Christmas + House Update

I'm so so sorry that I've neglected the blog but I've been super busy with things.

First off here is a picture of us on our first Christmas together.

Aren't we so cute?!

Mike was on-call for Christmas, but he luckily didn't have to go into work. We had to stay close to home, which meant that we couldn't go to any of Mike's relatives for the holidays. So we only went to my parents' family festivities, one for my dad and one for my mom. Only two family Christmas festivities for us newly weds.

Now for a house update, the bank accepted our offer for the house. Happy Time!!! So after weeks of dealing with multiple offers, that bit is over now. We just have to wait for them to turn back on all the utilities so we can have our inspection. This is so exciting for us!!!

House Hunting . . . . Almost Finished??

I've come to the realization that if I blog about it, then something happens. We have waited almost a month for the bank to make a decision on who gets the house, I don't understand why it took soooooo long for them to pick since we all had to do our "Highest & Best" offer twice!! And voila, they pick someone. Not just any someone, but us!!!! Oh Happy Day!

Ok, so they {aka the Bank} verbally agreed to our offer. Their higher up person just has to sign the paper, which could take up to a week. This gives us time to have all of our proverbial ducks in a row before our inspection period begins. I am so beyond excited, y'all just don't even know but the realist person in me knows that if there is anything majorly wrong with this house, we are back to square one. Positive thoughts!

I'll keep y'all posted on our new adventure as grown-ups!!

House Hunting + Our First Christmas Tree

First off let me say how sorry I am that I haven't been blogging this past week. It has been so freaking C-R-A-Z-Y lately! We put an offer in on a house almost two weeks ago, so I've been stressing over that. Then last week we had to put in not just one but two "Best and Highest" offers on the house, because there were multiple offer on the table. You would think by now the Bank would pick an offer, but NO. They want me to stress out and jump every time my phone goes off. It really takes a lot out of you, but on to something way more happy.

Our first Christmas Tree as a Married Couple!!!

It's a little 3ft fake tree that I got at Hobby Lobby. It fits perfectly in our small apartment. I'm trying to make it as festive as I can!


***Link-Up with #YOLOMondays & Honey We're Home

Thanksgiving Desserts & House Hunting

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday! This year I offered to make dessert for my families big luncheon. I made an apple crumble pie/tart thing and a buttermilk pie. I've been wanting to try and make an apple pie, and this seemed like as good a time as any to try it out. Here is a picture of how it turned out, fresh from the oven.

Alas I was not quick enough on Thanksgiving day to take some super cute pictures of my desserts, so this is what I got.

My family is like vulchers when it comes to desserts or something! They were a BIG hit {obvious by the pics lol} and I didn't even have any leftovers of them to bring home.

So after the food of Thanksgiving and the thrill of Black Friday shopping had pasted, it was time to continue our house hunting. We ended up seeing somewhere close to 11-10 houses during the holiday break/weekend. And let me just say, that's a lot of houses to keep straight. Luckily some of them were put in the definite NO category and a small few were in the maybe/possible category. It's amazing to see what some people do to there homes. The best find from this weekend of house hunting had to be hands down the house that had an entire bedroom for their little dog. Yes the dog had it's own bedroom in this house, and here's my proof.

 The dog's bed had more pillows and frills on it then my bed! There is even a little light on the wall next to the bed. All i can really say is that these people really really really love their dog!!

**Link-Up with #YOLOmondays

Caddo Lake Weekend

For Mike's birthday I was trying to do something very special for him. I first tried looking into getting Saints football tickets and we would spend that weekend in New Orleans, but football tickets are expensive. I mean they weren't even winning games when I looked and tickets way up at the top were still in the $120-200 range. That's crazy!!! So then I had to change my plan since Saints tickets don't just fall out of the sky, and a weekend in New Orleans itself isn't cheap.

Caddo Lake view from the Camp

I came up with this oh so awesome idea of spending a weekend at my Nanny's camp and I would get his best bud to come too. It was an awesome birthday idea, if I do say so myself. {I guess I just did lol} We brought our little aluminum boat up with us and the plan was that the boys would go out and fish and the girls would just relax on dry land.

 Well the second part worked out fine, but the boat's motor didn't want to start. The boys had fun anyway paddling themselves out and fishing some. Did I mention it was in the 40s aka cold as can be?! Needless to say, the fish were not there or even biting {boys swear they got two bites} but I think they still had a pretty fun time on the lake.

 A bonus find this weekend was my cousins Nintendo64. Yes we did spend some of the evening/night playing Mario Kart and Zelda.

 I know tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I haven't even finished my grocery shopping yet. What are y'all doing tomorrow? I have to bake a pie and a cake for my family's luncheon. Wish me luck that my oven works!!

**Link-Up with Ramdom Wednesday

Birthday Shopping

I had a great birthday! Mike even said we could leave after watching the Saints some, and go shopping for my birthday. Isn't that the sweetest thing ever. Lol! My Nanny gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble {Best Gift Ever}. That poor gift card didn't even last a day in my wallet. Here is what I got:

Sorry for the blurry phone pic

• Young House Love   By Sherry and John Petersik
• Back to Basics   By Ina Garten {aka Barefoot Contessa}
• Foolproof    By Ina Garten {aka Barefoot Contessa}

I LOVE BOOKS!! Hopefully all of these books will come in handy in the future. Monday I might finish my birthday shopping because I am off of work.

P.S. We are still waiting to hear back on the offer we put in last week.  {insert a worried/stress face here}

**Link-Up with #YOLOMONDAYS and Random Wednesday

Pumpkin Cookies & I'm Getting Old

Here is the recipe for those pumpkin cookies I was talking about yesterday. You know, the ones Mike said I would make before he actually asked me if I could. Luckily I found this easy peasy recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.

Melt in Your Mouth Pumpkin Cookies:
2 cups butter, softened {aka 4 sticks of butter}
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda 
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 15 ounce can pumpkin
4 cups all-purpose flour

I really like my Martha Stewart Containers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
In a large bowl, beat 2 cups butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add  sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Beat until combined. Add eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in pumpkin. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour.

Drop dough by heaping teaspoons 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.{I did tablespoon size heaps} Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until tops are set. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

Must Let Cool....but They are SO Yummy

Then Enjoy these super easy to make cookies.

There is also a recipe for a frosting that goes on top, but I figured one box of  butter was plenty on these cookies. I had to make them low fat somehow. ;) 

Also today is my Birthday!!! My mom asked my today if I felt old since I'm now a quarter of a century! AAAHHH!!!!  Here's a picture of my Birthday {Cheese}Cake from this weekend. 

This is where I gained so much weight over the weekend. Damn you cheesecake! Why do you have to taste so damn good?! I hope today is a good day because it's my Birthday and we put an offer in on a house!!!

House Hunting and Birthdays

We have been so busy lately that it isn't even funny. We looked at some houses last week and fell in love like with one house, the only problem was we saw it when it was dark. So on Saturday we went back to see it in the daylight and what do we see, major foundation problems!! I was completely bummed out, but I realized we had just started to look and we would eventually find the right house for us.

I don't think I've told y'all this yet, but Mike and I both have early November birthdays. It's a little crazy how close they actually are. So this weekend my mom planned and cooked us the most yummy dinner. I probably gained 10 pounds over the weekend, but it was COMPLETELY worth it!!! For Mike's birthday {Monday} I cooked one of his favorite dinners for him: meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I must confess that I didn't actually make the meatloaf, I bought it and cooked it. I did make the mashed potatoes for scratch though. {That has to count for something, right?}

Tuesday I was off and went vote. Yay civic duty! I also went and looked at three other houses. I like one, and Mike likes what he sees in the pictures but I refuse to rush into placing an offer without him actually going look at the house. Call me crazy but I think that's insane! I also made pumpkin cookies for Mike's work, since he already informed the guys that I would make them. {Gee Thanks} I had never heard of pumpkin cookies before this, but luckily through my awesome powers of google/pinterest searches I found a recipe. Thank you Better Homes and Gardens!!! I will post about these cookies tonight when I get home.

Happy Hump Day!

P.S. My Birthday in tomorrow!! I wonder what Mike has planned for me???

We Got Approved!

The pass couple of days have been super stressful for us, because we were waiting to see if we were approved for a home loan. We got the yes or ok yesterday!! So now begins our "official" house hunting. I say official because I've been looking at houses online since before our wedding. 

This has just made my week, and I'll tell you why. Mike's plan was to wait until December to start looking, but I somehow talked him into going drive by a few homes that we liked. So we scoped out the areas, and scratched a few off our list pretty quick. It's amazing what the right angle for a picture can hide {crazy junk yard neighbors}. We really like two homes that we saw, so much so that Mike pushed up his plan of December to November!! {Ok technically it was Halloween but who cares?!}

I'm just one step closer to actually being able to use some of our wedding gifts, that we had absolutely no room for in our little nursery yellow apartment. So what I really really need form y'all is any tips and helpful advice about buying our first home. Any {positive}advice from y'all will be greatly appreciated!

Yardsale Saturday

Mike and I decided to go to an estate sale Saturday morning. They said estate sale, but it was really a garage sale. I was hoping to find a large farmhouse style dining room table or something similar that I could use as a dining room table, but no go. I did find some cute vintage Pyrex that I got for a total of $5!

After we finished our searching at the estate/garage sale, we stopped at a local flea market. Right off the back I found this oh so cute canvas painting that was originally priced at $30 and it was inside this horrible frame that was about to fall apart. We took if out of the frame and asked the lady if she would take $20, and she said yes. Then after we wondered around some more, Mike found some Magnalite pots. We ended up getting three of them with two lids {we couldn't find the third lid} for around $43.

So our grand total for all of our loot was less than $70. I think Mike is starting to like this whole garage sale/antiquing thing because you can get some pretty cool items for a MUCH cheaper price than if you went and bought it new. I'm trying to slowly acquire items that will be placed in our house, that's after we find one of course. I hope everyone had a fun-tastical weekend like we did!!

Link-Up with #YoloMondays

A Weekend Downtown

Saturday was the Boudin Cook-Off in downtown Lafayette. You get to sample different types of boudin from 20 different boudin makers. It's always loads of fun and lots of people go to enjoy the festivities.

a lot of ppl enjoying some boudin

Boudin Pizza by Deano's Pizza

Blood Boudin by T-Jims'

 The blood boudin was Mike's favorite!! He ate a lot few samples of them during the day.

That evening was Movies in the Park. They played Ghostbusters! We couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch Ghostbusters in the park at night. We brought an old comforter and a blanket to help keep us warm after the sun went down. It was so much fun!! For dinner we had some yummy chicken and waffle sandwiches from Viva la Waffle food truck. Once the movie started, they had sold out of everything they brought for the night. And yes, they made their waffles green for the night.

inflatable movie screen

Mike and I had so much fun on Saturday!! I liked the fact that we got to do some different {and cheap} activities this weekend. I just have to remember what Saturday night they play the movies in the park.


** YOLOmondays Link-Up **

Girls Night & Baby Questions

Last night I had so much fun with one of my Besties Brittney!!! We had wine and ate so much yummy Indian food. Here are some pics of our girls night.

It was such a blast!! I even got the dreaded question of when we were going to start having baby Bonos. Apparently after my wedding, my friends need something else to obsess about and plan! LOL!! I guess since the wedding happened almost 5 months ago, they need something new to do. I told her not to worry, that after we get a house and settle in {and get Mike his lab puppy} that we would start trying. I want to be a young mom and everything. Mike and I already had this baby talk awhile back and we are on the same page. So hopefully in a year or so we will be ready. Let's just hope it's not twins, since it runs in the family {on my Dad's side and Mike is a twin}, with my luck it will be multiples.

How long after y'all got married did the baby questions start happening?

No more Journey for Us

So I'm pretty pissed now. We had planned on going to the Journey Concert with some friends and it is now officially cancelled. It was originally set for August 28, but Hurricane Isaac changed that. So they changed the date to today, but now the lead singer can't sing for a month!! I guess Mike and I are destined never to see a live Journey concert. It's such a bummer! Oh weeellll, I guess we will just have a date night instead. I seriously need some margaritas in my life now!

Engagement Party at the Skeet Club

This past weekend Mike and I drove down to Franklinton, LA for his best friend Justin's engagement party. I had never heard nor knew where Franklinton was, so I made Mike drive. :) I brought those yummy cookies that my oven allowed me to bake, and they were a big hit! {only had one left for the ride home}

 
The weekend was a lot of first for me. It was my first time at a skeet club. I got to shoot a shot gun, but I didn't hit any of the clay birds. I also got to finally shoot Mike's handgun that he got for Christmas last year.

 I struck fear into the hearts of the beer cans Mike had me aiming for.

 

And here's a picture of us enjoying our weekend at the Skeet Club. 

BTW we are going to the Journey Concert tomorrow night! Y'all be jealous!!

Making Cookies

I am so excited that the oven gods heard my prayers and allowed me to bake cookies last night. They came out perfect!! And here's how the final product looked.

These are called Spumoni Chunk Cookies. I got the recipe from my good friend Betty Crocker. Ok so maybe I don't really know Betty, but the girl has some killer cookie recipes.

Spumoni Chunk Cookies:

1 pouch of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped

1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks

1 cup salted dry-roasted pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped 

Preheat oven to 375°F. 
In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter and egg until soft dough forms. Stir in cherries, chocolate chunks and nuts. {I personally like to wait until the batter cools before I put the choc. chunks in. It keeps them from starting to melt in the dough and turning your dough brown.}

On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes, and enjoy after they have cooled off some.

Hope y'all have a Happy Friday!!!

Newlywed Issue

Hey Y'all! I know I haven't been blogging a lot recently but things are a little crazy at our apartment right now. Mike and I are still in our "adapting stage" of marriage {we are getting use to living with each other}. So here's the deal, we did not live with each other before we got married. I know some people think that's really weird, but it's true. We both know the little bit of friction between us is because we are so confined in our apartment.

Our Apartment {aka a Garage Apartment} is also another source of tension in our "adapting stage." It's really really small, I'm talking less than 500 sq ft maybe even less than that. I'll post some pictures up later, so y'all can have the full effect. We have three rooms: living/kitchen/dining room, a bedroom, and a bathroom. We are making it work, but it is REALLY hard to find room for everything. The kitchen {I don't like with a passion}houses the infamous oven that works whenever it likes and two cabinets. Ok maybe we actually have four cabinets, but that's not the point. We registered for all kinds of nice items and most of them are living in a closet at my mother's house. Countless couples we know have told us that they were never happier than when they lived in their tiny apartment. I'm calling BS on that!!

I want to make the apartment our home, but it's hard to do. On the plus side, we did get the green light from our landlord that we could put pictures up on the walls. I'm super pumped about that!!

Has anyone else gone through their own "adapting stage" in their relationship/marriage?

Weekend Fun

Mike and I enjoyed having a nice relaxing weekend. Friday night we met up with some of our friends for Cochon Lafayette's Late Night, where the bar stays open after hours and they have free bar food.

They served up some oh so yummy burger sliders. I had two of them, and Mike had about six! We all had a blast, much like we do every time we go. And I don't know about you but after the busy week I had at work, going out and having some drinks with friends was what I really needed.

It POURED all weekend long here. So what better reason than to play Lego Harry Potter 2 with my cousin for a few hours on Saturday. Yes you read right, Lego Harry Potter 2. We finished the first game over one summer and are now slowly finishing up the second one. With both of us in grad school, we didn't have as much free time to spend playing the game. Especially since she goes to grad school up in Natchitoches, LA. So if you didn't know already, now you know for sure that my friends and I are nerds!!

Do you know what this is??

If you guessed a Peanut Butter Burger, then you would be right. Yes a Peanut Butter and Bacon Burger!!! I've heard people talking about it, so I figured I would try one. I know what you're thinking, peanut butter on a burger?? It has to be gross, right? WRONG! It was so good that I almost hurt myself trying to eat it all! I fully recommend you to try one, unless of course you have some allergy to peanuts or have so crazy distaste for peanut butter or hamburgers. If you are one of these people, then don't eat it because it will either kill you or you'll hate it and then hate me for telling you to try eat.

Our fun weekend is over now, and that means it's Monday. :( Hopefully this week will fly by!

TGIF!

Y'all can't understand how happy I am that today is finally Friday. This has been a very long week at the Library for me. I started working back up in Archives since they had received more material for the collection I'm working on organizing, and then we received two HUGE donations on Thursday afternoon.

Apparently one of my co-workers wanted to make sure I saw the second donation that arrived while I was on break. It really pissed me off that she completely blocked my cubical entrance! But anyway, it's Friday and I get off at 12:30pm today. I'm so ready for this weekend to start!!

Married People in Mexico

We spent a wondrous week at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico. It was our first time in Mexico. Here are so pics from our stay there. I hope y'all enjoy food pictures!

these lizards were everywhere

Reception = Party Time

Now that we're hitched, it's time to celebrate!! The reception went by super fast and we had a blast! We danced and drank the afternoon/evening away.

The Details:
Photography - Photo225
Reception - Abacus Banquets & Receptions
Cake - Daisey Cakes in Rayne, LA
Flowers - Flowers & More By Dean

Our First Dance

Father & Daughter

Got to Love the Eyes I'm Giving Mike

I think I won the cake fight :)