Down here in Loosiana

Even when you live on an army base, everyone has a southern drawl. I'm so out of place here with my midwestern-Wisconsin "ya der hey" accent! So I'm trying to incorporate a few southern expressions into my lingo so as not to stick out so much. For instance, you call Louisiana "Loosiana". And when you agree with something, you simply go "hmm, hmm... yep" and lazily nod your head. Don't, at any time, end a sentence with "Ya, Hey!" like you would back home.

Things are fine, we're adjusting well. The kids are having a blast in school and making tons of new friends. I'm, well... I'm just trying to get my bearings. This is a whole other side of life. My husband's been in the army for over 9 years. We've been married for 6. Four of those six years we were still living like civilians because he was in recruiting and not attached to any kind of base. Now we're back on an army base, whole other way of life. And in the "deep south" so to speak. REALLY whole other way of life. Granted we lived in Savannah, GA for 2 1/2 years, but Savannah has that warm pecan pie feeling about it. Even if you're only there for a short time, it's home. Louisiana... well, this isn't home unless you've been born and raised here. Otherwise, you're just passers-by.

In all the packing and unpacking, I never found my digital camera that I lost waaayyyy back at Louisa's birthday in September. So wonderful husband bought me a new one! Awwww!!!! He knows I have to have my camera. It's like another limb that I can't live without.

Luckily for you all... oops, I mean ya'll, that means I have pictures to post!

Here's Louisa and Drew climbing the fabulous climbing trees in our front yard:

One day I heard Drew screaming holy terror, I bolt outside and he's hanging from the tree by one foot! Ok, funny now in retrospect, scary at the time. So we've halted the tree climbing business for a little while.

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love frogs, lizards and turtles. Besides cats, they are my favorite animals. We have these adorable little geckos down here. Two of them live on my back wall by a drain spout. Louisa and Drew try to pick them up but they are quick little buggers. I'm sure I'll get tons more pics of these guys. I'm so excited to be sharing a home with them! (hopefully they eat cockroaches!)

And here's Hunter just being cute! He loves having a yard to play in. It was tough for all of us being cooped up in an apartment with nowhere to play. So he's having fun chasing the kids around, playing with the giant pine cones and attempting to climb the tree!

Our future Harley rider! Boy does he want to get on that bike, I'll tell you what! (that's another southern thing! see, I'm getting pretty good!)