Before & After

I recently decided it was time for some pampering and my dearest Dad overheard me and got me some pampering for Christmas. I was in bad need of a trim (surprise surprise). Since I recently discovered what my real hair color is again, I thought it might be nice to shake things up and get some highlights. And to put the frosting on, I felt my nails could use some special attention. So here are the before and after shots for your amusement, and mine. I crack myself up. =)



















Wow I guess I lost track of time and let them get too long! Yikes!















Okay, that's much better.













Obviously in serious need of care...















Beautiful!















The look on my face says it all.















The new hair. Thanks Dad! I loved my Christmas pampering!

Florida!

Well to travel back in time a little... we went to Florida for about ten days last month and got to see and do some really fun stuff! The most special part of all was Mia getting the chance to meet her great-grandparents Grandpa John and Grandma Dorothy, my mother-in-law's parents. Grandpa John turned ninety in November, so it was really special for us to be able to see him that same month. We enjoyed some great times getting to visit, eat, and hang out with them. They really enjoyed Mia and spoiled her with lots of new clothes and toys. She loved it! She also got to meet her Aunt Jean and Uncle Gary and they spoiled her too. We really have an amazing family.

We also got the chance to go to Sea World which was really fun, surprisingly fun actually. We didn't get very many pictures there (I know - epic fail) but we were having too much fun to go back to the car and get the good camera. We went to one show that was so well done; there were swimmers riding on dolphins and whales, aerial artists hanging from wires doing acrobatics, people diving into the water from great heights, tropical birds flying overhead and actors with banners all set to inspiring music... it was a visual and sensory treat. We also had a lot of fun at the duck pond. I know it doesn't sound that cool, but when you go from the arctic to 75 degree weather and then you see 15 different varieties of ducks swimming around and your kid is really into it, it's awesome. Mia happens to love ducks so it was great. There was also an aquarium type thing where you could look at fish and little crabs in displays and Mia really liked that. She was sure the crabs were bugs and bugs are pretty much her favorite thing along with Curious George and Elmo.

Busch Gardens was fun too, but we liked Sea World better. We did get the chance to see all sorts of animals there though and got some treats. I think the monkeys were Mia's favorite part.

The vacation house in Punta Gorda where we stayed for most of our trip was absolutely gorgeous. It had a fully loaded kitchen so all we had to do was buy groceries. There was a master suite with bathroom for Lyle and Ilene. Then there was a separate suite with two bedrooms and bathroom for us and the baby. The living room opened to a lanai with a heated pool that overlooked a gorgeous canal. Mia went swimming a lot - mostly with Jason and it was great to watch them exploring the water together. She did really well with the floaty thing Jas picked up for her and was working on staying upright without help. I got in a couple of times myself and it was fabulous.

We had great weather the whole time we were there except for a heavy rain on our way to Punta Gorda from Orlando (and we were in the car for the entire thing) so it was pretty awesome. Every once in a while, out of nowhere, Mia says "Bucks? Pool?" She's remembering getting to throw her bug toys in the pool and I'm glad we had the chance to give her fun memory like that. Most of all I'm glad we got the chance to visit with her great-grandparents. Hooray for family!

Home Again

Well usually I don't write about things I don't like, but a lot of them happened in November so I will inform and then move on to the happy ending, which I am loving. I love happy endings so much I have a really bad habit of reading the ends of books, then deciding if it was a happy enough ending for me to spend my precious time reading the rest of the book. It is a rare book that can get me to read it from front to back. But I digress.

So we left for our trip to Florida and I had gotten a little sick with some wierdish stuff and some flu-like symptoms. I didn't think it was swine flu because I had already gotten that earlier... Anyway I figured I'd be fine or get better there and instead when we got back to Fairbanks my Dad picked me up and brought me right to the emergency room. Apparently I got a little virus called hand-foot-and mouth which normally kids only get but I have been on some meds that suppress my immune system and I got it and then it wreaked havoc with my body. So after a second trip to the ER I was getting worse and checked into the hospital for a solid week. Meanwhile... when we had gotten home we realized our tenant's furnace had a fuel line break and - whoops- it had spilled approximately 10 gallons of diesel fuel into our floor boards, making both sides of our duplex and every material item in it simply reek. We then moved into my in-laws house to escape the fumes (a couple of days after that is when I moved into the hospital, leaving Mia in the capable hands of Nana, Papa, and Daddy). Shout-out to the in-laws who were amazingly generous in housing us!!!

This next part is where my husband gets nominated for sainthood. So he gets the fuel line fixed, step one. Then he thinks he's going to have to rip up the whole floor to get rid of the smell, but he tries an odor-eating spray and an odor-sealing paint x 3 applications first to see if we can avoid a major unplanned remodel. The paint is applied at close quarters in a literal crawl space under our house. Meanwhile he's working his job and pulling extra Daddy hours due to me being AWOL. The paint stuff works, the smell starts to diminish.... he cleans both sides carpets... he does exactly one-million loads of laundry to get the smell out of all our clothes, linens, everything.... and I really think Saint Jason has a nice ring to it. No he's not perfect but neither was Mother Theresa. And he's not the only one on the list. Our parents, Granddad, Nana, Papa, Oma, numerous friends.... we have had tons of support and people loving on us in this month of chaos and we are so grateful. I almost wrote soooooo grateful, but it looked insincere.

And now for the happy ending. We are home again and I love it here and every little thing and quirk about this place including the red pipe upstairs that has always made me vaguely uncomfortable - I LOVE. I never ever want to move from this home at this moment in time. I love the older carpet. I love the fact there are month-old cheerios in the couch. I love that for some odd reason the bathroom is the hottest room in the house. And I forgot what it looked like, and I forgot I had pretty things and pictures of my family and little candles and funky pottery and art on the walls that friends have painted for me. It is wonderful to be home again.

My glorious mothers (Mom and Mom-In-Law) helped us move in last night and folded laundry and cooked us food and shopped for us! Mia was really shocked at first and then really excited to see all her toys and her house again, too. And she went right back into all her little routines, it was so awesome. God is good to us and I have seriously 10 billion things to be thankful this holiday season. And I love this time of year. A savior has come. Christ the Lord! (Heart bursting into song even though all I'm doing externally is grinning.)

My Baby Don't Mess Around...

I don't think I did anything to deserve this, but I am very blessed. =) Let me tell you how. When I got pregnant I did nothing to influence the baby to turn out in a specific way. To be straight with you, there was a lot of chocolate ice cream, mac'n'cheese, gummy-vites, and indie rock. It was not a formula for anything except to maximize my comfort. What came out was more than a miracle. I had a baby masseuse.

She loves to play with lotion, which is how I discovered this little talent. And if I keep putting dabs on my feet, she will rub them forever. =) She's having fun, so don't worry. She's very good at it, too, which doesn't hurt a thing! She may have inherited this from her father, who is better than awesome at giving massages. (Hooray!)

The other thing is that she must have been born knowing how to give amazing compliments. We were thumbing through a Fitness magazine together (no I have not been working out lately) and flipped past a picture of what looked like a Swedish supermodel on a ski slope wearing sunglasses and a white jacket, and she stops and says, "Mama?" and points to the picture. I didn't want to correct the poor dear... so I said, "Yes, that looks like Mama doesn't it, you angel!" What a nice kid. Tempts me again to go platinum for her so I'm closer to the picture. All for her of course, has nothing at all to do with my ego. =)

Stay tuned for more when we get back to Fairbanks... we are getting lots of amazing pics in Florida thanks to our new camera, I guess the old one breaking was a blessing in disguise.

Camera Broken, Delilah AWOL

Well the camera I thought was indestructible found its limit. So I'll have to just use words for a while. And in other news of the day, the promise I made (unbidden) to my cousin to not cut my hair for thirty days... I have stuck to so far. Makes it easier when you're starting out with a good cut.

We're getting ready for another trip, this time to Florida. I think I would like to eat an orange, sitting by a pool, soaking in the sun. When we come back it will be just in time to begin the holiday season, seems like this last month has gone by really fast.

And my final thought for the night: Bananas are good. So that tells you I'm too tired to blog any more and won't make you all die of boredom, at least from this post. =)

John C. Reilly, Bane Of My Existence

My husband Jason and I have a little game we play that's been going on for pretty much our whole marriage. It's a friendly betting game, friendly because I usually win... The deal is, we see some actor or actress in a movie or show on TV and say, "Hey that's the dude from that one movie!" Then the other person says, "No way, no how. They may resemble that person, but this is a completely different guy/gal." Then the first person says, you wanna bet... you get the picture. The stakes are usually a 10-minute back-rub.

Well the other night we were watching "Never Been Kissed" with Drew Barrymore and her rough-around-the-edges boss... and Jason says, "Hey that's the same guy that's in Talladega Nights with Will Ferrell." Here's a picture of the actor in question:















So then I say: "No way, that is not the same dude, no, they just look a lot alike.... " What should have tipped me off to the extremely unfortunate outcome of this particular game was my slight feeling of confusion. I was having a hard time picturing the guy from Talladega Nights as I made the bet, which doesn't usually happen to me... I have been blessed with a great memory and a penchant for details, essentially making this the perfect game for me. Jason, sensing my impending doom, raised the stakes. I went for the 10-minute back-rub, while he chose a homemade rotisserie chicken and mashed potatoes dinner. Quite a decent prize.

I ran off to the computer to check images of Talladega Nights... and it's the same guy. Crud. Worse than having to pay up is my broken winning streak and I feel a sinister lack of recognition confidence.

Here's a picture of John C. Reilly from Talladega Nights:


















I'm blaming it on the mustache.

All Is Well...

Turns out my hair was not ruined by me, myself, and I. Almost but not quite. It really pays to know a good hairdresser (professionally trained) who knows what she is doing and can fix my experiments. Thank you very much Miriam, I love my cut and think it will help me grow it out much more comfortably. I have not put down the scissors though, so never fear, Sheila's Illegal Salon will be back at it soon... maybe we'll just focus on the hairs of others for a while and leave mine to their happy little follicle lives.

I did pick up a real hair-cutting cape today and a new pair of sharp, glorious scissors... sorry to disappoint all of you who had grown accustomed to wearing a black garbage bag and roasting inside said garbage bag for the duration of your hair procedures. Because I like to think of the Illegal Salon as a spa, too. We'll have to figure out something else if you still want the sauna experience, but I think overall the cape will be an improvement. Also dull scissors did have that special signature effect, but all I can say is we're changing with the times.

Give me a call and let me take a whack at it! (I'm testing out slogans... I really like this one...)

Below is the fully functioning new hair and you literally can't style it wrong. It's versatile and awesome!!!