Loving Life and My Hair

2008-03-31T07:31:00.001-07:00

We really had a great time at this affair. Good food, dancing and enjoying time with friends.

2008-01-01T00:39:00.001-08:00

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1885370377

The Williams Family

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-09-25T22:45:00.001-07:00

2007-09-25T21:19:00.001-07:00

Birthday Party Pics with Family and Friends

2007-09-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Me...

I had a wonderful birthday on September 21, it was my 50th Birthday and it's hard to believe that I have made it to that point in my life.. I decided to have a Big Birthday Party to celebrate my birthday.. I have been working on the party for the last couples of month and it turned out just great. All of my sisters came back to town to celebrate with me except for my oldest one, but it was still all good. I had friends from high school and college and family from near and far. After the reception there was an old school dance and we danced the night away, it was just fabulous.

2007-07-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

My Sister's Cute Bantu Knots

Ness Wedding Reception

2007-06-25T16:18:00.001-07:00

2007-06-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

I have just been tagged, now I have to write 7 things about myself that the people who visit my blog doesn't know about me.

1. I love my college alma mater, every year I go back for the homecoming parade and football game. I graduated from Prairie View A & M University and I just love the purple and gold. My college life was the best time of my life and I have great friends who I met while I was there and we are all still very close. The last couple years we have been going it has been raining and they had to cancel the parade but the football game went on, I just love to see the "The Storm" the marching band. My mother graduated from PVU, my sister and my self. My oldest son also attended there, before he passed away.. It is a family tradition, although my youngest son does not want to attend. I am still hoping he attends another HBCU, because there's nothing like it.

2. I love to read, mostly black authors and romantic story lines. I am always buying books whenever I go somewhere, usually I can find some of my favorite authors at bookstores like, Barnes and Nobles on sale very cheap. I have had to buy a couple of new book shelves because I need more room for my books. What do you do with the books, after you have read them.. I keep them.

3. I took piano lessons for a long time when I was a child, but I didn't really appreciate it, now I am trying to practice again because I want to play now. My son is so gifted on the keyboard and piano, he can just hear a song and start to play it himself in a very short time.. He will play some of the songs I like, but not all.. so I am trying to pick it up again. Wish me well..

4. I love to travel, every year since my children were small I started traveling and vacationing in the summer to get a tradition going. When we were children we didn't get to travel much, during the summer months our favorite pass time was just staying home or going to visit our school friends who didn't go anywhere either. Our only summer outings were going to the local movie, walking to the Diary Queen and the big thing was going to Temple, Texas for school clothes.

5. I have five sisters and we are very close, we call ourselves "The Fabulous Five", but I don't have any brothers, but I do have a cousin who is like a brother to me. We are very close and we used to talk to each other every week when the tv show "Soul Food" was on. We would watch it and then call and talk about what went on and how we thought it should be or not be. We traveled to Disney World in Florida together one year and had a great time because I didn't have to do too much of the driving because all his friends and their wives and kids went also, and as it goes most men think they can drive better than a woman. We had six car loads of people, about 24 of us in all. It was an adventure going through some of the little southern towns getting out at the bathroom.. Although all of them are over forty, they all have small children and we had to stop several times for bathroom breaks. He has two sons and they idolize my youngest son, they think he knows everything. Maybe one day they all will take trips together with their wives and kids.

6. I love going to casinos, but I am not addicted. My sister and I will go from time to time and just play about $30.00 or maybe a little more. We usually just play the penny machines so we can have more playing time. I love to heard the machines go and if the games doesn't make too much noise I am off to another machine.

7. I use to be a real country girl when I was young because my dad didn't have any boys so we girls had to do all the chores, like feeding the pigs, chasing the cows when they got out and all the other things you do when you have farm animals. A couple of my sisters were afraid or the cows when they got out so I was the one who have to chase them back home and sometimes when my oldest sister would see the cows coming toward her she would let them go pass the fence so we had to chase them back and we didn't have any horses. We use to always have pork and beef, I think that is why I don't eat steak today or any beef really because we had it too much growing up.

Sorry I don't know who to tag next, but I will look back and see who hasn't been tagged.

2007-05-17T18:47:00.001-07:00

This a little tie-up I did to get my hair out of my face. The other picture is my sister's friend, he had cut his locks now he is growing them out again. I think once you have locks you really miss them when they are gone and seems as if most people grow them again.

Dr. Martin L. King Park in North Carolina

2007-05-17T18:40:00.001-07:00

2007-05-17T17:25:00.001-07:00

May 12, 2007 we all attended the Phd Hooding Ceremony for my sister in North Carolina. We are very proud of her and all have a great time.

2007-05-17T16:57:00.000-07:00

Mother/Daughter/Sister Breakfast

My sister and I attended the Platinum Grits Annual Breakfast and everything was just wonderful, this is the first time we have attended. It was held April 21, 2007 in Dallas at the Melrose Hotel.
Some of the ladies from the DFW Sisterlocks Gathering were also there, everyone looked beautiful as always. The food was just great and all the ladies seemed to enjoy the atmosphere and sisterhood was all around the room.

2007-04-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter

This is how I wore my hair for Easter. I washed it on Saturday, while it was snowing and braided it up in numerous braids. I started in the front braiding about 6 to 8 locs together, and then I got the bright idea that it would be better just to braid 3 together for a better effect. I put colorful little elastic cloth bands on the end of them so I would know when I still have some to take down.. I didn't know it was going to take so long to take all of them down and it made me late for church because I started too late. It was very hard to take all of them down with just the three locs and I have learned that it is easier to do if I do more locs together. This is the first time I have ever done the braid out and I ready liked the look I got from it and I got compliments on it also. I usually just free style, but I have been trying to do something different. I really did love the curls I got last time and it seemed as if they were not going to fall out and I really didn't want them to, but I have to wash it. I will see how long the braid out last.
My hair seems to be really growing and I just love it, the only thing I hate is that my sides are still kinda thin from when I had my relaxer and that has been years ago.. If anyone else has that problem please tell me what I can use on my sides to get them to grow out.

2007-03-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

My son also wanted me to add his hair to my blog, the first one was taken in February 06' and the one in the red was taken March 07'. I started his locks with with regular plaits or braids, instead of twists like I did mine.. Some of his hair have locked but on the end it has not. His hair has grown some and it is very thick and none of his locks are thinning so that's good.. Locks will be 3 years old in December and I am sure he will have some more growth and locking by then.

2007-03-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a week and my hair and curls are still holding up.. I have been wearing my hair is a curly pineapple at least that's what I am calling it. It is so easy to do, I just put my hair up in a ponytail at night and shape it up a little in the morning and I am ready to go.

Wedding Pics

2007-03-18T18:28:00.001-07:00

2007-03-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

Style I Wore to Wedding Back of the Style I wore to the Wedding

This is the style I wore to the wedding, although these pictures were taken after the wedding.. I was kinda rushed before the wedding because I was still helping my friend (the bride) to get everything together an hour before we were suppose to be at the church. It was looking very nice during the service and I got lots of compliments.

2007-03-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

This is how my hair looked from the back when I rolled it up... I think I will put it up tomorrow for the wedding and I think it will look just great. I know I look sleepy but I have been out most of the day helping my friend with the wedding decorations and the rehearsal dinner.

2007-03-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Still Loving Life and my Hair......

These are a couple of pictures my son took of the back of my hair.. I just finishing washing it and palm rolling it and it was feeling so nice and looking so nice, just wanted to share the look with my blog friends. I think I will roll it up, because I am going to a wedding this Saturday. I hardly ever wear my hair rolled it, usually just wash it, palm roll and go.. I have been wearing my hair up in a pineapple lately and have been getting so many compliments about how nice it looks... I will have to feature that style and how it looks when I go to the wedding, so stay tuned..

2007-03-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

February 2006 March 2007

What a Difference a Year Makes

I tried to do a picture to show the difference that my hair has gone through in a year. It doesn't really look too much longer in the middle of my back, but the sides has grown out and it is thicker than it was back then.

Family and Friends

2007-02-18T19:29:00.001-08:00

2007-02-18T18:59:00.001-08:00

2007-02-18T17:49:00.000-08:00

DFW Sisterlock Gathering in Waco

The DFW Sisterlocks Gathering was hosted in Waco, by Maryee and Jen on Sunday,February 18th. Everything was really enjoyable, it was great seeing all the Beautiful Ladies again. We had a great time, good food, entertainment and the hostesses were the best. It was the kind of gathering that you could just kick your shoes off and just enjoy, we had the whole place to ourselves so we didn't have to worry about getting too loud. The time went by so fast, seems as if we were just getting started and it was time to go. We had several new people and the regulars, of course... I think a good time was had by all, and the weather was just wonderful.. No rain or sleet... just a nice February day.

2007-02-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

WHY I WEAR MY HAIR NATURAL
By Andrea'

When I cut off all my permed hair nearly eight years ago, I was making a deliberate transition, hoping that by freeing my hair, I was signifying the broader freedom that I wanted in my life.

I cut my hair shortly after my aunt died in March 1999. I loved my Aunt Dorothy, my mother's only sister, very much. Aunt Dorothy had a good life, according to the standards by which the lives of southern black working-class women can be judged. But I sense that there was so much that she missed, so much that she might have put off, waiting for more money, more time, more opportunities. Her passing was a wake-up call for me-I could not afford to defer the decisions that mattered to me.

Allowing my hair to go natural was one of those decisions that I decided not to let linger, I had been wanting to go natural for a while. Seems tht some of the most beautiful women that I admired at Spelman, where I was attending college, had natural hair. Through reading and noticing their lifestyles, I realized that wearing one's hair natural can be part of a holistic lifestyle of Afro-centric, healthy thinking and being. For example, many of the dredlocked and afro-wearing sistahs I knew were also spiritually centered and vegetarian (I became a vegetarian in 2000).

So when my aunt passed, I decided that my decision could not wait. Black women had been waiting for too long to do the things, big and small, that mattered to them. A few days after my aunt's funeral, I cut off all my hair. The stylist that I had been used to perming my hair was hesitant to cut it. She reminded me of all of the supposed disadvantages and inconveniences of not having straight hair, but I persisted. I wanted to take a small risk , for my own sake and in honor of my aunt who hadn't been able to take so many risks in her life.

I have never regretted my decision. I absolutely love my hair now. I like to touch it and twirl it around my fingers now that it's grown out. I like it texture and the way that my first strands of gray (which I will never dye) are highlighting my otherwise pitch black nappiness. I wear twists and Bantu knots and cornrows without extensions. And I generally get several compliments about my hair from both women and men. One man I dated was particularly enamored by my natural hair. He said that when I wore cornrows, the parts and designs in my hair reminded him of the winding roots of a strong tree-the family tree that connects people of African descent to one another. I cherish that.

I'm encouraged to see black women wearing their hair natural. For some folks, it's simply a style and that's okay. But other sistahs have philosophical reasons for being natural, as I do. After all, I want for every part of me-beginning with my heart and manifesting in my hair-to be a reflection of my family tree, a tree that includes my Southern-born Aunt Dorothy. A tree that has its deepest roots in the Motherland.

Fabulous Five

2007-01-14T00:15:00.001-08:00

We Are Family....

2007-01-13T23:40:00.001-08:00

Congratulations Dr. Andrea

2007-01-13T23:03:00.001-08:00

2007-01-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

Me and My Son

He did a very good job on taking all the pictures for us.

2007-01-13T22:16:00.000-08:00

All Loving Our Hair

2007-01-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

She's Also a Good Cook

My youngest sister also loves to cook so she did all the cooking for us while she was here. Everything was very good.. but we all tried not to over eat.

2007-01-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Dr. Andrea

In September 2006, the Family hosted a Graduation Reception for my youngest sister. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with her Phd. She started her new position at The Ohio State University in September '06. She is an English and African-American Literature Professor. We are all very proud of her, we will all travel to North in May 2007 for the Hooding Ceremony. I know we all look young, but she's the one in the middle. :-)

2007-01-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

My Sisters Natural and Free

Aren't they beautiful....

We had great fun, got to go out to eat, shopping, hanging out and playing games and just enjoying each other's company.

Vallory, Vanessa, Roslin and Andrea

2007-01-12T19:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas was Great.....

Christmas was just great for my family all of my sisters were in town and we got to spend some real quality time together.. It's not often that we are all in one place at the same time. Only two of us live in our hometown.. Vallory came from Kansas City, Missouri, Vanessa from Colorado City, Colorado and Andrea from Columbus, Ohio. Whenever we are all together we try to get some group pictures taken, we did not have the opportunity to go to a professional so my son, William played photographer for us. We all have natural hair by the way and my mother too as I have mentioned before.

2006-10-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Style I Sported in Philly....maybe you can't see it very will, but it was cute.....

2006-10-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

Soror Sheryl Lee Ralph and my sister, Roz

Sheryl Lee Ralph performed her one-woman show, Sometimes I Cry, the Tony-nominated actress appears onstage in the dark and once the lights are turned on she enlightens us all with an array of three characters affected by HIV/AIDS-from a Jamaican transsexual whose new life is being cut short, to a high-powered executive whose nauseating medications keep her from a life of normalcy and a widow over 60 who has a fling with her deceased husband's old friend.

2006-10-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hill Harper and Me at the Delta Sigma Theta

National Convention Book Signing in

Philly, Pa.

He was very nice and had the nicest

smile you could ever want to see.

Hill Harper currently starring on CSI: NY

Signing his new book" Letters to a YOUNG BROTHER" for my son, William.

2006-10-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been awhile since I updated my blog.. I have been so busy or rather haven't taken the time to do anything to my blog.. I still haven't gotten the hang or post the pictures and all.. I have been trying to put a pic on my profile but still don't understand how to do that.. I was really busy this summer and had a great time on my vacations.. going to New York in June and then going to Philadelphia in July for the Delta Convention... it was great. My sister and I had a great time although we were in meetings most of the time and didn't get to do much sightseeing or shopping. Here are some pics of the people we saw and met.

2006-06-25T17:53:00.000-07:00

New York, New York
It was great being in New York with my sisters and new friends. I have a great time and really enjoyed being in the Big Apple. I loved the musical it was so nice, I would really like to go back again and take some of my friends who didn't get to go and my mother.. Walking all around the streets was an experience, never have I seen so many people in one place. The hotel was nice and the beds were comfortable after walking around all day, the time just really went by too too fast.

2006-06-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

Couple of New Styles

I got several compliments on these styles and I really like doing them, it was fun...

2006-05-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a long time since I posted anything and mostly because I have been busy and not taking the time to do it.. I am not getting any comments usually on my blog, probably because no one knows I am here but I am.. I really enjoyed going to the Sisterlock Gathering in March and I did take some pics. Here are some of them.

2006-03-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

Birds of a Feather

This is a pic of a lady and myself that was taken at our Delta Sigma Theta Founder's Day Celebration that was held in Killeen, Texas on February 25, 2006. Whenever I go somewhere I always look around for other ladies who have come over to the natural side and talk to them about their journey and take a picture if I can. I thought this lady's hair was so nice, just beautiful not only was it natural... also has the beautiful grey (diamonds) hair as stated by another locked sister. We talked and she told me how she simply loved her hair now. She has the twists, has not decided to lock as of yet she is just enjoying not having to deal with the creamy crack (relaxer) any longer. She did make a comment to me that I will not forget and I understand completely. She said "I will never go back to the perm", several people are always asking me what I will do with my hair when I no longer want the locks and I said I will want them forever. I don't see any other alternative for me, because I know I do not want to go back to the perm either and I am just too happy being nappy and free..

2006-03-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

Memory-of.com - Memorial website in memory of Dalerick Williams (1980-2004) This is the website I did for my son who passed away almost 2 years ago. March 31, 2006 will be two years that he passed away and went to be with the Lord. I miss him so much and I just long to talk to him sometimes and just hear his laughter. He was such a talented person and had a heart of gold. He really loved my natural hair and he always gave me compliments on how nice it looked, I am sure he's smiling down and saying "Momma still has it going on with her locks".

2006-03-13T21:49:00.000-08:00

Pic of Me

This is a pic of me that my son took with his new camera. I don't know what happened with the post I did yesterday. I am trying to get more familiar with doing post and having them show up when they should.

2006-03-12T11:12:00.000-08:00

All in the Family....

I haven't been writing very much on my blog lately because I have been kinda busy or rather just not getting online as much. I really enjoy reading other blogs, but it doesn't seem as if anyone is coming to my blog and leaving any comments. I sent it to all of my sisters but they couldn't figure out to leave a comment, they are not as computer capable as I am and that's not saying much because I can't figure out how to add any links to mine and send out information to let the world know that I am here. This is a pic of my sisters and my mother we are all nappy and free. Loving it more and more each day.

2006-02-19T11:19:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of me and my son, he wanted to show the back of his hair also. His is really growing also, in the far corner over my son's shoulder is my mother and she has her hair natural also.

2006-02-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

Well I did get the blog set up and I am just going to write a little more about what was going on with my hair. I have some more pictures from when I first cut my hair but I really need to go back to my photo albums and find them. I had my son to take a picture of the back of my hair on this past Thursday and it really looks very long, but that was right when I had washed it and it does seem to hang longer when it is wet. These are a few other pictures of my son and his hair, I had started his hair by a traditional 3 strand braid. It looks good on him, and he likes it.
I will have to add the pictures of my son later, they are not on my computer.

This is something new for me....

2006-02-16T22:09:00.000-08:00

I have been reading everyone else's blog and I was interested in started one so here I am.. I have really been mostly reading about ladies with natural hair and the Sisterlocks. I have locks also but they are not Sisterlocks, I guess they will be considered to be traditional locks.. I started them myself about 3 years ago now. I was just tired of the perms and I was also tired of the curling iron and getting up each morning trying to fix my hair. My youngest sister was just graduating from college and she had been going natural for about 2 years. I really like her styles and her afro. I said I can do that and so I started in June of 2000 letting my hair go natural and not put another perm on it.. I was going like that for about 3 months, then in September 2000 for my birthday I just cut my hair and started wearing a short afro. I just loved it , it was so easy to just comb through it and go. My hair started growing and my afro was so big, I started twisting my hair in the twist style.