Design 1 Salon - Third Time's the Charm?

Walmart service and average quality haircuts at Manhattan prices?

The week before Christmas, I decided to get my hair chopped off. I was tired of looking the same way for the past 5 or so years. I wanted to look different and also not be able to put my hair in a ponytail all the time. I went in and came out looking pretty good - I could even make it look good on my own! (That's the true test of getting your hair cut - if you can make the cut look good at home, on your own.) I just thought that some of the layers on my left side were a bit long. So, I decided to go back a couple days later to get the left side tweaked, just a little bit. Unfortunately, my stylist had that day off and I ended up with a different lady.

She totally messed me up.

I got home and tried to do it the next day, and i looked like I had a bowl cut. I was furious. So I called to let the salon know what was going on. The receptionist told me that the manager would call me withing the next couple of days - by Tuesday (the 23rd) at the latest.

He never called.

Being that I've had 12 years of customer service work, things like this REALLY tick me off. The man had 2 1/2 days to call me!

I called that evening and left a message and also sent an email message to them, demanding a phone call on the day after Christmas.

He calls me, gives me a half-hearted apology and tells me that my next appointment is on the house. Essentially saying that he was perfectly content to let me deal with a bad haircut for a month. I hung up, frustrated. It was one of those situations that just kind of festers and I was getting more and more pissed off by the second.

I called back and told Mr. Manager that I thought it was unacceptable that he was content to let me sit with a bad haircut for a month and that he could mail me a refund for the haircut.

That changed his tune. All of the sudden, he was singing a different tune, telling me that he could get me in as soon as I could get in.

I went in last week and got re-tweaked. My hair looks OK, I can get it to do a little bit, but its still more challenging than I think it should be. Plus, one section is still a little long. But hey, I got a free eyebrow wax out of it.

I just don't understand why it is so difficult to get a decent haircut. I am upfront with the stylist and tell them that I don't want anything high-maintenance. I am only willing to spend 10 minutes on my hair on any given day. I have too much else to do, than to waste time primping in the bathroom. Why is every stylist afraid to CUT MY HAIR! Don't they get trained on face shapes and trends and judging what cuts are more difficult to style?

Just cut it! It will grow back!

Maybe its time to grow it out again - at least I can throw it up into a pony tail.

...And A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Oh, my goodness! Am I tired! I spent 13 hours on my feet in the kitchen today, baking. I don't like to bake - I don't like the mess and I don't like that once the food is in the oven I can't tweak it if necessary. Its like the point of no return. So, when I bake, I bake a LOT.

I got up at 7:30 today and fed the baby. I got up again at 8:00 and changed her diaper and fed all the kids and started making batter. I made sugar cookies, thumbprints, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chip, white chocolate chip and chocolate raspberry chip cookies. The first 3 required refrigeration for 1-3 hours before baking, so I made those first. Then I started on all the chip cookies, nursed the baby and laid her down for her morning nap, made lunch for the kids, made some more cookies, made lunch for myself, made more cookies, nursed the baby and laid her down for her afternoon nap, and finally finished up the cookies.

Then I took a shower, at 4:30 pm, got out and reheated leftovers for dinner. After dinner, I cleaned up, gave the kids a bath, played crazy eights and started tomorrow's dinner - lasagna. While that was simmering, the kids and I watched the Grinch Who Stole Christmas (animated) and I nursed the baby and put her down to bed. Then I assembled the lasagna and here I am watching the last episode of Friends, Season 7 and blogging. As soon as the episode is over, I'm going to switch the disk, make some popcorn and PUT MY FEET UP!

Back to the cookies, I made what must be about 1,000 cookies (only a slight exaggeration). I used 21 eggs, almost 5 pounds of butter, 6 pounds of flour and about 5 pounds of sugar. It was a lot of fun making the sugar cookies with the kids. I was much smarter than I was last year, when I let the kids decorate in the (carpeted) dining room. They used so much colored sugar that my carpet was red and green and took more than 3 swipes with the vacuum to get it all out. This year, I had them decorating in the kitchen. Still lots of sugar used, but MUCH easier to clean up.

Now I've got to figure out how I'm going to get everything done that I need to get done tomorrow: sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, heating up dinner, dropping off cookies to my brother- and sister-in-law's house, taking care of all the kids plus my nephew and dropping him off before getting to church at 7pm; all while being lazy and relaxing. Something tells me that the being lazy part isn't going to happen. Especially with the forecasted 10 inches of snow that we are going to get making the roads all nasty.

I love Christmas!!!

Christmas "Break"

So, we had ourselves another busy weekend this past weekend. My son was a reader in the Church Christmas Program. He had a practice on Saturday at 3pm, while he was practicing, we went to Meijer down the street to get some groceries. The place was an absolute madhouse! Every single checkout lane was open and had at least a 15 minute wait. By the time we got done shopping and got back to the church, we had about 20 minutes to pass before the first performance, which took place at the 5pm service. We left as soon as the performance was done - we had to feed our dog and get the kids home, fed, bathed and in bed at a decent time. As it was, my oldest daughter fell asleep in church and didn't wake up until we got home.

The kids were in bed by 8pm and asleep by 9. I went to bed at midnight, well, I attempted to anyways. The baby woke up just as I was laying down, wanting to nurse. I had to get up at 6:30 the next morning. I got up at 6:30 and got myself ready, then woke up the rest of the clan at 7am to get dressed and out the door. Did I mention that it was blizzard conditions that morning? Being that there were 40mph winds, I let the van warm up for 30 minutes rather than my usual 10 or 15. The roads were nasty and visibility was worse. I had to drive the whole way with my hazards on, because there is a fuse out or a loose connection causing my tail lights not to light.

We got to church by 8am. I nursed the baby and got her dressed while my wonderful husband got the breads that I brought ready for the breakfast after the program at the 8:30 service. The kids performed, had breakfast and then went to Sunday school. I went to the nursery to feed the baby some Cheerios and crackers. And to change her clothes 2 more times because she managed to pee through 2 diapers within one hour. Then we went in for the 11am service and performance. We left as soon as the kids were done with that one. We were all tired and had had enough. We went to Meijer to pick up a few things that we had forgotten on Saturday and we bought our "big" family Christmas gift - a Wii. Yay!

We went home, had lunch and the kids watched a movie while Mom, Dad and baby napped. We were beat!

Political Correctness Gone Crazy

Why are people and/or government so intent on pushing their opinions and preferences on the rest of society?

1. Saying Merry Christmas - Seriously? If this offends you, why can't you just ignore it or just respond with a polite "Happy Holidays" or even just a "Have a nice day".
2. A man at work giving a woman a compliment is NOT sexist! If a man (or anybody) saying anything nice to you really offends you, either ignore it or politely ask them to stop. There is no need to involve superiors or lawyers.
3. "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance - If this offends you, just close your mouth when this part is said and jump back in on "indivisible..." Seriously, nobody will notice!
4. Smoking - I am not a smoker, but shouldn't business owners decide whether or not they want to allow people to smoke on their property?
5. Separation of church and state: "In God We Trust" and other religious items - Get over it! This country was founded by Christians, looking to be able to practice their religious beliefs without persecution. You can't change history. If you don't like it, ignore it! The colonists wanted separation, so that religious leaders wouldn't influence and control every aspect of how the nation was run. Separation does not equal obliteration.
6. Illegal immigrants - Why are people so concerned about offending people who don't belong here in the first place. If you aren't a citizen, why do you think you deserve to be treated like one?

Does EVERYTHING need to be an issue? I'm all for being polite and courteous, but political correctness is just out of control and impossible to accomplish.

You can't make everyone happy all of the time.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I was listening to the "Rick and Scott Show" yesterday morning, substitute hosted by Allen Hunt. I enjoy Mr. Hunt, who is a former minister and now radio talk-show host who focuses on societal issues of right and wrong, not 'left' and 'right'. One of his topics today was asking how people are handling tightening their belts for Christmas.

One woman called in and told a story about her kids' wonderful demonstration of love and maturity. Basically, she is a wife and stay at home mom of 5 kids, I'm not sure what ages. Her family has weekly meetings (a really great idea) and at a recent family meeting, they were going to discuss with their kids about what one really special gift they would want for Christmas, without breaking the bank. Each and every kid told Mom and Dad what toys that they wanted. The special part is, as Mom found out later, the kids had their own meeting prior to the family meeting. They discussed their Christmas gifts and they knew that money was tight and they all agreed to only ask for gifts that were less than $10.

What wonderful kids! Obviously, they understand the TRUE meaning of Christmas and I think that the initiative that they showed is indicative of what good parenting they've received.

I can only hope that my kids are even moderately as compassionate as those kids are.

My All-Time Absolute Favorite Christmas Song

O Holy Night, as sung by Josh Groban




This song gives me chills up and down my spine. The beauty of it almost brings me to tears.

The Holiday Craziness Isn't So Crazy This Year!

This past weekend, however, WAS crazy. Since 1999, my Decembers have been a flurry of activity, being double and triple booked for Christmas parties each of the 4 or 5 weekends of the month. Both my wonderful husband and I come from divorced (and mostly remarried) parents. With all that dysfunction comes a lot of holiday expectations. There's always the party with my Mom and Step-father, the party with my Step-father's family (who are all great), with my Mom's side of the family, with my Dad and Step-mother (which has recently been eliminated - their decision, not ours), with my Dad's side of the family, with my wonderful husband's Dad and Step-mother, and my former employer had a party and we each threw parties at our respective restaurants. And then, there's the Christmas Eve service at church and, starting last year, the children's musical at church. Finally, there's Christmas day, which we ALWAYS spend at home, because its no fun to open all the presents and then leave.

This year, we only have/had a few parties: with my Dad's side of the family, with my Mom's side of the family, with my Mom and Step-father and siblings and, eventually one with my wonderful husband's family - that still isn't set.

Over Thanksgiving, my wonderful husband's brother asked him to help him clean up and and make his desktop and laptop computers more efficient. They live in Sterling Heights and we live in Grand Rapids. My wonderful husband thought it would be easiest to go there and do what needed to be done. My sister-in-law insisted that our whole family come over to their house so that the kids could play together. Then, all of us were invited to a birthday party of a different nephew, who lives in Holly. And, there was an extra practice scheduled for the musical at church on Saturday morning.

So, Friday night, my husband has to work the closing shift - until 4am. I spent Friday evening packing and making a fruit salad and cutting vegetables. Saturday, I had to get up at 7:30, to get everything else ready that couldn't be done the night before. I let my wonderful husband sleep for as long as possible. So, we all loaded up (including the dog) and went to my mother-in-law's house to drop off the dog, the husband and the girls. Then I took my son to church for practice, went to Meijer to pick up some baby food and juice and dropped my chopped veggies off to my brother's house so he could bring them to the party for me. Then I went back to my mother-in-law's house so that my wonderful husband could go deliver the rest of the popcorn from the Boy Scout's popcorn sale.

Then we made the 2 1/2 hour drive to Holly and did the birthday party thing. It was a nice party, but very busy. My baby just started the separation anxiety thing (I've never had to deal with that before!) and with that, she had 2 offended Grandparents. Can she help that they've only seen her twice? After we left the party that ended late, we drove another hour to brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner and computer stuff. I got the kids ready and in bed by 9:30. My son fell asleep by about 10, which wasn't bad, since he was sleeping on an air mattress with 2 of his other cousins and another cousin was in the bed. My oldest daughter fell asleep around 1:00am and the baby never slept for more than 1 hour at a time.

She cried all night long. As a result, I only got a cumulative 3 hours of sleep. Then we went to church, where my wonderful husband proceeded to fall asleep about 1,000 times. Then we went back to the house, where my husband worked on finishing up computer stuff until 1:30. At which time, we said our good-byes and made the 3 1/2 hour drive to Greenville. We had to stop 3 times! My oldest daughter slept for about 3 hours, which was definitely necessary.

We had a good time at the Christmas party and left at 7:00pm, at which time, my daughter had already had at least 2 meltdowns and the baby had already offended almost every adult there with her mommy clingy-ness. We drove 45 minutes to my mother-in-law's house to pick up the dog and then another 20 minutes home.

We got home, got the kids in bed, unpacked and crashed. The baby slept all night, until 5:00am and we were back to business as usual Monday morning, with a 2 hour school delay.

Yeah, not so crazy...Yet.

My Goals for the Next 10 Years

I ran across a question in Yahoo! Answers asking what my goals are for the next 10 years.

Here's what I came up with:
*Taking the family to Disney World next December.
*Having another baby in 2010.
*Going to Hawaii for 10 yr. anniversary in 2011.
*A larger home by 2013.
*Taking the family to Disney World again in 2015.

My son will be 16 and my oldest daughter will be 14 in 2018, so I hope that I will have given them the knowledge and security to deal with the pressures of being a teenager. I also hope that I will be able to maintain my sanity while they do that!

My baby now will be 10 and if I'm blessed with a baby in 2010, he/she will be 8 in 2018. , so I hope that they would still enjoy being a kid and won't try to grow up too fast.

Thanks for asking!

12 Days of Christmas

As performed by Straight No Chaser





I LOVE this video!

Interesting Day

Apparently, my kids' huge stash of toys just isn't fun any more...My daughter decided to make a sunblock and craft paint stew while she was playing downstairs today.

I almost stepped in it.

My son and daughter were wrestling around upstairs after dinner tonight. I usually don't mind them rough housing, when they're downstairs or outside. I also tell them that if they are rough housing, that they should expect to get hurt. Accidentally, of course.

He thought it would be a good idea to haul off an punch his sister in the nose.

My baby likes to eat paper. I am constantly pulling papers and the like out of her mouth.

I found a piece of pink post-it note in her diaper.

My sister-in-law is pregnant with #4. This is the family that is in the Air Force and lives in Germany. My brother-in-law came back 3 months ago after being deployed in Kuwait and is leaving again in January for another tour (not sure where). Of course my father-in-law and mother-in-law are thrilled for this new baby (they are Catholic).

But they haven't even met baby #3.

My ex-sister-in-law may be pregnant with #3. Her oldest just turned 10 the other day! She did recently get re-married a short while ago and they just bought a new house.

It's the natural progression of things.

My husband took his car to get fixed 2 weeks ago. It was supposed to be done last Wednesday.

It' still in the shop.

Griffins game with the Cub Scouts

Oh, my gosh! We had so much fun last night. My family, minus the baby, went to a Griffins hockey game with the Cub Scouts. The kids had such a good time. We went about a year ago with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their kids and my kids got very bored and restless right away. This year was completely opposite of that. My daughter was reading the numbers on the jerseys and was cheering for them. "GO FIVE! GO FIVE!!!" (I just had to remind her that we were cheering for the guys in the white jerseys!) and my son had fun watching, because they have been playing indoor hockey in his gym class.

Sadly, we had to leave at the beginning of the third period, because it was already 10pm and we had church today. Because it was already 2 hours past my kids' bedtime and they were having so much fun, this caused quite the commotion. "I don't WANNA go!" I didn't want to go either - I love hockey. But I knew that by the time we left and picked up baby from mother-in-law's house and finally got home, it would be 11pm. If we stayed till the end of the game, we wouldn't have gotten home until midnight. No thanks! Sure enough, as soon as the car was moving, my daughter was asleep. My son fell asleep as soon as we got to Grandma's house.

I went in and grabbed the baby and all of my other daughter's things from her overnight. It turns out that the baby cried (screamed), inconsolably for 2 1/2 hours. This is exactly what she did the night before. All night long. I felt terrible. Luckily, my mother-in-law doesn't let crying bother her as easily. Sometimes there's just nothing you can do about it besides just holding her. Needless to say, I am exhausted. Of the past 3 weeks, she has only slept more than 3 hours at a stretch about 3 nights. I ended up not going to church because I couldn't drag my butt out of bed this morning. We think the antibiotics are making her have an upset tummy. She has had just nasty diapers and a little bit of throw up too. I can't wait till her meds are done!

All in all, we had a terrific time last night. I am so glad that my kids are getting old enough that we can do things that the adults like, instead of always going to the playplace in the mall, or the Children's Museum or Chuck E. Cheeses. Which are all good places, but its nice to do adult-y things too!

Tales of an Oppressed 6 Year Old Boy

Who knew that 6 would be such a rough age? My son is, generally, a pretty good kid. Sure, he had the terrible twos and threes, but even that only lasted from when he was 18 months until he was 30 months. So really, he didn't even make it to the terrible threes. It only took him about a month after my oldest daughter was born (he was 28 months) to get used to her and the same to get used to the baby (he was 5 1/2). Shortly thereafter, he was daytime potty trained. He was a good 3 year old, very eloquent and smart. He was a good 4 and 5 year old, very polite and creative. But 6, oh 6, is very rough.

We already had the "Its not fair" thing. Now its just a bunch of whining, demanding and bragging. All things that I DON'T put up with. Everything has to be his way. He questions everything that is asked of him. He constantly tells his sister how much better he is than her at Super Mario Brothers, Tag, Ring Around the Rosie, coloring, writing, building with Legos, etc. He threw a fit today because my wonderful husband turned off the Super Nintendo for him while he was getting his gear on to go to school. He then attempted to turn the system back on so HE could turn it off like he wanted. Everything has got to be his way or he's throwing a fit.

Needless to say, he's been spending a lot of time in his room lately with only his thoughts and a book to read - his toys are downstairs. My wonderful husband and I are "Love and Logic" parents and we do not care to listen to his attitude. So there's a lot of "Uh-ohs" going on in my house. Hopefully, soon, he'll remember that if he wants to be in the rest of the house with us, and his playthings, he's going to have to treat us all with respect.

I'm not even looking forward to what's going to happen when he gets home from school today. My mother-in-law is picking him up, as my husband is driving our only functioning vehicle. When she gets here, she will be taking my oldest daughter to her house for an overnight. My daughter asked and grandma said yes. I am quite certain that he will promptly throw a fit as they are getting ready to walk out the door. Personally, I am thankful that they are getting some time apart from each other. They each need a bit of space to just be themselves. And, hey, if he wants to go, he should just ask!

We have some pretty fun things planned for this month and over Christmas break. I really hope his attitude doesn't force us to leave him behind or change our plans. Or return his Christmas gifts.

A House Full of Sickies - Let the Fun Begin!

Two weeks ago, me and all the kids got flu shots. The next day, we all started to get the scratchy throats and runny noses. I've been fighting it off as best as I can, but the sickies are running through our house. My wonderful husband (who didn't get the vaccination) came down with a nasty cold over Thanksgiving weekend. My baby has a nasty cold and a double ear infection. My son also came down with a cold and had a stomach bug. My oldest daughter also came down with a cold, but not overly bad. I have been fighting off a little cold and also had the stomach bug.

The fun part is, ever since they pulled all the good kids medications off the shelves, I really have no good way to help ease the girls' symptoms so that they can get the rest that they need to fight off the colds. And, I don't know what medications I can take, being a breastfeeding mother, that won't get to baby through my breast milk. The only thing I know I can take is Robitussin DM, which I won't because I don't DO liquid cough medicine. Except for the Robitussin with codeine, but even then, its a last resort.

I have been toying with the idea of homeopathy. I put out some feelers on a forum that I post on. It seems that it is more difficult than I think it should be. We'll see how it goes... Hopefully the rest of the winter isn't as fun-filled as the past two weeks have been.