Hurricanes! First day of School and not really a good day!

Boy was today a bad day! My emotions run very high sometimes and the last 6-8 months I have been chalking it up to me going thru menopause. Is it to early for that?? I am turning 43 in November.

I don't know what the heck was running thru me today, but I just had so many ups and downs. One minute I'm proud of myself and the next minute I feel like I'm never going to accomplish anything.

Watching Hurricane Issac come ashore this morning sent the tears flowing with this mommy. Yesterday, I reminded my Maggie and my Mom, and told Nurse Heidi all about this day 7 years ago - Hurricane Katina! What a nightmare that was. That was a day I learned many lessons on how people act during a disaster. I felt very alone that day 7 years ago and today I felt that same loneliness.

.....topic of choice today....Hurricanes with a child on life support.

Living on the coast all my life...I grew up knowing all about hurricanes. OK, maybe not everything about hurricanes, but I do know to get the hell out of the way when one is upon us!

This morning, while watching Issac pounding on Louisiana and on the anniversary of Katina, it brought out all those feeling I had 7 years ago. Of course I didn't feel this way as a kid, having a storm approach us was something kinda exciting. And of course as a kid, I really didn't know what my parents went thru to make sure our property and lives were safe. As a kid you don't fully understand. But now that I am an adult, I have come to learn first hand the worry and stress my parents went thru making decisions that would effect the family.

My parents made decisions based on what resources they had and what they were capable of doing at the time of a storm approaching, as every other family does. I remember my mom telling me stories of when she was a child on Galveston Island and her family having to deal with Hurricanes Carla and Camille during the 1960's. As a teenager, again we never think about the outcome of after a storm! The devastation that families have to deal with. And as an adult I still don't want to think about it, but as an adult with a child on life support that lives on the coast, I have to deal with it! Luckily, only a few months out of the year.

I remember us running from Hurricane Allen in 1980 when I was a teenager and then three short years later in 1983 my dad saying, "I ran from the last one and it didn't hit us directly, so I'm not running from this one", (Hurricane Alicia) and then riding her out in Texas City at my grandparents house. Wow, what a night that was. The eye of the storm passed right over Texas City and there was this eery calm for about half an hour, then all hell broke lose again. Hurricane Alicia was an experience that I will never forget, but truthfully I don't remember much about the outcome and the stress my parents had to deal with. I do remember not having electricity for many many days afterwards and my mom's best friend and her family staying with us that whole time. When you are a kid you don't remember the clean-up, you just remember your mother telling you ..."Hell No, you are not getting in that water!!!" stay away from it and quite bothering me or I'm putting you to work with your dad.

Today was really going to be JD's first day back to school, so to say. Guess you can call us a "Home-school" household. JD has been thru 3 school districts around us, but after many years of ARD meetings and IEP's in place, this mom chooses to "Home-school" my "special needs" child. Everyday is constant learning for both him and I. He is a "special-needs" child. So you can say we are in school everyday! But to get back to the "formalities of school", that takes place in our living room with me hooking JD up (so to say) to whatever computer I can put in front of him. So after seeing all the pics on Facebook of all the kids going back to school, I tried to work JD up all weekend of him going back to "school". Back in the routine so to say. Today was that day, but things just don't go as you plan them all the time. ugh! I could not for the life of me get his eye-gaze in place for him to use it properly. After almost two hours of frustration, I lost it again! JD was also not having a good day with his pressures and sinus issues....having Hurricane Issac so close he was sure feeling it! He agreed to every breathing treatment today, poor guy! He is finally resting but his O2 sats. are still hanging around 90%.

So to get back to school, can you guess what today's lesson was about? You got it, Hurricanes and the weather! and how I don't want to run from another Hurricane, but I will be, if the time comes. So JD and I kinda put our "Hurricane Plan" in place. 

7 years ago we had decided to evacuate because of Hurricane Katina. But I did not have a plan in place and I didn't want to be alone, out with JD and not have anyone with me for back-up. I made plenty of wrong decisions thru out that ordeal and still regret putting my kids thru a 70hour horror story. 40 hours awake, 26 of those hours of straight driving. to make it up the road about an hour and half away from my home. Hard lessons on that trip, a real eye opener. During a disaster you come to find out exactly what people think of you and your child.

Then we faced Hurricane Ike just a mere few years ago, Sept. 15, 2008. Katina missed us head on, but Ike did not. Again I made decisions based on my resources and abilities at the time for myself and my children and we decided to stay and ride out Hurricane Ike. Hurricane Ike is the very last Hurricane I choose to ride out! It scared the wholly living hell out of me.The water rose so fast even if I wanted to get JD out of mother natures way, it was just to late. We were without electricity for 11 days. Talk about camping out! Our generator crapped out on us during Ike but luckily we had a back up from my dads job. Bless them! The devastation afterwards was just unreal, but we were so lucky!  To open your front door when the weather clears and see the devastation it left behind, you feel so lucky to have a front door to open. Hurricane Ike was another hard lesson to learn. I never want my kids to have to ride out another hurricane and as long as I'm alive they won't have to. 

Today was a day full of emotions.... frustration, sad, angry, overwhelmed and lonely.  I had a candle lit all day long for the victims that are in the path of Hurricane Issac. I sure hope there is no loss of life in the aftermath of this storm and I'm still praying we don't have to face another storm anytime soon! 

 As for JD and school, well... we will just have to try again tomorrow! This mama is wore out and in need of sleep!