Toby

Over spring break, Tony's cousin (who's more like a niece because she is the age of his niece's) Amy came to visit for a few days. She's in her final semester of college and will graduate in May. She's a precious girl and we had a great time shopping, visiting, and chatting.

One day as we drove to an adorable tea room in a neighboring town, we lost reception of my favorite radio station (KSBJ out of Houston). I said.........Oh, let's just listen to some Toby and I pressed play on one of the CD's in my stereo.

(Toby is Toby Mac- a Christian Hip Hop artist whom I have come to love over the past year as Madison and her friends have danced to many of his songs.)


Toby started to sing and I started to sing along.

Amy stared at me in shock, shook her head, and said...

Not only do you know who Toby Mac is...........you actually know the words to his songs?
I am shocked.



As I was telling this story to Madison the other morning as we drove to school

I laughed and said.............

I think Amy was truly amazed that I knew Toby and all the words to his songs.

But you know me...........

I'm cool like dat.


She looked at me with a mortified look on her face and said ...........

Do NOT ever say that again.

EVER.

That is so NOT cool.

A Note to Myself

Dear Shannon,

From now on do NOT store your prescription nasal spray in the same cabinet with the Air Wick plug-in refills. Do not do this because they look amazingly similar in the early morning hours and you might accidentally pick up the Air Wick refill and try to squirt it up your nose.

And that would be nasty.

Very nasty.

Love,
Shannon

Hello.............

Hello.

My name is Shannon and I am a blog slacker.

The past few weeks have been so busy and I just haven't had the time and or energy to post anything.

But the time has been good and busy and full of blessings.

I'll be back soon.........I promise.

It's 4:00AM, Where Are YOU?

On Your Mark...........................

Get Set.................................

SHOP!!!!!

A Premonition

Leaving the hotel in Dallas this afternoon after a fabulous weekend at a Dance Revolution with my sweet daughter I had only one thing on my mind.

Just one. (Which is rare considering the fact that I am ALWAYS multi-tasking. ALWAYS!)

Not trying to make sure that I knew where I was going on the never ending maze of highways and interstates- even though I didn't exactly know where I was going.

Not thinking ahead to all that awaited me at home- laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, and all that fun stuff.

Not thinking about how I missed my hubby and wanted to kiss his sweet face- although I did miss him and wanted to kiss his sweet face.

Not thinking ahead to all that must be done at school after missing school on Friday- although there is a TON.

My mind was on one simple thing.

Something I had been missing terribly since early Friday morning.

Two whole days.

My love.

Mi amor.

Mon Amour.

And so I tuned out the chatter from the car and focused intently on scouring the frontage roads looking for a sign.

THE best sign ever.

And yet I did not see one.

For miles and miles and miles and miles I looked and did not see one.

We continued on past exit after exit after exit with my heart feeling so very sad.

All of a sudden I saw a sign for Exit number 38 and I had a premonition.

I felt relief flood all over me.

Somehow I just knew that my love would be waiting for me there.

I immediately changed lanes and exited at exit 38- which just happens to be the same number as my current age. A true sign, don't you think?

I scoured the roadside and pulled up to a stoplight.

Sadly I did not see my love anywhere but as I waited for the light to change my sweet friend Betty looked to the right - and there, just a few blocks down there it was!

I pulled in to place my order with a huge smile over my very tired face.

My premonition was right.

My Sonic Sense was intact.

And all was well.

Please STOP Saying That!!

Is it wrong that I take such joy in repeatedly saying a phrase that drives my daughter absolutely crazy?

I think it's funny but she thinks it's so stupid and rolls her eyes and says "Mooooooom" every single time I utter it. I even shared it with Honey and he now does it too.

Is it bad that I enjoy it?

He he he he he he he he.

PS The phrase she hates is "Double Duh". Not just "Duh" but "Double Duh." Isn't that a hoot?

Because I am a People Pleaser

and because obviously my new hobby is posting ridiculous pictures of myself.
Here you go................

Eyebrows before Lisa the waxing girl

(This is a ridiculous picture I sent to Dory to show her how dumb my hair looked Sat. when I was heading to my tennis lesson. Maddie thinks it looks cute and wants me to wear my hair like this to school! I think I look like I am 5.)

Eyebrows after Lisa the waxing girl

(Picture taken in the car on the way to school (in the driveway). I do think they look better but boy did it shock me when she first did them!)

And since I am already embarrassed. here is a hysterical picture that Honey took while we were working on the girls Halloween costumes one night last week.

He looked at me as I was trying it on to check the length, started cracking up and then said.......

Um..........do you know what you look like?(His favorite part was the combination of what I looked like plus my shirt message!)

Scared Straight

Having a daughter who is a pre-teen is kind of like having your own personal stylist in your home. Sometimes this can be a good thing and sometimes it can be a bad thing.

Just about every day Maddie has some sort of comment on my outfit, or my hair, or my shoes. Most days she follows up the comment with a suggestion. My clothes usually are okay with her (now that I only wear what she considers "cool" jeans) but my shoes (I have one pair she especially hates) and hair often are what she suggests I change. Sometimes I listen, sometimes I don't.

Lately she's been after me to wear my hair straight. She likes it best right after I blow dry it- before using the curling iron. I've resisted for a long time because my hair is so stinkin' fine and has almost zero body. However I got my hair cut on Wed. and it's quite a bit shorter in the back than it was before. Because of that it has a little more body in the back and so I decided it was time to try Maddie's suggestion.

So today- I went straight.

And I have to tell you that for a girl who has used a curling iron every single day of her life since she was about 12 years old- that was a hard thing to do. If I keep this up I may have to go through curling iron detox. Seriously.

Now to be completely honest- I did plug in the curling iron- in case Honey or Maddie laughed at me when they saw my hair. Thankfully they both liked it- although it is very different and so I left it. Honey told me that it made me look "hip" which made me laugh. When Maddie saw it she smiled- and that made me feel a little better.

But I have to tell you- I'm about to leave for school and I am scared.

Scared Straight Shannon.

Because when you have to stand up in front classes of 5th and 6th grade kids all day long- it's a little scary to make a change.

Because those kids- they will notice.

And they will comment.

Sometimes not always in a positive and kind way.

So, I'm crossing my fingers- and praying they don't make fun of me (How old am I? I sound like I am about 5).

I'll let you know how it goes.

Update: Y'all are so funny! I purposefully didn't post a pic this morning because if it looked horrible and everyone at school was like....."WHAT did you do to your hair?" I didn't want it on here for the whole world to see. Now that several hours have gone by and I have had a VERY positive response(sEveryone I have seen has been really excited about it- one friend even screamed! I've been told over and over again how "Hip" and "Trendy" I look which cracks me up because I am so NOT!), I'll share a pic with you.

So....be honest.........what do you think?

It's hard to tell from this pic- but the back is really short and stacked!

Once Upon a Time............

Once upon a time there was an oldish girl.

She got the ridiculous and insane notion that taking an adult hip hop class would be loads of fun.

Somehow in her excitement she forgot that:

a. she's oldish

b.she has ZERO rhythm. ZERO.

c. the class is at 8:45pm, a time when she usually is in her pajamas and ready for bed

d. she's super stinkin' busy

And so the oldish girl ended up missing the 1st class due to illness and the 3rd AND 4th classes because she was out of town.

She did attend the 2nd class where she was hands down the WORST hip hopper EVER.

Seriously.

She stood behind a super sweet friend (who is GOOD at hip hop) so that she wouldn't see herself in the mirror. She knew she was BAD but didn't need to see proof of her lack of dance ability.

The teacher was sweet, her friends were fun, and the music was great- but man she SUCKED.

Big time.

And so the oldish girl decided to face reality.

The reality that she liked the thought of taking hip hop class much more than she actually liked taking hip hop.

She wasn't good at it and she didn't have time or the energy for it.

And so the girl took the easy way out and she emailed (thank goodness for email) the dance studio and became a Hip Hop Drop Out.

And she lived happily ever after.

The end.

Dear Loreal,

Dear Loreal,

I have been using your hair color for the past 5 and 1/2 years ever since I turned 32 and decided that I wanted to be a red head. That year I went to the store, picked out a Feria auburn hair color box and returned home. I have faithfully purchased a new box of that same hair color every 5 to 6 weeks since then. I love the color, the ease of application, and the great low cost. I've been so pleased with it that I have never considered changing brands.

Not until recently.

Recently I noticed that my roots were starting to show and that it was almost time to recolor my hair. So on my next trip to the grocery store, I walked down the hair color aisle looking for the now familiar box. I was a bit shocked when I found that my normal box with the cute short haired red head was not there. I decided however that perhaps Kroger was just out of that particular color and decided I would check again the following week.

A few days later I found myself at Walmart and decided to pick up a box of the hair color while I was there. I quickly walked down the aisle and glanced over the many Loreal Feria boxes- looking for the cute short haired red head. But once again, I did not find it. I was a tad bit worried but decided that maybe Walmart was also out of my particular color.

This past weekend I was at Target and again decided to look for my hair color. I walked to the hair color aisle hoping that I would find my color. But alas, the cute short haired red head was not at Target either. At this point I began to get a tad concerned.

Monday night as I ran into Walgreens to pick up some pictures, I decided to make another attempt at finding my hair color. I crossed my fingers and went down the aisle full of hair color boxes. I decided that if my box wasn't there, I would simply have to break down and try another brand or color.

Of course, the short haired red head was not there and so I began to search through the many, many boxes of auburn colors. Now I am sad to admit but I never paid attention to the actual color name and certainly not the color #, I just picked up my box based on the model on the front. I honestly had no idea what the color was called or what the number was.

As I looked through the boxes I realized that I was in a pickle. There were many, many shades of auburn. There was dark auburn, bright auburn, auburn auburn, and several others. I began to get very worried because the last thing I wanted to do was pick the wrong color and end up looking like carrot top.

So I started picking up all of the boxes and examining them- trying to figure out what color I needed and still wondering why they had stopped making my favorite color.

Imagine my shock and delight when after 15 minutes of looking- I noticed this little note on top of one of the boxes.

I was so excited to find my cute little short haired red head on the TOP of the box that I did a little dance right there in the aisle!

Oh Loreal you ROCK! Thank you for realizing that some women, like me, are in such a rush that we shop by picture- not by name or by number. That sometimes, about somethings, we are DINGY!

You have earned a customer for life.

Love,

Shannon

Getting Thrown Under the Bus

My battle to control my addiction continues to be fought.

I did make a trip to the store on Tuesday during which I did NOT buy any shampoo or conditioner.

I felt strong.

My family was so proud.

Sat., however, was not such a proud day.

It started innocently enough as I was shopping and decided to go quickly down the shampoo aisle to get to the facial cleansers. Now I know that I could have gone down the aisle from the other direction- so that I wouldn't even have to look at the hair care products but sadly that isn't what I choose to do.

I thought I was strong enough to walk by without stopping.

But I was wrong and stop I did.

Because I saw a sale.

A sale for products that I just happened to have some really good coupons for.

Really GOOD coupons.


Really GOOD coupons that were about to expire.

Suave shampoo and conditioner were on sale for only 88 cents each!

I had a coupon for $2.00 off 3 Suave products and a coupon for $1.00 off 1 Suave products.

So that means that I had $3.00 off for products that cost $3.52.

That means that 4 bottles of shampoo and conditioner only cost me 52 cents.

People that's 12 cents each.

12 CENTS

How could I NOT buy them?

Of course I rushed home because I knew that Honey was on his way home and I wanted to beat him there and hide the evidence before he could see it.

I rushed in and told Maddie (who had stayed at home) to hurry as we started putting away the groceries.

She asked why and when I didn't answer right away she said................

OH Mom, please tell me you didn't buy any more shampoo or conditioner?

So I came clean and told her what a fabulous deal I had found and she just shook her head.

I told her not to say anything to Honey.

Of course the moment he walked in the door, what did she do?

As he walked in the door she yelled out.............

Momma bought more shampoo at the store.

She threw me under the bus.

Seriously.

PS Although Honey was disappointed that I bought more shampoo and conditioner, he was thrilled that I was able to get a box of brownies for just 30 cents. Doesn't that seem like a double standard?