The Swampy O'Neals

Monday, October 12, 2009

Lillies, to Remember

Kelly Colleen Morgan

1987-2009

MomZ and Papa came to visit!

These pictures were not forced at all!

At Lilys Birthday party

My strange husband

Ready to go to Mississippi

Cousins and spouses

(Missing-Michael and Amber, Wesley and Cheri, Will and Brenna, and Donny)

We had a good time taking pictures

A good lookin' bunch of folks

Lots of Family

With Mya, 3rd generation friends

Happy Birthday Caroline!

New Bedroom Stuff

Justin and his Pirate Friend

Justins New Pad

Bunkbeds? With my little monkey? What was I thinking?

The doors are still a hit

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Well, I have not really written much this summer, mainly 'cause there's not too much to tell. We've basically spent our days at home, hiding from the heat and the swine flu. We did start to going to church again and he is doing pretty well. He was somewhat bad the first time, but since then he seems to understand. I tried to send him to children's church last week but he is still a little young. Hopefully this week he wont remember that he got to leave last time! Donny changed jobs. He was laid off for a couple of weeks and his company kept dodging his calls about work, so he went with a different company. He's climbing a lot of stairs and a guy that's been there for a while told him he's probably going to lose about 20 pounds. And he gets to grow his sideburns back! He had to shave them about a year ago because he had to wear a mask at the plant he was working at. I wont lie, i cried when he shaved them. He came out of the bathroom yesterday after shaving and the burns were back! I was happy. With Donny off of work we too the opportunity to do some things around the house and town. We painted Justins closet doors with chalkboard paint. They turned out pretty neat and he actually uses them to draw on. He does not color on the walls either. This was not a concern of mine but several other folks asked about that. He seems to understand that the chalk is to stay on the closet only. We also took a couple of local road trips to the river to search for locations listed in my book "Along the River Road-Past and Present on Louisiana's Historic Byway." by Mary Ann Sternberg. It lists historic sites along the river. Some are still there, some are not. I got the book several years ago and have always wanted to make a trip. We quickly learned that if you stop at each place it takes you about 3 hours to go 20 miles. I took lots of pictures and posted several of them in an album on Facebook. The first trip we went from St. Rose to LaPlace, then hit Airline Hwy to go back home. The 2nd trip we went from LaPlace to Gramercy. If you look on a map these places are not too far apart but it took all afternoon to drive along the road and check out the locations. We are looking foreword to our next trip, which will probably take us from Gramercy to the Sunshine Bridge. Since we started with the East Bank, we have to plan where to cross back over the river, since there are not too many places. We also took a quick weekend trip to Hattiesburg to visit with my sister Sara. She taught Field Training in Birmingham this summer and part of the training was learning how to go overseas or something, how to suffer and survive in the desert. So, where do they send the kids for that part of the training? Camp Shelby. No surprise really. One of Sara's teaching buddies said "I was in the desert for a year and it was not as bad as the 2 weeks I've spent here". We met up with her for dinner one night out at Leatha's BBQ. Always an excellent choice. I got to see Peaches, one of Leathas granddaughters, who I went to college with way back in the day. It was a nice visit. Today is the 4th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It seams like a lot longer ago to me. We were pretty much okay here in Houma. Only lost power for 2 days. My folks were stuck in Idaho and our best friends, the Turcottes in Waveland MS, well I didnt know at the time where they were. Its funny, I always always always called them before a storm but that time I was so wrapped up in my own preparations I neglected to do so. Then I didn't hear from them for 2 weeks and was worried out of my mind. I figured they had gotten out, since Caroline was 7months pregnant at the time but she was not answering her phone and that was scary. Turns out, they went to her dads in Florida and I had the wrong phone number. They lost their place, of course, but are doing just fine now. My parents had several trees fall on their house, but ended up totally redecorating their house, knocking out walls and replacing old '70s decorations. So some things really are a blessing in disguise. Like Donnys new job. He works late, does not get home until about 7pm. But now instead of 30ish hours a week hes getting 40+ and that's good. I just hope he doesn't get too sexy with his new sideburns and new weight loss, while I sit at home slowly finding all the pounds he loses. All around me folks are going back to school and going back to work (which for a lot of my friends is school). Some may say fall is in the air, but not here in South Louisiana. It's as hot as ever. Thankfully, though, football season has arrived. LSU starts a week from today and the Saints start their 3rd exhibition game in a couple of hours. Thank heavens, I was getting really tired of baseball.

Painting the Chalkboard Doors

Running along the levee near Destrahan Plantation

Enjoying the Chalkboard Doors

Having a "picnic" with friend Mia

Leathas BBQ, Hattiesburg, MS

With Nannie Sara

Eating Watermelon with Great Grandmother Mema

Off to the Chocolate Factory!

Playing at the park in his "Pace" shirt

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

"Oh, Say Can You See.....My Car?"

July 4th weekend! Yea! This year the 4th fell on a Saturday, so everyone and their brother had plans, including us. We had a full weekend planned. Leave on Thursday to the Gulf Coast, Donny had golf on Friday. My sister was to leave that morning from Ohio to meet with us on the beach the next day. We planned to all meet up at my aunts condo on Saturday, enjoy the beach and make the DesiDog trade. Desi the Dog was going to come live with us for a few weeks while my sister taught Field Training in Birmingham. Well, that's not exactly how it turned out. We did leave on Thursday. That morning Justin was rolling around on the floor while I sat next to the bed packing and such. He rolled back and forth in front of the TV, then rolled over to me. I figured he would stop when he got to me, but still did not think anything of it as he rolled past me and THWACK! right into the end of the metal bed frame. He immediately started screaming and when I flipped him over, there was blood running down the side of his face. Poor thing got a nasty cut over his right eye, right through his little eyebrow. Now he is going to have a Luke Perry scar. The injury was cleaned, dressed, and the recipient was soothed with a Sponge bob band aid and a Popsicle. Donny came home early and we left around four. We decided to drive around the lake instead of through the city. I like that drive, its nice with all the water and swamps. We met up with the Turcottes at Osaka in Slidell, which was a lot of fun. A little pricey but worth it. Next time we will know not to order so much! Justin loved the flames and when the chef tried to flip egg in his mouth. We all went on to Diamondhead, but only after we got gas in Slidell during one of the scariest lightning storms I have seen in a while. The next morning my phone rang at six in the morning. I could tell it was my mom from the ring tone and it stopped in mid-ring. I figured she was trying to call my sister (who was probably on the road by that point) and dialed me by mistake. I did not think anything of it. About an hour later she called again, this time with the news-my sisters jeep had been stolen. Right out of the parking lot of her apartment. It was found about six days later in Kentucky, wrecked. So she was out for the weekend. :( That kind of put a damper on the day, but there was really nothing that could be done. I spent the day with Caroline and her girls. We made a trip to town and had lunch. That night we all went to the Crabfest in Bay St. Louis, which was super hot but we had a good time anyway. Justin rode some rides and Donny bought a dozen and a half crabs to bring home. He and Jeremy had a good time tearing into those later. The next day we packed up and went to Long Beach to spend the day with the family on the beach. It was super windy and we ended up getting rained out. We left the tent out on the beach while we ate when suddenly my cousins sister-in-law, Janet said something about a tent flying across the beach. We looked up and it was my uncles tent, out tent! The wind ended up breaking the frame; the tent was ruined. He had just bought it that day too! After dinner Donny and I packed back up and hit the road for Houma. We had originally planned to go back to Hattiesburg to spend time with my sister, but scratched that idea. Guess we will have to do that some other time. Her friend in Ohio will be taking care of the dog, since she was not able to make it down. She will probably not be able to get a new car until after her teaching is over, which is, like, six weeks from now.

Cut from the bed