It’s starting to hit home that one week from now we will be on an airplane, with the kiddos, headed for our Washington vacation and Andrew’s wedding. We’ve gotten to the list-making stage. What all do we need to take? What will the weather be like? (It’s a lot different on the coast than it is in Leavenworth where the wedding will be!) What suitcases are we taking along? How many bags will we have to check? Do we have seats assigned on all the flights? And on and on and on.

For me, the most stressful part of the trip is from now until we are at Seatac with a rental car and all our bags. After that, it’s all downhill. I don’t think it’s really gonna be as bad as I’m worried it will be… but I can be a good worrier. I’m really looking forward to this vacation, though - both for Andrew & Heather’s wedding and just for the chance to get away - almost 2 full weeks away from the office once you count the holiday this week and then our trip. It’ll be so nice.

Stay focused, Chris… still three more days of work.

Ten years ago today, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, friends and family gathered as Becky and I exchanged our vows and became husband and wife. I don’t remember a whole lot about the ceremony itself; the pictures, though, show a geeky boy of 21 looking warm in a basic tuxedo, and a girl looking beautiful if a bit uncomfortable in a white dress and veil. We look so young! Were we really ready to start upon a lifetime together?

Ten years later we have been through much. New places to live, new jobs, new friends; two beautiful little girls added to our family; a lot of what we promised in our vows: sometimes better, sometimes worse, sometimes richer, sometimes poorer, sometimes sickness, sometimes health. One of the few constants through it all has been my wife Becky by my side, supporting, encouraging, and loving me. While we have our ups and downs, we truly do make a great team.

That night ten years ago my buddy Daniel sang a song that Rich Mullins wrote that included these lines:

If you find a love that’s tender,
If you find someone who’s true
Then thank the Lord -
He’s been doubly good to you.

And truly He has been good. I love you, Becky, and thanks for 10 wonderful years.

Once today is complete I will have only 6 more working days until vacation… and oh my, am I ever looking forward to it. My brother Andrew is getting married on July 12 and we are using that as an excuse to take a week’s vacation to Washington. (The state, not the district.) We have several days of sightseeing and relaxation scheduled around the wedding, and it should be a great time. We’ll hit Seattle, the Pacific coast, the mountains, and back to Seattle before heading home.

Preparations have been in a lull for a while - there was the frenzy months ago when we purchased our airline tickets, made hotel reservations, etc, but then we put it aside and it’s just been lurking… and now we are back to planning in earnest. At this point Becky is starting to figure out what all needs to be brought along, how we can fit it into as few bags as possible, and so on.

I’ll admit it - the one thing I’m nervous/fearful of on this trip is the airline travel. We’re taking the girls on their first airplane trip, which will be fun, and we’ve planned in longish layovers, to try to ensure things go smoothly… but it’s still a cross-country airline trip, and we’re still connecting through Chicago O’Hare. I will be praying much that things just go smoothly. Once we’re in Seattle with our rental car and all our baggage, the next week should be just brilliant fun.

So that’s my little update for today. I’ll try for a more substantive post tomorrow as a major milestone occurs in the Hubbs household.

Father’s Day 2008 wasn’t quite what any of us had been planning, but it’s still gone pretty well. After finishing a tasty breakfast that Becky made for me, we spent most of the morning and afternoon cleaning up the basement - washing things down with a bleach solution, sweeping up dirt and grime, repacking boxes that had gotten wet, scraping peeling paint off the walls, and starting to repaint. Slowly it’s coming back together.

Tonight we went out to Chili’s for supper, and while the food was quite tasty, it was weird to have it served on paper plates and in plastic cups with plastic utensils. With all of Cedar Rapids still on a water conservation plan, though, everyone in the city is doing something similar. Thankfully they were able to get a second water pumping station back online today, so the risk of totally losing water has lessened considerably, and the restrictions on water use have eased a bit. People are quite happy they can take showers once again.

By tomorrow night or Tuesday at the latest we should have stuff mostly put back together and have it feel more like “normal” at home; it’ll probably be the end of the week before the river has receded and we can see how many roads will need repaired before they can be used again. It will be nice to have the bridges back open, though; if they are all closed for too much longer it will become quite difficult to bring in trucks of supplies to restock the stores. But I think it’s going to turn out OK.

It will be a long rebuilding process for Cedar Rapids. It won’t be weeks or months; it’ll be years. There are thousands of houses to repair or demolish and rebuild; hundreds of businesses that have been severely damaged, bridges and roads that have been totally washed away; the heart of the city decimated by a deluge the scale of which we have never before seen. But the sunshine gives us hope - an internal assurance that the sorrow now measured by muddy waterlines on painted siding will be eventually superseded by the joy of new buildings, fresh paint, and restored community. Through it all, we hope and trust that God is good. And tomorrow morning we will find new mercies.

What a beautiful day today was. Sunshine, cool temps… such a nice change from the weeks of rain. We’re even forecast to get several more sunny days here over the next week. Let’s pray that it happens.

Well, we’ve had shop vacs of one sort or another running continuously in the basement now for about 30 hours. I finally went and bought one of my own so I wouldn’t keep being scared of burning out the motor on a borrowed vac. The water has slowed down to the point where I don’t think much maintenance will be needed… which is a very good feeling. We’ve still got a lot of cleanup to do, but we’ll leave all the fans and the dehumidifier running all night and I imagine we’ll be in pretty good shape tomorrow.

Thanks to all of you who have prayed, called, emailed, and otherwise checked in. We were blessed here in Hiawatha to be on high ground. There are thousands down in Cedar Rapids who will be demolishing and rebuilding houses and businesses over the next months and years. It’s going to be a long, difficult recovery.

I mentioned it to Dad this morning on the phone: as soon as the water showed up in my basement, I started praying for good weather with an incredible fervor. Barely had the first prayer left my lips, though, then I felt a sense of guilt - why was I only praying now, when the water had been in other people’s basements, homes, and businesses, for days now? I am reminded that I need to hold up my neighbors in prayer with the same attention that I pray for myself and my family. A good lesson to learn, even in the midst of the flood.

No time to post pictures but if you visit any online news site you’ll undoubtedly be able to see the pictures of Cedar Rapids, IA. When the river crests tomorrow (God willing), it will be about 12 feet above, not flood stage, but 12 feet above the previously-highest measured flood. Twenty feet above flood stage.

We are on high ground here in Hiawatha, but very wet, saturated ground. The water started coming up through the cracks in the basement floor about 1 pm on Thursday, and we’ve been running two Shop Vacs non-stop since then (14 hours now). We’re keeping up with it, but only just. It hasn’t rained for almost seven hours now, so I keep thinking (hoping) that the water level will go down enough that it’ll stay out of the basement. I guess we’ll find out. For now, we’re just praying for no more rain and for these shop vacs to hold out. I doubt they were designed to run this long this hard.

We have an internet connection finally here at home (it was out for 24 hours due to the flooding), so I’ll try to post updates if I get a chance.

It’s been a weird year for weather here in Iowa. We started with the snowiest winter on record. Once that melted, we had an unusually cool spring. Now we’re finishing up spring and headed toward summer, and the rain has been nearly unstoppable. Seems like every day is another thunderstorm, bringing an inch (or two) (or three) of rain.

Now the flooding has begun. Already three of the bridges crossing the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids have been closed because the river has reached (or nearly reached) the bottom of the bridge. Mandatory evacuations have been declared for low-lying areas of town. A flood totally took out the railroad bridge up in Cedar Falls. They’ve got a fully-loaded train sitting on our railroad bridge here in Cedar Rapids to try and keep it from being swept away, too. (This picture is of a different bridge in CR.)

A lot of the low-lying areas are well known for flooding, but this one (near Ellis Park on the SW side of CR) is still stunning:

And there’s rain on the way again this morning. And tonight. And tomorrow. It’s gonna get better before it gets worse. Now, friends, fortunately our house is far away from the river, and on high ground; we’re in no danger of flooding; however, we have friends and co-workers who are currently in the process of sandbagging, packing up, and evacuating. Let’s pray that this rain stops, very soon.

[The pictures above are from the KCRG-TV website's YouNews page. There are a lot more pictures there if you're interested.]

The little four-footed creatures have a way of finding a place in our lives and hearts without us hardly noticing it… until they are gone. Frankie was part of our household for nearly nine years, from his birth as a little kitten out at the farmhouse until his untimely passing after an accident at home last Friday. Becky picked out some of her favorite pictures and asked me to post them… so here you go.

I had three things on my to-do list for the weekend as of last Friday afternoon. And though I kept busy all weekend, those three things are still on my to-do list. How did that happen? I suppose I could do like Becky does and add items to my to-do list after I’ve done them just so I can cross them off. But when you use an on-line list that removes completed items from view, there’s not a lot of satisfaction in it.

Still, I managed to get a bunch of stuff done around the house: mowed the lawn, cleaned out the gutters and installed some gutter guard, did the dishes (well, at least unloaded and loaded the dishwasher). Led music for both Saturday night and Sunday morning church services. Took the girls to the park to play in the splash pad. Laura, who last year was too scared of the water to even want to get wet, was running through the sprayers yesterday with great enthusiasm. I foresee many trips to the park this summer.

And now it’s Monday again. I guess I’ll be hitting ‘postpone’ on those tasks a few more times.

• It was an amazingly beautiful weekend. Fortunately the beautiful weather is sticking around for today so we can play softball.
• Oh, and I’m going to ump the second game of the night. I don’t remember if I’ve said it before, but I enjoy umping games almost more than I enjoy playing them.
• Got a bunch of projects completed on the house this weekend.
• New carpet put down in basement: complete.
• Nasty mold scrubbed from laundry room wall: complete.
• Pegboard hung in laundry room to organize tools: complete.
• Tools organized: not so complete.
• Crock Pot cord repaired: complete.
• Music leading both Saturday night and Sunday morning: yep.
• Double-edged sword: if I had the Versus channel I could’ve watched the Dallas Stars play last night. On the other hand, had I stayed up to watch, I would’ve had to watch until the fourth OT to see them win.
• Go Stars! Bring on those Red Wings.
• If the Stars win the Stanley Cup this year I’m gonna buy that Mike Modano jersey I’ve always wanted.
• Enough with the bullets already.