Katrina - 3 years later

Enjoying seafood gumbo, boiled shrimp, and crawfish
The moss trees located all over the city
Relaxing on Lake Ponchatrain - located 1 block from our old home!
Hubby being greeted by local yard dog!

A local home still marked with the marking to check for dead bodies
Drive up alcohol...why our car insurance was so expensive!
Best friend Sam of 18 years. The sister I never had!
My second set of parents...my aunt Kathy and uncle Tommy!
The home I grew up in, that I later purchased - Chunky's first home!

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. To be honest, I would not have remembered or payed attention to today's date, but the latest hurricane headed to New Orleans on the news caught my attention. What sent the message home, today when I called the funeral home to clear up some final details, the lady just laughed at me and said everything was locked up and they were preparing to evacuate. How quickly I forgot what its like to live in a flood zone. The funeral home is actually located in the city that was the hardest hit. Where all of the homes were covered with water up to the roof. I often forget about the after effects of Katrina, but then I am reminded by things, like when I originally called the funeral home earlier this month, they told me that all of the original papers had been flooded including original signatures. I/We take so many things for granted. For example...our health. When I look back 3 years ago today, my uncle was working 3 jobs as a Sgt. in the fire department, a Sgt. for the police department, and for the Emergency Medical Services. Yesterday, he was admitted to a nursing home at age 54 due to complications of a neck/spinal problem. He was one of the few that stayed during Katrina to help others. For days, he and my aunt worked in the 911 bldg with very limited supplies with a few dedicated others. Because they followed us to Lafayette, they lost their health insurance and I wonder if it were not for the storm, would he have been able to receive better medical care by having insurance or at the least be closer to his family and friends during this trying time. Speaking of friends, one of the good things that has come from this storm is the many wonderful friends that I have made in Lafayette. I can not say enough about them. These wonderful women have made my transition from big city girl to Midwest mom much easier than expected. Have I mentioned lately how much I am enjoying all of the fresh vegetables here, and the wonderful seasons. I can't wait until fall! I also feel very blessed because I have been placed by God in a wonderful job where I can be very creative and share the love of God every day with beautiful children. I could not ask for a better career at this point in my life. But, in saying this, I still miss my friends back home very much. Some I have been friends with for 18 years and were very big parts of my life. I also miss my nieces and nephews and extended family. I miss the care free culture and yes I still miss the food! So I ask that you say a prayer for all of the people in New Orleans tonight that they may be spared another disaster. I have decided to post some pics from our recent trip in Feb. to New Orleans!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Well, I will say, if you let Chunky get to it....you probably will be growing a thing. And speaking of things growing....this weekend we were blessed with a overabundance of corn. No really...about 30 ears. So, I did the whole peel, boil, freeze thing. Can I just say, I love corn, I think it is a wonderful gift that God gave us, but what was he thinking when he made it will all of that stringy stuff wrapped around it??? On Saturday, I was blessed by a wonderful friend and invited to a Ladies night out put on by a local church. The main speaker had 9 children (I can barely take care of my one), but spoke on the subject of Heritage. One of her main points was to remember how our children watch how we act, and then copy what they see. Which means, I may want to clean up my act a little! As you can see from the pics, Chunky visited with his Ita (grandma in spanish) and loved helping her in the garden. He loves, loves, loves to visit her and ask to go to her house everyday. I think it helps that she feeds him pizza and chocolate on demand. I am so glad that she has the patience to let him do things that I would not even consider. God bless the Grandmothers of the world.

The Coping Diet

Only girls can truly understand this one.
This is a specially formulated diet designed to help women cope with the stress that builds during the day.

Breakfast
1 grapefruit
1 slice whole wheat toast
1 cup skim milk

Lunch
1 small portion lean, steamed chicken
1 cup spinach
1 cup herbal tea
1 Hershey's kiss

Afternoon Snack
The rest of the Hershey's Kisses in the bag
1 tub of Hagen-Daaz ice cream with chocolate chips

Dinner
4 glasses of wine (red or white)
2 loaves garlic bread
1 family size supreme pizza
3 Snickers Bars

Late Night Snack
1 whole Sarah Lee cheesecake (eaten directly from the freezer)

My friend Annie sent me this email by unknown author, but considering we used to share a locker when we worked in the emergency room for 2 years together, that overflowed (not kidding) with snacks from Sam's club, we pretty much followed the same diet that looked much like the above. Happy Eating!

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Grandma

Today, I had to say goodbye to my wonderful sweet Grandma Doris. She was my dad's mom and we both had so many things in common. Our love for our children, our love for food, and we both shared quite a similar attitude (Who are you calling a fighter?) As a young child I feared her (maybe because I knew how strict she was after raising 3 rebellious boys herself), but as a teenager, I grew to love and respect and cherish this amazing woman. She worked as a chef for most of her child rearing days and blessed many, many people with her cooking. During Christmas time, she would send doctors, teachers, priests, homeless, and many others trays of over 40 different types of cookies such as bourbon balls, rum candy, biscotti, and much much more. But she also did amazing things, like bribe my way into Catholic school by making 500 pieces of fudge for the school fair for 10 years, or sending my whole troop of 150 soldier cookies...just because she wanted to bless me and the drill sgt said the only way she could send them to me is if she sent them for everyone. Sixty dollars later in postage and several hundred cookies, we all had a taste of Grandma's love. She always tried to show me she loved me, by making sure I was well fed. When I would visit her, she would send me home with bags and bags of food, like potato stew, stuffed bell peppers, stuffed crabs, and the list goes on and on. She loved animals and would help any animal or person that walked up to her door. She always used to tell me, no person, no matter who they are or where they come from, should ever be refused dinner at your table. She also taught me how to pray. I used to tease her and say she had direct connect to God and when I really needed or wanted something I would ask her to pray, because I knew she had a little more pull with God ( she had only been praying faithfully for the last 82 years). She taught me strength, after battling several types of cancers and several heart attacks and until the end, never complaining, only praying and praising God. I know she is in heaven now with her son (my dad) and looking after Chunky and I (and probably laughing at my parenting skills and my cooking)! A few months ago, I knew that she did not have much time left and was able to go to New Orleans to see her. I am so grateful for that trip. I was also able to complete a grandmother book which included over 100 pages of her life history and I am blessed to have lots of her famous recipes. The last thing she did was make sure that all of her arrangements were taken care of so that I would not have to worry about things. This was such a blessing to me and I encourage everyone to consider doing the same for your loved ones. I lost a wonderful woman in my life today, but I know that heaven has got to have a fabulous kitchen and they probably just got tired of waiting for some of her cooking!