Too Great a Day

This weekend has been wonderful so far!  Yesterday, I got a job and Sam coached his first basketball game.  He finished up football season last weekend and he jumped straight into basketball.  He’s never actually played basketball, but they needed a coach and he was the one available to take the job.  He’s learning quickly, though, and he’s in charge of junior varsity so there isn’t as much pressure.

Is he handsome or what?  Basketball coaches dress better than football coaches.  He looks very official.  I’m enjoying basketball games more than football games so far because I know all the rules and can keep up with what’s going on.  Also, I get to sit much closer to Sam, which is always a plus.  It’s so fun to hear him give his players a pep talk and talk strategy with them before they hit the court.  They won their first game!  Sam insists that it was a fluke and that the other team was just exceptionally terrible, but a victory is a victory in my book.

Since football season is over, Sam doesn’t have to go up to school on Saturdays to watch film anymore.  The past few weekends, he’s been attending classes to learn how to drive a school bus, but he finished that up last week.  There was a scrimmage scheduled for today, but that got canceled so Sam ended up with his first Saturday off in a long time.  Two of our friends (Tyler and Ashley) were getting married today, but we felt rude trying to show up at the last minute since we didn’t RSVP because of the scheduled scrimmage.  However, we send them all our love and we are so happy they are finally married!

Because of our empty schedule, we were able to sleep in and take it easy today.  Sam promised me a big date night to celebrate my new job, so I decided to get dressed up and straighten my hair.  My hair is naturally curly and I usually wear it that way, and I’ve let it grow out over the past year.  In fact, I haven’t had a haircut since last December!  I didn’t realize how long my hair has gotten until I straightened all the curls out.

After I got dressed, I pried Sam away from his Xbox.  He recently bought two major games (Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II), so he’s been playing a lot.  However, he was more than happy to grab his car keys when I mentioned that I wanted to go out for steak.

We drove 30 minutes to Saltgrass Steakhouse in Cedar Hill.  It was so delicious!  We shared a ribeye and Sam enjoyed a baked potato while I chowed down on mac and cheese.  We also shared a delicious Sangria Margarita!

After dinner, Sam took me to two of my favorite places: Half Price Books and Barnes & Noble!  At the shopping center Barnes & Noble is in, we just happened to arrive in the middle of their big Christmas celebration.  There was a live jazz band, guys on stilts, and a huge Christmas tree.

We went inside Barnes & Noble and enjoyed some holiday drinks.  I got a pumpkin spice frappuccino and Sam got a peppermint mocha frappuccino.  When we got home, we realized we had accidentally left the heater on when we went out.  We didn’t mind, though, because it was wonderful to come home to a warm house.  Now, Sam is back on his Xbox playing with his friends, and I’m sitting here under a warm blanket working on my blog.  Life is wonderful and I love my husband, and this was too great a day not to share.

Fishtail Curls

I’ve always loved the look of fishtail braids, but I had the hardest time figuring out how to do it.  I’d watched tons of tutorial videos and I couldn’t ever figure it out.  Finally, I sat down one night with this diagram from puttinghealthfirst.com, and made it happen.

I know it looks incredibly complicated, but it’s really not.  It’s like weaving your hair, and once you learn the pattern it’s easy.  These are the three things I had to figure out through trial and error that really helped me:

1. Use your fingers to separate the hair, just like with a normal braid.  It takes a long time and your arms will get tired, but you have to use both hands.
2. It helps to do it in front of the mirror at first until you can figure out how to do it without looking.
3. Most tutorials tell you to braid with dry hair, but I found out it’s a lot easier with wet hair!

So, here I am with wet hair.  I decided to do two braids today, but you can easily do a side braid or a braid down your back.

Now, separate your hair into equal halves and tie back one half.

Start braiding one half using the fishtail technique.  Basically, alternate moving each half piece by piece to the other side.

Remember to pull the hair tight, and finish braiding until you run out of hair.

Now the other side!  :)

Okay, now you could easily stop here and have a great, cute hairstyle.  But one thing I love to do with fishtail braids is wear them during the day, and then take them out for the evening.  They make really pretty curls when you take them out.  You could also braid your hair before you go to bed, sleep on them, and then wake up with pretty curls.  Or, you could do what I did because I was feeling impatient, and dry the braids with a blowdryer and take them out.  Just take out the braids, toss them with hairspray, add a headband, and you’re ready to go!  Now, my hair is naturally curly, but the braids make neater braids than my natural hair.  If you have straight hair, this might be a good method to try if you have trouble getting your hair to curl.  Good luck!