Tidbits

It's been over a month since I last took the time to sit down at my laptop and type up my thoughts. I wish I had a good excuse for why I haven't written on here, but alas I simply did not have the time to sit down and write.

Today is my day off and I figured it was as good of a day as ever. So here I am, writing out little stories and interesting happenings of the past month – or as I like to call them: tidbits.

1. I am learning guitar. This has been on my bucket list since before I knew what a bucket list was. Learning guitar has been something I have always wanted to do, but have never found a guitar to practice on. This summer I decided to go ahead and learn. I went onto Cragislist to find a cheap guitar and I found out one thing – guitars aren't cheap. With my dream looking less and less hopeful I began to wonder if I would ever get to learn guitar. And then I remembered: my family is in Zambia! You might be asking yourself, "Yes... but what does this have to do with learning guitar?" This! Dad plays guitar. Dad has had a 12 string guitar since I can remember and that is the guitar he has in Africa. However, while here in the US he got a guitar for his birthday and this guitar he left in storage when they moved across the ocean. But, I am on this side of the ocean and we were in Missouri last week where he left his guitar. That being said, I rescued his guitar from storage and began to learn.

I have been practicing now for four days and currently cannot feel the tips of the middle three fingers on my left hand. I'm doing finger stretches all the time to try and get my hand to be more flexible. I've learned the D, A, G, and Em chords and am slowly plugging away at my speed. It has been a blast and I love getting to finally learn something I've been wanting to for a while. We'll see if I ever get good at it ;)

2. Victoria. Victoria has been my longest known friend. We met in nursery when we were two and bonded immediately (or so we tell ourselves). I haven't seen her in two years and she is one of the friends who, no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other, we can pick right back up from where we left off and talk for days on end.

While we were in Missouri, Victoria came up for a day to visit. To say our time together was good would be an understatement. It was wonderful! So wonderful! Victoria and I went out to dinner, while Damarise and Micah were on a date, and caught up on life. It was great to share what God is doing in our lives and realize the similarities in what He has been teaching us. I felt so encouraged after spending the evening talking with her and I was reminded of how blessed I am to have her as a friend.

3. I cut hair. Those of you who have read my blog for a while may remember the last time I cut hair. The time I cut Janessa's hair in perfect layers. And by perfect layers, I of course mean layers that looked like a staircase from miles away. After that experience I figured my days of haircutting, or of attempted haircutting, were over. And then Micah asked me if I wanted to cut his hair. Of course I wanted to! I think it'd be a blast to be good at hair cutting and having a willing participant, well I couldn't wait. I googled many articles on how to cut hair and watched several YouTube videos. Thursday afternoon, with Micah willingly letting me practice on his hair, I set to work. It took about 45 minutes and Micah seemed pleased with it when I was through. Sure there were a few accidentally choppy spots, but his curly hair covered those up. And he said he'd let me try it again when he needed another hair cut! I'm excited!

4. Driving. It's been several months since I got my driver's permit. Since that time I have had a few helpful people who have risked their lives to take me driving. Okay, okay. It hasn't been that bad. But there have been people who have given up their free time to take me on the road. Damarise, Micah, and Davey have all had a hand in taking me driving and I couldn't be more thankful for them!

Tuesday is the day I go in to take my driver's test. (It was supposed to be today, but I forgot one piece of paperwork...). It's taken me a while to get to this point, but the time is finally here to become a licensed driver (hopefully!). I'd appreciate your prayers next Tuesday as I go in to take my test! It's exciting, but nerve racking too.

5. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I read Alice in Wonderland over Christmas break and loved it! I reread it and am now reading Through the Looking Glass. Lewis Carroll is a hilarious and engaging author. If you haven't read his books, I highly recommend them. They have made me laugh out loud several times. It's a fun summer read.

Those are all the tidbits in life that I can think of right now. I'll try to keep this blog a little more updated and again, sorry for the long delay since the last post. Until next time...

Never Have I Ever

Never have I ever cut hair.

Wait. Sorry. I take that back. Never have I ever cut hair well. I'm sure my mom could tell you about the time I felt ambitious. Cutting hair? No big deal, right? Wrong. Mom let me practice on my little brother, Ian, because if worse came to worse he could just get a buzz. Let's just say that worse came to worse. I cut his hair alright. And Ian got a buzz. His hair was unfixable.

But that was at least four years ago. Let's move ahead to the present – Saturday night. Janessa and I were bored. So bored in fact that we borrowed hair cutting scissors. Janessa wanted to try cutting her hair and I said I was more than willing to help. Surely four years changes my hair cutting abilities, or lack there of. Then again, maybe it doesn't.

Janessa cut the front of her hair and it didn't look bad. In fact it looked great. She got the side swept bangs looking perfect and I was impressed. And that impressed feeling turned to me feeling like I could do it too! And so came time for the back of her hair to be cut. She turned to me and placed the scissors in my hands. Ah! The power.

Layers. That's what she wanted. Layers? Oh! I can do layers! Not hard at all, right? Pull the hair out, snip, snip, layer one – done! And after I was done hacking away, her hair definitely had layers.

For those who want a picture painted in your mind of what her hair looked like, imagine rice fields in China. Or a staircase. Or strip mining. Either of the images would give you a good idea of what the back of her head looked like.

Whoops.

And so I found out, yet again, hair cutting may not be the profession for me. Unless of course people want the strip mining look, cause I can do that pretty well.

For those of you wanting a good ending to this story. There is one. After much laughing, we went down the hall to Katie. Katie cuts hair. She has all the supplies. She's done it for years. And she's good at it. She fixed Janessa's hair, after looking at it in shock, and Janessa now has a very cute hair cut.

As for me, I'm laying down the scissors for now, and will instead admire the people who cut hair. Because it is not an easy job, no matter how easy it may look.

Also, a few words of advice, if you are bored, I'd recommend not cutting someone's hair unless a good hair cutter is nearby to fix what you have done. It's just a good idea, cause you never know if you'll end up with the staircase look.

Hair, Hair, and Oh! more hair!

Yesterday, Grandma treated Damarise, Sarah and I to a haircut :) She took us to a salon and we all got our hair cut, trimmed and layered :) Thanks Grandma!

Damarise was the first one in :)

Sarah :D She can't wait for her turn :)

Woo Hoo!! I'm next! :D

Ta da! Damarise with her finished do :D

Grandma looking at it :)

Next was me :D

Sarah getting her hair washed. (the lady who is doing it went to school with Dad! Woah! Cool!) :D

Sarah's hair getting cut.

Finishing my hair :)

Vwala! :D

Yep... all that hair :D

Was cut to this :)

Sarah getting her hair done :)

Ta dum! :D

Then Grandma took us out to lunch :)

Oooo and Grandma and Sarah won this game! YAY!! :D

Damarise and Sarah :) What beautiful sisters I have eh?

Thank you Grandma for the fun day with you!!!! :D

Oh the talent he has!

My little brother is so talented! He can (and this is just so amazing!) cut... or more like shave his own head! Oh yes he can! I can't even cut my own hair. And yes, he did a good job at it too! Yeah! Way to go Ian!! :D

A New Do

Last night, Andrew came to dinner with wet hair. After dinner, while he was doing the dishes, Sarah and I decided to style his hair. Aw, aren't we nice sisters? ;) We used a lot of gel to get his hair to stay put. Haha, I don't think he enjoyed it as much as we did :)

Style #1: Alfalfa off of Little Rascals. 

Sarah getting the point to stand up.

Style # 2: Cool/wacky....

Style # 3: It looked like back in the 40s

Style # 4: Slammed onto his head. 

Haha, it was a blast, but I think I like his hair just normal :)

Snip, snip, snip

Thursday morning "snip, snip, snip." were the sounds we heard.  Karina, Sylvia and Esther went to the hair salon here in Nampula to get their hair cut. Damarise, Sarah and I tagged along for fun. And fun it was! 

Here's some of us waiting.

Karina getting her hair washed.

Esther getting her loong hair washed. 

And last but not least, Sylvia. 

It took a long time to brush Esther's hair! It got so knotted up from the washing. 

The hair cutting lady cuts hair so fast! 

Sarah and Sylvia. Aw aren't they cute! 

She was almost on her tiptoes trying to cut Esther's hair! 

Karina and Esther with their finished look. (I think they both just got it trimmed a very little bit and layered.)

Sylvia getting her's trimmed and layered. 

The three girls with their finished looks. Aren't they gorgeous! 

There's a look into a fun morning in Nampula :)