check out our new blog!!!!

Our blog is moving... Check us out at http://jamesandmalary.blogspot.com 

We got a total redo and it is so nice!!! Hope you like the new look!!!! I know I sure do.

currently

This is my first "Link Up" and I am so excited!!! I recently started following Jenn at Perfectly Imperfect and thought this would be a great first link up!!! 

current book(s):  school books =( I have no extra time to read lately. As soon as December comes I will be reading my little but off!!!!! 

current playlist:  the last two days I have been obsessing with anything country, listening to it constantly while I am at home or in the car.

current color(s):  anything fall!!! (mustard, purple, hunter green, red) 

current food/drink:  my cup of coffee and half of a bagel (YUMMM)

current favorite show(s):  X Factor, Long Island Medium, Jersey Shore (sadly), Modern Family, and 2 Broke Girls.

current needs:  anything for the house, colored skinnies, chambray top, and a new winter coat

current banes of my existence:  LESSON PLANS!!! 

current celebrity crush:  Channing Tatum. (idk why but I find him so cute)

current #1 blessing:  my husband. He is the most amazing guy ever and I am so blessed to call him my husband!!

current indulgence: halloween candy!!

current outfit: pj's!! (laying in bed drinking my coffee and writing this)

current excitement:  James and I are going to our first LSU game this weekend!!!

current mood:  burnt out with school work and still so much left to do!! (is it December yet?) 

current favorite quote or verse:  Don't Compare Your Beginning to Someone Else's Middle -Jon Acuff

Really need to keep telling myself this. I sometimes find myself so envious of others and then realize they are 5-10 years older than me and are in a different place in life.

 current wish list item:  This iPhone case! So Cute!!!----------------->

current favorite product(s):  fall nail polish!! (any brand any color LOVE them all)

happy fall y'all

Here is our pretty outside decorations for fall. We had way too much fun at the pumpkin patch and I think we have more pumpkins in our yard than our whole neighborhood combined!! I love it and can't wait to finish the inside! 

weekend wrap-up

Good morning!!!

As I speak my husband is making "big breakfast" as we like to call it. It is one of our favorite things. He makes pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, and coffee of course. And it is all yummy!!!! Over the years we have turned into early birds and 7:00 am is the normal get up time for a Saturday and Sunday morning in the Gautreaux household. I used to get really upset but now it is so nice to get up and get more things done. It also makes 8:00 am class a lot easier during the week compared to my freshman year when I missed quite a few of those morning classes!! 

So anyways while I lay in bed sipping my coffee I thought I would tell y'all about our weekend! I was supposed to work on Friday (For the first time in three weeks) but lucky for me my aunt called me to babysit my precious little nine month old cousin and I  could not resist. I quickly gave my shift up! I mean who would rather spend their night waiting on hungry and sometimes grouchy people when you can spend your evening with a happy, sweet, and cuddling baby?!?!? Sadly Olivia has been going through a phase and was far from a happy bubbly baby but we made it through! They think she is possibly teething and she pretty much cried the whole entire time!!!! It wasn't the night I expected but still way better than working at the restaurant! 

James had his friend Ryan over and they played Xbox late into the night (something I will never understand). From what I hear they played some new scary game and took turns getting the begeebers scared out of them and screaming like girls! (Can I please be a fly on the wall?)

On Saturday we woke up and went on an early morning grocery shopping trip. We are now on a once a month shopping trip so we knew it would be a long and pricy trip and wanted to get there early to be the crowds. Luckily Starbucks is right in front of Walmart and we picked up coffee before heading inside. We were in and out in ohhh 2 hours... not too bad right?!? ;)  It really isn't too bad, we have always liked going together to go shopping so it is actually something we look forward to!

This is only a portion of the list ;) 

After we got home I had to get ready for a baby shower. One of my friends, Lauren, is pregnant with her second baby(first one was a boy and now she is having a girl!) and some of her friends decided to throw her a shower for baby Addison. I had a lot of fun and she got lots of goodies. There were so many dresses and bows I think she is going to be the most fashionable little miss around!! 

When I got home we hurried up and changed again (Yes I know, it was a crazy day) and we headed to the pumpkin patch! We love fall around here and get so excited to go to the pumpkin patch. I think I might have gone a little crazy with the pumpkins but who cares I could not resist. We have made it a family tradition to go together every year with our dogs and can't wait until we will be able to bring our own children there. I love seeing all of the little families there taking pictures and buying pumpkins.

Hubby was a good sport and never complained as I was adding more and more pumpkins!

Daisy was bored and yawning while I was trying to take pictures

My little family

Crazy right?!? 

After leaving the pumpkin patch my Maw-Maw called and said she was cooking the first gumbo of the season an to come pick some up! My response: HECK YEAH! Will be there ASAP!!! We love gumbo around here and Maw-Maw makes the best gumbo!!! We went over there and all the puppies got to play together and we got to visit with Maw-Maw and Poppy for a little while. 

This is Teddy's favorite spot: Poppy's chair!!

 Today we are going to decorate the inside and outside for Fall and I am so excited. I have been burning "fall" candles for two weeks now so it will be nice to have everything out (pictures coming soon)! I am also trying out a Pinterest recipe I found and hopefully it will turn out super yummy!!!! James is sadly leaving tonight to go back but I have a huge test on Tuesday so as soon as he leaves I will be studying nonstop until Tuesday at 9:00 am.

Hope your weekend was just as amazing as ours!!! 

7 years and counting...

Yesterday was the seventh anniversary of James asking me to be his "girlfriend" during the last song of our freshmen homecoming dance. At the time I never would have thought in 7 years I would be married to him! At the time I thought it would last a few weeks or months and then we would move on, but God had other plans for us. Also at the time I had no clue how absolutely amazing this guy was and how happy he would make me. He is the sweetest, kindest, most loving and generous person I know. He makes me strive to be a better person every day and he encourages me on my roughest days. He is simply amazing and I get to spend the rest of my life with him. He is just the best and I am so dang lucky. Everyday I thank God for this amazing gift he has given me. I am so lucky to have found my soulmate so young in life and I cherish him more than you can ever know.
I wish he would have been here with me to celebrate the special day, but of course he is in Shreveport. =(

While celebrating our four year anniversary 3 years ago he proposed. It was one of the best days of my life. We were spending it at the beach and the second day we were there he decided to make it the trip we would never forget. It was such a special weekend and I am truly blessed to have such an amazing man to call my husband. Our dating-anniversary is always going to be so special to me and something we will always celebrate it. 

I love this man more than anything and the past 7 years have been the best ever and I am looking forward to the next 70 years!!! Love you Babe... more than anything =)

weekend adventures: a wedding, a football game, and homework in between

This weekend was a pretty busy one for us, we had a wedding, a football shindig, and lots of homework!!!
James got home Thursday night to a newly red-headed wife waiting for him. He loves my red hair and from the day I decided to change it, he has been saying he wanted the red hair back. I finally gave in last week and went Thursday for the big change. I have to say he is right I love the color and love how it makes me more unique. (Note to self: listen to hubby when it comes to hair color) After my hair appointment it was time for James to come home!!! They decided to come home on Thursday this week and this wifey was super happy!!!
On Friday I had school and a student teaching meeting (AKA one step closer to graduation) and James went do manly things like going to Home Depot and buying stuff for another project (pictures to come... when the project is done). After I got home from school we spent a couple hours cuddling and watching tv then it was homework time for me =(
Saturday James and I attended an absolutely beautiful wedding. We are good friends with both the bride and groom and were so happy to be there on their special day.
The groom is the person I consider my big brother, he is the closest thing I have to one and I am so happy to see him so happy. He is such an amazing guy and has been such a great influence on my life. He has taught me some of the most important things in life... to drive... to drink... and to never give up on love. He means so much to me. The bride used to work with both of us at Texas Roadhouse and is such a sweetie. Together they are perfect. The ceremony was so beautiful (yes, I cried my eyes out). You could just feel the love throughout the church for two amazing people on their special day. The reception was just as awesome. Yummy food, good music, and great friends. We ended up running into two of James' good friends that we didn't know knew the bride and groom. It nice to catch up with them and see how life has been treating them!
Today, I did more homework all day and then this afternoon we had some friends over for the game. Unfortunately our beloved Saints lost but we had a great time. I attempted pulled pork for the first time... it  wasn't the best pulled pork I have ever had but it was pretty good (definitely getting a different kind of pork next time). We had such a busy weekend but spending it with my amazing husband made it all worth it. Now i am off to finish my last homework assignment of the night and then cuddling the hubs until it is time for him to leave again (5am)!

Here are a few pictures I snapped from the wedding!

everything happens for a reason...

I am not ready to get into details about anything but this quote has been something that has gotten me through this extremely hard week. We would really appreciate extra prayers right now to get us through  this difficult time.

cutting our grocery bill in half

I have been dying to blog about this all month long but I wanted to wait and make sure we actually followed through with our plan! Now that August is officially over I can tell you that we made it through an entire month with only one major grocery shopping trip and with a pre-planned month of meals. I had a lot of doubt in myself when we decided to do this because I am a spur of the moment kind of person, I like to just say I want this and go get it but somehow it was not hardly as hard as I thought it would be. There were two time I did have to make a quick trip, once because we ran out of coffee, orange juice and I needed things to make a banana pudding and the second was because Hurricane Isaac came along and by that point we were out of pretty much out of anything needed to survive a hurricane. 

Okay so my inspiration you ask??? One day on one of my Pinterest binges I came across a blog that said "How to cut your grocery bill in half"and being the penny pincher that I am I could not resist. When I clicked on it I was introduced to Danielle from Blissful and Domestic.  And let me just say it now this woman is super woman!!! She juggles family, blogging, and everything in between so well. I love her and she has great advice. 

From there I made my meal plan. I had already ordered this super cute notebook (another Pinterest find) to make your menu's on so it was perfect timing to put it to good use. I kind of struggled thinking of what I would cook the whole month, I just kept thinking will I really want to eat that in three weeks?!? Since James is out of town Monday-Friday I knew I only needed two-three meals per week (I have this weird thing that I can't cook alone it makes me feel so sad to cook and eat alone so I eat left overs or frozen chicken patties all week long). After getting the list made we spent about two and a half hours shopping at Walmart and then went get fresh produce at a local market. We finished that day spending $150. We just looked at each other in complete surprise. We spent the rest of the month reminding each other that there was NO Walmart visits and if we did not have it we would go without! So from around $400-500 a month to $200 a month on groceries!!!! I am so impressed and so happy we actually did it. There were a few snags in the road and we are still learning how to master this skill but we are doing great and best of all saving money!!!!! Now we are off to make our September shopping trip!!!! I really hope we can keep this up we are saving so much money and I just LOVE it!!!!!!! Happy Saturday!!!!

weekend adventures: Houston

 Since we just bought a house we decided that vacation was a no-go this year and that we wanted to spend our extra money on things for the house... so we decided it would be fun to take a trip to Houston for an over night getaway/buy things for the house/buy things for Malary weekend(the mister refused to buy anything for himself)!!! I am in love with Living Social and saw a deal for an over-night stay in Houston at a really nice hotel that included a $40 credit and valet parking for half off and knew we couldn't pass it up!!! So Saturday morning we woke up super early and started on the four hour journey to the Lonestar State. The drive itself wasn't bad at all, we had so much fun just talking about random things and singing songs to each other(insert a big LOSER sign here). When we got there we decided to go ahead and eat our sandwiches(I packed an ice chest of food, drinks, snacks, and left over chips and salsa from Chili's to save money) and then go take on IKEA and all it had to offer. Let me just say that place was totally mind blowing. I am not sure what I expected but surely not what I saw. It was so cool the way everything was set up so you can see and choose what you like. We spent about four and a half hours walking around shopping and getting ideas for our house. We ended up getting quite a few things for the house beings as the prices are so reasonable. 

After we left IKEA we decided to head to the hotel and check in and just relax for a little while before getting dressed for dinner. Well after a nice long relaxing nap we decided getting dressed up for dinner was not happening and used our $40 credit towards our dinner and just ordered room service from the restaurant downstairs. The food was really tasty and we didn't have to get dressed up or go anywhere. We had also bought a bottle of wine with us and cracked that thing open and had a glass with our dinner. After we ate we thought it would be fun to walk to the mall (one block away) and shop around for a little bit. James had never been to the Galleria and was so mind blown with the fact that there was a ice-skating rink inside the mall!! We had fun and ended up grabbing a couple pieces of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory on our way out to eat when we got back to our room. 

The next morning we slept in (9:30am sooo late I know ;) ) and then got up and headed to the Katy Mills outlet mall. I had to do a little begging for this stop but the hubby gave in pretty quickly. Once we got there I saw they had a Rainforest Cafe and knew James would LOVE it (He had never been) so we split a lunch there and spent the morning shopping and just enjoying each others company. 

This little mini-trip was so nice and relaxing for us. Having a long distance marriage is so hard on a couple and we just missed each other so much. I am so grateful for the time we do get to spend together and I am so glad that this separation has just strengthened our marriage but I am really looking forward to the day he is home for good. It is so funny how much people take for granted having their spouse home every night.

little love notes

Just thought everyone should know how awesome my husband is and how truly blessed I am. 

Thursday night I had to work and was feeling really yucky but next weekend we are taking a trip to Houston so I really needed to work and make some extra spending money. So as I was working my hubby was driving home from Shreveport. Well once I got off of work I got home to this! How sweet is that?!?!?!?! We had been using a tarp to work on a little project and he saw it and thought a little love note would make my night better!!!! He is so freaking awesome!!!!! It totally worked and I was instantly in a better mood. It is things like this that just prove to me that I married the best man in the entire world. He is always putting others first and never thinks about himself and I love him so much for that.

P.S. As I write this blog he is making brownies!!!!! Did I mention best hubby EVER???? ;)

moving announcements

I am not sure if I have ever mentioned it but I have the BEST best friend ever!!! She is so amazing, crafty, thoughtful, did I say amazing already?!?! So when James and I first started our house buying adventure I saw a few really cute moving announcement ideas on Pinterest but I thought well thats too pricy and Ashlyn could totally do a better job. So long story short I told her and of course being the best person ever she designed one for us!!! I am so in love with them!!!! How freaking cute?!?!?!!?

Last week I got them printed and Ashlyn came over with her super cool Calligraphy pens and we addressed them and I got them sent out yesterday!! I am so grateful to have such an amazing friend that is so helpful and crafty that does these kinds of things for me just because she loves me!!! Like I said before she is THE BEST BFF EVER!!!! 

{Ashlyn is a college student that just does this on the side for fun but she would love your business!!! She doesn't have a website yet but if you are interested send her an email at designsbyashlyn@gmail.com}

  

1...2....3... BREAK

Okay so school is officially over for me today at 5 pm for 17 days!!! I know its a really short summer break but the good news is that next summer I will be a college graduate and hopefully decorating my new classroom!!! (fingers crossed) So since I have a whooping 17 days off I have a made a small list of things I need to get done!!

1.Curtains
I still can't find some that I just love or want in my house! There are some at World Market that are high contenders but I am not 100% sold on them yet!!

2.Read a book (or three)
I just love reading so freaking much and I never seem to have time during school to read so this break will definitely have some reading time.

3. Finish a few Pinterest projects
I seem to always start these awesome projects and never finish (as we speak there are three unfinished projects in my garage).

4. Organize our bills
 Now that we are homeowners and have many more bills than we used to and I want to get some sort of organization in that department!!! They seem to just pile up on our desk and one of my worst fears is forgetting to pay a bill and coming home to no water or electricity!!!

5. BLOG!!!!
I am really starting to love this thing and want to do it more often so I plan to start blogging way more than once or twice a month. I also want to learn more about it and how to better my blog. I am not a journalism major and not the best at wording and all that junk but hey I am trying!!! ;)

Also throughout all of this I will be working at the Coyote Blues trying to save a little for when I am not working during the semester, so this so called "break" probably won't be much of a break at all but I am totally fine with that!!!!

baby rose bush

OHH about three years ago I was continually "reminding" (AKA begging) my new fiancé to get me random flowers. Now I am not talking about calling a flower shop and spending a $100 on a very small bouquet. I just wanted him to go to Target and get one of those $10 ones and surprising me with flowers! Flowers have always been something that brightens my day. I just seriously love them so much. People can say all they want that they are a waste of money but I am a firm believer in flower giving!!!!

So anyways one day I get home from school and to my surprise he had finally caught a hint and went to Albertson's and got me flowers   ... okay not exactly pretty flowers but more like a baby rose bush! It was the funniest, sweetest, cutest, most amazing thing ever. He thought this was better than flowers because it will live longer and I sure couldn't say anything because he was so happy. Sadly we lived in an apartment with hardly any sunlight and my tiny baby rose bush only lasted a couple of weeks before we had to throw it in the dumpster.

Now a days the hubby is very good with the flower giving. He even splurges and gets the flower shop kind on special occasions but my fav are still the Target ones. Since he isn't home to just surprise me on random days he has taken to saying while we are at the grocery store on the weekends "Hey... Go pick out your favorite flowers" and then gives me a little winky wink ;)

SO this weekend we went to Fresh Market for the first time (I know it seems crazy but I always thought it was this super expensive over priced place) and let me just say UUUHHHHMAZINGGGG!!! I just loved it so much! So many healthy fruits and veggies... and pretty flowers!! So hubby did his thang and walked over to the flowers and what do you know they had baby rose bushes!! I just knew I had to get one! And since the prices were so reasonable we got a small daisy bouquet and a baby rose bush!!! I was in heaven. When we got home I already had a pot to put my rose bush in (I found it at Michael's for $1.50 and knew I would use it one day) and I put my daisies in a vase and wrapped a little burlap ribbon around it to spruce them up a little!!!!

baby rose bush #1

baby rose bush #2

pretty daisies

This experience brought back so many special memories of dating and just moving in together and starting the "adult" life. I love my husband so extremely much and all of the cute little things he does to show his love.

Now lets just hope I can keep this rose bush alive!!! ;)

life lately

Sorry I have been MIA for a month, life for us has been crazy! I have been overwhelmed with the three summer classes I am taking and my hubby is still working in Shreveport. Also our weekends have been packed with fun things! 

I am really bad at remembering to take pictures but here are some pictures of what we have been up to!!! 

Gautreaux Summer Bash

 We have a new hobby... Tennis!!!

 My little brother's horse show!! How cute is he?!?!

 Our trip to the Old State Capitol, New Capitol, and the Louisiana Museum.

The first of many wreaths I will be making for our new house!!!

We bought a HOUSE!!!!!

WELL....
Two weeks ago today James and I officially became homeowners!!!!! It was such an amazing day for both of us. This is something we never thought we would be able to do and we definitely did not think we would be able to do it at 21 years old. This was just the perfect house for us and everything worked out in our favor. God truly blessed us with this amazing house.