New Hair

I've been thinking a lot lately (like for the last year or so) that I need to do something new with my hair.  I have really fine hair that grows ridiculously slow (as in, I had it cut up to my shoulders 5 days before Paxton was born and in a year it had only grown down to the bottom of my shoulder blades), so I don't change it up very often.  And it usually is in either a "messy" bun or a pony tail because it is constanly static-y since it's so fine.  It's also bone-straight and refuses to hold a curl for more than a half hour no matter how much product I put in it.  I realized a few weeks ago that I have been doing the messy bun since about grade 9 ... and my 10 year high school reunion is this summer ... so that's about 13 years or so of pretty much the same 'do, pretty much every single day.  Definitely time to change things up.

So I just decided to stop thinking about it and do something about it.  I called the salon and made an appointment for a cut and some hi-lites for the next day.  Then I started thinking again.  I've never colored my hair ... well unless you count that one time in grade 7 when I used Kool Aid.  Long story short, in a frenzy of school spirit I dyed my hair red with Kool Aid (our colors are red and white).  My friends assured me that it would wash out within a week so my Mom let me do it.  However, my dirty blonde hair took the color extremely well and we had to cut about an inch of pink ends off a few weeks later.  But I don't think that really counts as coloring my hair.  I've had blonde hi-lites put in a few times, but that's playing it safe since it just looks like I've been out in the sun all summer and that it's growing out when it does in fact eventually grow out.  So when the stylist at the salon asked me whether I wanted to do hi-lites or an all over color, I decided to jump in with both feet and join "the dark side" as Kelly calls it.

And this is what I ended up with:

I know it's not the best picture since I'm wearing a black shirt ... but it's the only one I have so far :)  I've had this same sort of cut before, but this is the first time I've had bangs since the very late 80s or very early 90s ... let's just go with 1990 to be safe.  I distinctly remember that we were staying with our Aunt Kay for a week during the summer and she told us that we didn't have to have bangs.  In fact, if we wanted to, we could just grow them out until they were the same length as the rest of our hair.  What a novel idea!  And since then I have never had bangs.  I'm just fortunate to have 2 sisters who have been far more adventurous than I with their own hair, so I sort of knew what would work for me.  I mean, we don't really look alike or anything do we?

I mean, other than the fact that I apparently have had some sort of defect since birth which causes me to have no ability whatsoever to keep my eyes open while outdoors?  Really.  Just call me Squinty McSquinterson.  And guess what?  I had my hair in a messy bun for these pictures as well.  See?

Ok this one's sort of a messy bun/ponytail hybid.  But Kinsey did it for me so it's looks far more stilishly messy than what I normally can pull off by myself. (and yes this is one of my favorite pictures of Jay and me so I posted it.  Hey, it's my blog.  I can do what I want.)

But, getting back to my new hair ... I've just decided to embrace the fact that I was not blessed with great hair (and all those of you who say you'd kill for straight hair like mine, you can just shush.  This is my whine-fest.), and just go with something that's low-maintenance.  I've never had nor will I likely have the patience to maintain any sort of 'do that requires more than 5-10 minutes of effort.  I'm really happy with how the color turned out.  Now I'm just stuck with whether to go back to the salon for a touch-up when my roots start to grow out or to try my hand at a kit from Wal-Mart.  See?  I always find something to worry about.  I'm ridiculous.  I think I'm going to stick with the length though.  I really like it and I think it makes me look more my age.   What do you think?

First Haircut

Jay has been ragging on me about how Paxton needs a haircut for quite some time now.  I guess I've just been procrastinating because this is yet another milestone on our trip from babyhood into toddlerhood. *sigh*  Well, Paxton and I were in Raymond visiting Grammie, Pa and Auntie Kizzy on Sunday evening and I mentioned that Paxton did actually need a haircut.  Pa was quick to volunteer their clippers.  I politely informed my Father that I was disinclined to acquiesce to his request (something along the lines of, "You are not buzzing my son's head!).  Grammie was far more diplomatic and offered to give the boy a trim.

I think it went fairly well.  Paxton did not cry, whimper, or make any sort of noise of discomfort the entire time.  He was, however extremely interested in what Grammie was doing with the scissors and kept attempting to watch where they were (this involved a lot of head-turning).

Overall I think it turned out quite well.  And, like my Mom said, "You get what you pay for!"  At least he was spared the fate of his Mother's first haircut (courtesy of Auntie Kelly).  But that's a whole 'nother story ... and it doesn't have nearly as many cute pictures to go with it :)

Flashdancing Leprechaun

I know, you're pretty excited by the title of this post.  It brings all sorts of images of awesomeness to the brain.  I hope this doesn't disappoint.

Part I

Paxton's been "talking" a lot lately.  Not so much actual words, but a lot of gibberish.  And he's starting to do "sentences" where he'll string out a bunch of gibberish together and then wait for you to respond before he continues with the conversation.  This provides much entertainment for Jay and myself.  A little while ago, Paxton was jabbering away when we overheard something that sounded suspiciously like "A-hai-de-di-dai-de-di-dai-de-di-dai."  So we came to the conclusion that perhaps it's not gibberish he's speaking. Maybe we just can't understand his accent because ... he's a Leprechaun!  Now if only I could find his pot o' gold!

(I know it's kind of an old picture, but I was too lazy to make a hybrid of a picture of Paxton with a leprechaun picture from the internet.)

Part II

Have you seen the movie "Flashdance?"  Neither have I.  This is most likely due to the fact that it came out in 1983 (which is when I was born) and it involves high cut on the leg dance leotard looking outfits.  Here's what came up for the IMDB link when I Googled it "A Pittsburgh woman with two jobs as a welder and an exotic dancer wants to get into ballet school."  I know it sounds riveting.  No wonder people are perplexed that no "new" ideas are coming out for movies these days.

But I digress.  Although I have not seen Flashdance, I have seen this on various different occasions.  You only have to watch the first 30 seconds or so to understand where I'm going with this.  It might take a while, but we'll get there, so bear with me.

We have a footstool at the end of our bed.  It is there because our 85 lb Boxer refuses to jump up on the bed.  I know he can do it.  He just won't do it.  So we have the footstool in place because said Boxer will stand at the foot of our bed and whine incessantly if we are in bed and he wants up there and there is no footstool.  Not so awesome at 1 am, let me tell you.  Well, Paxton has started trying to climb up on the bed using said footstool.  He attacked this personal "Everest" one day while I was sorting laundry in the bedroom.  Needless to say, he did not reach the summit of our bed (I can only assume that this was because he lacked a Sherpa ... or possibly because he has short legs).  However, in the process he managed to recreate that scene from Flashdance (minus the bucket of water).

Because Paxton's legs aren't long enough to enable him to get up on the bed, he was stuck on the footstool doing a stutter-step a la "Flashdance."  Quite humerous.  But the hillarity doesn't end there.  Later that same day he decided it would be just oh so much fun to overturn the plastic triangular end-table in the living room and create an improvised dance floor. 

To our utter amusement, Paxton instructed us in the importance of stretching before engaging in exercise such as dancing.  (this was repeated over and over ... and on both sides)

We were then treated to another round of Flashdancing.  Unfortunately I was laughing too hard to get pictures of it.  (I will attempt to get a video to attone for this lack in photo-journalism.)  This dancing was interrupted quite frequently by attacks on both parents and the dogs.

I just handle how cute he is sometimes!

We're Still Alive!

I know many of you have probably been worried about my family's health and safety since it's been almost a month since my last post.  Let me assure you that we are still alive even if we are currently a little under the weather with some sort of cold Paxton brought home (once again I say it's a cruel joke that babies have such crappy immune systems).  Here's a quick update of what we've been up to in the last month.

First, I have a confession.  I feel so terrible ... we have hardly any pictures of our Christmas celebrations this year.  And this fact is made much worse because we actually did Christmas 5 separate times!  The only pictures we do have are from Christmas #3.  None of these celebrations were the grand "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"-esque Christensen Fun Family Christmas I'd been dremaing of and planning for since September (minus the shenanigans of course).  But is was hectic and all sorts of fun anyway.

We had our first Christmas celebration at Jay's Dad's house on December 11th.  Against everyone's better judgement, we packed up and headed over for dinner and presents.  I say against better judgement because all 3 of us had the flu.  Paxton was about 24 hours into it, I was about 6 hours into it, and Jay had just started exhibiting symptoms.  However we went because we had presents for people who would be there that we wouldn't see otherwise.  In retrospect it would have been smarter for Jay to have just driven over and dropped our presents off, but you know, hind-sight is 20-20 and all that.  Anyway, we went over and I'm pretty sure we succeeded in ruining the celebration for everyone.  Yay us.  Chirstmas number 2 was a get-together at Cristy and Mark's housethe following weekend.  We did a potluck dinner and then visited for a while.  It was really nice to see everyone before all the hectic-ness (I don't actually think that's a word but whatevs) of the next weekend.  Our third Christmas was with Jay's Mom.  We didn't do a big dinner, just some snacks and just kinda hung out.  Honestly if it hadn't been Christmas Eve you wouldn't have even known we were there for Christmas.  But it was good to see them either way.  Our fourth Christmas was the "Orphan Christmas" at our house.  I call it the Orphan Christmas because it was our first time without any of our parents being there.  My parents and Kinsey were up in Sylvan Lake with Kelly and her family, and Jay's Mom and step-Dad had backed out on us about a month earlier because other plans had come up.  So, we invited our friends Dan and Jess and Lyndsay and Cody over for dinner.  I made hashbrowns and 3 different kinds of quiche for breakfast.  We just kind of chillaxed and had coffee and Bailey's all morning.  This was followed by many rounds of mini-golf on the X-Box (I am very certain that I actually decreed that there would be no video games on Christmas Day, but somehow I was overruled).  I made a traditional Christmas dinner complete with a turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and a ham (I know, I'm super awesome like that) which was all quite delish if I do say so myself!  Our fifth Christmas was on Boxing Day when my parents and Kinsey stopped in on their way home.  We opened presents and then had a yummy lunch of leftovers.

New Year's was not so exciting around tese parts.  Jay and Paxton fell asleep on the couch around 8 pm.  I stayed up playing Lego Harry Potter until about 10:30pm and then went to bed.  I was surprised that I actually stayed awake until midnight while watching tv!  We just vegged out on New Year's Day.  I worked OT on the 2nd and then we went over to Ted and Kim's house for some celebrating with friends.

After the holidays, my work started ramping up to busy-ness.  January and February are our 2 busiest months of the year.  "How busy?" you might ask.  Well I'll explain it for you.  For the other 10 months of the year, someone who is processing the same stuff as me will generally have anywhere between 1 and 5 cases in their inventory at a time.  I think I'm currently at 25.  I worked 14 1/2 hours of OT last week and so far this week I think I've worked about 6 (I'll also be going in on Saturday).  I'm still so far behind that I think I'm ahead!  It's just sad because I usually work until about 6, so I'm home sometime between 6:15 and 6:30 depending on whether I need to stop for groceries or not, and Paxton goes to bed at 8 so I don't get to spend much time with him.  Anyways, that is my whining about work.  I'll save some for later rather than giving it all to you now.

Paxton is busy, busy all the time.  Apparently he has said "truck" and "button" at daycare, but still hasn't said anything at home.  Jay maintains that he says "Mom" and "Dad", but I maintain that they don't count since he doesn't associate the words with us.  Paxton's still loving daycare and is usually happy when I drop him off in the morning.  He's walking and "running" all over the place now.  His newest thing is to push stuff like his toy box (which is actually just an empty diaper box with toys in it) around the kitchen at "ramming speed" and run into the dogs.  They're good sports about it and it gives us many minutes of amusement.

I can't promise any regular posts for the next month and a half since I'm usually quite tired when I get home and I only get 1 day off a week now, but I'll do my best to keep you updated!  Here's your picture fix:

Hangin' out at Crisy & Mark's house 

Lyndsay and Jackie with Alexander and Carter 

Present from Carter

Present from Alexander 

Paxton also loves sitting in laundry baskets and doesn't care what they're filled with 

A fabulous faux-hawk courtesy of daycare ( I know he needs a haircut!) 

So cute moose sweater from Auntie Kelly (and the "Really Mom?" face)

Ramming Speed!

Traumatized dogs

Maggie cuddling with Dan and Jess

Paxton trying to push Dan 

I guess watching Dad peel potatoes just isn't as exciting as it used to be 

Once again with the toy box 

I'm going to get you, Mom! (That's not the stink eye.  It's just the way his face is)