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Farrah Hair
04.29.13 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Farrah HairIf you were a girl born in the early seventies then you probably had a crush on Shaun Cassidy. Yes, I was, like, four, but those rootbeer eyes caught my attention and made me want my first crush-boy poster, even though I was not a fan of The Hardy Boys. Just Shaun.
You also probably also were in love with Farrah Fawcett’s hair. That big, poofy hair that rolled and feathered off her face, past her shoulders and down her back. It was curled just so looking ever so carefree and ‘look, I just rolled out of bed!’ (Though we all know she just rolled out from under the hot rollers…)
I always wanted that hair. I grew my hair out this year just to see what would happen. The first shock was that with both of my babies came curls. I now have wavy hair that can hold a curl. When I was a kid in the 1980’s my hair was so straight it wouldn’t ever take a perm the first time. I had to go for a second round, always.
The second surprise? GREY HAIR! I don’t have a lot yet, but it is a hell of a lot more than I expected! Hello 40!
The final surprise? My hair does Farrah now. I can now die a happy woman. See?!
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Another Day, Another Hike
04.28.13 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Another Day, Another HikeDon’t we live in a lucky place? St. Edwards Park is less than five minutes from our home and it offers a huge play structure, miles of hiking, scenic vistas, a lake, orchard and more. We love ‘our’ park so we headed out yesterday to explore. We had a lovely time.
Today’s hike took about an hour. We were slow, but the trail was steep and I was a little sore in my joints yet from my runs this week.
We made it to the water’s edge where we threw a stick for Martha for a bit before heading back up the trail. It was steep! Like this:
Isn’t it funny that when you’re there, in the thick of it, an activity or task will seem insurmountable, but then when you show someone the picture you’re like, “hmmm… That is NOT as steep as it FELT!â€
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First Memory
We were on a hike today and Guinevere started asking about first memories and what ours were. Of course, I complied with this tale…
When I was two my family headed to Spokane for a wedding. My cousin, Dave, was getting married. Of course, I didn’t know Dave from Adam, but it was a wedding and I was wearing a dress, very happy to be there. I don’t remember the wedding, but I do remember the reception. More specifically, I remember the dancing! The butter mints! The big cake! And more dancing! I will never forget the sight of some guy wearing a light blue, polyester suit complete with ruffled shirt and bow tie, of course, who was doing the twist. He put his arms it to his sides like a helicopter and proceeded to squat down while gyrating and twisting all the while. I was fascinated!
I made a friend there who tried to convince me to dance with her. Only, her version of dancing was to jump in the air and slam her feet into the ground. I remained unconvinced as she looked none to twisty or graceful and chose to run back and forth like a ballerina instead.
After the dancing I sought out my 10 (?) year old cousin Holly and begged her to let me spend the night at her house. I thought she was just the coolest and prettiest girl in the whole world! She told me to ask my mom, and that’s all I remember from that night.
Imagine my surprise at waking at Holly’s house the next morning! I was so happy. But that is all I remember from that very first memory.
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I have another of walking into my Great Grandmother’s house but that is mostly a mapping memory and not so much a story memory.
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I also remember the day we moved into our new house when I was twoish. I remember looking in our little house for the last time. There was one chair left in there. Then we drove to the new house and I remember seeing my pnk room for the first time and having a nightmare that first night in that big, new house. In the dream The Count from Sesame Street popped his head through the wall and was going to get me! I must have cried because the next thing I knew I was getting an arm ride to my parent’s bed where I finished out the night.
The next day I lined all of my books up in the bannister where I decided to ‘initiate’ each one by making a tiny snip with my scissors on the first page of each book. Who knows why? Regardless, my brother, Bruce, quickly caught me, alerted my parents and very few of my books were initiated as a result.
I had an interesting response to these stories. I have always connected to the tale, the event and have been able to recall what happened, but I rarely have connected to myself as a two year old. It may sound strange, but after I told that story I realized that even at two I have been this same person, the same I am at 39, just more experienced. For some reason it gives me great satisfaction knowing I’ve always been the same person. Just at two it was harder to share the complete picture if me just yet. I’m sure I’ll say the same thing in another 40 years about me at 39.
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Field Trip
We took the kids on a field trip today. We visited the famed tulips, the completed the circuit home with a stop at Deception Pass and a ferry ride home. At the pass we hiked out to the eastern tip and watched the water from the cliff side. It was terrifying but beautiful to explore such a wild place with my babes. We hiked out only to traverse to the beach on the other side where the kids splashed and played in the waves. It was seventy degrees today and lovely. One of the best days in my life. Ever.
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EXTREME!
04.06.13 | Permalink | | Comments Off on EXTREME!
A few weeks ago I just happened to stream an episode of Extreme Couponing. For those in the dark, Extreme Couponing is the practice of aligning your manufacturer coupon with the store ad resulting in a very small output of cash at the register. On the show, people routinely pay nothing or less than ten dollars for hundreds of dollars worth of grocery items. We were smitten. Bradley is already pretty incredible with the coupons, but this show invigorated our whole family, and before we knew it Bradley was up in the office hollering around the house about different products we might want “FOR ONLY .35 CENTS?” And there was Gigi with her safety scissors diligently cutting out coupons. The problem we see is even if it is free, how much mustard and toothpaste do you really need? On the show people collect myriads of things they don’t need or can’t use. We won’t do that. Don’t worry.
We decided to play around with coupons Lj style then. We embraced the couponing, but only for things we needed or could use. And no piles of candy bars and chips. Ever.
This Spring Break we decided to put our EXTREME Couponing prowess to the test with a family date. How inexpensive could we make a trip to the mall? It started with a trip to Jamba where two smoothies totaled 5.00. Not exactly a barn burner, but it was a sale. From there, we went to Sbarro, where a coupon got us each a piece of pizza for a dollar. Gigi had to rock, paper, scissors for the big slice.
We window shopped through the mall- which we NEVER do- and found this little Zelda game for .50 cents. SOLD! We headed to Aunt Annie’s Pretzels where, again, it was a dollar coupon for the four of us, and we spent another $4.00.
We hit Starbucks before we headed outside, using gift cards from my students (free coffee) and sat down to enjoy coffee and pretzels.
We ended our trip with a stop at Red Mango for some natural and delicious frozen yogurt. If you create an account with the company, you earn 5.00 just for signing up. Our frozen yogurt was free!
If we hadn’t stopped at Ross (I love me some Ross, I’m telling you. I have the best one!) then our day would have totaled $13.50! Yes, $13.50 for two coffees, a new game, two smoothies, four pretzels, four slices of pizza and two frozen yogurts!
EXTREME!!!
But mostly it was just a really fun family date.
