Guilty Pleasures

1. Shoes
   (yep. A lot)



2. Diet Coke
   (perhaps it is more of an addiction than a guilty pleasure)



3. Cinnamon Rolls



4. Online Shopping
   (see #1)



5. Sonic Vanilla Diet Coke
   (See #2)



6. Will & Grace.
   To be more specific, Karen Walker from Will & Grace. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if it weren't for the fact that I love Jesus, I would totally be Karen Walker.



7. Facebook
   It's true. I'm addicted. I'm pretty ashamed that I love it and check it as much as I do. Maybe that's partly because I'm such a relational person, but I love seeing what people are up to.



8. Beer.
   I have been on this diet for the past couple of months that doesn't allow me to have any beer and it's been difficult. Largely becase I'm 25 years old and, well, that's what my friends and I do when we hang out. Go get a beer. Anyway, it's sucked.



9. Michael Kors
   Anything by him. Purses. Shoes. Sunglasses. Dresses. Gloves. Belts. Yep. I've become a bit of a label snob now that I can afford it... sort of. (I buy a lot of it at TJ Maxx which brings me to:)



10. TJ Maxx
    This is a new guilty pleasure for me. But I buy lots of shoes, purses, scarves, sweaters, and anything else I can cost justify there. But there is little spending guilt. It's great.



11. Pepper. My lovely Mini Cooper.
    You know she had to be on the list. Driving my car and going fast gives me a thrill. I don't know why. But, just being able to go and get out of town helps me a lot. Plus, my car is what I worked so hard for. So she's mine. All mine. I also encourage all of my friends to get one. Maybe you can add it to your guilty pleasure list too!

Lately...

Lately a million things have happened it seems. So, let me get you up to speed:

Kickball:

Kickball season is now over. :( Menace to Sobriety ended the season in second place after losing in the final game. Nonetheless, I couldn't be more proud of my team for their efforts.

I feel like kickball has been a huge part of my life this year, and, because of it, I have gained so many great friends. We hang out every week. We laugh the whole time. Lots of fun. Everyone is at different places in life (some in school, some working on their careers, some just starting to figure out what they want to do).

Because of kickball, I feel like I've settled into Little Rock life. Yay.

Health:

I have been on a diet over the past couple of months that is, in a word, miserable. Miserable, but effective. I have lost over 15 lbs and last weekend bought a pair of jeans 2 sizes smaller than the last pair I purchased. Oh and I still need a belt to keep them up.

The diet is so hard. No sugar, no carbs, no sodas, no dairy, no fruit, no alcohol. So it's pretty much just veggies and meat. It has been good though, because I've had to start paying attention to what I eat. No more, "Oh, I live on the road so I just have to 'deal' with eating crappy fast food."

My goal is to lose a total of 30 lbs. Which would take me back to where I was when I started college. Just wait, one of these days I'll be able to fit into my old cheerleading uniform from high school. (LOL. that's not really the goal, but I wouldn't object if I was able to do it anyway).

Work:

Work is pretty good. I've had some nice sales lately, which is always appreciated. We are excited about what is to come around AAMSCO.

I have days that I feel utterly exhausted with work though. I keep waiting for a nice break (like one that lasts more than a day or two... preferably a summer break or something), but it hasn't arrived. I think after 3 years of working, that is what I'm ready for... to be over the initial hump of the working world and feel settled.

Like I said though, work is good and I can't really complain.

Friendships:

Back in February I had a huge fight with a friend of mine. Both of us said mean things to each other and the fight was over stupid, stupid things. Recently this person and I met up and discussed our friendship and whether we were ready to make amends. I'm happy to say that we did and now things are good.

I'm one of those people who can't fight with others. It literally tears me apart. When someone is mad at me or something, I lose sleep. There are only two people that I can think of off the top of my head that I just don't get along with, and I pray about it all the time. But, when a friendship is restored, I feel like it should be celebrated.

So here I am, celebrating the renewed friendship between me and my "brother from another mother."

Church:

FaithSpring had our very first service at our new location today. What a blessing. I can hardly believe that only two years ago this was only a vision. The service was packed. I had to fight back tears today because it was so obvious that God has blessed us. God's hand was with us every step of the way. He is so good. So faithful. and I can't wait to see what's next.

So that's what's going on. Other than that, dating life is good, family is great, no need for complaints.

Where Is Your Faith?

Today I had a vendor in town named Lindia who has become a darling friend of mine over the last year or two. Lindia and my dad have worked together for over a decade and are also very close friends.

Anyway, today, after the conference was over, she and I sat down and had a drink and just chatted about everything: family, work, the conference, church, health, chaos, and goals. As she was telling me a story about some events going on with her family she said that she has had to continuously remind her husband to have faith in God over the situation, "Where is your faith?"

"Where is your faith? Don't you trust that God is able to fix this? Don't you trust that He can resolve this situation better than you or I could? Where is your faith?"

In my life, there are so many things that I have to be grateful of, no denying that. There are some areas that I feel like I am so desperate for help and so desperate to get to where I want though. I think that I almost need to get this tattooed on me, "Shannon, where is your faith?"

Psalms 37:4 says "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Jeremiah 29:11: "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

Hope and a future... why can't I seem to remember that?!

Of course, we all know Proverbs 3:5 & 6: "Trust in the Lord always and lean not on your own understandings; in all ways acknowledge him and He will make your paths straight."

Easier said than done, right?

Well, I ask that you, my brothers and sisters, would pray for me that I might trust in the Lord more and always remember to keep my faith in Him.

Dreams/Goals

So, today I chatted with my old roommate, Emily, who I used to be pretty close to. She informed me that she is now living in New York City, working as a nanny, broke as could be, but has never been happier. It got me thinking about how I always knew that was her dream. Just to live up there for a while.

After hearing about her making her dream come true, I can't help but think about what my dreams are. I don't think I have taken the time to sit down and write them all out for quite some time. Of course this list has changed many times, and will continue to do so.

• Go to Ireland.
• Go skydiving.
• Fall in love.
• Learn to play golf.
• Change someone's life (for the better).
• Take a cooking class.
• Honor God with my life.
• Become a wife.
• Get onstage at a concert.
• Become a mom.
• Own a house.

That's as far as I have gotten. Is that bad? I think I need help thinking about what goals I should have. Maybe I just need time.

Things I've done:

• Ride in a parade.
• Get a Mini Cooper S.
• Learn how to drive a standard.
• Graduate from college.
• Live on my own.
• Live somewhere random during the summer.
• Go on mission trips.
• Be a youth leader.
• Help to launch a church.

Well. I think it is time that I start a LONG list of things I want to do before I die... and start crossing them off. I'm sure there will be plenty of time to add new ones and check them off, but there's no better time to start. 

How I Show Myself Paper

I was going through a bunch of stuff on my external hard drive from college today and found this paper. I thought some might find it amusing, but mostly I think it is just funny the things we see in ourselves and hope that other see in us as well.

How Do I Show Myself?

Like most people, I desire to be liked by everyone. I want to be seen as charming, caring, warm, honest, and humorous. However, I have never had to think about what my goals are in my self presentation, nor have I been forced to observe my self disclosure strategies. So writing this paper has been somewhat of a challenge.

Although I want to be viewed in a positive light by all different people, I present myself in different ways depending on the audience and situation, all the while being conscious of appearing genuine and not fake. Sometimes this can be a difficult challenge, but I have found that it is not difficult when I simply use my presentational goals according to my audience.

Many of my presentational goals are the same regardless of whom my audience consists of. I want to be seen as passionate, morally strong, confident, attractive, outgoing, ambitious, accepting, nonjudgmental, and friendly. For example, everyday I spend about 10 minutes on my makeup and about 20 minutes drying and straightening my hair. The reason for this is so that people will find me attractive, or at least not finds me as unattractive. I use ingratiation most often in my self presentation. I also use exemplification when I treat others as I wish to be treated and try to be an example to everyone around me.

When I am around my boss or my teacher I am quiet in efforts to show that I am respectful. If I am meeting my parents’ friends for the first time one of my goals is to be seen as mature, polite, and responsible. My goal is to appear in such a way that I would neither embarrass myself nor my parents; I want to impress the person to whom I am speaking.

My self presentation goals are quite different when I am with my friends. I want my friends to see me as someone they can depend on to listen to them when they need to talk, have fun with, and someone they look forward to being with. My goals when I am with my friends are relational rather than instrumental as they might be when I am introduced to my parents’ friends. With my friends I am simply trying to create or sustain a connection.

When I am around strangers I want to be seen as polite, courteous, and outgoing. Last night I was at Denny’s writing this paper; around 1:00 or so I gathered my belongings and prepared to leave. Two gentlemen sitting in a booth next to me wearing t-shirts and oversized cowboy hats asked me if I was leaving already. I smiled and said that I was because it was late and I was tired. They asked me what I was working on, my major and conversational questions of this sort. I stood there and talked to them for a minute or two, and then they said that they noticed me and thought that I was very pretty. I smiled, said thank you, and said goodbye. Many people would probably brush off the complement and ignore the two men, but I wanted to talk to them. Our conversation was not very long, nor did we enclose details about ourselves, we did not even introduce ourselves properly, but it was a simple encounter where I was able to share some of my time and attention towards someone else.

Now that I have shared my self presentational goals, I will share the strategies I use when disclosing information about me. I will discuss my approach to honesty, valiance, and amount of disclosure.

My approach to honesty is tactical and thoughtful. I am a very honest person, I hardly ever lie, and I don’t like liars. I am also very compassionate and very much so a mediator. I want the truth to come out while also being conscious of offending someone. My passion is something which has to be restrained sometimes so that I will not offend anyone. A few weeks ago a guy that I was dating and I were hanging out and he said the “n” word. This word is something I am so offended by. No, it is not directed to me personally, but I am offended by what it has done. The first time he said it I said, “Ugh, I hate that word,” in a very passive tone. A few nights later he said it again and I responded, “Paul, I told you that I don’t like that word.” He and I got into a big argument about it. I told him why I don’t like that word and that I think it is a sign of disrespect that he would say it in front of me knowing that I don’t like it. He told me why he felt that it was a word that I should not be offended by. After about half an hour of arguing I simply wanted to change the subject. In the end, I felt that sustaining our relationship was more important than getting in an argument about a word. However, I am glad that I said my feelings about the subject and wasn’t passive. In this case, I felt that honesty was the best policy, and I did this without attacking him or insulting him.

“The glass is half full.” I am constantly telling myself that. Even as I was growing up my father always told me, “Shannon, your life is just a bowl full of cherries.” This is an approach I try to use in conversation also. I try use positive valence in conversation. My friend, Emily, has been going through a hard time lately and on Wednesday someone pulled out in front of her and wrecked her brand new car. When I talked to her I was very encouraging and supportive, rather than simply insulting her current situation.

I am a people pleasing, charming, honest, positive, person. This paper helped me to realize the methods I use when with different people. My strategies and goals will change somewhat over time, hopefully for the better.

The Laugh of All Laughs

I have been told that my laugh is one of the most distinct characteristics I possess.

A few weeks ago, at youth, two of the guys decided to make fun of my laugh. I am well aware that I have a loud laugh.

So what is it about my laugh exactly? if anyone can provide a sound bite of my laugh or someone who laughs sounds like mine I would be very appreciative.

Things that make me laugh: jokes, sarcasm, being with my youth, sometimes inappropriate comments/jokes, etc.

Someone Who Inspires Me:

Nicole is one of my youth kids. She's a junior in school and reminds me of myself so much (especially at that age).

Pretty much since day one she and I have gotten along fabulously well. Except one time when she and a couple of other youth decided they want to play match-maker with me and another guy... but I digress....

I'm not going to sit here and write all about how fantastic she is and all that (because I could go on for days and days on how great she is). But I do want to talk about how she inspires me.

A few months ago I had a huge falling out with someone very close to me. Ironically, that same night she posted a video to my wall. "SHANNNNNONNN!! Can you come back to Little Rock now? Ok, thanks..." I literally cried when I watched this video. After a day of feeling like I'm the worst person in the world, she made me smile.

Even tonight, she worked on reconciling with one of her friends. Which therefore inspired me to do the same.

As a Christian, I know that I am supposed to live a life that honors God. But I think being close to my youth has been a strong reminder of WHY God has to be apparent in every aspect of our lives.

It's so funny to me that Nicole constantly says, "Thanks for being there" and stuff like that. She says it without even knowing how much of a blessing she is for me.

I'm so blessed. I am so blessed to be inspired by an amazing young woman.