Hair, Babies, Winter, and More!

Last Saturday I did the unthinkable. I have been trying to grow my hair out again lately. This is a cycle I seem to go through every couple of years. I think that surely my hair would be beautiful and glamorous if it was long, so I decide to grow it out. The "in-between" stage is especially delicate, and it is very, very easy to feel frumpy and plain. Fortunately, I found a really good hair stylist after I moved here that can do cute and trendy, even while I've been growing out my hair. I was scheduled to get a haircut last Saturday afternoon. I received a phone call from Amy (who does her scheduling) around 8:30 that morning to tell me that Brandi was sick and unable to cut hair that day. So I was going to schedule a time for Monday. Well, I started thinking it would be really nice to get a hair cut on Saturday and not have to worry about what to do with my kids on Monday, and I didn't really want to wait that long anyway... and I was driving down the road and saw a Procuts with a sign that said "Open-No Wait". I had a bout of momentary insanity. I walked in. Now, the first clue should have been the name: Procuts. The second clue should have been the fact that there was an entire salon on a Saturday afternoon with only 1 client in it. And it just got worse from there. I came home with a terrible haircut. I had wings on the side of my head, and a blunt cut in back short enough that she had shaved my neck.

So on Monday morning I called Amy and got my appointment with Brandi for her to fix it. Now my hair is shorter than it has been in a LONG time. But it's cute, and I have come to the conclusion (yet again!) that I am just a short-haired kind of gal. I decided to take a picture of myself to post here. I've taken about 30 pictures in the last 5 minutes, and this is the best one - it's crooked, but at least you can see the back and I'm pretty well centered and don't look stoned. Or at least, not THAT stoned.


Also, this past Tuesday we our first taste of winter weather. We had light sleet/snow all afternoon long, and I only got a couple of blurry pictures of to show for it. This one is my favorite. Olivia had run out in her slippers and without a coat. The girls were definitely excited.


And can you believe it? They didn't even cancel choir practice that night or delay school the next morning! We're definitely not in the south any more. In fact, I am sitting at my computer right now with a blanket around me because it's about 25 degrees outside with 30 mph winds. The wind chill is like 12 degrees or something absurd, and our windows don't seal well so we have a little draft. OK, a big draft. Our curtains flutter.

Then I had put Connor in his high chair one night with a biter biscuit. He doesn't actually have any teeth, so all he can really do is gum it to death. He made such a big mess, and by the time I got around to cleaning him off, it had dried and was crusty, so he got his first bath in the kitchen sink.




Also, this past Friday night about 9:00 the bishop called. Someone had just called to say they couldn't speak on Sunday (today), so he had the bright idea to ask me to speak. He asked me to introduce our family a little, as well as talk on John 14:27 and how the gospel can bring peace into our lives. The topic was actually a really good one for me, and I learned so much preparing my talk. I think that's why we are asked to speak in church rather than having the bishop do it all the time. It drives the doctrine much deeper into our hearts when we are the ones having to present it.

I decided to introduce our family by doing a comparison of me and Ben, and I think it was rather amusing. I thought I'd reproduce it a little here. Some of the comments were planned ahead, some were impromptu:

Ben - Born & raised in SC by parents who were born & raised in SC
Anita - Born in Bahrain (the Middle East), lived in Italy, Maryland, and upstate NY before finally landing in SC at age 10. Mom's a Yankee, dad's from SC.

Ben - Talented in visual art
Anita - Talented in music

Ben - 1 sister
Anita - 3 sisters & 2 brothers

Ben - Immediate family in SC
Anita - Immediate family scattered across 5 states

Ben - Introvert
Anita - Extrovert

Anita - Comes from a large family, so when they get together they get a little crazy
Ben - His family is just crazy

And now, for some things we have in common:

* Both are 2nd generation LDS (parents joined the church)
* Most of our best friends are from our families (parents and siblings)
* Both have fantastic in-laws
* Both served missions from 1997 to 1999 (Ben in Utah Provo from Jan 97 - Jan 99 & Anita in NJ Morristown from July 97 - Jan 99)
* Both think Ben has a fabulous wife