Monday, February 18, 2013

Chaos and Mayhem, Moving and Whatnot

     Hello blog friends, okay who am I kidding.  Hello Grandma!  It's been forever since I've blogged, well, because life has been busy.  So today's post will be a little family update.

      We'll start with the boys.  Sandy, that handsome hard working man is still as handsome as ever.  He is still self employed.  Have I mentioned that self employment is heavenly?  Now there's that minor detail of finances, but really who cares.  I love that he is home on all my days off; even if he's working in his office.


 Christian turned 13 in July- I am so proud of that kid he is becoming an awesome young man.  He has worked so hard to overcome his dyslexia; this year he is doing amazing in school and rarely wants our help with his homework.  Let me tell you, that right there is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!



     The girls have been busy too.  Noelle turned 16.  CRAZY!  When I look at that beautiful girl I can  hardly believe she is ours.  She is so much fun, and has matured into a wonderful young lady.

Faith (my sis), Noelle, & Krissy (my newest sis)

 Gracie girl turned 9.  She is a pure joy.  She's hilarious and can be a bit, shall we say, unfiltered.  The other day she assured me that she would probably meet her husband on Christianmingle.com.   I'm glad she has that figured out, ya know I thought she'd probably meet her future husband in college.  Silly me.


    I've been busy too.  I switched positions at church, and now I am the hospitality ministry leader.  It's been a big change, and a whole bunch of fun.
   
     We also randomly decided to sell our house to buy a farm.  I figured we would get some chickens, two cows, a few fruit trees and call it good. Sandy could learn how to bring in the hay, bale the hay, whatever.  Now buying a farm is not easy as one may think.  First, you have that big casting vision piece with the good ole spouse.  That was easy, all I had to do was say I would be in the kitchen whipping up some homemade pies and such.  Sandy was in.  Now Noelle, had to be all practical, and mentioned that she didn't think it was wise to buy cows as I have an aversion to all animals.  She kindly recommended I start with a chicken.  Whatever.
   
     With great anticipation we began our farm hunt.  Well, one thing we did not factor into the equation was our budget.  You see, I had glorious vision of a spacious farmhouse with a wraparound porch. Tulips and daffodils would surround the porch in the spring, giving way to heirloom roses and hydrangeas in the summer.

 Problem was the b-word kept getting in the way.  We would travel to the farmhouses in our budget only to find rundown, funky smelling shanties in their place.

 
  One such place boasted a practically finished remodel with partial lake views.  The sewer system was noted to be a lagoon; so we googled lagoons and phoned a friend.   We learned lagoons were an acceptable sewer system and actually better than septic alone.  Sandy and I decided to make the journey out to the house, sure we were being led to our dream house....To be continued

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Planning the Anniversary

    I haven't blogged forever, even though I know my grandma loves to read about our family nonsense.  Tonight I decided to go through some of my old blog drafts and I came across this little doozy I wrote almost two years ago and never published.  The post cracked me up, so I decided to share it with you.

 



   This year is our 15th wedding anniversary.  It is amazing how time has flown by.  I love my man more today than ever.

  I REALLY wanted to go to the Melting Pot for our 15th anniversay, it is hands down my favorite resturant.  The problem lies in the fact that Sandy is, well, cheap, I mean frugal  and would like to go to a midlevel priced resturant.  Hummm...

2.  Here's a delightful snipit of a conversation had by me and my hubby:

       Shannon:  "Babe, I think we should go to the Melting Pot for our anniversary."
       Sandy:  "Hon, Let's be responsible and go somewhere cheaper."
       Shannon: "Babe, we barely made it, I think we should go somewhere nice to celebrate."
       Sandy:  "I don't think that's funny!"
       Shannon:  "We should have that put on our tombstone:  "Here lies Sandy and Shannon- They barely made it."  

    I think I'm hilairous, though it's possible I may get a gift certificate for marriage counseling for my anniversary gift.

Note:  We had a lovely time on our anniversary, and he took me to Maui for our 16th, so all in all it was a win.  :)