I was born on Sept. 2, 1976 to Peter Joseph Lamonte and Evelyn Lois Howes in Hammond, Louisiana. I was always a daddy’s girl and I think I still am! I have an older sister, Julie (now married to Chris Brooks) and a younger brother Lance (now has two children Priscilla 10 and Luca 8. He is married to Tanya and has four step children, one of the four, Pailyn is 12 and lives with them full time, and several grandchild). When I was born we lived in a small trailer behind my grandparents house in Hammond. A little while later we moved to a small house in Ponchatoula. After my brother came along my parents built a house next to my grandparents house in Hammond, where I grew up. My grandparents on both my mom and dad’s side were both farmers. My paternal grandparents grew strawberries and we so love strawberry season! My maternal grandparents grew strawberries among other fruits and vegetables, but what I remember the most was corn on the cob and green beans. They had two ponds on there property and I would always go fishing when I was young. One of my favorite memories was going there every Sunday after church and visiting with my grandparents and Aunts and cousins. We would have a big Sunday lunch with a homemade dessert and we would always have tea time! Those were some of my favorite childhood memories! I lived in a lower middle class family. I wanted the “in” stuff but I was the kid who got all the popular stuff when it wasn’t so popular anymore. But when you grow up you realize how unimportant that stuff is. My mother was always very frugal with her money! That is one of the best things that I learned from her.
I loved to be the center of attention, and was always trying to say things to make everyone laugh! I was always joining things to try and fit in. I love to read and absolutely love photography and have a ton of photo albums. I love pictures and I never feel like I have enough. On a side note when our house was burglarized in 2016; what saddened me the most was that my laptop was stolen and there were years of pics and memories on it and now I have everything saved to google so that won’t happen anymore.
I went to college at Southeastern Louisiana University and majored in Business Management and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree. I was always a good student in school but it never came easy for me so I had to bust butt for good grades. I always had awesome friends who are still amazing friends today. I lived in several different places while in school. I started off in three different dormatories, then I moved into a three bedroom house with five people (that was a lot of fun), then I moved into a one bedroom apartment in Natalbany with two of my friends who were a couple, then I moved into a two bedroom apartment in Hammond with the same two people, then I moved to a one bedroom apartment by myself after graduation. And when I met my husband Mark, I moved into his trailer with him in Tickfaw. And then our journey began as a married couple!