Landon's 2nd birthday party

Here's a little slideshow of Landon's party last month.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Crazy!!

Okay Val - I got the message:) I know I've been slacking in the update department. I have no clue what I'm going to do with four of them - it is already crazy enough with just three! I don't know how I'm going to add caring for a newborn and sleep deprivation to the mix. October has gone by in a blur. The only thing that saved me is I had gotten Connor 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule in his homeschooling before we left for Disney so we were able to take off while in Florida and last week when we got back. Eric is in grad school so for 3 nights a week he is either at school or working on school at home. He is also teaching 2 classes on top of his regular job so he has 2 nights a week that he is online teaching classes. Add to that me working on weekends, Connor's homeschool, and Landon's therapy - life just never stops.

We are also in the process right now of redoing the bedrooms. We had Landon in one room, Connor and Garrett sharing a room, and the fourth bedroom was Eric's office. With number 4 on the way, Eric decided to give up his office so we've had to combine my work/personal computers to one desk so he could move his computer into our room. We are going to turn his office back into a bedroom for Connor, put Landon and Garrett in the boys room, and then turn Landon's room into the baby's room. Eric's not crazy about all the painting I want to do but after 6 years of blue rooms, I'm excited to get to paint one of them pink finally. On top of all the laundry from being gone for a week and a half, we got back home to find the cool weather is making it's way here so I've been getting bins out of the attic to go through the boys winter clothes to see what will fit for this year.

The boys had a blast at Disney. As soon as I finish downloading all the pictures from the camera I'll make a slide show to post. Landon got to see his favorite - Mickey Mouse. He must have said "Mouse" 5,000 times. On the Mexico ride, when it starts they have a scene with Donald Duck so I pointed to him and just said "Look Landon, Donald Duck." Neither of us said anything for a couple of scenes then when they showed Donald again, Landon said "Momma, duck, quack, quack."

We also had a couple of reasons to celebrate while we were there. The week before, Eric's sister Tammy (who met us there) successfully defended her dissertation and earned her doctorate. CONGRATULATIONS DR. NANNY :) The 29th was Landon's one year hearing birthday. His hearing has become such a normal part of our everyday life the date just seemed to sneak by us. We are having fits with his ears right now - the rechargeable batteries are driving us nuts. Now he tries to put the magnet back on when it falls off or he'll come to us holding his ear for us to fix it. He has also gotten where he doesn't want us to take them off at night. We used to be able to say "Night Night" and he'd say it back and then take them off. Now he fusses when we try to take them off. I'm not sure if it is that he doesn't want to lose hearing or if he doesn't want to go to bed and knows if they come off that's where he is going.

Are you sure?

We got quite a shock today when the ultrasound tech told us Thing 4 is going to be a girl. We figured it was going to be another boy so all I was waiting to hear was everything looked good. After she said everything measured right she asked if we wanted to find out what it was. I had already picked out a couple of names for a boy since I thought that was what it was going to be. Now it's back to square one. I asked if she was sure and she said she had flashed her a couple of times so she had gotten a good look. I still don't think it's sunk in yet. It's going to be weird to look at pink stuff after 6 years of blue.

Update.

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted. Things have been crazy around here. I was scheduled to work more hours the last few weeks because the census at the hospital has been up. I only work on the weekends - when Eric can watch the kids. I usually work from home (for those who don't know I do medical transcription for the hospital). I had quit working when Connor was born but we needed a way to bring in a little extra money with all the medical bills from Landon so I started doing this. It was working out pretty good since I do it from home. The only problem has been that my cable modem went down with Hurricane Gustav and so I've been having to go up to the hospital to work. It's not bad when it's the first shift but second shift doesn't end until 9:00 p.m. It's pretty spooky up there on a Sunday night - especially since we are located just one set of double doors from the morgue. We stay so busy during the week with the boys homeschooling, Landon's therapy, Eric's graduate classes on top of his job, and then to have to go up there on the weekends - the days are just flying by.

We are having Landon's second birthday party this weekend. It's a combination of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (he loves the show) and Halloween. I've been busy trying to get everything ready for it. We had a wedding this past Saturday that Eric was standing in so trying to get everything ready for both of those plus our trip has also kept us pretty busy. We are leaving for Disney World in 3 weeks. Yes - we are going again. Eric has to go to Orlando for a conference for work so we just added some days to the beginning to stretch it into a family vacation (especially since his work will be paying for a good part of it). His sister Tammy graciously offered to fly in during the middle of the week so she could help me take the boys to the parks. I was going to try and take them myself but I am definitely thankful she's going to come and help. Just the thought of doing it alone was making me tired but I knew the boys wouldn't want to stay cooped up in the hotel room all day. Nanny to the rescue!!!I'm especially glad since yesterday I just found out I'm anemic. Never had it with any of the other pregnancies but we couldn't figure out why I was so exhausted this go around. The boys outlast me at night. I went for my last checkup and found out the lab screwed up the first time around and they had to run the bloodwork again (did I mention I HATE needles?) Anyway, they called yesterday and said it showed I was anemic so the doctor put me on an iron supplement. Hopefully it will start kicking in before we leave for the trip. We pretty much go from sun up to sun down when we are at Disney so maybe I need to take double doses :)

Aftermath

Here's a few pictures we took on the way to my parents. These aren't from the worst part of town either.


These are the pilings for a new bridge they are building over the Amite River. It will be high like a normal bridge and you can usually see down to the bottom where they go into the dirt. This is the new threat from Gustav - flooding.


Why there is no power.


This sign is in better shape then most.


This is a common site - the bottom of a tree that was pulled up roots and all.


A church that lost it's steeple.


There's 3 trees in a row that were pulled up at the roots. The front one landed across a truck.

Go away Gustav!!

WE HAVE POWER!!! We are one of a very small few who have power in Louisiana. It came back up last night around 9:00 p.m. 2 1/2 days in Louisiana heat and humidity with no power was miserable and unfourtunately it looks like a lot of people will be in it for a lot longer. My parents and in-laws are both about 40 minutes away from us in opposite directions and they don't have any. There is a chance my in-laws could get it this evening. Their water/sewer is all run on power so they have no water/bathrooms. They were staying at Eric's sister's even though she didn't have power she had water. They came here last night after we got power. My parents could be weeks without it. There are tons of lines down over by them. Luckily they have a generator so they can run a fan and keep the refrigerator cool. We told them they could come here but they don't want to leave the house since they can't set the alarm system.

I have to say this one was 10Xs worse than Katrina. The only one I remember that comes close was Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the destruction from this one is just so much worse. And it wasn't just that a bunch of trees fell over. Massive trees - 50 to 75 years old at least - that looked like they could withstand anything were just ripped out the ground like they were just twigs. They would be laying on their sides with the whole root system pulled up and we saw plenty where the bottom of the tree you see (the dirt and root system) was taller than the house it was laying next to. I'm going to take some pictures to put on here because you can't believe it unless you see it.

Luckily our subdivision is relatively new - when we built here 8 years ago there was only a handful of houses here. There's huge trees around the outer part of the subdivision but no one has really huge trees in their yards so no one had trees falling through their houses here. We lost all the siding facial trim around the back of the house and the roof has a lot of damage but other than that we were very lucky. The wind was amazing - it sounded like it could rip the whole roof off. We're going to brave the store today and replenish what we lost in the refrigerator. We tried to stop yesterday but the only thing open around here is Walmart and the line wrapped around the outside of the building to get in.

We had another bout of bad rain this morning and were worrying about power going off again. Come to find out, it was another band of rain from Gustav. Is he ever going to go away??? On one hand the rain is good because it keeps the temperature down a little but now there is a threat of flooding because of all the rain. It looks like it is going to be a while before things are back to normal around here.

Luckily this time around we had a great governor in office. The media loves to try and blame Katrina on the federal govt and Bush. What they don't publicize is that Bush tried to get our then governor Blanco to evacuate New Orleans days before Katrina hit and she refused. She waited until the day before to do anything. She didn't declare the state of emergency or sign the paperwork that would allow the federal government to come in and help until after Katrina and the levee breaks. We keep hearing how different it was this time, preparation was so much better, communication is better, just totally different. Then comes the unappreciative people. We started hearing this morning some people from New Orleans fussing because they were forced to evacuate and it was for nothing so next time they aren't leaving. Doesn't matter they got lucky this time and it didn't hit as bad there. Doesn't matter that the whole time the storm was going on they were watching the levees thinking they were going to breach again. Just because they got lucky this time and didn't have the devastation like Katrina they think it was a waste to leave. Some people never learn.

Gustav is coming!

Well, it looks like we won't get away from this one. Gustav is breathing down our necks and getting closer every hour. It's kind of spooky that it's happening so close after the third anniversary of Katrina. Let's keep our fingers crossed it doesn't hit us too hard - and we get power back soon after because it is just too hot right now to be without air for long.