"It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas"

Wow!! I can't believe that we were blessed with such an awesome covering of SNOW this morning!!This morning we woke up to a beautiful sight of snow falling from the sky! Not a view we get that often here in New Orleans!It was beautiful for as long as it lasted!Haha I believe the last time it snowed it was Christmas day 2004! What a special treat! Today I had my post-op visit, so Mrs. Kelly,, a friend of ours from church came to babysit the children.She took the kids outside to play in the winter wonderland! They had a blast!Here are a few pics that Kelly took!

My Precious Ones!!

"I'm BackTo The Land Of The Living!"

I am finally feeling good enough to update the blog! Sorry it has been so long!
Well my surgery was October 22 at7:30 am. Rick said that the surgery didn't end till almost 11am. It was the right call the Dr. Bethea made by going ahead and doing the major surgery rather than something non-invasive. Don't want to gross too many people out....but it was a mess in there! If you would like to know details , just ask! There was a few minor complications, but overall everything went fine. My hospital stay was 5 days. I really only remember the last day and a half! LOL The rest was quite a fog!I am definitely rejoicing in the wonder and glory of our God throughout all of this! Finally after so many years of emotional and physical pain I am healed!!Praise God! I am truly thankful for everything I have had to go through to get to this place! A place that after almost 10years of infertility the Lord blessed me with 3 perfect precious gifts...Emma Faye, Ava Grace & Ray Anthony! When the world said not a chance...God said yes!! I am thankful and humbled to have been chosen by God to be able to give my testimony to present day miracles! Again the Doctors said they cannot understand how I was able to conceive and carry three children from those mangled body parts!Dr. Bethea himself said that "there has to be a higher power for that to have taken place"! We all know the answer to that! That is only through God's grace! On October 22 I gladly surrendered those mangled body parts. I now am looking forward to a life free from pain! No more having to hide my pain, I can now honestly tell you I feel GREAT and really mean it!How AWESOME is that?

My parents and my sister Darlin came to help out for two weeks! Rick and I could not have done it without them! I don't have enough words or quite frankly money to ever be able to thank them for all that they did for us! To sacrifice their time and their busy lives ...to stop and help us! THANK YOU GUYS!!!Darlin your the greatest Aunt and Sister EVER!!Someday ,somehow I will be able to serve you as well!

"EMMA FAYE IS 5 TODAY"

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It is very hard to belive that 5 years ago today the Lord blessed Rick and I with our hearts desire....a baby!!! Our sweet Precious baby girl is now 5 years old!!!Wow!! What an awesome gift the Lord has given to us! We are truly honored that he has chosen us to be parents!! We will be celebrating with a cake and presents on Saturday when MoeMoe and PoePoe & Aunt Darlin arrive! So Pics of course willcome soon!

"WELL WE WENT ON DOWN TO THE AUDUBON ZOO"

Saturday Rick and I took the children to the zoo! This zoo trip was quite different than others being that they weren't too interested in seeing a lot of the animals!!HA HA They were more interested in all of the other things our zoo has to offer!They climbed on anything they could legally climb on! They played in both play areas, climbed and rolled down "Monkey Hill"! They ate Roman Candy, played like monkeys climbing up 350 year old oak trees!!But I guess that is the benefits of a membership!!HA HA You enjoy ALL of What the Zoo has to offer us!!HA HA

"GEAUX WARRIORS"

This past Friday night we went to watch our nephew Eric play football! So We packed up the kiddo's and headed North to Amite, La to see the Warriors play the Tigers of Independence,La! The family was super excited to see our family who lives on the north shore! When we arrived at the stadium for the game Uncle Will was waiting for us With the tickets!! So while Rick went to find a parking spot, Will escorted the tribe into the stadium to meet up with the rest of the family. Ray was so excited to see the football players! Will was laughing so hard because Ray kept saying over and over again:"football"..."see football"! He also kept singing the L.S.U. fight song! HA HA He was a little confused being that both teams were purple and gold!!HA HA
Once we met up with the rest of the family, the children were really quite good! No regular "Mayeaux Family Issues"! HA HA Ava had a blast as well. She of course was interested in what she calls the "cheer girrrs"! Otherwise to you and me we call them cheerleaders! She was also fascinated by the halftime show with the bands and as she callls them the "dancin girrrs"!HA HA She actually befriended a lady that had pom poms! Somehow she convinced the nice lady to let her wave those pom poms!! She actually was trying to follow the routine from the stands!!! Super cute and a Super funny site to behold! Every time they would turn ...she would turn etc. She was quite serious about each movement...so focused!!HA HA The game was GREAT! The Mighty Warriors did taste victory in a 35-7win over the Tigers! We all certainly enjoyed seeing Eric play and Seeing our other nephew Brandon participate in the pre-game as a member of the JROTC! With all of that fun we were looking forward to that 53 minute ride back home! How wonderful it was going to be to have 3 beautiful children pass out due to stimulation overload!!HA HA But as you know this would not be a Mayeaux story without an incident!!!HA HA
After the game we wanted to stop and get a little snack and some drinks for the way home. With all of the drive-thru's in Amite so busy due to the game letting out, we decided to make the exectutive decision to go down the road to Hammond and stop there. Sounded good to us! Well we decided to stop at a McDonald's. Upon pulling into the Micky D's we see that the drive-thru line is rather busy...but how long can it take? It's fast food right? Well...43 minutes later we were making our order & 15 minues later we were trying to get our oder when the car in front of us broke down and had to be pushed out of the drive-thru. This was the first time I had ever seen someone walk up to the drive -thru window!!HA HA After getting everyone settled, we were headed off back to Norco!! A few minutes into the ride, we hear Ava from the backseat say "UH OH"! Not good folks!!!Little miss Ava Grace had a reaction to the red hot dog she ate earlier at the game..and threw-up everywhere!! So with no exit in site, we pull over the family truckster to "clean up"! While trying to take care of this mess Miss Emma Faye now decides that this would be a perfect opportunity to need to "go Pee"! HA HA Can It get anymore interesting? HA HA This is "The Mayeaux's"!Hold on tight , believe it or not...there's more!!Finally on the road after our Pitt stop, we were so excited to finally be on our way home! Not for long folks...all of a sudden all traffic comes to a complete halt. There was an accident with a car fire!!So finally we did arrive at our destination of Norco around 11:30 or so!! Needless to say we had three sleeping beauties upon our arrival to the Mayeaux estate! Enjoy the pics!

The Invisible Mother......

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I was sent this as an e-mail from my sister-in-law Charmin. I loved it's message and thought I would share...Enjoy!!!




The Invisible Mother......

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the
way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and
ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm
on the phone?' Obviously, not.

No one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor,
or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at
all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of
hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? & Can you
open this?

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a
clock to ask, 'What time is it?'; I'm a satellite guide to answer,
'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around
5:30, please.'

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of
a friend from England .

Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on
and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking
around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to
compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic,
when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said,
' I brought you this.'

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe .

I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her
inscription:

'To Charlotte , with admiration for the greatness of what you are
building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would
discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after
which I could pattern my work:

No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of
their names.

These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see
finished.

They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.

The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes
of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the
cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny
bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why
are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will
be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it.' And the workman
replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was
almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte . I
see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does.

No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake
you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are
building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will
become.'

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a
disease that is erasing my life.

It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the
antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As
one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see
finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could
ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing
to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my daughter to tell the
friend she's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets
up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand
bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the
table.'
That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want
her to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to
her friend, to add, 'you're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot see if we're
doing it right.

And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only
at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the
world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

What GREAT friends

The children and I had a GREAT play date yesterday with Janine & Lila! I gathered up all of my little Mayeaux's for a surprise adventure! Along the way, I gave the girls "clues" about where our surprise location was & clues to the identity of our surprise guests! They had so much fun with this! Emma said "Momma this is a GREAT Mystery"..."Just like Scooby Doo"! "Me & Ava are the mystery team"!LOL They had a blast!Just as we pulled into our surprise location...so did our surprise guests! It worked our quite nicely for my game!LOL
Our play date location was The Louisiana Children's Museum! The kids were so excited to see Janine (aka..Dr. J) and Lila! So off we went to explore this uncharted territory! The Museum , although nice...is not quite what I had in mind. Most of the exhibits are geared for older children...so one day it will be nice to visit again when the children are actually able to understand what the exhibit is referring to! And quite frankly I wasn't very thrilled with all of the "hands on" stuff! I'm usually not a germ-a-phobia type momma but.....Ray pretty much tried to put his mouth around every piece of pretend food in the cafe or the little grocery store. Not to mention the digging in the bubble mess!I have a feeling we will be seeing Janine next week ...not for a play date but a doctor visit!LOL For those of you who do not know, Janine is not only a great friend but she is also our children's pediatrician! Between she and I we did try to clean them up along the way!LOL
Overall the children and Janine and I had a wonderful time ! The Children enjoyed each others company as well! Ray absolutely LOVED the Mr. Rogers exhibit! I Literally had to carry him away from that. LOL Ava Loved the story time. The book that was read was one of The Wizard Of Oz stories featuring TOTO! So it was worth the price of admission for her just to be read to about The Wizard Of Oz...her favorite movie! Emma enjoyed herself throughout the museum! Upon Leaving the museum I could see that I had three very tired little Mayeaux's on my hands! All three were asleep before I got to the interstate to head back home!!!QUIET drive back home!!
Thank you Janine & Lila for a wonderful play date!!We had so much fun with you guys!!!

Fun @ Mickey D's

The Mayeaux's enjoying the Beautiful Weather

I Haven't Been Well Lately :(

OK I guess I need to get everyone up to date on my health issues! After suffering with pain and some serious "Issues" Shall we say ...in the female health category,I am scheduled for a major surgery on October 22 at 7:30 a.m. I will be having a hysterectomy.Due to my complicated issues I am not a candidate for a non-invasive procedure. The doctors will be going through my already existing Cesarean section scar.So I will be in the hospital for 3-4 days!The recovery is around 6weeks! As all of you know life here is already quite interesting! So things are going to get a little more bumpy for a while! LOL
I'm not at all sad about the decision for this surgery. Quite frankly I am embracing it as a NEW start for me ! I have been dealing with these sort of issues, endometriosis, severe scarring and pain since I was 14 years old! Through God's awesome grace he has brought me through almost 10 years of infertility to be blessed to have 3 beautiful children. I am truly blessed to have been chosen by God to be able to go through these trials in order to be a real voice for his wondrous love for his children! For him to be able to use his work and healing of me to be a living testimony of his present day miracles is overwhelming! Every tear I have shed over the years, the loss of our first child,although sad...all of it was worth it to be able to be what I always wanted to be... a mother! Who am I now to be selfish about my mangled body parts, when he has blessed me so abundantly! He made these parts, he used them for his gifting us with our hearts desire.And now I gratefully give them back! I am excited to finally be able to walk tall and proud when someone asks me "how are you"? I will be able to tell them without any uncertainty....I'm Fine! And really mean it! I have hidden my pain for years! For the Lord to give me complete freedom in this area is going to be awesome!
I am thankful to the Lord for also providing a way for my parents and my sister Darlin to come down here and help out with those little miracles I now have! What a blessing! I will of course keep everyone updated with my progress!

It's Been A While!! Sorry

Hey guys! I know it has been a while since I last blogged. Since our visit to Nanny Faye's house life has been quite an adventure!Let's see where should I begin?
We had to evacuate for Hurricane Gustav....Praise God we did not have any damage!Just a lot of clean-up and inconvenience due to lack of electricity! But overall we were satisfied with the outcome of the storm for our family and for of church family as well! I will post a slide show of our shelter from the storm. We left Norco, around 4 a.m on the Saturday before the storm. Our Parrish was in a mandatory evacuation as of noon on Saturday. So our little head start was great planning on Rick's part! About an hour or so after we left is when most of the traffic tie-ups occurred! We arrived at our first destination of McKinney, Texas on Saturday afternoon! My Ex- Brother-In-Law Cary had invited Rick and I to stay at his house! How kind was that? He was so generous to us ! We stayed there until after the storm had passed. We moved over to Benbrook , Texas to my sister Darlin's house later in the week! It was such a nice thing for she and her husband Joey to invite us in to invade there life for a few days! When you invite the Mayeaux tribe for an evacuation....you get a lot more than you expected!!!LOL Thank you Darlin and Joey your hospitality was above and beyond "our" expectations! Rick drove back to Norco on the Friday after the storm to clean up and check things out. While he was still here at home we did get our electricity back on the Sunday afternoon.So being that things were better we of course came home! Only to be visited from our "Other " little storm IKE! For Ike we did loose electricity for around 13 hours or so. But things of course could have been much worse!

What Fun We Had @ Nanny Faye's

We spent our Sunday afternoon at Faye & Allen's house on the North shore.Faye is Rick's sister. We had such a GREAT time! After a wonderful lunch of Bar-B-Que Ribs,sweet potatoes,pork&beans, potato salad & dirty rice! What a feast! I think Ava ate her weight in sweet potatoes and Emma was in heaven with the potato salad and the dirty rice! After lunch we did go swimming!The girls were a little apprehensive at first,but eventually Emma was swimming like a fish and Ava finally left the ladder!
It was so nice to sit and visit with my brother and sister -in-law.

The Mayeaux's Go to The Mississippi Gulf Coast!

This past Friday was supposed to be an overnight romantic getaway, but in usual Mayeaux fashion...things went shall we say not according to the plans! The reason for going to the Gulf Coast was for Rick's job .So he actually HAD to go! So on to plan B! Plan B was to actually take the whole tribe on this adventure. How often does a free room on the coast come your way? To answer that....LIKE NEVER!! So we were going to take advantage of the gift! We left for the coast around 3:30p.m. With all of the craziness getting everything ready for when Rick arrived home I forgot the most important thing for a Momma to remember! To actually take and make the children go potty before we left! So needless to say we literally get 3 miles from the house and Ava says she has to potty! Well for those of you who know where we live can understand my plight in this situation! For those of you who don't here it is in a nut shell...We live surrounded by water. Within 3 miles of the house there is no longer any shall we say proper "PEE PEE" spots! We were driving between Norco & Destrehan which is basically "The Swamp"!So for a 3 year old to now be told "To hold it", didn't really work in our favor! So we had to stop and "clean up"the first crime scene of our trip! While I was taking care of business with little miss Ava Grace, Rick was going to fill up the family truckster with gas. Of course we should have known it wouldn't be that easy right?The gas station could not accept credit/debit cards due to bad weather!!WHAT??? You heard me right..CASH ONLY! Who carries that much money now a days to go fill up their car/van? So off to another station! So with all of our extra stops we didn't arrive in Bay St.Louis until 5:30! Rick needed to be changed and downstairs for 6:00! Even with all of the craziness the kids were so excited,and Rick did get downstairs on time!The kids and I had the best time enjoying the view from the high rise, jumping on the beds(o.k. I did let them do that a little! Sometimes ya gotta just let them be kids!)and waiting for Ray's bed and our dinner to arrive! After dinner and a bath we all were super excited to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony!!After a little trouble receiving the channel, we were awed by so many things watching the ceremony! The kids were so into it,I was amazed how it captured their attention! For my sake all kiddo's were off to dreamland around 8:30, and momma enjoyed a nice relaxing, hot bath! How wonderful that the lord gave us all that we wanted! The next morning off we went for our day of adventure! We ate breakfast at a Cracker Barrel and went for an impromptu walk along the beach! We know that we were a little over dressed for the beach but....When in Rome...Right? We had so much fun with the kids. And I have to say they were quite the troopers! Enjoy the new pics!!

Help Me Momma!!! I Need A Wipe!!!!

O.K. So you all who just love our Ava stories here's one for you!So the other day was crazy! Not crazy in your typical Mayeaux fashion, just crazy in general! We had a lot of things going on! Too many to list, but you get the picture...Chaos!!LOL Although this is rather personal I will just tell it like it was! With being the mother of three very busy kiddo's one rarely gets ANY alone time to even go to the bathroom,nonetheless it is NEVER by yourself!You pretty much have a potty party everyday!So during one of these shall I say potty parties Ava disappeared. Now I know all of you are gasping at this moment...the thought of Ava alone anywhere is enough to contact some sort of authorities!LOL So,as we are all finishing up in the bathroom, I hear Ava screaming to me "HELP ME MOMMA..I NEED A WIPE"!"OH NO PLEASE HELP ME"!Knowing what my child is capable of I grab my cell phone(so that I can call Dr.J if needed) and run towards the screams! Upon my arrival to the screaming child,I now see Ava has pushed the butcher block table up to the fridge, climbed on top, and retrieved a black sharpie and shall we say the rest is an interesting piece of our family's Quilt Of Memories!!!I am posting the evidence for you ..photos of the scene of the crime and the results of the perpetrator

The Mayeaux's Do the CAREWALK!!

Our Covenant Group was a part of the last CAREWALK in Lakeview last Sunday! We brought the wagon and hit the streets with our Binders and off we went! After the CAREWALK we enjoyed a picnic at Metairie Playground! Needless to say, we all had a great time and enjoyed ourselves fellowshipping with the others in the group!

BATHTIME @ THE MAYEAUX'S!!

Always expect the unexpected here at the Mayeaux's house! Even bathtime isn't Normal! LOL Those of you that really know us completly understand that last quote!!LOL Well here is the little story that goes along with these pics!Ava & Ray were taking a bath when all of a sudden there was a third party in the tub!Well letsjust say EVERYONE got a bath!LOL

"KINGDOM BUILDERS " VBS 2008

This year was the first year that Emma was able to attend V.B.S.! She was so excited! I worked the nursery along with my helpers Ava& Ray, while Emma Attended her class. The name of her class was "Nails" being that this years theme was based on a construction theme.Her teachers were Ms.Tori Masson& Ms.Carly Collins! Emma did so well! Although some of the Scripture verses were rather long , she did her best to remember them in her own words!It was such a joy to see her so excited about learning about the Lord! Of course in typical V.B.S. fashion there were puppets!! And for Ava& Ray that was the main attraction!They loved the puppets! Jessica worked so hard with the puppet team and made that aspect of the crusade so memorable for the little ones! The other "draw" to Ava Grace was/is Pastor Peter! LOL Pastor Peter was one of the members of the drama team. He played the role of a"GRAMPA"! Go figure...It must have been quite a stretch for him! LOL Well anyway.all through the worship time Ava and Pastor Peter danced together, worshiped together,and according to Ava...He is my best friend! LOL Ray also loved Pastor Peter. He now Calls him "GRAMPA"! I think he actually thinks that is his name due to the drama! It is rather cute! Although the getting everyone ready so early,and the chaos that comes with that, it was all well worth it!! Enjoy these pics of the event!

THE ZOOMOBILE CAME TO NORCO

Storyland & Snow-Balls Sunday

On Sunday we spent the morning doing chores, and the afternoon having fun with the kids! We chose for our outing with the kids this weekend:A visit to Storyland in City Park and a Special Snow-Ball treat on the way home! Well let me just say, The kids and Rick & I had a BLAST!!For all of you who don't know Storyland is a little play adventure area inside city park!Some of our float makers here in NOLA has helped Mother Goose stories come to life through adorable exhibits!The kids can climb & play on them, interact with some of the story characters!In general just have a !great time!Enjoy a few pics: