Rainstorm!

As I mentioned in other posts, we've had a TON of rain this year. So we've embraced the rain (when it isn't thunder/lightning/hailing) and not care if we get soaking wet playing outside.

Goodbye, Sweet Car

I am happy, but also a little sad to say we sold our second car, the good ol' 1994 Nissan Altima. I bought this car in the spring of 2000 when I was a sophomore at BYU. I barely knew how to drive a stick shift, but figured it out after a little while. I met Ben soon after buying this car, and he will attest to riding around w/ me as I would frequently stall or have problems driving it. Once we got our newer car, this was designated as his fishing car (remember that this is the car that stranded my husband in Wisconsin last May).

The car has definitely seen better days, and needed $1200 worth of repairs for us to safely drive it around, so we decided it was time to part with it. With 153,000 miles, a missing passenger side mirror, and the need for new struts and rear brakes, I sold it this morning for $600. Craigslist is seriously amazing if you want to sell a cheap car - I posted the ad last night, and had about 20 responses in 12 hours.

We bought our other Altima new four years ago, thinking this one was on its way out pretty fast. But it's done pretty well, considering its age. I love having lots of space in the garage now, but I am sad to see my sweet car go. Adios old Altima! We will be a one-car family for at least through the winter, which will be fine.

After selling the car this morning, I took our other car to get the oil changed. I dropped it off and then walked to the park with Eli to kill some time. We got caught in a downpour, and by the time we ran back to the car place, we were both SOPPING wet. Eli didn't mind at first, but once we got home, his teeth were chattering and his lips were blue. Poor guy! I threw him in the bath and after we were both in dry clothes, we climbed under my covers to get warm. It has been pouring now all afternoon - makes me want to curl up and take a nap!

The Rain is Relentless!

I seriously have never witnessed this much rain in my life. For the last two and a half days, it has heavily rained and rained and rained (Ben joked yesterday that we might need an ark if this continues). You can't really tell in this picture, but our backyard is one squishy, mushy, area of grass and mud. Our grass is the greenest it's been since we moved in.

We have several friends with inches of water in their basements and have seen lots of houses in this area with ruined carpet out on the curb. Our water problems seem so minor in comparison - Ben fixed our basement water problems yesterday by covering the window wells with tarps and boxes, and so far it's keeping things under control.

It doesn't usually rain like this here. Sure, we have big storms. Spring is a wet season. But I have never experienced a September this wet. Thankfully it's supposed to be dry tomorrow. In the meantime, parks have newly-formed ponds, streets are full of inches of water, parts of the highways are closed, and towns around Chicago in a state of emergency because of rivers overflowing and houses flooding.

Since when is Chicago affected by hurricanes? (I guess now it's a "tropical depression") Good luck Canada... it's headed your way.

It's Wet Here too

I've been following a lot of the Hurricane Ike news and feeling so sad about all of the destruction. Chicago is getting hit with a ton of rain, obviously not comparable to what's happening in Galveston or Houston, but I took some pictures this morning to show how much rain we've had in the last few hours. Here are some cars driving in front of our house:

In the meantime, we've discovered our basement is not as waterproof as the sellers alleged it to be. Ben is outside in the torrential rain trying to block off our window wells because they are filling up with water and causing problems. Fun fun. I guess it's a good thing the tile guy kept flaking on me this week after all, because we don't have anything over the cement at the moment.

We're supposed to get more heavy rain through today and then again tomorrow, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. It makes me want to stay inside and not go anywhere!