Bless Your Heart

for your reading pleasure:a trip down memory lane…

since i don’t know how to get my archives working, i scrolled through and pulled up the 1st week of posts to this blog. read the 1st post ever below, then come back up here for the ones following. funny how i thought things would work out…

[8/22/2001 12:32:48 PM | shanny :::]

We’re slow at work today. That’s ok though, gives me time to catch up on bills etc. Plus I’ll have some time to read. I’m reading ‘The Weight of Water’ by Anita Shreve right now. I found Dave Eggers’ ‘A heartbreaking work of staggering genius’ the other day at Target. I can’t wait to start reading that one. I don’t usually buy books, but the ladies at work and I are in a book share rotation and I wasn’t contributing.

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[8/22/2001 10:39:19 AM | shanny :::]

check out jack burton neilsen! chris and allison’s baby. http://www.cerious.com\jack so cute!!!

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[8/22/2001 10:37:57 AM | shanny :::]

So today… I walked this morning through the neighboring apartment complex. It’s really big, and really vacant. They charge a lot more than ours, and our apartments are bigger. Go figure! I’m meeting up with Mom and Morgan tonight and Jeannie and Weekend Will at Picasso’s. I’m giving Morgan her scrapbook. I can’t wait! She’s going to be so psyched!

[edit]

[8/22/2001 10:36:05 AM | shanny :::]

I just realized that the times posted on this blog must be pacific. I’m sure not up that early to post on a website! Anyway, on with the update.

TUESDAY: After work, Bad Shannon and I went to see the premier of “Summer Catch”. It didn’t suck, but it was just tired. Same story, different people. Couple of laughs. I sent my mom flowers today at work. Well, I sent them yesterday, but she called me today to thank me. It really brightened her day and that’s the point. She just seemed down this weekend. I won the soundtrack to the movie while we were there, I know waaay too much trivia! By the time I got home, Jon was in bed. I was missing him. I just love him soo much. He cracked me up, I was telling him my plan to get pregnant in May so I can be out on Maternity during the worst of tax season next year. Anyway, he’s like “We’ll get you the house and a little rat dog and maybe that will hold you over for a while.” He thinks I’m talking about getting pregnant too much. I just am so excited about really getting settled and starting a family with him. Plus, we have a plan, and I think it’s a good one. I just hope it will work and we can get pregnant this next spring or early summer.

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[8/22/2001 10:15:12 AM | shanny :::]

Ok so I’m already a slacker at posting. But here I go with the update:

MONDAY: I went to Mel’s to visit and to meet Davis. He’s 3 1/2 months old and just the cutest thing ever. Mel’s doing ok considering. Kari was there from Raleigh. She took a week’s vacay to take care of Mel. What a fabulous friend!! Mel’s doing really well with her attitude. But her prognosis is not good. Basically, she has 18% of the original tumor left on her spine. If it grows, there is no treatment. BUT- it might not grow anymore ever and she’ll be ok. So I pray for her. And I am thankful every day for what I have. And seeing her again made me realize how much I want a little boy of our own. And I want to be the healthiest mommy he could have. So I started walking Tues morning, and again this morning, and every morning here on out.

sparkle and shine is 1 year old!

yep, that’s right. i started this here blog up a year ago. i did it as a way to keep my birthday resolution to keep a journal. time flies. it was a couple of months before anyone but me and husband actually knew about it, but that’s all changed now. so happy birthday to my little blog. shine on, shine on.

**update: i still have no idea how to get my archives to link up the right way. or, at all for that matter. i may just have to suck it up and pay for blogger pro. i’m curious to see how far i’ve come with my blogging skills. no pics or links back in 8/01!!

**update numero dos: i used the little calendar thingy to show my 1st post. looks like i threw my blogday party too soon, sparkle and shine wasn’t born until 8/20. oh well, extra time to shop! =) here’s my first lame-o post.

[8/20/2001 5:32:15 PM | shanny :::]

Yay! I’m so excited to be starting this blog. I know I’ll be able to stick to journaling now, esp in this format. I’ll have to start in the morning though. Time to go visit Melissa and meet Davis!

[edit]

makes me a little sad to read that knowing that mel didn’t make it. looks like i forgot how to use capital letters since then too!

we’re home

we had a great time! i’ll tell all about our trip and meeting rachel later. right now i have a ton of catching up to do here at work!

birthday goodness



this weekend has been great. a good start to our holiday. we did a little shopping to get ready for our trip, had dinner last night at casco bay with the family, cleaned the house, did last minute laundry, etc. i just baked some cookies to take to the neighbors as a thank you for watching the house while we’re gone. we dropped nelson off at marc & sara’s for the week. kenichi’s at the in-law’s and mom’s going to swing by to check on the kitties throughout the week.

we stopped by tiffany’s to exchange my earrings for a way cool star necklace. the site didn’t have a picture of it though. but it’s like these, but silver. i also dropped off the rest of my silver jewelry for it’s annual cleaning and i about died of shock when the lady told me they’re charging for cleaning now. it used to be free for life. should be with how expensive things are there! she comped me on most of it but still charged me $20. she threw in a silver polishing cloth for free. i guess i looked pitiful enough. it would have been $75 just for jewelry cleaning! that’s crazy. but i can never get my things as sparkly as they do there. i’ll have to work my mojo again next year and maybe i can get comped again. =)

i should really be packing huh? correction, i should be packed. husband is. he’s in there watching crank yankers. i swear sometimes he’s 12 years old.

well we’re off for the week! i can’t wait to meet rachel, go to ikea , the aquarium, see the twins play and have some crab cakes!

early birthday surprise

i came home from work last night to find a surprise husband left for me. he had to close at work (til midnight). i’m so excited about this gift! it’s sooo thoughtful. he bought me a craft table and set it up in the office where all of my crafty things are. look: you can see a bigger picture here. it’s so cool. it’s stainless steel with a shelf under it for supplies. i love it. i really loved how husband presented it. he got out my 2 scrapbooks i’ve done and had them sitting there. then he took the glass cake plate and propped my birthday card up against it. and if you look closely you can see the little blue box that was in the cake plate. . you can also read the front of the envelope here. see, he does call me wife. it cracks me up. i love getting little blue boxes! the prettiest earrings were in that box. unfortunately they were pierced clip earrings and they clamped so hard on my ears it hurt! so we’re exchanging today.

after i discovered my gifts (all while having husband on the phone to experience. i tried to wait but he said to open the box while we were talking) i went to my sister sara’s to watch dragonfly on dvd. you know, that kevin costner movie. it was kinda neat. a little creepy but with a good ending.

so i’m off to get a haircut, manicure & pedicure. then tonight we’re going to dinner with the fam at one of my favorite places, casco bay. it’s a seafood restaurant our friend chris owns.

i can’t believe i’m so old!

the proposal

i promised the other day after telling our “how we met” story that i would follow up with the proposal story.

the date: august 27th, 1999

the set up: boyfriend asks me to go with him to pick up a computer for his parents. they had ordered a gateway and they delivered it to the ups place in gastonia (neighboring city about 20 min away). he says we have to stop at their house to pick up the claim slip. i wait in the hallway as he steps into the spare room to get the slip.

the question is popped: so i’m standing in the hallway when boyfriend comes out with a wrapped square box. it’s about 3 weeks after my birthday so i’m a little confused. the box is larger than a ring box though, so i totally wasn’t expecting that. he hands it to me and says, this is for being so great. i tear off the wrapping paper and it reveals a waterford crystal box.

as soon as i go to open the lid boyfriend blurts out- will you marry me?

-what?

-will you marry me?

-are you asking me? ( i was confused and caught off guard)

-yes.

-but you aren’t on your knee.

at this point boyfriend drops to his knee.

-will you marry me?

-oh my god! ( i realized, finally, what was actually happening) yes, yes, of course!

i drop to my knees. now we’re both on the floor in the hall. i’m crying, and dangerously close to hyperventilating. we’re hugging and kissing when he suddenly stops everything and says – you haven’t looked in the box yet!

so i do. and in the box is a heart shaped crystal ring holder dish.

and on the stem is my ring. i thought it was the most beautiful thing i’d ever seen. i took it out and he put it on me and i couldn’t stop looking at it. it is similar to this one: princess cut diamond in a white gold tulip setting. so sparkly!

then we went to ups to pick up the computer! i couldn’t believe it. i had to spend the 1st few moments of my engaged life with the counter lady at ups, who frankly couldn’t care less about our impending nuptuals.

we then met up with fiance’s mom for lunch. she had already told the entire staff at rodi so everyone was congratulating us. after lunch we went to my mom’s bank to tell her. she cried too.

a week or so later we went to disney for a week to celebrate. so fun. then in october we had our official engagement party once we had the date set. and then the wedding planning began! the wedding was march 3, 2001 at covenant presbyterian church. the reception was at the hilton and we went to las vegas on our honeymoon. but that’s another story!

and the festivities continue!

last night i went to dinner with michelle, amy, & sara. michelle, amy & i all went to high school together & sara is my sister. the 4 of us always get together for each of our birthdays, birthday girl’s choice of restaurants. so last night we went to p.f. chang’s. it was very good, even with our waitress’s complete lack of personality. after dinner we went next door to restoration hardware . i loooove that store. i can’t afford anything substantial in that store, but i love it! i did buy some no crack hand creme. dreamy creme for those of us with dry skin. . i also bought 2 interstate highway bingo cards to play on our trip next week. fun!

so dinner and shopping were very fun. as we were going to our cars in the parking lot, we noticed that a HUGE conversion van had parked next to amy’s little car. this would not be a problem except that the passenger side of his van was, i swear, 4 inches from the driver’s side of her car! i can not stand when people do that. did he think she’d crawl through the sunroof? it was so tight that we were checking to make sure that he didn’t in fact hit her car. i was thinking of fun ways to get back at him for his rude parking ways when the driver came over to us and said he’d move his van. he goes “did you need to get into your car?” like that thought only occurred to him just then that perhaps she would eventually need to get in her car. jeesh. funniest part was when i was announcing a plan to steal his gas cap as retribution i thought it odd that this man was kinda looking at me funny. that’s because it turned out to be him. maybe next time he’ll rethink his parking strategy!

sidebar

there’s been a lot of talk about target lately, and poor p-tina’s lack thereof. so speaking of target…i was hunting for another pair of shorts for my trip next week and i checked out target’s supply at the clearance rack the last time i was in. listen to what i got! or rather, since you’re reading this…read closely with lots of excitement! i found 2 pairs of shorts- 1 khaki, 1 black for $7.40 each, 1 pair of blue meshy sporty spice shorts for $6 something, and the best deal: a pair of black crop pants for $4.54!! the only downfall is that the crop pants are side zippers and my arms are so short i can’t reach to button the button. husband says “well, you’ll just have to wear them when i’m home i guess.” how pitiful is that?!? if i ever wear them to work i won’t be able to go to the bathroom all day!

nightbeat



last night husband and i went to nightbeat with the in-laws, jon’s cousin lee, and jon’s aunt and uncle erv & deb. it’s the annual performance and competition of drum and bugle corps from all over the country. jon’s cousin dana plays trumpet and has been touring with the carolina crown for 2 summers now. she’ll be a senior in high school this fall and let me tell you, it’s greuling. they perform in literally 100 degree heat in these huge long sleeve uniforms. but she gets to go all over the country and it’s really quite an experience. you have to audition to be in the corps, and it’s the best of the best in your state.

they really put on an amazing show. last night one of the corps, the cadets , brought the house down. they ended up winning the gold medal, but they won the crowd over first. their program was all based on 40’s music with a very patriotic twist. the color guard was all decked out in 40’s dresses & suits, so cute. they did swing dancing, had war era posters, and the boys wore 40’s army uniforms. the band performed boogie woogie bugle boy and america the beautiful among other american revival songs. the whole crowd was on its feet. they just did an awesome job. if you ever get a chance to go to one of these shows, pleeeease do. you will have the best time, and the kids really appreciate it.

once upon a time….

m asked how husband and i met. and you know, i don’t think i’ve ever written about that in this blog. so here we go:

about 5 years ago 5 of my friends and i decided to go on a cruise. amy, landon, marc, kevin, jackie, & me. at the time marc (who is now my brother in law) was dating jackie (who was then my roommate). well, we get a little closer to cruise date and they break up. we had already booked the cruise and put down non-refundable deposits. so marc says “i’m not going unless i can bring another friend. i asked my friend jon to go.” this made me mad. we didn’t know this guy! he could be some wacko and now marc’s putting us on a boat with him for a week! marc said “don’t worry you’ll like him. you’ll meet him at kevin’s birthday party.” jon had said he would go and had already put down his deposit. well, i had already paid my cruise bill in full so adding jon made my total go down, meaning jon now owed me about $38.

now a little background info. jon and marc had been roommates in college. they had been friends the whole time marc & i had been friends (since 1992), jon and i had just never met. in fact, jon had only met the guys in the group casually, and hadn’t met any of us girls.

so, kevin’s birthday comes (5/22/98) and i go over to marc’s house for the party. i ask marc to point out this jon guy and i marched right up to him. the exchange went something like this:

me: are you jon?

him: yeah, who are you?

me: i’m shannon. i hear you’re going on the cruise with us.

him: that’s right.

me: well, you owe me $38.

at this point he made some smart comment i’m sure. romantic isn’t it?

well, it didn’t escape my attention that this guy was pretty cute. turns out he thought i was pretty cute too. we stayed up literally all night talking that night. the next night we stayed up all night again talking. by then i knew he was the one. he was such a gentleman and we just connected. and we’ve been together ever since.

so, that october (1998) all 7 of us went on a great cruise to the southeastern carribean. the next august jon proposed, and we were married march 3, 2001. i’ll have to tell the proposal story next time. it’s a good one.

….and we lived happily ever after.

let the festivities begin!



saturday husband’s parents came over for some window fixin and steak grillin. jon’s dad helped him replace the window pane he smashed. then we went to the grocery store for some steaks, corn, cucumbers & baked beans for dinner. we stopped by the fresh market so i could pick out a pre-birthday cake. italian cream. yum. we grilled out and had cake & opened presents. a good time was had by all. you can check out the recipes for the cucumber salad & mom’s baked beans with a kick here.

here i am with the in-laws: