Shannon's Random Thoughts

The Rivet Removers? Something like that

2011-03-10T18:12:00.001-06:00

Back in school, I remember reading a short story. Well, I guess we read a lot of them. But this one sticks out in my head. I don't know why. The name was "The Rivet Removers", or something like that.

In short, the story was about an airplane company that realized that removing just a rivet or two from an airplane had no effect on the structural soundness of the plane. And they could save a few cents by removing that rivet. Those few cents added up. So they slowly started removing more and more rivets. It was harmless afterall, just a couple of rivets.

Naturally, over time, it was no longer just a harmless rivet or two. And the airplanes fell apart.

What reminded me of this story I read nearly 30 years ago? It's the damn toilet paper. The toilet paper companies are doing it to us. Slowly, one by one, removing rivets. Or bits of paper.

You see, the toilet paper roll is made to fit the toilet paper roll dispenser. It is an exact fit. The toilet paper dispensers at work are the kind without a dowel/rod to hold the toilet paper. It just fits within the dispenser. (like this)

Now, I'm guessing in an effort to save money, the toilet paper company has shortened the rolls. So they don't fit. I know that the process of making rolls of toilet paper creates a big long strip that is cut into rolls. I guess if you shorten each roll just a bit, you can end up with an extra roll. And I'm rather sure they charge just as much for the slightly shorter roll. Who would notice anyway, right?

I do, because every time I try to remove toilet paper for use, the stupid roll falls off of the damn dispenser. It's a rather bit of a pain. Just annoying. All to save a few cents. I feel like the airplane losing my rivets one by one.

At least it gives me something to gripe about. Obviously I needed it given that I haven't posted to this blog in months.

Thankful - Day 16, books

2010-11-19T08:39:00.000-06:00

As the daughter of a librarian and avid avid reader, I couldn't help but to grow up loving to read. My mother kept a full library stocked with books for us. And when I was sent to my room to clean (often messy due to the hundreds of books spread around the room and not on the many shelves she provided), you could usually find me hiding on the floor in the closet, reading a book instead of cleaning my room.

I raise my kids the same way. They both love to read (and have been known to get in trouble at school for reading instead of doing work). They also have hundreds of books and are always on a quest for more. Over the last few years, time has become very precious. Even more so with the addition of Chloe to our family. I haven't made time for myself, to read. Which is sad given how much I really do love it.

A couple of months ago I picked up a book and haven't been able to put it down. Well, not just that first one. But books in general. I devoured it in two days (it was a quick/easy read - the first Sookie Stackhouse book). But I wanted more. And more. And more. In less than two weeks I zipped through the rest of the published Sookie Stackhouse series. And then I started searching for more. I zipped through the Stephanie Plum books. And looked to friends for recommendations.

Now that first week, I neglected way too much. Dishes? Let 'em sit in the sink, I need to know what is going to happen next. Dinner? Let's order pizza, mom's reading. Oh wait, use paper plates! I don't want to have to wash plates ... mom's reading. At least I've gotten past the neglect part. But, I am determined to not let go of reading again. I'm watching far less TV, and I believe that is a good thing.

My dad asked what I wanted for Christmas and I told him Barnes & Noble gift cards, for books. I'd decided that my gift to myself would be a Nook, and I would need gift cards to load up on ebooks. In true Dad fashion, he went much farther than that. He asked me more details on the Nook (he'd never seen them), and ordered it for me that day. And also in true Dad fashion, he could not wait until Christmas to give me my gift.

So, I now have my Nook, loaded with about 160 books - enough to keep me busy for quite some time! And that makes me truely happy.

Today, I'm thankful for books, the ability to read them, the wonderful authors that provide the stories, and my Dad for giving me this great Christmas gift (and giving it to me early).

Thankful - Day 15, work Thanksgiving feasts

2010-11-18T06:25:00.000-06:00

Today I'm thankful that I do not have to bring my lunch to work. More than just the food, I'm thankful that I get to sit at a table and break bread with my co-workers as we celebrate all we are thankful for this year. But of course, there is also the food. Who doesn't love a potluck???

Thankful - Day 14, my home

2010-11-17T06:36:00.000-06:00

While it may have it's problems, I am very thankful for our home. Not only does our house provide a roof over our head that (mostly) protects us from the weather outside, it provides a home for my family. Not everything in the house is the way I want it, there are certainly parts of the home in need of repair. It was never brought back 100% after Katrina. My husband isn't exactly a fix-it kind of guy. The broken drawer in the kitchen has bugged me for two years. But, despite it's problems, it provides something I always wanted for my kids when I was younger. A childhood home to call their own.

When I was growing up, my parents rented. My dad's job was one that was supposed to include transfers every couple of years. That is the way it worked at DEA. So they rented instead of buying, never knowing when they would have to move. But, he was something of an anomaly. We never had to leave the city where he was first assigned. After my parents divorced, my mom bounced from one apartment to another.

I was jealous of the kids who had a house with a yard, with a home that they lived in their whole life. I wanted to be one of those people who would go back to their childhood home as an adult and look back at the walls with fond memories of a life growing up between those walls. You know, like you see in the movies?

Not that I didn't have a great childhood. My mom provided more love than you could even think possible. She did her best, and gave us so much that my childhood was rich. But having a home that I could look back on as the place I grew up was that one little thing that I always wished for, and am thankful that I can give that to my kids. (and maybe ... just maybe they'll appreciate it).

Thankful - Day 13, for my family's good health

2010-11-16T08:16:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful that our family is blessed with good health.

Generations

2010-11-15T21:23:00.000-06:00

The word Generation is not a bad word. I always viewed it in a positive light. It brings together groups of people with a common interest (age? not really an interest, but go with me here). Hearing the term growing up, I thought of older people when I thought in terms of generations. Though I didn't necessarily associate the word with "old". But now ... I'm not liking it much.

In my teens, I wasn't a huge fan of the current/pop music of my day. I listened to Classic Rock, mostly. The classic rock station (was it 92.3? - they all change so much but I'm thinking it was 92.3) played rock of the 60's and early 70's. At the time, I said that I was born 10 to 15 years too late. I was all about the "classic".

Recently as I was driving to work, I noticed a Classic Rock billboard. Woohoo! nostalgia. So, I turned off the CD player in my car and tuned the station to the Classic Rock station I saw advertised. Apparently, I had missed the "Next Generation" on the sign. The music playing was not what I knew as classic rock. It was music that came out after I became an adult. Wrong. Just plain wrong. Classic rock is music that came out BEFORE my time. Music that came out when "old people" were young. Now, what is advertised as classic rock came out when I was an adult? That almost sounds like they are calling me old.

Then, I hear the station id/self-advertising commercial. And do you know what they said? "This isn't the classic rock your dad listened to". Ummmm...it's not even the classic rock I listened to. I can't possibly be outside of the demographics for a classic rock station, can I? Seriously. I'm not that old.

This didn't just happen. My first experiences with being called old came about during my pregnancy with Chloe. I was of "Advanced Maternal Age" and got lots of extra ultrasounds and tests. The doctor (the specialist who specializes in old mom's) used that term a LOT with me. Advanced Maternal Age. It doesn't make me feel better. It doesn't smooth the "you're OLD" sting that comes from the words. I know what advanced and age mean. It means I'm one of those chicks who should be too old to have kids but refuses to recognize it. It means I'm OLD.

I always assumed that I would age well. I wouldn't move into my 40's kicking and screaming. I know age is just a number and not a state of mind. If I ignore it, I can pretend it isn't there. Unfortunately people around me keep reminding me. I'm not a spring chicken anymore. No matter how much I feel like one on the inside (deeper inside that bones and joints because they do a great job of reminding me that I'm getting old).

Pass the cane and the jello, please.

Thankful - Day 12, that quiet hour I get before everyone else wakes up

2010-11-15T05:34:00.002-06:00

Today, I am thankful for that hour where the house is so quiet, before everyone wakes up. That hour I can spend alone, accomplishing a few little things in the house before starting to wake the rest of the family.

Thankful - Day 11, modern conveniences

2010-11-14T08:31:00.000-06:00

As a day that I must so often spend cleaning, I usually find myself thankful on Sunday's for conveniences such as indoor plumbing, washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, etc. Without them, my 'chores' would leave me with no time for anything fun!

Thankful - Day 10, this beautiful day at the zoo

2010-11-13T17:28:00.001-06:00

Today was my company's picnic, held at the zoo. The weather was just beautiful! I got to see some folks that I don't normally see in our little section of a building of the company's multi-building campus. The sun was shining and it was abnormally warm for a mid-November day (even for the south). It was a beautiful day to be outside.

Thankful - Day 9, my job

2010-11-12T16:45:00.000-06:00

Today, I am thankful for my job. I work with great people, for a great company, and in this economy we've held firm, considering. I enjoy my work, and the people I work with. I also like that paycheck too...

Thankful - Day 8, my best friend

2010-11-11T06:36:00.000-06:00

I met my best friend in 4th grade on the play yard at school. She taught me those hand clapping games/songs that young girls will do. I turned out that we lived just a block away from each other. Well, it was a block away and a quick walk if you cut through the hole in the fence behind some apartments. Otherwise, it was a long walk around that block. Or seemed to be to me as a 9 year old. Thankfully, her sisters kept that hole in the fence open despite efforts from the apartment maintenance crew to keep it closed up.

We did everything together in those early years. Her family became my family and my family became her family. Through the years, there may have been times when we hung out with other people more, but never once has anyone else been my "best" friend. Desi is always there, and always has been. No matter the time between visits or talks and no matter the distance. Even with moves to Texas, Washington, Alaska, and back to Washington, Desi remained my best friend.

It's now been over 31 years, and I still have my childhood best friend as the person I can go to when I need my friend. No matter what, she's always been there for me.

Love you Desi!

Thankful - Day 7, our baby girl Chloe

2010-11-10T06:11:00.003-06:00

I am thankful for the burst of joy and energy that Chloe brought into our lives. I am thankful that my sons are getting to experience and enjoy seeing the world through the eyes of a toddler. I love the giggles, squeals and laughs that burst out of her as she waddles across the room at breakneck speed, in that awkward run that can only be managed by a toddler in a bulky diaper.

I love the way she calls for her brother Philip "bibop" (or something kind of like that) and Zachary "Yak!" (always at top volume), and the smile that erupts on her face when she sees or hears her brothers. Or the tight squeeze hugs that she gives them, hanging on to their necks as if hanging on for dear life.

I am thankful that we have the opportunity to experience these early stages of life in our house just one last time.

Thankful - Day 6, My Son Philip

2010-11-09T05:07:00.002-06:00

Continuing with my theme of being thankful for one thing each day leading up to Thanksgiving ... today I am thankful for my son Philip. His playful nature and dry wit provide me with laughter and a great many smiles. He also allows me the opportunity to work on an important skill ... patience. ;)

Thankful - Day 5, Zachary

2010-11-08T12:20:00.000-06:00

I am thankful for my oldest son Zachary. My first born son is caring and kind. He is extremely empathetic. He teaches me to view the world through different eyes. And I love watching the good young man he is turning into. Sure, I want to ring his neck at times. He doesn't always listen and he has a tendency to leave dirty socks on the floor. But, he is a good kid and I can overlook those things (well - I don't FULLY overlook them, I point them out ;) - but I know that they are insignificant in the big picture ... just don't tell him I said that!!).

Thankful - Day 4, My Mom

2010-11-07T10:23:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for all of the gifts my mother gave me over the last 40 years.

It started with life. But she did not just give me life, she taught me how to live. And how to love life.

She taught me how to love life. And how to love people. She gave me passion for life. Passion for learning. Passion for music. Passion for helping.

She was a giver. She gave herself to everyone around her before she would lift a finger for herself. It was just her nature.

I'm thankful to have had such a wonderful mother, and to have learned so many valuable lessons from her before her time here on earth was done.

Thankful - Day 3, My Husband

2010-11-06T22:22:00.000-05:00

Today, I am thankful for my husband. He is not perfect. Far from it. But I'm rather imperfect myself. He loves me and puts up with my flaws. He is a great dad to our kids. He works hard. He inspires us. He is smart and I'm thankful for the great intelligence that he passed on to my babies.

Thankful - Day 2, the weather

2010-11-05T17:58:00.000-05:00

This is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the chilly mornings of the fall, followed by cool but mild afternoons. I love both the sunny but cool days, but also the dreary-ish gray days of the fall and winter. I love the trees that are losing leaves. Though, having some true fall colors in our trees would be nice, it isn't exactly colorful around here in the fall. But, even so, I love the fall in the deep south.

As I walked out of my house this morning the air without the stiffling humidity and choking heat felt great. It is invigorating. It makes me smile. And makes me feel at peace.

I'm thankful that I live in a part of the country that has this fall-like weather for most of the winter. We avoid most of that nasty, brutally cold of the northern winters - we really just have an extended fall. I like it like that.

Thankful - Day 1, the dentist

2010-11-04T21:45:00.001-05:00

So, in following along with several friends on Facebook, I am going to post something that I am thankful for from now until Thanksgiving.

For my first entry, I must say that I am thankful for the dentist and for dental insurance. This was extremely important today as I broke a tooth last night. Doing something really simple and stupid. I was eating an olive. When I bit down to remove the salty goodness of the olive from the pit, I did not think that I bit that hard. But I heard an obnoxiously loud crack.

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach and wished as hard as I could possibly wish that the noise came from the pit cracking and not my tooth. I promptly spit the pit into my hand and saw that I had no such luck. The pit was perfectly in tact. I ran my tongue along the tooth and sure enough, I could feel a very distinct (and somewhat large) line from the top of the tooth to the gum line. If I moved my tongue across the top of the molar, I could feel movement in the tooth. Ugh. Not good.

So, this morning I started asking around for a dentist. I love my previous dentist but had issues with the billing practices and needed a dentist who will bill my insurance company and accept that billing as payment for what is covered under insurance. My dentist requires me to pay everything up front including the covered amounts. With high daycare expenses, I don't have that kind of cash flow. So, I called a dentist recommended by several co-workers.

The tooth was broken and he removed the broken section. It can be saved and I have to go back next week to start the process of getting a crown. That is an expense I really needed right before Christmas. BUT - I can get it fixed, and will have it fixed. And in the end, I am grateful for a dentist who got me in to the office on such short notice and is fixing my broken tooth! And I'm very thankful that I have insurance that will cover half of the cost.

Where does the fear come from???

2010-10-27T23:09:00.019-05:00

So much for my renewed blogging ... I got a bit sidetracked with my mom's passing. But life is starting to return to normal and I'm going to continue to work on blogging consistently.

Halloween is this weekend. And we've got plans. Chris doesn't realize the extent of it yet. We'll do the annual civic association Spook-To-Do at the club, where the kids eat hot dogs and chips, and have a costume contest. Then, the neighborhood kids spread out from there to do their trick or treating.

I'm decorating our front yard for Halloween for the first time ever. I have tombstones, spider webs, skeletons, etc. The kids are excited. We got some stuff the night we picked up their costumes and I got a bit more on my own. I'm setting up a table in the front yard and a few friends will be over for some snacks and drinks while the kids trick or treat and we hand out candy. But, I am now starting to get worried about how Chloe will handle the evening.

For the first time in her life, I've seen fear in her face. Real fear. She's never shown it before. Now all of sudden, some things make her afraid. Things that kind of should, I guess. But what I find funny is how she knows to be afraid of these things. What is it that makes them scary? How does a toddler learn that black creepy things and spiders are scary? No one told her she should be afraid. She hasn't been attacked by a 6' spider.

Tuesday night I took the boys to get their Halloween costumes. Zachary went with Harry Potter. I was happy with that. But, Philip, is all about the scare/gore factor. And the chainsaw. His most important criteria was that his costume had to look like a chainsaw could go with it. He wanted that pretend chainsaw more than anything else. So, he picked a costume that looks kind of like this: http://www.spirithalloween.com/product/bleeding-skeleton-child-costume/ (not that exact one).

When we got home, I had the kids try on their costumes to make sure that everything fit ok. When Chloe saw Philip in full dress, she ran and screamed. She was truly afraid. I felt so bad for her. Philip took off the mask and she was ok, but as long as he was wearing it, she stayed on the other side of the room and kept telling him no.

The funniest was tonight. I was working on her costume. It's a witch ... and to make Halloween fun for Chris ... he got to have a hand in it as she is going to be a Christine O'Donnell witch, complete with tea bags hanging from her witch hat, and "I am not a witch...Vote for me" on her hat. The costume is supposed to look something like the costume here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/14409838/reduced-to-sell-clearance-funky-witch?ref=sr_gallery_19 Except I'm going for more black with wine and ivory mixed in. And without the flowers. She'll wear a black onesie top, with the tutu over it, a witch hat, and black shoes. Cute, right?

So tonight I'm working on the tutu and wanted to try it on to see how many more sections of tulle I needed to add. This is what it looks like so far. Just a clump of black, wine, and ivory netting. That's it.

But she hated it. She pushed it away, said no, and made that same fear face that she did at Philip's scary mask. She wanted nothing to do with it and ran away.

Getting her to wear it will be interesting. I may find myself out at the store Sunday in search for a cheerful princess instead. So much for Chris's political statement.

It makes me wonder where this fear comes from. We didn't "teach" her to be afraid of black netting. Or of a skeleton face. Sure, the costume face it is scary - but I know WHY it is scary. I know that it is a bone of a face with blood on it and can rationalize as to why this might possibly be scary. But, she hasn't learned that yet. She's never seen this before. Where does this instinctive fear come from? And why?

Numb. Just Numb.

2010-10-01T05:15:00.001-05:00

I got a call around 1:40 from Council on Aging who manages the once a month house cleaner and the meals on wheels service that she gets. They said that my mom had a medical issue and that I needed to call the neighbor and gave me her number. The neighbor did not have my phone number and did not know who to call. She found the council on aging paperwork on the table and thought that they may have an emergency contact (good thinking). So, I called her and got a fast story from her. Basically something like "I was here getting your mom's grocery list and turned to leave. I heard a noise and went back into the living room and she was collapsed. The paramedics just left and are taking her to Kenner Regional hospital - you need to get there now."

I knew it was bad and went through tons of scenarios on my drive there. I called Chris who was just walking into his last class of the day (3 hour class). He ran to find a sub and started driving to meet me. When I got to the ER, they brought me to a little room with some chairs to wait for someone. That told me it was really bad. Id been brought to her in several emergency rooms (and my husband when I dropped him off at the door to park when he went in for kidney stones). I'd never been brought to a little room before - always to the patient or told to wait in the waiting room until they could bring me to the patient. I sat for about 5 minutes, preparing myself and starting to tear up before they came in the room.

When the doctor and nurse came in, I was weirdly calm. They told me that my mom had passed away. While I got a few tears, I answered their questions and stayed really calm. They said that her heart had stopped. The EMT's had gotten a very faint pulse briefly but never got a real good pulse back. Then in the ER, they worked but never were able to get her heart started again. They are not sure yet what exactly happened. She had diabetes that she didn't take care of. She had high blood pressure that she decided was better and had stopped taking the medication. She smoked 2 cartons of cigarettes a week. Two Effin CARTONS a week!! That's a lot of nicotine, tar, and smoke. She was highly at risk for heart attack or stroke. They will know more when the autopsy is done. Did I already say that? I think I'm rambling. I can't remember what I said already.

Anyway, Chris got there right after that. I started sobbing uncontrollably for a bit. They let me stay in that room as long as I needed. At first I said that I wanted to see her, but in the end, I backed out. The tubes had to all be left in until the coroner came. I just didn't want to see her like that. I hope that doesn't make me uncaring. I just didn't want to remember her like that. You know? She as a lively vibrant woman. Not what was left on that table with tubes.

The hospital and the coroner both needed her social security number, name of doctor, last time she saw him (no idea - maybe 2 years??), and the funeral home. I haven't figured out what funeral home. I found paperwork after nearly two hours of searching that had the rest of the info.

My mom had a very strong idea of what she wanted. Of course she made no actual plans for this. But she knew what she wanted. She wants to be buried in Arkansas in an old family plot that is basically full. My grandmother is next to her first husband because she wanted to be with "the baby" (how sad that I don't know "the baby's" name - she was a stillborn that my grandmother had before my mom was born). The baby has a very small plot at my grandmother's feet. There is space there that would fit an urn with a marker over it. But it is not a real/full space. I don't know if they will just squeeze and urn in there like that. Are there rules about that? If not, I don't know what to do. Several people have suggested scattering ashes over the plot but Chris said he doesn't think that is allowed.

After my grandmother passed, my mom talked about this a lot. She was going to call the funeral home up there and discuss it and make sure that was ok. Like most things, she never got around to it. So I have to call them tomorrow, and then find a funeral home here and call the coroner's office with the information. I know she will be cremated one way or the other.

Now, it is 5:15 am. I have not slept. The alarm goes off in 15 minutes. I think I will reset it for later.

Yeah, I'm rambling.

My sister is going to come tomorrow morning and take the cat. That's a relief. My mom (against our better judgement and advice) got a new cat. Hoarders shouldn't have cats. It's bad. Nice cat though, and sweet. But my sister (who lives with my dad, remember) and my dad have a combination of 4 cats. Now they will have 5. I told them my 2 were enough and I couldn't take another. I felt bad, but I really just can't. but now, they will become cat people.

l';'';;; my ; key is broken. It's falling off. I never glued it back on.

As frustrating as my mom could be, she was loved. I'm getting lots of calls. Her friends knew who she was and got frustrated with her not taking care of things. But, they loved her. She was a wonderful caring person who would do anything for anyone (but herself).

The thing I will miss most is talking to her twice a day. Every weekday. We talked my entire drive to work and back every day. And she called me after every big play that the Saints made to say "did you see that??".

I'll miss you mom. Lots.

They really are.

2010-09-18T10:47:00.000-05:00

To answer the question from yesterday. After waking up on Saturday and making breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and diced mango for everyone, relaxing and taking the morning slow ... I have decided that YES, weekends really ARE all that. I just wish they were longer.

Weekends - are they really all that?

2010-09-17T16:11:00.001-05:00

The weekend is upon us. I’m always excited for the weekend to start. I have visions of relaxing. I have visions of accomplishing a ton around the house. You know, all of those things that I don’t do on weeknights because I’m too tired from work and from dealing with nightly homework/dinner/etc. So, I start planning out my weekend. And realize that I need 3 weekends to get it all done.

I want to do something fun and different with the kids. I also want to cook a bunch of things for the freezer. I have kind of run out of cooked meals, and some weeknights it is just not possible to cook a respectable meal. I need to clean house and get organized for the start of next week. I need to pack up some outgrown kid clothes. And I need to go through the adult closets to bag up un-needed clothes for a trip to Goodwill (or someone who will take these things off of my hands).

After reading a couple of Eric Carle books to Chloe last night, I decided that I want to try Tissue Paper Collage Art. I think it would be fun for the kids and doesn’t seem like it would be THAT hard. Of course, I also think that building a house doesn’t seem that hard either. You know, you put down some concrete, you hammer some nails into wood, put in insulation, nail up some sheetrock, throw on a roof (shingling looks rather simple, line them up and nail into place, right?). Stack the bricks on the outside with cement looking stuff between them. I can stack blocks. Learned as a toddler. Can’t be much different. Right? I could build a house. Really. Ok. I know that I over-simplify and have way too much confidence in my abilities.

That makes me question the tissue art thing. Maybe I've got too much confidence in my crafting ability as well. But I found an article on eHow that confirms it is “surprisingly simple”. Hmmm…maybe the kids and I will try it this weekend. Or maybe I will add it to the long list of things I’d like to do … one day. http://www.ehow.com/how_4719162_tissue-paper-collage-art.html

I want to take the kids out to the park with my camera. I don’t do that often enough. But, I don’t think it will be cool and dry this weekend. So maybe not. I’m liking air conditioning a bit too much to hang out in the park.

My freezer is lacking cooked meals. I usually have some cooked meatloaf in there. You can usually find gumbo, spaghetti sauce and meatballs, and a lasagna or two in my freezer. When I cook things like that, I cook extra to freeze. Every now and then I get a wild hair and spend a full Saturday cooking “for the freezer”. Some of my ideas I get from those Once a Month cooking websites. Of course I love cooking too much to avoid it completely. But with the hectic schedule, an active (and hungry at 5 pm) toddler, homework, and early bedtimes - weeknight cooking is not fun for me these days.

I got the stuff to make Chalupas. I haven’t made that in a long time, probably because I associate it with autumn/winter meals. I am guessing that the fact that I picked up the ingredients indicates that I am fully ready for fall weather to set in. Or really, I’d be happy with a New Orleans winter (fall-like weather to you northern folks). Chalupas is one of those freezer meals. Huge pot, a lot left-over, eat one meal and freeze the rest in family meal size containers. Even though the weather is all wrong I will make it this weekend. I also got the stuff to make a bunch of meatloaf. And enchiladas. And a pork roast.

Then, I need to clean house. It gets trashed all week and by Friday is in desperate need. We actually do not have our normal huge pile of dirty laundry to deal with this weekend. But don’t let that fool you. Instead, I have a sofa covered with clean clothes that must be folded and put away. No one puts away their clothes. No one. If you get your kids to do this, please send suggestions.

In the end, my weekend does not seem so relaxing, does it? Maybe I shouldn’t wish for them.

Toddler Talk

2010-09-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

As kids grow up, we tend to forget the little things that toddlers do to make us laugh daily. Or at least we don't think about them often, shoving the funny stories to the back of our mind as we deal with daily homework, school projects, work, bills, and other not-so-fun crap that takes up our lives.

Chloe is in the full-on toddler-talk mode. We understand a lot of what she says. But not all. There is a lot of jibberish in there that puts a perplexed look on my face. There are clear words that anyone would understand. And words that we know what she means but would have you shrugging your shoulders. Sometimes she starts with a few words we recognize and goes off on a 50 syllable rant that must mean something. Because her facial expression shows that she means business.

Some examples (and translations):

KI-KI (long I, or eye sound). That's kitty cat. Ki-Ki. Of course she uses KI-KI for any small animal. See our cats? She excitedly starts yelling "KI-KI, meow. KI-KI, meow". See a puppy dog on a leash on the sidewalk? "KI-KI. KI-KI." Me: "No Chloe, that is a puppy dog. Kind of like a kitty cat. But different. It's a dog." Chloe: "KI-KI. KI-KI. KI-KI." Me: "Dog." Chloe *while clapping*: "KI-KI. KI-KI. KI-KI." Me: "OK."

Yak. That's Zack. Her brother. She is trying to say Philip. She watches me say it and moves her mouth slightly and then stops. Then she turns towards Zachary and says Yak over and over again. Philip gets his feelings a little hurt. It isn't his fault that his name is harder to say than Yak. I try to stress to him that this is in no way associated with the amount of love she has for him. It's about mouth formation.

There ya' go, and Thank you sound very similar. I can distinguish usually by the gestures that accompany the sounds. I get a "ta-ya-go" when she hands me something, and a "tank-a-yo" when I hand her something.

Quite clear are "MINE" and "NO". We hear those two lot these days and they often go together. It is very clear. And the accompanied gestuer is usually her grabbing whatever item she is referring to and pulling it very close to her chest. Everything belongs to Chloe. Her books. Her shoes. Her toys. The boys' toys. The cat. The remote. My phone. Chris's phone. The shampoo bottle. The boys' books. Pretty much anything she can grab with her two little hands.

Everything round or somewhat spherical is a ball. Including watermelons, onions, oranges, apples, and even actual balls. A trip through the produce section of the grocery store is comical. Shoppers around us laugh as she excitedly points to everything that looks sort of like a ball (most produce) and screams "ball" at the top of her lungs, obviously very excited and happy.

Of all of the toys she has, her absolute favorite things are books. She will hand us a book to read, saying "book". We read the book to her then hand it back. She puts it right back into our hands "book". Again and again. Sometimes we read the same book 15 times in a row. Every now and then she is specific on the book. She calls the book "Hug", "Bobo" (the name of the baby monkey in the book) and it is a favorite.

Sock and shoe are both pronounced clear as day. They are usually followed with "side" which means outside. She loves to go outside. We don't usually hear just 'side', it is more like "side side side side side side side side side side". Each syllable louder than the last as she stands at the door trying her best to turn the knob. That reminds me. I need to put that stupid door knob safety thing on the door. Not looking forward to that. Because it is almost as much mom-proof as it is baby proof. Frankly, I think they figure out it rather quickly while I still struggle to open the stupid door. It's embarrasing.

This morning, for the first time, Chloe said Go To School. It was more like "ga ta cool". But I knew what she meant. Only because she was repeating what I'd said when I asked her if she was ready to go to school.

That's just a glimpse. There are many more words coming out of her mouth daily. She makes us laugh. A lot. A whole lot.

Moving back to Blogger

2010-09-15T09:06:00.000-05:00

I've been absent from Blogger for several years. For a while I moved my blogging to Myspace because I was spending more time there, and most of the people who would care to read anything I wrote were on my Myspace friends list.

But that kind of fizzled out as Facebook took over my social networking time and I no longer posted on Myspace.

I realized recently that I am no longer documenting little things that are happening in our life. I liked doing that, even if just for me. It gave me a place to go back and look at the little things we so often miss in life. As Chloe is growing and doing all of those cute toddler things, I'm not documenting. I need to do that. And I'm going to do that here.

If you want to see what you missed from mid 2007 through sometime in 2008 when I stopped blogging on myspace, go here: http://www.myspace.com/virgothruandthru/blog?page=6

Or you can just pick up where I am now and follow along here on Blogger.

Ultrasound and Illnesses

2008-12-20T12:00:00.006-06:00

This Thursday was my "BIG" day. The day we had our big 'anatomy' ultrasound. This was about a 45 minute appointment where they checked each organ, measured bones, and checked for chromosomal abnormalities. And ... the fun part, check for the gender of the baby.

I was so afraid that the baby would not cooperate and show the goods. I did not find out what I was having for our first two, and since this is the last one (and that I think it would be nice to have a girl in the house), I really want to know ahead of time.

Typically, they can tell rather accurately after 18 weeks, but the baby must cooperate. The entire time the ultrasound tech was checking me, the baby had it's legs crossed at the ankles, and and knees pushed together. She pretty much checked in between each measurement she took. She poked, prodded, pushed, and shook my belly, trying to get the baby to uncross those legs.

But, everything was hidden. When she left the room to send in the doctor, who was coming in to talk about the results and my risks (higher because of my age), she said that maybe the baby would shift and the doctor would be able to see. While waiting for the doctor I got up, moved aroud, bounced around, and just tried to get the baby to move.

The doctor came in and checked things again, pointing out baby parts on the monitor. When she moved down she said that she saw no little boy parts and that she thinks it is a girl. Chris isn't 100% convinced, and I'm afraid to get my hopes up too much. We won't be buying any pink until after the next ultrasound in 5 weeks.

The good news is that everything looked great. I had done the Quad Screen blood test that checks for chromosomal abnormalities (Down Syndrome, Trimosomy 18 and others). My blood test results were good, and the chances of a problem were rather low. The ultrasound results mixed with the Quad Screen results put my risk of a problem at the best it can be for my age, 1:9,999.

She wants to see me back in 5 weeks to check a few more things that she was not able to see this week. So, I will get another chance to peak at the baby. I'll wait until them to go out buying anything girly ... just to make sure.

Now ... illnesses. We got a call Thursday afternoon that Philip was sick and had a 102 fever. Chris picked him up from school. Friday morning, about 5 am Philip woke me up saying he felt horrible. His temperature was 103.1. He stayed with Chris again all day Friday. Mid-morning, Chris called and said he saw little pockets on his tonsils and that we should get a doctor's appointment. He took him in - and we found he has strep throat.

While there, Chris went into one of his coughing fits. He and Zachary have both had a horrible horrible cough since about a month before Thanksgiving. He asked the pediatrician what was going around that would linger so long, with just coughing symptoms after a while. She said that Whooping cough is going around, and that is what he likely has. We looked up whooping cough online and found a lot of information - it used to be considered a kids disease, but 60% of those who get it now are adults. There was a sound clip on the website of a child coughing and it sounds JUST like Zachary when he is coughing. It could last around 100 days - so we could have another month of this coughing.

I'm not quite ready for Christmas. The house is a mess and we have no decorations up. I made a deal with the kids that if they helped me today, and we get the house clean, we'll put up the tree. I hope to get that done. Chris is going to a wedding. I'm staying here with the kids. We had lined up a place for them to go - but with Philip with strep throat, that is a BAD idea. I'm not sending him to be around other kids. The doctor said he should be ok to be around others in a day or so (this was yesterday). I'm conservative and will keep him in all weekend. Just to be safe. I would feel HORRIBLE if one of their friends came down with strep for Christmas. At this point I'm hoping the rest of us don't get it.

I’m tired of feeling so DITZY!!

2008-12-15T13:31:00.008-06:00

So, I've heard the term "preggo brain" or "pregnancy brain" since I was pregnant with my first. (I really don't like the term "preggo much, but that is beside the point). And it is so true. I am forgetting things, losing things, and just making stupid STUPID mistakes. Simple things like putting the milk in the cabinet and cereal in the fridge. Or finding my keys in the freezer. Or driving off from my house with my purse on the HOOD (not the roof where I can't see it - but right there in front of my eyes, on the hood!).

Now, I can understand the evolutionary reason behind many of the pregnancy symptoms. My boobs hurt because they are preparing for milk. My joints hurt because hormones are causing them to losen, to prepare for the birth (my body apprently hasn't gotten the memo that I will be having a c-section and lose joints are not necessary!). My feet are wider for the same reason. My gums are now bleeding because my body has a lot of extra blood pumping through it - because the baby needs it. Lots of things that just make sense. But what good does a ditzy brain do the baby? I can't figure it out.

But it is causing me a great deal of frustration. Yesterday I had to make cookies for the cookie swap at work. The cookie I always make is this WONDERFUL light thin crispy sesame wafer (with ground pecans!), with a drizzle of semi-sweet chocolate across the top. They are so good. And so easy. I've made them for years - and they always come out perfect.

Until last night. I don't know what I was thinking. I KNOW that a stick of butter is a 1/2 cup. But I looked at the stick and it said 1 stick = 8 tbsp = 1/4 lb. Now - it said 1/4 POUND. It made no mention of cups. But, I read it as 1/4 cup and thought I was remembering the "1 stick = 1/2 cup" wrong. So, I went with what the package said (or what I thought it said).

I mixed up the cookies and put the dough in the fridge to harden (easier to work with that way) while I dealt with dinner and getting the kids in bed. I then relaxed a bit before starting. About 10 pm I go downstairs to bake the cookies. First batch in ... after the 7 to 9 minutes they are supposed to bake they are still very soft and white. They should be crispy and brown and ready to come out. They also spread out a lot. It looked very wrong.

I left them in another 9 minutes - light brown, but still looked funny with lots of holes in them. Took them out to let cool. When I tried to scoop a cookie up with the spatula, it just fell apart into little tiny bits of browned flour and sesame seeds. Nothing held together. NOTHING. All of them were like this.
In digging into it, trying to find my problem - I realized that I had used double the butter. YUM ... except they won't bake and be cookies. I spent another hour and a half trying to repair the damage - adding more flour and sesame seeds to the remaining dough (though no telling how much was actually left). Baking isn't like cooking. You don't "fix" it. Measurements are critical. I tried and tried (baking one cookie at a time) - but there was no repairing the dough. And I had no more butter.

Since Katrina, you don't just run to the store at 1 am to buy butter. The stores are no longer 24 hours. Not even the convenient store around the corner is open past 11. So, I gave up. I had a bowl of sesame 'granola' (with the chocolate drizzled on top) and ate spoon fulls of buttery sugary sesame seeds. But no cookies. My poor husband had to deal with a sobbing hormonal woman, in bed at 1:00 am crying about cookies.

Tonight, I've got to make the cookies to make up for not having them at the swap today. I also have a meeting at the country club. It is the general membership meeting and I've gotten myself nominated to the board this year -election is tonight. How I get myself into things that I don't have time for, I don't know. But I hear that the board meetings are fun (held in the bar where the liquor is!! - not that I can partake right now ... but I'll be an officer at least a year). And I did state that I would take the job with the least amount of responsibility (scheduling club rentals). I guess this is making up for not being on the board of the PTO this year. And really, this summer I'll be home on maternity leave and therefore at the pool with the kids pretty much EVERY day. So I'll be there anyway.

I have a bit of excitement later this week - Thursday is my big "anatomy ultrasound". This is where they check the baby's detailed measurements, check all of the organs, etc - and where they will tell me the gender. I did not find out what I was having with Zachary and Philip - so this will be the first time I'm going to know before delivery. I'm pretty excited.

Wednesday I'm looking forward to lunch with friends.

And Friday the kids have their classroom Holiday parties - I'm going to Zachary's and took the rest of the day off.

Maybe we will FINALLY get the tree up this coming weekend. I still have my big tree for sale, the new slim tree arrived last week. I can't wait to get it up and decorated.

The update that I didn’t finish...

2008-10-28T13:35:00.002-05:00

So, I intended to give a little update in my last post, but it ended up just being the 'tagged' thing that I got from Gwen.

Lots going on ...

I'm entering my 2nd trimester. If you didn't know, the actual start of the second trimester can vary between 12 weeks and 14 weeks depending on who you listen to. I've got 3 pregnancy books and they all say something different. But, at the worse-case scenario, I hit it this Friday when I hit the 14 week mark.
I've had several ultrasounds including the one at the hospital in California when I was bleeding. All have shown that things are going well. And I'm starting to feel better.

My morning (all day) sickness is mostly gone. I still get waves of nausea every now and then - mostly triggered by a strong smell - but it is becoming quite rare. I'm still tired. Not NEARLY as exhausted as I was, but still would love a nap every day.

Since I'm still tired - my house is still a wreck! It is messy! The kids pick up NOTHING, and their crap gets spread from one end of the house to the other. THIS is the weekend when I "fix" that. Of course I made that same promise to myself the last two weekends and ended up napping instead. But, I've got to get a handle on this mess or I will need a week's vacation to get the house in order. I do have a 4 day weekend coming up this weekend, so I should get a lot accomplished. I would be absolutely MORTIFIED if anyone showed up at my front door right now. Seriously. It's bad. BAD! So no one show up at my front door - I promise you it will be slammed if you do.

The kids are doing pretty well. Well, somewhat. Zachary has a sinus infection and the excess mucus stuff in his head was causing him to cough and then gag, and then vomit. He was sent home twice last week (therefore I had to miss work) because of it. I took him to the doctor, and sure enough, sinus infection. Hopefully that will clear soon.

They are slowly adjusting to their new school. Both are still struggling some in math because they skipped a year of math skills. They are both on academic probation (means that they HAVE to bring up their math grade this quarter or they are out of the school). They both got a D in math on their report card. Neither of them had ever had below a B in an academic subject (last year a C in behavior in PE kept Zachary off of the honor roll, but in general both were always on the A or A/B honor roll). It was a shock to them both. We are working to catch them up on the missed material - Zachary went from the 3rd grade math curriculum last year to 5th grade this year, and Philip went from 2nd grade to 4th grade. Skipping some important foundation skills needed for current work. Philip is getting tutoring at school (several other kids in 3rd grade have the same problem and they arranged for a tutor 3 days a week). 4th grade had fewer new kids, so we are on our own for tutoring. I've got something in the works though (Paula - I still need to call you back). The good thing is that this week and last week they covered material that Zachary just "gets" - very easy stuff for him that does not rely on skills he missed. That will help bring up his grade. He's GOT to do better this nine weeks.

I've talked to several parents of kids who moved into the magnet school system 'later' (not in pre-k/K/1st) and have heard the same story over and over again. That made me feel better. We talked to a parent one day that had the same thing with her child at their school last year. A lady at my dentist office was complaining that her daughter is failing 8th grade math (a 7th grader) after having never had below an A in any subject. She is failing and very depressed about it. Another lady was in the office last week when I was there, and asking about awards day. The secretary asked her if her daughter was on the honor roll, and she replied "every quarter, every year, until she came to this school", and then laughed. I laughed and told her that it made me feel better to hear that from other parents.

Honestly, I'm a little surprised that the school system doesn't have a program in place to help kids who jump into the system mid-stream. They know that these kids are jumping ahead, on top of being thrown into a system where they work harder and faster than the schools they are coming from. I realize that WE made the choice to apply to the magnet school - and were looking for a challenge. The kids are being challenged and working harder than ever. But it is a big transition. The 3rd grade teachers got together and worked out a solution for their students, but I know from talking to so many others that this is common. I guess as involved parents who care about our kids education, it is our job to address the problem - and we are.

We are still planning to go camping for Thanksgiving. I've GOT to get an air mattress. I've never used one when camping - making sure the tent site is flat (and free of tree roots) and having a good sleeping bag was enough . But I'll be 18 weeks pregnant and am already having a hard time getting comfortable in bed at night. I NEED it. I need to get to work on planning my menu. I've given it some thought, but not planned it out as well thoroughly. I also need to go through our camping gear to make sure anything damaged by Katrina is replaced, that everything is in working order, and organized. But, really, I've GOT to clean my house first. It would be poor prioritization to organize that stuff in the garage before dealing with the messes in the house.

I guess my 4 day weekend won't be as relaxing as I thought ....

First things first - I’m FINALLY doing this Gwen!!

2008-10-18T02:07:00.003-05:00

Thanks Gwen - I said I would do it, and I am ... finally (when I have some alone time at the computer and am not at work).
So, my friend Gwen honored me with an award :)

The blog award rules:
1. List 6 things about yourself

and

2. Pass this award on to 6 other bloggers

Six things about Shannon:

1) This pregnancy is pretty different than my last two. First, I had a lot of morning sickness this time - I had a little with Zachary but it didn't last too long, and almost none with Philip (I was 10 weeks when I found out with him - I did think I'd had a stomach bug that probably was morning sickness around 7 or 8 weeks, but it didn't last long). Second, the fatigue and exhaustion has been MUCH greater. I'm sure being 10 years older than the first time I did this (and more than 8 years older than the second) has a LOT to do with that. Also, I'm a worrier this time. I never worried about things last time. It would just work out and everything would be perfect. I guess I'm now tainted by the memory of my miscarriage and now KNOW the realization that it may not work out without problems. I am starting to get better now that I've reached the 12 week mark, but I still worry.

2) I have this image of being the perfect person - and I fail significantly. I want to work all day (well, I have to), then come home and keep a perfectly organized house with kids who happily sit and do homework and study without being asked while I cook fun and healthy meals, and then clean the little bit of mess made from dinner. This all should be in a perfectly organized and spotless house. I am no where CLOSE to that. I struggle to keep up with the basic things and just want to sleep. Maybe I'm feeling worse about this now because I have done VERY VERY little the last 2-1/2 months.

3) I love traveling to other countries and experiencing different cultures. I fear that I won't get to do it again. And I don't want to do it again without Chris. He's only been to Mexico and Canada. I want him to experience another country with me. He'd love Amsterdam - I want to take him there. And I think he'd really like Italy. He'd probably really like Athens too. Then, I feel a bit selfish because I want to go to some of the places I've never been. The reality is that it isn't likely we'll ever do get to go on an international trip. Especially since we are starting over again with a new baby at this point. Too many other priorities.

4) I feel bad about Zachary's Disney trip. I had promised him that I would go with him on his 4th grade class trip to Disney. But, it is in mid-April. I'll be delivering a baby in mid-April (will have a c-section around 2 weeks before my due date). :) So that isn't exactly a reality anymore. Parents don't have to go. But to be honest, I'm a bit worried about sending him without us. Though at 13 my parents sent me to Africa/Greece/Amsterdam without them. Early 80's was a different time though. I don't know. I guess I'm being protective. Yet, I don't want him to miss out (it is a week of seminars and educational classes - behind the scenes science/math etc -- and of course the whole regular Disney experience too!).

5) I don't like the leave the house without make-up. Ever. Though in the last 2 months, I've done it A LOT. I'm tired. And I was feeling REALLY bad in the mornings. I'd rather sleep late and lay in bed.

6) I LOVE to cook and experiment with many different cuisines. Though I bet most of you knew that. It has been a while since I cooked something new and took pictures though.
Now ... how many people did Gwen leave for me to tag?

(Bonnie - I was going to tag you - but you BEAT ME TO IT!! Can I still tag Bonnie and have it count? ;)
1) Rae
2) Kimmie
3) Paula (M)
4) Lawanda
5) Lane
6) Tania

Catching up on my life

2008-09-30T13:47:00.008-05:00

Some of you know what's been going on and some don't. I've really neglected my blog for a while - sorry! Like I said, some of you know what's up, and will understand.

So ... now that it is basically no longer a secret - I'm pregnant again. I am very excited, yet I've been a bit trepidatious. This was planned - and was planned after my miscarriage in January. That unexpected event showed us how much we want another baby. So, I finally got pregnant again. But, the fear of another miscarriage is always in the back of my mind.

I saw my doctor at 6 weeks and an ultrasound showed everything was fine. Another ultrasound 1-1/2 weeks later showed the same. At that point, I'm starting to feel better - I'm approaching the end of the "danger zone" where the threat of another miscarriage is higher. So I started to tell a few people. Still not broadcasting, but sharing the news a bit.

I had a scheduled tradeshow in Anaheim, California. I discussed it with my doctor and it seemed fine. I worked tradeshows through both pregnancies without a problem.

Last Monday, at the tradeshow, I started bleeding. And freaking out - naturally. Especially given what happened with the last pregnancy. After a phone call to my doctor early Tuesday morning, I took a cab to the nearest ER/hospital. Most of the day was spent in the ER. I felt so alone. I was alone. In a city far away from home. Far away from familiy. I tried to hold it together, but I was really scared. And my poor co-worker (who was still basically in training) was stuck at the convention center, working alone. I was worried about her.

By the time I left there, I felt better. I had suffered a "threatened miscarriage" (any bleeding during pregnancy is called that), but the ultrasound showed that all was well. I was ordered to not return to the convention center, but to rest in bed that day, to fly home the next day, and spend the rest of the week in bed. I could not WAIT to get home. I was emotionally exhausted.

So, I left my hotel at 6:30 Wednesday morning and arrived home around 5:00 pm - and I spent the next 4 days doing almost NOTHING. Sure, my house shows that I did almost nothing. It is a wreck. I did a few loads of laundry (the machine does the work and I can fold while in bed). We had lots of leftovers and take-out.

So, this week, I'm playing catch up. Yet - I am still feeling absolutely and utterly EXHAUSTED. I have for most of this pregnancy (and it's only been 9 weeks - I still have 30 more weeks to go!!!) And sick! I'm so nauseated. I hate that. I constantly have this "I'm about to throw up" feeling, no food sounds good, I'm afraid to eat, but if I don't I feel worse. I've got massive heart burn. Chris keeps telling me "embrace it, you wanted a baby, you wanted this, embrace it and don't complain". He is lucky I didn't hit him in the head with a lamp.

The kids are excited. They are telling everyone they "can trust to keep a secret". But really - it's no longer a secret. I'm feeling better about it every day. And more confident.

School just back in swing, and already planning for our next big break…

2008-08-15T13:50:00.006-05:00

Today marks the end of the first week of the new school year. It is also the end of the kids' first week at "Metairie Academy for Advanced Studies". I see some challenges this year, but I'm convinced that we (or they-the kids) can handle them. Homework will be plentiful and tough. Studying is now REQUIRED. And behavior must be kept under control. It's a new year…a new school...a new beginning.

One of Zachary's biggest struggles is keeping himself organized. His backpack is always a mess of crumpled and folded papers. His desk becomes a total disaster. More than once last year, Chris brought him into his classroom to search for missing materials required for an assignment, and spent 15 minutes removing old un-needed papers that were crumpled and shoved into his fully packed desk. We are trying very hard to make changes this year, including finding Zachary's organizational skills.

For both of them, they have skated through school, making mostly A's with a few B's – without having to study or work very hard for those grades. That doesn't happen at M.A.A.S. You have to study. Philip fought with me for over an hour Wednesday night about studying his spelling words. He took the list, read it once, and told me his was done. No son, that isn't enough - STUDY. He told me to quiz him. Naturally I picked the hardest two words on the list to quiz – and he got them wrong. I sent him back to REALLY study. You guessed it – three minutes later he's back, yet again proclaiming that he has finished! I made him write each word ten times, which made him furious. That was not an assigned written homework, why should he have to write the words? In typical Philip fashion, he tries to negotiate with me … how about writing them FIVE times each, and then reading them another five times each. No, son. That is not what I said to do. How about eight, then? In the end, he wrote the words ten times each, and studied them for another 20 minutes. But, it took over an hour to accomplish that. It should not be such a struggle.

I'm afraid that they will learn (and in some respects already have) that they can get by with very little effort, and do 'ok'. Last year, we told them both that B's were not acceptable. That makes me feel like a tyrant parent. But, they were both capable of making A's with a bit of effort (and in some subjects, with very little effort at the level they were learning at the old school). Getting an easy B without any effort is not an earned B. If they can get a B with no effort, I expect the effort to earn an A. If they studied hard and struggled and ended up with a C, then I would consider a C an acceptable grade. But they are both capable of so much more. M.A.A.S. is a tougher school. They will have to work hard, and B's may become perfectly acceptable for them if they work hard for them (maybe even an occasional C). But first, they need to learn HOW to work hard. This will be a struggle this year, I can tell.

So, as we embark on this new adventure, I'm already looking forward to the first big break from it. And I've figured it out. We are going camping for Thanksgiving!! Because of a major dispute in Chris's family (and him basically now cut off from the majority of his family), for probably the first Thanksgiving in the 15 years we've been married, I will not be told where I have to be, what time to be there, and what to bring. I get to make our plans for Thanksgiving. And I'm going to plan to not be home. It is really kind of funny given that for years I've dreamed of having a very quiet and simple Thanksgiving at my own house.

But, instead of the traditional Thanksgiving meal at home, we are going to go CAMPING! Well, I guess that makes it more "traditional" than anyone in my family has ever seen. We'll cook our Thanksgiving meal over an open fire.

Chris and I used to go camping a lot before we had kids. We would wake up on a Friday morning, and before work decide that we would go camping for the weekend. We'd rush home form work, throw the camping gear in the car, and drive to Grand Isle, or Hattiesburg (to a state park outside of Hattiesburg), etc. We had our gear set that we could quickly go on a whim without the need for much preparation.

But, since having kids we have not been ONCE. My poor boys have been deprived of the joys found in childhood camping. I've thought about it and talked about it, but haven't actually taken them. I do not like camping in the summer (or southern summers anyway). It is way too hot here to sleep inside of a tent without circulation (and air conditioning!). I would much rather camp in October/November (sometimes even December given that we have VERY mild Decembers), or March/April.

A lot of the gear we had was damaged in the garage (our garage had deeper water than the house, and the stuff on the bottom shelves of the camping shelving was ruined). The tent we had was too small for a family of four. It is time to replace it. Some of the basic camping supplies are rather cheap, and some things we had can still be used. Really, you don't need a TON of stuff to camp anyway.

Thanks to a birthday gift from my dad and step-mother, I've got a new tent that can sleep 10. It's a three room cabin tent – the two outside rooms sleep 3 (2 comfortably) each, and the center sleeps four. We'll use the two smaller rooms as 'bedrooms' – or 'sleeping bag rooms' . The larger center room will be a 'living room', for storing gear, hanging out in case it rains or we want a place to just relax - making it the perfect "four person" tent for us.

We'll go to Paul B. Johnson State Park in Hattiesburg. I've reserved a premium spot right next to the lake from Wednesday through Sunday. We'll be able to fish, canoe, roast marshmallows, the works. I may do a slow-cooked rotisserie chicken over the campfire for our 'Thanksgiving feast'. Or I may bring along some smoked turkey drumsticks (both kids LOVE those!). Hell, we may even catch our Thanksgiving meal and cook it over open flames – but I'll have back up food in case the fish are not biting or the kids feed bait to the branches in the water instead of actually reeling in fish.

Paul B. Johnson State Park

Near the campground is Black Creek – which runs through the DeSoto National Forest. They have several great floats for short canoe trips. They also have overnight trips but I would much rather have camp set up at the state park, and do a day trip than to deal with setting up camp on the bank of the creek, after paddling all day. Depending on the water levels, we may hit the creek one day for a canoe trip, or we may just limit our canoeing to the lake inside the campground.

Black Creek Canoeing (we've used this canoe rental place before - they are great!)

From reviewing the park's website, they have expanded some camping sites and made some improvements. But in general it was always a very well kept state park, with lots to do (nature stuff – hiking/canoeing/etc – and a game room with a snack bar/pool tables/arcade games/etc).

So now, even though we are only a week into school – I'm already very much looking forward to the next school break. Only 14-1/2 weeks to go…

still on a high

2008-08-06T13:53:00.008-05:00

Excuse me ... but I'll ramble here. So much is going on, life seems to be spinning. I'm trying to catch up, really I am.

My baby, my youngest is turning EIGHT this week. EIGHT!!!   How can this be? I still remember his birth like it was yesterday (well, sorta - don't ask me to recite the exact time, his exact weight, or exact length without looking at his birth certificate ... there, I said it, I'm a bad mom!).

The kids start school on Monday and I'm not ready. School supplies are mostly done (thanks to the program at the school where I could write them a check and they provide me with a box of the required school supplies).   But I still don't have the uniform situation worked out. We went last night and they were out of the size shirts that Philip needs. They had a LOT of the larger shirts for their school, but were out of the smaller kids shirts. So today I'll run to another uniform shop to look for them. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh? But really, it snuck up on me and I've been so busy.....

Busy ... that's my excuse.

Busy with things like The Columns for drinks last night. Or the reunion the weekend before. Or the Farmer's Market yesterday. Important stuff, ya' know?

Seriously, I'm still on a bit of a high from the reunion. It was such a great time. Everyone enjoyed themselves and that makes me happy. Last night was a mini-reunion at The Columns and I had a few mojitos and relaxed. It was fun.

I haven't been cooking as much lately. Just doing things like throwing together some grilled (ummm, by grilled I mean thin slices thrown in a hot cast iron skillet with some olive oil) eggplant, onions, bok choy, shrimp - tossing in oyster sauce/fish sauce/soy sauce/butter/brown sugar/shallots/scallions, and serving over soba noodles.

I'm hoping to change that. Yesterday at the Farmer's Market I got more eggplant (I think the house is getting tired of me buying/serving eggplant, but it is in season and I love it!), tomatoes, some rosemary, and oyster mushrooms. I don't know what I'll do with the oyster mushrooms yet. I'm still researching and thinking.
Speaking of cooking and food shopping .... this economy is cramping my cooking style. I have never paid much attention to my grocery budget. I have a long list of standard/staples that I keep in the house at all times. I like a full pantry/fridge. I do not plan out meals. I like to go into the kitchen, dig around, see what I've got, see what inspires me, and throw something together - either something I've cooked before or something I make up on the spot.

In order to do that, you really need a well stocked kitchen.   I've always got flour tortillas, corn tortillas, rice paper wraps (for spring rolls/etc). I've always got a HUGE supply of Jasmine rice, soba noodles, bean thread noodles, rice noodles (wide and skinny). I'm never without at least 10 kinds of cheese (an expensive habit!!), and the basic veggies: onions, more than one color bell pepper, green onions, shallots, cucumbers, celery, carrots, lettuce, radishes, mung bean sprouts, fresh cilantro and parsley, and in season-great tomatoes.   My freezer always has shrimp (size depends on what the Farmers Market has - yesterday I got BEAUTIFUL HUGE JUMBO 9-12 count shrimp), beef (roast, ground, and thin round steaks), chicken (stewing hen and smaller frying chicken, and sometimes packs of thighs)...etc.   You see how this can get expensive????   But, when I want to cook, I want to COOK!

This week - I haven't really cooked. We had that stir fry over soba one night, Popeyes one night, very very bad Chinese take out last night (I was going out - no time for cooking). Hopefully tonight I'll cook a proper meal.....

In the genes

2008-07-30T13:55:00.003-05:00

There is no denying that Philip, our youngest, is 100% HIS FATHER'S CHILD. Those of you who know him, know that Chris is a total smart ass, and always has been.

And apparently, Philip takes after him.

This afternoon when it was time for me to pick the kids up, they were at the pool. Philip was not ready to go and used several stall tactics, dragging the process out beyond ten minutes. Our little mental struggle ended with me holding his upper arm very tightly and practically dragging him to the car. When we got home, I began my lecture about respect. He insisted that he respects his elders, and had several excuses for not complying when I told him it was time to leave.

During my lecture, I said something pretty sarcastic. At this point I don't even remember exactly what it was. (Maybe "Oh, so you DO respect me, I see that, like when you ignore me and run away when I tell you it is time to leave, you are right, that is respect, I was wrong." ... or something like that.) It was then that he held up his hand, and said "can we do this without the sarcasm"?

I choked, bit my lower lip, and I think I hurt my throat trying to control the chuckles. Chris opened the fridge and buried his face into it, in an effort to hide his laughing. I turned my back to Philip and just couldn't stop shaking I was laughing so hard - though I did remain silent.

In this situation, it is bad to let him see you laugh. Very bad. I know that. But I finally just had to walk outside. I couldn't recover. He knew what was happening. He knew he pushed the button that he wanted to push. Mission accomplished. And once again, proof that Chris is his dad!

Still alive

2008-07-03T13:57:00.007-05:00

I'm still alive, but I haven't been on myspace much at all lately (they expect me to work when I'm at the office getting paid). Though I have been keeping up a bit and am on Facebook a bit more.

So much is going on...the summer just seems busy. I guess part of it is the kids getting older and involved in more things. Really, I try to avoid the overscheduling (soccer, baseball, karate, music, etc) that is so common these days. But at the same time, the kids have interests and I want them to explore those interests. And I want them to be involved. I just get picky about what they do.

Right now, they have tennis lessons two mornings a week. Now, I have never played tennis (unless you count hitting a ball against the brick wall with the cheapest racquet possible when I was 10). But, we pay for this country club membership and don't use much of what you get for the $550 a year. Why not use the tennis courts, right? So ... the kids are in lessons and are taking great pride in teaching ME what they learn. A couple of weeks ago I brought them to Academy to get some practice balls, a basket to hold those balls, new racquets for them - and a racquet for me. We spent more time chasing balls on the court than actually hitting them with the racquet. BUT - it was fun, it was EXERCISE, and the kids had fun.

In the evenings, they have swimming. The swim team for the country club circuit is great - all levels including VERY beginners are included and rewarded. They practice 3 to 4 times a week and have meets just about every Tuesday. They get ribbons for participating (they both got 3rd place ribbons last week!), and they have learned to swim. Not to mention the fact that kids sleep REALLY well after a couple of hours swimming. ;) I posted a few pictures from the last meet in an album here on myspace (taken with Chris's camera - I was afraid to bring mine to the pool!).

Chris is working long hours, but he LOVES being back in the classroom. It is where he belongs. Unfortunately, he's got early morning classes (8 am two days a week) and late classes (6-9 pm FOUR days a week), so he's exhausted by Friday and sometimes goes a couple of days without seeing the kids. It is Thursday evening, and he hasn't seen them since he dropped them at tennis Tuesday morning. They will be asleep when he gets home tonight so he won't see them until tomorrow. And Friday is his "zombie" day where he walks around in a daze still suffering from complete exhaustion.

I've got a 5 day weekend coming up and am excited to have some down time. Tomorrow I think we'll head to Baton Rouge to see Sarah and Jim for the 4th. The kids are excited about that (and so are we!!). I may grab my camera and go grab some shots somewhere - it's been too long since I've done that. Though I have an extensive lens wish list, I can't justify buying even one more until I use the three that I have!!!! So maybe I'll have some fun new pics to post after this weekend. Chris still has to work, but maybe I'll bring the kids over to have lunch with him Monday.

I have still be cooking, just not posting about it. I think tonight I will make the sweet potatoe and shrimp cakes that I posted in the fall. I've got all of the ingredients in the fridge. Or maybe I'll just order a pizza and tackle the mountain of laundry on the sofa that is waiting so patiently to be folded. Or maybe I'll just order that pizza and watch the Olympic swim trials tonight with the kids.

Bacchanal Wine and the NBA

2008-04-08T14:00:00.005-05:00

First, Bacchanal Wine .... I know I posted a bulletin about this last week, but I’m going to remind you/bug you again. Chris Rudge, the owner of a GREAT wine shop in the Bywater area of New Orleans was in a horrible accident with his wife and a friend. They need our help. FIRST and FOREMOST - visit their wine shop (if you are here in New Orleans of course). It is GREAT! I haven’t been to the tapas happy hours since Chef Pete stopped doing it (not because I have anything against the other chefs, I just haven’t made it out there ... kids and all). It is a great spot, and always fun.

Check out their tastings/events/Chef Sundays/etc ... http://bacchanalwine.com/

Or - you can help them in their recovery by donating directly to the fund that has been set up (the story and updates are also posted here) http://www.chrisandotter.com/

Sports....

The kids and I had a fabulous time Friday night at the Hornets game Friday night. Still couldn’t get Chris to go (but Philip did save his program for his dad because "it has a bunch of hot chicks on the cover, and dad likes hot chicks"). I explained to Philip that even scantily clad "hot chicks" won’t get their dad into a sporting event. I took a couple of camera phone pics (because I followed the "no camera" rules printed on the ticket - then saw tons of families with camera taking pictures - I’m sure that my DSLR with extra lenses would have been a no-no, but after seeing so many cameras I wish I had brought my point & shoot. Again, the arena was packed, the Hornets delivered, and we had a great time. They want to go again ... umm, sorry kids. I can’t afford NBA playoff tickets. The season is over. We will go again next year. But - it is baseball season. We’ll hit a few Zephyrs games instead. We’ve never done that before either.

Cooking ...

did a little this weekend. Not much exciting. And the kids wouldn’t eat it. Even Zachary. I didn’t expect that. I made a pasta topped with chicken/portabello/marsala/cream sauce. It wasn’t exactly Chicken marsala. Someone recently told me of a veal marsala they did, but added cream. Cream=wonderfully delicious fat=good. I thought it came out great. Chris doesn’t like pasta much at all anyway, but it was "good for pasta". The kids turned their noses up at it. No pictures. I was cleaning and chasing kids out of the kitchen (my own plus others) while I cooked. No time to dig out the camera.
I’m feeling uninspired. I want to find something new to try. Not sure what. But when I do, I’ll post about it and include food porn.

This weekend....

Chris is headed to Montreal for a week, leaving Sunday. Maybe I’ll play around in the kitchen and with my camera while he’s gone. I may take the kids to City Park this Sunday and take some pictures. Or, we may go to French Quarter Fest. I don’t know. Anyone want to come? Chasing after a 7 and 9 year old through the Quarter by myself doesn’t sound like much fun. Not that anyone ELSE wants to come chase after my 7 and 9 year old boys

Food Porn

2008-03-29T14:01:00.015-05:00

So I cooked last night...and to continue the weird obsession...FOOD PORN!

...I took pictures.
I made the roasted quail in plum sauce that I posted about yesterday. And the soba noodles and enoki mushrooms. I thought the meal was great. Chris is not a big noodle fan of any kind (give that Cajun boy some RICE!), but he thought it was good, for noodles. And he liked the quail. The kids liked the "little tiny chickens" but not the noodles.

They didn’t like the "other" noodles either - that is the enoki mushrooms. *sigh* I tried. But it was really good. Really. It was.

The recipe I started from was from here: http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/11/28/roast-chicken-with-sweet-plum-sauce/

I used the quail. Salt & pepper, stuffed the bodies with a garlic cloves and lemon wedge should have warned Chris about that - he bit into the lemon wedge, was a bit bitter. Not sure how he did that anyway...but he did.   The lemon and garlic really added a great flavor to the quail meat - you could taste it but it wasn’t overwhelming.   I rubbed butter and plum sauce all over them, and roasted in the oven covered with foil until mostly done.

SLUTTY little birds, aren’t they? All laid out on their backs, legs up and open.
At this point, I removed the foil, tossed in a bit more plum sauce, and returned to the oven to brown.

Now, I was lazy. Had I been serving this to people who mattered (ie - not just my family), I would have covered the little tiny leg bones to prevent them from getting too dark ... but I didn’t.   From here, I did toss with just a bit more plum sauce and returned to the oven for a minute just before serving.

I made enoki mushrooms. We made up this recipe years ago in an effort to duplicate the enoki mushroom dish we would get at Hana (Uptown). None of the other sushi places we frequented carried this dish, but it was one of our favorites at Hana. At home, we saute the enoki mushrooms in butter, add just a bit of chicken stock, fish sauce, and soy sauce. I don’t know how they do the dish at Hana, but I know ours comes close enough to satisfy that craving.

Then ... the "brown" (and therefore not quite right) noodles. Buckwheat Japanese noodles - I love how they come prepacked in portions. I made two of the portion controlled bundles, and it was more than enough for the four of us. Of course, my prediction on the kids "the noodles are brown, this isn’t right.." held true. They didn’t really eat them. More for me. They were so good! Buttery, sweet, spicy, garlicy...you can’t go wrong (unless you are my kids - who were offended that the noodles were not white and covered with alfredo sauce).

The sauce recipe started from this (another edition of Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen blog) ... http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/06/02/garlic-scallion-noodles/

But of course I didn’t measure anything, and I added as I went along. I didn’t have enough green onions (scallions) for 1/4 cup chopped - but I had a bunch of shallots. My oyster sauce jar was almost empty (had I realized this, I would have bought more at the Asian market yesterday), so I scraped the jar out and am sure it was less than a tablespoon - who does that?? Why bother leaving it in the fridge?? I added just a squirt or two of Hoisin, which is NOT a substitute for oyster, but it is sweet and brown, and good. I probably added more than 1 tsp of fish sauce too. I didn’t measure. I tasted and splashed, dashed, and tasted again... I thought that it needed some spice so I threw in the dried chili (you know, the seed things in a jar).

And finally, the plated dinner. It satisfied a craving for me.   The salad was a last minute thrown together VERY basic salad with a dressing made from sweet chili sauce (another sauce from the Asian Market).

Tonight, I made what everyone requested. Chris had fried egg over grits. The kids had taco’s, and I had leftover quail (with another batch of soba noodles), and a salad.

Obsessed???? well .... maybe

2008-03-28T14:07:00.007-05:00

How do you know if you are obsessed with FOOD and COMPUTERS?? Could it be when you blog ABOUT food blogs? Maybe.

I am home on a weekday afternoon ... a rare occurance. My sister has been my sitter all week as the kids are out of school for their obnoxiously long spring break. She needed me to come home this afternoon.  But on my way to relieve her from her duties as keeper of my wild children, I swung by the Asian Market on Williams for a couple of supplies. One, really ... but I ended up filling my basket. Though that is much better than filling it up at the regular grocery store, I only spent $44 - I thought that was good.

What sparked my need for a stop there? Since I opened the latest blog entry from my favorite food bloggist (is that a word?). I just love Jaden, of Steamy Kitchen. Seriously. You have to go read her stuff. She’s great! Funny, and damn good recipes. Mostly Asian, but easy to make at home Asian.

http://steamykitchen.com/

Go read it. Really. Come back when you are done. No, wait. Finish reading MY blog first - because you can get lost for hours reading her back entries. Or is that just me? Maybe I’m weird. Or obsessed. I guess that answers my question - I’m obsessed. Yep, I am.

So ... she posted a recipe for a roast chicken in plum sauce. I needed the sauce. I got my sauce (and some soba noodles, and some smelt roe for making some sushi this weekend, and some sweet chili sauce just because, and some enoki mushrooms - cause I like ’em....it goes on, but I’ll spare you...)
I thought I had a chicken in the freezer, but couldn’t be certain. Better check for one there just in case. I didn’t want to have to stop at Rouse’s too. My sister was waiting for me. I did say I was on my way home. OOPS!!

They had chicken in the freezer, but the pack of quail caught my eye. I love quail. It is a stronger flavor than chicken. Sure they are tiny and a pain.   But yummy. Hmmm....I bet the recipe would be good with quail too. I walked out of the store with quail instead of chicken. It is defrosting now.

I have no idea what I’ll make to go with this. I may do something with the soba noodles. Though I have a feeling that the kids will turn their nose up at them. They hated the buckwheat pancakes I INSISTED were just regular ole’ pancakes. Philip INSISTED that his buttermilk pancakes are NOT brown!! I’m sure I’ll get the same sort of response on the buckwheat noodles. Maybe I’ll just make a fried rice. I don’t know.

Whatever I do, I’ve got to get started. I had planned to do some spring cleaning on my afternoon off. Instead, I watched a movie with Zachary and fell asleep on the sofa before it was finished.  The kids are both now at the playground with friends and it is time for me to start cooking.  I’ll spring clean tomorrow. No, really. I will. (stop laughing!!!!!)

NOW --- GO READ THAT BLOG!!!

Great news!

2008-02-28T14:09:00.008-06:00

I am so excited. I cried last night I was so excited.

I've posted about issues with our kids' school in the past. We have lots of them. My kids struggle in their classes - they make A's, but get very bored, cause disruptions.

They HATE HATE HATE the boring worksheets that are the same repetitive material all week. Zachary's science class is doing worksheets - the same ones (new/different material each week) worksheets. Monday is a vocabulary list of science words. This week it is parts of a plant. Monday was fill in the blank defintions. Tuesday, those same words were in a "find a word" sheet. Wednesday, it was a crossword puzzle. Thursday it was a review worksheet, the same "study guide" fill in the blank defintions they got on Monday. On one hand, I agree that repitition is important. On the otherhand, sitting doing these worksheets is BORING for my kids - they aren't learning something new, and they zip through them in 3 minutes, and then have lots of time to talk and be disruptive. They aren't challenged.

Anyway, a while back I had posted that we had applied to the school system's "magnet" school (they said that they don't use that term), the "Academy for Advanced Studies". They took the test for it in January. Acceptance is based on openings available, and then test rankings. I was worried because I had heard that 4th grade was a hard grade to enter (this year they have three 3rd grade classes and only two 4th grade classes). They don't have another classroom to add another class, and squeezing the three 3rd grade classes into two 4th grade classes would mean if there were any openings, there were few. I also had heard that there were very very few applications for next year's 3rd grade class.

Given those two bits of information, I was worried that even if they both scored really well, that Philip may get in and Zachary not, because of space constraints. And I can't have them at 2 different schools - logistically it wouldn't work.

We got our letters yesterday. I was on the phone with Chris when I opened them. I cried when I read the first line of each letter to him "Congratulations, Zachary/Philip has been accepted...".

Of course, this means that I am not buying another single uniform shirt this year, and they are starting to get holes in some of their shirts. I commented this weekend that I needed to go get a few new uniform shirts. Won't do that now. They had better make the ones they have now last. Even if it means I'm washing every night for the next day but the end of the school year. I'll have to buy ALL new uniform shirts next year.

I go next week to do registration. I need to gather up the latest report cards, and their gifted program IEP's because the school wants copies of those.

Those damn wrist bands!

2008-01-30T14:11:00.011-06:00

We are once again at battle with my kid's school. Chris is on a rampage, though the school has not responded to his email yet. He will take it further and further until they do.

Some genius decided that the schools must create a creative "Positive Behavior" program to meet certain requires of "No Child Left Behind". I'm sure some of you have read my opinion of No Child Left Behind and it's utter failure to do anything to help the problems it was intended to "fix". So, over the extended Christmas break (those "Staff Development Days" that required me to take extended vacation days from work), the school came up with a program to teach our kids positive behavior.

It STINKS!!

The first school day of each month, the kids are given a plastic wrist band. This is the newer kind of hospital bracelet - like something you would see in a water park to indicate you've paid for a day or two of fun. They are temporary tags. YET - our kids are expected to wear these wrist bands for an entire month. They don't come off (or are not SUPPOSED to come off), so they have to wear this thing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Needless to say, the kids are breaking them off - sometimes on purpose (Zachary used his teeth - he wanted to see how they were put together), sometimes they break. Again, not intended to be worn for 30 days, all day every day. Philip's was attached too loose. It slides off of his wrist. We can't adjust the size once it is fitted on the wrist (a staple was tried - but the staple kept poking him and hurt).

The purpose of this bright orange lovely plastic jewelry that must not be removed from my kids wrist? Each time they have a behavior infraction, they receive a big X on the bracelet with a Sharpie. After five X's, the wrist band is cut off. You don't get a new one until the next month.
Where is the positive? Each Friday, the kids receive some sort of treat for still having their wrist bands. The first week it was ice cream. The second week, it was popsicles. They get rewarded for not having lost their wrist band due to disciplinary action.

Zachary's band was "broken" the first day. He was to carry it in his pocket for a while - some teachers said to do that, some said that doesn't count! He missed out on the ice cream party the first week because the band wasn't attached to his wrist.

Philip's kept falling off. One night he couldn't find it. I couldn't find it. The next day, he came home with a note "your child did not have the behavior wrist band on today and therefore could not receive the X that was earned. He is now out of the positive behavior program for the remainder of the month. He will get a new wrist band next month". We could not send the wrist band back to school the next day to obtain the X.

I found it in the laundry, it was SO LOSE that it came off with his sweatshirt and was stuck inside of the sleeve. It only had 2 X's. Now, with the 3rd X he was unable to continue and lost all priveledges despite not having reached the 5 X marks. When he came home from school Friday, he sobbed because he was unable to have a popsicle with his class even though he only had 3 infractions in the month. At that point, Chris was LIVID. He wrote a long email to the school.

This was it:

I just wanted to say congratulations. The new positive behavior reward system utilizing the bracelets is a real success. Zachary's bracelet broke the first day, and Philips fit so poorly it constantly fell off. The result for both children has been being denied reinforcement despite having maintained adequate conduct to earn the rewards. The effects upon their perceptions are simple, even for the slow to grasp.

Philip has come home crying twice because he did not get his reward, and was nearly inconsolable when we informed him he has been excluded for the rest of the month because of a design flaw -his ill fitting bracelet fell off, and because it wasn't present to get an X when one was earned he is now excluded. You may also be interested to know that it is quite easy to remove the X's (i.e. with a bit of solvent, with a dry erase marker, and so on). Zachary's bracelet broke the first day. Though we received no note indicating exclusion, questioning Zachary in regards to his receiving rewards has yielded the same answer over and over- I cant get them because my bracelet broke.

Let's examine what lessons were taught. Both boys have received excellent training that they are held accountable for the flaws in the plans of others. Both boys were lied to when they were told that positive behavior will be rewarded. Both boys have had their frustration levels increased. Both boys have been angered and hurt. Both boys experienced punishment they perceive as overly harsh rather then reward -this elicits cheating and many other negative behaviors according to the experts. And both boys are in a learning environment that is extinguishing the link between positive outcomes and self control. The latter typically elicits overt aggression and noncompliance. I invite you to examine either child's conduct grade for this past week if you need conformation of possible negative effects. You can also query Zachary about the program. His answers should indicate he is learning indifference very well now.

If you think my analysis is unfair, and tainted by anger you may be right. And what do I know, right. I am just a career scientist with extensive education and training in behavioral psychology, learning and neuroscience. I am therefore willing to send a very long list of peer reviewed publications to provide strong support for the above analysis. I can also have something written up for you all by an educational psychologist buddy of mine.

I will close by saying that it saddens me that the faculty committee that developed this program apparently did not bother to digest the data and concepts present in classroom management texts (you know, the required texts for anyone getting certified to teach in this state). It also saddens me that there has been no improvement by faculty in using behavior modification despite my having complained in Zachary's kindergarten year at the rampant lack of understanding of positive/negative reinforcers and positive/negative punishment and their proper use in operant/cognitive behavioral modification paradigms.

You know, mindlessly implementing a behavior program because the parish requires it has consequences that can be long lasting. Perhaps you should now consider taking me up on the offer I made years ago to give a seminar on this topic.

Yours,
Christopher S. LeBlanc, PhD

The school has not responded. Not a word. He sent it to the main school email, so he forwarded it again last night, directly to the principal's email address. The next step is the school board (I thought he should send it to them automatically). This time, he added some additional information. Our friend Paula provided some inspiration (thanks Paula!!) ... The Scarlet Letter. I hadn't even thought of it from that perspective. And that got Chris thinking about school record privacy laws. It includes discipline. This practice may even be illegal.

I ran across the following while reading up on FERPA. I was prompted me to do a bit of on-line reading after running across a reference to the book The Scarlet Letter and also recalling a statement by Zachary a few weeks back that one of his classmates misread his writing when grading his paper.

I want to begin by stating that I've decided the "positive behavior" program involving the bracelets is best categorized as a punishment system. The reasons for that conclusion are simple. Both reinforcers and punishers exert their strongest influence on contingent behavior if delivered within in milliseconds of the behavior whose frequency is being manipulated. Since, in the current system, an X is given at the time a teacher/staff member observes an undesired behavior, that X is best viewed as a punisher. The X is best viewed as a punisher because it is serving to reduce the frequency of some behavior. Stimuli that reduce the frequency of a contingent behavior are by definition punishers (reinforcers increase the frequency of a behavior). And while its true there are weekly/monthly rewards possible within the system, it is also true that delayed gratification is not a concept elementary school aged children are capable of grasping according to the literature I've read. It therefore seems most reasonable to conclude that the behavior management system the school has adopted has punishment rather than reward at its core.

The second thing I want to mention is that the X on a bracelet may also be considered as representing a student record. Records are very broadly defined by the DOE and the courts (see below). Viewing bracelets and any X's recorded on them as a student record is supported if behavior outcomes are in anyway used to affect conduct grades, or if bracelet related info is reported to the parish as proof of having implemented a "positive behavior" system in the school. My kindergarten teacher friend, who works at a Jefferson Parish School, is using a similar system. She records the info for use in conduct grades and also has to submit the number of student infractions to the school board. If that is true for our school, then it is more likely then not that the wrist band constitutes the type of student record protected by FERPA.

I will close by saying that while teaching at Delgado, I was forbidden from allowing students to grade one another's papers/quizzes/tests. Such actions, according to my dean, were blatant FERPA violations.

The text below was taken from the Dept of Ed. website, and italics are not mine. The last one made me wonder of bracelets constituted a disciplinary record. What do you think?

Christopher S. LeBlanc, PhD

Wish us luck! The school already hates us!

2007-08-01T13:21:00.001-05:00

test old blog - to copy in

Tuesday Sept 19 - EPCOT

2006-10-18T08:54:00.000-05:00

EPCOT = Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.

Ok, maybe EPCOT isn't exactly what Walt Disney had invisioned when he came up with the idea, but it is still one of my favorites. As a matter of fact, I have a hard time picking a favorite between Magic Kingdom and Epcot. And I knew that my kids would love EPCOT as well.

We started our morning with the too early wakeup call, just like the other mornings. Thanks Stitch (with a little bit of Mickey thrown in). I really expected that the kids would just jump out of bed and rush to get ready each morning ... but we had to practically drag them out of bed each morning. What is wrong with you people??? WE'RE AT DISNEY AND WE'VE GOT THINGS TO SEE!!

Another Extra Magic Hour early morning day, and another day when we left later than we had planned. Still, we were in front of the big golf ball (otherwise known as Spaceship Earth) before 9 am / the official opening time.

I had my plans all made out - the best rides to hit in the best order to avoid long lines. Now, EPCOT is really spread out and that means a lot of walking. But, we've got a lot to do! So, we rush past Spaceship Earth and head to the back left corner of Futureworld to get to Test Track. The kids were excited about this, but a little apprehensive as well. Here we are, a really special family - we get to test out a new car, make sure it is safe and all.... The kids loved it. Philips favorite part was the outside portion where we test the car at top speed. After we were done with the ride, we rushed through the high priced showroom but were stopped in the gift shop where the kids saw TONS of things they liked. Zachary got his own dirvers license but Philip didn't want to waste $5 of his dollars on that. I got a few antenna toppers for my car ... to show what a Disney geek I am to the world (or those sitting around me in traffic).

Next, was Mission Space. Philip was too short to ride this, and Zachary decided against it. I wimped out and went for the "mild" side (without the intense G-force / less spinning). What a cool ride! REALLY COOL! While I rode, the kids played in the computer/space area at the exit. When I got off, Kiki decided to give it a try - she had been worried about motion sickness but I assured her that the mild side was not bad at all. While she rode, the kids and I continued to play in the computer play area. We sent a video postcard (from space, of course) to their Dad. Though I don't think he ever got it. This kind of play took up a LOT of our time, but it is one of the things I just love about EPCOT. There are so many little hands-on, interactive things to do. I swear my kids could spend a full 2 days in just the Futureworld side of EPCOT - if you stop to do everything that is there to do.

After we left Mission Space, we headed to see Ellen. So many people find Ellen's Universe of Energy ride boring, but I just love it. I did before it was "Ellen", and still now with the Ellen/Bill Nye and "Judy" Jeopardy twist. Sure, it is a long ride (I'm a long winded person ... maybe that is why it appeals to me), but I like it. We sat through the pre-show show (WHY can't they let you SIT on the ground during this? It is a little long, but still worth it. I'm not complaining (ok, maybe I was but still.......) The kids got a little nervous as we went into the moving theater, but I assured them that this isn't a scary dinosaur ride - nothing is jumping out at us, and we don't move fast at all. This ride is also a great way to rest your feet and get into the air conditioning. It's almost 45 minutes long.

After Energy, we headed towards The Land. We have an ADR (reservations) at the rotating restaurant "Garden Grill" located on the second floor. It is a spinning restaurant and we get to see some of the ride as we spin over it, from our seat. While eating, we have several visits from Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. The food was FABULOUS!! We ordered seconds of the steak, the sugar snaps (the BEST green beans if you ask me), and the baby carrots. The turkey with cranberry relish was out of this world. The kids get to build/decorate their own cupcake and Kiki and I shared a fabulous puff pastry with custard cream. Oh .... and I had a nice relaxing grown up beverage (a Mango-rita, which Pluto gave me a hard time about ... hey, it was AFTER noon - somewhere around 2:30).

When we finished our meal, we went and got in line for The Land, the boat ride. I really miss this having a live narration. I found that other visitors found it less rude to talk over a recorded voice than to talk over a live person talking (ok - maybe I'm assuming the best in people, but I'd like to believe that they would not talk so loud over a real person - maybe they would have). Still, it is a lovely ride. The kids loved that they were seeing how the food we had just eaten in the restaurant was grown in the futuristic-like growing conditions. As soon as the ride was done, Philip proclaimed that he wanted to go AGAIN - now! Awww, my son loves the education stuff too, warmed my heart.

I went on Soarin' alone - kind of made me sad that no one else wanted to ride. But I loved it! It is just the BEST ride. When Zachary realized what ride he had passed on ("The Hang-gliding Ride"), he was very disappointed. Ok, we'll come back to it.

We went to the Living Seas to see Crush. This was a GREAT show. We had to wait a bit, a lightbulb was out in the theater and they had to get someone in to fix it. But the wait was WELL worth it! Kiki got the whole thing on video. I was really glad that Zachary was the first kid picked to ask Crush a question. The interaction was amazing. Zachary asked how turtles and fish swim. The funny thing was the next girl asked the same exact question. The look on Crush's face was priceless!

....More EPCOT coming soon...

Monday Sept 18 .. Animal Kingdom (and work again)

2006-09-18T16:24:00.000-05:00

So it is now Monday September 18th. We have finished with our Magic Kingdom visits.

I have to work from 3 pm to 8 pm at the convention, so we have plans to hit Animal Kingdom EARLY (it is morning Extra Magic Hours on Monday at Animal Kingdom - normally opens at 9 am, but today, just for us-and all of the people staying on Disney property- it is opening at 8 am.)

Yeah yeah, once again, NO WAY the kids are getting up early enough to get there for 8. However, we did do pretty well. It was still before 9 when we got to Animal Kingdom and started making our way into the park.

This was my first ever visit to Animal Kingdom. High on my list were a few things that the kids could not do. But also included some things that the kids COULD do and I wanted to do with them. The plan was to hit the park and do the "must do" things before I had to leave around lunchtime. I'd then catch the bus back to the resort for a meal, to shower, and get ready to work.

As we walk in, we start towards the tree. We did stop and look at a few cool things, but moved towards Africa. We were going to ride on Safari. Both Kiki and I had read that seeing it first thing in the morning is the best way to actually get to see animals on the ride. It was REALLY REALLY hot and there was a chance of the animals all hanging back in the shade.

We saw elephants, a lion or two, a rhino that was intent on blocking the road (and another one off to the side), and several other really cool animals. Of course nothing like the real African Safari I went on in 1984, but a neat ride. We had virtually no wait to get on it, and the ride took about 20 or 25 minutes.

After we got off, we made a bathroom break, walked through the African village and bought a snack.

We then headed to the Tree of Life, where we wanted to see the It's A Bug's Life 3D movie. They did a great job - it was a good show. I knew about the hornets/bees "stinger" (in the back of the seat) so I was sitting up during that part of the show. Poor Philip, yelled at me (not in a made/mean way) "that chair poked me in the back!!".

Next ... Dinosaur. The Dinosaur ride was really neat with lots of animatronic dino's, loud noises, steam/smoke/etc, and a couple of surprises. The ride picture came out pretty funny, so the sucker that I am, I bought it. We also rode Triceratops - a Dumbo-like ride that spins in circules. I wanted to ride the Primevil Whirl which is a mini-roller-coaster of sorts with a spinning cart. But the kids didn't want to ride it, so we skipped it. The plan was for the kids to come back to the Dinosaur section of the park after I left. They had all afternoon to dig for dino bones in the dig site. I was on a mission to catch the rides that I could before I left.

Next ... Expedition Everest, I hoped. But, we got there and the line was 45 minutes long. I only had enough time for one long-line/big-wait ride and then I had to leave. We still had to ride Kali Rapids. The sign said that the line was 45 minutes long, we got in the line and the guy handed me a badge on a string and told me to turn it in at the front. I figured out it was used to guage the length of the lines. We walked the long trek down the qeue but ended up pretty much walking on to the ride - no wait at all. It was a fun ride - Kiki got SOAKED. My legs were soaked, and the front of my shirt, but Kiki and Zachary also got splashed all the way down the front. Thank goodness we were all wearing crocs.

It was time for me to head back. I walked to the front and left, While Kiki and the kids headed off in another direction in the park to finish their day of fun.

I'd pretty much dried by the time I got back to the hotel, but I was going to be rushed. I ordered room service, took a shower and got myself ready to go. I got to the convention center and my co-worker told me that I could go early (I'd ended up having to work all of the day before by myself because of an emergency). I worked until 6 pm - then went back to the room. I got there and Kiki and the kids were in the room, doing homework. We decided to go to the hotel food court for dinner - it was pretty good and they had a big selection. We all walked down to the Pepper Market for dinner. After dinner, we headed back to the room and had a fairly early evening. We'd talked about going swimming or something, but that just wasn't happening.

Sunday Sept 17 ... Work and evening Magic

2006-09-17T13:43:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning, I STILL had trouble getting up even though we had made Saturday night a fairly early night. But, it was a morning that we could sleep in a little.

I had to actually work this day (imagine that ... making me work after paying for me to fly to Orlando and stay at Disney). The expo started at 11 am Sunday, and I needed to get down there and set up the table-top display in time for it to open at 11. I'd called down to the business center/package service desk Saturday and they said they would deliver the boxes to the booth.

I got dressed for the show, and made the trek from our building to the convention center located near the front lobby of the hotel. Quite a walk. By the time I made it back to where our booth was in the correct hall, I had blisters. I had been wearing "crocs" which were extremely comfortable but couldn't do that in my pantsuit that I was wearing for work.

I got there about 9 or 9:15 and was setting up the booth. Not long after I got there, my sister and two kids walk into the hall with the lady who had provided my badge at the registration desk. My co-worker had a really bad emergency and would be at the hospital. My cell phone was dead (I forgot my charger!! EEK!!) so my sister left me hers so that I could call and talk to Evelyn.

Kiki then left the hall and took the kids to the pool. Philip held on to my leg and said "I want to stay here and work with you..." (not allowed, and absolutely not in a tanktop and bathing suit!). Finally, Kiki bribed him with something (ice cream or some sort of treat maybe??) and they headed off to the really cool swimming pool.

Their plan was to hang out at the pool, swim, have lunch, and then head to Magic Kingdom to ride a few more rides or see more of the Kingdom before I got there. I had to work until 5 pm, and would meet them in Magic Kingdom when I got off. We had dinner reservasions at Tony's at 6:15 or 6:30.

I left the convention center right at 5, rushed back to the room to change into something more comfortable (and get those horrible blister causing shoes off of my feet). I then rushed to the bus stop, hop on a bus (lucked out, did not have to wait for more than a minute or two) and rode over to the Magic Kingdom. I got there and found Zachary, Philip, and Kiki right in front of Tony's, taking pictures at the Goofy Statue on the bench. They were also searching for a Hidden Mickey that was supposed to be there, but so far, they hadn't found it. It was almost time for our reservation so Kiki went inside to put in our name. We went inside to wait in the air conditioning (this restaurant is "Tony's" from Lady & The Tramp, and the movie was playing in the lobby). We got a little worried because they'd started to seat some people outside. It was HOT! REALLY HOT! After having rushed from the resort, I was not looking forward to eating outside. I'd had no real food to eat that day, and sitting outside would have killed my appetite. Not that I couldn't stand to have my appetite killed every now and then ... but I'd been looking forward to this meal.

They called our name ... and *whew* an inside table. Kiki is allergic to tomatoes, fish, and to chicken (among other things), so the waiter said he'd send the chef out to talk to us. This is the standard practice for those dining with food allergies. The chef will come out, discuss the allergy, and discuss menu options. Though we knew Kiki would have a tough time with this one ... an Italian restaurant.

The chef was held up and it took a really long time for him to come out. The waiter kept coming to apologize. Really, we were catching up on the day (the kids telling me all about the pool), and just chit-chatting. I hadn't realized how long it had been, and we were not upset by this. The chef finally came, and Kiki ended up with the steak. We ordered the calamari, I ordered the Chicken Florentine, Philip had spaghetti and meatballs, and Zachary had the ravioli's. The calamari was outstanding!! Zachary tried it and liked it, and as expected, Philip, my little picky eater wouldn't even touch it.

The manager of the restaurant came by and apologized for the long delay with the chef. We insisted that it was not a problem (I didn't even notice, really). But, he said that it was much longer than they found acceptible, and he gave us a special fast pass - good to bypass any ride line. He said that he hoped it would make up for the time we lost. They were really wonderful there. We thanked him and Kiki put it in her purse. Really ... we encountered no long lines so it wasn't even needed (great scrapbook material though - we kept it).

After dinner, we walked out of Tony's and found that it was dark, and that people were lining up, standing and waiting. We realized that it was time for Wishes, the fireworks show. We watched it while standing just in front of the train station. A somewhat decent view - and it was a magical show.

Finally, we started our last walk up Main Street (for this trip anyway ;) ). The kids were begging to do Buzz Lightyear again, so we went back to Tomorrowland. We got stuck on it this time, and I got a really high score.

I convinced Zachary to try Splash Mountain with me, and he really did like it, though I don't think he saw too much ... I had to keep reminding him to open his eyes. Philip wouldn't ride it, much to my disappointment me. This ride is just SO classic Disney to me. Full of really fun details, long (something like 12 minutes), with just a bit of thrill. I couldn't get either to ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which surprised me because they both wanted to ride this after seeing it on the planning DVD.

We did a few other things, then Philip was getting tired. He said he wanted to go back to the hotel. Zachary wanted to ride Buzz AGAIN. So, we split up. Zachary and I headed back to Buzz, but saw Mickey's Philharmagic (the 3D show) was about to start and made a detour. We watched that again and then headed to Tomorrowland. Unfortunately, by the time we got there (with a few minor detours on the way), it was closed down. The rides in the area were all shutting down, the night was over.

So, a little disappointed, but not terribly so (he took it really well), we headed back to the resort. It was a long ride back, just because we were so tired. We got back to the resort and crashed.

Tomorrow, an early morning for Animal Kingdom....

Saturday Sept 16 ... Magic Kindgom part II

2006-09-16T19:00:00.000-05:00

after lunch...

the kids were asking to ride buzz lightyear again. So we started heading from Adventureland towards Tomorrowland. That brings us through Fantasyland, where we stopped for a ride on It's A Small World. Ok, call me a geek. Yes, it is hoaky. Yes, it is sappy. And I LOVE it. Again, maybe it's the nostalgia thing. This is one of the few rides I really remember riding when I was 4 in Disneyland. I was so excited to see my kids face for this, their first ever It's A Small World ride. This ride screams Disney. BOOM!!!!! That's my bubble bursting. Now, remember my kids are only 6 and 7. And do you know what they said as we got off? "I hated that. How boring. That ride is just stupid." Now, that is the reaction I expect from a "too cool for words" 14 year old boy. But, these are my babies. I made a point to bring them while still young (and for Philip, too short to ride Space Mountain) so that they could experience their innocent child in Disneyworld. Nope, this ride was "stupid and boring". What a dissapointment (for me - they had no expectations).

Well ... on to Buzz ... that is where we were heading. Hey, maybe Buzz is the reason they thought It's a Small World was stupid and boring - it's his fault, maybe I need to hunt him down since he's to blame - forget shooting at Zurg!. So ... off we go.

Hey kids, there is the Peter Pan ride, it's really cool. Umm ... no mom. :( Ok. I'm not going to push, especially given that Snow White scared them and Small world was "stupid".

Turn the corner, "Oh Wait, there is Philharmagic." The really cool 3D theater show that I've heard so much about. "Sorry kids, Mom has just got to try this." It is a new attraction since my last trip to Disneyworld. The kids are actually interested in trying this. Why? They get to wear 3D glasses! (Thanks to IMAX - they remembered the cool 3D bug movie we watched at the IMax theater back home). Virtually no line - less than a 10 minute wait. YAY!!

Disney really goes into so much detail with these shows. The water droplets, the smells (I WANT that pie!), the music, the bursts of air and smell with the champagne corks, just everything. Too bad my contacts were giving me fits. They were dry and making my eyes 'tired' and things felt a little blurry. The 3D effects seemed off to me, but not to the kids. It still was a great show. The diversion was a good one Mom, unlike the "boring and stupid" Small World. No complaints about the Buzz delay this time.

Still ... on to Buzz. Finally, we are back in Tomorrowland. While there, we ride Buzz again (and when I jokingly suggested Stitch's Great Escape again ... NO!!!!!!!, ok, just checking ;) ). We ride the Transit Authority again, a good place to sit and relax. Last night was a late night after and early morning and very long day. We had plans to head back to the resort for a nap before our early dinner reservations, but it was becoming clear that we just wouldn't have enough time to do that. So, we needed to find some relaxing things we could do around the park to kill some time.

First stop ... Carousel of Progress. That lasts nearly 20 minutes. And it is another one of those nostalgic rides for me. The kids kind of liked it (didn't complain about it being boring or stupid). They may have even fallen asleep, though I don't think so. Philip had to go to the bathroom partway through the 3rd section. *sigh* You really can't get out (ok, you can for an emergency, but you just said for the first time you have to go, so you can hold it 5 minutes, right?). He held it but we ran for the bathroom when we got out.

While in that area, we got to meet and get autographs from Stitch and Buzz Lightyear (Buzz's is a stamp).

At this point, we decided to walk out of Magic Kingdom and take the Monorail to Epcot and back. Just for a chance to sit and "ride" and unwind. It is a nice little ride, and the kids really wanted to ride the monorail. We did that, and both kids fell asleep on the ride back. Now, we had just a bit of time left to kill. We hopped on the train at the entrance and rode it around once, and then to the next stop, which is the closest to Liberty Tree Tavern.

We went to dinner at Liberty Tree - it was really good. The forks were true colonial style, the theme was perfect. The meal was a Thanksgiving meal served family style. And it was good. We met Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale.

After dinner, we started back towards the front and went back to the resort. We were all tired and while we still had a LOT to see at Magic Kingdom, it isn't fun staying to see it if you are tired and cranky. So we went back to the resort and had an early night. It was needed.

Saturday Sept 16 ... Magic Kindgom part I

2006-09-16T11:30:00.000-05:00

Saturday Morning .... {I have pictures to add, but need to upload them}

I was tired, but had no trouble waking up. We had scheduled a Disney wake up call (Mickey Mouse and Stitch) but the kids wouldn't wake up to answer it. We did learn that there IS a snooze button on the wake up call ... just don't answer it and it will ring again in ten minutes. That was good to know, since I tend to REQUIRE the snooze at home, otherwise I would be really late every morning.

The kids finally woke up and heard the wake up call, but they were still so groggy and it happened so fast, that I don't think they "got" it. Stitch isn't my favorite character, I wish he wasn't so predominant in the wake up call. Bring back Mickey and the gang. ("It all started with a mouse....")

We got up, had cereal, and were on our way. Our first full day at Disneyworld!! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!! WHO'S EXCITED??? WE ARE!!!! Oh yeah, we're home now, I can calm down, right? Yes, we were all SUPER excited.

We headed for the bus stop to catch the bus to Magic Kingdom. I tried to get the kids to sit together for a picture at the bus stop, but they weren't cooperating a whole lot. They were just so excited. The love bugs were HORRIBLE at the bus stop. I actually didn't see them swarming right there (I did on some other areas of the WDW grounds - mostly on the bus), but the benches at the bus stops were covered with dead love bugs. I heard other people complaining about them - they are bad, but don't bug me TOO much. We have them pretty bad at home too, and while they are annoying, they are pretty much harmless - and I don't find them nearly as disgusting and things like cockroaches. blech

{insert picture here}

Walk in to Magic Kingdom. Wow, it is so hot and humid for so early in the day. yuck it's sticky....

Ok, here we are, Magic Kingdom. We head in, but stop for a couple of pictures at the castle.

Where to first? Last night we spent a lot of our time in Tomorrowland. While the kids were already asking for Buzz Lightyear again, we convinced them to head to a land we didn't really have time to explore. PIRATES! YAY! That convinced them.

Into Adventureland. Kiki stopped at a Kiosk to look at something and the kids found wooden guns. They begged for them. Before the trip, I kept saying that I'm not going to use the word "No". We are going to have a fun and positive experience. But ... I'm NOT carrying two wooden rifles around all day. Sorry ... but no. There's that word. Uh-oh. I hated being the mean mom, but I would hate even worse carrying those stupid things all day. I decided that part of the problem was the sitting and waiting while Kiki was looking (and in no way her fault). We were sitting on a bench right at the Adventureland souvenier stand, of course that is tempting for the kids. So, when she was done, I told her that next time, I'll keep going on with the kids (to the next "non-souvenier thing"), so that they weren't left bored with nothing to do but look at things I wouldn't let them buy. LOL She could then catch up to us. That works. She said she would do the same if I wanted to stop to look at something. A much better scenario.

We move on and the kids see the Treehouse. They want to stop. Not the most exciting thing at Disney, but the details are AMAZING. It takes a while to get through it, and when we were almost to the top, Philip starts to freak a bit. He is afraid of heights, and he made the mistake we all know you shouldn't do ... he looked DOWN. OH NO!! He froze, and held on to the rail and couldn't move his feet. Ok, this is a narrow walkway/staircase and there is this long line of people behind us. The treehouse is neat and detailed, but people don't want to be stuck on this non-headliner attraction. I encourage him to look towards the center of the tree, facing the handrail, and to walk up without looking around. He wants down NOW! Ok, but this is a treehouse - no elevator. You got up on the stairs, you have to go down on the stairs. So, he wanted to turn around and go down. Can't do that. See that long line of people behind us? They are coming this way and the walkway is too narrow for two direction traffic (especially with MY big butt!!). Only one more "up" section, I think. Everytime you think you are at the top, you turn a corner and there is another "up" flight. Keep moving...we'll get to go down soon. Finally, the stairway is heading back down.

Ok, we're out. Look - there, you can ride on Magic carpets from Aladin (ok, this just doesn't seem very "Adventureland" to me - but I guess it is where Disney felt it fit best? The kids don't want to ride. Really? Are you sure? Nope. So, we skip the carpets.

Alright, there is the Jungle Cruise. Kind of a wait, let's just get a Fastpass. I always find that the line for Jungle Cruise is HOT - all of that concrete or something, the covered area/shade just doesn't seem to do much to alleviate the heat. If I'm going to have to stand in a long line I want it to be INSIDE with airconditioning (and really, the lines aren't THAT long - it is the slow season and the park, while not empty, isn't super crowded). Grab the fastpass, and head over to the nearby Pirates of the Caribbean.

WOOHOO!! I've been waiting for this. The re-done Pirates, with Jack Sparrow making an appearance. The waterfall with Davy Jones is really cool - and looks like a real water fall. I was starting to panic because I hadn't put my camera inside the ziplock bag. I don't remember hearing of people coming off of this ride wet, but there is a waterfall in front of us. That was well done. Ok, the integrity of the ride (my favorite little details) have remained in tact. And the Jack Sparrow additions are cool.

We come out of Pirates and see Wendy and Peter Pan. Zachary wants to get their autograph, so we get in line. The CM tells us that Peter and Wendy are about to have to go inside for a bit, but will be back out a bit later. We *might* make it through the line if the line moves fast enough. At this point Philip is being whiney and doesn't want to get their autograph. But Zachary does. It's hot. God it's hot. Ugh. Being pulled in two different directions, standing in this hot sun, while the kids fight over standing in a line. Zachary decides to give it up. I feel bad, he is always the one giving in to Philip who is so demanding - and even worse that as the mom I let him do it just to avoid the confrontation with Philip. Philip has GOT to learn he can't always have his way. I point out to him that he needs to THANK his brother and be appreciative, because once again, Zachary gave up something he wanted to do, because of Philip. I don't think that sunk in though. :(

Then, who do we see with a VERY short line!?!?? Captain Hook and Mr. Smee! Zachary was more excited about them than Peter and Wendy anyway. So ... into that line. Philip starts to get afraid. Maybe it was Hook's big evil grin. But he was afraid. But, thankfully he didn't get all irritable because Zachary wanted to meet them. He just quietly sat back on the bench and waited.

Just as we were walking away from Hook and Smee, there is some BIG commotion. Pan goes running behind a fence and slams the gate, with a CM running after him, yelling to give back the hook! The CM runs full force into the gate and slams his body against it, then falling to the ground. The poor guy looked SOOOOO hot in his uniform, and he was running and really playing it up. There is a family with the CM carrying what looks it could be a kind of treasure map. I'd read about the "DISNEY'S FAMILY MAGIC TOUR" and this looked like what this was. One family was walking around with a CM, who was talking to them and having a lot of interaction. Disney's site describes this as "Put on your detective hat as you are immersed in this interactive scavenger hunt. Your Disney trivia knowledge is put to the test as you search high and low for clues in this adventure to save the Magic Kingdom® Park. Kids of all ages enjoy this very magical and very Disney tour. " I've read that the scavenger hunt involved Peter Pan and Captain Hook, so I'm betting that is what this was. This looked like something I would love to do with the kids on a future trip. It runs about $30 each for 2-1/2 hours. NOT something to do when you don't have a lot of time in the parks. But for another trip (yes, we are talking "next time" already, at least the kids and I are).

On to the Jungle Cruise... Fast pass, walk right on. It is corny and hoaky and full of very obviously fake animals. The tour guide has lots of corny jokes, but this guys delivery was pretty good. I still like the ride, but am pretty sure it is strictly for the nostalgia factor. Really, the kids seemed pretty bored.

After the Jungle Cruise, the kids tried the remote control boats just outside the exit. What a total waste of money. The steering wheels work pretty well if you know how to steer, even just a little. But, to turn right, my kids would both spin the steering wheel to the right at full blast, 20 or 30 times. The boat would spin in circles to the right. So, they'd (obviously the thing to do, right??) spin it 20 or 30 times full speed to the left, causing the boat to just spin in the opposite direction. Half the time they couldn't figure out which boat was theirs (um, the only two MOVING - we are the only ones here). But since they'd push their boat into an obstacle and try to move forward full speed ahead, it wasn't very clear to them. Then, they'd move it from forward to reverse over and over and over again....without any time in between for the boat to actually move. Nope, they won't be driving ANYTIME soon!! Ugh. No, I won't give you another $1 coin to waste on that again. Yes, we still have the extra tokens I got when I had to convert bills to coins so you could play with these boats. But, I find it a better value to save the remaining tokens as scrapbook embellishments than to dump this in the machine so you can spin a steering wheel in circles. You know, you can spin the steering wheel with nothing happening WITHOUT putting money in it.

Enough of that ... let's move on.

We are trying to decide where to go next. We spot Jack Sparrow outside of Pirates, giving a demonstration and entertaining guests. But the crowd is pretty big. The kids can't see from the ground behind the 5 people deep crowd, and we appeared to have missed most of the show anyway. So, we move on. The kids are starting to say that they are hungry. To Pecos Bill's for burgers (BBQ for me). Wow those burgers are big!! They each ate 1/3, and threw out 2/3 (and really, ate enough for me to be satisfied with how much they ate). Next time, they are splitting a burger.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

2006-09-15T21:30:00.000-05:00

FRIDAY NIGHT ... still September 15...

So, just about 7 pm, we head into Magic Kingdom. As our special tickets are scanned at the turnstile, they give us each a bright orange wristband. This says that we are supposed to be there. They are handing out trick or treat bags as we walk up to the train station overpass.

The square just on the other side of the train station isn't too packed, and there is fog and scary Halloween music playing. We start into the park, and the kids are beyond excitement.

The treck up main street was a bit like fish swimming upstream. There was a mass exodus of the day park visitors. The Halloween party is a special event / "hard ticket" event, which means that the regular admisssion ticket is not good for the night of the party. Magic Kingdom was closing down earlier than their normal evening hours, just for the party.

Once we squeezed our way up main street, past all of the people exiting, our wrist bands were checked again and we were ushered into Tomorrowland. There, we rode Buzz Lightyear, Stitch (were we were in line with another pirate, really nice guy in a great costume), Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and I TRIED to get Zachary to ride on space mountain, but that didn't happen. Oh well, I think I can next time. Kiki rode space mountain while I took the kids through the trick or treat line just outside of the Carousel of Progress (which wasn't open for this). The line there for candy was the longest I saw all night.

It rained a little harder than comfortable for ignoring the drops, and we spent a little bit of time standing under the Transit Authority overpass. I had forgotten the ponchos at the room, but to be honest, I HATE being damp and hot under as plastic poncho. I'd rather just get wet, and then allow my clothes to BREATH as they are drying off. I kept repeating the mantra, we won't melt...let's march on. But secretly, I wasn't enjoying the rain. LOL

From Tomorrowland, we headed over to Mickey's Toon Town, which is right next to Tomorrowland. We got the kids on Goofy's Barnstormer and they loved it. Philip I think more so than Zachary, and Zachary was the one who was less afraid to try it. Philip laughed and laughed through the entire ride, saying "I'm crazy for doing this. I'm nuts. I can't believe I'm riding this." But he laughed and laughed the entire time. The line was just non-existent for the ride, and we tried to get them to go again, but they were ready to move on.

The next stop was a trick or treat station inside a ship (is that Donald's ship? I can't remember). The water spouts weren't going on it, which was a good thing. We were wet enough. Then, a CM (Cast Member) standing in front of Mickey's tent informed us that Mickey was in and available. The line there was probably the longeset line we stood in all night. It wasn't bad at all, but it took a good 15 minutes to get finished with that, if not a bit longer. Mickey was dressed up like a scarecrow, and the kids were ready with their autograph books.

After Toontown, we headed to the Haunted Mansion. On the way there, we were stopped by CM's who had major walkways blocked off. It was time for Hallowishes. This was the best fireworks show I've ever seen, and we were NOT in an ideal spot. We were stuck behind the castle, and a big part of the show happens in front of the castle. It is designed to best be viewed from in front of the castle with all of the fireworks going off at the castle and behind it. But from our vantage point we were between where the fireworks were blasted off from - kind of in the middle of if. Actually, some were shot off of the roof of the buildings we were standing right next to (such as Peter Pan's Flight). The show went on for a LONG time, and there fireworks were just amazing. I wish I was at a place where I could have used my little tripod and taken a few pictures, but my vantage point wasn't that great (as far as pictures went), and I was standing in a crowd, all looking up.

Once the fireworks were done, we continued on to the Haunted Mansion. Again, there was no line. We walked right up, and into the stretching room for the pre-ride 'show'. The kids had been really excited about this ride, having seen it many many MANY times on their Disneyland Fun Sing-A-Long video tape. But, in the end, it was just a bit too scary for them. They rode, and were gracious about it, but said that they did NOT want to go again. It is still one of my favorite rides. Wait, what am I saying? I say that about a LOT of rides. Over half of the rides at Disney are considered "one of my favorite rides". Don't make me pick. ;)

The line for the party picture in front of the Haunted Mansion was pretty long and we decided not to wait. I'm sorry now that I didn't because I've seen how some came out and it was a great picture. We headed to Main Street.

Kiki had plans to meet up with a couple of people at Casey's (hot dog stand on Main Street) for the 2nd parade of the evening. Zachary was hungry, and Philip said he was, but decided against eating. I took Zachary and Philip to get something to eat and drink, and we sat at a table just outside Casey's while Kiki searched out the people she was meeting. While Zachary was eating, the Headless Horseman came riding up the parade route. I'd heard about this, and it was an amazing sight. The horse was HUGE, and the costume was great. He was moving fast, though I heard not as fast as normal because of the wet pavement. I was actually surprised to see him at all since I'd heard he doesn't ride when it has rained.

The group Kiki had met up with had a spot staked out for the parade right on the street, and allowed Zachary and Philip to sit on the curb and watch with them. I thougth that was really great (since we waited to last minute to mosey up - but I wanted them to eat something first). The parade was really good. LOTS of villians. Most of my pictures did not come out great. I still need to learn the proper settings for my camera for night 'movement' shots. Most of the pictures show lots of swirls where there had been people. But Kiki did get some good shots with her camera (and she had a better vantage point than me). I did get a couple that showed mainstreet, all dark and set up for the parade. It looked really cool, and only a little erie.

The kids were getting tired and we had plans to head back to Magic Kingdom early Saturday morning. So we headed back to the hotel room. On the bus, I ran into Evelyn, the lady from work who was there to work the tradeshow with me. She was with her oldest daughter and her grandson. We talked the whole way back to the resort, and only a little bit about work, mostly about what they had done earlier in the week at the parks.

The kids were REALLY tired at this point, and unwound rather fast. I, on the other hand, was having a hard time unwinding.

Disney trip ... continued...Downtown Disney

2006-09-15T19:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we were just a bit later than I anticipated getting to Downtown Disney. We had a bit too much fun in the hotel room (ok ... hubby was NOT with me, just me, the kids, and my sis - so not THAT kind of fun ... get your head out of the gutter).

We had a great package from "Mickey" waiting for us when we got in the room. We spent some time going through that, taking pictures of the room (for the scrapbook - and you've got to do that before you do ANYTHING else - it is never as neat and tidy as it is the minute you walk into it the first time).

Just as we were about to leave, our luggage arrived. SOOOOOO fast. I'd read reports about it taking a long time to get luggage, but we definitely beat the 'promised' 3 hour window. Ok, luggage is here, we've got to dig for a few things before we go.

Finally ... walk to the bus stop to catch a ride to Downtown Disney.

I had a list of things to look for. And I didn't get to do most of them. First was a pirate costume for the kids for the (still surprise at this point) party that night ... Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP as abbreviated on the Disney message board where I got all of my tips and tricks for this trip). Darn, the costumes all looked EXTREMELY hot. And it was HOT. Did I say HOT? I meant HHHHHOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!! Like, melting in the sun in under 30 seconds, hair dripping wet, face melting off, humid, clothes stick to places you don't want to be touched ... HOT! Now, you're probably saying, she lives in New Orleans. Come on. Yep, I do. And I've learned not to go outside unless absolutely necessary. We go from an air conditioned house, straight into an air conditioned car, and run into an air conditioned building. Who stays outside in this heat? What was I thinking? Oh yeah, nearly free Disney trip. That's what I was thinking.

Ok, but I still don't have to actually LIKE the heat. (Though ignoring it didn't make it go away, as much as I tried).

So, the pirate costumes were out. I knew the kids would not make it in that heat. Just way too hot for plastic-backed, fake velvet. EWWWWW!!! But they were happy with the alternative. Pirates of the Caribbean T-shirts, with pirate hats (Zachary- Mickey ears with gold earing and bandana, and Philip-regular pirates hat). They also got the swords (which I was NOT going to carry around the party), Capt Hook hooks for their hands (also too hot to deal with for the party), leather eye patches with their names engraved, leather band bracelets also with their names engraved, and a few other pirate accessories. We did this at World of Disney, a HUGE store in Downtown Disney with it's own little pirate section.

Kiki took FOREVER checking out (well, she didn't - the clerk walked away and disappeared, so she had to start over again waiting in another line). I waited outside with the kids who couldn't WAIT to do their sword fighting. *rollseyes*

It was then time to head to Rainforest Cafe where we had late lunch plans. Kiki met us there just as we were about to get our table. I had a Margarita in a flashing/blinking cup (that I got to keep, now of course the kids are going to fight over this, but I'm not buying another $12 drink just to get another one). The kids LOVED the Rainforest theme. The thunderstorms went off every 22 minutes, and Zachary made a big deal about keeping time and knowing with the next one would come. The animals came to life every so often. Our table was situated right next to a couple of the big elephants. I knew that the kids would enjoy this, and they did.

After lunch, we started back towards the bus to go back to the hotel. We had planned to get to Magic Kingdom about 5:30 for the party, but it was becoming clear that it would not be possible. We went back to the room, and started getting dressed. It was somewhere around this time when we told the kids about the party. They didnt think they were going to a Disneyworld PARK until the next day. They were VERY excited.

We got to Magic Kingdom right about 7 pm.

Disney trip continued ... we land.

2006-09-15T16:48:00.000-05:00

The flight was nice, once the seating was settled, the kids were good. Kiki and I got to talk to each other, and I got to talk to the kids. They were really excited the whole flight.

We landed a bit early (thank you nice pilot LOL). I have heard some complaints about Disney's Magical Express (also known as DME - Disney's free shuttle bus service to the resorts if staying on property), but it was a GREAT experience for us. Not having to wait at baggage claim was such a nice treat. We followed the directions I had to the check-in. An employee directed me to the check-in, and Kiki and the kids to a lounge area to sit and wait. The line was non-existant and we were checked in almost immediately. We then went straight to a waiting bus (now, here, we were one of the last to board, so I am pretty sure the others had been waiting a while, but we took off not long after we boarded the bus). The driver put our carry-on luggage under the bus and we were on our way. Just a few stops to drop off people at another resort or two and we were at Coronado Springs Resort.

I'd also heard that check-in lines at our resort could be bad. But that wasn't the case. I walked right up (and I swear I didn't cut in any line), and was helped but a REALLY nice lady. We got all checked in. And what a nice surprise A WATER VIEW ROOM. I had a standard view (translation: parking lot) booked. Free upgrade. YAY!!

The view from our hotel room window/door:

We were off to our room to get settled in, with plans to head straight to Downtown Disney......

(back later for more).

Disney trip - Friday Sept 15.

2006-09-15T10:30:00.000-05:00

Disneyworld was fabulous. Everything we planned/expected.

Friday - September 15.

Kiki came over Thursday night to spend the night, because we had to leave for the airport so early in the morning and she lives an hour north of me. We were hoping that would give her an extra hour of sleep in the morning ... but both of use were so excited that we were awake around 4:30, well before the alarm went off. We'd packed up the car the night before, with the exception of my cellphone charger (had it plugged in), toothbrushes, last minute make up kit (we'd be taking pictures, I couldn't NOT have make-up on when we left the house), etc.

The kids on the otherhand struggled to get up. Once Philip was awake enough to realize it was D-Day, he jumped up and tried to get his brother to wake up. Zachary wouldn't budge. I took a while to get him moving. Last minute packing happened and we were off to the airport.

We parked at Park-N-Fly, and caught the shuttle to curbside check-in. The line wasn't too bad there, just a few people in front of us. We figured we had it made. Usually when I fly out that early in the morning, the security lines aren't too bad. We got inside and the security line for our terminal was HUGE. Wrapping through parts of the airport. The other terminals had virtually no line. I explained to the kids everything they would have to do once we got to the front. I didn't want to have to argue about removing shoes with a long line of people behind us. I explained that their backpacks would go on the conveyor belt, as well as their shoes, and that they would have to walk through the metal detector alone. That went well. *whew*

We were in the A group (flying the cattle-call airlines Southwest), and selected a row where the kids and I sat in one row, with Kiki across the aisle from me. ACK! The fighting over the window seat. What was I thinking? Zachary was in the window seat, Philip cried. Finally, Zachary switched with him (his own doing, I was telling Philip that he would get the window on the way back). Zachary said he'd rather sit next to me anyway. He's so sweet. We took off and the look of excitement on the kid's faces was great. Kiki did remember to take a couple of pictures (my camera was packed away in the camera bag, which was packed away snugly in the rolling carry-on suitcase located in the bin above my head).

*more to come*....

Another next step with the house.

2006-09-08T14:27:00.000-05:00

I spoke with my contractor today to let him know that we have the cable-lock scheduled, and to start making arrangements to schedule to have carpet installed upstairs. I am a little concerned - he told me that they are no longer in business as Roughneck Construction (their name ... what was I thinking????? - I know!! but the guy's family lives in our subdivision so and they were doing several houses that flooded in the neighborhood). He said that the carpenters he used are still in business, and he is still doing general contracting but his partner has moved on and the business is dissolved. If my roof leaks in 2 years, who do I call? I'm starting to get really worried.

They also hadn't completed the work that they started, but I also hadn't finished paying them (since it wasn't complete).

I went ahead and had him schedule the carpet installers for a few weeks from now, but I think I'll handle getting tile installers on my own, get my own plumber to re-install the plumbing downstairs, and will just let them finish fixing what we were unhappy with (some of the carpentry), and install the kitchen cabinets.

Again ... at least we are moving forward again.

And ... ONE WEEK UNTIL WE LEAVE FOR DISNEYWORLD!!! I'm going to finish packing almost everything this weekend. I'll just have to throw some of my clothes, and toiletries in last minute.

Good news ... we have a date

2006-09-06T17:08:00.000-05:00

I finally spoke with the shoring company (foundation leveling/raising contractor), Cable-Lock today. We have a date. We are scheduled for the week of November 13. Chris was a bit disappointed because this probably means that we won't be finished in time for Christmas, but I'm a bit hopeful. I'm going to call our contractor tomorrow and let him know, and see if the flooring and remaining painting/trim can be scheduled for late November or early December. And make arrangements for a plumber as soon as the tile is completed. We may not be completely done by Christmas, but it is possible that we will be mostly done. Maybe I'm a bit optimistic (and we all know that Chris is extremely pessimistic). But maybe by New Years at most? Really, I think (maybe I'm wrong) that once the slab is level, as long as we don't have scheduling conflicts, that the remaining interior work won't take more than 2-3 weeks. I do have to replace the plumbing under the house once the slab is back in place. But, that won't really affect any of the interior work.

The excitement is building...

2006-09-05T08:50:00.000-05:00

The kids and I are so very excited. We now have only 10 days until we leave for Disneyworld!!! I have a lot of things packed already, including quite a few surprises for the kids. All three of us talk about the trip a lot. We are a little sad that Chris can't go with us, but I don't think that he is. We are trying to convince him that we NEED another Disneyworld trip next spring, and that he NEEDS to come with us. I think that it will be easier to sway him once we come back with pictures and talk of our experiences.

I've got personalized "I can't wait" Disney shirts for each of the kids (to wear the day we fly to Disney). Those are hidden away and will be pulled out the night before we leave, after the kids are in bed, when I lay out their clothes for the morning. The Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party is a COMPLETE surprise to them. They know it exists, but think that it only happens in October because the Disney trip planner DVD says so. Only, I know that they added dates to it and that the first night of the party is our first night there. The kids will get to pick out costumes the morning of our first day, but won't know that they'll be wearing them that night.

I've also got a bunch of the "glow stick" necklaces and bracelets to surprise them with (I bought a bunch really cheap, Disney sells them for about $5 each - so I'm bringing a supply with us). The kids each have their spending money put aside, and I've got a list of things we want to remember to get. No child should have their first Disney trip without getting personalized Mickey Mouse ears (right?). What about Mom? I might even get a pair of Minney Mouse ears. Will I look like an idiot? Really, it is Disneyworld, the happiest place on earth. Who cares if I look like an idiot - as long as we are all having fun!!

10 MORE DAYS!!!! I'm having a hard time thinking about anything else.

It's been a year ... and quite a year at that.

2006-08-31T16:33:00.000-05:00

It's been a year ... and quite a year at that.

I just celebrated my 36th birthday, and this past year was certainly the strangest and most memorable of my life.

On my 35th birthday, we sat in fear and in shock over what was occurring in our city - and we were powerless to do anything about it. We were saddened, and scared, but we were so very lucky. Watching so many people being lifted from their rooftops by helicopters, or rescued from their attics by boats that floated as high as the roof - I knew that was uncomfortable as we were, we were all together, and we were safe.

This last year has been very trying. Not having a home to return to, dealing with contractors and insurance. Living with in-laws for months and months. Stress on our marriage.

From it, we've learned to be stronger. We've learned about ourselves, and we've learned about each other. Our marriage is stronger for it. I hope to never have to go through this again, but in a small way I'm glad I did. (NO - I would NOT choose the same path again, not that I chose a path to begin with, but if I had my choice, the events of the past year would not have happened).

This year, I had planned for my birthday to be fun and uplifting. It is hard when the rest of the city is mourning. The memorial services. The bells ringing all over the city, marking the time that various levies broke. There was no listening to the radio or watching tv, if you wanted to avoid coverage of the anniversary of Katrina. So I watched, and I cried.

Last week, we watched Spike Lee's 4-1/2 hour documentary. I am not a fan of his, but I was EXTREMELY impressed. The documentary was very well done. The interviews covered all angles, and all opinions. It was fair, and balanced. It showed the good and the bad - for everyone. I hope that everyone, all around the country takes the time to watch this. It isn't just about New Orleans, and my city. It is about our country, my country. Everyone can learn from the mistakes, from the tears, and from the warm hearts that opened up across the country. We watched this HBO documentary last week, though it did replay Tuesday night as well. Tuesday night we watched local coverage, even though I had planned not to. Chris said he just couldn't not watch. So of course the tears flowed - for both of us.

Finally, I went to the trailer and watched a cute Chick Flick (In Her Shoes). Something light and fun. That helped. It wasn't a big fun joyous birthday, but it was still much better than last year.

The next morning and Chris and I talked on our cell phones on my way to work, he said "This is it. Today is the day. I am tired of being depressed and it just can't continue." And his mood was much less somber Wednesday night. Things are looking up. This is a new day, a new year.

Well, I give up (not really)

2006-08-22T15:50:00.000-05:00

We got a final answer from our flood insurance company. After 6 months of "I'm looking into it" from our adjuster, they finally came back and told us NO. It can't be proven that the problem with our foundation/slab was caused by the flooding during Katrina. The structural report that I have is nearly 6 years old, so there "could have been normal settling over the last 6 years, and we don't cover normal settling". I did not think to hire an engineer during the less than 48 hours we had to evacuate. I know now that it is important to regularly hire an engineer to do an inspection of the house, to prove that it isn't already broken (at the cost of $2,000 each time). The fact that my doors did not slam shut on their own the day we evacuated, and they do now may very well be an indication that the slab moved during the flood, but there is no proof that I'm right in saying that it didn't happen before. The nails protruding out of the wall in my bedroom, and the cracks in the bedroom ceiling ... yep, the titled slab would have caused that. But again, there is absoutely no proof in my possession that shows that these things did not exist prior to the hurricane.

So, we are stuck. The cost to fix this is $30,000. The cabinets sitting in boxes in my living room can't be installed until the slab is level. The countertop can't be measured until the cabinets are installed. The tile can't be installed until the slab is level. The plumbing under the house can't be replaced until the slab is in place.

I did something that we didn't want to do, but at this point I just want my house FIXED and back to its pre-Katrina (pre-K as it is now known around here) condition. The SBA loan won't cover it - I can borrow about $7,000 of it at a low interest, but that isn't enough. We considered just a conventional second mortgage against the equity on the house, or refinancing. But the interest rates have gone up. We have only 14 years left on our mortgage (compared to the 30 we had when we bought the house 6 years ago), and if we refinanced we would have to spread it out further because of the increase in interest. I saved $78,000 when I refinanced and shortened the length of the loan. That is a step backwards.

So, I have 401K money that can be withdrawn without penalty because of our status as a huricane victim. I'll have 3 years to pay the income tax on it. So ... I took out the money to fix the slab. I've been putting into it since I was 19 years old. I'm only 36. I'll be putting into it for another 30 years. It isn't ideal, but it isn't horrible either. And I didn't come close to taking all of it out.

Now, we can move forward again. I've got a call in to Cable Lock to get an appointment scheduled. I've heard that the waiting list is now about 2 months. Maybe if things go right, we'll be back into our house just about a year after we got the FEMA trailer (sometime in mid-January). I'm not holding my breath, but MAYBE????

Still left to do ...
install new carpet upstairs and paint bedroom
level slab
replace plumbing under the house
install cabinets, then measure/order counter top
install tile file
install countertop
have new kitchen appliances delivered and install
install bathroom downstairs (toilet, sink)
finish the trim downstairs, install glass french doors in den
touch up painting downstairs
move furniture HOME!!
work on yard (need dirt/fill, new sod, new patio or deck, re-side the garage)

At least we are moving forward after being stuck with no progress for nearly 6 months.

Chicago

2006-07-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

I didn't get back until LATE last night. My 6:22 flight (supposed to arrive in New Orleans at 8:37) didn't board until about 7:30. There was bad weather in other parts of the country, and just south of Chicago not where we were) that had closed a lot of the flying "lanes" - slowing down incoming and outgoing plane traffic. LOTS of cancelled flights, the airport was full of people trying to re-book and hoping to get out last night.

The girl from the office that I was flying with said "at least we're stuck waiting here, the worst is when you get stuck waiting on the runway inside of the plane". MISTAKE (I later told her it was her fault).

Get on the plane, next to a group of about 10 thirty-something guys from Chicago heading to a weekend long bachelor party in New Orleans. Their party had started (actually, they hadn't been drinking yet - just having a real good time). We move away from the jetway and start taxing around runways (lots of them at O'Hare!).

Then, we come to a stop and the engines cut off. Outside of the window we can see airplanes all around us, parked. The pilot comes on the intercom and says "Sorry folks....." There were lots and lots of planes ahead of us, some have been waiting for hours. They have to take off before we can. One had been sitting there for 4-1/2 hours and had to go back to the terminal for more fuel. Though he expected at that point that our wait would be just an hour or so. The seat belt sign is off, feel free to move around the cabin, use cell-phones, etc. Stay in YOUR assigned cabin (no loitering in first class). Oh, and we will be serving dinner and beverages in first class - coach, you just have to wait until we take off (for drinks - no food will be served). Damn, I KNEW I should have grab that McDonald's burger from the stand across from the gate. I didn't want fast food and knew that Chris had cooked. I could wait until I got home for real food. Or that is what I told myself when I thought we were taking off at 7:15.

Bachelor party gets up and moves around. They are having fun. I just want to get home. I've got a huge blister on the BOTTOM of my foot from all of the walking I did in Chicago. I'm tired, and I'm hungry. Ok, I'll dig into the Leonardo DaVinci biography that I picked up after viewing the DaVinci exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. I'm tired, making serious reading a bit harder. Maybe I should have brought a light novel. Can't sleep on the plane ... what if I snore?

Boy it would be nice if they served us drinks right now. Oh, gotta call Chris and let him know. It is now after 8, and he thought I was in the air on my way home. I'll be even later than I said when I called just before boarding. Now, it's been an hour since the pilot told us "it will be an hour or so". How much of the "or so" will we have to endure?

Finally, the seat belt sign comes back on. It is nearly 9:30. The flight attendant makes an announcement, "it is our turn. Fasten seat belts, trays up, seat backs up...blah blah.." Lots of cheering! We start our taxi along the runway again. And we take off. The two hour flight seemed LONG. I was tired of sitting and my legs were getting stiff.

We landed around 11:30. By this time my legs and my butt HURT. I wanted to get up and walk around so bad. And I've got to pee. Don't want to wait in that long line to use that cramped stinky little bathroom. I can hold it, can't I? I think I just felt the plane drop. Could be starting our descent? Feels like it. Yes, I can wait.

The pilot comes on again, prepare for landing - seat backs up, tray tables up, fasten those seat belts, We will be on the ground in about 25 minutes. Maybe I should have taken the opportunity to use that little cramped bathroom with the bad smell. Can I wait 25 minutes? Sure, just don't think about it, not like I have a choice.

We finally landed. I made a run for the bathroom as soon as I could. But why is it whenever I land in our airport late at night, that the plane is ALWAYS placed at the gate at the farthest end of the terminal? No one else is there. It is a ghost terminal. Why can't we be parked at the first empty place? My feet hurt. And it's late. And this blister on the bottom of my foot is about 2 inches long and now feels like it is filled with fluid. Hurts to walk.... At least by the time we reached the baggage claim, our bags were there and people were getting their bags off of the belt. No standing around waiting for the belt to move this time.

I got a ride home and finally got my dinner about 1 am. And I left a message for my boss that I would be late in the morning.

The trip? It was mostly business. But I did have a bit of time to have some fun. I got to do some of the things that I haven't been able to do before. The Field Museum was great. We didn't get to see the Tut exhibit but we went through the rest of the museum's Egyptian exhibit. Then, we had dinner at Kinzie's Chop House (I've never been there before - and it was very good). We did something else I've never done before. A Chicago River/Lake Michigan boat tour. 90 minutes up and down the river and out into the lake, with information about the architecture and buildings on the river and lake shores. We did the 7:15 trip so it was an evening trip, as the sun went down and the skyline from the lake was beautiful. Sunday I took a cab down to the Museum of Science and Industry. Went through that and spent nearly 2 hours in the DaVinci exhibit. The DaVinci exhibit was well worth the extra $11. It was VERY interesting and I learned a lot. Most of it focused on his architectural/engineering designs and notebooks. He was so ahead of his time ....

Had several really good meals, from higher end places to the fun little neighborhood bar & grill we found (thanks to the security guard at the hotel) a few blocks behind our hotel.

I'm back to reality and back to work. Home Sweet Home....

2006-06-30T15:22:00.000-05:00

I finally uploaded some pictures off of my camera. When I was in Seattle earlier this month, a friend drove me to Snoqualmie Falls. All of grainy look in this photo is actually mist. The look-out gazebo that hangs over the cliff and gives you a better view of the falls was being inundated with mist so bad that I didn't want to risk damaging my camera (you really got wet standing there).

There is a resort that sits right next to the top of the falls - I bet it is a nice place to stay with an amazing view (and probably and amazing price too).

We are thinking about karate or tae kwan do for Zachary. He really needs something to help boost his confidence, and I think the discipline would be good for him. There is a one week karate camp - that cost about as much as a month (maybe even two) of karate lessons. Chris was considering the camp, but I wonder how much of the day is spent on karate - is it really intense - making the total number of karate hours equal to a month of lessons (making the cost worth it). I doubt it.

I'm really excited today. Today I made the hotel, airline, and park ticket reservations for a little trip to Disney. I am actually going there for a conference with work. My hotel/food/airline is paid for. The perfect time to take the kids along, stay an extra day, and take the kids to their first Disneyworld trip. One of the work days is only 1/2 a day, so it really works out well. My sister is going to come with us (Chris can't go - it is during the semester and he has to teach). She will stay with the kids and take them to the parks while I'm working. I'm really looking forward to it. This has been a possibility that I've known about for about a month, but today I solidified the plans and made reservations. We got great airline rates ($181 round trip, non-stop flights). The kids don't know yet. I'm trying to decide if I should use it as a carrot and tell them now - though I can't get my money back, so even if they DON'T behave, we are going (and I HATE idle threats), or if I wait. But I'm so excited I don't know if I can hold it in. It is only 2-1/2 months away, but that can be an eternity to a 6 or 7 year old. I don't know if I'm ready for the "how much longer till Disneyworld?" questions. Philip's been doing the "how much longer till my birthday" thing since May - and his birthday isn't until August.

2006-06-29T16:48:00.000-05:00

Still no word from the insurance company. I'm going to have Chris call the adjuster tomorrow to see if he has the report from the engineer, and to see what our status is. Word on the street (ok, in the news/on the radio/etc) is that the insurance companies are dragging their feet as long as they can. There is an August 29 deadline to settle claims (1 year anniversary of the storm). And what I've heard is that they don't have to pay if it isn't settled by the deadline. What I find VERY hard to believe is that if you are in a dispute, they can just ignore you, not return your calls, and not give a judgement on your claim - just holding out for the deadline so the whole thing is just dropped. That doesn't seem like it can be completely true. Otherwise, no insurance company would pay any claim, and just wait it out until the deadline has passed. I'm still hopeful that everything will work out, and Chris assumes we will be denied and stuck with a sinking house that had no signs of sinking prior to the storm. So typical ... I'm always very optimistic, and he is ever the pessimist.

I found a new Vietnamese Noodle place that opened not too far from my office. Picked up dinner last night (instead of cooking). I was hoping to avoid cooking tonight too, but the kids weren't crazy about the dinner. Actually, Zachary just wasn't feeling well and did not feel like eating, and Philip refused to try anything I put on his plate. He ate 2 shrimp, several bites of plain white rice, and left the rest. Of course at bedtime he claimed he was hungry. I told him his plate was still waiting for him at the table (truthfully, it had been sitting out long enough and had seafood in it - that I wouldn't allow him to eat that - but I would make him another plate of the same thing). His dad gave him 1/2 a banana (I wouldn't have done that), and he went to bed, still somewhat hungry. I'm not a short-order cook, and you eat what the familly eats. But, I need to make sure that I make things I know he will eat interchanged in there with giving him new foods to try. I know he will "eat when he is hungry", but I'm not trying to tortute the kid. I just want him to get over this "I don't like anything but junk" attitude. He hasn't been allowed junk at all recently, I'm hoping that helps.

It's still hot out there. I'm hoping to take the kids swimming again tonight after dinner, but it depends on how fast I get dinner cooked.

Summer heat...

2006-06-27T13:54:00.000-05:00

Darn it's hot!! REALLY hot. Today would be a great day for the swimming pool, but our country club is hosting a swim meet tonight (pool is closed for it) and I've got a PTO board meeting.

Last night was good though. I got home from work and Chris had the kids finishing up dinner. We all changed into our suits and went to the pool for a couple of hours. We swam until about 8 o'clock, went home and all showered the chlorine out of our hair. Chris put the kids to bed while I ran over to the past PTO Treasurer's house to get the financial records and files from him (I am the new Treasurer).

Today I spent my lunch hour at the Farmer's Market. I got some really long pole beans (I think they called these asparagus beans or something like that), fresh corn, cucumbers, and sprouts. I also got my farm fresh eggs, butter, and heavy cream. But it was so hot outside that I was ready to come back to the office.

Insurance company comes out again

2006-06-23T09:59:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally got someone from the insurance company to come back out. My adjuster has had my supplemental claim (for the slab leveling) for months. After many phone calls and Chris finally taking over the phone calls (he is not as nice as I am), they sent an engineer to the house Wednesday. Chris said he didn't do much - took 3 measurements and asked that we fax him a copy of the report from when we had the house inspected by Cable-lock.

Hopefully we will know something really soon.

I spent nearly a week in Seattle - what a beautiful city when you can see through the fog/clouds. Really though, it was a neat city. I stayed downtown at the W (REALLY nice hotel - with great cocktails) - our tradeshow was just a short walk from the convention center.

I got to see several friends while I was there - that was a bonus. I stayed the night with my friend Bonnie, we got to hang out, we cooked together (ok - she did most of it, I made mango salsa and stir-fried the asparagus), walked downtown Seattle a bit, and just enjoyed each other's company. She is a great person and such a wonderful hostess. She's got a great dog too, Maggie - the sweetest thing. Friday night two other of our friends came over (Tracy, and Andrea with her 3 kids - the older two had grown SO much since I met them when they had a trip here to New Orleans, and I hadn't even seen Caleb, the baby). Saturday we drove to Snoqualmie Falls. We had lunch at the cafe made famous by Twin Peaks (GREAT burgers!!!). I took a bunch of pictures but haven't loaded them off of my camera yet. That afternoon I had a massage in my room, relaxed, slept, read some of my book and just relaxed.

Sunday, I got to see my best friend from elementary school (and still my best friend in the world - we always pick up as if we talked yesterday even if it's been 6 months or a year), Desi. She was in Seattle (she lives about 3 hours south of Seattle) with a friend for the friend's graduation. We had brunch at Ivar's, right on the water with a great view. Then we walked back to my hotel and had a drink in the lobby lounge before they had to get on the road to head home and I had to head to the convention center for the opening day of the exhibit.

Tuesday I got sick. At the show, I started feeling very very cold. I was shivering, bone aching kind of cold. On the walk back to the hotel after an early dinner (Linda went shopping, I wanted to go to bed), I broke out in a horrible sweat and got really weak. But I made the walk back without collapsing. The flight home Wednesday was pretty uneventful - I slept most of it (something I NEVER do - I just can't get comfortable enough on a plane to sleep - but I slept most of both of the flights home). I got home Wednesday evening and had a fever of 103.5, and I was coughing horribly. This lasted, and lasted. Finally on Monday I went to the doctor and found I had bronchitis. He gave me an antibiotic, some prescription cough syrup, and instructions.

Today is Friday and while I am still coughing (and feeling some pain in my chest from it), I feel 100% better than I did earlier this week. I hate missing work, but couldn't make it in Friday, Monday, or Tuesday.

Wow .. I'm REALLY behind on this thing...

2006-06-06T09:13:00.000-05:00

A lot has happened ... yet not a lot ... since my last update.

In mid-January we got a FEMA trailer in the front yard of our house. Very lovely ... but at least we have a place to cook, for the kids to do homework and hangout, etc. We are luckier than some ... our house is 2 stories and the interior of the upstairs was undamaged. So, we are sleeping in our own beds/bedrooms and using real (full size) bathrooms instead of the little tiny shower in the trailer.

We have walls that are mostly painted (still need some touch-up by the painter, and some trimwork re-done). We are waiting to install the glass french doors between the back den/office and the dining room until after the house is leveled.

That leveling ... that is where we are at a stand-still.

The flood waters got trapped under the house (when the waters receded, what was trapped in the pocket under the house couldn't recede and slowly soaked into the ground). The water soaking into the ground and sitting there caused the ground to "become like jello" and the pilings to shift. This caused the house to tilt forward nearly 5" (from the front to the back - the back is 5" higher than the front).

According to the engineer who inspected the house, it was clearly caused by the flood and was not uncommon during the storm. I have the inspection report from when we purchased the house in 2000, showing that the foundation and pilings were solid and that the slab had no sinking/tilting. Since we live in an area (most of Greater New Orleans) that sinks, that is really important when buying a house - are the pilings stable?? Since the house was 32 years old when we bought it, and level with stable pilings, that meant that the house was not settling and that we were considered "safe" from sinking. The fact that we now have sunk and are tilting nearly 5", such a short time later, with an event that clearly CAN cause the pilings to become unstable, this should be a clear-cut insurance claim with our flood insurance. The flood caused the house to sink ... according to the engineer we had inspect it.

The cost to level the house and install new pilings is approximately $30,000. If we tried to sell the house today, any mortgage company for a buyer would insist that this be corrected before they would provide a mortgage on the property. Effectively dropping my property value by $30,000.

The insurance company is stating "we don't cover normal settling", and is giving us the run around. We sent the proof (copy of engineers report, and the initial inspection report when we bought the house) over two months ago. He told me 2 weeks ago that they want to send out their own engineer for an inspection. We are still waiting for that.

In the meantime, we can't do anything else. My cabinets have been delivered but can't be installed. It would be a bad idea to attach them to the walls prior to leveling the house - because the process could cause shifting that may tear them away from the walls or cause the sheetrock to crack behind the cabinets. The same with the flooring. I'm installing tile flooring in our downstairs - and it could possibly crack during the house leveling. So we can't do that either. The glass french doors in the dining room (dividing the den/office) can't be installed because the glass could crack during the leveling process.

All we have left to do inside is install flooring, cabinets, and counter tops (and I am not having my appliances delivered until after we install the flooring so that I don't have to deal with moving them back out in order to install the tile), and finish some touch-up on the painting. We've been at a standstill for months and I'm so tired of cooking in the FEMA trailer.

I love to cook and want a real kitchen, with an oven and 4 regular size burners. But at least I have a place (without a mother-in-law) where I CAN cook ... so really, I should be very grateful. It could be worse.

We are having new carpet installed upstairs in a few weeks. But that is unrelated to the storm damage ... it is just wear and tear and kids damage - beyond time to replace our carpet which appears to be original to the house. We should have replaced it when we bought the house.

PICTURES

2005-10-13T12:41:00.000-05:00

I haven't finished uploading my journal, but I did finally get about 30 pictures loaded to Picturetrail with some short descriptions. I've taken over 500 pictures so far, but here is a small sampling....

http://www.picturetrail.com/gid8500190

Wednesday, a kind of wasted day

2005-09-07T21:56:00.000-05:00

Or maybe it was a bit of relaxation.

Chris tried to drive back to our house to remove the moldy walls. But between horrendous traffic, and what appeared to be several accidents or breakdowns, he never made it. He spent 6 hours in the car, and still had a minimum of 2 hours to go (a distance that normally would take about 30 or 40 minutes). There was a curfew and he would be expected to leave again once it started to get dark. He made the decision to turn around. Why drive 8 hours, to work for 2, and then turn around and drive back 4 or 5 hours.

He dropped his help off back in Baton Rouge and returned to the farmhouse. We just rested and napped when we could.

I'd finally had contact with my work, and with my Dad and sister. I knew that they were safe, and that everyone from my office was safe. I also knew that I would continue to be paid at least through the end of September even if we were unable to return to work. I also heard from the insurance company and they were sending us a check for displacement/loss of use on our house because of the storm and the mandatory evacuation. That was a relief.

I also started contemplating Disneyworld. I was out of work and could not go back until the parish let us back in. The kids were out of school. We had money from the insurance company to pay for a hotel and food - does it really matter if that hotel is in Florida or in Louisiana (as if anyone could find a hotel anywhere in the state of Louisiana)??? Why not take this opportunity to take the kids as we'd promised, and do it when there would be few crowds and the kids would not have to miss school.

At the same time, I think I was getting on my mom's nerves and she was getting on my nerves. We both had a tendency to snap at each other. The close quarters, the fear of what was waiting at home, the uncertainty of it all ... all took their toll on our relationship. We just needed space.

She made arrangements to go up to Arkansas, having found an apartment in the HUD apartments that are ADA compliant and fairly new, just north of the town of Lewisville, where my mom grew up. She called friends up there and things started to happen rather fast. They were lining up furniture for her. But she needed some things from her condo before she could go.

Thursday was the last day that we would be allowed back into the city for cleaning/assessing. We were told that we could come in, clean up, get what we need, and leave for probably a month. We made the decision to all go in on Thursday, and to leave the kids with my sister-in-law/brother-in-law (Gene and Blanche) who live just to the east of Baton Rouge. Then I would take mom to her condo and get her set up there, so she could go through some things and I would go to the house with Chris who would work on removing sheetrock. My job would be to pack up what we might need in the next month. We tried to get an early night's sleep, but you know how that goes. I was exhausted but worked up.

Tuesday ... another trip back into the city

2005-09-06T21:48:00.000-05:00

Tuesday is the second day that they allowed citizens back into Jefferson Parish. Chris left early early in the morning (3 or 4 am??), and stopped in Baton Rouge to pick up a friend's son, and another guy who he hired to help him.

The wait to get in was several hours long, and the smell was still just horrible, miles before you reached the city. Chris described it as being a very strange feeling to drive through town. Once you got through the long traffic to get in at the checkpoint, there was very little activity on the streets. NO businesses were open - NONE. There were no traffic signals, and trees still blocked access to many neighborhoods and roads.

Chris and his helpers went into the house to move furniture and remove carpet that he was just not able to do on his own the day before. When he walked in, he found the mold growth to be incredible. Where there had been very little mold the day before, there was now a 1 to 2 foot high ring of mold spots around the house. Every wall had mold growing on it. So did most of the furniture. In addition to removing the carpets, he would need to remove the sheetrock from the walls, and the insulation behind it. We knew that the longer it would sit, the worse it would get.

With a son with allergies, removing the mold was a high priority. But he was not prepared to do that Tuesday - he did not have the proper tools. So, they spent the day moving furniture and removing wet moldy carpet. The plan was to return Wednesday to finish up.

After a very long day, Chris drove back to Baton Rouge to drop off his helpers, and decided to spend the night there. It was such a long drive back to where we were staying, especially to have to turn around and come back. He was getting exhausted and it showed.

Meanwhile, I was with mom at the farmhouse - with the two kids. They were getting a little stir crazy, and we were getting tired of eating fast food. I found the laundry mat, and a grocery store and cooked a full dinner Tuesday night. A bit of normal life.....

A peek at our house, Monday September 5.

2005-09-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

Jefferson Parish made an announcement that they would allow residents in to view and work on their property during daylight hours Monday 9/5 through Thursday 9/8. (Jefferson is the parish where we live - and if you aren't from here and don't know, a parish is virtually the same as a county in all other 49 states). They strongly recommended against staying there, and warned that there was no food, no stores open, no water, no ice, no electricty, and that there were hazards everywhere. Downed trees and powerlines layed across virtually every street.

Chris went in without me to view the damage, and called me as he drove into our neighborhood. The conversation as he drove up and then as he walked in was scary. The streets were eerie. He had to drive under trees that were leaning 45 degrees across the street - it was a good thing he drove his Honda and not my van because he likely would not have fit. He had to circle around through the neighborhood searching for a path that would lead to our house where there were not trees down. He drove past the street leading to our neighborhood because so many things were down and out of place that he didn't recognize it.

As he walked into our house, he could see that we had flood water that had receeded. The carpets were wet, there was a grass line on the outside of the house and the sheetrock was wet.

He took lots of pictures of downed trees, fences, and of the inside of our house. He picked up a few things that we needed, tried to clean up some stuff that he could, and he left again, headed back to Opelousas to show me the pictures and to get some sleep. He was driving back in early in the morning. (This was normally a 3 to 3-1/2 hour drive, and with checkpoint traffic was taking up to 6 hours).

The days start to blur together

2005-09-03T16:18:00.000-05:00

The rest of the first week really starts to blur together.

We woke up Tuesday morning to reports that there had been levee breaches, and areas of the city that had been dry and only damaged by wind after the storm had passed on Monday were now flooding fast. This included areas of the city that have not flooded before. Water was starting to reach the edges of the French Quarter, and the downtown area was flooded (including around the Superdome where thousands of peopled were sheltered).

Chris's Uncle Phil, who lives in the area and takes care of the house, showed us the best place for plate lunches, how to get around town, and where to find the stores and laundry facilities. Chris made several trips to Walmart - we found ourselves with a new DVD player and some new cartoons, new blankets and linens, games for the kids, and some general things that I missed when packing (who knew we'd be gone for a whole week).

I called my insurance companies (both flood and homeowners) and started an initial claim. We had the news on 24 hours a day. Reports on our specific area were sketchy, but it looked like we may have some flooding and there was a lot of wind damage. We didn't know what to expect, but believed that filing a claim early and getting a claim number early would speed the process along once we got home to asses our damage. I wanted to get my name high up on the list. The roads were still closed and there was no report on when we might be able to get in to view the damage.

By Wednesday we'd realized that we could not live without better television. It really is a shame to say we are so dependent, but at the same time, that was the main source for new reports on our home and pictures of the area. The news showed constant helicopter flyovers - we were glued, hoping to catch a glimpse of our neighborhood. We watched as hundreds of people were rescued off of their roof by helicopters and boats. Having to watch this through snow and fuzz...while standing with one arm out, holding an antenna and some aluminum foil for the best picture ;) was frustrating at best. So, we called DirecTV on Wednesday afternoon. We were able to move our service from our house (including 2 new free receivers and a new dish) to our temporary location at no charge - and we can move it back again, up to twice within a 12 month period, again at no cost. WHEW!! Big relief, we had DirecTV service by Friday.

Our cell service was very spotty - the storm had knocked out cell towers in the 504 and 985 area codes (the biggest hit areas of Louisiana). My Dad, his fiance, my sister, and her husband had stayed in my Dad's house and were in the 985 area code. I had not talked to them since Monday morning just before the eye of the storm passed within miles of their house and I was worried. I tried calling 40 to 50 times a day. I finally talked to someone who knew someone else in the same neighborhood and heard that his neighborhood had a bunch of trees down, but for the most part had held up pretty well.

Keeping in touch with work was hard. First, my cell phone was not always working where I was, and when it was, other people's cell phones were not always working. I finally heard on the radio that text messaging was working when calling was not. I'd never sent a text message in my life, but I learned fast. I kept sending messages to everyone I could think of, and made contact with a lot of people that way. People from work were spread out through the south, but we'd heard that our building had held up well, and that the company was going to continue with direct depositing our paychecks, with plans to do so at least through the end of September even if we were not back to work by then.

THE day ... Happy Birthday to me?

2005-08-29T16:11:00.000-05:00

My birthday ... Monday August 29th. Chris will never again forget my birthday (I don't think so anyway).

Early Monday morning everyone slowly moved into a spot to sleep. Chris, the kids and I slept in their oldest daughter's bedroom, with the TV set to the news. I woke up and was watching some of the continuing coverage when the lights went out. We lost power sometime around 6 in the morning. The wind was really strong, but there was not much rain. Jim had a large generator and we were able to connect tv’s, the microwave and fridge, and a window unit air conditioner in the living room.

My Dad called me a little later that morning to wish me a Happy Birthday and to make sure that we were managing ok. Birthday? It was my birthday? Oh yeah, in all of the excitement I’d forgotten. What a way to spend my birthday. It will certainly be one that I never forget.

For the most part, we all hung out in the living room (with the sole air conditioner). Though at some point during the day I disappeared into the bedroom where we had been sleeping and took a nap. I woke up to the smell of hamburgers and French fries. Jim had fired up the grill and cooked lunch. We had comforts that I know we would not have had at home. Still, I could not help but wonder how our house was doing and if we should have stayed home.

As news reports came out of New Orleans, things did not look good. There had been a lot of damage, and there was flooding. But it was not as bad as some predictions where levee breaches could have occurred in a category 4 storm. We still knew that we would not be able to return immediately. Jim's house was welcoming, but a little crowded and we did not want to wear out our welcome.

So, after talking with Chris’s mom we decided to head farther west to Chris’s grandmother’s house. Chris’s grandmother had been in a nursing home for about 7 months. Her house was sitting empty. The electricity and gas had not been turned off. We were warned that it was dirty, but still neat and organized. And it had a roof and beds.

Monday afternoon we made the 2 hour drive out of Baton Rouge to Washington, Louisiana. Washington is a small town, population around 1,200. Just outside of Opelousas (which is just outside of Lafayette), it is a typical small farm town in the Cajun area of Louisiana. The house is a small farmhouse on a country highway, with no telephone (it had been disconnected months before), an old barn, and lots of spiders in the trees just outside of the house. The bees of Chris’s childhood had returned. One wall of the living room was filled with bees. Chris remembers that years ago they had to remove parts of the wall to remove the bee hives and the bees. They are back so the kids had to be careful when playing outside. But, we had a roof over our head, with electricity and running water.

2005-08-28T22:02:00.000-05:00

We're on our way. Much later than I had hoped, but still, we got out in the morning. I picked up my mom, her evacuation supplies, and her cat and swung back to our house to grab the kids. Chris was going through the last minute preparations. He also thought it would be a good idea to do a bit of cleaning (mop the floors and run the vacuum across the floors so that when we returned mid week for work and school, we would have less to do in order to get back to normal). I still can’t get him to admit that mopping and vacuuming was a complete waste of his time.....but in the end I think you'll agree with me. ;)

We had relatively smooth traffic to Baton Rouge. The normal 1 to 1-1/2 hour drive took less than 3 hours. That was actually pretty amazing. The Contra-flow plans that the state had implemented actually made a big difference and went smoother than the last time they had attempted to use both sides of the interstate to get people out of the city.

Then … our first obstacle. I left my mom and the kids in the car while I went to check in. I had in hand my printed confirmation, and walked up to the hotel’s front desk. She didn’t have me on the list. She couldn’t find me in the computer. Her boss came up and pulled us up on the computer. Our reservation had been cancelled. Some mix up about the credit card. Obviously the required “contact information” phone number and email that they required I give them was not actually so that they could contact me. I called Chris who was quite upset. I had my mom with her temporary leg no longer fitting properly having trouble moving around, two kids and 3 cats in my van – with no place to go. There was not another hotel room in the state.

He talked to the manager who became very rude. The manager said he was also the owner and could do whatever he wanted (I am guessing at Chris’s threat to go above his head). The manager told me that my husband was very rude to him, and that he had planned to find me a room but would do nothing to help me because my husband was rude to him. First, I don't believe that for a minute because he told me that he could not help me and that I should leave, and walked away and outside - giving me no indication that he was going to try to help me find a room and every indication that I should leave his hotel. That was before the phone conversation. Chris said he wasn’t rude on the phone (though I don’t know – I know he can get forceful when he feels he is right). I can tell you that I just sat through a customer complaint resolution seminar and everything this manager did was 100% the opposite of what a business should do in a situation where a customer is not happy. I am not saying he should have even given us a room – that is not my complaint, but it was how he handled it. Franchise or not, I will never ever stay at a Microtel hotel again (not that I had in the past). I was desperate, scared for my home and my family, and had no place to go. I was treated horribly.

My mom, with her ill fitting leg walked into the hotel (took her about 15 minutes each way) to cancel her reservation, with the hope that maybe they would have pity. They happily took the cancellation and then promptly ignored her. Is it pure evil of me to hope that one day this inconsiderate and unkind hotel owner would one day loose his home and business to a storm as well?

We sat in the car, unsure of what to do. Chris called a friend of his who lived in Baton Rouge and we all crashed there. They had Jim and his wife Sarah, their two daughters and the oldest daughter’s boyfriend, their two dogs, four cats, and two birds. Then Chris and I, my mom, my two kids, my two cats and my mom’s cat joined in. All in a 3 bedroom ranch style house.

Chris helped as Jim prepared their house – Baton Rouge was sure to experience some really heavy winds and possibly a lot of rain as the storm passed to the east of where we were camped. We didn’t sleep much Sunday night as we sat glued to the television news reports through the night. The storm was strengthening, and still on course for my home town. Most of the night was spent in front of the tv.

The preparations....

2005-08-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning, the forecast was becoming more clear, the storm would be a large one, possibly catastrophic, and it was headed straight for New Orleans. “The Big One” that I’d heard about my entire life may actually happen. Amazingly I was still calm (is THAT the calm before the storm?). Maybe it was the previous “big ones” that missed us (Georges, Ivan, and others). I called again to confirm the reservations at the hotel – yes, they had our reservation, and yes, the accept pets during an evacuation.

Chris was teaching Saturday so I calmly packed our evacuation kit: 3 changes of clothes for everyone in the house, my scrapbooks and kids pictures, and the “important papers” box including home ownership/mortgage papers, homeowners and flood insurance policies, birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc. I packed up the canned food we had (ravioli’s, sardines, crackers, peanut butter, cheese crackers … ‘good no cook/evacuation food’). At least I keep a very well stocked pantry and did not have to make the mad rush to the store, fighting people for the last can of tuna or last loaf of bread. I had everything we needed to live out of the hotel room for the 2-3 days we would need to wait out the threat of the storm before we headed home. This is how it always works … right? Evacuate, live out of town for a couple of days and return home while listening to complaints called in on radio talk shows about the traffic of yet another false alarm evacuation.

Chris came home from work and we watched the reports in disbelief. In the last few years, reports from the state and city have indicated that we needed 72 hours in order to evacuate the entire metropolitan area. New Orleans mayor started calling for the evacuations Saturday, the storm was due to hit Monday. How could this be? Seventy two hours before the storm, Katrina had a clear cut forecast – it would hit Florida and we would not even have a drop of rain or wave in the lake as a result of that weather. Now the city and surrounding areas were in a mad rush to get people out.

We decided that I would leave early Sunday with my mom and the kids, and Chris would follow behind me in the Honda after he’d boarded up the windows.

The HURRICANE....

2005-08-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

This very long post will be broken down into several sections, and will catch you up on the last 5 weeks of my life. I'll change the dates of the post to kind of keep it in line with my journal, trying to post the date as close to the actual occurance as possible.

FRIDAY AUGUST 26TH ..... just another normal day, or so we thought ..... it all starts to change from here.

Friday morning, we left for work after hearing the latest hurricane update. After having passed over Florida, Hurricane Katrina was forecasted to turn north and head into the Florida panhandle. That is 3 states away from us. We had plans for dinner Saturday night with my Dad, to celebrate my birthday as well as his fiancé’s. The reservations were confirmed and we were at work, clueless about what the weekend would truly hold.

Friday afternoon on my way home from work, I heard a news report that the storm would not make the north turn toward Florida as expected, but was now being forecasted to head towards the southern tip of Louisiana. But it was still a little up in the air. In an effort to jump the rush, I started making phone calls to hotels in Baton Rouge. Though that is not very far from New Orleans, and not exactly considered a safe haven in the event a hurricane hits New Orleans, it is as far as Chris wants to go in an evacuation. The near 20 hour car rides up to Arkansas for previous (false alarm) evacuations had had an effect. After calling about 25 hotels, I found an opening at Micro-tel, a little budget chain hotel/motel. We made our reservations. My mom would have to stay in our room one night, and then would have her own room through the middle of the week.

Ok, that wasn't so hard. While it took a while, I was still able to find something close - much closer than most people were finding. I could sleep soundly.

So much has happened.

2005-08-10T16:21:00.000-05:00

I haven't had time to update lately. In the last few months lots has happened.

My mom had her left leg amputated just below her knee. She spent some time in a rehab hospital before going home where she has physical therapy and a nurse aid helping with stuff around the house. She is using a temporary leg and will be fitted for a permanent prosthetic once the amputation site has fully healed.

Chris got his permanent position teaching anatomy/physiology, and the kids are preparing to start back to school. Zachary will be in 1st grade, and Philip - my baby - is starting Kindergarten. I'm really busy at work with an new product release. It keeps me busy, but is fun and challenging at the same time.

We have decided to refinance our house and take a bit out of equity to do some much needed home repairs. We'll paint everything, get new flooring, update the kitchen, replace the deck and fence in the backyard, replace some windows. and do a few other much needed updates. In order to do everything we want to do with the amount of money we have to spend, some of the work we will do ourselves. The things we are capable of doing we will do, even though some of it will be really hard work. In the end it will be worth it and we will be much happier coming home every night.

Well, that's a VERY short update on what's been keeping me busy the last couple of months. I hope to keep this updated a bit more often.

I need the weekend.

2005-05-19T19:34:00.000-05:00

Negativity really bothers me. Really bothers me. And here as I started to type this, it was in a negative tone. So I backed up. I just had a rough day. I had a confrontation at work today with a girl that reports to me. Our corporation got a new phone system (which we didn't want, but as part of the corporation we had to have). The change in technology meant changes for in our procedures. And people don't like change. Yes, there have been glitches and problems that needed correcting. But there adjustment and compromise is also required. I was 'assigned' the duty of coordinating our division but I didn't get that assignment until a couple of days before the cutover. We were left out of the planning stages and that meant we had to deal with a lot of problems when the switch happened.

For about 4 weeks straight, I've had complaints nearly every day. Some, with legitimate problems that needed to be fixed and a lot of "why did we need these new phones again? Oh, we didn't". I didn't ask for the new phones either. But the complaining just to complain is getting old. And since it has been pretty non-stop, my nerves have been on edge. When I got a complaint today (a true problem), but in the same tone as the constant complaints to me I got a bit defensive. More than a bit.

I made the decision to go back to the original plan. Many of the problems that we are now experiencing are because we tweaked the program to do a lot of things (several conflicted with each other in the programming of the new system - and we tried to work around that - causing additional problems). So, we will lose some of the functionality that we requested, but the problems will be fixed. And we will just have to learn to live with the changes in procedure (hopefully without further complaining - it doesn't help, it just fills my shoulders with a lot of weight).

On top of this, today I had to deal with trying to help my mom get her "houseguests" to move out so that she will have her privacy when she comes home. That was really uncomfortable.

She was told that she might come home tonight. Though it is now nearly 8 pm, and still no word from anyone as to what time she will be released. Once before, they released her at 11:30 pm. I didn't get home until 1 am and had to wake up at 5 am. I pointed this out to her and asked that if they try to release her after 9 pm, if they can not let her stay until morning and I'll come get her first thing. But SHE is ready to go. I just hope they make the decision to keep her until morning. As I hope for that, I feel terribly guilty. That is selfish of me, isn't it? She's been there for 3 weeks and is really ready to go home. And I don't blame her. I just hope I can get her home and back to my bed by my "10 pm bedtime".

Well, tomorrow is Friday, so the week is almost over.

Craziness

2005-05-17T13:12:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here at work listening to the phone ring off of the hook. Non-stop. This is crazy. It would be wonderful if it were customers calling to place orders for stairs (do you need any stairs? LOL). But no, these are crank calls from Brazil. Or at least they *say* they are calling from Brazil. So far today we've had over 80. It is only 1 pm. We had 84 voice mail messages last night on the company overnight answering system. Of the 84, 82 were crank calls - two were actual customers. We can't ignore the batches of messages or the ringing phones because you never know when one will be a real customer.

Some of the calls are just hang-ups, some you hear giggling in the background, and for some they talk. The talking (sometimes in Spanish or Portuguese, sometimes in English) is anywhere from "I speak English. I from Brazil. I play soccer every day." to vulgar comments. AT&T has not been much help. I know that there are computer records of the origin and destination of every single phone call going through their system. We are keeping a list of every single call, with the time. It is almost turning in to a full time job for the receptionist who has a lot of other things to do.

I just don't GET IT! WHY? This is not a single day occurrence. This is happening every day and has been for 3 weeks now. Weekends too (last Monday we had over 200 voice mail messages from the weekend - with ONE from a customer). What is the fascination? Why would someone waste so much time on this? One of the worst things is that this is on our nickel. They are calling in to an 800#. Hopefully this will be resolved soon. Until then I just wanted to take a minute to SSSCCCRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAMMM!!! AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHH!!

Ok, I feel better ... vent over. :)

Getting back to a normal work week

2005-05-17T06:03:00.000-05:00

My mom had her surgery yesterday. I took off of work Friday and found out too late in the day that they would reschedule. When they rescheduled it for Monday, I couldn't take the entire day off again. I went in for a couple of meetings in the morning, and stayed until about 2:00. I got down there and she had just been moved to the Surgical ICU. She will be in there for at least a day so that her leg (where she had a bypass) can be closely monitored. They need to make sure the blood is flowing from the new artery in her left leg created from a vein taken from her right leg.

They will watch it closely over the next few days and see how the healing progresses with the improved bloodflow before a final decision is made on any further amputation. That was good news since originally we had been warned that she could lose the rest of her foot during the surgery.

I went to the PTO meeting last night at the school. For a school with over 400 kids, what a shame to have 5 people attend the PTO meeting - and 4 of them were board members. Well, now all five are ... since I was suckered in to being the secretary for next year's PTO. But really, I don't mind. I'm just saddened that so few parents bother to come to the meetings. Is this normal?

Well, it's Tuesday morning and I need to go get in the shower...

Trying this out

2005-05-15T07:13:00.000-05:00

I finally dove in. I created my own blog. I just hope I don't bore you all to death.

It's Sunday morning and the house is relatively quiet with the exception of Peter Pan on the TV in the playroom. I was hoping to sleep late this morning but no such luck. Philip woke me up at 6:30, thirsty. I tried to get him to fix himself some water (didn't work), or to at least give me "5 more minutes" (only worked twice). So I was up at 6:40. Tee Dee, Tee Dum...We're following the leader, the leader.... sorry - Peter Pan is a bit too loud. What did I say about the house being quiet?

Yesterday we worked on cleaning the house. Though I feel bad because Chris did more than I did. He washed and folded clothes (I put away). And he cleaned the floors. I HATE mopping. Truly hate it. I cleaned the kitchen, and did some general picking up (dealing with school papers from last week - how do they build up so fast?). I also cleaned my scrap area. That was fun. It gave me some inspiration. I love working on a clear area. Now I can't wait to make it messy again. I really need to learn to keep it relatively clear as I scrap. I'm just such a messy scrapper. I wish that wasn't the case.

We're going to brunch with Chris's mom and step-dad today. I need to get moving early today. I always seem to make it to the afternoon before I get dressed on weekends. I'm not lazy, really, I swear I'm not.

We'll I'm going to play with getting this set up.

well, I think it is cool, but I think it needs a spell check. LOL My typing is horrible this early in the morning.