Here is the anticipated hair post…

I’m blonder and cut about 4 inches off. Added some layers and bangs. What do you think?

Here is a before picture from a post below:

I’m back from the long vacation home. It was wonderful to see our families and friends. We really needed a break from this island and we really needed a break from work and school. That being said, our trip home was very busy and exhausting. So much so that we both decided we are never doing it all again. We are never doing the running to every family household for the holidays thing again. I guess that is one of many changes for this New Year. Another big change is that we are spending this week apart… something we rarely ever do. Frank is in Dallas training with the IRS. He’s having a great time with his buddies from work, going to the Pistons vs Mavericks game, playing ping pong and other boy activities. I’m missing him, but happy to be relaxing in quiet, unpacking, cleaning and going out with girlfriends. Other change continuation - another school semester has begun. Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Patient Doctor. I’m sure it’s going to be hectic, but the end is starting to come into sight. (well, the end of basic sciences and the start of board exam studying)

Another change…. MY HAIR!!! You’ll have to come back to see it in the next post! (Yes, I know… that was a mean, cruel, viscous hanger… somewhat desperate and pathetic… but, I have to do something to keep you all interested!)

ps - Congrats to all the happy families in bloggerland!! Sorry I have been absent from all of your blogs. I actually do miss reading them and am planning on catching up on all of them.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the negatives and stress in our lives, that we forget to take pleasure in life’s little treasures. Here are a few things that made me smile lately:

Scented candles, especially pumpkin and apple-cinnamon
Going barefoot in the rain
Fresh fruit salad
Happy, healthy tiredness after a good workout
Chocolate chip cookies, still warm from the oven
Cats purring
Finding money in my coat pocket
The sound of waves crashing
Making funny faces through the webcam to my little sisters
Taking a long, hot shower, then crawling under clean sheets
Doodling with gel pens
Sitting in a hot tub while it’s snowing
A drizzle that becomes a hard rain (and then a thunderstorm!)
Bear hugs from Frank
Palm trees wrapped in twinkling lights
An old couple still deeply in love

Here’s hoping you take a moment to enjoy the little treasures in your world.

So a big CONGRATULATIONS to Marie and Shane!! They received a referral and are traveling at the end of the month to meet Bryson! YAY!

On another note, the rain has been falling here for the entire week. At first I was happy about it because it makes it seem more like fall back in Michigan. However, I have realized I have become a “fair weather friend” to good ole Michigan weather. (bad joke, I know.) I am quickly growing tired of the grey skies and missing my sunshine…. especially since this week I actually have time to go to the beach. Figures. I will admit that I do love the booming thunder and huge lightening bolts that hit the water, though. Anyways, I really hope it goes away before my Mom and Mother in law get here for Halloween week.

Rachael has inspired me to start a food diary. I am a woman on a mission. Well, yesterday I was. Today I got a little side tracked by Frank’s begging for brownies via email. See it’s extension time (mini-tax season) so I have barely seen him in a week. As a result, I gave in to his requests and baked some delicious chocolate brownies. This, of course, meant that I had to enjoy them with him while he was home for his one hour break. I’ll be sleeping by the time he gets home. But, I digress and tomorrow is a new day…. a day for food journaling. Oh joy. Diets. Well, I better go watch Greys Anatomy to cheer myself up. Is it bad that a tv show is the highlight of my week?

Yes, I swear more vacation stuff is coming up…. it just takes so darn long to upload those pictures and well, I’m lazy. So for now - I’m posting this fun stuff! It seems it’s all the craze these days!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car),
Chebby Logo

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie),
Cherry Garcia Oreo

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name),
C-Ell

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal),
Pink Pig

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born),
Leigh Flint

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first),
Ell-Ch

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink),
The Black Frappe

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers),
Bobby Lee Hayward (I SWEAR THAT’S TRUE! HAHA.)

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy),
Lovely Snickers (ooh la la - think Lovely Knickers - haha.)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ),
Lee Thomas (yes, there are a lot of Lee’s in my family)

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter),
Weiss Washington

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower).
Autumn Peony

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Strawberry Nightgown

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree),
Waffle Willow

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”),
The Scrapbook Thunderstorm Tour

As if that’s not enough about me…. I also took Rachael’s Fall Quiz. Here are the results. I’m honestly not quite sure how I feel about them… ya know, the dead thing doesn’t excite me very much.

You Are Changing Leaves

Pretty, but soon dead.

Well, I got my hair done this week …. I wanted it nice for our upcoming Carnival cruise and I really needed a little “me” time after exams. See this is “hell” month. A week of studying, followed by exams, followed by a week of studying, followed by a week of final exams! Yikes. I decided to go a little bit more blonde. Lighten the hair up and put in some highlights.

It turned into a disaster. Let’s just say, somehow the clearly incompetent hair girl at the overpriced, supposed to be the best on the island spa, did not know what she was doing. Somehow my description of remove the brassy - copper tones (from the sun) and add some highlights to lighten it up, translated into make the top of my head copper and leave the under side bright red. Here is what it looked like after she finished. By the way, my hair was light brown to begin with.

Needless to say, for the first time in my life, I demanded it be fixed asap. Let’s just say this almost cost me 200 whoppers from Burger King. Not that I eat at Burger King, but you get the point. And yes, that is a ridiculous amount to pay for hair, but I live on an island where everything is majorly overpriced. I went back for my second appointment, with someone supposedly more competent. She did a glaze and some low lights to even it out a bit. It looks somewhat better, but no where near what I asked for. I’m annoyed and missing my regular hair girl (back in Michigan) terribly. Oh I can’t wait to go home in December and have her strip down my hair and make me feel beautious again.

Here is a recent picture (the before) and a picture from today (after the 2nd appt).

Frank says I’m overreacting. He likes the hair. What do you think? Honestly, you’re not going to hurt my feelings. I’ve already come up with several names for myself. “Pumpkin head is cooking dinner now.” “Penny hair is running to the gym.” “Could you please or-ange for the new car insurance.” Frank doesn’t find these jokes funny. After all, he’s the one who paid that hefty bill.

ps - Here is another hint to continue our big secret! We are going on a Carnival Cruise to _______.

Sometimes I’m such a girl. I think it’s becoming more obvious because I am around many men all day long. (Med students are still mostly men.) Here are some of the girly things I’ve noticed about myself lately.

(1) Has anyone else seen those cute discover credit cards being advertised on the web? They come in pastel colors and you can get them personalized with your monogram. I immediately was like, “Frank - I want one of those.” He looked at me like I had temporarily lost my mind. He explained there was no need - I already have 2 cards that I use to keep my credit score high and to get free airmiles or cash back. I know I don’t need one. But, they are still cute.

(2) Now that I am done with exams, I have some free time on my hands. What have I been doing? I bought a gossip magazine and read it cover to cover while I laid in the sun. Then I came inside and searched the web for baby stuff. Cute nursery items. Not showing shirts. Blogs.

(3) What did I do after I found out we would be staying here longer? (Well, after I cried.) I wrote out our new timeline here and after. Of course, it included (in detail) the adoption timeline. This lead to doodling of baby names. Girly, I know. I admit it.

(4) Finally, I have been really trying to drink more water. It’s hot here and I feel dehydrated a lot of the time. Plus, I’m trying to get myself in better shape. So anyways, I’ve been drinking a lot of water and I have noticed my bladder really is the size of a thimble. I have a problem. It goes right through me.

So it’s official. There is no doubt about it. I am a girlie-girl!

Bad news. Frank and I have to stay here longer than expected.

We were planning to be done here in April of next year, move to the states and officially start the adoption. Things have changed. I have the option of going to Miami to study for my boards and begin pre-clinical rotations or to stay here. Because Frank has given up so much for me to go to medical school, I always bring these type of decisions to him. His choice was to stay here instead of moving. Financially this makes sense for us - he can keep his job longer which pays him well and is tax free. This also means we won’t have to pay to relocate to Miami temporarily and then to another city shortly thereafter. For him it is also a better choice because he won’t have to switch jobs again and again. A stressful thing to deal with on his part. We are settled in here and we know the area, too. I was hoping he’d say, “let’s go to Miami” - because all the points lead towards me staying here from my perspective, too. The program to review for my boards has higher pass rates here than in Miami and the hospital is known for great exposure. In Miami, students have had problems because they don’t speak spanish. For these reasons, we’ve decided to stay here longer. It’s the right thing to do, but it’s still bad news.

Why is this bad news if all those reasons seem positive? My Mom would say because we have to live far away longer, but for me it’s bad for a more important reason. Because it puts off our adoption. I am sad about this. I actually broke down and cried. I so look forward to the day we move back and put in that paperwork and I thought it was less than a year away. Now, we will not be able to officially begin until January of 2009. That is SO far away!!! It’s strange because I always say I am thankful we chose to adopt and not try all the infertility treatments…. thankful to not have to go through that emotional rollercoaster. Yet, here I am - waiting and waiting. In a way, I feel like I’m going through my own kind of treatments. I’ll get over it. I have to. I chose to be here and go to medical school. That is my dream. But, I dream of a family, too. So, I hope I don’t lose my readers and bloggy friends over this. Stick around. I promise I’ll still be discussing adoption and baby things on a regular basis. It will just be awhile before I’m whining about the real wait or ecstatic about a referral.

On a positive note…. Frank and I have a secret. I will share it with you all in the next few weeks. For now, here is a hint.

Lauri recently posted about aging on her blog. This got me thinking…. When did you notice your first age spot or wrinkle? How did you handle it?

I recently noticed my first wrinkle. It is a thin line across my forehead. It is there when I raise my eyebrows or when I am deep in thought. Frank says it’s my wisdom line or thinkers line. I like to think of it that way. It makes it less painful. I don’t feel old enough to have a wrinkle. I’m not old enough to have a wrinkle. This whole thing got me thinking about plastic surgery. In fact, my thought process went something like this… OMG is that a wrinkle? No way, it can’t be. It is! OMG a wrinkle! I then pulled my forehead skin upwards towards my hair line. Hmm, maybe I will need a shot of botox…. if I could just pull this skin back it would go away. Maybe a face lift. Suddenly I came to my senses. WTH am I doing? I don’t like plastic surgery at all. Why would I need a facelift at this age? I am losing my mind. It’s just a line. I’ve earned it. Med school is difficult. I’m lucky my hair hasn’t gone completely grey.

So, as you can read, I have come to terms with it. Sort of. Okay I still stare at it in the mirror and wonder where it came from, but I’m getting over it. That’s life. We age. And there is no way I am shooting myself with Botulism. Well, not yet.