Kitchen Curtains

So when we had the inside of the house painted last month I had the painters take down the old shades that were in the kitchen window. This quickly became my motivation to get the curtains done that I had always wanted in there. We started to feel like fish in a fishbowl.

When I was younger, I was in 4-H. I know what you're thinking but our group was called City Slickers. I didn't do anything country or that had to do with animals. Instead I did the crafty, sewing, cooking type activities. For the activities that were sewing related my Aunt Janelle helped me learn how to read a pattern and sew clothing.

Now fast forward say about 20+ years and I get an urge to sew curtains for the Texas house. Maybe it's being married and feeling domesticated or something. So I drug Sean to the fabric store to look at patterns with me (he probably wouldn't want me to tell everyone that). I ended up finding a pattern to make a Roman shade and found the most awesome fabric so I was ready to go.

First you start out with all the necessary items to make your curtains.

Even though I had a pattern, my windows were bigger then the pattern allowed so it took a lot of measuring and general math to figure out how much fabric was needed, etc. Well, on top of that I ended up picking a fabric with a pattern. Since all four windows are together the pattern had to match. All of that takes a little trickiness to make sure they all match up. Plus, there was one window that was a different size then the others. This made making the curtains harder but at the same time better because I could customize them. After sewing on the decorative piece and the front fabric to the black-out shade it was time to sew on the tube tape that makes the Roman shade work appropriately.

I pinned on all the strips at one time making sure all four curtains lined up so when they were opened they would be level.

Now it's time to get your handyman. I chose Sean for this (I could have done it myself but it makes him feel useful and manly!). Measure twice and cut once please! Speaking of...I asked him to cut the 60 yards of cording into 12 pieces. For those math whizzes out there that's 5 yards per piece (or 15 feet). I was busy tacking down some pieces and finishing up some other stuff with the curtains. I got up and headed to where he was cutting and found 5 feet strips of cording. I quickly told him to stop as those weren't even as long as the curtains. I was so afraid we weren't going to have enough cording now but we ended up measuring and making the pieces the necessary length and actually had some left over. We laughed pretty hard about this. His excuse? "You said 5 and the tape measure is in feet."

Yes people that's Sean using something other then a computer!

So the other thing I found out about my windows is they aren't square. I had to staple and restaple the fabric to the piece of wood so many times before I was finally pleased with how they were hanging (yes a little OCD there).

So the long awaited reveal!!! Here's what they look like all the way down.....

and in their up position.....

I really enjoyed sewing these and I'm already planning my next project. This is one of my goals for this year; to do more things I enjoy doing!

The Avatar Bandwagon

One of the things that comes with being married to Sean is his fascination with Science Fiction movies. I'm sure you've heard of the type - has the entire collection of Star Wars and Matrix. He's tried to get me to have a marathon watch party with them but I've escaped it so far.

I wasn't able to escape getting drug to see Avatar. All I had seen on the commercials was blue people and I couldn't figure out why he thought I would want to see it. I decided it was probably time I went to see a movie he wanted to since he always goes to see ones I want to.

Since we were going, I decided we should go big so we went to the IMAX 3-D version. First of all 3-D has come a long way. The movie literally looked like it was happening on your lap! At times during the movie there were fireflies and embers floating around and you were tempted to swat them away.

Although the movie was 3 hours it really didn't seem like that long. It was action packed and had a good story. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone. If you're waiting for it to come out on DVD - DON'T!!! I would also recommend going the extra mile and at least see it in 3-D. I think I've now become obsessed with 3-D and can't wait for all the new 3-D movies to come out.

Here's Sean with his sexy 3-D glasses on.

Our self portrait - man we are lookin' good!

North Carolina BBQ

Well, work finally took me somewhere I hadn't been before - Charlotte, North Carolina!!! It's so refreshing to hit a city you've never been to. North Carolina is known for it's barbecue - but can it really compare to Texas BBQ?

Texas - known more for brisket, the sauce, spices, rubs, etc.
North Carolina - known more for pulled pork, mustard or vinegar based sauces

Knowing not to expect what I'm used to I was ready to set out to try their version. We asked the class we were teaching where they would recommend.

When they told me it was a biker bar/BBQ joint - I was IN!!!

I decided a pulled pork sandwich was the way to go. Notice they add the coleslaw in the sandwich. They had two sauces you could add - a mustard based one and then a regular one. They were both really good. I was also told the mac-n-cheese was the best ever. I wasn't convinced. It was pretty good but needed to be creamier. We also tried the Tabasco fried pickles. The Tabasco was very faint but added a nice after taste flavor.

Now you can't have a biker bar without BEER and beer they had - any kind you could ever want or didn't know you could ever want. I thought the name of some of these beers was pretty funny.

I tried a season brew - Gingerbread Ale. It was pretty good - had the micro brew type taste which I usually don't like. The gingerbread flavor was very faint and added a nice touch. I love that it's organic too! LOL

All in all I was impressed with the North Carolina barbecue but I think I'll stick to Texas - you just can't beat it!!!

Introducing.....

THE NEW JEEP!!!

Sean bringing the new baby home...

In the daylight...

We're completely adult like now with the 4 doors but it has tons of fun stuff for us to learn how to use!

New Year's Eve

This year we spent New Year's Eve in Dallas. We decided to host a party at our house. Here's the recap of the evening....

We started with a fun game that we were all horrible at.

Each of these items happened in a different month of 2009.

Match them up.

It dawned on me that we were heading into a new decade.

Each of these items happened in a different month within the last decade.

Match them up.

had a little fun with the new Rubik Cube we got for Christmas...


played a little Wii...

busted out some moonshine...

worked on a new Facebook profile pic...

enjoyed the toy "acquired" Halloween...

tried to unfreeze the champagne before midnight struck...

decided to proceed with the champagne regardless of it's frozen state...

busted out the fine china for the event...

blew horns at midnight...

recouped the next day...

It was great to spend the evening with my friends.

I look forward to the next New Years we'll be in Dallas.

FYI: I was the artist for the year/month matching game with the help of my niece Kylie as to what to draw. If you try to guess I'll let you know how you do.

Never a dull moment....

So I've concluded that living with Sean is never a dull moment. I guess that's one of the benefits to being married huh? I always thought I led a boring life but Sean doesn't seem to allow that. So on the trip up to Kansas Sean got a speeding ticket - even though I had told him over and over that the speed limit in North Texas wasn't very fast. This kid (he literally looked about 12 years old) was so green and just out of the academy there was no way we weren't getting a ticket. I think the end of the year and the month was working against our favor too. Now Sean is learning all about the ways in Texas to get the tickets to not appear on your record.

The other exciting piece was the drive back home. If you remember from my previous post, the weather in Oklahoma wasn't so great and had a lot of snow which causes a lot of muck. Sean needed to stop for a potty break (yet again! lol) and ended up pulling over to a gas station that happened to be a casino too. Ever since they passed that law in Oklahoma those things have been popping up EVERYWHERE! So back to the story. This stop happened to be on a dark road with only the lights from the gas station. There were several tire tracks heading into this gas station so we proceeded to follow. I quickly told Sean I didn't think it really was a driveway. But it was too late at that point.....

.....we were stuck!

I have to give it to him though, it REALLY was dark. We sat there for a moment and then I decided to try to get out and push us out. No luck. So Sean decided to head in to the gas station and potty and try to find someone to help us. He didn't get two steps and someone pulled up. "You seem to be stuck." "Yep!" "Do you have a chain?" "Ummm, no." (I never thought to store a chain in the old SAAB.) "Well, I DO!!!" Sean asks, "What do you need me to do?" The man replies, "Just all the work!" The man then quickly pulls out a roll of trash bags, so Sean wouldn't get all muddy, and the chains. Since I didn't marry the most mechanically inclined man, the guy had to tell him all about how to do it.

I had to stand in the street and let the nice man know when the chain was getting tight while trying to not get run over at the same time. No damage to either car when it was all said and done. All in all it only added about 20 minutes to our trip home. Funny thing is the guy that helped us told us he pulled out another couple just two nights before in that very same spot.

While trying to get out of the sticky situation a car of young guys drove by - "Sure sucks to be stuck - haahaahaahaahaa!!!" Karma - that's all I need to say.

Thanks Sam Howard for your help! I wish you and your family all the best in life!

Christmas in Kansas

So we flew from Maine to Texas the day after Christmas. We thought all along that we had an 8 am flight, however we quickly figured out that our flight wasn't until 4 pm. This caused us to lose the day of unpacking and repacking in Texas since we didn't get to the house until after 11 pm. We wanted to get up and make an early start to our drive to Kansas. A bad winter storm had gone through Kansas and Oklahoma a few days before we headed up there. We saw quite a few cars and trucks in the ditch - luckily we were not one of them. The roads weren't bad, just a little ice under the bridges.

We ended up having Christmas on Tuesday. This was not a traditional Christmas for us. First of all, this was the first year in my entire life that I did not spend Christmas day with my family. I think that was the hardest part to get over for me. Second, we didn't have a traditional Christmas meal. Mom ended up making ponset and wontons. The other new thing was the fact that our family has been the same size for so many years and has actually grown quite a bit in the last few years. It had been over 10 years since our family had "grown" last. I guess all this change is why I'm in such a search for traditions for my new family.

Here's part of the family getting ready to open presents. Left to right - Todd (my brother-in-law), Cory (my niece's boyfriend), Buddy (my Mom's dog), Derek (my brother), Ashley (brother's girlfriend), Maddy (my newest niece), Duke.

My niece Maddy and my nephew Cole.

I love Maddy's little outfit.

My other nephew Drake and who I believe to be Marley. My brother and Ashley have 2 black labs that look a lot alike and I have a hard time telling them apart unless they're standing up. It's very obvious then.

Maddy was having a great time playing in the box. Notice the use of Daisy and Zoey (my sister's dog) to aid in her balance.

Maddy got a new bike and she knew exactly what to do with it. Boy does she look like my brother!!!

We headed back to Texas on the 30th because we were hosting a New Year's Eve party and needed to get ready for it. It wasn't before I got the opportunity to hit my favorite after Christmas shopping spots, visit my Grandma Smith and visit Craig and Amy. The trip home is a story of its own to come later this week.