The only thing that tropical storm force winds are good for.....

kite-flying!!

And that's exactly what our neighborhood clan did on Friday afternoon. All of our daycares closed early at 3pm due the threat of serious weather approaching from Hurricane Ike skirting the north-eastern Louisiana Gulf Coast en route to the Galveston Bay area. We sustained tropical storm force winds all day on Friday and Saturday which made for interesting kite-flying, especially with toddlers, and hair-blowing fun tailgating for the LSU football game, but more on that in a second.

Back to more news from Hurricane Ike...my parents' are both awaiting news. My dad's fishing camp in Hackberry, LA and my mother's beachhouse on the Bolivar Peninsula in TX most likely have both sustained severe damage. Needless to say it has been a disheartening past two weeks for them sustaining damage at home from Hurricane Gustav and damage at their get-aways destinations from Hurricane Ike. Come on December 1 !!!!!!

Daddy Buck was off yesterday and we had a "date-day". We dropped the boys to his mother around 2pm and went to lunch, tailgating, LSU football game and DSR concert. We had a great afternoon, evening, and night together. Here's a few pictures from the tailgating times...

Entrance to Tiger Stadium

Tailgating Fun

Mike, the Tiger

The "Real" Mike, the Tiger

My nieces, Grace and Whitney

Grace, Whitney and their friend, Ava, on the Indian Mounds

The "Golden" Girls

The "Date-Day" couple themselves

SECRET LOVERS

Sinking and Dancing

Check out the sinkhole today!! I swear Osama Bin Laden could be calling this his new hide-away--it is sooo freakin' B-I-G. The cone, sawhorses, and caution tape were placed around the area by myself and my neighbors in an effort to keep the children safe. Note the paint present on the grass now as Louisiana One Call was called-in to locate all utilities in preparation for DIGGING. I spoke to the parish councilman today and he proceeded to inform warn me that his crews would be here Monday and begin the excavation to "locate" the problem and that it could require digging up a large portion, if not most all of my front yard and he would do his best to salvage the sod to be replaced after the work is complete. "It's been a real pleasure speaking to you today, Mr. Councilman. Have a great weekend and I so look forward to seeing you on Monday. Bye now!!"


















Though many of you may not enjoy the music selections that are in our music player attached to this blog...rest assured that Buck-a-roo and Frank-o do!! Buck-a-roo calls it the "Pu-puter Moosic" and loves for me to BLAST it when we get home from school and they are supposed to be eating their dinner which is exactly the scene for the videos below. I will be the first to admit that there are most probably many more age-appropriate songs they could be "getting down to" but, oh well. Also note in the video that it is a rap song in the background, but that Buck-a-roo is playing the rock-n-roll "air guitar". Momentarily, scroll to the bottom of the screen and pause the music player so you can here the video clips.

Hurricane Gustav Humor

I am unable to take credit for the following hysterical statements in light of the past week following Hurricane Gustav; it was sent to me in email format and I enjoyed it so much that I decided to paste it into a post on our blog. There are several references that are specific to Baton Rouge-ians, though I imagine if you were affected in any way by the hurricane, then you can relate and will find it humorous. The most important portion of the message below is that which is in the last two paragraphs...

Gustav’s Guide to Hurricane Survival
Lessons Learned During and After the Storm

The hurricane grouch quotient can be calculated by adding the number of children and pets in a home without power, multiplied by the number of days quoted on the Entergy telephone recording, divided by the number of fans or portable air conditioners powered by your home generator, (however if you were last in line at Home Depot and have no generator then multiply by the daily high for that day reported by either Pat Shingleton or Jay Grymes), then add the number of trips to the washateria and the days left until school opens. Discount by the percentage of time spent at neighbors who have power. Recalculate as often as necessary

No matter how many times you flick the switch, lights don't work without electricity.

Vienna sausages only appear on the food pyramid during hurricane season.
Gas mileage is recalculated based on miles per fume.

Lovebugs do not disappear in 80mph wind gusts.

Disasters can cancel one LSU football game but there will be even bigger casualties if we cancel two.
Despite protests, kids can re-live their parents’ youth when there were only 3 tv channels!Cats are even more irritating without power.

Baton Rouge without traffic lights resembles Mexico City, Rome, Los Angeles and New York City all rolled into a single snarl.A 7 lb bag of ice will chill 6-12 oz beers to a drinkable temperature in 11 minutes, and still keep a 14 lb. turkey frozen for 8 more hours.There are/were a lot of really big trees around here!
Just because you're 18 doesn't mean you can stay out as late as you want. Mayor Holden meant business when he said curfew.People will get into a line that has already formed without having any idea what the line is for.

Calories consumed during a hurricane or power outage do not count.
Telemarketers function no matter what the weather is doing. New Delhi does not check the weather report in Baton Rouge.Most popular text message after September 1: do u hve pwrTwenty-seven of your neighbors are fed from a different transformer than you, and they are quick to point that out!

Crickets and cicadas can increase their volume to overcome the sound of 14 generators.Dirty clothes in an unsupervised hamper multiply at an exponential rate.

Coffee, spaghetti and frozen pizzas can be made on a grill.

He who has the biggest generator wins.Tree service companies are under-appreciated, except after hurricanes.

Our Lady of the Lake never closes. Really.
Water will fill the Acadian Thruway underpass, even sometimes when it is not raining.

There are a lot more stars in the sky than most people thought.

If you owned a store that sold only ice, chain saws, gas and generators, you would be rich

With only a small amount of guilt South Louisiana can collectively pray a second hurricane to landfall in another state or country.

And so to our friends and families, some who are still without power and others who have endured great personal loss, you are in our prayers. Hang in there, we are making progress. Thank you to all our first responders, healthcare professionals, service technicians, teachers, police officers, small business owners, and more who join with the thousands of individuals sharing their time and talent to help restore our community to wholeness.

The most important lesson of all learned from Gustav in the last week is that the human spirit has an amazing resilience that even a hurricane cannot bend. Through God’s love and amazing grace we can endure all things.

back to the routine tomorrow...

Update: While we were at the pediatrician today, of course, they weighed Harley. He weighed in at 35 pounds. And, of course, Cody decided he needed to be weighed too. He weighed in at 28 1/2 pounds. Cody may very well catch Harley in weight, but NEVER height. Sweet Cody is the shortest kid in his toddler class, though he carries the tallest attitude. Harley is one of the tallest in his preschool class; he is a skeleton of bones, though, because he is the ultimate "picky-eater" and sometimes flat-out refuses to eat.


It has been a long past 7 days with the boys cooped inside without the amenities of modern living and I, for one, and glad that I received two phone calls today notifying me that their preschool/daycare will be OPEN for operation tomorrow!! YEAH!! (did I say that out loud?)

Harley has been running fever since Saturday, so we set out for the pediatrician's office this morning. The verdict--upper respiratory infection and sinusitis. He was given antibiotics and should be fine for school tomorrow. YEAH!! (did I say that out loud, again?)

Though, Harley has been sick, it has not dampened his activity at all. After the pediatrician's office we went to the mall to kill some time before meeting Jack for lunch. We hit the Clinique counter for some new eyeshadow for mom's post-hurricane treat to self, then we played at the indoor play area for about an hour before Jack called.

In thought, lunch seemed like a good idea....in reality, not SO GOOD. The boys were inpatient, tired, and fussy to put it mildly. It was a swift 35 minute lunch and we were headed home for naps after dropping Harley's prescription off at the pharmacy.

Harley just surfaced from his room and has moved to the couch; not sure if he wants to wake from his nap or not. For dinner is (leftover) chili frito pies with a teaspoon of sleep aid Benadryl for ALL members of the family and we are back to our normal routine tomorrow. YEAH!! (yes, I said that out loud!)

We don't wish ill-will on anyone, but I sure wish Hurricane Ike would head west...at least past Cameron Parish, LA so as to miss my dad's fishing camp.

Long time--no blog!!

Why, you ask?.....Hurricane Gustav (or "Whoo-Dop" as Cody calls it) is to blame!!

We began feeling the effects of Hurricane Gustav late Sunday (August 31) afternoon as the wind gained strength and the clouds rolled in. By early Monday (September 01) morning the rain started to fall and the winds were getting stronger. We lost electricity around 1130am and were feeling the brunt of the storm around 100pm. We were able to go outside around 500pm that evening following the storm to assess the damage around us. Our privacy fence sustained minimal damage and there were many limbs and loads of debris throughout our neighborhood. On the country highways around us was a much more grim picture. Trees and power lines snapped, split, cracked, and fallen everywhere--it looked like a war zone!! We were without power for approximately 72 hours; we did, however, have a generator powering a window unit A/C, the TV in the living room, a box fan, and a lamp. Harley kept saying, "Why don't we go to the store and get our lights and TV back?" Isn't it sweet, how naive and literal a 3 year old can be?!? The boys, Jack, and I slept in the living room for the first night and were joined by Jack's family for the next two nights. I DO NOT complain , though we were hot, hungry, uncomfortable, bored, and inconvenienced at times...we were lucky and continue to be blessed. There are so many people that have suffered complete devastation from wind, rain, fallen trees, flooding...

Gustav's Gust-O...



Hurricane Happenings...






Now we begin bracing for the possibility of Hurricane Ike heading our way!!