Sunday, January 2, 2011
These three girls love each other so. It's going to be sad to not have sweet, little Annie with us anymore.
Her family leaves on the 11th for Uganda.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Welp. My computer officially died today.
Notice what it says about inserting a CD-ROM? Three weeks ago the computer just suddenly "lost" the CD-ROM drive. It was nowhere to be found. I tried downloading the driver from Dell's website, but it wouldn't install because of some sort of glitch. Lovely, huh?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
We dropped the kids off with my parents last night and then got up this morning to drive to New Orleans with my father-in-law, Paul's sister, and her husband. (Otherwise known as Poppy, Aunt Wendy, and Uncle Mert, respectively.) New Orleans! Yeah, baby! We set the tone for our stay by stopping off at Camellia Grill before doing anything else. :)
Reasons to like Camellia Grill:
1. Comfort food galore
2. Très cool wait staff who banter with the customers and wear bowties
3. Pink walls
4. Quick, made-to-order food
5. Melt-in-your-mouth burgers
6. Two locations: the original (where we ate) and one in the French Quarter (so when you're hungry after a ballgame and would rather not try the food at some random bar, where you'll have to wait at least an hour for the drinkers to get up from their tables, you'll have a tried-and-true, down-home-good joint to satisfy your hunger). This is foreshadowing...
Then we checked in to our hotel, which was a couple of blocks from the Superdome. Why were we going to the Superdome? To see the Razorbacks hopefully win the Sugar Bowl!!!!
Hootie (without his Blowfish) sang the National Anthem, but it was unimpressive, at best. The kids would have liked the indoor fireworks, though. Let me just say, the Superdome is definitely pretty.......super.
Okay. So this has nothing whatsoever to do with football, but I was quite awed by Ohio State's band!! I'm a former band geek, and I've always been the type to stay in the stands during halftime to watch the bands perform. Ohio State's band was BY FAR the best marching band I've EVER seen in my life!!
Now back to football. In case you haven't heard, we lost. It was a heartbreaker. We looked like nervous wrecks the entire game, made bunches of mistakes, but by the end, still managed to get within a mere five points of our formidable opponent. We fans were definitely on our feet a lot. And I may never sing again, I screamed so hard. The game ended LATE, but Paul and I were hungry, so we walked through the Quarter until we found the other location of Camellia Grill. Twice in one day. It's that good. I DID order something different the second time, at least.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Our second day in New Orleans started with coffee and beignets at Cafe DuMonde, though I don't eat beignets. (I know. I'm weird. I also don't like funnel cakes. So I probably need to be committed, right?) I love outdoor cafes...because of the hungry birds. That's the major draw for me. ;)
After a tiny bit of shopping for those we left behind, we took a taxi to the next food stop: Domilise's Sandwich Shop for poboys. A nice walk was just what we needed afterward. And then we took the St. Charles Streetcar back to the hotel.
We rested our bellies up a bit and then went out for dinner at La Crepe Nanou. Oh, my. It was goooooood. This was my dinner: A crepe with smoked salmon, boursin cheese, capers, and a little bit of red onion. FABulous!!
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, they brought out the Creme Brulee. Mert and I shared it, and we both agreed it was the best we've ever had! That's saying something!!
After dinner we took the streetcar back to the French Quarter to visit Pat O'Brien's piano lounge. I had so. much. fun. They have dueling pianos on stage for the all-request show. It's amazing!!! Awesome musicians. They play, they sing, they do anything. Even beatboxing! I highly recommend this place. Only downside is all the smoke I had to inhale. (YUCK!) Killed my throat. (Again.)
This guy was my fave. He won me over with the harmonica on a Billy Joel song.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
It was a long drive back home, but once we were home with the kids and had had our dinner, we gifted them with their surprise from us: pralines from New Orleans! Deelish!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Today was all about laundry, cleaning, and taking down the Christmas.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
"Missionary Day"
My good friend from college came for a visit with her family this morning. We haven't seen each other since her wedding day over eleven years ago. A lot has happened since then. ;) We packed in SO much talking in not very much time. She's the kind of friend you just pick right back up with from where you left off. It's a beautiful thing. And speaking of beautiful, her children are, too!! She and her hubby are missionaries in Germany and are in the States for five more months before going back. (They don't live near here; they were just passing through after visiting family.)
Almost immediately after our visitors left, we got ready and headed over to the Rackleys' house. They leave for Africa three days from now. It's our "last hurrah."
We miss them already.
Wow. Week 2 was a might busy. I'm actually looking forward to next week when things can get back to normal (whatever that means) with homeschool. It's high time. My post is linked up at Sara's Project 365. Happy Snowstorms!
. Cute movie, but the villainess was a little too much for our kiddos. (I'm talking about the oldest ones!) We have to be careful about that. (We weren't careful enough this time.)
, specifically Buzz Lightyear, whom he endearingly refers to as "Woody Buzz." His aunt got him a just-his-size Buzz, which he wags around everywhere he goes. Perhaps you remember seeing "Woody Buzz" along for the 
