January - February Happenings

I have to say, it's pretty difficult to have a post-holiday let down period this year. January and February's planned events have me too excited to sleep. Y'all know I love a good list, so here goes:

DALLAS MARKET - Basically MECCA of furniture and accessories. Days of go-go-go shop till you drop madness, with complimentary snacks and wine in almost every showroom. This will be my 4th market and it's like Christmas all over again, every year.

LAS VEGAS - We leave straight from Dallas Market to Laaaaaaas Vegasssssssss! I have never been, and I'm so excited to see what it's all about. Ryan's sweet and fabulous Aunt Toni is getting married, and we are going to celebrate her! I am already packing my leopard print, my faux furs, and my biggest bling bling jewelry. If people don't dress like this in Vegas, please someone tell me before Friday.

VALENTINES DAY - Any excuse for date night works for me. Plus, I love making the kids' Valentines treats.

MARC BROUSSARD IN CONCERT - I love MB! I've never seen him in concert and I'm expecting this to be awesome.

TONI AND DAVID'S WEDDING - These two are seriously some of my favorite people. I am over the moon for them as they start their new life together and can't wait to celebrate them in their gorgeous new home. We've been instructed to wear our dancing boots, so I'm all over that.

I Dream of Reese

Normally around this time I am sick of winter. This year, I feel a little different. I'm learning to embrace the good things about this time of year. I really love coming home every night and lighting a fire. I love that when it's cold outside we sit more - just sit and relax. The kids want to snuggle more (this is becoming more of a rarity the older they get). Now that I don't commute for 3 hours per day I have lots more curl up with coffee and the iPad time, which has been MUCH needed.

That said, I'm in kind of an outfit rut. I've been on a major "Reese Witherspoon Outfit" pinning spree, and these are some of my favorites to transition from winter to spring. The spring ones have me *really* excited for some warmer weather.

 

Her style is nothing groundbreaking - it is just so easy breezy, which is why I love it!

New Year, New Blog!

I'm sure you've noticed the design and name change. I just needed a clean slate - a blank canvas. I named the new blog Joy + Marie after my grandmothers (these are their middle names). I LOVE my grandmothers, and I feel like if I'm emulating either of them at any given time, I'm doing a good job. So, there you have it. I wanted to start out 2014 by posting some resolutions, to serve as a reminder to myself. None of these are too heavy, but I've always been a list person, and to me, you haven't really made a plan until you've made a list. Here goes...

1. Blog
I met so many fun people and had a great time writing this blog in the past, so I want to try to keep it up again. I think it's important to have an outlet to just free associate.

2. Learn How to Cook Cajun Food
I know - kind of random. I just love Louisiana and Cajun Food and I really want to learn how to cook a good gumbo, jambalaya, and batch of red beans and rice. So, I'm going to try to teach myself this year and maybe by Christmas I'll have it mastered enough to feed to other people.

3. Try Something New, Fitness-Wise
It's important to me to have fun while working out, so I want to expand my horizons a bit. I'll keep my Crossfit, but I want to add in some running and yoga, and I think mixing it up will be good for my body and mind. See also: burning off the red beans and rice.

4. Delete The Facebook App From My iPhone
This serves as a distraction from my family and friends, and honestly, I don't need to know what people from high school had for lunch or to be privy to arguments between disgruntled sports fans.I think it will be a better year without all of this superfluous information in my head. Don't ask me to give up my Instagram though - not happening. You an follow me at @alyssafromtexas.

5. Have More Fun with Clothes and Makeup
I know, I'm getting really deep here. Luckily I've said sayonara to stuffy, financial Corporate America in exchange for a *fabulous* new career with my best friend in the interior design business. In addition to enjoying my days, this also means I get to wear animal print fur and fun nail polish on the daily. I've also become completely obsessed with false eyelashes, which I'm sure I'll post about at a later date.

6. Book a Trip to NYC
I left my heart in New York - no, really though. If you read back in this blog, you would know that I have spent quite a bit of time there. I lived there for a few months, and after graduating college, I visited my best friend and MOH there almost quarterly. As time moved on and I got more serious about work and moved from a "me" to a "we", I just stopped going as much. I feel that a visit to my favorite place is very much in order.


Resolutions that I'm not even going to kid myself with this year...

1. Workout More
I'm good for 3-4 days a week - and that's okay.

2. Be More Social
I always tell myself I'm going to branch out and meet more people...maybe start a bunco group, and that is kind of a joke. I have a handful of great friends and a beautiful family, and that's enough for me. I don't think you have to be a social butterfly to have a completely enriched life.

3. Cut out Caffeine
Just no. I love coffee. I will always love coffee. Everything in moderation.


Honestly, 2013 was not my favorite. Those of you who know me know I live a charmed life. I never want to sound ungrateful, but a girl can only take so much. Here's to hoping 2014 is better! 

Back from the dead

I've decided to revive the 'ole blog. This time I will not put pressure on myself to post x amount of times per week. I will just journal as I see fit. A lot of what I write will be about Carter and Hayden, because I want to document. I feel like time is slipping away from me, and I want to remember all of the things they do while they're still little. So, stay tuned! I'll have a new domain name and a new header pretty soon.

A Very Special Gift

Happy New Year!

Christmas was crazy - as usual. Most every year, we drive about 630 miles over a 3-day period, trekking all over Texas to see different parts of my family. IT IS EXHAUSTING but so worth it to me, mainly because I am so close to my grandparents on both sides. I just can't imagine a Christmas without seeing all of my sweet grandparents, so we drive.

Left to right: Granny and Pappaw (Ryan's), Grammy (Mine), us, Nana and Grandaddy (Mine), and in the back row Dede and Grandma (Ryan's)

Ryan is lucky enough to have his grandparents here in Houston, so we get to see them fairly often. After all that driving, we spent the day after Christmas with Dede and Grandma. Just when I was completely spent and feeling so "over" the holidays, I opened the SWEETEST gift from Ryan's Grandma.

She had been hand embroidering this set of napkins for us for months. They were made to match a runner passed down to her by her mother (who she lost this year), that she plans on passing down to us.

This was such a special gift to us for several reasons. It was a gentle reminder that we have the most incredible people behind us, praying for us and cheering us on. 

It goes without saying that Ryan's Grandma Geneva is an extremely sweet, thoughtful, and strong woman. I hope she knows how much we loved this!

Set your DVRs again!

We are about to run out to dinner, but I had to get this quick post in. My cousin Ryan and his gorgeous wife Teryn are being featured in a new reality TV show called "Texas Multi Mamas" on the WE network. It premieres tonight at 8/7c!

Teryn is superwoman. No idea how she does it, but they have 4 year old TRIPLET BOYS and a 9 year old daughter. Being around them is just mind blowing. The boys are so wild and funny! I'm guessing she will be the "good girl" on the show since I hear that it's high drama. 

She and I aren't blood-related but people have been telling us we look alike since I was a teenager. In fact, we were laughing over Christmas about when I sent out my high school graduation announcements with the picture below. Everyone in the family had to re-read the announcement because they all saw my picture and thought it was her. Imagine my excitement!

{high school me}

Watch the video and you'll see what I mean. MEET TERYN!

Set your DVRs people!

Finally - the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is back!

I've blogged about my love for the VSFS before. No shame in my game - I LOVE the pretty outfits, the glitter, and the big hair. And - have you seen those rock hard bodies prancing down the runway? That is more than enough workout motivation to get me moving after my Thanksgiving pie bender.

It is just pure whimsy. Will you be watching??

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

I have re-written this post 5 times.  If that doesn't say "all over the place" I'm not sure what does.

I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just say this - I resigned from my job today.

This is a HUGE step for me personally and professionally. A very successful businesswoman once told me that it is important to "feel the fear and do it anyway." I've been unhappy for a long time, but was scared to make a change for fear of making the wrong decision. So, I hunkered down and prayed and prayed and prayed. Then I grew a pair. I realized that if you never take a risk, you'll never know.

Don't get me wrong - I'm still feeling the fear. But - I'm *really excited* about what's to come. More on that eventually.

Whew!

Five Good Things: 11/15

I'm sticking to my plan...look at me go! Tuesday's "Five Good Things" were:

1. A short drive into work
2. It was the 15th - also known as payday!
3. Leftovers for dinner were fantastic. Why is soup so much better the second day?
4. I had 2 great games of "Go Fish" with the munchkins.
5. We finally watched Homeland from Sunday night. I am LOVING this show!

Happy Wednesday! :) Halfway through the week!

Five Good Things - 11/14

When I'm feeling overwhelmed, I can be kind of negative. I'm not happy to admit that I've been called "whiny" and "Debbie Downer" more than once. I've found that when I'm in this kind of funk, the best thing for me to do is focus on the positive - and most of the time that means focusing on the small things.

A friend told me that he and his wife took this challenge she saw on Oprah a few years ago for which you write down 5 positive things that occurred each day, at the end of the day. I love this idea. I would say I plan on doing this daily until Thanksgiving, but frankly I don't want to set myself up for failure. Womp womp - see, there I go again! It's like a tick.

So, today's five good things were:

1. I had a fantastic hair day! Unfortunately there is no picture evidence of this, but it did exactly what I wanted it to do all day. Those of you who know me know how I am about my hair.

2. Someone broke into Ryan's car. They took some cash and his wallet, which was basically empty since he keeps his ID and main credit cards in his iPhone case. The good part? Also in the car was his iPad, the big and fancy camera, and the big and fancy camera lens. They missed ALL of that. Apparently we've been targeted by the world's dumbest criminal. How's that for finding the positive?

3. Tonight for dinner I made Edie from life in grace 's Cheese Tortellini Soup. {recipe here } It was sooo good and made my whole house smell like my grandmother's kitchen.

4. I went ahead and cut myself some slack and bought this at the grocery store. One tablespoon of this goodness a day isn't going to kill me (see my "New Normal" post).

5. I'm in bed and it's before 9:30. Holla!