Mississippi and Louisiana

Those are the places I went last weekend. On Friday night I drove a van with eight other men from Houston to Picayune MS. All of our gear was in a moving van with two more workers. We arrived at the church there at about 1:15 am, set up our tents, and tried to get some sleep before we had to report ready to work at 8 am. There was some shuffling in assignments, and we ended up going to work in Bogalusa LA instead of staying in Picayune. We reported to the church there, then went to our assigned neighborhood. We cleared the yards at four houses on Saturday. It doesn't sound like much, but remember we were moving trees that had been knocked down. On had two big trees on the roof. We managed to cut one of them back until it was clear of the house, but we couldn't do anything with the other one. It had damaged the roof, so they had to wait for someone with better equipment.

Since my primary assignment was transportation, I stayed at the chuch in Picayune while the rest of the crew went out working. (We had sacrament meeting at 7 am.) The other driver and I took down the tents, made lunch for the crew, and rested up so we'd be fresh for the seven-hour drive home while everyone else slept.

As for this weekend, we may end up doing some more cleanup right here at home. We're far enough inland that we're out of the storm surge area. Some areas closer to Galveston have already begun evacuations -- including one of my team members at work. Actually, the third member of the team is stuck in Great Britain with visa problems (he's Scottish) so I'm working solo again at least until the end of this week.

Brooke started Girl Scouts tonight. She told me all about the buddy system when she got home. "If someone has to go potty, and I'm her buddy, then I have to go with her." She's doing pretty well in school as well, and her best friend Rianna is in a different kindergarten class, but they ride the bus together and usually play together after school. Rianna is another little girl in our apartment complex.

Bryan had an adventure of his own today. Michelle went to a social with the Schlumberger Spouses Association and dropped Bryan off at a drop-in daycare. When she picked him back up, Bryan tattled on himself. He said he ran outside when he was supposed to stay in the classroom. Then the teacher was mean. She told him to "come here." Then she held his hand and walked him back inside. They had a rest time, but his mat was broken and he couldn't fix it.

I guess that's it for now. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been really busy too.