August 2009

I confess, I have been a bad blogger, again. Anyway, here is my pentance blog about August goings on.


1. I turned the big 30 at the beginning of this month. I'm still in denial about it, but I did have a nice birthday treat. Andy and I had a little staycation at the Mansion on Turtle Creek. We ate in the resturant there twice. The food was good but the desserts and southern biscuts could use a little work, in my humble opinion. My dinner was excellent though. I had lamb. Once I get past the whole eating a baby animal thing (I have the same issue with eggs), I really like lamb. The flavor is subtle and never too meaty (although I have only had lamb at 2 of the best hotels in Dallas, The Crescent and The Mansion). Andy had swordfish and since I am prego I didn't even taste it because of all the mercury warnings. He liked it--is all I can say. Here's some pics of our suite:

There were 2 rooms and 2 full baths. This is the living room with a TV bigger than Vander's crib! When we got to the hotel, because we told them it was a special occasion (our 9th anniversary/my 30th bday), they brought a surprise treat to our room, mango tea and chocolate covered strawberries. Yum!

The larger of the 2 bathrooms was my favorite part. I love a decadent bathroom!
It was a very nice way to bring in the big 30. We ate, swam, and lounged around.

2. My birthday weekend my youngest niece also came into town to hang out. She's 15. We did a lot of shopping and it took me a week to recover. I was pooped! I had to post this picture of her with my Dad.

3. And finally, last but definately not least, the most exciting news of the month. We are having a GIRL! We found out last week and I cannot wait to paint things pink! Zane was underwhelmed at the doctor because he has insisted (sometimes angrily) all along that he is having a baby sister. She will be well protected by her 2 big brothers who already love her a bunch (at least Vander's coming around to the idea).

Roman Shades

This is just a quickie, but I had mentioned back in the fall that I would post a picture of the roman shade I was making for Vander's room. Drum roll please:

So, that's it. I learned a few tidbits of wisdom making this one that I will pass on should you decide to try your own hand at the roman shade.

1. Make the shade to hang on the outside of the window frame. I can sew, but I am not a very pacient sewer and sometimes my lines aren't perfect. It's much easier to hang fabric over a window than to fit it perfectly into a window frame.

2. Before you sew the bottom hem, trial hang it in the window to make sure that you have made it long enough. You can't tell from this picture, but there is additional dark brown fabric I had to add to the bottom of my shade.

Anyway, I would say it was worth it to make my own and not pay Pottery Barn an arm and a leg.

I think I might take up this blogging thing again. Only time will tell...

The other morning the boys and I had an early (for us) event to get to. The clock was ticking and the pressure was high to get up, eat breakfast (usually a 2 hour ordeal for Zane "the eating machine"), get dressed, and get out of the house. I really needed a shower so I got Zane started on his breakfast and headed upstairs. (Vander, my zombie child, who can sleep until noon was not up yet) When I came downstairs with Vander refreshed from my shower and ready to put it into high gear to get out the house this is what I found:

Zane decided to make chocolate milk, sans milk. We now have a new rule at our house, the chocolate syrup cannot be in the refrigerator at or below boy-level. We were 30 minutes late to our outing and Zane got a yard shower with the hose to get all the chocolate off. You can't tell in the picture, but it was running down his legs too. Oh, the naughtiness!

We moved

We finally got our own house after 2 years of renting to scope out the area. I always have a little buyer's remorse when we buy a house. It's not that I don't like the house, but I always second guess myself on any major life decision. It's the pessimist in me. We did double our living space from our rent house so that has been great! I now have a "craft" room where I can spread out and be creative which I have really missed for the last 2 years. My current project is a roman shade for Vander's freshly painted room. I'll try and remember to post a picture when I am done. Considering roman shades are $40 retail I am pretty excited about being able to create my own for under $10 (and actually I had bought all of the stuff to do it a long time ago so current out of pocket is $0--which makes Andy very happy). I have made several vows to myself lately: eat less/no sugar, exercise 5-6 days a week, and update my blog more than once every 3 months. I'm trying harder on all fronts, but I've got a lot of work to do.

My 1st Blog

Even though I have a degree in English, I'm not a big writer. It's a good thing blogs have pictures. Here's our family.

This past weekend, Andy's cousin got married. It was the first time since I have known Andy that all of his Dad's side of the family was going to be together (by the way, that's 11 years). So, I had been told that we were going to take a big family picture. It's funny what becomes important to you when you're a stay-at-home mom. I agonized over these outfits! Then the rain came...It poured at the wedding. Lightning was all around during the vows and the rain started coming down just as they said "I do." So, of course we didn't have a big family picture outside at the beautiful wedding location. We took it instead in front of the side wall of IHOP the next morning--minus the bride and groom! What a bummer! I think I should have learned some lesson about vanity, but I'm not sure it's sunk in yet.