Here's a little piece of my Heart!

Isla counting

Isla usually does a great job of counting but in this video, she gets very distracted as you will see and I have to redirect. Of course, she won't perform on demand but what can you expect from a 21 month year old? This was the best I could get!

After waiting all year, Isla finally learned to say my name!

Isla first called me "Mine" when I asked her what my name was. From there, she called me "shockee," "Shee, Shee" and finally "Shannon." It's too cute and I love to hear her call my name!

So long, farewell!

I have one week left in Illinois and although I'm ecstatic about moving back to South Carolina, I'm dreading living apart fron my husband for the next 4 1/2 months. We have had lots of adventures while here in Chicago and this move brought Josh and I closer together. We were forced to depend on one another and to stand on our own two feet as a family. I've missed my family and friends more than you can imagine and I can't wait to be close to them all again. But I will miss my husband more. So, I'm going to need lots of embroidery orders over the summer as well as beach buddies and visitors in Charleston!

Part of ms wishes I was staying here B/c I'm leaving a piece of my heart. I've become more than attached to a charismatic little girl named Isla. She has stolen my heart and I'm afraid I'll feel a little empty inside after the move. I've watched Isla grow from an infant learning to walk to a toddler who now runs all over the place. The sweetest word I've ever heard come out if her mouth is my name...."Shannon." I've taught her to count to 10 and recognize the letters in the alphabet and she's learning to "read" her books all by herself. She has forever touched my heart but I know that I won't even be a memory to her. This is why leaving here is somewhat bittersweet.

We had all of our possessions picked up in the POD last Friday. Josh's boss let us borrow his blow up mattress so we've been living the simple life over the past week. Josh says it looks like a crack house b/c we have paper plates, cups and silverware, an air mattress and our clothes. We have no tv, no microwave, and no pots or pans. Luckily we still have Internet and have been able to watch old tv episodes on Hulu. If it weren't for that, I don't know what we would have done. Life has definitely been interesting over the past week and As much as I dislike our bed, I never thought I'd be so happy to have it back again. The blow up mattress is getting OLD and I'm so looking forward to sleeping on my bed again!

See y'all (I use this word as much as possible up here just to point out that I'm not from around here) in SC. This Carolina girl is going home and will hopefully be experiencing life near the beach from now on istead of life in the burbs! :o)

God is Good!

I felt a huge wave of relief come over me this morning as I got good news! I spoke with the principal of the first school I ever worked for and I've been unofficially offered a kindergarten position for the upcoming school year. It is the answer to a huge prayer and I have no doubt that God has his hand in this plan. I've been stressed about planning a move without a secured job but, as always, God has taken care of our needs. I'm thrilled to be "going home." I'll be working with people I know and will be a part of a wonderful team again!

Josh and I have also recently rented a three bedroom townhouse in North Charleston beginning in June. The plan is for me to move back to SC on June 10th so I can get settled in our new home as well as my new classroom and Josh will move back to Charleston in October. It will be incredibly difficult to be apart from him again but I have lots of friends in and around Charleston to hang out with and my sister is planning to live with me until Josh is able to return!

We have a big task ahead of us now... time to start packing and I never thought I'd be soooooo excited about that! SC, I'll be home soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;o)

Josh after Wisdom Teeth Surgery

Phyllis and I took Josh to have all four of his wisdom teeth removed today. One was a partial bony removal and the other three were complete bony removals, meaning three were very impacted and one was slightly impacted. I tried to video him in the post op room but I got reprimanded by the assistant so I had to stop. This is the funniest video we got of him so far. He's finally asleep and in less pain for now since the pain medicine seems to have finally kicked in.

He looks pretty pathetic but has been a trooper so far. Phyllis has been in charge of doing the dirty work. I can't stand to look at blood so she's changed out all of the gauze. He has tea bags hanging out of his mouth now... a pretty humorous sight!

Enjoy the video!

And the Fun Just Doesn't End!

We thought we were home free last night when we finally saw the plow truck pull up but he got stuck soon after he started trying to clear the parking lot where our cars were and once he was unstuck, he stopped. We think he's simply a resident here and was helping out of the kindness of his heart so for that we thank him! When we woke this morning, our lot still hadn't been cleared and there was no way either of our cars were going anywhere unless we dug our way out.

So, Josh and I bundled up and headed outside to begin this daunting task. We don't have a shovel by the way so we cleared all the snow with a dustpan and a cleaning bucket and I kicked a lot of snow with my shoes today!

We began on his car first because we didn't have much snow to move out of the way before he was home free and he needed to go to work worse than I. I don't have to be at work until 3:15 and that's only so the mother can go to the gym. Luckily her school was closed again today so hopefully I'll only be over there for a couple of hours this afternoon.

I couldn't stand the cold so I came inside shortly before we were done with clearing Josh's car. I watched him drive it out of the cleared spot and move it on the other side where they have actually plowed. We are beginning to think the plow people that are contracted here quit on our apartment complex b/c there hasn't been a single plow truck in sight today!

After I warmed up, I put on some more layers and went back out to help Josh with my car. This was a little harder of a task. My car had 2 feet of snow stacked in front of it so we kicked, dug and pushed the snow away. Luckily, a resident with a plow on the front of his truck saw us struggling and he offered to help push some of the snow away. He didn't get it all and it still took a long time but he helped tremendously. When we finally got my car out of the spot, we realized that the plow truck had deposited snow right in the middle of the drive so now we had to clear that as well. Whew! What a day! Finally my car is moved to a safe spot and I'll hopefully be able to make it to work safely. Josh and I drove on the main road earlier this morning just to see how it was and it still has snow on it and no salt has been laid down so I'm going to give myself plenty of time and pray that I don't have a heart attack on the way there and back. I'll be glad when this winter is over and done with!

Blizzard 2011

So when I moved to Chicago, I was told that there are never "snow days" b/c they are so prepared for the snow but usually there aren't BLIZZARDS here! So, it snowed like crazy last night and we ended up getting 20.2 inches of snow. Josh and I both had the day off but we wouldn't have been able to drive anywhere even if we had to!
The plow came by earlier this evening to try to clear the snow around our cars but he got stuck and once he got unstuck, he gave up and basically, our cars are still stuck. We both have to work tomorrow (me at 3:15 and Josh at 1:00)so we're hoping they come along in the morning to clear us both out.

Enjoy the video and pics! It has been an adventure for sure!

On the Hunt...

I know I haven't posted in quite some time. I guess I'm really not all that good at blogging when life gets in the way. All my time is devoted to working full-time (about 9 1/2 hours a day and sometimes more)and trying to build my embroidery business.

I am on the hunt now for a teaching job in the Charleston area. Josh and I have discussed me moving back to Charleston this summer when our lease is up if I can find a job so that I can begin to get my new classroom set up and prepare for the next school year. If this happens, he will stay up here until the beginning oof October and then move home for good. PERMANENTLY! We may move to another house in the future but we are not planning on moving to another state ever again. We've both seen enough snow and we don't care if we never see snow again!

I have completed my online application, am waiting on two references and have already contacted the district I worked for previously (Dorchester Districrt Two in Summerville)about interviewing for next year. Since, I've been gone from their district for more than two years, I have to reapply and get clearance before I can begin contacting principals. I am also going to begin to contact Charleston County principals soon. You don't have to have clearance with them anymore. Please pray that the right job will come along and that I'll be happy wherever I end up. I really don't want to go back to teaching and this has been hard for me to accept but we just can't afford for me not to work. There's not much else you can do with a Masters in Early Childhood Education.

We were lucky enough to get to travel to KY for Christmas and had a great time visiting with Josh's family. A week later, most of my family came up for a weekend visit to see Wicked over New Year's. Now, we are expecting more guests and I can't wait. It is so exciting to have friends/family come when you live so far away. Faidra (Josh's sister) and Callie (our niece) will come up to visit over her spring break. This happens to be my spring break as well so I'll hopefully be able to do some exploring and sight seeing with them. In addition, my friend from college (Julie) and her husband (Michael) are coming up over Easter weekend. We have tickets to see a Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field and they will get to do some exploring on their own when Josh and I work. The faster they get here, the faster the snow leaves us. It won't be soon enough. It feels like -7 outside right now. I'm not planning on attempting to see what that feels like today. I'm just fine snuggled up in our warm apartment!

It's Snowing, It's Pouring... Everyone is FREEZING!

We officially had our first snow storm of the season. They are calling for 5 inches and there's a lot of snow on the ground already and it's only 7:00 a.m. Josh and I are planning to go look for the perfect Christmas tree in the snow on Sunday! I can honestly say I've never had the opportunity to do that before. It's usually not snowing 5 inches in SC when it's time to get our Christmas tree.

I will be driving for the first time in the snow with Josh. I have to babysit and he's volunteered to take me and pick me up so I think I'm going to drive one of those times so I can get the feel of it. We found out yesterday that I need new tires and a new battery on my car in order to survive the winter up here. So, I'm going to drive my car only when it's absolutely necessary until we get that taken care of next week. Enjoy your warm weather where ever you may be... We're FREEZING up here and may need to just start skiing to get around!

10.10.10- Do Something Out of the Ordinary

Sunday was 10.10.10 so Josh and I did something a little spontaneous. It was supposed to be a gorgeous day here in October which is unheard of from what I hear so we wanted to spend the day outside since there will be many inside days in the months to come. It was 89 degrees at the warmest and we drove to Starve Rock State Park which is about an hour and 1/2 away from where we live.

Everything was going great...we were set to arrive at the park at around 11:30 a.m. but when we got off the interstate to drive the remaining 3 miles, we were at a stand still and looking at what seemed like a parking lot. We assumed this was the line to get into the park since it was such a beautiful day. An hour and 1/2 later we realized that it wasn't the park that was causing the traffic but some festival in the nearby town of Utica (occupancy 1000). I'm hoping it was more than what we saw as we crawled past b/c the booths we saw looked like yard sales but it was obviously a big deal to the folks who live in Utica.

Once we finally got into the park, parked and got something to eat, we ended up having a wonderful day. We hiked on lots of rocks and near many canyons. The leaves have turned here and some are already falling off the trees so it was a beautiful trip. There are usually waterfalls but it hasn't rained here in a few weeks, so there was no water to fall. We'll have to go back another time next year when it's warm again to see this. We walked for about 4 hours and some of this included very steep stairs so we were both rather sore on Monday!

As soon as I get the camera back from Josh, I'll post our pictures so you can see some of the beauty we saw!

The Sad Day we Said Goodbye to Paradise!

More pics of our beautiful, relaxing vacation!

A Week Ago...

Just a week ago Monday, I was in paradise! I wish we were going back next week... don't you wish you were going with me?

Family, Friends and more Family!

Josh's mom and step dad came to visit last Wednesday night and they stayed with us until Sunday. We had a wonderful time.... I hated to see them go. Josh and I both had to work Thursday so they entertained themselves and I had to work Friday but Josh and Cliff played golf all day. I had arranged for Isla and I to pick up Phyllis for a lunch date. Everything was going great... she had taken her morning nap and was in a rather pleasant mood until she saw Phyllis. She started screaming and crying b/c I think she thought I was going to leave her with a stranger and after a few more episodes in the restaurant, she finally warmed up to the new face and we were able to enjoy our lunch together. I did some shopping with Cliff and Phyllis while Josh worked on Saturday and we ate and ate and ate. Oh, by the way, did I mention that we ate??????? Too much, I need to go on an extreme diet and exercise routine after this past weekend.

After sending Cliff and Phyllis off, we came home and turned the guest bedroom over with clean sheets and pillowcases and headed to the city to pick up Rebecca and Jeremy. We met their friends, Ian and Natalie, who have an awesome apartment in a great location downtown. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Skoozie's and it was fantastic! I will definitely go back if given the opportunity. Josh may not ever return... When he checked his bank account online the following day, he noticed that he had been charged double the ticket amount! It didn't put us in a bind or anything b/c he had plenty of money in the account but we thought they somehow charged us for Natalie and Ian's dinner as well b/c we just split the bill that night 3 ways and Ian and Josh both have Chase credit cards that look exactly alike. After a little researching, however, he discovered that our waitress rang up his card the incorrect way and it was actually holding double the ticket amount b/c his card was a debit card. CRAZY!!!!!! It all evened out today though so now I might be able to convince him to go back.

We took Rebecca and Jeremy to see the Naperville Last Fling Labor Day Parade. I was VERY disappointed. I was expecting to see floats and costumes and it was pretty much a political rally. We finally gave up on it and left to do a little shopping, walk along the riverwalk and eat lunch! All too soon, it was time for them to leave as well and our apartment seems lonely once again.

Heather will be flying in this Friday night for a short visit. She's only staying through Sunday and then Josh and I head to MEXICO!!!!! We'll be there for 6 days! It looks like paradise so I'm hoping it feels like paradise as well!

Have a great week!

I LOVE a great deal!

I feel like I found a gem today! Josh and I noticed that there was an Aldi being built near the gym and he asked me if I had ever been in one. I had no clue what it was so of course I've never been in one before. He said that it was a low cost grocery store that sells staples only, you bring your own bag, pay a quarter for the shopping cart and get your quarter back once the cart is returned, etc...

Of course, this sparked my interest and we really didn't have much planned for today except we needed some more bread and he wanted to get new running shoes with his birthday money. Next, Josh tells me that there's an Aldi near our apartment. I had no idea it was even there! We decided to go there to get the bread so we could check it out because he's never been in one before either. I love that we are able to experience new things together.

As we were walking around the store, I was really shocked at how inexpensive the food is in there. They don't sell any name brand items (although we did see Pringles in there) but they have healthy choices which pleasantly surprised me. Almost everything is packaged to look as if it is a name brand item only it has a different name. They carry a brand called Fit & Active and we found turkey bacon, ground turkey, whole wheat pasta, light cream cheese, etc in this brand. I figured with it being a low cost place, they wouldn't offer healthy choices. They even have a huge section of fresh fruits and vegetables and they actually looked good... better than anything I ever see in a Super Wal-Mart.

We only bought a few items while we there (bread included) b/c we made a Sam's run last night after church and didn't need much but I will definitely be going back. This is a great find for me because I LOVE A GREAT DEAL!!!!!

Only 3 more days until Cliff and Phyllis arrive!!!!!

I'm three days into my full-time job and I'm LOVING it! Isla and I are having a wonderful time together. I've taken her to gymboree and a drop-in story time at the local library. She is such a social baby and never ever gets upset when we're out! I'm going to try to find one of the big parks that are nearby and take her there when I wake her from her morning nap.

I got great news yesterday!!!! My sister is coming for a visit!!!!! YAY! So, now we have three sets of guests to look forward to in September. My in-laws (Josh's mom and stepdad, Phyllis and Cliff) will be arriving next Wednesday night and staying through Sunday. My friends from college (and my little sister in Chi Omega) will be staying with us that same Sunday night and leaving Monday (Labor Day). Then, Heather will be arriving the following Friday evening! I highly suspect that everyone is trying to get in their visit before winter. Our visitors are going to drop dramatically I'm afraid.

Anyone else is welcome to come visit! This really is a great place to visit. There's so much to do!

Gotta run... time to wake baby!