More during pictures...

Thrifty with a capital T

I've always prided myself in being thrifty. I've also also always prided my self in being pretty low maintenance. Some may argue that I should probably take more pride in my appearance but, Whatever. So being the thrifty, low maintenance girl that I am, I almost always color my own hair. I say almost because there have been a few times I've ran to the salon to fix the ghastly orange color my hair had become. I have NEVER once been fully satisfied with my home hair coloring sessions but, hey, I refuse to pay $50-80 to get it done at a salon. I would cut my own hair if I could! Last time I colored was one of those times I ran to get it fixed. It was in November and we were going in for family pictures and so in an attempt to hide those grays I colored my own hair. I went to Sally's and told them I wanted to be dark blond/light brown and that I always pull brassy tones. The girl hooked me up and sent me on my way. Well, it was orange and I ran to get it fixed since pictures were the next day. Come to think of it, I've had three emergency "fix my hair" sessions at salons, all the day before pictures. I'm starting to see a pattern! So like I said before, I have NEVER been satisfied with my home hair coloring. HOWEVER, being the thrifty, low maintenance gal I am, I only get it FIXED if I'm getting my picture taken. The rest of the time I just walk around with slightly orange, slightly spotted, or 4 inches of root hair. Part of the problem is that Adam prefers me blond. I prefer brunette. My actual hair color is light/medium brown so I usually compromise with dark blond. I really wish that we all had Polly Pocket heads and we could just slip on which color and style fits us that day. What I'd settle for is finding my natural color and doing gray coverage ever six weeks. Yes, that dreaded gray. If I didn't have it I would just go au-natural. So, anyway, here is my story. The other day I'm noticing the roots and gray is getting pretty bad. So, while at Walgreens I pick up a box a Clairol (on clearance for $2.19! See, pretty thrifty!) I know Adam is going to be less than happy since it's medium ash brown. Time to be realistic. Yesterday before he arrived home I quickly decide to color my hair to "suprise" him. I've done this hundreds of times so I skip the directions and go to work. 25 min later I look at my hair. Odd...it looks the same. So, I rinse it out to get a better look. No really, it looks the same! So I'm looking in the garbage, pulling everything out when I realize I had mixed the developer with the conditioner. No wonder it didn't seem to go as far as I thought it should. And I did find it a little odd that it was white and not brown. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But hey it was only $2.19 so I head back to Walgreens. So, today, I make sure I mix the color with the developer and I saturate my hair. I'm feeling pretty good as I rinse it out and look in the mirror. I'm liking the color as I blow it out. Then I look a little closer. Hmmm, still some gray. Hmmm, is that some blond? Wait a second...It that a lot of blonde? and STRIPES???? Yep, my hair is a modge podge of a mess! But...I refuse to pay $50-80 to get it fixed. I figure since I never leave my house anyway, no one will notice right? Just don't laugh the next time you see me. Just remember, I'm a thrifty, low maintenance gal OK?

These pictures really don't do it justice! Do you know how hard it is to take pictures of the back of your head? I think my sis is right, it's either wear a pontytail everday for the next 6 weeks or head back to Walgreens...I'm chosing the latter...Wish me luck!

Matthais's rebuttal

When I picked up all the wrappers and diet coke cans off of Matthais's floor yesterday I left him a little note telling him he owed me $5.00. I felt that was fair considering that is how much I would need to replace the items used. He came home from school yesterday and I didn't say anything to him. I wanted him to find it on his own so I could see how he'd react. He went to his room to put his backpack away and didn't even notice the pile of garbage on his bed. I finally pointed it out to him. After a while he started moping around the house with a sad puppy look. I asked him what was up and he said he felt bad. He apologized several times and offered to babysit and clean the house. Wow! I thought...What a great kid! Then I found these on my bed...


My original note with Matthais's rebuttal...

In case I didn't get the point, he wrote me another one...

I thought about responding with a note of my own...

But hey, I am his mom! I guess I should be the bigger person right? I just hope he understands that maybe next time he should ask permission before he devours a weeks worth of snacks in one day!

Tweenager

Matthais has recently been giving me glimpses into the teenage years. Last week at a sleepover he decided to stay up all night. Literally. He know this is against our rules but he did it anyway. The next day (Saturday) he was so tired but we made him stay up. Finally around6:00 he crashed. The next morning I went down to wake him up for church at 10:00. At 10:45 as we were walking out the door we called him up for prayer and he never came. I went down to see what he was doing and found him just getting dressed. He had gone back to sleep. We left and told him he had 20 min to get dressed and walk to church. He has started talking back and arguing and challenging our authority. And then today, there was this...


I went downstairs to get Owen out of Matthais's room and I found this. Only, it wasn't neatly piled on his bed. I did that and wrote him a little note informing him that he owes me $5. Seriously, I bought those granola bars YESTERDAY! And they were for our 72 hour kits that I'm switching the food out of. There were 20 wrappers. And the diet coke!!!! I'm pretty possessive about that!!! No wonder I had only one left today. I couldn't believe I went through that case so fast. Now it makes more sense. So, what do I do now? I mean, if he's hungry I want to feed him but I can't afford this kind of nonsense! I've heard people talk about how their teenage boys eat them out of house and home. I don't think I'm ready for this!

Shopping euphoria

Look what I bought today! All of this for less than 50 cents. 48 cents to be exact....

2 sunsilk hairsprays
2 dove conditioners
2 sunsilk mousses
2 pantene shampoos
1 pantene mousse

Don't you just love deals like that?? There may be some left at walgreens. Don't forget your coupons!

Home sweet home

Now that we're putting in a new floor I can't help but notice all the OTHER things I hate about this house. The blue carpet in the dining room was such a focus for me that now that it's gone, I have lots of other complaints. Let me just start by saying, I am VERY grateful for a home. We feel very blessed to be where we are and to have what we have. That being said...we did not buy this home for the house. We bought it for the 3/4 acre yard. We LOVE the yard. We have a blast in the yard. The yard is by far the best thing about our house. The actual house is, well, there is much to be desired. I hate the floor plan, The three flights of stairs, The laundry room on the very bottom floor and there is really no room big enough to host a big gathering. I hate the pink carpet downstairs, The carpet in the very basement is falling apart due to several floodings (before we moved here, thank goodness that's fixed!), The linoleum in the bathroom, the garage that's just not quite big enough for a car and a minivan. The list goes on and on. I try my hardest to not look at all the fabulous houses around me and wish for a little more....

We will probably be here forever and I am happy to be. I just want a few more changes. I've been bitten by the remodeling bug and now I want more! Someday....Someday....

During...

Here we are in the midst of the mess! Everyone helped with the tear out.

Adam and Jim worked all day and still didn't get it totally finished.

A few more weeks until we are totally done. So far it hasn't been too bad.