The bane of my existence

I'm not really sure what the deal is as of late, but I can't buy a good hair cut to save my life. It really is my quest in life (as stated in my profile) to find the perfect hair cut or maybe I need to change that to perfect beautician, or whatever they want to be called. It'll never happen. I've finally opened my eyes to the fact that it will never exist. It seems that I find someone that I think is fantastic and then it's all down hill from there. Is this not true for everyone else? They painstakingly pay an enormous amount of attention to details, ask lots of questions and are so careful when they are finished to instill in your mind that if you get home and it's not working to call them right away and they will take care of it. Fast forward six months and what do you get? No attention to details, no looks in the mirror (so you can see how horrible the back is before you get home), and most definitely not the "let me know if something's not working for you!" You pay them and tip them for a kick in the butt as you walk out the door. I've been going through my mind if it's kosher to call them and just let them know that your hair cut sucks, but you don't want to come back in because you're afraid they'll mess it up even more. (You can't really undo going too short now can you.) And I also really want to tell her that I now know why she gave me this elf'ish style (yah, she really did part my hair around my ears and told me that's how she styled her hair when she had it short and it was "super cute"...in what elf kingdom?) because she cut it too short over the left ear, so there was no hair there anymore! A good three inch difference from the right side to the left. I guess that would explain why there was no checking both sides for symmetry. Or the "let me know if something isn't working for you" comment. I think we should make it socially acceptable to tip for the previous hair cut the next time you go in, then they would realize how they are doing. Or maybe you could make the tip "pending" for a day or two until you really get to see how the cut is. Is that too much to ask? I hate paying and tipping for crap hair cuts. Aaarrrrgghhhh! Can you feel my frustration? Especially when you get it cut right before the holidays thinking you want to have cute hair for pictures and videos and all that entourage, but now I'm feeling like the village idiot with my lopsided hair do. "Your childhood is calling Sandra, they want their hair-do back!"

p.s. I'm still debating whether I want to post a picture or not, so you can all see what I'm talking about.

A tractor came for a visit

...and so did Grandpa and Grandma Summers, Alyssa and Ian (Luke's cousins). You would think that Grandparents and cousins would trump a tractor, but not for Luke. He talked about it all morning before they arrived. He kept saying over and over that "Bompa uhuh trator uhuhuh trayer." (Grandpa bringing tractor on trailer.) He doesn't know how to say the "filler" words in sentences but he knows they are supposed to be there so he just hums and hahs in their place. Brilliant eh? He was excited to play with Grandma, Grandpa and cousins and ride in Bompa's truck (also a passion of his).


We "pay paydough," visited our horse friend Boots and they all had a bath in the big tub, although Ian didn't like the jets on, so he didn't last long. It was a super fun day. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for coming to play and for bringing the tractor, Alyssa and Ian down with you.

Such is my life

So as of late Luke has become fascinated with Sesame Street. It's on when he wakes up from his nap and it keeps him from being grumpy, so we watch it. But I have realized how crazy funny Sesame Street is. It's amazing the celebrities they have on and the parody's they come up with. Like Dancing with Triangles, which was hilarious by the way. Today they had Annie get your Gumbo on. I think one of my favorite ones though (which is not a parody) is Suzie singing "Somebody Come & Play" it just cracks me up the way she sings it. I smile every time. Yah I can't figure out how to embed a video file either (Nicole), unless it's You Tube.

Anyway, as I was searching for the Suzie video I came upon some old time Sesame Street that brought back some fond memories. Did anyone out there have the Sesame Street Disco record? Well I sure did and I even remember opening it on my birthday and I think I was even wearing a Sesame Street t-shirt at the time. As luck would have it, I found Cookie Monster singing "Me Lost Me Cookie at the Disco" which was on my record. April, I know you remember dancing to this one, I probably pulled a groin muscle then too. If you've got the time, it is a bit long...but worth all the memories.



And this is the pure excitement my life is filled with these days. How did I ever grow up in a small town?

p.s. Speaking of small towns, a little bit of a side note here. Can someone please explain to me why it's so hilarious to teenagers to wave to people they don't know? They honk and wave and laugh gleefully as they do it. I remember doing it. But I do also remember that we upgraded as we got older to honking at someone and then we would all wave the opposite direction. That's gotta make 'em feel good eh? Yah, the rebels we were. We'd cruise around in our small town in a friends huge 1960's caprice (or something like that, correct me if I'm wrong Shea.) Anyway, it's just funny to me high school kids are still doing it, what's the mental age anyway of a high school er?

No doubt boo, no doubt

Just for old time sake. Alan and Jerome — das us!

How would one know if one is in the SC (Sanpete County)

It's really quite easy, here's just a few hints for those that have never spent any time here.
1. The drives that happen on a regular basis...down the middle of the road. Yah those are sheep.


2. The ATVs that are used as regular vehicles, even if you're not old enough to drive. They take them to the bank, the store or even church.
3. The birds that live in the Walmart.
4. The girlfriends sitting next to their boyfriends in their pick-up trucks. (A friend gave me this one.)

There may be others that I will not hesitate to add if I find them. The reality sometimes just stares me in the face. But we love it. Kind of.

p.s. Kareen, can you top this lady? Now who's in the prairie eh?

I love to laugh!

And Luke is frequently the one that makes that happen for me. Here are a few pics of him that tell it all. Okay, well maybe I'll have to explain a wee bit. Luke has always loved picking up dog poop, back at our old house he would often ask to do this. All he had to say was "pooh-pooh?" and we knew what he meant. So yesterday Danny was outside filling in the trenches in our yard (the 2 month long ordeal...not filling trenches, but getting sprinklers in the yard, but that's for another post) and Luke wanted to be outside with his shovel as well. Where Danny was working was very close to the "pooh-pooh" corner and Luke thought that sounded more fun than digging in the dirt. So I look out the window and see that Danny has grabbed the "pooh-pooh" bucket for him. Luke proceeded to pick up poop for about 20 minutes. No joke. And I have to say, he almost got it all! Not bad for a wee kid. The imagery of it just made me laugh, so I grabbed the camera.

"I got it momma, it's right here!"

Notice the smile on his face. He's in a bit o' heaven.





















So today I was in the kitchen while Luke was yelling at me "blankie on" over and over. I couldn't see him so I thought he was on the couch "ouch" as he calls it. I started over to the couch to get his blanket when I realized he was not on the couch, but indeed on the dogs bed. He'd given them the boot and took over their favorite spot. The dogs are thinking "what else is new!"


And then he asks for the chips. Doesn't get much better than that eh?

Yes, he makes me laugh every day. One of my favorite sayings of his is "momma, atch this" and then he'll do a little trick for me. Sometimes his tricks are just showing his teeth, or blinking his eyes, but sometimes he'll get real crazy and kick his legs or something clever like that. Or lately he'll say, "hat George say?" (yah doesn't say his w's real well, if at all) and I'll proceed to make monkey noises. He's talking about Curious George. His new found fascination...George and "TB" (t.v.).

Luke's fun surgery

So we had the all too fun opportunity of going through surgery with lil' Luke. I pretty much rotted his teeth by letting him fall asleep with milk in his mouth... never mind all the hundreds of other women that have done that and never had an issue. That's just our luck. So at 20 months old he went under general anesthesia and had six crowns and three fillings put in his mouth. I know, awesome!!!! But it gets better. He couldn't eat anything past midnight the night before, which meant 6:00 pm for him when he last ate supper before bedtime. He had some apple juice at seven in the morning the next day and that was it until after surgery. He did better than I expected, he definitely asked for food and water, but handled it pretty well. When he realized that I wasn't giving in, he started asking for different types of food and when that didn't work, he starting asking if he could eat at different locations, like "Cade house." I finally said yes to that knowing we wouldn't get there until after surgery, so that sufficed. He was schedule for 11:00 am, we were in the waiting room at 10:45 am, but waited in there for THREE HOURS, not even kidding. I started going crazy. I started throwing out threats with lots of huffing and puffing. He fell asleep for a bit which helped, but after the second hour of waiting we had to get out of that room and walk, we walked around and around the pre-op and post-op circle. Everyone was talking to Luke, commenting how cute he was and he paid no attention to anyone, I personally don't think he had the energy to, walking was probably hard enough. I missed the picture of a lifetime (because I didn't bring the camera) when we finally found the wagon where the toys were. We circled in that for about 4 laps when we went back to the toys and he wanted to bring the xylophone in the wagon with him, so we put it on his lap and off we went again...circling. He plunked away on the xylophone, on the same note, without looking at it, with not even a care in the world and didn't pay any attention to the smiles and the laughs that he got as we did three more laps before the anesthesiologist finally came and found us. I wish I would've gotten a picture of him in the wagon with the xylophone. Arrrgggghhhhh. But, the moment had finally come. Hall-le-freakin-lujah!!! They gave him a relaxant so he wouldn't freak out as much when they took him away from us. Yes, I had a few teary moments. He cried, and I cried. Two and a half hours later we saw him and we managed to get Carrie's camera from her so we got a few shots of him.

As soon as he came out he seemed like he could hardly keep his eyes open but the nursed asked him if he wanted some apple juice and he perked right up. He drank a glass and a half of apple juice without stopping. But he was so sleepy that he was out again after he finished it.


He didn't stop eating the rest of the night until bedtime. He could only eat soft foods, so he went crazy on the muffins that April had made when we stopped at "Cade house" after. His diaper leaked three nights in a row, I think it was a combo of the IV and the amount he drank afterward. His mouth is totally healed and amazingly enough kids don't really even need pain killers after mouth surgery. I still gave him some though, just in case. Kids are amazing! Not something I would recommend going through though to anyone.