Gustav

Well, on another, less exciting note, Hurricane Gustav has caused my family to evacuate once again. My parents are in Destin now and my brother and his family are in Mobile with my sister in law's parents. Of course, they are all discouraged and worried about their homes and the business. I guess we will know more in the next 24- 48 hours.

As it stands right now it looks like my in-laws will dodge the bullet this time. I sure hope so!

I also have several friends still in the NOLA area or from there so I am thinking of them, too.

Newest Addition

Chris has finally gotten his four door black pick up truck. He has been wanting one for a long time now. We figured the deals were so good with trying to get rid of 2008 vehicles and he has worked hard for a long time that we could splurge on him a bit! :) We looked at several options but settled on the Chevrolet Silverado. He loves it and I like it, too. Poor guy...we brought it home Wednesday night but it was late and he had transplant stuff going on so didn't really get to play with it. He drove it to work Thursday and did not come back home until the wee hours of Friday morning. Then Friday I had to take it back to the dealer to get different tires put on and new running boards. So he did not really get to play with it until Friday night and really has only driven it back and forth to work about three times now (10 miles or so). He is awfully eager to run to the store and pick stuff up for me, though!

I am glad we got him a new truck because I am always the one getting the new vehicle so he was due. Course now I want a new one but that will not be in the cards for a while yet :) I don't know if he feels guilty (he shouldn't) or if he is ashamed of my car but he spent Saturday afternoon washing the Expedition and vacuuming it and even conditioned the leather seats! It looks great!

On the Road Still

Well, The trip is nearing an end and I have just now gotten around to getting all my equipment in one place at one time such as a camera (with charged battery), computer and time to blog. We are on our last night of the trip and will arrive home tomorrow evening. We are currently in Laurel, MS again. Last Saturday we drove to George County, MS and saw these people...

Husband #1's grandparents all live on the same road so it makes visiting them quite convenient. We also went out to my in laws cabin for a bit to see the progress they are making on building their own house. All the walls are framed and ready for the ceiling rafter things. I could never do what they are doing but they seem to enjoy it and be good at it so more power to them! I think Husband #1 and I would kill each other if we tried to build a house together :)

We then went to Mobile, AL that night and met my brother, his wife and two kids and drove to Destin, FL. We went boating with my parents on Sunday where my brother and I flashed our gang signs...

and the cousins enjoyed playing together and posing for pictures...

We drove to Slidell, LA on Monday. We spent a few days in Slidell where I saw a good friend from high school for lunch. We also went to the Global Wildlife Center and saw things like this...

Today I went from Slidell to Laurel and onward home tomorrow. On the way to Laurel we stopped in Hattiesburg and saw my awesomely great friend from college, Becky. I am so excited she has moved only 30 minutes from my in-laws so now I can see her more than every two years! I don't think she is as excited as I am. She seems to feel 10 hours isn't much closer but it would have taken me much longer than that to get to Jacksonville, FL! Plus we come down here more often to see family. I also had lunch with a friend from college, Lisha. It was great to see her...crazy how someone can be in your wedding but you just don't keep in touch more than once or twice a year by Christmas card and email. It was good to reconnect.

I am glad we came on this crazy driving trip to see all of these peeps but will be glad to get home and see Husband #1 and settle in before school starts Sept 2! I will most likely not be blogging tomorrow since I will be driving at least 10 hours. I do love Tara's comment on my last post, though, about the iphone or blackberry and then I could blog while I drive!

On the Road

Well, the kids and I spent 10 hours in the car yesterday. We are all still alive. We may be the last family on earth to get a dvd player fo the car but we finally did. This was our first trip with it. Bumblebee went with me to the store to purchase the headphones. He wanted to get a different kind and screamed throught he store that the ones I selected "do not fit me!" Not that he had tried them on as they were in one of those annoying hard plastic crimped closed cases. So, all day while I was driving he was screaming about his headphones not fitting (which they did fit) and then throwing them across the car. At which point I would turn off his movie and then he would scream some more. There is only so much you can do while driving and I already do too much, I am sure. Turning around in my seat to adjust his headphones ain't gonna happen while I am going...um, 70 mile an hour. So that was fun. Meanwhile Double A was plugged in and happy the whole time.



We have more driving to do as this is only leg one of the trip. Saturday we will drive 1.5 hours to visit my grandparent-in-laws for the day (we are with my in-laws right now) and then another 2 hours that evening to see my parents and brother and his family for one day in Florida then turn around with them and drive 4 hours back to Louisiana for a few days and then 1.5 hours back to the in-laws and then another ten back home.



I am unsure why I decided to do this! :) No, Double A will be starting school soon (real school, Kindergarten) and we will be traveling less since she will actually have to attend school with regularity. I thought we would take the time to see the relatives in driving distance. We will miss Husband #1, though. he is home working hard every day so I can spend what he makes on gas for this trip! So far the kids are having fun with their grandparents and I will get to see some friends from high school and college that I have not seen in quite a while.



We'll see how the postig goes while on this trip. I willl likely take some pics so we will see if I get them posted. Gee, maybe I can do that while I am driving!

Ocean Adventure

Double A is 6 years old. According to her she turned 6 yesterday at her party but really she has been 6 for a week now. Her Ocean Adventure party was yesterday in the backyard. About 8 or so kids came to the house and played in the sprinkler, wading pool and play gym. We had decorated the backyard with fish decorations and she had an underwater themed cake. The party started at 2pm but about 1pm she had had enough and started whining about when was it going to start?? We even used chalk on the front sidewalk to draw arrows and fish to mark the way to the back gate. She seemed to have fun and even got a water gun for a gift from one of the little boys. Bumblebee kept asking where was his birthday and where were his presents? When Double A opened the water gun Bumblebee immediately announced that was for him!

We opened family gifts after the kids left. We gave her a hula hoop (which I had to look EVERYWHERE for. Apparently hula hoops are out of season, who knew?) She was shockingly good at hula hooping unlike her brother and her dad.
So many big changes for our little girl. Starting real school with full days every day. Turning 6 seems to be a big milestone and one she seems to recognize without us telling her. She announced a few weeks ago that when she is 6 she can do whatever she wants. Then she started crying when her dad and I laughed at her and told this was definitely NOT the case. School starts for us after Labor Day so we still have time before she is officially a "Big Girl." We'll see who cries on the first day!

The things she says!!

Well, I took Double A school clothes shopping, just us girls. I thought it would be a nice way to celebrate her starting "real school" - Kindergarten! That and she has just shot up and nothing fits from last year! She really seemed to enjoy herself and would try the clothes on in the drressing room and then stand in a variety of poses admiring herself. I kept having to tell her to stand still so I could see if they actually fit. She looked at herself and said to me "I am going to have the best clothes at New City School!" I am sure she meant that in a totally non-materialtistic way :)

At one point she found a pair of pink camouflage pants (a first for us) and I was concerned with what she would wear with them. I guess she got tired of me harping on it because she turns to me and says "Mom, just ask someone who works here, then." So I did but she wasn't much help (BTW EVERYTHING goes with camo).

She then found a t-shirt that had an ice cream sundae on it and it said Lazy Sundaes. I really don't think she got it and there was nothing special about it but she insisted on having it. I kept asking her if she really liked it. To which she replied with one hand on her hip "What do you think I am, a girl who likes everything in the store?" My only response could be "YES!"

We got tons of cute clothes (too many?) and then met up with Husband #1 and Bumblebee for dinner. It was a nice day and fun to be just girls.

Bathroom Glory!

The bathroom is done! Finally! Husband #1 and I LOVE it! It is so nice. We did not go over the top as it would have looked odd with the rest of our house but al,most anything would have been an improvement and we are very pleased with the way it turned out. The walls are just primed right now and we will be painting them a light cream color but other than that...it is complete. Hopefully those of you who have not come to visit due to fear and hatred of our disgusting bathroom will once again return to visit us!


The large white square with the small rectangle above it is our new cabinet and drawer. Towels, TP and other storage!! Just above that is our new air vent for heating and cooling in the bathroom. The other vent is an intake vent and the small white panel is an access panel for the water shut off.
New light fixture and medicine cabinet. The cabinet is all mirrored on the inside so when you open it you are practically blinded when the light reflects.


New faucet and vanity. The wood is dark brown "espresso" and not black as it seems. I even got new towels which are super soft! I did refrain from purchasing the $70 towel. Not sure how they were so different that they needed to be so expensive!

Love the new shower head. It is also nice to be able to stand in the middle of the shower instead of before when you had to be smashed up against the door because the shower head would not move anywhere else. They handle is cool, too. You turn the water pressure with the big knob and then the temp with the small handle on top of the big one (can't really see from this pic).

Come shower in our new bathroom if you want!! We have actually already had house guests...the first day it was operational. they don't know how lucky they were...they never saw the old bathroom :)

Well, enough for now. I just got back last night from a Creative Memories convention and am still wiped out and trying to get life back on track. Pics of that later!