Presenting Our College Graduate

Ms. Rachael Allison Ardoin!

Graduation was today, May 15, 2010....Rachael graduated from UL Lafayette's Nursing School and is now a Registered Nurse, working in the Emergency Room at Lafayette General! We are so proud of her....five long years, living on her own, working two...sometimes three jobs, staying on the Dean's list.....

Congratulations, Rachael!!! We love you and are so proud of you!

Third Wedding Anniversary

elebrating our THIRD wedding anniversary today! The journey hasn't been easy but today, we are stronger than ever....and are busy planning the next 47 years together! He and I, alone together! With God's help! Woohoo!

I love my husband, tremendously, awesome man that he is!

Murphys and San Francisco, California

Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge

What a great Easter! Day was at work, Rachael was working and Caleb was at Fort Bragg....and me? Well, all alone! So Gail and I decided to head to California to visit friends we met in Cozumel last July. What a great time we had! Murphys, set in the Sierra Foothills of California has lots of wineries with superior wines! We visit

ed Big Trees State Park and Yosemite National Forest and Park....perfect blue skies for both visits. We then woke up to SNOW on Thursday morning! How exciting. Oh, and we were upgraded to a Mustang convertible os we were able to drive to Murphys from San Francisco and back four days later with the top down! Cruisin the highways of Cali in a convertible...now that was a blessing from God...a dream made reality! We spent a few days in San Francisco...visited the Wharf, Alcatraz, Coit Tower along with the Golden Gate Bridge and a few other sites and rode trolley and cable cars! The only down side was the midnight flight we booked back...I ended up being awake for nearly 36 hou

rs before I slept again! But when I did sleep, it was the best sleep I had in a LONG time!

It was a great time...the only thing better would have been my Honey by my side. I love you, Husband! Thanks for a great Easter gift!

Me!

At Pier 39 of The Wharf with the sea lions

Picnic at Yosemite National Forest and Park

Snow in Murphys, California!

At the California Science Museum, Planetarium and Aquarium in San Francisco

Latest at the Louisiana Haaland Household

I have to admit to "forgetting" about my blog....so sorry for my family members that follow here. I'll try to keep this updated a bit more!

The newest thing here....me not working outside the home anymore! And I'm so enjoying it! Christmas was awesome....you all got your yearly newsletters and now that the holidays and the remodel are complete, I have begun to settle into life without the 7-4 daily work schedule. I have to admit to sleeping "in" way more mornings than I should be but oh, what a joy! And in addition to my photography playtime, I am also back learning my Spanish and have discovered the Food Network!

Playing in the kitchen is something new to me.

...cooking has always been a "chore" and not something I enjoyed. Now, that's different! I've found some of my favorite chefs, have an account on the Food Network site and save my favorite recipes so that when Day is home or I have friends over, I can pull them up and practice! Life is so good!

This summer's project....my own garden with fresh produce!

Here's a few of my recent experiments! A chicken dish and roasted tomatoes from Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa and Corn Pudding from the Food Network magazine (yes, I subscribe!). Bon appetite!

Took a nice little trip to Cozumel with my friend, Gail, to celebrate her 40th birthday. Had a great time visiting the Mayan ruins and swimming with the dolphins! Got my husband a couple of cool shirts, too!

Swimming with the Dolphins in Cozumel

THE MAN CAVE

We've transformed the sunroom into a beautiful, masculine den....affectionately named the "Man Cave"  by our good friend, Gail.  Day wanted leather so we picked out this gorgeous set along with a coordinating swivel rocker/recliner that he just loves!  I've added some of his favorite pictures along with some other little special things and there you have it...the Haaland Man Cave!  Of course, as this is 2009, girls are allowed!

17th of May

The National Norwegian Holiday....we celebrated as best we could! Took lots of internet researching but I finally found another bakery that shipped Kransekakes! Well, not as good as the one for our wedding...this one was more Danish style (Day says) but still, it was delicious! The only thing better would have been a bottle of Mozelle! We were camping at Hideway Ponds in Gibson, Louisiana.....so we celebrated the best we could!

I surprised Day with the cake..here he is opening it up! He had no idea!

He decorated the entire cake (it was kind of small...LOL).

Kransekake!