So Sick of Goodbyes.

One of my best friends lost her mom on Wednesday. Her mom battled Lou Gehrig's disease for almost two years. Cindy was an amazing woman, an amazing mother, and an "adoptive mom" to all of her daughter, Ashley's, friends. My heart breaks for Ashley and her whole family. As part of the extended, "adopted" family, I feel like I lost a huge part of my family. Cindy will be greatly missed, and we were all so lucky to have her in our lives.


                                           RIP Cindy Lee Taylor   4/29/1960 - 01/26/2011

Dad's Last Great Adventure

My state is so stupid. They made it mandatory for death certificates to be filed online and not all doctors/coroners are registered with the online system, so things are way backed up. It took the state 3 weeks to get dad's death certificate filed. My dad died 3 weeks ago and was *just now* cremated. I've talked to my mom and I will be taking some of dad's ashes to Turkey Run, Bridgeton, and Oregon. We will also be having an old friend of dad's take his some of his ashes and scatter them where dad used to go mushroom hunting. Mom is going to spread some of his ashes around a pine tree he planted in the yard. He's going to forever be in the places that he loved and that meant the most to him. He had never been to Oregon, but he loved the pictures my cousin and I posted. I may see if my uncle would like some to spread around his yard, he was my dad's twin and they spent almost every birthday together since they turned 50 and dad loved visiting him in Texas. I think spreading his ashes will make his death real to me in a way nothing else has. It's been 3 weeks and I still can't believe he's gone.

*sigh*

My baby got his first hair cut today. Okay, he's two, so he's not really a baby anymore but he's still the baby of the family. We discovered a minor lice infestation in his hair that I believe he picked up last week when my sis in law babysat for us. Now for the before and after pictures. :)

This was before his hair cut.

It made me really sad to cut it, but the way it curled at the end would have made running the nit comb through his hair an impossibility.

This is after

He still looks adorable, as you can see. Hopefully now people will see that he's a boy.

Why I'm awesome, and other stuff.

I asked for suggestions on what my next post should be. The title of today's/tonight's post is an idea I was given. I didn't post right away because yesterday I wasn't feeling all that awesome, between the perpetually fussy toddler to the sulky preteen, the awesomeness was nowhere to be found. After tucking all my boys into bed (hubby included) I headed out to the bar to check out my brother in law's band. I hung out with my sister in law for the evening and had a blast. I love that I have the best inlaws in the world. Today wasn't much better, the toddler was still fussy, the preteen was still sulky (even more so because I had to ground him until his grades come up) Awesomeness was in short supply again. I slapped on some eyeshadow around midnight or so, because glitter is a pretty good mood lifter, and went to hang out with my girl Brittany. We went to Walmart where hilarity insued. Now that I've bored you all to death with a run down of the last two uneventful days of my life, I'm going to move onto the topic at hand: Why I'm awesome.

I am awesome because I wrangle a high needs toddler all day, pick up my oldest from school every day, pick my brother up from work and drive him home, and make dinner. I do this every day. Granted, that is the general job description of a stay at home mom, so maybe that's not what makes me awesome.... Crap, this is harder than I thought.
I'm awesome because, at 28, I still rock the pink hair. It's a bit pastel now because I need to redye, but generally it's an all out, in your face pink. I've had pink hair off and on for almost 10 years! Don't like it? I honestly don't care. I love the way I look with pink hair, so it stays.
I'm awesome because I have the strangest sense of fashion. I will throw together an outfit that no one on Earth should ever wear and it will look great, because I simply don't care how silly it looks.
I'm awesome because I will do anything for the ones I love. Friends, family, doesn't matter. If you need something, I will do everything I can to help you.

Want to see my makeup from the last couple of days? I hope you said "Yes," because here come the pics!

The top two are from last night. The next two are the colors I rocked tonight.

I think that's all I have for you tonight. Tomorrow, I may do a mini tutorial on how I get these awesome eye shots, though the way I do it won't help many people, because of the gear I use.

What would you like to see?

I'm putting my next post in your hands. I'm a pretty boring and lame person, so I want you all to tell me what I should make my next post about. :) Put your ideas in the comment section.

A Heartfelt "Thank You"

A lot of my blogger friends are posting about what makes them amazing and asking others to think about what makes them amazing. I was going to chime in with what makes me amazing (it's more of a self empowering thing, rather then a bragging thing) but I thought about it last night as I laid on the couch (because my back hurt too bad for me to do much of anything else) and I would rather post about what makes my friends and family amazing.

First of all, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my hubby. He was just being the awesome hubby he always is, but after my dad passed, he took the whole week off from both jobs and was the parent to my boys that I couldn't be. There is no way I would have gotten through that week as well as I did if it hadn't been for him. I was in no condition to be a mom, I was too overwhelmed with trying to comprehend how my dad could really be gone to be a mother. He stepped in and made sure that everyone got fed and bathed. He made sure that no one burnt the house down because I probably would not have noticed. He's the main reason I made it through the whole ordeal more or less whole.

I also need to thank all my friends out there, those whom I've met and those on the internet. You ladies are another huge reason I made it through that awful week. Hubby had to sleep at some point, and all of you picked up where he left off. I don't sleep much and it was wonderful to be able to have someone to talk to at 3am, a virtual shoulder can be as good as a real shoulder. Not all of you know exactly what it's like to lose a parent, but you were all so understanding and patient with my broken record of sadness and disbelief.

In short, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I love you for doing all you could to help me get through the hardest thing I've ever done. I love that I have such a huge support system to catch me when I fall. You all are the reason I didn't fall flat on my face.

Naked Face

Today was a naked face kind of day. Hubby was home because of MLK day, the boys were both home. I didn't really wake up until very late in the afternoon. I think my little man is getting sick, I noticed in the early evening that he was roasting, so I got him down for a nap and checked his temp. He was running a bit of a fever at 101.2 so I gave him some Tylenol when he woke up. The fever didn't seem to bother him, he was still running around and jumping on us as usual. I made sure he got another dose before bed, so he wouldn't have trouble sleeping.

On an exciting note, I have new piggies to use tomorrow. I help my friend mix up some colors that she's going to start selling sometime this summer. I got to take the leftovers after we filled the pots. I'll let you all know what I think tomorrow/today and add some pictures to go along with my mini review... though I'm sort of biased, since I helped. Of course I'm going to love these colors.