Beware: A Hot Topic

I know that this is a "hot" topic and it can be fairly controversial among Christians, and even Jeff and I have differing opinions on different areas of this topic....Halloween. I just figured I'd share what we are doing and why we do it.

My history... When I was in 1st or 2nd grade my parents decided that our family was no longer going to celebrate Halloween. I don't remember being upset by it at all, I was actually quite thrilled because we got to be pulled out of school on the days they did all their Halloween celebration. I also remember feeling quite "big" by telling my music teacher that "I don't have to sing this song, because I don't celebrate Halloween." (Now that I think back on it, I see some pride issues there.) The reasons that I can remember being given on why my parents decided not to celebrate anymore was 1) Safety, if they had to check every piece of candy to make sure someone hadn't tampered with it then they didn't know if we needed to be doing it. 2) My dad was a police officer and I know he said they saw a rise in missing pets, because of "sacrifices" on that night. I'm sure there was more to it, that is just what I remember.

The struggle... As an adult I have to figure out what I believe for myself and why. I can no longer do things as a parent just because that is how my parents did it. I also have a husband who has a different background and different opinions that we have to merge together.

The main issue we do agree on, and that is we do not celebrate Halloween. The main reason we have decided this is because of the evil that is rooted in Halloween. I know, I know, it started out as All Hallows Eve to remember the saints that died. Honestly, is that what we really 'celebrate' today? If we would take all the "roots" of the actual day away and just look at what Halloween stands for today, what do we see? I see and my kids see, as we walk through any store, watch any TV, or just look around us, is spiders, skeletons, skulls, blood, gory masks and mannequin's, ghosts, witches, haunted houses, death. All of that is to make things scary, or to instill fear in people. Not only that, I don't see any of that glorifying the Living God that I serve. The closest thing would be the spiders because they are His creation, but once again probably 90% of the population is fearful of spiders, therefore once again there is the instilling of fear.

I once again want to remind you that this is where I am, I am not saying this is where you should be or how you should believe. That being said, my goal as a child of God, is to glorify Him in all I do. I want to be holy as He is holy, and to me Scripture clearly says to stay away from witchcraft, sorcery, etc and so much of that is tied in with Halloween. Scripture also says in Phil. 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." To me, Halloween is not described in that at all and neither is fear which leads us into the main theme of Halloween.

The fear factor. If you know me and if you've read my blog from the beginning, you can see that I have always struggled with fear and I have one son in particular who struggles with fear. This son can't even look at the posters in a dr.'s office of the muscular system and the skeletal system because he doesn't like the looks of it and he doesn't want bad dreams. He doesn't even like walking by the Halloween aisle because he doesn't like what he sees, he actually covers his eyes and turns his head. It scares him. So now I feel my job as a parent is to protect my children. I don't want my children to be scared, I don't want them to have nightmares, I don't want them to live with fear their whole lives and I KNOW that their Father in heaven doesn't want that for them either. Because of that, at this stage in our life, I have decided not even to participate in alternative church celebrations. The only really good reason I can see being involved in anything that has to do with Halloween is to reach out to the lost. The trouble I have with that and my family, at this time in life, is that I can't subject my children to what others may do and dress up as.

Something else to think about...Even though my other children don't have the "fear" and they almost seem drawn to look at all the gory stuff, what they are taking in now will forever be embedded in their minds. One day, these images and feelings of being scared can resurrect themselves in dreams, or in their thinking when they might be outside in the dark, or when they're home by themselves. I don't want that for my children, I would much rather have them resting assured in their faith in God and in His protection that He has around them. I would much rather them be focused on all the good in this life and what God has done for them. I want their ultimate goal to be, to glorify God in ALL they do, and to be holy as He is holy.

So on October 31st, we will once again have a family night! We are going to have a special dinner, the kids are going to share some things they've learned and some talents, we are going to watch a family friendly movie. We are going to have FUN! We're going to have CANDY! We're going to make MEMORIES!

Preston's Evening

Preston wanted "red" for his birthday. So we tried to do some red!

Red hair and red shirts!

Preston's chosen birthday meal:

Skillet Lasagna

Sweet Corn with butter

French Style Green Beans

Garlic French Bread

Strawberry Soda

Cheesecake

Some opening of presents!

Note: we even had red eyes! ;o)

This was Preston's first year to not have anyone celebrate with our immediate family. He kept asking our family if they were going to come for his birthday. He even talked to his Aunt Tammy that morning and he figured out that she could leave right then, drive 8 hours, and be here by 6:00 to celebrate with us! To our disappointment she was unable to do it. :o) He got phone calls from his grandparents, his aunts and even his cousins. I think overall he really enjoyed HIS day, even though there was no one else to share in the fun.

My Preston

My first-born baby has entered the double digits today. He is the

BIG 1-0!!! It is amazing how time flies.


I can easily remember going into labor at 12:45 a.m. after 45 minutes of sleep. I was in labor close to 18 hours. I had almost 2 hours of pushing to get this first-born son into the world. He was my smallest baby at 7lb 4.5oz. He came out looking just like Jeff. He also sucked on his bottom lip. He would suck on it so hard that if you pulled on it and broke the suction it would make a popping noise.


Ever since Preston was a baby, he has been very active. I remember the dr. noticing and making a comment that he was in constant motion, even in the car seat he was always kicking his legs. Because Preston was an only child for his first two years I was able to really keep an eye on him and redirect his energy (unlike Kaylie who has come the closest to his personality and energy level.)


Preston was an early talker. At his 18 mos. check-up the dr. asked if he was saying 8 - 10 words, and I told her that off of the top of my head he was saying over 40. When Tanner was born he was talking very clearly to the camera, which I now know the rarity of that, especially in a boy.


I have talked about this before, but for Preston's sake I want to share it again. I can see in Preston leadership qualities emerging as he is getting older. He can round up his brothers and sister, and all his friends who are younger to work together or to play together. He is very good at bringing others into the conversation or into whatever they are playing. He also does amazingly well at carrying on a conversations with adults....so well, that I have to put a limit on how many questions can be asked when we are at dinner with others.

Preston is also very creative and resourceful. He has created many things from his own "tools", to a tree swing, to many types of things to play with. He does a lot of this with ropes, rubber bands, wire twisties, to anything he can find around the house. He is a collector of many things like boxes, all shapes and sizes, to baggies, to sticks, to ANYTHING he might use to create something.


Another thing I see in Preston, which I'm not sure is a positive quality more then a negative one, but it is something that is fairly common in firstborns. He is a perfectionist. If he doesn't get something right, he automatically starts putting himself down. He doesn't handle pressure well. If he is timed on anything he freezes up and then he never wants to do what ever he was doing again, for example a math game on the computer. I want my Preston to know that he does not have to be perfect. It is OK to mess up. It is OK not to always have the right answer. We just need to do the best that we can, and let God do the rest. I want Preston to know that in his weakness is where God is the strongest.


I LOVE MY Preston!!! There have been way too many times where I haven't handled things right with him. I have put unneeded pressure on him. I have expected perfection when I shouldn't. I just PRAY that God pours so much grace on him that it washes out all the mistakes that I've made, and that only good comes from it and that there be no open wounds that he will carry on in life because of my faulty, sinful, humanness as his mother.


I pray God's blessings be poured upon Preston this 11th year of his life and for the rest of his life. That he grows up to be a bold, courageous, humble, loving man of God...that he may be known as a man after God's own heart!

At the fountains, trying to get someone wet!

At the "dirt hills" doing some jumps.

Preston's creation so he wouldn't see the drop down the side of the mountain.

Tying up his tree swing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to MY 10 year old!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Do you know what this is?

I know it is disgusting. But this is a childhood memory for me. Let me clarify that....it was something Kaylie did that brought back a memory of something I did as a child.

Here is what happened this morning... I was, once again, sweeping up all the crumbs off of the floor.... Which seems to be a never ending task, and it amazes me how fast these crumbs seem to appear and I swear they multiply on their own. OK, back to the story.... As I was sweeping, I was tilting all the chairs to get any extra crumbs so they could be swept up too. When I get to Kaylie's seat I tilted the chair, and out falls this old crumbly tortilla. See the picture above.

The history behind the tortilla... A few days ago Kaylie wanted a tortilla to eat with her meal. The next thing I know is that she had folded and crumbled up the tortilla so I informed her that she had to eat it all before she got dessert. She ended up getting dessert because her tortilla was gone. Well as you may have figured out by now, she HID the thing in the space between her booster seat and the chair! I happened to be on the phone with my younger sister Tammy when this was discovered and we got a good laugh out of it.

Like mother, like daughter - my childhood memory... When I was a child I HATED steak. In my memory it was always tough and dry and it always made me gag and I hardly could swallow it. (Thank God for my future bro-n-law who came when I was in high school and introduced my family to A-1! I can now say that I love steak but I HAVE to have my A-1!) My solution...we had a dog but for some reason I couldn't always feed my bites to him. Maybe it would have been to obvious to my parents or he was outside, I don't know. At our kitchen table, us girls sat on a bench that my dad had made. This bench was built into a half wall so there was a back to it and it had slats which meant there were small open spaces between these slats.

As a child I was pretty smart, some would even say sly or sneaky. It was quite obvious that I couldn't just take my bite of steak straight from my plate to it's "hiding" place. So I would have to attempt to eat the thing. I would always put it in my mouth and chew and chew. Once all the moisture was out of the bite and I could feel my gag reflex getting ready to kick in, I would slyly take the bite out of my mouth and slide it into it's "hiding" place, which was the spaces between the slats in the bench and then I would carefully push the bite behind the wood so you couldn't see it. My parents never knew!...not until....several years down the line, after I was in upper high school or maybe even out of the house, my mom was somehow trying to clean the bench. She shared that she wondered how in the world dog food had gotten in the bench like that.

I'm not sure how she figured out it was my chewed up steak or how long it took her to realize it, but she did! My secret was out!

This memory does get resurrected every now and then with the family. It definitely was resurrected this morning and I now know to check the space between my daughter's booster seat and the chair!

I Approve This Message

Today, we, as a family, went and exercised our right to vote! In Colorado we have/had a chance for two weeks to early vote. We decided we wanted to take advantage of this and not have to fight the crowd and wait in lines on the actual Election Day. We did actually call the elections office to make sure that our vote would be counted on election night and not further done the road.

The past several years, we have taken the opportunity to take our children with us and we talk to them about the privilege of casting our vote and how important it is to be in align with the Word of God on certain issues. We have seen some changes in how we actually cast votes. When we were first married and living in a small town, we actually just put X's on a paper ballot that people went through and counted. We have also filled in the ovals on paper ballots that are then fed through a machine to be counted. This year we had a touch screen computer. My only complaint is, the angle was wrong, probably because of my height, so the glare of the light made it hard to read.

This morning when I let our kids know that we were going to vote today, the two oldest started sharing who they were going to vote for and why. They were pretty upset when I informed them that they don't actually get to vote until they are 18, and that they were just going to watch mom and dad vote. A little bit later we were discussing election stuff again, and Tanner pops in with, "and I approve this message." I thought, "Wow! A sign of the times." and we hardly watch TV and yet my kids have picked it up.

My voting helpers, Landon and Preston

Jeff and his voting helpers, Tanner and Kaylie

So to close this message I just want to say,

"I am Julie Ann and I approve this message!"

A Fall Day

Some beautiful color in our cul-de-sac.

I took these picture on Monday, the 20th. It was a nice fall day, although the wind started picking up and it sprinkled some later on. It was really a beautiful picture to look at out my window, with the different colors of trees and the dark and light clouds in the sky. A camera can not capture the beauty you see with the naked eye.

"Red" Allie and Kaylie

"Big" Tanner, our Tanner,

"Red" Allie, Landon, Preston

Preston and "Big" Tanner

Our Tanner and "Big"Tanner

Landon riding through the leaves.

Preston

These are the kids enjoying their day with the neighbors, on the neighbors longboards. On our cul-de-sac, we have two Allie's and two Tanner's. Therefore we have "red" Allie and "brown" Allie (because of hair color), and we have "big" Tanner and I think they call our Tanner, "little" Tanner.

This Sunday

Today, the kids and I had to stay home from church because three out of the four are sick. Anytime I'm home on a Sunday morning I try to go to the Internet campus of lifechurch.tv and join them live. I have never been disappointed with the messages there and I almost always walk away with a new perspective, encouragement, etc.

Because of no church, that meant I had no outfits to pick out and no hair to do! Of course that also meant my kids dressed themselves, the boys always go for the easiest....yesterday's clothes. Then there is Kaylie!

Does this not remind you of the 70's, with the knee high socks and the shorts!?! You can tell her favorite colors are pink and purple and she believes she is matching very well. Please also remember the "No doing of hair".

Values

I couldn't figure out how to get the actual video on here so here is a link. Something to watch and to think about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwLY_HRt-AM

I was told by a teacher, "If you don't exercise your right to vote, then you can't complain."

A Day Out

Today we were suppose to have a field trip to the pumpkin patch that had a corn and hay maze. It was canceled because of the weather but I decided I needed to get out of the house anyway. So after finishing up our school, we headed out.

It took me a while to decide what we were going to do but we finally decided to go to the cheap movies. So for $2.50 a piece we went and saw Wall-E. While we were waiting to go into the theater we were letting the kids play with the arcade games. Kaylie then came over and started asking her questions to Jeff. I wasn't really paying attention so I can't share how the conversation progressed, but I came in when she started saying that "her boyfriend was Flake. The one with the poky-up hair." I realized right away she was talking about a boy at church. I had to once again tell her that his name isn't Flake but it is Blake! I'm sure it is true love for him ;o)

Right after that conversation, Jeff was noticing that Kaylie was chewing some gum that smelled really good. Jeff said, "Kaylie, you got some really good gum, where did you get it from?" I start thinking she stole it from one of her brothers at home. Then Jeff said, "Did you get it off of the floor?" Then I think she found a gumball on the floor from one of those quarter machines. She said, "It was stuck over there on..." That was the furthest she got before we started laughing and I was dragging her to the nearest trash can, with a lecture coming out of my mouth why we don't chew gum "stuck" on things. All I can say is that girl is going to have the best immunity when she gets older!

So right now I have that same little girl climbing all over me trying to get me to throw her into some blankets, because her daddy and brothers are at the tire shop getting the tire changed on our van. A HUGE bolt somehow got stuck in the tire. She is now "doing" my hair and I am hearing sniffles and one of her hands disappears and then suddenly it is back in my hair! I hate to think what is going in my hair...good thing we have no where else to go tonight!

Our entertainer!

Today...

Today is a day...

• I feel like I can't do it anymore.
• I feel like I can't handle the whining, crying, complaining, bad attitudes, fighting, yelling, name calling.
• I feel like quitting.
• I feel like I have nothing else to give...I feel empty.

As a daughter of the King...

• I know I can do it.
• I know I can handle it.
• I know I will persevere.
• I know that love is giving and expecting nothing in return.

Vote!

Politics is something that you are always told not to talk about. But there are so many people out there that are sharing their opinion (which a lot I disagree with) so why not let me put out what I think.?.

This really won't be a long spill but someone in the Bible study I go to on Friday's, made a comment and I couldn't agree more and I feel everyone should ponder this, especially those who follow Christ.

This lady, I will call Sue, was sharing that she was talking to a friend and this friend is so confused on every thing and the candidates that she just wasn't going to vote. Then Sue made the point that we may not really know about and aren't sure of the two presidential candidates so we need to pray about and vote on the things that align with God's heart and Word.

What are the positions that McCain and Obama take on issues that might align with God or not? What about the sanctity of life? Marriage? Protecting those who can't protect themselves (Proverbs 31:8-9)?

Sue also pointed out...and it was an "ah ha" moment for me...that God can lead a country no matter what individual is in the office. I know that should be pretty obvious, but I had forgotten that point.

So I am calling all of you and especially those of you who are Christians to really look at the stands the different presidential candidates take on moral issues, and then vote with what aligns with our Father in heaven.

Double Dating!

I had this in my drafts and forgot about it, so thought I better get it posted!

A week ago, Jeff and I got to go on a double date! We ended up going out Sunday after church. We have a wonderful family in our church who has offered to watch our kids whenever we need to go out. The kids love going to their house because they have friends to play with, there are dogs that they usually get to take on a walk and who knows what other kinds of fun they have there.



We ended up having a seven hour date! After dropping our kids off, we were picked up by our friends Kevin and Marty. Our first agenda was to eat! It was close to 2:00 and we were all hungry. We decided to have some Famous Dave's BBQ! We ended up getting a meal for 4-5 and they bring it out on something that resembles a trash can lid. We had some wonderful food and some great fellowship time. (I do need to mention that most of the talking was done by the men! Marty and I got a word in on occasion but it was difficult with Jeff and Kevin :P)



After eating, it was on our way to the movies. We went and saw Fireproof....WOW!!! It is not the best of acting, because it was done by volunteers, but you get into the story line and the acting is forgotten. It is hard to explain all the feelings that go with this movie. It will make anyone think about their own marriage or relationships they are in. It is definitely a great one for those to see who are having trouble in their marriage. It also has the salvation message in it for the unbelievers who see this movie. I can't wait for it to come out on DVD so we can add it to our library of movies.



After our movie we were all on a high. We then realized it was around supper time and we kind of forgot all about our kids needing a second meal. So we called our babysitters and they were already feeding our kids pizza and they told us not to be in any big hurry. So we then decided to go to Wal-mart to pick up a few things for Marty and then we went to Culvers for some frozen custard! Yummmm!!! This was a great ending to a great day. We had a yummy treat with some great conversation, and it had been quite some time since I had laughed so hard!!! I won't go into detail because I don't want to embarrass certain individuals but I will say that the four of us are on a totally different level of friendship now! ;o)

Sorry I didn't take my camera, I thought of it when we were at Culvers. :(



We can't wait until the next time we have the chance to double date!

Smiles

Some things that made me SMILE today....

Kaylie singing "I don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul" (a line from a Toby Mac song) over and over while she is coloring a picture in her dress up shoes!

Seeing Kaylie walk out of the house after she dressed herself! (Those are her brothers clothes.)

Seeing Jeff have the same reaction as me when he saw Kaylie!

Sharing a special treat with Tanner because he earned a reward after 6 hours of reading!

Tanner returning a wink to me!

Mirror Fun

At the Wildlife Experienc, they had some "fun" mirrors. I think Jeff and I enjoyed those the most. We got some really good laughs out of those mirrors. I am STILL laughing as I'm looking at these pictures again. Here is some of what we saw.

Animal Grossology

Last week, our family went on a 'field trip' with the homeschool group we are a part of. We went to the Wildlife Experience in Parker Colorado. At W.E. we got to see a movie on Bugs, we visited the exhibit on Animal Grossology, had some hands on fun in other areas.

I do have to say that the Animal Grossology was gross! There were exhibits on tape worms (which is nasty to even read about), on bloodsuckers, slimy things, poop, flies that vomit on your food and there was even an exhibit where you squeezed this tube and it would release a puff of air with a smell and you were suppose to guess at what the smell was. After the first puff I started gagging and then decided that was enough hands on for me! (My puff was the wonderful smell of fox urine. Which if you recall from this post, that was a way to get rid of squirrels. I am now very thankful we did not have to go there! It's bad enough that we still get the smell of moth balls on occasion.)

I don't know how much my kids actually learned at the Animal Grossology because they wouldn't stay at one exhibit long enough to read all the information to them. I do know they had fun and they won't soon forget this trip.

Put Your Hands Up!

I find this too cute, so I decided to post it real quick. This happened on our field trip to the Wilderness Experience, which I plan on blogging about when I have a little more time, but this story deserves a spot all it's own.

The background....I wanted to get a picture of the kids, before the fun, in front of the sign for the exhibit we were going to see. As they were standing in front of the sign they were directly facing the sun. I told them to put their hands down from shading their eyes so their faces could be seen in the pictures. Of course my children grumbled and complained because "It was too bright." "The sun hurt their eyes." etcetera, etcetera. I finally told them to go ahead and put their hands up...and this is what I got.

Do you see Kaylie's hands!?! I'm still laughing about it! It took me a second to realize what she was doing through the lens of my camera, but I found it quite cute and humorous!

Scrapbooking???

I was asked yesterday if I did scrapbooking. I was like, "NO! I get too overwhelmed with it." (I really don't like cutting up my pictures and that is the BIG reason I don't scrapbook.) I then realized she was asking me because she has seen me with my camera on quite a few occasions. I then had to let her know that I "blogged". I just have more words and stories then a scrapbook might have, but I guess in many ways this is a "scrapbook online"!

God's Plans

I was asked awhile back if I would be willing to write a little something/article for a monthly newsletter for a Mom's group at our church. I told her I would give it a try but if it got to be too much I would let her know. Since I don't have much else to say at this point on my blog, I figured I would post it and share it with my readers! ;o)

God’s Plans

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Something that I have struggled with as a mom and especially as a homeschool mom is the fear of failure. I know that I mess up a lot. I yell at my kids when I shouldn’t. I don’t always handle situations that arise calmly and fairly. And frankly, I sometimes just want to throw my hands up and give up.

There are so many pressures in life that can be put on us from society, other moms or even by ourselves, to see if our child “measures up”. Who of us hasn’t been guilty at least once of comparing our child with another child? Have you heard, or even worse said, “What! Your son isn’t walking yet? Jr. was walking at nine months.” Or “Oh, my little girl can sing the whole alphabet at two!” Here’s another, “Bless my little one’s heart, when I prayed with him last night he accepted Jesus in his heart and he is only 18 months!” Okay that was a little of an exaggeration, but you get my point. We could also look at all the activities available to our children. What sport can’t they sign up for? If you’re not into sports what about a martial arts class, dance, a reading group, or some sort of music training.

Do you feel the pressure? Are we failing our kids if we don’t provide every opportunity available to see what might click with them? “What if our child is the next Michael Jordan and I don’t sign him up for basketball?” “What if my child is the one who will come up with the cure for cancer and I don’t send him to the science fair?” “What if my child is a future American Idol and I don’t get her voice lessons?” I’m sure you can see where I am going with this.

Here is something that I read and it took that pressure off of me. Each of our children is going to be what God has created them to be, no matter what we do or don’t do. If God wants our child to do something in sports when they grow up, He will give them the natural ability and it will happen whether or not he’s been in T-ball. If God wants them to be an author, He will give them the love of reading and language arts. If God wants them to be a scientist, He will give them that love and ability to understand all they need to know in the science world.

Just remember that God has a plan for each of us and our children. In our weakness is when God is strongest and praise God that His grace covers us when we fail!

Tagged

I was tagged awhile back by Shelly, but I'm just now getting to this. I am suppose to list ten random facts/ habits about myself. So I am going to try but I really don't think it will be that interesting.

1. All of my life I lived in the same home until I went away to college.

2. My first "hollywood" crush was Chad Allen. He was in 'Our House'. (You may know him as the oldest son in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.)

3. There was a boy who had a crush on me for at least 6 years (that I know of), probably beginning when I was in 4th grade . When we were in high school, he bet his sister $5 that he was going to marry me. (I'm not going to mention names because some of you know him & some of you already know who I am talking about!)

4. Jeff and I met on Aug. 17 1993, officially started dating 2 mos. later, was engaged 4 mos later, and then married 6 mos later on Aug 20 1994.

5. My only broken bone was my arm, and I was kicked by a horse.

6. I had difficulty getting pregnant the first time.

7. I remember giving it up (#6) to God in the car while listening to Rich Mullins, "If I Stand". I then went home and wrote about it in a prayer journal.

This is the chorus:

So if I stand let me stand on the promise

That you will pull me through

And if I can't, let me fall on the grace

That first brought me to You

And if I sing let me sing for the joy

That has born in me these songs

And if I weep let it be as a man

Who is longing for his home

8. One year later, TO THE DAY, October 29, 1998, I had my first son! (I was in major awe when I reread my entry and looked at the date.)

9. I am a cousin to Dwight D. Eisenhower. There's a few generations between us ;)

10. I am a major shower singer!


I am suppose to list 10 people but couldn't even come close to it, so if you would like to take this TAG fill free to do it!

Here are the rules:Each blogger must post these rules.Each blogger starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves. Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their ten things and post these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose ten people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they have been tagged and to read your blog.

Is It Clay???

This post has no deep thoughts and no inspirational message. This is just part of my life.

Yesterday, after naps, this is what Kaylie woke up looking like. Her hair was "done" when she laid down, how she slept to get it looking like this, I do not know! She reminded me a little of a lion with it's mane around his head, but now looking at the pictures I can really see Clay Aiken! :-D