How to Weather a Hurricane

 How to Weather a Hurricane:

1.  Run away to your Brother's house.

2. Invite your cousins to play in the hotel pool.

 I may mention that we evacuated right into the path of the hurricane, and the clouds were rolling in and the wind was getting blustery.

 The kids did not swim long, but they had a good time while they did!

3. Watch movies together.

 I definitely covet Kera's large family room.  The kids enjoyed hanging out and having movie time.

4.  Hang out in the hotel room watching cartoons.

 We had one hotel room and some of us stayed in it and others stayed with Andy's family.The dog stayed at Andy's house since all the hotels that take dogs were booked solid. Actually, most of the hotels were fairly booked, so we will be staying at our third one tonight.  Packing up each morning and unpacking every night is getting old.  But not for the kids!  The LOVE staying at hotels.

The girls dubbed this "The Party Bus" and wanted to ride it all over the hotel.  Simple pleasures are the best!

 5. Play with Legos.

 Kera has lots and lots and lots of legos.  All the kids were playing with them, but none of them wanted to cooperate with a picture.

6.  Have super-cool-awesome friends who own a movie theater and invite you to come to special showings for free and give you free popcorn and drinks.  

 Can you say AWESOME?!

We divided forces.  Kera took the littlies to a dreadful movie called "Oogie Love" and I sat through "Whimpy Kid" with Marian and her cousin here. I'm not sure who had the better movie.  Ug.  The kids enjoyed their movies and were quite happy.  It was a great afternoon.

7.  Find out that your roads home are flooded and you still have no power. Stress over the orders your sweetie has to return to base through those closed roads.  Discover that evacuation leave has been extended and he does not have to go back yet and you don't need to worry about it a little longer.  And continue to party!

Our Hurrication

 How to take a Hurrication
1 Dog
2 Drivers
3 DSs
4 dvd players
5 children

Pack up the van and run with all of the above!


Okay, so here is the rest of the story.  We dithered and debated. I was incredibly indecisive.  Dan didn't want to go until the base gave the mandatory evacuation notice.  We hung out, we planned to stay.  Then Dan's work gave the voluntary evacuation call and granted per diem.  We dithered some more and spent more time discussing the pros and cons than actually packing.  Of course, packing up was easy- I'd had a suitcase packed for weeks, and Levi's doggie evac kit had been ready for about as long.  So we tossed the bare minimum in the van and headed out.

 Levi rode between the 2 front seats and did a great job.

 The kids had a really great attitude and were quite patient and good during the drive.

 We made it through New Orleans with traffic like this- AMAZING!

 An hour into the trip we hit this- slow going and a beautiful sunset.  The slower traffic didn't last long and soon we were zipping along at 70 mph for the rest of the drive.  Wheeeee!

We made it to Vicksburg, MS in decent time, but late late late.  We settled in to my brother's house and Levi made himself at home.

Hanging out with cousins is so fun!

 Letting Aunt Kera cook dinner is wonderful.  Well, wonderful for me!  She's a great cook.  And the kids are having a good time.  I love that they have cousins the same ages.

Yep, they are having loads of fun on the trampoline.  How many kids do you think we can fit on there?!

So, we ran from Hurricane Isaac, who is heading this way.  Right now work and school are suppose to be back on for Thursday, which means we need to be back in time for that.  That, of course, means we'll get to drive back through the storm to get home.  Whoo-hoo!  In the meantime, we're going to hang out and play with our family.  Happy Hurrication!

Kids, school, dog

Callie has wanted to grow her bangs long.  Callie noticed that a young lady that Callie thinks is wonderful had long bangs, and Callie wanted to be just like her.  I detest hair in the face. I hate hair that falls into the eyes, so this was really hard for me to accept.  She finally asked for a haircut.  I asked if I could take her to the hair salon, but she said no.  I reminded her how her last haircut went.  She wanted it cut, I cut it and she screamed that I cut it too short and she hated it and she hated me and she was never going back to school and she carried on about how ugly she was for 3 days.  True story. Callie assured me that she wanted me to cut it.   

This is how long her bangs were.   

This is her silly face, and this is how she was suppose to wear her too-long bangs so they were not in her eyes.

I did not get an after picture.  History has a way of repeating itself and after I trimmed her bangs there was screaming and crying and drama.  So I didn't cut the rest of her hair and I did not get a picture!

However, school started this week!  Whoo-hoo!  The kids were up and ready early on their first day and I was able to get pictures.  Yay! 

Here they are, all ready to go.  So exciting!  This year Joshua is in 6th grade-and that's middle school here.  Marian is in 4th and Callie is in 2nd. 

I love these silly faces.  Callie and Joshua are making faces and Marian is cracking up at them.  What a great way to start the year! 

As a random aside, Callie decided the dog needed a bath.  So she gave him one.  Somehow, I ended up doing most of the work and getting extremely wet!  How is that, do you think?

Hosing down the dog. 

While not thrilled, Levi puts up with is unless he thinks there is an option. 

Drying the now-clean puppy!  I didn't realize that his grown up coat would be so thick and heavy.  The poor dog looks so scrawny when he's wet, and he was still damp hours later. 

Such a sweet doggie.  Rylee loves Levi!

I Gripe

Some things have been really annoying me.  I realized that it should not be annoying to me; I need to view it as blog fodder, mock it severely and move on.  So, I am going to do that.  I release my anger and frustration at all the following situations and and I am going to move on with my life, feeling lighter, freer and happier.  So let it be written, so let it be done!

5 Things that Irk Me

1.  Today I was at my allergy appointment 45 minutes early.  I checked in at the desk and said, "I am 45 minutes early.  Can you squeeze me in early, or should I run over to Krispy Kreme and be back in 45 minutes."  She said she would check me in and I could be seen early.  I sat there, with my 2 lovely children for an hour.  Yes, and hour.  I waited the 45 minutes till my appointment, plus an extra 10 before they called me.  For an allergy shot that took 2 minutes.  Then I had to wait for another 30 minutes to make sure I didn't die of an extreme allergic reaction.  And then we went to Krispy Kreme.

2. The school misplaced my child on the first day of school.  I looked all over for her at the end of the school day and walked home in case that's where she was.  She wasn't.  So I called the school and told them I was missing a 7 year old.  They said, "We can page her to the office.  Would you like us to call you if she shows up?"   Now I don't mind so much that she was misplaced, and in reality, it turned out that she had just been taken to the car rider line, rather than the walker line.  It was the first day of school, and things are crazy.  No problem, but to tell me you'll page her and call me later?!  I don't think so!  I entrusted my child to you and I expect her back, and if you don't know where she is, I darn well expect you to tell me you are on it and will do your best to find her right away.  And you better sound like you care!

3.  The school held a Kindergarten Summit for parents of new kindergartners.  It was "Parents Only Please" at 10am.  Do you see anything wrong with that?  Every single parent who might attend has at least one child they are suppose to find babysitting for? I asked about it and they did not care and would not provide child care options.  I did not attend the summit.

4. My van had the air bag light in it come on.  The manual says to take it to the dealer "immediately" should that happen.  After a grouchy discussion over the $90 diagnostic they would do for it, they guy agreed to run the diagnostic for free.  I'm so relieved to find out that have NO IDEA why the light is on.  Hmmm.... that's the same answer we got as to why the transmission died.

5. Shoot. I don't have a 5th problem!  I guess that is good! Now I will choose to be happy and I will be done being annoyed!

Best part of Summer!

School starts this week.  While it is an exciting thing, it is also sad.  No more hanging out with the kids all day, every day.  No more getting up and going to do fun stuff just because we can.  No more lazy mornings, afternoons and evenings.  Sigh.  Farewell, summer!  

In preparation for the sad goodbye, we went to Krispy Kreme for breakfast.  Yum!  We will definitely be back during report card season, when they kids get free donuts for "A"s earned.

Tasty donuts! 

Marian did not want her picture taken, but Rylee wanted to be in it. 

"Don't touch my donut!" 

This is what I like to do in the afternoons, but not on the floor, and not in so many fun positions!

Naps, the greatest thing ever invented!