Megan made me do it :)

My dear old roommate Megan forced me to do this. She said if I did it, she would give me a million of her billion dollars (see below) (just kidding Mego...I think it's kind of fun)

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? Wow, I was in 8th grade...which is creepy because that's who I'm teaching now! So I was probably doing what they are doing now...being incredibly annoying and occasionally hilarious! I was still wearing braces and being awesome in track meets (ya right!)

2. 5 Things on my To-Do List Today...1. Go to Costco and buy food for our big enrichment/ Relief Society birthday bash on Thursday. 2. Fill my roommate Staci's bathroom up with balloons for her birthday. 3. Read a bunch of "Enna Burning"...a Shannon Hale book. I love those books. They're so cute! I only have the book checked out from the library for another 10 days! 4. Talk to Kristy on the phone for 45 minutes (okay, that wasn't exacly on my to-do list, but it happened!) 5. Find me a man! (That's on my list every day...one of these times it will happen) :)

3. What snacks I enjoy...chips and salsa!

4. What would I do if I were to suddenly be a Billionaire? Well of course I would start with roughly $1,000,000 in tithing, then I'd pay off my school loans and buy a car. Then I'd buy my parents a new refrigerator so they wouldn't have to keep it closed with a box of Tide anymore. I'd put some away to buy a house someday with a wrap-around porch and a porch swing. I think I'd give my siblings and my parents a good chunk of it. I would travel the world with my man that I am going to find (see question #2). Included in that are several trips to visit nieces and nephews! I'd buy an annual pass to Disneyland every year. I'd save money for my kids...but not too much! I want them to have to work for their college education...it builds character, and there is nothing wrong with living off rice, eggs, and pancakes for months at a time! I would want to donate money for scholarships for good students who try really hard but can't get perfect grades! There are a lot of other things, but I'd take the leftovers and boost the economy by shopping. :)

5. 3 Bad Habits...1. Procrastination!!! 2. Not putting stuff away as soon as I'm done using it. 3. Falling asleep during movies (I got that from my mom!)

6. 5 Places I've lived...this question always makes me feel lame. 1. Drummond, Montana 2. Provo, Utah. Yep, that's it! I don't have 5! So I can break it down into specific places where I've lived 2a--Liberty Square, 2b--Heritage Halls, 2c--Singletree, 2d--Middle Cambridge, 2e--Summerlyn

7. 5 Jobs I've had...1. Drummond Elementary summer janitor with Tessa (those were the good old days!) 2. Cotton Shop (quilt store) in Drummond 3. Receptionist/ Auditor/ Secretary/ Materials Room/ Administrative Assistant at BYU Comprehensive Clinic (ya, I could pretty much get all 5 of my jobs from that place! I did it all!) 4. Lab Instructor for beginning clothing class at BYU, 5. Teacher at Timberline Middle School

8. 5 Things People Don't Know About Me...I'm kind of an open book. 1. I'm the teacher representative for our school's PTA (yep, my life isn't that exciting) 2. I talk in my sleep. 3. I once had a dream that Joey from NSync kissed me (this was back in high school) 4. I share a birthday with Harry Potter (okay, you probably already knew that), 5. I color code my closet.

This is the part where I'm supposed to tag 5 people to do this. I don't really know how many people check this, so how about if you see this, just do it if you feel prompted to do so :)

As Sisters in....Mesa!

A couple of months ago, my sisters started talking about how we were sick of cold weather and how we should all meet up somewhere where the sun shines and it doesn't snow! This talk continued for quite some time until my sister Kristy, who lives in Alaska, finally made a move and bought a ticket to Phoenix! About 24 hours later, all of us had made plans to get to Phoenix as well! Tammy (Seattle), Kristy (Anchorage), Cherilyn (Pinetop, AZ), and Natalie (San Diego...well, technically Carlsbad) all met in Phoenix at the end of February/beginning of March for a fun weekend that I hope becomes a tradition! Our brother, Brent, lives in Mesa, so we invited our brother, Paul (Las Vegas), to come, too, but he wasn't able to come.

I got up at 5:00 a.m. and drove to the airport go catch my flight. I got in at about 9:30 a.m. and met up with Tammy. Within an hour all of our flights came in. We converged on Brent's house and played my Guitar Hero. I got Guitar Hero for Christmas...you play it on the computer. Only problem...it doesn't work on my computer. So with a heavy heart, I mailed it to Brent so he could babysit it for who knows how long. All the more reason to visit him! :) We checked into our hotel and sat in the sun for awhile. We were a little cozy in the hotel room with 5 of us plus Cherilyn's 3-month-old baby, Amie (who is so stinking cute, I might add!)

That evening, we went to Massage Envy for massages. (Brent opted out! He watched Amie while Cherilyn got her massage.) Needless, to say, it was one of the highlights of the vacation!

We did lots of other girly sister things while we were there...like painting toe nails, pedicures...all while watching Tommy Boy? :) We also exchanged methods of applying eye make-up. It was fun to compare our eyes with each other to see similarities!

Every night we were there, we stayed up late talking. We all get along so well and are so chatty, that we didn't want to go to bed. It always amazes me that even with the age differences among us, we still get along so well! Ya, I couldn't exactly join in on the talks about being a mom and wife, but I just love listening to them share their stories. I would laugh at them and they would just say, "You laugh now Shannon, but this will be you in a few years!" And that's why it's so funny. :)

Saturday morning, Brent met us to go hiking. We had so much fun. Obviously Natalie had fun being a cactus, "Javelina" thrower, and the next Karate Kid!

Amie had fun too...

Our fearless leader...

Here are some other hike pictures...

Sunday was one of the highlights as we invaded Brent's singles ward. I thought it would be fun to check out the guys, but there was a small problem....there weren't any boys in his ward! Okay, that's an exageration, but there were so many girls!!! We promised Brent we wouldn't embarrass him enough to damage his social life. Throughout church and after church, we gave him our input as to which girls he could try to "get to know." :) Thanks for putting up with us, Brent!

Sunday was also Kristy's birthday, so we made lasagna dinner and cheesecake for dessert to celebrate. While we were waiting for the lasagna to cook, we went to the Mesa temple and walked around the grounds.

We had a fun dinner after we got back. We teleconferenced with our brother, Paul, and his family. His kids were so cute on the camera! Anna sang star wars again, Jacob made faces the whole time, and Aaron even put on a lightsaber show for us :)

After dinner, Natalie and I headed back to the airport. Our flights went out right next to each other, so it was fun to sit together at the airport. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed, so I got to sit there for another couple hours than expected and didn't get home until 2am! The exhaustion that week was so worth it! I love my family so much! They really are the greatest!

Shanny!

While growing up (and still now every once in a while!) my family and a few friends called me "shanny" or even "shanny wan". Today during class, my students were working on a project. Throughout the period, I kept hearing people say, "Shanny!" I would actually look up in response, thinking someone might be calling for me. Then I would remember that these kids don't even know my first name! Then I discovered that they were talking to my student named Chanise...apparently her friends call her shanny! Anyway, it just made me feel young again thinking of siblings, parents, and even my friend Sharla who still call me Shanny!

Viva Las Vegas!

Last week I couldn't handle the Utah snow anymore! So I took a little road trip down to Las Vegas to visit Paul & Amy and their adorable and hilarious kids! We had so much fun seeing the fountains at the Bellagio, playing Star Wars (of course!), and simply playing at the park in the 70 degree weather!!!

Aaron is still the Star Wars kid! I still haven't been able to win a battle of lightsabers against him. According to him, he gets to watch a new Star Wars video when he turns 7 next month.

Jacob still loves his trains! He talked about the Heber Creeper every day I was there and thinks Uncle Craig is the greatest! He also wants to go to Disneyland again because, according to him, he's big enough to go on Big Thunder Mountain.

Anna is such a doll. She appears to be following in her brother's footsteps with the Star Wars thing. Hopefully this video works because it's so stinking cute and funny!



I also got her to say "Anna Banana". She's such a chatter box, and she's willing to try any new word you give her!

My worst fear comes to pass!

A lot of you know that I run a preschool one day each term (for one class period) with my students. We have a child care unit and they bring their adorable brothers and sisters, neighbors, cousins, etc. It's one of my very favorite days of the whole term! This morning it was going great! The preschoolers were adorable. My 7th graders were doing everything they were supposed to do. When there were about 5-10 minutes left, there was a group telling the story of "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly." This is when my worst fear came to pass...the fire alarm went off!!! Seriously, every time I have this fear that it's going to go off when the kids are here. It's just my luck that it actually happened! They usually tell us if they're going to have a drill. I hadn't heard anything, so I figured there was either a fire or (more likely) a student thinking it would be a fun prank.

So after waiting for about 30 seconds to see if they would simply turn off, the principal came on and told us to evacuate the building. AWESOME! So we told the preschoolers we were going on a fun trip outside! Now at our school the students have to report to their 2nd period teacher when there's a fire drill. So the 7th graders took off with these little 3-5 year-olds and were no longer under my supervision! Since there were only a few minutes left in class, I had parents showing up to pick up their kids. I kept hearing, "Miss Lacey! Where's my child." I have no idea!

Now to make the story even better (is that possible?), we still have 3 feet of snow in the field behind our school! It has been warmer the last couple days, so the top layer has crusted over a little bit, so they kids were all trying to stay on top of the snow. However, with a few hundred kids on it, it kept collapsing and everyone would fall into the snow drifts. I also came upon a girl who had just slipped on the icy road and broke her leg. So I was trying to help her and my 2nd period students were all trying to find me and were hovering over me...all while the parents were asking for the preschoolers and other students asking me if the school was on fire.

What a fun day...it was all I could do to keep from crying. :) But the kids were all claimed (that I know of), so now it can be a good story. Well, maybe in a few days it will be a good story. Now I'm just mad because they're pretty sure it was a student's idea of a great prank. Hilarious, kids. Hilarious.

I don't get paid enough. :)

My "amazing" observation

So I had scheduled an observation today by one of the assistant principals. All last night and this morning I was really nervous. He was coming to a class that is really quiet and too shy to participate. But suddenly today they were participating and the lesson was actually REALLY good! So I start the lesson and the principal wasn't there yet. I figured it was the beginning of school, and he probably was busy making sure kids were in class. Then15 minutes went by...then 30...then an hour. With 10 minutes left in class he walked in my room. He had forgotten! He was taking care of a problem child this morning and just spaced it. I was so mad!!! So now I have to find another day for him to come and go through the whole nervous process again. Anyway, that's all!

Baby it's cold outside!

All I ask for is a little bit of sunshine and one day without snow! Yesterday was a fun day...I left for work in the morning with beautiful 40 degree weather (no really, that's the highest for 6 am in a long time!) Then half way through school I opened the blinds in my room to find a complete white-out! 5 minutes before school got out, the principal came over the speakers to announce that the highway patrol had kept the buses from leaving because the roads were so bad. So the kids got to hang out in my room for an hour and a half after school until the storm stopped and the buses were able to get to Alpine! I turned on an old Abbott and Costello video and waited with them!

So you would think that would be the great storm of the week, right? Well, the snow stopped for about 24 hours, but it's on full force again tonight and is supposed to go all through the night with more snow than the one yesterday. Now this wouldn't bother me so much, but we have had snow at least twice a week since the middle of December. And it doesn't ever warm up enough to melt the snow. It's just piling up. Okay, I'm done complaining! :)

School is going great! My class sizes are really big, but the kids are mostly good! Of course there are the typical "I can't stop talking" students, but I can handle it! :) It's still early in the semester, though. Sometimes the true personality doesn't come out for a couple more weeks.

Other than school and snow, what else is there? :) RS meetings, fondue parties, quilts, Cougar basketball, birthday parties, friends...I've actually been really busy lately with all sorts of fun stuff! I made the cutest quilt on Saturday. It's a baby quilt doubling as a Valentine's Day decoration for our apartment. :)

Well, that's really about it in the snowy world of Shannon. I hope you're all doing well. Dad, I hope you're recovering well and enjoying your liquids. :) Have a great week!