Confessions of a Misplaced Southern Belle

Thank you Saints! You’ve made this Misplaced Louisiana Girl as proud as can be!

Gee, looks like I took a week and a half off from posting after the Saints win to go to the Super Bowl.  Since then, we have had a birthday:

Joel turned 38 with a good old fashioned party, complete with balloon, cake, ice cream and his favorite foods.

Amanda decided to put together a desk with minor help from her dad.

And I decided to get off my rear end and go back to the gym. I’ve done a dance class and an hour and a half yoga class that was awesome. I’m meeting a friend this afternoon for some weights and cardio.

On Sunday, I’m hosting a Super Bowl party hosted by Verizon. On a whim I signed up to be a host, never thinking I’d make the cut, but I did, and they are sending all sorts of goodies for the party. The box should be here today and I’ll post pictures of the contents later. I’ve also been knitting for my friend Diann who was recently diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. I’m using Duet Sock Yarn in Tiffany, which I had in the stash. Pics later of that too. Have a great day!

NEW ORLEANS SAINT ON THE WAY TO MIAMI…..

I may need to lie down.

I had a wonderful visit in Louisiana, even if it was too short!  We spent it relaxing….and eating way too much! I really didn’t take a whole lot of photos, but did manage a few.

Amanda in her Mardi Gras mask.

Dad (Pawpaw) and Amanda

This is a beaver house out off of Breezy Hill Road, back in the Bombing Range. The beavers have built two huge dams and have made beaver pond. I have never seen anything like them. I have a bunch more, but I’m still processing them. The day I took these, it was overcast and dreary, but I think it adds to the photo, don’t you?  More photos later, and hopefully more of a regular blog schedule.

Headed to Louisiana this afternoon for a much delayed trip home! I promise to be back next week with lots of photos and a renewed energy to get back to walking and Weight Watchers. Maybe this trip is just what I need to get my head back on straight!

I’m sure I have zero readers left after not posting for 10 days. After I  posted on January 1, I got some rather sad news from my best friend, Jenny. Her husband, Phil went into renal failure on New Years Eve. Phil has been battling a recurrence of colon cancer since July and the with this diagnosis, he was given days to live. Right now, they are at home and Jenny and their family are right by his side as he walks through the final days of his life. Jenny is my age and Phil is 44.  I cannot imagine the pain that she is going through. I don’t know how she is still on her feet, but she, is and is being the rock that is holding her family together. I cannot get to Maryland because of work but I am keeping in contact with her though text messages and a phone call when she gets a minute.  Please pray for their families. It’s been rough and will get worse before it begins to get better.

I have so much other stuff to share, including an upcoming trip home…finally, but that will have to wait for another post. Go hug your loved ones for me, and for Jenny.

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s 2010 already. Somehow I thought we’d be flying around in little jetcars like the Jetsons! Someone is falling down on the job. We had a very low key New Year’s Eve as you can tell, Amanda and Bacchus were such the party animals!

We woke up to rain today and cooler weather. Hubby is reading his Kindle and I am working on that magazine project I wanted to launch last summer, but because of going back to work, it has been put on the back burner. That is one of my goals for this year, to get Ya’ll Come On! up and running. Today for lunch I didn’t do the traditional black eyed peas (I’ll do that tonight). Instead I made chili.

As soon as this nagging headache goes away (tiny migraine that I think is associated with the weather change) I’m going to go finish cutting this quilt. Hubby is dropping hints that he wants me to finish it.

In sadder news, please pray for my friend Jenny. Her husband Phil is back in the hospital, this time with renal failure. She needs all the good thoughts and prayers we can spare these days.

We had our friends, Jake and Cindy, over for Christmas lunch and a little poker. Can’t you tell who won? Joel was thrilled as we never play poker and Jake and Cindy do!  The NO shirt was one of Joel’s Christmas presents from Amanda. We love Think Geek!

I made a yummy Chicken Provencal from Weight Watchers. It was a hit with Amanda and me, and will be used again. It made a ton, so there is enough for leftovers. I kicked up the seasoning a bit because I find that a lot of recipes are bland, and this Louisiana girl doesn’t do bland.

Today is New Year’s Eve and we have spent it hanging out. Joel has been in the garage all day detailing my car…see, I caught him:

I watched the season of Glee and knit on a bucket hat..

And I took pictures of the beautiful Florida sky…before the clouds rolled in:

Bacchus was not impressed:

Happy New Year everyone! See you in 2010!!

I know that a lot of bloggers use the last day of the year to look back, but I prefer to look forward to 2010.   I plan on knitting more because in 2009 I pretty much slacked off knitting. My mom-in-law gave me Knitting Little Luxuries for Christmas and there are some lovely things in there that I already have lined up to knit. I also am going to knit on some plain vanilla socks tonight as we wait for the new year. I think I have some Knitterly Things Vesper sock yarn in Lollipop in the stash, that I might knit with,  or who knows, I might just something out of the cream colored Malabrigo sock yarn that I know is in there.

So what am I looking forward to in 2010?

Becoming a better photographer.

Getting Healthy.

Knit more.

Pass my Elementary K-6 test.

Get a teaching contract after two years of long term subbing.

Finish the three quilts I have in the craft room.

Visit my parents more.

So there are my goals for 2010. What are yours?

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! We did here at Chez Belle.   We stayed home this year and just had a blast hanging out with each other and our friends. Amanda has worked for most of her break and Joel is on vacation so it’s pretty relaxed around here. I have a ton of lesson plans to do and I’ve hidden my school stuff in the garage until this afternoon. I didn’t want to worry about it the first week! Santa was good to all of us, even bringing me a beautiful pair of fleur de lis and amethyst earrings. I was shocked that Santa actually found some! I took exactly two pictures last week….and none of us opening presents. I know, slacker mom and photographer. One that I did take was actually a milestone in our house!

That, my friends, is my car hitting 200,000 miles. It’s a 1995 BMW 318 ti hatchback that we drove off the lot with 12 miles on it. It still has it’s original clutch, transmission and suspension, although the old girl is ready for a new suspension! It has been one workhorse of a car and runs as good today as it did when we bought it 14 years ago. Amanda is planning on taking it to college with her in a couple of years and I think we could probably get 100,000 more miles out of it if we take care of it! I tell you, only having one car note over the last ten years has been wonderful. I dread the day when I have to buy a new car!   This week will be pretty low key. I’m knitting another bucket hat for a friend a school and there are a couple of hats that Amanda has requested and since she might be able to wear them in January, I’ll try to get them whipped up!  Have a great week.