Remembering Shannon...one year later.

(Jill, Spencer, Scott, a pregnant me, and Shannon being a goof in the background. He was always so much fun to be around. :) This was after a ISU vs. Nebraska game.)

Yesterday was a difficult day. We remembered that day one year ago, having received a call from Spencer who'd just received a call that his brother and our beloved friend and former 'roomate' Shannon had been in a motorcycle accident and they didn't know what the status was yet. Immediately I had the questions going through my mind. Was he critical? Was he just skinned up but ok? Was he...gone? Those few hours of waiting to hear back from Spencer felt so long, and I thought about the family, what they were going through was a thousand times worse.

I remember when Scott received the phone call back from Spencer, he was sitting on one of the

couches watching TV. Scott's parents were also here, his dad Jerry, had fallen asleep on the other couch. His mom Linda, had gone downstairs to do something. Lincoln was napping soundly in his room. I was sitting at the kitchen table, but I don't remember why. I remember when the phone rang, looking at Scott because I knew it had to be Spencer. Scott was staring at me, he knew I wanted to know right then how Shannon was. Then I saw him do what I didn't want to see him do, he shook his head from side to side with his eyes filling with tears. I said, "no. no. no. don't tell me that." Scott hung up the phone and was walking toward me. I said, "Scott, no, don't tell me that," and I just started sobbing and he started sobbing as he leaned down and held me. I remember I was saying "no, Shannon, no". Then Linda walked up stairs and saw us and didn't register exactly what we would be crying about. She leaned down and asked me what was the matter and I said "Shannon". I asked Scott then what Spencer had said exactly and he said Spencer's words were "we lost him".

(Scott and Shannon golfing, one of the summers he lived with us)

I just sobbed, sobbed for the loss of Shannon, sobbed for the family, especially his parents Steve & Jody, and his brothers Steven & Spencer, sobbed for Spencer having to hear those words as they were in the car headed to the Illinois hospital, sobbed for the fact that they turned around and were headed home to figure out what to do next. My sobbing that day didn't stop, until I fell asleep. Although we know Shannon was in Heaven and not suffering and was looking down on all who loved and just lost him, the fact remained, the world had lost an amazing friend, son, brother, uncle, and so on...

A year has passed and the pain from the loss of Shannon remains, but the memories of him make us cherish and be thankful for the fact that we were priveledged enough to have him as a friend, as a roomate, as part of our lives for the time he was here. We love you and miss you so much Shannon.

(Shannon holding a then 6 day old Lincoln, he was living with us when we brought Lincoln home.)

(Shannon and Ozzy. Our dogs, Ozzy & Jack, loved have 'their Shannon' live with us! He spoiled them with lots of lovey snuggles and attention.)

(Our mailboxes when Shannon lived with us. They went in order of height, which as you can see, I'm on the bottom being the shortest, so I could reach. :) This mailbox will never be changed.)

(An 'oldie but a goodie'. Shannon at our wedding reception. 8-30-03.)


THIS BLOG POST IS DEDICATED IN LOVING MEMORY TO:

SHANNON JACOB SMITH
12/16/82-5/24/09

*Please note, some of these pictures were taken from Shannon's facebook memorial page, "Shannon Smith, Never Forgotten". I didn't take all of these, I hope their photographers don't mind my using them.

(Shannon's grave marker, before the headstone was placed.)

(The balloon we released on 12/16/09, the first birthday, his 26th, that Shannon wasn't 'here' for.)

(The front of the gorgeous headstone.)

(The back. Notice the initials at the bottom. UMC-United Methodist Church; BSA-Boy Scouts of America; ISU-Iowa State University; FH-Farmhouse Fraternity; P&G-Procter & Gamble; HD-Harley Davidson.)

(The beautiful memorial bench at Shannon's church in Woodward, IA)

(The beautiful bench at the cemetary, an identical one to this has since been placed at P&G.)

(This is the bench at P&G yesterday. I bought some balloons, one being an ISU one. :) I also bought some orange flowers, with orange and black ribbon for Shannon's love of Harley Davidson. Scott came out of work for a few minutes and we just sat and thought about our dearly missed friend.)

I love this prayer, shown below, that Spencer had found and had printed on Shannon's funeral program. It is beautiful and really gives a sense of peace because Shannon loved riding his Harley, he was so proud when he got it...

Lastly, I end with a picture from Jill and Spencer's blog. A wooden cross made by Spencer in memory of his brother that stands at the accident site in Illinois. Scott and I have yet to make it out there to see it, but we will...

From "Sweet Pea" to "Under the Sea"

Lincoln has been in his toddler bed for quite some time, so obviously he hasn't been using his "Sweet Pea" crib bedding for awhile. I've just had a blanket on his bed. For his birthday, he's getting his room re-decorated (somewhat). I've said this many times before as I'm sure you've heard at some point that when I was pregnant, painting that nursery was a 'labor of love'. My mom (known as "NONIE" by her grandchildren) designed her own stencils for the dots on the wall, you'd laugh and what she used for the little dots, which I can't seem to find a picture of, but what she came up with was awesome! So, here's a recap, from "Sweet Pea" to "Under the Sea"...

Working on the big dot stencil...

Big dots in progress...

Big dots finished...

A then pregnant me, taking a rest...

My mom, myself, my Nana, and my sister Amy all had a hand in painting Lincoln's nursery and it turned out beautiful!!!

The "Sweet Pea" collection didn't have a crib mobile to match, so we got a Cyclone mobile that plays the fight song. :)



So, this brings me to the fact I still haven't mustered up the desire, or courage, to paint over it. :) I really wanted to find a bedding set that matched the color scheme, or atleast came close to it. The original toddler collection I had picked out was discontinued and I was yes, devastated, because I LOVED it. But, after searching and searching on the internet, I wasn't coming up with any bedding to buy from anywhere. So I had thought "damn you whoever discontinued the line or Target for not carrying it", until I spotted the "Under the Sea" collection at Target (which redeemed itself then). I love it just as much. :) It has the orange, green, and blue in it! Although darker and brighter than the shades on the wall, it blends really well.




So, for his birthday Aunt Mindy, Uncle Steve, and cousins Annabelle and Caleb bought the adorable lamp for the room and Nonie (my mom) got the awesome fishie beanbag!


These were a proud find of mine. The rug and trash can I actually found in the bathroom collections and they match the bedding stuff perfect!!

Ya know, that I think about it, Target had actually discontinued the "Sweet Pea" bedding before I had a chance to get all the pieces for it!!! I researched bedding for MANY months when I found out I was pregnant. I'm the type of person who has to see EVERY option available because if I come across something I didn't see and I love it, it eats and eats at me! So I have to see EVERYTHING before I choose one thing. In my defense, I'm not that way about everything, just some things that I consider 'major'. :) So I actually ended up finding the bedding at a boutique on EBAY. Really, in all honesty, I have a knack for picking things that end up discontinued and/or defective/damaged. Scott thinks I'm crazy for thinking that, but I could start a huge list of instances it's proved to be true! But I'll just give you one, it happened with the jewlery for my bridesmaids. I went back to the bridal shop to buy all of it and they discontinued the collection (I'd just found it the month before!), so we went through their old catalogs, called the manufacturer and found out they still had some in their warehouse! I was so happy I was able to order it!

So anyway back to the bedding, when I found the "Under the Sea" collection, I wasn't going to let it happen again and I snagged it up! :) Many may disagree, but I've learned my lesson that if I'm on a mission to find something and am narrowing the selection down, if there is a sufficient amount of time I'm able to return it, I will now get it at the time because I'd rather return it if I find something else rather than go back to get it and it be gone or no longer available. Seriously, it's happened MANY MANY times to me and crazy as it sounds, it then eats at me. Grrrrr.

Now, the biggest part, switching beds yet again. The new set is a twin bed, so Lincoln will soon be moving out of his toddler bed!!

Lincoln turns 3!

It's official, our sweet boy Lincoln John turned 3 on May 1st! It is still so weird to say that...

Our first celebration was on May 2nd (my 29th Birthday, ick) with Scott's family at a brunch the morning after the wonderful reception celebrating the marriage of Scott's sister Melissa and her husband Adam. :) Aunt Missy even had a big cookie made that said "Happy Birthday Lincoln and Andrea". It was very sweet. Lincoln loves spending time with all of them, as we all do. :)

Our second celebration was on May 9th (Mother's Day) at a park with my family and a few friends, which was nice, because we got to celebrate mom's too. The weather in our area had been less than desirable that week to say the least! It had been really chilly and super windy, so we were a little apprehensive of what the weather was going to do the day of the party, despite the forecast of 60's and sun. But it was beautiful! There was a slight chill in the air, but the winds had died and the day was absolutely lovely. The next day however, was awful, so thankfully, we couldn't have planned it better or asked for anything more. Of course, the celebration wouldn't have been complete without showcasing Lincoln's current favorite pal, Mickey Mouse! I even borrowed a Mickey shirt to wear from Katie just for my Lincoln and Lincoln wore a Mickey shirt from his Aunt Mindy. :)

He loved all the Mickey stuff everywhere! (I actually borrowed a few of the Mickey items from Katie's son Grant, for visual effect.) :) Thanks!

My favorite thing at the party besides the birthday boy, was the cake. I was so happy with how it turned out. I selected a cake from one of the display books they had, and had them add the element of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse from a few of the pictures of cakes I'd researched.

THE ORIGINAL DESIGN (SHOWN IN THE BOOK):

THE FINISHED PRODUCT (WITH THE CLUBHOUSE ADDED), sorry it's fuzzy:

Lincoln evidently loved his cake too, he ended up sobbing when I started to cut it!! He didn't want me cutting his Mickey cake!! Poor guy, he was so upset. It was rather darling though, I had to pick him up and comfort him. :(

Eventually, I was able to cut the cake and like I said before, it was a wonderful time celebrating birthday's and mom's. So I'll end with this, a picture of one tired Birthday boy, who was asleep before we pulled out of the park's parking lot. :)

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY LINCOLN JOHN!

Disney Trip

Due to the amount of photos I took, I'm not going to post them on here because it would take forever! For those of you who have facebook, I have a bunch on there and I uploaded to snapfish for others..

Updates to come...

I have yet to post some pictures from the wedding and Disney, but don't worry, I'll try to do it soon! Keep checking!