Another New CD

I can't wait for American Idol to kick off in January! I have enjoyed almost all of the music from American Idol contestants. My latest CD addition is the new self-titled release by David Archuleta. Sample some of his tracks here.

Back in the Scrappin' Mood

I kind of hit a lull in my scrapbooking interest over the last couple of months... between school, work, kids, holidays, etc, I've just sort of let my cropping materials sit. With the new office furniture, I've been re-vitalized into it. Crop invites from friends help, too! Here's a rare one-page layout (I typically do double-page spreads) I did using photos of WD, Erin, & Dylan all as infants (well Dylan was a little older) laying in the same dumptruck! The layout idea is scraplifted from one of my old magazines... it worked for me!

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Day!

Strange, Strange Sight

I know I should be blogging about the holidays and how wonderful Christmas is... it is, but I just couldn't help but snap a picture while driving home from work yesterday of a strange, strange sight I saw on I-10...

I guess that's a car with "bling"?!? Maybe it's "scales", like a fish?!? I don't know, but I couldn't stop myself from staring and actually laughing out loud. I guess we all have our own "style" (if that's what you want to call it)! To make matters even more hysterical... check out the license plate!

Another Favorite Christmas Movie

Yesterday afternoon, I really needed to fold clothes... like 7 loads! WD was sleeping (working nights again), while the kids and puppies were stir-crazy & wild around the house. I had a list of things I needed to get done in addition to the clothes, so I piled all the clean clothes in baskets in front of the TV and put the kids to work folding, while I was across the room in the kitchen making lunch. To make it more enjoyable, we popped in the movie Elf. It's a hilarious story. Will Ferrell stars as Buddy, a regular-sized man who was raised as an elf by Santa Claus. When the news is finally broken to Buddy that he's not a real elf, he decides to head back to his place of birth, New York City, in search of his biological family. We laughed and laughed, and before we realized it, the clothes were folded, lunch was served & eaten, and we were enjoying our new fireplace. If you haven't seen Elf, you just have to rent it during the holidays! It will surely make you laugh.

Treasure Remembered & Found

While driving to work this morning, I was listening to the 96.1FM River (I've run out of audio books and the newest one I ordered hasn't been released yet) with Murphy, Sam & Jodi. They were reading emails/letters from the Producer's Mailbag. Apparently the radio personalities asked the public to write in to them concerning their favorite all-time Christmas movie. The producer began reading the letter, and noted that this particular listener's favorite Christmas movie was "Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas". My brain was flooded with very happy memories as a child watching that movie over and over and over again. I texted WD to see if he remember it, and his response was "??? Is that french or something?" I cracked up laughing, because he is the family's movie buff. Obviously he hadn't experienced this Christmas story. It's a children's classic put out by Jim Henson. I was so excited to be reminded of such a good memory. Once at a computer, I immediately logged onto Ebay, found the movie (re-released on DVD... nice since it was originally produced in 1977!), and bought it on the spot. I can't wait for it to arrive at the house... hopefully before Christmas!

Ink Link

Okay... now I've found something else to eat up my time! I was looking for free online word games (like scrabble, jumble, etc), when I ran across this game... InkLink. It is an online version of pictionary! It's free (you have to create a login name & password). If you run across me online my "gamename" in InkLink is "LouisianaPaula". I've stayed up way past my bedtime the last couple of nights glued to the computer playing & laughing with the players I've met online.

Lazy Saturday & Enjoyed EVERY Minute!

Today was an ultra-lazy day. The only productive thing I did was complete my last assignment for this semester (YEAH... I'm out of school until January 12th!). While sitting at my new desk, finishing the assignment, blogging, ordering pictures, and many other things I do on the computer, I realized I hadn't introduced my new office friends to you yet.

These two little buddies are from Houston, Texas... specifically the IKEA store there! Erin positioned one in 5th position (dance move, I think) and the other doing "Happy Hands" from the movie Napolean Dynamite! They don't have names yet, but they are very fun to look at.

And I had to add one more picture that my friend Stacie sent me... it is Dylan and Cameron (my boy & hers). I miss the snow already!

Snow Day 2008 in Baton Rouge

I awoke this morning to snow falling. Still, I got dressed and headed downtown for work. It was a ghost-town to say the least. At about 9a.m., we got an announcement that work was cancelled! I was happy to be off, but it would have been nice if the powers that be made the announcement before I drove the treacherous path to work this morning. Kids had no school, so it was a day of fun! Our dogs weren't too sure of the snow, but Zoe explored out to take a leak. Chewee, who has been house-trained for over a year now, reverted to pee-ing on the floor inside... he did not like the cold snow at all.

Christmas Tree & a Zoe Update

I finally put the final touches on my tree today. The traditional ornaments of the past stayed in the boxes for use another year. My favorite ornaments are the huge, white snowflakes which I found in a Christmas speciality store a couple of years ago. I kept the tree decor very simple and clean this year (that's my way of excusing my laziness ;-)

Zoe, the Davis puppy, has been with us a week today! This morning WD & I took her to the vet... she was having some problems with her poop which freaked me out. The vet looked her over, gave us a prescription which should fix her right up, and offered reassuring expertise on her health. The cutest little thing she has learned to do is climb the stairs in the house... the only problem right now is that she doesn't know how to climb down. When we hear her little whine, we know she's stuck at the top of the stairs waiting for one of us to carry her little butt down. Hopefully she'll learn how to get downstairs with Chewee's help and demonstrations.

Zoe

We headed to Houston, TX, the Friday after Thanksgiving to pick up our new family addition... 8 week old smooth fox terrier pup, Zoe! We contacted the same breeder where we got our beloved Chewee. Now we have two dogs. I never would have thought I'd enjoy animals, but these little pups are just precious. They make us laugh, give us love, & sometimes make us frustrated... especially with housetraining a puppy and yard training a dog. Chewee now has a special underground fence in the backyard that allows him to run and play, but not run off into the neighbors' yards anymore. Erin is like a little "momma" with them so having the dogs isn't a huge burden on me & WD.

Christmas Furniture

You know you've crossed over from girl to all-grown-up when getting furniture for Christmas is absolutely thrilling. WD has always been very creative and surprising with Christmas and birthday gifts; this year is no different except the "surprise" part. He priced out a set of diamond earrings for me and nixed that idea after thinking about how I would feel if he spent that kind of money... his thinking was, "If I got these earrings for Paula and she found out I spent over $2000 on them, she would have a fit. To think that she could have a brand new Apple computer for the money I spent on these earrings!" He was dead on! So no earrings, and no new computer yet, but he is getting me furniture for our office/scrapbook room! We can't afford to do it all at once, but because the furniture is modular and from Pottery Barn (where I can order pieces offline if I need to) we are doing it a piece or two at a time. Here is what some of it will look like.... I'm going with the white finish since my walls in the office are red... I can't wait!!!

New Music

WD ran by the store before coming home from work the other day. He picked up a couple of newly released CDs that he knew I was buzzing about... David Cook's & Nickelback's! I was so excited to have the CDs, especially since it was the first day of their release. David Cook's CD has his American Idol hit, "The Time of My Life" which is still one of my favorites, but I think my favorite off his self-titled CD is "Lie". Listen to all of them on David Cook's website. I wanted the new Nickelback CD for one song, "Gotta Be Somebody". When I started listening to the other tracks, I was surprised that some of the lyrics were "adult-themed". I really like the rock-out feel of the CD as a whole, but I have to skip over a couple of songs if the kids are in the car with me.

Christmas Tree Shopping

Last year our pre-lit, fiber-optic tree which we've had for probably 5 years finally had it. The lights stopped working, the fiber-optic box melted, and the tree limbs themselves sagged. Today I headed to Hobby Lobby with my 40% off coupon to shop for a tree. Since I was getting a new one, I wanted to upgrade to a taller one since we've never had one touch the ceiling in our current home. Well I was bowled over by how expensive they were! I found 9 foot trees which will be the right height but they were between $470 & $560. I think I even saw one that was over $700! All said, I found a beautiful tree and saved a bundle with my coupon making it more affordable. As soon as I get it set up and decorated, I'll try to post a photo here.

Halloween 2008

We had a great time dressing up and celebrating this year with some of our friends and family! WD didn't join in the costume fun, but we'll get him next year. Erin & her friends were "berry" girls. Dylan was Batman. I had fun dressing as "Raggedy Ann" although most of the young kids thought I was a clown because they don't know who "Raggedy Ann & Andy" were. Chewee was the best of all... a little devil. It was great!

Fireproof

We saw an excellent movie Sunday night! "Fireproof" starring Kirk Cameron... yeah, I know... what a blast from the past. The other actors were obviously volunteers, but the movie/storyline & colorful cinematography/scenery was so wonderful, that I quickly overlooked the poor acting. If you are married or intend on getting married, it would be a good investment in your marriage to see this movie. It is rather simplistic, but after being married for so long, I've forgotten some of the "basics" of being a good wife. If you don't get to the theater to see it, make sure to rent it later.

Fun Weekend

We took Erin & some of her friends to the corn maize. It has moved this year... it was over in Port Allen last year, but this year it is WAY north of Denham Springs. The girls had a great time... especially in the spooky section! Sunday evening we ate at Ichiban. Yummy & Entertaining!

Laptop Problems

I haven't had time to blog lately... ever since Hurricane Gustav, I've been without my laptop. The motherboard apparently went out. WD has offered to let me blog on his laptop, but it's just not the same... I miss my laptop :-(

Hopefully all will be better soon... my boss is suppose to order me a new laptop. I had used my own personal computer for work during the previous 3 years, so it'll be nice to have the state foot the bill on a new machine. It'll be most helpful with my school stuff, too, as I have been doing assignments before and/or after work hours at the office or I've had to do some of it on WD's laptop. After this semester, I'll only have 2 more semesters until I earn that master's degree...finally ;-)

Little Weekend Trip

While WD is working tirelessly in Pensacola for 3 weeks straight, Erin, Dylan, & I been trudging along through the typical, run-of-the mill activities of life. So we decided to trek off to Pensacola this past weekend to see WD. We spent the weekend exploring downtown Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, & Pensacola Beach. It was all very beautiful. The highlight of the weekend was jet skiing in the ocean. The water was very choppy which made the sport even more exciting. We enjoyed it with almost no accidents... WD hit a wave while riding Dylan behind him, and Dylan went flying off. I was concerned for only a moment, when I realized Dylan was laughing his head off and was hanging on to the side of WD's life vest. Erin & I took turns driving the other jet ski. We also ate crabs by the beach, played putt-putt, and explored beaches and sand dunes that were completely isolated (AKA: The End of the Earth).

We Survived the 2008 Hurricanes

Gustav blew through and we got water in the house, cracked privacy fence, trees blown sideways, broken ice machine, and the worst was no electricity for a week. We trekked over to Gulfport, MS in search of a generator, window A/C unit, and gasoline (everywhere was sold out here). After blocking off the downstairs area, we all lived in the living/kitchen area downstairs. It was yucky... everyone sleeping in the living room in makeshift beds. The kids missed a week of school and were stir crazy! I ended up hooking the washing machine to the generator to clean a few clothes then hung them on the back porch. After it was all said and done with Gustav, then Hurricane Ike arrived. The only thing we got from Ike was widespread panic in the area because everybody was so freaked out because of Gustav, and another day off of school. I can tell you now, I won't ever take electricity and my comfy bedroom for granted! Check out the photos... Dylan says he didn't want to go back to his "ex-bedroom" because he loved his "back-up bedroom" so much downstairs hidden behind my recliner.