HAPPY BIRTHDAY LORI!

Happy Birthday lil sis! (I have to specify lil here cause Ryan left a comment on Natalie's blog about the 3 little girls and Lori.) I'm glad you were always older in a lot of ways cause think of all the things we would have missed out on if you hadn't skipped your Junior year in high school and graduated with me. I will always cherish that year that we were together. Having a sister like you was the next best thing to being a twin. Having a built in friend is priceless.

Remember being sent to the principles office for fighting over our babies. We had to carry around those dolls for mairrage and family (was it part of health or was it part of religion?) and our babies were identical cabbage patch dolls. You left yours in the trunk of the car and tried to steal mine which lead to a knock-out, drag-down fight during English class. Eeash! When we got into the principles office we started laughing while they got out the first aid kit and then we sang that song from the Barney sound trac You Are My Sister. Remember me begging you in class to help me with my homework assignment that was due and we were discussing it in "ARP"? Our teacher spoke "OP" but because it was the same idea, we were totally busted.

Oh, and getting our drivers license together. You passed your test first but generously let me get my lisence first so I could have mine before you. Nice job on your specialty: paralell parking. It must of been a good job afterall cause you passed!

Your are the best (18 whole months younger) sister I could have ever asked mom for. She sure did a good job filling my order. remember being really young and playing Debbie and Stacie? I forget who was who but we always ended up adopting babies that were left on the other side of our bedroom door and we would play House for three days in a row. I know we played alot with our 3 foot tall Kristy dolls that had really bad hair but we had little dolls too. It was so much fun.

Wish I could be there with you today. Have a fun day!
Love,
Shannon

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!

Happy Birthday to the best Step-Dad and Grandpa in the whole world! You are such a blessing to our family. I wish today wasn't so scattered with Mom being gone to Oklahoma right now for Grandma Annie. We will have to celebrate as soon as she comes home.

For now though: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Love,
Shannon and Madeline

CHARLIE: WITH THE DETAILS

WOW! Tomorrow sure did take forever; has it been 3 weeks already since I promised to post more tomorrow? Sorry about that.

So Charlie is a Labradoodle. The mother is 50% standard poodle and the father is 50% chocolate lab. And, is he ever adorable! He is right around 3 years old and weighs about 75lbs. Laying on the floor all stretched out, he is almost the same length as ms. Maddy Paige.

Madeline's school bus driver Cindy, (who has been transporting her back and forth for 2 years already) gave him to us. His name was Huggs when he came to live with us. Not keen of the name, we changed it. We asked her if she would be offended and she said it was fine with her.

Evidently, Cindy has 5 large breed dogs including Charlies' sister (a standard poodle). She recently had to downsize her living situation and could not keep all of them. Charlie is one of her favorites and she had not planned on parting with him but as fate would have it... An answer to prayer in more ways then one. Madeline was praying for another dog and Cindy was praying for help in deciding on what to do with her menagerie; a blessing all the way around. Cindy was able to find a good home for one of her dogs and we got an awesome pet. As a bonus, she gets to see him on school days too, because Charlie is outside in the mornings and in the afternoons waiting with or for Madeline. When Cindy opens the bus door, Charlie sometimes goes in and says hi to her (and everyone else on the bus). And the biggest bonus? He doesn't run out the door as soon as the opportunity is presented and he can be without a leash as long as I am out there with him.

OUR NEW DOG

So, here he is: Charlie, our newest family member. Adopted 3/29/09.

ITEM 86

Of course I graduated from Nursing School, but I still have to pass the NCLEX*. The official test date: March 19, 2009.

Preparing for the NCLEX*: an article I happened to read the day before I took my state Boards...

"Oh my, the computer didn't shut off after item 85-what will you do? The computer hasn't made a decision about your competency either way at this point. Therefore, you must continue your partnership with the computer. If the computer was sure that you weren't capable, it would have definitely shut off. Now all you have to do is prove on the next several items that you are capable of bearing the title. The average number of items on any candidates exam is about 110. Item 86 is your friend-do well."

THEN WHY DID MY COMPUTER SHUT OFF AT ITEM 85?!!!

Fortunately, it was on outdated article that I read and the official test gives a minimum of 85 questions. So, basically, this is what I went home with: Either I did really well and it only took 85 questions to know if I was competent enough or not... OR... I must be really stupid because the computer sees no hope of recovery, even by offering me 125 more questions. And, now I wait 48 hours to know.

I PASSED!!!!!!!!! I am an official Nurse! Whooh Hooooh!

(I know I waited a long time to take this darn test but I was REALLY scared).

COOPER

With sadness, I gave the consent for Cooper to be cremated this morning. Madeline and I were just leaving the house for church when the phone rang. Madeline answered and it was the Humane society calling. She was super excited to tell me who it was and that they probably found our dog. Well they did but it was not what we expected.

One year ago yesterday was the day we brought our fox hound home from the shelter. Madeline did not understand why he did not have a "birthday" so she planned to have a party for him on his one year anniversary date. (She has me read my sisters blog to her and when she realized what "Gotcha-Day" was, she decided that thats what we would celebrate in place of a birthday). Madeline was so excited. We went shopping the day before and she bought him presents, a meaty bone, and a boquet of balloons. Some of her friends from school even made cards for Cooper.

Well, somehow, while we were at the neighbors house, cooper escaped out of their fenced yard. We still cant figure out how, but he did. We went looking for him but without luck. The next morning (Gotcha-Day) I called the Humane society to see if he had been picked up and if not, to let them know we were missing our beloved dog.

Well, he made it to the one year mark. No party though. He was hit and killed by a car last night not even 1/2 mile from our house and we never even saw him. It breakes my heart because we loved him so much.

I had Madeline go to a friends house this morning so I could go identify him. I hope she handles this better them I am or I might have a major melt down. I'm sure going to miss him.

POT LUCK OF SORTS

Hard to believe it has been over 2 months since my last post.

Have you ever had so much time on your hands that you decide to do something that you have been putting off for good reasons? Well, let me just say, this is the reason I have avoided the whole blog thing... I am OVERWHELMED!! I decided to clean the basement and the garage out before starting a job.

Now... Road trip anyone? I could sure use the help. I have junk all over the house and now I am not sure where to go next.

The job search is going well. I'm pretty sure I will be accepting a job offer by next week. The best choice is the one where I would be "squeaked" in on the day-shift. How awesome is that; to get a job as a brand new nurse on days?

I just found out that the funding for my license should be available to me within the month. Hopefully, I will be able to take the boards by Thanksgiving.

Madeline is doing great is school this year. She brought her homework home last night and showed me her papers on the President. If she were the President, there would be NO WARS!
She still does PT and OT two times a week.

I took her in last week for her physical and my suspicions were confirmed about how much she has grown. She started school last year in the 25th % for her age; wearing a size 5-6 and a 12 shoe. Now, she is in the 50th % and wears an 8 with a size 1 shoe. No wonder I keep washing clean clothes. She tries to wear clothes that don't fit her. Instead of putting them away or telling me, she takes them off and they end up back in the laundry. Now that I know this, I am putting them aside so it doesn't keep happening.

Last week, we had one of the scariest storms I have ever been in and it went on the entire night. The wind was relentless. It was so bad I thought our roof was just going to lift right off and fly away. Around 11pm Madeline asked me if I had a sleeping bag. Since she has one too, we should get them out and sleep in the basement. Madeline has never even been in the basement because it is unfinished and she is scared of it. We ended up going downstairs to sleep on the couch bed and it was still pretty loud.

We tried to sleep... about 1 AM I called Karoline (her husband was working nights). Since she was awake (imaging that) I told her I was putting Madeline and Cooper in the car and if we were not there in less then 20 minutes... send out the troops looking. I look back and realize that was probably not the best idea, the winds were 55mph+. But, misery loves company. We were all scared together. On the way home the next morning, I noticed two of my neighbors will be getting new cars. Huge trees fell over the night and their cars were crushed.

Back to cleaning... I have got to get this house under control!