Haircut

This is it!
You can see the shortest layers here.
After...

Before....

First of all...thank you soooo much to everyone who gave me advise and their opinions. It's so hard for me to look at myself and to know what I want and what looks best on me. I really appreciate it!!

I guess I'm not as brave as I'd like to be. Hair grows back, but it can be a pain. I ended up getting about 4 inches or so cut off and then got some layers. They're not heavy and it's hard to tell in the pictures. I wish I was more photogenic, but since I'm not and I took these right after the cut and hadn't styled it yet, well....I don't look the best. I'll have to post another picture when I get it styled cute. Anyway...the point is, it's soft, lighter, still long, and I love it! And maybe I'll get brave and do heavy layers or bangs later, but this is good for now. Maybe if I had a face like Carrie's, I'd go for it! By the way, I didn't realize my hair looked so reddish--guess it's time for a new color now. :)

Ready for a Change!

I am officially sick and tired of my hair. It's just....blah. I think I need a change, but I can't decide how to do it. From past experience, any time I cut it above my shoulders, I have no idea how to style it and you almost always have to style it, so it looks a mess. FYI...it's about 4 inches above my waist.

Here are a few styles I'm considering. PLEASE feel free to vote on your favorite (on the side). Or if anyone has any other ideas, I'm open for suggestions.
So....lots of layers or lots of layers with some long, side-swept bangs. Or I guess I can just get a trim. :)



PS I couldn't get the poll to work, so just leave comments I guess. :) Thanks!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Yesterday was my grandma's 80th birthday. My mom planned a surprise party for her and all but one uncle, one aunt, and one grandson (in-law) were there. We all made some memory scrapbook pages and put them into a nice book for her--it ended up being HUGE! We had a nice dinner and a great time! We love you Grandma!!!

April Fool's Day

Yesterday was a fun day, full of tricks! It started with me looking out the window and seeing S*N*O*W!! I told Kendall and Kristen that school was canceled. Why, they asked? Because of the snow. Then, of course, I told them "April Fool's!" Then I put a couple of drops of food coloring in their cereal bowls and poured cereal on top of it. When they poured the milk, it turned blue or green. Kristen said she couldn't eat her breakfast because it was rotten. Hehehe. I told Jon I was backing the van out of the garage and the kids were fighting so I turned around and I don't know what happened, but I scraped the whole side of the van against the edge of the garage. April Fool's again! For dinner, we had "fish" sticks--vanilla wafer cookies, covered in peanut butter and rolled in graham cracker crumbs. We really did have fish sticks though--then they could smell the fish cooking. :) I got a picture of those, but can't find the camera cord, so check back later for pics. Jarren really got into things--everything was a joke. "Look over there Mom--it's a spider! April Fool's." "Mom! What is that? April Fool's." etc. What a fun day....

Yesterday was also my younger sister's birthday. I remember one year, she got a can of motor oil and a box of JELL-O and stuff like that. She said, "It's okay. I know we're poor." Happy Late B-Day sis!

And here Jarren is starting into it again today. I hope I can make him understand that it was ONLY yesterday.

Kristen Continued...

I thought I already made this post, but for some reason, it never showed up.

I ended up taking Kristen into the kids care clinic at 9:30 pm last night. She was struggling to breathe and the night was still young. They were shocked that a 9 year old had croup! But...anyone in my family knows otherwise. Since she is older for getting it, her oxygen levels were fine, but her lungs were definitely not. They gave her some medication with strict instructions to call 911 if she struggled at all with breathing and they sent home an extra dose to give her if needed this morning. She didn't need it. She seems a lot better, but is a BEAR because I won't let her play with friends. I want her to have one more day of taking it easy and getting over this. She had a fever at 10 pm, but doesn't now. I want her to go 24 hours before being around other people because this is NOT something we want to spread. Jenna woke up croupy, but never got up in the night and after about 30 minutes of being awake, she wasn't barking anymore. I'll be glad when summer gets here!!

Kristen also won a 3rd place award at her school's 3rd/4th grades science fair. That's good, especially since she had to do the interview over the phone and could hardly talk.

Kristen

Kristen's science fair is today and she was chosen to be interviewed by the judges. I have no idea how they decide that, but apparently they just choose a handful from each class. Poor girl--she is soooo sick!!! I called the teacher and she said they could do an interview over the phone. She hardly has a voice and I'm started to get a little worried about her--she has a fever, sore throat, cough, and now croup on top of it all. She woke up twice in the night, struggling to breathe. She hasn't been this bad since she was 4--they almost hospitalized her. Well...here it is, 9:30 am and she's still not breathing that good. If she doesn't improve by noon, I'm afraid she'll have to go in for a treatment (hopefully not the hospital). We did the steamy shower and cold air trick three times already (once, until the shower was ice cold). It helps a little, but not much. Jenna was a little croupy too, but not as bad. Wish me (and her) luck!!

Happenings....

We woke up Monday morning to snow! It snowed all day long. The same thing happened today. I am so ready for warm weather!

It was very warm on Friday and Saturday of last week. I actually got out and planted some lettuce and peas in the garden. If I can get out between storms, I'm going to try some broccoli this year. Fortunately, these vegetables do well in cooler weather. I'm getting anxious to eat some yummy home-grown veggies.

We've been hit with a nasty bug. Jarren got hit first--high fever, cough, sore throat. He's finally over the fever, but is still coughing. Both Jenna and Kristen woke up with it this morning. Did I mention that I REALLY can't wait for warmer weather???

Since Tyrone the moose worked so well in potty training Jenna, we decided to try Pablo the penguin to see if we can't get her to go #2 in the potty. She did it twice (once in the middle of the night), but that's it. She poops her pants and then looks up at Pablo and says, "He's mad. He wants me." I hope it clicks soon because Pablo is going to get pretty dusty up there on the shelf if it doesn't.