LIFE isn't a RACE

Well here we are....another year coming to a close. I think every year it is a little harder to get in the Christmas spirit and we are a little tougher on ourselves each year with things we have or havent done. Every year you try to think of that perfect gift to get for Mom or Dad or your buddy. You try and change the stupid little bad habit you have so that you can get to that point in your life that you want to be. I think this year one thing that I have realized is how important my family is to me and how weak and lost I would be without them. The more people I talk to on a daily basis when I am doing hair I think it makes me appreciate how awesome my family is. I am SOOOOO blessed in so many ways and I think I take it for granted.

My family is awesome and they put up with me even with all the stupid decisions I make in my life. They are always there for me and I know whatever I do they will still love me.....while shaking there head. Even with all of our different personalities and interests I know we were placed together for a reason and we make eachother stronger. We can have fun anytime we get together and make eachother laugh. Whenever we make stupid decisions my family is always there for eachother to lift eachother up and give advice when we dont know what to do with certain choices. I could call anyone of them on any given day and they would be there to listen and talk me through anything....if they answer that is haha

This time of year I also think of what I have done and if I have been successful. I think we all compare ourselves to other people and wonder if we are at the point we should be at in our lives....whether it be in a job, with our family, or in our relationships. Today talking to one of my clients she reminded me of something. Life isnt a race. We have to appreciate what we have done, the things we have accomplished, and control what we can control instead of thinking of what we havent done. We all have gone through a lot to get to where we are and we wont succeed at everything or be the best at everything. There are those things that I have been successful with this year and I am thankful for those whether big or small. I just need to remind myself every now and then and this time of year is perfect for that.

Once again I am thankful for all of you and all you do for me whether you know it or not. I love you guys!!

The SEARCH for the PERFECT Christmas Tree!!!

Well lately Christmas around my parents house hasnt really looked like Christmas to be honest. There arent too many decorations up or even a tree for that matter. So my Dad and I decided to go buy a real Christmas tree this year since my Mom is out of town. We had a little help from Julie which made it even more fun......AS YOU CAN SEE OUR EXCITEMENT!!! hahah(Yes randomly that is Mom and Dad's closet where the picture was taken.)Dads favorite part was that we found a SALE!!!

We searched and searched for the perfect tree.......

Julie and searched through thousands and thousands.....different forests.....UNTIL........the PERFECT TREE!!!! ok more like the cheapest we could possibly find....hahahha We strapped it on top of the car.......
and attempted to fit it into the living room which is full of more cottage decor type decorations then I have ever seen in my life. We managed though. The finished product......decorations made possible by Julie and Michael cutting out paper snowflakes, and the lights were the net lights that you just throw on top of the tree...hahaha but the best part!!!!........THE ANGEL!!!!! We pre-ordered this from Yugoslavia and it came just in time for the tree to be put up.......or truthfully I just cut it out of some paper from Dad's office....doesn't the angel look so happy!!!

Maurine...Maurine...Maurine! Shoot me!!!

Well the salon I am working at is an AWESOME place and I love the people I work with and it is usually peaceful as you can see. The girl to my right is rarely ever there and I love her to death, and the girl at the station to my left is my best friend at the salon BUT....its not always so awesome.......There is this lady named Maurine who claims to know everything and she of course has to tell you about it. There is one cool thing about Maurine because she used to know Grandpa Eddie back in the day and actually wanted to work for him, but lets just say she is a little CRAZY!!!

Here is a list of the reasons why I LOVE(sarcasm) Maurine..........
-interrupts while I am talking to clients and doesnt care what you have to say
-she is ALWAYS right
-tries to set me up with every one of her clients that is single.
-likes to tell me how much things cost back in the day.
-she wears the same dress every single day.
-tries to get my clients to date me.
-doesnt book clients...just sits here from 8-5 and waits for clients
-tells me I need to learn perms or I wont make any money
-tells me I need to sit at the salon from 8-5 and wait for people or I wont make money
If you notice in this picture she is talking but doesnt even realize that I am putting a gun to my head wanting to get myself out of the conversation very quickly......she has been there for 30 minutes!!!! Well one day when I open up my own place I wont have a Maurine to bug me.....hahaha Well I hope not anyway. Here is one of my salon ideas that I have. The Ace of Spades Salon......just an idea floating around.

GOLFING 101: 6 Simple Rules

Now I know there are a lot of people who are wanting new hobbies so why not think about picking up golf. Here are a few tips.......

Rule #1: YOU NEED COOL GLASSES

Well after cleaning out my car I realized I had a few sunglasses that are all pretty much ridiculous looking that I have purchased on road trips. So why not wear them all on this perfect day for golf?

Rule #2: CLEAN THE GOLF BALLS

We got to the course around 3:30pm meaning we had about an hour and a half or so til we lost the sun to actually see what we were doing...hahah...but that makes it more fun right? We had to wash all the golf balls since we are pros and all. I think we could have mud all over one half of the ball and we would still be terrible. We like to change the par(normal amount of strokes) on each hole to 2 strokes more than what they suggest just so that we seem a little better.

Rule #3: WEAR FUNNY LOOKING CLOTHES

Look at that beautiful swing about to take place. The hole wasnt that far away and you would think I would hit it straight toward the hole but lets just say my ball flew to the right and landed no where near the green. The goofy hat I am wearing is the trophy from this course I won last time we were there (Craig Ranch...aka Ghetto Cheap Course). We buy something from each course we play and whoever wins gets that trophy and has to add it to their bag.

Rule #4: CLEAN YOUR SHOES TO KEEP GOOD BALANCE

I thought maybe cleaning on the bottom of my shoes would help a little......cause I am awesome like that. Ok I just thought it was funny because nothing we do makes a difference. Rule #5: BE A FRIENDLY DRIVER IN YOUR CART

We only had 2 carts in between 3 people so we had a few battles trying to figure out who should drive as you can tell and I think thats why the picture is lopsided.

Rule #6: BE A GANGSTA

Matt and I in our hats or our trophys from different courses. Matts was from Durango Hills where he won last time and mine was from Craig Ranch where I won last time. It sucks that I did terrible and lost my hat and had to give it up to Matt. Oh well....there is always next time.

Now next time you think about going golfing you might think twice about what you are doing and use these 6 important rules. Let me know how they work for ya!! Until next time!

COOKING w/ MIKE: My own pre Turkey Dinner!

Well I recently got a new cookbook so I can try to eat a little better instead of eating out every meal. I really am not that great of a cook I dont think so I decided to make the easiest thing on the menu....TURKEY BURGERS!!!

Let the preparation begin in my GHETTO kitchen!!! I went and bought and the basic things that I have never had in my kitchen spices, olive oil, parsley(which I had know idea how to cut...thanks Taylor for clearing that up), mixing bowl, a good pan, some new blinds, and a SLAVE MIDGET to help in case I ever got discouraged along the way so he could motivate me.
Mixing the groud meat in my new mixing bowl....I was pretty stoked ha ha Doesnt that look tasty?!Rolling the meat into Turkey patties was the best part. I used to love helping Mom make meatloaf or hamburger patties cause the meat feels sooo cool in your hands!!!Than I threw it on my new pan with my new spatula. I tried to go to Spatula City but I heard they closed down due to the economy. I was pretty excited to be cooking so I had to get all the stuff I would be needing for my next cooking days. Nothing like sitting down in the Lazy Boy with a Turkey Burger and Pringles(yes I know they aren't healthy but who cares) on pre thanksgiving. I was giving the POOR turkey face knowing it was about to get demolished!!The FINAL PRODUCT.....a chubby happy Mike after eating my Turkey Burger. Well this wasnt that exciting of a post but this was one of the highlights of my week....making my own food. Ill try and make them a little more exciting.

Grilling at Matt's

So my buddy Matt Golightly finally got into a new house and we go there every Sunday to grill something new and watch a little football. This Sunday we did Ribs, Hot Dogs and Rice a Roni....hahaha yes we made Rice with our Hot Dogs...random mix I know. The best part is that Robby insisted on getting this Mustard that he said would be the BEST!!! So we decided to hide it from him.....LET ME KNOW IF YOU CAN SEE IT IN THE PICTURE......I told him that his Mustard was in every picture I was taking..... Do you see it yet?!?!?!?!.............................hint....look upNow you have to see it............. It was in the light fixture the whole time and he kept searching for it. I tried to make it obvious for him on this picture but he was a little slow...hahaha
And there are the grill masters at work.

Until our next grilling adventure!!!!!

Blue Man with the folks

Well for Dad's Birthday Mom wanted to do something a little different. So she called up Venetian to get some tickets to Blue and found out that they were 2 for 1 so Mom invite Julie and I. This is the second date Julie and I have been and I think it is starting to get kind of serious. Last week I got a few tickets to Phantom of the Opera at Venetian from a client and brought Julie with me....it was kind of a sleeper, but the BLUE Man Group was AWESOME!!! At the very end of the show they have this paper that gets thrown at you from the back and you have to pull it all over your head until it gets to the front and this is how Mom was reacting to it....fun stuff. The best I could do with a camera phone.

Sunset Park adventure!!!

After much thought I decided to start doing my blog again and trying to make Sundays my blog day to get everyone caught up on my EXCITING life....haha On one of my days off my buddy Matt Golightly and I decided to head to Sunset park with about 6 loaves of bread to see what the day had in store for us.

After a little bread was thrown one guy decided to come join us. He thought he was the only smart one.............

....but soon all his friends caught on and decided to become our best friends.

I had to scare some of them away because they started become too friendly and werent scared at all.

So we decided to see if they would crawl up on us and take some of the bread but they chickened out for some reason!!
These 2 punks decided to come steal all of our ducks and pigeons and they were a little smarter than us because they decided to bring popcorn. Since they decided to steal all of our birds we decided that we do a little something to make the birds not like them..... ....it seemed to work a little bit.

Well until my next adventure!!!! Maybe this week Ill go feed mountain lions up at Red Rock!!!

Hair I have done lately

Here are a few of my clients pictures whose hair I have done lately and a few old pictures as well. This is my new background I am going to be putting up on my myspace here soon.

Houseboat in July with my buddies

Well another Houseboat outing with the boys was fun as always. I think right there I was trying to mess with Jon while he was sticking the waterskiis on, but I obviously had to jump back on so they wouldn't ditch me on the boat.
We searched and searched for a place to cliff jump and finally found this one which was pretty much perfect. I am the one sitting down up top, then Robby, and then Jon climbing up to make the leap.
It looks like I am standing on the rocks but little do you know that I am actually perfecting the pencil jump along side Jonny P
Here is Matt shoving me off of the boat going 70mph...I only broke a few bones but I recovered very quickly.

Well it is kind of a tradition to play cards and then whoever loses has to do a dare and for some reason I always lose but I had to do what they told me which was them picking 1 ingredient each out of the fridge and then mixing it into a cup and heating it up in the microwave. Robby chose a piece of cheese, Matt chose olive juice, and Jon chose caramel syrup. You can tell by my reaction how much I loved it.

Well that was the trip out to the houseboat and I had to cut out a few pictures to protect the innocent but it was fun out there. Ill be posting soon lets hope!

FOILS ANYONE? SHOOT ME!!!

This is how story ends.....

Well the day started out at 8:45am and ended with this foiling job which took me about an hour and a half to stick in.....which is FOREVER!!! She wanted 4 different colors and no hair left out which means.....take FOREVER for you people that dont understand.
We had about 120 foils in her head or so.......CRAZINESS

This was the end result of her hair which turned out pretty cool....but........this is how I felt after the whole thing. Started my day at 8:45am and ended at 7:30pm.....long day of standing up can tire anyone out. I went home and past out and that was my Saturday Night....