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Monthly Archives: January 2008

From my trip…

So I finally got around to looking at some of the pics from my trip. Took me a while, but I’ve been sick and I’ve had to play a LOT of solitaire during that time and I just couldn’t manage anything else between the sitting around and the playing solitaire and the general feeling sorry for myself (plus two dr visits and an ER visit… don’t worry, it was just strep throat… my insurance was kind of messed up, and of course it was a weekend and there was no actual people around to straighten it out… but I promised myself this post would not be about me whining!).

But I’m getting better, and I thought I’d post some of the pictures I loved from our day in Amish country.Farm1web

I think I’ll actually get one printed for my house. Just for fun. (you can click on them to see a larger version)

Opinions on which version is best of this farm? I loved the moody dreary sky. This first one, I call Isolation.

This second one I call Country Roads Take Me Home. I’m a big John Denver fan. Don’t be hatin’.Farm2web Farm3web

This third one I call, um, what would you call it? Dreams of Amishity. I’m not sure… Tough.

We HAD to get pretzels while we were there. I mean, didn’t the Pennsylvania Dutch INVENT pretzels?Pretzelweb

Gosh that looks delish. Andrea and I always spent our hard-earned paper-route dollars on pretzels at the mall, so this felt like we’d traveled to Pretzel Mecca. Notice Andrea’s pretzel is almost gone and I haven’t even started on mine yet… I was having fun taking pictures. Plus, I didn’t have a two year old stealing from me (for the first time in like 10 years!) Eatpretzelsweb Factory

We got a kick out the name of this town. Like a couple of teenage boys. :) Bridge1web

Andrea really wanted to see a covered bridge, so I had to humor her by taking some pictures once we got there.

Bridge2web And as much as Andrea might pretend she wanted to see pics of our day in Amish country, what she REALLY wants is to see pics of her kids. But I’m not quite ready to show her.

Leahbennett So for now, a sneak peek. This picture cracks me up. Leah’s face looks a little skeptical… and for good reason. Bennett had a sneaky little habit of pretending to kiss her while digging a tooth into her head.

January 30, 2008 - 7:41 pm Andrea - Awwww, sis...this makes me be all missing you and stuff. You were way fun to hang with. As far as putting a big pic in your house, I like all of them but I'll vote for Country Roads. Actually, I kinda think the best pic to blow up to wall mural size would be Intercourse Pretzel Factory. That's just funny. :) Awesome pics. You are amazing! xoxo

January 30, 2008 - 7:44 pm Andrea - And, sorry you are sick....I hope you feel better soon. :( At least maybe you are playing a mean game of solitaire these days?

January 30, 2008 - 9:39 pm Amy F - Beautiful pics! If I had to pick one for your walls I'd go with "Dreams of Amishity," Although I'd rethink that title... doesn't look right at first glance. :) Love love love the pic of the covered bridge. It reminds me of growing up in Vermont. I may have to buy a print from you! Glad you're feeling better. Strep is THE WORST. Thank Goodness for Alexander Fleming.

January 31, 2008 - 8:06 am Lindsay - Hope you feel better soon. But unlike you, when I am sick, I like to suffer in silence. I do have to let everyone know I am suffering in silence though. Very cute pictures- makes me want a vacation. The pretzels look delicious.

January 31, 2008 - 9:27 pm Jami - Shannon I really love all of the pictures. I would have to say that Country Roads is also my favorite. It would look so pretty framed.

February 2, 2008 - 12:27 pm Brenda Miles - Trev and I vote country roads, but our song is "Annie's Song" so we might be biased. I also loved the covered bridge pics. Fab. Did you ask for the story behind the business naming process at the pretzel place? Too funny.

February 4, 2008 - 7:22 am kristen hansen - Shannon, if taking photos of people ever got old, you could do magazines or travel brochures for sure. Your pics of Amish country are amazing and make me want to go and take just as incredible photos of my experience. Yes, you are that good!

Good times. And, I’m getting old.

Last night Dave and I made it to a concert! I heard this song on the radio a few weeks ago and was so in love with it I made Shelby write down the singer’s name so I wouldn’t crash while trying to do it myself. Another advantage of having kids get older…

The singer was Ingrid Michaelson. I came home all excited and told Dave I found the best song, the most perfect song for my new website (in the works… yeah!). So we looked her up, bought her album, loved it, saw she was coming to San Francisco and bought tickets immediately. We’re so spontaneous.

The show was awesome. Her voice is amazing. She was so funny… part stand-up comic, part musician. She’s going all over the country the next couple months. Go to her show. She’s the next big thing… I think her big break was when Grey’s Anatomy played several of her songs on their show, and she was recently on the cover of Billboard. In Borders the other day I saw a big display for her CD. I have a feeling we’ll all be seeing a lot of her in the future!

That cute clown in the video? Turns out it was the guy that opened the show for her is also a VERY talented artist: Greg Laswell. His show was also awesome. I think Dave found a new favorite artist too.

So, yeah for us getting out of the house together and doing something fun! Well, my ears and head had fun, anyway. I realized I’m getting really old last night at the show because it was a standing room only crowd, which meant we were standing. The whole time. And my back and legs were killing me… still are! Even my ribs hurt. I’m such a wimp. I feel like I ran a marathon and all I did was stand around for a couple hours. Prepare my bed for the old folks’ home, at this rate, I’ll be there by next year.

But enough whining about my poor pathetic physical condition. The coolest thing is, I asked Ingrid’s manager last night if they would mind me using their song on my little website and she said it was ok. Yeah for Indy artists who have control over their own songs!

January 24, 2008 - 10:48 am Hilary - SHUT UP, that's amazing that you can use the song. Did you get it in writing? I do love her stuff. Glad you had a good time!

January 24, 2008 - 11:17 am Rachel - I LOVE that song!! how cool you got to go to the concert! :)

January 27, 2008 - 7:52 pm Mindy - I just heard her for the first time a few days ago when browsing itunes--she's awesome!! How fun that you got to see her in concert. I hate standing for long periods of time, too. My Grandma Lois actually got a compression fracture in her spine while standing in line for a wedding reception. She was 93, but still...

January 28, 2008 - 6:45 pm Andrea - Seriously. Shut up. : ) I really love that song and I keep coming back to your bloggedy blog to hear it. I can't wait to see your new website! As always, I'm sure it will rule. And Mindy, THAT right there is why people should not have lines at a wedding reception. Poor Grandma Lois.

January 28, 2008 - 8:00 pm Alison Beachem - Love her too. I didn't know that the song I liked was her though:P I just looked up her schedule and she is coming to San Diego... Totally going. Thanks for the tip:)

January 29, 2008 - 7:28 pm Lisa - So glad you guys had a great time and thanks again for the CD. I've been listening to it non stop :D

February 1, 2008 - 6:49 pm Amy in PDX - LOVE HER. Had a similar experience--got the sweater song stuck in my head, then spent several days on iTunes trying to figure out who it was by. She was on Conan recently and made him a little modeling clay model of his tall, skinny, redheaded self (with optional beard). She's just so cute. We just missed her in Portland (her show was on a Sunday, gosh darn it) but she'll be back in April. I am going to drag my hubby along, whether he likes it or not!

From last October…

Just felt like posting this today. I really want to post pictures from my adventure last week, but I haven’t had a chance to even look at the pictures yet! I want to do a big, beefy post about that, but that will take some time.

Anyway… I joined the wonderful Jill Johnson for this wedding, she had just had some surgery and was afraid she wouldn’t be in tip-top shape, so she asked me to come along and help out. I loved playing around at this wedding… no pressure but plenty of fun stuff to play with!

Some of my favorites from the day:

The gorgeous bouquet… love the feathers!Bouquet Dressed

I love this shot… the bride is getting her veil put on, and her mom in the background looks kind of nervous and excited…

Lookgirl The bride’s daughter, so excited, seeing her mom all dressed up.

Walk The bride being led by her father…

And the groom’s first look at her.Look

Church After the ceremony…Church1 Couple Bride Groom

This shot was not posed, just captured as it happened:Kiss Bride1

You KNOW I loved these doors. :) Peek

And the car. :) Car Dance

Their first dance…

Cake  about to cut the cake… Cry

emotions during the speeches and slideshow…Fun

And some random details (click to view larger…)Deets

And if you aren’t already sick of looking at these pictures, here’s a link to a slideshow I threw together.

(and if THAT’S not enough, there are a few more plus a slideshow with Jill’s work on Jill’s blog.)

Whew! Quite a big post. Time to get back to… whatever it is I do all the time… :)

January 22, 2008 - 3:54 pm Jennifer - Shannon - Per usual, your work is GORGEOUS!!!

January 22, 2008 - 5:15 pm Rachel - these are GORGEOUS Shannon. You have such an incredible eye. I love the variety you captured...you rocked it!

January 22, 2008 - 5:17 pm Kim - Great work. I am getting into doing portraits and would like to do weddings myself, so it's great to look at work such as yours to get great ideas.

January 23, 2008 - 12:52 pm Kris - lovely, Shannon! Just lovely! :)

January 23, 2008 - 1:03 pm Stephanie T. - OMG!! You just lightened my worry by a 10000%!! My oldest is getting married in May...THEY chose the photographer (and WE paid the down payment)...They chose Jill Johnson!! I've been so swamped that I haven't had time to look at her site (bad momma!)...Can you hear the huge sigh of relief???!! They are now cake tasting and deciding on flowers...Ka-CHING$$$!! I had NO idea you did weddings...I would have streered them in your direction!! I'vebeen put in charge of finding a videographer...Any ideas????

January 25, 2008 - 7:19 pm kristen hansen - AHHHH! That is IT! I am getting remarried! Of course telling my husband will be the tricky part... Beautiful work as always! I hope you are "still around" when my daughter gets married... she's turning 4 in Feb! LOL!

I am a nerd.

Quote of the day:

“I prefer my chip-to-dip ratio to be higher than my chip-to-salsa ratio.”

This was followed by a lengthy conversation about the merits and qualities of licorice, pickles, and popcorn.

Today was all about food. And laughing about dumb stuff.

January 14, 2008 - 6:00 pm kristen hansen - yes, I love conversations about food. they are the best kind. I am more of a dipper than a salsa dancer too!

January 14, 2008 - 11:28 pm Jami - I think that one of the very best things about sisters is "laughing about dumb stuff." It always makes me happy. :)

January 21, 2008 - 6:36 pm kent - Love reading about all the Amish stuff. SO I guess you are saying you don't want to convert? :-P Totally agree with you on the long flight pointers. But when I was young I used to love to check out the bathrooms because they have all those little doors with things stashed in them and I liked the little sinks. That was when they had no movies and you could use the ashtrays and people could actually wait with you before you took off and they had food on the flight and....

Shannon’s big adventure, day 2

What I learned in Amish Country:

1. Amish people have fancy, froofy dogs too. And they look just like regular dogs. I met an Amish Pomeranian today. I didn’t take a picture, I was afraid it would be rude.

2. Sometimes, the Amish can fool you. At lunch, we were seated next to a couple of Amish girls. At the end of their lunch, one of them pulled out a cell phone and started chatting, and then told her friend to email her. I guess they were plain Mennonites, not the stricter counterparts (Amish). Or maybe they were in Rumspringa. But it threw me for a loop. I was kind of wondering… why bother with the unflattering get-up if you’re not going to be all old-fashioned? (I’m sure that comment was totally ignorant, please forgive me.)

3. Amish kids are the cutest things EVER. I wanted to take one home with me, but I’m pretty sure that would be frowned upon. But seriously, the little hats and suspenders… I could die. Maybe I’ll start dressing Franklin that way.

4. You need cash in Amish country. People in farmhouses don’t take credit cards, and you’re lucky if your $2 will buy you a bar of soap. (I was lucky.)

5. Covered bridges are pretty cool.

January 11, 2008 - 10:08 pm Hilary - The biggest delicacy of my whole life was some homemade cottage cheese I had once in PA -- pretty dang yummy.

January 12, 2008 - 4:44 pm Brenda - Have fun on the other side of the world, I mean country. And ExpressJet serves meals on all their flights. It freaked me out that airlines still did this. What do I know.

January 13, 2008 - 10:13 pm Deena - You should totally read Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult. I think you'd like it. Besides, it will give you something to read while you're waiting for the fourth Stephenie Meyer book.

January 14, 2008 - 5:58 pm kristen hansen - what??? no pics??? I totally understand not wanting too, but some of us will never have that chance to visit. beside I am so much more of a visual learner... hee hee. you are so much fun! I wish you were my sista!!!

January 14, 2008 - 7:52 pm Amy F - When Jay and I were on a trip to Missouri we saw a Amish couple come out of Krisy Kreme with a dozen glazed. Talk about surreal!! Then they got in a van (that was being driven by a non-Amish enabler) and took off, the mom holding the baby in her lap. I'm still not sure if I really saw it or just dreamed it all. I think they were actually Mennonites now that you mention it. But still.... ~A

January 22, 2008 - 8:41 pm Hollye - My inlaws live in a small town in Michigan that has a large Amish population. I thought it was funny that there was a hitching post for their wagons at the local Wal-Mart. My MIL has two Amish girls that work for her. They might dress Amish, but they are no more Amish that I am. They drink, smoke, use cell phones, take pictures which I understand is a huge no-no. One of them recently got married, so she has really settled down and settling into her Amish life. Rumspringa seems to be just an excuse for them to act like idiots. I know that they say it is so they can decide if they want to remain Amish, but the girls told me that it is very rare that people will actually leave. They don't want to be shund by their families and they have no one else. Okay..sorry for the book. I've been reading your blog for quite some time. I found it through Doris.

Greetings from the land of brotherly love

or something like that. Isn’t that what Pennsylvania is called? Either way, I’m blogging from my sister’s house today, all the way across the country in Philadelphia. She just had an adorable new baby and I’m here to spend a few days with them. Sightseeing and eating. I mean, helping out the new mom as she recovers. While eating and sightseeing. Just kidding. Or am I?

It’s now barely eight o’clock in Cali, but in Philly it’s past 11 and everyone’s asleep… feels weird. So blogging and interent on my trusty laptop is on the menu for the evening. My sister doesn’t have TV. Can you believe it? :)

It’s been a while since I was on a plane and I learned a few things. I started taking notes because I didn’t want to forget.

Lessons learned while traveling all the way from one side of the country to the other:

View Larger Map

1.  Don’t wait until after 10pm the night before an early flight to find out that rodents have found your suitcase in the garage and eaten half of the zipper. It’s too late to do anything about it and you’ll be forced to deal with the extreme heebie jeebies you get from the thought of your clothes touching something that a rodent touched. Ew. {shudder}

2. When getting a window seat on a long flight, take small sips of your beverage. Or better yet, go thirsty… abstain from drinking if at all possible. Your body will thank you. Because inevitably, the two big dudes next to you will be asleep for most of the trip and crawling over them in the midst of your agony is… awkward.

3. Bringing cash is a good idea. Two dollars won’t buy you lunch. Or a snack. Or headphones. Or anything. The pretzels are just a teaser, the Coke adds to the aforementioned torture, and there’s no such thing as a free lunch anymore.

4. Pilots now leave the cockpit and hawk credit cards at some point during the flight. Seriously?

5. Regular headphones DO work in the jacks… but you have to actually turn the volume up to hear it. I missed an entire movie because I didn’t learn this lesson earlier.

6. There’s a good reason Philly Cheesesteaks are famous. They taste amazing. Especially when you’ve just spent your day being tortured and starved.

That said, I love traveling. I was being a little dramatic about the tortured and starved part… On the docket for tomorrow… Amish Country! I’m sure I’ll learn plenty of new things tomorrow too…

One more thing to add to this already too-long post. Happy Birthday Mom! And happy belated birthday, Shannon! Me? Yes. And Grandma too, if she was still here. I was hours away from sharing a birthday with Mom and Grandma… I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but I was spoiled by this fact because Grandma would bring an amazing cake to celebrate our birthdays and I got a beautiful cake with flowers and grass and bumblebees all magically made out of frosting,  while the sibs were lucky if they got the correct number of candles. (only kidding!) To continue the tradition, my sweet brother brought me a cake to remind me of old times. It wasn’t quite as fancy as Grandma’s, but it was delicious and thoughtful. It made me all nostalgic for those little magic moments of childhood.

Cake And that is all for this edition of blog-a-thon. Amen.

January 10, 2008 - 9:02 pm dayna - hopefully there will be pictures of the new one...lurkers love pictures...had to post. i enjoy your photography.

January 10, 2008 - 9:14 pm Amy F - Haha! You make me laugh, Shannon. I absolutely never sit in the window seat for that very reason. Or, if I am forced to, I dehydrate myself. Have a great trip! (And have fun in Amish country... they make great food so I'm sure you'll enjoy it) :o)

January 10, 2008 - 9:22 pm Hilary - HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Have a nice trip!

January 10, 2008 - 9:25 pm Michele - Glad you had a safe trip. I am so dying for a good Philly cheesesteak right now. MMMM! That and a slice Neopalitan-style pizza. Sigh...and here I thought I would NEVER miss Pennsylvania. :) Make sure you have some Chicken Corn Soup in Amish country! And man, what's this about the pilots and credit cards? What airline? DH is an airline captain for a major airline and the ONLY time he leaves the cockpit (domestic flights) is to go to the potty! LOL

January 11, 2008 - 6:17 am Julie - I hope you have fun sight seeing...I mean helping your sister out. I hope your birthday was great!

January 11, 2008 - 8:17 am Lindsay - Happy Birthday Shannon! I am jealous you get to see Leah AND Amish Country!

January 11, 2008 - 12:23 pm Joanna - oh, what fun for you!! AISLE seat. AISLE seat. It's really not worth the window to have to ask people to move all the time. Have a great time! Congrats to your sister! Airplane snacks are just torture.

January 11, 2008 - 4:52 pm stephanie - hi shanon, from a philly girl. i just stumbled over here from cindy l's blog and i think its so cool you are visiting my home town! where did you get your steak from? lots of places make them good. have fun in the city!

Yeah, well…

So, the being perfect resolution… I’ve already failed. I left a pile of laundry on my bed last night and just pushed it off onto the chest at the end of the bed, allowing the clean clothes to sit and fester and wrinkle themselves all night. Oh, and I ate some chocolate that’s not allowed in the ubiquitous new years diet. And had a soda. It was mostly diet, but not all, and diet’s not that good anyway, so why not just drink water? Oh yeah, for the caffiene that I’ve also sworn off, that’s why. And I wasted time roaming the internet today and being entirely unproductive. So… back to square one. I’m not perfect. Besides, perfect is boring, right? Right.

(This post is too long, so I’m breaking it up with the Christmas card that ended up being a New Years card that I sent out. If you didn’t get one in the mail, here it is:) Cardfrontweb

Besides the impossible goal of being perfect, I do have a few other goals. The last few years, I haven’t bothered to make New Years resolutions. I figured that if I wasn’t already doing something, I wasn’t likely to start just because of a date on the calendar. But this year feels different. I think it’s because after a couple months of craziness and work, I got a nice break. It felt like a pause button on life. No school, no commitments, nothing on the calendar after weeks of being jam-packed. And once the kids are back in school, I’m sure it will be back to crazy. So I want to be ready.Cardinsidetopweb

I’ve made a 3-month goal in each of these categories: Work, Money, Love, Personal, Spiritual, Friends, Family. To keep myself accountable, I’ll share it here.

Work: I have lots of plans in the works, a new website, the workshop, a new logo if I get that brilliant flash of inspiration I’m waiting for. And I plan to read one book per month to help me with being a better business person. Right now I’m reading The Tipping Point. I’m not sure how that relates to my business, but it’s pretty interesting and it’s non-fiction and it was in the business section and a best-seller, so why not? :)

Money: Spend less on eating out, eat lunch at home as much as possible. To do this, I bought stuff at the grocery store today that I actually like so I don’t have to eat PB&Js all the time. This should also help with the diet thing.

Love: REAL date night at least once a month.

Personal: floss my teeth every single day. I know, that should have been my habit since I was, like, 4, but it hasn’t been, and it’s never too late to start, right? And the working out and eating less thing that everyone else is planning is also on my list.

Spiritual: Pray. I plan to journal every day. I feel better when I dump stuff out of my head and onto paper.

Friends: Go to the park day and/or volleyball and get out from behind the computer once in a while.

Family: Take each of the kids on a “date” once a month with either me or Dave.Cardinsidebottomweb

I tried to come up with a list of 101 things to accomplish in the next 1001 days, like I’ve seen a few people do, but I’m stuck at 45. I’ll keep working on that though.

Sorry for this exceedingly long and boring post. I’ll try not to do it again… at least today.

January 2, 2008 - 10:56 pm Brenda Miles - Got the card today and shared it with no less than 10 people. Loved it. My new years resolutions are to send out thank you cards and remember everyone's birthday in my family, two things I'm horrible at. I would add losing weight but I thought I'd give myself goals I could possibly accomplish. I may add flossing, that was a good one. You're so creative...

January 2, 2008 - 11:56 pm Amy F - Love the card, Shannon. So cute!! You have just convinced me that I absolutely must have you take our picture for a Christmas card this year. I know that's 363 days away, but ... something for you to look forward to. ;o)

January 3, 2008 - 7:21 am Lindsay - I have decided not to do the resolution thing. Or more appropriately I have not decided not to do it. It seems like my goals are the same all the time, I just can seem to pick up the habit.

January 3, 2008 - 12:24 pm Deena - Hey Shannon, I'm doing the 101 in 1001. Here's my link. I haven't updated in a while, but I'm still actually keeping up with my goals. They can be tiny, so don't get caught up in only big things. http://phenomenal101.blogspot.com/

January 3, 2008 - 1:05 pm Hilary - Wow, those are lofty goals... love the card, very colorful. :) Where'd you get them printed? How much? Maybe my resolution should be to be not so cheap. :)

January 4, 2008 - 5:24 am Julie - I loved your post, Shannon. Great goals. I need to get mine down on paper too. Great card too. Sending you a flash of inspiration (although I feel you are a creative genius and you don't need help from anyone in that dept.). (((inspiration)))

January 4, 2008 - 12:17 pm Raimi - Your card is darling! Happy New Year & good luck with your goals! Raimi

January 7, 2008 - 11:38 am Allison K - Love the photo with all the children running! It's perfection!

January 7, 2008 - 5:10 pm Holly Child - I stumbled upon your blog! Your card is HILARIOUS!! Very clever!

January 7, 2008 - 7:11 pm kristen hansen - You have such a good looking family Shannon. Matthew is quite a stud. I am soooo glad I found your blog! I was looking at some of my older scrapbook magazines and saw some of the original layouts you did (that made me fall into like with you) and you are JUST AMAZING! Now you have become this totally AMAZING photographer, what next POTUS?

January 14, 2008 - 4:29 pm Adri - Hey Shannon...I found your blog through Andrea's and I adore your cute card. Your kids are entirely YOU and it is fun to see that you and Dave haven't changed at all since the Rick's days. Fun to see you (even if it is in cyber-space) again! Adri (Croxford) Murdock

My resolution this year…

From here on out, I resolve to be perfect. No more of this “making mistakes”, or being “too tired” or “not caring enough” crap. Yeah. I’m going to just start being perfect. Starting tomorrow.

What are your resolutions?

Happy New Year!

and thanks for all the congrats on my last post. They make me all warm and fuzzy inside. :)

January 1, 2008 - 9:37 pm Hilary - Yeah, no need for the atonement or anything, totally just be perfect... uh-huh.

January 2, 2008 - 5:16 am Julie - What a PERFECT post! You are already well on your way my friend. :)