Charleston??

With a long holiday weekend ahead, Jana, Callie and I decided it was the perfect time to spend some quality time together---just us girls! Early in the summer, we began planning. We wanted to find a spot where we could do "girl stuff". We all enjoy hiking and outdoors things like that, but we can do those things when their husbands are with us. For this trip, we wanted to do things that they wouldn't normally enjoy as much---museums, art galleries, etc. So, the location we settled on was Charleston, SC.. None of us have ever spent any time there and it is a beautiful southern city with lots to see and do.

Only, we didn't count on a hurricane. And there's one heading that direction now--the huge category 4 Hurricane Earl. Callie and I have tickets to fly out there on Thursday night, which is just about when it is supposed to hit the East Coast. Now, it is scheduled to hit further up the coast, closer to North Carolina. But, I'm from Louisiana---I know a little about hurricanes! They are often unpredictable. At the very least, I think that we can count on some really rainy weather and not nearly as many walking tours around Charleston. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the entire East Coast dodges the bullet and hoping that we don't end up stranded in an airport somewhere.

Round Robin--Express a Feeling!

Be sure to visit the other Round Robins to see what they've captured!!
For this challenge, I dug around in my archives. It seems that most of my photos depicting emotion were found in the albums for the mission trips I've been on. These first two were taken on a couple of trips to Juarez where I helped build houses for families. I have so many pictures of the children there, and they evoke all kinds of emotions as I look back through them.

I have been on several trips down to south Louisiana for hurricane recovery (I live in North Louisiana). These photos were taken about five weeks after Katrina hit, in the area surrounding Slidell, LA. This first one was with a couple of girls I taught in Sunday School---obviously missing another of their friends.
The next two are not great quality, but they certainly capture the emotion of devastation that surrounded the area for several years. Notice the washing machine dangling in the first picture.

Return, Rebuild, Renew

I spent the last few days down in the New Orleans area as a delegate to my church's annual conference. This isn't something that I've ever really had a great desire to do, but I decided that since I really didn't have an excuse NOT to go, I should take my turn and accept the position. As it turns out, I really kind of enjoyed it (although I'm hesitant to say that). I don't imagine that it is always this interesting, but this year, I was able to get to know my friend Rachel better, watch 2 friends get ordained and participate in the voting process regarding some pretty important issues.

And in addition to the "church politics" that we were involved in, I was able to participate in an optional mission project on Tuesday afternoon (which is something I love!). We had several different options, but I chose to work on a home that had been damaged in Hurricane Katrina. This is the 5th time I've been to work in New Orleans in recent years, but we worked in an area that was totally unfamiliar to me. Here's a photo of the house. The marking on the outside of the house is left from the first time officials were able to actually check the house for signs of life following the storm. As you can see, the first time they could check it was 9-28-05--that's over a month after Katrina hit!! While law enforcement agencies attempted to check the neighborhood earlier, they were in a boat and the water covered everything except the roof, so no accurate assessment could be done. You can still see the water line on the house where water remained for weeks after it began to subside. Our job was to prepare the floors for laminate wood flooring to be laid. We scraped the concrete, rolled out padding, screwed shims into the walls and even began to lay the floor. Our time was very limited, but at least we were able to help out for a little while. Hopefully this family will be able to move back into their home in the next couple of months! It's been almost four years since the storm, and if you were to drive through New Orleans on the interstate or even visit the French Quarter, you would think that life is back to normal---that homes are repaired and lives have been restored. But upon closer inspection, you find that FEMA trailers and blue tarps are still seen in most neighborhoods and even more homes have been abandoned or await monumental repairs. The signs of a brighter future are emerging, but there is still much work to be done!

Hellloooo Ike!

Well, here we go again. Hurricane Ike is blowing through Shreveport right now. Last night, the winds began picking up slightly and slowly increased throughout the night. While the sky began to look ominous, you'd never know it from these shots I took this morning. But, anticipating Ike's arrival later today, I made adjustments to my trip over to Ruston to visit Callie. I'd planned to spend the day and help her with some craft projects, but instead I decided I'd better cut my visit short and try to get back before the worst hit Shreveport. Callie and I were able to find a great little quilt store, Hannah's Quilts, in nearby Choudrant. (It was quite a task to find the store and we discovered it was even harder to find our way back to Ruston!--Jana and Rob, thanks again for the GPS!!)

Callie was very patient with me while I selected a few fabrics for future projects. I just can't go in a store like that and not come out with something pretty! We ate at a local Mexican restaurant and then I headed back home. And I made it back just in time! The last few miles were getting pretty messy and the winds really picked up a few hours later. I took a couple of photos of the trees blowing outside while the power was out indoors.The power is back on again now, but since it's flickering all the time, I'll keep my fingers crossed it stays that way.