28.3.14

Friday Favorite: Field Trip

This week was just a normal, regular, busy week.  It was actually quite uneventful as compared to the past two weeks . . . no surgeries, no broken bones, no hospital stays!  

My favorite this week was a field trip with Mason's class.  I try to chaperone every field trip, not because I think it's particularly fun but because it gives me the opportunity to spend more time with Mason and Hannah Kate and be involved in their schooling.  Because let's face it.  Field trips are WORK.  One of the "worst" was going to the pumpkin patch with Hannah Kate's class.  There were four kids in my group, two of which were boys who kept running everywhere and leaving our group (and it was so hard finding them because there were so many children running around everywhere) and one who had just moved to the States the day before and did not speak any English.  And it was so hot that day.  Anyway, field trips are work.

But this field trip?  Hands down, the best one I've ever been on!  I enjoyed it so. much!  We went to the Louisiana State Capitol building (we've been there several times before, but Mason absolutely loves it and always looks forward to going) and the Louisiana State Museum.  Not only did I enjoy where we went, but I enjoyed my group.  I just had Mason and his buddy Joshua.  He and Joshua have been in the same class together for three years now, and they ride the same school bus, and Joshua's sisters take dance lessons at the same dance studio as Hannah Kate.  Joshua is one of Mason's favorite friends.

There are four reasons why Mason thinks the state capitol building is super cool:

1.  It's the tallest capitol building in the United States.

2.  You can still see the pencil stuck in the ceiling in the Senate chambers as the result of a bomb explosion.

3.  You can see the bullet holes in the wall where former Governor and Senator Huey Long was shot in the building.  He later died as a result of the wound, and there is still a lot of mystery surrounding exactly what happened and who done it.

4.  You can go to the observation deck at the top of the building and look out over Baton Rouge.

Here are Joshua and Mason in the Senate chambers.

And no matter how many times you go to the top, you always have to take another picture.  It was a windy, overcast day.  

And then we went to the Louisiana State Museum.  I'd never been there before and honestly didn't even know it existed.  I absolutely loved it, and it's going on my list of "must sees" when friends and family come into town for a visit.  As a matter of fact, I want to go back.  We were there for an hour and a half, but that just wasn't enough time to see everything like I wanted to see it and read everything.  We had to do a scavenger hunt and find different items and different people and tell who or what they were.  So, of course, Mason and Joshua were interested only in the scavenger hunt and not necessarily in stopping to read and look at every single little thing.  The scavenger hunt was fun though, and the boys really enjoyed it.

The first floor of the museum is dedicated to the history of Louisiana.  So, of course, you begin with the Louisiana Purchase.  This is the first thing you see when you walk in.  Mason and Joshua are at the bottom right corner so that gives you an idea of the scale of the map.  The lights you see are actually rivers.  It was a little confusing at first because the lights of the Mississippi River from central Louisiana running north were not lit.  But it was still a super cool map.

From there, you go through the Louisiana at War exhibit (which includes a Civil War submarine).  And then there's Louisiana's Waterways exhibit.  There is a huge shrimp boat in the museum.

You can learn about Louisiana's agriculture and crops.  Most impressive is this sugarcane machine thingy that I can't remember right now what it's called, and I'm too lazy to google.  A harvester, maybe?  I have to say I'm always so fascinated by this machine and how it works.

The Sportsman's Paradise exhibit focuses on fishing and hunting.  This marlin is actually a record holder.

The third floor of the museum is all about Louisiana's culture.  This place was a feast for the eyes.  Again, we didn't get to spend near as much time up here as I wanted to.  This is the first thing you see when you walk up the stairs.  I have to say this is a most perfect representation of the state!  

This floor was also divided into several different exhibits: Southeast Louisiana, Acadiana, Northwest Louisiana, Mardi Gras, Louisiana's Music and New Orleans.  There was a Mardi Gras float and beautiful costumes.  There's a dance floor, and you can dance to zydeco or jazz or bluegrass music.  It's just a feast for the eyes.

After we finished our scavenger, we went to the State Capitol Grounds and ate a picnic lunch.  And then I took Mason to get a hair cut!  I didn't take a picture of that though.

Besides the field trip, here is another favorite this week.  I've been enjoying my drive home each day.  The trees are "blooming," and the spring green is so refreshing after the cold, bare winter.  I took this picture about a mile or so away from my house.  

One last thing.  Or three last things.  There are three questions that I'm asked over and over everyday everywhere I go.

1.  How is Ellie?  Ellie girl is great!  She's not let that cast stop her too much.  She still gets frustrated sometimes at things she can't do, but she has pretty much figured out her limitations and stays within those.  She hasn't slowed down a bit!  She will see Dr. C on April 11 to have her cast taken off and her arm x-rayed.  This x-ray will determine whether the pins will come out, and her arm will be in a sling for a couple of weeks or another cast will go back on for two more weeks.  We are hoping and praying the cast will come off and stay off that day.  This is her on the way home this afternoon after two doctor's appointments (not for her but for me) and trips to two different grocery stores.

2.  How is my eye?  My eye is doing great!  As one of my friends put it, no mo kleenex!  I still have a tube in my eye, but it's not as bad as it sounds.  The first day it felt like I had a rock in my eye.  The second day it felt like I had a piece of hair stuck in my eye.  I can still feel the tube, especially when I look to my right, but it's not so annoying now and actually just seems like a part of me.  I've been able to wear my contacts, and I've been wearing makeup sparingly.  I took a close-up of my eye so I could show you my tube, but I thought better of that.  It was just too close-up, and my fine lines and wrinkles became rather broad lines and wrinkles.  I saw my ENT today, and he released me from his care.  He said everything looks great, and he anticipates Dr. H (eye doctor) will probably go ahead and take my tube out when I see him on April 17.  He also said it appears the surgery was very successful, and I won't require a second surgery!

3.  How do you get your hair to do that?  I'm not quite sure what this means.  It either means, "What in the world are you doing to your hair?" or "How do you get it to be wavy like that?"  The answer is simple.  Nothing.  I'm doing nothing.  Literally.  This is just the way God made my hair to be.  I'd spend 45 minutes blowing dry and then straightening my hair, only for it to not be so straight.  And it wasn't like you could tell how much time I was spending on it because it certainly didn't look 45 minutes worth of anything!  I was so disgusted with it, and I finally decided to stop trying to make it do something it wasn't created to do.  So now I spend about five minutes with a diffuser on my hair, and that's it.  The only reason I do that is so it won't be so wet after I wash it.  It's super thick and takes a very long time to air dry so the diffuser helps it to dry a lot faster.  And that's it.  I currently don't put any product in it because I haven't had time to go to the store and buy my wavy hair stuff.  So that's the story about my hair.