Free the Hairbrush! Free the Hairbrush! (And return it to the bathroom!)

     This spring, my 4 older girls have been going to pre-season swim team every evening. My youngest two have been taking swim lessons. Each of my older girls has their own bag with shampoo (the cost savings on my water bill are worth all the hassle of swim team!), a towel, and their jammies/change of clothes. About a week after swim team started I noticed a panic-laden crisis emerging every time I went into the bathroom and reached for the hair brush: it was gone! No hair brush anywhere to be found in the entire house. The Veggies Tales song, "Oh, where is my hairbrush?!" would melodically wind its way through my hollering:"Where are all the hairbrushes?!?!" My frustration was readily apparent. I had assumed that each girl took a hairbrush in her swim bag to brush out her freshly shampooed, hopefully-dechlorinated hair. The problem was, not every bag had a hair brush in it. Every now and then, if I was lucky, I would find a hairbrush mixed with the wet towel and swimsuit wadded up on the floor of the entry way. One day I brushed my hair once. ONCE. This is a problem because my aging hair is getting rather frizzy and needs to be tamed with a hairbrush SEVERAL TIMES A DAY. I had to reason my way out of my frizzy hair that day: it was a good opportunity to work on, ahem, vanity.
     Tim was pretty good-natured about the vanishing hair brush situation, too. He uses a round, curly brush to "do" his hair every morning and even this was gone. And this is the hair brush that he puts way up high in the bathroom. Alas, one day as I was tripping my way through our back room where the girls have their toys, like, um EVERYWHERE (home pick-up has been a little lacking since I'm nearing Finals week in school), I came across one of the girls' American Girl knock off dolls (to the tune of about eighty dollars cheaper!) and lo and behold, what did I find? THIS!!!!

     Do you see it? Tim's curly-q brush horrifyingly STUCK in one of those doll's heads! I couldn't help but start laughing. I walked the mess over to Tim and said with resignation and a chuckle, "This is what life is like with 6 daughters." My sympathies went out to my husband, whom I had noticed has a slightly more "ruffled" hair style lately. Leanne piped in, "Oh, don't take the hair brush out! I've been working on untangling it."
     "Uh, huh," I replied. "We'll see." Astonishingly, I put the doll and her matted, tormented, mangled  hair down and was going to give Leanne a chance to untangle it. Who am I kidding? Leanne lives with slightly tangled hair all the time! If she can't comb her own hair, how can she have a chance with  this nasty, pathetic mess? About 3 days later, I had become desperate after not finding any of the 5 (yes, you read that right) new hair brushes I bought a week ago (I really need to buy stock in the Goody Company), found a pair of scissors, and started to snip away. I wrestled it this way and that, and then I freed the hairbrush! Cheers please! I pulled the fake reddish doll hair out the hairbrush and it was then fit for service.
     Ah, yes, life with 6 daughters has many hairy discoveries. Next post....Tim's 10 pm trip to Wal-Mart with a crying teenager to find "modest shorts"...Stay tuned!

My Prepare-For-Summer Checklist

List of things to do before mid-June 2012:
All of these have to be done by June 1st:
1) take big microbiology test on the immune system and common bacterial pathogens
2) take final exam in microbiology on viruses and everything else I studied the whole semester
3)take last developmental psychology quiz online
4) help Leanne prepare her science project complete with photos, research, computer graphics and typed-up information on a huge display board
5)register for Fall 2012, which includes hoping and praying I get the 8 -unit mega anatomy and physiology class at the right time to coordinate school pick up for 4 girls at 3 different schools and speech therapy for Julia in the fall
All of these have to be done by mid-June:
6)plan summer activities for my 6 kids and niece and nephew (two full days a week) and coordinate swim team, swim lessons, summer school, and small family vacations we are taking.
7)Prepare lessons and activities for three exchange students I am having beginning in late June and ending in mid-August.
8)Figure out if and when I can volunteer at my 2 hospitals I so enjoy working at, schedule the times and communicate with my volunteer supervisors.
9)Prepare my summer garden and then plant, maintain, and harvest vegetables and fruits throughout the summer and fall months.
10)Plan with Tim something to do for our 20th wedding anniversary in late August that doesn't stress me out childcare-wise or budget-wise
11)Finish painting projects in my girls' room and the bathroom.
12) Try to wrestle to some sense of order the many bookcases and closets, drawers and cupboards that are in hair-pulling DISARRAY.
13)Ahh....my lucky number....pray for God's grace, wisdom, and strength before, during and after, um...EVERYTHING!!!!!