this week

We had some crazy flooding in Phoenix recently. Some referred to it at the 'Hundred Year Flood'. That is a good name, and sounds dramatic to have that kind of flooding every 100 years, however, we had similar flooding in the first few years I moved to Phoenix, perhaps 35 years ago. So maybe it was the "Great 35 Year Flood".  The TV was all weather related news for 24 hours straight.  A year ago, Atlanta got an inch or two of snow and it shut the city down.  The whole country laughed a bit at that (not understanding the whole situation, of course), but I think the whole country was laughing at Phoenix for shutting down with 2 inches of rain.

The rain and flooding started about 2 or 3 am, so it was pretty severe as we started our day. Melanie left for school, got about 3 or 4 miles and received a text that school was cancelled, the campus was shut down so she turned around.  Those few miles took her 1 1/2 hours to circle around and get home. Kyle was driving in the same part of town and ended up at work 2 hours late.  Rachel zipped to work like every other day, and Roxanne won the prize - she got on the freeway for her regular 25 minute drive and got there in 8 minutes.  The freeway was empty (flooded sections closed behind her route). Brady was out of town and was surprised to hear the reports from northern California. He also was missing an important test at school so was relieved to hear that the campus had shut down and his vacation wouldn't adversely affect his grade.

On another note, Melanie needed a picture to send to her Mission President.  We couldn't find a reasonable picture anywhere in our files for the last year or two (they just needed a nice head shot, nothing fancy). It is very difficult for this girl to smile into the camera.  Not only were our files full of silly pictures, but when we went out into the yard to take a specific picture for her Mission President, the photo shoot started out like this:

I'm not sure her Mission President knows what he's getting with this girl!