Happenings

Life around my household for the past 2 weeks has been controlled chaos.

Seriously.

First week in June, J and I went to the Saddle Ridge Ranch. We had a BLAST! I did all of the song motions and 3rd grade arts and crafts. J did..well I have no idea what his exact title was but 12 kids gave their lives to Jesus that week! YAHOO! Here's a recap of our week at SSR.

Here's J and I in my arts and crafts class making brand bracelets.


This is what my church calls the "foot praising ministry" aka motions/dancing within a church setting. Along side the pastors wife, we did the motions to all of the VBS songs ALL week!
On stage leading...Please note our homemade VBS shirts :)


Leading motions for other directors :)


Here are my sweet friends that I hung out with all week. Love them.


Moving on two our next event. Dodgeball Tournament.



Oh yeah. It's been quite a long time since I've played Dodgeball, but I signed up for a team and it turned out to be a very fun and quite eventful evening. I played on a team of adults/older teenagers from the cafe and J played on a staff team called the "Staff Infection"



My team; the Cafe Team and the Champ of our bracket!!!


J's team; the Staff Infection and the Champs of their bracket!!!
Here's their full costume pre-tournament picture


And here's their winning picture. Look how is still in full costume :)


J and I were exhausted afterwards, but it was so much fun!

This last week was Jr. High camp, J was gone for a few day to kids camp and next week is high school camp. Whew! Summer is flying by.

A camp update will come soon :)

Happy Summer :)

Sitting

So for the past week, J and I have been dog, guinea pig and house sitting. At first it was fun, but now it's created a problem.

I want a dog and a house of my own.

The problem is our landowner won't allow pets except for fish (but I don't want fish) and J and I aren't sure if a house is the next step in our life or if we should remain content. Not to mention that guinea pigs are a lot of work. I mean this thing eats only Romain lettuce, half of an apple, hay, feed and water. All of this stuff like 4 times a day or something. It's so much work. Not to mention that it lives in a cage. And we know that cages don't clean themselves. So there's no way I would like cleaning out that nasty cage. Guinea pigs are too much for the McKaskle's to handle.

But going back to a dog. I don't think that you all understand how bad I want a cute, little, snuggly, sweet puppy. Listen, growing up I got a puppy for my 13th birthday and Addie became my sweet baby; until I got married. Ya see Addie is super high maintenance, she takes after her Momma, not to mention she has become attached to my Daddy's hip. There's no way I could take her away from him or him away from her. So I need a puppy that will become apart of J and I's family.

J got a black lab when he was still a bachelor, but let's face it Daisy is an outside dog and she sheds WAY too much to be inside my cozy home.

I want a puppy medium size, possibly adopted, but small enough to stay inside snuggled up with me.

I mean is that too much to ask?

So I've got to come up with a plan.

I need a puppy.

Soon.

N'awlins

J went to a conference class for his seminary class in New Orleans and then I came down and met up with him. Now I've been to New Orleans once before when I was a wee one but the fam and I only went to the aquarium. So needless to say I've never really experienced the city of New Orleans.
Before I got to New Orleans I wasn't too thrilled. I didn't really know what to expect. Well those thoughts went by the way side when I finally arrived.
I loved the history and beautiful architecture of this city!!! I got to enjoy this city with the man that I love. We had such a great time!!

Here's the city of N'awlins from the interstate and on the ferry.



Here's J and I when I first arrived on the Mississippi.


Jackson Square at sunset


And I FINALLY got to experience Cafe Du Monde!!! At the corner of Decatur and St. Ann Street lies Cafe Du Monde.

This place was absolutely wonderful. Cafe Du Monde is famous for their French doughnuts; beignets!! Beignets, pronounced bey-nyay, are delicious deep fried pastry coated with powdered sugar. It's a bit of heaven people!! They are soo good! If you're ever in New Orleans, this is a MUST!





As we walked around town, we passed by the St. Louis Cathedral. This is a statue outside in the courtyard of Jesus shadowed on the wall. It's so beautiful.


Here's the front of the cathedral.


In honor of Memorial Day J took me to the WWII Museum in honor of his Papaw, Mr. Ervin W. Miller. He fought in WWII and survived. It was so incredible to see where he fought and all the history that lies within all the veteran's stories. J's papaw passed away a few years ago and in his honor his family placed a brick among many others leading to the entrance to The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. It was an honor and a joy to share this moment with J.


We had a wonderful weekend in N'awlins. Great food, good music and good memories. We can't wait to go back soon!!!

One day at a Time

Oh my! it's been almost 2 months since I've posted a new blog entry, my deepest apologies. Between finals week between myself and the Hubs, end of school stuff for my work and endless graduations and end of the year activities, plus planning new things for the busy summer schedule, and being super sick, there's just been ZERO time. But I've finally found time to sit down today and blog!

So class is out for the semester but have no fear I've got LAME summer classes to do so that should be TONS of joy. Now if I can just get done with work I could go swimming and get my tan on!

J and I have been planting flowers. We planted Sunflower and African Daisy seeds. Unfortunately, the daisies were flooded out due to the excessive rain we've had the past two days so I'll have to replanted some more daises. However our sunflowers are on the go! They have grown SO much! I'll post pictures later of them.

J and I also have been to one wedding so far this summer and we are going to one next month and July. This is SO exciting for us. We've really had a good time. Not to mention we've almost been married a YEAR!!! I can't believe time has gone by this fast!!!!



I'm SO glad summer is here. I need some time to not think about much of anything.

Happy Summer Y'all!!

"Just Try It"

As I mentioned before my parents got to come down since I was on break and such. We did LOTS of shopping, cooking and just hanging out and it was SO great that I got to catch up with them. But while they were here J and I wanted them to experience "Louisiana Style".

Since I've moved to Louisiana the culture here is so different than Oklahoma. My taste buds have changed so much since the move it's unreal. The food seasoning is SO good. I can't believe I've never tried this stuff before!!

But I digress.

Anyway, we took mom to Copeland's "The New Orleans Cuisine" for her birthday so J and I knew that eating crawfish was the next stop.

Now this is a first for my mom and of course my dad has eaten crawfish before so he was excited to eat some again, but I was interested to see how my mom was going to react. And let me tell you it was HILARIOUS!!!

I should mention that the place we went to dine was very casual. Here's what I mean.
At the restaurant there are picnic tables underneath a big tent, with a play area for kids and a tiny inside area incase you weren't comfortable eating outside with the smell of spices in the air.

My mom couldn't believe we were eating outside like that. Luckily the wonderful weather made it comfortable for her and she was ok with eating outside. But it all changed when they brought the crawfish out like this. Not to mention, you don't eat crawfish on a plate, but instead on tray and a shell box.


Mom's eyes got really big and she said, "It's the whole thing!!" I think in her mind she thought they were going to come out like shrimp does, peeled, ready to go. But with crawfish, it's a different story. Eating crawfish is all about peeling it and getting messy, like you would eating BBQ ribs.

So J, Dad and I started in peeling and eating and at this point I thought Mom was going to loose her lunch. She could NOT believe that I would eat this stuff and enjoy it. It's a good thing that Mom ordered a Po Boy as a back up in case she didn't like crawfish.

Here's J and I getting enjoying the first taste of crawfish this season.



Here's she is trying it for the first time! She seemed ready to go. Notice the napkin in her hand as she's holding the crawfish :)



But here's the moment of truth!



Needless to say, Mom did NOT enjoy eating crawfish or the tingling sensation on her lips from the seasoning, but she did enjoy the atmosphere and the company.

Maybe next time we will just stick with her favorites: peeled shrimp and fish.

Break Time

This week is my school Spring Break and my work Easter Break and I LOVE IT!!!! I've needed this break so bad and I'm so glad it's here. There's nothing like starting out the week by an Easter party. At work we had our Easter party and it was blast. We went to the church and spent all day just playing and eating cookies and popsicles!!
My parents came down for a visit and we have had a blast. We celebrated Mom's birthday and went out to Copeland's and it was delicious! Mom and I went shopping and between the two of us we bought 14 pairs of shoes!! She bought new spring clothes and I bought new church clothes, what a wonderful day of shopping!!! Jordy and dad worked on the Dolphin Dasher and we have cooked TONS! Spring time is here people and we are loving it!!
Jordy and I celebrated our first Easter this year. It was such a special time with my parents here and the service at church was simply wonderful. We are so blessed with a wonderful church family. We are enjoying being outside and soaking up the sunshine!!!
Hope your Easter was a wonderful time with family!

Dolphin Dasher

Before Jordy and I even got married, he has been wanting a scooter. Now growing up in the world of cycles, I knew how much these things were going to cost. Once Jordy and I got married I created a "savings for a scooter" fund. Jordy would put money back until he could save enough money to buy a scooter.

Well we looked for a scooter for a while and again, we didn't want to pay a whole lot of money for one of these things. One afternoon I get home from work and he shows me a picture of this scooter he had found for a very low price. I asked him about is his fund and he told me he could pay cash for it. I couldn't be more proud.

So Jordy contacted the man with the scooter to get the 411. It was too good to be true. Great price, great condition, low maintenance and a helmet. Off to Jackson, Mississippi we go then one Saturday morning. We get there and we just knew we couldn't pass this up.

We are now owners of a 2004 Blue Kymco Scooter!!!

On the way home, Jordy and I were trying to think of a name for the scooter, since Henry (his truck) and Maxine (my car) are apart of the family, there's no reason why the scooter should be left out. Well I should explain that when Jordy and I play Mario Cart he is always his Mii character and he always drives the "dolphin dasher". Jordy has conquered the whole game and so I thought Dolphin Dasher would be a fantastic name for the scooter, not to mention it's blue. So Dolphin Dasher stuck :)

Here I am on the Dolphin Dasher.


Here he is on his pride and joy!


The Dolphin Dasher taking us away!!!