Tuesday, September 29, 2009

promise not to laugh...

but...
you are looking at the newest mary kay consultant!
i know, i know...
believe me, i thought it too!

but i was/am inspired by my friend orenda.
i've known her for years, and even teased her once or twice about it.
but, she has finally won this gal over!


anyway, if you use mary kay, or are interested in using mary kay, or know anyone who is...
i could really use the support!

feel free to send me a message, give me a buzzz...
or whatever.

and check out my new website...
FREE SHIPPING GUYS!

~check me out~
semrich@marykay.com

i have high hopes for this little endeavor of mine, but starting the dreams off small...
making the kids tuition for next year all on my own!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

garrett turns ONE, and it's a BOY...


my s-i-l kim and i were pregnant at the same time with our third kids.
it's kinda special to me that we ended up with the same amount of kids the same sexes but just the opposite.
she had two girls and then a boy, we had a boy and then two girls.

all of the kids are around the same age, so it's great that they can "grow up" together.

yesterday, we celebrated their youngest, garrett... turning one!

the party was great fun, the kids had a blast.
i was a little upset that brian had to miss out on it....

but, special for him the bulls beat a big school!
a HUGE milestone for them, and in the end i was glad he got to go to tallahassee to witness it first hand. :0)


anyway,
happy birthday garrett...
and his daddy (who turns the big 30 tomorrow)
we love both of you guys!

and i must also take this time to announce that my brother kyle and his beautiful wife kathleen just found out they are expecting a BOY!
i was so hoping it would be (i knew that's what they both were wanting)...
and i can just imagine a little ky junior running around here with the rest of the gang in no time
congrats guys! :)

Saturday, September 26, 2009

rodeo roundup...



every month levi's school has a special "event" day.

and the month of september was the rodeo roundup.
and let me just say watching thirty- forty 3-6 year olds go round and around in a circle on their bikes with huge helmets on is just about the cutest thing i have ever seen. levi was himself and kept finding the need to crash into his friends like he was at some sort of truck rally! but still very cute.

his kind heart once again rang true when he noted that his friend brian didn't have a bike. he jumped right on board when my brian and i offered that levi and brian take turns on levi's bike (brian later used another kids bike that had already had their turn going around).
it always touches my heart when i see my kids go above and beyond. knowing that they are growing into people with good character and compassionate hearts (cause it doesn't always happen that way). it's a great feeling.

levi got hot and sweaty real fast and cooled himself off with some snacks over at their "snack shack".
i love that families are always welcomed, and i love that my husband always finds the time in his hectic work days that he needs to make it to all our important events.
it's moments like this that make it so clear in my head just how blessed i am to call him my husband.

and i'm sure it was nice for him to put some faces on the names he is constantly hearing levi talk about. tabernacle is quickly growing into another part of our family. and i'm so excited to be trying out their church tomorrow.
the school is such a great fit, and i am praying that maybe the church might be as well.



Wednesday, September 23, 2009

friends and memories...



this post has two quick purposes...
yesterday was "bring a friend to ballet day" during alivia's class.

and naturally she brought her friend lexi,
honestly, i don't know who else she would ever pick for anything.

anyway, it was cute. and it amused me to see just how much alivia follows lexi (who is 2 years older) around.
not that she is much of her own person otherwise (she tends to be a follower). but with lexi in her class yesterday i just noticed alivia watched her every move so that she could do exactly as she did.

which got me thinking just how important it is to know who my children are taking interest in. already at the age of 3 i see the tendency to "fit in"....
yea, that was my thought on that. is it sad that this was the lesson i took home for the day?

don't get me wrong....
it was adorably adorable as usual.
and lexi said she liked ballet better then gymnastics....
which wasn't my plan alyson, cross my heart!


now, onto tonight...
alivia is my all time helper while i am preparing dinner.
seriously, this girl lives to cook in the kitchen these days. which shouldn't be a surprise to me i suppose. she has restaurant blood running through her veins after all.

i recently found this AWESOME web site, kim showed it to me. when you first go to it you decided how you cook...
example: i cook for a family.
then you put where you tend to do the bulk of your weekly shopping...
example: i tend to shop at publix.

then (brace yourself, cause this is where this site rocks) it gives you 7 meals for the week, it gives you directions on how to prepare them...
and it bases the menu off of what is on SALE that week at your store!

yep, the greatest thing since strawberry pie!
i have actually been getting compliments on my dinners from both my kids, my husband, and my friends!

i've been learning alot about cooking that i didn't already know as well (i know, i know... shame on me for not knowing).


OK, so, sometimes it has fish meals. i had never cooked fish before in my life, let alone have to buy it at a grocery store. but, i am making myself try these new things, and i love any kind of sea food. like seriously love it! so, now i can prepare it myself and not have to go out to eat to get it! :)

now, back to last night.
the meal was shrimp hogies. and yes, they were really good!
as i was pealing my little shrimpies, alivia, was right there beside me making a mess of her one, with a sour look on her face that said "this was what i will be forced to eat for dinner tonight?". she has never eaten shrimp before. i dared her to try one. she did...
and she loved it. which reminded me of when i was a little girl watching my dad eat shrimp. i was rather grossed out at the thought of eating bate that we used to catch fish (OK... it wasn't the actual bate but it was the same idea).
and my dad dared me to try one. which, was the start of my love for all things sea food.

i don't know...
it was a good memory that just kinda made me chuckle.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

go bulls...



i think brian and i had different ideas in our heads when we heard
"it's a boy".

my thoughts first ran to "yea! a boy, the oldest child, the protecter, the leader".

and i'm not 100% but i am pretty sure brian's brain began to imagine fishing trips, camping, and sporting events.
and i would bet that an image of him sitting at football games cheering on his beloved bulls with his son holding up the bull hands was going through his mind before he even left the office that day.

and last night that dream of his became a new reality. a true monumental moment for a father and his only son in a house full of girls. i wouldn't hesitate to take a bet that my saturday nights in the future from the months of september- november will be truly girly evenings as my boys will be away loosing their voices screaming "go bulls" on the top of their lungs all night long....

well, at least until it gets dark outside and levi says it's time to go home and go to sleep.




Thursday, September 17, 2009

recap...

(levi and daddy watching the show "live" (before we watched it over and over and over all night long!)
how cool is it that it just happens to be when they were showing levi and amanda (brian's grandparents and levi's name sake).

OK...
if you haven't gotten the idea yet...
man vs food was a big deal!

big enough that i let my anxious 4 year old crawl out of bed to watch his grandpa and his great grandma on TV.
low and behold levi got his 4 seconds of fame too!
and if you caught it i am sure you would agree...
he did a pretty great job and making you crave pie! :)



and for the record, me and the girls were in a quick snap too...
if you looked really hard. watch it again right after he walks in...
were sitting in the booth over to the left hand side with our friend mary. :)

brian is busy today quickly learning the ropes of fame.

here is a clip from the local news network my handsome hubby shot yesterday (he was too shy to go on camera when they actually shot the show (hehe imagine that, mr. famous himself shy!)).
~click here~

the phones have been ringing off the hook today with people wishing they could ship peanut butter pie.
the web page has had huge number hits.

oh yea...
and my one and only will be on the mj in the morning radio show tomorrow morning with his sister chelsea.
he will be up dark and early tomorrow morning cooking them pie and fried chicken before they head on out to tampa.

god is so good!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

the big day, man VS food...

"delight yourself in the lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart."
psalms 37:4

this verse has proven itself true over and over.
god is such a big part of this family owned restaurant. and i honestly think that because of it he has chosen to bless them beyond measure. in a shaky world they just keep growing and prospering.
i am truly blessed to be a part of this family.

my husband is beaming from ear to ear!
more excited then a child waiting to go to disney world for the first time!

and he has reason to be.
his hard work, one of his biggest joys, and his heart is about to be witnessed nationally.
the place he practically grew up in! all his favorite early childhood memories stem from his grandpa, grandma and YODER'S.

i'm so very excited for him!

since i moved here nearly 10 years ago, yoder's has been a huge part of my life as well.
so, in honor of this super once in a lifetime kinda day...

i'm giving my most favorite "yoder's" memory.
which, by the way was kinda hard for me to decided...
so much has gone on there....

anyway...
right after brian and i got married we lived in the house right behind the restaurant (which is now their offices). we lived there around 5 months until we bought our home. at some point while we were living there i was starving one night after he had already locked up for the night. after much debate and complaining on his part to have walk back over there we decided to go over together....
we had a plan, something he surprisingly had never done before, and i surely hadn't either.
we walked over to the restaurant....
cut a piece of EVERY pie they make and took a bite of each one. and for those of you who don't know yoder's, that's about 37 different kinds....
and yes, i even tried mincemeat (gross).
needless to say, we both walked home full, with a sweet sugar high! ;)



here are some pictures of the "pie party" we had tonight with the kids in honor of man VS food....







NATIONALLY!
i still can't hardly believe it!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

upword soccer...



levi looks so big to me these days...
especially compared to his sisters and now that he's in school...
well, sometimes it takes me a minute to remember that he is only 4.

but last night i was once again reminded of the fact that he still is my "baby".

daddy came home for a quick break from work because he didn't want to miss levi's very first team sport evaluation.
he joined his schools "upword" soccer team. eventually, when the season starts they will be broken up into teams by their ages, but last night during the evaluation he happened to be surrounded by kids twice his size. he looked so little and new.

when we first got there brian and i took one look at the group of k4-8th grades waiting in line for their evals, then glanced at each other speaking our "secret language with just our eyes"...

saying to one another "he is going to be freaked out by this, maybe we should go home, he's still too young".
but he hopped right out of the van and quickly surprised us.
he wasn't shy one bit and jumped right in like he belonged.

through all 6 tasks the instructors would tell him what to do...
he would look up and say "ok, yea, sure... i can do that" and then he did!
just as he was told.

at one point the head guy took note of him after one of the tasks and told him...
"your doing great, i can't believe your only 4, and have never played before".
(which made both brian and i smile).

the night left brian and i debating for some time as to who's athletic abilities levi got...
and even though my husband likes to think it's his....
i'm pretty sure i made it clear with our "secret language with just our eyes" last night that it is in fact his mamas.


Monday, September 14, 2009

the place with all the books...


why i am even admitting this for the world to know is beyond me, but...

i went to the library for the first time since i moved here this morning. yes, i know what your thinking....
"shannon, you have 3 children 4 and under, how could you have never taken them to the library?"

and the answer is simply this...
because libraries gross me out! i imagine where these books have been, what nasty hands have touched them, and what germs i will be bringing into my home when i bring them in.

but alivia is very into stories right now, and i've been breaking the bank with all the dough i've been dropping on our ever growing book collection.
so today, i decided to give the whole nasty borrowing a book thing a try....
with antibacterial in hand of coarse! ;)

alivias eyes were filled with wonderment as she strolled along picking out the books she would be taking home with her very own library card. we read a few, we played with other children, we had fun.

and now, i'm kinda wondering why i never gave this whole library thing a try before?

Friday, September 11, 2009

a grand day for grandparents...


OK, i know i say it over and over...
but here i go again!

I LOVE TCS!

seriously! it is the biggest blessing to my heart!
levi is learning so much! already putting letter sounds together to read words.
he's learning bible scripture, and coming home with loads of questions.
he's drawing pictures, playing, and making friends.
i can tell he is happy to really feel apart of something, as am i (making new friends myself).

and today was an extra special day...
today was grandparents day!
levi's face looked shocked when he saw nana, papa, mimi and grandpa sitting there in his chapel when he walked in.

he practiced his song all week, both at home and school.
and was very excited to preform with his class.

but then, when the moment came, our typical levi stood up there with a scowl look on his face almost to say
"this is lame, why am i even up here?" the entire two songs. mary lou, my mom and i practically had tears rolling down our cheeks because we were laughing so hard. it was just such a levi thing to do....
always full of his own expressions and filled with character to the brim.

after, they got to go meet his teacher and have lunch with him.
it was just such an awesome concept to me. so often i know my mother sits and wonders what levi's school is like and now they all have the exact idea as to what he is talking about.
so... in levi's exact words when i picked and asked him how his special day was....
"it rocked!"

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

man VS food!


just a quick reminder....
man VS food, one week from tonight on the travel channel!

and yoder's will be on there!
stardom here we come! hehe.

no, but seriously,
if you can, watch it!

cause if you live in the area,
it will surely make you crave pie enough to come and get some...

and if you don't,
well, you'll still crave pie,
but you won't be able to come and get some.

so, sorry about your luck

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

the things i wasn't warned about....




you must be wondering what this cute little chubby cheeked girl is doing under a post like this,
and now i am going to explain for you...

tonight, i was helping anyone who needed help getting their pj's on...
i started off by undressing nataley. and then i remembered the note i signed when i picked levi up at school. he had a fire ant in his pants and it bit him a few times on his upper thigh. i let nataley walk around the house in the buff as i examined levis bites.

next thing i know a horrific stench is lagging behind nataleys pathway while she is leaving mud like trails behind her!
yes, my child pooped, stepped in it and was traipsing it around the whole family room floor.

i grabbed her, took her over to the tub, and quickly bathed the poop off of her.

then,
me, being the woman i am, decided to grab my camera to capture this moment i will one day look back and laugh about. i walked over to where the poop was and....
IT WAS GONE!
the dog ate it, how gross!

yep, my whole day was pretty much one incident like that after another...

and sitting down her now thinking about it, there is a funny irony in the fact that today, of all days, crazy stuff like this kept happening...
which i will get to in a future blog post,
hopefully.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

shannon's memory explosion...

so, tonight sure didn't go as planned...
not that i had plans for tonight, but still...
i don't think that 3 different trips to walgreens was on my mind as an agenda when i woke up this morning.

however, as i have learned from having a family of five, you never know what each day is going to bring.

with this whole swine flu thing going around sarasota i thought it safe to go ahead and take the girls in. they keep saying your better safe then sorry and i have noticed black eyes on alivia and runny little noses for the past two days.
turns out nataley faye is cutting teeth bad, and my missy moo has bad allergies.

bad enough that i got a prescription for her while we wait for the allergy panel to come back.

alright...
the whole point of this blog shannon.

my mom was in the area tonight so she came over to keep an eye on the kids while i ran down to get the script filled
(stop one).

whilst i waited, i made my way over to visit my handsome hubby. and then headed back over to pick it up
(stop two)

only to be told that my insurance was "no longer valid"....
which made an immediate lightbulb go off in my head!
i never switched it over!
you see, i was the main policy holder from when i was working over at the gift shop, but upon my leaving they changed brian over to be the main.
and with that came a new member # and card.

i knew in an instant that i didn't have mine in my wallet because of calling to get information yesterday.

so...
i made my way over to the restaurant hoping to grab brians.

but...
i borrowed his the day i had to take alivia into the er when she fell through the glass table, and, typical me...
never returned it to my beloved.

so.......
all the way back home i went.
and for some reason i choose to pop in my old kenny chesney cd that i have not listened to in YEARS!

suddenly, i was driving to my boyfriends little shack in the sporty silver cavalier from leaving the old hallmark store (like the old, old one... you know, on clark and beneva, the one next to that junky publix... remember laura?), wondering if this would be the night he would propose!

which then got me thinking (with a huge smile on my face) that brian and i are working on TEN years of being "brain and shannon". TEN years. we have come so far, and stayed quite the same... if that makes any sense?

so yea. the hour it took me to get the card and drive down to the store, and wait for them to fill the script (because they never did when they saw that the insurance was no good)...
(stop three)

i sat and remembered so much that has gone on the last ten years of my life.
all to myself...
i had good smiles, a few laughs, and just a handful of tears.

while tonight didn't go as planned, and seemed rather inconvenient on the surface....
it actually ended up being a pretty great night.

funny how kenny can still do that for me! :)

loving the girly...


is it wrong for me to say that i kinda love all the girly time i've been getting with levi in school?

seriously though...
mornings filled with dress up, painting princesse pictures, cutting out playdough butterflies.
afternoons over flowing with dainty books, pretty finger nails, and playing "shopping".

not to mention the fact that i have a constant helping hand with the laundry, preparing dinner...
and the occasional baking experience.

nah, it's not wrong...
girly all morning and half the afternoon sure makes you look forward to the loud ruckus evenings mixed with boy.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

blessings of my heart...


if you know my husband brian at all,
even just the littlest tiniest bit, you know..

he has an open heart that reaches and feels for everyone that comes across his path.
he gives freely, and it is in his nature to love and genuinely care for complete strangers.
he "has a heart for people" as his mother always says.
which is the icing on the cake in my eyes.

it didn't take me long to figure out that he passed that most precious gift, that few people truly poses, onto his son.
levi is a handful.
there is no doubt or question about that fact.

but that boy loves like nothing else....

and the perfect example of his free giving heart was shown to me this morning so quick that it brought tears to my eyes.

the joy fm...
which is a local christian radio station, has been talking about their upcoming mission trip to orphanages in peru. they have been working on a shoe drive for the past couple weeks, and we always hear about how they were wanting to collect shoes. the other week levi was listening and asked me "why they wanted shoes for?" and i explained to him that some children don't have mommies and daddies to love and care for them, and they need people to help give them some of the necessities of life. i honestly didn't think much more about it after that.

but this morning, levi heard them say that they would be in sarasota. he understood fully without my explaining that he lives in sarasota and he could help give children shoes. he was very upset not understanding how they could go outside and play without shoes on their feet.


his face lit up as he realized that he could in fact help! and he asked if he could go and give someone shoes.
i promised him that after school he and alivia could go down and each pick out a pair and donate them.

when we got there, is where i lost the whole point with him for a little bit.
i think that he thought

1. he could give the shoes to the actual child that was in need of them.
2. that he wouldn't be picking out "a cool pair" that he didn't already own.

however, i quickly squashed the thought when i explained to him that
jesus has a loving, giving heart. he doesn't ever think about himself, but always thinks about others.
i told him that i knew it was hard for him to give up cool spiderman shoes, but that he has a mommy and daddy that love him more then the world. i told him how proud i was of him for wanting to help someone all on his own, and how happy it was making jesus to see him do it.

he quickly smiled up and me and said "yea, jesus will be happy, and i will too" and placed those super cool spiderman shoes in the box.

on the way home we talked about giving freely, and loving to the fullest these children that we have never seen who don't have mommies and daddies yet. and another tear ran down my cheek when alivia told me in her soft spoken voice that "you can be their mommy too, mommy".


(pardon the mess of our clothing...
alivia had come from ballet and levi had gym clothes on from school) :P