Highs and Lows of June

On to June! June is a celebratory month for the Conley Family... and not just for Damion and me! His birthday is the 2nd, mine is the 13th, but we also have Aunt Michelle's Birthday on the 4th and Damion's Mawmaw's birthday on the 14th. That's a lot of cake, huh? :o)  We all gathered together in the middle of all that for a big family birthday in Breaux Bridge at Pop and Mawmaw's house.  Pop had just come home from a nursing home care center a couple of weeks before that, so it was nice for everyone to be all together and have him there with us.  We ate lots of yummy home cooking and had cake, ice cream, and presents! Some of the kids even had fun in the little pool outside!

There's always time for a little Barbie play, too. :o)

I saw that a friend of mine from back home had learned a quick and easy recipe for homemade bread, so I thought I would try my hand at it, too.  Here's the original recipe if you want to try it! It's delicious, very easy (quick, but you do have to wait for it to rise), and we love it! We've made less as the summer weeks have come and gone because we've been traveling so much, but I plan to start it back once we get home again!

(Instead of honey, I add 2/3 cup sugar, and then add 1/3 oil

when I add the salt & flour. We did honey for one run, and

it's great, too, just stickier to knead.)

~~~

Sadly, around mid-June, Damion's grandpa, Pop Norris, was diagnosed with a rare brain disease called PSP. We lost him about two weeks later. It was very quick, though the more we learned about this disease, there were evidences of it for the last two years. Pop served 25 years in the U.S. Army and retired as a Chief Warrant Officer 3. 

Rest In Peace, Pop...
July 19, 1943 - June 27, 2014

May Came and Went!

Time flies when you're... newlyweds! And yes, we're having fun!

After our move, Damion and I both started looking for jobs, pretty much anywhere.  There were some frustrations along the way - no call backs, spammy links and email offers, and even some "no thank you's" from potential employers. Bummer, huh? But, we tried to keep our heads on straight and our hearts and minds focused!

We started visiting a church right down the road from our house. We have enjoyed getting to know some folks there, and are so grateful for those that have reached out to us to get to know us more personally. Making new friends in a new place can be intimidating, for sure! It's been nice to be back around Damion's family, as well.  Since he came to Raleigh last February, except for a couple of trips back to LA to visit (during the summer for our birthdays and at Christmas), we haven't been able to be around much.

One opportunity that Damion had was to help out during the Lake Charles Contraband Days. It's a pirate festival! Wouldn't it be fun if I told you that he dressed like a pirate, walking around waving his hooked hand in peoples' faces for a couple of weeks? :o) No such luck! He did, however, get to hang out with some really cool people!  Ron and Trish are a sweet couple who love Jesus and run a food truck called Crackerbillies!  Check them out on Facebook!  They're on their way to a county fair in Ohio right now, so if you're in the area, stop by for some fried gator! Yes, gator! It's pretty delish!

Don't worry, he doesn't bite.. anymore ;o)

Gator tastes pretty mild. The texture is a lot like pork chops, but it's more like chicken in flavor.

They use a really great fry coating! I had mine with french fries, and some ketchup and BBQ sauce.

My cousin, Roslyn, lives pretty close! Yay!

She was able to come spend the day with me one day 

while he worked, so she went with 

me to have some festival food. 

She went for the chicken tenders, 

but I got to taste her side of fried cauliflower.

Super yummy!

Shortly after the festival was over, Damion was hired on with a glass installation company. He's been working with them ever since, but not just here at home. They have several job sites all over the country, so he's been hopping around to different cities for different projects. Sometimes, I get to come along! More on that later! 

After his first night of work, we hurried over to the Civic Center for South Beauregard High School's 2014 graduation festivities! Damion's brother, Dustin, and cousin, Dylan, both graduated. 

Congrats Grads!

And just like that, we were heading into June!

Some Of The Details

To finish off the wedding photo posts, I added some of the detail photographs to Facebook.
Head on over to see!

Thank you to Meghan and Micaela (twin sisters!) from True Foundation Photography for spending the weekend with us, capturing everything about our day! You can also follow them on Instagram or Twitter!