Thanks everyone..... the election did not go well.... which is what we feared! Jessica has 5 yrs of experience on student council. This boy has only 1 (this current year) but yet he narrowly won the election! She has had LOTS of people tell her she should have won - and she was really sad this morning because she said everyone was calling her Madam President assuming she had won .... she had to tell them she lost....... :( But I am proud of her for at least trying. This is something she has wanted since 7th grade, and I know she would not have been happy without at least trying! She will still have the opportunity to run for class student council representative in the fall, but it won't be quite the same thing. At least IF she is elected representative she will be eligible for a scholarship that utilizes her student council service hours!
Yes, I always thought I wanted to go to Australia too - but my neice and her family moved their in January 2010 and I learned how far it really was!! The trip is like 30 hrs!! To go to Perth, which is where my neice lived, you had to fly to Sydney then it was another 4 hr flight from there! My sister and BIL went last Fall and they were exhausted for weeks when they returned!! Now, she is about to move to Singapore.... not sure but I THINK that would be a shorted flight relatively speaking! I have never flown more than 2 hrs or so and not sure that I want to....... but we bought Alex and Kyle Kindles for their long trips to help pass the time on the plane.
Genna
The Merry, Merry Month of May
Hey, I just got home and haven't had a chance to catch up on all the posts. going out of town tomorrow but wanted to post that we are now proud grandparents of a 6 .9 pound baby boy. their monitoring his oxygen levels they aren't quite where they need to be I guess. I didn't get to hold him today. mom is fine.
catch up later. mom is fine too.
Congratulations Kathy Ann!! Nice size baby! What are they naming him?
I've been working out on my flower bed in front of the workshop all afternoon in between the rain. It poured here several times!
Congratulations, Kathy-Ann! Hope you'll have lots of time to hold that new grandson real soon!
Forgot to say...Genna, I'm sorry for Jessica. It's rough to be the loser in an election, especially in high school, and I know it's doubly tough for her since it's been her dream for so long. I know she'll take the high road and be ok. But give her lots of hugs and she'll be ok in the long run.
Congrats to you and Danny, KA. Enjoy you out of town trip.
Aww Genna, please tell Jessie that I am sorry. She should have won...if for no other reason...because she has such a lovely smile and she just lights up the room...
Genna sorry that Jessie didn't win!!! Know she had worked so hard and wanted it so badly!!!
They named him Corin lee Algood. I guess i won't get to hold him till sunday night when we get back since they wouldn't let me hold him tonight. heck, Laura's only held him once. and she hasn't nursed him yet either. guess their monitoring him good. I'll be in touch with her by phone tomorrow.
we've planned this trip to st louis for a month now. hoping that we'd still get to go and we are still planning on going, Going up to Cabelas and maybe a couple other fun things to do. maybe spending the night also. will be a nice get away.
darren got a job!!!! working at ASU Searcy grounds keeper so to speak. not sure yet what he'll be doing. Lots has happened this week. ;0) amber's moving out this coming wed also.
got lots to do between now and tomorrow. ya'll have a good weekend.
You have had a lot happening this week!!!
What is Cabelas! Glad your going to have a fun weekend!
Yeah for Darren !! I know you are all thrilled.....then Amber moving out!
I think that is a place to buy hunting stuff, just in case she doesn't get a chance to get back on line.
I tried to mow today and my brand new mower I was so proud of will not run. I imagine it will go back to wal mart tomorrow
right, it's an outdoors place, they have a special event on hiking boots this weekend, and is one of the reason's wer'e going, danny's still on the hunt for a good pair
tak ethe virtual tour. it's a neat place
http://www.cabelas.com/stores/store_info.jsp?pageName=020
That's no good!! I bought a new mower last summer and had a heck of a time getting it started this spring. I forgot to put Stabil in the gas! The one we had was one Richard had picked out and he can't mow anymore and I hated it and I couldn't get it started last summer so I went out and bought one that I liked. My next door neighbor bought my old one from me so the new one last summer didn't cost me much at all. The one I sold had these huge rotating wheels in the front and was just too hard to handle -- guess it was a man thing! I now only have a little bit of grass in the front yard and it only takes about 15 minutes to cut!!! My nice neighbor to the north of me always cuts my strip of grass on the side of my driveway. Occasionally I've come home to find that someone has edged my yard by the street.
Congrats KA & Danny!!! Welcome to the next best club in the world(of course, DG is 1st)!!!! You will really enjoy it!!! Being a grandparent is one of the most important jobs out there!!! I bet he has already won your heart even without holding him!!!!
Genna I am sorry that Jessie didn't win!!! It is quite an honor to be in the running and I'm sure she learned a lot from the experience. We can't win always in life and being prepared to adjust to a second or even third plan to accomplice our goal is a lesson in it's self.
Congrats on that baby boy Kathy Ann. I know you can't wait to get your hands on him.
Genna sorry to hear that Jessie did not win but at least she took the defeat like a lady and her head held high for trying. Kudos to you for her upbringing. I don't think the Principal is setting a very good example for these children almost adults he is mentoring.
Elaine is is refreshing to hear that your daughter loves her daughter enough to set her straight about behavior. Most parents I run into today evidently don't care enough to deal with it or don't pay enough attention to realize they have created brats. They usually make some kind of excuse for their behavior. They are doing the children no favors. OK off my soapbox. I raised boys and they were easier by far!!!!!! No drama just broken bones and stitches. LOL
Jeri I am so sorry to hear about you fish. I hope the new ones are as pretty. I know everything will be beautiful as usual for the pond tour.
OK I will give you all an update on the camp.There is no water inside yet. All the bottom insulation is in the water and the porches. I think we still have about 5 inches before getting inside the camp. All but three of the camps have gone under. We are still sweating it because until the water starts falling we are still in danger of going under. I can't wrap my mind around all the devastation that will occur from all this. Since we have one community water well and we own our power lines and poles, it may be a long time before we have these utilities again.
You can't just call the power company and tell them we don't have electricity. All lines will have to be repaired by our club on our land. There are a lot of feeder lines under water before it even gets to us. Our main road , when we are able to come by vehicles runs right along the Miss river. That road probably will have fallen off into the river. New roads will have to be cleared before you can bring in building supplies to do repairs. This photo shows how far off the ground the camp is when the water is down and what it looked like Wed. Right now we are getting some much needed rain here at the house. It is very dry here.
This message was edited May 21, 2011 1:20 AM
This camp has the deepest water inside. first shot was last Fri second was this Wed
This is a close up of our porch under water but not inside the camp yet.
This is one of the sadder moments too. This bobcat was swimming from one camp to the other trying to get in somewhere dry. If he could climb up to the second story balcony he could get inside this camp because for some reason the door is open.
Cindy those pictures are breath-taking!!! The devastation is unbelievable!!! My heart breaks for everyones lost. Most of the people that have gone under do not even have insurance because of the areas they were in so there is no monies to help put their lives back to what it once was.
The animals are another story all together. I was hoping with the water coming up slowly they would have enough time to evacuate the areas before they drown. Hwy. 190 has reduced the speed to 45 and there are signs everywhere to watch for animals.
We are in a drought also down here with all the water around. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!
Cindy that's an unbelievable amount of water! I hadn't thought about things like utilities! What a mess you all are going to have to deal with. Sure hope it doesn't get inside your camp.
We had a storm yesterday and last night. It poured down rain! Like Jeri it was actually dry here despite all the earlier rain we had had.
Wow, Cindy! That is a lot of water! Poor little bobcat...maybe he opened the door and was just taking a bath ;o)
Cindy were you able to secure any insurance for the camp? The idea of all those repairs without any insurance makes me feel sick.
Did they see any signs of the deer when they went Wed?
We did secure structural insurance but not contents. Since they did it as a collective whole and it was in the works long before the flood started we are all supposed to be covered. We shall see if they pay off after it is over. No sign of any deer since no part of the Island is out of water. We had planned to ride over there today so I could take some pictures but the rain is headed that way. I have only seen it all through pictures. We needed this rain so I am not complaining. We just want it to travel south from here, cause we do not need rain north of the camp. The rain ruined all the daylily blooms for today.
Glad you all were at least able to get structural insurance. Still very pretty despite the rain!!!
Marilyn is having trouble with her laptop again, she is checking in on her iPhone but has a hard time typing on it.
We still have had no rain. They said maybe Thur.
I just came in from outside. I've been steady at it all day. Slow but steady. LOL It is really coming together like I had in mind. I'll make pictues tomorrow. It was too dark tonight. I'm headed for a long hot shower (if I can get up) and to bed!
Marilyn I feel your pain. It takes me forever to post from my Iphone when at the camp. That is the only internet access there. Have to keep it short and sweet.
I feel your pain too Charlotte.LOL I was lazy today. I couldn't dig since things were pretty wet. I have 3 waterhose reels to put together and didn't even do that. I didn't sleep all that well last night so laid around today.
Sandra hope you are having fun playing with the ipad.
Congratulations on the new grandbaby, KA. Now your life will be truly GRAND!
Cindy, those pictures are just heartbreaking. I hope the water doesn't get any higher. Poor bobcat....
Terrye
I am enjoying my IPad. It is fun!!
Congrats on the grandbaby KA.
JUST A NOTE HERE FOR ANYONE who missed it - we are having an Arkansas/Mid-South RU on June 4th - there is an open thread for swapping and one for food. Everyone is invited so if you can make it just show up at the door.
Jeri I too feel your pain with the girl thing my oldest daughter was without a doubt one of the hardest kids ever to raise, she has turned out to be the best kid ever which I knew would be the case if we both lived thru it. She wanted more than anything in the world to be independent and that caused a LOT of eye-rolling and heavy sighing. I once had a long talk with her about her attitude and this one seemed to help a bit.
I told her (without sarcasm - bit my tongue smooth thru) that she and I were working toward the same goal here. I want you to be a capable adult making all your own decisions just as much as you do. I want you to grow up and move away and be able to make all your own decisions, be independent and do all the things you want to do. Unfortunately for you the state of Arkansas believes that you cannot be responsible for yourself until you turn eighteen so we have 4 more years to work together here. I know you don't need anything from me - I know you can handle things yourself but the state of Arkansas has this one little issue and that is you have to be eighteen to live on your own. And besides learning the ropes and being responsible for yourself happens one stair step at a time. First you get the walk around the mall with your friends while I wait in the food court then you can be dropped off to run a single errand inside the mall without supervision, then once you've proven you can handle that you get to be dropped off with your friends for a couple of hours of shopping. Nobody goes from holding their mother's hand in the mall to being dropped off the next week so you are just going to have to bear with me here and take it one step at a time.
After this speech she still had moments but I'd remind her that we both had the same goal - for her to grow up and move away and be on her own. Oh how many times I wanted to say "and I CANNOT WAIT" but I knew that would not be good so I swallowed that part of my feelings and just kept telling her how much I wanted the same thing she did. It really seemed to help her to hear that I wanted her to gain her independence as much as she did ( she did not need to know that sometimes I wanted it MORE than she did). Hope this helps cause it really did help her they want so bad to make their own decisions and for some reason they believe that your job is to shoot down that dream so saying you want it too seems to help. GOOD LUCK GIRL!!
Cindy the camp looks awful and I know it must be hard to just sit and wait it out - thinking of you. Genna sorry about the elections but I know your daughter will be okay - it is hard when you really want something and it just doesn't happen.
Cindy, it must be so hard to look at the camp in that condition. The pictures of something like that are awful, just like looking at all the devastation from the tornado. Helpless and sad. I never thought about what the flooding would do to you in terms of re-doing all your utilities either. And the roads will surely be washed out. I hope the insurance will be generous. Will FEMA help you with things the insurance doesn't pay for like the roads and utilities? People here found out their insurance, or social services in some cases, would cover food they lost in freezers and refrigerators, not deductible. That one garden photo you posted is lovely!
Marilyn, hope you get your computer back up and running soon.
Cindy, do you know any update about your back? are you definitely having surgery? and do you have a date set? Praying the water stays out of the camp...... hopefully if it just gets underneath the damage will not be as great......although I know it can't just sit in that water indefinitely without causing problems.....
Wonder if there will be any living creatures left on the island when this is over? I would think all the deer and other animals would drown???
Got a text from Alex - they are having fun, and are going to attend a church service today. Said they went to a buddist temple and he said it was so weird to watch people actually bowing to a statue....guess until he saw it he never really believed it? anyway, says most of the food is great but he did try squid and said it was awful.... LOL... I told him I figured that much without trying it! :) I think today or tomorrow after the church service they head out into the villages in the surrounding rural area....... Charlotte is helping us locate the kid a house in LR .... we could sure use some prayers regarding on we are currently putting offers in on!! Charlotte, there is a BIG hole in that roof over the balcony to the side of the house...Leigh says it has been covered with a garbage bag and had a board laid on top with a rock on top of it!!! Not much in the way of keeping water out!! I assume a limb went into it ... but wonder why they didn't have insurance make the repair.....guess maybe they didn't have the money for the deductible?? or they were already being evicted and thought why bother???
Karen I sure hope I get to come to that roundup! I am having major withdrawals because it has been so long since I have seen everyone!
Kyle has bacculareate (sp?) this afternoon, and graduation on Thursday..... I am NOT ready. We have senior day at church in just a few moments and I might as well take a hankie because that ALWAYS makes me cry!!! :)
Hope everyone has a great day!
Genna
Genna it's a wonder there are not more signs of water inside the house!!!! As I'm sure you h/a man told you the water was coming in, in the kitchen at the back of the fireplace when we were over there. It must be running to that spot.
We had a big rain (storm) here last night and it's really cloudy today and looks like more rain is coming. I have a few more things I need to get done in the back today. Hope I can work it in between rain.
My grandson Jake is graduating this year too. They had there service at church dedicated to seniors a week or so ago. They don't have graduation until June 10. I'm going out the 9th for it. They don't get out of school until the 10th of June.
It was very overcast earlier today and perfect conditions for taking pictures. So I took a bunch of the back yard. More than you probably want to see!!! LOL The picture here is part of what I've been working on. The area on the left had a strip of grass up to the walkway. It was piteful grass that just wouldn't do anything - so now it's gone! Looks a lot better I think.
https://picasaweb.google.com/charlotte.perdue1/May2011BackyardPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCLPX4P6JvKHj9gE#
This is the other area I eliminated the grass. On the left there was a patch of grass. I expanded the bed in front of the workshop and then also added some more stepping stone.
cindy, that is terrible all that damage from the water. I hate to see that.
charlotte, your photos are beautiful.
i can't get over how much my veggie garden is growing, I picked kale today to make soup with it, and it turned out good.
Went to see corin today, he has to stay int he hospital for a couple days still. his calcium levels are low , although he is off oxygen now. he looks like jeremy. Laur'a s doc called dhs adn they came out to her apartment to see how she was getting things ready for the baby. guess they were just checking to see if she could handle him, they left satisfied that she'll do just fine. she is doing well with him in the hospital also.
Glad she is doing well with the baby KA! I know you are excited about being a grandparent! I am looking forward to it, but hope it is still several years away! (and I hope my kids live close enough that I can spoil them!!!) ....
Charlotte, I will send you an email in the morning..... Your yard is beautiful....I don't see how you accomplish all that you do! I cant seem to get all the weeds and grass out of the beds I have now!!
Cindy...is the water still rising? or receding? I haven't seen any news in the last few days so don't know what it is doing. How about the Ouachita..... is it getting near flood stage or are ya'll ok with it?
Elaine...have they got power restored to everyone in your area? I know there was so much devastation and lots of people without power.
Jeri, is your husband moving trailers to Alabama now? We were by the storage facility in Hope a few weeks back and I couldn't believe how many of those trailers are still sitting there! Such a huge waste of tax payer dollars!!! Especially when the people who needed them never got them!
Been working on monogramming gifts for graduates in Kyle's class and I am having a LOT of problems with my machine... might need a new lithium battery in the computer or something because it is giving me all kinds of glitches. With Leigh's help we finally got it somewhat working and managed to get 6 gifts done for the girls. I still have 5 more girls to go and several boys too. Plus, I wanted to make collages from the football pictures for the boys on the team - but the power cord to my external harddrive is not working and so I can not access my photos!! I am upset but we are trying to find the same brand external drive so we can purchase it for the power cord until I can get the company to replace it but I am rapidly running out of time since graduation is Thursday night. Then Leigh's last remaining uncle passed away today and will probably be buried on Tuesday....so that will have to be worked into the schedule as well. I had planned to monogram things all day yesterday - but that trip to LR to check out that roof put a big dent in my day! Oh well, guess most of them I can get to them if I need to after graduation. i would just sure like to have it behind me!
Genna
Genna I go for more test tomorrow. The Doctor thinks the back pain is from arthritis in the hip. He agrees that the pain down the leg is definitely from the degenerated disc. He wants a cat scan and xrays to tell more about the bones. Thanks for asking.
We are pretty sure our insurance is not going to pay anything. Fema is who carries the flood insurance. It will be a long recovery. We have really been blessed that as far as we know there is no damage to our insides. We will gladly deal with what is to be done now. We went over today but did not go inside since the porches were still under water. It looks like the water is down about 6 inches. Hopefully the water will have receded off the porches by this next weekend. If it does we will start cleanup and putting things back in the cabinets. The stove and refrigerator are up on cinderblocks with all the furniture. All the underparts of the doublewide did take on water so we will have to rip out all that insulation and look at things. We rode around in the boat and never saw any wildlife unless it flew, could live in a tree or water. We didn't go all over just to some of the areas that have a higher elevation but it was all under water. It was really easy to get lost since every visual that you are used to is under water.
What was really ironic when we got to the levee we didn't drive on it . We walked over it to get to the boat. The game warden saw us. Since we have property on the other side they have given us permission to leave the boat tied to the levee as long as we don't drive on the levees. Right behind the game warden on the levee are the national guard with 2 huge hummers driving on the levee. They stop us and want us to show them permits from the wild life and fisheries that allows us to walk across the levee. Go figure!! I know they need to patrol the levees but in hummers that probably weigh a ton with all the equipment and people. Two of them together? On our way out the WLandF Ranger stopped to talk to us about our camps. He was real sympathetic to everyone's dilemma. I know that their presence is also helping some to keep looters out although that is not the reason they are there, but Hummers? Give our poor levees a break.
Charlotte I forgot to say how wonderful your pictures are. A magical place to rest.(If only you had time)
Genna I think the Oua was a crest a few days ago. Miss river was at crest Thurs. and has been going down slowly. It is supposed to stay up nearly a month. This was the side and back porch today
