Christmas card

If I had sent a generic Christmas card out this year, it probably would have said this:

Shadow, Gillian's hamster died this past fall. She was two years old, and our hamstertologist suspects she died from hamsteritis.

Gillian is in the 3rd grade. Art and Science are her favorite subjects. She started horseback riding in the summer, and now she has horseitis. The girl is horse crazy and hopes to get her own horse someday. She plans to study horseology, to become a horseologist when she grows up. She hopes to marry Mr. Horsenheffer someday, and live in Horsetopia.

Shannon has signed up for Medical Transcription classes. Her books have been collecting dust for about 6 months now. She isn't particulary looking forward to working again, but she has no choice. She BETTER be working by this time next year. It's really hard for her to get started studying though. She's a little afraid she won't get through it, not because it's too hard, but because she doesn't want to. And like with almost everything else, she's got procrastinatoritis.

Shannon spends lots of time volunteering at Gillian's school. She also takes the dogs to the park everyday.

Gus the dog and Mike, Willy, Sara, and Molly the cats, are all happy and well. In May, Shannon went to the Humane Society to sign up Gillian for a summer camp there. Shannon thought as long as she was there, she might as well have a little peek at the dogs. She couldn't resist that cute scruffy dog who reminded her so much of the dog she had when she was Gillian's age. We named her Trudy. We do not know anything about her background, but the vet says she is probably around 10 years old. Sadly, she was very hand shy when she first joined us, indicating she was previously abused. Now she is a very happy girl, always wagging her tail and smiling.

Gillian found a tiny treefrog on the playground at school. Shannon would not have normally allowed her to keep it, but, it happened to be Gillian's birthday that day. Okay, the frog was darn cute too. She was so little that she could have fit on a dime. Now, only 6 months later, she'd spill off the sides of a 50 cent piece. She's fun to watch, and she's very pretty.

Coco is our new bunny. We got her because Shannon really wants to take an animal to the Children's Hospital. She was originally going to take Gus, and although he'd behave well enough, it would stressful for him. Trudy would be excellent and would love it, except she barks when she's excited. None of the cats would like doing it. That's when Shannon had the goofy idea to get a rabbit. Turns out, the rabbit is far too skittish. Shannon has now given up on the idea of taking one of HER pets to the hospital, and is thinking about borrowing someone else's dog.

Coco makes for a good pet though. She's so soft and quiet. She doesn't nudge anyone with her cold wet nose when she wants attention. She doesn't throw up. She doesn't pee all over the house... The cats have no interest in her, but Gus is obsessed. We're sure he would love to sink his teeth into her.

Happy Holidays from Shannon, Gillian, Trudy, Willy, Molly, Sara, Mike, Coco, Frog, and Gus!

There's a bunch of cold white stuff outside.

 


Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. 

 
 

Uh oh, it has started. Gillian has taken the phone to the bedroom and she's gabbing away with her best friend.

 


My friend Misty is dog sitting her mom's dog. Her name is Sophie, she's a pomeranian (sp?) teacup poodle mix, and she's too cute. There might be puppies soon, and someone needs to stop me! I don't know how much she weighs, but it had to have been less than 5 pounds. She was really sweet too. A dog like her would make for a great dog for me to take to the Children's Hospital! I've wanted to do that for the longest time. None of my cats would like to do it. It would stress out Gus. Trudy is too barky. Bunny is too skittish. I really have no choice but to get another dog. :D 

 


Cold but sunny has been the weather in Portland. Miss Molly has been in her favorite sunny window all day. 

 


Willy is a cat who likes to multi-task. Here he is eating, while watching a bird outside, and he is soaking up the sun. 

 
 

 
 

C is for cookie, and cookie starts with C

It's been very chilly here recently, and so I bought a new warm coat yesterday. I was happy with it, being warm and purple. When I tried to take it off today, I discovered that I couldn't get the zipper down. I started to panic of course, because you know, it's hard to breathe when you know you can't get your coat off. I couldn't get it unstuck and so I had to make the decision of cutting the coat off, or trying to get it off my head. Although it was zipped up to my neck, I thought that trying to get it off my head would be a less traumatic experience than cutting off my brand new purple coat. I was sadly wrong. I became stuck inside my coat. I couldn't get it off, or even back on. Panicing again, because now I was dying from suffocation, I fell, my face hit the floor, and I knocked out my two front teeth. Gus apparently thought it was all a big game, and luckily was able to yank the coat off as I lie bleeding and suffocating on the floor.

I started to think that I was having a crappy day, but then I remembered I had cookies. Just when I thought everything was going to be okay, I remembered that the cookies were store bought cookies, from Bi-Mart nonetheless, and kinda gross.

Now I'm craving homemade Christmas cookies. Since my parents are in Arizona for the winter, my only hope for cookies is if my mom sent me some in the mail. I got an email from her the other day saying she sent a package, and I'm hoping there are cookies in that package. If there are only presents, I'm going to have to open at least one of them early, because it will be the only thing to make me feel better.

I can usually count on my neighbors across the street to drop by with cookies, but after that garbage can incident the other day, I doubt they will even wish me a Merry Christmas.

You may be thinking, "Why doesn't she make her own cookies?". Well, I can't. Although I've never tried to make them, I'm certain my melting moments would turn out more like petrified cat poop, and frankly, I don't want to break any more teeth.

This might be my first Christmas ever without Christmas cookies. Mommy, did you send me some? Julie, will you bring me some? Somebody help me please!

Shannon

Note: The above statements are true, except for the part about suffocating. Although it was difficult to breathe, I wasn't REALLY about to die from suffocating. Oh, and the part about falling on the floor isn't exactly true either. And, I didn't knock out my teeth. Gus didn't really think it was a game either. He only cocked his head a little when I initially found out I was stuck and I screamed. And um, the garbage can thing didn't happen.

 

 

 

 

Gillian had a few inches of hair cut off yesterday. She was going for this look, but I think she needs thicker hair, and hairspray (which we don't have).


















But it still turned out really cute... 

After I curled it a little. 

Check out how cute the back was! 

Gillian today in art class, making a clay coil pot. 

Isn't she just the cutest? 

A great big thank you to my friend Beniss for fixing my computer!!!

I'm still computerless.

Mike is all better.

Gillian does not have head lice!

My computer is down again (I'm at the library),
Mike won't take his medicine,
I just found out that G's locker mate has head lice.

Yay.

As requested, G has come up with a Christmas wish list.

-She wants clothes. No pajamas though. She wears size 8 and she mostly wears pants and shirts. She usually doesn't wear sweaters - just long sleeve shirts.

We found the following things at Toys R Us:
-Electronic Furby, any color is fine. $29.95
- Any of the Disney Mania CDs. $9.98 each
- Disney Girlz Rock CD. $16.99
- Radio Disney CD. $15.99
- A Magic 8 Ball. $6.99
- Luv Cubs Panda Bear (The Bear Cub that Hugs You Back) $14.98
- Flower Cubes (they are little plastic flowers that sway back and forth and they are solar powered) $5.99 each.
- Bratz Rock Angelz Funky Fashion Makeover. $29.99
-Bratz Wild Wild West Horse. $14.99
- A laptop computer to give to her mom. (Or a desktop, just as long as it doesn't give her constant trouble.) Probably about $1500.00. :D

The son of my next door neighbor just stopped by to tell me that his dad (our neighbor) has passed away. He just went over to visit him and found him dead, holding a picture of his wife in his hands. His wife died last Christmas and he had been devastated since. His son said that tomorrow was their anniversary. He said, "I guess he was ready to be with her".

I just saw him yesterday. He was out for a walk.

Sad. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out he killed himself.

Also, his daughter was recently diagnosed with cancer. Poor Suzi, she's going to be heartbroken.

Update on Mikey. The vet put him on an antibiotic that is supposed to help with the diarrhea. How much of it ends up in him and not all over the floors and walls is questionable. Hopefully I'll be able to get it in him and the problem will clear up in the next couple days. If it doesn't, it might be curtains for Mike. :(

For G's families

I've been told by the Thomas Family and the Holt family to make a list of what G wants for Christmas. I still don't have the ability to send email, so I'm writing here.

Gillian wants horse stuff. Shirts, pjs, anything horse. She wears size 8 right now. She doesn't know what else she wants, but maybe tomorrow we'll be able to go to the store and make a list.

To the Holt family, Freddy's has these gel glove things that you wear 2 or 3 times a week and it's supposed to help with dry hands. They were in the holiday gift section. I think they were around $20. That's what I want.

Oh, Gillian is always happy to get Build a Bear GCs.

On a completely different subject, some of you might like to know that Mike has been having diarrhea all over the house. He doesn't even try to make it to the litter box. He's also been peeing on the rug. He's going to the vet today. The weird thing is, he seems to be feeling okay. He is still eating and drinking, and he is still obsessing about being on my lap. He purrs when I pet him. Other than super skinny, he looks healthy.

I was going through all my digital photos. The following 33 photos are some of my favorites.

Fall 2005. 

 

 

Summer 2005. 

Mike. Summer of 2005. 

Gillian's 8th birthday party.