It always seems ...

us @ a n.o. hornets basketball game, we were blessed with tickets in club level
by our very generous doctor, had a blast!

to me that i usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to life.  but i guess it's only fitting since i AM only 5 foot.  but i'm not sure i would know what to do if the doors were always open for me.  i'm pretty sure it would look similar to a scene in a movie when you ram into the door several times and finally on your last try you back up to ram it, only to get through with ease b/c someone else has opened it and you go flying through smacking into the coffee table spilling red wine all over the beautiful creme carpet.  so i'm okay with not expecting the doors to open for me because in most of my accidents there has always come some revelation, a lesson worth learning, whether it be smacking straight into the door head on and knocking some sense into me or just having a whirlwind of events at the opening of one finally.  recently, we've been knocked down a few times, but what i love most about my family is that they don't let it get them down.  we celebrate in the little things, the little blessings that get blown our way from time to time.  we don't have the biggest house or yard on the block, we don't have all our dishes or laundry done, we don't have the finest china or luxurious vehicles to drive, heck at this moment we don't even have a wall in my kitchen.  (hint to husband:  please get that done in 2011).  but what we do have is each other, spirit, friends, family, love, kindness, generousity, and the belief that all will be okay.  so my little word this year is BELIEVE!  b/c what i've noted more than anything in this family is they believe, they have belief in themselves and others.  this challenge, that i've never participated in before is from ali edwards, for those nonscrappers, she is the it girl in the scrapbooking world and has challenged all who care to participate in having one little word to live by each year.  and here is mine and what i hope to get from it.

i believe there is good in us all
i believe that anything is possible
i believe that i will not hide all my husband's fishing poles this year
i believe that we will make it through our difficult time
i believe that others will too
i believe that i can survive the 300 hundred children that will enter through my doors to play b/c i feel like 
               the kool-aid house sometimes
i believe in myself, i'm putting an end to self-doubt
i believe my children will make a difference in this world, they are going to do BIG things with their lives
i believe that Jesus will take the wheel when i need him too
i believe in God and i have faith in his direction

sometimes ...

i think that maybe i should have written that down.  with me you never know what will come flying out of my mouth and i don't mean like cheetos or milk or any other food or liquid substance.  sometimes i just say things and think later.  and i'm not thinking aww i shouldn't have said, heck no sometimes people just need to hear tha truth!!  but i think dang i should have wrote that down.  i could have a book by now, it's possible, don't doubt it.  i know kind of strange just a array of word vomits in a book, but hey anything can happen - i mean if you can write a song about a stanky leg then who's to say i can't have a book on just crap i say.  i mean really i could have written a song about a stanky leg, heck i could have written a song about some stanky diapers, walls, tables, chairs, butts, husband, and children.  maybe i should start writing songs ...

It's Been a long time ...

i can't even begin to try to catch anyone up on what's been going on!!  b/c honestly i don't even know myself.  sometimes i forget if i've eaten or not.  sometimes i wonder if i peed today.  so how could i really tell you what's happened in the last couple of months.  well, here's what i do remember:

husband lost a job
husband got a new job
i started teaching
i stopped teaching
still writing for pov
still sewing dolls
still scrapping and teaching crafty classes
still working on remodeling house
still losing my mind
now pursuing my masters degree
now taking writing seriously

now looking back ...

hunter with cousin carly

my personal witch, claire

the big man of the house, seth

my real man of the house, hubby clint

me, clint, and claire

hunter and i



me losing it!!!!  too many kids!!!




my BFF paula, couldn't have made it these last few months without her

  i think that about sums it up

so to now be current, here's where i am now in my life  wandering around aimlessly wondering what else i can accomplish before i turn 40.  i mean really i only have 5 years left, so i need to get to steppin'.  my years are catching up with the number of jobs i've had so i'm guessing i need to start planning out a new career right?  LOL  well, maybe we'll see!  you never know what i'm scheming up next.

so what?

one of the hardest things as a parent is to know when to just shut up or when to speak up.  sometimes i think i do the latter maybe a little too often.  i'm what you call, as i refer to, an extreme mom.  i could probably be featured on the animal planet channel spinning off of the show most extreme animals.  the show might go a little something like this:

first they would go through 10 - 2 of the most extreme moms
and then here's where you would see my picture, michelle gautreaux rolling in as the #1 most extreme mom
forget the king of the hills, this lady will have you heading for them
they would then graph me in green, localizing all my dangerous points  which might include my fierce voice or my quick & concise manuevers when it comes to a child on the run from my wrath
i would definitely have to say though that the focus would be on my punishments - always extreme, always over the top

but i do hope in my segment they might mention that i am compassionate, i love deeply, i give whole heartedly, and i expect nothing in return.  b/c even in that sense i'm extreme as well, just ask my middle school child who i embarass daily.

on to other news ...
announcement:  i have three stories in PoV this month - can i get a whoohoo!!!  ("WHOOHOO"  okay that was supposed to be you).  one of the stories is on some young talent in the area, jenna nicole guidry, the second story is an inspiring underdog story, the engineering team from nicholls, and the third is a story that motivates you to do your part in the world, keep terrebonne beautiful.

I'm so motivated ...

to just write, write, write.  i'm beginning to feel like a real writer.  i just love PoV, they have given me the confidence to continue and to really explore who i am through writing.  i've enjoyed every piece and have been so inspired by each person i interview.  i take a little something with me each month.  i feel so blessed to have met the people i have met through this job.  crossing paths with so many of them have led me to new and better paths.  i love finding the wonderful people of this world and telling their story.  i want to do this for the rest of my life.  i might have finally decided what i want to be when i grow up.  lol
my july story was on SoLA and my august story was on Raymond Champagne, which btw made the FRONT COVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  i know, i know, like i know!  (that's me having a conversation with you). 
something to think about:  at times we think that things couldn't get any worse and sink really low when obstacles are thrown in our path, we start throwing the pity party for ourselves and think what more can happen, what else (it comes in threes right?).  sometimes even wondering why o why does God seem to think i can handle this?  you are his children, any good father would have that much confidence in their child.  they give tough love and the reward in the end is always great!  i'm consistently reminded of this on my journey through life.  i would like to say i'm always positive and that when things, like bad things happen to me that i get on my peppy skirt and cheer my way through my situation, but i don't.  i cry, i bitch, i cry, i bitch, and i cry some more.  good thing my husband only has to put up with a few hours of this, b/c after i finish off my bitchapalooza i resolve to get my shit together.  which is great, b/c i let it all out and move forward.  but i started thinking do you really want to hear all of that or would you rather just hear me sing, "it's the climb"  yeah, i thought so, bitch it is.  but this time around when we were dealt a hard hand we became really proactive early and tackled it head on, b/c we were determined to get through and i'm telling you the reward has been awesome.  so take note people, take note ...

My June PoV

So excited about it, it was published at the beginning of this month.  It was not until I saw it that I believed it was being published.  I grabbed so many copies that the lady at the customer service desk in the mall must of thought I was a freak.  I wanted to run throughout the mall and say look that's me, even the pictures are mine.  I know so lame, but this is big step for me and hopefully only the first one to many more.  After I turned in this article, I was asked to do two articles for July so be on the lookout for those July 1st.  How cool is that?
Here's the link to This Old Hotel

Gautreaux's to the Rescue

no those are not our dogs, but they are the neighbor's.  one saturday morning, seth took out our dog smokey and heard wimpering coming from the shed.  on further investigation we discovered 4 puppies, but no mother.  in a rush to get to a baseball game, we decided to leave the puppies there for the morning and take action after the game.  after hunter's game we came back to find the mother adding more puppies to the underneath of our shed, so we followed her to find out where was she taking them from.  it was our next door neighbor's dog and she was pulling them out from underneath her shed.  wasn't sure why until we looked under the shed.  there was a turtle the size of a small dinner plate and it was on top of one of the puppies.  my boys grabbed a shovel and managed to take the turtle out, put it in the back ditch and saved the puppy, but one puppy had already perished.  the turtle had been eating it.  so hunter rushed under and grabbed the puppy ever so carefully to place him in a box and proceeded to carry out a burial with seth.  it was so wonderful to see how much they cared for animals.  we cared for the mother and other puppies in our garage til our neighbor returned home, even trying to help the puppies find milk pumping it into their mouths while we settled the mother down.  the neighbor then came for her dog (that she thought was a male) and left with her and the puppies.  we found out days later that all the puppies had died and that the mother was not taking care of them.  she was really just a young pup herself, i'm not sure she even knew what to do or how to protect them from the rain and sun outside according to the neighbor.  the kids were all devastated.  they took such pride in rescuing the pups only to be disappointed that their efforts didn't save them.  i tried explaining to them that death is a part of life, but alas it didn't ease the pain.  all i could do was express how proud i was of them for taking a chance, making an effort, and doing something - b/c most people don't even do that.