Well, since my last post I have been to Orange Beach, Mobile, Birmingham and Baton Rouge. And that was just in a month. Man, I am tired. The Orange Beach trip was a girl trip, my first ever, just for fun, all girlfriend trip. Hard to believe. And toe never touched sand nor sun face. It was strictly eatin' and shoppin'. It really was a lot of fun and a good bonding experience with a new group of friends. Some stuff happened that caused some pretty intense sharing/bonding to occur. Family health issues and such. Also I was inducted into the world of Picino (sp) a card game that I had never heard of before coming to Louisiana but is all the rage here among the female set. It was fun and definitely brought out my competitive side, but not in a bad way, fortunately.

Then it was home to get ready for the Sarah/Ella visit. We were so excited and the visit was almost as fabulous as we had hoped it would be. The down side and it was definitely down was that my precious nephew, Brian died at the beginning of the trip and thus the Birmingham swing. We did go ahead and do an abbreviated Mobile visit to get Sarah's hair done with Joe. Crazy what you will do to get the hair you want. Come from Indiana to Louisiana then drive to Mobile...........for a haircut. Well, we did eat at some of our favorite places, see Mark, spend some quality time with my friend Dayle and eat at Brett Farve's favorite restaurant, Leatha's in Hattiesburg on the way home. Come to think of it, the whole visit was pretty much about eating. BTW, Sarah, I gained 3 pounds, how did you do?

Then we loaded our little traveler up and went to B'ham for the sad trip. We did enjoy parts of it. I saw some people I haven't seen since my 10 year high school reunion. Man, it's too bad they have changed so much. You don't think I have do you? It's a good thing I have these trick mirrors in my house. We enjoyed our time with my nephew Gregg and his sweet wife Sharron and watching them trying to indoctrinate Ella in the ways of Alabama football. Don't they know that stuff is genetic? She is Auburn by birth!

Then Kerry had a meltdown when we had to put Sarah and Ella on the plane home and was trying to figure out when we could get to Indiana between now and June when we all meet for our family beach trip. He is one smitten PopPop. I think if we lived near our grandchildren I would never see him and my kids would be calling me to make him come home! Not that I don't share the sentiment. I'm just better at controlling it, I think. I express it by spending money on expensive gifts! I'm looking at some really cute clothes right now. Don't worry TJ, I know I can't get any of that stuff for Anderson. It's not "cool" enough. I'll just have to wait till I can buy him a guitar, I guess.

So then we packed again (!) and hiked down the road to Baton Rouge for a one 1/2 day trip to pick up an award for the hospital. Kerry said it wasn't a huge deal, but at this point, any award is big enough, so we went to collect. Once again, we found good food in the form of a little local place with a lot of flavor and atmosphere. So that was life for the last month. What's next?

I'm gettting a new baby for early Mother's Day! A long-haired Chihuahua. I'll keep you posted on the progress.