It's Been a Week - Now What?!

(Chris' sunset walk on our first night here)

So, many of you have heard pieces of the story of what God has done in just one quick week. Well, let me fill in the details.

Tuesday, July 28th - we flew into L.A. with a child who did not have a seat the whole flight and desperately needed a nap, a cat who was drugged and did very well, and two parents crazy nervous about their big venture away from security and loved ones. Well, we made it (will be getting Christian his own seat from now on) - but we made it. We were picked up by my high school friend, Jamie who waited in traffic for over an hour to get us, and her car started overheating on our way back. Our roommate Genevieve was due to arrive that day with the truck of stuff and our car, but because of many factors made it to New Mexico and needed to stop. We hung out at Jamie's for awhile then decided to take her air mattress and the pack-n-play to our new place and call it a night. It was amazingly HOT here, and our bedrooms did not have air conditioning, so we ran to Home Depot for a fan to at least cool Christian off for the night. Well, our poor little guy with the heat, dehydration, lack of sleep and just being disheveled lost it, I mean lost it - he threw up all over himself, me and the Home Depot floor. We pushed him too hard that day, and I've never seen my jovial child so lethargic and sober. We called it a night and tried to get him back to health.
(the living room filled with boxes)

Wednesday, July 29th - ok, Wednesday (I feel like Tuesday was a week worth of stuff). Genevieve arrived Wednesday morning and had to take off and go to work - yes, I know, nothing like a trip cross country in 3.5 days and then have to run off to work all day. She blows my mind how she can push herself. So, the truck was there, but we waited on our friend from Chicago, Johan and some guys to help unload. In the meantime, I had an interview that day and all of my clothes were somewhere on the truck. Melissa to save the day.... Our friend Melissa (also from Chicago now in Pasadena - soon to be back Chicago) ran home and brought me some clothes for the interview. Being there about 24 hours, I was on my way to downtown L.A. to find this job site. Yes, I'll admit I was about 2 minutes late, but I found it. I interviewed at a non-profit called City Scholars, which I had had a phone interview with 2 weeks prior. The job is a Program Manager position setting up and planning trainings for after school program workers. The interview went really well, and I felt excited about the job after leaving. When I got home, everything was moved in, so we chose two rooms - ours and Christians, put them somewhat together and passed out. Soon after we fell asleep, Christian woke up feeling sick again. We sat in the washroom for about 30 minutes as I tried to catch anything he was going to grace us with. But, I think the day before scared him, so he kept everything down. He finally fell asleep due to exhaustion.

Thursday, July 30th - This was a pretty light day, it was dedicated to unpacking. About half way through the day, Chris' phone rang. (I'll let him tell the rest....) So prior to leaving for LA i applied for an entry level position (my level in the Animation industry) at Nickelodeon Animation Studios, which is like 10 minutes from our house here in Burbank. When i applied for the position i called a friend of mine who is VERY well known at Nick named Joaquim Dos Santos. Jo was a director on the hit series for Nick called Avatar, and is now responsible for a few hits at WB. Well when i called i asked him to put in a good word for me at Nick, and he was totally cool with it, and actually called a few people that he knew there and put in that word, but got nothing in return. This went on for about 2 or 3 weeks. Well here we are chilling at our new house, and me thinking to myself that "all i need is a shot" and who should call me but Joaquim Dos Santos who was now at WB. He told me that he had spoken to his producer, and that she expressed to him that the were looking to recruit new talent at WB and wanted to know if he knew anybody that would be interested in taking an entry level position with the intent to move up at WB... well, long story short, i've been at WB for about 5 days now, and its AMAZING! God really hooked up things so much faster and so much more AMAZINGLY than i could have ever asked for, and this is seriously just the beginning. That phone call was such an amazing call as it represented all of the prayers that you guys have put up for us, all of the struggles that i went through as an artist, and through High School, and here i am at WB animation taking part in some of the most AMAZING pieces of animation in the history of the media, and i couldn't be more excited......now back to our regular scheduled post, lol.

Other Days -
Saturday - Well, from then on, it's been kind getting into a groove. We went to the Burbank Farmer's Market on Saturday morning and got yummy fruits and veggies, an amazing block of Pesto Jack cheese and artichoke hummus - YUMMY!


Sunday - Chris and I took Christian to Venice Beach, one of our favorite spots. It was super crowded that day because of a festival, but we got to walk the boulevard and have lunch at a really yummy Mexican restaurant. A hip-hop street performing group from Chicago was there and Chris got to be apart of their show. It was cool to see them, cause I watched them once on Michigan Ave.

(At Mexican Restaurant) (Show participant at Venice Beach)

(Admiring B-ball players) (Needed new sunglasses :)

Monday - Chris' first day of work, Christian and I did laundry and continued to work on the house. I got an email from the job I interviewed with. They wanted letters of recommendation as well as a writing sample.
(Chris' office space at WB)

Tuesday - We had lunch with Chris' uncle, Uncle Bobby at the famous Big Boy Restaurant on Riverside Drive. It was so great to see him and have family close by.
(Lunch with Uncle Bobby)

Wednesday - FINALLY GOT CABLE AND INTERNET!!! I feel like my electronic friends have returned! Thank goodness. Just in time to watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance.

Thursday. Aug. 6th - I got a phone call from City Scholars asking me to come in on Monday for a 2nd interview with the President of the company, and...my favorite dancer on SYTYCD WON!!! Yeah Jeanine!

So, there you have it. You are officially caught up. Christian is doing really well. He's becoming more independent and has a lot more opinions and is able to express them. He seems to be loving his new digs. We did finally get air conditioning in our bedrooms, so it has been a lot more enjoyable and he's feeling great.

Stay tuned for more news. They won't always be this long...promise :)

Love to all - and thank you for the prayers, they are definitely working!

Love,
Shannon, Chris and Christian
(See ya!)