Josh and I made the pilgrimage home to Lake Charles, Louisiana to see his family and it was fantastic. It's been quite a while since we went down for a visit. The trip was a great getaway from the stresses of working and everyday life.
We left out early Tuesday morning and of course I woke up with the sun and was so excited I could not go back to sleep. So I finished up the packing, waited for my mom to come over, got the dogs fed and the trash out to the curb. It was about 7 hours to get there…the drive was very..very long.
GPS told us to go the new way… so we decided to be a little adventurous and do it. We got there with no problem and the drive was very scenic, we went through several small towns…the kind of towns you blink and they’re gone. We got in at about 6:45 and made it to Popou’s house.. It was his birthday so Nanny, Josh and I joined him at Outback for dinner and it was delish! After dinner we went to bed pretty early, we were both pretty tired from driving all day and when I mean early I mean like 8:30 and that is really early for me. I’m normally a late night owl and I was exhausted.
Every time I’ve gone to Louisiana it has been a quick trip and we’ve never really had much time to do anything else other than visit with family and then head back…so Wednesday morning after breakfast Josh gave me a tour of Lake Charles!! We went to the downtown area and new civic center on the lakefront. It was like a mini beach with
pretty sand and a plethora of shells to collect. We rode around town and went to lunch at Hollier’s Cajun Kitchen. Talk about real authentic Cajun food! It was really good.. Josh and I both had the crawfish etouffee…
we were definitely stuffed when we left. After lunch Josh and I went to the Ryan’s house and Mamaw made Josh’s favorite meal… roast rice and gravy with potato salad, I scarfed everything down so fast..Josh even had seconds. I need to learn how to make it for him someday :) After dinner we had wine and chatted with the Ryan’s for a while it's always so nice seeing them..you can really talk for hours and not realize it. The next morning we had breakfast with the Ryan’s and then Kate and Irene came to see us!
After that we went to Starbucks to get our internet fix..Josh would probably say it was my internet fix but I know he enjoyed too. We spent the afternoon swimming in the pool and Nanny and Popou’s house. I never knew that Nanny was a smoker..hehe We had a cig on the back patio with her..I think she liked it. There is nothing like having a pool all to yourself, it was deep, clean, pretty, sparkly and had a diving board…needless to say we had a blast. I learned that Josh is quite a fish in the water *giggle* and he has
great form when it comes to diving. He’s so freaking cute…I love him so much! Josh
drove me out to the Camp on the bayou that Josh’s papa “Jugg” George Washington Ryan built with his own hands. Josh spent his summers out at the camp with the Ryan's and with the Bernard's..both set's lived in lake Charles only a few minutes from one another. I think the Ryan's lived at the camp for at least more than 10 years while one of their children lived in their home..They are an awesome family to be apart of..I feel very blessed! It was really neat to see the camp..this place I’ve so often heard him talk about. It is for sale now. The Ryan’s are now in their nineties and just really don’t have the ability to keep up with it any longer. During hurricane Katrina and Rita the camp suffered damage when the bayou flooded…so it’s a little run down now. I really wish that Josh and I could somehow save it and keep it in the family.
It’s just something you have to see for yourself I guess, just being there I could feel the happiness that echoed out. I was really glad that I got to see it in person before it’s sold. Josh seemed really happy to see it again too..I could see and read his thoughts as all his childhood memories of the camp kind of washed over him…sad in some ways. The night before we left Josh and I drove out to the casino’s on the lake…I've never in my life been gambling or even stepped foot in a casino. It was a fabulous experience, we were pretty cheap
and only spent 20 dollars each. (That is the secret to not losing all your money Ive heard..lol) I won my money back on the first slot machine…talk about beginners luck!!
It was a great trip and it was so lovely getting to see everyone. We are definitely going to make this a yearly trip..
peace.love.freckles
I called Josh at work, thankfully he answered. I cried my way through telling him that scruffy was gone. At that moment I really did think that we’d ever see him again. I walked up our whole block twice crying the entire time. I asked a few kids if they saw a little dog. One little boy said he saw two dogs but when he explained to me what they looked like I realized that he was talking about Daisy and Roxy. Today is the first time I’ve meet some of my neighbors and I must say in my moment of utter desperation and sadness… they were all extremely nice and comforting. Several people got my house number and said if they found him they’d bring him to me it was comforting. I got back to the house after the second walk around the block and went into the laundry room crying and asking Roxy to go find scruffy… she just looked at me with her head low to the ground…I could tell that they knew something wasn’t right, Daisy had a very nervous look on her face and right behind me the whole time. I walked outside and Josh pulled up (he rushed from work.. thank goodness we live somewhat close to our jobs) I ran to his arms sobbing and crying and he just squeezed me realy tight and kissed my head. 
He then went straight in the house grabbed Roxy and said lets go. He let Roxy down and kind of followed her…all the while Josh is saying “which way did he go Roxy”. The way we were going I told Josh he probably wasn’t down there because it was kind of far and a boy on that street did not see any dogs… But low and behold about two blocks over there was Scruffy hiding out by a fence of other dogs. Poor little guy must have been lost and afraid…when he saw us he was excited but afraid to come out to us until we got a bit closer. I cried even more when we found him *sigh* Thank God I have Josh in my life sometimes I’m just not sure what I’d do with out him he truly is my personal hero :)
We left out early Tuesday morning and of course I woke up with the sun and was so excited I could not go back to sleep. So I finished up the packing, waited for my mom to come over, got the dogs fed and the trash out to the curb. It was about 7 hours to get there…the drive was very..very long.
GPS told us to go the new way… so we decided to be a little adventurous and do it. We got there with no problem and the drive was very scenic, we went through several small towns…the kind of towns you blink and they’re gone. We got in at about 6:45 and made it to Popou’s house.. It was his birthday so Nanny, Josh and I joined him at Outback for dinner and it was delish! After dinner we went to bed pretty early, we were both pretty tired from driving all day and when I mean early I mean like 8:30 and that is really early for me. I’m normally a late night owl and I was exhausted.
we were definitely stuffed when we left. After lunch Josh and I went to the Ryan’s house and Mamaw made Josh’s favorite meal… roast rice and gravy with potato salad, I scarfed everything down so fast..Josh even had seconds. I need to learn how to make it for him someday :) After dinner we had wine and chatted with the Ryan’s for a while it's always so nice seeing them..you can really talk for hours and not realize it. The next morning we had breakfast with the Ryan’s and then Kate and Irene came to see us!
After that we went to Starbucks to get our internet fix..Josh would probably say it was my internet fix but I know he enjoyed too. We spent the afternoon swimming in the pool and Nanny and Popou’s house. I never knew that Nanny was a smoker..hehe We had a cig on the back patio with her..I think she liked it. There is nothing like having a pool all to yourself, it was deep, clean, pretty, sparkly and had a diving board…needless to say we had a blast. I learned that Josh is quite a fish in the water *giggle* and he has
drove me out to the Camp on the bayou that Josh’s papa “Jugg” George Washington Ryan built with his own hands. Josh spent his summers out at the camp with the Ryan's and with the Bernard's..both set's lived in lake Charles only a few minutes from one another. I think the Ryan's lived at the camp for at least more than 10 years while one of their children lived in their home..They are an awesome family to be apart of..I feel very blessed! It was really neat to see the camp..this place I’ve so often heard him talk about. It is for sale now. The Ryan’s are now in their nineties and just really don’t have the ability to keep up with it any longer. During hurricane Katrina and Rita the camp suffered damage when the bayou flooded…so it’s a little run down now. I really wish that Josh and I could somehow save it and keep it in the family. 
It’s just something you have to see for yourself I guess, just being there I could feel the happiness that echoed out. I was really glad that I got to see it in person before it’s sold. Josh seemed really happy to see it again too..I could see and read his thoughts as all his childhood memories of the camp kind of washed over him…sad in some ways. The night before we left Josh and I drove out to the casino’s on the lake…I've never in my life been gambling or even stepped foot in a casino. It was a fabulous experience, we were pretty cheap
and only spent 20 dollars each. (That is the secret to not losing all your money Ive heard..lol) I won my money back on the first slot machine…talk about beginners luck!!
Josh got a fancy grill for his birthday from his parents Bart and Sheila, they came over to our house Saturday and brought Chipotle for dinner *yumm*. We put the grill use Monday September 27th for Josh’s 30th Birthday celebration in the back yard. I'm thinking it was the first of many more BBQ's to come. It was really a great day, the weather was amazing..Fall is definitely showing her love to us all...
and Sarah pretty much spent the day with me running errands and getting food together…she is awesome!!Jen, Wooky, Justin, Ant, Sarah, Misty, Ben and all the kiddo’s, minus Miranda came to enjoy the BBQ that Josh cooked up and my goodness it was finger licking good :) I’m very lucky to have a husband and chef all rolled into one. I personally think 30 looks good on him..He seemed a little bothered by turning 30 throughout the month..but the day came and went and he seemed just the same hehe.
I think things only get better after 30...your twenties are all about figuring it out..thirties are about putting that life experience to use..haha at least that's what I think now..I'll get back with ya when I'm turning 30 lol
We brought chairs and beer and had our own little tail gait party in the parking lot.Sunday night we celebrated Sarah's 28th Birthday at Overtime a sports bar about 7 minutes from my house. However, we really didn't 
think about it being the first night of the new football season, it was really crowded and every few minutes the bar broke out into either a loud sad cry or a victoriously loud scream..the Cowboys lost *errr* better luck next time boys. We had a blast either way..several rounds of shots and few vodka tonic's later we made it back to my house..
poor Sarah got sick once we got home ahhaha..but she did it gracefully!! She fell asleep or rather passed out on my living room floor and then about 25 minutes later her cousin called to tell us she forgot her purse..so I had to go and meet her off 30 somewhere. I dragged Sarah's drunk ass with me, she was in the passenger side seat with it stretched all the way back curled up in a blanket..she had a good Birthday :)
I just hope his parents will get their lives in order so that he can be more stable. Nykol helped me do a henna treatment on my hair!! It's definitely made the color more vibrant without looking box dyed..I hate the chemicals in normal hair dye which is why I hardly do it..so Nykol introduced me. This stuff turns into a mud paste as it dries on your hair it looks like you literally dipped your head into a bucket of mud..oh and you have to wash out about 2-3 times with shampoo to get all the muck out..lol. Hair parties and wine are always the best.
A year of Plavix, Aspirin and healthy eating should help her recover. We have naturally high cholesterol on her side of the family…my grandfather died of a massive heart attack when he was in his 50’s. So I’m going to be keeping my eye on her :)
