Natchitoches, LA. Part Two

Staircase brought over from France in 1856

The second day in Natchitoches we spent in town wandering up and down the shops on Front Street.  They had some cool stuff including the oldest business in Louisiana the Kaffie Frederick General Mercantile that had been open since the 1800's I think.  It had a ton of stuff in it and we ended up getting presents for the kids there.  They had a bunch of boutique type stores with outrageously overpriced items that I would only be mildly tempted to purchase if they had been at a reasonable price.

Me waiting across the street while Patrick talked to the Carriage lady

We tried to go on a carriage tour of the city but the carriage they had out sat six people and the lady driving refused to take us if we didn't have a larger group.  We watched her sitting there throughout the day turning away people that came up in 2's and 3's.  Patrick even tried to go over and get in a with a group of three but she still didn't want to go out.  So instead she sat there playing on her laptop all day with no fares.  She was dumb.  We decided to try and go with the group of school teachers from our B&B the next day as that would make six of us (more on that later).

We had lunch as Lasyone's Meat Pie Restaurant as Natchitoches is famous for it's meat pies and the people we asked said this was the place to go.   It was very crowded and kind of hot, but nice to sit down anyway.  We waited about ten minutes for a table.  I got a meat pie and Patrick ordered red beans and rice with sausage.  The meat pie was pretty good, though I honestly didn't see what all of the fuss was about.  After that we decided to catch a movie.  We went to the matinee showing of X-men First Class.  I was thinking it would be nice to sit in the air conditioned theater for a couple of hours...but it started getting hot around the middle of the movie and I was fanning myself by the end.  The movie itself was pretty good.  I was distracted by the guy playing Magneto/ Erik Lensher as he looked alot like the guy playing Eric Northman in True Blood.  By the end I couldn't tell them apart.  Wolverines cameo was funny...  The movie theater people came in and flipped the lights on before the credits were even halfway done which I found annoying.  The guy told us there was nothing after the credits so we left, but it was still annoying.  After that we made a run to Walmart where I got two little outfits for the baby (and a copy of Steel Magnolias to watch...the innkeeper said every time they stock it it gets stolen) and Patrick got some tums and manilla folders (exciting I know).   We made it back to the B&B around 4 to discover that the a/c on the first floor had stopped working.  Patrick seemed very nonchalant about this and wanted to ignore it and take a nap.  I was freaking out because it was so hot and kept trying to convince him to call the people in charge since if we waited even an hour businesses would be closed and then no one could fix it and we'd die.  He finally agreed.  It had tripped a circuit breaker, which ours does at home all the time, and the guy came over and showed Patrick which one to fix should it happen again.  Patrick then took a nap and I watched Terminator 2 on tv...it took nearly three hours for the first floor to cool off again.  After Patrick woke up we went out to eat at the Pioneer Pub and Restaurant because our guide book said it would have live music.  It didn't, but that was okay.  I had a chicken/ziti pasta dish that was the special and Patrick had a Philly Sandwich.  The food was pretty good for the price even though the place was really more bar then restaurant.  Afterwards we got ice cream from Dairy Queen and tried to watch The Skeleton Key on netflix, since it's placed in Louisiana.  Unfortunately our internet went to crap and that didn't really work out too well.  I think we ended up watching some random show on tv...I think it was White Collar.  It wasn't as entertaining as I had hoped.

The next day we asked the ladies about joining for a tour and they readily agreed.  We met up with the one in charge at the Visitor's Center where she attempted to contact the carriage lady.  She actually answered her phone, which was a step up from our three unanswered calls/msgs the day before.  She said the driver was going to start late today for personal reasons but that she would call her back when she had a time for us.  The teacher lady also gave her an earful about the unprofessionalism of the driver the day before.  We waited around a bit to see if she'd call "right back."  She didn't.  While we were waiting another woman came in and overheard our conversation.  She handed out cards and explained that she did personal tours of the city or Steel Magnolias sites or plantations in your car for $30/group/hr.  After some discussion we decided this was a better deal and planned for all of us to go in our 7 passenger (at the moment anyway) van at 1pm.  This left us time to clean out the cereal from the seats and buy the kids some presents we had picked out the day before.  We also had time to visit the historic Fort St. Jean Baptiste.  We forgot to take pics, so I don't have any to show you.  It was a to scale reproduction of the original fort the town started from.  It was very small...and hot...and humid...inside the officer's quarters some birds had built a nest in the chimney and it had fallen.  The babies were still at the bottom and would start screaming if anyone came in.  The guy there said the mom still comes and takes care of them even though the nest had fallen and broken.  Two of them looked like they weren't going to make it, even though the guy said they were fine.  Patrick told them how he did ironwork.  They were very impressed.  After that it was nearly one o'clock so we all met up for our tour.  It started out as an historic Natchitoches tour, but we soon turned it into a Steel Magnolias tour.  The entire story in that movie is real and we were able to see both the filming sites as well as the actual sites where the story took place.  It was a very interesting experience.

Truvy's (Lizzy's) actual "salon;" an enclosed carport

Truvy's from Steel Magnolias

M'Lynn's house from Steel Magnolias (now a B&B)

Me...and sign

Afterwards Patrick and I had a sandwich and ice cream in a music store/sandwich/ice cream shop.   It was weird, they had instruments, music and then a counter and two little tables.  They had a big screen tv and were playing Prince of Persia.  It was near the beginning and we sat and watched it while we ate.  It was nice and quiet and a/c'd in there.  Afterwards we took our ice cream and drove over to get a closer look at the cemetery we had seen on our tour.  It was the one from the movie and had several old graves and cool ironwork.  There were a lot of kids graves too which made me sad so when we got back to the hotel I called our kids to make sure they weren't dead.  We went out to eat at Mama's Oyster House because they also had live entertainment.  It was pretty cool.  I had a catfish po-boy and Patrick ordered fried frog legs 'cuz I wanted to try them.  We got to keep the plastic cups our drinks came in so that was cool too.  That night we rented The Skeleton Key from blockbuster and watched it....I then watched Steel Magnolias after so I wouldn't be scared. ;)

Patrick on Front Street

Gazebo at our B&B

Freak'n huge 12 foot tall sunflowers...they're actually a ways behind him

The last day there we had a nice breakfast of fruit 'n yogurt parfait and french toast with strawberries and whipped cream.  We made one stop in town to get fudge (and some earrings I wanted) and then headed to the Alligator Park.  It was hot.  There were alligators...I took some pics.  There was a bus full of blind kids that came about the time we did.  I'm not sure how much they were able to get out of the park.

Me holding an alligator for a $7 polaroid

We found Gollum at last!

Patrick 'n the gators

Feeding time

The donkey was hungry too...

On the drive to and from we read from one of the Sookie Stackhouse books (we've been reading these on road trips since we started watching True Blood).  About 15 minutes from home I suddenly got car sick and we had to pull over so I could puke on the side of the road.  That was fun.  I guess no visit to Louisiana is complete without Kiera puking in the street. (I inexplicably got sick in the street when we went to New Orleans 8 years ago too).   So that's our trip.  Aren't you jealous?

Natchitoches, LA. Part One

Patrick and I just got back from a little "babymoon" my friends Margie and Josh were so nice to make possible for us.  Margie agreed to watch our kids for a few days so we could get away for awhile.  Now Patrick has been away on business trips and such several times over the years but I have not been without kids since Isabelle was born five and a half years ago.  We considered several different areas to go to, including New Orleans, Galveston and Eureka Springs, AK, but settled on Natchitoches, LA.  Nagadoches you say?  No, Natchitoches....the first is in Texas and pronounced "Nack -a-doch-es" and the second is in Louisiana and pronounced "Nak-a-d(t)ish".  Both were named after a Native American tribe in the area, the difference being that the TX one was the Spanish interpretation of an Indian word and the Louisiana one was a French interpretation.  Anyway, Natchitoches was the filming site of the movie Steel Magnolias.  I watched this again back in March and realized how close it was to where we live (only five hours or so).  I immediately called Patrick (he was away at the time) and told him we should plan a weekend or something there.  So when Margie volunteered to watch our kids we were able to get away for four nights and five days.

   We stayed at a lovely B&B called "The Queen Anne".  We stayed in the Library Room, which I think was the best looking room.  The only drawback being it was located right off the parlor, directly across from the front door and had two 10' pocket doors rather than a regular door.   There was a plaque outside the room simply stating "Library" ('cuz that was the name of the room).  Unfortunately, everyone who came thought this meant there was a library in there and were constantly trying to open our doors...there was also a crack you could see through on the bottom half of where the doors joined, so I wasn't comfortable changing or anything in the bedroom as someone could be trying to peer through the doors to see.  Other than this, the room was awesome;

Cool Setee and bookshelves..."library room" get it?

Really big bed...

Pretty armoir with the tv and deceptively comfy couch. 

The first night we arrived we were the only guests there and had our run of the place.  They had a huge bowl of those yummy mints that crush when you bite them in the parlor.  Needless to say we made a serious dent in the bowl before we left. ;)  That first night we went into all of the other rooms (all of which were on the second floor) and decided that even though some of them had two person jacuzzi's and ours was only a single, the size and decor still made ours the best.  We ate at Chili's that night where I ordered a "thick and frosty chocolate shake."  Never ever order this.  There is no ice cream and I sincerely doubt there is any milk in it either.  It looks more like those powder mixes you can blend with crushed ice to make a "shake."  Yuck.

 

They say the gate stays white because John Wayne touched it..

 The next day after breakfast we decided to try and tour the plantations in the area before I got too tired from walking.  This was a good idea, if we had tried it later in the week I may have died.  The first plantation we saw was Oakland.  It had been privately owned until very recently and the family still visited on occasion and even gave tours now and then.  It was pretty cool to see the outbuildings and such.  The main house was interesting and had been decorated in a 1950's style to portray how it had looked while the family had been there.  Very interesting...

Trundle bed in the kids room

The next plantation we saw was the Magnolia plantation.  It was cool because it had belonged to the black mistress of the son from the Oakland plantation (Therese Coin-Coin...or something).  They had ten children together and he built her this place to live.  Later it became better known as an artist colony in the early 1900's.  Many famous people stayed here including Earnest Hemingway and Steinbeck, though they were only there for a week or two.  Apparently the woman who ran the place, who was widowed very young, would let anyone with "talent" stay there for free, but she would ask everyday what they had accomplished and if they hadn't done anything in three days they were invited to leave.   It was more traditionally decorated, which was cool.  It was also home to Clementine Hunter,  a former slave painter who is known for her "primitive" art.

 

Magnolia Plantation

African House...ignore the 2x4's holding up the sides

Forge in Blacksmiths shop at Melrose

The last one we saw was the Melrose plantation.  This one only had the grounds open as the home was still a private residence.  There were some archaeology people from UT Houston there doing a dig and after I casually mentioned that I had studied anthropology and taken an archaeology field school class, they became our best friends and showed/told us all sorts of cool stuff involving Hoodoo deposits they had found in an old midwifes quarters as well as the blacksmiths forge.  It was cool.   It was also very hot...and humid, that part sucked.
 

Had to stop...

That night we came back to the b&b to find that four ladies had arrived.  They were all kindergarten teachers who met up every four years or so to travel together.  They were very nice and reminded me of my mom...but this meant we kept a little more to our room then we had the previous night.  After we showered (cuz it was so muggy you were dripping sweat all day...many were concerned that I was going to get dehydrated since I was so pregnant), I decided we should dress up for dinner...'cuz we had brought the clothes.  So we went to The Landing Restaurant on historic Front Street.  It wasn't really a "have to dress up" kind of place, but it was fun to be fancy anyway.  Shortly after we arrived a band started playing, which was cool.  We had fried alligator for an appetizer...it tasted kind of like chicken.  Of course it was breaded and fried and dipped in ranch, so I guess the natural flavor was probably covered up pretty well.  We got the waitress to take a pic of us...Patrick had a hard time understanding her accent, which I thought was funny since I hardly heard one.  That was an interesting side note.  We really didn't hear many thick or obvious accents at all.  I wondered if it was because of the naturalization brought about by television and such obscuring local accents...Patrick thought it was more likely that we had lived in the south so long that we didn't hear it anymore.  I think he was right as we were both speaking with an accent by the time we left...

Aaw, aren't we cute? ;)

After dinner we went back to the hotel and managed to watch an episode of Psych on the computer using their free wifi.  This was the only night this worked.  I think our laptop had a virus or something and didn't work too well after that for more then just checking email and such.  I don't know why the pics are so blurry...I blame our cheap crappy camera.  Sometimes it decides to focus, other times it can't be bothered.  Stay tuned for Part Two of our trip. ;)

PS: Sorry about the random pic placement, blogger is being stupid.

Bellies and Painting

So I thought I would give you some updated belly shots since I know you're all dying to know how big I am... ;)  

28 wks

32 wks

 Okay I don't know why our new camera won't ever focus correctly...stupid camera.  So it seems my "nesting" instinct tends to manifest itself by decorating when I'm pregnant.  You may all recall the various before and after photos of our house as I repainted nearly the entire interior last pregnancy.  Well after looking at our ugly kitchen for over two years inspiration finally struck and I picked a color to paint it...then I bought the paint and painted it all by myself.   I can't find any good before pics to show you which is annoying since it was really ugly...here's one that kind of shows the wallpaper...ignore my underwear showing:

Ugly wall paper....

Okay so now picture that ugly dingy wallpaper around the entire room...it was dark and dirty looking...anyway here's the after:

So, I think it looks much better.  I plan to get more of the blue plates to hang as well as something to go over the big space looking into the computer room, but it still looks better than it did...we also plan to change the backsplash and the counter and the floor and lighten the cabinets...  What do you think?

Names

So it's time for the bi-annual baby names post.  For those of you that didn't hear, we're expecting another boy.  Right now we're kind of leaning towards William really for no other reason than that I wanted to name the other two that and we didn't.  But I also like Alexander or possibly Michael...although that is a little too common for me.  So the question at the moment (cuz we could still change our mind entirely) is about the middle name.  We were planning for the middle name to be Harold after Patrick's grandpa.  That way the last three generations of Thaden men would be commemorated in our sons middle names, which is nice since Patrick is the only boy in his family and our boys are the only ones who will carry on the Thaden name.  So James is James Patrick, then Henry Russell, after Patrick's dad and then possibly William Harold after his grandpa.  The problem with this is that I like William Robert better.  I think it sounds better and it's cool cuz it's like we're naming him after William Wallace and Robert the Bruce (you know those Scottish guys who did that stuff?  (watch Braveheart for a history lesson) both of our families are Scottish on top of the German so that would be cool).  Also that's cool 'cuz William roughly translated can mean "helmet"  Patrick's name on some of his armour msg boards is armour bob.  So it would be funny to name our baby "helmet bob."  Also William Robert is Billy Bob, which is funny, but we would never actually call him that.  However we planned the whole Harold thing and I'd feel bad not doing it now...but Alexander Harold sounds better...we could call him Alexei and pretend he was Russian....I don't like Alex...and Lex would rhyme with sex and people would make fun of him...and Xander is too trendy and I hate that guy on Buffy...and I like William better...even though my sister-in-law just named her baby Liam, which was my original plan to shorten William to (though Patrick doesn't like that name so it probably wouldn't have worked out...)  I can't think of any other boy names I like.  What names do you like?

Just a note...

I've had some people express concern that I am such a depressed and negative thinker, always on the brink of some crisis or another based upon my blog posts.  To you I would like to say;  generally the only time I am motivated to write a blog is when I'm really annoyed about something.  Thus my posts may seem overwhelmingly negative.  However, you should note how infrequently I update and that should give you some peace as to my state of mind. ;)  So there.

Updates with pics.

So I suck at updating I know.  I've decided to apply for both Art History and Library Science.  I'm only going to take two courses this fall; Art History Survey to 1500 (or is it 1800?) and one of the core LS classes....Library Professions maybe?  I can't remember.  They are both online was the point.  I've discovered that only a few of the art history classes are actually online and I'm not going to be in a position to attend a steady stream of actual on campus classes this fall with a new baby.  This way I get one of each and can make a decision about one or the other if I need too.  This is of course all assuming we magically come up with money to pay for these....if they were both graduate level classes then it would count as attending half time which means I would qualify for financial aid, but since one is an undergraduate course I don't think I'll qualify for anything, so we'll see how that goes.  Anyway, really this was for posting my belly shots since some of you don't have facebook accounts to see where I posted them there.  So here you go:

12wks 

16wks

20wks 

24wks

 Yeah, I know, it would help if they were all cropped the same or shot from the same distance, but you get the idea...and yes I did dye my hair brown in the last one.  At least it's starting to grow out some, hopefully by the time the baby comes it will look normal again.  I haven't been having too hard a time with this pregnancy until the past week or two when it seems I all of a sudden 'feel' pregnant.  Suddenly my stomach is huge, I'm awkward, I can't bend over without cutting off circulation to my head, and as of the past two days I can no longer easily roll over in bed or walk without cringing in pain for the first few minutes after a long 'rest'.  Bah.  I've also been in a bad mood lately...the two may be related.  I hate being pregnant, I hate taking care of my kids, I hate being home, I hate having to go somewhere, I hate how incredibly messy my house is and I hate cleaning it.  I hate my church calling, I hate my books, I hate my yoga class, I hate exercising in general and I'm not particularly looking forward to the next fifteen weeks, not to mention the new level of chaos that will be achieved by adding one more kid to the mix.  I just want to relax and hang out with my husband (and no kids).  I want to sleep in and stay up late without worrying about someone bugging me in the night or morning.  I want to go places and see interesting things, but I also want to laze about the house all day doing absolutely nothing.  I want to look fabulous but I don't want to be bothered getting ready for the day.  So I guess I'm in a pregnancy funk or something...or I'm in serious need of a baby-free vacation.  Bah.  So I'm tons of fun to be around right now I'm sure. :)  How are you doing?

Snow, life plans, and blah.

It snowed today.  Again.  So they shut down the entire state.  Again.  After spending nearly the entire week locked up in my house with the kids I've about had it with the hilarity of Texas closing schools and garbage pick up and anything else they can think of for a little snow.  Yes I understand there are no plows, no salt trucks and consequently there can be a very dangerous inch thick layer of ice on the roads.  This then makes the already horrible at navigating in any kind of snowy condition drivers spin out of control and kill themselves and anyone else unfortunate enough to be on the road with them.  But still.  We were supposed to get a HUGE storm today.  Snow from 7pm-7pm.  Maybe even 8 inches!!!!  It kind of sleeted for maybe two hours.   You can still see the grass poking up from the snow.  Yes it is very cold.  I think the wind chill factor is like 1 right now.  But I'm pretty sure I could still make it the two blocks down the road to get my daughter to school.  Or even the seven miles to the gym for my much needed time away at yoga class.  But no.  Someone could get hurt.  Better to close everything and go to school all through the summer to make up for all the snow days.  Bah.

In other news I have been seriously considering going back to school.  My plan being to try and take only 1-2 classes a semester starting this fall, with as many of them online as I can.  My original plan was to go back and get a second bachelor's in Art History.  Followed by a Master's with the possibility of  a PhD in the same subject.  The reason for this being that I have always wanted to work with objects in a museum.  I thought an Anthropology degree was the way to go for this.  Halfway through my master's I realized I was wrong.  Or at least as far as an "Applied Anthropology" degree went I was wrong.  Apparently I should have gone into Art History.  I found several cool sounding courses at SMU (Southern Methodist University) in Dallas that sounded like just what I wanted.  One even says you leave with a basic understanding of Maya hieroglyphs.  Awesome.  But to get into those courses you have to have at least 18 undergraduate credit hours in Art History.  So I thought I'd go back for just those hours.  Then I thought, hey it's going to take forever anyway with my million babies, so why not just get a second bachelor's?  I'm pretty sure (though I could be wrong) that my first bachelor's would cover all of the University requirements so I would only have to take the major courses.  That way I'd have a broader base to start from at the graduate level and wouldn't feel like I was missing out on stuff 'cuz I had only taken the bare minimum to get in.  I figured if I planned on six babies and taking a semester off with the birth of each, taking two courses a semester I could earn my bachelor's in four years, and possibly graduate with my PhD when I was 46.  46 isn't that old.  Then I could finally know a bunch of cool stuff, work at a museum or a university where people come to me to answer their vague yet interesting questions about ancient times/items/etc...  You know like Nicholas Cage's mom on National Treasure 2?  She was the only one (yeah right, I know) that could decipher what that cool old pre-columbian glyph meant.  I always wanted to be that person.  So I thought that would be cool.  Isabelle would be 21 that year, James, 19, Henry 17, #4 15, #5 13, and #6 11.  So they would all be either gone or in school and I would be free to get a cool job.  So I sent in my fee and application to start this fall semester.



Then I had a moment of complete and utter panic when I was in a mood and decided to see if I could find a job..you know, if I needed to (I do this every now and then), to my dismay I found that I am completely unemployable.  I have no skills and no real job experience.  My only real job in my whole life was as a secretary (and that for only a little over a year).  A secretary whose sole responsibilities were to redirect calls and deliver the mail.  So I wouldn't really count that as secretarial experience.  I then started frantically looking at different options available to me to get training for a "real" job.  I started looking at stuff I never wanted to do but felt I needed some sort of qualification for so I could get a job.  I looked at nursing programs and getting my teaching certificate, which is when I saw the Library Science program at TWU is "100% online."   I could get my degree in that and not have to worry about babysitters and such for classes during the day.  I could finish in three years with my two classes a semester plan and then be utterly employable.  I'm sure there are way more jobs for librarians then for Art Historians.  I mean really, where could I work with the art degree?  A museum? Maybe, and granted there are a lot more museums in the area then in many towns so I may have a chance of that.  A university or college?  Sure.  There are also several schools in the area that may or may not hire me.  But if I were a librarian...there is a public library in nearly every town, libraries in the museums (some of them anyway) and multiple libraries within each University/college in the area.  If I wanted to be an "academic librarian" (ie at a univeristy...I think) then my second masters in Anthropology would actually be a good credential for me to have.  I thought.  I like books, I like libraries...maybe that would be good?  Upon further investigation I found the UNT also has a mostly online program that has a much better reputation...plus they already have all of my transcripts and such so I wouldn't have to pay/submit those.  They have a few more requirements like proof of technical proficiency on a computer and 6 months or 120 hours of fieldwork, which kind of suck, but it could be good right?  I like looking up stuff when I'm curious...they called some free lance librarians "information brokers" which sounded kind of cool or the stewards of information or something like that.  What I don't like is all of the computer crap.  I have to learn about search engines and some programing type sounding stuff and cataloguing stuff which all sounds really boring, but some of the classes sounded interesting.  Like Youth Literature or The Art of Storytelling and stuff like that.  Plus I'd be done in three years instead of 16...so I'd still be young enough to be a "sexy librarian."
Bah.  I don't know.  I think it might be cool...I took a Preservation class from the library people at UNT while working on my Anth degree and found that I had way more in common with all of them then I did with my anthropology cohort.  We were almost all married (I think one other older anth guy was), many with kids, we all watched the same shows, read the same books, got the same jokes...I felt like; "hey!  These are my people!"  I looked into the Library Science program at that time but again all of the classes sounded boring and technical.  I don't know that I really care about microfiche or the dewey decibal system....but these people I had so much in common with did so maybe there was something I was missing?  I think it would be fun to work with special collections maybe or in the adult fiction section (though I get the impression you kind of have to do everything, even if you do specialize).  Plus it would be a real job...if something were to happen to Patrick and I suddenly had to support everyone I could probably find something.  With a masters in Anthropology and/or Art History I'm not so sure.   If I want to do this I need to write a letter of intent and get three letters of recommendation and send in my app.  It didn't sound like they have a close deadline unless you're applying for the PhD program, which I wouldn't be. I don't know.  What do you think?  I kind of wish I could do both but I'm not free 24 hours a day and we're not independently wealthy so I don't see that happening.  But if you had to choose one or the other; starting all over again for a BA at 30 with four kids and probably not finishing for 15 years (think of the school loans on that) only to find yourself old, overeducated and still not very employable...or...starting at the graduate level again, taking maybe only three years (so I'm not too old) and being able to find a job that is still respectable with the possibility of all but matching Patrick's salary (should I choose to get a full time job, which I doubt I would while there were still kids at home).  Which would you choose?

Of course the kids at home thing brings up another problem.  One of the reasons I was okay with the art degree taking so long was because I wouldn't be expected to go pursue anything in the field until I was finished which would definitely be after we were done having kids and they were all in school full time.  That way even though I was technically home with the kids I could still feel like I was doing something with my life. Maybe this is my "oh crap I'm turning 30 next month" crisis.  You're supposed to be a grown up at 30 right?  Whatever your doing with your life then, that is your life, that is what you do.  This is not what I want my life to be.  I don't want to look back and regret not trying for the degree/job/experiences I wanted.  Not that there is anything wrong with being a stay at home mom, but that was not all I wanted to do.  Of course, my gym teachers think I should go get certified to teach TurboKick and then I would be totally employable as well.  The manager of the gym even asked if I would like to teach some classes.  That was flattering, but I don't think teaching kick boxing while pregnant would work out very well so I said something vague about maybe after the baby.  Bah.

Henry's new shirt

For those of you who didn't see it at Thanksgiving...or pay close attention to my sidebar. ;)

Look I'm totally famous and trendy!

http://lifestyle.msn.com/relationships/staticslideshowglamour.aspx?cp-documentid=26242722&gt1=39092

Check out the second ring in the slideshow.  Patrick was so ahead of the times.  Of course mine is white gold, not yellow so it's way cooler. ;)

UPDATE:  Oh, I see how it is.  No one cares that my ring is like totally famous now and was featured in an article/slideshow on the msn homepage.  Well I thought it was cool....and my diamond is bigger. :-P  

Tom Petty Rocks

Here's a partial post I wrote back in September and never got back to.  Sorry!


This past Tuesday Patrick and I were able to attend our third Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert in Fairpark (outdoor partially covered theater with chair and lawn seating in Dallas).  It was awesome.  The first time we saw him was at this same venue.  The auditorium itself is small enough that there really are no bad seats. You're close enough to see him on stage without the big monitors, though those are fun to look at too.  The second time we saw him was at the American Airlines Center.  That was still cool, but a  much different experience.  Think 18,000 people vs. 2000.  The more intimate venue is amazing.  It's fun to hear your favorite songs on the radio, but way more awesome to hear them live with over 2000 people all singing along.

Updates..ish...

So I changed my blog design per Margie's dream request.... ;)  Not much going on here.  I may change some more stuff on my blog next week, but then again maybe not.   We've been enjoying watching Castle.  We're all caught up now which kind of sucks since we have to wait for a new episode every week...not to mention the weeks of reruns they do during the holidays.  Though I did see on my facebook Castle page that Castle and Beckett are finally going to kiss in a January episode.  So that will be awesome.  Most awesome moment of the show was when Castle dressed up as a space cowboy in the Halloween episode one season.  He looked just like his character from firefly.  Then Alexa's all; "what are you supposed to be?" and he's all; "a space cowboy!" and she's all; "First, there are no cows in space and second didn't you wear that like five years ago?"  That was hilarious.  Okay, well I have to get Isabelle from school so no more updates for you! :)

Giving up Chocolate: Day Fourteen

Well here it is: Judgement Day.  I am proud to say that today I totally and completely abstained from chocolate.  Not only that, but the only "treat" I had was one sliced peach and one banana with a little whipped cream on top.  See?  I do so much better when no one is here to eat with me.  I guess that means I'm a social eater...and I eat when I get bored...hmm  I wonder how that works?  Anyway, yay me!

On the other hand:  I didn't make it the full two weeks, in fact I think it was only three of the fourteen days that I managed without chocolate, so that's kind of a bummer.  I did not notice any real improvement in my skin.  One patch on my pinky finger seems to have cleared up mostly, but a couple of patches on my leg have flared again, so no real change.  Of course, I didn't really do the no chocolate thing, so who knows if that would have made a difference or not?  I'm going to try and consciously cut back on chocolate in particular for the next little bit and see if that helps.  However I probably won't be chronicle-ing (?) it every day on here.  Much to the disappointment of my loyal fans I'm sure. ;)

So Patrick is gone.  This means I can watch whatever I want in the evening.  Generally this means all of the watch instantly chick flicks I have stored up on netflix.  Tonight I started watching "Lost in Austen."  I got through the first fifteen minutes and had to stop it as I wasn't really feeling it and the main girls voice was really freaking annoying.   Although the brief glimpse I caught of Mr. Darcy did look promising, so maybe I'll have to try again.  What I ended up watching was called "New in Town" starring Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr.  I thought, hey HCJ is hot and I like Bridget Jones so it should be good right?  Wrong.  I think Renee Zellweger's face is kind of funny looking.  All through the show I kept thinking she looked like Christina Applegate after her face got burned by acid or something and they had to do reconstructive surgery, but it didn't really turn out so good.  Also Mr. Jr was not looking so hot in this.  He had a very distinct belly overhanging his jeans and his facial hair, which I usually like, just made him look unkempt.  That added to the layers of clothing worn for the Minnesota weather made him look more like he was playing a homeless person then the romantic lead in a "comedy."  (It wasn't very funny either...all of the women folk they were mocking reminded me of several people that I knew, which I found kind of insulting) What is really funny is that I seem to be going through Torchwood withdrawal.  It really wasn't that great of a show, but I guess I really liked it as I keep wanting to watch episodes of it again.  I've refrained so far as I don't want to waste my free tv time re-watching stuff, but I may have to revisit it at least once before Patrick comes back.  I think I really liked the character of Gwen Cooper on that show...aside from the whole two-timing side plot in the first season....and the total and utter frustration I felt from her and Jack NEVER hooking up...even for a second....yes I know I was just complaining about her infidelity, but still, it's worse then Bones.  I was going to say or House, but House and Cuddy totally hooked up at the end of last season.  I may have to watch the last five minutes of that episode again before the new season starts.  It will be good to get all of our shows going again.  I know it's pathetic to live through television, but at least it adds a little excitement to life.  So by the end of the month (I think) we'll have House, Bones, Glee (I will anyway, unless I can convince Patrick...I did make him watch the last 4-5 episodes so maybe he'll be willing), Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural.  That takes up nearly every night of the week, so at least we have something to look forward to.  True Blood is over now, but I haven't seen it yet as Patrick is gone.  We've also been talking of trying out the show Castle, with Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame.  I've heard it's good....also Warehouse 13, Psych, and V.  Oh and we also have to finish the seventh season of Buffy that we finally started.  It kind of got put on hold when we started watching Torchwood.  This is my fault as I've seen it before and thought it was the suckiest season of Buffy.  But we do get to see crazy Spike which will be fun after seeing him crazy and omnisexual on Torchwood...  Anyway, I digress.  No chocolate.  Good. :)

(Crazy Spike from the future)

(Crazy Spike from 2002)

Giving up Chocolate: Day Thirteen

Patrick leaves and the chocolate disappears...I wonder if there's a correlation there?  Patrick left this morning to drive to New York and install a staircase with his boss.  Leaving me here alone with the three crazies...who all felt the need to wake up at 6am today.  Man did that suck.  Anyway, no chocolate today, though Isabelle did request brownies for dessert, but I said no.   The reason being (I mean aside from the no chocolate thing) that Patrick thoughtfully bought us some of those ready-to-bake cinnamon rolls to have today.  When he bought them he forgot he was leaving at the crack of dawn and thus wouldn't get any.  His plan was to make them for breakfast.  I made them for lunch.  ;)  The kids also had tomato soup, so I'm not that bad...they each had one roll, Henry had half and I had four and a half...I was only going to have one, it just didn't work out that way.  Anyway I saved two for the kids to have for dessert this evening, but when James and I got up from our naps I found only an empty bag.  Isabelle thoughtfully drew a picture to tell me what happened....in it she's taking a roll out of a bag with two rolls inside...then she's taking a roll out of a bag with only one inside.  So James didn't get another one.  Poor baby.  So I guess today was a success on the chocolate front, but a fail in the battle of the bulge, if you know what I mean. ;)

Side note:  had all three kids by myself at church today.  Man did that suck.  I don't know how mom did it with the five of us...and then they kept calling her to be the Sacrament Meeting chorister!  I would have been really mad/annoyed/etc...if they did that.  I would have said; "don't you see me sitting alone with my five kids?  Do you really think they can behave by themselves?"  But I never remember he complaining, so I guess she was okay with it.  Of course this is probably one of the reasons we always sat on the second row.  So yeah, anyway I was ready to go sit out in the foyer after trying to muffle James shrieks during the sacrament prayer, but as we were getting ready to leave my nice visiting teacher came and sat by us and blocked the kids in on the other end of the row so they couldn't get out.  So after finding some crayons and paper, they weren't so bad after that.  Then on the way to primary (while juggling car seat (with baby), board, easel, church bag, diaper bag, tape, 4 year old, and toddler) my friend stopped me in the hall and offered to take Henry.  I'm not sure if she meant right then or for the rest of church but I assumed the rest of church as she took him and walked off.  That was very nice as I was planning to just let him crawl around bugging people in primary, which probably wouldn't have worked out so well.  Hopefully Patrick will be back by next week (he should be) and I won't have to do that again for awhile...though he said it sounds like they're going to be going back at least two or three more times.  I told him he should take me with him one time.  Or better yet, I should go somewhere for a week and he should watch the kids.  Who wants to come?  I'm not sure where we'll go but there will be no babies!  We'd better do it soon though before another one finds it's way into my uterus (I don't know how they keep getting in there...)  So any takers?