Prayers for Mamaw

Dearest Mamaw,

Feel God's peace. Surrounding you, comforting you, taking great care. Feel God's love. Family, prayers, holding you up. You are not alone. We are with you. God is with you. Such simple words to say, but we do hope you feel God's peace and love as you go into surgery which, God willing, will ease your pain and bring new life to your sweet body.

We love you and are praying for you today and each day...

Your family

Happy Birthday Chuck!

Happy birthday Chuck! You are truly an amazing husband, dad, granddaddy, father-in-law, uncle, son, son-in-law and friend. We are all very blessed to have YOU in our lives. May God bless you with a truly special birthday. We love you!

Easter Weekend Run-down

To save myself a $1500 flight home for Easter, I decided to stay and enjoy my first Easter here in Charleston. Matt was able to join me; he flew in Thursday evening and we had a great weekend.

A few highlights included: My Product Development division had a box where we enjoyed a Riverdogs game (we won!); Spring shopping; a do-it-yourself doggy bath at the neighborhood doggy boutique; my church's community-wide Easter Celebration on the riverbank at Boone Hall Plantation, and brunch with Tim, Donna, and Donna's parents.

We were fortunate to have beautiful weather this weekend, but as always, our visit flew by.

In other news, here's a little insight to life in Charleston these days:

• I've started traveling with work a bit to work with museums who are interested in our software; in April I'll be visitng Atlanta, Charlotte, and Philadelphia (where I'll get to take in a mini-vacay)
• I'll begin triathlon training at the end of April and competing in my first sprint triathlon in June - I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited as this is something I've always said I wanted to do
• My division at work has started a non-competitive sand volleyball group which plays here on Daniel Island; I started participating when I can!
• I completed Alpha at the church I've been visiting and have made some great connections with the small group we established during the course; I will continue to find ways to be involved there
• I'll represent my company by presenting at the UPA Conference in June - again something I'm a bit nervous about, but I get to hang out in beautiful Portland, Oregon for the week :)
• Matt and I appreciate prayerful wishes; it seems God is working in a way we didn't expect and could never have planned...but seems to be an enlightening path! Would we expect any less from God?

Oh! And as I type, Matt's plane made an emergency "precautionary" landing in Jackson, Mississippi just now. Apparently the air speed and altitude indicators went haywire with their readings. All is well, and they are on standby until further notice. Gotta love travel woes..

UPDATE: The plane was collecting ice inside the cockpit, causing control failure. They were unable to fix the plane this evening, and put the passengers up in a Ramada Inn there in Jackson. Matt is in good spirits and just thankful to be ok after such a turbulent landing.

Love and miss you all - I'll report back soon!
Shannon

Eggstravaganza

Well, we are starting to see signs of spring...and some lingering snow... and the joy of EASTER keeps us looking forward. We hosted an EGGSTRAVAGANZA this weekend. Nathan read The Easter Story. We enjoyed our friends, the sunshine and lots of food. It was soooo much fun! I don't know who had more fun the parents or the children.