Leap Day in the Leap Year!

Years ago we decided to call February 29 “Lagniappe Day”. For those not from South Louisiana, "Lagniappe” is a little something extra – (just like February 29!)

The only difference is that we wanted to pronounce it “lag-nap-a-day”.

So in honor of today, “lag-nap-a-day” I will give you a little something extra to brighten your day (and a wedding update).

First of all, here is the wedding update:
1. Ms. Liz Ball (Amanda’s mom) and Amanda’s Aunt have graciously offered to MAKE my second line napkins! They are so freaking amazing. It is such a time consuming project that I can not imagine the undertaking. They are rock stars, but we already knew that.

2. The final proof of the wedding invitation has been approved this evening and is going to the printer tomorrow. They should be ready before Friday as…

3. We are having an invitation stuffing party on Saturday! (If you want to come by and help we will be at the Shack. The more the merrier! and we might celebrate my birthday a bit also…)Yay! and then…

4. The invitations are being mailed on March 6, MY BIRTHDAY, which also happens to be our engagement photo session! Taking pictures on my birthday will be the best birthday present ever! :)

5. The official draft competition will begin next week! I can’t wait to kick Doug’s butt! I so drafted the best team ever! He did steal some of my top picks, but I feel confident in my team.

6. Finally, we have made all the final plans for the Friday before the wedding. It will include “Jazz Fest with Doug”, a ladies “Tea Time” and a little reception for anyone who wants to see us before or after dinner that Friday night. I will update the site and make a new tab for it by next week.

And here is a little something to brighten your day: Gnomes Fighting.

Love and Hugs, ENJOY YOUR lag-nap-a-day!  Lizzie

An early birthday present from my wonderful parents!

As my birthday and wedding approaches (almost two months now! ahh!!), I was asked by my family if they could buy something I could use for the wedding and give it to me for my birthday. I was excited to say STAMPS! :)

As Cynthia and I met to discuss the printing of the invitations, Ashley gave me my first birthday present for my 31st birthday. It was a little wrapped packet of…you guessed it…STAMPS!

 

As I plan to mail them on my birthday, mom and dad had to give them to me prior to my actual birthday. I am so stinking pumped.

As the night went on, we had a few issues with the printing, but here is our amazing workspace:
 

And here was a little freak out:

Thanks Ashley for taking the pics, driving me there and being awesome!
Thanks Cynthia for working on all the printing! YOU ROCK!

And finally, Thanks MOM and DAD! You are the best parents anyone could ask for. I love you both very much. Thank you for being so thoughtful and loving. Also, thanks for the stamps! They will be paying the way for our wedding invitations to be sent all over the US and the world!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

Friday post becomes Monday fun...

The most beautiful thing I have ever caught during Mardi Gras.

One of my favorite people in the whole world, Kristian, rides in Muses (which happens to be my favorite parade). Days before she rode, she displayed this amazing shoe on her facebook. I told her how I admired the shoe and she said she wanted ME to have it. I about fell over.
The day before Muses rode, she called and asked if she should load it on the float or just give it to me next time we saw each other. I said it had to be on the float and legitimately caught off the Muses float for it to “count”.
Little did I know she worried over the shoe and protected it like a mother hen the whole ride. She said she was so scared it would get damaged or lost during the chaos of the ride.
The entire parade stopped just as her float was about to get to us. Doug and I walked to her float with our sign. She immediately saw us and started looking around for a way to get us the shoe. We walked up to the front of the float (she was on the top row) and boxed out anyone to create a small hole where she could drop the shoe. As soon as the shoe was raised above the float and the crowd could see it THE CROWD WENT NUTS. I could hear everyone screaming around us. She quickly dropped it right into Doug’s hands (as he is the taller one) and he gave it to me. Kristian looked immediately relieved…she completely de-stressed and was all smiles.

We blew her a million kisses and I did a dance with my new amazing boot. It is so freaking unreal. I LOVE IT. So amazing.
Of course, the next day Kristian checked in with me to see if she needed to fix anything on the shoe. She did not want me to have a damaged shoe. I told her it was flawless and not to worry. It is now living on my mantle and will come out every single Mardi Gras for the rest of my life.

Thank you KK! YOU are amazing.
Love and Hugs, Lizzie

Happy Valentine's Day?

Valentine's Day for Lizzie and I is generally celebrated in a unique manner. Years past have found us scheduling a love day a week or more after February 14th -- and on the 15th we both raid Target, Walgreens, RiteAid, and any other store that offers deeply discounted Valentine's Day decor immediately after the holiday is over. Why pay full price to celebrate love on the same day everyone else is celebrating it when we can celebrate it a few days later with a bigger party for less money and with fewer people to have to share it with?

That's not to say we don't show our appreciation for each other on the 14th, too. Lizzie hid out in my work parking lot at lunchtime, and when I went out for a bike ride at lunch, she got someone to let her in the back door to decorate my office! Which was fantastic. And if that wasn't enough, she teamed up with some of my coworkers' wives and got some of their offices decorated, too. She was waiting in the parking lot when I got back and walked me in to see my reaction. I thought the whole thing was fantastic! Especially all the Reese's cups.

For lunch, we went to Felipe's, which is one of my favorite restaurants in the city. I would have been happy with Felipe's alone, but to get the office bomb PLUS Felipe's... my cup runneth over!

We had scheduled to do Felipe's for lunch, and Lizzie was really excited to have me make her grilled cheese for dinner. Not fancy grilled cheese, just plain ol' cheddar on white bread.. with lots of butter. She really loves grilled cheese. So I was going to go the extra mile and cut the sandwiches out in the shape of a heart. Unfortunately, I got held up at work too long and didn't get home until about 5:45, and by that time, the house already smelled of grilled cheese -- I was too late. She and her sister already made grilled cheese _AND_ cut it out heart shapes in them.

Ok, so clearly I'm a jerk here. I'm late on Valentine's Day, I screwed up the only thing I had scheduled to do that day. So I decided to make it up by surprising Lizzie with something we hadn't scheduled to do. We had a bunch of shrimp in the freezer and a sack of potatoes that we wanted to boil with them, so I figured I would have a mini shrimp boil as surprise number one. I was careful to measure out the amount of water I put in the pot, as last time I boiled potatoes in crab boil, I managed to pepper spray her entire family by having the pot boil over and the cayenne aerosolized, causing everyone to go into coughing fits. I'm  surprised that they still like me after that incident.

Surprise number two, I didn't measure the ingredients out correctly! The picture is after I poured some water out as it had boiled over -- note the dried salt to the right of the pot. I'm willing to bet that none of you have ever pepper sprayed your girlfriends or wives for Valentine's Day! I can now say that I have. I may form a club if anyone else is interested in joining.

In the end, the potatoes were delicious, the shrimp was entirely too salty, and Lizzie didn't even get mad at me. Not even a little! I must be living right. Note to Lizzie's family -- make sure I only use crab boil outside. Unless you want to work on your pepper spray immunity. In which case I can probably help you with that -- and we can enjoy tasty potatoes together when we stop coughing!

Silly Gnomes…

Here are some funny pictures from the weekend:

Doug kept trying to kiss me but that white beard was creeping me out:

Then I realized Erica was taking pics!

Ready…..Set….GOOOOO

Awwww :) Thank goodness I had on bloomers.

Doug and I with Steve, Kelly, Sam and Katie! They are my favorite gnome family! :) Check out their shirts!

Sarah and I acting completely normal…

Dancing gnomes:

Hope you enjoyed!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

PeeRaids! I heart Mardi Gras…Part 2

Happy Mardi Gras!

Today is always the day I take off of Mardi Gras parades! :) My Monday I am usually “done” with parading and need to take a day to get my voice back and get some sleep in.

HOWEVER, as it is the Mardi Gras, I have decided to share our costumes here and now. Sarah, Sabrina and I decided to dress up a few years ago for Mardi Gras. Since then we have dressed up with a fun theme. This year Sarah and I decided our theme would be GARDEN GNOMES! We sent the invite to our friends on King’s Day and had some interest as you will see in a moment.

Here is what was débuted this past Sunday!

This is the whole crew except Sarah, Barb and Nick:

Brandon and I. He is the man. Thanks B for all you did!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie

PeeRaids! I heart Mardi Gras…Part 1

This past Thursday I was given the best Mardi Gras throws ever. I mean ever.

MUSES SHOES! They were amazing! They are currently living on my mantle in the place of honor they deserve! Thank you Aunt Donna and Kristian!!

Clearly, Sarah and I dressed up while Ashley provided the food and bathrooms. Thanks Ash for having us!

And of course, there was some silliness:

It was awesome having Ryan and Sarah with us, but the biggest treat was having Ashley! She is not the biggest Mardi Gras fan and this was her only parading night. Yay Ashley!

Get ready for the Mardi Gras post with our official costume! :)
Love and Hugs, Lizzie

Fitbit Update–stupid doug.

I fell to #5! I am not happy with this. I am going to be back up top next week!

Grrrr.

Love and Grrr, Lizzie

Weekend One of THE MARDI GRAS

has taken over my life. My house is a wreck, my costumes are almost ready and I love it. All because I love the Mardi Gras.

We did not use (much) glitter this year so the good part is that my house is not covered in glitter, but it is covered in wedding stuff and everything else! Yay!

We went to parades last weekend and had a blast. On Friday, we joined Josh, Amber and Harper at their spot:

Then on Saturday we spent our day working on the electric gate at Doug’s house and did not actually make it to parades as planned. A huge THANK YOU for Josh for helping out Doug. I was less than helpful.

I would like to note that most of the day was spent with Doug watching Josh…I just happened to take a photo when Josh was watching. :)

I had some fun in my purple, green and gold!

YAY Mardi Gras!

Love and Hugs, Lizzie