The TX State Fair....a once in a lifetime opportunity

Kyle & I finally went along with all of the hype & excitement of the TX State Fair this year. We went for our "fair experience" this past Friday night. Here is a quick re-cap:

1.) We went on Friday night because we could get in for FREE. Yes, the star telegram press pass has its perks! Being the tight wads that we are on our budget, we didn't want our experience to break the bank too much. If you pay for admission at the gate to the state fair, you pay $14 per adult...yikes! I can think of many other things I'd rather spent my money on.
2.) We first had to figure out where to park. I printed off a map from the fair website (http://www.bigtex.com/) & tried my best to navigate Kyle to a parking place. Unfortunately, the press pass does not cover the $10 to park your car. But we did luck out & get a parking spot close to one of the many entrance gates (I think there are like 16 or something).
3.) After being wanded down at security to get in (I never had to go through security at the Miami county fair in Troy, OH), we were ready for the fair experience.
4.) Our first stop was at the "Dancing with the Dogs" show in one of the arenas. It was basically a show where dog trainers have trained dogs to do various tricks to music. Some of the acts were kind of cute, others were, as you can imagine, kind of dumb. Kyle & I both decided that our yorkie Pepper would fit into the dumb category.
5.) Our next stop was at the car show. This was pretty cool, as we got to see all of the 2009 models of various cars that were coming out without any pushing salespeople. We figured that by the time we are ready to buy a new car, it will be in a few years, so one of these car models is probably the kind we will end up with.
6.) Then it was time to start the eating process. I was starving & ready to try all of this good food I had heard my friends tell me about. If you have never been to the TX state fair, you can't just buy food with cash/credit cards. You have to first go to a booth & pay for meal coupons. One coupon equals $0.50. Kyle bought $20 worth of coupons, thinking this would be enough. (I mean, come on, we can eat at Chili's or a nice sit down restaurant for $20).
7.) The first thing I had to eat was a corny dog (for 8 tickets, or $4). Kyle didn't want to buy his own in case he didn't like it, so we split the corny dog. It was hand breaded & fried fresh on the spot, but was not any bigger than a corn dog you would purchase at Sonic or at the store.
8.) Then we were thirsty. I managed to find a vendor who had FREE tap water, which was awesome to us. (even though mine had a bug in it that I had to dig out before gulping it down). The bottles of water were 6 tickets (or $3), but we resisted buying one.
9.) We were also still hungry since we just split a corny dog, so Kyle decided he wanted some chili cheese nachos. He paid like 12 tickets or something for the tiniest thing of nachos I've ever seen. We were going to split it, but I only had a few chips cuz they didn't taste that great at all. Kyle only ate it because he paid for it. The stinky part is that right after he finished eating his tiny awful nachos, we walked by another booth that had really awsome looking nachos! Go figure!
10.) Then I was still hungry. So we finally found a booth that sold fried corn on the cob for 12 tickets ($6, I know, ridiculous!). It tasted ok, but was hard to split with the still hungry Kyle.
11.) After the corn, we decided to not spend any more money on food & went on a ride (for 12 tickets each) on the giant ferris wheel. This was a lot of fun! Scary that high up, but we enjoyed it. A good way to see a lot of Dallas! We could even see Baylor Dallas from the ferris wheel.
12.) After that, we looked at the schedule of events & noticed that there was a Las Vegas inspired light show about to start in 20 minutes. So we booked it over to the part of the fairgrounds where the show was to take place. Let's just say....we have both seen much neater things! There were like a few little fireworks and then this screen that was showing strange music videos and then a random fire fountain thing. Maybe we just aren't the "artsy type" but the light show wasn't that great. But I did enjoy spending time with the love of my life, Kyle.
13.) After the light show, we decided that we had had enough of the fair experience & were still hungry. We purchased some cotton candy (10 tickets) on the way out the door.
14.) Since we were still hungry, on the way home we stopped at Jack & the Box for dinner. We both got filled up on the dollar menu for less than $5!

So overall, I had a fun time with Kyle. I also know what the State Fair is like. So, if a friend asks me in the future if I would like to go, I will politely tell them "no thank you, let's just go eat junk at Jack & the Box instead!" Better yet, let's go to Chili's!

Cowboy's Quesadilla Party

GO COWBOYS! This past Sunday night our small group from church got together for a make-your-own quesadilla party & watched the Cowboys game.

Here are some pics from the event. I learned from this party, being married to the "condiment man" what makes a good quesadilla. For those of you who don't know what I mean by calling Kyle the "condiment man"...short story. The Rhodes family loves their condiments on food. If you look in the fridge at our house or Kyle's parent's house, the entire inside door & top few shelves are full of....you guessed it....condiments! I've never known so many in all my life existed! Kyle's parents even have a fridge in their garage for overflow condiments. If you don't believe me, I will have to take a pic at some point so you can see what I'm talking about. Seriously, Kyle can't make it through a meal anywhere without the right condiments.

When I was growing up with my family, if we were out to eat somewhere or on vacation eating something in the car, I would want ketchup for my fries, but my mom would say "rough it and eat it." So that's just what I learned to do.
Well, with Kyle, this plan doesn't work at all. He MUST have the right dips/sauces/etc for his food or he won't eat it. In his defense, he would say that this makes eating the food more enjoyable.

So when I was getting the list together for this quesadilla party, I made fun of Kyle several times for all of the various condiments he wanted me to purchase in order to experience the "perfect quesadilla." Y'all have to realize I was planning for maybe 20 people at the most with a budget of $5 per person, so some of Kyle's requests I could not honor.


What was the verdict overall? In Kyle's own words "this is the best quesadilla I've ever had." I'm hoping that this is really true and not to just make me feel good. But I do think it at least was half true.

So the quesadillas ended up being a hit. We'll probably do this type of party again in the future. An added bonus is that the Cowboys won! We may just need to have a superbowl party this year, especially if they are in it!

Master Bedroom Soundproof Window Installation

Ok. So after living in our house for about 2 months, this was a home project that was essential. Our house backs up to a busy street in Arlington, with cars, motorcycles, emergency vehicles, etc going by at all times of day & night. From our bedroom, this car noise is LOUD. We tried to get used to it through fans, sound machines, ear plugs, etc but did not have success.

So Kyle found a company online that makes soundproof windows that are custom fit. We decided to try it out. It is basically a window that fits snugly around the outside of the window sill. Ours slide open and
come out pretty easily if we need to clean the blinds or open the real windows.

When Kyle proposed this soundproof window concept to me, I wasn't sure what to think. But after sleeping last night in a much quieter room, I can say it was well worth our purchase! They still don't block out really loud noises, but average cars driving by we don't hear much of anymore.

This project Kyle did all by himself and I'm proud of the home repairman he is becoming!

My blogger is still being dumb in the
way it uploads pics and I really don't like how you can't move the picture order around after they are uploaded. So I would show you the pics in order of start to finish, but I guess you will have to figure that out on your own.

If you are interested in soundproof windows for yourself, ask Kyle. He can give you a firsthand client testimony.

Kitchen Re-Do

Ok, so I randomly decided to re-paint my kitchen this past weekend. If you have never lived with me, you may not know how I decide to change things up with furniture/decorating in a matter of a few minutes. (Lisa is probably the only person other than Kyle who has witnessed this since she shared an apartment with me at Harding).

I originally thought that this project would only take a couple of hours. Well, that was when I thought I could paint over the wallpaper, which I have heard you can do. I did paint over about 1/2 the wallpaper with primer when Paula came in to check on my progress. Needless to say, she told me that I needed to strip the wallpaper, which I wasn't happy to hear. However, I am SO THANKFUL for my mother-in-law's honesty because I am very happy with the finished product! So Paula ended up staying to help me strip wallpaper, mainly because I think she felt sorry for me. Even Kyle helped strip. In my opinion, Kyle & Paula are excellent strippers, wall-paper strippers, that is! We ended up stripping 2 layers to get to the drywall.

Amanda & Paula both were lifesavers at helping me get the kitchen painted on MOnday. Overall the project that was supposed to take 4 hours in my mind took 16!

What did Kyle do for a weekend project? Well, other than help me, he filled in the rocks/fire pit area in our back yard with sod...it looks great! I think his project was more of what should be considered a "weekend" project!

I took pics of the kitchen, but I think most of you have seen them, especially if you have facebook, which is where I am putting most of my pics now. It is much easier to upload them there than blogger. I am kind of annoyed with the way blogger posts pics at the moment...I guess that's what you get for free!

Mom & Dad Visit our TX home!

Mom & dad made it to our new home in Arlington, TX! After driving all the way from Ohio to Arkansas (to take Kristen to Harding) then to Texas, they were glad to be here.

We had a fun weekend hanging out at our house, doing some shopping, eating some good food, & enjoying being together.

Billy, Paula, Brett & Amanda came over for dinner Saturday night. We played the game "Things" together...lots of fun! I think we also learned a lot about each other as well.

We also enjoyed some corn hole in the heat on Sunday night. Pepper enjoyed having both sets of his grandparents to play with him & give him attention.

These are the times I look forward to the most....times to plan yummy meals and spend time together as a family. We are so thankful for the blessing of our home. I'm excited for many more family gatherings to come in our house and all of the memories to go along with them.

August has been a month of both KYle & I working a lot with not much else going on, which is why there
hasn't been much new posted on the blog. However, I am going to try to keep up with the blog better in the future. We'll just see how that goes.

Please continue to keep both of us in your prayers as we continue to seek & do God's will daily in our lives. Love you all!