Now it's Gustav...

Poor Haiti just can't seem to catch a break...

(Click on the pic for Gustav details, more personal info on private blog.)

Another interesting satelite link.
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/flt/t1/loop-vis.html

How to fold your underwear...

Well, Minxie said something last night that caused me to flash back to one particular day in bootcamp...

During an impromptu inspection I was found to have my underwear folded incorrectly. As an example to all, I had to go down the line, the line of all the other recruits all standing at attention in front of their lockers, stopping in turn to face each one. As I did I was to shout out, "I'm a Burger Queen, I do things my way!" and then execute a push-up before moving on to the next person.

OH, and did I mention that I had to do it with the offending pair of underwear pulled over my head? Yeah, there was that to keep it interesting...

http://tinyurl.com/5wfbpm

OH! As your reward for scrolling all the way to the bottom, here's the link to a radio interview with Johnny Depp and his band The Kids that took place today (or within the last couple of days anyhow) It is really great to hear him address things that we all know about ie: very current events, very well worth listening too. Yes, there just happens to be a reference to John Dillinger's penis in the interview. For real! Yeah, I had to mention it...

Hurricane Fay...

I have set up a private blog to talk about some recent events concerning my girls, for reasons I won't talk about here. If you didn't get a link to it, drop me an e-mail and I will send you the link. Hurrican Faye just passed over Haiti and the Dominican, but there is little info available yet.

MIAMI, Aug 16 (Reuters) - The sixth tropical storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season was heading for Haiti on Saturday where heavy rains could cause mud slides and flash floods, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.Tropical Storm Fay was expected to move across Haiti in the morning before heading for Cuba. It was then expected to move in the direction of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, with computer models showing it emerging somewhere near south Florida by Monday.The storm was not projected by the Miami-based hurricane center to strengthen into a hurricane, with winds of at least 74 miles per hour (119 km per hour). The high mountains of Hispaniola and the amount of time it seemed destined to spend over land in Cuba would most likely drain it of energy.At 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT), Fay was located around 60 miles (95 km) east of Port-au-Prince and was moving toward the west at about 14 mph (22 kph).Top sustained winds had reached near 45 mph (75 kph) but the storm's potential rainfall of 4 to 8 inches (10-20 cm) was of greater concern than its winds, particularly over the denuded hillsides of Haiti, where thousands of people have been killed by mudslides and floods during the past few hurricane seasons.In some areas torrential rainfall of 12 inches (30 cm) could be expected, the hurricane center said, adding this could cause life-threatening mud slides and flash floods.Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the entire coast of Haiti, for the entire north coast of the Dominican Republic and for part of the south coast.A tropical storm warning was also in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands, the southeastern Bahamas and part of Cuba.A tropical storm warning means storm conditions with gusty winds and rain can be expected within 24 hours.Energy markets have been watching the storm system closely as several computer models projected it could enter the Gulf of Mexico, home to U.S. oil and gas production rigs.The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season is on track to be more active than average, due to warm sea waters and favorable atmospheric conditions.Two of the tropical storms so far, Bertha and Dolly, reached hurricane strength before fading out over the open Atlantic and washing up on the shores of south Texas, respectively.(Reporting by Michael Christie; editing by Jim Loney and Sandra Maler

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Grieving Maria...

When I began my own adoption journey, Stephen Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth were so inspirational to me. They have three children of their own and at the prompting of their daughter Emily, embarked upon their adoption journey which led to the addition of three beautiful little Chinese girls to their family. Their experience led them to found Shaohanna's Hope, a nonprofit organization that seeks to ease the expense of adoption. As of July 2008, the group has provided grants to over 1,700 families wishing to adopt orphans in the United States and worldwide.

Caught up in my own adoption drama, I failed to hear about the tragedy that had befallen the Chapman family this past May. Their youngest daughter Maria had run into the path of their family car and was killed as their eldest son Will Franklin was pulling into the drive. They spoke about their tragedy for the first time publicly on Good Morning America today...




I'm most deeply touched by the presence of mind Steven had to encourage his son even as he rushed his dying daughter to the hospital. These words of his echo and reverberate within my soul, "People say that we are a family of great faith, really we're a family with a lot of questions. That's what faith is, it's living with the questions..."

Since Maria's tragic death over $275,000 has been donated to their foundation in Maria's name to help other adoptive families. God bless Will Franklin and the rest of the Chapman's as they grieve Maria together and find hope in their faith for the future...

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My Caribean Dream...

Ever have one of those weeks where you wish you could just fly away???

This was one of 'those' for me!
Hot and muggy and waaaayyyy too much work to be done...

These were my brand new bright pink shoes (purchased in honor of Lotus!) after Monday...

The last place I wanted to be was in a dark dingy basement full of cobwebs and creepy crawlers! Eewwww! I've had the heebie jeebies all week long...

and by the end of the week after I'd painted the floors down there and installed carpeting upstairs... At least my feet stayed cool!!!









When you think about it, it was really just like being in the Caribbean...









Hot. . .













Humid. . .













and buggy!!!!!








Here's one I found inside my car while I was driving!!!!!



Can anyone identify this?



I know it won't be easy since my hands were shaking as I tried to take it's picture while driving down the road in a PANIC!!!!

ArrgGGGGGGhhhhHH#@%@^%$&^$$@%$^#%$"

Even my living space seems to be over run by bugs lately...

There's this HUGE grasshopper-like bug in my room that I have not been able to catch or kill

It's brown and looks like a cross between this stick grasshopper on the left and the Katydid on the right... It only comes out at night when I am in my bed and scares the crap out of me and my cat and then hides again!!!! Eeewwww.......

My only hope is that it catches the other resident of my living quaters which is a big, fat, FAST SPIDER!!!! This spider also hides during the day and comes out during the night... Everytime I try to KILL it it drops so fast that I cannot find it, it's getting harder and harder to SLEEP as I must KEEP WATCH for the SPIDER!!!!!

I need to ESCAPE!!!!!!

So I'm dreaming of the Caribbean...

The only problem is

my only knowledge of the caribbean

is a place that is all hard work

ALL THE TIME!!!!

Donkey pic for dj ;)

My mode of transportation in my actual Caribbean Experience!

(flat tire...)

It's no wonder that when you read of a car accident in Haiti it is never 1 or 2 killed

always more like 26 or 30 ;(

This particular day I spent filming at a dental clinic held at an all girls orphanage in Port au Prince. It turned out to be all for nothing!

My no-line bifocals rendered all my footage completely unfocused

(what??? It looked good to me?!?)

Another donkey for dj!

This is the well outside the hospital we were building.

The kids were just out of school and were sent to haul the water

(again, Haiti - all work, all the time!)

This is one of my favorite pics (taken by Nikki) of my favorite tree

in the village...

...IN MY CARIBBEAN DREAM!

(one can pretend, can't one?)

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