Pay day rocks

Don't you just love pay day!?!
I do. Too bad we get paid once a month so it is far between and short lived. Now I wish I could say I was going to go and do something fun with my money, something frivolous, but no. It is all going into the bank and toward some kind of bill or savings. I am what some would call responsible. HA HA
I do plan on trying out a new deli called Roly Poly. Ever been?

Again...

What a whirlwind of a weekend! I am still just exhausted from it. I plan on having a relaxing, do nothing weekend coming up.

We had friends over for the husband's 30th birthday Saturday evening. It was a good time. He and his buddy drank way too much and were really struggling Sunday morning, but I think they thought it was worth it?! I tried to convince them (actually in a non nagging way) that they did not have to drink all of the beers in one night, they did not listen and I did not push it. I knew I was going to be hangover free, while still enjoying the company of my good friends. Now, normally I would have been have a few drinks, but I just can't add to the country's fetal alcohol syndrome. We announced to our friends that we are expecting our third little bundle of joy. Thank goodness! I am tired of keeping the "secret"!! The funniest was that it took them a while to figure out we were serious and then our friends' 10 year old daughter said, "AGAIN?!" That was the funniest moment all night. I will remember that when she is allowed to have babies in about 30 years!

We told the monkeys on Friday. Big monkey is so overjoyed. He is convinced the baby is a sister though, so I hope he is not disappointed. He spent a good 15 minutes talking to his Gigi and Granddad about how great it is going to be to have a baby. He is going to call her Lucy. He told me yesterday that he really wished God would put a baby in his tummy. He is so sweet. Little monkey had no comment the first few hours after we told him. Then he leaned up against my belly and started laughing because he said the baby kicked him in the head. They both sang Twinkle to the baby that night before bedtime. So I think we are going to be alright.
I am just happy that the morning sickness has started to subside. It was REALLY rough this time. I am ready for my burst of energy.

Not another bite..

I will not eat another one of these oh-so-tasty candies today. Even though there are only 4 left out of the giant sized bag my lovely coworker brought in yesterday to keep me "plump"...that is another subject really.
So, after this last two in my lap, I will not eat another one today!

Total Slacker

I have been the biggest slacker today. I just don't feel like working, bad thing is that I have a bunch of work to do by the end of the day. I have got to get motivated. I know, make a list. That works every time!
Here is my list:

1. finish time sheets (or no payday for me!) and turn in
2. write methods for latest stats on project
3. run some more stats
4. grocery store
5. run at lunch
6. make lists for husband's birthday party food, etc.

I could add so much more, but I am going to take baby steps today!

Amazing Experience

The two day breast cancer walk I participated in this past weekend was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, as well as one of the hardest and most exhausting. I was actually a bit surprised by how emotional I got over the weekend.
I am not a very emotional person and I do not like people to see me cry, but I was brought to tears several times throughout the weekend and not only sad tears but tears that came with the immense pride I felt to be a woman and among those who were so strong. I will never forget the goose bumps and tears that flowed when we made a path for all of the survivors to run through at the beginning of the walk each morning. Watching the women of all ages, shapes, sizes, and colors with their short hair, missing hair, and hats and scarves on just overwhelmed me. Their eyes welled with tears that came from the pride of beating the disease and memories of what they had gone through just to get to where they were that day and what our walk and fundraising would do for finding a cure for breast cancer. It made me proud to be a woman, proud to be a part of something so huge, proud to have a grandmother who has fought and won her fight against breast cancer, proud to have an aunt who is currently fighting the disease, proud to have friends and family who care enough about this cause to contribute financially and emotionally to my insanity.
It made me take a step back and realize how blessed I am. So many of the survivors were so young, it made me realize how easy it could be me, my best friends, my mom. I felt so silly complaining about it taking 15 minutes to get each shoe on Sunday morning because my feet were so bruised or the fact that every time I went to squat on the toilet a small whimper would escape because my body hated me! I felt I was a little quieter than normal this past weekend, and I think it was a good thing. It was a time to reflect, get past my little issues and focus on what was really important.
There were fun times too. I have never been around so many people talking about boobies before in my life! Everywhere you turned you saw boobies or a new terminology for boobies. There were some really inventive names for teams. We are the Happy Hooters. I saw the Ta-Ta Task Force, Titty Titty Bang Bang, Save Second Base, and my personal favorite Operation Save Our Rack (cute camoflauge t shirts with this group!). My mom and I had some real quality time together, even though we were pretty tired. I made a joke that if we were any more "bonded" we might kill each other! It is true. I am thankful to her for dragging me along this year.
I am proud to say that I completed all 30 plus miles of the walk and ended up with only one blister. My mom and her friend also completed the entire walk with me, we were all very tired to say the least. I was surprised at how sore I was before day one was even over. The second 10 miles on Saturday were hellish but I am a very stubborn person and was NOT going to stop just because I could no longer feel my feet and my knees were screaming at me with every step I took. My running simply did not prepare me for the pain in my shins. Sunday morning was pretty rough and I slowed down quite a bit until I could warm up enough to not be so stiff. I was so happy to be finished and to be able to sit down, as hard as it was to get back up!!
I think that anyone anywhere near Atlanta next October, should plan on participating, it is so rewarding. Sherry and Lacy - you should jump on board!

Halloween Help

I need some help coming up with a Halloween costume. My office is really big on dressing up for Halloween, we even have a costume contest. They appreciate "home-made" costumes more than anything. I am having a hard time coming up with a costume. I have been some "okay" characters, ie. deviled egg and killer bee, but I would like to be something outstanding this year! I am having a creative block and need HELP!!! It has to be something not TOO hard or expensive to put together (in fact, the less money the better). Also, not too hot since I live on the Gulf Coast and we very often have 85 degree Halloween days.
So there is the challenge, now help please.

Made it

Well I am back from my walk. I made it and survived leaving the monkeys for so long. They seemed happy to see me. Of course my husband did everything he could so he could get the parent of the year award from them! What a sneaky stinker. I got loads of smooches and hugs, I was in heaven. I plan on posting about my wonderful experience this weekend at the walk as soon as I get a chance to really concentrate on the importance of it all.

Weekend Away

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Atlanta until Sunday. This is the weekend I am walking in the Breast Cancer 2-day walk there in Atlanta. I am excited to do the walk. I am having some big time anxiety though. Not about the walk, about leaving my monkeys for so long. I know, I know, so silly. But I have only ever left them a few times and for only one night at a time and I was never more than an hour and a half away. This time I will be 5 hours driving time and it is for two nights!! And I am going to miss one of Big Monkey's soccer games. It will be fine, I know. They will be with the nanny most of Saturday so my husband can work. She is going to take them to the game and have a fun day with pizza, games, movies and whatever else they can talk her into. I am sure they will not even miss me. The nights might be a bit tougher. I am the primary story-reader-tucker-inner-rocker-bedtime-kisser and it may be tough for Daddy to step in on that. In reality, I will be laying in the hotel room with blisters, sore muscles and the only thing on my mind will be how much I miss my little monkeys! Pathetic.
As if you can't tell, I have issues letting go. Imagine how much fun the first day of school is going to be, or graduation, or weddings, etc AAAAAHHHHHHHH!
My mom says that it will simply make them appreciate me more. I hope so. I really just hate missing even a moment of their rapidly developing lives.
I need help!

Lookit that Cheese!

My little soccer man.

New iPod

My husband turns 30 at the end of the month (yes, he is younger than me). We are going to have a few good friends over to drink a lot and get loud while our kids run wild around the house celebrate. I just got this iPod in the mail yesterday, I ordered it for him for his birthday. He has the shuffle but has coveted my iPod for the last year, so I broke down and he is getting the sleek black one. Now that I have it in hand, is it so wrong to give him my old one and I get to keep this one?!?! Just kidding, sort of. So if anyone wants to get him something, iTunes credits would be great. I am afraid this is going to create a monster!

Mass Fun

Big Monkey: It smells awful in here
Me: Shhh!
Big Monkey: It smells awful, like someone pooted awful!
Me: (as I am crawling under the pew- no pun intended) SHHHH!!! It must have been your brother!

This was merely a snippet of the fun we had in mass yesterday!

Holy Crap

Wow Texas, I am so sorry this is coming your way. It is almost as big as the entire Gulf of Mexico! As happy I am that we are not going to be bothered much by this horrendous storm, I am just as sad that the great people of Texas are facing this Ike. I love Texas, lived there several times, several different places. I even graduated high school in Texas.
You all will be in my prayers this weekend.

Cutters

I stayed up WAY too late last night watching one of the best classics movies made, Breaking Away. I was really excited when my husband came into the bedroom (not for reasons he would like) and said he had just watched the movie the other night and it was a great movie. I don't think he had ever seen it before.
Being that I am from Indiana and an IU alum, this movie is of course near and dear to my heart. Such a great story, and it doesn't hurt that you see a very young Dennis Quaid half naked at times. This is a real race every spring in Bloomington, and people get very serious about it. It is also a HUGE party weekend.
So if you need a rainy day movie to watch or are scanning through channels and see this movie is on (it is often on tv) I would recommend it!

Bloggy ID dammit

I have one of those names. You know, one that is apparently very hard to pronounce correctly. I have fought this my entire life. I get tired of it and sometimes just go with the flow.
Every year at the beginning of school I had to correct my name when they were dong the roll call. English was my favorite class simply because any good English teacher knew right away how to pronounce my name, it was a highlight. My favorite is when someone reads my name and calls me Shannon. Where is the "n" at the end of Shanna?!?! I get called Shaw-nah, Shay-nuh, Chan-nuh, and yes even Shin-nun. I don't know why. I always thought it was simple phonics.
Then there is the problem of whether to correct the people or not. I used to constantly correct people, and not always in a nice way. Then I got more relaxed with it all and just let it go when it was someone I did not have to deal with often. Yes, I have often said "it is Shanna, like banana" (hence my blogger addy).
The soccer team mom calls me Shauna. She did so at the game and I was in the middle of something or I would have corrected her. Then she did it again last night and I was in the middle of chasing little monkey to get the cones he had stolen during the relays we were running, so I did not correct it. I feel like my chance to correct her pronunciation has passed. What do you think?

Soccer mom, Plumber's crack

This weekend was once again a blur. I wish we could figure out how to make our weekends as long as our work weeks!! It was a busy one for sure. The monkeys insisted on going with the nanny Friday so I had the morning to myself and I got some major organizing done. Stuff that had been driving me crazy for weeks. In no way did I complete all tasks, but I felt quite accomplished with what I did. So much so, that I took a long nap with the monkeys after I picked them up!

Saturday morning I was good and got up early to go for a run before the husband had to go to work. It was a tough run, but I felt better for doing it. Saturday was also big monkey's first soccer game. It went pretty well, very hot. He did a good job of participating. Did not like the defender's position, but enjoyed the forward position. He needs to be where the action is, that is for sure. No dragonfly chasing, but he did try to take his shirt off at one point in the game.

We went to sesame street live afterwards and the monkeys had a blast. I was very worn out by the time we got home and decided to "take a rest".

Sunday we went to the local outdoor mall. They have a water fountain that they encourage kids to play in. They even let you have birthday parties there. It is the best thing ever. Free, nice setting, fun, and no real chance of drowning, and I don't have to put on a bathing suit. The monkeys had a great time. Yes, little monkey has plumber's crack. He is quite proud of it, refusing to pull his pants up. Who am I to argue?!



I was pretty much spent after such a fun filled weekend, so I went home and took another "rest". Does this make me lazy in your eyes!!??

Tell me your secrets

Aren't secrets so fun?!?! I can't help it. I am one of those people that loves to know something that everyone else does not know. It is like it makes me feel important, lame I know. Of course it is always better if the secret is a good one and not one that will hurt someone or cause turmoil in their life. I am also one of those people that can take a secret to the grave if need be. I get a lot of grief about this amongst my gossipy co-workers, they do not like that I know stuff that they don't know and I don't even bother to tell anyone. They are the type that can take a secret and make it public knowledge in less that 60 seconds and are not above talking about each other to each other. It helps that I have ears like a turkey (whatever that means). I would not call it eaves dropping because I don't go and blab it to everyone. I am just nosey informed.
So if anyone needs to tell someone a secret, I would love to help you out. I have a few of my own actually just bursting to get out soon!

See Ya Gustav

Lucky for us, Gustav took a path away from us. We did get a day full of storms and will probably have some today too. For the first time where I live, we had to get into the hallway because of tornado warnings. We live near downtown and usually we get skipped over as far as tornadoes go, but a few times we heard the sirens.
My parents came down for the weekend and ended up leaving a day early so they would not get stuck in bad weather Monday. It took them 5 hours to get to Montgomery, ridiculous. They said the roads were packed with Louisiana plates. I was glad not to have to leave, it throws such a wrench in your weekend! Plus I am still a bit under the weather and just could not be bothered by the storm.
The monkeys were bouncing off of the walls. Big Monkey was "sick" of watching the weather!! I think mostly they enjoyed making a "camp out" in the hallway and sleeping on the sofa bed with mommy Sunday night. This of course means mommy did not sleep Sunday night.
It looks like Mississippi made it through the storm without too much damage. They were really devastated with Katrina (not that the media really talked about them much). Anyway, I am glad Gustav did not pack as much punch as was feared. I just hope people don't become complacent with the next storm. After all, we are watching Hanna, Ike and TD 10.