Slowly, life is getting back to normal. Cable, internet and phone came back on today - YAY!!!! Friday we went to Walmart to try and get food. We knew they were only letting a certain number of people in at a time, but we wanted to try close to home and we were prepared to drive to Mississippi if needed. We had to wait 10 or 15 minutes to get in, which wasn't too bad. Basically, anything that was supposed to be cold, they were not selling. They were putting out milk (whole and 2% - no lactose free for AJ). The National Guard was there. It was ODD walking around the store with men walking around with huge guns in their hands!
The National Guard is still at Walmart and the line to get in is still long. Still lots of people without electricity. I think as of this morning, Entergy was 65% online for the state, 45% online for our parish. Things are still a mess and recovery will take time. Although, we are very surprised the number of people who had trees fall on or around their house (BIG TREES) that have already cut the trees up (anyone need firewood??) and put them out for the debris trucks to pick up. The gas station lines have finally disappeared and the police are no longer having to sit and direct the lines.
Yesterday we drove to Baton Rouge and went to Sams. We were able to find meat - YAY!!! This morning we were able to get Andrew some milk (he hasn't had any since Tuesday morning), and some more meat.
Andrew is FINALLY sleeping. He did not nap well with no electricity. We use fans when we sleep...when we don't have fans, sleeping doesn't go well. When you are talking about napping without fans, and three older brothers are home being noisy, well sleeping is a hard thing to do. So the boy who usually takes a 4+ hour nap was taking a 45 minute nap on a good day. And, sleeping his normal amount at night.
I have some video of the hurricane and some pictures of the damage that I will try to get on here this week.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Hurricance Gustav Hits
This was typed on Wednesday evening. Internet did not come back on until today.
We are alive and well (as well as we could be, considering). Hurricane Gustav hit us as a Category II hurricane, and we were here for every wind gust and rain drop!
This storm went down in history as the worst, strongest storm to EVER hit the Baton Rouge area. That is so our luck. We live here for TWO WEEKS and the strongest storm ever decides to blow through!
Monday:
We woke up to some stronger than normal winds, but not too strong. We just waited. Obviously, we did not want to go anywhere, knowing what was coming. So, we enjoyed as much electricity as we could. The winds gradually picked up for a while and then quickly started getting strong. And then there was the rain, too. Since there was no lightening or thunder, it was easy to think of it as just a rain shower with winds, for a while. There was never a time I was concerned for US, but there were a few times I was concerned for our house. Before we even reached hurricane strength winds we lost cable/internet/phone. We later found out that the cables-cables went down on the road right outside our neighborhood.
I got concerned about our house a couple of times. We watched a neighbors shingles flying off their roof. Watching things like this does not make you feel good about what YOUR OWN roof is doing! Also, there was a while in the worst of the storm where the east side of our house was REALLY getting pounded. The windows were bowing and rain was coming in them. Our back door had rain coming in the doorknob, deadbolt and windows, as well as under the door (it was not flooding – literally blowing in the door). The door was deadbolted, but the wind was so strong that it was pushing the door and we were feeling the wind coming in. Watching our landscaping was terrifying. Not because we were worried about losing it (which we obviously did not want to happen) but because, again, when you watch things getting destroyed like that you really wonder what is happening to your house that you CANNOT see.
We had sustained winds of up to 68 mph and gust over 95 mph. It is an amazing sight to watch. You watch tree tops (and elephant ears) begin spinning like a helicopter blades. If you look at our elephant ears, they are completely shredded. We watched (and got video of) a plastic dog kennel that went flying across the street. It broke in two in the air and barely hit the ground before it was getting thrown somewhere else. It hit houses, cars, fences, etc before it disappeared. We watched tree branches and plants flying. A small tree in the pasture behind us snapped in half (and again – became like a helicopter blade). I was in awww.
Hurricane Aftermath:
Tuesday, early afternoon, we decided we would go look for gas. We had four five gallon gas cans for the generator. After hearing it could be weeks before we got electricity back (that is right, WEEKS), we decided we ought to try to find something because we were down to about 30 hours of gas for the generator. We have been rationing the gas. We run the generator (which has the refrigerator, a window unit, fans for the bedrooms and miscellaneous things as we need them) for a couple of hours and turn it off for around 4 hours. Our main goal is to keep the stuff in the refrigerator/freezer, cold.
Tuesday we got pounded with LOTS of rain. Looking at the radar, we had a red band just stuck on top of us. We got over 9 feet of water JUST YESTERDAY. We really thought we were going to have to use our flood insurance (which we were told we did not need). The house was fine, but it was definently reassuring to know we had it!
So, we go to look for gas. We go to pull out and see that about 2 houses down there was water about half way up the mailboxes. So we went the other way. We took the Jeep – thank goodness! We went to make the circle of our neighborhood (there is only one way in and out of the neighborhood), and went through five or six pretty high water spots throughout the neighborhood. We got to the entrance and started to go out. The water was to the bottom of the stop sign. Paul drove through it because he was already in it and could not stop. We decided we were NOT going to go anywhere. The water at the entrance was about 4 feet high. It went OVER the hood of Paul’s Jeep.
The damage in the neighborhood was amazing, I guess because ours was so minimal, I was surprised at what I saw. There were fences torn apart and thrown around. Trees down. Landscape destroyed. Shingles gone and all over the roads, water everywhere. Porta-potty’s flipped over and thrown across the street and houses down (there are still a few houses being built in our neighborhood).
Tuesday evening when the waters finally went down, we ventured out again. The damage to the city was even more amazing than our neighborhood. There were houses half under water. Trees down EVERYWHERE! Power lines, transformers and poles down everywhere. Water everywhere. Electricity NO WHERE!!!!
The road right outside of our neighborhood, you can turn two ways on. We went out one end and tried coming home on the other end. It was under water and had power lines sitting in the water. We had to turn around and go around town and in the other end of the road. Seeing powerlines down on the street in water does not make you feel good about getting electricity soon.
Here are some tidbits of info about us right now:
We have not had electricity in 3 days and there is NO end in sight. This is one of the biggest problem the state faces right now. The two electric companies in our city both had 100% of their customers without electricity. 40% of the STATES transmission lines are down. Without transmission lines, the distribution lines (which are also down) are pointless. Let this kind of put things in perspective for you. Yesterday, the hospital here in town had their generator break down. Ambulances from Philidelphia (the Baton Rouge area as of yesterday still had 900 patients that needed to be evacuated from hospitals with no air conditioning and failing generators) came and evacuated from hospitals here to hospitals in NEW ORLEANS. The electric companies are telling us to expect at LEAST 2 weeks to get power back. We live on the outskirts of town. They will obviously take care of electric IN town to get stores, gas stations, SCHOOLS, etc back on track. As of today, there was still 94% of customers without electricity.
We have a curfew. 6pm to 6am. If you do not have a legitimate reason to be out, you get arrested. There is NOTHING open. Roads are still flooded (as of today), trees still lay in roads. Powerlines are still over the roads in many places. There is no reason for anyone to be out.
Cell service is iffy at best. Usually you have to continuously dial numbers 10+ times until a call goes through. If you are ever in a situation like this….texting goes through much easier than calls. We can rarely use the internet on our phone or check our emails.
We went out again today to try and find gas. It took half the day, but we got gas. It is not that our cars need it, it is that our generator needs it. That is the story everywhere. Noone has power so we are in a gas crisis.
It is easy to watch from somewhere else and get an idea of the devestation in places like this. I watched from another state during Katrina. It was heart-breaking, and movie-like. It could get easy to watch clips and feel as though you are watching a movie and kind of disconnect from the human side of the devestation. It is eye-opening to be IN the devestation. It is like living in a third-world country right now. You take advantage of running to the gas station or the corner store when you need food or gas. To get gas – we waited in line for over 2 hours today. If you can find a store that is open – they are probably operating with a generator and they are only letting 3 or 4 people in at a time. More major lines. If you go to get the free water, ice, tarps, MRE’s from FEMA – you have to be prepared to wait 8-10+ hours. They are putting these supplies directly in your car. So, you have to have a full tank of gas to sit in the lines. If you don’t, you have to wait in line for gas (there are only a handful of gas stations even open. Most don’t have electricity for their pumps to pump the gas), then sit in line for FEMA assistance. Every gas station had police organizing lines and keeping the peace.
I am not saying it is not worth the wait or meaning to sound unappreciative of what we DO have. I am trying to draw a picture of what is going on. It will be quite a while before we can run to the store for a gallon of milk and it not be an all day thing. When we left this morning for gas, we left at 8:15 and got home at 12:30. It was all driving looking for gas and then sitting and waiting for gas. We saw people who ran out of gas in line for gas and were pushing their car to stay in the line.
I have to say I am thankful for going through this POST Katrina. I won’t say they have done a perfect job, but compared to what I SAW with Katrina….miles ahead!!!! There are still kinks that need to be worked out. But overall, they have done a great job. People followed the mandatory evacuations. They were much more organized this time and did not mean that people had to leave animals behind. That is why we did not see the chaos and rescues we saw with Katrina (and the levees did not break this time). The strict curfews helped. The state was much more prepared for this storm than they were for Katrina. Most of the deaths in the state from the storm were things like carbon-monoxide poisoning from people running their generators in the house, or people cutting trees down and the trees fell on them, things like that. While these are horrible and tragic, it is much less tragedy than three years ago. The fact that it was almost 3 years to the day that Katrina hit, really hit home with people and made them take it that much more serious.
It is easy to get blue after the storm. I have told many people and stick by it, the aftermath of the storm is SO much worse than the storm itself. It started raining Sunday. It has rained everyday since. No sun. We have no electricity. The kids can’t go to school and are bored crazy. They can’t go outside because it is raining, thundering, lightening and there have been tornado warnings all around us. The last couple of days have been somewhat cool, because of the rain. Tomorrow the sun should be coming out and it will be getting in the 90’s again. We can’t run our window unit all day (means using more gas for generator) and the window unit is only in our bedroom. The humidity level has GOT to be about 300%. Things in the house are feeling damp and we always feel sticky and nasty! We can’t go anywhere in the car because we might need the gas in the cars for the generator. Bugs. Lots of bugs. Mosquitos will only be getting worse. It is just a miserable situation, and as I said – we are better off than many. I bought food for through this week. Supply is running low. I am down to half a loaf of bread. No milk for Andrew. About half a gallon of regular milk. A hot meal would be GREAT (one NOT fixed on the stovetop).
All of this complaining said. I am thankful. Very thankful. Our house faired great. We were planning on taking out some landscaping anyway – this just helped us decide what needs to be taken out. Our family is okay. We were fortunate enough to have the funds to go to the store on a moments notice (okay, four stores) to spend the $1000+ on the generator, gas and window unit). We were not evacuated. We do not have water in our house. We know where our property stands. Many people cannot even go back to their parish until Friday at the earliest, and are being asked to come back, look and leave again. We have water. We are able to shower, cook, use the bathrooms – many others aren’t. We did not have a tree land in our house (a co-worker of Paul’s did), our chimney did not blow off (another co-workers of Paul did).
The situation SUCKS, but we are blessed and lucky.
The boys throughout all of this were awesome (a little annoying, but hey…). After the near missed with the tornadoes this spring, they took it serious. The hurricane has been the talk of the town since beginning of last week. They discuss it at school. They hear us discussing it. They ran around town with us looking for generators and air conditioners and getting lots of canned and no-cook foods. They sat in the car for many hours today looking for and waiting for gas. This has not been easy on them, especially with all the other changes and stressed they have experienced the last couple of months (better yet, the last year). They asked several times a day toward the end of last week and over the weekend “is this the day the hurricane comes?” The hurricane came. They looked out the window and saw what was happening and went back to playing. Monday night, bedtime was pretty rough. Every night since the hurricane has been rough. They have been great!!
I know this is a long post, but this has consumed our life for two weeks. I do want to thank everyone for their calls and texts of concern and encouragement (and even all the calls and text saying we should run).
We are alive and well (as well as we could be, considering). Hurricane Gustav hit us as a Category II hurricane, and we were here for every wind gust and rain drop!
This storm went down in history as the worst, strongest storm to EVER hit the Baton Rouge area. That is so our luck. We live here for TWO WEEKS and the strongest storm ever decides to blow through!
Monday:
We woke up to some stronger than normal winds, but not too strong. We just waited. Obviously, we did not want to go anywhere, knowing what was coming. So, we enjoyed as much electricity as we could. The winds gradually picked up for a while and then quickly started getting strong. And then there was the rain, too. Since there was no lightening or thunder, it was easy to think of it as just a rain shower with winds, for a while. There was never a time I was concerned for US, but there were a few times I was concerned for our house. Before we even reached hurricane strength winds we lost cable/internet/phone. We later found out that the cables-cables went down on the road right outside our neighborhood.
I got concerned about our house a couple of times. We watched a neighbors shingles flying off their roof. Watching things like this does not make you feel good about what YOUR OWN roof is doing! Also, there was a while in the worst of the storm where the east side of our house was REALLY getting pounded. The windows were bowing and rain was coming in them. Our back door had rain coming in the doorknob, deadbolt and windows, as well as under the door (it was not flooding – literally blowing in the door). The door was deadbolted, but the wind was so strong that it was pushing the door and we were feeling the wind coming in. Watching our landscaping was terrifying. Not because we were worried about losing it (which we obviously did not want to happen) but because, again, when you watch things getting destroyed like that you really wonder what is happening to your house that you CANNOT see.
We had sustained winds of up to 68 mph and gust over 95 mph. It is an amazing sight to watch. You watch tree tops (and elephant ears) begin spinning like a helicopter blades. If you look at our elephant ears, they are completely shredded. We watched (and got video of) a plastic dog kennel that went flying across the street. It broke in two in the air and barely hit the ground before it was getting thrown somewhere else. It hit houses, cars, fences, etc before it disappeared. We watched tree branches and plants flying. A small tree in the pasture behind us snapped in half (and again – became like a helicopter blade). I was in awww.
Hurricane Aftermath:
Tuesday, early afternoon, we decided we would go look for gas. We had four five gallon gas cans for the generator. After hearing it could be weeks before we got electricity back (that is right, WEEKS), we decided we ought to try to find something because we were down to about 30 hours of gas for the generator. We have been rationing the gas. We run the generator (which has the refrigerator, a window unit, fans for the bedrooms and miscellaneous things as we need them) for a couple of hours and turn it off for around 4 hours. Our main goal is to keep the stuff in the refrigerator/freezer, cold.
Tuesday we got pounded with LOTS of rain. Looking at the radar, we had a red band just stuck on top of us. We got over 9 feet of water JUST YESTERDAY. We really thought we were going to have to use our flood insurance (which we were told we did not need). The house was fine, but it was definently reassuring to know we had it!
So, we go to look for gas. We go to pull out and see that about 2 houses down there was water about half way up the mailboxes. So we went the other way. We took the Jeep – thank goodness! We went to make the circle of our neighborhood (there is only one way in and out of the neighborhood), and went through five or six pretty high water spots throughout the neighborhood. We got to the entrance and started to go out. The water was to the bottom of the stop sign. Paul drove through it because he was already in it and could not stop. We decided we were NOT going to go anywhere. The water at the entrance was about 4 feet high. It went OVER the hood of Paul’s Jeep.
The damage in the neighborhood was amazing, I guess because ours was so minimal, I was surprised at what I saw. There were fences torn apart and thrown around. Trees down. Landscape destroyed. Shingles gone and all over the roads, water everywhere. Porta-potty’s flipped over and thrown across the street and houses down (there are still a few houses being built in our neighborhood).
Tuesday evening when the waters finally went down, we ventured out again. The damage to the city was even more amazing than our neighborhood. There were houses half under water. Trees down EVERYWHERE! Power lines, transformers and poles down everywhere. Water everywhere. Electricity NO WHERE!!!!
The road right outside of our neighborhood, you can turn two ways on. We went out one end and tried coming home on the other end. It was under water and had power lines sitting in the water. We had to turn around and go around town and in the other end of the road. Seeing powerlines down on the street in water does not make you feel good about getting electricity soon.
Here are some tidbits of info about us right now:
We have not had electricity in 3 days and there is NO end in sight. This is one of the biggest problem the state faces right now. The two electric companies in our city both had 100% of their customers without electricity. 40% of the STATES transmission lines are down. Without transmission lines, the distribution lines (which are also down) are pointless. Let this kind of put things in perspective for you. Yesterday, the hospital here in town had their generator break down. Ambulances from Philidelphia (the Baton Rouge area as of yesterday still had 900 patients that needed to be evacuated from hospitals with no air conditioning and failing generators) came and evacuated from hospitals here to hospitals in NEW ORLEANS. The electric companies are telling us to expect at LEAST 2 weeks to get power back. We live on the outskirts of town. They will obviously take care of electric IN town to get stores, gas stations, SCHOOLS, etc back on track. As of today, there was still 94% of customers without electricity.
We have a curfew. 6pm to 6am. If you do not have a legitimate reason to be out, you get arrested. There is NOTHING open. Roads are still flooded (as of today), trees still lay in roads. Powerlines are still over the roads in many places. There is no reason for anyone to be out.
Cell service is iffy at best. Usually you have to continuously dial numbers 10+ times until a call goes through. If you are ever in a situation like this….texting goes through much easier than calls. We can rarely use the internet on our phone or check our emails.
We went out again today to try and find gas. It took half the day, but we got gas. It is not that our cars need it, it is that our generator needs it. That is the story everywhere. Noone has power so we are in a gas crisis.
It is easy to watch from somewhere else and get an idea of the devestation in places like this. I watched from another state during Katrina. It was heart-breaking, and movie-like. It could get easy to watch clips and feel as though you are watching a movie and kind of disconnect from the human side of the devestation. It is eye-opening to be IN the devestation. It is like living in a third-world country right now. You take advantage of running to the gas station or the corner store when you need food or gas. To get gas – we waited in line for over 2 hours today. If you can find a store that is open – they are probably operating with a generator and they are only letting 3 or 4 people in at a time. More major lines. If you go to get the free water, ice, tarps, MRE’s from FEMA – you have to be prepared to wait 8-10+ hours. They are putting these supplies directly in your car. So, you have to have a full tank of gas to sit in the lines. If you don’t, you have to wait in line for gas (there are only a handful of gas stations even open. Most don’t have electricity for their pumps to pump the gas), then sit in line for FEMA assistance. Every gas station had police organizing lines and keeping the peace.
I am not saying it is not worth the wait or meaning to sound unappreciative of what we DO have. I am trying to draw a picture of what is going on. It will be quite a while before we can run to the store for a gallon of milk and it not be an all day thing. When we left this morning for gas, we left at 8:15 and got home at 12:30. It was all driving looking for gas and then sitting and waiting for gas. We saw people who ran out of gas in line for gas and were pushing their car to stay in the line.
I have to say I am thankful for going through this POST Katrina. I won’t say they have done a perfect job, but compared to what I SAW with Katrina….miles ahead!!!! There are still kinks that need to be worked out. But overall, they have done a great job. People followed the mandatory evacuations. They were much more organized this time and did not mean that people had to leave animals behind. That is why we did not see the chaos and rescues we saw with Katrina (and the levees did not break this time). The strict curfews helped. The state was much more prepared for this storm than they were for Katrina. Most of the deaths in the state from the storm were things like carbon-monoxide poisoning from people running their generators in the house, or people cutting trees down and the trees fell on them, things like that. While these are horrible and tragic, it is much less tragedy than three years ago. The fact that it was almost 3 years to the day that Katrina hit, really hit home with people and made them take it that much more serious.
It is easy to get blue after the storm. I have told many people and stick by it, the aftermath of the storm is SO much worse than the storm itself. It started raining Sunday. It has rained everyday since. No sun. We have no electricity. The kids can’t go to school and are bored crazy. They can’t go outside because it is raining, thundering, lightening and there have been tornado warnings all around us. The last couple of days have been somewhat cool, because of the rain. Tomorrow the sun should be coming out and it will be getting in the 90’s again. We can’t run our window unit all day (means using more gas for generator) and the window unit is only in our bedroom. The humidity level has GOT to be about 300%. Things in the house are feeling damp and we always feel sticky and nasty! We can’t go anywhere in the car because we might need the gas in the cars for the generator. Bugs. Lots of bugs. Mosquitos will only be getting worse. It is just a miserable situation, and as I said – we are better off than many. I bought food for through this week. Supply is running low. I am down to half a loaf of bread. No milk for Andrew. About half a gallon of regular milk. A hot meal would be GREAT (one NOT fixed on the stovetop).
All of this complaining said. I am thankful. Very thankful. Our house faired great. We were planning on taking out some landscaping anyway – this just helped us decide what needs to be taken out. Our family is okay. We were fortunate enough to have the funds to go to the store on a moments notice (okay, four stores) to spend the $1000+ on the generator, gas and window unit). We were not evacuated. We do not have water in our house. We know where our property stands. Many people cannot even go back to their parish until Friday at the earliest, and are being asked to come back, look and leave again. We have water. We are able to shower, cook, use the bathrooms – many others aren’t. We did not have a tree land in our house (a co-worker of Paul’s did), our chimney did not blow off (another co-workers of Paul did).
The situation SUCKS, but we are blessed and lucky.
The boys throughout all of this were awesome (a little annoying, but hey…). After the near missed with the tornadoes this spring, they took it serious. The hurricane has been the talk of the town since beginning of last week. They discuss it at school. They hear us discussing it. They ran around town with us looking for generators and air conditioners and getting lots of canned and no-cook foods. They sat in the car for many hours today looking for and waiting for gas. This has not been easy on them, especially with all the other changes and stressed they have experienced the last couple of months (better yet, the last year). They asked several times a day toward the end of last week and over the weekend “is this the day the hurricane comes?” The hurricane came. They looked out the window and saw what was happening and went back to playing. Monday night, bedtime was pretty rough. Every night since the hurricane has been rough. They have been great!!
I know this is a long post, but this has consumed our life for two weeks. I do want to thank everyone for their calls and texts of concern and encouragement (and even all the calls and text saying we should run).
Monday, September 01, 2008
Update
The hurricane eye has not yet made landfall and it has been reduced to a Cat 2. They are now saying our area will not get winds as high as they were predicting (70+mph). The wind has just now started getting really strong and it has just started raining. It rained pretty strong for a while last night, but stopped. We stayed right on the edge of the rain, apparently.
There are no holes in the rain bans now, so we will be getting constant rain now for probably the rest of the week. They are telling us we could get up to 10-15 ft this week.
There are no holes in the rain bans now, so we will be getting constant rain now for probably the rest of the week. They are telling us we could get up to 10-15 ft this week.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
HERE WE GO!!!
We have had a tornado warning already. The wind just picked up and it started POURING! By 6 in the morning we should have at least 40 mph winds. From the last we heard the eye should hit us around 3 or 4 tomorrow afternoon, so we from this point on will be getting worse and worse.
To Those Concerned...
For those of you that have sent text, called, IM, etc. If it makes you feel any better, we took the kids to the park (after staying home all day yesterday to finish preparing) and to eat some Mexican for lunch. Our town is hopping. It seems as though most people are staying put. There is lots of preperations being taken care of at businesses and houses and everyone is very busy, but if they have not left yet, there window of oppurtunity is about out....
We are glued to the news. We are finally getting some info as to what to expect where we are (most of the info we have been getting is for coastal areas). It sounds like WE should expect the worst Monday night into Tuesday. The boys school has closed Tuesday and Wednesday, so we will enjoy....I mean, HAVE....a extra long holiday weekend (with little to no fun). I will continue to try to keep everyone updated on what is going on and how we are fairing.
We are glued to the news. We are finally getting some info as to what to expect where we are (most of the info we have been getting is for coastal areas). It sounds like WE should expect the worst Monday night into Tuesday. The boys school has closed Tuesday and Wednesday, so we will enjoy....I mean, HAVE....a extra long holiday weekend (with little to no fun). I will continue to try to keep everyone updated on what is going on and how we are fairing.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Catching Up....At Some Point
So, my plan was to catch up on the blog this week. I have been WAY too busy with hurricane preperations! Also, I was trying to get the corporate house cleaned and keys turned in. We officially only have TWO houses now, instead of THREE!!
Hurricane preperations are much more time consuming (and financially consuming for the first one) than I EVER would have anticipated. And I never thought I would spend our long Labor Day weekend preparing for a hurricane. But, this is our life now, right?
I went to a gas station this morning just up the road from the house. I pulled in and there were cars everywhere, but the pumps had bags over them and signs that said they were out of gas. I walked in and the cashier was looking out the window and nodding her head. There was a gas truck out pumping gas into the ground. I asked if all of those people were waiting for gas. She said they all followed the gas truck in and they were all sitting there waiting. Paul went back later for some goodies for all of us. There were no cars getting gas, but a maintanance truck that had some stuff pulled out of the ground. The attendent told Paul that right after the truck filled their tanks their pumps went out. So, although they HAVE gas, they can't PUMP gas.
LSU had their first game of the year...HERE! They moved it up to this morning instead of this evening, but still...we have evacuations going on. I-10 is bad enough with just day to day traffic. You throw in a big game (which they won BIGTIME) and some major evacuations, and, well, we chose to stay in today!!
The storm is already much stronger than they anticipated. They were anticipating a 2 or 3 at this point and it is at a 4 working up to a 5. We are on the edge of who is getting evacuated and noone in our neighborhood has left - which makes us feel better about staying. We spent the day getting EVERYTHING that was in our "garage" into our little storage room off the garage. It is stuffed with everything from tools to bikes/scooter/wagons to gasoline, to trash, to generators. The smell...NASTY!!
At this point I feel as though we are as prepared as we can possibly be. I am ready to get it over with. For some unknown reason, Isaac's teacher is letting the kids watch the news about the hurricane. I am very mixed on this. As of Friday, Isaac knew as much about the storm as we did. All of the boys are talking about it a lot. After all of the tornados and flooding this spring, they definently take it serious now, but don't seem overly apprehensive about it. Tomorrow may begin another story. I think we are supposed to start getting some wind and rain tomorrow afternoon/evening but the worst is supposed to be late Monday into Tuesday.
Caleb's biggest concern is school Tuesday. His principal announced to the kids that school was open Tuesday. I keep explaining that if the hurricane is here, there will NOT be school. And, if for some idiotic reason there is school, he would NOT be going!! Most of the colleges and universities have already announced they will be closed - along with coastal schools - but places further north won't announce until probably Monday evening.
Mom is getting a good laugh (although she is worried crazy) about the fact that I was her child that was deathly afraid of thunderstorms and here I am about to sit out a hurricane. While I have "outgrown" the fear of thunderstorms, and actually grown to enjoy them (and even sat out some tornados in our bathroom alone with the four boys), I - at this point - am not overly nervous (although frequently second guessing if this is the right thing to do). We are glued to the television and the Jeep is gassed up if we need to run. We plan to take it because it can go through higher water! Part of why we chose to buy here (other than the schools) was because it got us further away from the coast and the river. Hopefully that will all work in our favor.
If I have internet during the storm, I will try to blog through it. It helped calm the boys when I did that with the tornadoes because they sat and watched the computer instead of concentrating on what was happening outside.
I will keep you all updated as we go through this journey!!
Hurricane preperations are much more time consuming (and financially consuming for the first one) than I EVER would have anticipated. And I never thought I would spend our long Labor Day weekend preparing for a hurricane. But, this is our life now, right?
I went to a gas station this morning just up the road from the house. I pulled in and there were cars everywhere, but the pumps had bags over them and signs that said they were out of gas. I walked in and the cashier was looking out the window and nodding her head. There was a gas truck out pumping gas into the ground. I asked if all of those people were waiting for gas. She said they all followed the gas truck in and they were all sitting there waiting. Paul went back later for some goodies for all of us. There were no cars getting gas, but a maintanance truck that had some stuff pulled out of the ground. The attendent told Paul that right after the truck filled their tanks their pumps went out. So, although they HAVE gas, they can't PUMP gas.
LSU had their first game of the year...HERE! They moved it up to this morning instead of this evening, but still...we have evacuations going on. I-10 is bad enough with just day to day traffic. You throw in a big game (which they won BIGTIME) and some major evacuations, and, well, we chose to stay in today!!
The storm is already much stronger than they anticipated. They were anticipating a 2 or 3 at this point and it is at a 4 working up to a 5. We are on the edge of who is getting evacuated and noone in our neighborhood has left - which makes us feel better about staying. We spent the day getting EVERYTHING that was in our "garage" into our little storage room off the garage. It is stuffed with everything from tools to bikes/scooter/wagons to gasoline, to trash, to generators. The smell...NASTY!!
At this point I feel as though we are as prepared as we can possibly be. I am ready to get it over with. For some unknown reason, Isaac's teacher is letting the kids watch the news about the hurricane. I am very mixed on this. As of Friday, Isaac knew as much about the storm as we did. All of the boys are talking about it a lot. After all of the tornados and flooding this spring, they definently take it serious now, but don't seem overly apprehensive about it. Tomorrow may begin another story. I think we are supposed to start getting some wind and rain tomorrow afternoon/evening but the worst is supposed to be late Monday into Tuesday.
Caleb's biggest concern is school Tuesday. His principal announced to the kids that school was open Tuesday. I keep explaining that if the hurricane is here, there will NOT be school. And, if for some idiotic reason there is school, he would NOT be going!! Most of the colleges and universities have already announced they will be closed - along with coastal schools - but places further north won't announce until probably Monday evening.
Mom is getting a good laugh (although she is worried crazy) about the fact that I was her child that was deathly afraid of thunderstorms and here I am about to sit out a hurricane. While I have "outgrown" the fear of thunderstorms, and actually grown to enjoy them (and even sat out some tornados in our bathroom alone with the four boys), I - at this point - am not overly nervous (although frequently second guessing if this is the right thing to do). We are glued to the television and the Jeep is gassed up if we need to run. We plan to take it because it can go through higher water! Part of why we chose to buy here (other than the schools) was because it got us further away from the coast and the river. Hopefully that will all work in our favor.
If I have internet during the storm, I will try to blog through it. It helped calm the boys when I did that with the tornadoes because they sat and watched the computer instead of concentrating on what was happening outside.
I will keep you all updated as we go through this journey!!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Hello!!!!!
We are still alive!! I am going through some major internet - and BLOGGING - withdraw!! You never know how much you depend on the internet until you don't have it! I use it as a phone book, I get my news from it, my weather - which is kinda important right now - I also use it for pre-shopping for big ticket items, which unfortunately this week, we have made several of!!
I am at the corporate house cleaning it before we turn the key in. Internet, phone, cable, etc should be on tomorrow at the new house. I don't know how long we will have it, the way things are looking right now with weather though.
Yesterday they announced that Gustav was going to hit the Gulf as a pretty major hurricane (they are saying Cat. 3 or 4 hurricane). Looking at the projected tracks last night, it appears to be making a beeline for US! If it stays on the tracks they are predicting (with a LOT of uncertainity as normal with these things), Baton Rouge is likely to take a direct hit. There are watches from Destin, Florida to Houston, TX. If it makes it to the gulf, we are in for some nasty weather WHEREEVER it actually makes landfall.
We spend HOURS last night looking for a generator. We had to buy a lawnmower this week, plus the normal stuff you have to buy when you move (trashcans, cleaning supplies, etc), so I was not planning on buying one until next month. Mother nature changed our minds. We have heard through several people that if our electricity (through a coop) goes out, we should expect it to be out for at least days. The first three stores we went into last night, we watched as people (smartly) protected their generator as they stood in line to purchase the LAST one. That is right...every store we watched the last generator being purchased. It was to the point where Paul was letting me out, I was running in the store and he would get the kids and come. We were so close everytime. We had a Lowe's and a Sears left to go to. I went running into Lowe's and there was ONE generator sitting on the floor. My butt was GLUED to the sucker! Paul came in, looked at the generator displays and saw a cheaper one that was just like the one I was sitting on. An employee came over to get a fork lift and I asked if they had anymore of the cheaper one (while my butt is still glued to the one on the floor). He said he thought there was ONE left. Paul went with him, I stayed on the generator until I KNEW we had one! There were three left overhead, and there were already two people waiting. If we had been one minute later....
Paul texted me that we were safe when he was sure we had one. I saw a man looking for a rolling cart, and I graciously gave him the cart I was holding and told him I had been saving that generator (that my butt was glued too) just for him. He was VERY appreciative.
All of that to say, we have a generator. We have a window air conditioner. We have extension cords. We have a weather radio and we have laptops (as long as we have internet access!!). If we do NOT get hit by this storm, we are now prepared. This was all stuff we planned on getting soon, just not a week and a half after moving in!!
Oh, by the way, even though we are not in a flood area and were told we did not need flood insurance, we spent the less than $1 a day on the most coverage we could get. So we are even ready for that!
People here do not kid around with this stuff anymore. They heard "storm possibly heading our way" and generators were GONE! I am sure air conditioners will be gone early this morning (there were only a few left at 9 last night). Luckily, the Lowes we went to was by a mall and not by neighborhoods. I think that is why all the other stores were out so quick.
In other news, the house is "unpacked" but we still have a lot of settling to do. It helps to have all of the boxes gone. We have a "garage" but it does not have doors. It was a carport and the previous owners finsihed it out, except for the doors. He made a breeze-way through it though so we will have to get double garage doors for the front and a single door for the back. When we unloaded we loaded all of the boxes in the "garage". That would have been great, but Faye paid us a visit. Even though it did not rain IN the garage (it did a times but most of the boxes would have been fine) the humidity was so high that everything in the boxes was feeling wet. So, I had to move them all inside and unpack QUICKLY. Again, Mother Nature can be very encouraging!!
Caleb still hates school, although we are losing the "beginning-of-the-year" attitude that we have EVERY year. He has lots of homework every night (except Friday) and does not get to talk much at school.
Isaac LOVES school. He is doing great, although he too has homework everynight, so he is adjusting to that. He is actually enjoying homework though because he LOVES the one on one time with it.
Bryce still hates school in the morning and likes it in the afternoon (sound familiar). He is not a morning person (sound familiar) and does not do well with us making him get up. He has made several friends already. He has also gotten in trouble several times already. He has quite the "imagination" (HMMM, meaning he lies a lot and says he is "playing" or "forgot" when you catch him). He mentioned something yesterday night about visiting the principal (after coming home with frowny faces on his behaviour chart). I asked if he was sent to the principal and he said "Yes to see what she does. That is where bad kids go". Then when we pushed if he went because he was in trouble he said he had never been. Sounds fishy to me!!
This Monday I made them start riding the bus. I was really back and forth on whether or not to let them. Isaac and Bryce were excited, Caleb was really nervous. He says bullies ride buses. Because we have spent so much time in the car this summer (bi-weekly trips to Arkansas, looking at houses, back and forth to school, etc) Andrew has grown to HATE the car (boy, he is in the WRONG family). I was spending almost 2 hours a day SITTING in lines at schools to drop off/pick up kids. Andrew was spending those two hours a day SCREAMING!! Not crying, just top-of-his-lungs SCREAMING. This was not making for good evenings for ANYONE. So, after hearing that Isaac and Bryce's bus had an aide on it, so the bus driver was not the only adult, that the school's had a zero-tolerance with kids causing problems on the buses, and that the kids got picked up and dropped off at the end of our driveway, I decided we were giving buses a try. So far, no problems! Caleb is not loving it, but he said it was fine and he would ride it. The other two are enjoying it. They get water to drink on the way home and snacks (what more could a five and six year old ask for)! Andrew is much happier, which is making MAMA MUCH HAPPIER (amazing what a 1 year old squeal for hours a day can do to your sanity)!
Daddy is traveling in a couple of weeks for a week. This will be his second time gone in over three months! Not bad! And they are Monday-Thursday or Friday trips. It is so nice having him home helping with dinner and homework.
Well, I will try to catch up over the next few days. Internet should be on early tomorrow. I have pictures, videos, stories etc. to come.
I am at the corporate house cleaning it before we turn the key in. Internet, phone, cable, etc should be on tomorrow at the new house. I don't know how long we will have it, the way things are looking right now with weather though.
Yesterday they announced that Gustav was going to hit the Gulf as a pretty major hurricane (they are saying Cat. 3 or 4 hurricane). Looking at the projected tracks last night, it appears to be making a beeline for US! If it stays on the tracks they are predicting (with a LOT of uncertainity as normal with these things), Baton Rouge is likely to take a direct hit. There are watches from Destin, Florida to Houston, TX. If it makes it to the gulf, we are in for some nasty weather WHEREEVER it actually makes landfall.
We spend HOURS last night looking for a generator. We had to buy a lawnmower this week, plus the normal stuff you have to buy when you move (trashcans, cleaning supplies, etc), so I was not planning on buying one until next month. Mother nature changed our minds. We have heard through several people that if our electricity (through a coop) goes out, we should expect it to be out for at least days. The first three stores we went into last night, we watched as people (smartly) protected their generator as they stood in line to purchase the LAST one. That is right...every store we watched the last generator being purchased. It was to the point where Paul was letting me out, I was running in the store and he would get the kids and come. We were so close everytime. We had a Lowe's and a Sears left to go to. I went running into Lowe's and there was ONE generator sitting on the floor. My butt was GLUED to the sucker! Paul came in, looked at the generator displays and saw a cheaper one that was just like the one I was sitting on. An employee came over to get a fork lift and I asked if they had anymore of the cheaper one (while my butt is still glued to the one on the floor). He said he thought there was ONE left. Paul went with him, I stayed on the generator until I KNEW we had one! There were three left overhead, and there were already two people waiting. If we had been one minute later....
Paul texted me that we were safe when he was sure we had one. I saw a man looking for a rolling cart, and I graciously gave him the cart I was holding and told him I had been saving that generator (that my butt was glued too) just for him. He was VERY appreciative.
All of that to say, we have a generator. We have a window air conditioner. We have extension cords. We have a weather radio and we have laptops (as long as we have internet access!!). If we do NOT get hit by this storm, we are now prepared. This was all stuff we planned on getting soon, just not a week and a half after moving in!!
Oh, by the way, even though we are not in a flood area and were told we did not need flood insurance, we spent the less than $1 a day on the most coverage we could get. So we are even ready for that!
People here do not kid around with this stuff anymore. They heard "storm possibly heading our way" and generators were GONE! I am sure air conditioners will be gone early this morning (there were only a few left at 9 last night). Luckily, the Lowes we went to was by a mall and not by neighborhoods. I think that is why all the other stores were out so quick.
In other news, the house is "unpacked" but we still have a lot of settling to do. It helps to have all of the boxes gone. We have a "garage" but it does not have doors. It was a carport and the previous owners finsihed it out, except for the doors. He made a breeze-way through it though so we will have to get double garage doors for the front and a single door for the back. When we unloaded we loaded all of the boxes in the "garage". That would have been great, but Faye paid us a visit. Even though it did not rain IN the garage (it did a times but most of the boxes would have been fine) the humidity was so high that everything in the boxes was feeling wet. So, I had to move them all inside and unpack QUICKLY. Again, Mother Nature can be very encouraging!!
Caleb still hates school, although we are losing the "beginning-of-the-year" attitude that we have EVERY year. He has lots of homework every night (except Friday) and does not get to talk much at school.
Isaac LOVES school. He is doing great, although he too has homework everynight, so he is adjusting to that. He is actually enjoying homework though because he LOVES the one on one time with it.
Bryce still hates school in the morning and likes it in the afternoon (sound familiar). He is not a morning person (sound familiar) and does not do well with us making him get up. He has made several friends already. He has also gotten in trouble several times already. He has quite the "imagination" (HMMM, meaning he lies a lot and says he is "playing" or "forgot" when you catch him). He mentioned something yesterday night about visiting the principal (after coming home with frowny faces on his behaviour chart). I asked if he was sent to the principal and he said "Yes to see what she does. That is where bad kids go". Then when we pushed if he went because he was in trouble he said he had never been. Sounds fishy to me!!
This Monday I made them start riding the bus. I was really back and forth on whether or not to let them. Isaac and Bryce were excited, Caleb was really nervous. He says bullies ride buses. Because we have spent so much time in the car this summer (bi-weekly trips to Arkansas, looking at houses, back and forth to school, etc) Andrew has grown to HATE the car (boy, he is in the WRONG family). I was spending almost 2 hours a day SITTING in lines at schools to drop off/pick up kids. Andrew was spending those two hours a day SCREAMING!! Not crying, just top-of-his-lungs SCREAMING. This was not making for good evenings for ANYONE. So, after hearing that Isaac and Bryce's bus had an aide on it, so the bus driver was not the only adult, that the school's had a zero-tolerance with kids causing problems on the buses, and that the kids got picked up and dropped off at the end of our driveway, I decided we were giving buses a try. So far, no problems! Caleb is not loving it, but he said it was fine and he would ride it. The other two are enjoying it. They get water to drink on the way home and snacks (what more could a five and six year old ask for)! Andrew is much happier, which is making MAMA MUCH HAPPIER (amazing what a 1 year old squeal for hours a day can do to your sanity)!
Daddy is traveling in a couple of weeks for a week. This will be his second time gone in over three months! Not bad! And they are Monday-Thursday or Friday trips. It is so nice having him home helping with dinner and homework.
Well, I will try to catch up over the next few days. Internet should be on early tomorrow. I have pictures, videos, stories etc. to come.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Closing Day!!
Today is closing day.
We were not sure if it would actually be today! But it all worked out and today is the day. I am leaving in about 15 minutes to go get kids from school and head to Baton Rouge.
I will try and post more tonight (between packing). We are going to Arkansas tomorrow and moving Saturday and Sunday - so I won't be blogging this weekend.
Next time I am on here, we will have....
TWO.....
HOUSES.....
:(
We were not sure if it would actually be today! But it all worked out and today is the day. I am leaving in about 15 minutes to go get kids from school and head to Baton Rouge.
I will try and post more tonight (between packing). We are going to Arkansas tomorrow and moving Saturday and Sunday - so I won't be blogging this weekend.
Next time I am on here, we will have....
TWO.....
HOUSES.....
:(
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
SO Behind
I PLANNED on catching up the blog today - Bryce's first day of school....one kid at home....
We all know what happens when I plan.
I got to drive to Beaumont instead.
Dropped the kids off at school. Drove to Beaumont to go to the bank (that is right, ALL the way to Beaumont just to go to the bank!), got back just in time to pick kids up. Went to do a final walk-through on the house, to the store to pick up something quick for dinner.
13 hours in the car...and AJ was NOT happy!!
I will try to do some catching up tomorrow (no promises though).
We all know what happens when I plan.
I got to drive to Beaumont instead.
Dropped the kids off at school. Drove to Beaumont to go to the bank (that is right, ALL the way to Beaumont just to go to the bank!), got back just in time to pick kids up. Went to do a final walk-through on the house, to the store to pick up something quick for dinner.
13 hours in the car...and AJ was NOT happy!!
I will try to do some catching up tomorrow (no promises though).
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Smart-A**
This morning I was getting on to Caleb for something and he said Bryce told him to do it. I asked if Bryce told him to jump off a bridge would he do it.
"It depends, is there water under the bridge?"
"It depends, is there water under the bridge?"
Thursday, August 07, 2008
House Inspection/Update
Last week we had the house inspection done. We had a GREAT inspector, very thorough with his work - to the point of checking to see if EVERY outlet in the house worked. To top it all off, we had a very professional report THAT NIGHT!! He sent us an email with a username and password so we could access it online and then also mailed the report. There were minor things on the list, that was it. There was a gas smell that the gas company is coming tomorrow to look at. The only thing that sucks is that the owners told us they were going to touch-up paint the house. It is a relocation and State Farm owns the house. Now they are saying they are not doing anything cosmetic to the house - including painting. They also won't let us in early just to paint because it is a liability. So, I get to patch holes (they have huge sheetrock screws/anchors still in the wall throughout the house) and paint with furniture in the house. YUCK!
The good news is there is a chance we could close as early as Tuesday. It was sent to underwriting yesterday. It usually takes 48-72 hours. If they have everything they need, we could possibly close the day the title company gets it or the next day. Everyone knows the situation with us and they are all working hard to get us in asap!
Keep your fingers crossed!
The good news is there is a chance we could close as early as Tuesday. It was sent to underwriting yesterday. It usually takes 48-72 hours. If they have everything they need, we could possibly close the day the title company gets it or the next day. Everyone knows the situation with us and they are all working hard to get us in asap!
Keep your fingers crossed!
The Poor Tree
The kids were hard at play for a couple of hours this evening with the little girl next door. They were pulling acorns out of the tree and then throwing them over the fence. They were happy. They were playing. NOONE was complaining. So, the tree got taken advantage of for a little peace for me! :)
Sorry tree.
On another note, Bryce gave the little girl some flowers this evening, and they are getting along VERY well. This is why I did not want the kids making a bunch of friends this summer - now they have to move away from their friend again.
They also spent a lot of time asking about the oldest son, that is autistic. Tomorrow we will have to have a talk about what autism is. They were not at all rude and the mother tried to explain things to them, but it is a difficult thing to explain to kids and they were not trying to pay too close attention. They kept asking why he doesn't talk. Caleb several times went and gave him some toys - which he took and played with. He went up to the mother and asked if he wanted to go play. She explained that he usually prefers to play by himself, but if he wanted to play he would go out and play with them - which he did for a little bit. The boys were very polite about their curiosity - which made me very proud of them!
Ants Everywhere!
Andrew was playing in the back this evening. He was sitting playing with a toy and when he got up and started walking to me he was picking at his arm. I went to look and he had a couple of ants on him. I picked them all off and next time I saw him his arm looked like this:
It was just the one arm, but I guess he was sitting next to an ant pile. They are horrible here - inside and out. Our catfood is kept in a plastic container. They some how managed to get inside the container. Paul went to feed the cat and more ants than food came out. We have sugar ants in the kitchen and ants upstairs. I had to take all of AJ's clothes out of the closet (his clothes were on a bottom rod) because they had ants all in them. They have put out ant poison and sprayed outside, but I honestly think it may be making them worse INSIDE.
You could tell it was bothering AJ - he was picking at his arm a lot. He would try and pick off each swollen bite. But he never cried or squealed. Just calmly walked to me while trying to wipe and pick off ants. This is one time I wish he HAD screamed!!!
It was just the one arm, but I guess he was sitting next to an ant pile. They are horrible here - inside and out. Our catfood is kept in a plastic container. They some how managed to get inside the container. Paul went to feed the cat and more ants than food came out. We have sugar ants in the kitchen and ants upstairs. I had to take all of AJ's clothes out of the closet (his clothes were on a bottom rod) because they had ants all in them. They have put out ant poison and sprayed outside, but I honestly think it may be making them worse INSIDE.
You could tell it was bothering AJ - he was picking at his arm a lot. He would try and pick off each swollen bite. But he never cried or squealed. Just calmly walked to me while trying to wipe and pick off ants. This is one time I wish he HAD screamed!!!
AJ Potty's More
This post was from last week - I forgot to post it though.
"AJ peepeed in the potty!" That is our song! He did again this morning. He still likes to sit on it, but he seems to prefer to stand up to pee. He will sit on the potty for quite a while, stand up, pee and then sit back down on the potty. Unfortunately for him, he is WAY too short for the toilet so he can't stand and use the potty. But, I found this:
That is right, a potty training urinal - it even flushes!!
Seriously, I am not pushing him on the potty training too hard. He isn't even 16 months. But, I LOVE that he is SO excited about the potty. I don't think as long as he is showing interest, no matter what his age, I should do anything but encourage him.
We got him some underwear - he LOVES wearing them. He has always preferred nudity over clothing, so underwear instead of a diaper is as close as he can get to nude!
"AJ peepeed in the potty!" That is our song! He did again this morning. He still likes to sit on it, but he seems to prefer to stand up to pee. He will sit on the potty for quite a while, stand up, pee and then sit back down on the potty. Unfortunately for him, he is WAY too short for the toilet so he can't stand and use the potty. But, I found this:
That is right, a potty training urinal - it even flushes!!
Seriously, I am not pushing him on the potty training too hard. He isn't even 16 months. But, I LOVE that he is SO excited about the potty. I don't think as long as he is showing interest, no matter what his age, I should do anything but encourage him.
We got him some underwear - he LOVES wearing them. He has always preferred nudity over clothing, so underwear instead of a diaper is as close as he can get to nude!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
It's a Small World...
We got new neighbors. Being in corporate housing you don't know what to expect when new people are moving in. The people that were there (we are in a duplex - so this is the attached unit)were three or four guys that come home in the evening and smoke and drink. They were nice enough - we spoke to them a few times, but we always felt like we were disturbing them. Not that anyone was doing anything, but come on, I live with five guys. Frequently, to be heard you have to be LOUDER than they are - so it makes for a loud house.
So, our new neighbors moved in while we were in Arkansas last weekend. Monday, after running errands, I met the mother. It is a family - Dad, Mom, a seven year old boy, five year old girl and 18 month old boy (named DREW!!). The seven year old is autistic, so the boys don't really get to play with him, but the little girl - WOW she can talk (and very loud). Andrew and Drew actually play well together (they both suck the thumb on the same hand - SO cute). What is really ironic is that they are from Maumelle, Arkansas - which is where Paul worked (hence, the small world).
I don't feel as bad about the noise level over on our side now, but still would LOVE it to be quieter!!
So, our new neighbors moved in while we were in Arkansas last weekend. Monday, after running errands, I met the mother. It is a family - Dad, Mom, a seven year old boy, five year old girl and 18 month old boy (named DREW!!). The seven year old is autistic, so the boys don't really get to play with him, but the little girl - WOW she can talk (and very loud). Andrew and Drew actually play well together (they both suck the thumb on the same hand - SO cute). What is really ironic is that they are from Maumelle, Arkansas - which is where Paul worked (hence, the small world).
I don't feel as bad about the noise level over on our side now, but still would LOVE it to be quieter!!
Do You Ever....
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Guess what I feel like?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Do you ever feel like a broken record?
Guess what I feel like?
Dance Party
Since Drew-Drew is so into dancing, I got him two Fisher Price cds last week - Disco Dance Party and Giddy Up - Country Sing Along. He loves listening to music, especially fast paced songs (like disco).
The disco cd has the hokey pokey on it. I sit on the floor and make his body parts do what the song says. He LOVES it. By half way through the song the first time, he was shaking it all about on his own. I think he could possibly have a favorite song now.
He also loves our Brian Kinder cd, that is one of Bryce's favorite (along with Jack Johnson's soundtrack to Curious George).
The boy has some rhythm in his blood!! I swear he is going to be playing the harmonica professionally by the time he is five. He still loves playing it with Daddy.
The disco cd has the hokey pokey on it. I sit on the floor and make his body parts do what the song says. He LOVES it. By half way through the song the first time, he was shaking it all about on his own. I think he could possibly have a favorite song now.
He also loves our Brian Kinder cd, that is one of Bryce's favorite (along with Jack Johnson's soundtrack to Curious George).
The boy has some rhythm in his blood!! I swear he is going to be playing the harmonica professionally by the time he is five. He still loves playing it with Daddy.
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