Give Blood. Save Lives.

Guess what I did today?!

I donated blood.

And I got a free t-shirt.

I love free shirts! :)

Ready Or Not...

For those of you who don't know me, my name is ShaNeil Coons. My husband, Russell, and I live in Ephraim. I am currently serving as the student representative for USU Southwest. There... Now you pretty much know me! :)


That means I can now make my blog a little bit more personal, right? I'll start by sharing a secret with you. By sharing this secret, I am taking a risk. Some of you might judge me, but that's okay! This secret is one that you already know if you have been following my blog for a while, and new readers might get the first impression that I'm super geeky... But I'll tell you anyway.

I color-coordinate my life. There, now you know! You are probably wondering about the random picture of folders and pens, huh? Well, that is how I stay organized! See how I have a matching pen for every folder? That means I'm cool! The other pens on the sides each have a meaning of their own too. It's all part of making my planner easier to understand...not to mention more exciting! :)

So...

Classes started on Monday, right?

Don't think too hard...they did.

Well...today is Tuesday and I am already feeling a little bit overwhelmed with everything I have to do. Afterall, did you see how many different colored pens I have?!

It seems like I get like this at the beginning of EVERY semester, but I know that I'll get back in the swing of things before too long!

Graduation

Graduation for USU Southwest was last Friday, and it was fantastic! It was held in the Snow College music buliding, and everything looked great. I didn't actually have time to listen to the speakers, but I did get to hand out programs, scoop a whole lot of ice cream, and take some beautiful flowers home!

It was a very busy day, so unfortunately these are the only pictures I was able to take...

Can I just say that the Bed Bath & Beyond ice cream scoop is pretty much amazing? Because it is...

Can I also tell you how happy it made me that I could have these in my apartment without sneezing non-stop? Because it made me WAY happy! :D

8 GBs Of Awesomeness!

Being in my fourth year of college, my life is basically on my flash drive. Back in the day I decided that an 8 GB flash drive would be a great investment... So I purchased one and it changed my life!

A couple weeks ago when I was using it, I realized that it had started to bend a little bit. It scared me to death because I thought I was going to lose EVERYTHING! So I quickly went online to find a new one so I could backup all of my hard work. :)

I found one that looked pretty cool, so I logged into Russell's newegg.com account and purchased it! It came in the mail on Monday, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it! I was expecting it to be small, but SERIOUSLY?! It's tiny!

So I decided to show you a picture so you could get a feel for what I'm talking about. In this photo you see my old flash drive, a penny, and my new flash drive. Awesome, right? :) I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited about it!

Cute Toes!

I know what you're thinking right now since you just read the title of this post...you're thinking, "ShaNeil is such a liar! Those toes are NOT cute!"

But don't the toenails look AMAZING?! I have the best friend in the whole entire world! Her name is Erin, and I don't just love her because she paints my toenails. She goes to Dixie, and I miss her so much! :( I always try to get her to come here with me, but I guess she loves being where she can wear flip flops all the time.

Not that I blame her, because I love flip flops! I wear them whenever possible, especially when I have cute toenails to show off! :)

I would like to tell you a little story about when I first came to college. I didn't have any friends here, and I was extremely lonely. After my family dropped me off and headed home I just sat in my bedroom and cried a little. :( It was really hard! I didn't know any of my roommates, but it didn't really matter because none of them had moved in yet.

While I was sitting there feeling bad for myself someone knocked on my door. I opened it to find four boys with big smiles on their faces. They introduced themselves and then asked what my name is. I told them, and one boy asked how to spell it. I spelled it as one of them wrote it down on paper. I'm not gonna lie, I thought they were weirdos!

Then they said, "Sweet! You're on our frisbee team now. We'll let you know when the games start!" I argued that I had never played frisbee before, but they came back with, "That's too bad...we already wrote your name down. I guess you're just gonna have to learn!" So I did. And I loved it!

It didn't take me very long to figure out that owning a light up frisbee is all it takes to be cool in college. Obviously, I purchased one immediately. I have been playing frisbee ever since. :)

So...yesterday my little brother, Jace, came to visit Russell and I. It was so fun to have him here! Russell took him gold panning, then we introduced him to ultimate frisbee and volleyball. He even got to play in our intramurals games, AND he scored! He was incredible! I had no idea that he could play like that! :)

He's only in eighth grade, but he told me that he can't wait to come to Snow just so he can play frisbee!

Happy Easter! :)

The Blind Side

So, I don’t watch very many movies these days. It doesn’t really bother me, but sometimes I just want to see something new. I have been listening to people all around me talk about how much they love The Blind Side, but I just hadn’t had the opportunity to watch it.

I know this movie is probably old news to a lot of you, but I wanted to see it SO bad! I told Russell that I wanted to see it, but we were both just too busy to make it happen. Last Friday I had a really long day full of studying, tests, homework, facebook, work, and more homework. I’ll just say it—I was burnt out!

When Russell got back from work I could tell that he’d had a long day too. He told me that he wasn’t going to do anymore homework that day, so he thought we should go to the redbox. So we did. We went to the Wal-Mart redbox. And to the redbox at Maverick. And then to the one at Kents. We even went to the redbox at McDonalds. The Blind Side was nowhere to be found, so Russell and I went back to our apartment empty-handed. It was kind of depressing, I’m not going to lie! :(

I just plopped down on the couch, and in an attempt to cheer me up, Russell suggested that we watch Monk instead. So we made dinner together, and then when it was ready we decided to have a picnic in front of the TV. Russell went to put his pjs on, while I was getting Monk ready. Getting ready to watch Monk wasn’t too tough since it was already in the DVD player, so all I had to do was turn on the TV.

Guess what I saw when I turned on the television?! Yep, it was The Blind Side! When I turned I saw Russell peeking around the corner looking like he was pretty proud of himself.

Wasn’t that super thoughtful of him?! I knew there was a reason I married him! :)

Laugh A Little

I don't know about you, but I've had a rough week! I decided to share a couple of college jokes with you that brightened my day a little! :)

IT PAYS TO STUDY

After the college boy delivered the pizza to Bud's trailer house, Bud asked, "What is the usual tip?"

"Well," replied the youth, "this is my first trip here, but the other guys say if I get a quarter out of you, I'll be doing great."

"Is that so?" snorted Bud. "Well, just to show them how wrong they are, here's five dollars."

"Thanks," replied the youth, "I'll put this in my school fund."

"What are you studying?" asked Bud.

The lad smiled and said, "Applied psychology."

MONEY FROM HOME

A kid called up his mom from his college and asked her for some money, because he ran out of it. His mom said, "Sure, sweetie. I'll will send you some money. You also left your calculus book here when you visited 2 weeks ago. Do you want me to send that up too?"

"Uhh, oh yeah, okay," responded the kid.

So his mom wrapped the book along with the checks up in a package and went to the post office to mail the money and the book.

When she gets back, her husband asked, "Well how much did you give the boy his time?"

She said, "Oh, I wrote 2 checks, one for $20 and the other for $1000 out to him."

"That's $1020!" yelled her husband. Are you crazy?"

"Don't worry, Hon," she said. "I taped the $20 check to the cover of his book, but I put the $1000 one somewhere between the pages in chapter 19!"

Spring Break!

Russell and I have been really excited for spring break for weeks now! We made big plans to go to St. George and I was really looking forward to it. :) But as RAs, we got to stay for half of the break to be on duty. We were even able to work it out with BOTH of our jobs so we could leave on Thursday morning! :)

So...on Tuesday we decided that we better get our tires rotated before our big trip. Of course we found out that there were some way more serious issues with our car.

To make a long story short, we could not go and I am sad. That is all.

Help Me Mom!

Guess what I did last week?! You probably won't believe it...so I posted a picture to prove it.

I cooked a chicken!

I was scared as soon as I unwrapped it, so I had to call my mom to help me...

It's Amazing!

A month or so ago I was in Nephi with my family, and my oldest sister had a pretty cool water bottle. It was pink. I decided that I liked it a whole bunch, so when I got back to Ephraim I googled it because let's face it, I google everything! So I was looking at some different Camelbak water bottles to make sure they were like Velecia's amazing pink one. Apparently all that online shopping was exhausting, because I ended up taking a nap on the couch!

Just last week I received a package in the mail. It had my maiden name instead of my married name, so I was a little bit confused... I opened it up to find two Camelbak water bottles that look exactly like this. Yeah, not as cool as my sister's... At that point I was SO confused! I knew that I had looked at them online, but I'm pretty sure I would have remembered buying them. Plus, I would have ordered the right kind.

So I took them back to my apartment thinking that I was going to have to tell Russell that I apparently shop while I'm sleeping. When I showed him the mysterious water bottles he had a big smile on his face, and he looked pretty proud.

Apparently I left the website up while I was napping. When Russell came home he saw it and thought to himself, "Self, I bet my beautiful wife is dying to have a cool Camelbak water bottle. I think I will purchase one for each of us and surprise her."

So that is exactly what he did. :) Too bad I left up the wrong website! I thought that was really thoughtful of him, and he earned some "good husband" points for his efforts. I wasn't going to tell him that it was the wrong kind because he was so proud of himself, but he figured it out...

So when we were going to Bountiful last weekend we stopped at a store and saw the amazing waterbottles for a very reasonable price, so we purchased one for each of us. Mine is bright green, and it is amazing. :)

I'm not sure how many of you ever followed this series when it was on TV, but I loved it! My first experiece with Monk was shortly after my mom had foot surgery when I was in high school. Since she couldn't get out of bed, and I was on Christmas break we watched a lot of television! My mom couldn't be left alone, because she was on heavy medication and kept ordering things off of infomercials. I even had to hide her credit card! But that's a whole different story...

Anyway, in an attempt to avoid the spur of the moment spending we watched a lot of random TV shows! On New Years day there happened to be a Monk marathon on, and we all became addicted. :) After that, I made it a point to watch this show every Friday night at 10:00. It kind of became a tradition, and I was so sad when the final season ended. :(

So...I would like to announce that I am now the proud owner of all eight seasons of this fantastic TV series! YAY!

I know what you're thinking right now, and you don't need to worry... As tempting as it is, I am refusing to watch them all at once. I've set a limit of one each week, and so far I've almost stuck to that! :D

I Went Ice Fishing! :)

I had the very first catch of the day! :)

Russell and I in the ice shelter...

My little brother, Jace. Lucky snag!

My dad and Jace.

Me and my dad. :)

Russell's brother, Dallan.

Russell finally got one! :)

Busy As A Bee....

This week has been a very busy one for me. I have had three tests, seven assignments due, an RA interview, work, plus going to my classes and volunteering at the local elementary school. I'm pretty sure I need to take a couple of hours for myself tonight. That's exactly what I intend to do!

One year ago today was when Russell asked me to marry him. Most of you probably did not follow my blog last year at this time, so here is how he did it....

We went to dinner, then to a movie. After the movie was over I got up and put my coat on, but Russell just stayed sitting there. So I asked him if he was ready to go and he just kind of looked at me and said, "Don't you like to stay and see what's after the credits?" I told him that there most likely wasn't anything, but I stood there waiting anyways. I just thought he was being weird......but I waited. So then the credits ended and I was like "Are you ready now?"

And then music started and I looked up and saw a special video made just for me playing on the big screen. :) It had tons of pictures of all the crazy things we've done together and little messages that went along with them. When the movie ended Russell said some really sweet things to me and got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. :)

Wasn't that a good idea?! Anyway, I'm pretty sure we're going to go to a movie tonight and I'm super excited! :)

What Are YOU Willing To Do!

This week has been a pretty crazy one for me. I may or may not have printed the thing I posted last week and hit my head a few times. I think it helped a little, I don't really remember...

On Tuesday I set up a table on Snow College's campus. I've been setting my tables up inside instead of outside by the belltower because it's been so cold lately. My table was pretty much amazing, I'm not going to lie! Not only did I have information to share with students, I also had t-shirts, beanies, ear warmers, foam fingers, magnets, stress balls, pencils, pens, and chapstick.

Oh yeah, and Hula-Hoops! :)

I really regret not taking my camera, because we had quite the crowd! Instead of just giving stuff away, I had people COMPETING against each other to win it! I realize that not everyone has mad hula-hooping skills, so for them we did the "stand on one leg with your eyes closed, one hand on your head, and the other hand on your nose" thing. It's very entertaining for me either way! :)

The winners got to pick anything they wanted from the table, and a lot of them got really excited about that.

I highly recommend that everyone own a couple of a hula-hoops. :) It was a whole lot of fun!

Stressed? Follow These Instructions!

: / :( :D

I have been having some mixed emotions this last week about my computer. One day I was on the computer for a while, then I got off to go eat dinner. When I came back, my computer was turned off. I thought to myself, "Self, that's weird! Why is the computer off?" So I pushed the power button to find that instead of showing one big screen, I could now see SIX little ones! The message showing on all six screens basically told me that my computer was dead. I was so sad! :( Russell and I tried everything to revive it, but we were unsuccessful...although putting it in the freezer did seem to help!

So a couple days later we built our own computer at hp.com and placed the order. I'm sad about my old computer, but I'm getting pretty excited to get the new one in the mail! :D It's going to look a whole lot like this...

Love At First Sight

Quite some time ago, when Ikea first came to Utah, my sister took me there for the first time. Krystle showed me a table that she claimed she would someday own, and I loved it as soon as I saw it! I know what you're thinking right now, but I'm pretty sure that wanting the same table as my sister doesn't mean I'm a copycat...

Anyway, I never had any reason to buy it, but I admired it every time I went on an Ikea adventure. Over the break Krystle and I went to Ikea, and we were astonished to see that our table was being cleared out. Yep, they were going to stop carrying it! We both panicked a little bit, and before we knew what was happening Krystle had purchased one and we were loading it into the car.

I, on the other hand, did not purchase the amazing table. Time passed, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I was having some major regrets! So last week Russell and I were driving to his parents house and I might have made him stop at Ikea against his will. I was pretty sure there wouldn't be any tables left because it had been too long, but I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't at least try!

Only the display table was left, so I quickly asked if I could buy it. The worker told me no...and I was sad. :( Then he told me that he had just sent one of these tables to the "As Is" section, so it

might still be there.

We went to check it out, and then we were buying it! Russell and I are now the proud owners of this amazing table and I couldn't be happier about it! It was regularly $179.00, and I got it for $74.90. Yay! :)

I'm An Addict...

I'd like to take a minute or so to tell you a little story. I have four older sisters and one younger brother. I always got to help my dad outside while everyone else helped my mom in the house. While my sisters were learning to cook, I was often mowing the lawn or weeding the garden. It was our little joke that I got to work outside because I wasn't domestic enough to do the inside stuff. When I was in high school, I took a home ec class--mostly because I had to. In the sewing half of this class we could choose to make a quilt, or to make three other items. I chose to make a quilt because I thought it would be easier than making THREE things. So it ended up looking like this...

I learned a lot in that class, but mostly that I love to make quilts! I have made several since then, and I love them all! Anyway, last week I went to Walmart and somehow ended up in the fabric department. I wasn't really looking to make a quilt, but I ended up purchasing fabric that I'm really excited about. I've spent a lot of the week working on a new quilt! Yay! I'm pretty sure it will be amazing. This is what my fabric looks like--not the blue, that's just carpet...

The blocks are going to look like this...in every color except for the flower stuff. I'll have to post pictures if I ever find time to finish it since school is starting next week! :) I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited for this one! :)

My Year

I have an announcement to make! If you're not already sitting down I suggest you do that because you're about to be shocked. Are you sitting? I hope so! Here it goes...

I am addicted to facebook.

There, I said it. Anyway, today when I was wasting time of facebook I saw these things that my sister had done, so I clicked on it. Before I knew what was happening I had added a couple of new applications and had these things... Pretty cool, huh? I think some of my old status updates are funny! You should probably vote on which one is your favorite.... :)