Tiger Pause

After our week in Lake Charles, mom and I packed up the kids and drove up to McComb, Miss., my hometown and where most of my extended family lives, for the remainder of our vacation. On our way, we paused in Baton Rouge, home of Louisiana State University, where mommy once upon a time ago attended college, and also the state's capitol, where mommy later used to work as a reporter. On LSU's campus, we visited Mike the Tiger's new habitat just off from Tiger Stadium. We looked and looked for the tiger and finally found him sleeping under some bushes. He was old, we were told, and slept a lot. Sadly, Mike died a week after our visit. Finally, we made our way to see Linda, a friend and former American Press colleague, who has since moved from Lake Charles. ... All in all, it was a 3-hour pause, but I really wanted to get the most out of our trip.

Mommy's Friends Are Our Friends

Besides getting to know Mimi in Lake Charles, we met up with some of my old friends. We went to the American Press where I used to work and met the few people I know who are still there -- here in the photo with us are Donna, Hector, Pamela and Scooter. Sunny, Jim and their new baby, Kai, made a special trip from Texas just to visit with us for a few hours. It was the first time I'd seen Sunny in almost four years! Julie also made a trip in from Baton Rouge to meet the children. We actually visited with Linda at her new home in Baton Rouge.

Pamela also visited us at mom's house and gave the children a special DVD and wooden crosses with their names. We'll hang these special crosses in their rooms at our new house. Yes! We have a house! Not only was our vacation a time to get away and visit with family and friends but it was a time for negotiating contingencies via fax and e-mail. The evening before the kids and I flew out we found our home. We offered and counter-offered past midnight and had come to a contract agreement on our way to the airport the next morning. We'll have a big yard (almost 1.5 acres) for Anna and Alexander and Shreve to play in. The children will finally get their own bedrooms and play area. We'll even have a guest room for anyone who wants to visit us up here (y'all don't forget we live in a vacation area).

Gator Glimpse

Once in Lake Charles we mostly hung out at mom's place and either went to visit friends or hosted them as they came to visit us. But one of the few outings we took was to the downtown lakefront park. It was two parks, actually — one a pretty gigantic playground and the geared toward gator watchers. There, Anna and Alexander got to see their first alligators and turtles. Two gators and two turtles were sunning either on a log or the island banks. We also saw one gator swimming. While Anna and Alexander had seen ducks before, they'd never been eye-to-eye with them. You could tell these friendly ducks were used to being fed by passersby, as they approached us as soon as we got out of the car. From there on out, my children kept terrorizing the ducks in an attempt to feed them their graham cracker sticks.

We're Back!

Dear Faithful Blog Readers,

Sorry I haven't posted any new photos or info in nearly a month. Since most of you are family and friends we recently visited, you pretty much know why. We have been home for a week now, but it's taken me about this long to catch up on laundry, get unpacked and to just get myself mentally prepared to start blogging again. Of course, we took about a million photos and I feel completely overwhelmed with picking the best to post and deciding how to group them. I hope some of you don't mind if you show up on the blog!

Let me start by posting two cute ones of the kids of the plane ride down to New Orleans. Alex was sick but was a trooper and didn't cause too much grief since I traveled down South with them by myself (hubby joined us a week later). And what's a trip down to New Orleans without festive Mardi Gras beads? Anna even decided to share her's with her baby doll. How cute is that?

.... I hear the kids up from their nap and Anna crying, so I gotta run. But here are the two pics. Lots more to come.

Home Inspectors

Anna and Alexander inspect one of six homes we viewed with our Realtor the other day. As you can tell by the lack of mowing and furniture, this house was empty, so they got to run around a bit more than they would have been allowed to otherwise. Unfortunately, however, we don't think this home is going to work for us.

Happy Hugs

Anna and Alexander take time out from their Sesame Street episode to give mommy a big smile and hug for the camera, a bright moment in some otherwise sketchy days and nights for Mr. Alexander. He hasn't slept well for the past three nights. Last night we were up with his cries five times. After the fifth I vowed there wouldn't be a sixth so I kept him in the living room with me, where he continued to cry for about 20 minutes before we both fell asleep on the sofa. I even took him to the doctor today, but he couldn't find anything. A little pink throat but no strep. Hopefully this will soon pass, as we're leaving Saturday to fly down South for a two-week vacation with the family! And I haven't started packing, so Friday is going to be a bit crazed. Hope we have a good night's sleep tonight.

Father, Son Bonding

Mikel and Alexander enjoy some father and son bonding time Sunday morning before church. Alexander is discovering how flashlights work while Mikel is exacerbating his bad posture.