March 2009 Archives

That was our answer when Ashley asked us how much time did we get to spend with our relatives in New Orleans. The weather wasn't great but didn't hinder us as we went sight seeing in the French Quarter, Lafayette and various areas along the way. Katie, Amy and Lars met us in the French Quarter for a bit of sightseeing and dinner at Alpine. We had a lovely feast at Janine's house on Tuesday; Nicole tried boiled Crawfish for the first time! Christina (& family), Angela (& boys), David & Shelby, and of course Aunt Ginnie joined us. We spent Friday night at Elizabeth's house and it was so nice to visit at a leisurely pace. Katie and Kevin came over for a quick cup of coffee on Saturday morning which was nice cause Kevin had just gotten home. After lunch at Phil's Grill we spent the afternoon at the WWII museum with Scott, Elizabeth and Mary Catherine. It was a step back into the past; very interesting. Dinner on Saturday night at Aunt Ginnie's with Christina and her boys was great. We stayed at Aunt Ginnie's 5 star home on Saturday night; Nicole and Dan finally got to meet her girls. Brunch at Le Parvenu in Kenner on Sunday was amazing!! Then off to the airport (2½ hours early so Dan wouldn't worry about being late..argh). All in all a great time. Thanks to everyone for their great hospitality!

Aunt Ginnie and Nicole at LeParvenu.1

To Angela, Christina, & David

Did you guys know you shared a birthday with Quentin Tarantino?

Happy anyway.

Have a day.

And that means it was time to get our swing set and build it. Thank goodness Joey comes from a family of boys because that swing set was quite an endeavor! We picked up all the pieces one day and had Samuel call all of his uncles and Joey's dad that night to ask if they would come help build it. He was so cute on the phone and so excited about it that they really had no other answer but, "I would love to help." His brothers and dad came over one Sunday afternoon and worked well into the night on the first part, the fort/slide part. Then they all came back last Friday night and finished the swing part. Samuel and Luke love their new swing set! I'll be cooking the brothers all dinner this week for all their help.

The other spring event here is raising our monarch butterflies. We have milkweed and several caterpillars so we collected two and they each made a chrysalis. One hatched last week so we fed it for a couple of days and let it go yesterday. Samuel loves bugs- a little too much for my taste, but I try not to "ruin" him with my own fears. I love the great weather we're having. I'm so thankful that winter is over! Now I only wish June 8 would be next week!

Samuel, Joey, Luke

Happy Birthday, Scott

St Joseph's Day is still celebrated in and around New Orleans but probably not as much as it was when I was a kid. If you've never seen a St Joseph's Day Altar, there are pictures of them in the link. They are loaded with goodies although I never acquired the taste for the Italian cookies. St Joseph is all around New Orleans and Louisiana. There's a church on Tulane in New Orleans. I used to park in their lot for Saints games many years ago but I've never been inside. It's in an area where it must have sustained damage from Katrina but I haven't heard how much. There's a town of St Joseph. I've never been there. There's a St Joseph Abbey in St Benedict, LA. Never been to St Benedict, either. There's also a St Joe Brick Works in Pearl River that I used to pass every day. I assume St Joe is St Joseph but that may be incorrect.

Lift a glass of green beer or a shot of Irish whiskey. Have some shepherd�s pie. Everyone is Irish today.

Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly,
A terrible beauty is born
William Butler Yeats, Easter 1916

Had plans today but the rain is putting a damper (No pun intended) on those activities. All of the images below were taken during the light rains except the last one. That one was taken from beneath my front yard oak tree when the heavier rains started.

CrabAppleLane Tomato Garden - March 14, 2009Like last year, it looks like early planting weather is perfect again. Rain water is better than our well water but not much better. The garden needs a good soaking the first few days until these plants can establish themselves. Looking good so far.


CrabAppleLane Irises - March 14, 2009Katie gave me these out of her ditch in Madisonville, LA. They prefer my pond.


CrabAppleLane tiller - March 14, 2009This tiller has been a pain to attach to my tractor for most of the years I've had it. It was pressed into service this past Wednesday when my smaller, more convenient tiller died. My tractor is not rated for an attachment this large or, at least, John Deere doesn't think so. I bought it used and it came with a rinky-dinky PTO drive shaft. I've since replaced it with a considerably better (And a little too expensive) one. It was not nearly as hard to attach Wednesday as it has been in the past so it now rests in a much more accessible area. Glad I didn't get rid of it.


CrabAppleLane Front Yard - March 14, 2009As I was retrieving the mail, the rain really started coming down. As I was heading back inside, I stopped under our front yard oak tree and snapped this image of the front yard. The Bradford pear is in full bloom although that's hard to see. Not sure why I like this one but I do. You can see the camellia blooms on the ground to the right despite the obscuring rain drop on the lens. The camellia was also given to me by Katie.

Last weekend Dan and I went to Bayfield, WI to attend a marina member meeting. It was strange to see the area in the winter. After the meeting we went to Madeline Island (2 miles across) for a dinner benefit. We drove across the "ice road" to get to the island. I'm not a fan of driving on ice with snowmobile and certainly not a vehicle. It was however a well cleared road with many vehicles using it daily. They run the ferry until the ice starts to freeze and then they use a "Windsled" (http://www.been-seen.com/article.cfm?id=10637) to transport the kids, teachers and others to school and jobs on the mainland. The commercial fishing boats and the ferries are stored in the main Bayfield city harbor...frozen in the ice. I thought they took them out of the water and stored them on land (some of the big tour boats are stored on land) and was surprised to see them in the 'water'. Anyway it was great to be up there again and I thought you might enjoy some of the photos.

Bayfield in the Winter

We had our first snow of 2009 today. We have had nice large flakes falling since noon. It is very pretty to watch but the ground is quite slushy since it has been raining here for the last two days. We took Barrett out in the snow when it first started, which he really enjoyed and didn't want to come back inside. After our naps, we decided we needed to go out for a photo shoot since the ground was covered so nicely. We all bundled up and headed out. Barrett didn't seem as excited the second time around. I am not sure if it is because he couldn't move from all the layers or the snow hitting him in the face. We got his 13 month picture in the snow though, which I was excited about.

Barrett-1 Year
As most of you know, Barrett celebrated his birthday over a month ago. Sorry, but we are just now getting around to updating every one on the big day. We had his party here at the house with mostly family and a few friends. There was about 25 people total. I was very nervous because I decided that I would make Barrett's cake instead of buying one. I found this really neat thing at Michael's called a "puzzle cake" which would allow me to make a bear out of cupcakes. It was exactly what I wanted but I was terrified that something would go wrong and I would make a fool of myself, so I did a trial run two days before and shared it with all of my students. They loved it!

The day before the party, my sister Sherry, Miss Sue, Mr. Scott, Brianne, and Patrick were all here to help with all the chopping and cheese grating that was needed for the food I had planned to serve. I don't know what I would have done without them all. Stephen was reffing...how convenient.

Everything turned out perfect for the party and Barrett was a sweet, angel boy just as usual. He seemed a little overwhelmed with all the people at first but he warmed up quickly. He was a little hesitant when the cake was placed in front of him and wouldn't really put the icing in his mouth. I decided to intervene and give him a little taste. That was all it took! I gave him the cupcake piece that he touched and he polished off the whole thing without stopping. He loved his first taste of chocolate!!!

Barrett got his first pair of white, hard soled, Buster Brown shoes from his Gigi and Popo, so we took a picture of him wearing his shoes in his Daddy's bear chair. Now we can all compare Barrett and Stephen on their first birthday. What do you think? I think Barrett looks like his mama too!

Well, Barrett is doing very well. He seems to be learning something new all the time. The doctor thought he looked great at his 1 year check up. He is still a shorty but all in all he is growing up way too quickly! I hope you all enjoy seeing our big boy on his big day. I also threw in a picture of Barrett in his big boy chair that I snagged at a consignment sale.

Kellie

Barrett

Duncan and Nikki - July 1984 Both born on May 17. Duncan in 1982, Nikki in 1984. Nikki adored Duncan and loved, loved, loved to play. This may have been the day we brought Nikki home but I'm not certain of that.

When we went to pick him up, the breeder had different colored collars on all of the puppies. The red, green, blue, and orange collared puppies came to the front of the kennel and wanted desperately for us to pick them up. The one with the yellow collar had gotten out and received a newspaper swat. He had his back to us and the saddest eyes you ever saw. His eyes twinkled as soon as Patsy talked to him and he just had to come home with us.