The importance of Friendship

What is a friend?
By dictionary standards its: a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

Ever since arriving back home from my wonderful vacation I have been missing my CTMH friends soooo much. It's such a bummer to have all of my favorite friends living in different areas across the States and Canada which prevents us from getting together whenever we feel like it to go shopping, do lunch, or just hit the nearby Starbucks for a latte and a chat. I only get to see my friends once or twice a year which makes it very hard...but when I do get to spend time with them I absolutely have the time of my life. :)

I received a very heartfelt email this morning from a favorite friend from my past. It sounds like she's not doing so well in her life and so for her to take the time to get in touch and really open up her feelings to me really meant a lot! This is one friendship that I have really hoped would come back full swing over the years and so now that the door of opportunity is opening I am hoping that I can be the everything that she needs me to be. :)

I also had the opportunity to reconnect with my best friend from grade school! How cool is that...I'm so excited!! She is doing well, married, has 3 little girls, and (of course) lives no where close to me...LOL...figures! I am very excited to be able to reconnect with her again after all of these year and while I know that things will never be the same between us it does give me a very comforting feeling to know that she is back in my life and we'll have the rest of our lives to walk through the many wonderful memories that we shared together. :)

Recently, I had a friend close the door on our friendship which is never a fun situation to be in. Its even harder when the door shuts unexpectedly and you are left wondering what exactly went wrong and are helpless as to how to fix things. I'm hoping that with time there can be a mending process but as it sits right now the situation is completely out of my hands. :(

Do you have friendships worth celebrating in your life? What about friendships that need to be mended? As we turn the calendar and head into the holidays I want to encourage you to make FRIENDSHIP an important part of your heartfelt gift giving this year. That doesn't mean that you need to run out and buy a gift...just give the gift of friendship, a blessing that everyone enjoys. :) Not only will you be touching the heart of a friend but you will be nourishing your own heart and the happiness in your soul. :)

I hope everyone has a very safe and happy halloween, too. :)

~*Stampily Yours*~ Shannon Buck! :)

My craving has been satisfied

YUM! Look what my hubby brought me home from his most recent business trip! A cupcake from my very favorite, FAVORITE cupcake place - Cupcake Royal! Yippee!! I love cupcakes from this very cool bakery - especially the pink frosted white ones. YUM!! :)~~

Ok, so I know that this isn't such a good thing to be eating when I'm trying to watch my waistline but from time to time you just need to be able to indulge a little bit. I promise I only scarfed down 1! LOL

What makes these cakes so great, though, is that they make them fresh daily, no added preservatives, they are uniquely frosted with the perfect amount of sugary fluff, the packaging is pink and brown (my favorite color combination!), and absolutely heavenly to the taste! I have 3 t-shirts from this store and I'm hoping to get more because of their clever wording *hehehe*.


~*Stampily Yours*~ Shannon Buck! :)

New Vacation Pics

I'm so excited! My friend Amy and her hubby Stan sent me a disc with over 1600 cruise pictures on it. Woohoo! (Thank you - you're AwEsOmE!!) I pulled out a few of my favorites (people shots!) and sprinkled them throughout my cruise photo album (the links are located along the right side of my page.) Here are just a few of my very favorites, though. :)

This is of Scot, Pam, Amy, Stan, Aaron and I at the restaurant Magenta where we met our favorite waitress for the trip. :)

This is a picture taken with Amy when we ordered "Nothing" for dessert. ;)

Dinner out with our friends. :)

Pam, Amy and I on our way to the Hot Tub!

Me enjoying a Pear Martini on the last night of the cruise. It was yummy! :)

~*Stampily Yours*~ Shannon Buck! :)

C is for Connor

Look what I did tonight! I got creative!

It's been a couple of weeks since my vacation and I have had the hardest time getting back into the swing of things. I'm trying, though, I'm really trying. :)

Shortly after arriving home my sister-in-law gave birth to their very first baby - a healthy baby boy that they named Connor (9 lbs 13 oz!). I haven't had the opportunity to see him yet which breaks my heart because I love babies so much! But I'm hoping to get up to Seattle soon to lay my eyes on him, to admire his feet (aren't baby feet the absolute cutest!), and to take a few memorable pictures of him. Afterall, I'm a new Aunt! :)

I made this card using all Close To My Heart products...Good Times Level 2 Paper Packet, Chocolate Ink Pad, Sponge Daubers, Twill Ribbon, Sparkles, Large Dimensional Elements, Rub-ons, etc.

I hope you like it and enjoy the little bit of inspiration that blessed me today. :)

~*Stampily Yours*~ Shannon Buck :)

Cruise Movie

It's now become a fun tradition to make a quick movie using our cruise pictures and put it to a random song displaying the fun we had on our incredible Close To My Heart cruise each year. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as we did making it. :)

Here is the direct link: http://web.me.com/stampinbuds/MyEventPhotos/Euro-Movie.html

~*Stampily Yours*~ Shannon! :)

Thinking back to July

So, while I was on vacation I received my Convention CD that I ordered this past July. I was browsing the pictures and saw a great picture of our Directors table at the closing banquet so I wanted to be sure to share that picture. From left to right sits Me, Amy, Casey, Tina, Chris's Mom(?), and Chris. We had so much fun that night...listened to a funny comedian, enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and then there was dancing after everything, too. I so miss all of my buddies (even though I just saw them a week ago)...I just wish they all lived so much closer to me so that we could hang out and play. *sigh*

To view more pictures of Convention 2008 please click HERE.

~*Stampily Yours*~ Shannon! :)

Ok...I did it...it's official!

Yup! I did it! I officially made the switch to Blogger and cancelled my Typepad account. :) I brought over a few fun things this morning but then I just took a deep breath and said goodbye to the rest. :( But the good news is that now I can move forward with making this blog Great! So, if you have any suggestions for things you would like to see here, by all means, let me know! :)

Have a great day!
~*Stampily Yours*~ Shannon! :)

Our day in Nice

Ok, so I'm officially back home in Portland! YAY! The flights were soooooooooooooo long! Wow!
So, I didn't get a chance to update my blog yesterday after visiting Nice. Basically, we got up early and decided to play "The Amazing Race" by catching a train into Nice not knowing how to speak a lick of French. Rather interesting! We made it just fine, though, and wandered through the streets checking out all of their stores. We also made it down to the beach...um, the nude beach! LOL I think it was optional because there were a few that were topless but not everyone was...and not a pretty sight either. ;) But on the other hand the scenery surrounding the beach was gorgeous!

After we got back on the ship we headed to the spa. I laid on the hot stone beds and fell asleep for a couple of hours...man that felt so good and relaxing! We then hooked up with our friends and went to the CTMH closing banquet where I was able to steal a picture with Jeanette (founder and CEO). I also got lots of comments on my shirt that read in french... "I'm always right" on the front and "even when I'm wrong" on the back. LOL Everyone thought it was cute! I even had it verified by an elderly man in the elevator that it truly said what I thought it did. ;) As for the glitter...OY! I have it freakin' everywhere! LOL How am I going to wash this thing?

So we went to dinner at the Magenta (one of the main dining rooms) with some friends so we could see our favorite waitress one last time. We laughed with her alot and got a picture, too. She was so much fun! Then it was off to pack for departure. :( I was so sad to be coming home because I was having the time of my life but so ready to come home, too, because I missed my family and friends so much - and STARBUCKS! ;) LOL

So, anyways, that was our journey through the Mediterranean. Now to leave you on a FUNNY note! *hehehe* About 45 minutes into our 10 hour flight I needed to get up and go to the bathroom. When I opened the door I saw that someone had missed the toilet and there sat a softball size of poo just next to the toilet. *hahaha* What's even worse is that it look like someone had stepped in it too. LOL! So I told the stewardess and she said that in all her 26 years of flying this is one thing she had never seen before. LOL Poor lady! ;) About 6 hours later when I needed to go again she stopped to tell me that she was the one that had to clean it up and that she made sure that all her co-workers knew that they owed her BIGTIME! Ha! Can't say I blame her for that one. *hehehe* Anyways, just thought you would get a good laugh out of that. I know I do! :)

~ *Stampily Yours*~ Shannon! :)

Today was Pisa!

We drove 1 - 2 hours out of port into Florence and got to view the original carving of David. It was pretty impressive! I swear the thing stood about 25 feet tall or more! The museum would not let any of us take pictures so unfortunately I don't have a picture to show off. :( We had a great tour guide that explained the history of Italy as well as so many other things...just don't ask me to try to remember any of it. LOL I had a hard time hearing through the headset and retaining any of it. ;)
We also went and viewed the leaning tower of Pisa. Um, it was cool and all but not as impressive as I thought it would be. The area surrounding the tower was filled with lots of street venders and it was pretty much scary and dirty...so it really put a damper on the leaning tower. I also thought it would be much bigger...not really sure why I thought that, though. Hmmm! There was even one point when a whole bunch of street vendors picked up their goods and booked it out of the area because the cops were coming to bust them. Great area to be in, huh?

Other than that we headed back to the ship (and almost got into a bus accident...joy, huh?). I did take a picture of the Hotel California from the bus, though. I found it pretty funny that we had to travel half way around the world to see it. *hehehe*

We went out for drinks and Tempanyakki (I know I'm spelling this wrong...LOL!) after we returned to the ship and it was soooo good. We were the loudest bunch in the restaurant! So much in fact, the table next to ours looked like they wanted to join us. LOL Man we were a wild bunch! In the end, the other table DID come over and share some laughs and jokes with us...they were from Malta. Of course the joke that one of the guys told was too dirty for me to repeat *hehehe* but also, I barely even remember how it all went. Ha! All I remember is that it was a golf joke. ;) Oh, and I can't repeat what he said when Amy asked why there are so many cats in Malta, too...I'm sure you can only imagine what he said. ROFL!! She was pretty embarrassed...so was I! *blush*

Tomorrow is our last day on the cruise before we pack up and head home. YAY!! I'm ready to come home...its been so long since I've seen my loved ones. Can't wait to see everyone!! Now I just have to hope that I'll have enough internet minutes to get me through tomorrow nights blog without having to buy more. :) *fingers are crossed*

~ *Stampily Yours* ~ Shannon! :)

Rome in a day...

Pam & Scot and Aaron & I visited Rome today where we were able to see the Coliseum (is that how you spell it? It doesn’t look right…lol!) Anyways, we didn’t book a tour but decided to trek it through the countryside Amazing Race style. Cool, eh?

We bussed to the nearest train station, bought tickets for the train (from a very, VERY RUDE lady I might add!) and then from there we had to take their tube system all the way to the Coliseum steps. Let's just say it ain't no LONDON TUBE...LOL We were in awe once we got there, though! The Coliseum is so HUGE and Magnificent!

We were just going to walk around the outside but instead grabbed tickets with a tour guide and were able to get right inside without waiting in the hour long line. I, personally, couldn’t hear the tour guide very well but I did pick up bits and pieces. We were even given time to explore the grounds on our own which was way cool, too. Fun to run into other Consultants while we were there, as well!

We decided to trek it back early because we are just exhausted from everything we’ve been doing. Took about a 2 hour nap and then got showered up for the CTMH dinner. We sat with a great group of people and laughed a lot! Afterwards we went to one of the cruise ship productions and then off to the hot tub. I should’ve taken a pictures (darn it!) because we had about 7 people in a 4-person hot tub. LOL

Tomorrow we are off on a CTMH tour to see the leaning tower of Pisa. That should be fun.

Also, as of tonight I can’t get any photos to upload. BUMMER! Again, I’m zonked but I will try to do my best within the next few days. ☺

~ *Stampily Yours* ~ Shannon! ☺

A day in Naples

We were in the port of Naples today. What a beautiful place! A couple of cruisers had set up this amazing, private site seeing tour for 4 couples and so it was so exciting to be asked to join them.Our driver picked us up at port and drove us about an hour through the mountains to a little village on the other side of the hills. There were HUGE cliffs and amazing views...and once there it was a tiny little shopping center that was so fun to take in.

We then hopped back into the car and went to the next stop - the city center - where we were able to do even more shopping. We found some lemon liquor (that I think we're going to drink tomorrow night since the ship security didn't take it from us during the security check. *hehehe* Plus we found some great Gelato and also went out to lunch.Next, our driver took us over to Pompeii where we were able to go inside the ruins and view all the archeologist finds from centuries ago. This was really neat and led the way for some AWESOME pictures!
Once back on the ship we went and enjoyed some time in the spa, went out to dinner, and then watched the Newlywed Game where one of the consultants with CTMH got pulled up to participate. How fun is that! We laughed a TON! Especially when the question was asked, "What is one of the oddest things you've seen your husband do while naked" (or something like that) - it was basically watching him run around chasing a mouse while she was going into labor. LOL Got even funnier when we got back to our cabin that night and there was a little towel mouse peeking out from under our pillow on our bed. ROFL I had to razz them about it later...too funny! :)

Well, I am absolutely ZONKERED and need to get to bed - I also feel like I'm catching a cold. *Sniffle Sniffle* :) We need to be up bright and early again in the morning!! Then only a few more stops and then we will be home sweet home. :)

~ *Stampily Yours* ~ Shannon! :)

Today we were in Malta

Today was a good day! We got up bright and early to see the ship pull into Malta because we kept hearing how beautiful it would be...and it was! So worth getting up early for!

We didn't have any shore excursions planned today so we just gathered with a group of friends and set out on foot to explore the city. We walked all over the place! Even found a cafe that served fabulous lunchtime pastries for only $.42 (Euros)! Can you believe that?! FORTY TWO CENTS! That's like less than a dollar in US money even! LOL

This evening we had a Close To My Heart function...meaning we ate dinner as one large group in the dining room. Pam and Scot sat at our table as did Suz and her friend Kim. We had a great time laughing and telling stories. It was great to see Suz again. I'm pretty much bumping into her on the ship at least once a day and she is having a ball! I'm so glad she was able to come on this awesome vacation with us and Close To My Heart!

This evening we went to the show on the ship (which wasn't very good in my opinion) and then we decided to hot tub on the top deck as we viewed the straights (I know Sicily was on one side but I'll have to get out a map to see what was on the other side...LOL. Geography isn't one of my strong points...LOL) It was pretty cool and lots of fun!

Well, off I go. Only about 5 hours until I need to get up again. :( Mornings are coming way to fast at this point...LOL!

~ *Stampily Yours* ~ Shannon! :)

At Sea today...

Today was our official first day at sea! I love at sea days! There is always so much fun stuff to see and do!
Yesterday, we bought a Spa Pass which means that for $75 a pop we could visit the spa and use the facility as often as we would like. So that's what we did this morning...we headed to the spa with Pam and Scot and used the jacuzzi and the hot stone beds. LOVE those!

Next Aaron, Stan, and Scot had signed up to be in the CTMH basketball tournament so we went and watched them play off the back of our ship. The weather was really nice and warm...Amy, Pam and I got some great shots of them playing, too. They didn't win the CTMH trophy but I thought they did pretty darn good! They had a winning record of 3/2.
We had a fabulous lunch and dinner today. We also had a CTMH business meeting that was really kinda fun. Tradition for the business meeting is that CTMH always puts together some sort of game geared towards the husbands and their knowledge of what their wives do for a living. This year they did the Family Feud game and the winning team would each get $100 product credit for each contestant. Way cool! Too bad my name wasn't called...but then again, I really didn't want to be called on stage either - I HATE being made the center of attention like that. LOL

I wore my dry-clean only white pants today with a Raspberry colored shirt and my new, cute black heels. Had to mention this because I told Scot I was going to tease him! LOL!! Scot went to cut into something on his lunch plate today and it flew across at me, landed on my pants, and stained them! Can you believe that?! ;) Luckily, most of it came out so I'm not too worried about it...but I do make him sit at the far end of the table when it comes to meal time now. LOL Poor guy! ;)

Well, I need to get up bright and early. We are headed into Malta in the morning where I hear its absolutely breathtaking and a great opportunity for a photo op! The cruise director did make a point to say that we can sleep in for the other ports because they aren't quite up to par for photos...LOL. So I had better get my snooze on so I don't miss this. :) Chat tomorrow! :)

~ *Stampily Yours* ~ Shannon! :)

Ahoy Matey!

We were up bright and early today and heading back into Barcelona to catch our cruise ship at port. YAY! It was way fun once we actually got there because I started seeing so many of my friends and even got to meet my downline Suzanne in person. That was neat! She looked like she was having a fabulous time so far and that made me really happy!
We had to go to our Muster stations like we do every year for the safety check. This, however, was the first year that we actually got a picture of us sitting around in our life vests...lol. Way cute, huh? I know we've had pictures taken of us in previous years in our life vests but unfortunately they had never been on our camera and no one has ever shared them. They must've turned out bad or something...LOL!

We didn't take as many pictures today...not sure why...probably because we were catching up and enjoying everyone's company. :) Both Aaron and I got so many compliments on our thinner selves so that made us feel really well. Kristine W. from the corporate office even told Aaron to turn around so she could see both sides of him. So he did his little turn and then she said, "Ooh Aaron you look good both coming and going!" LOL Aaron admitted later that it threw him off a little bit for her to say that and it embarrassed the heck outta him...but I know he loved every minute of it - he can't fool me! ;)

We went out to dinner with our friends Pam & Scot and Stan & Amy. We went out to one of the pay chinese restaurants and had fabulous food. We also had a 2 for 1 coupon to help pay the cover so that was awesome too! We all laughed a lot and had a great time! We even had some ship officials come over and ask how our meal was. I think he liked us so much that he gave us his card and told us that if we needed ANYTHING to give us a call.

*UPDATE* - we used the power of that card for many things during the week. LOL If we asked a waitress for dessert before our main meal and she didn't seem to want to do it we would whip out that card and say that we're friends with Richard and boy did we get our way in a snap. ROFL It was a lot of fun...and funny! ;)~

Tomorrow is our first official "At Sea" day before we start hitting all of the ports. Can't wait! We are planning to be extra cautious in the ports because there have already been a few consultants that have been pickpocketed. :( One lost all their money out of the wallet in their FRONT pockets while the other one lost her camera. :( Hopefully nothing like that happens to us. :)

~ *Stampily Yours* ~ Shannon! :)

The Barcelona Countryside

We got up fairly early this morning - just check out the view we had from our Parador balcony! Wow! Breathtaking, eh? ;)
We enjoyed a great breakfast and then set out to see the Barcelona countryside...absolutely gorgeous! We had to drive about 2 hours out of Vic over a mountain pass that was very windy and curvy and to be quite honest I was scared to death...lol! (Sorry Kent!) Tina and I were freaking out at how fast Kent was driving through all the s-curves (even though technically I don't think he was driving fast at all...it just seemed like it!) and how close he was getting to the sides of the STEEP cliffs. Man we were so glad to finally get off that stinkin' mountain! ACK!
We toured some really old towns and saw castles and structures made of stone. Very cool! These were all from the midevil times and everything was just so unique and culturally rich. Something definitely we wouldn't have seen if we had just stayed in the city of Barcelona.

In one of the villages we ran into some elderly men from Ireland. They took our picture, we took theirs, and we stood around and gabbed with them for a few minutes. One of the guys was VERY funny. He told us to look out into the distance at one of the mountain ranges because if you look carefully enough you can see a women lying on her back. Then he spouts out with "Ahhh, it brings back a bit of nostalgia." ROFL! How funny is that?! We got a good laugh out of it. :)

Once we were done touring the midevil villages we talked Tina and Kent into going back out to our "favorite" restaurant here in Spain...basically the same place we ate dinner last night. LOL The food was just so outstanding and yes we ordered more Sangria. ;)~ Afterwards, our very tiny, thin waitress stopped Tina to ask her where she was from (even though she didn't speak a lick of English!) and gave Tina the double kiss on the cheek thing that Europeans do...and well, Tina didn't really realize what was going on so she laid a big smackaroo on the ladies cheak and we couldn't help but laugh hysterically about it all the way back to our car. LOL Leave it to Tina to pull a fast one like that. *teehee* She practically knocked the little lady off her feet with the force of the kiss Tina planted on her. ROFLTomorrow marks the 1/2 way point of our trip. This is the day that we leave our Parador, return the rental car and then hop aboard the NCL Gem for a ride down the Mediterranean...wow! I'm sure that it will be so much fun and just as amazing. I can't wait to see all of my favorite CTMH friends!! I'm sure I'll have lots of fun pictures to share with them, as well. :)

~ *Stampily Yours* ~ Shannon! :)

P.s. I can't wait to get onto the ship tomorrow afternoon because then I can start using my straightener or curling iron with US plugs! YIPPEE!! Basically, they will work once again and I won't have to put up with frizzy, unmanageable hair any longer! HA! :)

We made it to Barcelona!

Well, we caught our morning train to the airport and then our plane to Barcelona. Can't say that it was the greatest flight but we did make it safely, afterall! We hit some sort of air pocket that scared the bejeebers out of me...and I guess it scared Tina, too, because she yelled my name from 4 rows back...LOL! I didn't hear her...I had my ipod cranked up pretty loud...loud enough where I'm pretty sure that the poor old lady next to me most likely wanted to toss me out onto the wing of the plane...LOL! Oh well. :)

So, we get to Barcelona and get our car and of course we have more luggage that can fit into the trunk. Thank goodness they gave us a free upgrade...still had more luggage than trunk space, though! LOL We had it piled onto our laps, under our feet, in between us like a wall in the back seat...you name it! Can't say it was very comfortable but, well, you just gotta do what you gotta do so that it doesn't cost much more, right? ;)

We are staying in a Parador about an hour out of Barcelona in a small-ish town called Vic and it is gorgeous! It's an old farming town hidden deep in the moutainside. Just look at this place and this view that we have from our terrace balcony! It's absolutely AMAZING!

We ventured into Vic this evening to get some dinner. The town of Vic is just ok but the "old town" area is stunning and charming and reminds me a lot of Lille, France in its quaintness. With the help of a couple of locals we found a little restaurant with FANTASTIC food. HOLY COW! The meal I had could quite possibly the best meal I've ever had in my life!!

Kent kept telling us how great the Sangria is in Barcelona is so we had to give that a try, too. Little did we know that Tina and I would be schnockered off 1 glass - Ha! Just imagine how we were off of 4! LOL All we could do was giggle about silly things and make stupid jokes and remarks. I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow night...LOL! I'm really going back for the blue-cheese calzone I had...YUM! But I'm sure the Sangria will make it onto the table again, too. ;) (Just check out my schnockered face/eyes in the picture below...and then check out how small the glass is! ROFL! I'm relaxed baby!)


We are planning on getting up much later in the morning, heading down to the lobby for breakfast and then we'll head back into Vic for their Saturday Market which should be a lot of fun. Then in the afternoon I think we're going to go tour some midevil villages or something...and then of course hit the awesome restaurant for dinner. Can't wait! Woohoo!

Hope you are doing well, too. I miss everyone at home!! We were finally able to get a hold of our girls by phone today...nearly 1 week after we left. That was such a treat! :)

~ *Stampily Yours* ~ Shannon! :)