What Have We Been Up To?

It has been over a month since I'd updated anyone on much of anything. So I'll give you some idea as to what we have been doing since then. Which really isn't much...

Let's see...

My parent's made a spontaneous move to St. Augustine, Florida in early September. They were going to make a pit stop here on their way, but Tropical Storm Lee had other plans. They were driving a 24ft. U-Haul, pulling their car and my grandmother was driving their van behind them. I don't blame them one bit for deciding to skip their stop here and head straight to their new home. During their stop at a hotel, my mother called. We talked about the storm and the situation. She then laughs and says, "I'm tired of lying to you being this high. You want to talk to him?" I said sure and then was like, Huh? Well, my dad, or who I thought was my dad, get's on the phone and we talk for about 30 seconds. I then asked puzzled, "Wait... Who is this?" Not recognizing the voice as my dad's. He laughs and says, "Mckinnion. Who did you think it was?" I freaked! I was so excited. I had to ask him what it was Mom said before she handed him the phone. She actually said, "I'm tired of lying to you, Boy (what we've called Mckinnion since he was fresh from the womb) says hi. You want to talk to him?" That is so not what I heard. Lol I was super excited to hear from my brother. They were going to surprise me when they showed up. I had no idea that he was moving with them. Unfortunately, life happens, and they've still yet to make the trip here. Soon... We'll see...

On September 12th I had gotten a pretty bad toothache. I'd taken Tylenol all day for, but at about 5 o'clock-ish, it reared it's big ugly head at me. I hadn't felt pain quite like it ever! I stayed home from school that night, hoping it would get better. It didn't. I couldn't sleep and my face had swollen. I looked and felt hideous! Wish I'd had taken a picture to show you. :Þ  Jonathan stayed home from work the next morning so that he could take the kiddos to their six month dental cleaning and checkup since I was feeling so miserably. He kept trying to talk me into going to the dentist or Urgent Care, but our funds were super tight that week and there was no way we'd be able to afford it. So I refused to go. He called his mother, and asked for a favor. She was seriously my lifesaver that morning! I don't know what I would have done had she not been there to help us out.

Went to Urgent Care to have it checked out. It was a severe abscess. He told me that had I not gone in when I did, I may have had to be hospitalized for severe infection. Holy crap, that was scary! He prescribed me penicillin, naproxen and lortab. He said he felt safe prescribing me a narcotic since I "looked legit." Haha! Got my prescriptions and downed them right away! Unfortunately, the penicillin made me vomit for the first two days. It was terrible! Couldn't keep anything down and was in a constant state of pain from the abscess and nausea from the penicillin. It took about a week, before I truly felt back to normal. We were able to pay my in-laws back for the doctor's visit and Rx's the following week. And I couldn't thank them enough for all the help they've been able to offer us. You are truly appreciated!

The day I went to Urgent Care, happened to be the same day the kids' dental cleaning and checkup was. They go every six months. I'll be damned if they ever have teeth like mine :( Anywhoo... Jonathan took them and Joseph had moderate gingivitis. What? I make them brush their teeth after every meal. There is no way he has gingivitis! Apparently, when I had told him to brush, he was just going into the bathroom to play. So I ended up brushing his teeth for a week after that and then watched him every time the following week to make sure it was actually getting done. I don't supervise him now, but I do random check-in's when he's brushing. So far, every time, he's actually brushing and doing it correctly. Dr. Hyde, then discussed fixing his chipped front tooth... Again! They fixed it once, and it fell off that week! If it doesn't stay for very long this time, they'll just put a crown on it instead. I imagine, that's what's going to have to happen. He plays too rough to not lose the piece they put on.  All of them are clear of any cavities and everything looks great. Still trying to get the girls to quit sucking their thumbs though. They're okay as long as they're busy. The second they stop doing anything, it's right to their mouths. Tressa has started using her shirts in place of her blanket when she sucks her thumb. Ugh! She's so rebellious! :Þ Just don't want the girls to cause any malformation of their teeth. It's bad enough Joseph is going to probably have braces. Bleh! Poor kiddos and my bad genes. (Thanks a lot Dad! :Þ)

For school, we had a scavenger hunt scheduled at the local outlet mall for the 28th. It got cancelled due to the bad weather that day. Nobody brought anything to be able to do practical work, so we ended up going to Edgewater Mall instead. For the scavenger hunt we had grouped up in no more than five people. We were given a list of things to find, like, someone with a swing bob, someone 50% gray, someone with rollers still in their hair, and we had to approach said person, explain who we were and get their permission to take a picture. It was super fun until one of the rent-a-cop's approached us and halted our fun because he said we had to have prior approval from the mall manager. UGH! We'd all made the trip so Mrs. Lynne and Mr. Morgan told us to go do some shopping, or window shopping and get something to eat to fill our time for the next two hours or so. Overall it was fun, but wish we could have done what was intended. Next time we'll know to get prior approval.

I was able to pick up my honey and take him out during his lunch break one day. It was nice to just see him and let him get out of his work atmosphere for about an hour. He needed the break. :)

Our school was cancelled on the 1st of this month, so I had a whole weekend with the family. On Sunday we decided we would get out and do something. We're always cooped up in the house. There really isn't a whole lot to do around here for very cheap, unless you want to go to the beach... And we're just not beach lovers. Right Rebecca? :Þ

We went for lunch at McDonald's since Chick-fil-a is closed on Sunday! Bleh! Then we went and played minigolf. We had so much fun! It was a beautiful day out too. The weather was perfect, it was quiet out and the kiddos were well behaved. Amaya got bored after the first hole. She looked to Jonathan and said, "I'm done playing hockey." Lol Hockey?

After finishing our game the kiddos asked if we were going to be doing anything else. We'd gotten lucky to be able to do what we did that day. Then they started stomping their feet and bickering about how they wanted to do this and do that. My feelings were hurt! They didn't say, "Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us out. We had a great time!" It was more like "Fuck you guys. We want more." Ugh! I wasn't even angry with them, I was just hurt. Our finances are budgeted every month and rarely do we have enough extra to do something outside of the house or go out to eat. And we did both that day. I felt like they were being so ungrateful and rude. Jonathan works his ass off to provide for us and then they acted that way. I had a talk with them and felt a little better. I know that they're just kids and they don't understand things the way that we do, but it still hurt.

School is going well. SO READY to be done. I should be finished by February. These last few months seem to be going so quickly, yet so slowly. We've lost a lot of our teachers and are now down to two instructors. Hoping we don't lose another. The teacher, student ratio would not meet requirements then. Not sure what will happen if that takes place.

The kiddos are doing well in school. I still can't stand Amaya's teacher for shit. Hoping to resolve that. Joseph's class had an AR party and he told us that he'd met his goal, but was still unable to participate. I contacted his teacher and she told me that he did indeed meet his goal, but his average score was 86 and you had to have an average of 90. She then states how proud she is of him for reading chapter books. He's the only one in his class reading the chapter books, and he's only 4 points under in average and he still cannot participate! So he's penalized for reading at levels above his classmates. Lovely!

We did our costume shopping this weekend. Joseph has wanted to be a skeleton since April. He chose this costume. He's most excited about the blood. Tressa walked into the store and immediately picked out the Spanish Princess costume. Amaya was dead set on being a princess when we walked into the store until she spotted the Miss Sock Hop costume. Unfortunately, they didn't have her size. So she resorted back to her original idea and is a princess. She's so excited about it lighting up too. She's told everyone already!

A friend from school told me about a new subdivision that was being built. They have two and three bedroom houses. We drove by on Monday, hoping they'd be open so that we could see them. They were closed, but we drove around and the outsides are beautiful. The three bedrooms are only $675 a month (1350 sq ft. They also offer a 1500 sq ft but I'm not sure what the price difference is). That's only $60 more a month than what we pay now. AND they have two car garages, big yards and they'll put up a six foot privacy fence around the back yard for an additional $25 a month. I'm super stoked! We're hoping that Jonathan can get a day off this week to be able to stop by and view them. It's kinda out in the country too. But it's so pretty and quiet out there. So far, I'm already disappointed in the fact that the kids would attend Lyman Elementary. When I was substituting, I taught there three times for the first and third grade and I did not care for the teachers. They were just awful mean to the kids. I've heard that their principal has changed since then and things may be different. I dunno...

I've rambled quite a bit. So I'll end things here.
Hope everyone has been doing well!
 XOXO,

Thankful Thrusday And Some Rambling.

I know it's been FOREVER since I have last written. I've been super busy (read: lazy) and something always seems to get in the way of things.

Last weekend I went to Atlanta for the Bronner Brothers Hair Show. Other than the fact that traffic was stupid fucking retarded, it was a great time! I was a little disappointed in the fact that it was more about showcasing, demos trying to sell their products and about being flashy than it was educational. They did have classes, but things didn't seem to be very organized. I had gone with a mission to buy some good quality shears since I've started hair cutting class and the shears the school gives are Pakistan pieces of shit... No, really. I had the hardest time! I didn't buy a single thing! I'm so damn picky about things and I honestly hate that about myself most days. Lol. So now I will have to buy full price... If I can decide on a pair. Anybody want to donate to the cause?

People were packed in there like sardines and I wanted to go postal! Trying to view products and get past people to see anything was a difficult task all it's own. Then there was the disappointment in products available for Caucasians, but I had expected that so I wasn't terribly disappointed and I probably wouldn't have purchased anything anyway since I'm content with the products I use now. I am super excited about the Premier Birmingham hair show that will be in September or October of this year! From word of mouth, I hear it is more organized and the product selection is indeed better. Want to donate to that cause too? ;-)

The past month or so Joseph has been quite the hellion. I really felt at a loss on what to do or how to fix things. He had trouble in school. He didn't want to go anymore, he even purposely missed the bus one morning. (The short story for that one: I wasn't dressed and I hadn't finished getting the girls ready so I sent him to the bus stop without me. He comes back 15 minutes later saying he missed the bus! I was livid! Needless to say he wished he'd got on the bus!) I don't think there was a day all last month where he had come home with a good report. He was so angry all the time and got to the point where he would hit, kick or throw things at me when he was upset. The only thing that ever seemed to calm him was me grabbing him and just holding him. The whole time he'd be shaking, kicking, screaming, fighting... I found myself go through a depression during all that. I felt as though I had failed as a parent somewhere. I tried and tried to talk to him to approach the situations differently and figure things out and never found the root of the problem. I'm not sure that he even knows what is causing his anger.

Wednesday He ran home with a huge smile on his face and was so excited to tell me that he had not pulled any keys (the schools behavior/disciplinary system)! I exaggerated my excitement and pride hoping that it would help him do better the following day. It worked! Or something did because he came home four days in a row with no disciplinary reports! He was rewarded with praise and time on the Wii as well as other small privileges. He was doing great. Yesterday he had a small issue, but just a small one. So hopefully things continue to go well the rest of the week. Wish us luck!

As far as school goes I have started the first hair cutting module and I'm loving it! I've been dying to cut the shit out of these mannequins. I can't wait to finish and give my first haircut outside of my kitchen. Haha.

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for one, two, and hell, even three hour long phone calls with my sister Tiffany.

I am thankful for silence on long days and even more thankful for the screaming, fighting and laughter of our children that fills the house when they return from school.

I am thankful to have been able to attend Tressa's field trip to Petsmart this morning. The look on her face when I showed up was one I'll never forget. ♥

Loving this weather! You?

          -Jaclyn-

Just One Of Those Days

This is how I have been feeling the last few days...

We returned to school after fall break on Monday. I am in COS 101- Fundamentals of Haircare. Basically we're covering everything we didn't in COS 100, which covers hair growth, analysis, five elements of hair design, properties of the hair and scalp, etc......... BORING! My instructor only makes it worse. She is by far the most intelligent of the instructors I have had, but she is soooooooooo monotone and all I ever hear is Charlie Brown's Teacher when she's teaching. And because this class is just basics, there isn't really any practical work involved so what are we doing for the required 2.5 hours of practical Monday-Thursday and the 6 hours on Saturday? FINGERWAVES, ROLLER SETS, AND PIN CURLS!!! I have had enough of them!!! Gah!!! Shoot me now!

On the up and up... Over fall break I did my nails in honor of breast cancer awareness and I love the way they turned out so I thought I'd share them with you. (Just click to make the picture larger) ☺

Lots of love and boobie inspections.

          -Jaclyn-

Nights Two & Three

Warning: You might find this a rather long post. Please forgive me ☺

Night two was not much different than night one. If anything is was more hectic and not much of anything got accomplished.

We received our kits and roll arounds on night two. So we went through the kits making sure we had everything. We got paired up with one of the other students who were already familiar with their kits and what not. I got paired with Kimberly, who was my pin curl partner the first night. I didn't think that it was going to be a bad idea, but it was BAD. Everyone knows how organized and planned I am... This girl is obviously the complete opposite. I wanted to lay everything out on the table and start looking for the first thing on the list and marking as I go. No, she just started grabbing shit from my organized set up and marking it off the list. Then she just started marking shit without checking to see if I had it or not. I was getting surprisingly angry with her over this. She wasn't doing it right the way I wanted. I held my tongue for what seemed like an eternity and snapped. "Look. You're just marking shit off the list and I don't see it here. Half the stuff you've marked off the list isn't what you're putting back into the box." She replied, obviously pissed at me for being such a smart ass. "No, I know I'm doing it right. I do have a kit of my own you know." I was HOT. And for what? I was the smart ass first, but she was being an idiot! She went outside to smoke and left me to myself (Thankfully), low and behold she has marked more than one thing off the list that was not in my kit! Stupid women who think they know everything.

Our kit included a million and one things: A shit ton of combs of all sorts; rat tail, detangling, metal rat tail, wide tooth, taper comb, shear comb, and dozens of each! Six round brushes, paddle brush, scalp brush that is so hard, I would be terrified of using it on a scalp for fear of removing all the scalp while brushing, vent brushes, and other brushes that I have no idea what they are called. Then a roll of brushes and combs. Shears, thinning shears, razor cutters that I am super excited about learning how to use! Different capes, that I cannot figure out the difference in (waterproof cape, hair cutting cape, and shampoo cape) they all look and feel the exact same! Makes no sense. An acrylic set, facial set and brushes, cosmetic kit but no cosmetic brushes, clippers, peanut clippers, clipper guides, spray bottles, mirror, single prong clips, duckbill clips, butterfly clips, double prong clips, curling iron, flat iron, blow dryer with a diffuser, nozzle concentrator and another attachment that I have no idea what it is called, and all the stuff for dying hair and giving pedicures. Whew! Did you get all that?! Wait! There's more! Five mannequins that all have names even. Miss Michelle, two Miss Amerikan, Miss Maria, and the man mannequin named Magnum, and he looks a lot like Jesus; and of course a mannequin stand. The mannequin heads are nasty. Not only do they look drag-esque, but the hair has been super-processed to make it clean. It's grossness. On the upside? We get to decorate them however we want! Helloooooooo Sharpie collection! I'm thinking maybe drag queen. I wonder if I could pull off putting convincing freckles on them? Hmmmm... Unfortunately, because they have been super processed, we cannot use them until their hair has been cut and until they've had a hair dye. Which is two different classes I'm sure and we don't even know when we'll have those classes. Gay!

I mentioned having been missing a few items from our kits, right. First, my mirror was broken, then we were missing single prong clips (which are super important for the class that I am currently in because of all the hairstyles that require them), the clippers, peanut clippers, shampoo cape, and the thermal holder. The students that are in the class with us newbies still had not received the items they were missing from their kits and they've been in school for six weeks now. Not looking promising folks!

By the time we finished with our kits, it was seriously 8:00 and class starts at 5:45. All that time to go through our kits! After all of that we outlined our chapter and started our workbook questions, there are 117 of them. We have our first test on Monday on finger waves and pin curls. Thankfully it's not the practical part of it, because nearly everyone of us would fail! Seems pretty simple and to the point. I got this in the bag! ☺

Night three: On Thursdays and every other Saturday we have a different teacher. Her name is Mrs. Buie (Boo eee). She is an older woman who was a psychologist for years and years while doing hair on the side and decided she wanted to get paid for it and went to school for cosmetology. Because she was a psychologist she had us do a couple activities. One to determine left or right brained-ness, a personality test, and a puzzle. Of course I am extremely left brained. Us left brainers are very organized, punctual, we seek logic and facts rather than instinct or gut feelings. We remember names and we are sequential. The down fall being, we can't figure out why right brainers are the way they are and we don't see "the whole picture" we do it one thing at a time. You right brainers are not organized, you are led by your feelings, have no sense of time and are just random, but you see the whole picture, not just parts!

Then the personality test to determine if we were stringers or groupers. Stringers, simply put, love order and a structured learning environment. They are list makers, plan every detail, etc. (left brained) Groupers are very general. They like to learn a little bit of everything and can easily get distracted by other more interesting subject matter. They plan things in a broader aspect and usually do it all in their head instead of on paper.(right brained) Anybody wanna hazard a guess as to what I am? I am a Stringer.

We did an exercise where the Groupers (5 of them) formed a group and the Stringers (2 of us)(Only had 7 students show up last night) formed groups and we had to plan a vacation. We had to figure out where we were going, how we were getting there, what we were going to do and what we needed to bring.Not unexpectedly, Us Stringers made detailed lists and chose one location (France) and chose many activities (water sports, canal cruises, hiking, wine tours, cuisine, Disneyland Resort Paris (which I did not know about until my partner, the only other stringer, told me about it), Normandy, learning the language, museums, etc. We literally had a million activities planned. We were gonna make it worth it!). The poor Groupers chose 3 countries, 3 modes of getting to them, alcohol (Apparently my classmates are a bunch of lushes =Þ) and one other activity was planned for each location. And it was all listed in pictures. Guess they really are broad-spectrum thinkers, huh? Lol

Then we did a puzzle. Mrs. Buie handed out two pictures of horses and then one picture that had two jockeys. The puzzle was to rearrange the pieces so the jockeys were riding the horses the correct way.Here's a picture of them:

First instinct might be to solve it this way:

But that is incorrect because the jockeys must be riding on the back of the horses, not the underside of the belly. I also tried doing it this way, and that clearly doesn't work either:

 So THIS

would be your solution. It took me a while to get it.

Then we went on break and came back to an empty classroom. Mrs. Buie walked by and told us she was cutting two of her friends' hair and told us to sit tight. What the hell? So we're just supposed to sit here while you cut two people's hair? She comes back with two women and her hair cutting supplies. There were students working on the floor so she had to bring them to the classroom. Both ladies have been getting their hair cut by Mrs. Buie alone for 26 years! I hope to have loyal clients like that some day! The younger woman had really long, heavy hair. She was going to cut it all off! I was super excited! He hair was pretty, but it just weighed her down and made her look old and tired. She ended up cutting off 15 inches! It looks SOOOOOO fucking cute! I wish I had taken before and after pictures! Tee-hee. Maybe Mrs. Buie will be getting another client... ME. Tee-hee.

Okay... This blog is already ridiculously long, so I'm going to end it there. Saturday mornings I have class from 8:30a-2:30p and it's supposed to be all practical work. So pin curls and finger waves for six whole hours! Lovely!

Until next time...

-Jaclyn-

In The Beginning

So... My first night of cosmetology was last night. I am attending Blue Cliff College for Cosmetology. The school has an excellent reputation. The staff seems to be the most wonderful, friendly people alive, minus one of the receptionists... She seems a little snooty... Maybe I can change her? Bwahahaha! The atmosphere is the best and the people there are amazing (I think I already said that, but they really are! ☺).

The first night was a little nerve-wracking. I usually don't get very nervous about meeting new people and whatnot, but my nerves definitely got a hold of me last night. Only three cosmetology students were enrolled at the time of orientation, so I was already confused on how the class situation was going to be. I mean, a class of only three students? I got to the school with only five minutes to spare because I felt the need to spend too much time with Jonathan before I left since he got home almost three hours later than usual since he has to replace a mechanic for the next week. There were four of us in the waiting area, so we got an extra student! Robyn (one of the receptionist, not the snoot. =P) took us to our classroom and there were seven others in there. So we actually have 11 students. Awesome! Then I find out that they're not new students, they started in May. So I got even more confused about the teaching arrangement. I asked Kimberly, one of the older students who actually worked with one of Jonathan's coworkers for quite a few years, and she tells me that they actually took a different class when they started in May, which is supposed to be the class after this one. So far I'm definitely not digging their scheduling/teaching situation, but we'll see how it all works out.

Class started with covering all the legal mumbo-jumbo required by the state and THREE PAGES on attitude! Poems, book excerpts, definitions, everything attitude. I get it already! Sheesh! That took up most of the night. We have not yet gotten our kits yet, but supposed to tonight. They have started a new rule with the kits too. Used to be that you could take your kits home with you the day/night you got them, but now, they have to stay at the school for 30 days before you can. Supposedly it's because of all the people they have that drop before the 30 days when the school gets their money and then the students are not returning their kits, so they're basically stealing from the school. Kinda crappy, but it is what it is.

There are two men in our class of 11. One is Vietnamese, a little difficult to understand, but super nice and rumor has it, great with hair. The other is a tall black man who seems to be rather quiet. He has two daughters (I think?) and is a single father. The women are hilarious and I love every one of them already. We laughed ALL. NIGHT. LONG. It was really great! I can only imagine some of the conversations we'll have. My instructor is a real hoot too. I think I'm going to enjoy this!

With the remaining time we learned to do pin curls. I'm loving this hands-on stuff!☺It's a crazy process that involves LOADS of hair gel and no slip grip fingertips! I'll definitely post pictures when I get good at it! Tee-hee. Since the school does not have a janitorial staff, we have to use the remainder of our time to clean the building. The men usually take out the trash and clean the restrooms while the women sweep and mop the classrooms and the salon and basically any 'housekeeping'. Not as bad as it sounds. Really.

Thus ended my first night in class.

─Jaclyn─