almost halloween....

So Kinzie is feeling MUCH better today. She is back to her normal old self. Wanting to eat all day, fighting with her brother, being bossy. She is a little crabbier than normal though.

But since she was feeling good today, we took some photos of their Haloween costumes. They weren't the most cooperative, so this is the best I got. There are some more on my

Flickr Gallery

if you want to check those out :)



Aaron's work is having a Halloween party tonight so we are bringing the kids there tonight. Last year they had a lot of fun, so I am excited to bring them again. Although I don't think all the cookies and candy are such a good idea for Kinzie today, and she is NOT going to be happy if I don't let her have any!

my poor girl.

Poor baby girl is sick today. We had ECFE this morning, and she was fine all morning. But she started vomiting really bad at ECFE. She's so pale, and weak. I finally got her to sleep about a half hour ago, but every so often she sits up to throw up, and doesn't even open her eyes. I don't know if she's even awake, but she's still puking :( I am really hoping I can get her to keep down some pedialite so that she doesn't get dehydrated. I don't want her to get so sick she has to go in for IV's like last time! That was rough on her.

So much for my productive day that I was planning on having! I was going to tackle a bunch of things on my mile long to do list! Oh well. It'll have to wait till tomorrow I suppose! Oh darn!

On another note, we went out for my Birthday this past weekend! I had a blast. Steph and Adam, Nate and Joan, and my cousin James and his girlfriend all joined us for dinner and the show at the Comedy Club. It was so nice getting out with some friends, and family, and just having a good time, kid free! :) Mom and Tiff stayed back at the house and watched the kids for us (with no heat!).

Our boiler went out again, and it was freezing in our house again. On Monday night it was so cold that we all slept in the living room. All 4 of us. Not the most comfortable sleeping arrangements but it was the warmest room in the house, since it has the fireplace. We closed off the room by shutting the pocket doors to the dining room, and then we put blankets up to cover the other entry. It actually worked pretty well to keep the heat all confined to the one room. We had a LONG day on tuesday though hanging out in there all day until we got the heat back. SOOOO, our boiler is now FIXED and I am really *hoping* we don't have any more problems with heat!

So...nothing to exciting, but I thought I'd update my blog anyways...

By the way if you haven't entered my contest at www.shannonleedesigns.com, be sure to do so!!!!!! Deadline is Oct. 31st! :)

busy week!

We've had a busy week! I haven't had much time to "catch up" with things online! :)

I have been scrapping like CRAZY lately though, and this week I managed to get completly caught up with my kid's albums!!! Yay! I have done about 130 layouts in about 6 weeks or so! Not lookin forward to the cost of printing all of that! BUT.. I am sooooooo happy that I am caught up so I can start to scrap the pictures I have just taken. Now to get onto my AMM, growing up, and family albums!

Yesterday we had Kinzie's first laser treatment with the new Dermatologist in Minneapolis. It went SOOOO much better than her last treatment at the old clinic.
I had to give her tylenol w/codeine a half hour before the treatment, which I was nervous about cause it makes me unbelievably sick. But, she did fine with it. I couldn't tell if she was loopy from the medicine, or if it was just cause she's kinda loopy anyways.. but she was just being really funny when we got to the clinic. She did really well letting them take pictures, and look at her birthmark. Last appt. she freaked out and wouldnt let anyone touch her or look at it, when we went in for the new patient exam. Right before they did the treatment, they did one spot on my wrist and on Aaron's so we could see what it feels like for her. It was like a little puff of air, then a sting, then it burned a little. A little painful.

Kinzie cooperated so well. We layed her down on the table, and she just layed there looking at Aaron, as he held her arms, and I held her legs. They covered her eyes, and started the treatment. She didn't even cry until about the third "zap". And then it only lasted about 30 seconds or so. And as soon as we took the gauze off her eyes, and Papa picked her up, she calmed down quickly. She was pretty groggy afterwards from the medication. And today her cheek is super swollen, and purple where they did the laser. But it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all anymore.
It is so hard to watch her go through it, but I am *hoping* she is young enough, that she doesn't remember it. I am so proud of my brave little baby! :)

I am looking forward to Tomorrow night. I am getting together with some friends and family to go out to dinner and go to the Comedy Club for my birthday! Yay! I don't think Aaron and I have been out together without the kids in a LONG time! It will be so fun! :)

Baby girl just woke up crying. Gotta go cuddle her :)

Get a good laugh....on me! :)

Okay, be prepared to laugh. I figured out how to put the video clip on my blog!
Now people get to see a side of me I wouldn't normally show...but it is just to damn funny not too! I can laugh with you, at me! :) It is a little sad to watch. But don't worry, I am not traumatized! I am OK! :)

So, you know...I am a 24 year old, wife and mother of 2. I am an adult. I protect my kids when THEY are scared!!! But from this video, you wouldn't know it!!!! You would probably think I am about 12 by the way I handled it!! Seriously, people were looking at me like, come on... really? It's not that scary!

The first part of the video you can't see anything. We were on the hayride and it was too dark, but you sure can hear me. Aaron had his arm around my shoulder and the video camera was right next to my face, so you can hear everything. My breathing, my crying, my hyperventilating! You can hear my brother laughing at me in the background! The second half is AFTER the hayride. I was okay for a minute, and thought if I don't talk about it, I will be fine!!!!! Well then I lost it. I couldn't even talk about it without crying about it!!

I used to love this sort of stuff, but as you can clearly see from the video... I can't handle it anymore..if there is a chainsaw involved!

shannon

No more!

I don't think I will be going to Haunted Houses next year.....

Let me back up my day first...
Aaron gave me a card and a 12 pack of Dt. Coke with lime when I woke up for my birthday. Anyone who knows me know that I have an addiction to caffiene! :(
I worked most of the morning to get my contest and new kits out! And then in the afternoon Grandma Sharon came over. She helped with dinner; we made a really yummy pasta with a garlic tomato sauce. Mom, Rach, Tiff, her boyfriend Erick, Nate, and Joan all joined us for dinner. We all had a really nice time together celebrating my birthday, and Tiff's.




Then we left the kids home with Grandma, and we all headed out for Cottage Grove. We went to a place that had a haunted house, and haunted hayride. I was excited to go, and I though..I know what to expect now..so I can handle it. I will be fine. We did the haunted house first. We all had to hold onto a rope so we stayed together. I was behind Joan, and I think I was crying drooling all over hear hood from being so hysterical! I was fine, well not fine...but OK...until I heard the chainsaw...then I lost it! :) And by the time I got of the hayride, my headwas tingling from breathing in and out so quickly! Aaron got the whole hayride on tape. You can't see anything, but you sure can hear me. My Grandma watched it and said it sounded like I was having a baby, I was so hysterical. And then after the hayride, he taped me talking about. Of course I couldn't even talk about it without getting all worked up again! I watched the tape of it today, and I must admit, it is pretty hysterical. Not so much at the time though. Why I subjected myself to that..I don't know? But even though it may not seem like it, I did have fun. I want to try to figure out how to put a little video clip on here so you can all see how worked up I was... ! Anyone know how to do it????

It's CONTEST time!

Today's my birthday!!! Yay! Happy Birthday to ME! So I've got a little contest ready. Check it out!



Get Bubblegum Girl

here

or

here

Get Licorice Boy

here

or

here

I am pretty excited about my first contest! :) Should be fun to see all the entries and such! I hope I GET some entries!!!!!

BRRRRRRRRR!

It has been COLD in our house!!!! Our heat hasn't been working for the last couple of days, and it has been 36 degrees outside..during the day!!! So it has been about 55 degrees in our house! NOT pleasant! Last night I was trying to reply to some emails, and I was SO cold that I was wearing my robe over my sweats, my winter hat, and gloves! It wasn't so easy to type in my gloves! PLUS we had no electricity from yesterday afternoon until about 9:30 at night. But we now have electricity AND heat! Yay! We do have to have our boiler fixed though :( Big Bummer! Not so cheap! But at least I can be warm tonight!!!!!!!!!

So...we had quite an unpleasant day yesterday trying to stay warm, and we were quite bored with no elecricity!

Other than that...nothing to exciting! I am off to work on a little something... maybe a contest?..... you'll have to wait and see! Check back on Saturday!!!!!! MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!! :)

My First Publication!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How EXCITING! This is the 1st time any of my layouts have been chosen for a magazine publication! Yay! Though I was supposed to be the featured artist in digital memories magazine the month AFTER they "quit". I was pretty bummed, especially since I told the whole world I was going to be the featured artist!! But Anywhoo!!!Now I can REALLY say I have been published! I even waited until the issue came out to *make sure* before I told anyone! :) So if you haven't gotten the Oct. Issue of Digital Artist Magazine you should check it out

Here!

and you can see my beautiful boy showcased on a layout on one of the pages in there!

On another note.. I have finally gotten some new products ready at PDW and Shannon Lee Designs:
It's all Fun & Frames





Beady Trims






Just a couple of small, fun, embellies! :)

Funny Story.......kinda....

I'll get to the funny story in a bit...

So I spent this weekend in Owatonna with my family. I stayed at my mom's. Me, her, and my sister, Tiff, had a girls weekend. It was fun. On saturday, the LSS in Owatonna had a "scrapbook garage sale". You can bring any used stamps or scrap supplies in and set up a table and sell them. I got rid of ALOT of my paper scrapping supplies. I am tempted to go all digital..but I just don't think I can do it yet. Just can't give it up completely. Only made like 38 bucks, but that's okay. It paid for the stuff we did over the weekend!

Okay, now on to the sorta funny story. Funny to everyone else...not so much to me! :) Mom, Tiff and I decided to go to this Haunted House and corn maze in Waseca.I am one of those people that likes to be scared...for the most part...in stuff like that. I get into haunted houses and stuff! I know it isn't real, and I can have fun. Yeah I scream like a little girl everytime someone jumps out at me. And yes, I hold my mommy's hand! :) But It is usually the "fun-scary". We started out in the Haunted House, and I got through that just fine. Then we started to go through the corn maze. It was pretty big, and we kept getting lost. We were having fun with it, until we heard the chainsaw.

Now I don't know if any of you readers have seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but Aaron and I went a couple of years ago, when it was in the theater. We were up in Stillwater, having a weekend away, to ourselves, and we decided to go to that movie. Not such a great idea... we were BOTH too disturbed and scared to go back to the hotel and go to sleep. So we ended up going to Perkins for pie and stayed for like 2 hours till we were calm enough to go back to the room to sleep. And it wasn't just me...Aaron too. So I was pretty freaked out by it.

So here we are in the corn maze... and I hear the chainsaw. I literally sat down on the ground, started rocking, and covered my ears. I tell my mom there is no way I can walk by him, and that I am too scared. She's like "well, we have to walk by him to get out, come on". So I get up and we keep walking. I am in the middle holding my mom's hand, and Tiff's hand. All the sudden we hear the chainsaw come out of the corn field to the left. Tiffany and I jumped INTO the corn field on the right side, on top of eachother. I started crying..literally crying. The "texas chainsaw massacre" guy comes over to us and is just hovered over me. Apparently Tiffany was telling me to get up, but I was frozen, and didn't hear her. I was just crouched down with my hands over my head...crying, in the corn field. It felt like forever that I was sitting there. When I finally got up, Tiff ran the other way, and I just stood there, eyes closed, hands covering my head, and I was sobbing "please stop, please stop" as he is standing over me with the chainsaw touching my back. I couldnt move. I just stood there. Of course he had to be getting such a kick out of me, that he wouldn't leave me alone. I finally tried to go around him, and after trying to dodge him a bit, I finally got by. All the while this is happening, my mom is just standing there, shining the flashlight on me laughing. I ran the other way by myself and got away from the damn chainsaw guy, and then Tiff and Mom found me shortly after that. I was crying, shaking, and almost hyperventilating. I was like "Mommy, why didn't you help me!". She didn't realize I was actually CRYING, like the "I think I am going to die cry" and not the "I am scared but this is funny cry".

So we get out of the corn maze, and I calm down a little. We stopped at the concession stand and talked to the 2 women working there. I was trying to tell them about the corn maze, and I couldn't even tell the story without crying again! I could laugh about it after we were out, but I still cried while telling it! And of course, that made the story even more hilarious, because I was laughing and crying hysterically at the same time, and you could barely understand me. After that, Mom kept saying "tell the corn maze story again". Just cause me even telling the story was so funny. I told it to Nate, Rachel, Dad, and Aaron, and I seriously couldn't tell it without getting all hysterical, even into the next day!

Nate was bummed that he missed out on such a show, so now I have to do it again! We are going to Anoka to do some haunted houses and stuff next weekend for Me and Tiff's birthdays. As long as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy isn't there, I will be fine. But I am sure everyone is hoping he will be there! Should be interesting....

So there's my story for the weekend. I am such a baby.

YAAAAAYYYY!

I AM THE DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT FOR PLAIN DIGITAL WRAPPER FOR OCTOBER! Yay! :)

So cool! Check it out in the newsletter

HERE!

So exciting! Hopefully that will help out my sales this month too! :) :)
I am working on some new designs and I hope to get them out VERY soon. I am also hoping to set up a contest as well! Fun stuff coming! Be sure to check back! :)

I haven't been able to design in a while, and I haven't put out a new product for a while, which is not good. I used to be putting a out like 5 or 6 things a month.. and last month it was only 2. I need to get crackin' on it! :)

the LLAMAS!

So it actually *feels* like a fall day today. It is still supposed to be like 65 degrees today or something. But right now it actually feels like it is October! Yesterday it was 80 degrees here! Not the cool fall weather I was looking forward to in October! I want the sweater and jeans weather! :)

So....Kinzie did NOT like the Llama farm yesteray:



This is the BEST I could get from her...



BUT......

Malichi LOVED it! He got to walk the Llamas, and feed them too!







Cute huh? :)

TIRED!

I am sooooooo tired today. I could so go for a nap, it's 2:00, and Kinzie is sleeping, and Malichi is having his quiet time..so I really could rest for a few minutes. But..if I do I will probably be up until 5 am AGAIN! So I can't! :(
I really need to get my sleep schedule back on track. I dealt with this insomnia crap in High School, sleeping about 2 hours a night. But since I've had kids, I have not had it at all..until this summer. Most nights lately it has been 2, 3, 4, or even 5 a.m before I can actually fall asleep. And then getting up with the kids at like 7:30! Yuck! I think I need to go to the doctor cause this aint workin for me! :)

Kinzie had her dermatology appt. in Minneapolis today. The new dermatologist wants to continue the laser treatments on her birthmark (on her cheek). She will start up again in a couple of weeks. I am so nervous, after how traumatizing her last treatment went. :( She will be taking tylenol w/codeine for the pain, which also makes me nervous, because I know how sick that stuff makes me, so hopefully it doesn't do the same thing to her!

I am taking the kids to a Llama farm with Mom's club today. Should be interesting and fun! Maybe I will post pictures tomorrow!:)

Anyhoo..not much interesting today..but at least I posted...right? :)

Really Bad Blogger!

When I started this blog, my goal was to write in it weekly about my family, my kids, my life, designing, scrapbooking and whatever else was going on in my world. I have obviously failed to do so! I always feel like, "ah..no one ever reads my blog anyways...so I am not going to post" Hello...who's going to read a blog that isn't written in! :) So I am going to try to start writing every day or every couple of days. It will be a good way for my CT's to get to know me better too!

I finally "redid" my blog too. Took me forever cause I don't know what the heck I am doing with all the html stuff! But I KINDA got it figured out! Yay!

Last weekend I did a photo shoot with the kids! Well..really just Kinzie because Malichi was too busy to sit for pictures. I need a lot of practice if I want to open a studio in the next couple of years. Here a couple of pics from the shoot!

9-23-06 031 copy
Originally uploaded by shannonlcarlson.

9-23-06 028
Originally uploaded by shannonlcarlson.

9-23-06 008 copy3
Originally uploaded by shannonlcarlson.