Saturday

So, it looks like Ike is slowing down and moving on through Texas. My sister, Donna, is doing fine in Pearland, Texas. They do not have power, but did not have any damage. My friend, Kimi, in Lake Charles, Louisiana is doing ok and does have power. I have no way to find out anything about the jail in downtown Houston where my son is, but I'm listening to the news to try to find out what I can. I called a nearby district and they haven't heard of anything happening there, and I assume they would have if there was damage, but that's the best I can do. It's very frustrating that there is nowhere that you can call and if the power is out, the inmates can't use the phone to call to let you know they are ok. Again, I know he is in God's hands and trust that he is ok. I sincerely hope that we will not have any more hurricanes this season, which doesn't end until November.

Ronnica at Tales of a Kansas Girl posted this "meme" on her blog and asked for anyone to answer who wanted to. And well, I want to!!

Here are the rules:
1. Write about 5 specific ways blogging has affected you, either positively or negatively.
2. link back to the person who tagged you
3. link back to this parent post
4. tag a few friends or five, or none at all
5. post these rules— or just have fun breaking them

Ok then. Blogging has affected me...

1. Positively: Blogging is a wonderful outlet for me! I am a person who talks way too much, and having this blog and my blog friends to talk to really spares my family, especially my husband, from having to go into overtime listening to me!!

2. Positively: I have met some friends through blogging who I hope to stay in touch with for a long time to come. I am developing relationships that are meaningful to me and I enjoy seeing into the lives of other people.

3. Positively: Some of my real life friends are starting to blog and I am able to be in closer contact with them and stay up to date with their lives than I was before I began blogging.

4. Negatively: I am spending a lot of time reading other people's blogs daily, so there are things I am not doing as much as I should.

5. Positively: I have been overwhelmed with prayers and support for many situations in the short time I've been blogging.

What about you?? I am tagging anyone who wants to answer the questions, so please let me know if you will be doing it too so I can read your answers!!

I've seen this book on SO many blogs that I went to http://www.half.com/ and ordered it - "twilight." I had absolutely no idea what it is about, but I caved in to curiosity, ordered it, and 3 days later, it was sitting in my hot little hands! Forget all the books I was already planning to read, I started reading this yesterday and am on page 263 already! Wow!! I'm not sure I would have wanted to read it if i'd known ahead of time what it was about, but let me tell you, i'm HOOKED! I went to half.com again last night and ordered the 2nd book in the series! I hope it comes in before I finish this one!!! I'll be glad to send Twilight to anyone who wants to read it when i'm finished, so leave me a comment and i'll get your address from you. First come, first served!!

And notice on my side bar on the right there is a little place for "follow this blog." It's a new feature and it's pretty cool! If you want to be a follower of my blog, just click "follow this blog!" I'll be glad to follow your blog too!

Questions & Comments:
Lizzy asked what we do about all of the schools days missed during hurricanes here. Honestly, it's not normal that we miss many days per year due to hurricanes. They can do a few different things. We have a couple of "hurricane days" built in to our schedules that we could miss if needed, then after that the schools can chose to lengthen the school year or go on some Saturdays. The bad thing is with our standardized testing (LEAP, GEE) that determines whether your child passes to certain grades or graduates at all are given in March or April, so the kids may be missing some key lessons needed for those tests that might not be taught in time. I would bet that our holidays may be shortened, which may be what happened after Hurricane Katrinia - I wasn't working in the school system then and don't remember. We get a week off at Thanksgiving, 2 weeks at Christmas, a week at Easter, and 2 days for Mardi Gras, not to mention a few more 1 days here and there, so it may be that we'll lose a few of those days.

Laura asked about the gas prices here. The last I heard, prices had gone up about .50/gallon to about $4.00/gallon, but I haven't been out today to see. I will pay attention today and see what it looks like.

Ok, so Ike is NOT coming here? Did someone forget to tell Ike??

Because it sure feels like he's here and this is really scary to me. We woke up during the night to the worst winds we've ever heard. The wind is still blowing like crazy, but it's settled down a little. Our power is out! And the schools in my parish are closed today! My friend, Lesley, texted me last night to ask if the schools were going to be closed and I was thinking to myself that yet another rumor has been started, but then, I checked when I got home, and the schools are going to be closed! I was really confused as to why, because the storm doesn't come near us. Well, now I know and let me say this...I am very scared for those in the path of Ike because I don't think we've ever seen anything this size. I am praying that Ike takes it easy on all of us, but it's already like we're having a Category 1 hurricane at my house right now! Well, maybe not right now, but definitely during the night. Please pray for everyone in Ike's path because I think this is going to be a bad one.

My sister, Donna, and her husband decided to stay in Pearland, about 20 minutes outside of Houston and I'm pretty concerned about them. She says they were on a voluntary evacuation order until yesterday, and then after yesterday were told to "stay put." What does that mean? That you've waited to long to leave or that it's safe to stay? Donna is known to be quite dingy, so i'm scared she may have misunderstood the meaning. We offered that they could stay here and my mom offered that they could come there. She says they have a generator and gas, which is good, but after the storm and all the power is out, you can't find a store to refill your gas cans. And I think trees and power lines are going to fall like crazy. We've lived through many hurricanes here and i've never seen anything like the damage that Gustav left throughout Baton Rouge and many other areas. I feel certain this storm is worse.

So, no work for me today since the schools are closed. It's frustrating to get so far behind in what I've got planned to do with the kids. And now, for the next week or two, I don't plan to do anything with the kids except talk about the hurricane and how it affected them. My west side schools just got power back yesterday and the kids were going to go back today - some still living without power for 2 weeks now. Many of them live in poverty, some in the projects, and depend on the government for help. Food was not available to them for most of the storm, or if it was, you had to drive to a distribution center to get it. How can they do that with no car or gas? And you can say it it their fault or their problem, and maybe it is, but you still have to think about those children who are home in the dark with nothing to eat, no clean clothes, no water, etc. As a matter of fact, when I heard that the schools would open today originally, knowing much of the area doesn't have power, I wondered how the kids would get clean school clothes! It's such an eye opening experience and I'm grateful for this opportunity to be exposed to some of what this population is going through. I have every intention to make a difference there!

Anyway, i'm home today, which is nice but i'm afraid i'm getting used to not working so much!!! After having the summer off, and then missing so many days, I may be getting spoiled all over again. I do have some paper work to do and meetings to reschedule, so I'll find some productive things to do today. Steak night was DELICIOUS last night!! I wish I could grill a steak like they do! Yum!!!

I want to thank everyone for their kind words and prayers for my son, JP. That really means a lot to me. I know that some people don't like to talk, hear, or think about those types of things, but that is my reality and I really do appreciate you!

Questions & Comments:
A few people left comments about my honesty and my unconditional love for JP. I do love him unconditionally and will support him in whatever way I can if he is living a drug free life and trying to do the right things. This whole situation is even harder for me because, while i've always offered him emotional support, I did not have anything else to offer him while he was involved in drugs. We put him through treatment and tried everything imaginable to help him help himself, but ultimately, we had to cut him loose because he was affecting our family and his younger brother with his choices. It does make it hard to see where his life went from there, but help for his drug addiction was always an option but he wouldn't take it. Today, whether by his choice or not, he is living a drug free life and I have been here every step of the way. I always make sure he has commissary money, I write to him, visit him, and he knows he is always welcome to call. It is so hard knowing the right thing to do, but I truly believe that everything I've done for him was the best I knew how to do. Now God is in charge!! I think great things are going to happen! And thank you for those comments too!

My friend, Kimi, who doesn't have a blog but should, asked if the neighbor next door was the same one who brought some magazines over when Kimi & her family were visiting. YES!! And that is exactly the kind of thing I mean by overly involved!! He saw me get a "People Magazine" out of my mailbox (or could be that he checked my mail for me one day and saw it - not kidding), and realized I like the gossip magazines. Well, his wife and several relatives save theirs and pass them around to each other, so he decided that I would want to be on their "list" and receive the magazines when they finished with them. Hmmm, ok. I didn't see any harm in that and I do like some of those magazines, so I went along with it. The first stack of them I got was from 2002! No lie! Walter & I were so tickled about it and read through the magazines and got a big laugh out of it. But then, the magazines got to be a chore. I was expected to save them and give them back to pass on to other people. And I really wasn't reading them, so then i'd have to hold on to them long enough to seem like i'd read them and give them back. And the neighbor really stressed about the whole thing - calling to see if i'd found them on my porch, seeing when I'd be giving them back. I managed to politely back out of it one day when another relative wanted "in," so I just said I really wasn't having time to get to read them since I was working, so I didn't want to hold them up!! Whew!!! And yes, I'm quite sure at the exact moment that we had company, that would be when he would have decided to deliver the precious magazines!!!

Tam made a great observation about the pre-schooler that bit the teacher yesterday. Imagine how hard it would be to not speak any English and be put into an English speaking classroom. He came to the school last year too, but due to his aggressive behavior, the teacher can only let him come 2 days a week, in the hopes that he would adjust and they could increase the days. I believe the little boy is also Autistic and is non-communicative. We want to place him in a classroom where he would do better, but we have to be able to document the problems to present the case to the school board, and he doesn't come to school enough to do it. Yesterday was his 2nd time coming this year and he bit the teacher within the first 2 hours there. And yes, that is something to document, but you have to have more than that. We are holding a meeting next week and will include a Spanish interpreter to help us figure out the best setting for him. We also want to help his mother with parenting skills. She is really harming him by letting him do whatever he wants.

And yes indeed I'm taking Lesley up on her offer to visit JP with me!! We can stop and have lunch with Kimi & Shayne on our way!!! Woohoo!!! Thanks sista! I love you!

And the power just came back on!! Yay!

Yes, it's STEAK NIGHT!!!

Ok, so I'm really stressing out about the Ike/Houston thing. Yes, I prayed that Ike wouldn't come here and I'm thankful that it didn't. However, my son, JP, is in jail in downtown Houston (Harris County) and the area is being evacuated. JP called Tuesday night and we talked about the storm, but it wasn't really headed to Houston at the time. I asked him if he thought the inmates would be evacuated if the storm did come to Houston, and he said he didn't think so. The building they are in is 7 stories high and is a really sturdy, brick building. I think right now they are evacuating lower areas of Harris County, so maybe it wont affect the inmates. I can't stand the thought of something happening to him during the storm, but I can't stand the thought even more of how they would evacuate 10,000+ inmates! I know some people don't think of them as people, but they are! And they're someone's children or parents or husbands or wives and it's such a stressful thing to be taken out and put somewhere that nobody in the world wants them. I am praying for God to take care of JP in this and all situations and I really hope that the officials will feel that they are safe where they are and not try to move them.

But JP did sound really good when he called. He's got a few people writing to him and he really enjoys that. If anyone out there in blog land has it in their heart to write to a 24 year old who's trying to get through a terrible time in his life, let me know and i'll give you his contact information. I asked him if my mom happened to visit him while she spent 5 days in Houston while evacuating from Louisiana, but she didn't. My sister lives 30 minutes from the jail but nobody ever visits him until I come to town to see him. She has tried once recently to visit, but there were problems at the jail that night and she hasn't been back. When the weather settles down, I want to plan a weekend trip to see him. It really makes me feel good to visit him and see how good and healthy he looks. As bad as the whole situation is, I feel so lucky to still have him and to be able to see and talk to him. I honestly don't think he would be alive today if things hadn't happened to land him in jail the way they did.

Speaking of people in Houston, my sister, Donna, is under a voluntary evacuation due to Hurricane Ike. She is actually outside of Houston in Pearland and says they were told to "stay put." I have offered that she & her husband can come stay here if needed. It's a little awkward, because I wont have her sons here who are drug users/sellers, but they don't live with her currently and she didn't mention them coming, but that's probably because i've made it clear that I wont have that in my house. I am the anti-drug. Drugs have destroyed my oldest son and I've made a stand to not allow it around my younger son. Kids come in contact with drugs all the time, but I wont welcome it in my house. Did I mention both of her kids have been arrested for dealing drugs in the last 6 months? Yeah. Anyway, she said they will probably "stay put" as they are being told, plus nobody is 100% sure that Ike wont turn and come here! And just to give credit where credit is due, for all of us who prayed that Ike would stay away from Louisiana, God has answered our prayers and sent this storm all AROUND Louisiana, but is keeping it away from us so far!!

Tonight is steak night at Hilltop! Yay! It's my favorite night of the week! Brent is out of town for work, so Walter, Cathy, & I are going. I am so ready!!!! I had a long day with a few meetings at work, so I'm ready to relax alittle bit. 2 of the kids I went to see were absent, so I didn't have a whole lot to do. One of them (pre-k) was actually sent home after he bit the speech teacher! So yeah, I have my work cut out for me with him. He doesn't speak English and really doesn't speak at all.

Have I said how wonderful my husband is lately? Not only is he the smartest man I know, but he's the sweetest man I know too! I should add the phrase he adds for me when he says things like that. He says, "Ohhhh you are SOOOO sweet - when you want to be!" He he he. Anywho, I have been really sad about the fish dying in the river. Seriously, when you look in the water, they are either already dead and floating or gasping for air. Last night I asked him if there was ANY way to help them, like, I don't know, put oxygen in the water or something. He said that there really wasn't. So, later last night I was locking the house up before we went to bed and he said not to lock the garage because he still had a hose going out to the river. I said, a water hose? He said, no, the air compressor hose to see if the air going into the water attracted any of the dying fish! Awwww!! Maybe he can save a few? I thought it was really sweet! But i'm sure they're all dead anyway!

No word from the neighbors about the missing swimming pool ladder. Good thing, because I am totally ready to defend my position and to let them know that we aren't comfortable with the little girl being in the pool anymore because of the lack of supervision, plus we are having to make repairs due to other people's use of the pool (jumping off the ladder, hanging on the sides), when all I use the pool for is to float and read my book. It really isn't the little girl's fault that she is so obnoxious, but it is still hard to be around her. Her mother is a single parent who adopted the little girl, so I guess she just spoils her and lets her do what she wants. I am sure when I tell her that I'm not comfortable with the little girl in the pool without someone watching her, she will tell me i'm wrong - she'll say something like "I can see her from the house and she's fine," or something. I will have to say, "It is MY pool and MY rules, not yours." The neighbors truly are nice people and the niece and brat don't live there - except for now until their power comes back on (please hurry Mr. Nice Electricity Man). I will say that ever since that night, her car has not been next door, so either her power came back on or they had a fight about her letting the little girl in the pool and she left. I'm just sayin...Anyway, they are nice people, but the man is just too involved in our lives. I think they think we are the kids they never had or something. But we aren't! I've already got a set of dysfunctional parents, but thanks anyway!! This is the same neighbor who called and woke me up recently to let me know I forgot to take my garbage out! I do try to be patient and we do look out for them since they are older (in their 70s), but I'm not going to put up with any craziness. A few people asked about putting up a fence, but the only thing we can really do in our neighborhood is put a fence around the pool, which would look kind of funny because above ground pools are already so tall. Our neighborhood has restrictions against fences in the yards because of the view of the river, so we can't put anything between our yard and theirs.

That's all I've got! Have a great evening!!!

Saturday

Thanks for all the supportive comments about my post last night! What I didn't say is that my mom, sister, brother, and I are all much better people due to what we have been through than we would have likely been if we had grown up spoiled and materialistic. Today, we are all successful, well eduated, happy, solid people who have worked hard for what we have and appreciate it. I do know that all of my experiences in life have made me who I am today, and I will be honest, I love who I am! So, I work hard at letting go of the old stuff and just being glad that all of it helped to make me who I am today.

Bobbie at 40 Shades of Pink posted this recipe a couple of days ago and I made it last night. It is SO good! You really need to make it!!! It was easy to make and delicious! Cameron & Bryce ate it too and enjoyed it. Bryce isn't all that picky and will eat most anything, probably because he isn't my kid, but Cameron is very picky and he really enjoyed it too. I am already looking forward to eating the leftovers today for lunch!

My sister, Donna, did go to visit JP last night, but wasn't successful in getting to see him. She said when she drove up to the jail, there were fire trucks everywhere and people were leaving the visiting area saying that no visits would be allowed for the night. Now, that happens from time to time if something is wrong in the jail. It is a huge facility that houses 4,000+ inmates, so if there is an attempted escape or a hazard of some sort, they wont allow anyone in and will just cancel visitation for the rest of the visiting hours. Well, Donna said she wasn't about to just leave with all of that going on and not know if there was a fire inside or something! So she waited around until all the trucks left and it was clear that there was no danger. She said she didn't want to call me to say, "well, I went to visit but there were fire trucks everywhere and the visitors had to leave, so I went home." Yeah, I'm glad she waited!! I'm sorry she didn't get to see JP though and I hope she'll go back again soon.

I got up this morning and went to Walmart. I love shopping there, but can't stand the crowds and long lines, so if I'm going, I go as early as I can. I went around 9am and it wasn't bad at all. I got what I needed to last us until we get back from our trip to NEW YORK next weekend! Our friends/neighbors, Cathy & Brent invited us to stay at Brent's boss' beach house on Long Island for Labor Day weekend. Everything is paid except for our airfare, so we decided to go. I am really excited about it, except that i'm a tad bit nervous about flying! I've only flown once when I was 7 years old, but I'm going to "get out of my box" as my mom frequently tells me I need to, and do it. We will get to spend time at the beach, go to Niagara Falls, and are planning to drive into Canada! I'm really excited!

Not much else is happening around here today. The weather is beautiful! It is around 80 degrees with the wind blowing a little bit, and no rain in sight! The pool is still a little green, so I probably wont get in it, but it is looking almost back to normal. I am going to clean up around the house a little bit, bake some COOKIES I bought at Walmart, catch up on some work stuff, and play on my computer!

I hope you have a great Saturday!

Yes, it's STEAK NIGHT!!!!!

I'm so excited that it's steak night tonight!! We missed it last week due to the cruise and I am craving me some steak!!! Cathy & Brent are going with us, as usual, and I am READY!!!!

Here are some pictures from my fine painting job in our bathroom yesterday! Keep in mind that we still haven't put crown molding upstairs at all, so this is still not nearly a finished product! Our bathroom is my favorite room in the house and I am so in love with my bathtub! I am a serious bath taker/soaker and have never had a big bathtub before.

The big doors open into our bedroom, the door to the left is our closet, and there is a door to the right where the toilet is.

If this isn't a sure sign that i've gone crazy, I don't know what is. My best friend, Dana has 6 kids. Her oldest daughter, Amy, is 26 and we are very close too. I used to babysit Amy and her brothers when they were little, then Amy babysat Cameron when he was little, then Amy had 3 babies within 4 years and I babysat and helped her out a lot when they were little. So anyway, Dana's youngest daughter, Emily (13), is in town from Kentucky and she wants to come spend the night, along with Amy's oldest, Payton (8), before she leaves to go back home. But here's the catch! Once Payton comes to spend the night, then I owe his sisters, Camille (7) and Ava (5) a night and I get a bit overwhelmed, and then Landen gets extremely jealous when Payton comes here, so what to do? After consulting with Walter, who thinks I'm crazy but said ok, I am inviting them all FIVE to spend the night Tuesday night! I am VERY patient and fun for about 24 hours and then I tend to change into another personality, but they will come Tuesday afternoon & leave Wednesday morning, so i'm thinking it will be fun!!

No news in the dieting world! I lost about 1/2 lb. since Tuesday, but that is not typical for Atkins. I went to Walmart today and bought the Ketone strips that tell you if your body is producing Ketones (burning it's own body fat) incase I am eating things I shouldn't, but everything is good there. I'm thinking I need to exercise, which I keep putting off because i'm lazy. Today I had bacon for breakfast (wasn't really hungry), a Bubba burger with cheese & mayo for lunch, and i'll have my delicious ribeye w/sauteed mushrooms for dinner!

I haven't seen most of my friends from high school in 25 years and we are still working on planning a girl's night out soon. I have always been an avid picture taker and plan to go through my elementary - high school pictures and get out all the ones they are in and bring them with me! Our girls night out group has grown to 10 of us now, so I don't know if we'll go to a restaurant or what. I offered my house if they want to come here, so we'll see what happens. I am really excited to see everyone!

As i've mentioned before, my sister, Donna, is queen of the dingy people. She told me yesterday that she has been sick for SIX days with food poisoning!! She ate at Carrabas in Pearland (TX) and has been sick ever since. We've exchanged a few emails and after asking several questions, i'm pretty sure she has that salmonella poisoning that has affected 1,000's of people, including many Texans! Hello??? Mexican restaurant? Tomatoes?? Peppers?? Anyway, it hit me last night and I asked her if she'd thought of it and she said no. I am encouraging her to let Carrabas know that she got so sick and talk to her doctor. That girl! I once watched her spoon piles and piles of rice into her fajita and asked her why she was putting rice in it? She said, "OH, is that rice? I thought it was cheese!!"

Walter ordered the lumber today to build the pier. That is going to be an interesting project because someone is going to have to get all up in the river water to accomplish this job. There are snakes and alligators in this water and it is just plain spooky to me. I'll be sure to take pictures.

I had a few comments about my new budgeting plan. I use Microsoft Money 2004, but actually took the figures from there and made an Excel spreadsheet so that I can see everything in one place and make changes easily. When I balance my checking account in Microsoft Money, I also go to the Excel sheet and type every expense in the appropriate section and can see instantly what's working and what isn't. I'm not sure that we've ever been on a budget in the 10 years we've been together, so it will be an adjustment. We are dipping into our savings each month and I couldn't figure out why until I looked at my spreadsheet. We are paying extra on our mortgage to pay the house off in 15 years and even with that, we can easily afford our bills, but yet, we are out of money every month. So anyway, we'll see how we do with that.

And finally, a funny picture of my giant cat, J.J. sleeping on my ottamon. He is such a cute, goofy thing and I love him so much!!! Most people can't believe he is a cat because he is so big.