Merry Christmas!

My sisters, parents, and brother.

Cute nieces and nephews!

The whole crew!

I sure do have a cute family, don't I? These pictures were taken last Saturday, which was also the first time my entire family has been together for several years. After the scare with Dylan we weren't sure that we were going to be able to take them, but he came home from Primary Children's on Friday night and hasn't had any problems since then. The doctors never did find anything wrong with him, we're just glad he's back to his adorable little self! :)

We all got together again today to exchange family gifts because we are afraid that the storm is going to be too bad to travel tomorrow. It was a lot of fun! Can I just tell you something that I think is hilarious? Well...every year my siblings and I give my parents money to go towards Hale Theater tickets so they can go on a date every month. Don't laugh yet, that's not the funny part! The funny thing about it is the fact that this year we gave them the money in one dollar bills! :) They have a HUGE pile of money and I think it's pretty fantastic!

This morning I got online and bought my books. It was painful for me, I'm not going to lie! I spent over three hundred dollars. OUCH! I keep telling myself that my education will be worth the money I put into it though, so it's okay. But still....I don't like parting with my hard-earned money!

Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Sad Day! :(

Early Wednesday morning Jamie, Martin, and Dylan finally got here! I was so excited to finally see them, and Dylan is absolutely adorable! Yesterday happened to be my birthday too, so we spent the day visiting with Jamie and Martin and playing with Dylan. My other sisters came down too, and we ate a birthday dinner that was pretty fantastic. :) When everything settled down and my sisters had loaded up the kids and headed home we went to bed. I slept on the couch, and I was sleeping fantastically until approximately 5:56 am......

I woke up to my parents, Jamie, and Martin yelling Dylan's name. I jumped right off the couch and saw my sister sobbing, my mom running around the front room, my dad calling 911, and my brother-in-law holding a VERY pale baby. Talk about a way to start out the day! Dylan was completely unresponsive and limp, and I honestly thought he was dead. Before I knew it my entire family had run out the door to get him to the hospital. :( I was so confused, worried, scared and sad--I obviously couldn't get back to sleep!

The phone finally rang and I almost broke a few bones trying to get to it. I answered it as calmy as possible, and it was Martin. He sounded really upset, but told me that Dylan was at least responsive now, but they were trying to figure out what was wrong with him. I felt a little bit relieved, but not really.....

A couple hours later they came back, and Dylan seemed perfectly normal--he took a nap, then was playing with toys in the front room, eating pears and chips, and making cute baby noises. We were all just watching him. The doctors told Jamie and Martin that they thought he had a seizure, but they were uncertain of the cause. It was so weird! My dad went back to work and my mom took my little brother to a doctor's appointment.

Martin was playing with Dylan, and all of a sudden it was happening again. :( Dylan went pale, his body went limp, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he was unresponsive again. We immediately loaded in my minivan and I sped to the hospital, running every stop sign on the way. The icy roads were NOT helpful! We spent a long time there, where the doctors did bloodwork, took a CT scan of his head, and even did a spinal tap. All the tests came back clear. Poor Dylan!

Russell and I waited in the waiting room for an hour or so, but they were still working on him and Jamie came and told me that we might as well go home because it could be several hours until we knew anything. She promised to call if she had any news though. Then, around 1:50, my nephew was sent in an ambulance up to Primary Children's Hospital. About 10 minutes later Martin headed off in my minivan to meet Jamie and Dlyan up at the hospital. Can I just say that this is definately not how we thought our day would go. :( My heart hurts and I'm so worried! The end.

SURPRISE! :(

This week has been CRAZY!  Finals are always pretty stressful, but I had a lot more going on than just finals.  It mostly started on Tuesday, when I had to go up to Orem to a dermatologist appointment.  Dr. Moss and I are pretty tight because I visit him so often!  He did some minor surgeries and sent me on my way.  I feel like it's important to note that I am currently unable to wear pants because I have stitches on my stomach.  So I am living in basketball shorts, t-shirts, and super long socks.  Yeah, I am feeling pretty stylish!

I was with my mom, and anytime I'm with my mom I know there is shopping to do!  So we went to all sorts of different stores, and we were having a lot of fun together, despite the weird looks I got when people saw what I was wearing.  :)  I told my mom that I'd walk ten feet behind her if she was embarrassed to be seen with me, but she said that it was okay because I've been embarrassing her for almost 21 years and she's use to it.  I have a funny mom, even though I think she was being serious.  ;)  

But as it turns out, while I was shopping the night away, my friends and boyfriend were back in Ephraim at my birthday party.  Yep, you read right!  They threw a surprise birthday party for me and I missed it!  :(  I was pretty sad about that.  When I did get back to Ephraim there was a pile of presents on my bed with a note, and cheesecake in the fridge with another note, but the party was long over and my friends were long gone.  It was a sad night for me--I just ate my cheesecake by myself and went to bed.  With my birthday being so close to Christmas it's never really been a big deal, so it makes me sad that I missed it when someone tried to make it a big deal for me.  Oh well.....     

So...I highly recommend not having children in December because it STINKS!  That's all.  I hope everyone has a great Christmas break!

I'm SO Excited!!!!

So, I have good news and bad news.... The good news is that I have all my assignments done for this semester, but the bad news is that finals are next week! Yep, I'm a little stressed right now. :) I can't believe how fast this semester has gone by--it seems like just yesterday I was moving into my apartment!

There's still no snow in Ephraim, so it doesn't feel like December to me. I'm getting pretty excited for Christmas break though, I'm not going to lie. There are a whole bunch of reasons I'm excited...

* I need a break from school
* One of my roommates is moving out
* I get to go home with my family for a few weeks
* I want to make chocolate dipped everything
* I might go to a Voicemale concert
* My bed at home is super comfortable
* I'll get presents
* The semester is over
* I love home-cooked meals
* There's going to be a Christmas tree
* My mom makes the worlds best caramel popcorn
* My birthday is coming up
* I love Christmas music
* The list goes on and on...

Those are all exciting things, but the thing that I am the most excited for is the fact that my sister is coming to visit from England with her husband and little boy! They've lived there for a few years now, and I haven't seen them in such a long time. :( I can't wait for them to get here! I've talked to them on the internet and phone, but it's just not the same. I've never met my nephew, so hopefully he likes me. :) I've thought a lot about it, and I've pretty much decided that I'll have to buy a bunch of candy or something--because what little kid doesn't like an aunt with tons of treats?!

P.S. Did this post make you laugh, smile, or yawn? If so, then click on whichever one it was right below this post. Thanks! :)

Thanksgiving Break!

I'm not going to lie, I am so excited for this break from school! :) I love Thanksgiving! I am just planning on going home and spending time with my family, which should be a lot of fun. I had to work last night, and I'm working again tonight, but then I'll be on my way home for the rest of the week. Last year at this time I was in a cooking class, and our assignment over the break was to make rolls. Well, I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but they ended up being amazing! Naturally, I was pretty proud of the amazing rolls I had made, so I took pictures. If you look at the picture to the left, you'll see me, my awesome nephew Trevin, and a bowl full of turkey-shaped rolls! How cool is that?! Little did I know that I was going to be responsible for bringing rolls to Thanksgiving for the rest of my life....yep, that's my assignment again this year! I'm really looking forward to the next few days. Hopefully I'll end up going shopping on Friday. Black Friday is really the only day of the year that I like to shop. I mostly just like it becuase I find it hilarious to watch all the women go crazy and run through the stores to get the "good stuff" before everyone else. The first year I was invited to go along, we had some fleece blankets that we had snatched up, and my sister set them down just for a second to readjust all the things in her arms. A lady came out of nowhere and stole them. My sister and I just watched as she ran away. People are so ridiculous! :) Then on Saturday we're going to another Thanksgiving party! I know what you must be thinking.... "ShaNeil is so lucky because she gets to pig out TWICE!" Well, you're right, I am a pretty lucky girl! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Bad News! :(

I have really bad news! I recently learned how to change the background on this blog, and now I just can't stop! I don't know what to do about this situation....

That's all the bad news I have, but when you read the title of this post you were kind of worried, huh?

Everything is going great here in Ephraim. Yesterday was a crazy day for me, starting when I rolled out of bed. I looked at the clock and realized that I had institute in ten minutes, yep....I totally slept in! Good thing Snow has a small campus and I could make it to class on time! :) After institute I walked back to my apartment and ate breakfast. Then I got on my computer, played around on facebook for a few minutes, then got busy doing my homework. I am proud to announce that I finished and submitted two assignments, read a chapter in my family finance book and took a quiz on it, went grocery shopping for some much needed food, AND worked a five and a half hour shift. I was so productive!

Funny Story!

So, on Friday I went to the ASUSU meeting and learned that I have been doing this blog thing completely wrong! Oh man, I feel like a fool! I'm just learning how to blog, so I would really appreciate your patience as I learn. :) Now that you have read all the boring notes I've posted, I'm going to try to spice things up a bit and make my blog more exciting! Thanks to my sister I've already learned a bunch of cool things about blogging!

I want to start by telling you a little bit about myself. My name is ShaNeil and I am oringinally from Nephi. I graduated from high school in 2006, and then attended Snow College for two years. During my two years at Snow, I came to absolutely love Ephraim. I graduated last spring, but I didn't want to leave. Thanks to the Utah State extension, I didn't have to! I am now in my first semester at USU and loving it! I have a mixture of online, broadcast, and face-to-face classes, and everything is working out great so far. My schedule is crazy, my homework is stressful, and my roommates are sometimes a pain, but I love it!

Now that you know a little bit about me, I feel like it would be appropriate to tell you a funny story that happened to me a couple of days ago. Alright, here's how it went down..... On Thursday I was getting in my minivan (yes, you read right--I do drive a minivan, and it's AWESOME). So I went to open the door and all of a sudden it hit me! Yep, the door wacked my face. It wasn't the most pleasant feeling in the world, I'm not going to lie. Then I saw Russell, my boyfriend. Apparently he saw me getting into my van and decided it would be cool if he snuck up behind me to open the door for me. Well, since I wasn't expecting him to be there, I now have a rather large bruise on my face that I see every time I look in a mirror. I wish I would have taken a picture right after it happened, now my bruise is getting better! Anyways, awesome, right? I can't really be angry though because he was trying to be a gentleman!

That's all I have for now, but I'll definitely keep you posted on what's going on! :)

Quick Update

As of right now there's not much new to post about. With the end of the semester right around the corner everyone is really busy preparing for finals. Emily is going to be setting up the table in the GSC this afternoon, and I'll be setting up tomorrow morning. We are in the middle of creating a flyer so we can go dormstorming, so that should be a lot of fun! Also, the Snow College football team has their last home game this Saturday, so we're planning on going to that to throw out some of our awesome t-shirts! That's really all I have to report on right now, but I hope you all have a fantastic day! :)

Busy! Busy! Busy!

We're doing great here in Ephraim! This week I went to a couple high schools, Juab on Monday, and Spanish Fork today. It's a lot of fun to go out and tell people about the Utah State extension here in Ephraim. :) Emily and I are planning on going into some classes here at Snow just to make sure the students know about our programs. We are also going to make a flyer and go dormstorming. We are trying to mix things up a little bit!

High School Tours

This last week has by far been the most eventful week for Emily and I. Between the two of us, we've been to five high schools. On Monday I went to Delta and Millard. On Wednesday Emily went to Richfield. On Thursday I talked to seniors from Gunnison and Manti, and tomorrow Emily is scheduled to go to North Sanpete. The interest in the SnowUSU partnership is growing and people are starting to ask a lot of questions! It's really exciting to be a part of this! :)

On another note, I am posting on this blog every week, but I'm not receiving any feedback. I really don't even know if anyone cares about what I have to say about our progress here in Ephraim. I appreciated Kristen's comment on last week's post, but more comments would be appreciated. I don't even know if I'm doing this blog right, so please...tell me what I need to change or improve on! Thanks!

Staying Busy

Emily and I are still staying busy! We are setting up our table two days this week--on Thursday and Friday. There are a lot of people asking us what we are all about, and it's fun to watch the program grow! In our meeting yesterday we talked about possible activities we can do to let people know that we're here. If anyone has any suggestions for us they would be greatly appreciated! :) Have a great rest of the week!

Fall Break

Well, the parade last Saturday was awesome! We had some of the ambassadors from the Logan campus join us, so that was a lot of fun. :) We threw a bunch of cool stuff, including t-shirts, wrist bands, chapstick, window clings, pens and pencils, and water bottles.

As far as this week goes, on Monday we had a bunch of high school FFA members visit our campus, where Jason and Jacob were there to talk to them. However, we don't have any major plans this week because fall break started and a vast majority of the students have gone home. I hope everyone is having a fantastic week! :) Smile!

Homecoming Week!

This week sure is busy for us! It is homecoming week here at Snow College, and Emily and I are doing our best to be involved in as many of the activities as possible. Today we hung out under the bell tower for a couple of hours talking to students about Utah State, and handing out coupons for Aggie Ice Cream. Our main purpose is to make people aware of Jason, who is our USU advisor here on campus. He was the man in charge of the ice cream today, so when the students redeemed their coupons they were able to meet him and ask any questions they might have. We are planning on doing the same thing tomorrow so hopefully we see a bunch of new faces! :) On Saturday we will be decorating a truck for the homecoming parade. We have big plans to throw a bunch of fun things out to the crowd. We'll be wrapping USU flyers in t-shirts and throwing them. We also have stress balls, pens, candy, and hopefully some amazing Aggie chap stick. After the parade we'll be going to the football game to cheer on the team and throw more t-shirts. It ought to be a great week! We're way excited about all the upcoming events!

Just An Update...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but we're definitely staying busy here in Ephraim! Emily and I have still been very busy recruiting Badgers to become Aggies! We have several high school tours coming up in the next few weeks that we're way excited about. We're thinking up some great activities to do with students here, and the word is definitely getting out that we're here. I also made a coupon for some famous Aggie Ice Cream, which is posted to the left. We're going to be handing these coupons out inviting students to meet our staff, learn about SnowUSU, and enjoy some ice cream. It should be a lot of fun!

Starting The School Year Great!

Hey! My name is ShaNeil Cook and I am an ambassador for USU in Ephraim. School has been in session for not quite a month now, and life is great! We've been really busy doing all sorts of cool things here. Emily, the other ambassador, and I have been very busy recruiting students to continue their education through Utah State University after they are done at Snow. Already we have set tables up weekly, given shirts out like crazy, been a part of club rush, thrown things at a football game, and been on a high school tour. It's been awesome! :) I'm way excited to keep everyone updated on all the fun things we've got planned. That's all for now, but I promise there's more to come!