Roll out the red carpet ...

All right, boys and girls, here's the new me:

CRAZY, huh? What a day!! It started out on the wrong foot, with everything going wrong that could have gone wrong (or so it seemed): kids getting on each other's nerves (and mine!), trying to make dinner for 3 families (us, my parents, and my aunt and uncle -- she just had surgery today), constant refereeing of the aforesaid squabbling children, spilling BBQ sauce on a newly washed shirt, scrambling to get everything ready to get out the door in time for Aidan's school and my haircut appointment ...

Ugh! I was exhausted by by midday, but maybe all that craziness was a good thing, for it kept my mind off of the drastic experience ahead. I picked up my sister-in-law Michelle, swung by Aidan's school to drop him off, and then drove over to her friend's house for the Big Appointment. Unfortunately I came an inch or two short of being able to donate my hair (darn!), so that was a big disappointment. Then the snipping began ...

An hour and a half later, surrounded by a massive mountain of red hair on the floor, I was transformed. I'm still in shock. It feels great, to be honest -- I think I dropped about 10 pounds, although I'm not used to feeling bangs on my forehead so that will take some getting used to. I like it -- I do; I just have no idea who that person is in the mirror. I learned a few new things: that I have a few funky cowlicks (of course in the places where I don't want them to be for this 'do) so I'll have to fight them every day, and (sadly) it seems as if I lost a lot of the bright redness to the floor pile, leaving behind some darker auburn/almost brownish hair that must have been hiding underneath the masses. It was quite an experience, to say the least, and I'm glad Michelle was there for moral support! It's all good.

My mom likes it, and I'm glad. This is for her.

(Aidan snapped the pictures, by the way -- I swear he's a budding photographer!)