One Lucky Lady..

I can not believe how lucky of a lady I am. I have some of the most supportive, loving, and awesome family and friends there are. After this weekend, I am even more positive about that. I love being able to call and talk to my family whenever, wherever, and even get some Facetime in when the nephews and niece are awake. Being away from home has been difficult but everyone is always there to talk and listen.  This last weekend was very special. My dad and mom, and Keith's mom were all able to come down to Monroe for an extended weekend. They left Thursday after work and arrived here around lunch on Friday. (I think they will think twice about staying the night to close to Dallas Thursday night next time as they got to be apart of the Dallas traffic Friday morning) I get off work early on Fridays and was able to meet them at the ULM campus where Keith was having practice. My car wouldn't go fast enough from my office to the gym, I was so excited! Dad, mom, and I all went to eat at Catfish Cabin, where we got some great shrimp (it is craw fish season here, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to eat that). I had a nice time talking and hearing about all the stories that have been going on. Saturday we met up with Keith and Jan for lunch and then on to the afternoon basketball game. Unfortunately, we didn't play very well, but it was still fun to experience it with the parents. It was nice to lay around and hang out before we went to a nice dinner at The Warehouse No. 1, a restaurant on the Ouachita River, again another well known dining place here in Monroe. Saturday night was enjoyable playing dominoes and just being able to be together. Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day as we ate at one of our favorite places here in Monroe, Daqs, a great wing stop. We enjoyed boche ball and some mall time before heading back to make dinner for the group. It was a Mexican Feast, as we don't have many of those restaurants around here. We played dominoes to end the night and had a wonderful evening. Unfortunately the weekend had to come to an end after Monday morning breakfast and they heading back to Kansas. I am so glad they got to come down and see where we hang out and what we do. I had a great time and can't wait to see them all again. I know it seems like we just ate a lot, but we truly had a great time enjoying family time and just hanging out. Thank you all for coming!

I did not get many pictures, but here are the ones I did:

Beads! Beads! Beads!

Coming to Louisiana, I had always heard about Mardi Gras and the "main" traditions..but wow! I had no idea what this was really all about. With the Super Bowl being in New Orleans this year, it changed some things up and had to move some parades around..but that didn't stop anyone or anything!
Two weeks ago, Monroe had their Mardi gras parade. It was actually a VERY cool weekend! It started with Kelly, a friend of mine, and I taking her little boy to the pet parade. It was so funny and tons of people dressing up their dogs in costumes and floats. As we were driving back to the house, hundreds of people were already lining up for the 6:00 parade at 2:30. It was a HUGE tailgate party down the Main Street of Monroe with campers, tents, and hillbilly golf. We headed to the parade around 5:30 and watched as float after float went by throwing thousands of beads! I thought at the time it was the coolest thing I had seen.
However, Lafayette, LA was even more crazy this last weekend. All schools and colleges have been out since last Friday and start school back up tomorrow for Mardi Gras break. We got there for the end of the parade and there were so many more beads and so many more people. The costumes, floats, decorations, and money that went into these were extravagant! I will for sure be in New Orleans next year, it's an experience I want to do just once!

Date Night...in February?

Is that possible? Is there really a day in February with Basketball season in full swing that we have time to take a night to ourselves? We sure did! It was perfect! I got a text in the middle of the afternoon telling me to get home after work, get ready and we were going out! I actually hesitated at first, thinking something was wrong and Keith had something to tell me. But instead, it was a great night out together!

Keith has been out of town for a week playing in Florida (shoutout to his team, they went 2-0..Go Warhawks!) so I haven't gotten to see/hang out with him since early last week! He planned a very nice dinner at a restaurant that we enjoy called The WaterFront Grill. We ate, talked, and laughed. It was so good to get to catch up with everything in his life as well as mine! After that, we just enjoyed playing dice, yahtzee and wine. Something I very much enjoy! After he ended up beating me in two out of three games :( we finished the night watching NCIS, my favorite television show, and while having all seasons and been watching them one by one..we are finally ready for season 8!!

View from WaterFront onto the Bayou

I am so glad that we got to hang out last night, even if it was leading up to him telling me he was leaving today for a two day trip to Dallas to recruit. Even so, we had a great time and so happy it worked out!!


Watch for my next blog that is including my first experiences at Mardi Gras!!