;)

Welcome to the land of hair journals!

I'm sorry to hear about your situation.  I hope it miraculously goes away.  Think happy hair thoughts!

I LOVE the pic of your kitty.  What's his/her name?

Hi Sakina

I definitely think happy thoughts, it's the best medicine!

My cats name is Kali.  I have 3 cats in total Kali, Kat and Bau Bau.  I definitely have to think happy thoughts as far as they're concerned, because they can be a handful sometimes.  :)

I have 3 kitties, too.  Sweetie, Ziggy and Jupiter.

Wow!  Yay for thick hair, huh?   :D  Good for you to stay strong and give your alopecia the bird.

And yay for kitties!  I've got 4, but only one's a jumper like that.  :D

I LOVE COCONUT OIL!!!  ::)

Sakina and berkanna:

Welcome to the land of journals!   :)


Quote:

Do all of your cats get along?  I originally only had 2 cats but about 3 months ago my mother passed away and I decided to take her cat since my sister doesn't like animals.   Well, they're still not getting along and I don't know if this is normal or if it's even okay to keep them all together.

Yes, it's quite normal for cats who've just been introduced to not get along.  We have 9 cats, 5 of whom are siblings from the same litter, and even they don't always get along!   ;D  Newly introduced kitties need time to establish a pecking order, to learn all about each other, and make friends.  Give them some more time and hopefully they'll have grown to be buddies.   :)

Wow, 9 cats!  Well, its good to know that this is normal.  At this point I'm so attatched to the new guy I wouldn't want to give him up.  Thanks for the advice.

Well, or they'll find their own 'territory' and not mess with each other too much.

I've had anywhere from 4 to 7 at one time, and my oldest (she's 17) doesn't get along with anyone other than me and my husband.  She's an odd duck, however.  I got her when she was 4 weeks old and just doesn't understand cat social behavior.

wrote on Aug 29^th, 2006 at 1:53pm:

Her advice for my fragille hair texture is to not manipulate it much, to wash my hair in plaits (to eliminate tangles) and to stop trimming my ends.  She is a firm believer in the search and destroy method.  Hopefully this will help me reach my goal.

She gave you good advice.  Although I don't wash my hair in braids very often, I do try to move the hair as little as possible when washing so that it won't tangle.

coconut oil is great

////////

I've just decided to officially retire my jojoba oil.  I like the fact that it's not greasy but, it doesn't make my hair soft at all, so it makes no sense for me to continue using it.

I'm still waiting on another coconut oil to arrive in the mail. Hopefully, that one will make my hair just as soft as the coconut oil I'm using now, but without the greasyness.

I like the curls!

good luck on your quest to find the right oil for your hair.  I've not tried coconut oil - primarily because jojoba oil works so well for me.  But if it works for you, go for it!

Thanks Bikerbraid :)  You most likely wouldn't like coconut oil because of your hair texture.  If it's too greasy for me, I couldn't even imagine it in your hair.

I'm still waiting for my new oils, I guess they're not coming today, but Fedex just dropped off my new showerhead!!!  Yay, I'm happy. I'm replacing my old shower filter hopefully for a better version.  This one claims to have 2 stages of filtering, as opposed to the regular ones that just have 1.

Once I use it, I should be able to report if it's better than the regular shower filter.

Ooooh, I'm on page 2. ;D

I just won this beautiful handmade vintage dress on eBay.  I'm so excited, I can't wait to get it! :D

http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/1155723258684_butterflydress.jpg

That dress is GORGEOUS!  :o Congratulations!

Wow!

Thanks Bikerbraid and Sakina :)

I just washed my hair using my new shower filter and I have to say that my hair is noticably softer, it's not a huge difference but it's noticable.  After my shower last night I even noticed that my skin was softer too.

I was going to wait until this weekend to wash my hair but I was so anxious to try out the new filter, that I decided to do it today.  I was so excited, I didn't even bother putting my hair in plaits before the wash, my hair doesn't tangle that much anyway so it's okay.

But  anyway, just as I had finally gotten into the shower and completely wet my hair, my apartment buildings maintenance man knocks on my door ugh... needless to say I was very frustrated.  He was delivering my new dryer so, I had to get out of the shower with dripping wet hair to let him in. Then, about 10 minutes later the cable man comes I couldn't believe the timing. It seemed to take them forever to leave but finally they both finished,and I was able to finish my hair. Geesh!

OH MY!  Sooo many visitors when you are trying to shower!  I guess I never thought about the advantage of showering in the basement - I can't hear the doorbell or the phone!  ;D  No interruptions for me!

Glad the shower filter is working for you.  I can sure tell the difference when I travel and have hard water to deal with.  I can hardly wait to get home to my softened water.  My hair and skin feel sooooo much better with soft water.

BikerBraid - I wish I could be so lucky to be able to shower in the basement or anywhere and have no interruptions howevever, there will be no such luck for me, but a girl can always dream. :)

Today, I'm going to the store to purchase a few things that I read about here last night.  My list is as follows;

1. Greeen Tea Supplements

2. L-Lysine 1000

3. Glycerine

(And to make Kimberlilys Leave in Spray)
4. Aloe Juice

I'm also going to get some stimulating scalp oil from naturesgift.com

Needless to say, I'll be doing a lot of experimenting.  

My new oils came over the weekend and I can note that I do not like safflower oil for in my hair.

The new coconut oil is okay, it's not as greasy, but it doesn't soften as well as the first one I purchased. So it's either greasy and very soft or so so softness without the grease.  

When I went to the doctor about 2 weeks ago I got oil all over the bed thingy they make you lay on, good thing it had that paper on it, I would've felt even worse.  I swear I felt like that Soul Glow family with the greasy hair from the movie Coming To America.

My new dress arrived today and it looks just as nice in person, whew...what a relief.  I need to get it dry cleaned though, just to feel okay about wearing something vintage.

Alrighty, off to the store I go...

So much for my shower in the basement..... We've been without water for 2 days now as the plumbers try to find a leak in the line outside.  >:(  Hopefully by bedtime, we will have water!)

Your shopping trip has an interesting list - good luck!

Oooh, I hope you have water too.  I've definitely been there before and know just how very much of an inconvience that can be, good luck with the water situation BikerBraid.

Yeah, I guess the list is pretty diverse.  Well so far I don't like the glycerine, it's so thick it feels like styling gel and I haven't tried Kimberlilys recipie yet, I think I need to wash out the glycerine first.

Did a wash today using Soft and Beautiful Extend a Perm.  Was very amazed with how soft my hair was after the wash and condition, the third step however left my hair a bit hard.  I won't buy the Extend a Perm again but I will try out their regular shampoo and conditioner.

I've only been using the Biotin for about two weeks now and I'm already noticing less shedding, it's amazing!!! Maybe I'll crush some up and give it to my cat's LOL!!

Breakage is another issue but I've already known that I need a protein treatment (because of too many times at the pool this summer) I just haven't done one yet.  

I'm going to most likely do a relaxer at the end of this month.  I've got at least an inch of new growth so, I'll also measure again then too.

Okay, I was wrong about the Extend A Perm.  The directions specifically say that after the 3rd step you have to blow your hair dry and with a comb if you can.  Well, I didn't blow it on high or until it was dry, but after it air dried, I used my steam flat iron and now my hair is very very soft.  The extend a perm is a thermal conditioning treatment so it requires heat to work.  I still won't be buying this again because it defeats the purpose of having healthy hair but I guess it didn't hurt to try once.  And I'm going to the DMV tomorrow and have to take a drivers license pic so, I wanted nice hair. :)

Since my hair is so soft I couldn't help but play in it all night, I'm completely obsessed!!!

My new comb, A boring ponytail & Me wishing my hair was this long!!!;D      
http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Project9.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Project7.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Project11.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Project8.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Project14.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/KatCrop.JPG
A bun with metal hair sticks, And no post of mine would be complete with out my kitty obsession.  I love them so much!!!

BEAUTIFUL!

I love the bun with the hairsticks..... and the first one, with the flower comb/clip.  And of course, the kitties are darling!  ;D

Hi La_Diosa!

How cool that you've started a journal of your own, your hair is definitely beautiful, and thick, omg!  :o  I hope your alopecia is getting the hint from all your bird-flipping, hopefully it'll see that it's unwanted, pack up it's bags and go.  That's a really cool pic of your cat in your first post, he/she's like suspended in mid air, what height!  I myself am allergic to cats, so as adorable as they are I must steer clear, I've got one big goofy lab at home instead!  Good luck on meeting your goal of 30", I myself would be very happy with that length.  I'm at 25 & 1/4" now, I can't seem to get past 27", but I plan to keep trying.  ;D

Oh yeah, 2 more things...

1)  That ebay dress is awesome

2)  I just made a batch of Kimberlily's LIS for the first time, and I am really liking it.  I used moreso the water and aloe juice, with just a bit of jojoba oil, it's a perfect blend for my hair.  It's much easier to control when you're using it in spray form.

That's it.  :)

Thanks Bikerbraid, those are my favorites too.  

Maggie: Thanks for visiting my journal, it's really great to have your support, and our hair is pretty much the same length :) I think I'm still at 25" even.  I may need to refigure my goal since I've been wet measuring.  I don't think 30" will look as long as I'd like w/dry hair but, I'll figure that one out once I get there.

Yeah, I hope my alopecia is getting the message too but I guess if not, the longer I grow my hair, the more hair I'll have to do a balding mans comb over style if necessary ;D LOL!!! (Imagining myself with hair like Donald Trump!) :o :o

Good luck at getting past 27", I'm sure you'll have no problem. Thanks for the compliment on my eBay dress, I'm still trying to figure out if my addiction to eBay has reached the point to where I need to do a 12 step program. Hehe!!

My husband would be so envious of you, he loves dogs and grew up having a lab.  He's being such a good sport dealing with all of the cats even though he's a major dog person. I'm sure eventually, we'll have to get another lab for him though, they are gorgeous dogs.

Hair: I still haven't tried the LIS because I tried substituting jojoba with  coconut oil and it's not mixing at all, even when I shake it, so I'm going to have to whip up another batch.

Okay, I've decide to list the things I've learned about my hair lately;

Hair serum dramatically helps with my dry tangles.

I love coconut oil, virgin is less greasy and good for use during the day.  Unrefined is more moisturizing yet, very greasy so better to apply at night.

I don't like safflower oil, jojoba oil or glycerine.

I like relaxers made for childrens hair, better than Motions.

Steam flat iron used very sparringly, is better than a regular flat iron, it leaves hair feeling soft and conditioned instead of hard, dry, and fried.

It's better to keep my hair in up do's because it helps alleviate the urge to fuss with it.

My 2 stage shower filter softens better than the 1 stage.

Biotin helps with shedding.

Green Tea and Green Tea Supplements are good for the hair.

L-Lysine may be good for my hair (haven't tt my doctor about this one yet) Whew... :)

Okay, I feel that I am finally ready to purchase my first pair of LL hair sticks!!!  I wasn't sure if I had enough hair to get much use out of them, or if I could think of enough hairstyles, but after more experimentation today with my cheapo sticks I feel I can finally give it a go :)

This one is kind of weird and to the side but, I'm sure I can make up different things as I go along.
http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Project12.jpg

Oh, so you're husband's a lab lover too, how cool.  They've just got the funniest personalities, this is the first dog I've ever had, and I just love her to pieces.  She's six now, and she's just maybe starting to lose her puppy edge, she's finally starting to settle down more, but there's absolutely no hiding her excitement when she encounters new people.  What can I say, she's a lover!  ;D

Some Q's for you-
You keep mentioning that you have to use a relaxer on your hair, is this a chemical relaxer?  Is your hair only straight when you straighten it yourself?

I know you said that you don't care for jojoba oil on your hair, but maybe when it's diluted with the aloe juice and spring water it won't be so bad.  You only need a little bit of it in comparison to the other ingredients.  I only say that because jojoba is the closest thing out there to natural human oils, so I would think that it should be one of the best.  I've heard that (I think it's) sweet apricot oil is supposed to be very good too...maybe I'm thinking of sweet almond oil & it's just apricot oil, without the "sweet".  Hmm, I have to check into this now!

When you say that green tea is good for the hair, do you mean just drinking it?  Or is there something else that you do with it?  I'm thinking you mean just ingesting it.

And this one's not a question, just a general comment about Lysine.  It seems to be good for a lot of stuff, I take three every day, it's great for the immune system and fighting against infections.  Particularly good for cold sores, too.  I choose natural remedies as often as possible, I'm not one much for meds unless there's no other way (which there usually is  ;)).

Last thing- That new dress you got, is that one you actually plan on wearing, or is that one of those things that's meant to just be displayed?  Hopefully you get to wear it, it's too beautiful not too!

Maggie: I can only imagine how much fun having a dog would be,

I tried the aloe juice, jojoba

Ooh La La!!! My hair has been so wonderful today!!!

I'm very sorry to hear of your mother's passing.  I cannot imagine your loss.
Sounds like you and I have more in common than wanting long hair and loving hair toys.  I have a sister and we are as different as night and day.
People who know both of us can hardly believe we're from the same family.
My sister lives on a farm in Michigan raising cattle and has 3 kids.
I live in the dessert, teach yoga and have 3 cats .
I'm not sure we've ever agreed on anything, our POV's are so different.
My sister and I didn't get along until after I moved out of the house.  I only speak to her occasionally.

I hope this doesn't sound harsh, but what other people think of your spending habits or earnings is none of your business.
So what if they think you spend too much.  That statement is about them, not you.  I've also been in this situation with relatives and as a child I felt guilty over it.  I think we want everyone to be happy like we are, and if they're not we feel bad.  Again, its their problem.  I'm not saying to not be compassionate for others, we all make our own choices-with or without awareness.

OK-I'm leaving your journal now, I hope I did not offend.

Spell check! :)

just like me. :)

Okay, let me just say that I'm really in love with my hair. :-*

Hi La_Diosa!

Sorry I'm only responding now, I usually try to stay off the computer over the weekends, I kind of forbid myself to use it.  The weekend...by weekend I mean Sunday, which is my only day off (usually), anyway, I always try to allot myself some "freedom" time to be creative and away from technology.  Usually I'll paint or read a book, or like yesterday, spend lots of time outside with my pup.

I'm glad to hear that you like the LIS, it works so wonderfully on my hair that I've been using it every day, at least once a day.  I like it even better than just applying the jojoba oil straight to my hair, it seems to have a nice effect when it's blended with the aloe juice and water.  So, aloe juice tastes like crud, eh?  I thought about drinking it too, it's very good for you, especially for healing stomach ulcers.  I couldn't get myself past the smell, maybe it wouldn't be so bad mixed with juice?

You remind me of my grandmother (don't shriek!) when you talk about wearing dresses for no special reason.  That's her to a T.  She's 83 & a knock-out, and she wouldn't be caught dead in anything but a dress or a skirt, coordinating jewelery from head to toe, and matching heels and purse.  You know, she still gets asked out, even wedding proposals!!  I pray to God that I age like she did!

About the Lysine, yes, I started taking it on my own for an immune system boost.  I really do not bother with medical doctors if I don't have too, so I went out on my own to get it.  I bought it at my health food store, I always make sure that what I take is pure, vegetarian friendly, and has no chemicals or other crap in it (like GNC products).  To be honest, I really don't know what effect it has on hair or hair growth, I will look into that.

As for gelatin, I suppose it is good for hair and nails, but being vegetarian I would/could never take it.  It's actually pretty gross stuff.  :-X

My sister and I are like yours and Sakina's, definitely night and day (me being night  ;)).  I'm tall and thin with brown straight-ish hair, she's short & thin with brown/black wavy to curly hair.  Our attitudes, tastes, styles & choices in life are so dramatically different.  Like you and your sister, when we are together ppl cannot believe that we are related, let alone sisters!  They think we're putting them on!  She did and continues to do the college thing to get the prestigious job, loves lots of shiny gold jewelery and jewels and dresses to be socially accepted.  Me?  Not so much. :P  I gave college the bird (as you did your alopecia  ;)) and decided to go out on my own, make my own job.  I wear little to no jewelery, not even my wedding or engagement ring.  And as for what I wear, it's whatever my little heart desires, society can kiss my grits when it comes to acceptance.  It's funny, you said you usually end of modifying your clothes to get what you want, I do that too.  I often buy something not because I like it as it is, but because I see potential in it.  Out come the scissors, needle & thread, safety pins, or whatever it takes to get the job done.  My trash is forever filled with denim scraps, straps from this shirt, a collar from that shirt, and sleeves from a few others.  My husband has come to expect it by now!

(((Hugs))) I'm so sorry about the loss of your mother.  I can't imagine what that loss feels like, it must leave a hole in your heart.  From what you said it sounds like she was lots of fun, I bet you have a million good memories of her.  Thank God for memories, huh?

Boy this is long, I'll stop taking up all this space in your journal now.  Bye!  ;D

My hair was doing so great over the past few days but today, it decides to be uncooperative. >:(  It became very crunchy and remained that way no matter how much oil, serum or aloe spray mixure I gave it.  After trying everything I could possibly think of, in vain,  I decided to do a CO.  My hair is air drying and feels better now, I'll have to see how it is once it's dry.

YAY!!! After having my brand new elliptical sit in the box for over a month because Sears dragged their feet about sending someone out to install it, they finally came yesterday.  They installed it in all of 4 hours, I have no idea why it took so long but after waiting 6 weeks for them to show up at all, I didn't even ask.  It works great, I've really been feeling the burn!!!  I definitely like working out on machines than without them, I just can't get an intense work out otherwise.

I'm going to try the Lysine too, I just haven't got around to buying it yet.  

Actually, you spelled acupuncture perfectly.  :)  There's a very good possibility that your alopecia could be helped.  Acupuncture has cured my SIL's infertility, she became pregnant within 4 sessions, it has made my MIL pain free from her three herniated discs.  That one is really miraculous, she was in so much constant pain, she was nearly ready to dump a bottle of pills down her throat and end it all.  Not really, but she got to the point where she said she understood why people in chronic pain often purposely OD.  She is now 99% pain free.  It was also greatly helping another loved one of mine who suffers from severe anxiety, depression and alcoholism, he was making leaps and bounds but then made the devastating decision to stop going.  What a mistake.  Anyway, if it could do all that I believe there could be hope for you too.

Me and my sister, who knows why we're so different!  Just different genes, I guess.  I still love her and on some level we are a little the same, but definitley from different planets!  It's wierd because my brother and I are like one in the same.

Flowy dresses....love flowy dresses!  There are so freeeeeeeee!  ;D  I am quite comfortable in a flowy dress and a pair of sandals, I have a very earthy side and this suits it just fine.

I don't think gelatin has anything to do with sharks, maybe you're thinking of shark cartilage.  I'll still spare you of what that pretty jiggly stuff really is though.  :-X

You've piqued my curiostiy with the alopecia/acupuncture thing, I'm going to look some info up when I get time.  Ha!  When I get time, I'm so funny!

My hair is feeling quite wonderful this mornin' :D

Oh, I finally got my butterfly dress

WooHoo!! The sites back up!!  [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif]

AARRGG!!!!  I WANT SPINACH!!!!!  >:(

About 2 days before contaminated spinach outbreak, I asked my husband to go to the store and get me some spinach because I was running low.  I don't know why he didn't get it for me, but then the recall came. I was fine thinking okay in a few days I can have a salad but, still no spinach!!!  I know, I'm like a friggin' rabbit but I love spinach salads!!!  I was in the store with my mom when I was a teen and she told me I could only get one snack.  We were already at the checkout counter and I was seriously having a hard time trying to decide between a bag of lettuce and a lemon cream pie.  The clerk thought I was completely crazy but, I love my salads and now I'm having serious withdrawal :'(

Okay, my hair is fine although I did do a little mini trim because I straightened with a hot iron and thought that maybe the trim would stop any damage before it starts. [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]   [smiley=bath.gif]

I feel your pain regarding the spinach.  I usually eat a spinach salad 4 or 5 times a week.  I too miss my spinach.  :'(  Hopefully it won't be much longer before we can have our favorite salads back!

The recall is over, folks. Now it's just down to how trusting you are.  :P

I didn't know it was over, I still can't find any locally.  I'm pretty trusting at this point.   After this fiasco I feel they'll do their best to make sure it doesn't happen again, well at least not anytime soon. :-/

I ordered my first pair of LL hair sticks yesterday!!!  I'm so excited!!! They're a special order so, it'll take a while for me to get them but I've been experimenting away with hair styles so, when they arrive I'll be ready.  [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Congratulations on ordering your first pair of LL hairsticks!   But be VEWY, VEWY CAWEFUL!!!  They can become addictive!  ;D

Don't I know it.  I don't even have one pair yet and I'm already eyeing 3 more pairs!!  :)

I just finished a modification to a new belt I purchased.  It was a minor modification so it didn't take long, even though I did it by hand.

BEFORE http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/BeforeLaceBelt.jpg

I really liked this belt but thought there was something missing so I added some lace.  It's hard to tell in the pic but just adding a little lace made a huge difference.  I'm much happier with it now.

AFTER http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Lacebelt1.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Lacebelt2.jpg

This coat is my next project: I'll replace the old collar with a new ruffled satin collar (the one in the pic's actually much more puffy in real life and it's kinda scratchy).  The sleeves are shorter in person too, so I'll have to extend them by adding more layers of ruffled satin.  And I also purchased some pretty onyx buttons from eBay to replace the old ones with.  I think it'll turn out nicely when finished. Oh, and this will all match my new black and sterling hair sticks that I'm so excited about!![smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/VelvetCoat.jpg

Nice addition to the belt.  Your changes to the coat are ambitious.  Good luck!

I love the belt.  The coat is gorgeous-I love the sleeves!!

Nice work on the belt, La_Diosa.

I recognize the coat as being from Newport News. Love them!! They have such wonderful gothic items in the fall/winter!!  ;D

Good luck on the project & be sure to post pix when you finish!

Thanks Bikerbraid I know it is quite ambitious, I'd rather take it to my seamstress, it's just that I still have a few items at her shop that have been there for a while because she's really backed up, so I'm not sure when she'll be able to get around to it.

Sakina, I love the sleeves too.  Hopefully when done, the collar will be just as nice.

Yep, you're right Angel Spun, I usually don't shop there, but I'm so in love with their new fall/winter catalog.  A lot of the clothes this season are so very Victorian (and Goth) inspired, I really love that look. :)

I was getting really bad dry tangles and pesky tiny little knots so, I finally decided to do a wash using my Pantene Ice Shine.  I like it.  I did my typical low heat, blow dry til damp, detangle thing and the comb just glided through my hair. I didn't have 1 knot or tangle.

I applied safflower oil prior to washing and it made my hair softer. I'm thinking of alternating my coconut oil with safflower oil from time to time to see what results I get.  The only thing is that the safflower oil doesn't smell as yummy as the coconut, I'll have to add some essential oil to change that.  

I ordered some more of my favorite perfumed hair spritz from eBay.  It's moisturizing and is mainly oil, water and fragrance, but they have so many scent selections.  I tried vanilla this time, pretty much thinking it would smell like extract but I was surprised that it had more of a baked goods smell to it like cake or cookies.  It smells so good with my coconut oil, it's definitley my new favorite.  I'm going to try chocolate next, I think that might smell good with coconut too.

Oh, and tonight I discovered a cool way to speed my hair drying along...rollerblading.  I decided to accompany my husband as he went on his nightly jog, the cool breeze felt so good going through my hair.  I felt like Leonardo DeCaprio in Titanic, I couldn't help but raise my arms in his "King of the world" pose, it was so nice.  :)

I did another measure and am now thinking that I cut off more on my last trim than I previously thought.  I got 24 1/4 inches, dry :-/    Last time it was at 24 3/4 so I don't know.  My ticker even changed today to 9 months even til 30 inches .  I hope I at least come close to meeting that goal.

Oooh, cool belt and jacket, me likes!  Verrrry sexy!

Gracias!!!

Okay, maybe I need to lay off of the measuring for awhile because the inconsistency is making me crazy.  I measured again today out of disbelief of my last measurement of 24 1/4", and this time I got 24 3/4" and then right after 25". :-/ I'm thinking that maybe my hair was a little poofier the last time (since I didn't flat iron) which made it seem shorter but even now, my measurements aren't consistent.  I am confident though that now my hair is at least 24 3/4" which is good. :)

Yesterday, I mixed up my beloved coconut oil with 1 part saflower oil, I'm estimating maybe 1/4c of hair serum and 1tsp of vanilla extract.  After I apply it, I use my vanilla hair spritzer stuff and my hair seems to really like it. It's soft but not oily, and it smells good.  I'm just waiting to see how long it takes for my hair to get crunchy from the serum build up, or if it even gets crunchy at all before my next wash.

Hey there!   :D  Nice to "meet" ya!  
About the measuring deal...When I started growing out my hair last year, I was measuring faithfully every month.  I had a chart all made out and recorded the numbers...all that crap.  Well, before long, I got so hung up on the numbers (my hair didn't grow half an inch this month--*gasp*  how come?!), that I started stressing over it.  I was focusing on the wrong thing, instead of simply trying to take care of my hair and letting it do its thang.   :)  Now I measure infrequently.  Maybe every 3 months or so.  Anyway, just wanted to finally drop in and say howdy, and let you know you're not alone in the "measuring makes me crazy" club.   ;D  Take care!

Nice to "meet" you too Trisha!!!  :)  Thanks for letting me know that it's not just me thats getting a bit unnerved by the measuring.  You're right, the health of our hair is definitely more important than the length. I'm just so anxious for length RIGHT NOW!!! ;D But, I'll definitely focus more on whats important, and in the meantime...my hair will grow. ;)  And yeah, I was actually thinking that spacing out my measuring every three months would be a better idea.

compeletly

Geeze

I'm sure eventually I'll just collaspe.

tvfunhouse

I'm so sorry your new neighbors are causing  you so much stress.  Hopefully you can get out of your lease without penalty.  But in the meantime.... 8-)

Since they are up so late, making noise, you can assume they like to sleep in.  But wait... isn't that when you vaccuum?  ;)  and do other LOUD cleaning chores?  If you have your washer/dryer in the hallway near them, you could wash and dry your tennis shoes..... early in the morning.   Maybe you could take up the drums and practice in the morning?

But more seriously (however everything I've mentioned HAS been done - and was quite effective, I might add), if your landlord doesn't do anything about the noise, how about the police?  It sounds like they are disturbing the peace.  A knock on the door by the local authorities just might be what it will take to get them to realize they are not living alone in the country.

I hope you can get this resolved in some manner soon.

Wow!  That really sucks.  I like BB's suggestions.

What a horrible intrusion on your life.  That sure would make me mad as hell, especially becuase the management won't do anything about it.

Add alcohol and get instant a**holes.  I would respond like you do, try to suck it up and be the better person.  However, you have rights and they don't have any more rights than you do.

I think moving is a good idea-it is empowering to take action that will benefit you in the long run.

I hope you find a new apartment of your dreams with awesome, kind, likeminded neighbors.  Your soon to be old neighbors will probably burn the place down.  If that happens, will you let me know?  Thanks!

bikerbraid wrote on Oct 7^th, 2006 at 9:48am:

Since they are up so late, making noise, you can assume they like to sleep in.  But wait... isn't that when you vaccuum?  ;)  and do other LOUD cleaning chores?  If you have your washer/dryer in the hallway near them, you could wash and dry your tennis shoes..... early in the morning.   Maybe you could take up the drums and practice in the morning?

I just did a nice relaxing hair wash and 20 minute deep condition under a hood dryer, and I had great results without ANY assistance from my blow dryer :o  I've finally decided to totally give it up.  I felt that as long as it was on the low setting and that I didn't use it to get my hair completely dry, that it was okay.  

Tonight after my wash, I decided to comb my hair out, and then let it air dry in two plaits.  I used serum to help the comb glide through my hair while detangling, and I noticed that when I was done I hardly had any breakage.  Usually, when I "blowdamp" I get a lot of breakage on the ends which I'd just chalk up to me needing to deep condtion more.  I had no idea the blowdryer ON LOW HEAT, was contributing to my breakage.  Well, now that I know,I'm done with it.

Also, I took a look in my bathroom cupboard and found some Fructis Long and Strong.  I purchased it last year used it once and into the cupboard it went.  I realized after it began to dry that the reason I stopped using it was because it makes my hair feel a little stiff but, I solved that problem by applying this hair lotion stuff that I have right on top of it and it was fine. I'm planning on using the Long and Strong after every wash from now on hoping that this stuff will live up to it's name, for all I know it all ready has, maybe it was the reason that I didn't have so much breakage.  At any rate, I'm still done with the dryer though, because I've come to realize that I can live without it so I will. :)

Oh, and I've also realized that I don't like the Pantene Ice Shine.  After I washed I noticed that my hair wasn't as soft as it usually is so I did another wash using my Kerastase Nutritive shampoo and that made a world of difference so, I'm done with it too.

Good job not using the blowfryer anymore! Those things are awful! Well, for hair, at least! They're great for drying paint or glue, or warming up a bed in the winter!  ;D

wrote on Oct 8^th, 2006 at 1:02pm:

They're great for drying paint or glue, or warming up a bed in the winter!  ;D

;D Maybe I'll try those things one day!!

It's been 2 days since my wash without my blow dryer and I still like my hair and it's actually much better than it usually is.  

I LOVE curly hair so, from time to time, I'd use hot rollers to achieve a curly style, I know really bad.  Well, since I let my hair dry in plaits this time POOF!!! Instant curls!!! :)  AND I didn't use any heat!! ;)  I used to dry in plaits years ago but, since I did so many plaits, I simply got lazy and stopped doing it.  It's so easy to only do two plaits (as long as I get the part straight) and everynight I've been adding a moisturinzing lotion, my coconut oil/safflower oil/serum mix and replaiting before bed and when I wake up, it's so nice!!! :)  I don't know why all of my pics are blurry nowdays. :(

http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Wetset2.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Migatitas.jpg

Looks great!!  

Thanks Sakina.  Except for the color, it kind of reminds me of  the style I've seen you do but with 2 sticks that cross like an X.

Wow! awesome hair!!  I love the kitty kats too! :)

I love the braid waves!  Great picture.

Awww...thanks you guys!!!  I'm just happy I can now do my hair without any heat! :)

ooo, PURdee!   :)

Thanks Trisha :)

Well, I ordered these really pretty jeweled metal French twist holders.  I finally got them in the mail today and realized they're not going to be good for my hair.  The clamp isn't smooth which can cause snagging and probably breakage so I reluctantly have to get rid of them...they're soooo pretty...sigh.  Oh well, I have to do whats best for my hair right?  Did I mention how pretty they are? :'(

I saw that Bath and Body Works make a scented moisturizing shampoo and conditioner called Warm Vanilla Sugar.  I figured it would smell really good and decided to buy some online, but after getting out bid on eBay (by someone who for whatever reason decided to buy them for more than they are worth) I had to go to B&BW today to get some.  I'm glad I didn't win it on eBay because once I smelled it, I realized I didn't like it, but I did love their mango.  I bought some of that and will most likely try it the next time I wash but, I still want a vanilla scent.  Vanilla just seems more appropriate for the colder weather than mango.  

I even purchased 20 Strawberry scented candle tarts on eBay as well because I got them at a good price, but they're just so summery smelling.  I guess I need to pony up the moolah and get some season appropriate ones.

Well, I did my usual Sunday wash and deep condition.  I used my new Bath and Body Works mango shampoo and conditioner, it smells so good, the smell reminds me of Pop Rocks.  Anyway, the conditioner is great, it makes my hair really soft but I don't like the shampoo.  It's a moisturizing shampoo but it's not enough moisture for my dry hair type, my hair felt more like I'd used a clarifying shampoo.  So, I'll no longer use the shampoo but, I will continue to use the conditioner ( I just paused to sniff my hair again...hmmm!).

I also have to admit that I used my blow dryer too :(  I just couldn't detangle without it.  I tried and tried thinking okay, maybe if I add serum I'll be able to get the comb through and that didn't work so I kept trying this and that to the point where it was just getting silly. Then finally I relented and got out my blow dryer, and just like that it was detangled in less than 10 minutes.  It seems weird but, I honestly believe it has something to do with the heat. I simply cannot get a comb through my hair when it's wet and cold.  I can't even do a cold rinse after conditioning because afterwards my hair just doesn't cooperate.  I don't understand why, but history has taught me that in order to detangle my hair, I have to either use a blow dryer or make sure my bathroom is sufficently warm.  Next time I'll take in my space heater and see what happens.

I just remembered that the last time I washed prior to this, I also did a hot oil treatment.  That could've had a hand in making my hair more managable post wash as well.  I think I'll get some more from Sally and see if that makes any difference.

Oh, and if anyone is interested in some Pantene Ice Shine shampoo and conditioner and the bottle of Bath and Body Works moisturizing mango shampoo let me know.  I've only used each one time and can mail the rest out to whoever may want it.:)

. :-/[/color]

[I'm hoping that it's only the change in the weather

wrote on Oct 17^th, 2006 at 9:32am:

For the first time, I'm beginning to think that I may not reach my hair growth goal.  My hair has been shedding much more than normal lately.  I'm hoping that it's only the change in the weather but I don't know.:-/  Fortunately my hair isn't looking thinner (yet), but it's definitely shedding a lot more. :(

Humans are just like every other mammal out there - we go through seasonal shedding too!  I know you've got cats, so I'm sure you're dealing with the excess cat hair and wondering "Where does all this come from?  They should be bald by now!"   ;D

Right now I'm shedding like crazy - I feel like I'm in a competition with my cats about who can leave more hair about the house!  

Now I'm exhausted and about to go to bed, nightie night :)

I just love the way it smells.  

my hair has finally surpassed bra strap length.  It's not that much longer mind you, probably about a half an inch but it is clearly longer so of course, I'm very happy.

Congrats on all of your hair achievements--yay rah for you!   8-)

Thank's Trisha and a Yay Rah to you too for reaching BSL!!

Last night I decided to reward myself with some new hair toys.  I was looking around and decided to purchase a bun cover which I guess is more of an accessory than a toy.  Anyway, I've never used one before so I can't wait to try it out.  I ordered it on eBay so I don't have it yet but, it's crocheted with black metallic yarn.  I was hoping the metallic yarn would dress it up a bit, as I have a fear of looking like a lunch lady in it. :-/  I'll take pics when it arrives.

Also, I'm considering a leather stick barret.  I want it to hold a bun as well but I'm having trouble deciding between a medium and a large.  I think the medium will be too small and the large will be too big so, maybe I'll have to hold off on the barret until my hair grows longer

WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!  I DID IT AGAIN!!!!  

I was able to detangle my hair again without the blow dryer! This time, I began gently detangling in the shower, usually I wait until after I get out.  Afterwards, I patted my hair with a towel, easily re-combed and then put my hair into two damp plaits.  I'm not sure if combing my hair in the stream of water helped or if it was because I did it very quickly while my bathroom was still steamy. I did use a different shampoo, that could've been it too.  I don't know if I'll be able to do it again but I'll always make an attempt before resorting to the blow dryer.

Oh, and I found a home for all of the hair products that I felt didn't work for me after only one usage.  I sent them to my sister and her kids, they can't wait to try them.   So I'm happy that, that made them happy and I'm glad the products are not going to waste. :)

Congrats!  I vote for combing your hair in the shower as the method that helped the most.  That's how I detangle my hair.  ;D

Thanks Bikerbraid!  I guess I actually stumbled onto something good!  I'll try detangling in the shower from now on, hopefully it will work for me everytime. :)

I was feeling so great today.

Hang in there!  You will have your long hair with time.  Keep taking care of it and it will grow to be long and beautiful.  :)

Hang in there women!  Bikerbraid is right, it just takes time.  What I would do when I started was put up my hair and not look at it. Even now I don't measure anymore and it has grown! :)

Thanks ladies for the advice.  I know it just takes patience, patience, patience and of course good care!  


bikerbraid wrote on Nov 6^th, 2006 at 9:00am:

Hang in there!  You will have your long hair with time.  Keep taking care of it and it will grow to be long and beautiful.  :)

Ahhh...I'm visioning my own long and beautiful hair *sigh* [smiley=happy.gif]

if only Michael Jackson would do a show, then I'd be REALLY happy!!

Woooooot!! Another MJJ fan! You rock, sistah! hehehe  ;D

Have fun at the Prince concert - that guy plays a mean guitar when he wants to!

I haven't been to Vegas in awhile, so be sure to live it up & tell us about it when you get back.  :)

Angel Spun  Yay for MJ fans!!! ;D  

Yeah, Prince is wicked on the guitar.  I can't wait to see him again.

Last week I almost had a major dissapointment with Michael though.  I heard that he was going to perform Thriller last week in London at the World Music Awards. I was desperately looking for tickets for the show, but couldn't find them.  Now, I'm SOOOO glad that I didn't get the tickets because he didn't even perform, it was just a rumor!  Geeze, I would've been so upset to fly all the way to London for nothing.

Hair

I took my plaits out and to my surprise, detangling wasn't that bad afterall.  I did experience some breakage in the process however, but I'm sure that was inevitable. I just hope I remember to detangle in the shower going forward, I shouldn't have any breakage that way.  

This colder weather seems to be really hard on my hair, it's definitely more fragile and brittle, but I'm doing my best to combat it. One thing I'm trying is going oil free for a while, I'm thinking maybe until the spring. Oil is just not making my hair as soft as it used to and I think it may be because the cold weather is hardening it in my hair or something.  Anyway, I'm going to stick to my lotion type moisturizers which still seem to be working fine used alone.  

Also, I think I'm going to give myself a trim soon.  I'm not certain but I'll know for sure after I do my relaxer touch up in a week.  I may want to even my edges that may be a little uneven looking due to the breakage.  If I do trim, it won't be more than half an inch.  Although a half an inch is a whole months growth so, I'm leaning more towards not trimming.

Health

My dermatologist treating my alopecia basically referred me to someone else.  He said that the doctor he's referring me to is a hair loss specialist so maybe it was the best thing to do.  My alocpecia is pretty much the same.  No hair is falling out but I'm not having regrowth in those areas either, it's basically at a standstill.  It could be looked at as bad and it can be frustrating, but I always have to be grateful that it's not worse.  It's still not noticable and my hair is still really thick. There are some people with alopecia who are totally bald or most of their hair is gone,when I look at it that way, I can't help but feel really lucky and grateful.

I'm also trying to get into better shape before my Las Vegas trip.  I've been eating pretty healthy except for my recent sugar free vanilla wafer obsession which I had to stop.  I was literally eating whole packs of 27 in one day.  Theres no sugar, but theres still so much fat!  I've been exercising more on my elliptical,doing yoga and belly dancing.  I actually feel really great about exercising and good about my food choices.  I feel really good after a healthy meal of salmon and grilled vegetables as opposed to eating... well, I was going to say Mexican but just the thought of it now is giving me a craving. :'(  Oh well, once I get into the shape that I want to be in, then I will be able to have my Mexican (and my Italian and my Indian and my Greek) again, but only in moderation.

Just thinking about food is making me hungry, I'm going to go have a healthy snack now. Adios! :)

I couldn't wait until Sunday to relax/wash my hair.  I was going insane because it simply felt like crap.  I know now that my problem is not oil, but the lotion stuff I was using so much of lately.  The whole thing does make sense now that I think of it.  I was using it prior to plaiting every night to 'set' my waves so I guess it had to make my hair somewhat hard/stiff to hold the wave pattern all day.  When I first began doing this however, my hair felt  soft and nice but it seems the more I applied the lotion the stiffer/harder my hair gets.  After my wash last night, I put my hair in a bun prior to going to sleep instead of plaits, using oil and laying off of the lotion, and I awoke this morning to soft hair for a change.  It's so weird because I don't know whats in the lotion that is making my hair hard and it didn't feel bad in the beginning. **shrug**

I decided not to trim, but decided to measure to get a jump start on my December measurment. Somehow it's exactly the same as it was in the beginning of this month 25.5",  I'm not sure how that's possible but, I'm not showing any new growth.  Maybe between now and the first I'll have a growth spurt and gain a half inch.::)

The last time I washed prior to this, I felt I didn't do such a good job either washing or rinsing out my conditioner because I had flakes in the strands on the right side of my head.  Last night I had them even worse and noticed that my scalp is flaking really bad where I have alopecia, it looks like psoriasis.  This has happened before, I think it may just be that time of year.   Only thing is that the last time I recall this happening, I lost hair.   Hopefully I won't lose much or any hair at all this time.  I'll definitley be watching very closely.

I gave in and trimmed my hair.  I trimmed an inch, but it actually wasn't much hair at all.  My hair had broken off so much that the ends were very thin, so I cut them off.  I realize it was a set back since now I'm at 24.5 inches (just below bra strap) but at least now my ends are thicker and not just scraggle that I'm hanging on to simply to claim an extra inch.

I finally got my crocheted bun cover in the mail and I don't like it.  They even sent an extra one since they took so long to ship. Now have the task of finding someone to give them to.  I did see a gold one and I'm wondering if I'll like that one instead.

Oh well, I'll go reset my ticker now.

I was wondering what this does...  Pretty cool!! [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Now that you've had your trim, be sure to oil those ends and take care of them!  Hopefully you can go a long time before your need to have another trim.

Sorry the bun cover didn't work out for you. :-/

bikerbraid wrote on Nov 26^th, 2006 at 2:08pm:

Now that you've had your trim, be sure to oil those ends and take care of them!  Hopefully you can go a long time before your need to have another trim.

Yes, my plan is to not do another trim for a LONG time.  Oiling and wearing my hair up more will benefit me greatly.   I think part of my problem was experimenting with too many different products that weren't good for my hair.  I need to keep it simple and stick to what I know works, like oil.  And on the plus side, not experimenting with everything I see will save money. :)


[timestamp=1164575752]
I was just looking at the Hair Product ingredients thread and realized why some people are so anti cones.  I had been using them a lot pretty recently and although I did notice build up, I didn't realize they could keep moisture out.  I stated before that my hair hadn't been geeting soft after my washes anymore and I wasn't sure why.  I'd stopped using a moisturizing hair lotion thinking that it (although it doesn't have cones or alcohol) was the reason for my recent crunchyness.  Now I see that it wasn't the lotion or the oil (which I had also stopped using briefly, thinking that it was the cause) but my hair conditioner which I didn't use only because I ran out of it.  My mango conditioner from Bath and Body Works made my hair unbelievably soft at first, but the more I used it, it no longer had the same effect.  My hair had become crunchy and brittle.  I didn't read the lable to see that the conditioner had cones and that was the reason for my build up and brittleness.  Whew, am I exhausted!

I just clarified today for the first time in maybe 2 years.  Even though I had product build up, I was afraid to clarify because the last time I had a loss of elasticity afterwards and I'm not sure why.  Anyway, I gave it a go once again, and everything is fine.  I also made sure to deep condition afterwards and I had an effortless detangle.  I'm on a roll with this no blowdrying thing, I LOVE IT!! But I'm still afraid to throw the blow dryer away.

I'm going to see how my hair does without using any cones.  They're always good at first, but then the build up that is sure to follow drives me nuts.  If I can go without them then I will but if not, at least now I have a good clarifying shampoo.

Don't throw the blow dryer away - it still has a purpose...... you can use it on the plastic window coverings to winterize your house.... you can use it for various crafts that require heat such as heat shrinking plastics..... you can use it to power a hovercraft toy.... it dries paint really fast...etc, etc, etc.

I've not used a hair dryer on my hair in probably 10 years, but I still have one!  ;D

Thanks Bikerbraid, I'll try and keep those other uses in mind, especially the hovercraft who woulda thunk? ;D

Aye, and let's not forget running one between your bedsheets when it's cold, drying out wet shoes or drying a facial masque!  ;D

wrote on Nov 28^th, 2006 at 5:00pm:

Aye, and let's not forget running one between your bedsheets when it's cold, drying out wet shoes or drying a facial masque!  ;D

Ooooo - good ones!

I haven't used my blow dryer in years, but it still lives under my bathroom sink, "Just in case".  

There's something about having it, I guess.

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!  I JUST MET PRINCE!!!!!  YAY!!!!  He invited my husband and I to dance on stage with him to my favorite song!  He also gave us tickets to tomorrows show because he wants us to dance again but unfortunately, we're leaving in the morning so I can get back to my kitties because I miss them.  Although now my husband is going on and on about how he wants to stay so who knows.

It was such a nice time that afterwards I couldn't help but cry.  I'm sure that people thought I was crying because I was excited about Prince but I was so sad that I won't be able to share tonights events with my mother she'd be so excited for me.

On another note I was really horrible to my hair.  I curled with an iron instead of my molecular rollers because they broke the day before I left. :'(  Oh well.

WOW! That is fantastic!  You are one lucky couple!   :o

Yeah, it was so lucky!!!  I'm back home now, I just got in.  We decided not to stay but sent Prince a bouqet of flowers and a note thanking him but declining the invitation.  The concert was great and the whole time in general was very eventful, I'll never forget it.

We didn't get the opportunity to go house hunting while there, the houses that I saw online weeks ago were already rented by the time we arrived but, I still don't think I want to live there so all is fine.

Sorry you weren't able to take advantage of the 2nd show,  but what an experience!  I hope someone took a picture for you.

How cool! And how nice of him to invite you back - that's awesome. Some stars just truly know the value of good P.R.

Glad to hear that you had such a good time. Maybe you can go back & see him again soon.  :)

I think we may return for either New Years or my birthday.  I was just entirely too tired to stay in Las Vegas another day.  We arrived on Wednesday evening and pretty much hit the ground running.  We went to a concert and then right after, saw another band play and they also had me up on stage dancing.  It was all very exhausting.

There aren't any pictures although I did read a blip about it on one of his fan sites.  Prince doesn't allow pictures to be taken at his concerts.  But thats fine with me, I'll always remember it picture or not.  I used to have Prince posters on my wall as a kid and his music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember so it was very surreal to have him ask me to dance twice (the first time by myself and the second time with my husband) and also hold my hand.  He even invited us to a private after party which he decided to cancel due to his being tired, so I guess I wasn't the only one.  Yeah, I'll never forget that night.  

Quote:

I'm sure that people thought I was crying because I was excited about Prince but I was so sad that I won't be able to share tonights events with my mother she'd be so excited for me.

Trust me, she knows   *hugs*   ;)

Trisha wrote on Dec 5^th, 2006 at 2:10pm:

[quote] Trust me, she knows   *hugs*   ;)

[smiley=dankk2.gif]

Just got back from my new dermatologist and of course they decided to completely change my meds yet again.  No more clobetasol, or steroid injections or retin A.  This time I've been prescribed tar.  Yes, some sort of medicated tar.  I'll have to apply it once a day and it's supposed to stimulate my scalp and promote hair growth.  Apparently, it has a high regrowth success rate, taking only a few months to work.  We'll see...

Also, I have a few small pimples on my forhead and the dermatologist recommended that I stop using oil in my hair.  YIKES!!!  As soon as I found something that works for my hair it breaks out my face.  Oh well, I think I can live with a few tiny pimples.

I've been paying more attention to my hair lately of course and noticed that although my hair can be thick, that the strands are not.  So, I began looking around and found a few facts about my hair type that have kind of cleared things up a bit for me.

Type 4 hair appears to be coarse, but it is actually quite fine, with lots and lots of these strands densely packed together.
I had been under the impression that my hair was coarse but when I looked closer at the strands, I began to question this because my strands are thin.  Although, I do have some coarse strands, overall they are fine.  All of my hair that sheds is fine and the breakage tends to be coarse which doesn't really make sense to me, I'd imagine that the coarse hair would be stronger.

Type 4 hair has fewer cuticle layers than any other hair type, which means that it has less natural protection from the damage you inflict by combing, brushing, curling, blow-drying and straightening it. The more cuticle layers in a single strand of hair, the more protection it has from damage. Each time you damage your hair – fire up the curling iron, fry it with chemicals – you break down a cuticle layer, robbing your hair of much-needed moisture. :o
I guess this is why my hair tends to grow longer the more I keep it up and the less I do to it in general.

Generally, this hair is densely packed to give the appearance of very thick however, fragile hair.
And it does look very thick when air dried after a wash however, when heat is applied and it is straightend then the hair no longer has a thick appearance but a thin and flat appearance which amazes me that the hair can go from one extreme to the next.

wrote on Dec 5^th, 2006 at 8:31pm:

Type 4 hair has fewer cuticle layers than any other hair type, which means that it has less natural protection from the damage you inflict by combing, brushing, curling, blow-drying and straightening it. The more cuticle layers in a single strand of hair, the more protection it has from damage. Each time you damage your hair – fire up the curling iron, fry it with chemicals – you break down a cuticle layer, robbing your hair of much-needed moisture. :o

I'd been thinking about my fragile hair all night and day.  My hair has been up ever since I read about the properties of type 4 hair, I think I've been scared straight.

I've also been getting what I call the itchies.  My scalp itches when I don't get my injections which the doctor took me off of and I haven't gotten my tar medicine stuff yet because my pharmacist had to order it.  Hopefully, it's in today.  The itchies are driving me nuts!

Well, I've applied my new medicine today.  I was supposed to start with a 10 min application on the first day and by the end of the week be up to 60 minutes.  It's supposed to be a gradual process because the "tar" (which is actually a white cream) is supposed to sting (so I was told) and stimulate hair growth.  Well, today was my first time using the medication.  I put it on a little over 50 minutes ago and I've yet to feel even the slightest tingle.  I'm going to call my doctor tomorrow to see if it's working although there is no tingling involved.  I hope it's working.  These doctors change my meds so frequently that it's really expensive.  I was only on my last medication for a few weeks before I was instructed to try something new.  I have so many half used medications that I could open my own pharmacy.

I have been experiencing some new growth though as well as new hair loss however, it's not much loss, and seeing new sprouts of hair always makes me happy. :)  I have been eating more protein lately and drinking slim fast with protein as well.  I wonder if that has anything to do with it?  I've also been exercising more lately that could be it too, who knows.  Oh well, time to rinse this stuff off of my scalp.

My hair isn't feeling so great today.  I haven't washed (my hair*modified) in about a week. I was trying to see how long I can go but I'm thinking of giving in already.  Because I use oil daily, I'm beginning to get the impression that I won't be able to go that 2 weeks that I'm trying for.  My hair doesn't smell or feel gunky, it is beginning to feel crunchy though.  I'm starting to feel that I may need to come up with a whole new product regimine so that I can extend my wash cycle from once a week to once every two weeks.  I feel that the less I wash, the better off my ends will be.  And speaking of my ends, I have been keeping them protected basically all the time in a braided bun in an attempt to sheild them from the harsh indoor  heat.

*Modified- [timestamp=1166188051] I just realized that on the 8th, I was already 3 days short of 2 weeks post wash, not 1 week as I'd thought. ::)

Last night I actually had a nightmare.  I dreamed that I cut my hair into a very layered bob with big swingy curls and I really like it!  I liked it so much I kept swinging my head around.:o  I know I've been struggling lately with the thought that I'll never reach my goals, but giving up and actually cutting it?!?  Nope, ain't gonna happen.  My hair has never gotten much longer that BSL in my life and before, I never thought (or cared) about the reason for it.  My hair is very dry and I'm learning how to take care of my ends so that they don't dry out and split, so I'm definitely going to continue going for it.  I want long flowing hair. I just hope that I don't have anymore nightmares!  That was scary!

I just rinsed my new medication from my scalp and am now convinced that this stuff is apparently doing something.  I guess because my pain threshold is so high, I dismissed the tiny bit of tingling that I now get from the medication as no big deal.  This time I looked at my scalp afterwards and was completely shocked to see how red it has made my skin.  Like, REALLY red.  I don't think I'll be going past one hour (as recommeded by my doctor) anymore because wether it feels like it or not, it's definitely irritating my scalp which is the plan.  If it works, my doctor said I can see results in as little as 2 month. I'm so glad my doctor recommended me to a new physician.  I was going to buy some peppermint oil to stimulate my scalp, but theres no way that peppermint oil can compare to this stuff.:)

Have you heard of "Curly Girl" by Lorraine Massey?  Its a great book-she has great advice for taking care of curly hair.  Her own hair is corkscrew curly and looks great.  

Good Luck with your new medicine!

Sakina wrote on Dec 9^th, 2006 at 10:56pm:

Have you heard of "Curly Girl" by Lorraine Massey?  Its a great book-she has great advice for taking care of curly hair.  Her own hair is corkscrew curly and looks great.   Good Luck with your new medicine!

No, I've never heard of this book before. I probably would've been a little skeptical of it had I stumbled upon it on my own, seeing that the chapter devoted to black hair is titled "You Go, Curl!" :-/
Otherwise, it seems pretty interesting and may offer some helpful tips for me.  Maybe I'll check it out, Thanks! :)

So, I was doing my daily oiling and medication application when I began playing in my hair.   I haven't had the chance to do this much lately, since I've become more strict with myself about doing up do's.  Anyway, I flipped my bang which usually hangs over to the left, to the right and it looks so much better!  

I've been growing my bangs out since I cut them for the last and final time about two years ago. My bangs are cut asymetrical with the shortest part falling at chin level, and the longest part about 3 inches past my chin.  Growing them out has been a pain because it looks so drastic.  I have the longer hair and then out of nowhere is a chunk of shorter hair, it's not gradual at all.  But simply changing my part helps tremendously.  I still don't like the bangs enough to keep them at this length of course, but enough to where growing them out shouldn't seem so horrible going forward.

When I was a teenager I wouldn't leave the house without bangs and as an adult, I've experimented with them from time to time only to become completely annoyed by them and regret cutting them, yet again.  So now, although I sometimes still get bang envy when I see someone with really nice ones (I've NEVER had nice bangs btw) I've learned to just let it go.:P

I noticed an older thread about favorite hair flicks and I decided to list my favorites here, for a little inspiration and I thought it would be fun. :D

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A9gnMiHhunxFDTgA5GOjzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=1208ijb5o/EXP=1165888609/**http%3a//www.zulm.net/images/kamusutra/ks5.jpgThe Kama Sutra A Tale Of Love - I Love This One!  Not Only The Elaborate Hair Do's But Also The Costumes That They Wear In The Movie.   I Think That Any Bollywood Movie Is A Great Hair Movie. The Actress Shown Is Indira Verma (She's Also In The HBO Series Rome)

Of Course I Love Memoirs Of A Geisha (No Image Necessary) But, I Know I Could Never Get My Hair Straight Like That And Have It Remain Healthy. Oh, And The Story!!!  I Was So Rooting For Her And The Chairman To Get Together.  I Was So Obsessed With This Movie When It Came Out, I Also Had To Read The Book Too.

http://re3.mm-a8.yimg.com/image/2945641187
And Also A Knights Tale.  You Can't Really Tell From This Pic But, She Had Really Long Hair And Pretty Cool Do's In The Movie.  I Guess It's Clear That I Love Period Films::)  Oh Well, I'm Sure There Are Lots Of Others That Are Really Good But These Are The Only Ones That Come To Mind Right Now. :)

I love those movies too! :)  The bollywood movies are awesome and not only great hair flicks but some are so funny!  My favorite funny one is "Dude where's the party?"  A ROTF good time!  Have you ever seen in these movies when the ladies purfume there hair with incense? I do this every once in a while with indian rose incense, it smells divine!

I've never seen Dude where's the party, I'm gonna have to look out for that one. :) And now that you mention it, I have seen women perfume their hair with incense I was just never aware that, thats what they were doing.  I've seen them wave the incense around the hair and body but I wasn't aware that they were simply doing it for the purpose of "perfuming".  I always assumed it was just some sort of Indian custom or spiritual ritual. ;D

I was able to hold out, and it's been almost 3 weeks since I've washed my hair.  I know it may sound gross but it smells fine.  It just doesn't have that soft, just been washed feel to it because of product build up.  It's funny, because I honestly didn't even realize how long it had been since I washed last.  I'd been wearing my hair up pretty much all of the time lately, so I guess it was easier to ignore.  I'm going to wash/clarify my hair sometime over the weekend and try going totally cone free.  I'll see how eliminating cones works out as I go along.  

I didn't want to speak too soon but I'm so excited!  I really think my new medicine will put my alopecia into remission!  I've only been using the medicine for about a week now, but last night I saw even more hair regrowth in the areas where my hair had fallen out.  I hope I continue to see more growth in the days and weeks to come.  I'm very optimistic and excited!!! :D

Oh, I also received an email that my first pair of LL hair sticks have been mailed and are on their way.  They are a special order, so it seems like forever since I ordered them but I shall have them soon. :)

I was reading over my journal entries to see where I started.  My hair was at 24" when I first began journaling here. ( My first journal entry states 25" but that was a wet measure.  I now only measure dry)  My hair had gotten to 25.5 but recently I trimmed, and am now at 24.5 so I've only gained 1/2" since I started :'( I've gotta do better in '07'.

Quote:

I didn't want to speak too soon but I'm so excited!  I really think my new medicine will put my alopecia into remission!

(whispered) yay! (whispered)
...trying not to scare away the progress!

(whispered) no we don't want to frighten it, Yay!!! ;D  *hugs* Trisha

Yay!!! I got my hair sticks today.  I ordered them a while ago and since then, I began to assess my spending and felt that maybe I shouldn't have spent so much money on a hair accessory, but now I'm glad that I did. They're beautiful and I purchased black (with sterling accents) which goes with pretty much everything so I know I'll get alot of use out of them.  Also, because I now have 2 sticks, I can do a nice and secure bun without using bobby pins or putting my hair in a ponytail first!  So when I remove the sticks, my hair falls loose and I can shake it out like they do in the movies! ;D

I'll post pics later this weekend. :)

Congrats on the new sticks.  I look forward to seeing a picture of them in your hair.

Thanks Bikerbraid :)  Are those your hair sticks in your new avatar? :o

I typically do a simple doughnut bun but since getting my new sticks is such a special occasion (to me :)) I've decided to experiment and attempt to be a bit creative.  Sorry about the quality, I can't seem to take a good picture these days.  

The last pic was my first go at the midevial bun. I didn't do such a good job, so I decided to cheat and make it look better by bobby pinning a brooch to the center. The last pic also provides a clearer view of the sticks.

http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Newsticks1.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/newsticks2.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/newsticks3.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/newsticks5.jpg

Wow!  Your new sticks look lovely! :)

Beautiful sticks!  They are perfect in your hair.  :D

I love your different hair styles with them - you do a very nice job with your hair and the sticks.

[and yes, those are some of my hairsticks - that picture was taken a year ago.... I hope to update it soon.]

omg, La Diosa, what beautiful updo's! And beautiful hairsticks!

(((hugs))) Thanks everyone! :)

I'd been feeling under the weather for a few days now, just waiting on the cold that I was positive was sure to come.  I'd been suffering from an upset stomach, a scratchy throat and fatigue.  It wasn't until yesterday when my cold still hadn't come on that I realized that it was acid reflux.  I'd been on medication for this since the spring however, I ran out last week.  I decided that I didn't need to renew my prescription because I had been feeling fine, not figuring that the only reason I was fine was because of the medication.  It had been so long since I suffered from the symptoms that this time, I couldn't identify them.  So, I got my prescription refilled and I feel a lot better.  So much so, that this morning I decided to clean my entire apartment and mop all of my floors.   Now my only ailment is a headache from the fumes. :-/

My hair has been doing fine.  Other than oiling, I've been keeping it in a bun and just letting it grow. Keeping my ends tucked away is working out to be really good for my hair.  It still looks fresh from the trim and my ends aren't the least bit dry or brittle.:)

My second Caruso hair setter (this year, I've been purchasing Caruso hair setters since I was 17) conked out on me after only a few months so I decided to purchase a different brand.  I bought Revlon ionic steam rollers but I don't like them.  The rollers seem to get unnecessarily hotter than the Caruso rollers and the rollers are smaller so I can't get all of my hair wrapped around them let alone clamping it.  I think it may be cheaper to sell them on eBay than to return them.  Hopefully, I'm not stuck with them long and can use the money to buy a new Caruso hair setter.  Even if they don't last long, at least they are effective when they do work.

wow your updos are so thick! Yours so blessed!!! the sticks are barely visable with all that hair lol. Youf hair looks fab with sticks.

Hope u get better soon and are able to return the rollers

Awww, Thanks Rainbow. :)

What are you taking for your acid reflux?  My husband was originally prescribed Prilosec which is now an OTC.  He takes it every day, and will remain on it forever due to a medical procedure that was performed on him that has left him without the muscle that closes off the esophogus (and keeps the acids in the stomach).  

Bikerbraid I take 40mg of Protonix once a day.  I've taken Prilosec OTC as well but only for a day or two.  I've never taken it long enough to know if it's as effective for me or not.  How does Prilosec work for your husband?  I have the feeling that I'll be on medication for acid reflux forever as well, although I don't know the cause of mine.  I like spicy foods which I still eat and as long as I take my medication, the foods don't bother me.  Is your husband on a special diet?

Today I clarified.  It's been 3 weeks and 5 days since my last wash.:o  It was easy to do because I kept my hair up pretty much the whole time so it was easy to ignore.  

Anyway, I am now officially cone free.  I'm going to try it out for awhile to see if it works for me.  I attempted it before, but I took it for granted that my leave in conditioner was cone free but it wasn't.  So, I CCC to remove any left over cones, detangled with my creative 3W comb, applied coconut oil and did my hair in 2 plaits to air dry.

wrote on Dec 23^rd, 2006 at 7:02am:

Bikerbraid I take 40mg of Protonix once a day.  I've taken Prilosec OTC as well but only for a day or two.  I've never taken it long enough to know if it's as effective for me or not.  How does Prilosec work for your husband?  I have the feeling that I'll be on medication for acid reflux forever as well, although I don't know the cause of mine.  I like spicy foods which I still eat and as long as I take my medication, the foods don't bother me.  Is your husband on a special diet?

Hubby has been on the Prilosec for several years now and it works great for him.  You might ask your doctor if Prilosec would be an option for you.  My hubby eats whatever he wants - spicy foods are a favorite.  But even on a bland diet he would have trouble without the medication.  The sphinctur muscle at the end of the esophogus is what keeps the acids in the stomach - hubby's did not open all the way before and food would not be able to pass thru to the stomach (a very uncomfortable situation).  So the doctor stretched it open, but that lets the acid come up into the esophogus, so he takes the medication.  It's a case of it being easier to treat the heartburn than the contractured muscle, so they intentionally damaged the muscle.

BB- I may ask my doctors about the Prilosec OTC in the future but the Protonix is working well for me so I'll stick with that for now.

Hair - I haven't had much to report lately hairwise.  I've decided that I really am going to wait longer in between measurments.  Instead of every month, I'll measure every other month or every 3 months.  I think doing this will help me obsess a little less about my hair and reaching my goal.

I've been very protective of my ends keeping my hair up pretty much all of the time.  I did purchase some new black satin scrunchies and a wide tooth horn comb which I now love.  At first I was dissapointed with the comb because it wasn't as smooth as I expected it to be, but once I filed it, it turned out to be very nice.

We decided not to go out for NYE, I really wasn't in the mood.  Instead we bought a bottle of white wine (I don't like champagne too much) a cake, and 2 numeric candles, a 0 and a 7.  At midnight we blew out the candles and had a toast.  It was a nice quiet evening, much better than going out. :)

Aww, your nye celebration sounds perfect.   :)  Hubby and I have never gone out on new year's eve; we usually don't have the money to blow, and all the idiots seem to come out in full force on that night!  (besides, it's WAY past our bedtime!!)

Did a CO today, no biggie, nothing else going on hair wise.  I did purchase some shea oil though.  I'm not sure if I like it yet, I'll know after a few uses I guess.

Finally took my moms cat (now my cat) to the vet.  I'd had him for months, but I'd put off taking him because I had been wishy washy as to wether I'd keep him or not.  Well, of course I still have him and I don't have any plans of giving him up so, we went to the vet today and I was shocked at the bill.  He needed a check up and shots so today's visit was 200.00 and we'll still have to pay another 600.00 for his appointment next week.  He needs a few teeth pulled and he needs groomed.  Owning pets is very expensive. :'(

Quote:

Owning pets is very expensive.  :'(

It certainly can be!

My family is kind of in the same boat with the whole cat/vet situation. One of the neighbourhood strays adopted us, so we've been looking after him for a few months. He needs a lot of work and is, erm, not the most well-mannered cat we've ever known. That's for sure!  :P  So who knows what we'll do with him, really...

On the financial note, just be glad you don't have horses!!  :o

Yes, pets ARE expensive.  Dogs are worse than cats, and big dogs are worse than little dogs.  (Everything seems to be based on weight!)  Horses, of course are even more expensive.... I don't even want to think about them!

But, pets can be wonderful.  I guess that's why we spend the money.  ;)

wrote on Jan 11^th, 2007 at 11:27am:

On the financial note, just be glad you don't have horses!!  :o

I couldn't even imagine how much a vet bill for a horse would be, I don't even want to try :)


Quote:

But, pets can be wonderful.  I guess that's why we spend the money.

That's right, and money comes and goes... so oh well, they're worth it.  

I washed my hair again today.  CO's just never do it for me.  For whatever reason, my hair needs shampoo to feel soft and clean.  After CO's, my hair is always hard and crunchy so I'm finally done with them.  I'll just continue to make sure I dilute my shampoo prior to washing.

My hair's not as curly as yours, I have discovered that I need to shampoo about once every 2 weeks or else my scalp gets sore.  I wonder why your hair would get crunchy with conditioner...maybe cut back on the amount you're using?

Does the relax treatment dry out your hair or scalp?

I use a protein conditioner so maybe it could be that I'm really not sure, but I do use a ton of it.  

Yes, the relaxer does dry out the hair afterwards, I have to apply a moisturizer to it.

Since I washed my hair a few days ago, I've yet to put any product on it.  No leave in conditioners, no oil's of any kind, no moisturizing lotion and I still love it.  I'm beginning to realize that I may not need to use styling products because it feels so much softer without them at least so far.  I'm going to cotinue this for a while and see what comes out of it.

I'd been wearing my hair parted down the center with 2 braided plaits on each side and I love it.  It's fun and I like that when I take the plaits loose, I can make 2 wavy pigtails out of each one.

Oh, I got my cat back from the vet today.  I don't know why I agreed to getting a lion shave.  He's a boy cat but now he looks like a weird fru fru poodle.  I'm sure he must feel quite emasculated.   I just can't wait until his fur grow back becasue the current texture is weird, he was cut down so low he feels like suede and more like a mouse than a cat.  I miss all of his cuddly fur. looking at him now is so weird because in a way it's as if he's naked.

Beleive me, I will post pic a later.

wrote on Jan 14^th, 2007 at 11:43pm:

I use a protein conditioner so maybe it could be that I'm really not sure, but I do use a ton of it.   Yes, the relaxer does dry out the hair afterwards, I have to apply a moisturizer to it.

When proteins build up on the hair, it will get crunchy.  When doing CO washings, it is usually recommended that you avoid proteins and cones since both build up on the hair shaft.  A vinegar rinse will usually eliminate the buildup.

Thats really good to know, thanks Bikerbraid. :)

I've decided to apply some Aveda light elements to my hair this morning.  It's a very light spritz of a water based moisturizer.  So far I like it it's so light my hair still feels product free just a little softer.  So far, I like the feel of not having products in my hair.

Also the BIG thing that I'm excited about is that my alopecia spot has filled in and my hair is really growing!  I'm very happy about this![smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

That's fantastic!!  I'm so glad to hear your spot is filling in.  WONDERFUL!

La Diosa that's great! :)

Thank you ladies. :D

Here's my poor naked kitty before and after.  I can't even let him sit outside now because I think he'd freeze to death. :(
http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Baubau1.jpg http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Nakedbaubau12.jpg

EEEEKKKK!!!!  :o :o  Do they really do that to cats intentionally??

Yep, unfortunately so.  It'll take 6 months for him to look normal again. :'(

Oh poor kitty! :-[  

Quote:

Oh poor kitty!

 
I know you just can't help but feel sorry for him right? :o

Hair Today, I applied some shea oil to my hair but was careful not to apply too much.  Typically, I like to apply lots of oil because my hair is so dry, but this time I only used a few drops.  It looks healthier and shinier with the oil yet, I don't  have product overload.  I was using so much stuff to protect my hair from the blow dryer, but since I haven't used it in quite awhile now I guess it was finally time that I stopped using so much gunk.

Recently, I've been able to hold off on washing until my hair begins to feel crunchy.  I'm wondering when or if that will even happen now that I'm using less products?

Today, I washed and conditioned with Sunsilk Hydra TLC.  It's the first time I've used this product.  It wasn't as moisturizing as I thought it would be but my hair turned out fine.  

I didn't realize how long I was in the shower, and the water turned cold before I could get all of the conditioner out.  I did a rush job and thought I'd gotten it all, but after scratching my scalp I realized that I didn't.  I'm just going to let it go.  I don't think leaving some conditioner in should be a problem.

I've been using Giovanni's direct leave in conditioner for about a week now and I really like it.  The directions say to apply it after washing but, I've been using it as a daily moisturizer instead of oil which hasn't been working too well for me lately.  I was looking for something like this at my local Wild Oats store with no luck, but then I saw it mentioned here in the product reviews and thought I'd give it a try.  It's really keeping my hair moisturized nicely even with the indoor heat.  I've also been using humidifiers but they only seem to do so much.

Anyway, even with my hair up most of the time, I'm noticing that my ends are tapering again even though I trimmed an inch off about two months ago.  I only stopped using my blow dryer this past fall, so maybe I'm still having breakage due to all of the prior years of abusing heat.  I refuse to trim again though.  Not that its that bad yet, but if I'm just going to wind up with tapered ends even after trimming I might as well just let the trimming go.

It's been so cold here lately (just as it's been everywhere else).  I hate the cold so I've pretty much holed myself in my apartment like a hermit, going out as little as possible.  I did venture out so that my youngest kitty could experience snow for the first time, but to my surprise she didn't like it AT ALL.  This was as far as she'd go. :(
http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Kali1stsnow.jpg

Awww - cute kitty!

I love Giovanni products, and had good results with them.  I just can't afford them right now.   :(  

Cute kitty!  I love the boots your wearing!  I too am holded up like a hermit myself due to the cold.  I've never tryed Giovanni before, I like Jason.  I would love to try Ojon Tawaki but man is it's not cheap!  

I'm going to try the Giovanni 50/50 Shampoo and Conditioner next.  I really do hope I like it because it really isn't cheap experimenting with product after product, but at least my sister makes out.  I mail her the products that don't work out for me.  At this rate, she'll never have to buy shampoo and conditioner again.


Quote:

I love the boots your wearing!

Thanks Lisabelle.  I love these boots they are very warm.

My kitty thanks you all for the compliments, as she takes so much time and  pride in her grooming! :D

Well, I decided to go ahead and relax my hair today instead of at the end of the month as I'd planned.  My roots were getting really thick and poofy due to my new growth and I had gotten tired of it.  

I was also wanting to trim soooo bad because my ends seemed to be tapering and thin looking, but after washing and relaxing, my ends actually turned out to be fuller than they initially appeared although I'm not quite sure why that is.  Since my roots were no longer poofy, I took a measure and got a little over 25.5 inches.  I was really shocked that it was only 25.5 inches because it looked so very long (for my hair) but I guess it only seemed so long because lately I'd been wearing my hair wavy which takes from the length.  25.5 makes sense though because at my last measure after my last trim 2 months ago, I was 24.5 inches.

I'm getting ready again, making plans to go back to Las Vegas to see Prince in concert next month.  His performance dates are not yet confirmed for March so I'm hoping he'll still be there.  In the meantime I am shopping again for travel outfits so if he will be performing I'll be ready.

Is that pine based treatment still working for you?

AHHHH!!!!  I wish there was an undo button.  I just accidentally deleted my entire post!  I meant to hit enter and I hit delete >:(  Oh well.

Sakina:  I've been through so many products that I don't even recall a pine based one, so whatever it was no, I guess it didn't work out for me. :-/

Hair: When I'm washing out my relaxer, I tend to scrub like a maniac to make sure I've removed all traces of the chemicals so in doing so, I typically tangle it up pretty good.  Yesterday when I finished washing, I was only able to detangle enough to put my hair into two plaits but this morning when my hair was dry, I really had a job ahead of me.  It took me about 5 hours to get through it all and get all of the tangles out. :o  Surprisingly, it didn't seem like such a long time though.  I had my iPod going the whole time and I was singing along to the music and dancing while I was going through my hair, so basically I had a detangling party.  I haven't applied any heat to it (and of course I'm not going to) so right now my hair looks huge like Diana Ross's but I'm happy with it.  I'm just glad that I won't have to do this again for another 2 or 3 months. 8-)

5 HOURS?!  Oh my stars and garters, girl!   :o  I have a new respect for what you must go through to have long hair.  I don't know if I could do that, and I'm an extremely patient woman.  *hugs*

Now, I've heard people say "Oh my stars" but "garters" is a new one for me, although I do like it! ;)

I remember the first time my hair ever got that tangled. I began sobbing like a child because I thought it would be absolutely impossible to detangle and I was certain that I'd have to cut all of my hair off but my husband came to the rescue.  He sat there with me all night long helping me to detangle and he even showed me how to do it so that it doesn't take as long.  I know that 5 hours is a long time but it sure beats all night long, especially when you have no clue as to what your doing.

My hair doesn't get that tangled after a regular wash, only after I apply relaxers (chemical straighteners) and I'm really scrubbing to remove them.   As long as I don't manipulate my hair much while washing, the tangles aren't bad.

But at the same time, as I was detangling I did wonder if I'd be able to keep this up with hair that's 10 inches longer than it is now.  Oh well, only time will tell, but until then I'll keep on truckin' full steam ahead to grow my hair longer. :)

I've been on mothernature.com

I just got this flower leather stick barrette in the mail today.  I love it, but I'm going to wait until spring to wear it. http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/flowerbarrette.jpg

This is my hair from last year around this time.  Because I've cut so much hair off last year (I figured about 4.5 inches) I currently don't have much more length than this.
http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/2006star.JPG


On another note, my cat (the one with the $800.00 pet bill last month) is sick again.  He's been sneezing nonstop for a few days.  I called the vet to get suggestions as to what to do.  They mentioned to me on a prior visit that most of the meds they prescribe can be purchased over the counter but instead of recommending something, they said I should bring him in for a diagnosis.  Geesh!  My dad said they must love to see me coming.  I've decided to wait a few more days to take my cat to the vet.  If it's a cold, hopefully it will naturally and cheaply run it's course.

Egad, sorry about your horn comb, La Diosa.  :(

Your hair looks great, though!  :D

My mother used to say "Oh my stars and garters" all the time.  She still does, but not as much.  

What my grandmother used to say, that I have heard NOWHERE else, is "There's more ways to kill a cat than choking him on butter."  

I used to say it too, but I got too many weird reactions.

wow i love your hair, thats just what i want. In the second picture you have really nice layers, and length. Im guessing you hair type is 1b/c/iii  ;).

Sorry about your cat, i am not really keen on animals, i know people get close to their pets but i really am scared of pets, even fish, apart from on my plate.

Forgive me i hope your cat will be ok, please update and let us know

Angel Spun: Thanks for the compliment and for offering your condolences for the loss of my comb. :)

TexianTraveler: I'm guessing that the puzzled look on my face as I read the line about the cats may also count as a weird reaction. ;D  I really love animals so I don't think that'll be a quote that I'd use either.

Rainbow: Nope.  My hair type is 4a/f/i.  My hair is chemically relaxed, which means it lightly loosens my very tight natural curl pattern and it makes it much easier to manage.  Most people think that type 4 hair is course, but the strands are actually fine and very fragile, unlike coarse hair which is strong.  It's just that type 4's have so much hair, that the assumption is that it must be coarse.  

I love having animals around.  At every stage of my life I've had some sort of pet either cat's, dog's, birds, and fish. I couldn't imagine my life without them because I love them so much and they are very loving in return.

I appreciate your show of concern for my cat, even though you're not so fond of them.  This evening he's been making weird hacking noises, so I may take him to the vet as soon as Monday.

Wow your hair looks in great condition! Are you sure your not a iii because those buns you posted were huge!!!

I can understand your love of animals i know people who are very attached to their animals and they love them like a friend, for me i cant get over the fear they might bite me. I was never bought up with animals that is why i cant connect, for you who have animals at every stage of your life can then understand animals and enjoy them, i wish i could to coz they are so cute and fluffy, i would love a bunny but i am to scared to hold one so its not a good idea.

Animals can be expensive at times but it worth the price to see them well and happy. You should invest in pet insurance if you havnt already it could save you loads

I'm sorry Rainbow you are right.  I had to go back and re read the fia hair typing chart.  I had been  under the false impression that iii meant thick strands.  So yes, I am 4a/f/iii.  I'm glad you pointed that out to me or else I still wouldn't have realized my mistake. :)

I have to admit that I am afraid of very large dogs, you know the ones that are as big as ponys.  When I go to Petsmart some people bring in these very large dogs and I'm always hoping that the dog doesn't become mad and start attacking people.  

My cats do bite but they only do it when playing so they're very soft bites, they come no where close to being painful yet alone breaking the skin.

In the past, I'd never thought I'd need pet insurance at this point.  I felt that with young cats it would most likely be an unneccessary expense, but lately I have been looking around at different carriers.  It would make life so much easier on me though if my husband could just add the cats as dependents on our health insurance we get through his job. :D

lol that would be good insurance for all the family and pets, you may have started a revolution here lol.

Im glad you sorted your hair typing, i thought mine must be non exsistent if yours was thin lol.

Well, my husband surprised me this morning with yet another cake.  It'll be a long while before I'll even want to look at another cake again.  At least this one was tiny, enough for 2 servings, okay maybe 4 but we each ate half. ::)  This time, instead of just having 2 numeric candles, this tiny cake had a whopping 32 candles! :o  There was so much heat that the candles melted very rapidly creating a wax layer on top of the cake!  

The card he got me was just as sweet as the cake.  It reads... My Sweet Wife, I wish you could see what I see.  You're always fussing about some this that's too big or some that that's too small, but everything looks perfect to me.  You are sexy.  You are beautiful.  Just look into my eyes and you'll see.  Awww!!!!  I love him so much!

Look how my hair looks as though it's about to go up in flames!  Oh, I had to give myself a little pastie because I was still in my night gown.  I hope this pic isn't offensive to anyone.
http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/CandleHair.jpg

And here's another pic of me when I was just a wee thing.  Sunrise, sunset... :)

http://www.geocities.com/goddessacelestial/Babyme.jpg

How about this for something. This morning my husband was staring at his computer and out of nowhere began screaming obscenities.:o  Quite startled, I told him okay already, I'll change the channel.  I was watching a pretty horrible Prince movie at the time and I thought he had become so fed up with it, that he just snapped.  He said no, it wasn't the movie that had gotten him upset.  He said that his Powerball numbers hit. Yes, his numbers hit, the very one time that he didn't go out and play them because he felt that it was too cold outside.

A few nights ago he came in a put a powerball ticket on my desk.  He told me to make sure I checked the numbers for the next drawing that was on the 7th.   The next day I checked, and just as usual he didn't even get 1 number. His numbers for 2/07/07 were 2  11 16 41 8 and 16 as the PB.

After all of the comotion, I pulled the site up on my computer (cause I had to see it for myself to believe it).  It was very shocking to see the same numbers (with the exception of one )from our ticket on the screen right before my eyes.

The PB  numbers for 2/10/07 were 2 11 16 41 42 and 16 as the PB. :o    
He always plays the number 2 because both our birthdays are in Feb.  He plays 11 and 16 because those are our birth dates.  He also chose 41, the age he'll be in a few days and the number 8, which was one that stumped me.  He picked 16 for the  powerball, again because thats his upcoming birthdate.  

I remained surprisingly calm, trying to calm him down as well. I kept saying there was nothing we could do to change things, so no point in getting upset about it.  Yet, all he wanted to do was to continue cursing out his computer.  Although I must admit, that inwardly I too was screaming "THIS ISN'T FAIR, THOSE ARE OUR NUMBERS!!!" I just couldn't get over the chances of this happening!  This man plays both Powerballs every week and very rarely just gets a single digit and now this!?!  

For us, this was actually the second chance that we had to become millionaires (the first time is a very long story that happened about 11 years ago.  Remember all of the IPO's that were going through the roof around the new millenium?... we were so close! *sigh*) and now it has again slipped through our fingers.  Eventually, my husband alerted me to the fact that since he was off a number, our winnings would've been $10,000.00 and not millions as I had thought.  I definitely know that 10 grand is nothing to sneeze at, but to know that it wasn't actually millions was a huge relief to me.  HUGE!  

I do understand that money doesn't buy happiness, but having thought that we missed out on millions just by missing one day of purchasing a ticket was a horrible horrible tease.  But at any rate this whole thing just seems so freaky and mysterious to me.:-/   He threw out the ticket right after finding out he didn't win but I now wish he would've at least kept it as a souvenir.


Oh, and the 8 represented the month that his son was born. duh! Some Stepmother I am. :P

Holy Crow!!!  Funny how things work out sometimes.....I guess a better way to look at it is that he and you were alive and healthy enough to even see the numbers!!  I know not much of a consolation,but I'd be hollerin too,if that makes ya feel any better! :P

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LA DIOSA!!!  8-)  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! http://smilies.sofrayt.com/1/i/partysmiley.gif

Thank's for the birthday wishes ladies!!!

Wow, look at that flaming cake!  ;D

Hope your birthday was awesome, La Diosa!

Sorry about the numbers. That's a real let down. But there's always next time, right?

wrote on Feb 12^th, 2007 at 6:59pm:

Hope your birthday was awesome, La Diosa!

Thanks Angel Spun, it really was!

[quote author=Angel Spun link=1156775221/180#193 date=1171324748Sorry about the numbers. That's a real let down. But there's always next time, right?[/quote]

[color=#000000]Yeah, hopefully next time he'll actually remember to  play and then get ALL of the numbers right!  I mean really, five out of six numbers!?!  What's his problem??  LOL!!!

Tonight I got on the scale, simply because I do that every once in awhile just because it's there.  Well, somehow I've gained 8lbs!!! :o  I didn't even notice, and have no idea how!!!  Well, now that I think about it my husband has been baking lots of chocolate chip cookies lately and with all of that cake...and ice cream...and all the candy that he bought.  Okay, now I really am mad at him! lol  Typically, I eat sugar free but lately he's been feeding me all this sugar loaded junk!  I think from now on I need to do the cooking...and start working out more.  Now, I'm actually at the "correct" weight for my height however, I've naturally been a few pounds underweight all of my life, so seeing those numbers on the scale really freaked me out!  And apparently, it's not healthy weight gain (like muscle) because I gained it all from eating junk food.

Yep...sugar will do it every time.  It's EEEEEvil   >:(  
But I must add the statement that, judging from your recent photos, you look fine as wine.   ;)

Trisha wrote on Feb 14^th, 2007 at 12:17pm:

Yep...sugar will do it every time.  It's EEEEEvil   >:(

It sure is [smiley=evil.gif],  I'll be avoiding it like the plague!


Trisha wrote on Feb 14^th, 2007 at 12:17pm:

But I must add the statement that, judging from your recent photos, you look fine as wine.   ;)

Thanks for the sweet compliment, Trisha!  I just have really skinny arms though.  My weight gain goes directly to my midsection, thighs and bottom. Even at a lower weight, I have to work out to keep those areas firm or else.  I began working out already so hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.  And today, I've cooked all of my own meals so far :)

Yay, it finally came today!!!  

Oh my stars and garters!  Is that you in both photos?
 

Yes, the first one was about an hour ago.  

:o :o :o Oh MY!!!  We have a star amongst us!  The headdress looks lovely on you.  

You made a very convincing Cleopatra.  That is too funny about the people taking multiple pictures with you.  I guess I never really thought about there being jobs specifically for wearing costumes and playing a part in Vegas.  It must have been rather interesting.  What other costumed parts did you do?

A star!?!  Puhleeze! ;D  Thanks for the compliment though!

Yeah, I guess they have jobs for everything.  They do the same thing in LA  in front of the Manns Chinese Theater.  The last time I was there, I took a pic with a fake Michael Jackson.  

I worked as a wine bearer also at Ceasars, a belly dancer at the Aladdin and at the Venetian I was a "sexy elf", which was hilarious to see on a pay stub.  The other costumes weren't as beautiful and elaborate as Cleopatra.  Although, it was pretty cool getting paid to play dress up and stand around chatting and taking pictures for a few hours.  They even gave us free meals!

wow that must have been so exciting!

I think you win for the most unique job!  What fun.

It was cool yet odd at the same time, knowing that the pictures I was in, could be looked at for years to come commemorating a fun and exciting time in the lives of people from all over the world.

I've had lots of jobs in my 32 years.  I'm a hopper!  I've sold clothes, shoes, was a paper girl in my early teens, worked in several banks, was an executive assistant, a receptionist a few times over, woked in call centers...and the list goes on. With my very long resume due to an unstable work history, I began to get shocked that people would continue to hire me. :P  Typically, when I first start a job (no matter what it is) I really love it for maybe a year, and then I'd get bored and end up looking for something new.  It's as though I have ADD or something.  Modeling and working through the talent agency was perfect because with every assignment I could do something new and fun.

Your job hopping sounds exciting and wonderful to me right now.  I'm very much stuck in a rut right now.  I probably should have switched jobs about 5 years ago but chose to stay where I am comfortable.  Don't get me wrong; I love the people I work with.  They're like a second family to me, and that's probably part of the problem.  I have only 5 more years working at the university before I can retire with full benefits, so I really can't leave--that would be utterly stupid.  I could, however, switch departments if the right job became available.  But still...*sigh*  Okay, sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread, La Diosa!!   :)

Um No, I don't think leaving your job now would be such a smart decision. ;)

Changing departments sounds like a good idea for a change of pace if that becomes an option.

My god mother has worked at the University of Buffalo since graduating high school I think somtime in the 60's.  It's so weird to me when I hear about people only ever having one job like that.  I could't begin to imagine what that would be like.  The movie Ground Hog Day tends to come to mind.  This is her last year before retirement.  She's happy about it but at the same time it's all bitter sweet.

She and my mom who had been best friends since elementary school, were planning to move in together after her retirment and I guess do a Golden Girls type thing, but now with my mom gone, I'm not quite sure what she's going to do.  I'm sure my sister and I will make more frequent trips to Buffalo to make sure she doesn't get lonely.  It's so weird how when one person passes, the people that were in their lives have to grow closer together in an attempt to help fill that void.  My last birthday was an example of that.  On every birthday since living on my own the only people who called to wish me a happy birthday were my mom (ALWAYS at midnight btw, she'd never say hello she'd just burst into song singing happy birthday and completely off key mind you) , my sister, whoever I may have dating at the time, and maybe a friend here and there but thats it.  This birthday, I was flooded with calls from so many extended family members.  It was a little weird but I felt it was thoughtful.

http://images.oprah.com/images/tows/200702/20070205/20070205_107_350x263.jpg

This woman is my idol.  She was on Oprah a  few weeks ago and when she revealed that she was 70 years old my mouth dropped!  They were showing clips of her daily life.  She rollerblades, does pilates, rides a bike walks alot, eats healthy and it's paid off because she looks great and most importantly she has a great attitude.  I think there are good and bad ways to age, I think she is definitely aging well.  I'd say she treats life as though everyday is a gift and to honor that she lives every day to the fullest.  I just cannot not admire that.

I know I decided to stretch my washes out a bit but, I couldn't wait to try my new Giovanni shampoo and condtioner!  Curiosity and excitement got the best of me because I washed with it today and now... Ahhh.... I'm in love! :)  My hair not only came out very soft but *GASP*  tangle free!!!  I was able to glide the comb down my strands, it was simply heaven.  I looked at the bottle and thought, hey lover where have you been all my life?:-*  Every Giovanni product that I've used so far has been an absolute dream.  I'm experiencing some fear though because things can change.  Experience has taught me that a product can work well for awhile but something changes and then it just doesn't do it for ya anymore.  I'll have to keep my fingers crossed in a hope that I continue to get the same wonderful results everytime.  Next on my purchase list is Giovanni Nutrafix Renconstructor.  

Oh, and I got a brand new wide tooth comb to replace my lost one and then the broken one.  It isn't seamless so I had to file it down.  Now it's feeling a bit rough so I'm going to have to get a nail buffer and hopefully that will work in making it smooth.  

Ugh, I miss my Giovanni shampoo and conditioner!!   :'(  All right, that's it...when all these "guests" finally move out of my house, I'm going back to Giovanni!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trisha: I feel for ya!  Hope you get your Giovanni fix soon! ;)


HAIR: I'm going to wash in a few days but I'm very low on my leave in so I'm trying to ration it until the new one arrives.  Today, my hair is feeling soft but would be softer if I had more condtioner in it.  Yesterday I couldn't get over how nice and bouncy it was!!!  I don't recall ever having "bouncy" hair!! [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] It's so great!

I was belly dancing all this morning and gained an extra motivation to take care of my hair and grow it long.  Watching myself do hair flips in the mirror really made me desire the waist long hair that the belly dance instrutors on my dvd's have.  

I'm noticing that my hair is oxidizing which I find weird.  The top and sides of my hair are turning a lighter shade of brown. I'm not outside in the sun much, not that it's been very sunny lately and I have a very good shower filter.  Hmm... not quite sure whats going on here. [smiley=huh.gif]

I've been able to whittle down my product usage and I feel that I finally have the best products for my hair.  

Hair Polish or Glycerin work well prior to washing to help me detangle prior to and post wash.  I may need to use a clarifier every so often because of this though.  
Giovanni 50/50 Shampoo And Conditioner work very well for me.  I still haven't used the reconstructor but I feel it will help with breakage and to stregthen my hair.
Giovanni Direct Leave In Conditioner for after washing and applied daily to dry hair for additional conditioning.
Coconut oil, I had given oil up for about two weeks only to reincorporate it into my regimen again.  I really don't feel that I need it for hair health, but I do like the shine that it provides.  It's the only product that I've found with the ability to make hair shiny that doesn't have cones.
I've also made the decision to only dust from here on out.  It's somewhat of a miracle I suppose, but I can honestly say that I'm done trimming.  I just need to purchase a new pair of good hair scissors.

I've also learned that I can't "play" in my hair too much.  I like experimenting and trying out new styles but I realize that all of the excess combing and manipulating is causing breakage.

BODY: I've been working out everyday since I discovered my weight gain.  I've lost a few pounds but also realize that I'm gaining muscle so I may not be as light as I originally was which is fine.  I'm loving the exercise, it's making me feel really good about myself.  Not just for asthetic reasons but I feel good that I'm being active. I feel as though I'm accomplishing something.  I hope to adapt my exercising into my way of life from now on and not have it be something thats only temporary.  Working out also motivates me to eat healthier.  When you're working out so hard, it's really difficult to be comfortable with eating junk.

I just had a wonderful wash day!  My replacement water filter cartridge and my Giovanni conditioner both arrived in the mail today.  I had to buy a few bottles of conditioner, this time I can't run out in between shipments this way I'll always have some in stock.

I decided to do an experiment to see which method I like better either washing my hair loose or in plaits.  First, I applied glycerin to my hair and then proceeded to detangle with a wide tooth comb.  Then, I parted my hair down the middle as usual, but this time I plaited one side and let the other side be.  

I began to wash and loved the fact that the plaited side was just so neat.  My worry was that I wouldn't get the plaited side clean but I continued on only taking the plait out to apply conditioner and then I replaited.  After 10 minutes, I took the plait out again to rinse then I applied leave in, detangled (very easily), and again replaited.  It was a dream!  The other side wasn't as tangled as it appeared however the plaited side was definitely easier to detangle.  Of course, I will be washing this way from now on.

I forgot to mention that I used a turbie twist to pat my hair dry.  I loved the softness of the turbie twist and I also liked how effective it was in drying, it's actually unbelievable that that little thing did such an efficient job.  When I was finished, the turbie twist itself even felt pretty dry, absolutely amazing!  

I happened to catch a glimpse of my hair in the mirror while I was in the shower and I couldn't believe how much longer my hair looks when it's wet than it does when dry.  It appeared to be about 3 inches longer. :-?

My husband noticed that his naturally very dark hair is also changing to a lighter brown.  I'm convinced now that it's the humidifiers that are oxidizing our hair.  Fortunately, very soon it'll be time to put them away.  I'll have to decide what to do about it by next fall though.

My left knee has really been bothering me since I began working out.  I'd rest it for a day, maybe but then I'd be back to my 20 minutes a day on the ellipical regardless of the pain.  I've tried Tylenol but it doesn't work.  My husband recommended that I rest my knee for an entire week.  I've decided to try that out but it's killing me not to do the elliptical.  I've still been doing dumbells and leg lifts though.  In one of my yoga magazines they listed some poses that are good for the knees so I will try those out in the mean time.

In just the past 2 months I got news that my neice and youngest sister are both expecting babies. :o  I was shocked and didn't know what to say.  All I could do was wish them well.  Hopefully, everything will be and they'll find happiness in their choices.

Quote:

I was shocked and didn't know what to say.  All I could do was wish them well.

Sometimes that's all we can do--even, or especially, when we don't agree with their choices!   ;D

You really shouldn't mess with knees - I agree with your husband - time off would be a good thing.

I'd focus on upper body work for a while, maybe do some low-stress restorative yoga poses to keep the flow going.

berkanna wrote on Mar 13^th, 2007 at 11:12am:

You really shouldn't mess with knees - I agree with your husband - time off would be a good thing.

You're right.  My mother had really bad knees so you'd think I'd know better.:-[  

I've read that stretching the knees first is necessary before doing workouts and doing that has really helped me.  That may be common knowledge to most, but I did not know to do that.  I always stretched afterwards.  Now I do yoga poses that are good for my knees before and I stretch again afterwards, and so far so good.   I'd felt that since 30 minutes is such a small increment of time out of an entire day, that I could work my legs 7 days a week but I guess not.  I've decided to only do the elliptical 4 or 5 days a week.

I've finally had a successful CO.  First, I applied the last of my Hydra Silk TLC conditioner to my dry hair and I let it set for about 20 minutes and then I rinsed.  Then I conditioned again with a combo of Giovanni's 50/50 remoisturizing conditioner and their nutrafix reconstructor.  I let that sit for about 5 minutes then I rinsed again, dried with my turbie twist and then applied my leave in so all in all it was actually a CRCRC. ;)  I decided not to do my normal plaits as it dries because I may be going away on Monday and if I do I want my hair to be straight and not wavy.  It dries so much faster when it's loose and right now it's so soft, I'm very happy with it! [smiley=engel017.gif]

Okay, so yesterday was not a good day.  I had to take my cat to the vet early in the morning, he's fine just a bit of sneezing.  Anyway, we had to get going and I couldn't find anything to wear.  I put on my size 2 khaki's and I could NOT get them fastened.  That has never happend to me before.  I've had my pants be too tight but never to the point where I couldn't fasten them! :o  So then, I got my size 4 jeans (jeans that I purchased last summer to be my "fat" jeans) out of the dryer and they were sooo tight.  So my husband is like well just put on some sweats.  So, I'm looking all over and can't find them and he's looking in the laundry room for any pants with an "elastic" waist, of course now I'm feeling great! :P  All the while my husband keeps trying to explain to me that my metabolism isn't going to be what it used to be because I'm getting older.  Now I'm feeling wonderful! ::)  In the end, I just put on a roomy dress and off to the vet we went.  

I've been working out like mad for over a month now, I can't believe I'm not getting any smaller.  I am firmer though, but I want to be able to get back into my size 2 clothes.  I'd tried on my other pants and I could get them fastened but they're all too tight to be comfortable.  I refuse to give up though, or else I'll have to get rid of alot of clothes that I love.:'(

On another note, at least my hair is doing okay. ::)

1.  Yes, your metabolism does slow down as you get older.
2.  Many of us would love to have size 4's as our "fat" size!
3.  The body stores fat during the winter months, but with exercise and eating right, you will lose your "winter weight" once again.

Hang in there!  (and I'm glad your kitty is OK).

Yes, everything you said is absolutely true bikerbraid.  

I think I'm either PMSing or having a pre midlife crisis or both.  

I've been natrually a few pounds underweight my whole life which was something I had to come to terms with (because of teasing and such) and accept it as a part of who I was, so now putting on weight is such a radical change for me.  I'd always expected to take after my mother and her father who remained very thin even into older age without dieting or exercise, but I guess I'm now beginning to take after my fathers side.  I know it sounds weird me complaining about not being able to fit my size 2's, but in a small way I feel as though I'm losing a part of my identity. My hope is that it is just winter weight which will fall off with a bit of exercise.

I visited the optometrist last month and she mentioned that eventually my (now just about perfect)vision will deteriorate and I will need glasses all of the time in order to see. :o   And I know that my first gray hair is right around the corner even though I still feel so young.  I'm not afraid of aging, but I will admit my fear of oneday looking in the mirror and not recognizing myself anymore.  I always looked at aging as as being sooo far off but now here it is.  I just have to get used to the idea of it happening now thats all, but there are more important things going on in the world right? ;)

Thanks for your concern about my kitty.  He is clearly allergic to something in our apartment yet we have no idea what.  We left him at the vet all day so that they could monitor him and he didn't sneeze once.  As soon as we brought him home he began sneezing again immediately.  We'll have to put him on antihistamines if it doesn't clear up in a week, which I doubt will happen.

He's been through so much but, I'm so glad I have custody of him.  My mom hadn't taken him to the vet in years and he really was long overdue.  Now his teeth are great, his coat is shiny, he no longer has bowel problems, he has other cats to interact with...now all we have to do is get this sneezing under control and he'll be the happiest kitty!  He's such a sweet boy! :)

Oh and I gotta thank Berkana again for reccomending the FURminator!  I soooo love it!  It removes SOOO much fur and an unexpected bonus is that my cats feel so much more soft!  
My cats have a chair that only they sit in and my husband and I go through maybe 2 of those tape lint rollers things a week to get the fur off of that chair, our clothes, and our other furniture.  Now my cats hardly leave any fur behind.  This thing will definitely save us money on lint rollers.  Those things are about 4.00 ea and buying 2 every week really adds up!

Yay FURminator!   ;D  I'm also glad your kitty is OK.  You can test kitties for allergies, the most common feline allergies are food-related.

I really need to get a FURminator!!  If you do get some build up of shed hair on the cat chair, use a rubber glove to remove it!  Just a plain glove like for washing dishes will do the trick-just put it on your hand and wipe the fur away.  I don't know if it works on clothing, but for sure on furniture.

BTW, I completely understand what you're saying about identifying with your size.  I, too, was naturally skinny & underweight (and all the teasing that goes with it) until I was 21.  Then I had a super bad accident and have been gaining weight since I couldn't exercise like I did before the accident.  I slowly went from a size 4 to an 8 where I seem to be kinda stuck.  I had to take some prednisone and went from a 6 to an 8 overnight!  OMG!!  I cried and had to send my mom to the store to buy me some pants so I could got to a doctor's appointment.  I don't feel like this size is me-and I can't wear so many of what I consider my cute clothes.  Totally depressing.  Good luck!!

I hope you find out what's making your kitty sneeze.

Vitamin B6 in fairly large dose (50mg I think) is a natural diuretic.

Berkanna: My vet didn't recommend any testing, I'm not sure why.  They just offered to put him on medication.

Sakina: Thanks Sakina!  

Sakina:  Sorry my response was so short, I'd been going through a funk the past few days and didn't really know what to say.  I was glad that you could relate to what I was feeling, but at the same time of course, not happy at all to hear about your accident.  What happened?  Is that why you began yoga?

Exercise: When I first began working out I did loose a few pounds, but then I put on pounds and felt that I was fighting an uphill battle.  I realize now (well I'm almost 100% sure) that what's going on is that I'm gaining muscle which is making me heavier, but I'm not loosing enough fat to offset it.  So basically, I just need to do less strength training and do more cardio which I've already implemented yesterday.  Also, I gave up my low fat dip that I had been snacking on a lot lately.  Regardless of anything, I do need to learn not to let such things get me down.  I still have my health and all else important to me so, there you go!. :)

Hair: Doing really well.  I tried trimming it up a bit the other day.  I didn't take off much, I just wanted to even it a bit so the side where I lost hair (from alopecia) doesn't look so much shorter than the rest.  I trimmed off an inch, but that side is still about 2.5 inches shorter than the rest, I usually just tuck it behind my ear to get it to blend better.  I'll even it up gradually, I could't bear to do it all at once.  Anyhoo, I'm back at 25 inches long, it seems as though I'm never going to let it grow longer with all of my trimming but, we'll see.  I don't know if I'm going to continue reaching for my goal or if I will just let it hang around this length as I even it up.  So far, I've been doing the latter.

I'm still waiting on the cassia to arrive in the mail, I can't wait to try it.  The only thing is, I'm wondering if I should've purchased 2 bags instead of one.  I hope it's enough.

Step out of that funk, girl, it's the first day of Spring!!! :D  *hugs*

Trisha wrote on Mar 21^st, 2007 at 1:25pm:

Step out of that funk, girl, it's the first day of Spring!!! :D  *hugs*

;D LOL!  I'm out of it, I swear! ;D  
I didn't know it was the first day of spring but it was beautiful out!  I sat on my balcony and went for a walk, I really enjoyed the day!  Thanks for the hugs! *hugs you back* :D

Okay, so today is the third day in a row that I've washed my hair.  My cassia arrived in the mail so I needed to wash and dry my hair before using it.  

Well, yesterday was the day I applied it to my hair and it was definitely an experience.  I mixed it with orange tea and was surprised at how much paste it made.  Initially, I didn't think that the one small packet would go very far.  So, after letting it sit 15 minutes,  I applied it to my hair in sections unil it was all over.  All over my hair, all over me, thank goodness I put paper down first because some had also splattered on my floor and my sink and counter top.  Needless to say, it was a mess!  Anyhoo, I put a plastic cap on and did a thorough cleanup job of my bathroom as I waited the instructed 30 min to an hour before rinsing.  I decided to go the full hour and then I rinsed.  I knew that it would take a while to get all of the paste out of my hair but everytime I got out of the shower I'd only realize that I still hadn't gotten it all.  This was the most difficult part.  When I do henna, I will have my husband help me rinse.  After about 4 rinses and a condition, I'd given up thinking that maybe I could comb the rest out after my hair dried.

As my hair air dried, I noticed it becomming hard even though I'd applied a leave in.  So that was my hair all day yesterday, too hard to get the rest of the cassia out because the hardness made it somwhat brittle.  The after effect of the cassia was similar to a protein treatment.

I couldn't take the hardness anymore so first thing this morning I did a shampoo.  Shampooing helped soften my hair and helped to get the rest of the green bits as well as the cassia smell (although, the smell wasn't bad, it smells like grass).  

Aside from the mess, doing the cassia was somewhat like a day at the spa but overall, I haven't noticed any benefit from it.  I won't be doing this again however, once I begin to notice grays I will try a mixture of henna and indigo to cover them up.  Hopefully, that process will be better. :P

Today, I detangled my hair from my last wash.  I'd put it through so much lately that I didn't really feel up to detangling until now.  Anyway, I can definitley notice the effects of the cassia.  My hair looks shinier/healthier but it feels coated.  As of now, I'd say that I don't really care for the new texture of my hair but maybe I'll get used to it.  

That's a shame, to go through all of that process and not like the results.  Maybe it'll improve with time...?  (hopefully)

Yeah, I'm hoping that will be the case.  I must admit that today my hair feels a little better than it did yesterday.  I think the "coated" feel will wear off after awhile.  I don't completely dislike it though, my hair does look healthier at least and it's not as dry as usual.  Since I did the casia I haven't had to apply leave in conditioner to my hair as much as I had to before.

The jury is still out on my cassia 'situation' :P  It conditions really well but it also gives my hair a stiffness that makes it hard to manage.  Lately, I've been thinking that the stiffness maybe what others may refer to as "body" so in that case, it wouldn't be a bad thing but my hair naturally has lots of body, so I think thats why the stiffness is coming into play.  

I feel that I will try cassia again, but at a time when I am in most need of body like after a relaxer.  

On another note, a few days ago did another trim.  I still would like to have long hair however, my need for even hair is superseding my desire for length at this time.  I waited to post about my trim in order to wait for any remorse to kick in but it hasn't.  Overall, my hair still isn't as blunt or as super even as I'd eventually like it to be, but it is 'more' even now and I like it much better.  At this time, I'm thinking that I will trim an inch perhaps once every 3 months until it gets even (my right side is the issue, it's a few inches shorter than the rest of my hair due to past hair loss) and then I will move forward with growing it out.  At this rate, I'm thinking I will put off actually reaching my hair growth goal until next year and I'm fine with that. At least now (unless God forbid my alopecia decides to act up) I know when I reach my goal it will be all even (which looks much healthier) and in great condition. :)

I didn't measure my hair and won't do so until May 1st,  but right now I'm satisfied regardless of the number of inches that I have.

I applied hair polish to my hair and surprisingly, it made a world of difference!  I'm really liking it, it's way more managable now.  I decided to do spirals using steam rollers, here are the results! :D  

Wow your hair looks gorgeous! ;)

Thanks Lisabelle!  It looked great yesterday but unfortunately, I can't say the same for the way it looks now.

I took a walk to the store today and although it's very windy out, I decided not to put my hair up.  Big mistake, my hair was everywhere!  I had bags in both hands so the best I could do was try blowing my hair out of my face or flipping it, but neither worked, I couldn't see and I felt like cousin it! [smiley=angry.gif]  By the time I got home, all of my curls were gone and my hair was all a big poof.  Oh well, I've learned my lesson.  When going out on windy days, I must contain my hair. ::)

he emailed me back saying that he liked my hair!

I have a similar issue with spending.  I think I do it because I get bored.

Check your phone book for women's shelters to donate your clothing to.  There's got to be at least one of those in your town.

Good luck.

Other than my love of new things I really don't know what drives my need to shop, however, I know that it's deeper than me being bored. I feel it's something that I seriously need to think about though or else I'll never completely combat it.  

I would've never thought of donating to a homless shelter.  Thanks for the suggestion Sakina.  

I just did a wash and plaited my damp hair to dry.  

HAIR:I bought some medium sized plastic spring clips for my hair went to the store the other day.  This afternoon I put in some more spirals with my steam rollers and did a half up half down style using one of my new clips.  I like the clip in my hair but something that I noticed even more is how I no longer get breakage like I used to.  Months ago when I'd style my hair, I'd end up with a few tiny pieces of hair on my floor and counter that I'd have to clean up when I was done.  I hadn't realized that, that is no longer the case.  I'm 100% convinced that it's because I moisturize my hair everyday with leave in conditioner.  I began doing this over the winter because it was so dry in here and oil was no longer helping me.  Although it's warmer out (well sometimes, the weather here has been fluctuating a lot latey) I still applied the conditioner everyday and my hair is so much softer and less brittle for it.  

I recieved another free sample of Sunsilk products in the mail today.  They have a conditioning cream that also can be used on dry hair.  I haven't tried it yet, but I can't wait to see if I get the same results as I do with the Giovanni leave in.  I'm also going to try Nuetrogenas Moisture Touch Silk leave in to see which I like better overall.

HOME LIFE: I got so much done today.  I'm really starting to enjoy this being alone thing, I get so much accomplished when I'm alone.  Today, I tackled my bathroom closet.  I organized all of my products so that the shelves didn't look so cluttered.  One thing that I realized is that before going to the store for toiletries, I need to check that closet first.  I found brand new make up and lip glosses that I'd forgotten I'd purchased.  And I still have a habit of buying shower gel without checking the closet to see if I have any in there. :P  I have the same issue with my clothes closet.  Just a few days ago I was relentlessly searching online because I wanted a black frilly top only to later look in my closet and find that I already owned a black frilly top. ::)

I even made some cool discoveries when I was cleaning my jewelry chest that I'd gotten for Christmas in the 8th grade.  I hadn't opened that thing in years and just did so today to clean it up a bit.  I windexed the glass, cleaned the felt and shined it up with some Pledge, now it almost looks new.  Anyway, I found very nice necklaces that I hadn't seen in years.  I took them out and put them on my other jewlery rack so that I can remember that they're there and maybe get some wear out of them.  I even found a necklace that my dad gave to my mother when they were married.  It's so beautiful, I don't know what it's made of they're beads of some sort.  It could be ceramic, I'm not sure.  It's very old (my parents divorced when I was 4 or 5) but it still looks amazing, I can't wait to wear it!

A few weeks ago, I heard a dancer say

Happy Easter! -)

I finally finished making the headband that I started weeks ago.  

[color=#000000]I decided that I'm going to apply a medium brown henna next month.  I figure that it will either make my hair more uniform in color, turning it a richer shade of brown or it won't color at all and just give it a shine.

Congrats on figuring out your passion!  --What about offering your services as a Personal Shopper in person instead of virtually?  You could advertise in the local newspapers or something.  Just thinking out loud...

Yeah, perhaps you're right.  Currently, I was only looking to put what I already do to use (shopping from home).  Maybe in the future, I'll get out there among the living again and attempt to move forward with the idea.  Since moving to Kansas almost 2 years ago, I've pretty much been a recluse and really don't have the desire to go "out there" yet. :-/   Although, I might get lucky if I did though.  Prior to moving here, I had no idea how big shopping and entertainment was in this area.  When my husband and I do go out during the day, it's suprising how many women I see "lunching" and shopping.  

I'm trying to drastically cut down on my sugar intake and today my husband goes out and buys me a big box of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. >:(  Maybe he did it as payback for the way I treated him yesterday, but it really made me upset.  I'd been good for so long that I couldn't resist and ate about 8 cookies!:o  Absolutely disgusted with myself, I was going to just toss the rest but he convinced me not to stating that he would eat them.  That's an old trick that he uses knowing that if they're here I may get tempted to eat them.  So, I decided to put my unwashed hands in the box and touch every single cookie. [smiley=evil.gif]  Thats my new trick! ;)  I told him what I did, and that if he wants to eat them (he's not a germophobe like me) thats fine by me, but now he knows that I'm serious about NOT eating them. [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Quote:

So, I decided to put my unwashed hands in the box and touch every single cookie.

How ornery of you!!  (i love it!)  ;D

LOL!  He actually finished the rest of the cookies all by himself last night! 8-)

I on the other hand got on my elliptical and did yoga.  Treating your body right feels so much better than sitting on the couch gorging on cookies!

wrote on Apr 10^th, 2007 at 4:23pm:

I on the other hand got on my elliptical and did yoga.  Treating your body right feels so much better than sitting on the couch gorging on cookies!

True!  Although, I admit I feel good WHILE I'm sitting on the couch eating cookies (or strawberry shortcake in my case last night).  It's only AFTERWARDS that I feel bad.   ;)

LOL!!!  I actually had the same thought as I typed that. :D  
It does feel good while you're eating junk food, it's the guilt that you feel afterwards that doesn't feel so good.  

And when you exercise it's so grueling, but when you're finished is when the good feelings kick in. ::)

I saw a health club commercial not too long ago, and their slogan was "No one ever says I wish I didn't work out today."  And that's so true!  I often think about that when I don't feel like working out.  That motivates me because I know I'll feel so much better after.

I just did all of my shopping in preparation for my relaxer at the end of the month.  I love Sally!  I love how you can go in there, collect a cart full of items and pay less than 20 bucks!  I feel the same about drugstores too, they are my dream![smiley=laugh.gif]  My Sally card expires at the end of the month so instead of renewing right away, I'd like to save my 5 bucks and go in again and really stock up.  I'd have to think of what I need, and make sure it all doesn't come out to too much.

I finally tried my Sunsilk conditioning creme sample.  I tried it to moisturize my dry hair but I didn't like it, it doesn't help with the stiffness from the cassia like my other stuff does.  

Today, I was informed that my dress (above) won't be processed because it was recalled by the manufacturer. :o  I wanted to ask if they could send me one anyway because I'd already bought shoes to match, but knew I'd be wasting my breath so I didn't even bother.  Now, I have to figure out what to wear with the shoes, it's going to be difficult to find something else to match with them so well.:'(

I wish I had Sally's up here in Canada.  It sounds like a really neat store!  I really like the shoes you bought, sorry about the dress but when you get the shoes maybe you can take them to a dressmaker and have a dress made to match?    I use to work with a lady in the states who would relax her hair and it looked lovely. Her hair was BSL and it never looked dry or brittle.  I loved when she did updo's!  She said her secert was never to braid her hair tightly or use heavy sheen products.  I have a guy friend who had really curly blonde hair, he remined me of Alexander the Great!  LOL!  His mother would relax his hair when his was a teen.   When I worked at Shopper I would advise a perm (relaxer) that was all natural, can't remember the name!  I had a lady who had such fraigle hair but still wanted a perm so I gave her that brand, Bolanitcals I think?  It worked very nicely.  Sorry I'm ramlbing!  :D

Hi Lisabelle, your post was fine, not rambling. ;)  I think the trick to healthy relaxed hair is making sure that you moisturize well to keep brittleness away, to not use heat on the hair and do up do's whenever possible.

I wonder why your friends mother relaxed his hair?  I did a hair show for a salon once, and they decided to relax the hair of a friend of mine who is white.  She didn't mind, but I thought it was such a horrible idea.  I know that there are some nonblacks with really tight curls who get them,  but I feel that unless your hair is too kinky to manage, that you should stay away from them.  The chemicals are so harsh that even though you can prevent most breakage, it is impossible not to have any at all, so you must be extra careful with relaxed hair.  

I've heard of Botanicals.  I never used it, but there is no relaxer that is completely natural.  They may have included a few natural ingredients, but they all contain chemicals that brake down the hair in order to straighten it.  Seeing that there is no way to completely avoid the chemicals if you relax, another trick is not to relax often.  Some people relax every 4 to 6 weeks.  Althought, no one should ever relax every 4 weeks because it's way too soon and they'll most likely overlap the chemicals and overprocess their hair.  Every six weeks is the absolute soonest to re relax if you want to do it often.  I relax no sooner than every 3 months although some people only relax once or twice a year.  The longer you can go the better. :)  

Too bad you all don't have a Sally.  Is there a store in Canada that's similar?  

I was on the Fredericks site where that dress is sold and for some reason it doesn't look like they recalled it in size 12.  I was thinking that maybe I could buy a 12 and then have it sized for me.  I'm not sure if I'll do it though because I don't even know if my seamstress can do it.  Most likely I'll just continue to look around for something else.  So, far I'm not having any luck but I didn't need it for anything special so I can take my time. :)

The reason he told me was that he hated curly hair.  Mind you his hair was so dry and ruff I could not get a comb through it.  His hair is still very dry, he shaved his head a while back then let it grow back.  I don't know if there anything like Sallys up here :'(  Canada is still very much like the boon docks. :-?

When my husband saw that yet another pair of shoes arrive in the mail for me the other day,  he told me that we'd better be going out somewhere and real soon.  Well, tonight he finally got his wish, we went out.  

Yesterday, I got an email from our local comedy club, they were giving away free tickets to this evenings performance.  I called to reserve our tickets but had to get completley dressed in 45 minutes which for me can be tough.  Although I went over my time taking a whole hour to get ready and had my husband calling the time out to me every 15 minutes (which I hate), we made it there on time and had a lot of fun.

The headliner was Chris Rock's brother Tony Rock, who in my opinion was funnier than Chris (who I'm a huge fan of).  I was laughing so hard that my stomach hurt and I had tears rolling down my face, so yeah, I guess that makes it a good night. Afterwards, we went dancing and out for tacos.  So now, I'm a bit dehydrated and hung over but it was worth it to see my husband happy, we really enjoyed ourselves.  

Hair:  Recouperating.  I didn't have time to steam curl so, I used a curling iron instead and of course, after a night out it smells like smoke.  Later, I'm going to deep condition in an attempt to make this all up to my hair. :P

Sounds like a fun night!

:D

I know your shoes appreciated some fun time!   ;D

Yeah, I always try to show my shoes a good time! ;D

Is everything all right with you, my dear?  I haven't seen a new entry in your journal in, what?  6 days...I'm starting to get concerned.   :(

Trisha please don't be concerned, I'm alive and well. ;)  I'd been lurking here and there but have been doing other stuff.  

I'd been trying to get a doctors appointment for my knee and was finally able to get one scheduled for tomorrow.  It's still giving me problems, hopefully they can help me out.  

I also went out in the freezing cold today and took some pics in my bellydance gear.  I'll most likely post some soon.

Thanks for checking on me, you're so sweet! (((hugs))) :)  

Oooh!  I would love to see the pic's!  I'm not brave enongh to photograph myself yet :)

I couldn't sleep so well last night,

Beautiful!!

Absolutely gorgeous!  Thank you for sharing.  I love your outfits and your hair looks fantastic.

Wow, thanks bikerbraid! :D

Oh well, so much for my doctors appointment.  My ppo gave me the wrong address which had us on a wild goose chase.  It's my fault though, they gave me the wrong phone number so I should've known to verify the address.  I had to reschedule for Monday, at least it's not too far away.

First - HOLY CATS!!!!   :o  Those pictures are absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  I really like the very first pic, with you reaching towards the camera.  That's a lovely pose.

Second - Look on the bright (?) side of missing today's appointment.  Maybe Monday your knee will hurt again!   ;)

WOW!!  Your such a pretty thing!! :)  I love the purple costume!  You hair looks lovely!!

Thanks ladies! :)



berkanna wrote on Apr 27^th, 2007 at 10:17am:

Second - Look on the bright (?) side of missing today's appointment.  Maybe Monday your knee will hurt again!   ;)

LOL!  I was thinking the same thing! ;D

[smiley=thumbsup.gif]  glad you're okay  

Thanks, didn't mean to worry ya! :D

A) I love those outfits!
B) you have beautiful hair
C) you match your hair for beauty
D) those are lovely photos! Where did you get that purple veil?
And I'm.. sorry your knee didn't hurt? Also sorry you got the wrong number and address for your appointment.

Thanks Kiraela, your post is so sweet!  

I got the purple veil on eBay but it was a long time ago so I don't remember which seller I purchased it from, the veil and skirt were sold as a set.

Yes, my left knee has been giving me problems off and on for weeks or maybe months at this point.   I finally made a doctors appointment to see whats going on with it because it's really beginning to effect my workouts.

Thanks again for your kind words! :)

WOW, you look gorgeous!! I agree with Berkanna, the first picture is great!  ;D

I really hope you get your knee problems solved. I know what it's like to have a troublesome knee. Back when I used to have four ballet classes a week, I couldn't sit still for fifteen minutes without one of my knees starting to ache. I hope it's not like that for you.

Beautiful pics thanks for sharing!

Thank you juri and Curlygirl22! I guess the pics weren't as bad as I thought they were.  

Juri: My knee pain has been pretty constant lately wether I'm moving or not.  Fortunately, the pain is tolerable but it is still pain nonetheless so I'm really hoping my doctors visit tomorrow will help.

Hair: This morning, I clarified in an attempt to remove the coated feeling caused by the cassia but it didn't work.  I guess I'll just have to wait for it to disappear in it's own time. :(

Other: My husband and I went to the mall yesterday and after walking a while, my lower back began to hurt so badly I thought I was going to die.  I really feel as though I'm completely falling apart.  I ordered an inversion table on Friday and I hope that it helps me with all of the issues that I've been having lately.  I also ordered the Hoopnotic dvd so when my knee acts up I can maybe burn calories by using the hula hoop.  But now that I think about it, I don't know if that will work because I'll still have to use my knees.  

Last night, I suggested that we go to another comedy show and it was really bad.  We stayed for about 10 minutes into the act and then left opting to go dancing.  I only had a few glasses of wine but the alcohol really hit me hard.  My husband didn't mind it though, he told me this morning that I'm funny when I'm drunk.::)  I've been recovering from a hang over all morning but as long as he was amused, right?:P  It's so funny, when I was younger I never used to get hangovers now all it takes is a few glasses of wine, go figure.:-?  

As I'm typing all this I feel like Debbie downer, but I'm actually in a very good mood.:D

Also, I read bikerbraids tip about protecting hair from the sun.  The sun lightening my hair has always been an issue for me. My problem is I like wearing my hair out in the summer.  I think perhaps I'll look for products with sunscreen or something. The last thing I need is to make my hair anymore drier than it is if I can help it.

I hope your knee is feeling better.  Sorry I didn't say this before, I am such a knunkle head! :P  Thinking of Hoopnotic, I was at my in-laws today and my neice has some hula hoops and I gave it a go!  I was shocked that I could still do it!  

Thanks Lisabelle but you didn't have to worry about it, it's no biggie.:)

That's impressive that you can still hula hoop.  I tried it a few years ago myself and totally sucked.  I guess I'm going to have to learn all over again but when I do I'll be able to do some pretty cool tricks! :D

I was excited because I got my inversion table today.  I found one on Amazon.com for a very reasonable price and what I most liked about it was that the part you lay on is cushioned.  I was glad my husband was gone when it arrived because I was able to put it together myself.  I love working with tools and putting things together, I always have since I was a kid and my mom made me put together my own Barbie McDonalds when I was 9.  I felt so proud of myself and I still feel a sense of accomplishment when I put things together.  My only dilemma was that in the end  I had an extra screw.  Eventually, I put it in although it didn't seem necessary but, I figured better safe than sorry.

I told my husband to begin slow and only go back a bit of the way until he's used to it but does he listen NO!  He goes all the way back feels light headed and then instead of coming back up slowly as I suggested he comes up just as fast as he went over.  Needless to say he needed to lay down for a bit afterwards.  I however, loved the inversion table.  I placed it in front of my window so that when I'm upside down I can view the woods, I found it very relaxing.  I think in the future I'm going to use this to meditate on in addition to my zabuton.

Now I'm off to change my ticker, right now it's waaay off.:D

wrote on Apr 29^th, 2007 at 7:35pm:

[color=#000000] Juri: My knee pain has been pretty constant lately wether I'm moving or not.  Fortunately, the pain is tolerable but it is still pain nonetheless so I'm really hoping my doctors visit tomorrow will help.

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that it's a constant pain. I hope your doctor's visit helped some.

Hair I haven't been doing too much with my hair lately, just letting it grow. I've been wondering if inverting can help with that?:-?  Yesterday, I did whip up a mixture of mostly water and a bit of coconut oil.  My hair was feeling a bit dry and the spritz really seemed to do the trick, it felt really soft and adequately hydrated for the rest of the day.[/color]

Well, I've changed my ticker, and from now on I'm only focusing on my short term goals.  I feel that this way, I won't feel so far away from my hair goal that it seems unatainable or simply like some random number that really doesn't mean anything.  

My first goal is to get back to BSL which I only need 2 inches to do.  Then, I'll be gunning for mid back, and then waist length.  I'm still looking to ulimately get to around 30" give or take a few.  I'm not sure how many inches exactly I'll need to be where I want, but it's somewhere between 28 and 33 inches.  In the meantime, I've sworn off trims vowing only to dust (I know I've said that before, but this time I REALLY mean it).[smiley=engel017.gif] ::)

I think focusing on short-term goals is the better way to go about acheiving things.  That way you won't get discouraged when it's taking SO LONG to reach a goal.

If that makes sense.   :-?

That's it exactly, Berkanna! ;)

Hair:  I've been thinking about how my hair is probably just as short this year as it was last year and had been feeling a bit sad about it but I realize there ARE pluses.

First of all, last year my hair was much shorter on the sides but now the sides are closer to the same length as the back which gives my hair a more thick and healthy appearance.  And my bang is longer as well.

Secondly, in the past year I've learned how to maintain healthy hair.  I learned about moisturizing, I haven't been using heat (except for steam occasionally) and I've been manipulating much less to cut down on causing damage, which has definitely helped.

I also feel that if I hadn't cut my hair over the past year, that it wouldn't look as healthy as it does now. I had to eliminate the damage that I had caused from abusing my hair in the past.

With all of that said, I feel much better about the choices that I've made over the past year and I now feel that it's now truly ready to grow. :D

Acne (Yikes!):  I've had several breakouts on my chin over the past week and the cause is definitely a mystery, but I've really made things worse in my attempt to treat it.  I'd been putting loads of Retin A on my chin and have had lots of pain, peeling and redness as a result.  The only relief I found was through icing my chin, which numbed the pain.  It's finally feeling and looking a little better and I've cut out the Retin A, now letting it take it's time to heal.  I suppose patience is the key to everything. ::)

Oh be careful with Retin A :o  I hope your chin clears up soon.   I use to get bad chin acne when a took a certain medication.  What worked for me was to change my daley skin cream to Vichy Normaderm.  Happly I don't that those pills anymore! :-[ :P

Thanks Lisabelle!  I looked up Vichy Normaderm online and it looks like pretty good stuff.  I'm gonna stick with Retin A (because I still have a ton of it left) but after my painful lesson, I'll definitely be careful not to over do it.

I just woke up from a nap about 2 hours ago and have neck stiffness which is freaking me out.  My husband and I were rear ended earlier today (well, technically yesterday) and now I'm thinking my stiffness may be a result of the accident.  It wasn't a bad accident which is why I'm conflicted and think that perhaps I must have just slept weird or something. :-/  

On another note, I've been having really good hair days lately.  At night I've been doing CO's and then pin curling my damp hair.  In the morning I unwind the curls and get really nice waves, it's been so great! :D

I hope the neck stiffness was nothing serious! Even minor accidents can cause whiplash and other problems, though. If it doesn't go away I would definately see a doc. about it.  
And I'm glad you've been having good hair days! Somebody needs to. ;)

Thanks, Kiraela. Fortunately, the stiffness was nothing serious and did go away.  I'm so happy for my good hair days, we should all have them! :)

Kiraela wrote on May 15^th, 2007 at 12:35pm:

I hope the neck stiffness was nothing serious! Even minor accidents can cause whiplash and other problems, though. If it doesn't go away I would definately see a doc. about it.   And I'm glad you've been having good hair days! Somebody needs to. ;)

I second that! I am happy your better :-*

Thanks Lisabelle! :)

I'm finally satisfied with the evenness of my hair (well almost) but now that its pretty even and short, I'm really getting impatient for it to grow.  My hair has been growing faster lately though, last month it grew a whole inch, it's never done that before (or at least not since I began measuring last year).  I can't wait to see what it does next month.  

I've been doing CO's several times a week since it's gotten warmer out and it seems to be good for my hair.  Only now I'm looking for a new shower filter, one that removes monocholramine as the one that I have does not.  I now realize that, that may be the reason that my hair is still oxidizing. :-/

I'm still getting acne on my chin and I'm really sick of it.  It's definitely time for me to invest in a Zeno zit zapper.  Hopefully, it will work (all of the reviews that I've read have been positive) then I'll never have to worry about acne flare up's again.

Quote:

Zeno zit zapper

I am NOT making fun of you, but when I read "Zeno zit zapper", the only thing I can imagine is a ray gun!!   ;D

LOL!!!  It's not like a ray gun although that would be funny. ;D  I can imagine myself handing the zeno zit zapper ray gun to my husband... " Here, shoot me in the face with this" ;D  I guess zit zapper does sound weird though, it's actually called an "acne clearing device" ::).  

It's pretty cute, kinda looks like a cell phone, see...
http://www.myzeno.com/images/product-zeno.jpg

It does look like a cell phone!   ;D

I would love to hear if this thing works. My poor hubby has acne all the time and he's 43! :'(

I know, they also come in pink.  

I was finally able to order mine today and honestly cannot wait for it to get here.  My skin is so broken out now that I've actually resorted to popping my zits.  I know, it's gross but I can't take it anymore.  I'm wondering if it's because the weather is changing.  My skin is so oily lately it's taking my focus away from my hair.

Lisabelle:  I read that they have a very high success rate killing 90% of the bacterias that cause acne.  I'll let you know if it really works once I try it out.  I would've thought that it was odd to have acne at 43, but I didn't start getting acne until I was 28 and it comes and goes. It's very unpredictable.

Well, I did my monthly wash today.  I only use shampoos once a month but do CO's in the interim.  Anyway, after my wash I decided to go in the back and hula hoop but as soon as I did it began to rain heavy but I decided what the heck and hooped anyway.  My hair was still wet so I figured the rain wouldn't hurt, it was so much fun but it's nice to be dry and warm again. :D

It sounds like you had a great time today!!!  What a fun thing to do.  I wouldn't be able to do it.  I bet it is great for the waist though!!

You caught my curiosity with the only pooing once a month.  Do you do vinegar rinses regularily during the month to prevent CO build up and stop your hair from getting greasy?  I can't imagine pooing only once a month.  I wish I could!!!

I had a great time today, all topped off with a glass of wine. :D

No, I don't do vinegar rinses.  My hair is kinky so it's very dry, greasyness is not an issue for me.

yum, glass of wine.  Have one for me.  I am on a diet so it isn't part of my life plan right now!!

I guess I already did that, I'm on my second glass. :D  LOL!

Oh so jealous.   :'(  Enjoy!!!!! ;D

Awww... don't be jealous.  Wine is good for you, have a glass! :)

I probably will on Friday when I visit my folks.  I can't forsake myself of things I love all the time or the diet will never work.  In the meantime, I don't have any in the house right now so I can't since the store is closed now.  LOL, otherwise, you might have talked me into it.  You know, twisted my rubber arm.

A natural approach for getting rid of zits is to dab the affected area with tea tree oil.  --That's if you can tolerate the smell; tea tree oil has quite a strong aroma.  My daughter had some success with this method.   :)  Just a suggestion...

Ok, so much for Friday for the wine.  Today is a day to celebrate, but to avoid being repetative (sp?), since I am doing to post why in my journal, you will have to go there to see why!!!

Thanks for the suggestion Trisha, I'll definitely give it a try.

Okay off to joeydog's journal :D

I'd been so busy thinking about other things that I forgot to note that I straightened my hair today.  I hadn't straightened it in so long I figured what the heck.  I doubt that one day of being bad will cause any permanent damage.  I made sure to use a thermal heat protector and I straightened with a steam curling iron.  Once straight, I applied hair serum and steam curled the ends using the large rollers.  It's now so full, bouncy and soft.  It reminds me of Rebecca's hair from Cheers, I always loved how much body she had. I was so happy with my hair that I had my husband take me out to lunch for loaded nachos, yum!:D

wrote on May 31^st, 2007 at 3:45pm:

I was so happy with my hair that I had my husband take me out to lunch for loaded nachos, yum!:D

Now THAT'S a celebration!   ;D

Yep, it was!  And for dinner it was KC Masterpiece!  Quite a decadent day! :)

Hair:  Just realized that my hair probably isn't growing as fast as I thought it was.  It just appears that way because I straightened it yesterday which of course would add extra length.  So although my hair may not be growing quite like a weed, the discovery of extra length was a pleasant surprise!  Since I'd been cutting off so much lately, I didn't expect to reach 23.5" until Aug.

I'm going to continue dusting regularly (it just makes my hair look so much neater) and letting it grow!

Other: My husband decided yesterday that he wants to move to Atlanta asap so I've been given the task of looking for a new rental.  After my horrible experience with my neighbors below, I no longer want to live in an apartment.  Hopefully, I can find a nice house with a big yard for rent.  Wish me luck! :D

The pics of your cats are great!!!  As for getting along, as someone said, they will figure out there pecking order...although they may never truly be chums.  It will all work out ok.  I have 3 cats.  2 of them I call 'the twins' although they are not related and one is black and one is white.  The thing is, they are always together and grooming each other and getting into mischief together, even though they are now 14!!!  My third, 'yoda' has taken 7 years to get into hanging around with them, even though I brought him home and bottle fed him when he was just 4 days old.  His ears and eyes were not even open yet.  I used to be a vet and someone brought him in to be euthanized.  I convinced them to sign him over to me.  He got his name because of the way he wiggled his ears when he sucked on the baby bottle!!

I am soooo sorry to hear you have alopecia.  That sucks.  I really hope this new doc and treatment get good results for you.  I am, at least, happy you have thick enough hair to cover it.  I wish you the best of luck!!

Joeydog:  I think it's cool that you used to be a vet, is that what you're going to go back to doing?  As a kid and a teen, I was always told that I should be a vet because I love animals so much.   I knew that being a vet was not in my future because I could never get used to seeing so many sick animals, it would break my heart. :'(

My cat's thankfully, now co exist peacefully, well most of the time. ::)  My one cat still wants absolutely nothing to do with our newest member, even though it's been a year since his arrival.  

Your Yoda sounds too cute! :)

Fortunately, I haven't had any hair loss since January.  I had two bald patches but now they are filled with thick hair about 2.5" long.  Hopefully, my hair will never fall out ever again, which is possible.  Alopecia is very unpredictable so I'll never know if this is the end, or if it'll come back a month or a few years from now.  But for now I'm happy that it's growing! :D  Thanks for your well wishes!

Other:  My husband is taking things apart and beginning to pack.  Yikes! :o  We haven't even found a place yet, or looked for any places for that matter!  Ugh, he's driving me nuts!  He's hinting that I should begin packing my stuff to but I'm not going to put my stuff in boxes just yet, I can't live here for another month with all of my belongings in boxes.

Whoa, moving to Atlanta!  --Did you expect this?  For your sanity, I hope you find a place SOON!   ;D

No I didn't expect it at all.  My husband and I had decided that we were going to renew our lease.  Our rent office gave us our lease renewal form yesterday and thats when he changed his mind, completley out of the blue. ::)

I hope we find a place soon or yeah, I will lose my mind!:o  My job is to "stop playing on the internet" and look for houses to rent, so off I go... :P

Hey there, good news about your hair and the cats!!

No, I no longer practice as a vet.  I needed to work the emergency type work with animals.  Spay, neuter, spay, neuter bored me to death.  As I said to someone last night, imagine going from working in the ER (think of the show ER) to being a family doctor!!  Not for me.  Unfortunately, doing emergency work with animals is much like with humans in that you must do shift work and long hours.  My health could not take it.  I miss that kind of work but now I am a toxicologist, which I really do enjoy...although I miss the animals.  Maybe it was my fate to become a toxicologist. My Dad was one of the best toxicologists in the world in his time and I spent my life saying I would never be one.  

When I decided I had to leave the vet work, I decided I needed to work for the gov't so I applied for EVERYTHING.  I needed the benefits since my meds cost me $1000/month and I needed job security in case I ended up of work for an extended period of time like I have now.  I wrote exams and went to interviews and one day got the call I was wanted for a job...as a toxicologist.  I had to laugh.  Dad was thrilled of course to see one of the family continue the legacy so to speak.  Turns out I really like it and happen to be fairly good at it.  I am not my Dad or anything...but he had 30 years of experience.

I hope you have good luck house hunting...but don't abandon us completely!!!

joeydog: Wow, it's funny the way things work out sometime.  I'm glad that you enjoy your job, your one of the lucky ones!  So what exactly does a toxoclolist do?  I'm thinking that it has to do with finding out the toxicology levels in the deceased.  

Other: I've finally prined out house after house today.  I have to admit that as I was looking at these houses that are larger than what we have now, that have no neighbors too close by, with lots of land and trees surrounding them, I began to get excited.  Now, I can't wait to move.  I can't wait to be able to have a garden and I also want to turn my back yard into a quiet oasis where I can bellydance, hula hoop and use to meditate sometimes.  I was even looking at swing sets, I've always wanted a swing  because I love swinging.  I was also looking at pond kits because I would love to do something like create a pond and waterfall but since the property will be  rented I'm wondering how much leeway we'll have when it comes to modifications of the property.

We're going to continue making calls tomorrow to set up appointments hopefully, for this coming week, I can't wait!

I'm off to bed now... good night!

Oops... before I go to bed, I wanted to note that I've made a radical decision to keep my hair @23.5" through September.  My right side is still causing me so much frustration because it's still so much shorter than the rest of my hair.  It seems as though no matter how much a trim the back to correct this, the side still never catches up.  I don't know if it isn't growing as fast as the rest,or if it just seems that way due to possible breakage.  So, I've decided to keep my the right shorter side in a braid for the summer ala Vikki Vale, just to keep it contained so theres no chance of breakage.  Hopefully in October, my right side will have caught up to the rest and by that time and I can commense growing with completley straight and blunt hair.  

This is my plan but it's so frustrating.  If it werent for my alopecia I wouldn't have any issues about this.  But I have to look on the bright side and be happy about the fact that is is growing even if it seems really slooooow. :P

Well, a toxicologist, in its simplest terms, is someone who studies poisons.  There are many types of toxicologists.  Forensic toxicologists (like my cousin) do figure out things on the deceased.  I on the other had, work with new products that come out.  That is to say, if a new drug is on trial, it undergoes many studies to determine what health problems might occur when using said product.  My job is to go through the data and determine at what levels a substance might cause harm to humans and then 'regulate' what levels a substance can be used without causing harm to humans.

I will discuss it more under my journal if you are interested.

I am glad you are excited about looking for houses, and I hope you find just what you want.  Good luck and keep us up to date.

Toxicology sounds very interesting!  

I found some places that seem really cool on paper, hopefully, it will be what I want. :)

Good luck house hunting, La Diosa!  I'm rapidly learning about the perils of residence searching.

Thanks Kiraela!  I hope I don't run into any of those perils, I just really want to get this over with. :-/ I think we may be going to Atlanta later this week to look around in person.  

I'm not quite sure what is going on at this point.  My husband went out of town for business on Monday so, I'm not sure when we're going to see the houses in person.  Also, he just got the news that the account that he's working on may be going away so that puts things up in the air as well. *sigh*  Either he will be put on a new account or he will "go on the bench" as they call it until another account emerges.  I guess it's a good thing though because he currently doesn't like the account that he's on, but if he goes on the bench I think I'd rather move to Los Angeles.:-/

It's been a year today since I learned of my moms death and I'm doing much better than I thought I'd be.  I no longer cry anymore and it's much easier to remember the good times.  I do miss her though.  My niece is going to have a baby in a few months making my sister a grandmother at the age of 34 years old. ;D  I know that my mother would have a really good time teasing my sister about it.

My Zeno finally arrived today and I can't wait til tomorrow to see if I have any improvements.  Over the past weekend my husband and I went to dinner.  As we were leaving, an older gentleman stopped my husband and whispered something to him.  Then my husband motioned for me to come over because the man wanted to meet me.  He said he just wanted to say hi and that I was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.  It was flattering but it also made me very insecure that after seeing my face (my zits) close up, that he'd think the complete opposite.  My latest bout with acne has been an annoyance but until then, I didn't realize that it was taking a toll on my self confidence.  Oh well, it doesn't change who I am inside and I'm really liking my hair!.:P :)

On a good note, my elliptical is finally repaired.  It squeaked eversince it was put together by the installation company.  They suggested that perhaps with use, the squeaking would go away.  Well, not only did it not go away but it had gotten increasingly worse with use and handle bar began to loosen dramatically.  After looking at the machine, the repair guy stated that there were a few parts missing.  He believes that the installation guys probably didn't know where the parts went so they pocketed them.  Nice.::)  Anyway, it works fine now and I don't have to worry about it totally collapsing while I'm on it. :o

Oh, and the girl who was abducted from Target is from my area. :o  That's the Target I go to. :o  It's so frightening to know that something like that could happen around here, it's a nice area.  Also, it's frightening to think that you can be abducted in a parking lot.  I'm always very aware of who's around me because unfortunately I've been followed a few times and even chased on two occasions.  But I guess being aware isn't enough if someone can do an abduction that easily.  I feel so bad for the girl and her family. :'(  I'm also very angry about the predators out there.  If they haven't already, I hope they get this guy off the streets ASAP. >:(

Quote:

It's been a year today since I learned of my moms death and I'm doing much better than I thought I'd be.  I no longer cry anymore and it's much easier to remember the good times.  I do miss her though.

I've heard it said that the death of a loved one never gets easier to accept, rather we simply learn to live with the sadness.  My father was killed in a tractor accident 25 years ago, and his death was so long ago that most of the time I'm fine.  Yet I recently ran across the last photographs taken of hiim (by me) and started tearing up.  *shrug*  I think that awful hurt really never disappears from our heart.  *hugs*


Quote:

the girl who was abducted from Target is from my area

It's quite sobering and tremendously sad to realize that we really aren't 100% safe anywhere anymore, isn't it?  I consider myself a pretty confident and independent gal, yet I no longer shop alone--hubby always goes with me.  

Trisha: Your right, I don't think the pain of losing someone ever disappears completely.  About 2 years ago, my sister and I were on the phone reminiscing about our grandmother who died almost 20 years ago and we really began sobbing.  Afterwards, we had to laugh because after so much time we thought we were over it, but guess not.

I understand your not shopping alone but it angers me that we (women) can't be free to walk around alone without having to worry about sickos.  I take walks around my apartment community because it's such a nice area with lots of trees.  I like to just enjoy nature alone and in silence but I've always known that I can't get too wrapped up in what I see or feel because I have to be aware of cars or people who may be around and it just makes me so upset.  My husband doesn't want me to walk alone anymore but I don't know if I will or not because it's something that I really enjoy.*shrug*

Other: Speaking of my sister, I was talking to her last night and I really feel bad for her.  She also was aware of the fact that it was a year ago yesterday that she found my mothers body.  She lived in walking distance to my mother and now she feels so alone.  My father lives about 20 minutes driving distance away from her, but they don't talk or see each other as often as my very family oriented sister would like.  It's not that my dad is mean or anything, it's just that he has been going through depression for a few years now and it's difficult for him to communicate regularly.  I realized years ago that my relationship with him was almost non existent and I dealt with it.  When my mom died, I basically felt orphaned right then and I had to tell my sister that she too needs to just let him go.  I told  her that she and her girls are family and they have to be there for each other.  I hope she gets over her feelings of abandonment, I don't like hearing her cry. :'(

Acne: Well, I was zapping the daylights out of my zits yesterday but today they are still hanging around.  I can say that they haven't gotten anyworse like they would've but, they haven't gotten any better.  I was reading the reviews on this thing again yesterday and the consensus seems to be that they don't get worse and they disappear faster than they normally would so I'll see if that's the case.

Hair: Great! ;)

Well, I'm off.  My husbands back so I gotta get dressed to go to dinner now. :D

Yay, today is a good day!  Well, first of all I'm glad that they captured that creep who murdered that girl.  I can't believe he had a wife and child at home, I feel so bad for them.

And on the first of May, I mailed a return to Victorias Secret which I did not insure so of course the post office lost that package.  I called them a few weeks ago and they told me that there was nothing they could do.  With no recourse, I decided to just chalk it up but today I called Victorias Secret.  I wanted to see if by some slight chance my package arrived recently.  They said it didn't but since I had a delivery confirmation number as proof of shipping, they'd mail me a gift certificate.  WooHoo!!!  I'm so happy for that because those pants were 60.00.  

Last but not at all least, my skin is clearing up very nicely!  The Zeno doesn't work exactly as described, meaning they don't clear up blemishes overnight but if you catch it early it will clear up in 2 days leaving no mark. :D  

There is a restaraunt about a block and a half up the street from us that we never went to before.  So yesterday, we decided to walk up there and give it a try.  The food was so good, everything we ordered was delicious and they made the best drinks.  To think all of this time it was so near and we never tried it out.

We're waiting to see what happens with my husband's employment situation.  He'll know in a month wether or not his account remains, wether he's transferred to a new one, or if he'll be laid off with pay until a new account is available. We've decided not to make any moves or decisions until then.

This morining there were birds outside my bedroom window feeding on sunflower seeds as usual, but then my cats and I heard a weird sound.  It sounded as though there was something scraping inside the wall.  At first I was very concerned until right before my eyes I saw this...
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrel.jpg

I went on my balcony and got this pic from outside.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrel2.jpg

My cats wanted to see closer but we didn't want to frighten the squirrel so my husband kept them at bay.   http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrelc.jpg

Then, we decided to let the cats go to see how they and the squirrel would react.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrele.jpg http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirreld.jpg

And how the squirrel would react to my husband...
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrelh.jpg

And to tapping the glass...
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrelg.jpg

It's reaction to cracking the window...
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrelj.jpg

It's reaction to opening the window even wider...
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrelk.jpg

LOL!!!  This is one brave squirrel :D
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Squirrelb.jpg

Soon after climbing on top of the feeder (because of the opened the window), one of the suction cups came loose, the squirrel lost his footing and ran off. ;D  The birds are so relieved that now they can snack!

Just did a CO and set my damp hair with pin curls.

I only had my Zeno for a few days and I'm already out of treatments, it came with 60 2 1/2minute treatments.  Tomorrow, I have to find out where they sell replacement tips.

Ugh, I was so excited all week to see the finale of the Soprano's only to be quite disappointed.  Other than them killing Phil, it was very uneventful. :P  I hope tomorrow's season opener of Big Love is good.  Oh well, off to bed.

Now just WHAT would you have done if that squirrel had hopped inside the window and started running around your apartment?!   ;D

What a cheeky little squirrel! ;D  We do not have grey/brown squirrels anymore up here, ours are jet black and some times red! Yeah the Soprano's @#$& me off too, mind you it was neat to see Paulie loose his nerve, the bugger >:(

squirrels are cute and adorable at a distance, but I had a bad experience with one once... (looong story, basically it was a creepy stalker squirrel) so up close and person they sort of freak me out a little. but since that one's on the internet, and not my dresser, I can say, "aww, so cute!"

Also, you have very pretty kitties. My kitty Emma says "hi" to your three.

Well, the squirrel is now showing up every morning and eating ALL of the birdseed as though he's at an all you can eat buffet.  My husband said that yesterday the squirrel even brought a friend along. >:(  The birds aren't happy either.  They try swooping low near the squirrel I suppose to frighten it away but to no avail.  Now, I have to figure out what to do to make the squirrel go away.  I wouldn't mind if he ate a bit and then left but he shows up too often and stays too long, and now I miss the birds. :(

Trisha:I have no idea what I would've done.  I figured I'd let my cats deal with him but since they're all declawed, I don't know what they would've done either. :-/ ;D

Lisabelle: I saw a black squirrel on the internet, it looked cool.  I've never seen a red squirrel but I'm sure that would be a very neat sight.  When I lived in Pennsylvania, the squirrels there were brown and not gray.  I'd never seen a gray one until I moved here.  I thought Paulie being afraid of that cat was so funny! ;D

Kiraela: Ooh, I don't know how cute I'd find a squirrel inside either.  My kitties say meow to Emma.:)

It wasn't so much that the squirrel was inside the house, as the fact that it was barely 6 in the morning, and I was getting dressed for school... turn around and there's a Squirrel. Watching. Me. From. My. Dresser. freaked me out.  Not to mention I heard scritching noises in the wall all night, the night before that and my cat (always locked in my room at night) had dissapeared. I thought creepy stalker squirrel had killed him or something.  Turns out Magic was just afraid of squirrels and hiding really well. The only thing I can suggest to get rid of your stalkersquirrel is have animal control come out and remove him... typically, they'll come get him and release him a few miles away.

Yeah, I could see how seeing a squirrel on the dresser first thing in the morning would be freaky.

Well, my squirrel only shows up to eat out of my bird feeder which I have suction cupped to my second story window.  I can remove the feeder altogether, but for now what I've done is moved the feeder higher up on the window hopefully, out of the squirrels reach.

Good luck on removing your squirrel!   I was thinking, another thing my grandmother's done is put her feeders right outside the windows, but on posts with large caps under the feeder... so that even if the squirrels can climb up the thin metal pole, they can't get past the caps... and it gives the birds a place to sit. I'm not sure if I explained that well...  I'll do my best at a drawing.

        ______  
        |         |
        |feeder|
_____|_____|_____ < cap/base thing
             ||
             ||
             ||
             ||  <Pole
             ||
             ||
             ||
             ||
             ||              
             ||
 

Thanks for the drawing, it's good and I completely get it. :)

Right now, I'm not going to build anything though because we may be moving soon.  Hopefully, just moving the feeder that I have a bit higher will eliminate my squirrel problem.  I got this feeder because I didn't want to give the birds a place to sit because then, they would possibly get too comfortable and leave droppings.  

ooh, good point. Actually, random trivia... did you know there's a species of moth that when sitting still with its wings folded, is almost indestinguishable from bird poo? http://whatsthatbug.com/images/euthisanotia.jpg

It's called the Wood Nymph Moth. Wierd, eh?

Yuck! :P  I've never head of a wood nymph moth but thats the best survival mechanism ever! I don't know who would want to go near something that looks like that.  

Oh that really does look like a bird poo. :P  I can see me trying to clean it off my car windsheild and having it get up and fly away! :o  Nature as has neat camo eh? :D

Has your friendly, pushy neighborhood squirrel returned?

My uncle used to feed peanuts to the squirrels at his house, and they got to the point where they'd knock on the door and take the peanuts from his hand!   :o

Last night, I moved the feeder higher so that it would be out of his reach, but I felt bad.  I put it back so that he'd be able to eat from it this morning but he never showed.  It's pretty odd seeing that he's been a daily morning visitor since Saturday, I hope he's okay.

On Sunday, we put raw almonds in the feeder especially for him and he seemed to enjoy them.  Although I've read that it's possible to feed them by hand, I wouldn't attempt it because I've also read that they have very sharp teeth.:o

Quote:

I wouldn't attempt it because I've also read that they have very sharp teeth

Smart woman!   :)

I am a country girl who moved into the city for a few years (which I hated) and then came back to the country.  When I first came back a bought peanuts and sat outside feeding the squirrels and chipmunks.  I stopped half way through the summer.  They never bit me...they even sat on me.  My family have pics of it.  The reason I stopped was, while I fed them along the tree line, they started coming up on my deck when I was sitting there which put them 20 feet out in the open.  As I watched the hawks circle, I feared I was sending my new friends to their graves.  They are not meant to be tamed...and I forgot that important rule.  Now I throw them walnuts on the ground when I am feeding the birds...but never let them come to me.

Just a thought for you to consider...even 'knocking on the neighbours door' could put them in danger if the wrong person is at the door.

Today, I decided to buy a different leave in conditioner.  I bought Giovanni's Vitapro Fusion.  I think I like it better than the Direct Leave In but I'm not quite sure yet, although according to the bottle it's supposed to provide a deeper condtioning.  The one thing that I like about it for sure is that it comes in a spray so I can better control how much comes out.  Lately, I've been using Neutrogena's Triple Moisture Silk Touch Leave In as well, it's okay but I find it a bit greasy.

I don't know whats going on with me but for the past 3 nights in a row I've had dreams about Prince.  I'm not complaining though they're really good dreams. 8-)  He's supposed to be taking over the Roosevelt Hotel this summer the way he did the Rio over the winter.  I've been checking constantly to find out when this will be confirmed so I can get tickets, so I'm sure thats why I've been dreaming about him so much.

I don't know what the heck is going on with my email but I think I may need to change my address again.  I'm getting so much spam it's riddiculous.>:(

Also, my squirrel is fine.  He showed up a bit late the other day, but he's still shows up every morning for breakfast.  We're definitely going to move in a month or so and I'm going to miss him.  I wish I could take him with me.:(

Also, I've decided not to follow through with my plan to keep my hair at 23.5 through the summer to let it even up.  When I first cut it I was happy about the change, but now I'm sick of my hair being so short so I'm going to let it grow back out.  I'll most likely cut an inch off in Jan and then another in the spring to get it totally even. ::)  I'm constantly going back and forth with this, I change my mind as often as I change my clothes. :P

Ok, I am going to show my age here...Prince...is this the same Prince that was known as "the artist previously known as Prince" and then "Prince" before that.....excuse me...dog says she has to go out RIGHT now so I may lose train of thought.  BRB, although posting this you will not notice..but the train of thought might be gone.

Ok, ya, thought is partially gone...so the important thing for me to know, since I work with lots of people younger than me...is this the same Prince?  I am guessing not.  Would just like to know.

Ya, ok, laugh at me...that is ok.

JD

You're funny, yeah, it's the same Prince ;)  ;D

This is what he looks like nowdays

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/guitarplayer001ux31.jpg  

He's still so cute!  :-* When I was begin trained in different makeup lines I got to met a lady from a line called Nacara had who had worked with Prince.  She said when it came to skin care he loved vasoline and would bath in the stuff if given the chance ;D!

Hmm... so Vaseline is his secret.  He does have very nice skin.  Vaseline wouldn't work for me though, I break out too easily.:(

Huh, there you go.  I am so out of touch that I did not know he was still around.  Maybe I should get out of the house more!!  Not today though, back to the darn garage work today.

Don't feel bad Joeydog, lots of people don't know that he's still around.  I happen to know because I've been a fan of his since I was 9 years old.

So, you're definitely moving to ATL, then?

Speaking as someone who is currently going through the moving process, good luck with that!   ;)  I think I hit my packing wall last night - I got awfully whiney and silly last night and my husband ended up sending me to bed like a child.  I think I needed it, though.  

Yep, we're definitely moving to Atlanta.  Well... as of Friday we're only about 99% sure.  On Friday my husband got a lead on a job in Houston which he seems pretty interested in.  So, he's going to check that out and if he can get interviewed and they can make a decision quickly (which typically isn't the case) we may be going to Houston but as I type this I seriously doubt it.  Yeah, I'm 100% sure we're going to Atlanta.;)  

Aww...berkanna.  I hope he didn't send you to bed without dinner.:D  Just joking.  I completely understand how nerve racking packing can be.  

I've moved lots in my life. On average, I only stay in an apartment for 2 or 3 years then it's off to someplace else. My only worry right now is about my cats. I've never had to move with so many animals before, I'm still trying to think of the best way to do it. When we moved here we only had one cat but 16 hours in a UHaul with a scared kitty was no picnic.:-/

hooboy, moving with cats....  :o I've done that a few times. When my family moved from arkansas to North Carolina, we had three adult cats, and 8 two-week-old kittens.  yes. 8. Both our females had had kittens the same night, in the same closet, and nursed all of them equally, so we were never quite sure who was whose. That was a fun move. Expecially when the car's engine quite literally fell out on the interstate, and my brother(who had been driving the car), the two dogs, and the 11 cats had to ride in the back of a moving van, in the summer. (Luckily it was... vented... due to the fact that mom peeled a rather large hole in the top of the truck hitting a low branch. In our driveway.)  Hopefully your move goes a lot less eventfully!

Um yeah.  I hope my move isn't quite that eventful either.:o

Holy CATS!!!   :o

I've only moved locally, so I haven't had to deal with long distance moves with cats.  Well, we had a 2.5 hour move once.

You may want to investigate a light sedative for the cats - we actually aced our tortie for the 2.5 hour move because she HATES (and I mean HATES) car rides.  It was a very good thing.

I don't know about the sedative thing.  When we moved with our one cat from Pennsylvania to Kansas, I sprayed her carrier with Feli Way (not sure about the spelling :-/).  I don't know if I sprayed too much or what but she became frighteningly lethargic.  I'm too afraid to use it again.

This pic is from yesterday.  I got some new butterfly hair accesories! :D

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/HairButterfly4.jpg

Those butterflies are so cute!  The blue one matches you top! I hope your move goes okay.  I have never moved with cats but I did move with fish once.  I had a five pound Oscar named Piggy and he rode in the car in a bucket at my feet.  He was fine and even mooched some of my lunch!  

Thanks Lisabelle. :)

I can't believe you moved with a 5lb fish!

Before I moved, I had a 55 gallon fish tank but I knew that there was no way I could move with all of those fish so I took them back to the fish store.  It was kind of cool though because they even gave me money for them which was something I completley didn't expect.

Other:  Looks like my plan to see Prince this summer are shot.  They just finalized the performance schedule and his first shows are this Saturday and Sunday. :o  He's only playing 7 shows total and VIP seats are 3121.00 a couple.  With such short notice and our move coming up, theres no way we can swing that.  We don't have the time or money right now.  Oh well, maybe next time.

I'm sorry...does that say three THOUSAND dollars??  *choke*  :o

Yep, unfortunately it does. :(  Not to mention air fare, car rental and a hotel...pretty steep.

:o $3121.00 ?! ... the only way I'd pay $3121 to see a concert, is if I were sitting in the performers lap. ;D And even then it'd have to be someone reaaallllly good. Even The artist formerly known as 'the artist formerly known as Prince' barely makes the cut on that!  I'm sorry you can't go to the concert though, La Diosa. * consolatory hug*  On another note, those are some very very pretty hair accessories. Where, pray tell, did you get them?

Thanks for the hug Kiraela. :)

I'm so bored today I can't stand it.  I woke up at about 2am and have done everything from bellydancing, the elliptical, watching my squirrel gorge himself, shopping online (I got a great deal on two dresses :D) and watching a marathon of The Girls Next Door (I love that show) and I'm STILL bored!  My husband is out of town on business and won't be back until tomorrow, I sooo can't wait  I'm really climbing the walls here.

Hmm... just realized that 2 of my favorite tv shows right now are centered around a man romantically involved with 3 women.:-?

I think I may get a job when we move but I don't know.  I prefer to work at night because I really have difficulty waking up regularly in the mornings.  It's just that when I work at night I don't see my husband much, so that's were the problem lies.  Anyway, I updated my resume on Monster and I'm already getting calls and emails but they're for positions in Kansas. :P

Neutrogena's Triple Moisture Silk Touch Leave In Cream is really beginning to grow on me.  I think I'm going to not replace my Giovanni Leave In and continue using this.  I don't like the build up it leaves on my hair, but I'm getting used to it and it does keep my hair moisturized and softer much longer than the Direct Leave In.
 

wrote on Jun 21^st, 2007 at 11:58am:

I'm so bored today I can't stand it.  I woke up at about 2am and have done everything from bellydancing, the elliptical, watching my squirrel gorge himself, shopping online (I got a great deal on two dresses :D) and watching a marathon of The Girls Next Door (I love that show) and I'm STILL bored!  My husband is out of town on business and won't be back until tomorrow, I sooo can't wait  I'm really climbing the walls here. Hmm... just realized that 2 of my favorite tv shows right now are centered around a man romantically involved with 3 women.:-? I think I may get a job when we move but I don't know.  I prefer to work at night because I really have difficulty waking up regularly in the mornings.  It's just that when I work at night I don't see my husband much, so that's were the problem lies.  Anyway, I updated my resume on Monster and I'm already getting calls and emails but they're for positions in Kansas. :P Neutrogena's Triple Moisture Silk Touch Leave In Cream is really beginning to grow on me.  I think I'm going to not replace my Giovanni Leave In and continue using this.  I don't like the build up it leaves on my hair, but I'm getting used to it and it does keep my hair moisturized and softer much longer than the Direct Leave In.

((((Hugs)))) I know the feeling.  I've had Hubby go to Europe twice, once for 2 weeks and once for a week and I went a little nuts too!  (why didn't I go with him? Long sad story, better left for later :-X)  You can rent movies, have a major cooking party, enjoy the peace and quite, have people over, watch Youtube??  You can take the time to do some mediation, more shopping!  The when hubby gets home attack him! ::)

Thanks for the hugs Lisabelle!  

I did rent movies and I did a bit of meditation but I was just lonely.  He's back now so I'm feeling fine now!  And yeah, we attacked each other! ;)

A little get together is always fun, but I haven't had people over since last year.  My husband and I are pretty much solo out here so there are no parties unless we bring people out.  The only thing about that is when they come all this way for a visit, it lasts a bit longer than I'd like. :P  

Other: Anyhoo... I'd found another perfect house in Atlanta.  The rent wasn't much more than we are paying now but it had much more space, a huge fenced in yard and an in ground pool.  Again, my husband always slow on the move waited too long to call and now the house is gone. :'(  Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Hair: I've been noticing a bit of hair breakage lately, not quite sure how or why.  The only thing I can think of is that my hair may be over moisturized making it weak.  At any rate, I'm now off to give myself a stregthening protein treatment.  

Right now, I have a rather annoying habit of constantly incorporating the Rehab song into my daily life.  My newest dittie, is "I got myself some breakage, but I said no no no".  I know, so lame! ;D

That protein treatment was just what my hair needed.  It's feeling much stronger now.  I'm going to do another one maybe in a week or two just to make sure that my hair really has all of the strength it needs.

I've really been eating horribly lately.  Barbeque ribs, potato salad, turtle custard, cake, crab rangoons...  It's no wonder that when my most recent purchases arrived I could barely squeeze my hips and rear in them.  I got 3 new pretty dresses and I look disgusting in them.  It's quite strange the way I put on weight, instead of distributing evenly throughout my body, it all goes to my hips and rear.  I  have this big J-lo butt which I really need to do something about, I honestly can't see how that woman finds clothes.  Today and yesterday, I upped my workouts doing a mile on the elliptical each morning.  Then throughout the day, I belldance and hula hoop and do my core secrets bun work out.  I'm also cutting down the junk and eating more healthy foods and shakes.  

I saw this work out device on tv called leg magic which works the abs, the rear and the thighs.  After we move I'm going to order one.  I figured theres no need to order it now because then it's just one extra thing to carry.

Also, my husband said he can't make any promises but he's going to try to take me to the Prince concert at the end of July.  He says he needs a vacation and would love to go to LA so hopefully, everything will work out. :)

Well, we are just about all packed.  We may be going to Atlanta this weekend and will stay in a hotel until we find a place.  My husband is still running the show (which is why it isn't planned better) and it's driving me nuts!  I was so irritable yesterday that I even frightened myself! [smiley=evil.gif]

There were boxes everwhere as there had been since he packed everything up on Saturday and yesterday I just lost my mind and was snippy about EVERYTHING.  As I type, my neighbors below, who are always such a joy ::) :P are pounding on their piano.  I actually can't wait to get the heck out of here, I just assumed we'd have a place picked out first.

Anyway, my husband finally moved the boxes out of the living room and the bedroom and entryway and stacked them all in our dining area.  At last I can breathe again.

I got some merchandise in the mail today so I could begin selling again on eBay.  Right now I only have 5 dresses for sale (I kept one for myself of course ;)) but I'll slowly begin accumulating merchandise.  I used to sell a lot in the past but I really let it stress me out, I took the whole thing so personally.  See, I only sell things that I love and would wear myself, so when my items wouldn't sell quickly, I would get sad.  I know it sounds silly but I couldn't imagine how someone could see something that I personally think is really great, and pass on it.  But I know that, that's just the way things work sometime.

I thought about getting a job outside of my home, but for now I've decided to go the eBay route.  I just prefer living like a hermit and on my own terms.  Also, I've been doing some online browsing for yard things like ponds, fountains and swing sets.  So once I move I want to dedicate myself to setting up and decorating as opposed to working.  I SOOO can't wait to move into a house with a yard.  I used to think apartments were so cool but now, I've been living in apartments since I first moved out on my own almost 14 years ago and I'm completely sick of them.  It'll be so nice to have my own private outdoor space. :D

If you don't mind me asking, what's your ebay name? I'd like to at least take a look at these dresses! I've been wanting to start selling on ebay too.. It seems like it will be a good source of income, once I can finally get a paypal.
And I know all about getting snippy... The other day I was in such a bad mood my guy refused to come in the house for a few hours.  

No, I don't mind, my eBay name is diosa*celestial.  I really like it because it's so forgiving and can be worn dressed up or casually and it's so comfortable.   I wore it out tonight for dinner and cocktails with my husband and his coworkers.  Heres a picture of the dress.:)

http://i8.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/a7/64/003c_12.JPG

oooo, that is a fantastic dress! And I love those shoes....  You know... my first thought on that picture was... "La Diosa as "Price Is Right" model" :P

I just wish I could wear something like that and not look horrible.

Thanks Kiraela! :)  I wish I were a Price Is Right model, what an easy job! ;D  They and Vanna White have it made! ;)

I'm sure you would look great in a dress like this, it's cool cause it can also be worn with leggings or in the winter with tights and a turtleneck!  

Don't mind me, I'm not trying to put the sell on you or anything, I just get so excited about clothes.::)

wrote on Jun 27^th, 2007 at 10:42pm:

I'm sure you would look great in a dress like this, it's cool cause it can also be worn with leggings or in the winter with tights and a turtleneck!

But it's white.  White makes my skin look pasty and wierd.  Otherwise, I'd be looking a bit closer.  I need some dresses - when I unpacked my closet, I noticed I only have ONE!  The rest of my clothes are slacks, skirts and tops!  I need more hot-weather clothes too, most of my tops are knit longsleeves.   :P

It's actually cream but I guess it would still have the same effect for you. I'm such a dress person I couldn't live with only one, but I like skirts too as long as they're long and comfy. :)  

Well, have fun shopping! :D  

Unfortunately, I have to give up shopping for now until we move and I actually have a shipping address again. :P

We're definitely moving tomorrow, my husband rented the truck and hired a mover to assist with the big stuff.

This morning I took down my balcony decorations, it looks so bare out there.  Later, I'm going to start packing up my bathroom and other loose ends so that tomorrow morning we will be ready to load the truck quickly and smoothly.

We've decided to keep the cats in the car as we tow it.  They'll have more room to sleep and run around than if we had them in the cramped truck cabin with us.  I'm going to lightly spray the car with Feliway and we'll check on them everytime we stop.  Last weekend, I purchased tags and collars for them for the move, I pray this isn't necessary but better safe than sorry.  

Good luck with the move, I hope everything goes smooth and easy and that you are able to find a great new home.

Thanks Sakina, I haven't seen you in awhile!  I hope all's well. :D

I think my irritability a few days ago gave me the release I needed and now I'm actually pretty optimistic.  I'm just going to do my part as far as packing up my stuff etc. and hope everything else falls into place.

Yeah, I was out of town for a week.  All is well, thanks!

Yes, indeed, good luck with the move--here's hoping you + hubby find a great place soon.   :)

Good to hear Sakina ;)

Thanks Trisha!

(((Hugs you both)))

 I'm hoping tomorrow she'll adjust to them again.

Ugh...I really feel like venting!  This is the 4th day in a hotel and I'm really tired of it.  Maybe I could do better in a 5 star hotel but this Extended Stay crap is for the birds.  

Anyway, with it being the 4th we didn't get much done today.  I was hoping I could just sleep the entire day away but unfortunately it isn't physically possible.  Yesterday we saw 2 houses.  The first house was very tiny but very out in the middle of nowhere and secluded like I want, it even was on an acre of land but the house itself was very tiny.  I don't understand why with all that land around it they didn't just build a bigger house.  The second house we saw was big and beautiful, man was it gorgeous but it was in the middle of a very cramped development so many houses so close together.  Ah, what to do?  Well, we're not too sure yet but I guess we'll see soon because I'm going to freak out if we don't make a decision and get somewhere soon.

Well, now we're going to dinner and I plan on having a drink or two or three.  And I'm going to get some candles or something to make this place a bit more comfy.

Well, I'm still in my hotel room.  I got a huge melon scented jar candle and it has made it a small bit more home like for me.  We haven't decided on a house yet but we're going to look at one more house tomorrow and then wrap this whole thing up.  We decided not to persue the smaller house, so it's between the bigger house and the one tomorrow so, we'll be moved in one of the two sometime this coming week.  

I so miss having a home.  While my husband watches tv in the evenings, I entertain myself by imagining how I'm going to decorate which ever houses we're interested in at the time.::)

We went to see Sicko yesterday and it really disgusted me.  I knew that in this country money is king, but I had no idea to what degree.  I actually felt myself tearing up and wanting to walk out, out of anger and frustration but I stayed.  After everything that I saw documented in the movie the reason for my anger and frustration was the fact that I feel that I can't do anything about the current system, that I can't make things better for people, I felt and still feel a strong sense of helpless and hopelessness. :(

I guess I should mention something about my hair. ::)  

Yesterday, I actually washed with V05 shampoo and my hair didn't fall out. :o  All of my shampoo is packed in the truck because I wasn't planning on being homeless this long, so I felt I wouldn't need it.  Anyway, I just felt icky so I wanted to wash my hair and since I couldn't find Giovanni anywhere I just bought the really cheap stuff.  I got the kind for normal hair even though I always use moisturizing shampoo and shockingly I even liked the way my hair felt afterwards, it turned out soft and not at all dry.  Seeing that I have dry hair to begin with I don't see how that was possible, but next time I wash I'm going to try it again to see if it was a fluke.

Hang in there!  I know you'll find a place you'll love!  When I saw Roger and Me I felt the same way as when you saw Sicko.  I had to turn away with the bunny lady, though I know she was doing it to make a living (barely).  
Big Hugs! :-*

Lisabelle, I've never seen Rodger and Me but it sounds interesting.  Theres a Blockbuster right up the street from us so I'll check that out.  You always rent good movies! :)

Well, I'm in my new house and I love it!!!  We've been here for about 2 weeks now but it took this long for them to set up our cable and computer service.  The guy came yesterday and was here for about 3 hours, I've never heard of such.

I still don't like how close we are in proximity to other houses but the house itself is wonderful!  We still have some setting up to do as I don't think that some of our older furniture is a good fit for this house so we've eliminated some things and need to replace them with other more aesthetically appropriate things.  For one, I'd like to replace my more conservative looking computer desk with a more contemporary one and a Swopper chair but my husband doesn't think that the chair is worth the money.  I'm sticking to my guns though and hopefully he'll give in, I guess this sort of thing is the price I have to pay for not having a paycheck of my own. ::)  Unfortunately, there aren't many business around here so I'm not sure if my employment status is going to change anytime soon.  There is a Curves up the street though and I got an application from them but I haven't filled it out yet.  I don't think they're hiring but I'll see.  

Anyway, the back yard is nice but bare so I would like to plant flowers and things back there anf get new outdoor furniture as I don't like my old balcony stuff for the yard.  It's going to be slow getting everything done but so far I'm being patient.

My favorite part of the house is my bathroom, it's very large.  I've convinced my husband to let me have it for my sole use so I'm happy about that.  It's big enough for me to put my portable fireplace in and eventually I want to set up my 55 gallon fish tank over the tub but we have to prioritze so I'm not sure when I'm going to get that going.

This weekend we bought a washer, dryer and a lawn mower a first for both my husband and me.  This morning after my husband mowed the lawn he said he finally felt like an adult and it reminded him of when his father used to mow the lawn.  I found this very strange and amusing because I had the same exact thought the day before when I was doing laundry, it reminded me of my mother.

At any rate all is well with life and hair. [smiley=laugh.gif]

This is my bathroom which I am so in love with, in the daytime you can see lots of trees outside the window.  I had to go in the closet to take the picture.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Bath1.jpg
The door in the picture opens to a closet like room that houses the toilet and I love this because it keeps it separate from the rest of the bathroom.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/FP1.jpg

And the kitchen, I love the green walls.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Kitchen1.jpg

The foyer has 2 of these neat cut outs and eventually I want to keep fresh flowers in them which I think will provide a nice and welcoming fragrance upon entering our home.  Since I have to prioritize, that's not in the budget right now so these dried flowers will have to do. :P
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Foyer1.jpg

How exciting and beautiful!!! :)  Best of luck to you and hubby in your new home!  It is lovely and I'm sure that when you finish putting your special touches in it,it will be even more lovelier! :)

Wow what a nice place! Love the kitchen! I like the decor too, neat Vangoh! 8-)  Good luck and have fun!!! 8-)

How exciting for you! I remember moving into our first house.... it was not a new home (built in 1900), but it was OURS!  The excitement of taking on adult chores, furnishing and maintaining it.  Enjoy it while you can.  (After 30 years of home ownership - some of the luster has worn off.)

Curlgirl: Thanks Curlgirl, this is the exciting part!

Lisabelle:  Thanks Lisabelle, Starry Night over the Rhone is my all time favorite.  I don't think theres anything more beautiful than a starry nighttime sky.  I do find it odd though, that at night I don't see stars at all in my new area. :-/

Bikerbraid:  I find it pretty weird that I'm so excited about this.  I've lived on my own in apartments since I was 19 years old but being in a house makes me feel like I'm just starting out all over again, theres such a newness about it. :)
This house isn't ours yet, we've decided to do a lease purchase option where we can live here for up to two years and sometime between now and then we have to make a decision as to wether we want to mortgage it or not.  Right now I'm completely gung ho however, if the luster has worn off after two years who knows... maybe we'll try living overseas (a dream of mine) but, for now I'm happy! ;)

Glad y'all got moved in and "hooked up"   ;)

Welcome back to the land of the internet!   :D

New house looks very nice!  Congrats!

Congrats on the new place, LD.  :)  Should be very exciting.

Thanks ladies! [smiley=laugh.gif]

The other day I realized how silly of me it is to throw things away right now, especially things that are fairly new and in good condition.  Instead of getting rid of my desk and outdoor wicker love seat I'm going to refinish them so that they'll match better. My only hope is that I do a good job.  

Well, my husband is away on business and I'm here to handle all of the duties myself so I guess I'd better take out the trash now, I'd completely forgotten that tomorrow is garbage day! :P

Also, I'd been sort of feeling guilty because my oldest neice is about to have her first baby and I told her I'd come to visit after the baby was born.  Well, I'd just decided not to go because I could use the travel and hotel money that I'd spend visiting for things around here.  I figured I'd send a gift and explain that I won't be visiting until next year.  Does this sound selfish?  My husband says no but I don't think he's a good judge of such things.  

First question is, how close are you to your neice?  Second question is, how close do you WANT to be to your neice?  What you are basically saying by using the travel money is that the stuff you want is more important than the relationship.  

I am not saying that is automatically a bad thing.  You are talking to the woman who did a community theater show instead of attending her neice's wedding.  I knew the message I was sending about the relationship, and frankly I was comfortable sending that message at that time.  I sometimes regret the hurt I caused, but even two years later I have NO REGRETS about doing the show.

So this is by no means an attempt to lay on a guilt trip.  If you don't think she'll care, then go next year.  If you feel your need to feel settled in your home is greater than your need to visit, or her need to be visited, go next year.  But understand that, as with all choices, there might be a downside and a price.    

texian.traveler wrote on Jul 24^th, 2007 at 11:39pm:

If you don't think she'll care

I guess that's actually the number one question, I'm really not sure if she'll care.  I'd been assuming that as long as I sent a gift she won't care but instead of asking others, I should ask her how important my being there is to her.  I guess I'd been telling myself that she won't care to make my not going easier on myself.  I even told her sister that when I did visit I'd bring her back home with me and let her stay for awile.  So, I guess I should ask her how she would feel with my reneging as well.  If they want me to come and I do the opposite then yes I am being selfish however if they truly want to see me and spend time with me then I will visit.  

Thanks for helping me sort this out TT  :)

With me, decisions of that nature are always based on money, specifically lack thereof.  Being a one-income family, it's unfortunate but ALL of our decisions have to based upon money.  Just my .02  *hugs*

My sister is a single mother of 3 and her household is run that way too, which is why I'd been so convinced that my neice would understand.  I still haven't asked her yet though. :-/

L, you haven't posted in quite a while; I hope all is well with you.  I'm thinking maybe you went to visit your niece...anyway, take care and let us know how you're doing.   :)

I'm fine, thanks for checking Trisha! ;)  

I did infact go to see my neice.  She had her baby on the 20th, a beautiful little girl named Mariah.  She was actually due on the 8th so I'm glad I didn't go then.  Money is still an issue with us right now so we had to drive instead of fly but otherwise it was great.

I'm still trying to get my house together as much as I can and it's become quite the project, I'm actually quite obsessed.  I'm still enjoying living in a house for the first time as an adult, I even cook on a regular basis now, my husband can't believe it. I'm finally totally domesticated! ;D

We did our patio which kept me busy for quite awhile.  There is no cover in the back to protect us from the sun or rain so we purchased a gazebo cheaply at an end of season sale.  We had to paint it and weather treat it to protect it from rust and we also had to anchor it down.  It was quite a job but it's now finished and I like to sit out back with my cats.  Although when I do, I can't help but think about my next project... the yard.  I'd like to take up all of the grass and replant new seeds. I also want to plant hedges and flowers and put out bird baths and feeders, but my husband thinks we should wait until the spring although I'm trying to persuade him to do it now, I'm not sure if I'll get my way or not. :-/

I was able to treat myself to one new thing though.  I purchased two AeroGardens and love them so far.  I'm growing herbs in one and romaine lettuce in the other.  They haven't grown enough to where I can harvest them yet but they have sprouted and are coming along nicely.  I can't wait until I'm able to eat salads that I grow and incorporate my own fresh herbs into my recipies!  This works out great because I've been a vegetarian for a little over 2 months now.  At this point, I don't see myself giving up dairy anytime soon but I do feel better eating a vegetarian diet.  I've also been keeping myself busy by working out everyday.  I do yoga twice a day, I do the elliptical for a half an hour a day, I meditate and bellydance...  I really can't get over how productive I've become.  I feel much happier now than I did before and it really shows.  Not that I was unhappy before though, it's actually a bit odd but it is what it is.::)

A few weeks ago we began noticing a gurgling sound coming from the guest bathroom toilet and we had no idea what it could be.  I was fearfully thinking that either a mouse, rat, or snake would eventually appear from the comode.  One day I was sitting on the couch and I saw all 3 of my cats lined up at the bathroom door looking curiously at something.  I went to the bathroom to see what had caught their attention and saw that there was sewage all over the floor.  The toilet had backed up, it was a smelly, disgusting mess.  We called the plumber and after about an hour or 2 of sucking the bathroom pipes, he pulled out a big wad of "flushable" feminine products and those "flushable" toilet wipes.  Apparently, these items (as I was scolded) aren't flushable at all, well at least not in this house. It was quite an expensive lesson and I didn't like being scolded like a child. >:(

Anyway speaking of the toilet, my cat now uses it.  Again, one morining I was sitting on my couch and I heard a noise from the same bathroom.  I panicked thinking that we were having toilet troubles again, but this time when I got to the bathroom I saw my cat urinating in the toilet.  It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my life and could not stop laughing!  She doesn't do it all of the time but she still does it occasionally, I only wish she'd learn to flush! ;D  My cats never cease to amaze me, they bring me so much joy! :D

Oh well, thats me...domestic goddess! ;D  I'm so wrapped up in this house (and playing house) right now but, I'll check in more often.  I do miss you all! :D

Oh, I forgot to mention my hair.  Well, I decided to keep it the same length all spring and summer so that I could slowly even it all out.  It's finally one length all 23.5 inches of it, with the exception of my bang.  I'm hoping that I'll be bra strap length again by the new year. 8-)  Bye for now! :)

Hi Sweetie!  Have fun with your house!  I was rolling on the floor when you said your cat pee's in the john! http://smilies.sofrayt.com/aiw/laugh.gif  I had an image of my bunny trying to do this! http://smilies.sofrayt.com/aiw/laugh.gif  You tell that plumber to go take a running jump at himself! http://smilies.sofrayt.com/1/i0/kloguck.gifThose things are flushable! Tell him to take it up with the company who makes them, not you.  (((hugs)))

*giggle* I'm glad you're loving your new house, La Diosa... Can we get pics? >:D Yeah, I had to learn the same lesson when I moved down here... apparently louisiana plumbing is a lot less effective...

Hi Lisabelle and Kiraela! It's great talking to you again!  

Lisabelle:  Believe me, I had lots of choice words for that plumber however, as always I kept them to myself and basically took what he was dishing out.  It's pretty weird though because prior to moving here, I'd been flushing my "flushables' for years with no problem. :-/  Now, I have to toss them in the trash which took some getting used to but it's fine now.

I'm wondering if perhaps a rabbit could be toilet trained.  I mean if they can use the litter box... ?:-/
But yeah it's too funny that my cat does that now.  It would be nice if all of my cats would follow suit because it would save lots of money that would otherwise be spent on litter.  I'm sure they can be trained but it's actually me that isn't up to it.  Perhaps sometime in the future.

Sure Kiraela.  There are pics below but I also posted pics on the previous page.  Keep in mind that they are mainly "before" pics as we still have lots to do yet.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Project1.jpg
The front
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/gazebo-1.jpg
The Gazebo which still isn't finished.  We bought plants for it but the weather was so hot lately that it was causing them to wilt and we had to bring them inside.  You probably can't tell from the pic but I have a chandelier hanging in there, it's pretty cute.  There's also a fountian and a chiminea in there that for now I only use for candles.  I'm still looking for a rug to place in there as well so, so far it's coming along okay.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/woodedview-1.jpg
This is our view which is lovely for me because there aren't any houses behind us.  But I hate looking at that bare fence so what I want to do take the fence down and plant  hedges.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/Copyofside.jpg
My look is pretty much the same as I'd mentioned I've kept my hair around 23 inches all summer evening it up but I'm finally there and ready to move on to BSL again already.

My hair is by no means anywhere close the the length that I want it eventually but I'm still trying to have fun with it as it is.  This is me playing around with pigtails.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/July07.jpg
Well, I'm off to bed now... (((hugs for Lisabell and Kiraela))) :-*  I'll try to make my way to everyones journals this week.  Hope everyone had a great Labor Day!

Wow, that's a nice looking house! It's so cute from the front! Except for the plummer incident, it sounds like things are coming together.

Your hair looks really nice. Keep up the good work! :D

Your hair is looking very good!  The house and gazebo are beautiful :)!

What a charming house!  Love the Gazebo!  I can see a nice rug in there, try Ikea!  You hair looks great and so do you! :)

I've got to second everyone's comments... that is a seriously cute house, and I love love that gazebo. I love those pigtails, too~ very cute.

Your hair is looking FINE!!!  *hugs*   8-) Love the house, too!

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments about my hair and home. :-*

Lately, I'd been working out like a mad woman and had finally gotten to the point where I had to stop pushing myself so hard.  Today and yesterday I was completely exhausted, so much so that I couldn't do any working out.  I want to get into really great shape really bad but I've got to learn to pace myself.  

Earlier this week we went to Home Depot and got some things that I suppose homeowners need like a hose, pruning shears and basic stuff like that.  We also had to buy weed killer because the weeds are spreading like crazy.  When my husband cuts the lawn I'd talked him out of raking thinking that it was doing a good thing (so I'd read) but apparently what we were doing was speading the weed mulch all over the lawn creating a situation for weeds to grow up everywhere.  So yesterday, we had to get this stuff to kill the weeds with great hope that it'll even work. ::)  

I was able to find some cool solar lights for our walkway at a great price.  I so can't wait for them to show up.  And I'm ready to decorate for Halloween now but unfortunately, it's still too early. :(

Lately, I haven't purchased any new clothes opting for vintage preferably from the 60's and 70's hippie type stuff.  I love the variety that I find available when shopping second hand. I'm trying to convince my husband not to consume new clothes but used however, that isn't going to happen.  Oh well. :P

I was in fact, able to convince my husband that we needed a Cat Genie and he agreed! :D  My cats were afraid of it at first because it's a bit loud during the cleaning cycle, but I've worked around that by cycling it manually when they are either sleep or playing in the back yard.  I am grateful to say that they are now used to it.  It's so cool!  I only have to push one button to start it and then flush the toilet when it's finished, it's a snap. :D

I had to take my cat to the vet earlier this week for his food allergies.  Now I have to give him 3 pills a day and I hate it.  First of all,  giving a cat a pill is no picnic and secondly, I'm sure that afterwards he hates my guts which really breaks my heart but  then,  after a while he will come over to me and let me pet him. :)

Hair:  Doing great!  Not growing quite as fast as I'd like but as long as it isn't falling out I'm content.  I'm not really doing too much with it lately, only keeping it up in two buns.  Right now I'm just trying to let it do it's thing and grow.

Just curious,did you know that your body reaps the most benefit and grows when you are not working out???  Years ago I had a vicious cyle of running(training for the NYC marathon) and bodybuilding,couldn't decide which I loved more,but saw that when I rested my body,the most beneficial results were visual,physical and internal.

Yes Curlgirl, my husband reminds me of that all of the time.  I think I over do it out of fear that if I don't push myself I'll lose my motivation and get comfortable doing nothing. :(

I totally understand how you feel about that!  I've come to learn that quality,not quantity is so much better in working out and many other things in life.  I think you'll find your happy medium,may not be happy for others,but it is your happiness that is foremost. ;) :)

Yep you're right, I need to find that medium.  The point where I'm not doing as much but also where I also don't feel like a slacker. :-/   I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. :)

Today my husband and I finally decided to throw in the towel and call a lawn service, our weeds are horrible.  Also, they're now spreading to the neighbors lawn. :o

I'm happy because we finally got a new, nice lamp shade for our living room.  I've come to expect that when we move that my husband will break a few things.  Well, this time one of the things that broke, well got ripped was our silk lamp shade.  We've purchased 3 other lampshades since we've been here but we didn't like them and ended up returning them.  This shade cost more money than I wanted to spend but at least our search is finally over.

My elliptical is still in the dining room because we cannot get it upstairs where I want it.  I called a local fitness machine repair shop and they'll break it down into smaller pieces and reassemble it upstairs.  I didn't want to spend the extra money as I'm trying to be more thrifty these days but we have no other choice.

Our tv is stil on the floor.  I wanted to hang it on the wall but don't know what we'd do with our components.  I think it would look silly to hang the tv but have a stand for the components so, I've decided to just get a stand for the components and the tv.

When we moved here I opened a new bank account and have been having horrible experiences with it eversince.  So many rules!  Everytime I turn around I'm getting charged fee's.  My husband said to look at it as though I paid someone to read the small print for me because every fee was a learning experience.  That didn't help though, I'd been calling the bank everyday and was pissed!  We went to Whole Foods after I had yet another talk with the bank and I saw a woman walking with crutches, she only had one leg.  Well, that put things into perspective for me.  It made me realize that I really don't have room to complain about much of anything. :-[  

Well, that's whats going on with me right now, oh and looking for halloween decorations...I can't wait! :D

WooHoo!  I'm happy because I just finished my "after summer" relaxer and it only took me 1 hour and 20 minutes from prep to finish!  But the main reason I'm happy is that I checked my hair, and the two spots where I'd lost hair from alopecia are now 4" long!!!  I'm actually having a glass of wine to celebrate! [smiley=beer.gif]  The end of last year, when my hair first began filling in, marked the first time since I was diagnosed, that I didn't have hair actively falling out and hopefully, I never will again! :D

I was also thinking about all of the things that I've learned about my hair this year.

• I can't regularly wash my hair with a shampoo that has cones or protein.  Natural shampoos are best.
  

• Moisturizing, leave in conditioning creams do better in my hair than oils.
  

• Hair serum greatly helps with tangles but, isn't needed nor should be used more than once between washes
  

• CO's are great for eliminating product build up between shampoos.
  

• My hair loves Giovanni Vitapro leave in conditioner.
  

• I don't need to use clarifying shampoos.  Because my hair is so dry whenever I need to clarify I only need to use shampoo for natural hair as opposed to my regular moisture shampoo for dry hair.

I'm sure there are more which I can't think of right now.   I haven't tried any new products in a while basically because I don't have a need to.  As it is, I've pretty much got my hair all figured out, yay!!!

Other: I'm so into vintage dresses right now.  I just got this pretty little number in the mail today.  It's really long and comes down to my ankles.  I only wish I had THAT hair to go along with it :Pperhaps next year when I wear it, I will.;)
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/68679487_tp1.jpg

Quote:

Posted by: La Diosa Posted on: Today at 2:03am WooHoo!  I'm happy because I just finished my "after summer" relaxer and it only took me 1 hour and 20 minutes from prep to finish!  But the main reason I'm happy is that I checked my hair, and the two spots where I'd lost hair from alopecia are now 4" long!!!

Woo hoo!!!   [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

That's awesome, LD.  I hope you are over the alopecia forever!!

Super cute dress!!!

Thanks Trishia and Sakina! :D

Way to go!  :D

Congratulations, La Diosa!  :D

Congrats,La Diosa!!!

Thanks everyone! :D

That is a nice dress and you look really nice in it :)

Jerry

Thanks Jerry, how very nice of you. :)

You are very welcome :)


My wife wears pajamas to bed when it is cold.  We have electric heat in our apartment which can get very expensive so we just bundle up as best as we can ::)
I am hot blooded so if the outside temperature is like -10 C I will wear a t-shirt to bed but that does not happen too often.


I am sorry your cat was briefly lost.  My wife's two cat's do not go outside even though I am sure they sometimes wish they could.
It is a proven fact that inside cat's live longer than cat's that go outside.
Our town has a leash law but most people ignore it or don't know about it so we have a lot of cat's running around outside.  Most of them are friendly so when I walk to work and walk home I sometimes pet the cat's who are friendly.

Jerry

What nice clothes!  I love what you did with the post box. http://smilies.sofrayt.com/1/950/bouquet.gif I am sorry about Kitty.  I agree with Jerry, its dangerous for cats out there.  A cat cannot run free in my neck of the woods as there's to many wild animals about.  

I hope kitty's back, safe and sound...

It's funny, my cat is completely uninterested in the outside... We've carried in groceries, door wide open, with Emma lounging on the back of the recliner looking out the door like, "grass. eww. no thanks."  When she was five weeks old, I brought her out and set her in the grass... She started screaming, climbed up my leg and sat on my shoulder shaking. Of course, I was wearing a skirt at the time... so I rather got the point. Not an outdoor cat.

BTW, that dress is pretty, and that wall color is so cheery looking. like you'd wake up in a grumpy mood, growl at everything, look at the walls, and be  ;D. Also: footie pajamas? I didn't even know they still made those! cute though.  

My kitty is safe and sound.  I don't let them go out unattended but the thing was that I didn't even know she had gotten out.  I was doing something out front when I heard her screaming.  I just assumed she was upstairs in the house (and she's typically very vocal) so I ignored it.  When she didn't stop, I went upstairs to look for her but she wasn't there and thats when I realized she was outside.  I went back out and I no longer heard her and all sorts of thoughts crossed my mind.  I wondered firstly, where she was and if she was okay, if I'd ever see her again...  I was even upset with myself because I hadn't updated her microchip information.  Then I just began calling out for her and she screamed again.  Everytime I called her name she'd let out a loud scream until I was able to follow the sound and find her.  She was a few doors down scratching at someones door.  I'm certain she was scared and confused having no idea where she was.  She was fine once I got her home.

Thanks for the compliments on my flowers and new duds. :D  
There is a site called Jumpin Jammerz and they sell footed pj's.  I love 'em! :D

I'm glad you and kitty are fine!!

That dress is too cute and your house is just gorgeous! And I'm happy that your cat was safe.

I read your entry in Curlgirl64's journal about the coconut milk soak. I haven't had the guts to use it on my entire head, but I sometimes use the plain milk on the length. I heat the milk *slightly* and then dunk my hair in the milk. It is really drippy, but I find that putting my hair in a plastic bag and then putting a shower cap over that eliminates some potential mess. Brands with a high percentage of coconut milk (like 90%) tends to be thicker and somewhat less drippy. HTH

I agree!!  I put a shower cap on and then a twistie turbin over that!  Things are tight,but better tight then having drips all over!!!  The dogs sits and waits in anticipation for that!!!!!  

If I let it go, it will grow. :D

My mom used to make my Halloween costumes every year... aww, what memories!  Hehehehe, so your fur-babies are a little spoiled.. nothing wrong with that.. at least they will wear the costumes!  My cat would probably run and hide if I put a costume on him.  :D

Vegan cheesecake...isn't that rather an oxymoron?  :-?

lol Cats + costumes = not cool! When my sister & I were kids, we used to torture our poor cats by putting them in a ballerina costume that actually belonged to one of my sister's stuffed animals.  :P  My cat would freak out and kick furiously until the shoes came flying off...my sister's cat would just lay down and pin his ears.  ;D  Yes, we were twisted...but good times.

My cat has been known to wander around a house with a stretched out, useless scrunchie around her neck(I'm still not sure how she put it on... I woke up and she was wearing it...) but if one were to try to put anything else on her(like a dishtowel cape(don't ask)) she'd flop over and refuse to move until it were taken away, or she worked out how to worm out of it.

Quote:

Anyway, my new doctor said I shouldn't need regular visits with her either and will just give me meds and lots of refills.  I was sort of disappointed when she said that

Although if talking to your new therapist makes you feel better, why not do so?  --Instead of only taking the meds, I mean.

novusfemina:  I never said my cats liked the costumes...they hate them but I figure for all that I do for them day in and day out they can at least dress up for me. ::)

Angel Spun: Yeah I suppose it would be an oxymoron however this recipe calls for absolutely no dairy.  It's mainly crushed nuts and coconut oil.


Quote:

When my sister & I were kids, we used to torture our poor cats by putting them in a ballerina costume that actually belonged to one of my sister's stuffed animals.    My cat would freak out and kick furiously until the shoes came flying off...my sister's cat would just lay down and pin his ears.    Yes, we were twisted...but good times.

 You crack me up! ;D

Kiraela: So far only one of my cats has given me any real problems with this.  My normally sweet docile kitty actually tried to bite me as I put her costume on but, I'm determined that they will all be in costume on Halloween. :P

Trisha: I don't know.  She never suggested it so I'm not sure how much it would help.  I don't get anxiety attacts anymore, unless I go off my medication and even then they aren't bad ones, so I guess she feels that it isn't serious enough to require counseling sessions.  Maybe I'll ask her next time.  I was also thinking it may be because she is the only one in her practice and her waiting room was pretty full.  Perhaps this is her way of making sure eveyone gets seen. :-/


Life:  I was still in bed around 10 this morning when I noticed my husband acting strange.  He had already awaken about 7 oclock but around 10 he kept coming into our room but seemingly for no purpose.  He'd come in and walk right back out.  The second time I even asked him what he was doing but only glanced at me and kept on walking.  Finally, I got out of bed and he came into my bathroom and told me that my cat was missing and that we needed to find her.  Here we go again.  I was so upset because only yesterday I'd told him that if he's going to let the cats out in the yard he MUST watch them because my youngest can climb the fence.  So of course I'm pissed at him but knew I had to find my cat.  It took about 2 hours but eventually she began to respond as I called her.  She was in the back of my house in the bushes were there are tons of thorns.  I tried to get down there but got cut on my leg.  So my husband went down there to look for her.  I'd call her, she'd respond and he'd try to get as close as he could but he could never get close enough to grab her and she would not go to him.  After what seemed like forever, eventually she came out of the woods and made her way over to me.  I was so upset with her but also relieved at the same time.  I gave her a bath just in case she ran into some fleas and ticks but she seems perfectly fine.  I and my husband on the other hand have lots to thorn cuts to tend to.  

I just purchased hedges that can grow up to 12 feet which I am going to plant all along the fence, so hopefully once I get those going, I won't have to worry about her hopping over anymore. ::)

Hehehehe!  I can see you talking to them now, "Like it or not, you're going to wear it.. I'm the holder of the can opener and the tuna fish!"

Cats...Oy, they're like kids, immature ones at that.   ::)

Off topic replies have been moved to This Thread

Yes, my cats are like children, but this year I've given up and will be giving them their way.  The one costume I have is still too big even after my altering it and the other one I got was to big as well.  They said to measure from head to their bottom to determine size but I suppose that only works for dogs.  Anyway, the last one I ordered was from an eBay fraudster who took my money (and the money of a few others) but never delivered a product.  So, I re sold my other costume and decided to give it up this year.  I'll dress them next year and hopefully it'll be more simpler, at least now, I know what size they wear.

I did finally get my costume though.  It's a maids costume but I altered it and dyed the white lace parts a pretty teal blue.  Now it looks more like a Moulan (sp?) Rouge type outfit.  I'm going to dress my husband up as a vampire but I want to do his eyes like Johnny Depp in Pirates (so sexy!)

I still haven't been thinking about my hair too much lately.  My newest passion is vintage clothing, buying and selling.  I'd never been to a thrift store prior to a week ago and I was surprised at how much fun I had, it was like searching for treasure.  I can't wait to go again in a few days. [smiley=laugh.gif]

I also went to the Moscow Cat Theater this past weekend, it was so much fun!  They train regular domesticated cats to do circus tricks, it was amazing!  It was geared alot towards kids as they had clowns too, I imagine to fill the time as they prepared the cats backstage.  They even called my husband up to be part of the show at one point.  He was sick and feverish with a cold but he loved it.  He was making silly faces and winking at the crowd, the people seemed to enjoy it but I was preoccupied with the thought that he may pass out.  He was fine though and was saying how much he loves being on the stage and how even sick, the show must go on... he's such a ham! ;D

Um, my house is coming along great!  I'm finally going to get the dining set that I want next week, so we can have proper meals and a proper Thanksgiving at the table.

I figure that by the end of the year we'll have everything done around here and hopefully then, I'll be ready to join the Compact.  I'd love to try to not make any new purchases (except the essentials) for one year, or at least six months.  I think learning to get by with only what I have will be great for me.  I've actually done it before but then it was easier because I didn't have the means to consume.  This will be more of a challenge because I'll have the means but will have to use discipline not to shop.

Yay, Halloween is getting closer everyday!  I already carved my pumpkin which turned out really nice but apparently, I carved too prematurely because it's already rotted and had to be thrown away. :'(   My husband and I are even already snacking on those little candy bars.  Not only can't I believe that I'm eating this candy, I can't believe how much I can eat, it's nuts!  I've finally lost 5lbs and if I keep this up, I'm most likely going to put it all back on. :'(  I think now is the time for me to practice discipline. :P  

Next time you carve your pumpkin, rub Vasaline on the cut parts to keep it from drying out or rotting too early!

Ooh, great tip, thanks!  It was the first intricate carving I'd ever done so it was a bit disappointing to have it rot so soon, hopefully this will work for me! :D

The Moscow Cat Theater sounds like fun!   :)

It really was!  I only wish I could teach my own cats to do some of those tricks.  My cats are pretty smart, I just don't know how to begin teaching some of those tricks.  Perhaps I'll buy another cat training book. :)

Yay, I found something new to be excited about!  I've been in such a hair rut lately.  I'd found products that worked so I'd just been doing the same routine which is fine, but it's been boring.  Today in the mail, I got a catalog with Ojon products and they sound great so I'm gonna give them a try. I hope they work as well as advertised.:D

I also recieved the perfect leather jacket in the mail today.  I was so happy because I'd been looking for a nice jacket for years. It's so cute and feminine, it's black and ruffly with lace trim.  Only now it felt a little weird because I no longer eat meat yet I just purchased leather. :-/  

You won't be disappointed with the Ojon products.  I've used them on and off for about 4 years.  The restorative treatment is pricey,but well worth it! :)

Curlgirl64 wrote on Oct 25^th, 2007 at 6:50pm:

You won't be disappointed with the Ojon products.  I've used them on and off for about 4 years.  The restorative treatment is pricey,but well worth it! :)

I second that!  Ojon is really good! 8-)

Woo Hoo, Ojon!  Now, I really can't wait to try it!  Thanks Lisabelle and Curlgirl for telling me of your experiences with it.   I'm getting the S&H plus the restorative treatment, I'll let you know how it works for my hair.  

:) you're welcome!

Cheers! :D

Ugh...night clubs are so lame! >:(  

Oh how cute!  You pretty thing you! 8-)

The colors look really good together ;)

Jerry

Thanks Jerry and Lisabelle (you're always so sweet :-*).  

I liked the colors too.  I'm actually glad I altered it and painted it blue. There were so many other girls wearing the same costumes (including this one), at least mine was able to be somewhat different.

you look great!  

Love the costume - you look darling!

[color=#000000]Thank you Curlgirl and Bikerbraid.

I've been thinking about drought situation down there - it is starting to sound pretty scary.  :-?

Filling your watering cans while the shower warms is a great idea!

Have you considered recycling your gray water? If you wash your dishes in a removable tub, you could recycle that water.  The same is true of bath water and water used for food prep.  Basically any water except the toilet water can be recycled.  You just need to create a filtering system.  We have this up at our land (we don't have any plumbing up there).  We created the filter by using a 30 gallon plastic garbage can.  You fill the bottom 8" with rocks, a screen layer on top of that, several inches of smaller rock, a screen layer, several more inches of even smaller rock, a screen layer, several inches of sand, a screen layer, then dirt (with plants if you like).  You have a hole with a faucet at the bottom of the can so that you can control the water flow.  To recycle the water, you dump the used water on top.  It will filter thru the dirt, sand and rock and eventually get to the bottom.  What comes out of the bottom faucet can be used to water plants and is usually safe for pet drinking as well.  

In the meantime - I hope you get rain soon!

No, I never considered recycling gray water, I didn't even know that was possible.  Lately, I haven't been taking baths though opting for short showers, but recycling dishwater is definitley something I can do.  Thanks for the tip.

Yeah, the situation is pretty scary.  I just don't think a lot of people here (including my husband) really know how serious it is because as of now, we still have water.  I don't think some people really have grasped the idea that if we don't get enough rain, in a few months, that may no longer be the case. :-/

I'm counting down the days until my Ojon shampoo, conditioner and rejuvinating treatment arrives.  I even ordered a new shower filter for the occasion, it's supposed to remove everything, I can't wait.  I'm hoping it will all be here by Saturday so I can wash my hair then.  It hasn't been that long since my last wash but trying new products always excites me. :D

I'm also thinking about trying Formula 37 hair pills.  From the reviews I read it works for some but not for others.  They're pretty pricey but I figure if they work then it'll be worth the cost so I think I'll try them for a month to see.   If they work great if not at least I'll know and won't have to keep wondering what if.

Today we went to Buford Hwy where they have one of the largest varieties of ethnic restaurants and shops all in one place in the country. I went searching store to store looking for my Buddha that I want to put in my art niche, but there were just too many stores which is why I thank goddess for the internet.  I can search from the comfort of my own home, any time of day, without having to roam aimlessly from store to store and usually in vain, to find what I want.

Well, I got my restoratives treatment today.  It smelled okay until it emulsified then it smelled like smoke.  I put it in my hair anyway but I think I used too much, as it now seems greasy and my husband says I smell like a pot head. :P    I'm going to keep it in overnight for extra conditioning and I'll wash it out tomorrow.

Went to see American Gangster today.  It's very good.  They showed about 1/2 hours worth of previews prior to starting the movie and I was surprised to see that there are a few other cool movies coming out. :)  

It usually smells like roasted coffee and chocolate.  You can start at the ends and work your way up to do the whole head.  If you wanted to leave it on overnight you could or leave it in for 20 or 30 minutes and then shampoo.

Yeah, it does have a roasted coffee scent.  

Hair: Well, I the treatment in overnight and washed with the moisturizing and thickening shampoo and conditioner.  I know my hair is already quite thick but I was curious to see if I could get more body.  Anyway, my hair still seems as thick as it's always been but it does feel softer and quite managable. :D  I put my hair in two pigtails to let it air dry.  Afterwards, I applied a bit more restorative treatment (not as much as I put in yesterday ::))  and I like it.  It feels soft and the treatment gives it a nice shine. :)

I've been so bummed out lately about how short my hair is, I trimmed off so much over the spring and summer.  Even though my hair was a few inches longer this time last year, I have to keep reminding myself that it wasn't nearly as healthy as it is now.  I was still regularly using a blow dryer for goodness sake. ::)  

One thing that took my mind off of my hair for a bit was recieving a new vintage dress in the mail today.  it's a long gorgeous crocheted sweater dress and I only paid 10.00 for it!  Shopping vintage is so much fun! :D

I am happy the Ojon worked out for you. I love Ojon!  Knowing how much to put in your hair is a little hard at first but you get the hang of it.  Whatever is left on my hands I rub into my skin. In the summer when its really hot put the RT in the fridge or it seperates.  Enjoy! 8-)

Thanks Lisabelle!  You're so right, knowing how much to put in was tricky but I've gotten the hang of it. ;)

Cool! ;)

Okay so, now that the cooler weather has arrived

I have the same trouble with the dry heat making my hair dry.  I oil it evey night just on the lenght.  Isay keep the humidfier going all the time.  I think if you keep washing it might make the dryness worst. :-/

Oh you kitty is so cute!  I'm trying to remember what breed she is.  There was a  video store in my area that had this type of cat and I loved it! :-*

Yeah, this time of year sucks for my hair although not totally.  Because I don't go out as much in the cold, I'm afforded more opportunity to do up do's more often since when I go out I prefer my hair down.  

About your hair, you can try spritzing the length with water before you go to bed or put it in an updo. Sometimes when I'm in the middle of a wash cycle, I dampen the length before I go to bed and it's nice and soft when I wake up.

Good luck with your FIL and stepson's visit! I don't have any in-laws so, unfortunately, I can't give any advice. I'm sure it will be fine, though. If not, at least 3 days instead of 3 weeks.

Well, like you said, it's only three days, so if it's awkward, or even sucks, at least it will be over soon.
Paul and his dad don't get along. at all. and his father lives on the other side of the duplex, and they share the shop. It can be rough, lemme tell you.

The water spritz sounds like a good idea juri, I'm gonna try it.  Thanks :D

Well, he arrived and it wasn't bad (well except for the fact that he basically called me skinny ::))seeing that we do have a bit to catch up on.  They've (he and my husband) have now gone to pic up my stepson which feels weird saying since I never call him that.  I think I'll refer to him in here as DH's son.  My husband told me that he'll try to think of different places we can go together so that we aren't all just awkwardly sitting around here.

At least we have a couples date night pottery class to look fwd to tomorrow which should be fun... I'm just still not so sure as to what I'm going to wear. :-?


Another thing I know we'll be doing is looking for a new car this weekend as we're in the market for one right now.  I'm really pushing for a Prius, I think they're so cute!  Anyway, I was on eBay and saw a cute little green 07 with a bid of about 200.00 and the auction strangely had no reserve. Typically, I'd never look at a green car but felt if I could get one for basically nothing why not?  So I figured what the heck, and increased the bid up to 1000.00.  Who would think of purchasing a car on eBay?  I found it so funny and weird seeing it in the items I'm bidding on section on the My eBay screen.  Well, after a few more relatively low bids, the auction mysteriously disappeared.  Actually, it wasn't that mysterious to me.  I knew right away that the person who listed the auction realized their mistake of not having a reserve price and was afraid of letting a perfectly good car (even if it is light green) go for potentially 3000.00 or something way below market value. ;D   Sure enough when I rechecked, it was there relisted correctly.  Then I thought hey why not browse homes for sale while I'm at it and yep, there they were... houses for sale on eBay. ;D  I guess I'm a dork but that's too funny to me.  "Like someone might say "Hey why don't I go on eBay and buy a pair of pants... and perhaps a house  while I'm at it". ;D

Oh and why is it that I can't wait to get the December edition of Ebony magazine with Michael Jackson on the cover!?!  Thinking that it was already on stands, this past Sunday morning I had my husband drive me to Walgreens at 8a.m. to pick it up.  When it wasn't there I was quite disappointed and it's really frightening that I can't wait.  I thought I'd abandoned this phase in the 90's. :-/ All I know is that it better be a good article. ;D Check out the cover... http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s297/goddessacelestial/michaeljacksonebonycovetm21.jpg

You're welcome! I used to do that when my hair was shorter and I hope it works for you.

Too weird; I'm listening to Michael Jackson on my laptop and then I see your entry on him. :o

"shakes head at your hushand"  Guys! ::)  I wish I had the med/dance room myself.  I always thought that was so cool.  When I pratice my dance and hubbies home, I send him to the bedroom as I like to practice without him watching cause he will make comments. He use to ice dance when he was a teen, so this guy can do the samba on blades! :-?
Say, Micheal looks pretty good!

Gotta love Michael.  8-)

Juri:  It worked, yay I'm so happy.  Prior to going to bed I did a spritz of water and hair lotion, and the next morning my hair was still soft.  Thank you! :D

Lisabelle:  I don't like bellydancing in front of my husband either.  Whenever he catches glimpes of me dancing I always stop.  He says it's nice and he'd like to see me dance, but I don't because I'd feel that I have to perform, as opposed to dancing for me and my own happiness.  I'd only feel comfortable if I choreographed a routine and had an elaborate costume, lighting and props. ;D  It would have to be perfect, unlike when I'm just dancing for pleasure, not sticking to a routine and dancing however the music makes me feel without caring (too much) how I look.  I don't think that's weird? :-?

So, your husband can really samba on ice skates!?!  I'm really impressed. :o

And as for Michael Jackson looking nice...  Well, as much as I like him and I truly do, I'm sure it took a lot of airbrushing to get him to look that way. [smiley=happy.gif]

Angel Spun:  Okay, if I didn't remember you mentioning that you were a Michael Jackson fan in a previous post, I'd think you were being sarcastic. ;) :D

Other: Today was fun.  Well, I actually slept until 3pm because I ended up staying up all night and not going to bed until 9am due to my sleeping disorder but after 3 was a okay. :)  We went to our couples pottery class and had a really good time.  My husband who is a total novice made the best piece of work out of everyone, he was quite pleased with himself. ::)  Everyone was also very nice and fun, it was a great group and I'm sure all of the wine didn't hurt. ;D  Anyway, we met this couple that seemed to have so much in common personality wise, with my husband and myself, so we swopped numbers and hopefully will go out together sometime.  With my husband and I pretty much attached at the hip day in and day out, it was nice to be able to enjoy conversations and the company of another couple. :)  

After our night out, we returned home to FIL and SS and that was nice too.  It actually felt surprisingly good to be welcomed by family when we came home.  It's surprising because it's so unlike me, or at least I thought it was. :-/  We all talked laughed and watched tv until we all got tired and decided to go to bed.  Now everyone is asleep and although I felt tired my body changed it's mind and now here I am up again. :P   I'll most likely take my sleeping pills in a bit, I do so hate this, sleeping disorders suck! :P  And on that positive note I'll be off to take my sleep medication. ::)