Gardening

I decided this summer that I wanted to try my hand at a garden. My parents and grandparents always had one, so it seemed the thing to do. My first planting didn't succeed - nothing came up. The second go round, I planted cucumbers, bell peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes and okra. I had cucumbers running out my ears!!! Luckily I have in-laws who were happy to eat them too! The tomatoes didn't do well and neither did the okra. It didn't take long for me to lose interest in it all and give up. :)

My mom used to always order purple hull peas, green butterbeans and speckled butterbeans from Church Hill Produce every year. Since she's been gone, I've continued that tradition. Last year, I didn't order enough beans. This year I ordered WAY too much. I ordered 3 bushels of each. I had beans for days. It's such a pain in the a** to put them down too. You have to sort through them all carefully, pulling out the bad ones. Then blanch them (takes forever because you have to bring the water to a boil every time). Then let them cool and bag them. I did this the 2nd week in July. It's now the 3rd week in August and I've yet to eat any of them. I was that sick of dealing with them!! Lol. But all of us in Ville Platte and Dad should have plenty of beans for the next year!! I think this is the last year I will do it. It's just so much easier to buy them in the store. They don't taste as good, but I don't want to do all that work!!

More Softball...

Two weeks later, Alexis' team travelled to Lake Charles for the nationals tournament. We were on the road again! Friday, Abby and I rode down with Grammy and Pops. We went back to the hotel in between games. All the women sat in the hall chatting while a lot of the men napped. All the kids, including Abby ran the halls. Abby had SO much fun. She loved getting the attention from all those girls!!! We watched more games that evening, but for some reason Abby got sick all of a sudden and started throwing up. I normally handle "emergency" situations well, but when it was my own child, I panicked!! I didn't know what to do!! Lol. Thank goodness Grammy and Wendy were there to help out. We got her cleaned up and changed. She was quiet for the rest of the game, but not sick anymore....until we got in the car. We hadn't pulled out of the ballpark good when she started again. Pops took a turn on 2 wheels and we stopped in someone's driveway to clean her up again. This sweet old lady came out and gave us towels, a cold ice pack, 7up with a straw, everything. She was so sweet!! She told us how she'd beat cancer 3 times and always had things like that ready. Made me think of my momma :) Anyway, it was a long hour and a half drive home to say the least!!! I was so worried and debating whether to take her to the emergency room. She was just so pale and lethargic and pitiful looking. Shortly after we got home and she played with her daddy, she was fine and running up and down the house!! Of course Grant said it was because she just needed to see him! Haha.

Since Ab was back to her normal self, we loaded up and went back on Saturday to see them play again. They ended up coming out 3rd I think, but played some good softball.

Fourth of July

Abby's cousin Alexis ("Wexi") made the Ville Platte All Star softball team this year. They were going to a tournament in Gonzales for 4th of July weekend and we decided to go. I went over on Friday morning and had a "girl's day" with Rosanne while Abby stayed in Ville Platte. We shopped, visited and got the best pedicure ever! Later that evening, we went to eat at The Chimes and I had a wonderful steak!!! Saturday morning, Grant and Abby rode down with his parents and we watched ballgames Saturday afternoon/evening and Sunday. It was SO hot though. Luckily, all the dads from the ball team set up tents and fans so we were able to stay cooler than some. I bought a couple of handheld fans to take with us. One was the kind that you put water in and spray yourself. Abby was entertained for a long time with that one!! No matter how many times she sprayed herself in the face, she still jumped. She was so comical.

It was a nice little getaway for all of us!!

Father's Day/Veillon Family Reunion

The Veillon's hold a family reunion every other year on Father's Day Weekend at Chicot State Park here in Ville Platte. We weren't able to go last time because we had just had Abby! Grant's dad shares a cabin with his sister for the weekend. We stayed on Friday night and her side stayed on Saturday night. Some friends/family stopped by to visit and there were plenty of kids running around, including Katherine, Abby's partner in crim at the babysitter's every day. Abby had the time of her life running around the cabin. Her dress strap kept coming off her shoulder and little by little, she ended up stripping down to her diaper. It was such a hoot and everyone was cracking up. She was definitely being a ham!! She also had a wipe that she was playing with and would stick it down the front of her dress then pull it out real fast. Reminded me of old black women who keep their kleenex in their bra and pull it out! Lol.

Pictures coming here.

We came back to the house Saturday morning to rest and shower, etc. We went back for a visit Saturday afternoon and Abby had a lot more fun. We decided to give Grant his present early because I just couldn't hold it in any longer!!
First it was a big box. Inside was a small gift and another box. Inside that box was a gift and another box. Inside that box was another box. Inside that box was a George Strait CD with a ticket tucked in the back so that when he turned it over to see the song list, he'd see the ticket. I was worried he wouldn't see the ticket stuck in the back, but the little rascal knew what it was as soon as he saw the CD!!!! He loves George Strait so he was quite excited to go see him again!! We went to see him in Lafayette in 2005 and I said that night that Grant was the man I'd marry. It was also the first time he finally got up the nerve to kiss me!!!


Father's Day we just lounged around the house being lazy!!

Abby's Baptism and 2nd Birthday

With my side of the family being out of town, we decided to have Abby's baptism on her birthday and kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

While I'm not Catholic, we've decided to raise Abby in that faith and are just now getting around to getting her baptised. Catholics choose a godmother and godfather for the "baby" to care for her in the event something happens to where the parents can't raise her. We chose Grant's sister Wendy and her husband Timmy. Over here they call them Nanny and Paran (Pah-ran). Grant's immediate family were there and my dad and Papaw came down too. We weren't sure how Abby would take sitting in mass for the full hour (we usually just sit in the cry room), but she did surprisingly well. We were a little worried how she would do when Father Gene poured the water on her head, but she did fine. Kind of had a look on her face like "what are y'all doing to me?", but at least she wasn't vocal about it!! So that I could participate and watch everything that was going on, my sister in law Shea was kind enough to take pictures for me.

Guess I'll upload pictures later, as it doesn't appear to be working!!

We held Abby's birthday party right after the baptism. We had it at Grammy's house since it's much bigger. We grilled burgers and hot dogs. The theme was Dora the Explorer. She got lots of goodies for her birthday. I can't believe she is TWO years old already!!!!

I'll put more pics here later too!

Updates Forthcoming

Ok, so I've had a lot I've wanted to write about lately, but I feel like I need to go back and start where I left off in June and I just haven't taken or made the time, but I'm determined to do so in the next week!!

Summer is Here!!

Abby has always loved the water. Grammy (my mother in law) has an above ground pool at her house, but I knew that I wouldn't want to have to load up and go there every time we wanted to take a dip in the pool. So, on a whim (that's how I shop), we bought an above ground pool. The day we got it, we were having family over to grill for supper, and all the guys ended up putting the pool together! That sure worked out well for me! :)

I clearly didn't realize the amount of work and expense that went into having a pool, but am still glad we purchased one. We've only swam a few times, but Abby loves it.

She wanted to wear her floaties....they didn't hold her up though!

She wouldn't let me take the floaties off!

She didn't want to stay in her panda float for very long, and wanted to be down in the water with mom. I have to use the float to get her in the water so that I can climb in. I don't trust myself carrying her on that ladder! She gets heavy quick holding her up in the water, so we bought her a swimsuit that has some foam or something built into to hold her up. The only problem is that she flops onto her back unless we're holding her upright, which she quickly decided she didn't like! Also, the foam part comes up around her neck when she's in the water. Her lifejacket does the same thing. It's still easier than just plain holding her and I feel a little safer with it on her. I thought about swimming lessons for her this summer, but think she would forget it all before next year. We'll just wait and do them them. In the meantime, we just take extra precautions with her in the pool and take the ladder out each time we get out.

Makeover

How do I get some cute little background on here? Mine is ugly and shabby looking. Are the templates they have all I can choose from?? Help!

Still alive...

When I'm lying in bed at night trying to fall asleep, I think of all kinds of things to post on here. During the day when I'm sitting at the computer, I can't think of a single interesting thing to type!
All of the other blogs I follow are so comical and interesting. Doubt that will happen here. Mostly all I do is ramble! :)
During the day I'm usually at the computer, but am working (or least trying to make myself work). While Abby's here, there's no chance of computer time. By the time she's put in bed, I don't care about the computer, I just want MY bed!!
I'm going to start doing better though, I promise. It's almost time for me to go get her now, but I'll post a few entries. :)

Updates Promised!

I promise I'm going to start updating this more regularly, hopefully a couple times a week.

In the meantime, I'm trying to get the page set up to be more pretty and customized. I can't seem to get it much better than it is now with their basic templates. Perhaps I'm webpage design illiterate? Any help would be appreciated!

New Year, New Me

I've got all these goals in mind for 2009, the main one of which is to become organized and simplify my life. I haven't even stopped long enough to write down all of my goals! I know that I won't remember them all right now, but I'd like to keep track of them and hopefully mark them off throughout the year. But, they're just goals. I'll strive to meet them, but won't stress if I don't.

1. Stay organized
2. Spend more time playing with Abby and do housework and all other chores when she's asleep, even if it means staying up late and being tired.
3. Become more patient - I'll be glad to take advice on how to accomplish this seemingly impossible feat!!!
4. Sit down every Sunday and log all expenses into Quicken for the previous week.
5. Keep my house clean and free of clutter.
6. Learn photography - mentors being accepted :)
7. Get back into scrapbooking
8. Try to journal more about Abby and what all she's doing so that I can look back years down the road and remember it all. Who am I kidding thinking I'll never forget any of it? I've already forgotten so much!!
9. Be a better friend
10. Organize some sort of family reunion - preferably the entire extended family, but if that's not doable, at least the immediate family - aunts, uncles, cousins. We're all so spread out now and never all get together anymore.
11. Figure out some sort of business of my own to establish/operate
12. Take a family vacation
13. Begin house plans
14. Build our savings account back up
15. Lose weight - my ideal weight is 40 pounds less than I am now. Right now, I'd be happy to lose 20.
16. Quit being slouchy and do my hair and makeup every day, or at least every weekday!
17. Quit watching so much tv!

That's all my tired brain can think of for now, but I will probably add more in the days to come!!!

New Pets!

I find it hilarious that there are hundreds, probably even thousands, crawfish mounds in our yard and on the adjoining land. This picture was not taken by me, but this is what a crawfish mound looks like for those who aren't familiar...

Two weeks ago, we had over 5" of rain in one afternoon. Our yard was a lake!!!! Thank goodness Grant gave me rubber boots for Christmas - I used them for a week to get to my car!

After the rain finally stopped, we ventured outside and found crawfish everywhere!!! They were just crawling around, playing in the water!! Grant made fun of me for taking pictures of them, but I thought it was hilarious. If only they'd been a little bigger, we could've had a crawfish boil!!!!

It won't be much longer and we'll be smelling that wonderful aroma of crawfish boiling!

Coyotes

Yep, coyotes. Ville Platte's got 'em. Right in my back yard.
My sister in law who lives just a couple houses down told us they can hear them howling in the woods behind us sometimes. Then some other neighbors told us every now and then they find a pile of feathers instead of their chickens. Abby and I were out looking for crawfish 2 days ago when I found some unusual footprints in the mud. They were too large to be a dog and not the right shape. I googled coyote footprint images that night and that's exactly what it is!! Super scary to have them walking around in my back yard!!! I felt better knowing they were in the woods where I can't see them. But to know they're coming up within 30-50 feet of my house is too much! I seriously doubt they would ever be out in the daylight and would more than likely be afraid of a human, but there are reports all over about coyotes attacking people, mostly kids. So, as if I wasn't paranoid enough about anything happening to Abby, now I can add coyotes to my list of worries. :/

Abby Update

We took Abby to the doctor sort of for her 18 month check up and because she was sick (another yucky ear infection). She was 31 pounds and 34" tall. Yay!!! She's finally getting taller!!!!!! She's still such a little chunk though and is still wearing 3T clothes, so we have to roll all her blue jeans up a couple times. This was a new doctor here in Ville Platte and he didn't really ask too many questions about her development and all like our old pediatrician would, but that's ok. I know she's right on track. Every day it is something new - usually a new word. Yesterday it was apple. Today it was dog. Who knows what tomorrow will bring!! So long as it isn't a "4 letter word"!!
She's at a stage where she's still trying to communicate what she wants to us and most of it ends with a point and grunt, but we'll get there eventually. We finally got her out of the daycare we didn't like and she's loving the new babysitter. Mom does too and my peace of mind goes quite a long way!
Abby loves to be outside - doesn't care if it's raining, snowing, 10 degrees or 100, she wants to be outside. There are horses in the pasture next to us and she likes to feed apples to them.
She's recently started liking her baby dolls and carries them around everywhere - always making sure they have their hat on though! Santa brought her a stroller for Christmas and she has fun pushing the dolls around the house. I think her favorite pasttime is still pulling things out, such as pulling every single block out of the box, then everything out of the wagon, etc. We're working on learning to put it all back up!!!
Everything else is going well and she's so much fun. She's really at an entertaining age!

Ok, here goes...

I'm irritated as shit lately by people who don't understand the concept of caller id. You call me, I see your number come up on caller id. If I feel like talking or am able to, I'll answer. If not, I don't answer. You have the option to leave a message or not. Either way, the id part is that it leaves your number on my phone so that I can see you called. There is no need to continue to call me every 20 minutes until I answer the phone. In fact, the more frequently you call, you're pretty much guaranteeing yourself that I won't answer at all. I don't like to talk on the phone. Everyone knows this. However, I understand some people just can't help it. No big deal. But don't call me incessantly to ask questions you already know the answer to or things that are pointless. And remember, you call me and I'm either busy, don't hear it or plain just don't wanna talk. You leave a message telling me what you want. When I get able or ready to, I'll call you back. No need to call me repeatedly. Doing so will result in no return call for you. Comprende?

Slacker

I can't seem to keep this thing updated for the life of me.
Things are going well for us all, trying to recuperate from the holidays. Abby was apparently very good this year. It's amazing the reindeer were able to pull the gift laden sleigh this far. We're now struggling with where to put all the loot. Doesn't help that we've just downgraded from a house to a trailer!!

Grant's still working with FedEx, just making an hour drive one way 5 days a week, including Saturdays. We aren't liking it one bit, but you gotta do what you gotta do. A local, M-F, 8-5 job with benefits equal to those of FedEx would be heavenly. He's enjoying being back in his hometown with ducks, golf and family close by and in that order!

Janna is still working from home for the time being, travelling back to Baton Rouge once a week to work. Also still trying to adjust to being in a town where she knows no one but family and used to being around SO much family all the time! I'm attempting to slowly unpack more boxes and find nooks and crannies to put our "stuff".

Abby is really enjoying being close to family and playing with her cousins all the time. She just started with a new "babysitter" today. The daycare she was in did not live up to our standards and we felt she was receiving no personal attention. She cried when we dropped her off and was crying when we picked her up. She's going to enjoy staying at Mrs. Rella's so much more and mommy's mind is at ease!! Can't put a price on peace of mind!

She's really become entertaining and fun. We spent the weekend with Pop Pop in Natchez and she had a blast. She's finally come to realize that he is Pop Pop. She followed him everywhere. When he would walk away, she would point and say Pop. You know he eats it up!! It's been so amazing to watch him with her. At the same time, it hurts my heart that my momma isn't here to see not only her, but to see dad with her.

Everything is going well for us, we're very blessed and couldn't ask for more!
Will post some pictures soon.

FINALLY!

After 17 1/2 months, much worry & anticipation (including a trip to the neurologist), Abby is FINALLY walking!!!!!!She's been walking on her knees for months and could get anywhere she wanted to, and fast! She started taking a few steps here and there about 2 weeks ago, but never many at a time. Thursday she walked more than she ever had, probably about 10 feet at a time. Yesterday we were in Target in Lafayette and she wanted out of the buggy, so Grant took her out, put her down and off she went!!! She hasn't stopped since. We're excited that she's finally walking, but this opens up so many more doors of trouble for her to find!! On another note, we are finally settled in our new home in Ville Platte and are enjoying life in the country once again. Having so much family (including babysitting nieces!) is great and something we've not experienced since having Abby. My mother in law says it is the cajun air that finally made her walk. Haha. She's doing well otherwise, very sassy and strongwilled (no clue where she gets that from!!!). She enjoys having her picture taken and will bring me the camera and give me a big cheesy grin until I take her picture. She's interested in putting things together and always grabs a screwdriver to help. One favorite pasttime is taking things out of bags, etc., i.e. mom's purse! She'll pull every item out, then put it back, entertaining herself for quite some time. She's talking up a storm, some we can interpret, some not. Her favorite words are bye, see ya and shoe. She'll still got her bright blue eyes and really blonde hair, which is now long enough to put in little pigtails!! :)

Things have been so hectic lately and I just don't have time to sit down and write. I hope that I soon will.
We are now living in Ville Platte. The movers arrived last Sunday and loaded everything up. Most things are still in boxes. Abby has been sick all week and Grant started his job in Alexandria, so things haven't slowed down at all.
I hope to catch up soon and give an update.

Random thoughts (to do list) re moving

Post office - since a home has previously been located at that address, can we just put up a mailbox and do a change of address form or is there more to it?

Dirt work - Lisa with S&S checking around to find dirt, backed up until next week, will call me back with an estimated price and day they can get to it, understands we are looking to have delivery of trailer next week

Tatman's - Let Chad know the day dirt work will be done so he can schedule delivery, hopefully next week

Schedule electrician and plumber (S&S) for the day after delivery

Have electrician run line to where storage building will be placed so we can have lights and outlets to plug freezer in

Have electrician install phone jacks

Internet - who is it going to go through? Would prefer not to have home phone, but it and DSL will probably be cheapest route

Cable vs. Internet - Who is cable company in VP? What would it cost to have cable run that far back off the road? Would satellite be cheaper? Wouldn't have local channels?

Insurance - call to get quotes

Check craigslist for free boxes

Start packing

Put things aside for a moving sale - probably to be scheduled for 11/15, even though it's a home football game, it's our last chance. Will have a lot of junk. If it hasn't been used recently, it's going in the sale pile. No room in the trailer.

Storage building - Necessity; check prices - Lowe's, Depot, etc.

Rental truck for moving? Worth hiring movers to load it? Check prices to have someone load, haul and unload - probably too pricy, but might would avoid everyone working their butts off and numerous tanks of gas.

Guest bedroom - Too small for a double bed - don't want to have to buy a single bed. Smaller computer desk?

Changes

Well, we're officially moving. Grant got a position in Alexandria with FedEx. He starts November 18. We haven't sold the house yet and have had NO prospects, so that would leave Abby & I here until the house sells. Grant could live with his parents. We think that's going to be too difficult though. So, Abby & I are going to move too. Everything is in motion for it to happen. We bought the lot earlier this year, but we aren't ready to build. Too much is going on, plus we need to make sure that's where we want to be. So, we're going to be buying a mobile home for the time being. It's going to be hard going from a house to a small trailer, but we'll make do. There's no telling how big of a storage room I'm going to have to rent!! Our goal is to have the trailer set up and us living there by November 30. I don't think there's any way I can have everything packed up and over there by then, but we'll get there. Anyway, our lives are pretty much turned upside down right now attempting to get everything done and continue to keep the house clean, work and be parents! Absolutely no packing has been done though! We're going to look at trailers Saturday and hopefully be able to pick something out. We're keeping our fingers crossed that someone will bite on the house soon. It's been on the market since the first week of July and there hasn't been much traffic to see it. Someone is coming tomorrow night. Hopefully they'll really like it and make an offer. Granted, I've said that about all 10 people who have looked at it. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that everything works out the way we want it to!