sidewalk sadness

so, yesterday they dug up some of the yard next to us to unconnect the gas to the house that is getting demolished. well, they accidently unconnected us too! of course. we didn't realize until the evening, after aaron had cut the grass and needed to shower, and a guy came out right away. But, we said it could wait until the morning. So now they are tearing up the yard again, but sadly they had to destroy some of the sidewalk! :( it's sad because we had a nice stretch of sidewalk in front of our house that we stroll down to the park. now i understand why there are places where our sidewalks are missing or torn apart. this place has a long way to go before it ever looks nice again, though we've had great improvements. an ex-counsel woman told us the other day that they are waiting before all demolition is finished until they work on the streets because of the dump semis that drive our streets, shake our houses, and tear up the roads. i should take a picture of this street not far from us that is the worst i've ever seen--we never drive down it.

here are a few pictures from Sunday of Evelry in her cute sundress from Monica Surface--she put the beads on herself!!! She's so savvy ;)

but don't be fooled, just before she was eating dirt! :) we all have to try it sometime!

shopping

So, I don't know if I've ever blogged about this, but yesterday was another grand trip "into town" that got me thinking about it. "Into town"--something that people might say who live way in the country and take few trips to the closest town to buy things, right? I never thought that that would be me, but that has been the case for the last year living in Chalmette. Yes, we do live outside of New Orleans, in more of a small town than the suburbs. There used to be a Super Walmart and K-mart here, even a Sears I do believe. A movie theater, clothing store, and so forth. But now, we have a Walgreens, Winn Dixie, and that's about it! Oh wait, we have like 7 dollar stores in the Parish- ridiculous! So, whenever there is something we need, I try to make a list and make one shopping trip every so often. I mean, the nearest Walmart takes at least 30 minutes to get to, depending on traffic.

So, like I said, yesterday was one of those trips. Aaron found a truck tool box on Craigslist that was in the same area of a Walmart, and we were needing new window shades for Everly because her color-changing ones decided to stop changing colors, weird. Anyway, whenever we get to Walmart I like to walk around and try to think of anything we might need. I'm always feeling a little frustrated with the pressure of not fogetting something and with Everly getting squirly. It was nice having Aaron with me yesterday and we didn't really need too much. We also got to eat dinner out since it takes so long to drive into town--we weren't sure where we were going to go, but we were in the Uptown area which is a place with lots of cool little cafes and shops. And then, there it was--Whole Foods! Ahh, one of my favorite places. You walk in and there are tons of flowers and fruits and vegetables, all brightly colored and all screaming--"Buy me!" Well, we didn't because they're expensive, but we did find some coupons for some granola bars (ones for serious hiking trips so now we must plan to go!) and bought some yummy dinner.

Now, as we were sitting eating our healthy and very reasonably priced dinner, I am thinking about how I miss living in a place where you can walk places, see people out jogging, where there are trees lining the sidewalks, etc. Sometimes I wish I could be an Uptown person--they're kinda artsy, thinkers, health nuts, and pay a pretty penny to live where they do and buy the stuff that they do. I have to admit, I like that culture, but there are things I like about Chalmette, too. I mean, people here aren't as worried about being healthy--our restaurants serve some fatty foods and are proud of it! And, most people here are blue-collared, hard working people, at either oil refineries, sugar plant, in construction, fisherman, etc. And people are quite fine with blue jeans and t-shirts here. But, people are friendly for the most part and take care of each other.

...well, i din't mean to go on and on like that! here are some pictures because I hate leaving a post without any pictures! :)


ahhh.... Everly loves her daddy!

..and she loves corn on the cob! I don't know if she's supposed to have it, but she's really good at it :)

...and she loves peanut butter!

yum- fried strawberries from the fair- so good!

Everly and our neighbor Amanda

yardwork and Prayer

Aaron took some time today to help do some yard work at the house. Our flower beds that we created in December with his Dad were in serious dismay due to the heavy winter rains flooding them out. It's interesting to learn what grows here and how to make it work! Well, it took us a few hours to revamp it, and I was pretty excited when it was done, but our yard is another issue. We go back and forth about what to do. Most everyone here puts sod down because, we've been told, seed doesn't take well. Today our neighbors told me that the weeds grow so fast that they will over take the yard before your grass seed ever grows! So, we don't know if we want to waste our time with the seed, but we got some for free last year. The front yard isn't as bad as the back--we can walk on it and it's pretty soft, even with the weeds. But, the back is aweful! It is lower ground than our neighbors because we had to dig it, so it floods every time it rains! And it's really nasty weeds that hurt if you walk on them bare foot. Not quite the place you ever want to spend time in. Poor little Everly, she doesn't like grass yet because she doesn't get to play in it very much... and walking bare foot was one of my favorite things as a kid!

Tonight, on the other hand, was a monthly prayer meeting that all the churches in St. Bernard are invited to. It's an attempt at being united, and this is our second time to go. It's quite an intense time of prayer- about seven different ministers lead prayers for different things- revival, the youth, the Church, unity, etc. And there is musical worship as well, though tonight there wasn't as much I think to focus on prayer more. I have to be honest in saying that we feel quite uncomfortable during these meetings--two of the larger churches in town are pentecostal so there is alot of speaking in tongues and other outbursts that we are not used to. But, tonight we felt a little more comfortable realizing we knew quite a few people and families from these churches. We also are challenged though by the different things said through the night and are glad to be coming together with other believers in our Parish, as different as we might be.

So, that ends the night. Poor Aaron is trying to sleep but has terrible allergies! I think we need to get him some new medicene to try--any suggestions??? :)

digging

so, i'm kinda excited, kinda nervous. they're doing the first phase of demolition at the last house next to us, the corner lot that we would love to purchase if offered at a low price. that would make us the corner lot and give us a bigger yard! yea! so, today they are digging up the sewage lines, or something like that. it's so close to our house that it makes me a little nervous. and the guys told me that when they do demolish the house we need to have our home treated for termites because there's a lot over there and they will come over to ours! eek!
well, that's my day so far. we have our weekly staff lunch meeting in a few, everly's napping until then, and hopefully to the grocery after that. aaron was going to work on his ordination exam this morning, but there is a huge park build this week and he was asked to run to Slidell across the lake for some supplies that the Home Depot doesn't have here. Abbey Flaherty is a big part of the build--it's a park that was built a few years before Katrina and has an amptitheater and lots of picnic places for birthday parties and stuff. a few months ago a kid caught some of it on fire, so they're trying to fix it up like it was pre-Katrina. Volunteers are here from Vermont working on it with us, and also lots of the community is volunteering all week to work on it, from 8 AM to 5 PM through Sunday! our Church community is going to work Sunday evening, so that will be exciting.
Okay, that pretty much covers it. thanks for keeping in touch with us!

We just said goodbye to a group from Indian Creek today- a family spring break trip. It was our first time to have a family group with lots of little ones, and it went very well! shauna and everly got to hangout with the moms and tots during the day, but the elementary kids (and up) went to the work sites and helped. yesterday they had a fun day and went to a wilderness preserve to see alligators, and then the french quarter for dinner and some sight seeing. Here is a picture of Everly with Gunnar- one of the youth minister's kids.


Everly is getting pretty fun. she loves to "dance" (shaking her head and body) to music! today in the car she started dancing and clapping when we had the radio on. it's pretty stinkin cute! and, we're trying to teach her new words. today, I was trying to teach her HAT. at first she was just saying "tah" so i slowed down the pronunciation to "HHHHHH-AATTTT" and she got it a few times!

here is a picture from Easter. We went to our neighbors' son's home for lunch--they're a very gracious family who are kinda making us family too! later we had a Easter egg hunt at the woodwards for the kids before our weekly gathering to fellowship and worship.


okay, trying to keep this blog rolling! shauna :)