My Macbook took a bath in milk, I lost my blogger password--and came out of it with a great new hairstyle and stylist.

 Since I started yapping on the internet back in July, I think this past week was probably the longest time between my boring updates! Please believe me when I say it wasn't because I'd run out of things to say--that will never happen! I could talk to a blank wall about nothing for hours (or so my dad used to say). 

My last post was New Years Eve--and we had an amazing New Years in our new home. Both the kids and my niece made it to midnight and were very excited to light off the illegal fireworks that my husband had bought them right before we crossed the border into Arizona on our drive. To this day, my husband has a nice scar right up his wrist from a burn he received while engaged in a "firework battle" with his "friends" when he was 10 years old. That's the man I chose to procreate with. I was horrified the entire time and I made my niece promise not to tell my sister unless she was directly asked--she would have been more upset than I was. My husband has this saying that it's ok for kids to do dangerous things as long as they are doing it smartly. I have to say he did supervise them closely and the kids had an absolute blast and we still had a collective 30 kid fingers when the night was done. And what an introduction we made to the neighborhood. We've waved to them but somehow I'm not surprised no one has come to said hello after we rattled the entire neighborhood on our 4th night in the house. 

On Friday, my son and I took my niece to the airport. It was a pretty sad moment as her departure made moving seem all the more real. I absolutely adore her and after some thought, I may end up missing her more than I do my sisters. She fell in love with Arizona (well probably more the 8th grade boy who competes in nationwide ninja warrior contests that we see running around the neighborhood and doing the obstacles in his back yard) and she plans on asking her mom if she can come live with us. I would be totally up for it as I loved having her here but I can't see any way that my sister would allow it. She was super jazzed to fly by herself and even had to make a connection but she made it all the way back home like a champ. 

When I got home from the airport, I got the wonderful news that my daughter had spilled a giant glass of milk all over my Macbook. It wasn't her fault and usually I wouldn't leave it on the kitchen table but since we still aren't totally moved in yet, the table has become my desk. It was originally issued to me by my school, maybe 4 years ago and one of the nicest things the district did is let me buy it from them on my way out. I've used it for nearly everything, personal and school for since I got it so it had everything on it. Thankfully, I'm pretty adept at saving things to my various google drives and all that info is safe but there are a lot of pics and random things that I really wanted to keep, hence buying it from the district. But it is totally gone, it won't boot, it won't take power--it is completely dead. But along with that, I had no idea that I didn't have the password to this gmail and blogger account because I guess I never logged out and I'd never synced this profile to my phone or one of Bub's computers. 

It was actually pretty scary because I really do feel attached to all of you and I knew that if I lose this account, then the story of Dani and Bubs on the internet is likely gone forever. I would probably create another account and keep blogging because it is such a nice release for me but I wouldn't want to speculate that people would be able to find me again. It was actually quite depressing for a while. I tried every password I could think of that I may use but none worked. It got to the point where I was worried that if I tried it too many times, google would lock me out. I'd made an appointment with the Apple Store for Monday to see if there was anything they could do so I decided to wait until at least then before trying to log into this account again. 

Monday was the kids' first day of school and my first day as an official stay at home mom. I took them to their schools, met their teachers and staff and was very impressed at their little school. It was as little hard to not flash my credentials as a former educator and administrator but my goal is to blend in with the other moms as teachers tend to talk to other teachers a little differently and I don't want my kids to get any sort of special treatment. As soon as I dropped them off I headed up to the Apple Store for my appointment. 

Tucson's Apple Store is in our very upscale outdoor mall--which is gorgeous by the way. For a girl from Texas, even the Hill Country, shopping in a mall nestled up against huge mountains was pretty impressive. And did I ever feel like a spoiled brat. Here I was cruising around the exclusive mall, on a Monday morning, in my Anthropologie maternity wear--while my husband was working to pay my bills. I think the only reason I wasn't the complete package is I was wearing my Vans tennis shoes and not heels and I didn't have the valley girl vocal fry like I imagine other spoiled housewives do. But man if it wasn't tempting to talk to people like "I'm hereeee to gattt my laptoppp fixeddddd..caaaaannnn you?" 

I guess to cut to the chase, Apple said that my Macbook is gone and it's time to replace it. I asked about the data and they said they could try but wouldn't guarantee anything. I called my husband to ask him what I should do, he played his part of sugar daddy perfectly and told me to go ahead and buy a new Macbook while I was there. I told him there was no way I was going to buy a laptop on the spot and I want to go over specifications with him before rushing to buy something so big. I couldn't tell if he was relieved that I wasn't spending thousands of dollars on the fly or if he was disappointed that he couldn't spoil me. Either way--this new life is something I'm going to have to get used to. The great thing about being married to a guy who works in tech is that their lab has a ton of gadgets and tools and one of Bub's layout employees is going to try recover my data and he's pretty sure he can do it. It will thrill me if I can get some of those pics back. 

I wandered around the mall for a bit like the kept woman I'd become and had a really nice time. I saw a hair salon so I texted Bubs to ask if maybe since I didn't buy the laptop, if I could see if they could fit me in. If I was acting like a spoiled wife shopping on a Monday morning, well the trip wouldn't be complete without getting my hair done up nice! He that he would be honored to treat me to a new fresh haircut.  The girl was so sweet and said she could get me in about half an hour which worked great. 

I've talked a bit about my hair before. First things first, I am blonde. As natural as a blonde can be. Unlike most people who are born blonde and gradually get darker as they age, I am as yellow haired as I've always been. My mom likens me and my little sister's hair to "corn silk" as it is blonde, straight, fine and nearly unmanageable if I don't keep it brushed.  I have exactly two hair styles that I use on a regular basis; down and a pony tail--90% of the time it's the later. I've always been so jealous of girls who can curl their hair in these full body hair-dos that perfectly frame their face and have bouncy curls that move up and down as they saunter. When I worked at Hooters, I had a routine of basically burning the shit out of my hair with a curling iron then using literal bottles of hair spray to try and make it stay--and even then I was very lucky if I could get the curls to last one shift. I ended up damaging it so bad, I had to get it cut into a bob and have pretty much never attempted to curl my hair again--save for random occasions when I have someone more knowledge helping me out for a night out. 

Well my new hairstylist (or as I call her, friend for life) introduced me to the magic of the Dyson Air Wrap, a special brand of hair spray made for hair just like mine and a specific cut that allows the Air Wrap to do it's magic.  I'd heard of the Air Wrap before but couldn't imagine it was worth the cost. That hair appointment was life changing. Not only did I get to sit and talk with a bunch of other spoiled wives, I walked out of there with a hairstyle that would have made teenage Dani fall over in disbelief. When I was a kid, I spent hours sobbing because my hair sucked so bad. My new stylist had me completely transformed within an hour and I fell in love with it. I facetimed my little sister and she about fell over and our first stop as soon as she visits will be to get her hair done. I was on the Amazon app before I even left the parking lot and my late Christmas present to myself is my amazing Dyson Air Wrap. Of course this isn't a permanent thing and it will take some work to get my hair to do that again but at least I have the tools, knowledge and person who can help me out any time I need it.  Bubs about passed out when he saw me that evening--and when he saw how much an Air Wrap costs. I guess we are both going to have to get used to this new lifestyle. But day one of being a spoiled stay at home mom was a massive win. The rest of the week wasn't bad either. 

So obviously, I'm on my blog again. I logged into the associated email account and saw that a lot of you have emailed me! I promise I will get back to all of you, I just wanted to get a "proof of life" post up so people don't think anything happened to me. Basically what happened is that I was unpacking boxes I ran across the most random little folded scrap of paper that I had to have packed away for some reason. I guess when I had started this account I had jotted down the password and somehow the paper ended up getting packed up with the "non urgent" stuff from Bub's desk.  I instantly knew what it was and here I am! 

I am so thrilled from so much that has happened this week! But most of all thrilled that I can keep talking to all of you! I haven't forgotten about all the special requests people have asked of me and I promise I'll get to those too!