Why I have pink hair

If you've seen me over the past week, you may or may not have noticed that I have a pink streak in my hair.

I say "may or may not," because if you are like my father, you had to get within a foot of me to be able to see said pink streak. He's a little color blind, I believe.

But if you are not a little color blind, you probably noticed it.

(Yeah, I took that picture while sitting on the couch, holding a sleeping baby. I carefully thought out things like lighting and angles, obviously. I take my pictures seriously...)

Well, I'd just like to say that I am not, in fact, embracing the punk rocker that I never was.

In the ward (church congregation) that I was in during my adolescent years, there was this sweet family. And it was obvious that much of its sweetness (as is the case with most sweet families) came from its mother. She was my Sunday School teacher for a while. She had six kids and an awesome Spanish accent. She was a truly good person, beautiful from the inside out.

The whole ward (and everyone that knew her, really) was heartbroken when it came out that she had breast cancer. And I've yet to see so many people at a funeral.

I wasn't super close to their family or anything, but I guess I was close enough, because it still makes my heart ache a little to think of their story, and to see this lady's daughters grow up and get married and have babies of their own.

One of her daughters does hair now, and as part of her fundraising for the 3 Day walk, she is doing these pink extensions for the month of October. So me, my mom, and my sisters went and got them done last week.

It's obviously not a huge contribution or statement, but I plan on leaving it in all month. Call it a small show of support, or a reminder, or whatever you want really...but yeah, it's going to be there. So there you have it - why I have pink hair.

2 Months

Already?

35 Things: September Update

Another month, another update on my 35 Things to Do this year! Here's what I got done.

7. Create a meal plan (at least once a week every month). I did this this month, but found my plans frustrated (once again) by last minute things that would come up. Is meal planning not for me?

12. Bake a new cookie every month. This months yum-ness: Snickerdoodles, ala Picky Palate. Um, hi - these were SO GOOD. I made them twice this month and plan on making them again. Just make sure you don't overcook them, aight?

15. Finish the nursery. You'd better believe it. Separate post to come.

22. Start a savings account for Madelyn. Well, it's for both girls, now. We call it our "trust fund" account. Cool.

25. Read 30 books. Yes, I finally read a book this month! But alas, just one. I can't believe how much reading time I don't have these days. But I read:

-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows: Yes, I finally read this one. And I loved it! The only thing I scrunched up my mouth at was the random romance. I didn't think it fit. But superb writing and lovely characters. 4.5 stars.

30. Use cloth diapers exclusively for one week. My biggest drawback to doing this was asking a babysitter to use the cloth diapers, since I know they aren't exactly crowd pleasers. My mom is our usual babysitter, so I did my cloth diaper challenge while she was in Utah for a week. It honestly wasn't too hard and made me want to use my cloth dipes more. Please note: I only used them on Madelyn. Cloth diapers on a newborn IS hard.

32. Watch 10 movies I've "always wanted to see." Can you believe it's taken me so long to even get started on this one? Well, despite that, I watched 3 movies this month, so I think I'm off to a good start. I watched "Funny Girl" (meh. 3 stars), "Driving Miss Daisy" (really liked it. 4 stars), and "Dirty Dancing" (haha. 2.5 stars).

34. Update my ipod. Took me like 20 minutes at my parents' house (because they have all the best music). I'm so lame sometimes (for taking forever to get this done...but that's why it was on my list).

35. Complete an act of service every month.

And there you have it. The sad thing is that I still have about half of my things left to do...and we're definitely more than halfway done with the year. Oh dear. But never fret, my friends. I shall prevail.