Louisiana... Finally

This should have been posted last November, but with homeschool and Christmas, this blog fell by the wayside.

We arrived in New Orleans which, in spite of its past reputation, has been ravaged by hurricanes and is but a shadow of itself. My uncle Pete met us at the airport and drove us to his house in Baton Rouge (about an hour away). Driving over Lake Pontchartrain was impressive. The lake seems to go on forever.

Since this was my first visit to my paternal homeland, I was really looking forward to having some good Cajun food. When we arrived at my uncle's house, my aunt had ordered Domino's. Trying not to be obviously disappointed since I was starving, the kids and I ate.

Afterwards, we went to my aunt Eva's house. My aunt Eva has lung cancer and is dying. She was the main reason for the visit. It was wonderful to finally meet my Dad's sister. She reminded my a great deal of my Mamo (Dad's mom).

(from left to right: Uncle Pete, Aunt Eva, Dad, me, and my cousin Brandie)

Amelie fell in love with Aunt Eva's puppy, The Dude:

The next day, we went on a swamp tour. Amelie and I really enjoyed it. Monty IV, on the other hand, was terrified that something bad was going to happen (left behind, eaten by and alligator, etc...)

Monty IV really does not care much for nature.

That week we went to visit the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge and the capital building where Governor Huey P. Long was shot (I could have sworn I had photos of it all... but I just can't seem to find them!) It was pretty funny. My cousin Brandie and I could not find where the shooting took place in the building, so she walked up to one of the ladies at the front desk and asked:

"Where is the spot where Huey Long was killed?"

The ladies did not bat an eye and simply directed us to the Governor's Elevator and the corridor in front of it. They must get asked that question a lot.

My dad, the kids and I went to check out a plantation while we were there. Houmas House was about a 20 minute drive from Baton Rouge. It was beautiful.

Its hard to believe that the people that lived in such beauty and splendor did it all based on the slavery of others.

We also visited Magnolia Mound Plantation, which is in Baton Rouge itself. MM is a colonial plantation so it did not have all of the grandeur of the other antebellum plantations. It was a very interesting home because there were no closets or hallways (in the original construction) as these were taxed as rooms.

Unfortunately, no photos of the inside were allowed.

On Thursday, it was New Orleans Day! We drove down to New Orleans and my Dad was very worried that he was not going to remember anything about how to get around the city. As soon as we entered Chalmette (the city just to the north of NO that was his old stomping grounds) it all came back to him like a flood. He was pointing out where the Frost Top was that he and his friends would show off their cars, the Catholic high school where the naughty girls went, the bar that would allow under age drinkers, and Chalmette battlefield where the Battle of New Orleans took place... and they would use to "park".

From this spot Andrew Jackson and Jean Lafitte held off the invading British soldiers by laying on a barrage of cannon and musket fire. It seems that the military would have realized sooner that marching your men out shoulder to shoulder would be a bad idea, but that brainstorm did not happen for another hundred years or so.

From there, it was on to New Orleans proper. The street we were on turned in to Canal, the main street in NO. We found some parking and headed into the French Quarter.

Jackson Square was so much more stunning in life than pictures can ever convey. There was a man serenading tourists with a trumpet. A lonely and sad sound that at the same time gave a feeling of hope.


There were two things I had to do while we were there: have beignets at Cafe Du Monde and have a real Hurricane at Pat O'Briens.

Cafe Du Monde was nothing like I was expecting. It is mostly an outside cafe, with the smell of coffee and fried dough floating and dancing around.


My mom had always said that beignets were the same as sopapillas. She was wrong. Sopapillas are crispy flaky and taste best with honey. Beignets, on the other hand, are soft pillows that are thicker and more of a bread-like texture. Of course, you can't leave the cafe without having a Cafe Au Lait. One thing my trip to Louisiana messed up for me was coffee. I had the best coffee of my life there. So rich and dark with just the right amount of bitterness.


From there, we wandered the French Quarter:



My heart ached as I looked around me. More than anytime during my life I wished I had a time machine to visit the city 160 years ago. The smell of sewage floated in the air. Bars and gift shops line the streets taking the place of ancient private residences.


This is a Hurricane from Pat O'Briens. Probably the most dangerous alcoholic drink I have ever consumed. It was so fruity and sweet. Very easy to consume more than one very quickly.

Having accomplished the two main tasks I had in mind for NO, we headed back to Baton Rouge.

On our last day there, we had lunch with my Aunt Eva and then the kids and I went to the giant mall near my uncle's house.

While it was a very fun and educational trip, it did fill me with a deep sense of sadness. Baton Rouge seemed like a slum. And New Orleans was like a prostitute; miserable but still carrying on because she does not know any other way.

With 16 silent Q's

With 2.5 days left before the kids and I leave for Louisiana, a sane person would have all of their laundry done and be at least half-way packed, the house on its way to getting clean, and some meals prepared for the husband that will be home alone for a week.

I am not a sane person.

Tomorrow will be laundry and packing day. Hopefully, I can get some of the meals prepared for he husband. It would be terrible if he were to starve while we were gone.

I don't want to think about all of the work that lies ahead for the trip. Instead, I will talk about all of the Christmas gifts that are on my knitting needles.

1. Amelie's Sweater. I am making a pink cardigan for my daughter, Its about 40% finished.
2. Corina's Crazy Monkey Socks. These are pink socks for my niece.
3. Leafy shawl - in green. This is for my mother-in-law. For some reason, the pattern (which is beyond simple) has been giving me problems.
4. Leafy shawl - in black, This is for my sister-in-law that asked for a black shawl.
5. Weasley Sweater - I have to make two of these. One is about 75% finished,.
6. Hat for Bobby. My nephew with the biggest feet on the planet, changed his mind (whew!) and wants a knitted hat instead of socks.
7. Felted Purse - I am knitting a purse for my sister, that will be felted.
8. Mom's clementine shawlette. I have been working on this for a while... it gets tedious.
9. Hobo Gloves for Jessica. My nephew's girlfriend requested some hobo gloves like the ones knitting for her honey... but in red.

Sigh. I will have to pray to the Knitting Gods for strength and hope that I have not bit of more than I can chew.

Wow! I really suck at this... part 2.

So I am going to try to wrap up my little summary of the past few months so that I can get on to posting about current events.


5. We took a short family vacation at the beginning of September to Denver, Colorado. It was awesome. Everyone had such a wonderful time. We visited the Denver Mint (no free samples), the Firefighters Museum, the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum (where Monty IV got to see a full-size model of an X-wing from Star Wars, which was his favorite part of the trip, Dinosaur Ridge (which was basically a dinosaur freeway with dinosaur foot prints everywhere!), and we took an amazing narrow gauge train ride on the Georgetown Loop Railroad through the old mining towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume.

While in Denver, we ate at some of the most interesting places ever. The first was Casa Bonita, a Mexican restaurant with the worst food imaginable. They did however, have the best sopapillas ever... and cliff diving, and pirate shoot outs, and cowboy shoot outs, and a huge arcade, and a scary pirate cave! All that more than made up for the crappy food.

Monty IV and Amelie outside of Casa Bonita

The next was White Fence Farm... a family style restaurant with farm animals, an arcade, a small museum, a play ground outside, and a huge play area inside too. We had what was probably the best fried chicken and mashed potato dinner ever there.

6. Earlier this month, I had surgery to relieve lower abdominal pain that have had for years. Turned out that there was tons of adhesions and endometriosis all over my ovaries and uterus. They did find a hernia on the right side of my belly, which I am seeing another surgeon for next month. Its amazing! The pain is gone! What is not clear is why no one saw any of the endometriosis or anything else in the millions of ultrasounds and CT scans I have had over the past few months.

7. Monty III is still chugging along with his nursing studies, his mood and attitude have much improved from last semester. Monty IV is chugging along with his home school studies. We did not get to do much last week since we have been having Internet problems (apparently, the cables running into the apartments that provide us with cable TV and Internet, are extremely old and need replacement and now that it is getting cold the Internet and TV don't work, but the student family housing manager will not agree to replace them. We are at a loss of what to do since Monty III works from home... the DSL service we are eligible for is too slow for his work needs, as is the DirecTV Internet service).

8. One November 1, my dad, the kids and I are flying to Louisiana to visit my dad's family there. My dad's sister has lung cancer and does not have very much time left so we wanted to visit... I have never met her so I am really looking forward to the visit!

Wow! I really suck at this!

I started this blog sometime earlier this year... with the intention of writing something every couple of days, if not at last once a week.

That certainly has not happened, even in the slightest.

A million things have been going on since this blog was started. Since it would take a million years to even begin to completely document the comings and goings of my family, it would be better to do a recap instead.

1. In March, my husband was accepted to the nursing school at the University of New Mexico. We were living outside of Albuquerque (where the University is located) in Rio Rancho at the time and decided it would be best to relocate closer to UNM. In May, we moved to the University Student Family Housing, which is about 1.5 miles from UNM. Monty III can easily bike to school and to the UNM Hospital where he does his nursing clinicals.

2. The summer was relatively uneventful. After moving and settling in to our new temporary home (without our dog Fred, who is currently residing with my mother-in-law as pets are not allowed here) the kids and I fell into a routine of summer activities. Going to the zoo or aquarium, visiting the public library on Thursdays to view the summer performances there.

3. We decided to home school Monty IV. He has something called A1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, which causes him to get pneumonia constantly (he is 7-years-old and has had pneumonia at least 12 times already). Last school year, he missed over 32 days of school. He seems to be enjoying the work, and the curriculum we chose for him is amazing, with lots of history and science and lots of reading great stories. We are still struggling with his handwriting (he absolutely loathes handwriting).

4. Late August, Monty IV was playing Star Wars with toy light sabres in the courtyard of our apartment when he was hit by a younger boy. Monty IV got very upset and began to hit the boy repeatedly. We took Monty IV upstairs, took away the light sabre, and punished him by grounding him from video games and computer games. About 30 minutes after this happened, the boy's parents knocked on our door and told us that Monty IV has been bullying their child for sometime. The father said that on numerous occasions Monty IV had done this and that to their son (this was news to me as I watch him very closely when playing and had never seen any of what he was describing). He also told us that he was documenting everything that had happened (including photographing all of the alleged bruises and scrapes Monty IV had inflicted on their son) and if Monty IV so much as looked at their son again, he would call the police. Monty III and I had no idea what to do or say. For sometime, I had been feeling like a single parent since Monty III had been very wrapped up in his school. A little while later, the resident manager of the Student Family Housing came and knocked on our door. She told us that we would receive a letter about the incident (which we still have not received) and a copy would be placed in our housing file. She said that we should let it cool for a while, and then try to get back together with the other parents and the boys would probably be great friends. About 20 minutes later, the police knocked on our door. It was at this point that I felt as if the bottom of my world was falling out from under me. The boy's parents obviously wanted no reconciliation between our families. The police told us that what Monty IV did was a misdemeanor and that the parents of the other boy had up to six months to decide whether or not they wanted to press charges. That night Monty III and I had a pretty big fight. It seemed that my only option was to take the kids and leave, something that I finally decided against. Ultimately, a lot of feelings came out into the open... stuff that had been mouldering and festering within both of us for a while. Monty IV has been seeing a therapist since that time, to help him with his anger management issues. Unfortunately, the boy that Monty IV fought with shares a courtyard with us and his father is president of the Student Family Housing Association. We feel like we are kind of stuck between a Rock and a Hard Place with this situation. Monty IV is afraid to play outside... although he does have one friend that he plays video games with regularly.

In which I struggle with what to do with my first Merino yarn.

This past Wednesday, my kiddos and I visited Village Wools and purchased my first skein of Merino wool for socks. Its Colinette Jitterbug in Mardi Gras. It was purchased for me. To make socks for my feet. My tootsies are the only ones in my family that do not have hand-made sockies on them.

Yes. This yarn will become socks for me. Buuuuttt... what pattern should I select? I want something that shows off the beautiful colorway of the yarn, but something that is not too complicated since I am probably what most would consider an advance beginner knitter.

On Ravelry, some folks have suggested a few different patterns. I am determined to make a decision tonight.

I don't even know what I am doing here.

This has been an eventful week for me. My daughter was sick most of the week before with strep throat and pink eye. On Tuesday evening, my son was playing at the park when he slipped and fell, smacking the back of his head. We spent a few hours at urgent care where the wound was stapled closed. It was a pretty deep cut... we could see his skull and tell that it was not cracked.

My daughter is better now, but it seems that I now have her pink eye and, with the wicked sore throat that I have, probably the strep throat too.

Tonight, my husband took us to a local Japanese restaurant that we had been curious to try. When we walked in, the place was deserted and the waitress told us in broken English to sit anywhere, order at the counter, and that she would take the food to us. I ordered a chicken yakisoba, the husband had beef teriyaki, and the kids shared a bowl of rice. My dish was terribly greasy. Its hard to imagine greasy Asian food, but that is what I had! The chicken tasted strange, and I could not help but wonder if it was actually chicken that I was eating. Ultimately, we were not blown away by our experience there.