ONLY ME......

ok, so this is random, and it would only happen to me. i have a viral infection that is attacking my eyes... pretty sweet, eh?? they are red, swollen, and feel like they might explode. it really is the weirdest thing. but like i said, it is something that would only happen to me. i wish this picture did it justice, but here is a glimpse


this is day 3

going crazy...

so not too much going on here. just workin. BUUUUUUUT... just so you can all wait and wonder and wait and wonder and go as crazy as i am... my mission papers are in and now i'm just... yep, you guessed it - waiting and wondering and going crazy!! it's only a matter of time... i will post it as soon as i get my call!

viva las vegas!

a few weeks ago me, nikki, becca, and her roommate casey went down to vegas for the byu vs. unlv football game. we drove down saturday morning, played saturday afternoon, and then went to the game. it was a good game and fun to see the cougars win.

before the game



the very next weekend, i went BACK to vegas for the utah vs. unlv football game. different group of people, but just as fun! we left late fridy night, played again all day saturday, and then went to the game that night. sunday we got up and went to church and then came back home. i never thought i'd see the day that i cheered for the utes...

at the game



work has been interesting lately - our recruiter has been having us dress up as vampires and mummies. mostly we just didn't want to go out and spend money on costumes.... soooo.... we made our own. with coflex (what we wrap the arm with after donating) and toilet paper

day 1 as vampires


day 2 as coflex and tp mummies


we smeared paint on our faces


the boys

sorry sorry sorry

i am horrible at blogging. life has gotten so crazy lately i hardly have time to sit down. it has been months since i have had a friday night to just hang out at home with my roommates. so we are sitting here watching the byu football game and i decided to update the blog real quick. i'll try to be better....

first matter of business: the mission papers have been started!!! it is crazy to think that i turn them in just over a month from now. time flies....

now on to the adventures of shanna:

labor day weekend a group of us went down to st george to do a little rock climbing and other adventures. it was such a fun weekend and went by waaayy too fast. here is a breakdown of the weekend:
saturday 6 am: leave for st george
1 pm: rock climbing for a few hours
7 pm: iggys for dinner and to watch the byu game
sunday 9 am: church
3 pm: naps
6 pm: fat mans revenge hike
7 pm: st george temple walk
monday 9 am: more rock climbing
12 pm: lunch at in-n-out :)
2 pm: hike angels landing in zions
head home

here are some pictures from the weekend:


brooke, lindsey, me


on the way down from a climb


fat mans revenge


st george temple steps


belaying rachel


the group at the top of angels landing


the view from the top


next weekend its off to vegas for the byu v. unlv game! i'll blog about that later...

africa pictures!

i had the hardest time trying to decide which pictures to post - i took SOOOO many. so this is a brief collection of some of the pictures. it should give you a feel for the trip.

this trip was absolutely the most incredible thing i have done up to this point in my life. i got to spend 3 weeks in ghana, africa. my volunteer placement was in a school called suzzy mother care. i taught the class of 6 and 7 year olds. they were such sweet kids and i fell in love with each of them.

my perspective on so many things changed while i was there. i wouldn't go as far as to say i am a totally different person, but i definitely have changed in some aspects. the things i learned there are things that i will never forget. the people in ghana are so happy and content. my intention was to go there to see what i could do to help - but i never expected for it to be the other way around. i truly consider the people there to be angels that were placed in my life to teach me some of the things i need to know at this point in my life. although i will probably never see any of these people again, they really will be a part of the rest of my life.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

manti pageant and 4th of july

nikki andi drove down to manti for the manti temple pageant. i had never seen it before and it was amazing. it made for a really late night, but it was totally worth it. about halfway there, we decided (and i still have NO idea why...) to get out of the car and get on top of it. so we did. super random.

on top of the car


on top of the car again


manti temple


waitin for the pageant to start


on the 4th of july nikki and i met a group of friends from my old ward over at the mtc field for fireworks. it was fun to hang out with everyone again. the stadium of fire fireworks sucked, but we played some fun games and just had a lot of fun.

messin around after the fireworks - we eventually got a full pyramid, i just don't have a picture of it


love these boys


i'm not sure how this started... but it was funny


lark, tanna and i

californ-i-a

now on to our trip to california. tacy, nikki and i decided we would take a spontaneous trip down to california for the weekend. it was quite a fun weekend. tacy flew on her first airplane, we went shooting at the shooting range, spent some time at the beach, got henna tattoos that turned out horrible, had a bonfire at the beach, went to the newport beach temple, went to the long beach aquarium where we went on a sea life cruise, went to the museum of tolerance, made dry ice bombs, and lots of other fun excursions.


yep - we made matching blankets


shooting at the shooting range


henna tattoos that looked like poop on our feet


bonfire at the beach


at the long beach aquarium


embarking on our cruise


the only sea life we saw on our sea life cruise...

Round-About-Campout

i have a lot to catch up on. i'll start with the illegal sleepover that i wrote about in my last post. so the undisclosed location was a roundabout in provo. yes - we slept in the middle of the roundabout. it has a bunch of trees and bushes and rocks around the outside, and there was a small space just big enough for the 4 of us to squish in there. and i'll tell ya - we were squished. there was a huge rock that i was laying on, so i went to move it and what did i find?? oh, just a HUGE spider...

we slept right behind those rocks that i am standing in front of


o yes we did


the 4 of us

40 days...

Ok, so I've been horrible at blogging lately. I got so caught up in school and work that this just had to wait a while. Now I'm just trying to figure out if there is anything worth blogging about... my life gets kinda boring sometimes. And what I mean by that is that I haven't taken pictures of anything in a while. But that will all change soon...

My biggest news right now is that I leave for Africa in 40 days!! Yep - 40 days. So crazy!!! I am so excited to go. It has been a dream of mine for years, and it's finally happening! I have almost everything ready to go - I just have to get a few random things - a mosquito net, some clothes, fill my malaria prescriptions, along with some other things.

More exciting news. I am coming down to California for a weekend with 2 of my best friends. We just decided to take a trip, and the beach was on the top of the list. We fly in Friday morning and fly back Tuesday night. It will be much needed trip for all 3 of us.

And last, but certainly not least: we are sleeping outside tonight in an undisclosed location - which is probably illegal. So my next post might be all about being bailed out of jail. But hey - makes life interesting right?? :) Pictures to come...

Birthday Fun!

Monday afternoon, Tanna took me to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen for my birthday. I hadn't been there in forever and it was soo good! It was nice to just be able to sit and talk for a little bit. Even though we're roommates, we both have pretty crazy schedules and hardly ever see each other.

Tanna and I


I haven't cared much about my birthday this year, so I wasn't really planning on doing anything too special. But I have some pretty stubborn friends who didn't think that was such a great idea. So Melissa took me to lunch (sorry, no pictures) and then later that night, Tanna planned a little dessert night and had everyone come over. She made a cake and we had some other little snacks out. It ended up being way fun and I was able to see a few people I haven't seen in a while! I don't have pictures of everyone, but here are a few from the night.

Rachel, me, Nikki and Tacy


Dave, me Chad and Rod


Taya and I


Milinh and I


It was way fun, and even with only a few hours of sleep I still managed to make it (almost... only 4 hours left) through a 12 hour day of school and do well on my test today!!

Birthday = Girl's Night Out :)

Last night, some of my friends from work and I went to dinner and a movie to celebrate Tacy's birthday. A few of us have gotten to be pretty good friends and we try to do stuff together outside of work, so a birthday was the perfect excuse :) We went to the Pizza Factory for dinner. I had never been there, but it was SO good! The breadsticks are to die for, and the pizza is amazing. Then we went to see the movie He's Just Not That Into You. It was a little different than what I was expecting, but it was a cute movie. I don't know that it will be one that I watch over and over, however. But it was a fun night. After 4 long work days and one long school day, it was good to go out and take a break!


Nikki, me, Tacy (the birthday girl), and Rachel

My First Sticks!

I tried to post a picture of a needle, but for some reason it was just showing up as a bunch of random letters... so nevermind. But I did my first needle sticks at work today! It was the longest day I've worked so far - 14 hours - but it was so fun! I am only 3 sticks away from being completely trained and able to do everything on my own. It has been an extensive training process, but I have really enjoyed it and have learned so much! My trainer told me today that I was going to be sticking and I felt like I was going to throw up... I was so nervous! But she talked me through it all and I did it! I was able to get in 8 of them. It really isn't bad at all! A totally random post, but I was pretty excited about it!