Dallas Mustang Open House 2009

Dallas Mustang Open House is in October. Luckily, in past years it was either the weekend before or the weekend after the car show at the Dairy Queen in Seven Points (The car club Poppa is a member of hosts). Unfortunately, this year they landed on the same weekend. With Open House proving profitable in years past, I couldn't pass on this year. Good thing I didn't, we won some great prizes. Here are some pictures:

This Black 2003 Cobra, won 1st in our class.

This car also won 1st in his class.


1993 Cobra

A friend of Jeremy's owns this fastback. He has put a lot of time and money into it.

Look closely, you can see the reflection of Jeremy's car.

Entertainment was provided by a ZZTop Tribute Band

New Season, Fresh Update

As per request from Aunt Laurie I am updating my blog. There isn't much to update unfortunately. My classes at Region 10 are going great. I'm on a bit of a break right now. They don't offer courses back to back, so I finished the 2nd tier last week and the next tier doesn't begin until December 1st. There is an online course that will take place between now and then, so I guess I'm just on a face-to-face break. We've been to several car shows between September and now. Laps for Charity was in September and Dallas Mustang Open House was in October. And a not so little event called Cars and Coffee. I'll share some of those pictures. This post has been in the edit phase for about 3 days. For some reason is isn't letting me upload all my photos, so this will be at least a two part post.

Laps for Charity is an event held at Texas Motor Speedway. You pay $30 to drive your car around the track 3 times. We went and picked up the Camaro from the lake and drove it to Garland. From there we drove to TMS. Andrew drove the Camaro around the track. He was a little nervous, considering this was the first time he had actually driven the Camaro. The speedometer got up to 95mph.

The OWNER of TMS, Eddie Gossage, came up to Andrew and offer TMS (yes, the race track) as a trade for the Camaro. I am amazed, that all the events and car shows that Jeremy and I attend, there are hardly any 1969 Camaro Pace Cars. When Poppa bought this one, the guy he bought it from had two, and told Poppa that if he was ever going to sell it, that he had first dibs. However, I think he would have a fight on his hands, if that were to happen now.

Murr C and Poppa rode in the back seat of the Camaro. I think they had a great time.

My cousins, Skotte and Melissa, have joined the Scion world. This is Melissa's Scion TC. She organized a charity car show for St. Jude's at Chili's in Garland. She did a GREAT job!

Photos, Few Words, Busy Weekend

So last weekend was a busy one. Saturday - I got up and went to a Scion Club Car Show that my cousin coordinated. Took a few pictures. Went and picked Jeremy up from work, we then drove to Deep Ellum to the THEM! Invasion Car Show. It was a show for Pre-64 cars (I think). I only took a few pictures there, it was HOT! And then Sunday, we used Jeremy's gift card to Studio Movie Grill. I don't recommend seeing District 9 and eating at the same time. In fact, I'm not sure I recommend seeing District 9 at all. Monday, I got up and went to the Garland Labor Day Parade, only to prove to myself that I really do need a fast lens.


"The Green Mile" is a 1960 Parkwood Station Wagon. The owner put an LS1 motor in it. It has some "get up and go".

Most of these cars at the Invasion Car Show have the "old" and "worn" look to them. Infact, The Green Mile has a clear coat over the old and worn so it stays that way. These owners put a lot of work into making their cars look this way.

The V8 emblem off the fender of a Studebaker.

The South Garland Southern Belles. The parade kind of made me miss my high school days. But I can't help but think I am only missing the friends of my high school days and not the actual high school work. I graduated in 2003, that was 5 years ago!

It is funny how the shots I don't put any thought into, turn out the best. Like this one. It is really growing on me. Growing on me so much that it is my desktop background.

My cousin, Melissa's, Scion TC.

I need some help in customizing my blog. I think I'll put that on my to-do list for next week. I'm tired of it being boring. I want a background and a cool font. I have a bunch of cool fonts that I've downloaded from a blog a found through Two Peas in a Bucket. She takes your handwriting and turns it into a font to download. It is really neat, and I've been wanting to make something with one of these fonts, but I haven't had anything to make.

~Shannon

Things are Changing

A lot has happened since July 4th. Jeremy and I (and the cats and dog) moved out of the apartment into my parents' house. So this house is buzzing with animals. We have Lightnin' (dog), Jake (dog), Sophie (dog), Sadie (cat), Shelby (cat), and Gunner (dog, for the weekend). Luckily, Lightnin' is too old to cause too many problems. Jake and Sophie play very well together. The cats are getting adjusted. We have a gate up at the end of the hallway to keep Jake out of the back of the house so he doesn't get attacked by the cats. However, they have learned to listen for when the dogs go outside or are asleep and they will venture out to the rest of the house. Dad has had to do a little re-arranging. Sadie found the snake display with fake grass and has eaten the grass, of course she does it while no one is home.

We moved out of the apartment because I couldn't see spending nearly $1000 in rent on a one bedroom apartment. My parents house payment isn't that much!! The other reason was for me to go back to school to get my Teaching Certificate. I've started the Region 10 Alternative Certification Program and it should take about 6 months to complete. My boss is understanding and some of the patients have given me their contact information for when I need to substitute and observe the classroom. My last day is Friday, August 21.

We also went camping at Tyler State Park with Jeremy's parents. I'm not sure we'll do that again next summer. It is just too hot in July to go camping without A/C. Well that, and hopefully by that time next year, we'll have just taken that "big step".

This is a picture of the lake at Tyler State Park. There was discussion if it was called Crystal Lake or Lake Tyler. The picture was taken from the bridge that Layla would fish from and spit from (thanks to Uncle Mike and Aunt Doris).

Happy 4th of July!

While I am sorry that I have escaped from the blogging world, I am not pleased to report that the events that have been happening in my life have been far from a fairy tale world. Poppa C (my mother's father) was put in the hospital Monday, June 22nd. They had scheduled to do a cardiac ablation. The reason for the procedure was because the nerves sending the signal to his heart to beat were sending too many signals and not in the right rhythm. Poppa's cardiac doctor at home referred him to a surgeon in Plano. Normally this procedure can be done as a day surgery and the patient would be sent home the same day. However, Poppa's was a little more extensive than that. They were also going to go in and smooth out the inside of one of the valves. Jeremy said, "He's basically getting his heart ported and polished." Car terms. The Plano surgeon is the best. He wrote the manual on this surgery. Who better to do the surgery than the one who wrote all the details about it? He has been at the Baylor Heart Hospital since the 22nd. The nurses are amazing, the facility is gorgeous, and the menu is to die for (of course it is all healthy heart conscious). Several months ago they performed a cardio-version (like in the movies where they shock the person's chest). This was done to try to get the rhythm back to normal. It worked for a couple of days and then went back to its old way. So much for teaching an old dog new tricks. The surgery worked! But Poppa's oxygen level and blood pressure were screwy, so they've kept him at the hospital. Some time earlier this week, his heart started an irregular rhythm again. So Wednesday, they were going to perform another cardio-version. I was off on Wednesday so I went to the hospital to sit with MurrC and Poppa. This procedure was suppose to take place at noon. He was not allowed to drink or eat anything before they came in to do this. Noon came and went. The doctor had a surgery that was suppose to be over by around 11:30. He had some complications and it wasn't over at 11:30. Poppa kept asking why he couldn't eat, if he could have a coke or even a piece of candy. FINALLY the doctor was done and he came into the room around 5:15p.m. The procedure took all of 5 minutes to sedate him, shock his heart, and wake him back up. However, it worked, they only had to shock it once and at the lowest setting. You know in the t.v. shows where they say, "Set it at 300, CLEAR! Push it to 350, CLEAR!" Well the lowest setting is 100, so that was a good thing. So good, that Thursday afternoon they discharged him and sent him home. If only the adventure would have stopped there. Uncle Andrew went with MurrC and Poppa home to the lake. They were to receive oxygen when they got there. The delivery never came. He continued to get short of breath so they called an ambulance and took him to the hospital in Athens. After conversation with the surgeon in Plano, they decided it was best to transport him back to the Baylor Heart Hospital. So at 3:30a.m. he took another ambulance ride back to Plano. When he got back to Baylor, they drained 500ml of fluid out of one lung and 700ml out of the other. Having a nurse in the family isn't always a great thing, don't let us fool you. Mom felt the need to take the bags out of the Hazardous Waste bucket and show it to us. Not something I particulary wanted to see. Of course, she put gloves on and washed her hands afterwards. Poppa looks good, he is still a little weak, but his oxygen levels are good, his breathing is okay (that's another story, something about his diaphram), and his blood pressure is good.

Jeremy's uncle, Mike, was also taken to St. Paul's Heart Hospital in Dallas on July 1st. He had a valve replaced due to a birth defect. This is his 3rd heart surgery. He had one when he was 3, one at 18, and one now. From the reports I've heard, he is doing well or as well as you can be doign after heart surgery. He has been up walking around and eating.

This next couple of weeks are going to be a busy one for sure. We don't have much planned for 4th of July. After spending an hour and a half to get through the light at Seven Points last year, to get to MurrC and Poppa's house, we passed on that this time. We'll probably end up at C.C.'s house in Forney, eat BBQ, swim, and shoot off money, oh I mean fireworks. Sometime this weekend we ought to take a load of stuff to my parents' house. Next weekend is the big move out of the apartment and into my parents'. We're doing this to save money and other things that can't be discussed, because they aren't etched in stone yet. We'll be there Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday we leave for the family camping trip to Tyler. Why this is done in July, I don't know! It would make more sense to do it like in oh say, October or April. Oh well, this is how they've been doing this since Jeremy was little.

Hopefully, next time I update there will be happier more joyous news to report.

Playdate with Layla

Well, last weekend while the "3 witches" (hey, that's what they call themselves, not me) went to the boats in Shreveport, it left Layla and Poppa to a Saturday of watching cartoons. Jeremy and I decided that now that Layla is potty trained and pretty vocal about things she needs, we would take her off Poppa's hands for the afternoon. We picked her up and took her for her first ride in a convertible. This was also her first time to go anywhere without either Mimi or Poppa, so needless to say she was very quiet for awhile after we left. We took her to McDonald's where she had a cheeseburger Happy Meal. From there we went to the InSync Big Cat Rescue in Wylie, Tx.

While, I was grateful that these tigers were behind two fences, it made getting decent shots of them difficult. I also didn't take my big zoom lens, because we weren't really that far from the animals. I guess that's a lesson learned for a beginner photographer: Take it just in case. Or at least until you know for sure what you'll need to have.

I'm not quite sure there was enough activity for the 2-year-old. But she seemed interested.

We walked around the entire place and when we came back to this guy, he was sitting in the water trough. They sat there for at least 2 minutes just looking at each other.

And this is about how we felt when we left.

We drove back to the apartment and let Layla play with the cats and Sophie. She loves that little dog. At her home, there is a decorative phone in one of those old hallway phone-nooks. She picks up the phone and "calls" Sophie amongst other people. After we rested for a little while, we went swimming at the pool.

We'll do it again in a couple of weeks. I think next time, we'll go to the Dallas Aquarium.

Introducing: Gunner

Better late than never! This is my sister's dog, Gunner. He is a yellow lab and his butt still doesn't follow his head. But he'll grow out of it. Or so we're told. I thought he was sick when she first got him because he was a far cry from the activity level Sophie was at when we brought her home. All he did was sleep and sleep and sleep. He slept in the car, he slept in the living room, he even slept all through Petsmart! What dog sleeps during a trip to Petsmart?!?! He hasn't destroyed anything but toys (so far). He is definitely a puppy, puppy teeth, puppy breath, puppy bark, puppy potty times. Kelley's happy. Although I'm nore sure Sophie and Jake are too happy about it, and we all know Lightnin' is not happy, but these days she's not happy about much.