Tim the Tool Man Has Nothing On Me

I did something pretty awesome this weekend. Par for the course, I know, but this is something outside the realm of my usual modes of awesomeness. I fixed something. Prepare to be impressed.

You see, there was a little problem going on with our shower. Exhibit A:

And here's a fuller view:

Ew, right? Basically here's what we have: the grout and caulk stuff has deteriorated and is like falling out everywhere. This is also going on inside the shower at the same spot, but one thing at a time.

So. What does one do? Well, first of all, I went to Home Depot. And praise the Lord, but the "flooring expert" who helped me just happened to be a W.O.M.A.N. Yeah, that's right. Defying those gender roles. (Fist pump). So I told her what the problem was and she hooked me up with the goods. 

This is one of the awesome tools I purchased:

Yeah, completely creepy. It's like Psycho going on. Basically, that thing helps you get all the messed up grout and caulk out of the cracks. So here I am in action (at least posed action - I can only do so many things at once):

I scraped and I scraped. Let me tell ya, I was pretty glad my biceps are ripped to shreds (clearly) from my recent workouts, because this was no walk in the park. I admit, I didn't do it perfectly and might have chipped some tile just a little bit because of my zeal. But I think I know how to do it better and by my own creativity and experimentation, I learned how to maneuver that tool and get that grout out! (-: 

Here's the after:

Impressive, huh? All cleaned out and ready. Here is the proof of my hard work:

Yeah, ew. 

The next step was the fun part. I had this grout stuff and I loaded it in a caulking gun and cut the tip off. Action shot:

I don't know if you have ever worked with grout caulk stuff, but that is weird. Let's just say I had to get my bearings. Since I'm keeping it real, this is what it looked like at first:

Do not judge me. That stuff has a mind of its own and goes everywhere. I got better:

And then I figured you can like smooth it out it with your finger:

Progress right? Well, here's the deal. They sold me all this stuff, like a sponge and stuff and I realized I didn't need that, because I could use my hands, so I got my money back on that and used my finger to smooth out the rest and.... duh duh duh... voila!!

Yeah. Legit. I did pretty much get that stuff everywhere, including on the floor, all over me, on a bunch of towels, but it's all good. Battle wounds. Here I am, super proud of my achievements:

You can do it, too! Plus, I got to listen to music the whole time, gettin' my groove on, and I successfully procrastinated my seminary  homework, for which I am now paying the piper. Anyway, I hope I motivated you to try something new.

On an unrelated note, here's a cute pic of me and Boo for your Happy Monday:

~Kathryn

The Mystery of the Greasy Scalp

Okay, I know. The title is, well, disgusting. But you guys. Seriously, it has been quite a life-altering mystery. But since as of Friday it has been solved, I feel secure enough in my self-worth to share.

It all started a few months ago. I would wash and condition my hair and then blow-dry, as I had every day since like 9th grade (late bloomer, I know). But then one day a few months ago, there was this oily spot right on the crown of my head - right after I washed and blow-dried. I was like, "What the heck?" So, I talked to my fancy Aveda salon hair lady and she suggested that I only put conditioner on the bottom half of my hair, we got a different shampoo, etc etc and..... no change. In fact, it started getting worse. Now, this had never been a problem for me before. I've never dealt with an oily head. But in the last two years I have switched to a more natural shampoo with much less lather, so I was guessing it had something to do with the shampoo.

So what did I do? Confession: I started using baby powder. I know. Shame of all shames. But you guys. I had no other option. I could NOT get my hair un-oily. And the baby powder was a good temporary fix. It soaked that oil right up... for a while.

These shenanigans went on for several weeks until one day I was sitting in my boss's chair at work, you know, wearing the boss pants, and diligently working. (Okay, he may or may not have been standing over my shoulder telling me to do stuff.) Ha. Anyway, the ole boss man is rather tall, and with me sitting down, he had quite the bird's eye view of the top of my head. And let me tell you, that was NOT a pretty picture. I had used significantly more baby powder that day because, well, pardon the pun, it was all coming to a head and the oil was getting out of control.

So what did my ever-encouraging boss say to me after looking at my head? He said, "What is UP with your HAIR?!"

And that, my dear friends, is when it all hit the fan. I was found out. A fraud. I had a disgustingly oily head. And I was disguising it with baby powder - apparently too much baby powder.

I had no choice. I had to come clean. I told him what I had been doing, thus explaining the white gunk that had built up on the top of my head, that clearly I couldn't see, but he could.

He did what every other good boss would do and started looking up "oily scalp" on google. Let me tell ya, do not look up your symptoms on the internet, unless you want to be diagnosed with 1. cancer, or 2. an incredibly rare skin disease. By the end of the day, I was convinced I had a serious medical condition.

So the next day I wasn't going to let the oily hair win. I washed my hair MULTIPLE times in the shower and used NO conditioner. And what happened? Nothing. Well, Oily Scalp Award happened again.

I knew this called for drastic measures. Forget the natural shampoo; this was a crisis. So I bought Classic Pantene. I washed my hair at night and again the next morning, more than once. And I scrubbed. And lathered, rinsed, and repeated. And... voila. No oil.

Seriously you guys. No oil. So, I thought, maybe my hair just needed to be stripped of that oil and then it would all be okay. But as soon as I went back to the fancy shampoo, the grease ball made another appearance.

So this Friday I went to my hair lady and told her that we have a problem. I told her the story. I told her about the baby powder. She was my priest; I was in confession. I could tell she was trying to maintain an "everything you are telling me is completely normal" face while inside she was screaming "YOU PUT BABY POWDER IN YOUR HAIR AND ARE USING PANTENE?!!!!" But, she knows that this whole fancy salon concept is rather new to me, so she graciously asked me how much shampoo I was using. I said I was using a nickel size amount or so. And there you have it.

Apparently I should be using a half- to dollar sized amount. Apparently I should also be getting my hair so wet that as soon as I put the shampoo on I can get a good lather. Okay, who knew? All I knew is that this shampoo was expensive and if I was going to use it, I was going to have to make it last. I could make a little bitty bottle last several months, people. I am a penny pincher deluxe.

So I went home after that haircut, put a big ole dollop of that shampoo in my very wet hair, and glory be, I had a really soapy lather. I rinsed. I blow dried, and I swear to you, I could have been on shampoo commercial. I'm pretty sure there was cheeseball music playing in the back ground as I finished my hair with my texturizing product. I might have danced around. I might have screamed. It was such an out of body experience, I don't even know remember what I did. What I do know is that the crisis is solved - my hair was no longer oily. At all. In fact, it looked pretty awesome. Thank you, Lord.

I also know this post is ridiculously long and pretty out of control. But I had to share just in case I could change someone else's life.

One question: Has anyone seen the show "New Girl" on Fox? OMG I LOVE it. K thanks.

Happy Tuesday!

~Kathryn

The Nerd

My husband is a wonderful nerd. Most people don't guess incorrectly when trying to figure out who's the nerd and who's the free spirit.

He is such a nerd, in fact, that months ago he started planning a blog. Not anything extravagant, mind you, but he just wanted to be very intentional. He started working on post ideas, asking my opinion, and formulating in that sweet little nerdy brain of his what he would like the purpose of his blog to be.

At one point he told me his blog would "go live" on October 1. (-: As you know, it's after October 1, so you guessed it, the blog is live. I thought you might want a little peak at his wonderfully nerdy heart by checking out his blog. Mind you, it's the polar opposite of this little crazy piece of blog land.

So, go check out Mark's new blog, "Intentional Writings", and leave him some love.

In other news, I'm wearing sweats and working on a paper for seminary. This has been my life as of late. Nothing glamorous about it, let me tell ya.

Peace.

~Kathryn

Well, Hello, October!

Dude. Seriously. It's October. I'm pretty pumped. I mean, we've got football season, we've got pumpkins, we are getting closer to the most wonderful time of the year, and last but not least, my half-birthday is celebrated during October. So I'd say it's an all around fabulous month.

But, September happened. And yeah, I haven't really said much about that month. Probably because my life has been consisting of this:

Don't let the artsy photo fool you. That is homework. Those are flash cards. I have a love-hate relationship with homework. I love the learning, but hate the work. Hmm.... So, I've been doing a lot of that. And that has left me... plum. tuckered. out.

What else happened in September? Well, our garage door broke. And that was pretty epic. Because, well, who knew garage doors are expensive to fix? And who knew that the garage door repair people aren't exactly your friendly professional repair men? I mean, this guy was nice and all, but I'm not gonna lie: when I first saw him, I thought it might be my last day on earth.

Mark affectionately referred to him as "grizzly adams", and he didn't fix the garage. So our cars are in the driveway until we are rich enough to fix the garage door, which is not today.

I also accomplished a goal of mine: I made my own laundry detergent. See how excited I am?

Yeah, it's super awesome. Clean clothes, and you have no idea how cheap it is. DO IT.

Here's the awesome pumpkin in front of our house for Fall:

We also celebrated one full year in our wonderful home. What a tremendous blessing it has been. Love. Love. Love.

And to Dave Ramsey's great delight, we paid off my student loans. Glory be. Now we just have Mark's student loans and we are golden. Two more years? We'll see! Woot.

And last but not least, I decided to switch out my wedding ring for something completely different. I had to special order it and it will take a while to come in, but I am so excited. Here's a pic:

Yeah, it's totes two-tone gold and a beautiful garnet. So excited. Love.

Well, those are my September updates. I know it's completely lame that I haven't posted. But dude, guys, I'm working full time and in grad school. It's all I can do to get enough sleep to function. Good news? In two weeks I will only have ONE class, so my load should be significantly lighter and we can be BFFs again.

Oh, and I've noticed a lot of posts about babies. Everyone in blog world and in the real world is pregnant. And we're talking round two here - my friends are having their SECOND children. When did my friends start having kids? Everyone is growing up so quickly! At our house, we are happy with our canine kids, thank you very much. But also happy for everyone else. (-:

Well, I've put off studying as long as I can. If you feel so obliged, you should comment so I know you haven't completely defriended me since my absence. Thanks guys. 

XOXO.

~Kathryn