So about an hour after I posted the last post, my parents came in to my room and said, let's see if we can sniff out the rat. So we pulled everything away from the wall where the smell was the strongest and began sniffing that wall like blood hounds. We agreed that the smell was strongest in one spot and it wasn't coming from the wall but the ceiling. So my dad changed his clothes, put on some rubber gloves and went up in to the attic. I got up on the ladder to see what was up there. It is a sea of cotton like insulation. It's the perfect nesting ground for rodents. My dad had a small rake in hand to sift through the chaos. Suddenly he spotted the rat. I cheered as my dad almost passed out from the smell that came up from the rat once he had moved the insulation from on top of it. He picked it up and put it in a plastic walmart coffin. It's now resting in peace in the trashcan outside. The smell went away almost instantaneously. ahhhh

Today is the beginning of week 4 of the bog of eternal stench in my bedroom. Something has died in one of the walls and I can't figure out which one. The window is open and the fan is on 24 hours a day even though the temperature at night has been dropping in to the 30's. I don't know what to do other than sledge hammer the walls and find the rat or whatever it is. But then I would have to re drywall and paint. Do I take the time and spend the money? Or do I hold out two more weeks and let the smell dissipate? Yesterday I bought a monster size bag of baking soda from costco. I feel a little bit deranged and psychotic carrying jars of baking soda in to my bedroom and placing them around. Sometimes I like to picture that I'm being watched by someone that has no idea what's going on.

I used to make fun of it every time I saw the infomercial: a bunch of people sitting around a fake camp fire, dressed as if involved in some kind of catholic ritual...or maybe they're all jedi knights? And who really can't figure out how to position a blanket and a remote control? Well, my vision has changed and I am a new woman with a new perspective. Michelle bought me my very own snuggie complete with the complimentary book light for my birthday. (Jason says all I need is a bunch of cats and I'm set.) At first I was a little bit leery on this thing. She pretty much bought it as a joke...I think.
I opened it up.
I put it on.
I haven't taken it off since.
Unless I leave the house but even then, I've contemplating bringing it along. It's light weight but it's so warm and so soft. I can do stuff with my hands and still be covered up...like eat ice cream, read, and, as advertised, hold the remote. So now I'm a true convert to the one and only snuggie. Don't knock it 'til you try it!

Let's take a moment to celebrate the beauty of the male body...or at least the potential of it. I used to not care about it and I still don't but I can really appreciate toned abs and huge muscley arms. I was sitting in the theater watching New Moon when there was a large gasp from the entire audience--Jacob had just taken his shirt off for the first time to dab the blood on Bella's head wound. This is when the movie got really good because from here on out, there were tan, muscle toned shirtless guys running around. If their cut off jean shorts had been any shorter, I may have felt like I was at Thunder from Down Under--not that I've ever seen that show....or I may have gotten them confused with Tobias, the never-nude from Arrested Development. Anyway, the movie went on and towards the end we see Edward again. Where there should have been another gasp as Edward was taking his shirt off, it was completely silent. I turned to Deanna and said, "Ew cover that up!" The poor guy is painted chalky and stoney for his character and supposedly he worked out but in comparison to Jacob? there was no comparison. I wanted Bella to get back on the plane to Forks right away. New Moon is supposed to make us fans of Jacob. Mission accomplished.

I've been having some of the craziest dreams lately. Why wouldn't I want to share them?

My mom and I are in the garage and this spider is there. It's about the size of a soccer ball and it looks a lot like a daddy long leg. I was in my bare feet and I was screaming at my mom to step on it as she had shoes on. Instead of stepping on it, she kicks it and it rolls all the way across the street in to the ravine. Of course it comes back and again she won't step on it. This time it's moving at ludacrous speed and I'm about to lose my mind from terror. She kicks it away again and it moves around to the side of the house. Meanwhile, there are a bunch of spiders lurking in a corner of the eaves near our heads. It's full of spider webs and all kinds of thick legged furry and sometimes colorful spiders. As my mom is turned back faced to these little monsters, to kick the one at our feet, they are b lining it to attack her. I'm screaming for her to turn around and the dream changes.
I'm at the mall with some people walking around and then I leave to find my car. I can't seem to cross the street fast enough and there are tons of cars waiting for me. Each step is incredibly painful because my legs weigh thousands of pounds. I look down to see what the problem is and I'm wearing these chunky white tennis shoes. These shoes are hard to move and I'm stressed out as the cars have stopped and are waiting for me to cross. I get through the first intersection but there is still one more. I can feel something at my ankle and look down again so see the tongues of the shoes are inflating. I start to feel things all over me inflate and I'm half floating. This makes it much easier to cross the second intersection and move through the parking lot because I can jump and float for minute, creating larger strides. I am getting closer to my car when this Japanese lady comes running towards me yelling at me in Japanese. She wants my shoes! I try to float away from her but she's keeping up. Where is my car?!! I can't find it now and she's getting closer and closer. Then I woke up.

Last night's dream was funny because Scott and Alicia had a monkey. We were at I think the Denver airport part of the time and then in Texas the other part. Initially I went to pick someone up at the airport and left the dogs in a kennel. It ended up that I was there all day and I was freaking out about having left the dogs. I finally got them and left. I was with my mom and Scott and Alicia now and we were trying to catch the train or bus to go back into the airport. We all had planes to catch at around the same time. My mom was stressed out because the trains weren't coming as frequent as they were before. Something was wrong and we were going to miss our planes. Finally we got on to a train and Scott and Alicia had a monkey. The monkey was sitting in one of the seats next to a nervous looking couple. You could tell these people did not want to be sitting next to monkey. But since the seating was limited, there was no other option. We were almost to our destinations when Scott said, uh oh the monkey pooped. He titled the monkey to the side to try and clean it up. Meanwhile the nervous couple were freaking out and they got up to get off the train. The seats were vinyl and had indents from buttons for decoration. So he was having to scrub in the cracks and folds of the vinyl. He somehow managed to get everything cleaned up and threw the waste in the a bag that was full of left over food from their lunch: left over french fries and poo. It was gross.

It takes me FOREVER to get pictures developed...I don't have a digital, I have film. So here is a look back on this year...

(I added some pictures from a wedding I did in January to my entry on April 19th. )

I went on a little bit of baking spree towards the first of the year and I made cakes whenever I could find and excuse to.

This was Easter. I found a recipe on martha stewart's website for these little cupcake chicks.

Jason won tickets to American Idol so I got to go with him. We saw Flo Rida perform Right Round and the blind kid get eliminated.

He looks totally insane in this picture. It makes me laugh!

I don't think I ever did my post for Memorial Day...at least I can't find one. So here goes. I actually celebrated Memorial Day. I went to the National cemetary in Riverside and listened to congressman Ken Calvert speak along with a few other major army/navy/marine generals or captains or whatever you call them. I got teary eyed and patriotic. It was awesome. It all started because there are THOUSANDS of motorcycles that drive up Alessandro by my house on memorial day. We like to go out and watch them because it's kinda funny. This year we decided to follow them and check out where they end up. So here's some pics of that.

watching them ride...


parked at the cemetary

there were thousands and thousands of bikes

and there was lots and lots of leather

flags on all of the grave stones (my grandpa green is buried here)

Do you ever read a word totally wrong to the point that your like, what does that even mean?? and it's a word like sharing? Obviously I have and with the word sharing. I read it with the emphasis on the ring part. Totally changes thing. shaRING! I'm smart.

OK anyway, today I thought it would be a good idea to mow the lawn in the backyard.

1. exercise

2. sunshine/spending time outside

3. help my dad out

First things first. I had to get dressed and put on my yard work shoes that have been sitting on the back porch. That's kind of where those shoes live which may be a bad idea if you are afraid of putting your foot in to a dark place where bugs could potentially live. But so far I haven't had a problem and it has only recently become a very bad idea since there is no longer a pest control company spraying the house. The front doorway/porch has been taken over by spiders--and not just any spiders, BIG SCARY spiders. It has gotten to the point where I am afraid to come in and out of the front door at night. How do I know spiders can't communicate, form an army, and sabotage me? It doesn't help that I had a dream where my sister was dangling a large grey spider over my face and laughing like I was crazy for being afraid. Here is picture of a web off to the side of the porch.

Anyway, this is just the front porch. I haven't even gotten to the back porch. I haven't spent very much time out there since the dogs have gone home so naturally my shoes and my mom's shoes have become excellent habitats for spiders. There were spiderwebs all over them, inside and out. I carefully began to deweb them and I used a pair of scizzors that happened to be sitting there to scrape out the insides. All of a sudden this huge black nasty spider came crawling out from the toe of the shoe and I started screaming.

Mowing the lawn was kind of like doing a buzz cut. I had to make sure I went over the lawn and cut it evenly and not leave long blades of grass. Afterwards, I needed to go around an trim the edges but I'm kind of afraid of that tool so I'll let my dad take care of it. All in all it was fun but next time I am going to wear gloves and a space suit.

1. gigantic bees

2. flies all over me

3. oh yeah I'm kinda allergic to grass

I'M GROWING MY HAIR OUT.

And for those of you that have grown your hair out, you know why I wrote that in all caps. For those of you that haven't, I'll fill you in on what it's like.
IT TAKES FOREVER.
I stopped cutting it in November and I've done two baby trims. I think I've gained about 5 to 6 inches. But somehow it doesn't feel like enough and now it's hitting my shoulders at this horrible spot. It's the worst most unflattering length and my hair when it's down looks crappy no matter what. So I'm doing my best to barrel through it. I'm newly addicted to this front braid thing that I totally copied from one of my fellow salon chicks.

and my hair is in a bun or a ponytail as much as possible.

If I can just make it to November, I'll be home free. Until then, UGH!

bye bye Izzy and Lilly.

They've been with me since April--while Scott and Alicia were in Boston. We've had lots of drama with surgery, foxtails, flees, poo, puke, peeing on the carpet, obsession with playing fetch, bark from outside being dragged inside, and playing behind and under the couch. After my parents drove away with them today, I started to cry--and not tears of joy, but sadness. So I went in to the back yard to clean up all of the poo from the last few days just so I could be reminded of all of the grunt work that comes with having them around. It kinda stopped the tears but as soon as I came home from work to an empty house, absolute silence, and no dogs barking for my attention, I got sad again. Before I got them, I suspected that I would get attached and cry when I had to give them back but then after having taken Lilly to the vet 6 times, I thought it wouldn't be so bad. I guess when you go great lengths to take care of something, you develop love for it. I keep saying I don't want a dog but maybe, just maybe, I do.

(crappy cell phone pictures--sorry)

I went with Jason to an art opening called Cute and Dangerous at the art gallery Seven Degrees on Friday night. It was probably the strangest art opening I've ever been to. First of all, I have no idea what to call the genre of art and second of all there were costumed individuals. Most of the art is kind of like Japanime and kind of like graffiti. I personally felt like I had walked in to a Hello Kitty store. It was fun and kind of interesting. Mike and Jason both told me that this type of art is kind of an up and coming trend right now. (so hot right now). Here are some pics. There were a ton of photographers there and so I take zero credit for any of these pictures.











This graffiti artist left the canvas uncolored...

so the crowd could color it in for him...

oh look--who's that?

Jason and me

Leave it to JJ Abrams to make me a TREKKIE. It was inevitable really. I love science fiction and I am a total star wars fan. (I mean, how could I not be a star wars fan when my little brother used to get up at 6am every morning and beg my parents to put it on. Throughout an entire summer I awoke to find myself in a land far far away.) I also love the Alien movies, Terminator movies, and the 5th Element. AND (nerd alert!) I used to watch the sci fi channel from time to time. I watched this one movie about a science guy who was so obsessed with cobra snakes that he created a formula from their venom to slowly transform his assistant in to a cobra snake. The irony was that once the assistant was a snake, he bit the science guy and killed him. You would think I would have seen this movie once because I was super bored or whatever one day but I actually saw it twice, years and years apart. I have no idea what it's called though. I'm sorry because I know anyone who reads this is going to want to run out and rent it or add it to the netflix list. Anyway, so JJ Abrams Star Trek was a fantastic movie. The hair and makeup was phenomenal. A lot of times I am distracted by crappy wigs or super obvious fake blood but not with this one! I didn't even recognize Eric Bana! Super hot Eric was so well transformed into his character. Good job hair and make up team and good job JJ, as always.

So I read Heather's blog today and found out that a wedding I did hair/make up for was featured on two different websites: Wedding Chicks and Vintage Glam! My name was mentioned in one of them and the other said they loved the hair and makeup! ahhh...so awesome!

The other day Jason asked me what was up with Fast and Furious making more money in it's opening weekend than all three previous fast and furious movies put together. I had some explanation of why: bla bla it's all the hype, bla bla there aren't any other good movies to see right now, bla bla movie tickets prices are way highter, bla bla bla. But today I realized that all of that was WRONG. I was WAY OFF. This song came on as I was driving: 'We Are Rockstars' by British electro-rock band 'Does It Offend You, Yeah?'. It's the song they play in the Fast and Furious trailor. Suddenly all I could see was Vin Diesel showing off his hot muscles in his hot muscle car and I wanted to drive over to the movie theater. It's the song! It's like the pied piper calling us to join him! And it's working! If only movies weren't $11 I could be watching it AGAIN!

Have you heard? The women in Spanish Fork, Utah and Amy Winehouse(**see below) are doing back flips and crying for joy over this: BUMP ITS. Someone has come up with a way to get around back combing, teasing, ratting, what have you, to create that little nest of volume some women love on the crown of their heads.

I just about died when I saw the infomercial on it tonight. Seriously, I thought my heart stopped. I am a hair dresser trying daily to help women update their look. I can't tell you how many women love to do the beehive back comb thing they've been doing since the 60's.

I don't know what the excuse is for younger girls doing it. They must have just learned it from their mothers. It's the worst in Utah. Going to beauty school there, I couldn't get away from it. I did however convince some to let it go. "There are other ways!" I'd plead. "Use a volumizing shampoo and conditioner. Try a root lifter and thickening styling product. Round brushes can do amazing things!" That's when it started. I was on a mission to rid the world of snarling their hair in to balls on their heads to create volume. This mission was put on hold when I moved to Vegas. Two words: Show Hair. I was back combing and ratting like there was no tomorrow. But this was for a SHOW on a STAGE, not to go to the MALL or heaven forbid CHURCH. I knew it had turned into an epidemic when this girl showed up with what appeared to be HORNS. She had back combed her hair on each side of her head but not the middle. It looked so crazy I wanted to dig my fingers in to her head and start shaking and scratching until she looked like my current facebook picture.

"You want volume?? I'll show you volume!" But I left her alone and just sat behind her each week and stared in wonder: "What's in there? Is that just her hair? It couldn't possibly be snarled ratty hair. It's too big! How? Why?"

I don't know what to do. With this woman's invention, there is no more fighting the big nasty snarl poof. She's made it a staple in our society and she is reeping the monetary benefits. You can watch a video of it here. (I must warn you though, you might want to kill Roy Orbison before it's over.) Do you think the girl with the horns will buy two and put one on each side of her head? Oh how I hope and wish...

**Amy Winehouse

I bought two new packages of dental floss a few days ago. One of the un opened packages was on my bed last night as I was going to bed so I put it to the side on the desk beside my bed. Let me back up here one second. This last week I have been sleeping really crazy. I am so tired but in the middle of the night I toss and turn and get really frustrated to the point that I'm slamming my face on my pillow as I re situate myself in hopes to find a more comfortable spot. The anger and frustration have overtaken my dreams at times and sometimes I don't know whether I am sleeping or awake. Reality has become a very fuzzy picture in the wee hours of the morning. This morning I awoke to find my dental floss free of the cardboard and plastic packaging. I stared at it for a moment and then like a dream saw this: I'm half asleep reaching for the dental floss and violently tearing at it, desperately trying to free it from it's confines. I couldn't get through the cardboard part and exasperated, fumbled through my drawer to find a pen to break through. All the while, I'm laying in my bed. I find the pen and begin to stab at it with all of the furry of a warrior. Finally I break the dental floss free and then darkness. I stared at the dental floss, sitting ever so calmly in the exact spot I had left it, wondering if this really happened and then I looked over the edge of my bed. Pieces of plastic and cardboard were scattered about in small pieces. It's a good thing I sleep alone.

On January 17th I did Kristin's hair and makeup for her marriage to Chris. Heather Balliet, the wonderful wedding planner, just posted some pics on her blog: http://amorologyweddings.blogspot.com/2009/03/kristin-chris-ooh-la-la_16.html

It's seriously worth taking a peek at. This was the cutest wedding ever!

This is a hairpiece I made for each of the bridesmaids.

Look how cute they are!

Special thanks to Kristin and Chris for letting me be a part of their day!

February is Black History Month. To be honest, I always thought this was kind of stupid to have a whole month for black history. I have never understood how their heritage and culture was so different from ours. Ok yes, they were slaves but that was like 150 years ago. And really, isn't history the same for us all no matter what color our skin? We all live in the same place and see the same things in the news and all around us, right? WRONG. My eyes have been opened for the first time--I mean really opened. I get it now for two reasons.
1. Deanna randomly gave me this book to read called, Life Is So Good by George Dawson. George is a black man from Marshall, Texas who was born in 1898 and lived to be over a hundred. He has an astonishing memory. He can recall just about every conversation he's ever had. He learned to read at the age of 98 and then went on to write this book to recount his history. It's the most amazing thing I've ever read.
2. I netflixed this movie called The Great Debaters a few weeks back and it just happened to come this month. It was produced by Oprah (hate her right now but that's another story) and directed by Denzel. It's about these black kids from Marshall, Texas in the late 1920's and early 1930's who gained this impressive reputation and were invited to debate white teams. They were the first black debate team to do this. It's all a true story.
So here I am reading this book that takes place part of the time in Marshall and then watching a movie that takes place in Marshall. It was totally random that it all happened in the same week but I learned so much. I learned that there is a very large difference between black and white history. The papers were not telling the whole story especially in the south where the Jim Crow laws were extremely prominent. Blacks and Whites were very much segregated. I never really thought about how that would affect history. The blacks had their own thing goin on because they couldn't be a part of the white culture. Black history was all about staying out of the way. They had little to no protection from the law. White people demanded respect and subservience in the most cruel manner and would lie and cheat them because they knew they could get away with it. There were no consequences. Usually the consequences came down on the black man's shoulders. If he did not 'behave' he could be lynched, beaten, burned, tortured. The law just looked the other way. It sickens me.
I'm just brushing the surface here. I guess it makes me more grateful for Martin Luther King Jr. and the equal rights movement in the 1960's. (one more reason I love the 60's!) I can't imagine living in a world where people are treated cruelly because of the color of their skin--or for any other stupid reason. I'm so glad I missed all that and that I was born in to a time or rather a country where all are given equal rights. God loves us all. And even though I hate Oprah right now, I have to get over it and love her no matter what she airs on her show. I want to be like God--and God is love.

And this is why I love Disneyland.

Mike, Andrew, me, Jason

I'm so uninspired to write on my blog lately. All I've done is WATCH TV. Heroes, House, 90210, 24, the Mentalist, Leverage, Fringe, Lost, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, the Office, 30 Rock. That's 11 hours of TV a week and I'm totally ok with that. I'll even add more shows if you think it's worth it. I tried watching Gossip Girl already--no thanks on that one. DVR has changed my life. I can record shows and fast forward through commercials to my heart's delight. So really it's not 11 hours of TV, it's 7 hours and 20 minutes a week. The more I can fast forward through commercials, the more TV I can watch. Screw advertising. They would be sucking 3 hours and 40 minutes out of my life--3 hours and 40 minutes I could be spending on FACEBOOK. Yes, I probably do spend about that much time on there...a day...just kidding...sort of. All of you know what I'm talking about if you have an account. It's so ridiculously addictive to sit and update your status, go and check out all of the pictures on your friends' pages, and then check to see who is on line. I'm constantly checking my IM and then searching for an excuse to write someone, anyone. Right now I'm looking for someone I can write this too, "Lick your cigarette and kiss me." Ah Franz Ferdinand, you and your clever lyrics (No you girls never know). Seriously, who wants to taste a cigarette? Ew. Jason introduced me to Greg Laswell this week--he put three songs on a CD for me and I can't stop listening. So I went on to playlist.com and got a hold of some other songs and I've listened to them all about three times each now. Kim Suttles Braithwaite would love Greg if she doesn't already. I know it.