Our
Journey:
Journey:
Avalon's Army of Angels
| July 22, 2008 Yes, I've lost my mind... |
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Subject: July 22, 2008
Yeah, yeah...I know. Two separate entries for one day. Well, I'm the one typing - so you'll
just have to live with it! Ha!
This entry truly needs to stand alone. The last one was raw, pure emotion. This one,
well....its part of my twisted attempt to get a handle on the last one.
You may recall our act of complete insanity before Avalon's May 28, 2008 shunt surgery. I
had been plagued with great doubts about the surgeon, and was terrified he would do harm
to Avalon. In an attempt to switch my negative feelings over to positive, we decided on a
family solidarity act. We all dyed a purple stripe down the front left side of our hair.
Well, here's the thing. Turns out, vivid color hair dyes require an inordinate amount of
dedication. You need to redye the blasted thing every 2 weeks or so! Who on earth has
that kind of time?! (not to mention cash...) Yet, we were eventually convinced to try a
different dye company, because within a few short weeks, everyone's dye job had faded to
a bonzo bleach disaster.
So, off to Sally Beauty supply we traipsed. We put ourselves in the capable hands of a
Sally employee (first fatal mistake) and bought what she recommended. No more, no less.
That evening, I redyed the girls, leaving myself and Nick out of the fun. My hair is already
colored, so my stripe had actually stayed pretty vibrant. As for Nick, he had actually begun
to enjoy his beach-bum-on-crack hair color, so he didn't want to mess with "perfection". I
did, however, include Avalon's wig in Dye-fest the reunion. She wanted it darker purple,
and wanted it to match her new color - so I was game. While the wig didn't uptake the red in
the dye, it did come out a most brilliant shade of bluey-purple. Avalon was thrilled!
So, at the end of a ridiculous amount of purple potion covering my outfit, hands and shower,
we once again had striped children. That is, until we committed fatal mistake #2, and
allowed them to go swimming. One afternoon of fun in the sun and chlorine, and the kids
had gray hair! Each of their stripes had bleached out to honest-to-goodness gray. Aurora,
the 13 year old, freaked out. Seriously, she's a drama queen of high order, but this time - I
totally gave it to her. Thirteen year olds can not go through life gray.
After several days of caterwauling, I told her I'd think about something, if she'd promise to
back off. Then, it came to me. We were at the Adventures for Wish Kids day at Kings
Island. We were having a lovely lunch, chatting away in the oppressive heat. I'm not really
sure what hit me. Maybe dehydration, maybe heat exhaustion...maybe some form of
fleeting temporary insanity... Or possibly, it was the glint off of my 7 year olds GRAY HAIR. I
don't claim to know the exact why, I just know the what.
All of a sudden, I looked at my adorable family, and announced that I thought we should ALL
dye our hair entirely red, the same shade I use. Suddenly deciding to turn your
brown-haired offspring auburn is bad enough. But my color? Well, let me just say my
current shade is far closer to blaze than brunette. I'm so firey copper, I periodically singe
people just walking past them. And here I was, suggesting I paint the rest of the family the
same bizarre, permanent color. It took a hot second, and they all agreed.
I bought the hair color, all 5 boxes of it, a few days later. As I mentioned in the pre-op email
I sent out, our goal was to color the little ones, the night before Avalon's 1st temporal
decompression surgery. I got all of the paraphernalia lined up, had the floor covered, and
towels at hand. I was ready for beauty shop 101. Then Ambrosia chickened out. As with
Fric, there goes Frac. Once I lost the first, the second had all the courage of a chicken's
tushie. I had to scrap the idea, and store the boxes for my next few rounds of touch up.
Moving forward, we survived the week of surgery and hospital stays, and came home with
enough "baggage" for a 2 week cruise. (I do mean mental baggage - if I didn't make that
clear) Aurora spent Monday badgering me to go ahead and do her hair, because she had
a boy at the zoo she wanted to impress. (Aurora is a volunteer at the Columbus zoo) It had
been my bright idea (every pun intended), and I had bought the dye - so I went for it. She
turned out pretty cute!
Not to be outdone, Ambrosia decided she couldn't stand it anymore. By Tuesday evening,
she was absolutely certain she was brave enough to do it. First, I cut Nick's hair into the
most ridiculously short cut I've ever given him. (I hate it) Then, sure enough...Fric's
conviction gave Frac the chutzpah she needed to brave the chemical warfare. Wham,
bam, thank you mother ma'am...in the space of an hour, I had two more daughters and a
hubby who all matched my penny-colored pigtails. If I do say so myself...we're fabulous!
Better yet, it was a silly, easy, forever-fun-memory that started me down that road to mental
recovery. Hey, the family that dyes together, doesn't cry together. I think Loreal should hire
us for a commercial!
As crazy as it sounds, we haven't done an all-together picture yet. I'll add it to this page
when I get one. For now, I thought I'd best clue you in to our little copper secret. I didn't
want you thinking I'd swiped someone else's kids in the following entries.....
Pippi Longstockings of the world.....UNITE!
Yeah, yeah...I know. Two separate entries for one day. Well, I'm the one typing - so you'll
just have to live with it! Ha!
This entry truly needs to stand alone. The last one was raw, pure emotion. This one,
well....its part of my twisted attempt to get a handle on the last one.
You may recall our act of complete insanity before Avalon's May 28, 2008 shunt surgery. I
had been plagued with great doubts about the surgeon, and was terrified he would do harm
to Avalon. In an attempt to switch my negative feelings over to positive, we decided on a
family solidarity act. We all dyed a purple stripe down the front left side of our hair.
Well, here's the thing. Turns out, vivid color hair dyes require an inordinate amount of
dedication. You need to redye the blasted thing every 2 weeks or so! Who on earth has
that kind of time?! (not to mention cash...) Yet, we were eventually convinced to try a
different dye company, because within a few short weeks, everyone's dye job had faded to
a bonzo bleach disaster.
So, off to Sally Beauty supply we traipsed. We put ourselves in the capable hands of a
Sally employee (first fatal mistake) and bought what she recommended. No more, no less.
That evening, I redyed the girls, leaving myself and Nick out of the fun. My hair is already
colored, so my stripe had actually stayed pretty vibrant. As for Nick, he had actually begun
to enjoy his beach-bum-on-crack hair color, so he didn't want to mess with "perfection". I
did, however, include Avalon's wig in Dye-fest the reunion. She wanted it darker purple,
and wanted it to match her new color - so I was game. While the wig didn't uptake the red in
the dye, it did come out a most brilliant shade of bluey-purple. Avalon was thrilled!
So, at the end of a ridiculous amount of purple potion covering my outfit, hands and shower,
we once again had striped children. That is, until we committed fatal mistake #2, and
allowed them to go swimming. One afternoon of fun in the sun and chlorine, and the kids
had gray hair! Each of their stripes had bleached out to honest-to-goodness gray. Aurora,
the 13 year old, freaked out. Seriously, she's a drama queen of high order, but this time - I
totally gave it to her. Thirteen year olds can not go through life gray.
After several days of caterwauling, I told her I'd think about something, if she'd promise to
back off. Then, it came to me. We were at the Adventures for Wish Kids day at Kings
Island. We were having a lovely lunch, chatting away in the oppressive heat. I'm not really
sure what hit me. Maybe dehydration, maybe heat exhaustion...maybe some form of
fleeting temporary insanity... Or possibly, it was the glint off of my 7 year olds GRAY HAIR. I
don't claim to know the exact why, I just know the what.
All of a sudden, I looked at my adorable family, and announced that I thought we should ALL
dye our hair entirely red, the same shade I use. Suddenly deciding to turn your
brown-haired offspring auburn is bad enough. But my color? Well, let me just say my
current shade is far closer to blaze than brunette. I'm so firey copper, I periodically singe
people just walking past them. And here I was, suggesting I paint the rest of the family the
same bizarre, permanent color. It took a hot second, and they all agreed.
I bought the hair color, all 5 boxes of it, a few days later. As I mentioned in the pre-op email
I sent out, our goal was to color the little ones, the night before Avalon's 1st temporal
decompression surgery. I got all of the paraphernalia lined up, had the floor covered, and
towels at hand. I was ready for beauty shop 101. Then Ambrosia chickened out. As with
Fric, there goes Frac. Once I lost the first, the second had all the courage of a chicken's
tushie. I had to scrap the idea, and store the boxes for my next few rounds of touch up.
Moving forward, we survived the week of surgery and hospital stays, and came home with
enough "baggage" for a 2 week cruise. (I do mean mental baggage - if I didn't make that
clear) Aurora spent Monday badgering me to go ahead and do her hair, because she had
a boy at the zoo she wanted to impress. (Aurora is a volunteer at the Columbus zoo) It had
been my bright idea (every pun intended), and I had bought the dye - so I went for it. She
turned out pretty cute!
Not to be outdone, Ambrosia decided she couldn't stand it anymore. By Tuesday evening,
she was absolutely certain she was brave enough to do it. First, I cut Nick's hair into the
most ridiculously short cut I've ever given him. (I hate it) Then, sure enough...Fric's
conviction gave Frac the chutzpah she needed to brave the chemical warfare. Wham,
bam, thank you mother ma'am...in the space of an hour, I had two more daughters and a
hubby who all matched my penny-colored pigtails. If I do say so myself...we're fabulous!
Better yet, it was a silly, easy, forever-fun-memory that started me down that road to mental
recovery. Hey, the family that dyes together, doesn't cry together. I think Loreal should hire
us for a commercial!
As crazy as it sounds, we haven't done an all-together picture yet. I'll add it to this page
when I get one. For now, I thought I'd best clue you in to our little copper secret. I didn't
want you thinking I'd swiped someone else's kids in the following entries.....
Pippi Longstockings of the world.....UNITE!
