Hair Product Review... since everyone wants MY hair, you know

I know I'm probably not the first person on the planet that you would go to for advice on hair products, but in my desperate attempt to make my hair seemingly thicker and more luscious than it is I have tried my fair share of "miracle in a can" products!  

First on the list - Dry Shampoos.  {Worst to Best}

Pssst:  You can get it for $3.50 a can if you find it on sale at Walgreens like I did.  It works pretty good to dry the grease in my hair, but it also looks really white.  Since my hair is already white, it doesn't really matter much.  I seemed to go through this stuff pretty fast though.  I felt the need to use it multiple times a day.  If you're on a budget and don't have time to shower every so often, it will work. 

Next up, TRESmemme FreshStart.  I actually just got this last week and am loving it.  I only need to use it once a day and it keeps me greaseless pretty well.  It does put a thick texture in my hair though.  This product is around $8, so more than Psst, but I also use less.  The down side; it's not great to use 2 days in a row because of the texturey build up [yeah, sometimes I go DAYS without showers...]

Now this is one of my favorite hair products EVER.  ROCKAHOLIC.  My friend Amanda that used to cut my hair turned me on to it.  It's pretty pricey though.  I'm not even going to say how much it is because I'm ashamed.  But it is AWESOME.  Made my hair feel fuller and cleaner. I used to actually spray it on right after I blow dried my hair to help with volume.  And it smells really good too.  No left behind white smell or weird texture with this one.  I'd buy it by the case if I could. 

And since we're on favorites, another must have in my bathroom - Big Sexy Hair hairspray. Love it.  I have super thin hair so it's good for me to have volumizing products and this does the trick like you wouldn't believe.  I like all their products actually.  Their shampoo, conditioner, and volumizing gel are all awesome.  But who can afford this stuff all the time!?

Yep.  My hair is totally bleached.  As if you didn't know already......

People ask me all the time how I do it, and here's the secret.  $9.98 every two months. In a box. Just the roots. 

Didn't want to leave anyone out, so here's what Travis has been using lately.  Garnier Surf Hair putty. I like the smell. Plus it's not overly greasey. 

And little Savannah Sue is rocking the Sauve 2 in 1. The some "no more tangles" - Walmart brand {not pictured}.  She enjoys the "Nemo holding an apple" on the bottle and I enjoy the Cherry/Candy smell.  

There you have it.  And if anyone is interested in good gift ideas, really - Hair products are acceptable!  :)

Mommy Dates

I decided that I was going to try to try to make Wednesday mornings Savannah mornings. 

Savannah puts up with a lot of my meeting with people, cleaning the house around her, and running errands.  Although the kid has it pretty good, I want to make sure that I don't miss this awesome 2 1/2 year old time.  So I'm intentionally giving her Wednesday mornings for us. 

We started today going to Tumble bugs at City hall.  On the way in she chased her shadow.  She does this a lot lately and it's been the cause of quit a few falls, and even running into some poles. 

Here's Tumble Bugs.  It's a "gymnastics" program the City of Ames offers.  We go for 30 minutes on Wednesday mornings and she practices her skills : Hanging, rolling, jumping, and balance beam. 

 Then we went downstairs at city hall for Play Pals.  I've blogged about this before.  It's every day for a couple hours.  We just go and run around and play with toys and other kids.  

 After we did a little shopping together and washed the car (which she loved) we went home and I made Pumpkin pancakes while Savannah "worked" (put stickers on everything).  She's been really into "working" lately. 

 I'm pretty proud of these pancakes.  They had wheat germ, wheat flour, yeast, and pumpkin in them.  Then I added chocolate chips cause let's face it, that other stuff isn't all THAT good.  Then topped them with yogurt and OJ mix instead of syrup.  Pretty good!  Who have I become!?

Hall A Weeny

So I'm a little late on posting the rest of our Trick or Treat / Halloween themed pictures.  But here they are.
I will say - Today I took Savannah to store down town and as I had predicted, what do you think her first question was?  "Where candy Mommy?"  At least she has yet to run up to people's door steps and beg from them!  

We decided for the official city Trick or Treat to take Savannah to an assisted living center in town.  We had gone there a few weeks ago and they really enjoyed seeing our kid so we wanted to do it again - I guess that way we all gain something, right?

In the car on the way there Savannah started cracking up!  I think it was all the candy she'd ALREADY had that day, but it was really funny. 

 We stopped by some friends house and one of our High school kids (Danny) was "working the door". It was fun. 

 This is pretty much what it was like.  A blurr.  

A couple days before Halloween my dad had Savannah over to carve pumpkins.  He was growing a couple in his garden and was just waiting to do this with Savannah.  

We like her. 

Main Street Mayhem

Savannah had her first Trick or Treat experience this morning. Our Down Town area does an annual Trick or Treat through the stores so we headed down with some of our friends. (Note, Mermaid costume made with love by Grammy - Travis' mom) More Halloween pics to come, but I gotta get these up so Travis can see what we've been up to today while he's at work!

 It took some training but after about 5 stores Savannah finally got the hang of what we were doing.  It really is a confusing concept!  Go in to the store, get some candy, say thanks, then go to another store. I have a feeling this will come back to bite me the next time I try to go shopping with Savannah down town!

 And here's part of the crew : Max, Savannah, Chiarra, Maddy, and Callen

 Our friend LeAnn's kids are all in school now, but it was really fun to have her come with us. 

This is how she ended the morning.  The skirt was great but it must have been slowing her down.  

Derby Dames vs Denture Dames

 Saturday night Travis took me on a surprise date in Des Moines.  I had been wanting some new clothes so we went to Plato's Closet.  That place is kinda hit or miss, but this time it was definitely a hit.  I like shopping with Travis because he likes me and likes everything I try on so he usually gets me whatever I want.  That sounds totally self involved...well, it is.  I have been on this roller derby kick ever since we watched Whip It a few weeks ago (see my blog from about a month ago for more details) so Travis took me to see the Des Moines roller derby season opener.  The Des Moines Derby Dames is the name of our local team.  We had "suicide seats" which just means that there isn't enough seating in the place so some people have to sit on the ground by the track.  I liked sitting there though because we were more in on the action.  There wasn't as much hitting and elbow throwing as I'd hoped but there was plenty of shoving.

This is "Stella Italliano".  She's our best Jammer. Travis would get sooo excited when she jamming. 

Sunday morning was a bit of a change up.  We took a bunch of our high school students to a nursing home in town.  We just talked with them and hung out with them for about an hour.  It's amazing how much I dredded it, but then ended up enjoying it.  Of course it helped that one of our students played Piano for about 20 minutes, which took the pressure off conversation.  And of course Savannah came and brought plenty of entertainment.  I'm thinking Savannah and I might go more often.  Maybe I'll have her draw some pictures to deliver there or something.  

Travis loves people. All people.  That's one of the things I love most about him.  He's really good at conversation and connecting.  He spent most of his time talking with Charlotte who asked him at least 6 times where we live.  Either her memory is running out, or I can expect an 85 year old women at my door step any second.  

shopping with the higher class

[Okay, let me just say, this is a post making fun of posts that I have seen like this on other people's blogs where they take fancy close up shots of every day things that they are doing to make them look more classy.  However, I love reading other people's blogs that are like that because it lets me be uber nosey about their every day habbits. So if you're one of those, keep it up!]

Savannah and I had a productive morning the other day.  We went to one of our favorite stores - Walgreens!  We love looking at the coupons every week and taking advantage of the 2 for 1 generic Ibuprofen and the $1 dried fruit.  Savannah just loves the prunes  pineapple!

We also hit up the dentist!  It was Savannah's first visit.  She sat on a stool and watched as my teeth got cleaned.  Then she sat on my lap and opened up wide while the dentist counted her teeth, twice.  I think the counting was just a trick to get her to keep her mouth open while he examined them.  Then she got a tooth brush, a tattoo, crayons, and i dont even know what else.  I actually (honestly) LOVE the dentist because it makes me feel awesome about myself. 

Then we went to Fareway and got these awesome staples - generic peanut butter, Crisco, and chocolate stars.  We used them to cook up these, peanut butter cookies with chocolate stars in the center.  Mmm mmm good. 

Surefire Bootcamp Plug

So I'll just put this out there - Travis has been getting jacked lately.  Right?  I mean, not too many days go by anymore that someone doesn't comment on how fit, good, thin, hot, huge, built or in shape he looks.  Well, what's the secret?  Jeff Barton and his Surefire Bootcamp . Travis goes every week day at 6am (5am Thursdays).  Jeff's nitch is that he never, and I mean never repeats a work out.  Travis has gone for 7 months and has never done the same work out twice!  This guy knows what he's doing!

Below: Sav and I went one day to check it out/take pictures/hassle our man.