I Could Write a Book

    Happy wonderful Birthday to my baby boy, G !! I can’t believe you’re 7 years old today. You are still so incredibly special to me and to the whole family. You are still my "sunshine" and always will be. I can’t imagine life without you in it.

    You’re in First Grade this year and your teacher calls you "an angel". I have to agree. You are so willing to please and you don’t want to break any rules. Do you think you could rub some of that off onto your brother and sister ?

    It will be interesting to see what you grow up to become. To watch you as you learn to navigate your way through life - especially without crying at the drop of a pin. Lol. I’m trying to teach you right now to express yourself with words instead of tears. Maybe I shouldn’t interfere with that and let you become the best actor of the century.

    I love you, my beautiful baby boy. Happy Birthday. I sure hope you love all the Bakugans you’re getting this year.

Love,

Mommy 

Chunky Dunking: when you’re too fat for it to be considered "skinny dipping."

I was telling my lovely, wonderful sister today about us putting in a pool and she asks "so, are you  going to go chunky dunking?" Family, what would you do without them ? Yes, I still love her. Yes, we were both dying laughing. Yes, there’s some truth in it. Unfortunately, there’s too much truth in there.

    It’s pretty simple right now, I need wine ! Any kind of wine will do. It’s been one of those weeks. whew. My kids are driving me 100% completely insane. I’m pretty sure it’s PMS time, too.

    Wine. Beautiful wine. Mommy’s friend.  

9/11/2001 was a very sad day. Please never forget all of those whose lives were taken that day. With all due respect to that day and to all the other days that a love one is lost - death sucks.

I’ve had a difficult time lately dealing with death. I’ve tried to keep it to myself mainly because I almost feel like a freak explaining what’s wrong with me. Yesterday was my father’s birthday. He died a little over 9 years ago and yesterday I think was the hardest birthday of his ever.

Death takes people way too early. Right now, my hero is in heaven. He was the kindest man I knew. One time he was out working - to help a man who was down - bail his hay with some other workers. When he went back into the man’s house he didn’t have on his cowboy boots. The man told him he didn’t have to take off his shoes to enter his house. He told the man, "I didn’t take them off to come inside. I took them off to give them to the worker who needed them more than I did."  I hope one day when I grow up that I’m able to be that selfless.

 I was listening to some of my music today and one of the phrases that stood out was "God gives and God takes away." I stopped and thought a minute and I know that God does take away so that we do not forget the value of our loved ones around us. I know there’s a reason why my hero is in heaven tonight. I’m not sure exactly what that reason is. I doubt I ever do. Maybe it’s to make me be more aware of all the little things that surround my life, to be more grateful.

So, on that note, don’t forget to tell the one(s) you love ~I love you~. I promise you - you never know when that last day will be.  

    Made it safely home from Gustav. I think I died when I fell into my own bed last night. Wow did that feel good. God answered my prayers of not letting any trees fall onto my house. However, one fell and crushed the car, one fell and crushed the trampoline, one fell and took out part of the swingset and one fell and nicked the corner of the gutter on the back of the house. Now, all three that fell in the backyard all fell on my deck and destroyed all the railing , squished the little grill, took a chunk out of the deck, squished my table, broke my plants, etc. but none fell on the house. I’m happy. Oh, oh, oh, my grill that I got for my birthday - not a scratch on it. God was smiling down on me this time.

    New Orleans did a great job of evacuating everyone out. What do you think is going to happen with Ike ? Do you think they will have trains, planes and buses in place ? They might. I don’t see the people evacuating though. Everyone I’ve talked to today says "I can’t believe we might be dealing with another one." UGHHHHHHHHHH.  I don’t think I’m going to unpack my suitcases. Why bother ? I’m also not buying a lot of groceries.  

    Memphis was fun but I really don’t want to go back there so soon again. Where do evacuate this time ? Disney sounds good. Wonder if they will be expecting all the rain this time. It’s got to be slow season, too. Wouldn’t you think it would be slow season ? Except for us New Orleanian evacuees that is. lol.  

    I will say if I ever do drive up and my house is crushed again - I’ll probably be moving. I just don’t know how much more of this type of stress I can handle. It is draining.  I think there is a lot of that type of thinking going on around here now.

Peace out. I’m still tired from this week. I also spent the majority of the day carrying trees and limbs and debri out of my yard. ~~I love you~~ (don’t forget to say it) 

I’m still in Memphis because there is no power where I live. From what I hear there is no food in the grocery stores, either. They are hoping to have power restored by Saturday. I can not wait.

I am bored completely out of my mind in this hotel room. Memphis has been receiving the wonderful Gustav weather. Storms, soggy , blowing wind and tornado watches. It’s a lot of fun being stuck in a hotel room with 3 restless children.

Gustav treated us much better than Katrina did. I am very happy for that. We lost one car and part of my deck on my house. I have no idea if it wiped out my grill or not. I know this is one of the reasons why I’m dying to go home. I also want to check on my little dog. I am so worried about him. My neighbors said they would watch him and that they weren’t going to evacuate and then they did. They left when our city started evacuating my subdivision because the river was rising so fast. sighs. Lesson learned - park cars somewhere else when leaving and bring dog.

I’m in a bit of a funk. I think I’ve seen everything "touristy" there is to see in Memphis and I’ve eaten enough BBQ to feed an army. No telling how much weight I’ve gained. LOL. Of all the things to worry about. See, I’m still pretty normal.

I’m praying for power to come back quickly. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like to clean out my rotting freezer ??? Ewwwwwwww. Nasty. Gas mask material.

I’m so tempted to leave and go home before power but have to remind myself of the 120 degree weather inside my house with the one million mosquitos. I think I’ll stay in my boring little hotel room watching more TV in this week than I have in the past year. Yeehaw.

I am proud that LSU got its head out of its butt and postponed the game this coming weekend. Woohoo. I might be able to catch that one and it should be cooler in November ! See, there are silver linings in the clouds.

Peace out everyone !! I’m glad you all made it through the storm. I’m glad my children made it through this one without any psychological damage.  Don’t forget to say ~I love you~.