Summer Guy Sitting On Some Fountain Fish, Pink Hair, and A Pumpkin Pony...neigh neigh

I'm still on this  reorganizing, fixing kick.  Really I'm not sure what's gotten into me.  This has been our home for a year now, but if you would've walked through the house on any given day these past few weeks, you may have assumed we've just moved.

Part of my reorganizing has been going through digital photos and videos. Sorting through them, backing them up...filing them in the correct folders, transferring them from multiple places, etc.  I have put off this job for YEARS. Once we lost some pretty special photos.  At that time a vow was made with myself to stay on top of it from this point on.  But kick me out of the convent, because I haven't.

It's amazing what gets done when there's something on my list I don't WANT to do.  Like REALLY don't want to do. Suddenly things like watching youtube tutorials on how to carve a pumpkin into a pony become priority.  

But going through our family photos and videos has turned out to be a good thing.  They feel like they were taken yesterday, but the girls are so small!  We did the home school thing for Sara's first few years, but I imagine watching those videos is similar to the sorrow kind of joy parents feel on their child's first day of kindergarten.  Or I don't know, maybe it's what parents feel when they watch videos of their kids.  There's an idea.

Amidst all the filing and furniture moving, as well as the all-things-under-this-roof-move-around, I'd like to post a few photos of this summer's trip.  This way in two years, when my photos are once again stored in multiple computers, thumbnail drives, or whatever else is new to then, I can be sure to find these here on the world wide web...then eat dark chocolate while lamenting thinking back on how quickly our girls are growing.

As mentioned in this July post, Sara, Siri, and I had the chance to spend a few weeks at the beach this summer while Siri received osteopathic manipulative treatments in the area. If you are looking for an experienced and all-around amazing Osteopath, send me an email by clicking on the email icon at the top of the blog, or fb message me here for his info or for more info on OMT.  We travel quite a distance for Siri to be treated by him, as he came highly recommended to us.  Now we are the ones who highly recommend him.

One of Siri's favorite things is walking the boardwalk on our trips.  We can walk for hours, and she is so happy and content. She would rather walk than eat.   I like it too, and it's good for both of us.  But I also like to eat...like pretzels.  I like to eat pretzels.  This summer I reintroduced pretzels back into my diet.  "Hello again pretzels!" I said.  "Hello to you." they replied.

Here we are walking at night.  Towards the end of our trip, Sara started asking if I'd like her to push Siri every now and again, giving me a break.  She can be super sweet like that.  

I love what this picture represents.  She is such a great big sister to Siri and a HUGE help as she's getting older.  

We also had the chance to speak at an annual golf tournament benefiting the house where we stay while on these trips.  At the end of the banquet a very generous man walked over to us and gifted us the gift he had won that night...it was a 100 dollar gift certificate to the rather prestigious gift shop. What a kind gesture.  Because I'm the best  a loving wife, I decided to spend it on husband Dion. One shirt was ninety dollars, so I didn't want to get this wrong. We texted and sent pics back and forth, until he was sure it was what he wanted. It is soft. It is pink. Husband Dion is super hot in pretty much whatever he's wearing, and this soft and pink shirt is no exception.  

Here we are taking selfies in the fancy ladies restroom and checking out the fountain at the golf course.

Isn't it beautiful?  This sitting-on-two-spitting-water-fish guy is my favorite.

I've also been meaning to post our summer hair changes, because it's exciting and will compel you to quickly come back to read more blog posts.  not really.  But this is a blog about creative process, so this covers that right?...kinda sorta.

Before the trip the girls needed haircuts.  Sara wanted it short for the beach, and I promised to give her some pink hair once we got there.  Siri's before and after cut...

Sara's before and after cut...

To make a strip of Sara's hair pink, we used Splat.  This was a two day process for us.  On the first day, we bleached out her natural color.  We used plastic wrap to keep it where we wanted it.  It looked like this after bleaching.  

The following day we dyed the bleached area pink.  Here is also a bird on her head.

And here she has underwear on her head.  
Both perfectly normal.
Some day she will appreciate her mother posting photos of this type on the world wide web.

I discovered a fun new product to use on my hair this summer too. The air curler! While bestfriend Gretchen was visiting, we made a few trips to our local discount store, where she introduced me to this controversial hair product. Since our tv isn't hooked up with cable, I hadn't seen the As Seen On TV infomercials. After watching the reviews on youtube and seeing how awful they are on amazon, I began to second guess this five dollar purchase.  But then I followed the directions, along with my favorite hair oil, and this happened...

It swirls hair around in a vortex like, pink container that attaches to your hairdryer.  Like a cotton candy machine.  Considering all the bad reviews, I can't really recommend it, but it was much faster than curling, and curl doesn't stay in my hair all that long anyway, since naturally, in spite of best efforts, most of the time it's determined to do its own rebellious thing.  Why IS "beach hair" all the thing on pinterest? Isn't it just a nicer way to describe tangly, frizzy, messy, out of control hair?  yes. yes it is. because that's what beach hair is.  unruly frizz.

This pic is from an earlier trip.  When Siri and I got back from our walk, it was like this.  And there were bugs on it!!!  gross. Maybe they like my favorite oil too.  I guess if you're a girl and you try the air curler, and it doesn't work for you, you could return it.  It also worked on Gretchen's shorter hair, but not so great on Sara's long hair, so we're 2 for 3.  It may be worth a try.

We had to dye Sara's back when we got home, since school started pretty much immediately.   School policy is no unnatural colors and no mohawks.  Good thing we didn't go with the mohawk.  Apparently in school, a strip of pink hair is a distraction to the other children. Here's part of my fb rant status about it:

"I don't understand why kids can't have mohawks and colored hair in school. They say it's a distraction. I'd like to see a study done where one room has a boy with a mohawk and another one has only "non-distracting" children, and then they all take tests and prove there's a difference because of the distraction. Imagining a kid coming home and saying, "Well mom and dad, I would've done really well in that class, but I couldn't stop staring at this kids hair. I couldn't even eat lunch today. He was such a distraction. It was all I could think about." I'm all about the rules when they make sense, but this one is petty and dumb,and I'm grouchy about it."

That was pretty grumpy huh?

And now, as summer comes to an end, here are a few more memories of the warm beach air, evening campfires, amazing sunsets, ocean walks, and of Siri and I sitting on our bench, while keeping an eye on Sara taking on the waves and her almost daily work of digging the biggest hole ever...

Working on projects while eating pomegranate seeds. Stopping by Trader Joe's to buy pomegranate seeds makes me feel like I'm somewhat awesome.

 Sara's biggest hole ever.

A few years back, I asked husband Dion if he would someday buy this house for me, so we can grow old there.  Then he can retell me the story of how we met, like in The Notebook.  He said probably not.

I like to imagine up stories of the men and women eating at this fancy restaurant as well as another one that looks like what I imagine to be the insides of a giant, lit up pumpkin...what are they ordering, and what occasion brought them here.  Maybe one day Dion and I or Sara will eat here in the moonlight and these lights and listen to the the waves and take in the ocean breezes until we're kicked out or talked out, or Siri and I might eat in silence, which would be equally special.

Here is Sara's version of Hollywood Blvd.  She asked me to come put my prints by hers and declared us famous.

 Then she said we should run up and down this hill.  So we did...

 many many times.

And it was so much FUN!

Beautiful memories are vital in the building up of our relationships.  Photos help our family and friends remember together. These memories are precious indeed.  My heart is full of these gifts that have come our way...the direct result of the difficult choice to adopt Siri. Making these trips initially seemed like a sacrifice, but then quickly they transformed themselves into some of the most incredible bonding moments for our family.  It has become a family retreat of sorts, a second home. These trips gift us with a new environment...they get us out of our "stuck"...they gift us with loving friendships...heartfelt conversations, laughter to anticipate.  They give us the space to breath, think, process, heal. They help Siri to become her healthiest self.  And they give us time to dye our hair pink.  

How are you making your today world beautiful?

*correction from the Favorite Summer Things Facebook Giveaway, posted earlier this summer.  The liquid eyeliner that doesn't smear is NYC, not NYX.  my apologies ladies and eye liner wearing man friends...