My Little Actress

Baby Darth Vader?



My 2 year old daughter was playing with her big brother's Darth Vader costume. It was hilarious! It was like Star Wars meets the Umpa Lumpas!

We Made It!

Good morning! Well, we made it through yet another hurricane in Southeast Louisiana.

Last night got pretty scary there for a while. We had a feeder band that stayed over us for a few hours and the winds were staying in the 40 - 50 mph range. The wind was LOUD and the rain was coming down sideways! I was so afraid of a tornado, but God is good and we are safe. This morning it is still quite windy but it isn't raining at the moment. I can't believe that the storm is in Texas right now and we are still getting winds gusting to 30mph! We did lose power at 5:30 AM but it came back on around 8. I'm sure the worst is over now. We haven't been out yet, but I'd bet there are plenty of tree branches down in yards.

Thanks so much to all of you for your prayers! Hopefully this will be the LAST time this year I have to devote my blog to writing about a hurricane!! :0)

It's coming...UPDATE

2:00 UPDATE

Well, we are still here! :) We've had 3 tornado sirens go off so far today (I HATE THOSE!!). We've had some gusty winds, in the 35 - 45 mph range, and the sky looks UGLY, but overall we are making out okay. Remember the tree that was on my dad's house that we thought caused no breach of his roof? Well my mom called and said that they now have a large water spot on the ceiling in their bedroom. All the rain we're getting today is slowly dripping in through their roof into the attic right above their bedroom. Hopefully it will not come through the ceiling! There is also another breach in a canal in New Orleans dumping A LOT of water back into areas that flooded for Katrina. So sad...

Thanks so much to all of you for keeping us in your prayers - it means SO much! If we can just make it through the next 4 or so hours and get out of the tornado watch area I will be feeling better. More updates later!

8:30 AM

Okay, this is a scary sight!


Rita may be down in the Gulf of Mexico, but she sure is making her presence known this morning. We just had a little squall here, and in a little while a large band will be coming through. I'm not sure if this will work or not, but here is the radar loop for our area.



Still praying for a major weakness before landfall in TX/LA!!

A little nervous...

I don't know guys...I'm starting to get a little uneasy over here. We are now under a Tropical Storm Warning, and our schools have closed for tomorrow. Wow - talk about dejavu. I know that our area will not receive a direct hit from Hurricane Rita, but some local forecastors are really leaning toward a LA landfall, possibly as far as central LA. (The hurricane warning extends east to Morgan City, LA. That is only about an hour and a half away from where Bayou Mama and I live.) We've started having rain bands come in and the wind has picked up a little. The highest wind gust so far was 31. Boy I sure hope this thing doesn't turn out to be a double whammy for LA!!

I Got Tagged!

I just realized that I was tagged by The Martins before the hurricane hit, so I’m a little late responding!

Here goes my list:

7 things I plan to do before I die:
1. Watch my kids grow up and get married
2. Go to Hawaii with my husband
3. Bungie Jump (I know that’s crazy!)
4. Finally lose that baby weight
5. Watch my grandchildren grow up
6. Travel to Europe
7. Be financially stable and able to bless those who have blessed us

7 Things I Can Do:
1. sing
2. make jewelry
3. teach children to read
4. I am good with computers and programming
5. make a great monkey face
6. teach a rat to push a lever to get food (thanks to a really cool Psychology class in college)
7. speak some Spanish

7 things that I cannot do:
1. keep my flowers alive (I’m great with green plants, but flowers don’t live long for me!!)
2. fix cars or do anything mechanical
3. sew
4. draw
5. keep my laundry under control (girl, me too!!!)
6. drive a stick shift
7. be in tight spaces (I’m very claustrophobic!)

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:
1. Eyes
2. Hair
3. Height (I’m tall, so I like my men tall) ;)
4. Kind
5. Someone who loves the Lord
6. Sense of Humor
7. Manliness (I don’t like girlie men) ;)

7 things I say most often:
1. No!
2. I love you!
3. Bless your heart…
4. First of all…
5. Good grief!
6. How much do you love me? (usually followed by my husband saying “What do you want me to do?)
7. Praise God!

7 celebrity crushes:
1. Ben Affleck
2. Brad Pitt
3. Ryan from Young and the Restless
4. John Michael Montgomery
5. Matt LeBlanc
6. Colby from Survivor
7. George Clooney

7 people I want to do this:
1. BayouMama
2. Free In Him
3. Debbie
4. Maryland Mommy
5. Gina
6. Kim
7. Anybody else who hasn’t been tagged yet…

Can’t wait to read your answers!!

Laptops Rule!!

I bought a laptop about a week ago and I love it!! I bought an HP Pavilion zv6000 from a WALMART in a town about 30 minutes away (our Walmart is still only taking in a few customers at a time - there is A VERY LONG LINE outside almost all the time - and it's only open until 6pm). Who would have thought you could buy computers at the same store where you get diapers and cereal?!? That cracks me up! Anyway, Walmart had a great deal - you got the laptop, a bag for it, and a printer for $827!

We also bought a Wireless Router. This cool toy allows you to hook your laptop up to the internet without any wires! I can sit anywhere in my house and get on the internet!! The other night I was in bed blogging - it was wonderful!!! The router was about $60 at Best Buy. When I got on the internet before I had to have my back to my kids, but now I can sit in the living room on the couch next to them and not feel so isolated. This morning I actually set it on the counter in the bathroom while I was taking a shower and I was playing a Contemporary Christian music station (on Yahoo). I was worshiping in the shower all thanks to my new laptop and wireless router.
This is my new favorite toy!! Anybody else out there with a laptop?

Bitten by the Change Bug!

Today I just couldn't stop making changes!!! It's so much fun once you actually realize HOW to change things. I will probably make a few more changes, but I think I pretty much have it done. After hours of looking at the template codes, it all started to look the same! :) It seems like the change bug is catching - BayouMama, The Martins, Maryland Mommy, and, Humor Girl all got bitten too!

New Look

Bayou MaMa and I have been making some changes to our blogs. BIG thanks to The Martins for helping us figure out how to do a new banner!! I still want to change a few more things, like background colors/patterns for the boxes. Any suggestions?

Hurricane Update

Today was our first Sunday back to church. It was so nice to actually do something "normal"! :) Our phones are still not working, but the internet is fine (aside from a couple of mini outages). We are still under curfew, but now it is 10 pm to 5 am instead of 8 to 6, and they are much more lenient about it now. There are still National Guard at the Wal-Mart (which is only open a few hours a day), but aside from that things are starting to settle down around here. Tomorrow I have a teacher's meeting at 10 to discuss getting back to school - students are supposed to start back on Wednesday. I kind of dread going back because we've actually been out of school longer than we were IN school (in school 10 days, out of school total of 11 school days by Wednesday) - the kids are going to be so confused! :) But, again, it will be nice to get back into a routine.

I went to my mom and dad's house yesterday (a couple of blocks away) to see the tree that fell on their roof for myself, and I couldn't believe my eyes!!! I can't belive that the massive tree that hit their house did not end up INSIDE the house! Here are a few pictures I took of the tree...

The tree actually bent in half and cracked down the middle!


This is the picture of the tree on Dad's roof after he had already cut back quite a few limbs!


Dad's house as seen from a ladder!


God is so good!!! Can you belive that there was no water in the house at all?

Praise God we are HOME!!!!

Thanks so much to all of you for your prayers through this very difficult time!! We definitely needed them! So much has happened in the past week...

Update on our family: My house is fine. We have electricity and water. We are being instructed to limit showers/baths and toilet flushing until the wastewater situation is not critical anymore. We do not have electricity parish-wide yet, but most people seem to have it. Also, miraculously my parents did NOT sustain any water damage to their home. According to my brother-in-law the water was up to their door. A tree did fall on their roof, but it DID NOT penetrate the roof to cause water damage. PRAISE GOD!!! Here are a few pictures...


This is my home boarded up. Please excuse the weeds. {blush}


This is our fence that was damaged.


Our neighbor's tree that came within a foot of our house.


Debris from our yard. We were so blessed! Many homes had trees fall on them!


The view up my street. Most people have already cleaned up their yards. Imagine what it must have looked like before cleanup? My brother-in-law said that this part of my street was impassable!

The scariest thing about all of this is not being able to communicate. Our cell phones do not work at all. Our regular phones are unpredictable. We cannot dial long distance. Our parish is occupied by the National Guard right now, so it's kind of strange. We are under a 10:00 curfew until further notice. Wal-Mart is only allowing a few people in at a time and my dad was there earlier and said that there were National Guard inside walking around with M16's. I guess that's to prevent looting. That just freaks me out. There is also a pretty steady sound of helicopters overhead. We are a predominantly middle class suburb of New Orleans only about 30 minutes away across the Mississippi River. It blows me away to think that just right over the bridge there is so much devastation…

School is expected to start back up sometime next week. We are expecting an influx of kids from Metairie and New Orleans. I was thinking today that maybe that is a blessing. New Orleans schools are not known for being very good - low funding and large class size spells trouble. Our parish has one of the best school systems in the state. Maybe this disaster will actually turn into a partial blessing so that they can get a good education and be removed from schools where gangs were rampant. I guess I am just trying to find some good in all of this mess…

Did you all see the Oprah Winfrey special on New Orleans? One of our local channels (who was displaced to Baton Rouge due to the studio being destroyed) aired it yesterday. I cannot tell you how many times I cried. These are places we have been so many times…I still am in a state of shock.

BUT, through all of this I know that the hand of God is moving. My faith will not waiver. My hope is secure. I do not understand why all of this has happened, but I do know that my God is still faithful and can carry our area through this tragedy. Please continue to pray for our area, Mississippi, and even our President. There are some tough decisions to be made, and finger pointing is not the answer. I will update as often as I can. Again, thanks so much to all of you - we can feel your prayers! {lots of hugs}

Question of the Week

Throughout all of the craziness this week, and as the day when we are able to return home draws nearer, I can't help but wonder how I will discuss the damage and destruction my children will see on our way back home to SE Louisiana. We have not allowed them to watch the news obviously, but there are going to be things that they see and hear either firsthand or from other kids at school. No doubt about it our lives will be different now - even down to the malls we go to and the restaurants we enjoy...I know I will discuss the goodness of God in protecting our family, but I'm sure there will be lots of questions.

Any ideas out there?