Where to Begin?

I last left you on the anniversary of Katrina aka the day we evacuated for Gustav. Kevin and I left for my parent’s home on Friday afternoon and spent Friday night, Saturday, and half-day Sunday there until the rain and wind started picking up. Sunday afternoon we relocated to my Aunt and Uncle’s home, which is only about 10 minutes away from my parent’s home, but a much sturdier house. As you all know, on Monday (Labor Day) Gustav rolled in. It wasn’t long before the power was off and, thankfully, the generator came on. We stayed at my Aunt and Uncle’s home until Friday when my parents got a generator set up at their house. We spent Friday night at my parent’s house, and that same night we got the good news that the seminary was open for the “saint to come marching in.” I went grocery shopping with my mom on Saturday morning to prepare for our homecoming, and Saturday afternoon we were back in New Orleans again. We were so thankful to see our apartment was just the way we left it (except for the musty smell that we’re slowly getting rid of). We’re glad to be back to our normal routine again, but we did have lots of fun hanging out with my family for a few days.

So what does my family do during hurricanes? I’m glad you asked. Here are a few of the highlights:

1. SCRABBLE! This is my family’s favorite game. We usually play by email since we’re long distance so it was great playing in person for a change. My sister and Kevin are the only non-Scrabble players, but we’re trying to reel them in slowly.

2. SWIMMING! Yes, during tropical storm force winds the boys hit the pool for some competitive races. Try THAT Michael Phelps!

3. Pretending to be those crazy meteorologists from The Weather Channel who broadcast right in the midst of the storm. I didn’t do this, but my brother and cousin did. They both went out in homemade raincoats (made of large black garbage bags) and let the wind have its way with them. They looked like a couple of crazy blackbirds flapping in the wind. I realize that this was dangerous, but it was pretty funny nonetheless.


4. Play Dough Wars! Ok, so we made this up. It all started when we set out to play a game of Cranium only to find that the play dough was all dried up. So what did we do? Made our own play dough, of course! And, of course, the recipe made MUCH more than we needed so we decided that instead of playing Cranium we would compete to see who could make the best play dough figures. We even timed ourselves and had judges. It was hard-core competition, my friends! And lots of fun!

No, these are not bunnies, they're TV's!

And believe it or not, these are Christmas Trees!

5. Sleep 8 people in one room! Reason: that’s where the window unit was. It was a little crowded, but I have to admit, it was fun, especially having a couple of snorers and a sleep talker all together for the night. We had plenty of laughs.

6. Creative eating! I refused to eat an MRE, but others in my family seemed to love them (ahem, the boys). Actually, I think they just enjoyed the thrill of cooking their own food in a little bag of boiling water and digging through all the goodies. Check out this yummy goodness:

This must be the Thanksgiving special.

7. Mario Cart Wii! We convinced my Uncle to let us use the generator for the VERY important task of playing the Wii in the evenings. We had four teams of 2 players each and let the competition begin. Can you tell we like competition in my family? And I must say, my brother and I rocked it! Go Diddy Kong!

Well, I hope that gave you a small glimpse into our hurricane adventures. There's much more to share, but I digress. All in all, it was great hanging out with family and just relaxing for a few days. We are, however, happy to be home and back to normal.

Much Love to the Sedotal's and the Landry's for making Gustav the funnest Hurricane EVER!