MY HAIRCUT ESSAY

Lauryn-Elizabeth Dewberry

September 2010

Chapter 1

Snip! Snip! That’s the sound of my hair being cut! I will never forget the afternoon I got my super best haircut.

I was so happy when school was out for the weekend! I was going to kick my shoes off and watch TV. when I got home. Well, I thought I was going home. You know, until we turned in the wrong direction! Oh, no! We only come this way for one reason, to get my hair cut. Gulp, I had been trying to convince my mom to let me get a really short haircut but I never thought it would happen! I thought it would be fun to get it cut so short, but now I felt nauseas. All I could hear in my head was “Snip! Snip! Cut! Cut! Itch! Itch!” I’m bald! Would I really become bald? I hoped my imagination was wrong, but it didn’t matter. We were walking in the barbershop.

Oh, no! I saw so much hair on the on the ground! I just knew I was going to be bald! In fact, so much hair was on the floor, I slipped on it. Ouch! “Mama, I don’t want my hair so short!” But she didn’t hear me. She was talking to the hairdresser about how short I wanted it. Oh No! It was all over because before I knew it, I was in the barber seat.

“Mrs. Stephanie,” I said over the horror that I was feeling. “I’m scared about getting my hair cut so short. I still want my hair cut that short, just don’t make me bald!”

“What are you talking about” Mrs. Stephanie said. “I’m not going to make you bald! I promise you will look just fine.”

“Ok then, you get those scissors and start cutting away,” I said, more confident than I had before.

Chapter 2

After that all I could do was listen to her cut off what felt like 7 inches, and stare at the hair covering the floor. Is this really happening? Did I let her cut my hair? Snip, snip, cut, cut! This time I imagined I would love it. Would I really love it? I truly hope so.

“Mrs. Stephanie, are you almost done?” I said hoping she was. “I really want to see what I look like.” Just a few more cuts. Snip! Snip! “Please be done, because, well, for some crazy reason I could not bear it any longer.

Suddenly, I felt that she was done and “Wa La!” She said, letting me look in the mirror. As I turned to the mirror, I felt so excited. When I turned to the mirror, I didn’t know what to say. All that came out was, “I love it so much! How could you do any better?” It was just perfect. Why was I so scared about it? I mean, big deal if it was bad, but the best part was that it wasn’t! I was sure that I didn’t have to wear a hat to a wig. It was great! Everyone at school would be surprised at how good it looked. No, no, they would be jealous at how good it looks.

“Thanks,” I said. “It couldn’t be better!”

Lauryn-Elizabeth

Lauryn-Elizabeth's teacher asked the parents to write "a million words or less" on our child. This is what I wrote.

Lauryn-Elizabeth Reed Dewberry is the second and last child in our family. When she was born, I remember wondering how I could possibly love her as much as I loved my oldest daughter, Olivia. But Lauryn-Elizabeth solved that problem for me immediately, because she is so very lovable.

I have never known anyone with such an inexhaustible love for life and for others. While she has very definite dreams and plans for her own life (she wants to be a rock star), her focus tends to be on others and how she can help someone else. Last year, she created a charity called H.E.L.P. (Help Extra-Loved Pets) This was a charity based on raising money for animals that were in the shelter here in Pell City. She raised an amount of money, and we took it to the Humane Society. She was not even proud, but instead, just wanted to start raising more. Anytime she gets money for her birthday, or Christmas, she always wants to give it to the church, or buy something for someone else with it. Her heart is always looking for ways to serve someone else.

She is unrelenting in her positive spirit. Nothing ever seems to bring her down for long. One thing that will give her pause is when she sees unfairness in the world. She is still so rosy-eyed, that when she finds something that should not be, it rocks her a bit and she will talk to me about ways to fix the injustice she has come across. She has such a tender heart that I fear all the time that it will get broken into pieces one day.

She wakes up every day singing, and pretty much does not stop until it is bedtime. She makes up songs all the time, and always wants to share them with me. One of my favorite moments in time occurred when she was about 5 or 6, and had written me a song during free time at school. It was all about how much she loved me and would always be my little girl, no matter how old she grew. I have that on video, and still sing it to myself on occasion.

Lauryn-Elizabeth is also very creative. She writes songs, comes up with dance routines and gymnastics routines. She loves to write stories, too. She is a fantastic artist. I save scrap paper for her and she will create the most elaborate things with something that others would have thrown in the trash.

She is also very athletic and loves to play soccer and basketball. She will even start football in a few weeks.

She LOVES pigs.

One thing that I simply love about her is how affectionate she is. She hugs her family, and tells us she loves us and kisses us constantly. Her daddy calls her “snuggable,” because she is SO cuddly and sweet all the time. I love her so much.

Lauryn-Elizabeth is one of those rare souls that simply has no room for second rate in her own life. She really wants to be the best at everything, and so she pushes herself to strive for excellence. She has never made anything but an A on a report card, and is in Gifted. I am forever amazed at her.

I could fill page after page of stories that show her warmth and affection, or that tell of her striving for excellence, but I will end with a story from this summer.

On July 4th, we were in Fairhope with some family watching the fireworks over the Mobile Bay. We had been waiting for a few hours for the show to start, and Lauryn-Elizabeth had used that time to work on a sand castle. She had created a pretty elaborate castle with several turrets and a bridge and moat. She was very proud of it, but we stopped her building so she could eat supper with us. She was very worried that the castle would get stepped on (there were kids playing football nearby), and made her father and I promise to watch it carefully as we ate and protect it. We were nearly done with our food, and had “saved” her sand castle several times from being smashed by different kids.

And then it happened.

A group of teenagers went racing by, and one of the girls in the group stepped right on the middle of Lauryn-Elizabeth’s creation. It was like slow motion. Kevin yelled “No!” I screamed “Oh No!” and the poor girl who did the deed stopped dead in her tracks, covered her mouth and breathed a deep, “I’m so sorry!” I stared at her open mouthed for a moment, and then swiveled around to check on Boo (Lauryn-Elizabeth). She was crushed. Her face crinkled into tears and disbelief.

And then, she stopped. She squared her shoulders, relaxed her face, walked over to the squashed creation, knelt down, and began to fix the disaster. I watched her calmly make the choice, not to yell at the girl, or even to cry over the disaster, but instead, to set herself to re-creating what had been destroyed.

Later on, I asked her, “What made you change? You started to cry, and then you did not. What were you thinking?” Her reply was, “I just decided that there was no reason to be sad about it, when I could just go fix it.” That’s my Lauryn-Elizabeth-an eternal optimist, and one who would rather see the good, than see the bad.

I am so glad that Mrs Smart asked me to write this. It was so fun writing about my Boo!

Mother/Daughter Banquet at Church

Our church had a Mother's Day Banquet tonight. I performed a monologue and sang a song. I was particularly nervous and had been so hoarse for several weeks, so that made me worry I would not be able to sing. Here is how it ended up. (Do not laugh at the bad southern accent. I am not sure where it came from....)

Thriller...Thriller Night...

It's close to midnight, and something evil's lurking in the dark...

Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart

You try to scream, but terror takes the sound before you make it....

You try to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes, you're paralyzed..

Cus this is Thriller! Thriller Night!

On 80's Day, we had a dance. Some of the teachers and staff got together and did the Thriller Dance. It was SO much fun! I absolutely had a blast!

Eden's Got Talent or Flexibilities

Lauryn-Elizabeth and Macayla Doss worked this routine up completely on their own. I was completely impressed with how creative they are! What amazing girls we have!

Easter Baskets

Because Easter morning is so crazy busy, the Lauryn-Elizabeth came up with the idea of the Easter Bunny coming on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning. After some cajoling, Olivia got on board too. So, Lauryn-Elizabeth wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny and believe it or not, he changed his schedule and came a day early!

We decided this was great, because the girls had time to enjoy the baskets, and eat candy and play with the toys.

And the Easter baskets look great! The Easter bunny did a wonderful job!!!

Olivia's Basket

Lauryn-Elizabeth's Basket

Holding their 3 favorite things each.

Olivia chose her chocolate covered rice krispy treat, chocolate covered peeps, and stuffed soccer ball (It makes a boinnnnnng noise!)

Lauryn-Elizabeth chose her chocolate covered marshmallows, chocolate covered peeps, and stuffed basketball (It, too, boinnnnnngs!)

Lauryn-Elizabeth's loot

Olivia's loot

Lauryn-Elizabeth eats her chocolate covered Twinkie.

A Few Pics of Coconut the Cat

During SAT week, both Lauryn-Elizabeth and I got sick. She had Swine Flu. We won't discuss what was wrong with me. :) However, Coconut seemed to be worried about me. One night in particular, I was terribly sick. Added to that, I had a blinding headache. I mean I literally could not see. I was miserable. however, Coconut climbed up on my lap and stretched her arm across me. It was obvious she was trying to make me feel better.

Sometimes, when I get on the computer at night, she gets jealous and wants to get in my lap, so she will crawl on my hand so I cannot type!

A few days ago, Kevin and I noticed that Coconut was laying very strangely on the floor. Just after I snapped the picture, I realized why. Her upper paw had a claw attached to the carpet and she couldn't get it free. She was embarrassed, and did not want us to realize she was caught, so she was attempting to pretend she WANTED to be stretched out like that. Just moments later, she freed herself and shook herself off in a huff, glared, and slunk off.

Gosh, she makes me laugh.

SAT Week

On the first day of SAT testing for this year, I told Liv, who had already had breakfast, to go get a banana to snack on while we rode to school so she would not get hungry during the tests. She replied that she had an apple. Once we got to school, I noticed that she had not eaten it. When I commented on that, she said, "I got distracted looking out the windows." So I told her to eat it fast before she had to go to Homeroom. She smiled, and walked into my room, and said, "You are the teacher. You need an apple." Then she laid it on my desk, and walked to homeroom.

It was the sweetest thing anyone did for me all week.

I love that sweet girl.

Thank you, Easter Bunny!

Tea Party

This week is Spring Break. Liv has been at the beach with a friend so it has just been Lauryn-Elizabeth and me at home alone while Kevin is at work. I thought this would be great, just the two of us, no problem. Except that Lauryn-Elizabeth and I had two VERY different ideas on what Spring Break should be like.

My idea was that we would rest, relax, just be together and chill. Her idea was that we would be active and DO stuff. See the problem? Well, it has been one, because whenever I wanted to rest and chill, she was disappointed and felt like I was letting her down.

So, today, she wanted a tea party, like the one we went to at the CEPA building on Saturday. I was not particularly interested in putting forth the effort to get one together, but decided that I would since she REALLY wanted one.

So, off to the store we went to buy supplies. And, I'll admit, I was not all that excited. I really wanted to be napping. But, the more she shopped and the more animated Lauryn-Elizabeth got, the more excited I got too. By the time we left, we had told the man who checked us out all about our plans, and I was actually looking forward to this.

We arrive home, and the preparations began full throttle. I made the sandwiches, and Lauryn-Elizabeth washed the fruit (and ate some too) Then I cut the fruit up for our salad. She arranged things on the platters and placed them decoratively on the table. We do not have a tablecloth for our round kitchen table, so we improvised with a bed sheet. (Though, we had a slight roadblock when I realised she had put on the fitted sheet.......).

In the end the menu was as follows:

• finger sandwiches -- cream cheese and peach jelly (surprisingly good), and chicken salad


• fruit salad compete with blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries


• mini muffins in 3 flavors-- banana nut, lemon, and blueberry


• strawberry shortcake


• raspberry hot tea with sugar and cream


• Milano cookies

And, I am glad I did not take a nap ;)

The Civil Wars in Concert

So, Friday night Joe, Kevin and I all got tickets to see The Civil Wars, and they were awesome! The music was amazing and we had great seats. Front and center. Before they sang, I got so excited that they were finally coming on, that I started clapping all excitedly, and the male lead singer began to laugh at me. He said something….but it was loud in there and I could not understand what he said.

However, the music was perfect, and the crowd loved it (so did I).

After the show, I was able to meet them, get some pics with them, and get their autographs on the CD cover. While I was waiting to talk to them, John Paul, the male singer in the group, dropped a pocket knife (open) and it grazed Joy, the female singer’s leg. So she closed it, and put it up on a stand behind her. Moments later, I decided to grab a magazine that was also on the stand having forgotten about the knife. It fell, and once again, grazed Joy’s leg, only this time it was my fault. I began to laugh hysterically, intensely embarrassed. Joy grabbed the knife and told John Paul the knife was dangerous and to put it up! O dear…..

Anyway, here are some pics of the concert.

Me talking to Joy Williams "I am such a BIG fan!!!"

Kevin, me and Joe with The Civil Wars

Me with Joy and John Paul

What's Your Distraction?

On Friday night, I had the opportunity to go to see a band I had been wanting to see, The Civil Wars. The opening singer, was a guy I had never heard before, Duquette Johnson. First note he sang, and I was hooked. He has a pure voice, which made me think of Damien Rice almost immediately.



His songs were so well written. I am a sucker for a well turned phrase, and his music was full of amazing word combinations. I loved the fact that nothing in his music sounded the same as any of his other songs, nor did he mimic anyone else's songs. Each word seemed to be specifically picked and I was entranced. I cannot wait to hear him again, and to buy his CD.



There was one phrase that stuck out to me, however. In his song, "Rubies are Pure," he sang about people who were "begging distraction."



Begging distraction.....



What an amazing commentary on the human spirit. What person isn't begging for a distraction?



We go to work, and we comment to our coworkers, that we cannot wait till we get to go home. We want to take our minds off of work. We go home and we search for something to take our minds off of whatever we are doing there. We hang out on Facebook, we watch TV, we play the Wii, or whatever game system we own, we go to concerts, we make vacation plans, we *insert what you do here*



Begging distraction. We are always searching for that thing to take our minds off of things.



I think Duquette hit the nail on the head there.