On this day in 1955...

....my Mom and Dad got married!  The Lord blessed them with almost 56 together and even though we wish it would have been more, it's not up to us and we trust in His plan.  I thank God for my parents and the wonderful upbringing they provided me and my siblings.  We were been blessed beyond measure with our Mom and Dad and continue to be blessed with the lessons they taught us, the values they instilled in us and the passing down of their faith to us.

MS Walk

Our good friends, Milton and Jill, have two beautiful daughters that we watched grow up.  Laura, the oldest, was diagnosed with MS in her late 20s and has, thankfully, been able to keep it pretty much under control with medication and live a fairly normal life.  She's a military wife and her husband is deployed frequently leaving her to work full time, take care of the household and raise their two kids.  She's an amazing young lady and a lot of fun to be around.  When the MS Walk came to the Bossier City Boardwalk, of course we were in!  We had a fun, very cold day with friends and it was an honor to support Laura.  Hopefully they'll come up with a cure one day.

Laura and her group, named "Keep on Smilin'" raised almost $2,000 so they got a complimentary tent.  It was great to have a place to gather to visit, snack and meet other walkers.

It was great to see so many walkers turn out, even with the cold temps.

There's Laura's smiling face!!  With Katie and me keeping up...

Katie's raffle ticket won here some Chili's gift cards!

Here's our whole group!

Milton and Jill had a crawfish boil after the walk at their house.  Milton boils a mean crawfish for a Pittsburgh guy!

HE IS RISEN!!!

Easter is such a wonderful holiday!  Jesus Christ was victorious over death and our eternal life is certain through our repentance of sin and belief in Him - we will spend forever in glory...that's SO awesome!!  It's springtime and everything is green and blooming.  I get to spend the day with my family eating good food.  Is there really any better holiday?


After church at Northpoint, we came home and got the food all ready.  It was a beautiful day and we were able to eat and enjoy the outside.  It was certainly a wonderful day. 


                                                Hallelujah, Christ Arose!!

Mum got the table all ready for lunch.

I love ALL the food for Easter lunch!

We only had three girls - Shelby wasn't feeling well and stayed home.

Doesn't matter how old kids are...if you put candy AND money in the eggs, they'll always be up for an Easter egg hunt!!

Brandon and Amanda

Checking out the loot

Daniel was happy the Easter bunny didn't forget about him

A little fishing fun

No fish were caught but we sure did enjoy the sun and our time together!

March randomness...

As mentioned before, we've had plenty of rain! These pics were taken before the lake went over the walkway.

Kenneth has been getting some work done on the El Camino in preparation for the Hot Rod Power Tour in June.

Drift In Landing has started with the crawfish on Friday and Saturday again and Katie and I couldn't get down there fast enough! 

The dart board is starting to see some action now that the weather is nicer.

The motorcycle has come out of the garage, too, with the nicer weather! So wonderful to be back on it.

These waiters will learn to bring her margaritas in a more timely fashion. She went to see what was taking so long.

Katie's travel nurse friend, Leilani, came through town and we met up with her for lunch at Shane's. She headed to Maine for her next assignment.

Spencer travels with Leilani!

Katie and I got away on a Sunday afternoon for a movie date.

The cats are loving the nicer weather, too!

Neighbors heading home after our annual HOA eatin' meetin'.

Camper has been broken out of storage!  Daniel and Kenneth had their annual Metro Fishing Tournament and stayed in it. They came in 21st out of 54 teams and got some nice prizes!

I give them treats every day and the don't let me forget! They're gonna miss me when the head out on their next assignment with their gypsy nurse mom.

Fish fry for two

Spring fishing is under way at Caddo Lake and since we've gotten so much rain, the water is high and muddy.  There is a slot limit on Caddo so a lot get thrown back into the water and Kenneth also throws back fish that are full of eggs since the spring spawn is here.  He has had some luck catching some keepers and the day before Easter, he had just enough for a fish fry for the two of us.  There's nothing like fresh fish!

Out there at the fryer getting my dinner ready!! He's so good to me...:)

YUM!!! 

Katie's Big Easy Birthday!

So Katie was born and raised in Louisiana and said she'd never been to New Orleans.  She actually HAS been, but was too young to remember her first trip and her eighth grade field trip to Baton Rouge included like a 20 minute stop in New Orleans but she only remembered that because she had a picture of it.  At any rate, with her birthday at the end of March and the craziness of Mardi Gras season past, I reserved a Bourbon St. balcony room right in the heart of the French Quarter for three nights to celebrate.  I've always wanted to stay in the middle of things and I sure got my wish - it was awesome!  We decorated our balcony (even though at nighttime you couldn't see it or us from the street), took a couple of drinks to our room and people watched every night.  It was great to be able to experience all the action without being in the mix.  We ate SO many great meals in so many great restaurants, went to the Aquarium and movie there for free (their computers were down and they just let us go in-can you believe that?), the World War II Museum, a plantation home/swamp tour and a dinner jazz cruise.  And walk...did we ever WALK!!  Over 15,000 steps on each of the two full days we were there.  I absolutely love every minute I get to spend with my sweet daughter and we always have so much fun.


                   HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATIE - LOVE YOU BUNCHES!!!

We made up 24 sack lunches for the homeless and could have given out twice as many.

Pulling out of the driveway!

No trip to NOLA would be complete without a stop at Prejean's in Lafayette

The crawfish nachos were amazing!

Superdome - home of the New Orleans Saints

Just checked into our room and these are the doors out to the balcony

Katie checking it out

We saw at least a dozen Second Lines while we were there. Most were weddings but some were just rich kids who hired a jazz band and police escorts and made a party of it!


Second line is a tradition in brass band parades in New Orleans, Louisiana. The "main line" or "first line" is the main section of the parade, or the members of the actual club with the parading permit as well as the brass band. Those who follow the band just to enjoy the music are called the "second line." 

The room came with ear plugs and we did use them...Bourbon St. NEVER sleeps, but I needed to!!!

There's our balcony! That's before we decorated. We were on the 4th floor - a bit too high to throw the beads we brought.

Always so much going on down here - dance party with the "Easter bunny" in this shot.

Katie didn't like the Hurricane at Pat O'Brien's.  I sure like them!

She did like their food, though.

All ages of performers on Saturdays.

She didn't like the Hand Grenades, either.  I drank this one for her...:)

Enjoying the night view from the balcony

Breakfast at The Court of Two Sisters

Jazz band at The Sisters

This was about a block from our hotel

Walking down Bourbon St.

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square.  Tom Benson's (owner of the Saints and Pelicans teams) funeral was here the day before.

Pic of Jackson Square while waiting in line at Café Du Monde.

She was a fan!

Aquarium!

My view of Jackson Square from our dinner table at Landry's

She found an alcoholic beverage she actually enjoyed!!

I can ALWAYS find an alcoholic beverage I enjoy!!

Finished this one...

...and got one to go for the balcony!!

Another Second Line...and this wedding had it's reception right across the street from us!

Here are all the people from the wedding on their balcony and the band was down the alley to the right in the big courtyard behind that building.

Lunch before our Plantation/Swamp Tour at Pierre Maspero's.

We were first on the bus and she got to pick our seats. Met some folks from Greensburg, PA on this tour!

At Destrehan Plantation - this tree has got to be original to this place.  It was gorgeous!

Cooking demonstration in the actual detached plantation kitchen

The levee is right behind this tree across the road and the Mississippi River beyond that.

Swamp Tour!

Captain Danny throws marshmallows to these raccoons to make them come out.

A gator and some turtles chillin' on a log. I was surprised they didn't bail when we went by.

There were so many alligators on the banks and swimming in the water! We don't have that many visible in Caddo Lake.

Old fishing/hunting cabin on the shore

Capt. Danny schooling us on how to handle Bruce the alligator.  Bruce is three years old.

Katie's favorite part of her whole birthday trip right here.

The girl behind me is from the Netherlands and she didn't want anything to do with the gator. No, she did not hold it.

I made the Ninja Turtle squad! This actual turtle shell was quite large and heavy.

We rode the Natchez riverboat that looks exactly like this but I didn't get a pic of it so I figured the Creole Queen would do.

She liked this drink, too!  Dinner was fabulous, the band was really nice and the view was unbeatable!

Monday morning Bourbon St. clean-up crew. They power wash the sidewalks, dump all the trash and have street sweeper machines come through and suck up all the trash from the roadway.  They do a really good job keeping things clean down here but there is still a certain smell that will never leave - it's the smell that's been here every time I've come to NOLA.  You just have to experience it.

Monday morning breakfast at Café Beignet. 

WW II Museum

In the Omaha Beach bunker recreation - this gun was giant!

Our dinner stop on the way home between Breaux Bridge and Lafayette

Canebrake beer and the crawfish were perfect!  So were the raw oysters - very fresh...


A wonderful trip with precious memories - thanks, Katie!!  I had a blast!!!