Catching up!

The past month has been a busier than normal month for us, thus the reason I have not been posting!
Keeping Evan on track with his lesson's has been a major issue for us all here, but we all started thinking that this is WAY to much like school...that we homeschool/unschool for a reason, and this is one of them! Stress! Making sure that he has ALL assignments done by a certain deadline. This is stressful. He also does not like that fact that he has do to work that is something he completed 3 years ago! Math they make him show them his work, that has never worked for Evan, he does not use paper to figure out problems...more stress. So we have pulled him from the online k-12.
We had a snowstorm here, last 3 days, and in the Pacific Northwest that is a long one! In one day we had 9 inches fall!





It was a lot of fun for us all! We also made snow ice cream, built a snowman, and snow angels. A blast!
I have a new sewing machine coming in a few days, and I hope within the week we will have a mini-van or car.
We signed another years least on this house, so that is good! Just can not believe it has been almost a year since we left New Orleans! I miss it, but I know that this was right for us at this moment in time.

Our Life now

we have been back in Tacoma now for a little over a month. We are still in our adjustment stage, we are unpacking, getting use to the weather.
The weather! I think I had forgotten some of what it was like, and it will take time to readjust to what it is like here, compared to New Orleans, Tacoma is so very different. I love the cooler weather, I hated how hot it could be in New Orleans, but I also miss the spring of New Orleans.
Yes we are also having issue's with food! It is not easy to get true Andouille sausage here, Blue runner is not sold here, neither is Camellia beans. Abita beer is not here, nor is gator balls or gator jerky! They do not sell Gundry's here, and bell peppers are very expensive!
I can not go down to Chickie Wah wah and see Grayson Capps...
Like I said it will take getting use too!
What we do have here, People who are our family, a safe neighborhood to raise our children, a wonderful house to live, a huge yard for the kids to play in, and a calmness that I missed!
I know that my children miss their friends in New Orleans, I also miss mine. I miss New Orleans in so many ways, but to be honest, I love Tacoma more. This home.
The move was bittersweet, I cried when the plane took off from the airport in New Orleans, but then I cried when the plane landed in Seattle. New Orleans will always have a piece of my heart, not even Los Angeles can say that.
We will need more time to get use to being here, I know this, but it has also been easier than I thought it would be, I know my way around, I know where to shop for the best deals, and I know of places that we loved to explore, as I said it is home.

New Orleans and the end coming soon

In about 20 days we will be leaving New orleans for Tacoma, I am excited about returning home, but I am also having many issues with the fact that I am leaving this amazing city.

I know that I am gonna miss so much about this amazing city, and not the stuff most people think. Sure the quarter is cool, sure there is a lot of history, but New orleans is so much moere than that. It is the people, the smells, and the taste of New orleans. It is like no where else in this world. A piece of my heart will always be here. I now know and understand this.
Moving from NOLA was not an easy decision for us to make, we do not hate it here, in fact we love it, we have friends here, A there is work, but we also are living in a city that is on the brink of something that is dark, and very terrifing. Where we live there have been an aveage of one murder a week since we lived here! Yes we could move, but the violence in NOLA is very high, and it is scary.

We deciced on Tacoma because we have people there that will be there for all that can happen in life, our children can play outside, and it just more closely the life we want.
Yes NOLA will be in our hearts forever, and she is a city that will always hold her magic for us!

STRESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

let's see the past few days have been more stressful than normal. We are trying find and rent a house in Tacoma, WA from New Orleans, LA! This is not an easy feat, let me tell you, we have people that have homes for rent but do not want to deal out of state, then we have people who are TOTAL FREAKING flakes, since they will only email/call you back after you really bug them...then they tell you are welcome to place an application(paying a $51.00 fee) but there is a pending application!
I just want a house, nothing fancy even! I want a place to put our belongings, and a place for my children to sleep when we get there!
Then I buy our airplane tickets on Travelocity.com, we pick Delta, buy our tickets and then find out that to check a bag we must pay $23.00! Then a purse counts as a carry on! WHAT! I will never use either company again!
So this will be a fun 6 and half hour flight with 3 kids and very limited amount of things they can do!
I am so stressed about all of it really...finding a place to live, the trip there, and then there is the amount of money going out for all of this!
So that is where we are at right now! I am stressed! LOL

Days of Gratitude Days: 8-12

I may not be that good at doing this on a daily bases, but I know that I am thinking about it.
This past week has been a time to really reflect on things to be grateful.
We have food, we have working appliances, we have a roof over our heads...BUT, there is always a but in there...on Thursday there was a shooting on our street...exactly where the girls normally play with a neighbor girl.
The person shot was a 19 year old pregnant girl that lives across the street from us.
The area we live in New Orleans is one of the worst places in the city...we did not know this when we moved in, but I had my feelings. The rent is cheap, but now we know why.
This street has seen a lot of blood spilled, and I am now very afraid that it may become even more familiar to our family.
People can say to me that it was not your family, and that you are safe, but those words are hollow, because it can all change in a split second. I have learned this the hard way.
We are now living in a place that I never wanted my children in...the Southerners version of South Central.
All I can think about is one of my favorite songs by Natalie Merchant

Carnival
Album: Tigerlily


Well, I've walked these streets
A virtual stage, it seemed to me
Makeup on their faces
Actors took their places next to me

Well, I've walked these streets
In a carnival, of sights to see
All the cheap thrill seekers vendors and the dealers
They crowded around me

Have I been blind have I been lost
Inside myself and my own mind
Hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have seen?

Well, I've walked these streets
In a spectacle of wealth and poverty
In the diamond markets the scarlet welcome carpet
That they just rolled out for me

And I've walked these streets
In the madhouse asylum they can be
Where a wild-eyed misfit prophet
On a traffic island stopped and he raved of saving me
(rpt 1)

Have I been blind, have I been lost
Have I been blind, have I been mean
Have I been strong

Hypnotized, mesmerized by what my eyes have seen
In that great street carnival, in that carnival?


Yes I still have a lot to be gratful for, but I am still going to want more, and to make it better for them. That is one of the main reasons for us moving back to Tacoma, for me it seems safer, and it is home.

Skinned knees and other things

I just had to clean up a boo-boo, Bella fell over some rocks and skinned her knee while playing with some kids outside. She gets hurt like I did as a child...almost daily! I hate to tell her she will most likely be the same way as an adult, like me!I wish that I could protect her from these hurts, but I know that is not possible. She must get these little hurts so she can grow up, and become a stronger person.
My Parents shielded my oldest sister while she was growing up, protecting her from life, and now she is now in her mid 40's and lives with me. She does not work, she has no social life, and she just exists. I do not want that for my children, I know that at times I should be harder on them, and maybe demand more from them, but I also know that they understand there is more in life that requires them to work, and to have dreams, and that those dreams take more than wishing.
We are working towards our goal of moving to Tacoma, I know that it will not be easy, but I am so excited!
I am sewing again, right now I am making purses...I want to work on my advanced projects, but I also want to take it slow.
The school year is going better than ever! The girls are finally getting the reading down, and they are so amazed! Math comes easy for Chloe, Bella would rather do ANY thing else! Evan loves geometry...that he gets from his father. He is also writting comic books, and a novel! He also now says that he is a socialist..hmm Aidan was reborn in Evan!
I also am going to have to deal with the pain in Tacoma...there was a lot of it there. I know that going back also means dealing with things that I ran from four years ago. But I have to deal with it now for me to move on with my life. I have felt in limbo the past four years. The time is now.

Moving, friendships...

We know that we will be moving back to Washington in March, and I am so excited...but I know that I am gonna miss many things/people from here in NOLA. I have meet some very wonderful people here, whom I hope I will have in my life for a very long time.
Something about moving that I have learned over the past few years is that you may be removed physically from people, but if the bond is real than it will substain itself.
There is many things/places that I will miss here as well; The quarter, Audubon Park, The Bayou's and swamps. The easy access to amazing food: Po'Boys, Boudin, Gumbo, Jambalaya, Spainsh shrimp, and so on...and I could go on!
Even with all that we are "giving up" I know that we must make this move, I need to be in a place that I feel more secure, and safe for this family. I am sorry NOLA but I have not been able to get that here. The landlords are horrible here, the crime can be REALLY high, there is high level of lead in the soil here, and that is just a few things.
You must also be very strong to live here, I am not that strong.
So in March of 2011, we will be saying goodbye to this city...days after Mardi grais...it is time.

Going home...again

We are starting our school year...exciting time for us. We are still largely still unschooling, but will hopefully be part of a co-op. I have offered to do a lot of the art projects.
I am worried as we have decided to move back to Washington State, writing that makes it more real now. I am scared, the move from Washington to Texas was very hard, but it was a move that we should not have done. We only moved to NOLA as a way to escape Paris Texas...trust me that is what we did ran like hell from there!
The thing is that I do like NOLA, it is a very wonderful city, with amazing people, culture, music, food, etc. BUT it is not home to me, I have tried to make it home, but it just never worked that way. I have met some amazing people, that I hope to keep in my life for a long time, but it still is not home. I always feel in limbo here, and like any minute things will be gone. I know that chances of another Katrina happening in my lifetime would be rare, it is still there. Also NO one can predict the weather, and things in the climate are changing all the time...the artic shelve is melting, the wetland's are disapearing...I mean can ANYONE promise me that it will be okay? No, and they should not. I also know that things can happen anywhere, but for me TO much can happen here.
It is also that I want to go home, NOW!
I know the moving around is not good for the kids, so I hoping that this will be the last move for awhile. I am hoping to make a better life for us there. It is time.
There is a way of life that I hope to get back to...I also do not like living where we live...the area makes places like "Hilltop" in Tacoma look like Beverly Hills! That is scary! So once again we move, and this time I will be living in Washington
untill I leave feet first.

Photo of MT. Rainer by Greg Hewgill 1998