Shawna was born while her family was
living in Brookings, Oregon where her mother grew up and her dad
lived while in his late teenage years. Brookings is just over the
California border on the coast. She was born the oldest of 4 children
including 3 girls and one boy. Her parents moved from Oregon when
Shawna was 2 ½ so unfortunately she doesn't remember beautiful
Oregon as home.
Her parents needed a change. Somewhere
warm and sunny, so they moved the family to Las Vegas and here is
where Shawna lived, in the same neighborhood all of her growing up
years, until she was in her 20s. She loved growing up in Las Vegas.
Her neighborhood was very similar to the one we live in with LOTS of
kids. Most of the same kids lived in the neighborhood with Shawna
until they were grown. They were all really good kids and they ended
up being a great support for one another.
Shawna says she loved growing up in Las
Vegas but she doesn't think she'd want to return to raise her own
children there. She loved how there was always something to do and
she really loved the food. There was a lot of it and it was all very
resonably priced. She said on every corner you could buy the most
delicious chicken wings. She really misses that. However, everywhere
she went she also carried pepper spray because you could never be
sure who you might meet up with.
While growing up Shawna wasn't in clubs
or groups, she didn't even really think about it. Instead she spent
her days going to school, playing with her friends and spending time
with her family. Their family was always doing things and going
places. They especially did a lot of camping. They went up to
Panguitch, Utah a lot to fish, but her favorite camping trip of all
was when they went camping in Mexico. Her family and another family
packed up a motorhome and pulled their tent trailer behind it and
went down to Mexico. They found a nice little place to camp in and
met a very nice Mexican family who they paid to watch their motorhome
and trailer while they took a train to all different parts of Mexico.
Never did they worry about their motorhome because the sons they paid
to watch their stuff, slept on top of the motorhome with a loaded
gun.
When Shawna turned 16 she got a job at
a grocery store as a bagger. Now Shawna wasn't just your ordinary
pretty faced bagger, she was good! How good you may ask? Good enough
that she was sent to a bagging competition with baggers from all over
Las Vegas and California. The baggers were sent to a brand new store
just opening up and had to work there for a day. They were judged on
correct placement of items in the bags and overall customer
satisfation. They were also judged on friendliness and helpfulness.
The competition was stiff but at the end of it, Shawna walked away
with the 3rd place medal! Not only did she get a medal,
but she also received a bag of groceries and was allowed to wear
jeans to work for a WHOLE WEEKEND!!!! (Seriously, you can't make this
stuff up)
She continued working at Albertson's
for the next 6 years. After 2 years she was promoted to work at
Starbucks, but she was a little uncomfortable serving coffee. So 6
months after she was promoted she noticed there was an opening in the
floral department. She asked if she could have that job and they gave
it to her. So for the next 3 ½ years she worked as a florist doing
all the arrangements for school dances, funerals, and weddings.
Shawna became really good at flowers.
During that 6 years she worked for
Albertson's (which btw she LOVED!) She was going to school. She spent
the first two years doing high school but during her junior and
senior year of high school she went to a community college high
school. Here she only went to school 2-3 times a week until 5 in the
evening. In the morning she would work on her college credits and in
the afternoon she would work on high school classes. She graduated
after 2 years with a good portion of her college done.
One Sunday during her Senior year of
College, Shawna and her Uncle who was just 4 years older than her,
traveled up to Logan for a baby blessing. While they were driving
home, Shawna received the strongest prompting that she needed to move
to Logan. It was so overpowering that she asked her Uncle to give her
a blessing. He gave her one and it was such a spiritual blessing
telling her she did indeed need to move to Logan and there she would
meet the man she was supposed to marry. She promptly went to work on
Monday and let them know as soon as she had everything in order she
would be moving to Logan. Two months later, everything was in order
and away she moved.
She started working at a job at a
company called RR Donally. The hours were harsh. 3pm -3am. Shawna was
unhappy and felt very isolated. She knew she was never going to make
friends or meet anyone working there. One day she was visiting her
Uncle's Brother-in-law's girlfriend. The girlfriend told her that she
worked at a flower shop in Hyrum and they needed some help for
Valentine’s Day and asked if she was interested in helping. Shawna
went and the flower shop offered her a job after just one day of
helping out. Shawna worked at this flower shop until in closed down
in December 2008.
In 2007, shortly after Shawna moved to
Logan, her ward had a group Family Home Evening that the whole ward
was invited to. A group of boys came over and introduced themselves
to Shawna and her roommates. A couple weeks after their intial
meeting, the same group of boys invited just Shawna over to their
apartment to make her dinner. Shawna's roommates got wind of it and
told Shawna the better plan was for the guys to come over to their
apartment where the girls would make them dinner (the girls thought
the boys were cute). The guys totally agreed that was a much better
plan. So that Sunday all the guys came over and while they were
there, their roommate Mark Whitworth texted them wondering where they
all were. They told Mark to come over and eat with them on his
lunchbreak from work, which he did.That's how Mark and Shawna met.
From there the groups of roommates just
started hanging out. They did all kinds of fun things to together.
The guys invited the girls over for the TV show THE OFFICE premier
night. Where the guys all dressed up like the office characters. The
next week after the premier night, Shawna asked Mark if he was going
to be watching THE OFFICE again and he said, « Yes, you should
come over and watch it with me. » She went by herself and after
that they started dating, not exclusively, but just dating. That went
on until April of 2008 when they decided to start being exclusive.
During this time, Shawna landed her
dream job. It was at, of all places, a call center. But this was no
ordinary call center. They loved their employees. They went out of
their way to make their employees feel appreciated. They would have
BBQ's for their employees and in every way try to make them feel
valued. Once Shawna was promoted to work in the legal department of
their company, she was in 7th Heaven. She loved how
connected working there made her feel to the community and the
wonderful positive environment. She thought she would always work
there because she loved it so much.
In August of 2010, after 2 blissful
years of dating, Shawna and Mark got engaged. They were married the
following November. They continued living in Logan while Mark
finished his degree. Shawna says their courtship was so much fun.
They did everything there was to do on campus. They never stayed
home.
After they married they continued going
new places and experiencing new things. Mark's family even took them
on an incredible vacation to Argentina and Brazil. Shawna loved
Argentina. She loved the food (mostly steak). She loved the culture.
She also thought it was incredibly fun because they did everything in
Argentina that they did on the Argentina season of the Bachelor. This
trip combined all the things she loves, Mark, food, adventure and the
Bachelor! It was a dream come true!
Horse from the Bachelor
Shawna thought she would never want to
leave Logan. She loved all her friends and in 2009 her parents even
moved up to Logan to be around Shawna and her sister who was also
living there. They continued to live in Logan until 2013 when Mark
was offered a job in Salt Lake City. By this time Shawna was pregnant
with their first daughter Scarlett. When Mark told Shawna about the
job she was unexpectantly excited. She was up for the adventure. So
they moved to a nice apartment in Farmington to be closer to Mark's
family in Centerville.
Just before moving to Farmington,
Scarlett was born. After they moved to Farmington, for the first
time, Shawna found herself feeling isolated. She was suffering from
some post pardum depression and she wasn't meeting people in her
ward. She wasn't working and for an extreme extrovert like Shawna
this was disasterous. She wished so badly her visiting teachers would
come visit just to meet someone. To add to the despair around her,
Shawna's sister just younger than her died unexpectantly at the age
of 25 leaving behind two small children and a husband. It was a very
hard and dark time for Shawna.
Shawna and Mark started looking for a
house and in June of 2014 they moved into their new home in our
neighborhood. This went a long way in healing Shawna's depression.
She realized because of her past experience in Farmington that she
needed to reach out and make friends. So when Becky Moody asked who
might want to be part of a Bunco group, Shawna jumped at the
opportunity. She loves living in this ward. She loves that all the
great examples that are here for her children to grow with and look
up to. She loves the friendships and kindness she's found. Last July
the Whitworths welcomed their second daughter Cosette to their
family. They are so happy to be here.
I asked Shawna what piece of advice she
would now share with her younger self. She said, « Carpe Diem!
Cease the day. » She said after graduating from high school
she's tried to do this and she wished that she had done it more when
she was younger. She also said especially after losing her sister she
feels this way with her own children. She tries to enjoy all the
moments she has with them and wants to make everyday matter.
What a ball of positive energy Shawna
is. I think if you come within her radar you will not be able to walk
away feeling anything but positive and happy. She truly is loving and
wants to include and be friends with everyone. We are so fortunate to
have Shawna in our ward to associate with. Take the time to get to
know her and you will leave feeling loved.
