I wrote a message in a bottle today.

Today was typical shopping day, which means I run all over the gulf coast area and get my groceries done and whatever else needs be. The hubs is still working nights so its pretty much left up to me to get all the stuff we need done and tug along the gremlin.

As I was on my drive to Pass Christian (about a 30 min. car ride from my house in Biloxi) Wal-Mart to pick up the pics I ordered last night of Jim, so the hubs can take them to Joanna for Jims Funeral on Friday. I heard Nickleback come on the radio, the song was "If Today was your last day". Ive heard that song about 100 times and never has it held more meaning than today. I literally had to pull over along the beach and let my emotions get the better of me. After a good long cry, that had obviously been building up in me for days... I got to thinking.

I thought I want to write Jim a letter, like a farewell letter. I'm not going to be able to attend the funeral on Friday. My parents are coming in from out of town the same day and I also couldn't go because there is no one to watch the munchkin during the services, and I didn't think it very appropriate to bring her along. She doesn't really understand whats going on she is after all only 4. So I figured writing this letter would be the best way for me to have closure. So I grabbed a pen from my purse, the notepad I always keep in the glove box and took the munchkin out on the pier near where I parked along the beach. She played and chased sea gulls while I wrote. I told him how much of a good friend I thought he was, how nice a person he has been to me, how hes always been there to lend an ear or a place to stay. I told him I was sorry it had to end so suddenly like this. I told him how I will think of him often and remember the good times we had together. I wrote all of this in the brightest sunshine Ive ever been in, the softest wind Ive ever felt and the calmest waves Ive ever heard. I felt like he was there with me, sitting beside me.

In the end I promised I would live without regret, treat everyday as if it were my last, laugh more, fight less and live life to the fullest. This is something I've always told myself I should live by... but suddenly this seems more important than ever. Its only now when I'm point blank facing it that each day is a gift and not a given right. And then I stuffed the letter into my old glass ice tea bottle that I had rolling around in my car for god knows how long (apparently there was a purpose for it) put the lid on it and chucked it as far as I could into the waves. I hope you receive it Jim... and someday I'll see you on the other side.

The Bad Reviewer

(Warning: Kind of a Rant)

Ive been doing ThredUp for a while now and today is the first day Ive gotten a "bad review" on a box I've sent, and I am pissed! Here's what the reviewer said : "Most of the items had stains on them and were pretty worn. Also one of the items was a 3t and in description said 4. However one item was a very pretty velvet red dress which I will be able to get use out of."

Here's my explanation... First of all this is a clothing swap website. Things that you are going to get are not going to be "brand new" looking they will be "gently used" items and that's what I expect. That's what I think EVERYONE should expect... Its just as if you were to go to a consignment shop, a thrift store or goodwill. I pack every box and think "can this person use this?" and "is this an item I would like to receive" and if I answer those 2 questions with a yes, then it gets packed in a box. I have NEVER and will never send a box that is packed with clothes that are stained! That really pissed me off because I make sure the majority of my daughters clothing is not stained. I use oxi-clean in EVERY wash and I have an abundancey of stain stick removers for that very purpose! She has some clothes that are strictly for play or getting messy but those clothes (after they no longer fit) meet their doom with the trash can.

I take pride in the way my daughter dresses and I like to think that her clothes are nice. I don't always have the money to buy Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger (like Mrs. Reviewer) in fact most of my daughters clothing comes from JC Penny, Target, Justice, Limited Too, Old Navy and Kohls. I think its insane to buy her top name brands like RL or TH at full price when she grows out of them so quickly, don't get me wrong when I come across a good bargain of course I will buy, but even then its just a few things verses a whole wardrobe... my point? Why buy $150 worth in those brands when Im only gonna get a shirt and maybe a skirt or pair of pants when I can take that same amount to Penny's or Justice and buy a bunch of clothes that look just as good. I dont honestly care what the label in the shirt says, I care if its neat and clean looking, I care if its something shes gonna want to wear. As for the 3t comment, it was a item that was labeled 3/4t . So to "Mrs. Reviewer" if your honestly looking for those brands, you need to shop elsewhere and not on a clothing swap website!

GRRRRRR!!!

And just for the record Ive sent off 4 other boxes and everyone has love the clothes I sent.
Ok I'm done now... :P

At a Loss

I am at a loss today. I found out that one of mine and my husbands best friends has passed this morning. He was my husbands best friend in college. I am shocked and bewildered... I saw the news and I just kept saying no, no, no... and then I asked how does this happen? Why does this happened? And the more I think about it the more I cant think of any reason or purpose. He had everything to live for, he just recently was married to the woman of his dreams last March (they haven't even been married a year yet.) Last summer they bought a beautiful new house and things were going well at work. I'm going through a cascade of emotions today, I go from blank to angry to sad to shocked all over again. He was just going in for surgery one of more than a dozen hes had before, it was supposed to be the last time he was going to have it done. He had been hurt in a car/bicycle accident a few years ago and barely made it thought that. Out of all the injuries from the accident his leg had the most extensive damage the surgeons had placed hardware through out his leg to help with the healing and after about a year he ended up needing it more that originally planned. Now after 3 years he was going to have the surgery to remove it. We had heard that he was having complications during the surgery and that he was in critical condition. Then this morning I woke up to a loss. A part of heart feels like it's breaking. I see no rhyme or reasoning for what has happened. I am just so shaken up and the only thought I keep producing is that it can be gone just like that... in an instant.

This is us in Jacksonville my in-laws on June 15, 2007. My husband is to the right of me and Jim is to the left of me. This is one of the best weekends we had together.

Nola, Nola, Nola...How I Love Thee!

Last Friday The hubs, The munchkin and I spent the day in New Orleans, it was awesome! I love everything about this city… the annoying tourists, the smells of creole and cajun that are everywhere, the beautiful baroque flower filled balconies above Bourbon & Royal streets, the old fashioned street cars… I could go on all day. I can honestly say this is probably my most favorite city in the U.S. We started the day with a walk around the FQ and through the shops of the open FQ market, we caroused Bourbon & Royal street… we got caught in the rain at Cafe Du Monde and decided to grab some coffee & beignet’s. We walked around JAX Brewery and had poboys for lunch on Decatur street, hung out in Jackson Square for a while and then ended up at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. It was a well spent day and I always cant wait to go back. (I could see myself living there some day)And will be going back in the next week or two so I can show mom & dad.

This is Jackson Square (behind the horse drawn carriages) and behind the square is St. Peter’s Church. One of the oldest cathedrals in the Southern United States.

Hub’s Roast Beef Poyboy with a side of Aus ju & Fries. mmm mmm MMMMMM!

Golden statue of Joan of Arc near Cafe Du Monde.

Franks, where we had lunch.

The beginning of FQ market.

The LaLaurie Mansion which is HAUNTED! It boasts to be the most haunted and most frightening place in all of the French Quarter… and this is why….

MISTRESS OF DEATH: THE HAUNTED HISTORY OF MADAME LALAURIE

The haunted history of the LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans is perhaps one of the best known stories of haunted houses in the city. It tragically recounts the brutal excess of slavery in a horrifying and gruesome manner because for more than 150 years, and through several generations, the Lalaurie house has been considered the most haunted location in the French Quarter.
Let’s just say this story is not for the faint of heart…. and not for the weak of stomach either.

The origin of the ghostly tale dates back to 1832 when Dr. Louis Lalaurie and his wife, Delphine, moved into their Creole mansion in the French Quarter. They became renowned for their social affairs and were respected for their wealth and prominence. Madame Lalaurie became known as the most influential French-Creole woman in the city, handling the family’s business affairs and carrying herself with great style. Her daughters were among the finest dressed girls in New Orleans.
For those lucky enough to attend social functions at 1140 Royal Street, they were amazed by what they found there. The three-story mansion, although rather plain on the exterior, was graced with delicate iron work but the interior was lavish by anyone’s standards. The house had been made for grand events and occasions. Mahogany doors that were hand-carved with flowers and human faces opened into a bright parlors, illuminated by the glow of hundreds of candles in gigantic chandeliers. Guests dined from European china and danced and rested on Oriental fabrics which had been imported at great expense.
Madame Lalaurie was considered one of the most intelligent and beautiful women in the city. Those who received her attentions at the wonderful gatherings could not stop talking about her. Guests in her home were pampered as their hostess bustled about the house, seeing to their every need.
But this was the side of Madame Lalaurie the friends and admirers were allowed to see. There was another side. Beneath the delicate and refined exterior was a cruel, cold-blooded and possibly insane woman that some only suspected…. but others knew as fact.

The finery of the Lalaurie house was attended to by dozens of slaves and Madame Lalaurie was brutally cruel to them. She kept her cook chained to the fireplace in the kitchen where the sumptuous dinners were prepared and many of the others were treated much worse. We have to remember that, in those days, the slaves were not even regarded as being human. They were simply property and many slave owners thought of them as being lower than animals. Of course, this does not excuse the treatment of the slaves, or the institution of slavery itself, but merely serves as a reminder of just how insane Madame Lalaurie may have been…. because her mistreatment of the slaves went far beyond cruelty.
It was the neighbors on Royal Street who first began to suspect something was not quite right in the Lalaurie house. There were whispered conversations about how the Lalaurie slaves seemed to come and go quite often. Parlor maids would be replaced with no explanation or the stable boy was suddenly just disappear… never to be seen again.
Then, one day a neighbor was climbing her own stairs when she heard a scream and saw Madame Lalaurie chasing a little girl, the Madame’s personal servant, with a whip. She pursued the girl onto the roof of the house, where the child jumped to her death. The neighbor later saw the small slave girl buried in a shallow grave beneath the cypress trees in the yard.
A law that prohibited the cruel treatment of slaves was in effect in New Orleans and the authorities who investigated the neighbor’s claims impounded the Lalaurie slaves and sold them at auction. Unfortunately for them, Madame Lalaurie coaxed some relatives into buying them and then selling them back to her in secret.

The stories continued about the mistreatment of the Lalaurie slaves and uneasy whispering spread among her former friends. A few party invitations were declined, dinner invitations were ignored and the family was soon politely avoided by other members of the Creole society.
Finally, in April of 1834, all of the doubts about Madame Lalaurie were realized…..

A terrible fire broke out in the Lalaurie kitchen. Legend has it that it was set by the cook, who could endure no more of the Madame’s tortures. Regardless of how it started, the fire swept through the house.
After the blaze was put out, the fire fighters discovered a horrible sight behind a secret, barred door in the attic. They found more than a dozen slaves here, chained to the wall in a horrible state. They were both male and female…. some were strapped to makeshift operating tables… some were confined in cages made for dogs…. human body parts were scattered around and heads and human organs were placed haphazardly in buckets…. grisly souvenirs were stacked on shelves and next to them a collection of whips and paddles.
It was more horrible that anything created in man’s imagination.

According to the newspaper, the New Orleans Bee, all of the victims were naked and the ones not on tables were chained to the wall. Some of the women had their stomachs sliced open and their insides wrapped about their waists. One woman had her mouth stuffed with animal excrement and then her lips were sewn shut.
The men were in even more horrible states. Fingernails had been ripped off, eyes poked out, and private parts sliced away. One man hung in shackles with a stick protruding from a hole that had been drilled in the top of his head. It had been used to “stir” his brains.
The tortures had been administered so as to not bring quick death. Mouths had been pinned shut and hands had been sewn to various parts of the body. Regardless, many of them had been dead for quite some time. Others were unconscious and some cried in pain, begging to be killed and put out of their misery.
The fire fighters fled the scene in disgust and doctors were summoned from a nearby hospital. It is uncertain just how many slaves were found in Madame Lalaurie’s “torture chamber” but most of them were dead. There were a few who still clung to life…. like a woman whose arms and legs had been removed and another who had been forced into a tiny cage with all of her limbs broken than set again at odd angles.
Needless to say, the horrifying reports from the Lalaurie house were the most hideous things to ever occur in the city and word soon spread about the atrocities. It was believed that Madame Lalaurie alone was responsible for the horror and that her husband turned a blind, but knowing, eye to her activities.

Passionate words swept through New Orleans and a mob gathered outside the house, calling for vengeance and carrying hanging ropes. Suddenly, a carriage roared out of the gates and into the milling crowd. It soon disappeared out of sight.

Madame Lalaurie and her family were never seen again. Rumors circulated as to what became of them…. some said they ran away to France and others claimed they lived in the forest along the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain. Still other rumors claimed the family vanished into one of the small towns near New Orleans, where friends and relatives sheltered them from harm. Could this be true? And if so, could the terrible actions of Madame LaLaurie have “infected” another house in addition to the mansion in the French Quarter?

Whatever became of the Lalaurie family, there is no record that any legal action was ever taken against her and no mention that she was ever seen in New Orleans, or her fine home, again.
Of course, the same thing cannot be said for her victims…..

The stories of ghosts and a haunting at 1140 Royal Street began almost as soon as the Lalaurie carriage fled the house in the darkness.
After the mutilated slaves were removed from the house, it was sacked and vandalized by the mob. After a brief occupancy, the house remained vacant for many years after, falling into a state of ruin and decay. Many people claimed to hear screams of agony coming from the empty house at night and saw the apparitions of slaves walking about on the balconies and in the yards. Some stories even claimed that vagrants who had gone into the house seeking shelter were never heard from again.
The house had been placed on the market in 1837 and was purchased by a man who only kept it for three months. He was plagued by strange noises, cries and groans in the night and soon abandoned the place. He tried leasing the rooms for a short time, but the tenants only stayed for a few days at most. Finally, he gave up and the house was abandoned.

Following the Civil War, Reconstruction turned the empty Lalaurie mansion into an integrated high school for “girls of the Lower District” but in 1874, the White League forced the black children to leave the school. A short time later though, a segregationist school board changed things completely and made the school for black children only. This lasted for one year.
In 1882, the mansion once again became a center for New Orleans society when an English teacher turned it into a “conservatory of music and a fashionable dancing school”. All went well for some time as the teacher was well-known and attracted students from the finest of the local families…. but then things came to a terrible conclusion.
A local newspaper apparently printed an accusation against the teacher, claiming some improprieties with female students, just before a grand social event was to take place at the school. Students and guests shunned the place and the school closed the following day.

A few years later, more strange events plagued the house and it became the center for rumors regarding the death of Jules Vignie, the eccentric member of a wealthy New Orleans family. Vignie lived secretly in the house from the later 1880’s until his death in 1892. He was found dead on a tattered cot in the mansion, apparently living in filth, while hidden away in the surrounding rooms was a collection of antiques and treasure. A bag containing several hundred dollars was found near his body and another search found several thousand dollars hidden in his mattress.
For some time after, rumors of a lost treasure circulated about the mansion…. but few dared to go in search of it.

The house was abandoned again until the late 1890’s. In this time of great immigration to America, many Italians came to live in New Orleans. Landlords quickly bought up old and abandoned buildings to convert into cheap housing for this new wave of renters. The Lalaurie mansion became just such a house…. and for many of the tenants even the low rent was not enough to keep them there.
During the time when the mansion was an apartment house, a number of strange events were recorded. Among them was an encounter between a occupant and a naked black man in chains who attacked him. The black man abruptly vanished. Others claimed to have animals butchered in the house; children were attacked by a phantom with a whip; strange figures appeared wrapped in shrouds; a young mother was terrified to find a woman in elegant evening clothes bending over her sleeping infant; and of course, the ever-present sounds of screams, groans and cries that would reverberate through the house at night.
It was never easy to keep tenants in the house and finally, after word spread of the strange goings-on there, the mansion was deserted once again.

The house would later become a bar and then a furniture store. The saloon, taking advantage of the building’s ghastly history was called the “Haunted Saloon”. The owner knew many of the building’s ghost stories and kept a record of the strange things experienced by patrons.
The furniture store did not fare as well in the former Lalaurie house. The owner first suspected vandals when all of his merchandise was found ruined on several occasions, covered in some sort of dark, stinking liquid. He finally waited one night with a shotgun, hoping the vandals would return. When dawn came, the furniture was all ruined again even though no one, human anyway, had entered the building. The owner closed the place down.

Today, the house has been renovated and restored and serves as luxury apartments for those who can afford them. Apparently, tenants are a little easier to keep today than they were one hundred years ago.

Is the Lalaurie house still haunted? I really don’t know for sure, but one has to wonder if the spirits born from this type of tragedy can ever really rest?
A few years ago, the owners of the house were in the midst of remodeling when they found a hasty graveyard hidden in the back of the house beneath the wooden floor. The skeletal remains had been dumped unceremoniously into the ground and when officials investigated, they found the remains to be of fairly recent origins.
They believed that it was Madame Lalaurie’s own private graveyard. She had removed sections of the floor in the house and had hastily buried them to avoid being seen and detected. The discovery of the remains answered one question and unfortunately created another. The mystery of why some of the Lalaurie slaves seemed to just simply disappear was solved at last….. but it does make you wonder just how many victims Madame Lalaurie may have claimed?

The Rail line street car run across the Riverwalk from Decatur St. to Canal St.

The coral reef tunnel at the Aquarium

The amazon room at the Aquarium.

Just a Few

There is typically nothing going on as of lately. Hubs had his 3 week follow up with the doc for his surgery stuff about a week ago and all seems to be well, they wanted to do a few more tests while he was there but he just wasn’t up to it. Have no fear the doc will have his way when we go back for his 1 month visit. ;) As far we know operation baby is going very smoothly… and I cant lie… it has been fun ;) lol.

So seeing how baby has been on the brain, I cant help myself when I go into my fav. thrift stores and see the cutest little things… I reason with myself that its ok to buy it when its only .99 cents or $1.00… I try to refrain from buying much of anything, I don’t want to count my eggs before they hatch.

But… I did come across these little cuties when I was at the thrift store the other day.

I washed them and since there were only 3 I figured why waste the electricity and run the dryer when I have a nice little laundry line in back yard courtesy of my porch poles. ;) As I hung them up on the line I was reminded of my mother. I remember the times where I would often play in the back yard while she hung up the wash… yes there was quite a few years where we didn’t have a dryer. And since dad worked full time and most often had the only car we had trips to the laundry mat were not convenient. So with love I dedicate this photo to my Momma… for giving me a great childhood, and now that Im an adult and a mother I finally understand it all mom. Thanks.

Other than that Im just counting down the days mom and dad will be here to visit for their vacation. Tomorrow were headed to NOLA for the day, probably taking the kiddo to the Aquarium and hanging out around the French Quarter. Ill probably pick up some postcards as usual and Im gonna try to press a few pennies as well.

Speaking of postcards I got a few recently in the mail (I’ll post them at some point) 4 were from a trade I did with a girl from Virginia and then I got one Today from the Ukraine.

And speaking of mail my new addiction should be here soon (probably tomorrow) its my package of clothes! I have been doing some “Thred Up’ing” with www.thredup.com its an awesome website where you can pick out clothes that people want to trade and you can trade yours to get more boxes sent to you. I also have been looking into www.swaptree.com where you can trade books for movies, movies for cds and cds for books or any which 3 sequences you want. Im all for Collaborative Consumption if you couldn’t tell already. Whats mine is yours and whats yours is mine… its a good thing!

Its a Cry Baby Kinda Night

Mmm mmm, love me some cry baby walker!

Johnny Depp rocks this look so damn well, it should be a crime!

And you cant get better than Iggy Pop, Tracie Lords and Ricky Lake in a movie!

Pleeeeeaaaaase Mr. Jailer! Wont you let my man go free!

He dont belong in prison, the only crime hes guilty of is loving me!