Monday, Sept. 05, 2005

6:25 a.m.

we're back from holiday world/splashin' safari. two words.....BIG FUN! It was great to get away one last time before summer officially ends. (sidebar.....P is upset because KidTwo's kindergarten teacher told the class that labor day means bye bye summer, hello fall. he says that's not right. summer officially ends september 21st. whatever.)

anyway, we've taken this trip every labor day weekend for the past 4 years. this was probably our smoothest trip. we left on saturday at the time we wanted to, we got the room we wanted at the hotel, we got a good night's sleep before going to the park on sunday, and the kids were extremely well-behaved. the kids discovered the wave pool this year. they've never been interested in it before, but they could have spent the entire day there this time. i can remember going to a water park as a kid and loving the wave pool, too. it's fun to see your kids have fun.

the fun ended this morning however, because we didn't get home until 1am and i had to be at work at 4am. i'm a little exhausted. and it's back to coverage of hurricane katrina, which i find completely overwhelming. and i feel stupid saying that while i have food, clothing, shelter, etc, that thousands of hurricane surviviors don't have. my sister-in-law's sister (did you follow that?) lives (lived?) in new orleans. her house was right near one of the levees that broke. she doesn't know for sure what happened to her house, but she's just assuming for now that it's a total loss. she's been told it will be at least a month before she can go back into new orleans and survey the damage. but in a lot of ways, she's lucky. she evacuated before the storm, and she has insurance that will replace many of the things she lost. she also has family with the means to help her out. for now, she's staying with my brother and sister-in-law. she hasn't been able to get in touch with anyone from the company she works for. so, she has no home, no belongings, maybe no job. but she says she's come to realize that she's rich in all the ways that really matter.