Dear Family and Friends,

Hey! How are you? We are doing well. Hope you are too!





Chad has had an extremely busy year with his business. Unfortunately, most of his work is and has been in the Modesto area. We spend at least half of every month apart, but we are so thankful that he has work when so many people in the construction trade are unemployed.

I am still able to be a stay-at-home mom and spend most of my time driving the girls and their friends all over the world...


Emily - 15

Emily is a sophomore at Murrieta Valley High School. She runs cross country and track. She spends a lot of time on homework, but when she has free time, she is with her friends or on Facebook.

Megan - 13

Megan is an 8th grader at Thompson Middle School. This past summer her hip-hop dance team spent a week in Las Vegas competing at Hip Hop International. What an experience for both of us! She had a great time. She continues to take dance class and loves her hip-hop and contemporary classes.

Abbey - 10

Abbey is a 5th grader at Cole Canyon Elementary. She just finished her second season of soccer and she is hooked! She even played goalie quite a bit this year. She made some great saves! Chad and I love to watch her play!

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous 2011!

Love, Chad & Shannon, Emily, Megan & Abbey

Dear Family and Friends, (A Christmas Letter of sorts...)

Hello All! Merry Christmas!

How are you? I hope everyone is doing well.

Time has gotten away from me once again...

So, to catch you up on the doings...

To start with, we are all doing well. We've had the standard colds this year, but no one got the swine flu! We are all still alive! We are happy and enjoying life here in Murrieta. All three girls are doing well in school and are busy with their own friends and activities.

Chad has been working mainly in Modesto for the last six months. He started his own company, Allen Electric, and has been very busy getting it up and running. He still has contacts there in Modesto(/Manteca), and amazingly enough, they are still building houses, a few at a time. He is usually gone about 10 days and home about 4 days, gone for 10, home for 4. He stays with friends, works 14-16 hour days, then crashes on an air mattress. I'm in awe of the things he does for our family. We have discussed moving back, but alas, none of the five of us want that... Here at home, we are busy and miss him in the evenings, but have found a way to make it until he comes home again. The nice thing is that when he is home, he is home.

In general, I have adjusted to this disjointed way of life. Not unlike, I imagine, a woman who is married to a firefighter or truck driver or business person who is gone for days at a time. I have found a way to be okay when he is gone. The girls' various schedules keep me pretty busy and so I don't really have a whole lot of time for dwelling on the fact that he isn't home. We talk on the phone many times a day and I can keep him apprised of all the excitement here at home. Things like Abbey winning the coloring contest in her class, to Emily getting nominated for Freshman Homecoming princess. Progress reports show up great on a text message... The hardest part, I have found is the constant changing of gears. Shannon the Sort-Of-Single-Mom, Shannon the Wife, Shannon the Sort-Of-Single-Mom, Shannon the Wife... It gets difficult to go back and forth. For now...that's just the way it is.

Emily...

Emily is so old now it makes my head hurt. I'm really having a hard time with how quickly the time is passing. She is a freshman now, and my freshman year is the year where I feel like I can remember almost everything with perfect clarity. How on earth is it possible that my kid is that old when I feel like that was me about 3 years ago. Anyway, she is maturing and changing and growing, both physically and emotionally. She is taller that I am. She ran cross country in the fall (I blogged about it here and here)and has already started conditioning for track in the spring. She is doing great in school. I look at her and I can't believe she is MY daughter.

Megan...

Megan, too, is older than I'd ever believe my children would get. Seventh grade for goodness sake! She is a hard worker and is the kid who always comes straight home from school and does her homework without being asked. In August she started taking dance class again. She is IN LOVE with dancing once more. If she isn't doing homework, she is wearing her ipod and dancing. She dances all through the house, on the trampoline, to the mailbox... Her hip-hop class recently danced at the local opening of the Michael Jackson movie. They were amazing. So amazing, in fact that her teacher wants them to start competing. It will be fun to see where this goes.

To see Meg dance, click here. (She is the shortest one on the far right hand side, standing behind the chair. The video is incomplete...we had technical difficulities...)

Abbey...

When Abbey was three, she promised me that she wouldn't grow up. She would stay my little baby forever. Well, that promise is broken. She tells me that it isn't her fault, that God just made her to grow up. She's right, I guess, but I still can't stand it. She is learning algebraic terms and functions. I am almost unable to help her with homework anymore and she is only in fourth grade. Or should I say, "She is already in the fourth grade?" She played soccer this year and LOVED it! After her first practice she told me she was already sure she wanted to sign up again next year. Her team was great. Every girl was a nice person and her coach was amazing. It's been fun watching her fall in love with something because she has never really found that "one thing" before now. She has tried ballet and t-ball, and tumbling and art classes. Not until soccer did we ever see anything resembling passion!

Well, we hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy 2010! If you are ever in Southern California, we'd love to see you! Come stay with us... we're only an hour from Disneyland!

Love, The Allens

Anniversary

Fifteen years ago, today, Chad and I were married. Wow! Fifteen years... How the time has passed in the blink of an eye.

This year we are apart. I am at home in Murrieta. He is working in Modesto. But I think that it almost makes sense this year. Hold on while I explain...

You don't make it to fifteen years of marriage without some ups and downs. You don't make it to fifteen years without learning how to be flexible. You don't make it to fifteen years without learning that marriage takes work and just because you might not be together on the DAY OF, doesn't mean that you don't care anymore. In fact, I believe that it means that we are STILL IN THIS TOGETHER. We are willing to do whatever it takes to make our family work and keep us moving forward. We are willing to make momentary sacrifices for the good of our family. And even though I would love to be on an Hawaiian island with my husband right now, I'll take take just knowing that we both care about the long term. Our marriage, our family, has a future.



I love you, Chad.

35 is half of 70!

For the last ten years or so, I've cried on my birthday. Somehow the day just seems to disappoint. Maybe it's because it's supposed to be "my day" and it usually seems to end up about everyone else. The nature of being a mom I suppose...

Well, I'm 35 now. This number was looming with a large amount of heaviness for me. Thirty-five is half of 70. Thirty-five is half way between 20 and 50. How is it possible that I am just as far away from 20 as I am close to 50? Seriously, I was 20 about 3 years ago. Everyone says that the time flies by. I just had no idea.

My birthday present this year was my trip to Martha's Vineyard to see my brother. My mom and I had a great time! But when I got home, there were still surprises waiting for me.



The evening of my birthday, my mom came over and brought dinner. She made homemade potato ham chowder and fresh baked bread. It was delicious.

And I didn't want a cake this year. While we were in Martha's Vineyard last week, the fudge shops were just starting to open back up for the season. Fudge sounds good to me...

Mom made fudge with toffee chips for me... yum!

And my husband... for those of you that don't know Chad well, he is the "handiest" person I've ever met! I truly believe that he can do anything that he sets his mind to doing. In the course of our marriage he has saved us "millions and millions" of dollars by doing things himself that the ordinary person would have to hire someone to do. If you are not yet married, and are looking for a life mate, I highly recommend adding to your list of desirable attributes the ability to fix and build and install things.

Anyway, this was our family room when we moved in. Two gaping holes in the wall where a built-in entertainment center would go...

This is how we've lived with it for the last year. This beautiful set-up consists of a plastic Costco table holding our T.V. and relevant electronics, with all of our DVDs and CDs in Rubbermaid tubs under the table.

When I got home from Martha's Vineyard last week, this is the incredible work of art that was waiting for me when I got home...SURPRISE!

Chad and his brother, Billy, who is the other "handiest" person I know, spent much of the week I was gone and some of the week before that, building this beautiful entertainment center from scratch!

I honestly can't complain this year. I didn't cry. Not even one tear. Thirty-five started off pretty well. Maybe it won't be so bad after all...

Friday

Em and Meg left for Winter Camp Friday afternoon.

Abbey received a "Learner of the Pack Award" (her school mascot is the coyotes) at school for her academic excellence and her love of reading. Her certificate was good for a free kids meal at Claim Jumper!

Last night, Daddy decided to take her on a date to use her certificate. They sat down at their table and ordered. Abbey ordered baby back ribs with macaroni-and-cheese and fries. Chad had butterflied shrimp. While they waited, they colored and drew and did the activities on the kid's menu, but the crayons kept breaking.

Chad said they had a great time talking and eating. As they were leaving, he asked her,

C - "So, how was it?"

A - "Great food, crummy crayons."

And that's what it all comes down to folks...

We live on a cul-de-sac, for goodness sake.

Chad says that I say this everytime I tell the girls to go out and play...

Chad's Birthday - Part 2

At our house, when it is your birthday, you get to eat on the special "Birthday Plate."


Chad chose to eat tacos on the plate today.

Chad didn't want a birthday cake this year. We are both trying to cut back on the calories so we went and got frozen yogurt at our new favorite spot...Xtreme Frozen Yogurt.

The girls always go crazy with the toppings.

They have one of those stamp card programs where you buy so many yogurts and you get one free. Chad got his monster-sized yogurt for free tonight! A perfect gift!

When we got home, we sang "Happy Birthday" with candles in his yogurt.