7 Quick Takes Friday

1. IT’S THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL (for the local kids)!!! ETHAN ONLY HAS 3 DAYS NEXT WEEK AND THEN WE’RE TOTALLY DONE!!!

2. Whew. Sorry about the yelling, but I’m pretty excited about NEVER having to set my alarm for 5:30 again. Well, ok, I’m sure at some point in my life I’ll have to get up at 5:30, but not for 180 days in a single school year. Hail, hail cyber school!

3. We received a very distressing phone call yesterday morning. Bennett and Laura’s principal had passed away. I barely knew the man (I don’t tend to need much interaction with principals as a rule), but for some reason this hit me rather hard. He was my age and had a wife and two young daughters (4&9) that he left behind. Heartbreaking.

4. We are dealing with the “remnants” of tropical storm Andrea. Lots and lots and lots of rain. I only wish we already had our pool up so we could save money on the water delivery!

5. In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to the hair salon for a lighter brown. Hmmmm…..I don’t know if it’s because of what I did with the Color Oops, but it looks just about as dark as before. I wanted a noticeably lighter brown. Once the salon opens I’m going to call and see if I can get some of the color stripped. I didn’t go through all that smelly stuff just to end up where I started!

6. Hey! Neat Product Alert! PB2. It’s POWDERED peanut butter. Hungry Girl recommended it, but 1) I never saw it in the store and 2) she really has different taste buds than me. However, I saw it at my local Super WalMart a few days ago and decided to take the plunge. A) I can’t really eat regular peanut butter because of the crazy-high fat content. My meds just won’t accept it and I get sick. B) It was $4.68, which for a splurge was within the ok range. Guess what? It’s pretty good! Two tbsp powder equals 45 cals, 1.5 grams fat, 5 grams carbs and 5 grams protein. I would definitely put it on a sandwich with jelly. In fact, I just might do it today!

7. I was fooling around on YouTube this morning and found one of my all-time favorite Classic Sesame Street songs. For those of you who watched in the 70′s, didn’t you love this too?

Adventures in Hair Color

So, ok. I’m 44. I started going gray at 24. Yes, 24. Other than a brief foray into bleaching bangs with hydrogen peroxide in 1986, I’ve stuck to traditional methods. Oh, wait, there WAS henna back in the 90′s too.  Other than those two things, I’ve been pretty much medium brown/dark brown/auburn from a box for about 15 years give or take.  Fairly traditional, except for one time when the color took a LITTLE TOO MUCH and I ended up goth for Catie’s first birthday. Yikes.

For whatever reason (laziness, mostly) I’ve gone quite a bit since I last colored. My roots are two inches long (and yes, I just measured!). My roots are more than 50% gray on the top. Underneath in some places it’s actually 100%. In the back, though, it’s definitely less than 50%. So I’m all over the place.

I wanted to go a little lighter. But the ends of my hair–everything other than those 2 inches–were VERY dark. Lots of years of dyeing. Lots of build up. I was scared to go lighter and end up two-toned. Especially with “color-resistant gray” on the top.

Enter Color Oops.

I got it at WalMart, but read the reviews and instructions in depth on Amazon. I didn’t follow the instructions by the letter (because hey, why should I?), but am still thrilled with th results.

1. Mix up the stuff. (Here’s where I didn’t do the skin test or the strand test.). Shake. A LOT.

2. Put the stuff on your hair. PEEEEE-UUUUUUUU! It smells HORRIBLE. Seriously AWFUL. I opened the bathroom window and left open the door. Set the timer for 18, put on the enclosed shower cap and sat down to read.

3. After the timer went off, hop in the shower and rinse. Wash hair. They said for 5 minutes but sheesh. I have pretty short hair. Rinse for 20 minutes. I washed and rewashed and rewashed with shampoo in this time as well because I just couldn’t stand there rinsing my hair for 20 minutes. I felt stupid.

4. After the timer rang at 20, shampoo again. Sure! I think that was the 5th time. Maybe the 6th. Rinse for 20 minutes. Well, during this time I also conditioned with really expensive and good conditioner and only lasted 10 minutes.  The water was getting cool as well.

Toweled dry. Dried my bangs and damp dried the rest. I loved it. The dark color was definitely gone. I could see gray at the bottom as well as lighter brown hair (my hair is actually pretty dark when it’s not gray).

Tomorrow I’m getting it cut and colored. I think I’m going to stay with the lighter brown color and just color the gray. We’ll see. Either way, I’m extremely happy with my Color Oops venture and would definitely recommend it to people needing to remove dye they no longer want. And Color Oops didn’t pay me a dime to say that.

Mis-labeling

I was at WalMart today loading my groceries in my van when a young Asian woman approached me. She asked for a donation to her organization, GPA, which was doing a missions trip to  Trinidad. At first I thought “Cool! Sure!”, but for whatever reason, asked about the organization and then about her church specifically. She said she was part of a non-denominational Christian church. I asked which one, because that’s pretty much what I belong to.

Her answer? Universalist.

I then asked “As in Sun Myung Moon?” (or some approximation of that name)

She nodded.

Um…NO.

“I’m sorry. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and IS God. I cannot support your organization.”, which I said very nicely and she very nicely thanked me and went on her way.

What I want to know is: HOW THE HECK does one call oneself a part of a “non-denominational Christian church” when one’s church denies the very deity of Christ???

Discoveries

1. I cannot MAKE Bennett stop being overwhelmed and do his homework. For all of three subjects.

2. I cannot MAKE Laura like meat.

3. I cannot MAKE Catie be kind to her siblings.

4. I cannot MAKE Ethan stop…well, stop being himself.

All of these things frustrated  me all at the same time, mixed with PMS today.

BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD

I removed myself at dinner time, driving the van halfway around the neighborhood and just sat there, reading a magazine. I can’t tell you how short my fuse was, how angry I got, or how much I needed to get away from my own children. And this is after not spending the day with them. It’s just not a good day to be my child. Or, honestly, to be me.

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. 5 weeks, people! 5 weeks until I can change that darn alarm clock from 5:30 to 6:00!! And then in 6 weeks I can turn the darn thing OFF until July, when Ethan starts his Extended School Year (ESY) program. June will be lovely,so lovely and so full of enough sleep that I’m just bouncing for joy at the thought of it!

2. Last night, I took myself and my…oh, what’s it called when you love the IDEA of going out but would really just rather stay home? Well, whatever that’s called, I took it out for a GNO with a friend to see a mutual friend, Sandi Chadwick, perform at a comedy club. ON A SCHOOL NIGHT. When the alarm goes off at 5:30!! She was fantastic. The improv team up after her was essentially “Who’s Line is it Anyway?”, (which I loved when it was on BBC. The American version is just ok.) and had some extremely funny moments. But I just am too much of a morning person. At 9 I started to get really tired. I stuck it out until 9:30 and then left because, man, I still had almost 30 minutes ahead of driving too.

3. This morning I did something I hardly ever do. After Ethan got on the bus and Catie was getting ready, I fell asleep on the couch. I dozed for over an hour. I have hardly ever gotten a good 8 hours since the kids started school this year because I just am not ready to go to bed at 9:30. Obviously, one can survive quite well on less than the optimum 8 hours of sleep, but I definitely notice a big difference in how tired I am during the day, how much more caffeine I drink, and how ready I am for summer vacation.

4. I had a really funny thought this morning (not funny haha): I was looking at the new Star Trek movie and the lead “baddie”‘s real name is Benedict. Now, in America we don’t use that name because of Benedict Arnold. (sort of like people just aren’t name Judas anymore, or Adolf). He was a traitor and we don’t want his name associated with us. But in England, there isn’t any negative association. Isn’t that funny?

5. Another one of those “my brain is still using space for this?” (I got the first couple of lines and googled the rest. If you are over 40 and took French, you’ll probably remember this!)

Michel? Anne? Vous travaillez?

Eh, non. Nous regardons la television, pourquoi?

Les Duponts arrivent dans une heure.

S’il te plait, Mamam, encore cinq minutes.

Pas de question. Il y a beaucoup a faire.

Mais nous manquons toujours la fin!

Alors, ne discute pas tout le temps!

Bon, Anne prepare le dessert, moi, je gout

6. Aren’t you edified? Extra points if you can still translate it!

7. INTROVERTED!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles (name that movie!), we got a TAX RETURN! Those of you who are self-employed know how weird this is. I was completely not expecting it and when the CPA told me about it I actually didn’t believe him. And he’s a Dave Ramsey ELP! The money hit our checking account the same day the check from our PA state taxes got processed, so that was rather handy, don’t you agree??

2. Jim is working a contract right now, which I love. However, they had an audit this week and he was working an average of 10-12 hour days until yesterday. While I can handle the single parenting, boy, did I miss him! My love languages are quality time and physical touch, neither of which got spoken this week.

3. As I’m typing, the dog is going insane about the trash men. Anyone have ANY SUGGESTIONS AT ALL about how to stop a dog from barking ALL FREAKING DAY LONG AT ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING that drives by our house (let alone…shudder…dares to stop at our house!)??? Let me add this to the 1000 reasons why cats are better than dogs.

4. The only things so far that I’ve found dogs are better than cats are: they lick up/eat things that you spill and make you feel safer at night when your husband is away. Other than that, yeah, cats are just better.

5. I have a pile of books (literally!) from both my mother and mother in law that I am finally getting around to read. So far I’ve had my socks completely knocked off by the first of two books by Susan Elia MacNeal. Mr. Churchill’s Secretary is AMAZING. It takes place in England in 1940–right before America joined the war. It’s got the historical aspect–VERY well researched–as well as the mystery aspect. Although I’m not typically a mystery person, this one definitely kept me guessing and wondering and guessing some more. Well worth the read!

6. 6 WEEKS LEFT OF SCHOOL!! I am so unbelievably ready for school and the schedule and the early mornings to be finished. We have a fairly packed summer already, but nothing that requires 5:30 alarms. Thank goodness!

7. I’m going to bake today. Sugar Dusted Apple Bundt Cake.  It was an ad in a magazine. The cake looked so good and I had everything except the canned apples (which I then bought) that I’m actually going to bake. From scratch. Which, is you know me at all by now, you know that just doesn’t happen. At all. Ever. I expect massive thanks and bowing when I serve it, and will let everyone in the family know beforehand.

Have a wonderful weekend, People.

Co-Inky-Dink

So, as I said last time I’m not one to see a demon behind every struggle, although I definitely believe that they are behind some. Conversely, I don’t see God in every little “coincidence”, although I definitely believe He is in some of them.

So….The falling-apart-day had one thing in it that I didn’t know about until the following day after I posted. While I was out grabbing lunch at a local farmer’s market store, I checked out and saw that they had Our Daily Bread by the check out counter (oh, yeah, they are Christian owned and operated). So, on a whim, I grabbed one and put it in the bag. Forgot about it because I just took the food out and ate it and left the bag on the counter (which I am trying to grow out of!)

So, Thursday I’m straightening up, which included the counter. Find the Daily Bread and put it on the living room coffee table for later perusing.  When I sat down to start reading it, I noticed it was the June,July,August issue. Now, the OCD part of me would normally be totally bugged by that, but I needed to do SOMETHING, so I ignored it and just opened to the first page. The passage was John 10:7-14, which, COINCIDENTALLY, contains the verse “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” that I spoke about two posts ago.

Thank you, God, for that little pat on the head. I needed it. I’m searching and You really me to keep at it, huh?.