Things To Do While Waiting for the Electricity to be Turned On...

Put crazy make-up on each other!

Cherie was the make-up artist this day... hehehe
That's Ursula in front of her and Cherie's daughter, Olivia, behind her.

Ursula all made up.

And a side view :)

Sophia was Cherie's first subject... :)

Sophia putting make-up on 'Nanny' (my mom/her grandma).

Calista

Olivia

Olivia & Ursula (Olivia is a little bit taller than Ursula but not as much as this picture portrays... she's in heels... lol)

Racquelle

All 5 of the girls together:
Top row: Racquelle & Calista
Bottom row: Sophia, Ursula, & Olivia

It was then our turns... Cherie's face was done by Olivia & Sophia (her daughters)

My look was done by Ursula... she said I looked beautiful... ha ha ha yeah... right...

Was 17 People... now 10

Only because they left :)

Jared, his wife, & kids went to Lafayette... to a friend of her's house... they have electricity there!
My dad just left today... see what's going on with his house.
My sister, Cherie & her 3 daughters are still here along with our mom.
Yes... my mom and dad were actually in the same house for 4 days without arguing or being ugly to one another! wow! They've been divorced over 10 yrs now.

Yesterday afternoon, my dad & Jeremy went into Lafayette and picked up a generator... so, our food is saved!!! woohoo!

Today is the 4th day without electricity!!! And periodically, no water :(( Sucks.

My sister, Cherie, has been keeping us in French braids :)

We let the kids put make-up on us last night and Cherie put extreme make-up on them... I'll post pics later... :)

Our neighbor, Kevin, invited us to sleep at his house because has a generator along with a window unit... My sister, her girls, my mom and my daughters slept there the past 2 nights.

Oh yeah, that's what I forgot... school. Our parish's schools are closed until further notice!!! OMG!

FEMA... our parish is also on the list of disaster parishes (of course), so, I'm going to apply... we're just doing terribly financially and this isn't helping matters... Jeremy wasn't able to go to work until today. Thankfully, not much happened with our house... but, we do rent. The front screen door is messed up due to the strong winds... but, that was it.

I took many pics... and have to edit them... after I get that done (takes forever! lol), I'll post some more :)

Video Footage of Winds from Gustav

And one of me being silly...

Gustav Pictures

Ursula & Olivia (both 5... Olivia's bday is Sept. 6th & Ursula's is Dec 22)

Racquelle... 11 yrs old until November.

Olivia displaying a typical MySpace profile picture... lol

Sophia doing her take on the typical MySpace profile picture (she's 3 but bday is Sept. 5th)

My dad doing his thing... :) macrame... the kids loved it :)

My brother, Jared, digging in the fridge, once again... ah ha haa

Sophia (almost 4), Veronica (will be 3 in Nov), & Victoria (4 yrs old)

Gustav is Approaching...

Around midnight last night, my mom, brother, & his family arrived at out house. My dad showed up a couple hours earlier.

Our parish has a voluntary evaluation. They have the 'contraflow' set up now.

None of my neighbors are leaving.

I'm taking pics... I'll update this with pics of everyone here :)

We have food, water, blankets, matches, a neighbor with a generator who said we can go there if the power goes out... etc... as long as our house sustains the winds, we'll be fine :D

Gustav is a Category 3 now!

Yes... its just gaining strength... not even in the Gulf of Mexico yet... geez... Now its a 'major' hurricane.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7589299.stm

Our local news' team is now saying it looks like it'll hit our area... we're a good distance from the coast... but, hey... we may have to evacuate as well... still have to watch...

Gustav

Ironically, its exactly 3 years since Katrina hit Louisiana; now we have Gustav to worry about.

This time, the political officials are trying their best to prepare people early. Some parishes have been already ordered to evacuate. Gustav isn't expected to hit the coastline until Monday or Tuesday (today's Friday).

So, last night, the first set of evacuees arrived at our house :) My sister, Cherie, & her 3 children. What's funny is that she had already planned to spend Labor Day weekend with us before Gustav decided to form.

I'm a little more prepared this time... plus, I'm not pregnant (I was 4 mths pregnant with Wyatt for Katrina & Rita)! :) A few months ago, my sister, Angele, came for the weekend and helped me clean out the back room and move the girls in there. The first bedroom became the kids' entertainment room. It has their TV, VCR, GameCube, books, & toys in it. Well, it wasn't really organized until yesterday :) I finally got that finished up and woohoo! I feel so much better! Anyways, now, there's plenty of room for my family to spend time here... more comfortably. That first room/entertainment can now have an air mattress on the floor, or sleeping bags or both. In the living room, we have a sofa bed and another large sofa that can be used to sleep on. If the sofa bed isn't used, the sofa can be used as well as the floor between the sofas.

I'm expecting my brother, his wife & 4 kids, my mom, my sister, Angele & her dh, Shane, and maybe even my dad... I haven't spoken to him but last I knew, he was supposed to go along with my brother, Jared.

The crazy thing is that this hurricane also has another on its foottails... much like Katrina with Rita... however, they are predicting Hanna to go up the east coast. Its still too early to tell what either hurricane will do... where they will hit...