Hurricane Gustav gave us all a scare, esp Post Katrina. We did evacuate, all the way to Branson,MO. We picked Branson because we found a hotel there that (with a timeshare presentation) was $20 for 3 nights including breakfast and 2 tickets to IMAX. What a steal! My generous father in law (we love that guy, for so many reasons) let us use his company's cargo van instead of our van (which has nearly 300k miles!) we put a mattress in the back of the van, packed the suitcases and comuters and food around the kiddos and took off. Fourteen hours later we arrived in Branson and it is beautiful, we love the mountains and this was our first visit to the Ozarks. Breathtaking. And we discovered again just how amazing our God is. You see, about a month ago, my very best friend from Junior High found me online. We had not talked in over 10 years. It was nice to chat online with her and catch up on our lives. Turns out she lives very close to Branson (didn't know that when we booked - just excited about the 20 bucks!) We were able to spend some time with her family and catch up in person. It was such a blessing. This is the girl whose family took me to church as a young teen and really lived the Christian life, I was an unsaved kid from a messed up home, and they loved me anyhow and made me feel like family. It was wonderful to visit with them, Rae and Shawn - thanks again for dinner - next time we will play host to you!

While in Branson there is soo much to do, we will have to go back again. I really had no idea this town was such a great place. The first day we took the kids to see Table Rock Dam, they understood how a dam works from watching a special on the Hoover Dam a few months back, it was awesome to see one in real life! Under the dam, Missouri has a fish hatchery where they breed Rainbow and Brown Trout to stock the rivers and lakes. The kids did not even realize they were having 'school' the hatchery was very interesting, and they loved feeding the fish. Geoffrey was on the hunt for spiders (there were several webs outside by the fish), his awe struck face admiring the spider web just choked me up. He is so.darn.cute! We spent the afternoon at the Branson Mall - I had never seen a mall with Wal-Mart inside - what a strange thing! At the mall there is a free music show featuring local talent. We stayed and watched the cutest little girls sing. There was a most adorable redhead about 7 yrs old, she tapdanced to the 'Hampster Dance' ~ the highlight of the show!

The next morning we had to do the timeshare presentation. We arrived promptly at 9:30am (no small feat for our family of late sleepers!) After filling out some paperwork, we were told that we were in the wrong place and had to go back to the hotel. OOOKKK, so we did, and of course they had no clue... turns out the timeshare people saw us piling out of the refugee van and decided we were not a 'good prospect'. We did tell the lady selling us the deal we were not interested in buying a timeshare, we were honest with our situation, she knew we were fleeing the storm.... anyhow, the company we booked through ended up honoring their end with the room (not the tickets -big whoop - we just really wanted a safe place to sleep away from Gustav!) and we avoided sitting through the speel. However, at the mall, we booked another timeshare deal in exchange for tickets to the "Acrobats of China" show. The timeshare dude kept us there for THREE HOURS!!! Ugh, but the show was AMAZING! What those people can do with their bodies was incredible. It was very similar to the Circue de Soleil acrobats, but to see it live was wonderful. And we had great seats, right in the center, just a few rows back. There was also a really talented magician, we love to watch magic shows and always try to figure out the trick, but live is just so different. It was captivating.

After the show, we went back to the room and cleaned up - by then Gustav had made his way north and we were beginning to feel the rain and wind. We checked out at midnight and started toward home. We did take a detour through Keller, TX (near Dallas) to visit dear friends who moved away after Katrina. Andre' got some much needed rest and I got some much needed "Katie time!" They treated us to dinner and some laughs, almost convinced us to move in down the street from them! It was difficult to leave...our next evacuation vacation will be to their home! The kids loved being together again, and it was pure joy to hold Nathalie again! Thank you my friend - I am tearing up just remembering yesterday - I miss you already!

We pulled into our driveway at 7am Thursday. We are exausted, but filled with joy to see our home and city spared - except for spotty areas that are still without power. We do have power, and have no damage except a fence board down and a messy yard! Today we clean up and tomorrow it is back to reality! Thankfully, because we began school in July we did not lose much by taking this 'Evacuation Vacation' and we will get back to school in the morning. My local friends and family, who fled to areas near for saftey and those who stayed, I am glad to hear all is well, and challenge you - next time - go far enough away where you can enjoy your time and where the weather is nice!

In other news, we have a new school name. We began our homeschool adventures as "The L**** Institute for Advanced Learning" (guess who came up with that doozy  and Preston was only in first grade!) we changed our name along the way to "Joy Learning Center" we wanted our school filled with JOY and teach our kids to focus on J - Jesus, O - others then Y- yourself. so it was fitting. But now we are nearing graduation for our oldest and Joy Learning Center engraved on his class ring and his diploma just did not sound right! We held an election. The names nominated were "The Academy", "Things Go Better with God School", "Candy School", "M********* Street School", "Life Academy", "PCCCG Academy", "Academy of Joyful Learning", and "L.I.F.E."

Drum roll please.....

We are officially announcing the new name for our school: L.I.F.E. (L**** Institute For Education) it is a fitting acronym and encapsulates what we teach here... "LIFE".