Bay Saint Louis

I  wanted to post something yesterday as it was the anniversary of the day Katrina hit Waveland/Pass Christian, MS.  There is a new time line for folks here.  Everything is seen as pre or post Katrina.  A member of our ward told us that they went to church on Sunday and the bishop stood up and said, "everyone get out today!"  The following day, Monday, Katrina hit land, the water surge is what kills everyone.  The water level in our home was up to the 3rd story.  The reason some people would not leave is because when Katrina  hit  land it had been down graded to a level 2, but out in the gulf it had been a level 5 and that is why the water surge was so bad.  He also said that all but 13 homes in our ward were destroyed in Katrina.  He said that they had so much help from the LDS people that the ward was full each Sunday with workers not ward members and because of all the help the other denominations now like the Mormon's.  I guess the church down the street from them really disliked the LDS , but after Katrina there feelings about them changed because the church donated benches, chairs, tables, etc to them. 

Kara took a bunch of pictures of her and Halle messing around and I just found them.  So we had a sex offender move into our neighborhood.  I got a notice in my mailbox.  I was telling the kids about it and Hayden chimes in with, "Mom you don't need to tell us what a sex offender is we all know!"  Halle then chimes in with, "is that someone that steals cars?"  I don't think we all know what a sex offender is!

We were also talking about the different food groups at the table as nutrition is part of the curriculum at our school.  Brent asked Halle, "What food group would these beans be from?"  Halle said, "Qdoba!"

Halle asked me to come and eat lunch with her at school again but she said, "Mom you can't feed me when you eat lunch with me.  Mrs Bentz says I'm a big girl so tell your mom you don't need her to feed you!"  Well my defense to this is I packed her a salad and a lot of it was getting onto the floor.  I am more efficient at getting it into her mouth, plus if I want to feed my child it is no ones business.  I'll try to let her grow up(:

Kara has made a new little friend named Cassi, not the watermelon.  She is just being a goof here.  She had Halle take these pictures.  She is starting to do really well now in school.  She said, "school is a lot harder here, but I understand everything better, because you can't just laugh in class, unless you are supposed to laugh!"  Unless you actually go to the school you can't truly comprehend all of this.  They do have an open door policy (for extra funding), so if ya'all happen to come on a school day, I'm taking you to lunch with us!

Kara has been check the mail everyday for a letter.  I peaked out the window and she was running down the street to check the neighbors mailbox.  She was sure her letter had gotten put into their mailbox.  It truly is Snail Mail here!

Just across the Bridge is the City The Bay of St. Louis, and then just beyond that it turns into Waveland.  It is a really cute little town that was completely destroyed in Katrina.

I think these little houses are cute.

There is a park right behind the City Hall building.  It has these giant Oak trees in it!

I tried to get a picture of Halle taking a drink of water out of this cool little fountain, but instead I got her spitting the water out as she thought the water tasted horrible!

This tree is really cool in person!

The city build this around the tree!  I wish I had used my good Camera for these photos.

The trains are very loud, but they are cool looking too.  This one is coming off  of the bridge that runs over the  gulf and in the Bay of St. Louis.

Kids in tree!

Park

Sunday tag!

I like this neighborhood!

I bet it was really cool before Katrina, because it is really cute now.

A couple of updates!  Hayden gave his 1st talk in church and did a really good job.  He cried for 2 days about having to give it, but then he gave it and did an amazing job.  He bore his testimony at the end (I had no idea he was going to do this) and he got really choked up and gave a really heart felt testimony.  Lots of people from the ward were really touched by him.  One convert in the audience (kind of a rough looking fellow) said, he wanted to stand up and clap.  Anyway Hayden was so embarrassed that he had cried and had his head between his legs through the rest of the meeting.  I think he feels a little better now.  I had to go after him.  I could barely hold it together.  Kara later asked why he had cried.  I told her he had felt strongly about what he had said and was filled with emotion and felt the spirit.  She looked at me a little terrified and said, "does that hurt?"


Kelton jumps off the bus and runs and gets into the car.  This is his most talkative time of the day.  He jumps in today and says "Mom I've figured out how to love this school!"  I'm thinking oh good maybe the teachers are relaxing a little.  He continues with "I just don't listen when the teacher starts yelling at me and everyone. Then I don't look at the board because than I'll realize I'm behind, I just start doing my work and I just keep going until it is lunch, and then once I make it to lunch I only have a little bit of time left and then I get to come home!"  Well that doesn't sound so great, but at least he's learning some survival techniques.  The school has a very cool library.  One of the coolest I've ever seen (I decided I should list some positives).  Kelton was super excited today is library day and he gets to check out some books.  Kelton also was referred to the gifted program.

Kara had been getting off of the bus and whining because she was so hungry.  I was tired of her whining all the way home so I told her to "stop she was ruining the ride home for all of us and there was nothing we could do about her being hungry until we got home anyways."  When we got home the other day Kelton was a little grumpy which is unusual for him.  I asked" why are you so grumpy did you have a bad day?"  Kara chimed in with, "maybe he is hungry."  I said, "are you hungry?"  She said, "yes."  I then said, "than why aren't you whining?"  She said, "because you told me not to!"  I guess they do listen sometimes(:

Brent's boss invited us over last night to do a little boating with them after work.  Brent kept talking about how I had scared the kids with all the shark stories.  Do you know how scared they were.  Not one tiny bit.  I couldn't even keep them out of the water if I tried.  I even yelled shark one time to make them get out of the water more quickly and nothing.  Are these my kids?  I guess they missed Jaws!  Where all the kids are laughing and having fun in 2 feet of water and then all the sudden Jaws comes and has no mercy!  Kara even turned to me and said, "mom as long as you don't bother the sharks they won't bother you!" Hmm no one was bothering Jaws!

More House as Promised!

This pretty much does it for the house!  No pictures of the downstairs yet!

Master Bedroom!  Everything fit better than I thought it would.  Dad your drawings were awesome.  You know what I think you should start a business!  That is the greatest idea ever.  I think you could make a lot of money doing that for people.  Mom remember how you made those fabric seat covers that held books etc for the car and then they started selling them?  Anyways I think this could be huge.  

 The Bay Bridge.  This is the Bay of St. Louis.  The kids are watching a train go across the Bridge.  This Bridge is 2.1 miles long and there is a large walking/biking path across it.  It is very cool.  The fish were bouncing out of the water like little jumping jacks.  Kelton said, "you know mom everything I've never seen in my life I'm seeing here in Mississippi."  Me too Kelton!

 Kelton and Kara on the Bridge.

 This Bridge is really close to our house.  Maybe 2 miles away.  We take this to go to church every Sunday and Wednesday.  We have to speak in church next Sunday, which I'm 100 percent dreading.  I hate speaking.  Hayden has to speak too and he has been crying about it!  Actually he has stopped crying, but is still whining.  Grandma and Grandpa sent him the greatest talk ever too.  Brent just keeps telling him now you have to speak from the heart which just makes him mad!  I wish someone would write my talk for me.  My topic is Elder Hollands conference talk, An Ensign to the Nations.  Anyone have any good ideas?  There are not very many kids so you actually have to have some real material.  In Meridian I think it was easier to get up  because you just kind of felt like no one was really listening because they were distracted by all the noise and kids.    It's kind of funny because everyone keeps asking me So how are you adjusting to the South?"  I keep answering "were adjusting" and then they say "yeah its hard to get used to the food, humidity, and bugs."  I keep thinking they are talking about the people.  The humidity, food, and bugs are easy to adjust to it's the social part that is getting me.  The thing is this is all normal to everyone but me, and because they have never lived in the West or North they think everyone thinks like they do.  Anyways that is a whole other subject.

 This is the master closet!  Tiny!  It looks like a mess here, but I really did just clean it.  I started to clean it the  other day, but had to quit after a lizard came running out from behind Brent's shirts.  Scared the pants off me.  I couldn't even go in the closet for 2 days.  Called the pest guy that very day.  Hayden, however, spent the entire day looking for the lizard.  Why do the kids love creepy things?  

 Master Bath!

 Boys room.  The closets look horrible in the pictures.  I don't know why?  I guess they don't photo well!

 Boys room #2

 Boys room #3!

 Family room!

 Trampoline.  We just got this.  Me and Brent only had to put it together twice.  Lame!!!  Anyways for some reason we always like to put everything together wrong the first time.  We want to be experts!!!  Really putting together a trampoline in 95 degree weather with 90 percent humidity is horrible the first time, and miserable the second time.  First put the legs on wrong.  Next got the whole bed put together and figured out that you had to line the net up with the legs so had to take the whole bed off again.  Oh and all the legs to my kids tables inside are still on backwards.  I screwed them all in from the inside.  Then me and Brent decided to put together some Gorilla shelves.  Brent informed me that he thought we could do it quickly since he had already put them together once and so new exactly how to do it.  Both of us dripping with sweat start putting the shelves together.  That's right all wrong.  A 30 minute project again turns into 2 hours very quickly.  

Lastly our little patio where we can sit and enjoy the nice cool summer breeze while we watch the kids jump happily. (:

Or I could say our nice little patio where we sit and sweat out all of the toxins in our body while we swat away biting gnats and blood thirsty mosquitos, while we yell at the kids to stop fighting.

Halle still wants to go home.  Kara walked the plank again on Friday for not giving enough evidence on her work.  She said everyone except for a few had to also walk the plank.  I guess one little boy kept sneaking out of the line when a teacher was not watching and would slide down the slide or would run to the front of the line.  Gutsy little kid.  Kara did not think this was very fair.  It's funny because I kind of like that he decided to revolt a little.  Is that terrible or what?  Kara does not seem to really care anymore.  I think she's just decided it does not really matter what you do they are probably going to find some crazy reason for you to walk the plank and miss playtime.

Better run, like always my blog turns into a book!

The Boxes Are All Unpacked!

Monday I unpacked my last box!  In some ways I did not want to unpack the boxes just in case we had to move again, but then I decided I needed to live in the moment instead of fearing tomorrow.  So the boxes are unpacked and the house is kind of put together.  I still have some space issues I'm working on.  I wish Natalie was here to tell me how to decorate, and mom to tell me where to put stuff.  I'm trying to remember all the good advice from the last move.  Put away anything you don't like or are not using.  Don't leave junk on the counters, etc.  

Here are my Marti Gras girls with their masks.  Aren't those masks neat looking?  Halle asks every day "Can we go home now?"  Kara is still having a little bit of a rough time.  I don't seem to be helping the situation either.  It seems like we just keep missing things and the consequences are horrible at least from my perspective.  So last night me and Kara did homework for oh I'd say 3 hours speaking conservatively.  So I think we are all done, but I forgot to sign her reading log.  Then we missed a math sheet.  I don't know how that one slipped by me, but maybe it was because there were 3 other kids asking me for help on their homework all at the same time.  The first offense was Kara was moved to Yellow.  Second offense down to Orange.  Then extra work!  Then during their one recess she had to walk in a straight line around the play ground and no talking or playing.  Poor girl she is so good too, so I felt bad she was punished, because she try's so hard.  Then she got a little cold and really wanted to stay home, but if you miss 12 days of school even if they are excused you get held back.  Four kids in Kara's class were held back.  I went to lunch with the kids on Monday thinking that it couldn't be that bad, but it was.  There really is no talking during lunch and it seems to be that no one can smile either, because I did not see one child smile!  There was a little boy sitting across from me with his eyes down pulling the crust off his Bologna sandwich just the saddest little boy I've ever seen.  Oh and did I mention it really is boy girl boy seating.  Anyways I of course start talking to the kids like they are actually people.  They all just looked at me for a while.  I was saying things like "wow you all really can't talk at all?"  They actually can whisper after their lunch is all finished, so I waited to talk to them until they were done eating their lunch as not to get them into trouble.    The little boy perked up his head by the end of the lunch and told me that this was the first time he had ever talked at the school.  He had moved from another school.  The little girl kiddie corner to me said she had thought about putting together a petition, but she was afraid she would get into trouble.  For a second there I thought I was in some type of concentration camp.  I'm going to lunch again today.  I'm definitely going to get that boy girl boy thing changed!  Also no more yelling for the teachers!  Also no more humiliating consequences, I don't believe in humiliation as a good consequence!!  Kelton came home from school and said, "I just wish the teachers could be nice, and then it wouldn't be so bad!"

The girls room!  Halle sings and plays in here nonstop as soon as she gets home from school.  She is always cooking and taking care of her babies.  

 The kitchen is a little tight.  I put a desk to the right.  Brent thinks it makes it too tight, but it is good for all the homework!  Any better ideas?

 Family room area

 Closet!  I love a good closet!  So grateful for this nice closet.  Still needs some work, but it's functioning.

The bathroom!  The walls are Burgundy so I thought the pink was really going to clash, but I don't think it looks to bad!  Anyways I did not have time to take pictures of the rest of the house!  I've got to get to the school for Nazi lunch!!!  Maybe I should make my blog private again.  

A little More!

I wanted to add a few more pictures.  These are actually after the first day of school because I forgot my SD card when we went to the school.  Also I did not proof read my last entry, and when I did proof it I noticed that the lesson that Hayden had been giving Halle on finances had been deleted.  It was funny so I have to add it quickly before I forget.  Halle tells Hayden "were rich because we have a magic box!"  I then ask, "and where is this magic box", thinking it is something Halle has just imagined up.  She says, "Oh you know mom its where Dad keeps his golden watch!"  Darn it we left that magic box with GRANDPA (the safe)!  Well now Grandpa has a magic box so he is rich!

 My baby made 5 friends on the first day!  She said, "Mom I said my name is HALLE and I'm not shy!"

 Sporting the cool clear plastic waterproof back-pack on sale at Wal-Mart for 8$!

 Hayden with the TUBA!  The band teacher said, "I know it's weird that I'm assigning you the Tuba because you are the smallest guy in the class, but you are really good at it!"  It weighs a ton and I have to pick it up and take it to school every day!  Hayden has already been teaching Kelton how to play it.

 Kelton turned 8 officially yesterday!  Hayden thought of putting these 2 Donuts together to make an 8.  I only had pink candles!  Sorry Kelton!  He's so good natured he never complains about anything!

K

Keltons first Day!

 Kara's 1st day!  Kara came home yesterday and said, "I think one of my teachers is saying bad words in class?"  I said, "What is she saying?"  Kara hesitantly whispered, "Oh Lordy Lordy Oh Lordy Lordy!"  My sweet little girl!

 Kelton 

 The missionaries came for dinner for Kelton's Birthday!  The kids thought it was a blast!  They said its just like having Tanner here!  They attacked the kids with cushions from the couch.  They are really nice boys.  They spent all day riding their bikes today.  It was sooooooo hot!  The second you walked out the door you felt like you'd been hit with a bucket of hot water.  There is a difference between here and Vegas.  Vegas is a blow dryer and here it is a bucket of hot water (try breathing under water)!

 See that cool backpack I bought for Hayden?  They have to have plastic or mesh backpacks.  I did not know you could buy cool ones, until I got to school.  Brent was like I can't believe you bought that back pack for him.  Well it was the only one they had at Wal-mart!  I thought I was cool because I got the last one.  Anyway I rushed out, thinking I had ruined my child's life, to get him a cool NIKE mesh one.  When he got home I gave him the new one and guess what he says to me? " How come you bought another back pack?  The plastic one works just fine. " 

 We are  going to do a little celebrating tonight!

This is some of our house!  I'll try to send more pictures of the inside soon.  I did just find out that you can swim with the Dolphins here.  Just another little reason to come visit!  There is also a Ferry(kind of like the Tooth Fairy) that takes you out to the barrier islands (pretty cool I here).  The Stennis Space Center is also here if you want to do a camp out here??  Oh and some day I'll tell you about our ward, but I'll give you a little hint.  Have you ever heard of the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon?  Better run!