The day we set off to Nebraska, a big storm was promised, several feet of snow, ice storms etc right in our travel path so we decided to change our usual route of Hwy 80 to Omaha and thought we would give Hwy 20 a try.

While Hwy 20 is quite a bit longer and a slower road, we figured that we would miss most of the storm and if we were unfortunate enough to get caught in it, at least we would be able to find a motel or somewhere to stay should things get bad.

So by 9am, the car was packed, the dogs were safely in their crate in the back seat (and a pile of towels for Oliver to puke on) and several warm blankets should we get stuck.

Within an hour, Oliver had thrown up on all the towels and we had to stop at K-mart to pick some more up (bless his little socks, he hates to travel).

Despite it taking us 3 hrs longer to take Hwy 20, I have to say I much preferred the journey mainly because the views are so much better.

Case in point ..

Hwy 80 in August

Hwy 20 in December

We hit the storms just outside Sioux City, and were driving not much higher than 20 mph for about an hour, but that was it, we arrived just outside Omaha around 11pm.

We went straight to Kevin's parents, got the boys settled and were in the hotel and asleep by 12.30.

One of the great things about getting a hotel in Nebraska is that $100 buys you a lot. Our two roomed suite had its own Jacuzzi and a double shower as well as a real flame fire. Shame I was far too exhausted to appreciate it that first night.

Tuesday was spent shopping at the local mall (mainly for something to do rather than late present hunting) I found myself two amazing pairs of Cowboy boots, both at 50% off, so Santa Kevin treated me to an extra early Christmas present.

I also got to enjoy the speciality dish from that area called "Runza" (its a takeaway place, only really common in Nebraska, if you didn't catch the sarcasm).

Some of you may remember one of Kevins old blogs, were he would introduce uncommonly pretty girls, to "interesting" (Read: revolting) foods and record their reactions as they ate ... well apparently he wanted to revive this tradition ...

... to be honest, if your really hungry, its not so bad, but I think I can guess why it hasn't quite broken out of the Nebraska market just yet.

I do have to say, they did make the best fries I've tasted since my mothers kitchen!

After our delightful meal, we headed over to the folks to play with the puppies and catch up as we hadn't really spoken the night before.

That evening we met up with Bob & Rob, two old school friends of Kevins - Have to say I was utterly charmed by both of them.

We had a few drinks (read: I got totally sloshed) together and a wonderful time was had by all.

Christmas Eve, and Kevin must really love me here, we had a wander around Hobby Lobby (a supermarket sized craft store, for you who dont live in the USA). I think he managed an hour of watching me touch pink and sparkly things before he'd had enough and dragged me out of the store and on to his folks for more puppy love.

The evening was spent trying to find a restaurant that was open on Christmas eve to enable us to have dinner with one of Kevin's brothers. We did find one, that made it abundantly clear at 8pm that it was time for us to leave.

I could hardly contain my frustration waiting for his other brother on Christmas day, as we all sat around, parcels piled high waiting for him to arrive.

I'm trying to convince his parents that if he can't arrive on time, then he should have coal in his stocking and we should get to open his gifts, but they were not budging - Fortunately by 12.30 he had arrived.

My haul this year was FANTASTIC, I've made a friends only post with a list of everything (I can remember) on it, and put a few photos up in the gallery for anyone to see if your curious.

I made out like a bandit this year MUWAHAHAHHA.

After Christmas dinner (ham) Kevin's cousin and his family came over and I introduced them to the English tradition of Christmas Crackers. I'm not really sure why Crackers are not popular in the United States, It may have something to do with the fact they can be classed as explosives and thus difficult to ship (they have a tiny amount of gunpowder or something like that makes a bang when you pull it open, similar to a party popper). Anyway, these were a HUGE hit to the entire family - I've never seen a group of people so eager to don paper party hats, play with cheap plastic gifts and ask me to explain the jokes (they were made in England, and had a lot of jokes that related to British word play). It was great to see :)

I was however throughly exhausted by 8pm so we headed back to the hotel and had a swim and another early night.

As Boxing Day isn't celebrated in the USA, I offered to cook and allow my In-laws a rest while I celebrated my holiday. Dinner was nothing fancy. A starter of Cheese and crackers, a Main of Roast Chicken, Roast Potatoes and a couple of Veg (would of been three veg but I got my timing wrong) followed by Apple Pie and Ice Cream. YUM!

Of course, now that my father in law realises I can cook, I'm the most adored daughter he has (despite us not actually being blood) - I can do no wrong in his eyes. (He's pretty fabulous too, I like both of Kevin's parents, they really do treat me like on of their own).

After dinner, we met up with Bob & Rob again. I got to meet Kevins family doctor too - so discussions of how Kevin got his mother implicated in a child abuse scandal because he slipped and fell (his mother wasn't beating him up, five yrs old Kevin just blamed her for him falling over), and lots of other jucy gossip was divulged. I have black mail material on Kevin for years !!!!

And then it was Saturday ... and our long drive home.

This time the weather wasn't so kind, it rained most of the way home, and when the temperatures dropped below freezing it made the roads simply evil to drive on. I had less than 15 mins driving before I had to give up and ask Kevin to drive again. We didnt get home until past 2am !!!

All in all I had a fantastic time, Kevins family is great, Kevins friends are great and of course all the presents Kevin got me are GREAT !!!!

*grins*

Hope you guys had as much fun as I did this christmas .... hi ho on to the new year!

Under no circumstance allow anyone in the whole wide world, no matter how hot or how large the gun is at your temple, to convince you to watch "The Perfect Storm.

Its like the movie makers took everything that can make a movie good / redeemable, and thew that in the trash can, leaving what is left to make this movie.

You have been warned!

I haven't actually forgotten about my 52 Crafts community, I've still been crafting like mad despite not posting about it. However a lot of the things I made during the summer time didn't get photographed and hence were never talked about.

I need to make up a list of things I made that I didn't photograph so they can be counted and included - but I haven't got round to that yet.

So, in the meantime .... I present to you crafts #31, #32 and #33

# 31 Christmas Cards - The Green & Red range

# 32 Christmas Cards - The Blue, White and Silver range

All of the above two collections can be found in the craft section of my gallery.


# 33 Wedding Shower invites for a friends sister including recipe cards

~ While this was mostly print work, the invites have 3 layers of card, a ribbon / brad detail and an embossed decoration.

On my way out to deliver presents to Dott and her family a bird who had been resting on the wreath outside our front door flew into the house.

Now if you have paid careful attention to the photos I just posted you will see that my Christmas tree is decorated with feathered birds (and green bows).

So when this little chappy rested on the top of my tree, I near wet myself with joy.

He looked perfect, a real life bird on my christmas tree.

I wish I had had a camera to hand!

Shame I'm still only 29 huh!

....

I'm still having bad dreams almost every night that I actually fall asleep.

*sad face*

Its already been two weeks since my last update, no wonder no one visits (except you, you wonderful person you!).

Since my last post Kevin and I have made plans to visit Nebraska this Christmas, and spend it with his family. I'm really looking forward to it. We will be taking the dogs, although they will stay at Grandma & Granddads while Mummy & Daddy stay at the local hotel.

I've started on this years christmas cards, I've made 30 or so (got about 100 to make) and I'm really happy with how they have turned out. Still need to get cracking on them, might try and rope Kevin into a mini production line with me tonight and see if I can get a few more done that way.

Christmas shopping is almost done, and I only ended up buying socks for one person - The rest got T-shirts. Gotta love Threadless, $5 Tee shirt sale. Actually I'm not being cheap, I've bought from them at full price before because I love their Tee's - Shame I'm not really built for Tee's (I need a lower neckline to prove I don't have UniBoob). I wear them from time to time, but not really my thing.

Anyway, pretty much every man in my family under 35 has one or two tee shirts coming their way. (I can say that here as none of my family ever read my blog, despite knowing it exists).

Along with gadgets from Think Geek, more clothing, Kitchen tools, a baking pan and a book to read to your dog when it gets scared in the night - I'm pretty much set as far as christmas shopping goes.

I think I only did two trips to the stores this year too! Although I do need to pop back to Target at some point to pick up a specific style of ribbon for the Christmas Tree. I just can't justify driving the 20 mins to get to it just for ribbon so I'm trying to wait until I need to go over that way.

So other than Christmas stuff, all I've been doing is Maths (lots and lots of maths) and playing Spore ..... Which is what I'm off to do now!

Lets see ... I could apologise once again for not updating this blog enough, but really who gives a shit. The people who visit, visit regardless of an update or not, and the ones who just pass by once in a blue moon, well they see updates regardless.

Well what have I been up to ...

* Last Saturday I took my English Written / Language Exam. This if you recall is the one I was dreading. It takes a few weeks for the results to come back, as my essay part has to be read by three different people, but I'm pretty sure I'll score enough. However, my essay wasn't very strong. The topic was about what is good about TV. I rambled on about how it brought me closer to my family as a kid and its educational merits. It was a pretty lame essay, and I ran out of time to double check it, so I couldn't tweak it or anything, but I think it was good enough to get a passing score.

To be honest, I only need a score of 410 to pass (out of 800) so the worst result is that I'm gonna be too embarrassed to public say my score following my run of good luck with my exams of late.

* Maths - Well thats all I have left to do now. I'm currently on pre / basic algebra. I have been for a while as I kinda suspended it to deal with my English shortcomings. So now I'm back with full force on Math. On Tues class I did 2 1/2 hrs of algebra and I had a headache that lasted me all day. I'm still struggling with remembering to concepts - I mean I know them but I don't. For my ego to remain in tack I really need to get a good score on my math.
At least in the 700's (which gives me about 5 wrong). I only have like 2 1/2 weeks before the end of testing so I really have to buckle down and focus. Gahhhhh.

* Crafting - Ive been doing a bunch of it, but either forget to take photos or its ended up in one of the many "project" bags I have when I tidy my stuff up.
I seem to have a difficult time to finish everything these days.

* Sleeping - Gosh darn it, my sleeping patterns are shot to heck. I start getting ready for bed around 10 / 12pm, and lights are usually off before 1am - I have little trouble falling to sleep but around 3.30 / 4 am I have some vivid dream or nightmare (messed up dreams for sure) that freaks me out and wakes me up. Unfortunately Kevin is a really light sleeper, so I have the choice of fidget until I fall asleep (Yeah I'm a fidgeter) or get up and do something productive, either way I wake up Kevin who can't sleep if I'm not in bed, and totally ruin his day. So in addition to fucked up dreams, and a lack of sleep, I get a dollop of guilt every day too!

* Warcraft - So the new expansion pack came out, I haven't got it yet. I will at some point, maybe I should put it on my wish list *snort* - Its not that I don't want it, I just don't wanna be doing the same shit everyone else is doing at the same time as them - Its frustrating to have to battle other people for the quest items. Although I did sneak on a little yesterday and all the zones I'm questing in right now were totally empty - Just how I like it. Hell I wish they did WOW in single player only. I think I'm just real bored with making small talk with people on the internet. Where you from? What you do? How old are you? (oh feck, your young enough to be my kid !!!!) - YAWN! Its not like I really care, I'm just being polite.

* Weight - I'm 10lbs away from goal and holding - which believe it or not is a good thing. I got down to 2lbs away before I left for my sisters wedding. Since then I've been having a bit of a tough time, so that includes a lot of drinking, which results in weight gain. I always put weight on at winter time, so the fact I'm holding at 10lbs away is a relief right now.

Hold on a sec .... need to grab a beer before I continue updating ....

* Singing the Blues - One of the things you may of guessed is that I tend not to update when I'm down in the dumps. I feel like I can't talk about that kind of stuff on my blog and so I don't feel like talking at all. A lot of it is to do with it coming up to winter / Christmas - I always get real homesick around Christmas, all my friends back in England are having parties (which they keep inviting me too, which is sweet and all that, but kinda rubs it in too) and meanwhile, I'm here. No one to go dancing with, No one to go christmas shopping with, No one to get dressed up with.

Christmas Day was a huge family affair back in England, we all trudge down to my Mums, ripping open our presents after breakfast, which usually consisted of some sort of fish dish and bucks fizz (cheap champagne and orange juice). Clear up just in time for opening at the pub. Drink a few pints, head home for about 2ish, and shortly after eat a huge ass meal, before all vegging out on a sofa for the rest of the evening.

Who cares that me and my dad don't get on, Who cares that my brother thinks that (oops yeah public post, can't say what he called me but it wasn't nice), for one day we are family and are pleasant to each other.

Don't get me wrong, I don't regret moving here, just - well I get homesick.

I haven't mentioned this to Kevin yet, but I'm thinking about going back to the UK early next year if we can afford it.

* Christmas - I've started my Christmas shopping, I got most of Kevins stuff ordered or delivered and wrapped already (Kevins birthday is at the end of November so I do his Christmas and Birthday shopping in one go).

I still am struggling with gifts for the men. What is it that 20 - 35 yrs old males want for christmas that their sister / sister in law can buy them? I end up usually buying clothes. Cute tee shirts, PJ bottoms .... and god forbid, socks if I have to. I know actually, while they are totally cliche, that socks and underpants are really quite useful for the 20 - 35 yrs old, single man crowd cos they are utterly crap and don't buy them themselves, but really I don't want to be the surrogate mother for all these boys.

Kevin is even worse to buy for ... You would think a nerd would be easy to buy for, but he isn't.
If he needs something gadgety or technical, he's already bought it, so any of the gadgets that sites like Think Geek have to offer are totally redundant as if he hasn't already got it, then it means that he's not gonna use it and its just a waste of money

Obviously I buy him clothing (as he doesn't shop for his own) but the man has like a closet full of Tee shirts with cute and geeky comments on them (seriously Kevin has more space in the closet than me), but he's good for socks and underpants (hey, I might be a lot of things, but you cant say I let my man be without clean underwear), he's enough Tee Shirts to ... well I dont know how to measure them without even counting but its a fecking lot !!!!

He could do with another couple of pairs of Jeans, and a new pair of shoes, but can we have a collective "YAWN" for how boring his christmas present opening is gonna be!

Meanwhile, I'm trying really hard to cut spending. We are trying really hard to clear off our credit card debits, which while are not "out of control" are in a place that needs to be dealt with as the USA heads deeper into recession.

I've made Kevin promise he wont spend more than $500 on me this christmas, which he never keeps to but at least he can't go nutso if he has to tell me with a straight face that that is all he spent on Christmas day. Its amazing how many hidden vouchers, and surprising cash Kevin comes up with before Birthdays and Christmas to justify his spending on me - I thought it was us women who were supposed to lie about their shopping habits.

Uh oh - Is it time for another beer already ?

Oooh .... looks like its cookie time too !

Dogs - Jacobs been sick :( Both of them seem to have conjunctivitis, probably caused by some cleaning product I use (I'm told, even though I have been using the same stuff for a couple of years now ... anyway ... ). This cause Jacob to get an eye infection, pretty nasty gunk in his eye, and you could physically massage out the puss from under his eye. He's been on antibiotics for the last week, so he currently hates me as I'm the one who gives him his meds.

Oliver had his one year booster shots at the same time, so I had two puppies who both were sulking because they had had shots on the way home from the vets.

Fortunately, Oliver is a total snuggle bunny and can't help but love his mommy even when she is being evil. Jacob however, just be entered in the Yorkshire Sulking Championships and have a real chance of winning. He's developed this little, under his breath, tutting / sighing noise, like enough for you to know he's annoyed but not so much that he's being down right rude.
Its kinda cute, and this is why he's such a spoilt dog, because I'm a total sucker for his adorableness. (heck, who knew that was a word? but it came up in my spell check so I'm gonna go for it!)

Well boys, girls and anyone in-between, I think thats enough rambling for the time being - I'm starting to get a little tipsy and friends don't let friends Blog and Drink !

I have stuff to tell, just been slack and forgetting that I need to update.

However, its bed time now so I guess I'll update another day ....

Who am I to deny this right?

Another one I seem to sign round my head all the time ...

They keep playing this on BPM, and I just can't seem to get it out of my head.

More below the cut.