A conversation with Big Cubby

This is the conversation I had with Big Cubby today after he watched the movie Robots.

Big Cubby: Mommy I want to watch the blueberries

Me: Blueberries? I don't think there are blueberries in the movie.

Big Cubby: Yes there is mommy. you know the blueberry band. they go boom boom

Me: Are you sure this in the movie?

Big Cubby: yes mommy. they play in a band and the paint comes up.

Me: You mean the Blue Man Group?

Big Cubby: yes mommy.

In the extras on the Robots dvd there is a thing about the Blue Man Group aka the blueberries.

Tagged again

Jodi at the stuff in my head tagged me with a new one so check it out.

1. Legal First name? Crystal
2. Were you named after anyone? My aunt’s cat. Don’t ask.
3. Do you wish on stars? No
4. When did you last cry? Today while watching Oprah.
5. What is your favorite lunch meat? Smoked turkey
6. What is your birth date? August 7, 1972
7. Whats your most embarrassing CD? Jock Jams vol. 1
8. Would you be friends with you? Oh hell yeah.
9. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yes
10. What are your nicknames? Crys
11. Would you bungee jump? NO, afraid of heights
12. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Who has time?
13. Do you think that you are strong? Yes I am you want to make something of it.
14. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate Chip
15. Shoe Size? 8 ½ or 9. Yeah I know my husband calls them skis
16. Red or pink? Pink
17. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? Stomach, butt, nose
18. Who do you miss most? My dad
19. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Old Navy light green stretch pants
20. What are you listening to right now? Q101 radio station
21. What did you eat for breakfast? Honey Nut Cheerios and coffee
22. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Green
23. What is the weather like right now? in the 50’s
24. Last person you talked to on the phone? My husband
25.The first things you notice about the opposite sex? butt
26. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, even though we have never met in person.
27. Favorite Drink? Coca Cola
28. Hair Color? Mousey brown
29. Do you wear contacts? No but I wear glasses
30. Favorite Food? Powdered donuts
31. Last Movie You Watched? Robots
32. Favorite Day Of The Year? My son's b-days
33. Scary Movies Or Happy Endings? Happy Endings
34. Summer Or Winter? Summer. I live in Chicago and winters are a bitch.
35. Hugs OR Kisses? both
36. What Is Your Favorite Desert? Chocolate Mousse
37. Living Arrangements? Me, hubby, Big Cubby and Little Cubby. We rent.
38. What books Are You Reading? Just finished one Confessions of Super Mom by Melanie Hauser and Goodnight Nobody Jennifer Weiner. Started reading Faithless by Karin Slaughter
39. What's On Your Mouse Pad? Historic Wrigley Field
40.What Did You Watch Last night on TV? So You Think You Can Dance and Law & Order
41. Favorite Smells? Cinnamon rolls, babies, old books and victory(just joking)
42. Favorite junk food? Chips and salsa minus the salsa
43. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Rolling Stones
44. What's the farthest you've been from home? California

I tagWhoever wants to do it. Just let me know if you do so I can read it.

Say a little prayer

We have great friends who live in Bridge City, TX and had to leave their home due to Hurricane Rita. Turns out they are located in between Beaumont, Tx and Lake Charles, LA the hardest hit areas.

Luckily they left before it hit and are safe at relatives in TN. The hard part is they don't know if their house is ok. Someone they know said their house looked ok but they are not sure of the damage.

Bad news is they might not be able to go back for another month. They are not letting anyone in the area until electricity and other essentials are back on.

They are really great people and I just ask that everyone say a prayer for them asking that they can return home quickly.

Weekend Update

We had a nice weekend on Saturday we took the boys to Lincoln Park Zoo. Big Cubby had a great time. His favorite was the polar bear. There is a viewing area that looks under the water and the polar bears will dive in the water and come right up to the glass and touch it then swim on. I have to say it was pretty awesome.

Sunday I went down to Harold Washington Library and checkout a few books and then headed over to Starbucks for a latte and watch people. It was a rainy day so there weren’t many people out.

On the way home on the El a high school student tried to pick me up. When we asked me my age and I told him 33 he was shocked and told me I looked 23. Like he had a chance at any age. After I told him my age he was like nice meeting you and ran. I am a little flattered but creeped out. He asked if I lived where I lived in the area and I did not tell him the truth. He guessed Evanston and I said no then was surprised I lived in Chicago like I haven’t seen you before. Dude, there are millions of people in the area. It was a weird day.

Cub Daddy is on an overnight business trip today which really sucks. Big Cubby has drawn on the computer monitor with a pen. I luckily got it off. He almost broke the barrier that is inside the refrigerator door that holds condiments by slamming it. He has screamed in my face and has bugged his brother which in turn becomes upset and all he wants is mommy and her booby.

I am exhausted. I have a headache. I can not wait until these kids go to bed. I am thinking a little early tonight.

Tagged

I was tagged by Amy at Comments from the Peanut Gallery. This is my first time being tagged!

Ten Years Ago...

I was 23 and had been married a couple of years. I dropped out of college because I had a miscarriage and went into a deep depression. I took off a couple of semesters and was working at Fazoli’s restaurant. Where I got to wear a shirt with a logo a visor and got to say Welcome to Fazoli’s would you like to try our Sampler Platter. I smelled of garlic breadsticks and to this day I will not eat those garlic breadsticks. I did go back to college and graduated.

Five Years Ago...

We were living in a one bedroom apartment on Sheridan that looked out at Lake Michigan. We paid only $650 which I thought was a great deal. I was working at Fire Chief Magazine as a sales assistant. Tolling away for the man or in this case my boss was a woman. No, I did not get to meet any hot fireman. Fire Chiefs tend to be white haired old men. We had been living in Chicago for a couple of years. By the end of the year I was pregnant with Big Cubby.

One Year Ago...

I was pregnant with Little Cubby and exhausted because I was running after a 3 year old. Our life changed when I had Little Cubby on September 13th and we became a family of four.

Yesterday...I took Cub Daddy’s suit to the dry cleaners because he has to go on a business trip on Monday. We watched Toy Story for the 100 time. I did the laundry. Watched Survivor and CSI.

5 Songs I know all the words to...

”You Give Love a Bad Name”-Bon Jovi
“Welcome to Lazytown” Lazytown show by Nick Jr.
”Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey
“My House has Wheels” by Southern Culture on the Skids
“Slow Ride” by Foghat

5 Snacks...

Pretzels

popcorn

Hostess Twinkies

Powdered donuts

Yogurt

5 Things I'd do with 100 million dollars...

Pay off all our debt

Buy a house
Set up a charity

Set up college funds for my kids

Invest

5 Places I'd run away to...

Hawaii
Las Vegas
Giant City park in Carbondale, IL
A spa
Canada

5 Things I'd never wear...

Daisy Dukes

Stilettos
Super short skirt
Little House on the Prairie dress
thong

5 Favorite books/TV shows...

Where the Wild Things Are-Maurice Sendak
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil-John Berendt
The Outsiders-S.E Hinton
CSI
Las Vegas

5 Greatest joys...
My Husband
My Children
Krispy Kreme donuts
When the children are sleeping
reading books

5 Favorite toys...

My computer

digital camera
TV
DVD player
Cell phone

5 People I'm tagging to do this...

POW
The Drama Mama
The Stuff in my head
Mouthy Mom
Peas in my pod

Current reads...

People magazine
Parenting magazine
The 7 Stages of Motherhood-Ann Pleshette Murphy
Good Night Nobody- Jennifer Weiner
Match Me If You Can-Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Please leave a comment and let me know if you decide to answer the questions. Also I am sorry if you have all ready done this one or don't like being tagged.

No Whammys

Well, I pressed my luck today and went on an errand. I had to go to the dry cleaners to drop off some stuff my husband is going to need for a business trip Monday.

I loaded up the boys and headed out. I went to the grocery store to pull money for the dry cleaner. I bought Big Cubby a packet of M&M's to head off any resistence I might have to face. It worked like a charm.

We headed over to the dry cleaners and was in and out. The boys were great.

I almost pressed my luck and went somewhere else but decided against it. Which was probably the right choice.

No Whammys!

Thank God this mystery was been solved

Now I can sleep better knowing this. The world is a better place.


Tyra Banks Proves Breasts Are Real on TV

Press My Luck

I survived another outing. I braved the world and went to Sam’s Club today. I bribed the boys with animal crackers.

I was speeding down the aisles like I was on the game show Supermarket Sweep.

Luckily I had only a few things to get. They boys behaved well enough and I made it back home.

So what to I do? I decide to load Little Cubby in the backpack carrier and Big Cubby in the running stroller and headed up to the library. I had to push my luck today. We get up there and I return some books. I let out Big Cubby to look for books to check out and it was all over. He wanted to run around the library. Meanwhile, Little Cubby is pulling my hair out of its ponytail and smacking me in the back of the head.

I manage to grab a few books for Big Cubby and went to wrangle him in. He did not want to come so I told him that Little Cubby and I were going home to get a snack and we were leaving him there. That did the trick. He jumped on the running stroller and we were out the door.

By the time we got home I was sweating so much there was a sweat outline on my back of my bra. Oh so gross.

Shopping

Today was pay day and I hate when if happens in the middle of the week and not on a weekend because then I have to do the shopping with the boys. On the weekends, I can go by myself which is a nice break. I can also concentrate on what I need.

When I take the boys I end up over spending, forget to buy an item or forget to use my coupons. It is always a struggle to keep them from having a meltdown.

Today we went to Target and the grocery store. I wanted to go to Sam's but barely made it out of the grocery store alive. The boys were ready for lunch and were starting to meltdown.

Target is remodeling near us so everything is moved around everytime I am in there. This makes things difficult when I am trying to hurry up before the boys exploded.

This time wasn't any different. Forgot coupons, overspent and forgot to buy an item.

Tomorrow I have to go back out there to finish up my shopping. As long as I don't forget my children then I will be all right.

Weekend Update

We had a nice weekend. On Saturday we went down on the El, which is Big Cubby’s favorite thing, to Wrigley Field. The Chicago Cub player’s wives were having a food drive. I wanted Big Cubby to learn about giving to others who need it so I thought this would be a cool way.

We got down there before the game and it was all ready abuzz. I took Big Cubby up to the table and we handed over our bags of food. Todd Walker’s wife took our food and for donating we got two player autographed photos. Todd Walker’s wife is too cute. She was thanking Big Cubby and was asking if he like baseball. Big Cubby goes go Cubbies. It was funny.

The two players we received were catcher Henry Blanco and catcher Michael Barrett. It was pretty cool. I am going to frame them and put them on his wall.

We did not go to the game which Big Cubby kept asking if we were going. Next year I think I am going to get tickets for us.

Sunday was sports day at our apartment. The Bears and the Cubs were playing so we jumped back and forth.

EMMY’S
Last night I watched the Emmy’s and was kind of boring. There were a few funny parts like Jon Stewart and Conan O’Brien. I love those guys.

I watched some of the pre-show on E and let me tell you I can not stand Star Jones. She can not interview a person to save her life. She is horrible. She gushes over all the celebrities to the point that even they look at her like this is over the top.

Kathy Griffin is the only good about that pre-show and they seemed to keep her reeled in. It is a shame.

One thing I thought was so stupid. They mentioned when Halle Berry arrived that she was wearing a ponytail and that meant tomorrow ponytails would be in. Shit, I have been wearing a ponytail since Big Cubby was born 4 years ago. I hate that comment because a ponytail has always been in style. I hate when people try to make something big when it is not. It is pathetic.

Well that is my take on the Emmy’s. I really could have cared less who won because I don’t watch half the shows nominated so I don’t really know if anyone got ripped off.

Shots suck

I HATE going to our pediatrician’s office. The doctor is nice and the staff is friendly it is just every time we take the boys there is always something wrong. I break out in to sweat by the time we get there.

I find when the doctor asks his questions it comes off as accusatory and I feel I have to defend myself. Before I get to that let me tell you we took the boys to the doctor today for their 4 and 1 year check-up.

Big Cubby went first and before hand I have been prepping him about what the doctor would be doing and that he would be getting a shot. He was so brave. He did everything the doctor said and then it was time for the shot. He had to lie down on the table and he was given two shots in his leg. Cub Daddy had to hold down his arms. OMG, I thought I was going to cry the look of betrayal and him crying asking why. He kept asking why did the doctor do that to him. Then he asked to leave the room because he did not want to stay for Little Cubby’s shots. The doctor thought he looked a little pale so he ordered a blood test.

I have all ready been through this with Little Cubby and I thought he was going to have to get blood drawn today. No, this time it is Big Cubby.

Next it was Little Cubby turn. The doctor thought is weight was ok about average but thought he was on the small side. He said his lips have more color but his skin is a little pale. He is to stay on the iron supplements until next doctor’s appointment in December. Little Cubby got three shots. The good news is we are ahead on our shots so the next visit will be the last of his shots for awhile.

When the doctor was asking questions about both boys in my mind he is making me feel defensive. He asked if the boys eat meat. I jumped on him and said of course while listing what they eat. Like I am purposely making them anemic. I think my kids are a little pale. You should see my niece she is 16 months and is very pale. That is her complexion because her Daddy is that way. Next he asked if we were sending Big Cubby to preschool we said no. Then he asked why he wasn’t going or if we were going to send him to a one day program. WTF! I did not want to tell hey we can’t afford it buster. Cub Daddy says to him we are thinking of sending him in the spring. I always feel like I am inadequate when I go there.

After we left the doctor we went to Qwest to get Big Cubby’s blood drawn. Fortunately Little Cubby was asleep so I stayed in the van while Cub Daddy took Big Cubby. When they came back out Big Cubby was so sad. It was horrible. Cub Daddy said it was a bad experience.

Every time we go there is always something. Test we have to have. It gives me an ulcer every time. I do have to say that we have been very lucky because the boys haven’t been that sick and are healthy.

My Sweet Boys

Big Cubby is going to have to watch out because Little Cubby is gunning for him. Little Cubby tackled Big Cubby at the park.

Refrigerator Madness

Oh boy have I been pissed off the last few days. We rent so I have to call the landlord when anything goes wrong well something went wrong.

We have been having trouble with our refrigerator for month and sometime on Sunday night our refrigerator went completely out. Monday morning I went to get Big Cubby breakfast and noticed the fridge was a little warm I opened up the freezer it was blowing hot air.

We called the landlord which the only way is to leave a message on a voicemail. He gets back to us around 10am and tells us he is sending out a guy to look at it. The guy shows up around noon and fixes it. So I am thinking great maybe I can salvage some of the food.

We go out to the park and grab something to eat and when we get back I go to put something in fridge and it is hot. The freezer is hot. This is 7pm. I call the guy who fixed it and he says we will have to get a new one. So we both call the landlord and leave a message.

He does not get back to us until 10:30am the next day and tells us he is buying a new one but probably won’t be delivered today.

They delivered the fridge today at 1:30pm. Now I am totally pissed off because we lost everything in the fridge. We buy a lot of things in bulk and we did so recently all gone.
Yogurt, cheese, milk, expensive baby yogurt and chicken just to mention a few. GONE!

The landlord did not offer to get coolers for us or offer to cover our lose in food. Nothing! Well we are taking money out of our rent to replace the groceries we lost.

The landlord has tried to fix the fridge several times when it was obvious it needed to be replaced.

It takes forever to get anything done around here and when they do show up they do a shitty job.

I HATE this place. We have lived here for 3 and a half years. The neighborhood is changing and it doesn’t seem as safe. I am ready to move. We have to wait until next year because of a lease but I am all ready planning on moving out.

I could give you a list of things I hate about this place but I won’t bore you.

So, I have a new fridge but no food to put in it.

I think I will start doing yoga and try to relax.

Happy 1st Birthday Little Cubby

Happy Birthday Little Cubby!

Today you turn 1 year old. You were born 9lbs 4oz. Everybody at the hospital kept saying what a big baby you were, but I thought you were perfect.

You love to follow your big brother around all over the apartment. Your big brother likes policing you every chance he gets.

You love to push your toy cars all over the floor. You are really good at getting where you need to go by crawling. Sometimes you go so fast that your body can not catch up and you fall forward.

You can walk by holding on to the furniture but you are not sure about walking independently. You would rather crawl.

You love to make faces. You have a funny face when you want us to laugh. You have a pitiful face when you want attention. You have an annoyed face when your brother is bothering. You like to smile a lot.

You like to be held and to cuddle. You would be happy if Mommy or Daddy held you all day. You can give kisses but they are rare. They are special sloppy kisses when you do.

You have no intention of giving up nursing. You want to all the time. At this rate you will be doing it forever. You like to eat pretty much anything. Your Daddy says you don’t have any taste buds but he should talk he can pretty much eat anything as well.

You still are not sleeping through the night. You get up around 10 or 11pm and then again around 3 or 4am and then again around 6am. I usually can get you to sleep to 7 or 8am after that. Mommy has gotten used to sleeping in this pattern.

You think your brother is funny and you try to imitate what he does. You laugh when he picks you up and carries you to another room. You don’t like when your brother hugs you extra hard. If your brother is bothering you, you usually try to hit him to make him go away.

You can kind of do a high five. You really like to use one finger and point at everything.

You only use your pacifier only at night. You sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s room and we sleep in the living room.

You really giggle when we tickle you. You are very ticklish.

I can not believe it has been a year all ready that you entered our lives. You bring so much joy to our family and have made us whole.

We love you! Happy Birthday Baby!

Little Cubby's birth story

I have decided to write out my birth experience with Little Cubby in honor of his birthday which is tomorrow. I will write a 12 month update on him tomorrow.

Last year at this time it was a Sunday afternoon, the day before Little Cubby was born.

The Friday before I had a doctor’s appointment and I was 1cm dilated. My due date was September 13th and my doctor told me to make an appointment for that day and she would check if any progress had happen then.

So I go home a little disappointed because I really did not want to go over my due date I was ready to have this baby.

So that Sunday I woke with some cramping and feeling not myself. I did not think anything of it I just thought I was having some Braxton Hicks contractions which I had been having on and off for awhile.

We decided to take Big Cubby to the park to play and while Cub Daddy and Big Cubby were playing I decided to try to get my labor going by walking. I walked this track that was around two baseball fields about three times. I would get a little winded and would have to stop. We headed home and started to wait.

Latter that evening I lost what was my mucous plug. I did not know for sure that was what it was because I did not lose it with Big Cubby. I had to be induced with him.

We go to bed that evening and I was praying I would go into labor before Cub Daddy had to go to work Monday morning. Around two in the morning I was awakened with contractions. I sat up to start timing them to see if they were every 10 minutes, 1 minute part for 1 hour. I did this for about 30 minutes and noticed there were following a pattern so I woke up Cub Daddy to help me time them. We did this for about an hour then called the hospital. They told us to come on in.

So, I showered, ate something and got all my stuff together. We then woke up Big Cubby told him we were going to have his little brother. He did not care too much for that he was more impressed that it was still dark out and he could see the stars. This is about 5am.

We get to the hospital which is a mile away and park. We walk up to the emergency room and I have to stop like five times because of contractions. Cub Daddy had insisted on dropping me off at the door but I refused saying the walk would help the contractions along. I get close to the door and two nurses are outside and ask if I would like a wheelchair. I get in the wheelchair and we head up to the maternity ward.

They have my room ready so I get undressed and get examined. I am now 2cm dilated. They say I can have my epidural if I want it. Oh yeah did I want it.

After I got the epidural it was all about the waiting. We did not have a place for Big Cubby to go so he was in the room with us. Cub Daddy would take him out when they would do certain things.

My epidural only worked on one side of my body so basically I felt every contraction. I had a great nurse who helped me breathe through them. When I had Big Cubby I was scared to death and my birth experience was horrible. This time around I was in a different hospital and the staff was great.

Around 11:00am they broke my water bag because I was getting close to fully dilated and this would have speed up the process. Finally at noon I was ready to push. Cub Daddy had taken Big Cubby to the waiting room while I delivered Little Cubby. My doctor was delivering twins so I ended up with a room full of people though. I had two resident doctors, the attending doctor, the nurse and three medical students on there first day in the hospital. They were all female except the attending. It was a big party. I really did not mind they were like my cheering squad.

I was a woman on a mission. I did not scream or yell I just pushed with all my might. It took 20 minutes and Little Cubby was born. I had little superficial tear and that was it. Everybody said that was the best delivery they have had. I was an inspiration. I have to tell it was the easiest thing I have every done. I felt great. I actually delivered on my due date.

I had them go get Cub Daddy and Big Cubby and they were introduced to Little Cubby. I got to eat lunch and then later that afternoon Cub Daddy took Big Cubby home. The night was very long and the next morning I asked to be discharged. I did not want to stay another night. I knew I would have more help at home. So that afternoon I was discharged and we took Little Cubby home.

What the Hell everybody is doing this I will too.

I have seen this on a couple of other blogs so I might as well try it. I am usually shy and it takes awhile to warm up so maybe this will help.

1. Ask me 3 questions. Any 3, no matter how personal, private or random.

2. I have to answer them honestly. I have to answer them all.

3. In turn, you post this message in your own blog or journal and you have to answer the questions that are asked of you.

What is wrong with me

For three days I have been depressed and I can't cheer up. I know part of it is all of the sadness that is on the news about the victims of the hurricane but there is something else.

I am afraid to say it out loud because I don't want people to think I am selfish and I should be grateful. Believe me I know I am grateful for having my family safe and healthy.

My husband hasn't even noticed and if he has he is not saying anything which leads me to believe that he hasn't noticed. The man would definitely say something. That kind of pisses off and makes me sad at the same time. Big Cubby even notices something wrong and has been very loving towards me.

My husband doesn't like me to tell anyone about our debt and so our family doesn't know. We got into a little bit of credit card debt after Big Cubby was born and we are taking care of it now through a program. If we did not have the debt we would be living a little more comfortable and not dangerously paycheck to paycheck. It is going to be another year or so before it is paid off.

This keeps getting thrown into our face when we could use the money the most. I really wanted to send Big Cubby to preschool but after research we came to find out we can't afford to send him. I am not a good teacher so me trying to teach him is out of the question. This really makes me sad when I think about it.

I feel like we are failing our kids. I want them to have what I didn't. I was poor growing up and not until high school when my mom married my stepdad we actually got to go on vacation and have a better life. I don't want my them to go through what I went through.

I am now just rambling on and don't really know what I am saying. The only thing I have to do now is wait. Eventually the debt will be paid off and we have learned our lesson.

I am still sad about it and I wish my husband would notice.

OK I am going to stop depressing all of you.

Cub Daddy

My husband is the photographer in this family. I don't mean to brag but I think he is really good at it. So I am sharing his Flikr site with you. There are pictures of the boys on there and other items of interest. So please check him out and let him know what you think.

Thanks

PePe Le Pew

Last night around 9pm my husband and I were enjoying a cool night with the windows open when all of the sudden this odor came drifting through our windows.

I looked at my husband and said that smells like a skunk but that can't be right because I don't think there are any skunks in the city.

Note: We do not live near a forest perserve and are surrounding by houses and apartments. I think the nearest one is 6 to 10 miles away.

My husband says yeah it does smell like a skunk. We closed the windows and we looked out the window. We did not see anything. The neighbors across the street were doing the same thing.

The smell was horrendous. I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach.

This moring my husband went to the gym and when he came back he said that it was definitely a skunk last night. It was hit by a car right in front of our apartment building. Sure enough I looked out the window and there is a skunk with all of its insides everywhere.

Big Cubby keeps talking about and looking out the window. I have been dancing around his questions.

We called the city this morning to report it so someone can come out to pick it up. Unfortunely it is a holiday today and nobody has come out. So all day we have to keep our windows closed and keep the four year old away from the window.

I grew up in southern Illinois where there is a lot of areas for wild animals to roam. This is the first for me living in the city.

Thank goodness my son has no idea about Loony Tunes.

Lucky

Today we went for a walk and both boys ended up taking a nap along the way. Big Cubby in the running stroller and Little Cubby in the back carrier.

As we were walking enjoying the quiet, I reflected on how lucky we are to have such beautiful children. How lucky we are to have a home, clothes, and food for our children.

Sometimes I would get depressed because I think we couldn't afford certain things but after seeing the images on the news and hearing the stories of people losing everything and losing their loved ones from the hurricane, I don't think that way anymore.

I feel very lucky to have my family safe and healthy. I know I am truly blessed. I am very thankful for what I have. I will not take for granted anything I have.

I wish I could do more to help the people that were affected by the hurrincane.

But for tonight I will hug my children a little closer and be thankful.

Katrina victims

My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims of the Hurricane Katrina.