Thursday, May 10, 2012

Natural, Orange, Brown, Black, Red, Purple, Blonde, and even Blue

My hair has been every color. I'm not joking either. My very first experience with hair coloring was in seventh grade. My mom got us temporary blue hair spray and we put it in our hair and went downtown. Let's just say that I was hooked from that point. My natural color is sort of a mousy brown color (it's not attractive) and I am not a big fan of it. So in eigth grade, my mom decided she would let me get blonde highlights. Unfortunately, she did it and it did not turn out the way either of us had imagined. Here's one picture I have recovered from this incident:


During freshman year, I had longer hair and I dyed it a dark brown with bright red streaks in it. Unfortunately, I cannot recover the picture I used to have from that era. In tenth grade, I went all weird and tried to be emo. With that, I decided to dye the top of my hair reddish brown and the bottom layer black. Here's a sample of how that turned out:


I'm sure in between those two stages there were other colors (I know one time I asked for red at the salon but it came out a purple-burgundy color), but honestly, things have just blurred together. So I had that interesting duo. Then during my junior year I got a job at a hair salon and I went blonde. This was one of the worst decisions I ever made (even though I would eventually make the same decision again three years later). Here's a picture of that stage (I'm the one on the left):


Unfortunately, that ended up turning a gross yellow color, then it had rather a greenish hue, and then it started turning grey. And my hair was getting pretty dry and straw-like (I later learned one kid called it my "mane") and I finally dyed it a different color. Again, I am not sure which color was next, but probably some kind of brown or red. At the end of my junior year, I made another horrible mistake. I had done some modeling (some for money, some competitions, etc) and I got a call about doing a hair show. This seemed like a fantastic idea (little did I know) because I was going to make $200 for them to cut and color my hair. After the guy showed me a semi-radical but promising style that they wanted to try out on me and he and my dad did some persuading, I agreed to let them do it. But let me tell you, it was AWFUL! It ended up quite different than they had explained to me. I can't really explain it, but here is a picture:


Essentially, black hair with red tips and red streaks in my bowl-cut bangs. It was so bad. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD. The result of this was that I had to cut my hair pretty much entirely off. As so:


I don't remember if we immediately dyed it back to a normal color or if I waited for a while, but needless to say, it was a terrible decision. I know that the color when I dyed it back looked like this:


It was a pretty color, but the shortness of my hair took away from that. Anyway, as it began to grow back out over the course of senior year, it stayed that color (I think) until I dyed it burgundy red for graduation. This was not so great because it was pretty much the exact same color as my cap and gown:


A few months after graduation, I dyed it a better red and colored the underneath part of my bangs blonde. These colors were accompanied by some extensions that I loved:


Then once the extensions came out, I kept the colors for quite a while. After that, my friend and I pretty much exceeded the amount of times you can dye your hair over the next year. Mostly, it was black, dark brown, or red, but we also would occassionally put pink or purple strips in the back:


Then in the fall of '08 I went off to BYU. The sudden independence prompted me to dye my hair blonde again. Apparently, I hadn't learned my lesson yet (I have now, I promise!). It was fun and lasted longer than the first blonde stint:


After this, I dyed it back to brown, and have remained pretty conservative ever since. It definitely has still changed colors, but for the most part, I haven't done anything crazy.


When I met Dan in the summer of '09, my hair was that black color above. That was probably the last time I was crazy about my hair. Since then, I've been either a dark red or a brownish color. Until yesterday, the last time I dyed my hair was last July. I had about six inches or so of outgrowth of the aforementioned ugly mousy brown color, and the rest was orangey/brown/red. It was the longest I have had it in a very long time, but it was also incredibly scraggly and unhealthy. So yesterday I got it done again! And I love it. Here are before and after pictures:


As you can see, it is a dramatic improvement. I cut five inches off and dyed it dark brown with red highlights/lowlights. And after all of my crazy experiments with coloring my hair, I think I have officially settled on my favorite.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Our Little Idaho Trip

Last weekend Dan and I went up to Idaho to spend time with his family and to go to his mom's graduation from pharmacy school (yay Kim!). I had a REALLY good time. I was actually quite sad to go back home, just because I love his family so much. On Thursday we got to go to a banquet specifically for the pharmacy school and we were able to eat yummy food and celebrate all the pharmacy students' hard work. Then on Friday morning we went to Pocatello again to go to the actual graduation. It was for the entire Idaho State University graduating class, so we left a bit early. But it was great to be able to go and support Kim (and her brother, who also graduated from ISU). Here is a cute picture:


After, we went to Carino's to celebrate and I was classy and got a picture after I had just taken a bite of delicious bread. Dan looks super cute though!


On Sunday we went to a big family party to celebrate all four of our graduations (but mostly Kim's and her brother's). It was really, really fun. We got to play with all the cute kids, drink Grandma's delicious special drink, and have fun with each other. It was a really good day and I was sad when we all had to go home.

Then on Monday, Dan's dad took him, his two brothers, and me golfing. Not mini-golfing, but real golfing. I drove the cart (which I very much enjoyed) and they all played golf. It was fun to be able to go do something like that since Dan and I never do thinks like that.


That evening, Dan's little brother had a baseball game. Their Little League team is the Rockies, so I very much approved going and supporting them (it may have been slightly different if they had been the Diamondbacks or Giants). He was super good! They lost by one but it was fun to go and see him play in a real game.
(For some reason, I couldn't get this right-side up.)
Anyway, I was sad to come back home because we had a really good time. I love Dan's family and I am very grateful to be a part of it now. I've never had an extended family like his that spends time together and it's been really great to feel what that is like. We're definitely going to be continuing the tradition :)

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Graduation, Anniversary, a Cruise, and Moving

Well a lot of big gigantic things have happened in the past two weeks that I have failed to mention.

First, Dan and I graduated from BYU! I officially have a Bachelor of Science in Family Life with an emphasis in Family Studies, and a minor in Anthropology. Dan graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science.  Both of our families came out to Provo to watch us walk and it was really, really great. I cried from happy tears. And I make a pretty ugly face when I am trying to fight back tears, so it was good that there were no cameras around during the times I was unable to control the flow. Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures from graduation:

The classic picture in front of the BYU sign.

Walking across the stage.

Officially graduated!

My parents and sister.

Dan's grandparents, parents, brothers, and aunt.

My high school graduation in 2007 and college graduation in 2012.
 Second, we shared our second anniversary. To celebrate, we went on a cruise! It was a shorter cruise and it left from California, but it was super fun. Dan and I decided it was both a graduation and anniversary present to us, and we made it a lot of fun. We didn't have the best weather on the trip and we only laid out in the sun one day, but it was still a great trip. The ship stopped in Catalina and Ensenada. Catalina was super pretty and just a fun, cute little island. Ensenada was just Mexico. We went to a little beach resort and it would've been nice except it was cold and very windy. We did get a delicious authentic meal, though! And we met a ton of super nice people on the cruise, which was really cool. It was a great trip, even if we did have to drive all the way to Long Beach! Here are a few pictures:


On our way to California we stopped in Vegas and visited the Pawn Stars shop!

We stopped at the beach for like five minutes. I couldn't resist getting a picture of my cute husband.

Again, couldn't resist. He looked so cozy!

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Catalina.

We did a glass bottom boat ride. Those orange fish are illegal to catch. They are the state fish of California.

Thank you Katherine for telling us to go here. DELICIOUS taffy and ice cream!

We rented beach cruiser bikes and rode around the island a bit.

Eating delicious ice cream on the beach.

We played mini golf on the ship. We both one once.

Fun but cold!

"Cruise elegant" night.

I can't even explain how huge this flag was.

SUPER windy in Ensenada!
 We drove all the way home from our cruise on Friday and then finished packing and cleaning our apartment on Saturday. After church on Sunday, we went for a little walk around campus. We went to the room in the JSB where we first met and then drove to a few other places that were important to us in Provo. We went to where we had our first kiss, our first date, our first apartment. It was so sweet :) On Monday morning, we officially moved from Provo! It was a long drive, but we are now in Colorado for two months. We will be living here with my parents until Dan's family reunion in July and then moving to Des Moines, Iowa for medical school! Yes, we finally decided what school to go to three weeks ago. It was a long road to get accepted and finally decided about medical school, but I think we made the right decision and I am very excited to be moving on in our lives.

Also, I am going to try super hard to blog more about what we are doing because I have lots of time to do it now. Yay!

Oh and look what we found in the backyard today!!!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Last Day of School...Ever

Today was my very last day of school ever. I only had one class to go to, and it was just a midterm review, so not bad. On my way to class I saw Brother Johnson, one of the religion professors on campus. I had him for both halves of Book of Mormon and then I decided to take the second half of New Testament from him, too. That's the class that I met Dan in! So when I saw him and realized that that was probably the last time I'd ever see him, I got a little teary. I've really enjoyed my time here at BYU. It's been a great school and I can't believe I am done. I just have one final to take on Saturday and then graduation next week and I'm done! FOREVER! No more school or class for me ever. Crazy.

On Monday we went up into Provo Canyon to go have a bonfire with our friends. We had hotdogs (not me!) and s'mores and it was super fun. Almost all of our friends came and we just had fun spending some of our last time with our friends.

Isn't my husband so cute!?

Dan started gathering things for the fire.



Dan and Taylor. Taylor sang him a goodbye song.


Morgan, Bill, Logan, Becca, Jake, Dan, and me! Yay!

Josh, Logan, Dan, and Andrew.

We leave Provo in less than three weeks. Wish us luck!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Goodbye, Scoot.

Today we said goodbye to an old friend. I knew the day would come where we'd have to sell Dan's scooter, but I didn't think it would come so soon. Dan picked me up on our first date on the scooter, we went for long drives in West Provo on the scooter, and we traveled around town at all hours of the day and night on the scooter. I know it's silly, but the scooter has grown to have a special place in my little heart. We never again will get to join in scooter gangs and drive around Provo late at night on the 4th of July, honking our horn and waving at kids camping on the sidewalk. We never again will get to just go for a drive and feel the wind in our hair and smell the smells of Provo. I know it makes sense to sell the scooter because we can't have it when we move, but it still breaks my heart to see it go.


The Scoot in all it's glory.
 

Dan is sad to see it go.


I am also very sad to see it go. 
 

We enjoyed "The Last Ride of the Scoot" on Wednesday.


Goodbye Scoot. Thank you for all the fun memories. Maybe one day we can get another scooter just like you.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Displaced.

Remember the fire we had at our apartment complex in November? Well last week, Dan told me that he had some bad news related to the fire. He then proceeded to tell me that we had to move out of our apartment. After a few seconds, he added "for a few days." It looks like the fire caused some damage to the walls or something in our bathroom, so we had to move out for a few days so they could redo the drywall in our bathroom. Crazy right? Lucky for us, the apartment below us is vacant and our manager is letting us live down here while they fix it. It's super weird because it's like our apartment, but with nicer carpet and no furniture. Sort of like living in an eerie hotel.

Last night Dan and I went upstairs because we forgot to bring down a few things that we needed. We were alarmed at how eerie our apartment looked.


This is our living room. They taped up walls of plastic so we just have a weird aisle through it.


Our bedroom. Yup, that's the toilet.


And finally, our bathroom. Creepy right?

I guess the moral of the story is that if you ever have someone steal a truck, burgularize a bunch of places, park the truck in your parking garage, and light it on fire, be prepared to have to temporarily move into an apartment that looks exactly like yours but without furniture for a week.