What A Man!

I still haven't put up my planned Father's Day post. However I wanted to give you an idea about how amazing and wonderful my husband is because the past two days he has gone above and beyond.... As I am typing this I can hear him blowing up a swimming pool for Mikayla's birthday present, he helped me make dinner for friends today, he cleaned the house this week, has been an amazing house spouse for the past two weeks, did all of the laundry, witnessed our son crawl for the first time and noted every detail so that he could tell me about it later, watched the kids so I could go to the temple, helped me study for my tests at school, let me practice my fresh new skills on him, made me mint chocolate chip cookies, and THEN, hold your breath, this last bit is amazing....

He woke up with Mikayla no less than FIVE times last night AND woke up with Rowan no less than THREE.

Apparently my muscle relaxers for my back and neck render me useless and I can actually sleep through my children screaming at the top of their lungs.... This is usually Randy's area of expertise (although if it his turn he takes it and he has never complained) and I get up and take care of things. And to top off that amazing feat Randy still woke up for church, helped get the kids dressed and ready and took care of them so I could teach my lesson for the Young Women.... What a man! I am so grateful to him for all he does for this family. My lesson that I gave today was on service and the more I though about service and what it means the more I thought about Randy and how he serves our family.

I know he worries about us and about providing for our needs and I know that sometimes he feels like it isn't enough. In reality, he does more than is required or even asked of him and he makes our life a truly happy one. I am also very grateful that he honors the gospel and the priesthood. There have been so many times that I have needed a blessing, comfort, and insights or even just a great shoulder to cry on. I know that because he lives righteously he has been able to provide those things for me.

And one last thing- I am so glad that he is mine forever. I absolutely cannot imagine life without him. When we were dating and even first married I did not realize how attached and how in love I could be.... I am so looking forward to eternity with him!

Highlights

Randy and I just debated about the proper spelling of 'highlights.' We didn't come up with a good answer. I think it is similar to the Kleenex phenomenon... you know... we all call them Kleenex but that is simply the most advertised brand name. The real term is tissue. Unless you are rich like Grammie and can buy the REAL thing:-)

This in from Randy- highlights. Hi-lites, hi-lights, etc are brand names.

Now for my point. We had a fabulous day:

Randy went to the park with the kids, baby-sat, brought me lunch, and came rushing to my rescue later on in the day. A rather dashing knight in shining armor if I may say so myself! I went to school, applied highlights to a very very thick head of hair (so fun and exciting for me!) left early for a meeting, was rear ended (sad) but was oh-so-proud of my little car (the Yaris took the beating well and the insurance company assured me that they would take care of everything so it should be a low hassle fix.)I missed my meeting but was able to take my achy back home and cuddle up with the babies and the hubby.

Really though, it was a great day. Despite the fender bender that really frazzled me it was a wonderful day. I couldn't help but think about my life and how blessed I am to be living it. Healthy husband and children, a home, the gospel, a bright red kitchen... Bliss!

Oh, and I have been married for FIVE YEARS today. More on that later! It will be a long, somewhat sappy blog about how amazing and wonderful my husband is, how fun it has been and still is... and more I am sure.

two/three crew

Hmmm. I barely understood the man, but apparently in man-speak a two/three crew is a cut. And I did it. And I was tipped. That's my happy thrill of the day. My very first walk-in client.

Row and Mik

We have had a red bandanna floating around our house since we were first married. I have no idea where it came from but I do know that it has served several purposes: stroller id at Disney World, fake sling, pocket insert for Halloween costume, rag for spit-up etc. This is a picture of the latest use:




Mikayla was wearing it one night when I came home from school, and then the next night she had me put it on Rowan. Aren't they CUTE?

Both of them are very popular at my school- each day my fellow classmates ask if I'll bring in my babies. I do at least twice a week. Rowan loves everyone and everyone loves Rowan and Mikayla is fascinated with all the hair styling/cutting/processing and asks questions. Ultimately she ends with, "Can I get my hair cut too?" or "Can I cut your mannequin?" She was treated to a manicure last night so I could sneak in an hour of school and have my kids with me (Rowan was alseep so it was ok!) Mikayla noticed a fellow classmate walking by and whispered as well as a four year old whispers, "Mommy, I don't like his tattoo. Jesus says we aren't supposed to have that on our body. It doesn't make Him happy." Hmmmmm.

I'm so glad she's been paying attention but I didn't know exactly how to respond. I'll give her some credit though, her whisper is pretty good and I know my classmate didn't hear her. It reminded me of a day we were standing in the express lane at Wal-Mart and a very elderly woman was ringing us up. It was very apparent the person had spent large amounts of time in the sun as a youth, young adult, adult, middle aged, young old and as an old old adult. Without sunscreen. She was the wrinkliest person I have ever seen.Cute but wrinkly. Mikayla stared for a full minute, open mouthed and openly curious with a dash of stress on top.

Finally she looked at me, looked back at the person then looked again and walked back to me. She then pulled my ear down with a terrified whisper said, "Mommy what's wrong with her face?" She was genuinely concerned that this little, mature lady might have something wrong with her. Now if only she whispered like that all of the time! Nah.. where would the fun be then?

Here are some pictures of Mik with one of my used mannequins from the school. She does 'cuts' for every person she knows. That means she takes the comb, pulls up some hair and chops away. She does this using her "zizzers." Mommy gets one, then Daddy, and all of her new friends from our new ward. I have no idea what I will do when the mannequin is bald but we should have a few more days of fun with it.She is starting to grasp that 'Mommy does hair' and that it presents a lot of fun new things to play with.



BIG NEWS OF THE DAY:
As of Wednesday at 12:30 in the afternoon I will be allowed to do cuts, colors, styles, nails, waxing, etc at school. Cuts are only five bucks, color is a great price and a really good product (surprisingly they use one of the top color lines in the US and Europe) too... so any and all who are willing to help me out I would really appreciate a visit at school so I can practice practice practice. And send your friends too. I'm slow but thorough. Just call Lyles' School of Hair and Nail Design 242-0858 and request Beth. PLEASE! I'll never get better until I can do more hair on real people with real hair (I like my mannequin but it just isn't the same!)and walk-ins are hard to come by because so many students compete for them. I won't even expect a tip! Just practice!

Welcome Home!

Well... since my brother bought a house and posted some pictures of his cute new place I figured that Randy and I should probably get around to doing that too.A few people have asked and so here it is! You can see our patch of grass... We ran out of money for sod but put in what we could. I'm pretty sure the neighbors aren't impressed. Yet. We need the crawling grass that grows in Texas. Does anyone know what that is called?

Backyard:


Our grass, what little we do have, is failing to thrive despite water and fertilizer. I also noticed one of our little trees is dieing as well. So SAD!

The Best of Times...

Well... that's what people say we will think when we look back at what we are doing now and remember the 'good old days.' When I look at our beautiful kids and my wonderful husband I can't help but think they must be right. Life is stressFUL lately but we have a lot to be thankful for! Here are a few quick updates- please note that I FINALLY figured out how to upload pictures!

Randy has been pounding the pavement around Nashville trying to sell pest control. I think I am safe in saying that it hasn't been fun and not so successful (keep us in your prayers). As a family we are very grateful to him for trying his hardest. He is really relieved to be done with his first year of teaching and coaching, and having lots of fun with the kids during our new game hour before bed time. We only see him for a teeny bit each day but we all love EVERY minute of it! Who wouldn't?



Beth (me) has been attempting school. I've only been able to get two hours in a day because of our new schedule. Slowly but surely I guess. Cool happenings on that front- I went to my first hair show at the Nashville Convention Center. It was interesting to say the least. I did note that for a large grouping of professionals that are supposed to promote good, healthy hair there wasn't very much of it! I've never seen so many colors of overprocessed hair in my life. I loved it! It made me want to get a hair cut. So far I have resisted the urge, but it is only Tuesday. We'll see.

Mikayla- Is very excited about her birthday and for whatever reason asked me if we could leave the house and go shopping at the mall for a toy... Hmmm. She is also sporting a new hair cut (compliments of mommy) and I have officially decided that we are going to try to grow it out so it looks more like little girl hair.
Before:

After:





Rowan- As the little man of the house he is very active. He rolls rolls rolls everywhere. If he could have a theme song it would be from the wal-mart commercials when the smiley faces acted like cowboys and rolled back prices (circa a long time ago- anyone remember those?) Either way, he goes everywhere rolling and his knees are starting to toughen up a little. I hope crawling is in the far distant future. The less mobile the better! He also started baby foods and seems to like them. The first round didn't go too well but things have improved.





That's us in a nutshell!