more mountain pics

Carla having "Carla time."
Dub the storyteller.
Crazy man Nathan.
Picknicking in comfort.
Watermelon by the river.

It took so long to put the slideshow together, and you can only do 20 pics in a slideshow...anyway, I had a few more pics I wanted to post...

mountains trip, May '08

whew!

It sort of felt like a marathon the past week, what with Jordan's asthma last weekend, then Jon being in Germany all week. I took Jordan in to see the allergy and asthma specialist on Wednesday, and they did the skin test which revealed she's allergic to tree, grass, and weed pollen, which goes right along with her history of attacks. We're treating her pretty agressively (should that have 2 g's?) right now, and hopefully by the end of June she'll be doing lots better. Nathan had a couple of baseball games this week, too, plus we spent time at Jon's mom's, my sister-in-law's, made a big trip to Costco, conducted a little school, took the cat to the vet, kept up with watering all our new plants and trees, dusted the whole house to get rid of the pollen...whew! We've had a nice weekend, though, and today Jon, Zach, and I went to Duke Diabetes Day. We ordered a continuous glucose monitor, had a wonderful lunch which they provided, played a few games (pin the blood drop on the finger...yes, I thought it was wierd, too), and visited a lot of different vendors (from the Splenda people to the diabetes camp people, who would've loved to have recruited me had my RN license not been inactive and not my having worked in 7 years). It was a good time to be with just Zach, and Jordan was spoiled at Aunt Kit's house. Speaking of spoiled, Andra, you ruined my two children, thanks for being so @#! fun!!! No, really, thanks for helping out, but they do think our house is terribly boring and "too safe." Gosh, I'm tired, love to all~Shannon

Oh, to explain the photos, the one with Nathan is showing him with what he called "cartoon eyebrows," and the other one is most of the grandkids with Nana, who is my lifeline when Jon is traveling, and of course, the beautiful Kit.

more from the museum

trip to Durham

Last Friday Zach had his appt. at Duke, and we were so happy that Jon dropped by on his way back from Raleigh, just getting in from flying all night on his way back from California (he'd been gone all week). He got there just in time to find out that Zach's hemaglobin A1C was 6.2 this time, we were very pleased (that of a non-diabetic would be around 6) to say the least. Afterwards, the kids and I headed over to the science museum in Durham, it was an absolutely perfect day. I can't remember having had such a nice day with my family for quite some time...it was peaceful, and everything just looks so beautiful outside right now. We've been blessed with plenty of rain, and everything's very green and vibrant. You know how you have times when you feel like you are in the peaceful rhythm with everything around you? That's how Friday was, and I thank God for days like that.

more pics

OK, this may seem vain to post more pictures of myself, but I decided that in the previous picture, because I sometimes try not to squint my eyes too much when I smile and therefore reveal the extent of my laugh lines, that the result is me looking like I've had too much caffeine. So, I asked my son to try to get a more natural looking picture of me....

I did it!

After months of entertaining a daring 'do, I finally took the plunge. Sisters-in-law Kit and Meagan blazed the trail away from the Forbis long hair. I'm liking it. Jordan, however, is not: "I hate it, Mommy, I hate it," were her exact words. I think it's because I look so different, or maybe it's just not a "princess" hairdo, but what mom of 4 has time for that? Plus, Jon likes that I had the guts to do it, whatever my reason.

more with Gigi, and baseball

Nathan had his first game last night, in which he got an awesome single, and then was eventually batted home. He's also the team's catcher, and it's not easy maneuvering in all that gear, but he manages to get the job done! Oh, and they won the game 3-1, that was the best part!