Simply Shannon

Finding the light

2011-09-07T15:43:00.001-05:00

The other day my sister called me to tell me that she saw an ad in our local newspaper for a camera club that's looking for new members. She thought that I might be interested & suggested I check it out.
So I went to their website & had a look. I was pretty impressed and decided to give it a try.
I soon learned that the first meeting of the year is scheduled for September 8th. The topic of discussion is "Best Shots". In May the club assigned a task for the summer. The group picked 10 categories & asked each member to submit their best shot from each of the categories for the September meeting. The photos must be current (taken between the May meeting & the September meeting).
I thought to myself "Well shoot! These people have been working on this all summer & I have 1 week to pull it off??? I'll never manage. I guess I'll just have to go and observe." but then I took a look at the categories and realized that many of my favorite photos from this summer fit the categories perfectly! I only had to come up with a few ideas. Totally doable!
I'm a little nervous about putting myself out there. I've never done this before and I'm assuming a lot of these people have quite a bit of experience (based on the photos on the website). However, I also know that I will never learn new things or make any progress if I don't try. So I'm trying. What's the worst that could happen? Absolutely nothing.
So my lovely loyal friends...here's what I came up with. Feel free to comment & let me know what you think. I'll post an update after the meeting tomorrow & let you know how it went!

Inside looking out

Purple

Speed or Movement

Hands

Shoes

Patterns

Smoke / Fog

Fences

Windows or Doors

Fabric

The Dream

2011-08-22T09:44:00.001-05:00

A couple of months ago it suddenly became clear to me that I needed to move back home to Maine.
I've wanted to do it for years, but the logistics of making it happen always seemed too complicated so I never pushed very hard.
Then one night I was trying in vain to fall asleep & it hit me like a lightning bolt to the temple. I didn't WANT to move to Maine...WE as a family NEEDED to move to Maine. I didn't really know how it was all going to work out, but I knew that I had to make it happen. So I did.
It took a few (very frightening) weeks for everything to come together, but they did. My husband's company agreed to let him work from home and I had the all clear to quit my job & start packing up all our stuff. We had a place to live (at least temporarily), steady income including health insurance, and I was going to have the freedom to stay home with Ciara for the summer to get us settled before finding a job for myself.
Now the summer is coming to an end & it's time for me to be productive. I need to seize the opportunity that I've been given if this move is going to fully work. Which leads me to contemplate- What exactly IS my dream anyway?
I have developed a passion for photography over the last several years. I have never taken any classes and I'm very much an amateur but people seem to agree that I have a talent for it. So I guess the ultimate dream is for me to turn my passion into a career. BUT...I know that doesn't just happen over night. It's going to take a lot of hard work and dedication to get there.
So the next question becomes- What can I do in the meantime to make money so that my family and I can have the life we really want, but still have the time and energy to pursue my ultimate dream?
The possibilities in small town Maine tend to be a bit limited.
Except I refuse to allow them to be. I am an intelligent, capable woman. Surely I can convince others of this?
What am I good at? What do I have to offer my community? Where is there a need for me & my abilities?
Here's the amusing thing (well, amusing to me anyway)- various members of my family all came back with the same answer independently...SOCIAL MEDIA.
The businesses in my small city are only just beginning to grasp the benefits of using social media as a marketing tool. It's the perfect time to jump in and make a name for myself. If I play my cards right, use my connections and my wits, and work HARD, I really believe I can do this.
So for now, I guess my dream is this...
I would like to build my own business. I want to make my own schedule and be able to be there for my daughter. I want to be able to volunteer for field trips and to help her with school & extra curricular activities. I want to become involved in the community where I was born & raised. This is my home and I think that I have a lot to offer to help make it a better place to live. I want to study photography. I want to understand the science of a photo well enough that I can plan each exposure and not just luck into a few nice ones here & there. I want people to love my photos so much that they can't wait to hire me to take some for them. That's my dream. NOW...to make it my reality.
Stay tuned!

PS Here's a little sample of some of my favorite photos. Enjoy!

Coming Home

2011-08-09T15:59:00.001-05:00

Wow. It's been a long time since I've done this. Not gonna lie...I feel a little intimidated right now.
I guess there's only 1 thing to do.
Jump right in to the deep end with wild abandon. Here goes!...
3 1/2 years ago I felt completely secure in my life. Everything was peaceful. Easy. Predictable. I woke up every day knowing exactly how my day would go. I had a vision for the future. Sort of.
And then...I had the rug pulled out from under me. So long stability, hello crazy roller-coaster ride! I'm not going to go into details because they aren't important. All you really need to know is that everything changed and I suddenly realized how truly unpredictable life is.
The last few years have taught me some of the hardest lessons I've had to learn so far in this life. They've been tumultuous and upsetting. Difficult and scary. They have also been absolutely wonderful in a lot of ways.
I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I believe there was a reason that NKOTB came back into my life at exactly the same time that everything else was falling apart. My life was the perfect storm, and they were the lighthouse guiding me home.
I know that's super corny and I know it sounds dumb. They're just a pop group for crying out loud!
Except they aren't. Not to me anyway. They were once upon a time. Not any more. (I swear I'm not insane)
What began as a distraction has blossomed into something far more profound. Something I'll never truly be able to explain to anyone who hasn't been a part of it. As much as I'd like to, I really just don't think it can be done. There is no rhyme or reason, it just IS.
The other thing that's sort of hard to explain is that when I say NKOTB, I'm not just talking about 5 guys. I'm also talking about every person those 5 guys have brought into my life. There are too many to name individually and so it's just easier to group everyone together under 1 heading.
Anyway, these people have taught me a lot about myself over the last few years and helped me find a strength that I didn't know I possessed. It was always there, I just didn't know it until they pointed it out for me.
A few months ago my roller-coaster ride took a steep dive and I realized that the car was going to jump the track if I didn't take over the controls. So I did. It was terrifying, but thanks to my friends, I knew that it was going to be ok.
My family and I decided we needed to change tracks entirely. We left our old life in Illinois & moved back to my home town in Maine. Now we're here and I have an opportunity that very few people are blessed with. I get to choose my own adventure (remember those books?!)
It's incredibly exciting, but also terrifying! I have a dream for my future. I CAN make it happen... IF I work hard enough. It's all up to me.
Wow. How did I never see that before?

I hope you'll join me as I write my story. I'll try to keep it exciting. (but not TOO exciting...I'm ready to coast for a little bit)

You drove to Iowa for WHAT?!

2010-07-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

I'm going to share a little something about myself with you.

I suck at sports.

And I when I say I suck at sports, I mean that I REALLY, REALLY suck at sports.

And not just one or two of them...ALL of them. If it requires coordination or any sort of athletic ability of any kind, I can virtually guarantee you that I will find a way to screw it up so badly that it will boggle your mind.

Honestly, it really shouldn't even be humanly possible to suck this much.

When I was a growing up going to gym class was like having my worst nightmares come to life. I absolutely dreaded walking into that gigantic empty room with it's stale sweat smell and slippery floors. It was my own private hell. I viewed athletic equipment as torture devices, and my classmates were just sadistic bastards who couldn't wait to get their hands on these instruments of evil and have their way with me.

My parents tried really hard to help me out. They were very encouraging, and had me try all sorts of different activities. Gymnastics, soccer, cheer-leading, dancing, basketball...all with equally horrendous results. The only thing I was ever marginally decent at was swimming. I was on the swim team for several years. I even got a first place ribbon in my first ever race! (sadly, that was the only one I ever got...and it was a relay)

I tried for a while. I really did. I wanted to be good...it's just that my body would never cooperate with me. I'd listen to the instructions and watch the other kids and think "Well that looks easy enough! You just run down the mat, jump on the trampoline and land on the pommel horse on your knees?...I'm SURE that I can do that!"...and then my turn would come. I ran down the mat, jumped on the trampoline...and did a somersault over the pommel horse kicking my poor gym teacher in the head in the process. True story. I think that we had to call the janitor to come clean the floors after because all of my classmates had peed their pants from laughing so hard.

Now, I may not have any athletic prowess of any kind at all...but I am a reasonably intelligent person. If someone says to you "Hey, I want you to try this really cool new thing that I discovered! It's all the rage. Everyone is doing it!" and you go join them, and it turns out that this really cool new thing is sticking bamboo shoots under your fingernails...you're probably not going to do it a second time, right? Yeah...me neither.

So...having lived with this issue my entire life, I have recently been faced with asking myself "Self, what exactly would possess you to drive 3 hours to Iowa and 3 hours home in one day for the sole purpose of going bowling?!"

Imagine my surprise when myself answered "Well, because it's FUN ya dummy!"

See, the thing that I never figured out when I was a kid was that it really isn't about the results. It's about spending time with people and being carefree and silly. (Ok, not for everyone...some people take that stuff way too seriously, but in general people are just out to have a good time)

When my friend Manda first mentioned her bowling party to me, my initial reaction was "No friggin' way!I haven't picked up a bowling ball since I was 8 years old and there is very little chance that I've suddenly become coordinated." But I really love Manda, and I miss her and I wanted to see her. So when another friend told me that she was considering going I decided to throw caution to the wind and be a rebel for a change.

So I did it. I got in the car and drove all the way to Iowa to spend a couple of hours bowling. I was excited to see some old friends and to make some new ones and if it meant I had to throw a big heavy ball down a lane and try to knock over some pins...well, so be it.

As expected...I sucked. I sucked BAD! I swear, you wouldn't even believe that it's truly possible to suck as bad as I do. You know how in slapstick comedies some idiot accidentally throws the ball in the wrong direction? Yeah...that would be me. (twice)

BUT the difference between now and when I was a kid is that now I really don't care. It was funny and I just laughed and tried again. The difference between now and then is that I know that it doesn't really matter. I know that people are still going to like me and think that I'm fun even if I can't knock down a bunch of pins, or make a ball go through a net, or manage to stay upright while rolling around a slippery floor with wheels attached to my feet.

This knowledge is a beautiful thing...and I have you to thank for it. You all have shown me love and friendship and helped me to see that I'm actually pretty cool just the way that I am. Thank you!

Who I Am

2009-05-24T16:20:00.003-05:00

I am the mother of an extraordinary child
I am the wife of an imaginative man
I am the daughter of two of the coolest parents ever
I am the sister of two amazing and brilliant individuals
I am the Aunt of two bright and beautiful little girls
I am a Granddaughter who has not had nearly enough time to know and appreciate the people who came before her the way that they deserve
I am the friend that you can call in the middle of the night when you need a shoulder to cry on, or even if you just want to talk
I am a teacher
I am an eternal student
I am the coworker who will work extra hours for you so that you can go home when you don't feel well even though I really don't want to
I am the stranger on the street who will look into your eyes and smile a genuine smile
I am the woman who will turn in the lost wallet full of hundred dollar bills with every single bill still in it's place even if I can't afford to buy my groceries that week
I am a lazy person who would rather sit down and stare into space than clean the bathroom
I am the bus passenger who will give up her seat to someone else at the end of a long day
I am the optimist who is always looking for the brighter side to every bad situation
I am a person who craves attention and accolades for her accomplishments
I am the shy little girl who is scared people will make fun of her
I am frequently paranoid that people are saying or thinking negative things about me behind my back...but I'm getting better.
I am selfish
I am honest to a fault
I am unbelievably sarcastic, which often gets me into trouble
I am stubborn
I am weak, but I am also strong
I am silly
I am serious
I am still that same crazy girl I was when I was 15
I am a responsible adult
I am a procrastinator in a big way
I am NOT an athlete, though I wish that I was
I am a lover of books
I am a singer, but only if there is no one around to hear me
I am an aspiring photographer
I am a wannabe writer
I am a proud Blockhead
I am a twitter addict
I am too many things to list
I am simply....
Shannon

Update

2009-01-17T09:45:00.001-06:00

I now have a computer again!
It's not a very good one though, and I can't hook my camera up to it at the moment, so I'm very limited in what I can do.
Still...at least it's something!!!

Good news?

2009-01-12T17:02:00.003-06:00

Kevin just left to take my PC to CDW where they are going to run diagnostic tests to try to figure out what is wrong with the stupid thing.
They claim this will only take 1-2 days.
Who knows how long it will take to fix it once that is done, but at least I should have some idea of when I'm getting my computer back within the next few days.
Kevin has also decided that he is going to set up my old computer for me until I get mine back. It has just been sitting around unused for the last year. I don't know how well it will work though. The reason I got the new one to begin with was because the old one was making strange noises and acting like it was on it's last legs.
Anyway...sounds like I should be back up and running soon. Thank goodness! Who knew that I had become so dependent on my computer? Crazy.

Sorry!

2009-01-11T17:42:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone!
I just wanted to say thank you for the concern.
I'm sorry that I went missing on ya!

I was in a little bit of a funk for a while and blogging just got away from me. Then I went to Maine for Christmas (more on that later) and when we got back my computer decided to die on me. I'm able to use Kevin's every once in a while, so I will try to check in as much as I can.

There really isn't much exciting going on at the moment. My boss decided to have me split my class into two groups and open a second classroom in the mornings. It's a positive change and it's giving me a chance to try to get more organized about the way that I approach things. Unfortunately, enrollment is down and that means reduced hours- which means that I have even less time to accomplish the things that I am supposed to. Gotta love it!
Oh, and the woman who has been working with me for the last several months decided that it was a bit too much for her to handle, so now I have a new co-teacher to train. My new co-teacher has been with the company for a few years, but this is her first real experience with the preschool program. Her first day is tomorrow...should be interesting!

Our trip to Maine was nice. We drove (19 hours each way with a 3 year old and a dog...yes, we are insane!). Ciara actually did amazingly well, especially considering the fact that she had very little to keep her occupied. Fortunately, she shares her Mom's taste in music and seemed content to groove to my ipod.
I finally got to meet Jovey! She's adorable. Ciara was a lot more interested in her cousins this time around, but she still has trouble figuring out why Niesa doesn't act like she wants her too sometimes. It was great to get to spend time with all of my family. I miss them a lot.
Christmas morning was especially nice. I was hanging out in the kitchen talking to my family when we suddenly noticed that it was my Mom, my Dad, Ray, Mary and me (and Niesa and Jovey), and that everyone else was still sleeping. I think that's probably the first time that's happened in about 10 years. How funny that it should happen to be on Christmas morning. Mom made pancakes, and we sat around and chatted like old times.
I also had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Mary. I love that we can finally hang out together without it turning into WWIII. I honestly can't even remember the last time that we had an argument. I never thought I'd live to see the day that I could say that!
Leaving was especially difficult this time around because Ciara has gotten old enough to become attached and she started crying and telling me how much she was going to miss Nana. It broke my heart.
I have pictures to share, but I can't find the software CD for the camera to install it on Kevin's computer. I'll upload them as soon as I can!

The only other news is that Ciara's birthday is rapidly approaching. She finally gets to have an actual party this year! We decided to set up a party at Build-a-Bear for her. She and 5 friends will get to spend about an hour creating their own personal stuffed animals. I'm pretty sure she'll love it. Now we just have to figure out where to go for lunch and cake because they don't have a food license there. Oh...and we need to figure out the guest list as well. So far Ciara's not much help. It's especially sticky for me since all of her friends are in my class. Narrowing it down to 5 kids without insulting anyone could be tricky.

Ciara is desperate for some attention, so I'm going to have to go for now. I promise that I will not stay away quite so long this time though!

Some things are better left to the imagination

2008-12-05T06:14:00.003-06:00

So you know that phrase
"That's about as much fun as a root canal"?

Well, I used to just be able to say- "Yeah, that sure sounds like it sucks"

Today, I can tell you for sure that it does!

There's just nothing like staring at ceiling tiles for an hour or two while someone does unkown things with scary power tools in your mouth.

Then there's the added bonus of feeling like your entire face is swollen for about 4-5 hours, followed closely by the lovely throbbing head sensations.

Yeah...fun. That's the perfect word for it.

Quick update

2008-12-04T06:38:00.002-06:00

Ok, so some of you may be wondering what I've been up to during my little blog-hiatus.

I'd love to give you some exciting story...but the truth of the matter is that the answer to that question is that I haven't done much of anything at all.

I guess that's part of the reason that there haven't been any new blog posts lately.

I just really don't have anything to tell you!

Karma has been kinda giving me a kick in the teeth lately. Seriously- I even have a broken tooth to prove it. It broke on Thanksgiving no less. Nice, huh? I cut my finger opening a can of cranberry sauce that day too. WTF?

I'm not sure just what it is that I did...but I must have had a serious lapse in judgement somewhere along the way to earn the streak of bad luck I've been dealing with.

Maybe it's the Karma God's way of telling me to get back to my blog? Perhaps if I start posting again it will all go away? I guess I'll just have to give it a try for my own safety, huh?

Let me also apologize because not only have I not been writing my own blogs, but I stopped keeping up with all of yours as well. Please give me a few days to catch up! I promise I'll be coming around soon.

Much love to ya!

Oops!

2008-12-02T06:29:00.003-06:00

I promised new posts didn't I?

I swear there are some coming soon!!!

Please don't give up on me.

Confession time

2008-11-23T21:40:00.002-06:00

I've been cheating on you.

I'm sorry.

It really wasn't intentional.

I've decided that the best way to deal with this is full disclosure...so here it is.

I have a new blog.

The good news is that all of you non-New Kids fans will no longer have to put up with my sappy doe-eyed posts. This blog can go back to being Simply Shannon again.

I promise that I will actually begin posting again!!! Real, honest to goodness normal Shannon posts.

For those of you who actually enjoy my ~~psycho-stalker~~ fan posts...please feel free to visit my other blog (http://macloversparadise.blogspot.com/) any time you wish! You should be able to find plenty there to keep you entertained!

Looking Fine Challenge

2008-11-17T06:00:00.004-06:00

It seems that using Joe for motivations is working! I'm down 2 lbs from last week.

SO....I'm going to go right on thinking a whole lot about this...and not so much about this...

Psychic Ipod?

2008-11-13T19:06:00.003-06:00

Things in my world have been a bit stressful lately.

To put it a bit more accurately, I'm probably the most stressed out I have ever been in my entire life. I don't feel comfortable going into detail about why, so I won't.

This blog is my "happy place" and I try to keep things positive for the most part. Not because I care about what other people might say, but just because I am not the type of person who likes to wallow in the negative stuff. Which is probably why I haven't really been blogging a whole lot lately. I've been having a difficult time thinking of cheerful things to discuss.

Instead I have been going to my other happy place. A place I like to call Joeville. It is a place that requires absolutely no brain power at all. Hormones and the senses of sight and hearing are the only things required.

Anyway, this morning I was driving to work and thinking about all of the garbage that has been stressing me out. I was listening to my ipod, and was suddenly struck by what seemed to be quite the cosmic coincidence. I have an ipod nano, so the songs that play are chosen at random from my playlist. This morning each and every song that played seemed to be speaking directly to me about what is happening in my life right now...and in Joe's voice no less. I will grant you the fact that the majority of the songs on my current playlist are either Joe's solo stuff, or NKOTB...but there are plenty of other artists as well. Not today though. At least not until the last song that played before I got out of the car. That one was the Jackson 5...and it still fit the theme of the morning.

I don't know why it happened, but it really was exactly what I needed this morning. So I guess this is my thanks to the genius people at Mac who decided that the nano should be random.

New motivation

2008-11-12T06:14:00.004-06:00

Thanks to the girls on the NKOTB forum, I now have something new to help keep me motivated in the Looking Fine by 2009 challenge! I thought that a few of my loyal readers might get a giggle, so I'm sharing...

No Joe, No I do not.

Now I just need to make it poster sized and hang it above my bed like in the old days. (TOTALLY kidding...maybe)

Looking Fine by 2009...or not

2008-11-10T06:08:00.003-06:00

Things are not looking so great this week. One of the many things that I hate about being this overweight is that 10 lbs is nothing. When you're thin, losing 10 lbs is HUGE, but when you're as big as I am, it's not a big deal at all. Mostly because I know that I can gain or lose that 10 lbs in the matter of a couple of days.

I had been losing consistently before without really changing my habits, and now for no apparent reason that I can see- I've gained a bunch of it back. I haven't done anything that I can think of that would have caused me to gain the weight back. It's just back.

Oh well, I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm just going to keep on truckin', and maybe next week it will be gone again.

I hope you're having better luck than I am.

I'm still alive

2008-11-08T13:53:00.004-06:00

Sorry to be MIA all week. I just haven't felt very bloggy.

Hopefully inspiration will strike soon.

Oh, I did take some pretty sunset pictures, and a few fun pictures of Ciara playing in the leaves in our yard the other day. I suppose I can share those.

Looking Fine week 10

2008-11-03T06:32:00.004-06:00

Bah!

Raging case of PMS + Halloween = not even going to talk about it this week.
I hope you're all in a better state than I am.

I'll be back next week after the water weight has gone away with a real post.

More Praise

2008-11-02T07:45:00.002-06:00

I need to say a big Thank you to KD @ A Bit Squirrelly who recently presented me with two more blog awards.

I tried to do a bit of research on this one, but I wasn't really able to find anything except for other blogs written in Portuguese who also received the award. So I have no clue if it has rules or anything like that. Please forgive my ignorance and accept my heartfelt gratitude.

Here are the characteristics of the Smile Award:

~You must display a cheerful attitude.
~You must show love to others.
~You must make mistakes.
~You must learn from others.
~You must be a positive contributor to blogging.
~You must love life.
~You must love kids.

Here are the rules for the Smile Award:

~You must link back to the award creator. (IDK who it is! Sorry!)
~You must post the rules if you are a recipient.
~You must choose 5 people to pass the award to.
~You must fit the characteristics of the award.
~You must post the characteristics of the recipient of the award.
~You must create a post sharing your win with others.
~You must thank the giver of the award.

I would like to pass both awards on to the following bloggers...

Carol, Rachael, Dana, Wendi, and Julie.

Please go check them out if you haven't already.

Our little Belle

2008-11-01T10:06:00.007-05:00

Here's a little glimpse of what Halloween was like for Ciara this year.

Today Daddy came and joined us at school for our annual evacuation drill and trick or treat parade! Ciara was excited to say hello to the big dalmatian this year...last year you couldn't get her within 30 feet of him.

Getting ready for the big ball?

After nap we carved our pumpkin. This is how Ciara felt about it...

After that Ciara got her costume back on so that we could go trick or treating around our neighborhood as soon as Daddy got home from work.

We took some pics while we waited for Daddy to be ready

She picked this pose all by herself.

Ciara was not shy about visiting strange houses this year! Here she is ringing her first doorbell...

We hope you had an equally fabulous Halloween!

Long Day

2008-10-30T18:33:00.003-05:00

I'm going to make this quick because as the title states...it has been a LONG day!

Today was Picture Day. It was also gymnastics class day, and we had a visit from a group of bigwigs from our corporate office. Plus I had someone observing my classroom. There were 19 children in my class today...2 of whom are in the process of potty training...the part of the process where they are wearing underwear even though they haven't grasped the whole concept of using the toilet yet. The picture people got to our class right at lunch time. Oh yeah, and tomorrow just happens to be Halloween so the kids are all jazzed up to begin with. Oh, and I'm pretty sure I'm suffering with a raging case of PMS at the moment. Perfect timing as always.

It's like being in "The Perfect Storm".

So anyway, I wanted to check in because I feel like I haven't been. There's not too much to tell at the moment. Ciara has reached an unfortunate phase of development. I call it the spoiled brat phase for lack of a better description. I'm thisclose to locking her in her bedroom until she's 30. We've threatened to take away trick or treating, but to no avail. She seems to be doing a bit better at the moment, but who knows how long it will last.

On the way home from work I saw a bumper sticker that made me go "hmmmm...really?". It said something like "Pull right for sirens and lights". I thought-"is it REALLY necessary to make a bumper sticker to tell people not to be stupid? Does anyone really not know to do this?"
Then a few minutes later I was waiting to make a right turn at a stoplight and an ambulance approached the intersection with lights flashing. The light changed against the ambulance and I looked over to see the idiot in the left turn lane start to go. Seriously? How do you not see the lights or hear the horns blaring? The idiot did actually stop before causing a collision, but I suddenly understood that there might actually be a necessity for such stupid bumper stickers.

Ok, I'm cranky and having nothing nice to say so I'm going to take the advice of my elders and not say anything at all.

I hope everyone had a better day than I did!

Wisdom to pass on

2008-10-28T14:50:00.006-05:00

What are 5 things that you hope you can pass down (or at least teach) your children. Beliefs, ethics, morals......stuff like that.

1. Honesty is always the best policy

2. Always try to see things from as many points of view as possible before acting/ forming an opinion.

3. Treat others the way that you want to be treated.

4. Live your life with joy...you only get one chance.

5. Know that you are worthy of love and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

Looking Fine Week 9

2008-10-27T07:15:00.003-05:00

Down another 2 lbs.
(I think...I haven't been writing any numbers down, so I'm going on memory and my review of previous posts)
Still haven't really made an effort to make any big changes. I think stress and lack of grocery money are the key for me at the moment.
I'm happy though...I'm 4 lbs away from what I weighed when I got pregnant with Ciara.
My goal this week is to make it through Halloween without pigging out on candy.

Oh how quickly things change...

2008-10-26T18:16:00.004-05:00

I just thought I'd share what things were like in my neighborhood today. All of these pictures were taken within 1 hour of each other.

(yes, that is snow!)

Good stuff!

Bloggy Love

2008-10-23T17:36:00.005-05:00

This morning I was thrilled to discover that another blogger deemed my blog award-worthy!

Thank you to Alicia @ My Two B's and Me for thinking I am entertaining enough to deserve this...

I also recently received another award

This one was from Susan @ Life in the Psych Ward , and I have been remiss in properly thanking her until now. Sorry for taking so long Susan! Thanks for thinking I'm Brilliant!

I just never get tired of hearing that people actually like me.

As with most blog awards, these both come with stipulations. I'm supposed to pass each of them on to 7 other bloggers.

Yikes! There are just so many to choose from. It's going to be so tough to narrow it down, but I'll do my best.

Ok...so which blogs do I just love to pieces? I suppose the easiest thing to do is to tell you which blogs I simply have to read every time I see there's a new post...and I'm going to bestow BOTH awards on each of them, because I just don't think that my brain can handle doing more than that right now. Here goes...

1. The ever popular, and always amusing McMommy!

2. The lovely lady who has taught me almost everything that I now know about my camera...
Rachel @ American Mum.

3. The writing genius who would so be my best bud if I still lived with my parents because we'd practically be neighbors and I would harass her until she gave in and became friends with me...
Auds @ Barking Mad

4. The hysterically funny and unbelievably creative (even if she's a tad stalkerish...but who am I to talk?)...
Happy Hour Sue!

5. My other favorite stalker...Jen @ Daily Mish Mash.

6. My sister in sarcasm, fellow New Kids lover, and someone I am so happy to call my friend...Carol.

and finally...

7. Because I want to take her up on her offer to get her all drunk so she can tell me her own stalker stories and make me feel normal, and I'm thinking that giving her 2 awards might encourage her a bit...Bejewell @ The Bean.

Thanks for keeping me entertained ladies! Love ya lots!

Time to get random

2008-10-22T20:31:00.003-05:00

I have been completely lacking things to blog about for the last few days... So I guess it's lucky that both Julie and The Nice One tagged me to do this Meme this week.

Not sure just how lucky though, since I already did a random things meme, but I guess there must be more random things that I can share. Forgive me if they are totally lame.

1. I was born on Friday the 13th. Some people might say that this fact explains a lot. Whatever. I think it's cool.

2. My favorite type of wine is Riesling, but I rarely drink.

3. I have huge hands and feet for a woman. I wear an 11W and it is practically impossible to find a decent pair of shoes. My hands are roughly the same size as my husband's and he is 10 inches taller than I am.

4. I have the worst metabolism on the planet thanks to PCOS and Hypothyroidism. It sucks.

5. I'm a lefty, but I taught myself how to write with my right hand because I heard that using both hands increases the number of connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, making you smarter.

6. I hate folding laundry and putting it away.

7. My middle name starts with a W. I love making people try to guess what it is because I always get some great answers before the correct one.

I know that the rules say that I have to tag 7 other people. I am generally a rule follower, but everyone has to rebel against something so I'm going to pick this. I like reading people's answers, but I hate making people feel obligated to do things. If you would like to tag yourself, feel free...I promise I will read your answers and leave a comment for you!

Just for kicks

2008-10-20T17:27:00.003-05:00

My little Angel

Looking fine by 2009 week ?

2008-10-20T06:17:00.002-05:00

As usual I'm in a hurry to get ready for work, but I wanted to get this post done first.

I appear to have lost another pound this week. I wish I could say that it's from working really hard at it, but I think it's mostly because I didn't feel very well all week. Oh well, I'll take it.

I have been eating much better over the last few weeks...at least I haven't been snacking a lot. Still need to work on that whole water drinking thing, and getting some exercise. My New Kids obsession has me dancing around a lot at least. The second concert is this Friday- so I know I'll be getting some exercise then!

My goal for this week is to just keep doing what I'm doing, plus try to drink more water, and go for at least 1 good walk.

The Obligatory Pumpkin Patch Post

2008-10-19T18:04:00.005-05:00

WWWAT- Take 2

2008-10-15T21:54:00.004-05:00

Ok Rachel...this one is just for you!
After reading your comment on the last one, I went back to check out the pictures I took at the concert. They pretty much suck because I had to take them with my cell...but if I managed to do one thing, it was capture the light.

I couldn't tell you which song this was...but I love that you can see the lights from all of the other cameras in the audience.

Here's Donnie taking over the spotlight...

And this one? Awww heck...we all know I'm just including it so that I can look at it again.

Satisfied now? (I am!)

WWWAT: Seeing the Light

2008-10-15T15:21:00.006-05:00

This month's theme is "Capturing the Light"

Which is interesting, because I've noticed that I have been a bit obsessed with that idea when taking photos lately. Here are a few of my recent favorites.

Experimenting with the shutter

I loved the way the light was hitting her hair...

The other morning I was up in time to catch the sunrise. I thought the way the light was hitting the trees was beautiful, so I tried to capture it...

These are the same leaves that I took a photo of before that I really liked...I thought it would be neat to do it again now that they're changing colors.

I was so inspired by the sunrise that morning that Ciara and I decided to take a walk together. As we were walking I saw the beams of sunlight filtering through the trees and just had to take a picture of it...

Later on during the walk I saw this sign and thought that the shadows the sun was casting looked neat...

Back at home I noticed that the sun was making the leaves on my dogwood bush look pretty cool, so I snapped another picture of that...

This last one was as the sun was setting. It was shining through our patio door right onto Ciara. Fortunately my camera was right next to me at the time. I would have missed the shot if I'd had to go get it.

Now that you've seen how I capture the light, please go check out the fest @ The Adventures of an American Mum to see more!

The REAL New Kids

2008-10-14T18:14:00.004-05:00

See...That's what I was talking about.

How could anyone not love those guys?

It's like one big, happy family full of total goofballs.

Such an amazing idea!

2008-10-14T14:59:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to say a big "Thank you!" to Mamasphere.
I was just visiting her blog where she introduced me to this other fantastic site called
The Secret is in the Sauce.
It's a blogging network, and it just seems like the coolest idea to me.

They're having a blogathon today and giving out lots and lots of cool prizes! You should definitely go check it out. I know that I'm glad that I did.

Doing something right

2008-10-13T07:19:00.004-05:00

Gotta make this quick today because I need to finish getting ready for work, but...

I must be doing something right because when I stepped on the scale it said that I have lost 10.5 lbs since week 1!

Now, my weight can fluctuate like 5 whole lbs in one day and I just finished my period, so I do take this with a grain of salt. However, after taking all of that into account, I am positive that I can say that I have lost some weight for sure.

Looks like I'm on the right track.

Goals-
1. Cut it out with the soda and get back to water (my biggest struggle this last week)
2. Use the extra time from getting out of work early this week to exercise and clean, not just blog, stalk Joe Mac, and watch tv.
3. Cook actual meals this week.

and now I have to run!
Thanks for the support!!!!

Angel kisses

2008-10-12T14:14:00.003-05:00

Just now I was on Ciara's bed with her, trying to get her to relax and take a nap.

We were snuggling when she started playing with my arm.

I have lots of moles and freckles on my arms. She ran her fingers over one of the larger ones and said "Mama, these are spots."

"Uh huh"

"I think that they're Angel kisses"

"What? Angel kisses? Where did you hear that Ciara?"

"Mei Ling told me"

"Oh. Well, I guess the angels must really love me then, huh?"

"What?"

"Because I have lots and lots of them...see?"

"Oh, yeah. Right. Because you're a Mommy."

I have no words.

A Sunday morning in my church

2008-10-12T10:50:00.006-05:00

I try not to get into this kind of topic too much on here, but I guess I'll make an exception today.

I don't consider myself to be a terribly religious person.

I do however consider myself to be a spiritual person.

I was raised Episcopalian, but I stopped going to church once I reached adulthood.

I just find that organized religion is not my thing. It feels too hypocritical to me.

I won't go into all of the details because I believe that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, and I have no desire to offend anyone or start a philosophical/theological discussion on my blog.

I just thought that I would provide you with the opportunity to see the world through my eyes on this beautiful Sunday morning.

I hope you enjoyed the show.

Investment advice

2008-10-10T06:35:00.003-05:00

I got this email this morning and thought that it was amusing enough to recycle...

If you had purchased $1,000 of AIG stock one year ago, you would have
$42 left.
With Lehman, you would have $6.60 left.
With Fannie or Freddie, you would have less than $5 left.
But if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all
of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling
REFUND, you would have had $214.
Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink
heavily and recycle.
It's called the 401-Keg.....

Drink up people, drink up!

Remember me?

2008-10-09T06:33:00.005-05:00

Pssst, over here.

It's me...pre-concert Shannon.
You know, the one who can actually type full sentences without mentioning the names of a certain group or any one of it's members a single time?

Yeah, Hi!

Shhhhhh...we have to be really quiet or she'll hear us!
Every time I try to sit down at the computer that other Shannon comes and takes over and won't let me have my seat back (you know how teenagers get about computers).

So anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I'm still here. I didn't desert you.

There hasn't been a lot to tell you about lately because that crazy girl keeps making me stare at pictures, rifle through memorabilia, and watch interviews and videos with her instead of doing the things I'm supposed to be doing. This girl just never shuts up. She keeps me awake half the night just babbling on and on.

I did manage to get away from her yesterday and go for a little walk and to the playground with Ciara.

In other exciting news...
Ciara is now officially 100% out of pull-ups! She still has accidents here and there, but now none of them are when she's awake. Can I get a Woo Hoo!?!

There really isn't too much else happening. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to lock crazy Shannon in a closet for the next few weeks so that I can find time to figure out what's going on with the rest of the world. I hear there's some important election coming up or something?

It's going to be tough though, because now she's got tickets to another concert. I guess that we can just be grateful that there aren't any more shows scheduled in the area this year. Maybe she'll chill out once this next show is over?

Well, I have to go make some breakfast for my husband and get my daughter ready for school...but I promise that I'll be back soon.

Let me clarify...

2008-10-07T17:19:00.005-05:00

Wow! Who knew that I could be so controversial?

The comments on here really don't reflect what it is that I'm talking about, but I posted a link on the New Kids fan forum and the responses there were extremely interesting. Apparently I deeply offended a few people. I can assure you that this was never my intention.

Yesterday I sat down at my computer to write because I had all of these thoughts swirling around in my brain that needed to be released.

My intention was to write something that would express how excited I am that NKOTB is back, and to explain just how proud I am to be a fan.

Unfortunately, in my haste to get everything out of my head so that I would be able to sleep, I was not able to clearly express myself about a few things.

The first point of contention was my statement about Jon and Danny not having IT.

I can understand why people misunderstood what it was that I was trying to say. I made the statement that the two of them are basically "along for the ride", and I must apologize for that. It was a very poor choice of words, and it really wasn't what I meant to say at all. Let's see if I can do any better...

What I was trying to say is that I feel like if things had been different, and NKOTB had never existed... Joe, Jordan, and Donnie would still have been performing in some way simply because that is who they are. It is in their blood. The three of them need to perform like they need to breathe. There is something about them that just draws people in and makes them want to be near them. I am not saying that Jon and Danny don't have that same quality, but I don't think they have it in equal measure. I think that the two of them could be just as content doing something else with their lives, and I don't believe that the other 3 could be. I was not trying to imply that they are any less important, talented, attractive, or anything else. There are, and always will be 5 members in the group and each one of them plays a vital role in who they are as a group. If you were to remove any one of them it would destroy the magic.

Now, let's move on to the second point of contention, shall we?

I said that it was never about the music...and this was also a poor choice of words. I needed to say much more than that in order to fully express what it was that I was trying to say.

What I meant to say was that I don't believe it was the songs that mattered originally...it was what those 5 individuals brought to those songs that was important. The songs themselves are mostly total fluff. There is very little substance to them, and that is what the critics have always loved to point out. Does that mean that I don't love the music? NO! I do love it. I play it all the time and sing along at the top of my lungs. However, what I was trying to say is that if some other group had recorded those very same songs...I'm not so sure that I would love them the way that I do.

Back in the beginning the guys really had no creative license at all. Maurice Starr and the record companies had all of the control and Donnie, Danny, Jordan, Jon, and Joe pretty much had to do whatever they were told. As far as the people in control were concerned, they were a product to be sold. They have said repeatedly that the music that they recorded and performed back then was a huge departure from what they would have liked to have done.

I was trying to say that the fans saw past all of the BS that was shoved down our throats and loved the guys for themselves. One of the commenters on the forum said it beautifully, so I'm going to quote her...
It really is about THEM--about the wonderful people they are and about the amazing role models they were for us. They were my friends when I didn't have any friends. And although I got seriously harrassed day-after-day for liking them (I think a lot of people at my school thought "New Kids Freak" was my actual name), my belief in them never waivered. They taught me to stand up for something and made me a better, stronger person...someone who believes in herself and isn't afraid to speak up and say what's right, even if what's right isn't popular. For that, I cannot thank them enough.

Once the guys got a little bit older and a bit more famous it was clear to me that they wanted to have a lot more say in what they were doing. Unfortunately the marketing machine was well established, and there was just no way that the powers that be were ever going to let that happen. But the guys never gave up the fight. They battled not only the people in control, but also the critics and haters who claimed that they had no talent...that they were merely Maurice Starr's little puppets. We fans were right there in the trenches with them. Many of us were probably fighting similar battles in our own lives as we were growing into adulthood at the very same time. We saw the guys for who they are and knew that the music was nothing without the 5 of them.

Eventually they won their battle and gained creative control...but by then it was too late. The world was ready to move on to other things, and they had sustained too many wounds and needed time to heal.

Having said all of that, I need to make it completely clear that I think now it really IS all about the music. Which is really the point that I was trying to make all along.

I am so happy that these 5 amazing individuals finally have the opportunity to prove everybody wrong. To come back on their own terms, without anyone else telling them who to be or what to do. This time it is for them, and for us. They FINALLY get to show the world who they really are. There is no more BS. This time it is just 5 guys from Boston who want to get up on that stage and have some fun and share something special with their fans who have been waiting for a very long time to see this dream come true.

I am so proud of them, and so happy to be around to enjoy this.

Finally having my say (without interruptions)

2008-10-06T22:46:00.007-05:00

I have a confession to make.

It's happened.

I am officially obsessed with NKOTB again. (Not that I ever really stopped being obsessed to begin with)

What is it about these 5 guys (Ok, so really only 1) that turns 99.99% of my brain to complete mush, leaving only the portion dedicated to behaving like a psycho stalker?

Is there some sort of brainwashing going on? There has to be some hidden messages in their music, right? Because I can promise you that I'm not the only one.

I've seen it with my own eyes.

Grown women, who in every other way seem completely normal and reasonable...losing their ever loving minds and behaving like complete fools.

And I'm not talking about 1 or 2 here...this is a serious epidemic! Thousands and thousands of wives and mothers around the country have been infected, and it's still spreading like wildfire.

Someone really should do something about this.

Seriously though...

Since the concert I just can't seem to think about anything else for more than 2-3 minutes at a time. One show just wasn't enough. I need more.

I think I'm beginning to understand what it's like to be addicted to drugs...just one more hit and I'm done, I swear! But not really, because I don't want the feeling to ever go away. There's just nothing else like it in the world.

I can't explain it.

I don't think you can really understand it unless you've been a part of it.

There have always been critics and haters out there trying to tear it down. People who just can't understand why millions of girls could love some silly pop group so very much.

What these people have never understood is that it has never really been about the music.

I mean, the music is fine and all. It's sort of mindlessly entertaining and fun to sing along with...but come on, do you really believe that I think that Hangin' Tough is musical genius?

HELL NO! I never did, and I never will.

It was never about that.

It has ALWAYS been about them.

I don't know what it is about them that inspires such devotion. I wouldn't even want to attempt to try to figure it out.

I just know that Maurice Starr and Mary Alford stumbled into "creating" something truly magical.

I hesitate to say that they created anything, because it's not really factual. It was more like they brought 5 elements together and accidentally invented dynamite.

I can even understand why so many people started to hate them so much.

The marketing machine behind them was just insane.

You can only stand to have something shoved down your throat for so long before you gag and spit it back out.

I am just so happy that this time around they are doing it their way.

I'm not saying that there isn't money involved, because that would just be unbelievably naive.

But there is so much more than that.

These men have been given an unbelievable gift, and they know it.

They understand their fans, and they know that we understand them.

We have battled the critics and haters together for over 20 years.

People thought that we were all just silly little children.

Puppets being manipulated by "the man behind the curtain".

Well guess what, we're all grown up now and we're out to prove "them" wrong.

We may have been just 5 guys from Boston and a bunch of foolish, hormonally imbalanced girls...but there was more to it than that then, and there is more to it than that now.

Joe, Jordan, and Donnie...those three have IT.

I don't know what IT is any better than the next guy, but I do know that whatever IT happens to be, those three have IT in spades.

You can see it in their eyes when they perform.

They are up on that stage having the time of their lives, and they want to bring you along for the ride if you'll let them.

Danny and Jon have a little bit of IT too, but mostly I think they're just content to come along for the ride with the rest of us.

I need to clarify something here- because I am already catching crap for this comment and I think that it is being taken entirely the wrong way. I LOVE Danny and Jon, and I think that they are just as important to the group as the other 3. I only meant to say that I see a fire in the eyes of Joe, Jordan, and Donnie that I just don't see in the other 2 when they perform. It seems like those three need to perform like they need air...and Jon and Danny don't have that in my opinion. Let me just say that last thing ONE more time...it is MY OPINION. I'm not asking anyone to agree with me about it, just putting it out there.

Whatever the true reason behind all of this is...honestly it doesn't even matter. I am just so happy to be a part of it again.

It's like coming home after being away for a very long time.

Welcome back guys...

I missed you.

UPDATE: I have written another post to clarify a few of the things I said in this one. Please read it before commenting.

Nothing has changed

2008-10-06T06:49:00.003-05:00

I gained .5 lbs from last week.

My main success this last week was cutting WAY back on the snacks. Unfortunately, I ate quite a lot of fast food at meal times.
Pretty much the only exercise I had for the week involved dancing and jumping around like a maniac while screaming my lungs out on Saturday night. Oh, and I went on a field trip with my class on Wednesday, so I got some walking in then.

I am still struggling with taking the whole diet thing seriously. I really want to, but I just get so distracted with everything else going on, that I forget to think about it. Is anyone else struggling with this?

hotness

2008-10-05T22:33:00.004-05:00

Sorry, but I found this and just couldn't resist. It's from the show I was at.

More NKOTB

2008-10-05T15:21:00.012-05:00

Technology rocks.

Even though I was too stupid to bring my own camera, I now have the ability to relive the show through photographs. All because of a lovely thing called the internet.

There is a New Kids fan forum on their site where people can post reviews of the concerts along with photos and videos. I would love to give proper credit for these photos, but I can't because I don't really know who to give credit to. I'll just say that I found all of these at the fan site. Thank you to all of the girls who were smart enough to take their camera, and rich enough to get the good seats.

For your viewing pleasure...

I'm not entirely sure who that posterior belongs to. I think it's either Jordan or Joe. Any guesses?
Update: Now that I've had the opportunity to see their bums live and in color again, and based on the following picture from 10/24, I'm pretty sure that this is Jon's rear. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

Holy crap he's hot.

Love the moves...hate the shirt. I think he should just lose it all together, don't you?

And finally,

Just one more of the many reasons to adore him...

The following is a post written by Joe for their website.

We were at the venue early in Chicago And there was a swap meet going on in the parking lot, so to kill time I looked around. And what did I come upon, but “us”. The woman who was selling “us”, at first had no idea and then I asked her, “Did you ever think that I would be the guy buying “me”?” We had a laugh about this surreal moment. Nice to know that we are playing the arena and not just getting sold off at a swap meet. -jm P.S. I decided to just sign mine in hopes that she could make a couple of extra bucks on them. (Donnie apparently quit the Swap Meet Boys because he felt like a piece of merchandise).

Seriously, how funny is that?

I'm so unbelievably jealous of this girl. She met Joe in the morning. Why didn't I think to go to the swap meet at Allstate Arena? Who knew?

I hope that you enjoyed this little dose of eye candy. I know that I did.

ARE YOU READY (for a really long post)?

2008-10-05T09:59:00.013-05:00

SPOILER ALERT!
If you are going to see the New Kids concert and don't want to know what you're in for, please do not read this post!

Where to begin? Where to begin?

I guess at the beginning, right?

Way back in May when I first found out that this concert was going to happen, I knew that there was absolutely NO way that I was going to miss it. The problem was finding someone to go with me. I would love to have had the ability to fly my sister out here to come along, but sadly, I don't have that kind of cash...and I knew that she was going to be rather busy taking care of her newborn right about now.

So I asked around and a few people expressed an interest in joining me for my night of fun. My SIL Jessie said she was in for sure, and I had a friend from work who said she wanted a ticket as well. I discovered that there was going to be a "pre-sale" exclusively open to AmEx customers, and I was positive that I needed to be a part of it if I wanted to be sure of getting tickets. Fortunately my Mother freaking rocks, and she agreed to let me use her card...and told me to consider the tickets my birthday gift. (Seriously, how cool is my Mom?)

On the day of the pre-sale I got online and went through the whole ordeal of trying to pick the very best tickets that I could get my hands on without spending a small fortune. I find this a difficult process since you can't really tell how good the seats are just by looking at the seating charts that are provided. However, I managed to snag 3 seats together in a spot that looked like it should be pretty good.

I'm going to cut to this past Wednesday when both of my guests decided that they were going to try to bail on me on the exact same day...a mere 3 days before show time! I thought that I was going to have to hurt someone. Fortunately, my friend Jess agreed to take one of the tickets, and I was able to convince Jessie that she really didn't want to miss this. Order was restored, life was good.

After getting myself ready yesterday, I left early to go pick up my girls before heading to the Arena. Neither one of them has had the opportunity to listen to any of the new record, so we listened to a little bit of it in the car to help "get our heads right".

We arrived at the venue around 6:30pm. There was already quite a line forming. The people watching was unreal! The more people I saw, the more normal I felt. The outfits were absolutely hilarious! The crowd was made up almost entirely of women in their late 20's & early 30's.

The doors opened and we made our way to our seats. HOLY CRAP! I picked amazing seats! We were in the second row of the first tier of seats off the floor, directly across from the stage. The sound booth was just in front of us to the right. I was totally jazzed up when I saw our seats- but I had NO IDEA just how awesome they were going to turn out to be.

We chatted with the people in front of us while we waited for the show to start, and did a bit of people watching. I had to take a couple of photos to share with all of my bloggy buddies, because this shit just has to be shared...

These pics really don't do these outfits justice. I stupidly made the decision not to take my camera to the concert with me because I was afraid that someone would try to take it away, and so I was forced to use my cell, which doesn't take the best pictures in the world. Anyway, these shirts were so bright I thought that I might go blind.

This outfit had to be my favorite of the night though.

At 7:58 the lights went out and the screaming began.

The first opening act was a young Latino guy named Colby O'Donis.
I guess he has a song called "What You Got" featuring Akon.
I felt really bad for him, because he was trying his hardest to work the crowd, but no one was really paying any attention to him. He did get a lot of screams, but only because he said "New Kids On The Block" about 20 times. He seemed to be pretty talented and I'm sure in time he will do just fine. The most interesting thing about his short set was that he had 2 male backup dancers. It seemed like an odd choice to me. Particularly since the dancers weren't all that good. They weren't in sync with each other at all.

Next up was Natasha Bedingfield. She performed several songs and had a much warmer reception than Colby had. I only knew 2 of her songs personally, but the crowd seemed to be into her. She sounded good, and definitely knew how to work the audience. She was a great lead in to the main act.There was a 15 minute break, and then...

The crowd went absolutely insane! I thought that the screams when I was younger were ridiculous, but they were nothing compared to this.
Seriously INSANE.
Just to help you understand...there was actually music playing during that clip. Did you hear it? Yeah, didn't think so.

They performed 3 songs- Single, My Favorite Girl, and The Right Stuff (as seen on the VH1 Special the other day). Then the lights went out again and a few moments later the guys reappeared on the stage- dressed in suits with hats. They sang Didn't I Blow Your Mind and Please Don't Go Girl. Then Donnie worked the crowd while the rest of the guys went backstage to change outfits.
(I took more video, but since the audience was so loud that you can't even hear the music I decided not to bother with them.)

To be honest, I don't actually remember what they sang after that. I'm pretty sure that Danny did some break dancing during this portion, but it may have happened later in the show. I know that they performed several more songs, and then after a while the lights went out again. There was filler music for a few minutes, and the next thing I knew the crowd started going bonkers. It turned out that they guys were making their way through the audience to a small stage located just in front of the sound booth (HOW did I not notice that was there?!)
Holy Shit! I picked the perfect seats!

They did 2 in the Morning & Dirty Dancing, and I think one other song, but I can't remember which one.

They brought up one of their icky dancers for Dirty Dancing. Could have done without that.

Later on, Jordan got naked and performed Baby I Believe In You (I think) and Give It To You (From his own album) solo.

Then Joe came out and did Stay The Same

There was LOTS more after that. They were on stage for 2 hours total. Not one single second of it was a disappointment, and they could have gone for another 2 hours as far as the audience was concerned...though I'm sure they were exhausted.

They finished the show with 2 encores- Step By Step was part of the first encore, and then they came back out and did Hangin' Tough.

They really put on one hell of a show. They obviously know their fans and what we want! They had precisely the right mix of the old and the new. The show was choreographed beautifully.

To me the best part is seeing them really having fun with it. They are very obviously enjoying themselves quite thoroughly. You can see that they truly love their fans, and that they GET IT. They really understand how to bring the audience in and make them feel like part of the show. It felt like hanging out with old friends. They came back for all the right reasons, and they're doing it exactly the right way.

At one point during the show Donnie said that everywhere they go they always hear the same 2 words from everyone they meet- "Thank You". He thanked the fans in turn, and it was clear that he and the others are sincerely thankful for what they have.

I am truly thankful for having had the opportunity to be a part of it. I would have regretted it for the rest of my life if I hadn't gone to this show. It was an amazing experience, and a memory that I will cherish for years to come.

Thank you Joe, Jordan, Jon, Danny and Donnie for putting on an amazing show, and special thanks to Donnie for making it all happen. It was AWESOME! I can't wait to see what comes next.

I Love my Mom!

2008-10-05T01:23:00.005-05:00

I'm back and it was AWESOME!
Worth every single solitary penny.

Don't believe me?

Check this out...

I took that with my cellphone, which I'm sure most of you realize has virtually no zoom.

Yes, they really were that close.

Not for the entire show, but it was enough to make my night.

I'll be back later with more. I should probably go to bed at some point tonight.

La la la la la la Tonight

2008-10-04T15:03:00.003-05:00

T- 5 hours!

I'm getting ready. As Donnie would say "Getting my head right".

Trying to remember what this felt like 19 years ago...

What went through my head? What did I wear? How did I prepare?

I can still tell you the exact date of the first New Kids concert I went to. It was August 10, 1989 @ Old Orchard Beach.

I went with my best friends Erin & Missy. Erin's family had a camp at OOB, and the three of us went there for the entire weekend. We walked the boardwalk, checked out the rides, and played some mini golf. Come to think of it, that may actually be the only game of mini golf I've ever played. I sucked...but it was fun.

We walked from Erin's cabin to the venue...all three of us giddy with anticipation. We fantasized about all of the different ways that we might meet the guys. Once there we met a variety of fellow fans and fell into easy conversations about the group and our lives.

There were two opening acts before the guys hit the stage.

First up was Tommy Page. He was brand spanking new and I don't think that I'd heard of him at that point. Of course all of the girls in the audience ate him up like a piece of death by chocolate.

Next up was Tiffany. Poor girl's star was beginning to fade already. The crowd tolerated her, but it was a long way from the adoration that I had witnessed (and been a part of) only a few short months before.

Finally, the New Kids hit the stage! I probably haven't heard so much screaming before or since...with the possible exceptions of the other New Kids shows I later attended. I really couldn't tell you anything about the show itself. I know they did their whole pelvic thrusting and grinding schtick which illicited a frenzy like few will ever witness, but that's about the extent of my recollections. It's not so much the show that I remember, as much as the giddy feelings and comraderie that I experienced with my fellow fans at each and every show.

I know that tonight I will have the opportunity to experience those feelings one more time.

I promise I'll come back and share soon, but for now...I'm off to get ready!

A few random questions

2008-10-01T22:23:00.002-05:00

Ok, well they're really not that random, but they probably seem that way if you're not me.

When did it become acceptable to blow off commitments without so much as an apology?...and is this a generational thing?

Would you feel ok about spending nearly $70 on 7 cookies as a birthday gift for your boss...or am I the only one who finds this outrageous?

Can you think of anything that would cause my eyes to feel like someone poured acid on them when they begin to tear?

How many times do you have to tell your child "No" before they stop trying to convince you to say yes?

Is there a really great website that can break down all of the political garbage involved in the upcoming election enough that I can actually understand what the heck is going on and possibly have a fighting chance of making a well-informed decision?

That is all for now. Must sleep. Will begin behaving like a maniacal 15 year old girl in roughly 70 hours and I need to prepare myself.

Blame them

2008-09-30T21:10:00.000-05:00

This weeks question:
Who are the top 5 most influential people in your life? Who has helped define who you are, and why?

I have to say that I am having an unbelievably difficult time writing this post. Not because I don't have anything to say, but because there is so much to say that I can't seem to focus and figure out how to say it all. I apologize in advance if things get a bit muddled.

Hmmmm...I guess the easiest thing to do is just to list the biggest influences in my life and then see if I can come up with a coherent explanation of why I chose the people that I chose. FYI- I have decided there is no possible way that I can narrow it down to 5.

Anyway, here goes...

1. My Mom
2. My Dad
3. Ciara
4. Kevin
5. My Grandparents
6. My Brother & Sister
7. My cousin Joy

Now let's see if I can explain (I'm going to have to make it quick because I've been trying to write this for nearly an hour and now it is very late and I need to go to bed)

My parents are 100% without a doubt the most influential people in my life. They created me, and then took on the responsibility of raising me and teaching me how to navigate my way through this crazy world. They taught me everything that they could about life and then trusted me to use the information wisely. I am who I am because of who they are as people and as parents.

Ciara is another unbelievably enormous influence in my life. I know that sounds odd, because I'm supposed to be her influence, right? The truth of the matter is that I learn something new from her every single day. Becoming a parent changes everything. I want to be the very best that I can be for her.

Kevin is my best friend. He taught me what it is to Love. Over the years he has helped me to come out of my shell and taught me to believe that I am worthy of love. Our relationship teaches me more and more about myself every single day.

My Grandparents helped to raise me. There are no words to explain what I gained from having them in my life.

My siblings- if you have any yourself you understand. If you don't then I feel a little bit sorry for you. There is nothing in this world that compares to the relationship you have with your siblings. They may get on my nerves, and I may make fun of them on occassion- but NOBODY had better try to mess with either one of them unless they want to experience my wrath.

My cousin Joy...Oh goodness, how do I explain Joy? Joy is the one person in my life that brings out the crazy in me. She can get me to do things that no other human on the face of the planet could ever convince me to do. I have no clue how she does it. I guess she's just cool like that.

Ok...off to bed!

It's so easy!

2008-09-30T07:22:00.003-05:00

In the market for a new handbag?
Go here to enter a lovely give away.
It's super simple, and you just might get lucky.

You're too kind

2008-09-29T07:49:00.005-05:00

Let me first make it clear that I absolutely adore you guys!
You are some of the sweetest, funniest, most creative people I've ever had the pleasure of communicating with.

That being said, as a motivational tool...y'all suck!

You're just too nice.

I need someone to be like...
"Shannon, you're such a lazy, fat ass loser. Get off your big butt and get moving. Lay off the potato chips for 5 minutes, get off the couch, and go clean your house or something. Heaven knows it could use it. And what about those goals you mentioned like a month ago...you still haven't even tried to think of any goals, have you?"

Then I can be full of righteous indignation and be all...
"Lazy, fat ass loser?! You don't even know me. How could you be so cruel to someone you've never even met? I'll show you who is a lazy, fat ass loser!"

Oh wait, it would probably be something more like this...
"I can't believe they called me a lazy fat ass loser! Even people who've never met me know that I'm a loser. I thought that I could at least be cool in a virtual world. Who am I trying to kid? I might as well just go grab that bag of Lay's Salt & Vinegar chips and go back downstairs to watch crappy reality tv and wallow in self-pity."

Hmmmm...yeah, maybe we should just forget about what I said before. You guys are so awesome! Thanks for making me feel better about myself even when I'm in the middle of beating myself up over not taking better care of myself. It's nice to know that someone understands how difficult it can be to make time for everything that needs to get done as a working Mom...and how usually taking care of ourselves falls way to the bottom of the list.

Last week I pretty much failed to even pretend to diet. I ate a ton of junk and didn't really even attempt to find time to get some exercise in.

The good news is that even with all of my bad behavior, I did apparently manage to lose rather than gain. This morning the scale says that I weigh 5.5 lbs less than I did at my initial weigh in.

I'll take that...and I'll try to make an effort to do better this week.

Please Don't Go!

2008-09-28T22:51:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure what's up with me lately, but I am in a terrible slump.

I feel like I should be blogging something, but when I go to start...I've got nothing.

I know that there have been several moments over the last few days when I've thought "Oh, I need to remember this moment so I can blog about it later!", but then when I get home, somehow it just doesn't seem interesting or relevant any more.

My stats are totally sucking it up right now. They've never been anything special, but I had a whopping 3 hits today. OUCH! To top it off, I lost one of my "followers". I hate to admit it, but I'm not sure who it was. I really do care about each and every one of you. I just didn't get a chance to really see who it was that thought I was special enough to follow. Please come back to me! I promise I'll be more interesting.

I'll do anything to get you back, really. Just name it and it's done.

Wait. Unless it's because of my Joey McIntyre obsession.

I know it's kind of silly and a lot of people find it pretty pathetic...but that's just not something I am willing to give up. It's been a part of me for nearly 20 years, and as much as I love the blogosphere, well I'm really sorry but I just can't. So if that's what drove you away I guess as much as it pains me, I'll just have to get over this hurtful little breakup of ours.

To the rest of my faithful 15...Thanks for sticking with me! I love you all to pieces. Please don't leave me. I know I've been a little boring lately, but I promise I'm trying really hard to find some inspiration. If you find yourself feeling excited about some other blog and you start to wonder if you have time for both of us...please tell me what I can do to fix our relationship before you up and leave me. I mean, no relationship is perfect, right? The secret to success is open and honest communication...so really, if you're not feeling satisfied, go ahead and let me have it!

Alright, I'm feeling a bit better now that I've got that off my chest. I'm going to go to bed and try really hard to think of something brilliant to write tomorrow.

Love to my remaining peeps!

Meeting Joe Mac

2008-09-24T12:29:00.013-05:00

I've been experiencing a bit of writer's block lately...hence the lack of posts.

Today I have been filling in for my boss in the office at work and I've had very little to keep me occupied. I've been trying not to be a total slacker, and actually do work related things...but there's only so much that I can do. So anyway, as I'm sure you can all understand, I eventually turned to blog surfing.

As I was surfing through the new posts on my blogroll, I came across this post by McMommy and was inspired to finally tell my own story. I have mentioned the experience a few times in past posts, but I've never actually told the whole story of what happened. (Huh, come to think of it, I'm not sure that I've ever told the whole story to ANYONE up until now)

So here it is... the story of how Joe McIntyre had to get his posse to tell me to bug off...in all it's humiliating glory.

If you are one of my 3 regular readers, you obviously already know that I was a big fan of New Kids in my youth. I went to several concerts in my teens, and continued to be a fan right up until the end (Ok, well obviously not the end since they have now reunited, but whatever).
I was a freshman in college when Face The Music came out. I probably wouldn't have gone out to purchase the CD myself, but my Mom sent it to me in a care package and I did listen to it a couple of times. I still thought Joe was the hottest guy on the planet.

I didn't really pay a lot of attention to what was going on with them at that point, and didn't take much notice of the break up. I met my husband not that long after and had plenty of other things to keep my mind occupied.

Then in 1999 I discovered that Joe was releasing Stay the Same. Again, I am pretty sure that my Mom sent me the video or something along those lines. However it was that I found out, I was instantly sucked right back into lusting after him with everything I had in me (much to poor Kevin's dismay).

I found a bbs dedicated to all of the other maniacs like me out there through his website, and was soon spending hours and hours chatting about all things Joe with them. That is where I met my accomplice.

In May 0f 2001 Meet Joe Mac was released. When I learned that Joe was coming to the area for an in store appearance, my "friend" and I decided that we absolutely had to be there. She lived a few hours away in downstate Illinois, but was more than willing to make the drive up here to have the opportunity to actually "Meet Joe Mac". We had never even met each other. Our only contact had been online, and maybe we had a phone conversation or two.

We assured each other that neither one of us was a psycho (except in regards to Mr. McIntyre of course), and made the plans for her to come stay the night at our apartment so that we could go to the CD signing together.

The day of the signing arrived, and we were both giddy with anticipation. We arrived at the mall where the record store was located several hours early and got in line to receive our official numbers. We spent the next few hours wandering aimlessly through the mall, and chatting with fellow fans until the store told us that we were allowed to begin lining up.

The line was huge. It snaked all through the store and out into the hallway. We were somewhere in the middle. Everyone was given a yellow sticky note and told to write their first name on it, and have the CD insert opened to the page we wanted him to sign in order to help speed the process along. (Not that it really worked)

The wait seemed to last forever. Of course, all of the waiting left me with way too much time to think about what I wanted to say to him when we finally came face to face. Such a terrible idea!

I've never really been one to become starstruck. As far as I am concerned, people are people no matter how famous they may be. Why should I feel all nervous and goofy just because a lot of people happen to know who this one particular person is? Really, I'm totally calm and collected, and normal... unless of course that person happens to be Joey McIntyre.

I really thought that I was going to be fine. I mean, he's just a man, right? Just because I spent years of my life fantasizing about how fabulous our lives were going to be once our paths crossed and he fell hopelessly in love with me...that's no reason to think that I would behave in anything but the most dignified manner...right?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

The reality of this little tale is that I finally made it to the front of the line, and saw this...

(look at that freaking arm...seriously, I could just melt right here and now just looking at that bicep)

and then he looked at me kinda like this...

(alright, he may look a bit daft in this picture, but I'm sure he was just trying to be polite and pay attention to what this girl was saying to him)

and smiled sort of like this (except better) with those AMAZING blue eyes...

and my brain turned to complete mush.

He signed my CD liner

and my friend took this picture...

(my only proof that I was ever this close to him...and I'm totally cut off)

Then as I was walking away I realized that this was probably my one and only chance to actually speak to this man. I knew that I needed to say something fairly normal. I didn't want to scream or cry, or gush on and on about how much I love him...he gets that garbage all of the time, and come on, I am just way better than that.

So this was it, my one chance for him to see how cool and brilliant I am and it was slipping away. I was down to mere seconds before someone would come and push me along to keep the line moving and I knew I had to come up with something amazing to say.

So what did my brilliant mind come up with?

"Thanks for keeping it real Joe"

Seriously. THAT'S what I said to him.

Brilliant right? Totally normal and not at all dorky.

(Please stop snickering)

Everything after that is sort of hazy.

I'm sure that we must have waited around for a bit, because I know that we were there to hear that he was going to be leaving. I remember walking out into the parking lot and seeing that his limo was right there...VERY close to where my car was parked. I remember seeing several other girls run to their cars to start following and thinking that it seemed like a good idea. I'd heard so many stories from other people on the bbs about how they met up with him and he was so cool and would just hang out and talk. So why not me?

I really wasn't trying to behave like a psycho...I just thought that we would follow the limo and see where he went. I wasn't going to harm anyone or drive dangerously or anything like that. I swear!

Anyway, I ended up being the first or second car in line behind his as we were waiting at a traffic light to get out of the mall. It is possible that I cut a car or two off slightly in order to make a light and not lose him...but I swear, it wasn't anything terrible. I wasn't even really speeding.

Shortly after leaving the mall, the limo pulled into a parking lot and brilliant girl that I am, I pulled in after it. I parked in a parking spot and my friend and I just sat there. Then the door to the limo opened, and a stocky gentleman got out and walked over to my window...and very calmly and politely (though very sternly) asked me to please give his client some space.

I apologized profusely for my behavior and promised to leave him alone. Then I put my car back in drive and got the heck out of dodge.

My friend and I made the mutual decision to keep the story of this little adventure to ourselves. I really didn't think that I was ever going to figure out how to stop blushing with shame.

I have never felt more like an idiot in my life. Well, except for maybe the time not that long after this story happened that my sister and I got in a fist fight in front of my entire family and I called her some very rude words right in front of my Grandmom. That may have been worse.

Not by much though.

I hope that I haven't lost whatever respect I may have had before telling this sordid tale...or any of the few faithful readers I may have had.

You still like me, right?

Monday musings

2008-09-22T23:11:00.006-05:00

Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts regarding my week from hell.

I am happy to report that so far this week is looking much brighter!

I feel like I haven't posted in about a million years. I'm not sure if it was all of the garbage that I dealt with last week, or just a general case of the blahs, but I just haven't been feeling remotely inspired for the last several days.

I think it's time for me to get back in the swing of things.

First off, I have some business to attend to...

So, I totally forgot to weigh in this morning. I guess I'll have to do it tomorrow and let you know the results later. Please feel free to give me a virtual slap on the wrist.

* Update...Looks like I gained 2 of the 4 lbs I lost last week back. (Picture me giving my scale a big raspberry)

Things went ok last week. I did a much better job with my water consumption! I also managed to cut way back on snacking after work. Those are my two biggest obstacles...so, YAY me!
I didn't do so great with the whole exercise thing though. I worked about a gazillion hours last week, and I just couldn't find the energy to try to get back off my big ol' butt once I got home.

However, I did go for another long walk on Saturday afternoon. This time I went alone. Well, I had my trusty camera at my side of course, but other than that. I think I probably walked somewhere between 2-3 miles when all was said and done. (Hopefully those miles will show up as lost pounds on my scale in the morning!)

This time I did a little experimenting with black & white, and lighting. It was late afternoon when I was walking and there was a lot of cool stuff going on with the sun and shadows. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day...

This one isn't anything terribly exciting, they just have about a million of these signs posted all over the trail. This one was right at the beginning of my walk and I wanted to see how it would look in b&w.

This next one I took both in color and b&w. These trees struck me as sort of beautiful and haunting as I was walking past them. Looking at the photo freaks me out a bit because I feel like it has a bit of an optical illusion thing happening. The way the trees all bend almost at the same point sort of gives the illusion that the bottom half is a reflection or something. Is it just me, or do you see it too? I don't know, my eyes just have a difficult time taking in the whole picture I think.
These flowers were just full of bees, so I thought I'd see what I could capture with the camera. It was difficult because I couldn't see the screen due to the glare from the sun. I tried to look through the view finder, but since I had it zoomed in, I couldn't really tell what I was taking a picture of. I thought this one came out sort of nice in spite of all of that.
I really liked the way the sun was filtering through the trees in this one spot. I wasn't able to capture it quite as well as I had hoped to...but I guess it's ok.

I know that I had some random thoughts that I was going to write about, but I can't for the life of me remember what they were at the moment. Plus it's almost midnight and I should really get some sleep. I've got a long day tomorrow.

Love to my peeps!

Not my week

2008-09-18T21:09:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure what I did to deserve all the bad Karma, but I swear I'm doing my very best to reverse it! It's terrible. It's not just me either, it's like everyone who is even associated with me is getting totally screwed this week!

First there was all of the stuff that my friend from work has had to deal with.

Then Ciara went and smashed her face against the door frame (the bruise is looking mighty pretty right now, btw).

We had the one good night with Ciara making it through the night without an accident...but it's been completely mixed results since then.

Tuesday I was outside on the playground with the kids and when we came back into the classroom I noticed that my chin was feeling a bit odd. It didn't hurt and it wasn't really itchy...it was more like a tingly sensation. I touched my chin to see if I could feel anything and discovered a small, pimple like bump. In the 2 seconds it took me to look in the mirror, the bump had taken over my entire chin. I have no idea what bit/stung me, but whatever it was, I'm definitely allergic to it. I took some children's benadryl (the only option available at the time) and hoped that I wasn't going to need to take a trip to the ER (especially since there was no one around to cover the class I was in). My chin got all hard and red, my entire face felt sort of tight and strange, and I had a light-headed head achy feeling for about an hour. Then just as quickly as it started, most of the symptoms disappeared. The only thing that took a while to go away was a bizarre tingling sensation in my lips. I took some more benadryl that night when I got home, and by the next morning you couldn't even tell that anything had happened. BIZARRE!

Last night as I was just about to fall asleep I heard an all-mighty crash come from my daughters room, followed by the faint sounds of crying. When I got to her room she was lying on her bed crying hysterically (though quietly), but couldn't tell me what had happened. I think that she stood up while still half asleep and tried to straighten out her blanket, and then fell and bumped her head on the wall. I couldn't find any signs of injury and she fell back to sleep almost instantly once I got her to stop crying. I was a tad worried that she had given herself a concussion...but since she seemed to be ok, I ended up just going to bed.

I woke up this morning with a lovely Migraine. Ciara threw an hour long hissy fit because I told her she needed to wear shorts instead of a dress because she had her gymnastics class today. Took some excedrin and managed to get Ciara dressed and in the car.

Just before my boss was getting ready to head off to the airport to go visit her father and new baby brother (& basically leave me in charge for the next 2 1/2 days), she got a phone call that her Grandmother had passed away. Now she's still taking the next 2 1/2 days off, but will not be travelling and will instead spend the time mourning with her family.

I was left in charge of setting up our staff ice cream social today. I went to retrieve an ice cream scoop and in the process managed to have a glass baking dish fall from a substantial height directly onto my spine. There's no bruise, but it hurts like a MF...and seems to be getting worse as the day progresses.

I also had the pleasure of signing at least 3 accident reports today. 1 scraped knee (not so bad), 1 bite (ugh), and 1 case of a child getting sand thrown in his eyes by another child (crap!). Fortunately all of the parents seemed to deal ok...though I didn't get to see the parents of the child with the sand. I guess we'll see how that turns out tomorrow.

Oh, and then tonight I was talking to my sister on the phone and learned that a close relative is dealing with some seriously fucked up shit right now. I don't feel comfortable getting specific, but it is truly awful.

Seriously- what the hell?!

WWWAT- Beginnings and Endings

2008-09-16T21:31:00.005-05:00

This summer I became fascinated by photography and began experimenting with my camera. I loved the vibrant colors of the flowers in my back yard and they became a frequent subject of my experiments. When I heard that the latest WWWAT topic was going to be beginnings and endings, these photos immediately came to mind.
I am tired and doped up on Benadryl at the moment, so I'm just going to let the photos speak for themselves.

Please visit Rachel @ American Mum for more WWWAT fun!

Looking up

2008-09-16T06:30:00.003-05:00

Woo Hoo! Ciara woke up DRY!

Let's hope the trend continues.

Rough Day

2008-09-15T19:16:00.006-05:00

Top 5 reasons that today sucked...

1. After 2 days of steady rain the remnants of Hurricane Ike swept through over the weekend causing substantial flooding throughout the entire metro area. (Though I'll take this over what the people in Texas are dealing with any day)

2. I decided that yesterday was a great day to try to get Ciara completely out of pull-ups. She ended up having an accident sometime around 12:30 am. After cleaning her up and getting her back to bed I ended up having a long, intense conversation with my husband...causing me to wake up this morning with puffy, swollen eyes and feeling like death warmed over.

3. While I was working in Ciara's class this morning I had the pleasure (read that as dripping with sarcasm) of watching my child trip and fall face first into the corner of a door frame.

4. Shortly after Ciara's fall I got to take a phone call from my friend and coworker (Ciara's teacher and my former co-teacher) in which she informed me that she fell over the weekend and broke her tailbone. The poor girl just can't catch a break. She fell and injured her back several months ago and then had to have surgery to repair the damage and on top of that both of her Grandmothers have passed away in the last 5 months. She recently began having issues with her ankle and was told that she needed to have surgery to repair torn ligaments. Her surgery was scheduled for last Thursday morning. On Wednesday morning her Grandfather passed away. She elected to go through with the surgery on Thursday and then on Friday afternoon while still recovering from said surgery, she attended the wake for her Grandfather. Saturday she was going to the doctor when she fell. I sure hope that this marks the end of her horrible streak of bad luck.

5. After 9 1/2 long hours at school/work, I asked Ciara to use the facilities before getting in the car to go home. I glanced over at her as she was preparing to sit on the potty and discovered this...

She's not sure how it happened. I know it wasn't there when I gave her a bath last night. I'm assuming that it happened when she fell this morning and she was so distracted by the pain in her cheek that she didn't even notice that she'd hurt her hip as well.

Loving life.

A bit of success

2008-09-15T06:08:00.004-05:00

Wow! I can't believe it! According to my scale I weigh a full 4 lbs less than I did at this time last week!

I full expected to be hanging my head in shame this morning. 2 days ago when I last stepped on the scale I was up 3 lbs from my initial weigh in. Granted, it was a totally random time of day- but still.

I did ok with sticking to my goals at the beginning of the week, but by Friday my plan was pretty much shot. I at least have continued to think about every piece of food that I put in my mouth though.

I have to make this quick because I need to get ready for work and get Ciara up and ready as well, but here's a quick rundown.

Exercise- Ciara and I went for our really long walk (1 1/2 hours). It was more of a saunter, so I definitely can't classify it as cardio...but at least I was up and moving instead of sitting around watching tv.
The next day I got a workout by moving books and furniture around at work. I was definitely using my muscles, and I was sweating by the time I was finished. Heartrate went up for sure.
I never did use OnDemand for a workout. Gonna have to attempt that this week.

Food intake- Better than usual, but not good. I did however refrain from buying a bunch of junk at the grocery store yesterday. I've been trying to eat breakfast every morning- just something light like a banana or a bowl of cereal. Still struggling with snacking after work. I really need to work on finding ways to occupy myself besides watching tv. Need to reduce soda consumption as well.

Water- MUCH better!...well, at least for a few days. At least now I feel like it's possible.

This week's goals-
1. At least 2 workouts
2. Make an actual meal (rather than convenience food such as frozen pizza) for dinner at least 4 out of 7 days
3. Drink at least one 32 oz bottle of water every day
4. Shave off another 2 lbs from current weight
5. Make list of rewards for reaching mini-goals

Ok, seriously have to get dressed or I will be late! Good luck everyone!

Tina Fey + Amy Poehler = Pee my pants funny

2008-09-14T18:31:00.001-05:00

'nuff said.

"We hope you get your ring this year"

2008-09-14T17:39:00.005-05:00

Yesterday Ciara and Kevin went into Chicago to go shopping with a friend.

While shopping at the Apple Store they had a little brush with celebrity.

Just in case you're like me and you don't pay any attention to sports...
that would be Ken Griffey Jr.

Shortly after this photo was taken, Ciara apparently tried to plow the poor man over.

Fortunately he thought it was funny.

What's in a name?

2008-09-12T21:56:00.004-05:00

What Shannon Means

S is for Sensual

H is for Handy

A is for Astounding

N is for Neglected

N is for Nerdy

O is for Outgoing

N is for Nice

What Does Your Name Mean?

Seems crazy that some random word generator could know me, but most of that actually seems pretty dead on (Even the damn computer thinks I'm nice!). Who'd a thunk it?

In remembrance

2008-09-11T21:29:00.003-05:00

of all those who perished unnecessarily 7 years ago today.

You are not forgotten.

I thought of you today as I laughed with my daughter and saw the sparkle of innocence in her eyes.

I hugged her extra tight today as I remembered the unbelievable terror of that morning.

I was thankful today for the health and safety of all of those I hold dear, and my heart ached for those who must still grieve for the loss of their loved ones.

You will live on in our hearts and memories always.

Rest in Peace

A Walk to Remember

2008-09-09T22:14:00.009-05:00

Today the daycare gods smiled down on me and I was actually able to leave work early. I decided to make good use of the extra time and spend it with my beautiful little girl.

Just across the street from where we live is a huge nature preserve. I've been meaning to take my camera out and experiment. The weather was absolutely glorious today and it seemed like the perfect time to go out and enjoy it for once, so Ciara and I decided to go and take a walk. I really had no idea what a lovely time we were going to have.

We set out...Me with camera in hand, Ciara clutching Lamby in one hand and a baggie full of goldfish in the other...or sometimes both in one hand.

We held hands as we walked down the street together and chatted about nothing in particular.
Then we crossed the street and stepped onto the bike path that runs through the forest preserve. It couldn't have been more beautiful. The sun was shining in a stunningly blue sky filled with puffy cotton candy clouds, birds were singing, insects were chirping peacefully to each other, the smell of fresh cut grass and flowers hung in the air...it was everything you could ever hope that it would be.

At one point along the path we came across a sweet little bench set off to the side. I insisted that Ciara sit and allow me to take her picture. She was reluctant, but I really wanted to capture the memory of the afternoon, so I begged and begged until she gave in.

Shortly after that we came around a bend in the path and I noticed a large spray of gorgeous yellow flowers in the distance. As I stopped to take a picture, Ciara and I suddenly saw a butterfly take flight out of the flowers near by. At first I thought that it was already gone, but we decided to backtrack for a moment and see if we could find it. I was so excited when I saw it sitting quietly on a flower. I was so scared that it was going to fly away again before I could capture its beauty. Then I was unbelievably annoyed when the glare from the sun made it impossible for me to see if I had the camera pointed at the right spot. Fortunately, I did actually manage to catch it.

We continued walking along, just enjoying the stunning afternoon and the good company. We would pause here and there to take in a particularly lovely sight before walking on.

I kept asking Ciara how she was doing, because we had been walking for quite some time at this point. She assured me that she was fine and that she wanted to keep going. I was hesitant because I understood that we were going to have to walk just as far to return home even though she didn't.
Then as we were walking I heard an unexpected sound...a rooster's crow. Ciara was delighted and wanted desperately to go and find the rooster.
The other day as we were driving home from someplace I had noticed a bunch of chickens in a yard just on the other side of the woods we were currently walking through. I knew if we continued on the path we would reach the road that the house is on and be able to walk past it while heading home. There are no sidewalks on this particular road, but I was willing to take the risk to see my daughter's face light up with that amazing smile of hers.
It was a tad nerve wracking walking along the side of the road with her. Fortunately there isn't a whole lot of traffic on that road, so it wasn't so bad. It was a little bit sad to see all of the junk and litter on the side of the road though. Not only did we find this lovely little gem
but there were also some old tires just laying around a few hundred feet away from there.

Still, the beauty of the day remained intact...
and we found the chickens and the rooster.
By this time Ciara and I were both fairly tired and ready to get home again. She was starting to get hungry and cranky, and I just couldn't wait to be able to walk on a sidewalk again.
Once we made it to the sidewalk we knew that we were nearly home and we started to relax and get back to enjoying ourselves.

We watched 2 squirrels chasing each other around
Ciara got to be "the Leader"
We saw the moon hanging in the sky
and watched a group of birds at play

It really was an afternoon to remember. There was absolutely nothing extraordinary about the walk itself. It was just really nice to spend some honest to goodness quality time in the company of my extraordinary little girl. It was a lovely reminder of the things that are truly important in life.

I think that I needed that.

Top 5 Tuesday- Rachael wants to know...

2008-09-08T23:13:00.003-05:00

Dana is doing things a little bit differently this week.
This time around instead of a basic top 5 list of something, our friend Rachael gave Dana a list of questions she wanted to have answered.

The Questions:

1) How long have you been blogging?
I started my blog on January 12, 2008.
2) Date/link to your first blog post
You can find my first post here.
3) What is the one driving force that actually made you create that blog account?
Well, if you read that first post it pretty much tells you...but to sum it up in as few words as possible; I started my blog because I love my husband and daughter and I want to be the best possible me that I can be for them.
4) How did you come up with your blog name and what were other names you considered?
The original title of my blog was "Life in the Fat Lane". You can find out more about my reasons for this title here. As the blog evolved into what you currently see I decided that it needed a new and more upbeat name. I had a difficult time thinking of something that I liked, so I decided to keep it Simple. (You can groan...it's ok, I won't be offended)
5) Post a link to your favorite blog post ever.
I think that this is my favorite post. It seems like it was also the one that got the most reaction from other people as well.

If you'd like to see more answers or participate yourself, head on over to Supernanny Where Are You to join in the fun!

Looking fine?

2008-09-08T22:52:00.004-05:00

Oh how I wish that I could write about all of the fantastic things I accomplished this week in my efforts to slim down.

But alas, I have been a very bad girl.

I must confess that I didn't do a gosh darn thing last week. That's right, you read that correctly...not one single solitary thing.

I wish that I had a good reason, but I really don't.

Yes, I did have a stomach bug that lasted a few days. Which is probably why I weighed a few pounds less than I expected to when I stepped on the scale (for the first time since starting this endeavor) this morning.

I also had a lovely visit from my Aunt. I never feel like doing much when she's around. She just sucks my energy like a commercial grade shop vac.

Whatever...none of that really matters. What it really comes down to is that I just didn't even bother to try. I have no excuse for that, so I won't try to BS my way into one.

However, I do feel sufficiently guilty about my behavior and I am vowing to change from here on out.

Baby steps though. Trying to come up with a whole bunch of lofty goals will get me nowhere quick.

I saw a cool idea the other day that I'm totally going to steal. I'm going to think up a reward to give myself for each goal that I reach. I haven't had a chance to do that yet though, so you'll have to come back later to see what I come up with.

Ok, so now onto my goals.
I figured out that there are 16 1/2 weeks left this year. If I work REALLY hard at it, I think that I can lose 10% of my body weight by Jan. 1, 2009.
Keeping that in mind, my first goal is to lose 2 lbs by next Monday.
I plan to do this by
1. cutting out snacking after work as much as I can
2. drinking a LOT more water
3. limiting myself to 1 sprite/day (MAX) and
4. working out at least twice between now and next Monday.
(I plan to make use of the OnDemand feature on my tv for this)

As far as good music to work out to...no clue. I'll have to give that some thought.

Another Milestone Met

2008-09-07T08:48:00.002-05:00

Ciara is a smart little cookie and I rarely worry about where she stands in comparison with her peers. I expect a lot from her, and she generally delivers and then some.
However, every once in a while I experience those little moments of Mommy angst and wonder whether she might be just a little bit behind schedule on something.
I started walking when I was really young. Ciara started cruising when she was 7 months old, so I thought that she was going to follow in my footsteps...then became increasingly concerned when she was reluctant to let go. She did finally decide that she was ready to go it alone when she was 13 months old (well within the range of "normal").
I also started talking at an extremely young age...so I had difficulty understanding what was taking Ciara so long. Again, she has turned out to be quite a verbal child and I had absolutely no cause for concern.
I think I moved on to worrying about letter and number recognition next. This one is just plain silly. If anything she is well ahead of the pack. Still, I know how brilliant my little girl is, and I want everyone else to know it too, so I sometimes expect unreasonable things from her.
Since she has started preschool I have found myself worrying about her fine motor development. Well, not fine motor development exactly...more like a concern over her lack of interest in writing and drawing. A few weeks ago I was excited when she decided she was ready to write her name. She has continued to work on this skill, and I am now satisfied that I really have no cause for concern as far as that goes. I mean, I think being able to write your name at 3 1/2 years old is actually pretty damned good. I'm pretty sure that I was considerably older than that when I reached that particular milestone.
Once I stopped worrying about her writing skills, I focused on her lack of interest in drawing. It seemed that all of the other children her age were really becoming interested and excited about drawing. I was watching all of these budding little artists emerge...and Ciara wanted absolutely nothing to do with it, preferring the dramatic play activities above all. I've just been dying to see her little scribbles start to resemble something recognizable, but it looked as though it was going to be a while yet.
Then the other morning I had to teach in her room until her teacher arrived for the day. There were only 5 or 6 children in the room at the time, and they were all coloring. So I sat down at the table with them to chat and see what they were up to. I looked over at Ciara's paper and was astonished to see that she had drawn a face! There was no mistaking it. Not a scribble in sight. She drew several more as we sat there before moving on to cutting paper into confetti.
All weekend she has been taking the little squares of paper from the notepad on my desk and drawing face after face. Looks like it's time for me to find another silly little thing to obsess over.

A trip to the Petting Zoo

2008-09-06T15:11:00.003-05:00

I have this friend named Patti.
I met Patti the first weekend after we moved into our house. I walked into our back yard to do something and this crazy lady called to me from across the common area. I walked over and we introduced ourselves and quickly became inseparable. That is, we were inseparable right up until about the same time that I got pregnant when Patti informed me that she was moving halfway across the country.
I was very sad when Patti moved away. She was the first person that I had become really close friends with in a really long time, and I knew there was no way that I was going to be able to find a suitable replacement. Patti was one of the very first people to know when I got engaged, and she was the one who insisted we immediately head out and start shopping for dresses. She dragged me around to all of the bridal shops and made me feel like a princess (despite my reluctance to go along with the whole giddy bride thing). Patti was also one of the 1st to know of my pregnancy. In fact she gave me my very first gift...which just happened to be Lamby.
It was definitely hard to see her go.
Imagine my delight when I recently received an email telling me that she had just moved back to the area! I couldn't wait to see her again. Except that I did wait. We tried a couple of times to make plans, but life kept getting in the way.
Then the other day I got an email from Patti. She told me that she was going to be watching her 6 month old nephew for the weekend and she was panicked about finding things to do with him. I couldn't let my friend go it alone, so Ciara and I loaded ourselves up in the car and were off to the rescue!
Patti and her husband Dave, their nephew, and Ciara and I went to hang out with farm animals for the day. It was a lot of fun. Patti and I didn't get too much time to catch up, but it sure was nice to see her again. She hasn't changed a bit. She's still the same goofy Patti that I know and love. I just hope that we can figure out how to spend more time together again. It's a little harder now that she lives 20 minutes away instead of across the back yard. Having a 3 1/2 year old shadow makes things a little difficult as well.
I'm sure that we'll figure something out. I'm just happy she's back!

Our Labor Day

2008-09-02T20:48:00.004-05:00

Yesterday for Kevin's Birthday we went here...

To watch this...

and Ciara did this (in the 2nd row) from the 2nd song until the end of the last note...

Looking fine by 2009 Week 1

2008-09-01T11:21:00.007-05:00

The original purpose of this blog was to help keep me motivated to get into better shape.

That lasted roughly 2 weeks.

However, now my dear friend Jen at Daily Mish Mash has this great little thing going on. She's got a group of like-minded people together to help keep each other motivated to stay strong in our epic battle with the bulge.

So I'm going to once more make the attempt to whip myself into shape.
I have the flu at the moment, so I'm not up to too much today. I promise to return later this week with a before picture and more details of just how I plan to fight this battle.

Until then, please feel free to link up and join us on our journey!

Oh, I almost forgot...Jen wanted to know-
What is your favorite type of exercise? How often do you workout? How do you find the time and motivation to keep up with it?

My favorite type of exercise? That's tough because I can't stand exercise in general. I enjoy water aerobics and walking at least a little though. Stationary bikes seem to work ok for me as well.

How often do I workout? Um...about once every 6 months maybe? Especially now that I no longer have a gym membership.

How do you find the time and motivation to keep up with it? I was hoping someone else could tell me that.

Happy Birthday

2008-09-01T10:11:00.003-05:00

To my dearest Kevin...the love of my life.

On the jewelry box you gave me for our anniversary it says...

"It doesn't matter where you go in life
what you do, or how much you have,
It's who you have beside you that counts."

I couldn't agree more.

There is not a day that passes that I am not thankful to have you beside me.

Here's to at least 40 more.

With all my heart always,

Labor of Love

2008-09-01T07:10:00.004-05:00

This morning I noticed that a lot of my bloggy buddies were participating in this fun little Meme that was started at Rocks in My Dryer. It looked like fun, so I decided to join in.

How long were your labors?

Well, there's only been one so far, but it was a doozy.
Not counting the minor contractions that I had been having all day without realizing that they were contractions...I was in labor in the hospital for 20 hours.

How did you know you were in labor?

I went into the hospital to be induced. They gave me cervadil and told me that I had to wait 12 hours for it to ripen my cervix and then they were going to start pitocin.
My husband and Mom went home to get some sleep. As I was laying in the bed too nervous and excited to sleep, I noticed that the pain I had in my back was flaring up almost exactly every 2 minutes. I sat there and counted out the contractions for about 45 minutes just to be sure before I called the nurse in.

Where did you deliver?

At a hospital about 10 minutes from our house.

Drugs?

I made them give me nubain about 14-15 hours in. They had broken my water and were giving me pitocin, but I wasn't progressing so they wouldn't give me an epidural. It was just enough to let me get about 1 hour of sleep.

C-section?

Yep. I never made it to 2 cm after the 20 hours, so my doctor decided it was time to get her out. I was terrified of having a c-section before hand, but after 20 hours of back labor I was about ready to grab a scalpel and do it myself! I think that I still have very strong feelings for the anesthesiologist! (Don't know his name, but that's not really the point, is it?)

Who delivered?

My totally awesome OB/GYN. I was a "High Risk" pregnancy so we got to see each other quite a lot. She took great care of us. I am 100% convinced that my pregnancy would not have gone nearly as well if I had gone to a different doctor. Loved her!

Now head on over to Rocks In My Dryer to link up and join in the fun!

Birthday Party Fun

2008-08-30T13:32:00.007-05:00

So today was the day that Ciara got to go to her first real big kid birthday party. The party was held at this really cool place called Pump It Up. (If you have young kids you've probably heard of it since they appear to have locations all over the country)

She had a blast.

I had a lot of fun myself. For once I got to just be a Mom. At least half of the kids from my class were there, along with a bunch of other kids from the school...but for just this once I had absolutely NO responsibility for any of them except for Ciara. And truth be told, I pretty much just let her run off and do her thing while I talked to the other parents. I like being just another one of the Moms. I'm definitely looking forward to when Ciara gets to elementary school and I no longer have to have a professional relationship with her friends or their parents.

Another cool thing about the day was watching Ciara and her friend Lexi play together. Lexi's Mom is a teacher at our center too. Beth and I were co-teachers together when we were both pregnant and the girls are exactly 6 weeks apart in age. They really have been friends in a way since before they were even born. They are no longer in the same class at school since Ciara had to move up so that I could teach Preschool, and Lexi is only there 2 days a week anyway, so they really don't get too many chances to play with each other. It really amused me that out of all of the other children at the party that they both know, they sought each other out and played together the entire time. At one point Lexi turned to me and said "Ciara is my Best Friend"...if that doesn't just melt your heart than nothing will.

So this is Ciara having a blast at her very first big girl party...

Chow time...

Really cool idea for cake time (if your kid is a huge fan of construction stuff)

The kids having fun playing on the Birthday Boy's throne

Best Friends...

This is how I roll

2008-08-28T21:04:00.004-05:00

Hooray! Jessica @ Farm Fresh Iowa is back with her It's Real Life festival. This week's assignment is "How I roll".

So here it is, my main method of transportation...my beloved (and unbelievably, disgustingly messy) minivan in all it's un-tampered with glory.

I took these pictures this morning as Ciara and I were leaving for work.

Here is Ciara with her load of completely unnecessary items that must be taken with us as she meanders around before actually entering the vehicle.

This is Ciara's absolute favorite part of our car...she simply has to check every single day to make sure that it hasn't gone away.
This my friends is the foolish spider who somehow managed to make it's way into my passenger-side headlight only to perish when it was unable to find a way back out. I suppose the bulb will eventually need to be changed, but we won't let Ciara in on that little nugget of info just yet.
This is Ciara's little throne. As you can see, I do not really make any sort of attempt at keeping my car clean. I realized long ago that it was just pointless to even bother trying. On the floor you will notice several identical booklets, all of which Ciara has swiped on our way out of the school. We have a shelf full of them and she refuses to pass it without picking one up. There is also a first aid kit (which is primarily used for the lovely soapy wipes contained within), a lei that we picked up at a concert that has been in the car since July, Ciara's "slippers", and our portable potty. It's usually kept tidily away in it's little bag, but a week or so ago I had a meeting and Kevin was supposed to come pick Ciara up from school. Instead he called and asked me to meet him halfway between work and our house...so I quickly packed Ciara into the car and took off as I was in a rush. Of course Ciara suddenly announced that she had to pee. Even though we were waiting for Kevin in the parking lot of a gas station which most likely had facilities useful in such cases...I thought the little potty seemed like a better idea. However, Kevin pulled in before I had a chance to finish getting it prepped and so I handed her over to him and took off. The potty has been sitting as you see it ever since.
This is my domain...all packed up and ready to go to work. Ciara's swimming stuff is under my bag. It has been sitting there since last Thursday when she had water day at school. Fortunately today was water day again and I can happily say that her things are no longer in my car. The paper on the floor is "art" that she did a few weeks ago. The children in her class were cutting out "things that you eat" from magazines and this was her contribution. It will end up in the garbage eventually, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Here is Ciara performing her rituals as we prepare to depart. I covered her with her blanket, and now she is covering Lamby with her little blankie.
The back of the van. The suitcase has been there for about a month. Kevin took it to get repaired and just left it there. The tricycle has been there for about 3 weeks or so. Ciara had bike day at school and I never bothered to bring it back into the house.

And that's just about it. Nothing too exciting really...just lots of evidence of my slothfulness.

Kinda funny?

2008-08-27T22:45:00.002-05:00

Am I the only one who is amused by the fact that the US Navy sponsors the tv show Ghost Hunters?

Since when does the Navy sponsor tv shows, and why Ghost Hunters out of the thousands of choices?

They must be getting desperate for new recruits.

The number 8 Connection

2008-08-27T18:07:00.002-05:00

The way my brain works is completely bizarre. I hope that I don't scare you all off with my craziness, but since I found this fascinating I thought that I would share.

I really couldn't begin to tell you why I started thinking about this, but last night as I was thinking about my beautiful new niece I noticed a little something...

Jovey Caroline *******- (sorry, don't want any crazy stalkers hunting her down) in numerology her name breaks down to 16457(23- 2+3=5) 3196395(36-3+6=9) 5133135(21-2+1=3)…5+9+3=17…1+7=8

There are 8 letters in the name Caroline.

Born 08/26/2008 (2+6= 8) (However if you add her birth date up the number is actually 9) @ 08:18 am (8+1+8= 17…1+7=8)

She weighed 7lbs 10oz (7+1+0= 8)

Part of the reason that I noticed this was because my sister had a similar thing going on when she was born. Mary was born @ either 7:52am (8 minutes before 8) or 8:08am (I can't remember which for sure at the moment) on 8/18. I feel like there were more 8 connections, but I really can't remember at the moment. I just remember we always used to talk about Mary and all of the 8's.

This is what I was able to discover about the number 8 in numerology via google this morning...

8 represents balance; it's the number that brings reward to some and takes away from others. In shape and energy, 8 symbolizes the idea that all actions have consequences, and it strikes a balance not only in your financial health, but in matters of love and success throughout your life.

Just thought it was interesting (especially considering Mary and the number 8). Also- I found out after sending out an email to my family about this that 8 happens to be my Mom's favorite number.

Coincidence or something more?

It's a celebration!

2008-08-26T17:36:00.003-05:00

I have to thank my sister for providing me with the perfect material to celebrate my 100th post.

Please join me as I welcome my brand new niece...

Jovey Caroline
7 lbs 10 oz
Born 8/26/08 @ 8:18 am (EST)

Mary and her girls

Welcome to the family beautiful girl! I wish that I could be there to give you a million hugs and cuddles. Don't you worry though, I'll still be the best Aunt ever and spoil you like the Princess you are.

Congratulations Mary, Blaine, and Niesa! I love you guys and I can't wait to meet the newest member of the family. Please give her lots of hugs and kisses for me until then.

I get by with a little help from my friends...

2008-08-25T21:06:00.004-05:00

This one is for all of you ladies with young boys...

Ciara is invited to her first big girl birthday party this weekend. The party is for a little boy who is turning 4.

My question is two-fold:
What do boys this age want for their birthday?
What gifts have your sons received that you love and which ones do you absolutely hate?

Oh, and I'm trying to keep it under $20.

Thanks my peeps!

PS- the next post is #100. Any requests or suggestions for marking the occasion?

Update: Thank you all for your very helpful advice.
In case anyone is interested, in the end I settled on a Seek & Find Zoo puzzle by Bloom (the makers of Cranium). It was on clearance for a whopping $6.98. I am pleased that I found something that met all of my requirements for a gift...It is something a 4 year old boy will enjoy, it will not irritate the crap out of his parents, it has at least a bit of educational value (since I am one of his teachers), it should not inspire violence or rough-housing, and it was not expensive! Yay! As an added bonus the gift bag features a cute little pirate and includes an actual eye patch! What 4 year old boy wouldn't love that?

I'm it

2008-08-24T14:21:00.002-05:00

I was recently tagged for two different Memes so I thought that I would condense them into one post for the sake of simplicity (or just because I am too lazy to do two different posts).

First BookMomma @ Hotwheel Hacienda tagged me for this one...

1. What is your favorite quotable line from a movie?
I'm not really one to go around quoting movies a whole lot, so this one was tough for me. The only thing that comes to mind is the crass but classic

"I fart in your general direction!"

2. Who is the most famous person you've talked to?
Well, it's not like I had a full on conversation. I pretty much just blurted out inanities due to the fact that all of the blood had rushed out of my brain in his presence...but I did actually speak to Joe McIntyre once. (That would be just before I got back into my car with a near stranger and chased his limo out of the parking lot causing his entourage to get out of the car to tell me to back the hell off...such a proud moment!)

3. How many bags/boxes of potato chips are consumed at your house per month?
Oh god, I have absolutely no idea! Potato chips are my heroine. I just can't seem to break the habit.

4. What foreign food dish do you prepare from scratch and serve?
Does lasagne count?

5. What is your favorite section of the supermarket?
Huh...I'm not really sure that I have one. Do people really have favorite sections of the supermarket? I guess it just depends on what I'm in the mood to eat when I'm there. I can tell you that my least favorite section is the seafood department though.

6. What was your high school team's mascot and what were the school colors?
The Blue and the White colors ever dear to me

Banner of Morse High the flag of victory, rah, rah, rah

The Blue and the White when we hear our battle cry

We'll fight for the glory of the blue and white of old Morse High!

Go Shipbuilders!
(Possibly one of the worst mascots in history, but what can you do?)

I'm not going to tag anyone for this. If you feel like doing it I would love to see your answers!

My friend Tricia tagged me for this one...
here are the rules,
1. Link back to the person who tagged you

2. Mention the rules on your blog

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours

4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking to them

5. Leave a comment for those you tagged letting them know that you tagged them.

So let's see, 6 unspectacular quirks?
1. I can say the alphabet backwards as fast as I can say it forwards

2. According to my sister I always look at my food before putting it in my mouth.

3. I can raise one side of my upper lip in an Elvis like way, but not the other.

4. I am ambidextrous. I eat and write with my left hand but I do many other things right handed. I can write with my right hand as well, but it takes me a lot longer. Having a child has forced me to eat right handed more times than I can count.

5. I have to load my dishwasher in a particular way and I get very annoyed when other people do it wrong. My husband has given up trying.

6. If a song I like comes on I can't help but sing along, but good luck hearing me because I'm unbelievably quiet except when I'm alone in my car. I'm told I have a nice voice, but I'm terrified of singing solo in public. I was in chorus all through school though.

I'm totally breaking the rules because it's my blog and I can. I'm not going to tag anyone for this one either. Feel free to go ahead and tag yourself!

Garlic Chicken Cavatappi Alfredo

2008-08-23T21:45:00.004-05:00

Here is the promised recipe for Garlic Chicken ~~Fettuccine~~ Pasta Alfredo

1-2 Cloves Garlic (or to taste)
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts cut to taste
2-3 T Olive Oil
3/4 lb uncooked dry pasta
6 T unsalted butter
2/3 c heavy or whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
generous dash ground white pepper
generous dash ground nutmeg
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 oz)

cover bottom of large skillet with olive oil
crush or mince garlic and saute in oil
add chicken to garlic
cook chicken until no longer pink

Cook dry pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water 6-8 minutes
just until al dente.
Remove from heat. Drain well; return to dry pot.

Place butter and cream in a large, heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Cook and stir until butter melts and mixture bubbles. Cook and stir 2 minutes more.
Stir in salt, pepper, and nutmeg. (The nutmeg is the secret!) Remove from heat.
Gradually stir in cheese until thoroughly blended and smooth. Return briefly to heat to completely blend cheese if necessary.
(Do not let sauce bubble or cheese will become lumpy and tough.)

Add chicken to pasta in pot. Pour sauce over pasta and chicken. Stir and toss with 2 forks over low heat 2 to 3 minutes until sauce is thickened and the pasta and chicken are evenly coated.

Enjoy!

Gracias

2008-08-22T16:22:00.003-05:00

Thank you very much for all of the great feedback about my burgeoning photography skills.

I got the ultimate compliment today when my friend Jessica asked me if I would be her wedding photographer next year!

I said that if things work out ok for me to make the trip to Maine that I would love to do it for her. I'm a bit nervous because I've never done anything like that before. I would hate to screw something that important up. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of practicing over the next year! If anyone has any tips or suggestions I would love to hear them.

Experimenting

2008-08-20T17:57:00.005-05:00

I recently discovered that our old digital camera that had not been working properly for quite some time (but is way better than the one I've been using) is actually functioning again. It has lots of cool features that I never knew about before. Thanks to Rachel @ American Mum I actually understand some of it now, so I thought I'd go outside and experiment a bit. These are some of the results.

What do you think? Should I keep experimenting?

Wordless Wednesday

2008-08-20T17:49:00.002-05:00

In a slump

2008-08-19T21:53:00.003-05:00

I'm feeling a bit blah.

I have had a headache with vertigo all day and I sort of feel like I'm living my life under water today. I can't seem to think straight at all.

I'm really not enjoying it.

So you'll have to excuse me, but I really don't have too much to say right at the moment. I think I'm just going to go with a few random thoughts that I've had lately.

1. With the Olympics going on, I keep thinking of "New World Records". It seems like people are constantly breaking the previous records...which is really cool, but it just leaves me with a few questions. Doesn't there come a point where it is just no longer humanly possible to move any faster or be any stronger? What is that point, and how have we not reached it yet? Who will get to be the lucky soul who gets to have the first "unbeatable" record?

2. Ciara really cracked me up this evening. I was watching TV and she started to get really hyper. She started rolling around on the floor by my feet and I was pretty much ignoring her. That is, until she started grabbing my leg and shouting "Princess Ciara is down! Princess Ciara is down!"...I couldn't help but laugh.

3. Why do I have to be the only one who is capable of getting things done?

Ok, really should get to bed so that I don't feel like this tomorrow.

Take care peeps.

Someone did their homework

2008-08-16T22:19:00.006-05:00

First of all, I have to tell you that I generally hate commercials. I almost always change the channel to avoid watching them. When I do actually watch them I very rarely pay attention to them or even notice what it is they are trying to sell. However, every once in a while someone gets it right.
Somebody on the marketing team for Chevy obviously knew that there were going to be millions and millions of women watching to see Michael Phelps make Olympic history tonight and apparently believes that woman have a lot more to say about purchasing vehicles than we did in the past.
In the final commercial break just before the Men's 4X100 Medley Relay they ran an ad for the Brand new 2009 Chevy Traverse. I just found this quote regarding Chevy's marketing strategy for this new crossover vehicle...
"The message is that Chevy believes the Traverse is everything you wished for ... and then some - and the ads include imagery that is sure to quicken the pulse of many female viewers, a key target market of the crossover."
Now, I'm really not clear on how going out and buying one of these glorious vehicles is going to land me a really hot man who remembers things like 6 month anniversaries and does the ironing for me...but they certainly got my attention!
Kudos to you marketing genius, whoever you may be.

PS- Congratulations to Michael Phelps and the rest of the U.S. Swim team! You certainly delivered the goods and made this country proud! Plus you did it with grace and humility. Well done.

Not cool!

2008-08-14T06:46:00.001-05:00

Did you just hear that noise? That was the sound of me screaming when I discovered that the internet connection on my computer is down.
Checking in via smartphone leaves a lot to be desired!
Fortunately, my wandering husband returns from his latest adventure today...so hopefully I'll be bck in business by the time I get back from work.

A Simple Shindig at la Casa de Shannon

2008-08-13T17:20:00.006-05:00

Where to begin, where to begin?
I want so badly to be witty and clever with this awesome concept that Auds has blessed us all with, but my tired little brain is refusing to give me anything to work with. (That's probably why I've managed to do 17 million things besides write this post over the last 3 days)

I really wish that I had the ability to actually dine with many of the amazing women that I have encountered over the last few months. I just know that things would get very interesting very quickly with all of those crazy creative minds in one room. Ah well, maybe some day. For now I guess I'll have to settle for some virtual fun.

I have perused many a blog over the last few months, but there have definitely been a few that have really stood out from the crowd in my book. These blogs make me feel like I've known the women who write them for years and years, rather than sort of knowing them for a few days or weeks. They make me laugh, they make me cry, they make me gasp or grimace...but mostly they just make me want to be friends with them. These women challenge me to be a better me than the me I was before I started blogging. They probably don't even know that they are doing it most of the time. There is just this feeling of sisterhood and a knowledge that we each want to see the others happy and successful in our blogs and our lives. It is a beautiful thing...because as we all know, we women can be truly evil to each other when we feel like it!

When I first read Audrey's post about this fabulous dinner party she wanted to throw, I got very excited and spent quite a while trying to think of who I would want to see get together all in one room in a nice intimate setting. I also spent some time trying to decide just what kind of party I would want to throw. Here's what I came up with...

First off, I'm a very casual kind of girl. I'm not so great about planning ahead. I just jump right into the water and let the current take me where it will. There's no sense fighting it...you'll just end up with water up your nose. So this party of mine is definitely a casual affair. I know the guest list is supposed to be limited to 10, but I think I'm going to change things up a bit. I want to meet as many new people as I can during this process- so I'm going to ask each of my 10 guests to bring a date along. The only rule is that your date has to be someone that you don't think I've ever met before.

Since this is a casual thing, we're also going to be doing a little potluck. Everyone has to bring along their favorite dish and share the recipe with the rest of us! I'll be making my famous Garlic Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo. (I'll be posting the recipe soon)

Now for the guest list...

My first guest is of course none other than Audrey herself. I wouldn't dream of having a party like this without her! What would we do without the quick wit and sassy sarcasm? Not a chance of it- so strap on your dancing shoes Auds and head on over! Drinks start at 7.

Since I'm completely fascinated by photography these days I am also inviting Rachel and Andrea in the hopes that they'll teach me some of their tricks. Audrey- you're required to teach me a thing or two as well please.

Next, I want to invite some of my girls. I met Carol, Rachael, and Dana over 4 years ago when fate (and first pregnancies) brought us all to the same board on the bbs at babycenter.com. We, along with a group of other amazing women, have kept in touch as our children have grown. The entire group has been the best support system that I could imagine and it has been a privilege to be a part of it. I have really gotten to know these particular ladies much better over the last few months through our shared love of the blogging community though. I've wanted to meet these 3 in person for years now, so there is no way that I would have a dinner party without inviting them! Each of them has so much to bring to the table.

These last 4 women just really make me laugh. I know that we'd get along famously if given the opportunity, and I can only imagine what the conversation around this table might be like!
So get out your recipe books Shannon, Bejewell, McMommy, and Jen because you're all invited to come and join my crazy little shindig.

Alright ladies, go forth and find your dates. Don't bother to dress up...just bring along your itunes playlist and your best recipes and we'll see where the tide takes us.

The view through my lens

2008-08-13T15:49:00.004-05:00

This month's WWWAT is "A Different View"

These photos were all taken over the last few weeks. None of them were taken with the fotofest in mind, but they all seemed to fit the bill. There is no connection between any of these shots, they are all just random bits of things I've done while experimenting with my camera.
Please enjoy, and then head on over to Rachel's to see the world through the eyes of other photographers out there and maybe even join in the fun yourself!

Where does the time go?

2008-08-12T22:49:00.002-05:00

This is the third night in a row that I have fully intended to write my guest list for my dinner party, and the third night in a row that I haven't written a single word.
I sit down at my computer to begin my post and find myself getting caught up in other things...other blogs, the Olympics, Gossip Girl, my lust for Joey McIntyre...
The next thing I know I'm staring at a clock that is telling me that I have stayed up far too late...yet again.
Why are there so few hours in a day? I need at least 10 more.
I am writing that guest list tomorrow if it kills me!
For now I really should head to bed.

Nighty Night peeps.

Top 5 Tuesday- blogilicious

2008-08-12T06:13:00.004-05:00

The Top 5 Reasons that I blog...

The whole "It takes a village" aspect. Women thrive on sharing stories with other women and aside from family (I rarely get to see), and people that I know through work, I really don't have anyone to do that with. Since I am a teacher at Ciara's preschool I have to maintain a professional relationship with all of the women I meet through her. Blogging satisfies this need very well for the moment.
The feedback from other people tends to make me feel damn good about myself.
It's the best creative outlet that I've found so far.
I learn SO much from everyone else, and I really like to learn new things.
It is the one and only thing in my life that is totally mine. It's ALL about me. No one nags me about it, nobody tells me what to do or how to do it (unless I ask), I don't have to delegate to other people or explain how I want things done, I can say or do whatever I want. Period. It's FABULOUS.

Those are my reasons...what are yours? Scoot on over to Supernanny Where Are You? and join in the fun! See you there.

Another race bites the dust

2008-08-11T21:18:00.002-05:00

...and in World Record time yet again.

Congratulations Michael Phelps!

Way to keep your unbelievable streak going!

Haminahaminahamina

2008-08-11T18:50:00.006-05:00

He's so hot that I can't even function after looking at this picture.

Thank you, that is all.

Making new friends

2008-08-10T10:46:00.001-05:00

The other day Ciara and I got home from school in the early afternoon. When we went to take Ginger outside we discovered that several of the neighborhood children were out playing.
Ciara tends to be quite shy around children that she doesn't know very well. Fortunately in this case she had Ginger to lend her a paw.
The following series of pictures really illustrates perfectly how it all went down.