Happy New Year!

I just wante to say that I hope everybody has a very safe and Happy New Year this year. We plan to have a joint party with our neighbors. Kids are coming to our house with two babysitters and the adults are convening over at their house. It doesn't feel like New Years for some reason.

I also wante to let everybody know that I am still alive and well despite the complete lack of posting on my part. I will be back shortly with all the postings that you deserve.

Christmas MeMe

I haven't done a MeMe in quite sometime. But I thought that this one I saw on Kelli's blog was pretty cute.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial - easier.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually Thanksgiving weekend. Depends if I am in the mood early or not. Jack's first year, it was up by mid-November.

4. When do you take the tree down? As soon as I can after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but it does not like me.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?Hmm I am sure there are a lot, but right now I remember getting a stuffed Benji dog for Christmas one year that I loved.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My brother-in-law. Thank goodness I did not draw his name this year.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Jack. I gave him a toy catalog the other day with a highlighter. He highlighted everything in there except for the "girl stuff". Yeah I just need to pick from the millions of things he wants.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail cards. I try to add something personal, but half the time they just get signed.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can't really remember.

12. Favorite Christmas movies? I love them all. Frosty, Rudolph, Wonderful Life.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October. Or I have a list of what to get by Thanksgiving.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so. Can't remember.

15.Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? chocolate. cookies. all the stuff that is really bad for me.

16. Favorite Christmas song? Away in the Manger.

17. There was no number 17.

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? We have stayed home the last few years and people have traveled to us.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? Umm probably if I thought hard enough.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning. Santa has to be there first to open presents. Duh.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? All the hype and commercialization.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? No theme in our house. We have a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

24.Favorite dinner food? For Christmas, I guess it would be ham and all the other traditional food.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? To spend a peaceful holiday with friends and family.

Suicide

I know that is not a pleasant topic, but that is the topic that has been on my mind in the last few days. Not me, but a family member committed suicide a few days ago. My ex-sister-in-law, or to be more exact, my brother's ex-wife. She left behind their 15-year-old son, Chad. Through the years that she and my brother were married, I saw her here and there. I remember going to visit them when Chad was about three months old. Of course, I was in my early 20s at the time and my mothering days would be way off. But to this day, I remember the way she loved that baby. She absolutely adored Chad. And now all these years later, I now know that feeling of loving another human being beyond belief.

Laurie was such a vibrant person. She literally lit up a room when she walked in. She never went anywhere without being fully made up and dressed to a T, which was a stark contrast to me in jeans and t-shirts and no makeup half the time. I usually felt like the ugly duckling sister-in-law next to her. But her personality and vibrance made it seem not so bad.

In March when we had a family reunion here at my house, she was generous enough to bring Chad here when my brother could not or would not for various reasons. I will always be thankful and grateful to her for doing that. For the first time, Jack got to meet his cousin Chad and to this day, Jack talks about cousin Chad almost daily. I also got to reconnect with Laurie and have some good old-fashioned girl talk with her while eating spicy shrimp and crawfish. Fun times.

Two days prior to her suicide, I was online talking to her about the possibility of meeting up with her and Chad in January when we go to Disneyworld. She was looking forward to that meeting. I only wish I knew what was going on in her head between that conversation online and when she decided to end it all. I know she was in pain. She had to be to leave Chad like that. I know that I am one of many who are wondering why and how today. One of many who are thinking and feeling "If Only". Laurie, I hope you are somewhere in peace today.

And if there is anything that I have learned out of all this, is that life is so precious. We must hug our kids a little tighter and tell them we love them that much more. We also must tell our friends and family that they are special to us and let them know how much we love them. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

Rest in peace Laurie. We will love you and miss you always.

Another Victim of the Economy

I just heard that the indoor playland that we used to frequent when Jack was younger is closing up shop because people just are not paying $6 to come and play. I know the owner and she said that people just stopped coming in right after the financial crisis/bailout began. It really is sad because she just moved to a bigger, nicer location. It was painted so very cute and had a ton of fun things to do for the toddler set. But, alas, she is closing at the end of the month. Just another sign of the financial crisis.

In other news, I am once again a true soccer mom. Tonight is the first night of soccer practice for the boy. We are all set with the ball, shin guards, shoes and everything a soccer star needs. Not too sure I am all that thrilled to stand out on a cold soccer field at 6:00 tonight for an hour, but I guess ya gotta do what ya gotta do for your kids.

Family Day

We had a great family day today. The weather was absolutely perfect. Here in the deep deep south, we live for this time of year. This is when the weather is a cool 75 degrees, with very little humidity. And this is when all the outdoor festivals take place. Today we went to the Scottish games and Celtic music festival. It is very fitting for both Jim and I go to this event as we are both from Ireland and Scotland. We even had a picture printed out showing our respective coat of arms with our names and marriage date. Very neat. I will have to frame it and put it up.

When we were walking into the fairgrounds and Jack saw the men wearing kilts, which prompted him to yell at the very big and burly men "Those are for girls!". Jim and I just about died with laughter. It was too funny.

We saw real live jousting, which was way cool. We were routing for the Irish guy versus the Scottish guy. They were in full armor with real lances and all. And they both got thrown from their horses, which looked quite painful. The Irish guy looked like he bit his tongue or something cause he had a bunch of blood in his mouth. So we got it all, the blood and gore.

They also had the Irish dancers, which I think are fascinating, people playing bag pipes and you could even buy Haggis for lunch if you wanted. We didn't want to. But I think the favorite part for the boy was the huge bounce houses and slide.

Afterwards, we decided to go to see Madagascar 2, which I say it was Eh, okay, but not as good as the first one. But the boy enjoyed it.

All in all it was a great family day, which is something we don't get very often around here with all the schedule conflicts we constantly encounter.

$1.98 !!!

I just had to announce that I just paid $1.98 per gallon for gas!!! That's right, it only took $25 to fill my gas tank up today. I seriously can not remember the last time I paid under $2.

Now I am not so ticked by going all the way over to get flu shots for Jack and I only to discover they were all out of the kid shots. They said that they ran out of them a couple of days ago. We just got the phone call that the flu shots were in a couple of days ago! Argh. I even had Jack all set to be brave about getting a flu shot and also a little bribe by saying he could have ice cream afterwards if he was brave. So I couldn't deny the boy, who was trying so hard to be brave about getting a shot, his ice cream. I got him a small ice cream cone afterwards. But all was not lost, I did get my flu shot and after my bout with the super bug a few weeks ago, I think I really needed it.

Why I Have Twelve Loads of Laundry Piled Up...

So today, I think I did 8 loads of laundry. Give or take. I think I lost count somewhere after four, but it was a lot. I even cleaned out my sock/underwear drawer. Aren't you proud of me?

But that gets me back to the reason why my husband had to ask me if I could get him some clean underwear out because there were none to be found in his underwear drawer. And that reason is that I realized today that I am crazy busy. I have two part-time jobs and about to start a third one. I work part-time as a bookkeeper while Jack is in school a few mornings a week. I also sell Uppercase Living (really cool product). And I am about to start another bookkeeping job for friends who own a construction company. So three part-time jobs. But wait, not done yet. Me and my big mouth said yes this year to taking over the treasurer job at the church, which is kinda like another part-time job, just not paid. Oh but that's not all, I also donate my time to helping the youth group at church every Sunday night. Oh and to make my life even busier, I signed Jack up for soccer which starts next week with practices every Tuesday night and the games will be every Saturday morning for about three months.

And somewhere in all that, I have to be mother to a very energetic four-year-old, wife, chef, caretaker to five animals, maid, and yes laundry person! I think I just made myself tire. I need to go lie down.

After Election Thoughts

First off I want to say that I am proud of America that we can look past racial issues and elect a black man. I am equally proud that we were thiiiisss close to having a woman in the white house, whether president or vice-president. I think that really does say that we as a collective can look beyond what the person is, but who the person is. Something that America could not do when I was born. We have come a long way.

However, Mr. Obama, simply scares me. I truly believe that our founding fathers were brilliant when they drafted the constitution. And when I hear Mr. Obama say that he wants the Supreme Court to change the constitution to become more "distributive" and spread the wealth, I am scared. Very scared. The constitution is what has made America great since the beginning. It sets us apart. It makes all men equal with the ability to pursuit happiness. It gives us the freedom of speech, religious freedom, and justice and liberty for all. Those words are not just words, they are the foundation to this great country. The American dream is to work hard and pursuit success and happiness. It does not mean that the government automatically grants you financial wealth, it means you have equal opportunity to make something of yourself as everybody else. Mr. Obama wants to take that away from us. He wants to spread our wealth around. He wants to take away the drive to make oneself greater. And to some degree, I am confident, he will get his way. Which brings me back to being scared. Because if he can change the constitution in that regard, what else can change? My freedom to worship my God the way that I want? My freedom to write this blog saying that I am scared? My freedom all together?

We must not forget what the constitution stands for. We have to continue to teach it in schools. Our children must know that our founding fathers wanted this country to be the best in the world. The idea that people governing the people was so completely foreign at that time, it was revolutionary. And we can not lose our freedom. We can not lose our dream. We can not lose America, no matter who the president is.

Hmmm...

**Edited to add that the boy woke up and said that his "room was scary" and that is why he decided to walk through the dark house to the couch in the family room. Hmmm.

So I am up for the third day in a row at the early hour of 5 am. I get up and walk out to the family room and there is Jack sleeping on the couch with his Foo Foo dog and his little blanket. Now I know he went to sleep in his bed, so at some point he got up, grabbed his dog and blanket and went out to the family room couch to sleep. I thought that he had wet the bed, something he never ever does, but no he did not. The weird thing is that he is so afraid of the dark and he must have walked through a very dark house to get to that couch because the night light in the bathroom has been off for the last few days. Hmmm. I guess I will have to ask him why he did that. if he can remember, when he wakes up.

And one last reminder. GO VOTE! Even if you are voting for that other guy. Everybody needs to vote today. If you vote, you can get a free cup of coffee at Starbucks, which I plan to partake in. So go vote and then caffeinate yourself.

Pictures Galore

I dumped a bunch of pictures off my camera, so I thought I would share a few of them with you.

Jack and Molly the crazy dog.

Jack came home the other day with his first official "homework". He was so proud and excited to have "homework". And because this was such a momentous occasion, I had to take pictures. The "homework" was having to write his name a few times on the paper. Below are pictures of the intense concentration of the boy doing his "homework".

We went to the corn maze last weekend keeping up the tradition we started last year. Jack showing the corn.

Which path should we take?

Jack with the "really super duper heavy pumpkin".

Jack and Daddy with pumpkin. Sorry this was not rotated.

Halloween 2008 - I give you Red Power Ranger. Can you feel the power?

More of the power ranger

Jack and his trick-or-treating pals. We had Gabriella (from HS Musical) and the Pink Power Ranger with us last night or also known as Cori and Allison.

One of the cool decorated houses in the neighborhood.

Jack and his girls - holding hands.

After trick or treating, we went to our neighbor's house and met up with more friends from church and their little girl who is Super Girl in the picture.

Halloween was quite the adventure this year. We went out and hit a little over half of the 170 houses in our neighborhood. It lasted about an hour and a half and by the end all three kids had their containers overflowing with candy. At one point, I had to stuff some into my pocket to relieve the pressure from Jack's pumpkin. Anybody need any candy? We got it.

Not so Discombobulated

I am feeling much better these days. I finally got rid of that super bug that loved me so much, it hung around for 5 weeks. My house is clean once again. Last Sunday after church, I told Jim that it was time to bust our butts and get this house in a much more healthy state. Yay no more dust bunnies living in the corners and all spider webs are declared gone, the real ones, not the fake decorations.

How is it that today is Halloween? Of course we are planning to go out trick or treating. Jack has chosen to be the red power ranger. How he knows about power rangers, I do not know, because as far as I know he has never watched that show. But he is going around saying "Power Rangers Jungle Fury." And we did it again. Our neighbor's little girl Allison, chose to be the pink power ranger and Jack chose to be the red power ranger. This follows up from last year of her being batgirl to Jack's batman. We really did not plan for them to dress alike, it just worked out that way again. Anyway, there should be mighty cute pictures coming tomorrow of the two of them.

I also have pictures of our second annual visit to the corn maze last weekend. It was a lot of fun and we made it through the maze with Jack leading us at every turn. I will post those also tomorrow.

In other news, I joined facebook the other day. I was out with some girlfriends on Saturday and they were telling me that I just HAD to join, so I had to look it up. Who knew how fun facebook could be? I have found long lost friends and a few not so long lost. Fun times. Another thing to obsess over on the internet.

Discombobulated

That is how I have been feeling for over a month now. I am STILL fighting the superbug from hell. It is now going on five weeks since I started feeling sick. I have the horrendous cough that is entirely too embarrassing when out in public. Yeah it sounds like I am going to hack up a lung in the very near future. I am also completely and utterly exhausted. I have not felt this tired since Jack was a newborn and you are supposed to feel like crap. Even Jim came down with some crud and was pretty much over it in three days. Wahhh! Not that I don't want him to get over the sickies, I just want to do it too.

Anyway, needless to say life has been feeling a bit discombobulated lately. There are other factors that have led to this feeling.

1. Jim's mother, Grammy C., has been in the hospital for over a week now. She is not doing well and has a lot of problems, with the major one being diagnosed with kidney cancer. She is 86 years old and up until now was going unbelievably strong. But she is not going to have any surgery or any treatment. She is going home to get her "affairs in order" and spend some more time with her family and friends. We support her decision and understand it. But we are going to miss her when that time comes and spend as much time as we can up there.

2. The house is a mess. I mean it is bordering on health hazard right now. I hate the feeling when there is chaos going on in the house. And this house is chaotic right now!

3. What is going on in the world right now. It seems like the world is ending with all this financial mess. I don't know what that means to my family. I think we are pretty safe, but ya never know. And should we cancel our Disney trip in January? We have a good portion saved for the trip, but should we just keep that money? But then the memories and the look on Jack's face on Big Thunder Mountain is priceless.

4. I have been gaining weight during this sickness because I have been doing the bare minimal of going to work, shopping for the bare essentials (toilet paper when we had not one square in the house) and parenting to Jack. In between all of that, I have sat or laid my butt in the family usually moaning to some degree. I have been taking vitamins and eating lots of fruit high in anti-oxidants and C in hopes to actually fight this bug. But when that day comes that I actually feel human again, I will get back to walking the dog, and exercising.

5. Our puppy Molly, has been chewing up the house. She chewed up the ottomon to my rocker. It is ugly now. I don't know if I can reupholster it or not. She also has trashed my furniture after she comes in from outside and has flthy paws from digging up the yard. She then has to jump on every single piece of furniture in the house leaving little muddy paw prints. I just realized that this one has a lot to do with #2 above.

Anyway, it has just been a hard time here in the Jackaroo house. But Jack is the bright spot in all of our lives with his constant singing and the why questions. Love that kid. I just don't know how to tell him that Grammy C is going to die soon. He still brings up Bob, our dog we had to put down in June. He misses him and is asking me why we had to bury his body. He must be thinking about Grammy C's death because he is always asking about people being buried and why we bury them and what happens after they die. All tough questions to answer a four-year-old.

Jack Singing and Being His Four-Year-Old Self

Thoughts and Other Random Tid Bits

I realize that I have not been keeping my blog posting up lately. In fact this entire year has been pretty pathetic in the posting department. Maybe that is just part of the life of a blog. I have been doing this for over four years and that is a long time. I have some online friends that have watched my child and I have watched their children grow from little babies to full-fledged four-year-old kids. Where has the time gone?

I have become a news junkie. In the past week, Fox news has been on just about 24/7. I think this whole financial mess is despicable. I remember "back in the day" people had to have an actual down payment to buy a house, but then it became people didn't need a down payment and could take out 2 or more mortgages on their house. It just baffles me and now we all are suffering because of it.

Another news junkie item is Sarah Palin. I just have to say that I want to be like her when I grow up (even though she and I are very very close in age). She has it going on. She is smart and articulate and very capable in my opinion of being a leader. And I believe the media has done a hatchet job on her and it is entirely not fair. Oh and she has really cool glasses. If I have to wear glasses, I want to wear hers.

Jack has been singing a lot in school. He comes home with these so adorable and cute songs about Jesus and being a Christian. One of the projects I want to do this weekend is get him on video singing some of these songs for ya'll. He also is learning about vowels and consonants. He does get them mixed up and this morning he was out and out fighting me by saying that "L" is a vowel. I kept trying to tell him that it is not a vowel, but a consonant. He actually started to cry as he was trying to convince me otherwise. Just one more reason of the many reasons that I could never home school my child. I am not against homeschooling, but for me and my child - no way in the world would it work.

Superbugs. I am still fighting mine that I have had for the past three weeks that feel like months. I went to the doctor two weeks ago and this perky little doctor told me that I only had a viral infection and I was at the "tail end of it." Um don't think so. I went back to the doctor (not the perky little one) and it turns out that I now have bronchitis and strep throat. Gee is that why I have been feeling like crud barely making it through each day, even though I was at the "tail end of it." I walked out with no less than SEVEN prescriptions.

We are praying for Grammy C. tonight. She is in the hospital suffering from a severe bladder infection and they are running some tests. She is such an inspiration because at 86, she gets around and is better dressed than any of us. I hope that I am as good as her at 66. We just hope she feels better soon. Jack loves to play tea parties with her and at 86, she gets down on the floor and plays cars with him. Feel better soon Grammy!

Why Mom Why?

Jack's brain is constantly working these days. The questions are coming fast and furious and they have no rhyme or reason. He just comes out with the why questions and I have to admit that they are sometimes tough to answer.

Here are just a few of the why questions that he has asked in the last few days:

Why do scissors have handles?

Why do people sneeze?

Why did God made the world?

Why are there vowels? (they are learning their vowels at school right now)

Why does Grammy and Papa have a basement and we do not?

Why did the hurricane not break our windows? (he is quite concerned about hurricanes and other storms ever since we had to board up)

Why is the sun so bright?

Seriously ya'll they never stop. I love the fact that he is trying to figure out the world around him. But I do need a break every now and then. That is when I am very thankful for the DVD player in the car.

A Week Later

Yes I realize that it has been over a week since I posted anything. This superbug that I somehow caught has put me in just survival mode for almost two weeks. I have been doing what I absolutely have to do like taking Jack to school and back and basic mothering tasks and other must-do tasks. But anything beyond the must do, well that just hasn't been happening. Today is the first day that I actually feel like I might survive this thing. I did go to the doctor last Friday and was told "it is just a viral thing, can't help ya, but here is some knock-out cough medicine for ya".

Anyway, I think I might be back with land of the living very soon. We have big plans this weekend by going to see Bill Cosby in concert at one of the casinos in Biloxi. It is an actual date night thing for Jim and I! Wow!

I also want to share with you the Jackism that happened last night. As most of you know, I let Jack sleep with me when Jim is on duty. I like it that he is right there with me in case anything happens and it is a special thing for us that I know won't last forever. So last night, he was in a very loving mood. Sometime in the middle of the night, he woke up and gave me a big hug and said "I love you Mom". Yes my heart melted. Then he was laying there thinking about something. And this conversation proceeded:

Him: "Mom?"
Me: "Yes Baby?"
Him: " Why are computers so heavy?"
Me: HUH? WHAT?

What goes on in that brain for him to ask such a question after midnight? I tell ya, his brain is working overtime all the time!

Start Early These Days

So yesterday Jack came home from school (preschool K4 for those not playing at home) and told me that his friend Tanner has a girlfriend! This is how the conversation went:

Me: that is nice that he has a friend that is a girl

Jack: no Mom he has a girrrlllfriend. You know.

Me: how do you know this?

Jack: he told me and her name is Kara and she is his girrrlllfffrriiieend.

Me: (slightly freaking out) you don't have a girlfriend do you?

Jack: no! girl pooties (his word for cooties)

So there you have it my son's four-year-old friend has a girlfriend! Now this is the child that is in trouble everyday and had so many spankings in the Principal's office last year that his Mom lost count. He is also the kid that more than one mother requested their child NOT to be in the class with him this year. I am kinda rethinking my decision to give the kid a break and let Jack be in the same class.

He is definitely the class leader and the "bad influence" (at FOUR). Jack's teacher talked to me last week about Jack pushing another K3 child on the playground and then laughing about it. That is all Tanner and his teacher told me as much. Mrs. Nix (Jacks teacher from last year) was on the playground at the same time and said she could not believe that Jack did that and it was the influence from Tanner who told him to do it. Of course, we had a long talk about nice boys and playing nice and if I hear he does that again, he will be in time-out with NO toys for a very long time.

Ugh, who knew that Junior High playground antics started in Preschool! Geesh!

In other news, I seem to have caught some super-bug or something. I was down for the count most of the weekend, even on Jim's birthday on Saturday. We ended up doing nothing for his birthday because I was pretty much comatose that day. The super-bug has now travelled down into my chest and this morning, I do believe I coughed up a lung or two. Fun stuff.

Yeah and I can probably blame the preschool for the super-bug also!

Feeling the Effects

We are hundreds of miles away from Galvaston, however we are definitely feeling the effects of Ike. The above picture was taken this morning at the Gulfport pier that was severly damaged in Gustav and now from Ike. It is amazing that we are feeling such heavy effects being so far away. The beach road is closed and the wind is enough to blow your head off. Forget having a good hair day in this wind. I feel bad for Texas and hope that the people who are being told they face "certain death" actually heed the warnings and get out of there. I have seen what the storm surge from Katrina did here and they need to know that storm surges are downright deadly.

I hope everybody says an extra little prayer for all those in harms way from Ike. I know that I will sure breath a sigh of relief when November 30th comes around (the end of hurricane season).

Too Much Fun

I think the boy had too much fun/candy/cake/heat yesterday at the birthday party. They brought the Tumble Buggy to the party, which is an old school bus where they have taken out all of the seats and replaced with all kinds of jumping and bouncy things. If you watch Jon and Kate plus 8 they had the Tumble Buggy at their house for one episode. Anyway, it was so hot for the kids because the people said that the air conditioning was not working that well inside the bus and when all the kids came off that bus, they all had red faces and sweat pouring off of them. But everyone of them said it was fun.

So that brings me to last night around 1 am and Jack woke me up with the words "Mom I just threw up". He was sleeping in my bed with me. So I turn on the light and sure enough all of his pillow and sheet and his pajamas. So I strip the bed of sheets and put on the other sheets, strip him and put on new pajamas. He said he was feeling better and so we went back to sleep. About 20 minutes later, I hear that wonderful gagging sound and this time it got all over everywhere. So since that was the only other sheets I have for our bed, I stripped the bed yet again and went to wash the sheets. I put Jack on the couch with Thomas playing on the tv and we were then up for the next couple of hours with him sitting there with a bucket. Fun times.

So needless to say, the boy won't be going to school today. And the way it looks, he might get to go tomorrow and MAYBE Wednesday, but we will probably be evacuating on Thursday AGAIN. I found a cool model prediction online here that shows the eye landing just about where Gustav landed (those poor people in Louisiana) however it looks like it will be a much bigger storm and we will be on the "bad side" of it again and well it isn't looking good for us. Even More Fun Times.

Busy Sunday and More Talk of Hurricanes

We are super busy today, so I thought I would get on here and tell ya about it all in between events of the day.

We went to church this morning and everybody is talking about the possibility of Ike. They even had the sand bags out front of the church left over from last week's storm.

In a few minutes, we will be leaving to go to a birthday party for our friend's three-year-old girl, where lots of candy and sugar will be consumed by the boy. Then we have to leave somewhat early from there to go to a bridal shower for our neighbor who is getting married next month. The shower was actually supposed to be last week, but Gustav pretty much did everyone's plans in last weekend.

Then I also have to leave the shower early and go back to church to help out with the youth group. I signed up to be a youth group leader and that means that my Sunday nights are now taken. Then it will be back home, do a load of laundry (the boy needs clothes for school), get the boy in bed and relax for a few minutes before I go to bed myself. I doubt that I will see Jim at all today as he is sleeping right now and then will be working tonight while Jack and I are off doing our thing.

Thanks for everybody's concern about the hurricane threats. And Evelyn it is great to see you again. I see that you have been watching the hurricane tracking about as much as I do. We are hoping that it will hit over in Texas somewhere and not affect us that much. However, if it does hit to the west of us, we will be on the "bad side" of the hurricane. Until lately, I had no idea that there was a "bad side" to a hurricane, but evidently the northeast of the eye gets hit by the bad winds. Who knew? I tell ya before this hurricane season is over, I will feel like I have earned an education in hurricanes!