Bill Dance...I mean Will Cole

Our kids are at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's house for a few days during Spring Break. They had a jam-packed day of riding the tractor, planting green beans in the garden shooting the BB guns and fishing. Will caught his first fish at McFarland Harbor in Muscle Shoals, AL. Paw Paw is determined that they are going to go back tomorrow and make sure Sam catches his first fish. Paw Paw even made a first fish certificate for Will.

Bucknaked and Goggles

Will and Sam love to take a shower, but they hate to have water in their eyes. They figured out a way to make sure water doesn't get in their eyes.

1 Girl, 2 Boys and Beignets

My mom and dad came up from Lafayette, LA for the weekend and that means eating. We enjoyed ribs at the award winning Natural Born Grillers on Friday night and then did some shopping and ate lunch at Crescent City. We explained how important it is to start off with hot french bread and butter - a true Cajun appetizer. The table got an assortment of things, shrimp poboys, crawfish etouffee and seafood gumbo. It was great, but the highlight were the beignets. Being from Louisiana, we have had our share of beignets with the best coming from Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. The kids have had dad's beignets (pulled apart biscuit dough fried in the Fry Daddy and sprinkled sugar) and also had so called beignets from Hub City Diner in Lafayette. Hub City is usually pretty good, but it's not a place to get beignets. Crescent City had it right. The true test of a good beignet is powdered sugar on your clothes and face after you're finished. You can tell by the pictures below that they certainly enjoyed their beignets (and everything else).

A request for my dad

My dad recently checked out my blog and became interested in doing one as well. I suggested that he set one up and write about his childhood years. I always enjoyed hearing my dad tell stories of when he was a child. Every story he told started with "Me, Paul, Terry and Terrell". Those were his three buddies he grew up with in Franklin Louisiana. I told him that he needs to start a blog by the same name. I hope once he writes all of his stories, you'll be able to enjoy them as much as I did growing up. I set him up so that he could chronicle his life and times as boy growing up in South Louisiana. His blog is Me, Paul, Terry and Terrel.

Proud to call Louisiana home

I recently joined a Facebook group called "You know you're from Lousiana if..." and "Boiled Crawfish is a Direct Gift from the Good Lord to South Louisiana". It made me realize that our kids will never know that it's OK to mix Blue Plate mayo, ketchup and tobasco in a small bowl to dip their boiled crawfish. In fact, they'll never know how to properly "pinch the tail". They'll never know the real four seasons - Crawfish, Shrimp, Crab and Oyster. They'll never know that the first breeze in the fall means Gumbo. They'll never know that after the newspaper has been read, you save it for the next crawfish boil. They'll never understand how the real worth of a half-cent Mardi Gras bead. They'll never know what it's like to scream "Throw me something, Mister".

All that being said, we love our life in North Mississippi. We have incredible friends here, an incredible church, great schools a minute from our house and actual season (including snow - see below). We still miss our family and friends home in Louisiana and really miss the food, too. We are going home in May for a church/BSU reunion and can't wait to see our friends and family and eat the foods we grew up on.

Here are some pics and links of some of our favorite places and foods.

Judice Inn - one of the best bugers in the South. Coke in a bottle and still no fries.














DeanO's - great pizzas and cajun-style sandwiches. They also have a second location with seafood.












Olde Tyme Grocoery - Their fried shrimp poboys are worth a 6 hour drive home all by itself.

Boiled crawfish - South Louisiana in
the spring means boiled crawfish with corn and potatoes. You can go to a restaurant, but there is nothing better than some fold out tables or plywood on saw horses and some newspaper. No need for chairs - everyone simply stands around the table with their mayo, ketchup and Tabasco in hand. You must have a cold beverage handy and plenty, I mean plenty, of paper towels.

Snow Day Version 2.1

Here are some more pics of Snow Day. We had a great day. Enjoy.

Snow Day Version 2.0

It snowed off and on throughout the night and we woke up to beautiful, snow-filled front yard. We checked back with our Pastor's Facebook page and at 8:30, he declared that the parking lot at church was one big sheet of ice - no church. We had a great breakfast of eggs (scrambled and fried over easy), pancakes, biscuits, country ham and gravy. After that, we all suited up and enjoyed the snow. Enjoy the pics and the videos.

Two Sweet Boys

Leanne was in Chicago the last week of February so thanks to technology, we were able to videoconference with her during the week. After we hung up one night, the boys wanted to make sure she knew how much she was loved so we e-mailed a video message to mom.

The Fence Jumpers

Our house backs up to the brick wall around our subdivision and at the front of the subdivision, we have a Memphis Pizza Cafe. When my nephews are here, all of the boys normally jump the wall to go eat pizza. Will and Sam think they are as big as their boy cousins and always want to jump the brick fence. Here are some pics from their latest attempts.