Bang Bang?

So, I'm guess I am going to be mostly asking your advice.  That and I enjoy taking pictures of myself and them posting them all over my blog.  I spent a small forever making sure my makeup looked photo worthy this morning.

I am going to be getting my haircut and I'm sort of in this transition phase.  I'm trying to figure out what to do with my bangs.

But first I would like to give you a recent history of my hair:

It's been bone straight hair since I was a kid.  Bone straight as in get out of the shower and not bother combing it and it would still dry straight and tangle free.  My hair laughs at styling products and curling irons.  I could do the foam rollers and have curls for half the day and completely forget about volume.

That is until I had kids.  My hair got a little weird in the back after BG but it was hard to tell if my hair was growing wavy or I had permanent ponytail hair.  Then LG came along and that weird wavy area got wavier and very difficult to manage.  I didn't know what to do with it.

My hair has been all over the map the last few years trying to find a new do.  It's gone from so long that I donated 16" and still had shoulder length hair to the short Katie Holmes hairdo and then growing that out.  I've had long and straight to bobbed and bangs.  I enjoy having bangs but I hate that they can have mind of their own, which is why I don't allow my daughters to have bangs.

December 2009

Then I got a new hairdresser.  She complimented how healthy my hair is and then started talking about the "crazy movement" that I had on the back of my head making it difficult for her to do the beloved post haircut style.  I told her I didn't like it and she recommended a Brazilian Blowout.

If I was going to pay good money to do something with my hair it wasn't going to be to straighten it.  I decided to go with a body perm instead. This is also when I started to grow out my bangs to go with my new waves. A very important fact since I'm having issues with my bangs. 

March 2011

After getting the body perm I got a lot of compliments on my hair.  I don't wear it fresh out of the shower and dried.  It's not that type of perm.  It gives my hair some volume and a little bit of a wave.  More it was just making the crown and front of my hair match the crazy movement going on in the back.  Though I could wear it unstyled and it looks good (see above picture).

Most days I put product on right out of the shower then allow it to air dry.  I follow up by adding curls with a hot iron.  And here's the big kicker, I get these perfect Beach Curls stay all day long.  I am really loving this perm. 

July 2011

On a bad hair day, crazy curly hair looks better than drab straight hair.   I can straighten it if I feel like doing something a little different just by blow drying it.  The back still never gets truly straight even if I use a flat iron though I may need a better flat iron.

This morning - blown straight

I guess I need to get to where I am asking your advice.  My bang have grown to a transition point that I am not enjoying and I don't want to keep growing them.  I have been pinning them back for the most part but they have been too long to do that for about a month.  I can wear them down but they are a big clump of grown out bangs and I don't care for that look either.  They also tend to get tucked behind my ear because they are long enough that they stay and I hate that look. 

 Umm, NO.

As pleasant as the shape of my face is I don't like my hair laying flat against my forehead. Hence why I cut bangs in the first place.

So what do I do:

• Cut bangs again?
• Do lots of face shaping with shorter layers?
• Something else that you've done with your hair and enjoyed?

I do want to keep my length.  I like the longer than the shoulders but to short to get stuck in my armpits.  So please don't say I should cut all of it. 

Thanks for helping a girl out.  Because at my age, this (points to self) isn't getting any better.  Pores don't get smaller, lines start showing, the boobs are gone and I don't want to think about what happens after 40.  But I have good hair so I have got to work it while I've still got it.

I guess I should count my blessings, I could of been born with Gary Busey's hair.

A Visit From Bestie

The last month of our summer vacation has been the busiest of all the months.  It started with my Bestie and her kids staying with us for 8 days.  Apparently hanging out with me for 8 days has couple of a side effects. 

• You get annoyed after a while.
• You are required to go to Menchies to eat FroYo.
• You and your children get sunburned.
• You lose 15 pounds.

At least those are the side effects that Bestie suffered.  I guess I never noticed before, but living in a tourist area that has the 4th most moderate weather changes in the nation one tends to do a lot of walking. 

I'll give you a recap of our fun time with Bestie, pictures included.  Just so you know we'll call Bestie's kids K, her 11yo daughter, and N, her 8yo son.

Day 1 - Bestie arrived and we were off to Jazz in the Park that night for music, friends, pizza and drinking.

Day 2 - Old Town San Diego

We took the Coaster to Downtown and Old Town San Diego and it is so fun to ride the train and not deal with traffic.  ComicCon was going on that weekend.  We didn't have tickets but it was fun to see the outside goings on and walk up to the Seaport Village.  Then we rode the Trolley to Old Town and the girls earned their Girl Scouts Old Town San Diego Patch and the point of the entire trip.

Day 3- BG and K were put on a bus for Girl Scouts Camp.  Bye dears, we love you.  See you in few days holding back the tears.

Then the rest of us went to the San Diego Safari Park. 

We were there early enough that all the big cats were out and enjoying the morning.  Even the tigers, though in my experience you can always see the tigers but never get a good picture of them.  I did take Bestie the "easy" route around the park meaning that she didn't have to climb up the huge hill by the tigers but rather walk down it.  And we rode the echo microphone voice Journey into Africa end voice tram.  I always like riding that :)

Day 4- Bestie rested and negotiated wearing tennis shoes instead of flip flops for the rest of the vacation.

Day 5- Took N to Legoland. 

If you don't know what Legoland is, it's kinda like Disneyland with smaller rides and everything is engineered to entertain an 4-10 year old boy, but girls can get into it also. 

We did the usual standing in line for some rides, went to the SeaLife Aquarium, wandered around Star Wars Miniland, played miniature golf, did a boat tour, and got wet at the splash park.

Day 6- Picked up the girls from camp.

They were happy to be home and I was so happy to have my girl back.  Everyone was too tired to do anything that day so it was a trip to Arby's for lunch and home for naps.  I think there were a few video game competitions that day.

Day 7- The Beach

Photo taken and edited by Bestie

This is the amazing thing about going to the beach this day, it's my first time.  Well, not EVER.  It's just my first time, you know, here since I actually moved to San Diego almost two years ago.  I actually have been to San Diego beaches quite a few times before moving here and of course the beaches up in LA.

That night Bestie and I went on the Ghost Hunting Tour of the Whaley House.  I'll save that story for another post.

Day 8- The World Famous San Diego Zoo

I have to take people here because it's so much fun.  It is one of my favorite places.  I even have a mapped out strategy to see everything though only one person has ever taken me up on it because it requires walking past the pandas at least four times.  Bestie's tennis shoes were not up to this task.

Bestie and the kids packed up the next morning and headed back home to Idaho.  I had a wonderful time visiting with my friend.

The rest of our summer days have been filled with more zoo activities, lots Disneyland, parties, swimming, Legoland, house guests, projects, and the stomach flu.  That last one was fun.

Now school is starting in 5 days and I think that I am ready to get back to the busy routine.  I think because I know I'm ready for the routine but am not sure about the busy.

Step 1: Make Space

Oh cluttered backyard, how I love thee not.  But I have a plan for you.  A big plan.  It's going to take a lot of work so I've decided to break it down into steps.  I figure I could take about a week per step and I will have a beautiful, wine-sipping, relaxing yard by the time my Bestie gets here. 

It's going to be about an 8 Step/Week plan and then I'll be all done.  This is a great plan.  In fact I'm on Week 6 and haven't started Step 2 yet.  Awesome plan.  I just didn't account for summer vacation and the endless hours I've lost playing on the iPad.  Seriously that thing needs to go on the top shelf of my closet and come out on weekends only.  Oh, but I air stream Pandora through the house during the week, and then play Plants vs. Zombies.

Even blogging about it hasn't helped speed up the time line.  It would probably help if I blogged regularly. HA! 

It's pretty cluttered back there so the first thing I did was get rid of the Ugly Kid Chair.  You remember it, right there by the satellite dish.  It's hiding in the corner.  It's now gone, God knows where it is now.  You know I always wonder if God really knows where it is.  Like if when I said that in the back of God's mind he's thinking, "El Cajon, CA at the Waste Management Facility Dump Lot 8C."  I'm just sayin'.

Getting rid of the ugly chair has completely opened up the back yard.  You're not seeing how this can open up a ton of space on the patio.  Here let me show you a current status picture with the other crap fun toys out of the way.

Step 1: Make Space by Clearing and Rearranging the Kid's Toys.

There is a lot more space on the patio now that I've moved things around, which may be why my progress has slowed down.  Instant gratification isn't very motivating. 

The quick and easy part was finding a new home for the movable kid toys. I decided to make good use out of the empty flower beds the run along the perimeter of the yard.  Cause heaven knows that I'm never going to put plants in there. What's God thinking now? The gardeners seem to care less if they stick the toys on the patio or over here so it's a good spot for the toys.

Moving the playhouse took a lot more work.  I wanted to move it into the dirt area by the fruit trees.  I never did this before because I don't want my kids playing in the dirt then coming into the house.

The area that I wanted to put the house had this funny plastic flower bed border that the owners had left over there.  I was a little worried about this since I didn't know how deep it was.  I started to dig it out and when I saw that it wasn't too deep I tried to "pull it out."  Maybe I should say that I "picked it up," because that is about how much effort it took. That is when I realized that the owners had just tossed it over there and weather buried it a little.  I had left it because I was worried it was something important. I don't know, some sort of weird tomato bed or something.  There is a reason I don't plant flowers.

After I picked up the piece of trash that had been sitting there for months, I leveled the ground and put new rocks around the water drain.

Next we took a trip to the Home Depot to buy some supplies to build a platform to place the playhouse on top of.  If you ever want men to come running from all corners of the world to help you go to the Home Depot, be a pretty lady with two kids, and buy a 4'x8' piece of plywood.  It was hilarious.  Next time I think that I am going to wear high heels.

It's a simple design and plenty strong enough for the kids to run and jump on.  We gave it a coat of primer followed by a coat of the Peacock Blue paint leftover from when I build the picnic table.  This is to give it a little water protection and to make it pretty.  Then we tossed it in the dirt and threw the playhouse on top.

We are decorating the front yard of the playhouse and it's turning out pretty cute.  There are a few flower pots the BG planted earlier this Spring and the the big pot has some sunflowers growing in it, thank you Abby for the seeds.  The other pot is still empty.

You can see the water drain in the bottom left corner, which is why the house is not right up next to the grass.  I had to find a spot not in the trees, but with enough space between the houses and not blocking that drain.  The girls and I thought it would be fun to make stepping stones so that they don't have to step in the dirt to get in and out.  This isn't a good idea because our test stone broke the second it was stepped on.  I knew it was a possibility but we tried it anyways.  I'm going to have to go to the Home Depot to get something else to put there and maybe a plant or two. 

Step 2: ?
As far as step two goes, it is being put on delay.  We are in the middle of Birthday Week (three of my family's birthdays are this week and LG's is in 2 weeks) and my Bestie shows up on Friday for a 10 day visit.  There is also something else that I want to work on that will delay the backyard progress a little longer.  It's okay, my yard isn't going anywhere.