One Year Later

So, one year ago yesterday Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. And one year ago today the levees broke, flooding 80% of New Orleans. This is a picture of our apartment (green, on the right). How strange it remains to me that we are not at all where we thought we'd be...but who is, really? The past year has been full of change, full of newness, full of processing and analyzing. Where do we go? What do we do? When do we get to start our lives again? And, heaven forbid, Why did this happen? Some days the answers to these questions seem closer than others.

I know for sure that God is directing our paths and I know for certain that He sent all of our amazing friends and family to take care of us-- without whom we would not be here today. So, thank you for all you've done and all you do. Thank you for trying to understand as we've walked this road. We're looking forward, not back.

Hurricane Party!

To commemorate the 1 year anniversary of Katrina, we had a low key gathering of friends over last night. The party was a blast! Here's a little taste (although surely not as strong a taste as the Hurricane's actually were...).

Josh and Victor kick it off

Stephanie and Natalie complain about the number of flashes on my camera

Our friends Brett, Jeff, and Valerie (I cannot think of a pithy comment at the moment)

The opaque red cup with mysterious contents

A sisterly moment at the Icehouse

Grow

Well, as most of you now know, I'm on a little sabbatical from speech therapy (very temporarily) and I'm working in a fabulous salon owned by my friends, Rick and Heather. It has been super fun getting to know a new crowd of people and enjoying less responsibility. I've been assisting the stylists by shampooing hair, sweeping, doing dishes, and laundry. Working in a this capacity has been a great reminder to me of how I should always serve others--even when it isn't listed in my job description. Everyone's work place would be a little happier if we would go out of our way just a teeny bit to make someone else's day a little easier. Anyhoo, check out Grow Salon; they're fabulous at what they do!

Ocracoke Pictures

Josh making a lovely pirate face while on vacation...Aargh!

"No, no, stop. I hate having my picture taken," says the Ferry Diva.

These glasses have so many uses...

Wow, that's a lot of forehead for one picture.

Another summer come and past...

And what a summer it has been! The past few months have been pretty interesting to say the least. Josh and I just got back from a week long vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (okay, "just" is relative...it's been a week). We had a fabulous time hanging out with our dear friends Rhonda and Terry Blevins. (See above.)

We went to a little remote island called Ocracoke. Ocracoke is only accessible by ferry and has a permanent resident count of about 600. That increases exponentially during tourist season and so we joined the tourist in their exploration of this uncharted territory. All restaurants and shops are locally owned and are full of fun funky gifts, as well as the obligatory made in china vacation souvenirs. We had a marvelous time reading, hanging out, playing at the beach, riding bikes, playing games and cards, and shopping. Our favorite restaurant: The Flying Melon (oooo, those sweet potato chips). Our favorite hangout: Ocracoke Coffee Company (the locals know to visit the self serve carafe on the side of the coffee bar and not wait in the HUGE line). Our favorite pub: Howard's (At least a hundred beers to chose from). Ocracoke's claim to fame is the favored hang-out of Blackbeard the Pirate, an actual person named Edward Teach. You can visit Teach's Hole with a fabulous pirate specialty store. And have your picture taken out front...more of that to come.