...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!