...a Visitor?!

Saturday morning, I awoke to this text:  "So, any chance you are up for a visitor this evening?"  Whaaaat???  Now, ya'll know we don't get many visitors in these parts, much less visitors that are unrelated to us.  Imagine the surprise and excitement I felt when I laid eyes on that message from the lovely Dawn (aka:  Sunshine).

Dawn "lives" in Brusly, Louisiana, which is near Baton Rouge.  I say "lives" because this girl is a gypsy like none other.  I tell people I've lived in 5 states in the last 5 years and she definitely has me beat!  This week, Dawn moved to Dallas until December, after spending a week at home in between this adventure and her last one (a summer in Galveston, TX).  Before that she was at Washington University in St. Louis.  ...You get the idea.

Anyway.  When one of my #bestfriendforevers asked if she could drop in for a visit, of course I said YES.  (Not to mention she was the first non-related, out of town visitor we've had!)  The next step was making sense of it all...I mean, wasn't she in Baton Rouge?  Why Monroe?  Again, whaaaat?? As it turns out, Dawn decided to go out of her way to make Monroe (and Shreveport) a detour on her way from Baton Rouge to Dallas.  It took me a few minutes to put all the pieces together.  Immediately, Alex and I threw all our weekend plans out the window and began pulling the house together for this impromptu visit.

It took her a few hours to pack everything up and drive from Baton Rouge (4h15m to be exact), so we did end up having time to do a few of the things we'd originally planned for the weekend.  Sort of.  We tried to visit the pumpkin patch at Curry Farms in Start, LA, so I could scope it out for an upcoming 4-H trip we're taking with some teenagers.  However, I'm an idiot and though I read the address, phone number, and hours of operation, I seemed to have missed the part that said the season starts on October 5th.  *face palm*  Oops.  After a few detours due to some crazy people trying to move a mobile home, we almost went home with our tail between our legs.  Instead, I convinced Alex to head back to Monroe and check out Biedenharm Gardens, a four-part attraction that includes a tour at the local Coca-cola Museum.  We did enjoy ourselves as tourists in our own backyard, and 5-cent bottled cokes became the highlight of the trip.

That afternoon, I worked on cleaning the house and doing laundry once Alex went off to work for the 6 p.m. kickoff of ULM v.s. Tulane.  Dawn arrived around 4:15, so we were able to hang out and enjoy an early dinner before heading to the game.  Me and football don't "jive," per say, but Dawn is a fan.  It also helped that one of her sisters attended ULM for a semester and the other is currently a student at Tulane.  [Maroon attire was required in the Edwards Household, however.  ;-)]  She situated herself in the perfect position to watch the game while chatting with me - very clever.  Toward the end of the game, we decided to go check out the Press Box and say hello to Alex.  We didn't last very long up there, though, because it was bone cold and Alex needed to go down to the field for post-game events.  She and I ducked out right at the end, grabbing some yummy half-price shakes at Sonic on our way home.  We spent the night playing Phase 10 Twist while waiting for Alex to return; it wasn't until about 1:30 a.m. before we turned in for the night.

Rah! Rah!  Go Warhawks!

View from the Press Box.

Sunshine and MooFace

Sunday morning we got up bright and early to attend Mass at 8:30 a.m. before Dawn drove off into the sunset forever...Haha.  She actually had plans to meet her brother for lunch in Shreveport (he's a Med Student at LSUHSC) before heading on to Dallas, so that's why everything was on warp speed.  Though tired, the early morning allowed Alex and I to get in a workout and make home again all before 11 a.m.  How nice.  I spent the rest of Sunday relaxing (may or may not have snuck in a nap) while Alex worked on game notes for the upcoming Thursday night game versus Western Kentucky.

Another notable moment from last week was watching my little Cajun Yota hit 100k miles.  What a milestone!  She's been good to me for these last 8 years and I look forward to keeping her around for several more.

Tomorrow, I leave for two nights at Camp with 120 of my favorite teenagers - Ha.  When we return, my college roommate and her little family will be waiting at home for me.  I can't wait!

-Stay tuned.
Lauren

P.S. Blogger has been giving me problems with placement of photos so forgive me for extending the length of this entry even more with photos.