My Baby Amaryllis Growing!

That's basically it.

I just wanted to show you.

(A big thanks to Erin for babysitting my Amaryllis

during the holidays

and putting it in the room she is shares with me

so it could have light!)

Exciting New Developments Afoot!

A couple of nights ago I thought that

what would be even more fun for you

than just me

talking about me

was hearing and seeing what my cherished sisters

are up to, in their own words.

We'll see what develops from the invitation

I've given them to blog along with me!

Happily Ever After

Once upon a time a young servant girl went to a party where she left

one of her glass slippers behind.

Luckily the Prince found it, brought it back to her,

and asked her to be his wife.

Which is proof that the right pair of shoes really can

change your life!

I'm a Mother!

This bulb is my Amaryllis baby! Linda gave it to me!

I get to raise it to be a beautiful flower in eight weeks.

Like hers.
Awww. Isn't is precious.
The flowers are short-lived
but I get to give it a two week break
and start raising a flower from the same bulb all over again.
I will probably show you pictures of my baby flower as it grows.

Henna Party

Dreams come true. At least last night this one did for me.

Erin is doing a gorgeous henna design on my feet.

And this is the work of beauty that

I get to keep.

Delicious!

Yesterday I had an Indian Food feast courtesy of Erin and Linda! It was fantastic. That's buttered chicken in the back, made with whipping cream and butter. Scrumptious! In the jar is gooseberry and spices. I have to say I'm a fan. I think a major contributor to what makes Indian food so great is its spices. I'm sure there's more to it than that. Erin is sharing her recipes with me, so I can enjoy this food again. And hopefully share them with you! Yes, this is the same Erin who does henna art. As displayed in the above post! We had so much fun last night!

Its Beautiful Here!

Its all so magical!

I just come home like I usually do and since December, there have been beautiful new additions to the house! These are just a few of the festive sights I get to be surrounded by.

A red Amaryllis! In bloom! Spectacular!
Isn't Linda amazing!
(Linda's the one who makes Christmas magic happen around here.
And the one who makes sure I'm dressed warmly before I walk to school.
And gives me a ride to school in freezing freezing cold,
And shows me where to get the best hot chocolate so I arrive at school
Toasty Warm.
And feeds me warm nutritious healthy delicious soup.)
When I grow up I want to be like that.

Laughing!

My new favorite thing right now is livershiver's Brain Regan enactments. On youtube. So funny! It makes me want to give my future teenage son a video camera ...or give it to him when he's younger so he can go pro like those guys. The best ones are Whale Noises, Peanut Butter and Jelly and Poptarts.
I love that we can do that! Make our own movies ... and CDs! I heard that The Band recorded itself in Whitecourt. I really want to hear you guys! Really Really Really Really! You are my favorite group.

Some of the Services We Offer

I wanted to show you my toes! Jaydee did them. We used Rachelle's little hearts and made flowers with them. We did them like artificial nails except just put them on top of my real nail. So Partying right! Yes, I can totally do yours! I'll just bring my UV lamp and gel and sparkly things and we are set!
At school we learned about tints, hues and shades and the color wheel. We painted with poster paint all morning making different colors. Tomorrow we are drawing faces and shading and contouring. It takes one back to the days when I was a lot shorter. I think I remember doing this in Grade Three. Is that when everyone else did this stuff in Art?

Priceless

Silver Puffy Jacket: $4

Black and Silver Puffy Boots: $5

Insoles for the Puffy Boots: $12

Duct Tape for the Puffy Boots: $3

A Second Roll of Duct Tape for the Puffy Boots: $3

*Walking through the Woods

On the First Morning it Snowed:

Priceless!

*Thanks for the tip Benjamin!

This is My Family Whom Together We Have It All

Okay Guys,

I did a personality analysis at school yesterday and it said that people probably have problems with me seeming self-centered. As well as being too impulsive and a risk-taker. (I look at the blog entry just before this one and realize its embarrassingly obvious. I sound like all I want is flattery.)
Those who know me better could tell you that I am also a big fan of chocolate. Oh - and kittens! I am such a sucker for little fluffy kittens! With their big blue eyes...
The personality test...so the label I was given was Energizer. If I go into much more detail I might come off sounding,... you know...
But it says what I appreciate about you is that you also care about people and are willing to listen to them.
That you are appreciative and willing to be motivated and inspired by me! ( Its true, that really means a lot!)
I also appreciate how you have the ability to focus on tasks, to see projects right to the end of completion, to handle the details using logic, reason and consistency.
All very elusive and magical to me.
You have powers I can only dream about.
It says I have a hard time when I have to focus on details, facts and figures since I would rather be talking and creating.
And that "the Energizer has a hard time when the Analyzer does not laugh at the Energizer's jokes or seem won over by the Energizer's charming ways."
But the Energizer has been thinking that the things she likes the Analyzer's ways - Figuring things out! Understanding how things work! Understanding the need to follow rules, planning and setting Goals!
Working Diligently! Structure! Order! Predictability! Those are things I love about you! A lot! As we say at school " We may not have it all together - but together we have it all."

An Update From Your Friend

So how are you doing? How's life? What's going on? What's new?

Me? I watched the Red Deer Christmas Parade and had hot chocolate while listening to a choir sing Christmas Carols in the balcony of City Hall. I found my true love.

Doing facials is my true love. I incorporate six different massages and spend an hour or two helping people relax while providing nourishment their skin. They come out changed people. Refreshed, understood, loved, capable, and ready to tackle life some more. Caring, capable human touch is so healing, and I think necessary. When I see the difference in my clients I feel like the world is a little better place because I gave a facial. I know it sounds superficial - but my clients are people who do a lot of caring work and as I lift them, everyone they influence gets better care. All they needed was to pause and regenerate. I think that's what I would like to mainly do when I am done here at school.

Emily Dickinson Rocks My Socks

If I can stop one heart the aching

Or cool one pain

Or help one fainting robin

Into his nest again

I shall not have lived in vain.

Confidential. Girls Only. Will Only Bore You if You are Not a Girl.

So I went shopping on Saturday for Snow Apparel and I found the cutest red jacket! Its got ruffles and buttons to excess. When you see it I know you will love it and want to borrow it and I will totally let you. (Cute clothes are made to be shared.)

Oh, and the Snow Outfit I got I love. I got this silver puffy jacket and puffy silver boots - so cute! And then I got this cute pinky-purple neck warmer and scarf. I wish it would snow!

I wear the scarf and jacket everywhere. The red jacket and purple scarf remind me of something...

Warning

by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick flowers in other people's gardens

And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go

Or only bread and pickle for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Doesn't It Give You Tingles!

This! In only two and a half hours! Yesturday!

Sweet Stuff, huh!

So Pretty!

Her Hand

This is what it looks like after the henna paste washes off. Gorgeous!

Lo and Behold!

I came home from the Edmonton Temple today and saw these feet on the living room floor. I asked the girl who owns them if I could take a picture so you could be as impressed as I was. The girl is an artist who is busy with a professional career in Calgary and she is just home for the weekend visiting her Mom. If you remember the pictures of me looking very tired, the blue and green striped wall she designed and painted. And you can see a bit of her lighthouse painting in the picture behind me on the posting just before this one. I know she is going to be adored for her art by the masses. The historical pattern dictates that she will never be able to personally benefit financially from becoming known as one our Greats.

She may, however, be able to thwart the statics "which have been put down for our guidance" (as we learn from the play The Importance of Being Ernest) by using henna. She can garner $100 a client!

This angel has offered me a weekend apprenticeship! So I can offer it as a service in my spa! The people that use henna religiously or traditionally will be able to benefit from my knowledge and skill, my friends and family that I buy Christmas presents for will benefit, and anyone else who wants pretty pictures painted on them but are afraid of needles, HIV, or Tattoo Artists.

So what about you guys? See anything interesting you want to tell us about? Did Halloween have any interesting sights where you were?

Here You Go!

So in school we aren't taking care of clients at the spa, we are in class memorizing the Latin names for everything in the body. All the systems, muscles, nerves, bones, and layers of the skin, every kind of skin lesion or disease. I think its just in case one of us wants to challenge the nursing exam later. Very thoughtful of them. But we are all baked! I wanted to share something with you but where I've been eating, sleeping and studying, this poem came to mind by Emily Dickinson;

"They might not need me; But they might.

I'll let my head be just in sight;

a smile as small as mine might be

precisely their necessity.”

My Walk to School Every Morning

If you are wondering how I handle school.This is my morning path to school from home.


Every morning and afternoon I pause here and am filled with awe.
It keeps going and is so satisfying to my soul.
It puts the rest of my day in perspective.
Like the poem about trees that I will only quote a piece of,

" I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree...
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray
Poems are made by fools like me
But only God could make a tree."

The Rules At School

Sometimes girls come to school and get sent right to the make-up corner
Their make-up isn't...

Flashy enough.

So they all try hard to please the teacher.

And to make a good impression on clients.

Let them know that we are people who care about our appearance.

Or This?

Is this maybe the Natural Look? The End of the Week Look, after I've watched two Feel-Good movies and had a nourishing supper of popcorn and an egg and mushroom omelet. But there are no guys around so I guess we'll never know. But the movies were awesome, a Cat Stevens music DVD from 1976 and his interview in 2006 about his life and conversion to Islam. The other movie was produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. The 11th Hour - Turn Mankind's Darkest Hour Into Its Finest. And I think we will. We have the technology to be good to the earth and provide well for ourselves. My favorite part was when David Suzuki bashfully admitted that after all his research and thinking, the answer to our global crisis is love. The guy after him said that first we love ourselves and then we love where we live. And we love each other more and Things less. When we buy less Things, we work less hours and have more time for each other. And we are happy. Nothing can replace our relationships with God, nature and each other. That's why I'm glad I have you! And you know its true because you are one of the specially selected people that read this. You are in my circle of love. Thank-you for being here and being the you that I love so much!

The Natural Look

This is what we did at school today. I was Mother Earth. There was Night Sky, a black and white cat, a girl with half her face like a geisha and the other half like a man. (I also did a couple of pedicures and a waxing, but this was fun.) The best part was walking home from school and seeing the looks of envy from the women who stopped me to find out how I did my make-up, and the chuckles of the guys who came up with all kinds of funny things to say. "Looks like you got in a fight with a line-backer and ended up with some of the football field on your face!" "Hey, you should really get that checked out!" "Getting ready for Halloween!" "Looks like a bird's nest ran into your face."

I thought they were clever. I started using them as explanations to the women I passed later on. "Well, Halloween coming, etc." But they didn't even listen, they just drooled. True? If you are a girl is there a little part in you that wants some glamorous make-up with jewels and tree branches stuck to your face? And if you are a guy, did you just think of an even better comment than the ones I got on the way home from school? (Another lesson we learn from this) - and guys, stop reading, this is girl talk now - I mean it, no peeking! (Okay, what we learn here women, is that guys really do notice when you put a lot of effort into your appearance. And they really do like the Natural Look. How many times have you heard guys say that they like The Natural Look. I had moss glued to my face and guys were talking to me and making me laugh, ... Downtown Red Deer a guy practically stopped traffic to have a friendly banter. Wait! I'm sorry, I just noticed a guy reading)

Stop it! This is a private Girl Conversation!

(Okay I'm back, the point is we should really be applying natural things to our faces if we want guys to notice us. Not just notice, but play and talk and make jokes ... make jokes ... about us?

Wait, maybe I should re-think this. I'll get back to you. We will continue this conversation!)

Today we simultaneously celebrated the 80's and Thanksgiving at school.

I brought garlic mashed potatoes for the potluck and I dressed up a little. My teacher took one look at me and shook her head. "Don't worry, we'll have one of the girls do your make-up. " She was so pleased with the final outcome.
Yes, that mark on my cheek is where one of the girls kissed me. The teacher had kisses on both cheeks. The rest of us just had one. And this is how I looked for the rest of the day. This is how I looked picking up yogurt in Safeway. The sales clerk looked like she wanted me to explain myself, and didn't know how to ask. There is no explanation. I live in Girl World Gone Wild! For the potuck it was some turkey,mashed potatoes, gravy, buns and vegetables - but mostly it nacho platters and brownies. Thick moist gooey brownies with decadant fudge toppings and sprinkles. Looking at the dessert table I was surprised at all the ways a person could incorporate chocolate into food. And when we were done eating we just left and went back to playing with make-up!

The Corn Maze!

I got lost in Lacombe after school today. I thought if I followed the directions in the corn maze I would make it safely through. But it was designed for people to walk around confused yet hopeful, only to realize they guessed wrong again. And it is fun. Terrance told me.
I didn't find Terrance till it was dark out and I had resorted to telling myself over and over that no one I had heard of had ever died, forgotten and lost in a corn maze.
That at some point it would all be over. Since I was hungry and tired and nervous, I followed my instinct which was to kidnap one of the maze supervisors and make him take me out of there. I had to be tricky about it because I wasn't very strong. On top of that Terrance, the Orange Jacketed Supervisor was 6"9 and Not Scrawny.















I kept chatting with him till he had walked me out. That is the reason I am home safe right now. Not huddled up under some 7 foot tall corn stalks in Lacombe.
Talking, in that instance, may have been the thing that saved my life.


In the maze, the guys in the orange jackets appear like angels from heaven. When it was still light, every time I said, "I sure wish a guy in an orange jacket would come by," Curtis would come around the corner. (He's the one beside Terrance.) He would offer solid advice and give us encouragement and then disappear.
Sometimes I would look up and see him watching over us from the tower.
It was comforting.
So that was how I spent tonight. Getting lost and then rescued.
Thank-you Orange Jacketed Men.
I thank you and all the people that I will give amazing manicures and pedicures to in the future thank you.
Getting me out of that fun corn maze alive was the right thing to do.