Zoom to 2012. I am very behind in updating my blog. So much has happened, that I don’t know if I can even remember it all. In 2009, we ended the year with “No Hurricanes” and very happy. The closest they came was the panhandle of Florida with Ida. So the year ended on a very positive note. Christmas was celebrated in Le Chateaux Grande. We enjoyed our first Christmas back in Bancker. What will 2010 bring?

The hurricane season is at its peak. There have been Six named hurricanes. The first was Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Erika, and last at this time Fred. Four names were in our family. Thank heavens, all of them have been a wash out. In other words, they have stayed in the Atlantic. Danny and Erika almost caused problems for the East Coast, but they did not get close enough to cause damage. Fred is still playing around near Africa. It was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. But we do have a low pressure sitting at the bottom of Texas all the way to Florida now. It started south of Texas and has spread toward Florida. As long as it remains just rain, we will think of it as typical September weather. This weekend has been steady drizzle and rainshowers. We hope it moves north and fizzle out eventually. It definitely has kept the temperature around here cool. I will leave you here and return if something more happens. We still have three more weeks of the hurricane peak….lets hope they are quiet and peaceful like today.

June: Well, this summer has begun very quiet except for moving Trey and Amanda into the chateaux. The only problems we had with that was getting the cabinets finished. They had to move in before it could be done. They seem to have done well despite it. We, all, settled into a rather quiet and relaxing routine. Of course, Steve and Trey had to get up every morning and go to work. But Amanda and I enjoyed the peace and quiet. During June, I visited with friends and really goofed off. Besides, cooking, washing clothes, going through boxes, my June was boring for some people. BUT wonderful for me. Weather wise, it was VERY hot. In fact, we had recorded temperatures of 99 thru 101. No rain! (Except for the 29th..1 inch) These were records for us. Usually, June starts with rain and rains a lot. Not a hint of hurricanes. We are not getting excited, but we are hopeful.
July: It began as normal. Very hot around 97, but we did have two days during the second week that actually gave us 3 inches of rain. In comparing the two months, the temperature averaged around 95 to 88. This is extremely unusual. July has always been very warm. We are hoping that August will be the same. (That usually when we see the 100 degree temperatures), but June beat it this year. The month became nicer, but the plans for my big trip began the second week of July. Michelle and I finally got to touch base and decided that we would be leaving on the 25th and meeting in Dallas. This is when I received a very unpleasant situation. I received a message from Pat that she was very hurt about not learning about the trip. This was on the 14th of July. She told me when I called her that she was very upset and felt that I was taking advantage of them. I had asked during the last trip and had not realized that I had to ask her again. I knew I had to inform her of dates, but thought she was out of town on her Europe trip. Well, I decided then that I would set my visit up around staying in a motel. From now on, I will not plan to stay with her at all.
Michelle and I met in Dallas at the Super 8 hotel. It was alright, but I will not stay there again. I visited with Aunt Olga and Pat that evening then returned to the motel for the night. It made me very sad to leave Aunt Olga. Pat told me that if I did not have a place to come back to spend the night with them. I decided to do it for one night.
Our trip to Little Rock was fantastic. We talked ninety to nothing (well, at least I did) all the way. It took us five hours to get there, because I was “pokey” as Michelle said. But primarily, I had to stop too much. We stayed with John and his Michelle for two days. It was great. We enjoyed talking and visiting. I was glad that they did not want to run around. I enjoyed being with the baby, Annabella Marie, and holding her. We went to Cheryl and Bobbie David for lunch on Tuesday. I had promised them that we would visit for a little while. At the lunch was Carlin, Vivian, and Christine. It was a fantastic visit. Even Michelle had fun.
They planned a birthday cake for me and so did John!!! So my birthday was the biggest I have ever had. Two birthday cakes. That is a record. hehe
I planned to start organizing my pictures so that I can begin the family book.

Mother’s Day! We have been in the house a little over a month before we could have our first celebration. We gathered and had hamburgers and belated birthday cake for Mary. She left us on her birthday to go to of all places New York. Why in the world would anyone leave lovely Louisiana to travel to New York on her birthday? Well, all I know is we missed her, so we told her she had to celebrate it with us when she came back. We had a typical Bancker celebration. Warm weather and Large Carpenter Bees surrounding us as we watched Steve cook. The kids (Pan and Jacque) had a wonderful time chasing each other through the grass. We had fun just visiting. It has been way too long since we have gotten together.

Due to my ability to leave, I climbed into my trusty truck and headed again toward Dallas then Odessa. As always, my visit with Aunt Olga was fantastic. We talked and talked way too much. I had to watch tv in the living room just to get her to take a nap. We both are bad about not wanting to be away from each other.
I was able to play with Pat’s grandson 🙂
Then I was able to contact Eric and visit with him and his precious daughter, Amber. It is amazing how much she reminds me of Julie Ramke and her mother Aunt Melba. She is four years old and is truly verbal. She is very bright.
I went to Claudine’s on Thursday after Eric’s visit. She was completely bedridden. Oh, she gets up in the wheel chair for her meals. She even takes time to sit in the living room and read to her sitter. She watches television at night and sleeps occasionally. It is hard to be with her. But if she was closer, i would travel more to see her. I miss her, but it hurts to know that she will be gone soon and I will not be able to see her again. Today was her birthday, 72 years old. She is older than Marlene and Anna, but still too young to die.

We decided to christen the house with a special name. Steve set that task upon my shoulders. I wanted to name it something in German, but everything I could think came up with a harsh sound and did not fit appropriately. So we decided to name it The Big Castle and express it in French. “Les Chateaux Grand” As you can see, I do not do well with the bottle.

Trey and I traveled to Odessa to visit Claudine. The trip was wonderful, but stressful. Seeing how Claudine has declined. I thoroughly enjoyed the time with Trey. He was great company. We had to visit Claudine in a nursing home. It was fine as nursing homes go, but she stayed with a strange woman and there was a lack of aides to assist the people getting in and out of bed. It was quite obvious that Claudine was not able to walk and that what ever type of therapy she was getting was not working. Her feet were already stretched out and pointed. There did not seem to be any flexibility in her feet.
I wish that she could move to Dallas, therefore I would be able to visit with her more often.

End of 2008

We are doing very well, despite being displaced. We are living in Lafayette and Steve is once again wishing he could go back to the peace and quiet of Bancker. (Traffic driving him crazy.) I like the apartment, because it is comfortable and we have enough room to invite the kids over. Christmas was great and so was New Year. We celebrated together. The only difference was we did not really exchange gifts. That proved to be good for everyone concerned.
What am I doing– just going from day to day. Nothing exciting and nothing special. Trying to get the house fixed and go from there. Still knowing that what we are doing will flood again, just praying that it will not be for a while this time.

Once again we were faced with a possible hurricane where it would hit we did not know….

Storm Path:

Date: Sep. 11, 2008
Time: 5:00 p.m. ET
Winds: 100 mph
Strength: Cat. 2
Direction: Moving WNW at 10 mph
Latitude: 26 N
Longitude: 89.4 W

This was the beginning for us. It has flooded the islands of Haiti and Cuba with severe weather. But the prediction at this time was that is would head west to Corpus Christi.The storm was large and took up almost all of the gulf. But we felt relief.

But …. 12 hours later we went from tropical effects to hurricane effects.

Storm Path:

Date: Sep. 12, 2008
Time: 5:00 a.m. ET
Winds: 105 mph
Strength: Cat. 2
Direction: Moving W at 15 mph
Latitude: 26.7 N
Longitude: 91.6 W

0300 UTC FRI SEP 12 2008

A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA TO
BAFFIN BAY TEXAS. HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE
WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT
LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION.

AT 1000 PM CDT…0300 UTC…THE HURRICANE WATCH SOUTH OF BAFFIN BAY
TO PORT MANSFIELD HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED…BUT A TROPICAL STORM
WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THAT AREA.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS ALSO IN EFFECT FROM EAST OF MORGAN CITY
TO THE MISSISSIPPI-ALABAMA BORDER…INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW
ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN.

Even though this is very typical of hurricanes. We could not believe we would be repeating Rita’s aftermath again. One day relief, the next day terror. With a storm like this we knew there was no hope that we would not have water. We were on the east side and could possible be even closer to the center. Now we knew water but how much and would it be high enough to flood us. Not a good premonition.

Storm Path:

Date: Sep. 13, 2008
Time: 5:00 a.m. ET
Winds: 110 mph
Strength: Cat. 2
Direction: Moving NW at 15 mph
Latitude: 29.7 N
Longitude: 95 W
The storm hit Galveston. It hit with great force. Now the truth was there. Water for us, but homes in Crystal Beach disappeared. Even though we were in Slidell, we knew it had happened again. But how bad we would not know until we got home.

Sunday, we drove into Lafayette and headed to David’s house. Thank heavens, he had enough room for us to stay a few days. We were relieved. We were not sure how long before we could see exactly what it was like in Bancker. Information from a friend had said that the water was back over Highway 330 just like before. He was unable to get to his house. So we knew we could not. This was Steve’s birthday. Mary made a cake for him and had a little birthday party with Trey and Amanda.

Monday morning Trey and Steve left and traveled down to Bancker. Early in the morning they could not get through. They then went back at noon and then around 3. The last time Henry Faciane was there with his tractor and said he would take them to the house. When they got to the house, there was no water as before, but it was quite obvious that we had flooded again. It appeared to be less than than for Rita. On Tuesday, Steve and I went down.
There was water, but we were able to ride through it and get back. On Wednesday, Steve took David down with him. We began the clean up. By the time I drove down, the water had gone down and I could drive with no problem.

Wow, today came and went and I did not cry….instead while I was driving in the rain to Walmart I was excited. I could actually go to Walmart and not see any of my students and have to remember their names. Today really did feel great. I have been busy, but not at school. In fact, I seem to find plenty of time to do things, but I need to start and keep doing what I planned. We had a wonderful visit from Elizabeth and Michelle. I enjoyed the visit sooo much. It made me feel like I was a teenager again. We really had great conversations.