If I Can Make It There...

I am so excited, I can barely contain myself!  I couldn't fall asleep last night until after 2 a.m....which is a rough start to a day that includes a Crossfit workout!  But it doesn't matter!!!!  I am to the moon and back excited!

Let me explain...months ago, I met Kelly.  Kelly went to high school with my husband, Jay.  I met her at their 20(what!!!) year reunion.  Kelly owns a cute little hair salon right here in our own community...so, I let her take a whack at my hair.  Now, I haven't blogged much about my hair...but it is both a blessing and a curse.  My hair is thick! Thicker than what you're thinking, too...like waaaaaaay more thick.  It's curly/frizzy/unruly.  I always have it pulled back.  Growing up, no one knew how to care for my hair, so I would be tortured daily by having someone pull a brush through my tangled mess.  That hurt so badly, that my dad took me to a salon and had them cut off all my hair.  That made it worse!  I hate getting it wet because of the frizz factor.  Praise the Lord that my arm was in a cast my Senior year of H.S. so I got to skip swimming!  Getting a hair cut at any salon always resulted in tears.  It's not soft and touchable...you cannot and will not run your fingers through it...ever.

But at the same time, if I take the time and energy to "do it", I receive compliments and raves.  To me it's a grass is always greener kind of situation.  I would love to know what it's like to have straight hair that can be styled in many different ways...or left down to blow in the wind.  If I could go back in time, I would feather the crap outta my hair!  The invention of ceramic straighteners has allowed me to slightly experience the joy of free flowing locks...but the damage it does is almost not worth it.

And can we talk about how much product I use???  Shampoo, conditioner, spray gel, regular gel, mousse, hairspray.  Yikes!

So back to point at hand.  When Kelly did my hair, she shared a book with me called  The Curly Girl's Handbook.  It was AH.MAZE.ING!!!  Everything I had ever felt or experienced about my hair was in these pages!  Anywho, the author's method for great curly hair is quite out of the ordinary....NO SHAMPOO!!!  NO HEAT!!!!  NO STRAIGHTENING!!!   DevaConcepts, of course, has their own line of products, which I was more than happy to dump my grocery store bought products for these rich, luxurious ones.

Now, fast forward a couple of months...and I LOVE the results.  I'm still learning techniques.  It's hard to break decades of bad habits...but I'm getting there.  And my hair is about 100x healthier!

The other day, I noticed on the Deva Curl Facebook page a call out for anyone willing to be a hair model participant in their (super fancy) salon in New York City.  After showing it to Jay in a joking way, he suggested that I send an email.  Why not?  Well....because it's in New York, it's in 2 weeks, we have 3 kids, school, work, volleyball, I'd have to go by myself, they probably received a million emails already....So, I went ahead and sent an email to the contact person.  Almost immediately, I received an email back stating that there was ONE spot left and to send a photo.  I did not hear anything back and the next day I saw on the FB page that all the spaces had been filled.  I assumed I had not been chosen, and while I felt a tinge of disappointment, I didn't lose any sleep over it.

Just last night, I received an email from the contact person stating that I HAD BEEN CHOSEN!!!!  I get to go to New York City, and get a haircut (specifically for curly hair like mine) and highlights valued at $300!!!  Plus a gift bag of hair goodies, their special micro-fiber towel and a video of the process!!!  I'm so thrilled...though, nervous, too, that I might cry (out of happiness) or maybe offer to adopt the stylist so he/she can come home with me because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Now there's a mad dash to make arrangements and plans and back up plans, get some books to read, figure out how to make this happen!!!  But, if I can make it there....

*When all is said and done, I'll create a photo montage of my hair through the years...

Where have you labored?

To commemorate last year's Labor Day, I did a 3 part blog-a-thon detailing the labors of our little bundles of joy...I'm gonna go ahead and not do that again.  But, if you really want to read all the juicy (ewwwww!!!) details, feel free here.

For this Labor Day, I thought it would be swell to share our working backgrounds...where have you actually labored?  As in work...not birthin' them babies.

My first job, I guess you could call it, was working for a mini-golf course haunted house...getting paid under the table, of course.  It was my esteemed pleasure to welcome visitors, advise them not to touch the "monsters" and "ghosts", and make empty promises that the ghouls would not touch them.  It was a horrible job.

Next, I worked at The County Seat...for all you youngsters, it's a now defunct clothing retailer that specialized in matching entire outfits.  I could hook you up with some Levi's, a t-shirt, Henley, flannel and scrunchy in under 10 minutes.  Boom!  That lasted for about a year...

Then, I moved onto Deck The Walls...a custom framing and art store.  I really enjoyed this job at the mall because it did involve (some) skill and culture.  I stayed with this job for about 5 years....

Lastly, I was an Educational Interpreter for Deaf students in public schools.  It sounds cooler than it really was...and yes, I know sign language and no, knowing how to do the alphabet isn't the same thing.  I did this for 6 years until I went into LABOR (ha!) with our Joe.

Since having kids, I dabbled briefly with an office supply distributor where I was able to work from home and a kids' safety program (that gave me nightmares)...other than that, I sit around and eat Bon-Bon's all day while watching my "stories".

What about you?  What's your work history?

And so it begins...

Welcome, September!!!!  I feel like this summer went by in a wink of an eye on some days and others dragged on like America's Got Talent.  This summer was unique in that Trey has taken some sort of secret Terrible Two oath.  We could barely go anywhere with all 5 of us without a Plan A, Plan B and a "Bail Completely" plan.  How does one keep 3 kids busy/happy/satisfied that are at all different stages and ages?  Don't ask me, clearly I don't know since all of my kids can sing the theme song to Phineas and Ferb.  Trying to do anything that might make Trey skip a nap is just asking for trouble...he'd probably shank you with a shiv whittled out of a crib slat.  That kid takes nap time seriously.  Though between crying jags, we were able to have fun.  Jay and I would take turns taking the kids to the pool...we visited the Children's Museum, Kennywood...went to few parties, had family in town.  It was a fairly low key summer...just my style.

But, today we sent Joe off to second grade and my baby girl Bella to Kindergarten!  Oh! My nerves!  What if she needed me?  What if she got lost?  What if someone was mean to her?  What if she cranked out?  What if they put her on a bus????  We're walkers this year, and there's just something great about that.  It feels so Americana...fresh air in the morning and afternoon...ahhhh.  Ask me how I feel about this when it's 0 degrees outside...Now I get to spend some serious time with Trey!  How will we fill our days????  Hopefully, the laundry will get done a little faster, some projects will get out of my head and actually materialize, and maybe a bit more time for blogging since everyone conked out at 8:00 over here...

I think we're off to good start...