Tuesday Catch Up!

Good morning! It's a gorgeous Tuesday! I'm up and powering through my day, armed with a belly full of cornflakes and coffee! (That sounds gross....) I just realized that I haven't been updating on here lately. Not as much as my brain says I have. I'm always writing and scribbling down ideas, but life has been pure insanity.

So I thought I'd take a minute to catch you up on all the lovely things that have been happening lately.

Firstly. I chopped off all my long hair. And when I say "I," I mean literally, "I chopped off my hair." It was pretty fried after getting it over processed back last September. The ends were just snapping like twigs. So one morning a few weeks ago I get up and pull my hair down out of the bun that I had slept in. When I noticed an abnormal amount of hair sticking to my hair tie I ran my fingers through the ends. Aaaaand I pulled out an entire section of my hair. It was bad. So I jerked it up in a ponytail and started cutting away. 

This was what it looked like when I was done.  

After a week I knew I wanted it shaped up a bit more, so I called my mother-in-law and had her help me out. I've never had a bad haircut from her. Here was the finished product. I was worried about how damaged and dry my hair was, but she told me it really wasn't in terrible shape anymore now that the ends were gone. Since then I've gotten onto a serious hair care kick and my horses mane feels like silk now!

I LOVE IT! It's grown so much since then!

We love our date nights, and try to go every Friday night. This particular night, we ended up all matchy matchy accidentally.

I've been so into #cleankitchenatnight. This is a fun hashtag started by Allison from "The Life of a Homemaker." I just love her! She has the cutest kids ever! And I know she's been known to swing by here every now and again, so HI ALLISON!! There are tons of nights when I don't post, but this has always been a philosophy of mine. Y'all know about my 15 minute Pick Up before bed.  I posted this a week or so ago. There is just something about a perfectly clean home that centers me. If I'm jittery or all anxious (which has been a huge problem recently) I just get up and do a little cleaning, get everything back in it's place and I am good to go.

I have been LOVING my open shelving. I can't even tell you how much I enjoy this. A girlfriend told me it looked like something out of Southern Living magazine. And it's funny that she said that. My Mom and I were discussing our home decor styles the other day. She said, quote, "Your style is more Southern Living and mine is more Country Living." And she's hit it right on the head.

We FINALLY got a new TV (and a new sound bar that isn't pictured here). Here's the story with our TVs. The summer before we got married we bought this huge old console style TV, it was a 52 inch with the big speaker on the bottom.... Anyway, we loved it. Aaron moved it into his room at his Dad's house during our engagement and right before we got married and moved into this house together, we moved it. It lasted in our house a month. It got us through Christmas and New Years. I was off work one day, laying around and watching a movie, when it just suddenly shrieked this awful noise, turned red and shut off. So we got a new TV. A 42 inch (or 46, I'm not sure) from Wal-Mart, by Sanyo. Almost the exact same problem with it, right out of the box. So we figured it was just the wiring or something in this old house. Fast forward to now. 5 years. The picture on that Sanyo was going in and out too. And Aaron's brother has the TV below for sale. Aaron's Dad mentioned we were having trouble with ours and he sold it to us for way cheaper than we could have bought a new one. It's such a relief to watch TV and not have it scream at you every 15 minutes or so.

I gotta sunburn!  We spent the Sunday before last at my sister-in-law's house in her pool. I completely forgot about sunblock. I took this shot to send to my best friend in Alabama. I was miserable for the whole week.

I went "junkin'" with my Mom a few weeks ago. She and I both are having to run back and forth to doctors appointments right now (her for an esophageal spasm she had in January, trying to discover the cause, and me to the fertility doctor) and so whenever one of us has to go, we go together and make a day of it. This particular day she had a test scheduled for 7am and so we decided to take the rest of the day to hit up all the consignment stores in our town. We did good, we didn't spend a whole lot of money at all. One of my favorite things from that trip was THIS tray. It's a Coca-Cola tray that was made in the 1970's. It's a re-print of a 1940's tray, but the difference is that one was rectangle and this one was oval. I don't care, I love it, and I couldn't walk out of the store without her. She's such a beauty! We have this laying on our coffee table, and it holds our remote controls.... we have 7.

The worst news EVER was that my glasses broke! Y'all, I'm blind. I am so blind it's not even funny! This happened on a Wednesday night after we got home from church. I took my "face" off, and popped my contacts out and when I went to put my glasses on I saw that they'd broken. So I tried to fix them but after 4 and 1/2 hours of trying and crying, I admitted defeat and called Zenni. Turns out my 30 day warranty was up. So I had to order a whole new pair. Thank God they weren't expensive.

I love you all. Really, I must, because I'm sharing this with you.

To celebrate their arrival, I took this goofy shot and sent to my three favorite people, my Mom, Aaron and my best friend, Mandy. 

Boy oh boy was this a titanic moment for me! I'm currently tackling the epic novel by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. It's over 1,000 pages. So I decided it may be easier for me to LISTEN to it, rather than read it. So I searched and searched and the only place I could find it was Audible. Turns out, I already had an audible account AND I had 6 free credits! Regular price for the audio of Atlas Shrugged is nearly $42. I snatched it for free. :)

#winning #whoisjohngalt #freebie #dagneyandhankforever  

But the thing that's been taking most of my time, is my writing!

I've decided I want to do a thorough, in depth comparison of all the Jane Eyre movies. It's a massive undertaking and I've only made it through one film and already it's 20 pages..... this will be more of an article than a post and should I decide to post it here, I will clearly title it if you aren't interested. HOWEVER, with that being said, Book to Film Comparison's are something I am interested in doing and I think you can expect the first one to pop up here soon!

I write at night, usually. And this is the reason why.

My novel is so detailed and so twisty and turny that I just have to shut life off for a while to work on it. These characters are in my head 24/7 (did anyone see that failbook post where the girl said 'he be on my mind 31/7 cause even when I sleep I dream of him' or something and her friends were like 'there are only 24 hours in a day, even when you sleep. She was stunned.) and it's either write about them or go crazy. So I've been doing a lot of planning and a lot of plot working and a lot of writing. I finished my intro and my first chapter within a couple of days so I was tickled! It's progress!

Thank you all so much for supporting me, I'm so so sorry I'm so far behind, but like I said, it's been wild around here. I love you guys! Check out Allison's channel (clink on her link!) for all kinds of goodness. She's the Norwex queen and has really inspirational Speed Cleaning videos to watch too! (Amongst many other things!) Try not to melt over the cuteness that is her little girl and her two little boys! I'll be back soon! Love y'all!

Throwback Thursday: My Hair (Picture Heavy Post!)

Hey guys! I thought I'd do a fun post today about all the many ways I've worn my hair in my lifetime. And when I say many, I mean many. I recently had to have a hair makeover and when I was chatting with a friend about it she reminded me of just how many hairstyles I've had over the past few years.

So, let's go ahead and get started!

I had little to no hair until I was around 2 years old. When it finally did come in, it was white blonde, and super fine, but I had lots of it. It was wavy (you can kind of see a little curl developing there in the back) but not kinky at all.

On a side note, I just LOVE this picture of me and my Dad. I have no idea what we were doing, or getting ready to do, but here we are, sitting on the kitchen counter! 

Then there was this look....

This was Easter morning. I got ANOTHER Barbie to add to my collection (I think this was like camping Barbie or something) and The Lion King on VHS. For a child like me, this haircut really worked. It was easy, wash and go, and it looked cute with a bow or a headband (my thing back then. I  always wore a headband).

I finally had hair to my shoulders! This is a landmark in my lifetime. This picture was taken on my birthday... I'm thinking it was my 4th but I'm not sure. I'm posing between my two proud grandmothers! This was the year I got a matching brass baby doll bed to match my big girl brass bed. I was thrilled.

2nd grade, I had "the bob."

Complete with the uneven bangs that my Mom used to cut using masking tape as a guide. 

Moving on down the line, I ended up with a perm in 4th grade.

A super kinky perm. This picture is hilarious because it was Christmas Eve with my Mom's family at our house, and, very typical of my Daddy, he's messing with me, getting ready to grab my nose. I chose this picture because you can really see just how kinky that kinky perm was! (No doubting that in my life, I was my Daddy's Girl!)

This was at my 11th birthday party. That hair... oh my... It was so kinky that I mostly wore it in a pony tail because unless I let it air dry it was a frizz ball mess. I kept the perm for a couple of years but as soon as 5th grade was over I had that perm taken out. 

It DRAMATICALLY changed the texture of my hair. My hair went from fine, thick and wavy to COARSE, dry, thick and curly. Well, I say curly, but it's more like a tight wave. It doesn't actually "curl."

I hate this picture, but I'm sharing it with you because of my hair. This is how it looked after the perm was taken out. Before the perm if I'd let it air dry (like I did here, on this Sunday morning before church, for some reason) it would have been stick straight. After the perm it was all over the place. This picture is terrifying. But isn't my brother handsome and my niece adorable?

So I set out to find a style that worked, and eventually I learned how to straighten my hair. And wore it like this for a good little while. 

I loved that blue shirt. Just loved it. And you can see that my hair is also darkening up too. It's not the white baby blonde that it used to be, but now a very dirty blonde, or brown/blonde. 

I even did bangs. Badly. I badly did bangs... with a sunburned nose.

I started growing my hair out. I'd always wanted super long hair, and so I started the process when I was 13.  By 14, this is what I had.

Rockin' them glasses. I've always been blinder than a bat.  By this time my Dad had let me get some very natural highlights put in, and I had a great haircut. I was getting more and more interested in "beautification," like hair and makeup and etc, and was anxiously awaiting my 15th birthday when my parents promised me that I could get contacts!

I remember 15 being a turning point in my looks. Almost from the minute I got my contacts, I remember things changing. I lost some baby weight, I got more highlights, I got my first boyfriend! Puberty... gotta love it.

I felt "pretty" for the first time. I learned how to go with my natural hair texture and that became my signature look as a teenager. 

My 16th birthday! 

My birthday is in November and I LOVE bonfires... so much. So I decided I wanted to have a huge bonfire for my birthday party. So we did. Daddy and I cut wood for 6 straight months. It was a fantastic night that I will never forget. You can see just how long my hair had gotten at this point.

Senior Picture!

My Mom loves this picture of me and has it in 11x14 in black and white hanging in her hallway. When Aaron and I first met (I was just 18) he had this picture framed on his nightstand until we were married, and then even after we got married and moved into our house, he still kept it on his nightstand. 

This is a terrible quality photo, but you can see how long it was when I straightened it.

But I usually always wore it like this.

Daddy was making me laugh. Shocker. 

And sometimes I'd curl it with a curling iron. Mostly for special occasions, like Christmas Sunday. 

What a sharp dressed man my Daddy was. 

After he passed away, I cut it all off. There is some Native American blood on both sides of my family, and I'd always heard that the only time they would cut their hair is when they were in mourning. And boy was I mourning. So I chopped every bit of it off and dyed it brown.

This picture was too funny for me not to use. I was in photography school and I got to play model one afternoon. 

In my time with Aaron my hair has changed SO much...

Almost engaged (I'm wearing my big ol' promise ring.)

Newly Engaged. And pretty darn happy about it. (July 2008)

SUPER DUPER blonde. Aaron loved it but I felt like it was too much. (Jan. 2009)

I got some low-lights put in. (I love this shot that my friend, Ally, took of me one afternoon in Nashville when we were on assignment.)

And then came the great chop of Summer 2009.

 

Now... I truly LOVED this haircut, and when the time comes for me to go short again I will probably want to go back to this very same cut, because I liked it that much. It was super easy to take care of, a quick wash and maybe 5 minutes to blow dry (as opposed to the 45 minutes it had taken me when my hair was long and curly) and then basically just smoothing down the ends with a flat iron. It was so easy.  And so versatile!

Even in a huge gust of wind!

It started growing out, and it still looked super cute!

But as our wedding day was fast approaching I wanted something a bit more "wifey." So I went to a hair stylist friend and asked her for a new "wifey 'do" and she delivered this!

This cut and color combo was a HUGE hit amongst my friends. It was fun to wear and fun to style!

This was at one of our wedding showers. It was just too cute!

This hairstyle carried me through the long nights and long days of school and home renovation.

But because of the white blonde chunky highlights, I wanted to tone it down a bit for my wedding, and make things a bit more natural. 

This was Thanksgiving 2009. We were set to walk down the isle in 15 days! (I'm proud to say that this shirt still fits. The pants? No way, but the shirt, yes! :)

And here I am on my wedding day!

How gorgeous was my updo??

And on our honeymoon I played with hairstyles.

I wore it up.

I wore it down. (I even kissed Charlie Chaplin!)

I wore it curly.

I even wore it half up out to dinner one night!

Then we came home and life took over. 

My 21st birthday!

My first biological nephew. I have 4 nephews on Aaron's side, but this one is my brothers little baby boy... who is gonna be 4 in a few months. WHAAAA?

Back to Blonde. 

Aaron prefers me as a blonde. I was a blonde when we got engaged (not when we met) but it's what he says he thinks of when he "pulls up a picture of me in his brain." 

2011 was an awful year for me. I was sick the entire month of December. And I mean siiiiiiiick. I was running a fever on Christmas morning. It was NOT fun.

In 2012 I started a new job and wanted a new polished look to go along with it.

So again, the great chop.

And then I chopped on it a little more, and got more highlights.

I had this hairstyle on stage for a play, teased up in true 1980's form.

Here I am with my 3 co-stars. (My character was pregnant.)

After that I had some lowlights put in to give me a little dimension.

I loved it.

And then I was tired of blonde. So this happened.

I kept it this color while I was growing it out.  I wanted my long hair back. Long hair has always been the goal. It's always been what I was headed for. I liked all my short haircuts but there wasn't a single one of them that made me feel more "me" than when I had long hair. 

Easter Sunday 2013.

Melting on our cruise in October 2013.

Date Night! August 2014.

Random Kitchen Selfie - September 2014.

But I find myself revisiting an old character on stage that is quite famously a blonde. So I needed to get me some highlights. An all-over bleach would have probably yanked my hair out by the roots because my hair is so dry and damaged. So my stylist and I decided that a super heavy highlight was in order.

This was the finished product.

I was headed home from the salon and snapped this in-the-car selfie to send to my Mom. I never like the way a stylist styles my hair so I went home and re-styled it before rehearsal.

Yesterday, when I was doing my hair, it all blended together much more evenly and looks way more blonde now. I truly love it. I don't even look like the me of today. I look like the me of 2006! And I like that. Aaron loves it. My Mom loves it. My co-stars love it. It IS very, VERY dry, so I'm constantly lathering it up in moroccan oil and coconut oil... anything to give it a little moisture. 

So that's my hair journey from birth till now. Can you believe I changed my hair so many times? How many times have you changed your hair? Are you a short hair person or a long hair person? Tell me all about your hair journey in the comments below!

Thanks for taking this walk down memory lane with me!