Bye, Gustav. Hello, Ike!

Where did the last week go? I think I blinked, and it was gone. We ended up having a nice time with our "evacuees". We took everyone out to Market Street on Sunday, and Zach and Maggie played in the fountain. I'm working on uploading pictures; it's been a while. My pictures are all about 3MB, so they take FOREVER to upload. Anyway, Sunday night we grilled burgers, and besides the dog pacing around all night (his toenails clicked on the wood floors), we all slept well. Mom and Dad brought a new air mattress with them, which Darren and I attempted to sleep on, but it was too springy for more than one person. The couch is comfortable, too.

Monday, we decided that the girls would go and check out Houston's new outlet mall. My dad and brother-in-law went to Home Depot and stocked up on tarps and gas cans, in case they couldn't get those at home. My dad confessed later that he had also bought a chainsaw. Five of us girls, including Zoe, drove out to the new outlet mall. If money wasn't an object, I would have had a great time purchasing things from Juicy Couture ($78 sweatpants), True Religion ($178 jeans), and Burberry ($600 trenchcoat). Since I don't have that kind of money, and won't be getting any more teacher pay checks, I didn't splurge too much. I bought some clothes for Zoe at Carter's, and a new backpack for myself at Columbia. At that store, my mom and I each bought a $15 trench coat as well. Mine's red, of course, and I can't wait to wear it!

I thought I was going to have a quiz on Tuesday in my A&P class, so Erin and her family went over to Jamie's to visit Monday night. I studied until after midnight, and of course, we didn't have a quiz the next day. Figures. Our company all left on Tuesday, and they had power at both of their houses. I think they both had minor damage at home, but nothing too bad. Mom and Dad left for San Francisco Thursday, and with the threat of other hurricanes behind Gustav, they left everything boarded up at their house. I talked to my mother in law, who lives outside of New Orleans, and they evacuated to Natchitoches, Louisiana. There was a tree on their garage when they made it back home, but their house was fine. They are worried about Ike hitting where they live now. Darren's stepsister, who lives near them, wasn't so lucky. During Katrina, she lived in an upstairs apartment. Afterwards, she moved downstairs. There is a bayou running right by where she lives, and when she arrived home from Birmingham, where she had evacuated, there was six inches of water in her apartment. Her landlord had already starting gutting it, because that bayou water carries God-knows-what in it.

I feel pretty good about my classes so far this semester. It's a pain to go to my campus class, because parking is at a premium. My teacher feels that we shouldn't work or really take any other classes besides hers. That could be a problem...I'm learning a lot, but it's taking her a long time to cover the material, and she expects us to remember everything from one class to another. On the other hand, my online Psychology class is a breeze so far. My only gripe about it is that some of the people who post things to the discussion groups need some help with their grammar and spelling. I wish I could edit their posts and send them back to them!

I started work this week, as well. I worked two hours on Tuesday and Thursday before I had class, all day Wednesday, and was supposed to work until about 1:00 on Friday. We had our "meet the teacher" yesterday morning, then we were going to have some training. Zoe's babysitter had been trying to get in touch with me since 9:30, because Zoe had thrown up, and Darren finally called me around 11:00. I picked her up, and we spent an afternoon snuggling. She's already been to the doctor twice this week, so I didn't call them again. We went to the ENT Tuesday, and after waiting two hours, he spent about two minutes with us, deciding to put tubes in her ears. Surgery is scheduled for October 13th. He didn't address the fact that she had fever and a green, runny nose, so I took her to the pediatrician Thursday. She had the beginning of an ear infection, so she went back on Augmentin. Today, she has a rash all over her stomach and back. Who knows what is going on with that child?

I'd better go get some sheets back on our bed before one of us passes out tonight. I'm really good at washing clothes, just not folding them or putting them away.