Saturday, January 28, 2006~

Dear Wilma~

Heigh-ho! LOL Thanks for your letter; nice to hear from you! Glad you are doing well; I hope that your friends, the Elsworths, are too! I sent Rachel a copy of my first book, "A Family Made Out Of Miracles And Rainbows", and I hope that she will enjoy it! (If you haven't read it, you can read hers, but I may end up sending you a copy. I have tons of extras; so sending you a copy of my book would be no problem! I will even autograph it for you if you would like! :) )

In answers to your questions, Wilma, yes, ALL of the family sings (well, MOST do; Todd and Jodie don't, but that's another story altogether, and Arjun and Rani are too young to do so! LOL). I sing some, but I mainly play the pedal steel guitar. My husband plays guitar and sings, but most of the kids sing and/or play musical instruments. A good majority of them play just one instrument, but some (like Johnny, Ronee', and Gemini, as three examples; Barbara is another one) play more than one. We do have our own family band, and we sing country, Cajun, and gospel; but Ronee' is the main performer in the family. She has her own band, "Cajun Spice", and she is the one who is the most dedicated to music. I will be glad to send  you a copy of her CD (she has several out), and I will also be sending you a CD that Johnny did when he was seven years old. I hope you will like it. (It's the only one he ever did.)

We have performed all over the south at places like the Dogwood Festival in Knoxville, the Grand Ole Opry (Ronee' and Johnny only; Johnny and Ronee' have both been on there several times), the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana (Ronee' only), the Tennessee State Fair, Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida, Six Flags over Georgia near Atlanta, Georgia, and the LeCajun Cajun Music Awards Festival in Lafayette, Louisiana (Ronee' only), to name a few, and we have also been to Fan Fair (now called the CMA Music Festival). We have performed (opened shows) for people like Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and Vince Gill, and we have enjoyed our experiences as performers very much, but as I said eqrlier, Ronee' is the most dedicated member of the family to performing. To her, music is her lifeline, and she enjoys it emmensely.

I had to laugh when I read about your sounding like a cat singing if you tried out for "American Idol". I personally don't care for the show, but my children like it, and so I let them watch it. And Ronee' has tried out for it twice, and I HAVE met the judges, so a show who makes stars out of undiscovered talent who deserve to make it can't be ALL bad! (Just some of the singers is all! LOL I just wonder what those poor people were THINKING when they tried out! If I sang that badly, I wouldn't even THINK of trying out; I'd save myself the embarrassment! LOL)

The weather here is partly cloudy, with temps expected to be in the upper fifties to lower sixties; but we may have rain by tonight or tomorrow. But right now the weather is nice. The kids are in the kitchen or in the livingroom, trying to wake up, and they should be out the door by noon. When they are not in school and the weather is nice, you can be sure that they will be outside, playing with their friends or with each other! They really enjoy the exercise and the fresh air; it is so beneficial to their overall health and well being, and I will probably be puttering around in the flowerbeds, cleaning out the leaves and the weeds, myself. My husband is at work, and he will be home sometime this afternoon. We will then go to the Grand Ole Opry tonight; we have tickets for the show tonight, and we will spend our time this evening listening to some good, down home country music! :) (We are lucky if we get there six times a year!) We will also go out to eat at Fire Mountain beforehand. Fire Mountain is like the Golden Corral (a buffet/sit down family restaurant), but it is bigger, and the food is better (at least I think so!). It is fairly new, and so far, we have enjoyed eating there! :) (Of course, the poor staff is overwhelmed when they see our entourage coming, but they have been attentive and courteous to us when we have gone there! :) ) I hope the weather is good where you are at! :)

Well, Wilma, I will let you go now. I will write more later. Take care, and God bless you always! Give little Pearl Xie a kiss and a hug from her Tante Louie!  Write when you are able to! I know you are busy! God bless you alwqys! :)

(((HUGS))) and love, your friend in Tennessee, Louie May. :D