a big pat on the back

For those of you who know me well know how much I need this pat on the back; well, I got a big one today. One of my very most loyal hair clients had an appointment today. She recently returned from a vacation in San Francisco. Her brother-in-law owns the MNKYTHMP Salon Spa Escape which happens to be one of the biggest salons in San Fran. It is a Redken Salon (which I also use Redken) and has some of the top Redken colorists who transferred there from new York. Anyways, he set her up with an amazing day at the spa where she got the full treatment. She had a colorist, cutter, massage therapist, pedicurist, esthetician, and on and on. Well, when she went to the colorist he told her that he wasn't even going to touch it because whoever is doing her color is doing a perfect job. He said to tell me to keep doing exactly what I am doing. WOW!!!! What a compliment to me, and it couldn't have come at a better time. I have been on cloud 9 all day; compliments like this mean A LOT to me, so thank you, Nancy for passing on the praise!

do you want to take a nap?

Sam is now officially potty trained and does a great job about going on his own or asking when we are in a new place. Tonight his Grandma Jane took him to the pool with his cousins Kol and Luk. Kol was very concerned about helping him use the potty. As they were leaving the dressing room Kol told Sam that he should use the potty. Sam said "I don't want to." Kol had a clever response; he said "do you want to take a nap?". Of course Sam said no, so Kol said "then you better use the potty." Sam used it immediately. WOW! What quick and clever thinking for a 7-year-old! What has taken me so long to figure out to use a nap threat to get some response around here!?

Capitol Reef

We recently made a trip to Capitol Reef with Pete's family. We discovered that Capitol Reef is Utah's little hidden secret. It was a beautiful place, and we had a fabulous time. We mostly just hiked, explored, fished, and picnicked. It was just a nice little get-away, and my kids were awesome! Sam could just live on vacation and be thrilled forever. He always loves the "new house", and he loves sleeping on vacation, too. Will loved playing somewhere new but didn't care much for sleeping somewhere new. Maybe someday we will get them lined up on their sleeping. :)
A few highlights: Sam loved playing with his cousins; he's just like a big little kid now, Will finally liked swimming and was so cute once he got warmed up, Sam went on a 2.5 mile and walked the whole way except maybe 1/4 of a mile, good hamburgers, and Sam's cute comment: He asked who made all the rocks. We told him Heavenly Father and Jesus, and he said "no they didn't. The workers with the tractors did!" He is truly obsessed with tractors and working!

a hard lesson to learn

don't gripe. You won't feel better afterwards like you think you will; you will actually feel worse.

Maybe I need some duct tape to just tape my mouth shut. Sometimes that would be easier than just keeping my mouth closed.

lesson learned today

don't gripe. You won't feel better afterwards like you think you will; you will actually feel worse.

Walker Family Hair Day

This has been a long awaited moment for my family; my brother FINALLY cut his hair today. He has been growing it since 2002 with not much more than an occasional (meaning like twice a year) trim. There were so many reasons he was growing it I don't even know if I knew them all much less could post them all. However, the latest reason was intertwined with a remodel project he was doing. He said he would cut his hair and shave his beard (I didn't mention that he had a beard that was probably 3-4 inches long that he would braid) after he finished his attic apartment. Well, the apartment is complete, so the hair came off today. So, drum roll please for the new look...


He looks totally different now, but I think it's a good different. He let me do whatever I wanted, so I chose a buzz for the dramatic effect of having it really long and then really short. Plus, we were able to cut enough to donate it to locks of love.
He said it felt good to have it off his neck; I think he was surprisingly pleased. There will probably be times he might miss it though, and perhaps he might feel sad that he can't be mistaken for Jesus by the nursery kids anymore. Despite any of that, we are all thrilled it's gone. I have to admit the long hair had started to grow on me a little, but I was so happy to have the "old" big brother Jeff back that I don't even think I will miss it.

His wife Nellie decided to make it a family affair, so she cut hers off for locks of love today, too. Let me tell, between the 2 of them I cut A LOT of hair today...