Thursday I got my hair cut for the first time in months.  My previous haircut took place right before our anniversary cruise, and Joan, my trusted stylist, accidentally got a huge bunch of the hair on top of my head stuck in the hair dryer.  I did not know this had happened until I felt the  pull and heard that sickening ripping sound which always accompanies attempts at removing hair that has been sucked into the wrong end of the dryer.  Needless to say, when I looked in the mirror and saw all the short little hairs on top of my head (it was like a chia pet up there), I felt like crying.  I kept it together until I got home, because I didn’t want Joan to feel bad.  But I secretly determined not to return to her for a while.

So back to the present.  Having gotten some recommendations for another stylist from some friends, I ventured into a new salon on Thursday.  My hair had gotten midway down my back and was grossly lacking in any kind of style or shape.  I explained that I wanted some of the length removed and a little shape added–nothing drastic.  Denyce went to work, and I relaxed under her ministrations, confident that I would be transformed from a tired and styleless mom of three to a hot mama.  Hmmm.  It’s possible that my fantasies of this transformation were a little far-reaching, but it’s ok to dream, right?  Ok, so what happened was that Denyce decided to put a bunch of layers in my hair but leave most of the length.  It definitely felt lighter; unfortunately for me (and my loving husband), I looked like one of the cast members from the movie The Wedding Singer…specifically Adam Sandler’s rocker girlfriend (the one before he falls in love with Drew Barrymore).  Seriously!   I really wish I had a picture of this hair debacle but I wasn’t in my right mind at all and didn’t think about getting photographic evidence of this travesty.  I don’t blame Denyce really.  I wasn’t specific about what I wanted, and she just went with what she thought I wanted.  I knew as soon as my chair swiveled and I met my reflection in the mirror that something was dreadfully wrong, but once again, I smiled, said “thank you so much,” and left.  When I got home, Tim told me a few times it looked good, but his sort of awkward smile belied his words.  I knew he wasn’t a fan, a fact which he confessed later that night.  (I must insert here that he was completely sweet and gracious and never said anything mean.)

That night lying in my bed, reaching onto my pillow for the lost hair, I dreamed about hair and the possible solutions to my problem.  Ok, I know I sound like the vainest person in the world here.  I did realize that I was getting a little unbalanced in my thoughts.  My obsession with fixing my bad haircut was tempered by many prayers of thanksgiving that I had hair at all and prayers for forgiveness that such a small thing like dead cells growing from my follicles had me all in a tizzy.  By morning I had all but decided to leave it alone and hope it grew back fast.  Alas!

I did not leave it alone.  At naptime the next day, I sneaked out of my house (my husband works from home don’t forget), telling the older children I had to run an errand. 😉 The errand was running to the strip mall two minutes away from my house, walking into Great Clips and begging for help.  The girl was very obliging and chopped my hair just below the shortest layer.  Hurray!  No more early 90s layers.  Rats!  No more long hair.  Haha.  I now have short hair.  It wasn’t my plan, but I’m much cooler, and I’ll probably save quite a bit on shampoo and conditioner in the coming months.  Incidentally, my hair now looks more like Drew Barrymore’s in the movie.

What my hair looked like after the first cut only with longer bangs

Me with short hair 🙂

The back

On July 30th, my little Lucy Leigh turned four years old!  We celebrated with a pool party at my parents’ house, where we had been the entire week before for VBS at my parents’ church (hope to post some pictures of that someday).  My best buds Miss and Jess came with their families, as well as my parents’ pastor and his family (his wife Christi is also a good friend).  There were 12 children in all!  We ate pizza, watermelon, and cupcakes.  The kids had a blast in the pool, and the adults enjoyed some time to visit.  This is the first year that Lucy has been really excited about her birthday, so  her anticipation and enjoyment were fun to watch.  I took loads of pictures, but I’m only going to post a few.  For the full album, click here.

Lucy's Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Cake

Blowing out the candles

Cheaper by the dozen 🙂

Opening presents

Dress from Grandma

Three beans' shoes

It seems I will be forever backtracking when it comes to blogging about our lives, but I’m okay with that.

At my parents’ house a couple of weeks ago, I was ready to walk out the front door and spied my children’s little shoes all lined up.  I was overwhelmed by my love for them and my appreciation for them small.  It’s sometimes hard to keep in view how precious they are when they’re little, especially as these are the years of interrupted sleep, diapers, and demands…even now I’m having trouble concentrating as my four year old keeps coming over to tell me something.  But when my little beans are all grown up, I don’t want to regret not cherishing the little people who could wear these  little shoes.  (Already, my mom can wear Connor’s crocs!)

Oops.  I realized today that I wrote this post and then never actually published it.  So it’s been about three weeks since then.

My parents were here this past weekend because Sunday Tim and I joined our church (Redemption Orthodox Presbyterian), and our children got baptized.  Even though it was a short visit, we had a great time with them.  My dad and Tim took the children swimming Sat. morning, while my mom and I went to the grocery store…not that glamorous for the girls, but at least we had good company.  Then after lunch my parents kept the kids, so that Tim and I could go furniture shopping!  I think we may have found something we like…finally!  So maybe we’ll actually have somewhere to sit in a couple of months (hahaha!).  [Aside: I have no one to blame but myself for this lengthy lack of furniture and I am very much looking forward to having somewhere comfortable to hang out other than our new (lovely and very soft, padded carpet), but in the meantime, the kids are having a blast running around our empty family room.]

Sat. afternoon Tim took my dad out to go bowling and then play pool, and then the four adults got to go out to dinner thanks to Jessie our babysitter.  We went to Piesano’s, a local stone-fired pizza restaurant, and had some yummy food and lots of laughs.  Have I mentioned that my dad is the world’s best story-teller? 🙂

Sunday morning went great (praise the Lord!).  When we originally told the kids about their baptism, Lucy was somewhat fearful and weepy, but God helped everyone to be calm during the actual event.  (I was a little weepy though.)  My parents were supposed to take pictures, but realized that their camera was dead after we arrived at church :(.  Sorry, Katie!  I think that my dad took pictures with his phone, but I have yet to see them.  Also one of my friends took some video with her i-phone, so I’ll have to see if I can post that.