New Car!!

The Honda Insight:

Birthday on Bourbon Street!!

Thanks to Tony - this was the most fun birthday of my life!!

Tony made a hotel reservation at Chateau le Moyne, one of the really nice hotels in the French Quarter.  It was one block away from Bourbon Street.  I have mentioned a few times that I would like to stay in the French Quarter once to experience it!  We were able to walk to the restaurant and to Bourbon Street.  It was so fun!  The hotel was very classy!

Our room had a balcony!!!

Before we met Rachel and Corey for dinner at Acme Oyster House, we walked around the French Quarter and enjoyed the atmosphere.  The weather is amazing right now.  It is cool in the mornings and evenings, and warm during the day.  We shopped at a small store for Feather Boas and Mardi Gras Beads!

 I'm wearing a few beads, but there are hundreds in my purse for throwing at drunk people!

So glad Rachel & Corey could come into town for some fun!  After dinner, we threw beads off the balcony pictured below  I liked giving beads to the elderly people who waved at me!

Matching feather boas!

After running out of beads, we danced for a few hours and drank hurricanes!  It felt good to dance all night long.  I felt young again....not 26....more like 22.

And if that wasn't enough fun....Tony gave me ticket to go see Lady Antebellum!!!  Exactly what I wanted for my birthday!!!!  So excited!!!

Mardi Gras display

LSU Display

The display is a football field.  It says "Gametime" at the top and "LSU" in the endzones.  

Sundae's Haircut

Sundae got a haircut today.  We leave the ears and tail long and the rest of the body is short.  I always think the bows are too much, but this time they are pretty cute.

New Bedspread of GLORY!!!

Most beautiful bedspread in the world!!!!

Polar Bear Display at Wal-Mart

Halloween 2011

The picture below is of Tony and I in line at Jean Lafitte's Haunted Swamp Tour.  The swamp tour was located in Lafitte, LA which is south of New Orleans on the West Bank.  We went the Saturday before Halloween.

The wait in line was about an hour.  Luckily, they had swamp juice for sale.  Swamp juice is vodka & lemonade.  They also had chili dogs and snacks, but we were not hungry.  We went to eat before the tour at Acme Oyster House.  I had fried shrimp while Tony ate gumbo.  We shared some charbroiled oysters.  Yum!

The designers of this swamp tour created a creepy atmosphere, but spelling was not their forte.  Cemetery is misspelled twice in the decorations.

 In line, several zombies tried to sneak up on us.  The kids in line especially liked the zombies.  I tried to make friends with the zombie below, but he wasn't too talkative.  However, he did share that he does not eat human flesh because he is a vegetarian.  Glad I know that.

On Sunday, before Halloween, Tony and I carved jack-o-lanterns.  Tony made a scary face, while I made a dachshund pumpkin.

Notice the unfolded laundry in the background.

 Since we did not open our doors to trick-or-treat-ers, we just kept the pumpkins lit in the fireplace.

Here is the Halloween surprise that mom my shipped to me!  It is from Pier One, and it is sitting on my mantle.  Thanks mom!

Loosie dressed as a Hot Dog for Halloween.  Sundae was a bat.  They both played in their costumes until they eventually figured out how to get them off.

Cooking on Saturday

Today I made pumpkin muffins for Tony. I give credit to Amy's recipe which includes only 1 box of Spice Cake Mix and 1 can of pumpkin. Easy & Perfect! Tomorrow I hope to make the high-fiber blueberry muffins for myself. The same week that I ate whole wheat & flax seed blueberry muffins, I also ate lots of fruits and veggies and high-fiber Progresso Tomato Basil Soup. So my digestion was rocking and rolling. Hope to relive that healthy experience this coming week.

For dinner, I made fancy roast beef sandwiches. I simmered Roast Beef from the deli in french onion soup with a little Worcheshire sauce. It was warm and juicy! Tony and I dipped our sandwiches in the leftover juices French Dip Style. I made roasted carrots to accompany the dish, but I burned them. Bummer. :(

Blueberry Muffins

Here are some healthy Blueberry Muffins I made today. I got the recipe from Real Simple Magazine. Here is the link:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/whole-grain-blueberry-muffins-00100000064417/index.html

They are made with whole wheat flour, whole oats, & flaxseed. Super healthy.

Farkel

Tonight Tony and I played Farkel. Today was boring. We watched the Tech game for 7 hours. It was super long due to all the lightening delays. Then to stop some of the boredom we played the gripping dice game Farkel.

I won 3 out of 5 games, but it was very close.

Jumbalaya

Here is a giant pot of Jumbalaya I cooked this evening. It is a mixture of sausage, chicken, vegetables, and rice. It is VERY spicy. It seems difficult, but I buy the boxed mix made by Zatarain's.

TImes Square Puzzle

This puzzle took about a week to complete. We started it last weekend when we were trapped inside due to Tropical Storm Lee.

In total, Tony worked on it about 1 million hours, and I worked on it about 2 hours. He claims that he does not want to work on any more puzzles. He seems to believe that the puzzle is a strange addiction. Once he started the puzzle, he could not pull himself away from it. I don't see why that is a bad thing. Why not waste away doing a puzzle instead of watching tv or playing on facebook?

At first, Sundae did not cooperate with the puzzle. She routinely chewed on puzzle pieces when they fell on the floor. However, at the end, Sundae the dog helped put the final pieces together.

Photos From BIloxi, MS

New Years Eve! Happy 2011

For New Years Eve, Tony and I celebrated by going to a late lunch/early dinner at the Abita Brew Pub in Abita Springs, LA. It was about 10 minutes away. Tony ate a seafood platter while I ate "Chicken Abitafeller" (chicken breast in a creamy spinach sauce). After dinner, we watched movies at home. First, we watched Get Him to the Greek starring Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. It was pretty funny. Russell Brand is hilarious. Next, we watched Sherlock Holmes. It was my second time to watch Sherlock Holmes, and I loved it. Tony had never seen it before. He found the British accents were a little hard to follow. He says "it was ok." Between the movies, we ate our leftovers and played dominoes.

At about 11 pm we started drinking champagne with a little pomegranate juice in it. Delicious! We toasted the new year in our beautiful crystal champagne flutes - happy 2011!!

Christmas Presents

Below is the smoker that Tony bought with his Academy gift card. It was a side chamber where charcoal and/or wood is burned while the meat is smoked in the larger compartment. For his first smoking experience, Tony smoked a rack of ribs.

In the smoker, Tony used his jalapeno holder to smoke some jalapenos stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon.

Here is a picture of the new tv set up in the bedroom on top of the armoire. Tony hooked up his old dvd player so I can watch "lady movies." Tony calls romanic comedy films "lady movies" and will not watch them.

Here is a picture of Tony's birthday present, our new dog. We decided to name her Sundae because she kind of looks like white ice cream with chocolate smeared all over her body. We considered many other names: Nola, Noel, Brittany, etc.

Christmas Eve with Tony's Family

For Christmas Eve, Tony's Uncle Mark hosted a dinner. We opened Christmas presents after. It was nice to spend time with Mark's new Fiance Liz and get to know her.

Here is Pam, Tony's mom, opening presents.

Below is Scott, Tony's dad, and Liz, Uncle Mark's fiance. They are watching others open presents.

Here is Tony's Uncle Mark opening presents.

Here is Tony's grandmother "Mimi" opening presents.

Here is Tony and I. We are pictured with a photo book that Tony's cousin Mindy gave us.

Overall, a beautiful Christmas Eve!

Our First Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great first Thanksgiving together. I'm thankful for our jobs, for our dog, for our families, and for the weekend full of rest and leftovers!!

Having a nice meal on beautiful china really symbolized how much I have to be thankful for - I have so much food, so many beautiful things, and so many great people in my life.

Here is a picture of the set table before we ate.

Here is a picture of one whole place setting. Most people used the bread and butter plate for jello salad or sweet potatoes. We put hot apple cider in the tea cups, and in the goblets we poured water and sweet ice tea. Not pictures are the salad plates, which we used for dessert.

Here is a picture of our Thanksgiving dinner guests, Justin & Sarah Jones. They have been married for about a year and a half and living in New Orleans for about that long.

Here is our roast turkey!!! So much worry for such a perfect bird! I thought it looked like a bird that would be on tv. Tony brined the bird in water, salt, molasses, honey, soy sauce, and garlic. After brining, we injected the bird with Creole Butter. Inside the bird, we placed cut up onions, apples, rosemary, sage, and cinnamon. The outside of the bird was basted with chicken broth. So much flavor!

Here is a picture of us with the bird right before carving.

Here is our table with all the food!! Here is a list of all the food, from the bottom right hand corner going clockwise: home-made cranberry sauce (made by Tony), butter on a salad plate, cornbread stuffing (made by Lynn), Jello Salad (made by Tony), green bean casserole (made by Justin), mashed potatoes (made by Lynn), Bisquick biscuits (made by Lynn), sweet potatoes with marshmallows (made by Lynn), and Carrot Souflee (made by Sarah).

"I will praise God's name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving." - Psalm 69:30