Beauty school drop out....

....sike! But this DOES get sung around the house ohhhh almost every day.... :) Eric Fisher Academy = AMAZING! I have loved every minute so far! Well except all the safety and chemical lectures....BUT...I am a week away from the salon floor and have made it through these last 10 weeks! SOOO many tests! I don't even remember studying this much in college! Every 10 weeks you get placed in a new phase and this is my last week in the first phase, so a week from this Tuesday, I will be taking clients! YAY! We have learned SO much and I am ready to put it to use for sure. Just a few quick updates are:

1. This is my class! There are 16 of us, and that is great, because usually they have around 30 and we get lots of attention! They are a crazy, but entertaining bunch:)

2. This is Dani...she is my "BFF" in the class and I think Jesus sent me her to give me sanity throughout every day:) LOVE THIS GIRL (she is the one on the left) She is super artsy and has tattoos and cool hair and is so everything I am not brave enough to rock haha. We get along great and laugh a lot.

3. We had a crazy 80s day at school....enough said there.

4. We did a whole week of fun with up-dos and they are my new fave!!!! We learned so many cool techniques and I wish I had an up-do every day to play around with. They can be stressful under time constraints, but the pressure really makes you think and find solutions and sometimes you end up with the best stuff under pressure! One time we were all just fooling around and I did this up-do...not sure how I came up with it or if anyone besides a crazy runway show would even rock it, but whether it is pleasing to your eye or not....this is what happened when someone gave us a free hr, a back-combing brush, and a few bobby pins:)

We also did an up-do contest with categories that the whole school voted on...and I didn't really think mine fit into any of the categories given, but I ended up getting voted for 1st place in the Bridal category! I was really shocked...but I was super happy to see others liked what I had done. I actually had this whole other thing planned out that was sorta crazy, spunky-like, but I almost had a nervous breakdown half way through and did this in the last hour of the three we were given...ha! It was a fun experience:) I learned about myself that I love doing big dramatic up-dos that every day proms or brides probably wouldn't necessarily want, but they taught us a lot about doing dramatic ones and also toning them down for every day events.

d

5. We did our first all over REAL highlight yesterday! Not on a real person yet, but with real product that did real changes to the hair! It was awesome to see actual changes in the hair that I made happen! We get to do our first real client hair color this Saturday, and Chance's sister is coming in for me to do hers! Here is my first official color process of my career!!...

6. I STILL have an amazing husband of 8 months now who has been nothing but supportive in every way through this entire 10 weeks! We are hardly crossing paths it seems, because the other update is that I am in fact serving at Chili's a few nights a week to help with money. It definitely doesn't put a huge dent in any bills, but it gets us gas or an extra date night or socks or something;) It is so weird to be college educated, in full time school, and working part time....I feel pretty weird waiting tables and talking to tables who probably think I am 18 with no life or something...but hey, I love serving and I am dang good at it! So....back to husbandly things, he is still helping me study, going to get me any snack on nights where I am stressed, and definitely nightly foot rubs:) I even came home to flowers a few times when weeks were hard...Love this man! I know Jesus put us together every day for amazing reasons.....and I couldn't make it through school without him.

7. YES I did cut my long locks...not too short, but short for me! My teacher ended up talking me into it actually...she had done some of the others girls' hair and I was definitely impressed with her techniques and ability to give each person a personalized styled cut. I gave in and there went 7 inches! I thought I would cry...or miss it...or something...but I actually LOVE IT! I didn't tell Chance I did it, and he was so surprised when I came home! He told me he loved it and he definitely likes the change. It isn't shorter because I am a newlywed...and it's not shorter just because I am in hair school:)...It has been a blast doing something new and the long hair wasn't doing much for me regardless. It is a little shorter in the back than in the front, and I can still put it up in a ponytail. I had never had a different style, so I am loving the idea of getting to try new things. This is a horrible picture I know, but I haven't had the chance to get a good side picture or anything when it looks better....I've been so busy! But the general idea hopefully you can see and I'll put up more later. The other picture is me saying goodbye to my longer hair a few minutes before she cut it. Had to get one "before" pic!

So that is the current update on hair school! I am sure I will have lots more stories once I start taking clients, but I have had zero doubts so far so that is encouraging! I am also super pumped because one of my dear friends asked me today to do her wedding hair and all 7 bridesmaids!!! I am so excited and honored she asked...I love that I love what I do and can't wait to learn more!

Chance being husbandish

...again! Chance and I both agreed to not do Valentine's day celebrations since I did the office for us, but when I came home from school on the 14th, Chance had a little surprise for me:) He got me this HUGE hot pink froggy to snuggle with, chocolates, and flowers. I love that he understands it's the small things that make my heart so happy. He also got us balcony seats for the movie "The Vow" at the Warren, which is super special, because you sit in this special balcony part with huge heated loveseats and servers come get your order for popcorn, pop, candy, or actual food with a press of a button at your seat. Fancy, right?! :) He also got me two love movies that had the actors in them that are in "The Vow" so that I could "get my fix" of them until the movie the next day. So he got one movie with Channing Tatum and one with Rachel McAdams. HA! It was pretty cute. Look at the set up he had!

So our first married Valentine's was really special, and honestly this whole month of February has been really exciting and has had me on my knees thanking Jesus for all the opportunities He has presented me with. I am so happy that Jesus created marriage, because sharing my life with Chance has been the most amazing thing yet. On a side note...the dogs NEVER pay attention to the TV. Occasionally if there are dogs barking, they look around, but pretty much they are oblivious to the goings-on. Chance and I were watching the dog show the other night and even though there was no barking or anything, Beast happened to catch the TV in his sight, and parked himself in front of the screen for the entirety of the show. If we changed the channel, he walked away, and when we turned back, he'd wander back over and stare straight up at the screen. It was the cutest thing I ever saw! I took a video of it, but it's too hard to post it because it is too big. But here is a picture. His head would follow the dogs back and forth as the owners trotted them around. HA! Maybe we was looking for a girlfriend;)

It reminded me of this from 101 Dalmations:)

Birthday shenanigans!

Chance and I decided that since I started school on the 13th, we would cram birthday AND Valentine's Day into the couple weeks before school. Here's the breakdown: First weekend in February, Chance's parents came to Wichita and took Chance and me to the casino! They enjoy getting away from the business and we enjoy seeing them! It was a blast. We went to Old Chicago for some pizza and then headed down to the new casino in Mulvane. It seems strange to say that we like going there. Not in a "trashy-waste-money" sort of way, we have only been twice...but we like to go when we actually have a little extra money. Usually we just take what we would for a normal date and when it's gone, it's gone....so no worries all of you worriers about finances! We stick to our guns:) Anyway, long story short, Chance and I both won the exact same amount of money! I mean, I TOLD him to sit down at a certain slot machine and he DID win on the one I told him to play on...but I guess he still can call it "his win." ;) I was feeling down about him winning more than me (we are a little too competitive) and I decided before we left I'd sit down at a machine. Well we both won within a dollar of each other! His dad said we better leave after we both won the same so we wouldn't fight or lose it! Haha! It was a huge success and I think the casino knew it was my fake birthday because we all walked away happy. Chance's parents stayed overnight at a nearby hotel and we went out to to eat at a yummy mexican place for dinner. We were hoping to go out somewhere that night, but we were all SO EXHAUSTED we all went to bed! Yikes....I guess 24 is feeling older than I expected. Casino night=awesome!

So that was the first weekend. Then we had the second weekend in February! Mom made us a YUMMY dinner of my always requested homemade meatballs. I have always chosen them since I was a kid and I've never had better! We had mom, dad, kathy, cheryl, dick, and chance at the table and talked over wine and comfort food for hours. My mom really knows how to throw a special birthday dinner! Mom went shopping with me and got me a whole new wardrobe of all black for my dress code at hair school....food AND shopping?...Does a girl need more?...Thanks, mom and dad! Oh and she ALSO made two whole Nestle Tollhouse pies...OH MY GOODNESS ARE THEY AMAZING! Chance really outdid himself this year. He is so so so great at things like this I honestly don't always know what to say about his thoughtfulness. When the Lord created him, He must have known what kind of husband I needed and wanted, because Chance has been over-the-top precious to me since day one. My birthday was no exception. I started school on Monday the 13th, and I had school on my birthday, Saturday the 18th. He drove all the way over to the West side of town to put a sweet card in my car for me to find after school. THEN when I got home he had quite the set up waiting for me. The theme you ask?....An apartment sized re-creation of our honeymoon in Jamaica. Ya. I always pride myself on being awesome at gifts and surprises, but I think he won this round. WOW. He had my Jamaican colored sarong hanging on the mirror, a beach scene on the wall, palm trees all over, Bob Marley playing in the background, our honeymoon pictures on the TV, and to top off all the decorations....he had all our favorite random snack foods from Sandals ready for dinner. Keep in mind that our favorite snack foods from our honeymoon were NOT the dinners or other fancy foods...NO WAY. Our favorite foods were the ones only available after midnight...like gross chips and cold fries with flavorless cheese sauce, jerk chicken wings, and the pizza from the grill that was no pizza hut for sure. Don't judge. We STILL crave those things you can only get beach side at 2 am. Chance had all those things! Not to mention he had the only beer available at Sandals in Jamaica....Red Stripe! I always got a side of red with my beer when we were at the pool, so Chance even got tomato juice for me to have with my beer. AH! It was so sweet. We both snacked and ate and talked about all our favorite things and people we missed in Jamaica and it was emotional and amazing. Chance also got me a present for my birthday! He got me an Express shirt, Express scarf (BOTH of which I would have picked out myself!), a Rhianna CD, and a brand new MAC make up brush for my collection!!! Does the perfect husband go check with his wife's make up lady at the MAC counter to check to see which one I need next? Yes, yes he does. I was beyond floored and let's just say I had a great three weeks of birthdays! I am too blessed with BOTH my immediate family, my in-law family, and my current little family with two pups and a rockin' husband. Thank you Jesus for these last 24 years!

C

Valentine's day...a little early

Well we celebrated Vday a little early this year. Mostly because hair school starts on the 13th and I don't want to be cramming a holiday into my first week of school. Also because my birthday is on the 18th and is NOT to be combined with Valentine's celebrations:) I'm a little greedy when it comes to my birthday and I suppose I married the right man because he loves birthdays too! Anyway, I kept telling Chance that he was not allowed to get me anything for Vday, because I was spending extra $ to get him a bigger gift that also sort of benefited me, so he obliged. I had to throw out lots of hints to throw him off course, because he secretly likes to try to guess what the gift is and ruin it for me...so I didn't want any close guesses. We have a two bedroom apartment, and the 2nd bedroom has just been sort of where we put his video games and the dog kennels. We always talked about it being an office for him, but never had the time or energy. Well since I quit my job, guess who has time and energy! I told him I was going to keep his gift in my closet but that it was too big to fit so that's how I kept him out the 2nd bedroom while I plotted my room. I love love love to shop around... and my bestie Erin, thankfully, loves to shop around as well. She's super mom, because she totes her baby girl around with us and lets her walk around the store and shop with us all while talking to me about our personal lives in the middle of TJ Maxx, and can see an awesome lamp or frame from a mile away (often even on clearance!)...all this at the same time. Awesome best friend, right? So since she works part time, we had some days to spend with each other roaming around to hobby lobby, tj, world market, target, etc. looking for the perfect items for my room. It all started with these pillows: they were the perfect colors for his office...not too girly, but not too man cave-ish, and warm and homey feeling to me.

The papasan chair is actually from my old house, I bought it from Pier One when I was in high school! I totally thought I would be all cool and study in it and it just ended up being where I threw clothes options all the time. I think I slept in it like once. So needless to say it hasn't been used much. So I stole it from my parents house and brought it over to use for a corner study area for me for the room. Basically the rest was just searching all over trying to find just the right frames, candles, or other decor to get the room ready for Chance. I'm guessing most people don't care where I found things, so I won't list all that out, but it was an adventure of going to the west side stores, then east side stores, then back again, then waiting for things to go on sale...etc. I will just put up all the pictures and give a few shout outs along the way:) I got little chalk board tags to put the puppies' names on for their kennel, a little wooden storage crate for their toys, also with a chalkboard front, and a container for their dog food so we don't have a huge bag sitting around. Not sure why I had an obsession with chalk board stuff, but it just kept happening and I was ok with it.

I was also pretty pumped to get our first wedding picture printed....and in an 18x24! Startin' big!

A few special pieces: Chance had this old computer hard drive that he had shot several times when he was mad at an old computer one time and when I tried to throw it away he told me "No you can't throw it out." Me- "Why?" Chance- "Cuz I have to keep it around to show other computers who's boss...it's like nerd cred..." SOOO...I found a cool shadow box and mounted in on some patterned paper I got at hobby lobby with epoxy and hung it for all other computers to see:)

I also used his old video game holder (which was black and cheap) as a tiny book case type thing and spray painted it brown to match the rest of the room. I was on a small budget, so I had to use a lot of what we had so I could afford things like the desk and chair and frame. I put his two custom discs on it, because he will never actually use them he told me, since they are special and he doesn't want to lose one in the water. One is a "groom" one I got him when we were planning the wedding and the other one I gave him on our wedding day. I also put a few tv dvd collections he had on the shelves, and a plaque we got in Jamaica, accompanied with a few honeymoon pictures for us to day dream about.

The lamp: We actually got this lamp about a year ago because we both loved it and it was on sale, but we obviously never used it...it just sat next to the dog kennels. Erin and I have been Pinterest junkies so we decided to glue buttons on the lamp shade:) Don't even ask about all the projects we ALMOST did and then ditched.

I hung baskets to use for bills or any other papers that Chance might want to keep around...and again with the chalk board pieces, haha:) I got this one just for writing fun messages to each other.

No office is complete without an "I love you" paperweight:)

Chance's parents actually had this at their house, it's one of those pieces where someone takes pictures of things in nature that resemble letters and it spells your name or whatever. I commented on it when we were visiting once and Chance liked it lots and his mom was kind enough to let us use it here! They are entirely too nice! So I spray painted the frame to match the shelves because it was black before and just didn't look right in the room, but I'm so glad we were able to use it! It reminds us of Ellinwood home and gives us warm fuzzies:)

I also wanted this room for Chance because we just sat down and REALLY budgeted our finances since I will be starting school soon and we needed a legit plan...so I made him this make shift checklist he can use every month to check off our bills. I just got some cork board from Target and some card stock and some push pins and drew some not so perfect lines 30 minutes before Chance got home from work that day:)

I lit some candles and made a tiny path to the room so Chance could open his "gift" and we spent forever talking about each thing and sitting around in the room enjoying the weekend:) Chance loved hooking up his desktop and the puppies hung around with us too. It's so nice to have more "sitting around" space in the apartment! Chance was really excited and I am so happy he liked it! I guess when you get married, it's totally ok to do gifts like this for each other and not pathetic that we liked it way more than normal gifts...right???....right??? Happy first married Valentine's Day!!!

PS I had to throw in this picture of the pups because they were totally posing for me! I couldn't recreate this if I tried! :)