Last weekend our hurricane baby turned three. And three years ago Kent and Lita were putting up with us. It doesn't seem like it could be that long ago because I remember some things so vividly. We were praying we wouldn't overstay our welcome. We ended up having a lot of fun with them. I remember feeling that our officials in Lake Charles, LA were just really wanting to error on the side of caution and get everyone evacuated out of there, especially after the Katrina mess. I wanted to drive a few hours north and watch the storm on a hotel television then return home. However, Bruce and I home and visit taught a sister in her 70's who did not drive and had no family around and what were we going to do with her? Lita had called me and invited us to stay with them (little did she know we'd be there three weeks!) and since Sister J had two sisters in Tyler, TX we headed that way. We had to leave at 5:00 a.m. to avoid the traffic. We were able to drive for two hours at 60 mph before we hit traffic. We dropped Sister J off at her sister's home and made it to Kent and Lita's in 13 hours. Lorenzo and Dominic were just pulling pizzas out of the oven. Lita had taken MariAmanda to a birthday party.
After the hurricane passed through our area the local officials told everyone to stay away. They even blocked the exits to keep people out. Full power was not restored for two weeks. Lita got Trent and Teagan enrolled at Oakdale and that was good for them. Lita and I talked, shopped, talked, cooked, talked, got a pedicure, we had to of course, because I could no longer reach my toes! She told me all about how she and Kent got together, all stuff I didn't know. We read scriptures with them, had family prayer, and played a mean game of DON'T EAT PETE! for FHE. They made us a part of their family. It was fun. Bruce and I also got to see some friends we knew from our newlywed years since we lived five minutes from there for the first two years of our marriage. That was a fun surprise too.
We decided it would be best to just have Benjamin in OKC. There just happened to be an OB/GYN in Kent and Lita's ward. We were expecting a "Cajun" baby but had a "Sooner" instead. After Ben arrived Lita bathed the other kids and did Teagan and Brilee's hair all pretty for them to come to the hospital to meet their new baby brother. I remember Brilee's expression as she walked into the room and saw Benjamin in my arms. It was kind of a look like I had betrayed her. It's always an adjustment when a new one comes into the family.
Before we evacuated our neighbors had told us to put all our frozen meat into one freezer just in case the power was out for an extended period, you'd only lose one of your freezers. So we took all the meet out of our fridge/freezer side by side and put it in our pantry freezer. A few days after Benjamin was born Bruce, Kent, and Lorenzo drove back to Lake Charles to assess the damage to our home and get things ready for us to return with the kids. We were very grateful to learn that we only had minor damage - shutters, shingles, and we lost a couple of our trees. It was Kent (bless him) who ended up cleaning out our freezer. That must have been nauseating! Somehow he got all the blood stains out of the tile and grout. We wanted to be able to keep it but we could not get rid of the smell and had to dispose of it. Bruce and Lorenzo cleaned up the limbs and downed trees in the yard. Meanwhile back in OKC I drug Lita all over Baptist hospital trying to get the off hours help I needed from the Lactation Consultant. Benjamin just wasn't co-operating and that was my source of stress. We really appreciated them letting us crash at their place and for their kindness. Lita did mountains of laundry and rounded up all kinds of baby things for us. Grandpa put our name in the temple and I know that and all the other prayers offered up from family is the reason things went as well at they did. So three years later here's a big THANK YOU!
Here are some pictures of the Ben Man's family party. He's all about balls, cars, and spiderman right now.
One night in late May or June Bruce and the older kids planted a garden. They planted corn, beets, lots of different kinds of squash, peas, cucumbers, tomatoes and I don't even know what else. I do remember they all came home (to our rental) very muddy. We then, of course, did nothing but work on the house all summer. We didn't pull a single weed and scarcely remembered to turn the water on our weed patch, I mean garden. It was pretty much one evening of planting, then zero effort. But, WOW have I been impressed with what has come out of our little weed patch! The grasshoppers got our corn and I don't know what happened to the peas (I think you're supposed to plant them earlier(?) but we have been feeding our neighborhood with squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are especially sweet and flavorful. Imagine what we could have next year with a little more effort and TLC of our garden. Come visit us and we'll load you up!
