Strawberry Festival

This past weekend my sisters, Emily and Hannah, decided they wanted to come visit and go to the annual Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival. So, the gang was here: Emily, Jeremy, Annelise, Hannah, Daniel, and Jeff and I. It is always so much fun! There is a parade in the morning, carnival rides, carnival games, lots of booths to buy some local crafty stuff, and every form of strawberry delicacy you can imagine. One of the contractors for Jeff's work always rents out one of the pavilions so we have free food, drinks, dessert, tables, and most importantly restrooms! lol
We ended up buying some strawberry wine, strawberry jam, strawberry bread, and a large palate of fresh strawberries; not to mention the fresh strawberry daiquiris we had while we were there!
Oh ya! I can't forget the Strawberry King and Queen! lol
That night we had some friends over for dinner and Jeff and Jeremy made some strawberry shortcake with the fresh strawberries we bought at the festival. We opened on of the bottles of wine and had a wonderful time visiting with everyone.
We had a blast and I am so glad that my sisters were here to visit with us. I am truly blessed to have such a close relationship with them. I can't wait until next year!
Here are just a few pictures of the festivities:

Happy Birthday Callie!

Miss Callie Raiford is 2 today! :)

Happy Birthday Corey Raiford!

Today is my friend Tisha's son's 13th birthday! Check out some pics and her story on her blog.

Tic Tac Music

I've been Tagged...

Stori tagged me! (well she was too nice and tagged anyone that was reading her blog so that she didn't have to put any one on the spot. We will see if I am that nice lol)
Anyways, I had to go to the 4th picture folder on my computer and get the 4th picture. It should be completely random; That is what makes this fun! No cheating allowed!
Here it is:

This is a picture from my freshman year Homecoming dance!! My wonderful date was one of my best friends, Brett. I think this picture is so funny; we look so nervous to even hold hands for the picture. haha This brings back so many wonderful memories! :)

So, I tag Allyson! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Tough Decision...

It is really tough sometimes when life throws these curves at you and you have to make a decision. Most of you know that I have been wanting a Chihuahua for a very long time. Most of you also know that I am a photography enthusiast and have been wanting a professional camera for about 8 years now. This week I had to choose between this precious little white and brown spotted female chihuahua and saving for a camera! I dont think I have had to make such a hard choice by myself before. Jeff gave me the ultimatum and said that the dog would be a lot of upfront costs plus monthly expenses which would cause me to do less with friends, less possible shopping, less eating out, etc, and that the camera could possibly generate some income.
I hate that we can't have it all in life! :)
Long story short, I knew that Jeff and I were not on the same page about getting a dog and I didn't want it to cause any more frustration, so, therefore, I chose to save for the camera. I know that many of you would have chosen the dog, but I know that one day we will get a little puppy. I am dying to get back into photography since it is a passion of mine and I really hope to be able to sell some of it. (who knows if that will happen, though)
So I did some more shopping (since I have been shopping for a camera for a long time) and once again had to chose between a Canon and a Nikon. Canons are great and seem to have a little bit more features in the camera, but you can do those same things in Photoshop if you get a Nikon. Ive been told that I will be happy with either one, they are both great cameras, it is just a matter of what brand you like more.
My dad has a Nikon and he mentioned that I should also get one so that we can share lenses. What a great idea! Lenses are the bulk of the expense for cameras, anyways. So, I decided to go with the Nikon D90 that comes with at 18-105 mm lens. It is not the fanciest camera out there, but I think it will be perfect for me to get started with SLR camera. Hopefully after just a few months of saving, I can go get this new toy! :)
Here a link to check out it's cool features.

LOST Review

Last night's episode of LOST pretty much confirmed my stance that I am not longer making any predictions; I am simply going to watch to see what happens! I think it is better that way; I won't be disappointed when my theory is wrong. :)
Anyways, Stori pretty much summed up all of my questions on her blog. Go check them out!
P.S. Richard is still my favorite and Ben is as creepy as ever!

Visit Home

Jeff had some training in Houston this weekend, so I thought I would tag along. It was so nice to be able to spend 5 whole days with my niece, Annelise, and the rest of the family (Annelise is pretty much the center of everyone's world, now, so no offense to the rest of my family) lol. I can't thank God enough for such a loving and supportive family!

My parents came to visit us this weekend and along with them, they brought a ton of plants that they didn't want in their gardens anymore. We had a blast upgrading our backyard, adding bushes and flowers all over the place. We also got my vegetable garden started. I was so excited because this is one my many projects I have been dying to get started on! We planted some tomatoes and jalepanos for my homemade salsa, cucumbers for homemade pickles, carrots, and green beans. I want to grow some strawberries for jelly at some point, too. I hope to expand to other veggies, but I thought I would start slow.
After a long hard day of gardening on Saturday, we went to my church's auction. As always, we had a blast! I made a painting to enter in the live auction and it went for $525! I was so happy! I hope to continue to contribute throughout the years.
Jeff and I won 2 free nights at the Hilton on St. Charles in New Orleans so we hope to use that for our anniversary. We also got a large decorative pot for our front porch, an ipod docking station/radio/CD player, A fleur-de-le trivot (jeff dropped it and it shaddered, so we made a donation to the church, lol), a gift card to the Melting Pot, and lots of other cool things.
My parents walked away with lots of cool things and gadgets. Stori and Nick got one of the most valuable items there, a signed book by Bobby Jindal! That is going to be worth lots of money the day he is President! lol
Sunday morning we got up and finished all of the gardening that was left to do and then went to lunch at La Carreta's. YUM! We then had a fish fry that night.
I have to say that I have the best family in the world! I can't thank my parent's enough for everything they do for us and the time they spend to come see us.
It was a great weekend!

Weekly LOST Review

So, after last night's episode of LOST, it is pretty safe to say that I am fully "lost" in the show. I think that it might be a little too far over my head. lol
One thing is for sure that Richard is by far my new favorite character! Not only is he attractive, but he knows it all. He is the mastermind and has been there longer than anyone else. Like Jeff has said for a long time, Richard is the key!
I was going to make another list of outstanding questions, but it was really long, so instead, I am going to copy some topics from my weekly "LOST email chain" with some friends.
I added a few to this list, but Ode to Eric for making most of it. It's about time he get a blog of his own! :)

1) We see Horace the leader of Dharma on the island...it was pointed out that we have seen him before. He invites young Ben and his father to the island. And he also appears to Locke in a vision (that is skipping, like time skipping?) He obviously has some more significance that we first thought.

2) As Gribs has pointed out several times...Richard Alpert is the man! It's because it seems he has been involved in everything that has happened in the island so far. Another tidbit from lunch -> Eye-liner was used by Egyptians. Statue? Wow Richard is really old then.

3) Where is the Black Rock??!! Common I want to see some pirates!

4) Has the time travel really stopped? If so, should we assume that Locke/Ben/new people are in the 70's too? But just in a different island? (my guess, they are in the future and somehow they will kick start time travel again)

5) Is there anything Juliet can't do? She is a mechanic now? hahaha. And I was asked by another undisclosed lunch buddy (hint: name starts with T and ends wIth M) "At the end, why was Juliet shirtless, and not Sawyer." (I was too distracted by Juliet, didn't notice)

6) Why did Sawyer lie to Juliet after Jin called to tell them about Jack/Hurley/Kate? Uuuuu Sawyer is going to get it when he comes back...LOL (or maybe they are not married, so it is ok to lie to G/F)...just kidding!

7) What is the huge statue from?? We assume that it is where the huge foot on the beach came from, but who built it?

8) Where the heck is Rose and Bernard?

9) Still, where is Claire and Aaron, and what significance does she hold?

Jeff had a great theory last night to add onto my "allegory for Christ's life". First, Stori said that Christian might represent John the Baptist because he "prepares the way" for John Locke, as John the Baptist did for Christ. Jeff then said that Richard and the "hostiles" might represent the people of the Old Testiment times and how they live life very "ritualistic" and Richard demanded an "eye for and eye" when Sawyer killed the two men in the jungle. Also, when Ben kills all of the Dharma group that could have been a "purge" such as the Flood or the Killing of the First Born.

Who knows?! Maybe we are just pulling this stuff out of the air, but it is fun!