Kiss and makeup

There will be no pictures with this post (if I have my way, there will be no pictures of this experience period). We practiced applying makeup today. As usual, we practiced on each other. Traci thought it would be funny to "glam" me out, so I wound up looking like a cross between Eddie Izzard and a drag queen (come to think of it, those two are pretty similar). A few camera phone pics were taken, but I'm pretty sure that my dire threat of continuous Internet humiliation will keep them safely stored away. I was so looking forward to getting her back but Heather had some scheduling problems and couldn't get Emery to his doctor's appointment (just a routine check up) so I had to leave before I could get mine. But rest assured, I will get mine, oh yes, I will...

All curled up and no place to go

We practiced perms on live people today (granted, we used regular water rather than perming solution). Rather than make a quip about this picture, I'll let you insert your own. Pictured from left to right are Brook, Ali and Lacie (I rolled Lacie's hair).

Stylin'

This is what happens when you're surrounded by women who want to play with your hair (actually, I understand that Dane wanted to do this to himself). Fortunately, I keep my hair short enough to avoid such things, although it's prolly only a matter of time before I get brow beaten into doing something...unwanted...to my hair.

A Deeper Shade of Soul

Blame it on a slow day. We didn't have much to do this afternoon and Chrystal was itching to add some color to her hair. The original color she wanted, cherry cola, was in short supply so we mixed as close to that particular color as we could. The result is what you see above. I was pretty much solo on this one and it turned out pretty good (although Chrystal was EXTREMELY worried that I was going to mess up her hair. I told her that if she liked it, she had to tell all her friends that I did it. We'll see if she holds up her end of the bargain). I have about 14 more days until I'm on my own on the floor (has it already been a month that I've been in school?). Make sure to call in your appointment today!

A Striking Similarity

The picture on the left is Emery at his 2nd birthday party. The picture on the right is me, some many moons ago. Scary, ain't it?

Coookieeesss

Emery got some chocolate chip cookies for his birthday. It seems that he left a few out for his sister to enjoy, which, by the picture you see here, she did.

Transformers rule!

In a landslide victory (albeit "landslide" might be stretching it since only 9 people voted, including myself), Transformers is the resounding pick as the best comic book movie of the summer. Tune in for future polls sometime later in the week.

Finis

It's finally over (except for the cleaning up and such). Emery enjoyed himself immensely. And Emma got a preview of what to expect in 3 months. Thanks to everyone who made it to the party and to everyone who participated through the blog. It was a lot of work to get a picture snapped off, edited, posted and then come up with some snappy banter to include with the post, all before something else happened. I think I'll take a nap now. Tune in next year for the sequel.

Eating Some Cake

For what could be the first time ever, Emery did not make a mess while eating.

The Loot

He made out pretty good, as you can see. Right now he's watching his Elmo Potty Time DVD.

Unwrapping the Loot

Happy Birthday to Youuuuu!!!

Things are moving quickly...so quickly that I could only get this shot off before Emery blew out the candles. He did blow out all the candles himself though...

Chaos, Served Fresh

The children have staged their own "death match". They're beating each other over the head with balloons. What you see here is just a snippet of what's been going on for 15 minutes. I figure balloons are the safest toy to use (less chance of putting an eye out)

Arts and Crafts

Heather got some stickers and paper for the kids to make some arts and crafts. You would not believe the mess they're making, but at least its a cleanable mess (as opposed to say, destroying the apartment).

The First Guests Arrive

Grandma, Great-Grandma and Aunt Coco just showed up and the pandemonium has started...it's a mad house in here and it's likely to get worse as at least 8 more children are expected. If this is my last post, the papers for the disposal of my estate are in the second hand drawer in the cupboard.

The Cake

Here's the cake, freshly delivered. Emma has decided to inspect all of the decorations to make sure they are up to snuff.

The History of the Birthday Celebration

I was browsing Wikipedia (a great website...www.wikipedia.org) to find out more about birthday traditions and history and these are some tidbits I've come up with:

Birthday celebrations are thought to have originated in Persia by the cult of Mithras. Roman soldiers, who took to Mithraism enthusiastically, spread the idea in Europe (Christianity later supplanted Mithraism as the dominant religion but the birthday celebration already had to large a foothold to do away with).

Birthday cakes have been a tradition dating back as far as the Middle Ages when the English would conceal symbolic items such as gold coins, rings and thimbles inside their cakes. Each item was associated with a prediction. For example, a person finding a gold coin in a birthday cake would supposedly become wealthy where a person discovering a thimble would never marry

If the knife touches the bottom or when withdrawn from the cake comes out dirty the Birthday boy or girl may have to kiss either the nearest boy or girl (Opposite sex).

Not all traditions are equally generous. In certain circles the birthday boy or girl is expected to treat their party guests, this varies depending on the local culture and may involve party gifts or a nice gesture. In some cultures the birthday that means reaching the legal age limit for drinking alcohol may be celebrated with a party with free or abundant alcoholic drinks.

T minus 2 and a half hours till B-Day

The apartment is transforming into a Sesame Street annex. We're doing an Elmo themed birthday for Emery and you would think Muppets live here with all the decorations. Heather went to get some more supplies and we're expecting our first guests to start showing up in about an hour (prolly Tim, Lisa and Courtney). I'll have cake pics in soon.

Let the Games Begin

He's finally asleep. It has been a LONG night. First, some back story. Today is Emery's birthday (this will be the first in a long series of posts about his birthday...you could call this the "I'm milking this for all it's worth" series) and he's primed and ready for it. Actually he was primed and ready as of last night. We went over to my sister's house to have dinner and watch Dallas beat up Denver (even if its the preseason, I love football). Emery and J'son played and ran through the house like normal. We came home a little after 8:30 (after halftime, there wasn't any point in staying...unless you actually like watching third string players looking lost and bewildered) and Emery went straight to bed. About 10:30, he woke up crying, which in and of itself isn't that unusual as he usually just goes right back to sleep. But this time, he wasn't having any of it. Regardless of our best efforts, even with the sure fire "drive him around in the Jeep" method, Emery refused to go to sleep. It was as though he was too excited about his birthday to even care about sleep. I finally called it quits after 1 am and let Heather take her turn. About 6 am this morning, Emery came in to wake me up for his birthday celebrations. Everyone crawled into our bed (Emma too) and we all wished Emery a happy birthday. I fixed him some breakfast (scrambled eggs and bacon) and finally convinced him to lay down about 9:30, which was almost 2 hours ago. He's been sleeping soundly ever since. I'll have more info coming, almost at a streaming rate, as the day progresses (I have to catch up with Seth's blog as the man has almost double my posts...call it a point of pride)

Sleeping Beauties

Don't they look so peaceful? Well, they do now, but when they're awake it's like tag team wrasslin'. Evidently they've come to the conclusion that together they can do more damage than they can separately. So now, one of them, usually Emma, will head off into Emery's room to cause all kinds of havoc. When one of us goes to investigate, Emery will head off to the kitchen or our bathroom to see what kind of mischief he can get into. I'm telling you, these kids will rule the world one day. But for now, they are content with merely ruling our house. Emery has "graduated" to his big boy bed, a race car. Getting him to lie down and go to sleep has been a trial but slowly he's getting used to the idea. Emma has learned to pull herself up on things so she doesn't go to sleep until she's pulled herself up in her crib and screamed for us to come look at her (at least that's what I think she's doing when she makes that high pitched squeal). And she likes to get up at 3 in the morning to make sure we're doing okay (sometimes she takes a lot of convincing that we were just fine sleeping in our beds)

My Dogs are Barkin'

Ah, a pedicure. Of all the things that we do at school, the one thing that I've taken to is a pedicure. Manicures are nice and all, if a bit girly, but getting a pedicure is a mild form of therapy. Poor Traci, she SLAVED over my feet (let's say that I spent more time on my nose hair that I do on my feet) but I must say that she did a wonderful job. My feet have never felt better.

Emma Too!

Of course, Emma wanted her picture up too. She kind of got a haircut today too (we snipped off the long pieces to give her hair a more uniform look).

My first haircut

I gave Emery a haircut today. This was my first "solo" haircut and I didn't do TOO bad. Of course, Emery would not hold still for anything until I gave him my water bottle. Then he proceeded to squirt everyone in a five foot radius. The orange in his hair is colored hair gel (it's called SpikR and it comes in a variety of colors...the gel and color wash out with shampoo...you can usually get some at any upscale salon).

Car Crash Derby

I don't have any pictures to show you (yet) but if you haven't heard, Heather was in a car wreck today. She's okay, as are the children (in fact, neither child cried or acted scared until an EMT tried to pick up Emma from her car seat. Then all hell broke loose). Sadly the same cannot be said of Heather's mother's car. From the little I saw, the car is totaled. Fortunately, Heather wasn't at fault so we won't be in the poorhouse trying to by her parents a new car (they have full coverage anyway, but it was still a scary few moments). Of course, I joked with her afterwards that she couldn't have gotten in a wreck in HER car (she wants a new car). Still, everyone is okay and doing well.

Deep Purple

We got to practice hair coloring today. I thought I would go with something completely against the grain and add some yellow and purple highlights to my hair (yes, I'm fully aware of just how gay that makes me look). It didn't turn out too bad, although next time I'll prolly go with some deep red. Pictured here are Chrystal and myself after our "do's" were finished (she got some touch up work done on her new growth or "virgin growth" as we call it).

Giddy Up Horsey

My mother and sister came over for dinner tonight (chicken enchiladas). After dinner, I practiced my manicuring skills on my mother (she bought me some hair care products for my newly colored hair...see the next post). Once we were done, she decided to play in the floor with Emma. What she failed to realize is that when you play with one child, you get the other two (Emery and J'son) included as a packaged deal. The boys climbed on her back and proceeded to bounce up and down while Emma contented herself with pulling at my mother's earrings. Not one to pass up an opportunity, I snapped off a few quick pics, the best of which you can see here.

A Day in the Life...

This is what $10K and an odd desire to play with hair will get you. I've made mention of velcro curler wet sets before (and how truly God awful they are to do). Here is a picture of exactly what I was talking about (perhaps you've seen these on your great-aunt Mabel?). Actually, with practice, they aren't THAT bad but I could still think of about a dozen other things off the top of my head that are far less stress inducing (giving Eskimo kisses to live snakes, f'r example).

Too Cool for School, Part IV

Ah, a girl that WILL let me cut her hair. This is Chrystal. Actually, she won't let me cut her hair, but she has been amendable to me choosing a new hair style for her (which has been a very, VERY long process. Choosy isn't even in it). Chrystal and I sit next to each other at our stations. And while she might seem shy at first, once you get her going, she's almost out of control (I'm kidding...she'll kill me when she reads this). But she's a blast. In fact, just about everyone that I go to school with is a blast. I must say that I didn't expect to ENJOY myself as much as I have. But I do like it, very much. Except on the days when we have to do spiral perms. Those days I want to die a slow and painful death (actually, on those days, it feels like I am dying a slow and painful death).

Too Cool for School, Part III

This is Traci. Traci is a Godsend. She lets me do pretty much anything I want to with her hair. Which for the most part has been a good thing. I've come up with some fairly interesting styling concepts and designs when playing around with her hair. The best one was my second attempt. I'll have to post a picture of it sometime. Traci is always upbeat and eager. A little frightening at times, especially when she has that extra cup of coffee and the caffeine kicks in. But she's a blast to learn with. Always ready to go at the drop of a hat. Now, if only she'd let me cut her hair...

Too Cool for School, Part II

This is Diane. She is one of my fellow classmates at Enid Beauty College (EBC, as we call it). Diane is my study partner, such as it were. In short, she copies my answers on our homework. No, I'm kidding (it's the test's she copies...still with the jokes!) Doesn't she look just like Jennifer Connolly? I've included a picture of said actress for comparison. Anyhoo, Diane is great. A little hard on herself, but she keeps me on my toes to not slack off and coast 'cause I know that she'll kick my butt on perms and sectioning (dear Lord, I sound just like a hairdresser!)