911 whats your emergency?

So Yesterday proved to be quite a day. It didn't start out that way. We got up on time, taught Sunday School, went to big Church, had a great lunch at Pei Wei. We went home, watched a little CSI and some football before we had to go to church for youth group. It was on our drive home when things got a little scary...well take that back it was right when we were pulling into our driveway when things got really surreal.

Danielle and I were talking and I was driving our Mini-Cooper Clubman, as I pulled the car into our driveway, I stopped and asked Danielle, "Where is the Freestyle?" (Our other car is a 2007 Ford Freestyle). It should be parked on the street just after our townhome. But the Freestyle was no where to be seen. Both our hearts raced, I knew that the car should be there but it just wasn't, I looked up and down the street but it just wasn't there, I walked to where I parked it and although there was no sign of broken glass, but I was sure that my car just got stolen!

I pulled out my cell and called 911, the kind dispatch person asked me all kinds of questions and I answered them all and they said an officer will be coming out shortly to help us out. I was pleased they were so helpful but my heart was still racing, I started to take a mental inventory of what was in the car, the only things of value I could come up with were the TomTom and my cordless drill. Then I got to thinking, what would the replacement value of my car be? Then I thought WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD WANT TO STEAL A FORD FREESTYLE!!! I guess if you need to transport 7 of your criminal friends around...Don't get me wrong I love that car I think its a great car for us but sexy to criminals this car is not!

So I went inside and gathered my insurance information and other documents I could find before the officer showed up. That is when Danielle thought we should go to our neighbors and ask them if they saw anything...I knocked on a few doors and only one neighbor was home, she didn't see anything but she did ask me if "I had parked the wrong way on the street?" And I said as a matter of fact I did." Well she inormed me that she had gotten a few notes from a neighbor about parking the wrong way. That got me worried that maybe my car just got towed I thought there was a sign on one of our streets about towing and actually had the phone number so I started to walk down there and that is when my memory fully kicked in.

On Saturday Danielle had to work all day so I asked her if she wanted to meet me half way and go to Red Robin for Dinner and then do some Christmas Shopping. We had a great meal and then we both got in the Clubman to do our shopping. But the thing is...we never went back to get the Freestyle. We left it there in front of the Red Robin all Saturday night and all of Sunday.

I pulled out my phone again to call 911 and tried to explain again to the nice dispatch person that I need the searches pulled off for a 2007 Black and Gray Ford Freestyle. But as I started to tell the whole story the officer pulled up...I explained to him the whole story and I could see he was doing his best not to laugh right in my face, but he was also very kind, he asked me if "I had a way to get to my car?" and I said "yes I do" and he pulled away, I'm sure he was itching to get back to tell his cop buddies about the idiot he just ran into.

As we pulled into the Red Robin, and I saw my car I thought to myself...I know that husbands gain sympathy weight, and I know that sometimes when women are pregnant they can have more airhead moments that usual...but does that mean men can have sympathy airhead moments as well?!? If so we are in trouble people...BIG TIME!

The Little Bean is Getting Bigger!

Today we went in for another Ultrasound...everything went just great! The baby now weighs 1 lbs 3 oz. We aren't sure if the ultrasound tech could see the gender or not because she had us close our eyes when they were taking pictures in the bathing suit area. Anyways we hope you enjoy the pictures and feel free to comment!

Acapulco for Thanksgiving

Bill's parents were so wonderful to take us down to Acapulco for Thanksgiving this year along with the rest of the Shannon Family: Del (Bill's older brother), Beth, Alex, and Meghan; Christy (Bill's younger sister), Tim, Reagan, and Lincoln. It was so good the see the nieces and nephews, and how much they've grown- especially Alex and Meghan who are both teens now! It was good to spend sometime with the sisters and brothers-in-law as well. They were so wonderful and we had a little baby shower down there for the new baby Shannon. I'm finally starting to look really pregnant now (as you'll see in the pictures). The food was wonderful and it was so nice to have a lot of sleep time and relaxation. The only decision we had to make were what we were going to eat and whether we were going to the beach or pool.


Some of the highlights were being able to release baby sea turtles into the ocean. I thought were were just going to watch them be released, but when we got to the beach there was a female turtle laying her eggs. Then after she was done she turned to the ocean and headed out. The sea turtle conservation people then go and dig up the eggs, put them in an incubation hut. When they hatch they are put into tanks and eventually released into the ocean. Since there were only about 20 people on the beach for this, they let us each take a baby sea turtle in our hands and we all stood in a line facing the ocean and released the turtles. We spent a good hour herding the turtles in the right direction because they get confused with the resort lights. I think the adults had just as much fun as the kids.


We also got the opportunity to go into downtown Acapulco and do some shopping and see the famous cliff divers. We ate dinner at this restaurant called La Pearla that is built into the cliff side and every table has a view of the cliff divers. They were diving from 80-115 ft up and had to wait for the waves to bring the water up to at least 13 ft before they could jump. It was amazing. We got some great deals shopping as well.


We actually had a Thanksgiving dinner as well, with turkey and cranberries and mashed potatoes, there was definitely a tropical flair to it. It was wonderful to have everyone together. We had a very happy Thanksgiving.

Vote!

Hey Everyone...This is an important day today so please remember to vote. I know a lot has been said on both sides of this election but let us not forget that no matter who gets elected today, we should honor and respect them as our leaders. Its kinda Biblical you know?!

Well in light of the election I give you this little gem from our friends the Simpson Family:

Another Dr. Appointment Today

Danielle had her monthly Dr. Appointment today. Everything is just great, the Doctor today pulled out the Doppler to hear the heartbeat and it was right in normal range and the doc said it sounded really strong. Now according to Bill's Mother there is an old wives tale about the Baby's heart rate and the gender of the Baby. If you didn't know there are family members on both sides that aren't very happy about us not finding out the Baby's gender until its born. The old wives tale goes like this, if the Baby's heart rate is above 140 you are having a girl if your Baby's heart rate is below 140 you are having a boy...well guess where our Baby's heart rate was...you guessed it 140 on the nose. So even if you believe that stuff (which by the way is totally unproven) our Baby isn't giving anything away.

Not much else to report over here, we are just trucking along.

And because no post should be without picture, here is one from a wedding in Seattle that we went out to recently. That is our Brother-in-law Tim and his son Lincoln, instead of a wedding cake they had cupcakes, Lincoln was in heaven!

Our Little Bean

Today we went for our first ultrasound. It was so neat to see!!! Our baby was really putting on a show it was very active during our ultrasound, wiggling around and kicking. Here are some of the best pictures...

sucking his/her thumb
here's legs and arms
this is the bottom of baby's feet

Ben Folds Five (updated 10.23.08)

Last night we had an amazing opportunity to go see Ben Folds Five perform for the first time in around 8 years. The show was at Memorial Hall at UNC Chapel Hill. The concert was partially a benefit for Operation Smile but it was also an event for a new series of concerts put on by myspace called front to back. The band was given the choice to play any of their albums front to back, they decided on "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" an interesting choice seeing how it was the least successful album they put out and ultimatley led to their breaking up.

There were a couple of highlights for me (Bill).

• One was the people watching, now remember this show was on the UNC campus and 600 of the 1600 tickets were allotted for the students. As I sat there before the show I leaned over to Danielle and told her "This album came out in 1999, so if there are any freshmen here they were like 9 when this album came out and there is no way they know all these songs" and I tell you the truth, once "Narcolepsy" started I saw two girls lean over to each shrug their shoulders and say to each other "I don't know this song" that continued all the way until "Army" everyone went nuts during that song. Then soon after that they all went back to a confused look and soon broke out their cell phones and started texting. I found it all to funny and sad that their were some people who bought airline tickets and traveled thousands of miles for this concert while others could care less and were wondering when he was going to play his solo stuff.
• Another great moment was "Your Most Valuable Possession" I was wondering how they would do this song. The vocals of this song are a voicemail recording of Ben's Dad saying some random thoughts early in the morning before he really wakes up. Well it was very cool that Ben's Dad actually came out and read what he had said that morning. It was really fun.
• After the band had finished "Lullabye" and the crowd went nuts, I was thinking is that really it? Are they just going to play the album and walk away? Well obviously the answer was no, they came back out and played 7 more songs from their other alubms, and that left those girls even in front of us even more confused. That was until they played thier last song of night "Song for the Dumped" oh how the crowd went crazy.
• All in all the biggest highlight from last night was Danielle leaning over to me and telling me the baby was doing backflips in her belly. I don't know if it had to do with the music or not but I like to think our kids gonna be a fan of Ben Folds Five.

It was a very special night and we had a blast. In October the show will be on myspace check the front to back site and I 'm sure they will have more details.
Here is a pic from the show, they wouldn't let us bring in real cameras so I only had my cell so its not that great but its the best I could do.


In other news Danielle goes in for her first ultrasound on Tuesday so hopefully we will have some pics to post then.
Peace out,
Bill


Now you can watch the video! Enjoy.
Ben Folds Five - MySpace Front To Back concert

Family Swap Meet

So Becky has done a wonderful thing for Danielle. Its called Family Swap Meet. Its a place where you can trade your kids for other kids...well not really its more of a story sharing place as well as giving advice and things you may not need anymore, as well as setting up playdates. If you want to contribute please let us know and we will add you.

Danielle is at 8 weeks tomorrow, we go in for our first Doctors appointment next week and hopefully we will have some pictures for you then.

The cats out of the bag

So everyone who we haven't talked to we apologize. Because there is something major going on in our lives and we need to share it with everyone.
We are going to have a baby!! We found out just about two weeks ago and we couldn't be any happier. Its still very surreal for me (Bill), but unfortunately for Danielle the mornings are all too real :( She is a big time trooper though.

We are already getting used to the standard questions.

1. The Baby is Due April 9th
2. No we are not going to find out the gender of the baby (we like surprises)
3. We are kind of hoping for a Boy, just because of the whole generational thing (Bill is the 8th generation William 'insert mothers middle name' Shannon.
4. We are more than happy to share our baby names with you if shes a girl her name will be Zoe Vera Shannon, if hes a boy he will be William Campbell Shannon.
5. Yes we are way excited!

The one thing we are running into is our nursery colors, we are using our guest bedroom and we really don't want to paint so we need to look for bedding that will match and we are having a little trouble. So if you see anything that you think will look good let us know!

Now I know that you are thinking hey where is the pic of the pregnancy stick or ultrasound? Well no offense to those who did show their pee stick, we just aren't going to roll that way, and we haven't had our first ultrasound yet. But feel free to join our baby pool and guess the Gender, Weight, Length, Date and Time.

And because no post should be without a picture I give you this.

Where it all began.

Do we know you?

Hey everybody...so our friends the Bennetts reminded us how horrible we are at blogging and yes we would agree, we haven't been very good at updating this blog. Things have been quite busy and we have been blogging just not here. We have been blogging almost every week on the Element blog.

Things are going very well for us, we love working with the youth group, Danielle is working part time at a CVS and Bill is still plugging away at Duke. In other news Bill is looking to buy a scooter, because A) they rock and 2) they are fuel efficient, he has tortured his co-worker with questions because he owns a Vespa and Bill can't make up his mind. Right now Bill is thinking of buying a rebuilt Vintage Vespa, if you have any connections or ideas or opinions he would love to hear them.

And because Bill doesn't believe in posting without a picture here is a vintage picture via 1996
It's me and my future bro-in-law and the hair on the head is not real but the chin and the chest is all me baby

Weekend with the Presidents

Christy, Marylin, Reagan, and Lincoln came to visit this weekend. Today we went to Duke Gardens and had a really great time. Here are some pictures from it...

Reagan walking the wall

Looking for fishies and turtles


Uncle Billy and Reagan


At the Fountains that aren't on


All of us together


Oooo, a caterpillar!

Our New Car!!!

The Jetta had past it's prime and was exchanged for a new Mini Cooper Clubman. It is a wonderful ride and we are so excited about it!



Here's a picture with the dogs...

Abe v. Jack

Since we adopted Jack a couple weeks back he has made himself right at home. We couldn't imagine him not being in the house now. Abe plays so good with him outside and at the dog park! The weirdest thing though was Abe didn't want to have anything to do with Jack when we were in the house, whenever Jack wanted to play in the house Abe would ignore him and go to his kennel. Well earlier today we were sitting on the couch in the living room tossing a ball for Jack when Abe walked over to Jack so nonchalantly and started playing with him. They wrestled for a good 20 minutes! It was great to see Abe initiating the play. We knew Abe just takes longer to get use to things. Right now they are both sleeping on the couch next to us, happy as can be! We think they well be best buds!

Ladies and Gentlemen...Meet Jack

We picked up Jack today, he is such a cuddle bug! He and Abe are getting along pretty well, he has a lot more energy than Abe does but he is about 9 months younger than Abe. So far it seems like it is a great fit!

Here is the one picture that is just classic.



And another picture.

Dog Search (Updated again)

So we have started looking for a 2nd dog for our family. I'm really not sure where this came from, Danielle and I were watching Deal or No Deal last week and this guy brought his dog on the show with him and we thought it was a cute one. The next thing I know is that we are on petfinder looking around. This past weekend we thought we found a great dog, his name is Munch and he is a Dogue de Bordeaux[Mix] which for everyone who doesn't speak or read french he is a French Mastiff mix, you can check him out here (ain't he a cutie?). Well when he and Abe got together it just didn't work out. Abe basically ignored him, if Munch were going to be our first dog we totally would have gotten him but since Abe didn't want anything to do with him we had to pass.

So now we are back to square one and back on petfinder looking around. We found a couple that look really nice, one is Blackjack the other is Nola. Both are great looking dogs but we aren't sure which one Abe will get along with best. Normally Abe gets along with just about every dog but I'm beginning to wonder if he knows something is up and is thinking he is trying to sabotage these get togethers.

So which one do you like? Any thoughts, if you adopted a dog where did you get yours, any advice for adopting a second dog?

Update: 3.11.08
According to the Schnauzer Rescue they said the background check would take up to 4 weeks. I guess yesterday they talked with our Vet and they gave us a wonderful review, so yesterday afternoon I received an email saying they would like to arrange a home visit to check out our home and see if it would fit for "jack" as he is called. Then I got a phone call and it seems that the foster parent of Jack is going on a vacation for two weeks and wondering if we can get this done by Friday. So one of the board members of the Schnauzer rescue is coming tonight to check out our house and we could have Jack by Friday or sooner! Its all happening really fast, but we really do think Jack would be a good fit, one huge upside is that Schnauzers don't shed and we DO NOT need another dog that sheds. We'll keep you updated!

Update: 3.12.08
Last night we had a board member come by and do a home visit. They brought along another Giant Schnauzer named Magic, they just wanted us to see a Giant and see how Abe interacted with other dogs. It went swimmingly! They had a great time and Magic even decided to claim part of our carpet, but that was quickly cleaned up. So the bottom line is we have been approved and now it looks like we will be picking up "Jack" either Friday or Saturday! It's all really exciting stuff. We will have pictures up as soon as we can take them.

The Revolve Tour and Ski Retreat

Well, it's been a fast and furious 10 days! I took girls from our youth group to The Revolve Tour in Charlotte, NC on Jan 25-26. We had so much fun and I really learned a lot, about the girls, what they are interested in, and their struggles. I have come to just love these girls!!! It went so smoothly, besides being fashionable late, but that's not a big deal at all. I know the girls really learned a lot as well. The Moms that came were great and such a help, it was wonderful.

Bill then had to take over for our youth pastors on Sunday and he did such a great job, especially for last minute. Every time he talks I realize how much God has gifted him in youth ministry! He related the process of Hebrew school and why it was so important that the apostles who were fishermen dropped their nets to follow Jesus- to the process of American Idol- the students totally got it!

I had an exam on Friday and then if we hadn't had enough going on we went on the Youth Ski Retreat. Bill was in charge of the Rules Video for this and he worked so hard on it!!


There were a lot of faces I've never seen before and it was a great time! I really was able to hang out with some of the girls and get to know them even more. I have really clicked with one of the girls that is a senior in high school. I see so much of myself in her and we have a lot in common. It's been rough getting the students to open up to us, but they finally are starting to. We had a blast snowtubing and many of the students skied and snowboarded. Pete, Drew's brother, came to speak to the students about having an experience with God and what we do with that experience. I think many of the students had an experience.

Fffeeww! We've definitely had a crazy 10 days, but it's always worth it to experience God and support the youth group!