Blonde and Beautiful!

Dang these allergies.  At least I am hoping it is just allergies.  All day long I have been congested, scratchy throat, swollen cheeks and jaw, and my head feels inflated.  I hope it is just allergies because Lord help me if it is a cold.  For me, colds are miserable.  Usually I don't get very sick.  Never really had strep or the flu.   However I get horrible colds - like two weeks long, using boxes and boxes of tissues, loading up on NyQuil.  It isn't pretty.  The last time I got a bad cold like this was this past Christmas.  Look how miserable we look:

Actually the hubby looks worse than I did, but I wanted to take a picture since it was our first married Christmas together. Oh, the memories.  We ended up getting the rest of in-laws sick.

Now you get why I welcome allergies.

Besides the nasty pollen in the air, this week we welcome some gorgeous weather.  Living in the Midwest definitely can be a weather rollercoaster.  More and more it seems like we skip over spring, and go straight from winter to hot, summer.  I blame it on global climate change (not global warming).  You may disagree but I totally believe that our actions are having a negative impact on the environment and causing more extreme weather.

Anyways back to my point.  It has been feeling like summer around here.  Summer makes me think of barbecues, tans, and blonde hair.  Yes, blonde hair.  There is something about the bright sun that makes me want to get my hair back to its original color.  Although I try to cover it up, I am a blonde.

This is as close to my natural hair color that I could find since I don't have access to my non-digital photos.

I was born with strawberry blonde hair and at many time in my childhood had super super blonde hair (mostly in the summer).  Around my senior year of high school I started dying my hair.  It started out just going a little red and darker blonde, and then I went really dark.

Man, was my hair long.  Throughout college up to the present, as soon as my hair would start to show signs of blonde, I covered it back up.  There was a time a few summers back where I tried to go lighter, but I soon learned that you can't go from brown to blonde by using a box at home.

That may be what is keeping me back from going blonde again.

But when the sun comes out, I want to have glowing radiant hair too.  Like Kristin Cavallari

(Google Images)

Or Reese Witherspoon.  She is just adorable!

(Google Images)

I know that it will probably take some investing at a salon to get my hair blonde again.  Or I could just wait for it to grow out.  Knowing me though, I would probably change my mind before it grew out.

However I am still undecided.  Suggestions?

Weekend Recap: Hail and Tornadoes

My title kind of says it all.  Our weekend was full of yucky weather - rain, hail, and even tornadoes.

It all started on Friday after work...

About a week ago I finally went ahead and bought a new pair of workout sneakers.  I had found a pair I thought would be really great and looked cute too.  Unfortunately they only had them in an 8.5 size, and most of the sneakers I tried on were most comfortable in a 9.  Somehow I talked myself into thinking that the smaller size would fit me.  When I got them home that day I wore them around the house and realized they were too tight.  Dang.  Our store in town did not get my size on their shipment this week, so I thought it would be a good idea to see if any other stores along the way to the in-laws place would have them as we would be headed there for Easter weekend.  No one did, except the store in Jefferson City, MO (which is about 30 min south of Columbia, and not on the way to the in-laws at all).

Anyways, back to Friday.  I decided it would be a good idea to run down to Jefferson City after work to get these shoes.  Then rush back to Columbia to pack up real quick and head out to the in-laws for Easter.  Getting to the store, things went great.  I made great timing, they were already reserved for me, and I was out of there quick.  However when I got just north of Jefferson City, my boss sent me a text that said, "I really hope you are close to home.  There is a tornado headed straight toward Ashland."  I was driving straight toward Ashland with no where to stop along the way.  The clouds started to look scary and I was getting a little freaked out.  I called the hubby to calm me down and that is when I started raining, and then hailing.  Finally I had to pull off to the side of the road with all the other cars, and the hail just kept pelting my car.  It cracked my windshield and put dents on the top of my car.

So these are the cute shoes I got:

And this is the crack in my windshield (which has since gotten bigger over the weekend):

Was it worth it?  I am not sure.  $250 deductible will fix the windshield and the dents on my car, but the shoes were only $60.

But the story doesn't end here.

Once I got home we had to make the decision on whether to go to southern Illinois that night or wait until the morning.  We saw the weather report and there didn't seem to be any more weather coming behind us, so we packed up and left about 7pm.

We didn't take into account the weather in southern Missouri that was moving up and over, instead of over.  What ended up happening was we caught up with the weather just outside of St. Louis.  We heard on the radio and from the in-laws about the tornado warnings, and I insisted we get off the highway at Lake St. Louis, about 25 minutes from the STL airport.  If you have seen the news at all recently, you would know that the tornado actually touched down at the airport.



Lucky for us that we stopped or we would have probably driven right through when the tornado hit.  After waiting 45 minutes for the warnings to lift, we headed out on I-70 which was our best option since 270 was closed both ways.  It wasn't long before we hit traffic.  We barely moved for 3 hours.  It took us that long to go about 5 miles at which point they were re-routing people off of I-70.  We managed to find an alternate route there, arriving at 1:45 (6 hours and 45 minutes for a trip that normally takes 3 hours).

The rest of the weekend was a bit less eventful, but still full of flood warnings.  Easter managed to stay nice enough for us to get out and enjoy service at the in-laws church and a little visiting before we took off with the threat of more thunderstorms headed that direction.

I am so over this crazy weather!

Happy Monday and have a great week.

Weekend Recap

So the end of last week was kind of a fail.  I was so exhausted and just did not feel like blogging.  Oh well, I am sure you dealt.  It was just one of those weeks that was busy at work and felt like an emotional roller coaster with other things happen in my life.  Things will be getting crazy soon, but hopefully in a good way.  Which is why I took a few days off of blogging.

I started the weekend a little early playing hooky from work.  Yeah, I am a bad girl.  In all fairness, I have paid time off days I can use for anything I want, but to be truthful I wasn't feeling great.  I just wanted to sleep.  My boss seemed okay with it, but I still felt nervous like I am skipping out on school or something.  I was like Ferris Bueller, having to put on a show to prove I was not feeling well.

Regardless, it was nice to have the day off.  I didn't do anything worth mentioning during the day.  Just hanging out and cleaning the house.  When the hubby got home in the evening we had a quick dinner, and then went to the movies.  We saw The Lincoln Lawyer, which was excellent.  Some of the best acting I have seen Matthew McConaughey do in a while.

(Image)

Saturday was an eventful day.  First on the agenda was a haircut.  I am one of those people that let my hair grow so much that it all of a sudden hits me that my hair is too unmanageable and I must cut it all off immediately.  Lucky for me, my hair salon is good about getting me in last minute.

Check out my "before" pictures.  This is probably the longest my hair has been in 4 years.

The hubby just couldn't resist getting in on this mini photo shoot.

And the "after" pictures.  I am in love with it!  I do prefer the shorter hair.  The maintenance is so much easier for my thick, full head of hair, and I think it has more style and personality.  I was a little more adventurous and let her cut it shorter in the back.  I think it turned out great!

Next, the hubby and I grabbed some leftover for lunch before going to the Missouri women's softball team game versus Texas A&M.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and I was excited to get some color on my pale skim.  Though, I might have gotten too much.  I am still feeling the pain from the burn on my back.  

After the game, we finally made it out to Lowe's.  I have been wanting some herb pots for my kitchen for what seems like years now.  Especially since we have been making the effort to cook fresh food, I like to use fresh herbs especially cilantro in my Mexican dishes.  Loewe's had some great pots, and I ended up with these yellow and green ones to compliment the colors in my kitchen.  For the herbs I got cilantro, basil, and oregano, which I think I would use the most.  They look so cute on my kitchen windowsill.

All the excitement of the day was really starting to wear on me.  I also blame it on the fact that on the weekends I don't drink as much water, and am probably am dehydrated.  I spent the rest of the evening in bed being a bum.

Sunday was church, as always, and then to the gym and grocery store.  Again, I started to feel like I was having a sinus infection or a fever.  Either way I spent a good portion of the afternoon/early evening in bed trying to find a comfortable position that didn't bother my sunburn.  Around dinner I was feeling better so the hubby took me out to eat so I didn't have to cook.  Our favorite Mexican restaurant was a good way to wrap up the night, and there is nothing like a Margarita to break a fever!

Going back to work was hard this week, but the end is in sight.  I can see it!

Four Eyed Adventure

I am a contact wearer, and have been since the 5th grade.  To me they are much more convenient.  I hate how limiting glasses can be and there are activities that I can't stand doing in glasses:

• Driving in the dark
• Driving in the rain
• Playing sports
• Cleaning the house
• Cooking
• Pretty much anything that requires me to be standing up

You get the picture.  In fact, I struggled to even find a picture of me in glasses.  Partially because of the infrequency that I wear them, and partially because I hate being photographed in glasses.  Hence the only picture I could find is from a few years back where you can't see my entire face.

Yes, that is some roomie love going on in my bed.

Recently, I have really been wanting to update my glasses.  I have been wearing them more lately, especially when I am tired in the mornings.  Sometimes you just need to give your eyes a rest.

I am really digging these:

Source

Or maybe these

Source

Clearly I am interested in something a little bolder and with some thicker frames.  I am not sure if I could pull off this look.  So I tested Pearle Vision's Try It On Tool.  What do you think?

With a little funky color?

Or a lot of funky color?

Square Shape?

Or Rounded?

Personally I think think I look goofy in all of those pictures, but that might just be because I have a weird smile.  Anyways I hope to make a trip to the eyeglass store to get some new goodies!

Headband Love

I don't think a girl could have too many headbands. Unfortunately this girl sitting in my chair does not have enough!

So of course I am headband shopping on etsy.com today. Actually it is more like daydreaming since right now those headbands are unfortunately a luxury, and I did indulge myself in some makeup and new workout pants this weekend. So really its only window shopping. However if some friend or generous person would like to spoil me with some of these headbands, I would not object!

Athena Headband from LuciaBella etsy shop

I got my wedding headband from her shop and I was absolutely in love with it. Really completed my look.

Hippie Chic Tie Headband from BeSomethingNew

Houndstooth from RufflesandFringe