Goodbye for now

Well friends, it's time to say goodbye to this blog. It was therapeutic for me and a good way to keep track of life, etc. But, I am just too stinking busy these days. I imagine that I'll start a new one sometime down the road that better encompasses where I am at in life. Until then...lots of love to you!

xoxo
Nicole

We've been having fun...

For Jehu's 10th birthday, he asked if I could put some color in his hair. So, we had a little hair dying party & put a few streaks in the kids' hair. It was Jehu & Roz, as well as Jehu's best friend, Malachi. :-)

It was loads of fun & the kids all love their hair!

Dude, I suck at keeping up with things these days...sorry

So, I wanted to share a few pics of some things I've been doing.

This sums it up pretty well, I guess:

I LOVE this style - it's not everyday hair, but it IS runway hair:

And then I did this color on my friend Morgan, which I also LOVE!

I've done a bunch of cuts & other stuff too, but I have been a slacker in the photo department, so I have nothing more to show you. Sad, I know.

I LOVE cosmetology school though, can you tell?!

Yipes!

Life has been a bit of a blur lately...hence the lack of blogging.

I have started school and I LOVE it!! It is SO much fun & I can't wait to get there everyday. Okay, everyday except the first two days of my period...I would have rather just stayed home those two days.

I love what I'm learning & I love to practice it. I freaked my kids out with my mannequin head too which was pretty fun! Oddly enough, Aaron was more freaked out about it than the kids. Ha! It does always make me feel a little weird to pull a head out of a bag though - I'm not gonna lie.

I got my hair done too - which I LOVE! (ignore my washed out face in the last one...I didn't bother taking the time to adjust natural light, etc.)

It's fun, right?! Well, I am in cosmetology school - I had to try some new looks, right?!

Oh how we love vacation...

Even if it IS only for a few days.

At Safeco Field watching the Mariners play

My how I love the ocean! And low tide is the best...it's just so fun to explore & dig & walk the beach...getting wet and sandy on purpose...with huge smiles on our faces the whole time.

Digging for geoducks (pronounced gooey ducks - they are really HUGE clams that also are quite phallic looking...trust me just google it. *YIKES*)

They are really deep...

This is Aaron & I "crab hunting" too...

Skipping rocks is pretty fun

Seaweed that looks like Indian Jones' whip is pretty cool too!

And family...family is the best :-)

I'm still alive...

and with all my parts, so I guess it wasn't leprosy afterall. ;-)

Apparently, it was some kind of skin reaction or rash or something, because it wasn't acne either. I got myself all freaked out (thank you webMD) thinking that it could be MRSA or a staph infection too. I was obsessed and convinced that it was starting to spread. I finally broke down and asked my husband to pray for me, because I was seriously starting to lose it.

One site suggested applying hydrocortisone cream, which we actually had in the house already. So, I decided to give it a try (as a last ditch effort before total meltdown). Thankfully, when I woke up the next morning, the rash looked a ton better - way less inflamed and less bumpy too. That brought a ton of relief. Thank you Jesus!

So, it's slowly going away. And I can now focus on other things instead of my imminent death or loss of limbs. :-)

I must be stressed...

either that, or I have leprosy, skin cancer or the chicken pox. Given my choices, I'm really pulling for stress + that time of the month.

Usually, when aunt flo comes for a visit I will get a few zits on my face - maybe the occasional one on my chest. However, I woke up the other day to discover a friggin' outbreak. In all seriousness, it totally freaked me out. I mean look at this:

I was kind of freaking out - was this some kind of allergic reaction? What the hell? I instantly went to the computer to look it up.

Well, of course it mentions stress right away, especially when coupled with your period, etc. Then it talks about sweat glands & exercise adding to it as well. So, I went back into the bathroom to take off my shirt to look more closely. Guess what I discovered? The crazy acne patches follow the same basic shape of my sports bra.

Oops, I guess I did fall asleep in it the other night after getting all sweaty from working out. I'm not gonna lie - I have done that on occasion before & this has NEVER happened. BUT I'm thinking it must have been that perfect storm of combos. Sweat+PMS+stress = a major breakout. Or leprosy...the jury's still out on that one, if I'm being completely transparent.

*Fingers crossed* that it goes away quickly - I'm too old for this crap. Aren't I?