Hair Today

Last summer our son, Caleb, and his girlfriend, June, told us that we were going to become grandparents.

After the initial shock wore off, I wondered how I could get to know this girl who was to become my daughter-in-law and the mother of my first grandchild. June had been over to our house a number of times since she and Caleb started dating in January, but we’d never spent time one-on-one.

I thought about asking her to lunch or coffee, but she was working full-time out at the air force base, and she had beauty school every evening. I didn’t want to take up precious weekend hours.

Then I had an idea:  she could color my hair! I have been coloring my hair myself for several years because I want to cover the gray and I feel having it done professionally is too expensive. I asked June how much the academy charged and felt the price was reasonable. She said I could call her school and make an appointment for a “single process” and they would block out the right amount of time.

I had been to Eric Fisher Academy before, when Caleb was in his long-haired stage as an 8^th grader and I encouraged him to get some sort of style, instead of simply letting the crew cut that I had given him continue to grow out for a year.

Going to a beauty school for hair care is a good deal if you are willing to let students work on you, and if you have a lot of time. I was not concerned about June’s ability to color my hair, and I was wanting to spend more time with her, so I thought this might be perfect.

And it was. I showed up at her school at 5:30 p.m. and June and I chit-chatted through the process of matching the right color. I decided to have her put in some highlights as well. After each step, Molly the instructor (who told me she still remembered Caleb) had to check June’s work and sign off on it. Molly was busy doing the same for all of the other students, so June and I had lots of time to talk as we waited. June took her dinner break while my color was processing. After she rinsed my hair, dried it (a “blowout” I found out it is called now) and styled it, the time was 9:30 p.m. My hair looked fantastic and I was ready to go home and go to bed.

I really hadn’t intended for June to color my hair all of the time, but she asked if I wanted to schedule a root touch-up in six weeks, and I thought, “Why not?” June needed to fill her practice slots, and it was so convenient to have her do it. As a repeat customer, the appointments were quicker because she kept notes on my color numbers, plus as she moved through the program she required less oversight.

Laurel was home from Emporia State on fall break for my next appointment, so she came with me and June trimmed and styled her hair in gorgeous golden waves, and we got to hear how her pregnancy was going (really well) and catch up with each other.

Last week when I showed up June said, “This is your last time here!” She had been putting in as many extra hours as she could to move up her graduation date so she would finish before the baby comes. When she bent over the sink while she was washing my hair she accidentally bumped me with her pregnant belly. That’s my granddaughter in there!

June said she wanted to try curling my hair after she had dried it. I told her to go for it. When I left the academy, I went to Hobby Lobby to get a picture frame. As I was checking out right before closing time, the checker from the other lane said, “I really like how you curled your hair!” I told her I had come straight from Eric Fisher Academy and that my future daughter-in-law had done it. I got similar rave reviews from Dave and Laurel when I got home, and several compliments on Facebook. If only June could style my hair every day!

Two days later Laurel, Caleb and I, along with her family and friends watched June graduate as valedictorian of her class. She gave a speech about “overcoming bumps along the way” that got a good laugh. I think I might have been almost as proud as June's mom, Donna, when I thought about the dedication and hours she had put in to get to that point several months ahead of schedule.

In her speech, June talked about how she has always known she wanted to do hair for a living. Later, founder Eric Fisher talked about how relationships are key in their business. I think June and I agree.

Sparking Joy

For starters, let me just say I did very little on my winter break, and let me clarify that the only reason I had a winter "break" was because our daughter, Laurel, was home for a month from Emporia State University. Hence, my lone reference to an academic calendar.

With my job as co-owner of our lawn service, I am still on winter break, although with my job as bookkeeper, I guess I need to start gathering stuff for the tax preparer. Ugh. But I digress.

So after the hoopla of the holidays, Dave and I were doing nothing (and by that I mean playing Words with Friends, although he is recovering from knee replacement surgery and going to physical therapy so there is his excuse) and Laurel, holed up in her room with Netflix discovered "Tidying up with Marie Kondo."

After she tidied her room, she suggested we tackle the kitchen. I was only too happy to jump on her bandwagon.

Over the next couple of days we removed everything from the kitchen cabinets. We kept only the coffee mugs that sparked joy in us. ("Mom, there are only two people living here now. How many do you think you really need?") Apparently I DON'T need two dozen!

We got out a tote for Caleb's things that he had left behind. When he was in ceramics class in high school he made nearly 100 coffee mugs (seriously, I am not exaggerating. He numbered each one on the bottom). We had about a half dozen still in our cabinet, but we weren't using them as daily drinkers. I kept the one he specifically made for me and packed up the rest for him.

She went through my china cabinet, which had become sort of a dumping ground for extra glassware and serving pieces. I transferred some things to my a old kitchen cabinets in our garage.

We got rid of miscellaneous water bottles and coozies. We tackled the junk drawer. We designated a new drawer just for Dave's household tools.

When we remodeled our kitchen in 2016 Dave installed pull-outs in nearly all of the cabinets, which I love. However, when we were going through the pantry, Laurel suggested moving the canned goods to a lower shelf, since the one they were on was too high to see easily. Great idea! Why didn't I think of that?

Laurel said she wished she had gotten on her organizing kick earlier, we could have done the whole house. I do too!