Back from Cajun Country

Since you've all been begging (and I use the term extremely loosely) for a post-vacation post, here goes. We left for Louisiana on Monday morning at a little after 10:00 am. We were supposed to leave at 9:00, but my grandparents are pretty consistently on mountain time. Nevermind the fact they've never lived in that time zone. We arrived a little after 5:00 pm. The drive is supposed to take about five hours. You do the math. I think we stopped four times. My cute little pink iPod mini and I spent alot of time getting to know each other. Rascal Flatts (or "The Boys" as my mom likes to call them) made the time fly. I love their newest CD.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, my grandpa and I did alot of walking, riding around in the golf cart, hitting golf balls/watching him hit golf balls, talking, and watching movies. My grandma and I went into town and did alot of shopping at fun little boutiques and gift shops in the booming metropolis of Winnfield, Louisiana, right at the center of Winn Parish. (Links provided for your educational enlightenment and because I didn't take any pictures.) They have Parishes instead of Counties in Louisiana. I guess it has something to do with their French roots. On Wednesday, we all went into Natchitoches (pronounced Nak-it-ush, not to be confused with Nacogdoches- although the two cities are somehow related,) which was pretty much the highlight of the trip. In case you're wondering, Natchitoches is the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. It was established in 1714. Main Street faces the Cane River, which used to be the Red River until the latter changed course back in the 1830's. When I was seven or eight years old, Steel Magnolias was filmed there. We were there during the filming and saw Sally Field and Dolly Parton's stunt double/look-alike. There are some crazy stunts in that movie. Check it out if you don't believe me. Anyway, this time when we were there, we went to a couple shops and then onto this place called Lasyone's (pronounced Laah-zee-own's) for lunch. They're famous for their meat pies, apparently. You'd be correct in assuming that I did NOT eat a meat pie. As if. I hear they're good, and I'll just take everyone's word for it. In my opinion, "meat" and "pie" just shouldn't go together.

After not eating a meat pie, we drove out to a plantation called Melrose just outside of town. It's kind of cool, because it's a plantation that was actually owned by a former slave, Marie Therese Coincoin. There's a very interesting story behind how she aquired it, so I'll give you the short version really quick. Basically, in the late 1700's her owner rented her out to a Frenchman who fell in love with her, bought her, and then freed her. Oh, and he also had ten children with her. Anyway, he gave her some land (as well as leaving land for each child,) and with that land, she started this plantation. She owned as many as 200 slaves, herself. Crazy to me how a former slave would have her own slaves, but I suppose someone had to work the farm. I'm sure she treated them better than most slaveowners, anyway. Our tourguide was actually one of her descendants. After that family was gone (gone to where, I'm not sure,) the Henry family bought it and added several of the houses that are on the property now. Mrs. Henry was a huge supporter of writers and artists, and invited many to come stay at the plantation while working on books or painting. There were tons of famous ones who stayed there, probably one of the most famous being William Faulkner. I got to stand inside the house where he stayed and wrote. I thought that was pretty cool. There was also a famous primitive artist who emerged while living and working at Melrose. Clementine Hunter was a cook who found some discarded paints left by one of the visiting artists and began painting scenes from plantation life. Very interesting stuff. We got to see some murals that she painted inside one of the houses. Many years ago, my grandma was visiting Melrose and actually got to watch her painting out on the front porch of her little house.

When we were in the gift shop, we met two girls from London who were traveling across America. I thought that was kind of funny, because I've never really thought about that before. I think about Americans traveling across Europe, but not the opposite. They were on their way to Dallas, so we suggested a few places for them to visit. I also found a copy of The Story of Little Black Sambo, one of my favorite stories when I was a little girl. Apparently this is a really controversial book for some racial reason, but I just love the story. Little Black Sambo was so smart! He tricked the tigers and they ran so fast they turned into butter! Then he took the butter home and ate it on pancakes his mom made him. I mean, seriously. That's a great story!

On Friday morning we got up and left a little after 10:00 (again, we were planning to leave at 9:00.) I didn't get to relax quite as much as I'd hoped to, but all in all, I had a good week. It was nice to be back out in the country after so many years away! Louisiana is a pretty decent place, but I'd definitely rather be in the great state of Texas! I am thankful to have been born and raised right where I was. There really is such a huge difference between the two places, although I suppose the difference could be more of a city vs. country difference than a Texas vs. Louisiana difference. Other trip highlights/not-so-highlights: eating at the Chinese restaraunt (is chicken supposed to be brown?,) Pizza Hut twice, killing a roach, reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, totally getting checked out by some good-old-boy in Wal-Mart (he was cute, but kind of in a Larry the Cable Guy way,) and finally getting hit by an 18-wheeler at a rest stop between the state line and Longview. Fortunately, he just hit the driver's side mirror and there wasn't much damage. I totally chased him down and saved the day.

While the time away was nice, I'm definitely glad to be back. I'm almost glad to be getting ready to go back to school, which is marked improvement from where I was a couple weeks ago. The fact that I got a $1000 raise is definitely helping! Also, because of my strange situation last semester, I'm about to start making a WHOLE lot more money per check than I have been so far, and the quicker I start teaching, the quicker I get that money! I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but we lost our principal to another school in town, and we'll be getting a new one. I have mixed feelings about this. Mostly, I feel that the Superintendent should've consulted me before moving Mr. Ringhauser. If he had, we wouldn't be in this situation. Mr. R was incredibly good to me, and I am so thankful to him for giving me a job in the middle of the year! I couldn't have asked for a better place to be. It'll be kind of fun to have a new principal, though, because I won't be the newest one anymore! That's pretty exciting. I'm ready to start a fresh year from the beginning. I think just that will make it completely different from last year.

Tomorrow morning I'm going up to the school to work on lesson plans and start getting my room ready. So, I suppose this blog entry is officially ending my summer vacation. I didn't post as much as I'd have liked over the Summer, but I really didn't have much to say. After hearing several people make comments (not to me) about blogs that don't talk about anything meaningful, I figure there's no reason to post play-by-plays of every uneventful day. Therefore, I've only been posting once a week. Maybe once things pick up I'll have more to write about. I think I said something similar at the beginning of the summer. Oh well. This was a lazy summer and I'm not sorry for it! It's the first real summer break I've had since I was 15, and I took advantage of it. Next summer I'm hoping to do some mission work, take a vacation, and buy a house. Sounds like it may be a bit more exciting than the Summer of 2005.


PS- Happy Birthday to Kendall (July 29) and Mollie (August 6.) I love y'all so much and I miss you!