oh HOW cute!!!

Tonight, while flipping through the channels (as my beloved Gilmore Girls wasn't playing, *tear*), I happened upon the CUTEST thing I've seen in a long time. For the first few seconds, I really thought it was one of those very sad MADD commercials. Ya know. The ones where they show the cute school play and then tell you that the little girl in the last frame was killed by a drunk driver on the way home from the performance that night, but it wasn't. It was a First Grade Thanksgiving play that was playing on the public access station! It was SOOOOO cute! You may think it weird, but I HAD to take pictures!! I'm a camera fool when cute kids are around! It's ridiculous, I know. I just thought I'd share a few of the shots with you:

this was the end of a song called "The Turkey Trot"

This was a cute little comedy act about having turkey for the Thanksgiving meal. It ends with the Turkey saying he would be at the table for lunch and they'll be having chicken! ha!

A little exchange between Pilgrims and Indians--I didn't post pics from the Mayflower scene or the first Thanksgiving meal...but those were cute too!

Taking a bow

"The kids are great in Room 108!" Oh, I wish I could post video here! It was too cute for words!!

Belated Birthday Pictures

These pictures are from last Saturday's birthday dining experiences. I'm just slow in posting them!

The waiters who harassed me with baklava and dancing when Jen and I dined at Zeus for lunch. Have I mentioned that I like Zeus?! Yeah, I do! ;)

No, she's not mad! Jen was concentrating on not blinking. :) We took a cute 'self-portrait' that I was gonna post, but the photo thing on blogger is acting up a little, so I guess all you get is Jen 'not blinking'! ha!

We had our little 'family' get-together for my birthday on Saturday night since I was going to New Orleans on Sunday. Here's a picture of mom and Erica.

"Nice shoes!" (Seriously, that's what they're laughing about!)

Damon is showing his 'sympathy belly' for the camera

A 'normal' picture of Damon and Erica

Me and Erica on the last night of my 20's! *tear* ;)

What, you can't read my mind?

It's funny how we come to rely on these blogs to help us to 'keep in touch' with each other. A few people have asked me about Erica being on bed rest. Obviously, I've only been telling parts of stories, so I thought I would take the opportunity to update everyone.

Erica is doing well. (As you can see!) She does have mild preeclampsia, so her doctor has put her on bed rest for the duration of the pregnancy. They are monitoring everything weekly and everybody is doing fine. She will probably end up delivering the baby around 37 weeks, which will be the week before Christmas, so we'll have a Christmas baby!

I got to go with Erica for an ultrasound during the break and it was, again, really neat! I guess he was sleeping so the nurse had to 'buzz' him and push him around a little so that we could see anything. Yeah, he's already acting a whole lot like his mama! (And if you knew Erica as a kid, you would understand completely!! ;) But everything is progressing nicely and we're all getting excited! They are still working on a name for the little fella, so if you have any suggestions...

And she'll kill me when she sees that I've posted this picture! :D It took me three tries to succeed in actually taking this picture without laughing! Erica is such a ham for the camera!

That Thanksgiving Day Family Thing...

For Thanksgiving this year, we gathered 'round the dead bird at my grandparents' house in Eunice. It was a smallish group this year (some couldn't come in for Thanksgiving and Erica is on bedrest so she couldn't make the trip), but we managed to entertain ourselves. Actually, my cousin Krystin's husband Seth seemed to be the entertainment du jour! Yeah, and he CLAIMS he wasn't the class clown! ha! Anyway, here are a few pictures of the day!


Krystin and Seth's son (and my 2nd cousin) Austin! Such a cutie!!


My cousins Aungelle and Danielle



A self-portrait of me and Austin--he definitely knows what a camera is for!



Awwwhhhh, the happy family--Seth, Krystin and Austin...and no, Seth didn't right the short bus to school!


Brandon has the right idea!


Seth's pose when I tell them I want a normal picture of them!


More insanity!


Krystin and Seth--the serious look


Krystin looking happier


A sexy (?) pose??? ;) FYI, that 'war wound' Seth is sporting was from a recent close encounter with a wire clothes hanger. No, he's not THAT inept at hanging up clothes! He sacrificed his face in an effort to NOT step on his son--what a dad!


A self-portrait of me and Krystin


My Paw-paw


My Maw-maw


Me and Kristin lookin' fine! ha!! (and yes, I'm wearing flip-flops for Thanksgiving...ah, gotta love fall holidays in Louisiana!)

Here's a lil' Thanksgiving entertainment for ya!

Well, I'm ready to head out to my grandparents' house for the big Turkey Day festivities, but I'm ready too early! (I love my family, but I can only be in a house full of them for SO long!!) In my attempt to waste time, I decided to do a lil' hunting on the internet for some fun Thanksgivings sites! Here ya go!! You can find all sorts of stuff if you go to Google and click on the logo at the top of the page:How much do you REALLY know about Thanksgiving? Here's a quiz!

Here's a very educational site on the First Thanksgiving and this site looks quite official on the subject--it's on the 'holidays.net' site for crying out loud!

And here's a lil' holiday fun for the kiddos!

Here's the official website for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

For all of you who are STILL searching the net for recipes...SHAME ON YOU! And here's a site! ;)

If you just can't take another mindless football game, the good ole' History Channel comes to the rescue!

...and in case you're wondering what Martha says (fyi, you're a little late--but oh, well!).

Alright, I suppose I've stalled long enough! I hope you're having a great day...don't forget to be thankful! ;)

mmhmmm...

All I gotta say (and please pardon the language) is: Damn! ;) 

My Birthday Trip to New Orleans with the Girls

Sunday started early with Becca, Grace, and Hanna arriving at my apartment singing a jaunty little tune just before 9am! After a fun ride to New Orleans, we drove around Metairie for a little while, looking for a place to eat lunch. We settled on Cane's and were soon joined by Roy! After lunch we took Veterans down to Canal on our way to FBCNO and on the trip, we were able to see a little of what we've only heard about on the news until now. It was quite surreal to see those houses with painted notices and eight-foot water lines. Here are a few pics:






We arrived at FBC to discover a dilemma. James Thiele and Sara Beth Gohaghan were supposed to be doing a little concert at FBC that afternoon, but the turn-out was slim, so they were debating on whether to do it or not...apparently us driving two hours to see them was a swaying factor and they decided to do an intimate little concert for all of us there on the platform. It was actually really neat! I really enjoyed their 'performances' and the message of hope they carried. They were there as part of a promotion for http://www.musicforthesoul.org/ which has put together a compilation cd called After the Storm designed to minister to those grieving in the aftermath of the recent devastation.

We didn't take pictures during the concert as that would be rude, but here are a few 'groupie' shots of me with James and Sara Beth:


James and Me


Me and Sara Beth

After the concert, we took off in search of a good dessert spot...just fyi, BOTH Cheesecake Bistros are closed!! (we tried) Here are a few pics that Hanna shot along the way:

Signs on the boarded up windows of the business right next to Emeril's DelMonico restaurant on St. Charles






under hwy 90...anyone interested? yeah, I didn't think so!

We settled on the Cafe du Monde in Metairie and so here are a few shots from there:


Grace after I 'got her' with a beignet blow--not to worry folks, she 'got' me first!


Me...talking in the picture!! OMG, I'm turning into my mother! ;)


Becca lookin' all cute in her new sweater


Roy is just happy to see us!


Hanna is demonstrating how to drink hot chocolate


Me and my birthday trip crew: Becca, Hanna, and Grace


Making 'fish faces' with the Cafe du Monde fish


Roy, Becca, Hanna, and Grace

I had a great time on Sunday--thanks girls! You made turning 30 somewhat bearable! ha! j/k--it's actually not been that bad. I think I've reached that point of acceptance...and age is just a number, right?

I still have pics from Saturday lunch with Jen/night at Mom's house that I need to post...just need to be sure about what Erica is ok with me posting before I do! So stay tuned!! :)

MSN--a world of wisdom is only a mouse-click away!

This one entitled, " 'Why aren't you married yet?' ," was sent to me by my sister. It is eerily similar to one that Jen wrote on her blog about this time last year...I suppose great (or single) minds think alike?!

This article is entitled "Are you the invisible employee? " and while I'm not concerned about work in particular, I feel like, if you change the name on the scenario and make it a little less work-related, it could be talking about me! It's something I'm working on...

10,959 days

946,857,600 seconds
15,780,960 minutes
263,016 hours
1,565 weeks (rounded down)

That's how old I am, give or take. Isn't that crazy?!

I've had a great birthday weekend! I'll write a better update--complete with pictures--when I feel like I can compose more coherent sentences. :)

5,000+ customers served

I just realized that I passed the 5,000 mark on my blog counter today. At this point, I've had 5,016 unique views since I started the counter which was a couple of weeks after I started my blog. Wow! Thanks guys! That's pretty cool...don't know if it really means anything, but thanks for reading! And stay tuned... ;)

Help me decide!

Well, In an effort to be more 'grown-up' I'm trying to spruce up the ole' apartment. I'm currently torn between two bedroom collections at Target. I like them both (the green in the stripe is a little more subtle in real life, in case you're thinking "ugh!") so I thought I'd bring the issue to you, my dedicated readers! :) If you're like me and you need more information, you can see the information for each on Target.com:

blue/green/white bed set

red/white bed set

so HELP!! :) thanks!

Birthdays and Breaks--gotta love 'em!

Ah, one of the joys of teaching are all those great holidays! We are coming up on the first of the season...the blessed Thanksgiving week! :) As much as I LOVE these extended holidays, I absolutely dread the last day before the holiday! The kids tend to live in a sort of 'holiday mania' where they think the entire day should be 'free' for them to run around and be absolutely obnoxious! I do my best to keep them busy on these days so as to avoid the bizarre behavior that tends to get ME into trouble! Kids sneaking out of windows just to see if I'd notice and then being locked out of those windows by other students who find it funny! Kids deciding to make a 'donut run' in the middle of first hour and not bothering to sign out in the process...alright, maybe I'm having flashbacks to my time at Comeaux. I'm sure my current kids would never do those types of things! :)

As much as I dread the day-before-the-holiday antics, I'm a little more nervous about tomorrow. As you may be very aware by this point, I have a birthday coming up. Since the beginning of the month, I've had a little countdown on my dry-erase board and my students are VERY interested in the impending doom! Well, tomorrow is the BIG day--at least for them. This will be the last day that they see me before I turn thirty and I'm a little nervous! I do have a feeling that I'll be getting a candle or two, but it's the other stuff they've been talking about that's a little scary...Life-sized cakes with people (various students or other, more interesting types of people) jumping out of them [not likely] and then there's a whole group of girls who were very excited to point out that they now know exactly where I live! hmmmm... :)

Alright, I'm not scared!! I'm actually kind of excited. Their interest has been fun. I've always enjoyed my birthday and they don't typically 'hit' me so hard, so this year has been strange, but I've been blessed with some very sweet, caring students. So I say bring it on! I'm ready for it...and I'll keep ya posted on all the loot I manage to rake in! ha! ;)