the FIRST& worst MULLET I've ever cut.

It was halfway through my time at La'James International College (that's where I went for hair school) and by this time everyone knew me and my personality and how bad experiences to me and my humor turn out to be funny.  So, I am sitting in our classroom and over the speaker I hear "Brittany Bluhm Please come up front for a client." and of course I HATED hearing that because you never know who's hair you are gonna do. (a lot of times I think my teachers enjoyed giving me the sketchy people to get a good laugh- Shout out to my teachers. Thanks!)  

Anyway, like I was saying you never know who's hair you're going to do. Are they gonna be nice or mean? Will this be the cat lady? Will they be human? Is it gonna be a doll? (yes..some guy brought a doll) SO, You just NEVER know. 



 I get up and head to the front of the waiting area and my teacher has a smile on her face... and I just knew I was gonna have a story. I open the door for my surprise and there is a lady in her 50's sporting a HUGE MULLET!


   The first thing I do after I see her is start praying in my head because there is NO WAY I want to "freshen" up this cut or just "trim" it!


Training to be a professional you better be professional so I get my act together.......

 (this is not her, but very close! just take away the red hair and replace it with gray)
      


   
   So, I take her back to my area. She sits in my chair. I swallow hard and ask,  "What are we doing today?"

 She reaches into her pocket and right then I get a GLIMMER OF HOPE and I start to believe that she actually brought a picture and wants a NEW LOOK!

      "GOODBYE MULLET and HELLO NEW CUTE HAIR STY--- what?! NO!" *PANICK ATTACK BEGINS*  "That's not a picture of a cute hairstyle.....that's a CLIPPER GAURD!"

YES!..... a # 2 clipper guard. Do you know how short # 2 clipper guard is?! IT'S 1/4"...I REPEAT.. ONE FOURTH.....INCHES!

 
 My eyes FILL with tears as she tells me she wants the TOP part of her hair to be SHAVED the length of this #2 guard.


 I say to her....." The 2 guard is really SHORT. Are you sure this is what you want?"

 she says what I feared "YES".

So, I do what you should never do when cutting someones hair and do opposite because the #2 guard is SHORT. I take a #6 guard which is 3/4"  and I take the first chunk of hair of the top of her head. I stop and tell her to look in the mirror at the length and she says " THAT'S TOO SHORT!"

WAIT! What?!?!.....She wanted me to just do a #2 guard which is WAYYYY Shorter than what I just did. So I tell her what all just happen, how I did the 6 guard and she doesn't believe me! and....the client is ALWAYS right....So there I am. In shock...and I reason with her and she tells me she wants it a little bit longer than that. So, we move it up to a #8 guard ---> ONE INCH.

 At this point she is a HAPPY CAMPER.

Me on the other hand, Not so much. From where my chair and station are
I have a good view of my classroom. So I can see all my friends watching...some holding back laughter...some taking pictures... the nice ones watching with sympathy and I get emotional and I begin to CRY!..I am wiping tears away from my eyes before they RUN DOWN MY FACE!

 Maybe you are thinking...Why would you cry about this? Its because when she goes to the store or she goes to her best friends house they are gonna ask who did your hair? and she is going to tell them..................."BRITTANY FROM LA'JAMES!"


I wont have any CLIENTS! My reputation!

So as I am being humbled I'm thinking "I did this! I just gave this lady a GIANT MULLET.Worse than before. Why do I do hair? I didn't come here to give a GROWN lady- a MULLET! yes, maybe a Emo girl that wants a "stylish" one, or a teenage boy that wants to be funny... But not HER!



Do you know what this lady looked like when she left La'James International Beauty School?

    (This is not her either. But I PROMISE. This is EXACTLY what it looked like!)

And I wish that I made this all up....But FOR REAL- this is what the "CUTE NEW
HAIR STYLE" turned out to be.


My advice to you today is: 1. Stay away from the mullet and 2. ask your hair stylists if they have any good ideas of what would look good on you.


Life is not so lovely in Iowa with Mullets,
Brittany




.

a Blog for my "ROGERS" FAMILY:)

    It's that time of the year again and we've been doing this for as long as I can remember and it never gets old.  But, I think this year it may be a little bit different because not as many people are coming and my heart is breaking! && I'm missing everyone that couldn't come.

    I pray this NEVER happens again because this SERIOUSLY is the BEST time of the year. 

  YES! It beats Christmas and 4th of July! and that's saying a lot because those are my TWO FAVORITE HOLIDAYS! But there is nothing like this... and that is:

The ROGERS FAMILY REUNION

  

FACTS:

• This is my mom's side of the family. 
• She has a BIG family.     
• 12 siblings. 
• 13 kids including her.
• My grandma was pregnant 9.75 years of her life. 
• I have A LOT of cousins. 
• I stop counting after 40. 
• Our family is still growing. 

---------------------------------------------

I'm blessed to know my family. To know my cousins and to have that many cousins. 

I admire my aunts&uncles&cousins for always making an effort to bring their family to the reunions. (this year some of you are going be in trouble for not coming...but we will talk later) :)

 Things I love.

• The Humid/Hot weather everyone puts up with when coming to Iowa. 
• The green grass that my cousins from the "dry states" can admire. 
•  The bonfires. 
• The sound of my aunt's singing.
• The SAME memories we reminisce about every year.
• The NEW memories we make every year. 
• The talent shows we have. 
• The canoe trips down the river.
• The late night talks.
• Our night games ----> CAPTURE the FLAG!
• The fact that we are in our 20's & 30's and still play night games.
• The bond between us. How you can go months without talking..& then pick up where you left off.

 

*I APOLOGIZE for the photo's below. Some are really blurry. But its mainly just to give you an IDEA of what some things are like:) && to my family that read this- I'm sorry if you are not in any of the pictures. I only could find a couple that would work! But know that I love you SO MUCH!

My Grandma Rogers. The Lady who started it all =)

My Mom with all her siblings&mom at my Aunt Ann's wedding in 1995

             

My girl cousins JAMMED into Brook's room (some not pictured)...doing hair & watching Anne of Green Gables!

*this is what I meant by blurry!* 

Not everyone is in this photo..& we have added quite a few since then:)

My Grandma and her children

a "few" of my COUSINS =)

*The Next 3 pictures below are of some of my cousins!

                                                                               

                                                                              

<3

Well, this is all I have for now. I will be blogging this next week about this weekend's

2011 ROGERS FAMILY REUNION!

I Wish all of you that couldn't make it were here with us RIGHT NOW!

 I love you & I'm so proud to be apart of your family.<3

P.S. you ALL better COME NEXT YEAR...No EXCUSES! ;)

Refreshing comes from the presence of the Lord.

     Some days I look at my white legs and think "I need to get in sun and get a tan!" So, I go outside and as I  SOAK up the sun, I think " I'm GONNA HAVE A TAN!"  It's lame..but that's just how it goes:)

 Some days I look at my life {the things inside me that aren't pretty} and I know I need to get in the presence of God. So, I turn on my worship music, and begin to cry out to God..I pray that He will do work in me. That I will be changed and that the un-LOVELY things that are in my life, will be dealt with.

Just like me soaking up the sun to get a tan does work, so does soaking in the presence of God to be changed & to grow closer to Him.

So many times we view God as this FAR OFF GOD- and we haven't experienced the LOVE He has for us. or the Power He has. We don't trust Him with our lives. or have too much of ourselves to surrender to him ----> {pride}.  We just live a life of religion where we just wanna go through the motion's but don't want to change. If you want change...you need a RELATIONSHIP with God.

So I ENCOURAGE you --> Get to God....Put on some praise&worship music. Pray. Seek Him. Read your Bible. He will take you as you are and you never have to be the SAME- He CHANGES lives...He Changed Me. . <3

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:19

Surrounded by LOVELY things!

                                  WELCOME TO IOWA!!!! :)

     I have lived here for 22 years. That's MY WHOLE LIFE! and I've traveled a lot of places and seen amazing things. But like Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz- " there's no place like home"


    I've heard time after time people complain about Iowa. How Iowa has NOTHING. and..." it's so boring to drive through because all they have there are corn fields"  and in most of our small towns we don't have stores that stay open past 9pm. & the closest Starbucks to us is 45 minutes away....and the list goes on....

    When you grow up in a small town Iowa- you learn to appreciate the small things! We always look forward to going to a BIG city for the day to enjoy shopping..and to get Starbucks coffee! What a TREAT:)

    In IOWA- our summer "breath taking" view is the STARS at night. We can lay out on the road and star gaze!..One night I counted 33 shooting stars!...it was so BEAUTIFUL!

    We have lightning bugs (Fireflies)....they go out in fields..(THOUSANDS of them) and they light up..OFF and ON.. OFF and ON....its all sparkly and looks like glitter! I LOVE GLITTER! 

      Just today I was driving looking at my view......of course it was-->  CORN FIELDS.... and they NEVER get old to me..perfectly lined up. All the trees, grass, corn, beans, & field land are a CRISP GREEN.. and to go with the green we have the blue sky with- WHITE fluffy clouds.

  Its all so beautiful to me.  and I'm always shocked when people think its not, or they say its boring.-->They haven't been paying attention to what we have here...its a form of Simplicity. We don't need tall buildings, Starbucks, Taxi's, Designer Clothes, Celebrities, Mountains, 10,000 lakes ;), Oceans, and so on..

 We have all we need here-& when we want all those other things...we will travel! (just like all you city folk will travel here when you want to get away from the busy "city life" :) 

 NOW! Don't get me wrong...I do love Cities... and I know they have special things about them... But this is my homeland...and while I'm here living I will enjoy the small things & take pride in them!



    Here are some pictures of my home.. and what I'm surrounded by daily. . . . 

     the mail box.

 

Vines that are growing onto our drive way.

     the side view of my home-

Our pond across the road <3

     another view

                              

Pond #2- The pond behind our house. I love the dock & weeping willow!

     One of my dad's gardens...

        a cute little shed that has been a recent addition this past year:)

    IN FRONT of our house.. we have a corn field- it fits PERFECT:)


  I encourage you today as you are out and about to notice your surroundings and to find the beauty in them. Look for the simplicity and take in all that God gave us to enjoy!





Living Lovely in Iowa,
Brittany

Here's my life, Lord...Consume me!

A few months back during morning prayer for Master's.... a question was laid upon my heart "What if we were ALL consumed with God?"...

what does CONSUME mean?  

	to engross or obsess
	to use up; expend:

This hit me so hard and became such a burden to me. . I had to just sit down and ponder this question and the potential it held and as I began to think about this,  I was overcome with weeping..because how many times do we come to this spot where we want to be this way.....where we desire to give God all that we have?...we want to walk in holiness....but then we SO EASILY go the other way and give into what Satan puts in front of us.

 When I read  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind"......It was so easy for me to think "I went to Master's and gave up 9 months of my life just to pursue after God. OF COURSE I LOVE HIM WITH ALL MY HEART!".... I can tell myself that.. but how is my life really looking?  I need to daily ask God...."what is apart of me that is taking your place? and HE IS FAITHFUL to show us...He continues to bring things to the surface that are in my life and I am like.. WHAT?! that's still apart of me? yep..there are so many things that are so easily apart of us and we go day by day living with these things and not knowing that we are easily consumed by them. 

So many times we just want to be the comfortable Christian...who loves God with "ALL" their heart.. but in all reality....our sin says otherwise.

As we were made in the image of God, we were also made in the likeness of His character. The Lord said, "Be holy, as I am holy". "Be imitators of God". "... For God is love and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God". God does not merely want us to be casual observers of his character but partakers. He desires for us to be consumed by Him. He wants ALL of us!...He wants our HEART! He wants our LOVE.

 As much as I want to say that I'm Consumed with ALL of God... I'm far from it.. and here I am..on a journey..because I do long to be consumed with Him. and I want to encourage you to join me:).. JUST THINK- What if we were ALL consumed with God? What would our lives look like? what would our church look like? what would our community look like?...what would our Nation look like? and what about our world. :)

New blog design which means....A WHOLE NEW BLOG! :)

BLUHM  /blum/ Show Spelled[bloom]

–noun

1. the flower of a plant.

–verb (used without object)

15.to produce or yield blossoms.

16. to flourish or thrive: a recurrent fad that blooms from time to time.

17. to be in or achieve a state of healthful beauty

Bluhm (BLOOM) WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED!

Okay!....I Love my last name..its so pretty...and I love pretty things:) I sometimes think about when I have to change my last name.. and it just makes me so sad! My goal....To marry a guy with an AMAZING last name.  Of course thats not all I will be looking for in a guy.... but it helps:) I do know I dont want to have "B" for a last name. "BB"....or lets use my middle name..."BMB"... big mouth Brittany....or Brittany's mouths big. but.. I just want God's will.. So, I will stop being fussy.

Now that we have that covered... My blog will be on the things listed above above: Pretty things, people, life, hair, crafts, humor, anything and everything that's lovely!


Obvious reasons to why I picked these topics..
#1 Pretty things- I'm obsessed with anything pretty. Examples of what I find pretty. 
I LOVE LOVE LOVE vintage antiques, glitter, flowers, clouds, stars, bright colors, jewelry, headbands, wedding dresses, weddings in general, fabric, a great hair color&cut...or updo! and my list goes on:)....

 

                                                   
#2 PEOPLE- I will be featuring people either weekly..or a couple times a month. We will see where it takes us:)


#3 LIFE-  God is the biggest part of my life....So EXPECT to hear about Him:)..because I LOVE to talk about Him. and all the WONDERFUL things He has done in my life....:) I will share experiences..and just AWESOME things about this life we live:)

#4 HAIR-  You may not know this.. but I'm a hair stylist... yes, I know.. sometimes my hair is a wreck, and I am sure you are thinking.." SHE IS A HAIR STYLISTS?!".. yes! It's true! I went to school for it. It was a passion of mine for sometime & I LOVE the artsy side of it... you can be SO CREATIVE and really just be YOU. I learned while in school you didn't have to follow the rules exactly..throw "you" into it. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT:)...so I took my own approach :) I still enjoy doing hair & I LOVE MY CLIENTS!.... I've learned a lot from it!


#5 CRAFTS- I have already talked about being artsy and creative but, I will expand on this... My mom is so CRAFTY! She is AMAZING at any crafty/creative thing you put in front of her. I LOVE having a mom like this & I'm so thankful she gave me a little of her crafty side:)...I hope to be doing A LOT this summer with crafts...& expanding my talent:)..and I will be pulling my mom into it. We already are booked for an ART SHOW in the fall!! So excited! :)
  
#6 HUMOR- I LOVE to laugh. I love to joke. I love to make people laugh!..I hate when a moment gets really intense (bad situation....car problems, fights, someone is hurt...etc)  so, I will say something to make people laugh... is it always appropriate? No...But...we need to have comic relief somehow. :)
  
#7 Anything&Everything that's Lovely- weddings, babies, Jesus, love, laughter, pictures, family, friends, places, art, and if I get to know you.....YOU! :).....etc.


    Well this is the end....But, I promise to be on here A LOT more & fill you in on all these topics!! :) I'm
SO EXCITED!!!!

..My Own Strength Always Fails..

..A few weeks ago while still in the full swing of Master's...I was aware it would be coming to an end and summer would begin...and to most people they are excited for that "freedom". . No curfew, no covenant, no director or leader keeping you accountable, basically you get to do anything you want and not be in that "SAFE BUBBLE"....and I started to PANIC! Mainly because when I graduated from High School (having been there k-12)...I went into the "real world" and thats when I was removed from my bubble...I could do what I wanted and not have all the "rules"....it was like CULTURE SHOCK!...I was not prepared and grounded in Christ..I wanted to do what I wanted...and that was my downward spiral of not living for God...and experiencing the things of the world. . it ended up being the MOST MISERABLE time in my life. . .

  - -So here I am in Master's......In a BUBBLE again!...  I ENJOY this bubble and knowing it was coming to an end I started to feel uneasy about it and started doubting all the WONDERFUL things God had done in my life this year...everyday that graduation grew near..I had doubt rising in me...and faced the question "What if I fail?"....and that's when I just got before God..and cried out to him.. and through that process...He comforted me. and spoke such life to me. . .why was I doubting?... It was because satan hides in the shadow of MY STRENGTH and he LOVES when he catches me off gaurd and I fall on my face and buy into his lies..

  To be honest-I'm not at all confident in myself this summer. . I can't say that I wont mess up...But, I can say that I'm CONFIDENT in MY GOD. and that He wont let me go, and through HIS STRENGTH I will overcome my flesh.....and depend on God, when my weakness is in God, it becomes strength...not by me..but by God!

I pray for an INTENSE summer and that I will grow more these 3 months than I did in my 9 months of Master's. and I CHALLENGE each of you to lay down all your strength at the feet of Jesus. He can do so much more with it than we can....