Another day

Earlier today I was trying to figure out what on earth I could write about because, while our weekend was lovely and peaceful and serene, it was also very uneventful. And then I realized I had a few things to share but lacked the energy or the inclination to put them into any sort of narrative format. Thus, the following list was born.

1. I tried the baking soda on my hair and it worked like a charm. A charm I tell you. My hair had tons of volume and curled the way I wanted it to and the whole thing. It was absolutely perfect until I walked outside in the 100% humidity and it ruined it all. But that’s not the baking soda’s fault.

2. After much deliberation, I ended up buying a bottle of Amplify shampoo. I nearly went with Pureology because of all the love in the comments from last week, but it seemed to be geared more towards women that color their hair and I don’t color my hair. Yet.

As of now, my method of removing gray hair is to pluck them out with my tweezers. However, I think my hairline is beginning to recede so it may be time to reconsider the whole hair color thing.

So I bought Amplify since it seems to offer what I’m looking for, maximum volume. I also bought some Moroccan Oil and loved the way it made my hair feel. I’ll keep you posted on my thoughts after I’ve had a chance to see how my hair does when humidity isn’t a factor. Rumor has it there’s a cold front coming through on Wednesday and temps will PLUMMET to the mid-70’s.

3. On Friday night, P and I ended up watching Pretty Woman because there was nothing else on. I mentioned several times how I just absolutely coveted Julia’s hair and wardrobe in that entire movie back in 1990. (The brown polka dot dress? The orange walking shorts ensemble when she and Kit are talking by the pool at the Reg Bev Wil? Oh did I long for those outfits.) And then I said, “I think there were times I succeeded in getting my hair that big.”

P responded, “I think there were times you exceeded getting your hair that big.”

Well played, P. Well played.

4. Caroline and P went fishing again on Saturday. Here’s a little video of her with her fish if you’re interested.

Catfish from Big Mama on Vimeo.

In case you were wondering, P left his big hat at home.

Also, a few of you asked about the ranch last time. It’s a piece of property that belongs to P’s godfather and he lets us go down there whenever we want. I just wanted to clarify in case you had visions of us being like the Ewings with crystal decanters full of whiskey and outwitting Cliff Barnes every time he tries to take over our oil company.

5. I bought a bunch of fruit at the store yesterday in the hopes that I’ll actually, you know, eat it instead of a Hostess Cupcake next time I want a snack. I’ll let you know how that goes. The problem with oranges is their lack of chocolate with creme filling.

Y’all have a great day.

Listen.

Not that I have ever, EVER, questioned how much I love y’all, but, if I ever had, the passionate and lengthy responses left in answer to yesterday’s post about hair care reaffirmed that I adore every single one of you.

Now I just need to figure out how to try all the various suggestions without going bankrupt. And I’m definitely trying the baking soda thing tomorrow morning because I already have baking soda in my cabinet so total score on that. In addition, many of y’all helped me solidify some goals I had for myself in terms of securing some Moroccan Oil. I’d actually tried to buy some at Sephora several months ago but they had no idea what I was talking about and tried to sell me on what was certainly a lesser oil.

Nice try, Sephora, but I’m nobody’s hair care patsy.

As for the rest, I think I’ll go to Ulta tomorrow and perform a sight, see, and smell of all your recommendations. I’m sure it will take at least thirty minutes before they contemplate calling security to escort me from the premises.

Anyway, I want to say thank you. And what better way to say thank you than a little giveaway? Especially when there happens to be something I love SO MUCH right now that I would love to share it with the world and teach the world to sing in perfect harmony and buy the world a coke and keep it company.

That’s why I’ve decided to give away FIVE FREE DOWNLOADS of the new Passion – Here For You CD from the Passion 2011 conference.

I downloaded it last week and have listened to it nonstop ever since. It has become one of my top three CD’s of all time. Seriously.

I felt so passionate about it (Get it? Passionate? I’m so lame.) that I posted about it on Facebook and the Twitter. Which inspired Sophie to download it yesterday and she emailed me and said, “This is SO GOOD. It’s the kind of CD everyone ought to listen to because it’s just that good. Do you think we ought to give away some downloads of it?”

(Disclaimer: I’m not sure that is a verbatim quote. But it’s the gist.)

And I responded and said, “YES. THAT IS BRILLIANT. I WANT TO JUMP ON THAT BANDWAGON.”

(There again, the gist.)

And that is how the whole thing came into being. I am not being paid or compensated or given free CDs or a pet monkey in return for this. This is just from my heart because I love y’all.

(I just wanted to clarify for any FCC or FBI or CIA types that might be reading.)

So, here’s what you need to do for a chance to win:

1. Leave a comment on this post.

5. Winners will be notified by email and I’ll send you what you need.

Have a lovely day.

Edited to add: Here are the random numbers.

Here are your random numbers:

15 167 54 152 206
Timestamp: 2011-03-31 13:46:45 UTC

It was back to the real world for us yesterday. Alarm clocks and picking out school clothes and OH THE HUMANITY WHY IS IT STILL DARK OUTSIDE? It hit me like a kick in the pants. Fortunately Caroline was ready to go and energized by the prospect that there are only fifty more school days until summer.

After I dropped her off at school, I came home and played mental gymnastics with myself to find some sort of motivation to resume my Couch to 5K program. Yes, I realize this has been the longest journey ever from the couch to a 5k, but I keep getting sidetracked by things like illnesses, school vacations and remembering that I really don’t enjoy running. However, the warm weather and the spring flowers are taunting me with the reality that it’s only a matter of about one month before I’ll be in a swimsuit.

Which is also why I ate a healthy lunch of couscous and veggies while thinking about cheeseburgers and crispy taco plates and all the foods that taste better than vegetables.

On a side note, one of my friends has been seeing a doctor about some thyroid issues and the doctor has been on her about her diet. She asked if she ate any vegetables and my friend responded that she eats carrots. The doctor informed her that carrots should be considered a RECREATIONAL vegetable only. Why would anyone want to eat a carrot for recreational purposes? Isn’t that what Hostess Cupcakes are for?

I spent most of day catching up on all the things I neglected over Spring Break so I’ll spare you most of the details because do you really want to know the intricacies of me paying our cell phone bill? But I did finally get Caroline signed up for a week of day camp this summer which I’d been meaning to do before all the sessions filled up. P came home to work on some landscape bids and I told him I signed her up. He asked what the total cost was and I told him the price included the shuttle service to and from camp every day. (Sadly, it’s more than $15.00)

He agreed it was a good price and totally worth it since she loved it so much last year. Then he laughingly suggested that one of our friends who works out that way could just drive her back and forth every day. I said that would make the whole thing about 1,000 times more enjoyable because it would eliminate the whole bus ride with no air-conditioning unless you count the breeze from the rolled down windows. Which I don’t. And he looked at me incredulously and said, “That’s one of the best parts of the camp experience. The fact that you don’t like it speaks volumes about your personality.”

Umm…sorry. Clearly I am a freak of nature. Who doesn’t enjoy riding on a bus with no air-conditioning in June? Yes. I’m the weird one.

Anyway, while P and I were debating the joys to be found in riding on a hot bus and how it relates to a complete camp experience, he happened to glance at our front door and notice the piece of plywood that still resides where we are supposed to have a piece of beveled glass. A piece of beveled glass that was broken by our door guy during installation and promised to be replaced, oh, about six weeks ago. And then six weeks before that. And then maybe six weeks before that.

We’ve gotten so used to the piece of plywood and the extra-classy touch it adds to the living room that we occasionally forget that we are still in need of a piece of glass. Not to mention the fact that I’ve called Door Guy enough times on my cell phone that I’m about 97% sure it’s on a list of numbers he no longer answers. The same can be said of our home phone.

However, we haven’t really called him using P’s cell phone, otherwise known as our ace in the hole, so there was decent chance he might answer P’s call. Sure enough, Door Guy answered.

P reminded him who we were and that we’d been waiting on a piece of glass for our front door since sometime in early November. We also needed some weather-stripping he’d said he would install when he came back with the glass. P was very polite and inquired if maybe there had been some problem with the glass and could we please get on his schedule to get the weather-stripping done since the weather is really starting to heat up and we’d hate to duck tape the whole thing to keep in the bought air like we did this winter. (P didn’t actually say the part of the duck tape and the bought air. I added that.)

The truth is P tends to be much nicer than me when dealing with these types of issues. People who know us in real life probably find that hard to believe because I appear to be nicer when the truth is that I’m biting the inside of my lip until my eyes start to bleed and a sarcastic comment comes shooting out of my mouth. P is usually more patient when dealing with service problems and saves most of his anger and frustration for inanimate objects that don’t work they way he thinks they should.

P hung up the phone and told me Door Guy apologized for the delay but explained there had been some problems finding the glass. Well, sure. Because we live in a major metropolitan area and I’m sure no one in town knows how to make a piece of beveled glass. (See? Sarcastic comment. Shooting out.)

He said he’d get us on his schedule and come by in the next few days to install the weather-stripping. And then I believe he promptly hung up and added P’s cell number to his list of DO NOT ANSWER numbers.

I hope I’m wrong. But if I were a betting kind of girl, I’d say the chances of us ever seeing Door Guy again rank up there with the odds of me riding a school bus in June for the fun of it.

***Edited to add that OKAY, I GET IT. IT’S DUCT TAPE. I was tired, it was late and I lost the entire post the first time I tried to save it. But I’m leaving it as “duck” because it makes me happy.

Top o’ the morning to you.

That’s my nod to the fact that it’s St. Patrick’s Day even though I’m not Irish and there’s a better than 50% chance I won’t remember to wear anything green.

We finally arrived home in San Antonio late yesterday afternoon after spending the morning at the downtown aquarium in Houston. Here’s a free tip: The key to a pleasant aquarium experience is to show up about fifteen minutes before they open. We were almost the only ones there and it was perfection.

As soon as we got out of our car yesterday we noticed our entire yard smells like a divine slice of heaven thanks to all the spring flowers in bloom. Sometimes being married to a landscaper pays off.

After she took some time to smell the flowers, Caroline immediately asked if she could have a friend come over. I said no because I value my sanity and am in dire need of about twenty-four hours of downtime. But I told her she could look forward to tomorrow because we have big Spring Break plans to go to HEB and buy things like food and toilet paper.

She tried to act like she wasn’t excited.

Anyway, right now I have got to get in bed and rest up. We have a big day of grocery shopping ahead of us.

I’ll be back tomorrow with Fashion Friday.