Hair Today, Gone Tommorow

Slacker moms unite against deadlines.

Or at least that is my excuse for not posting these before/after pics sooner. Truth is, the photos are BAD. They make me look even worse than I actually do. They also add a good 50 pounds. a woman can dream? . So I've procrastined sharing them on the world wide web. My one thousands of readers might think less of me.

Seriously though, here are the before and after pics. Notice all the frizz. And you can't tell from here, but I have THICK THICK hair. I mean horribly thick. And horribly curly. Sorry about the darkness. The lighting in my bathroom sucks. And Grumpy just said "Why didn't you have me take the photos?"

Guess I needed less liquor relaxing that day and I might have thought of it.

BEFORE:


and,......AFTER ( I LOVE IT...even though it wasn't the original plan)

Torturing myself one goal at a time...

I've spent a few days contemplating whether or not I wanted to make resolutions this year. I mean I never keep them. They are forgotten by January 2nd February. But at the same time, it doesn't seem natural to not make them.

So the goal here is to make resolutions that I can keep. Or at least attempt to keep. So I'm keeping it small this year. But I want to keep in line with my goals to make it into adulthood. I already have my 65 in 365.

So alas, here's my to do list of resolutions for the new year.

* Sleep More
* Work Less
* Enjoy the little moments
* Walk past the chocolate without grabbing some at least once a week
* Try my hand at physical activity-- even if its courtesy of the Wii
* Maintain a decent hair style
* Buy myself some new clothes
* Pay the bills

Seems simple right?? Maybe it will happen. I'm not holding my breath on number 4.

Dear 2010...

We started the year off with a disaster bang. Can we tone it down now? Seriously. I think too much more excitement this early in the year may cause someone to get hurt.

I realize that the first week of 2010 involves getting back into the school routine followed by the nightmare fun we have at the Girl Scout overnight event. But maybe we can reserve the excitement for all of that.

So what do I want this year? Since you asked.

1. I'd like to have a little peace in my life. Maybe only work 80 hours a week instead of more.
2. How about one day I grasp the feeling of sleeping a full 8 hours and waking up. Not 4 hours because there isn't time for rest. Not 15 hours because I'm depressed overly tired.
3. Could you give me the energy time to read a few books this year.
4. I need to FINALLY have the opportunity to see New Moon
5. I'd like to make a grocery budget and stick to it
6. Losing about 30 pounds would be fantastic....so if you could please remove chocolate from the checkout lines at the store that'd be great
7. I'd love to bake a cookie that didn't look like he-man on crack
8. Maybe throw in some more fun outings to take Brat on that involved getting off my lazy ass and actually doing something.
9. Throwing in a really really high score on Bejeweled Blitz would be fantabulous.
10. Speaking of Facebook...could you possibly remove Farmville so that I don't get riddled with 3,456,789 requests to send a plant or whatever the hell they are wanting
11. Since we are making requests....is it possible to make it through the year without all the pre-teen drama? No? I didn't think so.
12. See the bills over there -----> I'd like to pay those
13. Vast quantities of liquor may help with all of the above
14. I'd like to see my house unpacked and organized but first we have to work on #1
15. And really...how about some quiet peaceful..non dramatic days?

See, 2010, I have been excited about your presence in my life. It meant 2009 was over. That was a bad year. But then you introduced yourself with all the drama and excitement of 2009. I don't want that!! So maybe you can pay close attention and we can work together to make this one rocking year!

Sincerely,
Queen Bee

Size really does matter!

It's been a long day. A really long day. I should have reserved my drinking relaxing for tonight. But the queen is broke and the closest thing to alcohol in this house is some fermented bread in the pantry.

As you all know by now, Brat "became a woman" today. That's her term. Though I don't think the blood curdling screams from the bathroom were exactly woman-like. Unless of course she has looked in the mirror and realized that not only is she gray, she has wrinkles!

But we made a super discovery tonight. Size does matter. Brat kept complaining of being sore. I couldn't think why in the world she was sore. Then it dawned on me. You see (and I go into the TMI category here) I have the world's worst menstrual cycle. Absolute.Worst.Out.There! So I use the heavy duty tampons. Kotex Super Plus. They are actually quite large when compared to the others.

So I sent grumpy out to the Wal-Mart to pick up a smaller tampon. Hoping this would make the whole situation less painful for me. And I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when he called home to compare whether he should get Tampax Pearl or Playtex Gentle Glide.

We opted for Tampax. And it worked much much better. Much less crying. For both of us! I actually compared what hers and mine looked like. WOW.

So far no complaints of being sore. Fingers crossed we may survive her newfound womanhood.

Queen Review: Betty Crocker Cookie Mix

Before I start, let me say...I haven't been recruited to do reviews. I am not being paid. I didn't receive products in exchange for my review. I'm doing it for two reasons. One- if we are going to take this journey into adulthood together then I should share what works for me or what doesn't. Second- If anyone is interested in me doing reviews, I'd be more than happy to LOL. But mainly #1. I mean what kind of travel guide would I be, if I didn't share my love or hate of products.

All that said, let's get on to it. I signed up for this great site called HouseParty.com. Now I will tell more about them in another post. But it's pretty self explanatory. You sign up, you apply to host various house parties sponsored by companies, if chosen you receive a party pack with all you need for the party. I was chosen. Twice (but I'll share the second later). My first party was a Betty Crocker Cookie Dough House Party.

To be honest when I first received notice I'd be chosen I thought what crack induced coma was I in when I applied to host a cookie party. ME?? I can burn no bake cookies. I mean that's a mild way of saying my cookie skills are horrible not so great. But I was feeling all Christmasy and stuff so I took the challenge.

I was sooo geeked when I got my party pack in the mail. So I set it up. Weather caused it to be postponed. New date didn't work for some. Well basically after several tries we ended up with Brat and her BFF (still trying to find a name for her). But we baked cookies all day long, then enjoyed them with a game of Christmas Bingo. Followed by some wii games. It was a wonderful day.

So how was the cookie mix?? Well we tried several different kinds. We baked Peanut Butter, Sugar, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Chip.

One thing I LOVED about the cookie mixes is that they were S-I-M-P-L-E to make. Even the girls at age 11 were able to completely make the dough by themselves.



They required very simple ingredients. Just eggs and butter. And when mixing, it was simply a few minutes until they were ready for the pan. This is great when making cookies with kids. They aren't very patient and are ready to get to the eating.



Now the down side? There wasn't much of one. Except for the Chocolate Chip cookies. Now I'm a chocolate chip nut. And I like my chocolate chip cookies to be really chocolate chippy. These just didn't measure up. They have a great flavor...but not enough chocolate chips. Otherwise, all the cookies were awesome. And like I said, perfect for making cookies with kids.

All that aside, even the best, easiest mix can't keep me from messing up the cookies!

7 Quick Takes Friday....

Over at Conversion Diary they host a 7 Quick Takes Friday. I'm a little late getting in on it, but I'd like to give it a shot.

1. I'd like to say Happy New Year to everyone. It's been one rough year going out, but I'm grateful for all the blessings I've had. I look forward to 2010 as a year of discovery.

2. The big hair cut ended up being shorter than I'd planned on. But I like it. Much easier to fix and run which is what I do most often.

3. There is a huge difference in tampon sizes when thinking about an 11 yr old girl. So if faced with it, go for the smaller ones.

4. I'm loving every second of my new blog. It's such a great thing to have a place where I can go and share and tell my story.

5. Coming up in the next month will be my first craft project of the year as well as my beginning decorating of my new living room. I look forward to sharing that with you.

6. No matter how hard I try I can not make a cookie that looks anything like the pictures that are with the recipe. Even my NO BAKE cookies turn out horrible. But then again they have chocolate. So is really bad if you have to eat them with a spoon??

7. Sometimes I start to feel like I just can not take one more thing. Then I'm reminded of where I've been and where I have to go yet. 5 years ago my daughter spoke to no one but me. NOT ONE SINGLE SOUL. In a couple months will be her third year singing on a stage in front of 200+ members of an audience. And she will ROCK THE PLACE.

Thanks for reading my thoughts.

Out with the old...in with the new...

2009 was a rough year around here. So many problems. So I was super excited to see it end. After all, 2010 has to be better, right? That was my motto last night. We were at Tigger's for a small New Year's Eve celebration. Her and Mater (husband), Me, Grumpy, 3 preteen girls and a boy. Oh how our ears bled with the screams as Justin Bieber took the stage. WOW.

So whenever anyone said Happy New Year, Tigger's response was "What is so happy about it??" And my standard reply was "It's not 2009. 2009 is OVER"

So I came home slightly buzzedrelaxed. Played online just a bit and headed for bed. It was a good night. And when I woke up it was a whole new not just year but DECADE. A big chance to improve. I didn't set the clock with the mindset I'd wake up when I wanted to. I should have known that was too much to hope for.

So today Brat leans down beside me. "Mom? Mom?"

"huh?" I tried to appear coherent.

"Mom, I started my period"

Back up! WHAT????? You did WHAT????

Yep folks. That's right. In with the NEW. And you would have to KNOW Brat to know how absolutely AWFUL this was. Talk about over emotional!! So of course I got up. We had the talk about pads vs tampons. But to be honest there is NO WAY Brat could use pads. NO WAY! She's not concerned enough with things like that. It would be a disaster at school. So in our talk we opted for tampons.

Luckily I had a few.

What did I get myself into??? The first time took a total of an hour to complete. She was a wreck. Lots of tears were shed. And she cried too. Yelling. Screaming. Cursing. And she asked me the age old question every woman wants to know that time of the month.

Why don't boys have to go through this??

Simple answer. They can't handle it. I mean Brat is difficult enough. I can't imagine Grumpy on the rag. He'd be curled up in the fetal position on the bed with tears in his eyes repeating "When will it end???" and rocking back and forth. I mean he gets a head cold and the world must stop. Imagining him with cramps, mood swings and having to use tampons makes me laugh.

Tigger's respone?

"Well you are the one who said 2010 would be so great. That'll teach ya to think"

Sooo how did you celebrate your New Year's Day??? Was it as eventful as mine?