Acryllic nails...

I used to love getting my nails done. I always thought I had funny ugly fingers but when I had those long french tip manicured nails I felt so sophisticated and pretty. If a nail ever broke off it looked like I had a stub for a finger. I haven't got my nails done for a while but last week Mandy's friend who is in cosmetology school offered to practice on me. I thought it would be fun to have nails again so I went to her house and picked sparkly red with a pink fade for valentines day.

Now I'm going to take a minute and talk about stupid things we put ourselves through in order to look great. Laser hair removal...Although it only takes me 6 seconds to shave my armpits I went and got laser hair removal. I won a gift certificate and thought of all the things I could do if I had that 6 seconds 3 times a week to do anything I wanted! So for 6 months I went to the appointments endured "brother like rubber band snaps" in my arm pits for 30 minutes a visit. But look at all the free time I have now!

Make up....I feel so ugly without it but seriously, what a waste of money! It's rubbed off by 2:00 any way and I don't have the give a damn to go fix it up. Guys don't care if the shadows of their eyelids make the blue really stand out. And don't even get me started on control top panty hose!

K back to the nails. This is the process for acrylic nails. They file your real nails down to make them rough. (Which is usually painful because they file them down so much it makes them more sensitive.) Then they put the acrylic on and file and file and file. File your nails, your cuticles, your skin. It hurts when they nick your skin. The pros of acrylics are; they are pretty. You can use them to pick up hot things. No one can tell if you have dirt under your finger nails.

Anyway, for some reason these nails have been really bugging me. I guess I'm just not used to them. So I decided to soak them off with acetone. That's what the picture above is of. Unfortunately I don't have the patience to stand with my fingers soaking in a bowl of acetone indefinitely. I went online to see if I could get any helpful tips to get them off faster. This is where I got the suggestion of the tinfoil finger. You soak cotton in acetone, place it on your nail and then wrap your finger in aluminum foil and let it set for 30 minutes. This actually worked but made it really hard for me to type. So right now my fingers are aluminum free but as soon as I'm done with this blog I'm going to work on my other fingers. The moral of this story is, it's important to feel good about yourself but it shouldn't hurt. :)

The Year in pictures football

I decided this year I wanted to have my own favorite foot ball team. I was going for the Titans because I liked their purple jerseys, but after consulting with Kasara I was convinced the Baltimore Ravens would serve better as a favorite team. Since I've become the Ravens biggest fan, Kasara and I have had so much fun. We had a Ravens party at the pool. We even invited Tom Brady. Kasara grew out her Flacco fumanchu and we had a great time, right up until that Raven pooped on Brady's head. Another time we were at a garden party and Kasara showed up with these crazy floppy purple hearts coming out of her head. You couldn't even see the head band. I don't know how she does it but she really knows how to support a team. GO RAVENS!

2012 in pictures The Circle Journal

I'm trying something new this year to strengthen family bonds. It's called the circle journal. I started it by writing one journal entry. Then I put the journal under Amanda's pillow. After she wrote her journal entry the next day she put it under Mike's pillow. Mike never has much to say about anything so his journal entry was 3 pages long. When he was finished he put it under Macayla's pillow. She wrote her entry and put it back under my pillow. So far everyone has really liked finding it under their pillow. We only had one incident when Mandy and Mac were fighting. Macayla had written how she loves her family but she went back and changed it to "most of her family". Other than that it's been a pretty positive experience and something I will treasure forever.

2012 in pictures

The Christmas puzzle.

I love the Christmas puzzle, it's one of my favorite things. We've been known to stay up all night just to get it finished.

This year, I started the puzzle, painstakingly separating all the edge pieces. I pretty much had most of the edge done but when I wasn't looking Mike snuck in and finished it. So then I separated the blue and the white and the blueish white. Carefully checking each white piece to see if it fit together. I pretty much had 5 or 6 pieces put together but when I wasn't looking Mandy snuck in and did all the snowman faces. Then when Mandy and I weren't looking (because we were at church) Mike and Macayla finished the puzzle. They hadn't gone to church because they had "the flu". So maybe we didn't do it all as a family this year but each of us put some time into it. Oh and did you see the Coke glass? I'm starting to see a "Where's the Coke glass" theme. :)

2012 in pictures

Hi, I don't feel good today my throat hurts so bad. But my fingers still work so here we go. I've been wanting to start my 2012 in pictures blog since way back at the beginning of the year but due to computer problems I've already fallen 6 days behind. Todays picture is what I look at when I wake up. Now, I don't really wake up at 7:24 it just took me that long to remember to take the picture. This might look like a cluttered mess to you but there are many stories in this picture. The alarm clock was given to Mike by his mom I think it was for Mothers Day when he joined the army. The little wrapper to the right is a cough drop wrapper. I couldn't stop coughing last night but I don't know why I put the wrapper there when the trash can is right nex to the night stand. The blue wooden tray holds my happy pills, my pain pills, my thyroid pills, cough drops, chapstick, pretty much anything you would need to survive the night. Behind that are 2 McDonalds Coke cups. Mike has a Coke cup fetish and when you get one free when you upsize a value meal, lets just say that's the perfect mix of Coke cup fetish and fast food submission. To the right of the Coke cups is a glass shaped like a cowboy boot. You know how I told you Mike has a Coke cup fetish? Well, it's really any cup, any cup at all... He bought me the glass cowboy boot cup on our anniversary one year at the Texas Roadhouse Grill I think. I haven't drank out of it for a long time but I did the other night just to see if it would bug him. It didn't, which makes me happy that he still loves me more than that cup. Which reminds me of a story involving Macayla, a Coke cup and a praying mantis, but that's a whole nother story. K next to that cup kinda in the back is my fancy glass cup. I went to a conference in Denver one time and every thing they served you to drink was in a fancy cup. Even water. I felt like such a princess. So when I got home I got some cups like that but come to find out the princess feeling isn't just in the cup. Does that make sense? I really don't feel good today. I'm just saying it takes more than a cup, but it is kinda nice when you're sitting there surrounded by laundry and shoes and the dirty socks pile is slowly making it's way to the clean socks pile to sip out of my pretty cup. Behind all the cups is my camera, a lint roller and the cellophane of a bag of peanut butter cups. I try not to eat them but I keep them right there in case of emergency. Aaaaaanyway, there ya go. It only gets better from here! :)