48 Hours In Crescent City

Week 2 at Big Break ended and I celebrated by going to a walk-in clinic to get antibiotics to treat a recurring ear infection. :/ It was actually an easy process and I'm so thankful for the relief! It was Friday, and the first day we had rain our entire time in Florida. Not bad! It was a day of rest before heading out on our next adventure: New Orleans!

Since we travel a lot for our job, I like to tack little adventures onto trips that take us to parts of the country we wouldn't normally go to. Last year we went to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, and the year prior we stopped for dinner & walked down Broadway St. in Nashville. This year, we wanted to do something a little more exciting. And what could be more exciting than New Orleans? Seriously-I didn't know how much fun it would be.

The only plan we made was a minibus tour I found through a Groupon deal. It started the minute we pulled into town and lasted three hours. It gave us a great overview of the city's districts and what's still happening to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We learned that a few stars had homes in both the French Quarter and the Garden District, so we got to snap a few shots of those. We visited City Park, which is twice the size of Central Park in NYC. The rest was spontaneous and totally unplanned. We went to the French Market, and were fortunate to be there during the Roadfood Festival that comes once a year. Shrimp Creole, baked Alaskan with chocolate sauce (which I didn't realize was a dessert), Jambalya, Red Beans & Rice, Crawfish-We tried it all! I couldn't resist buying a cheap Mardi Gras mask from the market.

After dinner at Pat O'Brien's and a walk down Bourban Street we walked to our hotel just outside the French Quarter. It was a treat in and of itself. Having booked it over the phone without seeing it or being able to know if it would be close enough to the Quarter, I was a little nervous. But it was just the right distance away-in fact we are glad we didn't stay in the Quarter in the midst of the craziness. The hotel, the Holiday Inn Superdome, was modernly decorated, very clean & comfortable, and had an awesome rooftop pool. We couldn't have found anything better for the price.

It was a perfect vacation. We tried a lot of great food (Biegnets at Cafe Du Monde, boiled crab and seafood pizza at Deanie's, daiquiris at one of the many daiquiri shops), walked really fun streets in the Garden District & French Quarter, took hundreds of pictures on our new camera, slept in at a hotel we were in no hurry to get out of, and just enjoyed being together in a new city.
And-I didn't even mention our Favre-themed stops that flanked our NOLA trip. On the way there, we stopped in Kiln, MS where he was born and raised. On the way out, we hit up The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS where he played college football. This was an unplanned treat that we happened upon. Literally, we saw a sign, learned it was just 4 miles from the interstate, and drove right into the stadium parking lot. The field was unsecured and open for anyone to walk on. Ben was like a kid in a candy shop. Yes, we did find a foam finger at the bookstore across from campus :)

A French Quarter street's hitching posts (a rest stop for horses).

Recognize the house? It'sthe old folks home from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." We also saw Sandra Bullock, Sean Penn, Bradgelina's and Lenny Kravitz's places among others.

We happened upon these street performers on our way to Cafe Du Monde for beignets. I love this kind of thing, where people use their strength and skill to entertain pedestrians. It was a blast!








The beignets were delicious! Check out that powdered sugar falling off!

March Madness: Week 1

Over the next few days I'll be writing about the road trips and conferences Ben and I have experienced throughout the month of March. We've traveled over 2,500 miles and seen a lot of new sights along the way! On the 9th we took off for Panama City Beach, FL in our faithful Saturn, along with our friend and co-worker Jonny. The ride was surprisingly quick-probably because it was so fun (and I didn't have to drive much. Thanks guys!) The weather in PCB was the nicest yet during any Big Break conference I have been to in previous years. This was my fourth-at least-I can't remember if I went twice as a student.

Marquette and UW-Parkside students arrived eagerly and a bit anxious for the week of being taught from featured speakers and sharing their faith on the beach. We had a LOT of students come who had never ever shared their faith before, let alone been to Big Break. It was a great week of seeing these students step out and trust God to use them to love on people and listen to them. In particular, Ben and I are excited to see the momentum back on campus at UWP, as one of the girls said she wants to have a weekly time where people gather to go and initiate spiritual conversations with other students on campus. They saw God work through them during this week and want to make it a lifestyle, as we are called to do as followers of Christ.

The week was filled with bonding, and we especially loved getting to live life with students off campus, which is hard for us since we live out of town. Below, Kat and Halima learn to use Soularium, a tool that uses pictures to ask people about their life experiences and view of God.
This group of students left Saturday morning, and just hours later we greeted the UWM group to do the whole thing over. I prayed that God would help me to hear the speakers and experience this week with fresh perspective, not thinking that since I was there the week before that I could just check out mentally. It proved to be a bit of a struggle through the week, and I needed to pull away at times to think and process experiences & what I was learning-but God answered that prayer and taught me what it really means to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

Girls share about a fruitful conversation they had on the beach one afternoon.


Over 100 students attended an optional morning seminar that taught them about apologetics and the importance of understanding a variety of worldviews.

Resourcing on a Whim

I hate wasting things, and I love being resourceful. So tonight, as I was packing up from the villa in Florida Ben and I have been living in for the past two weeks, I decided to put together some sort of a snack for our weekend vacation to New Orleans. With a fridge of half-used condiments and various ingredients, it was pretty easy to decide on chocolate chip cookies. I actually had baking soda and vanilla on hand, but no eggs or butter. After almost 15 minutes browsing the web to find a recipe I could make without either, I finally decided to implement some things I found. I could sub a banana for the butter, and mayo for the eggs. (I know, gross, right?) The dough was pretty dry, so I added some Canola oil, and after it was still dry, I mixed in some peanut butter. In the end, they turned out to be pretty delicious! And I didn't have to worry about consuming raw eggs while eating the batter :)

Not bad looking, right?