The Quick & Dirty

...rundown of what has been up in our Halls since the last blog post. What did y'all think I meant by "quick & dirty", I'm a deacon's wife for Pete's sake ;)

My last post must've had an impact b/c I now own about 1/2 of the items on there! Ha ha! It was totally not a hint dropper! Just sharing what I love (you know, like Oprah, minus the racism). I own the Garmin (thanks Poppy & Lovie) - and have used it a few times. Pretty awesome. Sometimes I think it thinks I am running faster than I really am. Maybe it just feels sorry for me & tries to shave 10 or so seconds off of my pace. Ha. I own ALL of the Kiehl's products...and I have tried - NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE - to order my boots and for some reason the order keeps getting cancelled. Hello, God? What in the world? Am I just not meant to own Cowboy boots? It's a little disheartening. Hmm...

I turned 32. Yeah, I did. It was just another birthday. A good day, but plain nonetheless. I began it with a 7.6 mile run! Woot! That was the farthest that I have ever ran...AND, I didn't feel like I was dying. I felt good - like I actually could've run farther. Maybe it was the feeling of aliveness that I liked. It was slightly crisp, so I ran in my running skirt & it was cool enough to wear a long sleeve t-shirt over my running shirt - which is PERFECTION to me :) Woot! We ate at 5 Guys for lunch - THE BEST hamburger in Huntsville. Hands down!! Watched lotsa college football, Bama beat UT. In the words of the great philosopher Ice Cube, "today was a good day".

We had Halloween. It was amazing this year! Dorky, huh? Nah, not really - remember I'm a mommy :) This was the first year that W really "got it". You know what I mean? For weeks, she had given me the runaround about what she wanted to be for Halloween...it started out as a cupcake (which she was last year), and a mermaid (she wanted DaDa to be one too), a bumblebee, a moo cow (she wanted DaDa to be one of those, too), and finally, she informed us that she wanted to dress up as Boo - the black cat that lives at Mama Trish & Poppa's house. So, Boo it was. Mommy made her some special ears & painted a pink nose & whiskers. I have never witnessed a child so excited! She would walk up to the doors (where she rang the doorbells) and would say "trick or treat...meow", then "thank you" & "happy halloween". She kept telling people that this was the first time that she had ever been trick or treating - and it was...if you mean first time going to homes other than our family. I honestly got tears in my eyes a few times as she said, "oh Mommy, I am having so much fun!". I loved seeing her reactions to the other costumes and just to everything. Times like these remind you of the magic of being a child - when you aren't jaded, you aren't aware of evil, & your only responsibility is to play and enjoy life to its fullest. Makes me want to help her stay this way as long as she can ;)

We went to see Disney Princesses on Ice. Whew. First, I'm gonna give props to my parents who took me to that junk my whole life bc they knew that I loved it. Dude, there are alot of kids, crowds, and everything costs a million dollars. W had been so pumped about seeing the princesses. We met Lovie & went with her, too. Lovie had obtained a handicapped parking tag (lovingly referred to by me as the 'capper'), but conveniently, on this rainy, cool night, the person in front of us got the last capper. So, we had to traipse through the mud to get to the entrance. Of course, those hawkers are standing outside hawking the most annoying toys and screaming "$10 here, $20 inside". So, Lovie purchased a glowing butterfly thing for W. Picture it. You're at a rave. The music is straight techno, but it's on a continuous loop of about 5 seconds, so it repeats OVER, and OVER, and OVER. The strobe-like lights border on making you seize when you look at it too long. Nice, huh. So, we get inside & I see why they are "$10 here, $20 inside". The $20 ones are nothing like what we bought outside; they actually have Disney characters on them, the song is much quieter & less annoying, AND there isn't a seizure-inducing strobe light. Now we get to our seats & there is 30 minutes until the show starts. W is jumping & getting pumped, but 30 minutes for a 3 year old is like 3 hours for an adult, so she starts getting fired up about the dumbest things. Lovie made the mistake of offering her some Cheese-its (usually a favorite), but she pitched one about that. She requested a sno-cone in a Tinkerbell cup. Got it. Only set back a mere $15! She didn't want it bc it was TOO COLD!!! She wanted popcorn then - she got it. The show started & it was a success. She sat in my lap most of the time, but loved the show, clapped, smiled, and asked a million questions. All was well until the last 5 minutes when the dragon appeared in the story of Sleeping Beauty. She. Lost. Her. Junk. She cried and cried and cried and begged to go home. We tried to coax her to stay so she could see Cinderella's carriage, but to no avail. We left. She talked about the dragon for days. She did say that she had fun, her favorite was Tinkerbell, but then would tell you all about the dragon. The really annoying butterfly toy came home with us. My Dad heard it so much that his ears may still be bleeding. W took it to Mama Trish & Poppa's house. They are probably still bleeding, too. Somehow, the butterfly has become MIA. Wonder how that happened? ;) Mommy & Daddy's ears are just fine! Ha ha!

Last, but certainly not least. There has been a tragedy with my hair. So, maybe not a tragedy, but it certainly seemed that way for a couple of days! Last post, I put up my pic of Jennifer Aniston - yeah, that's what I wanted. Just like that. I showed my hair dude about 7 - 10 pics of Jennifer Aniston & said "this is what I want". A dark blonde with some streaks. I am a complete brunette with some really dark blonde streaks. Yeah, you see the new pic at the top of the blog - that's it. I (and my husband) were pretty shocked & I felt a little devestated - especially bc the hair dude kept saying that it was "spot on" like Jennifer A. Whatev. But, that said, I have come to peace with it at this time & am gonna keep it for a bit. It's fun for the winter...but you can bet that in summer, it's gonna need some mega-lightening up! I should sincerely apologize semi-publicly to Kayse, Jenny, Katie C, & Ash Fro for the days long freak out and text message blowing up as I worked through the emotions associated with grief and loss. DABDA - denial, anger, barganing, depression, and acceptance. Thanks Elizabeth Kubler-Ross: the five stages of grief. Ha ha. Remember, my original degree is in Psych ;)

Love to my peeps who are reading! Oh...and a big Roll Tide. I guess that you can't win 'em all. They gave us such an awesome run over the last couple of seasons. We'll be on top again. No doubt! Call me a jerk, but if I were Nick Saban, I would've held out my hand mid-field to Les Miles & pulled it back & said "syke" and giggled. Ha ha. Kidding....sort of :)