some good decisions

I feel like I have been on a roll lately. I was in a slump for a while (hello blogging break) and couldn't get out of it, but when I started my new job it's like a switch was flipped and everything is happy and sunny again. It's amazing what happens when you actually change out of your pajamas in the morning and go somewhere.

The decision to get a new job in an actual office was just the start. I decided to make a list (they're all the rage right now, right, Buzzfeed?) of some other good (and silly) decisions I have made lately.

1. Buying this champagne. Kroger (THERE IS NO S AT THE END, A) has a clearance bin when you first walk in, and this just so happened to be in there.

Tell me - how could you pass that up? YOU CAN'T. Especially when it's only $8.99. It was really good, too. Not too sweet and not too bitter, just perfect. An added bonus? The winery just so happens to be south of Houston! I've already made plans to take Ashley and Alexa when they come to Houston in (OMG!!!!) less than 60 days. 

2. Buying the nest. Yep, we gave in. The A/C company allowed us to return the cheap-o one we bought from them, so we upgraded to the nest. I haven't gotten to play with it much, but it's just so fancy and adorable (can an electronic device be called that?) and can be controlled from my phone! Yes, I am nerding out over this and I am not ashamed. 

3. Finding this blog. You are welcome and I apologize personally to your boss because you won't get any work done after clicking over to this gem. Just TRY and stop reading after one post, I dare you.

4. Buying this skirt. 

The pattern is just so Christmassy and I feel like a Catholic school girl every time I wear it. Four for you, J.Crew Factory. You go J.Crew Factory!

5. Spending time with my little Reid man. Okay, so this isn't exactly a recent new decision per say, but I always leave a little happier and with a big smile on my face, so I guess each time I choose to go over (or in last night's case, am asked ever so nicely to come help because my BIL lost his keys at the hospital and my sister was at a work dinner and the nanny had to go home…phew!) is a good decision. I mean, just look at him! So what if right when I walked in he took one look at me and said NO KIKI! GO HOME KIKI!

6. Starting an ISPY membership. 

Oh, and getting the world's cutest coffee mug from Starbuck's. I am no make-up girl. I don't really even know how to put it on…or what products to buy. But I do know that Ipsy is the greatest thing to happen to mail and that I will FOR SURE use every product in the bag, and I actually needed new bronzer so it's pretty perfect I would say.

7. Buying Bowden this "tom brady" sweater. So what if it means he hates me? 

8. Last but not least because it's actually my favorite thing I've done in a while…hiring a maid. It's not that I hate cleaning (ok maybe it is), I hate DEEP cleaning. I would rather do soooo many other things than devote an entire Saturday to cleaning our house. I can keep up day to day, but let's face it…Norma is way better than I am at deep cleaning. I walked in our house Monday and couldn't take the smile off my face for hours. Yes, I know it's a luxury. Yes, I know one day we might need to devote the money we're spending for her to come once a month so something else. But gosh darn, I'm going to enjoy it while we can have this luxury. And it's really not that bad since she's only coming once a month, right?

you're eating WHAT?!

This weekend I sat on the couch for the entire duration of it. But no one wants to read about that, so I'm just going to show you the pretty pictures so I can pretend that I did exciting things. Join me!

Friday night was the only time I left the house. We went and got crawfish and I was in heaven. Up until my sophomore year in college I thought crawfish were disgusting. This might have to do with the fact that my mom told me when I was younger that you were eating their pee when you ate them. Way to scare someone from ever eating crawfish, Babs. When I finally DID eat it, the tail had to be stuffed in my mouth and then I waited a while to chew it because I was terrified. I'm a big ole' dummy because crawfish is the most delicious meal there is. Besides mac & cheese and some gooey NYC pizza. Anyways.

Then we headed to the movies to see Oz. It was AMAZING, but sort of long with some slow parts. Also, the couple we went with & A wanted to see it in 3D, so my head hurt the whole time. That stuff is trippy. 

Dots on dots anyone? There's no reason this is included except that I like polka dots. And Gap. 

I woke up Saturday morning to a TERRIBLE sore throat and the rest of the weekend I spent on the couch. The pesky little thing is still sore, but luckily I made some OH MY GOSH AMAZING BEST THING EVER chicken noodle soup on Saturday and we still have leftovers. And yes, it's completely worthy of that all-caps description. I took a bunch of pictures and maybe I'll do a recipe post soon. Who knows...the pictures kinda stink. 

I did venture out for a hot minute on Sunday night to grocery shop. Who knew that the ghetto grocery store had amazing flowers? I do now. I scooped up this bunch and tried to pretend I have horticulture skills. As you can see, I do not. But they make me smile because they are just so pretty. 

Sunday night we were in bed and all of a sudden the rain got REALLY loud. Well of course it did, because it was hail. And a ton of it! I of course ran outside in my towel and snapped a picture while A was yelling at me to get back inside and put some clothes on. 

And now I'm going to be that dog mom that no one likes. Or that every dog mom really is and refuses to admit. It makes me so sad to look at pictures and see how teeny tiny Bowden was! I know, he's still a little squirt at 5 pounds now, but when we got him he was 1.5 pounds! And he had the cutest little batman mask that is now gone. Seriously, how adorable was he?! Ok ok I know, he still is, but he's just grown up so much. If this annoys you, you probably won't want to read this blog whenever I have children. Just a warning. 

last minute leroy

Is that a thing? You know, like Debbie Downer? Last minute Leroy? Well if it isn't, I just made it one. 

I told Andre' around 10 times this week that I did not want to go out to eat on Valentine's Day. Too many people and the food is never very good because there are SO many people crammed into a restaurant. Not my cup of tea. 

So around 10AM yesterday, I asked him if he would rather a pot roast or turkey stuffed peppers for dinner (I know, so romantic), and he responded with NO! We are going out tonight!

I laughed in his face and promptly gchatted this little lady something along the lines of "HA! Andre' thinks he can call right now and get a reservation for tonight. Good luck with that one buddy!"

Five minutes later, he had one. But it turned out to be OK because it was at the adorably tiny Italian place downtown called Pane & Vino. Bread & Wine? SAY NO MORE. I am in. 

So I got all dolled up...which I never get to do so I guess that part was OK too. (Don't make fun of me for this picture. I REALLY don't like selfsies so I'm really bad at them.) And what, you thought I was kidding about the bow thing?

I had to get the cheesiest thing on the menu (ha! in two ways! I crack myself up) - the Lovers Ravioli. The red ones were Lobster and the white were cheese - and all on a bed of broccoli sauce. You GUYS, it was so good! Who would have thought, broccoli sauce?! 

Some snippets from the night above. 

Any good dinner must ALWAYS have champagne. If you didn't know that, your dinner must suck. Sorry bout it. 

They gave me a rose when we walked in - so cute. But the daisies Andre' got me are much cuter.

And then we pulled a real classy move. We stopped at a liquor store for MORE champagne and then went to Target for dessert. We only planned on getting some Key Lime Pie, but we ended up with that AND everything else in the picture. Uhhhh...whoops?

Andre' sent me this last night, and even though I kinda like me some T-Swift (don't judge!), I thought this was super funny. And super true. 

And then we came home to some puppy snuggles. Yes, this is how he cuddles. I know, best puppy ever, right? 

And now it's FRIDAY! Can you believe how fast this week went? Maybe it's because I had a mini-weekend in the middle of it, that probably helped :) Hope you all have a fantastic weekend, we're headed to Houston for a baby shower and some nephew time. Never enough of that.

pop. fizz. clink.

My weekend plans went pretty well if I do say so myself. Minus the reading Safe Haven and studying for the dreadful GRE, I did fantastic. If only all goals were as easy as drinking champagne. 

Friday night we went out with one of A's groomsmen who was in town to ride on the Saturday night parade. 

Champagne and dancing described the night. Don't go contacting animal control. I do not let my dog drink champagne. He just really likes to try to...what can I say, the man has good taste. And a champagne roadie is always necessary. ALWAYS. And no, I wasn't driving. And our most favorite thing to do prior to going out is to jam to "Trouble" by my girl T-Swizzzzzle. Love her or hate her, you cannot deny that it's a JAM. And then we went home around 11. When you live in a college town, you can only handle so much of the college bars. Maybe I need to drink more Champagne before we go out next time. 

Saturday we watched Skyfall. I've never watched a James Bond movie from start to finish before - gasp! We aren't done yet, but I like what I've seen so far. And Bond is a man whore for sure. 

Then we went to the Krewe of Rio parade and grabbed sushi afterwords with friends. I love sushi, but I don't think I would like it outside of Louisiana. The only rolls I like are the Ragin Cajun - fried gator - and the one with crawfish in it. OH and this one I tried once with steak in it - Cowboy Caviar or something. HA. 

Bowden didn't want us to go to the parade and leave him all night. He was enjoying all of our cuddle time!

And yes, I realize that today is not Monday, so the weekend update is late, but yesterday was a day sent straight up from the Devil himself. So let's pretend that I'm on time with this? 

balls, etc.

That's right, Bowden is losing his manhood on Monday. 

Not to toot my own horn, but he's pretty genius, so I think he hears us mentioning it. Psycho dog mom alert. There's been lots of hiding in the corners around here lately. 

Yesterday Beth posted some photos of a sandwich she made. It made me crave the PB Bacon burger from Yo Mama's in New Orleans, but I couldn't drive two hours just for a burger. So instead I pulled a copy cat and made an elvis just like Beth did, minus the jelly. Because that's just gross. You guys, IT WAS SO GOOD. Bacon + pb + texas toast = the best lunch ever. 

I found this on pinterest (via) and I'm going to add it to the toilets in our apt on my lunch break. HOW COME HE NEVER REMEMBERS THIS?! Men...

This will be made this weekend. I joined a gym Tuesday so I can eat this with no regret, right? Joining the gym and actually going to the gym are the same thing, right?

I'll be building this soon, but not for my child that doesn't exist, for me. Kid at heart, y'all. (via)

Now excuse me as I end this randomness and escape to paradise. (via)

things are looking up

Someone got herself a makeover today! I'm in love with it and keep looking at it every 5 minutes to remind myself of how pretty it is now. Hope you like it to!

My weekend update is terrible today - I did a very bad job at taking pictures this past week, but here goes nothing. Next week I'll use my real camera!

When we got to Houston on Monday night my sister pawned off her dessert she needed to make on me. Considering I had to direct her through the grocery store to find the apples, it was probably a good thing. I made these mini apple pies...and they were SO good. And probably the easiest thing ever. I got a little crafty with it, as you can see. (And these are pre-baked ones.)

They were so good that I made them again on Thursday. YUM!

Work made Tuesday and Wednesday pass by pretty quickly. I got off at noon on Wednesday and headed over to my sister's house to play with my nephew. He went down the slide by himself for the first time.

pretty excited about the slide!

On Thursday the family came over around 10 and we had a relaxing morning playing with Reid and eating WAY too many dips. I didn't eat any turkey due to the disgusting amount of dips I ate. But man, TJ's knows how to make a dip or two. Insert drooling here.

We realized while we were playing that Boo (that's my sister's nickname, long story) dressed Reid in the WRONG bib. Bowden tried to bite it off, but missed and got his hand. Orange and blue are NEVER allowed to be worn together!!

Then we jetted off to the airport. There was no one there, of course, but we didn't account for the fact that there were ZERO parking spots left. In the entire airport. We BEGGED the parking spot guy to let us in and THANK GOD they had one teeeeny spot left. We barely made it, but we did!

Friday bright and early we left Little Rock and headed to Fay-town for the football game.

so jealous of all those people in the sun.

we had seats right next to where my tigers came out of. was fun!



Don't let the picture fool you - I WAS DYING. It was the coldest I've ever been. I took my boots off when we got back to the car to warm my feet. When we got to the restaurant 20 minutes later they were so swollen that my boots wouldn't fit. DEAD. At least LSU won!

We got back Saturday to a houseful of pissed off people thanks to the nasty Florida gaytors. I'd rather go to a shitty bowl game and beat UF than go to a good one (holla Orange bowl!) and lose to UF. HATE HATE HATE IT.

bowden was pissed too, can't you see that scowl?

go link up!



a tutorial on this gorgeous tuesday

It's way too pretty outside to be working today! Thanking my lucky stars that I work from home and have the perfect excuse to frequent the sunshine today. Puppies gotta pee, yo!

[And I already broke my blogging-every-day rule...color me shocked. Friday we had a team training thingy for work and then yesterday just sucked, as most Mondays do! Making up for it today with some pictures, though. Although I'm too lazy to bust out the DSLR so iPhone photos they are!]

The pupster's name is Bowden. (Bonus points to anyone who knows why that's his name/who it's in honor of!) He's only 3.1 pounds, so it's REALLY hard to find him clothes. Scratch that, it's really hard to find him cheap clothes - who has $40+ bucks to spend on a Christmas sweater? I much prefer the same sweater at Marshalls for $8 bucks. Problem is that they usually only have larges.

I put my thinking cap on and decided to make him one! I bought this newborn onesie at Target for FOUR dollars. And they have three other cute Christmas onesis that I'll for sure be going back for later.

Isn't it cute? Good thing I have a puppy to wear it, I almost want a baby looking at this. Almost.

So then I chopped off the sleves and the bottom snappy part, folded it inside out and pinned up the sides. (If you don't know how to sew, you could just cut and call it a day, but after the first wear it may fray a lot.)

Then I sewed it and voila! (For some reason my machine decided to eat the shirt a few times. The perfectionist in my is so pissed that I'm sharing this project!)

I can't wait to do this for every holiday, now. A didn't quite love it as much as I did, but it keeps Bowden warm so it's staying on!