Summertime Fun

It has been too long since my last post...John and I have been very busy these past few weeks!

For starters, we took a fun and relaxing trip to New Orleans the end of July. Have any of you ever taken a train ride somewhere? We took the train from ATL to NOLA and had an amazing experience. We met interesting people from all over the US and a few from Europe. Accomodations were comfortable and talk about relaxing!!! I managed to take several naps (something I don't do enough of!) and read several books. As we arrived in NOLA, John and I enjoyed an incredible sunset over Lake Ponchartrain with a good glass of wine. It was great catching a cab to the hotel and walking wherever else we wanted to the rest of the weekend...simplicity at its best. New Orleans is such a historic city...we enjoyed wandering around the streets looking at old architecture and browsing the monuments. John experienced much of the city for the first time - we did all the fun touristy things like Cafe Du Monde, muffalatas, and people watching at Jackson square. We even attended Mass at the St. Louis Cathedral on Sunday. It was such a wonderful experience to share with my husband! The St. Louis is one of the oldest working Cathedrals in the US and it is such a beautiful place.

While away, my sweet Mom and sister-in-law watched our pups...what we didn't know was that they were also helping us get started on our kitchen project! It was such a wonderful surprise to walk in and see the painting started for us! Since then we've finished the painting and I've started the decorating. Only thing that is left is tiling the backsplash...it looks great! Another home project we had going in July was our front yard. Evidently the HOA does not appreciate dying bushes and spotty grass. Here's the problem though: Our house is on a large hill and gets less than 3 hours of sunlight/day. Makes for growing anything very difficult. Sooo, we did our best and have replaced what shrubrey we did have with pine straw and a dry rock river bed. Any ideas on hardy plants that can grow on a hill with poor soil and minimal sunlight????

I will post pictures soon of all our summer happenings. What's comming up next for us? A baby shower for John's brother and wife...we are so very excited for them!!