Only in Louisiana

John M's babysitter lives on a bayou. Guess what they spotted yesterday?

One of these!
It was about 10 feet long and apparently hungry, b/c it went for a dog next door. I've always wondered if they saw gators in their yard b/c of the bayou being so close, but this is the first time she's actually told about one being close.


I have to admit, I think alligators are pretty cool. When Anna was little (about 3 or 4), alligators were her absolute favorite animal. The very first picture she painted at preschool was of an alligator.


I'll leave you with some Louisiana alligator facts:


Louisiana has the highest alligator population currently approaching 2 million.


Alligators were first harvested in Louisiana in great numbers in the early 1800's. These alligators were harvested for their skins which were used to make boots, shoes and saddles, and for their oil used to grease steam engines and cotton mills.


The American alligator is the largest reptile in North America. The first reptiles appeared 300 million years ago and ancestors of the American alligator appeared 160 million years ago.

Top Ten Things I Enjoyed at the Audubon Zoo

1.) The gators! They were kinda feisty and jumping after french fries. 2.) Watching the kids play on the playground.

3.) This gorilla who ate a variety of veggies like a person. I thought it was Mark for a second. ;~)

4.) The waterfall area!

5.) Monkey hill where I watched 2 of my own 'monkeys'.

6.) Elephant cutouts b/c we never got around to the actual elephants.

7.) Big long 18 inchers. (giraffe tongues, that is)

8.) The beauty of the Audubon zoo.

9.) Mark coming with us, even though he has to make this long trek every week day.

10.) Snapping pictures like this one.

Grateful Friday

1.) The end of a L-O-N-GGGGGGGGGGGG work week.

2.) A fun day the Audubon Zoo/Aquarium of the Americas planned for tomorrow.

3.) My mom, who has helped me out every single day this week (okay, every day of my life actually ;~) )

4.) Basketball and soccer seasons starting up (it's a lot of work but always fun).

5.) Having about 1/3 of my Christmas shopping done!

6.) John M.'s chubby baby hands on my face.

7.) Afternoons spent in the pool cooling off, in this 100 degree heat.

Hope you all have a great weekend. Try to stay cool!

Awwww . . .

This picture makes me smile. #1 because my sweet little boy sleeping, dead to the world.

#2 because I actually have my husband wearing Kenny's T-shirt, of his own free will. ;~)

FLIP-FLOP SUMMER . . . Woo-hoo!

Something else I re-learned . . .

just to re-forget it by next week.

Vacuole
Ribosomes
Mitochondria
Nucleus
(blah, blah, blah)

Anna had to make an edible model of a plant cell for school today. Where DO they come up with this crap? I can't wait to get home and eat the vacuole.

The party's over

So I'm slightly nuts and I told the girls that they could each invite 5 friends over to watch the long-awaited premiere of High School Musical 2. My God, did we think that show would ever actually premiere?! They've just been advertising it on Disney since the beginning of time.

We had 11 girls here, highly engrossed in the movie for about 45 minutes, and then screaming like banshees for the next 2 hours. Who sat on the couch and watched the last hour of HSM2?
That would be me. I had to see if Troy and Gabriella got back together, people. They did. How'd you guess?

So, with only 4 girls remaining in the house, 1 wee boy and 1 medium-sized girl asleep in my bed, I sit here and blog because I'm hopped up on caffeine and 4 slices of pizza.

I can't wait until tomorrow night when I can catch that first hour that I missed. I'm a High School Musical junkie.

Good God, you're almost 3 already!

I haven't done a John M. post in a while, and it's hard for me to believe that boy will be 3 years old next month.

Here he is at the bull-riding show last weekend. He loves bulls, have I mentioned that? Especially watching the 'mans' fall off of the bulls. That's his favorite.

He'll also give his right pinky toe for a doughnut. He'll give his whole foot for a bag of doughnut holes! I have an addict on my hands here. You see, my boss brings me doughnut holes every Thursday morning and I started this thing where I bring them back for John. Well, he asks every day now for those things, and cannot seem to get the concept that it's only once a week. I've created a monster.

Recently, he's fallen in love with a book of nursery rhymes given to him by my mom. He wants to read it every day and his favorite is 'The Purple Cow'. That cow cracks him up. He says every single time that we get to that page (which is usually from the get-go b/c he skips right to it), 'that cow is in the wrong pasture'. I don't know how the kid knows this but he insists that the cow has somehow gotten to the wrong pasture. Of course, he has heard his dad say the same thing about our non-purple cows about 500 times. So, that could be it.

His other favorites now are:

- playing basketball at my sister's house, jumping from a mini-trampoline

- his cousin, Jenna (Jen-Jen)

- bathing with his toy horses and cows

- asking when his 'bird-day party' is going to be 10 times a day

- pancakes at maw-maw's house

- rolling in the dirt

- being naked as a jaybird

(of course, I enjoy those last 2 quite a bit myself!)

That's my boy. Look out 3s, here he comes.

Another school year started . . . let the chaos begin

Back from the big city

We had a great time. There's something about New York City that I just can't get enough of. I've come to think that it's because it's so incredibly different from the place that I live. Opposites attract. And Southern Louisiana and NYC, they couldn't get much more opposite.

I love the business (busy-ness).
I love the tall buildings.

I love not needing a car.

I love the variety. Food. Shopping. Cultures. All of it.

I love the people. I met some great people there.

I love NYC. Bike-carriage ride uptown near Central Park.
WTC memorial plaque
Shoe shopping near Wall Street. Statue of Liberty from ferry.

Boardwalk at Coney Island.

Brooklyn Bridge - we walked across! (well, half-way)
Times Square
Near Rockefeller Center (and Radio City Music Hall)
On the WET double-decker bus tour.
Near an entrance to Central Park