Teenager in the house

Our oldest turned thirteen on New Years Day
our lil' boy is growing up fast...too fast.
He wanted a Lego theme party, and he was the
first to have a party in the new house.

Our New Home

After being in the camper for over

two years, we finally found

and bought our home.

2100 sqft on 2 & half acres. 

It's an older home over 30yrs old

so it's full of paneling to paint,

has the old blue and green

tubs that were in style during the

70's and needs new appliances

and a new roof. But, over all

with a little TLC we can make

it our HOME.

Family Memories 2013

We took a day and walked the

train bridge in our little town,

drove across the river and

found an old 1800 yr. old

church and then went gator

hunting, we spotted four.

Hubby and I celebrated 15yrs

back in November, the Lord

has blessed us so much.

God Bless!

Cajun's Hunting

We started filling our freezer full of

meat, we love our camo and

our guns...fresh meat

is the best.

Felt good to finally get back home

and dig out the camo. :D

We had three hogs in the trap

so we ground the meat

and made many bags of sausage.

My sweetheart shot his FIRST

DEER...fried deer meat

and red beans, yum!

Our oldest went hunting by

himself...growing way

to fast for me!!!

DIY Laundry Soap Revised

For almost two years now I've been making my own
laundry soap and fabric softener, it has saved me a
lot of money and it gets the job done like any store
bought products do if not better. ;-)
My sister got me started, she made a batch for her
family and shared a gallon with me...from there I've
tried different recipes and tweaked them until I found
the one that worked for my family.
I've blogged before on how I make it BUT I had to
revise it just a bit.

All the recipes I found use a

five gallon bucket, I don't

have room for one so I cut

it down to two jugs.

My washer is small so I wash

2-3 loads a day, and my

soap lasts me for about four

months using 3/4 of the cap full.

"Two Jug Laundry Soap"

4 cups boiling water

1/4 bar Fels-Naptha

4 Tbsp. Borax

4 Tbsp. Washing Soda

2 Tbsp. Oxi Clean

4 Tbsp. Purex Crystals

2 Jugs (2.34qt) reusable

I grade my lil' piece of soap bar

and add it to the boiling water

stir until all the soap is melted.

Add half everything to the two jugs;

 2 Tbsp of Borax, 

2 Tbsp of Washing Soda, etc.

Once the soap has melted I

add half of it to my jugs,

shake a little to mix everything.

Then I fill with hot water half way 

(about 4 cups) give it another

good shake and let sit over night.

It will gel up and you take a 

spoon and stir really good

and add more water to fill jug.

Before every use give it a good shake.

Nine Months in Oklahoma

We are SO homesick for humid, mosquito
infested, hurricane valley "home sweet home!!!"
But, the good news is, this one year job is
about to rap up and we hoping to be heading
HOME by next month, the kiddos can't WAIT!

Here it is, the new coker drums

are almost ready to be

tested and started up for use.

My husband and a few other men did

all the welding and building on

this frame around the coker drums.

The first lift of this huge crane.

Then the coker drums were lifted 

into place, this lift drew a crowd of people.

Then the pint house was lifted up

this was the heaviest lift of all

we watched for over two hours

along with many other people.

My husband and a few other men

waited for it to be put in place

so it could be bolted down and

secured into place, this was the

scariest part for me to watch.

For nine months the USI

crew have been preparing 

for this day, their first

complete coker drum build,

it was exciting to watch.

Field Trip to the Zoo

Ladybug finally got to go to the zoo,

she been asking for awhile now.

I met up with my sister and we took

seven kiddos for four hours...

THEY HAD A BLAST.