St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery circa 1723

Beautiful St. Michael's Church and Grotto Convent, LA

An amusing story.... after Dom and Chris walked out of the church, I made a donation for a plastic holy water container... filled it up and walked out. Dom noticed something in my hand. He said, "Whadya steal???" Cracked us up!

Bottom pic is outside of Oak Alley Plantation.

Christine's visit... St. James Historical Museum

Put on Your Ghost Goggles, Gang!

Hi there... this might seem VERY GOOFY to most of you, but had another neat experience at St. Michael's Church and Grotto in Convent, LA last week.

On my first visit, Beth caught a bunch of orbs in the Grotto while taking a picture of me.

On Wednesday, we stopped in to light candles and say a prayer during Christine's visit. I'm posting 3 new orb pics...

Gang... those of you who know me know that I take a zillion pictures...inside and out. Coincidence that these orbs appear at St. Michaels? I think not. ;)

Note 2 huge ones above Dom in the church. Two more at the altar. One above Mary's left shoulder in the grotto.

Happy (???) Thanksgiving........

Hey gang.... a little update. We had great fun during Christine's visit this week. Last night, the 3 of us were at the Rivershack when the phone rang. Dom's ma was rushed to the hospital... blood pressure bottomed out again. *sigh*

The 2 of 'em headed into Slidell while I stayed here.

The old gal is not eating. Kidneys are not functioning. She's got pneumonia. Found an unexplained bed sore that wasn't there a week ago.

Needless to say, it wasn't a very pleasant Thanksgiving. I drove in for a visit, then the 3 of us had an early (noon) dinner at Copelands. Very enjoyable considering the circumstances.

Dom's dropping Christine off at the airport in the morning and heading in to see his ma. I'm heading into Poplarville for a night or two.... I need a love-in with my kitties.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day filled with family, love and good food!

Nov 21- “HEY!!! It looks like it's clearing up!!!!” (St. Joe Plantation, Spahrs and Indian Shell Cemetery

Christine flew in on Friday night. Fun, fun, fun!

We had a lovely day yesterday.... put 180 miles in.

Weather was shitty.... drizzled all day. The phrase, “It looks like it's clearing up” was murmered perhaps 10 times during our road trip. It got to the point where passengers would reply with...”You're a LIAR!!!!!”. It never did “clear up” for us, but was a fun day.

Picked up Handsome Henry at 8am... took the long road to Laplace to pick up Beth.

First stop was St. Joseph's Plantation in Vacherie.....

Next stop was Spahr's Restaurant in Thibadoux.... we were there a couple of weeks ago. I had a most delightful seafood salad. Delightful enuf for almost everyone at the table to order the same yesterday. Bummer. Not nearly as loaded with crab and shrimp. POUTING

On the way home, stopped for a photo op at Spahr's in Des Allemands, then spent about an hour at the Indian Shell Mound Cemetery.

Attaching our route as well as my favorite picture from the day..... Let's label it as “THE THREE STOOGES”....

St. Joe's Plantation

This was a neat, neat stop.... a couple of things jumped out at me.

Firstly, I was knocked out by the Imortelles Funerary Ornaments. What a neat concept! They were thought to take care of the grief for you. I've included the plaque describing these, as well as an example.

Secondly, there was an 1858 hand written succession. I've posted pictures of the translations. Slaves were worth some big bucks back then! I found it fascinating...

Des Allemands and Thibidaux

Here are some misc. photos from yesterday.....

Indian Shell Mound and Baptist Cemetery Des Allemands

Our last stop was this Baptist cemetery under a gorgeous Spanish Moss covered live oak tree. Note the size of the tree by using Dom's truck as a reference. I found it kind of creepy that there were graves on top of the mound. One of which dated back to 1846.

Myeloma Protein Numbers Below....

Just got a call from Dom's nurse..... Those are them! :)

Dominic Update

Hi gang-

Between the drama with Mrs. M and my weekly play dates, I haven't posted much about Dom lately.

Good news- In order for him to be in remission, the Myeloma proteins in his blood need to be at 0.00 His most recent bloodwork has him at 0.14 I just put a call into his favorite nurse to ask her to check what his protein levels were when he was diagnosed.

**UPDATE... haven't heard back from his nurse yet, but in reviewing pages of notes, I feel confident in posting the following numbers:

SEPT '08: 4.76 (day of diagnosis)
JAN '09: 0.81
FEB '09: 0.71
NOV '09: 0.14
******************************************

Anyway, they're very happy with his progress. He is back on a combination of Thalidomide and Coumadin for "maintenance". That should knock out the rest of the cancer.

His hair has returned. He refuses to shave. I miss seeing his handsome face, but nevermind.... I choose my battles! *grinning*

He is maintaining his weight. Good appetite, but still no beer drinking. (That's how he's keeping his boyish figure... just bought a pair of 32 waist pants yesterday!) Taste buds are still off... stomach a little off, too. Still tires easily, but is getting better day by day.

Wanted to share this wonderful health update with you. Thanks again for all of your support during this horrid past year. We love you guys!

Another Scare With Dom's Mom

While I was playing with Beth and Henry on Sat, (MANY miles away from Slidell) I got a call from ma's nursing home. She had been rushed to Slidell Memorial Hospital. Her sugar dropped into the twenty's. She was dangerously close to a Diabetic Coma and was unconscious.

The week prior, her sugar had shot up to 380, and they were giving her insulin and oral medications to control it. She has been refusing to eat, thus the crash.

They pumped her full of glucose and her sugar is now at 188. High, but at her age, better high than low.

They're hoping to transport her back to the nursing home this morning. She has a 1:30 appointment with her hip surgeon that we'd like her to make. Lotsa luck trying to rush a hospital discharge. *sighing*

**Noon update... her sugar is up to 280. Hospital is releasing her now. She'll probably make her appointment with the surgeon.

Honestly.... both of my parents were diabetic.... dad on insulin. I've never been able to wrap my head around the disease. I'm totally stupid when it comes to Glucose Levels, other than 100 is "OK".

November 14, Springfield and Pontchatoula Trip

Yet another wonderful road trip with Beth and Henry. Plenty of sun. 77 degrees. Gorgeous.

Piled into Beth's car (almost 50 mpg!) at 9 am. First stop, Middendorf's in an attempt to feed the kitties. The little scaredy cats wouldn't come anywhere near us. Nor would the rabbit. The pet gator was no where to be seen. Stupid stop. LOL

Next stop was “Taste of Bavaria Bakery and Restaurant” for brunch. http://www.tasteofbavariarestaurant.com/ Cute, cute place. I felt like I was back in the Black Forest of Germany. Food was “ok”. Service was horrid. And to top it off, you had to stand in line at the counter to pay your bill. ($2.50 per coffee????). Glad that I finally went, but probably won't return.

Onward to the Springfield Cemetery. I was knocked out by the MANY Confederate Soldiers buried here. Also saw something different. Their graves all had new CSA stones in addition to the original headstones. Also, many had Iron CSA Crosses with the Rebel Flag. One of which caught my eye. Rather than a flag, this one read: “DEO VINDICE”. A short bit of research found that this was the motto of the Confederate States of America. It translates as: “(With) God (as our) defender/protector.”

I was a bit surprised that a few of 'em had the American Flag flying on the grave. I would have thought that the Confederate Flag would have been more to the deceased's liking. Henry commented that the families might have feared that Rebel Flags would have been removed.

There was another big draw to this cemetery. The grave of young Michael Brown. The kid was killed by a drunk driver. The night before he died, he made a drawing of the events of that fateful event. The carving on the back of the headstone has the names of the driver that hit the boy as well as the people who drove past him while he laid on the side of the road.. His mother had his drawing etched onto the back of his headstone. How sad.

Next, we made a brief stop at a boat launch on the Natalbany River. Was tickled to see that it was a Manatee area. Saw nothing but a floating LSU purple basketball and a couple of dead fish discarded on the banks.

Then, off to ROSARYVILLE. http://www.rosaryvillela.com/ We walked the beautiful grounds for quite some time. Stations of the Cross were all over for the resident nuns. One of the burial sites was for the nuns of the Dominican Order. The gate read: “In Te Domine Speravi”, which translates to “In Thee, O lord, I have hoped”.

Also spent some time in the Dominican Friars Cemetery on the grounds.

Really, a pretty and peaceful spot.... also hung out with some of the ground's pet turkeys!

Headed back into Pontchatoula. Stopped at the Berry Patch for a soft drink and an order of Strawberry Beneigts... picture a plate with strawberry preserves, topped with powdered sugared beneigts with a mountain of bavarian cream in the middle. Sinful. Decadent. Gotta have more!

Final stop was Berrytown, a neat little produce market that I'm growing quite fond of. I picked up some Habanero soaked garlic cloves which I introduced to Tito's Handmade Vodka that evening for a kick-ass martini!

**I should note that many of these road trip photos are courtesy of my traveling companions!

Taste of Bavaria