Hairy Adventures of 2023

In the spirit of capturing moments, I thought it would be fun to show you a glimpse at our hair right now.   Yes, I'm aware that sounds a little odd for a blog post, but the idea formed after our puppy had a pretty traumatic day at the groomer and looks like a completely different dog now.  I figure we'll enjoy looking back at this post and remembering our 2023 hair in all its glory.  

This is Denali --our sweet little mini-goldendoodle.  She is about 16 months old and has only been to the professional groomers once before.  There was also the time last summer when we tried to groom her ourselves, but that was a bit of a debacle and we've been procrastinating going back ever since.    This was taken shortly before her appointment last week, when she was in all of her shaggy and matted glory.

 

This is her now.   She looks like a completely different dog and it's hard not to laugh when we see her coming.  😆Sadly, Spencer's dog, Kiwi, didn't recognize her at first and we had to keep them separated for a few days.   Thankfully the familiar scent of home settled on her eventually and they are now best buddies again. 

Here's my before-and-after--hopefully not quite as humorous as Denali's.  It was my first haircut in 1-1/2 years and I'm loving how light and healthy my hair feels.  My hair hasn't been its natural color in many years, thanks to the early graying gene that runs fiercely on my Mom's side of the family, but I've been trying to be better at keeping up with my roots these days.  I definitely prefer to keep my hair on the long side.

Here's a glimpse of Ellie's cute everyday hair when she went to mutual the other night.  You also get a glimpse of our fridge.  😑

Cami just started her career as a NICU nurse last week, so her hair is extra legit now...

And here's a picture of Emma's that I found in our camera roll.  It looks like she was on her way to church....

Here is Glen's.  He has very few flecks of gray hairs (a fact which makes me very jealous) and he gets it cut once a month or so.   His mother turns 80 this year and her hair is still almost exactly the same shade as Glen's, so he has good hair genes! 

Spencer is the only one of the kids to inherit my dark hair and it appears, at age 27, that he may well have inherited the early graying gene as well.  Sorry, Spence!   He keeps it short most of the time and often sports facial hair too! 

Adam is getting his hair cut once a transfer now, which means his hair is always looking sharp these days! 

And what blog post would be complete without a glimpse at the cutest member of the family?   Lucie has less hair than any of our kids at the same age, but it's starting to come in and it always looks adorable...even when it's sticking straight up! 

How's that for the hairy adventures of 2023?   Hope you're having a great year!  :)

Long and Short!

For my whole life, I almost always have kept my hair long.   The reasons for this are simple--I'm lazy and don't like the upkeep that short hair requires.    I don't like going to the salon for frequent trims to keep a haircut looking fresh.  I don't like washing my hair every day.  I don't like spending time blowdrying and doing other such tedious tasks that short hair requires.   So I usually wear it long and straight.   I get it cut once, maybe twice a year at most.   I almost always let it air dry and I rarely do anything other than wear it straight down.  I don't even love ponytails, because they give me a headache.  

The only hiccup to this low maintenance hair plan of mine is that I've inherited the "early graying gene" from my mom's side of the family.   I've been fully white headed since I was about 40, and my hair grows super fast.   I'm not quite ready to embrace being white-haired quite yet, so I'm forced to at least try to keep up with the color.   

So I buy boxes of color from the drugstore and do my best to keep up with it.     My hair grows so fast though,  I usually end up with some pretty serious roots by the time I get around to coloring again.  This picture shows my hair with  just a 3-4 week growth since my last color. 

Every once in a while, though, I get the urge for something different.   I'm not sure what triggers it in me, but lately I've been itching for a real haircut and some depth to my color.  

So I did it....

I went to the salon and got color, highlights, and a new cut.  

Do I like it?  

Absolutely.

Will it inspire me to keep going to the salon more regularly? 

Doubtful.  

If my history means anything, I'm sure you can come back and check out my hair in a year, and it'll almost certainly be about as long as it was before my cut! 

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Dark and Hairy

February 7:  It's a rare day that I spend more than 5 minutes on my hair care routine, I go to a salon once or twice a year at most, and I've kept my hair long most of my life.   

In other words,  I am extremely low maintenance in the hair department, which is why I've been dyeing my hair lighter and lighter over the last few years.    My hair is almost exclusively gray now (thank you, Spencer) and lighter hair means that my roots won't show as much.   

Today, I decided to dye my hair before church and came across a box of my old darker color dye.   I waffled for a bit, but in a fit of nostalgia for my old more youthful brunette complexion I decided to go for the change.   

And I'm rather loving the result!    

And in other hair news....Glen is growing a beard.    

He's got a small part in a play in March and was asked to grow a beard.   He feels a little out of his element growing it and gets a little defensive if anyone says anything even remotely resembling judgmental about it, but I'm coming around on it and rather like it.  

After church we rushed over to a friend's house and went to cheer on Glen's hometown Denver Broncos!    It was a great night with fun friends and delicious food (which I totally cheated and ate freely)!    

...and the Broncos won, so there's always that excitement too! 

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Hair and There, and Some Good Quotes

Read all the way down to get to the good quotes: 

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By popular request, here are the before and after pictures of my hair…. 

Before:   long, thick, no layers, several inches of grown out gray/white roots, color that faded to blond

After (styled by the hairdresser):   a little shorter, thinned, lots of layers (which I don't love), darker color on top, color on bottom left alone

3 weeks later on a Sunday (styled by me):   already 1/2-inch of grown out gray/white roots (best seen  at the part), still trying to figure out how to style it.   Blow drying it and using a large-barrelled curling iron are the only ways I've found that work….too bad that would wreak havoc with my hair (and my time) if I did that to it more than once a week or so.   

3-1/2 weeks later on a beautiful sunny day in California (air dried, no styling):  

So the last picture is how my hair looks most days.   I love the color, but don't love how thin and layered it is now.   I usually only take the time to do anything with my hair on Sundays, so I need a wash and go style for next time!  

In the meantime, though, I'm missing this at home….

and instead am wearing short sleeves, capris, and looking out the window at this right now.   

Stay tuned for more details on the super great deal we got to get us here!!!   

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Recently Overheard Quotes:   

"I like California because it has lots of pools, beaches, and lemons."    

Ellie (age 9)

Random young man at an indoor track meet to Cami:   "Do you have a bandaid?"

Cami:  "No, but I think the athletic trainers over there do." 

Young man:  "Oh, because I scraped my knee just now….  when I fell for you."  

AnnaLisa (age 31), while trying on a complicated pair of sandals:  "I shouldn't be allowed to be an adult."

Kids eating lunch at the table,  trying to figure out the 5-uses of Kristina's "5-in-1 griddle":

a panini press…. a grill for cooking meat…. a statement piece for your bathroom?

"I'm glad I'm homeschooled so I don't have to learn gross stuff."

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A Specialist for Ellie

Ellie is one of this blog's biggest fans.   She loves reading through the old blog books and thinks that a blogpost all about her is about as exciting as it gets.  She also loves to tell stories and  is begging me to start her own blog soon.  I'm not quite ready for that kind of commitment yet, but I am happy to shine the spotlight  on her for the day!

After having been through four different medications without success in the treatment of Ellie's  absence seizures, the neurologist just recommended that we take her to an epileptologist.   Apparently an epileptologist is a neurologist who went through years of  extra training to become an expert in epilepsy and seizures.   Since she's had negative reactions to two of her previous medications, I am hesitant to mess around much more with medications, but I am still quite interested to hear what an epileptologist has to say about her case.

In the meantime, Ellie is thriving being at home with me during the day.   Homeschooling is a great fit for her personality and I delight watching her learn at a pace that's perfect for her, then stretch herself in developing her interests and talents!

For instance, while we are learning about the Civil War in history, she has been carefully crafting an entire Civil War era community out of paper.   There are Union families, Confederate families, slaves, dishes, animals, food, buckets, houses, etc.  She has spent several afternoons (after her school work is done) coloring, cutting, and arranging them.  I feel like it's something she would  never have time for if she was at school all day, and it plays an important role in how she processes and learns these types of things.

 She has an incredibly long attention span for these kinds of activities and I am in awe at the sheets and sheets (at least 20 in full color) of people, furniture, and other objects she has designed and colored.  

She painstakingly cuts every item out and finds places for them in her community.  

Some of the details of what she's working on are minutely tiny. 

She talks about being a teacher when she grows up and it's clear that that is something that she would excel at, but I think she would also make a great author.   She loves stories--reading them and telling them!      Each one of the characters she has created  have a story of their own--stories of love, of war, of slavery.    It's a beautiful thing!  

Some other random tidbits about Ellie:  

She recently let Cami cut her hair.   She's not a huge fan of brushing her hair, so the shorter length makes it much easier for her to avoid mom's ever-annoying daily reminders for her to go do something with her hair.   

For Christmas she got Elsa and Ana clothes for her dolls, and  an Olaf toy.   She loves having her own Frozen characters now to play pretend with!    The blond doll was one I played with when I was a little girl.    

Here is a glimpse at the Christmas book she created and gave to the whole family: 

I don't have any pictures of it, but she also recently created her own endangered species horse museum, where you took a tour through the house and visited rare horse species.  She created the horses out of household objects and once again had a story for each one.   Her imagination and creativity are amazing! 

We sure love our Ellie girl!   

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12-inches….3-years later

Almost three years ago, shortly after Spencer started chemo for his treatment of AML (leukemia), people started cutting off their hair  to show support for him.     The boys  shaved their heads and the girls cut off at least 10-inches and donated it to Locks of Love, a place which makes wigs for children with serious illnesses (like cancer).    In a small way I think it helped people to feel more connected to him and that, in their own way, they were doing something meaningful to support him.  Looking at those pictures still makes my heart smile and I can't help but be overwhelmed when thinking of all the people who loved and supported us through those difficult days.

Back when everyone else was cutting their hair, Cami was 100% not interested.   She loved her thick long hair and I think she was already so traumatized by Spencer being sick that she really struggled with the thought of cutting off, what to her,  was a huge part of her identity.    We never pushed it even a tiny bit.   We figured that making someone feel guilty in order to do something, pretty much defeated the message it was meant to convey.  She showed her love and support to Spencer in a gazillion other ways and not cutting her hair then was a non-issue.

Since then she hasn't even trimmed her hair and lately it's gotten so long that I even poked a little fun at it in our Christmas letter this year.    Although her hair is beautiful and thick, lately Glen and I had started wondering if she'd ever  cut it, especially since she realized that she's allergic to almost every shampoo and conditioner made.   She's been using either straight baking soda or an all-natural carrot based shampoo for several months and only uses apple cider vinegar for conditioner.  Somehow though, her hair still looks great and she felt no compulsion to even trim it.  

Then a couple of months ago she landed a new babysitting gig for a beautician who offered to cut her hair in exchange for babysitting!  It got Cami to thinking and  finally, this past week, with her employer's  encouragement,  Cami consented to giving it a trim.      

Here's her "trim" of 12-whole-inches…all going to Locks of Love!  

Before and after….

Happily, she loves the new easier and shorter 'do and we are proud of her decision to donate it!

Way to go, Cam! 

Blah.

Yesterday I drove to JMU and picked up a tired and weak Spencer who was starting his spring break with a violent stomach bug.    It was the first stomach bag our family has seen in 3 or 4 years (other than the c-diff he got while he was in the hospital).  

Then today Glen and I were sitting on our bed, each doing our own thing.

A child walks holding her tummy and moaning that she really doesn't feel well.  

One parent jumps up,  screams at  her to run to the bathroom, and escorts her to the toilet at the exact moment she starts vomiting.  

For the next minute that parent holds her hair, rubs her back, and talks soothingly to her while she pretty thoroughly loses the contents of her stomach.  

Finally the parent helps her to freshen up.  

All this occurs approximately 10 feet away and within direct line of sight from the other, unnamed parent, who is still sitting contentedly on the bed watching the BYU game and not having the slightest idea of anything being amiss.  

What?! I didn't hear any screaming or vomiting?    This is a great game!  

Now poor Ellie is begging to eat and already sad that she can't go to church tomorrow.  Good thing she has Spence as her #1 go-to guy for snuggles, since he's the only one who's already had the bug and doesn't need to be scared of her germs!

It's also a good thing I have a new haircut to distract me from the fact that we are already 2 for 7 with this stomach bug and it hasn't even been 24-hours yet since Spence introduced it to us.  

Blah!  

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to spray or not to spray...there is no question

Having three younger sisters meant that, as a kid, I never had to look far for a willing subject on whom I could practice my hair dressing skills.  I  braided, I piggy tailed, I teased, and I hate to brag, but, as you can see from the following picture of my sister K, I got pretty adept at using those pink foam curler thingies.   I hear that her boingy hair was all the rage in third grade that year!

As my sisters grew older, they got tired of being mistaken as fashion models and I was left with only my own hair on which to practice.  To their credit, that change did get me to finally throw out the foam curlers and develop a new, and far more mature hairdressing crutch....hairspray! 
And lots of it.    


My bangs went through some up and down years (mostly up)...

and I am pleased to announce that hair spray companies everywhere have personally thanked me for my patronage during the late 80's and early 90's and for keeping them in business during hard times.

When I had my own girls, I was so excited when they finally got enough hair that I could do something with it.  I wasn't picky about quality...flyaway piggy tails were just fine by me!

As their hair grew, their piggy tails grew longer, but unfortunately my hairdressing skills remained pretty stagnant.



And poor Ellie mostly got the "third girl" hairstyles, involving a quick brushing every third day or so...

Then Aunt Heather came along and taught my girls a few tricks of the trade....

and suddenly Cami was a hair braiding rock star, not only doing elaborate styles to her own hair, but also often giving Ellie a hair-do to match her own...

soon enough she was also getting asked to do her friends' hair for homecoming....

Being the 80's girl that I am, I am proud that she can do all those fancy dos without a single drop of hairspray. 

Now if only I had had someone as skilled as Cami or Heather to teach my 18-year-old self a few of those tricks...

maybe I wouldn't have gotten my head stuck in the school doorways so often.