Around Our Neighborhood

This pine couldn't bend anymore and snapped in half.

Our neighbor's tree stood strong through the storm.
If this thing would have fallen, it would have done some serious damage.
If it would have fallen our way, it would be in our bedroom.
Josh's mom actually got one in her bedroom. Luckily, she rents from a good guy
who is taking care of everything already.

From left: Josh, Dakota, Robin, and Ayden watching the winds from our living room window.

These guys weren't so lucky. This is a few blocks from our house.
I hope they weren't home when this happened.

Everyone's yards look like this after cleaning their lawns.

The trees in BR are massive, so you can imagine the mess they made everywhere.
This is just around the corner from that house with the tarp.

I took these pictures yesterday-5 days after the storm. We left for Josh's brother's house on Wednesday after cleaning out our fridge and helping Josh's mom, Mimi, get her mattress outside. We stayed in Gulfport until yesterday and enjoyed some normal things like McDonalds, Outlet Malls, and ELECTRICITY!! Mandi and Jason let us have their room which we thanked them for at least a hundred times. It was a nice break from crazy Baton Rouge. Jason and Mandi had the worst winds from Katrina, so they know exactly how it is for us here. Robin, Brent and Dakota went to Gulfport too and slept at Robin and Josh's grandparents' cottage. Robin and Brent's house had the electricity restored on Friday, so they headed back home with a car full of groceries to avoid the maddness of shopping here. We left Saturday morning, planning on going to stay with Robin and Brent, but LO and BEHOLD! While we were at our house getting some things to take with us.........OUR POWER CAME BACK ON!!!!!!!! Not only that, but we have our phone, internet, and dish network back in service! Robin cooked fro us last night-since we had an empty fridge-then went with me to Albertsons. When we got there, they announced that they were closing in 24 minutes! We were just like the supermarket sweep, running down isles and grabbing things on my list as fast as we could!They were better stocked than I thought they would be. The only thing I couldn't get was eggs. No biggie, we can live without eggs. I only got enough food to last a week, since Ike decided to come for a visit. He should be here by Friday. Well, anywhere between Florida and Texas, but that was the same story with Gustav. We're prepared for the worst again. Uggh. Josh and Brent joined a group of men at the church this morning for an 8:00 sacrament meeting, then they will go work on people's yards around town. There's a big crew of guys sleeping at the stake center and working hard every day. We'll just have sacrament meeting today, just like after Katrina. I guess I should start getting the boys ready.