When the North Shore and a sunset meet

Its been too long since me and a Hawaiian sunset have been together. Far too long. If you’ve been around here long enough, you know I have a down right obsession with them. I would sit and watch them every single night never able to get enough. I probably have over 500 pictures of Hawaiian sunsets on my computer and plan on adding to that number exponentially.

Problem is, G-man’s new place doesn’t face the west where the sun sets. So my view went from this

…to this

Being a sunset lover, it’s a bit of an adjustment but the benefit to the new view is I get to see the sunrises now, and I’ve been able to see just about every sunrise since I’m waking up pretty early every morning here.

Yesterday however, I got my sunset fix and in an incredibly big way. On the North Shore. This is the first time I’ve witnessed the sunset over on the North Shore and it was nothing short of amazing. We weren’t planning on going there, so I didn’t have my new zoom lens but my nifty fifty certainly stepped up to the challenge and didn’t disappoint by any means.

**sigh** oh how I love my Hawaiian sunsets…especially when spent with my love.

Happy Friday, my sweet friends!

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When “warm” doesn’t mean brown

When you hear someone say they want a “warm hair color” what color do you think of? Do you immediately think “red”? If you do, you’re in the 99 percentile. That remaining 1%?…. would be me.

I got my hair done yesterday. This would be the cut and color I went on and on about that would cost $300 that I deemed justifiable a month ago. The same cut and color I knew would be amazing and perfect and completely worth the money. I have good news for you… it only cost $200. Amazing, right?? Is that a better amount to swallow? It was for me when he told me the amount was under $200 before tip!

I’ll be honest though, the appointment wasn’t the smoothest of appointments. We each had pictures of the color I wanted. We discussed for 20 minutes the coloring, what I wanted, how I wanted to look and what the end result would be. I said “warm” a lot. She said “red” a lot and we agreed I wanted “warmth” that would have some “red” tones in it…

I was incredibly excited as she mixed it all together while I waited.

She began slathering it on and I began taking note of the color drying on my scalp. Red.

I told myself I wouldn’t freak out. Its only the “dried” color, it won’t actually look like that, but couldn’t hold in me commenting on the “red” I was seeing. She assured me not to worry and said to wait until it was all washed out. So I calmed down and sent a sneak peak to Instagram thinking I’d trick everyone into believing I was going red!

Little did I know, I was actually going red!

After it got washed out, I went into their dark restroom and noticed parts of hair poking out of the towel and forced myself to wait until I returned to the brightly lit chair to see if what I was seeing was real, before truly freaking out. I sat down, the towel gets removed and I begin to freak out.

Its Irish copper orange!

I wait as she starts blow drying on the chance it magically darkens when I couldn’t take it anymore and blurt out, “It’s ORANGE!! It’s Irish copper orange! Like I’m from Ireland!”

She immediately shut off the blow dryer and asked if its “too warm”. I’m staring at her with my eyes bugging out, wondering how we went so wrong and what the heck does “too warm” mean! She has me jump up to take me back to the sink where she put a toner on to darken it up. I’m not laughing anymore. I’m tense. She keeps reassuring me it’ll work out and soften the warmth considerably so I’d be happy with it.

I’m back in the seat and staring hard at my hair in the mirror. Its darker but still quite red. I never wanted red! I wanted a dark brown. A warm brown! A brown that I thought meant having red undertones but an ultimate brown! She dried the roots and asked how I was feeling, and I didn’t need to respond, my eyes did all the talking. They showed panic! At that point, we talked about what I was truly wanting. How warm to me meant a rich dark brown and warm to her meant red.

We thought we were on the same page the entire time. It wasn’t until we were 2 hours into the appointment that we were truly on the same page, and that meant the third coloring of the day…dark brown. I still couldn’t relax and it was obvious she was freaking out too with how much I was freaking out.

After the last rinse, I stare in the mirror and see just small traces of red. She dried it and I began to relax. Its just what I wanted. The “rich dark warm brown” I envisioned in my head. We’re able to laugh and joke about it as she began cutting my hair to perfection. Fixing all the mistakes made by past stylists, giving me exactly the cut I’ve wanted for months.

The formula for the 3rd color was written down and saved. We now both know what I want and how I want it without even needing to discuss it any further. I’ll be able to walk in, say I want it just like the last time (minus the freak outs) and sit back since I know it will be done right.

My favorite stylist didn’t disappoint. She did what she thought I wanted, fixed it twice when it wasn’t, until it was right and gave me the best haircut I’ve had all year. I walked away a very happy customer.

And as I got into G-man’s truck (did you know I’m with G-man??) the first thing he says is, “its BROWN!”. Clearly he expected red after I told him it would be “warmer”.

What do I know!?

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A thankful me - 43

I feel better now

My view for sunsets and sunrises for the next couple weeks.

This girl is happy.

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His blessings

As of Wednesday night, my friend’s daughter was released from the hospital. An entire day early! She spent a total of 8 days in the hospital, where they said she screamed in pain and fear for most of them. Her heart rate would jump over 30 beats a minute the moment anyone in scrubs walked in the room. The moment they were told she was going home was a very happy one to say the least.

They shared they have their good moments and bad moments, and thankfully, I happened to visit on a good moment. I don’t think I could bear seeing a bad moment. I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived. I prayed I wouldn’t be standoffish because I get uncomfortable around things I don’t know how to be, but when I walked to their back door, I saw through their window, them sitting at the table…eating. Like any normal family.

I just stood there watching for a second amazed.

There she was…sitting, eating pasta and chicken. I praised God right then and there.

She was nothing but smiles as we sat and talked about the past 9 days and how it effected their lives. Amazingly, they felt so grateful for their situation as they were around many less fortunate parents with children far worse off than their daughter.

They know they have a long way to go with her recovery, but she’s doing just that. Recovering. The more she walks and eats, the more she heals and is able to do the things she’s always wanted to do.

I asked permission to share the few shots I got last night as well as an email she sent out with an update the day she was released.

”One concern right now is that she has been having rather severe bladder spasms at times and, as thought, she reacted very badly to the medications the doctor tried.  We only have two more options, however, insurance doesn't want to cover either of them.  We're praying that as she continues to heal the spasms will go away, but the doctor isn't so sure.  We are so grateful for the prayers, gifts, and support as well as to the nurses and doctors that have done so much for her in the last week.”

So if you can continue to pray specifically for her bladder spasms, I know they’d really appreciate it.

They loved the cards that were sent. They couldn’t believe how far they traveled and she loved knowing that she had so many people throughout the entire country who loves and prays for her.

The stickers were a huge hit with her and her brother!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Squeeze your little ones tight…and your big ones too.

I have big plans tomorrow, and I truly can’t wait for them to be underway, this week has been nothing but crazy leading up to it.

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In all honesty

Where have I been lately?

Maybe you've wondered this the past couple months, maybe you haven't even noticed, but I haven't really "been" here for awhile. To me, I think its obvious with my quality of posts lately, not to mention the lack of. I'm in this abnormal groove these days where it leaves me out of sorts. Kind of withdrawn, kind of uninteresting, and kind of indifferent to things. {lost another follower on twitter?? meh, oh well.. not getting nearly the comments on the blog that I used to?? well, can't really blame them w/what I'm writing about..}

My routine is the exact same every single day. As I'm sure yours is. Its not worth mentioning that I was asked to take on someone else's position in the office so they can be fired, because I turned it down. Its not worth mentioning that I got a "title change" at work, not promotion, because they're reluctant to give me a raise past fifty cents, so I don’t feel I can call it a promotion. Its not worth mentioning that I go home every day and eat sometimes just broccoli alone for dinner, or that I have no motivation to make anything other than that and the occasional tuna sandwich.

I'm in this rut. This tiring emotionally numb rut and don't feel like you should be dragged into it. Its boring. Its mundane. Its made me not want to blog.

And that's the truth.

Come Saturday, I hope things will change around. I know they will, but its the waiting for it while simultaneously being content in the busy chaotic days leading up to it, that's what's important and not always easy to accomplish.

If you’re up for it, bear with me. I’m going to come out of this eventually, and when I do, I’ll have my fun self back full of stories. I just know it!

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A thankful me - 42

Happy Monday everyone. Did your daylight savings workout alright for you? I happened to wake up at 6:30 but forced myself back to sleep until 8. I hear its pretty tough with little kids not getting them to sleep, but I heard a parent say awhile back that a few weeks before daylight savings happens, they begin to have their kids go to bed a few minutes early every night to get them adjusted to the hour change, so when the full hour jump happens, they’re already adapted to it.

Has anyone done this before? I’ve tucked it away for the ‘some day’ but wonder if anyone’s done this to see if it worked for them.

Over the weekend I went to get a pedicure to right the horrible one I got a few weeks ago. While I was there, I mentioned to my new manicurist that I needed the gels taken off my nails because they were catching on everything. She looked at them and couldn’t believe how bad they were! Conversation ensued about them and who did them and she insisted she give me a free gel polish so I could have a good experience with them.

At first I wasn’t going to do it. It wasn’t my intention going in, but after I got a healthy push from a friend to take advantage of the free polish, I went ahead. But not before the manicurist saw the absolutely horrible pedi I had and not before talking to the manicurist who did it. Who became extremely defensive.

I didn’t know she’d tell her how bad of a job she did! Now I’m kind of hesitant to go to that salon on the chance I run into her.

This one did a lot better job, but all in all, I’m not sure I'll be going back to that salon again.

This week I’m thankful for:
- a delicious home cooked meal cooked by someone other than myself.
3 carnitas, rice, beans, 1 tamale and peach cobbler ala mode… my belly was happy! ((clearly I was starving))

- a free manicure. I honestly can’t complain about any of it when its free. It was very generous of her to fix it.

- soft waves all thanks to my flat iron. 7 more days until my cut and color!!

- knowing God’s healing my friend’s little girl. She might be able to eat for the first time today since the surgery, so HUGE prayers needed that she’s able to successfully eat!
- my health. I complain about my neck, my hips, my knees, my feet, but as a whole, I’m pretty healthy and I thank God for that blessing.
- my brother running a 5k on his birthday, Saturday and finishing second in his age group, all while not even trying on a bum knee. Pretty proud of that!

I put this up for debate on IG and had the opinions split down the middle, so friends, I need your honest opinion. I made this to give away for a drawing for a few ladies and need to know if its lame, cheesy, okay, worth giving or well, whatever else you may think it is.

I’m not “crafty” at all. I would like to stress that, so this is me being ‘creative’. Its cinnamon scented pinecones and I threaded the ribbon through (obviously) and made the bow at the end.

If you’re not feeling it, what other ideas do you have for it? If I got rid of the bow, what should I do? I don’t want to leave the ribbon twirling around the only thing on there. I do have more ribbon if you have different ideas with that. I don’t want to spend more money on this since my intention was to keep it under $5 (which I’ve done so far) unless of course you say its obvious its an “under $5 gift”… and if that’s the case.. just say “I’m sure it smells nice” to spare me.

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A total freak out

A very big and warm thank you to everyone for praying for my friend’s daughter as well as those who’ll be sending her a card (and even more!), I can’t wait for them to arrive for me to give them to her. I did get to talk to my friend during and after the surgery and she said the surgeon said everything went ‘textbook and without issues’, so that’s a huge blessing.

It lasted 7 hours and when she came to, she asked if they had done the surgery yet, so she didn’t remember nor feel a thing at that moment. I haven’t yet heard how her first full day of recovery went but I pray they have her on good pain medication.

Again, thank you everyone.

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On Monday, I had a bit of a freak out. Ok, it was a massive one. One that lasted 3 hours long. Where I knew I’d break out in the worst way, I was the most stressed I had ever been in years.

I turned my computer on like I normally do every morning before work, only that morning a diagnostic check popped up. It acted like it wanted to restore everything to its original settings after it ran it’s check, which would mean wiping out everything on my hard drive.

I started freaking out.

I have nothing backed up. All my pictures are only on my computer. The photo shoot I did for my friend, wasn’t 100% complete and I hadn’t backed them up anywhere and I started panicking thinking she’d never get them.

I closed the lid, only it didn’t go into sleep mode but stayed on and was getting extremely hot. I took it to work with me, called the IT guy and begged him to come out. As I explained what had happened, he casually mentioned that it sounded like the hard drive crashed. My heart dropped!

As I wait for him to come, the laptop goes black. I thought it was all over!

All while this is going on, I’m fighting meeting a 10am deadline with lia sophia that only heightened my stress to epic proportions. The IT guy took my computer and found it ran so hot, it drained my full battery in less than an hour. Thank goodness I brought the power cord!

He ran several checks, found it had a couple infections, cleaned it all up and had it working like it never had a problem. I met the 10am deadline by 15 minutes, had a working computer again and didn’t know how to come down from my stress.
It took another hour before I was able to feel calm and answer work related questions from my coworkers.

Thank goodness it was a slow morning, since it was well after 2 hours after arriving that I even thought about the actual job I was there to do.

You can bet I went home that night, finished editing all my friend’s pictures and saved them to my thumbdrive until I get the chance to buy an external hard drive. There’s nothing like potentially losing 6,000 photos to make me want to speed up the process of getting an external hard drive.

Any suggestions on a good one?

Oh, and just like I thought, I have a massive “third eye” on my forehead. Absolutely worth it for surviving that morning.

Happy November everyone and have a wonderful weekend. The leaves are just starting to change color here, so I hope to capture a shade of red or two over the weekend with my new camera and lens! And by “just” I mean 1 tree for every 15-20 have about 10 leaves that are reddish..

clearly not taken by me but by "Joel”.. a girl can dream this was near her though.

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