Flooded out

We have been very busy dealing with the wrath of a flood. Thursday July 22nd the Milwaukee area received around 7 inches of rain in an hour. It wreaked havoc on the city and our home. The storm occurred during our evening commute home and was the scariest storm I have ever driven in. Navigating streets of water, sideways rain that you could not see through – I really don't wish to do that ever again. Our usual 15 minute commute took me 2 hours to complete and Lucian 3. He advised me not to get on the highway before I left, which helped a lot.

I got home around 8pm with Spencer and Claire to a house with no power. We checked on the basement, which was dry, and located the candles and flashlights. I fed Claire and waited for Lucian to arrive. We carefully raided the fridge, so as not to let too much of the cold air escape.

Around 9pm, I was putting Claire to bed and I heard Lucian yelling from the basement. Without our power, the sump pump wasn't running and it had just overflowed. I put Claire straight to bed (luckily she went right to sleep and didn't make a peep) and got down there to start moving things to the main level. We piled things on the pool table and Spencer's bed, ran furniture upstairs and into the garage. Lucian's parents came over to help and we ran the sump off a generator in Dave's truck until around 3am. We had 6-8 inches of water over the entire basement at the peak and got our power back late the following night.

When all was said and done we were able to save most of our belongings. The carpet was ripped up and hauled away and holes were drilled in the dry wall to help it dry out. We're now waiting for our insurance claims adjuster to come and access the damage. I am thinking of moving to a mountain top.

Here are a few images I found of the storm.

Clouds over downtown

A flooded street

A sink hole formed on the east side and a car fell in

Spencer's high school, a few blocks away, had water damage in over 80% of the school. The men's locker room had 6ft of standing water! They are hoping to have everything cleaned up by the start of the school year Sept. 1.

Hot Summer Days

I feel like we've had the air conditioning on forever! I'm sure glad the weather wasn't like this last summer when I was 7 months pregnant! We didn't spend a lot of time outside this weekend, but a good amount of fun was had.

Friday night we celebrated Spencer's birthday (a little early) and Aunite Sarah's birthday with a family dinner. Spencer will be 15 August 6th. We just signed him up for driver's ed!



On Saturday my sister and I took our mom to see Wicked. What a great play. I highly recommend seeing it if you have the chance.

The ladies dressed to go out

Saturday night we hosted a dinner in honor of Nana Barb's birthday and Father's day for Grandpa Joe. It was a celebration weekend. Claire provided some lovely entertainment at the dinner table.


Claire's mobility is improving daily. She can pull herself up to a stand almost anywhere. Occasionally she even lets go. She can take a few steps (or cruise) while holding on, and she is getting much more controlled at lowering herself back down to a sit.

She recently discovered that cabinets and drawers open, so we spent Sunday doing more baby proofing. This girl keeps us on our toes. She loves to empty the tupperware cabinet and then crawl inside!

Rockford Trip

This weekend Claire and I traveled to Rockford so I could attend a baby shower for a good friend. She is expecting a baby boy in September, I'm very excited for them. I timed my driving to coordinate with Claire's naps. It's nice that she now has a fairly predictable schedule to work with. I scurried about Saturday morning so we could be on the road at 9am. My plan worked out and she slept the majority of the way. I talked to her and sang the rest of time and she did great. She even played peek-a-boo with me, holding a blanket up and then dropping it revealing a big smile.

Upon arriving, Nana Barb made Claire a grilled cheese sandwich and she dined in my childhood high chair. I liked that my parents hung onto it, and even more so that I didn't have to travel with one! Here's the cutie pie lunching on Sunday.



My parents watched Claire while I attended the shower. I would have loved to bring her, but the shower occurred exactly when she takes a long afternoon nap. She slept for over 2 hours while I was gone, assuring me that was the right decision.

Grandpa playing on the floor. Don't be fooled, she isn't very interested in toys any more. She wanders about grabbing magazines, books, picture frames and anything else placed at a low level in the house.

Claire loves to unpack bags. This one actually had her stuff in it.

Big girl cruising. It's so strange to me to see photos of her standing now. Where is my baby girl?!!

I like this shot because it shows off her blue eyes.

I was trying to take some photos before I left and Claire crawled over and pulled herself up on me.

I even managed to get a kiss.Claire slept the whole drive back on Sunday. I coordinated again with her 1:00 nap. We went graocery shopping for the week and Claire helped me unpack.

Happy 4th!

Hooray for long weekends. Especially ones that have great weather. Sat. was a casual day filled with a family bike ride, some baby pool time and great food. I love days like this when the laundry, dishes and dirty house don't seem to exist.

We ate breakfast on the deck and I braided Claire's hair for for the first time. Lucian was able to entertain her long enough to get the job done. It stayed in all day!

Cooling off in the pool, Hipstamatic style.

On Sunday, Spencer played in a few local parades on the Nicolet High School band "float". We went to see him and enjoy some 4th of July festivities. The weather was super hot, so we didn't stay for the whole thing. Claire seemed to enjoy the music and looking at all the sights.

The band

Happy parade goers

We met up with Nana Kathleen, Auntie Blanca and Claire's cousin Lydia. Here we are taking a break in the shade.

We grilled out in the afternoon and played a game of Pétanque. It's a little like bocce, French I guess. Claire was very interested in the balls.

We set up a blanket for her and took turns playing. In the end, we all ended up on the blanket watching the clouds and letting Claire climb all over us.

We watched some fireworks from our back yard, since Claire goes to bed around 8pm. Maybe next year she'll make it to the show.

Auntie M accompanied Claire and I on a quick trip to the mall today. They have fountains in the center square where a number of kids were splashing about. We weren't prepared to get drenched, so I just put her hand in for now. We'll have to remember that next summer on a hot day when she can walk through them!

Touching the water

Funny face

The past few days Claire has really started to pull herself up to a stand and takes a few steps while holding onto furniture. It's crazy how quickly these things happen. She was first crawling a couple weeks ago. I'll try to get that in another video soon.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th.