Catching Up

The last two weeks have blown by! It's been incredibly busy with work, volunteering with the rescue group, a visit from the parents and even a minor outpatient surgery.

Two of my projects, our alumni magazine and a huge capital campaign promotion, got wrapped up this week FINALLY! Now its time to move on to the annual report and a few other publicity items during prime recruiting time.

My mom and Larry spent a week in Florida with some of their friends week before last. While they were away, their newly adopted hound Will crashed with us. He and Dream got along well, and aside from a leg lift and some puke in the house and Dream playing fearless hunter in our yard one night everything went very smoothly. He's such as good boy! I'd tried all week to get a pic of both of them staring out the window, I love it!


When Mom and Larry returned, they spent the weekend with us checking out some of the stuff we'd registered for and learning about travel systems and play yards, etc. Mom also felt it necessary to hook me up with some maternity clothes, which I'll probably need to start wearing in the next week or so (picture at 24 wks). We also picked up some bedding from PBK, in addition to some that I'd won on Ebay. Not sure that either one will be what we ultimately go with, but it's nice to have options.

The last two weeks had two doctor visits, one to have a small cyst removed from my head and the other our 24-week appointment. My big concern was that I'd have a big bald spot where the cyst was, but the doc worked his magic with out taking much, if any, hair at all. All that's left are several stitches that come out on Monday. All continues to look good with Baby D, her heart rate checked in at a solid 140. I told the Dr. about a day a few weeks ago when I felt less than stellar. She checked out my weight and asked a few questions and that eating MORE might be a good idea. I feel like I eat all the time!!

Dinner With the Stellings

I am behind ... which is pretty much par for the course these days!

Last Thursday, Jackies Adamec and Billet and I took dinnner to the Ill side for Erica and her mom. Jon was out of town for work, so Erica's mom came to help manage Lane and Caroline.

Since the twins were so small, their doctor suggested not having visitors except for immediate family over until they hit their actual due date. They have definitely grown over the last month, both weigh over 6 pounds now. Here's a picture of JA and I with Erica and Caroline. In the other shot we took I didn't look as thick but everyone else had their eyes shut!

After talking with Erica several times prior to our visit and then and visiting, I'm so glad I dodged the twin bullet this time around!

Thought I'd also include a picture from this week to stay current - the first time I've ever had to take the alter at my school's chapel. Had to pull it together after using several profanity-laced conversations that took place earlier in the morning. Kind of strange I must say, especially since I my talk was to about 115 moms on their lunch breaks. This was after I'd served as parking lot attendant (limited space due to construction). So many things must be written in that fine print!

A Few Weekends of Stuff

Looking over my last few posts, it looks like I skipped over a few things that we did over the weekends within the last month or so.

We actually did manage a trip home for Rog's 10-year high school reunion. I was a little concerned that I would only know a few people there, but knew a lot more than I thought I would, and even ran into a guy that was in my class in high school. We met up with Brian, Lindsay & Mason at the state fair, and I can honestly say that after a five-year haitus of attending the fair that (sadly) nothing has changed.

Mason's 1st birthday was the weekend of my cousin's wedding, but he got to open some gifts while we were there at a mini-birthday party. Apparently someone else thought he needed this really cool baseball thing as well ... good thing we had a gift receipt.

In addition to storm tracking last weekend, we decided to tackle one of the big cosmetic projects in the house. Our second spare bedroom had a mural of a jungle on the walls and ceiling - with all of the trees, mountains, grasses and animals painted in acrylic. With wear and tear, the arcylic has broken down a bit and we either needed to touch it up or re-paint everything. Anticipating that this will be our office in a few months, we decided to bring out the sander and get moving. What a job. So far we've sanded and spackled the entire room and replace the sky and palm leaves on the ceiling with a couple of coats of paint. Now we have to prime and figure out what color...

This week we also celebrated our second anniversary. It's strange how it seems like it wasn't that long ago, but when you think of everything that's gone on in that time frame maybe it has.

No news on Baby D other than we need to get moving our registry....

I Applaud This But....

Bring on the soapbox, it's time for a bit of a rant.

Let's go back to Thursday, when Gustav's track has yet to be clearly defined, but without a turn westward, things are not looking good for New Orleans. I'm watching the local news and see a story about local air evac and ambulance teams being deployed the next morning to help evacuate the hospitals and nursing homes.

This is followed by another story about charter busses and Amtrak working deals to evacuate those who don't have their own means out of the city. Then the National Guard arrives in droves, c-17s are more common on the tarmack at Louis Armstrong Airport than commercial flights to help evacuate.

And Mayor Nagin orders a mandatory evacuation. This was a shocker. When we were preparing to evacuate for Katrina, I distinctly remember him saying on a live news interview "legally I cannot to you that you have to leave." Meaning that by doing so, hospitals would close and emergency personnel would be scarce. That's when the head of the hurricane center (also on the interview) jumped in and said something to the effect of "he may not be able to, but I've seen countless hurricanes and you MUST get out .... now!"

Don't get me wrong, I think all of these proactive measures to prepare for the now eminent arrival of Gustav are great - and having 90-95% of the coast evacuated is excellent. BUT my question is, why now? Why did we not have the foresight to do this three years ago?

Granted the storm surge and flooding associated with being on the eastern side of the eye are much worse than the ones you get on the western front (as with Katrina), we were expected a direct hit in 2005. The AP took this picture of Tulane's athletic facilities after the levee breech. The squareish looking building was my office on the side overlooking the baseball field; my parking spot next to the tennis courts at the bottom of the photo. And this is on the "good side."

It's extremely disheartening to think what things will be like come Monday evening. One of our most unique cities, and now one of my favorite places to visit, could once again be submerged. Hopefully this time, the levees have been shored up, people took the warnings seriously and things will not be as catastrophic.

As I did a little more than three years ago to the day, I ask all of you to pray for all of our friends and former co-workers who still call NOLA home. From what we understand, they've all evacuated and are now playing the waiting game until they are allowed back...hopefully to unflooded homes that are still standing.