Fun at CCF

Just in case you've ever wondered what the end of a 13 hour day at The Cheesecake Factory looks like. That's it.

Dallace's Hair

 Derek isn't the only kiddo in this house with post-worthy hair! After bath time the other night, Dallace informed me she would like me to blow dry her hair like mommy's. Without hesitation, I seized the opportunity and one-upped her by flat ironing it (after generously applying some heat protectant, of course!). I love her sweet curly hair, but she does look awfully cute (and much older) with the straight hair. She examined her new hairstyle in the mirror, running her fingers through her hair for a few seconds while saying, "ohhh, pretty!"

Derek's First Haircut

Derek, recently, had his hair cut for the first time. I went in expecting the worst. A little backstory for you:

My little brother is 13 years younger than me. This large age gap has allowed me several opportunities and experiences of young children and majorly traumatic events in their life. Connor's first haircut was definitely a day to remember. There was lots of screaming and crying-both from Connor and my mother.

So, with this event in my mind I took Derek in to the Hairy Elephant, a local kids only salon and decided to go ahead and admit defeat before we even began allowing for no disappointment. When we arrived we sat in the waiting area, which was filled with nearly every toy you can imagine, and watched as two brothers sat there screaming while their haircuts were completed. This only encouraged my emotional distancing from the upcoming situation. The boys ahead of us finished up and Derek and I walked back to the awesomely red racecar chair he would sit in. Tosha, the stylist fastened the smock around his neck and it was time to begin. A few light spritz' of cool water to prep the hair for trimming and we were off.

Snip.

.Snip.

.Buzzz.

DONE!

Tri 1

As I mentioned in the previous post, Luke is in the first trimester of ten in the D.C. program at Logan. Everyone we've encountered in the 8 months prior to him starting told us the same thing. They told us to prepare ourselves, it is a full time job, and we will NEVER see him again.

Well, maybe that last part was a bit dramatic, we do see him but it's just an hour or two here and there. Then, on the weekends,  when we would be able to spend the most amount of time together, I'm off to work. So, this has been quite the adjustment. Now, we've lived through a time with a very similar schedule to this, before. When he worked out at the area,  he would be up around 5:00 a.m, and arrive home a bit after 6:00 p.m. or sometimes as late as 1:00 a.m. There was a lot of texting, calling, and picture messages to stay connected. Now, we are getting back into the swing of that schedule, and learning to make the most out of a quick 10 minute drop by visit or lunchtime. Luckily, we live about 3 minutes away from Logan, making the quick hello super convenient.

After doing ALL of his undergrad online, due to working 60+ hours a week, this "real school" thing is both awesome and awesomely difficult. As anyone who's taken an online course can tell you-they can be so easy. Most of them, anyways. Now, Luke is back in a "real classroom." He says to some degree it makes it easier, actually having a teacher there to bounce questions off of or request feedback. And to some extent it's much more difficult. Either way, I couldn't be more proud of him. He set his mind on what he wanted to do and he worked harder than anyone else I've ever seen to get our family here. It makes me feel such an intense sense of pride to know that he is the example Derek will see growing up of how to work. He's such an amazing person, husband, and father. It's also been reassured to me, here, that he is my best friend in the world. No one can make me laugh the way he does! I definitely miss my favorite ladies up in Washington and I would do anything to convince their husbands to change their career paths and decide to become chiropractors and go to Logan..immeidately. However, no matter how compelling my arguments were, they said they would just hold my place in our little circle until we return one day. I guess I can settle for that. We are already a month into Tri 1 and I have a feeling the rest is going to fly by!