Dreaming of a White Christmas

Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Ruben and I have been gearing up for Christmas and filling our time with social gatherings and fun times. We are so blessed to have good friends and each other. It's nice to be able to stop all the craziness that is the holidays, and just realise that what you really want is to be together. :)

The weather is getting cold and it's finally starting to snow! Here Ruben is heading out in his winter coat to walk the dogs.

Leading up to Christmas we have been to a cookie decorating party, 2 dinner parties, plus I had 3 office holiday parties all last week! After gaining some serious holiday pounds, Ruben and I have tried to take it easy on the sweets this week. :)

But oh man were the cookies so good!

Here are some that Ruben and I decorated. :)




This is Tina Louise, who hosted the party with her husband Mike.

They had all kinds of yummy treats, including tea, coffee and hot cider.

Here some of the group gather around the table and decorate. :)

This is Maria. She was very focused on decorating the gingerbread house.

Aww! You can feel the cookie love!

What a fun time, chatting and meeting new people. All the while eating lots of cookies and sugar!

YuM! Ruben eats his bass clef cookie. :)


We also recently got our Christmas tree! We were blessed to receive another real free tree! I was worried that we had missed the give away or that the organization wasn't doing it this year. I kept looking for information in the local paper, but didn't see anything. I decided to call them, and it had turned out that we did miss the give a way day, but they still had a few and we were welcome to come by and pick one up. We took the first tree we saw and it is beautiful!

I love all the ornaments that were once Grannies, and also our bass cards that Ruben places in the tree. :)

I also put out my snow village, which always makes me think of Grannie too! I guess I have a lot of memories of all the effort she put into decorating and making her house so festive and fun! I want my house to be that way too, sort of connects us, and brings back wonderful memories. :)

Our stockings. :)

Here Ruben is wearing some mittens I made him. :) I was supposed to wait to give them to him for Christmas, but I got too excited and gave them to him as soon as I finished them. :)

Not only that, but it looks like it will be a white Christmas for Chicago this year! I woke up this morning to find our neighborhood cover in snow.

Here are the dogs in their sweaters running around in it!

Oh, I don't look to awake yet! ;)

So pretty!

Nikon love the snow!

Ruben and I have a quiet Christmas planned, hanging out together and cooking a yummy dinner and a Christmas day brunch. Luckily I do not have to work Christmas eve so we will be able to spend a lot of time together before I will leave for West Texas ont the 26th. Looking forward to see some of my family and friends very soon!

Much love and blessing to you all!

Getting Ready for the Holidays

I realized that it has been a long time since I have posted news.

November was somewhat uneventful, not only that, but my camera has been giving me fits lately!

Ruben's audition in Houston went well. He was only 1 out of 8 bassist invited to audition for the open position, which was a big honor considering that it was a national search. Unfortunately, he did not win the job there, but we know that God has a special job for him and we are willing to be patient until it arrives. :)

Thanksgiving was spent with a friend and some friends of a friend at a pot luck dinner. Ruben and I brought 4 dishes, and we ate way to much food (as your supposed to do I guess.) I didn't get any pics of our feast, but we did have a good time.

Other than that, it's been pretty easy going. I have been knitting and working on projects and getting ready to head home for the later part of the holidays. I fly to west Texas on Dec. 26th and I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends!

Hope to update you soon on mine and Ruben's Christmas plans!

Much love to you all!

Shannon

Fall Times

Oh Fall! I think my favorite time of year! Beautiful colors and weather that is crisp and cool.

We were lucky to have Rubens' family here this month for a visit. Cathy brought her son Angel, and his two kids Michael Angel and Hannah, and the 6 of us in our little house was an adventure! We had the kids sleeping in the basement on our futon mattress and an air mattress assembled in the living room!. It made for a close and fun weekend. While there they went to the Chicago History Museum, and the kids + Angel went to Navy Pier. Ruben had a gig playing for a symphony out in the Northern suburbs. So, while he was gone to a performance the rest of us went to an arcade/restaurant called Dave & Busters. It was a lot of fun to head over and play some games.

Here's me and Cathy trying to pick out a game to play. :)
I think Hannah just beat her dad. And Michael did what he does, which is keeping the camera rolling.

He did let someone else video while he played.

But he never missed a moment!

The next night we went to see Ruben perform. Unfortunately Rubens' family doesn't get to see him perform very much. It worked out really well that he had a gig!

It was a fantastic concert!

The next weekend I got a surprise visit from my friend David Wahrmund. He was singing in a friends wedding and needed a place to stay. I always love to have the chance to see David! He is such a dear friend. So it was great to be able to hang out with him in his spare time. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of his visit.

I did get pics of a costume run that I had to make to Wisconsin. We have a dress maker who has been working on our costume for an upcoming production of Ernani. I volunteered to make the trip to Racine, WI to pick them up. It was a rainy, cold day! But I made it there and back with out any problems. Below is a pic of the Wardrobe Supervisor, Maureen Reilly, getting the load out of the jeep.

Since the visit from Cathy, I have been wanting to try cooking come Puerto Rican rice. It seems that is what good wives do (in Puerto Rico,) and so I have been wanting to try it. So, this past week I tried to do it on my own, all the while trying to remember what his mom had taught me. Meanwhile, Ruben is frying tostones (fried plantane.)

Puerto Rican rice is:

browned pork with tomato paste, sofrito (herbs & seasoning), cilantro (used from the garden), peppers, gandules peas, garlic, onion, white rice and water

The plantane was awesome, and the rice tasted good, but was a little soggy. I'll get it right someday! :)



Another awesome event that has happened in our house is the creation of a laundry room!!! No more lugging laundry to the laundry matt!!!

This past Christmas, mom gave is a mini washing machine. We had been using it for doing delicates to avoid the expensive smaller machines at the matt. But recently our landlord oked us to have a plug installed for a dryer!! I found a used dryer on craigslist for $50! Ruben and I took a nice drive to a Western suburb to pick it up. The building repairman installed it for us and it works great!!!! So happy!

Growing up, I think I took having laundry facilites for granted! What a gift!

The mini washer. The small loads are great, we use less water and only need to use the energy efficient level on the dryer.

Here it is! It's nice, for being used!

Our set up!



The end of the month my dear friend Sarah O'Neill is coming to Chicago! I'm really excited to see her!

Also, Ruben will be heading to Houston for his Houston Grand Opera Orchestra audition. He has been put in the first group to play for the day. This is for a full time bass position, and would be a great opportunity for him. Any prayers and positive thoughts sent his way would be appreciated. Is audition is November 3.

That's about it! Life is good, and I am understanding just how blessed I am! Ruben is amazing and I'm a lucky girl to have him in my life, just as he is lucky to have me! It's nice that I have found someone to go on this journey with. As well as have friends and family, like you, who follow and support me on my journey as well!

Much love to you all!

Babies are Blessings

I am Blessed!

I want to introduce a new blessing in my life, my God-daughter Miss Mallory Grace Moncrief. Two of my dearest friends Leslie and her husband Dakota have asked me to be their second child's God-Mother!! This is such an honor, I wanted to share it with the world!

Leslie and I met on our first day moving into Wall Hall dorm at Texas Tech University. We lived on the same floor, 3 doors down from each other for 2 years. We became instant friends, and continue to be very close despite our distance apart and life changes. No matter how long it's been since we've talked, we are always able to pick up our friendship where we left off, fill each other in, and support each other. This is a kindred friendship that holds a very special bond. I love her very much.

The first time I met Dakota, I knew he was the perfect man for Leslie. He is funny, and smart, and handsome, and he and Leslie share similar goals. They both are teachers and love being parents.

Here's Dakota with Mallory.

This is a beautiful picture of Leslie with her 2 year old son, Mason.

I love this family, and I love how much they love and trust me with the honor of being their daughters' God-Mother.

Whats a girl to do!

What's a Girl to do....

When her fiance is gone for two weeks....go to a concert maybe...how about....

THAT'S RIGHT! Sunday night I went to see U2 live in concert at Soldier Field. Friday afternoon, one of my co-workers informed me that there were still tickets available for $30 for the Sunday performance. I debated, cause money is tight right now, but decided to go, cause it's U2, and it's supposed to be there biggest show ever. Luckily the show did not disappoint!!!!

I headed downtown and as soon as I got off the train, I followed the sea of people walking to the concert. :)

A view of Soldier Field while I head to my seat.
My seat was located right at the back of the stage. I was down in the lowest levels of seats, on the 5th row, so I had a great view of the stage and the backstage space. (Which was perfect for me, I love backstage!!)



I got there pretty early, people were slowly coming in.

The opening band was Snow Patrol, I have heard of them before on the radio, but wasn't that familiar with their music. I really enjoyed their show. ;)

After they finished it took the stage crew about an hour to change the set for U2.

This is a blurry picture, but I wanted to show that the follow spot operators were actually sitting on little platforms that were hoisted up in the air. So, each one of those lights has a man sitting behind it, and they sat there through the whole concert, way up high in the air.

What a great seat!!! Here we are waiting for U2 to come out. :)


WHOO HOO! Go U2 U2 U2!

The countdown begins...

Yeah! Here they are!

Bono coming over to sing to the people in the back!

The stadium was completely full. I have never been in a place with so many people at one time. An estimated 55,000 people there!

It was an amazing concert, and the set was awesome! Here is a moment when the screen opened up and created this great funnel.

There was a needle which extended high into the sky.

Here's the band as they leave the stage!

A pretty awesome experience, and I'm so glad that I went!

Getting home was interesting, luckily I live only one stop from the stadium on the train, and had an easy trip home. I was in bed by 12:30am.

What a blast! Hope that Ruben is having fun in Lawton, OK with his Mom!

I'm looking forward to his return, but having a lot of fun on my own. ;)