Christmas 2010

It's Christmas 2010!

We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house last night. Lots of great food with the family!
We had Cornish hens, green bean casserole (Al's favorite) cheese and crab quiche, sauteed mushrooms and pearl onions, asparagus and hollandaise sauce, and for dessert we had, southern pecan pie cake, chocolate lava cake, and cake balls. Everything was wonderful! Needless to say we were all stuffed!

Yum!

Jordyn did an awesome job with the table!

The girls got lots of great gifts and so did Micah and I.Alex got her Ipod touch and Jordyn got the LSU Jacket she had been wanting. We  had a wonderful time with Micah's parents, Kay and Woodrow.

Today we will head over to my dad's house for lunch and then over to Micah's sister's house for dinner. Micah has to work today so we won't see him until dinner time.

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's Begining to Look a lot Like Christmas!

So we got our tree up this weekend!
I love Christmas and love decorating and putting up the tree and even shopping for Christmas presents!

Well Micah and the girls decide that we need a very big tree this year. They pick out the biggest tree they could find on the lot!
We got it home and put it up and quickly realized that we would need a lot more decorations!

So now that we have the tree up I guess next is baking! The girls and I will be in the kitchen soon making goodies! I can't wait!

I'll post pictures of the tree soon.

My Buffet table

Fixing up an old house on a budget can be pretty hard. But it can also be pretty rewarding.
You learn new things and you learn how to make things work, you learn to see things differently.

I needed a buffet table for my dinning room and knew I didn't have much in the budget to get one. So off to the flea markets I went.
I found this table and could really picture it working in my dining room and knew it wouldn't take much to get it looking great.



It just took a little bit of sanding



And a little bit of paint, and this is what I have now!
A beautiful "new to me" buffet table!

Grandpa Buquet

Well it's been a while since I posted anything.
Guess I've been really busy. It's been an insanely crazy month.

On November 16, 2010 at around 9:00, my grandpa left us.
I don't think the word "died" is appropriate because I know that he is more "alive" right now than he has been in a long time.

He had been in and out of the hospital a few times with pneumonia and other issues. He had a pace maker put in and was put on a feeding tube in June. We thought that when he got out of the hospital that he would get better and stronger and continue on like normal.

We were wrong.

We watched as he went from one of the strongest, most independent men that we knew to a man that relied on his wife for his daily care. He needed help with feedings and had the great-grandchildren help sometimes. But his spirit never wavered. He told us almost everyday that he was feeling good and going to get better.






On November 4, 2010 he was put back in the hospital for an infection. They discovered early on that he was suffering again with pneumonia. I think that all of us thought this would clear up fast and that he'd be home again soon.

Again we were wrong.

We watched as he continued to get worse. He grew weak and was unable to speak. We communicated by writing notes. We watched as my grandmother stood by his bed all day and slept by his side every night. Still we all held on to the hope that the doctors would be able help him. Even after the doctors were telling us to "be ready to make important decisions", we held out hope that he was strong enough to pull through.

The great grandkids made sure his room was full of pictures and get well cards.
After one of the tests he had he was brought back to his room and was still really groggy from the medicine. He looked at my sister and pointed to his pictures and said " I know I am back to my room when I see all my pictures"
He made sure we hung all of them right where he could see them.



Then on Saturday November 13, one of the Dr's came. He told me that if the medicine didn't work soon that he would start to decline. I think that was the first time I thought that maybe my grandpa wasn't going to make it.

The next day I called to check in on him in the morning and my mother told me that the Dr had come and told them that the medicine didn't work. There was nothing more that they could do. We were told that he may not make it through the night or that he may hold on another week. I got to the hospital and relived mom and grandma to go get some lunch. Then the priest came to give grandpa Last Rights. I held his hand as the priest prayed and performed the Last Rights. I prayed with him and knew that the end was near. I can not tell you the emotions that ran through me as I stood by his bed during this. I felt sad, desperate, scared and honored all at the same time. I know how much my grandfather believed in God and how much he followed his Catholic Religion. Even though I am not Catholic, to be with him during this last sacred act was truly an honor, because I knew what it meant to him.
The family gathered in his room and spent the next few days with him. My grandmother and mother stayed there at night with him and we all took turns during the day so that he was never alone.

On Tuesday at around 9:00 he slipped away from this world and on to the next. My grandmother was by his side when he left.

The next few days were the hardest days that I've ever had to experience.
You know that everyone has to leave sometime, but it doesn't make it easy to deal with.

I never realized how many people he had touched until I saw all the people coming to pay their respects. It was heart warming and amazing. I think that seeing that somehow made it a little easier.

The funeral was beautiful. Father Andreas was one of grandpa's dear friends and was very sincere during the service. Acknowledging his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. He was absolutely wonderful.

It's still soon after his death and I think we are mostly still in shock. I know it will get easier, but for now it's really hard. It doesn't even seem real.

One thing I will always remember is him asking me every time I went to visit him in the hospital "Is it a boy or a girl?"
I had told him that if Micah and I had a girl that she would be named after him.
He was rooting for a girl of course.
I never thought that I'd have this baby with out grandpa having a chance to meet it. And I am very sad that my baby will not be given the chance to know such a wonderful man.

I love you grandpa, and I'll miss you everyday.

We finally did it!

I found out I was pregnant on September 28! Well I guess it was really the 27th but I didn't believe it until the 28th! :)

I kinda had a feeling and decided to do a test. I had a bunch of the Internet cheapie tests that came free with my Clear Blue Fertility Monitor so I took one of those. Well I thought I saw a line. But I wasn't sure. I looked at it for a long time trying to determine if it really was a line or if my eyes were playing tricks on me.

It was just Jordyn and I at home so I ran and got her to look at it.
Our conversation went something like this:
Me: Jordyn don't freak out but do you see a line on this?
Jordyn:(grabs test) yes I see a line. What is this?
Me: It's a pregnancy test. Are you sure you see a line?
Jordyn:(jumps away from test) Oh my God! Did you pee on that thing?!?!?

Well she saw a line too and I told her it was probably wrong not to get excited.

Well I didn't believe that test so later on I took another test. Again I saw a pink line. This time Alex was home so I called her. And yes she saw the line. Did this convince me? Nope!

The next morning I took another test. And yes once again I saw a line. Right after I took this test Micah came in from work. I called him in the bathroom and asked him if he saw a line. He said yes. So I took the out the other two tests and he said he saw lines on all three. Well I told him they were just cheap tests and probably wrong anyway not to get excited yet.

All day I thought about those tests! As soon as I got home I grabbed an EPT and took that one. Immediately it turned positive. Well you would think that after 4 positive tests I would have believed it. But nope! I went and bought another pack! Got home and took it and it was positive too then I finally believed it and went nuts! Well I guess you could say I kinda believed it because the next morning I took another one just to make sure! ;)

I guess after trying for so long it was just very hard for me to believe it.
I think Micah was in shock because he didn't really say too much, either that or I was screaming too much to hear him!

Another Coupon Deal Alert!

Walmart has Philadelphia Cream Cheese blocks on roll back for $1. With the printable coupon, you can get 5 FREE blocks of cream cheese! The coupon can be printed twice! So actually this will get you 10 free blocks of cream cheese!

Kraft $5 off 5

If you are like me and have access to multiple computers, you can really stock up!
Cream cheese can be frozen.

Now I just have to go find lots of cream cheese recipies!

My new phone

So I got rid of the IPhone. Not paying a $30 a month data plan is going to be so nice!
I ended up getting the Motorola Backflip. It has a touch screen like the Iphone so I kinda like that. It's not an Iphone but it's a very cool phone. Good part of it is that you can order it through Amazon for only a penny!

It's my first Android phone so I'm trying to get used to that.

My Uncle Richard has Skype and we are trying to set up a video calling on the phone so he can talk to my grandparents through it. It's not working out too well. If anyone has any ideas let me know!



****UPDATE****

This did not last long. I realized that I can not live with out my Iphone!

Getting out of debt.

Micah and I have decided that we want to be debt free. Of course we will still have our house note, but other than that NO NOTES!

So we are cutting back and putting extra money on our notes. (not fun!) We are going to get rid of our vehicle notes by selling the vehicles we have financed and opting to drive cheaper vehicles that we can pay cash for. And we are going to follow a strict budget until we get it done.

Well the other day we sat down to go over our budget and while going over our bills we kept looking at the dreaded cell phone bill. It's high! But it's high because we both have Iphones with the $30 a month per phone data plan. We can save $60 a month if we get rid of the Iphones. So that's what we've decided to do. But we are both dreading getting rid of them. We are Iphone addicts! I keep saying it's not a big deal until I realize how often I'm on that thing. I can even get coupons on it! But we are following a plan and the first step of the plan was getting rid of unnecessary expenses. Why does the first one have to be the hardest?

I wonder if there are meetings for recovering Iphone addicts?

Coupon Deal Alert!

Just thought I'd let you all know about an awesome coupon deal!

CVS has Sobe Life Water on sale Buy one Get one Free.
If you go to Sobe Head's or Tails, you can print a coupon for Buy one Get one Free Sobe. Use it with the CVS deal for 2 free Sobe's per coupon! You can print the coupon 2 times daily up until September 13!

I've been stocking up on these! They are normally around 1.79 a piece. My kids love them!

The Living Room Window

As most of you know Micah and I bought an old house and we have been re-doing the house since we moved in.
All of the windows in the house are the old sash-weight windows. Well the previous owner of the house thought it would be a good idea to paint all of the windows shut. Most of the windows probably haven't been opened in 10 years! Nice huh!

So since we've moved in we have been working on getting all the windows open. It's not as easy as you think.

Well this weekend I decided that this one window in the living room just had to be opened. But Micah was working so I was going to have to do it myself. So I grabbed a razor knife and went to work.(let me back up and say that Jordyn had to show me how to get the razor out. ha!)
When that seemed to not work I decided that the trim on the window had to be taken off so that the window would open. I told Jordyn to grab me the crow bar. Well my daughter decides that this may not be the best idea. She throws her hands up in the air and says "I want no part of this. Micah is not gonna be happy about this and I'm not getting in trouble for it." She then takes off to her bedroom and leaves me to fix the window alone.
Well guess what? I got the window open!



So I yelled for Jordyn and showed her that it worked and there was no shattered glass! I was so excited that I took a picture and texted it to Micah. I wrote.
"Living room window open! I'm so smart!"

Well now the window was open and the heat index was 110 outside so I needed to shut the window. This did not go so well. As I pulled the window down I hear a loud thump. The stupid rope holding the weight was dry rotted and broke in two!

So my next picture and text to Micah went like this.

"Living room window broken. I'm not that smart. :) Love you baby!"



Notice the "Love you baby!" hee hee hee.


This house has been nothing but an adventure since we bought it!

Coupons!

Most of you know that I absolutely LOVE to coupon!
I don't really remember how I got started with it. But once I got started I was hooked! Now I find it hard to buy anything without a coupon or to pay full price for anything! My kids shop with me and saw how much we were saving and they are hooked too! Alex just got a Kroger card so she can load it with coupons!

I love to save and tell people about all the deals that are out there. My co-workers have just started couponing so I'm excited to have someone to talk about the deals with.

Now there are some of you that think I'm crazy. That's ok. If you don't want to use coupons just save them for me! I take handouts!

But just to show you what you can actually get, check this out.




I got all this for around $12! And a couple of gallons of milk not pictured.

And if you are at my house drinking one of the many Sobe Life Waters that are stock piled in my kitchen, I just want to let you know that they were all FREE! :)

So I really don't care who thinks I'm crazy or who hates to stand behind me in line at the checkout because I use too many coupons. I know that I'm providing a lot for my family on a little amount of money!

Ok gotta go for now, there's coupons to organize!

Houdini the Rabbit

So Jordyn has been asking for a pet.
First she wanted a dog then changed her mind and wanted a hedgehog. (not sure why a hedgehog, that's just Jordyn)But she changed her mind on the hedgehog too.

Finally she decided that she wanted a rabbit. Micah said a rabbit would be the perfect pet because if she didn't take care of it, he'd just cook it for dinner. Jordyn didn't think this was too funny! I thought it was hilarious!

So Micah and I took her down to the pet store to get one. She picked out a gray Netherlands Dwarf Rabbit. She promptly named it Killah. (Alex thought this was hilarious)
After the first night and the rabbit escaping his cage about 20 times and hiding in her room Jordyn changed the name to Houdini.

Jordyn takes Houdini everywhere with her and actually bought him a carrier and a leash (yes they make a rabbit leash) It's pretty cute.

And yes the rabbit actually lays like that while Jordyn clips it's nails. :)

Tadlock Pipe and Rentals

I spend 40 hours a week at Tadlock Pipe. Sometimes more sometimes less.

I have the best coworkers, who are always there for me when I need them. And some of them who argue with me like family! (you know who you are!)

So here they are:

This is everyone eating lunch at Mazen's. Our favorite place to eat! We try to talk them in to taking us all the time.


Christy Hebert and I




Marlene Comeaux and Cheryl Leblanc


Christy, Cheryl and Kathy Derouen

A Blog

So I've started a blog.

What is a blog anyway?

The Web definition of a blog is "a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies; "postings on a blog are usually in chronological order"

Wow! An on-line diary? When I was a kid I had a diary with a lock on it. I would write in it and lock it up for no one to ever see. Now I'm writing on the internet for the whole world to see! Times sure have changed. But this seems different. When I wrote in my diary I knew that no one was reading it, so I wrote what ever I wanted to. Now that I'm writing knowing everyone can read it, what will I write? Do you pour your heart out and let all your thoughts and feelings be laid out for the world to see? Do you write it all down and then backspace it all out realizing that you don't want the world to know that you were even thinking that?

When Anne Frank kept her diary she poured out all her thoughts and feelings thinking that no one would ever read them. She probably thought that no one would even be interested in what she was writing. Now her diary is a best selling book that has been translated into 60 different languages, and made into movies. If she knew that the world would have peeked into her life so personally would she have wrote down anything differently. Would she have kept her secrets inside herself or would she have shared them with the world openly?

As I begin my blog I have that to think about that. Do I share my thoughts freely or do I just share what I want people to know. Do I write about day to day life, or do I write about what I'm feeling? I guess only time will tell how much I want to share, or if anyone is even interested in what I have to say. Lord knows I have an opinion on just about everything, so there will be much to say!