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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Shades of Grey

I consider myself rather low maintenance. In fact an old friend of mine once told me I reminded him of peasant women who had children in the fields and then packed them on their backs and kept right on working. I have always taken pride in the fact that I work really hard and complain very little. I don't need tons of beauty treatments to feel beautiful. Tonight, I had to challenge my thinking on my whole self concept.

Kelsie and I arrived in San Diego after a day of total chaos. We had cleaning, packing, cooking, organizing and loading before we could leave for ARBA National Convention in San Diego. Life has been like this pretty much for the last two months. This means that I have not had time to do much with my personal appearance. I was really looking forward to getting to our hotel tonight and having a much needed uninterrupted hair color treatment.

Now, I am not an amateur at coloring my hair. I started coloring when I was thirty after cancer treatment. When my hair came back in, it was really dark, coarse, and GREY. I was pretty salt and pepper at thirty and that just wasn't going to work for me! Hence, I started coloring.

Tonight, I colored with the same color I have been using for years. Left it on for the same amount of time......and then rinsed. No biggie, right? When it dried, I asked I daughter if it looked exceptionally blonde.....no grey. She stated, "Mom, your hair is as grey as a fifty year old." WHAT?? I totally freaked. Not just a little freak, total freak.

We ran to the nearest grocery store and bought a new box of hair color....Darker. I again repeated the process....praying and bargaining with God about total grey removal. The hair color worked, Thank God!

Now that the whole event is over, I have to admit that this is really trite. I cannot believe that I got so upset about grey hair that I had to run to the grocery store at eleven thirty at night.

I guess even I have learned that Mrs. Low Maintenance has a vain side. Guess we all do. There are things that we just don't want the world to see about ourselves. Now that the hair is fixed, I wonder what else I hide. What do we all hide?

People are complicated. I think patience is needed more along with tolerance for our
harried and frustrated race of beings. I'm SO glad that my heavenly Father loves me warts and all. It makes approaching Him so much easier. I know He had to have a good chuckle over my behavior tonight! I know in retrospect, I did!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Endless Summer

Things here in Yuma have been pretty frantic and crazy the last couple of months. There have been three rabbit shows out of town and the usual keeping up with DJ and his trips to Phoenix and endless food preparation. On top of that, there has been many subbing jobs, house cleaning, laundry and the twelve thousand things that keep a house running. It's all about to come to fruition with the culmination of the American Rabbit Breeders National Convention.

Kelsie and I are leaving on Tuesday to head over to San Diego to help set up for Convention. This is our first and I still can't imagine seeing thirteen thousand rabbits and cavies all housed in one place! Just the thought of this is really overwhelming......

Overwhelming too was the first two years of DJ's diagnosis. My sole focus was autism and how to best help my son. I spent endless hours doing research and other endless hours developing a treatment plan. Once I found Dr. Schneider and other therapies, I would spend weeks and months at the Ronald McDonald house in Phoenix getting DJ the treatment he needs. Time spent away from the rest of my family. This too was overwhelming......

So how did I end up imersed in my daughter's "Rabbit Habbit"? I fell in love with many of the people!

I don't actually raise and show cavies or rabbits, but I'm intricately involved in the hobby and community of breeders. This hobby has been my complete and total escape from the world of autism. Most breeders didn't even know I had a disabled son until I started my blog and jumped into Facebook. Through this hobby, I have met some of the most amazing people and rejoined the world. Her hobby has forced me to quit living in such isolation. Although most days I question my sanity (Kelsie's hobby is even more time consuming), I realize that my daughter's rabbits and cavies have brought me back into the world! :)

I am praying that I can pull my life together to get out of here on Tuesday. I just want to experience all of the Convention this year. I have been told that California Rabbit and Cavy Shows puts on the most phenomenal Convention ever. I cannot wait to be a part of it!

I feel the Endless Summer is a perfect theme in my life right now. The point being that life hits you with an endless amount of unforeseen problems and tragedy. I would like to think I am finding a balance in the insanity. Much like taking a break to reflect and walk down the beach on a warm Fall day. When you have an intense personality like mine, it's easy to miss these opportunities for balance. I continually thank God for all my breeder friends. They bring humor and joy to my very complicated life! I am truly blessed for my daughter's "rabbit habit" as it has brought me a needed relief from the endless needs of my very special son!