Mom's turn: Mao's treat

After the tournament Christina requested a stop at the Asian Gourmet Market, a favorite shop of hers that we used to go to a lot when she was younger and she would buy a Japanese candy. Moa was excited to be around such familiar items and said that she would fix us dinner! She made hayashi raisu, a Japanese beef stew of sorts. Her variation had no mushrooms and a scrambled egg mixture placed on top of the rice before the beef and sauce were put on. It was DELICIOUS!!!!!! She said the rice “wasn’t good”; I’m not sure if that meant that it wasn’t cooked properly or flavored properly…but to the inexperienced pallet it was fabulous! Thanks Mao.

Mom's turn: Date Night

My HH thought we might make up for our last night out, since it was a bust! So he took me to the Wine Loft for dinner and a stroll around the shopping center. How sweet is that…and I dressed up TWICE in two weeks. People might get the wrong impression, lol. Don’t worry…back in my pajamas!

Mom's turn: Back at Bacchus

Travis decided to mix a little business with pleasure. He surprised me by setting up a weekend get-a-way in New Orleans for Mardi-Gras.

Feeling special!

We went down on Saturday and stayed at the Astor Crowne Plaza hotel again. I love the location of the hotel, but if we go again I think I’m ready for a change. He invited several business contacts down to share the experience

Trent, Heath, Travis, Joe

Mike, Annie, Travis

Erika & me

I discovered I actually glow in the dark!! Being the palest human by far at the ball, I appear to have a "halo" around me in all of the photos...amazing! Who would have thought human flesh could be iridescent? :-/

plus I was able to convince a couple of my close friends to come as well.

Me & Mickey

lookie what I caught at Mardi-Gras ;-D

Trent, me & my fabulous hubby!!

We couldn’t have asked for a weekend filled with more perfect weather than it was, so we enjoyed several long walks around New Orleans and the French Quarter just looking at the beautiful architecture. Sunday morning started early, so we could beat the lines, with a trip to Mother’s for breakfast, followed by a business meeting, and then the Bacchus ball on Sunday night, which was FABULOUS!

their signature float

Val Kilmer was the king.

Val Kilmer

I was joking with a friend and mentioned “eye candy.” She replied, “More like eye jello. You haven’t seen him lately!” Uh – EWWWWWW. He did not hold up well. Anyway, we enjoyed the company of my SIL and her HH, who actually rides in the parade,

My SIL, Kay, and her HH Ken - owner and chef at the fabulous restaraunt in Jackson, MS...FOODIE'S

My SIL always brings the goofiest smile to my face :-D...never a dull moment

and saw the Top Cats live! What a way to rock it old school style – they were awesome! We left before Cowboy Mouth played, though; we were wiped out! Monday Travis had another business meeting while I walked around the Quarter for a bit shooting some pictures of my favorite sites:

the sky was such a brilliant blue that it made everything that much more enjoyable!

a funny, but unfortunate fact of French Quarter life during Mardi-Gras

some beautiful mosaic steps that I thought would be a great idea for our back yard

architecture going to waste - the building is phenominal...and in ruins

a condo for sale - I thought I'd try my luck at talking Travis into buying our very own :-D No sale yet, but I haven't given up hope ;-)

then we went to eat at a fabulous 5 star restaurant rated #2 in 2008 America’s top ten steakhouses by Tom Horan, Dickie Brennan’s Steak House. Good thing I walked for a few hours because absolutely nothing is lo-cal and I enjoyed every bite!!! We finished the day by watching my other favorite parade, Orpheus, with Jim Belushi as the king this year.

My knight in shining armor...his eyes make my heart melt. Thank you for making my life full!

Birthday Blues

Our plans for Teeny’s birthday fell through…she’s been dreaming of skydiving for 11 years now, and we were going to do a 3 generation dive (Judy was flying in). TWO MONTHS AGO (I called last week to book the dives, what cruddy timing) the laws changed and you now have to be 18 to do a tandem dive. Disappointment of the 11 year plan crumbling doesn’t begin to describe her emotions for her sweet 16! And needless to say we had nothing else planned because that was going to be so expensive. So now we must rally and find other things to be happy about. Instead she got an aquarium, a new set of pajamas (Travis called it her “birthday suit”), a gold “Sweet 16” necklace charm & chain, and a new purple iPod nano. We also took her to the bank to open her own checking account, Starbucks for an afternoon snack after picking Trevor up to spend the afternoon with her, and then we all went to eat at LaShish, her choice for her birthday dinner. It was Mao's first time to eat Lebanese food, but she enjoyed the shrimp and gyros. GG came with us there as a surprise and Kazum (the owner) had a special birthday cheesecake waiting just for her!!I think we managed to regroup and have lots of fun anyway. Now if I can recover from the shock of having a 16 year old…

“Today was my birthday! I had a great b-day! We picked up my bf and hung out at my house for a while, and then we went out to eat. It was awesome. We went to eat at my favorite restaurant, Lashish, where they surprised me with a VERY cute birthday cake with a fairy on top. I got some awesome b-day presents including a beautiful sweet 16 golden necklace, a purple iPod, some cute pj’s, a fish tank, and some yummy dark chocolate! It was the best birthday I could wish for.”

Mom's turn: my birthday wishes came true

My fantastically talented daughter finished the necklace she gifted me for my birthday. It turned out so beautiful…but of course I’m not surprised. Her talent has taken off and I’m lucky enough to reap the rewards. She stitched my necklace with iridescent hexagon beads and turquoise seed beads in a Russian spiral pattern. She left it up to me to pick the colors and charm and she chose the pattern. I also found the most delicately carved silver holder to go with it where she takes her lessons, The Bead Company. I was so enchanted with the finished product that I needed a chance to show it off, pajamas just didn’t do it justice! So I made reservations at the Melting Pot for a mother/daughter dinnerwhere we had the cheese and chocolate special. I must admit that the cheese was great, but the yin-yang chocolate was to DIE for!!!!!!! We even had seconds on the dippers!

Mom's turn: Thankful for...

Well – this year I must say I’m thankful for life and health! The past few holidays have been riddled with death, funerals, and surgeries. I’m definitely ready for a change! So this year I was excited to cook for my sister-in-law and her family; although serving her husband, who is a fabulous gourmet chef, was a bit intimidating!!! SOOOOOO – where are the pictures and recipes for this fantastic dinner????? Good question. I got so wrapped up in preparing for it that I forgot to take pictures of the final thing :-/ To top it off, most of my recipes seemed to have disappeared, presumably into the garbage. I was a little aggressive on the “clean-up” part afterwards. I did capture a few things, however:

our new scarecrow for a whimsical greeting

several pinecones for various projects...this required some lovely family walks around the neighborhood. That's why I enjoy crafts!

Hmmm - not the holiday polish I had in mind

beading...I thought this was Teeny's craft!?!?!?! She was kind enough to share all of her beads and ideas, though. LOTS of coffee is necessary for this venture.
two down - several more to go

what exactly did I get myself into??

the finished product - how beautiful, and oh so worth the effort! It was surrounded by all of the desserts on the buffet when things were set up.

a game - that required more family walks. This time around the LSU campus and lakes. What a beautiful time of year for it, too.

a jar full of different sized acorns

the game was to guess how many were in there, 182...the reward was a highly prized iTunes card.

the winner - my nephew. No picture, but he looks like the squirrel on top of the jar ;-)

OKAY - let's see what else we can do!!!

Teeny and I had a blast with these...and the kids, both family and nieghborhood, loved them!

and for the adults...TRYING to be healthy. I made a fruit turkey - he was quite photogenic with his bright red snood. He was very yummy and went fast, too. Hopefully he helped make up for my HH's delicious blackberry breadpudding...you can see the ingredients next to him: butter, blackberries, butter, bread, sugar, and did I mention butter?????
here is where the AHHH factor comes in for me...the finished table is set with China that I received from Great-Great, who passed away this year. It was a wonderful way for her memory to carry on with us during this holiday season.

TOOOO MUCH TURKEY - Samson said it was nap time!

After all of the festivities, my DD still found the energy to go to the movies with friends. Ahhh - to be young again.