Scary Hair

I haven't been able to have even one uninterrupted thought today and so this is all I've got for today's Flashback.  See?  White shirt and jeans.  I love this picture for a couple of reasons.  Number One Reason:  This was the first time I had dyed my hair.  My mom helped me do it at home and when we first dyed it, it turned out pink. Pink would have been just as bad as this brassy auburn.    Number Two Reason:  Kristie!   Number Three Reason: I weighed 95 pounds in this picture and look at the size of my shirt!  Ridiculously oversized.  Number Four Reason:  It is evidence of how crazy my hair is.  It's not curly and it's not straight.  It's what I like to describe as werewolf hair.  

Lately I think of how much I need to a new haircut and how much I'm tempted to go Anne Lamott on y'all and do the white-girl dreads. 

I'm only posting today because I haven't posted in almost a week.

Today.

Today I was scheduled to get my hair cut - which is fast becoming a hobby of mine - by the girl that used to do it back a year or so ago. Julie has cut my hair since we moved to this area until last year when Brian started trading services with a different girl in the salon next to his office. I have paid zero dollars for about 6 years for a hair cut until I went to Van Michael in May with a gift certificate when I got my hair cut short . (Gosh! That's a horrible sentence.) Julie has always given me a great cut and she's quick and loves me and the kids. Or is that supposed to read the kids and I? Clearly my grammar is not working well today. So, the plan was that Brian was going to take the little bugs with him to Union City today while I got some things done around the house and then to my appointment. I had approximately 2,107 things on my to-do list. I got about .046% of them done.
In my head my list looked like this:

1. Clean the house (all of it!) (which is the category where 2,098 of those things fall)
   
2. Go to laundromat and wash duvet (because I don't have one of those fancy schmancy front-loading washing machines)
3. Go to Barnes & Noble to get some new books for June Bug
4. Look for a book for me too
   
5. Start 30 Day Shred ,.... again.
6. Shower
7. Get flash cards for June Bug
8. Laundry
9. Quilt
10. Go to lunch with June Bug and Cuddle Bug (maybe)

The day started well with getting a load or two done of laundry, I cleaned off the dining room table and I picked up the toys and clothes and dirty dishes out of the living room. All before 9:00 when Brian left with the little bugs. Oh! and I got all the bugs breakfast, dressed the little ones and changed 2 diapers. But I quickly realized that there was no way on Earth that I was going to get much more than that done in the 45 minutes I had left. But I didn't give up. I got the half-bath cleaned and... then I gave up. Took my shower and fixed my hair because I can't go to the salon with dirty messed up hair. I know some people can do this but I'm not one of them. While I was in the shower I thought of all sorts of funny things to say on this here blog. I do this quite a bit actually - think of great things to say when I'm nowhere near the computer and then promptly forget what I wanted to say when I actually get time to post something. But instead , I have given you quite possibly the most boring post ever posted in the history of blog posting.

And on a side note: I moved to Georgia from Detroit when I was 11 and starting at age 13 I vowed never to use the "words" "ya'll", "fixin' to" and "big 'un". Well, YA'LL, I've been sayin' "fixin" quite alot lately and I'm pretty sure I've said "big 'un" at least a dozen times.

"LOOK! Squirrel!!"

By-the-way, I did manage to make it to Barnes & Noble. I went looking for some new chapter books for June Bug and for a Jodi Picoult book for me. I considered buying The Fountainhead since June has formed a book club on her blog and this is the required reading but after reading about it on Wikipedia and then reading a few lines of the book at B & N I discovered that my brain is already working in overdrive lately and that reading that particular novel just might make my brain turn in it's resignation and pack up it's bags and head to Miami for the winter.

Which, if we're all really honest, may have already happened.

What took me so long?

Oh man! I should have done this a LONG time ago! I kept thinking that if I let it grow that eventually it would look like a little girl's hair cut. But I finally got so frustrated with how long it takes Lady Bug's hair to grow and it was so uneven. The hair in front was like 3 inches shorter than it was in back so I decided it was definitely time for a real hair cut instead of just trimming her bangs. I can hardly believe my busy bug sat still enough for me to do such a good job. She's such a wiggle worm that I expected it to be a great big mess but it looks great!

And she is SO CUTE!!!

Ho Hum

I feel like I'm really behind today. I didn't post anything over the weekend or even for Tuesdays Unwrapped. Not that any of you are on pins and needles anxiously awaiting a new post or anything. And yesterday I thought of all sorts of cute, witty, little things to say while .... (gosh! now I can't even remember why I actually got dressed!) I was getting ready to go somewhere.... Oh! Wait! Now I remember! ....(I digress) .... but I didn't post it right away and now I can hardly remember even one. Oh well. It's not important, right? Right!

Yesterday, Brian had to take Lady Bug to the doctor to find out what might be wrong with her arm since she fell at the playground Saturday afternoon. We had taken an x-ray at the office and knew she hadn't broken her collarbone again, thank goodness, but she was saying it was still hurting her and not using her right arm even on Monday. I'm glad I didn't have to take her; I don't think I could have held her while she kicked and screamed from the doctor messin' with her arm. Unfortunately, I will be the one that has to take her to a pediatric orthopaedist on Friday to determine if her shoulder is dislocated. Yeah, that sounds like tons of fun.

While they were at the doctor, Baby Bug and I went in search of a dresser or closet "solution". The crib and changing table have officially "left the building!" But that means that I need something better than the laundry basket to put his clothes in. The dresser that matches his bed is currently in the big boys' room so I'm looking for a bigger dresser for them. I asked June Bug on Monday if he would rather have his bed be black, red or blue. "Black." he replied. I then asked Cuddle Bug, with fingers crossed, which color he would prefer (I didn't think it would be fair to let the oldest have the sole decision on how their shared room would look). "Black." Whew! It will be much easier to decorate if they match. So finding a dresser should be easy since I will probably be painting it black to match the beds. Goodwill had a great deal for $22.98 and I'm hoping it will still be there in the morning when I return. Wish me luck! I've never painted furniture before.

So, before heading out the door to Goodwill, Wal-Mart, Target and then Steak 'N Shake, I slapped on my favorite cap, some clean clothes and the minimum requirement of shellac (a.k.a. make-up). I love this hat! It has hidden thousands of bad hair days and days that might have otherwise been good hair days had I actually felt like wrestling with it.

Clearly not a picture from yesterday.
Brian, June Bug, Cuddle Bug and I in Tybee Island in November '04.

So there's my post for the day. Random enuf for ya?

Before and After

This post is to explain where the girl in my profile picture went:

For three years (2006 - 2009) I've been growing my hair long. The first reason is because I always grow it out while I'm pregnant because I lose so much hair after having a baby and longer hair hides that I've got a receding hairline.

Me in 2007 with Landon and my amazing doc, Dr. Rob Dyar, of No. Cobb Women's Health.
This was already after 9 months of growing it.

The second reason is that this time, since it was already a little longer to start with, I decided I would try to grow it long enough to donate it to Locks of Love or Pantene's Beautiful Lengths program that make wigs for children with Alopecia and women going through chemo. It took me three years to get it long enough to donate! But by then it was in horrible shape. Tons of split ends and very thin. What's very funny to me is that I was getting so many compliments on it even though I thought it looked horrible. But I had gotten so bored with my look (I'm used to doing lots of different styles with it) that I went and got high-lights - Oops! Big No! No! You can't donate high-lighted hair. I just couldn't take it any longer. The sitting on it and getting sticky baby fingers in it and it's about to get hot. This is Atlanta after all! {Have I given enough excuses?} Patience is still one of those fruits of the Spirit that God is growing in me. It may take awhile; I hope I have enough patience to wait for it! ; )

Me before I left to go get it cut. This is the longest it has ever been.

Well, I went last Saturday to the wonderful, talented, pampering Van Michael salon in Buckhead and told them I wanted it short and fun and edgy. Brian got me a gift certificate for Mother's Day because I've been wanting to go there for years; they have an impeccable reputation and it is well-deserved, let me tell you! I took them a picture of what I had in mind and told them to tweak it so that it suited me. I didn't want the color to go this dark (it would have been too harsh on me and awful to grow out) but I did want one section underneath to be a bright color.Juan did my color, Raena is his assistant and DJ (just back from the Miami salon) did my cut. Mwah!!! Big kisses to all of you because I think you did a fabulous job! My only regrets are that it couldn't actually be donated and that I didn't have someone take pictures of the process and the way that DJ had styled it. I was so excited about the way it was turning out that I didn't think to ask someone to do that for me. Oh well. There's always the next time, right? And believe-you-me, there will be a next time!

I didn't realize, until after it was all done, how much I had missed having short hair. This suits my personality so much better!!! I kind of feel now like a little part of me had gotten kind of lost in that long hairstyle (or lack of it). Now, you can "psycho-analyze" me all you want. That I did this just to get attention or something silly like that but, honestly, I feel like I haven't been letting myself have very much fun lately in my life and it was time to "kick things up a notch!" Consider the notch "kicked up!" I love it! Besides, I've been talking about doing something fun with it for about four years now and Andy Andrews puts it brilliantly in his latest book The Noticer:

"Five seagulls are sitting on a dock. One of them decides to fly away.
How many seagulls are left?"
"Well.... four."
"No," Jones responded. "There are still five. Deciding to fly away
and actually flying away are two very different things.
"Listen carefully to me. Despite popular belief to the contrary, there is
absolutely no power in intention. ... "

Of course, I realize cutting my hair is a very small decision in the grand scheme of things but it does reflect how I want to approach my life. I want to stop talking about doing things and start actually doing them! What have you been talking about doing? Isn't it time to actually do it?!

Grey Hair

Quick survey: How many of you enjoy going grey? Raise your hand if you look forward to getting new grey hairs.

I'm raising my hand! Am I the only one?!

"Why?" you ask. I'm not exactly sure but I really like them. Now, mind you, I've only got about half a dozen but I'm not plucking and I'm not coloring my hair in order to cover them up (I just like coloring my hair and I usually hope that the color hasn't covered too many). I call them my own personal "bling." I can't afford any "bling" on my fingers or in my ears or around my neck so God has given them to me on my head. Also, maybe the personality of grey hairs matches my own and so I identify with them. They're kind of unruly, hard to manage, want to stand out in the crowd and they don't match. ; )

I guess most people don't like them because they think grey hair makes them look older. I don't mind looking older...if I'm older. Maybe I didn't enjoy being young enough to miss being young! Maybe I didn't have enough fun to realize what I'm missing now. : ) And, after all, thirty-three is still young. But I thoroughly look forward to each new year and each new birthday and to getting older.

So bring on the new grey! Raise your hand, people! It's not like you're the only one it's happening to!