Rainy Day Afternoon

Our Sweet Olive tree. You can see all of the blooms. It smells wonderful...smells like home.
The sun glinting through the trees
I love a nice, hard rain. It is so cleansing...refreshing...renewing.

Our Mid-City Retreat

Here are some shots of our deck/swing AKA our Mid-City Retreat
Here's a view of our deck from our bathroom window upstairs
Enjoying the weather relaxing on the deck...

I'm writing a book...

and it's going to be called "Natalie Martin and the Mystery of the Broken Cake Topper"

A few weeks ago I notice a piece of our cake topper on the floor. I thought that someone (L.A.) had knocked it off the mantel but didn't notice that it was broken.

Fast forward to tonight...I'm on my way home from work and get a call from L.A. to ask if I had knocked the cake topper off of the mantel. I said "No, but maybe the cats did". He said that he noticed that it was broken but all of the broken pieces were still on the mantel and there was still a piece that was standing. So here's some pictures of what's left of the topper and the pieces scattered.


The pieces were actually scattered down the mantel a little more.
This is all that was left standing... :-(

Any ideas as to what happened? Cats? Heat from the sun causing it to explode? A clumsy ghost? A husband who broke our wedding cake topper but doesn't want to come clean? Let me know what you think!

I've Been Working on My Costume

Beware...I'm going to break out into song:

Sung to the tune of I've been working on the railroad

I've been working on my costume
All the live long day
I've been working on my costume
Halloween is on it's way
When you see me on your doorstep
You'll know what I mean
I've been working on my costume
Because it's Halloween

Now that that's out of my system...Here are some updates on L.A.'s costume.
Here L.A. is modeling his chest piece. You can finally see that it is taking shape
This is a shot of some of the various pieces that he has made...it's getting there!

LSU vs. MSU

So here's your week 5 LSU football update. I made it home from work just in time to catch the end of the first quarter. We are playing Mississippi State at home. With all of the upsets that we've seen this week (we've already seen USC (YEA!), and Florida go down and Georgia is heading down the same path), I certainly hope the Tigers are taking this game seriously. Anyway, here are my weekly pictures to show off my ears. :-)
RAWR! (L.A. looks naked in the background hahaha)
This one was too funny not to share...it reminded me of the "Chubby" jokes ya'll used to love for me to do.

Geaux Tigers! LSU vs. Auburn

Today was our first big game of the year...our first test...Auburn...on the road. A big time game requires big time celebrations. We were invited over to our friend's (the Brigmans) house for gumbo (YUM) and to watch the football game.
Now I had to make sure we were all set in our LSU gear. Even though Oreo didn't go with us he was dressed in his LSU best.

He wore his jersey for the whole game. He was a little nervous about this game (you can see it in his eyes).
I tried to distract him with the camera but he just couldn't focus.
Ella and I showing off our ears. (Susan tell me if I get the names wrong)
Katie showing off her cheerleader outfit...and trying to figure me out (good luck girlie).

Ella now fully prepped for the game complete in cheerleader outfit and ears. (They're REEEALLY lucky I didn't break out my cheerleader outfit too!)
Katie showing off her splits for me.
Bill and L.A. watching the game
Susan, Ella and Katie (right) tailgating. One of the girls told Susan "Mommys don't drink beer." Susan told her "Some do." And she responded "Yep...and you're the one!" They are so cute!

We had a great time and the Tigers won!!! Thanks again Brigmans!

My Sweet Little Deerie...

This morning L.A. and I have been sitting on our porch swing enjoying our McDonald's iced coffee. It's a pretty quiet, peaceful morning...still early for too many people to be out...and we hear this loud branch cracking sound.
I didn't think much the first time I heard it. After the third time I started looking around for the source.

It was a herd of deer. I looked up just in time to see three scampering through the woods. One stopped and stared at me. I ran into the house to grab the camera, hoping that it would still be there when I got back...and it was! Here are some photos (and a video) that I took. (Double click on the photos to enlarge them...you can see the deer better)

Unfortunately just after I stopped filming about five more deer ran by the sentinel and then it took off too.

I love my refuge in the middle of the city!

Thankfully I'm not a Palin...

With children named Track, Trig, and Bristol you may be wondering were Sara Palin comes up with her eccentric nomenclature. Well you are in luck my dearies, my friend Erica (AKA Churn Scorpion) has recently passed me a website that will provide you with the name you would have been given if you were born to Sara Palin.

I would be named Buster Taint and L.A. would be Sack Panther...although his name is pretty appropriate. Maybe we should get him to change it.

Check out the website and leave me a comment to tell me your name.

http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

Dream a Little Dream with Me

As you all know I work in Finance and September is the end of our Fiscal year. This means long hours working. When we get home we still have the necessary things to do…walk, cook dinner, etc and then (because I don’t want my whole life to be work and sleep) I try to decompress by watching a few shows before heading to sleep…all of this makes for very long days. Well yesterday afternoon the longs days finally caught up with me. I went to the restroom here at work and fell asleep on the toilet. Now keep in mind that I only went in to pee…I wasn’t sitting there for too long. I’m not sure how long I was asleep but I only woke up when someone else walked in. I had to walk around for about an hour with a huge red mark on my forehead (from were I laid my head on my hands). I’m glad that September is almost over!

Saints Game

L.A. and I went to the Saints game today. It was HOT. We took the Metro to not have to deal with the traffic/parking. It was a mile walk from the Metro Station to the field...which wouldn't be bad on a normal day but did I mention it was HOT??!!?? Unfortunately, the Saints managed to fall apart in the 4th qtr but we still had fun despite it being HOT!

So this is a really bad picture but I wanted to illustrate just how hot we were. You can see my face is beet red and if you notice how close the people behind us are sitting you can see that there wasn't much room to catch a breeze. The saving grace was that our seats were under the overhang so we were mercifully in the shade.

You may have also noticed that I am not in Saints gear. As I was getting dressed this morning I realized that all of my Saints clothing is either a jacket or a sweatshirt...and did I mention it was HOT today? So I went with the second best option (well technically it's always the BEST option but you get the drift) and wore LSU. Saints sideline

Half time show

A view of the crowd...a sea of burgandy

The view from our seats

Who Dat

Who Dat

Who Dat Say They Gonna Beat Dem Saints

Who Dat

(unfortunately the sorry Redskins did today) A view of our Saints gear...fleur de lis jewelry (although you can't really tell on L.A.'s bracelet)

As you can see...we weren't the ONLY Saints fans in attendance...but close.

We were still winning at this point...notice the smiles. We've been to 4 Saints games together (Colts, Rams, Cowboys and Redskins) and they have never won one of them. Of course with the history of the Saints I guess that isn't that hard to believe. The first three were somewhat understandable but I really had hope for today.

The strippers...I mean cheerleaders

A shot of the scoreboard in the 4th...the last time we want to talk about the score

Saints

LSU vs. North Texas

Ready for the game
Oreo's bored with the game already...

Our Haul

Here are some photos of our haul from our trip out to Markham.
These are the yummy herbs that we bought. The garlic chives are on the left. The sweet basil is in the middle and the pesto tasting herb that I can't remember the name of is on the right. I broke the French Lavender into three pieces and spaced it around the pot. You can see one piece up front.
Another view
Doesn't it look yummy...and pretty...

My yellow mum. Fall is a-coming. I can't wait. I think Fall (here) is my favorite season...and only partially because it's football season. This is the only place that I've lived where there are truly four distinct seasons. Fall is so beautiful...the trees, the weather, the sports. Love it!
My purple mums. Of course I had to buy a purple and gold mum!
A view of our plants up the stairs.
These are the apples that we picked (minus a few that we've already eaten). The ones right in the center are my favorite...honey crisp. YUM!
This was actually purchased from Lowes but I wanted to show it off anyway. This is my sweet olive tree. This tree (more than even the oaks and magnolias) reminds me of LSU. Walking through campus in the spring you can't escape the sweet, intoxicating scent of the sweet olive. I hope that it makes it to the spring so that I can be transported back home...boy I miss that place!