Three Years Ago...

My life changed. My family faced one of it's greatest challenges. Our little world of friends, neighbors, shops and stores was forever altered.

Today is the 3 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Please keep the hundreds of victims in your heart and prayers today.

This is a picture of my street after the storm has passed. This is AFTER the water had begun to drain out of our homes.


This next picture is of a major intersection after the storm. It's about 1 mile from my house. I must be a lot higher (elevation) than I thought --- even though the elevation on my house is a -2.75ft.


But I don't live in the Ninth Ward in Orleans Parish. And for the matter, I don't live in Orleans Parish. I live to the west of Orleans, in Jefferson Parish. You don't hear a lot about us, the damage, the destruction, the ruined lives. Nevertheless, we flooded.....about 8 inches in the house.

Eight inches of water --- not a lot to most people's way of thinking. But let me assure you that it's more than enough to ruin everything you own. We had mold growing out of the cushions of the sofa, mold and mildew on the walls, EVERY wall. My bathtub had a shiny slime in it. All my bedroom dressers and chest of drawers had warped --- ever try to open a warped drawer? Not easy.

My other blog, I'm So Tired covers some of the frustration and challenges we faced after Katrina.

And yet, here we go again! Gustav and possibly Hanna are aimed here. We've got our reservations in Nashville, clothes packed, Mia's toys and books packed, and all my maps of the contraflow and interstates. I will be dropping Daddy off in Birmingham, Alabama to my sister and then heading out. I have family west of the city BUT for Katrina, it took 12 hours to go from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, normally a 1 hour drive. Oh, I'm so not gonna sit in that kind of traffic.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers...

Color Throwdown

WOOHOO! I actually got some time to myself this past weekend and I was impressed with all I got done. I can't possibly show ya'll everything, but I did want to make sure that I posted some of the challenges I finally completed.

Color Throwdown is one of my favorites. And I got it finished! I couldn't believe I did it! I've tried to finish a card for them, but I've always been late. And this week, I combined it with a sketch I found at Fat Cat Stamper. This is my entry.



And I've started thinking about Halloween. It's my favorite holiday/celebration! I spent hours at Michael's yesterday, seeing what new stuff they have to decorate my home with! My list is endless! And of course, Dawn at Dawn's Stamping Thoughts has a cute, cute, cute Frankenstein card...which I sort of adapted. I couldn't find my black paper bags, so I ended up with a black take out box, and I think it came out cute! When I find my bags, I'll end up making 50 or so to give out to the kiddies, and I promise to post them when I finish them.


I really like him!

I'll try to post some of the other stuff I worked on this weekend! I hope I have a productive week!

Poor Pitiful Me!!!!

I need an official pity party, rofl!

Life around our home has been interesting (to say the least) over the last couple of weeks. And for some strange reason, I THINK I'm still sane, lol.

Jerry is driving me nuts! He's forgotten that he's a mature, grown man and reverted to that little 7 yr old boy that's usually hidden away. He talks, and talks, and talks incessantly! He can't find his GPS system that the girls bought him for Father's Day, and it's everyone else's fault that it's missing. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

He's healing okay, I guess. The doctor said 3 weeks, and of course, he's trying to push his healing.

My dad, sigh, has had a new bleed in his "good" eye. Daddy has macular degeneration and it's awful. There is not much else wrong with him other than he's almost 84. It's hard for him to accept this challenge, and he makes it hard for everyone else to empathize.

So, with all that and more (namely Hallie, Loretta, Bonnie and Mia), the past couple of weeks have been hard for me. I've missed this week's color challenge. I've missed a couple other challenges that I wanted to try to participate in. I've had no time to work on my scrapbooks.

Poor pitiful me, lol!

Whew! I think I made it!

I've just been swamped, dealing with Jerry and Mia all day. BUT, I think I actually will make the cutoff time for KWerner's Color Inspiration #18.


This week's challenge colors are Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red and either Summer Sun or Green Galore. I'm still new to Stampin' Up! colors, so I may have chosen the wrong green, but I went with what I had.


I got to use my new Bella Stamps...woohoo! I love my "Witchiebella"!!!


My photos may not be all that great, but I'm happy with the card. I embossed the basic stamp image, and used some of my new black embossing powder. And then I used some of my watercolor pencils and filled the image in. I'm rather proud of the way it came out.

Thanks for looking!

A quick but late card...

I had planned to join in on a new challenge at Color Throwdown. I think it's similar to other challenges out there, and I am really getting into it.

But with Jerry's surgery, I didn't get a chance to post it. But I thought I would go ahead and put up the card I made, and then get busy on the new challenge.


Enjoy!

Hubby's doing great!

Just a quick update, Jerry did fine yesterday and should come home tomorrow. WOOHOO! I am now caught between the errands for the girls, Mia and trying to keep things balanced :sigh: and it's not easy.

So thanks to everyone for all their thoughts and prayers...they worked!