Totally blog-worthy.

In the past week and a half, I have been out of my house twice. Last week I was feeling so poopy that I never had the energy to leave. So Saturday was my first day out in a week and it was for a very cool reason: to shoot pictures of my very lovely and beautiful sister-in-law Ashley. She wanted pictures and I had wanted to do them, so Ash, her mom, sister and myself all headed out on our photo shoot. We had so much fun and I had never seen Ash look so beautiful, cute and spunky before. I've only proofed a small handful, but of those, this one is my fave:



Isn't she adorable? She and hubby look so much alike! We did some fun shoots with her beloved Twilight Saga Series of books and also her Jonas Brothers Rolling Stones edition, as well as her cute baby blue converse and tie-dyed knee-high socks. Back when I was 13 and if I had had this opportunity, my pictures would have been with my Babysitter's Club or Judy Blume books and my latest BOP magazine with the (young version!) New Kids on the Block, and I'd be wearing my jean jacket, white keds and tight-rolled jeans (and in case you need a reminder on how to do that, check out this site). Oh how things have changed. I must say the hair styles are adorable now. What were we thinking with the feathered permed hair?!

Today I got out again. And it was a day of bravery. We met Heather to get her invitations printed, went to Starbucks, walked to Target, then I took Noah to get his hair cut (he looks so handsome by the way), and since I had a lot of time before my hair appointment at 5, we went to lunch and then I took the kids to the zoo. Neil left for Chicago this morning and would be gone overnight, so I had no reason to be home. We met Heather in the zoo and she gave us extra special treatment there as she always does (she is such a rockin' zoo keeper!).

You won't believe what I did. Well, first of all, I didn't have my camera with me because of this being a spontaneous trip, and that in itself is pretty shocking. I did, however, have my camera phone. Yay! Because, well, just look at the picture. This is what I did:



What a lifetime experience!!! I still can't believe I did it. I was soooo nervous walking in there, but soooo glad I did it. How many people can say they've petted a cheetah?! I canNOT wait to do it again and be able to bring my REAL camera this time. Such friendly beautiful amazing creatures. And the little (ha ha!) guys were purring so loudly! It was truly an amazing experience.

Then it was off to my wonderful beautician's place. I've been having issues and decided to cut all my hair off, at the same time, deciding to donate it to Pantene Pro-V's Beautiful Lengths program which is a hair donation program for women with cancer. Well, I didn't spur-of-the-moment just decide to donate it. This is why I kept growing my hair and growing my so I could one day donate it. I just never thought that "one day" would happen this quickly. I was going to wait till after Heather's wedding in September, but timing was right for me to cut it now. So I did. Well, Kim did.

It was pretty scary. I was so nervous and on the verge of tears. Kim said, "you aren't going to cry on me, are you?". I said "I'm trying not to!". She said, "would wine help you?" knowing just how incredibly stressed I was about this. I said, "um, yeah, do you have some?", and she said, "yeah, you want a glass or two?" I said "yes please!", so my wonderful friend/beautician came out with large glass of sweet red wine and that really did help. Bless her!

Deep breath.

She pulled it back and all at once, it was gone! Of course she styled it and all that jazz, and I have to say, I'm quite happy. So here's the new me:



And here's some of my locks. Wahhhh! But ultimately, I have to remember why I did this. It's still hard. Such a change!



I get my blood test results back on Thursday. Please be thinking of me. I'm so stressed out about all this . . .

My obsession, revealed.

** new ** Oops, I forgot to put the Kurt Cobain one, so I added it at the end :c) (Sorry.)

I think I have mentioned before how I like paper-y items such as catalogs and magazines and how I like to keep stuff such as those? (Remember this post?) Well, if you didn't believe me then, you are bound to believe me now. Here is real-life raw proof.

My mom and dad are getting ready to put their house on the market (-- something I'm really really excited about for them!) and while cleaning out my old bedroom closet at their house, my mom found some things she thought I'd want. Old magazines that I had kept -- from 17+ years ago. (Oh man, this really shows my age.)

I was ecstatic when she brought them over because I remember thinking at the time of keeping them, that perhaps they will be worth holding onto a few years from now. Even if they aren't worth anything now, they're worth the memory of actually reading them and especially my memories of what I really loved back during this time.

Neil thought I was insane (and still does) for the excitement I showed as I pulled these out of the bag going down memory lane. But that's one of the reasons why he loves me -- I'm just really goofy like that. So here they are . . . some beloved magazines from my early teen years.

This one here is the 2nd Seventeen magazine I ever bought. I was 13 years old. I remember buying my very first Seventeen when it came out with it's August back-to-school issue (remember those, girls, how thick they were?!). I didn't keep the Aug one, I'm not sure why, but I did keep this one probably because it's pretty. (*rolling my eyes*)
Now I should win some reward for this one. I have now been a huge (purchasing) fan of J Crew clothes for 17 years! This was my first J Crew magazine that I ever received.
I remember one of my bff's (Kristin) and I drooling over some of their clothes as freshman in high school and finally getting the okay from our moms that we could order a t-shirt and boxer shorts. I bought these Christmas boxers and the orange polka dot boxers. I can't remember the ones K bought. K, refresh my memory! (And do you have that picture of us in our J Crew garb looking oh-so-teen?!)
As you will shortly see I was a huuuuuge 90210 fan, especially in the beginning. And while Luke Perry was my favorite, I did have a tiny crush on Jason. I was also a huge Sassy magazine fan, a 'zine no longer in publication, hence all the Sassy magazines you will see. One reason I loved that magazine was because it was so different. Sassy was one of the first teen fashion 'zines to use celebrities on their covers. They always had the coolest covers and those seemed to be the ones I chose to keep. I did like Johnny Depp (this was during his phase of 21 Jump Street and after his movie that I loved, Cry-Baby) and Christian Slater (remember Pump Up the Volume??) but I was only a somewhat-fan of Nirvana (I only really liked the song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit"), so I'm not sure why I kept this Sassy of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, but nevertheless, I did, and well, I'm kinda curious now if this one is worth anything because I'd totally be willing to sell it! (Anyone?!) I'm just in awe that I even kept it. For those of you who may not be in the "know" of Kurt, he died of a drug overdose in the 90's and was married (married, right?) to Courtney.






Speaking of Sassy, has anyone read this book? I just came across it and now must read it. I'm hoping there are other late Sassy lovers out there who will share in my new-found must-have must-read joy. How cool is this?!

And who didn't love Tom?! This was around the time of A Few Good Men (awesome movie) and Far and Away (great romance that he starred in with his then wife, Nicole . . . or is this when they met?). I just loved Tom . . . however now? . . . not so much. Eww.

But Milla I have loved since day one. She starred in one of my very favorite movies of all time Return to the Blue Lagoon (Kristin and I watched this dozen of times together) and was on tons of teen mags in my teen years. I loved her name so much that it has always been on my "favorihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifte names list" and while Neil totally vetoed it when we were picking girl names, he didn't veto Maia. See the similarity?! :c) Now Milla Jovovich is a mommy herself. I think it's so awesome.

So, there you have it: my obsession with magazines starting at a very young age and my bad habit of keeping things such as them in boxes in my closets . . . revealed. I do think it maybe tells something about me that I never realized at the time. My love of graphic design, photography, and well, okay fine, . . . really cute guys :c)