New Year!!!

On January 24, 2011 my Daisy Mae passed away and today, January 24, 2012, marks the 1 year anniversary of her death.  In the last few months of Daisy's life, she wasn't feeling well and I did all I could do to keep her comfortable.  So...for almost a full year we were 4 dog nights!  On December 10th of 2012 I rescued another Boxer and we are back to "The 5 Dog Night"!  We aren't real sure how old she is but probably between 2 & 3.  Her name was Lil Mae but we changed it to Lula Mae.  She has adjusted quite nicely to her new home and her new brothers & sisters!  Will post pictures at a later date as she is still a little camera shy.

Sunday, August 29th

Last Sunday morning when I looked out our bedroom window, I saw something on top of the fence.  Strangely, I had never seen anything there before so I called Steve to come look.  He didn't know what it was either but he was fixing to find out.  Well it was a young racoon that had decided he needed a little rest.  It was a really good thing that he was on the ball field behind the house and not in the backyard with the dogs.  He is pretty cute - don't you think?

Thursday Morning

Today is a beautiful day, the sky is blue, the birds are singing and we are all fat and happy.  Why does our world revolve around our next meal?  I think one reason for us is that we both love to cook.  Although I've been on a vacation from cooking most of the 3 years that we've been married - my craving to be in the kitchen is returning.  Last weekend we had a pizza cook-off and the judges were Jackson, Hailey and my friend Lynn.  Not one of them could define a winner in the competition but it was so much fun. Great way to spend a Friday night.  My mind is now centered on what to fix Saturday night for the LSU game!!!  Pictured below are two of the judges and I forgot about Daisy Mae being a judge...as you can see from the picture, she sampled way to much!

It's September

Good Morning Everyone!  September is here and football is kicking off this Saturday.  We are starting ours with a LSU Football Party on the deck.  It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend with the lows in the upper 60's - we'll have some blankets available on the deck for those of us who aren't used to the cold weather LOL.  Everyone in the state of Louisiana has really suffered this summer with heat indexes around 115.  You know it's really bad when you have someone living in your town from Miami and they make a comment about the heat in Miami and how he has NEVER been as hot as he has been in Louisiana.  Also he stated he had never been so cold - HA HA HA!  Our humidity is a killer! 

We have made the most of our hot summer with The 5 Dog Night by piling up in the A/C.  Note the 5th dog is never there and that is because he is a very busy dog - hunting for whatever.

Vacation Day 6

Well - we left Donna and Bobby's that night after supper as we decided if we could get in at least 3 hours, the drive wouldn't be quite as bad the next day.  We were all getting tired and cabin fever of the car.  We got home on Friday around 4:30 PM all safe and happy to see our 5 dogs waiting for us.

Oh yes!  We had started entertaining ourselves before we got home.

Love you Steve, Jackson and Hailey for making this one of my BEST vacation's ever and to Donna, Bobby and Meme - we all enjoyed your hospitality (Meme especially)  Love you All!

Vacation Day 6

Schlitterbahn here we come!  Donna, Bobby and Meme were so gracious, fixed us an ice chest with drinks and food to carry with us and even drove down to it so we could follow and get the very best parking space.  We were there when it opened and had so much fun.  It was a long day but not one that we will ever regret.  The only regret we may have is that we didn't ride as many rides as Jackson and Hailey did.

Vacation Day 5

At this point we have had such a good time and are headed to my cousin's house in New Braunfels.  Before we left the San Antonio area we decided to go to the Texan Culture Museum and the Tower of the America's which is 75 stories tall and gives you a great view of San Antonio.   We treated Jackson and Hailey to lunch at the Chart House Restaurant which was on the top of the tower and revolved while you ate.

After we ate here we headed on to Donna, Bobby and Meme's home in New Braunfels.  Donna and Bobby carried us to Gruene, Texas for the night and we had so much fun.  We found out that there is so much to do in that area of Texas and we didn't even put a dent in it.  We will be going back and hopefully real soon.

Vacation Day 4

We started day 4 with breakfast at Taco Taco which was off the beaten tourist path. Again this restaurant was featured in magazines we'd read about. We had never been to a Mexican Restaurant for breakfast so this was a first for all of us.

At El Mercado for shopping after breakfast.

 Afternoon at Rippley's, Guinness World Records, Louis Tussauds Wax Museam and the Mirror Maze.

Vacation Day 3

This is our day at Sea World and the Lost Lagoon

Vacation Day 2

Day 2 of our vacation was Father's Day so we were ready to do whatever Steve wanted to do.  We first went to the IMAX Theater to see the movie about the Alamo and then to the Alamo.  After the Alamo we went to the Buckhorn Saloon and the Texas Ranger Museum. Both attractions were so much fun with lots of stuff to look at. Just look at all the critters in our picture and that was a small sampling of the critters. The pool called us that afternoon and I went with Jackson and Hailey to the pool while Steve relaxed watching golf.

Dinner along the Riverwalk at Zocca

Vacation Day 1

On Saturday. June 19th, we left at 5:00 AM headed towards San Antonio, Texas.  Steve drove us to Lexington, Texas for lunch at Snow's BBQ which he had read about several months earlier.  Has anyone ever been there?  If you have, you know that you have to be there early to eat and if your too late, they are sold out of everything and then you'll have to wait until the next Saturday to eat.  So we were under lots of pressure to get there early enough to eat and we did.  We had Ribs, Brisket and Sausage and had already sold out of Chicken.  Very Good! If your ever in the area it is 17 miles off the interstate.  From Snow's we drove on to San Antonio and checked into the Hotel Contessa (Beautiful Suites only) Hotel on the Riverwalk.  We walked down the Riverwalk to take the river cruise, eat at Casa Rio for supper and went to the Fiest Noche Del Rio at the Arneson Theater right on the Riverwalk.  Lot's of fun for the day!

This month is flying by and really the year 2010 is too.  So far I have had so many ups and downs in the first 9 days of June than I can remember. Today is an up day because I found my wedding rings last night that I had lost Sunday afternoon sitting at the dining room table all by myself.  Not only did I lose my rings, I broke a globe on my antique  lamp that was my grandmother's and can probably never find another globe for it.  Then right as we got ready to eat, Steve broke a full bottle of Balsamic vinegar on the kitchen floor that went everywhere.  Need I mention that I have done more cleaning and cleaning out of the house in the last 3 days.  Monday morning was when I realized that my rings were lost and I looked and looked the house over before I went to work.  When I got home that afternoon I continued searching the house then I even went out to the trash where I went through 2 bags of trash, sifting very closely for my rings YUK.  As of last night I had come to grips that the rings were gone forever.  I figured that I'd missed them in the trash or that one of the dogs had swallowed or burried them in the backyard never to be found.  Steve cooked fajitas for us last night and I had been drinking a glass of wine while talking with Jackson and Hailey.  We were about to eat so I started cleaning off the kitchen table so the four of us could sit and eat together.  When I got to the pepper shaker - WOW - there they were hanging on the shaker.  You know everone has one of those day every now and then - where you really start to doubt yourself - not remembering and everything starts to get really fuzzy.  Well - all is very clear this morning and I am really happy.

Top Kill

I'm caught up at work so I'm sitting here wastching operation Top Kill online.  Wish I knew what I was looking at.  There seems to be some movement or bubbles coming out in one area - not very much though - wish someone would comment on this picture and let us know what's happening.  We have started the summer off at our house but we haven't established the house rules yet that everyone needs to follow.  Yesterday was my worry day and today is Steve's.  Now Jackson is over at a neighbors house playing and I will pick him up when I get off.  Today is our 3rd Anniversary and it seems like we've been married 4-ever.  I love you Steve ~ Happy Anniversary.

Jackson's Birthday

Today is Jackson's birthday and he is 10 years old!  Never to return to the single digits again.  I am really busy today getting ready for the big party.  The party will be at noon tomorrow at Mane Street Mini Golf with cake an ice cream YUMMY.  Tomorrow night  we will be having hot dogs, movies on the deck and maybe sleeping out under the stars.  Right now I'm busy as I can be baking cupcakes.

Hey ya'll - lots of stuff going on around here and I'll fill you in on some of it now but some of it will have to wait.  One of my cousins passed away last weekend and we had the funeral on Tuesday.  My boss informed me that he will be retiring on July 15th and his wife is retiring this week.  They will be headed to the beach for her first week of retirement.  Things may be picking up around the United States but not in this area.  Steve and I have put our heads together and are trying to come up with money making ideas.  Love you all...

My Webelo

On Saturday night Jackson graduated from a Bear to a Webelo in Cub Scouts. I was so proud of him and his Daddy was too. As you can see from the pictures - he is quite handsome in his uniform.

Friday May 14th

We had a Crawfish Boil Friday night and they were really good. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of those little mudbugs but maybe it was because my fingers were too messy. You know it was good when it took 2 days to get it all cleaned up. There was quite a bit of rain in between our cleaning which kept helping to clean everything up. On Saturday Jackson and I spent all morning at Books-A-Millon and we had so much fun. Savannah and Hailey both took turns coming to Books-A-Million staying with us. Finally only Hailey was there and we left to meet Steve for lunch. Right as we were finishing lunch Tiny called and was ready to leave from the hospital. We loaded up and the 3 of us went to break her out and take her home - she was so happy she was crying.

Today is another day in North Louisiana - record highs are expected and thunderstorms moving in Friday for the weekend. No rain today because our front porch was dry as Daisy Mae reported to me when she went to check it out this morning. I feel great today after yoga last night - it is amazing how much yoga renews your mind, body and spirit. Lunch plans today have been canceled because my friend isn't feeling well. This means I am available for lunch and my car is in the shop - need ride too.

I went to the hospital this morning at break to see my friend Tiny. She had emergency surgery on Sunday. I was so happy to find her sitting in the chair and smiling at me when I walked in. Before I left I taped her pictures onto the wall of Fuzzy (her dog) and some I'd brought to her of us(Jackson and the dogs). Tiny loves all of us and we love her very very much. Get Well Tiny!

Had another great weekend and a great Mother's Day on Saturday and Sunday. One of my wants for Mother's Day was a picture of me with Jackson and all the dogs. As you can see - we almost succeeded. Rusty would not slow down becuase it was his peak hunting time. Oh well, maybe we'll try again sometime inside after the sun goes down and Rusty stops hunting. The only problem we'll have then is that they will all be ready to go to bed.