I am a Czar

First things first:

How about a nice shout out to my sister-in-law in Colorado and my brother Matt and congratulations on my new nephew (who will probably be named Colin)!

He was born August 31, 2004. I now have two nephews and a niece. My mother was saying that she will probably only have one granddaughter unless I would like to contribute one. To which I replied, "Why do I have to have the fourth child? Why can't Heather do it?"

My mother conceded that both scenarios are unlikely. Phew. To tell you the truth, Tom and Joyce would have more luck getting me to think about having a child than my own mother would. So then you have to ask yourself, how much more luck would that be? And would it be enough? ;)


Get OUT!

This morning, I got up at 5:50 a.m., and true to my word, was dressed and at the gym in time for its opening at 6:00 a.m. So was Liza. This is a feat for two women who are notorious night owls, but also determined to be able to work out together during the week.

The gym doesn't open til 6:30! We go back to my house. I put on coffee, walk the dog, we pour coffee, splash of cream, back to the gym, get there as it is being unlocked.

We grouse that we need them to open at 6:00 a.m. so we have a full hour before having to get kids ready for school. They smile and say no.

We get on the machines. I sweat for 15 minutes on the elliptical trainer, down to resistance level 3 from my usual 10. I don't want to hurt myself. Stretched first, which I usually don't do. This early morning stuff is a little trickier for old bodies. I get off after a mile, go lift weights for 15 minutes-- the 12 lb weights are getting easier, so next week we'll try 15. Stretch.

Bye to Liza, go home, Sam is getting out of the tub, get brothers up, get showered, get everyone off to school on time.

And I feel fine. I am not even tired.

Surely this cannot last.

Wedding Preparations, or: The Saga of the Dress

Tried on the three dresses I ordered as trials for the wedding.

Long sleeves in Missouri in early September are HOT. Pull out sleeveless dress have worn to two weddings, but haven't liked on self because self had extraordinarily short hair.

Self has been working out and has longer hair. And self has new black pumps with a sexy little buckle.

Going to wear that dress, send one dress back, keep two for winter. Keeping the shoes.

No, wait, just send everything back (except the shoes) and get a refund. Yes, yes. I'll do that.

Liza came over to see my fashion show, and agreed on the dress choice.

Extreme Makeover

Then she left, and Wendy and Tim came over and I cut and colored Wendy's hair. We took pictures, which I'll post later.

Wendy is our Karaoke guru. And she has loooooooong straight hair down to her butt. She is allergic to cats and I have many, so I took a chair outside to the porch and consulted with Tim about how much to take off. I was VERY conservative; I just gave her a nice trim.

Then, the color. Given the length of her hair, I painted bleach on her hair for highlights. I wore gloves, and then I would pick out a strand and hold it out and paint it thoroughly with the bleach. I had a specially edged paintbrush I bought just for this occasion, and you hold it like a pencil. It gives you a lot of control, and I am just not experienced with foil, and that would have taken forever with her hair. After I got the bleach on, I put a plastic bag around all of that hair (bleach is heat activated) and we all hung out on the porch smoking and chatting for 25 minutes. I would take peeks to see that it was processing in case I had to add more bleach, but I didn't have to.

Now. You all know that sometimes color doesn't do what you want it to do. And sometimes Jen has to run to Hy-Vee for emergency hair color to fix a boo boo. And Wendy has a LOT of hair.

It was awesome. Just gorgeous. I looooooooved it, and so did she! I swear to G-d, I need to go get my license. The highlights just turned out so beautiful and so natural looking. We took pictures and I'll post them later today.

Meetings

Have a meeting with Tommy's teacher after school. But I'm feeling better after talking to my mother about it.


Th th th th that's allllllllllllllllll, folks!