Finding Mr. Right

The fact that neither Meghan nor myself are married seems to be a major issue these days in the "Willimas " household.  JP takes great delight in reminding me almost daily that I'm "old" and unmarried.  It's times like these that I am actually grateful for having grown up with such an annoying little sister.  I owe a great deal of  thanks to Katie's over achieving approach to aggravating me when we were children!  JP will say things like, "Shannon, when you have children of your own...oh, wait.  You're not married!"  It's funny, really it is.  In a sad but true kinda way.  I keep telling him to hurry up and find me a hubby and the problem will be solved.  Donna mentioned something the other day about some cute guys she had seen.  JP pipes in with , "You should set them up with Shannon and Meghan!"  Obviously our being single concerns JP greatly.   Me, too, JP.  Me, too.

Then there's Meghan, who has Celine praying for us each night before she goes to bed; that we will find suitable men to wed.  "Lord, PLEASE send Godly men for Shannon and Meghan to marry.  Amen."  Apparently she's been forgetting her task more than she has been remembering it.  We're still single.  She claims that she just doesn't remember, so Meg and I are going to tape a sign to her headboard that she sees before she goes to sleep and remembers to pray!  

Speaking of signs...

While this has become a running joke both at work and amongst my family members, I think the situation has become dire.  Last night on "So You Think You Can Dance" one of the dancers held up a sign as a prop that read, "Looking for Mr. Right".   Donna tells me that Celine was watching and says, "Hey, Shannon and Meghan are looking for Mr. Right, too!"  So we are going to take a cue from "SYTYCD" and Celine.  We've had a sign made and vowed to pick a different Church to stand out in front of each week and proudly display our sign and advertise our singleness!   Look for us on the six o'clock news!  

Meg tells me that Chris has even jumped on the band wagon, going so far as to suggest that a computer course might be an excellent place to meet men.  Et Tu, Brutus? Et Tu?

In closing.  Should you or anyone you know of come across suitable, clean cut, EMPLOYED men who have a deep love for God.   PLEASE for the love of all that is good and holy, please send them our way!  BTW- I get first pick.  Sorry Meg, but I AM older and by that definition more desperate!

Be good and god bless!

Too Hot to Handle!

I have to begin this post with some very important business. My only sibling in the world is celebrating her 28th birthday today~ and I am sooooo happy that she is my sister! While we did have our moments growing up, and she DID aggravate the blessed TAR out of me, she is one of my greatest blessings. I can honestly say that she is one of my best friends, and I wish her a fantabulous year ahead. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIL SIS! I love ya, T- and BTW, enjoy these next few years, babe. Cause THIRTY is just around the corner!!! (PS. If it makes you feel better, you can THINK that you were the inspiration for the title of this post! But you and I both know better.)


OHMYGOODNESS, IT'S HOT!!! We are officially into the dog days of summer, and I am wilting as I type this. Seriously, my fingers are refusing to work in this heat! I hope that you are all finding some way of beating the heat, the kids sure are! They spend so much time in the pool that I think that I can see gills and fins developing on them!!! The hot tub isn't seeing too much love right now. It's too hot! Maybe in the fall when the temps cool off and it isn't-oh what's the word...? SWELTERING!!!

We've had a great week. Well with the exception of Grant breaking his shoulder. Yes, that's what I said. Grant broke his shoulder. I'll admit that's not an easy thing to do, but Grant can be an over achiever in some areas of his life. He's also is able to finally boast at being the FIRST of something in this family! Being the sixth child, he doesn't get much of a chance to be first at anything! So now he is the proud winner of the award for "First To Break a Bone in the Family". HOORAY! High five, Grant! Oh, wait, with your LEFT hand, because your right is, well, incapasitated. Sorry, buddy. You may be wondering how this unfortunate accident occurred. OK, you may NOT have been wondering that, but for the sake of this post, just humor me, OK? Little boys, as I've come to understand it, like to rough house. It seems it's no fun if someone isn't at risk of serious bodily injury. So Grant and JP were playing as little boys do- ROUGH, and had been told a ridiculous amount of times to cut it out, when a horrifying cry was heard from the other room. Grant was lying on the floor crying that he couldn't move his arm, and you could tell that he was in a tremendous amount of pain. Chris scooped him up and took him to the pediatrician. After many x-rays, which, by the way- he say he never wants to have again- the doctor determined that he had fractured his humerus bone, way up at the top where the bone fits into the shoulder socket. This is an unusual spot for a bone to break, so after looking more closely at the tests he seemed to think that there was a cyst on the bone that would have weakened it. He has an appointment with a Pediatric Orthopedic Specialist this week, to determine if there IS a cyst, and what needs to be done about the break. Not much can really be done though, it a lot like the collar bone, in that a cast won't help, and as long as the bone isn't out of place then it should heal on it's own. The PO will tell us if he will need to have anything special done about the cyst/tumor. Until then- he has his arm in a sling, and is milking this for all its worth! He is a very brave little man, and I am proud of him. Congratulations, Grant on being the first in the family to break something! By the way... Note to JP, it's probably not a good idea to pull your brother off the couch by his feet and drop him on the floor. Just a thought.

OK- well, I had better go and referee another spat. Goodness, Can't we all just get along????

God bless, and be GOOD!

Catching up...

Man, I feel SOO behind! There's so much to share, and I still haven't told you guys anything about the Kids' Bahama trip or my Disney trip! OK, so I guess this will have to be the speed version in order to get you all caught up and get me feeling like I'm not a horse's behind...oops I mean a plain old behind. No- still not right, well, you get my drift. I hope.

The kids had a blast in the Bahamas! All went well with the exception of a few travel snafus. Beginning with Donna and Monica's luggage being randomly chosen to be taken off their plane and sent along on a later flight. That resulted in Donna being bag-less for 24 hours and Monica for 48. Let's just say they had one VERY unhappy teenager on their hands for a few days, and leave it at that. Then there was the "Tower of Terror". The REAL life one! Apparently the first elevator they boarded at Atlantis had a glitch? Because once they all piled onto it, luggage and all (minus Donna and Monica's, of course) the thing lost power and even dropped a little before the safety kicked in. They were stuck in the dark with an elevator filled to the brim with screeching kids, when the power finally came back on the thing SLOWLY descended to the ground floor. Once freed from their box o' death, they were told, "Oh, that's nothing. It was just a little power outage. It happens all the time on the island." Well, I'm told the kids refused to get back on that particular elevator again for the entire week. Good thing there were others, huh? They had a dolphin encounter where they got to get into the water with a dolphin and interact and pose for pictures. They turned out pretty cute, especially the ones of Chris kissing the big guy! Most of the rest of their time was spent on the beach or beside the AMAZING pool. From what I can tell from the stories and the pictures, they had a great time, Mon!

OK, Disney....Well Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. I had never been to Animal Kingdom, either had Yvette, and she had never been to Epcot, so we were really excited to be going on this "roomie" trip together! Three parks in 2 days was ambitious, but we had extended hours in the parks because we stayed in one of their resorts. It was fun staying out in the Magic Kingdom until 2:30 AM. Fun, but not for the faint of heart. I think their may have been more people there at night than in the day! But it was FUN! BTW: Thunder Mountain becomes a very scary ride after dark! I so don't remember that ride being that intense!

We, that is- Yvette and I, had a "Magical Time" at Disney. In case you're wondering...that's both a good and bad thing. Good in the respect that we had a ton of fun! Bad because every time you turned around SOMEBODY was telling you to have a "magical day". Cute concept when you think about it. That being Disney and all, but THREE DAYS of being told to have a magical day really got to be too much. I understand that these good people were just doing as they had been threatened, er, instructed to, but it was irritating none the less! Here's how it went...

Me: "Excuse me?"

Them: ""yes?"

Me: " Could you please tell me where to find guest relations?"

Them: "Certainly! It's that giant blue building right in front of you that has 'GUEST RELATIONS' spelled out on top of it."

Me: "Oh- Thank you!"

Them: " My pleasure! Have a Magical day!"

Now- that's cute, right? Sure it is! But imagine EVERY conversation you had with a Disney employee ending with "Have a Magical Day!" It got old quick! I even had one lady tell me to have Magical Day THREE times in the same 30 second conversation! I told Yvette that the first person that worked for Disney that DIDN'T tell me to have a Magical Day was going to get a sincere Thank You for me and a GREAGT BIG HUG! Well, I never had the chance. It never happened. Having a Magical day became the running joke on the trip. For example:

-Tired and standing in line for 95 minutes to ride a 5 min ride: "Are you having a Magical day?"

-We're starving and reach the "Place your orders here" window just as they make the announcement that they are all out of the item you were going to order after standing in line for 28 minutes: "Sorry we are all out of that item, but 'Have a Magical Day'!

-Exhausted and blistered, we wait in yet another line for 30 minutes for a shuttle that will take us back to our resort, this would be a great time to turn to one another and sing together, "Have a Magical Day!" You know, just to remind yourself that your ARE in Disney! You aren't allowed to have anything short of a Magical Day!

I've decided that while we had copious amounts of fun, that Walt Disney World really should be renamed "Wait in Line Word"! You spend a great portion of your time waiting in those magically long lines!

All joking and complaining aside- we DID have a Magical time, and we are looking forward to going back when it's a lot cooler and using our third day. This time I'm going to be ready with my response to "Have a Magical Day!" I think it should be something along the lines of "Bah! Humbug!" Just kidding. Just kidding! I'll show you the Memory Book if- I mean after I finish compiling it online and have it printed. Until then, here are a few picts of the weekend!

Well, I'm going to sign off for now. Hope you feel a little more caught up. I do. A little.

God Bless and be good! Oh and.......

Have a MAGICAL DAY!!!

Alexis is a STAR!!!

What a fabulous party!!! I must admit it was not for the faint of heart or sensitive of ear! With 30+ kids running amuck and 12 adults to wrangle them, it was a crazy afternoon of Freeze Dance, Musical Chairs, Lunch, and Karaoke! I will spare you most of the performances, but we had the gamut! From country to good ole rock and roll, opera to Disney tunes. (Celine was a little disappointed that there wasn't any Journey, though!) A few of the kids really got into the theme and wore costumes. Alexis was dressed as a Pop Star, Celine came in her Country Western Gear, one little girl wore her "Phantom of the Opera" dress and another came as a ballerina. Not sure how that fit in the singing theme, but she tried all the same.  Oh and there was one REALLY cool cake that "Aunt Sissy" made for her precious niece and God daughter.  BTW...that's what Alexis calls me, Aunt Sissy.  It's fun and easy to do.  Not to mention it's the one thing I can contribute that doesn't require me sitting behind a sewing machine.  That gets old after a while!  Here's some pictures from the day:

Alexis loved having all her friends around her! There were lots of them, too! All different ages, all different personalities, it was a smorgasbord of entertainment!   I will say that it's a good thing this happens only once a year, though.  Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, if you know what I mean!

SO- Happy 7th birthday, Lexie!  Aunt Sissy loves you!  XOXOXOXOXOXO

AS always, be good and God bless!

Happy Fourth of July!!

I hope that you all are enjoying a wonderful 4th with your families! Last night I met my sister and mom at a neighborhood park to watch the fireworks at the Wold Golf Village. The kids had a blast playing on the playground while waiting for the show to begin. Mom brought a TON of glow in the dark bracelets for the kids to play with. Little did we know how helpful they would be!



As the evening ticked away and the night sky grew dark; we found it was next to impossible to see the kids playing out on the field. Even with them standing right next to us! But thanks to the other worldly glow of the glow sticks, we were able to find them pretty easily!!! See for yourselves!:

The fireworks were- eh. Nothing exciting, but the kiddies loved them. That's all that matters, right? Saturday is the REAL celebration anyway! It's Alexis' 7th birthday!! Woo-woo-woo! We are having a family party for her tomorrow and a second party on Tuesday for her friends. It's going to be a Karaoke Party! No, I WILL NOT be singing! I'll tell you all about that later!

Until then, be good and God bless!

Vacation from the vacation?

Time to bring you all up to speed. I'll go into details in other posts so this doesn't become a marathon post!

As of Friday of last week I was on my vacation. Or as the kids call it "va-ca" (pronouncing both "a"s long!) Friday was a nice, laid back day, spent chilling at the condo. Oh, and I went to see one of my teens in a local production of "OZ". She was great and I was glad I made the trip to see her perform. Saturday was a little more interesting seeing as it was Alexis' Dance recital. She was great, of course! She has really developed as a dancer this past year! Her poise and grace has greatly improved, and I hear that she has moved up to the next level of dance! She was so proud of herself. She had more flowers than she knew what to do with! That's nothing to sneeze at!

Sunday Yvette and I left for Disney. I'll tell you all the details in my next post. We had a great time! And we were ready to come home, it was a long two days!

Tuesday and Wednesday were kind of a recovery time for me, what little time I had between running errands and filling orders for Shananagins Bags. I most definitely need a vacation to recover from my va-ca!

From what I can gather the Willimas Family had a blast, in between the natural disasters, real life Tower of Terror, and the lost luggage, that is! Again, I'll save the details for another post, but it would appear that they too need a Vacation from their vacation!


Today the long awaited HOT TUB was delivered! Woo-Hoo!!!! After four hours of instillation "the Monster" as it's currently referred to, is up and running. Just in time for the Fourth! PARTAY on!

Until next time, my friends...

Be good and God bless!