Weekend in New Orleans

You may remember that we had planned to visit my sis in New Orleans on Labor Day, only to be foiled by Gustav. This past weekend, we finally made it there! Thanks to Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492, Perry and I had a day off from school, so we headed to the Big Easy.

My nephew Luke wanted to show Perry his favorite place -- the Insectarium. It was really fascinating, and the boys were both mesmerized. There were bugs of all types, along with spiders, a butterfly house, and a very cool movie experience.

There was also an insect cafe. Eric had heard about this and was eager to give them a try. The rest of us took a little coaxing, but we all took the plunge and tried a wax worm. Luke even ate 2! They weren't too bad, actually. They were cooked and seasoned, and you could really hardly tell you were eating an insect! I will say that I was not interested in anything with legs, though. Even the deep-fried cricket did not appeal to me at all, although I am usually a fan of just about anything deep fried.

Another highlight was a ride across the river on the ferry. Last time we were in NO, it was too foggy to ride, and Perry was so excited to get the chance to actually ride this time.

On Sunday, Lana and Luke took us on a tour of a couple of neighborhood parks.

And we had a great time hanging out at the family business -- The Monkey Room! Perry was a huge fan!

We had a really wonderful visit. I wish they didn't live so far away. It was great spending time with them!

Date Night

Here we are before we went to the Landmark 20th anniversary banquet last night. I'm so sorry the picture does not show the accessories, though!

Thank you all for your help. I went with the red, which won against the black by a landslide in the voting. Pearls were also popular, but I just ran out of time to shop for anything else.

The hubby and I had a very nice time. It was really amazing to see what God has done with this school in the past 20 years. There were several video slide shows, one of which showed the very humble beginnings of the school, in a run down warehouse building. One of the teachers who has been there since the start told about being impressed that the founders wanted to meet at the Marriott for lunch when they interviewed him. Only later did he find out that they thought he'd never take the job if he saw the school building! : )

Now there are over 800 students in PreK-12th grade on 2 campuses, both of which are MUCH nicer than the original!

I'm so thankful that the focus and the vision have never changed, though. As the school motto says, everything we do is with this goal in mind:

"Every student prepared to impact the world for Jesus Christ."

Now that's what I'm talking about!