p.s.

oh yeah... with Stachie getting so big (he will be 10 months old on saturday) and Lydia becoming all super duper lap kitty... the itch for a new life to shape and mold is starting to rear it's ugly head!! I know... I am crazy! I am going to try and turn my focus on rehab-ing Tipsy. Wish me luck! I have found myself keeping an eye open for stray kittens lately.... (I know... I just can't control myself!)

sorry for the delay in posting...

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for not posting in a while. Things have been rather busy here at work...yeah, can you believe it, I am actually working at work. well...not right now, I am typing this. but...in all, it has been pretty busy here. I have spent most of my days lately working on a computer program. luckily, I was able to get all the glitches worked out this morning (I think...). At home, Mike and I have been busy repainting practically the entire house. The new bedroom furniture that we ordered is coming in 3 weeks early (yay! and yikes!) so we have been busily painting our bedroom. The walls aren't that bad to paint...it is the trim. We are changing all the trim from a stained pine to white paint. that is a lot of primer and a lot of a paint! but...the end product seems worth it. Tonight we are going to start working on the crown molding. We are putting it up in all three bedrooms and possibly the bathrooms too. The furniture will be delivered on Saturday... so priority is on our bedroom. Wish us luck!!

Have a great Wednesday!

Cutest Boys Ever!!

Here are my nephews, Zach and Joey, playing around in the hats that I made them. I can tell that they put the hats on themselves...the earflaps are a little off! (especially on Joey!). What cute boys! They spent the night at my mom and Larry's house the other night and were sooooooooo excited!! They love spending time at the big water!!

Wet Paint....

...I Has It!

Happy Valentine's Day

No grilled or fried foods?!?!?

Here is a little blurb from a campus wide email that was sent to us.


Equipment Failure Reduces Services at Gateway Building McDonald’s
The Gateway Building McDonald’s on the MCV Campus has a temporary exhaust system failure. Through today, Feb. 14, McDonald’s will close at 8 p.m. and will serve a modified menu that excludes the grilled and fried items. Regular hours and menu options are expected to resume on Friday, Feb. 15.

WTF... no grilled or fried items??? do they actually have anything that isn't grilled or fried???? you can get a salad without any meat... and that is basically it. Why even stay open??

Not a good combination...

Black Kitty + Wet White Paint



Stachie.... crazy kitten.

Hard at work...

Here are some pictures of me hard at work yesterday ... yes I work! I had to implant electrodes in the brains of some of my little ratties. I did 5 surgeries yesterday and have 6 to do today. I've gotten 5 done already...one more to go. But, the last one was super stressful. He stopped breathing quite a few times. I almost had to do CPR on him!! I am taking a breather for a while to destressify myself (yeah, I don't know if that is a word...but it sounds good).

wish me luck on the next one!

Chicken Dance!

Here I am ... doing the chicken dance in my new chicken hat!!! This one is super duper warm. you can put the wings down and they keep your ears super cozy!! I had a lot of fun making this one!



Here are a few more pictures of the hat. The second picture is of my co-worker, Karen.

Week in Review...

Alright... so I figure I would write a post that sums up this last week.

Dr. Bowman's service was beautiful. He belonged to a very large Baptist Church here in town. The pastors were wonderful speakers, and delivered very powerful messages. I met some very nice people...like this little old lady named Gladys. She has been a life long member of the church and a very dear friend to the Bowman's. She taught Gay (Dr. Bowman's daughter) in sunday school when she was only 3 (she is now in her 50's!). Gladys was just the cutest lady! Hopefully I will get to see more of her...as I have decided that I am adopting Mrs. Bowman as my in town grandma!! I haven't told her yet (I told her daughter!). But... we both seem to think she would like that (they don't have any grandchildren).

Mike's knee is slowly getting better. But... we have been getting a good bit of rain lately... so they have been bothering him a good bit (gotta love getting old and arthritis!).

Now... we are dealing with his job and all that drama again! seems like once a year they reorganize or someone leaves and it throws everything out of whack. Mike's job is, of couse, hanging in the balance yet again. please keep your fingers crossed for his job...and our mental sanity! Sometimes I wish that he would just find a job somewhere outside of the banking world. Wachovia has screwed us sooooooooo many times in the last 5 years!! I have lost count of all the firings and rehirings and reorganziational changes. it is crazy. they rush into making this big and great changes only to find out 6 months down the road that the old way was working so much better...but they have already let go or relocated people... now they have to hire again. (can you sense my dislike of wachovia bank right now!!).

here at my work... some of my new rats are finally catching on to the fact that if they press the lever in their box they get a nice little reward! sometimes...they are dumb and it takes a while! others learn in one day! everyone here at work is slowly getting back to normal since Dr. Bowman's funeral. I have yet to walk down the hallway where his office is. one of these mornings I want to go in and just kind of get a good look around. take some snapshots in my head.

this weekend... Mike and I are determined to paint the foyer!! it has been "in progress" since like august... so it is definitely about time to get that job finished!!

well... back to my ratties. I hope that everyone has a great weekend!
love,
shannon