My lifted "Hand that rocks the Cradle" by Cathy Driscoll

I have actually borrowed this, but thought it very appropriate for my beliefs. Please read on and enjoy:

'The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'

By Cathy Driscoll

To The Editor: “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world” wrote William Ross Wallace back in 1865. When committed, loving parents rock the cradle, freedom flourishes. When the state is allowed to rock that cradle, evil follows. Tyrants need thugs and wimps. This “ideal” population is produced by controlling the rearing of children. George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” illustrates the brutal way the sheep dog is robbed of her puppies. Once confiscated, the puppies become trained bullies and useful enforcers. Hitler saw children as “clean slates” on which barbarism could be written, but only if they are removed from the influences of their parents. Kitty Werthmann, a living witness to life under the Nazi boot, describes how pre-Hitler Austria abounded with compassionate and respectful youth. Post Hitler brought hideous changes. Public school teachers encouraged the children to disregard their parents' “fuddy-duddy” ways. Mandatory Youth Day was designated on Sundays at the time of Catholic Mass. Parents who took their children to church instead of youth day faced capital punishment. By firmly holding the children in their hands, Nazis successfully paved the road to the Holocaust. What has happened here in the last several decades? Parents are afraid to discipline their children in public. Records are withheld from parents because of “privacy rights.” My husband was at the doctor recently and he was not allowed to be in the examination room with our own child without a doctor or nurse present. We were at a swim meet back in November and parents were actually barred from going to the changing rooms with their own children. My husband and I questioned those in charge of the meet on this policy. These officials reasoned that children needed to learn to be on their own. These adults took it upon themselves to disregard the authority of the parents. Step by step our government has morphed from respecting parents’ rights to dismantling them. Do you want this to continue turning from a snowball into an avalanche? Let’s say that you think that you won’t be affected by this trend. You don’t plan to ever have children or you have raised your children and are done with this job. First of all, are you so bereft of compassion that you can stand by and allow your fellow citizens to face forced loss of their children? Secondly, if society is full of parentless thugs, who do we think will come to our rescue when we are old and helpless? The Parental Rights Amendment, if ratified, will seal protections for parents. It states the following: Section 1: The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right. Section 2: Neither the United States nor any state shall infringe upon this right without demonstrating that its governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served. Section 3: No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret, or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article. Visit http:www.parentalrights.org. Once armed with the proper knowledge – take this case to our congressmen, senators and even your governor, mayor and local and state legislators. CATHY DRISCOLL Villas

Our Katrina Story

I meant to start my blog out with our Katrina Story, but the Superbowl was far more important to our city!

So here's the ultimate story of survival:
On August 29th, 2005 we woke up to a storm of enormous proportions. We were awakened by a phone call at 4:30am by my cousin, our original intentions were to just board up the house and wait it out, we had plenty food, water and a generator so we were ready. But our plans were altered but the shear size of the storm. This was the "big one" , the mother of all storms, our worst fear living on the Gulf Coast. And it proved to be just that.

We packed up 7 kids, 2 dogs, 1 ferret, 1 cat and 3 adults and we were ready to go. We had been given reservations at a hotel in Houston that took animals, so that's where we were headed for the classic three day storm vacation. Once on the road, but not very far out we decided to take the cat and the ferret back to the house and put them upstairs, they would have plenty of water and food and of course the company of each other. They weren't the best of friends, but they weren't the worst either. So off we went, 3 cars and everything else we could possibly fit, bye, bye New Orleans.

Once on the road, we realized that this was going to be the longest trip of our lives. We stopped as little as possible, sang, laughed, listened to the radio as much as possible and laughed at the radio announcers as they chronicled each and every minute as the storm started to bear down on New Orleans. The analogies they used were getting to be a form of entertainment for us. "Storm of biblical proportions", "on the razors edge", "catastrophic event" and the list goes on and on. I know that doesn't seem funny right now, but while driving with 7 kids, 2 dogs, 3 adults, and 3 cars for 18 hours it was hilarious. We laughed so hard at times we could hardly breathe. But on we went, for miles and miles and miles at the break neck speed of 15 mph on the highway. At one point I had to go to the bathroom, so I told my cousin to drive and I jumped out of the car, ran to the mini-mart alongside the road, went to the bathroom and ran back to the car, and they had only passed up the store by about 20 or 30 feet. Since that seemed to work, that was how we all went to the bathroom, because we didn't want to loose our place in the car line.

We finally arrived in Houston at 5 am on the morning of the 30th, checked into our rooms and immediately started to watch the television to see what was happening to our city. Wow it was beyond imagination, the wind and rain were terrible, but most of all the people that had stayed were in great danger. We felt very blessed at that moment to have had the greater sense to leave.

We tried to make this a vacation for our kids and not let them know how very worried we were, so we started to look around to see what there was to do, and we found tons of stuff.

But in the meantime, we figured out our sleeping arrangements. Since there were so many of us they put us in 2 separate rooms, but also on 2 separate floors! John and I and some of the younger kids were on the 3rd floor and the older boys were on the 2nd floor. Ouch, I knew this was going to be trouble. On the first night I got a phone call at around 2am from my oldest son, one of his brothers threw up on him, I ran down the stairs, the dog following, and tried to clean up the mess. I called down to room service, and they pretty much laughed at me, extra sheets? clean up? What? There were so many people in the hotel there were no extra sheets, so being a mom of 7 at the time, that was no problem, we made a new bed out of the bedspreads. This is an easy task for a busy mom, I have to do this all of the time at home, sheets are not washed and an accident occurs, mom has to get creative and make a new bed. So that just what we did, made a new bed. After the major clean up, I had to take the dog downstairs to the bathroom, why not right? We finished the dog potty time and went back up the stairs to the third floor and tried to go back to sleep. TV on all of the time, trying to figure out what was going on.

As I laid in bed and started to drift back off to sleep, another dreaded phone call, another throw up!!! ARGH! So I went prepared, I took our bedspreads, and anything else I could find to make yet another bed. Ran down the stairs again, dog followed again, cleaned up the mess, made a new bed, the hallway looked like a dump in the inner city, but I just could not run around the hotel with the dog and sheets full of vomit. So I left them in the hall for the cleaning service, why should I have all the fun! This I believe was the last throw up session, but the dog had to go out again, so down we ran, made doggy poop, ran back up the stairs and this time got to sleep, for about 2 hours before it was time to get up and try to eat some breakfast.

This is how we got started on our very long journey home post-Katrina.
I will post our story day by day, it's entertaining, but a very long story!

Busy Mom of 8

Well here we go! Yes this is my first NOLA mommy blog, and being from New Orleans right now is the most amazing thing that anyone can imagine! We suffered Katrina, we came back, we opened our city via national news with the Saints and the Superdome, and now, yes now, WE HAVE WON THE SUPERBOWL!!! wow, wow, wow! I have always been a proud NOLA mom, born in New Orleans, grew up in New Orleans, went to school, got married, started our married life, our business', and our huge family, yes all in the great city of New Orleans! Do I sound proud? You had better believe I am proud! We have always been known as the city of last, by others of course, but not by us, we are the city of greatness, we are "The Big Easy".

It's very hard to find someone around here that is not totally in love with this city. And right now especially, we are the "Who Dat's", our city is the nation to us. Also, better known as the "Who Dat Nation".

I am now blogging to let the world know how proud we are, but most of all, to help all of those mommies out there that are at their wits end with one or more children.

More to come, but these are my thoughts today, I will tell you more about our lives and how we survived Katrina.