Dawson's Day (Happy 4th Birthday!)

Dawson, our baby boy, turned four today! Dawson is all boy AND a true romantic at heart. Batman is Dawson's current superhero interest, and he loves to look at Travis's hunting magazines. He's eagerly awaiting HIS turn to go to "ADM work" on an airplane with Daddy, just like big brother Justis did earlier this fall. Inside all of that hard-core boy is a huge heart. Dawson loves to touch and be touched, whether it be through a hug, holding someones hand, or just resting his big toe on someones leg while watching a movie.

Grandma and Grandpa Davis came last Thursday and stayed until this afternoon to help us celebrate Dawson's birthday. Besides the presents and cake, Dawson's favorite part of Grandma and Grandpa Davis's visit was going to the shooting range to watch Grandpa Scott and Daddy compete with some of Travis's coworkers to determine the best marksman of the group. Dawson felt so grown up with big brother Justis and the rest of the guys, doing guy things.

Dawson's birthday request from us was an "Eve" robot (from the movie Wall-E). I thought the request for a female robot was a bit odd, until I realized why he requested Eve. For those of you who've seen the move, Eve is Wall-Es special little friend (i.e. he has a crush on her). Justis got the Wal-E robot for his birthday, and the way Dawson sees it, Wal-E is not complete without his friend, Eve. We (somehow) found the Eve robot and he loves it. He's content to let it be near Wal-E, though, while he revs up the remote control truck he got. Dawson got pajamas, transformers, clothes, a book and a big-boy car booster seat, as well.

We had Dawson's birthday party Sunday afternoon. We had a yummy meal, unwrapped presents, then had a piece of cake. Dawson requested a Kung Fu Panda cake this birthday.

Today Travis took Dawson to breakfast and got to open another present. I told him how special he is to me when I put him to sleep. I said, "Dawson, did you feel special today?" He lifted up from the pillow and put his nose on mine and shook his head yes as he grinned. I then said, "Dawson, do you feel special every day?" He said, "Yes!" I am so thankful Dawson knows how special he is to God and our family. God bless you, little Daws, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Marrying Chris

(Pictures of Jiana and Chris are coming!)

Mr. and Mrs. Faulkner (Jasey and Chris)
Mr. and Mrs. Davis
Mrs. Jasey Faulkner with (then) Miss Jiana Wilson
Jiana and I at Jasey and Chris's Reception


My two best friends from high school both married Chris this summer!

Jiana has lived in New Zealand (where her beau & his family is from) for at least five years. She met Chris Benham while she and he were counselors at a camp in New York state. Chris lived in the states a while as a ski instructor in Colorado, so he and Jiana got to know one another more then, too. Their wedding was in May on the island of Fiji. They both wrapped up their New Zealand jobs and are planning on taking at least a year to travel and see the world. Chris is a financial guru and Jiana works in graphic design. I missed both the wedding and Kansas reception, unfortunately. Not being there to see one of my best friends get married was very difficult, but Chris and Jiana are the type of friends that, no matter how much time or distance comes between us, we'll always just be able to pick up where we left off.

Jasey is now Mrs. Chris Faulkner. Jasey and Chris have known each other for a long time. We all went to school together and Chris was in YF (youth fellowship) with me and Jiana. Chris is also a skier and loves extreme sports, as well. He is actually one of the realtors whom showed Travis and I houses once when we were moving back to Hugoton! Jasey and Chris got married in Ulysses in April. Travis and I got to attend that wedding, where we got to see Jiana, too! Jasey and Chris made a honeymoon out of Jiana and Chris's Fiji wedding, which worked out nicely for a honeymoon and to see their friends get married the same summer. Jasey and Chris live in Ft. Worth, Texas. Chris has his hand in real-estate there and Jasey is a graphic designer.

On a personal note, I don't think Jiana and Jasey could have married nicer guys. Except Travis...but he's already taken! They got only the best in both Chris'. I am so glad I have an old friend, Chris, and a new friend, the other Chris, to get to share fun times together with Jiana and Jasey now! God bless your marriages and hope to see you all soon!

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike effected us, even though we live hundreds of miles from where the storm made landfall. Ike caused an equal amount of damage, if not more, than Hurricane Gustav did. Winds were Gustav's main weapon, flooding was Ike's destructive force. Seeing a flood first-hand is an unbelievable sight. One of Travis's coworkers took these pictures. They are taken along the route Travis takes to work between Ponchatoula and New Orleans. He had to take about a 40 minute detour just to get to one of his locations during Ike, because major exits off of the Interstates were flooded!

Lady Lock-In

Madalynn hit her pillow hard around 11:00 a.m. and didn't wake up until 4:00 p.m. to leave for church Saturday! She attended her first lock-in Friday night.

Miss Karlie, Madalynn's friend from our previous church in Hammond, invited Madalynn to the lock-in. Karlie very politely called and formally asked Madalynn to be her guest. Madalynn eagerly accepted her invitation, of course!

Maddie packed a suitcase (that's my girl) for her first overnight adventure. She took her "little prom dress" that Grandma Cheryl got her for her 7th birthday and wore it on the runway for the fashion show the girls had. The adult helpers put makeup on the girls. Madalynn chose the white makeup, she said. (?) She and Karlie also shared stories over nachos and donuts, according to her account of the night.

Travis picked Karlie, her brother, Zachary (the boys had their own lock-in) and Madalynn up this morning at 7:00. Travis told me later that Madalynn was still buzzing from all of the fun stuff and showed no signs of being tired, as Karlie (like any reasonable person) tried to catch a few winks on the way home!

Let's just say Madalynn's first soccer game seemed a little long to her. She kind of half-heartedly ran around chasing the ball. She didn't make it home before falling asleep. She then went to her room and crashed until church time.

How exciting! I remember all of the really fun sleep-overs that mom allowed me to have and allowed me to go to growing up! Pickles, pizza, games, staying up ALL NIGHT and thinking it was fun (because it was) and then sleeping the day away. Why is it torture for me to stay awake all night now. Hmmmm. Maybe I missed Fairy Godmother's message that I will turn into a pumpkin at midnight!

Karlie, thank you so much for inviting Madalynn. She had a blast!

Diary of a Gustav Blogger, Day 6: Fish Juice in the Freezer

Thursday September 4-NOW!

I am tired of thinking and talking about Gustav, so I'm going to wrap it up today and move on.

Travis got up Thursday morning of September and started back for Louisiana. I packed the kids up the same day and headed west to my parent's house in Ulysses, KS. My neighbors and friends in Louisiana encouraged me not to come home until power was restored.

We had a great unplanned visit with my parents. The weather was only in the 50s about two days while we were there! Wow. Travis would call, telling me how miserable the house was without an air conditioner in the hot, muggy Louisiana days. I had to buy long pants and shirts for the kids so they had something warm to wear while we were in Kansas. We went to the doughnut shop, went for a ride on the golf cart, visited the Grant County Museum, the library, and the park. Staying with mom and dad is always a treat for all of it. I get mom's yummy cooking and time to visit both of my parents. The kids love the simple things we have to THINK UP to do! It's good for them to experience having to use their imaginations. Dawson was scared to death of the museum. The sound of horse hooves and "prairie winds" was playing to give a more life-like feeling to the exhibits. Dawson was just scared stiff. He backed out of that room fast. I picked him up, thinking that if he could see what the museum was like, he'd change his mind. He didn't ever look down. He just kept looking up like the wicked witch of the west was going to write "Surrender, Dawson" on the ceiling! Mom took him back to the security of Grandpa's company and came back to go through the museum with me, Madalynn and Justis.

Travis, in the meantime was home and at work in a ROUGH post-Gustav environment. Residents were allowed back in Thursday, but most places still didn't have power. Travis used our brand new generator to run the lights and appliances as needed. I don't know what he ate (and I don't want to know), because all of our our food I had put in the deep freeze to prevent from spoiling, if there was just a short power outage, was mostly warm by the time Travis got back. I called him one evening when he was up to his elbows in smelly fish "juice" that had leaked out of one of the bags of frozen fish all over our other stuff and, of course, the bottom of the freezer. He took down the window coverings and cleaned all the debris from our yard. He also cleaned our elderly widow neighbor's yard, which was full of branches from her TALL pine trees. Gustav gave her a free tree trimming, I guess!

The neighbor lady we don't know had her husband call the fire department on Travis. Travis had finished cleaning Rose's yard and began to set the four HUGE brush piles on fire. Well, the lady across the street (as if Travis wasn't standing right there) yelled, "Honey, LOOK! That guy is starting fires and there's a burn ban!" Travis had no clue of a burn ban, because he had no connection to the outside world aside from what he heard from work and the neighbors we do know. Travis quickly put the fires out when he heard her, but the fire truck was already on its way. Travis explained he didn't know of the burn ban. The firemen understood and explained that, since everyone had their windows open because of no AC, the burn ban was in effect. Travis met our neighbor that day when he went and apologized for the misunderstanding.

I decided, after waiting and wondering when our power WOULD be back on, to leave Sunday and pray the power would be on when I got home. I had home school co-op orientation (and I'm a teacher with no substitutes available) on Tuesday and it takes two days to get home. We got home Monday night and the power had been on only for a couple of hours! God's perfect timing.

Everything was good. Travis was home and we were together as a family again. Our home, neighbors and friends were okay. We had air conditioning. Wait, what was that funny smell? Had an animal died in our house? Was a dirty diaper left in the garbage can while we were gone, or what. I fallowed the wafting scent into the laundry room and opened the deep freeze. The smell of 80 degree fish juice permeated the whole house. In the bottom of the freezer sat a pool of yellow "juice" that had somehow escaped the shop vac. The freezer still smells of fish juice when it is closed and opened, despite the fact I've scrubbed it down three times since. Hey, I'll take a fishy freezer over going through a hurricane any day. Thank you, God, that I have a freezer to keep fish in!

Diary of a Gustav Evacuee, Day 5: The Aftermath

Jarret and Justis are hamming it up!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

We impatiently waited to be able to get through to our neighbors and friends in Louisiana, but went on with plans.

Our van started doing it's "thing" on the evacuation trip to Kansas, as if we needed anything else to worry about. We took the van to the shop, entrusting it to a good mechanic friend for the day.

Justis and I met my good friend Kelly and her son Jarret for lunch and then spent some time chatting at her house.

I came home, called our neighbor Keith, and got through! I confirmed he was okay, as well as our neighbors. He reported a few trees down on his property and said Rose's (our other neighbor's) yard was full of huge branches from her TALL pine trees.

We picked up the minivan and it wasn't doing the "thing" anymore!

Travis and the kids ate out with his family, including his grandma, that evening. I went out to eat with my sister. We had a great time catching up with friends and family today. Spending a hurricane with family in a safe place is, in my opinion, the way to go! Thanks for keeping us on short notice, Scott and Cheryl!

Diary of a Gustav Evacuee, Day 4: Gustav Hits

(Ironically, Ike "hit" Louisiana this morning. It's amazing that a hurricane making a b-line for Texas is effecting the weather clear up here. I woke up to the sound of screaming winds and rain stinging my bedroom window. The power went off at 8:00 this morning and finally came back on around 6:30 this evening. We were in a tornado warning three times today, but I never saw a tornado. Oops. I just admitted I was looking out my window instead of sitting in the bathtub in our "storm shelter!" I learned how to use the generator, as Travis was at work and I needed to take a shower. Travis walked me through it on the cell phone.)

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

We prayed and waited as Gustav made landfall at 9:30 a.m. in Cocodrie, Louisiana as a strong category 2 hurricane, technically only 1 mph. short of a category 3. The hurricane pounded Louisiana as it traveled up through Baton Rouge and finally fell to a category 1 hurricane four hours after making landfall. The storm became a tropical depression the next day.

We didn't monitor the storm via the media, since Travis's parents don't have cable or high-speed Internet. That was a good thing. We caught up on our much-needed rest instead of needlessly stressing over what we couldn't control by watching it on TV or Internet feed.

The last Louisiana friends we talked to (around noon) were Cary and Melissa, friends of ours that live north of highway 22 and stayed home to weather the storm. I tried calling Melissa again that evening and I also tried my neighbors, but couldn't get through. We wanted the assurance that our friends were okay and our house still standing.