wrapping up

Our new beautiful home is nearing completion.

I can't believe this process is coming to an end.

It is so exciting that we get to move into this house that has been just a dream for so long. (Well, not that long actually.  The builders were really fast!)

Our closing date is December 20th, so we're really getting down to the wire.  

Only 12 more days!

I hadn't been in the house for about a week because there are locks on the doors now so not just anybody off the street can walk in, so when we went in yesterday I was amazed at how much the builders have accomplished.

Here's a few pics I snapped with my iPhone.

Our cabinets came in!  There will be black granite counter-tops.
And I am very pleased with the color of the wood floors.

The view from the kitchen into the living room.
The wall color isn't exactly what I thought it would be, but I still like it.

Master bedroom.  Love that color.

The view out of our master bedroom.

  

Custom walk-in shower in the master bathroom, tiling partially completed.

Shower, tile flooring.

Parker's bedroom.  The perfect purple color.

View out of Parker's perfect purple room.

Haven's pink bedroom.  Again, very happy with how the color turned out.

And this is her seeing it for the first time.

Sadly I forgot to capture any pictures of the basement, which is looking beautiful.  I'll try and get some of it tomorrow when we're out there.

What do you guys think?

the truth about your hairstylist

two things that surprise me:

1. How quickly a person can choose a tattoo artist.

2. How quickly a person can choose a hairstylist.

while this post is not about tattoos, 

it really ties into what i have to say.

I don't have any tattoos.  I am not against tattoos.

I may even get a tattoo someday.

But the idea of choosing a tattoo that you're supposed to be happy with for the rest of your life is daunting to say the least.

okay, say you have overcome that colossal task.

you have found something that you are going to look at when you're 80 and say, "that was a good choice."

i doubt that will happen, but let's move on.

you are then left with a second colossal task - 

choosing your artist.

when I think tattoo artists I think Kat Von D,
but I have a feeling that's like asking Picasso to paint you a picture,
spendy.
So you can't afford the artist you want, do you then go to plan b and pick somebody you don't really want?  
that sounds like a good idea for a permanent piece of body art...


for a post that wasn't supposed to be about tattoos, 
this sure looks a lot like a post about tattoos.
my bad.


One thing I didn't realize before enrolling in cosmetology school was that not everybody was meant to do hair.  
What I mean by that is, sometimes a cosmetology license is an illusion.
Just because somebody went through a year of beauty school,
that does not make them a hair expert,
that does not make them fashionable,
and that does not make them good at doing hair.
think of it this way, if a person with absolutely no artistic ability takes a year's worth of art classes, does that make them an expert?  proooobably not.
I was recently in a financial class* we are taking at church and mentioned that I'm a licensed cosmetologist, and have done hair out of my house in the past.  Within seconds I had two or three people asking me if I could do their hair.  
While this is flattering AND good for my pocketbook,
I couldn't help but notice how quickly these people trusted me with their hair just because I have a cosmetology license.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't trust me with your hair,
but there are people out there that you absolutely shouldn't. 
Some girls that graduate cosmo school I wouldn't let touch my hair with a 10-foot-pole.


True story:  I worked at Cost Cutters for two days a couple years ago.  This is in no way something I thought I would do**, but this particular Cost Cutters is a 5 minute drive from my house and I just thought it would be the responsible thing to do.  I had to drive a couple hours away to train for the job.  They went over their policies and procedures, and had me cut the hair of a male mannequin, and showed me a couple of their techniques.  
Let me emphasize this:  I cut ONE mannequins hair and I was in.  
They basically told me that the more haircuts I did, the more money I would make.
That sounds great, but it ends up taking the fun out of doing hair.
It turns the salon into what I like to call a chop shop.
Basic philosophy, cut hair as fast as you can.
Do you really want that in a stylist?  
Do you want them to get you in and out as fast as they can?  
I had a co-worker tell me that she could do a male haircut in 8 minutes.  
8 minutes!
When I go to a salon, I want the experience.
I want it to be therapeutic.
I want them to take their time with me, and leave feeling refreshed,
and with a nice haircut would be a plus.


So do yourself a favor and do a little research before you let just anybody touch your hair.
That is, unless you're a guy.
In that case, you can probably disregard the second half of this blog.




*which i mentioned here.
** I see myself working in a high-end salon/spa.  not a cost cutters.  call me a snob, whatevs.

the new house frenzy

We are very excited to move into our new house.

But there are so many loose ends needing to be tied up that I am going crazy!

Financial details, packing, planning, and on top of it all

CHRISTMAS!!

We sure picked a great time of year to move. (note sarcasm)

So much to do, so little time.

The actual building of the house is right on schedule, but now we are behind on some of the financial details and our closing date may have to be moved from December 20th to December 30th. Boo.

On top of all that, there are so many unexpected costs that arise in the building process.

Change your mind on one little detail and there's usually a fee.

And we are moving from a 1450 sq. ft. house into an (approximately) 2500 sq. ft. house,

so there's furniture to be bought.

When we actually do move in there will be movers to pay.

And of course, our house payment is going to be increasing by quite a bit.

Let's just say I am excited for it to be January.

I am usually all about Christmas, but this year it is just stressing me out.

In January, I plan on two things: saving money and dieting/exercising.

Luke and I have been taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University,

and we would recommend it to everybody.

I was really hesitant to take this class, but I am so glad that we did.

I have always been pretty terrible with money.

I never saved any money, and would just spend money as it entered my account.

I can't count how many overdraft charges I received.

Now I am excited about saving money.

I want to build and build our savings and have enough money to buy some bigger ticket items if we need them.  

Sorry, didn't mean to get on a financial soapbox.

Diet and exercise.

I'm actually excited about this, believe it or not.

I am sure when I am in the midst of it I won't be so excited anymore,

but right now I am excited to get started.

I am saving myself some trouble and not starting until the holidays are over-

that's wasted effort if you ask me.

The reason I am so excited to get started is because one of my best friends is getting married in April.  She is definitely a beautiful girl, and she has lots of beautiful friends.  I am lucky enough to be one of her eleven bridesmaids.*  

But like I said before, her friends are beautiful,

and then there's me.  No, I am not a self-loathing, insecure person.

I am just one of two girls that has children,

and the body to go with it at this moment.

And I really don't want to be the fat bridesmaid amidst a stunning group of girls, with perfect bodies, toned stomachs, tight butts, and athletic arms.

That sounds a little exaggerated, but it is really how I feel.

I used to have that body, but now I have two kids in replacement of that body.

My goal someday is to have the kids AND the body.

And that is why I am excited to start my diet.


*Yes, eleven bridesmaids.  Some people are shocked by this and have to take a moment to process.  I personally think she is incredibly blessed to have this many close friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband,

my two beautiful girls,

God who loves me,

my great big family,

and a turkey hangover.

What about you?  What are you most thankful for this holiday?

breaking dawn review

SPOILER ALERT

(Also, if you're not a Twilight fan this may go right over your pretty little head.)

After my last post, raving about how excited I was to see Breaking Dawn, 

I thought I better let you guys know how I liked it.

Well, it was fantastic, but let me elaborate.

It's difficult to take the word of a Twilight enthusiast,

because I don't care what the quality of the movie put before them,

they would tell you it was the greatest movie ever made.

So I am taking a step back and bringing you an honest opinion without gushing...too much.

Breaking Dawn starts with an invitation to the much-anticipated wedding of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.

The wedding is so beautiful.  White flowers cascading from great big, mossy trees.  

The whole cast is in this scene, which is very fun to see them all together.

And Stephenie Meyer makes a cameo as a wedding guest.

They whisk off to their honeymoon on Isle Esme.

The house is absolutely stunning on the private island.

DREAM honeymoon.

And hey, my favorite part of the movie. ;)

It kind of dragged on, but I appreciated that because I knew what was coming wasn't going to be quite as cheerful.

Then comes the pregnancy which completely changes the feel of the movie.

Bella begins to look completely emaciated, loses her coloring, and develops awful dark circles around her eyes.

This part I thought was actually quite amazing.  The effects used to make her look as awful as she did were pretty incredible.  She looked terrible - which was the point.  The make-up staff certainly knew what they were doing.

The birth scene was very poignant and well-done.  They really did this scene justice.  I had seen interviews with the cast saying they were all very proud of this scene - and they should have been.  They did a great job.  I remember reading this part of the book a few years ago, and thinking "How in the world are they going to pull that off?!"  Well, they did.  Kudos, guys.  I mean, uterus biting?  How do you make that work?  I think the fact that they didn't focus on it too much, and instead focused on the joy of Renesmee being born was what made it work.  And then obviously the shift to Bella almost dying took your mind off of the absurdity of vampire birthing.

Jacob's imprinting scene was quite sweet in my opinion.

In all of Taylor Lautner's interviews he had seemed so embarrassed about this particular scene, but I really think that turned out well.  He had this look of admiration and just like he "knew" she was the one.  It was perfect.

Waiting for Bella to wake up was agonizing as a viewer.  I was thinking to myself, "What is going on?!  Why isn't she waking up?  Did they forget that she makes it through?"  

But the ending scene is perfection.  Her eyes open and they are blood-red.  

Ahhhhh, can't wait for next November.

Until then, I'll be going back to the theater for seconds (and thirds, and fourths).

I'm in love.

Here is my Rotten Tomatoes review:

This movie was so well done.  Definitely the best of the franchise so far.  Being a Twilight fan, I loved it.  I can understand how non-fans wouldn't love it.  But fan or not, you can tell that these actors are invested into their characters and attention is paid to even the smallest details.  They took their time to satisfy the details of  the book.  The birth scene was both intense and tastefully shot - showing neither too much nor too little.  The wedding was gorgeous and emotional.  There was just enough humor.  I applaud a job well done to everybody involved.

almost time

If there's one thing you should know about me,

it's that I'm a die-hard Twihard.

Although I don't even like to think of myself as part of that group 

because them people is crazy.

Anyway, 5 days til Breaking Dawn comes out and I am stoked.

This is the pinnacle of the entire Twilight franchise.

I am by far the most excited for this movie of any of the movies.

It's got your wedding AND honeymoon scenes.

Need I say more?

Here's a few vids I've been watching this week gearing up for next Friday's big release:

Love.

I.

Can't.

Freaking.

Wait.

first word

Parker said her first word last night! 

"Mama"

What a heart-melter.