Hurricane Gustav

I am asking for some prayers for my friends still in Slidell who may be having to deal with an incoming hurricane by tomorrow night. My beloved former next-door neighbors have decided not to evacuate for various reasons, most of which I agree with. But I am very concerned about them in the aftermath. We were lucky not to get flooding on our street during Katrina, but it was only right down the street where it did. The slightest change in variables could flood where it didn't before.

It's hard to believe it's been almost 3 years to the day since Hurricane Katrina. Some things in my old hometown will never be the same since then.

Anyway, I hope I am worrying for nothing. I probably am. But just in case, I am sending up a few prayers for everyone there. Please help me out.

Here's where to find me !

OK, so you thought this blog was dead. But it still gets some traffic, so I figure I better point you to the pages that I am actually updating regularly! Please visit me here:

• MomsMinivan.com Car Travel Games My website about traveling with kids via roadtrips!
• MomsMinivan Blog Updates on articles about car activities and occasional personal anectdotes
• Free Stuff Blog
• Free baby stuff, free makeup samples - freebies for baby stuff, free makeup samples and more online freebies
• Free baby coupons
• Free Baby Stuff
  

More websites I'd love for you to visit and enjoy:

• Free Baby Stuff Online
  
• Free Makeup Samples
• Laugh Shack - email jokes and funny pictures

If you're looking for more of my Hurricane Katrina experiences, I have an article on my main website about evacuating with kids!

Another Year. Final Update.

It's been a year since I posted. I have not been back to New Orleans or our home in Slidell since we moved here. We have kept up with many of our friends who are still there, and I miss them terribly.

We finally sold our Slidell home in Slidell last December, and we have moved out of the rental home here and into a permanent one in a friendly neighborhood. The kids are enjoying their schools, and they've made lots of friends. They enjoyed some sledding and fun experiences with snow this winter.

Having a little deja vu at the moment. You see, we had a severe hail storm here a couple of months ago and people are still working on repairs. Listening to the roofing contractors on the neighbor's homes all around me during the past month or so has been very reminiscent of our days in Slidell after the storm. I'm looking forward to having our roof repaired in the next week, so we can nestle in for winter again.

Life goes on.

Our New Kentucky Home

Well, about a week after we put the house up for sale by owner last May, we took it down again because we postponed our moving date until the end of summer. We just listed with an agent in the middle of August and have finally moved to Kentucky. The market has cooled quite a bit and there have been very few people to even look at the house this month. Timing is not good with the start of the school year and with the difficulties that new homebuyers are now having with getting insurance. We have a feeling it will pick up again soon. Homes in our neighborhood have sold on an average of 18 days this year.

We are currently renting a townhouse in the neighborhood where we would most like to buy a permanent home once we sell the old one. It's actually a duplex. We live on the left half. The public library is in walking distance and we have already taken full advantage of that.

The neighbors are all very nice and the kids love their new schools. They could hardly get over how clean and shiny everything is here. I can hardly believe it myself. What a joy it is to be where things are functional and people expect them to work!

Compared to our old town, this place looks like the Garden of Eden. ....Green grass, beautiful trees, strong well maintained buildings everywhere, and friendly people who don't have that exhausted just-trying-to-make-it-through-the-day look in their eyes.

Despite the potential of our new hometown, it was really hard for me to leave the old house. I walked around in the big emptry rooms in our house one last time and had a goodbye cry. It was a good house, and for 7 years I poured my heart and soul and sweat equity into it. It's a better home than when we bought it. Over the years, I laid the sunroom tile myself, and re-tiled the fireplace and the upstairs bathroom. We landscaped the whole yard ourselves. I am really going to miss the big rose hedge I planted. For many years, I tucked my babies to bed in those rooms and had Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas mornings there. It stood up to Hurricane Katrina. It survived and is now stronger than ever. Oh, and the AC conked out on the day we were moving out, so now it has a brand new AC unit too! I wish I could have packed up the entire house and taken it here with me. I REALLY miss my neighbors there too. It was so hard to leave them behind.

I hope the next owners will love that house (and my neighbors) as much as I do.

For Sale By Owner

Our house is for sale. The market is hot because of the shortage of homes, so we are going to do the for-sale-by-owner thing for a few weeks and see how it goes. A friend who just sold hers by owner has given us a few tips, so we put our our sign and now we'll see what happens. It's been a couple of days, and I've shown it once already.

We have talked to an agent in case we decided to list it. The longest any home in our neighborhood has been on the market before it went under contract recently has been 11 days. With its new roof and new fence, we hope it looks good to buyers. Our house should be pretty popular since it was not damaged by flooding, whic is is one of the first questions most people ask after the price.

It's been a good home. I love it most for being strong for us when we needed it to be.

Here's another home in Slidell that has been "for sale" since right after the hurricane. I drove by it a few days ago and took this picture. They are not having as much luck selling this home even though they've had it marked "half off" for some time now. I guess that would be the bottom half that's off.

At least they have a sense of humor. ;-)

Greener Pastures

I hinted a while back (in this post) that some changes were in the works for our family. Now it's official -- We are moving away to greener pastures. Other than the most obvious, there are many other reasons why we feel it's best to raise our family somewhere else. I have so many emotions running through me that I don't even know where to begin. I hate the thought of leaving here, but I dread staying even more. My heartstrings are being tugged in many directions.

We will be going to beautiful Kentucky where my husband was offered a great job, he won't have to commute anymore, and we will be much closer to my family. Moving date will be sometime in July.

Ceiling Repair

My next door neighbors invited us in for a tour of their home repair job this weekend. They have the outside of their house all fixed up, and they are now able to repair all the ceilings that were damaged by rain water during the storm. What a mess, but I know they are relieved to finally have it underway!

Election results

Well, I'm sad to say that my sister was defeated. She was running against an incumbent, which is a very difficult thing to do. Voter turnout was also at an all time low (about 8% of registered voters) which also usually favors the incumbent since only the most loyal voters turn out to vote, and they are the ones who are long time voters that never miss an election and who have voted for the incumbent for many years. Her opponent had planned to retire and then changed his mind at the last minute (He is currently 72 years old). It also POURED down rain for most of the day during election day. I stood outside for 13 hours with completely soaked shoes and socks, as did many of her other poll tenders. One poll worker for another candidate at a different location from me was struck by lightning - actually, his umbrella was struck and it knocked him to the ground. He was ok.

My sister did get almost 9000 votes, which was more votes than several other judge candidates got in races that they won. She has an enormous amount of support to get that many votes against an incumbent. Even the evening news put her in a favorable light regarding her "spirited" and "aggressive" campaign, and the news reporter himself seemed dissapointed that she did not win.

She's dissapointed of course, but she's not discouraged and she is going to get there next time. She's very young and has plenty ahead of her in this career. I am so proud of her!!

Election Day at Last

Election Day in Nashville is tomorrow on May 2nd! I'm in Nashville at the moment to help out. My sister has been amazing. If hard work and dedication mean anything, then she is certain to be victorious. We are all so proud of her.

Last night we had a meeting downtown with over 75 volunteers who have come forward and offered to help on election day by working at the polls to ask people to vote in suport of Tonette. It was wonderful to see such a huge mix of people from the entire community who are all so excited about getting her elected that they are personally willing to donate their time to make it happen.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers throughout the day tomorrow. And of course, if you know anyone who lives in Davidson County in Nashville, please give them a call TODAY and ask them to go vote for WELCH tomorrow!

http://www.welchforjudge.com

Blow Out

Hubby ran in the Crescent City Classic 10k race on Saturday. I went down to City Park in New Orleans to see if I could watch him cross the finish line. I never did find him in the crowd, but it was fun to watch all the folks in this race that is traditionally run on Easter weekend. Many of them ran with bunny ears on their heads, and all the politicians running for mayor were out in full force.

I parked in the Lakeview neighborhood near City Park so I could walk over to the stadium. Only a few months ago, all of it was under water. Most of the houses were empty. Almost all of them had been gutted already, and the majority of the debris picked up, but there was still plenty left. The watermarks still stained the buildings (you can see it in the picture here), weeds were growing 2 feet high, windows were broken, and everything made of metal was rusting. Flooded out cars sat decaying in driveways. I could distinctly smell mold all around.

Despite the obvious disaster, there were quite a few people living in primitive conditions in the neighborhood and plenty of folks living in travel trailers in the driveways while they rebuilt their homes.

I took this picture because I was happy to see the little island of hope that someone had planted in the street median --- new flowers and landscaping... something pretty amid all the watermarks, trash and decay.

Anyway, I had a bad feeling driving in this area, and sure enough I picked up a nail in my tire. I decided that since it wasn't losing any air, that I would keep going and change it at home. Big mistake. As I crossed the Industrial Canal on I-10 over what is locally known as the "Highrise" bridge, the tire blew out.

A worse place for a blowout does not exist. There is ZERO shoulder on that bridge and it's a looong way down to the water, and a long way down the the other side of the bridge to get off. Black smoke started to come from the tire and I struggled to keep control as I slowed way down, turned on my hazard lights and prayed that no one would slam into the back of me as they came careening over the crest of the bridge while I was wobbling down the other side on my wheel rim. A man in a white car saw what happened and pulled over at the bottom of the bridge to wait for me.

I made it to the bottom and was able to pull out of the traffic. You don't really realize how fast 60mph really is until you are standing 3 feet from a thousand cars, semi-trucks and city busses whizzing by at that speed. The kind stranger helped me change the tire and I was on my way home in no time.

::deep breath::

Happy Easter

Free Cycle

I've been giving away some kids' clothing and toys and equipment through a group called a "free cycle" group. People post stuff online that they want to give away, and people who need it come take it. It has to be completely free. It's a great way to recycle things that would otherwise be thrown away. There are groups all over the country. The one I belong to is for my area. I've had friends ask about it, so here it is: Northshore Freecycle/FreeUse group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NorthShoreFreeUse/

Find recycle groups in your area at Freeuse.org or freecycle.org.


On another topic, someone was found murdered yesterday right around the corner from our neighborhood. Not much detail in the newspaper report, but I saw all the commotion last night when I was on my way to the grocery store. The whole area was roped off, and the crime lab truck was there along with 6 sheriff patrol cars. Hopefully there will be more info in tomorrow's paper. I drive by this house almost every day on my way out of the neighborhood. Ugh.

Disturbingly Familiar

We took the kids to a movie at the Slidell Movies 8 which finally reopened a couple of weeks ago. Some of the screening rooms were still under repair, but there was new carpet everywhere and it did not smell moldy in the least. I do wish they had taken the opportunity to redesign the door to the big screening room so that the sunlight didn't shine in onto the screen every time someone went in or out.

Anyway, the movie we saw was funny, yet rather disturbing at the same time. See if any of this sounds familiar to you:

A bunch of the film's characters are initially in denial about the prediction that the huge dam/levee is going to break. They finally see for themselves that it is indeed going to happen and there is nothing they can do, but warn everyone to get out of the way. They have 3 days to evacuate the entire area. One character remarks about the valley that will soon fill up with water, "Don't you realize we're in a bowl?" (I can't tell you how many times New Orleans has been described as a bowl). Another group of characters tries to get their Grampa to evacuate with them but he resists saying, "I was born in this hole, and I'm gonna die in this hole!" (I've definitely heard that before!). A massive evacuation takes place at a little more than a snail's pace. Toward the end of the film one of the main characters is trapped inside while the water is quickly rising (where is her ax to chop her way out?). Eventually she is rescued as the water rises all around and characters are plucked to safety. About the only thing missing was looting.

It could almost have been a movie about You-Know-What, except that the movie we saw was a nice kids' movie called Ice Age 2.

Don't get me wrong, it was still very cute, as long as you could block out that whole deja vu thing while watching it. My kids remarked about its simliarity to recent events almost immediately as we started on our way home. I'm pretty sure I actually heard a few groans in the theater as the plot was revealed in the first few minutes of the film regarding the weak levee and imminent flood.

Obiwan Has Taught Them Well

Late last night I wrote that I was a little dissapointed that my kids didn't prank us this year, and mostly I had myself to blame for not pulling one on them. Apparently I wrote too soon. When I logged off and went to bed just prior to midnight, we pulled back the sheets to discover that our bed had been lined with tons of cat food nuggets and a big note that read,

"April Fool ! from your kids - all of them"

Not only did they get us good, they didn't even spoil the prank by blabbing it prematurely. They just let it play it's course, and caught us completely off guard. Indeed, I am very proud of my young padawans. ;-)

Lost and Found

In the chaos following Mardi Gras at my house when the carpet installers showed up to replace our carpet, my friend Devra's jewelry was moved and her beloved necklace charm was lost. Today it was found by my youngest daughter - over a month after it first went missing. I still can't explain how it showed up, but I think it was trapped in a pile of my daughter's dolls and purses hanging on a tiny kid-sized chair.


This morning I had the weirdest experience in the Red Cross CPR class I had to take in order to run my Girl Scout troops. One of the women in the class would not SHUT UP. The instructor finally told her to be quiet and let him teach, and stop asking so many stupid questions. Later she got completely hostile when another person in the class tried to help her understand, and there was almost an altercation. Then during our break, the Red Cross volunteer CPR instructor began ranting and ranting about how horrible the New Orleans chapter of Red Cross is, and how they should have their charter pulled. Pretty soon everyone in the room had to share their opinions about what is wrong with the levees.

Then I drove home past all the apartment buildings with escape holes chopped through the attic and with the roof still bearing with the word "HELP" in large lettering. I watched for alligators on the freeway where the buzzards were circling above (a common sight even in pre-katrina).

And when I arrived home after lunch, I was on guard in case my kids had plotted an April Fool's prank for me while I was gone. I got them really good a couple of years ago when they got up for school on April Fool's Day to discover that I switched all their underwear in each other's dresser drawers. Now I have to watch my back. They played a few pranks on each other, but it's nearly Midnight and nothing happened to me yet, so I think I'm off the hook. I should have tried to get them again this year.

Maybe I have lost my sense of humor. Perhaps it will turn up just like the missing bee charm, and the re-opened movie theater. Note to self: Think of a fun prank to play on my kids next year!

Tired

It's been a while since I've written. My interest in the topic of recovering from Hurricane Katrina is really starting to wane. I'm just plain sick of it. My own little world and neighborhood seems like a bubble of normalcy, but all around me is misery, despair, frustration and drudgery, and everyone here is suffering from post-traumatic stress. It's getting to be just plain exhausting.

It's also hard to find anything fun to do around here anymore. Both of Slidell's movie theaters are still closed, so we have to drive a long way to get to a theater. Going out to dinner is a huge pain in the you-know-what because it's so crowded that you have to wait forever. Mardi Gras was really fun, but now what are we supposed to do for the rest of the year?

I just got back from a trip to California this weekend for a family reunion / party for my Aunt's 70th birthday. It was SO nice to be somewhere "normal". And yes, saying that California is "normal" might be a stretch for some people, but it was at the very least - functional.

Changes for our family may be coming. I'll keep you posted.

Back to Reality

Mardi Gras had two sides to it this year. On one hand, it showed the rest of the world that we are still here and that we will survive, and the city will persist despite tragedy. On the other hand, it might give people the misconception that everything is now A-OK in New Orleans again, which it's not. In fact, they are still finding bodies of Katrina victims as they start to bulldoze homes.

Now that our brief bout of fun and much needed break from dreariness is over, folks are settling back into reality again. Back to wrestling with insurance companies, searching for contractors, back to praying for reinforced levees, and back to picking up the pieces.

In times like these, small pleasures are greatly appreciated.... like Girl Scout cookies. The cookies came in this past weekend. My troop took some to a local grocery store. They sold faster than I've ever seen -- almost twice as many as we sold any other year during the same time period. In fact, we sold out of our cookie booth inventory in only one weekend.

I went to bring some cookies to some of my church members who live outside our neighborhood and got a reminder of Katrina reality. Things seem like they are moving along here until you realize how BAD so many people still have it.

I went into one friend's gutted out home that is under construction with everything they own out in the driveway in a POD, and they are living in one room with their FOUR small children age 7 and under while the rest of the house is being renovated. Next, I knocked on the door of a FEMA trailer in the front yard of another house to deliver their treats. Then I visited a flooded out house whose next door neighbor's house burned to the ground the day after the storm and caught their home on fire on one side too!

It could just as easily have been me living in chaos 6 months after the storm while trying to have my home rebuilt from the inside out. On the plus side, these families were SO happy to get their GS Cookies!

Fat Tuesday Fun

I've had a house full of company and for the last couple of days I've been under the weather with a cough and fever so this is the first chance I've had to post about our Mardi Gras. We had a blast on Fat Tuesday. Our crawfish costumes were a big hit and several people recognized me from my picture in the paper last week.

We got to town early and had a quick breakfast of beignets and walked around taking in the sights and having a good laugh with all the other costumers. Lots of people took our picture. We had a nice lunch, where Devra ordered "herself" (a crawfish dish). We ran into one of my neighbors, then we threw beads from a balcony to the swelling crowd below for a while, and had a great time.

We saw so many fun costumes that I couldn't even begin to describe them all. One of my favorite one was the big group of people dressed as giant maggots from their fridge. They were hysterical. I have a lot of pictures that I will get uploaded eventually when I get a few spare minutes. There were Katrina related costumes and regular whimsical costumes. Everybody was having fun.

The mood was just like it always is at Mardi Gras - fun and uplifting. People just felt glad to be there. Some people don't understand how we could celebrate like this considering what's happened, but I think the people of New Orleans needed this more than ever.

It felt good to be a part of it.

Parade Time

Saturday night the Endymion parade was rained out and postponed until Sunday. So, Sunday we took the kids to see the very beautiful floats of Bacchus which was followed by Endymion.

Here's a picture I took of our krewe wearing balloon hats that we made while hanging out with the crowds waiting for the floats to arrive.

Throw us something, Mister!

Costume Preview

The New Orleans newspaper, the Times-Picayune, asked readers to let them preview their costumes this year, so just for fun I emailed a picture of the whimsical creation that my friend Devra and I have planned. The paper called Thursday afternoon to ask if I could come join the photo shoot for the story they were doing. I couldn't resist.

This morning they ran the story about "fabulous and snarky post-K Mardi Gras costumes". The article is in the Lagniappe section of the paper titled, Grand Delusions.

The first paragraph of the story is particularly hilarious, and just so you know, I am the "crawfish lady" that is mentioned. At least, I assume I am the crawfish lady, since no one else at the photo shoot was crawling with rubber crawfish. The description of that scene in the cafeteria was definitely surreal as it is described. I especially like the first part that says, "Queen Elizabeth carefully applied his makeup".

Each paragraph describes our costumes and includes a photo, although the photos are not on the newspaper's website, so I have posted a copy here. My only dissapointment is that my photo is on the second page of the article which was not in color since color is a big part of our crawfish illusion. I am very pleased with the overall article though. Our spirit definitely shines. And my experience of getting together with other costumers who look forward to the fun and painstakingly plan their attire for the event is a memory I will cherish.

As we all left the photo shoot at the Times-Picayune to head home, we remarked to each other, "See you on Tuesday!" (in the streets at Mardi Gras).

And finally, here's Great site for photos of people in Mardi Gras costumes.