Simply Lovely...Fiasco

James and I both decided to fix our issues with our hair. His hair was getting shaggy and he wanted to get rid of helmet hair from his motorcycle helmet. And I wanted to get rid of my highlights I didn't like and just go back to brown. I was a little nervous about dying my hair myself, but after spending $100 at the salon I really couldn't afford anything else. I had previously had allergic problems with store brands, but the Revlon kind had worked fine the last time and it was on sale, so I decided to get a couple boxes of their brunette shade. The perk? Both boxes only cost me $5.00. :)

Sunday night we decided to just do it, so James stayed up helping me with my hair (I don't think I could have done it with out him) and I cut his hair while I was waiting for the dye to set in.

The end result?

James ended up with a shaved head.

I ended up with black hair and sores on my ears, neck, shoulders and scalp, and every time I let my hair down while its wet my throat gets sore and I have a hard time breathing through my nose... Yes, weird reaction.


Well at least James doesn't have helmet hair anymore, and I definitely got rid of those streaky highlights. :)

Wendy's HouseKeeping Tips

With a new baby crawling I've learned that having a clean house needs to be a priority. My sister Wendy gave me some advice on how to keep up a home, but unfortunately it was sent to me while I was on my honeymoon and I regretfully had not looked back on those emails until recently. I love the advice she gave, and thought I'd share them.

Sept. 20, 2006

I have been thinking about this a lot recently since Michelle and Jeanette are both setting up their own homes. It is a very exciting time in life and can become even better if you begin by setting good habits that will help your home become all the more smooth and comfortable. Times can be hard, disagreements may happen, but when you are in a peaceful, cleanly and orderly surrounding I believe these happen much less frequently as our surroundings can have a great impact upon our moods and feelings.

There is a time and a season for all things. I realize that there will be times in your lives when you will be very overwhelmed by this or that and that your homes cleanliness and orderliness will not be a big priority. You do what you can and you prioritize. By setting good habits early on in your marriage and supporting each other in these habits I believe that when life's little emergencies happen your home should be able to not become a major worry because you have it in hand.

1. Organize yourself. Prepare every needful thing. Prepare a home of WHATEVER YOU WANT!!! We can make our homes into anything we want them to be. If we want a place of peace we can do it. If we want tranquility, we can have it. If we want fun, we can have it. If we want a house of God, WE CAN HAVE IT!!! It takes work though. It won't happen unless we continuously try to achieve it. Decide what type of home you would liek to have and think about what you will need to do in order to achieve that type of home.

2. Always go to bed with a clean house - it makes getting up so much more enjoyable when you have a clean and orderly home to greet you. It's worth staying up a couple extra minutes to straighten things up and do the dishes. Why start a new day doing yesterdays work?

3. Get your spouse to help you. If you are the only one ever cleaning things, then that is how things will tend to stay. Early on, encourage your spouse to join you while making your house a nicer place to be. It makes it go faster, and is much more enjoyable. Plus, by doing these things they become familiar with how you like things cleaned, where things go, etc. so if it becomes necessary for them to do them by themselves they will be able to take care of things.

4. Clean dishes right away. If you clean dishes right after you use them, or at least put them in a sink full of sudsy water, they clean up much easier. While if you wait it takes longers and can be really embarrassing when company comes over unexpectedly and you don't have a single clean cup to offer them to drink in. I try to make a habit of quickly doing the dishes right after a eal. It takes 10-15 minutes to clean up the whole kitchen after we eat, and boy is it nie to not have to think about what shape the kitchen is in for the rest of the day.

5. It is a lot easier to maintain a clean home then to clean a dirty home. Clean a room and keep it clean!!! Take the time to pick things up and take care of things before they become a major project. I like to take an hour on Mondays and make sure that the front rooms in my home are really clean. After doing that I can keep things picked up and vacuumed fairly easily. But I have to be vigilant. Spending 15 minutes a day on my bedroom keeps it from becoming suitable habitation for the swamp monster.

6. You would be surprised what you can do in 15 minutes. My family teases me about my favorite game: The 15 minutes game. We set the timer and clean up as much as we can in 15 minutes. We all pick an area to work on and try to beat the timer. We can do shorter versions of this (which Ron refers to as the 15 minutes game in disguise) :)

7. Never get mad at someone's efforts to help. True, it may not have been helpful, but don't squelch the fire that lef them to doing it. They did it out of love and were honestly trying to help. So take a deep breath and thank them. If you want them to help you in the future you need to let them know of your appreciation and loe. This includes both children and spouses.

8. Take time to plan. If you have a plan of action you are much more likely to achieve your goals and desires. You will also find that you can get things done a lot more efficiently when you organize your course of action. This goes for food as well. If you take the time to plan your menus, it makes life so much better when we know the answer to that million dollar question, "What's for dinner?" Even if you don't want what you had planned for dinner you have other options to choose from because you have planned ahead for the week, month, year, etc. By having a plan you can then take less trips to the grocery store and avoid spending $20 when all you came for was a can of beans, milk, or whatever. By buying your food ahead of time you can easily shuffle your menus around to fit your cravings because you already have the stuff for another meal. You can also save a lot of money by doing this since you'll know what's for dinner and not be tempted to eat out.

9. Crockpots/Slowcookers are a wonderful contraption. I try to use mine once a week. You can have your dinner done by 10 am or sooner and not have to worry about it all day. It also makes your home smell very incising.

10. My newest discovery is that mornings are not such a bad time to get up. Shocking, I know. It is amazing how much you can get done in the morning, especially before the little ones get up. It really is nice to wake up and renew your spirit before the start of a new day. When was the last time you saw the sunrise?

11. Don't do things twice if you can do it just once. For example: If you open some junk mail, throw it away instead of putting it down in a pile with other things. Deal with things now instead of waiting for them to compile into a huge project. It may seem like a pain to do, but you'll be thanking yourself later.

My mom also gave me some really good advice while I was home. Maybe I'll type up another blog specifically for that later.

As of when I started writing this blog, which was Monday, I actually have tried to incorporate some of the things Wendy mentioned here. Mainly going to bed everynight with a clean house and finding it is a lot easier to maintain a clean home. I started with one room at a time, got it spotless and then the next day moved on to the next. We also had a problem with going to the store all the time and eating out, so we set up a plan for our menus and I've actually been the ones cooking the meals around here, and it's a lot more fun now that I know what to make! I think that hopefully will make me want to cook, and then we won't easily just fall back on the 'eat out' scenario. Oh, and I've also done the point she made about not doing things twice... what a difference that makes in keeping things tidy. Instead of having piles of things from the mail, I just got rid of the junk mail right then. Wow! I fully intend to take advantage of our crock pot this week, and once I get a hang of how I like things done I also intend to get James involved... I've been so good about getting all our dishes done right away, I have to remember he hasn't been 'conditioned' to that yet. :)

Anyways, hope these tips my sister shared give you some ideas too on how to make your home a better/cleaner place. It's definitely helped me already, and its only been a couple days!

Hair Issues

So I am constantly struggling to figure out what to do with my hair. I know I am not the only girl who goes through the process of deciding if she wants it long or short, curly or straight, dark or blonde, etc.

Last month I was going through what I call a "Hair rutt" where you are just sick of the way it looks and want a change. Optioning to keep the length of my hair (I haven't had it long in quite some time, so I wanted to keep it on the longer side for a little while), I decided I hadn't gone with highlights for a year now and with summer booming in why not play up the sun-kissed look with some major highlights. I brought in the magazine picture of the type of highlights I would like, and talked it through with the lady... I had done the whole "consultation" thing before at this salon, and thought it was a waste of time, so I just went to the appointment and told her there.

Hair Before:


Hair After:


Can YOU tell a difference? I don't.

It was the worst experience ever! She went into the wrong profession I think. To make a long story short I hated my hair. The highlights were so subtle you could hardly tell anything had been done (not the point of changing your hair when you're in a rutt, right?) and it was even that nasty orange color. Yuck! I hated the three and 1/2 hours I was there (mostly because she didn't talk and I just sat there texting James cuz I was so bored), I hated my "trim" and "layers" because they weren't even... Ugh. And to top it off she didn't mention it was going to be $100.00. (I paid $50 before) So I was stuck with a hairstyle, hair color, and hair experience that I had to pay double for. I didn't quite know how to say "You ruined me" nicely, so I decided to dedicate a blog to it instead I guess.

So the point of this story?

Do all those things people tell you to do and I bet you'll have a better experience. You know: Look for people's hairstyles you like and ask where they get it done so you can try that place out until you find the right stylist you like, do a consulation with the hairstylist before you go, figure out pricing before you have to pay, etc...

Or you can save yourself $70 bucks if you just tell James you really need him to help you with your hair because you hate it. Hehe. (That's what I did last year with a hair fiasco and I LOVED it afterwards.) Of course the only way I talked him into it was because I was pregnant and told him the toxins would kill our child or something if I did it by myself... Maybe since I'm still breastfeeding I can come up with some other lame thing that hasn't been proved against...?

Such talented Cousins

Last week I visited with my cousin Emily, who I haven't seen in probably 7 years. She saw a picture I had taken of my nephew Matt for his baby announcement on our fridge, and she complemented me and told me I had an eye for good angles, etc. I thought it was nice of her to say so, but didn't think too much about it until she let me know that her and her husband are actually photographers themselves on the side. She showed me some beautiful pictures they have taken, and I am blown away.

Check out their site at Hickmanphotographer.com

My cousins are some of the models, which was fun for me too. My cousin Christine looks beautiful as the first model, and my cousin Logan is the one by the van. So check it out!!!

Saying goodbye... to Miss C

My best friend from home, Kim, got married last weekend. I was contemplating whether or not I would try to make it for the actual wedding in Utah, or go to her reception which was the next day in California. I wouldn't be able to make it to both. It was one or the other. She had a lot of family there for the wedding, so I figured going to the reception would be a safe bet. I had wished more friends would have come to my wedding reception, as it was I can only remember a handful being there and having my feelings somewhat hurt, so I thought that would be better. I was already going to be in Cali, so I decided to extend my stay an extra week and be there for her reception that weekend.

The depressing news is I think I made the wrong decision. Her reception was still beautiful, and I probably was able to visit with her more than I would have had I gone to the wedding in Utah, as well as having friends there that I actually knew - but I'll never be able to experience the wonderful moment when she actually got married. I think that is so special, being able to kneel next to your fiance and know that they are going to be your husband in a matter of moments... knowing that this is forever, and that you will never go back to being the same once you take that final step into matrimony. It sounds like they don't necessarily have a set plan on what their future holds, so it was almost like saying goodbye to Kim because I don't know how often we will be able to see each other now.

So after many tears and depressed phone calls to James, he told me that I at least was able to see her cut the cake... I guess that is something. Needless to say it was amazing seeing my beautiful friend at her reception, and I also was able to visit with some friends that I hadn't seen for quite some time. They all looked beautiful, and it was fun to catch up and find out what they are up to. Kim had a nice outdoor reception, and the weather couldn't have been lovelier. The food was delicious, as was the cake.

James has also promised me that I can go and visit with Kim on our next trip to Utah no matter what, so that makes me feel a little better about the situation.


She's never been lovelier than she was that day. Honestly. She was gorgeous!

Fun Pics

So I was scanning in a lot of old family pics while I was in Cali and I had a lot of fun going through them. I seriously can't believe how obsessed I am with photographs. It's ridiculous. I seriously went through them the night I got home with Jim until midnight, and he was kind enough not to act too bored, and even offered to look through them with me the next day. :)

Needless to say, here are some pics of me growing up that I didn't even know existed until this past week.



(Me and the sibs)


Do I even look like Jack at all? Sniff. Sniff.

Okay, Okay...

I know. I deleted my other blog, mostly because it had a lot of personal information on there about my family (birth story, baby pics, etc.) and I felt that no one really read it, so it was a waste of time and effort. I thought it had lived its purpose, and thus it got the axe. However, I have missed my little blog and missed the freedom it gave me to express what I wanted. I have a lot of useless things that I find entertaining and want to write about - but the only one who probably finds it enjoyable really is my sister Julie. We both have kind of the same addictions (Lord of the Rings, Girly movies, Twilight... to name a few)... SO in the hopes to keep a lot of MY THINGS off of the family blog, I've brought back my Myoshamoga blog...

Enjoy amigos.