Kelly Clarkson: I'm in Love

The singer is looking forward to catching football games with her beau, Brandon Blackstock

Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty

Come September, Kelly Clarkson will have to balance two loves: boyfriend Brandon Blackstock – and football.

But the Texas-born Dallas Cowboys fan, who recorded a self-penned anthem for the team in collaboration with the NFL and Pepsi, says she’s hoping to combine those two loves with some game day-dates during the upcoming NFL season.

“I always go to games,” the recently toned singer, 30, tells PEOPLE. “I usually have my [running back] Emmitt Smith jersey on because I go old-school, and he’s my favorite.”

And while the now-retired Smith may be her favorite Cowboy, Blackstock, whom she began dating in late 2011, was at the receiving end of Clarkson’s gushing.

“One of my favorite things is we’re both in the business,” she says. “He gets my job and he gets how busy it can get, and he gets the sacrifices that we both have to make with our jobs.”

They go to the movies. They have a dog together, a German Shepherd puppy named Bear. “We’re very super real – like, what you see is what you get,” she says. “So I don’t think we’re cool enough to have something super surprising [about us].”

Currently on tour, Clarkson says she feels more confident than she did nearly 10 years ago, when she shot to stardom as the original American Idol.

“I think as you get old though, too, you just get less worried about the little stuff that doesn’t matter and you focus more on the bigger picture,” she says. “And, you know, I’m also in love.”

Adds Clarkson: “I’m just super happy right now. Are you?”