How to do a little more

If you are wondering how to do a little more than you are doing or have done for the people of Haiti after the earthquake, I hope you'll consider joining this Facebook group I created, and inviting your friends.

Feather, claw, curl

So this all started because someone posted that it was "Wayback Week" on Facebook. I went a little crazy scanning old pictures. It was fun, and Dr. G was down in Dillon much of this past week doing field work for his new groundwater studies. So I had some time on my hands.

Yes, the house got a little trashed around me. But it is cleanuppable. Now the pictures are scanned and will stay scanned forever, and I can do things like walk you through the evolution of my hair from 1987 to 1993. You can see the value in that, right?

The perm. The feathering. The white banana clip with gold hearts. It's all 1987. Just so you know, the sweater was pink with a round yoke and puffed sleeves. It would actually be chic again in 2010.

The short life of my efforts with "claw" style bangs. I'm the one in the Gene Loves Jezebel shirt on the couch. The rest of those girls, my compatriots from Young Women in my ward in Pittsburgh.

Again with my girls, this time with shaggy, red hair. The color started with a supposedly temporary dye job for a play (FAUGH by Jerome McDonough, a true classic) and kind of stayed that way all year.

At the end of my freshman year of high school I somehow got roped into being a hair model for a cosmetology show. I got this cute cut, an extreme angled bob, shaved up the back. I loved this cut. I still think it is about the most perfect cut ever invented. I am presently unwilling to undertake the maintenance, though.

Here's how I looked around the time I met Dr. G. Again with the Gene Loves Jezebel shirt. I loved that shirt.

Here I am at the beginning of my junior year. The slight flip was almost unheard of at this time (Fall 1990). I was wearing a hand-knit sweater that used to be my mom's in the '60s. It had no buttons left, so I stretched it out and pinned it so that it crossed over at the hem and made sort of a V shape. Under it I usually wore a white camisole, the khaki sleeveless dress you see here, and some Timberland riding boots. It was J. Jill before I ever heard of J. Jill, I guess.

Taken by a fellow student when I was in a photography class (my only D in high school. I was overextended that semester and photography had to give). Notable: my hair was really, really straight. It is not that straight anymore. It bends all over the place.

I got this perm before my junior prom. It was actually a pretty good choice, for 1991. The scarf in this picture is one I still have and still wear. A gift from my dad. I love the Northwest native design.

I grew out the perm before college and chopped off my hair after Dr. G and I got engaged in December 1992. Again, it was pretty much an angled bob, but this time stacked up to the U-shape instead of shaved in the back. My mom was in wonder that I would cut off all that hair for my wedding. And then to boot, I went red again. Well. He married me anyway.

The irony: I now hate doing my hair. I have no patience for it. Right now it is almost at shoulder length, layered, dyed medium brown. If I blow it try it looks OK. It may flip, it may turn under, I don't care anymore. I put in a little mousse (I have lots of experience with mousse; see senior portrait above) and tousle it, and that's all. Most days I don't even want to bother with that, and it goes back in a clip. Silly.

Nostalgia

I have spent way too much time scanning old photos tonight to let it be for Facebook only.

So, first part: my husband, before he was my husband. Some of you will experience shock and amusement. Some will just experience happy memories. But seriously, that Love and Rockets picture ... I am in 15 year old crush mode all over again.

And the black and white one with the crack in it? That was in my locker while he was on his mission. Way beyond crush. Even then, if I am going to be truthful about it.

A little jaunt

This was a New Year's Day sledding trip up the canyon where Dr. G's dad spent his boyhood summers. Astonishingly lovely. We were just sledding on a little closed road right off the main thoroughfare. Also playing on the frozen creek under the bridge.

We heard a lot of the Grumpy Old Troll song from Dora the Explorer.

Speaking of Dora ... gosh, our girl is pretty, huh? She loves the snow.

Sam is pulling an absolutely amazing vintage sled given us by our friend Carla - dear, dear neighbor from Merced. It is wicked fast and probably dangerous. Coolest detail: Apollo rocket paint job. I need to take a better picture of it.

Sadly, my camera battery died after only four photos. At least we have the four. Missing: my cute K. Next time maybe I will make him my primary subject.

More randoms

• About a week ago I fell (a Cub-Scout-made stepstool slipped out from under me) and cracked a rib. I don't recommend this. It makes me glad to know that the created-from-Adam's-rib story is (in Brigham Young's words) a "baby story." Because, ouch. And I'm guessing there were neither Advil Liqui-Gels nor Vicodin tablets in Eden.
• New clothes feel so awesome. Or maybe it's because I can really wear warm clothes comfortably for the first time in several years. I got two new fitted layering turtlenecks (one black, one white) for Christmas and then bought myself two kind of 80s-shaped short-sleeve sweaters with deep V necks (one gray, one green) to wear over them. In Cali, about the most I could stand was a long-sleeved tee in the winter. Yay for cozy clothes.
• Saw two moms from the ward at the gym yesterday. Feel hopeful for gym/church friendships. Because of the aforementioned rib injury I am taking it sort of easy in my workouts - no ball crunches, lunge twists, push-ups. And no impact exercise (running on the treadmill). Just the elliptical trainer and some weight machines that allow me to hold my torso very very still.
• I have been up before 7:30 a.m. for TWO DAYS in a row. I am starting to feel like I actually want to do things other than lie in bed, eating candy and watching Buffy and Star Trek on DVD. This is a good sign for emergence from extremely geeky depression.
• Had to replace some homeschool curriculum (Language Arts and History) after our move. Chose k12. Love it. Love how their computer does the planning for me. Easy cheesy! However, there's no state funding for homeschooling in Montana. This gives me added motivation to prepare S for a return to the classroom this fall. I can't afford this!
• Z is still "The Real Snow White." However, her one true love is Victor from The Corpse Bride. "He talks nice," she says. Join the rest of us crushing on Johnny Depp, babe. Some like Pirates Johnny, some (like me) like Chocolat Johnny, some might even like ultra-clean and nervous Finding Neverland Johnny, but we all like him. Anyway the good news is, maybe now the missionaries will get a break.

I am prevailed upon to make popcorn. I have some New Year's sledding pictures to post after I recharge my camera batteries.

A happy heart

In place of resolutions, a few grateful thoughts for a happy heart in 2010:

• When we went sledding at Sheepshead last week, the sun came out just for me, and the colors I saw were Christmas colors - the bare, red branches of the willows in the creek bed; the rusty green of the pines and the muted green of sagebrush; the golden tall grasses; the luminous snow! What a world!
• My husband is watching The Sound of Music with my three-year-old daughter. During "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," she proclaims, "I'm that girl!"
• I live in an immeasurably better time than any other time. (Thinking about this because I finished reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, by M.T. Anderson, in 2 volumes.) The fact that my family can exist as it does is miraculous when you consider the overwhelming weight of history.
• Our collection of Christmas books has received considerable use this year. Z loves to snuggle up for Christmas stories. Try out my two current favorites, Welcome Comfort by Patricia Polacco, and Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck with illustrations by Mark Buehner.
• In my new location I can get Great Harvest bread and Stephen's hot cocoa.
• People are kind and good. We have been here four weeks. We've been to four different families' houses for dinner - two of them twice each. Time for us to start reciprocating some invitations! Dr. G's extended family members here, whom we've never really known well, have put their arms right around us, and we feel so loved. Our ward (church congregation) is, as I've mentioned before, fabulous. Even now that I've washed my car and they've seen my Obama sticker.
• I am learning, in my heart, how God wants me to do some reaching out and healing. I am going to be humble enough and brave enough to do it. Knowing that I am going to do this brings me a lot of peace that has been missing for a couple of years. I don't know what the outcome will be. But I know what I need to do.

Happy New Year to you!