A "Lagnaippe" in New Orleans

Well, if I spelled that right up there, it means "a little something extra" in New Orleans. Rus was wonderful enough to take me with him this time on a trip to a conference he had there. It's good to know that out of 20-25 work trips he goes on a year, I might get to go on at least one of them with him...and while the the majority of those trips are to Nowhere, USA, this trip at least was to an interesting place. I'm still not sure what my impression was of the city...I'm thinking the right word is moody. Everything from the weather to the streets to the people. And I don't mean that in a bad way, really, really...it's more that the city had a lot of moods and they're really different from one block to the next. We experienced Bourbon St. on the first night, in the midst of a misty downpour. (Two days later it was 74 degrees and sunny, the last day it was much colder with an icey wind...that's how I mean moody) Let's just say that the safest place to look on that street is the sidewalk. Everywhere else was obscene. One street (or maybe two) over was Royal St., which had great little shops and fancy restaraunts. Then there was Decatur St., that was overflowing with bars and mardi gras stores. I have never seen a place so devoted to just three things: drinking, mardi gras, and food. (In that order, I assume). But if you got away from downtown, there were the most beautiful, ornate, humongous mansions I have ever seen. I think our tour guide aptly described New Orleans as having a history of decadence and opulence, and that was definately evident in those wonderful old mansions. I could go on and on...while Rus was in meetings, I got to enjoy the spouse's program, which included a bus tour of the city (including a few communities that were hit hard by Katrina), a steamboat tour, and then a tour of this wonderful plantation house, a mansion, called the Homas House. I made some great friends, ate so much that all I wanted was a peanut butter sandwich for any meal, and flirted shamelessly with Rus any chance I got. :) So here are some pictures...Enjoy!

We stayed in the Sheraton hotel (the tall building in the middle), a grand place where water bottles in your room cost $3.75 each, internet service is $10.00 for 24 hours, or if you use their computers it's $5.45 for 30 minutes, the workout room costs $10.00 to enjoy, valet parking (the only parking) is $26.00 per night, the continental breakfast is $16.95 per person, and the view from the 39th floor (that's where we stayed) was fantastic.

I do believe that the man on the horse is Andrew Jackson, the building behind him is, of course, a cathedral, the person with the glowing white shoes is me, and the whole square is historically important, although I do not know or at least can't remember why...
Okay, so seeing this great lady standing on top of the steamboat, playing "How Much is That Puppy in the Window" (among other things), totally made my day. It was comical in a way, and if you can't see that from the picture then I guess you'd just have to be there.

I admit that I really missed my kids while we were gone. The trip home involved three airplanes, which translates into three times going up and three times landing, and resolutely confirmed to me that I could never ever be a flight attendant. All I wanted to do was come home and hug and kiss my kids until they begged for mercy. Bekah, while I'm sure she missed me, had only one thing on her mind when she saw me, and that was, "Where are my necklaces?" Rus and I experienced more parades there on Canal St. than our city produces five years. It was ridiculous, over the top, and very "New Orleans". The floats in those parades could all look the same, it wouldn't even matter (actually, they might all be the same) the important thing is that they throw out insane amounts of beads, cups, and other mardi gras fare. So after one parade Rus and I had enough beads to add 10 pounds to my luggage, and we called it good for bead collecting. Now we need to have our own mardi gras party to get rid of them all.
Woo-ee! Look at the man I married! Those masks were so fun! The kids wore them all morning...Bekah put hers on top of her head sometimes so she could see better, and she came up to Rus this morning and said, "Daddy, where's my mask?" And he just pulled it down off the top of her head, onto her eyes. She had the most confused expressed for a couple of minutes and then she said, "Daddy, I found it!"

Well, I think that's all. It was a fantastic trip...I'm so thankful for the experience, and I'm so thankful to be home!

Goodbye!

Bye, bye Love! Bye, bye, Happiness! Hello emptiness, I thinka thatta I'm gonna cry-y!

And a warm welcome to the new big beauty in our home... :)

The Fridge Saga

1:35pm, Thursday...I am startled awake from a nap by a loud buzzing noise. I try to place the noise. After briefly considering air raids, Bekah's carebear on low batteries, or the elders quorum (from church) singing on my front steps, I suddenly realize that the sound is coming from my 100 year old refrigerator, kept alive only by my husband's unwillingness to part with several hundred dollars in return for modern (and cold, not freezerburned) technology. It sounds like my fridge is screaming AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
It lasts at least 15 seconds. Of course Rus is not there to hear it, although honestly I didn't think he'd really care...

9:42am Friday...While standing in front of the fridge getting Jacob his 5th sipper of milk of the day (he starts early), "THE NOISE" happens again. It is still loud and painful and lasts much longer than it should, but honestly everyone should try to pause their lives for 15 (or 20) seconds each day to reexamine their actions, their purpose in life, and why there is a spoon and an opened, half empty container of yogurt on the bottom shelf of the fridge. (WHY?!)

8:16pm Saturday...Ah, what a wonderful moment of relaxation...the kids are in bed and I've already gone up stairs twice to put on the obligatory lotion on Bekah's "itchy spots" and give Jacob a "CHUCK!" (truck), so I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to sit and relax with Rus and watch our movie. Emilee, his sister is staying the night with us, so we're all camped out ready to be amazed by the third, (and please!) final installment of Pirates of the Carribbean. The "NOISE" happens again, and although it does last as long and is just as obnoxious as before, I don't even flinch. I've heard it before. The "NOISE" disrupts Rus though, and suddenly I realize that the expression on his face is one of anger. I think at that moment he felt betrayed by the Ancient One. He got up and pulled the fridge out from the wall. I think the "NOISE" happened at least five more times during that movie (wish I could take credit for the awesome timing, but I cannot), and everytime, Rus would leap off of the couch faster than I thought he could move and run to stare at the back of the fridge and (PLEASE!) find where the forsaken sound is coming from. Ahhh. It was a good movie. :)

12:03am...We found out when Bekah was born that Rus is a light sleeper, whereas I...am not. And that is why the NOISE woke him from sleep, and that is why he was laying there grumbling, and that is when I woke up.
Rus: The fridge made the NOISE again.
Keri: It did?
Rus: Yeah. I hope it didn't wake Emilee.
Keri: You're right. She is merely a few feet from the fridge, sleeping on the couch.
Rus: It could be a long night for her.
Keri (in my head): You're telling me!
Keri (out loud): Yes, but she is a teenager, and studies have shown that the sleep deprivation of teenagers derived from their long hours of partying, school, and text messaging, enables them to sleep through anything, including nuclear war and chinese invasion.
Rus: I think I'll go check on her anyways......(a few moments later)...I couldn't wake her to save my life. I guess she's okay. But maybe I should just unplug the fridge for the night so it doesn't make that NOISE. And I don't want it to fritz out in the middle of the night and not know about it.
Keri (in my head): Those steaks in the fridge cost more than my pajamas, there is no way I'm going to subject them to any temperature that is less than optimal!
Keri (out loud): Rus, you are talking crazy! What's the difference between unplugging the fridge and it fritzing out in the middle of the night? Either way it is off!
Rus: SNORE. (To make up for his light sleeping he does fall asleep fast.)

5:16pm, Sunday... Our friends are over, enjoying the wonderful juicey steaks we grilled, that were kept cold in the non-fritzed out fridge. The NOISE happens at least three times during dinner, and every time we all pause to consider world peace and why Jacob is eating his noodles off the floor.

8:02am Monday...We are at Home Depot. The credit card has been used and the signature signed. Delivery is scheduled for Thursday. Our new baby will be 25 cubic feet of glory, complete with a water dispenser and door bins large enough for gallons of milk.

In retrospect, I really couldn't have planned this any better myself. But just don't tell Rus. I have to act like I'm in mourning, and despair the money that we spent on it, because if I don't then he might think that this is a wonderful gift for me and that he is now fully justified in spending the same amount on tires for his truck. Now that would be sad. :)

Pictures by Bekah

Well, I asked Bekah to take a picture of me...and a photographer was born. :) She would not relinquish that camera for anything, and she kept telling Jacob and I where to sit so that she could take pictures of us. Some of them turned out really good, actually...and then on a couple of them she added her own personal touches. I took the last picture, it's of the photographer herself. :) Enjoy.

Bit By the Painting Bug

I'm not sure why it happens, but for some reason, when Rus goes on a work trip I usually seem to get a wild hair to do some big project around the house. And usually it involves paint. He should thank his lucky stars and send me flowers every week just to thank me for not involving him in this time consuming, laborious task. Come to think of it, not including these two rooms from this past week that I painted, I have painted five rooms (between this house and our old house) and the furthest he got involved was unscrewing face plates on outlets. He should be especially grateful not to be involved because since moving into this house I have had the opportunity to check out these really awesome model homes a few miles from us, and now I can not be content with just painting the room one color. Noooo, I have to go crazy and paint things like diamonds and checkerboards, and as you'll see below...stripes. My mom also fuels the fire when it comes to painting. Rus will be out of town, and my mom will happen to be in town, and Wah-lah! I've got the perfect catalyst for a painting explosion.

So, to get more specific, on Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week I painted Bekah and Jacob's rooms. Bekah's I wanted a limey but soft sort of green, with random stripes painted in a shade darker green. A good backdrop for all of her pink and purple girly things. Jacob's room I wanted a tanish-brownish-strawish color with a nice big blue stripe right through the middle. I have some puppy dog fabric that I was trying to match, and the tan goes really well with the puppies, and the blue goes well with the background color. I took the fabric to this awesome little copy shop here in town (happens to be owned by two identical twin brothers...for the life of me I can never tell which one is helping me...it is the same one that I had that conversation with last time, or is that the other one?...This would be a good place to enlist the help of nametags!) Anyways, there are lots of different little puppies on the fabric, and the guy enlarged seven of them so that each dog fills up a sheet of paper. Then I spray glued each dog onto a piece of mdf wood, cut it out, and now I'm going to hang the puppies on the blue stripe in Jacob's room. Hmmm, that would be better explained in a picture, but oh well... :) Maybe when it's finished.

This is Bekah helping us paint Jacob's room. She was SO excited to paint! I told her the night before that she could help, but she had to be wearing messy old pants and a messy old shirt. She went and found clothes right that second and slept with them in her bed. In the morning she ran in my room, fully dressed in messy attire and said, "Mommy, is it light outside?" ("Yes") "Great! Let's go paint!"

Jacob's finished room, plain and simple, all boy. :)
Bekah wouldn't just let me take a picture of the wall. She climbed up on the bed and jumped so that she'd be in the picture too.
It was sooo fun to see Bekah decorate her newly made-over room! She pulled the purple peg board out of her closed and said, "Let's hang this up!" And then she hung her dresses on it and arranged her shoes underneath.
She even arranged all of the little things on her nightstand and put the pillows where she wanted them on the bed. The bedspread is so cute, it has green butterflies and flowers quilted into it, and the other side has green material with purple stitching. We also found two big (like 4"x4") butterflies to clip up high on her canopy that are purple and green.

Well, I'm sure that's more than enough. I want you to know, that while this may have turned out really cute, it was probably more work than I would willingly face again. (I mean Bekah's room. Jacob's room was a snap, comparitively) We painted her whole room the light green (ceiling included) and then the next day I spent four very long hours prepping it so I could paint the stripes. If you ever want to do this yourself, spend at least a month bribing a close friend so that they can suffer with you.