Mother said there’d be days like this!
November’s First Friday Freebie post didn’t post! How aggravating.
I was simply way too busy today to check on it as I usually do. Please feel free to take until midnight on Saturday, November 6th to enter to win by commenting as directed on the original post HERE.
My apologies.
The nip is in the air, the colored leaves blanket my yard, the air has that certain crispness and the urge is there to grab a jacket and stroll hand-in-hand with the one I love. So, Smuffy patted me on the shoulder the other night and said, “Maybe next year.” Folks, I’m telling you, this kitchen remodel must end soon. This is why things have gone awry here on the blog and again, I give my apologies. Better days are ahead, but right now, life’s a blur of small finishing details.
Yesterday, I found myself weaving around a ladder in the kitchen, trying to gather things together for my Trim Healthy Mama class and answer Smuffy’s questions about the appropriate distance between open shelving, trying to explain to Phoebe June that despite the presence of three of her humans in the vicinity of her dish she had already had a snack and listening to Lil’ Snookie’s request for “Puh-SHOPSH Cimmin” (applesauce with cinnamon if you’re twenty-two months old). It will be a sad day when he actually learns how to pronounce applesauce, because I get the giggles every time he asks for it.
About that time there came a dim realization, forming in the spaghetti-like mass in the frontal lobe that I had arrived upon the eve of November’s First Friday Freebie and still am in possession of the Freebie that remains homeless!
As stated in the First Friday Freebie rules, the winner will be notified via the email used to subscribe. It’s vital when you enter to win that you check that same email regularly in the week or two following the drawing to see if you’ve won. October’s winner was “Julie”. I emailed Julie, but have received no response, so I am going to put the freebie back into circulation again since I don’t know who Julie is.
Julie, if you’re out there, I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but since I have no other means to contact you, it’s time to re-draw for the free gift.
So, here we go, let’s take a look at that First Friday Freebie again. I’m going to throw in a surprise bonus gift along with it to make things extra special for November.
This beautiful scarf by Capelli New York will look great with all your fall fashion with its tan and soft white tones. It’s 100% acrylic, very soft and is hand washable. Including the fringe, it measures approximately 72” X 5.5”, so it’s long enough to loop and tie in all sorts of fun ways or wrap around your neck twice on those extra frigid days.
It was a great find at my local Factory Connection, where I often find fun fashion and great home décor at good prices.
To enter to win the Capelli New York scarf, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying, “Keep me cozy again, Midwest Storyteller!” You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, November 5th, 2021.
NOTE: An occasional problem occurs with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails. Should this happen, email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.
First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so you’ll want to subscribe over on the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.
I hope you get excited about winning freebies and share them and my blog stories with your friends and family through all your social media. If you like an idea, recipe or story you see here, be sure to hover over the photo and “pin it”. Help me get the word out!
On the “Freebies” page, you can see what readers have been winning every month.
A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, November 5th, by leaving a comment which says, “Keep me cozy again, Midwest Storyteller”. Remember, there’s an extra surprise included!
For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here.
Why not subscribe and confirm right now before you forget?
If you’re somewhere where the snow is already flying – better you than me. If you’re somewhere where you’re basking in sunny warmth – enjoy every minute. If you’re here in the Midwest like me – make the best of your daily surprises and during this season of Thanksgiving, give the Good Lord your gratitude!
I’d feel just a bit silly if I didn’t know full well that things are about to change. This is the Midwest, after all, and we’ve been known to have a fifty to seventy degree variance in temperature within a twenty-four hour period. Still, as I sit here with the windows open and the ceiling fan in my office circulating the eighty degree air, the October First Friday Freebie seems entirely uncalled for!
You’ll be ready for that nip in the air when it arrives, or maybe it already has in your neck of the woods.
This beautiful scarf by Capelli New York will look great with all your fall fashion with its tan and soft white tones. It’s 100% acrylic, very soft and is hand washable. Including the fringe, it measures approximately 72” X 5.5”, so it’s long enough to loop and tie in all sorts of fun ways or wrap around your neck twice on those extra frigid days.
It was a great find at my local Factory Connection, where I often find fun fashion and great home décor at good prices.
To enter to win the Capelli New York scarf, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying, “Keep me cozy, Midwest Storyteller!” You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, October 1st, 2021.
NOTE: An occasional problem occurs with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails. Should this happen, email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.
First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so you’ll want to subscribe over on the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.
I hope you get excited about winning freebies and share them and my blog stories with your friends and family through all your social media. If you like an idea, recipe or story you see here, be sure to hover over the photo and “pin it”. Help me get the word out!
On the “Freebies” page, you can see what readers have been winning every month.
A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, October 1st, by leaving a comment which says, “Keep me cozy, Midwest Storyteller”.
For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here.
Why not subscribe and confirm right now before you forget?
October is like May – you just can’t get enough of either one. Enjoy each crisp and colorful day!
The sounds of autumn are coming through the open windows of my office as I type this and I marvel that I find it a pleasant sound when it is actually a multitude of the insect host singing whatever it is they sing to each other this time of year. God bless the one who invented window screens. The sound does signal the end of heat and humidity and that’s a good thing.
It’s almost three more weeks until the season changes officially, but you’re right on time for the September First Friday Freebie! Let’s take a look.
Once at a ladies’ function, we played a “getting to know you” game where we had to jot down on a piece of paper “two things you love and one thing you hate” and toss the paper into the bowl. When the bowl makes a second pass around the room, someone else draws your paper and tries to guess who may have dropped this list into the bowl. I remember that when I played this, one of the things I jotted down that I loved was jewelry. I do love a bit of bling. I could so keep this freebie, but it’s all yours.
This pretty necklace by Accessory Connection is a long one. It has an adjustable chain section that extends from 32” to 35”. The “Y” section at the bottom adds an additional 2.5”. This makes it great to throw on over all your great fall sweaters and tops. Double chains of both black and gold (not visible in the photo) meet up with the beaded section which has iridescent beads in black, pale amber and a color I can’t decide whether it is a smoky blue or a smoky purple. A small stone in the “Y” section hovers above a teardrop pendant that I’d describe as a golden caramel color.
I took several photos trying to get the colors to appear as they do in reality, but the bottom pendant seemed to look washed out in every single one. Anyhow, it’s prettier than the photo.
Factory Connection is a great store to find cute jewelry and other accessories along with some fashion clothing. I don’t get there often, but when I do I often find great prices on items like this freebie. Check out their website here for locations near you.
To enter to win the beaded necklace, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying “Bring me some bling!”. You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, September 3rd, 2021.
NOTE: An occasional problem occurs with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails. Should this happen, email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.
First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so you’ll want to subscribe over on the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.
I hope you get excited about winning freebies and share them and my blog stories with your friends and family through all your social media. If you like an idea, recipe or story you see here, be sure to hover over the photo and “pin it”. Help me get the word out!
On the “Freebies” page, you can see what readers have been winning every month.
A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, September 3rd by leaving a comment which says, “Bring me some bling!”
For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here.
Why not subscribe and confirm right now before you forget?
While you’re waiting to find out if you’re the winner, you’ll love a good Smuffy story – the most popular thing on my blog. Our Smokin’ Hot Honeymoon is a great place to start.
May your windows be open, may your hair un-frizz and may you sniff the first hints of fall!
I know what you’re going to say once you start reading this – “Aren’t those people ever gonna finish that kitchen?”
That, my dear friends, is exactly what I ask myself, sometimes multiple times per day.
We’ve got to cut Smuffy some slack, though. After coming home from his day job, he tackles everything else that pops up (or falls down, as the case may be) with this seventy+ year old house. There’s all the yard work, the garden and how a huge outdoor project he’s had to undertake. My “new” kitchen goes forward in spurts and I try to have patience. I will admit to having tears, though. Every once in a while, the whole thing about having a toddler here every day with no cabinet doors gets to be a bit much. Careful placement and a good boy are all that stand between us and disaster.
Well, the doors have arrived! I’d do the happy dance, but they’re not up yet. You see, they’ve been handed over to me. Yikes!
I’ve done a lot of DIY in my time, so I had a hard time figuring out why these made me so nervous. Then, I realized where my jitters were coming from.
It’s one thing to drag something home from a yard sale or resale shop and dive in to give it a whole new life. It is quite another to take brand new things that Smuffy has poured blood, sweat and tears into and risk screwing it up! As I said in an earlier post, most people who say they did their whole kitchen makeover by themselves have few bragging rights compared to what we’ve undertaken on this project. Ripping out things, bringing home new cabinets and installing them and then slapping on some trim pales in comparison to what we’ve done. It’s been me with my sheets of graph paper and research and Smuffy painstakingly hand-crafting each and every cabinet, pull-out, replacing windows, framing in new ones, building the pantry and making all the shelves to my specifications. It’s been a long, long road and each interruption and setback has been tough.
Now, Smuffy has handed me his beautiful cabinet doors and it’s turned me into a big chicken. My design all along (I tell him that at all times he must remember that he’s Chip and I’m JoJo), was to have antiqued creamy cabinets. I went to great lengths to get just the right paints, additives, glazes and colors to achieve the end look. I did all right through two coats of primer. I did all right through two coats of paint. Then, somehow, as soon as I got ready to antique them, nerves kicked in. How could I ugly up Smuffy’s beautiful doors?
It was all I could do to go down to the basement and smear the glaze over the perfection and start wiping it around with old rags over that pristine first door. It was as though I kept forgetting that the installed cabinets upstairs had already been antiqued and it was too late to turn back now. Duh!
There are reasons I chose antiquing. So many kitchens are what I call “hospital white”. I hope it’s a trend that ends soon. Sometimes I think way too many folks out there are working in labs or schoolrooms or medical offices and this look is seeping into their souls. Anyhow, I didn’t want that. I wanted homey. I have a working kitchen – a really working kitchen. With homecooked healthy meals every single day and all the prep for cooking demonstrations at the classes I teach, it would be hard to keep a sleek kitchen looking sleek all the time. Also, I have some things of my mom’s I’d like to use to decorate my open shelving and they’re just pretty shabby and farmy. In honor of her, I’m calling this my Emmabelle Kitchen.
As you can see in the photo, I went ahead with Door #2 and then I started to calm down. In game shows, there is something behind the door to jump up and down about. In my case, I’ll just have to wait a while longer. Smuffy keeps assuring me we are in the home stretch. I nod and sniffle. The home stretch is every bit as exhausting as the rest of this turtle race.
Just in case you’re wondering, Smuffy’s masterpieces are finished off with two coats of Benjamin Moore primer, have had a light sanding and received two coats of Benamin Moore trim paint in “Fresh Narcissus” with Floetrol added. This additive makes all the brush strokes or roller marks “melt” away. The antiquing is done by taking eight parts Benjamin Moore Studio Finish Acrylic Glaze and adding one part Benjamin Moore satin finish paint in “Devonwood Taupe. This is wiped on and then off immediately with cotton rags, leaving accents in the wood details. Two coats of Benjamin Moore polyurethane are added after glazing to restore the hard finish. Otherwise, the glaze would remain too “soft” for durable cabinetry.
I must add that in this photo, the antiqued door looks like it has much more antiquing on it that it does in actuality. There’s no explaining why photos do that sometimes.
Smuffy does more than just build things. My Life With Smuffy page is loaded with stories that will make you laugh, cause your hair to stand on end and probably bump us up to the top of your prayer list!
The kitchen makeover chronicles include my embarrassing “before” photos in “Death of a Kitchen”. After that, you can catch up with “A Glimmer of Hope and Stainless Steel”, “Birth Pains of a Kitchen”, “My Not-A-Kitchen Kitchen”, “A Trim Healthy Pantry and Some Plywood” and “Transition of a Kitchen”. Check those out and you’ll be ready for the next and, hopefully, final stages of my kitchen.
Leave a comment! What do you like/don’t like in your kitchen? Or, have you seen something online or in someone else’s kitchen that you’d like to have if you could remodel your kitchen? My kitchen is small. Give me your best storage tips and tricks!
My apologies for running late with this announcement. Not only did I fall behind a bit, but our winner has been under the weather (though I doubt the weather had anything to do with it) and getting it to her and getting a photo has had its challenges.
She was kind enough to snap a picture of her First Friday Freebie in its new home and send it to me, so let’s congratulate and extend get well wishes to –
Liz from Boonville, Missouri!
Liz often enters to win and has been a previous winner, so if you want to meet her, just check out all the past winners and their gifts here on my Freebies! page.
The “Then Sings My Soul” box-style décor is a Hobby Lobby find and you can see the original freebie offer, here.
If you’re not yet a subscriber to Midwest Storyteller they might entice you to become one – First Friday Freebies are for email subscribers only.
Look for the subscription area. It’s easy to find on the “CONTACT” page and after subscribing, confirm your subscription when the confirmation email arrives in your inbox. If you’ve done that and not received a confirmation email, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com – it seems that from time to time, a subscription will get “stuck”.
Subscribing is the best way to avoid missing what’s new here on the blog because you’ll get an email reminder each time there’s something new – like when there’s a FREEBIE on the First Friday of every month.
Comment as directed on the post that offers the Freebie and you’ll be entered to win.
Freebies help me reach more people with my stories, recipes and more. When you share with all your friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, you’ll give them the opportunity to subscribe and win also. Subscribing is free. Freebies are free. Are you catching on this is a free thing?
Coming soon: September’s First Friday Freebie – that takes place on Friday, September 3rd. You’ll see a photo of the Freebie and you can enter to win at any point all day that day. Don’t forget to check the email that you used to subscribe for notification that you’ve won.
A winner is chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight on the day of the drawing.
ONCE AGAIN (because you tend to forget): Should your name be drawn as the winner, you will be notified via the email you used to subscribe. That means you’ll need to check your email often in the week following the drawing so that you can respond and keep the prize from being offered to someone else.
Take a moment make yourself familiar with the complete Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.
These four simple steps will have you ready to enter to win on Friday, September 3rd, 2021.
A lot of people say, “I never win anything!” I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and tell me the best thing you’ve ever won.
Welcome to August! (I say that like I’m hosting the month personally.) Actually, I’m missing out on a lot of it due to the Big Kitchen Crunch, but that has nothing to do with Freebies unless you count the fact that it’s forcing me to do this post past my bedtime.
Yes, it’s the First Friday and that means that commenting as directed in this post will enter you to win my August Freebie. Let’s take a look at it.
This black and white wooden décor will look great on your table or tucked into a shelf. It measures 4.875” X 7.375” including the knob on top and if you’re up on your old hymns, it reminds of that famous one, “How Great Thou Art”. The little damask print bit of stenciled art at the left adds just the right touch and I think it will look great year round as well as with all your upcoming fall decorations. It’s a Hobby Lobby find, because, as you may have noticed, I can’t stay out of that place.
To enter to win the “Then Sings My Soul” décor, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying just that, “Then Sings My Soul”. You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, August 6th, 2021.
NOTE: An occasional problem occurs with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails. Should this happen, email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.
First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so you’ll want to subscribe over on the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.
I hope you get excited about winning freebies and share them and my blog stories with your friends and family through all your social media. If you like an idea, recipe or story you see here, be sure to hover over the photo and “pin it”. Help me get the word out!
On the “Freebies” page, you can see what readers have been winning every month.
A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, August 6th by leaving a comment which says, “Then Sings My Soul”.
For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here.
Why not subscribe and confirm right now before you forget?
Summer’s winding down. Enjoy every minute of warmth and bloom.
If you are in the Midwest, I hope you’re a heat and humidity lover or are blessed to stay in and enjoy some air conditioning. Our air conditioning went out recently and replacement parts were never more welcome. One thing you can enjoy in this weather is a First Friday Freebie, so let’s meet the winner –
Ginger from Prairie Home, Missouri!
Congratulations, Ginger! Ginger enters to win on a regular basis so it’s no surprise that she’s happened to win more than one of my First Friday Freebies. Take a look at the inset photo and you’ll see she’s not the only one enjoying it. She used it to decorate the front door of her chicken coop and now all her “ladies” are simply cackling with delight over their new decor.
You can see all the past winners and their gifts here on my Freebies! page.
The bright red metal flower Ginger just won is a Hobby Lobby find and you can see the original freebie offer, here.
If you’re not yet a subscriber to Midwest Storyteller they might entice you to become one – First Friday Freebies are for email subscribers only.
Ginger’s been a subscriber ever since the beginning of this blog. She became one by entering her email in the subscription area here on the blog and then confirmed her subscription when the confirmation email arrived in her inbox. If you’ve done that and not received a confirmation email, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com – it seems that from time to time, a subscription will get “stuck”.
Subscribing is the best way to avoid missing what’s new here on the blog because you’ll get an email reminder each time there’s something new – like when there’s a FREEBIE on the First Friday of every month.
Comment as directed on the post that offers the Freebie and you’ll be entered to win.
Freebies help me reach more people with my stories, recipes and more. When you share with all your friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, you’ll give them the opportunity to subscribe and win also. Subscribing is free. Freebies are free. Are you catching on this is a free thing?
Coming soon: August’s First Friday Freebie – that takes place on Friday, August 6th. You’ll see a photo of the Freebie and you can enter to win at any point all day that day. Don’t forget to check the email that you used to subscribe for notification that you’ve won.
A winner is chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight on the day of the drawing.
ONCE AGAIN (because you tend to forget): Should your name be drawn as the winner, you will be notified via the email you used to subscribe. That means you’ll need to check your email often in the week following the drawing so that you can respond and keep the prize from being offered to someone else.
Take a moment make yourself familiar with the complete Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.
These four simple steps will have you ready to enter to win on Friday, August 6th, 2021.
A lot of people say, “I never win anything!” I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and tell me the best thing you’ve ever won.
Since Smuffy shares a birthday with the greatest country on earth, things will be busy for me in the next couple of days. So, let me take this First Friday Freebie post to also wish you a Happy & Free Independence Day! (And, Happy Birthday, Smuffy!) I invite you to make this Sunday more than a great time for family and fireworks. Spend some time with those you love celebrating the real meaning of what it means to be an American and the brilliance and freedoms established and granted to us by our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. These are short documents, but do we know what’s in them? We are a country of political will and ideals that are not found anywhere else on earth.
If I may quote Ronald Reagan from a 1988 speech –
“America represents something universal in the human spirit. I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, ‘You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk.’ But then he added, ‘Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.'”
I just heard some early fireworks going off outside as I finished typing that quote, as if to punctuate this truth.
Now, remembering that today is the first Friday of the month, let’s take a look at your Freebie.
This bright red metal daisy with its sunny yellow center from The Spring Shop shouts of summer and also of the fact that I’ve been roaming around Hobby Lobby again. It measures 8.75” across and is ½” deep. My first thought how this would make your garden area pop if hung on a fence. Then, I quickly realized that it would look great inside the house as well, adding a little summer to any room. Kitchen, kids’ room, porch – anywhere that bit of red to catch the eye is needed.
To enter to win the red metal daisy, all you need to do is “Leave a Comment” on this post, saying, “I love freedom and a freebie!” You’ll need to do that before midnight TONIGHT, July 2nd, 2021.
NOTE: There seems to be an occasional problem with subscribers not receiving confirmation emails. If this happens, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com so that I can report it and have the issue resolved.
First Friday Freebies are for email SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, so you’ll want to subscribe over on the right sidebar or use the menu to navigate to the “Contact” page where you can subscribe to Midwest Storyteller if you haven’t done so.
I love it when people enjoy my blog stories and recipes and get excited about winning freebies. Share with all your friends and family through all your social media. If you like an idea, recipe or story you see here, be sure to hover over the photo and “pin it”. Help me get the word out!
Subscribers win every single month! On the “Freebies” page, you’ll be able to see what they’ve been winning.
A winner will be chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight tonight, July 2nd by leaving a comment which says, “I love freedom and a freebie!”
For the complete First Friday Freebie rules, click here.
Why not subscribe and confirm right now before you forget?
Do you have special Independence Day traditions? Leave a comment and let me know how you make the day special.
June turned hot here in the Midwest and now it’s closing out as wet, wet, wet. Let’s dry off for a minute and meet the winner of June’s First Friday Freebie –
Kathy from Prairie Home, Missouri!
Congratulations, Kathy! I hope you’ve been getting good use out of your lemony freebie, perhaps while serving up some refreshing lemonade on those sweltering days.
Kathy has not only been a winner of my First Friday Freebie before, but has also been a guest here on the blog. She kindly taught me how to do wood burning and make beautiful spoons like the ones she made here and mine also became a First Friday Freebie! You can see those here, learn how we made them and find out who won them here.
I’m waiting for the word from Kathy – if she has another artsy thing to teach us, I’d love to have her share it here on the blog. She’s always doing something fascinating with found items.
The lemony kitchen set that Kathy just won are by Home Collection and you can see the original freebie offer, here.
You can see past First Friday Freebies and their winners on my Freebies! page here. If you’re not yet a subscriber to Midwest Storyteller they might entice you to become one – First Friday Freebies are for email subscribers only.
Kathy’s been a subscriber for a while now. She became one by entering her email in the subscription area here on the blog and then confirmed her subscription when the confirmation email arrived in her inbox. If you’ve done that and not received a confirmation email, please email me at barb@midweststoryteller.com – it seems that from time to time, a subscription will get “stuck”.
Subscribing is the best way to avoid missing what’s new here on the blog because you’ll get an email reminder each time there’s something new – like when there’s a FREEBIE on the First Friday of every month.
Comment as directed on the post that offers the Freebie and you’ll be entered to win.
Freebies help me reach more people with my stories, recipes and more. When you share with all your friends via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, you’ll give them the opportunity to subscribe and win also. Subscribing is free. Freebies are free. Are you catching on this is a free thing?
Coming soon: July’s First Friday Freebie – that takes place on Friday, July 2nd. You’ll be able to see a photo of the Freebie and enter to win at any point all day that day. Don’t forget to check the email that you used to subscribe for notification that you’ve won.
A winner is chosen at random from those subscribers who enter before midnight on the day of the drawing.
ONCE AGAIN: Should your name be drawn as the winner, you will be notified via the email you used to subscribe. That means you’ll need to check your email often in the week following the drawing so that you can respond and keep the prize from being offered to someone else.
Take a moment make yourself familiar with the complete Freebie Rules by clicking HERE.
These four simple steps will have you ready to enter to win on Friday, July 2nd, 2021.
I’d love to hear from you, especially if anyone has any ideas about how we can divert some of this rain to parts of the country that so desperately need it right now. We are having road closures due to all the flooding and it is one soggy mess around here.