Florida Spring Break 2011

We had an awesome trip to North Port Florida for spring break. We drove 18 hours straight through and all came out in one piece. My parents have a house with plenty of space for our crew. My niece joined us for the week and the kids loved having her around. The weather was perfect, sunny and 85 the entire 8 days we were there. The kids enjoyed the pool, the beach, the sun.... We made an overnight stop in Chatanooga, TN on the way home and did some sightseeing at Rock City and Ruby Falls. The ONLY hard part was coming home to 6 inches of snow. We were spoiled with the sun and summer like weather. At least we all have great tans to sport around in the cold weather.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Seriously???

Less than 48 hours ago it was 68 degrees and the kids and I were at the playgound riding bikes and playing in short sleeve shirts. I put the girls winter boots away and had high hopes for spring. Last year I had the winter coats dry cleaned too early so at least I didn't fall into that trap this time, because...

This is what we woke up to this morning.
Absolutely beautiful but completely unexpected. Some school districts were even closed. (luckily not ours!!)

And in another 48 hours it is supposed to be 75 degrees.

That's the thing about living in St. Louis. The saying goes if you don't like the weather, just wait until tomorrow.

My new look

It's been 3 years since I had my hair cut. My hair has always been long and extraordinarily healthy so time just goes by and it doesn't get cut. I was going to get a lot cut off when we got home from China but life got busy and I didn't do it.
So I was thinking I should just let it go and donate it. Cancer is unfortunately a topic near and dear to our hearts. Brian's mom and my grandmothers life were taken by cancer. Brian's best friend as well. And my dad is currently battling lung cancer. It seems to be all around us, all ages, all circumstances. This past year I have been measuring and waiting, and measuring and waiting.
I was extremely nervous about it. I haven't ever had short hair. I told friends I wouldn't like it. Many people asked why I was doing this if I didn't want to. The fact is, to get this close to be able to contribute to something I really believe in and not do it was harder to swallow than having short hair for a while. So here is the before and after.

My ponytail is sealed in a ziplock bag ready to mailed to Locks of Love on Monday. My kids are having a harder time with the hair loss than I am. I'm still in a little shock but so glad I was able to do this. And now I can wait another 3 years before the next cut.