loveSaturday

Learning to Fly

2010-05-22T19:42:00.008-05:00

A while back I noticed a birds nest in our red maple tree. It wasn't a very big nest, but the momma and poppa bird did a great job constructing it. The grass was woven from the nest, around the branches of the tree and then back into the nest. This was a good thing because they didn't pick the best tree to build it in. Our maple didn't fair well in the freeze this year and some of the limbs died. Without as many branches there aren't as many leaves, so when the wind blows the branches that are left really sway.

They were Orchard Orioles and Momma was yellow and Poppa was orange. I could see the parents bringing worms into the nest, but I never saw or heard the babies. Until last Monday night.

Duane heard a squeaking sound outside and we went to check it out. We found 2 of our cats surrounding this tiny little yellow bird. I scooped up the baby bird, went inside with it and googled what to do with it. I couldn't tell if there was anything wrong with it, but it sat kinda crooked in my hand, so it might have been injured. The information I found on the Internet said to get the bird back in its nest, so we dragged the ladder out to the tree and on the way out there we found another baby under the tree. That one had not been so lucky and I'm sure it had fallen prey to Bobo, our hummingbird murdering cat. We managed to get the one that had survived back in the nest and I was hoping the parents would show up. Not sure why, because I can't imagine that if they did, and the babies fell out of the nest again, they would be able to pick them up and get them to safety. So we got all the cats inside and locked the cat door for the night.

First thing Tuesday morning I went outside with my coffee to sit and watch the tree. I could see a baby sitting on a branch near the nest, but no parents yet. But then out of the corner of my eye I saw something jumping off the ground in front of the barn. Another wayward baby trying to fly. So out to the barn I went and I ended up chasing that bird all over the yard trying to get it. Every time I would get close enough to scoop it up, the baby would jump somewhere else. I chased that thing all over the place, under the trampoline and behind the barn. That's when Momma bird showed up and started squawking. Poppa bird must have heard the commotion because he showed up too and those birds were NOT happy! They were chirping and flying around me in circles, until I managed to finally get the baby and put him safely back in the tree.

By this time, Momma must have noticed she was missing one of her young, because she kept flying around the tree and looking all over the ground as if searching for something. She mainly stayed on the opposite side of the tree, so it was difficult to get a picture of her, but I was able to snap this one of her through the leaves.

And this is a little random, but during my search of the tree to try and count the babies, I saw this strange little bug. At first I thought it was a small cotton ball that had maybe blown through the air and landed on our tree, but after watching it I realized that wasn't the case because IT WAS MOVING! This little white puffball is a bug! No idea what it is, but it was pretty funny watching this ball of fuzz walking on the limbs of the tree.

Back to the birds...

This was the first baby that I had found near the barn. I stuck him back on a limb, lower than the nest obviously, since I'm no way near tall enough to do that and I wasn't dragging the ladder out again.

After my search of the tree I saw 3 birds total, so there must have been 4, counting the one the cats got. They were so sweet, with their down sticking out of the tops of their heads. They reminded me of Albert Einstein, with that white hair sticking out every which way.

I was trying to get ready for work, but kept worrying about the birds, so I kept making trips around the yard searching for stragglers. On my last trip before leaving the house, I found this little guy, who proceeded to crap on my fingers, near the back of the barn.

Behind the barn we have a pecan tree and next to the pecan tree, in our neighbor Bob the Builders yard, is a Crepe Myrtle and behind the Crepe Myrtle, in our other neighbors yard, is the huge tree that the falcons built their nest in last year. Now, I don't speak bird, so I don't know what all the chirping was about, but I can only imagine that those parents were telling their babies to get to those trees in the back of the yard, away from me and my murdering cat. They would fly from the pecan tree to the maple tree, flap their wings, chirp at the babies and then fly back to the pecan tree.

These next pictures are me stalking the birds. They were just so sweet that I couldn't leave them alone. Once in a while they would chirp and I'm thinking they were saying "Lady, get that camera out of my face, I'm trying to learn how to fly here!"

The night before, in my quest to find out what to do with the bird I saved from the cats, I also learned that it's all a myth about parent birds abandoning their babies if people touch them. I read that birds have a terrible sense of smell and can't tell if people have been handling them. But then again, anyone can write anything and post it on the internet, so who knows if it's true. All I know is that this Momma didn't have to smell me on her bird to know. She could clearly see that I was holding her baby. And I could clearly tell that she wasn't going to abandon it. Not with all the squawking and flying around she was doing.

I eventually put the baby back in the tree, kept the cats locked inside and off to work I went.

Duane gets home an hour before me so I called him to see if he had seen any birds. He hadn't. But the first place I went after getting home was out to the tree. Of course I had to stop at the Winn Dixie on my way home to buy oranges and grape jelly, because I had read that's what Orchard Orioles like and I wanted to give them a peace offering for torturing them that morning, and also to maybe lure them to stay around a bit longer after their babies started flying.

When I finally got out to the tree I could only see one baby in it. Sitting contently on the branches. Momma saw me and started squawking again and wouldn't you know it, that baby flew! You can barely see him behind the bare branches in the picture above, but he's flying! Flying to a higher branch in his quest to get away from me I'm sure.

Meanwhile, Momma was still searching for her babies. She kept looking down at the ground on both sides of the fence. It was pretty sad :(

This is the last picture I got of the baby. On Friday morning, while we were waiting to pull out of our subdivision on the way to school, Blaire and I had witnessed a hit and run accident. And as I was waiting to watch the baby bird fly away, our neighbor, the one that had gotten hit in the hit and run, came over to get my contact information. When I finally was able to return to the backyard the baby was gone and all the baby bird chirps were now coming from the pecan tree behind the barn. Success!

Except I later found another baby in the grass next to the maple who didn't make it. It was right near where the momma bird kept looking at the ground, so she must have known it was there before I did. I'm thinking it was the one that the cats had injured the night before. So it was a happy and sad situation, but at least one of the babies made it, possible two, because I never saw the fourth bird after I had left in the morning. I choose to believe that it made it to the pecan tree before I made it home from work that day :)

Prom Queens

2010-04-25T11:42:00.001-05:00

It's prom season!

Time for tulle and sparkles and fun. And it isn't just a fun time for the prom goers either. Ohh no! It's a fantastic opportunity for all the parents to snap tons of photos of their favorite people! And our favorite people didn't disappoint us.

Here they are all dolled up, faking the pinning of the boutonniere. Maybe we should teach her how?

Really cute story of how he asked her to prom. She had been waiting patiently for him to ask and finally, on facebook, he says: "Well I have been meaning to ask you something for sometime now and I just didn't know how to ask you. Well here goes can I drive your car? Pretty please with sugar on top!!! ;)"

And if you know Bri, and I say this with all the love in the world, you know that she can be kinda ditzy some times. So, she's all confused about why Justin wants to drive her car when he has his own car, and she asks him "Can you drive my car?"

And he says "Haha you like that lol? Oh and will you go to prom with me? You know it has to be facebook official! :p" and she says "Lol drive my car ?? Hahaa. Well of course I will go to prom with you (:"

She kept walking back into the living room from her bedroom asking us, why did he ask to drive me car? It was pretty cute and so totally Bri. And now she had a date to prom!

We had been having the most beautiful spring weather up until the day of prom. Then Friday hits and it's a dark and rainy day, filled with all the mugginess of a typical Louisiana day. It seemed that our 10 days of spring were over and done with!

But these girls, in their brightly colored dresses made us forget all of that and brought the sunshine back to what was a dreary day.

All of us parents met at Sarah’s house for the picture taking ritual. Her home is absolutely gorgeous and because of the rain we decided to go out back where it is covered for the outside shots. It was a breathtaking out there and I could not wait to finish the inside pictures so we could get back out there.

Wondering who this sassy beauty is? Meet Kayla! She’s Bri and Sarah’s new bestie!! And she is such a poser! I had a blast taking her picture because she is goofy and isn’t scared to show it. She fits in perfectly!

Ahh, a group shot. This wasn’t easy for me, being so short and trying to take pictures of people up higher than me, and the railing didn’t help. The first pictures made them look like they were in a crib!

So, back to Justin. I don’t think I ever mentioned here on the blog that the first time he came to pick Bri up for a date at our house he had a little trouble finding us. Bri had told him to look for Golden Gate, our street. We’re waiting and waiting for him to show up and we see him drive by on the main road. A couple times. So Bri calls him up and tells him he keeps passing us up and so she’s directing him to our street and he passes it again! Finally we flashed the porch light so he could see the house.

Later Bri tells us that he could not find the house because he was looking for a golden gate. A GOLDEN GATE. Like as in a gold gate. Cuute! They’re so compatible.

After taking a few pictures in the house we decided to head on over to the portrait studio and take a few.

Just kidding!! This was the gorgeous backyard I was talking about! You can clearly see the dreary sky, but you can only see a tiny bit of the pond back there. Oh how I wished it hadn’t been raining and the grass wasn’t wet, so we could take pictures on the bridge. Maybe next year for their senior prom it won’t be raining.

Then we have Sarah and Taylor. Duane had to take this picture because every time short me would take it, the patio beam above his head would look like it was going through his head! He is one tall young man!

And last, but not least, we have Kayla and Paul looking sharp in their pinks and reds and stripes and swirls. And their smiles that light up a room. There was no having to tell these two to smile for the camera!

We took some photos of the couples and then some group shots outside and then it was time to turn the girls loose in front of the camera and they did not let us down.

We got funny poses.

Sweet poses.

And how much longer do we have to wait poses.

We all shuffled back in so the kids could get going. It was going to be a long night of fun for them. Dinner at PF Chang’s and then off to Stage One for the big event, a friend’s house after prom and afterwards the girls were all spending the night at Kayla’s house.

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore Bri’s friends. Really good kids. And fun to be around! Love them! Sometimes Sarah even hangs out with us when Bri isn’t home!

So this was the end of the photography session and the first prom is out of the way! I can’t wait for their next opportunity to dress up so I can snap away and give them lasting memories of how much fun they had in High School! These three musketeers are seniors next year so I’m expecting I’ll be pretty busy with the camera. I can’t wait!

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

2010-04-18T09:28:00.017-05:00

Yesterday we went to Duane's company picnic and had a lot of fun! There was a crawfish boil and a bunch of activities for both the kids and adults.

We weren't there for very long before it was time to eat! I'm not a big fan of boiled crawfish, it has to do with eating things that still have their eyeballs attached. But Duane and the girls can never get enough of them.

If you've never been to a crawfish boil, you've never been to Louisiana. If you really want to experience it though, springtime is the time when you want to visit.

There was a ton of crawfish, potatoes and corn on the cob.

I ate a hot dog.

I can't actually say that eating boiled crawfish is quite the experience, since I've never technically done it myself. Duane peels them for me. But if you're a true native, you have no issues with the process and you dig right in.

First you have to remove the head.

You do this by holding both ends of the crawfish and twisting it so the tail separates from the head. Then you pinch the end of the tail and pull the tail meat out with your hand or your teeth. At least I think this is how it works!

When you remove the head from the crawfish, if you want to savor every drop of spice, you can suck the head before you discard it. Yuck!

Or you can stick it on your finger and terrorize your sister.

After the boil, there was a crawfish hunt for the kids. They did it in 3 separate groups so the little ones had a chance. This was the 11 and up group.

They hid plastic crawfish in the hay and once they get the go ahead, the kids start digging through the hay to find them.

And they win money depending on how many and what size they find. There are crawfish worth $1, $5, $10 and even a $20 crawfish!

Bri came away with $9 and Blaire won a whopping $22.

Then it was time for the chipping contest. Whoever chipped their golf ball into the hula hoop, or closest to it, won the prize. No one got their ball inside the hoop, but the wife of one of the "golfers" at the plant won!

And then we had the egg toss. Bri and Blaire entered as a team and they did really good! In fact we thought they had won, and they were even given their prizes. They were each handed a $40 gift card to Walmart! Bri was excited...that mean a tank full of gas for her car!

And then it was realized that there was another team still in the competition, so they started tossing again. Bri caught the egg, but when she tossed it back to Blaire... this is what happened. No $40 gift card for you!

The final competition was the trike race. All week out at the plant people were voting on who they wanted to see in the race. Each vote cost $1. All the money was going to support the March of Dimes and the top 5 vote getters would be entered in the race.

When we got there Duane only had $10 on him and wasn't one of the top 5. But then Blaire won some money and by the time the race started he had the 3rd most votes, so he picked his trike and was all ready to race!

Then this happened. Twice. He started out backwards on his bike and didn't like that, so he turned around, rode for a second and bit the dust.

He wasn't the only one though. This is the Plant Manager taking his turn on the gravel. They should have had elbow and knee pads!

Duane was determined and kept racing. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop laughing.

And down he goes again!

But he got back on and after scoping out the competition he knew he had 2nd place in the bag.

What a blast we had! They really did a nice job putting on this picnic and we can't wait for next year!

We probably should get a tricycle for Duane to practice on though, because I'm saving up my dollars since I don't want to miss out on seeing him race again.

Cockadoodle Doo!

2010-04-11T08:08:00.012-05:00

I am in love.

With a chicken.

Let me back up a bit and explain the whole situation.

On March 30th there was a fire at a warehouse across the railroad tracks from where I work in Denham Springs. A big fire. And we were evacuated. The plant in the upper right corner of this picture is ours. It took a lot of firemen from the area to put out the fire and we couldn't be more thankful to them. The fire was in a warehouse that houses chemicals. A lot of chemicals. And the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Quality are still out there cleaning and investigating 13 days later. They have our road closed and we have to stop at a police car that is stationed on our road every day and let the officer know where we are going.

The road at the bottom of the picture, with the line of cars, is the road I travel when I come in to work. But with the road closed I can't come in that way anymore. So I have to take a different route. And I curse that different route daily. Until last Friday.

I was driving down Range Avenue, about to enter Antique Alley, when something caught my eye.

It was a GIGANTIC rooster. And it looked like it was as tall as me! I know you're all thinking that the gigantic is not the word that comes to mind when thinking of my height, but if you think about a rooster being as tall as me... it would be GIGANTIC!

I didn't have much time to check out this wonderful animal as I was passing by, but I knew it was colorful, made out of recyclable materials and it had to be mine! I called Duane as soon as I got to work and made a date with him to go to Antique Alley on Saturday.

And that was exactly what we did. As we pulled up I found out that the place was called Korner Shop Antiques and it was a small warehouse filled with all things old and wonderful.

There were tables and doors and windows. All kinds of things made out of metal and old wood. And it was cramped in there. I don't think you could possible find anywhere else to put things and if it wasn't colorful, easy to spot roosters that I was looking for I probably would have spent the whole day in there and not seen everything that they had. It was like someone put together a giant jigsaw puzzle of this and that, and the missing pieces of the puzzle were your path through the entire maze.

The first thing we looked at was that big, beautiful rooster I saw the day before. He was outside, as obviously some things were spilling out of the cramped inside. And he was even bigger than I remembered. And Duane's eyes bugged out of his head when he saw just how large this animal was. And her $189 price tag.

So we ventured inside and started looking for all the small ones roosting inside. Each one we found was unique and I loved them all. There were small ones, medium ones, large ones, and of course the extra large ones outside.

I loved this medium sized blue one. And he almost came home with me. But Polibut didn't.

It came down to these 3. It was so hard to choose! The one on the right was mostly orange. The one in the middle was shaped differently than the others. He had a longer neck and bigger feet. And the one on the left won my heart.

These 2 looked so cute together. I couldn't possible break them up.

Oh and there were pigs too! And flamingos and mushrooms and we even saw some bunnies.

But it was a rooster that I came for, so it was a rooster that I left with. Meet Henry.

He's going to make a great pal for Lucy when she finally gets her final clear coat and makes her way out to the barn.

Year One

2010-04-04T20:25:00.012-05:00

I can't believe it's been one year already. One year since I started my blog! I've had so much fun taking pictures of our life and writing about it. Admittedly, there have been times when I slacked off and couldn't get the energy or the creative juices flowing to write a post, but that doesn't mean I stopped taking photos.

I have thousands of pictures that need to be gone through. When I pick up the camera I don't take just one picture. I take hundreds. Hundreds of pictures of the same thing. Just trying to get that one good shot. And that means I have to go through them, find the photos I want to use, edit them, resize them and then delete the junky ones. And if there are photos I'm not going to use, but don't want to delete, I have to edit and resize those ones too. Because the photos I take are huge files and more than once I've run out of space on my laptop. Like today. So then I have to move them over to the external hard drive and hope that I remember where all the pictures are.

I need to be more organized with my photos!

So here is what I'm getting at. I don't have time today, (Happy Easter everyone!) to put together a post to celebrate my blogs first anniversary. So instead, I'm just going to show you images from some of the posts I've been wanting to write about in the past year, but haven't found the time. Yep, I'm a slacker!

Enjoy the photos below and hopefully before another year passes I'll have blogged about each one of them.

The Minnow Catcher

The Wedding Cabin

Dollywood

Wonderworks

Old MacDonalds Putt Putt

Tennessee Aquarium

Nemo

Hummingbirds

Ring Ceremony

The Whatnot Shop

The Trampoline

Fun on the Farm Day

The Baton Rouge Zoo

Easter Eggs

Thank you to everyone who stops by. It's been a blast and I really appreciate that you keep coming back to see what we've been up to!

884 Days in a Leotard

2010-04-03T08:00:00.018-05:00

Blaire has been doing gymnastics for years. She started out at BREC, which is the Parks and Recreation Commission for East Baton Rouge Parish and was a recreational gymnast. But in 2006 her coach moved over to CG's Gymnastics, a local gym and became the Girls Program Director. Blaire went with her and started competitive gymnastics as a level 3, age 10.

I can't remember exactly, but I think she started out going 3 days a week for a couple hours each time. Since gym was only 2 hours each time, whomever drove her there would stay and watch practice, instead of driving home and driving back to get her. I even got my job because of Blaire's gymnastics! The mom of one of her teammates gave me a job because Duane talked me up so much!

By the time she reached level 6, this season, she was going 14 hours a week. She had gym Monday through Friday, every night for 3 hours, except Wednesday, which was only 2 hours. She'd come home tired, sore, happy and hungry! And I'm not going to sugar coat it. It wasn't fun barely seeing her! But she loved it!

I'd get home from work at 4:30 and she had to be on the road to the gym at 5:30, so either we ate early, or she ate alone. And then her Daddy would drive her 20 minutes to the gym, come back home and then leave again to pick her up, getting home around 9:30. Just in time for her bedtime. Except she still needed a shower, sometimes had homework to finish up and of course hungry, after all that working out! And I was usually asleep by the time she got home.

She didn't just learn gymnastics at the gym. She gained a whole other family at the gym. Met lots of friends and had a coaching staff that took care of her during the time she was there. During the summers her practice changed from nights to days, so she would go there in the morning for summer camp, get pulled out of camp for practice and then go back to camp after practice. She also went to Bela Karolyi's camp out in Texas a couple of summers and stayed for a week each time. The first year her Daddy drove her over there, but the second time she went I was able to make the drive with them and we got to see Bela and his wife, Marta! Bela even drove the shuttle bus that took us from the cabins to the registration area. That was a treat, especially after watching him during the Olympics for years!

Towards the end of each year the competitive season would start and she would start having meets during the weekends. We traveled between New Orleans and New Iberia mainly, but last year we went to Texas and her Momma even took her to a meet in Florida this year.

During home meets we would have to work at the gym. We all spent a lot of time over the years working the concessions and setting up and taking down the gym. I can't tell you how many times I vacuumed that big red floor mat. Thankfully we got a new floor last year, so when I vacuumed it this last time it wasn't red anymore. It was blue and that made it feel like I had never done it before!

That first season she would end up with 5 medals each meet. One for each event and one for her overall performance. As the seasons went on, the medals became harder to receive, but Blaire never came home empty handed. She started out with Balance Beam and Floor as her strongest events, but in the end it was her Vault that was her best.

For obvious safety reasons, you can't use flash photography when the gymnasts are competing, which made it hard to take good pictures. The gyms she competed in usually didn't have a whole lot of light in them and the girls were usually competing a good distance away from the bleachers we sat in. Factor in all the movement and I'd usually end up with a ton of grainy photos of dark blurs! But this last meet was held at the Alario Center in Westwego, LA and they have huge windows that let in a bunch of light and while the photo's weren't exactly perfect, they were usable. Luckily the girl's Aunt Penny and Uncle Terry came down to see this meet! Terry bought a D90 for Penny for Christmas and I used it allll weekend and got way better pictures than I would have if I used my D60. Hint hint Duane :)

You would think that with all the hours of gym she was putting in her grades would suffer. But gymnasts lean towards better performance in school and Blaire was no exception. She was able to maintain her good grades. I'm sure it helps when you know that if the grades go down, that activity that you love so much...it goes away.

After many long hours of gymnastics, sore muscles, ripped palms, sweat, smiles, tears and tons of medals, Blaire decided that this was her last season of gymnastics. She is starting High School in the fall and as you can imagine, when you spend all your time in the gym you don't have as much time for a social life. She missed a lot of hanging out with her friends from school, basketball games, first quarters of football games and just being a kid. Granted, I don't think she would have changed a thing, but now that she's going to be in high school there is going to be a whole lot more that she'll want to participate in.

And she's trying out for Freshman Cheer later this month! With all that tumbling and watching her sister cheer since Junior High, tryouts should be a cinch!

Dear Blaire,

Your Dad and I couldn't be more proud of all you have accomplished during your time in gymnastics. We watched all of your hard work and long hours pay off during your competitions. We've watched you grow from being a tiny little thing jumping around the gym into a graceful, young lady who was always a pleasure to watch during your meets. Watching you at your final meet last weekend was bittersweet. I don't think I'm ready to see gymnastics go away completely yet, but I sure am going to enjoy having you around more! So please don't stop doing the handstands down the hallway to your bedroom or the kicks in the kitchen. I'm just not ready yet :) But I am excited for your next chapter. Go Wildcats!

Love,
Stephanie (:

Belles and Beaux

2010-04-02T11:01:00.013-05:00

March 24, 2010. The search was on for the Belle of Central High.

Each class votes on a set amount of girls from their entire class and the top girls chosen get to participate in the Belles et Beaux pageant.

The Junior class had 15 girls to choose.

And Bri was one of them!

And so was Sarah!

All of the girls looked so pretty, but I'm particularly partial to these two. They were absolutely stunning.

And Sarah cleans up pretty good!

I seriously can't imagine why she didn't win!

In addition to the finding the Belle, they are also looking for the Beaux of Central High.
There are 12 boys, so each one escorts 4 girls. Dream come true! This was Bri's beaux escort, Bert.

And this is the real Beaux. Justin. Very, very nice. And we like him. A lot! We can't wait for him to stop taking all these trips around the country and come hang out with us :)

Bri got a good luck kiss and some lipstick on her cheek from Mom before taking the stage.

Here she comes... Miss Bri! She strutted her stuff across that big stage. Didn't trip or anything!
We were so proud of her and so happy that she got to participate in this.

While each girl was walking the stage the announcer would say a little something about each girl. They said Bri hoped to become a Monumental Nurse. Errr... Neonatal Nurse!

These were the beauxs.

And they were so entertaining! We got a lot of laughs at their expense.

And here is Jo'lea, Miss Belle of Central High. Beautiful! Congratulations!

The girls had a blast and there is always next year to win the crown. Or Miss Congeniality. But even if they don't win, we still love them. And we can always have our own pageant.

Bri can be Miss Karaoke.

And Sarah can be Miss Wimbledon.

Disclaimer: You'll have to excuse the bad photography. The lighting was awful and I haven't quite gotten the hang of working around it!

We All Scream For Ice Cream!

2010-03-28T18:14:00.003-05:00

It was a beautiful Monday afternoon. The girls had come back home and Sarah was visiting. That's always a fun time! Then Bri realized she didn't have her History book and so she took Sarah with her and drove back over to her Mom's house to get it. But it wasn't there.

And stopped at Sonic on the way. But didn't bring back anything for anybody else!

Thankfully the familiar sound of the Ice Cream Truck grew closer to our house and Blaire came running out of her room asking for dollars. I had 2 in my car and Duane had 1 in his truck, so out to the street the girls ran with their 3 dollars. With Duane and I screaming after them "creamsicle" "fudgesicle".

Except the Ice Cream Man has apparently raised his prices in the many years it's been since I ran out to his truck on the street. So Sarah came back to scrounge for more dough and I grabbed a bunch of quarters from the change jar for her.

The trip out to the curb was eventually successful and the girls came back smiling!

I think the novelty of a musical truck roaming the neighborhood is what makes one crave an ice cream bar from the side of the road though. Because we had Great Divide bars in the fridge and they are way better than the ice cream that comes off that truck! And my creamsicle.... It's still in the freezer. Two weeks later!

And that History book Bri had to go get? It was in her car the whole time.

Missing

2010-03-14T13:26:00.004-05:00

Christmas 2009 was almost upon us and I told Blaire that all I wanted was Pioneer Woman's Cookbook. She said she'd get it for me! I was so excited. I couldn't wait for Christmas to get here, so I could actually hold in my hands what I had been reading about for months.

Then, a few weeks later, she told me she wasn't getting it for me. She said she found something else that she thought I would really like. Uh, HELLO! I want the cookbook! But what could I do.

She knows me pretty well and she knew how much I wanted that cookbook. If she says she found something I would really like, then she must have found something I would really, really like.

A few days before Christmas I walked in the door after work and found this in my kitchen:

She had made me a new Lucy!

My Grandpa, with the help of my Gramma and my Mom, had made me the first Lucy 14 years ago. Over the years, and after one snowy Chicago winter, Lucy deteriorated, until she was unable to stand on her own anymore. She was now spending her days propped up on a work bench inside the barn. And I missed her.

Blaire, with a bit of her Daddy's help, used the first Lucy as a pattern and secretly made me an almost exact replica. I love that kid! And she was right, she had found something that I would really like better.

But I still wanted that cookbook. And was thrilled when it arrived in the mail, a gift from some great pals of mine. I was even able to send it away to PW, who graciously signed it for me and mailed it back.

Then the cookbook went missing.

A week before I noticed my treasured book was gone, Bri came to me and asked if I had seen her hairdryer. It was a valid question, since I've been known to take her fabulous hairdryer before. But I hadn't taken it this time. We looked all over the house. Several times. We asked if she had taken it to her Mom's house. We asked if she had taken it to a friends house. We searched Blaire's room. And asked Bri over and over again if it was in her room. It was nowhere to be found.

Last weekend I went to get my cookbook. And it was gone. Vanished. I searched the house and couldn't find it. We came to the conclusion that someone broke into our house and stole the hairdryer and the cookbook. That had to be it! Until we realized that if someone broke into the house, they probably would have taken TVs and video games, not a cookbook and a hairdryer.

Sarah was over that weekend and was getting ready to go back home. She needed Bri's car keys and I can't remember why she needed them, but it doesn't matter why. What matters is that when she was looking for the keys, she picked up some clothes at the end of Bri's bed and there was the hairdryer! Bri had been sleeping with it for a week and had no idea it was there. We had a good laugh over it. Then I told Sarah to find my cookbook.

But she wouldn't. And it remained missing.

Until yesterday. As I was getting Duane's golf clubs for him, I had to navigate my way around the treadmill to the spot where he keeps them. That's when I saw it. Sitting on the little plastic book holder on the treadmill. And I remembered that day, so long ago, when I was walking on the treadmill, reading all the wonderful, butter filled recipes that I wanted to make.

See all that dust?

I guess it's a good thing that it was on the treadmill that I found the cookbook, because it will make me think, every time I open that cookbook and unwrap a stick of butter, that I also need to dust off the treadmill and go for a walk.

Let's see how long that lasts!

Plant Kitties

2010-03-14T08:41:00.006-05:00

Duane leaves for work everyday and I think he goes to work at a chemical plant. I think this because that's what he tells me. I've even been out there and have seen these big tanks that makes it look like a chemical plant. I've also been out there on two separate occasions and have come home with a kitten each time. I think my husband works at a cat farm.

Duane is working this weekend and he called me up wanting to go golfing with the guys after work. Except that he had taken his clubs out of his truck before leaving in the morning. Me, being the great wife that I am, offered to drive out there and bring him his gear.

Walking into the warehouse, I was greeted by two, very skittish, cats. They were adorable, but wouldn't let me near them.

I followed them around the warehouse, up and down those aisles. What a great place for a cat to live! Lots of places to hide, climb, sleep. Apparently these two are inseparable. And they are identical except one is orange and one is not.

Some time back, all the cats, and there are several, were caught in traps and taken to the pound to be spayed and neutered. They were then brought back to their home on the farm...errr, chemical plant. They also clipped one ear on each of the cats they fixed, so it's known which ones still need to be taken in. And they did it for free.

There is also a black cat that I didn't see. She's the one that I really wanted to visit though, because she is the one that would let me pet her. She must have been off sleeping somewhere. Or chasing mice. I've been told that she's the most tame of them all. But it wasn't meant to be yesterday. Maybe next time.

Mr. Wayne, another worker out at the cat farm, takes care of them. He was the one that transported the kitties to be fixed. He is also the one that feeds them. And he even comes out on the weekends to make sure that they have food. Which means, while they run from everyone else, they don't run from him. And they use the golf cart that he uses to get around the plant, for their afternoon nap.

I sure am glad that someone loves those cats. And maybe next time I'll bring some catnip with me. And some jingle bell balls. For sure that will get those kitties to love me too.

Just Dance

2010-03-13T09:54:00.002-06:00

Blaire spent the night at a friends house and all she could talk about when she came back home was this game she had played on the Wii. "Can we get Just Dance" "Let's get Just Dance" "I want to dance, can we get that game?". So one morning, while she was still sleeping, I went to the Walmart and I got that game.

And I have to say it's the best video game I have ever bought. They love it. They can't get enough of it. They dance, take a break, and dance some more. They dance at night and they dance first thing in the morning. They dance until they can't dance anymore. And then they dance again.

And they have favorites. Oh yeah. Favorites that we hear over and over and over again.

Like this fun little song by the Caesars.

Wind me up, put me down

Start me off and watch me go

I'll be running circles around you sooner than you know-o

A little off center and I'm out of tune

just kickin' this can along the avenue, but I'm alright

cuz it's easy, once you know how it's done
You can't stop now, it's already begun

you feel it, running through your bones

This was a fun song to dance to!

Over and over and over. Until you start wondering Who Let the Dogs Out?? Or you're craving Mashed Potatoes. Or you want to Pump Up The Jam. There are so many different songs to dance to, so if your Groove is in the Heart, go out and get this game!

Oh, and I beat Blaire once :) Obviously the game doesn't know if you're really dancing or not, just if you can move your hand with the controller correctly. LOL.

Fruit Pizza

2010-03-13T07:25:00.002-06:00

Bri isn't much of a breakfast eater. Besides the fact that she doesn't wake up until around 1pm on the weekends, she doesn't like milk, not much of a cereal eater and if you make her pancakes they get smothered in Hershey's Syrup. But she loves a good fruit pizza! Simple to make and, besides the sugar cookie crust and the cream cheese and sugar pizza sauce, it's full of fruit and pretty healthy!

All you need is a tube of sugar cookie dough, a 8oz package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 TSP vanilla extract. If you want, you can also make the crust on your own, using this recipe.

Roll out the sugar cookie dough and using a 3 inch circle cutter make as many pizza crusts as you'd like. Following the directions on the package, bake the cookies.

While the cookies are baking, mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract until well blended.

Slice up your choices of fruit for the toppings. We use bananas, grapes, strawberries and kiwis. Give yourself a good amount of time if you're using grapes, since you only get about 4 slices per grape and you'll have to slice up a lot grapes to feed your hungry kids!

Once the cookies are cooled, let the kids take over! All they need to do is spread the cream cheese pizza sauce onto the cookie and cover it in whatever fruit they'd like. They will love them!

Enjoy :)

Cheeseburger Pie

2010-03-09T20:11:00.006-06:00

Duane brought me home a recipe from work last week! Mrs. Brenda, whom I adore and Duane gets the pleasure to work with, gave it to him to give to me and he kept asking me when I was going to make it. I had stuck it away in my old recipe binder when I was cleaning the counter off and if you've ever seen my old recipe binder you'd know it was going to be lost to the world!

So I called Duane up on my way home from work and asked him to brave that old recipe binder and find the Cheeseburger Pie recipe from Mrs. Brenda! He was up to the challenge and after shuffling through the many folded up recipes that I put in that old binder he found it and gave me the ingredients over the phone. Luckily, there were only 6 items that I didn't have and needed to pick up at the store. My memory isn't all that great and if it had been 7 items I'm sure I would have forgotten one of them! You should have heard me all the way to the store: ground beef, 8oz tomato sauce, sharp cheddar, onion, bell pepper, pie shell, ground beef, 8oz tomato sauce...and, well, you get the picture.

I made that Cheeseburger Pie tonight and now I'm kicking myself for filing it away last week, because I'm sure the girls would have loved to eat it. Guess I'll have to make it again next week.

The only thing that I would change when making it for kids is to saute the onion and bell pepper to soften it up a bit before baking it in the pie. I enjoyed the crunch it gave the pie, but I don't think the girls will, and the softer it is, the less they notice it :)

RECIPE

Filling:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 TSP oregano
1/2 TSP salt
1/4 TSP pepper
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup fine/dry bread crumbs
8 oz tomato sauce
1 frozen pie shell

Cheese Topping:
8 oz sharp cheese, grated
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/2 TSP salt
1/2 TSP mustard
1/2 TSP worchestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 425.

Brown ground beef and drain.
Add the rest of the filling ingredients to ground beef and mix well.
Put filling in pie shell.

Mix cheese topping ingredients together and spread it over the top of the pie.
Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Jump Jump Win

2010-03-07T16:33:00.005-06:00

It was January 24th, 2010.
The Saints were playing the Vikings.
In the NFC Championship game.
Yesss, I said NFC Championship game!!

But before the game started, some jumping had to be done.

It was a beautiful day.

Sure, the yard was muddy.

It had rained and rained and never seemed to stop raining in January.

But January 24th was a beautiful day.

And the Saints were in the NFC Championship game!

And we all know what happened after dat :)

Wilson

2010-03-07T07:42:00.019-06:00

Do you remember Wilson on Home Improvement?

He was Tim's go to guy whenever he had a problem...which was always.
Anyway, Wilson's full face was never shown during the 8 years of the show, except on the finale.

And Bri continues that concept...

Here are a few pictures of Bri at Christmas... 2009.
See... 2009 that was just 3 months ago, so I'm not THAT far behind!!

A nice picture of Bri with her new jammies.
Blaire is the monkey girl in the family, but these colors just shouted Bri's name to me.
And they make me smile every time I do laundry now :)

Oh look...eyebrows!

And we have an ear!

And a forehead.

And eyes!!

So that's pretty much the extent of Brianna, Christmas 2009.
Hope you enjoyed her lovely face :)

Toast Cups with Bacon, Egg and Cheese

2010-02-20T11:54:00.009-06:00

I found a fun little breakfast recipe on The Noshery that looked so cute I knew we just had to make it!

Ingredients for 1:

1 piece of bread
1 piece of bacon
1 TBSP shredded cheese
1 egg
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400.

So on this beautiful Saturday morning, Blaire and I got ourselves into the kitchen. Blaire cut the bread with a 3 inch circle cookie cutter and plopped the toast into the bottom of a regular sized muffing pan. Then we realized that we hadn't sprayed the muffin cups with the butter cooking spray, so we took the toast back out, sprayed the muffin pan and put the bread circles back in!

I pressed the edges of the toast down and then up the sides of the muffin cups. They don't go very far up the sides, but just enough.

Meanwhile, we had been baking the bacon in the oven. You don't want it crispy, so about 14-15 minutes in the oven will do, if you've not preheated the oven. It will cook up the rest of the way later, but you need it pliable.

Once the bacon is ready get all the grease off of it with paper towels and put it in the muffin tin like so:

Take 1 TBSP shredded cheese and put it inside your little bacon/bread cup. Then stick it in the oven, that you've preheated to 400, for about 5 minutes.

Once your cheese is good and melted, you want to take an egg and separate the yolk from the whites. You're only going to use the yolks, but it's OK to have a little white still in there. But mainly just yolk.

Pour the yolk on top of the cheese, season with salt and pepper and put back in the oven for about 10 minutes. You want the yolk nice and creamy.

Pop those suckers out of the muffin pan with a spoon and enjoy!

Stuffed Mushrooms

2010-01-31T09:58:00.008-06:00

I wanted to make something I had never made before. And I've never been a huge fan of mushrooms. Sure I like them on pizza and sometimes in my salad, but I've never popped a whole mushroom in my mouth and just melted from the flavor. Until now.

I found a recipe for stuffed mushrooms while perusing food blogs. The picture is what sold me. They just looked like little bites of deliciousness. And I had to try them.

So off to Oak Point Market I went for the following ingredients:

15 mushrooms
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup pecorino cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 TSP fresh thyme, chopped
1 TBSP fresh basil
salt and pepper
olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 350.
Clean mushrooms and remove stem.
Place mushrooms bottom side up in a parchment lined baking dish.
In a small bowl, combine cheeses, garlic, thyme & basil.

Season with salt & pepper.
Drizzle olive oil over mushrooms.
Fill each mushroom with the cheese filling.
Top mushrooms with another drizzle of olive oil.

Bake for about 25 minutes.

Verdict: The tops were a little crisp, but once you bit into the center, the cheeses were all melted and soft and yummy! I loved them! And Duane ate a few too. And he's definitely not a whole mushroom eater either!

So simple and delicious. I'll be making them again. Especially since I have more Pecorino to use up!

Bacon

2010-01-16T09:12:00.003-06:00

I have no pictures, because we ate it up too fast. But, what I want to share is not the bacon that I cooked this morning, but rather the way that I cooked it.

I have found, thanks to Pastor Ryan, over at This is Reverb, the best way to cook bacon. Ever. No mess. What could be better?

So go pay him a visit. You won't regret it. Your hips might though :)

Geauxing to Orlandeaux

2010-01-03T17:49:00.008-06:00

We were the lucky recipients of some Capitol One Bowl tickets to see LSU play Penn State on January 1, 2010. So we packed up the truck and headed to Orlando, FL after I got off work on New Years Eve. We got on the road around 11am and it's about a 10 1/2 hour drive, without stopping. But we stopped. We stopped for lunch and we stopped for coffee and we stopped for gas.

We finally got to the hotel around 10:30pm, after our GPS tried taking us in the opposite direction of where our hotel was. Duane went in to get us checked in and was told we had been upgraded to the hotel next door!

The Caribe Royale... or as Blaire said "The Royal Crib". It was nice and we had a view of some fireworks at midnight from what had to be one of the Disney parks, because they went on forever and were pretty big.

In addition to the view, we had some bouncy beds! Which was good because we had some kids that had to unleash some pent up energy from sitting in a truck all day.

And boy did they unleash it! Pillow fight!!!!

After a short nights sleep, we put on our warm clothes and headed to the soggy stadium. It was pouring down rain when we first got there. And I mean POURING. We found parking right near the stadium, but had to walk through huge puddles to get there and our shoes and socks were soaked by the time we entered the stadium.

But as soon as we heard those first four notes from our Golden Band from Tigerland, all was good. By the way, did you know that the Tiger Marching Band was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame this past September? First time that a marching band has been inducted into a state's music hall of fame! EVER!!

The field condition was the worst I have ever seen. Big chunks of grass and dirt flying all over the place. The players could barely stay on their feet! And don't get me started on the refs. That personal foul penalty at the end was ridiculous! Yeah, I'm talking to you, Ref! That so should have been a delay of game against Penn State!

Would have been nice if we had won, but I'm still happy that we went.

It's always sad watching the seniors in their last college game. Trindon Holliday has been so much fun to watch and Brandon LaFell has improved so much since that first time we saw him play 4 years ago.

And the girls had fun :) I'm so thankful that we were able to take them with us!!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday as much as I did!! Happy New Year everyone!

Firestarter

2009-12-20T18:43:00.007-06:00

I came home from work the other day and Bri and Sarah were there making CDs. And they were kinda quiet. Which makes one start to worry. Then all of a sudden they come running out of the office and they start wrestling!

Then Sarah sits on Bri and Bri is yelling at her to give her the lighter!!

Lighter??

Sarah is a pyromaniac??

Finally Bri is successful and gets the lighter away from Sarah!!

And she slips it into my pocket without Sarah knowing.

Yep Sarah, that's where it went!

Then Sarah went crazy!

And thinking Bri still had it she attacked her again.

And again.

And then they left and I made cookies :)

The end.

The Princess!

2009-12-20T15:07:00.012-06:00

Edited to add: If you're interested in any of the recipes on this post click on the hightlighted name of the recipe (not the picture) and it will take you to where I found the recipe :)

This is my dirty, old, unorganized recipe binder. I kept thinking that I would make a pretty cover for it. But I never did. Probably because I knew that this wasn't how I wanted to keep my recipes.

I would pull the pages out of the binder and leave them on the counter as I was cooking. They inevitably would be covered up by ingredients or splashed on.

Eventually I even stopped punching holes in the pages and would just throw them in the binder. There was a silver lining to that though. While searching for a specific recipe I would have to shuffle through all of them and I'd get to see recipes I'd forgotten about!

Then I found this Martha Stewart recipe tin. In RED!! I love it so much!

It holds tons of 4 x 6 index cards and I've been busy writing all my recipes on the hundreds of cards I bought to fill it up.

One problem though, now it's 4 x 6 index cards getting covered up on the counter while I'm cooking. So I had to come up with a solution.

Enter the Princess! I found her at Hobby Lobby. She was faded black and that just wouldn't do in my kitchen so I spruced her up with some pretty red spray paint. Stuck a couple of magnets on the bottom of her feet and she stays nicely on top of my lovely red box.

And her crown holds my recipe cards perfectly!! And high enough for me to still see once I have all my ingredients and junk on the counter. I'm so in love with her!!

When I said I've been busy writing all my recipes on the 4 x 6 cards I wasn't exactly being truthful. I've really only finished about 15. But, those 15 recipes are delicious!

These Shrimp Tostadas were yummy. I found the recipe on PW's Tasty Kitchen. I liked that the tortillas were baked and not fried.

This Pico de Gallo and Guacamole is the best I've ever had. Courtesy of Pioneer Woman. And the awesome thing about it is that it makes a ton and I'm the only one in the family that eats guacamole. More for me!!

Chicken & Dumplings in the south is not the same Chicken & Dumplings that I grew up with. Whenever we go to Cracker Barrel Bri orders them. But I kept thinking they looked wrong. Turns out that here the dumplings are more like noodles, not biscuits. But I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen and made it one Sunday night for Duane and I. The real Chicken and Dumplings. Loved it so much I made it again the next night when the girls came back home to us!

And then we have the Individual Scalloped Potatoes. These are the ones that Blaire loves so much that she wants to marry them! Another find from Tasty Kitchen. If you haven't visited that site, you need to. So many delicious recipes. And on the TK Blog right now, Pioneer Woman is generously counting down the 7 days before Christmas and you could be one of the lucky recipients of her generosity. Run, don't walk, on over there, if you know what's good for you!

Today I was using the Princess to hold my Sugar Cookie Icing recipe. I got it years ago from All Recipes and it's the best sugar cookie icing ever. It dries hard and shiny, so you can stack the cookies once they're dry.

Which reminds me... I have cookies to decorate!!!!

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Frogs

2009-11-11T18:37:00.003-06:00

I used to have 2 frogs that lived outside. One Gray Tree Frog and one Green Tree Frog. I had been told that they make noise when it rains, but I never heard them. Until one night Duane and I were in the kitchen and we heard this loud croaking and the next thing I knew the green frog was gone. GONE. After I left the light on over the kitchen sink for it every night, attracting bugs for it to eat. AND HE UP AND LEFT ME! That croaking must have been him saying sayonara.

Whatever.

I think the gray frog got lonely though, because this is what I found tonight:

Least Favorites

2009-11-09T15:07:00.003-06:00

Emptying the dishwasher has to be my least favorite job. It's not like it's hard or anything, I mean, when I load the dishwasher I position everything so it's really easy to put away. Like all the spoons are in one cubby, the knives have their own too. You just grab a handful of stuff and whisk it away to where it goes. I just don't like it.

And that's why in my house it's not my job. Yay! If the dishwasher doesn't get emptied, it doesn't get filled. Which is still my chore. But not if someone hasn't emptied it :)

A close second is washing dishes by hand. And the reason I don't like that is because I'm too short for it! I have to stand really close to reach and I always get my shirt soaked. Like it is right now.

I'd much rather be the garbage taker outer. Even if raccoons were to get into the garbage and throw it all around the yard...I'd rather that be my job.

What is your least favorite?

Catching Up

2009-11-08T12:22:00.013-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted on my blog so I'm going to catch you up on one giant post!

On October 17th, 1989 , there was the Loma Prieta Earthquake. It was a 7.1 on the Richter Scale and practically in my back yard. It was pretty scary. Things I remember are: I was washing my coffee pot at 5:04 pm that day, when it hit. It took my mom forever to get home from work in Watsonville that evening. A man named Dale was killed on the freeway when his car hit spooked horses. There were huge aftershocks all night long. We Christmas shopped in huge white tents that year. Downtown Santa Cruz was in bad shape and the merchants had to move into the tents to stay operational. Frightening times.

On October 17th, 2009, 20 years later I bought these new bar stools! Can't wait to see what they look like up against that bar when it no longer looks like wood paneling. Someday. But I know for sure it will be way before 20 years passes. We sold our old dining room table and bar stools without having replacements. We still don't have a dining room table, but we've got our bar stools!

This is Courtney and Blaire on October 17th. They had just gotten back from shopping for their Halloween costumes. They're so cute you'd think they would want to be princesses or fairies.

Nope. I don't even know what you would call them, but they weren't cute!

They got the costumes to wear when they went camping with the girl's Mom and Mr. Gene. It was supposed to be a fun weekend of trick or treating and costume contests, but they all got sick with a stomach virus while they were gone and the fun was cut short. Fortunately for Bri it was Homecoming weekend and she didn't go camping. Instead she stayed with us and avoided the virus!

On October 23rd we finally had our Grand Opening at work. The building took a year to build and we received money from the state because we were moving our labs and management from Rhode Island down to Louisiana.

Governor Bobby Jindal came and spoke and cut the ribbon with our CEO. The ribbon didn't want to cut though and it was a pretty comical moment. Perhaps ribbon without wire would have worked better? It was a fun day! We even had customers come all the way from Sweden to celebrate with us.

October 24th was the Homecoming dance. Our Central Wildcats had beaten Walker the night before, bringing them one step closer to becoming District Champs. Thomas, Sarah, Bri and Zach looked fantastic and had a great time! These 4 are the best of friends. You would think that they were all dating, but no. All 4 of them say they are not. Although Sarah and Thomas are always together and so are Bri and Zach.

So cute!! And since I'm such a slow poster I can now say that they are dating! Officially as of October 31st! Yay!

Bri and her daddy! He is so proud of her and we couldn't be happier with the choices she makes and the friends she chooses to have in her life.

My new cubicle! We moved into our new building on September 9th, but didn't get our cubicles until October 5th. And then I didn't get around to decorating it until October 28th. See, I'm not only a procrastinator with my blog. I'm a procrastinator with a lot of things.

I blame my sister :)~

The week of October 26th was Spirit Week at Blaire's school and on Wednesday it was Crazy Hair Day!

Half her head was pink and half was blue. And my fingernails were blue too!!

I made Pretzel Sticks for the guys at work for Halloween. They turned out pretty cute and yummy!

On November 1st Blaire and I made these cute little bite sized pumpkin pies! We got the recipe from Bakerella and they were delicious!

We only made 12 though because after the first batch was done we started eating them right out of the pan and our bellies got full and we didn't feel like rolling out more dough and smushing it into the mini muffin pan.

This is my new cornbread skillet! Duane got me into using the cast iron skillet for making cornbread but we decided that it has a greasy taste to it because we use the same skillet that we use to cook meat in. Then I found this cornbread skillet and knew our greasy tasting Golden Sweet Cornbread days were over!

Then on October 31st I bought a new car! My very first new car ever!! The brakes went out on my beloved Malibu and during the week that it took to get fixed Duane and I started visiting car dealerships.

It came down to this 2010 Toyota Camry SE and a 2009 Honda Accord. They both were silver, but the Toyota dealership was more persistent. Which is something that would normally push me in the other direction, but I liked the Toyota salesman better. He was pretty funny! First we drove a red SE, but I wasn't that into it. It had light colored fabric interior and I didn't fall in love. Then our salesman told us about the silver SE that his Sales Manager was driving and asked if we were interested in a demo. We were. So we went out and looked at it on our way out of the dealership and I liked it. We went back a couple days later and sat in it and we both fell in love. It took a few more days before we could agree on a price, but it's now mine!!

And I bet I wouldn't have gotten this cool key if I had bought the Honda!! Now I won't have to have the remote entry thing hanging off my keyring. It's right on my key!!

*sigh* My Bu. She was a good car the last 4.5 years. Until she started costing me money. Duane got her cleaned up really nice and we only had the For Sale sign in her for an hour before we got our first call and sold her! I hope she makes her new owner happy. We go to the Notary tomorrow and seal the deal.

I'll miss my license plate. It was so easy to remember! I don't think that this pelican license plate will look good on my still nameless Camry though, so I think I'll be getting an LSU Geaux Tigers specialty plate. Unless I get a cool generic license plate like STF 619. That's not going to happen though because Bri got SWK 918, so I know we're past STF.

We don't get much of a season change here in Louisiana, but I noticed that the leaves are changing color on my Red Maple today. Just one little section though. The rest is green.

Speaking of seasons, Hurricane Season is supposed to be over. But Ida is headed our way and the Governor declared a state of emergency today. She's supposed to turn right when she gets up close to us though so keep your fingers crossed for us that she does. Duane says he doesn't think the gulf is warm enough now for her to get really bad. I suppose I should be thankful that Ida is also a procrastinator and waited until after the weather turned cold to show up.

Happy November, hope you all have a great one!!

Love,
Stephanie

Finally.

2009-10-03T20:10:00.015-05:00

Gas. It's a beautiful sight. I've been dreaming of this day forever and Duane made it come true for me. Duane and my Gramma and friends at UTi and my bonus from work. Eventually I'll post a picture of the entire stove, but for now I'll be giving you tiny glimpses of it. Because what Blaire and I did with this wonderful appliance is really the bright spot that should be focused on.

First, you should go take a peek at what kind of cupcakes our decrepit old stove used to churn out. You can view one of them here.

I didn't know that Duane was going to have the stove completely in today and therefore did not do any meal planning to prepare for it. We pulled the old stove out a week ago, so I haven't been able to do any cooking since then.

Blaire and I decided to make yummy rainbow cupcakes after I showed her the ones I found on Our Best Bites. But we didn't have any cake mixes, so we pulled out the cute cupcake book I bought and never used.

The texture was so far from what we're used to with the boxed mixes. It was thick and sticky. Not the easiest to get off of the spoon and into the cupcake papers.

Much easier to just lick it off.

Look at that beautiful oven! Sparkly clean. And that rack that is pulled out... it slides out like that when the door is opened!

With the old stove you couldn't peek into the oven without opening the door. This picture was actually taken with the door closed!! I'm in love!!!

So is everyone else. We stayed in the kitchen the whole time the cupcakes were cooking.

It was like watching something we've never seen before.

I have never seen anything so beautiful come out of the old oven. Would you just look at those perfect cupcakes?

The colors!! We used Wilton's gel coloring in the batter and then layered each color into the paper wrapper.

To me, there are no words to describe these next three pictures.

And Blaire told me that since we made cupcakes....we didn't have to make dinner :)

I'm thinking I best get some sort of yummy meat and potatoes cooking tomorrow though. Especially after Duane installed a gas line, tiled floor and called in lots of favors, just to make me the happiest girl in the world.

Thank you Boo! I love you :)

Happy 13th Birthday Blaire!

2009-09-11T19:58:00.005-05:00

I remember the first day I arrived in Louisiana and this tiny little thing came out to my car, excited to meet me. She was 8 years old and even though she was so small...she had a huge presence. She hasn't changed one bit, except now she's almost as tall as me. ALMOST.

She's fun and goofy. She never tells me no when I tell her to do something silly. She loves life. And people. And gymnastics. She would play board games every day if you let her. And she loves to cook!!

When she concentrates, she sticks out her tongue. Just like her dad.

She went to her first school dance when she was 11. Bri curled her hair for her and she looked like a doll. Her hair was back to being straight in just a few minutes. But she still looked like a doll. I can't believe that was 2 years ago already.

This summer she had a HUGE growth spurt. It's almost like seeing a whole different person. ALMOST.

I say almost because her personality hasn't changed one bit! She's still a goofball. Still walks through the house on her hands with her feet up in the air. Dances by herself in the kitchen. She's forever making funny noises and always forgets to set the timer on her TV when she is falling asleep. And lets her sister make hilarious videos of her when she's had too much sugar.

She's growing up, but I don't think she'll ever stop doing silly things that kids do. And I don't think she'll ever be so old that she won't write her name with chalk on the driveway.

Even now that she's 13.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl :) Now hurry home so you can bake your birthday cake :)~

Dr. Doolittle Part Two

2009-09-09T19:27:00.006-05:00

So yesterday, the day after I posted Dr. Doolittle, we were getting ready to leave work and Gretchen noticed this cute little tree frog in her window sill. He must have been sleeping there all day long. And Gretchen isn't Dr. Doolittle and was very appreciative that the little frog didn't go jumping on her desk during the day!

One of the guys stuck him in a jar and I took him home with me. I was hoping that him and my other frog could be friends.

I stuck the jar in the Agapanthus and waited for him to come out. And waited and waited. And waited some more.

I got tired of waiting and went inside. Once it got dark I went back outside to check out the situation and the frog had finally came out of his jar!

And was up in the window with my other frog!! He's got such long legs. And he's really skinny compared to frog #1.

Please excuse my dirty windows... I've had a frog climbing all over them for the past 2 months :)

Then a Praying Mantis showed up! At first I was scared that he was going to eat my frogs or the frogs would eat the Praying Mantis. Then I changed my mind, because seriously, how would those little frogs eat that big ol bug. And how would that skinny little bug eat those round little frogs? Wasn't going to happen.

Isn't he cute!! I think he's happy that I brought him home. Look how he poses for me!

He's a lot greener than the the first frog. And I was told that he's the kind of tree frog that makes noise when it rains. I sprayed him with water hoping he think it was raining, but he didn't. So he's cute AND smart! And I hope he sticks around for a while :)

Dr. Doolittle

2009-09-07T21:15:00.006-05:00

I love animals.

I've always loved them. I've had cats, goldfish, rabbits, ducks, an evil goose named Magnolia and probably some that I'm forgetting. I've never had a dog, but I do feed the neighbors dog milkbones. Every day. And I ask for my own dog. Every day. I'm thinking I'll never get one. But I've got plenty other animals to keep me occupied.

Like the hummingbirds in our backyard. It's been a really weird summer for the hummers. They arrived right on schedule, March 1. But for some reason they disappeared shortly after. Then they came back. Then they left. And now they're back again. Today we put up one of our tiny feeders after I saw one of the birds hanging out on the electrical conduit on the back patio. I figured she wanted her own feeder since the other feeder was being hogged by one of the males.
She's awful cute with her 2 little shiny red spots on her throat.

And now she's awfully territorial of her little feeder. She let this little guy get in there for a sip, but, as you can see, she's about to take off after him and show him who the boss of this feeder is.

We have this other feeder with 6 places to drink from, so I'm not sure why they can't share. At the height of the season we have 3 big feeders and 4 little feeders hanging in the trees. That's 18 places to drink in all, yet they still fight. Mighty territorial they are.

In addition to the hummingbirds, I also have this little frog that has been hanging out with us for 2 months. Every night he is sitting on the kitchen window panes eating bugs. I make sure that the light over the sink is on every night to attract his dinner. The picture below is of him when he first started hanging out here. He was really tiny and has since grown. He's still pretty small, just not so skinny anymore.

He changes colors too. When he first wakes up and makes his way up to the window he looks like a toad. Greenish brown and bumpy. Once he gets up into the window and is catching all those bugs, he is really pale light green and looks a lot smoother. Even smoother than this picture of him.

Then there are the lizards. Two of them have moved in. We never planted the Agapanthus and I don't think we ever will now, because the lizards live in them and sleep on the leaves every night. A deep sleep too! I can bend the leaves down towards me and look those lizards right in the eye and they don't move.

This guy is the big one.

And this is the little one. She's usually a little scaredy cat.

But occasionally she gets brave and curious. Mostly she's scared though.

And then there is the caterpillar. I had never seen one of these black fuzzy ones. And it's a good thing I didn't pick it up like I used to when I was a kid back home, because the girls told me that they are stinging caterpillars. This caterpillar was trying to get out of the rain one night and the little drops of water made it sparkle like glitter.

Finally we have the Assassin Bug Nymphs. Yep. Assassin Bug Nymphs. And I only know that thanks to Google. Every year I see these cute little orange spiders. And I mean little. Like just born little. And lots of them. This year, before I saw all the babies, I saw a bigger one all by itself. I figured I just missed them this year and the big guy was all that was left. But a couple days later I realized that the big guy must have been the momma spider because I saw like 40 of those babies!

Those Agapanthus came in handy again too, because those babies camped out on the leaves for 3 days, getting noticeably bigger each day. And then one day I came home and they were gone. I'd like to think they moved on to a home where they didn't have to fight over the bugs with the frog and the lizards. But maybe the frog or the lizards made dinner out of them. I'll just keep thinking they moved :)

I'm hoping that if I keep collecting all these strange animals in the backyard Duane will get tired and want me to have a normal pet. Like a puppy!

Hot Wheels

2009-09-05T18:49:00.020-05:00

Bri turned 16 almost 2 months ago. Ever since then it's been all about wanting a car. I thought it was just boys that ogled cars when driving down the road, but nope. It's girls too. And the fact that she works at her Stepdad's carwash gives her lots of opportunities to crawl in and out of cars while vacuuming them.

So on Monday her Mom and Mr. Gene went shopping and found a beauty! And Bri had no clue. All week I kept laughing to myself every time she talked about wanting a car and on Wednesday she said that she thought her dad was finally giving in. Hahahha. Little did she know.

Today was Family Day at Southeastern, so the girls we're going to go with their Mom and Mr. Gene to spend the day with Rachel at her school. It worked out perfect because the girls were with us and they were able to drive the car over to our house to pick them up. They parked it on the lawn and we all (with the exception of Bri) went out there and her Mom called her up and said they were here. But she looked out the door, didn't see the car in the driveway and didn't come outside! Blaire had to go get her and she finally came out. We parked Duane's truck where I normally park so she wouldn't be able to see it right away. We had to get that first look of shock on her face when she saw that gigantic bow!

And we got that shot.

The smile started small and just kept getting bigger and bigger.

It was really fun to watch and she kept saying "I'm so happy" over and over.

The car is fantastic. It's a '98 Toyota Camry and it's in really good condition. And super clean too! Mr. Gene really knows a thing or two about washing cars :)

And look how perfect her toes match that bow!

The smile never left her face. Lois told her to go for a spin around the block with us, so me, Duane and Blaire got in and buckled up!

Here she is driving us for the first time in her very own car. She stopped at every stop sign, too. Nothing compared to the first time I drove with her!!

Then it was Duane's turn to drive the car. I asked Bri if she was happy and here she is saying "I'm sooooo Happpy!!"

Then came the phone call to BFF Sarah. And this was the cutest thing ever! We could hear Sarah screaming over the phone. I couldn't tell who was more excited!! Now they both have cars :)

Then they packed up the trunk and got ready to hit the road. Bri was driving them all to Southeastern University and it was going to be Rachel's turn to scream with Bri.

She realized at this point that she didn't have a real license plate yet and then I got all excited, because I have this thing about cool license plate numbers. Yeah, I'm a dork. But I'm not talking about vanity plates, just random licence plate numbers that are given out. Like mine is ORR 888. And I think that's cool. And when Duane was waiting for his license plate to come for his truck I kept hoping he would get a good one. And he did. X310320. And you could tell that the gears in Bri's head started turning and she was thinking about what random number she would get. And then she said.... I could get BRI! It was pretty funny and yep baby, you could. I'll keep my fingers crossed that yours will be BRI 712 :)

Waving byee :) Hmmm. On second thought, I'm not sure I like this whole car idea. I'm going to start worrying every time I see this happen. Backing out of the driveway. Driving away.

But it's her dream. And you can't keep them locked in the house forever, right? And we believe in her. And we trust her judgement. She's got a good head on her shoulders. And she knows there will be NO TEXTING while driving. And NO TALKING ON THE PHONE while driving. And she's always going to CALL AND TELL US WHERE SHE IS. But not while driving :) And she's always going to watch her gas gauge and learn how to change a tire. And lock the doors as soon as she gets in. And not get out of the car if she notices someone shady outside. And never unroll her window if someone she doesn't know knocks on it. She won't tailgate, she won't drive over the speed limit and she'll be a slow turner :) No matter how much I complain about slow turners.

She doesn't have her license, but she's got her car. And she's about to get a lot of practice in it.

And we've made her very, very, very happy :)

Familymoon Part II - The Vows

2009-08-23T21:05:00.003-05:00

We had it all planned out. We were getting married on June 23rd and I had ordered necklaces for the girls and I to wear on our wedding day. They were engraved with the date, so the 23rd it was. We found a hillbilly preacher that was going to perform the ceremony in his overalls and everything was set!

Then, on June 19th we were driving to Superior Grill for my birthday dinner and Duane's cell phone rang. In the time it took for him to decide if he was going to take the call, from a number he didn't recognize, it went to voicemail. And it was a message we did not want to hear! Our hillbilly preacher had to go out of town at the last minute. Leaving on Monday and coming back on Wednesday. Uhh...hello! We were getting married on Tuesday! Had to get married on Tuesday!! Like in 4 days Tuesday!!!

So on Saturday morning we called up the lovely woman who was renting us her cabin during our stay in Tennessee. She put us in touch with someone who put us in touch with Pastor Rob. And he assured us that he could perform our ceremony on Tuesday. Crisis averted.

Pastor Rob had a quaint little gazebo up against a hill on his property. He also had a cute little orange cat named McCain that hung out with us during our ceremony. Pastor Rob informed us that during the Presidential Election someone had dropped off three kittens on his driveway. He named one Obama, one McCain and one Hillary. I would have loved for Obama to have been the one hanging out during our vows, but since he was a black cat I suppose it was better that he didn't. Not that I'm superstitious :)

It was a beautiful day and the surroundings were perfect! Pastor Rob takes really good care of the people that come to him on their special day. And he had this cute little buttercream cake for us. I was so nice and fed Duane his little bit like a good wife. And he smashed that cake on my face. Do all men do that?

Here is our new family! Well, we've always been a family, now it's just legal. And now when I pull into the driveway and see the "Bauer" sign hanging over the carport, I know it's my home :)

Oh...and I got my revenge.

Happy 2 month anniversary to us :)

RIP

2009-08-02T16:29:00.010-05:00

Our swimming pool is dying a slow, painful death. Painful to me anyway. Last weekend I spent the morning vacuuming out the bottom of the pool. Then we noticed that the ring was deflating, right after Duane had inflated it. I could deal with a floppy ring if I had to. As long as the water stayed in the pool.

After spending all that time vacuuming it last weekend, we forgot to put the algecide in it. So, this weekend I got in again and vacuumed. Then I went around the whole ring, twice, with a cup that I used to pour water on it trying to find the hole. I never found it. But still, I can live with a floppy ring. As long as the water stays in it.

And then I woke up this morning. And the water has decided not to stay in it. It is slowly draining and we have no idea where it is coming from. Duane mowed the grass yesterday, so maybe something flew out from under the tractor and punctured it. But wouldn't we be able to tell where? Or maybe it has a hole on the bottom. Or split a seam underneath. Or MAYBE Duane punctured it with his mower and should go get me a hamster. The hamster he thought I would forget about if he bought me a pool.

I love you swimming pool.

This little girl has been hanging out on the agapanthus for the past couple weeks. I was so excited when I found her because, not only did I think that I possibly could have seen her being conceived, but also because when I posted my blog about lizards so long ago, I had done some research on the Green Anole lizards. I learned that when the momma lizard lays her eggs she just leaves them and when the babies are born they must fend for themselves. And they're lucky if they make it. For two weeks I went out to the agapanthus and would look for her hiding among the leaves. And that wasn't easy!

She was tiny! About the size of my finger, including her tail. In the beginning she would lay among the leaves, but she recently started hanging out on the withered blossom. It was an adorable site to see her hanging onto the stem that used to have the flower on it. She would wrap both hands around it and clasp her little fingers together.

And she would sleep that way too. I would see her like that at night and wake up in the morning and she would be in the same exact position. Her little legs laid out flat behind her.

Saturday morning I found her dead. I guess she wasn't one of the lucky ones. Sad.

I love you little lizard.

And this is Prince. I've blogged about him too. He lived next door. I fed him milkbones every day. And he died on Saturday too. I know he's in a better place now. With someone that won't neglect him.

I love you Prince.

Oak Alley Plantation

2009-07-26T15:49:00.007-05:00

Yesterday we journeyed to Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana. In the early 1700's a settler claimed land from an original royal grant for his dwelling and defined its entrance with an alley of live oaks in two rows leading to the Mississippi River. In this photo my back is to the Mississippi. While today the levee is built up, back then it was only 5 feet high you could see the river from the house. There are 28 oak trees, 14 on each side, stretching out for a 1/4 mile. They are incredible.

The roots on those 28 trees are gigantic, poised above the ground like old arthritic fingers. We were told on our tour that the oak trees have a life expectancy of around 600 years, so these trees have around 300 years of life left in them!

Around the back of the house, more oak trees were planted by the most recent owners, Andrew & Josephine Stewart, who acquired it in 1925. Several of these trees have these sweeping limbs, just taunting all the young visitors who want to climb them...if it weren't for the signs forbidding you to! Mrs. Stewart died in 1972 and the management of the plantation was placed in the hands of a nonprofit organization, which opened the plantation to the public.

Aunt Penny was still visiting from West Monroe and she brought her great niece Karrah. Karrah was visiting for the summer from Perkiomenville, Pennsylvania. As we waited to enter the mansion for the tour, I couldn't help but envision Scarlett and the Tarleton Twins in the opening scene of Gone with the Wind.

In between the period of time when the setter planted the oaks and when the Stewart's purchased the plantation, several families claimed Oak Alley as their home. Most notably, as we learned from our adorable Cajun Plantation Guide Whitlee (seen below), was Jacques Telesphore Roman and his young bride Celina. Jacques and Celina had been married on June 14th, 1834 and in 1836 they purchased the plantation.

Jacques Telesphore and Celina plunged with enthusiasm into the project of building their plantation home. There would be no corners cut ... only the best would do. Their home took over two years to complete.

The most notable part of the house, aside from the majestic oaks towering outside, were the 28 classic columns surrounding the house. The columns measure 8 feet in circumference and are solid brick. All the materials used in the construction of the home were found or manufactured on the plantation with the exception of the marble for the floors and fireplaces and the slate for the roof, both of which were imported.

The house was designed for maximum protection from the fierce summers of this area. The veranda extends approximately 13 feet from the walls, keeping the home in shade most of the day. The tall windows and doors face each other for cross ventilation and the ceilings are 12 feet high. Most important are the 16 inch thick brick walls throughout the house.

Improvements and additions continued through the end of the decade and the kitchen facilities were finally completed in 1841. Furnishings and interior fittings had been arriving continuously by steamboat, and special care was given to the gardens. The final result was a plantation home to be envied by the most discerning of the well-to-do sugar planters of the day. Legend has it that Celina Roman proudly christened her new home "Bon Sejour" (pleasant sojourn), but travelers on the Mississippi, impressed by the avenue of mighty oaks, called it "Oak Alley", and so it remained!

We were not allowed to photograph anything in the home, so the following pictures are images that I've found on the Internet.

As we begun our tour we were ushered into the living room. I had a hard time understanding Whitlee and her Cajun accent, but I did learn about the gold convex mirror on the far wall and the courting candle.

The convex mirrow was used so that father's could see all corners of the room when a young suitor was courting his daughter.

The courting candle was used in the 1800s, if a young man would come to visit a young lady. The father of the young lady would set the candle at a height he felt appropriate for the young man to stay. When the candle burnt down to the top of the metal, it was time for the young man to leave. For example, if the Father liked the young man he would set the candle all the way to the top, but if he did not like the young man he would set it much like it is in the picture so he would have to leave soon.

This is Oak Alley's Dining room. Notice the large, harp-like object hanging in the middle of the table. This is the ceiling fan and it is attached to that string you see in the top right corner of the photo. A young slave boy would sit in the corner of the dining room and swing the fan during meals to keep the guest cool.

This room is called the sick room. After someone died they would place black netting over the mirrors so the spirits would not be trapped. See the rolling pin on the bed? Each day the servants would roll out all the mattresses in the house. This process would take hours and no one was allowed onto the beds again until it was time to sleep.

This is the Master Bedroom. The bed is a pineapple post bed. The Pineapple was a sign of welcome. Guest were often presented with a cut pineapple when they arrived. Yet, if you woke up one morning to find an uncut pineapple placed at the end of your bed, it was a polite way of saying you had over stayed your welcome. You should take your pineapple and go.

Also in the master bedroom was the only piece of furniture that had belonged to Jacques and Celina. It was a gorgeous bassinet and my favorite piece in the whole house.

The house tour was over before we knew it and then we were free to walk the grounds. We bought mint juleps and lemon juleps and lemonade and strolled a bit through the grounds before leaving for home.

I can't wait for Penny to come back for a visit. We'll be making plans to visit more of the plantations in the area!

More Fondant Fun!

2009-07-25T20:04:00.009-05:00

So, when Blaire saw my fondant cake she wanted to make her own. This book I bought has so many great things that we can make with fondant and other sweet stuff and she's a pretty talented kid. I knew she could do something creative.

Instead of cake though, we made cupcakes. Severely deformed cupcakes. This cupcake is a product of my ancient oven. The one that is in need of replacement. BAD.

Duane's sister Penny came down to visit and we enlisted her talents too!

Blaire worked diligently on her cupcakes and churned out some really cute ones.

These are just some of the adorable little cupcakes they both made!

Blaire was the adventurous one and actually ate one of the cupcakes. I still haven't actually eaten anything with fondant on it, although I have nibbled a bit to see what it tastes like. Her verdict was, after lots of chewing, that fondant is.... chewy! But good.

I only decorated one cupcake. Some of Bri's friends think she looks like Nemo, so I made her a Nemo cupcake. It was time consuming and when you look close it looks like it was my first time making shapes, but I loved it! And Bri liked it too!

My First Fancy Cake

2009-07-19T20:37:00.004-05:00

We've found a new show that we love to watch! It's Ace of Cakes and it's on the Food Network. It's all about the awesome cakes that the fantastically talented team at Charm City Cakes create.

I'm sort of a creative person and figured that I could make a cool cake too! Probably not as cool as their cakes, but something somewhat cool. So I started picking up supplies this week and with the thought that I wouldn't have to make the whole cake all at once, I started.

On Tuesday all I did was make a 6 inch and an 8 inch Devils Food cake. Wednesday all I made was a 6 inch and an 8 inch Golden Butter flavored cake. Wouldn't want to wear myself out early in the process!

I should mention that since this was a practice cake I didn't have any intention of eating it or feeding it to anyone, so I could take as long as I wanted.

I think I frosted the the 6 inch cakes on Thursday and the 8 inch Cakes on Friday with a little bit of buttercream frosting. Again...didn't want to wear myself out. And I also had no clue yet about what my design would be.

On Saturday I actually got the fondant out! I used gel colors and made the white fondant, and also my hands, pink and covered the two 6 inch layers. With my hands already pink I didn't want to add another color to their prettiness, so I went with plain white fondant for the 8 inch layers. It was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be.

Finally on Sunday I decorated it with cute little flowers. I had envisioned cute circles and stripes and lots of colors, but this is what I ended up with.

And I was pretty proud of my pretty little cake.

Can't wait to see what I end up with next time.

And maybe people will even get to eat it!

What did you do this week that was adventurous?

Happy Sweet 16 Brianna!

2009-07-12T10:37:00.025-05:00

Today is Bri's 16th Birthday!! If she was in town I would have made this cake for her. But she's in Gulf Shores on vacation. I suppose that's a good thing since I don't think I could make this cake!!

Bri was 11 years old when I met her, less than 2 weeks shy of 12. This is what she looked like. And those hand gestures...typical Bri. Still. She probably couldn't talk if we tied her hands behind her back :)

13 years old! This was when she made oatmeal lace cookies. And used red food coloring, instead of vanilla extract. And couldn't figure out why her cookies were red. She is soooo dingy. One of the many reasons we love her.

When Bri turned 14 Rachel brought her birthday cake! Rachel is the girls stepsister. She gets to hang with them during the weeks that we don't. I wonder if Rachel gets to be my Step Step Daughter now? That would be awesome, because we love Rachel! And not just because she makes cake :)

And here she is when she was turning 15. And when her dad really started not wanting her to leave the house. Ever.

And finally, 3 weeks before turning 16. Sometimes I wish we could just work some magic and keep her like this forever. Growing up way to fast. But we couldn't be prouder of her. She's bright and funny and sweet and beautiful. And we love her. Very much!

On this day we wish you all the wonders in the world. All the happiness in your eyes. All the stars in the sky. On this day may each moment be like a wonderful dream. On this day believe in your wishes. As we all wish you the very best in life. Happy 16th Birthday Brianna!

My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes

2009-07-07T21:40:00.004-05:00

This book has always been a favorite of mine.

It's got so much truth to it.

The box part anyway.

Sure, I've never personally seen a cat that plays the violin.

Or one that flew an aeroplane.

But I've definitely never seen a cat pass up a box.

Especially this cat.

Oops! "Not very well hidden are you, Vinnie."

And I wasn't the only one that found him.

And then there are cats that just don't get it.

He's always been a little slow.
But he sure looks comfy.
The end.

The Familymoon Part I - The Drive to Tennessee

2009-07-05T15:17:00.011-05:00

We had planned to leave the house at 3am on June 22nd. That was a Monday. On Sunday night we put off packing until late so we decided we'd get an extra hour of sleep and get up at 3am, leave at 4am. It was actually Duane's idea and I couldn't have been happier. Even though I would be able to sleep as soon as we got on the road.

We had bought this really cool cover for the bed of the truck and it was lockable! So we were able to pack the truck the night before. All we had to do was get up and go! And that's what we did. We had a 10 1/2 hour drive ahead of us.

First stop (with the exception of breakfast, lunch and bathroom stops) was Sevierville (pronounced severe), TN. This is where the county courthouse is that we needed to pick up our Marriage Licence.

The girls slept for a good bit of the morning but woke up bright and cheery and ready to drive some more!

Some more bright and cheery than others.

We finally made it to Tennessee!

Except after you hit the border you still have about a 3 hour drive to get to the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. We stopped for lunch at Hardee's. This is the equivalent to Carl's Jr. and I hadn't had a Western Bacon Cheeseburger in over 5 years. Used to be my favorite burger, but we don't have Carl's Jr or Hardee's in Louisiana. Of course I got my favorite burger and you know what? It just wasn't the same. Guess my taste buds have changed. Something else changed while we were in Hardees. THE TIME! Apparently there is a time difference between Tennessee and Louisiana that we weren't aware of. That meant we had one less hour to get to the courthouse before it closed at 5:30. And we had been planning on getting there at 4:30. So this meant we would be getting there right when it closed and if we got there a minute late we would have to drive an hour back out to Sevierville the next day...our wedding day!

The courthouse in Sevierville was in the town square and it was so pretty. Pretty brick building and paths through the grass. Trees and statues. Just very pretty. I wish I had taken a photo but we were in a big hurry to get in and pick up our license. We had just minutes to spare. And then their printers decided they were done for the day and didn't want to print out our license! After about 30 minutes and several phone calls our clerk was able to get our certificates and we were on our way.

We assumed that our GPS system would take us through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg before getting to Cosby, which is where our cabin was. Nope. Our Tom Tom decided he wanted us to take the scenic trail. And I am so happy he did. We went through the hills, twisting one lane roads and lots of trees. It reminded me of my old home. Especially this covered bridge. I wanted to stop and eat pancakes..but I didn't see any firemen.

We drove for miles. Past old barns.

And horses.

and more horses.

And I still couldn't get a picture of Bri. I did get a picture of her cute little pinky finger though! Isn't it sweet :)

I took a lot of pictures out the window. I wonder how much I missed because I was looking though the tiny little viewfinder? Lots I bet. But I was so happy with what I did see.

We passed over this river and even followed along side of it for a while. After such a long drive I just wanted to stick my toes in it. But we pressed on.

Everything was so green. And the driveways were these steep, winding roads. Another memory of California. My mom can attest to the fact that every friend I ever had as a child lived up a steep, winding road. I'll love her forever for driving me up those roads.

The GPS said we were getting close to our destination. We had been driving forever on this back road. And then we ran into this:

And we all groaned about having to drive all the way back and find the other way to go. But we had no choice and since it had been such a pretty trip, it wouldn't be so bad.

But still! We were ready to get to the cabin. And we needed to get ourselves in front of the TV so we could watch our LSU Tigers Baseball Team. They were playing in the College World Series. Just them and Texas were left. We weren't about to miss it.

And then we saw Copeland Rd. And we took the chance that it might take us around the road outage and get us to our cabin.

So we drove down Copeland Road, crossed Copeland Creek and it took us out to Hooper Hwy. Which is where our cabin was. How appropriate that I had to take a trip down Copeland road to get where I was supposed to be. Sounds like my real life.

A life that I'm so very excited about. With this waiting for you, wouldn't you be?

4th of July

2009-07-05T12:20:00.008-05:00

It was my first 4th of July with my new camera. I knew I could take some great pictures, I just didn't know how. So I turned to my photography guru, Pioneer Woman, and she didn't let me down. She has this great post on how to take pictures of fireworks and it worked great! You can find the instructions here if you're interested.

Here are my firework shots. Words aren't necessary, so I won't bore you with any.

I hope you all had a safe and fun 4th of July. A BIG thank you to all of the men and women of the armed forces (past, present and future) for all that you do.

The Proposal

2009-07-02T17:33:00.008-05:00

I know, I know. I haven't gotten our Familymoon pictures up yet. String me up now! In between catching up with work, house, swimming, laundry & etc. (not necessarily in that order) I've been able to upload, delete, crop, laugh and smile at most of the pictures we took on the trip. I've still got a few more days to go through and also a 2GB card that I haven't done a thing with. The good news is that the card I did empty was an 8GB card and it was about 100 pictures shy of being full. The 8GB card holds over 1000 pictures! And I'm almost done with those pictures plus the other ones that I was able to upload that first day of vacation. So I'm actually way ahead of the game!

I'm thinking we should start with the proposal anyways, since that's what started this whole Familymoon to begin with.

Yesterday was my 4 year anniversary of being in Louisiana with D and the girls. Both of us have been married before and neither of us (so I thought and would tell anyone that asked) thought we needed to take our relationship to the next level. I was perfectly happy being the girlfriend and wasn't about to pressure him into anything he wasn't interested in. We were happy. Just the way we were.

It was getting close to Valentines and all the lovey dovey commercials were popping up on the TV. You know the one with the jingle "Every kiss begins with K"? It wasn't too long ago that I realized that the K they were talking about was for Kay's Jewelry. Not kiss. Well, probably kiss too.. but I never thought about Kay's. How slow am I? And my new favorite was the one where the couple is in the car and she hands him a valentines card. He opens it up and REO Speedwagon starts singing I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore and they flash back to their younger days in those cool clothes. Then it flashes back to the present and they grab each other and start making out. I laughed at that one every time.

Ok, back to the story.

So, Duane and I never get dressed up to go out and eat. But he asked me if I wanted to go to Primo's Steak and Italian restaurant (omgosh, I think that's the first time I've ever spelled restaurant correct the first time around without having to look it up!) for dinner on Valentines. We decided to get dressed up and act all fancy for the evening.

Our reservations were originally for 9pm or some crazy time like that, but knowing me and my crankiness when I eat late, Duane had them changed to 6pm.

It was drizzling a tiny bit and He wanted to drop me off at the front door, but I didn't mind the drizzle and said I'd walk from the parking lot with him. A little water never hurt anyone. Except the Wicked Witch of the West. But I'm not her. Hardly ever anyways. We get to the front door and he tells me that he forgot his glasses in the truck. A normal occurrence, so nothing that would set bells off in my head.

We go inside and tell the hostess that we had a reservation for Bauer and she says "oooh" and gives me a big smile. I thought she was really happy that we made it since we were a few minutes past our reservation time. Still no bells. We sit down at our table that's pretty much smack dab in the middle of everyone and next to a bare Christmas looking tree. At one point I mentioned to Duane that we were the only table that had roses and they probably did that to make it look nice since we were next to the Christmas tree that was still up in February. And still no bells.

Our salads came and I proceeded to squirt tomato guts all over the white tablecloth in an attempt to cut it. I'm classy, what can I say. Meanwhile Duane is playing with my new iPhone that I had just gotten that day. At dinner. The fidgeter.

The rest of the night became a big blur. We usually don't buy Valentines gifts for each other. Just a card works for us on this Hallmark holiday. But Duane tosses a white business sized envelope on the table and tells me he got me something.

I'm sure I looked at him all crazy, because we don't do gifts. I proceeded to open up this white, crumpled, folded in half business envelope.

And it's a gift certificate. To get my nails done. Huh? I never get my nails done. Never. Ever.

And then all of a sudden he's up out of his chair and on one knee next to me. HUH? And he told me that he thought I might like to have my nails done if I'm going to be wearing this:

Oh my. He asked if I'd marry him! And I said Yes! And I'm sure I was probably looking at him all crazy still because this was so completely out of the blue. I couldn't believe that he never let on that he had something like this planned. We have no secrets! That sneaky guy! I love him so much.

And in all the excitement I forgot to give him his card. So after we got home I dragged him back out to the carport and we got in the truck. And he opened his card.

And here is where you should start hearing REO Speedwagon belting out I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore in your head.

And we kissed.

A Little Peek

2009-06-28T22:15:00.008-05:00

We've been back from our vacation for 24 hours now and I was really hoping to have at least one post done, but I've been doing laundry...an all day chore after a week of vacation. We rented a cabin that had a washer and dryer, but the dryer would only dry a few things at a time so we came home with tons of dirty clothes. I also ran out of space on my laptop after the first day and couldn't empty the memory cards from the camera and get the pictures ready for blogging.

So today was full of laundry and swimming (I missed our pool) and downloading like 2000 pictures. I'll leave you with a few pictures to wet your appetite for more...

Our cabin:

Our front porch tenants:

Lunch in Gatlinburg:

The little creek behind our cabin:

Dollywood:

Wonderworks in Pigeon Forge:

Old MacDonalds Putt Putt:

The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga:

Had a blast, but it's nice to be home :) The cats missed us.

Love,
Mrs. Bauer

The Book.

2009-06-21T16:44:00.007-05:00

For Father's Day the girls and I put together a photobook for Duane. Some of the pictures he had seen before, but some of them he hadn't. We snuck out to the park and to their schools and even to his work. It was a Saturday, the one when we had gone to the mall. While we were at his work taking pictures we locked the keys in the car. Out in the middle of nowhere, keys and phones on the front seats. We certainly couldn't call Duane and tell him where we were. That would have compromised the mission!

Luckily the security guard came out to tell us that we couldn't take pictures. He reluctantly (!) let us use the phone to call the locksmith.

Anyways, here's the book...

He got teary and so did Bri. It was a sweet moment. And we've been catching him looking at it all day. I bet it comes with us on vacation :)

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

2009-06-21T16:18:00.004-05:00

Today is Father's Day and this is my Dad.

We've had all these birthdays and holidays in our family lately, so I've been going through all the old pictures that I have. When trying to find a perfect picture for my Father's Day post I kept coming back to this one. When I look in his face I see me. And my sisters. I never noticed a resemblance between my parents and I until I started getting older and saw pictures of them around my age.
I wouldn't like it any other way :)

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Lordy Lordy...

2009-06-19T16:45:00.007-05:00

40 years ago today, at 2:08pm Pacific Time, I was born!

FORTY YEARS AGO! It's hard to believe that this sweet, tiny baby is FORTY!! And to think that I thought my mom was ~~ancient~~ ~~old~~ mature when she was only 34. I'm so sorry Momma!

I've always loved this picture of me. When I was younger, and could never tell who was who in the baby pictures, I was always glad to hear this one was me! I say "younger", but it was only about 6 or 7 or 8 years ago that my Gramma gave me a tri-frame for Christmas with 3 pictures in it and I asked "Who are these people?". I thought they were those pictures that come with the new frames. It was my mom as a child. Again, sorry mom!

It wasn't until recently that I realized I was drooling like Niagra Falls when this picture was shot! I still like it. And you probably wouldn't have known about the drool unless I told you. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything!

Happy birthday to me and happy birth-day to you mom!

p.s.

I've always been thrilled to share my birthday with Garfield. Here's his strip today..on his 31st Birthday!

Happy Birthday Garfield!

(And you too, Paula Abdul)

Happy Birthday Gramma!

2009-06-14T08:15:00.008-05:00

Today is my Gramma's Birthday!
And boy do I wish I could be with her
celebrating like we always used to.

Our birthdays are 5 days apart
and we would celebrate our special days together.
But now I live in Louisiana and she lives in California
and she is going to have to settle for me
splashing her picture all over the blogosphere
for everyone (that means all 5 of you that read this) to see.

This is Gramma Violet and my Mom, way back when.

Don't ask me when though, because I don't know.
Mom will know though. Look at that pretty little bow
on Gramma's pretty suit. I wonder what color those outfits were?

And look at Gramma here. She is the one standing
behind my Grampa. I love this picture because of the
way that my Grampa Duane (yep, my Grampa's name is
Duane and I'm marrying a Duane!) is kneeling.
I'll forever remember him kneeling like this,

whether it was to get the fire going in the fireplace

or if it was to help us cut the ribbons on Christmas presents

with the knife he used to always have in his pocket.
I sure do miss my Grampa.

While looking for pictures for this blog I found this
Mother's Day card that my sister and I sent to
Gramma Vi back in 1975!

I like #5 where we said we liked her red hair.
Gramma colored her hair red and drove a red Camero!
She is one hip Gramma!

I'm glad it's not in writing that I asked
my Gramma for her music boxes when she died.
I sure would hate for you all to know what an uncaring child I was.
But it was completely said with love
and I knew that I was going to be at least 72
before I ever got those music boxes in my hot little hands.

Here is all of us in front of Gramma's Camero, along with the dog Cleo
(or Mindy, but I'm pretty sure Cleo. They looked an awful lot alike).
See Gramma's red hair?

Ahh.. a better shot of the hotrod!
You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures,

and the thumb, as I don't have a scanner
and had to take pictures of the pictures!

Here is Gramma and I during one of our birthday excursions.
That year we went to the San Francisco Zoo, obviously.
The year was 2001 and Gramma fed the goats.

And sat on a turtle.
(a fake turtle)

I love you Gramma
and hope you have a wonderful day today!!!

Happy Birthday.

Love, Stephanie

The Cutest Card Ever!

2009-06-14T07:58:00.002-05:00

I love the week before my birthday.
When wonderful things start appearing in my mailbox.

On Friday I received this gem from Duane's Mom.
My soon to be Mother in Law.

She is the most creative person I know!
She makes all of her own cards.

Going to her house is like going to the craft store!!

You can get stuck in there for days

and never want to leave.

And when you finally do leave you can be assured

that you aren't going home empty handed.
You always leave with some craft you've made or started.

And leftovers. Always leftovers :)

Thank you Norma, I love it!!

Stephanie Dianne at 40!

2009-06-13T18:12:00.003-05:00

I've always been the type of person
that can't stand surprises.

One year I opened all my presents
under the christmas tree and taped them back up.

I thought I was pretty sneaky.

I wasn't.

Then there was the year
that I opened my presents so fast,
not even stopping to see what I had received.

Then I cried.

And my mom had to help me dig through
the wrapping paper to find my gifts.

My birthday is in 6 days
and yesterday I received a package in the mail from my Mom.

As I started to tear that ribbon off
I noticed the card said Stephanie at 40!

I was stopped in my tracks.

I'm NOT 40
and I'm NOT opening it until I am.

It's not stopping me from shaking it though :)

Pool Art

2009-06-10T19:51:00.014-05:00

Words can't describe what you're about to see...

Well...
I'm sure you could come up with some,
but I couldn't.

So I didn't.

Blairee is always such a willing participant!

<3
Love you girlie.
Broke toe and all.

More on that later.

My Day in Pictures

2009-06-05T20:10:00.012-05:00

First thing I saw when I left the house:

They're in my neighbors front yard.

The most beautiful hibiscus that I've ever seen.

They come back every year.

And I always look forward to them.

You should click on the picture to see how pretty it truly is!

After I'd been at work for a bit
we walked across the parking lot
to our new building.

This is what I saw on the way there.

It's aptly named a Stick Bug.
And it looks exactly like a stick!!
We have the most bizarre bugs in Louisiana!

Then I saw this truck waiting on the scale.

And upon closer inspection noticed that the
driver had a Chucky doll hanging in his passenger seat!

Whaaa?

If you click on the picture below you can really see him...

I was almost scared to go in the building after this!

This building has taken years to get to this point.
I was hired 2 years ago yesterday...

Happy Anniversary to me!!...

and this building was supposed to be built
before I started.

This is our new breakroom.

Love love love the windows.

This is our new space.

And below is the building from the outside.

We're supposed to start moving in on July 13th!!
But I'm not holding my breath.

The darker part is where all the offices are
and the lighter part is where all the labs are.

We currently have one little lab in our old building
and the rest of our labs are in Rhode Island.

It's going to be great having them all on site :)

This is Debra!
Today is her birthday
and we all went to P.F. Chang's for lunch.

It was delicious and I *think* Debra had a great time.
It's kinda hard to tell from the picture though.
What do you think?

Went home, saw this moon.

And now I'm watching college baseball.

LSU is up 12-7 and Rice is down to their last out....

Strike 1

Strike 2
Ball 1

Foul Ball

2 Run Home Run.

Geesh.

Let's try this again.

LSU is up 12-9 and Rice is down to their last out....
Strike 1

Strike 2

Fair ball...out at 1st!

Geaux Tigers!

Game 2 tomorrow :)

Pretty!

2009-06-03T19:42:00.005-05:00

I've been chasing dragonflies around my yard
for days trying to get a picture.

They've all been small, green and fast.

Tonight I went outside and found this beauty!

And he/she liked me hovering, because he/she never moved!

This first picture is straight out of the camera.

The second one I played with the contrast.

And 3, 4 and 5 got contrast and color.

I sure wish I had photoshop!

And because you can't see his/her big baby blues
in the other pictures...

Oh My Goodness

2009-06-01T20:34:00.019-05:00

Today, before I left work,
I called Duane and asked him what he wanted for dinner.

He's a meat and potatoes guy
and I thought for sure he would say that
he wanted the meatloaf I said I would make on Sunday..and didn't.

He was a big help and told me that
he didn't know what he wanted.

So I went to my go-to gal in this situation.
Somewhere that I know I can find something yummy,

and easy, due to the step by step photo instructions.

Pioneer Woman.

I found a Veggie and Cheese Bagel Sandwich.
I knew I'd meet some resistance back at home.
A bagel with veggies?
And no potatoes?
No pot roast?
So I compromised and got him some ham for his.

Sure enough, I got home and we were unloading
the groceries and he said "you sure got a lot of vegetables".
Yep, and you're going to eat them Mister!

Lots of comments later about vegetables and bagels
and how he was going to being hungry after dinner
He took his first bite and was sold.
He even asked for seconds.
And wanted to take more for his lunch tomorrow.

Dear Kristen...

2009-05-31T16:36:00.006-05:00

look...
we found your dress in our freezer (:

love, blaire.

The Mall

2009-05-31T08:52:00.017-05:00

Doesn't this look like fun.

When I was younger I used to love going to the mall.
I could spend all day at the mall.
Then I worked at a mall.
For years and years I worked at the mall.
And my feelings about the mall changed.

Since we're getting married
we figured it would be a good idea for us all
to have some shiny, new clothes to wear.

So off to the mall we went.

First stop: Food Court.

No, we didn't eat ice cream for lunch.
We had Quiznos sandwiches.
But this was my view while we ate and it looked yummy!

This carousel was also in the food court.

When I was growing up I used to love to
go to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz
and ride the Zebras on the carousel there.

Sure wish I was there right now instead of the mall.

Moving on to the serious business of wedding clothes.

We are planning on getting married in the woods near a creek,
officiated by a hillbilly minister in overalls.
That means fancy schmancy clothes are out.

We're going for a casual look.
The "Hurry up and marry us so we can get to Dollywood" look.

Bri fell in love with this shirt.

Blaire and I thought it was ugly.
And we told her :)

And Blaire loved this dress.

But, I had already told them no zebras,
so I got to veto this one :)

My stephdaughters are sooo cool!

And look...there is that ugly shirt again.
That's a big piece of white lace on the back of it.
I called it her grandma shirt.

I do have to admit that the girl has an ability to pick out
clothes that are not so cute on the hanger,
but when she puts them on they look really really cute.

But with this one,
even though it looked cute on,
she isn't the one that's going
to have to look at that lace on the back.

And they do whatever I tell them.

No matter how silly it is.

I can't help but think of my Mom
every time I tell them to do something
that they think is embarrassing.

The girls are awesome though and always comply
with whatever crazy idea I have.

Usually.

I thought this purse was cute!

Blaire said it would be cute if my name was Annie.

And I was an orphan.

I didn't get the purse.

Hmmm.

Who would think to pose mannequins like that?

At this point I HAD to get out of the mall.

We came, we shopped,
we conquered.

And my feet hurt.

So back in the car for the glorious ride back to my sanity.

I've never been so happy to see this sign.
*grin*

Tweet Tweet

2009-05-30T10:42:00.006-05:00

Off to the mall with the girls to look for wedding clothes :)
I love the mall
I love the mall
I love the mall
Maybe if I keep saying it, it will come true!

Birthday Tree 39

2009-05-30T10:33:00.005-05:00

Every year I get a tree for my birthday.
This is the Crepe Myrtle that I got when I turned 39.

This morning I found I heart faces
and I think I'll be spending lots of time there.

From there I found Susan Keller.
She takes beautiful photos.

And I learned about capturing those golden rays of sunshine.

PW's Yummy Apple Tarts

2009-05-29T22:39:00.007-05:00

I made 'em tonight.

And she's right. They're yummy.

She was also right about the oozing part,
so I suggest that you put foil under the tarts
while they're in the oven.

And while you're at it
turn the sides of the foil up
so you've got your tarts in a little tart boat.

Because if you cook anything like I cook,
you're going to end up with a dripping, oozing,
smoking, smelly mess in the bottom of your stove.

But they we're still yummy.
Better than yummy with a glass of milk.

And I'm absolutely sure that if you had vanilla
ice cream dished up on the side of that apple tart,
They'd be at their yummiest!

We didn't have ice cream.
We gave it up.
That's why we were cooking apple tarts.
It's got fruit ya know.

*smile*

Tweet Tweet

2009-05-29T20:34:00.009-05:00

We're watching Secondhand Lions.
I want a piggie!

A Memorable Memorial Day

2009-05-26T19:07:00.023-05:00

We had company this weekend!

Duane's nephew Christopher came to visit
and he brought his LOVELY girlfriend Tammy
and her DELIGHTFUL son Caleb.

They had gone to the aquarium in New Orleans
on Memorial Day and stopped by
to visit us on their way back home.

Christopher loves picking on the girls
and they scream and pout and act like they don't like it...
even though you know they do.

This little guy can't hide his excitement though.

He was at his happiest when Chris threw him around the pool.

He did a cannonball,
and me being the camera happy person that I am,
asked him to do another so I could get a picture.

And another. and another.

Apparently I need to time it better next time,
because this is the only picture I kept getting:

I was much more successful when he was stationary.
Or at least when part of him was.

We have about 9 balls that we play with in the pool
and they usually make their way outside the pool.

On this day they were ALWAYS outside of the pool!
Putting them back in was a full time job and Duane
eventually gave up enjoying being in the pool
to stay outside of the pool and throw the balls back in.

We play volleyball with them and we stand on them
and try to see who can stand the longest without falling over.
Oh...and we hit one another with them.
Lucky for us they went half flat over the winter.

Splashing is a big part of pool life here at our house.
If you don't want to get splashed, don't go near the pool.
It's my least favorite thing about the pool.
I hate wet hair when it's not hot enough
outside to dry it in an instant.

Here is Blaire getting some loving from her cousin.

I love the maniacal look on Christopher's face.
He loves torturing this one.
She loves it too.

I think this little guy was our favorite part of the whole day.
Duane's burgers came in a close second,
but man o man was this kid fun!

He's fearless.

And his favorite part of kindergarten was
NOT MATH
&
NOT STANDING IN THE CORNER!

"Secret invisible memo that only Chris can see"

Dear Christopher,
This one is the keeper.
Love, Stephanie

My Own Charlotte

2009-05-22T06:10:00.014-05:00

Wednesday night I was outside
and my face ran into a cobweb that I couldn't see.

It felt like a big one.

All I could think about was
that the spider was on me!

I turned the outside light on and this is what I found:

She is so cute inside the agapanthus!
(you should click on that picture to see just how cute she is)

I named her Charlotte.

I knew she would be remaking her web
the next night and was determined to get her picture.

So I watched and waited.

And waited and watched.

She didn't like the flash very much
and kept running back to the safety of her flower.

Inside I would go to wait for her to come back
out of the flower and start building again.

I eventually figured this was going to
be a long process and decided to go to bed.

When I left her she was still spinning her web,
I'm sure thinking of all the glorious food she
would be able to catch once she finished.

This is what I woke up to in the morning:

"RADIANT"

I wonder how long it took her to create that?

And this picture, while it isn't the greatest
of quality, shows you where she built her web:

Right smack dab in the middle of the walkway to the barn.

The perfect place for someone to walk right into it :)

Bobo, Seven & Vinnie

2009-05-20T18:33:00.006-05:00

I think Bobo has given up and realized
that I'm not going to stop taking pictures of him.

When the girls aren't with us I have limited subjects,
so every other week you may be seeing lots of cats.

This is Seven. She is about sixteen.

She once had 7 kittens.
We named them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

This is Bobo's brother, Vinnie.

We thought with the name Vinnie
he would sort of be a thug.

He's a big baby.

The Prince

2009-05-18T20:02:00.005-05:00

This is Prince.

He's my neighbor and I adore him.

I got to know him after Hurricane Katrina knocked our fence down.

Without a fence I got to see him every day!

Then the fence went back up.

But....

a board "fell" out of the fence and I won't let Duane put it back up.

With the board back in place it makes it difficult to feed him Milkbones.

And he likes Milkbones :)

Testing

2009-05-17T08:25:00.011-05:00

123

photo by: Blaire

Meow

2009-05-16T09:44:00.016-05:00

I've been playing around with the new camera this morning.

There are only so many things that I can take pictures of in the backyard if the girls aren't awake, but the cats were available.

I've decided that Bobo is a brat.

Well, I already knew that, but now I have proof.

For every picture that he would actually look at the camera
I have 10 pictures where he would not.

I finally was able to get a few good ones though.

Vinnie on the other hand loves to have his picture taken.

You can always count on him to be the center of attention.

Unless you're a stranger.

Then you won't even know that he exists.

Unless you get a glimpse of the black and white blur
running to the bedroom to hide.

Numero Uno

2009-05-15T18:51:00.006-05:00

Our Nikon D60 arrived today!

Here is the first picture I took with it.

I think I have a LOT to learn about this camera.

This is Vinnie.

And when I looked through the camera he looked crisp and clear.

Now he does not.

Off to read my manual.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

2009-05-14T09:08:00.011-05:00

When I was younger and we would take the trip

over the mountain to Gramma's house

I would always see the most wonderful flowers

planted on the side of the highway.

They were agapanthus and they were my favorite!

Now that I don't live in California anymore,

and don't travel on 280 anymore,

I don't see those beautiful flowers.

So we went and bought some a couple weekends ago!

They still aren't in the ground, but they're aching to be.

And they'll get there. And be happy.

But not as happy as me!

Cakes Gone Wrong

2009-05-07T08:22:00.016-05:00

I found the funniest blog ever last night! It's called Cake Wrecks and it's all about "When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong."

And these cakes are WRECKS!!

They aren't cakes that someone just made in their kitchen, these cakes are store bought cakes that people are expected to pay money for LOL.

So if you're looking for a good laugh,
a good "I think I'm going to pee my pants" laugh, you should go visit this blog. The commentary is hilarious and you 'll have a blast reading it through the tears in your eyes!

I seriously don't think I've laughed this hard since I was a kid.

Lizards

2009-05-03T14:37:00.018-05:00

We have lizards.

They're called Green Anole lizards.

They're related to the Iguana, but they change colors.

So you'd think they were related to the chameleon.

But they're not.

They hang out on our sink outside.

They hang out on our fence.

Sometimes they're green.

Sometimes they're brown.

Sometimes they like each other.

Sometimes they don't.

And sometimes they really really like each other :)

Heyyy Sarah, I blogged about a bird (:

2009-04-29T20:47:00.007-05:00

This Is One Smart Kid!!

2009-04-28T18:44:00.012-05:00

Last night was Awards Night at Brianna's school. She's in 10th grade this year and doing fantastic! So wonderfully fantastic that she received two awards last night :)

The teachers choose 1 student from each course to receive an award and Bri's teacher chose her to receive the award for Introduction to BCA. It's a computer class and I can say from first hand experience that Brianna excels on the computer! She even teaches me things and I'd like to think I'm pretty computer savvy. Yep, she's smart. And a good person. And beautiful. And taller than me. She's a lot of good things! except the taller than me part, that's not so good. But the award isn't just for how well she does on a computer, it's also for her attitude and other good stuff! I'll let you hear for yourself:

(please excuse my filming skills LOL I always seem to want to film longwise, but forget that you can't rotate video!! At least I remembered that before the filming stopped this time...we have lots of videos you have to watch sideways!)

She also received an award for her grade point average. The awards aren't just given for keeping your GPA at a certain level for the current year. It's ongoing for your entire high school career. So if her grade point average fell below a certain level she wouldn't be eligible for this award anymore. They gave out awards for GPA's between 3.5 to 3.99 and they gave out awards for over 4.0.

Bri's grade point average.... 4.1429 :)

And Sarah, the BFF, also got an award for 4.0 and above! Here they are after the ceremony:

We couldn't be prouder of them!!

I love Space!

2009-04-27T17:04:00.011-05:00

About a year ago we put these shelves up in our pantry.

Before the shelves we were mainly using the cupboards in the

kitchen and 2 small bookcases in the pantry for storage.

Everything used to be stacked on top of every thing else.

It was pretty crowded.

It still is, but much more organized...

when I decide to stay organized :)

On the other side of the pantry was a bookcase that had some appliances and some old cat food bowls and some rags

and an old rug and some dust.

Ok, lots of dust.

I kept my stock pot and my dutch oven on the kitchen counter

and my mixer on the floor in the pantry!

It made no sense!

So this weekend we went back to Home Depot

and bought more shelfing

and brackets to build more shelves!! Yay!

And this is what it looks like now :)

This side looks so neat!

I suppose it's time for me to re-organize the food side again lol.

Momma Bird is Back!

2009-04-25T09:27:00.011-05:00

I walked outside this morning and saw that my momma bird is back!! Last year Duane and I watched as she built her nest, flying from tree to tree and bringing back twigs and grass to this large tree in our neighbors backyard. Throughout the summer we saw her up in that tree and the best part was when she started teaching her baby to fly! It was one of the cutest things I had ever seen. That little baby would hop from branch to branch and I wish I had taken pictures, but I only saw it when I was in the pool...

not the ideal place to be taking pictures from.

Then Gustav, the big bad hurricane, came to visit and the top of that big old tree came tumbling down. The tree is still pretty big, but the spot where she had built her nest was gone and I didn't think she'd come back this year.

I was wrong!

This is her and her man bird building their nest.

And bringing back twigs and sticks and grass and stuff.

I wish I was a bird.

I'd love to fly like that.

Except I wouldn't eat worms.

Instead I'd want to eat the yummy looking shepherds pie

that I found on The Hungry Housewife's blog this morning!

Cake on a Stick

2009-04-23T20:43:00.006-05:00

Blaire and I made cakepops this weekend!

I found the recipe on Bakerella's blog...along with lots of other yummy things. They are pretty simple to make, but much quicker and a whole lot funner when you have a partner.

We made a total of 58 and ended up freezing about 40 of them before we dipped them in the candy melts and sprinkled them. It worked out so well that way. We didn't get tired of dipping them and melting more melts and dipping more and melting. And dipping. And melting. And sprinkling :)

Throughout the week I've ended up finishing all of them and taking them to work to share.

They're yummy and you should make some!

Or make a lot :)