Fleur de Aleta

I have a confession to make.... I cried when I took this picture. I don't know if the picture is clear or not, it was taken at night. On the left is my Dad... he had 3 heart surgeries with a period of 30 days. Next month will make 4 months since his surgeries. On the right is my Mom... she had 2 eye surgeries. The doctor said "she made history twice" (they video'd both surgeries), because her eye situation is very unique. And here they are... walking together, hand in hand. It's beautiful. Just beautiful... because in the past couple of months, this picture... walking hand in hand... it was wondered if they would be able to do this again. And here they are... I don't want to take moments like this for granted ever again. (I also participated in Sunday Citar and Scavenger Hunt Photo's today.)

I’m participating in Jade’s “Happiness Is” Happiness is…. ( hosted by Jade ) Family. The below picture is Greg’s family, but we’re missing one niece and one nephew in the picture. Greg is one of four children. It’s a really nice size family. Every time there’s a family gathering, topics of conversation get crossed across the room and everyone laughs. “Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ~ Albert Einstein “When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.” ~ Joyce Brothers “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” ~ Desmond Tutu

(Grab the button on the right sidebar) Welcome to “ABC of Your State” ~ This challenge is based on friends and bloggers asking about Louisiana, as well as my interest in travel and learning about other places. I’d love to read about your state or travels (Even though it says "your home state" - it's open to any place you have lived or traveled too)! Please feel welcome to join in. There should be a linky for you to post your website address at the bottom of this post. D is for ~ D-Day Museum. A lot of people think "Blah, Blah, I don't want to see a museum on vacation." There are museums and then, there are Museums. This one Museum you don't want to miss. It's not a museum with just uniforms and weapons; it's so much more. The D-Day Museum shows how amazing the people of that generation were, not just courageous, but smart... and humble. It's not a museum giving just history, it's a Museum about transformation of a nation ...

Sent to me in an email and thought I'd share....

(Please excuse the noise in the background, Greg was watching TV in the front room.)

It's true. I created another blog. Fleur de Aleta, this blog, is my main one for the on-goings of life. The newest blog was created from my search of "challenges." I was looking up blog challenges, something to work with on Fleur de Aleta. I kept coming across all these neat ideas for photo challenges, but I didn't want to bog down my home blog with photo challenges. That's when I came up with the ABC challenge for the Fleur de Aleta blog... And then decided... heck, all those photo challenges look like fun and it would be a great way to keep the dust from settling on the camera. So, I started on those challenges and created www.aletaophoto.com A place to answer the challenges. Here's the problem, I used iWeb for the new blog site. Umm, SUPER easy to set up. But... it doesn't have a comment area. Who creates a blog without a comment section? Ah well. I like it enough. There's a way to add comments, but it was frustrating me, so I ditched...

The morning started nicely, waking up and sharing breakfast with my husband. We looked up on the iPad for the Harry Potter movie and saw there was a listing for 10:30. Perfect. We got ready and made it to the theater for 10:15 to get tickets. Only to find out that the listing was incorrect. The early movie was 10am and the next showing would be at 11am. So, we bought the 11am tickets. At least.. we THOUGHT we had 11am tickets. But after we were seated and then waiting and waiting, we looked at the tickets to find out that it was for 11:30! What an irritation, to stay at the theater an hour early for a movie. Greg was chomping at the bit during the "previews" - just get the movie already! I enjoyed Harry Potter and wouldn't mind seeing it again :) They did a good job with bringing all the stories together. Greg was hungry after the show; we decided on Chinese. There's a restaurant in the area we like, only we got into the wrong lane and ended up going over t...

I’m happy to participate in Jade’s “Happiness is” linky at "Now That I'm No Longer 25. " Happiness is… Watching the leaves come back after the look of winter.. and seeing the blooms. Flowers make me happy. I love the variety, from tiny clusters of crape myrtle trees to the single rose blossom. Heck, I even think weeds are pretty when they bloom! Is it the smell, the vibrant color variations, what exactly makes me smile whenever I see a flower? (And yes, I’m a “stop and smell the roses” kind of gal.. I’ll even stop and take a picture of the flowers too…) I read an article about flowers and health. It stated: “Nature provides us with a simple way to improve emotional health. The presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction and affects social behavior in a positive manner far beyond what is normally believed.” I took the below pictures of the crape myrtle growing in our front yard. We have 4 trees, arranged red, white, red, whi...

(Grab the button on the right sidebar) Welcome to “ABC of Your State” ~ This challenge is based on friends and bloggers asking about Louisiana, as well as my interest in travel and learning about other places. I’d love to read about your state or travels (Even though it says "your home state" - it's open to any place you have lived or traveled too)! Please feel welcome to join in. There should be a linky for you to post your website address at the bottom of this post. C is for ~ Contemporary Arts Center. This is located in the Warehouse district. If you’re looking for performances, this is a good place to start. Click here for their website. ~ Cemeteries. If you’re visiting New Orleans, even from the Interstate, you will see our “cities of the dead.” It sounds like a strange thing to suggest for people to visit – go to a cemetery. But it’s something I’d recommend. There are tours for the cemeteries in New Orleans. Do NOT go to those old cemeteries withou...

I confess…. I don’t like driving. I mean, I REALLY don’t like driving. I started driving when I was 14 and received my driver’s license (not a driver’s permit , a license… with Mom’s handicap, she was able to request her kids to get their license early on) when I was 15; I used to get heart palpitations when I started up the car. That doesn’t happen any more of course, but I will admit to being a conservative driver. Sure, I might go 5 miles over the limit, here and there, but that’s it. You can put me anywhere in this little suburb that we live and if I’ve never been on the street, I still won’t get lost. I know this area very well. Driving around here, I don’t mind so much. But driving in New Orleans? Forget it. I LOVE the city! I write about it, to the point that I created the ABC’s Challenge . It’s not just all the one-way streets and all the street signs every which way… like Greg said, “That’s what you have a GPS for.” Nor is it the congestion of the streets (lights at ...

Happiness is (hosted by " Now That I'm No Longer 25 "): Being grateful I didn't pull up the leaves that I know I didn't plant Watching those leaves turn into vines and creep up To bloom a vibrant color Happiness is... Greeting each morning with a smile from your husband as he tells you that you're beautiful then brings you outside to share the morning glories with you Happiness is... realizing that simple things are a joy that we cannot plan

(Grab the button on the right sidebar) Welcome to “ABC of Your State” ~ This challenge is based on friends and bloggers asking about Louisiana, as well as my interest in travel and learning about other places. I’d love to read about your state or travels (Even though it says "your home state" - it's open to any place you have lived or traveled too)! Please feel welcome to join in. There should be a linky for you to post your website address at the bottom of this post. B is for ~ Bourbon Street. You know that was would be the first response, right? Whenever someone thinks of New Orleans, Bourbon Street is a “must see.” Debauchery at its worst… Word to the wise, don’t dress up nice when going to Bourbon Street, because there are three things you will be sure to experience: booze (someone will spill something on you), pee and vomit. Not all in that order, but believe the saying when you ask where Bourbon Street is and the response is, “Follow yo...

I have a confession... and I figured Sunday is a good day to do that :) It all started when I lived in Slidell. I had to drive from Slidell to work (about an hour drive in decent traffic) every day and I did this for 2 1/2 years. I couldn't stand the drive. It was all Interstate driving, but there's a particular area that drivers get a little, no, a LOT crazy on the road. Like I said, that's when it started... when I started praying in the car, every morning going to work. Because it was a long drive, there was plenty of time to "talk with God." Even when I moved back to my home town and the drive was quickly made to work, the morning commute prayers kept going. I don't pray in a church, I pray on the road. I know that sounds strange, but there you go. :) And oh yeah, I should add, that I talk out loud when I'm praying in the car.. helps me to concentrate (on the road and on my words :) I figure with all the new fangled technology, if someone sees...

Over at "Now That I'm No Longer 25," the blogger is hosting "Happiness Is" on Friday's. I might participate in the Happiness Is more and more, because my husband's name should be the very meaning of "Happiness Is". Greg is one of the happiest people that I know. My husband is my rock, the source of strength and will power to see light in any situation. I thought I'd combine this "Happines Is" share with some more swamp pictures. Happiness is: Sharing time with my husband Playing tourists in our city Finding friendly animals Realizing that no matter your size, you can take on any obstacle. In my ABC challenge post this week , I wrote about where we took these pictures. We arrived early to the swamp tour company and were greeted by a 15 or so cats. Some of the cats were friendly... they were fed very well fed. After eating, one particular cat walked with a saunter to the edge of the swamp, where the boats were docked. (Do ...

(Grab the button on the right sidebar) Welcome to “ABC of Your State” ~ This challenge is based on friends and bloggers asking about Louisiana, as well as my interest in travel and learning about other places. I’d love to read about your state or travels (Even though it says "your home state" - it's open to any place you have lived or traveled too)! Please feel welcome to join in. There should be a linky for you to post your website address at the bottom of this post. A is for… . ~ Avery Island. I haven’t actually been there; it’s on my “to do” list. Do you like it hot? Think TABASCO – that’s what they make at Avery Island. I was told to go there during the spring time, because they have some lovely gardens and it’s when the egrets visit. Oh and if you like chocolate, you should try Chocolate Tabasco. They sell it in New Orleans and it definitely has a unique flavor. ~ Aquarium of the Americas. Greg and I visited this, May 2010. I blogged ...

I love Louisiana. You’re not surprised, right? Playing tourists throughout the state is a fun thing for me and I blog about it afterwards too :) Recently I’ve had blogger friends visit and they’ve asked me “What should we see? What should we do in New Orleans? What restaurants do you recommend?” There’s so much! And instead of doing just one post, I thought about combining it with a challenge. I need a nice challenge to get back to the blog. I love to travel and I’d love to learn about your state, where you live or where you’ve visited. I’ve seen those “ABC challenges” and thought “sounds fun, so that’s what I’m going to challenge myself with (and you, if you’d like to participate, I’d love to read your blogs posts)… Here’s the challenge, which will begin this coming Wednesday: ABC Your Home State. Once a week, on Wednesdays, post something of interest about your home state, of course, following in the abc category. I’ll start this on Wedne...

Have you used Mr. Linky before? Lately I've been blogged out and in search of a blogger challenge. I thought about creating a challenge :) And I'd like to use Mr. Linky to do so. Can you test out Mr. Linky for me? I'll have the challenge up next week, will probably do a Tuesday challenge or maybe a Wednesday one, not sure... Below is the linky thingy, test please?