Saying goodbye to summer

We don't do the beach in the middle of summer. It's like a form of torture, especially for my insanely white family (except Noah apparently tans even with 30+ sunscreen?). The sunburn, the crowds, the heat... just not our thing. So we wait until school is back in session, and then we head down to Kiawah. We've been going since I was 14, and even though it's gotten way more popular since then and a few big changes have been made, it's still like going home.

 (in case you're curious, yes I did get my hair redone. It's in the middle of a rescue operation in order to get me back to a more natural color. I kind of love the color now though... hard to tell exactly here, but it's more of a dark red brunette)

 Over the years, we've brought different friends along with us. This time, we brought our buddy Chase (I'm sure you figured that...). I think Brad enjoyed having a guy friend around, and I liked having the extra set of hands to help with Noah. :)

 (okay, seriously... it looks like they hired a photographer to take pictures of them with their son. lol. I'm in like 2 pictures from this whole trip. I really need to get better about that.)

 Brad got to play golf on the island for the first time ever (he scored a great deal). Chase tagged along with him for that and got a few phone pics.

One afternoon, Noah and Brad were both exhausted, so I took Chase for a tour of the island. I showed him all the insanely massive summer homes of all the surgeons, lawyers, and celebrities. We both agreed that if we ever had enough money to build something like that, we wouldn't. Mainly because just the cost to build something like that could feed an underprivileged family for a year.

However, this one is my dream home. I love it so much. I'd never need all that space, but it sure is beautiful.

I also showed him the Oceancourse where they had the 2012 PGA Championship. We also used to take our truck out there and drive to the end of the island to fish.

He's officially branched out on his own business-wise. He does web design, SEO, and other nerd like things that make my brain hurt. Anyway, he needed some updated shots of himself, so we had some fun and did a photoshoot while we were there. And since neither one of us work for free, we traded... he's in the middle of designing a whole new website for my photography business, and I gave him new pictures. I love a good trade. :)

(to see more from the shoot, go here)

The price of fish there is ridiculous, especially when you can just catch your own. So that's what we did. We caught dinner.

It was a lot of fun. At least until the monsoon hit. Oh and until the gator in our back yard came after our fish. Yeah, that wasn't as fun.

It ended up being the perfect trip. The perfect goodbye to summer. Noah had so much fun, he didn't want to leave. When we got back home, he climbed back in his car seat and asked to go bye-bye. :) I felt the same way.

Randoms on a Tuesday

I was taking a walk the other day, pulling Noah in his wagon, and got whistled at... several times... and heard the words, "one hot mom". By a TEN year old.

It's one thing to get stuff like that from adult men (have some class, dudes). But to get it from a kid? Took the creepy factor to a whole 'nother level. I mean, I'm cool with being a hot mom. But seriously, teach your boys to keep those comments to themselves. It's just weird and made me really uncomfortable.

However, these same kids think that Brad is the coolest dad they've ever met. They continually ask him to come play basketball and tell him about their lizards. That part is really cute.

***

My hair has lightened a little more over the course of the last week or so. I'm borderline blonde now. A trip to the salon (to a color expert) will be happening as soon as my roots start to show. Until then, I'm seriously considering getting some of that brow tint stuff.

I mean, I don't hate it. But I like my dark hair. I'm too quiet and reserved to be a blonde. lol

***

Brad and I will be leaving Noah for the first time ever in a few weeks. And it's making my stomach turn. I know he'll be fine. He'll be with my parents, and they're going to be staying at our house at night, just so he can stay in his own routine.

We're both in a wedding Labor Day weekend, Brad being the best man, so there's no way out of it either. We've decided to approach it as a "quick romantic getaway" to Raleigh. Time just to ourselves is long overdue, but it still doesn't stop me from worrying about how Noah will do.

***

Our back yard is infested with these tiny little bugs called thrips. I've lived in this area my whole life, and I've never even heard of these things before. They're these tiny (like microscopic), orangey-red bugs that usually just hang out around gardens and flowers. Except, we don't have a garden this year (other than a couple of herbs). So they're hanging out in our grass.

They don't really do anything, they're just super annoying. They jump on people and bite, not because they eat people, but to see if we're actually something edible. Oh, and insect repellant doesn't work on them. I have no idea what caused them to choose our back yard. The only thing I can come up with is that, apparently, they like the color blue. And Noah's kiddie pool is blue... hence why we get bit every time I take him out there to play.

Unfortunately, they're really hard to get rid of. So we have several plans of attack, but it has me wishing Fall would get here quick this year.

***

I decided that, this year, we're not going to have a "friend" party for Noah's birthday. After talking it over, Brad and I came to the conclusion that we could take the money we'd normally spend on a party and put it towards taking Noah to do something he doesn't normally get to do. Other kids know who Noah is, but he just doesn't have friends the same way other kids do. And while he does well at parties, it's still a little stressful trying to get him to open his gifts, blow out candles, play with the other kids, etc. I'd rather just let him go out and have fun.

We're still going to have several family parties, so he will definitely be celebrated. And instead of a party, we decided we're going to take him to a local aquatic center where they have a big toddler/kid waterpark type thing. He's so into swimming now, that I think he would love it.

***

Noah has made it very clear that he wants a bike. He watches in amazement as other kids in the neighborhood ride their bikes and is constantly playing clips on his iPad where the characters (usually Arthur) are riding bikes. We let him try one out at the store recently, and he didn't want to leave it. He doesn't quite get the concept of pedaling and steering, but he wants to really badly. He's obsessed with the pedals (which is my one reservation about buying a balance bike instead). I don't think it would take him very long to get it (he's almost there) once he's able to actually practice consistently. Yesterday, he had a massive meltdown, because we wouldn't let him try to ride Brad's old adult sized bike that's in the garage.

I love that every year, we always know what to get him for his birthday, even though he doesn't technically "tell" us.

the worst salon experience ever

So I know I said I'd be back last week. But frankly, I was having a bad few days. And while, yes, sometimes it helps to blog about it... it's also good to just keep quiet sometimes instead of whining on the internet. Especially if others are going through an even worse time.

I mentioned how I hit a jaguar.

A couple days later, my hair was dyed orange.

My cousin has been doing hair for 10+ years and recently moved to a salon about 15 minutes from me. The fabulous Jess was going to be doing our family photos at the end of the week, and I wanted to get a few highlights and some layers put in. Nothing crazy or super difficult.

I went in Monday, showed her a couple of (realistic) photos of what I was thinking, and she went to it. We had a good time catching up, giggling about husbands and kids, discussing Noah's issues, schools, etc. She did my highlights, took off the towel, and HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER MY HAIR WAS NEON YELLOW. I mean, just the highlights were. But there were a LOT of them. They weren't just blonde. They were blonde blonde.

Thankfully, because she is my cousin, I didn't mind speaking up. It also helped that I was thinking of our photo shoot and how I didn't want to be a blonde for our forever pictures.

Here's the thing. I have black eyebrows. Too much blonde, and I just look stupid. So she suggested we use some toner to take the highlights down a notch to more of a honey color. She explained how it won't affect my natural color, just take the blonde down. So we stressed, talked some more, washed my hair, took the towel off... and MY HAIR WAS ORANGE. Picture dyeing Carrot Top's hair a lighte shade of reddish blonde. That was my hair color.

Apparently, she doesn't work with virgin hair much. My brown color? Yeah, totally natural. Other than highlights, I've never actually dyed my hair. So the toner took my natural color up to an orangey-blonde color.

I wanted to cry. She thanked me for not crying, kept her cool, and tried to figure out where to go from there. She told me there's no way I was leaving her salon looking the way I did. So she took a dark brown dye to try and get me back to my normal brown color.

FOUR hours later, and I had light brown hair with some blonde highlights and orange untertones. lol.

To say this wasn't what I had in mind is an understatement.

I keep getting compliments on it though. Our buddy Chase came to stay with us again the next day, and the first thing he said to Brad (in a thrilled tone) was, "Dude! You got her to go blonde!" Punk.

It's not terrible, but it's not my favorite either. It's just different. I'm all for doing something new and fun, but I like it to be when I'm expecting it.

The only shot of it I have at the moment was with instagram, so it's not a great example. But you get the idea. It's not bad, just a lot lighter than I'm used to.

I guess every girl is supposed to have at least one salon nightmare experience, so I've officially had mine...