Review: Vidal Sassoon Pro Series Runway Red

The thing about home-coloring red hair (according to people who do that kind of thing) is that if the color is a little light, it is strawberry blonde at first, and after a few shampoos, just blonde with some orange highlights. If the color is too dark, it starts purple (not pretty, Day-Glo purple, either... just a blackish dark "auburn" that's really a flat, ugly purple) and fades to a brown with some red highlights, if you're lucky.

If a girl (or guy) wants red hair, she (he) wants it red, dagnab it! But novelty colorings like Manic Panic (or its inferior, cheaper cousin, Splat) are both extremely messy and will stain tile and other surfaces permanently. Plus, they look amazing at first, but after a week of washings, they start to fade and after three weeks, they just look sad and flat, and if you don't keep touching them up, it's like an old manicure that would have looked better if you'd just left your nails naked (which is what I do because ain't this girl got time for that).

So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this at Walgreen's last night!

Dude, that is *red*.

When I first started coloring my hair, I always said that I wanted a color that exists in nature, but over time, I've grown fond of a little too red to be true. I know I can only get that for a couple of weeks, but since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, at least I'd have some construction-paper red hair for that day, right? Plus, with the gentle chocolate shampoo and conditioner, maybe I'll have some luck keeping the color strong for a while.

This dye is typical for drugstore dye, which is $10.99. Some colors were on sale for $8.99, but not this one.

There was nothing special in the box. Development creme, color mix, after-color weekly conditioner, and gloves. Oh, and the gloves are elastic, not the fast-food one-shape clear gloves, so they're easy to work with.

After I mixed the dye, which was a bright orange (always a good sign), I started applying it and was pleased by how "dry" it was. It didn't drip, it wasn't "goopy." It was easy to apply and I didn't get any drops or anything on the floor, or my hair-color sports bra, or anywhere else that I did not want dye.

Since my existing color was quite a bit darker than the hair color, I went ahead and colored everything at once instead of just doing the root touch-up and then the rest of the hair shortly.

See? Super dry. It didn't weigh my hair down, and my hair didn't want to fall off of my head. Also, the dye did not smell bad. It didn't smell good, either, but neutral is better than suffocating.

When it was time to rinse it, the dye liquefied quickly and rinsed out easily. The rinse water started out deep, bright orange, which was a good sign. When it's purple, it makes me a little nervous. The conditioner was silky.

The color looked very bright even when my hair was wet. Once it dried, it looked like this.

I love it! I can't wait to see how the color holds up over the next few weeks. I'm tempted to go back to that Walgreen's and clean them out of this color. I've never seen it before, and actually just looked online to see that it's not even available on Amazon.com. It *is* available here, on drugstore.com. They also have London Lilac, and I'm tempted to order one of those. For Easter, maybe? I'll let you know!

Review: Ikove Organics Acai Chocolate Shampoo and Conditioner

Last week, we were at Central Market for their annual chocolate festival, when I saw something on the counter behind the lady dispensing the salted caramel hot chocolate samples.

Yep. Chocolate shampoo and conditioner. I needed shampoo, and indeed this was fortuitous. I don't know if Central Market typically has them available, or whether they're only in the store for this special celebration, but my husband happily agreed to get me some as an early Valentine's Day gift. (Actually, the conversation went like this... Me: "James, can I get--" James: "Of course.")

If you look on the Ikove website, it lists the ingredients of the Acai Chocolate shampoo as including "cocoa extract." I like the label on my set a lot better. On my bottle, it says, "theobroma cacao extract." I adore the scientific name for the chocolate tree.

The shampoo is the color of a good, dark honey, but it's actually a lot thinner; more the consistency of agave nectar. Also, there are no sulfates, and the ingredients are "all natural," so the shampoo doesn't lather. ("You Americans love your lather," is something I read in an article recently, and it's so true.) You can smell the chocolate (and maybe even more the orange) in the bottle, but once you put it on your scalp, it doesn't scent your hair.

After a suds-free shampoo and rinse, my hair was squeaky clean and ready to be conditioned.

The conditioner is the color and consistency of coffee yogurt, and it smells more strongly of chocolate than the shampoo... But, again, that's mostly in the bottle. Once you put it on your hair, it doesn't have a strong odor.

The ingredients list is here, even though I think mine is a bit different, but I wanted to point out something that's in the conditioner that isn't in the shampoo: cocoa butter!

If you pay attention to this sort of thing, you might have noticed that a lot of bottom-tier American "chocolate" (i.e. pretty much anything made by Palmer) contains a different fat than cocoa butter. They do this because cocoa butter, having become extremely popular in beauty products, is very expensive, and can actually be profit-maximized by using in personal care items instead of candy. Actually, some bigger companies have done this, too, and no one is very impressed.

The point is, whether we're dealing with eating chocolate or conditioner, the presence of cocoa butter is to be much rejoiced. In the case of conditioner, it locks in moisture and makes hair more manageable. Similar to replacing cocoa butter in chocolate with other oils and fats, a lot of conditioners use waxy ingredients to get that soft, easy-comb-through feel. This is definitely superior. Of course, that means you're going to pay for it.

Regarding "expensive" hair care products: For a long time, I'd buy Suave or whatever was on sale, and I balked at paying more than a buck or two for a bottle of shampoo. Then several years ago, my sweet departed Mema spent something like $35 on a set of Joico shampoo and conditioner for my birthday (she got it from my cousin's place, D Salon, which you should definitely patronize if you're in the Grayson County, Texas, area), and those bottles lasted me more than six months. I was shocked at how little shampoo I had to use, and how far the conditioner went.

So, when you factor it out over time, the cost of the pricier hair care is lower, as you don't have to use as much... Plus, your hair is in better condition, because you're not stripping it and coating it with garbage.

Final analysis: I like how light and clean my hair was after I used the shampoo and conditioner. I did need to use a spray detangler, even with the conditioner, but that is probably more about my damaged hair than the product. It will be interesting over time to see if there is a cumulative effect from using the cocoa butter, and I will definitely update in a few weeks.

This weekend

Although the office where I work doesn't open until 10, my weekdays start at 6:30. I get up early enough to make coffee, start breakfast, and put together lunch for James before I wake him up at 7. Throughout the week, I cook a lot of meals and I love everything that I do for my family. I am blessed to have the life that I have. I've heard that moms don't get time off, even weekends and vacations... but this was one of those wonderful, vacation-feel weekends, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

A warning: This blog post is probably boring to anyone who isn't my mom, my mother-in-law, or me in four years, but I wanted to share my weekend with the three of us so we can all be grateful at how fortunate I am.

Saturday morning, James got up early because his brain had turned on and wouldn't stop, so he fed the cats and I got to sleep in until 9:00. I got up,we all had awesome new cereals I'd bought at Trader Joe's on Friday, and then had a leisurely time getting going.

At a little bit before 11, we went to Central Market for their chocolate festival. There was a Valentine's event for kids (and grown-ups, actually; they had a grown-up card-making table) on the patio, so the actual store wasn't very busy. We walked around and got to sample Vosges bars (I had been curious about the green tea matcha), couverture chocolate, "The Other Macaroon," salted caramel hot chocolate (with marshmallows), two or three other different bars, some date-based sugar-free cocoa macaroon things, etc. Behind the hot chocolate sample table they had some health and beauty items, so I picked up chocolate shampoo and conditioner.

They also had sushi, hummus dips, and some wines, also... but while James enjoyed that, I had only room for chocolate.

After sampling and purchasing a few items, we went next door to Zinger Hardware, which is a fun store to browse, even if you're not planning on buying anything. We did end up getting a few things, but had a good time testing the wind chimes and laughing at some things that people spend money on. James and I had been to Zinger when he first moved into town, but this was Daphne's first trip.

It was almost time for Daphne to go see a friend of hers, so we dropped James back off at home and headed up toward Cedar Park. Although D and I had felt pretty full after the samples, we realized we were hungry for food food, so drove through a Jack in the Box where Daphne got a deli melt and I got their sweet potato fries. It was a gorgeous day, so we sat in the car and ate. I love those opportunities just to hang out and talk to her. When we're home, very often I'm working, or she's doing school, or she's on the computer. So having a good half hour just to listen to her was a treat.

Every other time I drop D off at her friend's, I'm rushing back to work. So Saturday, I went in and visited with her friend's mom for an hour or so. It was nice to catch up.

When I got home, James helped me prepare some stuff to juice, and we made a beautiful carrot grape pear juice. I used about half of it to fill four Popsicle molds we'd bought at Zinger. Then we went out on the front porch and played Scrabble outside, taking advantage of the warmest day in weeks.

By the time we were finishing that up, Daphne was home. I had a pizza shop for dinner, then James and I watched a movie while Daphne role-played with friends online.

Sunday morning, Rudy started bugging me about breakfast at 6:30, so I got up and shut the door so that James could sleep in. I had the computer for the a/v display at church, and needed to get it to the building two hours before service started, so I packed everything up and rode my bike.

It was 46 degrees and very foggy when I left the house. I was wearing a waffle shirt, hoodie, coat, gloves, scarf, ear band, leggings, shorts, shoes, and socks. By the time I got to the church building (AKA Elk's Lodge), the fog was burning off and I'd worked up a sweat... that hill on Dawson is a butt-kicker (for me). And, no, for those of you familiar with the property, I do not try to bike up the driveway. I walk it.

Handed off the computer, and replaced it in the backpack with my coat, scarf, and gloves. I kept the ear band on and occasionally wished I'd kept the gloves, but not enough to stop riding and access my backpack. I'm sort of lazy like that.

By the time I got home, it was sunny, though still pretty chilly, but I wasn't cold at all. Daphne was up, so we chatted for a bit before I took a shower and used the chocolate shampoo and conditioner (review coming on the other blog soon). Since I still had so much time to kill, I pulled all of the hair spray, razors, tooth brushes, facial cleanser, etc. that are on the top shelf of our open-air medicine cabinet, rinsed them all off (we don't use a lot of that stuff, but have nowhere else to store it), and wiped down the shelf. Then I did the middle one, which has my curling irons, hair dryer, etc. And the bottom one, which has my curlers, the spare toilet paper caddy, and my "jewelry" (which I practically never wear). I ended up getting rid of a lot of stuff, and my allergies feel better, if just through the power of suggestion.

I also had time to do one load of laundry and sweep the entire house before we had to go. Then after church, Daphne and I came home to get James and we all went out to lunch at Red's Porch, thanks to a gift certificate Khrys and Mei Li had gotten James for his birthday. It was good, and the restaurant was fun, and it was so much food we all brought home left-overs. We'd started out sitting inside because there was a wait for the patio, but half way through our meal, they opened all of the garage doors and we were outside, too! We got to watch some of the winter Olympics, too.

After lunch, James and I walked to the library as I had a couple of things to pick up... actually, I thought one of my held items had been returned to stock, in which case I would owe the library $1, but I guess because of the "ice" closures, they'd left the pick-ups out past the deadline. It was very warm on our walk, and by the time we got back, I was ready for a nap. I got to lounge for a couple of hours, then we all had left-overs for dinner and did our own things until bedtime.

So, basically, this was the perfect stay-home-and-enjoy-the-weekend.

When I got up this morning at 6:30, I was ready to go. It helped to know that I had a delicious glass of carrot grape pear juice waiting for me in the refrigerator.

Milestone

Today is the day that I would have started my period, if I were having one. The last time I was pregnant, after the first month's skipped period, I started bleeding on this day. I was asymptomatic, pregnancy-wise, and it was not a huge surprise.

This time around, I'm feeling characteristically icky, and I took a two-hour nap today. The third blood test I took indicated that the hgc was up, but progesterone was down. The midwife wanted me to start on progesterone supplements, but before I poured too much energy into that, I wanted to know what we were dealing with. So we went to a radiology clinic and had an ultrasound done.

Huh! Would you look at that? It's a... um... What *is* that?

The tech had told us that he couldn't tell us anything because of "why you're here," but toward the end, he did show us a wee video of "the fetus, and there's its heartbeat." He measured it at 7 weeks, 3 days as opposed to the 8 weeks I was estimated to be from my last you-know-what, but at least we were in the ballpark. It had a pulse of 153.

I went in for a final blood test Thursday, and should have the results Monday. After that, we're not monitoring that whole thing anymore. I'll go into the midwife's as a regular pre-natal client mid/late-February.

And, still, we wait...

Meanwhile, please enjoy this image of the surface of Mars.

Which is apparently in my uterus.

Embarrassment of Riches

For the vast majority of my life, I've been in a socio-economic strata I'd categorize at between low- and low-middle-income. I, like my parents, have learned to be creative with managing expenses and making do with what some people would not feel like was enough. Daphne has gotten used to this and when she was about 4 years old, noticed a house "for sale" and was excited because "we love sales!"

A few weeks ago, Daphne mentioned something about our being poor, and I told her that, really, we're not so much anymore. It's funny that she didn't notice, though, because I guess we're just in the habit of spending prudently.

Honestly, thought... the art supplies she has aren't things I would have bought before. I'm glad that we can help contribute toward her passion and talent. And I say "we" because it's a team effort. James is an awesome husband and the main wage-earner in our household. I am so grateful that he takes care of us, and that he seems to love it. For my part, I do the budgeting and the bookkeeping. Although we live in a place where we could eat out every day, somewhere totally different, I cook dinner at home at least six nights a week. I make our lunches every day. And breakfasts.

We sometimes indulge and buy things we don't strictly "need," like the speakers we purchased online last week so that we don't have to strain to hear programs we watch together. We watch everything on the laptop because we don't have a television.

But what makes me laugh is this: I always thought that I wish I had enough money to dress nicely. At this point in our lives, I could buy the clothes that I want, without paying too much attention to sales or thrift stores. However, two things hold me back: First are deeply-ingrained beliefs that articles of clothing like shirts shouldn't cost more than $20 unless they are super fancy, with a bunch of sparkly things or multiple layers or gold bars in the pockets. Second is a deep hatred of shopping in general.

I need new shoes. Like, I legitimately need new shoes. My black "dress" shoes are clogs that look like Pilgrim shoes. They don't stay on my feet when I walk up stairs unless I clinch my toes and take my time. They are scuffed and falling apart at every seam that they have. I should go buy a replacement pair of shoes. But I can't. Why? The thought of going to a store and trying on shoes is completely repellent to me. There are so many things I'd rather do, like writing this blog post about how much I hate shopping.

Same thing with clothes. I don't know what my "style" is. I know that I can layer things and they look okay, but I don't have an intuition about separate pieces and what to buy to put together, and I don't like fussing too much about what I wear. I admire people who have whole outfits, complete with jewelry and belts and all of that, but the whole ordeal is exhausting to me.

What happens is that I end up buying things online and they either don't fit right (because I usually buy from Asia because their stuff is so cheap, but it's a crap shoot what size actually means) or they don't look right on my body, which is something that I would know if I'd tried an item on at a store. In a fitting room. The very thought causes me to tear out my hair.

I guess what I'm saying is that I need a personal shopper. Except that I also have a philosophical break against paying someone to do something that I'm completely capable of doing myself and have no excuse not to do.

Meanwhile, James is in his office right now on a Skype call, having put in over 100 hours of work since last weekend. I want to honor him by stewarding that for which he works so hard. We are truly blessed.

Lunch Date

This afternoon, James and I went to Souper! Salad! because I was craving a giant plate full of greens with all kinds of things that I didn't want to go to the store and buy (oh, and some other stuff and then a bowl full of strawberry shortcake topped with ice cream, chocolate syrup, and crushed Oreos. Of course.). While we were sitting there, I remarked that as of this time next week, we'll have been married ten months.

Then I realized this: If we had had the baby with which I became pregnant in April, we'd have a newborn right now. I can't imagine. As disappointed I was in the moment not to have a viable pregnancy, I have so enjoyed this first year of getting to know my husband. Being married to James has been such a blessing, even more than I could have imagined when I said "Yes." (Sort of. He didn't really "ask," per se.) I love him, and I love our little family. <3

S'posedta Be

I thought that I was supposed to be an astronaut, then I found out that candidates (at the time) had to have 20/20 vision, and I didn't.

I thought that I was supposed to fit in in high school by being on the drill team, but my parents didn't let me audition.

I thought that I was supposed to be one of "those girls" from Arkansas who got married at a young age, but the guy who'd asked me turned out to be gay.

I thought that I was supposed to be an actress, but realized before my final year of college that I did not have the drive to do the things my classmates did just to secure auditions. I knew that I had marginal talent that it would have taken superior drive to make work, and I did not have that in me.

I thought that I was supposed to adopt, but I was too young and immature even to manage a marriage, much less a baby.

Later, I thought that I wasn't ever supposed to have kids at all, but then Daphne came along.

I thought that I was supposed to change the lives of six at-risk young men by being a house parent at Boys' and Girls' Town, but it turns out that bonding with a group of very angry teenagers whilst trying to bond with a two-month-old baby is not something I was equipped to do simultaneously.

I thought that I was supposed to change people's lives through my story-telling, but those opportunities went away with the passing of my marriage.

I thought that I was supposed to be a stay-home wife and homeschool mom, then I was single and I had to get a job.

I thought that I was supposed to be a single mom with a gym rat kid, living a bohemian life in a recreational vehicle, and then James and I reconnected.

In my life, I have had access to incredible opportunities. I've squandered a lot of them, but I've taken advantage of a lot of them, too. I've messed up, I've given up too soon, I've stomped my feet and been a brat, I've hurt people. But I've also helped people, I've fought when others told me to bolt, I have stood in the shadows, watching smiles that I know were because of something that I did, and have taken quiet pleasure in that.

For all of the time I spent obsessing over what I was supposed to be, I sometimes lost sight of what I was in that moment. Today, I am a wife, and a mother, and a homeschool facilitator, and a lover of adventure. But if everything changes tomorrow, I'll still be exactly what I'm "supposed" to be. And that is enough.