ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

We're having a Halloween Party at our house this year for Payton's friends. Being in 8th grade is kind of in between - too big to trick-or-treat, not big enough to do anything on your own - so we're having the kids at our house for fun that night.

So in typical Payton style, she started setting up committees to plan the party - decorations, food, technical, music, etc. So the party planning committee met at our house this evening for pizza, ice cream, planning and fun.




And the evening ended with a round of "light as a feather, stiff as a board" which is apparently a lot of fun when you're in 8th grade.



Payton declared that tonight was "awesome! Thank you so much mom!" Hopefully the real party will be as much fun when we have dozens of them in our house. If they are all as polite as the kids were tonight, we'll be in good shape. If only they could be a bit quieter. :)

I recently used the site howmanyofme.com to see how many people shared my name. The results of that:

Meet some of the 43.

Meet Shannon Albert, Logistics Director for a video production company in Arizona who loves history and....traveling.


Meet Shannon Albert, a realtor in Oklahoma who loves horeseback riding and....traveling.


Meet Shannon Albert, Miss Cherokee County Georgia 2008 contestant. I'm going to go on a limb and say she also likes traveling.


Meet me. Yeah, I like traveling too.

This is an event currently taking place at various bars and venues in Denver - Karaoke Convention. You pick a speech and then give the speech complete with audience cheers at the appropriate spots. Hilarious. And Educational.

Karaoke Convention

Andy broke the passenger side mirror on the van recently and was frustrated by it but then remembered a quote from Blake.

Blake: Dad, there are a lot of cars that are broken and still driving.
Andy: Yes, that happens and since the cars still work people drive them instead of paying for new cars.
Blake: Most of those people deliver pizzas.

Andy's email to me about this conversation said:

It just cracked me up, because it is so true. Every car we passed that had a big dent was either pizza hut or papa john delivery drivers. I may have to start delivering pizzas.

The lack of recipe posts hasn't been because I stopped posting them - it was because I stopped cooking. Summer got too busy so we ended up eating a lot of Mr. Goodcents and "fending" - the kids favorite thing to do. However, I'm back to cooking especially as the temps get a bit cooler and my mind automatically switches into nesting mode.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup topped with crushed (baked) tortilla chips and (2%) shredded cheese. I think it will be even better after the spices have a chance to marinate a bit more and we eat it reheated. So easy to do - open several cans of beans, tomatoes, and corn and let it cook! Easy, healthy and yummy.

Saturday morning we got up and got ourselves ready. Andy had to be taken to the church early so he could be in pics so we dropped him off and came back later. One of the perks/drawbacks of staying at our hotel was that our car was valet parked. I said recently that I vowed to make better use of valet when it was available (some people vow to do more for charity, I vow to use valet) and this hotel gave us a whole weekend of that. Nevermind the fact that our 10 year old van is falling apart and was a mess...somebody else was parking it!

Andy and Blake while waiting for our car to be brought up.



Once we got back from dropping Andy off, the kids and I got dressed and headed to the hotel restaurant. The wedding was over lunchtime so I wanted to make sure we got something to eat before we left. I thought about taking pics because it was so lovely to be dressed up with my kids eating in a semi-fancy restaurant in our hotel and having nice conversation. Instead, I just enjoyed it and kept the camera in my purse.

We had a few minutes to kill so we waited in the lobby before our car was brought back.



The kids and I finally headed to the church. The weather was unbelievably beautiful, especially for August. We hung out in front of the church for awhile before heading in to be seated.






The ceremony started and I'll never forget the image of the church doors opening and Celeste being at the back with the outdoors shining in behind her. It was so beautiful and I can't wait to see the pics. (With some bribery) Blake survived the (lengthy Catholic) ceremony so we were grateful for that.




We had a few hours between the ceremony and the reception. We headed back to the hotel for a nap and then the reception was within walking distance of the hotel.


Groom's cake made with a Williams-Sonoma bundt pan...


The wedding cake which is always made by Aunt Barb...





Getting Althea to smile is like trying to catch Bigfoot but I caught her!


Tony, whose fabulous wedding we attended in New Orleans...




Joey, breaking it down...





Wedding reception ended at 10:30 so we walked back to our hotel to take the kids back to get to bed and then Andy and I met lots of other people out in the Kansas City Power and Light District. We had a great time and it was very busy with people watching the Olympics on the big TV in the middle (TV crews had been there earlier showing the crowds). Andy's brother, Dan, will be opening a restaurant there hopefully in the near future which could be the next time we see this many Alberts in one place again!

This last week was slightly off since we got back from wedding festivities and didn't get the long run in on Sunday, instead did it on Monday which put my short runs off schedule. Ended up heading out for a short run (again, where on earth is 5 miles short?) but the temperatures and humidity had jumped so I stopped at 4.

Went out Sunday night for a 10 mile run and was really dreading it. I'm getting burnt out on the long distance running despite the positive things that come of it. It's a big commitment and often very hard. The things keeping me going right now are Marcy, knowing the training and half marathon are near, needing to lose a few more pounds and knowing I'll get a Garmin for my car after the half.

That being said, my 10 mile run was awesome. I managed to cut a minute per mile off my pace from last week plus went a mile further. That puts me into Marcy's territory pace-wise which makes me very happy. Maybe we can actually run together through part of the half!

Speaking of....

We registered for the half this past week. It's official now. Only a few weeks away!

Weight-wise, I'm back to where I was before wedding gorging put me way above. I'm glad to have bounced back so quickly since the scale shot me up about 7 pounds there for a while.

Andy wasn't feeling great this past week and ended up not eating or exercising the way he normally would. I'm hoping that my workout plan after the half will be something he'll do with me so we can both tone up and keep the weight off.

Marcy and I are technically done with our half-marathon training but we're adding an 11 and 12 miler into our training since we have a couple of extra weeks between now and then. That means next weekend will be 11 miles with two 5 mile short runs during the week. Yipppeeee....almost there!

Side note: I had a dream a few months ago and in it, I was thinner, had a better haircut, had a little sun on my skin, etc. After that, I got my haircut and highlighted to match what I had dreamed, I've lost weight and my skin is tan from running outside so much. I just realized tonight that the pictures of me from Nick's wedding are very, very similar to that dream. I still have probably 7-8 pounds to lose but my face lost a lot so I look like I had pictured at least from the waist up. Now to just lose those last 7-8 pounds which reside in my hips, thighs and butt!

On Friday of Wedding Weekend, we started out the day with a 1 mile family race. The concept of the race started with the brothers all racing against each other some years back and has continued over the years. This time, many more people joined the family race including me. As a side note, I used to say "I wish I could run the race..." because I never had been able to run a mile before recently. So this time, I would run and my only goal was to not get lapped.




I wish I could explain David's attire but I can't.


And we're ready....


And we're off...


At the half mile point, I got lapped by Celeste's 15 year old brother and Andy's brother, Mark. They ended up running the mile in less than 6 minutes(!) so there was no way I could avoid being lapped with my 9 minute mile time. I think I was the only girl to finish but I could be wrong.

The scary part to me was that Andy was mostly keeping up with the two leaders for a while.

< wife rant >
Andy told me before the race that he was just going to try to keep up with Mark. Mark the genius who happens to also run very fast. I told him repeatedly that he was nuts and that he wasn't prepared physically to be able to do that. We had been running for distance, not time, and each time Andy tried to run faster, his shin splints would come back. He could not keep up with Mark. But he tried. And this is what happened just before the finish line.



His heart rate got way too high and he had to lay down to recover. It took him a long time to get back to normal. I kept going back and forth between trying to help him and being angry at him for even attempting to keep up knowing he wasn't prepared. He ended up being fine but it was scary for several minutes.
< /wife rant >

After a while, we headed to play some volleyball together. Another Albert family tradition.





My time at the volleyball court ended because Blake had a meltdown - he was tired, hungry and hot - so we headed out for some food, some cool temps and a brief break from all of the activities. It didn't last long though because the kids wanted to go swim at Grandma Willie's house so we did that for a while. After the 4 of us took showers, it was time to go to the hotel in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, where we'd be spending the next two nights in close proximity to wedding festivities.

We loved our hotel, The Hotel Phillips. It's old, architecturally beautiful, had fantastic upgrades recently done, great service, perfect location.





View from the 20th (top) floor...


Andy was off to the dress rehearsal at the church while the kids and I explored and relaxed a bit before we joined him at the rehearsal dinner.

At the rehearsal dinner...



Best. Dessert. Ever. Some kind of whipped cherry cheesecake.








2 Albert siblings...


3 Albert siblings...


4 Albert siblings...


5 Albert siblings...


6 Albert siblings...


Bob had already left so there isn't a pic of all 7 from this night.

We drove our kids back to the hotel so they could get to bed and then Andy and I joined a group at another hotel to finish the night out with a game of poker.


Andy and I weren't quite ready to drive back when poker was done so we walked to a nearby Steak and Shake for some greasy goodness. By this time, we were ok to drive and headed back to our hotel. We had to get some rest because we had to be up and ready by 10 Saturday morning and it had been a long day for all of us.