Welcome Baby Sydney!!

Welcome to my new granddaughter, baby Sydney, born at 9:24 a.m., 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19 and 1/2 inches. WooHoo!!!

Weight Watchers Frozen Treats and Free Ice Cream Prize Packs!

Did you know that in 1984 Ronald Reagan declared the month of July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day? And in the proclamation that he signed he called "upon the people of the United States to observe these events with appropriate ceremonies and activities.” I cannot believe that National Ice Cream Month nearly passed me by and next year I must be certain to observe this month with appropriate vigor!!

Well, living in the midst of southern heat and humidity, it is no surprise that ice cream is definitely a very popular treat down here. Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear the familiar tune of that ice cream truck making the block. But, in reality, ice cream is popular pretty much everywhere in this country, despite the weather.

As good as it is though, it does tend to have one downfall. It can be as fattening as it is delicious. And then there's that whole thing about portion control. Ice cream is just so refreshing and on an especially hot day it goes down so smooth and easy that, well... it's pretty easy to overdo it beyond that 1/2 cup serving.

Well, I was so excited when I was asked to give my opinion on the Weight Watchers line of frozen treats. I've tried several Weight Watchers grocery store products and have found them to be of excellent quality, but for some reason I had never tried their frozen treats. Now to choose! Well, I'm a big fan of ice cream sandwiches, but I love the cones too. Then there's the ice cream cups - cookies & cream, turtle sundae, mint chocolate chip, chocolate fudge brownie. Goodness! I had no idea! But, wait. There are bars too ... the usual toffee bars, cookies and cream bars and chocolate mousse bars ... and some amazing looking sherbet and sorbet ice cream bars too.

I tell ya, it was a hard decision picking just one treat to try because they all sounded so delicious, but I admit, I was also just a bit skeptical when I saw how low the points and calories were. Then I saw Giant Chocolate Fudge bars. To be honest, I am truly a sucker for a good fudge bar and I knew that if Weight Watchers could give me a low fat fudge bar that is creamy, loaded with chocolate flavor and tastes like it's higher fat counterpart, then I'd be sold on the rest of the product line.

So, I selected the Giant Chocolate Fudge bars, but I wondered... could a low cal ice cream really hold up against my discriminating ice cream taste? A few hours after dinner when I finally unwrapped a bar, I found that the size of the bar was a full inch thick, way thicker than traditional fudge bars.

But, size aside, the true test was gonna be in that first bite, because if it doesn't taste good, it doesn't reall matter how big it is!

I was not disappointed. The bar was just the right texture, not too hard, not too soft, and so creamy, with no trace of icy crystals. The taste was surprisingly rich, and with just the right amount of chocolately goodness. I admit. I really was both surprised and impressed.

When I have chosen a low fat ice cream I usually went with another popular treat, but I have to say, Weight Watchers beat that other one on both texture and flavor, hands down. I had no idea! And get this ... the Giant Chocolate Fudge Bar is only 1 point! Or if you're not into tracking points, that translates into 110 calories, 1 gram of fat and 5 grams of fiber!

That big, fat fudge bar? Only 1 gram of fat - versus 4 grams of fat in my usual, skinny fudge bar? That, and creamy and flavorful. What more could you want??

The best thing is that you don’t have to be on the Weight Watchers program or on any other diet program to enjoy Weight Watchers frozen treats, because you can pick them up right at your local grocery store. And, there's already built in portion control because every serving is individually packaged and none are more than 200 calories - or between 1 and 3 points per serving. What a great low point treat!

And dig this ... Weight Watchers even has their own reward program! Yep. Save those UPC codes from participating Weight Watchers products and you can exchange them in your IncrEdible Rewards account for books, beauty products, DVDs, cooking accessories, and loads more! I love reward programs.

The cost for Weight Watchers frozen treats is very reasonable too. I purchased the Chocolate Fudge Bars at my local Walmart for $3.98. That's right at 66 cents per bar! Not bad, but guess what?

You can friend Weight Watchers Supermarket Foods on Facebook where you'll find special coupon offers, free newsletters, recipes and giveaways. Check it out - there's one going on right now until July 31st for what else, free ice cream!! Free ice cream prize packs, what are you waitin' for??

If you don't find Weight Watchers frozen treats available at your favorite store, you can even print off a comment card right from the Weight Watchers site, fill it out and drop it off with the store manager.

Don't forget - click over and sign into your Facebook account to enter for a chance to win 1 of 5 Weight Watchers Ice Cream Prize Packs in the current Weight Watchers Ice Cream Giveway! You can see the whole line of Weight Watchers offerings right here, and while you're there, be sure to check out the Snack Widget!

Don't have a Facebook account? Just sign up - it's free and easy and you can keep it private if you prefer. By the way, if you are new to Facebook, they do require that you do a one-time text confirmation to verify your account before you can post comments, meaning that you do need to either own or have access to a textable cell phone to get the code.

Flower Gardening - Fertilizer Friday

Well good morning! It's Friday and better yet, it's Fertilizer Friday again over at Tootsie's place. Pop over and check out Tootsie's gorgeous gardens and all of the other beautiful gardens on display with Mr. Linky. I haven't participated the past couple of weeks because I haven't had a single new bloomer in my yard, and all the pretty annuals - except the impatiens in the shade - are fading away under the summer heat. That's what happens down south. Anyway, I'm finally beginning to get a few new blooms, so here's my offering for this week, with a few garden buddies thrown in for fun. I've got some roses again, but I'll have to try to catch them next time. Enjoy!

---

My Natchez Crepe Myrtle is finally blooming. It seemed kinda slow coming this year. I'm still waitin' on that Sasanqua Camellia Alabama Beauty - she's barely got buds on her.

The Dahlias I transplanted made it and are just beginning to bloom. I'd been hoping that some of the ones that I salvaged were gonna be the Fringed Strawberry Sunday, but this bloom is one of the older ones I put in several years ago. I thought it was the Dahlia Mystery Day, but there's no white tips, so I'm not sure which variety this one is! The heat had done most of them in and I lost them but when these started popping up, I moved them to a slightly more shaded area this year to see if they would survive.

My other hibiscus (the name escapes me for now) finally started blooming, yay! This was a Mother's Day gift a couple years ago from my son and DIL and it's about 7 feet tall now.

This is one of the Princess Di Cannas finally blooming. They are a lower growing Canna and I only have a few of them down, but they're mixed in with the yellow cannas which haven't bloomed much this summer. They're new plantings though so maybe next year.

These are called Ragin' Cajun Ruellas. With a name like that, you know I had to get them!!

One of the hydrangeas that is in a bit more shade just began blooming recently. The others are mostly bloomed out.

The Purple Heart is still blooming. This shade bed is actually still hanging in there.

Some Garden Buddies

A huge and gorgeous bee on the Athens Rose Lantana.

A butterfly on the, well, Buddleia Butterfly Heaven Butterfly Bush!

And my flirtatious little dragonflies. These are actually all different ones in each shot. Two of them are babies, two of them more mature. Sometimes they are all out there at one time and they follow me around. They land close by where I am and I talk to them. I swear they are listening!! And they LOVE to pose for pictures.

Different bee on the other lantana plant.

One of my many lizards - this one apparently likes to live on the patio table, which seems constantly cluttered giving lots of hiding places. As you see, they flirt a lot too.

Apparently wasps love the taste of figs too. I caught this guy flying around one of the ones that had been pecked at by the birds and he'd take a piece, and then settle on a leaf to eat it. I don't mind the wasps - they have a job to do in the garden - so long as they leave me alone!

And this gorgeous butterfly is always around. I've actually had a lot of butterflies this year, so I definitely want to put in some more butterfly attracting plants.

Beauty from the Ashes - Bridge Mosaics

All images in this post not otherwise credited, are my original photographs and are copyright of My New 30 Blog, whether watermarked or not; images are not to be used, copied, altered or transferred without prior written permission of the owner.

---

I realize that this post is a bit long, and future installments of Beauty from the Ashes won't have all this background, so you can skip the introduction and scroll on down to the Bridge Mosaics if you prefer. I hope you'll hang with me through to the end though, or maybe you'll come back when you have time to read the whole thing.

---

So often, after a major natural disaster there is that awkward silence that occurs among people who live elsewhere whenever the issue is mentioned. We often have no idea what to say, so we say nothing, and hope that the people and the community are recovering.

Despite that the break of the levees in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the human horror that occurred there got most of the media attention, the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast suffered tremendously from the hurricane itself - destruction that stretched from the Louisiana coast of Mississippi to the Alabama coast.

Even Alabama and the Florida panhandle suffered the effects. Trust me ... because we live right on the Gulf, we sought refuge with a friend who lives far inland in Alabama. Through the height of the storm things were so frightening up there, that I knew I was going to come home to a Mississippi that would be forever changed. My inlaws, many of our family members and friends, and thousands of residents of the Mississippi Gulf Coast came home to find only slabs and literally nothing else.

But, we are coming back, slowly but surely, bigger, better, stronger and more beautiful than before, and if it weren't for the greed of the insurance industry, it would have been faster - but that is a whole 'nother story, that'll throw me into a major Southern Style Hissy Fit, so I'll spare y'all that for now.

There was so much loss in so many ways from that storm. Beauty from the Ashes is a series I'm doing to outline those things born out of the destruction from Katrina that bring a ray of sunshine and hope. Not that I am an overtly "religious" person, but the series is based on Old Testament scripture from Isaiah 61:3, because this speaks to restoration and making whole. "To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness."

If you have a major body of water that separates two metropolitan areas where you live, you know how critical these bridges are. They are really the lifeblood of a city, not only connecting the two cities, but for us here, the entire coastline, really.

(view of the adjacent railroad bridge taken
from the top of the new Biloxi Bay Bridge)

After Katrina, the Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridge {or the Biloxi Bay Bridge as it is now known}, a major thoroughfare between Biloxi and Ocean Springs, and to other coastal areas of Mississippi, was literally destroyed. People would come to the foot of the bridge, me being one of them, and just stare in silence and disbelief at this twisted pile of concrete. There was going to be no quick fix for this.

Photo Credit: Ocean Science and Stewardship

For more than two years, the eastern peninsula of Biloxi located at the foot of the bridge, in an area known as Casino Row, became a virtual dead end. Drivers had to re-route out to the interstate and then backtrack back to the Gulf further west, just to get back to areas along the beach at Highway 90; areas that normally were just a quick trip over the bridge. But there wasn't much left down there at the time, and not a lot of reason to travel back east along Highway 90.

That dead end at the foot of the bridge in Biloxi became a near ghost town.

The resiliency of Mississippi shines through though. We pulled up our boot straps and got to work on recovery and thanks to loads of volunteers from all across this fine country, you'd never know it today. That area, and other areas of Highway 90 along the beach, have literally been injected with life and today is active, alive and well.

This is another shot of the Biloxi Bay Bridge on the Ocean Springs side, right after Katrina. In the background to the right, where pilings are sticking out of the ground, is where stood the Ocean Springs Yacht Club. It was a small building, worn with time, but nothing was left of it after the storm.

Photo Credit: GCIS On Line Information Guide

But, this is the Ocean Springs Yacht Club today. This raised building style is becoming quite common here these days, especially along the beachfront, and this building - heads above the old yacht club - is simply beautiful.

Stay with me! I'm about to show you something even more beautiful that resides in this very area, just to the right side of this gorgeous new yacht club building. Something of beauty that rose out of this very area marred by the destruction in that other photo above.

While it would be two years before the new bridge was even partially open to traffic, it truly seemed a lifetime. There was such anticipation and joy over the opening when the time finally came and it would be April of 2008 before the bridge was fully completed. This is a shot approaching the newly constructed bridge from the Ocean Springs side. Down on the lower left hand side, where you see cars parked is where I am taking you, to see the beautiful bridge mosaics. You can also see the top roof section of the new yacht club.

When plans for a new bridge were in the design phase, Connie Moran, the mayor of Ocean Springs, fought to have a bridge that was not only functional, but one that would include a safe, well lit pedestrian walking path stretching from Ocean Springs to Biloxi, and a bridge that would be aesthetically pleasing to the eye, in line with post-storm charrettes. From her fight, several panels were constructed along the lower east Ocean Springs side of the bridge that use mosaics to depict life along the Coast.

Elizabeth Veglia, a mixed media artist from Pass Christian, well known for her mosaic art, created each of the panels. She also created the mosaic from the Hurricane Camille memorial {Camille was another hurricane that hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1969, coming on land just about the same area where Katrina hit} that while seriously damaged by Katrina, was found with the mosaic to be fully intact. Ms. Veglia also designed the mosaics within the Hurricane Katrina memorial orchestrated by the television program, Extreme Home Makeover.

Let's first visit that memorial.

The Katrina Memorial is located at the Biloxi Town Green public square, downtown Biloxi, across from the Hard Rock casino. The mosaic represents the waves from the much loved Gulf of Mexico that were driven in as an angry storm surge backed by hurricane winds, leaving a path of destruction behind. The memorial, dedicated in February of 2006 by candlelight vigil, was constructed to honor the precious lives taken by Hurricane Katrina. It stands 12 feet high, roughly the height of the storm surge at Town Green during the storm.

At one end of the memorial is a memorial box. The Extreme Home Makeover team put out a public request for people to bring anything that was found in the storm rubble that was memorable or had some meaning. What resulted was a menagerie of a sort of memory box, time capsule, that would be forever encased for public display.

Now, I want to show you those beautiful mosaic panels that are underneath the Biloxi Bay Bridge, in Ocean Springs, at the Ocean Springs beach. This is a look at that very same area in the photograph above that shows the destruction of the bridge and the Ocean Springs Yacht Club.

There are a total of 4 panels. I like the way that the design is flowing, like the water.

See the waves cut into the concrete at the bottom of each panel? The fencing above is the 12-foot wide, pedestrian walkway and bicycle lane, just over 3 miles round trip. Despite the heat, a nice breeze blows across the bridge from the Gulf of Mexico, making it a very pleasant walk. There are trash receptacles and benches, all along the way for resting, or just taking a moment to admire the 95-feet high view. You would be amazed at the number of people who are using this bridge for exercise.

Here are photos of each mosaic panel, in no particular order. Enjoy.

At the end of the panels, right next to the Ocean Springs Yacht Club, I took a shot looking up from the foot of the bridge. Caught a fella fishing down there, but didn't disturb him to see if he was catching anything. I think the bridge is simply a beautiful design, don't you?

Time to head back and take another peek at the panels on the way out.

Out of destruction, beauty rises. I hope that you enjoyed the tour!

Photo Credit: Miss. Dept. of Transportation

For all those who sacrificed their time, their vacations, and their sweat to volunteer and come work in the heat and humidity to help South Mississippians recover their lives, we are truly indebted to you and can never express how much it has meant to us. God bless you all.

Photo Credit: City of Biloxi

Next: Katrina-born Tree Sculptures around the Coast - Artist, Marlin Miller