I knew it would happen sooner or later. My sister and her family have headed back to LA. My brother-in-law called late Tuesday last week to let my sister know the power was back on and it was okay for her and the kids to return home. They left on Thursday to make sure that Rita wasn't going to be a problem for them.

My sister had a rough ride home I guess. She stopped about 100 miles from home to get gas, and none was to be found. Every gas station she stopped at was out of gas. She finally stopped and asked a local where she might be able to find some and was able to fill up at a Mom and Pop store. Phew. I happened to call her as this was going on and thought she had made pretty good time considering.

She called later on to let me know she made it home okay, but said for whatever reason it took her an hour to get from the exit she gets off on to her house. Mind you this is only a matter of maybe five miles from the exit to her house, so this was a big deal. She said she wasn't sure what was going on but figured it was probably due to the power in her area being back up and running, people heading home from out of town.

My nephew is to start back to school the first week of October. He is ready to go, he says he wants to get back so he can play soccer with his friends. For a six year old that is saying a lot. :)

My sister says that there aren't very many stores open yet, and a lot of the ones that are open are still required to close at dark, so things are definately not back to normal in her area. I'm sure she is glad to be home, and I can't say as I blame her after being displaced for a month. I was very sorry to see them go though.

It's amazing how quickly you adjust to difficult situations and having a two year old and a six year old in the house when you aren't used to it is something else. Thursday night, my first night by myself again I couldn't sleep. Couldn't hear the kids in the living room playing. How silly is that? :)

Needless to say, I have a empty nest again and have been trying to get back to the things that are "normal" for me. Cleaning up the house, and trying to get caught up on my posts that I wasn't able to do while the family was here.

Life is about adjustments, we all have to make them. Unfortunately for some the adjustment isn't over yet. This mess with hurricanes Katrina and Rita will wiegh heavy on the minds of a lot of people for a very long time.

God Bless all who are suffering through these trying times. Don't think you are alone. There are a lot of us out there in this world who are thinking about you, and praying for you.

Back to the mundane for me. Laundry is calling, the question is weather or not I want to answer. (nope.)

Sidenote: The University of Alabama is doing thier part to help in the aid of the hurricane victims, for more information go to Rolltide.com.

Yes, I love it. I haven't had much chance to post lately, I have a house full and last weekend was quite hectic.

I left last Friday to head to my brother's house (Tuscaloosa) for the weekend, my niece Avery was to be baptized on Sunday and the whole family was gathering for the event. Unfortunately the drive wasn't all that great. My nice little Honda decided to overheat and busted the top half of the radiator so badly that there was no choice but to repair it. I live on limited funds and didn't have the money to pay for such a costly repair. Thank God for family. My brother took care of it for me as well as coming to pick me up in Montgomery so I wouldn't miss any of the tailgating on Saturday followed by the game against Middle Tennessee.

My brother got some great seats this season! Right in front of the goal posts with no one in front of us to have to worry about looking over. As you can guess I was in heaven. First half was nothing to great to talk about, however as always the tide came back in the second half and took care of business. Great game, and I had a blast. I am sure glad my brother had that extra ticket, although I did feel somewhat the odd ball being the only lady out of the family to go to the game.

As I mentioned, I have a full house at the moment. My sister who lives outside of New Orleans is staying with me with her two kids and hubby. Actually my brother-in-law has to be at work on Monday, so they (my sis and her hubby) went this evening to get the minivan so when the power is restored in her area she will have transportation back home. It looks as if they plan to have everything in her area back up in running by the first week of October, although I suppose we'll have to wait and see. Thankfully her house was not damaged by the storm at all, no water damage and while all the trees around her house (just about) came down, nothing hit the house or garage, so they made it through the storm pretty unscathed.

There were two bus loads of refugees from the storm at the game last Saturday, and the University of Alabama donated the gate to the Red Cross, and Coach Shula matched the donation. Gotta love the Tide! There are still many out there in need of help, so as always contact the American Red Cross and volunteer, or donate some cash to help out.

Tide is up two games now..... :) Rooooolllllll Tide Roll!