Cockadoodle Doo!

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

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

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

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!