Love my Carly!

Last night was amazing! Cj had football and typically on Wednesday nights, I lead worship for the children at our church. Contrary to popular belief, I can't be in two places at one time. So, I asked Carly to jump in and lead worship for the children while I took Cj to football. She didn't hesitate. She's so awesome and truly has a heart for worship! She loves to sing and especially on stage, with a microphone and for Jesus!!? I mean, how much better can it get? I made it back to pick her up about half way through worship and she had the house rocking! The children were all dancing and singing and having so much fun! She's a natural! I'm so proud of her! I didn't have my camera because I really thought I missed it, but I'll get one next time as I'm sure there will be a next time!

Project Time

Don't you just love the time of year when your kids have projects due at school? Ok, honestly, I don't. But Cj does! He loves doing projects! Yesterday's project was to draw the jungle. They researched it at school and he had to draw it along with 4 things living and 4 things non-living thing that are in the jungle and label them. Big catch was they couldn't print pictures from the internet nor could they use real pictures. Everything had to be drawn by them. Then they had to be able to present it to the class. I went to the store and got him a plain white poster and had it on the table all ready for him to get started. Last night after dinner he stood at the table and said, "Daddy, I'm ready to work on my project. All I need is a blow torch and some peanut butter." Not sure what his thought process was, but we got him some markers and a glue stick and he made do with that. He's sure to get an A on this one.

It's football season!

Today was a busy day for us. Of course, we went to church this morning. Mike and Cj went to Highland and Carly and I went to the inner city. It's all good. But Carly and I didn't get finished up until around 2pm and when we got home, we all headed right back out to get Cj fully equipped to start football practice tomorrow. He's all excited because this will be his first year of football and he gets to wear "the armor". We got home from getting him protected from head to toe (and everything in between) and had dinner. As I was walking through a few minutes ago telling each child it was time to start getting ready for bed, the picture below is what I found when I got to Cj's room. He's ready...

Debris is gone...

Everyday, when we would leave the house, or look outside or do anything outside for that matter, the first thing you notice is our huge debris pile from Hurricane Gustav. A sad, torturing reminder that he was here and did so much damage to homes and lives in our area. Thankfully, today, the debris trucks were out in full force. I heard yesterday that our Parish finally agreed on a proposal from a company to conduct the cleanup, but I wasn't holding my breath. It must have been true......they picked up our street today and I was able to cut the grass and start to get our yard back to normal!

Carly and the band....

No secret, Carly plays in her school band. Yesterday they had their first home game. Great game and everyone did a good job. The Panthers beat Donaldsonville Tigers 40-6. But besides that, Carly and I discovered this week that the Panther fight song is the same as the Univeristy of Michigan's fight song. My brother attended Michigan, so I filmed a little bit of it so he can reminisce.

Carly and her friend Christine

Carly looking all serious - not sure why...

Hurricane Gustav

Sorry it's been a while since I posted last, but I have been a little busy. I did have time to put together a quick video with some pictures that we took before, during and after Gustav came to visit. We had no trouble from Ike. He caused trouble elsewhere. We continue to pray for those in the 'great state'. Video to enjoy....

What's this?

It appears to be our air conditioning unit. What is it doing? Um....that would be a big nothing! Its just sitting there. Not even spinning or making some crazy noise! So we give our boy, Tony a call. He brings in the know-how! See, he's the a/c guy (awesome/crazy). Thank you, Tony! We love you and are so glad you didn't hesitate to come to our rescue before the heat came back to South Louisiana! You are our hero!

This is Tony (in the orange) with another great friend of ours, Rus! In fact...would like to thank Rus for the a/c hookup we got during the hurricane! You are both so awesome!

Praying for Texas

The great state is getting pounded by Ike and we are praying everything turns out great for them! We just have wind and some rain. Which will stink because we are supposed to be going out to the birthday bash of the year tonight. Hopefully it will break......but, I wanted to share a photo of me and Melissa serving at the church. I forgot my camera everyday, but she's so smart! God knew....anyway, love the blue gloves!

From left to right is Jennifer, Melissa, Ginger from Seattle - flew in just to help us, and me.

Had a blast helping Cooking for Christ and hope to get back at it soon! Oh, and Ginger, when we get to Seattle, we are coming to your restaurant for soup!

Sights around town...

Carly and I decided to get out this afternoon. Mike's got a cold and not feeling well, school was closed because of the threat of Hurricane Ike and our serving at church was also cancelled, for the same reasons. So, out we go to get our "out of towners" some pics from around our town. These sights are becoming all too familiar....

This is a shot of some National Guard troops hanging out at the fairgrounds

(never get tired of seeing them....they're cute!)Power Trucks....Praise God for the power dudes!

And this guy. I just thought this was funny. I'm sure the owner didn't find it funny, but I guess he knows now not to park under a tree during a hurricane!

Round Two!

Here we go again. Last night we waited for about 30 mins in a line of cars to get gas. During the night our power went out, but then THANKFULLY came back on, now we wake up and our tarp has blown off. Thank you, Sir, may I have another. We are still very blessed! The kids got to get in a few days of school this week (Tues - Thurs) and were off again today due to Ike. We are expecting high winds and crazy rain with possible flooding (not particularly our house, but our parish could). So....I set up the ladder and tried to get on the roof to fix the tarp, but our ladder is too short.....will just have to wait on the professionals. Here's a picture of it now.

I have been helping serve meals to about 800 National Guard and Policemen this week. It has been awesome and yesterday I actually worked beside a lady that flew in from Seattle just to help us out. What amazing people you meet during times like these. So, its time for me to get ready to head out to serve more meals. I'll try to remember my camera today so I have pics of that to post. No worries, I'm not doing the cooking, just the serving! much love!

Happy Birthday, Carly!

Today is my baby's birthday. She got one of her birthday wishes already....electricity! I was upset because the stores have been closed since the storm and I wasn't able to make her a cake on my 2-burner stove. I whined to my friend Paula who had evacuated to Arkansas and yesterday when they came home to evaluate their damages, she brought Carly a cake all the way from north Louisiana! Paula, you rock! (even though Trent is taking all the credit!) We will take her later and try to snag a gift or two, but today is her day just to chill. Cooking for Christ had hot meals at church, so she got to "eat out" - like really, outside sitting on the steps of the church and tonight we'll let her pick her favorite MRE for dinner. What a cool birthday! We love you, Carly!

We made it!

We made it through Hurricane Gustav with minimal damage. Lost some shingles and the copper flashing thing to our chimney, but other than that we are good. Just got power about 15mins ago, so we officially went about 6 days without it. From Monday around 9:30am until Saturday at 8:30pm. All in all, not so bad, which is a good thing since Hurricane Ike is heading our way.....Of course, I have pics. I have more video and a list of things that I learned during our week without power.....It gets lengthy, but hey, it's been 6 days since I posted!....so here goes.....
Since the power went out I have learned....

Pop tarts, cracker jacks and milky way candy bars are the breakfast of champions...

I can refuel and crank a generator...

I can switch power from the refrigerator to the washing machine without blowing up either...

Just because it's air conditioned doesn't mean we are all going to get along while hanging out in the living room...

NOT getting along is Ok...

My husband rocks! While serving and helping complete strangers cut trees off their homes, he still manages to take care of us...

I can cook a nutritionally balanced meal on a 2-burner propane stove...

Hand washing dishes reminds me of the "good ol days", but makes me thankful its the past...

I am sure that CocaCola understands the importance of keeping Diet Coke on the shelves of every Prairieville store...for me and Beck!

Even a 14", non-plasma, non flat, plain ol tv is STILL a tv...

I someday just may become the solitaire champion of the world!....

If you cut up hot dogs and add them to beans, they are no longer hot dogs, it's a casserole!...

I learned I have good neighbors....

How to crank and use a chainsaw....

I learned some sign language by watching the de-briefings on tv...

That even though Wal-Mart and Starbucks are closed, the world did not stop turning...

That love bugs and mosquitos can live through anything.....

That the roar of a generator is also soothing....

That the gentle wind is God's way of letting us know he cares and it's going to be Ok....

I learned that I need to write a couple of books...A cookbook called "The power's out, what's for dinner?"...and a coffee table book called "Things I never thought I'd say to my kids." Such as, "Ok, ya'll help me watch and if it starts to rain, run and get your underwear out of the bushes!"

This is video during the height of the storm. Thank you to God that we are all safe on the other side of Hurricane Gustav.

Good Morning!

Woke up to a little wind, but not too bad ( around 7am). Had a good night - no issues, except Mike kept getting up to check the weather along with Winston who is pretty nervous.
Took this video about 30 mins ago. (around 7:30am). It had just started to rain and the wind was blowing the trees in our front yard around in circles. Its still pretty good and we (of course) still have power. Video is about 30seconds and the noise sounds like thunder but its the wind whipping across the camera's microphone. Shortly after I shut off the camera, a large limb fell out of the tree. Just something else to clean up later! Ugh!