Month: September 2008

decorating, events, fun, halloween, shopping

Head start

Shannon

Got the Halloween decorations out today.  I usually don’t start decorating until October 1, but I couldn’t help myself.  I so love the next 3 months.  Constant decorating.  And I love pulling out the bins of decorations.  Usually each year I hit the after holiday sales (note in this case the word holiday means any given holiday and not Christmas- my HUGE pet peeve.  I just wanna ask stores “Oh, so this HOLIDAY wreath, is it appropriate for Easter?  Flag Day?  Which holiday?”), anyway, I usually hit the after holiday sales and pick up a couple of marked down items then immediately pack them away and forget about them.  So today I was psyched to see that I had done that last year.

I’m hosting Bunco this month at my house on Thursday so I need to get everything put up and looking cute.  We’ll have 20 players so I’m bringing in a couple of extra tables.  My house might look like a church hall when I’m done, but it will be worth it.  I apparently bought some party supplies last year.  Woot!  No need to run out this week for plates and napkins now.

I’m looking for some easy to make, no need to keep hot Halloweeny foods for Thursday.  So any ideas are appreciated.

I’m bummed though, this year Halloween is gonna be cut short.  As soon as the trick or treaters are outta here I’m pulling down all the decorations and packing them away that night.  Cause at the crack o’ dawn the next morning we’re hitting the road for Florida and Lisa’s wedding cruise.  This means no after Halloween clearance shopping this year.  Oh, the sacrifices we make for our friends. 😉  I kid, I kid.

family, friends, fun

Working man

Shannon

Yesterday I had a Pampered Chef party.  2 parties down, 1 to go- then I’m done hosting until Christmas Eve.  Whew!  The PC party was fun, even though attendance wasn’t what I’d hoped (gas is still a HUGE issue here).  Mini vent: why don’t people understand what RSVP means anymore?  I’ve actually been told “Well I didn’t rsvp because I knew I couldn’t go.”  Ugh.  RSVP means Respond Please in French.  Not Respond if you Can come but don’t worry about it if you can’t.  On the flip side I have people who never RSVP but always show up.  Boggles the mind.

I digress.  After everyone left Sara and the boys stayed a couple hours and we played the Wii.  At first I was nervous letting a 3 & 5 year old play with the Wii.  But they amazed me!  They knew how to use the buttons, kept the wrist straps on, and were very careful.  Not to mention extremely excited.  I’ve never had someone so thrilled that I bowled a strike before!  When it was time for them to go Jacob (who’s in Kindergarten now), grabbed his stuff and came over to me.  “Aunt Shanny, we’ll just come back tomorrow to play some more.  I’m off tomorrow.”  He’s v. v. serious about school.  Weekends are his days “off”.  Love it!

bloggy stuff

10 things I love that begin with N

Shannon

Lisanne invited her readers to comment on her entry and receive a letter from her. She chose “N” for me. Here are my answers, in no particular order (and please leave a comment letting me know that you’d like to participate ~ and I’ll assign you a letter, too!):

  1. Nail polish.  I love the way it smells.  And I never go without it on my toenails.  Although I rarely paint my fingernails (they chip too easily).
  2. New Crocs smell.  I don’t know what they put in that Croslite material but new Crocs smell soooo good to me.
  3. Note cards.  Stationary really of all kinds.  But I love note cards.  Sometimes I love them so much it’s hard to write in them and send them away.  I think (in my crazy mind) what if the recipient doesn’t like this card as much as I do.  Sigh.  It’s a problem.
  4. Naps.  Love a good nap.  I love when all of us- CSP, the pugs, when we all pile in the bed on a chilly, rainy afternoon and enjoy a good nap.
  5. New things.  I’ll try anything (well, just about anything) once.  I feel sorry for people who get stuck in ruts and are scared or refuse to try new things.  Sometimes the one big change you needed in your life could be as simple as a new haircut, or new shoes, or trying a new activity or food.  New experiences, no matter how small, can make a big impact.
  6. Nighttime.  I’m a night owl for sure.  NOT a morning person.
  7. Nonsense.  I am a big fan of all things silly, kitschy, and fun for no reason other than just being fun.
  8. Nesquik.  Love the little bits that never quite dissolve at the bottom of the glass.  Much more fun than the sauce variety.
  9. Nephews.  Mine, specifically, although I’m sure yours are delightful.  Mine crack me up to no end.  I love them like crazy.
  10. North Carolina.  I love that in less than a day’s drive you can go from gorgeous mountains to beautiful beaches.  I love all the friendly people.  I love that I never have to wear a winter coat and that I can get away with flip flops 9 months out of the year.  I love how Charlotte is a big city with all the big city perks smack in the middle of the genteel, traditionally Southern, Carolinas.
ugh

If you can’t get it on CNN at least you can get it here

Shannon

Why this isn’t national news is beyond me.  The Charlotte area is in the midst of a severe gas crisis.  We are literally out of gas.  I live in a small town just outside of Charlotte and my town has been out of gas for weeks.  Let me just tell you what happened to me yesterday.  So I took Jorge (my RAV4) out to get gas as it was low and CSP was painting the dining room.  CSP drives Jorge to work and leaves me the truck since Jorge is so much better on gas.  My gas light came on not 2 miles into my journey.  I would have gotten gas on the way home from my Mom’s house on Monday but there was none to be found.  I had to go to 9 (NINE) gas stations before I could find gas.  I called CSP every few minutes to let him know where I was just in case I ran out of gas and had to sit on the side of the road.  Then finally, FINALLY, I found gas.  Then I had to wait in line for 45 minutes.  While in line I witnessed people hanging out of their car windows yelling at each other for breaking in line.  All the ginormous SUVs with their ginormous tanks, I just wanted to smack those drivers.  Save some for us little guys!  People are camping out overnight on gas delivery days.  It’s just nuts here, and not looking to get better.

We’re being fed a bunch of hooey about how it’s all because of the hurricanes.  People, I’ve lived in the SE all my life and this gas situation only just started with Katrina.  I’m not sure what the problem really is, but it HAS to get fixed.  People aren’t able to go to their jobs.  It’s insane!  Why we aren’t all driving around with solar panels on the roofs of our cars is beyond me.  I don’t get political on my blog much, but this is too much to ignore.  Since when did we have to plan out gas getting trips?  Allocating at least an hour?  I will never take gas for granted again.

csp, decorating, house

My handy man

Shannon

CSP is off for 2 days in a row this week so we’re painting the dining room.  We’re starting out with builder white and going to a color called Dynamo.  It’s a fun raspberry color.  I’ll post pics once we get the chair rail up and stuff hung on the walls.  I loooove the color and think it will go well with the lime color of the kitchen.  CSP thinks it’s a little disco Barbie but I’m in charge of the inside.  And he loves me.  So disco Barbie it is.

bloggy stuff, pugs

Are you on the list?

Shannon

It’s that time of year again folks!  I have a lot going on over the next couple of months with Lisa’s wedding cruise.  So I’m getting organized early for my Christmas cards.  If you would like to get on my list to receive a fabulous Christmas card complete with adorable pic of the Superfly Pug Trio then please email me your address at heyshanny at gmail dot com.  I will respond with my address so you’ll know I’m not some internet crazy out to chop you to bits.  I’ll ask again closer to December, but if you get in now then you just might get a Halloween card too!

Also, I know I’m terribly late getting jewelry out to my blog birthday winners, but I’ve been slam busy and I hope they will forgive me.  I promise they will go out next week.

family, shopping

Role reversal

Shannon

Yesterday I had a doctor apointment then met up with my Mom.  We went to visit my Grandmommy at the nursing home.  She’s in the Alzheimer ward for those of you just joining us.  We took her to the beauty parlor room where Mom washed, cut, and blew out Gmommy’s hair.  Then we took her to dinner at Ruby Tuesday.  After dinner we stopped into the Dollar store.  Gmommy started tearing into bags of candy.  So 2 bags of candy go into my Mom’s buggy.  Gmommy is ALL about the candy.  Mom distracted her before she could get to another one.  But then she was messing with something else.  Mom told her to quit touching stuff and Gmommy caught my eye behind Mom’s back and gave me a big eye roll.  Like “can you believe Mrs. BuzzKill here?”.  It was funny to see her acting like we were 2 kids out with our mom.  We weren’t in the dollar store too long, but just long enough for Gmommy to complain, loudly, that she had to go to the bathroom.  One thing you gotta know about Gmommy is that she’s taken to cursing and using unlady like words sometimes.  Funny, but not funny all at the same time when you’re out in public.  We hustled her into the car and across the street to Kohls.  Mom dropped us off at the curb and I aimed Gmommy for the restrooms.  Well of course we passed a ton of displays and of course every single one caught her eye.  It took us forever to get to the restroom since I had to keep taking things from her and telling her to stop touching things.  Oy, it’s like being out shopping with a squirmy adult toddler.  Mom caught up with us and we picked out some cute tops and pants for Gmommy, along with some cute new pajamas.  Everywhere we went Gmommy would find men to flirt with.  She refused to get in the car for a minute as we were leaving Kohls cause she was waving to and dancing for some man she saw.  Once we were in the car she saw a man walking down the sidewalk and started waving to him.  He started walking toward the car!  Mom had to gun it to get us out of there before my flirty grandmother got us in trouble!  Here she is modeling her new jammies.      Gmommy's pretty in pink We got back to the nursing home and got to work on labeling Gmommy’s clothes with her name and taking off the tags. But we needed her to try on her new pants. I asked her a couple of times to take off her old pants but she wasn’t listening.

Mom:  You have to help her get her pants off.  She’s not going to listen to you while she’s fiddling with that candy.

Me:  Well who bought her the candy?  Not me!

It was like 2 parents fighting over a child.  Boy that was an exhausting outing!  But it was fun.  Gmommy might not remember my name anymore, but she knows we are family and she loves hanging out with us. She dances everywhere we go and has a great time.  Makes it worth all the stop that’s and don’t touch that’s.

family, friends, fun, shopping

The O! in Romance

Shannon

Last night I hosted my first Pure Romance party.  It was SO much fun!  Nothing like having a bunch of girlfriends over, pumping them full of wine then squealing and laughing all night!  My consultant, Shaylene, is just awesome!  At one point she said “Now tell me about these pleasure beads.” She made it all so much fun!  Even my Mom and one of her girlfriends came.  They were hilarious.  My Mom wasn’t wearing her glasses so she couldn’t read the small print in the catalog.  She couldn’t read the “Anal Play” in pink at the top of the page!  She told me later she just saw something that looked like a pretty necklace!

beauty ho, csp, fun

Greedy, Dorky & Pinky no more

Shannon

Greedy:  It’s that time of year again.  When people start asking for Christmas wishlists.  I hate that.  I mean, I know they just want to make sure that they get us something nice and useful or whatever.  But I always feel like a greedy jackass saying “Oooh well I want a pony and a Wii and a blah blah blah”.  You know?  And it sucks cause I have to do the same with some of my more hard to buy for people.  Why can’t everyone just have online wish lists???

Dorky:  That would be CSP. I found darling husband hanging out the 2nd story window a couple weeks ago trying to clean out the gutters. The “tool” he was using? This: CSP's rigged up gutter cleanerCSP's rigged up gutter cleaner Click to enlarge. These photos were taken pre-haircut by the way, hence the ‘fro. CSP had gone and taped together a Swiffer sweeper, a Halloween yard stake, and a paint roller!  Got the job done though.  McGyver, look out!

Pinky:  Got my hair done today.  She had to strip out the pink that was only supposed to last 2 weeks.  And this is 6 weeks post pink application!  I had to go darker to cover the pink that was too stubborn to leave.  So I’m a bronde again.  I’m going back the week before the cruise to lighten back up to my standard blonde state.  I really liked the pink and it was really pretty.  But I got over it after a few weeks and I was ready to go back to normal.  Maybe next time I’ll go tangerine!