August 2006
First, an announcement... I CUT MY HAIR. After
3 years of VERY long hair I cut it during the extreme heat/humidity
wave we had during the month of July. It was unbearable
heat, Liam was constantly standing on, pulling and twisting it
and I couldn't do a thing with it since it was so long.
Here I am with my new shorter hair:
It was quite a shock to me. The girl cutting
my hair asked me how short I wanted it. I told her that
I wanted to take 10" off so that I could send it to Locks
of Love. So she asked me, "To here?" and used
a mirror to let me see how short it would be. I said "Yes".
She said, "Are you sure? Once I cut it, it's gone..."
I said that I was sure. She took all of my long hair
into her hands and cut it with scissors in 3 chops. Then
she rubber banded it and showed me what it looked like.
I caught my breath and almost cried. She asked if I was
alright to which I responded that I was. Then she said that
she could layer it to make it look nicer than a straight cut. I
agreed. Let's just say that after all was said, done and
styled, it was LOTS shorter than the 10" I initially asked
for. At least I was cooler, lighter and more styled than
before my cut. I felt refreshed and lots better. The
heat made my huge change in hair length bearable. I'm still
getting used to it but I keep reassuring myself that "it
WILL grow back, it's just hair. AND at least it's going
to a good cause and not the garbage..." And that's
the story of my haircut. The last time I cut it was for
a friend's wedding in which Michael and I were part of the bridal
party. That was more than 3 years ago...
<sigh>
One of the downfalls to writing a monthly journal
is that it makes one extremely cognizant of time. More specifically,
it makes one very aware of how quickly it seems that time moves.
My days seem to blend one into the other. The only marker
I really have is attending mass once a week. Otherwise,
I really don't know what day it is. However, in being forced
to recall the events of a month I realize how quickly summer is
passing by, how quickly Quinn and Liam are growing and how quickly
my maternity leave is moving by. I wish I could just win
the lotto and retire to spend my days going nuts with my boys.
I wish I could successfully maintain clientele so that I could
have the choice to work for myself and stay home with the kids.
For now, I'm happy where I am but I still wish for more.
It's one of those annoying human traits that is good and bad at
the same time. I'll stop there or else I'll get too philosophical.
A month in review:
July presented a beautiful anniversary mass celebration of two
very dear friends. It was one that will not soon be forgotten.
The bride looked beautiful, again, and the groom was beaming,
again. The day was hotter than hell but being in God's church
and witnessing the renewal of the vows seemed to stifle the heat,
somewhat. The night moved quickly as one event after another
entertained and wowed the attendees. The heat never subsided
but the night did and we were glad it was the end of a beautiful
evening so that we could retire to our air conditioned home.
July 16 celebrated Quinn's first full month of blessed life.
He is growing SO fast! At his one month appointment, he
registered 22.5 inches which is a full 2 inches of growth since
his birth and he weighed in at 10 lb 16 oz which is a 7 lb 5 oz
gain since his birth. At this rate he's going to outgrow
Liam!
My birthday fell on the last Saturday at the end of July.
I am so thankful to God for all of His gifts to me. My children
and my husband are my treasure and were given to me as my gifts.
I'm so thankful for the ability to enjoy and witness all of their
lives. I'm thankful for my family all of our ups and downs
and for the last 30 years of my life. I can't wait to see
what the future brings but for now I'm finally remembering to
enjoy the present. We had a small dinner with my parents
and my brother for my actual birthday. A fun party followed
the following weekend. More details here...
A preview of the month ahead:
August brings several long awaited events ~
Liam turned the big 2 years old on August 2nd.
He's grown into quite the toddler and enjoys playing with everything,
helping around the house (such as Swiffering and sweeping the
floor at Grandma Aurora's house) and torturing his parents and
younger brother. He really is such a good boy and is a very
playful kid. He likes to roughhouse on occasion but I leave
that to his father.
On August 12, Michael's sister concluded a year of planning and
married her Sharks-fan fiance. This is a big deal because
all of Michael's immediate family are staunch Ducks fans.
I really looked forward to this trip as it was a chance to visit
with family we hadn't seen since last year. Michael's parents
had not seen Liam since last Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful
sunset celebration. Michael worked the event as official videographer
so I had to handle the kids on my own for the entire night.
This wasn't so bad. They were both amazing. Liam wanted
to follow his Daddy around for some of the night, which didn't
bother too much since it was during the dancing.
August 17 marks our 4th wedding anniversary. I can't believe
we've been married for 4 years already. It's amazing how
time just seems to fly. We won't be doing anything too special
this year since we're going to be getting together with the Convey/Swank
family. Next year we'll celebrate our 5 year anniversary
in grander style...
August 24 marks Dad's birthday (a.k.a. Grandpa Tom). Don't
know what we'll do for his birthday yet, but perhaps I can treat
him to his favorite foot massage place.
So, August promises (and has delivered) to be a
busy month. We'll did something special for Liam's birthday
in conjunction with my birthday and in September we hope to take
him to Monterey for the aquarium experience. I would be
nice to get a family portrait done as well... we'll see what the
month brings. I do hope for cooler temps. The extremely
hot weather here and across the country is making many people,
including myself, sick. It wouldn't be as bad if it was
100 with dry heat, but the humidity is just making it unbearable.
It doesn't help Quinn's skin condition, either.
So, that's it until next month... happy August.
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