Twitter...

YES!! I gave in... *sigh*

Follow me.. twitter.com/jerseygirlnNOLA

i think.. HA!

When I grow up I want to be ...... AMISH!!!!

No, really I do. For the past handful of years I have become slightly obsessed with The Amish, specifically the Pennsylvania Dutch Amish.

My husband knows all too well my dream of one day living amongst the Amish in Lancaster, PA (actually probably more like a small town, like Bird-In-Hand.) I want to live on a HUGE Amish farm and have cows and chickens (for milk & eggs only, I get too attached to feed and care for animals daily, to then serve them to my family at dinner.) I want to run barefoot outside all day and watch my children or grandchildren play with our Amish neighbors. I want to sit around an old cook stove and listen to Amish women tell stories. I want to learn how to make those gorgeous Amish Quilts. I want to learn how to garden and cook better. I want to learn to speak Pennsylvania Dutch. I want to be surrounded by the fellowship the Amish community is known for.

BUT I honestly know I could never give up electricity and wearing pants and so many more things that the Amish give up (or never have used) to remain not part of this world we live in and helps keep them in their own world. And you really cant just become Amish, anyways. But I want to be accepted by the Amish, I want to be neighbors and friends.

Does that sound completely ridiculous? Don't most people plan on heading somewhere warm once retirement come? I figure with these Louisiana "seasons" I'll be LONG done the heat and humidity by then.

But look how peaceful it looks.

Wouldn't it be awesome to not be stressed about bills, jobs, money, government, etc?


For those of you not that familiar with The Amish, here is a list of some of my favorite books, you should check your local library for them!

Non-Fiction: Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among the Amish by Joe Mackall
Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald B. Kraybill

Fiction: ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING by Beverly Lewis (she is my favorite Amish Fiction writer. I've read every single book she has written about the Amish). Another great Amish Fiction author Wanda Brunstetter.

(and soooo many more! leave a comment if you want to know more great Amish reads!)

Faux-Hawk

More coming soon...

To mohawk or not to mohawk....?

Since our son was a baby my husband has wanted to give him a mohawk. When he was little and still pretty bald (he didnt get his first haircut til he was already two!) we use to attempt to make a faux-hawk with his hair. I must say he was pretty cute....
(these are taken right around his first birthday in 2007)



So Ive been coming up with excuses forever on why we needed to hold off on the mohawk for the tim being, my most recent one was.. "but my parents are coming from New Jersey (i still need to blog about that!) and we should wait til after." Well.. its after and my husband has not forgotten this time (rats!)

In all acutallity I think it will be really cute and its only hair, itll always grow back.. I think im more concerned about what other people will think, but why do I care? Thats so not my style to care what other people thing...

So to mohawk or not mohawk.. thats the question....

Not Me! Monday

I certainly did NOT buy an entire thing of Edy's Samoa Ice Cream this weekend and finish it before I wrote this post.

I also did not get completely paranoid on Friday when I couldn't get in touch with my husband all day that I went on line and pulled up his phone account to see if anyone else was able to get through to him, and when I discovered there was another local phone number who called many, may time, I did not call that number and then hung up when a man answered. That would be so psychotic of me I can't be that insecure.


Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Holy Mother of ICE CREAM!

I am a huge fan of Samoas the Girl Scout cookies. Such a big fan that after moving to Louisiana I noticed I did not see as many Girl Scouts outside places selling their delicious cookies (probably due to the lack of Wawa's) and no one ever came to my door, that I emailed the Southeastern Louisiana Chapter to find out how I could get some, and got no response. So I had resolved myself to another year gone by with no Samoas in my tummy....

And then tonight while strolling the frozen food section at our local grocery store and I spot this....



I did a tiny happy dance while standing by the frozen deliciousness..

It was the only one left, so I grabbed it and still had about half the store to do. (Why don't grocery stores put the freezer section right by the check out at the end?!) so it is still a little soft for my taste, so I cannot confirm the suspected amazingness of the ice cream, but what could not be good about vanilla ice cream, caramel and chocolate swirl, and Samoa pieces???

Staying 'green' our house by the levy's

I think becoming a mom has made me more conscious of what is happening to this planet we call home, so we, like many others, have been trying to be a little more green. But, let's be realistic, a lot of the products that are more environmentally friendly are expensive and its a recession. So we have 'gone green' the cheap ways.

For instance, tonight while making the marinade for my salmon (lemon juice, vinegar, a little salt and pepper, I was about to whisk in some olive oil and I somehow got distracted and knocker over the whole entire bowl. Instead of saying some choice words that wanted to come out, I grabbed some paper towel and wiped up the counter and stove with my mixture and realized how glad I was I didn't spill it with the olive oil in it, rendering it useless instead of making the best of my mess and calling it 'cleaner'.

We have also switched every light bulb we could to those CFL light bulbs (because my husband use to work for an apartment complex making apartments read for new tenants and had to remove all CFL bulbs and put in regular bulbs back in the lights so if residents came to the office because their light bulb blew they wouldn't expect CFL's. I mean seriously who lives in a rented place and expects your landlord/apartment complex to replace your light bulbs? But anyways, they were suppose to just throw out the perfectly good bulbs and cheap old me heard this from my husband and I said "BRING THEM HOME!!", but I digress..) But we have noticed a drastic change in our electric bill (it was $64.00 this month!!!). Now I know not everyone has access to free light bulbs, but the bulk stores, like Sam's Club, BJ's, Costco, etc.. usually have really great deals on multipacks of bulbs. Watch for sales and coupons at other places too. (You know you all get those 20% of coupons to Bed,Bath, and Beyond, I bet they sell them.)


I have also switched to all the Clorox Green Works Cleaners. I LOVE them!!! They smell so fresh and clean and I feel better about there not being as many chemicals on everything, especially places like the bathtub and kitchen counters.


I know I could do more, and I would like to, but I'm a 'change with baby steps' type-a-gal. I wish we could eat organically, but it is still just too pricey.

So switch your Pine Sol for some Green Works (or Scrubbing Bubbles, etc..) Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Open your windows and turn the AC (or heat for you poor,poor people still in the cold) and teach your children these things early one, so we can leave a better planet for all the little one we love so much.

American Idol...

I have been watching American Idol since Season 1. I don't catch every episode, but i catch enough to keep up. This year I want Kris to win.. they are about to announce the results so he might be outta the running in a moment. I'm pretty sure Adam will win, and I'm usually pretty good with picking the winner, except Taylor Hicks, I mean really?. But I don't like Adam! I seem to be in the minority on this one though, aren't I?

Pray for this family....

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is something new for me, but not new for one of my favorite blogs by MckMama.. you can read all about by clicking on the orange "NOT ME" icon thingamajig above! Basically its a weekly list of things you fess up to. but pretending you totally did not.. full of sarcasm.

I certainly did not give Mason a soda while out to lunch so he would sit still.. I also did not allow Mason to consume a second soda in two days when my Mom, who was visiting from NJ, gave it to him.


I also did not lick my fingers and wipe away some schmutz on his face. The mom move I said I'd never do.

I did not pretend to be sleeping when Mason woke me up in order to get those ever cherished extra 5 minutes. What mom would do that ?!?! not me :o)

I'm pretty good at.....

Keeping my son, Mason, happy.....




Keeping Mason and John happy..




I'm even pretty good at keeping the dogs happy...


But.. not the poor indoor plant...




no matter how hard I try and how easy the care for the plant is suppose to be, I just can't keep them alive and thriving...

I guess I should stick to dogs and children.

I'm so excited, I just can't hide......

Tomorrow morning at 9:36am, my parents plane from Philadelphia is scheduled to touchdown (touch down?)! I am beyond excited. I feel like a little kid who is waiting for Christmas Morning!

I am SUPER close with my parents. Before we moved to Louisiana we saw them at least once a week, if not more and since we moved here we have seen them 3 times, this coming one will be the 4Th. The last time they were here was in October, so it has been almost 7 months!
*if you want to read about that visit , you can here* http://masonkotzbeck.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-parents-visit-1018-1022.html

I will have to work for part of their short (but certain to be sweet!) trip and my husband will mostly likely have to work 3 of the 5 days they are here. My poor husband.... but we NEED the money and in this economy, you can't really complaining about having to work, especially after 3 weeks of not so much work.

So my blog may be taking a backseat to my parents for the next 5 days, but be assured I'll have some good stories to share once they head back to Jersey.

MY blog..

So for going on two years now I have had a blog that has mostly been about our adorable 3 year old son, Mason (www.masonkotzbeck.blogspot.com). But I always have the desire to write about things not necessarily my family wants to read and I don't want to hog my kids blog, so I have decided to start one for me. (I've been reading so many blogs on blogger I got inspired!) So hang in there with me, while I get the blog set up the way I want it.

In case you don't know our story, I'll give you a quick breakdown. I'm a 25 year old, married mom of one. I was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Southern New Jersey, and in July 2007 my husband (who was still my fiance), our son, and myself packed up our little home in NJ and moved 1300 miles south to Louisiana. What a drastic life change! We live in a suburb of New Orleans, my husband works full time in construction and I am a private nanny for another family in our town, which gives me the luxury of still being with Mason full time and being able to help out financially as well. I am a very hands on parent, I rather stay home with my family then do the typical things 25 year old's do. I am working on trying to have a better relationship with God, and more patience with life!

So welcome to my blog.. I hope you keep coming back to see what new things are happening in the life of a Jersey Girl in Louisiana.