Vacation memories

Here's what we call a "teaser" in the newspaper business: This picture is from my and Hollie's vacation to Gulf Shores in 2005. It was one of the best vacations ever, and there's a very interesting story that goes along with it. More about that coming tomorrow!

Remember: Gwen Stefani; R. Kelly Parts I-III; Bubba Keg; "Ya heard me!"; the Polish liquor store guy; Miller High Life Lite; the return of the Zebra Cakes; the tow truck from Breaux Bridge; getting stuck on the Mississippi River bridge for an hour; my desperate scream of "NO!" in traffic; Hollie saying, "Is that what we look like?"

Craft project

Here are some bookends I made almost 17 years ago with Grandma and Tara. Although I can't remember all the specifics, I'm sure we dug around at Craft Corner to find the supplies, and I do remember working at the card table (protected by newspaper) in the living room with a big jug of Modge Podge. How lucky was I to spend a summer with my family creating things?

Sunday column: Summer school

The hot and humid weather this week has felt like Mother Nature fast-forwarded through spring straight into summer.
Summer has a certain feel to it, and although it hasn’t officially arrived yet (not until June 21 this year), that summer feeling is starting to set in.
There are many, many days of glaring sunshine and wet, heavy air that lay ahead of us, and I can’t help but wonder what this summer has in store.
As I think back on summers past, some are a blur of hot days and sticky nights, while others bring specific images and sensations to mind.
The months of June, July and August have always been educational periods in my life, even when I didn’t mean for them to be. It’s amazing what we can learn when we’re left to our own devices. Here’s a quick summary of some of my summertime life lessons.

In August of 1992, me and Tara were 10 and Erin was 12. Here we are at Grandma and Grandpa's house hamming it up before bed.

Summer of 1990
In my pre-teen years, it became a summer tradition for me and Tara, a cousin who is about my age, to spend some time at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Bunkie. Grandpa was a carpenter who spent his days at the shop, and Grandma was a retired nurse who cooked up all kinds of projects to keep Tara and me entertained. We’d work all day on some sort of craft and greet Grandpa at the door in the evening to show him the finished product. We’d take turns checking the mailbox in the afternoons for letters from our moms (Grandma and Grandpa’s daughters). At night after supper, we’d watch the two of them play Scrabble. Tara and I didn’t usually play, because we were too intimidated to take on the masters. They were serious about their Scrabble.
Lessons learned:
• Diving into a craft project every once in a while can be good for your self-esteem and for your fine motor skills.
• There’s nothing quite like a handwritten letter.
• Grandparents are wonderful; treasure every opportunity you have to spend time with them.

Here I am blowing bubbles with Matthew in Uncle Eddie and Aunt Chris' playroom. Allison, who is just a little older than Matthew, is playing on the floor.

Summer of 1995
Before starting high school, I escaped from home for a summer to spend time with my aunt and uncle who had a 1-year-old and a brand new baby. My cousin (not Tara, this time it was Valerie) and I stayed with them to pitch in as the family adjusted to its newest member. We did what we could to help out with their firstborn, a redheaded little boy who was going through a screaming phase that summer. And when I say screaming, I mean a high-pitched screech I didn’t know a human could produce.
Lessons learned:
• Even though you may want to, you just can’t let a baby cry himself to sleep.
• Having family around to help you is a beautiful thing.
• You have to grow up a little bit before you can be responsible for somebody else.

Summer of 2002
After three years of learning about being a journalist, I was ready to test the waters. I snagged an internship at a monthly music and entertainment magazine in New Orleans the summer between my junior and senior years of college. It was a part-time, unpaid internship that involved things like getting the editor coffee from the CC’s down the block, interviewing bartenders for the magazine’s annual bar guide and designing back-page ads for escort services. Anytime I had the opportunity to write something for publication, the editor kept telling me to make it “edgy and irreverent.” When I wasn’t working there, I had a part-time job in retail with some of the nicest people ever and spent time with my great-aunt, who I lived with.
Lessons learned:
• I am not edgy or irreverent, no matter how hard I try.
• The reality of writing and editing for a publication is a world away from a college classroom.
• New Orleans isn’t so big and scary, once you get used to it.

A sample of my reading material one year ago. The sad thing is I haven't thrown all those magazines away yet.

Summer of 2007
I was all in a tizzy trying to plan the most beautiful, special and perfect wedding all time. And, I succeeded! Nevermind the fact that my apartment was in a constant state of disarray, with half-made silk flower arrangements, wedding magazines, photos and photo albums and notebooks full of lists covering every surface. I had a multi-page to-do list written in black Sharpie taped to my living room wall and a calendar that dictated my every move for months. Somehow though, amid all the wedding planning fury, I managed to keep the true meaning of what I was doing in the forefront 99.9 percent of the time. But I have to admit, I did have a few bridezilla moments — I’m not perfect.
Lessons learned:
• No matter what anyone tells you, you really do need every single bridal magazine that hits the stands while you’re planning your wedding.
• As long as you remember what’s really important about the wedding, everything else will fall into place.
• Sometimes in life, you have to be flexible.

Hollie and I work together to build a house in Mexico. That's one summer experience I didn't write about this time, but I have in the past. I could probably write a whole column just about the lessons I learned from that experience.

Time flies

Here's what I was doing a year ago, Memorial Day weekend 2007:

A Bachelorette Bash, courtesy of The Best Friend A Girl Could Ever Ask For Hollie Biersmith and all my fantastic friends and family!

Here's the latest news for Memorial Day weekend 2008:

I planted a flower pot to put by our front door! Married life may not always be exciting, but it's wonderful in its own way.

A new obsession

Here's the latest thing I can't get enough of (courtesy of this month's Southern Living):

Summer Squash Casserole

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb. yellow squash
1 lb. zucchini
1 small sweet onion, chopped
2 1/2 tsp. salt, divided
1 cup grated carrots
1 10.5 oz. can cream of onion soup*
1 8 oz. container sour cream
1 8 oz. box of herb-seasoned stuffing
1/2 cup butter, melted
* The original recipe called for cream of chicken soup, but I substituted cream of onion. The original also called for 8 oz. of water chestnuts, but I can't stand them (it's a texture thing) so I left them out.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Cut squash and zucchini into 1/4-inch-thick slices; place in a Dutch oven. Add chopped onion, 2 tsp. salt and water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook 5 minutes. Drain well.
In a large bowl, stir together grated carrots, cream of onion soup, sour cream and remaining 1/2 tsp. salt. Fold in squash mixture.
Stir together stuffing and butter, and spoon half of stuffing mixture in bottom of a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish. Spoon squash mixture over stuffing mixture and top with remaining stuffing mixture.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Try not to eat it all in one sitting!

Feeling domestic

Nick was so excited to mow the grass with his brand new lawnmower. He had to wear that cool mask because of his wicked allergies. We're not sure if it helped much, though.

My new flower bed after I'd weeded it (forgot to take a true "before" picture) and mixed in lots of good potting soil. You can't really see the two trumpet vines I planted a month ago, but they're in the middle.

The flower bed with flowers: two red and yellow lantanas, a coreopsis, some red, yellow and orange celosias and the empty area on the right hopefully will be some zinnias and sunflowers in a few weeks.

I even bought garden art!

Nick planted some seeds: peppers and mesclun mix.

Sunday column: Advice for new grads

To the Tech class of 2008

This morning, hundreds of brand new Louisiana Tech graduates are experiencing what it feels like to be a college student no longer.
They are now officially full-fledged members of The Real World.
Then again, it probably hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
But it will.
In my experience, this is a gradual process that has moments of pain but also moments of sheer joy.
Nothing about college life really can prepare you for life in The Real World, and everyone’s post-graduate experiences differ wildly.
But I’d like to share my top eight pieces of advice, based on my experience, for those brand new class of 2008 Louisiana Tech alumni who are waking up today with a world of possibilities before them.

1. Trust yourself.
My whole life, I’ve felt very aware of other people’s expectations. It was a scary moment for me when I finally admitted to myself that I didn’t think I wanted to work at a newspaper after I graduated with a BA in journalism. The expectation was that I would immediately go to work at a newspaper. When that opportunity presented itself, I turned it down and raised eyebrows across the Tech journalism department. No one understood why I did that, but I knew it wasn’t the right move for me at that time. I trusted my gut feeling that I needed to do something else, and I wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise. Eventually I did return to the newspaper industry, but it was when the time was right for me.

2. Take risks.
I know the word “risk” is relative. Things in my life that I consider risks probably wouldn’t be for lots of other people. But whatever your definition of “risk” is, consider it a possibility. By nature, I am not a risk-taking kind of girl. So, when I quit a full-time job to accept a full-time, unpaid internship in a city where I couldn’t afford housing, to me that was a mighty big risk. But I had fun and learned a lot, and everything worked out.

3. Don’t be cocky.
I know how it feels to be a graduating senior at a university. You’ve paid your dues, you see the light at the end of the tunnel, you’re ready to show the world how great you are. But don’t get carried away. As soon as you step a toe into your first professional job, you’re like a high school freshman all over again. At least for a little while. Keep your mouth shut, your head down and your eyes wide open. Give yourself a few weeks to see how the place operates and who the power players are before you start getting comfortable. And even then, don’t get too comfortable.

4. Enjoy your first paycheck.
Even if, as in my case, it’s small. Cherish the moment that first direct deposit hits your bank account and savor the feeling of being a professional and doing the work you trained so long to do.

5. Realize it’s never too late to do something different.
If the working world in your chosen field isn’t floating your boat like you hoped it would, don’t resign yourself to a lifetime of misery. Do something new. Helping my husband get back into school so he can make a career change has made me realize that it isn’t as impossible as I once thought it was. People do it all the time, and many times they’re happier because of it.

6. Save for retirement.
I know, you haven’t even started working yet and you’re already supposed to be planning for retirement? Yes. It will benefit you in the long run, I promise. Saving a little bit every paycheck will prevent you from having to fork over a ton of money as you get closer to retirement age.

7. Learn to like coffee.
I know many college students have this one down already, but many don’t. I wasn’t much of a coffee drinker in college, but when I started having to get up, get ready (and I’m talking really get ready, not just throw on a pair of jeans with flip-flops) and drive to work on time, five days a week, I started liking coffee.

8. Support your alma mater.
I was lucky enough to be awarded several scholarships from Louisiana Tech throughout the course of my college career. Because of them, in addition to my TOPS, I didn’t have to take out any loans to pay for school. I’m especially grateful for that now that we’ve become indebted to good old Sallie Mae for my husband’s tuition. So I try to give back to Tech what I can. Even a little bit helps, and it will make you feel good to know you’re helping out the university that invested in you for the past four years.

That new CD smell

Nick and I are planning to celebrate the end of a hard week — and a hard quarter — by purchasing new CDs this evening.
It's our treat to ourselves for working hard to the bitter end. But, it's not quite fair that he gets a week and a half break and I have to start all over again on Monday ...
What is it about buying a new CD? I know, nobody buys CDs anymore, but why not? Once you spend the 15 minutes it takes to get the darn thing unwrapped, it's so much fun to crack open the case, pull out the liner notes and pop in the CD. I always have a sense of anticipation and hope when I buy a new CD. Hope that there will be songs on there even better than the ones I've already heard that made me want to buy it in the first place.
Then again, when you get a dud, it's a real bummer. Don't you hate it when there's only one or two good songs on a CD?
I guess that's why people use iTunes these days. I've downloaded songs from iTunes (I'm not completely un-hip), but I'm not giving up on CDs just yet.
So now comes the hard part: What to buy?
There's always the new Death Cab for Cutie CD. I'm also interested in checking out M. Ward, Radiohead In Rainbows or maybe The Broken West. Then again, I've been meaning to buy a Neil Young CD for ages now. Oh wait! What about The Weakerthans?
Decisions, decisions.

I'm No. 1

Well, I may not be No. 1 at anything (at the moment), but my name is. Emily has been the No. 1 most popular girls name since 1996. Hot on my heels this year are Isabella, Emma, Ava and Madison.
For boys, Jacob has been No. 1 since 1999, then there's Michael, Ethan, Joshua and Daniel. Sorry, but Nicholas didn't make the top 10 list.
For a complete top 10 list for boys and girls, along with lots of other facts about names you didn't know you needed to know, click here.

What every newsroom needs

When I came home for my lunch break today, this was on my doorstep. It's a handmade screenprint ordered from this cool site. I could spend hours looking through all the neat stuff there. It's amazing what people out there are creating.
As soon as I get a frame for this baby, it will be displayed prominently in my cubicle.
Apparently, according to the seller, it is a vintage poster commissioned by the British government in 1939 to be posted in times of "crisis or invasion."
I think it also suits a newsroom fairly well, too.

Life is good!

Today, I was offered a job at the Boys and Girls Club on my second interview with them. The organization is giving a day summer camp starting on June 6, and I will be a camp counselor. I am very excited to be doing fun things with kids, but I can't lie, I am also scared to death. I do not know how I am going to do it. I want to do it pretty bad so I believe that will get me through it. I am scared because I'm not a social person and sometimes, even with kids, I get very nervous. But overall I am thrilled and honored to be able to do something like this, and hope that I can help in any way possible. I will also be taking a class in the morning this summer so I will be pretty busy. Emily and I are doing very well here and Ruston and now I know why we came here. They needed us here and we plan on doing a lot of good things for our new town.

Whew

Even though planning a wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime experience (for me, anyway), I sure am glad it's over!
Nick and I have been married nine months now. At this time last year, I had a multiple-page list hanging on the living room wall filled with wedding-related things to do. Every surface in the apartment was stacked with bridal magazines, more to-do lists, invitations, newspaper announcement forms, partially constructed flower arrangements, registry lists, addresses, etc. (The sad thing is, I still have a lot of that stuff crammed in boxes in the closet. Yes, I need to do some cleaning. Just as soon as I can get a little time off! September can't come soon enough.)
At the same time, Nick was in his first semester at UL. Things were horribly hectic!
It feels good to have that behind us.
I guess I'll be able to look back on the things that are stressing me out now and feel glad they're over, too. But when?

Sunday column: Mother's Day

50 great things about Mom

Today is a special day just for moms, when they get to be the center of attention.
My mom has always shied away from the spotlight, so it could shine on her children instead.
That’s why today I want to share 50 things just about her and how wonderful she is.

1. Mom and Dad met when they were both students at LSU-Alexandria.
2. They dated until Dad broke it off because he wanted to see other people.
3. He got mad when Mom started seeing other people, so they got back together.
4. When Mom and Dad got married, Mom weighed 100 pounds.
5. She drove a blue Plymouth Duster that Dad kept in the garage for years. Sometimes, we’d all pile in and go for a joyride on the weekends.
6. Mom says she still feels guilty for how strict she was when I was growing up.
7. But Mom really shouldn’t feel guilty.
8. I know she just did those things because she loved me and wanted to protect me for as long as she could.
9. Every night before bed, Mom would read to the four of us kids.
10. Mom made our play clothes when we were little.
11. My favorite outfit she made was black fabric with neon spiderwebs all over it.
12. When I graduated from college, Mom bought me a Singer sewing machine.
13. Mom got into a wreck on the interstate with the four of us in the van and even though no one was hurt, for years afterward, she wouldn’t drive on that particular stretch of interstate.
14. One time I gave Mom and Dad some bad news, and Mom suggested we go to Sonic for some ice cream. That was the right thing to say.
15. When my brother was a freshman at the public high school and rode the bus to school every day, Mom called him her hero.
16. He was the first one in our family to go to public school.
17. The reason my brother went to public school is because his classmates at the private school were a bunch of jerks.
18. When my brother got into a fight and punched one of those jerks at school, Mom didn’t punish him.
19. When I was in high school, but before I got my drivers license, Mom used to take her lunch break at 3 p.m. so she could pick all of us up from school.
20. I wonder when she ate lunch that year?
21. Before she went back to work full-time, every afternoon after school, Mom would have a snack waiting for us.
22. We also had a chore chart.
23. Mom and Dad used to load all of us up on the weekend to travel to visit their parents.
24. I’m glad they did.
25. I’ll do the same for my kids, so they can know their grandparents.
26. When Dad got sick, Mom helped him get better.
27. When my husband got sick, Mom did the same thing for him.
28. Mom never gets sick.
29. When she was a stay-at-home mom, she would compulsively rearrange the living room furniture.
30. One time, she even moved a chair while Dad was still sitting in it.
31. Mom’s not happy if any of her children aren’t happy.
32. She blames herself for everything.
33. She shouldn’t do that, because she is a terrific mother.
34. One Christmas I traveled to visit some relatives, and my cat escaped from my car. Mom helped me search for her for hours in the pitch dark.
35. When we couldn’t find her that night, Mom and I spent the night at her sister’s house, even though we weren’t planning on staying overnight and didn’t have a change of clothes, so we could look again the next morning.
36. After all that searching, when we still hadn’t found her, I remember Mom saying, “Sometimes, bad things just happen.”
37. Ten days later, my cat showed up out of the blue.
38. In all the many, many moves I’ve made, Mom has always been there to help.
39. One time when she helped me move, she hurt her shoulder and I felt so guilty. After that, I never let her help me move any of the heavy stuff.
40. Mom always focuses on two things when moving: Getting everything out of the truck, and getting the bed made.
41. Last weekend, when I helped my best friend move into her new house, I found myself doing those two exact same things.
42. In my early 20s, when I went through an intensely painful time of loneliness, Mom was the only one who could make me feel better.
43. During that same time I came down with severe bronchitis, and from hundreds of miles away, Mom found me a doctor and made me an appointment.
44. Mom always tells me, “Never give up.”
45. She makes homemade birthday cake for everyone’s birthday.
46. Mom always let us be ourselves.
47. I can always count on her to be honest with me — about anything.
48. Mom is wise enough to realize that it doesn’t really matter how many earrings you have, what kind of music you listen to or what your hair looks like.
49. Mom has great taste in music, and she was a rocker back in the ‘70s.
50. When I become a mom, I hope I’m just like her.

Just for fun

On the beach at Port Aransas, Texas, with our whole lives ahead of us!

P.S. No, we did not have matching sandals. But they were very, very similar.

Hard day for Casey

Little did Casey know what was in store for her this morning, when she was so excited about all the new smells and friends she encountered at the vet's office. She was so excited, in fact, that she peed a great big smelly puddle right on the office floor ... inches away from the front door. Yeah, I was real excited about that, too.
She went into the vet this morning a woman and came back, well, not quite a women any more. She's been pretty low energy this evening, which for her is saying A LOT (if you've met her, you know what I'm talking about).
Nick and I are just trying to pamper her and enjoy Calm Casey while it lasts.

Adventures in grocery shopping

Prepare yourself for the latest grocery store marvel: A cinnamon sugar grinder.
If only they would have made these things when I was little! Fortunately for me, my husband is an expert cinnamon toast maker, and when I spotted this new invention on the spice aisle, I knew he'd appreciate it.
When I got home from the store and unpacked the bags, revealing this treat, I was met with a high five and officially made hero of the night. Go me!
We get pretty excited around here about food and food-related items, in case you haven't noticed by now.

Can't wait

Nick and I both are so excited about the new Farmers Market that opens May 24 (well, I'm probably more excited than he is, but I know he's looking forward to it). Not only will they be selling fresh fruits and veggies grown within a 100-mile radius of Ruston, they're also going to have canvas shopping bags available for purchase as well as a drop-off location for recyclables. Woohoo! All of this is probably so exciting for me because I'm in the middle of reading this book. It changed the lives of at least two people I know, and I think it's doing the same for me.

Chef Nick

Here's a picture from Nick's chef gig last month. He looks pretty happy, doesn't he?

Happy to be home again!

This weekend was one of those weekends that seemed long because of all the driving we did but too short because we were barely home. It was a pretty good weekend, but I'm usually someone who just likes to stay home on the weekend to relax and maybe do something around town. We have gone out of town for the last two weekends and are going on another road trip next weekend. Just wears out these old bones of mine! Happy to be home again!

A load off

This month, we marked a milestone (well, technically, two milestones): We paid off two bills! We are now officially about $150 richer each month. Go us.
It's the little things, right?
Now if we could only get those other pesky bills paid off so we can have some fun ...

A keeper

As I was digging through my desk drawer looking for something, I came across a recipe for some cookies we made this past Christmas. They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious and simple to make, so I'm glad I saved the recipe.
Rather than hanging onto a dingy piece of paper, though, I'm going to post the recipe here so other people can enjoy its goodness and so I'll still have it safely stored for next Christmas.

Whipped Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup red maraschino cherries, quartered
1/4 cup green maraschino cherries, quartered
*Note: We didn't have cherries on hand, so we topped our cookies with a drizzle of dark chocolate. Delish!

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. In a large bowl, combine butter, flour and confectioners' sugar. With an electric mixer, beat for 10 minutes until light and fluffy. Spoon onto cookie sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart. Place a piece of maraschino cherry in the middle of each cookie, alternating between red and green.
Bake for 15-17 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies on to wire rack to cool.