We have reached the weekend and we have absolutely no agenda, which is just fine with us. Actually, the roads are in the worst condition I've ever seen after our latest round of winter weather. We are very lucky that our getaways were last weekend and not this one!
Erin has been enjoying back to back snow days - staying up late, having sleepovers, and sleeping in. She hasn't been a total slug - she's working on her research paper for English class. Of course that paper makes me think of Shannon - it's the one she was working on every day in Memphis... until she couldn't. She was so determined to finish it. I've got that unfinished paper in a box of things I've kept.
While we've been shut in these past two days, we passed the time by watching the Olympic hockey games. First, the women on Thursday and then the men on Friday. Both teams suffered tough losses to Canada. Erin watched with passing interest, but watching those games made us miss Shannon. She would have been hanging on every shift, rooting hard for the US. She would have been crushed by the losses.
Dan and I joked with Erin last night that Shannon would have been so mad about the losses that she would have been in a bad mood and probably would have taken it out on her little sister! We had a good chuckle about that...
I guess in some way, this is how we keep Shannon's spirit with us. Imagining what she'd be like. But who knows what she'd really be like. Would she be different at this age? Less emotional? More emotional? Would her interests have changed? People aren't necessarily the same at 15 as they were at 13.
But, those are unanswerable questions for us, so we imagine Shannon the way we remember her.
A big thanks to all of you who took part in our Amazon Review Day. We appreciate the support as we continue our work in the memory of that feisty 13 year old girl...
