The river (Red River of the North) crested last Sunday about a foot lower than the earlier forecasts. A cooler first few days of spring helped slow the melt. Flood preparation seemed to go so smoothly this year on both the Moorhead (MN) and Fargo (ND) sides. City leaders and citizens alike learned so many lessons with last year floods and then both cities have made some critical changes since last year so everyone seemed to take this high water in stride. Jeff and I joined the other sightseers on the Main Avenue bridge to look at the water. I've lived here long enough to have seen a few major floods on the Red, but it's still an awesome sight. See more pics on my facebook.
The River usually only runs through that center section of the train trestle.
Alex planned a "Miller Theater" night last Sunday, complete with popcorn and snacks. The basement family room had been tidied up and everyone had their own seat with special trays and tables set up for the goodies. We watched "Mission Impossible 3" from our augmented movie library (Jeff had some good ones he brought with him!) and it was a very nice family night. Alex is good at Event Planning. Anytime I can't quite figure out how we're going to get it all done in a day, I just hand the list to Alex and he plans it out for us.
Nate spent last Friday night at his friend, Caleb's house. They live in far North Fargo and while their home is not threatened by flood water, they live near a golf course that pretty much goes under when the water gets this high. I believe the boys enjoyed a lot of video game time together and some outdoor boy bonding activities. :-)
Jeff and the boys are really into their xBox games. They have several action/army type games that I'm not particularly crazy about, but Jeff assures me that they develop important leadership skills. (yeah. right.) When they take off for the basement, Jamie and I just go upstairs to try to find a chick flick on TV. We can usually still hear them even two floors up! Not sure, but I think Nate is the player to beat on most of these games. He's pretty darn good with strategy and really good with the controllers. (I don't get it.)
Jamie and I have been filling out forms this week - starting with her FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). That one is all online, but we have writer's cramp from several others. She has done such a good job getting all her stuff together and taking care of college business. She's pretty set on attending Northwestern College in St Paul. She'll apply to MSUM here in Moorhead as a backup, but her plan is to head to the Cities in August. We need to go down there May 27 for some info about registering, etc. We have New Student Orientation August 20 - 24 (with events for parents over the weekend!) and her classes begin Aug 25. She will be leaving for Pine Haven right after graduation the first weekend in June to work for the summer. She's been assigned to split her time between indoor and outdoor crew. She's very excited. Her mama feels the time slipping away!
This was also haircut week for us. Everyone got a haircut - Jamie got hers colored adding some pretty red highlights, I got a couple inches cut off mine and added some bangs. Alex got his cut against his will. We could no longer see his eyes as his bangs were down over his nose when he wasn't doing that thing where he swings his head over and swoops the hair to one side. It's still pretty darn long in my opinion - longer than Jamie's! - but I think our stylist found a pretty good compromise between mom and son. It's a very in style cut with boys right now. If you've seen teen heart throb, Justin Bieber, you've seen Alex's hair. (but don't tell him so - he's not a Justin Bieber fan!) Jeff's is a "caesar cut" which he got last time. (HE pretty much looks like George Clooney - with George's gray and all - now that's more like it as far as I'm concerned!) And Nate is getting "the usual" from his barber this afternoon. He's the easiest - very little variation and no "stylists," thank you very much.
Tomorrow evening we're celebrating Earth Hour - turning off our lights from 8:30 - 9:30 pm (CST). At this point we don't have much of a plan for what we'll do. But we're doing our part to conserve and recognize our power usage - join us and let us know what you did or learned!
Be cool and stay warm,
<3
~L
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