best cards ever

Ok, alot of these are dirty. Dirrrrrrrty. So you have been warned! I didn't make em! (but I wish I did!)

But if you cant deal with pink lacy kinds of insincere stuff, or just have a twistedly hilarious someone in your life who would appreciate amazingly insane e-cards, then you must visit this website and start sending like a maniac. Heck, send some to me!

when will i change the name of this blog to simply, "hair"?

The shortest Ive ever ever had my hair--but I love it!
















The green really did come out, and I got a fun new head out of the whole (or)deal. I used very strong "bleach" powder with 40 level lightener, and then cut alot of it and then used a toner (#303D Clairol Professionals, Champagne Beige) with a 20 level developer. I spent about $11 on all this stuff, and couldn't help but grill Steve about what he thinks it would honestly cost to get my hair completely stripped, colored, toned, washed cut and styled at a salon. "More than eleven bucks?" was his wise guy guess and he was damn right!

Whats fun and really different about this hair-do is that it looks better when it is all lumpy bumpy and messy--I wash my hair at night now and sleep on it wet on purpose--then I use the large curling iron to turn the ends under on the big front part and that's it. I can part it on either side and throw a little barrette in or whatnot. I really like this, I think it is a good one i will stick with for a long time. Somehow I have stumbled upon a look that can have me be "socially acceptable" (eyes roll but true) and still not feel like gross old soul-less random sheeple.

:)

I like makeovers...alot...

I'm gonna try for short blonde hair. I am gonna cut it as short as possible with still looking edgy or cool or whatever not looking like a spinster or a dude will involve. Hopefully cutting off all the hair that simply will not bleach out will be a great start. Once it is cute and blonde and healthy, I will feel alot better about things right now. Then if I want to do like a little pink streak or something (colors in the red-pink spectrum don't have the staying power of the greens and blues) I will do that but not my whole head.

I think it will be a good thing.

I like to switch things around, ALOT. My house, my hair, I really really get a kick out of makeovers, re-do's, but after about 3 weeks or so, the thrill is gone, or I am "used to it" or sick of it, or ready to try something better, newer, more exciting, convinced that the newest idea will be THE awesomest!

I have from time to time, worried about this part of my character: Whoa, doesn't that sound like those people who jump from lover to lover, who get involved in crazy pyramid schemes, who gamble all their money away, who do impulsive things to their own grave detriment?

I'll give a small armchair shrink nod to this momentary assessment but just as quickly I can refute it. I find great, great comfort, wonderful security and deepest love and pride in my 16 year relationship with my husband, in my daily devotion to my children whom I have homeschooled from the get-go, in my commitment to persuing my passion for helping people and my persuit of midwifery...and the idea of gambling makes me shudder....Ihave never been to the casino and I never want to...I just really like art, and I really like creating, and I really really am an astheticist who is very moved and influenced by the way things look. Period. It isnt about vanity--I go grocery shopping in polka dot pajamas, I dont know, I cant think of any examples right now, but this certainly isnt about being vain...

My idea of a fantastic weekend is cutting off my hair, or anybodys hair....coloring it three different shades, and switching around several rooms completely stripping them and replacing everything---and painting!!! I adore painting and if I could afford it, I would either hire painters twice a year to completely repaint my house, or use the money to hire babysitters so I could do it myself :)

So, I like to re do stuff. Sometimes I get it right and it is something I can live with, and sometimes I do makeovers and changes that are a bit harder to undo than I anticipated, like green hairdye over blue hairdye over green hairdye over highlights.

always learning, always creating....hopefully posting new hair pics soon enough...

MamaJoy

I would like to start off this article with a blanket apology to anyone whom my tastes may clash so harshly with your own that you mat feel personally offended. These are MY hang-ups, and they truly do not apply to others. I found thousands of celebrity short hairstyles that looked awesome but gave me the cold chills when i thought about myself having them.

So, ummm, Im a beauty schizophrenic and I hate my green hair now. It is yellowy and minty and freaky. I cannot deal with how much it fades when I wash it, yet how much it wont bleach out when I try. I am pissed off, frankly--my sense of bravado with the haircoloring has taken a ego-blow. I cant get with why or what the #$%ing deal is with this color not coming out when I wanted it to. Being trapped against my will is not my favorite sensation, and I feel annoyed, sad, freaked out about this.

So, do I bore you or amuse you with why I want the green to go byebye? Well, it was great, and it made me feel really adorable and fun. and now, well, I feel weird and like it isnt me right now, and like the people who "dont get" radical color would have no problem understanding, I feel like I am meeting alot of people and traveling in circles right now where what was once fun and adorable and kool is now limiting and depressing and even embarrassing. I swear I am not depressed! It just isnt working for me right now. the color doesnt stay bright, it doesnt go with my maternity clothes, I am just done with it. I dont feel righteous and different and empowered, I feel trapped and like I need a hat. This isnt about wanting anyone to write and say "your hair is great! dont do it!" this is about me needing to get this bleached out professionally and just chill out for a bit.

SO

I am going to need to talk to one of my friends who actually works at a salon and talk about gettting this taken out professionally, hopefully for a babysitting barter and not real money ; )and I know I am gonna have to go short. This is the thing: and the thing where I might make someone sad or whatever, I never EVER want boy hair. No spanky no spunky, it is my nightmare, it symbolizes to me the ultimate thing like that Saturday Night Live sketch of M.O.M. jeans---and it is seriously something Steve and I discussed as our little pre-marriage stuff; for him, no moustache, no mailman socks or tighty whiteys, for me it was no "Sandy Duncan" hair, no trousers/slacks/brown pantyhose scary powdery perfume, you know....

so, how to get through this quickly and painlessly? Tons of barrettes, etc I suppose. I R E A L L Y dont want to be fat pregnant lady with the pin-head. Repeat. this is my hang up but man o man it is a big one.

Here are a couple of cool chicks i found online who have short hair that I could deal with owning. I wish i could pull a Britney and just shave it off, but again, I am just not feeling very punk rock lately, just kind of want to have simple normal hair and not deal with this right now. Sigh.

Rainbow of beautiful, (HAPPY) hair

In a better world, Pantene commericals would feature women in slow motion, under bright lights, whipping and flipping and twirling their hair, their soft and shiny hair....but it wouldnt always be the long blonde curls...it would be long blue curls, long pink curls, short green spikes, glorious black dreads, vibrant orange stubble, bright grey bobs, silver white pin curls, neon red 'fros.....all soft and smelling of the lovely Pantene, all hairdos and haircolors making the woman who sported them feel HAPPY and COOL.

I love my hair and it has never, ever felt softer. It is shiny and nice, and yeah, I can and do whip it around when I think of it. TV is so ridiculous anyhow, why not something like this? I think it would be cool as hell.

No more secrets!

Happy New Year!

So, as you know, I am a bartender at a Curling Club. On December 21st we had, instead of regular Friday night curling, a sort of Holiday party/Potluck event. I have been thwarting the kids' begging me to come to my work for weeks now, mostly out of worry that it goes until Midnight, and them being tired/fussy and with me being there with our only car, there would be no "out", etc if someone freaked out. But for the party, I decided to bring Greta with me. She was SO excited!

We got there and she sat at the bar and had a pepsi with maraschino cherries in it while I set everything up-- lots of opening of fridges, setting up drinks, turning on the keg, prepping the kitchen/pantry, putting out all of the things on the bar, making the popcorn, etc. She brought paper and pen and did some of her drawings. I introduced her to anyone who came by, and they all seemed impressed and charmed by her and she was loving the spotlight ;) as she drew her dragons and goblins and eyeballs and rabbits and cats and people genuinely were asking her "did you draw that??" she was loving it.

Soon some of my real friends there came in, and were smitten with her. They couldnt believe she was TEN and wanted to take her out with them! They were cracking up at her sarcastic/witty observations, but, unlike some of the things she might have done last year to get a laugh, I didnt feel nervous that she would say anything "weird". she has got a good sense of what is outrageous enough to get a laugh but not so over the top as to put people off (a skill many adults do not have a good handle on I must say!)

Soon some of my friends took her away to play a fun board game called "Smarty Party" and that was about the last I saw of her all night! I kept mosey-ing over there to see if she was becoming "this little kid who is wrecking our game" and they were like NO SHE GOT US 5 POINTS DONT TAKE HER AWAY!! I was so proud and she was having a blast.

Now, I had not told anyone at work that I was pregnant yet--first I was just following the rules of etiquette that you dont go around announcing your embryo to any old person, because, lets face it, if you have a miscarriage, aka, "it doesn't work out", then it is all weird when they ask you how its going and you have to not cry and its all weird and sad. Well, that, and I think the timing was totally weird to get pregnant the millisecond I start a new job and wanted them to totally love me before I go busting out big news and possibly special requests, although I do not plan on needing any special requests, some people still do that for pregnant ladies, no carrying out the trash at midnight to the scary dumpster alone, etc.

Well, Greta was chitty chatting away with my three "closest" female friends at the club, and they were asking her "now, you have 2 sisters? 2 brothers?" and she said, "no, no, I have three brothers and Mama is pregnant and I hope it is a girl" and my face turned beet red and they just dropped their jaws and looked at me and I smiled and they all did the classic squealy "OH MY GOSH CONGRATULAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JOY! HOW FAR ALONG ARE YOU OH MY GOSH I WANNA HAVE A BIG FAMILY I AM SO JEALOUS THAT IS SO AWESOME YOU ARE SO LUCKY YOU LOOK SO GREAT BLABLABLABLA"

It was so neat to be that girl, like the ones on TV,where the response is 100% "hooray". I felt like I was in the convertible in the pageant, waving a cupped hand, the pregnant super star, just for once, so cheesy to admit, and so so fun. So Greta dropped the bomb for me, and the response was totally positive. It was actually perfect, as I was expecting Maternity clothes for xmas and they way they are cut, you go from looking a little chubby to very much pregnant, and I was getting to the point where I didnt know how or when to tell them and was stressing about it. I was told that I am not allowed to lift any kegs anymore (I never have had to yet, and they probably weigh less than Casey who I carry many times in the day but I appreciated it still) and was told that gossip spreads fast and that i dont have to worry about telling anyone now! Cool by me, I just wanted it to be out there so I could continue to do my job without carefully planning baggy shirts each night :)

I have been off work for almost 2 weeks and it has been NICE! I have gotten to put my children to bed each night, gotten a major wrangle on the laundry (not a single dirty thing in any hamper, lots of clean to fold) and been cooking nice dinners again, too. (Steve cooked last night, the best spaghetti ever known to humankind) I have been going to sleep around 10, and feeling humanish at 6 am when the first peeper wakes up.

I am happy to go back tonight, but still hate the hours. i am looking forward to seeing everyone and to being no longer concerned about secret-pregnancy. Phew. Greta wants to come back with me sometime soon, but we are trying to get them back on a more normal sleep schedule after the holidays, sickness and odd schedules keeping them up late and having differing wake times and such, it is a burden to have 3,4,5 different breakfast times!

Wish me luck as I start back up at work!