God save the King of New Orleans.

First, a disclaimer...for those of you who have never been to Mardi Gras, it's not all "Girls Gone Wild" like you see on TV. True, you can find this type of party in New Orleans if that's what you're looking for, but it's only a very small part. The real Mardi Gras is the kind of place you can bring your kids, grill out hamburgers, play music and laugh with friends and total strangers. I think it's best described as like a weekend long tailgate party with parades and no game. Matt's college roommate, Chris, is always an awesome host whenever we visit. He takes us to the House of Blues, gets us great seats for shows, knows how to get everywhere around town and has a family that welcomes us to all of their celebrations. I love New Orleans and love visiting. It's such a cool place.

Tree in Jackson Square...see if you can find the lone strand of beads someone threw up there.

Jackson Square is my favorite place in the city.

The street performers, the artists, the sights and sounds.

St. Charles Street, post-parade and pre-parade....
Tucks was that morning and Endymion will come through in a few hours.

Vander's uncle's stand where we watched a lot of parades and ate some delicious food.

Vander has a very fun family

After Endymion showing off my beads. I don't even need all these, but, catching beads is like fishing...it's the thrill of the catch.

We were having a blast.



NOTE: Tucks, the afternoon parade on Saturday, sort of has a toilet theme...I'm not sure why. Tucks is the reason you see all the toilet paper in these pics..they print special paper with their krewe motto and throw it in the parades. They also thew plungers and Matt was very proud of the plunger he caught.

It served as a microphone.

An old fashioned telephone

Again as a microphone.

And what looks like a hairbrush....

One of the floats from Tucks.

Toilet paper flowing in the wind on a beautiful NOLA day.

Vander was not quite so charmed by the paper.

Catching part of Tucks on another part of St. Charles.

Matt was proud of this Tucks cup until he caught the plunger.

Chris and Matt

Better Than Ezra at the House of Blues

We were so tired from the drive over, but we had a blast

I caught these cool beads from the bass player.

Thanks to Vander for the invite. We had a blast.

Goin' to the chapel

Congratulations to my sweet sister-in-law and her new fiance, Tyson! The entire family is pumped for their upcoming wedding on May 9th. Tyson proposed on February 12th and I don't think Margaret could think of a better Valentine's Day gift.

Margaret and Tyson

You can tell here that they kind of dig each other.

Do you think Tyson knows how lucky he is?

Looks like it....

Love you both and so glad you found each other!

Don't marry the person you think you can live with; marry only the individual you think you can't live without. ~James C. Dobson

Happy Valentine's Day!

In 2002, I was a junior in college and very pleased to be celebrating my first Valentine's day with the best guy I had ever met. He seemed to be really into me, he found none of my quirks to be that weird - in fact, he found them cute, and I was REALLY into him. I came home from class just to get on Instant Messenger and see if he was there.

I was super pumped about finally having a really good Valentine's day. (Previous boyfriends had taken me to Burger King, snuck into Titianic for free and bought me a balloon tied to a chocolate bar only after his mom harassed him.) I spent several afternoons creating the perfect handmade Valentine for Matt. It was 10 ways he "Rocked My World" (I was really into the Micheal Jackson song at the time, remember?). I send him a care package with a stuffed frog holding a heart that said "Kiss Me" (I doctored it a bit so it wouldn't be so cheesy.), a Bama pint glass for his collection, Sweet Tarts, Nerds and Starbursts because Matt likes sour candy, not chocolate. I mailed the package to Memphis a few days before Valentine's.

On Valentine's day, Matt told me to be in my dorm room at a certain time for a delivery. I waited and waited all day and nothing ever came. Matt calls FedEX/UPS, I don't remember who, and they said they tried to deliver the package at the dorm but could not find me. They have the package at the distribution center. Matt sheepishly calls me back to tell me I'll have to go pick up my own present (he wasn't happy with the delivery company). I was so excited about the present I didn't care. I get directions to the warehouse, which is, of course, in the most out of the way, industrial part of Tuscaloosa. I get the box, it's marked with flowers, and head back to the dorm.

I open the box in my room and find Matt had sent me a miniature rose bush with pink blooms. He wanted me to have something that would last longer than just cut roses since he was so far away. We named the rose bush, Lillian Rose, so he could ask how she was doing. I watered that thing daily. I was so proud. I actually think my over watering was poor Lillian's undoing.

Happy Valentine's Day to Matt who has made all my Valentine's day so special and MORE than made up for the not so great ones of my past.

Matt,

It's my party and I'll landscape if I want to

Grandmother's birthday (Matt's grandmother) was last weekend. Matt's parents had a little get together for her so we drove up from Birmingham Saturday morning. We were in Atlanta on Friday night to see the Killers at the Civic Center. Awesome show. We drove from Atlanta to B'ham Friday after the concert and stayed with Andrea. We were all over the south in the course of 24 hours. It was worth it to be at the party for Grandmother.

The birthday girl!

Me and Marg, the prettiest gals at the party under 30.

Marg and Tyson on the deck.

Tyson just heard there would be chocolate mint brownies at the party.

The gorgeous cake from Aunt Linda.

The arrangement was GORGEOUS, of course, I love anything with hydrangeas in it.

Martin

Matt, Grandmother and me

Margaret on the deck. Her supermodel pose.

Michael

It was a great party and a lot of folks came to wish Grandmother the happiest birthday. Matt's mom, dad, aunt and uncle did an amazing job.

Today is a wonderful lazy Saturday for now. The dogs are snoozing nearby, Matt is reading a comic book and I'm browsing craft projects. We've got big front yard landscaping plans today. It's time to revamp the front yard, I'll do some before and after shots. Landscapers, GO!

Her Morning Elegance...

This makes me want to go to bed, LOVE THIS....

*Sorry, there is a quick commercial before the actual video, while I love Crest white strips...they don't make me want to go to bed (or whatever other commercial you see....