Hair, Halee and How's this for a birthday present?

About two years ago, I started getting my hair highlighted. From the first time I came home with highlights, Paige (who has always thought herself to be 10 years older than she really is) has been begging me to let her color her hair. Well, after trying a couple of different places, I finally found a stylist who is DA BOMB-DIGGITY! She seriously rocks! (Hi Halee!)

Two weeks ago when I was in to get my hair done, Halee showed me some new colors she had just ordered. For me, they were pretty out-there colors...pink, yellow, orange, fire-engine red, etc. But she knew that Paige wanted hers done and grinning like crazy, Halee suggested I should let Paige get her hair colored. "Just a couple pieces right in front."

See, Halee loves my girls and she's SOOOO good with them! She even gave Paige her first eye-brow wax a couple weeks ago. (No, seriously, the child NEEDED it! Poor thing has her dad's eyebrows.) And the girls love going to see her because Halee gives them cuts they love (not just your typical kids' cut) and will spend time messing with their hair showing them how to make it look "cool".

Well, yesterday was a banner birthday for Paige. She turned 12, and I've always considered 12 to be a milestone of sorts. I know for me, it kind of marked the end of childhood and the beginning of young-adulthood. More independence, more responsibility, more freedom, more making my own decisions. And I feel like Paige is really entering that phase of her life, too. Dad and I decided that we'd let her mark this birthday with something really dramatic. So here's what she got for her birthday....









































Now, before anyone has a heart attack and says "WHAT did you DO????" it's not permanent! It'll last about 30 washes so about a month. After that, she will have a few blonde highlights because Paige's hair is so dark, we had to highlight before putting in the pink or else the pink would not have shown up at all.

The sunglasses were a gift from Dad. Halee works at the liquor store part time with him, and he had given her a few dollars with instructions to pick out some accessory from Daddy. The glasses, of course, added just the right touch.

As you can probably already guess, Paige walked around all night last night like she was the Queen Bee! And this morning, when I came upstairs at 6:30 to get her up for school, she was already up, dress, and ready to leave. She'd been up for over an hour flat-ironing and primping so that her hair would be just perfect for school. (I guess she was excited to go to school today!) She was already planning the big reveal to her friends, too. Ah, she kills me sometimes!

Here's both girls at dinner last night. While we were eating, I asked Paige if she was disappointed that I didn't make a cake this year. She laughed and said "No way! This is better than any cake!"

I guess Mom did good this year!

Twice in One Day!

So, I go two months without posting and now I post twice in one day. Good grief! But I guess I have lots to say since I've been been silent for so long.

Today is Paige's birthday. She's 12. TWELVE! When did THAT happen? Only one more year of tween left and then she's a full-fledged TEENager....oh, I'm so not ready for this.

On the plus side, at least now she's finally officially old enough to babysit! Wahoo!! I've waited for this day for 12 years! No more babysitters to call and hope to high heaven she's available at the last minute.

She's also old enough to volunteer for the Junior Zookeeper program at our local zoo this year. We filled out her application and will turn it this week Sunday afternoon. I don't know how many applications they get each year or how many they accept, but I really hope she gets this. I know it's something she's wanted to do for ages, so I'm afraid she'll be heartbroken if she doesn't get accepted into the program. Keep your fingers crossed!

I'm picking her up early from school today to take her to get her birthday present. I won't spoil the surprise but I do promise (YES, I PROMISE!) to post pictures tomorrow. It's something she's been begging for since she was in the 4th grade, and I finally decided to cave this year.

In other news, the weightloss is going, but VERY slowly. I've only lost 5 pounds since the first of the year, but I guess that's mostly my own fault. I'm to the point with Weight Watchers that I HAVE to start adding exercise because the points just aren't enough to keep me from starving anymore. But still, 5 pounds is 5 pounds and at least it's in the right directly. On the other hand, I really want to lose 19 more before summer and I have 29 more to my goal weight.

This weekend, we travel to Jamestown for the last dance competition of the year. I guess "last" makes it sound like they compete alot (they only really have two competitions a year), but we've had so much fun with dance classes and performances this year that it is a bit dissapointing to be almost done. Yes, I've even enjoyed it! The fun part is that Jamestown is about midway for many of our family and friends, so several will be making the trip. (If anyone else wants to make a last minute trip to Jamestown on Saturday, here's the info. Paige's group is Middle Kix 1. Let me know if you're coming because I'm planning a group dinner afterward to celebrate her birthday.)

Now that you all are caught up on my little world, I must remember to update more often! Until next time!

RE: Bad Date Olympics

So, yeah....I know. I promised to be more regular about this blogging thing this time and as you can see. It just didn't happen that way. But still. I'm trying, I really am.

One of my favorite things about blogging is that it has allowed me to catch up and get reacquainted with Ei. Ei and I were both deeply ingrained in the theater department in college and lived in the same dorm our last year of school. At the time we both dated men who were....I'm not really sure how to say this...not good for us. How's that for diplomatic? I could say a WHOLE lot more, but I think that covers it pretty nicely.

So now, Ei's latest challenge to her readers is to share a bad dating experience, as she herself is now back into the dating world. (Go girl!!) Considering much of my family reads my blog, I'm wasn't completely sure I wanted to share kind of information here, but what the heck! It's really nothing bad, but still...you know.

So, here goes....

The majority of my dating experience was in college, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that my worst date happened there. I was a Junior and as part of my work-study program, I put in 6 hours a week working the front desk at High Rise (my dorm at the time). My hours were usually midnight to 2am or 2am to 4am, and mostly on weekends. It was really quite entertaining watching girls stumble in trying to act sober as they attempted to locate the Up button on the elevator (they usually got it after 3 or 4 unsteady pokes at it). Then, about 10 minutes later, I'd get to bust their boyfriends as they tried to sneak up the back steps. (No boys after midnight!)

(A quick aside here, that this is probably a long set up for a totally pointless story, but Ei asked!)

During my shifts, there was a young man who would invariably stop by chat (read: flirt). He'd never stay long, but he would always end his visit by asking me if I'd go out with him. He started doing it in kind of a joking way so it took awhile for me to realize that he was serious. I always refused. Over the weeks, he continued to stop, chat, and ask me out...and over time, his requests for a date became more desperate, almost like he was begging.

Now, don't get me wrong, he was a nice enough guy. Very normal, not a stalkerish type (I never saw him other than when I was working the front desk) but he was just so not my type. We had very little in common and I really just couldn't imagine myself going out with him. He was, however, persistent. After probably 3 or 4 months of him asking, I finally said I'd go out with him. (Of course, then I spent the next several days trying to figure out how I could break the date, but that's another story entirely.)

The evening of the date, he took me to dinner....at Pizza Hut. Yes, I realize we were in college and both pretty broke, but even on a budget there were better places in Chadron for a first date dinner than Pizza Hut. Conversation over dinner was stiff and stilted. He tried, I tried, we really tried, but like I said, we had so little in common that there just wasn't much to talk about. His major was something really brainy like chemistry or advanced mathematics, something like that...and well, mine was music. I could really care less about the formulaic calculation of the mathematical center of the universe or some other junk like that.

We were only at Pizza Hut for like 45 minutes but it felt like 4 hours...and it was still light outside when we were finished. The only movie playing in town was something neither one of us wanted to see, it was too early to show up at Hermans or the South 40 (two local bars that were popular hangouts for college kids) and WAYYY too early for any house parties to have started. He asked if we could hang out in my room until later when the bar crowd started to go out. I soooooo did not want this guy in my room, but I reluctantly agreed. (STOP thinking that!!! I told you, this is NOTHING bad!)

Back at my room as soon as we walked in the door, he immediately plops himself down on my bed.

Hmmm....OK, that's how he wants to play it. Nothin's happenin' bud...forget it already.

I walked over and sat on my desk chair on the other side of the room.

We talked a little more, and the conversation was equally as torturous as it had been at Chez Pizza Hut. He kept trying to get me to come sit next to him, and just couldn't get it through his thick skull that it just wasn't gonna go anywhere. He got up and started wandering around my room, examining my personal possessions, and pretty soon, he came over by the desk (where I was still sitting) under the ruse of wanting to look at some of the books on my shelf.

He leaned back against my desk and was grinning down at me....obviously trying to be romantic. I stood up and he reached out....as I ducked under his arm and excused myself to the restroom.

I stayed in there for about 10 minutes and when I came out, he was gone. Thankfully, I was done with that date plenty early enough to call my friends and find out what the plans were for the evening.

And guess what? He never stopped by the front desk again when I was working. Heh.

There ya go, Ei. My entry into the Bad Date Olympics! And you know what? I WILL still get to that meme one of these days!