At home with the Wrights

The crisp, cool air. The changing colors on the mountains. The smell and feel of Fall in the air. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn fresh from the garden... I have been dreaming of Autumn in Utah ever since we moved to Louisiana over two years ago. Lucky us, Aisling and I will be there to experience it in just a few short days! Alex Anderson will be baptized on Saturday, October 11th, in Salt Lake City, and we are planning on attending. Family and friends are all welcome to attend as well, and if you would like more details, please call me or Ashli. Anyway, I probably won't have a chance to blog while in Utah, but I'm sure I'll have plenty to say after I return, along with some great pictures. Adios!

Wow! I just got a link to sign up for a free day pass to Disneyland or Disney World on your birthday in 2009. Would you like to sign-up everyone in your family? Click here. We're tentatively planning a trip in March (off-season), and it now looks like we'll be going to Disney World on my birthday. Woohoo!

Okay...bear with me. I used to roll my eyes but listen patiently when my friends would talk lovingly about their pets. So, for all of you that love me enough to humor me, please continue to read on. Note had only been in the family for 1 day before Trevor left for Brazil. Upon returning from Brazil about a week ago, Trevor promptly taught Note how to interact with him. So, instead of the sweet, cuddly kitty that Aisling and I trained, Note now attacks feet, fingers, hair, and anything else that moves even in the slightest. He realizes that he's only playing, using only "soft paws" and "soft bites", but his teeth are still VERY sharp! Trevor is now training Note to only attack TREVOR, but this is turning out to be quite a task. Well, with all of Note's attack training, he should be a great mouser when he grows up!

The roughest part of Ike passed us in the night (late Friday night, early Saturday morning), while Aisling and Trevor slept soundly. Unfortunately for me, I have a hard time sleeping through 70+ mph winds battering the trees outside, slamming up against the windows, and making eerie sustained (about 1 minute duration or less) noises. I also worried about the chickens locked in their coop. Would the wind blow the coop over? Would the chickens be okay? Was there anything in the coop that could harm/hit the chickens if the coop did get blown over? Would the chickens be flung out of the coop and blow away in the storm if the coop was blown over? These thoughts and more continually ran through my head. I found myself quietly getting out of bed and looking out the window several times in the night, checking on the chicken coop. At about 6:00am, the chicken coop was blown over onto its backside. No worries. The chickens are all fine, although I'm sure they were jostled a bit. Feather ha...

Well, today was very gray and windy, with heavy rain off and on. Trevor and I woke up early to mow the lawn and do some yard work before the big winds and rains began. We congratulated ourselves in finishing our tasks in the windy light drizzles. Later in the afternoon, I realized that most of our clothes were dirty and I needed to do laundry before the power went out (the average hurricane power outage for my area is three days.) So, frantically, I washed and dried laundry, and within 15 minutes after the last load dried, the power went out! That was cutting it really close! And as a huge bonus, the power came back on only one hour later! I can't believe we still have power! Other than our earlier activities, life has gone on as usual. I'll keep you posted as long as I have power! Here are a few updated pictures of Ike from the NOAA website. These are about one to two hours old. On another note, LaChelle Hansen has "tagged" me to take impromptu pictures of reveal...

Look at the size of this storm! It engulfs the Gulf! It's radius is estimated at 115 miles; a VERY large storm. Ike is predicted to make landfall around Houston, TX on Saturday morning. Although we are not in the direct path this time, we will be on the east side of the storm. This means we will have LOTS of wind and water, so technically, Ike could have more of an impact on our area that Gustav did. Evacuation of the lower parishes (counties) started today, and school for Lafayette Parishes have been canceled for Friday, September 12th. Again, we are staying, but this time, Trevor is with us! He flew in from Brazil this morning. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Do you ever feel like you live in an area that is always on the verge of a natural disaster 6 months out of the year? I visit the NOAA National Hurricane Center website (NHC) on average three times a day June through November. When there is a hurricane that even looks like it's going to approach the Gulf of Mexico, I visit the NHC every three hours until it has passed. Growing up in land-locked, mountainous Utah, I was never really introduced to hurricanes until my early 20s (While vacationing in Florida, I experienced hurricane Floyd in 1999. I remember calling the front desk clerk of the hotel and asking him if a category 5 hurricane was something I should be worried about. He laughed really hard, and then asked me where I was from.) Do you want to learn more about hurricanes? As a homeschooling mom, I'm trying to teach Aisling the science behind hurricanes and hurricane tracking. I found a great website with free lesson plans about hurricanes for elementary-high school st...

It's been almost a week since Gustav hit, and we are now eagerly awaiting (with dread) Hurricane Ike. We tend to lose power every time there is a tropical storm or hurricane because of the many old, large trees in our neighborhood. As beautiful and stately as they are, some of our neighborhood trees end up being sacrificed to the pummeling winds of hurricanes, and in turn, take down power lines as they fall. There are many beautiful homes/lots within our neighborhood, but there is one that Trevor and I both greatly admire. Spacious, green, beautiful tree cover, and a nice home in the middle of it all. Aisling and I took pictures of their newly remodeled yard yesterday. Front View: Front yard viewed from the north side Looking from the north side into their backyard Today I noticed a large work crew with chainsaws and big trucks in their yard. By tomorrow, it should all be cleaned up and cleared away, leaving the same beautiful yard minus a few trees. On another note, here are ...

Well, I've gone through all of the photos that Aisling took. She is not used to using a digital camera with it's 1 second delay in picture shooting, so many are not what she (and I) hoped they would be. These pictures, by far, are not the worst scenes in Lafayette. Aisling was too awestruck looking at the bigger disasters to remember her camera in her hands, and I was driving, so I couldn't take pictures either. Aisling, taking a picture of herself as we carefully drive back to our home the day after the storm. Does that look like a nervous or scared face to you? I didn't think so either. Poor tree. It looks a bit displaced. This is one of Heidi's neighbors, near Lafayette High School. This home is right across the street from Lafayette High School. See all of the sticks and limbs? That isn't even the worst part. Just a little further to the left (in front of the house) is a completely downed huge tree. Lucky for this family, it didn't land on the hous...

Well, it seems Lafayette, Louisiana was spared by Hurricane Gustav, relatively speaking. On Labor Day, sitting in the house listening to the storm battering everything outside, I was praying for Gustav to pass to the east of us. For those of you who have never been in a hurricane, the west side of the storm is the side you want to be on, if you have to be anywhere near it! Hurricanes in the Northern hemisphere rotate counterclockwise, so everything on the northeast side is always the most battered and in danger of storm surge floods. I estimate that Gustav passed us about 15-25 miles to the east, leaving us relatively untouched. I say relatively because we still got 90 mph winds and rain that took down many tall trees and power lines and poles. Power is still out for many residents here in Lafayette. Aisling and I stayed with friends during the storm, and this is a picture out their front door after Gustav had passed. Notice how her peach tree is almost blown over . This is what t...