St. Matt's Bell Photos

Per Father Craig concerning St. Matthew's Bell which was recovered from the ashes today:

Bell was removed and is in good condition--just covered with soot. It is dedicated to the "Protestant Episcopal Church in Houma"--and is dated 1872. It was made in Troy, New York. It must have hung in the bell tower of the original brick church. The original church was built in 1858, then damaged when the rectory burned in 1890, and was subsequently torn down. The cypress church was then erected in 1892, and the bell re-installed. (Tucker Hall was built as the new rectory at the same time.) Now we have a chance to re-install our very old bell into the new church!

Photos courtesy of Mike Niette

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas!

Rest In Peace

Todd's Aunt Dolores passed away this week after a long illness. What I loved about her the most was her sense of humor and laugh. Godspeed Maw Maw Doe!

We Love Basketball!

Evan's team has improved 100% since their first game. In spite of this, they lost their game last night. Evan loves playing so much, I don't think that it bothers him too much. He still has more games after Christmas, so there is still a chance for a win!



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More St. Matthew's Photos

It has been a little over a month since St. Matthew's burned down. The torched remnants are still on the grounds but will probably be hauled away in a few weeks. Here are some photos of the charred inside. Hopefully, we will soon have a clean lot and then eventually a beautiful new building!

Pieces of the broken marble baptismal font.

Back of the church

Parish Hall

Photos courtesy of Mike Niette

Gorgeous Gwen

We took Gwen to get groomed today and she looks amazing. Here are the before and after shots of her transformation from shaggy to chic!

 Cutie patootie before her grooming appointment.

 "Wow, look at me now!"

Gwen has a gorgeous spotted coat. Beautiful girl!

Evan Plays Basketball

Evan joined the parish basketball league again this year. He had his first game on Wednesday and his second game today. There are a lot of beginners on his team, so, in his words, they "got smoked" both games. Hang in there boys. I'm sure you will get better as the season progresses!

Evan all smiles before his game.

Focus!

 

Todd helping coach from the sidelines. Note: this loyal fan is wearing a Saints cap and LSU t-shirt!

"We lost, but I will force a smile for my mom anyway."

Gwen's First Vet Visit

Gwen was such a good girl when I took her to see the vet today. She got stitches taken out from when she was spayed and got a head to toe check up. She has been coughing and was diagnosed with a mild case of "kennel cough" and also has a digestive tract infection. We got meds for those as well as six months of heart worm and flea prevention medication. Our girl will soon be the picture of health. Next stop this weekend...the groomer!







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Gwen's Adoption Day!

The boys have been wanting a dog for the longest time. Since we no longer have the responsibility for Muddie, we were all open to getting a dog for Christmas. We knew from the start that we wanted to adopt a dog that that had been abandoned and needed a good home. 

For the past several weeks we have been scouring the local shelters on the internet to see if we could find a good match. We finally found a dog that we thought would fit into our family on the net and went to visit her on Saturday. She was at a local shelter named My Heart's Desire. From the moment that we walked in, we were so impressed with the staff and volunteers there.

The dog that we wanted to meet is an 8 month old female Schnauzer/Australian Shepherd mix. She was rescued from another shelter and was at that shelter because the family that had her couldn't take care of her. We went to her pen to get her so that we could take her outside and spend some time with her. She put her paws up on the edge of her cage and wagged her tail as we started petting her. We went for a walk and immediately noticed what a sweet, calm dog she is. Those characteristics matched what we were looking for perfectly. We fell in love and decided that we just had to have her.

The boys named her Gwen, which is short for Guinevere, who is one of our favorite characters on Merlin. It is four letters like the rest of our names, so that was a plus. Welcome to the family, Gwen!

 The boys loving on our new dog.

 First day home!

 Drying Gwen off after her bath.

 Sweet Gwen giving Chad some kisses.

Todd loving on Gwen.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Since Todd had the day off yesterday, he had some time to go up into the attic and pull all of Christmas stuff down, including the tree. After dinner I put on some holiday music and we all hit the decorations and the tree was done in no time!

 The lights are halfway done!

 The boys and I putting hooks on the balls for hanging.

 Todd is happy all the lights are on!

Chad and Evan decorating the tree.

Thanksgiving 2010

My family met my sister's and brother's families at Toledo Bend for Thanksgiving. We rented a house on the lake, bought tons of food and had three great days of family time. The weather was great on Thanksgiving day, but got cold and rainy on Friday. On Saturday it warmed up and cleared out, so we were able to spend more time outside. We had a blast and can't wait to do it again!

 The house where we stayed.

 View of the deck from the water. Myself, Tom and Chad are chatting at the top of the stairs.

 The nice large deck where we hung out a lot!

 View of the lake from the deck. It is getting cloudy!

 We were there about 3 minutes before Evan got full of mud! Here he is cleaning off his only pair of shoes.

 Caleigh, Chad, Evan and Caitlin enjoying the glider.

 Caleigh on the slide.

 Caitlin on the slide.

 

The nice play area where the girls loved swinging.

Cutie Clark!

 Evan getting the wood ready for marshmallow roasting.

 Caitlin painting.

Caleigh painting.

 Clark eating.

Evan loving the water!