Where's Grady???

Check out Grady's new house!!

We got a big box in the mail today. So Keith decided to put Grady in the box and he loved it. Then we started making peep holes in the box!! It is too cute.

Cool Nights!

We have been having some cool weather this week, at night it has been in the lower 70's. So we have been playing in the back yard after dinner almost every night this week.

Grady loves to look at the "ugly" ducks in the lake as soon as they come up to see him Winston comes and scares them away :) Keith and I don't mind because we are not too fond of the "ugly" ducks :) Duck hunting anyone?!?! There are way too many for our small lake :)

Black Olives?!?!?

We got a Papa Murphy's pizza with tons of toppings ...

Grady loved it all...

But guess what topping was his favorite??

The Black Olives... He picked them out and ate them first :)

Muscle Man

http://picasaweb.google.com/kkghoffman/200809#5243095944830469730

Keith was doing push-ups Saturday and then Grady just started to do them. We only were able to video him doing a couple, but it was so cute. (Sept 6)

http://picasaweb.google.com/kkghoffman/200809#5244235419246367458

Check out Grady doing more push-ups today. What a muscle man!! (Sept 9)

WEDNESDAY! THURSDAY! FRIDAY!

WEDNESDAY!
In the morning I packed the car and we were on our way to Mandeville, I cannot take not having power any longer. I wanted to leave early because almost all of Baton Rouge has NO electricity so that means no traffic lights. It was weird driving out of Baton Rouge, nothing was opened or had power but tons of people are driving around.

It was so nice to be at my Parent's house visiting and hanging out. They had ceiling fans on, TV and Internet!!! If that was not nice enough at about 7pm my parents got power, Yeah A/C!!

Then Keith calls me about 8pm to tell me we have power at our house in Baton Rouge. GREAT... I guess we will head home tomorrow.

THURSDAY!
Keith texted me at 5am to tell me we NO longer have Power. WHAT?!?!? Well at least Keith got to have a good night sleep with A/C. I guess we will stay in Mandeville another night.

Went shopping & out to lunch with Rachel, a lot of things are now open in Mandeville. I kept calling our house in Baton Rouge hoping the answering machine would pick up... letting me know we had power. NO Luck!

Then I called our house after dinner to talk to Keith and the ANSWERING MACHINE picked up... OH MY GOSH we have power again.

FRIDAY!
So no call or text message from Keith this morning saying we no longer have power, so we are head home. First went to the grocery store, gas station, and PJ's coffee since LOTS of places in Baton Rouge still DO NOT have power.

Oh man it is nice to be home with electricity!!

TUESDAY!

The day after the storm and still no power (not a surprise), but we were not alone in our plight. We hear on our little radio (which we were wearing out at this point) that 300,000 residents (approximately 90%) in East Baton Rouge Parish do not have power. It was estimated to be the most damage to the grid in Entergy’s history in the Baton Rouge area. The statistic just got worse as you moved toward the area of landfall. If you could see a satellite image of the state’s Gulf Coast at night it probably looked something like a bowling ball had just taken out everything between Texas and Mississippi. Either way Keith had to go into work because the refinery was down due to the storm. It was an interesting ride to work given there were no lights, downed trees and power lines everywhere, and it was still raining. He said damage was impressive on the ride into the office and that on two occasions you had to drive on the wrong side of the road to get around debris. The refinery was also quite a sight with damage sustained in numerous units across the facility. While Keith was busy trying to help at work Grady and Katherine had a long boring day at home. It rained most of the day, which was a godsend because it kept the temperature down and the house cool, but it also meant we were stuck inside for another day. Grady tried play-dough for the first time, but he was not impressed, so we colored instead.
We quickly realized that we were not going to get electricity for some time, so Grady, Winston and I are going to grandma and grandpas in Mandeville until the power comes back on in Baton Rouge. Mom and Dad do not have power either, but they have generator that runs the whole house just with the exception of the A/C. Either way this is an improvement over candlelight and 8:00pm bedtimes. Keith is staying by himself because he has to go to work.

the rest of our STORMY MONDAY!!

So, the day of the storm had arrived. Of course the first thing everyone does is wake up and run to the television to determine if Gustav had increased from a category 3 to a 17 overnight. The news was good, the strength had continued to decrease through the night, although only just barely. Every five mile per hour (mph) decrease in sustained winds was good news, even if the winds were still at 115 mph. As the oh-too-familiar weather channel “on location” broadcasters (who names and faces people of this state are beginning to remember) covered the locations most likely to completely destroyed by the storm, we began making final preparations to ride out the storm in Baton Rouge. Katrina did not create much of an impact in Baton Rouge, but we were not sure what to expect given the different path of Gustav even if it was weaker. The biggest concern in our minds, “how long are we going to be without power?” During Katrina we only lost power for 6 hours. Well for Gustav we lost electricity at around 9am for an hour and then again at 12:30pm for good.

This hurricane was much worse than Hurricane Katrina in Baton Rouge. The winds were impressive during the height of the storm (12:30pm to 3:00pm). The highest local recorded gust reported in Baton Rouge was 91 mph. This was apparently recorded at the airport, in northern Baton Rouge. The effects of the storm got worse the further south and closer to the river you were in Baton Rouge. Wind gusts were rumored to be over 100mph in Ascension parish; it seemed like we may have seen something similar during the storm. Even with the intense winds a group of ducks and one egret that live in the pond behind the house stayed in the water or just on shore throughout the storm in a corner near the house. The egret tried his luck at flying once and the wind forced him to land closer to the house. On two occasions before he could get in a more covered location his wings were forced open by the wind and he had to hang on for his life with his legs, which looked ridiculous given the size of an egrets legs.

A little later during the storm the only damage to our property would occur in a very unusual way. I looked down the street through the front window only to a neighbor’s Rubbermaid storage container lid tumbling down the sidewalk. Given the size of the cover (it was about 2’ x 4’ rectangle) and the direction it was moving it did not seem to pose a specific threat to the house. Some time in the next 20 minuets the cover moved down the street to the front of our house, then it got blown between our house and the neighbors (no idea how it didn’t hit either house), over the fence, and into the yard where it announced its presence by slamming into our fence. It got lodged on the fence and we were worried it would cause more damage with the continuing winds so Keith went out there during the storm and flipped it over the fence thinking it would sink in the water. Very soon it was apparent that the top floated as we watched it flip along the surface of the water with every strong gust. Hopefully it didn’t damage anyone else’s property… After the winds died down Keith walked around to check out the house and there was no damage to the house, but the lid bent one section of our fence.

It continued to rain for most of the day so we just hung out inside and listened to TV on a radio that caught local broadcasts. Since we had no electricity Grady had a nice candlelight bath, and we all went to bed at 8:00pm (late night, I know).

Stromy Monday

The RAIN has started. We got a good night sleep last night. We just finished a hot breakfast. And soon I am sure we will loose electricity soon.

We will post as soon as we can!!

We are praying that everyone stays safe!!