The Haircut

I know, I never reported back on the brave new haircut. It went really well. I took in a photo of a haircut I liked (it was a lady in a cholesterol medicine ad..pretty silly, but cute hair) and my hair looks pretty close to the picture. It felt weird when she got done and had styled it (my hair always feels weird when someone else styles it), but I have received several compliments on it and it doesn't feel so weird now that I'm styling it. I'll try to remember to have Colin take a picture of me on a day when it's looking pretty decent and try to post it.

A Tough Day

Yesterday was a tough day (for that matter, today is starting out that way, too). The morning started okay, we rode into town with Colin so I could grocery shop and go start my allergy shots. It wasn't too bad, just a little shot and a 30 minute wait to make sure I didn't have a reaction. Next week I'll go three times (MWF).
I think the toughest thing about yesterday (and today) was Ian's behavior. We had a hard time, he lied to me yesterday and he stole some toys from his cousin. He did "confess" that he had taken the toys (if you can call saying 'ha! ha! I snuck these toys out in my pocket and you didn't know' confessing). I suppose I could have said something like 'that was wrong Ian, you need to give those back' or 'that was bad', but I chose to call it what it was and I told him 'you stole those from L. You stole from your best friend. God HATES stealing'.
We had a big conversation on stealing and why it was wrong and what the consequences would be. First, he had to face his cousin and confess that he had stolen the toys, return the toys and ask for forgiveness. Second, he had to confess his sin to God and ask for forgiveness. Third, he had to talk to Daddy about what he'd done and fourth, there were consequences: no TV for Thursday and no trains for Thursday. We did tell him that the consequences would have been even bigger if we had not found out about his sin from his own mouth. I also promised him that if he ever pulled something like this again that I would invite his cousin over and let him pick any toy that Ian had and let him keep it.
Hopefully, our first time offender will be a one time only offender.

The Evils of Corn Syrup

We are watching out for corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup around our house. I had read that it was an appetite stimulate and then my mom read that our brain doesn't recognize it as food and so our bodies don't process it like food, so we're gradually eliminating it from what we eat. Of course, Ian has noticed this and has made a few comments about it. Tonight he made a couple of comments that we thought were funny. The first comment was made at dinner as Colin and I were discussing that we hadn't been drinking much pop lately and that pop is full of corn syrup. I reminded Colin that the juice "sodas" found in the organic section don't have corn syrup and Ian immediately latched on to this idea and told us "Ah ha! You've solved the mystery of the pop!"
The second comment occurred when we were cleaning out the fridge tonight because it was too crowded. I was trying to decide what to keep and what to get rid of when I came to some Bacon/onion chip dip. I read on it and saw that it had corn syrup, so I decided to toss it. Ian made the horrible face and said "My favorite dip has high fruit corn syrup in it! BAH!"
He definitely notices what is going on around here!

The First T-ball Practice

This morning was Ian's first t-ball practice. The team had their first practice Wednesday night at 5:30, but we couldn't make that one because of my work schedule and Awana. We were met with a certain lack of enthusiasm this morning when we announced it was time to get ready for t-ball. "No t-ball, no t-ball, no t-ball. Please, no t-ball!" That's what we heard plus some whining and crying. We had to help him get dressed and I think we were 7 or 8 minutes late even though the ball field is one minute from our house.
Of course, once we got there it was a whole other story. Ian had a good time. He started hustling a little bit when they asked the boys to run to a part of the field and then come back. The first time they asked the boys to do that, Ian was way behind. The second time he was a little bit behind, but when the boys who were in front turned around and headed back, Ian just turned around and headed back with them (even though he hadn't made it to the tree that they were all running to!)
Ian hit the ball off the tee a couple of times and practiced running the bases. He got to practice throwing the ball, too. By the time we got him in the van to go home, he had decided that he LOVED t-ball and he couldn't wait until next week.

The Answer to the Trivia Question

Well, I just realized that I never shared the answer to my trivia question. The question was: What was Charlie Brown's father's occupation? The answer: A barber. I got that from one of Ian's Charlie Brown books. I never knew that before reading that book, did you?
Today I am going to be brave and go get my haircut. I'm going here in town to someone I've never seen before. Hopefully, it will go well. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Perspective

Well, I wrote my last post before I heard about the horrible shooting in Virginia. It certainly shed a different perspective on my day. Yes, my morning was not going smoothly, but across the country people were facing a horrible situation. My heart goes out to those families and the friends of the students and teachers that were killed. My prayer is that God will use this to create something good. That might sound weird, but that's what God does. He takes these horrible things in life that we can see nothing positive about and then He uses it and something good emerges. A community rallies together, a family reunites, a lost soul reaches out and isn't lost anymore.
I've seen it happen first hand. It's real. It's called a miracle. May God work a miracle in the lives of those who survived at Virginia Tech.

What a Monday

It's only 9:35 in the morning and already I know, it is one of those Mondays. I got to sleep in a little so that was good. I think it was the only good thing so far. I feel like Alexander from the children's book. I am having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I took my shower and went to blow dry my hair and the motor in my blow dryer blew up. I hate blow dryers going out. I thought I'd check my email and found that the Airedale rescue lady had forwarded a recall on my dog's food (not the same as that scary recall). I hate recalled dog food. So now I have a wet head and will eventually have some very funky hair, I have to go to buy a blow dryer and new dog food after work. What else will Monday bring??
Okay, that was good, I got it out. So now to switch gears from Alexander and to look at it from the positive side. I know God is in control of my day, so perhaps the blow dryer blew up so it wouldn't cause a fire in my house at a time when I might not notice it. My dog has been itching a lot and I was thinking it was time to switch her food, now I get to do that and probably won't cost me anything, or very little. That's better. Count your many blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings see what God has done!
Oh- a little side note: On Saturday Colin got his haircut at the place he's been going to with Ian, Ernie's. They think Ian is pretty neat. I hadn't been in there before. They're a husband and wife team who have a grown-up son named Ian. The wife was talking to me about Ian and telling me little things he had done and she told me they had been talking to Ian and it must have been when Colin and Ian were getting ready to leave, I think, they told Ian to have a good day and he told them 'Every day's a blessing.' I love to hear that coming from my child!