LSU vs. Auburn - 10.22.11

2 weekends ago, my family took our annual trip down to Baton Rouge for a big SEC game!

Sean and I woke up eaaaaaaarly Friday morning to make it alllllll the way to BR in time for dinner!
My parent's drove to Shreveport on Thursday night, so when we hit Shreveport on Friday, we met at a gas station off the interstate and caravanned the rest of the way down!  Sadly, my brother Adam wasn't able to make it this year.  He was missed and it definitely wasn't the same w/o him.  Next year, brother!

So....back to the caravan (I am SO BUMMED I didn't get a picture (or video) of this moment), but when my parent's pulled up to greet us, they had the windows down and were blaring the LSU Fight Song with Tiger Puppet on the dash (Tiger Puppet:  a stuffed LSU tiger puppet my mom found at a flea market that plays the fight song!)!  We had to get to BR in time to pick up the other brother, Shawn, at the airport by 4pm.  We couldn't pass through Lecompte, LA w/o stopping for a ham sandwich and a piece of pie!  YUMMM-Y!  The remainder of the drive was spent HeyTelling back and forth on the back roads of south Louisiana, discussing how nice it would be to live such a simple life on a sugarcane farm.

We made it BR just in time to get Shawn, RIGHT on time actually :)  That evening, we all went to Parrains for dinner.  It was myself, Sean, Shawn, my parents, my Uncle Jim and Suzanne.

The rest of the weekend, I can recap in pictures....

Sean + Me

Me + My Momma

The crew: my Dad, my Mom, Suzanne, Uncle Jim, Shawn, Sean, Me

Oh my GOSH the food was soooo good there.  My mom and I split a meal and still had leftovers.  Dinner was over around 8, and everyone was ready for bed.  Well, everyone except for myself + my 2 favorite S's (husband Sean and brother Shawn)!  You see, everyone else was staying in a pretty nice HOTEL, while the 3 of us decided to save money and stay in a not so nice MOTEL.  On our way home from the restaurant, the thought of hanging out in our motel room didn't sound so appealing.  Not when New Orleans is only 1 hour away!  Who wouldn't want to head out of town...at least for a few hours.  We could go and be back by midnight (cough. cough.)!  DONE!  We went upstairs, got ready and met back at the car within 10 mins ready to GEAUX!

On our way down, brother Shawn and I jumped on our phones and immediately started contacting anyone we knew living in the NoLA area!  We had great success finding out where to go.

The Superdome all lit up!  Loved the purple lights!

We went to Maple Leaf Bar in Uptown for some local Funk/Jazz.  We found it, and loved every minute of it!

Flow Tribe - amazingly funky!

Me w/ Brother Shawn 

My friend Becca is a local NoLA artist and I hadn't seen her in years!  We roomed together in college while in Paris.  She was out on Frenchman Street, so after lots of dancing, we decided if we were going to do this right, we had to switch locations.  Off we went....The Spotted Cat was next up, in the Quarter.  (side note: it is now approaching 2am...who said anything about being home by 12am?).

Nothin' better than live New Orlans jazz

Becca + Cat (only she was dressed as the cat.  A WhoDat Cat to be exact!

After much convincing, I finally convinced the boys it was time to GO!  It was 3 and we had to be at the tailgating spot at 9 and we still had an hour drive home!  We said our goodbyes and off we went.  Thank goodness for Shawn + Sean's love for Radiohead b/c that is what got us home!  We made it around 4am.  We were picking up my Mom and Suzanne at their hotel at 9.

OH...another side note: we decided not to mention on Friday night we were heading to New Orleans b/c we didn't want to worry them that we wouldn't be "fresh" and ready to go for the early AM tailgate party (the reason we were there!).  

So that morning, around 8:30, my brother sends this text to my parent's...

Pretty sure my Mom was freaking out at this moment!

It was so fun, and so worth our last minute trip!

Saturday was all about LSU!  Bloody's by 9:30, can't beat it!

My Dad opted out of going into the game.  He sat right here with a smile on his face!

Waiting for kickoff!  Only question is...where's Shawn?!

It was a whoopin'!  GEAUX TIGERS!

It was a great weekend, and I'm pretty sure we are still recovering!  This weekend is LSU v. Alabama...the biggest game in college football this year.  SCARED.TO.DEATH! ! ! ! ! !

Feet! Shoes! Germs!

I do not like feet!  I never have.  The gross me out!  Thank goodness my husband's feet are ok (for feet at least).  They are better than mine, ha!

But I have this thing...with feet...and with germs.  Shoes.  Think where your shoes go.  I can't even say all the places your shoes go because quite frankly, it just grosses me out!

I have for a very long time, very much enjoyed the tradition in a lot of European and Asian cultures, of removing your shoes when you enter a home.  I LOVE this idea.  It keeps yucky germs OUT of the house that you work so hard at keeping "clean" so often!

Sean and I take our shoes off in our house.  The only time our shoes make the trek through the house is if we are going from the front door to the back, or the shoes we want to wear are in the back closet and not by the door where we last took them off.  But that's not really ok either!

How do you tell guests when they come over to please take off their shoes?!  My mother, for one, hates to be barefoot!  My sister-in-law is Russian, and when we have get-togethers at their house, we take off our shoes and kindly put on a pair of slippers.  They have a ton of extras and provide them for whoever wishes to wear some!    It is just custom and it's what we expect.  They don't even wear them from one door to another!  AND...here is the real kicker...if they leave, and then have to run back in b/c they forgot something...you guessed it...the shoes come OFF before running back through the house!  I should ask my sis-n-law if she would even do this with hard to get on and off winter boots?!  Hmm..

How do I enforce this in our house?!  Shoes are SO GROSS!  And I just cringe at the thought of having a baby crawling around on these floors with all the yucky shoe germs on them!

Do I need germ therapy?!  

Labor Day Weekend.

Perfect weather  and perfect company.  That describes my weekend.  Friday, my parent's drove in from AR.  We had a big weekend of football and eating planned.  While at the grocery store Friday morning, I spotted this gorgeous bunch of sunflowers.  I decided not only did I have to have them b/c they were LSU gold, but b/c what screams fall in a flower more than a SUNflower!  {I agree, not much!}

These put such a big smile on my face :)

My parent's were due to arrive around 5pm.  Around 4, the doorbell rang.  I of course was hoping they were fibbing and it was going to be them at the door an hour early :)  Nope :(  Instead, it was another great surprise!  They sent flowers to help get ready for the LSU party on Saturday we were hosting at our house!  My mom said they had to call 4 different florists in our area for PURPLE and GOLD flowers!  REALLY?!  The florist they found nailed it!!

Geaux Tigers!!

On Friday, Sean and I prepared our favorite "go to" recipe for company.  Chicken Enchiladas from Skinny Taste.  DELISH if you haven't tried them :)  My Uncle Jim and Suzanne came for dinner!  They were in town from Shreveport for the game on Saturday at the insanely large Cowboy Stadium!  I must say, dinner was a huge success.  I even made strawberry pie for dessert :)  (and no, I did not make the crust from scratch!)  I forgot to take a pictures of the finished pie, whoops!  But it looked so pretty in my new Emile Henry pie plate :)

Not the best picture, but I think it looked pretty :)

LSU kicked off the start of NCAA football for the season against the Oregon Ducks on Saturday.  Sean and I had lots of family over for the big game!  15 people I think to be exact!  Sean decided he wanted to attempt to smoke his first brisket!  We started the marinade on Friday evening after dinner.  By 9am, it was definitely ready for a slow and low day of smoking.  We had brisket, mac 'n cheese (my grandmother's recipe!), corn, potatoes, salad, and lots of yummy desserts (yea, carb overload)!  Check out this stadium cake my aunt made!

The game was a huge success!  Our tiger babies whooped up on those ducks!!!!  We were never really that scared ;))

Cousin's all for one team!!

It was a late evening, but well worth it.

Sunday morning, my dad got up and made us his famous french toast sans butter {cough cough}.  Regardless, this stuff is A-MA-ZING!

NO!  of course that's not BUTTER!

After trying to get the bacon smell out of the entire house, Sean went off to sell a house, my dad made it to the sofa for a movie, and mom and I headed out the door to shop :)  They had to leave around 1 that day to go to Shreveport to visit my brother Adam.  He had to work over the weekend and had to miss the game watching party with us :(  The rest of the day for Sean and I was spent napping off and on.

Monday, we were up and ready to conquer!  We first attacked the garage.  It needed some serious organization.  It is SOOOO nice in there now.  We hung our bikes, hung a tool organizer, and cleaned out a few things.  The weather was perfect so we decided we should celebrate with a bottle of champagne!

Cheers to an organized garage!

By 3pm, we had ants in our pants!  The weather was so nice and if you have ever lived in Dallas you know that only means one thing....what patio and when?!  We loaded up and drove to UpTown to meet up with a few friends at the Gingerman, followed by our favorite... Primo's.  We were home before the sun was down.  

I hope everyone had a nice relaxing Labor Day.  It was a perfect weekend, indeed :)

Empire State of Mind.

Yes.  I am referring to the Jay-Z & Alicia Keys masterpiece.
My uncle has season tickets to LSU every year.  As a family, we pick one game a season we would all like to go to Baton Rouge for!

When we go, we do the whole tailgating thing....loud music, booz, cajun food, and lots of tiger chanting!  This past year, we were all gathered under my uncle's tailgating tent barely able to socialize b/c the music was bumping so loud and we are all just dancin' and singin' along!

That's me in the middle w/ the purple hat & the #1 sign!!

All of a sudden, Empire State of Mind comes on.  Then, my uncle begins to rap the ENTIRE song!  Just sitting in a chair, laid back, rapping Jay-Z.  Not even kidding.  We were all completely blown away with our jaws on the ground!  Let me explain something about my uncle.  I can sum it up in about 3 words.  Conservative, conservative, and conservative!!!!  So you can imagine how shocked we all were to see this!  Apparently, my 21 year old cousin bet his dad he could never learn the words to this song.  So, he did just that!  He learned each and EVERY word!   That was September 2010.

November 2010, Sean proposed to me!  Immediately, we all told my uncle he HAD to perform at our wedding! He agreed as long as I would chime in for the Alicia parts :)  This moment, hands down, was the highlight of our wedding reception.  EVERYONE got out of their seats to come on stage to cheer him on!  It was AWESOME!  See for yourself!!!  Thanks Uncle Jim for putting on a show!

Current Loves.

Lately, I have found some things that I have grown to love!  Here is my list!

1.  B&B Works True Blue Spa Collection.  It is AMAZING!  Here is what I've tried so far, and I can't get enough!!

 

The last is the best!  It is smells SOOOOOOOO good!!!!

2.  Evernote!  It's so geneous!  Just go check it out.  You can thank me later :)  I have become slightly obsessed with using it.  It is so cool b/c it syncs up to my computer, iPad, and iPhone w/o even having to plug it in.

3.  Ok so this one is sort of random, but it's worth adding to this list...Jose Curevo Light Margarita!  It is 1/2 the price as that other "light margarita" in a wine bottle and you get 2x as much!!  Let me tell you, it's delicious!  You just pour it over ice, and VOILA!

4.  Chase Bank has this awesome thing on their phone app!  You can take a picture (front and back) of a check and it will deposit it for you!  Not even kidding.  You don't even have to drive to the bank!  GENIUS!

5.  If you are looking for an easy, scrumptious way to make quick fajitas, use this!  I could eat it every week.  This is from Food&Wine.

6.  Apples to Apples...ever played it?  It is a blast to play with some friends and a glass or two of wine.  It really is so funny and makes for some good laughs.  SP and I had 2 other couple's over last weekend and after dinner we played this game.  We could of gone on all night!  Thanks Lori for bring it!   

7.  Road Trips!!  To Arkansas to be exact :)  SP and I are heading out tomorrow to go up to see my parent's for the first time since our wedding a month ago.  I am dying to get up there hang out and relax.  We already have an italian feast planned for Saturday night w/ a new recipe I found on Williams-Sonoma.  Dying to try it!!  I will try and remember to take pictures of our feast :)

8.  Last but not least... our fabulous wedding photographer at Wisner Photo posted a pic of what she's been working on.  I sure hope I get to see them all real soon!!

Sound of Music, much?!  I can't help but to start singing..."The hills are alive with the sound of music..."

That's all, folks :)  Have a fabulous weekend!  Any of you have any favorite things you'd like to share?!

Wedding I

Here I am a month later (almost) doing a post about the most amazing day of my life.  My wedding day.  As a little girl, I always knew I would be married one day, but I didn't fantasize about my wedding and how I wanted.  I just knew I wanted to be married and have a family like I grew up.

My wedding day was more than I could have ever asked for.  It was absolutely perfect!  From the time SP and I started getting serious in our relationship is when I started the random wedding searches on blogs, random magazines, and of course the obvious internet searches of the "perfect ring."  From that point on, I knew exactly what I wanted for my wedding.  And it just so happened to suit SP's liking as well :)  Friends, family, and an unforgettable good time is all we wanted.

We got just that!

We were married here....

Of course I think it is beautiful, but it truly was.  It was a perfectly sunny (and hot) afternoon and the sun was brightly shining through this all glass chapel set back in the woods in NW Arkansas.    The ceremony was at 2pm in the afternoon.  During the time leading up to the wedding (like weeks before) I was concerned about the ceremony time.  It wasn't what I was used to.  Let me just say now, I wouldn't have it any other way!  The morning of July 3 (our wedding day!) I woke up very relaxed, but anxious.  I was dying to see SP and have him see me!!  I can not imagine having to wait ALL DAY to see each other.  By 1pm I was so ready!  I am very glad we didn't have to wait until 7ish.  And, also, it was so neat that we really had the rest of the day together :)

These are not the photographers pictures.  Still waiting on those, and I can't wait to see them :)  We also had a videographer but that will be a few more months until we get that.  The anticipation is building!!!

The ceremony was filled with so much laughter and so many tears.  I cried (happy tears of course) practically the whole time!!  I never expected to cry so much.  But I was just filled with so much joy and happiness, I couldn't help myself.

The bridesmaids walked down the aisle to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and I followed with "Marry Me" (Train version performed by acoustic guitarist and violinist who played all music).

Bill was my minister growing up for a lot of years.  I was honored he agreed to marry SP and I.  During one of our conference calls with him before the wedding, he instructed SP and I to sit for 5 mins and write down the things we are promising each other in our marriage.  Then, we went over them together, circled the things we had in common and sent them on to Bill so he could write our vows.  He asked us if we wanted to hear them before the ceremony, but we liked the element of surprise in not knowing exactly what they were going to be.  Here is our reaction to them....

It was all perfect and Bill couldn't have written a ceremony that fit the two of us any better.  

After the ceremony, SP and I went w/ the photographer and videographer around the area to shoot some more pictures.  Here is a sneak peek of one wedding picture my amazing photography shared with me :)

This picture courtesy of Wisner Photo.  Cristina is a WONDERFUL photographer.  If you're in the market :)  

Ok, more to come on the wedding fun!!

Austin Bound.

**WARNING: Picture OVERLOAD!

2 weekends before my wedding, my bridesmaids and I drove down to Austin for my bachelorette party!  Everyone was there with the exception of my Matron of Honor, Erin, and bridesmaid Kristen.  They were very much missed :(

Jennifer luckily had recently gotten a new car and was able to fit us all in for the road trip!  Thanks for driving, Jenn :)  Jenn picked me up Friday morning and we headed to Dallas to pick up Kelly and Alison.  We were on the road by 11!  Lauren was driving from Shreveport to meet us and we timed it perfectly!  She arrived just 30 minutes after us.

On the way down, we had to stop in West, TX (yes, that's the name of the town) for some kolaches!  YUUUUM!!!!

Alison and I stuffing our faces!

Jenn apparently stuffing too much in her face, ha!

Once we got to our hotel, we had big plans to lay out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon, but when we got all checked in, we peaked outside and the pool was P A C K E D ! ! !   It wasn't a very big pool to begin with, but there wasn't even anywhere to sit on the side.  Not fun!  So Kelly and Alison took off down the street to find the nearest liquor store :) ...they returned with some yummy margaritas in a bottle (the skinny kind!).  We turned on the music, poured us a drink, and just hung out until it was time for my lingerie shower!  We had big plans of FaceTiming w/ Erin, but sadly the internet connection was poor so speakerphone was all we could do :(

My gifts :)

Cheers!

There were some delicious cupcakes in this box!  And how fitting is their logo!!  (Traylor-Parks wedding!!)

 :)

We went to dinner at Trudy's.  We had planned on taking a cab b/c it wasn't with/in walking distance.  When we got outside, no one would take us in ONE cab!  Austin law is 4 only!  Even in a van, UGH!  While I'm jumping in a cab realizing we were going to have to suck it up and just take 2, Kelly and Jenn were off working her magic.  Next thing I know, they are waving the rest of us out of our cab b/c they got the VIP shuttle service at the hotel to take us! 

Score!!!

Back to Trudy's...they are famous for the mexican martinis (aka, deadly margarita).  We were all so worried about getting too tipsy on Friday night, believe it or not, NONE of us ordered one! HA!  We  already had a few cocktails in the hotel room before dinner, so it was probably for the best :)   We ordered sangria swirls instead.

Lauren, Jenn, Alison, Kelly, Me

After dinner, we had to find a cab (I mean 2 cabs!!).  Something easy enough, so we thought!  There were NO CABS anywhere!!  

Eventually, we were successful.  We split up and away we went, back downtown.

Kelly, Jenn and I ended up in a cab together.  We took SO MANY pictures trying to get the 3 of us in one shot.  I never knew that could be so hard, ha!  It was hysterical though :)  We ended up at a bar next door to Brad's (bachelor Brad's) bar.  We stayed for one drink, then decided to call it a night.  We were pretty sleepy and we wanted to be rested for our busy day on Saturday.  We walked back to our hotel, which seemed like FOREVER!  We made it, safe and sound :)

Saturday AM we woke up, got some food and hit the pool!  We were determined to get a spot!  Well we did and it was so relaxing.  It was pretty shady until time to go in and get ready (of course).  We had mani/pedi appointments that afternoon.  Instead of getting ready to go for lunch, we ended up ordering poolside (including a bloody mary!).  We had lunch by the pool, then RAN upstairs to throw on our clothes to make it to the manicure place!  My sweet sister in law (& bridesmaid) flew all the way from DC to meet us for Saturday night!  She took a cab from the airport to the nail place.  It was so nice having her there :)  

Kelly, Me, Alison getting our nails done.

The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping, eating and relaxing.  It was SO HOT in Austin, we really didn't want to be outside much.

Tourists?  Who?  US?

After some much needed R&R, we were dressed and ready for the big night!  

My "bride to be" sash was so cute!  I loved it!  Thanks Erin and Alison!

Kelly, Anastasia, Me, Lauren, Alison, Jenn

We went for sushi and saki!  

Some girls at a table over bought me a shot!  They own a bridal boutique in Austin :)  It was SOUR!

Cheers Ladies!
Lauren, Anastasia, Me, Alison, Jenn, Kelly

I was surprised, wait, SHOCKED at the end of dinner by a very fitting "bachelorette" dessert!  It was so gross, but so good!!   

After dinner we hit the town!  Found an awesome rooftop bar that we stayed at for the majority of the night.  They had a great DJ spinning records.  I was hooked!  Well, hooked until I heard the same song twice, that was a sure sign it was time to move on!!  But before we bailed, I had to take a picture with this dude!  His shirt was awesome!!

As the night went on, it got more and more interesting.  So interesting, we ran into several naked people, full body paint running out of the next bar we were trying to go in!  When they came running out, I went running with them (laughing SO HARD I might add!) b/c I was pretty sure if they came running OUT of there, I didn't want any part of what might be IN there!  We all got a really good laugh out of that one!  Only in Austin, folks!  We found another bar w/ some good old school dance songs.  You know, the classics like Baby Got Back and Ice Ice Baby :)

My sweet Russian sister in law, Anastasia, was a trooper while we danced to our old school favorites :)  I think she has video somewhere :)

It was a very late night!  By say, oh I don't know 3am we were done!  Our feet couldn't dance anymore.  But we definitely danced our way into hunger.  We stopped at a Korean BBQ food truck!  Best tacos ever!!!

Our men would be so proud :)

It was such a fun night/weekend!  I love these girls with all my heart and I thank them all for taking a weekend to spend with me, on one of my last weekends as a single lady!  Sunday AM we all packed up and hit the road.  We dropped Anastasia and Alison off at the airport.  Poor Alison had to fly to China for a week directly from Austin, YUCK!

Love you girls!!!  Thanks for a GREAT weekend :))))