StarLady's This & That

Reminder- The Truth of it

2011-05-24T09:49:00.000-05:00

(I copied and pasted this here just in case the link goes gets deleted at some point. I think it is good to have around. )

So You Want To Be A Writer…

By VaughnR.Demont on May 22, 2011

One of the fun parts of being a writer is fan mail. It still makes my day every time when I open my inbox and find that someone has taken the time to write me, whether to comment on my writing, or ask me questions. Recently, I was honored to receive a question that every writer will be asked at some point, because this is a question you get asked when you've "made it":

"I'm thinking about becoming a writer. Do you have any advice for someone just starting out?"

I always wonder how to answer this question, honestly. Part of me wants to give the happy sunny answer: Well, you need to work hard, make the commitment to write every day to get some words down, develop a thick skin, and always be open to criticism. After that, it's just a matter of getting exposure, doing your research on presses and agents, and hoping for the best when you send your stuff out. Good luck!
…
And then I remember I'm a Scorpio.
So here's my advice, along with a complimentary bag of salt to take it with.
Develop a love/hate relationship with money. You're always going to need it, and it's never going to be there.
Find a bad habit. Cigarettes and alcohol are the time-honored cornerstones of the writing community, but any addictive behavior will do in a pinch when you need to run off crying from your manuscript because one of your author friends did five thousand words yesterday (the bitch), compared to your paltry fifteen hundred. A loved one will probably tell you it's not a race, a mentor will tell you it's more important to write a good scene. You don't have time for rational and cogent suggestions. Go for the vice.
Develop a love/hate relationship with your readers. Publicly love them because they talk up your books and send you fan letters and generally make you feel like you're not wasting the potential your third grade teacher told your parents you had. Secretly hate them because you suspect they're all lying and just using your book to prop up their shrine to Stephanie Meyer. Secretly realize you're being ridiculous and publicly apologize for your opinions. Receive confused fan mail. Go for the vice.
Find beta readers.
Then find beta readers you can trust.
Then find beta readers you can trust that you don't believe are probably insane.
Find a publisher.
Realize it's not as simple as just picking one and submitting.
Begin to suspect that the publishing world runs entirely on nepotism and kismet. Then sell your work and realize it's actually a lot fairer than you initially suspected. Look through your earlier work and realize why you were rejected from so many many many places. Seriously, they let you out of grad school with that manuscript?
Read your work aloud. Immediately revise your dialogue because having heard it aloud it becomes apparent that nobody actually talks like that.
Read. But don't just read, because readers don't just read. Watch TV, movies, read comics and graphic novels and listen to music and learn how the structure is changing so you can keep up.
Give a damn. Self-explanatory.
Consider self-publishing. Then ask yourself if you want to sell something you put eleven months of your life into for ninety-nine cents. Also, remember that you suck as an editor.
Find an editor. Make her the first person you thank in your acknowledgements, because the difference between the final edits and your original draft will be staggering. Thank her because she will make you look so very good.
Realize that being a writer is tough, so take every opportunity you get to celebrate. Realize your debt to your friends and family, who put up with your delays and cancellations because you finally cracked through a mini-block and need to keep momentum. Realize your debt to your fellow writers and betas, because they push you to work that potential that maybe you aren't wasting after all. Realize your debt to your readers, because despite that you literally are making it up as you go, they keep coming back and chipping in to find out what happens next.
Realize that every work is a labor of love, because if you don't love the labor, there's no point in doing it.

Morgqanza Floodway Opening

2011-05-14T14:19:00.003-05:00

According to the 1:00 Press Conference the Corps. of Engineers are confident in the levee and 'make-shift' levee systems protecting Morgan City. At this time there is NO evacuation notice for Morgan City. We are still continuing to pack up just incase. Morgan City will not really see the effects from the Morganza Floodway until Wednesday. For those who may not know they are opening ONE bay of the Morganza Floodway today at 3:00 pm (CT). And ONE to TWO more tomorrow. As of right now, they expect to open the Morganza Floodway at a total of 25% instead of the initial 50% thought before. There will be another Press Conference at 3:30 pm (CT) today.

Flood Waters and Hurricane Seasons

2011-05-11T12:46:00.000-05:00

The following has occured to me over the last few days:
1. I have always been correct in my ''predictions'' of the Hurricane Seasons' impacts on Louisiana since I moved here to Morgan City. There have been hurricanes that threatened/or succeeded in destroying parts of Louisiana every OTHER year since I moved here. Last year's hurricane season was an "OTHER year." We had a couple come this way, but without in real threat to anyone (at least that I can recall- please do not jump down my throat if I am wrong). This is a good thing, sure. But I found it rather odd in the same aspects.

2. Now with all the flooding that is/will happen, I understand why the Mother Nature held off last year. As if saying,"Okay, I gave you a break last year. Because of what was going to happen this year even before the start of Hurricane Season."

3. Here's hoping Mother Nature decides to give the states a break DURING hurricane season. There will already be so much cleaning up to do. (Not that I wish a hurricane to hit anyone at all)This is not suppose to be a bad year for hurricanes according to the pattern of recent years...but...It makes me wonder.

The Endless Trap

2011-05-05T21:56:00.001-05:00

3/3/11

The dream I awoke from this morning...

I woke up to realize I had fallen asleep in the master bathroom of my dream house. I let out a sigh of relief. I was glad to know I was in a familiar place. (In reality I have never seen this house before.) But I knew it belong to me; with that, comfort washed over me like a warm shower.

I sat up to take a look around. Light tan carpet covered the vastness of the floor, and a quarter way up the wall. Swirled chocolate brown into sandy tan wallpaper met the carpet. I got up off the floor to touch the walls. I felt the raised edges of each line of the swirl pattern as I ran my fingertips along the wall closest to me. It was magnificent. The wall seemed to sparkle as I touched it without losing its solidness. It was only then I realized it wasn't wallpaper at all. It was stone preserved in its natural state. It was magnificent. The two sinks across the room were white with gold facets, and a mirror that stretched over both of them, frame-less. Next to them separated only by a portion of a wall were the massive garden tub and shower.

I was then unwillingly distracted as two people came clasping in the doorway. One being tackled by the other in a fit of playfulness. I slide passed them careful not to become involved.

I found myself in the living room next to a group of people. The stereo was playing music loudly. I walked over, and turned it down. Some of the people standing around in the room stopped their conversations to look over at why the volume of the music had gotten lower.

Out of nowhere the music cut off, and a voice came over the speakers. I put my ear closer to the center speaker. Whispers came from it only I seemed to be able to understand. I wish I could remember what the voice was saying.

*******
Before I realized it I found myself standing outside on the most glorious of warm sunny days. A huge red rose bush stood next to me, in full bloom. The sun was so bright I had to shield my eyes from it to look out at the yard. I walked around the corner of the house only to be confronted by a group of people I had never met in my life. A tall lanky man with sandy brown hair and blue eyes, clearly the leader of the 'group' he was with greeted me with a simple "Hello." He gave me a smug ' I know something you will soon find out' smile. He was only smiling to keep his 'followers' from suspecting anything. I thought it was creepy, but I kept myself composed, so as not to show him he was already scaring the daylights out of me.

He held out his hand gesturing for me to walk with him. His 'followers' walked far enough behind us, so that if we needed to whisper we would not likely be over heard. I listened to his mindless chatter about the weather and what beautiful piece of land it was I had here.

Then he stopped at the top of a set of stone steps. He asked me to follow him and said "Not to worry, my dear. All will be fine in do time." Yes, I followed him, given the look in his eye, and the simple fact that I seemed to have nothing better to do at the time. "What harm could come of it." I thought. If I had only known...

He lead me to another beautiful two story house with white wooden siding and black shutters. We walked into the house; it was occupied by at least twenty other people. The guy looked straight into my face saying "Sit, you will be safe as long as you stay here with me." Nervousness welled up in my stomach as I sat down on the white leather couch. I leaned on my knees with my hands folded in front of me, tapping my left thumb against the base of my right thumb. I looked around hoping to find someone else to talk to. Someone who could better explain to me what was going on.

A sweet, quirky, high spirited man jumped into the seat closest to me on the adjacent couch. I jumped almost out of my skin as he placed his hand on my knee to get my attention (as if I wasn't already looking at him). He told me "This place isn't as it seems. Do not be fooled. I fear this place will be the end of all of us."

I looked around. Everything in sight was either white or cream colored. A white lily in a vase over there on the end table, a small cream colored round table with folding chairs scattered around. People lounged in them laughing and talking to each other. Even the little umbrellas in a few of their drinks were white. I thought to myself "Everyone seems so relaxed and care free. How horrible could this place possibly be?"

I excused myself from his company, hoping to make it outside. I thought maybe the fresh air would help me think, and soak in everything that had been going on. I tried to ignore my heart pounding in my chest. The guy was right, something was wrong about all of this.

I weaved my way through the small crowd in what looked to be the kitchen and out of the white framed sliding glass door. I was careful not to make any new contact of any sort with anyone. On the patio near the door there was a vacant, small, white iron table with a single chair. I almost ran to it for fear of someone else finding comfort in its solitude before I could. I cupped my face in my hands and started staring down at the surface of the table as my thoughts started to drift once again to questioning the purpose of all of this.

My thoughts were just as quickly interrupted by a solid black sedan pulling up on the concrete about twenty yards from where I sat. Loud booming music radiated from it. The incoherent lyrics of the song playing was only heard after the passenger side window was rolled down to reveal a chocolate skinned male face with short black curly hair. His eyes were covered by thick-rimmed sunglasses, and he wore a black leather jacket. He never said a word, just smiled a big white toothy smile at me.

From the opposite side of the vehicle came a swarm of small, red flying bugs that buzzed like that of a swarm of bees. I wanted to run somewhere, anywhere, but as my heart thumped in my chest and my pulse hammered in my ears. I couldn't move. I couldn't even force a muscle movement. I watched as everyone within my line of sight slumped to the ground dead. Each individual person, one at a time as the bugs swarmed around them. The bugs never came within six inches of any one person. "How, why is this happening?" was my only thought.

A sense of relief and continuous wonder washed over my whole body as I realized the bugs had been unsuccessful at killing me. They had given up and moved on to the unsuspecting victims inside the house. When the buzzing stopped and I was sure it was all over I found my ability to move, to look around.

The sun was still shining in the clear blue sky. I got up, slid the chair in and carefully stepped over the lifeless bodies of three people before sliding the glass door back open to reveal the sea of bodies that stretched from the kitchen to the far end of the living room.

I made my way across the two rooms and back to the front door of the house. I held my breathe each time I stepped over or around someone as if it would somehow make a difference if I stepped on any of them. Once I reached the door I quickly looked back to scan the room. My pulse thumped in my fingers as I held the doorknob. I slowly turned the knob wondering what I might face once I opened the door to its full view of the world.

Without looking, I snatched the door open-- just as quickly closed it behind me. Somehow I found myself at one end of a long hallway. I stepped away from the door knowing my only way out was at the other end. I made a mental nod in the direction as my feet followed. The entire hallway was egg shell white except each floor tile was dotted with gray paint.

I walked calm and collected until I stood staring up at a huge white machine with flashing red and green buttons. A woman's soft voice reverberated in the hallway around me saying "The bugs have given you a poison. You have exactly two minutes to complete the puzzle in front of you. If you complete the puzzle the door behind the machine will open dispensing a mist of antidote. However, should you fail...." The voice broke off with not another word. No explanation of what the puzzle was, or what is required to solve it. A red digital clock started ticking counting down to either my doom or my destiny.

I soon realized by spelling out the correct series of words the door would open. The words would light up green when correct and red when incorrect along while unlocking a dead bolt with each correct word. There were four locks total. As I got to the last word needed, I began to panic. My hands started to sweat; I could hear the sound of blood rush in my ears. What the hell was the last word supposed to be!? M-A... my fingers seemed to move involuntarily...key stroke after keys stroke. Out of nowhere I realized what the word was. Typing it in, I unlocked the the door with three second left on the clock. The most beautiful sound at that moment was the woosh of air as the air lock seal on the door was broken.

******

The world had become blanketed in a misty white fog. I walked into a yard of damp green grass, and across the narrow asphalt road to a nearby boardwalk. Each board was noticeably dark, old and weather worn, but still just strong as the day they were nailed into place.

As I walked with my eyes to the ground concentrating only on my tennis shoes and foot steps tap tap tap -- the way the boards moved and creaked with my weight.

Not long into my trance, I narrowed my eyes to my left. There I saw a fairly tall, beautiful young woman seemingly in her early twenties with long sandy brown hair flowing down to the middle of her back. Her skin, although smooth, was pale and in need of the sun. Her eyes were a muddy water brown flashing with as much kindness as her smile. She wore a plain, pink cotton dress loosely dangling down to her ankles. Her bare feet hardly made a sound with each touch to the wood. She simply asked how I was doing and if I had traveled far.

Before I could say anything her eyes averted downward as the tall man, previously mentioned, strolled up greeting me with a "Hello," acting as if the young woman did not exist. I watched her from the corner of my eye as she drifted off into the mist. The man moved into my line of sight so that my attention could be only on him. With a chipper voice he asked "How do you like the little place I have built here?" motioning to an opening in the walkway. I stopped at the edge of a great pool of water, grayed over by fog. Tiki lamps gave the only light around.

I looked back into the man face as he said "You know what you have to do to get back to the life you once had." Yes, yes I nodded. I did know. I looked back down into the water. I swallowed hard. The man had disappeared by the time I looked back over to my right.

I almost jumped out of my skin as the young woman touched my left arm. In a low almost whispering tone she explained "There is a small tunnel under the water over there." She pointed to the far right of the pool. "You must dive down, swim, and unlock the door at the end of the tunnel." With a smile on her face she handed me a old iron key. The word 'must' rang in my ears.

As I stood next to the woman, I tore off my tennis shoes and stripped of everything that might hold me back while swimming in the tunnel. I knew I would have to hold my breath, so every second counted. I clenched the key in my right hand; diving in before I could second guess what I was doing. Damn, the water's cold! After mentally shaking off the chill in the water I could not help but marvel at the clear crystal blue water that awaited anyone brave enough to want to see passed the gray surface of the pool.

The tunnel itself was rectangular in shape, made of stone and rather short in length. Its obstacles were the small cramped space in which one had to swim, and of course, the ability to get the door at the other end opened before panic set in due to lack of oxygen. I struggled with the old rusty lock. I grabbed the rebar door, and shook it hard in frustration. I was beginning to release air from my lungs without realizing.

I went back up to the surface only to dive back down determined to make my escape! With a final nudge of the door, it opened. I started to swim through it with a sense of satisfaction in my heart and a new found hope--I was getting out of whatever place this was.

Suddenly a rush of water came at me like an avalanche. It knocked me back through the door hitting my head on the ceiling of the tunnel. I fought my way beyond the tunnel, and the water. When I got to the surface again I lifted myself on the red and gray bricked patio I had surely left only moments ago. The only difference was there were no bodies to be found. I seemed to be the only person around living or dead.

The all too familiar buzzing filled my ears as the small red bugs did what they had been originally set out to do, previously.

Yes, I died right there in the bright sunlight on a beautiful cloudless day. I looked at myself as if I were only a soul having an out of body experience. I was looking at my lifeless shell. I reached out to brush the long brown strands of hair out of my face --to close my own eyes. Staring at me and trying to recall all the events that had lead up to this moment.

I woke up.

Mardi Gras Parade the night of March 4, 2011

2011-03-04T21:25:00.005-06:00

We left the house at about 4:30 PM. The particular Mardi Gras parade (The Krew Aphrodite) was scheduled to start at 6:30. As we were driving in front of the mall beginning to discuss where we were going to line up at on the side of the road for the parade we realized we had forgotten chairs to sit in. We went next door to Big Lots finding both a bright blue and a bright yellow folding vinyl chair.

Jay and Jenn decided to run directly across the road to Sonic as we still had plenty of time before the parade got underway. They came back with burgers for themselves and Ben and a Reese's blast for me. Boy, I wish I had thought about the possibility of rain before I asked them to get me ice cream LOL. Bitty ended up eating off of everyone food so she was happy lol.

The police blocked off the road, and no sooner did the first float come into sight (we were actually at the beginning of it all) did it start raining. It would pick up now and again, but luckily (for us anyway) there was no real down poor until we were getting ready to leave. Then it seemed as if we were going to be washed away with the flood LOL.

Anyway, enough about the rain. When the policemen on their bikes can through leading the parade with all their lights and sirens on Juju was mezmerized by them. hehe

Since this was the first parade Bitty has actively attended, when the first couple floats came by throwing things she didn't seem to know what to think. She started having fun though. She was even dancing to the music. Poor thing, the people on the floats would hand her toys and things; as the first four or five floats went by she didn't understand why the toys were being taken away from her as quickly as she grabbed them just to be tossed to into a big bag behind her LOL. Finally she just got to where she willingly handed over the toys without being asked. As if to say "Ah here, I know you are going to take it anyway." LOL

Oh by the way, if you have ever been to even the smaller Mardi Gras parades, like in Houma compared to wild and crazy parades that take place in New Orleans, you know to be prepared to get hit with handfuls of beads, small packs of beads (which seem to hurt the worst) and absolutely anything they decide to throw from the floats. Bumps, bruises and pain are common and likely. Bitty would get irrtated by getting hit with small things. Luckily they do TRY to be careful around the littler kids. I got hit in the stomach with a bag of beads, again on my thigh that still kind of hurts. One time something got thrown on the top of my umbrella so hard the metal of the underside of it met the top of my head. But all in all, everyone had fun!

Since everything, and I do mean everything, got soaked as we were packing up to go- there is now a dryer full of small stuffed animals being dried LOL. I said previously on my Facebook status that we made out like bandits simply because it was a blast catching all the stuff, scrambling here and there for things. When all is said and done we collected the majority of it for Bitty, of course. =)

Now, Bitty is in bed with dry clothes on and a full belly. I am sitting here on my computer hearing nothing but the sound of my fingers hitting the keys on the keyboard, and a fan blowing in my direction across the room as I get to share our evening with you, and store it away for Jules later on in her life.. =)

There has been talk of going to another parade tomorrow and Sunday as well. We will see. =)

A Dream Within A Dream

2011-02-09T23:30:00.005-06:00

(August 31, 2010 is when I had the dream, I posted this on February, 9 2011)

This morning's dream that I woke up from at about 5 am:

I was seventeen years old again, and ready to find my own way in the world. I told my mother I was going over to Kristi's house to stay the weekend. Which was true, I did go over to Kristi's house, and my initial intention was to stay the weekend.

Well, there were lots of people at her house when I got there. I do not know why. Anyway, I got bored mostly because Kristi was no where to be found, and I didn't know anyone else around. I was getting up from sitting on her couch when I decided just to go over to the party that was going on next door.

I, at least, knew my friend Bobby would be over there. (Now, I knew who Bobby was in my dream; in life I cannot recall ever being friends with a black guy named Bobby; whereas I pretty much grew up with Kristi from elementary school on up into high school.) Anyway, it turned out that Bobby was the only one I knew at the party, but he was no company, as he was too involved with a few of the girls there. So being that I am not really a social butterfly, when it comes to crowds of people (not even in my dreams) I went back over to Kristi's house to grab the duffel bag I had brought with me. I made sure I had my cell phone in my back pocket.

I headed back out the door, and down the road on foot without anyone seemingly noticing that I was there or was leaving. I didn't care. I was on my own, and I was going wherever my feet would take me, adrift in the wind, so to speak. I was wearing blue jeans, one of my favorite shirts (red with a huge rainbow heart on it.) and my black, blue and white tennis shoes. My duffel bag was the green bag with the purple mesh pocket in the front that I used to use when I stayed with my great grandma before she passed away. Why that particular bag ended up in my dream...I am assuming it is because of the comforting memories that go along with the bag.

*******

Days had passed, I was tired, and looking for a place to settle in for a few days. I walked up this long dirt driveway to a big beautiful old country house. No one was around on the porch, but something told me it would be okay if I walked up onto it without being invited. I walked from one side of porch to the other. The beauty of what I saw on the other side of that house... I can describe it, but I am not sure I will be able to do it justice. The bright spring sun lit up the acres of land before me. Gentle rolling hills being played upon by children young and old.

There was so much laughter and joy the air; I could not help, but to let it all soak into my skin like the roots of a flower starving for water. A smile stretched across my face as I settled in. Folding my legs Indian style as I sat down on the cool white wooden boards, I watched, quietly, each facial expression of everyone close enough for me to see. The sparkle in their eyes and not a care in the world expect for being there with each other.

****

All of of a sudden, I awoke as if from a dream within a dream, and found myself alone in a house. It was in the dark slightly after dawn on a rainy, windy day. It didn't take me long to realize I was somehow back at Bobby's house. I heard a few people calling my name from outside.

I walked slowly tip-toeing to the double hung window in Bobby's living room. Lowering myself to the floor peeking over the window ledge, but luckily I was still mostly hidden by the dark green curtains that hung down over the view. The people outside were none other than my mom, my step-dad and two younger twin sisters. I ducked down as my pulse quickened. I thought to myself. "No, I don't want to go home. There is the rest of the world out there for me. I am not ready for these feet to be grounded yet again." They were all yelling my name, and looking around for any traces that I might have been there. Somehow, I knew full well they could not get in the house; all the doors and windows were locked....

~I woke up~

Golf Cart & Barbed Wire Fence

2011-01-31T19:18:00.006-06:00

Taking my own trip down memory lane: An example would be the time Papa was rotfl at me after running my golf cart into the bobwire (yes I said bobwire lol) fence... =) =P

to continue...I was driving my golf cart in the pasture, it was a couple years before we put up field fence...Well, I tended to push the golf cart (old 3 wheel) to its limits. I went around a pine tree at about 35-40 mph. The golf cart tipped just enough to make me roll out of it. I knocked my face around on the floorboard somehow as I rolled out. I continued rolling and the golf cart gas pedal had gotten jammed at that point sending it into the barbed wire fence. I got back to the golf cart; did what I had to do to get it out of the fence. Then I drove it back up to Papa's lawn mower shop. Now, mind you, I was covered from head to toe in Florida sand, had a busted bleeding lip and bleeding nose to match. My fingers were cut up. All I could think is "Papa's gonna kill me!" Well, apparently he had a basic idea of what had happened. He threw me a shop rag, and was rolling laughing as he was trying to talk to me. I guess he thought it was so funny, as I told him what exactly happened that he decided not to be mad. I was relieved that he wasn't mad, but was so mad at him for laughing like he was at the time. haha =P I am lucky the golfcart did not end up in the pond! Geez LOL

The Dream I Had This Morning

2010-07-26T12:55:00.007-05:00

Me and Jenn went to this cabin type place for a girls' week away. And somehow I ended up the "lucky" one chosen to complete a series of life threatening challenges. If I gave up my whole family would be murdered. This meant anyone who was related to me, or anyone I consider family. If I died then the power that be would consider my life an even trade for my family's lives. If I completed every task I could go home a free person, no strings attached. I got my "orders" from a guy about my age. He would flicker into my dream kind of like Edward did in New Moon. He would give the instructions for each task as I encountered it, and disappear. Then he would return when I completed each task. In the end Jenn and I packed up, and we got to go home. The whole time we were there at that place, it was dark, gloomy and rainy. What a strange, scary, awesome dream!

Up to Seventeen Months

2010-06-17T11:58:00.010-05:00

Hello all,

Who is ready for some more picture of my little angel? Well, actually the first couple pictures are of Ben. LOL Ray and Jay taped a book to Ben's head, don't worry, they used painter's tape, so as to not hurt Ben or the book. LOL HERE and HERE they are. It was so freaking funny. Ben was cracking up laughing too.

Anyway, HERE is a picture of Juliana at Emily's Birthday party, she was having a blast sitting there by herself with only the bubbles and bubble wands for company.

HERE and HERE are a couple pictures of Juliana playing on her Paran and Nanny's air bed pillows.

She enjoyed her frosted mini-wheats that morning HERE.

HERE she is in all her cuteness. Also, it is the only day so far she decided to leave her hair in two pig tails instead of just one in the center of her head lol. Notice her onezie says: "What part of Princess do you not understand?" It was also the last outfit her Paw-paw bought her before he passed away. =')

Oh, and who can forget how much this child loves bananas HERE. My sister, Monica, HATES bananas with a passion, that seems to be as much as Jules LOVES them.

During one of the less stormy days a couple weeks ago she wanted to play in the rain, so we put a little swimmer on her, and set her out in her swimming pool HERE.

Ju-ju had decided to grab the baby power out of her room from her changer. Ray had forgotten to close the container after changing her diaper a lil' while before the pictures HERE and HERE were taken. LOL

HERE, HERE and HERE are a few pictures of my cool chick with her Tinkerbell sunglasses on.

She fell asleep in her highchair after eating lunch HERE. HERE is the picture of Jules after she was put down in her crib. She was the one who covered herself up. *smiles*

HERE and HERE she is after her Nanny and Paran bought her a ladybug costume, just because. =)

HERE and HERE is my little Jules on the day she turned seventeen months old.

Last but not least, HERE is a cute head shot of Juliana with her hair put up.

Here are Pictures Up-to-Date of My Dear Lil' One

2010-05-18T12:23:00.015-05:00

I know it has been a while, but here I am again with some more pictures.

HERE is a cute picture of Jules sitting with Honey in the spring sunshine right outside of the house. I love this blue-eyed picture taken at the same time HERE. Yep, I had to slide a black and white in HERE too. HERE Honey is just relaxing and enjoying the sunshine.HERE is her cute lil' smile.

HERE, HERE and HERE she is on the bank of the canal on River Road.

Another couple nice black and whites HERE and HERE.

HERE she is after she got done with the Easter egg hunt in the park.

HERE is a picture of Juliana with some of her Easter gifts. HERE she is with her Easter bucket on her head. HERE she is playing with one of the bowling pins from the set she got for Easter.

HERE is a good black and white profile picture of Jules.

There was also an alligator out there with us HERE.

HERE is a beautiful picture of Jules playing with her Daddy.

She was standing up all by herself HERE before we went to Florida for the yearly vacation.

HERE is another of Jules laying on her Paran.

One weekend we all went to the flea market in Lafayette. Ray and I bought Juliana a "Bumble Ball". HERE is a picture of the ball inside the bucket with the rabbits sitting on top of it. It was funny because the ball was forcing the bucket to not only bounce up and down, but spin around madly, making the rabbits look as if they were dancing lol.

HERE is a picture of my cool chick sitting on the ground with of shades on at Nana and Papa's.

HERE is a picture of Jules sleeping after Ray's Mom had taken her for a walk. Near the house at Nana and Papa's.

Check out the Bitty's dirty face HERE. UGH! LOL

HERE is a picture Jules as she took her first six steps, the day after we got back from Florida. We were back down River Road at that point.

HERE, HERE and HERE are a few pictures of her first experiences in a swimming pool. lol

HERE is a picture of one of the birds that stays around River Road.

HERE is a picture of Jules in the process of eating a white Easter egg M&M.

We stopped at a gas station one day, on the way to Cabela's and HERE is the lil guy that was on the windshield. Jay gave it to me and it rode on my finger all the way to Cabela's. It flew off just as Ray opened the driver's side door.

Juliana loves playing on Jay and Jennifer's air bed HERE lol.

HERE is Juliana as she was eating a bowl of spaghetti for lunch one day.

HERE is a picture of Jules after Ray gave her a black lickerish jelly bean lol.

HERE and HERE are the pictures of Jules as she was playing in her new pool with the water hose. She was having a blast soaking everyone (Ray, Ray's Mom, Ben and Me- Jennifer was filming it and Jay was at work at the time)

HERE is a cute picture of Jules with her hair up while eating a muffin.

HERE is a picture of Juliana playing with the vacuum after Jenn got done vacuuming their room. lol

HERE is a picture of Jules just chillin' laying on the dog's bed. LOL

HERE is a picture of Jules as she was playing in the blanket Ray had covering his legs.

HERE is a picture of Jules on the swings at the park. I thought HERE was a cute picture of Jules as she was standing next to her Paran. HERE is a picture of her starting to play in the dirt. HERE is the same picture in black and white.

HEREis a picture of one of the trees within the play area of the park. HERE looking up through the branches into the sunshine. HERE is a picture of the bark of the same tree.

HERE is a picture of Ju-Ju playing on the new train that we got for her from Wal-Mart.

On Monday we all hit the floor running, so we stopped off at Burger King for breakfast before going to out the Houma, HERE is a picture of the cutie.

HERE is Juliana playing with one of the boas we found at Hobby Lobby. hehe

HERE is the last picture for the moment. It is a picture of Jules pushing the cart at Sam's Club. hehe

I hope you enjoyed them =).

My Little Bitty Goofball

2010-02-23T23:36:00.021-06:00

Hello all,

On Saturday (February 20, 2010) Juliana did one of cutest things I have yet to see her do. We were getting ready to go to the flea market in Lafayette. Ray was looking for his other shoe. He looks down at Juliana, who was sitting on the floor watching him look around. He said, "Juliana where is my other shoe?". She looked up at him, looked around for a minute, and proceeded to take off her own shoe to give to her Daddy. As if to say, "I don't know Daddy, but here is mine if it will help." LOL If I must watch her grow up (because no one has found a cure for growing up), at least I can say it is times like that, that makes me look forward to her cleverness in the years to come, but yet dear Lord, help Ray and me in the same token. heehee

************February 26, 2010*************************
Yesterday, Ray and I bought a potty chair for Juliana. I just put her on it to see what she would do. She fussed which was what I expected.

Today,Juliana and I had a 'head on collision' which resulted in her first busted lip and the beginning on a headache for me lol. Poor thing, I felt so bad. I was getting her out of the crib from a nap.

Juliana also used the potty 2 times today! WOOHOO lol.

**************March 26th****************

HERE is a cute picture of Juliana wearing her Paran's shoes lol.

HERE is a picture of our new kitchen table.

HERE is a cute picture of Jules trying to get the last bit of carrots out of her bowl LOL

HERE is a picture of Juliana half way through a bowl of rice and shrimp in a brown gravy. HERE is a picture at about the same time. LMSO Every time I look at it I crack up laughing. To me she looks like she belongs in a Dr. Seuss book.

HERE she is in her blue ladybug outfit in Walmart.

Did I ever mention this child loves straws. HERE she is at Sam Club

HERE is an perfectly innocent blue-eyed picture. lol

I LOVE this high-chair picture HERE. HERE it is in black and white as well. HERE is another one hehe. What a ham!

HERE is a picture of the top teeth she now has. =) I will have take another picture, as they are actually out much further now.

HERE is my lil' bitty beauty in her yellow, right before going to take an Easter picture in the park. The pictures belong to Jay and I forgot to get one before they were taken home. Sorry. It was a cute picture of her sitting in a basket not knowing what to do with the fuzzy thing in her hands (it was a bunny, not a rabbit, a bunny hehe -for Monica lol-inside joke).

Last but not least HERE, HERE and HERE are picture of my lil' lucky charm in her Green outfit I bought especially for St. Patrick's Day.

HERE is a picture of a hawk I took while were fishing in the boat. HERE is an neat picture of a the tree out there as well.

**************March 27th****************

Usually Juliana waits until I come in the room to get her up. She usually wouldn't even sit up unless I am in there. It is official, Juliana now stands up and waits at the side of the crib to have some get her out. I am not looking forward to what she will be doing next. lol

Also, today she actually fussed to go potty. Now she had already gone pee in her diaper, but I can't expect perfection yet. She still went pee in the potty. I got her off the potty and put a clean diaper on her. Then she crawled back to the bathroom and fussed to go potty again. She then went poop in the potty. Of course, after she got up and I put the diaper back on her she must not have been done; I still had to change her diaper again lol. Boy, Juliana will like to kill me one day when she finds out Momma wrote this originally online for the world to see LOL. She'll have get over it! hehe

*************March 28th**************
We were all playing outside earlier all of sudden she came pretty close to saying "Bug" out of nowhere. Then Ray brought the bubble machine outside. She was doing her best to say "bubble". Now there are pretty of words she says but none completely crystal clear yet.

Oh, I almost forgot to say, for the last few weeks Juliana has been blowing kisses. She blows kisses to Ray when he goes to work or she will blow kisses when she knows it is time for bed (regardless of what time of day it is lol). It is so cute!

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-04T22:03:00.015-06:00

Hello all,

My very first nephew (by blood) was born February 4, 2010. Ian Gilbert Taylor joined this world at 8:07 PM and weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz (exactly one pound heavier than Juliana when she was born hehe). I want to say a special congratulations to my sister Maggie and boyfriend Deric! Welcome to parenthood! I haven't work in the parenthood field long myself, but I can say you are in for a wild ride. My wish for you is that the good days far out shine the rough days. =)

I hope everyone had awesome Valentine's Day! Ray, Juliana and I just kinda chilled out today. We did have to go to Wal-Mart for few things, but it wasn't a big deal. Ray and I got Juliana a couple stuff animals. Ray bought me some of my favorite yellow and pink roses and a 2010 Valentine's Day Bear. I have one for every year I have been here in Louisiana. I bought Ray some fishing line he wanted. I just wish Ray didn't have to go to work at 2:30 this afternoon.

Oh, Ray and I bought a new new bed for ourselves within the last few days. It is awesome! It is a memory foam mattress. I love it! We needed a new bed so badly. I am actually glad to climb in bed now. WOOHOO.

Anyway, who wants to see more pictures of Juliana? Well, here they are:

I hate to admit it, but the child really looks good in pink. Ugh lol! Although I do hate pink especially solid pink, I love the outfit HERE on Juliana. I think black and pink go so well together.

HERE is a wonderfully peaceful moment in the car LOL. I used the make-up mirror, to position the camera right to take the picture hehe.

HERE is a cute picture of Jules sitting with Honey in Jay's lap one afternoon. HERE, HERE and HERE are just a few nice shots taken at the same time.

HERE, HERE and HERE are few shots of Jules as she was getting good at pushing her car around the house.

HERE is an awesome picture Ray took of Juliana as I was holding her.

HERE she is as I was goofing around with one of my mixing bowls. No I wasn't going to cut her hair lol. I also caught this shot HERE at just around the same. I did not know I had caught her eyes like that until a few days later LOL.

HERE is a picture of Juliana playing in the bubbles from the bubble machine Ray had gotten for her birthday party. She was having so much fun until she started sliding around on the floor covered with bubbles lol. She got so mad. Ray had to rinse her off in the bathtub while I mopped up the floor. It was so funny!

Check out this BAZZAR picture taken with our same camera HERE with no settings changed on it. It has never done that before nor since. She was asleep in her crib at that point.

HERE is a cute picture of Jules as she was sitting in her high chair.

HERE is picture of her looking at 'her' new fish in 'her' new 14 gallon fish tank. Ray wanted to get it for her after he saw her reaction to the fish at her Great Aunt Flo's house.

And last but not least, for now, HERE, HERE and HERE are a few pictures of Jules with her Valentine's Day presents. The brown dog is taller than her as she sits on the floor and the white dog is just about as tall lol.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 15, 2010

Tonight was Juliana's first time with a bowl of spaghetti. No, I did not get a picture of the result. It did not even dawn on me that I should have taken a picture until I, for the most part, had her cleaned up in the bathtub. She did have a blast though lol. She was covered in it from head to toe. She had a full beard of sauce; she had the sauce up to her elbows and from her stomach down to her knees. She even managed to get a little on her heels lol.

P.S. -For the sake of Juliana's journal I did cut her bangs for the first time a couple of weeks ago. At first I tried to cut them while she was sitting up in her high chair. Let's just say it did not work well. The only way I was able to cut her bangs was to hold her down in her crib screaming and crying. It took me about 15 minutes, I succeeded in cutting the in a straight line just above her eyebrows. What an adventure. You would have thought I was killing her LOL.

WEATHER ALERT:

2010-01-30T18:43:00.003-06:00

Please be advised of Hurricane Who Dat with
Shockey waves and a strong Brees. It has already sunk a Viking ship in the Mississippi River right by the City of New Orleans.

It is now Sharper than ever with a very strong Will and a very Hartley kick to it. This storm is heading straight for Miami.

Any small animals, especially Colts,should brace themselves for this storm. It may be a Young storm, but Moore effective than most may think, including a flying Bush or two.

Feeling Lonely I Guess

2010-01-25T09:27:00.005-06:00

You may think I am just being a selfish whine-ass. It is okay if you do after you read this, but I need to at least write it down.

In my previous entries I wrote that I enjoy Jay, Jennifer and Ben coming over every night for dinner, and I still do, but why it is that unless I need help with something or help with Juliana in someway, the only time anyone comes over is when Ray is home. I feel like anyone who comes over to the house only comes over to see Ray or Juliana. I feel like as long as Juliana is magically taken care of everyday when Ray is gone, no one would actually give a shit whether I was here, or not. I even feel that way around Ray sometimes. Even before Juliana was born I felt that way. Is there anyone here in Louisiana that actually cares about me, for me and for no other reason. Just because.

Even Juliana seems to like being around Ray more than me.

Children are So Funny Sometimes

2010-01-22T22:36:00.002-06:00

Hey all,

I have been having trouble with Juliana drinking whole milk now. Breakfast is the worst for some reason. Finally, after trying other things, I called Jay the day before yesterday to see if he and Jenn would come over for a few minutes. It seems at night when Ray, Jay, Jennifer and Ben are around she does not put up near as much fuss about drinking the milk. I thought, maybe it has something to do with them, or at least having others around.

Well, it turns out when I got on the phone with Jay and was still near her, but not really paying as much attention to her she started drinking the milk. So I asked Jay just to stay on the phone with me for a few minutes to see if she would drink the whole 6 oz. of milk I gave her to begin with. She did too. And for the last two days I have either called someone, or pretended to be talking to someone on the phone. As long as I do not walk away, or look at her AT ALL she drinks the entire sippy cup of milk. It is the damnedest thing I ever saw. Leave it to MY daughter LOL =) But I figure, whatever works, right. LOL

Also the last few days when she is sitting up in her crib or on the our bed, if one of us blows in her face she will make herself fall back onto the bed. Then she waits for one of us to tickle her, or she will start giggling before we get a chance to. It is so cute!! =)

I am also writing to say we are burying Ray's Dad tomorrow (Saturday, January 23, 2010). As you probably guessed he was cremated and Ray's Mom has had him with her at their house. Ray's Mom said we could put small things such as pictures in the vault with him if we want. I am not sure at point if there is anything else Ray wants to put in there, but I have decided to put a wallet size picture of Juliana with Santa in among any other items that may be place in with him.

I Miss Ray's Dad (part 2)

2010-01-20T12:01:00.005-06:00

I didn't even realize that yesterday was 1 month that Ray's Dad has been gone, until I laid down in bed last night. Subconsciously maybe that is one reason why I was having such a hard time when it comes to memories.

Something else I thought about last night after getting off the computer was how much Dad enjoyed sending time with Juliana. For a long time lots of times we would over to his house which was more often than just Mondays and Fridays Juliana was born and he would keep her for Ray and I if we needed/wanted to go somewhere. Sometimes it was just for 20 minutes while we went to Movie Gallery to rent more movie because we had Powerplay. Lots of times we were rent scary or low budget honor movies because that what Dad liked more than anything. But even for those 20 mintues I always felt bad for leaving Jules with him as I felt like was dumping her on him. And the times when we would be gone for 2 hours running here and there, even though we were trying hurry, I felt horrible.

It wasn't until a few weeks or so before Dad died I realized how much it meant to him to spend time with her as they did. Much of the time she would play with or without him on the floor in front of his chair or even on his bed with her toys goofing round for awhile. Then Juliana would get tired and they would have a contest of who could fall asleep first hehe. I mean sure she put him through hoops sometimes too, but he didn't seem to love those times any less than the good times.

I don't have a problem with needing to take her everywhere with us now. I never really had a problem with it unless we had nasty weather anyway, but the one thing I do miss is a couples times Dad said he would stay home with Jules, so I could get a real break and go fishing with Ray, Jay, Jennifer and Ben. Otherwise Dad would have gone with them and I would have stayed home. But now it hits me really hard when Ray, Jay, Jennifer go fishing. It helps some that Ben stays with me and Jules, but it isn't quite the same when I really would like to go with them.

When it comes down to it, even before Juliana was born if I did go fishing with them I would fish for a while then put my pole down and enjoy the weather, unless of course I was catching fish. So now, I don't go fishing with them. At least not until Juliana a little older. Yes, there are family members that would keep Juliana for me, so I could go with them, but they are not "Dad". I mean no offense to anyone, it is just how I feel. Until I feel differently, I guess that is how it is going to be.

I sometime feel bed too as I think about the fact, Ray and I signed the final paperwork for the house on September 25, '09. Exactly a month later we all took Dad to the hospital. And almost two months after that he died.

I Miss Ray's Dad

2010-01-19T22:49:00.004-06:00

I miss Ray's Dad. Jay, Jennifer and Ben have no idea what it means to me for them to come over here just about every night for dinner. While "Dad" was in the hospital they would come over on Mondays and Fridays for dinner and wrestling just like we when Dad was around and Ray, Juliana and I would go over to their house.

Now, they come over, like I said, just about every night unless something major comes up. I do not know if it helps them all as much as it helps me. But on the days they do not come over it feels so empty in the house. Almost lonely.

If your are asking why we don't still go over to their house. Well, for one the bathrooms are not finished from repairs yet and honestly I am not even sure what is going on with all of it at this point. But the main reason why I try not to even think about going over there is I know it will hit me the hardest once I walk in the door and don't see him in his big recliner or in his bedroom playing solitaire on his computer.

Normally if he did not greet us/me at the door we/I (including Juliana) would all go back to the back of the house to his bedroom. I would peek in the door first to make sure I wasn't disturbing his nap, or the like. I would say "Hi, Dad" or "Helloooo Daddy" and he would say "Hi Jessie" or "Hey Jessie" and he would always ask how I was doing, always. He did that with everyone. If Jules was in there he would turn to her and ask "How's my little Peep Peep doing today?"

The only thing that is hard whenever Jay, Jennifer and Ben do leave is no one hardly ever says "Love you" or "Love you all". Our relationships with each other are different somehow. I mean we all know we love each other, but rarely say it.

Dad would always say, as we were leaving him house, "Love you" in some context and immediately following he would say "See you guys tomorrow. " Even if he knew it was a good chance he might not see us for whatever reason the next day. So it never fails to hit me every time Jay and Jennifer walk out our front door at night.

Aside from the foremost mentioned I miss not being able to call him when I have a question I think he might be able to answer, or even just to get him perspective on a situation. His opinion or knowledge on any subject always meant the world to me. The times that he would not know an answer to something would leave me a little shocked.lol He was never afraid to say "I don't know," but nearly always had some kind of funny, insightful or down right truthful answer to whatever IT happened to be.

Okay, well for right now I feel some better and am going to go to bed. I just needed to write some of the things down to kind of get it all out of my head, for the time being anyway.

Juliana Walking with Little Support

2010-01-19T10:54:00.005-06:00

Hey all,

I forgot to mention Juliana's doctor's appointment on the 11th. Poor thing not only did they have to give her 4 shots, but before hand they had to prick her finger to get a small tube of blood out. I think that was actually worse than the shots themselves. Probably because it was longer process.

Anyway, she now weighs 21 lb. 12 oz. (average) and is 30 inches tall. I was told out of 100 children she is taller that 75 of them. I did not think to ask if he meant 75% of the children the doctor sees or what. But she is actually taller than other kids now, and I hope it stays that way. I wouldn't wish her to be towering over everyone, but I if I had a choice I wouldn't want her to be short like me lol.

HERE is a simple but cute picture of Jules playing on the floor here at the house a few days ago.

HERE, HERE and HERE are pictures of her walking with her Paran last night, right before bed, with one hand. It is the first she has ever done that.

Shortly after Jennifer took the pictures Juliana started to walk with her Daddy down the hall toward her bedroom. When she realized where they were going she plopped down on her butt, and took off crawling into the spare bedroom where we have Ray's Dad's air hockey table as that is where we all previously were. lol

Juliana's 1st Birthday

2010-01-17T15:43:00.011-06:00

Hey all,

It's been awhile. Much has happened and lots of it I do not want to discuss here on my blog, although there are those who know what I am referring to. But for the sake of Juliana's journal I do want to say that her Paw-paw passed away December 19, 2009 at 7:43 in the morning.

Anyway, let's talk about my favorite subject rather than dwelling on the rough times. HERE is a picture I took of Juliana in Wal-Mart the day before her Daddy's, Paran Jay and Kirstin's birthday. She kept the reindeer antlers on just long enough for me to take the picture.

HERE is a picture of Jules eating a piece of her Daddy and Paran's birthday cake here at the house.

HERE and HERE are cute pictures of her with a Santa hat on here at the house.

Ray, Juliana and I spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning with Gina, Billy and Kirstin. HERE and HERE are pictures of Jules playing with her activity table her Nanny Gina got for her for Christmas. There is also the big stuff penguin we got for her as well. I do not have pictures of many of her Christmas presents. As it was we didn't open any presents here at the house until the day after Christmas.

We did not get back here until about 11:00 PM Christmas night as we were over at Missy's house until about 10:30 lol, but we had a good time.

I do have a picture HERE of Jules with a tube of Hershey's Kisses, hehe and HERE is a picture of her opening one of the pictures of Tinkerbell that Jay and Jennifer got for her.

HERE is a tired blue eyes picture.

HERE is a picture of Jules 'riding' on her penguin. She loves it. She also does the same thing with her big stuffed ladybug from last Valentine's Day.

HERE is a picture of her and her mashed potatoes at Ryan's a few days before her birthday.

HERE she is with a brownie and candle trying to get her to practice for her birthday. HERE she is after the candle is removed. All she wanted to do was grab at the flame on the candle lol.

HERE is the only way she will drink just plain water by herself. It is my one liter jug I use for water, so now we share lol. She will drink water out of a cup, but it is a mess to say the least lol.

HERE and HERE are pictures of Jules eating with a spoon lol.

HERE is a picture of the bumble bee cupcakes Jennifer made for Juliana's birthday. HERE is a picture of the ladybug cake Jennifer decorated as well.

1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE and 4HERE are picture of the big birthday cake that was ordered for Juliana's birthday.

HERE and HERE are pictures of Jules with some of her balloons and a little static cling lol.

HERE is a good picture of the cake right before putting the candle on. HERE it is with the candle.

1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE, 4HERE, 5HERE 6HERE and 7HERE she is with her own birthday cake. Jennifer and Jay ended up being the ones to give her a bath afterward in which she fussed as they were taking pieces of cake from her in the tub lol. Might I add there was a perfect ring of chocolate in the tub after the water was drained. HERE she is after the cake, a bath and a new set of clothes. By the way the first onezie she had on before said "What part of Princess don't you understand?". hehe

1HERE and 2HERE are pictures of her with a few presents -notice the duckie LOL she did not let go of it after getting out of the tub for a long time. She is so funny with the rubber duckies!!

HERE is a picture of Jules in the hat and mittens she got. HERE is a picture of the horse she got too.

Let me tell you a story about the horse. We were all in Wal-Mart before Christmas. Jay found the horse and she held onto it while we were inside the store. We took it away for part of the time, because we had found a bear with 2009 on the foot and was going get that instead. Shorty after walking away from the horse she kept looking for it and did not want anything to do with the bear, so needless to say we ended up putting the bear back and hunting down the horse again. However, we got lucky enough this time to be able to take it, put it in the trunk and hid it away until her birthday.

HERE is Juliana and Kirstin playing with one of Juliana's new toys.

HERE she is on the pink rocking horse we got her.

HERE and HERE are a couple pictures of some of the decorations we put up.

Well, I think that concludes this round. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and hope that you all have had a good start to 2010!

Catch Up to 9 Months

2009-10-13T21:27:00.010-05:00

Hello All,

I know it has been over a month since I posted anything of value, deal with it is all I can say LOL. I'm doing the best I can. ;)

HERE is a picture of Jules and her Daddy at the rental house.

HERE is an updated "Little Bright Eyes" towel picture. Still not as cute as the first, but hey she is a CUTIE if I do say so myself hehe.

HERE is a picture of her on the floor at the rental house.

HERE she ia sitting with her Paw-paw after he took off her first pair of real hard bottom shoes (which she does not wear very often lol).

HERE is Kirstin trying to 'help Ju-Ju' feed herself hehe at Gina's house.

HERE is a cute picture of Jules in her car seat. :D

HERE she is trying to figure out how to blow up her Daddy's laptop hehe. Can't you see it in her face.

HERE is a cute picture of Jules in the tub at the rental house. It was the very first time she not only did not mind being in the bathtub, but she played for at 15-20 minutes! Since that night I have had no complaints from her about getting a bath or even washing her hair.

Ain't She got it made - HERE LOL

I LOVE this photo in black and white -HERE She was looking down at her feet as she was standing up (still with support). HERE is another and she also does not mind having clips in her hair.

HERE is one of Juliana standing up by herself against her Paw-paw's chair.

HERE and HERE she is by herself in own rocking chair.

HERE and HERE are hair clip shots. She sometimes gets so annoyed at her curls that tickle her ears, so I started putting the hair clips in her hair Jennifer and Jay bought for her, one day. She does fuss during the process, but after they are in she does not mess with them. :)

HERE is the only picture I got to take of her on the 10th when she turned 9 months old. It is a bath picture here in our house.

Yes, for those who do not know we are officially moved in to the house we had built. Thank you God! :) We still are in the process of moving things out of the rental house, but we LIVE in OUR OWN house now. Mortgage payments start in November. JOY!!! LOL. It is still cheaper than renting a three bedroom, two bath place and it is OURS, so we are happy.

I have no pictures of the house yet. Trying to get everything mostly set up first. For the most part it is now, but the third bedroom is a eye sore right now LOL. At least everything in there is in boxes and not scattered everywhere. :) I will try to get some house pictures to you within the next few days. I miss writing on here for you guys. HUGS

Okay, That is about it for now except...Hey, you guys want to see some picturea I took while out fishing with Ray, Jay and Jennifer a few weeks ago. Ray's Dad watched Jules, so we could have a real break for a few hours. 1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE, 4HERE,5HERE and HERE is my favorite picture of the day.

By the way, you are lucky I love you because Halloween and Christmas are my two favorite holidays, and I have now missed most of the yearly "American Werewolf in Paris" on T.V. tonight hehe. I am hoping I get to catch it later. It usually only comes on during Halloween 'season', at least that I have seen. No, Mom I don't own it LOL. :)

See you guys around the bend.
**********************************************
10/13/09
I forgot to tell you last night, Juliana is 27 inches long/tall now. She is now over half my height eeekkkk LOL. I am 4' 10". Jules also weighs 17 lbs. 15 oz. and is well within range of everything the doctor keeps track of. :)

Our Powerplay in October

2009-10-06T15:20:00.009-05:00

Hello all,

The $40.00 Powerplay plan (split between two households) from Movie Gallery. Each movie is $4.29 Just on rented movies we would have spent $___ (not including tax).

We have already rented the following: (6 movies)

Shrink
Farm House
Surfer Dude
Trick r Treat
Year One
The Hills Run Red
Imagine That
My Life in Ruins
Drag Me To Hell
Assassination of a High School President
My Little Pony: Twinkle Wish Adventure
The Bloom Brothers
The Proposal
Land of the Lost
It's Alive
iMurders
Wrong Turn 3
Ice Age

Our Powerplay in September

2009-09-05T13:30:00.010-05:00

Hello all,

The $40.00 Powerplay plan (split between two households) from Movie Gallery. Each movie is $4.29 Just on rented movies we would have spent $111.54(not including tax).

We have already rented the following: (26 movies)

True Blood: Season 1-Disc 1
Adventureland
Crank 2: High Voltage
Dance Flick
True Blood: Season 1-Disc 2
True Blood: Season 1-Disc 3
State of Play
Bring It On: Fight to the Finish
True Blood: Season 1-Disc 4
Cravings
Wedding Bros
True Blood: Season 1-Disc 5
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Next Day Air
Gifted Hands
Contract Killers
The Informers
Shadow Heart
Grace
Observe and Report
Ghost Cat
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Management
Monsters vs Aliens
Two Lovers
The Last Word

Jules, Jules and more House

2009-09-02T13:00:00.002-05:00

Hello all,

ready for some more pictures of Juliana? Okay, okay!

A lady that goes to the Amelia Belle Casino, where Ray works, bought the outfit HERE and HERE for Juliana. She told Ray that it is likely now that she will never have a granddaughter, and she never had a daughter. She wanted to buy the outfit for Juliana, and just asked for a picture of her in it in return :). Poor woman has ALL sons and ALL grandsons. She says that at her age and at the age of her grandsons, she, more than likely, will not get to be a great grandma.

For about the last month or so heaven forbid anyone around Juliana should have food, and not share sooooo one day Jules saw me with a few thin mint cookies. HERE is the result of giving her half of a cookie LOL.

Juliana's stomach can only handle 4 oz of formula at a time, for a while now she has been able to hold her own bottle. But if an 8 oz bottle has only 4 oz in it, it becomes more difficult for her to hold up without getting a whole lot of air, so I am back to using 4 oz bottles. Thank heaven for them! HERE she is!

To keep all the small toys that we leave over at Ray's Mom and Dad's house together we bought small clear bin to put them in. HERE she is sitting in it while she was play with the toys that had been dumped on top of her. Although sadly, it will probably only be a couple more months before she will be unable to sit in it. Her legs are already beginning to get crunched up lol, but she loves sitting and playing in that box!

HERE is a cute picture of her too.

HERE and HERE she is pulling on Ben's hair, and ears while he did his best not scream in pain LOL.

Jennifer got Juliana some hair clips the other day. HERE is a picture of the first hair clip I ever put in her hair. Being that her hair is so fine the clips slide back out in a matter of minutes, but they are very cute! She does not seem to care that the clip(s) are in her hair either.

HERE is a picture of Jules stretched out on her Daddy's legs in his chair here at this house.

HERE is a picture of Jules sitting in her wooden rocker Ray found and cleaned up.

Jay and Jennifer brought her into their bedroom the other night. HERE is the picture Ray snuck in to take hehe. It was not until about an hour later they all woke up lol. HERE she is after they brought her back out into the living room.

HERE she is out a lil' scooter that Kirstin is now too big for.

HERE she is yesterday after trying to feeding her self with her spoon while held her bowl of food. She did not try to scoop the oatmeal with the spoon, of course, but she was doing okay feeding herself LOL.

HERE is Juliana playing in her Daddy's chair with some of her toys a few hours ago, TODAY.

HERE is a picture of the refrigerator and stove and at the front of the picture on the right side is the dishwasher. Everything has been plugged in and operational for able a week now.

Also, yesterday Austin came down from the America's Home Place Baton Rouge office to do the settlement. We went over all the paperwork, what he spent to build the house and warranties ect that we had to sign. We are just waiting on the bank to do the Closing, I am hoping it will be no later than next week. Then we can tell our landlord where he can put his house at! WOOHOO!! We were told it is okay to go ahead and put a mailbox up. Ray and I bought one yesterday, but forgot the numbers lol, so we will have the mailbox completely put up sometime today!

Something I forgot to add, our house is the very first house America's Home Place has ever built in Louisiana! They have been around for years, but had never actually built a home in Louisiana. So not only we were we their first house in Morgan City, but we were the first in the entire state, and so far, I would have it no other way! :).
After, a year, today, of waiting for a house to be built (due to Jim Walters closing and having to start over with American's Home Place) on our lot it is almost OURS!

Our Powerplay Movies in August

2009-08-29T21:00:00.003-05:00

Hello all,

The $40.00 Powerplay plan (split between two households) from Movie Gallery. Each movie is $4.29 Just on rented movies we would have already spent $111.54 (not including tax).

We have already rented the following: (26 movies)

Dead Wood- Another low-budget film for Ray's Dad 'young men and women out camping...serial killer' type.
Necessary Evil- Another low budget one for Ray's Dad . I did not pay much attention to it. Ray, Ben and I were playing the Electronic Monopoly on the living room floor at the time.
Pride and Glory-Another cops and bad boys on the streets movie that Ray and lost interest in. We shut it off and took it back to Movie Gallery to get the next three you see on the list.
Race to Witch Mountain-It was good for the same old sifi stuff. Nothing special. I was excepting more from Disney, I guess.
Soloist-OMG don't waste your time watching the movie "The Soloist" it starts out okay but drags on with the same crap over and over again round and round in circles basically. Jamie Fox's performance is WONDERFUL, but the movie itself has becomes boring. I am all for giving someone a hand up, and all for the "true story movies" but geesh.
Obsessed-It started out kinda boring, but if you make yourself watch after the first 20 or 30 minutes, you will not be sorry. AWESOME movie!
Delgo- It was cute. I do know if kids would be interested, but it is okay for kids around 10 years old.
War Wolves I agree with one of the user comments on IMDB (the link) "...the effects are poor, and the acting is laughable."
Labor Pains It was okay. It was better than "Herbie Fully Loaded" but not as good as "Georgia Rule"
Phoebe in Wonderland-I got bored with it and kids would too.
Cat's the Movie- This was so dumb. I think the director ect was trying to go for something like a "Milo and Odes" type thing. But it is low budget and a waste of anyone's time. It is video footage of a cat that gets out of his house in the city and gets lost while its 'mother' is gone for a couple days. All 'they' did was add voices to the footage. That is it!
The Baseline Killer- extremely low budget waste of time. Why would anyone even want to addmitt to being a part of this film is beyond me.
Road Trip Beer Pong- Another one of Ray's dumb have naked college frat boy movies.
I Love You, Man- It was pretty good. Funny and sentimental. Paul Rudd and Jason Segel work so well together.
17 Again It was good but most of the conpect is old news. BUT I have not seen anything like it in a while, so I guess that helps. Although, of course, the first thing that comes to mind is "13 going on 30". Personally I thought 17 Again was a little better.
Mutant Chronicles-No one ever finished watching this movie. It was dark and dim and even a bit hard to see the characters throughout what I did see.
Lonely Streets It was suprisingly okay. A bit low budget, but not a complete waste of time.
The Last House on the Left-It was a good movie, but for the most part, it was just as disturbing as "Deliverance."
Nature's Grave-This was a strange movie. James Caviezel actually plays an asshole in this movie. It stunned me. And the movie appears to have no real resolve. I applaud James Caviezel and Claudia Karvan performaces as you could really feel the tension between the two of them, but why they decided to be a part of this movie is beyond me.
Balls Out- The best way to decide this movie is "Mr. Woodcock" meets "Balls of Fury" Personally it wasn't horrible, but it was not great either.
Sunshine Cleaning This was incredible cute. I have not seen anything like it. It is not in my top favorite, or even one I would buy, but it was nice to see something different for a change! I do recommend it.
Fighting- I agree with the comments for the user on IMDB this movie is lifeless, with no good fighting scenes, No chartacter build, nothing. If you want to see Channing Tatum you are better off buying a poster than watching this movie. I have seen worse by more famous actors, but the line is thin. What a disappointment. Give me "Step Up" any day of the week!
DuplicityIf it wasn't for the sharp wittiness of Julia Roberts and Clive Owen it would have been even more boring than it was. It was like watching "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" without any of the action scenes. I can't say it was complete waste of time, but there is a thin line drawn.
Midnight Bayou
The Reader
Ghosts of Goldfield
Acoivtes
Plauge Town

Pictures of the Front Rooms

2009-08-13T21:17:00.003-05:00

HERE is a picture of the lil one after eating lunch. She loves that daggum spoon LOL...of all the toys we have for her LOL! ;)

Wanna see some pictures I took inside our house?

HERE is a picture of all the kitchen cabinets. HERE is a picture of the right side of the upper cabinet shelves. HERE is the left side. HERE is the sink. HERE are the kitchen lights. HERE is the small chandelier. HERE is the living room fan. HERE it is while the light is on LOL.
HERE is the pattern

They now have all the flooring down, but will have to replace some of it due to bubbles. And as of today, Ray went by to check everything out. The microwave, stove and refrigerator were delivered. Not in place yet though.

7 months Yesterday

2009-08-11T20:24:00.003-05:00

Hiya all,

The cabinet guy put in the kitchen counter top and double sink yesterday in our house. It looks awesome! When I can, I will post pictures of everything again.

HERE is a picture of Jules wanting to touch one of the biggest crabs we have ever caught! It was asleep from the ice they had on him. It was 8 inches tip to tip of the shell HERE, and about 17 and 1/2 inches claw tip to claw tip HERE.

HERE is a picture of Jules up high on her Daddy's shoulders hehe.

HERE and HERE are pictures of our 7 month old lil' girl yesterday as she was laying and sitting on her Paw-paw's couch. You see the outfit she has on? It is perfectly good, brand new! $1.00 at Wal-Mart just a few days ago. We also found Disney character outfits 2 for $3.00. We got all four sets they had!

What a Goffball! :)

2009-08-05T19:10:00.004-05:00

Hello all,

HERE do you think Jules enjoyed her first pair of shoes? LOL We had just taken them off of her. She snatched the one shoe up without missing a beat.

HERE she is a lil' while later on the floor.

HERE is the ladybug atop the 'big' Ladybug as she has the sea turtle by the head! hehe

HERE she is with her Daddy.

Ray had been laying down with her on the couch when he realized he needed to get ready for work, as he is now working swing shift (3-11 PM). In an effort not to wake Juliana up he set her down in the laundry basket full of clean clothes lol. She slept right there for a good 30 minutes or so hehe. See it HERE.

HERE she is after emptying the Easter basket full of small toys we usually leave over at Ray's Mom and Dad's house.

HERE is a cute one of her goofing around. I do not remember what she was reaching for.

HERE is one after she was done reaching. HERE it is in black and white as well.

HERE is another black and white of her Paw-paw beginning to play with her pacifier. I just like the shot.

HERE she is in all her glory -pacifier, drool and all lol.

HERE is a black and white of her chewing on a lil' beanie baby.

Oh, by the way, Austin says it is looking like we MAY be closing on our house by the end of this month. Here is hopin'!

Gazebo Dream

2009-08-04T18:03:00.001-05:00

Here is a lil' tid bit about me no one would know otherwise. And this may sound sappy to some, but get over it LOL. You want to know how I knew Ray was the one for me? If you have the ability, you can go look at my farm, or if you choose HERE is a close up of it. In the back left corner of my farm you will see a new gazebo. In the middle of the gazebo is a rose bush. I had a dream a few weeks before I moved here. Ray and I were sitting in a gazebo. He hugged me, and I hugged him back. As we hugged the world around us started spinning. When it stopped a single dark pink rose grew from the middle of the gazebo. I have researched the meaning of this dream. The basic meaning is "contentment".

Our Powerplay Movies in July

2009-07-28T16:00:00.008-05:00

Hello all,

The $40.00 Powerplay plan (split between two households) from Movie Gallery. Each movie is $4.29 Just on rented movies we would have already spent $90.09 (not including tax).

We have already rented the following: (21 movies)

Knowing- It was okay. I don't think the role really fit Nicolas Cage
Haunting in Connecticut- AWESOME nice twists on the 'old haunted houses' theme
Unborn- It was good but incredibly strange.
The Code- Pretty good movie. No one better to head a heist than Morgan Freeman
Inkheart- It was not bad. But so predictable I got kinda bored.
Return to Sleep Away Camp- Can we say "2000" and "2001 Maniacs" geesh. If you like low budget gore this one is for you which in this case Ray and Ray's Dad loved it lol.
12 Rounds-The movie was pretty good, but the concept is old. Actually the first movie that came to mind (one of favorites) "Speed".
Simon Says- Another gore fest we picked up with Ray's Dad in mind lol
Street Fighters: Legend of Chun-li- It was good/interesting. Some awesome action scenes, but altogether not one of my favorite action movies.
Powder Blue- Mostly an excuse for men to a woman's tits. Although it reminded me of "Crash". Crash was better though. I do not recommend.
Rec- the Spanish dubbed version of "Quarantine". Ray and I shut it off. I hated "Quarantine" to begin with, but since we have the Powerplay Ray thought we could give it a shot without losing too much lol.
Horsemen-Awesome. I have not seen that type of murder mystery in a while.
Push- It was alot better than I thought it would be. Watch it. You will be surprised.
Coraline- It is good. It is rather creepy for a claymation, children's type movie. I would not recommend it for any child under 10 years old. Possibly a lil' younger I do not know. It would have given me nightmares as a child.
Watchmen- I think it would have been better if I had paid more attention to it. It jump between the past and present, so often you have to have your eyes basicly glued to the T.V. to understand everything.
Big Stan- Ir sure enough is a Rob Schneider movie. There are some of his movies I only put up with when Ray watches them as he loves Rob Schneider, this one was not too bad.
Home- It kinda sucked and I am sorry to see Marcia Gay Harden's sunk her down to that level. Maybe it was just that I could relate to the movie well enough. I do not know. It is not one I recommend.
Confessions of a Shopaholic- It was cute. Reminds me of Gina LOL hehe. But not one I would want to own I don't think.
Hydra- Another Sifi "Attack of the..." type movies.
House- Another B-rated low budget horror film (but Ray's Dad liked it hehe)
Bled- It was not one of the best vampire movies I have seen, but it wasn't bad.
Fast and Furious- AWESOME - still not as good as the first, but better than the others. :D
Miss March- Stupid comedy type. Just an excuse to show off women's parts.
Skeleton Crew-Another B-rated -really low budget film, but Ray's Dad seemed to really like it. We got it for him anyway.
The Messengers 2: The Scarecrow-Pretty good! In someways better than the first, although there is not much correlation at all between the two.
Unspeakable- OMG what a low budget disturbing movie. I really do not recommend this at all. ...About these kids that get locked up in a room by their foster parents. All they want them for is the government money. But the things that go on for one reason or another are horrible.
Carnivorous- Another B-rated low-budget, but not half bad for what they had to work with. You would like it if you like all the "Snake" movies.

Pictures of Tatum

2009-07-24T19:43:00.003-05:00

Hello all,

HERE is Tatum, my now 10 month old second cousin and her mom (Tara).

HERE is one of Tatum crawling. I did it in black and white.

1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE, 4HERE and 5HERE are some photo ops of Tatum and Jules together.

HERE and HERE is Tatum the night we all played with the bubbles.

HERE is Tara playing with Tatum and the bubbles that were floating by.

Some Florida Pics of Jules

2009-07-17T17:42:00.012-05:00

We left here to go to Florida on Saturday, July 4th 1:00 PM CT. We
got to Nana and Papa at 1:30 AM ET. We finally got Jules back to sleep around 4:00 AM ET. She got back up at 8:00. Which means Ray and I only got about 4 hours of sleep.
Photo link SHOULD be fixed for this entry now.

HERE is a picture of me holding Juliana while she was trying to sleep on Sunday first day we were at my Nana and Papa's house.
HERE is a picture of her playing on the floor next to her grandma.

HERE she is sleeping again.

HERE she is standing with her Daddy's

HERE she is on her Daddy's shoulders.

HERE and HERE are pictures of a soft shell turtle Ray caught in Papa's pond.

HERE is her and her Daddy again.

HERE is Juliana sitting outside with her Grandma.

I LOVE this picture HERE. Her Bib says "BOSSY beyond belief!" hehe

HERE is one of the many pictures of Juliana looking at the bubbles Ben was blowing for Jules and Tatum.

HERE and HERE are her beautiful smile.

~~~Back from Florida

HERE is Juliana sleeping on her Daddy after we got back from Florida.

HERE is another smile! :)

HERE is another profile smile. She looks like a cute lil' furby!

Standing up with her Daddy HERE.

Playing with Woodstock and her ladybug HERE.

HERE she is sitting in between her Paw-paw's feet. Do you like the black and white?

Juliana is now on stage 2 foods. HERE is what eating the first half of it looked like. HERE she was while we were warming it up some more. HERE she was at the end lol.

HERE she is with her first pot and wooden spoon sitting on her Daddy's lap. :) I like it better in black and white.

HERE is one more smile at her Daddy! It is also my Facebook profile picture as well.

More of Juliana and Tatum coming soon!

Sorry I Took so Long to Post

2009-06-26T09:20:00.005-05:00

Hello all, (please note the post date)

HERE and HERE is a picture of what our house looking like right now. The electrical wires ect have been ran. The A/C unit has been installed along with all the duct work.

HERE is a picture of Juliana holding her new sippy cup with mixed fuit juice in it. She has a much easier time holding the cup as it has handles. As soon as she can hold it more naturally the bottle will be gone.

HERE is another raised eyebrow lol.

On June 22 at 8:23 Isabella Lorelai was born to Jeremy and Amanda. Everyone is home now. I have not called yet as I am afraid of disturbing them. She is so cute. At the hospital I got to feed her two different time hehe. And No, I do not want another one right now lol.

HERE is a picture of Juliana in Jay and Jennifer's room trying to eat Jennifer's "bottle" lol.

HERE is a picture of Jules while being changed into another outfit.

1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE, 4HERE are a few more pictures of her while in Jay and Jennifer's room.

HERE is a cute one of Jules in her Paw-paw's arm.

HERE is a cute picture of her in her Daddy's lap here at the house.

I am hoping to have pictures up soon of our trip to Florida to see my side of the family. Hopefully Tara (my cousin) will let me post pictures of Tatum (her daughter).

5 Month Pictures

2009-06-18T10:17:00.010-05:00

Who wants to see the poofs for Juliana 5 month Father Day pictures?
HERE1, HERE2, HERE3, HERE4,HERE5,HERE6, HERE7,HERE8, HERE9,and HERE10
All of these are ©Picture Me Studios, and I am only posting these for examples, so no one has permission to repost these in any way.

Other than that, all I ask is do NOT tell any of Juliana's grandpas lol.

HERE and HERE is Juliana holding her bottle, although she still does not actually hold it up by herself completely yet.

HERE she is just playing with her bottle.

Juliana and her Daddy HERE.

The picture Ray took of the house was after sunset, so it is not worth posting, but hopefully we can get a better picture today.

Ray, Jay and Jennifer started moving off some of the trees from the lot yesterday too.

Ms. Helen

2009-06-17T10:04:00.005-05:00

Ms. Helen passed away. Ray called me at 8:30 this morning to tell me. Now that I have quit crying, I am in complete shock. Mr. Ernie found her passed in her sleep. Brenda is there with Mr. Ernie now. Poor Mr. Ernie. Last time I talked to him, he told me Ms. Helen was his best friend, and they never kept secrets from each other. For example, he said he had a hell of a time just keeping the fact that Ms. Helen was going to be "Supervisor of the Quarter" from her for the few hours he knew before the ceremony.

It has only been a couple months that they have had a roof back on their house. It has only been a few weeks since they were able to move back into the house. They had been staying in a camper in front of their house all this time.

I feel so bad for Brenda too. Ms. Helen was one of her best friends. Brenda lives right next to them.

What is sticking with me most is that all that Ms. Helen has done for us, she never got to see Juliana. Every time, we would pass by their house they either were not home, or we had to be somewhere to be, and could not stop.

Rolled Over

2009-06-13T15:03:00.005-05:00

Juliana just rolled over by herself on the floor! I have een worried about it, because of how much she does not like being on the floor particularly on her stomach.

Ben is playing "Crash Nitro Kart" on our play station 2 and Juliana wants to look at all the colors I think. So she turned completely over to see the T.V.

***************
Now she is trying to do it again just because I think she realized what she can do now. I am so happy I do have to worry about it anymore!! :)
**********************
10:12 PM
This evening she was back on her playmat and rolled completely around -meaning from her back to her front to her back again! :)

5 Months Old

2009-06-13T13:22:00.001-05:00

Hello all,

Ben has been over here with Ray and I for the past four days because Jennifer had a surgery done on Wednesday, plus he is a big help to me around here. I am glad he was here on Wednesday (the 10th) because it was one thing after another with Juliana.

First off she only sleep a total of an hour all day yesterday, which is unlike her when we are at home.

Two, at about 10:00 in the morning Ben and I were playing with while she was sitting in her swing. She started fussing. I figured A)she had decided she wanted part of a bottle, B)she was already ready for a nap, or C)she just wanted to be held. Well, about an hour and half before then I had fed her oatmeal cereal with apple sauce mixed in. It was her first time having apple sauce. With that said she had plastered the swing with...if you do not know what I mean than nevermind. I took her into the bathroom to give her a bath (she needed one anyway). At that point the dogs needed to go outside, so I had Ben take them outside. I finished washing her off, and there was a knock at the door. Apparently Isabell had gotten away from Ben, and ended up in one of the neighbor's yards. The neighbor, I guess unaware of the fact that accidents happen, comes over knocking on the door fussing at me about the dogs while she was still in the bathtub screaming to get out. Not to mention, when I answered the door I had the stuff all over the front of my shirt.

After he left I got her ready to come back on in the living room with me. I was going to set her back in the swing as I needed to do something. I had completely forgotten the swing needed to be washed first, so she and I both had to be washed off again. I also had to change my shirt for the second time.

I had Ben take the whole swing outside to spray it off after fighting with the cover for 15 minutes to take it off to wash it. I ended up waiting until Ray got home to get it completely off.

Wednesday not only was she 5 months old, but at 5:00 took her to Wal-Mart to get Father's Day pictures done. They will not be ready until the 23rd of this month, so I will not be sending out Father's Day cards until we get the pictures. I wasgoing to post the previews of the photos, but I have not got the e-mail with the link to them yet. I was told they would be visible ect. within 24 hours. I will be calling the studio Monday.

HERE is a picture of Juliana watching T.V. gripped on to me. It was so cute, and I don't recall her ever doing that before.

HERE is a picture of the concrete foundation all dried, and the wood bracing have been removed.

HERE is a picture of the house mostly boxed in with the press work. Ray needs to wash his window LOL.

Yesterday, they papered the outside of the house and put half the trusses up. Because of the house being down an alley the crew had to carry each truss one by one up to the house. Poor guys. They must have been cursing us the whole time. HERE and HERE are one of the pictures Ray took of it all.

HERE is a picture of Jules in the jumper Jay gave to her. We were using it as a swing for her at that point.

She has started on fruits now (aside from in her oatmeal), and bananas are a success. HERE is a picture of her after eating.

HERE a picture of her standing against her Daddy's legs after eating her dinner of carrots yesterday evening.

She also pulled the toy on her playmat and made it play music for the first time on Thursday!

House and Juliana

2009-06-06T10:54:00.011-05:00

Hello all,

They crew laid the wire and such for our house yesterday HERE. The next step should be to pour the concrete on Monday. They would have actually had it done this week if not for all the rain.

Because of all the rain the sea wall has been closed for about a week now. The dock is underwater, but slowly becoming visible again. They have not had to close the sea wall on the Berwick side of the bridge, but with the way the dock is built over there the only way you would know there is a dock is by looking for the pilings. Even they only stick out of the water about 2 foot.

The crew, working for Phil, was able to finish the roof on this house yesterday. They were still working when Ray and I left to go over to his Dad's house. The city still had not come to pick any of the branches-surprise, surprise. When we got back last night the crew must have piled about 70% of the tree limbs in the dumpster that they had brought in for working on the roof. Which means Ray was able to pull in the yard. I was able to get out and get into the house without having to worry about it. They must have seen how Ray had to park the car in the alleyway to get Jules and I in the car. Or the pile started getting in their way too. I don't know.

We went to Wal-Mart yesterday evening to start buying curtains ect for the our house. If we buy a lil' here and a lil' there it is less we have to worry about once we move in. I picked out a beautiful blue and gold set of curtains for mine and Ray's bedroom and a wooden curtain rod (on sale) that will not go with the blue and gold curtain blue should go perfectly with the teal curtains I want to get for the living room. The only curtains I refuse to buy at Wal-Mart are the small kitchen/bathroom ones, unless they get a new a better shipment in before I buy somewhere else lol. There are now even any I can make myself deal with at the moment.

I found a 'fathead' type Tinkerbell wall sticker, other Tinkerbell re-positionable wall stickers and matching re-positionable growth chart all on sale for Juliana room. So as it sits now her room is not going to be one theme entirely. For her bathroom/the guest bathroom I think we are going to do frogs and ladybugs. I have even found ladybug curtain rod rings on E-bay.

Who wants to see a couple pictures of Jules?

Well, HERE is a picture of her playing with a container of Jay and Jennifer's cookies. She was fascinated by the color and the loud crinkling sound it made when she grabbed or beat on it. Of all the toys we have for her, she wants a plastic cookie container! LMSO.

HERE is a picture of her sleeping on me about an hour later. It is so funny how she seems to find the most uncomfortable position to get comfort! Then after she falls asleep she is nothing but 15 lb. 6 oz. of dead weight LOL. Actually I was able to move he a lil' to get more comfortable before the picture was taken.

Also, within the last couple days Juliana has got this rocking thing going on. Whenever she is sitting up with or without our support she rocks back and forth, especially, if she gets excited over something she wants to get a hold of lol. It is so cute, but at the same time a bit scary. I am just waiting for her to fall on her face.

Pictures Today

2009-06-02T16:58:00.004-05:00

I have some pictures for you today!

HERE is a cute picture of Juliana in her car seat. Can anyone guess what she is thinking LOL.

Pictures taken at Jeremy and Amanda's House:

HERE is a picture of Juliana and "Chick" laying on Emily's bean bag at her birthday party on May 24th.

HERE is as picture of Juliana sitting up by herself in the bean bag. HERE she is again by herself in the bean bag.

HERE and HERE are pictures of Juliana and her Daddy.

HERE is a picture Juliana starting to walk toward me. I should have taken it as the flash was right in her face, but I am sharing it anyway because it turned out to be a cool picture.

At Our House:

Thursday night (May 28th) was her first night sleeping in her crib on the other side of the room instead of right beside me/the bed in her bassinet. I actually had a hard time sleeping that night LOL. I can only imagine how hard it is going to be on me when she starts sleeping in her own room after the house is built. Anyway, HERE is a picture of her laying vertical in the crib when I woke Friday morning.

HERE is what the Lot looked like on Friday afternoon after Ray got off work. I may be able to take a picture of it with all the piping done today, but they may start pour concrete today I do not know. I did not have the camera with me yesterday afternoon, but the city inspector was out the inspecting the piping later yesterday afternoon. Jay said he passed by there and saw him (Jay used to work for the city).

Austin said, their goal this week is to at least get the concrete poured. So I may not get a chance to take a picture of just the pipes before they pour the concrete, but honestly, that is okay with me LOL. :D

The guys are supposed to be finishing cutting down the trees today. You would believe what happened! One of the guys left his chainsaw over there Thursday afternoon. When they came back Friday, someone had filled the gas tank full of sand. My bet is the little kids that live next door, or possibly the neighbor who has been wanting to buy the Lot for years. So that put a delay on the trees, but Austin said they are suppose to cut are the trees into manageable pieces for Ray and Jay to haul off. I hope they get done cutting them soon as it will give everyone else more room to work. Anyway it could be that my next picture is of the full foundation!

Oh, HERE is a picture of the house building permit and such hehe.

HERE is a picture Ray took of Juliana laying in my chair hehe.

HERE is another picture Ray took of Juliana in her crib Sunday morning before church LOL!

HERE she is on the bed in the outfit she wore to church.

Last but not least, HERE is a picture of Juliana sitting on her Paw-paw's shoulders watching T.V. last night. hehe

Juliana started green beans yesterday. At least she seems to like them better than peas lol. Also, I tried the oatmeal cereal again this morning. She ate every last spoonful after she quit crying. The only reason she did though is because I put a whole serving of peaches in it LOL.

A couple of side notes:

I cannot WAIT until we can move into OUR house. Guess what our landlord did on Sunday! He and his yard boys clipped all of Phil's trees and bushes, and just so they would not mess up his own yard in front of his house he had his boys pile ALL of it in our yard! It would not be that big of a deal except the pile is 7 foot high (not joking) and about 10 foot wide. Ray only has about 6 foot or so to pull up in the yard beside the house. I almost killed myself last night trying to get things out of the car to bring inside. Even walking to the house without carrying anything is a task. Phil is damn lucky I did not fall and break my arm last night. Because then I would not even be able to walk around. Excuse me, but he is a pompous ASSHOLE! He either is completely oblivious to what a pain in the ass he has made it for us, or he completely does not care. Believe me I have made my feelings known.
Although, we met him in Wal-Mart and talked to us like we are all good buddies. When all I wanted to do is smash his teeth in!

On a better note he FINALLY has a small crew of guys fixing the roof properly as we speak. Juliana s loving all the bumping and thumping LOL. The roof has needed to be fixed for over two years now, especially after Gustaf. The house has not been unlivable, but the spot in the bathroom was soon to start leaking through the ceiling. Oh guess what. The guys are still out there, but it has just started pouring it's butt off outside. I guess we will see how long the rain lasts, how they decide to stick around. Oh did I mention that the guys are complaining amoungst themselves about the pile of branch in their way. I am waiting for one of them to knock on the door, and say something to ME about it! Oh, boy...!

Our Powerplay Movies in June

2009-06-01T17:01:00.005-05:00

Hello all,

The $40.00 Powerplay plan (split between two households) from Movie Gallery. Each movie is $4.29 Just on rented movies we would have already spent $25.74(not including tax).

We have already rented the following: (3 movies)

Hit and Run
Spiker
Snow Angels
Labou
Incendiary
Personal Effects
Defiance
Devil's Tomb
Revolutionary Road
The International
Grand Torino
Fired Up
He is Just Not that Into You

No Boat Ride

2009-05-28T09:37:00.009-05:00

I started Juliana on Squash yesterday. She seems to love the squash as much as she does carrots WOOHOO!

HERE is a cute picture of Juliana after she got her dirty butt washed off lol.

On Tuesday, (May 26th) The power pole was put up on the lot, and yesterday the city should have hooked up power to it. Also, yesterday there were two guys over there cutting down the trees. I am sure Ray will get

The supplies for framing the foundation have been there since thursday or Friday or last week.

Ray, Jay, their Dad and Jennifer have all been running crab traps. With that said I was going to tell you about Juliana's first boat ride, but I cannot do that. To keep this from being a "...and that's when the fight started" situation let's just say the boat never made it into the water. Ray and Dad were going to launch the boat at The Locks basically around the corner from his Mom and Dad's house but we have had so much rain lately that it is flooded in areas and was too high to rick launching there. On our way to another spot somethings happened with Jay's boat. Long story short everyone got mad at each other and we came home.

As some of you know I finally decided to jump on the bandwagon by trying out Facebook. I do like it, but I am not complete hooked yet. I am still learning. I think it will just be a place I go when I have nothing else to do.

As soon as Juliana is up and running around I think that will be few and far between lol. Right now she still sleeps much of the time during the day. I think she recuperates from going like an energizer bunny after Ray gets home from work each day. When Ray is home it seems we are always doing something normally out of the house, especially lately since they have been running crab traps.

It really kinda hurt this year that Ray did not want to go do something just the two of us for our 'anniversary'. I know we are not married, but we have always recognized it as the day we got together. Some may think I am just whining. That's fine. But it matters to us. I guess, it did not matter enough to Ray this year. But if I had said anything he would have just gotten pissed off, and I did not want fight with him about it.

37 Things About Me You May Never Know Otherwise

2009-05-27T07:37:00.005-05:00

Learn 37 things about your friends, and let them learn 37 things about you!
Send back to me and to several more friends!!

1. Do you like bleu cheese?
I like to have it as a dip sometimes.

2. Have you ever smoked?
No

3. Do you own a gun?
Ray has a couple guns I do not usually mess with, I could if I needed to.

4. What flavor Kool Aid was your favorite?
Orange

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
Yes, I always have

6. What do you think of hot dogs?
For the most part I do not like hot dogs. I will eat them if I am at someone's house, and that is what was cooked. I may eat a corn dog now and again, but for the most part I would take a slider over a roller any day.
We do not even keep hot dogs here at the house.

7. Favorite Christmas movie?
Any of the classic kids movies

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
It depends on what I want at the time. Sometimes coffee, but I usually drink water or milk.

9. Can you do push ups?
Yes

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry?
I love all my jewelry the same simply because it all has sentimental value in one way or another.

11. Favorite hobby?
PSPing, Blogging

12. Do you have A.D.D.?
No

13. Do you wear glasses/ contacts?
No

14. Middle name?
Yes, I have one

15. Name 3 thoughts at this moment.
1. When is Juliana going to wake up next.
2. wondering how I am going to like Facebook.
3. Are we going to Ray's Mom and Dad's again tonight.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink?
1. Water
2. Milk
3. Coffee

17. Current worry?
Our house that is being build and all the stuff we are going to have to buy to move in when it is finished.

18. Current hate right now?
People who do things you have ask them not to.

19. Favorite place to be?
With my family

20. How did you bring in the 2009 new year?
Pregnant- I may have even been in the hospital. I do not remember off the top of my head right now.

21. Where would you like to go?
To see ALL of my family and my best friend, Manda, in Florida. Then to GA to see my Dad and other family up there.

22. Name three people who will complete this.
Her, her and ummmm...she might

23. Do you own slippers?
No

24. What color shirt are you wearing?
orange with navy blue sleeves

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?
I do not think I ever have.

26. Can you whistle?
No

27. Where are you now?
At my computer.

28. Would you be a pirate?
No

29. What songs do you sing in the shower?
I do not sing in the shower, anymore lol

30. Favorite Girl's Name?
Juliana

31. Favorite boy's name?
Dominick

32. What's in your pocket right now?
a cordless phone

33. Last person that made you laugh?
my daughter

34. What vehicle do you drive? I
do not drive, but we have a Chevy, Malibu (car)

35. Worst injury you've ever had?
when I injured my tailbone falling out of a tree.

36. Do you love where you live?
Not really, I guess mainly because I miss my family all the time. I love 'Ray's family' too and would miss them, but I am hoping you know what I mean. Plus, there is not enough open space here.

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2

An Entry Anyway lol

2009-05-23T10:33:00.007-05:00

Today is Saturday, May 23rd, and it is the second day without any internet here at the house.

I am writing all this down in Notepad until we get internet back on Monday between 1-5 PM.

It really figures that today of all days Juliana decides to sleep until about 8:00, and I was awake before 7:00. Because this house is so small, any type of cleaning I do while she is sleeping just wakes her up. So I usually wait until Ray is home to do anything. Which I know probably annoys him, but he is just going to have to deal with it until we move into our new house.

Hopefully then with the bedrooms on one side of the house and the kitchen, living room and dinning room on the other there will be a little less noise transmitted to her bedroom.

Well, I just tried giving her oatmeal for the seventh time a lil' bit ago; both the oatmeal and rice cereal are a no go. I know it is said to try feeding new foods to her at least 10 times before giving up, or to simply not give up at all. Guess what, I am. It is the only food so far that she seems to completely hate. Besides it kinda stops her up anyway. I may trying it again later on, or just wait until she can eat real oatmeal. I kinda understand Jules not liking the oatmeal cereal right now. I have tasted it, and the rice. They are both rather gross.

I have tried the carrots and peas too. They are not bad, but as much as I love
carrots and peas I am glad no one is making ME eat just carrots, peas or the like for
2-3 meals a day for 4-5 days! LOL

You should have seen her reaction to the first serving of peas yesterday afternoon. It was so funny. I was actually laughing at her. Now she never actually started crying and pitching a fit while I was feeding them to her like she does with the cereals, but she had this "Ewwwww Mom" look on her face. She would open her mouth for them, but as soon as she got a taste of them, she would get that look on her face then start chewing on her fingers. As if to say "Momma right now my fingers taste much better than THAT stuff!" I could only get her to eat about a quarter of a serving before she just plain refused to keep swallowing. LOL

The second time giving Juliana the peas, at Ray's Mom and Dad's house, yesterday evening she ate all but a quarter of a serving; a much better reaction I would say.

Tomorrow, is Emily's (Ray's Brother's daughter) birthday party, and Emily has invited Juliana hehe. Emily will actually be 4 years old on Monday (May 25). We still need to wrap it, but we got her a Super Spiral Sprinkler. You can see it HERE. You hook it up to a water hose then as the water comes up there are 4 balls you place in the shoot and they pop up with the water.

Then sometime at the end of June- beginning of July Isabella will be joining this world! Isabella (Bella) is Jeremy and Amanda's (Emily's parents) second child.

Emily likes the idea of being a big sister, but I am not so sure she understands the
situation hehe.

Also, from what I hear, my third cousin will be joining this world on or around
August 31st!! I am told it is going to be a boy. Aunt Maggie told me just a lil' bit
ago what his name probably will be, but it is a name I have not heard before. I will have to ask her again; is a beautiful Irish name.

This is my cousin Mike's first child and my Aunt Maggie's first grandchild! I am so
excited for them all. I truly am. I am hoping I get to see pictures!!! hehe Mike will make such a great Dad. I have not met his fiancee, but I am sure she is wonderful too! Maybe I will get to meet her when we go to Florida in July.

Something About Everything

2009-05-20T08:59:00.012-05:00

On Monday,(May 18th) Ray, his Dad, Juliana and I all went up to Baton Rouge to go over the construction phases and tie up any 'loose ends'.

Yesterday Austin picked up the permit to start building. I went and set up an account for utilities too. Well, actually just electricity for now as the construction crew will need it for their power tools.

They are putting up a temporary pole on Friday then the city's electrician will hook power to it. Austin said the bill should only be about an upwards of $20.00 a month. After the house is finished it will be hooked up to the street pole, and the crew will take the temporary pole to another job site.

Today or tomorrow Austin is sending a guy out to cut down the trees in the back of the lot. I did not really want them to do that, but 1) Over the years they have intertwined with the rusty old fence back there. We want the fence gone. 2) If they are not taken down it will be a safety hazard as the (3) trees will be pretty much right against the back of the house. 3) The crew will have more room to work as our property actually extends 10 foot beyond the fence. The only thing is, in order for it to cost us no more than $400 (worked into the loan) we have to haul off the trees ourselves after they are cut into chucks. I wish we had a way to bring them to Florida with us, but somehow I do not see that happening LMSO. Ray said he wants to talk to Billy to see if he wants them to burn off in the back of their land. If all else fails we can take them to the Berwick dump.

I am sure Ray will go by to see if they have done anything new on the lot today.

Austin said it should take the crew (weather ect permitting) about 7 days to frame and paper the house AFTER the concrete foundation is finished. I do not remember how long Austin said it would take to do the foundation itself. Austin did say that from start to finish houses take them about 126 days to finish (again weather ect permitting).

Also yesterday, we went to Houma to pick up Ray's new glasses from America's Best: Contacts and Eyeglasses.

Afterward we went over to see J.J. We hadn't visited him and his Mom in about 3 months, I believe. We ended up watching "American Idol". I always like going over there. We enjoy it very much. A lil' while after Juliana ate 2 servings of carrots and 4 oz. of formula she fell asleep for about an hour in J.J. arms. hehe I wish I could have videotaped her Daddy feeding her. It was the first time he had fed her the baby food lol.

This morning, Juliana woke up about 7:30. I fixed her oatmeal cereal mixed with her warm formula instead of just warm water; I got a much better response today than before. I also have switched her from the rice cereal to the single grain oatmeal cereal. Sorry, I did not get to take any pictures.

After she ate I brought her out here to the living room to play on the floor for a lil' while, knowing fulling well soon she would want to go back to bed, and also fearing that she would not want to be on the floor.

See, for the last month, or so she would fuss about being on the floor (on her play mat) for more than five or ten minutes at a time, usually the latter of the two. Well, I am now starting to get a bit worried because she basically refuses to be on her tummy at all on the floor. Now, this morning she stayed on the floor playing for almost an hour which is a good thing, but she was still just on her back. I do not know what to do. If she is not rolling over by her 6 month appointment for shots. Her doctor may start thinking there is something wrong with her.

I mean, the other day after Ray got home from work I put her on the floor. I timed it. She screamed and cried for 45 minutes. As soon as one of us picked her up she was fine. I just do not know what to do. Hopefully this morning is the start her enjoying being on the floor which will lead to everything else. I am afraid it may have just been a fluke though. This is so hard.

HERE is a picture of Miss Juliana in between changing her clothes lol.

HERE, HERE and HERE are pictures of her in the the jumper her Parran (Jay) gave her.

1HERE, 2HERE,3HERE and 4HERE are pictures of her first carrots feeding. HERE and HERE are pictures of her in her highchair after eating carrots.

I also have a picture of Juliana and her Maw-Maw sleeping in her Paw-Paw's chair as well as a picture of her and her Paw-Paw sleeping in his chair, but I do not know if they would want me to post those pictures. But it was cute! When we go to Florida for my birthday in July (assuming something does not comes up) we will bring all the pictures hehe.

On a completely different note, I found Isabell already out of her kennel in the bathroom this morning. Well, the brand new pair of underwear I had forgotten in there are no more. She did not tare up anything else thank God! lol

Oh and, I have to go buy new shoes at Wal-Mart today because apparently the 10 minutes I was gone out of the living room earlier to put Juliana down for a nap, Honey decided to rip the insoles out of my shoes and rip them apart. She has not done something like that in about 5 years! And actually she has NEVER torn up SHOES before. I guess we are going to have to start giving them back ropes to chew on. It is just so hard to do because both Isabell and Honey swallow the rope pieces. But that is also partly why we only give then rope instead of stuffed animals and such. What makes it harder is neither of them like dog bones or the like.

SWEET

2009-05-16T18:08:00.002-05:00

I made this with my friends (Graycee and Buffy) today using the SWEET tutorial.
Click tag to see full size image.

America's Home Place

2009-05-13T16:54:00.007-05:00

Well, the construction permit for our house being built by America's Home Place is not ready yet. Austin was hoping The City would give it to him today, but hopefully in the next couple of days.

HERE is the house we are having built (minus the garage)! I am so excited!! Andy (building consultant), Austin (Contractor) and Shawn (Loan Consultant) from the Baton Rouge branch are absolutely wonderful people to work with! If you are looking to get a house built, especially if it is your first they will do anything and everything they can to make your fears of home building/buying go away.

HERE is what the lot looks like with just the "America's Home Place" sign on it. Ray took the picture from the car, so what you see is not the entire lot. The lot is 50' deep x 66' long.

They did spread the dirt today, so HERE is what the lot now looks like.

On Monday (May 18th) Ray and I go to Baton Rouge to set the "start construction" date.

Tell them Jessica Pullum sent you! :)

License Plates

2009-05-13T10:27:00.009-05:00

The nickname that Ray, my Mom and I call Juliana most often

Juliana's Paw-paw calls her "Peep Peep"

Ju-Ju is easier for Kirstin (Ray's 3 year old niece) to say. hehe

We all also call Jules "Ladybug" because that is what Kirstin "Chick" said I was going to have as I was being rolled to the O.R.

Louisiana is where I live now.

Florida is where I was born and raised, and also where most of my side of the family lives.

I just did a Louisiana plate for Ray as he has never lived anywhere else.

I made the plates using the website called ACME License Maker

The Guess Your Number Game I played with today too. It will drive you up a wall!

Juliana -4 Months Old on Mother's Day

2009-05-12T10:49:00.010-05:00

Juliana turned four months old on Mother's Day!! Which, by the way, I hope everyone had a wonderful one! I did!

We went to church. We all ended up at one of the Chinese restaurants here in town for lunch. Then hung out playing with Juliana, and whatever else the rest of the day at Ray's Mom and Dad's. Not a real hyped up day, but fairly relaxing.

Yesterday (May 11th at 3:40 PM) Juliana got her 4 month shots. So being that it was Monday (a WWE wrestling night) we headed over to her Paw-paw's right after the appointment soon she was sound asleep in her Paw-paw's arms.

She was actually bouncing a little bit in her jumper/bouncer (the ones that you 'chip' to hang in a doorway). after she woke up from her nap.

Juliana weighs 14 lbs. 3 oz; When we buy diapers again we will be buying size 2. She is 23 1/4 inches long/tall (about 6 more inches and she will be half as tall as me). I hope for her sake she gets to be more like her Daddy's height than mine lol.

She is mostly on track with all her developmental skills:

-Holds head high when on her stomach
-Steady head control (she is so strong)
*Rolls over -She has not really done that yet. She rolls from on her back/stomach to he right and left sides, but she has not completely rolled over yet. Which is fine. I am not going to 'worry' about it. She will in her own time.
-Plays with hands and holds them mid-line. May put hands in mouth. *For her this is an understatement she put anything she gets a hold of in her mouth.
-Follows objects 180 degrees. *Boy, does she!
-Smiles, coos, laughs *the only time she is not doing one of the three (if not all at once) is when she is crying for food. She has been smiling even in her sleep since she was a few days old.

Some other things she does the doctor's office did not list on this paper are:

She basically sits up on her own. Ray had her sitting up in his lap by herself without any help on Mother's Day.
1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE, 4HERE, 5HERE, 6HERE,7HERE are all the good pictures we took on Mother's Day.

While holding her hands she walks short distances switching feet. (but if you get her excited and giggling she starts to fall, it is so cute!

While on the floor or wherever she uses her feet to push off of or away from objects. Not to mention all the things she does that I cannot think of off the top of my head right now.

So no worries here! She is doing awesome!

Today, at about 11:00 AM she had her first lil' bit of rice cereal. The doctor said to give her the rice cereal once a day. Then slowly start her on stage 1 baby food. Most of her meals will still be milk though. Today I was told just to do a 'trial run' with the cereal (1 tbsp worth of cereal). She was none too happy. She was crying at me. "Momma, where's my FOOD. Have you lost your mind." But as I give her more cereal tomorrow she may want less formula afterward. We will see, as it sits right now, this is gonna be fun! LOL ;)

She, of course is sleeping now and has been for most of the day. Poor thing the shots must really do a number on her.

Cajun Pregnancy

2009-05-12T07:56:00.001-05:00

Waydown in Louisiana, Boudreaux's old lady had been pregnant for some time and now the time had come. So he brought her to the doctor and the doctor began to deliver the baby.
She had a little boy and the doctor looked over at Boudreaux and said, "Hey, Boudreaux, you just had you-sef a son! Ain't dat grand!"
Boudreaux got excited by dis, but just then the doctor spoke up and said, "Hold on! We ain't finished yet!" The doctor then delivered a little girl. He said, "Hey, Boudreaux, you got you-sef a daughter too!
She a pretty lil ting."
Boudreaux got kind of puzzled by this and then the doctor said, "Hold on, we still ain't got done yet!" The doctor then delivered another boy and said, "Boudreaux, you just had you-sef another boy!"
When Boudreaux and his wife went home with their 3 children, he sat down with his wife and said, "Mama, you remember dat night what we run out of Vaseline and we had to use dat dere Tree-in-One Oil?"
His wife said, "Yeah, I do!"
Boudreaux said, "Man, it's a damn good ting we didn't use no WD-Forty."

Silver Fury

2009-05-09T09:19:00.005-05:00

Here's another tag from Lois! :)
Click tag to see full size

SL Plasma Rose

2009-05-08T19:27:00.005-05:00

Click tag to see full size

Here is another tag done with Rob's "Plasma Princess" tutorial at Monti's Pixel Playground.

You can find the tube I used at Mistaken Art under Free To Use Artists.

Sue Dawe Plasma Cat

2009-05-08T17:17:00.004-05:00

Click tag to see full size

This tag was done using one of Rob's tutorials called "Plasma Princess" at Monti's Pixel Playground

Wonderful tutorial Rob!

"I Don't Wanna Miss You"

2009-05-07T10:16:00.004-05:00

Ray, Ray Dad and I were watching a re-run of House M.D. I had seen the episode before. The Episode is called Euphoria Part 2 Foreman is being put into a chemically induced coma to stop the pain he was dealing with. There is a chance he may not come out of it. His Dad says "I don't wanna miss you." Well, I had never actually seen that part before. I started crying. Stupid maybe, but it got me thinking about all the people I love, whether it be family or friends, passed or still living. I want to say even if I haven't talked to you lately or even in a long time; "I love you and I don't wanna miss you."

About Our House and Her Christening

2009-05-05T16:39:00.004-05:00

Well, I have wonderful news on Wednesday, April 29th Ray and I went up to Baton Rouge to close the construction loan and pick out all the colors ect. for the house! I am so excited I cannot stand it!!

Ray's Dad came with us to help watch Juliana while we did all of the lawyer's paperwork. It is a good thing too because he also actually helped us make a concrete decision on a few things.

Juliana's Christening went well on Sunday May 3rd at 1:00. We video taped it too. 1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE,4HERE,5HERE are some pictures that were taken by Jennifer before and during the ceremony.
HERE is a picture of the cake Juliana's Maw-maw had made for afterward.
HERE is a picture of Jules sleeping in her car seat after leaving the church.
HERE is a picture of her being held by Kirstin with their Paw-paw after getting Juliana changed out of that hot dress. Poor thing she was sweating in that dress.
HERE she is in her car seat a lil' while later.

Yesterday, (Monday, May 4th) we all went back up to Baton Rouge to look over the final plans for the house. We also had to pick out where we wanted the T.V. wires and phone jacks ran to. We have 4 spots for T.V.s and 4 phone jacks. That was actually harder than picking out colors ect last week. UGH. Austin is still working on getting the permit to build. He told me he had most of everything submitted for approval. He is hoping to have everything in by tomorrow. They are going to start construction in 2 weeks to a month.

HERE is one of the books I recently bought for Juliana.

HERE is the shirt we got for Juliana when we had gone to the Baton Rouge Zoo. HERE is the other goofy picture hehe

HERE is a picture of Jules playing on the floor.

HERE is a picture of her with her Parran's (Cajun word for Godfather) sunglasses on.

HERE is a picture of her sitting in her Paw-paw's chair.

HERE and HERE she is sleeping. HERE she is cuddled up with her Daddy right before he put her in the car seat to go home.

1HERE, 2HERE and 3HERE she is the next morning in one of our laundry baskets fixin' to 'help' her Daddy cook lol.

She had decided there was too much light in the room for her to sleep, I guess lol see HERE. She slept like that for the longest time.

HERE she is in her swing.

Well, I think that is everything exciting up-to-date. Over and out! :)

Masking My Feelings...

2009-05-03T17:19:00.003-05:00

This is another great tag from Nancy made with my masks!

click on tag to see full size

Creative

2009-05-02T19:09:00.002-05:00

Here is another one made for me today! So 'creative' hehe

Click tag to see full size

Thank you Carrie!

Imaination Is Everything...

2009-05-02T18:48:00.003-05:00

WOOHOO Lois...she is on a roll...see my new tag!

Click tag to see full size

Thanks again darlin!

...Human Nature...

2009-05-02T09:38:00.004-05:00

Check this awesome piece of work, using one of my masks! :D
Just a reminder you can 'purchase' this and all my masks for FREE at Mistaken Art under "Free To Use Artists."

Click on the tag to see full size.

Our Powerplay Movies in May

2009-05-02T08:52:00.019-05:00

Hello all,

The $40.00 Powerplay plan (split between two households) from Movie Gallery. Each movie is $4.29 Just on rented movies we would have already spent $90.09 (not including tax).

We have already rented the following: (21 movies)

Uninvited pretty awesome movie. Not as good as I had hoped, but overall it was awesome!
Fly Me to the Moon It was a cute movie as in 3D graphics, but as for entertainment vaule it lacks.
Hotel for Dogs cool lil' movie! Let's just say I am buying it when it goes on sale!
100 Feet It was really good. One of those that keeps you on your toes.
Bride Wars They could not have picked a better pair of stars for this movie!
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button It really was an incredible movie! To a degree heartwarming, but very heartbreaking at the same time. This one deserves awards!
Last Chance Harvey It was a good movie,but with rather tred concept of "You don't know what you got until you think you are going to lose it."
Laid to Rest It is a 'Jason' type movie with gore than I expected.
Wild Country I did not really watch of it; I lost interest in it with a few mintues.
Burrowers It was a pretty good mix of the old west (cowboys and indians) and a modern day monster film.
The Alphabet Killer It was okay.It is based on a real killer of little girls that was never caught.
Passed the Door of Dark It was actually a pretty good murder mystery movie even though it is kinda B-rated.
Nothing but the Truth OMG what an awesome movie! It is about a woman journelist who discloses information about a C.I.A. agent in the newspaper, but refuses to disclose her source to the federal governmnt.
Underworld: Raise of the Lycans It was a good ending to the 'Underworld' movies. However it still was not as good as the first two.
Taken Awesome movie! Witty, action packed...keeps you on the edge of your seat.
House This is one of those fairly good movies that flew under the radar.
Scourge It ended up being better than what I thought it would be.
What Doesn't Kill You I think it would have been more 'heart felt' if the 'Drug user in rehab or the like' was not such a tired concept. I mainly rented it to see how well Mark Ruffalo performance is. This was not one of his better movies. His performance was not bad, but again the concept is so old.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop It turned out to be a disappointment. It is not near as funny as the previews.
My Bloody Valentine It is okay. Much of the film seems to be rather low budget. It is not a complete waste of time, but it is not one of the best murder horror movies I have seen.
Passengers It is not not that great of a film until you watch the last 20 minutes or so of it. All I can say is try to be patient; it has a slow build.
Valkyrie Awesome movie, if you can sit through the whole 2 1/3-3 hours.
S. Darko It was far better than "Donny Darko" a lil' less weird too.
Priceless French movie with Engish that did not help with as fast as the french talk. I turned it off after about 30 mintues.
New in Town It was okay. It was funny at certain points, but not the best for the appointed actors.
While She was Out I got bored. I do not even remember much about it.
Hindsight It was okay. Rather B-rated, low budget and the acting was not that great.
The Electric Mist It was pretty good.

'Love' This Tag! hehe

2009-04-30T21:09:00.005-05:00

Check out the AWESOME tag that was made for me today with one of my masks!

Click the tag to see full size.

Thank you darlin'!

Busy Week

2009-04-28T11:54:00.004-05:00

This week is a busy week for Ray and I indeed.

Yesterday, we all went over to his Dad's house to have dinner, and watch RAW like we always do. The only real difference is that Ray and I were so tired by the time we were ready to leave that we had to drag ourselves and Juliana home. We were both still so exhausted by the time 6:00 AM rolled around. I do not know what the deal was.

Today, Ray and I have a dinner at 6:30 to go to at the boat (Amelia Belle Casino). He has been nominated for "Supervisor of the Quarter". For all who do not know, he is the day shift Lead Slot Tech (knows all the ins and outs of all the machines to fix them). Just to brag a lil' bit- He really does deserve to get the award. He works his butt off, and there is not a problem he cannot fix, it seems. Even the other Lead Techs from the other shifts will turn to Ray if they cannot fix a machine. And right now with Ray's boss (J.J.) still out after heart surgery all calls are directed to Ray. So here's hopin' for his sake! Cross your fingers hehe.

The only downside to going is that I am not looking forward to leaving Juliana at Ray's Dad's while we are gone for about 2 hours tonight. I have not been away from her that long ever. Even though I trust Ray's dad and Jay and Jennifer to take care of Jules I will still worry about her the entire time! Ray asked me to go, and there is no way Jules can go, so it will not kill me. I don't think...lol.

Tomorrow, we have some things to do for the house. More on that later. I prefer not to talk about it at this time.

Thursday, we do not have anything planned as of yet.

Friday, we go over to Ray's Dad's again for dinner and a movie or two. We all do not get the "My Network TV" station on Direct TV, so we cannot watch "SmackDown" anymore, so we watch movies usually, anything to give us a reason to spend time with his mom and dad, especially now that Juliana is here hehe.

Saturday, we have nothing planned as of yet but...

Sunday, (May 3rd) is Juliana's Christening. It will be held directly after 11:00 Mass. Believe me there will be pictures lol. Someone will take pictures LOL especially since Ray and I spent $26 for her dress (and that is cheap for a Christening dress). We do not usually spend that much on our own clothes LOL.

And I know it is only going to get worse, especially when she starts school in about 5 years.

Fishing Song to Jules

2009-04-25T21:50:00.002-05:00

Ray made up this song to the melody of the first verse of "Beth" by KISS.

KISS:

Beth, I hear you callin',
But I cant come home right now.
Me and the boys are playin',
And we just cant find the sound,
Just a few more hours,
And I'll be right home to you.
I think I hear them callin'.
Oh, Beth what can I do.
Beth what can I do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ray:

Oh Jules, I hear you callin',
But I can't come home right now.
Me and Paw-paw's fishin',
And they just won't stop bittin'.
Just a few more minutes,
And I'll be right home to you.
I think I see one bittin'.
Oh, Jules what can I do.
Jules what can I do.

Guess what he was doing after he got off work today lol.

Juliana's New Play Mat

2009-04-23T16:18:00.002-05:00

Juliana was here in her walker last week. I was playing with her. I went to check my e-mail. A few minutes later I turned around and HERE...She was out for the count. She stayed asleep for about 15 minutes. When she woke back up Ray and I put her to bed for a lil' while LOL.

Ray and I went to Wal-Mart on Monday (4/20/09) to buy Juliana a big play mat. HERE is what we got for her. We also bought an extra set of links to add to the links that are already on the play mat. We took it over to Ray's Dad's house with us, and she had a good time playing on it! I just cannot believe I forgot to take a couple pictures of her on it that day! I was play with her and completely forgot, but 1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE and 4HERE are a few pictures of her on it the next night.

HERE is a picture of Juliana before I put the play mat down.

HERE is a picture of her yesterday while everyone else was fishing down Cotton Road. HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE are a few pictures I took while everyone else was fishing.

Circle of Tigers

2009-04-22T12:00:00.004-05:00

Click on tag to see full size
This tutorial is written for those with working knowledge of PSP.
I used PSP 9 for this tutorial, but it could be done with other versions I'm sure.
~Supplies you will need~

~1-7 Tubes of choice – I used the awesome work of Sandi Baker. Please do not use her artwork without a license from C.I.L.M .

~Plugin: Toadies > Blast ‘n Blur
~Plugin: Eye Candy 4000 > HSB Noise
~Plugin: Eye Candy 4000 > Gradient Glow (optional –used on my name)
~The Drop Shadow I used is V,H (-5),Opacity 40, Blur 5, Color –Black
~Font I used is called ‘African’

~Okay, Let's get stated~

Don’t forget to rename layers as you go
You might want to Adjust > Sharpen after you resize anything you need to.

1) Basics

Open a 600 x 600 transparent image (resize later) and flood fill White
Grab the Ellipse Tool –Line Width: 4
Material Palette – Foreground: gradient of choice (I used “Metal Brass”) Background: Null
Draw out a big circle, then go to Objects > Align > Center in Canvas, Convert to a Raster
Use the same settings to draw out a small circle (leave the small circle for now)

2) Let’s work on the ‘Big Circle”

Grab a tube to use in the big circle, Windows > Duplicate and close the original
Make a Raster Layer
With the Magic Wand click inside the circle
Go to Selections > Modify > Expand by 2
Flood fill with a light color from your tube, move the ‘Big Colored Circle’ below the ‘Big Circle’
Put the Drop Shadow on the ‘Big Circle
With the Magic Wand click inside the ‘big circle’ again
Go to Selections > Modify > Expand by 2
Copy, paste and position your tube where you like,
Duplicate the tube, X out the original tube (leave for now)
On the ‘Copy of Big Tube’ layer–
Selections > Invert and hit ‘Delete’ on your keyboard, Selections > Select None
Move the ‘Copy of Big Tube’ below the ‘Big Circle’
Duplicate the “Big Colored Circle’ and move the copy below it
On the ‘Copy of Big Colored Circle’ use the plugin called: Toadies >Blast ‘n’ Blur
Duplicate the ‘Blast ‘n’ Blurred Circle –Merge > Merge Down
Duplicate the ‘Big Colored Circle’ again
Move it below the ‘Big Circle’ –Merge > Merge Down
Use the plugin: Alien Skin Xenoflex 2 > Rip Open
Layer Palette –from Top to Bottom you should have:
~Small Circle
~Big Tube
~Big (Ripped Open) Circle
~Copy of Big Tube
~Big Colored Circle
~Blasted Color Circle
~Background
Grab your Eraser and erase all parts you do not want sticking out of the ‘Big (Ripped Open) Circle’

3)Now let’s work on the small circle(s)

Position the small circle where you want
Duplicate the ‘Small Circle’ 5 times (total 6)
For the sake of less confusion rename each circle- (start with original) ‘S Circle 1’… 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
~~With the Magic Wand click inside ‘S Circle 1’
Go to Selections > Modify > Expand by 2
Grab a new tube~ Windows > Duplicate –close out the original
**(I used just eyes, so I skipped making a New Raster Layer…but you may need to)
New Raster Layer, Flood fill with a color from the new tube you will use
Position the tube where you want –
Selections > Invert and hit ‘Delete’ on your keyboard, Selections > Select None
Move below all small circle layers
~~~Repeat the above for all 6 of the ‘S Circle(s)’
Add the Drop shadow to all the ‘S Circles
Here where you should add any embellishments to the tag if you wish (go wild lol)
X out white Background
Grab the Crop Tool > hit ‘ Merge Opaque’ at the end of all the crop settings
Double click inside the square and everything is cropped perfectly
Un-X Background
Resized Entire tag if need be then add all Copyright Credits

4) Animation

Launch Animation Shop “AS”
Go back to PSP click on the first tube in ‘S Circle 1’
Go to –Effects > Eye Candy 4000 > HSB Noise > click OK
Edit > Copy Merged – Go to AS, Paste As New Animation
Go back to PSP –Edit > Undo HSB Noise
Go to –Effects > Eye Candy 4000 > HSB Noise > hit Random Seed > Click OK
Edit > Copy Merged – Go to AS, Paste > After Current Frame
Go back to PSP –Edit > Undo HSB Noise
Go to –Effects > Eye Candy 4000 > HSB Noise > hit Random Seed > Click OK
Edit > Copy Merged – Go to AS, Paste > After Current Frame
Edit > Undo HSB Noise
Go to the next tube layer
Repeat the above until you have done a total of 3 layers of HSB Noise on all of the tube layers
You should have a total of 18 Frames for your tag in AS when you finished.
In AS – Edit > Select All, Animation > Frame Properties 25, View > Animation
If all is going well you may want to save this as a blank
Then go back to PSP –type out the text you want on the tag.
Edit > Copy
In AS- Paste as New Animation
Edit > Select All, hit Propagate Paste , Paste > Into Selected Frames, View > Animation

If all is well. Save again. DONE. I hope you enjoyed this tut!

Went to the Zoo

2009-04-19T21:31:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Ray, Jay, their mother, Jennifer, Ben, Juliana and I, as well as Missy and her husband Glen all went to the Baton Rouge Zoo where the Hemophilia Foundation put on a crawfish boil for all in attendance. I could not tell you how many were there, but to put it into perspective, 1,000 lbs. of crawfish were boiled lol.

Despite the grey conditions and the rain we were in all the way up to the zoo we all had a wonderful time. Shortly after we pulled up into the parking lot of the zoo the rain had stopped. Although I am sure in the backs of all our minds we were praying the rain had stopped for the day, as it still seemed like it would pour down at any moment. Luck was indeed with all of us because it did not start raining until after we got back here to our house.

And boy, did it rain! At one point the thunder was so loud and long I jumped out of my skin, as it shook even the floors of the house.

Anyway, HERE is a picture of little Miss Jules shortly after she had a bottle and shortly before we all ate the crawfish.

See the slide show below of all the pictures of the animals all of us took with Ray's and my camera.

**Hover over any picture you would like to have a better look at. Most every photo I have put in the kind of the animal if I could remember.

As I promised, 1HERE, 2HERE is a picture of Jules on Easter. Her onezie say's "Baby's First Easter". HERE is a picture of Jules and Jay with his cool dragon t-shirt (Jennifer bought him for Easter).

Hangin' Up Some Malu G.

2009-04-17T14:03:00.005-05:00

This Tag was done with another of Rob's tutorials from Monti's Pixel Playground. It is called "Hang Up". I have wanted to do this one since the day it was put on the web, and never got around to it until today. Personally, I do not like how this one came out as I messed up on a few things, so at some point I am going to redo the tag. I hope SOMEONE out there likes this one though lol.

Easter and More

2009-04-15T11:36:00.010-05:00

On Easter we did not go to Mass because Ray had gone to the 2 hour Holy Saturday Mass the night before. But we still were up with Jules by about 8:00 AM. By 11:00 AM we were pulling up at Gina. We stayed there to exchange Easter gifts (of course mostly for the kids).

Juliana got a cute little stuffed lamb that says 'Happy Easter' on the belly, some flower finger puppets, magnets for the refrigerator, flash cards, tub toy storage container, a few bottles of water for making her bottles of formula, a spring dress, a onezie with ladybugs on it, a 9 oz bottle, a couple cute wash clothes, a couple small tub toys, socks and a couple of cute bibs. Just with those things I would say Jules made out like a bandit lol.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! This Easter was the first one since my Great Grandma and Great Aunt Laurie passed away (9 years ago) that I was fairly happy. Maybe with the help of Juliana one day Easter will stop hurting altogether, and I will be able to fully enjoy myself again. I miss them so much especially around Easter time each year.

Then after all gifts were given, we all ate the best barbecue Billy has ever cooked!

At about 2:00 we headed over to Missy's house. We hung out over there for a while. After we got back home Ray and Jules crashed which gave me a chance to do some much needed housework. A few minutes after Ray got up he headed out the door with a fishing pole, but was soon back home as it started to rain.

On Monday (4/13/09) Ray wanted to go fishing, so we decided to try to bring Juliana. We went on one of the back roads in Berwick. I did not fish. I just took care of whatever Juliana needed on top of enjoying the weather. There was a good wind and cloud cover, so it wasn't too hot to have her out there. I just made sure the wind stayed off of her. After about an hour of fishing (down Cotton Road) Juliana started getting fussy, so we came home. But that was officially the first time she 'went fishing' with us since she has been born.

Yesterday evening, Ray was holding Juliana on his lap, in his chair. Well, she decided she wanted to come see me. With her Daddy holding her up she walked out of his lap down his legs (he had his chair reclined) and right into my lap. She was actually switching her feet correctly, and seemed to be having fun in the process. hehe

No pictures today, but I promise to catch up on them next time hehe. Over and Out.

Our Powerplay Movies in April

2009-04-15T11:17:00.013-05:00

Hello all,

The $40.00 Powerplay plan (split between two households) from Movie Gallery still paid for it self this month. Each movie is $4.29 Just on rented movies we would have spent $98.67 (not including tax).

We rented the following: (23 movies)
All reviews are posted on netflix as well.

Seven Pounds Before passing judgment on this movie, watch it all the way to the end. Overall, you will NOT be sorry.
Lower Learning Fowl language just about in every sentence spoken, as if the writers ect. have no idea how to 'speak' without using especially the F word around all those children all the time. I do not recommend the movie, and will never watch it again.
Boy in the Striped Pajamas turned out to be a good movie, but sad.
The Lodger is a petty good murder mystery even if it was rather predictable.
Bedtime Stories is a really cute movie.
The Day the Earth Stood Still There were some very cool sceens in it, but overall, I was bored.
Yes Man I guess Ray liked it. I did not really ask. The pieces I saw of it were not as bad as most Jim Carrey movies, but I still was not interested.
Henry Poole Is Here It was a rather strange movie, but I am not sorry I watched it.
What Happens in Vegas It was good. I was laughing so hard I woke Jules up (who is asleep beside me in Ray's chair)a few times. Two thumbs up! I think Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher were perfect together!
The Tale of Despereaux If you can sit through the first boring 20 minutes of it then it is a cute movie.
Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia It might have better review from Ray and I if it was not so hard to follow.
Linewatch It was actually pretty good.
Two Tickets to Paradise It was a funny, good movie, although the title is kind of miss leading.
Way of War It was strange enough that Ray and I were bored. We did even finish watching it.
The Spirit It was better than Sin City, and easier to follow.
The Visitor A good reminder that their are still people out there that care about others as human-beings.
Igor It was okay. Kids might like it, but otherwise none of us were altogether impressed.
Faith Like Potatoes It was a little too preachy for me, being that it was based on the life of a real family. It is wonderful example of the gifts God gives!
Righteous Kill AWESOME! Robert De Niro and Al Pacino-No better pair of actors for this film! WOOHOO. I hope this movie gets tons of awards!
Peaceful Warrior I loved this movie. It is almost as good as the book "Way of the Peaceful Warrior," but of course, not altogether as good. The book was written by Dan (Daniel) Millman in the year before I was born, 1984. It is supposed to be based on Dan's experiences in that time of his life which makes it that much more of a grander story! When I read the book the first time it was borrowed from my step-dad, but I went on E-bay and bought it for $4.89 including shipping. It is the paperback, 1984 version which is exactly what I wanted! WOOHOO!
Dog Days of Summer It was a pretty good movie, what I saw of it. Ray finished watching it while watching Juliana, so I could do dishes ect. that day.
Traitor Ray wanted to rent this as I had sent the movie back to Netflix before he could watch it. But he lost interest in it, due to not really being able understand what is what and who is who. It was of course my second time trying to watch it, and I still did not become any more interested in it than the first time.
Soul Men Ray watched it. All he really said was that it was okay. Not great.

I have bought:

50% off Pre-played movies, so I paid-

Death Race $7.99- It is an awesome action movie! I bought it because Jay wanted to see it; Ray and I had already seen it, and wanted to buy it anyway. So it is over there until Jay finishes watching it. Plus, we did not have to re-rent what we had already seen.

Juliana -3 Months Old

2009-04-11T17:22:00.001-05:00

Hello all,

A few days ago at about 6:00 PM, Ray I decided to put Juliana in the used walker we had. Then we realized it was missing wheels and the cover on the seat did not come off to be cleaned. Well, just seeing how happy Jules was just to be sitting up 'on her own'(even though she could not touch the floor) we decided go to Wal-Mart to buy a new one that all it's wheels (lol) and had a removable seat cover. Jules loves her walker! HERE is a picture of her in it.

The day before yesterday we had to take Juliana to the doctor because was coughing, and sounded congested. As much as we tried this last week to keep her from getting the cold Ray and I have I knew it was not altogether avoidable, poor thing. The doctor had us get some infant nose drops and prescribed an decongestant. We do not have a problem giving her the decongestant drops, but to say putting the saline drops in her nose, waiting one minute then using the bulb to suck the mucus out of her nose (all while she screaming) is not easy is an understatement. She HATES it! Well, can you blame her LOL. Not to mention the fact, just the thought of the crap coming out of her nose makes me sick to my stomach. But yet, I do not have a problem changing diapers, getting puked on or anything else but I cannot handle a snotty nose, go figure! I have a feeling when Juliana ever has a runny nose I will be one of those mothers that has a box of tissues in every room in the house, as well as in the car, and in her diaper bag at all times. I told Juliana yesterday while I was getting ready to try to get the 'stuff' out of her nose, I told her, "Do not be mad at me if I puke on you." LOL -YUCK, is all I have to say!

Juliana made 3 months old yesterday (4/10/09)

Yesterday Ray's Dad and I took Juliana to get her picture taken with the Easter Bunny (while Ray was a work). I dressed her up in the beautiful dress her Great Grandma (from Florida) bought for her. Her cousin Tatum has the same dress. hehe

Also, yesterday after we got back for Wal-Mart we went over to Gina's house to eat some 'Good Friday' crawfish. YUM! Gina and Billy had gotten two sacks, so we had plenty to eat and then some lol.

Click 1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE, 4HERE, 5HERE to see some more pictures taken here and there over the last week.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

By the way, Juliana now weighs 12 lbs. 2 oz!

Sandi Baker's-HSB Woves

2009-04-11T11:29:00.003-05:00

Click image to see full size
This Tag was done with another of Rob's tutorials from Monti's Pixel Playground. It is called "HSB Squared".

Juliana Teething

2009-04-04T20:46:00.007-05:00

Well, it is official Jules has got to be teething. She just spent the last hour off an on screaming. I changed her diaper, fed her ect. Finally Ray brought her into the bedroom. I sat her down in the nursing pillow, put her pacifier in her mouth, and started 'singing' to her. She started falling asleep, but as soon as the pacifier would fall out of her she would start screaming bloody murder. Sooooo at first I thought she was just fighting her sleep. Even though I did not want to, I laid her down in her bassinet, walked out into the kitchen, and let her scream for about 15 minutes. Then I got to thinking about it, "Her gums are probably hurting". Sure enough a few minutes after we put the Orajel on her gums she was curled up in Ray's arms with a glassy look in her eyes ready to go the sleep.

Anyway, HERE is a cute picture I took of Juliana sitting in the nursing pillow after we all got back from the "Way of the Cross" mass and dinner at the church on Friday.

HERE is a picture of Juliana and her Daddy in our bedroom relaxing, watching a movie as Ray has been trying to kick as cough the last few days. Thankfully, he is now feeling much better.

On a side note, it is pretty bad when in order for the Mama to watch the movie with them I had to pull a chair into the bedroom, to sit beside Juliana LOL. As you can see Ray was on his side of the bed, and Juliana and her pillow took up my side. Oh well, they were comfortable, and "The Boy In the Striped Pajamas" turned out to be a good movie. Heartbreaking, but good.

Rustic Beauty Captured

2009-04-04T12:07:00.006-05:00

I was finally able to 'play' in PSP a lil' the other night. I had not played at all in about a month or so.
What do you think? It was done using the "Circle Within A Circle" tutorial. It is one of Rob's tutorials at Monti's Pixel Playground. I just wanted to thank you all for the wonderful site! I can always depend on awesome 'play time' when I go over there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is another today:

Click on image to see full size

Chewing and Her Nursing Pillow

2009-04-03T14:04:00.006-05:00

HERE is a smiling picture of her in her swing. HERE and HERE are a couple pictures of Juliana sitting up in her daddy's chair about an hour before.

HERE is a picture of her sleeping propped up a lil' in the nursing pillow. I just started letting her do that within the last few days; she seems to love it! I sit her down 'in' it after she is done feeding ect. and usually she does not go right back to sleep, so I have been sitting in the bedroom with her reading books to her or playing with her. I read Bambi to her yesterday, but she really seems to like a book called "Look Who is Popping Up on the Farm." It is a pop-up book we picked up on sale at Rouses for $2.00. All the important animals pop-up out of the book and she starts grinning and laughing. She also seems to like the bright colored "My Little Pony" books Gina got for her from Fred's.

Yesterday afternoon, Juliana started chewing on her hands. I had her in the swing. I gave her the pacifier, would back away a lil' she would pull the pacifier out, and start chewing on her hands again. HERE is a picture of the little monster LOL. After about 3 times it started to become a game to her. Finally started popping her arm or hand telling her "No".I kinda hated to stop her it was so cute-the sneaky lil' brat hehe.I do not want her chewing on her hands. So after about 3 times of that, she got the hint and stopped. I am afraid she may start teething any day now. With the way she has be wanting to chew on some things. Thank God, we went and got both day and night time Baby Orajel the other day.

HERE is a picture of the rainbow we saw the other day at the lake where in town Ray was fishing. Juliana and I stayed in the car, because we forgot chairs. But it was prefectly fine with me, the weather was nice and all I had to do was roll down the windows. We got her out of her car seat and she fell asleep in my arms.

Did I mention, if I 'sing' to her, she only falls asleep by the tones of 'la's I use in na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye. Just that part over and over again. The tones of it is soothing to her LOL. Whatever helps I geuss.

She is also seemingly getting more vocal and opinionated about how she what things LOL. Can we say SPOILED hehe.

Our Powerplay Movies in March

2009-03-31T13:27:00.008-05:00

Hello all,

The $40.00 Powerplay plan (split between two households) from Movie Gallery has paid for itself this month. Each movie is usually $4.29 a piece. Just on rented movies we would have spent $137.28 (not including tax). We normally would not spend that in the first place, but still.

We have already rented the following: (32 movies)
All reviews have been added to the Netflix website as well.

Mirrors AWESOME
Skid Row B-rated
Role Models cute movie if you can get passed the language
The Women I got rather bored, but Ray's Mom liked it.
The Strangers Boring
Ghost Town Pretty good
Nim's Island good one for children about 8-13 years old. Benny liked it.
Australia Interestingly good, but 2 hours and 45 minutes feels like 5 hours...it drags on and on
The Haunting of Molly Hartley It made no sense through out the entire thing. Very hard to follow
Sex Drive It was actually a cute movie.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno BLAH-next time there is the word Porno in the title we won't rent it. Ray thought it was going to be a comedy which it is, but it is also turns into a B-rated porno. NEVER AGAIN - as soon as they started having sex we all decided to shut it off.
Bangkok Dangerous It was good, but a little hard to follow. In my opinion, not one of Nicolas Cage's best.
Space Chimps I was bored with it, but everyone else seemed to like it.
Horton Hears A Who CUTE! Ray and I have decided to buy it for Juliana when it goes on sale.
Hancock Surprisingly Good-even Ray liked it and he hates Will Smith.
Meet the Browns Good Movie
Beverly Hills Chihuahua It was pretty cute.
Twilight AWESOME but only if you like romance movies and you try not to compare it to the book.
The Velveteen Rabbit Good for young children
All Roads Lead Home Still undecided I liked it or not. It is such a tired concept.
The Duchess It was a good movie if you like the Victorian type movies.
Happily Never After 2 -snore- not to mention the computer animation is horribly done (seems like it was simply a low budget film)
Bolt -was cute but I got bored with it.
The Little Mermaid:Airel's Beginning (III) Wonderful! It seems to fit in very nicely with the original Little Mermaid.
Let the Right one In B-rated, pointless and boring.
Forgetting Sarah MarshallIt was okay. It was funny at time, and Ray seemed to like it.
Rachel Getting Married Not a bad movie, but not the best either.
The Legend of Bloody Mary Well, it was actually pretty good.
Séance Was also surprisingly good
Little Chenier: A Cajun Story Basically turned out being the cajun version of "Of Mice and Men" with a twist. It was pretty good. Although, from an 'outsider's prospective' now a days there are few that talk as they do in the movie. Each actor over did it a bit.
The LongshotsIt is based on a true story about a small town girl who plays as the lead quarterback with the high school boy's football team. It actually turned out to be good, despite it being the old tired concept.
The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice I liked it. It was pretty good.

I have bought:

50% off Pre-played movies, so I paid-

The Bourne Ultimatum $7.99 (We now have all 3.)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix $6.99 (We now have the whole collection so far.)
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium $7.99 (I am hoping Juliana will like it later on)
Horton Hears A Who $7.99 We bought it for Juliana, but brought it over to let Chick watch it today.
The Holiday - $4.99 I final bought it!
Fracture -$5.90 Anthony Hopkins did it again -perfect preformace!

Netflix Movies in 2009

2009-03-30T10:23:00.020-05:00

~~January~~~
Pixar Short Films: Vol. 1 Would be cute for kids, but Ray and I got bored for the most part. They all were cute. But only certain ones were worth watching.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor BORING
St. Elmo's Fire I got bored. I did see it through to the end...but
Eagle Eye AWESOME

~~~February~~~
Ghost Town It was pretty good. Better than I thought it would be.
Cloverfield It SUCKED
Blindness It pretty much sucked.
The Brave One AWESOME -Jodie Foster deserves an award for that one. For all I know she did get one, and if she didn't. Shame on Hollywood!

~~~March~~~~
Baby Mama-it turned out to be a cute movie, even Ray liked it.
Role Models-After Ray and I watch it I figured no one would else would really like it, so I sent it back. Dad wanted to rent it from Movie Gallery. Guess what no one really liked it.
Nights in Rodanthe -I got bored
The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea- it was cute, but not that great.

~~~April~~~~
Marley & Me - I liked it, but it wasn't great. I am keeping so Ray's Mom and Dad can watch it if they want though.
Tinkerbell What a wonderfully cute movie! Beautifully done as well.
Traitor It was an interesting enough concept, but I got bored with most of it.
The Chuck Jones Collection in the collection is:
"Rikki-Tiki-Tavi"
"Mowgli's Brothers"
"The White Seal"
Also chirping their way into this set are a trio of wonderful cricket adventures:
"A Very Merry Cricket"
"Yankee Doodle Cricket"
"A Cricket in Times Square"
I still think they are cute shows, and I remember loving "Rikki-Tiki-Tavi," "Mowgli's Brothers" "The White Seal" and "A Cricket in Times Square" when I was a kid, although I do not remember the other two.
Fairy Tale: A True StoryIt was such a cute movie about 'proving' fairies exist.
Crank It turned out to be a pretty good movie. Sarcastically funny and fast pace action.
Dexter Season 2: Disc 3- I LOVE Dexter but I fell in love with it a season and half too late, so instead of watching it on TV now and trying to piece everything together I am going to (at some point) finish off Season 2 by getting the 4th disc then patiently wait for Netflix to get Season 3 in. Movie Gallery does not seem to carry Dexter. Maybe they only carry those that have gone off the air? I have no idea. The only TV shows I have ever watched are: Gilmore Girls, Dexter and House. I own the whole Gilmore Girls series, but have not looked to see if maybe they have House.

~~~May~~~
High CrimesIt was a pretty Good movie. Has a real twist at the end.
Blood Diamond It was not a bad movie, but I did not become interest in it until about half why through.
Authur and the Invisibles It is such a cute movie and the computer animation is worth watching even if you are not into the movie itself.
No Reservations Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart are perfect together in front of the camera! The two took a basicly tired concept and turned it into something worth watching!
Watership Down

~~~June~~~
Dexter Season 2: Disc 4
Cold Mountain
The Prince and Me
Forever Strong
Crash
The Librarian: Return to Mines
An American Tail: Manhattan Island

StarLady's Studio Website -Up and Running

2009-03-30T07:58:00.005-05:00

Soon I will have my Mask Tubes for sale on the Mistaken Art (MtA) website. You can take a look at what will e for sale, on my website. StarLady's Studio also has handmade rosaries for sale. Come check out! :)

A Little Bit of Good News and More Pictures

2009-03-26T07:03:00.026-05:00

Hello all,

Miss Jules woke up at 5:00 this morning. She slept from about 9:30 last night. Ray helped me give her a bath before he left for work this morning, so by about 6:45 she was back asleep. So I may have an hour to update you on all the goings on.

First off, Andy (the guy helping us get the house-I do not know what his position is called) called yesterday at about 5:00 PM. He had the loan approved papers in his hand, and said he should have the approval for the construction loan by the end of next week. WOOHOO! Let's pray that all goes well!

Ray and I met with Austin (the contractor) on Monday (3/23/09). We staked out where we want the house, and signed all the other construction paperwork. When we were through Austin put an "America's Home Place" sign on the lot. Again, HERE is the floor plan for the house minus the garage. It is going to be a small house, but it will not be the tiniest they come. It will be bigger than this place, of course (by 2 bedrooms and another bathroom if nothing else). I am not sure what the square footage of this house is. It will also be 120 square foot bigger than the Jim Walter home we were going to get built. Plus, they are willing to do some minor adjustments for me at no extra cost.

Okay, anyway, who wants to see some new pictures of Juliana?
HERE was the only picture I was able to snap of her for her first Saint Patrick's Day.

HERE,HERE and HERE are a few of her sitting in her swing while I was playing with her a few days later.

HERE is a picture her playing in her Daddy's chair a lil' while later after a diaper change. Might I add, she insisted on laying that way. I would go to move her, and she would pitch a fit. I moved her back like that, and she was fine.

HERE is one of her sleeping in her Paw-paw's chair the same day after Ray got home from work. We had gone over there as it was Friday 'Movie Night'.

HERE she is asleep on Jennifer's knee a few hours after we got back from the meeting with Austin.

HERE is a picture of her and her Daddy after he got done fixing the boat (yes he washed up after-all except his shirt LOL). HERE is a good close-up shot of her.

~That's all of the pictures of Juliana for today folks!

Yesterday Ray had gone to cut the grass at the lot (I hope to go get a picture of it today).Well, Honey was right beside Juliana's swing. Honey barked one loud bark at something outside. I thought maybe it had been Ray coming home, but it wasn't; it was just a car passing by. Now, I don't know if Honey scared Juliana, hurt her ears or both, but Juliana started screaming and crying. It was the first time that has ever happened. Poor thing. I was none too happy with Honey needless to say. Of course, Juliana had been fussy, fighting her sleep at the time, and I do not think that helped. I felt so horrible for her.

Yeah, Manda you thought I forgot huh! HERE is a picture of the blanket my best friend Amanda made for Juliana. She told me she had bought the two toned (purple and pink) yarn and just kept going around and around in a square (duh). It just so happened that the pattern came out as it did! It is AWESOME! Especially since I believe that was the first blanket she ever made. Thanks Manda!

And speaking of gifts I do not think I told you what Juliana's Great Great Aunt Monica bought for her. She sent her a big, tall -I bet it is almost as tall as Juliana is long. A book of Disney's Bambi! She also sent a 6' digital picture frame. We can put a flash drive or an SD card in the back of the frame and it will slide show all the pictures on the device. We can add music to the slide show, and even change how the pictures are presented on the slide show eg. fades in and out, slides in from the left, or from the right. It is so cool!

Anyway, one more thing HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! :) Today is Ed's birthday. HUGS

Okay, Gotta go - over and out~

Developement

2009-03-25T14:00:00.004-05:00

I have been curious about a baby's develop such as what Juliana is capable of seeing right now, and this is what I found:

What Can My Baby See

The 411 on Baby Poop (yes, I know-but it is important to know and actually relieving now that I have read up on it) I thought Juliana was having problems with the formula and Breastfeeding combo, but according to this information she is doing just fine.

Why Babies Spit Up

Head Control

Rolling Over

Crawling

Flat Spots

Juliana's Pacifiers

2009-03-21T14:21:00.008-05:00

Hello all,

Juliana slept through the night again last night (3/21/09). She slept from 11:00 PM to 7:12 this morning.

I want to go get some more of the Gerber First Essential Natural Flex pacifiers that Graycee, Buffy and Kelly sent for Juliana. I am hoping we can find them at Wal-Mart today. Those are the only ones she will have anything to do with now. lol

I found ladybug pacifier holders at Wal-Mart.com HERE

Well, Ray found the pacifiers on E-bay and order them.

After the Sun Goes Down

2009-03-20T12:10:00.006-05:00

To use the tubes I used please you must have a license for them.
You can find them at Mistaken Art.com.

Supplies you will need:
5 tubes of choice
Mask of choice
Alien Skin Xenofex 2 >Constellation
Font I used is mascara

Let’s get started.
600 x 600 transparent image > flood fill white

Get your Ellipse Tool
Settings: You must click on the image

Draw out a circle about the size of mine.
Convert to a Raster

Still using the Ellipse Tool
In your color palette>
Pick a color from your tube(s) for the Background color.
Pick a different color from your tube(s) for the Foreground color.
Click on the Background color and find the Gradient called >
Foreground-Background gradient it should be a fading combo of the two colors in your color palette

Going back to the Ellipse Tool settings : change Width to 0
Draw out a circle smaller than the black circle.
Position it as is on my tag (it will make the black circle look like a crescent moon).
Duplicate circle and move it under the black circle
(see tag for example)

Still using the Ellipse tool (lotsa circles lol)
Pick a Foreground color
Pick a different Background color
Ellipse tool settings: Width 4
Draw out a small circle (see tag)
Duplicate 5 times and place around outer edge of black circle (see tag)

If you are using my tubes copy and paste the “Royal Flush” mask in the center of the colored circle –resize by 70%.

Copy and paste each of the other tubes as new layers
Resize each tube by 90% then Resize again by 40%

Using the Magic Wand click in the center on each left side small circles.
Place each tube in the each of the left side small circles.
Selections> Invert> hit Delete on your key board (for each tube if needed).

If you want to give the small circles a “3D look” use your Ellipse tool
Foreground color null, Background color same as the small circles.
Draw out the a circle the same size as the small circles
Duplicate 4 times and move each under each of the original small circles (see tag)

Make a new Raster layer on top of the white background and choose a Color or Gradient that goes with the rest of the tag.
Open a Mask of your choice into PSP.
Layers> New Mask Layer>From Image and find your mask-you may or may not have to “invert mask data” click OK.
On your layer palette > right click delete mask layer > Merge Group
Crop and resize as needed
Then add Copyrights

~Animation~
With the Magic Wand click on the “black” outline of all 5 of the small circles.
Effects >Alien Skin Xenofex 2 > Constellation
Settings:

Click OK
Selections > Select None
Edit>Copy Merged

Open Animation Shop > Paste as a New Animation
Go Back to PSP >Edit Undo Constellation> Undo Select None
Effects> Constellation , hit Random Seed>click OK
Selections> Select None
Edit> Copy Merged
In Animation Shop >Edit> Paste >After Current Frame
Repeat :
Go Back to PSP >Edit Undo Constellation> Undo Select None
Effects> Constellation , hit Random Seed>click OK
Selections> Select None
Edit> Copy Merged
In Animation Shop >Edit> Paste >After Current Frame
View >Animation
Save a blank, then go back and Add a name or text.
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Hope you had fun!
StarLady

Butterfly Hangin' Tough

2009-03-20T11:41:00.005-05:00

Click to see full size image

To use the tube I used please you must have a license for it.
You can find it at Mistaken Art.

Supplies you will need:
Piece of chain
Buttons from Nathy -http://www.nathy.net/psp/welcome.html –Under Goodies in Misc
At least 1 tube
A scrap kit for anything extra you might want to add

Let’s Get started
Get a 700 x 580 transparent image > Flood Fill white
Grab the Rectangle tool.
Settings:
You must click on the image to see full size

On the Color Palette> Foreground-Black, Background-Null
Draw out a rectangle as big as you like on the left. (or as big as the biggest one on my tag)> Convert to a raster
Add a new raster layer and pull it under the rectangle layer.
Grab the magic wand and click inside the rectangle
Selections> Modify>Expand by 3
Grab your flood fill tool.
On Color Palette>Foreground –a color from your tube, Background-a different color from your tube.
Click on the Foreground color and choose the gradient “Foreground-Background”
Flood fill the “new raster” *which should now be between the white background layer and the “rectangle” layer.
This is what you should have so far:

X out the white background and Merge > Merge Visible.
In your layer palette to help rename Raster 1-BG (for background duh hehe)
Rename Merged layer –Rectangle
Un-X BG
Put a drop shadow on the Rectangle. I used V(-1), H(-1), O(40), B(8) C-black
Layers>Duplicate -Rectangle and resize 80%.
Repeat this 2 more time (total 4 rectangles)
X out the white background again and Merge all the Rectangles.
Rename “Rectangles”
Layers > Duplicate >Image > Mirror
This is what you should have so far:

Rename –Left and Right Rectangles
Copy and Paste your tube and resize it by 80%.
Adjust>Sharpen
Place in the middle of the Rectangles
Layers> Duplicate-tube and resize by 40%
Adjust> Sharpen
Move to almost the top right corner on the right Rectangles
Layers>Duplicate
Image>Mirror
Copy and paste a button> Image>Resize 20%
See tag for placement then
Layers > Duplicate> Image> Mirror
Copy and Paste the chain
Image>Rotate> Free Rotate
Move under the small mask layers
Colorize : H(119) S (209) Duplicate both small masks and place the duplicates toward the ends of the chains.X out all layers (including the button) except the layers that make up the chain like so:

Merge Visible and rename “Left Chain”
Repeat the same for the “Right Chain”
Here is where you add anything you want from a scrap kit of your choice
Un-X everything and you should have this:

Now Crop and/or resize as needed.
Add copyrights.
Edit >Copy Merged
~~Animation~~
Open Animation Shop > Paste as new animation
Go back to PSP.
X out the credits
On the Left chain layer >Image> Rotate>Free Rotate 5 Left
On the Right chain layer >Image> Rotate>Free Rotate 5 Left
Move the chains back under the buttons
Un-X credits
Edit > Copy Merged
Back to AS >Paste After Current Frame
Still in AS select the 1st frame > Copy >select the 2nd frame > Paste after current frame.
You should have 3 frames
Back in PSP >Edit >Undo until both chains are not rotated.
X out the credits
On the Left chain layer >Image> Rotate>Free Rotate 5 Right
On the Right chain layer >Image> Rotate>Free Rotate 5 Right
Un-X credits
Edit > Copy Merged
Back to AS >select 3rd frame>Paste After Current Frame
View >Animation
Save as a blank then go back and add any name or text
I hope you enjoyed yourself!
I would love to see what you made!
StarLady

The Courage To...

2009-03-19T15:02:00.007-05:00

Click on image to see full size

Please do not use this tube without a license from Mistaken Art.
This tutorial was written assuming you have working knowledge of PSP.

Supplies you will need:
I used Arial Black for the C.
I used the font called “Cherish Font”
Your Rectangle Tool
A Tube of choice
Lokas>Gel
Eye Candy 4000>Gradient Glow

Okay let’s get started.

1. Get a new 600 x 600 image. We will resize/crop later.
2. Grab your Rectangle Tool.
On you color palette>
Foreground>Black, Background> Null
Draw out a BIG rectangle (Line Width 4) >Convert to a Raster
3. Click inside the rectangle with the Magic Wand.
Selections> Modify>Expand by 2.
4. Copy and Paste your tube. If you are using one of my tubes, I resized mine to 140%.
See Tag for placement.
Selections>Invert >hit Delete on your keyboard.
5.Grab the Rectangle Tool. (Line Width 4)
Color Palette>Foreground> black, Background> a color from your tube
Draw out a rectangle about the size of the top one in my tag.
6. Color Palette>Change the background color to another color in your tube.
Draw out another smaller rectangle/square.
7. Grab the Text Tool. (Arial Black >size 72)
Color Palette> Foreground>Black, Background>Black
Type a C (or whatever letter you choose) and use the nodes to stretch it out more if need be.
Convert to a Raster
Effects>Lokas> Gel
Effects>Drop Shadow
8. Grab a different font
Type out the rest of the message.
Convert to a Raster
Effects> Eye Candy 4000>Gradient Glow
Setting:
Just change the ‘Glow Width’ to 5
Click OK.
9. Add copyright credits
10. For the name I used “Cherish Font” on the whole name.
Repeat same steps as 7-8.
Done.
Hope you found this tutorial easy to follow.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T16:17:00.004-05:00

Hello all,

I hope everyone has had a good St. Patrick's Day! Did you remember to where some GREEN? No, underware does not count hehe.

Juliana was dressed in a light green onezie with a shamrock, and the words "Mommy's" Lucky Charm" on the front of it. No, I did not get a chance to get a picture of her in it :(. I had a light, long sleeve, solid hunter green shirt on, so I was good to go as well. I do not have anything 'shamrock' to wear, so I did what I could.

St. Patrick's Day was a huge deal in our family as my sisters and I were growing up as our family has a lot of Irish blood. It seemed to be almost as big a deal as Christmas or Easter.

Juliana slept through the night last night (3/16/09)!!! She slept from 9:45 PM to 5:19 this morning. WOOHOO!!

Movie Gallery's Powerplay vs Netflix

2009-03-14T19:46:00.008-05:00

Yesterday we decided to go half and half with Ray's Mom and Dad on the Powerplay $40 "Diamond" rental plan from Movie Gallery. Movie Gallery has it set up a lot like how Netflix does only customized for stores. In some ways it is better than Netflix in other ways not. I am still keeping my Netflix account because it is easier for me, personally, to find and order movies I, myself, want to watch since I do not drive. I also seem to have somewhat of a different taste in movies than the others do.

Anyway, we rented Mirrors, (which was AWESOME),Bangkok Dangerous (which seems kinda cool right now) and Skid Row (something off the wall Dad wanted-I have not watched it. But it looks kinda B-rated to me) It just so happens Ray's Mom had wanted to rent a couple other movies the day before yesterday. Those are Role Models(pretty good if you can get passed the language) and Made of Honor (really good movie).

Gina's Birthday and Monica

2009-03-13T14:08:00.005-05:00

Hello all,

Yesterday was Gina's birthday, so at about noon Gina, her Mom and Dad, Kirstin, Jay, Jennifer, Juliana and I all went out to eat at Ryan's. Juliana slept through the entire meal, but the rest of us had a good time LOL. How the child can sleep through all the noise is still beyond me.

Afterward, we all decided to go to Wal-Mart as there were things all of us needed from there, and it is right next door to Ryan's anyway. I found Christmas and/or birthday presents for some family members while I was at it too.

Ray was here at the house off from work by the time we got back, so Ray and I gave Gina her birthday presents.

Then their Mom remembered that she had forgotten her watch in the Jewelery Department at Wal-Mart as she had dropped it off to get a battery put in it. Ray and I took her back to Wal-Mart, and in the process we found a couple more Christmas and/or Birthday presents hehe.

After we got back Ray, his Mom and Dad, Juliana and I all went to Gina's house just to spent some more time with her. We ended watching Madagascar 2 which turned out to be a cute movie. I cannot really compare it to the first Madagascar as it has been forever since I saw the first one.

On another note, my sister, Monica, has decided to go into the Navy after she graduates high school in May!! WOOHOO SO PROUD of her!! No one knows when boot camp starts yet. Although the selfish part of me is going to miss her if she cannot come visit this summer, and when we go to Florida to see everyone. Just the thought of her not being there is heartbreaking, but I am still so proud of her! She is going in for journalism! I have been told she has not officially signed papers yet but still. I just tried to call to talk to her as I have not gotten a chance to talk to her the last few times I have called home.

She Had Her Shots Done

2009-03-11T09:46:00.011-05:00

Hello all,

Juliana now weighs 10 lbs. 12oz, (give or take a few ounces for her onezie and clean diaper lol) and she is 22 1/2 inches long.

While the nurse was getting the shots ready Jules was being good, just laying there smiling and 'talking'. I was standing there thinking 'the poor child has no idea what's in store next.' I almost started crying then because I kinda felt like I was betraying her lol. Anyway, the nurse gave Jules the one she had to drink. Then it was not until she stuck her the first time, Juliana started crying and her face turned beet red that I started tearing up. I felt so horrible for her! The nursing did 2 shots in her left thigh, and 1 shot in her right. And poor Ray had to be the one to hold her arms down while the nurse held her legs down. One good thing though, Ray picked Juliana up when it was all over with, and we both talked to her for about a minute, and she was fine after that.

At 6:15 PM I gave her a dose of Tylenol in hopes of getting through the baptismal class at the church without her feeling too bad and making too much of a fuss. She did not fuss too much at the church, but boy at about 8-8:30 she was hurting, and had a very slight fever (99.2). In fear of touching her thighs anymore than I already had to I put her in her swing with her pacifier. It seemed to help for a lil' while.

Well, the time soon came when we needed to go to bed and I needed to feed her again. That was not an easy task. I was in the mid of trying to nurse when she started wailing because I had her thigh touching mine, so I quit and just warmed up a bottle for her. Ray finished feeding her as he can fold his leg up and lay her in his lap to feed her without "touching' anything. After she was done, but still crying as she still hurt ect she slept in bed with us. Because of letting her sleep with us, she did not actually go to sleep any later than she normal does, it was just a rougher process, and we felt so bad for her. When she woke up at 3:00 this morning she did not seem to be hurting, and was her normal 'I'm hungry' fussy self, so after feeding I put her in her bassinet. She was also fine this morning at 8:00. She is sleeping right now. The only difference I see is she does not have a big appetite the last 2 times eating this morning. She only drank 2 oz. of her bottles each time. Normally she nurses and drinks 4 oz of a bottle each time. I am hoping that is normal after having her shots. I will call and let the doctor know, or ask tomorrow if it keeps up.

Anyway, her next appointment for the next set of the SAME shots is Monday, May 11, '09 at 3:40 PM. The day after Mother's Day, go figure!

She is awake now...Over and out.

Big Day Tomorrow

2009-03-09T11:47:00.025-05:00

Hello all,

We went to see JJ (Ray's boss and friend) in the hospital yesterday. We got to the hospital at around 12 noon, and did not leave until 8 PM. We had gone to his house last Sunday to visit. Everything was going good then he got light-head from his medicine, and decided (after much prodding from his mom, his God child,Ray and me) to go to the hospital. He was due to go in the hospital the next day anyway, so they just kept him in the hospital. On Thursday, he had a triple by pass done. He is doing well. He went home today and is not allowed to do much of anything for at least six weeks.

Ray and I felt bad for JJ as he wanted to hold Juliana, but could not because of the surgery, not to mention, he is not suppose to lift more than five pounds for a while. Last time Jules was weighed she weighed 7 lbs. 8oz. which was about a month and a half ago. But at about 7:00 JJ decided to lay back down in bed from sitting in a chair all day, so Ray laid Juliana in the crook of his arm on the bed next to JJ. She was perfectly content playing around, just-a-grinning, and watching the colors on the T.V. until she got hungry again LOL. At least it seemed to make JJ feel better for the time being.

Today I finally got around to taking a picture of Jules with all of her toys we all caught for her at various Mardi Gras parades. Click HERE to see it.

I called today to schedule the baptismal class Ray and I have to take to get Juliana baptized. We are not exactly sure when this year we want to have done, but we want to get the class under our belts. The class is tomorrow at 7:00 PM.

Also, tomorrow Juliana will be two months old, and will be getting her first set of shots, oh joy. Her doctor's appointment is at 3:30 PM. Ray and I are NOT looking forward to it at all! Poor baby has no idea. :(

By the way, Jules has not spent though the night again, but still sleeps four to five hours at a time for the most part. :)

The other night I set her sorta in her car seat to go warm up her bottle after nursing and HERE is what I came back to lol. She did not wake up from sleeping like that for about another 30 minutes lol. HERE she is curled up in the crook of her Daddy's arm a lil' while after feeding. Our daughter is not cute at all huh? hehe HERE she is again.

HERE is the lil' cutie in her bassinet SUPPOSE to be going the sleep hehe.

***3/10/09******

HERE is a picture of her Paw-paw and her sitting in his recliner the next day. Right now he is spending a lil' time with his sister at the casino for her birthday, so I cannot call him and ask him if he minds me posting it. But Gina says she does not think he will have a problem. I figure if he does I can just take it down real quick. But I wanted everyone to see the wild picture because Ray took that picture WITH the flash!

Now let me explain, there has always been ghosts in that house. If you are around long enough they will even call your name sometimes. When I was living there they would sit beside me on the bed or at the foot of it when Ray was away at work.

I walked in the bathroom in the middle of the day one time, and a shirt sleeve that was on the floor was in mid air then dropped to the floor again.

Did I mention I will NOT sleep out in the living room by myself at night! And if Ray was not home I would have to be completely exhausted enough to sleep in our bed by myself. Not that anything bad has happened to me, but you get someone who is not 'there' sitting at the end of the bed and messing with your feet ect and see if you don't get a lil' freaked out.

To further explain, right where the house is was a battle field in the Civil War-I believe (I am SO bad with American History-you have NO idea). Ray says he has actually seen soldiers walk in and out of his parents' bedroom.

All in all, we are all wondering if there was not something standing in front of the camera when Ray took the picture.

Artists are...

2009-03-06T13:49:00.004-06:00

Click on the image to see it full size

This tag was done for me using the "Precious Dreams" tutorial.

More Family Pictures

2009-03-05T18:52:00.006-06:00

Hello all,

***Note: I will never post pictures of ANYONE without their permission FIRST and as such I do NOT want anyone (except of course her father) to post pictures of me or Juliana online without getting permission first.

When we had our barbecue here at the house the week before last (written about in prior entry) Kirstin finally decided she liked the idea of holding Juliana to the point where she runs to sit wherever she can waiting for someone to let her 'hold' Juliana lol. I talked to Gina today, and is okay me posting pictures of her and 'Chick' on here so... 1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE and 4HERE are pictures of Chick holding Juliana.

HERE is a few pictures of Gina holding Juliana at the hospital BEFORE we came home from the hospital.

HERE is a pictures of Gina holding Juliana within the first week of coming home.

I've always love these...

2009-03-05T14:34:00.001-06:00

> TWENTY NINE LINES TO MAKE YOU SMILE
> 1.. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he
was God and I didn't.
> 2.. I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.
> 3.. Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.
> 4.. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.
> 5.. Don't take life too seriously; No one gets out alive.
> 6.. You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me
> 7.. Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
> 8.. Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
> 9.. I'm not a complete idiot -- Some parts are just missing.
> 10... Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
> 11.. NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning
medicine.
> 12.. God must love stupid people; He made so many.
> 13.. The gene pool could use a little chlorine.
> 14.. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.
> 15.. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
> 16.. Being 'over the hill' is much better than being under it!
> 17.. Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up.
> 18.. Procrastinate Now!
> 19.. I Have a Degree in Liberal Arts; Do You Want Fries With That?
> 20.. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
> 21.. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
> 22.. Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!
> 23..They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.
> 24.. He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.
> 25.. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand
times the memory.
> 26.. Ham and eggs...A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for
a pig.
> 27.. The trouble with life is there's no background music.
> 28.. The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.
> 29.. I smile because I don't know what the hell is going on.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!
Life is too short and friends are too few!

Pictures of Juliana & her Daddy :)

2009-03-05T10:48:00.003-06:00

Hello all,

Ray told me yesterday that he does not mind me posting his picture(s) online for everyone which will be of him and Juliana hehe. So HERE are some pictures at the hospital in the days BEFORE we came home hehe. Poor Ray there are a heck of a lot more pictures of everyone at the hospital because HE was the one taking most of the pictures. The pictures above were taken by Jay lol.

Jay also told me it is okay for me to post pictures of him and Juliana so HERE are some, again while we were still at the hospital a lil' over seven weeks ago.

HERE and HERE are a couple more pictures of Jay with her that Saturday after coming home.

Click 1HERE, 2HERE, 3HERE, 4HERE, 5HERE,6HERE and 7HERE to see some more pictures of Ray and Juliana. Some are taken here at the house others are taken at his Mom and Dad's house. I went in order according to dates on the pictures. And no he is not always mad LOL. He just does not like to smile for pictures. He never has.

Juliana slept through the night last night(3/4/09)!!! :) She slept from 10:45 PM to 6:10 this morning. To top it off I always change her diaper before feeding her, and for as long as I can remember she has always hated anyone changing her (messing with her legs,feet ect). Also, for about the last week or so she pitches a fit when I set her down to do whatever I need to do for her in the middle of feeding, or even when I go to burp her. This morning none of that!! I am stunned, but glad. I mean she still was fussing throughout it all some, but NOTHING like it has been! I am praying that this is the start of something good, and not just a one time thing lol.

She has been out here in the living room with me since she got done eating. She played around a bit in her Daddy's chair -got frustrated when she got down to a crawling position and could not go anywhere, so I put her on the couch. She still got frustrated, started crying because she still cannot pick her head up and keep it up like she wants. Poor thing.She does not seem to want to be held at the moment either. Now she is content in her swing, listening to instrumental lullaby music with Momma.

Click HERE to see the color pictures we got put on more dog tags recently. The first two pictures were put on one for Ray's Dad. The second two were put on one for Ray and the last two were put on one for me. Since I now have both a black white dog tag of Juliana and a colored tag I had to spend a couple bucks for a set of dog tag silencers .

I Received an Award!!

2009-03-04T19:03:00.026-06:00

"The PREMIO DARDOS AWARD"
acknowledges the value of every blogger shows in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literacy and personal values everyday.

Thanks InkkFreakk

This is my very first award and I feel honored- Thank you very much darlin'!

I am passing this award onto the following:

1- Arkansas Outhouse Scraps
2- JeNaSis DeSiGn
3- Artlor's Design Shoppe
4- A Small Scrap of Our Life
5- Melanie's Digital Creations
6- WordArt Fun
7- Major Tigger Scraps
8- Lindsay Jane Designs
9- Artistic Musings
10- Simply Sweet Designs
11- Bon Scrapatit Designs
12- Tracy's Scraps
13- Mandy Made Digi Bits
14- digivic
15- Digital Art by Steph

All Notes have been left on each blog.

and The rules are:
1. Accept the award, post it in your blog together with the name of person granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Past the award to 15 other blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement. Remember to contact them to let them know they have been chosen for this award'

A little of this and a little of that...

2009-02-27T12:24:00.012-06:00

Hello all,

I am happy to say that Juliana slept from 11:50 PM last night to 4:36 this morning, she did not give me a bit of trouble going to sleep (Ray and I just went to bed a little bit later). Then she went right back sleep after I got done feeding her at 5:20 and slept until 9:03. I am hoping she will repeat herself that way tonight because I can handle getting up every 4 to 5 hours, it is anything less than that that kills me. Although I am more tired today than yesterday-go figure!

It was so cute Monday (2/23/09) we had a barbecue here at the house Ray's Mom and Dad came over, and Gina happened to be in town so her and Chick (Kirstin) were here too. Well, Ray's Dad was holding Juliana and ask Chick if she wanted to hold her. Ray and Dad talked her into it. She sat back on couch and Dad put Juliana in Chick's lap. At first she just stared at Juliana, and of course Ray was taking pictures hehe. Well, after "holding" Juliana the first time each time she was asked after that Chick would run to the couch and sit down waiting for her Paw-paw to put Juliana in her lap. It was so cute!If it would be okay with Gina I would post a couple of the pictures Ray took of them together. I will have to ask.

Also on Monday night while were over at Ray's Mom and Dad's house these pictures were taken HERE and HERE hehe. Ray and Jay both were trying to catch her with the smile on her face. She smiles all the time, but never ear to ear and trying to laugh hehe. I wish you could have seen it! But none-the-less they are cute bright-eyed pictures of her anyway.

HERE and HERE are a couple pictures of her the same night in her bassinet right before we went to bed. Might I add that the bassinet is the most helpful thing on 4 wheel for around the house especially during the day when Ray is at work! Thanks again Trish!

Trish (another of Ray's sisters) also brought Juliana a swing and within the last week Juliana has gotten to like the swing. It has proved to be of much help when Ray is cooking dinner, and I am doing housework ect. After she gets done looking around she does fall asleep in it now LOL. It is so cute! Click HERE, HERE and HERE to see a few pictures. The third picture is with the blue bear Jay and Jennifer believe must have accidentally ended up in one of their bead bags at one of the parades as they found it when they got home (whatever day it was).

We washed it yesterday. I was afraid it would not come clean washing it with just Baby clothes detergent, but now it looks brand new. It is a cute little blue rattling teddy bear.

Oh by the way, Juliana is still nursing, but is also up to full 4 oz bottle as of the last few days. She is getting so big already every time I think about it I want to cry. Pretty soon we are going have to start buying size 1 diapers (seriously) she is getting that big already! I am not going to want to know how long she is at her doctor's appointment on March 10th. lol

Going to give her a bath now. Over and out.

Precious Dreams with Celesse

2009-02-25T17:17:00.003-06:00

Click on tag to see full size
This tutorial is written for those with working knowledge of PSP.

I used PSP 9 for this tutorial, but it could be done with other versions I'm sure.
~Supplies you will need~

Supplies HERE

1 Tubes of choice – I used the awesome work of Celesse. Please do not use her work without a license from C.I.L.M .

Free “Waiting for Spring” scrap kit from Beacon Scrap HERE Thanks darlin’!

Word Art and the Cajun Designz template in zip

If anyone knows where Cajun Designz’s website is please let me know.

Eye Candy 4000 > Gradient Glow x 2 (optional –used on my name)

The Drop Shadow I used is V,H (-5),Opacity 40, Blur 5, Color –Black

Font I used is called Allegro

~Okay Let’s get started~

Don’t forget to rename layers as you go

You might want to Adjust > Sharpen after you resize anything you need to.

Grab the “Dreams Temp” template (we will use this instead of a blank canvas) –Resize by 50%.

Add a “New Raster” layer, flood fill white –Rename “white BG,” and move below the template layer

Grab a photo of choice. I used a picture of my daughter.

Copy and Paste it as a new layer, move the photo between the template and the white background and resize it to fit a section of the photo in the “circle” part of the template.

X out the photo.

With the Magic Wand select inside the circle. Selections > Modify > Expand by 2

Un-X the photo. Selections > Invert and hit Delete on your keyboard

Duplicate the template layer

With a color, gradient or pattern of choice flood fill the original template layer and lower the Opacity

Effects > Eye Candy 4000 > HSB Noise, Effects > Toadies > Blast n’ Blur

For some reason I had to use the “Deform” to close the “circle” part of the “copy of the template” back around the picture

On the Photo layer- Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Colorize (I used H 255 S 38)

Grab a tube –copy, paste as a new layer, position where you like and add a drop shadow

Grab your choice of Word Art- Copy, paste as a new layer and position as you like

Grab the “Floral Corner 01” in the “Waiting For Spring” scrap kit

Copy, paste as a new layer, resize by 50% about 3 times and place in the top left corner-add a drop shadow

Layers > Duplicate

Image > Mirror

Layers > Duplicate

Image > Flip

Layers > Duplicate

Image > Mirror -You should now have 4 floral corners

Now grab the “Buckled Ribbon” from the scrap kit

Copy, paste as a new layer, resize by 50% about 3 times –I did NOT put a drop shadow

Use the Freehand Selection Tool-point to point to select the parts of the ribbon you want to cut off to make it look as if the ribbon wraps around the circle, hit Delete on your keyboard (I had to redo this a few times to get it how I wanted it)

Add all Copyright Credits

File > Save As (Blank without a name ect)

Go back and add the text you want

File > Save As again

DONE I hope you enjoyed this tut.
If you have any problems please feel free to e-mail me at: starladystudio@bellsouth.net

I would LOVE to see what you have created!
HUGS StarLady

You know you're from Louisiana when...

2009-02-24T14:55:00.002-06:00

An E-mail I received

You know you're from Louisiana when...

**Most of the following applies to either Ray, Me or Both

Your sunglasses fog up when you step outside, even in December.

You reinforce your attic to store Mardi Gras beads

You don't look twice when you see pink flamingos in yards of nice subdivisions during Mardi Gras.

You save newspapers, not for recycling but for tablecloths at crawfish boils.

Your ancestors are buried above the ground.

You drink Community Coffee, have tried Starbucks, but don't see what all the fuss is about.

You take a bite of five-alarm chili and reach for the Tabasco.

Every once in a while, you have waterfront property .

You sit down to eat boiled crawfish and your host says, "Don't eat the dead ones," and you know what he means.

You don't learn until high school that Mardi Gras is not a national holiday.

You push little old ladies out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads.

Little old ladies push YOU out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads.

You believe that purple, green , and gold look good together.

Your last name isn't pronounced the way it's spelled.

You know what a nutria is but you still pick it to represent your baseball team.
Your town is low on the education chart, high on the obesity chart and you don't care because you're No. 1 on the party chart.

Your house payment is less than your utility bill.

You know that Tchoupitoulas is a street and not a disease.

Your grandparents are called "Mam-Maw" and "Paw-Paw."

Your Santa Claus rides an alligator and your favorite Saint is a football player.

You cringe every time you hear an actor with a Southern or Cajun accent in a "New Orleans-based" movie or TV show.

You have to reset your clocks after every thunderstorm.

You're walking in the French Quarter with a plastic cup of beer.

When it starts to rain, you cover your beer instead of your head.

You've eaten at one or more of these restaurants, AND know how to pronounce them: Prejeans, Tu Jac 's, Gallatoire's, Ralph & Kacoo's, Brunet's, or Mulatte's.

You eat dinner out and spend the entire meal talking about all the other good places you've eaten.

You call home just to find out what your momma'nem are having for supper tonight.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Louisiana

Mardi Gras Parades

2009-02-22T13:10:00.014-06:00

Hello all,

The Mardi Gras parades officially started at the beginning of February and with them comes Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. HERE is the information about the parades in New Orleans, HERE in Houma, Thibodaux and in Morgan City (of course due to rainy days ect parade schedules are off a bit).

Last night we went to a parade in Houma (cannot remember what krewe it was) which was made up of 33 floats. It was only after we got there that I remembered the most important reason why I did not want to bring Juliana to any of the parades this year-all the LOUD noise. I feel like such a horrible person for going out there with her. I am not a doctor, but I hope to God that her hearing is okay after all that. I am not going to anymore parades this year (with her or otherwise) as there many more around here before Ash Wednesday. The absolutely amazing thing is we fed her before we left home, and she SLEPT the ENTIRE time up until the very last float was going by -only THEN did she wake up hungry. We had her bundled up in her car seat on the stroller with the car seat cover zipped up and then she was shielded by the sun cover on the car seat, and the sun cover from the stroller itself to keep anything from hitting her-see what I mean HERE. I still cannot believe she slept through all that NOISE. I cannot slept through Juliana's crying much less be able to sleep through THAT!

In fact, I hate loud noises, but every time I would go to cover my ears I would have to put my hands up to keep from getting hit by anything being thrown from the floats. I always seem to have a good time when we go to the parades, but honestly with how loud everything is and the crowds of people I would not have any desire to go if Ray and family did not go.

Today is Ray's day off and Jay took the day off, so Ray, Jay, Jennifer (Jay's girlfriend) and Ben (Jennifer's son) left at 10:00 AM to go a parade out in Thibodaux. The parade started at 12:00 noon, and ends around 4:00 CT. That parade is suppose have 50 floats.

Ray is exhausted from being up with Juliana from 3:00 AM to 5:00 AM (since today is his day off he told me to sleep as much as I could. He would take care of her last night and tonight, except for nursing her of course LOL). Then at 7:30 we got up to go to Mass. Then Ray went with Jay to the parade to get a few toys for Juliana. We will save them for her to play with in the months to come, and one day let her know where they came from.

Click HERE to see Juliana, out like a light, right after she was changed into her long sleeve Eeyore shirt and purple pants to go to the parade yesterday evening.

Click HERE to see the flashing multi-color LED lighted bunny ears Ray bought for me at the parade LOL.

Click HERE to see her fleece tie blanket I just finished at lil' bit ago while she was asleep.

Also, I changed Juliana's "Age Ticker" so that it would show day by day age instead of just months and weeks.

Blankets Ect.

2009-02-17T16:39:00.033-06:00

Hello all.

To start, I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day. I know I did! Ray bought me a 2009 Valentine's Day bear, a gold necklace with a "Mom" pendant HERE and "Labyrinth" with David Bowe. Ray has bought me a Valentine's Day year bear every year since 2004. I bought him some clothes he needed badly and "The Bucket List" with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. We bought a big stuffed bear, and a big stuffed ladybug for Juliana. To see her with her stuffed animals click HERE, and HERE to see the ladybug a lil' better. We were going to go out to eat, but decided to stay with Ray's Dad over at his house because Ray's Mom was working late ('til 10:00 PM). We did not want him to be by himself on Valentine's Day. He seemed to cheer up a bit when we brought Juliana over hehe.

Sunday night we were over at Ray's Dad's house again and Jay bought a colorful hippo for Juliana. Ray put it on my head and I left it there while I was holding her, and against my wishes Ray took a picture of me like that. LOL To see the picture click HERE.

Speaking of Juliana the last week has been a nightmare trying to get her to sleep regardless of how much she sleeps or does not sleep during the day. I charge her diaper and start feeding her between 8:00 PM-9:00 PM. Nursing her is okay, but by the time she gets to the bottle she drinks an ounce then falls asleep dead to the world. I put her down for 5-10 minutes then she screams bloody murder because she is still hungry. She goes on like that until she gets 3-4 ounces in her. Then either Ray or I set her back down in the bassinet. Again, as soon as our heads hit the pillows she is screaming again. Sometimes all it takes is to let her cry for 15-20 minutes. But most days we are up with her off and on until about 12:00-1:00 AM. Now, when she wakes up later on to eat again, getting her back to sleep is no problem. It is just the first time at night that is the hardest because she fights her sleep. Then between 6:00 AM and 8:00 AM she wakes up to eat then starts fighting her sleep all day long until about 4:00 PM. I pretty well stay more exhausted then I was the first couple weeks after she was born. I feel bad for Ray having to get up at 6:00 AM for work every morning.

Ray cut the ladybug fabric in half. He finished Juliana's blanket the day before yesterday. He had bought one of those hand-held sewing machines to make it with. Turns out he had bought enough fabric that he was able to make Kirstin a blanket as well. I think he said he wants to give it to Kirstin for Easter. To see the blankets click HERE, and HERE is a picture of one of the burp clothes we made with the left over material. I only put one up of each for everyone to see because both blankets and burp clothes are the same lol.

The dog tag Ray ordered for me came in today. It came out AWESOME!! Click HERE to see the front picture, and as I said before the back says "Momma's Little Bright Eyes" Born 1.10.09 at 10:02 AM.

I bought some fabric to make my own blankets for her. Click 1HERE (rubber duckies), 2HERE (bluish color), 3HERE (bottom -colorful ladybugs and top-light purple). The first two fabrics will be tied together. To see what I mean click HERE. The second set of fabrics will be sewn together. LOL I bought the first set of fabric because the duckies are cute, but mostly because I did not see the ladybugs at first. I had already bought the first set of fabric before I saw the ladybugs. I have started on the fleece tie blanket already, and as always I will have photos after they are finished.

Click HERE to see a picture of her in her swing and another of her in her carseat with a "I Love Mommy" on it HERE. Speaking of the word "Mommy," I cannot stand that word, and I wish I could find clothes ect that said differently. I do not mind "Momma, Mom" or even "Ma". I have also never been bothered by "Daddy". I still say Daddy all the time. It is just something about how Mommy is said or sounds. I do not know exactly, but I HATE it, especially hearing children older than about 4 saying it! It drives me nuts!

Over and out for today.

Her Swing, Hobby Lobby and Dog Tag

2009-02-11T20:05:00.005-06:00

Hello all,

I dragged Juliana's swing out today, and put her in it. She seemed to be okay with it for about 30 minutes. She was lookin' around everywhere, but strangely she will not fall asleep in it like most children do. She started fussing because she was fighting her sleep. As soon as I took her out of it, and laid her down in the bassinet, she went to sleep almost immediately lol. I guess I will try her in it again later on.

Click HERE and HERE to see another couple pictures Ray took of her yesterday.

Ray and Jay went out to Houma yesterday. Ray came home with two different ladybug fabrics from Hobby Lobby. Click HERE and HERE to see the fabric he picked out. He had the idea of making a blanket for Juliana. I'll have pictures when we are finished with it.

Also, click HERE to check out what Ray has ordered for me. I am considering it a Valentine's Day gift. It is a dog tag with a picture of Juliana on one side and "Momma's Little Bright Eyes" Born: Jan. 10th '09 @ 10:02 AM on the other side. I hope it comes out good hehe. I cannot WAIT to see it! The seller told Ray it should be ready to ship out by Thursday! :)

Juliana is 1 Month old today! :)

2009-02-10T12:54:00.008-06:00

Hello all,

Juliana is one month old TODAY!! Time is already going to fast geesh. To see is a few pictures of her within the last few days 1HERE, 2HERE 3HERE. Click HERE to see a picture of her today.

The other day we were at Ray's Dad's house. Ray's Mom and Dad have their recliners side by side. Ray was sitting in his Mom's chair holding Juliana, and his Dad was in his own. All of a sudden, Juliana flopped onto the arms of the two chairs, and started scooting toward her Paw-Paw she got over to him. Then she got frustrated because could not scoot into his lap. Ray picked her up and put her in his lap. She was okay then LOL.

I believe it was the same night that she did not go to sleep until about 1:30 AM because she had armitis (from being held to much and not wanting to be put down lol). Her Paw-Paw held her for about fours straight before we came home. So now when we go over there everyone gets to hold Juliana until the last hour we are there. She gets put down in her car seat which seems to be working.

You should have seen Ray and Jules the other night. Ray was trying to do her hand print with one of the plaster kits we have. Well, let's just say it did not work well and we are going to have to wait until she is a lil' bit older. When she is more aware of what is going on. She was sleeping, but kept curling her hands up. So he tried her foot, but by then the plaster was too hard to press her foot into. We are going to get more plaster later. I am also glad Aunt Molly bought another kit for us to use.

I am still having a hard time letting Ray take Juliana to church without me. Not that I do not trust him with her. Anyone who knows Ray, and has seen him with Juliana, knows that child means everything in the world to him. He would take good care of her without me around. I guess I am still dealing with a mother's separation anxiety. I know that -only because the week before last on Sunday (2/1/09) Ray got her ready to go to church. He brought her in the bedroom to say bye to me. My thoughts were that I would get some sleep while they were gone. WRONG! Out of the blue I started crying. Ray saw the tears running down my face (which I was trying to hide for his sake). He asked me if I wanted him to leave her here. I told him "No, because that isn't fair to you. I told you you could take her to church today." He said "Well, you want to go with us?" I did not really want to go because I had nothing good to wear, but I went anyway. Ray wasn't going to leave me here crying and they were going to be late...I went with them this last Sunday as well LOL. It really would be good for me to take that time to rest as the rest of the day we are doing this or that and have no time to sleep, but I cannot do it yet.

Okay that is all I can think of right now.

Loosing Jules (C.I.L.M.Group Moderator)

2009-02-09T07:28:00.010-06:00

We lost Jules today at 2:00 PM [February 7, 2009]. She has gone to be with her son Joshua. Julie was diagnosed with four brain tumors and was only given a short time, 2 to 4 weeks. I want you know how much she loved you guys and how much you meant to her. For the past server al years you all have been her friends and many of you have been there for her as she struggled through her chemo treatments as well as the passing of Joshua.

I won't go into the details of Julie's passing but I will tell you that God blessed her with very quiet, peaceful transition from this world into her everlasting life.

There are too many of you that Julie held dear to her heart for me to call you by name. Just know that if you were one of her friends that you touched her life and in doing so you have touched mine as well.

Thank You for being a part of her life.

Jackie / WhisperinHands
************************************************
She will be missed. As I try not to cry...I did not know Jules that well, but I did have much respect for her. My heart and prayers go out to all whose lives she touched. May she Rest In Peace.

MM Ladybug Love

2009-02-08T12:46:00.008-06:00

I originally had my daughter (Juliana -AKA Jules) in mind when I made this tag, because as some may know her nickname is also "Ladybug." Well, I am also dedicating this to Jules (the C.I.LM. group Moderator) that passed away 2/7/09. Little did I know I had finished typing up the tutorial around the same time of day she passed. I am still in shock. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to all whose lives she touched.

Click on tag to see full size
This tutorial is written for those with working knowledge of PSP.

I used PSP 9 for this tutorial, but it could be done with other versions I'm sure.
~Supplies you will need~

Supplies HERE

1 Tubes of choice – I used the awesome work of Monte Moore. Please do not use his work without a license from C.I.L.M .

1 Free “Heartfelt Scrapkit” Word Art and Doodle by Melissa- Thanks darlin’!! (in zip)

Her blog is HERE.

A “CU Glass Heart” (in zip)

Eye Candy 4000 > Gradient Glow (optional –used on my name)

The Drop Shadow I used is V,H (-5),Opacity 40, Blur 5, Color –Black

Font I used is called Acropolis Regular

~Okay Let’s get started~

Don’t forget to rename layers as you go

You might want to Adjust > Sharpen after you resize anything you need to.

Open a 600 x 600 transparent image (we will resize later)

Flood Fill the image white

Copy and Paste the “mc_CU glassheart” onto the tag-Resize by 80%

Layers > Duplicate –Resize it by 80%

Copy and paste a paper from the HS Scrapkit onto the tag,

X out the paper, Layer palette > activate the big heart layer

With the Magic Wand click outside the big heart layer

Un-X the paper and hit delete on your keyboard

Selections > Select None

Layer Palette > Select the big heart layer > Merge> Merge Down (with the paper)

Grab a tube

X out the big heart again

With the Magic Wand click outside the small heart layer

Copy and paste the tube and position it under the small heart

hit delete on your keyboard

Un-X the big heart layer

I lower the Opacity on the tube layer to 36, but the amount may vary

X out the white background, Merge > Merge Visible

Un-X the white background layer

On the heart layer -Layers > Duplicate –Resize it by 50%

Position the new small heart at top left under the big heart

Layers > Duplicate – Image > Mirror

Layers > Duplicate and position at the very top of the big heart

X out the white background, Merge > Merge Visible

Un-X the white background layer

Layers > Duplicate

On the copy of hearts layer > Effects > Toadies > Blast ‘n Blur (X effect 5 Y effect 17)

Layers > Duplicate and pull the top Blast ‘n Blur down just a little

Grab another tube for the ‘main’ tube –Resize (80%), position where you like and add a drop shadow

Copy and paste the ladybugs onto the tag, Resize them by 80%

Using the Freehand Tool cut them all away from each other

Paste each as a new layer, position where you like and add a drop shadow (same as before)

Copy, paste and position the “kiss” where you like

Layers > Duplicate until there is a total of four kisses, position where you like and add a drop shadow

Copy and paste the “SS My Desire Doodle,”

Layers > Duplicate, Image > Mirror, Merge > Merge Down both doodles

Layer Palette > Move the Doodles layer down just above the white background

Copy and Paste the “Word Art,” position where you like and add a drop shadow

Image > Resize ALL by 80%

Add all Credits needed

~Animation~

Open Animation Shop

In PSP –Edit > Copy Merge

In AS –Right Click > Paste as a new Animation

In PSP – Grab the Eraser (size 40) and erase ONE the “kiss(es)”

Edit > Copy Merge

In AS-Edit Paste > BEFORE current Frame

Repeat until you have pasted the frame without any kisses on it in AS.

Edit > Select All

Animation > Frame Properties > 30

View> Animation

File > Save As a GIF (Blank)

Go back to PSP Add your name

Edit > Copy

In AS > Edit > Select All

Make sure “Propagate Paste” is toggled in

Edit > Paste > Into Selected Frame

View > Animation

Save AS Again

DONE I hope you enjoyed this tut.
If you have any problems please feel free to e-mail me at: starladystudio@bellsouth.net

I would LOVE to see what you have created!