Birthdays!

This girls turned 7 the weekend before Thanksgiving. I tried my hand at cake decorating. We usually buy from the store, but I decided to go the old fashioned route, just like Mom did.
Meghan doesn't like chocolate (not sure if she's mine), so hers is a yellow cake decorated with skittles.

Kiersten, of course, loves the chocolate! So that's what she got, with M&Ms on top!

We didn't have a big party this year. Each girl invited one friend over. We went to see Bolt, had dinner at the Magic Time Machine (Robin Hood was our waiter this time) and had the girls spend the night. Daddy made his famous waffles in the morning for the perfect ending to a fun night!

We got home so late from the movie and dinner, the girls had to open presents in thier PJs.

Both thrilled to get Wall-E from Grandpa Curtis!

The girls and thier friends--oh yeah and Zachary. LOL

Just 2 days later is my birthday. My sister got here the evening before. Since my birthday fell on a Sunday this year, we went to see Twilight when Cheryl came in on Saturday to celebrate. I LOVED IT! At first I wasn't sure of the choice for Edward--but I love him now! I rarely go to movies in the theatre anymore, but on Thanksgiving, my niece, Sarah, and I went to see Twilight again we loved it so much! This time we took Kiersten and Meghan and they are hooked as well. Zachary saw it the first time with us and really enjoyed it since he read the book. But the second time we went, he elected to go see James Bond with the boys. What a guy!

Yes, Brian's baking skills put mine to shame! He made me a chocolate cake with a burnt orange merengue buttercream. It was amazing!!

Present time!! Does anything get more fun than this!? Brian gave me a great new camera--so expect an obnoxious amount of pictures on my posts now! Cheryl gave me a great popcorn popper and we spent the rest of the week making homemade Kettlecorn. Yummm!!

My birthday breakfast--another benefit of marrying a chef!!

Getting ready to dig in--Meghan hasn't gotten her plate yet and she is trying to mooch from her mommy!

Well, the girls are all now a year older--some worse for thier wear! It was a great weekend with much celebrating! To bad we don't have more like them (without the added years)!!

Long overdue visit!

This last week, my older sister, Cheryl, and her family came to visit for Thanksgiving. We haven't seen each other in 13 years, due to how far apart we lived. Our parents married when I was 12. She was my best friend through junior high and high school and as far as we are concerned--we're sisters! She brought 4 of her 5 children and her husband. The children quickly bonded and we realized that this visit was long overdue. Below are some fun pictures of the family together.

Cheryl's family and I went to the Riverwalk one day while the kids were in school and Brian was at work. Ahhh the joys of retirement....

Meghan was inseparable from her cousin Joel. She thought having a great big cousin was the best thing in the world!!

Cheryl and I in the local caverns. I got some incredible picture while I was in there--I'll have to post those separately.

Kiersten and Meghan adored thier cousin Sarah! It actually took a few days for Kiersten to stop waking up crying for her.
Zach spent a good part of the week imparting his video game "knowledge" on Seth.

Brian and Mark in the kitchen. I think Mark was trying to figure out which was the kitchen utensil. LOL

Sarah doesn't take a bad picture! This was after treking through the caverns.

Jared's sweetness even shows through on the picture.

Not sure if I have a son or a monkey--maybe a little of both!

Another monkey-boy, Joel, with his fabulous smile!

A great shot of the 3 youngest--all so photogenic!

Yes, Meghan is giving the "rock on" sign! She definitely is her mother's daughter!

Kiersten and Sarah bonding.

"Are you really that tall?!"

The whole gang!

This is before our midnight shopping spree. I took the 4 oldest kids shopping just after midnight on Black Friday at the factory outlet mall. We're all wearing PJs b/c the first 500 shoppers in PJs got a free gift. We were nowhere near the first 500! It was crazy, but great fun!

Here we are having breakfast at Whataburger at 4 am on Black Friday after our shopping spree!

It was such a great visit! We had 11 people in this house and it wasn't even challenging. That sure says something! I guess it didn't hurt that they were more helpful than your typical guests. Cheryl was constantly doing dishes and straightening up, while Mark cleaned our garage, washed my van and just about any other odd job he could get his hands on. Those kinds of guests can come back anytime! LOL Even if they hadn't done all of that, we are anxious to see them again. This time we're sure the kids won't allow us to go so long between visits!

Teaching updates

Well, I have now had the honor of teaching high school and intermediate school (which is 5th and 6th grade here) as well as junior high! I already have horror stories and classes that I absolutely love.
One of my junior high school classes was just out of control! I was a math teacher one day and the AP (honors) class was fantastic. We had a great time and I had a positive out look for the day. Little did I know that the day would slowly but surely digress. By 8th period, I was literally having to shout so the children could hear me and follow them around to keep them in thier seats. The part that was so disheartening was that there were children with thier hands up who truly needed help and I had to ignore in order to discipline the chaos. It is so unfair to the children who want to learn! Don't get me wrong, I got them under control and handled it, but that's not my idea of teaching!
High school has been interesting as well. I've had little 17 year olds hit on me while they are serving in school suspension. That's fun! LOL
My absolute favorite has become 5th and 6th grade PE coach. I have a blast with these guys! The time flies by and I even get my exercise in while I'm working. I've done that gig a few times and almost wonder if I should focus my Master's in Physical Education--or maybe a minor.
Tomorrow I get to teach Drama and Theatre Arts for high school. I think that should be a lot of fun--we'll see.
It is all such a new and fun experience for me! It almost feels like I'm playing and, oh yeah, we're going to pay you to have a good time!!
Life is good!!

Some decorating results

After having lived here for almost 6 months, it's starting to look like home. It's just taken me quite a while to decide exactly what I like. Below, I've posted some of my most recent decorating feats. Some were on my own, while a couple were assisted. This is my entry way, which went bare for much too long. Of course, after I posted it, I noticed the huge smudge on the mirror.

Our Texas bench and coat rack--yes, it is cowhide on the bench. I love it! The seat also lifts for storage. I know the mirror is all smudged--I used WD40 to take the price tag off and have yet to be able to get the greasiness of the WD40 off. That was a lesson learned! LOL

This is the one project I am most proud of. I put up a shelf for each child and we keep a nice display of thier artwork on the shelves. The kids love it and I think it really adds a homey feel.

Finally, I have curtains in my dining room. They have finials in the corners (see close-up picture below) and we are actually adding one to the center of the large window. I am also adding the soft honeycomb blinds that lower from the top or bottom and will keep them at the bottom of the windows for privacy.

These are the curtains in the main room. It's really hard to capture the full effect in photo. I've taken a closer picture of the center finial which is below and a few more shots. We opted not to actually cover any window as there is nothing but a ranch behind us. If they build back there, the lady that did the drapes for me has some ideas that we can add on to give us privacy.

This is the top half of the windows taken from our upstairs "catwalk."

Looking down from the "catwalk."

This is a good shot of the center finial. It is about 18 inches across and made of a really solid metal.

This is the finial found at the corner of each curtain in the living room and dining room. It is 4 inches across.
BTW--finial is my new word--I didn't know what it was until I started working with custom window dressings.

So there you go--I know it's not as exciting for anyone else but me. But I'm pretty happy with how it is slowly shaping up!