Happy Birthday to Chad !!!

On Sunday, we celebrated Chad's 28th Birthday here in New Orleans! We had been celebrating Carnival Season all weekend here and when I booked our reservations at NOLA I was careful to take note of the parade routes. NOLA is one of Emeril's restaurants off of Saint Louis in the Quarter. I saw where the route for the parade on Sunday night was going down St. Charles and would end on Canal. I thought we were safe. Ha!! I failed to remember all of the tourists that would be flooding the French Quarter this weekend in preparation of Fat Tuesday. Oh my word! Chad, being the wonderful man that he is, drove us around and around and around and around..... and then we finally found a spot to park at in The Marigny section on the outskirts of the Quarter. After finding this parking spot, we then proceeded to walk about five miles (I exaggerate) to the restaurant. Picture this: We were all decked out for dinner and I, of course, was in my new black croc boots. Not the best choice for a 5k!! We actually had a great time; the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed watching all of the tourists live it up.

Our dinner was out of this world. I've always heard that Emeril's restaurants are overpriced for what you get. However, we'd looked at this menu and it sounded great. Emeril did not let us down! I would definitely recommend going to NOLA if you're ever in New Orleans. Everything we had was good ---- from appetizer to dessert. So, go to NOLA if you have the time. After dinner we took a cab back to our car (yes, it's true) and then headed back to the apartments for cake with our good friends here at Seminary. We had a wonderful time.

Above all, let me say how thankful I am for this man....he is a wonderful husband-to-be and my very best friend. Each day he challenges me to be a better person and to love more fully....he is the best!!!!I can't wait to see where we'll be in the next 28 years :)

Beads, King Cake, and Kid Rock....

Well, this is our last Mardi Gras celebration while living in NOLA and it has been great!! I have been recovering from being sick all week, but was thankfully well enough to go to two nights of parades. I think we're getting too old for this stuff --- or maybe we just over-did it?!! Friday night we met our good friends down off of St. Charles for the Morpheus and De Etat Parades. We had a lot of fun....I don't really care about getting the beads from the floats, I really just want the cups they throw!!

Today, we went to "Aunt Hellen's" house in Mid-city for an Endymion party. Hellen and my Mom have been friends for years and she's been my Mom-away-from-home since I got to NOLA. She knows how to throw a party and her Endymion parties are famous! She and her husband, Jerry, have a house right at the beginning of the parade route on Orleans Avenue. In my opinion, this is the best way to do a parade. We had excellent food, a beautiful home to be comfortable in, and an excellent view. Did I mention that Kid Rock was the Grand Marshall for Endymion this year?! We had such a great view and definitely got some great pics of this guy. People were going crazy over him and I have to say that even I got a little star-struck....sad to say! Haha - I'm sure my mother will love hearing that! Well, tomorrow is Chad's birthday, so I'm sure we'll have more pictures to post.....hope you enjoy some of these pics from Endymion today and from last night.

P.S. - I'm still getting used to the photo-uploader on here and it's a pain, so that's why these are all out of order!

Endymion Parade

King Cake!!! (Just slightly addicting...)

Ladies and Gentlemen: Our Grand Marshall, KID ROCK!!!

Good Friends -- on St. Charles waiting for Morpheus parade to begin....

Cups!! Who cares about the beads...

Happy Valentine's Day...Our Last in New Orleans

Chad and I have had a wonderful weekend. I drove over to the MS Gulf Coast on Friday because Chad had a ministry interview with a potential church. So, before we left to go to the interview, I came into his house and found a sweet display of roses, petals, and a card he made for me on his new Macbook! Now, I eat this stuff up....I love it. Some people say they don't like Valentine's Day, I always have...and I especially love it now that I've got someone wonderful to share it with :)

After the interview, we came back to New Orleans and spent the weekend here. We started our day yesterday with breakfast at Slim Goodies on Magazine Street. We've been wanting to try it and it was pretty good. Magazine Street exhibits a whole new side of New Orleans life; you'll have to visit to understand what I mean! We then decided to rent "Fireproof" because everyone's been telling us to watch it. If you can get past some of the amateur acting, it really is a must-see. We loved it. I love Saturdays where we have the time to take it easy, go to breakfast, and come back and lay around and watch a movie....there's nothing better in my book! After that relaxing afternoon, Chad took me down to The Quarter to Arnaud's restaurant for a romantic Valentine's Dinner. It was so good. We really enjoy trying out all of the great restaurants in New Orleans (there are so many); this was definitely one of our favorites :) Chad's last present to me was a coffee table book that he made of our engagement pictures....it's perfect and something we'll keep for a lifetime. So, that was our weekend. We have one more weekend to kind of slow down and enjoy life, which will be next weekend for Chad's Bday and Mardi Gras. We're looking forward to it. Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day and a relaxing weekend. We love you....

Busy, busy, busy.....

Well, Chad and I literally have something going on every weekend until the wedding. It is such a fun time, but we are ready for life to settle down a little bit....ha ha (I know we're only kidding ourselves). From showers to picking out the wedding cake, from finishing up seminary to trying to prayerfully figure out where God is leading us....we truly are blessed to be on this road. For the first time in our lives we are unsure of where we will be at this next step in our journey, but we are learning each day to fully trust Him more. It really is exciting to think about where the Lord will lead us, together!! This is truly such a happy time in our lives and we couldn't be more blessed than to walk through this together. So, if you're interested or want to know how to pray for us (or simply want to hear the random details of our day-to-day lives), read on....we'll try and keep you updated.