Louisiana Flooding

If you haven't already seen these photos of the flooding that occurred after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, take a look:

New Orleans under water

As I clicked through the images, I was thinking, "Wow... Oh, that is terrible... My goodness..." And suddenly I thought of all those beautiful old historic homes that we learned about in my Historical Design class years ago and how they were probably destroyed and I would never get to see them in person. And then I felt horrible for thinking of those fancy homes when there were so many regular people in regular homes who lost everything! How could I think about myself and how I wouldn't get to visit the historic homes when there were so many lost lives and so much devastation?! (Of course, we can't control our stream of consciousness, but I still felt bad...) And then I hit the slide with the family sitting on top of their house, hoping to be rescued in time. Instantly, tears flooded my eyes. Those are REAL people who really sat on their roof, holding on to each other and waiting to be saved, knowing they would lose everything but each other. And each other is all that really mattered to them in those moments anyway. Puts things into perspective, eh?

Something I read yesterday, written by a FEMA worker in the midst of the devastation, concluded with: "Life is fragile, precious, and priceless."

Indeed it is. Hug your children a little tighter today, and remember to say "I love you."

State Update

After living in Colorado for the summer and travelling cross country back home to Virginia, it's time for an update on my state tally. We got the best of all weather conditions this year; I say we "semestered" in central Virginia, wintered in central Texas, and summered in Colorado. The weather in Colorado was outstanding! The locals were feeling oppressed when the temp hit 90 degrees with 20% humidity. HA! It was pretty much like central Texas spring time every day we were in Colorado. Can't beat that between June and August! Now we are back to Virginia...nice and toasty.


bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C. /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.


Our 21-month-old already has eight states herself! If her daddy has it his way, she'll be well on her way to having all 50 states before she's finished with college. She'll probably grow up and choose to count how many countries in Europe or Africa she's visited or something instead of states in the Union...just to make me crazy.