Award winning!

I got the Lemonade Award from Dawn at Dawn's Diversions today!! How cute is that??

This award is meant for people who are positive, show gratitude, and of course: make lemonade out of lemons! Thank you Dawn!!

I am going to give this award to:

Lesley at Na-Na's Cozy Kitchen

Kori at Life as a CF's Wife

Kimmy at MBKimmy's Krazy Thoughts

Lizzy at Journey to the Hot Tub

My friend, Lesley, and I are leaving tomorrow afternoon, along with Cameron to go to Houston for the weekend to visit with JP! We are staying at the same hotel as last time, which is in a mall near my sister's house. It should be fun! Cameron was supposed to stay with my sister, but her older son has moved back home, so I am going to keep him at the hotel with us. We will visit JP on Saturday & Sunday morning, then plan to have lunch with our friend, Kimi, on our way home.

And yes, when I get back I am starting the South Beach diet! I've never tried it before, but I do well on Atkins and I feel like this is similar, just a little healthier and maybe something I can stick to long term.

Walter & I were able to lock in a great interest rate (4.25) to refinance the house! We bought 2 points so the rate is even lower than we were looking at, so now are just going through the paperwork part to get everything done. We will be paying the house off in 15 years instead of 30. Supposedly, a notary will be sent to our house when it's time to sign everything and we never have to go to the bank! Gotta love internet banking!

Have a great weekend!

Saturday night

Happy New Year everyone!! We had a great time New Year's Eve, although it has taken me several days to recouperate from it! Walter and I have both recognized that we are too old for all that partying and actually enjoy staying at home on New Year's Eve, so I doubt we will be out on the town in future years, but we really did have a fun time. Cathy's friend, Gene, took lots of pictures, so when I get them I will post some.

New Year's Day was fun even though I would have rathered stayed in bed all day!!! We checked out of the hotel around 9, went home to get ready to go to my mom's for lunch, then went and spent some time with my mom, step-dad, sister (Donna), & brother-in-law (Kevin). Here in the south, for some reason people force you to eat black eyed peas and cabbage on New Year's day, however, I don't bend to that pressure!! The black eyed peas are supposed to bring you money in the New Year and cabbage is supposed to bring you luck. I ate some cabbage and will take my chances on the money!!

That evening, Kevin went to a friends house for a deep sea fishing trip the next day, so Donna spent the night with us. We barbequed hamburgers and had Lesley, Mike, their boys, Cathy, & Brent over for dinner and had a great time! I didn't think to take any pictures, so sorry about that!! On Friday, Donna & I went to visit a friend of hers and see her new house.

Today, Donna & I went to visit Elizabeth and pick up Landen, who called wanting to come spend the night tonight. We visited awhile, took some pictures, and got a cute video of Mack dancing to the ringtones on Elizabeth's phone. Afterwards, Donna, Landen, & I went to have lunch at the Chimes with 2 of her friends. It was a fun day, then Landen & I came home to hang out and watch movies with Walter. Here are some pictures we took today.

Mack

Donna, Elizabeth, Mack, & Landen

Donna, Dawn, Elizabeth
And here is Mack dancing!



Our other news is that we decided with the dropping interest rates to refinance
our house! We will now be paying it off in 15 years rather than 30 with nearly the same note. We are doing the refinancing with Chase Bank and it has been a smooth process so far. It looks like my kind of deal - we should never have to even go to the bank! Everything is either emailed, faxed, or sent to our house, including a notary when the time comes.

New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!!! I am headed to get my hair cut and styled then Walter & I are going to check into the hotel, get dressed, then meet Cathy, Brent, Sandy, & Gene and head to dinner. We are going to a fancy steak restaurant that I've never been to before and I'm excited about that! You know I love me some steak!! After dinner, we'll be partying down to a live band at a local hotel and will spend the night there.

Have a safe New Year's Eve!

Tuesday night

2008 is quickly coming to an end! It's been a great year and I am excited to start 2009! We have had a great holiday season and are excited about ringing in the new year! Walter, Cathy, Brent, & I along with 2 of their friends will be going to a New Year's Eve party at a local hotel and attending a party with a live band. It's been years since Walter & I went out on New Year's Eve, mostly because I hate being out with drunk people on the road, but since this is at a hotel and we have a room, we are going out!!! I found some cute clothes in Cathy's closet and am getting a hair cut/style tomorrow, so I'm ready to go! We are going to go to dinner first at Sullivan's Steak House and this will be my first trip there!

We are winding down from Christmas and I've been busy taking down the tree and putting away decorations. I'm not finished, but I put a dent in it! I did forget to mention that Walter's niece, Rebel, got the family "Velvet Elvis" and is now required to hang it in an obvious spot in her house!! She has to keep it and pass it on to whoever's name she draws next year in the family Christmas drawing! We have been lucky and only been owners of Velvet Elvis once so far! We may just have to go for a visit to Rebel's house one day and make sure it's really there!!! Ha Ha Ha!!

Cameron & I ran all over town this morning. He had an orthodontist appointment this morning, then a hair cut appointment, then I had to take him to drop him off with his dad. Once I got home, I went to help our homeowner's association treasurer with some neighborhood stuff, then went to dinner with Brent & Cathy. Walter went to help his son, Sean, with some things, so he wasn't able to come with us.

My sister & brother-in-law are coming in town Thursday - Saturday, so we'll be entertaining them while they're here. They are planning to stay with us Thursday night after we all have lunch together at my mom's on New Year's Day.

Happy New Year!

Saturday, I think!

At my house, we have all been off of work/school so long that we don't even know what day it is! I was confused when I woke up and caught up on my blog reading as to why Melissa B. at the Scholastic Scribe didn't have her Sunday picture post up! Then Cameron woke up and looked all over the house for me to ask "what day is it?" So yeah, it's only Saturday and we are happy about that!

I had to laugh at my friend Lesley's comment. We are getting ready for our 2nd road trip to visit JP, which should hopefully go much better than our first road trip! And yes, Sista, Cameron has more electronic gadgets to bring in the car and the hotel than you can imagine. You may not even notice he is with us!! And as for him being mortified at hotel, thank goodness we learned our lessons the first time, because he would probably have slept in the car if he was with us the first time!! The bad news is that we probably can't ride with the top down all 5 minutes like we did when we went without him! And yes, oddly enough, South Beach has a diet challenge that starts January 12th which is RIGHT after our road trip! I think it's a sign Sista! You have to do it with me!!

My friend, Michelle, asked if Cameron has been to visit JP before, and the answer is yes. He's actually been a few times, but it's usually easier just to make a quick weekend roadtrip without him. JP specially requested Cameron's appearance this time, so I arranged the trip around when Cameron is here with me. And people, while I'm talking about Michelle, I would like to encourage you to all go and visit her blog!! She is my real life friend and is an incredible person and is a huge inspiration to me. She has Spina Bifida and is more independant than I am! Seriously! Go check this chick out! She is awesome and would love to hear from you! And yeah, we call her Chelle and you should too!

And Chelle mentioned the cute little blonde girl in the plaid dress in my post. That is Walter's great-niece Claire. She was born with a defect in her heart and had several surgeries early in her life and we weren't sure if she would be ok or not. Let me just say, she is perfectly ok and is the most precious child you'll ever meet! Someone gave her a booksack with her name on it and she wore it on her back the rest of the day! It is actually on there in the picture!

Another chuckle I got today was from my brother. My niece, Daphne LOVED the Sesame Street toys we got her for Christmas!! So much so, that Kenny sent me this message!

Of the three of us, she's by far the happiest about this toy :)

"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"
"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me! yahm yahm yahm"

Yeah, I love it!!

Walter and I were able to go pick my car up today after getting good news! It was just out of alignment, but I really appreciate that the first place we brought it was honest and said they weren't sure they could fix it, thinking the problem was worse than it was. We had to pay $50 to get it realigned, then $50 because they pointed out how overdue my oil change was, so we let them do it, so for $100 we got the car fixed and the oil changed and it is running perfectly! Yay!

My friend, Renie, asked who cooked the gumbo for our Christmas get-together. Walter cooked it and it was delicious!!! We fed 50 people, plus sent leftovers home with most of them, and still have some left!!

Veggie Mom, where I got my awesome Pop'rs, asked who dressed as Santa at my brother-in-law's Christmas Eve party. This is actually pretty funny! Nobody ever wants to play Santa anymore, so my brother-in-law's next door neighbor, who is VERY SKINNY, agreed to do it! However, he is an important person at LSU and I find it very awkward that we are all expected to sit in his lap and take pictures!!! I refrain whenever it's him, cause really, he is someone important!!!!

JP called today and is doing fine. He said for Christmas they got a breakfast Christmas tree shaped brownie! He was excited! Thank God for the little things, huh?

And thanks for all the compliments on my hair! And hey, even if you're doing a diet other than South Beach, let me know! We can still all support each other!

Friday night

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were both a lot of fun, but we are glad that it is all over with for this year!

Christmas Eve at my brother-in-law's house was fun. Santa made his annual visit to the house, but we only had 3 small children there to enjoy it! Quite a few members of Walter's family have started staying home to spend Christmas Eve with their own families instead of driving into Baton Rouge 2 days in a row. Walter & I brought artichoke dip and enjoyed our evening with his family. And I pulled my hair back - whatcha think?

We decided to open our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve since Cameron was with his dad and would be coming back Christmas day, but didn't have much to open under the tree. He likes to save his money, so for the first time, he only asked for a couple of things, so we didn't buy much for him.


Walter & Cameron got me some Clinique make-up, a Clinique Happy perfume and lotion set, a set of everything I need to make Cosmopolitans, a shirt, a gift certificate to Cato and a gift certificate to Stage. Cameron & I got Walter a surround sound system, and several different tool type things that he wanted.

I picked Cameron up Christmas morning and he opened his gifts (mostly from family & friends). The cute shirt is from our friend Kimi and her family. He loved it! Thanks sista!!

Then we got ready to have Walter's family over for gumbo Christmas day. We had about 50 people show up and had a great time! Check out the presents once everyone got here! And we draw names! And here is the bird feeder that Walter made for one of his sisters.




Here are some cute pictures I took Christmas day:

Here are some pictures I got from my brother yesterday. My mom & step-dad went to Atlanta for Christmas to spend Christmas with my brother & his family.

This is my mom & Daphne

This is Daphne opening one of the gifts we sent!

And here are some pictures that my sister sent from their Christmas in Houston:

This is my 2 nephews and Elijah

And this is Elijah

And now, back to the real world! Walter & I dropped my car off at the shop today to try to fix whatever is wrong from my incident with the guard rail the day it snowed. The car is out of alignment and something about a caster being out of place! All I know is that my car is making odd noises and needs to be fixed. Hopefully, it will be ready tomorrow.

Walter & I went out to eat with Cathy & Brent tonight at Albasha and it was really good!! We thought about staying home and eating leftovers, but then we thought again!! We are all planning to go to a New Year's Eve party together and have been making plans for that. I am borrowing some clothes from Cathy since I don't have any fancy clothes and so I went and shopped in her closet before dinner! I found something cute, but I need to try it on and see how it looks on me.

JP has called several times lately and seems to be doing really well. My friend, Lesley, and I are going to visit him in Houston Jan. 10 & 11th! Cameron will be going with us and I am excited! We are going to stay at the same hotel as last time that is in a mall, so it should be fun! Plus we will get to see JP and he is very excited that we are coming.

The last thing I have to say is that I AM GOING ON A DIET!!! I can't fit in my clothes again! I have never tried the South Beach Diet, but I do great on Atkins and it is very similar, just a slight bit healthier, so I am going to try it. Anyone with me?? I need a support group!!!!!

I hope you have had a great Christmas!!

The Night Before Christmas Eve

Mama at Beloved Mama is having a contest! You should go and check it out!

I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! I am quite sure I wont be back to blog before it's all over. We will finish getting ready for Walter's family to spend Christmas day at our house. We are cooking gumbo for our 2nd annual "Christmas on the Bayou!" We will also have a ham, a roast, and lots of appetizers and desserts that Walter's family will bring over. On Christmas Eve, we will go to his brother, Ed's house for his annual Christmas Eve party, complete with an appearance by Santa for the kids. I'll pick Cameron up Christmas morning, then Walter, Cameron, & I will open our gifts to each other. By noon, there will be 50+ people here to eat, drink, open presents, & be merry!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! I'll leave you with some pictures of our tree now that there are some presents under it! We still aren't finished wrapping all of them, but it's a start! I hope Santa is good to you!