Candyland by Candlelight

Whew!!! We made it through yet another hurricane...this time Gustav. I don't really mind the wind or the rain, but I can't stand to lose utilities. I would have never made it in the pioneer days. We actually stuck around our house for the hurricane, and then fled to Baton Rouge when we deemed it safe to leave or, rather, escape! Jason's parents had a generator, and what a blessing it truly was to be able to stay with them. We didn't realize, though, that Baton Rouge was one of the hardest hit areas of all. Below is a picture of a tree that had fallen over their wooden fence in their back yard. It's just a small example of what was evident on every corner. Huge oaks pulled over as if they were Q-tips in the wind!!

While we were at home, Jason kept going outside between spells of 80-90 mph wind gusts to check out what was happening in our yard. Luckily, no trees fell on the house, but our iron gate attached to brick columns fell over and broke. Our fence was pushed over as if it was built of lincoln logs or matchsticks. We lost a few shingles, too.

By Thursday, my mother had utilities up in Liberty, Mississippi, so we headed north. Then, at about 11:22 that night, I got the most wonderful text message that I had seen in ages, "lights on, come back home." My neighbor had sent it!!! We finally made it home Friday afternoon. I have never been so exhausted in all of my life. I am still exhausted. Jason, Madeline, and I went to bed at around dark on Friday and slept until close to 10:00am Sat. As Dorothy says, "there's no place like home." Madeline was a trooper during the whole ordeal. All she knew was that a "hernicane" (a word she coined to mean hurricane) had come and knocked out our lights. During the hernicane and the aftermath, we played a lot of games by candlelight and we built things out of lincoln logs.

Thanks to all of our family and friends who took care of us and took the time to call and check on us!