Reconnecting in Natchitoches

My first cousin Leah and I have embarked on a new journey and it is quickly becoming a favorite tradition. After reconnecting with Uncle Sonny at a family funeral, Leah and I decided to take him up on his offer of coming to stay with him in his home. If you are not familiar with it, Natchitoches is called the city of lights. Millions of Christmas lights adorn the city on historic homes and buildings and along the river. They have tourists come from all over to see them and participate in their Christmas festival, eat yummy food, shop the local stores and enjoy the fireworks over the Cane River. It really is quite an experience and one to put on your list if you haven't been. Since my grandmother was from the city of lights, our family grew up going to back their with her just about every year to experience Christmas in Natchitoches. I can remember eating Natchitoches meat pies (before I was gluten free) and hanging out with my grandmother's family. They were all such lovely people.

Last Christmas we loaded up in Leah's car and made the short trip to Natchitoches to visit our grandmother's brother, who we affectionately call Uncle Sonny. Leah and I, along with the other 6 grandchildren, were very close with our grandparents.  Our grandmother, Frances, had one brother and one sister and Uncle Sonny is the only living sibling of our sweet grandmother. Last December on this very same weekend, Leah and I reconnected with a 92 year old man. We listened to his stories. We looked through albums of family pictures. We enjoyed his wonderful cooking for which he is Natchitoches famous. Leah and I were also reintroduced to two of Uncle Sonny's sons and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with and reconnecting with our cousins. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner prepared by cousins that we had just kindled our relationship with. We spent all night in wonderful conversation about life, death, family and love! It was truly a special night.

me, Uncle Sonny and Leah eating a wonderful meal at Merci Beaucoup 

Ricky, me, Uncle Sonny and Leah 

me, Denise and Leah

Leah and I enjoyed our visit last Christmas so much that we made another trip in the Spring about 6 months later. Then just recently, we returned again on the same weekend in December. Uncle Sonny will be 94 in January and while it's sad to think about, we are not sure how many more Christmases or springtimes we will have with him. We have enjoyed these last few visits. I'm so thankful he along with his son and daughter in law traveled that road to come to a family funeral. It was at that funeral where we reconnected and started on this journey. Even in times of sadness come joy, bonding and a renewed sense of family and closeness. You will never regret spending TOO much time with your family members while they are still with us on this Earth. The decision to reconnect with our grandmother's side of the family is one that I will surely never regret. This holiday season if you have an opportunity to reconnect, always take it! You won't regret it and you might even make a new friend or two.

our attempt at a family selfie :)

Father's Day Weekend in Rison

I'm trying to make more of an effort in this blogging thing so I can purposefully take pictures at events and write about it. This weekend B & I loaded up the spaniels, dropped off the bigger dogs with a pet sitter and make the short drive to Buie's hometown of Rison, Arkansas. I'm embarrassed to say this, but we hadn't seen my in-laws since Christmas! (I know, shameful, right?) Being right in the middle of wedding season, it's so hard to take off. We jumped on the opportunity to see them on our first free weekend and spent a good 48 hours of family time. 

Lady and Conner love their big backyard and spent most of their outside side chasing squirrels and making sure they had sniffed every corner of their yard. 

We slept in late on Saturday morning which was glorious. We sipped our coffee in our pjs and snuggled with the dogs, watched the news and relaxed. Saturday afternoon we hopped in the car and got the $5 tour from Buie's dad. Mr. Rufus has lived in Rison his whole life. Their family owned The Buie Funeral Home for many years until he retired. If you are not familiar with Rison, it is a town of about 1,300. I always thought I was from a small town...until I went to Rison. Mr. Rufus drove us around and showed us the home where he first lived as a young boy and the home where he and Mrs. Carole lived. He showed us the original funeral home where he and his family lived in a one bedroom apartment in the back for many years. 

We stopped by Rison High School and I begged them to take a photo in front of the football field where they both played football for the Rison Wildcats. I know these are the little things that one day we'll be so thankful we took the time to do. I cherish this time we get to spend with our parents. 

Saturday evening the boys cleaned off the grilled. Buie's brother picked up some steaks. I made some potatoes and B cooked the steaks. We filled our bellies and then piled in the living room and watched a movie. The Buies are movie experts. It's kind of a family tradition to watch movies when we're all together. That's where B gets his love of movies from. 

 Back in Louisiana, my parents went out to eat with my both of my brothers' families and their six kiddos. I called my dad on the phone to wish him a happy Father's Day. I'm sure their dinner was a bit more lively than ours since it's just the 5 of us, but it was a just the relaxing weekend we needed.

Sunday morning we put on our fancy clothes and drove the 200 yards down Main Street to Rison Methodist Church where we were introduced by the pastor and welcomed by the whole church. Nothing like a small town church, where literally everyone knows your name. ;)

Thanks for a great weekend in Rison! We love you guys! B & I are so blessed to have two amazing father's in our lives. They have taught us what real men are! We love y'all! 

Love it or Leave it

I thought it was about time I popped back in to say hi! It's no surprise that I've been letting this little blog of mine fall by the wayside...again. Most of the time I think "no one wants to read about my boring little life," but to be completely honest, I'm not really doing this for anyone else except me. I have never admitted to being a "writer" but I find it therapeutic. Growing up I have always kept a journal of some sort starting with my Hello Kitty diary in 3rd grade. :) It's fun to go back and read years later, just like I do with this blog. I started this blog right before Buie and I were married and this summer we will celebrate 7 years of marriage together. It's hard to believe 7 years has already gone by. In some ways it has been some of the best years but also some of the hardest years of my life. Most of the real intimate personal stuff I don't write about here on my blog, mainly because I don't want the whole world knowing about it. But the small stuff like gardening and our animals and our home, the everyday stuff...I still want to remember all of that stuff. So here I am again.

In January I wrote about simplifying and I have really been trying to do that this year. If you know me then you know I come with a lot of stuff. ha. It sounds weird to say because I don't consider myself to be materialistic. I don't have to have stuff to make me happy. However, I am one of those inherently messy people. I think it comes naturally though if that makes any difference at all. I can remember going to visit my great grandmother, Margie, who we called "NaNa" and her place being filled with stuff. She had plants everywhere, stacks of magazines from years past that she had "plans" to do something with, unfinished ceramic projects. I remember she always had to clean a place off for us to sit down. :) Isn't it funny the little things you remember. My mom always said I have a lot of NaNa in me. We are both artists. We are both messy and creative and not at all organized. We both save every little thing to remember an event by. (I don't really do this anymore but I used to in junior high and high school.) We both have hoarding tendencies and I have a garage full of stuff to prove it. When my NaNa passed away, I felt such a connection to her that I felt like I must keep her stuff. I couldn't stand for it to go to charity. Through out the years, I would eventually lose all of my grandparents and each time, I felt like I had to hoard their belongings to keep a part of them with me. There are so many pieces that are so special to me that I would never in a million years get rid of and I am so thankful that they are in our home.

this is my MeMe's couch that is in our breakfast nook. I love this couch so much and remember spending many Christmases with all of my cousins all piled up on this couch opening presents. 

this was my MeMe's hutch that was in her kitchen that now stores our cookbooks and some of my china. 

this loveseat belonged to my Grandmother on my dad's side. It was in their Master Bedroom for as long as I remember. It is now in our living room and serves as a good cat napping bench. :)

I also have several boxes of just random trinkets and nicknacks that I have no emotional attachment to, other than I know they belonged to my grandparent. It has been somewhat therapeutic, to go through those boxes and find a special place in my home for those pieces that I do want to keep and let go of the things that I am not keeping.

On top of going through my grandparents memorabilia, I have kept so much stuff from college that I have now sold or given away. It feels good to clean out closets and purge! I highly recommend it! Is my garage clean yet? Well, heck no but I'm still working on it. :) My motto has been if I don't LOVE it then LEAVE it. I either sell it or give it away to someone who I know would appreciate it or box it up and give it to charity. Also, I'm not just keeping things for no reason anymore. I'm getting to old for trinkets. ha! It has to serve a purpose in my house. :)

Saying Good-Bye to MeMe

Hey remember me?! I used to write on this blog once a week or so until I apparently fell off the face of the Earth. No worries, though! I'm still here. Wondering where I've been? A lot has been going on in our little world over here...and I do mean A LOT.

My sweet and precious MeMe passed away about 3 weeks ago. She was a wonderful lady with a quiet personality. She used to call me quite a bit and we'd chat late at night. MeMe was faithful to write me notes while I was away at camp and then when I moved off to college. She would always tell me to "be careful." She was definitely a worrier but she would always tell us it was because she loved us to much.

The hardest part for me was seeing what my mom went through. MeMe fell and broke her back several months ago and since then her health rapidly declined. She went from living at an assisted living, to the hospital, to being on Hospice. My mom was with her every step of the way. The last two months of MeMe's life, my mom was literally beside her bed everyday until her last breath. I admire the way my mom took care of her mother and I only hope that I can do the same for her one day.  It is always hard to lose anyone you are close to, but having someone pass that is elderly and suffering is almost, in a way, a relief. I know that she and my granddad, Pop, are hanging out having a grand ol' time.

As weird as it may sound, one of the joys of funerals is catching up with family. I am super blessed with amazing cousins on both sides! We all had fun catching up and sharing stories of MeMe of when we were younger. You will be missed, MeMe, but your legacy lives on!

MeMe's life verse: Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before." 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Weekend Review: Girls Luncheon & The GridIron

I guess it's time to post my weekend review post since it IS Wednesday night, huh. This past weekend was a full weekend with well rounded activities including a Mother/Daughter Luncheon and the first LA Tech home football game.  Friday night I headed to Minden to help mom set the table up and surprise, surprise, she had already done it all! Didn't she do a great job!? Each hostess was responsible for setting up and decorating their own table. It was so fun seeing all of the different tables. There were LSU themed, Back to School themed and so many elegant looking tables all decked out in the finest china. My mom used my grandmothers china and it looked spectacular. 

Friday evening mom, dad and I went out to dinner with a few friends and came back to my parent's house for a visit. We had the best time chatting on their back patio telling stories and listening to my dad sing silly songs (Yes, my dad was singing. He was in rare form!) I love nights like that. 

THEN...Saturday night came. We had all been waiting for this night for a while! Even Makaylan was so excited and had been practicing all of her Bulldog cheers & chants. She sat in my lap for a good portion of the game and we clapped for the touchdowns and the tackles! I taught her that our team was the BLUE team and I taught her how to do the "Move the Chains" chant. She's such a good little Bulldog. :) Landon had a great time too. His daddy got him a HUGE bag of popcorn so he was a happy boy. hehe.

This was Buie's first game as an official Bulldog. 

And guess what! There's another Tech game TOMORROW night! I could get used to this. ;)

Football Season is Here!

To say that my family are all Louisiana Tech fans would be like saying the Buies really like animals. ha! My dad is the biggest LA Tech fan that I know, have known, or will ever know. I love that he has so much pride in his alma mater. Everyone in my entire family graduated from LA Tech. We joke and say that we could build a small house with the amount of bricks our family has received through Tech. (For each degree you receive, Tech lays a brick in the center of campus with your name on it.)

From my immediate family, I am the only one who DIDN'T graduate from Tech. While I love my alma mater, I do like to pretend I'm a Bulldog too. ;) I mean, let's be honest I might as well be, right? When I'm at a LA Tech game I feel like I have as much pride as I do for my own alma mater. I remember growing up just as my nieces and nephews are wearing little Tech cheerleading outfits and attending the games with my parents. 

If you can't tell from Carson's expression (below) we are ALL super excited about Tech football season. Buie is registering for Fall classes tomorrow and we have our first home game this Saturday! 

It's going to be nice to take our family picture and Buie can actually be in it! (and he won't be working retail! Hallelujah!) This is one of my favorite family pics from two years ago but I was so sad that Buie wasn't there. Hopefully we can recreate this pic this year. Of course, it will be a little more difficult since we will have THREE more kids to add to this portrait! Crazy how much can happy in two years!!

Also, let's go back and reflect on this picture for a second, shall we? I remember thinking...Oh I want an auntie picture with my two cuties. Not happening! ha. 

Every year, my brother's family sends out a Tech football schedule with a picture of the kiddos in their Tech gear. The first year it was just Landon, year two it was these two cutie patooties: 

And this year we had a little mini LA Tech football session down on the field. It was so fun to actually go down on the field and watch them run around. These were the best pics and the ones they ended up using on their football schedule card this year. I might just have to get them printed up. 

So if I haven't said it loud or often enough...then here's one more GOOO DAAAWGS!! I'll have to get my niece, Makaylan, on video saying "Go Dawgs!" It's pretty darn cute.

Our Arkansas Mini Vacay

Since B is a grad student once again, our schedule revolves completely around LA Tech's class schedule. They are on a quarter system instead of the more traditional semester system and so far we like it! Buie is a full time graduate student and is not working at the moment. We decided to go this route so he can fully focus on school and get out faster. If everything goes on track, he should be done with his Masters at the end of 2014.

Buie finished up his first two classes this summer and as the quarter system goes, you get two weeks off inbetween 12 week classes. We had tossed around the idea of going to the beach or to our favorite city, New Orleans, or perhaps both, but we ended up going back to our home, Little Rock, to visit friends. We stayed for several days shopping, eating, and relaxing with our best friends. It ALMOST made us want to move back to Arkansas... ALMOST. ;)

Here are just a few pictures from our trip::

We stayed with Alan & Jessica for a night and with Brian & Alicia for a few nights. We love our friends in Arkansas and didn't want to leave. I had a checklist of things we wanted to do and people we wanted to see. It's funny how much more *quality* time I feel like we get to spend with our friends when we are here for a few days as opposed to when we actually lived here. On our list of things to do: Visit our best friends. We saw a lot of our friends while we were here. I think it's impossible to see EVERYONE we want but we do make an effort to see most of our close friends and family, including Buie's parents. We usually stop in Rison on the way up to Little Rock. We stayed for one night there and they enjoyed seeing our doggies.

Other things on our list included: Eat at David Burgers. (We actually ate there twice.) Shop at Midtown: Pottery Barn, William Sonoma, James Avery, Container Store, Ann Taylor Loft. Eat at Big Orange. (Yes, we ate a lot of burgers while we were in Little Rock.) We even managed to squeeze in a couples massage for us while we were in Central Arkansas which was much needed. It was Buie's first professional massage ever and he's already been asking for another. I may have started something. Uh oh! ;)

We are getting ready to start another Fall quarter full of history class for B and fall family photo session for me! :) If you would like to book a Fall family photo session in North Louisiana or Central Arkansas, please email me at carabethstudio@gmail.com. I would LOVE to take your family's pictures this season.

Last week on Instagram.

I'm just posting a super quick picture post with Instagram pictures from the last week or so of our lives. If you are pretty savvy with an iPhone, then you probably already have the Instagram app like millions of others and are already obsessed with it too, like ME! :) The BEST way to keep up with us is definitely through this wonderful phone app but some of y'all don't follow us through Instagram like my wonderful mother-in-law. (Hi, Mrs. Carole) If you DO follow us, then sorry these pictures are repeats but oh well, they're cute enough to repeat. :) 

We had a fun opportunity to be momma and daddy birds to these two little guys for about a week. They were born in our garage and we were scared after a really bad storm that the momma was never coming back. After one LONG night of eye dropper feedings, the momma finally came back and continued her very important job! After about a week, the baby birds grew feathers and finally left the nest. I was a little sad. I had grown to love watching the mom bring her babies meal after meal. The mom had become accustomed to me so much that she would actually fly into the garage with me sitting right by the nest and feed her babies with me watching. 

My sweet daddy turned 61 last week! His birthday was the same day that Anniston came home from the hospital but we all (minus Nicole and Anniston) still managed to meet for a quick bit of yogurt and to watch dad open his presents. 

So a while back I took a sewing class and it went okay, I guess...I mean, for a beginner's class. I learned the basics like how to turn on the machine, etc. Lately I have been looking for curtains to cover our 5,237 windows that we have in our new home. It really is ridiculous. Seriously, y'all! Curtains are expensive! So I whipped out my machine, broke a few needles, cursed a few times, but managed to make something that resembles cafe curtains, I think anyway. What do you think?? The left bottom side obviously aren't done but it's a start. After sewing like 1/4 of them, I told Buie, "Now I know why people pay like $350 for curtains!" Hopefully the more I sew, the less I want to throw my machine out the window. 

I have this running "To Do" list. It's not like a daily to do list as it is more of a "Goals" list and one of the things on the list has been to get involved with 4Paws Rescue Organization here in Ruston. It has literally been on my list for months and I finally visited the facility. They have quite a bunch of puppies out there right now and they are adorable! But they have dogs of ALL ages that need good homes. I plan to volunteer with them more so stay tuned for more information about 4Paws soon. :)

This little girl is just the cutest. She's almost two weeks old! I got to hang out with her some last week and she threw the cutest smile my way. It might have been gas, but hey I'll take it! 

And seriously, how sweet are these two. My boys just fill my heart will happiness. I love it when they snuggle.

When I feel like warding off about 10 million mosquitoes, I head outside to do a little herb harvesting. This spring we put all of our herbs in pots since this was our first official herb garden and we really had no clue what we were doing. Honestly I was surprised at how well they did. I harvested quite a bit. I washed them, tied them off in bundles and hung them up to dry. Pretty soon we'll have dry herbs to last us quite a while and all for pennies! I love stickin' it to "The Man!"

We're still taking care of home projects here and there. Buie got our brand spanking new mailbox hung and it's purdy. It's helps to have a lab/border collie mix there to lend a hand for moral support.

I went over one night and helped Craig feed the kiddos while Nicole had somewhere to go during suppertime and we served watermelon for an appetizer right out of the sink. ha! We kept everyone alive and mostly happy so I say job well done. ;)  And my nieces are just growing like weeds! This is little Hannah Banana with little teeth and her cute little grin. I couldn't snap a pic of Makaylan because she is literally all over the place! ha! 

Well, this is pretty much our lives here in Ruston: family, gardening, doggies, house stuff, family, projects, family, photography, kitties, etc.... and we love it! I'm enjoying August because September, October and November are already looking like they will be crazy busy with photo shoots galore! I can't wait for Fall Family Sessions! My favorite time of year!