Springtime in the desert

Spring. I love this time of year in Phoenix!

It means that I can now get up at 6am to go for a run before Tripp leaves for the station and not only is it light out, but it's cool! It won't be long before it will already be 90 at 6am, so I'm savoring this (ran 4 miles this morning, by the way!).

This time of year also means that we can take the kids on fun hikes and to the park and enjoy the fresh air!

And it means that I can plant these beauties and enjoy the glorious colors. Pretty soon all I'll be able to grow are marigolds and petunias.

These are my pretty pansies in the front of our house

And our grass in the front looks amazing! We've had so much rain lately that it's just as green as it can be

My roses are doing awesome! Just a few aphids so far. They will be plentiful soon (anyone have a surefire method to get rid of aphids?)

This is stock. I carried it in my wedding bouquet. It smells devine, but not as good as the smell of the orange blossoms right now!

Below is my planter that runs along the street. On Valentine's Day Tripp and I planted geraniums and ranunculas. The ranunculas died so I replaced it with verbena

These next pictures are from our backyard.

I love these things that are blooming on the walls

And this is one of the many lantana we have. It isn't as pretty as it'll be in the full blown summer. These things love the heat!

That is all of what is blooming in our yard for now!

The Horrifying Reveal!

So, a couple days ago, I took a before picture of me (with fairly long hair) and told you that I was going in to have my friend, Amie, who is going to cosmetology school, cut and color my hair. I was a little nervous since Amie is learning and has never cut my hair before, but also excited! It's been a long time since I'd done something fun with my hair! I was ready to go back to my short hair that I had about 2 years ago. I even brought in a picture. Here's what I wanted and this is the picture I brought in (that cute little girl is my dear friend, Carrie's little girl, Abby Rae):My awesome friend, Jessica, kept Casey and Emily for me so I could go to the appointment - Amie had blocked out 3 hours for my appt. (had hi-lights and low-lights and that takes a while to do). So, since Amie is learning and I was one of her hair models that she would be graded on, her instructor had to keep checking in on what she was doing. She consulted him about the colors we were going with and he had a few of his own suggestions, but we still went with what we wanted to do. The color turned out great! She did what I wanted, it wasn't too stripey and it looked really great! So on to the haircut. She asked me, "are you sure you want me to cut it?" I thought, well, maybe I should just leave it long and come back for a haircut another time. I had already been there a while and it was getting close to Ryan's school letting out. But Jessica said she could get Ryan for me and it was no problem to keep Casey and Emily for a bit longer. So I said, "yes, go for it". She cut and cut (the longest strand of hair she cut was about 8 inches!) and then she blew dried and styled it. I looked in the mirror and liked what I saw except for that top layer. I wanted it a bit shorter. She knew exactly what I meant and proceeded to do that. But first she had to check in with her instructor. She explained what she was about to do and he took the scissors from her and asked me if I minded if he showed her a technique. I said, go ahead. Oh. How. I. Wish. I'd. Said. No. He went all Edward Scissorhands on the back of my head!! But I couldn't see what he was doing. He was cutting and cutting, for like 15 minutes! Amie tried to politely intervene by touching pieces of my hair, as if to say, "what about this?". But he smacked her hand away like she was a child touching something she shouldn't! Finally I put my own hand back there and when I felt my hair, my stomach sank. It was gone. I could barely pinch the hair that was left on the back of my head. I said, "um, that's A LOT shorter than I wanted it." He said, "Well you wanted the weight line brought up, right?" I just said again, "that is just A LOT shorter than I wanted it". And I needed to get out of there. I didn't even look at myself. I couldn't. I was afraid. All I knew was that it had to look as bad as it felt.

Before I left, Amie took me into the Director's office and showed her my picture then showed her my hair and she said, "I'm so sorry, how can I make this up to you?" Well, there's nothing they can do. I asked Amie to come over to my house after school and try to fix it. She said she absolutely would.

I didn't realize how upset I was until I called Jessica to tell her I was on my way. She answered her phone and said, "how's it look?". I started bawling. She says, "are you for real right now?" I just sobbed and sobbed. I also called Tripp and sobbed all over again. Then I called Meredith and sobbed to her as well. I know it's only hair, and it will grow back. I should be this upset when I think about starving children in 3rd world countries, right? So I pulled myself together and went to pick up the kids. Meanwhile, Amie was on her way. She said after I left, she lost it in her director's office and just cleaned up her station and left school.

When I got home, Amie was there. I looked in the mirror for the first time. Oh. My. Word. This is what I saw:

This is what a "highly accredited" instructor, with lots of experience, who was introduced to Amie's class as someone they should consider lucky to be their teacher, did to my hair. Now scroll up and look at the picture I brought in. I ask you, does this haircut look ANYTHING like the picture I brought in? And it's not like I brought in a picture of some celebrity with a glamerous 'do. I brought in a picture of MYSELF with a haircut I've had before. Funny side note, the first 2 hours of class that day, he was lecturing them about "active listening". Huh. He needs to lecture himself about active listening, and maybe get his eyes checked.

Amie got to work trying to fix the mess. First things first, she cleaned up that weird "tail" thing in the back and then cut off the "dog ears" in the front. She played with her skinny flat iron too, to try a fun way to style it.

Here we are after an emotional day and the record breaking, longest haircut EVER! I sat down in her chair at 11am. This picture was taken at 6:30pm

So, while it's WAY shorter than I want, I'm getting used to it. Good thing my hair grows fast! And Amie is going to be an amazing hairdresser when she graduates in September!! I will refer everyone I know to her!

7

7 years ago today, Ryan, this is what you looked like.

I can't believe that now you look like this:

Where has the time gone? Your dad pointed out to me that we have been changing diapers for 7 years now (since Emily is not yet potty trained!). Wow.

Every year, your dad and I become more and more proud of you. You have such a tender heart and you have an especially soft spot for me, which I pray will always be there! You are my protector whenever I'm being attacked by the "daddy monster"! You are very concerned when you think I am sad. You tell me to make sure I get to bed on time if you can tell that I am tired. You also have a tender spot for Jesus. You love your Savior and I can't wait for you to get to know Him better as you mature!

You are fun and you make us laugh! Music to my ears is to hear your authentic belly laugh. All I had to do tonight to get you to laugh that hard was tell you the story of how when you were a newborn baby, I lifted up your bottom to change your diaper and poop shot out of you like a rocket and hit everything in it's path until the closet door stopped it and it ran down to the floor. You were laughing so hard that tears came to your eyes! It's worth it, I'll talk about poop if I get to hear that sweet laugh :-)

I hope you had fun at your baseball themed birthday party.

I know you are glad you finally have a razor scooter!

Since we let you kids choose what you want for dinner on your birthday, you chose Red Lobster (we have Grandma and Grandpa to thank for your love of lobster!). You didn't have lobster this time (only when Grandpa springs for it!) but you had shrimp skewers - off of the adult menu, I might add!

Pommie and Granddad joined us and so did Nan

Our waiter brought you out a cookie sundae thing with a candle

Ryan, I pray that you continue to seek the Lord with all of your heart. He loves you so much and has a plan for your life! Seek Him in all that you do and every decision that you make, and He will make your paths straight. I love you, Buddy! Keep up the good work!

Time for a New 'Do!

My friend Amie is going through cosmetology school. I volunteered to be one of her hair models so I will get a haircut and color and highlights for free! Well, almost free. I think I only have to pay $5 because she really only needs me to be a model for the color part, so I think I pay for the haircut. But that is irrelevant because it would normally cost me close $100 to have this done! Anyway, tomorrow is the day, I'm so excited to get a new look! Here is what I look like now:

Check back for the big reveal!

Doug & Karin

This past weekend I met, for the first time, my biological father and his wife. Doug and I have been in contact via email and phone for the past year and a half. It was so good to meet face to face! I've got a lot of pictures below from the 3 days they spent visiting us.

Emily is checking out the beautiful roses they brought us
Friday was such a gorgeous day, we spent a lot of time outside

When Ryan got home from school, he wanted to play baseball with "Mr. Doug"

The next day, Saturday, we drove them up to Sedona

We stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Cross which is a church built into the side of one of the red rock mountains

On this day, Doug and Karin celebrated 34 years of marriage - truly something to celebrate!

Do you believe this mansion? It's built at the bottom of the hill from the Chapel

From Sedona, we drove up and over to where Lew & Elaine are building a cabin. The kids pooped out on the way!

They had snow at their place and the boys wanted to shovel it. Doug joined in just for fun!

We spent a lot of time going through my scrapbooks! The kids enjoyed showing "Ms. Karin" their own albums

On Sunday they joined us at church then we went to lunch (Tripp's mom is in the picture with us)

Doug and Ryan played a few games of Tic Tac Toe while we waited for our food

Tripp found someone to play Cribbage with! Yeah, he cheated on Cory!

Karin and Emily, having a chat

Emily finally started to warm up to Doug and Karin by the end of the 2nd day

On Monday, before they headed back to CA, we stopped by to visit Tripp at the fire station

Lucy came with us, but she had to stay out in the bay with the truck

Tripp is explaining what happens when they get calls

And as he was explaining, they got a call! Tripp was driving that day (I think he's sexy behind the wheel the of a fire truck!)

It was cool for them to see him in action!

Emily blew her daddy kisses as he drove off

Casey and Doug are checking out the map

Some photo ops outside the fire station

One of just 2 photos of Doug and I together. Didn't realize that until going through them all after they left!

Emily is again, smelling the roses from Doug and Karin

I've never seen a more beautiful bouquet of roses before - these were stunning!

This visit was amazing. God's hand was all over it! Karin prayed that God would go before them and He did just that! It was so good to finally meet them face to face and give them great big hugs! And I so appreciate how they completely immersed themselves into our life for 3 days. What great, wonderful people. We are blessed.