Madaladalyn

I just can't say how much I love her. She is blooming and growing and learning at an amazing rate these days. Two days ago I tried to let her walk up to Grandma's door from the driveway. About 2/3 of the way there, she faked a fall(!!!), got up and dashed off in the other direction. This morning I told her she could walk to our car, but if she went anywhere else, I would pick her up and carry her. Girlfriend tried to walk right over the rail tie that edges the grass in front of our place. I helped her and, sure enough, she walked straight over to our car. Same thing at Grandma's; I told her she could walk all the way in, yada yada yada. She needed help getting up the driveway, which has a mild slope (for me... not so much when your legs are less than 12 inches long), and again needed a little help getting up the step to their porch. Once there, she went straight in and talked to the dogs. Like it's how she does things all the time. When I said I would have to leave, she took off for the door. I picked her up, smooched her and she was ready for Grandma.

We are in the last stages of limbo regarding the house. We're supposed to sign loan docs this week, but apparently they're not in yet. If we don't sign today or tomorrow, we'll have to wait to get the keys until Friday of next week. Hopefully it will be early Friday, because Tom took the day off to get some painting and moving done before everybody comes out on Saturday. And I had been planning on taking Thursday and Friday off to change locks and paint.

Today I painted one of the walls in Corey's bedroom in preparation for our move. I know our apartment manager will have to paint the whole place anyway, but I couldn't leave whatever-the-hell-that-was on the wall in good conscience. I may go ahead and paint the rest of it. We'll see.

Oh, and I got my hair all lopped off. The same woman who cut my hair nearly two years ago is the one who cut it the other day. She gave me the same haircut this time. Last time she cut my hair, I got knocked up a few weeks later. We'll see if the same thing happens this time (uh... seriously, don't hold your breath... I'll have to have her cut my hair again this summer if that's the goal). I have relegated myself to the back burner quite a bit since getting married. Not that anybody's asked me to or made me feel like I should. It's just what I do. When there are needs, I don't deal in wants. And the six months or so of our marriage were pretty tight financially. After that, I just didn't make a big deal about it... until I couldn't take it anymore. That's where I was the other day. I had told Tom I wanted my hair cut for my birthday. Then I decided that nobody should have to wait for special occasions to get their hair cut. Certainly the guys don't.

When I got to Elham, my stylist, I pulled my hair out of it's perpetual bun. She gasped and said, "Okay. We're going to do something completely different. We're going to give you... uh... style!"

Sure, some people would be offended. I cheered.

When it was all over and she had straightened my naturally curly hair and then curled it with a flat iron (my friend's husband was completely perplexed as to why she would do that, haha), she said, "Don't wait so long next time. Get a trim." Will do.

I'd post photos of the before and after, but the before is lost on my computer and the after is... well the hair is great. The face... ugh! Let's just say it's been easier to say no the past few days.