Staceys friend crush.. Lone Dröscher-Nielsen

Soooo... Stacey's birthday is coming up next month and I decided to get her an Orangutan. And by that I mean.. ADOPTION! Although she would really rather have a real one!! I have located the website for Orangutan Adoptions. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to be able to get onto their link to fill out the adoptions papers. I want to go through savetheorangutan.org because that is a foundation that is headed by Lone, Stacey's FRIEND crush (its the cutest thing ever)...

This woman has a very interesting background in that she was a flight attendant before she started saving Orangutans. She actually has no formal training at all. She also has a documentary based on her life on the Animal Planet called Orangutan Island. Stacey looooovvvves her. I think it's because she has all the monkeys...Or in this case Orangutans.  So I will keep you updated in my quest to adopt an orangutan. If you ever want a gift idea for Stacey... anything monkey. And she ESPECIALLY LOVES Orangutan Island.
++ UPDATE++
I have found an Orangutan for Stacey's Birthday!! She is going to be sooo excited!

Paula in Disney.....

My Little girl is growin up on me :( 

I mean really.. It is the saddest thing ever. Soon, she will be driving and trying to ditch school. Ugh, when did this all happen? This growing up stuff sucks.

Anywho... I dropped Paula off at school at 10:30pm Friday..and she tried to push me out of the room. As if I was going to leave her there without finding out who her chaperon was. Silly kid.

Here is a picture of her and her little friend Sam.. Sam actually had to hit Paula upside the head because she wouldn't let me take a picture. Something is seriously wrong with that kid.. I was trying real hard not to make a scene. she is lucky I am not my grandmother...

It was a difficult 33 hours not having her home with me ( she was home by Sunday Morning at 7:30am)..I went to work, went and had lunch with Stacey. Got alone time and got the drocery shopping done. Yup.. real hard. I missed her though. She had such a great time just hanging out with her friends. And she got a big taste of freedom. It was good for her.. and for me too. I need to learn how to let go a little and be ok with it.

I was really worried about her for nothing.. she is a good kid. I just love her MUCH.

Ombre :)

I went way outside my box today. It cost me, well Stacey cause I left my purse at home, a whopping $25! So what did you do, you are thinking. I bleached my hair! Well... a little more then that, but I sure did it!  At home using TWO bleach packets. Why two.. well you have seen Mexican girls with orange hair, right? I think that has to do with that fact that they are not using ENOUGH bleach.

I sound so professional now. Wow. Pretty amazing.

So I have reading the usual trash mags and apparently Ombre hair is now all the rage. Sara Jessica Parker, Jessica Biel, Drew Barrymore. I love it. I decided last night that I wanted to do it, too. So, I went on you tube and found a million different tutorials and watched about all of them (as you know I am NOT busy at work). It was quite the process.. Because my hair is so dark, I had to bleach my hair twice. The first time It came out looking like Mi Vida Loca orange. See EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE BELOW :)

I used Loreal Quick Blue with a 40 developer, and let me tell you it was NOT quick. I applied the first application for about 50 minutes and the second one for 30 minutes.  After that was completed, I applied my color. Medium Golden Brown ION color 7G-7.3 I think I picked well.

As you can see I was on my way to work when I snapped this. And now I am going to the bathroom so I can take a picture of the back.. I kinda forgot to look at that!

Looking good :)  I think this is actually a good color for me, with my complexion. Im glad that I also purchased a deep conditioning mask.. My hair felt like DRIED HAY after all that bleaching today.

I have really never had my hair crazy like this before. My nails.. of course! Never my hair. I think I like it. Like it ALOT. Ta for now :)

Ahh..... so here we are again. Weather Channel and infomercials. Yeah. I'm done here. Nothing to report. Oh, one thing. I purchased a car yesterday. Its a Volvo and one of my BFF called it a cranky old man car. Ha.. I call it a safetymobile! The kid will be in High School next year and will probably want to drive (if I let her near a vehicle). This is a great car for an accident prone kid. It's built like a tank. And its black.. never had a black car before.. I must be getting brave in my old age.  So now we are rolling a Caddy and a Volvo. Kinda scary, those are like the epitome of old fuddy-duddy cars. I hope that Stacey and I aren't turning into a boring OLD couple now! Ewwww

Sp back to where we were. Did I mention that I actually went to Walmart to get stuff to do my nails.. See below :)

What do you do all day at work?

Well.. if you will take a moment to look at the time, you will see that while you are slumbering away.. I am busy at work. At work doing what you should ask? Currently I am reading Travel + Leisure "Worlds Most Visited Tourist Attractions". Ohh.. the places I would love to go.. but as I was reading I happened upon #28 the Navy Pier in Chicago. Now that was fun :) I went to Harry Carey's and to the Tiffany Glass Museum, took a picture on the anchor of the USS Illinois. I also braved the WORLDS LARGEST DEATH TRAP OF EVER.. ok so maybe I am exaggerating a little.. but see for yourself.

I really don't know if you know this about me.. But I do not care for heights. I don't like looking at tall things.. and I especially don't like RIDING on tall things.. Like Ferris Wheels and Sky Trains, airplanes and the 202 ramp off of the I17.. I mean its really pathetic. Ask my Mom how I drove over the bridge to get to Coronado Island...just saying. At any rate.. I braved the dreaded Ferris Wheel partly in thanks to the cute little red cup with the very strong beverage that I HAD to drink before I got on.. as if I was going to spill.. come on! Clearly the kid had no idea that I had my liquid courage in that cup.So on the Ferris wheel we got.. 4 people crammed into a carriage. SLOWLY dropping off one group and while loading up another. It was the longest ride of my entire life. I was slightly buzzed from my drink (maybe more like full on tipsy), I was sick to my stomach, I was dizzy and I felt like at any moment I would plummet to my death (yes, I am slightly dramatic as well). The only time I opened my eyes was to make sure that my seat mate hadn't fallen out of our death trap.. I mean carriage. You see she was very nice and offered to take pictures with my camera while trying to snap her own. During her multitasking she nearly dropped my camera and lurched out of her seat to catch it. Ugh what a terrible commotion that caused! That stupid little carriage was swinging back and forth (it is also VERY windy in Chicago, in case you hadn't heard).. good thing that we only went around once. I think a second time would have killed me.

What a beautiful city. I wish I could live there. Stacey would hate it.. Yeah. She would hate it a lot. What a life ruiner. She just doesn't know what she is missing!

Lou Malnoti's....The BEST Deep Dish Pizza in the world. I did bring back two frozen super duper meat pies for her and Paula but its just not the same as being there. I mean if we were living there I would have to try and justify spending $50 for overnight delivery for frozen pizza that cost $10 in their restaurants. I mean I would do it.. Its really worth it. Really. I mean it. Did I mention White Castle? Yeah. Yummy. Especially when its in your Hotel parking lot.

hahaaa....So now you know what I do all night.. I just wasted two hours sending pictures to myself and writing and deleting and re-writing. and now its 4:10am, I think I will go check out pinterest for a while.  I love my job :)

Following the rules

I was talking to one of my co-workers last night. We were talking about how we were rule followers.. I like rules, they provide structure and security. When you break the rules, bad things happen!!!! Or so I have heard. Well, Paula makes fun of me and calls me a "goodie goodie" (as if she should talk.. the only reason Paula behaves as well as she does is because she thinks that Stacey is going to send her to Military School if she does anything wrong.. scaredy cat kid). Sooo... at any rate, during our conversation I was remembering a painting class that I went to with my Grandmother. We had a fantastic time. This class was at this place called Brush Bar. Everyone was given an easel, canvas, paints and wine and away we went! We were supposed to follow the directions from our hostess, step by step, to make The Funky Tree as pictured below.

But... if you know my grandmother as I am sure you do.. or maybe not, she didn't follow the directions as well as I did :). Maybe its because I have no imagination.. maybe its because I don't like to color outside the lines... I think that is why Paula calls ME a "goodie goodie".  HA, little she knows.. but I DIGRESS.. We were drinking wine having a grand old time. That is when this photo was taken.  Hmm.. Looks like someone likes to color way outside the lines.

As you might have noticed that this picture is a little.. blurry, ignore that... she was impersonating a French Artiste at that moment. But if you will note the background.. you can see that one of these paintings are not like the others. 

Final Product :)

Cost of Class: Free (my mommy paid for it)

Cost of Wine: Free (my Mommy paid for that, too)

Cost of going to bed late on a work night: PRICELESS 

Rules are meant to be broken.. SOMETIMES :)  

In the beginning.....

So this whole blogging this intrigues me. Everyone is doing it, so I figured why NOT me?!? I wanted a place where I can put all my thoughts and all the great things I see. But mainly I wanted this to be about all the things that I like..recipes and crafts (if only I had more time!), places I want to go..places that I have been. My crazy mixed up family :)

I am currently sitting at work it is 2:32am, watching Animal Planet and CNN...because there is REALLY nothing on in the middle of the night.  Lots of hair infomercials and how to scam money from the government.. Seriously! There is really an infomercial on how to get free money! It's the silliest thing ever.

Well this blogging this is kinda hard when all you really want to do is turn off the lights and go to sleep :0) So I will bid you adieu for now.....I think I want to finish my book now.