It's LOVE day again. LOVE is exploring & appreciating the little things in life.

I find myself a bit sad today with all the constant reminders of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Part of my childhood is gone. I'm hoping to get back there this Fall to see my family, but I'm not sure I'm ready to really comprehend what happened there.

I didn't actually live in the city; I lived on the west side of New Orleans in a small town called River Ridge. We used to ride our bikes to the levee; I could see the boats passing by on the Mississippi from my Grandma's house in Harahan. However, I've always called New Orleans my home. I went to the University of New Orleans (where I met my husband) and grew up picking up my dad's paycheck off Carondelet St. downtown/ riding the street car through the Garden District/ attending productions at the Saenger (sp?) theater/ Saints' games at the Superdome and MANY, MANY, MANY nights of fun in the French Quarter. My husband's high school in Slidell is completely gone and where he lived no longer exists.

I count myself lucky that no one near and dear to me perished in the aftermath of Katrina. My Mom and brother got some damage. Many of our friends lost A LOT (one specifically lost everything in her Lakeview home; another two warehouses worth of product for his business), but their spirits were not lost. This spirit is what keeps them going when you think that much of the area isn't up to 100% on hospital care and smaller things like grocery shopping are still diminished.

I pray for all those poor people who are still trying to put their lives back together. May this anniversary give them the strength to press on with their lives and hope to gain back some of what makes New Orleans special.

GO SAINTS!

Because I'm a cheater and am using Amy's
http://www.thefoilhat.com/insidethefoilhatblog.htm idea:

FOUR JOBS I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE:
1) Wendy's (four yrs. & two scholarships!)
2) cust. serv. at a label company
3) Kindergarten teacher
4) Creative Memories Consultant

FOUR MOVIES YOU WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:
(I have a ton more but these quickly come to mind)
1) The Sound of Music
2) Shawshank Redemption
3) Grease (yes, I'm really a dork)
4) Tombstone

FOUR PLACES YOU HAVE LIVED:
1) River Ridge, LA
2) Anaheim, CA
3) Costa Mesa, CA
4) Irvine, CA

FOUR TV SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH:
(do I have to pick only 4?)
1) GREY'S ANATOMY
2) Amazing Race
3) Survivor
4) House

FOUR PLACES YOU'VE BEEN ON VACATION:
1) Italy -- specifically Rome, Florence & Venice - wonderful honeymoon!
2) Newport Beach, CA -- family condo rental-- so relaxing and fun.
3) Hawaii -- Waikiki and Kona; I could visit there annually.
4) Ohio (gotta visit family, ya know) and the water parks & amusement parks are fun.

WEB SITES YOU VISIT DAILY:
1)my mommy board for Sean's age
2)Amy's blog (foilhat)
3)http://www.themommyblog.net
4)my weight loss board

FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
1) Seafood - hot boiled crawfish, shrimp, catfish, etc.
2) My husband's grilled baby red potatoes & bbq'd ribs
3) Chinese
4) DESSERT...I'm not that picky.

FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW
1) The beach
2) scrapbooking
3) sleeping
4) Asleep at the beach (good answer!)

The REAL OC

For those of you who have an imagined version from television about what living in Orange County, CA is like, I'm here to say the weather is GREAT (and unlike the drama on tv) most days are pretty boring. Yesterday we just bummed about cleaning, gardening and doing laundry. Do they show that on tv? I'm thinking not.

HOWEVER, we did hit the beach today. Newport Beach that is. Yes we did see lots of BMWs, Mercedes, and a random Porsche or too, but overall it was JUST the beach. Ya know, waves/sand/boogie-boards/snacks/sand/too much junk to haul/sand/sunscreen.....the beach just as you would envision a family of six treking across the sand. Grabbed some corndogs and burgers from the local food joint, the Stuft Surfer, and soaked up some rays.

School starts on 9/7 so our beach days are numbered.

Because Chris at Notes from the Trenches shared the idea --- this is from Thursday, so it counts for me. Love is being reunited with an old friend!

Ahhhhhh....a day in the lovely desert of 29Palms! Couldn't have been better. We were off but the crew didn't know where we were going. (I'm not stupid; I don't like 'is it Monday yet? when are we leaving?' questions for days on end) I endured the many 'give us a hint' pleas and the "Mom, we are in the middle of nowhere" comments and kept driving. It was a surprise to my kids as we arrived; 'who lives here?' Out walks our dear friends relocated back from NY. Maggie nabbed the quote of the day with her reaction "YOU ARE KIDDING ME!" Truly priceless. The kids got along fabulously and we were fed lunch & dinner, who could ask for more. It is always fun to visit with them and exchange plenty of 'dudes' to welcome them back to SoCal. They reminded me of one of my favorite words too -- JANKY.

Bonus: I found a gas station before running out of gas at 11:00pm with four sleeping children in the car.

And for my 1st trick, I will attempt to add a photo. Here's my little guy today. We are starting the underwear experiment since he asks to be changed and will tell me when he is peeing in his diaper. He picked Thomas the train and Elmo. Here he is modeling the Thomas one. Yes; he did try on all six. Surely I'm jinxing myself just typing about it.

The great earache mystery.....so Mag wakes me at 12:45am crying that her ear hurts. I dose her with Motrin for pain and some Hyland's earache drops. She was pretty droopy today and even NAPPED! on her own accord. No fever. Things that make ya go, hmmmmm.......She is currently next door attempting the much anticipated and planned sleepover. On a happy note, I got the Wicked soundtrack at Tar-ge' today. A very happy camper I am!

This could take a while to learn. It looks easy, but all this lingo about dashboards, links, and settings might make me go crazy.