Before and after

My computer friends are sharing their makeup before and after shots, and I decided to play along. Here's my before:



And here's after (with what Johnny is calling my "crazy hair"):



Now, if you know me, you know that usually my hair is just wash and go. Brush through it, put it in a pony tail, but not this curl mop. I did this with my flat iron just for fun. I have so much hair, it is difficult for me to do a good job of this on my own. Courtney's hair is super easy, it's so thin. I do hers all the time.

And as for the makeup, well that is something I really have only been doing for the last year or two on a consistent basis. I've almost always used mascara, but the rest was only for special occasions. Since Johnny was born, I've had this lovely splotchy skin. And I found some super easy to put on makeup (Bare Escentuals). Hides the redness and blotchiness. Love the stuff!

Modesty

Courtney has a journal that lets her answer questions about herself, like her best friends and her eye color and other random items. The other day she proudly came to me to show me her answer to one of the questions.

Question: What are your talents? (Don't be modest)
Courtney's response: I need to be modest!

I hope she is always so proud of being modest. You go girl!

I never claimed to have a green thumb

I have kept alive very few plants in my lifetime. I over water, I under water, I forget they are there. I do have an aloe plant that we have owned almost a year and it made the move from Oklahoma. I don't think you could kill that one very easily. I even lost to a cactus once--thought it would be easy. Last month Kyle brought home a beautiful but half dead clematis. I finished the job on that one too. At least here in Santa Fe, it is a desert and our outdoor plants don't require much on our part. We'd hate to ruin the little landscaping there is on this house, since it is a rental and all. But hey, no grass to worry about and rocks require absolutely no watering!

On a different note, I found this wonderful quote recently about raising children. I hope my real gardening skills have nothing to do with my child gardening skills:

"Try to see your child as a seed that came in a packet without a label. Your job is to provide the right environment and nutrients and to pull the weeds. You can't decide what kind of flower you'll get or in which season it will bloom."
--a modern educator

$150.03

So, before we went up to Utah for Easter, the kids' toilet started having problems...flushing slow. We've never before had a child flush something down the the toilet. Leave it to Johnny! Guess what it was.

Foam hair rollers.

About 8 of them. We haven't used them in ages, so we didn't miss them. $150.03 to extract them. At least he didn't have to remove the toilet from the floor. Apparently they used acrylic to attach the toilet to the vinyl floor. It wouldn't have been pretty.

Oh, Johnny.