Curly Hair Tutorial

I have struggled for YEARS with my curls. I hear all the time how blessed I am to have such beautiful thick curly hair. However, those saying that do not have THICK CURLY HAIR!! We always want what we don't have!

I like to tease my mom about when my sister Ashley and I were younger she used to spend lots of time on Ashley's beautiful thick straight hair and then when it came to my turn to get my hair done for the day I got a couple sprays of water and sent on my way! Yes, that is a little exaggerated, but kind of true! My mom will argue back then they didn't have the product for kids like they do now..ok ok...I survived, just took me many years to figure out how to style it!

I think I've tried just about every type of product out there for curly hair. From leave in conditioners, gel, mousse, spray gel, etc. etc. etc. I also went through the stage of loving crunchy curls....makes me almost gag now! YUCK!

People with curly hair have to realize their hair has mind of its own, and if it wants to be crazy its going to. Also, mother nature doesn't help in that department.

With a mother in law who is a hair stylist, I use her discounts to my advantage! Otherwise I don't think I'd be able to try all the different products I have used.

The last few months I have been trying to figure out a way to not need gel or mousse and barely any hairspray. I FINALLY FOUND IT!!! What I think is the best product out there for curly hair if used right! Here is how I do my hair from start to finish:

• Wash hair and condition. I use different shampoo's and conditioners so for me the products doesn't matter.
• Rinse hair in cold water. It helps with shine and to set the curls.
• Squeeze hair dry so it's still pretty wet but not dripping. I pretty much keep my head upside down the whole time
• Put a small amount of Tigi Catwalk Curls Rock (curl amplifier cream) in my palm, add a little water so it spreads around more easily, and then just kind of scrunch it all over in my hair
• Then (while head is still upside down) I use some cold water to wet my curls some more to get them to the consistency I want. Blot dry any drips. The ends of the curls should be pretty wet.
• Blow dry hair upside down wish a diffuser. Starting at roots and going to the ends. Don't scrunch curls up into the diffuser or mess with them too much with your hands, otherwise they'll look  unnatural. You just want them to form naturally.
• When its mostly all dry, still upside down I give a quick spray of hair spray to the roots to keep volume.
• Then flip over and DONE!!!

Sorry for the yellowish pictures gotta love the bathroom lighting

Sorry I didn't take a before or during picture, I didn't really think about it until after I had finished my hair for today.

HAPPY CURLING!

Friday Night Storm

On Friday nights I usually get excited to have the house to myself because Brent is gone officiating high school football. Last night I had just started the movie Tangled when the power flickered at about 9pm. I knew it was supposed to rain but had no idea what I was in for!

Turns out that the cell of rain had blown into a nasty storm that resulted in 83mph winds at our house. I realized it was bad and and went out running in the wind/rain to find Wrigley. He was down in the barn but I had him come inside with me because I was freaked out. My mom also got a phone call of me freaking out cause I was home alone and had no power and couldn't see much of anything. Finally found a candle to light and a flash light and Wrigley and I hung out on the kitchen floor. I was too scared of our basement in the dark so I opted out of going to the basement last night. I probably should have been in the basement but I survived! Here are a few pictures from around our house. Brent took this on his phone so sorry that the quality isn't that great!

One of our already dead pine trees snapped (notice the top is on the ground to the right of it)

limbs down around our yard and Wrigley checking out whats going on

A closer view of the corn

This limb smacked into the windows on the left. No damage was done to the windows or house but scared the living lights out of both Wrigley and myself!!!

More limbs down

Tonight Brent and I are heading out to Prairie Rose Lake to grill out burgers and do smores with my friend Christa and her family. She was one of the pharmacists I worked with at Martin Health Services. I am excited to see her and her family! Tomorrow Brent and I are heading up to Twin Lakes (near Fort Dodge) to go camping with more of our friends from the Harlan area. Hopefully we'll get some jet skiing in if the weather permits! Those are our plans for Labor Day weekend.

Hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday!

Wrigley

There are alot of times I have a pitty party to myself about not having any kids yet. I think wow, its possible we'd be trying for our 2nd if we hadn't miscarried. However, God has other plans for Brent and I and I need to keep an open mind. But please keep us in your prayers as it is a daily struggle for the both of us to stay positive about it.

Since I work at a Pharmacy I see lots of pregnant women, women who just found out and aren't telling anyone yet but have many questions, and of course I am jealous. I want that feeling of having so many unanswered questions. Someday, whether its a child of our own or we adopt we WILL be parents! In the mean time I have Wrigley. I know I drive my dad and mom and you might as well add my siblings to the list of annoying them about Wrigley but he's all we've got. When he does something funny I want to share it with the world. However, there are only a select few who find it even remotely funny. Some of those include my Grandpa and Grandma Bolsem who spoil their dog WAY more than we do.

However, yesterday Wrigley had quite the situation. Brent and I went for a walk and Wrigley followed us the whole way. On the way home he noticed a creek down a steep embankment. He took it upon himself to go and try to play in the water. However, he couldn't get back up!!! I was freaking out and I could tell Brent was a little nervous (Not freaking out) on how we were going to get him back up to the road. Wrigley disappeared from sight and I heard a YELP...Broke my heart (dad stop rolling your eyes I was scared) Finally Brent slid down the steep embankment and helped Wrigley find a different path to get out. It didn't help that the non-steep parts had a fence where he couldn't get out. I was so happy when they were both back on the road. OK, so that is my annoying Wrigley story.....

But what I was getting at with this post is he is ready to greet me every time I get home from work, go outside to do ANYTHING, and he is always ready to play with his tail wagging. I can't wait to have that feeling of one our kids getting excited to see me after work, but until then I'm so glad we have Wrigley. He makes all those days where there have been so many pregnant women and babies at work totally worth coming home to!

Flooding of I-680

These pictures are of Intersate 680 on the Iowa side. According to the DOT they don't think this portion of the interstate will be open again until sometime in 2013. It is so sad to think this is just the intersate but think of all the homes along the way ruined from the flood this year.

Hard to believe there is an interstate under there!

Infertility

This video explains what Brent and I are dealing with. I came across this video this morning and we can relate to it 100%.
http://www.tearsandhope.com/emptyarms_video.html

Split Personality? Nope just his leg!!

Today I was going to do a post about a day in the life of Wrigley...However, he didn't feel like cooperating with me to take some pictures of him.

While sitting outside with Wrigley today he started scratching his ear which lead into it looking like he had split personalities. Sorry for the non-dog lovers yes this is my dog scratching his ear and licking his leg but look at it in the perspective that it almost looks like another dogs leg is kicking him in the head and then Wrigley is trying to bite the leg. I found it funny, many of you won't but some will! Enjoy!

Summer Time

This summer I've been trying to get a few things checked off our LONG list of things to do to our house. One of them included power washing the deck. While doing this Brent informed me this probably wasn't done since his parents lived in this house and that was over 10 years ago. Oh MY GOODNESS!

Lets just say, I don't have a lot of experience when it comes to power washing. Brent informed me it is a slow process and I was going too fast! He also informed me I need to take my time and do it right or I'd have to do it again! Well, little did I know it was going to take well over 3 hours to finish. BUT...the final project TOTALLY worth.

While power washing I learned a few things. Do not try to clean off the dirt or grime from your legs with the power washer OUCH and also my dog LOVES to be sprayed with it. He tries to eat the water that is being sprayed at him and jumps all over it! Of course by the time I tried to get a video of him attacking the water he had had enough! Maybe next time!

Me working very hard!



before and after pictures of the deck. I had to work in sections and the right is the before! GROSS

 Also, I wanted to leave you with one of our all time favorite side dishes. This is super easy and extremely yummy! I can't remember if I blogged this recipe before or not. Oh well if I have here it is again!

THREE CHEESE MACARONI AND CHEESE

3 cups uncooked macaroni noodles

12 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

6 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese

6 oz. shredded provolone cheese

1 stick of butter

5 cups milk

In a 9x13 dish layer ½ of the uncooked macaroni, ½ of the cheeses, and pour ½ stick of butter over that layer then repeat. Cover with the 5 cups of milk and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hr. 15 min.

**Many times I do not measure anything except the milk**

**I also mix up my cheeses sometimes I use whatever I have and I don't measure just throw some on to cover up the noodles but I like lots of cheese, some of the cheese I've tried is Italian blends, pizza blends, and Colby jack, but I'm sure any kind of cheese is perfect just as long as you have more than 1**

Finished product!

Enjoy!

My all time favorite food is macaroni and cheese and this is just another comfort food to add to my never ending list! I also came across an amazing recipe for home breaded chicken strips! I'll be sharing that later this week. We just had it last week and I forgot to get a picture! I'll try to get one soon! I'm sure we'll be having them in the near future!