happy memorial day

listening to:  noah & the whale

"The only reason people hold onto memories so tight is because they are the only things that don’t change when everything and everyone else does."
-unknown {via overflowing}

i have such a good sport to let me dress him up...
especially on the holidays.
{today}

cherry bomb

listening to: matt pond: the dark leaves theme

i have been engrossed with a lot in one day. no surprise there...

update from my first week back at cosmo school.
lots of scalp massages.
shampoos.
blow dries 101.
santizing your brushes.
manicures. whattttt? i forgot about this part.
european facials.  i forgot i have to learn about this too.

for those that don't know me all too well, while i was in high school, i attended an apprentice program in monarch beach, CA for a fancy schmancy salon that served the elite and high class movie stars that escaped hollywood.  it was based on a two-year program, 2000 hours, school for state boards at night two nights a week in long beach and bumble and bumble training classes two nights a week, hands-on all day while assisting these artists.  i did it for a long enough time to gather well over 900 hours and then decided to go up to college to work on my degree.  beauty school drop-out.

still doing hair for weddings, proms and whatever else people ask from word of mouth all this time.  i noticed i feel completely comfortable doing it.  enough encouragement from my friends and family, i took the commitment to go back.  despite all my previous reservations of going to an actual beauty school, i have grown to enjoy it.  of course it's not ideal, starting my hours all over (i'm appealing state board since they want to dissolve my hours)... but i am content.  learning from new mentors, new instructors and being around new talent is exciting.

this is my view most of the time....
i just look at the floor and my shoes....

listening to comparisons of how much hair stylists make to doctors, how we are so similar to doctors, how the "bob" became popular right after the great depression after WW1, how nail polish was only for the edgy women in the 1940's, comparisons of "no man's land" of where the hair falls
on one's shoulder as in the area you don't stand in the tennis court, and how to sign my name 300 different ways in cursive...

no, i do pay attention.
it is nice to be able to ask questions that have some meat to them. the class is super cute. they never raise their hand or talk much, are pretty young and eager to learn about it. they think i look like the girl from blue crush so some call me roxy.  i'm the oldest of the group but bless them, they guessed i was tops 21.

there are a lot of different options when you graduate but i have always been business minded so i would love to own my own product line or salon or business around hair someday.  i don't think i would ever want to run or own a school.  i do have a job for when i graduate lined up and clients since i have been raised most of my life here but my ultimate goal is to own my own.  i am going to finish my 1600 hours as soon as possible.  i can take night classes and use my weddings i do on the weekends towards my total which is so convenient.  i think when jackson is gone, i am going to forget about a social life and just take the night classes after our day classes to get school done in roughly nine months.  when i graduate next year, i'll finish my b.s. in business and get this ball rolling.

sorry i'm all over with this post...

yesterday our main instructor announced that we had to get with the 400 hour class to group together for a hair competition!  we each had to come up with a theme, costume, hair design, make-up and execute.  i asked my group if they liked the harajuku girls (japanese doll girls from gwen stefani)... they were all about it.  so we designated who was bringing what, i drew out what was in my head and we did it!  we had almost three hours to put her together.  we turned one of the girls who is mexican into a japanese girl!
here is amy before:





in previous fashion shows that i've been in, they have used toilet paper rolls, so i had shasta bring in some! added some volume to our girl!  5 rolls to be exact.  some teasing, lots of pins and shasta was in charge of the braids down her part that we crossed like sanrio crosses.




oh her makeup was so fun to do!
i received some inspiration from these beauties i studied the night before....


we finished!  here is some pictures from the little show in front of the seniors who voted:

(those are my clothes and jack's umbrella + my rollar skates.  she kept her lips closed the whole time!)

it was pretty steep competition...

we named our girl
"cherry bomb"
























it came between "cherry bomb" and "fierce".... so they had a dance off...






and...
we won!
not sure what we won, but we heard it's a field trip to a hair show in los angeles!

i'm in my element.

(ps our school looks get-to.  it's going under construction since it is under new management)

up-to-date-jack

jackson bo backson 

listening to: bon iver: flume

i like bon.

:
+++ my sister elise and her husband have been in town for a month or so visiting from utah.  they have been so giving of their time and patience in taking jackson to the beach and pool but today they took him, micah and jade to knotts berry farm!  so sweet of them!  she came home exhausted, wet and had fun stories to share.

+++ on the plane ride home on sunday we sat next to an single dad who was nice enough to play along with jack's antics.  jackson asked him to play games, color with him and talk about his trip to san francisco.  then when it got quiet, jackson started singing "i am a child of God" at the top of his lungs.  it was cute but it had me instantly sweating thinking who he was offending or annoying.  jackson looks like he is at least five so people look at me like i should be in better control...  i tried to get him to stop but he kept at it.

+++ i kissed him goodbye one morning this week and his put his right index finger on my bottom lip.  he said, "mommy, your lips are very big.  i am glad they are so big so i can fit both of my lips on just one of your lips."

+++ i was picked up on a date the other night and jackson thought his name was someone else and kept calling him that since it sounded similar.  then he said, "bring my mommy home, ya hear!"

+++ we are reading the B.O.M. together from the beginning.  it shocks me how much he listens but then he falls asleep to it.  it's a good habit at the least to keep up even if it's just a chapter a night.



+++ he tells me i don't need to run if he sees me right when i come home from it.  i ask him why.  he says, "cuz you alweady skinny."

+++ my mom said yesterday after preschool he put himself to sleep.  he went up to his bunk bed and crawled under his covers to take a afternoon nap.  they told me when he woke up he said he wanted to water the tomatoes jackson and i planted last week in the garden.  so sweet!

+++ i offered him some cookies the other night from guilt of being gone all day in school and missing him.  he said, "ma-um! i need vegetables so i can grow! cookies make me short."  who is this kid?  he would be mine....

+++ before bed we read a few other books as well.  he picks out the "s's" and tells me they make a "ssssss" sound and are the letter "two humps." in between one of the books last night, i caught him talking to himself.  i asked him who he was talking to.  he said, "oh, just Jesus.  i asked Him to come down soon."

+++ i bought new board shorts for him since he keeps growing.  he found scissors and cut a hole in his old ones.  he felt so badly when i found them that he hid under his bed.  i told him it was okay and that i could fix it.  he told me his cousin jade did it.

+++ we went shoe shopping on monday and that was crazy.  he has already grown to size 12!  he's three!  so of course he wants the spiderman, the lightening mcqueen and ugly light up shoes.  no can dooey sir.  i bribed him with taking him to get his nails professionally manicured (it's $5 for kids) at the nail shop next to the shoe store.  he loved it.  he sat on that seat and asked for warm water to soak his feet!  the ladies were cracking up and he ended up having three ladies surround him and doing all these different things to his hands and little feet.  too much?  i agree.
the manicurists kept saying..."he has so prett-e eye. look like you?
he look like little man!
he so funny!
can i take him home?"
it was kind of cute though to see his eyes light up and all the women in the nail shop were dying over the things he was saying.  i can tell jackson likes to be the center of attention.
(now i'm embarrassed i admitted this one.  it won't happen often...:) )

+++ so that photoshoot was down at my favorite beach, three arch bay.  one of my favorite photographers that i have worked for, for three years now came down to work with me and jackson for some concepts.  he had jackson dress up like a green superhero.  i told him he could be the green goblin from spiderman.  he was totally into it.  i felt like a pageant mom on the sidelines telling him to put his hands on his sides etc, but he's done shoots before so he had some fun with it.  i think i saw one of these images from the shoot on a van the other day.  stock photography is interesting.

+++ whenever he gets worked up over something (no one warned me about three-year-old tantrums) i have him  breathing (pranayama) like i do with my yoga classes.  it instantly calms him down.... he will sometimes say it with me... "inhale, exhale... inhale (breathing deeply) exhale (letting it all out - his oxygen out of his tiny lungs).

+++ tonight when i was scratching his back to sleep, he looks over at me with really tired eyes and says, "mommy, i just love you so much."

being a mom is the coolest.


















i can't help but dig it.

printed

my little j did a little photoshoot with my friend a.j. rich and his stock photography image was purchased.  now he is an advertisement.  he's the little "green goblin" on the far left.  he loved this photoshoot.  when i have more time, i'll post more from the shoot.

gnar gnar ragnar

so this post was typed up, but i didn't post it somehow.  i think i was waiting for pictures...

with a group of 15 other runners, i ran my first relay race starting in ventura and then ending in dana point, ca. the experience was very cool.

the night before the race, half of our team slept over at our friend's house kent and nellie sommer.  we first went to lucille's bbq and frosted cupcakes on 2nd street in long beach.  we prepped our playlists for the run and then slept all over the house.

woke up at 5:45am and packed up our vans... to meet the rest of our team in ventura, ca.  there we saw a lot of friends from all over.  we were team cornballers.  the reference is from arrested development... and not sure if this is the best link but it will do.  this team has done an arrested development theme for the past three years.  they were so sweet to allow me to run with them.  someone couldn't make it so there was a spot they needed to fill.

...karl was the first to start out our race at 9:00am.
we cheered him on throughout his run.

then it went to danielle...
we weren't able to cheer her on because we had to buy markers for the vans...

then the handoff went to lindsay sommer...
we had pretty great cheers for her.

then it went to adam romeny...
we weren't able to cheer him on because some of our team wanted subway...

then the handoff was for janea sherman...
who did amazing up some crazy hills...

and then last on their van, dave axeland...
who had a super tough and longest leg run of us all but did it effortlessly.

it was our van's turn to take the slap bracelet.

nellie started us off in moorpark, ca.
she did so great!  so fast.  i think she ran through two beautiful cities.

next was tiffany jordan...
who ran seven miles, through semi valley to camarillo, ca.

next was kent sommer through thousand oaks....
who roughly had sevenish miles up some pretty steep hills.  we all felt badly for him with the inclines.

then i had the next leg...
which was through agoura hills.  it was so beautiful.  i ran next to trees, farms and highways.

then lance sommer went...

who doesn't normally run but did flawlessly.  we didn't have a vest for him so kent took the bright orange shirt off his back...

then last but not least, zachary edwards went.
he had some mileage there through the beginning of los angeles. he did so great!

we passed the slap bracelet on to the other van, grabbed a quick dinner and headed to tiffany's house.
it felt so sooooooo soooo good to take a quick hot shower, brushing teeth was heavenly and laying on a clean couch felt like a full nights rest despite it only being two hours.  you know my friend shauna lewis who did that pop art on my blog a while ago?  she made this for us!

we met the other team at the santa monica pier.  other teams were actually sleeping on the pier! some with only just a blanket with their running shoes hanging out.

nellie started us off there and went through venice beach.  she was doing great... oh did i mention, it's 2am by now.

everyone took their turns, having us finish at long beach.
the best was when following zach and he yells out..."i hit a serious wall" after .5 of his first mile at around 5am.

we then grabbed our things and headed to zach's house to sleep, shower and get ready for our last leg.  i couldn't sleep well since i was in the kitchen using a roommate's nicely ironed collared shirt for a blanket.

we packed the van again with our tired bodies and met the rest of the team at the beach in huntington.

nellie met dave and took off!
we all took IB profin by now to help our sore muscles breath a bit.

i was so nervous for my leg.  i had the second longest leg at 8.8 miles through a VERY HARD trail as the map said.  being runner ten, i talked to other runners and they assured me it would be VERY HARD.  good thing kent got lost/not good... because it helped me mentally prepare.

i did it!  there were lots of hills but luckily i've driven that route a lot and knew the curves and passed four runners... i almost apologized for passing them!  i'm such a dork.  i had too much energy with these little shark energy gummies my friends gave me.  i ran faster than expected because in my head i built up this nasty run.  it went from irvine, through the toll roads of aliso, to laguna canyon to PCH.


then i passed the snap to lance at the bottom of the hill of laguna beach.  he ran all the way to aliso creek beach so fast that we missed him and he had to wait for our team to get there!

then it went to zach who had this GNARLy hill up crown valley and then to my hood in dana point.  we all raced together to the end... some of us not prepared (candy in hand)... running to the end which happened to be on salt creek beach.

it was a lot of fun.  
we are already signed up for next year as nellie is now working for them.  they are sweet to think of me to be on their team again!  i'm excited to run with them again.  loved this experience!