Update

Alright so not everybody has the skinny on the happenings, and I apologize for taking so long to let y'all in on what's been going on. Long story short: We are HOME!


The river in our area didn't flood. Other parts of the outlying areas were not so fortunate. I feel very deeply for the families whose homes were inundated with water. It oh so easily could have been us in the exact same situation. It's not a fun situation to find yourself in. And we were lucky. All over the city people's homes are getting soaked just from ground seepage. Our house, two blocks from the river, is dry as a bone. The only water threat we faced/face is if the river goes over the banks.

I say faced/face because even though we are home now, the season of high water is far from over. We've had record levels of snow, record levels of rain, record levels in the lakes, and record releases from said lakes at the dams. One dam, the Garrison dam, has never had to release water until this year. Canada has much water to flow down our way still. The river is still quite high.

Backtracking: The river had been expected to crest a foot to two feet above the levees. For several days we watched the level go up and up and up. Then the projections started to lower and the river stopped rising so quickly. Then the projections got even lower. The river actually started to recede! After a few days of receding water and lower projections the mayor changed the mandatory evacuation to a voluntary evacuation, but asked residents to move in lite and be prepared to evacuate again should the need arise. We didn't jump right in, even though we were able to drive through a break in the secondary dike really close to our house and walk easily to our front door. That dike was enough alone to keep us from our house, but also we didn't have any natural gas power yet. So no hot water at ALL. And our fridge was 100% empty.


Luckily the dike on our street was one of the first, if not the first, to get removed and put back where it came from. (Which is the north hillside of Minot high, for those familiar with the area.) Some of the secondary dikes are still in place. I can't express my relief at having our dike gone. It was bad news for us who were living on the wrong side of it!

Yes it is mostly just a pile of dirt along the road. We found out later that the only reason they even put the secondary dikes in place is because it was so wet that the primary ones were unable to be driven on/worked on safely. Once they dried a bit they abandoned the secondaries and went back to reinforcing the primaries. *Whew!*

It looks pretty pathetic in the picture here. It is way lower in front of our house than other parts of the dike. Other secondary dikes around town actually look like dikes and not just a mess.

Anywho. We are now fully functioning at home with natural gas and food and water and all that jazz. We haven't unpacked everything, though we did drag most of the junk that is going to be downstairs permanently to the basement. Our basement drain is still plugged so laundry is a no go. We do that at Grandma's house, (to be honest, GRANDMA does it at grandma’s house-we are so spoiled) and will have to continue for at least another month probably. At least we've gotten the toys unpacked! The girls had a ball playing with everything as we unpacked it and messing things up as we were trying to set up. But it was worth it. Some of their toys had been packed for months now. I really would like to unpack ALL my boxes and put my books on my bookshelves. But that is not yet to be. There is still risk of flooding. They are keeping the river levels extremely high because of the sheer volume of water that needs to come through. It seems to me that the water is just as high now, at least in our area, as it was during the major flood scare/preparation/evacuation. That may or not be the case.

I have to remind myself that they are monitoring the water extremely closely and are controlling the releases wisely. They are keeping the river high on purpose. It's a little uncomfortable how high it is, even for me, but it's the way it has to be. I am praying that this is an exceptional year and not the new norm. If it doesn't flood for another 42 years I can handle that because we aren't likely to still be in this house in 42 years.

So eventually I WILL get decent pictures of the new place taken and posted up here. Right now we are definitely not picture-worthy. I am working extra hours because a coworker is on a leave of absence and so I haven't been home much to make the place more home-ish. It's getting there. Slowly. I still love it. The kids love it. I think Rick likes it alright...  ;) I can't wait to get started on my projects! (staining the front entryway and back deck, putting up a fence, putting handles on the kitchen and bathroom cupboards, installing the microwave, getting a garbage disposal, etc etc etc.)  The list goes on. Then someday I would like new carpet and finally, finishing the basement! I think I need to rob a bank. Just kidding!

A few teaser pictures. Here is the master bath, wet shower curtain and all.

Master bedroom, if you didn't figure that out, hehe

Hallway looking from kitchen/living room area toward bedrooms. Rooms left to right: Chelsea's bedroom, Brie and Baby's room, master bedroom, and bathroom with the light on

Brie saying, "Cheese!" as I'm taking pictures

Play room portion of the finished part of the basement

 That's all for now, everybody. More to come at a later time!