Sunshine gets a haircut

This happens on a semi-regular basis, but this time is different. My hair was really starting to bug me. I always does when it gets longer than my shoulders. Plus I think I look better with a 'do about chin length. I have a round face. Very round. Not as round as it used to be...say...3 weeks ago, but still round.

The difference this time is that I asked my sister to do my cut for me. I like choppier cuts because it helps define the curls a little bit more, so I wanted a semi-inexperienced cutter (is that awful to say? She did a good job!). I gave her instructions and walker her through how to do a semi-complicated cut, when necessary, demonstrated on my mannequin head and I'm quite pleased with the results! I haven't worn it curly yet, but it's almost exactly what I asked for. There are some straggly curls that stick out, but I want to give it a few days to recover before snipping.

So, good job, sis! Your very first woman's haircut! Impressive.

Sorry, no pictures. Again, corrupt camera card.

First retry at Co-Washing

So yeah, I'm slightly (Or totally) obsessed with my hair. Today, I decided to shower (a big move for me, I hate to shower because my skin freaks out for days) and begin my trial of full CG. I conditioner washed my hair with Garnier Fructis's silicone free Extra Body conditioner or something to that effect. I scrubbed pretty hard because it had been so long (6 days, gross I know) since my last shower (In my defense, I did absolutely nothing during that time). After co-washing, I added my KBB hair milk as my conditioner, let it set while I washed my body, then rinsed out. I used a bit of Jessicurl Too Shea! Conditioner, the let my hair drip while I lotioned up and dried, etc. I was gonna just let it air dry without products, which I've been doing lately, but just couldn't resist a product assist.

So I scrunched in some re:coil and plopped in my brand spankin' new (Well, newly cut at least) sheet triangles. I had a plan in mind...don't you worry. These olllllllddddd sheets are probably as old as I am and you can see completely through them. I cut them into large triangles and planned on using my soft bonnet dryer (think 1950's). With the thin fabric I could dry my hair in the plop mostly, then let it down and still dry it with the bonnet while I surfed the internet, posted on nc.com, etc..

I plopped for a while and when the fabric was soaked (not hard to do with how thin it was) and when I was starting to get cold, I set up my soft bonnet dryer on the bed in the computer room and secured it to my head. I let it go until the air no longer felt cold on my head, then pulled out the plop and continued the drying with the bonnet. I do have results pictures, but the camera memory card is somehow corrupt and I got the blue screen from death. Trust me when I say it didn't look half bad! There's frizz from manipulation (for air flow) and rubbing against the sheet, but I have pretty good lookin' waves. Not as good as if I had used my full compliment of products, but not bad either. It's still slightly wet toward the roots, but I'm not going anywhere, so it doesn't matter.

So the first co-wash seems to be a success! No oily, greasy roots, better curls (My hair actually curled in the shower, an almost unheard of event as of late) and the experiment with my soft bonnet dryer wasn't half bad either!

So sorry if you're family and you had to read (again) about my hair obsession, but you should be used to it by now, right? Right. Deal.

Happy Easter, Everybody!

Sorry, I don't have any photos. I forgot to run upstairs and grab the digital camera. Today was pretty lame. I'm a heathen. For the first time since I was born, I didn't go to church on Easter. I meant to, honest! I'm just soooooooo smart and took a sleeping pill. I woke up at 1:00 pm. Great.

Anyhow, my brother Kris, his wife Rosy and their two kids came over. The Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's is legendary. Grandma is super generous with both candy, nuts and money. The two kids each made a haul of a bowl of candy (I'm talking small mixing bowls people) and approximately $30 each in cash, between change, $1, and $2. I tell ya, kids just aren't as impressed with $2 bills as I used to be. We used to get one of these every year from a grandma and save and save and save it because they were soooooo rare. Then when I finally spent it, I was so disappointed by the reaction of the cashier...nothing.

Bryson, the one nephew had nasal surgery in Friday. He had some very swollen nodules since he was a baby and they found out when they went to go take him to the orthodontist that since he's never been able to breath out of his nose, his jaw is growing down instead of out. So they took him in to surgery to remove the nodes/nodules/glands (I'm not really sure what they went in to remove), but ended up taking out his adenoids, too. Now the poor guy has gauze packed into this nose, has to have nose drops, take antibiotics (He hates any kind of medicine, it makes him gag) and refuses to take pain medication (prescription). He says he's not in pain, but I think it's more of a medicine taking deal than him really not being in pain.

So we had to take the Easter Egg Hunt a little easy because he wasn't supposed to run. That stuck for about 2 minutes, then they were running all over my parents yard. They each ended up with approximately 60 eggs and I already told you their haul. Gravy, who knew a 1/3 acre lot could have so many places to hide 120+ eggs?

After the hunt and watching them open all the eggs, dinner was almost ready and the smell made me nauseous, very, very nauseous. So I excused myself upstairs took some nausea medicine (I do not have the same problem as Bryson!), OTC Meclizine. It's actually what's in the long-acting Dramamine, but since I've had nausea problems for oh...the past year...the doc just said to purchase it from the Pharmacy and I can get 100 pills for $5 instead of 8 pills for $7 (the Dramamine). So, you know, a note to the wise...Though be aware, it makes you a little drowsy. I crashed and burned for 3 hours after I took this stuff.

Well, that's how our Easter happened! A Happy Easter to you and I hope it was a safe one!

Giving it another go!

So, I hennaed my roots last night, overnight, and was rinsing it out this morning. Lately, I have had the flakiest and itchiest scalp ever. I know it's not dandruff, just dry, since the rest of my skin feels the same way. It doesn't help that this diet has forbidden the use of any "nourishing" oils. Not in cooking, not in face cream, not in lotions. I have broken the rules for my hair, but haven't been rubbing it into my scalp as I'm trying to adhere to the spirit of the law, if not the letter of it. No wonder the scalp has been so dry! I've been using shampoo, of course, making it worse because I never was able to get co-washing to work for me.

Well, today, while bent over the tub rinsing out the mud from my hair, I decided to try using what was left of my Suave Tangerine whatever conditioner. I had been using it as a shave cream. I grabbed it, squirted some onto my hand, worked it into my fingers and slid my fingers very carefully to my scalp through the upside-down hair. I rubbed and rubbed, then took another dollop and worked it into each section of hair upside down. I must say...this seemed like a good co-wash.

And since my scalp is dry and itchy, henna makes my hair dryer and the season's are changing to super-dry instead of mildly dry, I decided that I would give co-washing another try. Keep in mind that last week, I bought a whole bunch of "good for your shampoos/body washes" because my skin had been acting up so bad. Guess I'll have a little more for body wash, huh? I trekked off (literally, trekked, as in walked...I don't walk anywhere, usually, but the store was less than a block away. We live in the neighborhood behind it.) to the Kmart and browsed the selections. I was a little disappointed by the selection, but finally found what I was looking for.

I ended up purchasing 4. Yes, 4! conditioners! I purchased Suave Juicy Green Apple, Cherry Blossom something (that took some looking), the new GF Body Boost that is silicone free. I love the smell of GF as a whole, but the other conditioners I bought as well. Then, lastly, I bought VO5 Blackberry Tea something conditioner.

So...wish me luck on my journey. This may end badly like it did before, but I think I might have the hang of how to do it now. Maybe my poor hair will become less dry, my scalp less dry and itchy, and my curls a little tighter. Here's hopin'!

I survived!

Well, I survived the weekend. The Saturday night dinner wasn't really a problem because we went to Red Lobster. I ordered a steak with broccoli. I just cut off a portion of the steak and ate it and brought home the rest, which I ate Sunday for Lunch and Dinner. It was goooooooddddd!

Sunday was my self-restraint-strained-to-the-max day. I ended up helping my dad cook the breakfast, as usual. I ended up cooking the bacon while my dad cooked the sausages, both link and patties. Then I started to cook hashbrowns, but had to leave for a bit, so my brother took that over. I also cooked the scrambled eggs. So as a recap, we had bacon, link sausage, patty sausage, bratwurst, regular hashbrowns, hashbrowns with chives, scrambled eggs, fried eggs (for those who wanted them), Cinnamon burst toast, strawberries and pineapple. And to drink we had Crystal Light White Grape and Strawberry Banana. Every year, we always forget to buy juices. I don't get it.

I ended up eating a few scrambled eggs and strawberries for breakfast, but all day those dang hashbrowns and sausages and bacon were calling my name. They are still doing that right now. They just smell so good in the fridge! So far I've been strong, if not exactly following the diet to the letter, pretty dang close to it! Today I had gained .2 pounds. I just want to have a gorge day today where I eat it all, get it out of my system and start again tomorrow. Must remain strong...

Old is creeping up on me

The other day, I had to finally bite the bullet and buy some reading glasses. It all started with not being able to see clearly the screen of the computer and it made my eyes burn after a little while. Then I realized whenever I read (All the time) I would wake up the next morning with a raging migraine. I found some cheap-o reading glasses and all is well in the world. Now I just have to remember to put them on. As I type, they're sitting in my bedroom.

This milestone makes me feel so old! I shouldn't have to have reading glasses yet! I shouldn't! But I guess this is one more pill I have to swallow and smile while wearing them. At least they don't make me motion sick like they used to.

Catchin' up

So, the diet is going well. I'm getting a little into a rebellion phase where I just want a piece of pizza or a bowl of spaghetti (I have some sneaky plans that involve zucchini as noodles for my vegetable), or even a grilled cheese sandwich! I cleaned my room because my brother's family is coming down for General Conference and my room is the only room with a queen size bed. AKA I give up my bedroom (which is always cluttered with stuff, clothes, books, makeup, medication, shoes) and I found 1/4 bag of peanut butter M&M's and 1/2 bag Skittle and 1/2 bag of Cookies 'n Cream kisses. Man, it was definitely hard to throw them away. It's especially hard to cook for just one person. I've tried cooking enough for the 3 of us, but nobody will eat my food. It really does taste good, I promise! And this weekend is going to be a trial from hell. I'll explain.

Some of you may be asking "What the heck is General Conference?" Well, I'm LDS as is my whole family. Our church bi-annually holds what is called General Conference. It's held in a huge conference center in Utah, but it's televised nation wide. We were lucky enough when we were kids to just be able to stay home and watch it because we live in Utah. People outside Utah were not so lucky in the past and had to go to their churches. Anyway, I digress. Years ago, my dad started a tradition of taking the boys out to get ice cream after the General Priesthood session. Think of it like a men's pow-wow, whipping them back into shape. This eventually evolved to dinner and eventually the girls were invited. Now that everybody but me are married, the spouses and the males over the age of 12 all go. Yes, It's a big crowd. This time, there will probably be 11 people. Usually, if we have all the kids (as in my siblings) and their kids of age, there would be 15-16. We have a nice dinner, talk about what was discussed, then hike it home. So, finding something to go along with my diet guidelines is going to be a challenge.

2 out of my 4 siblings live in the Greater Salt Lake Area, so they just drive home and drive back over the next morning. I have one sibling who lives in College Station, TX and they recreate the activities there because it's become such a tradition. I have one brother who lives in Logan, UT, which is about 90 miles away...something like that. They're the ones who end up crashing at Grandma and Grandpa's. The kids love it because they don't get to spend a lot of time with our side of the family.

Anyway, the next morning, Sunday morning, my dad creates this huge feast. I usually end up helping because the other siblings don't arrive until right before breakfast is supposed to happen. When I say huge...I mean huge. We're talking (remember, this is usually for 15 people and we can't seem to whittle down the food, which is okay because we munch on the food all day) 3-4 lbs of bacon 3 lbs of patty sausage 3 lbs of link sausage, 1 lbs of grilled ham, hashbrowns, eggs, cinnamon rolls, toast, orange cranberry biscuits, juices...the works! Now, tell me, how am I supposed to maintain a diet when we're eating succulent food like that?!

Basically, I'm planning on gaining some weight in the next day or so. They say it takes 3 days to recover from a slip-up in the diet. Great.

Picky Picky

For those of you who might remember, this is Mikey from the Life cereal Commercial. I loved those commercials and was devastated when the went off the air.

Anyhow, I'm like the picky kids in the commercial. I am an extremely picky eater. I don't like yogurt, pudding, jello. I also loath honey dew, cantaloupes and watermelon. Oh, and peas...let's not forget peas! It's a texture thing. Those little grape leave wrapped Greek food? I threw it up. Raw tomatoes (even the smell) are the bane of my existence, thought I can eat them cooked. I generally don't like casseroles because all the food is mixed together. When I dish up, I separate my food and eat it one by one. The other foods cannot touch and I circle my plate clockwise. This amuses my friends and family to no end because I'm the only one who does this. The other siblings, mix their foods together and/or pile them on the fork/spoon before shoveling it into their mouth.

So, along come this supposedly miraculous weight loss diet. I'm down with it, but figured out already that this was going to be a challenge of monotony for me. I looked that the allowed food list and most of them I hate (well, at least I know I hate them raw. Most of the time I can't get past the memory of it raw that I can't even try it in anything else).

But I'm proud of myself! I went shopping and actually bought vegetables I hate. This includes Cabbage, cucumbers, green and red peppers (eh, I can take them or leave them. Raw, they're too squeaky), spinach (great in a salad, but I can only dress my salad in balsamic vinegar, gross), radishes (my my dad ate in 2 days), zucchini, mushrooms, chard (it looked gross, so we'll try again later, asparagus (I don't like this on it's own...ewww), 1/2 cup eggplant (texture and the looks ooks me out) and tomatoes.

I will, at some point during this diet, try each an every one of these vegetables I don't know. Who knows, I could widen my horizons!

Venturing out into territories unkown.

First, an update on the diet. It's going well. Sure, I'd like myself a hamburger, but for the most part, I'm happy with the food. The weight isn't coming off as fast as I'd like, but I think it's because I'm not drinking a lot of water. I despise water sometimes. In an effort to try and inspire me, I bought a couple cases of my favorite water. Fiji ( love the bottle most, square. It's just so unexpected!) and Smart Water. It just tasted sweeter to me..

So, here are the results from day 6 and 7.
Day 6 (04/01/2009, no practical jokes, thankfully): 229 lbs or 104.09 kgs
Day 7 (04/02/2009): 227.4 lbs or 103.36 kgs

So that means, since my highest weight measurement (even if I was gorging, hey, I'm trying to make myself feel good, okay)? And the total is...10.7 lbs! Hooray! If we technically start day one, the total is 5.8. Still not too shabby. I'm happy for right now. I'm gonna see what I can do to accelerate that a bit.