Our Hurrication

Well, the Bourgeois crew (and Marme, Katie, Peter A, and Lola) made it to the beach anyway! We stayed in Perdido Key at Andrea's parents' beautiful condo during the evacuation before Hurrican Gustav. A HUGE thank you to Andrea and her parents, Phil and Virginia Israel.

Leading up to the evacuation there was plenty of stressing out and packing. On Saturday the Carvilles and Katie and Peter came over to watch the LSU game, but I didn't sit the whole time because I was packing and looking for paperwork and gathering mementos. An hour before we were going to leave a crazy thing happened--the shrimp that were put in the garbage disposal went down at the same time the washer was letting out water and the pipe in the laundry room burst and shredded shrimp and water went everywhere. We noticed water pouring out of the garage and discovered the source. The boys moved boxes and put down bleach and Comet and B bought lots of air freshener and everthing ended up being OK, but it was kind of a nightmare. We had originally planned to go to BR then Vacherie, but the storm looked like it would cause serious weather in either place so we decided to head to Covington for the night then head out to Natchez or Jackson or most probably Dallas. On the way to Covington Andrea called and offered their beach condo. We were so psyched, because Dallas is far away (it took Attie & Beau 15 hours to get there). We stayed at Beau's parents' house (thanks a bunch!) and the girls were out of sorts and so were we. We watched the news and Nagin was calling Gustav 'the mother of all storms' and scaring us all to death. I went to bed at 1 and we all got up at 4 and headed out. Marme, Katie, Peter, and Lola followed us to the beach. The ride there was great, because Peter and Peter found some back highways and we didn't sit on I-10 like all of the people we were hearing about on the radio. We made it in about 5 hours and encountered zero traffic. We spent the next few days stressing then chilling and pigging out on junk. Once we realized NOLA was going to be OK we could relax. It was soooo windy on the beach and the waves were wild. I took pics. We had to hunker down in the master bathroom a couple of times when there were tornado warnings. We watched lots of storm coverage and some good Bravo shows. B loved the indoor pool and we made it out to the beach late one afternoon when it had stopped raining. B loved walking on the beach and putting her hands in the sand and looking at shells.

Things are sort of getting back to normal, but we're all sort of freaked out about Ike approaching the Gulf. Most people have their power back. There are tons of branches everywhere. There are spray painted signs all over letting people know which restaurants are open. It's weird for there not to be certain things in grocery stores and for milk to be such a hot commodity. On Friday B helped me give Sadie a bath. During B's nap the power went out and I was so freaked out because I thought it would be out for a while. The girls and I went to lunch with Katie and Peter at Superior and while we were there P called and let us know the answering machine was on so the power was back. Yay! B went with Gumbo to visit Jama and Pa and Taddy. Yesterday we tried to get unpacked and settled. Gumbo picked up Guy's po-boys and hung out. The Carvilles finally got home and came to visit. Today Momma Lady and Grandpa came to visit and then Gumbo came to visit and take a ride with B. Marme and I went shopping for fall clothes for the girls.

What the girls have been saying/doing:

--when we walked up to the water at the beach --"oh noooo! a baby shark!" There was no shark, but I guess she was thinking of "Finding Nemo."
--Marme has been teaching her lots of songs and ballet moves
--she loved the sand at the beach--digging in it, throwing it in the water
--B now requests a fork with everything she eats--including pizza, cookies, doughnuts, etc.
--B knows lots of last names--Bourgeois, Babin, Carville, Ascani
--B is obsessed with Lola
--B said, "are we here???" while we were on the way to the beach (I thought she'd have to be a bit older before that started
--Sadie discovered her feet last Wednesday and has started grabbing for her toys
--Sadie rolled over from her back to her tummy on Friday night, but got really scared when she was on her tummy
--Sadie loves making rasberries

I have tons of pictures, but I can't upload them yet. I'll post them soon.

Here's hoping that Ike doesn't come and lots of love to our pals in BR dealing with the aftermath of Gustav!