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. ;-)