Hurricane Relief

Wow. Since I'm home all all right now, with no TV, I've been an online junkie again. Watching and reading about the aftermath of hurricane Katrina has brought me to tears. There are so many needs, so much that needs to be done, and it's going to take MONTHS at least, before some people can get back to their homes (or what remains of them).

I'm asking my family and friends to do a couple of things.

First- pray. I know most of you are anyway, this is mostly just a reminder.

Next- donate now if you can. Here's a couple of lists of charitable organizations working in (or heading to) the area now-

http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/animal_environ/hurricanes/

http://instapundit.com/archives/025235.php

Finally- the long term recovery of the area is daunting task. The houses of worship in the area will be the ones that many will turn to for help. They, in turn, will need our help. Hugh Hewitt suggests-

"One idea I think should follow the general relief efforts of the next few days. Churches are always excellent conduits to the communities they serve, and can be trusted to be judicious yet generous with the aid they are provided. I will be recommending to my Presbyterian Church session that we offer to "adopt" a sister congregation like, say, The First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans, and send aid via that church.

Here's a list of links to churches in New Orleans.
Here'sa list of links to churches in Biloxi.
Here's a link to find churches in Gulfport.
Joshua Sharf has compiled a list of Jewish organizations in the area that can use help.

Institution-to-institution relief will be the long term solution once the short term humanitarian crisis passes."

If any of my non-Christian friends have suggestions for donations to other religious charities, please let me know and I will add them here and pass them on!

Family stuff

The folks are coming out in a week or so, and I'm looking very much forward to that! I'm not even beginning to look for work until after that, and then hopefully I can find something part-time in the afternoons. Otherwise, things have settled into a more normal routine here. I promise that EVENUALLY I'll get some pics taken and posted!

Home!

Yes, we are HOME in North Carolina!

We even have a mailing address-

The Drakes
407 Irwin Dr
Ft. Bragg, NC 28307

(no home phone, use our cells)

After a whirlwind trip to Phoenix (it was nice to see as many of you as we did, sorry we didn't get to see everyone!), we left early Thursday morning to head east. Aaryk called post housing on Friday, and they said that our house was ready and we could move in on Saturday. We pulled into Fayetteville and onto post about 1:30pm Saturday afternoon (2400 or so miles!).

We have an adorable little 2bd 1bath home. Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday were spent shopping for the things we didn't bring with; desks, shelves, a TV, mattress/box springs, washer&dryer, and other sundries and essentials like food! As of today, we have most of the books-games-DVDs-CDs-computers stuff etc unpacked and put away. My folks are bringing down some furniture from my Nana's house for us in a week or so. It is soooooo nice to not be living out of a suitcase anymore!

Family news

Brian has a job! He's working at the 99 cents store for the last couple of weeks. He don't like it much, but he's sticking with it until he finds something better.

Many of you know that my Nana has been in poor health of late (she turned 90 in June), and she went home to be with the Lord Sunday morning about 4am. My folks were with her when she died, and she'd had visits from all three of her kids that day. The visitation was today, and the funeral is tomorrow morning. I'd greatly appreciate prayers all around during this time. It wasn't a surprise, but it's still difficult. I'm not going to be able to be there for the funeral, but I'm at peace with that decision. I got to spend quite a bit of time with Nana this summer, and was able to say my good-byes then.

Sorry to close this post on such a down note. I'll try to have pics of my house up soon, and as always, thanks for all the prayers and support!

Getting settled (kind of)

I finally have internet access again! The first few days out here I didn't mind not being able to get online, but when Aaryk was back at work watching TV all day got old fast! Besides, this is my lifeline to all of you!

I arrived at Ft Bragg on Sunday evening, and Aaryk had been given a 2 day pass so he didn't have to report back to work until Wednesday. We spent those days sleeping in, running errands, watching movies, and exploring the post and local Fayetteville. This place is HUGE! There is very little that can't be had on post. While Fayetteville proper does cater to the military community, it also has plenty for us wives. My Mom will appreciate how excited I was when I saw the JoAnn Fabrics & Crafts store. There is also a hole in the wall game store (reminds me of Waterloo games), and a comic shop. There's one decent sized mall and several smaller ones, and two movie multi-plexes.

Gone to the Movies
Speaking of movies, we've seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Dukes of Hazzard since I've been here. Charlie is much more in the flavor of the original book (dark and a little twisted but we enjoyed it very much), and Dukes was 'check your brain at the door' mind popcorn. If you never cared for the TV series, don't bother with the movie. If you'll admit to actually enjoying the series as a kid (or adult!), and don't mind A LOT of cussing, you might find yourself yelling 'YEE HAW' as you get on the freeway after watching it. Enjoyed it, but probably won't buy it on DVD. Charlie on the other hand is definitely a DVD purchase for us when it comes out.

That's a NASCAR
Somebody tell Sam, I've seen the light, NASCAR is just plain fun to watch! My folks watch a lot of racing, mostly IRL and NASCAR, and the first NASCAR race they had one I sort of turned my nose up at. Then I actually started watching. It's kind of like a train wreck. I really didn't want to get sucked into it, but watching these guys crash and hit each other's cars and keep going, it's kind of like a high speed demotion derby. That was it, I was hooked. Aaryk says I don't need another obsession, but can you really ever have too many? ;)

Back to the Plan Here
Ok, so now the plan is for us to fly home on the evening of the 15th, pick up the U-haul on the morning of the 16th, get it loaded and be out of town by early on the 17th. That doesn't leave a lot of time for visiting, and I'm sorry about that. I'm trying to not make too many commitments at this time, since I don't know how it's all going to play out. But if anyone is free to help us load the truck on the morning of the 16th, that would be a great help! I'll keep our itinerary updated here as best I can, or you are welcome to give me a call on my cell phone to get the latest. I won't have internet access after the 13th or 14th until we get back and have the cable modem set up here.

I think that's everything for now. I'll post some pictures when I can actually get them to upload. Dial-up internet is so slow!

Thanks for your prayers and support of our grand adventure!