Today I had my hair cut and had my eyebrows waxed. Yeah, I get my eyebrows waxed about twice a year. I know what you’re thinking…”What a DIVA!” I know. Totally high maintenance. Ouch. While I love the look of my eyebrows when they are properly groomed, I sadly don’t always groom them adequately myself, thus the waxing.

Every time I Do wax my eyebrows those two times each year, I am reminded of the first time I attempted to tweeze my eyebrows. The year was 1998, and I was on a roadtrip with my girlfriends. We went to Tahoe to attend the wedding of another girlfriend. The wedding was in late September, and I was 8 months pregnant. What a great traveling buddy I was, let me tell you. One night in our hotel room we got to talking about personal grooming and the art of the eyebrow tweeze. “I don’t need to pluck my eyebrows,” I said foolishly, “I’m blonde.” Oh, the naivety. My dear friends Melinda, Michelle and Sharmyn grabbed the tweezers and went at it. OW! I lasted about 5 seconds and decided that my eyebrows were just fine in their natural state.

Either I’ve matured or grown more vain, because now I do actually try to keep up with the eyebrow maintenance. I try. But, like I said, sometimes I let it go. It still hurts though. If I had more money than time, I would definitely be checking out some laser hair removal. Wouldn’t it be great to NEVER have to tweeze? And then it would be awesome to never have to shave the legs, either. Smooth.

Oh, well.

For the moment, I will enjoy my freshly groomed eyebrows. Well, when they stop hurting, that is.

Did I mention that we got a new car? I don’t think I did. In the business of the holidays, I forgot to write about it. We had been wishing and hoping for a new car for about two years. Really. But it seems that wishing and hoping and even trying to win a new car don’t get you very far. Sigh. As the end of the year loomed closer, I told Ryan that we either had to buy a car in October, or wait until Feb, because NO WAY were we going to have another vehicle to register during the months of November or December, since we already have one to register in November and one in December, and that always means unexpected expenses. This year, for example, we bought two windshields and did a bunch of other small repairs to the tune of about $800. So, what do you know… October came and went and we didn’t even shop for a car, let alone buy one. We did get around to shopping for a car in November. The first time we went shopping, Ryan really liked one car, and I really liked a different car. We went home, each with our ideas of what we wanted. Both of those cars were no longer there by the next week.

Later, we planned to meet for a “working lunch date” at the car dealership. But my day didn’t go as planned, so I told Ryan to just go by himself, since he was the one who had to decide. I think this was the turning point. I realized that Ryan and I had differing opinions on what kind of car to buy. This car, really, was not for me. It’s a small commuter car for Ryan to drive to work. My car, sadly, is still the suburban. Even though I would love a zippy small car to tool around in, my primary job is still to drive all the kids places. I still need a carpool car. So I had to pretty much leave the decision to Ryan. He called me later and told me that he had found a car he liked. I met Ryan there that night to check it out. Even though it wasn’t really the car I wanted, or the price I wanted, I was pleased the he had made a decision.

We drove it home that night.

Welcome Kia Optima to our family. I call it the Kia Optimus Prime. (That’s not actually a picture of our car. Ours is a darker grey, but I don’t have a good picture) And Merry Christmas to Ryan, because that was pretty much all he got for Christmas. He even lets me drive it. Sometimes.

It’s a good thing we finally got that car, because does anyone know what this week is? That’s right, it’s trade show week. When Ryan goes off to Vegas for a week (or more) and takes the car. You may recall the year that he took the Suburban and left me with just the two seater truck to haul my 5 children around. Oh, yeah, and it was sub zero weather and lots of snow. Our marriage barely recovered, I tell you. The next year I made him fly, even though he really would rather drive. But there was no way I was going to be without a car for a week in the winter AGAIN. This time, he was able to drive the small new car and I am still able to do my job as a mom WITH my car. Win-Win.

I’m not thrilled to have a car payment, I really wish I had WON us a car, but I am thrilled to have driving options. And so is Cole.

Our smoke alarms all went off at 3 something am. Why the smoke alarms don’t ever go off in the DAY, I do not know. But we did better this time. We all actually got up and went downstairs, ready to flee the house if there were actually a fire. You see, our smoke alarms all went off in the middle of the night about a month ago, and we all just lay there in bed waiting for someone, and by someone, I mean Dad, to make it STOP. For some reason we’ve gotten complacent in our ‘alarm’ because it seems like something is always beeping or going off in the night. That tends to happen when your house is a ‘beta site’ for home automation. We have automated door locks, some kind of security system, and the whole home automation stuff. And it seems like something is always beeping. So, when the smoke alarms started that piercing SCREECH last time, no one took it seriously. I had to have a talk with the family the next morning and let them know that that horribly loud noise was actually MEANT to wake them all up, and the next time it went off, they should all get out of bed and we should go to our meeting spot, which is outside by the mailbox.

Thankfully, it was another false alarm. I guess after 10 years, it’s time to replace the smoke alarms with newer, more reliable ones. But you can never be too careful, especially after all the recent stories of houses burning like this one and this one.

But even after we had checked every room and found no smoke or fire, I had a terrible time getting back to sleep. The “What ifs” started in, and I began worrying about what if there really WERE a fire, or what if …..
I tend to worry a lot when I’m awakened in the wee hours.

I could hear Ryan sleeping next to me (not snoring, just breathing), but it was still at least two hours before I could fall asleep again.

Such a nice way to start the new year, right?

The kids have had a nice lazy break, but they were getting a little stir crazy because none of their friends were around to play with, and it was SO COLD, we couldn’t really play outside. On New Year’s eve I did finally take them all to a movie (Mega Mind–pretty fun) and then we went out to dinner that night at Chuck-a-Rama, then stopped by the reception of my friend Sam.

On Saturday we had our annual family BINGO party, where we get together, eat a lot of food, play bingo, and play for prizes. It was kind of a small group, just my parents and my sister Amy’s family came, but it was still fun.

It’s concert weekend here. Last night was a great first night here.

We have tonight’s performance, tomorrow a taping session all day, then the concert tomorrow night and then the Music and the Spoken Word and mini concert on Sunday morning.

For the past two years I’ve stayed up in Salt Lake at a friend’s house on Saturday night, since it doesn’t make a lot of sense to drive all the way home then drive back in the morning. But this year, some friends and I are staying in a hotel both Friday night and Saturday nights. I’m so excited to sleep late in the morning and then have a wonderful breakfast. Oh, and avoiding the hour plus driving time through traffic is also a plus.

I’m telling the kids that Mommy will be out of town on a “business trip.”

I tried to take pictures for a Christmas card.

You would think I suggested that we cut off all their ears.

Or that we weren’t going to have Christmas at all.

Come on, get serious.

Never mind.