A Tribute To Sarah's Tutu!

Just read Sarah's Blog- saw the tutu modeling and had to post these in tribute!
Yesterday morning before I left Niki and I dressed Lorelei in a  pink tutu and fairy wings! Soooooo cute!!!

Lorelei Rose Kickel

7 pounds of perfectness!!!

PS- Niki made the tutu herself, which I think makes her something of a fashion maven. 

The Mohawk is all natural- seriously!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Sigh... I have to go home tomorrow. I am not happy about it. Not even a little bit. You shouldn't be required to be apart from your best friend! It's not right.

It's been five GLORIOUS days of late nights and rocking babies, being used as a slide and swimming in a plastic pool, cake for dinner and destroying Niki's kitchen for a great platter of meat balls.

Pictures to come... tears to follow tomorrow when I board the plane, as always when I leave here. Really, God, really? :(

My shoulder smells like a sweet baby girl...

My Neighbor is Back From the Dead!!

Oh my goodness- this is NUTS!

So, when Sal and I were in Wisconsin for Kim's wedding her weird-o cousin-in-law called to tell her that her neighbor, Ralph, had died. Now, we were not BFF with Ralph or anything, but he is a great neighbor and was awesome during the hurricane. We were appropriately sad (while dying from Montezuma's Curse) and we really didn't know his wife at all- so we've just kind of been avoiding their house. Which isn't really hard since it's all the way on the other side of the pasture. Anyhow...

We got to actually know Ralph about 4 years ago when he ordered a ton of Hummels (little German antique statues) for his wife for their 30 year anniversary because they had to sell her collection years before to pay for family, kids, house, etc. It was totally adorable. He had all of the Hummels (about 15 or so) delivered to Sally's so his wife wouldn't find out. Except we kind of worried she might think he was having an affair because all of a sudden he was over frequently. But that was his problem.

So the other day (about a month after Ralph's sudden death) a box for him shows up on our porch. We totally freaked out because we were going to have to deliver a gift to the woman from her dead husband! FREAKY! I completely bailed on Sally and told her that I just lived there and it was really HER neighbor, so she was on her own. After a few minutes of deliberation, Sally decided to call over there and let the wife know. I thought the wife must still be pretty upset (I mean, it had only been a month) because when Sal asked for her she immediately followed that with OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! and burst into tears. Then she found the nearest chair and crashed into it and I was a bit concerned. I almost burned the kitchen down with the bacon I was cooking when I hear her screech into the phone, "Ralph, You're ALIVE! I thought you were dead!" Then she explains into the phone about the telephone call from her weird cousin-in-law about her neighbor Ralph being dead and how he is her ONLY neighbor named Ralph. Thank goodness, Ralph took this well. He handed the phone over to his wife and said, "Here honey, it's Sally. She wants to tell you that I am dead."

I know you're laughing right now. I actually am too! But at the time it was completely creepy, I tell you! I walked the box across the pasture to a very alive Ralph (so surreal!) and told him he was looking better than ever.

We have no idea what Ralph actually died.

T-Minus 7 Days!!

Next Wednesday I leave for Niki's! Happy Birthday to ME!! I can't wait to play with my Nathan and meet Lorelei. I'm such a lucky girl, to have my friends.

I was talking with Sally the other night about women and girlfriends and she commented on how hard it is to keep and maintain girlfriends. I disagree. My friendships with my girlfriends are so easy!

When I was young, like elementary through high school, girlfriends were definitely hard. I really didn't have any. I was that kid in the bathroom where the rest of the girls in your class come in and tell you that you should really change schools becuase no one wants to be friends with you. I was always striving to fit in, be cool, be anything! And I never knew who my friends were from day to day. It was awful- and maybe that has made me either choose my friends more carefully or cherish them more. I'm not sure. But today- I don't have a lot of friends, but I do have great friends. Being accepted or judged is never an issue. Even being out of touch for a bit doesn't phase things.

I have learned through the past few years how vital and necessary and life- affirming girlfriends are. I need them. They're gifts from God. And I don't have to work at it, or try, or worry- they are just there. Always there.

"True friendship means a willingness to share both joy and complete despair" -The Girls from Ames

Glitter and Connect the Dots

Sorry for the long delay between posts. My hard drive was infected by a virus and I have been running diagnostics and installing a new hard drive and reinstalling an operating system and reinstalling Windows.... and a lot of other stuff I have no idea what they are.

Ok, so, when I was in the truck with T on the way to Carrie Underwood, I looked up to see little glitter spots on the ceiling. You'll remember I was wearing a black dress with sequins around the neck. The sun was hitting the sequins and reflecting little spots off of my dress and onto the ceiling. Seeing the glitter spots, I had a major flashback to being eight years old on the school bus.

When we were little, Mama designed and bedazzled and puff pained all of our clothes. Except, we didn't have a bedazzler so she just glue gunned the rhinestones (of all colors, shapes and sizes) on. Katie and I sat together on the bus on the way to school, because I wasn't one of those cool kids who moved toward the back of the bus as you increase in grade. A friend of ours from down the street-who come to think of it, was older than me AND cool, so maybe grade and bus seat location don't always correlate- sat with us. The morning sun coming in the window always reflected off of our bedazzles and onto the back of the seat in front of us in little rainbow glitter spots. Michelle thought this was completely hilarious, because her clothes didn't do this. She was allowed to wear big baggy t-shirts and jeans with holes and things and her mom must not have had a bedazzler. We began playing connect the dots on the back of the seat and singing the annoying Pee Wee Herman song, "Connect the dots, la la la..." over and over. And that was our ride to school every morning, except when we wore puff paint, which does not make glitter dots, and on those days I have no idea how we entertained ourselves.

I was talking about this with Katie and Amanda the other day after my experience in T's truck. My mother refuses to believe this ever happened. But it's true, you just can't make this stuff up! I'll have to try and dig up some pictures.

T Hamm

One of the many reasons I love T:

When she's upset because no one will return the Navy Pelican to its rightful place, she does something about it by climbing up on its perch and posing as the Pelican herself. The people in the white car behind her applauded.

And a pic of us, just because we're so cute together!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mine grows great!
I have waged an all-out war on the chickens by planting a new garden inside the coop! Yep, that's right- I took the battle to their home turf. The back part, a chicken-run area, is completely fenced around and over the top- so nothing can get in. not even other critters who might want my veggies when they grow (versus the chickens who just scratch around and dig up the seeds without waiting for anything to grow. Pain in my ass). So we put a door onto the back of the coop and shut them out of their own area. Ha!
Well, Ha to me a little because it's so weeded that it needs a ton of work. But little by little I'm working through it and planting as I go. With everything staggered we should have veggies and flowers for most of the summer. And yes, AC, I'll plant you more green beans. I planted peas and limas in there so far, and Mexican Sunflowers and Cosmos because you can never have enough flowers.

These are the same tomatoes that were little yellow flowers about three weeks ago. I'm so excited! I counted yesterday and this plant has 12 tomatoes growing on it right now. The other two have a bunch of tomatoes too. I moved them into the protected area last night and set them on the ground- this plant came up to my CHIN! Not lying!! And I bought a purple heirloom bush yesterday. Since I already have a yellow one I'll have LSU tomatoes in a few months! Geaux Tomatoes!

Green Beans! They're about 4 inches tall now and the climbers are spiting out their little vines to start growing up, up, up!
T gets partial credit for these because she babysat while I was at the wedding.

First tiny little cucumber (Burpless for your dining pleasure)

Granny's Zinnias! They should get about another 2 feet taller, but last night I saw a bud on one!! Can't wait!

And finally, fresh blackberry crumble I made from the blackberries I did not grow, but did pick myself (scars on the fingers to prove it) from the pasture. Yum!!