Guest post written by Carrie Lincoln

It shouldn’t be all that surprising that my daughter is having a tough time finding a hairstyle that she thinks will work on her hair for prom. She’s like me and has some of the curliest hair around. It can be really tough because you have to think so much about what a hairstyle will do to your curls before you try it. But we’re right on the hunt to find that perfect updo for her.

We’ve been looking online to see what we can find. We’ve been mainly looking at red carpet photos of stars who have curly hair and when we were doing that a few nights ago I saw some information on debt consolidation. I’ve been wanting to look into consolidating my debt for a few months now and I think this is a great opportunity to finally do that.

She’s been looking at a lot of Taylor Swift’s updos because she has curly hair, but I’m also pretty sure that she straightens and then curls her hair a lot. We’ll have to keep looking and see what’s going to work for her.

I have never had a manicure nor pedicure, I am 30 years old. The thought has crossed my mind in the past few years of interacting with woman who blog and have this done on a regular basis but overall it hasn’t been a necessity in my life nor mind.

Rewind to the other night …

It was bedtime, the boys were tucked in their beds, fast asleep when I decided to do my normal Chicken Soup for the Soul Cat Lovers reading with my daughter while laying next to her in her bed.

After  reading a story out of the book, I decided it’s been awhile since I just sat and chatted with my daughter, it’s something we both need and miss dearly. It’s difficult to set aside “girl chat” time when the boys are running wild more often than not.

As we talked about her school day and other such odd ball topics she says out of the blue:

Is there a mani & pedi place nearby?

Umm… yes daughter I am sure there is but I haven’t ever been to one, why?

It’s just that my friends have fake nails and it helped them to stop biting their nails, but when they did the fake nails at home, they would fall off and didn’t look good. I want professional nails so maybe I will stop biting my nails.

Good theory, but does this girl not know that a manicure and pedicure is often therapy for woman? She is only 9 and already on the track towards divahood.

So the other day I was talking about shirts and my daughter, the conversation went on more that day about how she actually really does love her Mama because her Mama is the most amazing, awesome Mama in the world. I got an eye roll with that comment, but I expect the eye roll because she is heading into those tween moody years.

I went around the house pointing out pictures in photo frames of when she was little and smiling so cute on my lap and with her brother. I said “see there is proof that once upon a time you loved me so much and you loved your brother Aj too”.  My daughter replies with “ummm no I was just smiling a lot because back then I loved to smile”. I replied “ummm well why don’t you smile now?” She replied “I don’t know. I just don’t like to smile”. GASP …..

I could not believe that a daughter of mine would not like to smile, I mean seriously? How can it be. I went on to explain to my daughter that she should smile because a beautiful smile can go a long way. I also went to say I could weigh 400lbs and no one would notice as long as I had a beautiful smile. She rolled her eyes and said that’s not true, but I beg to differ.

I think that beauty holds no weight, holds no boundaries and is more than skin deep. I believe that true beauty is the willingness to simply love life and smile all of the time. That is why I think of others as beautiful or handsome, because of the happiness I feel radiating from their smile and attitude.

So I had to remind my daughter, yet again, what really counts in life – to be happy and let no one bring you down. Maybe, just maybe it sunk in today.

Between the three year old telling me that my foot best be watching out for his feet wearing my clunky heeled dress shoes, the five year old screaming for computer game time and the nine year old constantly being bored I tell you I don’t know how I do it.

I don’t know how I don’t run screaming for the looney bin most days. I certainly understand why, as my natural hair color comes through in my roots, I have more greys than I had last time I let my natural hair color shine through.

For me, a vacation is something along the lines of hopping in my van, totally kid free and blasting some country or pop music on the radio. All I need is a short drive with loud music and no children to refresh myself.

After driving just a few short minutes downtown and back home in a van, with no kids, my mind is ready to come back and deal with the boredom, feet stomping and whining from the children.

I think that this time of year I am mostly thankful for the fact that I know when to take a mini break to be the best parent possible!

I am turning 30 on Friday and with that comes my needs of wanting ME time and getting out to celebrate. I think I will be getting my hair cut, layered and colored. You see I tried to do a home highlighting kit not that long ago and my hair turned out multiple colors. I want my color to be closer to the natural hair color of black so that I can work on growing my hair out to be healthy again.

Oh and the greys will show more I am sure. I can already see a ton on the top of my head.

I may get my first professional massage EVER which is cool. I really hope that @mommadjane can really get that for me as a gift, she has offered but it’s hard to figure out which local one to go to.

I love my life and I love my kids. I am looking forward to cake with the kids, my daughter is gone so it will be just the boys and me enjoying some cake together!

So in a few more days I will be heading into the 30 years…. and I am looking forward to it!