Sunday, April 6, 2014

Before-40 goal #2

Almost exactly a year ago I verbalized two before-40 goals to a friend of mine, while we were out running. My 40th birthday was just over a year away at that point and I wanted to do a couple things before turning 40 that would take dedication and be a bit of a stretch for me. The first thing I mentioned was to run a half marathon. At that point the furthest I'd EVER run in one stretch was about 5 miles. In my head I thought maybe a late spring or early summer half in 2014. But over the summer as I was training for a 10 mile race that I had signed up for for September of 2013, I decided I had enough of the training in as it was and I might as well shoot for a fall race. So sometime in the summer, I signed up for a half marathon for late October 2013. Then I proceeded to freak out a little (or maybe more than a little) and question what I had just done. Fast forward to October 26, 2013 and on a chilly, windy Saturday morning I crossed a half marathon starting line. 2 hours 7 minutes and 37 seconds later I crossed the finish line. Yay! Goal #1. Check!

The second goal I made for myself was to grow my hair out long enough to donate. I had tried once before, but couldn't handle it once it got to a certain length. (cue my frustration with my hair for the past few months now!) But after my mom's cancer diagnosis and two of my daughters donating their hair, I knew I wanted to do it too. (I am SO thankful that my mom didn't need chemo and never lost her beautiful hair, but lots of people DO need chemo and DO lose their hair and I wanted to help.) So, I am starting to think about the end of this long hair! It's pretty much driving me crazy at this point. It bugs me when I'm sleeping (when I try to roll over I can't, because I'm laying on it). I was taking off my shirt one night, getting ready for bed, and my hair got stuck in my armpit. How gross is that! I know there are lots of people with hair longer than mine, but I'm pretty much at my limit. I've had relatively short hair for a good portion of my life. More often short-ish than long-ish, anyway. I'm thinking I'll cut it next month sometime. Or maybe not until June. I'll probably go chin-length or shorter. I want to donate as much hair as I can.

So I have to make a decision (Have I mentioned I'm not really a fan of making decisions? I would rather someone just tell me what to do!) about what style to do with when I chop it all off. As my friend noted at church this morning (Hi Catherine!) I've been pinning short hair dos like crazy on Pinterest lately.

Here are my top few choices (my top few TODAY at least. Tomorrow I may very well change my mind).

I think this one is pretty realistic. It's not TOO styled (I'm a pretty low maintenance girl when it comes to hair. If I have to do too much -- or ANYTHING, really -- to it, it's not going to happen!) and she has thinner hair, as do I ::

I like this one too, but I think it looks like it might take more work than I am willing to put in ::

I think that, right at this moment, this one is my favorite. (Although that may just be because she's wearing gray and I LOVE gray!) I think her hair is a little thicker than mine, so I'm not sure I could pull it off. Also, I'm not so good at the nondescript-part-thing, my part is usually pretty defined. But, still, at this point this one is my favorite. That may change tomorrow, but for now, I think this is the direction I'm leaning ::

What do you think? Any preference? Are they all bad? All good? In the end I'll probably just tell Jill (my VERY talented friend who cuts my hair) to do whatever she wants! I like it better that way. She's never done me wrong and I get out of making the actual decision! Yay!

Have you ever had a bucket list or things you wanted to do before a certain age or at a certain time in your life? How'd it go for you? 

5 comments:

  1. Honestly, I'm having trouble picturing you in those super-short hairstyles. I prefer the length and style of the hair in the middle photo, but that's just me. If you really like those super-short styles right now, then maybe you should go for it! The nice thing about hair: if you find it's shorter than you like, you can always grow it out a bit! :)

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    2. It's been kind of a long time, but when Rebekah was a baby I had WAY shorter hair than either of those 2 shorter ones. It's just been a while since it's been that short, so you might not be able to picture it like that anymore. I haven't decided yet, but I want to be able to maximize the donation, since I'm not sure I'll ever do it again! (See you soon!)

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  2. I think all three are great:: in the meantime I'll go humble myself after my brush with fame on the Stoll Crew blog!

    And thanks for the inspiration to set challenging goals for yourself. Happy Monday my dear friend!

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  3. I think you would look great in any of them - but like you less fuss is the best! As for goals -- I have several that I have set but last year was a record year for me in being able to check off three, all in August of 2013 -- #1 - Visit Niagara Falls; #2 - Visit Canada (well, we didn't actually visit but we drove through it on our way to Niagara Falls and had to stop at the border); #3 my goal is to visit 49 of the 50 United States (not too interested in Alaska right now but that may change) and I am now up to 43 of the 49 -- just have 5 left. Trouble is even though I can check off items on my bucket list -- the list for some reason just keeps getting longer.

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Thanks for the comments . . . they make my day!