Choices

My poor old laptop is really and truly dying.  I hope we can get through this difficult time in our lives.  I know we at least have a few more days together, so I'm trying to make the most of them, and won't actually start my dance of joy until the death is complete (because how rude would that be).  Some reasons I will rejoice when I inherit Greg's laptop are:

I will be able to open up ANY BLOG I want to

I will be able to comment on people's blogs

I will be able to watch people's videos

I will be able to listen to people's music

I will be able to see people's slideshows

I will not wait 48 hours for the computer to complete every command I give

All of the above will be accomplished without the computer shutting down on me.  That will be great.

This weekend while we were traveling we stopped in a mall and took a peek at new laptops for Greg (haven't found one yet. . .).  I made an observation though, that I wanted to share:  

Killzone 2 for Playstation 3! Really?  Because the first Killzone wasn't gory or graphic enough?  It's probably not as bad as it sounds, but I just don't have a husband or kids that play computer games (at all) and I can't imagine how we came to a point where people are rushing to the store to buy a heavily advertised and likely long awaited game called Killzone.  Wow.  

And now. . . how to transition. . . Oh!  I know:

Fortunately we get to choose what games we play (I know we can't choose for our spouses, sorry girls!)  and what other forms of entertainment we want to take part in.  And guess what?  I choose the good stuff!  Like Annette Lyon's latest book in her temple series, Tower of Strength.

It's just come out and it's good in all senses of the word.  But I'll be telling you more about the book another day (it requires its own post) but for now I'll just tell you that Annette's doing lots of celebrating and she's having a huge givaway bonanza (first time I've ever used that word.  Hopefully the last, too, although it is a great descriptor for this super awesome giveaway week)  Click those links to enter the giveaway!  But first check out this trailer for her book (I'd never heard of book trailers before this.  Cool!)

Prom Hairstyle: Hair Extension is The Way to Go

If you have short hairstyle, and want to have long updo for this coming prom night. This will probably is the mission impossible. But having say that, there is always alternate choice for you.

If you happen to stay in New York, then getting hair extension is not a difficult task for you. You can visit the nearest hair stylist to get the work done on your short hair. How tacky it looks when your hairs are short as well as damaged and you have to go for a social gathering? In a moment of haste, you will wear either wigs or just shrink yourself from the party. Hair extension has come as a boon for such people like you, who do not want to waste time in growing the hairs naturally that takes more than years. This is a new development in cosmetology that has been liked by everyone.

Long hairs that are cut in a beautiful style would look fabulous on prom night of course. It is according to the face cut that the style is given to an individual. Now, if you are bored enough of keeping your hairs short, then hair extension would surely be beneficial for you. In the present world that is moving fast enough, no one has that much time or patience for letting the hairs grow like that. Hair extension is generally attached to the track of natural hairs, so that nothing goes wrong. Moreover, this hair extension has to be made from human hairs so that they should not look awkward.

Be it in New York or any other state, hair stylists recommend the use of hair extension for such people who either want to grow their hair or correct the damaged ones. Well, there are numerous hair stylists who make use of different ways of attaching these extensions to the human hairs. Some use glues or bonds, while others use copper coils that merge naturally with the hairs. These extensions are attached to the last layer of hairs, so that they are not at all visible to other people. With hair extension, only you would know that something is being worn.

Commonly, hair extension is available in many textures and colors so as to suit every hair type. Now, you need not to worry about the fact whether hair extension would look amazing on you or not. Whenever you visit the hair stylist to get this thing done, he or she would advise you to take proper care of hair extension to maintain their texture and smoothness. Ideally, you have to go to the stylist in every 2 or 3 months, so that the maintenance process can be carried out. Moreover, you have to apply moisturizer to keep the hairs silky. After all, you are spending your hard earned money on this process and care needs to be taken for it.

Weak

Thanks to my friend Sarah for inspiring today's post with this post of hers.

Twenty three years ago this month (I'm freaking out just writing that. Since when did I ever talk about twenty three years ago!) I was ten years old.  I had been at the Dentist with my mom and sister and two little brothers (we were known as the four little kids).  The two oldest boys, Jon and Adam and my oldest sister, Susan (known as the big kids) had stayed home doing some work around the house.  

We drove into the carport and I hopped out of our huge, olive green station wagon.  As everyone else piled out behind me, Su and Adam came rushing from around the side of the trailer.  They both starting jabbering frantically in high pitched tones.  Something had happened.  Dad had taken Jon to the hospital.  I didn't grasp what they were saying, I don't think, but as we followed them around the corner of the house we could see the blood dripped all over the path to the stairs leading up to the kitchen door.  The kitchen floor was also covered in blood.  There was no question where Jon had been.  

Eventually some of these details became apparent to me (not sure if I'm getting these right, but here's what I remember).  Dad and Jon had been working with the lawn mower.  I think there had been something wrong and they were going to turn it over, or lift it.  The blade hadn't stopped spinning and Jon had put his hand under the edge of one side to lift it.  And, bye-bye finger tips.  

Dad had rushed Jon into the house to care for him and asked Su to scour the yard for the rest of Jon's fingers and pick them up and bring them to him in a little towel.  (Lucky Su.)  He had to get that boy to the emergency room ASAP.  Not perfectly clear on the details here, but I've certainly pictured poor Su tip-toeing around the back yard in search of the finger fragments.  *shudder*

Once I had an idea of what had happened I remember running down the hallway to the avocado fixtured bathroom.  I shut and locked the door and I started bawling.  I kept thinking about how much I loved Jon.  I cried and cried until I could cry no more and then I just stared in the mirror.

This was the same mirror that I had stood before many times to do Bloody Mary.  You know, where you say Bloody Mary over and over and something is supposed to happen but never does?  Even at that time I recognized both the morbid similarity and the incongruousness of what I'd used this mirror for before and what I was feeling now.  After staring at my red puffy eyes for a minute I folded my arms and bowed my head and I spoke to Heavenly Father in the most sincere prayer of my life up until that point.  

I'm not sure what I thought would happen or what exactly I prayed for, but praying helped and I knew everything would be okay.  

It turns out only the very tips of the last three digits on his left hand had been cut and once they healed, the middle finger was the only one that you could even tell was missing a part (as they were unable to sew on what Su's search had produced).  

********

Like most mothers, I have often contemplated how I would react if something drastically dangerous happened to one of my kids.  Could I stay calm under pressure?  Could I comfort the child and take care of the injury in an intelligent way, all while dealing with my own freaking out?

Like most mothers, we've had a few good spills.  Nothing major, but some baaaad knee skinnings and that sort of thing.  I used to be quite good.  I could handle it very well.  Lately, though?  I'm not quite so good.  

My stomach totally does a flop when I even think about a serious injury.  David once knocked his front teeth pretty badly and they were all a little wiggly and bleeding.  While I was cleaning him up and checking things out I just felt ILL.  I was still good about the not freaking out and about the comforting etc. but my stomach did not handle it well, and it wasn't even an open wound! 

I just have a weak stomach.  I don't even handle the sight of blood well anymore which I NEVER thought I'd say.  Aren't you supposed to get more used to stuff like this instead of less?  

And it just makes me wonder how in the world my dad was feeling that day 23 years ago.

Prom Night Hairstyle is Here Again

It's prom time again. High school proms night can be very expensive events when you consider the cost of prom dresses, tuxedos, prom tickets and photos, stretch limos, dining in extravagant restaurants, flowers or corsages, special occasion hairstyles and French manicures, often creating a tab reaching $1,000 or more.

Find out the most sexy prom hairstyles for 2009.

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Technorati Tags: Prom Hairstyles, Celebrity Hairstyles, Prom Night, Prom Updos, Prom Wavy Hairstyle

Q & A

Lara of Overstuffed interviewed me!  Well, not just me.  She'll interview you, too, if you want her to.  Here are my (rambling) answers to her questions:

1.  What has been your greatest accomplishment?  (Having children doesn't count:  I think of them as a work in progress that will someday be my greatest accomplishment...don't you?)

Accomplishment, eh?  Well, that word is kind of a tricky one for me.  It implies both a) starting and b) finishing something.  Frankly, I'm not all that great at either.  

I really don't know what to answer.  Oh, I know!  It's not having children in the sense of having a family, but having David and then Aaron naturally when I have a very low tolerance for pain was quite a feat (understatement of the world).  Although I admit I would never have done it if I'd had a choice.

2.  What is one thing people can appreciate about you?

Hmm, let's see.  I say what I mean.  You will never have to wonder if I'm just saying something to be nice, or in order not to offend someone.  Sometimes I don't say anything (rarely) but when I do say something it'll be something I really feel.  So I'd say "people can appreciate [that] about [me]".  Or they can hate it.

 

3.  What is your favorite comfort food, and what is your strongest memory tied to it?

Well, I find brownies to be rather comforting.  Apart from that, I really dig potatoes.  Not literally, of course.  I only ever get them already dug.  But I like 'em quite a lot.  We don't eat them all that often, though, as I just hate peeling them.  And I don't do the kind from a box of any sort.  So we eat a lot of pasta.  Not as good as potatoes, but still kind of comforting and muuuuuuuuch easier to prepare.  Oh, and when my tummy hurts I love mint tea.  That's comforting.  It's not a food, though.  Plus I already mentioned three comfort foods when one was only wanted.

 

Oh yes, and a memory tied to potatoes.  When I first got to Ricks College I thought, since I was in Idaho, I should learn to do stuff with potatoes.  I ate them at least once a day, usually just in the microwave mixed with sour cream and cheese.  Yummy.  I think I know why I put on a bajilli or 15.

4.  If you could meet anyone (living or dead) who would it be and why?

Sheesh!  I would have to think about this one for a week or two.  I'm not sure.  I really love the founding fathers (I know, generic answer) and I could stand to meet any of them.  Maybe Benjamin Franklin.  Or possibly Tadeusz Kościuszko (not a founding father, but a close friend of Washington's.  Plus he's Polish and helped us win the Revolutionary War.  And my AP history teacher loved him, too).

 

5.  What would I find in your refrigerator right now?

Butter, milk, cheese, yogurt, ketchup, mayonaise.  Okay, okay.  We usually have pickled herring, which is LOVED by all members of the family except for me (yes, even Aaron).  Because why in the world would you eat that stuff?  You look at those silver scales or whatever it is shimmering there, and you smell that sour, bitter smell then you rip and tear to get a piece off because it's tough (I think).  It's just gross, if you ask me.  But we don't have any of that in our fridge right now.  

One thing that we do have is 4 bags of carrots.  Like real carrots. You know the kind with the peel on and the place at the top where the greens came out?  Or have you forgottent that that's what a carrot is?  (Just kidding, I'm only making fun of American produce.  But really I'm just jealous that they don't have baby carrots in Poland.)  We always have/need carrots.  It's the go-to veggie if I don't have any other fresh vegetable to cook and serve with dinner.  I just grate it up on the little side of the grater, squeeze on a lemon and a bit of sugar: SALAD!  I know, lame.  Well, often we run out of carrots and the last 4 times I went to the store I forgot that we had neither a) run out, nor b) almost run out and I bought some anyway. Again and again and again.

Do You Really Mean That?

I've been feeling quite nostalgic lately and I wanted to write about something from my past but every time I start pulling out memories I come up with things like this:

In kindergarten on Valentine's day my dearly beloved teacher (I really did think she was an angel) took us to the back of the room one at a time while everyone was coloring to help us "deliver" our Valentines to the correct little mailbox that we'd made a few days before and which now sat on the counter in the back. (can you say RUN-ON?)  We delivered all of mine and my teacher got very upset and started yelling at me, "What?  That's only 13.  Where are the rest of your Valentines?  How do you think those kids will feel who don't get a Valentine from you!?!  You HAVE to bring a Valentine for EVERY child!"  This rang through the entire, silent classroom.  

I'm pretty sure not ONE of the kids who didn't get a Valentine from me felt 1/100th as bad as I did after that.

Or this one:

On my first date at Ricks College, after a fun Hawaiian themed dinner, I went with a few couples to one of the empty buildings in the evening and we had some kind of race or scavenger hunt around the building (maybe it was hide and seek or something)  in three-legged form.  As in, my right leg was tied to the left leg of this guy that I really liked but hardly knew at all and we ran around the building up and down stairs etc.  For me at that point anything extremely hilarious + kind of embarrassing =ed disaster.  I peed my pants.  I pretended like I hadn't and when we all met up at the end I announced that I needed to go home for a second, and told my friend aside what had happened.

I ran home to change my clothes so we could go to get ice cream for the next part of the date.  While I was there the phone rang.  It was my dad.  He asked how I was doing and I told him that I was in the middle of this awesome date, except I was at home now changing my clothes because of this embarrassing happening.  He laughed and said, "It sounds like you're having a good time."  Then he tried his best to transition smoothly into giving me the news that my grandpa had just died.  My first grandparent to go.  

That was pretty bad.  And then when all of the people in our date group came to the apartment I learned that they all knew about my accident (Thanks Melissa!  Actually, I wasn't too embarrassed, since I'm really practical like that.  Who cares, right?)  For some weird reason I decided to go get ice cream with them anyway.  It was a bad idea because I sort of put a damper on everything.  My date totally endeared himself to me, though with his super awesome concern etc.  He was (and I'm sure still is) a really neat guy.

So, yeah.  That's why I'm not writing about things from my past today.  (Oh, wait. . . Whatever.)

Instead I'll write about something else I've been planning to write for a long time. COMPLIMENTS!!  

Do you have compliments from your past that stick in your mind.  Do you ever pull them out when you need a little boost?  Can you think of a few that really stand out?  

I can!   (I'm such a dork)

I'm going to share some of mine with you, and then I would LOVE to hear some of yours in the comments if you'll share.  If not (in which case: why not!?!) I encourage you to think about them for yourself at least, anyway.  Here they are, on subjects that I think we all get compliments on.

On Physical Appearance:  

Senior year of high school.  I came home for lunch before rushing off to work as always.  My mother was home alone, as usual, but she had a woman from our ward there working on her hair.  This woman was a beautician and her sister was a model and they were both sort of in the business.  When I came into the room she said, "Wow!  Have you ever thought about going into modeling?"  My mother responded with, "Oh, because of her long legs and slender frame?"  and the lady said, "Well, I was thinking mostly because of her eyes and teeth!"  (I was such a teenager to let this stick with me for so long)

On  Brains:

I had said something about how dumb I was (I don't do this anymore) and a friend leaned over to 2 year old Ewelina and said, "I'd love to be as dumb as your mom!"

And once when we were dating Greg said something about how you could tell that I was smart by how I spoke or something.  I had sort of thought of myself as a dumb blonde for some years, I think.

On Sense of Humor:

"You are a funny, funny girl."  Repeated often by the roommate that I most admired for how hilarious she was (is).

On Polish Language Skills:

This is two days ago:  "Sister Pawlik, you're a stud!"  (um, thanks?) This from a missionary after the meeting wherein I had shared my testimony.  He told me that he couldn't even understand half of what I said (he's been in Poland for like 4 months)  I assured him that none of the Poles could understand what I said either.  

So you see how easy I am to please.  Now tell me why YOU'RE so awesome.  (as if I don't already know)  Maybe yours will be less superficial than mine.  Maybe it is something you overheard someone saying about you (those are the best compliments, the ones you're not intended to hear).  Just tell me something! (please)  

The List

This post is not going to be about The List by Melanie Jacobson, in case my title got you all excited.  Sorry about that.

When Anne, my 13 months-older-than-me-sister and I were young teenagers, we were always in the same Sunday School class for a year before she moved to the next class up and I stayed behind until we joined up again the next year.  We were a great little team of sassy but reverent, blonde know-it-alls.  We had our own clever answers to the teachers questions.  One of these (and, fine, the only one I can remember and possibly the only one we had) was really the answer to pretty much every question.  We would just answer by saying, "The List."

The List goes something like this (mine and Anne's; not Melanie's):

Read the scriptures

Say personal prayers

Keep the commandments

Go to church

Pay tithing

etc.

etc.

Last weekend we had a District Conference.  The mission president's wife asked me if I'd like to give a five minute testimony during the sister's meeting.  I said yes.  I was thinking, "Five minutes is pretty long, I'd better come up with a theme or something for my testimony."  I thought about it and tried to figure out how to be in tune with the Spirit, but didn't have any big revelation or anything.  While drying my hair that morning I thought that maybe I would just talk about "The List"  (mine and Anne's; not Melanie's)  How boring and generic, I thought.  But also how exceedingly important.  I asked Greg how you would say "smart-alecks" in the plural feminine (I know the word, of course, (I'm a mother),  but am not in the habit of putting it in the plural feminine)  Evie helped me with this too.

During the women's meeting first the visiting authority's awesome wife spoke.  I was busy with kids for her talk and much of the rest of the meeting and so I missed quite a lot of it, but things calmed down toward the end and I was able to listen to the end of the mission president's wife's talk.  She was talking about the basic things that bring us closer to our Father, reading our scriptures, daily prayer etc.  I was thinking, "Hey!  Will you listen to that!"  Then at the end she added her testimony to the visiting authority's wife  about how important it is for us, among other things, to be doing those basic things.  She ended and it was my turn.

We were all seated in a huge circle and it was so nice to look around at everyone while I spoke.  (and to have Aaron run to me across the length of the circle , or its diameter or whatever, exactly at the moment I mentioned how much I love my kids/being a mom) I talked about the list and how, even though my sister and I were being slightly sassy when we answered with it, it did give us an idea of just how important those things really are.  I said that over the years I have really learned by experience how much happier my life is and how much better things work out when I am keeping up with the things on that list, and that I know that they really are of the utmost importance.  And I said that I know for sure that this is the message that Heavenly Father had for this room full of his daughters, and that it meant that it is the time to reevaluate how we're doing on those things.

Evie's face was lit up the whole time.  She was smiling at me and nodding every now and again.  I've never seen her so attentive.  As I walked back to my seat by her she jumped up and gave me a hug (just like in the movies, except that we're not really like that.  This was actually very spontaneous).  I think when she heard me mention about Anne and me being smart alecks she realized that I really had been planning to speak about the same thing the other women had spoken about and it was a sort of spiritual experience for her.

So why am I telling you this?  Because I wanted to tell you about the list and then I kept typing and typing.  So there you have it. 

P.S.  Melanie's The List isn't actually a book yet.  It's still in it's manuscriptory stage.  But it will be a book.  Oh yes, it will be.  :)