A HOME OF MY OWN.

Yesterday was the day.

The day I handed over the money to buy

my little cottage in the garden district of Plaquemine.

It will still be a few weeks before I can move 

as the owner will stay there until her new home

is ready but I can come and go in the home

as I want and can start working on things I

would like done before I move. 

I am so pumped up but more proud,

proud that I did it all by myself.

Ron and I, we have bought many homes together.

He was always the one who did to work it took

to buy and although I appreciated that,

this time it was my baby and I feel so 

proud of me. To see my name on the deed

only, refreshing. My new start on life will

begin soon and this cottage will say so much of me

that people will walk in and if they know me,

they will thing,

"Oh this is so Lilly's home"

I see many memories being made there with my grandchildren,

those present and those not yet present.

It's a great feeling and this morning,

because I can go in the house when the old owner is working

and I can do things in it to prepare it for 

my move. When I get back from that cruise on June 7th,

I will have the excitement of the real move....

So, so happy today!

THERE ARE THOSE TEACHERS..e

There are those teachers, when your young and

obnoxious but they still fight hard to teach you 

not only the lessons that are listed on your 

report card but life lessons.

I have had a few.

Those that stay in your heart and mind long after

you are grown with your own family.

I speak today of one of those blessed Saints

who put up with my teenage shenanigans

and knew what I was up to even though I believe

I was pulling wool over her eyes.

Mrs. Janet Bowman.

Yes, this woman now, I hate to say

is suffering from one of the worst diseases

there can be:

Alzheimer's Disease.

It seems so unfair to have a woman who was

so so very smart to have this dreaded disease.

I bet she rolled her eyes and though

"Oh my!"

When after finally getting rid of me one year

in Biology to sees she had me again 

the next year for Chemistry.

I should have met with her before

her mind went too far, to share

with her what I did learn from her...

Now I am not sure she would know...

SO I write it here in hopes that her hubby,

Chris may read it to her and she will

at least smile...

I was the class clown. After having her the first

year I knew her, she me.

I knew if I could get her to veer from her lesson

plan, we could have a good class.

I knew if I got her talking of her young son,

Stephen, which she rarely did,

she kept family and work separate,

it would be a short class.

Yet something happened when she was veered

off that lesson plan and showed us who she

was at home. When she mentioned Stephen,

her eyes lit up, she swore at three years old

he was smarter than all of us and knew

that periodic table already.

I was a smart ass teen but I knew she liked

me, she saw past my obnoxious being 

to the woman I would become.

Sometimes she made me stay after class to talk

to me. Of course, I would be afraid I would

get in trouble. Yet each time, as the class

left and I sat there, being nervous that I was about

to get in trouble, she would only remind me.

"Lilly, you are better than what you want 

these peers to see, try and learn something while 

you are here"

Oh my dear, Mrs. Bowman I learned.

I may not know the periodic table but I 

became a nurse and her biology class was all over

the nursing years. 

It seems not fair that this amazing, shy, when

not teaching,woman has the dreaded Alzheimer's.

then I think of the woman I knew way back then and

I know that if she had a choice that someone

she loved, (and she loved us all)

could be spared pain or illness, she would take it.

It is a cross she would carry for anyone else.

As a nurse, I then met the man behind the woman.

Chris, her husband. She spoke of him sometimes

but again, she was more on separating family and work.

I had the privilege of seeing Chris with his very ill mother

when I was her nurse at good old Lady of the Sea.

I loved her, loved taking care of her, requested

her when she was inpatient because I also

knew that with having her as a patient,

I would have good and long conversations

with her son, Chris.

I was an adult now, embarrassed of how

i had acted in his wife's class.

There were times I asked him to apologize to 

her so she would know I grew up to have made

something of myself.

Chris was a caring son and then went

back to teaching and taught my niece and godchild, Tedi.

How she loved him and then we reconnected via Facebook.

Lately, Mrs. Bowman, had to be put into a facility because

being home had become too dangerous

for herself. I know Chris is having a hard time with this

and in private conversations we have had

he wants no one to focus on him,

only the wonderful woman the wife he is loosing daily,

the smartest woman he has ever known slowly 

leaving us all. Yet there is much to be said

about marriage in this little story.

He says he was no saint, and still is not,

that this is marriage, the vows he took,

"for better or worse"

yet, I remind him he is a very important part to

us all in this. AS many of us have taken the same

vows and have not made it. 

The care he has given her, carrying out ever promise

he made to her before she lost who she was,

for me is teaching us all so much.

Yes she was an amazing woman,

still is and I tear up when I think of the smartest woman

I have ever known being lost to this dreaded disease,

but I also know that even as she gets worse, he is still

there every day, still her husband, still following her commands

she made before now.

They are both here to teach us much,

not in the lessons I was supposed to learn way back

when i was in high school

but the lessons of life and for that,

both of them continue to carry out their calling

teachers to us all.

ITS NOT JUST STERN...

I DON'T ONLY LISTEN TO HOWARD STERN

ON XM RADIO, I ALSO LISTEN TO JOEL OSTEEN,

Yep from on end to the other....

and I love both stations equally.

This week has been an Osteen week on my

xm radio. The story I heard two days ago

while listening just touched me to no end.

As told my Joel Osteen:

ON THE DAY OF THE TERRIBLE WORLD TRADE 

CENTER DISASTER, A YOUNG COUPLE WERE ON

THEIR WAY TO THE AIRPORT TO BOARD ONE

OF THE PLANES THAT CRASHED INTO THE 

WORLD TRADE CENTER.

THEY WERE ON THEIR WAY TO VISIT THE

HUSBANDS PARENTS WHO LIVED IN

NEW YORK. ON THEIR WAY,

THEY HAD A FLAT TIRE THAT CAUSED

THEM TO MISS THE FLIGHT.

OF COURSE THEY WERE UPSET THAT

THEY HAD TO POSTPONE THEIR TRIP 

BY A BIT BUT WHEN HEARD OF THE

TRAGEDY BELIEVED ONLY THAT THEIR

LIVES HAD BEEN SPARED BY THE GOD 

THEY SO BELIEVED IN.

THE HUSBANDS PARENTS WERE BESIDE THEMSELVES

UNTIL THEY FINALLY WERE ABLE TO 

SPEAK ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT HIS 

SON HAD MISSED THE FLIGHT.

AFTER MANY TEARS AND "I LOVE YOU'S"

HIS DAD SAID, BECAUSE HE WAS A RETIRED

FIRE FIGHTER, HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO 

THE TRADE CENTERS TO SEE WHERE HE COULD HELP.

THIS WAS BEFORE THE BUILDINGS COLLAPSED.

IT WAS THE LAST TIME THE SON AND FATHER WOULD SPEAK.

THE SON LIVED WITH A HEAVY HEART NOT

ONLY FOR THE WAY HE LOST HIS DAD WHEN

THE BUILDINGS CAME DOWN BUT ALSO,

ALTHOUGH THE SON WAS A VERY FIRM BELIEVER

IN GOD, HIS DAD WAS NOT, HE WAS AN

ATHEIST. THE SON WORRIED ABOUT HIS 

FATHERS SOUL. ABOUT 8 MONTHS LATER,

THERE WAS A KNOCK ON HIS DOOR.

THERE STOOD A YOUNG COUPLE HOLDING A

SMALL BUNDLE OF A BABY BOY IN THEIR ARMS.

THEY ASKED TO COME IN AND ONCE THE SON

FOUND OUT WHO THEY WERE HE GLADLY LET THEM IN.

THE YOUNG MOTHER BEGAN TO TELL THE STORY OF

THE LAST HOURS OF THE SONS DADS LIFE.

THIS MOTHER, EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT AT THE TIME, 

WAS TRYING TO GET DOWN THE STAIRS OF THE

WORLD TRADE CENTER. THE FATHER RAN IN TO 

HER ON THE STAIRS AND DECIDED HE

WOULD MAKE THE WALK ALL THE WAY DOWN

TO SAFETY WITH HER.

AS THEY WALKED, SHE SPOKE OF A GOD SHE

BELIEVED IN, AND THE DAD LISTENED.

WHEN HE GOT HER SAFELY OUT SHE ASKED

HIM IF HE BELIEVED IN GOD.

HE SAID HE DID NOW.

SHE ASKED IF SHE COULD PRAY WITH HIM.

THIS YOUNG MOTHER REASSURED THIS SON

THAT HIS DAD HAD ACCEPTED GOD INTO HIS

LIFE RIGHT BEFORE HE WENT BACK INTO THE 

BUILDING, IT THEN FELL WITH THE BORN 

AGAIN CHRISTIAN INSIDE.

What a story, right, of course, I retell it in my

own words, Joel Osteen probably did a better job but

either story, both bone chilling.

Not done yet,

the young mother places her baby boy into

the son's arms and says to him,

"My son now has your fathers name"

Such a beautiful story following such a tragic 

episode in our world. 

THE LAFONTS STEAL THE DAY!

There are those days in our lives that everything, everything

goes right and a family score from the minute they awaken.

Such was the case yesterday for my niece and nephew's

The Lafont's. 

First Malaina left on her own for the day to try 

out for LCO cheerleader.

Now much I can blog about this child, would take me

all day. She is almost always happy,

and always, always dancing.

She has a talent that others must envy.

She dances competition dance and often I tell her

she could definitely dance with Abby Lee Miller

on Dance Mom's. She is so much better than some

on that team.

So yesterday, her Mommy has to leave her at LCO 

to do this on her own....

by the end of the day...

Our Mee Mee is an LCO cheerleader! 

I cannot believe our girl is old enough to be going 

to LCO but I know she deserves to cheer there!

After many years, her mom, Cindy,

sitting in stands watching boy sports, she finally

gets to see her little girl cheer.

How she prayed for this child.

She hit the gold mine when she received her little girl!

Congrats Malaina!

It was a bittersweet day for their Mom, 

her baby girl now a Middle school cheerleader,

and her middle child, our Darcy, 

having his senior prom....

as she texted me yesterday,

"EMOTIONAL DAY, DARCY'S LAST PROM ALSO..."

Darcy another sweet, funny, lovely child.

I don't think this boy has one enemy.

Ya can't be around Darcy and not laugh.

This boy has so much self confidence it is awe inspiring.

So his Mother gets him ready for prom with 

his beautiful date and he is off.

 While her oldest, Jrew also gets ready for prom.

He graduated last year, but his girlfriend is not done

so he too was a prom date. 

Jrew is a hard worker, funny he was off this day.

His work ethics are much to be proud of,

So different from his brother, Darcy but they 

are still such good friends.

Yep, a big but emotional day for one Momma!

 Then, like this is not just enough to be proud of,

Cindy finds out a little later, her son,

our Darcy, voted Prom King!

What an honor, voted by his peers!

Told ya he was a special kid.

His prom queen, although not his date,

are friends of mines little girl,

Hannah. Another very sweet child.

So in a world where so much is said about 

the negativity of teens, here are three special teens

in one household. What makes the Lafont's special?

Well besides I, being their aunt, (cough, cough, sarcasm)

I know much about their lives, and their mother

has been their lifeline.

Their Dad worked much as they grew so much

of the parenting was done single handedly by their Mom

and let me say this,

she has done not one, but three wonderful jobs

as she has always, always, put her babies first.

One day, as it is moving fast,

she will find herself, like me,

with three adult children (except i have 2)

and can look back on this day as one 

where all went right 

and the Lafont's stole the day,

April 11, 2015.

Love to all you Lafont's 

so proud of you all!!!!1

MADONNA ON STERN

IN THE 80'S WHEN VHI CAME OUT AND

MUSIC VIDEOS WERE NEW, I HAD AN

ISSUE WITH MADONNA.

AT THAT TIME, I WAS YOUNG, NAIVE,

AND VERY CLOSE TO MY GOD

AND HAD NO PROBLEM PASSING JUDGEMENT

ON MADONNA FOR ONE OF HER VIDEOS WITH

HER WEARING A CONE BRA AND A ROSARY AROUND

HER NECK. FOR ME, AT THE TIME,

A ROSARY AROUND HER NECK WAS SACRILEGIOUS.

SO ALTHOUGH, I LOVED HER MUSIC, 

WAS NOT A FAN OF MADONNA AND SPOKE OPENLY

ABOUT IT.

THEN I BECAME 51, AND CAN NOW LISTEN TO

HOWARD STERN IN MY CAR WHEN I AM BY MYSELF

WITHOUT BEING JUDGED...LOL

YESTERDAY I LISTEN TO AN INTERVIEW WITH THE MADONNA

HERSELF AND EITHER SHE HAS CHANGED A LOT,

I HAVE CHANGED A LOT, OR WE BOTH HAVE MATURED

AND GROWN OLDER.

AS FOR HOWARD STERN.... WELL I WON'T PASS JUDGEMENT...

I LOVE ME SOME HOWARD.

AS HE INTERVIEWS HER, HE SPEAKS OF A FEW MONTHS

AGO WHILE DURING A CONCERT, SHE FELL 

BECAUSE OF A MISHAP WITH A CAPE THAT INSTEAD

OF COMING OFF WHEN PULLED BY HER DANCER, 

IT KNOTTED AND IT TOOK HER DOWN MANY STEPS

AND SHE SUFFERED A CONCUSSION.

SHE SPEAKS OF HOW UPSET SHE WAS WITH HERSELF

AND NO ONE ELSE, SHE SPOKE OF EVEN THOUGH

IT WAS RECOMMENDED SHE TAKE A FEW DAYS OFF,

SHE REFUSED NOT TO PLAY FOR HER FANS.

GOOD WORK ETHICS THERE.

BUT WHAT REALLY GOT ME LOVING OUR DEAR

MADONNA AGAIN WAS WHEN HOWARD BEGAN

TO ASK HER ABOUT HER BELIEFS ON LIFE AFTER

THIS ONE. BACK IN THE 80'S SHE WAS ATHEIST.

SHE IS NOW SO FULL OF BELIEFS ON GOD.

HOWARD ASKS ABOUT THOSE BELIEFS.

SHE BELIEVES THIS AND GOT ME THINKING,

The body, the one we live in here on Earth is mortal,

it's not going to last very long on Earth but our souls

are eternal which means it lives forever.

She believes in reincarnation.

If we choose, we can come back to Earth with our

souls in another body. Eventually  our lives become the

best we can be, we can choose to stay with our God.

I believe in reincarnation.

WELL, THIS HAS ME LOVING MADONNA A BIT MORE.

BUT ALSO A TAD AFRAID. 

LIKE WHAT IF REINCARNATION IS THE WAY IT WORKS?

IT MAKES THE MOST SENSE IN MY MIND

BUT TO YOU HAVE A CHOICE WHERE YA GO?

WHAT IF AFTER HAVING ONE OF THE BEST LIVES

I HAVE LIVED, SO HAPPY WITH THE LIFE I LIVE,

I AM BORN POOR AND HUNGRY CHILD IN ETHIOPIA...

WHAT IF I COME BACK AS AN ABUSED CHILD?

I HAVE DECIDED NOT TO WORRY ABOUT ALL OF THAT

AND TO LIVE THE BEST LIFE I CAN

BUT I CAN SAY THIS,

ALONG WITH LOVING ME SOME STERN,

I LOVE ME SOME MADONNA ALSO!

RIERA, NOT JUST A NAME

I would lie if I said I have not

been angry or cried through this whole separation

but most of it, was at the beginning, the shock

and since then I have had an inner peace

I've not had for a long time.

Both Ron and I are happier and have made

this change in our lives amicable.

In lots of ways, we will always be a part of each other.

Fact is, that old adage that we all are so tired of

hearing, "I love him but I am not in love with him"

Yeah, that one, he and I are finding a way

to make this least hard on everyone, even us.

so a strange thing happened at the lawyers office

the other day and it had nothing to do with 

a change in my mind of wanting this marriage

to try again. That is not going to happen.

Yet, Ron and I, we have both gone to the same

lawyer for all our proceedings.

Last week, we had an appointment to get

the home on my name so I can buy my cottage.

She, our lawyer voiced how at peace we both look,

how we should give lessons on the right way

to divorce. Not going there but I am proud

of how far we have come in less than a year.

We spoke to her about our divorce, when

we will make it final. I then ask, because I

just wanted to know, 

"If I want to go back to my maiden name, would it be hard?"

"No" is her answer, "we can do it at the same

time for no extra cost."

I became choked up. I didn't expect that.

I want a divorce. it was about the name.

Our lawyer noticed I was "go-cud"

(tears in eyes, wanting to cry)

"Oh don't cry, you never cry"

Once I get my composure, I explain my feelings.

"This has nothing to do with wanting to go 

back to being married. I and Ron are both so much happier,

this is about a name I have carried longer than my 

Collins name. It is about not having the same last

name as my children, my grandchildren.

It is about feeling like I will stand alone in our family

that we have built."

Ron says, "It's a pain to change all that, it is up to 

you but I don't care if you stay Riera"

Right there I make up my mind.

I want to be Riera.

I want, when people see my awesome kids and all

they achieve, they know they are ours,

as our last name is so unique, only ones around here.

I want when my little grandchildren write

their last name, to be proud that we share that.

So, I will be at peace, in my new cottage,

first home I own on my own,

but I will sign on the dotted line,

LILLIAN COLLINS RIERA

same name I have had for over 30 years.

LOVING ON A NEW CAPTION

I WANT THIS TO BE MY NEW MOTTO.

LIFE REALLY CAN BE THIS SIMPLE, 

IF WE CHOOSE IT TO BE.

MY DAD HAVING BEEN A PROFESSIONAL 

PHOTGRAPHER UNTIL I WAS THREE,

HAVE ALL KIND OF LOVE FOR ANYTHING

TO DO WITH PHOTOGRAPHY.

"IF THINGS DON'T WORK OUT,

JUST TAKE ANOTHER SHOT"

I AM DOING THAT NOW, 

EXCITED AND SCARED AT THE SAME TIME

TO BUY MY COTTAGE FOR ME.

FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I GET TO 

OWN A HOME ALONE, THE ONE I WANT,

THE ONE WITH SO MUCH CHARACTER.

WENT THERE YESTERDAY AGAIN

AND EACH TIME I VISIT I HAVE EVEN LESS

NERVOUSNESS, I KNOW THIS HOME,

THIS MUMSIE' COTTAGE,

IS MEANT TO BE.

HOPING MY COTTAGE IS HAUNTED....

Laughing this morning as I read the above post

for more than one reason.

One of the days I went to see what I hope to

call "My Cottage" soon,

the owners boyfriend showed the cottage to us.

Ronnie had come with me to give it a look over,

make sure I was getting a good home.

A nice, talkative guy, liked to talk-like me.

As we walk together, he explains that besides

his girlfriend, only the elderly lady who now

is dead lived in the home.

I ask excitedly,

" Do you think she died in the house????"

"No I am almost sure she did not"

he thinks he is comforting me.

"Shucks" I answer.

"Shucks, shucks?" He asks.

I explain how I love old houses and always

hoped to one day live in a haunted house.

He looks at me like I am crazy, looks at 

Ronnie, knowing he is soon to be my ex-husband.

and says,

"No wonder you getting a divorce!"

Hahhaha I swear this guy cracked me up with that comment.

So if the old lady's spirit still in the house, 

I hope she lets her presence be known.

As for the young man....

hope he keeps that sense of humor!

Ya learn something new every day....

when BB and kd bought their first home

on Kirtley, I came up to help him clean as

Kd had to work. 

To rest, I sat on their front swing

and wondered why the siding under

their porch eaves, was blue when

the rest was brown. It seemed strange

to me that the color would be different than the

rest of the house.

Last week, went to the cottage when the 

appraiser came I noticed that 

even there, the underneath of the porch was painted

this blue color when all the rest of 

the house is white and black.

I mention the the appraiser and the

girl I am buying from,

"I guess I will paint this ceiling to match

the rest of the house"

Both of them replied in unison,

"I wouldn't that is Mud-dowber blue"

Then I learn something new.

The reason things here in Plaquemine are painted

blue under neath and the color actually has

it's own name is that the color is to keep

bugs and those "mud dowbers" that make

holes in wood away. Must work because

none of them have seen a mud dowber

or many spiders around. 

I ask, there is actually a color o paint that color??

Yep, here in Plaquemine there is.

So I will follow tradition and keep my underhands

mud dowber blue. DTB we just get gecko's

to eat our bugs...

IT'S ONLY THE WIND....

I am in that place, 

you know where I speak of.

Between sleep and awake.

Where you can be anywhere your mind

and heart wants to be.

So I am there,

I am comforted, I am warm in my bed,

and I smile because I am safe.

I hear my parents speaking downstairs,

under where my childhood bedroom sits.

Our home is old, and unkept yet it is 

safe and because my parents are with

me I can continue to sleep...

All is well on Dursette Street in Golden Meadow.

Then I awaken and realize.

I am not that child, the one

who lays in her Hollie Hobbie sheets,

where she has no worries, all she needs,

is the responsibilities of those people

she heard speaking, her parents.

I am a 51 year old single woman

with two grown children,

both my parents have gone to another

place, which I choose to call heaven.

I am about to embark on something

I have never done alone.

For a few moments I feel that fear,

knowing what I thought was my parents voice,

is only the wind and rain the news

spoke of last night, a cold front.

Then, I am totally awake and I lay in 

my bed listening to the weather

and remember my childhood for a minute.

How my dad awakened early every morning

It was most mornings that his and my Mom's

voice is what I awakened to.

I would climb down those steps to

a homemade breakfast made by Dad,

whatever we had requested the night

before, a hug and back rub by my Mommy.

 Then it's time for reality.

 I may not be that child,

I may be doing something, buying a home alone

that I have never done before 

but I am also at complete peace in my life.

 The excitement of it all

replaces the fear I felt for a few seconds

and once again, all is right in the world.

Nursing graduation, would loose my Dad within that year.

C and I playing with Tiffy picking in C's hair.
That baby bed? it's a doll in there and yeah,
I was still sleeping in a baby bed in my parent room
at that age..... 

Tiffany, me being "a lady" Rosie holding my nephew, Guy.

My brother who was my godfather came from
Mexico in that fancy car and brought me the poncho,
hat and his new wife who was also from there.

My mom, bartering in Mexico for a silly puppet I just had to have,
broken arm but holding that bag tightly, still like
toys and can't pass a puppet on a string for nothing.