Gustav Gives Me an Idea

Crista's apartment after Gustav

In 2008, Hurricane Gustav caused massive damage to islands in the Caribbean before coming to Louisiana and leaving its mark here as well.  At the time my family was living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital, and because the kids were so young, we decided to evacuate to Oklahoma in case we lost electricity for an extended period of time.  Bo and I assumed no one else had the same idea to leave in the middle of the night like we did. 

Well, we weren't the only ones who decided to leave; it took us close to 12 hours to get to the Texas border outside of Shreveport in North Louisiana (normally a 4 1/2 hour drive for us).  We really didn't imagine that Gustav would be as big of a threat to the city as it was.

 Our neighbors were giving us updates on our house which, despite a huge branch falling off of our tree, was fine.  Our neighborhood lost electricity so we stayed in Oklahoma for over a week until it came back on.

My sister, Crista, wasn't so lucky.  The ceiling in her apartment caved in and she lost the majority of her things.  Unfortunately for her, her bedroom specifically got the most damage out of the entire apartment complex... of course.  Good thing she made the last minute choice to evacuate too! 

The best thing was that everyone we knew was safe!

The 2nd best thing was the amount of salvage wood that I found lying around!  I ran around my neighborhood gathering tons the fence panels that people were now bringing to the side of the road.  Neighbors were happy that I was taking their debris off their hands because they city was taking a very long time to clean everything up.

And here the growth chart was born :-)

I made my first few growth charts from fence panels that were freed by the hurricane.  Though they were free for me to make, they were really difficult to paint clean lines on because of the natural, bumpy wear of the wood.  I now use store-bought wood that is can be used for shelving. 

Kidspiration:

Peek-a-Boo Friends from CoCaLo

  Kidspired's Creation:

Kidspiration:

Kidspired's Creation: