A waiting game

Ben once said that he wasn't sure if he could stay in NOLA permanently because he didn't want to deal with hurricane season every year. I replied that at least you knew it was coming and could plan. With tornadoes, you got blind-sided. (Both of our families live in tornado-prone areas.) I still stand by my original statement but I'm not sure if I needed this much time to wait for it to happen! Ben got to St. Louis late yesterday morning. He was going to the hotel, to get lunch, and to sleep before reporting at 7:15pm last night. I could hear the exhaustion in his voice. Luckily, he was flying. The other man in his unit had to drive Ben's GV out of the city. Unfortunately, he had to take the admiral to the airport first and wasn't leaving until 8:30 yesterday morning. I'm not sure when he made it where he was going. Ben should be off already this morning but I've temporarily misplaced my cell phone and can't call him. It will turn up eventually. I continue to pray for all of our friends (and the friends and family that have taken in extra house guests.) In a few hours, we should know more. God bless.

Good Times!!

Jacob, Jacquelyn, and I left NOLA on Friday morning. We could have waited longer but my brother and sister-in-law were going to be in St. Louis for the holiday weekend. Leaving Friday gave us extra visit time. Looking at the news now, I'm glad we didn't wait. I wouldn't want the trip to have taken any longer. I knew it was a bad sign when we left. The buses carrying the Orleans Parish Prisoners (along with 20 cop cars escorting them) got on the highway just as we were leaving downtown. If the criminals are leaving, it was a good bet everyone else would be ordered to do so soon. The trip took 12 1/2 hours, the DVD player quit working one hour in, and we weren't able to find any of Jacob's music CD's before we left. This sounds like a horrible road trip. God bless, it wasn't. Jacob entertained himself with toys and his imagination, entertained his sister when she fussed, and was a big help. Now, if he could just hold her so trips to the bathroom would be easier!
Ben had to stand watch at the Federal Building last night. Mostly, this means watching the storm not watching for criminals. I talked to him at 6:30am and he was getting ready to go board a shuttle to the airport. He is flying up to St. Louis and will begin standing watch at 7:30pm tonight. He isn't thrilled about flying but is taking his first ride on a C-130 makes it a little more exciting. I don't know how long he will do this, what exactly he will be doing, or how long we will be here. This storm is so much bigger than Dolly and his team works regardless of where it hits on the Gulf coast. The kids and I won't return home until he does (or we know people are in our neighborhood). I'm not that proficient with a gun and the people that decide to stay behind will either be protecting their belongings or looting the belongings of others. Not a good place to be with 2 kids.
We pray that all of our friends are safe and we will stay in touch.

It's been a busy month. I keep trying to update this and haven't made it yet. Here are some recent pictures that at least show the kids. I'll post more when I get a chance!

July 2008

A busy month!

I kept thinking that I would get around to uploading pics and now realize a month has passed. It has been pretty busy. My folks came down for the 4th of July. Dad and Ben did some work replacing rotting boards on the garage. If it hadn't rained every day, they could have finished more quickly! It looks great now and we are so glad to have it done. Jacob didn't stay up for the fireworks but he did get to do some non-fireworks (champagne poppers, snaps, etc.) He had a blast and didn't know what he was missing. We went to Storyland for the first time. It's a little park that has painted statues depicting many of the Mother Goose fairytales. It was very hot out but worth it. Jacob was even able to ride most of the rides at the amusement park connected to it. I was shocked when he stepped up to the 'Must be this tall to ride' line and was 42 inches. I need to measure him to see if that is accurate. His school scrapbook from May listed him at 39 1/2. He had a blast and asked to ride many of them over and over. I'm excited about this and can only hope he will share my love of looping roller coasters! Jacquelyn is already 4 months old. She was 17 lbs and 7 ozs, 25 1/2 inches, and her head was 41 cm. She is already rolling over. This actually started around two months but she is so good at it now that I can't leave her on our bed while I wash my hands after diapering. She is also trying to push herself forward but gets her right arm stuck. Problem-solver that she is, she rolls over to free her arm and rolls back to push forward again. Reclining in the bouncy seat isn't very much fun right now and she's constantly trying to sit up. Unfortunately, she can only sit pretty much bent in half which causes spit-ups. Oh well! Right now, Ben is busy at work. He is excited to finally have something to do. First, he was helping keep track of boats, personnel, and equipment as Hurricane Dolly made land fall. Now, he is helping with the oil spill in the Mississippi River her in New Orleans. He just got switched over to it today so I don't have details yet on what his part is. I think that covers all the exciting things in our world and I will try to get pics posted soon!!

Still learning the ropes of blogging!

The pics below are from the past few weeks. The picture in the yellow dress is Jacquelyn's 3 month b-day. What are the odds that I would dress her in the same one she had on in her 2 month pics? You wouldn't think they would be that high since she has so many different outfits. Jacob still loves to be close to her and I can't wait until she is old enough to play with him. She smiles when she sees him and he can make her laugh. She babbles quite a bit right now and is somewhat scheduled (if we were ever at home!) Ben just finished his last of three trips out of town. Unfortunately, it was in Iowa and he didn't find out until he got there that they were too flooded to do the training. He drove up just to turn around and drive back. He even called to verify the training earlier in the week but I guess they changed their mind. We have been getting rain for the past week so it's been difficult to do much. We went to the Aquarium yesterday and the Farmer's Market in Gretna today. The Aquarium was crowded with kids from area daycare groups and day camps but Jacob had a blast anyway. Jacquelyn slept through most of it. The grown-ups just tried not to go crazy from the hundreds of kids running around in an enclosed space. We will have to try on a different day next time!

3 months old!!!