iPod...

Here is the latest list from putting my iPod on shuffle:

The Four Seasons: Summer - solo violin by Janine Jansen

Send Her An Angel - Jackson Waters

When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer - B.B. King & Eric Clapton (the link is a different version without Eric)

The One - Abney Park

Great Lengths - PFR

A Thousand Miles From Nowhere - Dwight Yoakam

Two Hands - Jars of Clay

Sunrise - Norah Jones

The Motions - Matthew West

This might hurt, it's not safe

But I know that I've gotta make a change

I don't care if I break,

At least I'll be feeling something

'Cause just okay is not enough

Help me fight through the nothingness of life

.

(Chorus)

I don't wanna go through the motions

I don't wanna go one more day

Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,

"What if I had given everything,

Instead of going through the motions?"

.

No regrets, not this time

I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind

Let Your love make me whole

I think I'm finally feeling something

'Cause just okay is not enough

Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

.

Chorus

.

Take me all the way (take me all the way)

Take me all the way ('cause I don't wanna go through the motions)

Take me all the way (I know I'm finally feeling something real)

Take me all the way

.

Repeat Chorus

Red Letters - DC Talk
Lyrics for this song are on the video.

Job Status

I completely forgot to update here about my job situation. I posted it on Facebook, but that doesn't really help those of you that I'm not FB friends with.

I did get the Receptionist / Staff Assistant position that I had applied for. I started doing that fulltime on April 27th, so I didn't have to lose any seniority. It's not my ideal job, due to the almost constant contact with people, but I quite like it otherwise. I'm not a people person at all, but I've been told I fake it very well. :p

I do a lot of different things - forward faxes that come through the faxman email account, reserve cars & meeting rooms for folks, track different paperwork on the kiddos, mail out treatment plans & discharge summaries, send the mail out, tear down files, read all the weeklies (forms that document everything that every kid did that week) & log all family contact on a spreadsheet, make copies, inventory the company polo shirts, and whatever else needs to be done.

I'm still working on getting up in time to get ready & get to work at 8am. I realized that this is the first time I've had a normal 8-5 schedule in 12 years.

Hair, Hair, Wherefore Art Thou Hair...

(Okay, that title's strange, but whatever... )

My hair was at 34 inches, or just barely hip length (when the curl is pulled out - just hanging loose, it looks about waist) the last time I measured, which was around a month ago. I did have a growth spurt followed by a stall (grrr... ) back in December and January. From December 10th through January 27th (-ish), my hair grew 3 inches. Not bad when the average growth is supposed to be half an inch per month. I think the biggest difference was from adding Acidophilis to my daily vitamins. I also take fish oil, vitamin E oil, biotin, and a vitamin B complex for my hair. I also take a calcium, magnesium and zinc pill for my muscle spasms / cramps, but I've heard they help with hair growth, too.

After the spurt, my length only grew about a quarter inch in the next month. I'm trying not to obsess over it and so I'm not measuring very often.

A bun with a scarf twisted through it, held with a rose stick

I have changed some of my care routine a bit. I am trying Chagrin Valley's shampoo bars on my roots. The one I have right now is Honey, Beer & Egg, but I think it's a little too moisturizing for me. It's a sample size, so I don't have that much left. I do have the Carrot Milk & Honey, Chamomile & Citrus, Coconut Milk, Lavender & Spice (I think), Rosemary Mint, and Summer Sunshine to try out as well. I got the sample sizes so they were pretty cheap and they last a surprisingly long time.

I'm also trying to remember to use catnip tea to help prevent split ends. I soaked my hair in it last night, bunned and bagged it and slept on it all night. Be warned, though, if you try this, it will colour grays a pale blonde.

Speaking of grays, I think I found my first one a few weeks ago! It's smack on the top of my head and only about 2 inches long so I couldn't see it very well. It keeps hiding in with the others. I was hoping for a streak of gray around the scar at my hairline over my right eye, but I doubt I'll have such luck. Oh well. That one gray was such a shiny, pretty silver that I think I'll be quite happy when they do start coming in en masse.

Work Update

I keep thinking that I need to post to this blasted thing, but only when I'm driving or in church (way to focus, huh?) or someplace else that is Internet-less. Anyway, on to my little bit of news...

I got a 30-day lay-off notice on April Fool's Day, but alas, it was no joke. I've been in my current position as Clinical Records Clerk for a year now, which makes a total of 5 1/2 years at this company. They're restructuring though, and I knew that it was possibility that my job would be discontinued or upgraded, which is what they ended up doing. It now requires a bachelor's, so that immediately throws me out of the running. I did apply for the Front Desk / Staff Assistant position that I've been helping out with for the past few months. I interviewed for that yesterday and they said they should have a decision in a few days. So, if I happen to pop into your head, please toss up a prayer for me. That would be greatly appreciated. :)

So...

Let's see, what's been happening lately... We had Gavin & Clara the end of last week & the beginning of this week, so there were hobbits underfoot. Mom keeps Julia while Jennalee is at work & that one was not happy that she had to share her Grammie! They did help distract me from what was going on Tuesday, which also happened to be my 30th birthday. The socialist may try to ruin my country, but he wasn't going to crap all over my birthday too!

I've been spending waaay too much time playing Travian & reading. Yes, I'm a Twilight fan. *sigh* I picked up the first book out of morbid curiosity, but ended up liking it, so now I have the whole series. And yes, they did screw up the movie.

I'm getting caught up on reading other people's blogs, so I keep getting sidetracked from writing this little post. And Crumpet keeps getting in my face with the purring & trying to steal chenille sticks...

Music

I know - I've been a bad, bad blogger. Friends have taken me to task over it, saying I should provide them *cough*LaShay*cough* with something to read.

Here's a list of some recent songs that have popped up on my iPod whilst on shuffle. I'm linking to videos for the ones I could find.

Stand in the Rain by Superchick (a Firefly fanvid, but it has the song. And Firefly. Is it sad that I can tell you what episode every clip is from?)

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) by Chris Tomlin

Mo Ghile Mear by Celtic Woman

Supermassive Black Hole by Muse

455 Rocket by Kathy Mattea

Center of Attention by Jackson Waters

Worlds Apart by Jars of Clay

Harry's Game by Celtic Woman (the audio is off from the video on this one...)

Revelation Song

Washed by the Water by Needtobreathe

Spanish Lady by Celtic Woman

~~~~~
Yeah, I'm on a big celtic kick and have been since last August. The other ladies in the office could tell you...

Judgement House 2008 - Makeup Room

I was in the makeup room again this year & made up the tortured guys. Torturing people is apparently my specialty.

This is Joe, one of the guys I made up every night. I loved doing the slash across his face. All of the blood was done with a medium called "Fresh Scab". Quite fun to play with...

Joel was once again a demon, but this year he was Damien, a higher demon & apparently Satan's right-claw man. No collodion this year - just latex, fresh scab & the creams. Jennalee made up the Damiens, so this was her handiwork.

After completing Joe & Dylan, I would get my own makeup on. Mom said the dark around my eyes was very effective so I got to go with the raccoon look. My hair is nasty due to the shea butter & then mussing it up. It got a lot ickier as the night went on, with Fresh Scab & sweat added to the mixture. Lovely, huh...

My clawed face. I gave up putting anything other creams on my neck since it didn't last very long anyway. The first weekend I put the special effects gel on that I used on Joe & Dylan but I broke out in hives, so I was apparently allergic to something in there. The hives finally completely disappeared a week or so ago. Yay for Benadryl & hydrocortisone creams & sprays!

The Mothership - The Queen of Makeup. She made up the Satans every night.

Some videos from the makeup room. First up is James getting Damien-ized by Jennalee & then Ryan getting Satan-ized by Mom.



We had lots of fun in makeup, just in case y'all can't tell... ;) SUPER SATAN!

Judgement House 2008 - Hell

Our church just finished this year's production of Judgement House. We did the Web of Lies script this year & I was once again on the makeup team & played a tortured person in Hell.

First up, a video of our Hell scene...



The sobbing you hear - that's me. Which is why I'm still trying to get my voice back after 7 nights of constant sobbing & screaming. My hair is still recovering too. It would get fake blood matted in it, as well as sweat 'cause Hell is hot, ya' know. The first Saturday, we had some longer breaks between groups & left the heater running so it was 140 degrees in there for a while. We toned it down after that & kept it between 110 & 120. So the heat didn't help my hair either, but I started slathering it with shea butter before I went in & that would soak in & keep it from getting all crunchy.

And now for some pictures...

One of our Satans on his throne. He brought in a katana for the last night so we played around with that a bit. He also had these freaky contacts that made his eyes all white except for the pupils.


My little jail cell. It would get stinkin' hot in there. Some of the guys who were right in front of the heater said it was hotter in the jail cell than anywhere else. At least we had cushions to sit on.


Richard at the controls. He ran the tech for us again. I'll have a video up in another post where one of the Satans & Richard are playing with the voice changer.

After every group left, we'd gather up & pray for them as they went to the Heaven scene. Doing that had such an impact on the whole atmosphere. Tempers were calmed, as some characters have a tendency to get roughed up a little as they're being dragged out. Even though it was completely accidental, folks would sometimes get upset. There was also a lot of spiritual warfare going on. People were losing their voices, getting hurt, emotions going crazy for no apparent reason. The prayer helped so much, the change was unbelievable. I know it helped me, as my fibromyalgia should've acted up & I shouldn't have been able to walk without my cane. But I didn't even have any major pain until partway through the last night.

Our fearless leader. David is awesome! He had a lot of stuff going on - people calling to complain that Hell was too hot, too violent, too smelly, too loud, too whatever. C'mon folks, it's Hell. It ain't gonna be a picnic. In the real Hell, the demons aren't going to be giving everyone a tufted cushion to sit on, checking to make sure the temperature is to your liking or giving you a massage.

Performing Monkey Numero Uno

I now have my first ever performing monkey. (Confused? Read the little blurb under my profile pic at the top... Got it? Good.) There is a sad little man (?) who apparently feels he needs to display his lack of intelligence & good manners, and on my little corner of the intertubes, no less. Therefore, I have turned comment moderation on to keep him from dragging my comment sections into the sewer system with him. I apologize for any inconvenience to my friends & readers.

Note to my widdle monkey - feel free to leave all the nasty little bits of poo you wish, just know that they will be rejected. And if you think to offend me, think again. I work with teenagers. Teenagers with behavioural problems. I've heard it all, so you don't bother me. Now, if you don't mind -well, actually whether you do or not - I'm off to more important things than you, like picking lint from between my toes. Ta.

Oh yes, I'd like to request a trapeze act next, please.

And to my brothers & Dad - I know you will want to give this little booger a piece of your minds, but anything exceedingly inflammatory will also be rejected. I love you too. :)

My Hair Obsession

So, I got my pretty little hair sword last week. The more I see & use it, the more I love it! Ain't it purdy? The other one is a rose hair stick from longhairgirl.com. I love these things - they hold so well with less hair damage than elastics or metal barrettes. Plus, when your hair is up, the ends are protected & therefore get fewer splits.

I'm loving the condition my hair is in since I've changed the way I care for it now that I've discovered the Long Hair Community. See that shine! (I am so freakin' thrilled!) Even if you're not looking to grow long hair, your hair can benefit from the care tips you can glean there.
I thought I just had Chronic Big Hair Syndrome(CBHS). Waves that would poof out & flyaways that persistently, well... flew all over. Now that I've learned that CBHS comes when wavies & curlies use brushes & have started using oils, my hair is so different. It still has it's rebellious moments but the shine is phenomenal & it doesn't even tangle as much.

My new routine? I condition-wash-condition (CWC) every morning, although lately I've been experimenting with conditioner only (CO) follwoed by an Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) rinse every other day. CWC is putting conditioner on from about the ears down, leaving that & shampooing the scalp only. Rinse everything & condition again. My deep conditioner is about four parts conditioner mixed with one part pure aloe vera gel & one part honey. I bun it, cover it with a plastic shower cap & then sleep on it all night before shampooing it out. After the shower, I carefully comb it out with a wide-tooth comb & then slide a little (seriously, a little goes a long way) coconut oil on. I let it dry a little & then whirl it up in a bun of some sort. When I take it down later in the day, I have the most awesome bun curls! Before I go to bed, I put some shea butter on the length, braid it & then either put my very (not) chic silky headcovering-doohickey on or just use my satin pillowcase. Like I said, the condition has improved so much. I still have lots of split ends that I'm slowly weeding out with Search & Destroy missions (S&D). I plan to eventually get rid of the layers I have. Not a lot of them, but it still makes it hard to braid all the way down. I want to get closer to my goal length first.

Most of the pictures on the hair forum are of the backs of folks' heads. It's kinda funny, but I had to get some while we were on vacation in the Black Hills. Mom got the above shot while we were on the walk up to Mount Rushmore. I've been doing my hair like that for around a year & never knew what it looked like until about a month ago.I asked Dad to get a shot of my hair. I didn't think I needed to tell him that the hair needed to be able to seen by the naked eye, but apparently... ;-)

The Name of the Jeep is...

Eowyn!

Eowyn had 17 votes, or 36%. Inara & Kaylee each had 4 votes or 9% and "Other" had 22 votes for 47%. I thought I'd list the names that y'all put in for "Other", along with my guess as to who submitted some of the names...

Jap (I think your Jeep is male!) ~ From a lovely lady at my long hair forum.
Wait, wait wait. Kaylee or Inara, but no Zoe? ~ Zoe should be something a bit more "slinky", tough and brown. Definately brown. Was this you, Pookie?
Mean Green driving Machine
RJ(rick james) ~ Devan, I presume...
RJ(rick james) ~ Yup, it's Devan
RJ(rick james) ~ Oh, it can't be anyone other than Devan
RJ(rick james) ~ Devan!!! C'mon, man!
Barney
Captain Hargrove
Fat B*st*rd ~ Okay, this one is either Brandon or Devan. And no, most definately not! *I can't believe I'm actually related to these two...* ;-)
The Newtonator ~ I'm guessing one of the two mentioned above... Again.
Green Automobile
Marsha
Stan
Gary
Poopslinger ~ Yeah, that'd be great with all the hobbits running around here - "Auntie LaLa, can we go for a ride in the Poopslinger?"
Tim
Barry
Darrell

Well, that was... interesting. Yeah, that's as good a word to describe it as any. Thanks for all your votes & ideas.

*Insert huge cheesy grin here*

I am so completely geeked over what is coming in the mail! Lookie...

It's a hair sword (or stick, if you want to be all technical & not-fun), based on Eowyn's sword from the Lord of the Rings movies! NightBlooming at Etsy custom made it for me & she said it went out in the mail today! I am so completely stoked it isn't even funny! Muahahaha!
Sweet... :-D

Help Me Name My Jeep!

A little note - if y'all are gonna vote Other, please put a comment with the other name. (I'm looking at you, Flanders & Ramone...)
~~~~~
I got an new vehicle (finally!) after Kaylee, the '98 Dodge Avenger I've had for the past 3-ish tears (<-- heh, that was a typo that I'm gonna leave since it definately applies) finally drove me outta my mind. So, I traded her in on a lovely (I'm talkin' *pristine* here) '97 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. The below shot isn't mine but it's identical. She's got 120K miles on her with the in-line V6 so I should be able to drive her for years before she conks on me. By the way, we found out one of the last (many, many) times she (Kaylee) was in the shop that she has a salvage engine in her. A little thing the dealer who sold her to me forgot to mention. I guess now we know how to identify salvage parts now - a yellow ID number written on the part.
Anyway, I would like a little assistance from all y'all lovely people. She needs a name & I can't really decide on one. So, here's a lovely poll for you to use, if you would be so kind...



It'll be open until next Sunday night at midnight. Thanks!

My First Cabela's!

I finally got to go to my first Cabela's on the trip. Peanut & Jer informed me that it was small as size goes, but that's okay. I was tired (can't remember if I had to use the cane that day or not - yes, I bought a cane... at age 29... *sigh*) and broke so I was trying not to tempt myself so I didn't look too intently at anything. I did check to see if they had a Taurus .357 Magnum, which is what a gun dealer friend is looking for, for my first gun. Just to see what the weight & size were like, but no dice.
I got a kick outta the gun library - didn't know there was such a thing, unless it would've been at the NRA headquarters.Take a gander at this pretty little sucker - gorgeous burled wood stock. A mere $37,000. Yeah, I'll just dig through the couch cushions really quick, uh-huh...
Peanut & Jer - Jer was playing around with hats & decided his little wifey should join in on the fashion fun. Love her expression. :-D
Julia wasn't exactly thrilled with the place - it was late. Grammy thought that was fine & just held her sixth grandbaby the whole time.

MOOSEN! ;-p

South Dakota - the Badlands

Okay, I started this (let me check...) on Monday, it's now almost Friday. Boy, I'm really on the ball here, aren't I? (Insert roll of the eyes here)
~~~~~
So, we (the parental units, Jen, Jer, Julia & me) are on vacation after attending a family reunion in Nebraska with Mom's side. We went from northcentral Nebraska, where the reunion was, to Rapid City, South Dakota. Yesterday we drove over yonder to Wall & then meandered through the Badlands. Gotta say, didn't see anything bad - it was absolutely gorgeous! Wouldn't want to go through that area with a covered wagon but - Wow!

I've seen more sunflowers up here than I've ever seen in Kansas, the so-called Sunflower State...


This land ain't bad at all...
This land - not bad per se, just wouldn't be a happy thing to try to get over on foot...
~~~~~
On the way here, we took a little detour to see where the Massacre of Wounded Knee took place. We were getting back on the road through the reservation when we had an incident. A young dog (a really cute & sweet pup) was in the road, Dad slowed down but the dog tried to run right in front of the van. Dog versus van - guess who won... We pulled over, the pup had gotten himself to the shoulder of the road, but he must've broken his hip. A couple little kids who were playing across the road came over to see what was going on. One little girl made herself to home in the van's side door I had left open when I got out to check on the dog. (We half expected her to climb on in!) The little boy had an interestingly phrased question - "Didja bash into him or run him over?" We've gotten to laughing over that several times since. Anyway, I asked several of the folks hanging around if they knew who the dog belonged to, nobody was any help. One fella finally came over, took the dog & said he belonged to his cousin. I had been on the verge of begging Dad to take him home with us. (Don't think it would've worked anyway) We felt terrible about the poor little guy, but hopefully now he'll figure out to stay outta the road.