It's been such a busy week! LittleMan has been sick, so I've been home a couple of days and it was really nice. I got a good bit of cleaning done while he was asleep and even weeded my flower beds! We put up our scarecrow and potted some cute fall flowers too! I need to take some pictures. We made the cutest pumpkin with a kit from Target. It's a Mr. Potatohead pumpkin that is a little pirate. Too cute! LittleMan thought it was hilarious.

We found out that our tiny little town is going to have a pumpkin patch this year, so I'm pretty excited about that. I hope to get some really cute pictures. I also saw an advertisement for the grand opening of a little shop where you can stuff your own animals (kinda like Build A Bear) and we might have to check that out tomorrow if he’s feeling better.

Melissa

Well, we made it with very minimal damage in my area.  A few trees in houses, but overall, it was much better than predicted.  At around 2 pm on Saturday, the main storm came through and there were really heavy winds, lots of power outages and rain, rain, and more rain.  Our power went out at around 6:30 am on Saturday morning due to a tree falling on the line.  So, we went to Wal-Mart and stocked up on supplies and then we went and stayed at Hooker’s house.  Aunt Loo was without power, so we had to cancel our plans to stay there. 

In other happenings this weekend, a classmate of Hooker’s was killed in an accident early Saturday morning.  So, the mood around her place was pretty doomy and gloomy. 

Sunday would have been my uncle David’s 49^th birthday, so the weekend was already pretty much spoiled since Hooker’s mom was dwelling on that and then the accident happened and shot the rest of it to hell. 

But, due to the funeral, I had no babysitter yesterday, so, I got to work at home with the LittleMan.  It was a blast!  It’s funny how he realized that I wasn’t supposed to be there.  He kept coming by the couch (where I was working) and smiling and patting my arm.  He’s such a sweetie!

Anyway, not much to report.  Pretty much a boring depressing weekend.  I hope the rest of you had a much better weekend than myself.

Well, it looks like my area will be hit be strong winds and severe thunderstorms Saturday and Sunday.  Everyone is already gearing up and buying water, canned food that doesn’t need preparation, and generators.  I’m fortunate that I already have a generator that can keep everything in my home running, however, it requires gas to run, and so, if we are out of electricity for the long run, that could get quite expensive.  I guess I need to take a gas canister and fill it up.  From what I hear, all of those are pretty much bought up.  Oh well....

I am pretty proud of myself that I have a hurricane plan for us already.  LuckyHusband will be working from 11 pm Saturday until 7 am Sunday morning, so when the storm hits my area, he will probably not be home.  So, LittleMan and myself are going to stay with my crazy aunt Sarah, who calls herself Aunt Loo (for loony).  So, that should be interesting to say the least.  After the storm passes, we are going to go home and plug up the generator if we don’t have any power.  I have bought a lantern, batteries, M&Ms (a necessity), candles, and cans of soup.  I still have to find ice when I get home.  That should be fun…the stores around here are like the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve.  A small (insane) part of me loves seeing all the people rushing around.  (Not because of why they are rushing around really, just the fact that everyone is out and about…I’m a big people watcher).  But, then again, I hate trying to actually get anything done in a crowded store. 

So, keep me in your thoughts and prayers Saturday and Sunday as our area prepares to get hit by some form of weather.  

Melissa

Okay, I went to Old Navy today and had lots of success…..too much success actually.  I found one cute pair of black pants, and 2 pair of cord pants, 6 shirts, an awesome khaki trenchcoat, and some cute little black flats.  All of this, and it was only $200, which I didn’t think was that bad. 

The girl behind the counter needed some serious math skills though.  I had a $10 off coupon and a 10% off thing.  I wasn’t sure if I could use both, and of course, I couldn’t, so I told her to just use the 10% off.  She informed me that the $10 was better.  ???$*#&???  I told her that 10% of $200 was $20, which was more than $10.  She said, but the 10% only takes off about the same amount as you pay in tax.  Ummmm…yeah…so…..  Then she was like, well, if that’s what you want?...  Of course that’s what I want!  Save $10 or $20…hmmm…let me think.  I’ll choose $20.  Ding!Ding!Ding!  We have a winner!  Sad thing is that she probably made fun of me to her co-worker when I left and that other $10 says that the co-worker thought I was an idiot also. 

The season finale of Big Brother is tonight!!!  And Rock Star INXS.  So, pretty much nothing will get done at my house tonight.  Good thing that today is Tuesday.  My dad babysits LittleMan on Tuesdays and brings him home with a bath and everything!  WooHoo!  So, all I have to do is feed him some resemblance to a meal and I’m set!  I even have the popcorn ready.  I’m such a dork!  I really hope that Big Brother finds some way to let Janelle win, but since that’s pretty much not going to happen, I don’t care who wins!  However, I’m really pulling for Mig tonight in INXS, but I have a feeling that J.D. will win.  Don’t get me wrong, I think J.D. is great, but Mig is such a sweetie.  Either way, I think both are great choices.  Marty is pretty good too, but something about him creeps me out.  Not sure what..maybe the eerie resemblance to Tom Petty. 

Melissa

I’m having such a hard time keeping up with my blog.  Our office has gotten into super-Big Brother mode and is monitoring all of our internet usage.  Grrr….  So, I’ve been limited on my blog time and it’s killing me!!

I went shopping at lunch for some new clothes for our new dress code.  OMG, shopping sucks!  None of the shirts I tried on fit right because I’m a little big up top.  So, they were either too fitted resulting in me looking like the seams would burst anytime, or not fitted enough and it looked like my attempt at a mumu shirt.  So, I came back empty handed and super frustrated.  I only made it to Sears and JCPenney’s, so I’m going to try Old Navy some other time this week and pray for a miracle. 

Last week I did lots of evacuee helping.  I took tons of supplies that were donated by my super-wonderful blogging buddies to some of the shelters and I also took some cookies and microwave popcorn in little bags with the youth from my church.  It was fun and these people are really appreciative. 

LittleMan has gotten really into dancing lately.  He has figured out how to turn on the radio portion of our clock radios and dances all over our bedroom.  He also has gotten in the habit of saying “yes ma’am” which is really cute. 

Sorry the update is so short, I need to finish my lunch!

Melissa

I can’t believe how quickly that time has seemed to pass lately.  It seems like I can’t get anything done!  Anyway, here’s what’s going on with me…..

Hurricane Update

Last night, I met some really sweet kids at church that had been bused from one of the shelters.  Well, not really a shelter…it’s a state park facility with cabins and stuff, so a lot better than just a normal old shelter.  Anyway, point being, these kids were so sweet!  One boy kept thanking everyone for inviting him and picking him up.  He said that it was nice to get away.  All they have to do over there is play basketball.  And, he likes my little cousin Taylor…so maybe a little romance.  LOL!  Another girl told me that she was excited because her family had decided to stay in our town after everything was over with.  She said that they had been so touched by everyone’s generosity that they wanted to live somewhere like that.  I thought that was odd until my aunt Sarah told me her shelter-working experience from last week.

She said that she had went to Metarie and worked.  She is a really loud, smiling, boisterous person.  The type that you don’t want around when you need peace and quiet.  LOL!  Anyway…she was talking to a man who told her that he was shocked at how nice all of the state workers from the northern part of the state were.  He told her that he was so surprised at how generous and helping everyone was.  She blew it off by telling him that he would have done the same had the situation been turned.  He told her that he definitely would not have.  He talked about how people in his town (not sure where) never helped their neighbors out in times of trouble and this was a totally foreign concept to most of them.  He said that anyone who would have had probably been ripped off enough that they had quit doing things like that.  So, I guess these people in our town see a group of people that care about one another and want to be part of that.  We are like that with each other as well.  A childhood friend of mine has a father who is basically a vegetable in a rehabilitation hospital after a massive heart attack 3 weeks ago.  He worked at the paper mill that LuckyHusband works at.  All of the guys from this man’s area have been pitching in and paying for his insurance so that his wife won’t have to worry.  They are going to continue to do this indefinitely.  They also raised hundreds of dollars by worker donations to give to the family for expenses.  I can’t imagine living somewhere where this isn’t the norm.  I know that if anything ever happened to me where I was unable to care for my husband and child, there would be tons of people pitching in to help.  I can see why these people want to stay. 

There are so many ways that our town has changed in the past 2 weeks.  The local high school got a star quarterback from Slidell and also is a possible love interest for Hooker. Apparently he’s pretty cute, of course she claims that she doesn’t want a boyfriend.  LOL!  I’ll have to go to a game and check him out.  Supposedly a man who has relocated and plans on staying is going to open a restaurant.  I can’t wait.  I bet the food will be unbelievable!  And I know personally, it has made so many people take time to think of others instead of themselves. 

Okay…onto something else…

My office is about to institute a new dress code.  I’m so distressed about this.  Formerly, any day of the week, I could be found in jeans, usually some form of flip flops, and a comfortable shirt.  Now, no flip flops and no jeans except on Fridays!  I had to go clothes shopping this weekend (a huge source of dread for me!) and I bought a couple of pairs of dress pants and a couple of dressier shirts.  Today, I’m dressed in khakis, a dressy tunic-type shirt and some really large platform like sandals.  They are killing my feet already!  This is going to take a TON of getting used to.  I just really, really, really hate dressing up.  And this is dressed up for me.  Grrrrr…..  If they don’t specify anything other than no jeans, I’m tempted to find a nice comfy pair of jogging pants.  Hmmm…or yoga pants..those look really comfy.  And if I ever decide to take up yoga (yeah right) I’ll have them.

Books

I read There’s No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark this weekend.  Great book.  I was really shocked by the ending.  Usually I have it semi-figured out by the end.  That’s what happens when you grow up with a detective for a dad and then you get to talk to your cop brother about his cases.  So, I’m always glad for one that kind of fools me.  I ordered some new books from the book club I joined (which by the way isn’t so bad…I kinda like it).  So, I can’t wait until they come in!  I also should have a hold book in at the library to read today.  Yippee!!!

Random Crap

I read in this month’s Glamour that if you sleep with your face on the pillow it will give you wrinkles.  If you sleep on one side instead of the other, that side will have more wrinkles.  Now I’m sure I will be constantly obsessed with not sleeping on my face.  Great…something else to keep me up at night.

Have a great week!

Melissa

I cannot say Thank You enough to all of you who have posted comments or emailed me.  My mom got back yesterday from working a shelter that was basically an ER/triage area in Baton Rouge.  She saw all kinds of things and the saddest part is, she found people being turned away from the shelter.  Let me explain, if someone had an injury/illness that the people in charge deemed worthy of care, they were put on a bus to this facility.  When they were checked out, if they had a medical need, they could stay in the shelter part.  If not, they were discharged with no one to take them anywhere for shelter. 

One family was with a 12 year old who had a nosebleed.  She tried to tell the people in charge that it was nothing so that her family could go to a “normal” shelter, but they put them on the bus to the medical ER/triage place (don’t I have such eloquent writing…lol).  When she got there, the nosebleed was determined to be stress (just like she told them) and they were told to leave.  My mom finally wrangled them a few cots and they were allowed to stay, but this is the kind of stuff that these people are facing. 

Also, lots of talk is coming out about how the governor and the mayor of N.O. refused, even with the information they were presented with Friday and Saturday, to declare a state of emergency and evacuate.   Apparently, New Orleans had procedures for this type of thing, which entailed using school buses and public transportation to get people out.  They chose not to do this.  I saw pictures of rows and rows of school buses that are now mostly under water.  It was the weekend, no school….why were they not used? 

I still think that it’s premature to start the “blame game” until these people are helped.  But as soon as it settles down, I think we as the citizens of Louisiana should demand an investigation into how this crisis was handled. 

Another issue that has come to light is the hazardous water these people are wading in.  Any skin contact can be detrimental to health and safety of these people.  Also, they are saying that people in helicopters doing rescues are at risk.  They are starting to see people die from illness sustained in the water.  To me, that is really scary.  These bacteria are running rampant and now, mosquitoes are starting to infest the area and the reality is that mosquitoes will bite on cadavers and then bite someone else.  So, even if you are in the area, but not near the water, you could be at risk.  As information pours in from the CDC, it should be interesting for medical geeks such as myself. 

Also, an update on the woman who lost her 3 children.  The radio program I heard the story on is syndicated across the country.  Her children were found and they were reunited.  I think they said the kids were either in Oregon or Ohio (can’t remember which).  The mother was in Texas.  This is why some families are unable to re-unite, they are hundreds of miles apart.  But, at least that story had a happy ending. 

And, now something “normal”.  LittleMan got a Halloween costume.  He is going to be the cutest dragon you’ve ever seen!!  Last night he tried on the costume for my mom and refused to take it off until an hour later (probably only then because it was hot).  He puts it on and goes…GGRRRRR.  LOL!  He also has learned to grab my shoulder if I’m sitting down and say “Come on” to make me get up to do whatever it is that he wants.  Usually it’s to point and tell me “cookie” in a “Fetch, mom” type attitude. 

Hope you are all having a great week.  Check in on Cat at amomintheswamp.com and try to send her some encouraging words (and other stuff if you are able).  She lost everything to Katrina.

Melissa

People seem to be trying to return to some of their normal routines around here.  Displaced people are enrolling their children in schools here in north Louisiana and local people are trying their best to provide school supplies and clothing for these children.  Other families are already looking into how they can put the pieces of their lives back together, except in northern Louisiana towns this time.  One displaced restaurant owner is looking into opening a seafood restaurant in my town (yippee!) and a friend of mine with a home for sale said that a retired couple was looking at buying her home as soon as they get their insurance check.  They told her that they had nothing to go back for. 

New stories are beginning to be heard about extraordinary situations that are a result of Katrina.  One story that I saw on the news was of a couple who gave birth to a preemie just 2 days before Katrina.  They had to leave her in the hospital in NICU and they were evacuated.  On Friday (I think) they finally found her and were reunited with her in Texas.  I can’t imagine how painful it must have been to not know if your just days old child is alive or where she is. 

Many children have been separated from their parents during this mess.  I have heard of a lady in Texas who thought her 3 children were behind her when boarding a bus at the Superdome, only to find out that they weren’t.  She hasn’t found them yet.  Also, on in a shelter in Baton Rouge are children who were separated from their parents.  One was just 14 months old.  Due to so many people wanting to help, there are so many websites to reunite with your family, that some think that family members are posting on different sites and not finding one another. 

Another story that I found touching was of a 90-something year old man who was in a shelter last week.  A news correspondent was feeding him because he was unable to do so himself after suffering a heart attack.  Family members saw this on the news, and rushed to get him from the shelter and he is now in the care of his family. 

Conditions are starting to get better and people are slowly getting rescued.  Even Fats Domino was rescued last week.  (I thought that was interesting) But, just by hearing some of the stories from friends who are working shelters, we have a long way to go. 

Please keep my mother, who has went to Baton Rouge to work a shelter, in your prayers.  My aunt is also in Metarie working a shelter as well. 

Thanks to all of you who have contacted me to help.  I will be getting back with you as soon as I can.

Melissa

It’s times like these that the little things make me happy and sad at the same time.  My little brother, Scuba Steve, is home and I am so glad.  He is buying supplies today to go back.  When most think of supplies, they assume water, food, etc.  No.  He is buying another bullet-proof vest, other body armor, ammo, and gathering his guns.  Survival items for himself are a must also in case he is abandoned again.  I’m not sure when he will go back. Selfishly I wish he wouldn’t go back, although I know that these people need help.  He is developing his pictures today and I will try and post some of them for you. 

Last night, LittleMan and I gathered Happy Meal toys, and baby rattles, and those plastic keys on a chain, etc for the children and babies in our local shelters.  I realize they have immediate needs for water, food, etc, and we have bought and delivered things to meet those needs as well.  However, these children are being cooped up for days on end, and I know that toys and the markers and stickers and paper that we sent will be a blessing. 

I also gathered my clothes and shoes that I don’t need and headed out to see where they could be used.  Hooker has been volunteering at a makeshift nursing home that a whole entire nursing home from Metarie was evacuated to.  A granddaughter of one of the residents had only the clothes on her back and the shoes that she took from a dead person because hers (flip flops I think) were gone (not sure if they washed away or wore out).  I was her exact shoe size and hooked her up with some very gently used Sketchers tennis shoes and some flip flops and some clothes.  Hooker, however, really stepped up and bought her some other necessities and is letting her spend the night at her house.  I am so proud of her.  She has bathed and changed nursing home residents and fed them and visited with them.  Already, they know her by name (her real one, not Hooker) and ask for her when they have something they need. 

The thing that I am most struck by is how my town has pulled together to help.  Shelters have been opened and people have shown no hesitation to help.  The owners of our local motel are Indians (as in from India) and have never been overly well-received in the community.  They have housed and fed these people from their own pockets.  I visited with them last night and the level of generosity is astounding.  The owner told me, “I have food and clothes for my family.  They don’t and I can’t watch them do without.”  I have been brought to tears so many times by the generosity of my town and I’m so proud to live in such a great place. 

Another Red Cross shelter will open tonight.  It honestly breaks my heart to see these people go through this.  With the continuance of evacuation, many families who have been in the shelters are beginning to fear the new ones coming in.  The more recent additions are more likely to be drug addicts, gang members, and have weapons.  They are scared to be in a shelter with them.  I can’t imagine their level of anxiety. 

Another situation that I would like to bring to light is how you can help.  Donations to the Red Cross are great, but many of these people are not being housed in a Red Cross shelter, but in a church or community shelter because the Red Cross ones are full.  These people are not eligible for any Red Cross aid because they are not in a shelter.  All they are getting is what the citizens are able to help them with.  Long term, that may be a problem.  If you have used clothing, ESPECIALLY baby clothing or children’s clothing, toiletries (doesn’t matter if they are opened), coloring books and colors, socks, underwear, etc that you would like to donate, find a Salvation Army shelter and ask that it be sent to hurricane victims or e-mail me if you want to send it to our community shelters in North Louisiana.  I promise you that I will make sure it gets to people who need it.  My e-mail is littlemp at gmail dot com if you are interested. 

Finally, the best thing you can do is remember these people in your prayers.  They have a long road ahead of them and the devastation is just beginning.

Melissa

Scuba Steve was allowed to call home this afternoon.  He told my father so many horrible things.  First of all, they have been removed from the area for their own safety.  As they were on a bridge waiting, people were shooting at them and a sniper with the SWAT team was having to kill people who were shooting at them.  These people are shooting at any authority figure so that they can continue the looting and horrible behavior.  I guess the mindset is to steal and hide what they can so that when the city opens back up, they have enough material possessions to pawn or sell for lots of cash.  Scuba Steve will leave in the morning headed home. 

Special tactical forces are being flown in for the next few days to try and regain control of the area.  A few of the things my dad relayed to me was that as they were wading through bodies in the French Quarter, many of them seem to have been murdered and not drowned.  The convention center near the Superdome was taken over by gangs last night.  Three murders have been reported, numerous reports of rapes, knifings, and muggings.  This is in the place where people were supposed to be safe.  He said that at night when it’s quiet, all you can hear is babies crying.  He said it was so sad.  He also said that the New Orleans police are responsible for a major portion of the looting happening at this point.  They are looting for their own personal gain.  How sad is that. 

Thanks for the prayers and kind thoughts.  I’m sorry I haven’t been to your blogs, I hope you understand my limited capacity.  We are unable to even place outgoing phone calls for the most part.  I am e-mailing this post. 

Thanks again!

Melissa

Last night, my brother, who is in New Orleans working on helping the cops with looters, didn’t report back to the command center.  He was reported missing.  Early this morning he was found.  He and some others were dropped off by helicopter and the helicopter never returned.  The command center didn’t remember where they were.  It was very scary.  This morning he left with a SWAT team to go back into New Orleans.  I am so worried and will not feel better until he returns home tomorrow afternoon.

Gas is getting so expensive.  I’m worried that I won’t be able to afford to drive to work anymore.