My husband is a 12 year old

Often when people ask how many children I have I tend to reply "three" because Tom tends to fall into that catagory. Ok, so I only birthed two, but I seem to find myself trying to convince three kids why having halloween candy before dinner is not a healthy choice instead of just two, etc.... There are so many situations where I just shake my head and look at my husband and say "you know better," such as the situation with the fog machine, or, most recently, everything that happened with the blank firing machine gun in the backyard (please don't even ask!).

Just the other day we were on a family trip to Wal-Mart checking out bikes because Christmas is coming up and William is quickly growing out of his old bike and I needed to see what size he could ride now (sans training wheels, of course!) to give Santa the heads up. So William and I are checking out the bikes and Tom is off looking at something, comes back and declares he's found what he wants for Christmas. What you ask? See picture below:



It's the Nerf Vulcan Machine Gun. He says that he wants to set up an obstacle course in the backyard and pretend it's like old school American Gladiators where one person trys to run to get to the end and the gladiator trys to hit the person with balls (or in this case, nerf thingys). William is really looking forward to this.

All this is great, but here is what he tried last night that has made me post about my husband. I was so exhausted last night that I gave the kids a bath, put them to bed, and crawled to the sofa to chill in front of the tv. We found a really interesting documentary on discovery health about the tree man that was actually pretty cool, but I still fell asleep about half way through. Well, I had been resting my head on Tom, and somewhere between me falling asleep and the end of the show he had gotten up without waking me up. Well, I finally woke up about 10 o'clock and he was moving my arm for some reason. He whispers "shhh...go back to sleep." I immediately knew something was wrong because he never tells me to go back to sleep. It's usually "if you're going to sleep, do it in your bedroom." Stuff like that. Anyway, I sit up and look around and notice a bowl full of water next to the couch. And then I realized why he was moving my arm. He was trying to stick my hand in the warm water to make me wet my pants! Who does this to their spouse?!? He said he just wanted to see if it would actually work. I tell ya, William has a built in best friend for life with Tom!

Holiday Fashion Shoot

Just wanted to post some pictures of our latest photo shoot! (My favorite is the last one.) There are more, but I just wanted to post a few.

The Incredible O'Briens

The O'Brien family was an ordinary family. Two kids, a house...or so everyone thought. Average family by day, super crime fighting heroes by night:

Happy Halloween!

An extreme case of Count Choculitis

On Monday the crew fixing our house finally finished! Hooray! We have a brand new 30-year roof (I never knew there was a difference in roofs, but now I am an expert), all new ceilings, new paint jobs all around, new light fixtures, etc...The most exciting thing is that we are no longer rockin' that mildew-y death smell from all the water damage! I never thought I would be thankful for damage from a hurricane, but it allowed us to update our house all around without costing us thanks to our wonderful homeowners insurance. (Let's give a shout-out to USAA woot woot!) So all the things that Tom and I wanted to do are now done, I didn't have to do any of the work, and it's all done in a week! Now is the time Tom will get the call that Lincoln's ready to move us, right? (no complaints if they did!)

Then there's Natalie...last night I went out for a late night G.N.O. to see a movie. When returning at the awful hour of 1am, Natalie was up sitting on the couch watching something on financial planning (Tom out cold in our room.) I asked "what are you doing?!?" She's all "watching tv." Who knew that a three year old was concerned about her financial future? Well, I walked her back to bed. She was up again at 3am, 4am, and 6am (didn't go back to sleep after 6am!). This is the second night she has done this! What is going on with her, besides, perhaps her love of financial issues? Any advice out there to get this girl to stay asleep in her bed? I've never had an issue with her sleeping in her room before and especially getting up over and over again!

I think I threw up in my mouth.

Oh, my sweet Natalie!

I had just got out of the shower this morning when Natalie strolls into the bathroom. I had just finished brushing my hair when she looks up and asks me what I'm doing. When she notices my hairbrush she gets really excited and asks if she can brush her hair. Of course she can! That girls hair could be brushed a thousand times a day, but since she's cursed with her mother's wild hair, a thousand brushings wouldn't really help (the above picture doesn't even show her at her worst.) But she takes my hairbrush and goes on her merry way, I assume to her room where all her hair accessories are.

A few minutes later, as I'm finishing brushing my teeth, Natalie show back up in the bathroom and gives me back my hairbrush. This is how our conversation went when I noticed her hair was not only brushed, but also wet.

Natalie: "I'm done, Mommy."

Me: "Oh, your hair looks so beautiful! Wait...why is your hair wet? How did you get your hair wet?"

N: "Oh, I used potty water." (turns to leave)

M: (grabbing her) "Wait, what!?! You used water from the potty to brush your hair?! You put my hairbrush in the potty?!"

N: (not realizing the problem here) Well, yeah Mommy!"

M: "Binky! Potty water is yucky! The potty is only for poo poo and pee pee! Not mommy's hairbrush!"

N: "Oh, ok mommy. Sorry mommy."

I think I need a new hairbrush.

My practical joke finally worked!!!

(This photo is of Natalie checking out a gator behind glass.)

So a few days ago I made a post about our new family pet. I had said that we got an alligator to replace our pet goldfish. Ok, it was all a big joke and let me tell you why!

My wonderful mother and father have an intense fear that since we live in the swamps of Louisiana we can be eaten by an alligator at any given second. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a little bit but they do fear one of their grandchildren becoming a tasty mid-day snack for some hungry gator. To be fair, we do live in gator country, but they stay in their homes and we stay away from those homes!

A while back our family was visiting the New Orleans zoo and at the cajun country exhibit they keep a huge 11 foot gator. While there I took a picture with my cell phone of this gator, making sure to keep the walls of the structure out of the picture. I then sent this picture to my mom's email address with the caption "look what my neighbors found in their backyard this morning!" While I thought this to be hilarious, my parents did not.

So, when my neighbor and her son (the one who a few weeks earlier had a gator take a bit of his hand) showed up with a baby gator I couldn't resist playing a prank on my parents once again. It was just coincidence that the kids were in the bath at the time, and no, I didn't put the gator in the bath with William. They really don't have any teeth yet, but I'm still not a huge fan of putting potentially dangerous animals in a bath with my children. Anyway, Shane took the baby gator back to his home in the swamp and we are still without a pet. (Tom and I also think that having a gator as a pet might be illegal, though I'm not sure.)

Anyway, I don't know how often my parents check this blog so we've been patiently waiting to hear from them, leaving that post up as if it were real. And finally, the email came today. To quote, "Please tell me why an alligator?" and when I responded that my prank finally worked the response was "Dad and I both say 'not funny' to the alligator trick."

Ahh.......all in a days work!

A couple pics from the evacuation

I have a few extra minutes so I thought I would post a few pictures from the evacuation.

This is just outside of Beaumont, Texas on our way to Houston. As we were driving through Orange County, the call came out to evacuate the county, so we got hit with that traffic, too. My husband enjoys a good challenge, so he drove across the grass to this service road and we drove for a good while passing up all that traffic. He is such a sneaky man!
While in Houston we did a little bit of everything! This is Natalie at the Houston Zoo petting a goat. Binky loved this goat and I think she wanted to bring it home with us. I don't think Los Shephitos would have enjoyed that.

Tom begged me to take this picture! The meercats were hilarious. We could have watched them all day! (Hey Connie! Can you say Mr. July?!?)
And...this is what we came home to. Well, it's actually in our next door neighbor's tree, but I think it's a great picture!

Our New Family Pet

We lost our wonderful pet, Popcorn the Fish, to Hurricane Gustav. He was a wonderful fish! He would chase his reflection around his bowl 24 hours a day and would try to eat his air bubbles as though they were food. Crazy Popcorn, you will be missed!



So, we needed to find a replacement pet. We thought it would be fun to try something new and exciting. A tad more difficult than a fish. We figured that living in Louisiana gives us a great opportunity to try something we would never have a chance to have as a pet anywhere else in the world.

A pet alligator! Here is our new friend about to take a bath with William. Babies have no teeth so he will try to bite you (it is way too ingrained in their brains or something) but it won't hurt. He'll even try to "death roll" your finger. What a great pet!

We let him swim around in the sink, too. That is William's hand in the picture trying to pick up the gator. We haven't come up with a good name yet, but Chomper, Bitey, and Justin are all in the running.

Another update

Today was the first day that people could return to the Parish. Up until now, Terrebonne Parish has been on lockdown. The National Guard was blocking all roads into the Parish and there was a curfew. But today people were allowed back in, but an 8pm purfew is still in effect. We decided to stay put until Monday. My neighbor Alonna and her family did return today and I had her check on our house (she has a key so she even checked inside.)

The Run-Down:

-backyard fence is down

-shingles ripped off; roof damage

-water damage to the ceiling in kitchen (from roof damage)

She went on to say that it is just a mess there. No power (could be up to three weeks to get it back on) and debris is everywhere. Said it took two hours to clean up their front yard, and it's not that big!

So it looks like we will have a big mess when we get back. Fortunately, Tom can get a heavy duty generator through Lincoln so we will have some power when we get back and we won't have to live completely like the Amish! Ugh...the hot Louisiana summer is still going strong!

Any further questions? Check it out on www.houmatoday.com! Have a good one!

The O'Briens are Refugees

This is just a quick post to let anyone who was curious know that we are safe. We evacuated Houma well ahead of the storm on Saturday Morning. We can't get ahold of any friends or neighbors who stayed back yet, but it doesn't seem the destruction was nearly as bad as predicted. We are just looking forward to the all clear signal so we can go home and start cleaning up debris! Anyway, the most important thing is that we are safe and well cared for right now. More posts later!

All Eyes on Gustav!!

Hello all! Well, if you haven't been hiding under a rock for the past few days, you probably know that there is a hurricane threatening to slam into the gulf coast. Especially interesting is that tomorrow is the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, so that just adds more emotion to it. Here is the current picture of the projected path of Hurricane Gustav and where it is expected to make landfall (current as of 2:20 pm central time on August 28th, 2008!).

See that little end dot right on the Louisiana coast? Yeah, that dot pretty much signifies our house! How nice to make it onto the map, huh?

Evacuation plans are being made, and since we are pretty darn close to the gulf, we'll be among some of the first waves of evacuations. Those right on the gulf would be first, of course, but we'd be soon thereafter. We are north of the Intracoastal Waterway, so that's good news as far a flooding probabilities go!

As for preparations, we are pretty set. We aren't planning on staying, but we still have to prepare the house. It's interesting to be taking part in this because it's not like a tornado where you have but a few minutes to grab some things and get to shelter. We know where the storm is, we know how fast it is coming, and we know when it will hit. So there is that degree of uneasiness, but not all out panic because it's not going to come out of nowhere!

So, on a funny note, yesterday I gave Tom some instructions to pick up a few extra gas cans at Lowes so that we could bring extra gas with us during the evacuation. I went out with some friends to see a movie, and when I got home later that night, I saw no gas cans, but I did see a fog machine. So, I asked what exactly we needed a fog machine for!?! (I'm pretty sure I've never seen "fog machine" on a list of emergency essentials!) He said it looked like fun. Yes, perhaps if we weren't preparing for a potential disaster I could see the fun in a fog machine. Actually, thinking about it, I still don't see much fun in a fog machine... I picture Tom standing in line at Lowes with everyone around him loaded up with batteries, plywood, bottled water...and he's in line purchasing a fog machine which will be pretty useless once the power goes out, mind you! I just don't understand my husband and his impulse buys sometime!

All that aside, never fear, we are prepared and I will update everyone on the situation when I get a chance!

Tropical Storm Edouard

We moved to the gulf coast about nine months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit this area. As expected, there was always that fear in the back of our minds that something that devestating could happen again. But the longer we lived here and learned more, the less nervous I became. According to our FEMA printouts, this house has never flooded, and until recently was listed as a floodplain level C, which meant that it was least likely to flood. (Since we purchased our house, everything has been raised to a level A, making flood insurance extremely expensive, but, fortunately, we got grandfathered in.)


All this aside, we have always been very good about keeping emergency essentials up to date and having our 72-hour kits at the ready. We haven't ever desperately needed them, except for a few times when the power went out for a few hours. The boys were disappointed without the Wii, but we got some good s'mores out of it, so not a total loss! In the two and a half years we have been here, not one tropical storm has come our way.


Well, Tropical Storm Edouard is brewing off the coast of Louisiana as we speak! The natives tell me that tropical storms, though lacking the wind speed of a hurricane, actually drop much more precipitation. Also, it's not really headed directly at us. (The projected path actually shows it headed right for Los Shephitos of Houston, but we are currently in a tropical storm warning as well.) So, as Edouard brews over the warm waters of the Gulf, keep an eye on the weather map and think of us down here in the swamps of Louisiana!

School Shopping!

So, William officially starts Kindergarten in a few days! Hooray! He's so excited and can't wait to be in school all day Monday through Friday. (I think Natalie feels the same way about him!)

This being the weekend before school starts, the fine state of Louisiana's powers that be have proclaimed it "tax free weekend" (insert applause). Of course, that's only the 4.5% state tax that we're not paying. We still have to fork over the 4.5% parish tax, but I'm not sure everyone gets that besides me. Either way, eveyone-myself included-waits until this weekend to purchase school supplies. Keep in mind that it is also mandated in this very fine state that all public school children will be outfitted in school uniforms. Fortunately I had already purchased William's school uniforms when we were visiting Kirk and Jackie in Houston in the beginning of the month, so we're not looking at any major purchases. Just a short list of kindergarten supplies, right?

Yeah, not quite as easy as it sounds. And it wasn't the 50 trillion people all trying to get into the same two school supply aisles as me that was annoying. It was the incredibly specific school list from William's school that really got to me! Good luck finding a two-pocket plastic folder with no prongs or pictures on the outside of it. I had no problem finding two-pocket plastic folders, but they all had prongs in them. Then I found some of the prongless variety, but they were not plastic, although I'm not entirely sure what material they were. Tom got so frustrated looking through stacks of folders he finally said he'd just remove the d@*n prongs himself! But then, we finally found one, that's right just one, in a stack of prong-filled plastic folders there was one lonely two pocket plastic folder sans prongs. Never mind the fact that it is the color orange that will eventually burn your retinas if you stare at it too long. It is plastic. It has two pockets. It has no prongs. It is perfect.

(Let's not get into the non-plastic HEAVY DUTY zipper flat rectangular pencil bags we had to find next.)

Mamma Mia!

While visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Houston a few weeks ago, it was brought to my attention that I haven't blogged in a while. "Since April" is what I was told (and they were right!) I actually have alot to put out there, but just haven't had the time. We did just get back from our annual trip to Ohio, but more about that later. I haven't even downloaded the pictures off the camera yet, so that will be for another day.

But I did want to jot a quick post about the movie Mamma Mia! I just got back from watching it with a group of friends and it was so much fun! Ok, it wasn't the best acting in the world and I read in many reviews of the movie that the choreography was terrible, but honestly, I didn't even notice. It was just so much fun singing and dancing throughout the whole movie (yeah, the movie was at 10:30 pm and we were pretty much the only people there...) Oh, and on the way home we were laughing way too much and decided to do chinese firedrills. (I've suddenly become a 14 year-old again...) So, if you're looking for a good time and you love ABBA, then you must see this movie, preferably with a group of wild and crazy girls!

Married White Female...Republican

Ah...election season has been in full swing for a while now, and I truly enjoy sitting back and listening to all the political banter. It's all so interesting to me! I remember when Tom called his grandparents to tell them that he had proposed, their first question to him was not "is she nice?" or "is she a good person?" it was "is she a Republican?" To them, that one question would answer all their questions about me. At the time, my political affiliation was really indifferent to me. I had never voted in an election (not because I was too young, but more because I didn't care) so I had never really considered this question. Of course I answered "yes, I'm a Republican" because I supposed between the two major parties, this was more alligned with my personal beliefs.

Well, since that question was posed to my then fiance', I've spent alot more time figuring out just what I thought was important to me and my belief system and now I can say with a resounding "YES" that I'm a Republican.

All this is coming out right now because the other night Tom and I were watching the movie "Juno." It's a movie about a high school teen who finds herself pregnant and initially sets out to abort the baby, but then can't. She instead sets out to find the perfect adoptive parents for her unborn child. She doesn't want to keep it, but she doesn't want to kill it based on the fact that by this point "the baby had fingernails!!" It was an interesting movie, but I especially liked it because I'm very pro-life. Even before I really cared about politics, I felt abortion was wrong.

So, because I'm a flaming Republican, I read Ann Coulter books while working out. Today I started reading "Godless: The Church of Liberalism" by the divine Ms. Coulter. I've read it before, but I find that reading her books while working out really helps to get the old heart rate up and pumping! Anyway, I wanted to include a passage from this book here about abortion:

"Liberals are more upset when a tree is chopped down than when a child is aborted. Even if one rates an unborn child less than a full-blown person, doesn't the unborn child rate slightly higher than vegetation?"

I love it! Yea Ann Coulter!

This is about my kids. Because I should.

I never really feel like blogging because I never really have much to say. Everything is pretty much same old, same old. No overly funny stories, no crazy trips across the country. Nope...it's just spring time in Houma.



But since I feel like I should post something, I will! Our kids are so great. William is really growing into such an amazing little boy. He is so incredibly friendly and kind (maybe not always to his sister, but anyway...) Complete strangers tend to notice this about him.



Two weekends ago I decided to take the kids on our own spring break to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Tom had some "business" in Florala, Alabama, which is just over the state line north of the Florida panhandle. So, I drove north, dropped him off for the weekend, then drove straight south to the beach! I got us a hotel right on the beach with a balcony and a view of the Gulf.


It was a little daunting taking this whole trip on my own, but the kids were such great little helpers! We spent the first night on the beach till about 8pm. They just didn't want to leave. Being on the beach was so relaxing and just the break we needed from Louisiana.

While there, William would make friends with anyone his size. The other kids tended to be nervous about a strange kid at first, but they would soon warm up and they would become the best of friends for the day. On the morning we were scheduled to leave, we went down to the beach for one last romp. William quickly became friends with Logan from Indiana. They played for about 2 hours, but then we had to go. Just as we were packing up to leave, a grandma and her grandson came over to us. She was wondering if her little guy could play with William. I apologized, but we had to go so that we would have time to check out. She was sad because she said her grandson is really shy but really wanted to play with William because he seemed so kind and outgoing. Isn't that really what all mothers want to hear? It really made me feel good!

And then there's my Natalie! Where William came into the world at 8 pounds 12 ounces of 100% hulking boy, Natalie is the polar opposite. Even from birth, (6 pounds, 3 ounces and half a push to get her out) they have been so different. William has always been the top of the percentile chart, but Natalie has always barely made it on the chart. Still very slim, I do think she's finally starting to sprout vertically!

What a funny girl. When she was a baby, we took to calling her "Stinker Binker" because she always had the foulest smelling diapers. "Stinker Binker" was soon shortened to "Binker" and from there to "Binkey." And it's stuck! If you ask Natalie what her name is, she will tell you it's Binkey. Any other name makes her angry. I can't call her "sweetheart," "girly," or even "young lady." It's just Binkey!

She's the sort of little girl who wants to hug, kiss, and cuddle all day long. If I could just do those three things with her all day long, she would be the happiest child on earth. Unfortunately, I can't do that, so she has her moments, but she's still becoming very fun. She loves animals, especially pandas, giraffes, and the lioness (what is the plurel? Lionessi?!?) And she loves all things pink. It doens't matter what it is, if it's pink, she loves it. She enjoys playing soccer in the backyard, especially when I block William so that she can score a goal for Team Panda! Oh, and did I mention she inherited, among other things, her mother's long tongue? Well, she did. I had to take the picture when we were in Florida and got some ice cream. She used her tongue like a little spoon to scoop up the ice cream to deposit into her mouth. It was hilarious to watch. And she was in a trance-like state the entire time!

So, I guess when I have nothing interesting to blog about, I can always blog about my kids. They are fun, exciting, and ever changing. (Speaking of "ever changing," William is constantly hungry/eating, though never gains an ounce. He must be growing again. Good thing I get such a great discount at The Children's Place, or I couldn't afford to keep him in clothes!)

...and a Happy St. Patrick's Day to you, too!

Oh, the fun we O'Brien's have on St. Patrick's Day! It all started last week with William asking me what a Leprechaun is. I explained it was a wee folk who will give you his pot o' gold if you catch him...and they also like to play pranks, too. I'm not sure if that last part is really part of the lore, but I threw it in for good measure. Last night, William went to bed determined to catch that leprechaun. Well, his mommy is always two steps ahead of him!

With a bottle of green food dye in my pocket all day, ordinary things would magically turn to green and I would exclaim, "William...you just missed the leprechaun again!" and he would laugh hysterically at the newly green item. To give some "for instances," last night I turned a whole gallon of milk green. This morning, I asked William to grab the milk out of the fridge for breakfast. He opened the fridge and yells out "oh, my gosh! The leprechaun must have put his finger in our milk, mom! I gotta find that guy!" He then went to school telling the tale of his green milk. (I'm sure he got alot of strange looks for that one!) Later on today, I asked him to grab a bottle of water out of the fridge for me...low and behold it had turned green, too! And when we tasted it, it still tasted like water!

The highlight of the pranks would definitely have to be when I put the dye in the water tank for the toilet right before bedtime. When he flushed the toilet and green water came out, I thought he was going to explode! "The leprechaun did it again, mom!" But, alas...the leprechaun got away. No pot o' gold this year. But William has grand plans for next year, and so do I!

On a nostalgic note, I remembered a story from St. Patrick's Day past that I shared with Tom and he said I had to blog it for posterity's sake. Well, this happened way back when I was in first grade. The morning of St. Patrick's Day I was picking out an outfit for school when my mom decided to teach me a little bit about our family's geneology. She was explaining that some of my ancestors came from Northern Ireland, therefore they wouldn't have worn green since they would have been against anything Catholic/Southern Ireland (? not sure if I got any of that right at all.). Anyway, she explained that in order to honor our family history, maybe I should wear orange instead of green. Sure, mom. Sounds good to me. So, I get to school and we have a spelling test and after the spelling test we are given a printout to color. It's of a shamrock. Now, my mom never told me I couldn't celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but that's what my 7 year-old mind determined she was getting at. So I pulled Mrs. Beten aside and told her, "I'm sorry...I can't color that picture. My family doesn't celebrate St. Patrick's Day."

So, I tell this story to Tom and he asks me what my teacher's response was. I thought about it and really she didn't seem to be surprised at all. Then I reminded him that we were the only Mormon family in the school district and many people find Mormons to be weird, and maybe she just thought Mormons don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day! There you have it, Mom! I stuck up for the family heritage at the ripe old age of seven!

And a last note: we found out that you can hook the Wii up to the internet and purchase/download old Nintendo games (you just turn the Wii-mote on it's side and it's set up just like the old-school Nintendo controller!) We downloaded Mario 3 for my sake and it was so fun to play! I am absolutely terrible at it! But I reminded Tom that I haven't played in probably 15 years (oh, my gosh I am old...) and Rome wasn't built in a day...

Yes, still alive...barely...

Hello all you faithful blog viewers...both of you! So, I went on a slight vacation...not that I was ever that great at keeping a daily blog or anything, but this time my break was a bit ridiculous. I mean, come on Christa!! Well, to be fair to myself, at least I am more consistant than at writing in my journal. (I'm pretty sure there's no mention of William being born yet, so I'm guessing we're looking at 4+ years!?!) Ok, so without further ado...what's been going on with the O'Briens:


Well, for starters, we've all taken a turn at being horribly sick. There's been this lovely virus circulating throughout Houma, and we were fortunate enough to all share it. I mean, I did teach my children to share with each other, and so I guess they were just doing as I told them...It was a nasty stomach virus that lasted a little over 24 hours but kept the body sore for about a week. (And I'm pretty sure Natalie got it twice, unlucky girl!) I'll say that's reason #1 I haven't been able to post in a while...tending to the needs of the family.


Let's see here...Ah, yes...the backyard! When we bought our house, it came with an ancient ginormous pool in the backyard with an even huger (is that a word? It is today) pool deck. Well, we kept the pool through the first summer that we lived here and it was ok, but nothing I was overly crazy about. Pools demand alot of upkeep as well as I kinda think they are a big money pit that I just keep dumping money into year round! And the worst part is since it was so huge it left little, if any space for play in the backyard. And with a body of water in the backyard, there was no way I was going to let the kids just go out in the back and play while I put laundry away or started dinner or something. So, it kinda became like we didn't have a backyard at all. So, last Christmas I asked Tom how he felt about removing the pool/deck and he said if he didn't have to do any of the work he was ok with it. So, I spread the word that if someone wanted the pool they could come and have it for free. The neighbor's brother jumped on the offer after about 15 seconds of being on the market. Ok, people, you need to understand a little about southern louisiana...it doesn't matter what it is or how trashy it is, put it on the curb and say it's for free and it will be hauled away within minutes. Case in point: this past fall I broke a rake in two. Yes, I am an extreme raker and that's just how I roll...anyway, there's no way it would be useful to anyone, unless they happened to be a "person short of stature" because that's just how it broke. Not kidding, within minutes of putting it in the trash can on the curb, the crazy guy in the blue suburban asked if he could have it. But anyway...





So, sometime after Christmas a whole crew of the scarriest looking men showed up in the backyard to remove the pool and deck. Obviously they didn't remove everything so we were stuck with alot of debris and a whole brick patio that just didn't make sense with the backyard. I decided to rip up the whole brick patio and move it so it would make sense. It was alot of fun to do, actually. There was a huge "beach" of sand from where the pool had been, so the kids had a giant sandbox to play in while I ripped out this whole brick patio. Once all the brick was removed, I had to prepare the area where I wanted to put the brick, lay the sand, and actually figure out what exactly I was doing since I don't really have alot of experience in brick laying, surprise surprise!


Long story short...I know, too late...got about 2/3 done with everything and we are realizing we just don't have the big equipment to do it all ourselves, so we get some estimates on the backyard to finish it off. We get two quotes, go with the slightly cheaper quote, and then all the real troubles begin...




Oh, my oh my! Lets quickly talk about the few things that Louisiana is known for. In politics, that would be corruption and greed. As for schools, they are ranked 49th out of 50 states, so education probably isn't so important?!? And I know there are immoral people everywhere, there just seems to be a higher concentration here than anywhere else I have ever lived. I think the owner of the landscaping company who we hired to finish the overhaul on our backyard was a great cocktail of all the above mentioned "faults of Louisiana." I don't want to get too messy, but let's just put it nicely, he did his best to mess with us every step of the way. But, we made sure he finished the job and we have our new backyard! So...mom...here are the pictures you've been asking for!

And don't worry...everyone's grass is brown like this right now. It's in the dormant stage. My neighbor thought they were laying a bunch of dead sod!

You can see my brick that I layed. I did about 2/3 of the job and they finished the rest of it. Not to brag, but I actually think I did a better job on my part than they did on theirs! Maybe I have a future in bricklaying!

So, faithful followers, be not afraid! I'm back and will try to blog a little more often. Of course there is much more going on here, there's always a story to tell when you have two kids, but the hour is late and I think I've rambled enough. We are fast approaching our two year anniversary of being in LA and we are looking to move on. I was reading this morning about all the snow that was dumped in Ohio yesterday and it made me miss it so much! I guess you always want what you can't have! But we hope to be able to make a new part of the world our new home soon, and I will keep all of you updated as to our next whereabouts!

You can bank on it!

The comic relief that my kids provide! Today I was driving my son to his school when we stopped at a red light. Out Natalie's window there was a crew busy working on constructing a bank. This is how the conversation went:

Natalie: "What's that?"

Mommy: "They're building a new bank."

William: "Is that a bank we can go to?"

Mommy: "No. We go to a different bank."

Natalie: "Different bank?"

William: "Yes, Natalie. We go to a Mormon Bank. That is a Catholic Bank."

National Champions!!!...of Choking!!!

Ugh!!! Two years in a row now I've watched the beginning of the National Championship Football Game and really felt Ohio State would run away with it. And two years in a row now I've been horribly dissappointed!

However, last year when they choked for the first time, I wasn't a resident of Florida, so the ribbing wasn't that bad. Of course there were the comments about how dominant the SEC is, blah, blah, blah...but no Louisiana resident really had much to say...

This year is completely different! We live in Louisiana, so there was alot riding on this game: our Ohio Pride! The kids at William's school were aloud to wear LSU stuff instead of their uniform tops, and William proudly wore his OSU football jersey. (This did result in some confusion...he couldn't understand why all his friends didn't want Ohio to win!)

Alas, we lost. The result: alot of harrassment! We woke up to LSU signs all over our front yard and a life-size Santa Clause dressed all in LSU gear. The text messages, emails, and phone calls won't stop. I think I will crawl into a cave today and wait till their drunken buzzes have worn off! But, wait till next year! Third time's a charm...am I right!?! GO BUCKEYES!!!

Christmas 2007

I have finally found some time to sit down and blog again! We have been so busy with Christmas, and then my family came down for a few days after Christmas...we have been swamped! But, we did have a great Christmas! It all started with William's Christmas Program for his school. Since it is a private school (meaning we pay his tuition) they are allowed to sing songs about Jesus. I heard some of the more interesting songs I've ever heard leading up to his program! My favorite was when they sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus in not only English, but also in French! I don't suppose I ever thought to sing "Happy birthday" on Christmas. How rude of me! (That's William, top row third from left)

This is William and his friend Izabella. Don't let the camera tricks fool you...William really is like a foot taller than her!

(**As I'm typing this, the kids are playing nicely in Natalie's room...or, of course, so I thought...until I just heard a giant crash. It seems William decided he wanted something from the top of Natalie's closet, and rather than asking me, he thought he could just pull himself up on the rod that holds all her clothes on their hangers. Well, that obviously wasn't meant to hold his weight and he just ripped the whole thing out of the wall. Just add that as one more thing for me to do today! But, on with the blog! If I don't do it now, it will never get done.**)

Moving on then! Ok, Christmas Eve we have the tradition that the kids are allowed to open one present. That present is the Christmas pajamas that Nonna and Papa get for them every year. However, when I saw the matching bathrobes that came with the jammies this year, I had to get them! So, this is the kids on Christmas Eve in their new jammies and bathrobes.

Christmas Morning! William did an awesome job of not waking up his parents! We told him could open his stocking, and he did just that...getting into the candy too, of course! When Natalie finally woke up, it was present time! The highlight of Natalie's morning was her new Princess Castle with "glittery walls that shimmer and sparkle." It came with all the princess, too. Her favorites are Ariel and Cinderella. As I sit and watch her play with her princesses, I am blown away that any daughter of mine would ever prefer princesses to, say, basketball or a new baseball mitt. Oh, well.

Ah, yes...the Buzz Lightyear costume! My son just loves to dress up, even if Halloween is months away. Santa found this in his size at the after-Halloween sale at the Disney store, paying about $7.99. Santa is such a bargain shopper! Anyway, he loves his new costume, and this was the first present he pulled out of the package to take a closer look.

So, we had a good Christmas. We tried to help the kids remember the true meaning of Christmas by giving to our friends and others as well as helping those less fortunate. It's been an interesting year and a half for us here in Louisiana and we hope to simply be able to teach our kids what is right. (And here's hoping we'll be writing a Christmas blog from a new city next year :). Merry Christmas!!