Living Life One Adventure At A Time
February 21, 2013
Cleaning & Organizing, Family Life, Sam Leave a comment
Sam has been GREAT about helping with various things around our apartment. Tonight, he carried the laundry upstairs for me.
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| From February 2013 |
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| From February 2013 |
(Please ignore the mess in the bottom picture- I am working on pricing and tagging clothes for the consignment sale)
🙂
Steph
February 14, 2013
Family Life, Louisiana College Leave a comment
I am a cheap date. This is what I wanted to do for Valentine’s this year…
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| From February 2013 |
Yup! LC basketball. We even brought Sam along with us!
🙂
Steph
February 13, 2013
Family Life, Gabrielle Leave a comment
Since I “supposedly” failed the gestational diabetes test, my doc makes me come in at 8:30 and get a fasting blood sugar reading. Then, I am supposed to eat a 60g carb breakfast and have my blood drawn again 2 hours after I finish breakfast. Since I have celiac and don’t feel comfortable risking getting glutened at each appointment, I bring my own breakfast.
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| From February 2013 |
Thankfully, I really like this breakfast. My doctor thinks its funny that I bring my own breakfast- he sees me eating it when he comes upstairs from checking on his laboring patients.
I don’t like the fact that my doctor’s visits from here on out lasting 3 hours (from first blood draw to the results of the last blood draw) but, I LOVE that my doc only wants to check it at appointments- not 4 times a day and keep a log. Whew!
🙂
Steph
February 13, 2013
Family Life, Holidays Leave a comment
Just to show how many beads Sam scored at the parade yesterday, Travis put them all on at one time. He reminded me of Mr. T.
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| From February 2013 |
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| From February 2013 |
He said they were really heavy and so he laid on the floor to try to get them all off. He had a bit of trouble doing it though.
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| From February 2013 |
🙂
Steph
February 12, 2013
Family Life, Sam, Travel Leave a comment
One of my dad’s former co-workers lives at the very beginning of the parade route for the Fat Tuesday parade in Bay St. Louis. He invited us to come to his house for the parade so Sam would have a fenced yard to run around in and I would have a bathroom to use as necessary. HA!
It was a very rainy parade and it was a lot shorter than it normally is because it is a free parade and therefore, groups don’t pay to ride and chose to not ride in the rain. However, Sam still wound up with TONS of stuff. I mainly stayed on the porch and took pictures. My parents sported ponchos and an umbrella and kept up with Sam and his throws.
Sam actually got throws just walking through the floats on the way to Capt. Tim’s house!
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| From February 2013 |
I hope Gabrielle enjoys parades because I will probably take her to one next Mardi Gras! Maybe I can convince her Daddy to join us- he stayed back home to do some work related stuff. He isn’t a big parade fan.
After the parade, my parents brought Sam and I back home. One of the rivers we drove over was very foggy!
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| From February 2013 |
Dad has been wanting to try this Landry’s ever since we moved back to LA. He liked the one that was on the MS coast but it didn’t reopen after Katrina. This one was VERY good and they were very accommodating with my gluten “issue.”
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| From February 2013 |
It was such a fun little trip!!
🙂
Steph
February 9, 2013
Celiac Disease, Family Life, Food Leave a comment
Other than going to Natchitoches, my birthday was fairly low-key. That is because my “cake” was actually in Mississippi! A gluten free bakery, The Peacebaker, recently opened in Metairie and they make King Cakes! Since my birthday always falls during Mardi Gras, I love having King Cake as my birthday cake. Before celiac, it was easy to find my birthday cake- I either made one via an AWESOME bread machine recipe, mail ordered one, or picked one up. However, finding a gluten free King Cake has been a bit difficult- until now.
Check out my birthday cake!
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| From February 2013 |
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| From February 2013 |
It was amazingly moist and delicious. The really awesome thing is that the bakery recommends NOT refrigerating it because it has a long shelf life due to their flour blend. This meant, I never had to deal with nuking cake and could just slice little pieces whenever. I will DEFINITELY get another cake from them again. Travis even liked it and he is NOT a fan of King Cakes. It is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!
🙂
Steph
February 9, 2013
Family Life, Travel Leave a comment
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| From February 2013 |
Louisiana doesn’t have Welcome Centers only at the state lines. Nope, they have to be different and post them throughout the state. When we go to MS to visit my parents, we always stop at the Atchafalaya Welcome Center off I-10. The Atchafalaya is a really large swamp in southern LA and this welcome center has a movie theater inside that shows a 10 minute movie all about the swamp. It is fun to stop and get out, use the bathroom, and then just relax for a bit (or let Sam run crazy if no one is in the theater with us) before continuing on towards MS.
Today, when we stopped, their tree was decorated for Mardi Gras.
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| From February 2013 |
If you ever get a chance to visit, wear white- they use black lights in the movie and it is always good for a laugh. I really love this scene.
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| From February 2013 |
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| From February 2013 |
I caught Sam mid-blink in the picture below. He always insists on getting some “coffee” and petting the wildlife when we stop.
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| From February 2013 |
There are also a couple of goofy animals that “talk” to you and try to convince you to go into the theater and watch the movie. It really is fun!
🙂
Steph
February 8, 2013
Family Life, Sam, School, Videos Leave a comment
This morning, Sam’s school had a parade for all the kids to participate in. It was really cute. Each class did something different and processed out to the oohs and ahhs of parents. Sam’s class made their own floats- with parental help. Sam’s float was an airplane. It turned out rather cute.
During Sam’s nap this past Sunday, Travis built the airplane since it involved a lot of cutting and taping.
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| From February 2013 |
Last night, Sam and I cut construction paper and taped it to cover the box. Travis used my sewing machine to make really nice straps for Sam to use to wear his float. It turned out great!
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| From February 2013 |
This morning, he was so excited that he insisted on wearing his plane from our apartment to the car.
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| From February 2013 |
Now onto the parade…
The first group out were the one year olds…
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| From February 2013 |
Then came the twos…
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| From February 2013 |
The threes…
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Finally, it was time for the “Krewe de Quatre” (aka Sam’s preK)…
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| From February 2013 |
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| From February 2013 |
His “mask” cracks me up.
After the parade, they had a King Cake party in the fellowship hall. The preK class has been learning about Louisiana all week and so they shared a cute song about Louisiana they learned.
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| From February 2013 |
Sam was very excited about his cupcake once his little performance was over.
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| From February 2013 |
I did manage to video the parade and their singing. The parade was actually held in the church’s parking garage so it was very dark. For some reason, the focus on my video camera wasn’t the best but you can still see what went on.
After his snack, we came home and have had a very low-key day at Casa Wright.
🙂
Steph
February 8, 2013
Family Life, Sam Leave a comment
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| From February 2013 |
**Please take notice that I am not advocating the consumption of alcohol- just sharing a fun little outing Sam and I had yesterday.
The Budweiser Clydesdales are in town for Mardi Gras. It is quite exciting. They will be pulling their wagon during the Children’s Parade here in Alexandria tomorrow morning. Since they are just “hanging out” until they are needed, the Rapides Parish Coliseum has opened their doors for visitors to come check them out- absolutely free!
At lunch yesterday, I asked Sam if he would be interested in going to look at them. I actually phrased it like this, “Sam do you want to go check out the Clydesdales?” Since I totally forgot he was only 4 and has no point of reference to what a Clydesdale is, he asked “Mommy, what’s a Widesdale?” I explained they were big, tall, beautiful horses and showed him a picture of them on my phone. He was sold. Next he asked if he could ride one. Then I had to explain they were work horses and not really riding horses. That was a fun discussion. 🙂
I am fascinated with horses. I love to ride horses and, honestly, don’t mind the chores associated with having a horse. We just aren’t in that stage of life (or have the income) to sustain a healthy horse. This being said, I was so excited about checking them out.
When we got out to the coliseum, the only sign that they were there were these three 18-wheelers.
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| From February 2013 |
However, once you got inside their small display was obvious.
They had an old car…
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| From February 2013 |
The wagon the horses will be pulling in the parade…
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| From February 2013 |
and LOTS of horses!
Fire…
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| From February 2013 |
Levi #1 (for some reason there were two Levis?)…
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| From February 2013 |
Charlie (he was trying to go to sleep)…
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| From February 2013 |
Duke (he was asleep)…
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| From February 2013 |
Curly (sorry for the lovely view)…
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| From February 2013 |
Rocket, the Dalmatian, was there. I’ve had friends who saw him. However, we never saw him while we were there. 😦
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| From February 2013 |
Prince…
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Sammy (he was getting groomed)…
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| From February 2013 |
Levi #2…
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Bud…
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Dixon…
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| From February 2013 |
The groomer was standing just behind Bud’s pen with Sammy. I tried to take a picture but it was so dark and the bars were so close together and reflective, you couldn’t see anything in my picture. However, I will say this… the groomer looked close to my height and at one point, she was positioned to where we could see her and if she needed to, she could totally walk under Sammy WITHOUT having to duck! Amazing!!
Finally, Sammy was put back in his pen and Sam was able to check him out. They stood and stared at each other for a long time. Immediately after I took this picture though, Sammy turned around and gave us the ever-so-popular view of his backside. HA!
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| From February 2013 |
Because, here lately, I’ve been realizing more and more just how little I am actually in pictures, I asked a lady to take a picture of the two (well, three if you count Gabrielle) of us with one of the horses in the background. I really like this picture.
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| From February 2013 |
(I also can’t believe I will be having a baby in 11-ish weeks. YIKES!)
When we got back to the car, I asked Sam what he thought of the Clydesdales and he told me he loved them! Yay!!
🙂
Steph
February 4, 2013
Family Life, Katrina Leave a comment
For my birthday, Travis took me to Natchitoches for lunch and to buy some beads for my bracelet. The last time we ate lunch in Natchitoches, we ate a nice little restaurant on the Cane River downtown. They had this amazing grilled chicken salad with fruit and that was what I was wanting for my birthday lunch. Well, after arriving at the restaurant, we realized it was a totally different restaurant now. It was still good but nowhere near as good at the former restaurant. Oh well…
I love Natchitoches buildings. They remind me the French Quarter.
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| From February 2013 |
I would love to live in one of those condos…
These are the charms that I used my birthday money to buy.
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| From February 2013 |
The top one is a King Cake, the left one is a Saints Fleur-De-Lis, and the right one is a Hurricane Katrina charm. I really like them.
Also, while walking down the street we saw the most random police car- it was smaller than a smart car and had some kind of trailer attached!! I told Sam that we could walk down there and look at it after I picked up my charms but, he was gone when we got out. Sorry, buddy…
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| From February 2013 |
The only problem with going to Natchitoches is that I don’t want to ever leave. I am trying to convince myself that I would be OK with Travis having a little over an hour daily commute so that we could just move up there. However, I can’t do it…
🙂
Steph
From June 2011
Our Photo Albums Videos (Viddler)
Our Wrightings 