Giving Back

I can tell that I am definitely getting older when I stop making a Christmas list of things I want and start thinking of things I can give instead. This year I feel very strongly lead to give and help those in need. With all that is going on with our economy and country, it lets you know that nothing is certain and people end up in bad situations no matter who they are.

Last year, I met a fascinating and self-less woman(I wish I could remeber her name) at Amelia Island Plantation. She was one of the organizers for Samaritan's Purse(International Relief) and she told me all about it and I knew that I wanted to get involved. Specifically, Operation Christmas Child interested me. You pack a shoe box for children in war-torn countries or natural disasters, or just in unfortunate situations.
They recieve it as their Christmas present, and this is usually something they look forward to because they are not used to getting toys. You can include your picture and a letter to them, so they may be able to write back to you. Whether they do or not, its very rewarding knowing that a child is enjoying something you did for them and that you made them happy.



To find out more information on Samaritan's Purse, go to www.samaritanspurse.org. :)

Countdown to Disney World!

So we leave in 3 days for our trip to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! I cant wait because I plan to take a lot of pictures this time. Well, I did take a lot the last time too, but if youve read my other posts then you know that I deleted them all on my memory card during reformatting. Dont remind me!

I do need some tips on shooting good parade pictures. I have a Canon Powershot S5 iS and have not really had the opportunity to take good parade pictures with it. Ive tried using the nightime setting, since the parades take place past 6 pm, but it doesnt have the quality I want. I guess I will have to play around with it. Any tips, send them my way, please!

Until Monday... Then I should have pics up!

Review of Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort

This is my personal experience from our visit to Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort in August '08. We arrived on a Sunday and stayed through Tuesday for a weekend getaway. Our trip also included a visit to The Magic Kingdom. The main pool was closed for renovations during this time.

Guestrooms

We checked in early at the main house at about 12:00 and were able to get our room since it was available. Our room was located in the "Aruba" section of the resort. It was very quiet and empty when we arrived, due to school being back in session. (Perfect time to go, by the way!) The little villages were cute and colorful in pastel colors. Our room was near the lake and not too far from the pool in Aruba. The rooms are your average size hotel room with two double beds, a shower/bath combo and a sink/vanity area.

If you stay in Aruba, you have a little bit of a walk to get to the restaurants and Main pool area. We didn't mind this because it was a nice, scenic walk by the lake and through the gardens. If walking or convenience is an issue though, I would stay at a Preferred location.

Transportation

Every village has its own bus station for catching your ride to the parks. We never waited longer than 10 minutes each time we rode. The bus stop was very close to our room, just a short walk across the parking lot. You have to wait on your specific bus to arrive for wherever you are going, including Downtown Disney.

Overall, its very easy getting around Disney World with their system. The buses run often and hold a lot of people per bus. They are also wheelchair accessible.

Resort Activities

We enjoyed the pool in Aruba since the main pool was closed for remodel. It was large enough that people were not right on top of you, but the pools that are in the villages are just your basic pool, nothing fancy. The pool area had patio tables and lounge chairs. Across from our pool was a "beach" with sand and hammocks overlooking the lake.

You can also rent boats at the main area near the restaurants, which I do not recommend. We have rented them before at Downtown Disney, which allows you to go further and actually see things. The ones at Caribbean Beach Resort will only allow you to go around the lake and then under the main bridge to the other side of the lake. We got tired of it after about 10 minutes and returned back to the dock. I believe it was about $45.00 for 30 minutes, but I am not sure on the price. So, I would recommend renting a boat at DD if you want to take a boat ride, you will have a much better view and be able to go more places for the same price.

The main pool was being renovated during our stay, but it sounds like it is very nice!

There was a family movie night in the garden area. The movie is shown on a big screen in the gardens, with beach chairs by the lake.

There is also live entertainment at the main area, near the shoppes and food court. There are patio tables setup around so you can sit and enjoy the music or have a drink at the outdoor bar area.

Restaurants

We ate at the food court for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have a "market" style setup with several different choices of food types. We had burgers at one of the quick service's and they were the same as you would find in the parks. Overall, good choices for everyone in your family.

We purchased a souvenir thermos to use for the weekend at the resort, which allows you to have free refills anytime you want. You pay around $14.00 for the cup, but its worth it.

Shutters is the only table services restaurant here at the resort. The atmosphere of the restaurant is a little loud and not so "beachy". Its casual, and a little noisy and crowded. Wouldn't recommend for a romantic evening for a couple. We did have a nice view from our table, which faced the lakeside.

I ordered a seafood pasta dish, which was surprisingly good. My husband loved the steak he ordered, too. The prices were decent, average prices for a sit down place. Our waiter was very attentive to our needs and made sure we were happy with the food. A very good Cast Member. :)

Overall Experience

We both had a great time here, and unless you are looking for the real Caribbean, I would suggest it for a family getaway or a romantic weekend. It will not make you feel like you are in the Caribbean, there are just touches of "the islands". It offered us a relaxing weekend, and like most things with the Disney resort, it lived up to the service and quality that its known for. We will definitely go back in the future.

If you would like to ask me any questions about this resort, please email me here.

An Unexpected Surprise!

I am so excited right now because me and Justin just booked our trip to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at MK. Of all the times I have been to Disney, I have never been to this. Im looking forward to walking down Main Street with the snow flurries falling and Christmas lights all over my Castle, err, I mean Cinderella's Castle. Well, for now.

Have you ever been?

I thought that we wouldnt be going back until next year for my birthday. So, this is really exciting! I was kinda having a little depression/withdrawls knowing thats so far away. The weather should be nice and crisp too, it gets pretty miserable in the hot, hot, summer days here. So I am ready for the cold weather.

For my birthday in April, I am going to take the "Keys to the Kingdom" Behind the scenes tour at Disney World. I have been researching it and it seems to be pretty cool. I want to see the Tunnels. I remember the first time I found out that The Magic Kingdom was the 2nd story..I was blown away! I couldnt believe there was actually an underground world, haha! I look forward to that.

Mickey Mouse Runs His Own Newspaper

I just won this book on eBay and I cant wait to get it! It was published in 1937 by Walt Disney, of course. The book is really big, which probably has a series of stories inside.

Happy Mickeyween!

It's that time of the year again... Pumpkin carving! And of course, cupcakes. But, this year I made my pumpkin extra special and turned it into a Mickey Mouse carving. It's definetely not the best, seeing as how my attention span is that of a 5 year old.
Nonetheless, I love how it turned out. Im saving my REALLY big pumpkin for next week, because I dont want it to rot and die before Halloween.
I have never been a big fan of Halloween, but I am all about decorating my house and baking up something sweet and chocolatey. So, I love most holidays just for those reasons. I am thinking about doing Thanksgiving at our house since I wont be doing Christmas here this year.
Anyways, I will post a picture on flickr later of my carved pumpkin! Go check him out!

All I have is memories.

I am back from my Animal Kingdom trip with my family. It was awesome! This was the 20th Anniversary of my grandparents going back to Disney with me. I was 5 when we went last and they are now in their 80's, so this was a very special trip.
So, I should be posting pictures, right? No. Because I got stupid at the theme park and deleted them all by reformatting the memory card!(I had no idea what formatting meant when I did it!) Excellent. I erased everything on my memory card, including the awesome footage from my grandpa on the Safari and the footage of elephants bathing themselves in mud- right next to our vehicle. I was sad at first, then I decided to just take more pictures to make up for it before leaving the park.
When we got back home, I was looking for the (erased)pictures, hoping that they were not gone but just moved. So, I started messing with it again and realized that the formatting had erased them because I erased the other ones too. OMG. After crying and boo-hooing, I remembered that I had the Disney PhotoPass and we used it quite a bit, so I do have those, which have to be ordered from their website. Its pricey...but I will have nothing to show from this trip if I dont buy them. Disney saved the day! :)
Until then,

Leila's Day Out: Part II

Seeing as how Sunday was such a hoot going to the park, I decided today we would go to the beach. My mom and I picked up lunch and headed to the park to eat with Leila. Within the first five minutes Leila was covered in sand spurs. If you don't know what these are, think of a little tiny ball covered in spikes. They are real fun to get stuck in your foot or, paw. Poor thing was limping, so I had to do emergency spur removal and everything was back to normal. We had to leave the park, due to the amount of sand spurs on the ground.

After lunch, we made our way over to the beach. Leila jumped out of the car enthusiastically, Im not sure what she was expecting. I guess dog's do not have very good memories or she would have run the other way when she remembered getting tangled in seaweed or trying to dig a hole to escape the heat.

We walked down the boardwalk to the beach to find that noone was there. It was nice in a way... But then there was Leila. I forgot that she is a 2 year old child in a dogs body. She did not want to walk, so she would jump up on my leg and nip my jeans to let me know that walking is just unacceptable. Feeling sorry for her, I decided to carry my 22 pound doggie back to the car and our day was cut short due to Mrs. No-Fun Doggie.

Leila needs an intervention soon. She is a floor potato and gets winded when she runs. Are there any good doggie exercises for indoors?

Leila's Day Out

I own this adorable creature named Leila, she happens to be a dog. On Sunday, Justin and I took her to Hannah Park to let her frolic, but she would rather lye and do nothing. She also like to fling dirt with her little paws, right into my eyes while I try to nap. As you can tell from the picture above, she made quite a mess(Thats dirt around her mouth!). Even though we didn't really frolic or chase any squirrels, we still had a relaxing trip and we need to do it more often.

This is Hannah Park, we were underneath a canopy of trees. Across this field, there is a lake that has alligators in it, seriously. I wanted to go frolic in this nice green grass, but I had no one to frolic with. Leila doesnt frolic.


Leila was exhausted from lying around all day and digging holes in the ground. It must be hard being a dog, so much responsibility.

On the ride home, she rested some more in the back seat. This was too much for her, we will have to work our way up from lying on the ground digging holes to actually moving and chasing things, or fetching.

Stacy @ the zoo

Welcome Fall!

The good...

I am so glad that fall is here! I'm ready for cool weather, decorating the house, the smell of a pumpkin candle... the holidays! I haven't written in a while because I have been really busy with making the salon website and papa was in the hospital this week.

The bad...

Not to mention, this week was terrible. I spent all day yesterday with a permanent frown on my face. Sometimes I feel that the more you do for someone, the more they want, and the worse you get treated. I am not going into details here, and its also something I want to get OVER, not keep dwelling on. 

I wont let this keep happening though, I do have a limit too on how much crap I will put up with. Everyone has something that they could be sad about, or angry about if they wanted to, but most people know how to control their tempers and not let it get in the way of life. It is making my life harder for no reason at all. 

This past week I already had to deal with my grandpa being hospitalized, so you would think I would have been treated a little better than usual. Anyways, Im over it.  There is nothing that can be done just by talking about it, except make me feel a little better. 

Happiness is a cupcake.

I had my nieces over to bake cupcakes with me Monday afternoon. Here are some pics:
Three of the little baker's: Ryan, Natalie and Madison. (Looks like they are up to something..)
I let go of my "clean freak" side and let them make a big mess on my kitchen table. Of course I put down a paper tablecloth first.

New layout

I am in search of a new, fresh layout, so in the mean time...you have to look at this loverly purple-pink layout. Sowwwy.

Getting Certified!

Some good news! As you can tell by the over-use of the exclamation points, I am excited! Okay, so the salon staff has decided to change to Pravana products, which makes me happy for some reason. Maybe because it will be more challenging, or because Pravana is modern and I want to be a part of that.



Either way, its great news, because our salon will stand out among the others in the area. This week I have branched out and tried new things with haircolor. New foil technique, new "paper" foils and trying a new brand. I am ready for some changes. Along with getting new color in the salon, I am getting certified as a "Pravana Certified Haircolorist", which is kinda cool and necessary if you want to be taken seriously. I am done with Module 1, only 3 more to go.



I am also in the process of making the salon's website. It's gonna be pretty cool, to reflect us, of course! Ha! But really, its something I have been meaning to do for the last, umm, 7 months. Its taken me a while to get around to it, I guess you could say.



Next on my list of "revamping" my career would be to take some more Advanced training classes. I guess the 8 months of hell I went through with the Redken training just wasnt enough. I love learning new things, and I decided not to attend the Premiere show this year. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I regret it. I missed the Pink party at the Hard Rock. I especially missed rubbing shoulders with Robert Cromeans. :(



In other news, a tropical storm is coming tommorrow. Im sure youve heard, her name is Fay and she is not a happy tropical storm at the moment. She keeps pouring buckets of rain on our heads and she will not leave. She has shut down schools, city offices and put everyone into "psycho" mode. We will all be okay, unless you are a gremlin and melt when wet, we will all be okay. Kthxbai.

The Unknown

I remember when I first got into this industry how scared to death I was everyday that I had to work. I would wake up and think, "Oh crap, I hope I dont have any perms on my book today." Well, with that one, I still feel the same way. But I think I figured out why I tend to get nervous before going into work sometimes. I think it has a lot to do with not knowing what is in store for me that day, I could have 3 clients or 10 on the book. I'm not the type of person who likes surprises, especially when it has to do with work. A diamond ring?! Sure! Thats a nice surprise..

I have only been doing hair for 2 years now, and I am still learning to be comfortable with certain things. Like being more in charge of my clients and not letting them tell me how to do my job. I try to be more assertive and confident and at the same time, Im thinking, what am I doing here? I could be comfortably sitting behind my laptop, safe and secure, designing websites or working at an office. I am definetely not always in my comfort zone at work. Even my high heels have gradually gotten lower due to my job.

People underestimate the amount of courage it takes to do hair. Coming from a girl who was VERY shy growing up, I would have never even considered doing hair. I was going to be a webdesigner, but I thought there would be no money in that! Ha! Looks like 15 year olds don't know much after all...

This has all come about this weekend, when I have caught myself worrying about a client that is on my book. She made it very clear Saturday when I cut her hair that her former stylist was a superhero. That is sort of a big role to fill. She said she did enjoy me very much, and booked an appointment for tommorow to come back and have her highlights done. I just dont like it when I am being compared to someone else. This business is a very personal business and I put my heart into every single person's hair I do.

I guess it just comes down to me getting over what other people think. I've never(knock on wood) messed up anyones hair and I have heard some horror stories..believe me. I am just in this insecure funk, that has got to go.

Anytime now.

It can leave.

Get away funk.

(PS. This is my mom's hair today after I used her as a model. Highlights and lowlights and texturized cut.)

Tropical Storm Fay...

might be visiting Jacksonville this Wednesday which most likely means I will be sitting at home in the dark, or at work in the dark. Either way, it means a lot of rain and mess. I remember when me and Justin were dating about 6 years ago, a bad hurricane came through and we were without power for a week. Seriously, a whole week.
I bought everything we may need, but you can only prepare so much without being a little ridiculous. I buy flashlights, water, batteries and non-perishable food. Thats all we really need to survive, I think. Wish us luck!

Happy 81st Birthday Papa!

My grandfather is 81 years old today! He is the apple of my eye, and I have been the apple of his since I was a little girl. 2 years ago, he suffered a severe stoke, so we are so happy that he is here with us and able to celebrate his birthday.

I would write more, but my nose is swollen and my head hurts, so Im doing good to be doing this right now. Will explain. Later. :)

I want to have my cake and eat it too

Lately, I have been secretly stressing out inside this head of mine. I am 25 years old, happily married to a great guy, have a great job, but something is still missing. It's a four letter word that makes some people cringe whenever they hear it, Baby. The funny thing is that 6 months ago if you would have asked if I wanted to have kids I would have responded with, "Not right now!".

I can't grasp juggling a house, work and a husband... and a baby. Women do it everyday, but Im not sure that I would be happy with that. Justin would like me to stay at home and raise our kids, which I am happy about, because my mother was home while we grew up also. It was nice having her there.

So, whats the problem? Well, technically no problem exists at the moment, however, with my growing career it will be a lot to give up. I have established myself quite well in under a year, so in two years worth of building a clientele, I would be doing great! I dont want to feel like I am letting my bosses down or that I mislead them by not telling them that I was planning a family. In fact, whenever I first started working there, I DIDNT want kids, that's how fast life changes.
I can always come back to doing hair, and I would like to have all my children by 30.

I get super-excited when I start thinking of being pregnant. Or when I think about decorating the baby's room, or finding out the sex of the baby. Better yet, taking them to Disney World for the first time and seeing their faces light up. All of these things are what my brain has been stuffed with these last couple of weeks.

People always told me that you "just know" when you want to have kids. I guess thats true after all.

Beach girls...

Mom on the beach.
Originally uploaded by hairgeek

Are what me and my mom have become. I grew up on the beach, but now that I am older I really appreciate its relaxing and therapeutic qualities. Today we planted our matching chairs in the sand, setup our umbrella and then vegged out on all the snacks in our cooler.

Tommorow we are gonna take the surfboard out, singular because I am going to be the only one surfing. I have not surfed in a LONG time, so Im not expecting to do much more than fall and possibly get scraped up from shells on the bottom of the ocean.

I did get a chance to swim with the dolphins today, they were too far out to notice me, unfortunately. But they were there, and thats all that matters. :)

Yucky

Ever since I have stopped excercising I have felt gross. I made my way to the beach this week for the first time since summer started. The good thing about Florida are the beaches and the bad thing about Florida is finding something to wear to go to the beach.
I always put it off and just hope something will magically make it's way to my closet without any effort. It's so bad that the last time I did shop for a swimsuit, it was online and I ordered it without trying it on. If your a stick figure, this method works fine, but it doesn't for me.

I did notice that the people around me didn't look all that much better than myself though. Everyone just needs to lower their standards and we can all feel fabulous again! Anyways, I have to start exercising again for my health anyways so it will work out in the end.

Posted with LifeCast