Hair today, gone tomorrow

Say hello to my hair, but don't get too attached to it because tomorrow I'm having at least ten inches of it cut off. Why ten inches, you ask? Because of this great cause. Am I excited? Heck yeah. Do I know how I'm going to have it cut? Um, well, not exactly...I haven't really gotten that far. It will probably be something shoulder-length and hopefully less of a hot mess than what I've been sporting for the last several months. I'm just looking forward to actually having a style again other than "ridiculously long." The main reason I've not cut my in forever and a day is because the hubby has a thing for long hair. But since he's out in Kansas these days and I won't see him for awhile, I figured now is as good a time as ever. Plus, the earlier I cut it all off, the more time I'll have for it to grow back to a less shocking length for when he returns. Everyone wins!

Give in to the grey

Recently I've decided that I'm going to try and be one of those people who go grey gracefully (say that three times fast). This is due mostly to the fact that every time I comb my hair I see more of those little grey hairs sticking up in the air, taunting me with their very presence, daring me to pluck them. Perhaps the stress from the last month or two has finally caught up with me...but I'll take grey hair over anxiety attacks any day!   I don't really mind it so much aside from their shortness at the moment and so far the greys seem to be blending in with my normal hair, as opposed to my poor mom, who's grey hair has decided to come in coarse and kinky, giving her no end of trouble. I was born with a shock of grey hair actually and, aside from it getting me called a genetic freak by my eighth-grade biology teacher in front of the entire class, it hasn't bothered me any (though my mom was accused by a hairdresser of testing dye on my hair when I was a little kid). I actually thought I'd be totally grey by now anyway, especially since my grandmother, uncle, and aunt were all completely grey by the time they turned twenty-five, so in a weird way I'm kind of happy to see these hairs multiplying while I sleep, totally unaware; its another way of feeling connected to my family. This is probably a weird way of thinking about it, but it works for me.  Awesome grey hair shouldn't just be for men.  Its time we ladies stop plucking, dying, and rinsing the grey away and embrace the sexy, like this:


Aw yeah.

Mission Organization

Anyone who's been unfortunate enough to have spent any time in my garage knows it was a total mess.  The husband had a habit of just leaving the garage door open, which meant that the whole thing was filled with dead leaves and other debris (I'm still finding pine needles from the Christmas tree) and probably a host of all sorts of creepy crawlies that I'd rather not think about.  Ever.  Adding to the detritus was a lot of my random stuff that I just haven't gotten around to unpacking or finding a place for in the house.  The husband and I had purchased some of those plastic interlocking shelving units in the hopes that it would inspire us to do something about the garage, but that never really happened.  It just became a place on which to pile more stuff.  But fortunately for me, my mom came into town!

She quickly surveyed the mess and assured me it would be a piece of cake.  We ran back to Lowe's for some more supplies and then began the process of moving everything out of the garage so that we could start sweeping all of the dirt, dead leaves, and cobwebs out.  Then came the hard part--putting the shelves together.  According to their label, they were supposed to be easy to assemble "in five minutes."  Well, I'm afraid I have to call bullsh*t on that because it certainly took us more than five minutes and it wasn't easy (I'm still a little sore).  Let's just say I wish I had video taped the entire process, because I have the feeling that it would be hilarious played at fast-forwarded speeds; it would have made us celebrities on youtube.  I was hanging from the top shelves, trying to force the shelving supports into place, while my mom was up on a ladder, stepping on each corner.  At one point she discovered that if she sat down really hard on the shelf, the support would lock into position.  So it was an assembly line of sorts, with my mom standing up and sitting down, while I turned the shelf to the next corner for her so she didn't even have to change her position.  I'm sure the neighbor's kids were amused.

In the end, it was worth the sore arms and bottoms.  The garage is spic and span, everything is in its place, and the best part is that I can get my car in there.  Hooray!  

The hubby has landed

Got word from the husband earlier this evening that the trip went about as smoothly as one could expect and that he and the rest of his group are now safe and sound in Kansas.  He has internet access and a semi-private room, so he's pretty happy right now.  The only down side is that he forgot to bring his good combat boots with him, so I'll be overnighting them to him as soon as he can get his hands on an address there.  Apparently this morning, before they put everyone on a bus to go to the airport, there was a little pep-talk of sorts followed by coffee and donuts.  Due to time and work constraints, I couldn't attend the final send off, but fortunately for me, one of the people involved in the FRG (Family Readiness Group, for those of you who are Army-acronym challenged like myself) took a bunch of pictures and posted them on a shared website.  Here's the hubby in all of his uniformed glory:

Oh captain, my captain! :)

D-Day

Today is the day that my hubby leaves for his two-month training stint prior to being deployed later this fall.  After a whirlwind of paperwork, visits to Fort Belvoir, packing and last minute preparations, I finally think that he and I are about as ready as we'll ever be.  We'll probably leave here in about an hour or so to make the 3+ hour drive back to Blackstone, Virginia, where we'll say our goodbyes and I'll have to turn back around and drive back to northern Virginia.  I'm sure I'll be a mess these next few days, but my mom and my youngest brother are coming down to visit with me for a couple of days this week and I have a long list of projects and things-to-do around the house to keep me busy.  If all goes as planned, I might even get to see him over Labor Day weekend.

There's a really great article in the Style section of the New York times today about being a "war bride" that does a wonderful job of summing up a lot of what I've been feeling.  Give it a whirl if you have some free time!

When it rains, it pours

I've been a bit absent from the interwebs due to some crazy things going on in my life lately, namely that my hubby will be going away for two months starting this coming Sunday, someone in my family who is very dear to me is currently suffering from alcoholism, and my in-laws are in town. Stress much? Nah. The last few days have been spent trying to tie up all loose ends and get the household (a.k.a. me) situated so that I can take care of things during the hubby's absence, like getting updated home-owner's insurance, new car insurance, health care, military id cards, etc. While in the midst of all of this, I got a frantic phone call from my mom last Friday telling me that the situation is not getting any better with the family member and that they're going to have to have another intervention (this would be number three so far). The hubby and I decided that we need to go to western PA to take part in this and left late Saturday afternoon, arriving at my parents' new place around midnight. Sunday was the day of the intervention, which while emotionally-trying, probably won't chalk up to being considered successful, sadly. On Monday, we visited with my grandmother, another situation that is deteriorating rapidly and had me choked up for most of the trip back to Virginia; we arrived home safe and sound, but tired from the 5 1/2 hour drive and emotionally raw (well, at least in my case). Then the in-laws arrived on Tuesday and will be here through tomorrow; I think their respective trains leave at noon. While I definitely like my in-laws and appreciate their company, a part of me is jealous and bitter because I wanted to spend the last few days that I had with my husband all by our lonesome. Plus the hubby is a bit on edge from being at home with his parents for the last couple of days. Le sigh.

But all is not for naught! The hubby has taught himself how to make pizza from scratch and while killing some time antiquing in Pennsylvania on Sunday we came across a pair of circa 1900 oak side chairs that were strikingly similar to the ones that descended with the family dining table. The best part? They were $11 a piece. Seriously. Some restor-a-finish and a coat of feed-and-wax, and they were as good as new. Structurally they're awesome and just need to be upholstered. Now I can have a dinner party of at least 6 people without worrying about running out of chairs! Nothing like taking a little bit of pleasure in the small things, right?

Internet shout out!

Today the hubby and I were featured on the awesome website, Offbeatbride.com, which is dedicated to providing today's brides with "taffeta-free alternatives." I'm so glad that I stumbled across it early in the wedding planning stages--reading the other couples' tales about their unique unions made me realize that the hubby and I were making the right decision by doing things our way. You can check out the complete profile here!

Slowly but surely

Ok, ok, I know I've been promising some step-by-step blogging regarding the wedding and the pseudo-honeymoon that followed it, but I'm afraid that I'm moving at a snail's pace these days. I've got most of the "good" wedding photos uploaded and about two-thirds of the honeymoon pictures uploaded to my flickr account, which has taken me much longer to do than I had expected. I'm trying to record where all of the photos were taken so that in a couple of months' time when I can't remember this stuff, I'll appreciate the effort that I put in now. I think by tomorrow I'll have all of day three uploaded and cataloged and then I can start the blogging. So patience, my dear friends, patience.

New additions

The hubby and I were up at the butt-crack of dawn this morning, also known as the ungodly hour of 5 am. We had be at Fort Pickett in Blackstone, Virginia, at 8 am so that he could go over the final paperwork before being shipped off for his training on August 18. He figured we might as well kill two birds with one stone and suggested that I tag along so that I could be added into the military system and get me some benefits (woo!). I was rather reluctant until he added that there was a pretty sizable antique mall in the center of town that we could visit once everything was taken care of so of course I agreed to go. The paperwork proceeded as planned and we were released into the small town of Blackstone a little after 1 pm. After a less than satisfying experience at the local Hardee's for lunch, we walked over the antique mall and proceeded to look around. I have to admit that there were some surprisingly good buys there and it didn't take long before we both found things that we couldn't live without:



Say hello to our new library table and mantel clock! We plan to set up the table in the hubby's office (he's finally reached a point where he can say farewell to the Wally Martin desk that currently lives there) and will hopefully do that in the next week or so. Also exciting is that the main house computer died while he was away in Texas (I swear up and down that I had nothing to do with it), which means we'll be getting a new computer--a Mac!--soon. I have officially turned him to the dark side. I think the library table might be a circa 1910 unlabelled example by L. & J. G. Stickley, as it has nearly identical hardware with rosehead nails as some other tables by them. The thing is built like a brick house with solid quarter-sawn oak legs and sides and a veneered top (and yes, we lugged it up three and a half flights of stairs ourselves after a slight scare over whether or not we'd be able to get it through the door). It has a couple of condition issues, but they're all minor and don't effect the overall aesthetics and usefulness of it. Plus it was a total steal, so I'm not complaining.

As for the clock, well, I love it, which is good because it is not currently in working order. All the parts are there, but its frickin' filthy and will certainly benefit from a good cleaning and overhaul. Hopefully I'll be able to work one of my job connections and get a deal on having it brought back to ticking and tocking until the cows come home. It was made by Sessions and probably dates to between 1910 and 1915. The plan is to put that on the mantel downstairs and move the family mantel clock up to the bedroom; it doesn't really keep time all that well, which I blame totally on my dad, but it looks nice and sounds comforting. My plan to have a clock in every room of the house is slowly coming to fruition. Mwahahaha!