I just don't get it.

It happened again.

I don't understand why people kill us because we wear the uniform.

These four officers were murdered yesterday.




 They were meeting before their shift in in a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington.
A man walked in and started shooting at them. It wasn't a robbery. He didn't shoot at any of the customers in the shop or any of the employees. All he wanted to do was kill police officers.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010386486_copreax30m.html

They are the 108th, 109th, 110th and 111th police officers this year to die while serving.

We are fully aware of the fact that this is a dangerous job, but how do you explain something like this to the 9 kids who just had their parent ripped from their life?

It makes me sad.

Here's a link to the Officers down memorial page.
http://www.odmp.org/

A day to be thankful

Kind of a poignant day, especially this year.
We are thankful, especially to have a God that loves us and will help along our way if we would just pay attention.
We are thankful that I am healing and have been given the opportunity to lead my family for awhile longer yet.
We are thankful to live in a free country when so many millions of people around the world suffer for incomprehensible motives.
We are thankful that our military personnel have made the decision that they will stand in the way of those who would destroy us. They can't enjoy their families today because they are off protecting ours. God help them for what they must see, for what they must do and for the losses they must endure for the rest of us that can't or won't be the defenders.
We have become thankful that we are less prone to getting all clobbered up with the responsibilities of modern life. We are thankful for the cherished time spent together as a family and with our friends.
We are thankful for each other each day. This year has sharpened the edges of important things for us. Not a single day goes by anymore without thanks and appreciation.
Every day is Thanksgiving around here nowadays.

We hope everyone makes time to be thankful every day, not just on this holiday. Have a great day.

It's a girls night out.by em

WE HAD A FUN TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!last one left at 1:00.

Role reversal

Whilst my delicate wife has been out patrolling the mean streets in her squad car, I have been homebound. Tied by the apron strings to my kitchen while eight young ladies rule the house. The slumber party is in full swing.

Funny how Amy always pulls this off. She went to work at 4. The first of the guests arrived at 430. Hmm. Anyway, all is well. This is an all star ensemble. Everyone is getting along swimmingly. Em and Dev made a batch of brownies before the rest of the gang got here. Then it was an American Girl movie, Felicity I believe, and pizza  and juice with the brownies for dessert.

This was followed shortly thereafter with a all -hands- on - deck sugar cookie making project .

I think they went to a second movie then and a pillow fight and a spirited round of Mad Libs ("Mr. Ruff, I need an verb that ends in ing".....) There has been much giggling all evening and no arguments or bad feelings that I have been able to detect. Pretty cool, most of the ladies had not met each other before. Good deal.

I finally gave up near midnight and went to bed with the usual admonishments....like - No one leaves, don't order any food, no texting, the stove and oven are done for the night, No, you may not make salt dough for Christmas ornaments ...because its after midnight....yes, good morning to you too Shan. Apparently the one I forgot to mention was that fire is just fine and doesn't need to be poked or rearranged.
And the best line of the night that I heard......"Folks, don't try this at home, do it on a sleepover at a friends' house." Perfect.
It seems that the festivities wrapped up in the 2 o'clock hour. The little flowers began to open around 7!! Are you kidding?
Here's some of the aftermath on the living room floor (I think there are still 2 kids in there).

Now it's eight o'clock and everyone is up, I'm on my second cup of coffee and Mama is going to start flippin' pancakes.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Love days like this

Started out the day getting the house clean. Once that was accomplished(or at least as much as it needed to be to look orderly) we did school, girls were educated and finished by about 1:00.  Out came the Lego's and blocks, a large town has sprung up in our living room, tons of building everywhere.  While that was occurring Em was also making phone calls to invite friends over for the evening tomorrow night.  Looks to be about 5-6 girls hanging out at our house tomorrow night.  I won't be here as I'm working, however Jim, the coolest Dad ever will be overseeing the festivities.  Fire in the fireplace and I started baking sugar cookies.  Dinner is cooking in the crockpot.  Yup, it's a good day, and bonus we are all home tonight together.

God is good all the time!

Just because you put your name on something doesn't mean it's yours...Jori.

I found this today. Jori staking her claim I suppose. Scroll down for the rest of the story.

And this is where I found it....

Drat.....we're back

The good news, I suppose, is that we safely docked at home around 2:45 this morning. 14 hours and 45 minutes of time actually spent moving toward home. That's really good time. The whole trip took a few hours longer with food, gas and rest area stops.

The bad news is now I'm cranky. Don't want to be here. There aint one darn pelican in sight. Lovely view of various shades of grays and browns though I can't see a shrimp boat or lighthouse in any direction.

No more of this for awhile;

Sunset - last night on the island

$4 a pound shrimp from Skinner's - deheaded and seasoned/steamed

Heron/crane thing looking for crabs on the beach

Big Ass shiraz and a sunset...it's become a tradition (thanks Steph)

For something different, here's the sunrise from the yesterday morning.

Jori just bein Jori. She decided that she would rather make a comfy nest in the closet than share a bed with her sister.

Beach house camoflage...Jori's clown pants match the decor.

Last day...

Today is the last day of vacation. It's been another great week here in which the island has exerted its considerable pull on us. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset last night and a great dinner after another day of perfect weather and time spent in the pool and on the beach.





Super Jorigirl on the east side

Emmy and Dad took along walk out on Pelican Island

There was some serious village building going on down on the beach

One of the good sunsets

Normal beach stuff

We are having an awesome, restful day. We took a loooong walk on the beach and collected shells, and we have been in the pool ever since. It's about 75* and perfectly sunny. Feels even warmer than that. The Gulf is as calm as could be...what a difference a day makes.

A bit different look today

Em in full swim mode

Jori went with the baked beans and cous cous for breakfast poolside.

Even Dad spent time in the pool today

Funny thing happened on the way to the westside...

Em and I took a walk last night and wound up on the Channel 10 news.
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news/november_oddity_strikes_the_gulf_coast

and now back our regularly scheduled vacation....

We're back.

Power is on, water level is not too bad. We made a bridge to the stairs so we could transfer our stuff into this house. The weather for the rest of the week should be warm and windy.

Just another day in paradise.

The younger half of the happy clan.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone...

It's all good.

The storm went through at 5:40 this morning. We learned that it hit Dauphin Island first and then moved up north through Mobile.

Where we are on the east side of the island is protected by dunes and trees. There are also several houses between us and the Gulf right now so for us, the storm was really no big deal. I was actually kind of disappointed. I like the loud Gulf storms when the wind shrieks and the house sways.

We lost power at 4:30 yesterday and it came back on as the storm went through this morning. So we had no food disasters....though we all had to do our part and eat the ice cream before it melted. You have to bond together as a team in the face of adversity.

The girls and I took a ride over to the west side after the storm blew through. That side got clobbered a little. We've seen much worse but it will be a little while until we can move back to the waterfront house. There's about a foot of water under the house....see below.

This view is looking from the street up the driveway. The drive is between the big pole on the left side of the picture and goes up to the green garbage can by the house. Right now the power is still out on that side of the island and we can't get back into that house until the water recedes at least a little. Both sets of stairs are under a foot of water. I got up on the deck and managed to check out the house. There's no damage to the house, so all we need to wait on is the power.

When I talked to Nancy, she told me that we are on the same power zone as the school, so that power gets priority for repair. Good deal.

Here's one more picture. This one is from the bottom of the driveway looking north towards Bienville, the main road. Its completely under sand and some storm debris.

Storm update

Em and I just took a recon trip to the west side to see what's going on over there. The police roadblock is gone and all the roads are open. There is washover on much of the road down there, but nothing that you couldn't drive through with a pickup. We made it about 2 miles past our house. There is no water under the house and the berm around the back of the house is fine.

The surf has picked up and the waves are bashing the beach pretty good. Kind of awesome. You know how sometimes God has a way of reminding us how small we are? Kinda like that.

It has been raining steadily for several hours now...probably since 10 or so. It's 2 o'clock now. Our plan is just to stay in this house for the night and re-evaluate in the morning. That decision is based equally upon respect for the storm and the fact that no one wants to pack up again right now.

Here's the surf behind the house on the west side. By the way, there are two surfers out there.

More later.......Jim

Go blow Ida

So at 1:30 a.m. we had contact with Dauphin Island's finest. They suggested that we move to the east end of the island if we had a place to stay. We did. Our awesome owner Nancy offered to let us stay in a house she owns on the east side. So for the next hour we packed everything up and our buddy Gregg and I started shuffling our survival provisions to the our new digs. I believe the rum and ice cream were on the first flight over.

We finally woke the kids up and moved over. The temporary quarters are more than adequate. The house is beautiful, but not near the water. I suppose that's the idea when you're trying to avoid a hurricane.

I took a ride back to the house when I got up this morning to find that D.I.P.D. was camped out at the bottom of our street. The main road, Bienville, has washed over in a few places to the west and they don't want any rubberneckin' down there if they can avoid it.

Our house was fine, the water had receded from last night. Here's what it looked like at 7:30.

That fence is our back yard. So the water only got about 30 feet from the house. I just found that we have a much slower connection at this house so Im not going to put pictures up right now.

On the way out of the house, I stopped to talk to the copper on the corner. He said that they have put the LCSF plan in place. That stands for Lowest Common Sissy Factor. He said that the PD has to fly into action whenever there is enough water on the road for the tourists to get their hubcaps wet.

So in summary, the hurricane is supposed to come ashore sometime this afternoon and some where near Mobile. We are in between the storm and Mobile so that's just peachy. However, it seems as if the forecast is better...some of the models are now calling for the storm to be downgraded to a tropical storm before it gets here. We shall see. We are hopeful that we can get back into the other house in the next day or two. The weather is supposed to be sunny and warm for the rest of the week as soon as this storm goes through.

We aren't too worried, the grammar school on the island is open today, and that is one mile from where the road is closed. So that would seem to be a positive sign.

Otherwise it's all good. We are having fun with our friends, the food is good and we have another memorable Dauphin Island trip in progress....more later.

Nope. We aint from around here.....

Another great day in Dauphin Island...so far.

Apparently there is a hurricane headed our way. Perfect. Fortunately we are always up for a good adventure. We have been here for several rockin' storms in the past and we have been stranded by floodwaters. The owners of the house just called us to ask where we would prefer to relocate if the storm gets bad. They are on their way over to tie down the furniture so it doesn't blow into the Gulf.

I got up this morning to go get a run in. That has been my thing since I finished rehab a few weeks ago. They let me start running a month or two ago and I've been building on that. The only restriction I have is to stay within my target heart range. So I have to wear a heart monitor whenever I exercise. Today I got out on the bike path around 6. Two hours and thirty eights minutes later I had finished the longest run I've ever taken. Eleven miles. Yeah me.

So when I got back I got this phone call about the hurricane. I understand that most families may have chosen to pack up the family sedan and run for the hills. Or maybe just head for the mainland.

Most families. My girls went boogie boarding.

That's Em out there. The waves have been picking up a little. Were supposed to see the brunt of the storm sometime on Tuesday.

Right now the sun is out and its about 82*. the girls have moved the boogie boarding to the pool.

More later....IF WE SURVIVE. SURVIVE. survive.....

Back again...

We have arrived for a week in Dauphin Island. We got here around 1100. The girls were in the Gulf at about 11:00:30. The house is one of the better ones in which we have stayed. It's about 80 and sunny and I can hear the ocean from where I'm sitting.

What all this means to you is that I don't much feel like typing or being clever right now, so I'll put a few pictures up and catch up as the week goes on.

The Day After

So yesterday was Halloween, as many of you know, not my favorite "holiday". The girls however love the idea of eating unbelievable amounts of candy.
They decided to be Laura and Mary Ingalls this year(Little House on the Prairie). Thankfully Grandma can sew very well and they had beautiful costumes. However Jori decided she was Rachel the Amish girl from the book she is reading, sorry Jor, wrong bonnet. I will post pictures very soon, I'm a little bit behind. The girls had a great time, brought home a ton of candy and ate as much of it today as they could before Mom and Dad could root around in the bowls.

In other news, countdown to Dauphin Island has begun, we leave in 5 days, and cannot wait! Great friends Jen and Gregg and their two cuties will be going with us this year, we are excited to show them "our" island.........

God's Blessings on your week......