Crazy Story.....Amazing Bride!

I just got to work and I was looking at the days headlines when a story caught my eye. I thought I would share it since it was original and interesting. You can click HERE for the article...or read on for my brief summary. Yesterday, around 5:30 in the evening, a bride was leaving the church and noticed that a house that they were passing was on fire. She asked yelled for the driver to stop and she JUMPED out and ran up to the burning house, in her wedding dress, and started to pull people from the fire. She ruined her shoes and her dress was black but she saved a family. Pretty amazing!

I'm not crying....my eyes are just watering!

I don't know the girls in the picture....I just grabbed it off of google images because I wanted a picture of two girls from Guatemala. Last night I sat in front of the TV and tears FLOWED down my face as I watched the coolest episode of True Life on MTV. I never watch MTV but I happened on to it as I surfed channels and then I was stuck when I saw Central America. Here is the story.....A girl living in Illinois was adopted from Guatemala 20 years ago (as an infant). She recently found out that she was a twin and that her sister is still living in Guatemala. She decided to do some research and she was able to find the lawyer and social worker who worked on their case when they were babies......the amazing part is that he was able to connect them. The girl and her (Caucasian) mom flew to Guatemala and got to meet her twin sister, older brother, biological mother, and grandmother. Wow! It was sooooo neat to see the two girls embrace each other and just cry. The most interesting part was that they couldn't communicate because one of them speaks English and the other speaks Spanish. It was very, very touching. Can you imagine what that would be like? Amazing but kind of heartbreaking too. They were living two COMPLETELY different lives and were at one time soooo close.......interesting.

Check me out....I'm famous!

This is too funny! I was in Times Square the other day and happened to be interviewed by El Diaro (a Spanish newspaper) and asked to give my opinion about the city closing Times Square to cars for the summer. I was so caught off guard and surprised that I talked a mile a minute (that is actually normal for me...oh well), turned completely RED even though I was already burnt and greasy from the hot sun and humidity, and I seemed to make no sense at all in what I had to say. Other than that....it was great fun! Enjoy.....

Crawfish Boil in NYC

I was looking up events in the city this weekend for Memorial Day. I plan on going to an air show in Long Island on the beach (over the Atlantic Ocean). I am sure it will be fun! I just ran onto this information about a benefit Crawfish Boil for NOLA (New Orleans Louisiana). I SOOOOO want to go! I guess that all of the proceeds go to Brad Pitts organization called The Make It Right Foundation New Orleans. I don't know if you know much about what Brad Pitt is doing for the people of Louisiana....but it is AMAZING! I got to see all of the houses that he is building for the people there. It really is a fascinating story. You check out his website....or better yet...fly out here and go to the Crawfish Boil and support a great cause.

Great Weekend....

I have so much to post and NO time! Ugh! Hopefully I will get to work on my blog a little bit over the weekend. Right now I am just excited to have a long weekend ahead of me. Hope everyone has a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend. Adios!

Chicago

I had an amazing opportunity to see Chicago and I couldn't resist. I left New Orleans and had to switch planes in Chicago on my way back to NYC. The plane was WAY overbooked and it was complete chaos at the gate. I saw that they were offering a free hotel, free round trip ticket anywhere in the U.S., and a food credit in the airport for anyone who would give up their seat. I was super exhausted and in NO rush....so I gave up my seat. I took the late flight home the next day so that I could tour around the city in the morning. I had no idea how great the deal was until I got to my hotel and saw how NICE it was. It was brand new and no one had ever even used my room before....nice! The only bad thing was knowing that my mom was stuck in the New Orleans due to bad weather in TX and had to spend the night in the airport. I was living it up and my mom was scared and alone as she slept on her suitcase....poor thing! Anyway....here are some of my pics.The pink in the reflection is my umbrella.Funky waterfall art in Millennium Park. The screen changes faces all of the time and expressions. Then it shoots water....cool!The rivers were amazing there. I thought the city was VERY similar to NYC but one a neat thing about Chicago is that they have really neat bridges over their rivers.Don't the cars look like the could just fall out of the parking garage? All of the cars are backed up to the edge. What if you hit the gas? Yikes!I got to see the Macy's Flower Show in Chicago too......very cool!

Got a medical mask? I need one!

I thought that the Swine Flu had kind of calmed down over the last week. I guess I was wrong! They closed 3 schools in Queens today because of the flu. They are supposed to be closed for at least 5 school days. The weird part is that the assistant principal at one of the schools is hospitalized in critical condition with the flu and may be the first adult male to die from this in the U.S. Pretty crazy! Remember when I mentioned that my school had a TON of kids out and that we had at least 1 confirmed case. Well, I thought it was a 1st grader this WHOLE time. It wasn't! It was a 5th grader whose classroom is next door to mine and who was in the computer lab with me all of the time. Ugh! Soooooo glad that I didn't know it at the time and SOOOOOO glad that I am not sick. Count your blessings! Oh, I saw about 10 kids with medical masks on here today. I guess the parents are worried again even though we don't have any cases in our school currently. Hmmmm.

Jazz....Generation to Generation....

My mom and I had spent many hours of our trip to New Orleans standing/sitting around listening to local musicians play amazing music. We happened to be there during the French Quarter Jazz Festival which was a real treat. One of the things that I learned while on a "Katrina" tour in the 9th Ward and Jefferson Parish was that the musicians have their own community where many of them live. They re-built the neighborhood after Katrina so that the musicians would have a place to live and would not move out of New Orleans. This city thrives on its music! Anyway....they explained to us that there is an outdoor amphitheater in the neighborhood so that the older musicians have a place to meet up with the younger children so they can teach them how to play instruments and pass on the music from generation to generation. Pretty cool! I couldn't help but think of this when I witnessed this little boy watching the locals play their instruments in Jackson Square one afternoon. He was sooooooo intrigued. I love how he held his football as he watched....maybe he'll trade it for a trombone one day.

Toooooo Funny!

This is a random post! I had to share a couple things that made me laugh in Louisiana. Isn't this cookbook great?! I snapped the picture really quick while the owner of the shop wasn't looking....hence the odd angle of the picture. White Trash Cooking Cookbook! The girl in the picture was classic....nice frizzed out hair, etc. Love it!

This billboard cracked me up! I know that it has a nice message but the word choice is hilarious. I guess they just wanted it to be appealing to the demographic of the local people. Regardless, if you want to go to a church where "Big Blessings are Poppin" and the "Devil Can't Stop It, " you should head on down to Louisiana.

Great memories...great place!

What a beautiful city! I hope to make it back to New Orleans again someday. I am missing it today. I had such a great time there and felt really great upon my return...I felt like I had a little bit of New Orleans Jazz and excitement in my blood for a while. Well, a few weeks have passed and it feels like YEARS ago that I was there. I am thankful for pictures that help us remember fun times that we have in our lives. What great memories in such a GREAT place.

Retro Funky Wedding

My mission presidents daughter got married last weekend. Her style was very FUNKY but I thought that this picture was pretty cool. The sign in her hands says, "Just Married."

Happy Mother's Day MOM!What can I say about such an amazing woman? She is dedicated, loving, humble, adventurous, humorous, optimistic, caring, devoted, inspirational, and a survivor! There are MANY, MANY other great things about her that I could list but the most important of all to me is......she's my mom! I love you mom and hope that you feel of my love for you over the hundreds of miles that separate us today. Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day...tomorrow!

I saw this image on a friends blog last year and have been waiting until MOTHERS DAY to be able to post it. Isn't it cute? I think that it really shows how moms are pulled between so many things as they fulfill their responsibility as a mother. What an important and great privilege! Happy Mothers Day to all of you moms out there!

Finger-lickin' Good Chicken

If you are looking for the BEST fried chicken in the WORLD.... go to Willie Maes! I had seen this place spotlighted on the Food Network and the Travel Channel but forgot what state it was in. I was looking through a brochure in our hotel and recognized the place. My mom had heard about it too and said that someone really recommended it. Here is the story.....Willie Mae is 95 years old. She is still on the move and even comes to the restraunt to cook sometimes. Her son (who looks just as old as her) is in the kitchen every day and told us that he has been there since 1954. The restraunt is in the middle of a residential neighborhood that was flooded in hurricane Katrina. The neighbors wanted the restraunt fixed up so it could reopen and they all started to work to re-build. It was such an inspirational place...the BEST customer service EVER....and WONDERFUL food!Mom was tearing into her chicken.....Be prepared to see a group like this out front. These are people waiting to get in to eat. It is pretty small inside (12-15) tables and EVERYONE wants some chicken. It is WELL worth the wait though.

Eating through the Big Easy

New Orleans has AMAZING restaurants and yummy food! We tried almost all of the Cajun, Creole, and French dishes that the French Quarter and New Orleans are known for. Here are some of my favorites.Super delicious breakfast......pecan waffles....Cajun style french bread toast. I loved the name of the place too. Cafe Du Monde.....Beignets. This place is KNOWN for their French doughnuts. They are great! The line to get in is a mile long most of the day (they are open 24 hours). Be prepared to leave COVERED in powdered sugar.

My FAVORITE dinner place was called Deannies Seafood. They brought out boiled potatoes that were cooked in the Crawfish (aka Mudbug) boil. They were SUPER spicy potatoes! My favorite part of their menu is the Barbecue Shrimp. BBQ shrimp in New Orleans is COMPLETELY different to the BBQ that you are probably thinking of. It is a mix of spices, butter, and worcestershire sauce. The shrimp were HUGE and sooooooo finger-lickin' good! Ha!
My order of crawfish....YUM!Oyster Bar....a little too muddy for me.Mom at the French Quarter Festival with an enormous hot link po-boy. I love the expression on her face.BBQ shrimp cooking for po-boy sandwiches.Mom with a bowl of jambalaya.One of the best sandwiches I have had in my life. I had seen Samantha Brown talk about these on her travel show and then I realized really how popular they are once I got to N.O. They are amazing and I have to admit that I had to go back twice. Scrumptious!