beautifying complete ...

besides the fact that i'm not the best self-portrait taker in the world and i'm squinting because of the glorious sunshine, can you see anything wrong with this picture?? it could be that my t-shirt is washing me out ... the color isn't vibrant enough, or it could be that i have no make-up on and you can see EVERY blemish on my face, or maybe it's that my hair isn't EVEN!?

one more side-effect from the beauty college. my day of beauty just got extended! i was fixing my hair this morning and couldn't get my curls to even out ... and then pulled the hair straight to eyeball and see if they were cut evenly and um ... it was about a half inch off - oops! i made a call to the beauty college and they scheduled me for 3:30 today and i went in. the instructors always like for the girls to fix their own mistakes (learning tool) and so my appt. was with the same girl ... but she had left early and so i got another girl. she noticed right away what was wrong. she offered to shampoo and condition - and who turns that down?! back in her chair she asked if i just wanted it evened up or if there was anything else that i wanted done - i asked her to cut it all about an inch shorter so that my natural curl could 'do it's thing' and she went for it! i really like it ... it's not exactly what i had in mind, but that's mostly due to my hair not cooperating. having kids did a number on my natural curl! but i think it's darling ... and shoot - it'll grow back!

(still can't take a very good self-portrait ... but here's the end result!)

a day of beauty - kind of ...

this last saturday i got to spend the better part of the day at the Evergreen Beauty and Barber College for a 'day of beauty' - my mother's day gift this year! on the agenda was a full leg/bikini wax, 1 hr facial, shampoo and style, make-up, manicure and pedicure. i was to be there at 9:30 and we were starting with the wax and then on to the rest of a relaxing experience at the beauty college. i was greeted and shown the room where the waxing would take place and learned that i would not only have 1 girl but 2 girls working on me at the same time! 2 girls with TOTALLY different styles and 'bed side' manner. one was quite professional and got down to business ... although she kinda looked a little flustered and dripped wax all over the place - and the other was more of a chatty cathy and was quite meticulously slow about her work. both of them kept check each other's work and verifying that they were doing everything correctly. and when they were done with my legs the instructor poked her head in and checked off their work. i could see hairs that were missed and even whole patches of spots that were missed and we tried to get it all taken care of ... they mostly did a good job - aside from the residual mess of wax that was left behind on my legs and the bikini was was all together an interesting experience! come to find out that not many people have bikini waxes at the beauty college - hm, i wonder why!? let's just way it's not as bad as the first one i had ... but it's certainly not on my list of things i need to do again!

moving on to the fantastic and fabulous 1 HOUR facial! it was truly divine! the only thing that would have made it better would have been a bigger blanket! it was seriously the BEST!

sadly, immediately after i got my face all nice and cleaned and feeling fabulous they put a thick layer of foundation on me and then proceded to make up my face like i was going to be Miss America! what's funny is that she asked me if i typically use a powder foundation or a liquid foundation - i told her that i don't usually do foundation and so she did liquid! don't get me wrong - i looked beautiful ... but can you say HOLY MAKE-UP!!

next was mani/pedi ... the manicure was um, not so great - the hand rubbing and soaking were fine - the finished product was not as i had hoped. the polish was not really smooth and it was still tacky 2 hours later and currently looks like i need a manicure in a BAD way!! she didn't really file my nails and the ring finger on my right hand is totally crooked! she did a great job of rubbing my hands and she was nice to chat with - just not really great at the actual manicure part of the manicure.

the pedicure had to wait since there are only 2 tubs at the college, we were in a holding pattern so we moved onto the hair. she washed and conditioned my hair - it was lovely! who doesn't love to have their hair scrubbed and played with!? i wanted a cut - kinda short ... and she almost went for it! i was watching her and it seemed like she was cutting a quarter inch at a time and checking and rechecking - she seemed a little intimidated by the idea!! she cut the under side of the back quite short and then sort of chickened out - so my little hairs in the back are quite short ... and the rest is still at my shoulders! the front was left a little longer - she didn't really cut any around my face and missed making it exactly even ... i sorta fixed it ... but it still needs a little help! she styled it and used a TON of hairspray ... she showed me how to get some volume at the crown of my head using hairspray and my flat iron. 'see, you just spray a bunch of hairspray at the root and then sssszzzz flat iron it and let the end just flop over ... that way you get that hairsprayed part to stand up a little and the rest lays nicely down the back of your head - do that with about 3 or 4 sections and then the very top layer just leave it combed over to cover the 'singed' part' okay so she didn't use the word singed but it is the most correct word! she did a great job styling my hair straight - even though i told her that i usually wear it curly. i get the feeling that they are in the zone and do what they know ...

last was the much-anticipated pedicure! while we waited for the tub to drain and get cleaned from the last pedi - the make-up girl came back to 'touch up' what had been messed up by my haircut and shampooing - the foundation was missing from my hair line and needed to be reapplied! the foot/leg rub was fabulous as well and like the manicure the actual painting was not stellar but it was nice to have it done.

all in all it was a fabulous day to be doted over and taken care of and such - the end result was wonderful and i was so happy that i was able to do it - and that andy was able to handle the kids all day. he is so great and i am the luckiest girl EVER.

what i've been up to ...

i bet you're wondering why it's taken me so long to post ... (i'd like to thank both of you that wanted to know where i've been ;)

it's because i've been working on another blog! LWHS has a special place in my heart and i wanted to start a blog to bring my senior class back together!! a friend of my sisters (and mine) showed me some blogs that were for other other classes and i decided to be a copycat! after all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - right?!

what did you do for the first day of summer?

i have an inner battle with the lack of tidy-ness in my house and my need to run away from it ...

spring cleaning is supposed to be done in the spring - otherwise it would be called whatever-season-you're-in cleaning! summer is for playing and swimming and going to the library and being outside ... not inside cleaning up the mess we call home.

so ... the first day of summer vacation happened to fall on the first day of summer this year and i woke up on the wrong side of not enough sleep - just a little grouchy ... okay a lot grouchy. i stormed through the house shouting orders and threats that i wasn't going to follow thru on and generally griped my way through the morning. i managed to clean the hall bathroom and the boys room 'all by myself - even though i wasn't the one who made the mess' ... and then alicia called. if you know her, you love her and know that she has nearly perfect solutions to most parenting problems and isn't afraid to call you out when you're wrong. she challenged me to take my family and get outside and play on the first day of summer and she promised that it would be the best thing i could do for myself and my family - and what's more ... she said, "i can't wait to hear all about it!" in her cheery/borderline-demanding-a-report voice. so we did it. andy was home for the day and we packed in everybody and headed to mukilteo beach/ferry dock. we had just missed low tide when we arrived but the specialists were still there and happy to show us some fun sea-life. we are happy to report that we had a fun time and no one died - which was a definite possibility if we would have stayed home!

{also, we are happy that we weren't trying to take the ferry anywhere since the ferry holding line was three-quarters of the way up the hill (over an hour wait) on our way down to the beach and all the way up the hill and spilling out of the holding area on our way headed home!}

here's what we did:

our last day of school!

Abi's class was excited to have a group shot as they came in from their last recess as 1st and 2nd graders!!















mrs. maule was so great this year!! it's hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful teacher!!



Elyssa's class had beach day for their last day as kindergarteners!! so much fun!!

Ms. Smith did a great job getting them ready for first grade! Elyssa can't wait for next year - but she's gonna miss Ms. Smith!!

my dad would say ...

i find myself saying that a lot and my good friend always gets a chuckle out of what follows, mostly because they are things that she's NEVER heard anyone else say ... so this Father's Day, i thought i'd write a few of them down and share them with the world wide web.

dad's really helpful - when there's a sports game and it has just ended - professional or otherwise and you didn't see who won ... "the team with the most points when the time ran out."

dad's encouraging - when you're down and the world seems to be against you and then just one more thing happens that you neither expected or wished for ... "the scriptures say 'and it came to pass' not 'and it came to stay' - this too shall pass."

dad knows his math - when there's more than 1 way of doing something that brings the same result "it's sixes" or "six to one, half a dozen to the other"

dad's polite - he never tells people when they've overstayed their welcome, he just takes my mom's hand and says, "come on honey, let's go to bed so our guests can leave."

he's humble - when you ask him how he's doing, "better than i deserve."

if there's a question about whether he can fix something we all know, "if he can't fix it, it ain't broke."

dad likes to be precise - when you want to know how often something happens, "only on days that end with Y."

he's also known to be a little slap stick, "is this clown peanut butter? cuz it tastes funny ... "

there are more ... i'm sure of it ... i just can't think of any more at the moment (those of you that know him - feel free to add some of your favorites).

Thanks for all the great sayings you've supplied me and the big love you have to give.

There's no one like you in the whole wide world!!

Happy Father's Day!

love your first 'daddy's little boy'

ps. the picture is from a while ago and the beard is only grown from june-dec so that he can be santa's helper - i have a ton of good pictures of my dad ... i just need a scanner - maybe next Father's Day!

all i can say is Shut-UP!!

two things:

check the date and time in the bottom right corner!! we're expecting 6 inches at Snoqualmie Pass tonight!

this is at MY safeway - within walking distance (so i don't have to DRIVE there!)

come on!

we're gleaning, we're gleaners, we glean ...

almost every saturday you could find us here ...

i don't drive one of these ... but i'm thinking about investing in one ...

we load up with as much as our little van can carry with all the bread that would otherwise be thrown out ... in the dumpster ... and it's perfectly good bread - it's just that the expiration date will happen over the weekend and then the stores can't sell it ... and so they bring it back to the bakery and throw it away! it's terrible ... but great for us since we are part of this gleaning group! as i was saying ... we load up are van and take it to church on sunday and 'face the gallopping hordes' (there aren't any bad guys with swords - thank heaven) to distribute our loot!

this is the wonderful lady that is/was in charge ...

Dixie is moving to Boston now but we're still gleaning ... just with a new fearless leader!

so ... if you want some free bread - we'll be at church next sunday!

and while i'm the big movie critic ...

not as impressed with this one ...

i think i went into this one with too high of expectations and was sorely disappointed.

it's a cute story idea ... and the guy is darling. i was surprised by the language a little and some of the scenes were ... unnecessary.

overall it wasn't great - and i'm glad i didn't pay full price!

great flick

tuesday afternoon/early evening andy's sister called to say that she was getting the 'night off' and was thinking about going to see Iron Man and wanted to know if i could join her ... i posed the question to her brother and he said sure - he'd hurry home from his meeting and we could go to the 9:00 showing.

i kinda felt bad seeing it without him ... but i'd totally see it again! it was THAT good! all this time i have been thinking that Robert Downey Jr. had seen the last of his great rolls and that he was down and out ... but he did a fantastic job! he was witty, charming, slightly offensive (in the beginning) but overall believable and fun to watch! i was surprised when i saw Gwyneth Paltrow - i obviously didn't pay attention to the cast when i saw the trailer!

i'm no movie-buff and i certainly don't claim to know what makes a 'great' movie when it comes to awards and such ... but i LOVED this one and i'll see it a few more times!! wanna go with me?

shawright memorial day weekend campout!

(now that my laundry is complete, i can move onto blogging about it!)

this year after much tribulation (aka: dismal weather report, campsite flooding necessitating a change and stressed out camp coordinator) we had the BEST camping experience with children to date! we did, however, decide that in future we will have the "shawright annual camping trip - not necessarily ON memorial day"!!

it's a good thing we planned to leave home at 2 ... or we really would have arrived in the dark! we finally drove away from home at 5 and arrived up at Ensign Ranch at 7pm - we hurried to get the tents up and situated before the night got TOO dark!
saturday morning we made breakfast and set up camp all at once and then went exploring! we discovered that our campsite was the best one overall! we'll definitely request that one next time and we'll be ready for anything! we were rained on only twice - saturday night as we slept and sunday night right after we got our dinner ready to eat. our accommodations were fantastic and we ate our dinner to the melody of rain beating on the heavy duty tarp tent that we had zipped ourselves, our children, a massive camp table, our food and camp storage into safe and dry out of the rain! it's the only way to camp in the great northwest! the rest of our stay was sunny (mostly) and we played and walked and napped and played and sloshed in the myriad of mud puddles that were so VERY tempting! the sky spit on us a few times in the day time ... but for the most part we were enjoying the sun and loving every minute of our FUN extended weekend get away! a shout out to papa wiscombe who lent us the fantastic-and-marvelous-we-can't-ever-camp-without-it camp kitchen and all hail costco for bringing back the 3 burner camp stove just in time for both the shaw's and the wright's to have one!!
it was a great way to kick off this season of camping! stay tuned for other camping posts ... i'm hoping for more trips this summer!!