Ding dong the witch is dead and hey hey good bye. It's quite amusing.  He is now letting Sophia and Connor kick the bodies.

I am happy Lydia kept this place up because somehow I have wi fi connnection and electricity. The water is working so we have working toilets as well in the big barn. We have the cell phones charging so we can keep in touch with everyone else.  revia  and krisravenna  will be coming soon. Thankfully there are no windows to worry about boarding up. There's plenty of crap in here that we can burn if we need fire. Wayne's dad was quite the pack rat.  We should be safe enough here. for now.

Well there is now a sunroof in the Saturn where there wasn't one before. At least the zombie is dead now. Really dead. Found out that Leslie and Clinton are also at Kris' house. Good thing Wayne packed ALL the guns and water jugs. I will not be making fun of him for making the "go to hell" bag for a long time.

Stopped to check on mom and dad. They are fine. Freaked out, but fine. Sparky has scared off a few of the zombies. Who knew they'd be just as irritated by a yappy yorkie as me. LOL Maybe I can strap him to the front of the car.

revia  if you're reading this, we're coming. Don't leave without us!

Trying to get to krisravenna house. Kele, Kris and The Kid are there waiting for us. Having a hard time getting through the streets. Too many damn zombie carcasses in the roads. Jeebus. What do we pay streets and san for if they aren't cleaning up the mess.  Wayne's riding shotgun. He's too pissed off to drive. Greg is dead. Fucking zombies. Sophia's mad because Wayne wouldn't let her kick the zombies.  Connor's freaked out because all this time he "played zombie" and now Wayne won't let him shoot a real one.

Oh shit. there's one on the roof of the car.....

Seeing a friend's post earlier reminded me that I haven't posted my request for donations for this year's March for Babies. 

Every year for the past 4 yrs, we have walked to help prevent premature birth.  In 2004, we did the Walk for the first time.  Sophia was only 6 months old.  She was our county's ambassador baby.  We loaded her (and her oxygen tank) into the stroller and away we went!  We've been doing the Walk every year since.  The only year I didn't actually walk was 2006 and that was because I was pregnant with Connor and on restricted activities.  We still had fun and raised money. 

This years' walk means even more to us. We have had several friends who have lost a child due to premature birth or labor.  We will walk in their memory this year as well as in honor of our own nicu grad. 

Please take a moment to visit my Walk page  www.marchforbabies.org/Sophiasmommy   All donations are welcome, even if it's only a dollar.   Together we can help our littlest fighters survive!

So today we went to Buckley Homestead for their fall festival!  It's a living history farm where people dress in late 1700's- early 1800's attire and all the stuff that goes with it. It's really neat.  We all had fun...well after Wayne's little mishap on the hay ride that scared the crap out of Sophia and I.

So we get our tickets for the hayride and head over to the wagon.  Connor is excited because it's being pulled by a tractor, Sophia's just excited to be on a hayride.   So we're the last ones on.  The driver starts to go and the girl who takes the tickets notices that the steps to get onto the wagon are hung up on the side of the wagon.   Wayne, being the nice guy he is, gets up to help her unhook them. In the meantime, she tells the driver to stop. When he does, the wagon lurches and sends Wayne over the front of wagon, headfirst.  Some how he managed to miss the wheels of the wagon and came out the other side.  Scary. He only has a bruise under his thumbnail and his hand is a litle sore.  Another few inches either way and he would have been seriously hurt.  I don't even want to think what would have happened if he had been ran over by the wheels. :(   Sophia freaked out and started crying. I was close to tears. Connor had no idea what was going on as he was  facing the opposite way!!  Everyone on the wagon was very concerned that he was hurt bad, but when he came up laughing, we all breathed a sigh of relief.  The tractor driver was shook up pretty bad.  He didn't hear us yelling for him to stop after Wayne fell off (he had kept going for some reason after stopping the first time). 

So after that, everything was fine and we enjoyed the day.  It didn't even matter that it started a light mist of rain at one point. Sophia had a blast! She got to make a piece of rope, dip a candle and "wash" clothes on an old fashioned washboard and ringer.  Then her and Connor got to paint a picture at the old school house.  We had fun.

I wish we could have stayed later but Wayne had to work today so we headed home. Connor was asleep I think before we left the parking lot. He was wiped out.

They have another big thing in December for Christmas and I hope we can go to that!!  Shouldn't be bad if we dress warm. :)

Here's an article about Billy's football team helping out the flood victims. The bolded Red parts are about Billy. Dykhuizen is Billy's best friend, Matt.

 

Calumet players help out without being asked

BY STEVE HANLON
shanlon@nwitimes.com
219.933.4198 | Friday, October 03, 2008 | No comments posted.

Homes, tears and lives were floating down the street in the aftermath of the destructive storms that hammered the Region a few weeks ago. Northern neighborhoods in Munster were under water. Families nervously looked to the sky to see if the sun was ever going to shine again.

Around noon on the post-storm Monday, seven Calumet football players arrived to move sandbags and help in any way they could. This compassionate outreach touched many who saw it.

The players -- Darcell Ballentine, Chuck Carter, Billy Doup, Matt Dykhuizen, George Ezell, Tyler Vanlul and Montrez Wade -- went there on their own. Coach Ivan Zimmer never called them or persuaded them to volunteer.

"Here we have kids who don't have much and they went into an affluent community because those people needed help," Zimmer said. "It almost made the old man cry. I was very happy, pleased and proud of my kids."

For seven hours the Warriors lifted sandbags and put them down, in different areas. Doup was at the staging area, where he said he lifted and moved about 8,000 bags of sand onto payloaders, which were taken to neighborhoods under duress. The bags weighed between 25 and 100 pounds each.

"It was a good workout," Doup joked. "Hey, those people needed help, so what else could we do?"

Zimmer, in his 25th year as a varsity coach, said he preaches "right and wrong" to his players every day. For example, one of his players came into the office to call home for a ride. He said, "Hey, pick me up." Zimmer pointed out that the proper exclamation was, "Please, could you come and pick me up. Thank you."

Being on time is paramount to the program. Zimmer's saying -- "If you're early you're on time. If you're on time then you're late and if you're late, you're fired" -- has been tested this year and he's backed it up. Five players missed the first half of the North Newton game because of tardiness.

"Kids have to know that they're held to a standard," he said.

Last Saturday the Warriors washed cars for a fundraiser for eight hours. This week, with the homecoming game against Whiting coming and the team set to ride on fire trucks in the parade, the players went to the Lake Ridge Fire Department and washed and waxed two trucks.

"It's sort of a higher calling," Zimmer said. "In today's world rules were made to be broken. Look at the music and movies and videos. But we're trying to teach kids that even if you don't get caught you've got to know that you did something wrong. Life is a lot simpler when you do the right things."

That's what drove the Warriors to Munster. Dykhuizen spent most of his day in waist-deep floodwater. Still, he picked up the bags and put them down.

"I just thought it was the right thing to do," Dykhuizen said. "Coach is always trying to teach character and I guess it's working. The people were very thankful. A lady named Karen gave us food and something to drink and was nice enough to give us hugs. That meant a lot."

It's the "great" flood of 2008 here in Northwest Indiana.  The Little Calumet River has breached its banks in a few places and the rain finally stopped around 4pm.

The next town over is underwater. Not the whole town but a good portion including the parking lot of my beloved Target. :(  They've shown footage on the news. Funny how we live a stone's throw from Chicago, but the only time we get footage of our area on the news is when something bad happens or we have a presidential candidate visit.

Sophia's teacher called and left a message on my voicemail.  School has been cancelled for tomorrow. She's not sure if they will have school on Wed yet or not.  Sophia's upset about no school but I told her we would do something school related tomorrow.  Think I'll pull out the finger paints or something. She'll like that.

Don't know if I'll have a chiro appt in the morning or not.  I'm sure they will call if they decide to close.  I need to go to the store anyways so I will have to go out anyways.

Well I currently have a little boy who woke up a few minutes ago who won't go back to sleep and screams as soon as I leave the room. He's currently laying on my bed watching the sports report. LOL  Guess I better go cuddle and put him to sleep.