Before-And-After Hair

I put extensions in Destiny's hair this week by myself. One photo shows her hair natural, but uncombed--it's about twice as long as it looks in this picture. I used four and a half packs of Yaki synthetic hair to braid in these extensions. There are highlights of fuscia, bronze, and base colors of black and brown.

She's gonna sprain her neck the way she's flicking this around the house. I'm dying to even up the ends a bit but she goes running off every time I come near her with a pair of scissors. :)

If you're trying to do extensions and it's not going well, this is maybe the 12th time I've tried and I think the first time it's gone well.

I'm hoping to get three weeks out of this style. I finished the braids two days ago and they're still looking strong, so I'm optimistic.

The hardest parts are beginning the braid (there's no anchor on the plastic hair, you just have to freehand braid it into the natural hair) and the transitions, when the natural hair runs out you have to try to keep it looking really smooth by keeping a lot of tension on all three hair pieces as you brad otherwise the transition areas will get all frizzy over time and it will look like she's got two hairstyles going at once.

The most important keys to preserving the braids are to wrap hair every night and never get the natural hair wet while it's in this style. Wet hair will give the natural hair too much flex and elasticity and the synthetic braids will fall right out.

Happy braiding,
Jess

Some Destiny Funnies from the Wayback Files

I was cleaning the garage in preparation for a flood (well, not cleaning, organizing) and ran across a big bin of stuff that had been rather poorly plunked into a bin and stuffed into storage when we last listed our condo for sale--and then drug back into the garage when we gave up and took the house off the market and closed out the storage unit.

At the bottm of the bin, was the multicolored index cards that I put together when Destiny first moved here--I kept them on my nightstand and every time we had a really fun or funny encounter with her, I'd write it down and stick it in the back of a journal.

These little cards were a real lifesaver as we transitioned into being a family. It's not easy to add an older adopted child into the fold--especially if the're not interested in getting a new family. Our first 18 months could be described at "rocky at best" and then we all somehow started getting along well.

Those days aren't far from anyone's mind--we all remember them, but there's no grudges held--we chalk it all up to family growing pains and some righteous grief from Destiny--which she was totally entitled to.

Anyhow, I thought I'd post here some of these cards that I found--they're a pretty good laugh.

We visited the crab pot in July of 2006 with Destiny, where they bring a crab boil and dump it on Newspaper on your plate to eat for dinner. It includes potatos, corn, mussells, crab legs, clams and whole steamed shrimp.

Destiny was a pretty messy eater, so we knew a messy place would be just the ticket for her.

As soon as the waiter appeared and poured the dish onto the table, Destiny spoke up and made her concerns known. "Don't they know I only eat blind shrimp? These have eyes!"

We Nor'westers eat fruits and veggies different than Destiny had in Florida I think. In June of 2006 we were participating in our local community garden, and after a six-week absense from the garden, we went back to our plot. Down, deep in the weeds we found a tiny zuchinni plant with a tinier zuchinni on it. Destiny shouted "Look dad! A 'Queenie' or whatever it is."

March 16th, a month after joining our family we got a double whammy from Destiny. We had a rain storm and she scraemed and said she doesn't like storms. When I asked why, she said that in Florida "a Tomato storm bashed up all the hosues and turned off all the lights" I'm pretty sure she was talking about tornados.

This is also the day that she asked me if I was ever going to have any babies. I'm not totally opposed to the idea, and not really interested right now either, but she was very concerned. S he asked if "Is that becuase you got your boobs tied?" She went on to explain that someone else she knows had six kids and then finally got her boobs tied. Again, pretty sure this was a mis-hearing... I think she was asking about getting "tubes tied."

Here's one from Rob--he put a yellow card in the mix dated 9-6-07 detailing that he was with Destiny going grocery shopping when the car was rear-ended. Destiny asked what would happen if she were to call 911 without any reason. He explained that there might be a fine or the police might come write a ticket. She asked "Do they look under beds?"

The fair has always been a big deal for Destiny. The day that we met her, her siblings had been taken to the fair, and she'd been taken to the Pizza Hut to meet her new parents. She really feels left out about missing the fair, so in September of 06 we took her to the Puyallup fair. We were in the petting zoo and saw a tiny baby bunny. I said "look how sweet he is!" Destiny responded loudly "He's not sweet--he's MEAT." Half the petting zoo cracked up. The other half was horrified.

Here's one from Rob--4-26-06-- He asked Destiny where Spagetti comes from (wondering if she knew the ethnic origins of food) she replied "From cows?"

In our first few days with Destiny, Rob and I frequently found the need to step aside and compare notes. We called these little talks "conferences" and we'd announce that we're having a two-minute conference and needed privacy. On her second night with us--while we were still in the hotel in Florida, Destiny had a big tantrum and we had her sit on the toilet in the bathroom of the hotel (no good timeout places in hotels)... we heard her mumble to herself "I'm havin' a conference so these guys can't give me anymore timeouts."

A fun conversation with my girls: Reindeer Ghosts.

Melat (4): Mommy, why you and daddy always going to work?

Me: We're going to work to make the money to pay for our nice house and to save some money so you can go to college and get a nice job with nice money and a nice house.

Melat: Yay! I want a nice house. When I have a nice house and my own working I can make my own food, and sleep there and vaccum. (She is her father's child).

Melat: Can Destiny live there?

Me: Destiny is a lot older and likes to live differently than you. She likes messy spaces and you like tidy spaces. I think Destiny might be happier in her own house that she buys with her own money from her nice job.

Destiny (11): I like tidy spaces!! (tone of outrage)

Me: You like them when someone else tidies them.

Melat: Destiny, I will make your house tidy and then we can be together forever.
When Destiny gets big she's going to buy her house and save up big moneies for a bus for a job. When she has her bus you will pay her moneys and I will pay her monies and daddy will go pay moneys and we will all go somewhere.

Me: Where will we go?

Destiny: Los Angeles!

Me: What will we do in Los Angeles?

Melat: We will play on the beach.

Destiny: And see the ghosts.

Me: What ghosts?

Melat: The ghosts of the reindeers.

Oh, of course those ghosts. I forgot about those infamous Los Angeles Reindeer Ghosts. (Sounds like a minor league hockey team name doesn't it?)

For what it's worth, earlier today Melat told me that when she grows up she's going to be a reindeer because she likes snow and she likes Santa Claus.

Now that you've read through my silly stories for the day, here's some quick Halloween photos. We played the big day kinda low key this year due to illness, but we still had fun.

Adoption fundraiser idea

Did you know that you can recycle used electronics for cash?

I was thinking today that this might be a really good adoption fundraiser. A while back I got rid of the drawer of used cell phones and other small electronics... computers, cameras, etc. This company pays CASH for these!

You might be able to have a mobile phone drive and then turn them in to Gazelle for cash!

I sold one phone earlier this year for $53 (a year-old, not very functional smartphone). Check online for the list of electronics that they recycle--it's pretty extensive. They cover shipping, and even send you the cartons, and pay by paypal within a few days. Awesome, easy process, and I'll bet you'll have no trouble getting friends and family to part with their used electronics.

A Melat Funny or Maybe I'm Growing Old

I took Melat with me to a local liquidator store where I buy packages of her pull-ups at a discount because the packages were torn in shipping.

They always have a ton of interesting stuff in there. Resturaunt supplies, snow shovels, dog toys--you name it.

She asks a lot of "what's that" questions. She happened upon a giant bin of cassette tapes and asked me what they were. I told her they were music.

So she picked one up and held it to her ear.

Naturally.

Where do babies come from?

My four year old, Melat, told me tonight that babies grow in mommies' tummies until their fingernails get sharp and then they scratch the mommy's eyes to get out. She knows this because she's having a baby tomorrow. Nice.

Summer Wrapping Up: In Pictures

Where to begin in reporting our summer. It seemed to have flown by. Destiny attended Girl Scout Camp at Saltwater State Park and Church Vacation Bible School. We took a day hike at Mt. Rainier National Park, and the highlight of our summer was a four-day camping trip with friends. Four moms, twenty-four kids, four days. It was a blast.

Also this summer, we had visitors from Ethiopia. The director of WACAP House (Our agency's children's home) came for meetings and we had the opportunity to take him and his colleague to see some of the local sights. It was great to have the opportunity to visit with them both and for them to see Melat's progress, and her continued good health.

Just last week we got excellent news from M's doctor who says that her HIV is not progressing still. It's unclear why this is, and she'll continue to have her maintenance tests, but it's great to see that she's doing so well.

Melat just had her fourth birthday, and recieved a little bit of birthday money. She also gets money for her only "chore" in the house--which is matching socks. She gets $0.25 per load of wash for matching socks.

Boy was I surprised to learn she'd squirreled away $160!

I took her to the bank and she opened her first bank account. She handed the teller her green card, and her money and said "I'm thinkin' about it and I want a bank for my money."


Destiny is celebrating her 11th birthday this month. She's busy getting ready for school to start, and is getting a head start on some of her lessons (she's doing an online-home school program). She was reading her history book and came to me in outrage saying "Mom! I can't believe they have us read this book--people die in it!" (I felt bad that I had to explain to her that in history, everybody dies.).

With Destiny home-schooling now, Melat was pushing back about preschool, so she's staying home now too--and has daily "table time" twice a day--an hour of activities at her little-kid-sized desk.

She sat on the sofa a few days ago with her lacing cards--those little wooden shapes with holes around the edges. She was pulling the shoestring through the holes and said to me "Mom, I don't understand why anybody would do this." Then she put the cards in the box and went on to do something else.

I guess it's a good point. Why would anyone do that? But toddlers aren't supposed to ask.