Life is great!

Just a quick post to tell you all that I have had a great week. I love that I am here in the Crescent City and the vicinity. It has so many things to offer an I am excited to just get out there and enjoy what it has to offer. I am going to the strawberry festival on the north shore (across lake Ponchartrain)they tell me it is one of the funnest festivals. I am going to the French quarter for what else "French quarter Festival", Andrew Alba you need to come out so you can hear all of the Jazz bands etc. and I am also going to go see Oprah at V-to the power of ten. I am really excited I will take pictures see if I get a good one from the nose bleed section.

Andrew the Jazz festival is coming up the last weekend in April first week in May. They say it is a great time to listen to jazz and all other types of music.

Well family and friends, remember who you are and how tall you stand!!

And to you my friend "I spy with my blue eyes?..."

Oh one more thing. I got my flipper (tooth) adjusted so it did not cover over half of the roof of my mouth. It is much better and I am hoping to not talk with a lisp nearly as bad as it was before.

My day started early today so don't look to close at the dark circles under my eyes. I got to work this morning at 6:00 am. I thought I was going to be riding the levees today. The Mississippi river is running high and we ride the levee in 12 hour shifts and document weekenesses on the levee's. Don't worry I am not the one determining if the levee's are safe. I am just a scribe. Although the old saying a day out in the field is better than any day in the office.

Not only that but Sylvia check out the hair. This is after letting my bangs grow out for two weeks so you can imagine how short they were. I got a little carried away with the scissors.





Look MOM I got my front tooth and it is not even Christmas. I still have an adjustment getting use to the FLIPPER when I eat. Usually I get frustrated and just take it out. I find myself playing with it. I usually catch myself and try and keep it in place. Although my boss asked me if I was eating candy. And we laughed when it was my tooth I was playing with.




Look what I ate for dinner tonight. It was so good. On Sunday, between sessions our little branch had a pot luck. One of the members of the branch brought craw fish. I had never had them before. They were really good. I got cravings today and went and got me some. Not a bad meal for $5.00. It was very good but very messy to eat.

Distrubance in the Hood!

You have all heard that New Orleans in the murder capital of the nation. Over Easter weekend, two days there were 10 shootings in the city. Kind of scary but I have never been scared in the hood.

I come home from work today and my normal routine is to turn on the TV just for background noise and I am reviewing emails and I hear on the news "Shooting on Josephine St and Laurel" I jumped up and ran to the TV and found that a person had been shot in his car. I was not sure where Laurel street was but it sounded familiar. I looked it up on Google mapped the location and found that it is about 5 blocks south of where I live. It sounded familiar because a couple of Sundays ago I decided to go for my normal Sunday Stroll and decided to head south because I wanted to check out some houses that I passed when I went to Wall Mart. I had mentioned to my friends at work the area I was walking and they all three just gave me this look like "ARE YOU CRAZY!" I could not figure out what the fuss was. I told them that I was walking around and felt fine and then decided to head back to my place. They told me that I was walking in an area that is called the Jackson Street Projects. They said it was not a very safe area to be walking around in. They made me promise I would not walk around in that hood area again. I told them I liked to walk on Sundays and so they gave me routs to take that were safer. Basically all of them told me to stay between Magazine Street and St Charles Street and that I could walk West to Audubon park and East to the Round about and I would be okay. Who knew.

The whole time I have been here I have never been scared or intimidated. I have been protected but I also have to do my due diligence and research a little bit better where I am going to walk before I head out. I love that I have gotten into the habit to walk to the stores and the restaurants if I decide to go out to eat. It is pretty therapeutic to walk and just think.

Here is to walking in safer areas and to be safe.... Say a prayer for Brianna and while you are at it pray for me as well.

House Decoating and more!

This is not my house but I want some opinions on what you think of this house. What is the first thing that pops into your mind and what possibilities to you see in it? This house is about 1/2 a block from where I am living.


This is the north wall as you walk in the front door. You can see that I have also placed my stereo in this area.



This is the wall that you see when you walk into my house. It is actually the office west wall.


okay so the picture above is of the wall that is on my left as you come in my front door. to the right of the picture I have kind of an enclove I have set up my fish tank there with the book case but I am trying to figure out what to do with this area. I can actually fit my over sized chair in that area if I decide to move the book case out of the way.



This is the same wall after my pictures are up my couch is in this area. the top of the couch is about 3 feet below the pictures.

okay so nothing all to exciting but I need to do something about the current blinds they are driving me nuts.

I thought I would share an experience one of my coworkers had during Katrina. He lived in lakeside (or is it lake view) I get confused. Any way he and his wife and son decided that they were going to ride out the hurricane at home. Needless to say they got flooded they spent 7 nights on the roof of their house they had pets and would not leave them. They had national guard come by and offer to take them to safety but they refused because they would not allow the pets to come with them. He had a family member living in California that ended up driving from California with a boat and came to rescure him and his wife and sons and the pets. It was amazing to hear how they stayed for such a long time on the roof of the house and that it took family memebers to drive cross country to resuce them. One of the stories. I will tell you more later.

I am off to line dancing class! Yes you read right. I am taking a line dancing class. you can all pick yourselves off the floor. I am way out of my comfort zone but it has been great fun.

Love to all,
Aunt Nancy

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS....

So what happens when you are in Salt Lake City and decide that you are going to wire your apartment for internet service and forget to take your wire strippers? You use your teeth of course..... and you chip your front tooth. Many of you saw me before I left with my chipped front tooth. Well about 2 days before I left I was starting to have a very sore front tooth.

Ever since I have been here in the Crescent City my tooth has been very sore and it had gotten to the point that I could not even eat it would hurt so bad. I finally went to the dentist and he told me I would have to have a root canal and then a crown placed on my tooth. I decided to wait for my Dental Insurance to start before I scheduled any work to be done. I went to the dentist today thinking I was going to get a root canal and before he started he said he wanted to look at the x-ray one more time. He looked and said "I think I want a second opinion on your root canal. The area where the canal of the root was suppose to be had calcified there was no canal that showed up on the x-ray. He sent me to a specialist who luckily could see me right away. Before I went to this other Dr. I was informed that the new dentist was not in my insurance plan so I would have to pay everything up front and it could possibly be up to $1,ooo.00 to get the work done. I was stressed but I was in enough pain I said I was going to this other dentist.

He took another x-ray wehre it showed that the tooth was actually cracked. He was hoping the crack would just be straight across and they could save the tooth.... how much is this goiong to cost me..... he removed the portion that was cracked and gave me the bad news that the tooth had an oblique crack so it went from my gun line up into my gum area... Sorry but we can not save the tooth. The dentist sent me back to the original dentist to have it removed and to take the mold for the new tooth. So tell me how much is this going to cost me. I went in to the dentist this morning thinking that that I would have to pay aobut $4oo.oo for the root canal and that included 1/2 payment for my crown. Well the good news was when I went to the second dentist no root canal was necessary he charged me $150.oo to remove the portion of my tooth that was cracked. Did I mention that I hate dentist because the shots are always painful and I can not stand the sound of the drill. Well anyway so far my dentist visit was 150 and counting. I returned back to the 1st dentist and had to wait for about 1 hour to get me in again. When I finally got in they took the molds of my teeth so they could order my falsie. Well the technician for got to give me the topical anesthesia and the dr. comes in and starts to give me the injection to numb the area where the tooth is to be removed. Oh my HECK I about had a fit. He says you should be numb enough for the shot and I said "THE TECHNICIAN HAS NOT GIVEN ME THE TOPICAL ANESTHESIA" oops oh well it is a good thing he is good looking or I would have left.... He gave me the shots and proceeded with the removal of the tooth. So know I am toothless right there front and center. So I went to pay for 1/2 of what was due and it was 200.00 so all in all the amount ended up being what I was anticipating but no root canal and I am just toothless.... Don't I look pretty?

I went to the pharmacy to pick a prescription for my medication and had problems because my health cards had not arrived and I thought I can not afford to get Vicadine without my insurance help. I finally got it all taken care of and got my credit card out to pay for my prescription. I about died when she rung it up even with my insurance.... NO NOT BECAUSE IT WAS EXPENSIVE I had to pay .62 cents. yes you read that right sixty two cents..... not to bad thank heavens for insurance.

Well that is my experience for the day at the dentistssssss.......

P.S. Sylvia I will send you the beads I need an address. I will also post next time a picture with the bangs that I cut myself....

WHEN IN ROME

As the saying goes “When in Rome, Do as the Romans.” So I decided to venture out on Saturday the 16^th of March. There was a parade going to happen in the hood. The route was one block from my house so I decided to venture out and see what all the fuss was about. I tell you I need to get a hold of the Days of Forty Seven Parade committee and see if they can top this parade. Okay the floats and the bands and overall the parade in SLC can not be beat but tell me do they through out good stuff like shall we say CABBAGE, POTATOS, ONIONS, CARROTS, BANNANAS AND OTHER SUCH GOODIES. I think not. Oh and least I forget BEADS OF COARSE. Take a look at this picture of my stash. So I got beads but as they say what goes on at parade route stays at parade route… just kidding. It was a fun diversion from going through boxes. It was a beautiful day and I was glad that I ventured our. So if you want me to send you or your kids beads and stuffed animals etc. let me know.

I am still trying to get out of boxes but I am hoping that by this weekend I will be done with boxes and can begin decorating walls etc.

Here is my exercise for the week. I figured I would post so that Katie and Lilli and Dusty can see I am not as good as they are but I would love to have you guys keep me on track if you would.
Monday: lift weights for 45 min, Tuesday: treadmill 2.5 miles walking hope to eventually get to jogging and then running, Wed: weights 45 min. Thursday: treadmill 2.5 miles Friday: weights 45 min. I get up at 5:15 so that I can get to the Gym by 6:00 and to work by 7:oo. I am a morning person to exercise I find if I get it done first thing in the morning it is better because by the afternoon, after work, I find any excuse not to go. Oh I forgot that every day to get to where the gym is at work I walk down 3 floors and then three floor up to the office.

Work is going good I will post more this weekend about work and stories about Hurricane Katrina and what my coworkers went through. Some of them went through some pretty horiffic things.

MY NEW HOME

Sorry for all the pictures but I thought you all might like to see what my house looks like. As you read this post I have asked for some suggestions on decorating. Please feel free to give me your thoughts and ideas. As you all know I am not the best in decorating but I think I would like to give it a try and make this my home....


Pedestal sink in the bathroom.

Shower curtain that I brought from Salt Lake. I think it looks great.

And finally the bathroom not to big but it will suffice.

More pictures of the kitchen and the washer that was in the house. I have acutally had the owner remove the washer and I am using my front end loader. The house is not upgraded electrically to use my dryer. I have asked the landloard to see if I can hire an electrition to come in and add the 22o line so that I can use my dryer. That would be nice.


This is a built in cabinet. It is actually pretty big. As you can see somebody decided that they would paint over the windows of the uper side of the cabinet. I think I may try and remove the paint. I think it would look much better.


An added cupord space in the kitchen the dryer is located on the lower right of the picture.
Behind the screen is the water heater.

This is obviously the Kitchen. I like the hanging pots feature. The stove is gas and so is the dryer.

Bedroom looking into the entrance when you come from the shop room area I don't know if you can tell but there is a about a 4 inch ledge that goes all the way around two walls. It is wide enough to place nick nacks on top of the ledge or small pictures.


This is still the bedroom and as you can see I have three huge windows in this room. It has a gas heater as well you can barely see the top of it on the lower left side of the picture.

Ah finally my bedroom. note the little closet in the corner. Right by the closet door in the first window is actually a window air conditioner. Note the blinds I need to do something different her. I do have a ceiling fan and the light again is not very good but I will see what I can do about that.


This is the light fixture in the shop room. Again the lighting is not very good in this house but look at the two large windows again in this room. It is simply amazing how huge these windows are.

This is the room that I am using as my shop storage room the only problem is that this is the only room with closet space. Actually there is a small closet in the bedroom but in essence this is the only closet. I chose this room to hold all of my wood shop equipment because it has a door that I can close and as you walk down the hall you don't see the woodshop equipment. Not that above the closet is also storage space.

This is the view from the office/craft room down the long hallway to the Kitchen area as you can see you have to go through this hall way to pass the shop room, then the bedroom and then the bathroom area and finally to the kitchen.


This is the light fixture in the office/craft room it does not give me a whole heck of light so I need to place a desk lamp on my office desk to give me some additional light. I also need to check into maybe getting better light bulbs in the fixture to help with the light. I like the fixture I think it adds character to the room. Note the big wall with nothing on it. I just need help on decoration. I have family pictures and Africa pictures that I will use to decorate. Once I get things up on the walls I will post my creations. I am open for suggestions again on decorating if you have any ideas. Also note that the picture below shows another great wall between the windows to do things with. Understand the from floor to ceiling it about 12 feet tall. the desk that I am currently sitting at to type this comes to the bottom level of the window seal so I have about 9 feet of wall space to work with.
Picture of the large windows in the office/craft room. the windows reach all the way up to the top in essence they are about 2 f eet wide X about 6 feet tall. As you can see the windows shades are just paper blinds. I need some help on decorations so if any of you have some ideas on how or what to do to dress these up please feel free to comment. Just so you know the bedroom has three huge windows similar to this one that also need to be addressed.

This is looking into the second room you come to when you walk into the house. I am actually using this as my office/craft room. look at the heater. It is a a gas heater and this is what keeps my office/craft room and living room warm. This heater reminds me of Guelita Caro's house i remember seeing these at her house when we went to Piedras to visit. It brought back fond memories of our trips to Mexico and visits with Tia Naela and the rest of the family. The entry way from the living room to this room actually has huge pocket doors. I will take a picture of this and post later. I can actually close this door when guests come if I chose and all they will see is the living room.



This is looking in through the front door as you can see I have an iron gate on the front door and it is a double door. I am really glad that both sides of the door can open and that when I do the breeze is just great.

As you can see I have a lot of decorating to do. As I have only been in The Cresent City for two and a half weeks and I have only worked so far for two weeks, I have lots to tell about Work. Stay tuned and also I will try and catch up on some other details. Like the St. Patrick's Parade I went to on Saturday. I will write more on this soon.