Our Deepest Fear...

There is a quote said by Nelson Mandella which begins famously with "Our deepest fear..." He then proceeds to say that our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. FALSE!

THIS IS MY DEEPEST FEAR (my apologies for the graphic image)

I have never claimed to be an outdoor enthusiast or any kind of an "earthy" girl and this picture explains why. I believe that nothing good can ever come from eight legs. I have been terrified of spiders for as long as I can remember. When I was about six years old, I remember opening my eyes in the middle of the night after what I'm sure was a horrible dream, only to "see" a huge spider dangling right above my face! It was about 4 a.m. and I raced into my parents room screaming! My dad tried to find enough energy to get out of bed and walk in to my room to kill the spider. "Shannon grab it with a paper towel" was never an acceptable answer. Needless to say after 30 minutes of looking all around my room, my story lost all validity and the infamous spider was never found.

Unfortunately I'm so terrified that I won't even kill them myself. I just can't do it. When I was 15 years old, I once stood outside my bedroom door with a vaccuum hose and waited almost three hours (until 2 a.m.) for the spider to crawl down close enough to where I could reach it and suck it up. I couldn't go to bed knowing a spider was alive and had access to my room when I was asleep. Crazy? Yes! But I've accepted it.

I am proud to say that last night my days of paying little step brothers to kill spiders for me came to an end! I saw a spider and after panicking for a few minutes, I killed it all on my own.

Raid Bug Spray-I would like to shake the hand of the man who created this

Don't be surprised if in a few years you get a wedding announcement only to find that I'm registered at Home Depot with Raid on the list :) But don't worry, my step brothers aren't out of a job just yet...I still need someone to pick them up afterwards.

Race to the Finish

"The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success."

-Bruce Feirstein

This past week and a half has definitely been an uphill battle. Due to a large number of obstacles that were recently thrown at me, I have taken on the challenge of finishing an online anatomy class....in three weeks! The nursing program at BYU doesnt recommend it, countless people have told me I'm crazy, but here I am. This is my shot. My only chance at the BYU nursing program is hidden in this class. I have limited amount of time and I need an A. Everybody wish me luck!
It's been both physically and emotionally exhausting, but I won't give up without a fight! I took my first quiz after studying for six days and the result was a "decent" grade. I'm hoping that I've learned from the first test and can now do better in the next two weeks! Either way, I know that I did everything I could and if I don't get in, Heavenly Father must have another plan for me right?
This year I have learned a lot about myself and my Heavenly Father. I have learned that no matter how hard I try, I will always need my Heavenly Father to pick up the slack in life. He is aware of me and although he already has a plan for me, I know that what's important to me is important to him.
Today, I was able to take a quick break from all of the studying and run with my mom and step sisters in the Race for the Cure 5k in downtown Salt Lake. It was shocking to see how many inspiring people were there. One man was running for his three year old granddaughter. She had overcome cancer at 9 months old and has been in remisssion for 2 years now. The resiliency of little children is absolutely incredible! There were so many different kinds of people there, but it seemed that for that moment we were all the same. We were all there because we were survivors. Whether they had survived cancer, lost someone to cancer, or cared for someone while they had cancer, we were all survivors! It has been an amazing day! :)

Shanna and I at the finish line (The crowds were unbelievable!)My mom and I were running in memory of my Grandma, Sylvia Baskins