This Weeks Top 10 (3rd Edition)

Now it's time for this week's Top 10 and because we raised our followers again, we're going to go ahead and do this weeks Top 15 which should be easy because I had a GREAT week!

So here I go:

15: I learned that at Planet Beach (I guess they're in multiple cities) you can go to their website and if you sign up they'll send you an e-mail for a "Free Day at the Spa". Sounds like a gimmick huh? Well I called ahead and found out what it's about. For FREE I got to go in, do a hydro spa (kind of reminded me of a body wrap) where you get hot and steamy and it detoxes your skin and applies minerals and it's supposed to make your tan last longer. THEN I got a water massage where you lay down and water runs up and down your back (you don't get wet). THEN they let me tan. All for GRATIS. They were the "groupon" that day and I didn't even buy the groupon, but I surely thought about it because it was a good deal. I suggest you try it out!

14: I had the most seamless flight experience that I have ever had. Ever. Airports stress me out, but not this weekend!

13: I got to see one of my good friends marry the man of her dreams.

This picture is on the bike ride- didn't get any on my phone @ the wedding. Aren't they too cute? We couldn't get them to stop kissing!!! Ha ha

12: We had the most ridiculously nice penthouse that we stayed in this weekend in Keystone. I thought Julie was using "penthouse" as a metaphor. Oh no. 4 bed, 3 1/2 bath, enormous kitchen w/granite counter tops. It was inspiration to get a good education to one day afford to rent that place during the peak season.

(This picture is via iPhone so the quality is blurry and not great, but this is from the living area)

11: We went on the coolest, most fun, beautiful, 14 mile bike ride. It was mostly down hill so don't let me fool you. It was great to be in nature and check things out, get a rush, and surprisingly a little bit of a tan on my face.

(Holly & Me representing O-State before the ride)

One of the views on the ride

Another view on the ride. Every where you turned there was something new and beautiful. God is good!

10: Scott referred to my blog as "Hysterical" which, coming from a man who truly is hysterical, that's an honor.

9: The Bill Cosby Voice. Scott really is one of a kind. I'll never think of Rudy, Theo, or Puddin Pops the same. Especially because he did this at his own reception.

8: While Krissy and Scott were taking their wedding pictures, the girls and I opted to have a little photo shoot of our own. We went down to the pro shop and borrowed 5 clubs (it's beyond me why they would let us 5 crazy girls borrow clubs- oh wait, it's cause we were wearing dresses). We had a great time!

They told the wedding planner we were welcome back any time. I think Jules & Haz may have found their mountain man- sans crazy beard.

7: They had the best tasting wedding cake that I have ever tried in my life. And there were 2 kinds. And I had both. Don't judge me.

6: I have a job where I am allowed to take a sick day which is a total blessing because yesterday I really needed it. Thanks to about 19 hours of sleep I feel much better and can write this blog.

5: This wedding made me ever more excited about my own wedding! Also, I wasn't stressed out at all about my own wedding this week. I think I'm going to give it til after Christmas before I do too much more planning. If you know me, you know that is major progress for me.

4: We were in the paper this week for our engagement! We were BIG news in Inola. We're talkin size 32 font, second page, 4x6 picture. It's no wonder that Inola doesn't have a website, but you can read about us in Duncan here.

3: I was able to have an all out democrat v republican conversation with Holly and no one got hurt. Actually, we didn't even argue at all. We came up with a plan to take over the world. Like Pinkie and the Brain- only more successful and prettier.

2: We went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in Breckenridge. They had this bench that you could sit on and look like Forrest. So I sit down and look over at the lady next to me (complete stranger) and say "You know, mama always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they've been, where they're going...." "Those look like comfortable shoes." She wasn't a team player. Thought I was nuts. It was good for a laugh.

1: I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

Until next week!!

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The Terminal

This weekend I went to Keystone Colorado to watch my big, Krissy marry Scott in the mountains. It was beautiful (more info to come in this weeks "Top 10"). Had a great time. Worst part of the trip? Getting up this morning at 4:00 a.m. for my 11:15 a.m. flight. I thought I had planned out my flight time perfectly. Not too early, not too late. WRONG. Thankfully to some cousins of Krissy's they gave me a ride back, but they had really early flights. I had to wait 5 hours to board my plane so I channeled my inner Tom Hanks (get it? The Terminal? Stop reading this and go watch the movie now if you don't know what I am talking about). Here's how my day turned out.

This picture is me at about 6:15 a.m. I couldn't even check in until I was within 4 hours of my flight time. Oh- and just in case you're wondering "Shanna, why didn't you just jump on an earlier flight?" I'll tell you why. Because I don't read the fine print. Apparently if you book on southwest.com and get the "web only" rate, there's not a lot of wiggle room in your ticketing and they'll charge you basically what your original ticket cost to change it. No thanks! My time isn't worth thaaaaaat much.

So at 6:55 I have some coffee. Caribou Coffee or something strange like that. No starbucks to be found. This is what my $4.76 got me.

Oh wait, this picture is deceiving. See below.

That's more like it. And I think it was burned. Oh well, it did the trick.

As I drank my coffee and played with my phone I was looking around thinking Geez, what's with all the people around me eating Burger King? I thought Colorado was like super healthy? Turns out I had decided to park in a little Burger King cafeteria (guess you order on the other side). Yuck.

At 8:10 I go check in. I waited until 8 because I wanted to send a post card and needed a stamp(yeah, there's a post office there) but then I realized after all that waiting that I had packed my post card in my luggage. Whoops. So I check in and my "seat" number with Southwest is B53. Basically that means that like 113 people get to sit before me. I checked in 5 hours early?!?!?!? I've seen on Southwest's website that you can pay $10 for early bird check in, and honestly it just doesn't mean that much to me because I generally fly alone. So I post about it on facebook how silly I think that is that alllllll those people got up and checked 24 hours in advance and paid $10 and come to realize that you only have to pay the $10 if you check in MORE THAN 24 hours in advance. Who knew? Apparently everyone but me. Or atleast 113 people anyway.

THEN it's time to go through security. I hate airports, I really do. I think I've told you before that I think they're the most inefficient multibillion dollar industry I've ever heard of. Smooth sailing is a rarety. I don't like it. So I look at 1 of 2 security gates and this is what I see. Awesome.

Something I notice while going through security is the stupid hats people wear on vacation. WHY?? Oh WHY do people wear stupid hats for vacation? So help me if Matt tries to roll out to our honeymoon in a sombrero I am writing an entire blog about it. Speaking of awful decisions... Matt bought camoflauge CROC flip flops this weekend. He's always such a good dresser. What. Has. Happened. He even sent me a picture like it's cute. No sir. No. 1st order of business as wife, operation get rid of the ugly flops.

So after going through the security that either nightmares or jokes are made of, I decided to have some breakfast. Found me a nice booth, ordered something random and enjoyed. Did I mention that I only got 3 hours of sleep all night? I don't think I did, I didn't feel very good so I couldn't get to sleep until after midnight. Needless to say with the altitude and lack of sleep, I was feeling a little fatigue. Nevertheless, I was the politest little Okie a waitress could ever ask for. Now most of you know I've had just about every legal job under the sun that a college student can have. I've walked several miles in a waitress' non skid shoes, so if I get mad about customer service (which you guys know how I feel about that), then they must be pretty bad. I don't even mind slow food because I know it's not the waitress' fault. Not full cup? I'll give it a few minutes. What I am intolerant of is rudeness. I feel like I should teach a class on the concept of tipping. I know a thing or 2 because tips essentially paid for my entire college experience (Thank you Chili's and Sonic). This girl that I had was all kinds of not nice. I still tipped her because I really don't have it in me to stiff someone, which I think might make me an enabler, but whatever. I did leave her a note and it read: "I am sure that there are all kinds of assholes (sorry, but it's true) that come through the airport, but I couldn't have been more polite despite my exaughstion. In the future- a smile goes a long way."

However, I will say the food was delicious and I think that was the best apple I ever ate in my life.

So I'm walking around just checking things out and I see this ------>

This thing spins and your kid is supposed to walk around and around it til they tucker themselves out. Hilarious! "1st Bank: We're here to help."

Finally after wandering around I board my plane. And where am I sitting? In the front row. You see, people always sit with one seat in between them because we're Americans and we like our personal space. Consider you personal space invaded my Miss B53. 3rd one off the plane. Success!

This blog entry may seem like I had an awful day and really I didn't. I've actually never had such seamless travel. Coming and going my flights left on time which is a miracle. I saw some interesting things. I am a little delirious and hope this even makes sense. Hope you enjoy! More adventures in Colorado to come!

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This Week's Top 10 (Second Edition)

This really is a "Top 10" list, but as long as I'm gaining new followers, I'll go ahead and add to the list. Can you see??? 12 followers! Woo! I'm going to be one really grateful human if I get up to 100. So here's the best of this past week. (Once again in no particular order, I just don't know how to cut and paste in Blogger. I honestly don't know how to do much at all in Blogger).

12. We had an engagement party tailgate last weekend. Someone asked "Engagement Party Tailgate... how does that work?" (like we were a little crazy or hill billy). I said " Good food, Good Drinks, Good People, that's how we roll. Expect more of the same at the reception but in nicer outfits." I had such a great time. The fact that it was a million degrees doesn't make my Top 10 list, but other than that I have zero complaints (I did miss a few of my bridesmaids, but I totally understand why they couldn't come). The party was a wonderful reminder that we have some really special people in our lives and it was great to celebrate our engagement that day.

11. My mom made the COOLEST cake ever ever for the party. This is a picture after it was cut, and you really need to see all of the angles, but she did a great job. It had stuff like "Hard Rock Cafe" (our venue) and "Bella Gardens Chapel" (ceremony) and "Pete's Railroad", and "Registry Chest" and "Go to the In-Laws". I drew the whole thing up and my mom made it. She's so talented and she did it all at our house, instead of a bakery where she usually has more space and supplies. We had it like monopoly because that's how Matt and I met. Anyway, I'm really proud of my mom for her hard work.

10. I got a MUCH needed hair cut this week, and got to talk details with my hair stylist about wedding hair and what not. I even have bangs!

9. OSU Killed Tulsa. Woot!

8. I picked out my wedding dress thanks to my mom, best friend, and future mother in law. One thing less to do! It's really pretty (see look, I gave you a hint!). The day we spent picking out the dress is also part of the top 10. It was a really nice day.

7. I finally changed doctors from a doctor allllll the way in Stillwater to someone here in Tulsa because that's just crazy to drive that far when I live here now. Well, I got a few prescriptions and in an effort to save time I went to CVS pharmacy, I usually just go to Wal-Mart. Turns out, that if you usually get your prescriptions somewhere else and you just tell them you've moved your prescription, they give you a $25 gift card. No strings attached. AND if you transfer another on going prescription from another pharmacy, they'll give you ANOTHER $25 gift card. I mean, I don't shop at pharmacies often, but I got the cuuuuuuuuuuutest gift bag for Miss Serenity's birthday that I normally wouldn't spend that much money on- AND they have bridal magazines so- what the hey, it's free. Side note on bridal magazines- if you already have your dress, they're almost a waste of money. As I waited for my prescription I realized that bridal magazines cost about $6-$10 each and they're 90% advertisements.

6. We got some AWESOME gifts at the engagement party. We weren't expecting gifts at all. We really just wanted people to celebrate with us, so it was an extra special surprise. We got gift cards, a FANTASTIC picnic wine holder (with a bottle of wine), a really cute OSU platter that I had been wanting, the coolest Koozies you ever saw in your life (also the most durable), and a nice bottle of vodka. Perhaps people think Matt & I are alcoholics... Well now we're classy alcoholics if that's true because this was all super nice stuff.

5. I celebrated 1 month drinking zero beer! I'm not even sure that's true. I speculate it's been about a month. I'm not getting coins or anything. Remember I told you I'm giving up beer til the wedding? I realized this morning that I might not like the taste of beer by the time the wedding rolls around- which will be just fine.

4. MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD MOVED 5 MINUTES DOWN THE ROAD!!!!! Oh I'm and just gleeful about this. Since I'm moving in May, this will be a great opportunity to spend lots of time together before I go. I can also help her with that precious baby! Obviously, I am very happy about this.

3. I made a really cute calendar on Snapfish.com (I even got it for free with Mycokerewards and they were having free shipping). I put a bunch of pictures of family and the engagement pictures and the babies in it. I LOVE it and because I made it, it begins in October so I can display it proudly in place of the Natural Resource Conservation Service calendar that I am currently sporting. Sexy, I know.

2. We hit the milestone of 8 months until I get to marry my best friend. AND I'm not stressed at all about it. I'm actually the least stressed I've been since we got engaged. I feel great and that's such a relief.

1. I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

Until next week!

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8 Months to Go

It's Sept 21st and there are 8 months to go until the big day! Oh. My. Dear. Goodness. Am I nervous? No silly, there's 8 months. It's crazy that the first 3 months went by so fast, but I wouldn't put myself in the "under pressure" category. According to the "Knot Book of Wedding Lists" I am pretty much right on track. Theknot.com is trying to give me an anxiety attack though. It tells me TO THE DAY how close we are getting. Want to know? It's 242 days. They also have these crazy check lists with like 500 things to check off before the wedding based on each coming month. The knot is apparently more stressed out than I am. Up to date we have completed:
*Venue Locations
* Food and Beverages
* Hotel Rooms Blocked
* Picked our Wedding Party
* Created a cute little wedding website so everyone can say up to date
* Registries
* DJ
* Pianist
* Minister
* Engagement Party
* Engagement Pictures
* Announced to Newspapers (coming out this week!)
* Hair Stylist

I feel like that's major progress! I think the day of is going to be so great. We have the most wonderful people in our lives and I am so happy to celebrate with them!

Oh- and I said "yes" to the dress and no I'm not going to tell you anything about it. Ever.

8 Months! Woo Hoo!

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Incase you were curious

I promised to post stuff from Costa Rica as soon as I got the pictures. Well the pictures took a while so I'll put a few things up.

I went to Costa Rica for the first 10 days with school and did a tour to Tortuguero, Sarapiqui, Arenal Volcano, and San Jose. It gave me the whole "nature" end of the course and we saw some pretty amazing things. Costa Rica is unbelievable with their incredible amount of biodiversity. If you ever want to plan a trip- let me know because I've been just about everywhere in that country and I could help you out!

We went to a pineapple plantation and they let me "harvest" a pineapple. It was deeeeeeeeeeeelicious! This was one of the most entertaining parts of the school trip. I loved it!

Yep that's a volcano. Arenal volcano. One night we saw it glowing- it was incredible and terrifying at the same time. We also spent time in the hot springs which was really cool.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I ended up having to develop a plan B on my trip and I back packed for a week with 2 people that I had met from the trip. I have made few better decisions in my life. I had such an incredible time that I'll never forget. We started out by spending the day in San Jose checking out down town. You can buy pigeon food and the pigeons are friendly. And heavy.

While in San Jose I got to eat at the restaurant that we ate at all the time when I went to Costa Rica the first time I went- AND I got to visit my house mother. I told her I would come back! The entire experience in San Jose was very surreal because everything was the same. I changed as a person after the first time I went to Costa Rica and I'll always cherish that memory.

We had to hike FOREVER to get to this waterfall and the picture doesn't do it justice at all. This day was one of the best days of my life. This is in Montezuma. A town I think the 3 of us will never forget. We found out that this water fall had 3 tiers and we climbed up to the top of it so we could see the other 2 tiers. It was a very dangerous and physically demanding hike, but it was incredible and I was so proud of myself for doing it (and I didn't complain!).

What's the point of a good hike with out a good jump?

When I booked the trip I was determined to go surfing. I had done it a couple of times before and fell in love with it. We took a lesson and it was worth every penny.

Getting up on the board....

And I am up and obviously shocked at my victory! I got up a lot of times that day and it was incredible (and a work out!)

I am leaving so much out (that's what journals are for). This was such an incredible trip that I'll never forget. The Lord works in wonderful ways and took a situation that made me nervous and concerned and turned it into the opportunity of a life time.

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This Week's Top 10

In an effort to think positively and really just update you on all the random stuff (each of which may not be particularly blog worthy) I'm going to do a weekly "Top 10" for your enjoyment. Actually- We're going to do a this week's Top 11 in light that I now have 11 loyal followers!!!! WOO!! These are in no particular order.

11. Getting to tailgate with my sorority sister's last Saturday- and carpool with Hasley to the game. There really are few things that I enjoy more than catching up with my sisters. It's one of the wonderful joys of joining a sorority.

10. Realizing last night that I paid some $25 dues to Executive Office of Alpha Delta Pi for no good reason. They said it might have been for them "Remember Me" fund. They better remember me- I'm not going to forget my $25!

9. Last Saturday- I discovered that Lisa (Matt's mom) and I were wearing pretty much the same outfit to the game. Like... same shirt, same watch, similar orange sandals, similar black Coach sling purse, and jeans (although hers were capris). PRICELESS!

8. Yesterday, Sarah Shroud was freed from the Iranian prison after 14 months for hiking across the Iranian border. The downside is that they released her because she has some serious health problems. The other downside is that her 2 friends are still there. This made me cry this morning, but I am happy that they're making progress. You can watch the news story about it here.
7. You guys know from my post a few weeks back that I really like Jari Askins. She really is a nice lady and I am glad that I have had a couple of opportunities to meet her. She's the kind of person that seems like she'll listen to the people about their concerns. Her campaign ad on t.v. this week was hilarious- she really just responded to a slam against her and I say good for her!
You can watch it here. Mary Fallin may or may not have made the campaign ad against Jari (I mean mud slinging is part of the game and I get that) but I think politicians in general should be cautious about comparing their opponents to the current president. Mary Fallin's ad basically sad we don't like Jari Askins because we don't like Obama (we being Oklahomans) and I don't really like Mary Fallin- or her campaign runners, speaking for me. Although- I'm really not a good example because I like both of them, but I am sure there are plenty of people who don't like Jari- but do like and RESPECT President Obama and vice versa.
6. This engagement party is planned and it's looking like several people are going to come by. I'm really excited that people want to celebrate this special occasion with us.
5. I'm looking forward to trying on dresses this Sunday! To date: we have completed the venue reservations, catering, engagement party, most of the wedding party, engagement pictures, submitted them to the paper, the photographer, pianist, and DJ. I call that progress and I LOVE it!
4. I had a yard sale with my best friend in the whole wide world. I made $19 which I immediately spent in Stillwater. The real profit was getting rid of my stuff (all the left overs went to Goodwill) and I got to spend a few hours with my best friend. That's priceless.
3. I found a new artist that I like and have created a Pandora station for her which I have enjoyed ALL week! Sunny Sweeny. Check her out. She's good stuff.
2. I booked a ticket to go to Midland the weekend of Oct 16th. We're going to the OSU vs. Texas Tech game. I'm soooo excited!
1. I woke up every morning this week. I am free. I am breathing. I am loved. I am more blessed than I ever deserve to be.

Stay tuned for next week's top 10!

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Complete and Utter Randomness

If you know me, and I assume that if you're reading my blog you do know me, you know that I can be pretty random. I have the craziest thoughts and ideas all the time. Sometime my ideas help me be creative and some of them just made me strange- but that gets me to my point. This blog post is simply dedicated to some of my random thoughts I have been having none of which, by themselves are really blogworthy.

First- I have 10 followers on the page (WOO HOO!!!) and then I have my secret followers. They're not really secret though because I regularly have someone randomly tell me "oh, I read your blog..." Even my future mother in law mentioned the other day that she read my blog for the first time and that got me to thinkin. You really have to be careful what you put on the internet because you really have no idea who's reading it. Not that I would say anything bad about people on my blog (I'm like Beyonce and "my momma taught me better than that" -Survivor) but I can't go off giving away surprises, gift ideas, being overly opinionated because you just never know! My future boss may be reading this blog as we speak and I don't want him thinking I'm a dummy... but I guess now the secret is out that I'm all kinds of random and am even willing to admit it.

Speaking of gifts- I have another wedding etiquette question that I suppose I should look up. I just purchased a gift for my Big who is getting married later this month. She's having a destination wedding so I went ahead and had it sent to her home so she doesn't have to deal with getting it back home- that is wedding etiquette. But- one thing I will give away is that I bought her 2 gifts. I had a budget and I liked 2 things and they both fit into my budget so I got 2. BUT the question is, because I already had a budget for her gift that was larger than either item- should I have bought a more expensive item and left the less expensive items for someone else to choose off her registry? I mean, essentially it's all stuff that she wants because she registered for it, so does it matter who buys what? Maybe I am selfish because I bought her something I wanted her to have, but clearly she wanted it all so maybe I should have left more options for others. Perhaps I am over analyzing this. I tell ya- weddings are in the air these days and I want to get it right!

Another thought I had this morning. Sometimes I'll tease someone if they say something silly. Like one time Matt told me I had a photogenic memory. So I laughed and replied "So what you're saying is that my memory looks good in pictures? Or do you mean photographic?" Well let's be fair because I laugh at myself just as much as I laugh at other people (probably more so- because I probably do more silly things than the average bear). One time I got pulled over and the officer didn't give me a ticket, but said "Okay now, drive safely" and then I said "You too!" and just had to laugh. Or when you'll go to the movies and they'll say "enjoy the movie" and you say "you too!" and just shake your head and walk away. I do it all the time! As of lately, I have this professor whom I genuinely respect but every time I'm around him I have total word vomit (that really is a gross term). The other day he asked me specifically (it was really kind of an honor) if I could do him a favor for class. I said "Maybe. Probably." Why couldn't I just say YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! It happens all the time when I talk to him. I wish I would quit that!

Okay my final thought. Did you hear about the guy who took hostages at The Discovery Channel? Well if not, you can read about it Here. He was some sort of animal rights activist, frequently protesting at the Discovery Channel. He labeled himself an "eco-anarchist" which is kind of catchy, I'll give him that. Well he took it waaaaaaaay too far one day and ended up dying over it. I always think it's sad when someone dies, but he threatened the lives of others and SWAT had to do what they had to do. When I heard this story- I began to think, "Terrific, now this is what people are going to compare environmentalists to. The eco-anarchist". Well as a person with a stake in the issue of environmentalism (although we all deserve a stake, I should rephrase that, someone who takes particular interest and devotes her studies to the environment) I would like to make it clear that what this man did isn't commendable. He was an extremist and I take issue with extremists in any category. Environment, politics, philosophy, and even religion. Extremism is what's wrong with sooooo many issues these days. People need to learn a balance. That's why I don't like Sarah Palin. It's not at all that she's a Republican- I don't even categorize her as a Republican in my mind, she's part of a whole other subset of right wing agenda who is waving the flag of extremism from crazy town. I live in Oklahoma, surrounded with republicans, and I have never in my life met anyone who has the rhetoric that parallels with Sarah Palin. We may not at all agree, but we can at least be reasonable. Anyway- Soap box!

Anyway- there's a look into Shanna's mind. Hope you enjoyed! Don't crucify me if you like Sarah Palin- we can just agree to not talk about her. Ever.

Enjoy your labor day weekend! I am ready for football (who ever ever thought I would say that?). Oh and another random thought- I realized this morning that this will be the last year of my life where watching sports will be optional. Must spend it wisely!!!!!!!

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