"The Game"

This weekend is a very big weekend for football in New Orleans. The Saints are in the playoffs and are playing in the dome on Saturday...AND LSU is in the National Championship on Monday which is in New Orleans this year! LSU being in the National Championship is incredibly exciting to me. If they win they will have accomplished a completely undefeated season, which is not very common for my favorite college football team.

Geaux Tigers!!!

My mom called me yesterday telling me that my dad got me and my brother tickets for "the game." She was so excited about it, so I automatically assumed it was for the National Championship. I didn't get to go to the National Championship last time LSU was in it (which was coincidentally also in New Orleans), and she knew it would mean so much to me to be able to be there this year. After an entire day of jumping around and screaming because I was so excited, I called my brother to talk about our plans for the big day. When I told him I was taking a half day off from work he was very confused. The conversation went something like this.

Joey: "Why would you need to take time off on a Saturday?"
Me: "A SATURDAY? The game is on Monday, you dummy!"
Joey: "Steph, you do know we're going to the SAINTS game, right?"
Me: "Ohhhhh....."

Geaux Tigers...oops...Saints!

So if you're in New Orleans this weekend, be very careful when referencing "the game." There have already been many incidences involving making plans for "the game" when the person I was talking to wasn't talking about the same game as me. Anyway, it's not very often that there are two huge games in such a small period of time in the same place. This weekend will definitely be one for the record books!!

New Year, New Resolutions

I'm usually not a big resolution person, but this year I really want to set a few attainable goals for myself. Last year, I had an excuse. 2010 was an amazing year filled with so many exciting things that took up a lot of my time (I got married, started a new job, bought a house, etc). This year was far less eventful...I guess in a good way!

We went on some pretty amazing vacations this year to San Francisco and Napa Valley as well as the Bahamas with my family.

This was also the year we adopted our Buster Boo and I became slightly more domestic by learning to garden and cook (well cook much better at least).

After looking back on this past year, I decided to come up with a few resolutions to make 2012 even better.

1. Walk the dog, cook, and bring my own lunch to school almost every day. I feel like this sounds a lot more realistic than my usual "be healthier" or "lose weight" goal.

2. Turn off the TV and eat at the table with my hubby once a week. After being married for almost 2 years, we forget to have date nights and just talk over dinner.

3. Organize the house - I found some good ideas on this website on how to set some realistic organization goals. I already have a head start since I have a very organized pantry!

4. Keep up with being crafty. Thanks to pinterest I feel like this won't be too difficult either.

Happy 2012! Cheers to attainable resolutions!

Things that make me smile this week

1) My crazy Buster Boo
He's just so cute and cuddly this week...which I definitely needed after my crazy weekend!

I really can't get enough of this picture!

2) Pinterest
Ok, I know I'm severely late in the game with getting into Pinterest. In the back of my mind I probably knew that it would be way too addicting. And I was right...I can't get enough of this website! So many good, creative ideas. Here are a few of my favorites so far that I WILL be making over Thanksgiving break.

Remember my cork dilemma? Well, I've been the biggest procrastinator in the world and have yet to make anything with my Napa wine corks. I LOVE this idea and hadn't stumbled across something like it yet. Thanksgiving break project? Yes, please!

Seriously. Why have I never thought of this before? So easy and so cute! Wood letters glued to a canvas and sprayed all one color. Love it!

We host a dinner party for our friends every thanksgiving called Friendsgiving. I've been getting some super cute ideas for decorating off of Pinterest. I love this centerpiece!

I also MUST make these. How cute! Votive candle holders made out of small pumpkins. I'm sure the candle won't even need a scent with the pumpkin smell in the room!

3) Soup
I'm obsessed with soup when it starts to get cold out (although in New Orleans, it seems like we only have one cold day every other week - but that's beside the point). This week I made a corn, crab, and shrimp soup. So yummy. I'm currently scouring pinterest for other soup recipe ideas.

Not my soup, but it looks the exact same!

4) Boots and Tights
I love me some boots and tights for the fall! I'm telling you. That one cold day a month just makes me go fall weather crazy! (Although, I have a foot injury that is causing me to currently only wear one specific pair of flip flops...more about that with my upcoming weekend recap...I'm still recovering and am a little scared to write about it haha). I already talked about my boot obsession, and it is getting worse. I've been holding myself back, but I'm pretty sure I'm about to go on a boot shopping spree. Sorry, hubby! I can't help it!

Love this outfit! Must recreate...

Next up: my weekend recap (that I'm still recovering from and scared to write about). Here's a hint. It involved a beautiful wedding, watching the amazing LSU game, my friends getting absolutely crazy, going to the Saints game in a daze, and a cab related foot injury.   :-)

Find a happy place

I found a good quote I wanted to share. This blog started out as a "happiness pact," and finding happiness isn't always the easiest thing to do. My personality tends to get me in trouble on that front. I tend to take things to heart, get caught up in the little things, and forget about the people that care about me the most. I find that this quote currently applies to a lot of different aspects of my life.

"There comes a time in life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. So, love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is part of LIFE...Getting back up is LIVING!"

And when that doesn't work, take a nap and go to a happy place. :-)

My new favorite "happy place." Isn't it just beautiful?

A few quotes to get you through this week

Opinion is the main thing which does harm or good in the world. It is our false opinions that ruin us.
- Marcus Antonius

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
- Audrey Hepburn

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I bought a necklace with this quote on the back of it because I thought it was so beautiful. I wear it to remind me to always live my life in a positive way, to not worry about other people's opinions, and to always remember to take in the sunsets.

My necklace from Fossil

PS: If you didn't already know, I'm incredibly obsessed with sunsets. I feel like unusually pretty ones are always a sign of something good to come. Kind of like a fortune cookie. Only prettier. I guess it doesn't help that I got engaged during the prettiest sunset I have ever seen in my life.

The picture I took right before I got engaged on a beach in Destin, FL. Still the prettiest sunset I've ever seen...and the background on my phone and computer and the banner on this website.

All I want for Christmas is you...

I had an interesting Christmas to say the least. Since this blog is devoted to happiness, I’ll go ahead and skip most of it and leave you with this picture.

Bah Humbug!

 My family has a rather recent tradition of playing games that involve prizes at holiday functions. It started out as a grown up Easter egg hunt two years ago. Each egg had a number inside, and those numbers corresponded to prizes…some amazing and some not so much. Since we had so much fun running around that Easter two years ago, my mom decided to have a candy cane hunt the next year for Christmas. We loved it that time too and ended up playing again this year.

Can I just say right now how much I suck at this game? Me, my hubby, and my brother are all really competitive. For some reason when I go to search for candy canes or Easter eggs, I freeze and end up with nothing. Maybe it’s because both of the boys have really long legs and have a head start? Maybe it’s because I never know exactly what to search for because my mom is so sneaky about it? (this year she wouldn’t tell us what to look for – there were ornaments, buttons, candy canes, and walnuts)

Anyway, I always end up with the least amount of eggs/candy canes by FAR. Ending up with just a few numbers isn’t always a bad thing in this game. My mom always makes sure to put in a few really great prizes and a few very terrible prizes, so you never know what you will end up with. She also created certain numbers that mean you can trade prizes before knowing what is inside of them. This makes for a very interesting and complicated game, depending on the mood of the participants.

Every other year it has worked out ok and I ended up with ok prizes. This year was the exception. While my brother and hubby were opening prizes such as good wine, gourmet salts, absolute vodka with bloody mary mix, and a $50 bill...I found myself opening up a can of monkey butt paste, a plastic monkey oven mit, a weird card game, and a Tiffany’s box which contained a note that said to give everyone in the room a hug.

Merry Christmas!

I totally lost at Christmas. Haha It was a lot of fun though! My grandma was in tears from laughing so hard. At the end of it all, my mom told me "It's ok sweetie! Next year we'll switch the game and play something you have a chance at...like POKER!" Knowing my mom, I'm sure it will end up being the most complicated, made-up game in the world. We shall see how that works out come Easter! Hope all of you had a very merry Christmas!!