Drat!

Drat! A few months ago I had put my hair back in a ponytail and to my horror I saw a few grey hairs. (Have I written about this?) Well, I was a little stressed because they were at the back of my head which surely means that there are more that I can't even see. And the only reason I saw these buggers was because of the ponytail. Now, fast forward a few months to 2 days ago. My hair is a little on the short side now so no more ponytails for me. BUT, I put my glasses on and pushed them back on my head while I brushed my teeth (which pushed my hair back) and to my horror I saw more than a few grey hairs. I plucked 8! Then I stopped counting - it was disheartening, as I'm sure you can imagine. I vigilantly pluck the greys in front but how am I to get to the bloomin' things in the back??

So, here's my dilema? What do I do? I'm far too young to have a head full of grey. Maybe I'm just being vain but I'm ok with that right now. Do I start dying? If I do that I have to keep up with it and that can be expensive (and potentially damaging to my hair) plus if I ever decided to stop it would be rather a shock when people saw so much grey all at once.

Do I just highlight and pluck? That wouldn't cover it all up but maybe a fair amount? Or should I just suck it up and live with it? No. I don't like that option...

It's a Banner Day!

Woohoo!  Joshie and Tiernan helped me make breakfast bars today and here's the best news of all - Joshie is eating one!!  Wow! This is huge. He doesn't eat anything so this is great. No seriously, he has a list of about 6 items he'll eat. You can ask him and he'll recite the list for you.  The breakfast bars are also healthy - made with wheat flour, oats, bananas (or zucchini if you like) and nuts - which makes it all the more exciting.  Becky and I were practically dancing in the kitchen (where he couldn't see us of course).

lost and found

When I bought my little car a few years ago, the previous owner had removed the part of the cup holder that keeps the cups in place.  Very annoying but I didn't realize when I bought it how much it would annoy me.  Anyway, when he or she removed that part of the car (that should always stay in the car!) it left a little hole on both sides of the console thing (and that's what this story is really about).  One day I was driving home from work and I took my cute little earrings out and tossed them into the console where I could grab them when I got home - if I put them in my purse, I'd lose them for sure.  As I turned the corner, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my earring slide right down the hole in the side of the console.  Then I turned another corner and the other one went down with her friend as well.  I was really sad because I had only worn them once.  

Fast forward to about a week ago - I had to take my car in to have some sensor replaced and they had to take that part of the console apart...  And they found my earrings!  How fun is that?  Well, I was pretty excited because I figured I'd never see them again and now here they are!  Yay!  But, they also found a third earring that I can only speculate must have belonged to the previous owner because, despite my plethora of earrings, I've never seen it and never owned a pair like that one.   Perhaps that's fair that her earring was never recovered by her since she ripped the cup holders out.  Or, I suppose, it could be sad that she lost an earring because someone else ripped the cup holders out.  Or maybe finding her earring wouldn't be as exciting for her as it was for me...  :)

Fresh Raspberries

Our raspberry bushes are full this year and the birds haven't been eating the berries before we get to them for once.  I made a raspberry cobbler one night that was yummy and I have another batch of raspberries to use. Maybe we'll make jam if we get enough raspberries all at once...  Yummy! This is one of the blessings of summer.

jewelry

A couple months ago we had an enrichment class on jewelry making and we made bracelets. I went and made a couple bracelets and put them away and didn't think much about it. The last little while, however, I decided to try my hand at it on my own - seeing how I'm a jewelry fiend and all.  So, here are a few I've made this summer.  Nothing spectacular but it's kind of fun.  

I've tried earrings to go with a couple of these but I can't figure out how to make the wire wrap so they're just going to sit in my box until I learn how to do that I guess.  

Perils of the basement

Sometimes living in the basement is great. But there are risks that go with that life and one of them is particularly traumatizing for me. Spiders. They seem to think the basement is their space as well (it's not!!) and lately they've been a little too bold.  I have spider traps all around my room (5 plus one in the bathroom) and they do catch a number of the little creeps but they were a little full and there must have been a sign on each that said "No Vacancy" because there were 5 sightings in the last couple days.  OH! Don't worry, that's not all, there are also 3 bites on my legs with fang marks in the middle.  So, the snake-that-lives-right-by-your-window isn't doing his job of eating spiders so they don't come into my room (that really is what snakes do) so I'm going to have to evict him if he doesn't start working harder.  Dad's going to spray once we leave for Utah but that's still 2 weeks away so I'll be tense until then.  Ish! I hate the icky, scary, nasty, little (and sometimes not little) beasts!

Family, Food, and Fireworks

Yesterday we had a BBQ with the fam and lots of delish food.  We made our traditional homemade peach ice cream and Tiernan was really excited to "wick" the paddle that churns the ice cream.  Yum!  

We gave the boys pops (snaps) to do while it was light out then Justin lit a flower inside a pail of water. Here's what Tiernan thought of it:

Once it got dark Justin and Jeff played pyrotech and put on the show for us.  All the boys (big and little) enjoyed sparklers:

Tiernan was so excited - he's only 2 so this is like a new experience for him - and he was jumping (literally, jumping up and down all over the grass) all over and laughing and kept saying, "wet's do it again!"  

After we ran out of fireworks Joshie and Tiernan, who were really wound up, pounced on Justin.  He had to run the first chance he got or I think they would have clung to his back like monkeys the rest of the night.  

What a fun Fourth of July!!  Hope ya'll had a fun time too!

Painting with a 4-year old

Yesterday I decided to paint the chairs in the patio (this adventure started out with 2 chairs in mind and ended up with only one done) that I had put off forever and ever.  I asked Justin to come out and open the paint can for me and my nephew Joshie followed him out to help because 4-year olds like to help.  Just a few minutes earlier I had suggested that maybe Joshie would like to help Justin clean his bathtub (rather than watch him play video games).  Justin didn't think that was a good suggestion and when he saw Joshie, the paint, the chair, and his loving mom, he concocted an evil plan.  He suggested to Joshie that he might like to help Carrie paint the chair, that would be way more fun than cleaning a bathtub!  Since I'm everyone's favorite aunt, of course I said ok.  Oh, also maybe because I was not thinking...

It started out just fine.  Joshie, of course, filled his paintbrush to overflowing and it dribbled on his foot and the grass on the way to the chair.  Then he leaned his hand into the wet paint while he was reaching for another part of the chair and got all blue.  I told him his dad would think he was turning into Cookie Monster (blue paint) if he kept getting paint all over himself.  While all this is going on I was trying desperately to catch the many, many drips of paint because it was really hot outside and they were drying fast, when, out of the blue I was attacked.  My leg had a big blue patch on it and my little 4-year old nephew was laughing so hard. 

A paint fight ensued.  I will say it went on much, much longer than I had thought it would but how can you get mad at the kiddo when he's clearly having so much fun and his laugh is so merry and true?  Here's the little devious face in question:

You can see it says trouble.  And then I'm trying to ward off another attack.  You might notice that my arms, neck and legs are covered. And it's in my hair. And on my shirt. And my face... I reminded him that we're painting the chair not his favorite aunt Carrie! He just swiped me again.

And now he's supposed to be washing his paint off (he was all too glad to take his shirt off and play in the water while I tried to finish the chair.)

But, you can still see the devious look on his face. This would be when he began plotting his water attack.  With the sprayer that reaches really, really far.

The moral of the story is do not attempt to work on projects when your 4-year old nephew is at your house unless you want to be blue. (Thankfully my 2-year old nephew was napping.  When he woke up he kept looking at me and Joshie then at his hands and telling me, "I don't have bwue on my hands..."  I think he realized he missed out on something...) I'll finish my project later and hope I have enough paint...