Pre-Gustav

Here is a cute picture I have to share from Hurricane Lily in 2002. Walter doctored the scene a little bit and created this shot, mostly to amuse Cameron, who was quite amused! We emailed it to our friends and family to let them know we were doing ok during the storm!

And speaking of storms, New Orleans' mayor called for the evacuation of New Orleans yesterday and called Hurricane Gustav "the mother of all storms." Alrighty then. It does seem to be coming straight at us and there is an air of nervous excitement all around. No matter where you go, you hear people talking to friends and strangers about their plans. "Are y'all leaving?" "Is your area under evacuation?" "Where will y'all go?" I heard this morning that our Walmarts are shutting down as of this morning. I guess their employees need to be making plans and evacuating like everyone else. My next door neighbor is taking pictures of all the rooms in her house incase she needs them for insurance purposes. Not a bad idea. Some of her relatives came by on their way out of state this morning due to their home being in a low lying area and the guy said he already applied with FEMA this morning because he knows he will lose everything. And I am worried about one of my friends who is in an area that is under a mandatory evacuation, and she is not leaving. For those of you who know me in real life, I'm talking about Valarie. She was in danger during Katrina and this storm is going to hit her area harder and I'm very concerned about her. I asked her to come here, but she is staying where she's at.

The wind is starting to pick up here which is our first real sign that this thing is coming. The trees are all swaying and before long will be bending a bit as they sway. An evacuation has been suggested for our area of the river for low lying homes, but we are not low lying and feel safe to stay. None of my neighbors are leaving, so I think it's ok. I do think we will be flooded in due to the roads around us flooding, but we'll be fine here at home. If we do get flooded in, I would worry about my neighbors who are in their 70s and in poor health if their family couldn't get to them, so all in all, we'll stay here and look out for each other. Walter & I have done all of our hurricane supply shopping, which somehow ends up being a huge junk food festival, and now went back today for our final few items:

I have been really impressed with Cameron's maturity in the last few days. He talked to me when our New York trip was still planned to let me know that we would have trouble getting home on Monday due to the storm, and then today, he voluntarily went outside and helped Walter secure the boat and all of the plants & things in the back yard. I hope this is a new stage he is going through! Hurricane Katrina was stressful on us, and i'm guessing he's remembering that.

Now, I have a couple of awards that I've gotten lately that I need to pass on! Nik at Exceptional Voyage and Veggie Mom gave me the "You're looking at a kick-ass blogger" award! Woohoo!!! And I have to pass it on to 5 bloggers who are as kick-ass as me! Woohoo! Thank you ladies!!!

I am going to have to cheat this one time and just pass it on later due to my hurricane status!!!

And my real life friend, Chelle at Chelle's" World gave me the "I Love Your Blog" award!!

The rules of this award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated

And again, I will pass this on later! But just wanted to say thank you to all 3 of these ladies and show off my awards!!

I found these cute pictures of JJ when he was little and had to post it! He was so tiny, so we aren't sure how he grew to be so gigantic!!

A year or two later, I tried to put him back in my overalls, but I wasn't very successful.

And here is Cameron a few years ago with his big baby.

And then JP's coke problem started:

And while I'm on the subject of cats, my scaredy cat, Nadda, has odd habits that usually involve him leaving treasures for me in his food bowl. I haven't shared any stories lately because he hasn't really done anything, but this morning I recognized a clear pattern. Every morning when I have gone to feed him for the last 4 mornings, I've found my pink pony tail holder in the food bowl. I'm not sure what he's trying to tell me, but he doesn't take it back out and play with it. He leaves it there for me to find. Sometimes I find socks and shoes in there, but not lately.

We went to an Italian restaurant called "The Little Village" with Cathy & Brent tonight. Cathy reasoned that we don't know if we'll be able to eat out next week due to power outages, etc., so we went. We are really starting to eat out too much again.

Ok, well pray for us that Hurricane Gustav will weaken and go easy on us! I'll keep you posted as to how we are doing when I can! I really appreciate all the support and prayers from my blogger friends!