It is so loud here! I can here the music from the different bars, people yelling and cheering, it is very very noisy! I’m two blocks from bourbon street and it sounds like there is a college drum line out there somewhere

Oh my gosh! It was fun, the food was fantastic, I learned two new things and we set bananas foster on fire! The hands on cooking class was an absolute blast. There were 7 of us and the teacher and it was just fun. We made chicken and andouille gumbo, bbq shrimp and grits and bananas foster with crepes.

My awesome Uber driver drove me the route to the school from my hotel before dropping me off and was like “Honey, you walk it. Experience the French quarter!!!”

Made it! The French quarter traffic is crazy! There are so many people just out wandering the streets!

I will need to get an Uber from the airport when I land this afternoon. I’ve never used a service like this before. Any tips? Dd set up an account for me in the website Thanks

So as it turns out, I will be alone in New Orleans tonight as my friends flight got canceled and she won’t get there til tomorrow morning. I’m going to Uber from airport to the hotel The Olivier House on Toulouse Street. We have a class scheduled tonight at the cooking school and I’m going to go by myself now. Would it be safe to walk by myself the four blocks there and back at 6:30pm coming back at 9:30? Or walk down and Uber back?

Thanks everybody. I think the waiting, waiting, waiting for some kind of news was getting to me. I was just losing it for some reason, and I didn’t want to bring dh along, so I had a minor freak out bringing you guys along instead. I really appreciate all the support. I dropped dh off and picked up dds 19 and 20 and they came with me to fil’s to help me cook. The cooking and moving around with my girls has been cathartic. Im pretty sure I’m going straight to bed when I get home. I know so many of you are going through so many much worse things and I am sorry for belly aching about a relatively minor one compared. I hope I didn’t offend anybody

And I feel like crap because I can’t keep my emotions in check to be dh’s support. It’s stupid, I’m not the one going through this. I feel like a drama Queen. I think I let the anxiety before each appointment get to me. And now I’m trying to keep from crying while we celebrate his last shot in his eye with Chinese buffet. He needs me to be positive and upbeat and I just want to go home and go back to bed

They do get all the emergencies, and I know there is more demand than doctors so I try to be patient. But we have yet to get any good news there so sitting for hours waiting to hear potentially more bad news is just doing me in. Todays stupid five minute appointment was ti tell us, no improvement, but no additional scar tissue. We’ll probably have to do another surgery, but not yet. See you in 6 weeks.

He just came in, 2 hours and 58 minutes past our appointment time.

I found several options for second opinions, but dh didn’t want to. I kind of begged him, but he said no. i kind of get it, this guy comes in all smiley and upbeat and if you get a second opinion saying there’s no hope, that’s sort of it

I think it’s just making us wait so long to probably hear bad news again. That’s what is driving me crazy 2 and 1/2 hours past our time and now Jon Knight is getting on my nerves. I really liked nkotb in junior high 😆

And now I’m crying out of frustration in this stupid waiting room and I can’t quit. What is wrong with me?

We are now two hours past our appointment time and dh is getting on my nerves because he is not more annoyed 😆 I hate this place and I need to figure out how to not feel sick to my stomach and be a total hag about it. My palpable annoyance can not possibly be helpful to dh. I think it’s because I just want to FIX IT and I have lost faith in this place to do that. That’s probably why I hate it so much. That and the fact that I feel like the doctor doesn’t see us or take like any time with us so I have stopped actually liking him really are a part of ky attitude here too. Can you develop some sort of weird physical reaction to a place?

Dh is back to the doctor today. Dh is upbeat, I wish I was. These appointments take all flipping day, it doesn’t matter when your appointment is. I am trying to focus on watching Jon Knight from New kids on the block move an old house down the street, but I can’t actually hear it because there is an old man watching Fox News at top volume on his phone. My life feels so surreal right now.

I’m a little surprised by the kids, the youngest is 13, so not little by any means. We are having popcorn shrimp tacos tonight. I followed a recipe from Pinterest before. I’m making it again, but not tossing the shrimp in the sauce per instructions, just making the sauce available. It made the breading soggy and none of us liked that but the sauce was really tasty. I have discovered I love sweet and vinegary, but no one else does. So I make the Asian slaws or pickled radishes etc and then also offer lettuce for the boring people. We had to go into the city several weeks back for dh’s doctor and we stopped at Jungle Jims and I got several powdered versions of peppers some of the recipes called for and I really like their addition. Dh is loving my new hobby

I have tried all the suggestions so far! Thanks for all the sharing. I am embracing all the options, but my kids just want the American “Ortega” taco. We are in a stand off. I want something magical, they want what they’ve always known.

What do you all say to your husbands to make them understand and not worry they should put you in an asylum for hysteria? Not even joking

I thought the exact same thing when she said that!!!

Your emotional ties are NOT ridiculous. And you absolutely do not have to be stoic about it. Been praying for you but figured no news was bad news and didn’t want to ask, so continuing to pray.

Ho Ly Cow!!! you are amazing

What should we do next Sunday night in or around Lafayette? We have the evening free and not sure what to do. Was thinking dinner at Prejean’s maybe?

I have pumpkin purée in the freezer I need to use and would like something savory. Savory pumpkin is not a flavor profile we have eaten. Thanks!

Praying

Where I live, lcol for sure, we have an odd phenomenon going on. The small family farms that have historically been on the lower per acre range have gone up in price dramatically. Even places as small as 10 acres. My nieces and nephews, as they grew up and started their families, all saved and expected to buy small holdings in either our county or the next even cheaper county next to us. Only the oldest two have been successful. We are Appalachian counties with very little job prospects, most people leaving the county to work, no hospitals except an emergency room/triage, limited access to the internet and yet price per acre has almost doubled in the last five years. There are three reasons specifically for this. 1. The Amish and Mennonites. There has always been a pocket of Amish that lived in the next county over who’s three businesses would bring tourists out from Cincinnati. Their community started to shrink as there were no money making opportunities available. About 5 years ago, an Amish family hosted some Mennonite extended family from Pennsylvania. They went home, put together a group, came back and bought several small farms in my county. They had sold their much more expensive places in Pa, bought more land for the same money and offered over asking price. Ever since, there has been a “wait list” of families trying to move here the same way. As people started cottoning on, the asking prices started going up. It doesn’t matter how derelict a property is, if it’s for sale or rumored for sale, there will be a Mennonite knocking on your door. 2. Before the Mennonites, there was a farm family. They started out years ago with a regular farm, then started a feed operation and started renting ground. As the farmers who they rented from died, they would buy those properties. It has worked really well for them. They are nice hard working people who would get in good with a family, rent the ground, and then the wives or kids would usually sell to them right away and be done with it. They are building quite an empire slowly over the last 20 years as their boys grew up and joined the endeavor. They don’t offer over market price like the Mennonites, so this will quickly come to a competition. 3. Solar farms. There has been a boom of solar companies here. Lots of young men from our area got in with them. They aren’t buying land, just renting. But once they are on there, it makes the land unusable so there is less and less farm land to go around. All this to say, that local young people, my nieces and nephews included, quickly found themselves out of the running as prices went up so very quickly. These younger people have to leave the county for regular jobs and want their own space to farm on the side, just like their parents did, but that is/has become impossible so very quickly. This impacts us too. Since the beginning of the pandemic I have been taking meals weekly to the old man we land contract from. Over the years we have talked about his place, which is part of the original farm that our house sits on. When he retired he broke it up in large chunks. A neighbor bought one, we bought one, the big farm family bought one and he lives on one that adjoins us. He knows we are trying to pay our part off as quick as we can so that when he’s ready to sell, or dies, we can buy his. It is our only chance to expand our personal property as his land surrounds ours. Two weeks ago, he had a Mennonite guy knock on his door wanting to talk. He said he had a brother looking for a place to buy. Old man threw out a number he thought was ridiculous and the man responded, if you write that down, I’ll take it back and we can have a deal done in three weeks. When he told me this, it broke my heart. He swears he’s not selling, he’ll die there, but there’s no reason to think his kids won’t jump at the big money instead of selling it to us. I would like to think loyalty of caring for their dad would influence the deal, but he has 4 kids and I have only ever met two. They have no reason to sell to us at what we could afford when they could have more cash in hand to divide up. It makes me so sad.