Hair update.

I'm finally figuring out my new hair, a whole month later. I do love it, as does everyone else. Just keep the compliments coming!

I was a little stressed when at first, it seemed dry and unmanageable. But through trial and error, I've nailed down the best products for styling it:

1) John Frieda "Sheer Blonder" shampoo (only 2x a week)
2) L'Oreal EverSleek smoothing deep conditioning balm (cone-free and sulfate free, leave in for 5 minutes after shampooing and then rinse)
3) Garnier Fructis Sleek and Shine Flat Iron Perfector (argan oil, misted onto dry hair before flat ironing)

The key is to only wash it and style it twice a week. Any more than that and I'm looking at split ends and frizz up the wazoo. (What does "up the wazoo" mean, anyway? Is it pervy? Probably.)

I remember when I used to think it was gross that my Granny only washed and styled her hair once a week.  She'd freak out if rain was coming and she'd wear a scarf over her head to protect her hair.

Now, I get it.

Hope your Friday has been fun so far. I'm off to teach piano lessons!

The grossest things I can't resist eating.

Have you ever been chowing down on something and then had the thought, "This is so nasty but I can't stop eating it?" If you're a human being, probably. If you're an animal, woof woof chirp chirp meow (I hope you speak English).

But anyway, I was eating some (read: too many) Tootsie Rolls last night when the thought occurred to me that Tootsie Rolls are kind of ... gross. They don't have much flavor and the consistency is a little plasticky. According to Wikipedia, they contain "sugar, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, condensed milk, artificial cocoa flavoring, whey, soy lecithin, orange extract, and natural and artificial flavors." The first three ingredients are HUGE nutritional no-no's (partially hydrogenated ANYTHING = trans fat) and then, what? Artifical cocoa flavoring? You mean, FAKE CHOCOLATE. Don't church it up. Also, I own some soy lecithin and it's just another type of oil. And orange extract?! Who knew?

But, I'm ashamed (or maybe not so ashamed) to admit that I ate roughly 20 Midgees in one sitting. Because they are so good, I can't stop eating them no matter how bad for you they really are.

Here's my list of "Gross Things Jenna Can't Resist Eating." Feel free to make your own and link up.

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1. Hot n' Spicy McChicken. I have a love/hate relationship with the $1 Hot 'n Spicy from Mickey D's. Remember how this sandwich put me into labor with Smush? Yep, my Hot 'n Spicy habit started long before that. I used to eat them bi-weekly in high school -- I was obsessed. But they are extremely spicy and usually give me heartburn. And when you think about what they really are, it's kind of disgusting: two dry, basic buns; a thin, "chicken" patty coated in the spiciest breading known to mankind; limp, lifeless shredded lettuce and heaps of mayonnaise. Yumm-o!

But for some reason, whenever I go to McDonald's, I can't bring myself to order anything else. Even if I have to inhale it in three bites to avoid massive burns on my esophagus.

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2. Puffy Cheetos. In college, I worked at the BYU Bindery. Which is exactly what it sounds like -- a place where books are bound. It's this noisy warehouse located at the north end of campus. It wasn't exactly slave labor but it was pretty close, and I almost lost my finger to a conveyor belt one day. But I needed a job so I took it.

Anyway, at the bindery we had this huge tarp-bag with a tube on the end hanging from above and it was filllllllled with biodegradable packing peanuts.We'd use it to pack boxes of books and things for safe travel. One day, one of my co-workers decided that our packing peanuts looked mysteriously like puffy Cheetos, minus the orange cheesy dust. So as an experiment, he took a bite of one as the rest of us looked on in awe. His conclusion: "Yep, puffy Cheetos minus the orange cheesy dust."

I rest my case.

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3. Twizzlers. Is it just me, or are Twizzlers basically wax mixed with a little sugar and flavoring? I decided to do a little investigating and found that the Twizzlers Web site is (perhaps intentionally) cryptic about the ingredients of their product. See for yourself. Guess I'll have to buy a package to find out! Not that I'll mind.

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4. Conversation Hearts. Every year around the middle of January, I start buying those Brach's Conversation Hearts to put in a candy dish on the kitchen counter, and EVERY YEAR I end up having to buy about 10 bags to keep the dish replenished because I am a Conversation Heart addict. It's true. What are they, packed sugar in the form of a heart? Yet I cannot stop eating them. But why??? They're not even that good and they wind up stale within a day of opening the bag.

They're so festive, though. I can't help it.

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5. Canned cheese. I'm beyond embarrassed to admit this, but one time I bought a can of Easy Cheese and I ate the WHOLE THING that night. In one sitting. I don't even think I used crackers -- I just stuck the spout in my mouth and chugged it down! WHY?! It's an aerosol can of CHEESE-LIKE substance. And it's "easy." Why couldn't I have indulged in a cheese that's willing to play hard to get?

Take a look at the nutrition facts. "Cheese" is listed as the second-to-last ingredient. Which means, if my memory of 4th grade science serves me right, there isn't a whole lot of actual cheese in there. Also: one can contains 630 calories.

Yep, I'm awesome.

What are the nasty foods you can't help eating?

Monday chuckle.

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Seriously ... I can't contain myself.
And I can't stop watching!

Sometimes ...

 

After a three-hour choir rehearsal last night, I'm feeling completely worn out. Good thing my kids slept until 8:30 this morning!

Do you guys remember that horribly cheesetastic Britney Spears song, "Sometimes," from back in the day? No? Let me refresh your memory.

You're welcome.

Ok, now that you're in the mood, let's play a game. I'll start.

Sometimes...

It's hard for me to get out of bed. And actually, it's hard all the times.

I'm reminded of how much I love my children when I watch them sleep. (But not in a creepy way.)

I feel self-conscious when someone catches me singing in the car at a stop light.

I am mildly dishonest when I ad-match at Wal-Mart. But ONLY SOMETIMES.

I can't imagine a world without Britney Spears. Just kidding. The Backstreet Boys.

I'm surprised that I still can eat Goldfish crackers after puking them up every day for 16 weeks.

I get a little too easily wrapped up in watching "Prison Break" on Netflix with Dill.

I indulge in guilty pleasures like having a late-night bowl of ice cream. Isn't adulthood awesome?

I wish all things in life were as wonderful as a Sprinkles cupcake.

Your turn! Copy-paste the above and leave the bolded, blue part. Change my answers to fit you. (Or don't, but that might be a little weird.) Then, leave me a link to your "Sometimes" post in the comments!

Hope your Friday is super-stellar.

Where did she go?

Many of you were wondering what happened to me yesterday. I apologize for any confusion. In protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), I decided to make my blog private for a day.

I'd like to take a minute to get a little political here, even though I don't really enjoy discussing politics. But I think this issue is so much bigger than donkeys vs. elephants. This is about freedom.

Go back in time 10 years. Where were you? I was a freshman in high school (commence baby jokes). Even back then, the Internet was nothing compared to what it is today. Google was just a little tyke, connection speeds were snail-slow and neither YouTube nor Facebook existed. And Twitter? It wasn't even on the radar.

Today, the World Wide Web has totally blown up. It has become the #1 source of information. Everyone uses it, regardless of age, race and gender. People communicate through it, read the news on it, bookmark recipes, watch videos, listen to music, shop, book flights, get ideas, run businesses and air their frustrations, among thousands of other activities. In my opinion, the Internet, as it currently exists and as it will continue to grow and flourish in the future, is our nation's greatest commodity. It has created millions of jobs and has encouraged a rolling snowball of innovation in recent years.

SOPA and PIPA threaten our beautiful Web. If passed, they would give our government the power to shut down sites which violate, or even are accused of violating copyright laws. They also would prevent advertisers and search engines from affiliating with sites in violation. They would allow offending domain names to be removed at the click of a button.

Sounds good, right? We don't like people who steal others' content! But not so fast. The United States already has copyright laws and penalties in place for violating them. If someone feels their copyright has been violated, they already have the power and right to take action against offenders. SOPA and PIPA just take this one step further by giving the government the power to shut down entire sites outside their jurisdiction for even accused violations.

Plain and simple, it's censorship at the utmost degree. It's an interference with the free market. It impedes our First Amendment right of free speech. It's dangerous.

So please, if you like your Internet the way it is (and it is YOURS!), go here and sign the petition to block SOPA and PIPA. Also, contact your local representative in Congress and ask them not to support these bills.

Now, I'm off to watch a YouTube video of Hanson's "Mmmbop." Because let's face it -- that song is just plain catchy.

A story about tables.

When Dill and I got married, his siblings went in on a wonderful folding table and set of chairs as one of our gifts. It worked great in all of our apartment situations and we really loved it.



There's baby Bubby and me making gingerbread cookies on it. You can see how snazzy it is for a folding table.

When we moved back from Utah, my parents kindly gave us their old dining table-- a real dining table with cushioned chairs and all that jazz. But it was about 10 years old at the time and it sagged in the middle, so we had to prop that part up with a 2x4. Aside from that inconvenience, we liked our table and got a lot of good use out of it.



This was in our Mesa apartment, just after we moved in. Take note of the money on the table. What was it doing there and not in my wallet? And can you spot the 2x4?

The hand-me-down table came with us to our first home, which we purchased almost exactly two years ago. It was fine enough for me, but my mom hated it. It seemed like every time she came over, she'd chide me about how I needed to get a new dining table already because this one had already been through at least three owners (besides us) and the 2x4 was "just plain white trash." But there were a few problems with that idea: 1) we had just bought and fixed up a home so we had a small budget to work with and 2) I couldn't find anything I liked at a price I could afford. I wanted something unique but not over-the-top; something homey but not too rustic; something timeless but also current.

Dill and I searched endlessly for a non-hillbilly dining set. We went to all your traditional furniture showrooms but we never found one we really loved. Plus, I couldn't stand being followed around by sales associates every time I'd walk into a store. They'd always pressure us and breathe down our necks while we tried to look. So then we tried IKEA, but there just wasn't anything there I loved. Also, I'm not sure IKEA is the ideal place to find sturdy furniture, and I was hoping our new table could hold up for a good decade at least.

I had heard about this local furniture dealer called Cortate. They were located in a strip mall and the store had no real showroom -- just a bunch of catalogs to look through. But their prices were notoriously low, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The thing I love most about Cortate is  the employees are there to facilitate your browsing and purchasing and nothing more. No pressure to buy. No following you around with a clipboard. Just helpful people who help you order furniture. My kind of shopping experience.

Within minutes of flipping through the first catalog I was given, I saw the table of my dreams: Antique white legs with a warm cherry top, expandable, slightly distressed with cute, curvy chairs. I told the lady I loved it so she checked on the price for us. I crossed my fingers, just knowing it was going to be too expensive. Then, she told us the good news: the six chairs, plus the table (which expands to 78 inches), plus the tax came to only $700.  I was amazed. The only dining sets we could find in that price range at other stores were very generic and either counter height or 5-piece sets. And never in white. (Why are white tables so pricey and so hard to find?!)

Anyway, we had zeroed in on the table we wanted, but life happened and other things had to come first. So the table would just have to wait.

And then, I guess my mom just really couldn't stand the fact that her heinous old, broken-down table was taking up space in her daughter's lovely home, so she went ahead and gave us the new pretty table for Christmas. (Awwww!)

Here it is!

I KNOW, RIGHT?!?! So perfect.

And here's the best part: This same dining set, at its very cheapest, retails at $875 online.

So, if you're looking for a good deal on furniture and you live in the greater Phoenix area, try Cortate Furniture! I love almost everything about it. The one downside is you can't usually see their merchandise before buying it (they do have fabric swatches if you're ordering custom upholstery). For some people, this is a must. For me, it isn't. Cortate definitely offered the best prices of any vendor we visited which was probably the biggest draw.

As for me, I'm adoring my new table. How could I not? And when my mom comes over, she won't have to censor her thoughts about my ugly table anymore!

Friday funny.

Have you seen those "Sh*t ____ People Say" videos and memes going around the Internet? They're pretty funny and true to life. But none are more clever or hilarious than this one.

Enjoy, and have a happy Friday AND three-day weekend!



Add your own things that nobody says in the comments. I'll start:

"I plugged up the toilet."

Annnnnnnd go!