I'm alive!

Everyone keeps asking when I'm going to update my blog...so I'm doing it right now! But I'm not really writing anything because I'm leaving Cherilyn's (my sister) in a little bit. Just know that I'm alive and that I have a TON of pictures to post when I get back to the motherland (a.k.a. Provo). (How's that for a lame post. That's what you get for asking for it) :)

Nie Nie Auction

I know many of you inside and outside of he blogging world have heard of the tragic events surrounding the Nielsen family. On Saturday, August 16, 2008, Stephanie Nielson was in a plane crash with her husband, Christian Nielson, and his flight instructor, Doug Kinneard, near St. Johns, Arizona. Doug Kinneard passed away soon after arriving at the Maricopa County Hospital. Both Stephanie and Christian were severely burned in the accident. They are on the road to recovery, but still need help as they have four children and medical bills continue to mount.

QuicKutz, Inc. would like to help out in some small way, so is donating the ultimate Silhouette Package to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Included is a Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter, vinyl in black, red, brown and white (perfect for vinyl wall art), 3 packs of transfer paper, scraper, universal hook, extra blade, a set of cutting mats and a $25 digital download card. Every last penny from this auction will go directly to the Nie Nie Recovery Fund. This package is valued at $600.

For more information on these products click on the links below highlighted in green.

1. Silhouette Digital Craft Cutter 2. Adhesive Vinyl & Transfer Paper 3. Extra Cutting Blade 4. Universal Scraper 5. Universal Hook 6. Replacement Cutting Mats 7. Prepaid Download Card

How to bid: Go to my friend Laura's blog at http://lauralucille.blogspot.com/ You will find a very similar post to the one above (okay, I copied and pasted...with her permission, of course!) and it will tell you how to make your bid.

Please forward this information to your friends and family who may be interested. It's for a great cause, and an amazing product! I've seen the work these things can do...they're so fun!

I am thankful for...

So I've been looking through some blogs and have noticed that a lot of people had posted about what they are grateful for in honor of Thanksgiving. Now I can't include everything, because that would take a LONG time! So here are a few.

• Gas prices going down...$1.59 today!
• "Perfect Pumpkin" scent from Bath and Body Works...I LOVE it!!
• My car...I still love "Edward" :)
• Harry Potter...I know I'm pathetic, but I just love those books. Though I did go on an HP fast for a couple of months, but I finally gave in on Sunday!
• Nyquil...it got me through Thanksgiving break :)
• My job...shocker, I know...but those kids just make me laugh every single day (maybe not ALL of the kids make me laugh, but I'm speaking generally)
• My funny roommates...never a dull moment here!
• Incredible friends...I don't know why I'm so lucky to have such amazing people in my life...but I'm not going to complain! :)
• My family...oh goodness I love my family! I just wish we were all closer!!
• Conference edition of the Ensign...what's not to love?
• My testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ...I know I hear this a lot, but really I can't imagine my life without the church and my testimony of my Savior!

Brent and Allison's Wedding

So many weddings! Isn't it great?! :) Three weeks ago, my brother Brent got married in Portland! I was also able to go through the temple (yay!), and my whole family was there (well, minus a couple of in-laws and nieces and nephews...we missed you guys a lot!) Even Aunt MaryLou and Grandma Lacey got to come! It was absolutely incredible!!

Brent watched football while he got ready for his big day! :)

Aren't Brent and Allison adorable? :)And that Brent must be so funny...because Natalie is laughing so hard (I don't know why, but this picture entertains me every time I see it!) :)Cute KristyI love my family!!!Grandma was a trooper!Isn't this picture cute? My dad is so handsome :)

Katie and Todd's Wedding

So this was clear back on October 10th, but I've never gotten around to blogging about it! I drove out to Denver for my friend Katie's wedding. This was my first time visiting Denver, and I loved it!! After growing up with Denver stations on our TV (weird, I know...my parents hated the local stations) I had always wanted to go to Colorado! I drove down with my friends Ryan and Katie George (so many Katies, I know...try living with both of them the same time. We usually just called them by their last names).

In front of the Denver Temple with Katie George.

We met up with Becca and Crystal...two other bridesmaids (I stole a couple of these pictures from Ryan and Katie's blog...thanks guys :) )

This is just a good ol' cheesy shot of me...I was trying to show off my fretty flowers :)Katie's (the bride one) brother Brent is on a mission in Prague, so they got a life-size cut out made of him. :) You better believe everyone had fun with it! Happy Birthday, Elder Reichman! :)

At the reception center (which was amazing, by the way...I want to marry someone from Denver just so I can have my reception there!!) there was an old red telephone booth. We had fun taking pictures in there (even after we found that there were a billion sleeping hornets in there!)

Anyway, good times in Denver! Congrats, Katie and Todd!

I'm going home!

I got really sick of seeing that "I Voted Today" picture when I got onto my blog, so I thought I'd write a quick note to #1 get rid of that picture and #2 tell everyone how excited I am to go home to Montana this weekend for Brent and Allison's wedding reception! (I still need to make an entry about the wedding...and Katie's wedding from last month...and everything else I've been doing!) So here are a few lovely pictures that represent some fun moments of past visits to the motherland!

Playing in the "mud" with Moe and Natalie

"Cow tipping" with my old roommate Kristen...get it?
And I'm a cow...

I voted!

Yay for voting! I stood in line for about 15 seconds...it was amazing! And in case you were worried...the lines at my school definitely cleared after about an hour. Kristy, perhaps next time they will roll out the red carpet for me. :)

Can teachers get reserved parking, please?

I don't know if any of you have ever had your work place be a polling location for a popular presidential election, so let me tell you a bit about it....
First of all, there's nowhere to park! Even when you show up an hour and a half before school starts, you get to drive around for 10 minutes until a big truck pulls out and lets you take his spot.
Second, you can't even get to your classroom because there are a couple hundred people blocking the hallway. When you try to weave your way through, you get dirty looks because they think you are trying to cut or something.
Third, the students use #2 as a great excuse for being late to class..."But the halls are blocked! I couldn't run to class like I usually do!"

But on the other side of things, it's very exciting! It makes me happy that so many people get out and express their right to vote...even if they do have to stand in line for a few hours....which I am looking forward to doing tonight on my way home! :)

Spongebob!

Why do I love Halloween so much? Because everyone gets to dress up like idiots! It's so fun! We had our ward activity tonight. As of last night, I had no clue what I was going to be. Then I remembered this brilliant costume that my roommate Katie's brother made a couple years ago out of a matress pad...none other than Spongebob Squarepants!

Don't worry, I had that cheesy face all night! I even ran around screaming like a crazy like Spongebob often does. It was classic. :) I was so proud that I didn't go out and spend any money on this. I already had the paints and some fabric from the "square pants" and tie. It was funny. :)

There were some other great costumes at the party...especially a lot to do with current events...like Sarah Palin, "Joe the Plumber", and someone who works on Wall Street who had killed themself :)

This is with my roommates....Rebecca (who is actually my neighbor) was an old lady, Alisha was Belle, Cheryl looks a lot like Julia Roberts, so she was dressed up from a scene in Runaway Bride, and Annie was a Hokie Pokie instructor :) Yay for Halloween!

New Blog Title?

So you may or may not have noticed that I jumped on the "Cutest Blog on the Block" bandwagon (Kristy Erickson, you inspire me) and got a cute pumpkin background. As I was going through and changing some settings, I thought to myself, "Wow, having a title of 'Shannon's Blog' is so unoriginal. :) Some of you are so creative with your names...like The Summers Summary or Kristy Takes Manhattan. If anyone has any brilliant names for my blog, please let me know. :)

I love General Conference!

Conference makes me so happy! How lucky are we that we get to listen to modern day apostles and prophets every 6 months? While I was growing up, I never really watched the two Saturday sessions....I thought that was only something moms watched while tackling their 6 month ironing pile :) We usually had some sort of high school sporting event that went on during the sessions. Man was I missing out during all those years! I have learned so much in the past two days. I now I have a greater desire to become a better person, and hopefully I can align my actions with what I learned in the past two days!

It was even greater this morning because Mom and Dad were able to get some tickets for me. This was my first time going to Music and the Spoken Word before the Sunday morning session. It was so incredible, and it always still amazes me how a choir so large can sound so perfect! I got 4 tickets, so I took my friends Carie, Sharla, and Laura. We had so much fun (even in the rain)! We drove up to Sandy bright and early this morning and took Trax up to Temple Square. We took a few pictures with Sharla's iPhone while waiting...including a picture of these cute older people who were trying to figure out the ticket machine...

With Sharla and Laura

With Laura and Carie

Thanks for the tickets, Mom and Dad! We had so much fun!

Belonephobia

(běl'ə-nə-fō'bē-ə) n. An abnormal fear of sharply pointed objects, especially needles.

As most of you know, I am a sewing teacher at Timberline Middle School. I've had a lot of great stories come and go during my past couple of years here. I had a new one today!

I teach an exploratory class where the kids learn about careers and technology in the area of Family and Consumer Scienes. We just finished up the foods and nutrition unit and moved on to the sewing and textiles unit today. I spent the first few minutes of class going over the sewing machine and how to work them. Then I told them that they would get to sew on paper to get a feel for the machines.

After I explained the assignment, I had this boy come up to me. He said, "Miss Lacey, I'm afraid of needles." This is a pretty tough kid, so I didn't know if I believed me. Then I realized that he was shaking and his face was pretty pale. I asked him if it would help if I guided his paper while he pushed the pedal. Then he started to cry! I felt so bad! He didn't even want to be in the room anymore. This isn't anything I've had happen before in my classes. I guess I get to find something else for him to do for 2 weeks. :)

Relief Society Retreat!

Last night, our Relief Society went up to a cabin in American Fork Canyon for a little retreat. It was a lot of fun! Honestly, where else can you go to find a crock pot full of candy...

Or tape a bunch of ribbon onto someone's face just because you think it would be entertaining...

Or make ridiculous faces while playing Guitar Hero (wow, I look really freaky...I think I was mad because I had missed a whole streak of notes)

Or lie down on the floor for 30 minutes and take stupid pictures (okay, I've started doing that with Natalie every year at Thanksgiving, but it was still entertaining!)Or take funny pictures with your roommate...It was so fun! There's nothing like having a sleep over with a bunch of girls where you don't feel like you have to impress anyone or worry that you're doing something stupid, because everyone else is just as crazy. :) I also got to sleep outside, which was so amazing!!! It was so fun to actually see the stars. Plus it was cold outside, but I was well prepared! I love sleeping when it's cold all around me, but I have lots of warm blankets. It was so great!!!

The Office Season Premier!

I knew of at least 7 people who were throwing a party for the season premier of The Office on Thursday night. The hour long episode was hilarious, and it was even more entertaining as I party hopped during commercials! I was so impressed at how "into it" some people got with their decorations...I loved it!

Of course, what's an Office party without office supplies stuck in Jello? :)

For Halloween at school last year, I dressed up as Pam and made this badge (thanks to the idea from Katie and Ryan!) I got it out again for the party on Thursday :)

I'm so excited that the Office is back!

You no know UNO?

So today in class I played UNO with my 7th graders (I swear it related to what we were doing!) I was SHOCKED at how many of them had never played before! UNO has always been one of my favorite card games. Whenever my siblings and I went to Grandma and Grandpa Lacey to play games, I always requested UNO! I love it! What is wrong with kids these days? They're missing out! :)

Go Cougars and Go Brent and Allison!

I don't have a ton of time to write, but I wanted to post these pictures of Brent and Allison at others' requests. :) They rolled into town at 2 a.m. and ran around like crazy all day! They took their engagement pictures tonight, as well as some bridal shots and pictures of the both of them. Thanks for letting me tag along, guys! It was a great form of Saturday night entertainment! :) (Don't worry...the photographer took WAY better pictures than I did) :)

Look how freaking cute they are! Brent looked so pretty carrying the flowers :)

They were a little tired by the end of the night...

Now we can't forget about the BYU football game I went to earlier in the day! BYU beat (okay, more like CREAMED) UCLA!!! The final score was 59-0!

With Kaylene...

With Ben and Kaylene

I love Meagan! (The second picture is our..."I thought this was going to be a closer game" look...but really, we were okay with the blow-out!!!) :)