Christmas Recap

We had a very nice Christmas and a fun visit with my parents who were very happy to spend Christmas with their three grandchildren here. Mom and I had some fun shopping together. The stores were packed. After Christmas, Hubby and my dad played a round of golf, and I gave Mom the "Tour of Mass Destruction" that she requested. I started by taking her to see my friend's gutted house, drove by the cemetery (the tombs in the ditch had been picked up, but two were still toppled ontop other tombs), then drove through the flooded neighborhoods closer to the lake that had flooded about 8-9 feet deep. We finished the tour with a stop at my next door neighbor's FEMA trailer. Mom also wanted to see what an MRE was like, but we were going to send one with them for their drive up to Tennessee to visit my sisters! Oh well, they will still be good the next time they visit.

By the way, Happy Birthday to both of my sisters today!! (yes, they are twins)


Here is a very cute Christmas card from a co-worker of Hubby's that I had to share. It's a photo card of the couple in front of their New Orleans house next do their debris pile, complete with their stinky fridge. Very cute. and as usual, click the picture to see an enlarged version.

Merry Christmas

More than ever before, we count our many blessings and give thanks for all the wonderful people in our lives.

Christmas Card 2005

For the last 9 years, I have created a home-made Christmas card to send to all our relatives and friends. I like to include photos from the year and other bits about what we've been up to. Naturally everyone has been very interested to see what I will come up with this year. I assumed they were all anticipating a Katrina themed card, so I did not dissapoint. Here's the cover of our card for this year:
That's our house sporting it's Blue Roof from FEMA. About half the homes in our nieghborhood still have them. The inside of our card includes a long silly description of what we have been doing without actually ever mentioning the word "hurricane" or especially the dreaded K-word (katrina).

We spent much of this morning making Christmas cookies. Right now we're waiting and watching out the window for a big RV to pull up. My folks will be here any minute to spend Christmas with us. Happy Christmas and Merry Hannukah and all that other stuff! Peace, love and joy. :-)

12 Days of Katrina-mess

There are a LOT of folks over in New Orleans who still don't have any power to their homes. Half the city still sits in darkness. This song came to me by email. Sorry, I don't know who wrote it! If you're looking for what to give someone who lives here, this should give you some ideas. ;-)

The Twelve Days of Post-Katrina Christmas
(or as I prefer to call it, "The 12 Days of Katrina-mess")

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
The power turned back on by Entergy.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Nine sweepers sweeping
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Ten dump trucks hauling
Nine sweepers sweeping
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Eleven roofers roofing
Ten dump trucks hauling
Nine sweepers sweeping
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergy.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
Twelve plumbers plumbing
Eleven roofers roofing
Ten dump trucks hauling
Nine sweepers sweeping
Eight electricians wiring
Seven sacks of sheetrock
Six FEMA payments
Five MREs!
Four jugs of bleach
Three flood adjusters
Two rubber gloves
And the power turned back on by Entergyyyyy! PLEASE! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

Fence Going Up!

Our fence guys came last week and installed the posts. Today they are busy installing the boards. It's a local guy who is subcontracting on a local building company's license. His crew consists of his fiance and another guy. I haven't seen to many women out on construction teams. Good for her.

There was some sort of activity two doors down at Joe's house this afternoon. They have a crew of migrant workers working on their fence. A few minutes ago, two sheriff's deputies took one of them away in handcuffs and the other four guys on the crew ran off. No one seems to know what that was all about, or who even called the sherriff. I guess we'll find out later. Or maybe we'll never know.

We have a new debris pile in our front yard from what was left of our old fence. Our fencing guys are supposed to haul it away. Speaking of debris -- for any of my St. Tammany Parish neighbors reading this: There is now a hotline to call if you have more debris that needs to be picked up. This is for unincorporated areas of St. Tammany. It was in this morning's paper: (985)898-2323 weekdays from 8-4:30pm. If you have applicances you can call the EPA at (800) 401-1327.

Update on our new cat: He is cuddly and adorable. We seemed to have picked the perfect pet for our family. Here are some cute pictures of our dog Oscar and Rocky getting along famously. They were both sitting and looking out the window watching the fence crew this morning. Too cute.

Signs of the Season

6th grade band concert last night.

My son was the best one on his row. ;-)

Entrance to our neighborhood:

Happy Holidays!

I'll Be In That Number

There has been some local controversy over whether it is appropriate to hold Mardi Gras this year given all that has happened. Half the city is still in darkness and so many people are unable to come home. But more than ever before we need it. Yesterday my favorite local columnist, Chris Rose, published a column that has everyone talking. From the respons in today's editorials, apparently many people share his sentiments. Here are some snippets from his column:

"... we can't turn off the lights and keep the costumes in storage and ladders in the shed for another year just because we are beaten and broken and because so many of us are not here.

In fact, we have to do this because we are beaten and broken and so many of us are not here."

and

"Mardi Gras is the love of life. It is the harmonic convergence of our food, our music, our creativity, our eccentricity, our neighborhoods and our joy of living. All at once.

And it doesn't really matter if there are superparades or even any parades at all this year. Because some group of horn players will grab their instruments and they will march Down the Avenue because that's what they do, and I, for one, will follow."

Read the entire thing at the Times Picayune in We're Having Mardi Gras and That's Final.

Fence Guys and Girl Scouts

At long last, the fence guys are here today! They have already ripped out most of what was left of the old fence and are going to set the new poles today. They're installing the 4x4 treated posts instead of the metal poles that we had before. The metal poles didn't hold up well in the wind, but the theory was that they would suffer less termite damage. It will be nice to get rid of what I call the "chicken yard" which was a temporary wire pen for the dog.

We had a Service Unit meeting last week for the Girl Scout leaders in our area. We have gone from 27 active troops in Slidell down to 9. It's so sad. But, a year from now I bet things will be a lot different and we'll get some new people to volunteer as leaders.

I met with my Junior Girl Scout troop girls over the weekend for the first time since the storm. Three of the girls in our troop did not evacuate and stayed for the storm. They shared their experiences with the rest of us. Every one of them said it was really weird when the eye of the storm passed over and everyone went outside of their homes to have a look.

One of the girls was with her mother, younger brother and her mother's pregnant best friend in their Slidell house during the storm. And yup, the friend went into labor and the girl's mother delivered that baby in their house! It was a baby girl. I'll give you one guess what they named her. :-)

Tree Tales

At first, we weren't going to buy a tree this year because

(1) there are no tree lots selling trees around here this year

(2) we didn't want to contribute any more debris to the MAJOR debris problem we are still having, and ...

(3) we were lucky enough not to get a tree in our living room during the hurricane, so why would we want one in there now? ;-)

So, I went to look for a fake tree, but the only one we liked was really expensive. I bought it, but the box was so big and heavy I just couldn't deal with it, and it was too much money anyway, so I took it back. The kids were pretty dissappointed, and I felt like a grinch. But then the grocery store actually had one truckload of trees, so I got a nice 6-1/2 foot one for only $21.99 and shoved it into my minivan. What a deal. It looks awesome.

We took a picture in front of it last night with our new cat. Five minutes later, the entire thing crashed to the floor and spewed ornaments and water everywhere. LOL

From that moment on, we would refer to this small disaster as the "tree incident" or a hurricane aftershock. And no, the poor cat was no where near the tree when it fell.

Rocky Road

Heeeere's Rocky. He lost his original home after Katrina, and someone must have loved him a lot because he is soo sweet. He's about 6 months old and loves loves loves to be held, which was a primary consideration for a cat in our family. It's a good thing he loves to be held because he's going to be cuddled and sqeezed a lot around here.

While the kids went to a friend's all day, we went on a big shopping spree. We stuffed all the other Christmas presents we bought into a closet, but there was no hiding this gift. So here he is!

We've been looking for a super-friendly kitty for a little while and when we found this guy, we couldn't risk having someone else adopt him first, so we took him home.

He came from a nearby shelter. He's very cute and seems to be fitting right in.

End of Hurricane Season

As of Midnight November 30, the 2005 hurricane season is officially over!!! No more worrying about evacuations for a while .... until next June anyway.

I'm finally having my first troop meeting since the storm with my Brownies today. A couple of other Girl Scout troops from around the country have adopted our troop to help us get back on our feet. We lost a few members, and a couple who are still active had their homes flooded. Hopefully our adopters will help us replace their damaged uniforms. The girls will be SO happy to be back together again.

Time to get busy doing some Christmas shopping too. Busy busy.