Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.

September. It’s a month of changes, isn’t it? Kids go back to school.

We try to adjust to the new schedules and be efficient with the time we have.
The garden rewards us for our hard work during the summer.
The fruit trees also.
The air starts to cool off and the weather is beautiful.

With all the changes, I realized I needed to change it up, too. I went for a haircut–it had been WAY too long since I’d visited my friend, the stylist. I asked that she put some red in my hair. We had tried to do a little bit of red last time, but it didn’t take, so she went bolder this time. Since I’m not really one to do BOLD in any way, the end result was a bit of a shock to me.

I’ll show you some pictures, but please understand that this is just me, taking one handed pictures of my head while sitting here in my office. Nothing portrait worthy or anything, ok?

Here’s the basic cut. It’s a bit shorter than I was expecting, but nothing I can’t live with. I like how it’s stacked in the back, and I LOVE the color variation in the back.

I don’t know if you can see the different colors, but there’s some pretty strong reds in there.

My 14 year old said, “Mom, those are not natural colors. You would not be allowed to wear your hair like that to school.”
“They ARE natural colors, my dear. It’s not just all MY natural color.” Take that, know it all teenaged daughter.

Anyway, I think it looks really cool, and I love the red underneath, although you can’t really see it in my high quality self portrait.

Speaking of portraits, my sister needed models for a music and the spoken word painting she was doing, so I conned two friends to come and POSE with me. She needed some soccer moms for this story:

Three mothers were sitting together at a school ballgame. Two of them were gushing about their children’s talents and latest achievements. One’s son had just won an athletic scholarship, and another’s daughter had just been chosen as valedictorian. The third mother’s son had no such accomplishments, but she seemed unruffled, even happy about the success of the other two. She almost sounded as proud of those children as their own mothers were.

The ability to forget oneself and praise another’s achievement is a key to contented living. It’s natural to feel pangs of envy at another’s success—as if their success cancels out our own. But, in reality, life is a roller coaster, and we each have our ups and downs. When we remember and cherish our own values and growth, we realize we wouldn’t trade places with anyone else. When we are confident in the motives of our own hearts, we can then reach out to commend others for a job well done or good fortune that comes their way.

It was fun, although I think I ended up looking kind of like a spaz. I was not chosen to be the serene mother happy for her friends. If you want to see the finished product, that Music and the Spoken Word will be rebroadcast on KBYU this Sunday at 8, I think.

I also went last week and gave my wedding ring a makeover. When we were getting married, everyone got gold wedding rings. I don’t think there were that many other options. Gold. But I don’t really wear gold jewelry. My watch, my earrings, my other rings are all silver. So for about a year, I’ve been looking for a nice ring I could get as a replacement. Then a friend told me I could just go and get my ring “dipped” or rhodium plated. So easy! I took it to the jewelers, waited 3 days, paid them $36 and got my ring back all shiney and sparkly in white gold.

Again, I apologize for the quality of my pictures. You can’t really see the silverness of the ring, or the sparklyness of the diamonds. But trust me, it’s beautiful. I love it because it’s still my wedding ring, but now it’s silver. It feels like a new ring, and I’m happy with it. Now if I could just keep those diamonds shiney ALL the time. Avoid hand lotion? I don’t think so.

Tomorrow we’re hosting the first ever “day of birthday parties” here. I’ve rented a velcro wall

and we’re having John’s party in the morning and Natalie’s party in the afternoon. So, I just need to go and buy large amounts of food and snacks, and hopefully the kids will entertain themselves!