Short and sweet

It has been a while since my last post. I finished my 3 ½ week temporary job at the audio company and started another temporary job last week. It is a large accounting firm called Postlethwaite and Netterville. I will be there for two months doing tax returns through tax season. No, it isn’t thrilling but it has its perks. Since it is their “busy season” we get breakfast every Monday and they are soon catering in lunches. My boss is such a fun lady too. Barb has two twin daughters both in the same sorority. I feel like I know them.  She is always telling me stories and showing me pictures of them as well as their apartment!  Every day she has me look at fashion police online with her and check out all her packages she gets in for her daughters for spring break from Lilly Pulitzer and Victoria's Secret. I mean wouldn’t you do that if you had two fun twin daughters?! She is just a hoot! I love talking to her because when she first got married her and her husband moved all over she also did occasional temporary jobs. After many years they finally moved back to Baton Rouge to be close to family. It is always comforting when you can relate to someone like that. Well, tomorrow and Friday we get to wear jeans! Also, on Friday we are having an ice cream party in honor of employee appreciation day! It’s nice not dreading work every day like I did at Dillard’s. Sorry this wasn't anything exciting or fun. I just wanted to write about it for memories later. Have a wonderful week!

Throw me something mister

Bryan and I can officially say we survived Mardi Gras 2012. What an experience we had too. Before I get into that I wanted to share a little of our past week. Valentine's day was wonderful considering we did not have to celebrate via skype, Halleluiah! He sent me flowers at work, we had dinner at Bravo, and then went to see The Vow. Not only did we go see a sappy chick flick, we went on a weekday and got home past Bryan's 10:00 bed time. It must be love.

My pretty flowers that didn't come in a box this year!!!

Nothing to exciting happened the rest of the week until Saturday morning. We were planning on going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras but heard most parades were being moved to Sunday due to rain. Well, the forecast was accurate. Bryan and I woke up right before my dad called and said there were tornadoes in Lafayette coming our way. We jumped out of bed just as the storm was rolling in with a tornado warning on TV. All that was running through my head was that "warning" is the bad one and I need to put shoes on. Two seconds later we hear metal flying around outside and Bryan says "we are going to the bath tub!" At that point I was terrified because Bryan would never hide from a storm/tornado, he loves them, and because we were on the third floor! I still don't understand why the sirens didn't go off while the news was telling everyone to take cover. Thankfully we got a warning from my dad!

I just had to get a picture. Some of the aftermath of the storm. Those are metal sheets from the ceiling of the hallways of our apartment. I guess Louisiana doesn't just have hurricanes. Yay.

So with that scare we decided to delay Mardi Gras a day. We left yesterday after church and headed to NO.  I had never seen so many people and beads in my life. It was worse than NYC at rush hour. I took pictures but honestly they don't come close to doing it justice. We saw two parades: Krewe of Thoth and Krewe of Bacchus.

I took this on Bourbon street trying to get the balcony. I didn't realize until I got home that this man was in it! He probably thought I was taking a picture of hime! Ha. Oh well!

I look scared to death! 

A trailer full of just beads.

See the ladder on the far left? There were tons of these with little seats on top. I was pretty jealous of the little girl on top.

Example of the mess and ladders

Can you tell who this is?? Will Ferrell!

Once we had watched the first parade we thought we should just start walking the parade route back to our car. It was starting to get dark but we still wanted to see the parade. At this point I had to go to the bathroom and wasn't about to pay $1 to use a porta potty!  Night parades are beautiful though. Again, these pictures don't do it justice!!!  We ended up walking 6 miles back to our car through crowds of people. I wouldn't recommend Mardi Gras to everyone. I am glad I got to experience it in NO but I think from now on I will stick to the parades outside of the city. :)

Our first Mardi Gras parade!

What a fun experience we had last night! We got home from work and left straight for a yummy bbq restaurant in downtown Baton Rouge so we could get to the parade in time. I think the highlight to our night was being on the news! After they interviewed us I was thinking it's kind of sad because we don't know anyone here that will get to see it! So I recorded it on my phone while Bryan took pictures of the TV. Haha, is that lame? Well here is our 15 seconds of fame...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAfAT4kCBHo&feature=youtu.be

Yes, we felt safe. There were families and kids everyone as well as many cops. We stood in front of the Old Capital building on River Rd. and caught beads, stuffed objects, tambourines, koozies, frisbees, cups, light up swords, and rockets.

This parade was called the Krewe of Artemis. Artemis being a female goddess the parade was mostly women on the floats. Hence, the stuffed shoes and heart I caught. They would chunk stuff at you from the top story of the float so I would just duck or let Bryan catch it. There are some heavy beads!!

This one was my favorite. It had lipstick and perfume all over the sides. Not to mention the pretty pink heel in front.

I thought she had the prettiest costume. Sorry all these pictures are bad. It's my phone.

This float was called Pocahontas.

Phantom of the Opera

Little Mermaid

All of the floats are pulled by tractors that have big signs with the name of each float. I think we were the only ones there without a bag to carry all of our stuff home. I was stuffing things in my coat to hold everything.

Not a pretty picture but it shows some of the stuff or (junk) we caught! I am now excited for next weekend in New Orleans because those parades should be bigger and better! One we plan on going to called Endymion will have Maroon 5 and Anderson Cooper! There is still time for you to come visit before the big parades next weekend!!!! :)

Phil Wickham

Last night Bryan and I skipped our class to go to a Phil Wickham concert at another church. It was wonderful! He sang all the songs I love and more. The two pictures below were from songs that remind me of two special weddings I've been too. ;)

He sang a new song that he said would either be called "Mercy" or "One Man" and it was wonderful! I can't wait until it comes out!

You may not realize this but Mardi Gras is just around the corner. Which means there is an abundance of King Cake in the office.

Here is a picture of the delicious cake. You all probably know this already but the baby represents Baby Jesus. I think that if you end up with the baby you have to buy the next cake or something.

Me being a new Louisianian having never gone to any Mardi Gras event I felt completely out of the loop. I sat at my desk googling it and I came up with a schedule of parades/events. There is a countdown to the big day and many businesses get the day off. Check out this parade schedule...I was amazed.
http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/schedule.html
One parade I want to go to doesn't just throw beads but they throw cups and dolls. How fun is that?! Well I don't know to much about this holiday but I hear it is kind of a big deal around here!

Oh the little things

To celebrate today being a Friday I wanted to share the top 5 things that get me through the day/week. Not that I hate work it's just there are some things that help brighten my day so I thought I would share.

1. Apple Chips. I wanted something to snack on that I felt was better than chips. Watch out, they are addicting.

2. Fun pens. When I have to write down messages I love using these. (However they are not professional)

3. Granola Thins. These are delicious and I mean DELICIOUS! 

4. Skittles. The new blenders kind are the BOMB. I recommend getting the larger bag.

5. Dr. Pepper. I know nothing new but it is a good one.

What things do you love that brighten your day? I would love some ideas! Have a wonderful weekend!