what's been up

The Brown's Bistro:


Last night I started cooking dinner and the kids really wanted to help me.
They got so excited about setting the table.
And then they came up with the idea to make it look like a restaurant...complete with name cards by each setting, a menu, hot bread in a basket...
Emily got all dressed up like a waiter, complete with a name tag taped to the front of her blouse. Here she is pulling Josh's chair out for him.

Annie's always got to be right in the middle of the action:




I love these nuts:

I rarely fry stuff.
Pretty much the only time we bust out the "Fry Daddy" is when Josh goes fishing and actually brings some fish home. YUM.
I love fried catfish the most...
But this is the BEST way to cook okra:

I could eat the whole plate myself. LOVE OKRA.

Heaven for Annie:


Did I mention her parents'names?
They had the most hilarious Cajun names we've ever heard:
Jacque-O-Bo My Little Friend
and
Snickers Doe Bell DuFassat
YEP
I kid you not. Those are the names on her papers.
She's the best dog that ever lived.

One of my favorite things about subbing at high schools is the cheesy wall art...
especially when it's supposed to be inspiring/motivational:

Never look down on anyone unless you're helping them up. LOL

Good times at the camp

I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!!!
Something about the weather just makes me feel so happy.
I love that it means we're about to have Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas....
I love that it's going to be cold enough for roasting wienies and marshmallows at the camp very soon...
Cocoa in the mornings!
Cozy sweaters, mittens, thick socks, and cute hats!
Pumpkins and leaves and bales of hay!!!
We passed this field on the way to the camp and I had to catch my breath.

Friday the kids and I took off to the camp. My Mom is giving the bunkhouse an overhaul! I am so excited.

We painted all of the bunk beds a very pretty shade of green. That was a job, but we had so much fun doing it.


We dug up a ton of peanuts.

Here's my dad on RT with a humungous pile of peanut plants he yanked up all by himself!!!

Can you see the sweat and dirt? He drank about a gallon of water that day but never once used the bathroom...

So we took a ride down to the trail where he'd planted a bunch of rye grass, peas, and other greens (for the deer)....

And look at what we saw:
Click to enlarge if you can't see that poor, pitiful, ugly thing. It had just rained so this possum was all wet and looking especially unattractive. Sometimes a possum can actually look kind of cute. Not this sad sap.

Look at those greens!!!

My Dad cut some okra for me. He's so sweet. I'm going to fry it up with dinner tomorrow night! YUM!

MY week

Yesterday my Mom and I went to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. YUM.
They are little donuts covered in powdered sugar. DELICIOUS.
I had to get a picture of my Mom's face. She had sugar all over her mouth while she was talking to me, but when I told her- instead of wiping it off, she just added some more!!! LOL

Remember my old car? SO SAD 2 say goodbye.....
But we were spending a lot more time under the hood than behind the wheel.

So we got a newer car!!! YIPPEE!!!
I love it.

I finally went to the library and got myself a card. I love books but lately I just go to book stores instead of checking them out. (Goodwill sells paperbacks 5 for 99 cents. HELLO)
Look at what I checked out:

Usually I am not into self-help books but maybe I need to help myself to a few every now and then. (hear that play on words?)

Ramblin' 'Round

Here's a picture of Joshua and me shortly after we got married...
Don't we look like KIDS?
Well, we were only 19. I guess we really were kids.
I was actually still 18 when we got married, by the way. My wedding day was 2 months before my 19th birthday!

When Joshua and I were newlyweds we had some posters hanging up around our house.
We couldn't afford actual FRAMED art, so we made do with what we had.
I had to hang this one up because The Cure just screams "I'm punk rock cool, but sensitive and emotional at the same time." LOL

And Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes was my favorite CD for a LONG time. (I still love it)

I also had a HUGE poster of James Dean (it almost covered an entire wall in my house) that I kind of swiped off a building when I was at Dixie College. It was being used as part of a student election campaign. It said something like "He's a rebel WITH a cause, VOTE for yada yada yada..."
I felt personally OBLIGATED to take the poster down and keep it, since it was WAY TOO COOL to be used for such a CHEESE ball slogan!!! I think I just confessed to stealing. Oops! SORRY!

Oh, here's a picture of me and my lil' sis Carrie:

She took this a couple weeks ago at their LSU party.
We love their football parties!!!
We were at K-Mart recently and we saw this cheesy Chuck norris poster and had to take a picture of it. It was so funny to us for some reason.
FACT: When Joshua waited tables at a country club here in LA, he served iced tea to Chuck Norris.
I have never met a celebrity, and he has:
1. served tea to the Texas Ranger
2. had lunch at the same table as James Woods
3. Sold a Hummer to Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez
4. shook hands with George W. Bush
SOOOO NOT FAIR.

Can you see the writing on that poster?
The best one is this: "When Chuck Norris does push-ups, he's not pushing himself up, he's pushing the earth down"
This was one of the happiest days of my life:

Happiest days ever:
March 18, 1995: Married Joshy Poo
Dec. 11, 1996 : Julian was born
Sep. 24, 1999 : We were sealed in the temple
Feb. 20, 2001 : Emily was born

Wow

Me & my friend Jennifer goofing off.... we were about 16 years old here!!!
I always took it way too far.
see how she still looks kinda cool, but I just look nuts?
If you click on the pic, you can see my awesome "geometric" artwork on the window sill. amazing!!!

I'm the clown...another example of how everyone else still looks semi-cool but I just took it overboard a bit. LOL

Hurricane Diary

What do you do when you know a hurricane is coming right for you? Eat all the ice cream, cuz you know it'll be melted tomorrow. How sad!!!

"Trees in the wind"...what movie does that line come from? But pronounce it like this "TAYS IN DA WINNNNNN"

These 3 played 3 separate games of Monopoly while the power went out. One game lasted over 3 hours. Am I the only person who doesn't like Monopoly?

Day 1 of rain. We were saying "Well, that wasn't bad at all!!!" Little did we know the rain hadn't even gotten started yet.

Monday

If you ever wonder why the power stays out for so long after a hurricane, here you go:::

Making PB&J's by flashlight:

Good news about the power being out- My kids actually read books!!!

Around town

This is normally a road near our house. It became a river. Several roads became rivers.

We went for a ride around town to see the damage.
Lake Pontchartrain flooded big time:




We got out to walk toward the lake but the water freaked me out when I saw an EEL.

MORE RAIN....

The yard was gettin' scary. The front yard flooded so bad our whole street was under water for about 12 hours...

Good times

My sweet sis Carrie & me

Josh & Randy