The Salon

Anna is the most pampered Downs girl I know. Let me rephrase that, she is more papered then most girls in general I know. She comes to my Salon and gets manicures and pedicures regularly by our good friend Kat, and about every 6-8 weeks she gets her hair colored. I have definately had a fun time trying out different color combinations on her hair and it has reached a point that this is the healthiest her hair has ever been.....that was not always the case...
You see, my mother wanted Anna's hair permed so that she could just wear headbands and it would be curly and very low matinance. Not a bad idea..however Anna recieved a gift from someone with a bunch of bubble bath and shower gels that smelled like avon, but she loved it. She got a little confused and thought the shower gel was shampoo. Thus started the downward spiral of the hair. She was using shower gel as shampoo for quite some time, with NO conditioner to ease the pain. Then, she started going to the gym and swimming. Permed hair, mixed with Chlorine, mixed with a not so great attempt at rinsing off, followed by washing with shower gel, then not always getting it all out, resulted in a terrible mess. Her poor hair was totally damaged. After a few weeks of this, I could barely ever get a comb through it. I finally asked what she was using as shampoo and she showed me. I about died. Also, the headbands....You see in the chlorified permy shower gel mess, she was wearing headbands every day and would push them back so tight it was breaking off her extremely fine hair even more. I banned the use of headbands indefinately. After not much careful consideration needed, i decided it was time.
I cut it all off. Poor thing looked like a boy for about 3 months till her hair grew long enough to curl. Once it reached a long enough length, i put a few highlights in it. I have babied her hair and it has now grown out to a cute bob with fun reds and browns and blonde highlights, and every so often I will let her wear headbands. She loves it! She loves coming to the salon and leaving feeling like a total princess. Who are we kidding, she is a princess.

One last thing..
She just came to the salon a few days ago and I was waiting for my client Jason Alhstrom. She was sitting in the chair next to us and when he arrived, i asked her if she liked his hair or if we should cut it. This was her response..."I love it! It looks sexy! He looks sexy. He is hott!" I started laughing and said, "Anna, Im gonna tell your boyfriend David" She said "I dont care, he deserves it." (Why i have no idea) But she then informed me after Jason left how sexy he was yet again. Leave it to Anna to boost anyones ego. Nothing like getting hit on by the coolest downs girl in the world! I bet it made Jason's day!

Smiles All Around

Anna caught the bouquet. How could this picture not make you smile. Have a great day!

Primary Chick

Annas calling in our ward is Assistant to the Secretary in the Primary. They made up this calling for her specifically and saying she takes it rather serious is an understatement. She is in charge of taking the Rolls around to each class before it begins then before it ends returning to pick them up again. She also sits in the Primary and helps keep the kids in line. What usually ends up happening is during music time Anna gets really silly singing the songs and makes all the kids giggle and laugh. She just has no fear and will do anything to make anyone laugh.
I work in the Library which is right next door to the primary. Every Sunday without fail, Anna walks by when its dead in the library and says..."Hey Theresa....everything okay in here? You need anything?" Like always i tell her nope everything is just great. Then she is on her way. Most Sundays when she is bored with the primary she ends up wandering the halls seeing if anyone needs help with anything usually its in the nursery and usually when they are passing out treats. hmmmm interesting.
Anna is the most well known person in our ward by the adults and children. Kids see her in the halls and just get the biggest grins on their faces. They laugh with her and just love her! Its so wonderful. Best of all, Anna calls the primary kids her students. She hates to go out of town and miss church because she will miss her primary and her students so much. She bore testimony of how much she missed them for over five minutes last Testimony meeting.
I just have to say how much I look up to Anna. She is so dedicated to her calling and is such a wonderful example. The ladies in the primary tell me all the time how much of a great help she is and they could give her even more responsibility and confidently know she would do it no problems.
The funniest thing is, my husband Dave always teases Anna, he is going to get a calling in the primary and just take her job over. One time we had to sub a class for two weeks and she i think was really upset thinking we were serious. She informed us..."Yah right guys...youre not takin my job from me. Those kids dont even know Dave. They know me. They are my students. So dont even think about it!"
Dave poked his head in the door to primary one time and anna actually got up walked over to the door and kicked him out. Not only is she dedicated to her calling who knew she was primary security too!
I just hope everyone can be as motivated and excited about their callings as anna is. She is an example for all of us!