I should have listened to Bob Barker

we all know how adamant bob barker is about spaying and neutering your pets to control the pet population. if only i'd done that with rosie. my life would be so much easier.
about 3 months ago, rosie, our chocolate lab, escaped with her daughter sophie, a black lab. rosie was gone for 1 week but sophie came home after 2 days. i posted signs and finally found rosie. i rejoiced and thanked God. andy was on the coast so i was home alone with kate.
well in june we moved and i discovered rosie was pregnant. i realized this must have been the reason for her escape. to find a husband. then on June 20 rosie gave birth to 9 pupies, 8 of whom survived. i helped her birth them and even tried to keep sophie from getting too jealous. andy at this time was in atlanta so again i was alone to make dog decisions. since it was SO HOT outside i put them in the garage with the windows open and a box fan blowing. well this did not satisfy rosie so she broke through the screened windows to be able to go out whenever she wanted-who knows where she was going. she'd come back to nurse the puppies but sometimes she'd be gone.
then it began. fleas.

the fleas began to sneak into the house. the puppies were covered with fleas. every time we went in the garage, fleas jumped on you. so we decided to move the puppies/dogs. Andy's mom very willingly labored in the hot sun to build a pen for the puppies and for Ro and So. It's kinda like a doggy Ritz Carlton. It's really nice. But unfortunately they did not take all the fleas with them.
Fast forward ahead to 1 week later. Fleas jump on my friends when they come to my house. I pick fleas out of kate's hair. fleas are biting my legs. I set off 5 flea bombs, spray, vacuum, etc and nothing works. So I make an emergency call to the exterminator. I wanted to take his picture because i was so excited when he showed up. I called every single exterminator in town to see who could come the fastest.
but the bad news-he told me that if i don't get rid of the dogs/treat them for fleas, the fleas will not go away. so in a moment of helplessness, andy and i decided to take all the puppies and ro and so to the animal shelter. we are at the end of our rope. our child's health is important to us, and i don't want fleas on her. it's like living in a 3rd world country. i can't afford to have the exterminator come every week, at $150 a pop.
so i cried on the way up there as we loaded up all the pets and took them. the ladies at the shelter were very understanding and sympathetic as i cried, "i just can't take care of them anymore!" she said, "it's okay! we are a no kill shelter and we will find homes for them." but i just felt so helpless because i felt like child protective services had to be called in and i had to send my dogs to an orphanage. i've had rosie longer than i've been married, and sophie was her little baby. i said, "rosie is the mom and sophie is the baby so see if someone can adopt them together!" i cried, sobbed all the way home. kate even sensed that i was upset so she stared crying too.
andy mentioned to me that they could keep her until she got healthy-until she was rid of fleas, rid of the mange she contracted somehow, shots up to date, and then we could re-adopt her. we are not sure about getting sophie back because the 2 of them are partners in crime. they go in the trash cans, they run around the neighborhood, etc. but both of them are pedigree dogs and we have invested lots of time in training them. rosie CAN be well behaved if she wants to but she also has a rebellious side.
so i'm wondering what to do. should i let them take care of her and have her neutered and then adopt her back? it's $65. if i took her to the vet myself it would be HUNDREDS of dollars and with a small baby i can't really afford it.
i can't afford to have 2 dogs, and treat them for fleas every month. there is a flea epidemic since the hurricane and vets are saying to give dogs flea treatments twice per month, instead of every 2 months. so it can get expensive.
i just am at my wit's end. i keep thinking about rosie, up there, being sad, nursing her puppies, and i KNOW she wants to escape! the shelter is only 1 street over from us and i told andy i would not be surprised if she figured out how to make her way back home.
their collars are lying on the front step. i hear dogs barking and it makes me think of them. i am really, really sad but i just don't know if i need a dog right now. i need a dog that can lie around the house and be really gentle with kate-sorta like jean's dog, a golden retriever. rosie's brown hair sheds all over the house and it's really dirty.
plus there's the feeding, the watering, the cleaning up after them-and i'm busy chasing kate around.
if you have ANY advice or prayers, please send them my way. i'm praying for God's wisdom in this situation. i don't want to re-adopt her if there is someone better suited for her. but i can't help but feel like my dog is sitting in a cage somewhere when she's my responsibility and i pawned her off on someone else because i couldn't deal with it. it feels terrible.
rosie has been part of our family for 5 years and i feel like i'm giving up on her.
here she is with her new litter of babies. it was so sad at the shelter because there were so many litters of puppies to give away. but they said puppies go fast and since rosie is older she won't go too fast. but how sad-for rosie to be sitting in a cage, waiting for someone to come get her but no one wants her. it makes me so sad. so i called them back today to ask about re-adopting her, and they said, well they can't guarantee her to me-it's first come first serve. so i kinda think that if someone else wants to adopt her, maybe that's God's will. i dunno. i'd love some direction on this issue.
i'm not as sad about sophie because she is SO SWEET and loving. she loves to lick. but she's ...different. but she is so cuddly.
i know this is long but i'm trying to get my feelings out so i can feel better.
so my options are:
1. no dog.
2. get rosie back. she's our favorite.
3. get a new dog that sheds less that can be kate's puppy.
i kinda like the no dog idea for now since life is so hectic down here but kate loves dogs so much. plus since the fleas are so bad, i'd hate to have a dog go through that. i feel like it's torture for the poor dogs. i would liken it to having a baby in a country where there is no food for them.
please send me advice!
thanks for reading. i'm really sad about this, as i've said earlier. i just want to do the right thing.

life is hard

Lately i've really been thinking about the hurricane. i get used to the "messed up-ness" of being down here and i don't really notice the fema trailers, debris, etc. but lately i've been really thinking about it. i went to the waveland vegetable market today, which is like a little tent where people that grow their own veggies come as well as purse makers, photographers, just anyone trying to sell their wares. i really felt for these people. here they are, after the storm, trying to sell their stuff to make money to support themselves. i met a woman who had an 11 month old baby and was also 6 months pregnant. she raised her first child in a fema trailer with no crib. she had a baby shower 1 month before the storm and had her nursery set up perfectly. and then her baby was born 2 days before katrina. i said, what did you do? did you have a crib? she said, oh no. i put her in a bunk bed in a fema trailer and hoped she didn't roll off. i said, did you cry? she said, yes it was very hard. i thought about to my own baby showers, and how much time i spent setting up the nursery and rocking in the rocking chair waiting for kate's arrival, thinking about her and all that stuff. and this woman lori didn't have that luxury. i was so sad for her. but yet her baby was thriving and she was expecting another! i asked her if her house needed help (a common question down here) but she said she was fine and was living in the refurbished garage apartment of her parents' house. she is so brave. this picture is of a fema trailer in the front of a house. this is a common sight. almost every house has this trailer in front of it, and as they work on the house, they live in the small trailer.
i also watched a video of before and after photos of waveland, ms and it was so sad. waveland was so fun and nice before the storm and now it is so devastating. kate fell asleep in the car today when we were on the way to the library and so i decided to drive around as long as she wanted to sleep. i drove around bay st louis to see streets i'd never been down and try to make myself at home. it was so depressing. there were neighborhoods with literally NOTHING in them. just cleared off lots. the roads were so bumpy because of the storm surge that kate kept moving around when i'd hit a bump but she still slept through the tour. it was so sad. but i know that people are staying strong and trying to rebuild when they can and trying to make the best of it. it is encouraging to see that. stores are opening every day. progress is made every day. each day bay st louis gets better and better. i just pray that God will spare us from hurricanes this year.
my neighbors across the street are living in 3 campers. they have dogs in the yard and everything is a mess. it makes me frustrated because it is so ugly but i know they cannot help it. i've tried to befriend them but they are not interested. maybe one day.
kate continues to be a blessing to me. she makes me smile so much. she is crawling around and getting into things. i have been working on her first birthday party. barnyard animals theme. she loves animals and i think it will be cute.
andy is gone to columbus,ms for a wedding this weekend so i am holding down the fort. i think i am getting a cold because i have some junk in my throat, so could you please pray that i don't get sick? thanks.
we are continuing to pray for more families to move to Lagniappe and live the life down here and minister. it's an awesome opportunity and i keep trying to meet young moms. i have a coffee date with a young mom on tuesday at a new cafe that just opened up. she has an 8 month old. i hope it goes well!
thanks for reading and keep praying for the coast. it's a daily struggle.
we have a flea problem-the exterminator is coming next wednesday, thank God.

Cafe Du Monde is always awesome

It's been a busy week-past few weeks, actually. Last weekend we went to Memphis for Katie Trent's wedding. Lots of fun, not lots of sleep. Beale street was calling my name. It was our first weekend away from Kate, and I really enjoyed it. Andy's mom came down and babysat for us. She did a great job. I loved seeing all my friends, too.
When we came home, we were met by all 4 of A's sisters, 1 boyfriend, and 1 friend. They came to work at Lagniappe all week and did some shed building and such. It was great having them-always someone around to play with Kate and I got to sleep late a lot. That was awesome. Thursday was our anniversary, so we celebrated it Friday by going to new orleans. we had to take elizabeth to the airport there so we made a day of it. thanks, elizabeth, for the massage. i had my first massage ever this past week-that was the BEST. i could get used to those. anyway so we started out in nola with some cafe du monde beignets.....so freakin tasty. walked around jackson square, did the french market, ate at a classy cafe, hit bourbon street, headed home. i love those green chairs at cafe du monde. so many memories. kelly and lily were at my house when i got home and that was so awesome. they stayed with us until today and i enjoyed it thoroughly.
the puppies are now 4 weeks old and have been moved to the backyard. they have a wonderful pen that andy's mom built and they are very happy. i can't wait to give them away.
today we went to church and then back to the airport in nola to make our last drop off. stopped at olive garden-my absolute favorite.
this week i plan on sitting around in my pajamas a lot because i love doing that. catching up on tv. working on my tan when i can. i got a job working for the church doing scheduling. it's a fun job. teams call and email me to schedule their trip and i enjoy telling them about lagniappe. they even bought me a blackberry. i love having it. i can check my email anywhere. i can even blog like landon howell from anywhere.
i did about 300 loads of laundry last week. i went through a whole bottle of tide.
we have a wedding in columbus this upcoming weekend. i am looking forward to it although travel with kate might be cumbersome. i am not looking forward to sleeping in the same room with her. so hopefully i can figure something out.
i'd appreciate your prayers! i have a bladder infection so that is not fun.
sorry if this post was boring. i realized i hadn't posted in a long time so i just wanted to give an update.
when we were in new orleans i picked up a book about hurricane katrina and started reading it. it made me so depressed. i had forgotten how bad things were even though i live down here. it's almost like it's normal that things look so bad down here but i was so sad that i had to put the book down. it made me glad that i live here so we can help these folks.

tater and her chew toy

 

tater and christy

 

me

 

katie and austin

 

me and katie

 

at pat o briens

 

me and katie

 

katie's wedding - fab five

 

katie's wedding

 

AWESOME kate pics

Click here to see kate's latest photos.
http://www.lisahourinphotography.com/chapman/index.htm
We are so proud of them!

Click here to see the color shots.
http://www.lisahourinphotography.com/chapmancolor/index.htm

 

Andy took the camera to Jean's house for the cookout tonight so i have no new pictures. i am home with kate, she's asleep, and i'm cleaning, doing laundry, unpacking. i'm listening to my favorite bsl band, easy street. you can find them at www.easystreetsounds.com they are really fun. like i said, they play our song, tupelo honey, so they are money.
today we had breakfast at waffle house, a saturday morning favorite. then i headed to gulfport with kate to office depot for the church.....kate chewed on my phone so i got a new phone today. i liked my old one but i can't help that it was broken.
tonight i watched best week ever, a great show, and now i'm just hanging out. tomorrow we have church at 830 and then maybe we can go to the beach. kate hasn't been to the beach yet so that would be fun.
the puppies are getting huge. it's wild how big they are.
i got some cool candles today. i'll write more later.
holla!
cammie

4th Fun

We have one of the intern's parents staying with us all week. We decided to host, with them, a party for the staff of Lagniappe. It was harder than i thought it was going to be. i was in the kitchen for approx 8 hours. when you host a party you don't really get to enjoy it as much but i did have fun. kate was asleep through the whole thing. we grilled, cooked, ate, drank, looked at a photo slideshow. we have a photographer visiting from scotland who takes wonderful pictures and he came to the party as well, as he also needed to do laundry before he headed to new york today. he's really nice. his name is roddy. he took some awesome photographs, ones i hope we can post soon. kate is currently going through my tupperware cabinet as i type, pulling up on the kitchen cabinets. i am so worn out from the party i just want to sit around all day. we had about 32 people over.
i still haven't taken kate to dr. needle. i guess i will reschedule the appointment. i wasn't sure if i wanted to take her to him or not so i missed the appointment on monday. i did some surveys around town, and everyone said they go to dr. needle.
i've been getting jealous of kate recently. everyone always gives her all the attention, and i usually don't even get a conversation sometimes. andy said he feels the same way. it's fun being around the interns, but they are in a different life stage than me so i still feel out of sorts. i am praying to find some friends my age with young babies that are fun and nice and Christian.
the puppies have their eyes open. they are wiggling around the garage and rosie decided she needed an escape so she broke through the screen window in the garage. now she has an exit whenever she needs it. i suppose if i had 8 babies i'd want to get away sometimes, too.
i'm still lovin barq's. i love it in the bottle. it's so good. i would love to go out to eat soon to one of the many wonderful restaurants we have here.
saturday night last week we went to hear a great band, Easy Street from Kiln, MS. they were playing at our favorite outdoor place, Daniel's. we had fun, and i was even on the news. the crew was filming a story about the noise from the place, since it's outdoors. but there was just a shot of me sitting and enjoying the music. it was funny. i tivoed it. but they played all kinds of oldies and even played our song, tupelo honey. now that's a sign of a good band.
i found an AWESOME store downtown bay st louis, called social chair. it is the cutest store ever. they have home decorating things. it's pretty cheap too. i got a sign for my bathroom that says La Dolce Vita (the sweet life in italian) and it looks really cute.
oh i forgot to mention that the police showed up at our party last night. it seems as if the cars were blocking the road, and a fire truck was trying to get through earlier in the night and had some trouble. this is not surprising, because the hurricane washed away the quality of the streets, so most of the streets are narrower and bumpy. anyway he just said, move your cars, and all was fine. it was sort of exciting though to see the cops pull up. he wasn't mad or anything. 

Tickle Monster

My favorite thing is to tickle my tater. she laughs and smiles. today we were playing peek a boo. she can pull the blanket up over her face by herself and pull it down by herself. really cute. so i was putting it on my face, and when i pulled it off, she leaned over and gave me a big kiss!!!!! in this picture i am ticking her and she is belly laughing. 

Funny

Picture of Andy at General Assembly last week in atlanta with some friendly pigeons. 

One tired Mommy

Today: Waffle house, walmart, Rite Aid, feed kate, children's museum, church, feed kate, change kate, let dogs out, check on puppies, be nice to people, laundry, clean out kate's poop from tub because she couldn't control herself, stopped up toilet, take out trash, try to catch up on real world, blog. 

Puppy! 

Rosie in all her glory

Finally some puppy pics. Rosie is being a good mom and letting them have a snack. They are getting so big. I think they are going to be huge. They are already wiggling around the garage. Sophie is in the garage as well as she cannot be without her mother.
I've been working around the house this week. Laundry, groceries, vacuuming, entertaining, etc. Kate has her 9 month checkup tomorrow with a new pediatrician. His name? Dr. Needle. I mean, what could be a worse name for a pediatrician? Dr. Stab? Dr. Disease? Dr. Molester? Ew. I'm nervous. 

Mosquitos are crazy here. i have so many bug bites. they are vicious-they even bite you through your clothes!
andy should be coming home late tonight. that will be excellent. i am finally finished with the unpacking, etc. all the furniture is in place. the only problems are:
1. they are still finishing the ceiling in the guest bath. should be finished today. then i can put all the stuff back in it.
2. garage door broke last night. gotta have them fix that.
3. they gotta finished the privacy fence.
the puppies are cute and doing well in the garage. kate is crawling all around and pulling up on stuff. yesterday was rough with her. she whined a lot and didn't feel good.
that girl kami that i met at walmart-she sucks. i've called her 3 times and she won't call me back. hint taken. however i have enjoyed meeting jean's wife kim. we hang out all the time and help each other with our houses. we have so much in common. she has 2 daughters, 9 and 10, that LOVE kate. so it's a perfect match. we are going to gulfport today for the assistant pastor's wife's birthday lunch, kids in tow.
everyone down here drinks barq's. i think it's really cool that i live right by the place where barq's was created. all the restaurants carry it.
ok i gotta go scratch my bugbites.

Midwife-ing

Rosie went into labor today. I saw a puppy crawling across the yard and i said, oh no. this is it. 5 hours and 9 puppies later, she was finished. we lost one, but we have 8 healthy pups. she is doing great. sophie is perplexed. we don't know who the dad is but they look like black lab puppies.
andy is still in atlanta. please pray for me that i will be fine here in the new surroundings. i love this house. it's so nice.
andy is having fun seeing folks in atlanta.
we got our cable and internet hooked up at home so i feel connected.
not too much else to report! kate is doing well. she stayed up until 9 tonight because she had a 3 hour nap this afternoon. she's crawling around and snorting with laughter!

first party

we had all the lagniappe interns over for dinner last night. grilled chicken, steak, potato casserole, salad, rolls. 15 guests total. we also had an unexpected but necessary visitor-the rotorooter man. our toilets were clogged but he said it was easily fixable. he came at 10 pm and we fixed him some food. it was strange but fun. the evening continued with playing "true colors" and then ended with one of our guests breaking her ankle. she misjudged the step to the backyard and stepped wrong. andy took her to the hospital where they told her she broke one bone in her ankle and is in a cast. man i felt so bad. she's a trooper so i think she'll be fine.
we have had so much help getting moved into our home. kelly stephens from chattanooga, who incidentally is the guest who broke her ankle, spent all day friday helping me hang all the pictures in my house. intern emily helped me unpack, adrienne helped me babysit, christy and ryn unloaded the grill that andy got for father's day, haley helped us move all the boxes to the street, etc. it's amazing how blessed we are to have such help.
church today was great. jean preached about our sinful hearts, and how they compare to rotten chicken. it's so true. God cleans out all the rottenness and gives us brand new hearts!
andy is leaving tomorrow for general assembly in atlanta for all week. i will miss him. it stinks because we spent all those weeks apart and now we are finally moved in and he has to go! i'll try to keep myself company with the interns.
i'm trying to talk kelly into moving here. she is so awesome. i pray that God will lead her down here! 

Not for sale anymore!

 

fishing

this is what we fished by-trees with crap in them from the storm. 

lot for sale

this was a house by the water but now is for sale. this is also a common sight. this lot costs at least 1 million. 

A normal sight

Here i am complaining about my house and this is what most people's lots look like. at least 1 fema trailer or a camper.  

Chopsticks

I went by the house today and there were NO WORKERS. what!!!!! why aren't they working on my house????? i am still praying for them to be finished TUESDAY.
we can stay at jean's house as long as we want, his family won't be coming until tues or wed. so let's hope they can stay in memphis until we can move. isn't that selfish of me? i just don't want to go on another trip by myself.
i ate chinese tonight. that was weird-to be at the beach and have chinese food. kate ate a whole banana.
we are at lagniappe right now at a crab boil. i'm in the office in the air conditioner. andy is outside with tater. it's almost her bedtime so i'll have to take her home.
we have some babysitters coming tonight after she is asleep so we can go downtown and find some haps. (happenings) I drove along the beach again today, it was prettier than i'd noticed previously. debris is still everywhere.
pray for our house! we closed on our house in louisville and we are done with that. what a blessing!

Help the Homeless

This is an email I sent to prayer friends from our church.

Please put on your praying hats and forward this to other prayer warriors. The builder is taking extra time on our house, thus putting us in a bind. We are staying at our pastor's home while he is out of town but will be coming back in a few days. I talked to our realtor today for advice, and she said, "Just pray the house is finished by Tuesday and that we can close Wednesday." So that's our prayer! Pray that God will provide a place for us to stay while all this takes place. Truly, Andy, Kate and I are homeless but we know that God will provide something.... If you have any ideas, email me at swanky@swankygirl.com. I don't really want to take the baby away again for a week but we'll see what happens. Please pray with us that the house will be finished on Tuesday and that we can move on Wednesday!!!! Thanks so much! Cammie

I really am not feeling good about this and I had a good cry last night. I have no idea where we are going to be staying next monday, i don't want to uproot kate from her daddy and take her on a trip again unless i have to. i don't have the means to haul all the things i need to someone's house, and it will be major. i am really frustrated but i know that God is teaching me through this. think of all the homeless people after the hurricane. now i am seeing what it was like. not knowing where you will be....but i am not too worried because God never abandons us.

Moving?

We still don't know when we can move in. I'm hoping in the next few days. I hope they are going to do the inspection today. The house we are staying in has mold somewhere because we are all sick. i can't wait to get out of there.
andy says we are going to do karaoke tonight....i'm excited. laura knows i love to be on stage.
i went to home depot and bed bath and beyond yesterday in slidell, about 20 min away. i got plantation style blinds for the house as well as new curtain rods. i also got some pillows, etc for the house. hopefully i'll get to order my furniture this week!
this is my beachy living room to be ordered.
they finished my jacuzzi tub yesterday at the house. i can't wait to get in it!

We're expecting!

Rosie is pregnant!
That's all i want to say about that. we dont' know who the dad is. mutts on the way.
i called kami today, and she is going to call me back with the names of some good pediatricians, etc down here. we had a quick phone call.
i've been watching the first season of "arrested development." i've heard lots of people say how good the show is, and i have never seen it. it is HILARIOUS. i love it. we don't pick up any tv stations at the house so all i have is dvds.
i went to check on the new house today. they had the air conditioner going and it was looking good. we are closing on our house in louisville tomorrow!
i already went and purchased the new furniture so i can't wait until they can deliver it.
kate is doing well. she just had a 2 hour nap and is doing great. i've had a babysitter the past 2 nights-one night to go out to dinner with a couple friend of ours rebuilding in gulfport, and last night to have a "girl's night" with some of the staff ladies. there were 4 of us.
tonight i am thinking about cooking something, although we can eat 3 meals a day at the church.

down in the wasteland

well on the way down i saw a sign for waveland that had the letters ST posted over the VE which makes it wasteland. i thought it was pretty appropriate.
we are staying in the home of someone from the church who is on vacation. it is very comfortable and nice and kate is happy. our dogs are there, as well as their dog, a golden retriever, so it's a happy home full of fur.
our house is still being finished but all our belongings are in the garage of the new house. i really like the house-it's really cute. really nice. you will have to come see it.
moving was one of the most stressful things i've ever gone through. i'd almost rather have another c section than go through what i went through again. it's mainly because andy wasn't there. i had to rely on whoever showed up to do whatever i could get them to do.....the truck was late, workers were late, kate was crying, i was crying, etc. but it's all in the past now. i cried the whole way out of town until i got to noxapater.
i made a friend already at walmart. she had cute hair, so i asked her where she got her hair done. she told me and we talked for several minutes. she had a 3 year old girl. i said, "what's your name?" guess what she said....she said "Kami." I said, "What? That's my name!" so we traded numbers and will call each other. i feel nervous-kinda like going on a date. when should i call her? when is too soon? when is too long? ha.
we went to church today. our church is in an old warehouse with no air conditioning. it was hot but i really learned alot from the preacher. the church attendees consisted of teams coming down to work as well as church staff and volunteers. i pushed kate around in the stroller in the back and she fell asleep.
well it's about time for lunch so i better go. i don't have internet access at this house but whenever i go to church i can get on the internet. please email me!