I Dyed My Hair Purple!

So, there I was, sitting in my living room, looking at the pictures I had just posted on Facebook from a weekend away when I scrolled past one of those Overtone ads. In case you don’t know what Overtone is, it’s like a hair dye. But you dye your hair crazy colors (like pink or purple or blue). And it looks like hair creme as opposed to normal hair dye. And before I knew it, I was dreaming of crazy colors.

Ah! I’m 29. I’m not some teenager that can just do whatever they want to their hair...right? Well, I’m an adult. I CAN do what I choose. And I choose to embrace the crazy in my life and go for a new color.

Backstory: I haven’t touched my hair with dye of any kind in over 10 years. I used to highlight, lowlight, full on dye my hair whenever the mood took me when I was a teenager. I never did anything crazy. They were always natural colors. But then I got pregnant and I had heard that you’re not supposed to dye your hair while you’re pregnant. So I didn’t. Then we were poor. Then some woman that was cutting my hair made me feel disgusting because my roots were too far out to just need maintenance, but not far enough out to look like it was done on purpose. Needless to say, I never went back there again. And I decided I just wanted natural hair so that I didn’t have to worry about it. So I grew it out. And I grew it out. And I grew it out. My hair has been completely natural from root to tip for over 5 years.

But the desire has struck! I need that dye job. So, I decided to go with something a little low maintenance (so that when it grows out, it DOES look like I did it on purpose). Here’s where I decided on a Balayage.

But I had some questions. And I needed a new stylist. The one I had gone to for a couple years just wasn’t doing it for me. Seriously, I have the worst luck with stylists. They either complain about how much and how heavy my hair is or they just don’t talk that much. Some of them simply don’t know how to work with my hair (it’s super thick and fairly long) so the cut they put in it, doesn’t work for me. And while some have clearly been worse than others (hello, woman who told me my dye was terrible), I just haven’t really connected with anyone. And while the lady I was with for a couple years did an okay job with my cut, I had ZERO confidence in her ability to dye my hair properly.

I looked. I researched. I found pictures of hair people had done before, and I settled on a couple girls from Fringe in Bloomington, IL. They seemed young and modern and willing. So I called to make an appointment for one of them to just cut my hair first. I went in, and got a couple inches taken off. The girl was so nice!! And she did a great job on my hair. I asked questions and she seemed knowledgeable. So we started talking about the dye job I might want done. She gave me some advice. And I booked my appointment for Wednesday, September 18th at 11am to get my hair done.

This is what my hair looked like before I went into the salon that day:

She highlighted my hair and then put a lavender toner on top of that. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, 3 hours and $300 later, I was done. That may sound extravagant to some, but I have some crazy thick, long hair. And it was totally worth it! Check it out!

Even though I loved my hair, it wasn’t exactly what I had asked for. In reality, I wanted an ombre look and I for sure didn’t get that. Lucky for me, I did like the way my hair looked in the end. However, I was incredibly disappointed when all the purple was gone after only 3 washes. I payed so much money! And for what? Not what I asked for and the purple was gone only a couple weeks later. Well, I decided to order Overtone (you’ve probably seen the ads on Facebook). Check out that post in a couple weeks to see how it works.

Making the first day of homeschool special

First, let me just wish my husband a wonderful Happy Birthday! He never reads my blog, but I just appreciate him so much!

Now, since this was our first full year doing homeschool, I wanted to make our “first day of school” special. And I think it worked! We had a great day getting the hang of things. Here’s what we did:

We started with a mini photo shoot. You know, your typical “first day of school” pictures with the parents.

Then, we headed out to The Original Pancake House for breakfast. Owen was thrilled to have chocolate chip pancakes before our school day started.

When we finally made our way down to our classroom, I had put streamers up on the doorway and filled the room with balloons. I hung a poster that said “Welcome to 4th grade”.

We started with a welcome letter that I had written to him to tell him how excited I was about this upcoming year. I wanted to have a printed letter that he could stick in the front pocket of his binder so that he could look at it any time he wanted.

While we did spend most of the day learning, I wanted to have some fun breaks in our day with a couple useful crafts. The first one was a bookmark that he could decorate to use in his book for morning reading time. He loves to draw and color so I thought this would be a great break between lessons. The second craft he worked on was a little pouch that he could glue together and color to hold his reward dollars that he will earn throughout the year to buy fun stuff.

Overall, we had a great day! It was a great introduction to our school year. It was a special day that deserved to be celebrated. And we did just that!

A Day In Southern Illinois

Our last stop before we headed back home on our 2 week road trip was in Southern Illinois. I use that term because we kind of travelled all over the place in our 24 hours there.

Our first stop upon returning to Illinois was the Garden of the Gods. We decided to take the half mile observation trail. It was a very short hike, if you even want to use that term. To be honest, it was more of just a walk for me. My son, on the other hand was climbing all over the place. He was climbing every rock he could get his hands on. Clearly, we were very cautious and I held my son’s hand when necessary because in this area, you are very high up and every year, people die from accidents on these rocks. The views are just stunning from here. And we had so much fun finding the camel and monkey rock formations. Even though the main path is only a half mile, we spent an hour here. Partially because we spent a lot of time off the main path on the large rocks and partially because we took the time to sit and embrace the beauty of this place. There were plenty of people that stayed much longer than we did. It didn’t feel crowded at all, but we visited at noon on a Wednesday.

Owen’s Notes: “I really liked that I got to climb around a bunch. There were so many rocks that I got to climb up, down, and over to. There were also so many sights to see like the camel and the monkey.”

We stayed in the Best Western in Marion for the night. The biggest reason I chose this hotel was because we had enough points to stay here for free. It was clean and nice enough. It was nothing extravagant, but it was exactly what we needed. They had a pool and a hot tub, which we did swim at. It was a perfect way to end our trip. They also had free wifi, free breakfast, a mini fridge, and a microwave. Plus, the hotel was right next to the highway so it was a great location for us.

The next morning, we drove over to the Rolling Oak Alpaca Ranch. I had made a reservation for a tour online in advance. It cost $10 per person. Our tour started at 9:30am and lasted about an hour. We were able to hang out with the alpacas and feed them. We also met a couple goats. It was great to learn all about the alpacas. Plus, since our tour was just myself and my son, we could ask any questions we wanted and take as many pictures as we wanted. Then, we learned all about how yarn is made. I just love the couple that owns this farm. They have such positive attitudes and were such a pleasure to be around. We truly had a blast and it was just the perfect ending to a perfect trip.

Owen’s Notes: “I really really liked all of the alpacas. I also liked that I got to see goats. My favorite alpaca was Little Num. I got to hug her.”

There are so many things to do in southern Illinois. We definitely could have spent more than a day here, but alas, we had to head home.

Visit to Nashville, TN

One of the last stops on our Mother/Son roadtrip was Nashville. This is frequently our last stop on roadtrips. Nashville is such a fun place, even if you only have a day to spend here.

We drove into town and immediately went to Hattie B’s Hot Chicken to stand in line and get some awesome food. Parking is crazy in Nashville. We’ve never had trouble finding a spot, but it comes at a price, that’s for sure. This place is so popular, you definitely need to get there 30 minutes before they open on weekdays and possibly an hour early on the weekends if you want a table. I ordered chicken strips (medium heat) with pimento mac and cheese and potato salad. Owen got the kids chicken strips (southern, which means no heat) with fries. We also really enjoy their lemonade. I think it’s made in-house and it’s absolutely delicious. They’re not over-priced and the food is definitely worth a trip. It was hot outside and the indoor seating is incredibly limited so we did have to sit outside. However, it at least is covered and has fans.

Then, we headed out to the Adventure Science Museum. The cost was $28 for my son and myself. It was amazing! I’m kind of over children’s museums because they all have the same exhibits. So, once you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all. But this is so different. First of all, it’s not just for little kids. There is a section just for them, but I feel like this “museum” is geared toward the older child, which is a welcome change. We played music, defeated germs, walked on the moon, hung out among the stars, climbed a spine, and slid down the digestive system. It was seriously amazing. We only spent about 2 hours here, but it was a fun 2 hours.

Owen’s Notes: “Oh my gosh! My favorite thing that we did there was doing the moon gravity thing. There was a machine that picked me up, lifted me into the air, and then put me back down again. I had to try to walk over to a flag on the ground and walk back. It was so fun, but way harder than it sounds.”

When we were done at the Adventure Science Museum, we headed downtown again to check out the Johnny Cash Museum. The cost was $20 per adult and $16 per child. It is ranked the number one music museum in the world. This museum is fairly small, but still worth a visit. We only spent about an hour here, and even that was pushing it. It seemed crowded, which was a shame, but we still had a great time. There was a ton of memorabilia and informational text you could read, outfits from famous moments and records displayed. But my favorite thing about the entire museum was that there were performances you could watch, a video history of Johnny Cash’s career, songs you could listen to with headphones, and a couple places where you could sit to do these things. They also offered a green screen photo you could buy. Overall, it was a decent museum that I’m glad we visited, but I don’t feel the need to go again during our many trips to Nashville.

Owen’s Notes: “My favorite part of the Johnny Cash Museum was taking a picture in front of the green screen and then getting a picture of me with Johnny Cash.”

Then, before heading back to our hotel, we popped into the Goo Goo shop to pick up some Goo Goo Clusters to bring back home with us. If you’ve never heard of a Goo Goo Cluster, you’re missing out. They are a regional treat that we discovered on our travels and we keep going back for more. It is a disc-shaped candy bar that contains marshmallow nougat, caramel, and roasted peanuts and then covered in milk chocolate. My family’s favorite is the peanut butter, though. Basically, they replace the marshmallow nougat with a soft peanut butter nougat. The Goo Goo shop is located right downtown across from the Johnny Cash museum so it’s pretty convenient when we’re in town. You should give them a try if you’re visiting the area. They also have a little cafe inside their store.

Owen’s Notes: “I love Goo Goo Clusters. We bought the peanut butter ones!”

Our hotel was the Wingate by Wyndham out by the airport at 1 Century Blvd. They have free wifi, free breakfast, a mini fridge, and a microwave. What else you could you want? It was clean and perfect for our needs. We always stay out by the airport when we visit Nashville. It may be farther from the action, but it is significantly cheaper. And saving money on our hotel allows us to spend money elsewhere.

Our trip to Nashville was a great one. I will always suggest this place to people planning a weekend getaway or as a destination on a roadtrip.