Hair First! Other stuff, like everything, later.

I am SO SO SO behind! I promise to try and catch up in the next week or two. Blogging is so hard when there is Pinterest to be pinning on! So, I need to catch up on the general adorableness of two little kiddos, Jenni's freaking fun-tastic visit and our recent trip up north to the UP.

BUT!

In the meantime, I need to post today's event. No, not taking the car back into the shop because the part they just replaced last Thursday broke, and made me think the car was about to explode, although that did happen today. (Replaced the part for free under warranty. Phew!)

No. Today I got a haircut! If you know me, you understand this is a big deal. I get "real" haircuts anywhere from 6 months to 3 years apart. I'm a bit of a DIYer in all aspects of my life, including trims. Here is a before shot taken last week in the hotel in St. Ignace. Isn't Win just the cutest? But focus on my hair people! This is about meeeeee. And, this is about as good as it gets for my hair. Which isn't saying much.

This is my long hair looking as "Victoria Secret Model" as I could get it.

Here is a shot of me at Lake Superior. (Sad self portrait, more on that later when I actually post about this trip.) This is about what my hair looked like from day to day.
Not horrible, but not great.

And here it is looking it's worst. Frizzy, lots of wave, but no product (Or makeup, egads!) to make it smooth. Basically all around ew-ness. This was this how it looks air dried after a shower if I brush it out.

And here it is now! SHORT! I love it! I'm a bit worried that until I lose more baby weight, my head will look like a marble on a bouncy ball. But I need to remember that long hair wasn't exactly making me look skinny.

Here's a side view of me lovingly reading Eleanor a book. Ok, so we were playing with the self timer and I was trying to get a side shot to show the length in back that also didn't make me look like a Pelican. (Think giant chin melding into my neck. Actually don't.)

A gal in my ward cut it and she gave me exactly what I wanted. Jodie Evans, if you're interested and if you are ever in mid-Michigan needing some hair help. She's a wizard. I will post more in a few weeks so you can see how I'm doing once I have to style it myself. Fingers crossed for low maintenance.

P.S. I am lamp-lit and totally wearing makeup, good makeup, like even lipstick, in the after pictures. Never trust the internets.

Awkward Family Photos

A few weeks ago as we were playing with Eleanor I tried to get us all in a picture and this was the result. Um, Jenni, we seriously need your help.

I'm sure you've all been to THIS site. And if you haven't, you really need to. It's pure awesome.

We haven't updated much as we have all had this really lame cold and I even got pink-eye. Super terrific! It's been a rough week, here's hoping everyone gets better soon!

I Don't Know How This Didn't Make the Blog Earlier

Blast from the past! I was transferring pictures from my laptop to the external hard-drive and stumbled upon this. It's so cute! Well, to us. I thought this might give our nephews, aged 2-17, a laugh anyways.
This is Eleanor at three months old.

I Know Three of You Will Judge Me

Now I know there are Twilight haters out there, but oh well. I enjoy the books and love the movies. My defense to those who mock is that I realize they aren't Proust. They are meant to be for entertainment, and entertaining they are. And yes, there are hilarious parts that aren't intentional, but that is part of the fun. So judge me if you want, I had fun. Lots of fun.

Some friends and I went to see New Moon on the night it came out. We decided to make shirts, because we enjoy the "cougaresque" feeling of ogling Shark-Boy with his shirt off. No, not really. (Is it just me or does he talk like a valley-girl?) I decided to try my hand at freezer-paper stencils, something I have been dying to do for ages. Here are the results. I also did some onesies for the BYU-U of U game. Go Max Hall! (This might be my most controversial post ever! And if you want take the side of the wounded in that argument, let's talk. Seriously people. Ok, moving on.)

If you don't get the joke there, the love triangle is Edward, Bella and Jacob Black. He figures prominently in this book. I'm not just making racially charged statements.

Here are the friends I went with. Can I just say I love my ward? Coolest chicks ever. From left, Moi, Marissa, Lexie, Aubrey and Jade.

We had such a great time!
I am woefully behind on blogging, so expect a few more "fall" and Thanksgiving posts to follow.

My Nemesis

It's becoming a problem. Luckily they should be off the shelves by about mid February. Just in time for Cadburry Eggs. It's much more calorie friendly than cake, right?

Should I stop feeding her or something?

Today I dressed Eleanor in one of her Threadless onesies. Clayton bought her a bunch of different ones last Christmas and we've loved them. Later today, I ran across a picture of her in the same onesie, but from about six months ago! So I took a few pictures of her to see the difference. Ouch, sob etc... When did she get to be so big? When did she grow all that hair? (I promise not to sing Sunrise Sunset here. Oh and the hair.She is trying her best to pull it all out. She grabs and yanks at it constantly. Ok, so maybe just a few times. But still, bad Eleanor. One of us has to have pretty hair. More on that later.) Also- she did have pants on today, this was right before a diaper change, and I wanted to compare her little (ahem) legs.

Man she's cute.

Then this.

Bwaaaa waaaaa waaaaa! Boooo hooooo hoooo. Ok, so maybe I didn't break down quite like that. But look at her sweet little chubby face! Look at her lack of a neck! (I used to have a heck of a time cleaning under there.) Look at her thighs! Well, she still has good thighs. That's my legacy to her, but with crawling, they will whittle down to nothing. I miss my baby, and she's still just a baby. Geesh! Get a grip.

In other hormonal news, last week I chopped off all of my hair. Plugged in the curling iron and grabbed the scissors instead. I grabbed a big chunk from the back and just CUT. I capitalize for emphasis on how freaking CRAZY that was. Mentally sane people do not cut their hair on a whim. As I already mentioned on Facebook, this is what they do in movies. To show that a character is losing it big time, they show them cutting off their own hair. So ya. Psycho me. Luckily I haven't been too attached to my hair in the last 9 years or so. I like a change. But usually I defer to someone who has talent and or training in that arena. Or at least someone who can see the back of my head. In my defense, Eleanor would grab my hair about, oh, seven hundred times a day. She would use it to pull herself up like I was an unwitting Rapunzel. Since the cut? About one tenth of the pulling. Totally worth it right there.

Look at what I did!

See that awesome, even work I am doing? Great idea Marianne!Since my pregnancy, my hair has been much wavier. You can see the natural wave here. I figure I might be able to pull off a messy, "beachy hair" vibe. We shall see. Luckily my super-awesome neighbor Ann helped me even it out. I will seek out professional help (a stylist, not a shrink) in a few weeks, but it's good enough for now. Here is the lame-o self portrait I took today.
I tried to find a "before" shot, as I've actually thought my hair looked nice recently, but no. I could not one shot of me with my hair not in a ponytail in the last few months. And only about five pictures of me total. Out of about eight hundred. Good grief Clayton, grab the camera once in a while!

How Do You Eat An Elephant?

One piece at a time, baby!

See that? That one small slice of a Sam's Club bakery cake? That is the only bit of this cake that I didn't eat myself. Should I be proud or horrified? Don't answer that. I know I just grossed out more than half of my readers. The rest of you already know me too well. You know of my love for cheap, Crisco-based-frosting bakery cakes. And I really did only eat a piece a day. Well, except twice. But that's not so crazy, right? Can I get an "Amen!"? No? Ok. I treated myself for my birthday by getting it, but Clayton wasn't interested, so I slowly made it disappear. Ta daaa!

Burning Down the House

So.... I started a little fire. I didn't mean to. Call it Karma, but I am always touting the line that in apartments, condos and duplexes, "You are trusting your neighbors not to burn down your house." Sadly my neighbors can't trust me anymore.

Sunday I was basting a ham and had put some water on to boil for the potatoes. As it started to boil I suddenly I see the paper towels next to the stove catch fire. The towel roll was too close to the gas flame. (Note to self: Where else can we put the paper towels? Seriously!) Anyhow, there were three miracles that day.

Miracle 1- I happened to be right next to the stove. How many times do I leave water to boil while I go do something else? All the time. Don't we all? Put water on, go do laundry or whatever while it heats up.

Miracle 2- I was holding metal tongs to balance the ham as I basted. This enabled me to grab the burning towels without a second thought. By the time I grabbed it the flames were reaching the upper cabinets.

Miracle 3- I had actually done the dishes that day, which left an empty sink to put the now blazing towels into. And we have a sprayer attachment that I handily used to put out the flames.

Had I been upstairs who knows how long till we would have noticed? I shudder to think.

Had I not had the tongs in hand I would've debated using a towel or water first. Seconds matter in kitchen fires. It was startling to see how fast it went from a surprised "oh" to "OH SWEARWORDS!!!" (P.S. I actually say the word "swearwords" instead of other bad words. I find it funny, and in a real emergency it's nice to know my possible last words wont be blush-worthy. )

Had there been a sink full of dishes, I may have panicked or dropped the roll or who knows what. As it was, it was a ridiculously smooth maneuver. I'm not known for being ridiculously smooth.

I believe I owe the miracles to both of our mothers. Their faith surely secured our luck. I complain of my tiny kitchen, but there seemed to be room enough for a few guardian angels in there. Ha ha. Too cheesy? Ok. Totally. Clayton came running to my calls of "FIRE!" to find it all over. Being the sweetest husband ever his first words to me are, "I promise not to sing any Talking Heads to you today."

Who's With Me?

Maybe it's the rain, but I am feeling like the epitome of blah. No motivation, no energy. Just a huge desire to eat jelly beans and browse blogs. Only I'm almost out of blogs. (C'mon people! Write more!) It's almost noon and I am still in my pajamas. Not sweats, which we all know are ok to stay in all day. No. Actual pajamas, so I can't even answer the door if needed. Any ideas to get me out of this funk? Even projects aren't calling my name. The laundry really isn't calling my name. Ho hum. Here is a link to a funny web site where I found the above graph. Later.

Graph Jam

The Answer is Clear

Ummmm...

Yeeaaahh. Hmm. So I guess I did remove the sides. See, it just kept raining and raining, and I just kept sitting and sitting, and the dresser did not get brought in. So I took baby E to Home Depot and we bought wood to replace the sides. I will keep you posted on how it is going, as I know you are on the edge of your seats here.

Eleanor's Sweet Room

So this is what else made me cry that I referenced in my last blog post.

As we were packing up our old house, in a storm of boxes and awfulness, Clayton asked if we were ready to roll through Eleanor's room. That did it. That was when I couldn't keep it together. I had dreamed of Eleanor's nursery all through my pregnancy. With a color palette of robin's egg blue, white and red accents and with a scalloped lace trim painted around the top. Sadly and happily, once she was here I never found the time to finish it. So all her fairy tale pictures never got put up, the curtains never finished and I still need to top stitch her crib quilt. But it was almost there. So to appease my lunacy, we stopped packing, cleaned the room out a little and had a little photo shoot. Here are the shots of Eleanor's first nursery.

Come on in!

It was such a sweet little room and I hope we can recreate a bit of it here in Michigan.

Complaining and Counting Our Blessings

We are happily and safely here in East Lansing, Michigan. My wonderful parents drove out with us to help with the baby and to haul the U-Haul with my dad's truck. We had an uneventful drive and are happy with our house. Of course a move brings lots of emotions to the surface, but we are getting used to our new surroundings. Being a fan of lists I thought I'd share a few with you. Negatives, To Do, Blessings etc...

What Scared Me at First:
This:

Not the best picture. You can't see the van seat very well, or the cooler/smoking table so tastefully set next to it. But I was too chicken to take a good picture so I took this from my car as I was backing out. Here is a better shot of it. My folks took this right before they left.
(I look extra sassy due to a day of moving and crying right before this was taken.)

And This:

Note the four cars jam packed in the driveway? There are always four, and oddly enough, most of them work . So, why so many? There are often one or two more cars parked on the street too. Meth lab? Kidding. But it's like a non-stop party next door. Beer bottles on the lawn to cement that idea. And there are also usually seventeen kid bikes. But I kind of like that.

They shout all the time to get some one's attention in the house. They also have a 200 lb dog that seems to mark up the entire back yard. Ugh. Shouldn't scooper laws apply everywhere? On our first day here I opened my big mouth by asking if the dog "goes all over" to the neighbor's boyfriend. I ask this in a horrified voice to sound real neighborly. He replies that the dog only goes on their side, but at that moment the dog was making a "present" not three feet from our door. My reply? "But we have a baby!" Um, ya. That's not a response, nor a reasonable argument. Luckily we, um I, have been more polite and have found that they are really sweet people. I could do without the smoking, as the smell spreads far and wide, but all in all they are good neighbors.

Also:
Finding my way around at first is always intimidating.
I was terrified of the U-Haul being stolen on the trip.
Our car started acting wonky the second my parents left (My dad would've been able to diagnose), to the point that we couldn't drive it anywhere unnecessary.
Spiders, I sprayed first thing, but I think they are coming.
A giant diseased apple tree drops apples all over the yard making it smell like apple cider vinegar.
Our laundry room. It's in the spooky, dark, unfinished part of the basement.
I'm worried the neighbor dog might eat Eleanor.
Boo hoo, oh wait, that's the next section.

What Has Made Me Cry:

This:

Her fan club is all through correspondence now.And this:

What will I do without my Jenni? How will we spend our Sundays?
P.S. Bismark?!? Could we get a more boring U-Haul vignette?

Little Allie will get older and more advanced without us! What a sad sight.So tiny! No dishwasher!

I'll explain this one later. Next blog post. But it made me cry. This started it all really.

Sniff.

Sob!

Also:
The news about Jed Mingo and his brother and father.
Realizing that my favorite people are going through so much grief so far away from us.
And I cut my finger on a potato peeler. Ok, so maybe that one doesn't rank.

What I like or Blessings:

Walks to local parks. E loves being outside and the neighborhoods are gorgeous. It's like everyone is in a giant Best Lawn competition. The East Lansing area is a bit like the Avenues or Sugarhouse in SLC. And look at her. Can you be sad for long with her looking at you with that face? No.

She also seems to like the messy mess of unpacking.

The campus is amazing! The old buildings are beautiful, and the new law building is awesome. Look at their cool moot court room. I want a moot room.

Michigan has given E her first taste of pickles. Or the new Law Student picnic did. She chewed on it for a few minutes.

Also:
First day I found Joanne's and Michael's. Fabric and Crafts, I should be ok. Thanks mom!
I've also found WalMart, Target, a mall and a good grocery store. I can function.
I finally got unpacked enough and enough groceries to make a batch of cookies.
The church is only a two minute drive from our house. As close as our Provo building was to us!
The ward is amazing! We have been welcomed in so warmly.
There is a blog for the local moms to keep everyone up to date on playgroups, sales, activities etc... It's what you dream of as far as making new friends and staying in the loop.
Here is a link:
http://mimormonmom.blogspot.com/
We've been able to "borrow" internet until ours gets set up in about forever. Ok,
Friday. Whoever AmyRenee is, we owe her a batch of cookies.
We found a really awesome place to fix our car. They were honest and fast and even gave me a ride to and from the shop! Thanks East Lansing Automotive Repair. Tell your friends!

To Do:
Keep unpacking. Once you find a few necessities, you sort of slow down.
Find a desk and dresser and a way to get them to our place.
Arrange furniture.
Hang pictures.
Deal with insurance boringness.
Maybe paint.
Blog... hey!
Laundry.
Rake up all of the apples.
Buy dog biscuits.

Wasn't that long? That's what happens when it's late and there are too many things to blog about and none of them fascinating. Thanks for reading!

P.S. Price of dressers at the thrift store I visited today? $109.00 to $149.00! What the?!?! It's a charity store! Icky, old, super-used dressers people!

Logan and Island Park

Warning: Seriously picture heavy.

Last Sunday we drove up to Logan to spend an evening with Clayton's family one last time before we move. We had a lovely dinner and a great night of card games. We got to spend the night at Clint & Alison's and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. When leaving, little Autumn made sure we took some pictures so we would "remember us". I'm not sure if she meant we'd forget them or vice versa.

Here is Jonah, Autumn, Eleanor and Micah. Gabe was a little under the weather, so he didn't make the shot.

Then on Monday we drove to Island Park Idaho where our friends Shane & Heidi have a family cabin. It was a great last gathering of "The Boys" before we all head our separate ways for a few years for school and work. The Boys are all from Blackfoot Idaho and consist of Clayton, Shane Polatis, Matt Cannon, Brodie Hanni and Mark Turpin. Sadly Mark and his wife Sarah couldn't make it. While they were sorely missed, we still had a wonderful few days on Bills Island.

We had a bit of a baby fest. While Matt's girls Ashley and Gracie couldn't make it and of course little Boyce Turpin wasn't there, we still had our hands full with the youngest three of the tribe.

Introducing Brodie & Ashley's beautiful two month old daughter Olivia.

Here is Shane & Heidi's six month old son Colson.
(I have to apologize, I stole this picture from their blog because it might be the cutest picture ever taken of someone that isn't Eleanor. I don't know who the photographer is, but would love to give them credit and or remove this. Thanks!)
And you all know Eleanor.Eleanor really liked Colson, and even though he is older, I don't think he minds the extra pounds Eleanor has on him. And on all babies it seems.
Isn't Colson the cutest little elf of a man?

Here he is with his two "girlfriends". We also called this shot "Small, medium and large". Our daughter is going to have an eating disorder if we don't knock off all the joking about her weight. For the record, we love every teeny, tiny, buttery inch of her.

Being the pimp that he is, he first makes the moves on Liv.
Although I guess they do have a history together. More history.

However it wasn't long before he got a little sugar from E. What a mack! (That was the term when I was in college. Does anyone say that anymore? No? Ok.)
P.S. I do have to mention that we didn't pose these shots, well, aside from putting our immobile infants on the ground in ascending order. But we didn't make them hold hands, that was all smooth little Colson.

Aside from observing sessy, sessy love triangles, we did a whole lot of other things at the cabin. Like play a ridiculous amount of cards and eat ridiculous amounts of food. Here are Clayton and I after a rousing game of Nerts. Best game ever.

On our first night there we bundled up all the babies to take an evening boat ride. Bills Island, where Shane's family cabin is, is in the middle of Island Park Reservoir. It is incredibly beautiful up there.

It was Eleanor's first boat ride. It might have been a bit too windy for her liking at first. She started with her pout face.

But it got better.

Here is a snippet of us cruising on the lake so you can get an idea of the magic that we enjoyed. Sun has set, friends abound and our babies are being snuggled tightly while we glide along a glass lake listening to Arcade Fire and Shout Out Louds. Heaven.

Little E had a great first night on the lake.

I said it was beautiful.

The next day we ate a ton more, boated a bunch and enjoyed the perfect weather.

I really heart Sea-Doos. In fact we plan to buy some one day when all this law-school business is over. We will let you ride them.

Clayton goes a lot faster than Marianne.
Daddy and E.
Eleanor liked the boat a whole lot better on day two. She even took a nap out on the water. Back at the dock I took a minute to get some shots of her in the boat.

Legs a-poppin'.

I mean, come on! How can you not nibble her alive?

And because we are on an island in woods, we of course had a visitor from the wildlife sector. I looked out the window at dinner to see a moose and her baby munching away on some shrubbery about two feet away from the cabin. Awesome! Here is a little bit that I was able to get on camera, not my best work. My pictures were worse. We were safely on the second story balcony. The babies weren't as excited as we wanted them to be. Look! A boxen of moosen!