Autumn Time

This is my favorite time of year! I love the crispness in the air, the excitement of a new school year and the memories of past holiday seasons as they begin to tug at my consciousness and dance through my thoughts trying to entice me to revisit the excitement, anticipation and wonder I felt as a little girl.

The other seasons are wonderful in their own way but there's just something about Autumn that's like a soft comforter around my heart as it connects my “here and now” to wonderful memories of times past and the anticipation of all that's yet to come.

I hope you are having a wonderful autumn as well!! Take a few minutes, step outside in the fresh air, close your eyes, take a deep breath and just be. Be in the moment and just enjoy it.

Hooray For Haircuts!!

Okay, I’m running just a bit behind. I originally wrote this July 13 but am just getting it posted. It has been a crazy but fun summer. I can’t wait to see what happens next. At any rate here’s the July post.

Believe it or not we’re still here. This month has been so jam packed I can’t even believe it – more than I could possibly tell in one sitting so I’m going to start with haircuts.

Jake, our 75 lb Great Pyrenees, Australian Shepherd mix started it. It has been extremely hot and he has been extremely miserable. So, in spite of the fact that the lady we adopted him from told us to never cut his “hair”, we finally took pity on him and took him in for a shave.

He looks so cute. He looks like a cross between a big puppy and a small bear. I love it. I think we should keep him like this always – but I don’t think he’d be too happy with us in the winter if we did. But for now he’s a much happier camper.

Then miracle of miracles, DJ got his hair cut. We’ve been after him for quite a while to cut his hair (we’re talking months and months and months), but he’s asserted his free agency and refused. Some may think we should have cut it off in his sleep and while I’ll admit that thought crossed my mind and that threat even crossed my lips, we figured that if that’s the worst thing he ever does we’re doing pretty good.

At any rate while he was in Japan, he finally saw the light – actually he felt the humidity and his hair refused to do anything except lie limp on his forehead . So he decided to let one of the teenage girls that was there with his delegation cut it. Now that wouldn’t have been so bad but, this particular girl had never cut hair before – all I can say is she must have been cute, because this is a kid who will not let anyone but his Aunt Cindy touch his hair; needless to say the cute girl butched it.

So he let another girl try it, she’d never cut hair before either. She didn’t do much better. Finally they found another girl in their delegation that said she cut hair in her basement so she tried to fix it. It looked okay but it still needed some help. However to be fair, the only thing the girl had to work with was a pair of office scissors.

Picture it if you can, DJ sitting out in a parking lot in the hotel they were staying in surrounded by about 30 girls watching him get a haircut with a pair of office scissors wielded first by two girls that don’t know what they’re doing and the third trying to fix the mess with inadequate scissors. Meanwhile standing to the side is their Japanese liaison watching apprehensively – okay worried to death - that his hair is going to be slaughtered and his parents are going to freak out. Meanwhile the staff of the hotel is laughing in disbelief and taking pictures to put on the hotel’s website.

Actually it didn’t turn out too bad but the second day he was home he had his Aunt Cindy fix it for him. It looks so much better than it did before he had it cut. I really like it and believe it or not, so does he! YEA!!

Not to be left out, Dee got her hair cut too. Actually I encouraged that one. Her hair is so long and so thick it’s almost unmanageable. I talked her into getting about 5 inches cut off and getting it thinned. Then she wanted to put some natural high lights in it. I think it turned out way cute!! Though I have to admit, when her aunt went to thin it I was on the phone and just happened to glance up right as Cindy had what looked like a pair of regular scissors poised three inches from her scalp and cut! I about had a heart attack right then and there and the phone almost hit the floor!

I didn’t realize the “scissors” were thinning shears and only took out strands of hair, 11 or so inches long, every so often and not the entire section she was holding. Boy I’m telling you my heart stopped for a split second.

Everything turned out well and everyone looks terrific. All I can say is “Hooray for haircuts!!!!”