Aging

I'm fairly used to the fact that I look a little young for my age. I don't mean this in any sort of bragging way. If anything, I wouldn't mind looking a little bit more mature just so I could get a little more professional respect. When people think you are half your age, you get treated that way (and paid that way).
But truth be told, I'm starting my mid-life crisis. And I'm attending my 20th high school reunion this weekend.
It's so cliche to say it, but it's hard to believe it has been 20 years since I graduated from high school. How is that even possible?
I mentioned to someone today that I would be going to the reunion this weekend, and he responded that I still look like I am in high school.
Ha.
That's just what you think!
I may look 18 now (really, I don't think I do. I think I can pass for mid-20's, but 18? not so much.), but I promise you, I did not look like this at 18.
Shall we go to the photographic evidence? And mock my awesome looks in the 80s and 90s?
Here I am at age 18 and my high school graduation. Please note: I did not exactly have the blond, golden locks I have now.

I would be the short one in the graduation white robe. My younger sister Natalie is taller than me. (Has been for many years now.) Sidenote: today I was mistaken for the little girl I am holding in this picture. That is my baby sister Stephanie, who was only 4 years old when I graduated.

As you can see, my natural hair color  back then was a much, much darker blond, bordering on brown.
Next we have a lovely picture from my college years.

Don't ask why we are posing with Citrucel. It's a ridiculous story.

This picture was taken a few weeks before my 20th birthday. (And was before I discovered eyebrow waxing/tweezing.)
And just for good measure, here's what I look like now-

Me and little cousin Lexi Doodle. Who doesn't love a little kid missing their teeth?

Okay, now I realize I haven't really proven my point very well. Apparently my hair has changed, but not much else. In my mind, I really don't look anything like I did when I was 18. But in these pictures it is hard to prove that, other than my hair. But really, at 18, I was 50 lbs lighter, very flat chested (often went without even wearing a bra), had short, curly blond-brown hair, and would never dare have left the house without makeup and earrings on. Now? I might wear mascara if I didn't get much sleep the night before. I can't remember the last time I wore earrings. My hair is light blond and elbow length. And I wear bras that come with gravity defying money-back guarantees.

And now, just for fun, here are some fun 80s pictures of my hair for you-

Behold my 8th grade class picture! I worked hard to get my hair to wing out on the sides like that. 

And 9th grade! Complete with perm and tall bangs! And an acid wash pleated jean skirt. I should be so ashamed, but mostly I'm just greatly amused. I thought I looked totally rad in this outfit!

And no self-shaming high school post would be complete without a prom picture. I was 17 in this picture. And clearly already showing my not-big-on-glamor side.

With all of this humiliation out of the way (not really. i really don't care what i looked like back then.), I am totally ready for my high school reunion.

The Quest for the Perfect Plain White T-Shirt

I am on a quest.
I did not know when I began this simple search that it would turn into a quest.
All I want is a plain white, opaque, v-neck, short sleeved, t-shirt (that is not so long that it covers my hips and butt).
Why on earth is this impossible to find?
I have searched multiple stores. I can find variations on it, but I cannot find the exact, perfect, t-shirt that I want.
I have found white, v-neck, tees, but they are almost never opaque enough. And far too many have those obnoxious mini-pockets on the breast. (Why?!? What purpose does the mini-pocket serve??)
Tonight I took my search to Amazon.
I found this shirt, which appears to be exactly what I want, but opaqueness can only be determined in person-

 

The problem?
It's $44! Who spends $44 on a plain, white, t-shirt?!
Not me!

Brazilian Blowout Before and After

Here goes nothing!
The truth about my hair!
The truth is I have very wavy, almost curly, thick, and hard to manage hair. I have to spend way more time than is reasonable on my hair to only manage to make it look like I don't spend much time on my hair. It takes me a good  thirty minutes to blow dry my hair, using "silky serum," a round brush, and a paddle brush to make it almost, nearly lay down flat.
Leave it naturally curly you say?
I wish! Sadly it turns out more like a fluffyfrizzbobob, which is totally a real word.
Here's the proof-

Natural, air dried hair. 

Not so pretty.
But sometimes, maybe, after hours of scrunching, product, gently combing, and then more scrunching and product, I can get a few minutes of nice curls out of it.
What's worse, is what it looks like if I try to blow dry it without all the tools of the trade-

Have I mentioned I have more hair than a woolly mammoth? It's true, I do.

So when I started hearing about the virtues of a "brazilian blowout" or "brazilian keratin treatment" I became interested. My only regret? Not doing it a year ago when my cousin first told me about them!

A brazilian blowout is nothing like getting your hair straightened. It isn't some awful chemical treatment that straightens your hair. Instead, it is a massive protein infusion into your hair. It can be an extremely expensive procedure at a salon. Here in my fairly inexpensive small town it is about $250-$350 to have done.

I don't have that kind of money.

So I turned to the interwebz, YouTube, and then Amazon, to see if I could do this at home and save a lot of money. After a great deal of research, I found CoCo's Brazilian Hair Keratin Treatment Kit
 on both Amazon and YouTube. Before buying it I went to a local salon and asked if they thought it could be done at home. I found out that this is the brand they would have used and charged me roughly $350 to do (I get the most expensive price thanks to my extra long, thick, and copious amounts of hair). And they fully admitted it is easy to apply at home and even suggested I save the money and do it myself. The price online? (the product linked above and way below) $69!


So I did it. Well, really, my mother did it. 
The instructions implied it would take 2-3 hours to do. Maybe it was our novice, amateur status, or my ridiculous amount of hair, or just painstaking caution on my mother's part. But it took us closer to 4 hours to do. 
The process- 
1. Wash hair with special clarifying shampoo. (Does this stuff make a difference? Absolutely. My hair felt very different after using it. Not its usual texture at all.)
2. Dry hair to 80%. (Used blow dryer to do this, took a good 30 minutes in this humidity to dry.)
3. Apply keratin using little paint brush thingy. (Did not come with the kit. Purchased at Sally's for about $0.99.) This took us a full hour to do. 
Important note- many of the different "brazilian blowout" brands will have a horrific smell. Many will even say you need to ventilate well. One of the salons here in my town will even make sure no pregnant women will be in salon at same time, and will turn on fans it smells so bad. The Coco's brand smells like chocolate, and smelled good actually. I was quite hungry by the end. 
4. Blow dry hair out to about 90%. To save my life I couldn't get my hair actually dry with all that keratin in it! I tried blowing it out for a good 45 minutes before giving up and going to step 5.
5. With the hair dry but still laden down, use a 450 degree flat iron. (I checked my iron before we started and discovered mine only went up to 350, so I bought a $20 one (on sale from $69) at Sally's. I still saved money over paying a salon.) Flat iron hair, piece by tiny piece, about 10 times on each piece. Steam will come off hair the entire time. This step took us a good 2 hours. We were very tired by the end. 

My hair immediately after flat ironing it with the keratin in it. As you can see, it looked fine for going out in public.

6. Ta da! That's it! The end! 
7. Sort of. You actually now leave your hair just like that (in my case feeling a little bit like I had used way too much hair serum) for 48 hours before washing it. (Note to self- next time don't do this over the hottest 2 days of the summer.) Also,  no pinning hair up or using a rubber band during this time. It will leave a crease in your hair if you do!
8. From here on out use only sulfate free hair products (including shampoo and conditioner) to preserve the life of the blowout. 


So the big reveal! What does my hair look like now?
This is my hair after washing it (finally) today, and blow drying it without a hair brush. JUST my fingers! (full disclosure, I did run a brush over it once after drying it)

It took me about 5 minutes tops to dry it with the blow dryer. To make it look like this before would have taken me an hour of blowing it out with a round brush or paddle brush, plus another 30-45 mins with a flat iron. Seriously- 5 minutes. 
And it feels super silky and nice. I can't stop playing with my hair right now. I'm in love with it! It is bouncy, silky, flowy, and gorgeous (even if I do say so myself.). And it looks like this on a miserably hot and humid day. It is unbelievable!
Before and after pictures-
On the top, what my hair looks like hand blow dried before, on the left, my hair hand blow dried after. 

YOU CAN BUY IT ON AMAZON FOR $59 HERE. 
*updated May 17, 2017* I've now purchased this twice a year for 6 years. Still works. Still love it!*


Would I recommend this product to anyone? Absolutely!!

For those wondering how long this will last, the answer is still up in the air! In theory, according to the product, it will last 3-4 months! Considering my upcoming trips to Girls Camp and then Cambodia, I will just be happy if it lasts through the end of August. Anything beyond that will be icing on the cake. 
Tomorrow I will be going to the lake all day with the youth. I'm looking forward to seeing how well my hair holds up. Normally a beach or lake trip would mean having to put my hair in braids to keep it from becoming a tangled mess all day. (I do not come up out of the water looking like this!) I'll report back in and let you know what happens.

Truly all-natural me - just the way I prefer it! No makeup, no hair fuss, no nothing, just a bad tan line!

And Did Butt Crunches At My Desk

I justified not hitting the treadmill or bikes tonight because I walked through Ikea for over an hour. Does anyone have a problem with that?

4 eyes

On the weekends I try to wear my glasses as much as possible. I'm not really supposed to wear my contacts as often as I do, according to an optometrist I went to a few years ago. So on the weekends I try to wear my glasses as much as possible. This past Sunday I must have fallen asleep wearing my glasses during my nap. And I must have taken them off in my sleep too. Because I woke up when I rolled over on top of them and heard them snap in two. Now normally I have 2 pairs of glasses. But back in May my darling littlest nephew (while I was still living with him) brought me my regular pair of glasses in a broken mess. His lack of command of the English language at the time has left it a mystery as to how indestructable frames could be in so many pieces. So I packed the pieces in a box that I have since lost. Which left me with my backup pair of glasses, which suits me just fine.

I wasn't too worried about my glasses. Until I got to work on Tuesday and discovered a co-worker with the dreaded pink eye. For those who don't know, I get pink eye like no other. I get pink eye just thinking about it. And I don't just get pink eye. I get it BAD. And for those of you with 20/20 vision, let me explain. You can't wear contacts with pink eye. You have to throw them out, and only wear glasses. Now suddenly I am threatened with the evil eye, and I have no glasses.

Needless to say I have kept he Lysol wipes handy at work. In spite of this, another co-worker came down with the nasties today as well. So I picked up the pieces of my glasses and headed to Wal-Mart hoping beyond hope that they could fix them for me. I really don't have the time to go get an eye appointment for a new prescription and then have to wait for the glasses to arrive. Alas, they cannot magically glue plastic frames back together for you. But! Since the lenses were intact they said if I could find other frames they fit in, they would just pop them in for me! YEAH! And in what feels like the only stroke of good luck I have had lately, the very first pair of frames I looked at were nearly identical to my broken ones. Within ten minutes of walking in to the store, I had new glasses. And it was all paid for on my Payflex (Flex Spending Acct) Mastercard, which means I spent nothing today. YEAH!!!!!


Now look at the top picture at the new frames and then below at the old frames and see if you can tell a difference!!