I Am a Christian

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October Goals

So, I've decided to stay unemployed until the new year. I thought I'd be bored by now with not working, but I'm not. I'm loving it still, in fact. And we don't need for me to be working, and I'm so much happier and less stressed out, that I think staying unemployed until I'm done with school is a good idea. And with the marked change in my stress levels, I think Kurt agrees.
So goals! For October!
-Finish my stinking resume already and apply to some teaching jobs!
-Focus on school work other than that

Haha, it doesn't sound like a lot, but it is. Let me assure you, it is. :)

September Goals Recap

-Figure out some sort of routine. It's strange to think of all the time I'll have (for a few weeks, at least). I need to have a routine to make sure everything gets done, both what needs to be completed and that which I want to do. Gotta have balance, right? Actually, success! In the morning I typically do my blogging stuff (I say as I write a blog post at 2 pm, but I'm mostly referring to my writing blog), and other online chores (emailing people and what not); in the afternoon I get to my writing and/or homework; in the evening I spend time with Kurt and/or read. When I exercise depends on the day and what my exercising is going to be for the day. So huzzah!
-Write every day... an on-going goal for me. Daily habits, even those that I love to do, are not easy for me to implement. Meh... not so good. 
-Do some home projects ... paint the kitchen, (finally) hem the guest room curtains, paint some of my living room furniture, and arrange our bedroom, to name a few. I'd say success. Not as many done at this point as I'd hoped, but I'm not too worried because I was super busy last month with school.
-Practice the piano every day, and I mean really practice. Maybe I'll even break out the Hanon exercises... Definite fail. Oh well.

Kitchen Wars: Curtains! Curtains!

     Now, I'm pretty sure that's from a movie. I swear, I have a memory of someone in a movie saying that. After someone else said, "It's curtains for (someone)." Does that sound familiar to anyone? Or am I crazy? (Don't answer that second question.)

     So, I've been thinking about the window treatments for our kitchen. We have three, completely square, 34x34 inch windows in the kitchen. And then the window on the door too. Now all of the regular windows have blinds, but not the door. This is important because we get crazy sun on that side of the house in the afternoon. West facing windows + no big trees in our backyard + super intense Denver sun = WHOA MAMA. I love that sun for the light and the warmth in the winter. In the summer? Not so much. Especially since we don't have central a.c.

     I like to visit Joann about every week (which is easy since it's 2 minutes from my house). I would NEVER buy $50 a yard fabric for curtains. No way, jose. (I guess, maybe one day if we're filthy rich, but even then i doubt it.) But I did spy this fabric on sale for half off $20, plus I had an extra 20% coupon (sign up for Joann emails if you haven't already!):

     It is pure perfection, let me tell you! First off: the design is TOTALLY my style. Second: GREEN and GRAY! Third: ummm, I just love it. But here's the funny thing about this fabric: it's indoor/outdoor canvas. So it's somewhat stiff. That obviously ruled out a lot of different window treatments (though I'd already ruled out drapes because two of the windows are above a counter). 

     First I was thinking fake roman shades on the windows and working a working roman shade on the door (since we need to be able to cover it up). But I decided that wouldn't work because even fake roman shades would cover up too much of the windows. See, I like the light (have I mentioned that already?). And the blinds effectively block it out when needed. So I want to be able to see out the windows as much as possible the rest of the time.

     I did some digging around and came up with these two options for the windows:

From Better Homes and Gardens.com

From Budget Wise Home.com

     The first one is more my style. I love the little bow, and I think I could accomplish this without sewing (and with the help of hem tape) pretty easily. But the bottom one is SO easy (click the link to see!). And it would show more of the window.

     But I love the pleats on the first one. And I could hang the curtain (a bit) higher than the window frame.

     But the second one would take me like 30 minutes per window to do.

     So, what do you think?

     And for the door window, I'm thinking some kind of roller-type shade, like this:

from Better Homes and Garden.com

     Let me know your thoughts! And here's a reminder of the windows:

Lotoja 2011, aka How Kurt Ended up in the Hospital

Kurt's a crazy man. He did the 206 mile, one-day Logan to Jackson race again this year. It was on September the 10th. I flew out to Utah a few days early to hang with Steph and see the Sibert's. On Friday Kurt arrived and we drove up to Logan where he prepped for the race and I played Dominion with my cousin Michelle and her husband Brian. (And seeing them interact with their 5 kids made me want a big family sooo bad. Is that strange?)

Saturday morning was an early one! Kurt's race time was 6:58 or something like that. We arrived a bit later than we liked, but okay time-wise. Except when Kurt's group lined up two minutes before their start time, he realized he'd left his timing chip in the car. In cycling shoes, he ran the two blocks back to the car and back. He started the race over a minute after his group! This caused more than just a minor delay. The race starts in downtown Logan. To accommodate the race, cops stop traffic whenever a group is coming through. After that group passes through, they re-open traffic for two minutes. So, that meant Kurt had to WAIT AT EACH TRAFFIC LIGHT. In between, he sprinted. Let me tell you something about cycling: going 25 mph with a group is MUCH easier than going 18 mph on your own. Kurt didn't catch up with his group until they were outside of Logan. He said his heart rate was the highest during that part of the race (he wears a monitor on rides). Even higher than any of his hill climbs or his sprint at the end!

So, that was flaw number one. Mistake number two happened at the third feed zone. We'd already agreed that he would skip the first feed zone and I'd meet him at the third (the second is a neutral feed zone, with support provided by the race). I arrived in Montpelier at 8:45. I found the Wilcox's and we hung out together while waiting for Alex's dad, Randy, to pass through. (PS, Randy is the man! He completed the race in 9 hours and 45 minutes, or something close to that.) At about 10:50, I was feeling pretty hungry. I had parked across the street from the feed zone at an Arctic Circle. Here are the elements that led to me missing him:

1) We hadn't coordinated which sign to meet at (there are numbered signs to make it easier for racers and support crews to find each other);

2) I wasn't sure how fast he'd be going. Montpelier is at the 80 mile mark. I didn't think he'd be averaging 20 mph. That's booking it on a ride like this.

3) He took his cell phone. In 2009, he called me as he approached every feed zone. Since we hadn't coordinated before the race, I thought he'd do the same this year, at least at the first feed zone.

4) I didn't understand that he was RACING the Lotoja this year, not just riding. 

So I thought, "If I run over to Arctic Circle and he calls, I'll easily be able to hop back across the street and give him his stuff."

BIG MISTAKE. After I received my food, Kurt called and said, "I missed you! I called for you, and you weren't there! I'll see you in Afton."

Yeah, I felt terrible. So Kurt had to go 30 miles before getting ANYTHING and that was just at a neutral feed zone. They didn't have the supplies he prefers. Someone in Montpelier gave him a water bottle and good thing, because he might've gotten way sicker than he did.

The rest of the ride went well. We were able to meet up in Afton and Alpine. I enjoyed driving through Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming and jamming out to my music. At Teton Village, the finish line, I met back up with Alexson. Allison and I went to the sidelines to cheer Kurt as he raced in, and Alex met him at the finish line. Kurt was exhausted, but happy. He got 7th place out of his group (50 guys). Not bad for so many mistakes! His official time was 10 hour and 13 minutes. That's 42 minutes shorter than his previous time. So proud of him!

BUT! The story gets better. After about 30 minutes, we head back to the car. Our plan was to drive back into Idaho and stay with Caroline and Skylar, about an hour and a half away. While in the parking lot, Kurt sat down and said, "I don't feel good." I got him to make it to the car at least. And then he threw up. Okay, no big deal. He just rode his for 10 freaking hours. On a sunny, uncomfortably warm day with little shade. Totally understandable. He decided he needed to eat and Alexson invited us to eat with them in the village.

Kurt didn't even make it past ordering drinks before he left the table. Alex took him back to their room in the hotel. When he returned, he said Kurt was pretty nauseous, but OK. So, I finished out dinner and even ordered Kurt something mild for his stomach.

When we--me, Allison, Alex, Randy, and Christie, Alex's sister--returned to the room, we discovered that Kurt had been throwing up this whole time. I went to our car and grabbed some PediaLyte for him to drink, to replenish his electrolytes. I knew he was throwing up because of his dehydration, and I knew that once he got hydrated, he'd feel better. Well, three hours later he'd drunk an entire bottle of PediaLyte. And hadn't kept a drop of it down. It was almost ten at this point. I was not attempting to drive him all the way to Idaho Falls. I was taking him to the hospital. (Also, while I was grabbing the pedialyte, Alex and Randy gave him a blessing. So grateful for the Priesthood.)

I was never worried about Kurt not being okay in the long run. I was pretty sure he was just seriously dehydrated, to the point of being nauseous. And I figured he wouldn't be able to keep anything down until he got hydrated again. Kind of a conundrum. When I was pulling out of the village, Kurt noticed the lights were on at the finish line still. We decided to check if the EMS were there still as well.

As luck would have it, they were! They gave Kurt anti-nausea medicine and some Gatorade, but said I still needed to get him to the hospital. So, off we went. 

We arrived at the emergency room at 10:45. Kurt was admitted after about twenty minutes. Three-quarters of the way through his first IV bag, he was feelings tons better. (He said he was no longer dizzy and light-headed.) He was even able to go to the bathroom after that first bag (which is a great sign). Halfway through the second bag, we planned on leaving after it was empty.

HOWEVER, it was late! 12:30 at this point, and I'd just driven all day. I wasn't too perky myself. I was NOT looking forward to the long drive to Caroline's, especially not over Teton Pass that is steep, long, and full of animals just waiting to be hit. At 11:30 or so, I started calling hotels to see if they had any cancellations. No dice. The doctor came in around midnight to check on Kurt and I told him our dilemma. He said the hospital owned a hotel with subsidized lodging. He warned us that it was probably full, but to check anyway. And, thank heavens, they had an available room. At only $45 a night! So finally, at 1 am, we drove the three blocks to the hotel and crashed for the night. I woke up the next morning around ten, Kurt around eleven, and we were back on the road by noon. Kurt even felt well enough to drive the 5 hours to my Grandma Hatch's house. We ate with my family, then headed over to his mom's for the night.

The next day we got lunch at Red Iguana with Alex, then headed home. Kurt actually felt worse on Monday than he did on Sunday (mostly from the strain of racing and not the dehydration, though his stomach didn't feel completely well again for almost a full week).

So yeah, that was an adventure I could've done without! And the Kurtstanimal is eager to race the Lotoja again next year, with dreams of winning his group. He's insane.

Party Harty

Since it was Kurt's 30th, I threw him a big ol' party. We had a great time grilling lots of meat and showing our white trash backyard off to our friends. It had been blazing hot all day, but right when everyone was arriving the sky clouded over and the temperature dropped by like 15 degrees. 

Disclaimer: due to not wanting to have twenty million pics on here, I don't have pictures of everyone on the post.

 Yeah, why didn't I clear out the hoses? Classsssy.

After eating, we played a Kurt trivia game. If the player got their question right, they got to pie Kurt in the face. If they were wrong, Kurt got to pie them.

 I even went and got my question from James wrong. 

Kurt's Bike Birthday

The US Pro Tour was just reinstated and Kurt and his buddy from work went up on his birthday. Not a bad way to spend your birthday, for a cycling nut! Most of the big names were there AND Kurt got to ride his bike up in the gorgeous Rockies. He was pretty happy when he got home.

Ummmm, yes, I love Colorado.

Kitchen Wars: Gray Like My Soul

     Last week, on Labor Day, I painted the walls of the kitchen gray. And such a beautiful gray too! We originally picked a lighter shade, but as you can see in the pics, it was more of a grayish white. That wasn't going to work! The second gray, Silver Spoon by Olympic color matched to Behr's Satin interior, hit the mark. I love how it makes the white pop (even though the beadboard and majority of the trim isn't even painted yet).

     Also, I used Frog tape for the areas I was extra nervous about -- the tile and already painted cabinets. And it was awesome. Regular painter's tape typically does fine, but there were still a few spots where it bled through (onto unpainted trim). I'm a believe in Frog tape now!

     (On a side note: am I the only one who hates Blogger's new platform?)

 First "gray"

 The comparison: first on the left, second on the right.

 First coat

 All done! 

LOVE it with the white, glossy tile.

It was kind of a dark and cloudy day, but this was the brightest I could get all day.

September Goals

Guess what? Today is the 4 year anniversary of my very first post. (Okay, I wrote this post on the 2nd, but I scheduled it for the 5th ^_^). Anyhow, just noticed these little milestones in my humble blog.
I kinda took a hiatus from goals this summer. Things got a little crazy and one reason being I quit my job. August 31st was my last day as an administrative assistant. I miss the environment--coworkers, being around people every day, earning money--but I was burned out and I'm ready to focus my efforts on writing. I've got a few employment ideas up my sleeve, and I'll let y'all know as things develop.
So! My goals for this month:
-Figure out some sort of routine. It's strange to think of all the time I'll have (for a few weeks, at least). I need to have a routine to make sure everything gets done, both what needs to be completed and that which I want to do. Gotta have balance, right?
-Write every day... an on-going goal for me. Daily habits, even those that I love to do, are not easy for me to implement.
-Do some home projects ... paint the kitchen, (finally) hem the guest room curtains, paint some of my living room furniture, and arrange our bedroom, to name a few.
-Practice the piano every day, and I mean really practice. Maybe I'll even break out the Hanon exercises...

That's pretty good, eh?

Adventures in BPD Land

Some images from Pinterest that have made me laugh recently

(that remind me of being bi polar).

PS-If you're not on Pinterest and want to join, let me know and I'll send you an invite!

And if you don't know what Pinterest is ... then I'm very sorry for you.

It's pretty amazing.

Dirty Thirty

Kurt turned the big THREE ZERO on Wednesday.

So happy birthday to my Kurstanimal!

I love you more than Diet Dr. Pepper

Or cheese

Or chocolate

COMBINED.

And in case there's any question that Kurt and I are MFEO

(it's cute, it's like a little clue)

feast your eyes on these pics,

both taken the year before we met:

Kinda scary, isn't it?

Kitchen Wars: Well Tile Me Up and Slap Me Pretty

     Yeah, I have no idea where that title came from earlier. I'm weird; roll with it.

     So, back splash time! We knew pretty early on we wanted a subway tile back splash. There were a moments of uncertainty, but in the end we both loved the classic and simple look. For a day or two we worried the subway tile and bead board would be too much texture and would compete with each other, but decided they wouldn't. Now that they're both up, we're glad to see we were right. Why? Because they're both a) classic "patterns" and b) white. And there's only one place where they meet. AND I like the play of horizontal lines vs. vertical ones.

     We considered hiring this out because Kurt had heard from someone that doing tile was tricky. We priced out Home Depot and they told us $300 to $400. Then a lot of other, smarter people told Kurt that tile is easy. So guess what? All in all, including a tile saw, we spent about $150 in supplies. It took Kurt a little bit of time, but it wasn't that tricky (you know I was writing during all this!). And it looks FANTASTIC!! I love it so much. Do I say that about everything in our kitchen? Probably. Because it's true. 

Next up: paint!

Date: Ohhh, the last few weeks.

Kitchen Wars: Back to the Closet

     Well, the closet has been completed for a while, and we finally score our washer and dryer! All in all, we spent a Net of about $300 on the set, what with the recouped costs from selling our old set and then rebates. I lurve me some rebates. The washer and dryer aren't even the same brand, but since Amana is owned by Maytag, you can mix and match. Here they are all stacked in the closet where they belong! No one puts baby in the corner, but I definitely put my laundry set in the closet. Hah!

     Anyhow, all that's left with the closet is installing the accordion-folding door. It's the only door that will work with the tight space. 

That's probably the least exciting post of ever, but whateverIdowhatIwant!

Kitchen Wars: BEES? Beads. BEES? Gob's not on board.

     Our next step in our kitchen was installing the bead board. I love me some bead board. Convincing Kurt wasn't hard, but he didn't love it like I do until he installed it. It looks so incredible. Also, he built a wall on the backside of the peninsula to hide the pipes and backs of the cabinets. Cuz those things aren't so much pretty. It still needs to be painted, but since we're painting it white, it won't look that different.

Kitchen Wars: Our "Pantry"

     It's been forever since I blogged about the kitchen! And not for lack of updates. Mostly I've been pouring my blogging attention into my new author blog and my non-blogging attention into school work. Busy busy busy!

     During our reno, we stumbled across sundry extra cabinets in our house and sheds. Including a really tall one!  The tall one was a veritable treasure chest, filled with stuffed animals, camel backs, and kid-sized elbow and knee pads. I used to have a picture of the loot back before our computer crashed ... sigh.

     Anyhow! With all of the extra cabinets, we practically have a pantry! And, as luck would have it, we had an extra counter top. Okay, that sounds strange but here's what happened: I originally thought it would be cool have some open shelving across the new wall we built, so while at Ikea last summer, we bought an extra slab of counter but the less-thick slab. We were going to cut it up and use as shelves. Well, once we got the wall built and the cabinets moved, we realized that wouldn't work. But wouldn't you know it, we had all this extra cabinetry along the back wall that needed a counter top ... what serendipity! We didn't have enough cabinetry to stretch along the entire wall/under the whole counter top slab, so we left a hole to make a little desk like area that will be my writing area. :)

We're going to add molding to the top of the tall one so it looks built in.

Date: I give up. Sometime in May, probably. :)