Announcement and 7 month hair update

The announcement is......I’m going to Big Chop!  We’ll get to that in a minute.  The last 4 weeks have been a little crazy. 

I baked cupcakes for my company's Christmas party and made frosting from scratch for the 1^st time!

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and marshmallow garnish.

Ok--- so I'm not a fan of veggies, but I've been eating more lately.  If you've never had them before, please go out and make some kale chips.  They are delicious (considering it's a vegetable!)

Kale chips and cashews

I tried to be creative and did a little paint job on an old table Daniel had before we met.

Cre -- do those flowers look familiar?!

I went to the Emergency Room. 

I was there for over 6 hours--I finally walked in my apartment after 2am.

IV ports in both arms!

Top green squiggly line is what my heart has been doing for about 2 months now.

I tried to give myself a straw set.

The first two pictures are how a straw set should look.  The rest are my horrible interpretation.  It was so bad, that I carefully combed it out and wore a ‘fro for the week.

It looks like Whoopi's back in the day!

I had an iron infusion. A six hour iron infusion.

Test dose to make sure I'm not allergic.

The big kahuna of iron.

Halfway there--just 3 more hours to go.

Yes!  All done!

The recliner room.

I read some of the time.

Right after this, I told Daniel to go home and pick me up when I'm done.  He held on for 2 hours!

I read some more.

I slept, too.

Daniel and I went on a couple of dates including going to my Sorority’s Ball.

Ohhhh yeeahhh!

So…..on to the hair!  

Flat ironing my hair for the week.

Can you see the waves?!?

I have never done anything “extreme” with my hair.  Ever. I’ve never colored, highlighted, cut it, etc.  I literally have only trimmed it and relaxed it.  I’m turning 30 this month and have decided to live on the wild side.  I’m cutting off all of the relaxed ends and I will finally be completely natural.  I’m terrified out of my mind, but it’s time to do something completely out of my character.  Turning 30 seems like a great time to do it.  I do plan on buying a wig or 2, because I’m quite sure there will be days where I curse myself for it!

The next time I update, I will have no more than 4 inches of hair...yikes!  Have a wonderful week everyone!

5:45am wake up call

I’ve had a busy day thus far!  My new kitten, Tierra (I’ll tell her story in a future post), decided to start crying @ 5:50am!  On a Saturday!  She really does cry---long, loud, meows that go on and on.  She literally won’t stop until she gets a hug.  

So I get up to hug her and of course, can’t go back to sleep to save my life.  So I decided to be domestic…

and I made muffins—a chocolate chip batch and a blueberry one!  Although the blueberry ones came out a little flat, they were muy delicioso!  They’re 75% homemade—I use a Bisquick mix as the base, and then add ingredients from there.

After making the muffins, my honey woke up and we talked for a few minutes.  Daniel and I want to get into bike riding and he was planning to meet a gentleman who is selling a bike off of Craigslist.  I’m really excited to get into riding---there are wonderful trails for bike riding at First Landing State Park, as well as biking on the beach….hopefully I’ll find a bike soon, too so we can begin our adventures.

I had to head out shortly after our conversation for a community service event.  I’m a member of the best Sorority in the world and few of my chapter members decided to help out at an event in Park Place.  A Norfolk native, Kameron Chancellor (plays for the Seattle Seahawks), decided to give back to his community and give away 15 bikes to the kids in neighborhood where he was raised.  It was a great event with lots of laughs –we may even make it into the Virginian Pilot at some point this week. 

Myself, L.W., & K.H.

The rest of the day is dedicated to washing my hair in a new way, returning an item from our wedding registry that was a duplicate, and then hanging out with my Sorors this evening at a club/restaurant called Upscale.  My chapter was charted 2 years ago and had increased from 6 members, to over 30!  It’s a great bunch of women and I’m excited for a night out (I’m usually a homebody).

What is this about washing my hair in a new way?  Well, I’m going to use a technique I recently read about called co-washing.  Apparently, the sulfates and other ingredients in shampoo are very harsh on the hair.  Co-washing is short for conditioner washing.  Basically, the only thing needed for hair to get clean is water and agitation, so even without shampoo, the hair will get clean.  Since only conditioner is being used, the hair will be moisturized without being heavy, as long as you rinse well.  I’ve also heard about pre-poo (conditioning with essential oils before washing with shampoo) but I think I’ll leave that for another day.

What techniques do you use for your hair that people may not know about?  Do you put unique things on your hair (mayonnaise, olive oil, etc)?

Have a wonderful weekend!