A VERY VERY BAD HAIR DAY

After a cut and color (highlights and lowlights) from my usual hairdresser, she styled it and I thought it looked so good when I left. 

But look what I woke up to yesterday morning!! O M G !!

I don't know what she was thinking!! She said she has A.D.D., so I guess we shouldn't have been talking so much.  It was cut so short and wierd in the back! It was as long or longer than those long strands on the sides and I only requested a TRIM! It looks like a man's cut or worse. I had spent the last six months growing it long enough to style it the way I wanted it and now it is shorter than ever!

I thought the hair stylist was just taking a little off the top and around the ears like I requested! I even had brought photos of myself with the style I wanted!! Surprisingly, she doesn't want to see the photos of it, so I am posting them here for her and the world to see. Now I know why she didn't show me the back when I was there! Look how uneven, spotted and blotchy the color is and how choppy the cut is.

After emailing photos and getting advice from my sister in Florida, who's a hair dresser, I had my other sister, Denise, who is an artist, come over and paint in more highlights and lowlights in the back, above the ears and through the top. She also did some trimming to try to fix the back and break up the terrible, cheetah spots and squared off, sheep sheared look. She spent over five hours with me here yesterday. Meticulasly painting tiny strands of hair and working in stages, she was trying her best to blend the color and help me out. She did a great job and got it to look decent enough that I can now go out in public without feeling terribly ugly and extremely self conscious.

I know that this is really a very small, insignificant matter in the big scheme of things. I also know that I will be uncomfortable and a little bummed out about this for quite some time to come. 

Thank God for sisters though! I would be freaking out without their help. Thank you Gaile for your advice and Denise for your patience and artistry! I really owe you one!!

"Helping one another is part of the religion of sisterhood."  ~ Louisa May Alcott

"Sisters annoy, interfere, criticize.  Indulge in monumental sulks, in huffs, in snide remarks.  Borrow.  Break.  Monopolize the bathroom.  Are always underfoot.  But if catastrophe should strike, sisters are there.  Defending you against all comers."  ~ Pam Brown

"Our roots say we're sisters, our hearts say we're friends."  ~ Author Unknown

"Sisters function as safety nets in a chaotic world simply by being there for each other."  ~ Carol Saline

A Winter Visit To Longwood Gardens

The day after we visited Old Philadelphia, we Sandy sisters headed off to Longwood Gardens. It was a cold and very windy day, quite a big difference from the day before! Fortunately we didn't have to do much walking outside.

Inside the greenhouses, it was warm, fragrant and colorful. The feeling of spring immediately lifted our spirits.

"The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size." ~ Gertrude S. Wister

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom." ~ Terri Guillemets


"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us." ~ Iris Murdoch


"Sisters are different flowers from the same garden." ~ Author Unknown

A Visit To Old Philadelphia

For my birthday ( week ☺), I suggested that my younger sister, Gaile, fly up from Florida for a visit. It didn't take a whole lot of coaxing since she really wanted to see some snow and had a "free" flight from Spirit Airlines. (Which ended up costing her around $100. round trip, but that's another story. Is anything ever really FREE?)

I picked Gaile up at the Atlantic City Airport on Tuesday, Feb. 15th. Boy how the time flew. Local sister, Denise Bush and I were wondering what we were going to do for entertainment while Gaile was visiting. Ha Ha, not to worry, we were busy non-stop the whole week!

With temperatures up in the high sixties during the day and no chance of snow for most of the week, Gaile had to make due with dirty snow piles and the little bit of virgin snow still covering my horse pasture.

Here are a few snapshots and highlights of a trip via the High Speedline to Philadelphia on Friday, February 18th. It was a wonderful day to tour the city as the temperatures climbed to almost 70 degrees in the afternoon! We started off with lunch at the historic and award winning, Old City Tavern.

We enjoyed delicious recipes passed down for centuries by famous colonists. I especially loved their custom brewed beer, homestyle biscuits and my crusty chicken pot pie. YUMM! I must go back again soon! This place is too good to be just for tourists!

After lunch we visited The Betsy Ross House, Elfreth's Alley and the National Liberty Museum.

Denise on left and Gaile on right in front of historic 18th century buildings.

We had an amazing day followed by a gourmet Lasagna dinner cooked at my house by Gaile. Having visitors always involves more cooking and eating, but it also gets you out exercising! Company gives us a break from our daily routines and makes us get out and enjoy life and take advantage of the local attractions!

The following Day was windy and cold, so we took a trip out to Longwood Gardens for some indoor Springtime pleasures. I'll post some highlights and photos from that trip here real soon!

Sketching In The Mountains

Two Saturdays ago at this time I was still in the mountains. The past two weeks have flown by! I can't tell you what exactly I've been so busy with, other than post processing photographs and filling hummingbird feeders. This is a photo I took in Colorado of my sister, Gaile. She was a wonderfully cooperative model and roadie. My thanks go out to her today for helping me with my photography journey.

The Obama Family's First Dog

The promise of a new puppy can be all consuming for kids and families. I know, as a child I begged my parents for years to get a dog. Walking neighbors' dogs every chance I got, with the help of my two sisters, we finally wore them down. We got our first dog, a dachshund that we named Lynus, on my 9th birthday. His registered name was Fritz's Revenge, after the Red Barron. Snoopy was very popular at the time and we had wanted a beagle, but there were no puppies to be had in the newspaper the weekend we took the plunge. Finally, the day had come and there was no stopping us! We got a puppy from the first and only breeder we visited. Here's a picture I took of my sisters, Denise and Gaile with Lynus. I've got my dad looking for a picture of me holding him as a tiny puppy which I'll post here when I get it.


The soon to be First Family seems to be going about this in a more methodical, less haphazard fashion. Barrack Obama said they have two criteria to address. One is that Malia is allergic, so the new pet has to be hypoallergenic. The other is that the family prefers adopting from a rescue shelter rather than a breeder. As an animal lover and organization supporter, I think this is so nice because it raises public awareness and will set a good example for others.



My sister, Denise also has major animal allergies and has found allergy relief with a hypoallergenic breed. Pictured here are photos she took of her young Welsh Terrier, Augie.

See Denise's photography here.

See a list of hypoallergenic pooches here. "Daddy gets the Oval Office and Malia and Sasha get a puppy"

Don't Feed The Alligators!

Here's a photo of sister Gaile at a local park we visited.

Discovery Cove at SeaWorld

Here's a photo of me and my sister Gaile, with my two teenage nephews, Dillon on left and Cody on the right. Dillon will graduate high school tomorrow and will be going into the Air Force in less than a month.

A Week Of Family

Just got back home this afternoon from a really great trip to see family. It was the first time all the Sandy Sisters had been together since 2000. This pictures shows all the girls in the Sandy family going from left to right with me - daughter # 1, then Denise #2, Momma Eva, Gaile #3 and Ellen #4. My only niece, Meadow is in front of me.
My dad, Big Al, is taking the picture.

Sisters In Florida

Here's a picture of two of my three sisters and me (on the left) in my parents front yard in Florida.