Cutting the cord, some other stuff, and a question for you

Saturday we awoke to a note on our door that our neighbor accidentally cut the telephone cable. This is a problem since our internet is DSL. I felt like a true American Pioneer as I tried to survive until today without phone or the web. It amazed me how often over the course of 2 days I would think “Oh I’ll just google that.” or “Ooh, I need to put that in my queue.” So I ended up just having to make a mental list of things I wanted to tell y’all.

My new issue of Real Simple smells like a Cover Girl powder, you know, that Noxema smell. I’d forgotten how much I love that smell.

I’ve been loving me some Craisins lately.

I’ve also been loving Tori & Dean: Inn Love. Although it was kind of off putting to see Sylar at a baby shower a couple of weeks ago.

CSP has been having to work some overnights. This sucks in ways I can’t even describe. I’ve had to resort to using sleep aid pills to get to sleep. The upside is I’ve been reading a lot more (since it’s taking me SO FREAKIN LONG to get to sleep) and I’ve really enjoyed the following books: The Glass Castle, Water for Elephants (esp this one), The Constant Princess, and I’m currently digging Little Children.

I also spent some quality after midnight time late last week reading all about Chew’s horrible experience with her adoption agency.
The long version is now gone and has been replaced with a shorter, yet no less important of a read, version. The whole situation is just heartbreaking for everyone involved, and I salute her bravery in posting the truth.

CSP gets a kiss from Molly

CSP gets a kiss from Molly

Originally uploaded by heyshanny.

It kills me the way she’s sitting on the back of the sofa & kind of on his shoulder at the same time. She’s the funniest little dog I’ve ever met.

Like, gag me with a spoon y’all

I got in trouble the other day for my potty mouth. Moi? With a potty mouth? Can’t be! I rarely curse, and if I do it’s usually in the PG-13 range. Ass, damn, hell & if I’m really mad the occasional s&%t. But when I’m around kids I really do pay attention to how I speak. Or so I thought. I was at my neighbor C’s house tonight when she told me that her 4 year old daughter was looking for something the other day and exclaimed “Oh my God!”. C told her she shouldn’t say that and E responded with “Why, does Jesus get mad?” and then followed up with “Why don’t you get mad when Miss Shannon says it?” Uh oh. Who knew I said it so much? And it’s not really my fault as I am a child of the 80s and any girl who got through the valley girl days unscathed is a rarity. So I’ve got to come up with something else to exclaim. Any suggestions?

Reality check

I live in the Carolinas where we have 2 seasons- Summer & Not Quite Summer. It’s Summer now and I’m already ready for it to be over. SO hot. And it’s not even Hot Hot yet. Ugh.

Ever have this happen to you? Out and about running around doing errands and what not and I get home at the end of my day and everything’s fine. Then I go to get ready for bed and there’s a big honkin zit right there on my nose!?! Where the hell did that come from? I mentally ran through my day and pictured all my encounters with people wondering who I talked to and who spent the whole time staring at that horrible growth on my face. And all day I’m bee bopping around thinking I’m looking all cute cause I had perfectly blended eye shadow? What a dork.

New Crocs!

And they’re called Pirate Crocs!

Prom!

Yesterday was my little sister Morgan’s first prom- her junior prom. I went over around noon and we had a lot of fun hanging out in the bathroom listening to music and doing hair and make up. My Mom did a killer job on Momo’s hair. And I did a kick ass job on her make up, if I do say so myself! By the way, Morgan’s only wearing clear lip gloss. People pay good money for lips that color!
Momo’s date was Josh- grandson of the next door neighbors. He’s visiting from Georgia for the summer. He went to a really strict high school that didn’t even have a prom so it’s cool he got to experience one. I love that proms are still steeped in tradition. They still wear corsages and boutinerres (sp??) and it’s just all so cute! I took a bajillion photos and here are some of my favorites: (click to enlarge).
Coming down the stairs: The rear view: The cute couple: Close up:

Never has a roadside sign made me so happy

While the IKEA corporate site doesn’t mention my IKEA yet, the sign offers a glimmer of hope of the fabulous shopping experience to come. And don’t think I won’t be taking Kiki (full name IKEA Li Mei Fun) to the grand opening!

Love thy neighbor

And I do.  I was lucky enough to get C as a neighbor and I adore her and her children.  Oh yeah, and her husband D too.  (But D’s a twin and there’s a picture of his twin with his family on the wall and it creeps me out cause it looks like D went out and got himself another fam.)  Anyway, I was over at her house yesterday going through a boat load of baby girl clothes she said I could have.  She also gave me a toddler bed and a changing table pad.  Score!  A little while after I got there I needed a lip balm touch up.  While I was applying said balm C says to me “Seriously?  You just whipped lip balm out from between your boobs?”  Well, yes.  I didn’t have any pockets!

Her kids all woke up from their naps and I was playing with them.  I was snuggling on the baby boy and I teased M the 2 year old that I was gonna take Baby home with me.  E the 4 year old piped up and said “It’s ok M, Miss Shannon lives next to us, so we can visit him!”  That apparently wasn’t good enough for little M so she went to her mom and said “Mommy, can you please go take Baby away from Miss Shannon?  I think she’s trying to steal him.”  I of course explained I was just teasing.  I don’t want to be known as the neighborhood baby snatcher! 

Interview

Alfred’s Mom interviewed me. Here are her questions!

1. If you could only visit the beach of the mountains for the rest of
your life, never seeing the other again, which would you choose and
why? It would be a tough decision, but I’d go with Beach. And I LOVE the mountains. But there’s something about walking in the sand, the sound of the waves, the smell of the air- you just can’t beat it. And standing there by the ocean, next to this amazing world that goes so deep and so far into the unknown, it makes me feel small and part of something way, way bigger than me.

2. Do you shave your legs in the winter? If so, what is that longest
length of time you have gone without shaving your legs? If it is absolutely necessary then I’ll shave in the winter. My skin is so dry and my excema really flares up during winter so I try to avoid it. I went around 6 weeks this past winter without shaving. I had just had my right hand operated on and I couldn’t grip the razor for a long time. When I finally shaved I had to do it with the electric razor first. It was like a lawn mower going through an abandoned, overgrown lot- clippings flying all over. I swear some of those hairs were so long I could probably braid em!

3. Could you give up the internet (all forms, blackberry, the libray
computer, home etc) for a month for $1 million dollars? Absolutely. In a heart beat. Cause $1 million would mean I could have 2 daughters and a son and not worry about how to pay for the adoptions. I’m guessing that means no email too right? I may go through withdrawals and get the DTs but it would be worth it!

4. What is your youngest memory? I was about 3. My Pappy and I were feeding the ducks at Lake Hollingsworth in Florida where I was born. We sat down on a bench and a duck came up and bit me on the bottom. Cheeky duck.

5. What sitcom (past or present) most closely mirrors your life? King of Queens. They remind me a lot of CSP & I. We’re a little of both of them. And they always seem to get into situations like we do. Of course, we don’t have my crazy father living in the basement. He’s in Florida.

Now here are the RULES.

If you want to participate:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me”, or words to that effect.
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions, but I get to pick the questions, no questions asked. Any questions?
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You have to include this explanation, and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Pug whisperer

Ok, so it seems that y’all are on board for the photoblog your day thing. I’m thinking we’ll do 2 days- a weekday and a weekend day so those of you trapped in cubeland M-F will have something more to take pics of during the day. And since a lot of you are going on vacay and/or are currently in other countries growing your families, maybe we’ll wait a couple weeks to get this thing rolling.

In CSP news…my boy has been cracking me up again.

He came in from successfully getting the pugs to go potty in the rain the other night (no small feat) and declared in a booming voice “I AM THE PUG WHISPERER!!!”

On our way home from dinner with the in-laws the other night we passed a couple of new billboards. They look like ginormous tvs. Now let me tell you that my next door neighbor and good friends D & C have a 60 something inch flat screen. It is so big that CSP’s been known to stand in our yard and watch their tv then come inside grumbling and shaking his fist while looking at our puny tv with disdain and loathing. So back to the drive home past the giant billboards:
Man, did you see that billboard??
Yeah, those are neat huh?
Can you imagine if we had a tv that big in our house?
Honey, it would take up the entire side of the house AND burn out your retinas.
Yeah, but I could turn it on and yell over to D & C “Suck on that Shepards!”

Love thy neighbor indeed.