Grand Isle

We spent our Easter in Grand Isle and took the "new" boat on its Inaugural voyage.  Elliott and I, his parents, and Todd headed down for a long weekend and despite wind and rough waters we caught fish! It was a great weekend although I did miss being in church for Easter worship. We also missed Evan and Claire who spent the weekend with her family in Jackson and Meredith who sadly had to work.
I'll let the pictures do the talking...

 El got the first catch! 

 three amigos

 caught some specs, too

the island from a different perspective...

our weekend catch

This weekend, we went back. This time it was us, Elliott's parents, and Evan and Claire. The boys came down Thursday night and fished EARLY on Friday. They caught some specs and went offshore and caught Lemon fish, Trigger fish, Spanish Mackerel, and Snapper. We (the girls) decided we weren't getting up that early on Saturday but we still ended up with coffee on the porch at 5 am.  

This was the start to a beautiful day on the boat and quite a successful fishing day!

We caught a ton of specs and then started losing them to dolphins who broke quite a few of our lines so we decided to head offshore to see if anything was biting by the oil rigs.

I have never seen anything like it. We took a nice boat ride to Fourchon where there are hundreds of rigs scattered for miles

 

 I'm not sure what I had caught but it got eaten by this shark!

My Pompano (apparently a delicacy)

Elliott's Mangrove Snapper

 and an ice chest full of speckled trout. 63 to be exact!

This morning after coffee on the porch at a reasonable time (7:30), the boys decided to go back out one more time before loading the boat back up. They came home with another 40 specs.

 Needless to say, we all came home with a lot of fish! 

A special visit at the Dentist!

Mary Stewart's first to the dentist (last year)

Two weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal published an article titled "Best and Worst Jobs of 2012". Guess what job was number FOUR? That's right, MY job! DENTAL HYGIENIST. To quote the article, "CareerCast, a career website owned by Adicio Inc., ranked 200 jobs from best to worst based on five criteria: physical demands, work environment, income, stress and hiring outlook. To compile its list, the firm primarily used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other government agencies.The 200 jobs were selected for their relevance in the current labor market as well as the availability of reliable data." 
You can read the rest of the article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304587704577335703058909284.html#project%3DSLIDESHOW08%26s%3DSB10001424052702303772904577336100486278304%26articleTabs%3Darticle

I can't say I'm shocked because I have always said I have the best job and now the research shows it too!  What blows my mind is that it's 4th out of 200.  It's not like it was ranked among healthcare jobs or jobs with a bachelors degree. WOW, I'm blessed and I'm thankful for a reminder that not only do I have a great job, but it's even better because I have an AMAZING boss and pretty great co-workers!

So, every time my sister comes in town, she tries to get in to see me for a cleaning and check-up. Last year, she brought Mary Stewart in for her first visit. She did great and enjoyed showing me how she brushes! This year she came in again and we had a blast!

I'll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite TV personalities, (who I miss terribly this season!) Michael Scott. If you didn't watch the office when he was Manager of Dunder Mifflin, you've missed out. Anyway this is from season 6 when Dwight hooked up with a friend of Pam's who was a dental hygienist at Jim and Pam's wedding. Dwight was a little dismissive about her, but Michael clearly approved.

"Do you know how hard it is to be a hygienist? You have to take x-rays and you have to scrape the plaque off of people's teeth.  You have to tell kids when to spit and make sure they're not scared when the dentist comes in."

He's on to something...

Happy Anniversary

Elliott and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on March 31. The traditional gift for 5 years is wood. Elliott surprised me by building me this beautiful piece of furniture.

The whole thing is made of antique wood.  He used a sentimental barn door from our farm in Mississippi as the back (probably early 1900's). The sides are shutters from his family's original camp in Grand Isle dating back to the late 1800's. The rest is antique cypress that was left over from his parent's house when they renovated.

I couldn't have imagined it any better and was so excited that he built it for me! I also couldn't imagine life without him,  he is truly my better half! These first 5 years have flown by and I look forward to many, many more!

A few of my Favorite (Spring) Things

Nothing says Spring like a Lilly iPhone cover!

(and because it's stylish to keep your iPhone protected)

I ordered mine from the Lilly website but it appears to be sold out so I've found it here:

http://www.lifeguardpress.com/lilly-pulitzer-iphone-case-scarlet-begonia-p-2688.html

I definitely hunted these down in Baton Rouge last weekend:

Tom's Corbel Wedge

http://www.toms.com/corbel-women-s-wedges

LOVING these studs! 

http://www.swellcaroline.com/jewelry/earrings/full-house-heart-earrings-gold-or-silver.html

A perfect, light spring scent

(I've become a fan of the roll-on, easy to carry in your purse)

http://www.philosophy.com/fragrance-amazing/amazing-grace-roll-on-product

I've been pretty loyal to Bobbi Brown, but after getting a sample of this at Sephora last week, I think I'm converting to this B.B. Cream.  It's got just the right tint, a touch of shimmer, SPF 27, and is the perfect transition from pale winter color to a natural summer glow!

http://www.sephora.com/browse/product.jhtml?id=P288804&categoryId=B70

And of course, pastel denim

http://www.zappos.com/product/7947599/color/30117

jlhappy spring

Signs of Spring...

Lemon blossom

A House Finch family nested in my ferns

Crawfish and Strawberry beer

Fresh mint

beautiful weather for pond fishing

and a little Easter decor!

Sweet Friends

Elliott and I have the greatest group of sweet friends in Baton Rouge! We are so blessed that our friendships are so effortless and not only do all us girls get along so well, but our husbands love hanging out too!  This weekend was nothing short of great, with a few fun events lined up but we can also have the best time just hanging out at someone's house or on the patio at Zippy's!

On Thursday night we met for dinner and drinks at Zoila downtown before going to the Avett Brothers concert at the River Center.  Dinner was great-Zoila has a tapas menu and we were all very impressed with all the dishes. The concert was amazing! Although I have no musical talent, I am amazed by those who can play instruments, sing, read music, etc and I just loved their style! We had to leave early because Elliott had the first portion of his Master's comps, but we enjoyed every minute of the evening!

We decided to take it easy on Friday night in anticipation of St. Patty's day which started around 8AM at Lee and Brad's for brunch. They live off the parade route right around the corner from Meredith and Todd who hosted St. Toddrick's Day, an annual crawfish boil after the parade to celebrate Todd's birthday.

After an accident boiling crawfish ended with four friends visiting the ER, we managed to keep spirits up and create a few memories that we can (hopefully) laugh about next year...

After all, in good times and bad, thats what friends are for!

Elliott's Birthday

Elliott's birthday was February 23rd.  I love birthdays and try to make them extra special! It turns out that my version of extra special isn't the same as his! You'd think I'd figured this out by now, but apparently it's taken several years...
I started the morning by waking up early to cook him breakfast. He loves Red Velvet cake so I thought I'd try out these Red Velvet pancakes...

http://www.thatssoyummy.com/recipes/red-velvet-pancakes-chocolate-chips/

While they were good, they weren't as "red velvety" as I'd like and we both agreed regular buttermilk pancakes with chocolate chips would have been just as good!

As for his "birthday cake" I decided to go with a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with a cookie crust.

http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/2011/05/chocolate-chip-cookie-cheesecake.html

It was a no bake cheesecake recipe that was made of cream cheese, whipped cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla...easy enough! However with just a cookie crust, the pie wasn't enough...I'm definitely a fan of a baked cheesecake! Needless to say, this was the second birthday fail.  I was able to salvage it, however, by adding chocolate pudding on top of the cheesecake layer with some Kahlua added in and topping it off with more whipped cream. An adult version of my Mississippi Mud Cookie Cake found here: http://www.scroggsland.blogspot.com/2011/08/summer-sweets.html

So, that was Thursday, February 23.  Despite my efforts, he still had a great birthday and was very kind to me in my "birthday fails!"

On Saturday, February 25, we hosted "Earz and Beeps 7th Annual Birthday Bash" at our house.  In years past we've done crawfish boils, fish frys, etc, but this year the boys decided they wanted to roast a pig.  This meant they would have to build something big enough to roast a pig. And they did! So, they bought a WHOLE pig, built this contraption, and roasted it all day. (I'll spare the early photos while it was still pink)

They made a vertical-like rotisserie and rotated it from top to bottom and side to side for even cooking.

 It was delicious and went fast! Everyone was grabbing meat as soon as he could cut it! 

 Knife skills

Of course, we didn't just have roasted pork! We had all the fixins' including baked beans, cole slaw, and rolls and of course lots of appetizers. My favorite is the all too easy Baked Brie.  I cut the top only off the Brie and topped it with Kahlua, brown sugar, and pecans. Bake on 350 for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is soft and almost runny. Serve with Pita Crisps. SO GOOD! 

And we all know you can't have a birthday party without birthday cake...or cupcakes in our case! 

 Me and Kim getting ready to sing to our Birthday Boys! (notice how tilted my cake stand is)

 (I may have lost a few cupcakes from all the excitement)

Elliott's wondering where the rest of his candles are and Liza's waiting for me to drop more!

and Blake, mid bite.

I decided to go with good ole yellow cake since that is my birthday boy's absolute favorite. Since I couldn't bear serving an all-out-of-the-box cake/icing, I went with homemade chocolate buttercream made by my sister in law Claire who whipped it up in no time as all things baking are her specialty!

So my lesson learned this year: The boy just wants yellow cake out of the box but does appreciate home made icing. I can do that. It is his birthday, after all.