Sunday, October 31, 2010

We may never have children.......

The Primary Program was this last Sunday. Andrew and my little 5yr old class did very well. I sat in the very front where the Bishop Ric normally sits and most of my class was placed in front of me. I wasn’t too excited about being front and center. During the practices I had to split up a three way fight with the 3 yr old kids just next to me. I am amazed the smallest of the bunch didn’t come out with a concussion. My girls did everything except for sit still and none of the microphones worked when they needed to work. I figured that during the actual program the children would be petrified because they would be in front of the entire ward. With all those adults staring at them I hoped that no one would have the nerve to throw another left hook (good thing they were only three and couldn’t put much weight behind the punch). As I predicted, the children did much better when their parents were watching them from the audience. Aside from one of my girls pretending to be a lion and growling at me and taking swipes at me with her “paw”, then another one of them breaking my ear ring I had let her hold so that she would stop fidgeting . All of this was done in front of the entire congregation. Andrew sat in the middle of an older class and was almost hid completely by the piano. I think the kids around Andrew were placed there purposely so that if they killed each other no one would see. That and the fact that Andrew could get after them as many times as was needed without causing a disturbance. All in all, the program went great. Afterward was another story. The children were so fidgety from sitting still for so long that I honestly thought about velcroing them to their seats. I’m very worried about Halloween Sunday. They all will have stayed up way past their bed time and will have eaten their weight in sugar the night before. Odds are that they will be grumpy little energizer bunnies that have their volume stuck on loud or loudest. I’m so excited….. Here’s hoping that I’m wrong!
Oh! Remember the kitten that we gave our neighbor’s? Well it’s dead. At church one of our neighbor girls ran up to Andrew and me and told us that their dad found it dead in their garage. I figured that something like this would happen sooner or later. That kitten was very small for its age. I felt bad for them but now Meekus and Mittens are the only cats around our houses (skunks don’t count) and they get all the attention once again. Maybe they planned the little kitten’s death…

One Week Later...

This Sunday was… wow. I was very worried about how my primary class would handle church after a long night of trick-or-treating. To my joy, their parents hadn’t let them eat their candy the night before, although they had been allowed to stay way past anyone’s normal bed time. So instead of bouncy grumpy kids we just had barely coherent none responsive kids to teach. We were talking about our favorite stories about Jesus and one little girl must have only heard me ask what their favorite story was. Her hand shot up! I was excited to have such an enthusiastic response from a class full of zombies. But as soon as I called on her I knew that no one was listening to a word I had said. She blurted out “My favorite story is the Simba story from Lion King!” Andrew had to turn away so that the kids wouldn’t see him crack up laughing. I on the other hand, just stared at her in disbelief. BA! I fear it was pointless to try and teach today. I probably should have just let them color or something.
Andrew’s hair is back to being dark! At the primary activity this Saturday a really sassy and rather rude 9 yr old girl got into it with me about how Andrew looked as a blonde. Granted that he hadn’t had time to style his hair so it looked puffy and unkempt, when it was styled it looked pretty darn cool. This little brat had the nerve to tell me that my husband didn’t look very good (she said it with not so many worlds) I told her that he looked fine and to go away. But I guess my “subtle” hint that she should shut up and leave me along wasn’t apparent enough because she kept at it. Finally, with great effort to keep my voice under control I told her “Well, it’s a darn good thing you don’t make out with him then, isn’t it!” I wanted to say something more inappropriate or just smack her but we were at a primary function and the Bishop was on the other side of the gym in clear view. Suffice it to say I won the argument with a 9 yr old girl and if the girl ever crosses me about my husband again it may come to blows. That evening I went into town, got the color I needed from my salon, came home, and immediately took Andrew back to a dark hair color. I don’t know how much more of this his poor hair can take… I guess we will see!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Hair today, Gone tomorrow.

Well this has been a month for Andrew’s and my hair. It all started one morning when Andrew turned to me at breakfast and said, “I wonder what I’d look like blond.” Andrew has pretty dark hair naturally; I like to take him darker because it makes his features stand out more. I’ve only put bleach on his hair once and it was just one strip of blonde. But I figured, what the heck, let’s find out how that would look. So that evening, after my other appointments, I trimmed up Andrew’s hair that he’d been very persistent on growing out, (it was getting way too long and as long as I had the sheers it was going to be at least clean cut) mixed up some bleach and for the next two hours tried to take my very dark haired husband to the most platinum white blonde that I could. It normally would have worked out great, but just a few weeks before I had used a demi permanent color on his hair to darken him. This certain demi permanent does not lighten easily but I managed to a white ish yellow ish blonde.
The next week I got my hair done. Long story short it was a lengthy and complicated process and I’m just lucky that my hair hasn’t fallen out and it now, to quote my sister, “looks like fire!” Not exactly what I was aiming for but my tan from the summer has all but gone so I can pull the bright colors off. How intensely bright hair color and pasty white skin go together I’m not 100% sure, but I’m glad it does! Speaking of hair falling out, I got home and Andrew said that he wanted to chemically straighten his hair. Cool. I was kind of worried about using such a strong chemical on his hair after we had just done and intense bleach job. Again I though what the heck, he knows his hair might fall out and he’s ok with it, so let’s see what happens. The next day after my last client I had Andrew back in my chair. I got all the strengthener on and it was like magic…. Bad magic! As I looked at Andrew’s hair I saw it begin to wither, much like hair does when Nair is applied to it. I’d done chemical straightening before and it turned out perfect that time, but the hair hadn’t gotten it guts bleached out just a week before so there you go. I had to get that stuff off Andrew’s head ASAP or he’d literally have no hair left! We dashed to the sink (early that day the salon manger called saying that the hot water pipe had broken and they were trying to get it fixed. As of then all the salon had was ice cold water.) I turned the water on high and both Andrew and I jumped and shrieked with surprise. It turns out the hose on the sink needs replaced too cause it shot a steady stream of frigid water right into my face! I covered the leak with my hand and quickly went to work on Andrew’s head. I couldn’t feel my hand after about a minute of washing because the water was so cold. Poor Andrew was still whimpering and jerking when the water touched a new area of scalp. It was so cold! I couldn’t stop laughing which made it take longer and became a freezing /painful cycle of jerking, screaming, and fits of laughter. When we finished Andrew’s hair felt like cotton. It had matted together and the tips were coming off in little clumps. This past week we’ve washed it with only conditioner, styled it with conditioner, and deep conditioned it every night. To our relief it is now starting to feel like prickly grass and it is well on the road back to becoming more like hair.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Short Stories

Holy crap. Yup that about sums up the last few weeks. I’m very sorry that I’ve been slacking on my blog but I’ve barely had time to sleep little lone take an hour or so to write on this. Life has been crazy and it would be a five page blog if I went through everything, so I will just hit the highlights to make it a four page blog instead.
Remember the little kitten Andrew and I found abandon a while ago? Well the mother of that kitten had apparently thought we had done well with it so she dumped the rest of the batch on us. Thankfully the rest of the batch had grown up more than their sibling. At first I just wanted them to be wild and live in the barn but our little neighbor girls saw them once and I knew it was over. The girls spent all morning catching them, cuddling with them, and feeding them. There was no way that these kittens could be wild now. That evening we posted them on Craig’s list and in three days all but one was gone. Andrew and I took it over to the girls and said that they could play with it but if they got bored with it to just put it back up on the deck. Long story short, the kitten was never put back on the deck and our neighbors have a little kitten of their own.
Classes have been crazy. I spent one day studying eight hours straight of chemistry and nothing was making since. Frustrated and fried I decided I needed to go to the bathroom. I left my study room and sauntered to the restroom. As I pushed open the door a volt of shock went through me as I took in the scene of the boy’s bathroom. Urinals on the wall, the odd bluish tile, and guy staring back at me. I yipped and sprinted for the girl’s bathroom blaming chemistry all the way for frying my brain. I couldn’t even think straight enough to walk into the right bathroom!
When we went to Utah for conference we stayed at my sister Heidi’s house. We watched the first session there then jumped in the car and headed down, hoping to get into a live session. We had no ticks but Andrew was sure that I could get us some if I held up a sign. I hate begging but I really wanted to get in so I agreed. On our way down I saw a van smoking on the side of the road. Memories of when I was twelve flashed to the forefront of my mind. My family had gone to conference but on our way home our van broke down. I was amazed that no one stopped to help us for at least a half an hour. I couldn’t let things go the same way for this family. I asked Andrew to turn around and see if we could help. Our two-door Honda Civic wasn’t prepared for the amount of people that climbed out of the van. There were three girls, a father, a son, and two elders. It turned out that one of the girls was going to be baptized the next Saturday. She was an exchange student from Mexico. Her host family and the elders thought that it would be amazing for her to be able to go to a session of conference. The elders had been prepping her for week and she was pumped. Their van broke down only 20 min away and they were stuck. We told them that we could fit three more in our car at most. They decided that the girls should go and hopefully the men would make their way later on. Just then another car pulled up to see what they could do to help. It just so happened that the man had room for four people in his car and that we were all going to the same place. The girls grabbed the parking pass they had bought in advance for conference and gave it to us. Cool! A free five buck pass! We got down there and Andrew dropped the girls and me off. We met up with the rest of their family and we traded numbers for after conference in order to get them home. I saw that they all got in then I went to work trying to find tickets. Ba………. I wrote on the back of our mapquest directions “I need two tickets please. ” I felt so retarded. When the girls and I had walked up to the conference center I’d seen a lot of people and groups of people holding similar signs with no luck whatsoever. I figured I’d be standing there for a while so I found a spot in the shade of a tree and timidly help up my sign. Not two second after I’d help up the sign than two young men came right up to me and handed me two tickets! “They aren’t next to each other but at least they will get you in.” I was floored! I couldn’t thank them enough! Once they had left I gave my “lucky” sign to another group looking for tickets. They asked me we I had been standing so I pointed out my spot and wished them luck. Andrew and I got to enjoy conference while sitting next to each other in the 5th section. It was wonderful. After conference the family decided to take the bus home but asked that we talk the elders back to their mission car that was back at the host family’s home. The elders were so funny! We even stopped off and got Jamba Juice with them. Yummm  They were so excited about the girl being able to go to conference. They had challenged her to go with question that she had prayed about and had searched for an answer. When conference was over they asked her what happened with her questing and she excitedly told them how every single one had been answered. I was happy for them and her. What a cool experience to have right before she was baptized! Later we went to dinner with Andrew’s family and watch the gator’s game. They may hate me for saying this but Alabama played really well against Florida, at least for the half of the game that I watched. I never found out how the game ended but I would bet that it didn’t turn out very well for the Gators. After the first session of conference Sunday Andrew and I headed home to Rexburg.
All I remember of the next week was that I had six tests even though I only have four classes. I couldn’t sleep because my mind wouldn’t slow down. I normally don’t sleep well and this made it worse. I averaged about three hours a night. My stomach couldn’t handle all the stress resulting in me not being able to eat without me almost vomiting after. It was a hard week that I did not like. Let’s hope the next wave of tests go better.