Welcome to Thoughts From A Down-To-Earth Girl
When will I ever learn? If you want your hair to look good, sometimes you have to bite the bullet and pay someone for their help.
Several years ago, I made a major hair color mistake. I am a natural blond who decided to try to go black. This process was a nightmare as I attempted to do the transformation myself. After several boxes of color, having gray hair, etc., I finally got the black that I was trying to achieve. Unfortunately, I did not like it on me and decided to change it back ----that day. The trek going back from black to blond was even worse than my dying experience before. By the end of the day, I think I had done my hair a good 8-10 times. It's a wonder I had any hair left. I did seek the help of a Sally's Beauty Supply expert who guided me to fix all my errors. I vowed never to do that again.
Well, my vow did not last and this April, I decided to go from blond to medium dark brown. The process was not real difficult and after attempting a few different shades, I was happy and everyone seemed to like the new me.
The new me lasted about 3 months, until the other day when I decided to go back to blond. Did I go pay a professional to help me make the transition painless? NOOOOOO! Instead, I thought I could save money and do it myself. By the time I was through, however, I had spent about what I would have at a salon. I tried to remember all of my mistakes from before, but still went through about 4 processes, before I went to Sally's again and got some final advice. I went from brown to light brown, to orange to orange to red and then finally my roots went to very yellow and the rest of my hair is a dirty blond with a little strawberry in it. But, rest assured, throughout the process, I did use a very good conditioner.
Am I happy? No! But, I will live with it for a month and I hope by then, my hair will be healed and I can finally achieve the blond that I want. Did I learn my lesson? Yeah, because I HATE hearing my husband say "I TOLD YOU SO" over and over again. lol
Well, I did a total of about 10 Wii Active workouts spaced over a period of about a week and a half to two weeks. The workouts made me sweat, they made me feel like I was getting a full body workout and they made me build muscle. I actually gained weight (muscle) and that made me frustrated. However, I would have kept doing the 30-day challenge had I not hurt my ankle(s). The last couple workouts that I did, I began experiencing pain primarily in my right ankle, but both ankles hurt. The right ankle began to swell and I had to stop the workouts. It took about two weeks for it to heal. I believe that the carpet in my living room has poor padding underneath, and with the jumping and the running in place the exercise requires, it caused the sprain. I am contiplating buying a yoga mat or an exercise mat to see if this will help. I have not taken the step yet, since I have been on vacation and focusing on my Weight Watchers plan.
My suggestion if you are going to do Wii Active? Make sure you have ankle support, proper floor cushioning and be ready to sweat!
Okay, this sign is completely outdated!!!! I saw this on my way to work this morning and HAD to make a comment. Come on people, let's be politically correct and redo the sign to say, "CREW WORKING". Get 'er done!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of my Face Book buddies has been talking about the Wii Active 30-Day Challenge that she has begun. If you are like me, I was unaware of such a thing. I have a Wii and I have Wii Fit, (see my previous post) but I had not heard of the Active.
After about three days of reading her thoughts and experiences with Wii Active, and doing some research, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and purchase the disc. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. After the first day of workout, I was sore. It was a full body workout, done at medium intensity, for about 23 minutes. There was a wide variety of activities that were all pretty fun. The hardest I would have to say was the Inline Skating workout, where you have to squat down, hold the position and then jump up. Boy, that kicked my butt! The morning of my second workout, I was pretty sore and hoped the personal trainer that is in the video would take it easy on me. No such luck! The second day's activities were more difficult and focused on squats and lunges and some upper body. And to top it all off, the workout was longer by about 5 minutes. When I was finally done, I was relieved that I was allowed a rest day today.
So, tomorrow, Tuesday, starts my third day of the 30-day challenge. I will keep you posted every few days and let you know how it's going. According to the testimonials from the website, people who have completed the challenge have not only lost a lot of weight, but also a lot of inches. Stay tuned....
I have been visiting Facebook everyday now for the last several months. I am keeping in touch with old classmates from high school as well as relatives from in and out of state. It's also a great way to build friendships with people I am casually acquainted with.
FB offers picture and video posting. Many of my classmates from high school have posted pictures from back in the day. One guy, Anthony, carried a video camera around school the whole last day of Senior year and captured a lot of great video footage. High school came back to me and started filling my mind with memories. After 20 years, my memory is pretty shot! lol
These memories made me realize something. I thought of myself as a good kid. I didn't drink, smoke, do drugs or party. I never got in trouble and I worried about everything, including the future. Many of the pictures and videos I saw were all of the "party" crowd. It started me thinking that it looked like they had lots of fun being "teenagers". At the time, I looked down my nose at them because they were crazy and not responsible. Plus, I didn't want to get in trouble. I realize that even though I was friends with a lot of people, I missed out on a lot of growing that should have happened back then. Even though those kids did things that they should have got in trouble for, maybe that's what I needed to experience. Instead, I kept busy with school, planning my upcoming wedding and staying involved with Drama. Don't get me wrong, I still went out and did stuff, like cruising and going to movies, etc. But I didn't do the stuff that now looks so fun to me now. Maybe my life would have been different had I been wild and crazy at 17 instead of waiting until my quarter life crisis at 31. I don't know and I guess I will never know. But I am curious how those "crazy kids" are now. Do they still party all the time? What kind of parents are they?
Perhaps I will push my kids to be a little "crazy" during school and not be so hard on them. I know I will encourage them to "have fun" and "be a kid" a little more.
"Who is Wolverine?" This is what I asked my husband when he suggested we go see the movie. I am not much into these kinds of movies, as I have not seen any of the X-Men shows. After some explanation and some guilt for always asking him to see my movies, I agreed to see Wolverine. Much to my surprise, I really liked the movie. It was easy to follow, action packed and it left me wanting to watch more. It's my understanding that because I have seen Wolverine, I will understand X-Men better than had I not seen it. So, I think I will watch some movies this weekend.
Well, I decided to dust off the cobwebs and re-visit my blog and maybe invest a little time. It's funny, since I have been gone, my blog actually had some visitors. So, after taking a little break, I will begin to blog again. I will not get wrapped up in the social networking necessary to have a successful blog, but I will use it the way I see fit and that it is to be creative and share my views and thoughts. Stay tuned....
