My fun weekend in Dallas

This week was trying for me (again). It was cold and wet and miserable everyday. The kids were acting worse than usual I think at least partially due to being cooped up all week. Not being able to go outside and let loose of some energy seems to have a big effect on behavior. Friday after a full day of kids and life, I helped Stu put the kids to bed and then drove over to Erica' s house to pick her up and drive to Ft. Worth to our sister Susan's house for a little girls weekend. Susan is on a Red Cross committee which was sponsoring a fundraiser this weekend in Dallas. It was going to be a Mardi Gras Masquerade at the House of Blues in Downtown Dallas. Fortunately by the time we left the rain had stopped and the traffic was gone too. We drove up stopping only once (at Taco Bueno in Waco- it's Erica's favorite from when she lived in Dallas, don't ask me why). We got there at about 11:30 unloaded and had a nice chat before going to bed that night. We slept in only until about 9 the next morning, got dressed and made a quick trip to McDonalds for a bite to eat and then to Wal-Mart for a few necessities. Erica and I enjoyed walking around the store sans kids being able to browse a little without worrying about little one's getting into things or asking for anything. Then we went back to Susan's house to start the getting ready process. Yes, we pretty much took all day. Susan had arranged for a hairdresser to come to the house and do all of our hair that day. We had to leave that night by 5, so the hairdresser was to arrive around noon in order to get all of our hair done in time. I went first. I pretty much let her do what she wanted and liked what she did based on the fact that I was going to a Mardi Gras party with a mask and that I wouldn't really know anyone there. I thought my hair was fun and playful and that was fine with me. Also, Erica and Susan kept saying how much they liked it. Although thru the night I became more self conscious because everyone else there had smooth straight hair, not a little pom pom on top of their heads. Oh, well. (Sorry I don't have any good pics- Erica and Susan took a bunch and I need to get them to send some to me.)

Erica was the next to go. She also decided to go out on a limb with her hair going for an up-do which we all agreed would go well with her dress. She sat there for a very long time- over an hour letting the hairdresser work her "magic" before she was done. I couldn't tell if she liked it or not. I thought maybe not, but I wanted to be positive and kept complimenting her on it. Once she got back in the bathroom where the hairdresser couldn't hear she told me how much she disliked it. From then on we tried to figure out how we could change it in time for the party without the hairdresser knowing about it since she was still out fixing Susan's hair and would be there until about 4:30!! We needed to leave by 5:00 so we were very worried about a possible time crunch. Luckily she finished with Susan's hair and Erica was able to flat iron and roll her hair into a nice smooth doo just in time. She looked beautiful. Crisis averted. ( We took lots of pictures of the offensive up-do just for the record- let's just say there was a whole lot going on)

Then came Susan's turn. She decided to go big and beautiful. Her's turned out the best of all. She looked great. At first s he was a little worried that it was too big. When the hairdresser first did it, it looked a little Dolly Parton circa 1985. But of course it fell a little and relaxed into a gorgeous glamorous doo.

We went to the party and had a great time. I'll direct you to Erica's blog at http://www.milestogomommy.blogspot.com/ for more pictures and party info. She took her camera with us and took lots of pictures. I somehow became the designated driver when it was clear that the 2 of them were not going to stop "enjoying" themselves anytime soon, so I didn't have quite as much fun as they did, but it was still a good time. My feet hurt sooooo bad by the end of the night that I could barely walk. We got home at about 1:30 and I went right to bed after a quick snack. The next morning we woke up around 9 grabbed some breakfast and hit the road by 11. I was back home after dropping Erica off by about 2:30. It was good to be back and I'm glad I have today to recover and get back into the swing of things.