today has been a lot o' fun, so i thought i'd share about it. i slept in pretty late because i made the mistake of deciding to re-read the siren at about 1:45 last night and didn't go to bed until 5 this morning. i woke up a little after 1 in the afternoon (i'm a little [ok, a lot] embarrassed to admit i slept that late) and peeked out my window to discover little white bunches of happiness floating everywhere in the sky and starting to build up on the ground.
this story might make you a little nervous to read, so i want to start it by telling how it ends: today tori and i drove in the snow/ice (or as the weather people call it, "light snow") and made it home fine.
even though it was snowing, tori and i set out to go to franklin (south of nashville) so she could go to a fabric store there. driving there was no problem, everybody went slow and the roads really weren't slippy at the time. after the fabric store we also made stops at marshall's and kroger, which are all in the same shopping area. we weren't out for too long, but it snowed the whole time we were there and it turned dark. when we finally got done shopping and decided to leave it took us forever to get home!
most people were traveling even slower than earlier, and we were going so slow that we got passed a few times. i couldn't begin to count how many emergency vehicles went by us or how many cars we saw on the side of the road. it made the situation a little bit scary (i drove the whole day) but i knew i had to stay calm and focus on getting home instead of worrying. the whole time i was thinking "go slow. keep a firm grip on the steering wheel. watch for ice. watch for cars skidding. don't slam on the breaks when a car starts skidding. don't slam on the breaks if MY car starts skidding. don't steer the opposite way if i start sliding, just let it happen." it was a bit of a tense ride home, but it really went smoothly until we got the road we live right off of, briley parkway.
on the way home i mentioned to tor that getting chinese food from the joint right down the street from us would be fun tonight, so we decided to stop by before going home. we're literally pulling up to the red light on briley that we turn off of to hit up the restaurant and go home on when we skid. we started going towards the car in front of us and i managed to barely turn the wheel a little to make us go into the empty lane beside us. it really wasn't a big deal, at this point i had been prepared for it to happen for almost an hour. we pulled off the road and went in to eat and decide what the best way home would be. we have two options to get to our apartment from briley: go down and up a really big hill on our back road that we usually take, or to keep following briley around, which has an inclined bridge. at first we decided on secret option number three, which was leaving our car at the restaurant and walking down and up the big hill and down the road to our apartment.
after some more talking and watching cars drive by without problem on briley, we decided to go that way. right before we reach the inclined bride we see a couple of cars skidding, and then start doing it as well. we're going all of 5 mph, so it happens for a second and stops. but at this point we're stopped on an icy incline - i try a couple of times to push the gas but we accept that there's no way we can get going forward. so then i decide to try and roll backwards little by little when there are no cars in sight. we move all of five feet and then abandon that idea too. finally someone pulls up behind us (which totally freaked us out, we thought they were about to crash into us) and asked if we wanted help. then someone else pulls up in front of us and asks if we need help. (we think the people in the two trucks were friends, but we're really not sure) the guys talk about pulling us up the hill and then get to work attaching a chain to the front of our car. while they're doing that tori and i look at each other and start going "is this a good idea? i don't know about this. what if he skids?" he seemed pretty confident and we told him twice how icy it was and that cars have been going everywhere, so we decided it was our only option and that we need to just do it and hope its ok.
like i said at the beginning, this story ends fine. he took us to the top of the hill and unchained us right at the road we needed to turn on. being pulled was the height of my stress this evening - i was so afraid that when he started stopping i wouldn't be able to and we would bump into the back of him. i was comforted by the thought that if i couldn't stop it would be just that, a bump. we weren't going fast enough for us to really run into his truck and do any damage. we drove down yet another dangerously icy road and finally made it home.
thankfully i got a call at about 10:30 from one of my bosses telling me that our preschool will be closed tomorrow. the whole way back i kept telling tori "i'll look at the road in the morning, but if it's like this i'm NOT going!" after my boss apologized for calling so late i told her i was glad to hear we would be closed since i was stuck in my neighborhood. i have a pretty good plan for tomorrow that involves riding some object down the really big hill, walking up the other side to dunkin donuts, getting a sandwich and hot chocolate, then coming back home the same way i got there! hopefully it'll be a fun snow day!!
-meghan
p.s. typing the word "hill" so many times made me feel like i was talking about hillary, who is off having non-dangerous fun in alabama. hey hill, hope you're having a good time :)
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
my terrific two's
ok, so i'm going to try and do a bit more blogging. i figured since i did an entry yesterday why not shoot for two days in a row??
i started a new job at a preschool a few weeks ago as an "early preschool" teacher and have a cute little class of 2 year olds that i spend my days with now. before applying i had never heard of this specific daycare before, but turns out it's actually a well known franchise and has tons of campuses in several states.
i want to be able to share stories from work, but i signed several confidential/privacy agreements when i started working. the school has curriculum developed specifically for each age and class in their schools that i'm not allowed to take out of the building. they were also sure to point out that i may NOT put any pictures of my class on facebook. so since there's all of this to take into consideration, i thought it would be best for me to leave the actual name of the school off of my blog, and i'll be using nicknames for the kids in my class when i tell stories about them. i don't have endearments for all of them made up yet, but i'm almost there.
even though i've been there for a few weeks i'm still trying to get used to everything. we have a very specific routine and schedule for each day, which is great, but we're also potty training, which trumps any and all planned activities. that craziness mixed with me trying to get the little ones to obey me every once in a while has been challenging. trying to discern the leaders didn't go so good - there's A LOT of strong personalities in that room and few followers. the girls are all absolutely adorable and the boys are like some kind of posse...or gang. you should see them on the playground.
here's a slight breakdown of how things go down:
woody just transferred into my class right after i started, and him and spanky quickly became bff's. you don't see one without the other on the playground. i can't quite tell if one of them is the leader of the boys or if they have combined to form a super head of never ending energy and getting into trouble. i would take woody home with me if i could.
running around behind those two is usually tall boy (i haven't come up with his nickname yet) and sometimes tex, though tex likes to be by himself some too. these two boys are pretty mellow.
almost always behind those boys are thing 1 and thing 2 - i named them so because they are the MOST energetic boys i have ever seen! they're like that darn pink bunny - they keep going and going and going.
spot is the only boy that you usually won't see running around with the gang. he's too busy being obsessed with girlfriend. the ONLY way i can get him to do something is if i get girlfriend to do it first. he does everything she does, and when she leaves or goes in to use the potty he stands around asking where she is until she comes back out. lately thing 1 has been doing the same.
cutie pie is just as her name says...a cutie pie. though sometimes she can throw down. she's lately started buddying up with birdie, who does NOT listen to a word i say.
sweetheart is just as her name says. she's a bit quiet and very sweet.
miss priss throws down on the regular. especially at naptime. and she doesn't like to leave her shoes on.
thanks for reading, more stories to follow.
-meghan
i started a new job at a preschool a few weeks ago as an "early preschool" teacher and have a cute little class of 2 year olds that i spend my days with now. before applying i had never heard of this specific daycare before, but turns out it's actually a well known franchise and has tons of campuses in several states.
i want to be able to share stories from work, but i signed several confidential/privacy agreements when i started working. the school has curriculum developed specifically for each age and class in their schools that i'm not allowed to take out of the building. they were also sure to point out that i may NOT put any pictures of my class on facebook. so since there's all of this to take into consideration, i thought it would be best for me to leave the actual name of the school off of my blog, and i'll be using nicknames for the kids in my class when i tell stories about them. i don't have endearments for all of them made up yet, but i'm almost there.
even though i've been there for a few weeks i'm still trying to get used to everything. we have a very specific routine and schedule for each day, which is great, but we're also potty training, which trumps any and all planned activities. that craziness mixed with me trying to get the little ones to obey me every once in a while has been challenging. trying to discern the leaders didn't go so good - there's A LOT of strong personalities in that room and few followers. the girls are all absolutely adorable and the boys are like some kind of posse...or gang. you should see them on the playground.
here's a slight breakdown of how things go down:
woody just transferred into my class right after i started, and him and spanky quickly became bff's. you don't see one without the other on the playground. i can't quite tell if one of them is the leader of the boys or if they have combined to form a super head of never ending energy and getting into trouble. i would take woody home with me if i could.
running around behind those two is usually tall boy (i haven't come up with his nickname yet) and sometimes tex, though tex likes to be by himself some too. these two boys are pretty mellow.
almost always behind those boys are thing 1 and thing 2 - i named them so because they are the MOST energetic boys i have ever seen! they're like that darn pink bunny - they keep going and going and going.
spot is the only boy that you usually won't see running around with the gang. he's too busy being obsessed with girlfriend. the ONLY way i can get him to do something is if i get girlfriend to do it first. he does everything she does, and when she leaves or goes in to use the potty he stands around asking where she is until she comes back out. lately thing 1 has been doing the same.
cutie pie is just as her name says...a cutie pie. though sometimes she can throw down. she's lately started buddying up with birdie, who does NOT listen to a word i say.
sweetheart is just as her name says. she's a bit quiet and very sweet.
miss priss throws down on the regular. especially at naptime. and she doesn't like to leave her shoes on.
thanks for reading, more stories to follow.
-meghan
Monday, October 4, 2010
happy birthday joseph!!
happy birthday joseph! i hope you have a super fun day and really wish i could be there to sing "happy birthday" to you! i remember waiting and waiting and waiting for you to be born and the day you finally came is one of my most favorite days in the world!! 9 years ago you gave me the gift of being an aunt, something that can't be topped by anybody, no matter how good the present. you're such a good big brother to ben and jacob, and you also make a terrific nephew. i love you very much and can't wait to hear all about the lego store!!
-meghan
-meghan
Sunday, September 5, 2010
the immanuel guarantee
last week (i think?) hillary introduced me to one of my new favorite spots in nashville, radnor lake. the weather has been beautiful the past week, so i'm happy to have somewhere wonderful like radnor to enjoy a little bit of outdoors. after church today i went home to eat lunch and change and then headed off to first go to radnor and then to borders to hang out for a bit. when i got to the lake i decided to go a little bit later - there was a line to get into the parking lot...and it wasn't moving. so now here i am at borders sipping a delicious unsweetened tea with lemon from mcalister's. not a bad sunday afternoon if you ask me.
this morning i went to immanuel church for the first time and can't say enough good things about it. finding a new church can be a long and exhausting process, especially when there are a lot of great churches in your area to choose from. since getting to nashville i've been around to a few different churches and really liked them all. every one of them have good, solid teaching and great ways of getting new people plugged in. i can't say any of the places i've been are better than the other, which made it especially hard to think about calling one of them home.
i've read the pastor's blog at immanuel for a month or two now and really liked him, but i didn't know what to expect, service-wise. i snuck into the back no more than 5 minutes late (check me out!)and was immediately intrigued. dr. ortlund was in the middle of answering a question from someone there - i have no idea if they do this every week, if he just asked if anybody wanted to ask anything, or what. but i thought it was cool.
after that was the part where they greet you and they ask who is attending for the first time, show of hands. i NEVER raise my hand because i hate drawing attention to myself. i sat in the back and looked around. then i heard "guy right there, first hand up, we have a book and a starbucks gift card for you!" then i was regretting not shooting my hand up in the air. however, then i heard "if it's your first time here we have a book and a starbucks card for you, hold your hand up until someone brings one to you." um, AWESOME! about 10ish people had their hands up, including the two people sitting directly in front of me. i'm glad i didn't know what was to follow, i may have passed up a free book and cup of coffee if i had. everybody that had their hand up got to introduce themselves...out loud, to everybody there. it wasn't quite as scary as i thought it would be. on their website is posted the "immanuel guarantee": nobody needs to feel new after their first visit. i was wondering how they could go so far as to guarantee that, and just how they would accomplish it. well, guarantee accomplished.
right away, i felt like i belonged, something i have sorely missed since living in tuscaloosa and attending trinity. several times throughout the rest of the service my eyes welled up with tears that i had to fight back because i finally felt a bit at home. even as i now sit and type this in borders i'm breathing deeply through my nose and have glassy eyes.
during the song that followed i was so excited about my free book that i couldn't wait until home to see what it was. i got even MORE excited when i saw the words "john piper" appear letter by letter as i tore a strip of paper from across the bottom. i am now the happy owner of "fifty reasons why jesus came to die."
so there i sit when the song is over admiring my new book by one of my favorite authors when it is announced that collin hansen is visiting immanuel today. i did a little "oooh!" out loud and then whisper "young, restless, reformed!" which is the title of hansen's book. it happens to be a favorite of mine. after the service i dorkily went up to him and his wife and told him how much i loved it and shook his hand. it was stinking thrilling.
the sermon topic today was "proverbs on emotions" and i very much enjoyed it. we are emotional creatures, especially women. i feel like it's not okay for people to be overly emotional these days - even if you're too happy you're criticized, and you definitely are if you have the audacity to go around crying in front people and showing how you really feel. it's part of the problem with the "american church" - having everything together all the time is a must.
dr. ortlund said that the gospel is emotional, and when christ comes to us we are an emotional jungle and he's not about to turn us into an emotional desert. then he talked through four different categories, each using verses from proverbs for context. it'll be way too lengthy to go through them, but they were:
1. fear and boldness
2. anger and restraint
3. jealousy and trainquility
4. cheerfulness and the gospel
at the end he said that god's power is greatest not in destroying sinners, but by freeing them. then he asked us to think about our darkest, most shameful sins. after pausing for a few seconds he said "that is what you are, and that is what god saves."
all in all, i absolutely loved the entire experience. i called my mom and told her i think i just went to my new church. then i told hillary i went and "am in love with it." then i said "that may be stretch since we've only been out once, but we're courting." i've decided to attend immanuel until i feel the need or desire to look elsewhere. i feel like there are two crucial points that i can make to show how great i thought it was:
1. i had to say my name in front of everybody and i still want to go back.
2. there were cute guys there, but really i wasn't concerned with them. obviously i noticed and thought "oh, he's cute" but that was the end of it because my focus was on the church. when you're a single girl in your 20's and are more taken by a church than a guy, you know you're at a good church. i'm gonna go out on a limb and say the lord had something to do with that - maybe offering a little contentment and peace to my heart? i was very grateful that i wasn't distracted.
next week i'm going to attend a community group before the worship service. i was too scared to go by myself today, but after leaving i wish i had gone. they split them up by ages, which makes me very happy since hillary, tori and i still haven't made many friends since moving to nashville.
one of the last things dr. ortlund said before the benediction was "yall are going to have a great week, i can tell!" and i thought "you couldn't be more right!" my time at immanuel today blessed my heart too much to put into words and i am praying that it will continue to bless me throughout the rest of the week.
thanks for reading! i'm off to radnor to hopefully spend some time outside in the gorgeous weather!
-meghan
this morning i went to immanuel church for the first time and can't say enough good things about it. finding a new church can be a long and exhausting process, especially when there are a lot of great churches in your area to choose from. since getting to nashville i've been around to a few different churches and really liked them all. every one of them have good, solid teaching and great ways of getting new people plugged in. i can't say any of the places i've been are better than the other, which made it especially hard to think about calling one of them home.
i've read the pastor's blog at immanuel for a month or two now and really liked him, but i didn't know what to expect, service-wise. i snuck into the back no more than 5 minutes late (check me out!)and was immediately intrigued. dr. ortlund was in the middle of answering a question from someone there - i have no idea if they do this every week, if he just asked if anybody wanted to ask anything, or what. but i thought it was cool.
after that was the part where they greet you and they ask who is attending for the first time, show of hands. i NEVER raise my hand because i hate drawing attention to myself. i sat in the back and looked around. then i heard "guy right there, first hand up, we have a book and a starbucks gift card for you!" then i was regretting not shooting my hand up in the air. however, then i heard "if it's your first time here we have a book and a starbucks card for you, hold your hand up until someone brings one to you." um, AWESOME! about 10ish people had their hands up, including the two people sitting directly in front of me. i'm glad i didn't know what was to follow, i may have passed up a free book and cup of coffee if i had. everybody that had their hand up got to introduce themselves...out loud, to everybody there. it wasn't quite as scary as i thought it would be. on their website is posted the "immanuel guarantee": nobody needs to feel new after their first visit. i was wondering how they could go so far as to guarantee that, and just how they would accomplish it. well, guarantee accomplished.
right away, i felt like i belonged, something i have sorely missed since living in tuscaloosa and attending trinity. several times throughout the rest of the service my eyes welled up with tears that i had to fight back because i finally felt a bit at home. even as i now sit and type this in borders i'm breathing deeply through my nose and have glassy eyes.
during the song that followed i was so excited about my free book that i couldn't wait until home to see what it was. i got even MORE excited when i saw the words "john piper" appear letter by letter as i tore a strip of paper from across the bottom. i am now the happy owner of "fifty reasons why jesus came to die."
so there i sit when the song is over admiring my new book by one of my favorite authors when it is announced that collin hansen is visiting immanuel today. i did a little "oooh!" out loud and then whisper "young, restless, reformed!" which is the title of hansen's book. it happens to be a favorite of mine. after the service i dorkily went up to him and his wife and told him how much i loved it and shook his hand. it was stinking thrilling.
the sermon topic today was "proverbs on emotions" and i very much enjoyed it. we are emotional creatures, especially women. i feel like it's not okay for people to be overly emotional these days - even if you're too happy you're criticized, and you definitely are if you have the audacity to go around crying in front people and showing how you really feel. it's part of the problem with the "american church" - having everything together all the time is a must.
dr. ortlund said that the gospel is emotional, and when christ comes to us we are an emotional jungle and he's not about to turn us into an emotional desert. then he talked through four different categories, each using verses from proverbs for context. it'll be way too lengthy to go through them, but they were:
1. fear and boldness
2. anger and restraint
3. jealousy and trainquility
4. cheerfulness and the gospel
at the end he said that god's power is greatest not in destroying sinners, but by freeing them. then he asked us to think about our darkest, most shameful sins. after pausing for a few seconds he said "that is what you are, and that is what god saves."
all in all, i absolutely loved the entire experience. i called my mom and told her i think i just went to my new church. then i told hillary i went and "am in love with it." then i said "that may be stretch since we've only been out once, but we're courting." i've decided to attend immanuel until i feel the need or desire to look elsewhere. i feel like there are two crucial points that i can make to show how great i thought it was:
1. i had to say my name in front of everybody and i still want to go back.
2. there were cute guys there, but really i wasn't concerned with them. obviously i noticed and thought "oh, he's cute" but that was the end of it because my focus was on the church. when you're a single girl in your 20's and are more taken by a church than a guy, you know you're at a good church. i'm gonna go out on a limb and say the lord had something to do with that - maybe offering a little contentment and peace to my heart? i was very grateful that i wasn't distracted.
next week i'm going to attend a community group before the worship service. i was too scared to go by myself today, but after leaving i wish i had gone. they split them up by ages, which makes me very happy since hillary, tori and i still haven't made many friends since moving to nashville.
one of the last things dr. ortlund said before the benediction was "yall are going to have a great week, i can tell!" and i thought "you couldn't be more right!" my time at immanuel today blessed my heart too much to put into words and i am praying that it will continue to bless me throughout the rest of the week.
thanks for reading! i'm off to radnor to hopefully spend some time outside in the gorgeous weather!
-meghan
Sunday, August 8, 2010
guys...it's your turn to help us out
as i mentioned in my last post, the 4 pack was out to dinner one night when a giant metaphoric light bulb fell over our table. i'll do my best to explain it well - it was much easier to talk about in a group than it was to write about! first i'm going to talk about what guys struggle with and then how girls respond. then i'll talk about what girls struggle with and how guys don't respond. i hate to talk about something as broad as physical or emotional lust and apply it to men as a whole and women as a whole, obviously every situation is different, but i feel like the root of the struggle is the same for everybody.
part of being the body of christ is sharing our struggles and encouraging each other through them. the number one known struggle for guys is physical lust. apparently, they can't help it and it's an accepted part of life for them. from what i've read they think about sex anywhere from every 7 seconds to every other day. either way, it's excessive. and with the way sex is thrown into every media outlet there is, it's almost impossible to avoid. i've heard a guy say that there are times when he can't even listen to what a girl is saying to him because he's concentrating so much on looking at her face instead of her body. a man's desire should only be for his wife, and men that try to honor that don't have it easy.
as girls, we do what we can to help our brothers in christ. we don't understand their struggle, but we lovingly and gladly do what we can to protect their eyes and minds. this means giving up clothes that might not necessarily be inappropriate, but it might cause a guy to struggle. this means giving up attention that we would be getting from guys by dressing that way. this means that everything we wear out in public has gone through careful scrutiny, and has been given the answer "no" to the following questions: is this too low? is this too tight? is this too short? is this too low? is this too tight? is this too short? shopping for modest clothes is not easy. finding dresses that don't show any cleave or too much leg is not easy. if ever we find the top or skirt that we just can't pass up, we layer shirts under it or wear leggings to still make sure we are covered up. and might i just add that it's flipping hot outside? but that's no excuse for us to run around in skimpy clothes. and since the body of christ also calls for accountability, if we weren't guarding our brother's minds, we would be called out for it. i realize it's sounding like i'm kind of bitter about it, and maybe i am a teeny bit. but mainly, i'm not bitter and dress appropriately out of love and respect.
what's not as known and accepted is that girls struggle with emotional lust. while guys long to get naked with a woman, girls desperately long to fall in love with a man. before i jump into how we are led on, let me go ahead and right here state for the record that girls are absolutely 100% crazy. now that we got that covered, i'm going to attempt to explain emotional lust. in leslie ludy's book "answering the guy questions: the set-apart girl's guide to relating to the opposite sex" she talks about how when girls are attracted to a guy they can develop "an unhealthy emotional obsession with someone." this happens far more often and easily than guys know. girls will analyze everything and grasp at anything and take off with it. just like when a scantily dressed woman walks by, a man has an urging to turn his head and watch her, girls will start investing feelings in a guy when she thinks he might be interested. this is where the lines of friendship/romance are very blurred. when a girl likes a guy she pays attention to specifically him, makes excuses to be by him, talk to him, touch him, etc. so when a guy interacts with us in such a way, it makes us think there might be interest on their part. guys, through no fault of their own, continue doing little things (that they probably don't even notice) that cause us to furthur attach to them, and that makes it hard for us to know if a friendship or relationship is being established. even something so silly as a guy throwing me his jacket, tapping me with his foot or sharing his food with me can make me wonder if he likes me. i'm reminded of the movie "he's just not that into you" when jennifer aniston's character tells her boyfriend of several years "i just need you to stop being nice to me unless you're gonna marry me." i think men would see that statement as crazy (her boyfriend responds with "is this a trick? it feels like a trick") but what she's basically saying is if you're not going to commit to me then you need to keep your distance. i don't think that's such a ridiculous request!
when it comes down to it, girls just need to deal with their struggle, but if guys were aware of how they could help it would GREATLY reduce the problem. i really think if godly men were made aware of this struggle they would want to help their sisters by being cautious of the words they use with girls and backing up their intentions with their actions. if ever a guy finds himself spending a lot of time talking to a girl or hanging out with her specifically, a little dtr (define the relationship) conversation needs to happen. girls shouldn't have to wonder about a guy's intentions, and certainly they shouldn't have to ask. but it happens all the time, and it seems that often the guy is completely oblivious to the fact that there's even anything to talk about.
this has gotten a bit lengthy, so i'm going to stop here, though i feel like i've only touched the tip of the iceberg. i could go on and on, i mean, how has this been so overlooked and not talked about? to sum it all up i'll close with a quote that hillary and jb came up with the night we first talked about all of this:
"If, in an effort to protect our brother's hearts and minds, women forsake immodesty, attention and cute clothes, then men, in equal measure should purposefully consider their actions and words in attempt to protect the hearts of their sisters, even if that means terminating a friendship."
-meghan
part of being the body of christ is sharing our struggles and encouraging each other through them. the number one known struggle for guys is physical lust. apparently, they can't help it and it's an accepted part of life for them. from what i've read they think about sex anywhere from every 7 seconds to every other day. either way, it's excessive. and with the way sex is thrown into every media outlet there is, it's almost impossible to avoid. i've heard a guy say that there are times when he can't even listen to what a girl is saying to him because he's concentrating so much on looking at her face instead of her body. a man's desire should only be for his wife, and men that try to honor that don't have it easy.
as girls, we do what we can to help our brothers in christ. we don't understand their struggle, but we lovingly and gladly do what we can to protect their eyes and minds. this means giving up clothes that might not necessarily be inappropriate, but it might cause a guy to struggle. this means giving up attention that we would be getting from guys by dressing that way. this means that everything we wear out in public has gone through careful scrutiny, and has been given the answer "no" to the following questions: is this too low? is this too tight? is this too short? is this too low? is this too tight? is this too short? shopping for modest clothes is not easy. finding dresses that don't show any cleave or too much leg is not easy. if ever we find the top or skirt that we just can't pass up, we layer shirts under it or wear leggings to still make sure we are covered up. and might i just add that it's flipping hot outside? but that's no excuse for us to run around in skimpy clothes. and since the body of christ also calls for accountability, if we weren't guarding our brother's minds, we would be called out for it. i realize it's sounding like i'm kind of bitter about it, and maybe i am a teeny bit. but mainly, i'm not bitter and dress appropriately out of love and respect.
what's not as known and accepted is that girls struggle with emotional lust. while guys long to get naked with a woman, girls desperately long to fall in love with a man. before i jump into how we are led on, let me go ahead and right here state for the record that girls are absolutely 100% crazy. now that we got that covered, i'm going to attempt to explain emotional lust. in leslie ludy's book "answering the guy questions: the set-apart girl's guide to relating to the opposite sex" she talks about how when girls are attracted to a guy they can develop "an unhealthy emotional obsession with someone." this happens far more often and easily than guys know. girls will analyze everything and grasp at anything and take off with it. just like when a scantily dressed woman walks by, a man has an urging to turn his head and watch her, girls will start investing feelings in a guy when she thinks he might be interested. this is where the lines of friendship/romance are very blurred. when a girl likes a guy she pays attention to specifically him, makes excuses to be by him, talk to him, touch him, etc. so when a guy interacts with us in such a way, it makes us think there might be interest on their part. guys, through no fault of their own, continue doing little things (that they probably don't even notice) that cause us to furthur attach to them, and that makes it hard for us to know if a friendship or relationship is being established. even something so silly as a guy throwing me his jacket, tapping me with his foot or sharing his food with me can make me wonder if he likes me. i'm reminded of the movie "he's just not that into you" when jennifer aniston's character tells her boyfriend of several years "i just need you to stop being nice to me unless you're gonna marry me." i think men would see that statement as crazy (her boyfriend responds with "is this a trick? it feels like a trick") but what she's basically saying is if you're not going to commit to me then you need to keep your distance. i don't think that's such a ridiculous request!
when it comes down to it, girls just need to deal with their struggle, but if guys were aware of how they could help it would GREATLY reduce the problem. i really think if godly men were made aware of this struggle they would want to help their sisters by being cautious of the words they use with girls and backing up their intentions with their actions. if ever a guy finds himself spending a lot of time talking to a girl or hanging out with her specifically, a little dtr (define the relationship) conversation needs to happen. girls shouldn't have to wonder about a guy's intentions, and certainly they shouldn't have to ask. but it happens all the time, and it seems that often the guy is completely oblivious to the fact that there's even anything to talk about.
this has gotten a bit lengthy, so i'm going to stop here, though i feel like i've only touched the tip of the iceberg. i could go on and on, i mean, how has this been so overlooked and not talked about? to sum it all up i'll close with a quote that hillary and jb came up with the night we first talked about all of this:
"If, in an effort to protect our brother's hearts and minds, women forsake immodesty, attention and cute clothes, then men, in equal measure should purposefully consider their actions and words in attempt to protect the hearts of their sisters, even if that means terminating a friendship."
-meghan
Friday, August 6, 2010
ah, life
i've had A LOT going on lately! i'll try and give a brief yet entertaining update on life in nashville.
a couple of days after my family left hillary and tori's fam came into town for jameson to compete in the national fbla competition. jameson winter and taylor malone are two of my favorite people, and i was so excited they got to come and see our apartment and sign our wall!
i saw inception twice, which led me to my new celebrity crush, joseph gordon-levitt. i wonder if the idea is my own or not, though.
the x games came and went too quickly. i took an interest in todd potter for the sole purpose of his last name and ended up voting for him for best whip. he won! shaun white competed and got second in skate vert and then dropped out of best trick. lame.
our next visitor was joy beth, which is always fun because you never know what you'll end up doing when jb is around! one of the first things we did was hang out at borders, where we found a ball on the floor and spent hours throwing it back and forth to each other. we also wore matching t-shirts to the movies to see eclipse and stayed when the movie was over because "sometimes i like to dance to the music during the credits." it didn't top joy beth's initial rolling around on the floor after the traveling pants 2, but it was definitely our best collaborative dance to date. after the movie we ended up having a marshmallow spitting contest in the parking lot. like i said, anything can happen when you're with j biz! :)
one of my favorite outings with jb was our dinner at loveless cafe. a shocking epiphany was had at the table that resulted in me throwing my hands out in the air and holding them there for several seconds. to sum it up, girls struggle with emotional lust just like guys struggle with physical lust. more to come on that later, it's a whole different post entirely.
the same day we took joy beth to the airport melinda came for a visit!! melinda was the very first friend i made in tuscaloosa that wasn't my roommate and she's always had a special place in my heart. she was here long enough to celebrate her birthday, and we celebrated by having sushi and vanilla bean ice cream with oreos in it. happy birthday mel!!
we checked out a new church, christ presbyterian. while walking to the main building (late, might i add) we saw an area outside set up from a wedding and it immediately got our attention. the style the service was done in is something i haven't really seen before. a couple of verses were preached and then we would sing. after that a couple of more verses, and then singing again. it would take some getting used to, and being on time would definitely be a plus. i can easily see myself not liking it, but i can also easily see myself liking it, if that makes sense at all.
i started work the day after melinda arrived and really loved getting to spend my days with kids again! eva and jackson (or, as i like to sometimes call them, big red and little red) are precious children and i had a wonderful week! here's a few cute quotes from big red:
"i think i love my brother"
"i think i like this song" she said this while i was playing "thy mercy my god" by sandra mccracken. i was also happy to see her dancing to explosions in the sky.
"i pray for mommy and daddy. and jackson too. and sometimes i pray for you too." this kind of made me tear up, and i smiled and told her that sometimes i pray for her too :)
i bought the new arcade fire album, the suburbs, and watched the live stream of their concert from madison square garden. this is also a whole different post entirely, so once again i'll sum it up. I. LOVE. THEM.
my work schedule has changed a little bit and is leaving my mondays and tuesdays open. i'm making a list of places to check out for a part time job. it's quite a random list, ranging from the dunkin donuts down the street to florists to see if they need a delivery person. how fun could it be to make people happy by delivering flowers to them?! we'll see what happens and i'll keep things updated on here. or at least, i'll intend to and maybe get around to it one day.
-meghan
a couple of days after my family left hillary and tori's fam came into town for jameson to compete in the national fbla competition. jameson winter and taylor malone are two of my favorite people, and i was so excited they got to come and see our apartment and sign our wall!
i saw inception twice, which led me to my new celebrity crush, joseph gordon-levitt. i wonder if the idea is my own or not, though.
the x games came and went too quickly. i took an interest in todd potter for the sole purpose of his last name and ended up voting for him for best whip. he won! shaun white competed and got second in skate vert and then dropped out of best trick. lame.
our next visitor was joy beth, which is always fun because you never know what you'll end up doing when jb is around! one of the first things we did was hang out at borders, where we found a ball on the floor and spent hours throwing it back and forth to each other. we also wore matching t-shirts to the movies to see eclipse and stayed when the movie was over because "sometimes i like to dance to the music during the credits." it didn't top joy beth's initial rolling around on the floor after the traveling pants 2, but it was definitely our best collaborative dance to date. after the movie we ended up having a marshmallow spitting contest in the parking lot. like i said, anything can happen when you're with j biz! :)
one of my favorite outings with jb was our dinner at loveless cafe. a shocking epiphany was had at the table that resulted in me throwing my hands out in the air and holding them there for several seconds. to sum it up, girls struggle with emotional lust just like guys struggle with physical lust. more to come on that later, it's a whole different post entirely.
the same day we took joy beth to the airport melinda came for a visit!! melinda was the very first friend i made in tuscaloosa that wasn't my roommate and she's always had a special place in my heart. she was here long enough to celebrate her birthday, and we celebrated by having sushi and vanilla bean ice cream with oreos in it. happy birthday mel!!
we checked out a new church, christ presbyterian. while walking to the main building (late, might i add) we saw an area outside set up from a wedding and it immediately got our attention. the style the service was done in is something i haven't really seen before. a couple of verses were preached and then we would sing. after that a couple of more verses, and then singing again. it would take some getting used to, and being on time would definitely be a plus. i can easily see myself not liking it, but i can also easily see myself liking it, if that makes sense at all.
i started work the day after melinda arrived and really loved getting to spend my days with kids again! eva and jackson (or, as i like to sometimes call them, big red and little red) are precious children and i had a wonderful week! here's a few cute quotes from big red:
"i think i love my brother"
"i think i like this song" she said this while i was playing "thy mercy my god" by sandra mccracken. i was also happy to see her dancing to explosions in the sky.
"i pray for mommy and daddy. and jackson too. and sometimes i pray for you too." this kind of made me tear up, and i smiled and told her that sometimes i pray for her too :)
i bought the new arcade fire album, the suburbs, and watched the live stream of their concert from madison square garden. this is also a whole different post entirely, so once again i'll sum it up. I. LOVE. THEM.
my work schedule has changed a little bit and is leaving my mondays and tuesdays open. i'm making a list of places to check out for a part time job. it's quite a random list, ranging from the dunkin donuts down the street to florists to see if they need a delivery person. how fun could it be to make people happy by delivering flowers to them?! we'll see what happens and i'll keep things updated on here. or at least, i'll intend to and maybe get around to it one day.
-meghan
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
i've got the blues
i'm not saying i want the band to break up, but i really feel like ben g and jake should be making some blues music together. can we say side project?!!
the sound isn't great, you can hardly understand the lyrics, but really, that's not the point of the video. this 10 minute improv is the support for my above statement.
-meghan
the sound isn't great, you can hardly understand the lyrics, but really, that's not the point of the video. this 10 minute improv is the support for my above statement.
-meghan
Saturday, July 24, 2010
i'm the next vg
after moving to alabama i realized how much i tried to be just like my friends all throughout high school, and it was very evident in my clothing choices. now, i'm not saying my friends couldn't dress, they could and they always looked good!! but i realized my style wasn't my own. after about a year in alabama i went through my clothes and realized i didn't really like any of them. i promptly chopped my hair off, pierced my nose (sorry mom, it was only for a few months!) and wore things that i hadn't before. if you had the (dis)pleasure of being my roommate at the time, you knew better than to ask for my advice when getting dressed. i can't count how many times hillary asked my opinion on something she was wearing and my response was "do you like it? that's all that matters. if you like it, wear it, who cares if nobody else likes it?" her response was "me, i care if i look okay or not. the answer i want is yes it looks good or no it doesn't."
i've since quit wearing just whatever because it's different and though sometimes i do refer back to "if i like it i'm going to wear it and i don't care what other people think," i also ask for advice. in our apartment we usually leave the words of fashion wisdom to tori, but i had a few today while we were helping hillary pick out some clothes for tonight :)
"you can wear your shirt as a skirt, your skirt as a shirt and you're set!"
-hill "he'll be wearing a t-shirt."
-me "a halter top is like a t-shirt for a girl. what? it is. so are tank tops."
i feel certain those quotes probably aren't as funny as we thought they were, but oh well, hope you enjoyed it anyway!!
-meghan
i've since quit wearing just whatever because it's different and though sometimes i do refer back to "if i like it i'm going to wear it and i don't care what other people think," i also ask for advice. in our apartment we usually leave the words of fashion wisdom to tori, but i had a few today while we were helping hillary pick out some clothes for tonight :)
"you can wear your shirt as a skirt, your skirt as a shirt and you're set!"
-hill "he'll be wearing a t-shirt."
-me "a halter top is like a t-shirt for a girl. what? it is. so are tank tops."
i feel certain those quotes probably aren't as funny as we thought they were, but oh well, hope you enjoyed it anyway!!
-meghan
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
funtastic family times in nashville
i had such a fun time when my family came to visit! they all left loving nashville, and lindsey even wants to come here for college. (what do you think, becky and jim?)
i was so excited about their arrival that i woke up at about 5 thursday morning, which was about when they got ready to head this way. they kept themselves entertained in the car by introducing my aunt carol to the wonderful world of twilight. they watched the first two movies in the car on the way here and arrived early in the afternoon. after taking a brief tour of hotel preston we headed off to see eclipse!
after the movie we went to have dinner at loveless cafe, which is famous for their biscuits and fried chicken. i always want to try new things there, but i also have my favorites that i can't miss out on. a couple of things that i tried were the meatloaf and the hashbrown casserole, and both were very tasty!! we had so many leftovers that i'm pretty sure i can get 3 meals out of my take out box!
this may have happened friday, but i think it was thursday that we watched funny videos and becky and carol were introduced to tracy. carol has a great, loud laugh and she didn't hold back - she had to watch it again to catch everything.
friday morning we toured the ryman, which is something i've wanted to do since i moved here. i LOVED it!! lindsey and i had fun singing to everybody!!
they had posters up from past concerts, and it was really cool to see all of the performers that have played there.
after that we went souvenir shopping on lower broad, a must for anybody visiting nashville!!
for lunch friday we went to fido and all loved it!! i got the eggplant tower and definitely plan to go back soon. after lunch i took them to the parthenon so they could see the beautiful park and amazing statue of athena. the park is one of my favorite places in nashville, and i hated that it was raining while we were there.
for those who haven't seen athena in real life, this pic with a person standing in front of the statue is to show how gianormous it is.
after that we went to the mall at green hills to do some shopping, but we all left empty handed and counted it as our exercise for the trip.
saturday morning we woke up and went to have breakfast at one of my favorite spots, pancake pantry. we got there at about 7:30ish and didn't have to wait in line very long, definitely a plus! they got to experience the deliciousness that is sweet potato pancakes!!
after that we went shopping at the galleria in franklin and had much more success than the day before. there were a lot of great sales going on and we definitely took advantage! thanks mom for getting me some new shoes, jeans and cute shirts!!
for dinner saturday night we turned to my book where the locals eat since all we had left on our restaurant list were coffehouses. someone mentioned mexican, which is something i stay away from when i'm not in texas. we found somewhere that claimed to be tex-mex and decided to give it try. it didn't disappoint!! they even brought us some butter for our tortillas and hot sauce. becky and carol got some ah-mazing nachos that i'll be getting next time!!
sunday came too soon, and they packed up and left for texas verrrry early in the morning.
mom, becky, carol and lindsey, thank yall SO much for coming all the way to tennessee to see me! i'm glad yall got to see nashville and fall in love with it like i did! i miss yall already!!
-meghan
i was so excited about their arrival that i woke up at about 5 thursday morning, which was about when they got ready to head this way. they kept themselves entertained in the car by introducing my aunt carol to the wonderful world of twilight. they watched the first two movies in the car on the way here and arrived early in the afternoon. after taking a brief tour of hotel preston we headed off to see eclipse!
after the movie we went to have dinner at loveless cafe, which is famous for their biscuits and fried chicken. i always want to try new things there, but i also have my favorites that i can't miss out on. a couple of things that i tried were the meatloaf and the hashbrown casserole, and both were very tasty!! we had so many leftovers that i'm pretty sure i can get 3 meals out of my take out box!
this may have happened friday, but i think it was thursday that we watched funny videos and becky and carol were introduced to tracy. carol has a great, loud laugh and she didn't hold back - she had to watch it again to catch everything.
friday morning we toured the ryman, which is something i've wanted to do since i moved here. i LOVED it!! lindsey and i had fun singing to everybody!!
they had posters up from past concerts, and it was really cool to see all of the performers that have played there.
after that we went souvenir shopping on lower broad, a must for anybody visiting nashville!!
for lunch friday we went to fido and all loved it!! i got the eggplant tower and definitely plan to go back soon. after lunch i took them to the parthenon so they could see the beautiful park and amazing statue of athena. the park is one of my favorite places in nashville, and i hated that it was raining while we were there.
for those who haven't seen athena in real life, this pic with a person standing in front of the statue is to show how gianormous it is.
after that we went to the mall at green hills to do some shopping, but we all left empty handed and counted it as our exercise for the trip.
saturday morning we woke up and went to have breakfast at one of my favorite spots, pancake pantry. we got there at about 7:30ish and didn't have to wait in line very long, definitely a plus! they got to experience the deliciousness that is sweet potato pancakes!!
after that we went shopping at the galleria in franklin and had much more success than the day before. there were a lot of great sales going on and we definitely took advantage! thanks mom for getting me some new shoes, jeans and cute shirts!!
for dinner saturday night we turned to my book where the locals eat since all we had left on our restaurant list were coffehouses. someone mentioned mexican, which is something i stay away from when i'm not in texas. we found somewhere that claimed to be tex-mex and decided to give it try. it didn't disappoint!! they even brought us some butter for our tortillas and hot sauce. becky and carol got some ah-mazing nachos that i'll be getting next time!!
sunday came too soon, and they packed up and left for texas verrrry early in the morning.
mom, becky, carol and lindsey, thank yall SO much for coming all the way to tennessee to see me! i'm glad yall got to see nashville and fall in love with it like i did! i miss yall already!!
-meghan
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
meghan poppins
no more job searching for me! i've been browsing craigs list since i moved to nash for daycares and families that were hiring. i came across an ad the other night when i just happened to notice "ETC" at the bottom of the jobs section. there was a brand new posting for a family that was looking for a nanny and they sounded just wonderful. is it too cheesy if i copy and paste their ad here? i don't think so either. this is why i immediately jumped on it:
We are a family of 4 in need of a experienced, fun, loving, and intuitive nanny for our 2 kids (equally fun and loving!) while my husband and I work (full time).
Our daughter is 3.5 years, vibrant, energetic, smart, and loves all imaginative play from cooking to flying airplanes.
Our son is 9mos, sweet, an "easy" baby, and enjoys exploring, crawling, and getting into everything.
We are most interested in someone who:
- has some experience babysitting/nannying
- has strong Christian morals and values
- is vibrant, energetic, and will interact with our kids on their level
- is creative and intuitive
- is available Monday - Friday (aprox. 7:30am - 5:30pm)
- is willing to watch our children at our home
they sound great, don't they!! i sent my resume and references and was very excited when i had an email from them the next day. since i have already done this a couple of times with other families and not heard anything back, i didn't really get my hopes up. in the email they asked me a few questions they wanted answered before interviewing in person. again, i tried to not get too excited since i wasn't guaranteed an interview yet. when they called me to meet in person, i couldn't help but to start wanting it pretty bad.
the only setback i had was that they live right outside of nashville, so it's about a 20-25 minute drive. selfishly, i thought of the money i would be spending on gas. i was quickly convicted about wanting to try and hang on to my money, and realized that spending the money on gas to drive to this family every day to serve them and care for their little ones would be much more glorifying to God than saving it or spending it on crap that doesn't matter. the pay has nothing to do with why i want this job anyways, and it will provide more than enough for necessities. (this conviction was largely in thanks to joy beth having the same conviction about her car being broken into a few days ago.)
i'm so thankful that i was convicted about this and my heart was in the right place before i met them, but it made me want the job even more. driving to their house was spent praying that i would cling to the sovereignty of God whether they hired me or not.
if i didn't really want it before meeting them, i certainly did afterwards. they told me they would call later after they finished all of their interviews. i told hillary that if they hired me i might have tears of happiness! (i didn't, but i think it's only because i don't cry very much.) i usually leave my phone lying around the apartment, but last night it was glued to my hand. the first time it rang after i got home i gasped and hillary and i both became a little more alert. however, i looked to see who it was and go "oh hillary, it's your mom." (sorry vicki, i was happy to hear from you!) the whole winter clan (with the exception of hill, obviously) is at the lake right now, so we ended up skyping with them so we could see everybody. while we were talking to vicki and tori my phone rang again, but this time it was who i had been waiting for! i yelled "it's them!" and jumped up to answer it - as i was saying hello hillary was still excitedly going "it's them" in the background. trying to control my hope and excitement at this point was nonexistent, so i was very happy when they offered me the job!
please join me in praying for this time of transition for me and the family. they've just moved to TN and are still getting settled.
this is a great week - fireworks, a job and my mom, aunts and cousin will be here tomorrow!! i have lots of stuff planned and have even made lists of places to go, complete with addresses and hours of operation, and i think the fun is going to begin with dinner at loveless cafe tomorrow night!!
-meghan
We are a family of 4 in need of a experienced, fun, loving, and intuitive nanny for our 2 kids (equally fun and loving!) while my husband and I work (full time).
Our daughter is 3.5 years, vibrant, energetic, smart, and loves all imaginative play from cooking to flying airplanes.
Our son is 9mos, sweet, an "easy" baby, and enjoys exploring, crawling, and getting into everything.
We are most interested in someone who:
- has some experience babysitting/nannying
- has strong Christian morals and values
- is vibrant, energetic, and will interact with our kids on their level
- is creative and intuitive
- is available Monday - Friday (aprox. 7:30am - 5:30pm)
- is willing to watch our children at our home
they sound great, don't they!! i sent my resume and references and was very excited when i had an email from them the next day. since i have already done this a couple of times with other families and not heard anything back, i didn't really get my hopes up. in the email they asked me a few questions they wanted answered before interviewing in person. again, i tried to not get too excited since i wasn't guaranteed an interview yet. when they called me to meet in person, i couldn't help but to start wanting it pretty bad.
the only setback i had was that they live right outside of nashville, so it's about a 20-25 minute drive. selfishly, i thought of the money i would be spending on gas. i was quickly convicted about wanting to try and hang on to my money, and realized that spending the money on gas to drive to this family every day to serve them and care for their little ones would be much more glorifying to God than saving it or spending it on crap that doesn't matter. the pay has nothing to do with why i want this job anyways, and it will provide more than enough for necessities. (this conviction was largely in thanks to joy beth having the same conviction about her car being broken into a few days ago.)
i'm so thankful that i was convicted about this and my heart was in the right place before i met them, but it made me want the job even more. driving to their house was spent praying that i would cling to the sovereignty of God whether they hired me or not.
if i didn't really want it before meeting them, i certainly did afterwards. they told me they would call later after they finished all of their interviews. i told hillary that if they hired me i might have tears of happiness! (i didn't, but i think it's only because i don't cry very much.) i usually leave my phone lying around the apartment, but last night it was glued to my hand. the first time it rang after i got home i gasped and hillary and i both became a little more alert. however, i looked to see who it was and go "oh hillary, it's your mom." (sorry vicki, i was happy to hear from you!) the whole winter clan (with the exception of hill, obviously) is at the lake right now, so we ended up skyping with them so we could see everybody. while we were talking to vicki and tori my phone rang again, but this time it was who i had been waiting for! i yelled "it's them!" and jumped up to answer it - as i was saying hello hillary was still excitedly going "it's them" in the background. trying to control my hope and excitement at this point was nonexistent, so i was very happy when they offered me the job!
please join me in praying for this time of transition for me and the family. they've just moved to TN and are still getting settled.
this is a great week - fireworks, a job and my mom, aunts and cousin will be here tomorrow!! i have lots of stuff planned and have even made lists of places to go, complete with addresses and hours of operation, and i think the fun is going to begin with dinner at loveless cafe tomorrow night!!
-meghan
Monday, July 5, 2010
happy birthday week to me/ happy 4th to america
last night was fun! one of my favorites so far, which is hard to say because tori left yesterday morning to go to the lake. if she didn't get to spend hours in the car beside sterling and then end up at the lake, i might actually feel bad about having fun without her. and also, i feel certain that i'll have several new favorite nights to rival this one very soon. my family is coming this week, hillary and tori's is coming next week, joy beth is coming at the end of july and melinda is coming at the beginning of august. it is going to be some fun times in nashville!!
how great is it that the fourth fell on a sunday this year? that leaves room for everybody to party it up all weekend, and nashville took advantage! (or as i said to hillary, in keeping with our culture our country celebrates our independence day by wasting millions of dollars, and i intend to participate in it) starting friday there was free music and fireworks downtown and the whole shinding was closed last night with the big daddy firework show backed with music by the nashville symphony. how fun is that??!! amazing fireworks AND a flippin symphony playing along with them is definitely one of the coolest things i've ever seen.
where we watched it from was also pretty great. while the event was free, we knew it would be expensive to park and the foot traffic would rival that of rush hour traffic on weekdays. we took our exit off of the interstate and were sitting on it when a truck in front of us suddenly pulled over into the median between I-40 and the ramp. then the car after him did the same. and then the one right in front of us did the same. we made the quick decision of deciding that pulling off was a great idea - no parking fees and we didn't have to leave our car! within 10 minutes there about 30 cars set up right there! since we weren't right in the action we wouldn't have been able to hear the symphony if it weren't for the wonderful radio!!! i am not a fan of radio, slightly hate it even, but i was loving the fact that we got to hear the symphony accompany the spectacular show! they started out playing music from star wars and ended with a medley of patriotic songs.
getting home was a breeze - we just pulled on through the grass onto the interstate, pulled off on the next exit and set the gps to avoid highways for a few minutes. hillary and i came home and started watching harry potter and playing on our computers. (i got a list of daycares that are hiring and emailed someone that needs a nanny. feel free to pray about this for me.) at about 1:30 hillary decides she wants to do pilates. she's crazy, right? the even crazier part of this story is that i said "i'll pilate with you!!"
and pilate we did. considering we're not exercising fools like our dear friends joy beth and lauryn, i think we did pretty good. with shampoo bottles for weights and old school britney spears to listen to, we did almost the whole program. then we started getting slightly tired of it and decided hip hop abs would be the best way to end our spontaneous workout session. this part was very fun, but at this point we were too tired to do much of it.
i wasn't feeling my best and slept most of yesterday (when the upstairs neighbor kid wasn't bouncing his dadgum ball LOUDLY) so here it is 5 in the morning and i'm wide awake. hopefully today will be as rockin as yesterday - i have big plans of getting coffee, dressing up slightly nice, driving to kinko's to print out copies of my resume and references and then driving to daycares that are currently hiring. and i feel certain at one point or another there will be some hip hopping and/or down-dogging.
i am so very excited about my mom, aunt carol, aunt becky and lindsey getting here this week! i've made a few plans for us that include touring the ryman, where there is a new "johnny and june" exhibit!
-meghan
how great is it that the fourth fell on a sunday this year? that leaves room for everybody to party it up all weekend, and nashville took advantage! (or as i said to hillary, in keeping with our culture our country celebrates our independence day by wasting millions of dollars, and i intend to participate in it) starting friday there was free music and fireworks downtown and the whole shinding was closed last night with the big daddy firework show backed with music by the nashville symphony. how fun is that??!! amazing fireworks AND a flippin symphony playing along with them is definitely one of the coolest things i've ever seen.
where we watched it from was also pretty great. while the event was free, we knew it would be expensive to park and the foot traffic would rival that of rush hour traffic on weekdays. we took our exit off of the interstate and were sitting on it when a truck in front of us suddenly pulled over into the median between I-40 and the ramp. then the car after him did the same. and then the one right in front of us did the same. we made the quick decision of deciding that pulling off was a great idea - no parking fees and we didn't have to leave our car! within 10 minutes there about 30 cars set up right there! since we weren't right in the action we wouldn't have been able to hear the symphony if it weren't for the wonderful radio!!! i am not a fan of radio, slightly hate it even, but i was loving the fact that we got to hear the symphony accompany the spectacular show! they started out playing music from star wars and ended with a medley of patriotic songs.
getting home was a breeze - we just pulled on through the grass onto the interstate, pulled off on the next exit and set the gps to avoid highways for a few minutes. hillary and i came home and started watching harry potter and playing on our computers. (i got a list of daycares that are hiring and emailed someone that needs a nanny. feel free to pray about this for me.) at about 1:30 hillary decides she wants to do pilates. she's crazy, right? the even crazier part of this story is that i said "i'll pilate with you!!"
and pilate we did. considering we're not exercising fools like our dear friends joy beth and lauryn, i think we did pretty good. with shampoo bottles for weights and old school britney spears to listen to, we did almost the whole program. then we started getting slightly tired of it and decided hip hop abs would be the best way to end our spontaneous workout session. this part was very fun, but at this point we were too tired to do much of it.
i wasn't feeling my best and slept most of yesterday (when the upstairs neighbor kid wasn't bouncing his dadgum ball LOUDLY) so here it is 5 in the morning and i'm wide awake. hopefully today will be as rockin as yesterday - i have big plans of getting coffee, dressing up slightly nice, driving to kinko's to print out copies of my resume and references and then driving to daycares that are currently hiring. and i feel certain at one point or another there will be some hip hopping and/or down-dogging.
i am so very excited about my mom, aunt carol, aunt becky and lindsey getting here this week! i've made a few plans for us that include touring the ryman, where there is a new "johnny and june" exhibit!
-meghan
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
twilight and new moon can't fight with eclipse
hillary, tori and i just got home from the midnight eclipse premiere! i didn't watch any trailers for the movie, so i was glad tonight FINALLY arrived!!
we went to the theater pretty early and were happy to be first in line for our theater. while we were waiting there was a sneak peek showing of the last airbender and one of the managers let us go in for a couple of minutes and watch "as long as you just kinda stand on the side and don't sit down." it looked really awesome! we are going to the midnight premiere of it tomorrow night and we're really excited about it. (if you're confused as to why we took an interest in this movie, jackson rathbone is in it. and we're going to the premiere because it's my birthday week!)
a new harry potter trailer came out yesterday, but i didn't watch it because i just knew they would show it before eclipse. getting to watch it on the big screen was AH-MAZING!!!!!!!!!!! i was leaning on the edge of my seat and had goosebumps the entire time.
was anybody else kinda confused as to whether the movie had started or it was another preview? for a split second i wondered but then recognized riley and after a couple of seconds understood what was going on. just wondering.
on to the good stuff!!
LIKES
1. either i'm used to watching kristen stewart play bella, or she learned how to act.
2. the hair and make-up looked much better! except esme's hair was a bit dark.
3. the cullens were so present and active throughout the entire movie, which was wonderful after they were absent for most of new moon.
4. i loved all of the music throughout the entire movie, which for me was a first out of the 3 twilight films. (the song at the end of twilight doesn't fit to me and in new moon the music that plays after bella gets her paper cut and jasper freaks out is horrid)
5. we got to see jasper in his element!!! a texan accent, longer hair, a soldier's uniform and newborns to kill did him good.
6. there were a lot of lines straight from the book, which i'm always a fan of.
7. the short second life of bree tanner added a lot to the parts of the movie that showed riley and the newborns.
8. the battle scene was FREEKIN AWESOME!! better than i expected, and i was expecting it to be really cool. emmett headbutted somebody!
9. bella and edward are getting married! congratulashayla you guys!
10. rosalie told bella why she hates her - turns out it's just envy.
11. once again, anna kendrick did a great job! she really makes you want more jessica, which i think would be unheard of had anybody else played her.
12. the movie started and ended with edward and bella in the meadow. my favorite quote from the new moon premiere night was dabney saying "are they gonna lay in the grass and look at each other again?"
13. the guy sitting next to the girl that was beside me really cracked me up. he had a great laugh, which was often set off by the junior high girls, but he also laughed at jacob being such a bonehead and edward being so dramatic. when bella told edward "yes" in his bedroom all the girls went "AWWWW!!!!" and he kind of held back a giggle and then busted out laughing. this got me going so hard i was leaning over and had tears in my eyes. (all of the laughter i speak of was done quietly)
DISLIKES
1. i did not care for the junior high girls that screamed and went crazy every time taylor was on the screen.
2. i did not care for the parts with jacob, but they were unavoidable.
3. i don't really like it when they take a line straight from the book but have a different character deliver it in the movie. i think it's a pointless change.
4. i would have loved to see the part where bella decides to elope with edward and alice lays a guilt trip on her about planning the wedding.
5. my bitterness toward summit for firing rachelle was renewed. bryce did ok, but she's not nearly bad a enough to be vicoria. she could have easily played esme and would've looked much more the part. (not that i want her to)
6. when bella and jacob said goodbye and she said "until my heart stops beating" and he said "maybe after that." NO.
7. the werewolves and vampires uniting to fight at the graduation party could've been a bit more true to the book.
definitely my favorite so far! if only we could skip the next few months of waiting for it to come out on dvd!
-meghan
we went to the theater pretty early and were happy to be first in line for our theater. while we were waiting there was a sneak peek showing of the last airbender and one of the managers let us go in for a couple of minutes and watch "as long as you just kinda stand on the side and don't sit down." it looked really awesome! we are going to the midnight premiere of it tomorrow night and we're really excited about it. (if you're confused as to why we took an interest in this movie, jackson rathbone is in it. and we're going to the premiere because it's my birthday week!)
a new harry potter trailer came out yesterday, but i didn't watch it because i just knew they would show it before eclipse. getting to watch it on the big screen was AH-MAZING!!!!!!!!!!! i was leaning on the edge of my seat and had goosebumps the entire time.
was anybody else kinda confused as to whether the movie had started or it was another preview? for a split second i wondered but then recognized riley and after a couple of seconds understood what was going on. just wondering.
on to the good stuff!!
LIKES
1. either i'm used to watching kristen stewart play bella, or she learned how to act.
2. the hair and make-up looked much better! except esme's hair was a bit dark.
3. the cullens were so present and active throughout the entire movie, which was wonderful after they were absent for most of new moon.
4. i loved all of the music throughout the entire movie, which for me was a first out of the 3 twilight films. (the song at the end of twilight doesn't fit to me and in new moon the music that plays after bella gets her paper cut and jasper freaks out is horrid)
5. we got to see jasper in his element!!! a texan accent, longer hair, a soldier's uniform and newborns to kill did him good.
6. there were a lot of lines straight from the book, which i'm always a fan of.
7. the short second life of bree tanner added a lot to the parts of the movie that showed riley and the newborns.
8. the battle scene was FREEKIN AWESOME!! better than i expected, and i was expecting it to be really cool. emmett headbutted somebody!
9. bella and edward are getting married! congratulashayla you guys!
10. rosalie told bella why she hates her - turns out it's just envy.
11. once again, anna kendrick did a great job! she really makes you want more jessica, which i think would be unheard of had anybody else played her.
12. the movie started and ended with edward and bella in the meadow. my favorite quote from the new moon premiere night was dabney saying "are they gonna lay in the grass and look at each other again?"
13. the guy sitting next to the girl that was beside me really cracked me up. he had a great laugh, which was often set off by the junior high girls, but he also laughed at jacob being such a bonehead and edward being so dramatic. when bella told edward "yes" in his bedroom all the girls went "AWWWW!!!!" and he kind of held back a giggle and then busted out laughing. this got me going so hard i was leaning over and had tears in my eyes. (all of the laughter i speak of was done quietly)
DISLIKES
1. i did not care for the junior high girls that screamed and went crazy every time taylor was on the screen.
2. i did not care for the parts with jacob, but they were unavoidable.
3. i don't really like it when they take a line straight from the book but have a different character deliver it in the movie. i think it's a pointless change.
4. i would have loved to see the part where bella decides to elope with edward and alice lays a guilt trip on her about planning the wedding.
5. my bitterness toward summit for firing rachelle was renewed. bryce did ok, but she's not nearly bad a enough to be vicoria. she could have easily played esme and would've looked much more the part. (not that i want her to)
6. when bella and jacob said goodbye and she said "until my heart stops beating" and he said "maybe after that." NO.
7. the werewolves and vampires uniting to fight at the graduation party could've been a bit more true to the book.
definitely my favorite so far! if only we could skip the next few months of waiting for it to come out on dvd!
-meghan
Monday, June 21, 2010
magic in the kitchen with meghan
i've been in alabama the past few days (hillary had to come home for a wedding, and plus it was father's day) and vicki and i have done a good bit of cooking. we made A LOT of tasty stuff, and a few things were too good not to share.
my first favorite new dish we made was asparagus casserole. we saw the neelys make this on their show one day and cooked it the following day! i loved it and it lead me to a new discovery - panko bread crumbs!! i'll be using these from now on instead of regular bread crumbs or crackers. these bread crumbs are so good because they are extra crunchy, and to me that means extra delicious! the neelys mixed them with some melted butter and paprika, which gave them a really good color and a touch of flavor.
another favorite was blueberry bread pudding that we found in this cooking magazine. for some reason i've always thought bread pudding would be such a fuss to make, but it was really very simple, and if i may say so myself, it looked very impressive. it's not exactly what you would call healthy, but it's so sweet and filling that a little bit goes a long way and i can't imagine eating very much of it in one sitting. the next time i make it i plan to add some lemon zest and juice to the pudding and use less of the white chocolate in the pudding.
pudding:
3 eggs
4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups sugar
3 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups fresh (recommended) or frozen blueberries
1 pkg. (10 to 12 oz.) white baking chips
1 loaf (1 lb.) french bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
sauce:
1 package (10 to 12 oz.) white baking chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream
in a large bowl, combine the eggs, cream, sugar and vanilla. stir in blueberries and baking chips. stir in bread cubes; let stand for 15 minutes or until bread is softened. (ours sat for a couple of hours)
transfer to a greased 13X9 baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes. let stand 5 minutes before serving.
for sauce, place baking chips in a small bowl. in a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil pour over baking chips; whisk until smooth. serve in side dish.
since we were in a cooking mood, the vickster and i thought it would be a good idea to make a couple of things that hillary, tori and i could freeze and take back to nashville with us. we're leaving tomorrow and i just got around to cooking our take-home dinners! i've got one in the oven right now that i'm sure will be great, but the one i just finished making is so very scrum-didley-umptious!!! it's called baked mostaccioli and the recipe came from this cookbook. i made a couple of substitions in this one. we used whole wheat penne and ground beef instead of the first two ingredients the recipe called for. i also omitted the onion and added a can of cream of mushroom soup. this dish became a favorite when A. i didn't miss the garlic i wanted to add to it B. i didn't miss the extra cheese i wanted to add and C. i didn't have to salt it on my plate.
8 oz. uncooked mostaccioli
1/2 lb lean ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained (i used italian)
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1/3 cup water
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cups (16 oz) fat-free cottage cheese
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 1/2 cups (6 oz)shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
cook the mostaccioli according to package directions. (i undercooked mine since it goes in the oven for a while) meanwhile, in a large saucepan, cook turkey and onion over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink; drain if necessary.
stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, water (i used pasta water), oregano, salt and pepper. bring to a boil. reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
drain pasta. in a small bowl combine cottage cheese and marjoram; set aside. (i did this in the container the cottage cheese came in)
spread 1/2 cup meat sauce into an 11X7 baking dish coated with cooking spray. layer with half of the pasta, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. top with cottage cheese mixture. layer with remaining pasta, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
since i really feel like i'm on a cooking show right now, i'm going to share a few tips/facts about what goes on my kitchen:
1. whenever browning ground meat i almost always put some worcestershire sauce on it, mainly because i like the way it tastes, it gives the meat some flavor, and i like saying the word "worcestershire". my old roomie megan taught me how to say it and everytime i use it i hear her telling me "imagine an old black man saying 'what's-dis-here-sauce?' and you'll be able to say it."
2. i put cream of mushroom soup in my spaghetti sauce so the tomato sauce won't taste so much like...well, tomatoes. that's a trick i got from my aunt becky, who makes fantabulous spaghetti.
3. the best way to serve casseroles is with an old fashioned ice cream scoop - the kind with the bar that scrapes across the scoop to get all of the food out. this makes it easy to portion it out, doesn't make a mess traveling across the table to plates and keeps the casserole looking presentable (for when you're trying to impress company).
4. if you like spicy food then you need to try mccormick chipotle chili pepper powder on anything.
that's all for now! i'm off to clean up the kitchen, the downfall of my love for cooking.
-meghan
my first favorite new dish we made was asparagus casserole. we saw the neelys make this on their show one day and cooked it the following day! i loved it and it lead me to a new discovery - panko bread crumbs!! i'll be using these from now on instead of regular bread crumbs or crackers. these bread crumbs are so good because they are extra crunchy, and to me that means extra delicious! the neelys mixed them with some melted butter and paprika, which gave them a really good color and a touch of flavor.
another favorite was blueberry bread pudding that we found in this cooking magazine. for some reason i've always thought bread pudding would be such a fuss to make, but it was really very simple, and if i may say so myself, it looked very impressive. it's not exactly what you would call healthy, but it's so sweet and filling that a little bit goes a long way and i can't imagine eating very much of it in one sitting. the next time i make it i plan to add some lemon zest and juice to the pudding and use less of the white chocolate in the pudding.
pudding:
3 eggs
4 cups heavy whipping cream
2 cups sugar
3 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups fresh (recommended) or frozen blueberries
1 pkg. (10 to 12 oz.) white baking chips
1 loaf (1 lb.) french bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
sauce:
1 package (10 to 12 oz.) white baking chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream
in a large bowl, combine the eggs, cream, sugar and vanilla. stir in blueberries and baking chips. stir in bread cubes; let stand for 15 minutes or until bread is softened. (ours sat for a couple of hours)
transfer to a greased 13X9 baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes. let stand 5 minutes before serving.
for sauce, place baking chips in a small bowl. in a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil pour over baking chips; whisk until smooth. serve in side dish.
since we were in a cooking mood, the vickster and i thought it would be a good idea to make a couple of things that hillary, tori and i could freeze and take back to nashville with us. we're leaving tomorrow and i just got around to cooking our take-home dinners! i've got one in the oven right now that i'm sure will be great, but the one i just finished making is so very scrum-didley-umptious!!! it's called baked mostaccioli and the recipe came from this cookbook. i made a couple of substitions in this one. we used whole wheat penne and ground beef instead of the first two ingredients the recipe called for. i also omitted the onion and added a can of cream of mushroom soup. this dish became a favorite when A. i didn't miss the garlic i wanted to add to it B. i didn't miss the extra cheese i wanted to add and C. i didn't have to salt it on my plate.
8 oz. uncooked mostaccioli
1/2 lb lean ground turkey
1 small onion, chopped
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained (i used italian)
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1/3 cup water
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cups (16 oz) fat-free cottage cheese
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 1/2 cups (6 oz)shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
cook the mostaccioli according to package directions. (i undercooked mine since it goes in the oven for a while) meanwhile, in a large saucepan, cook turkey and onion over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink; drain if necessary.
stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, water (i used pasta water), oregano, salt and pepper. bring to a boil. reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
drain pasta. in a small bowl combine cottage cheese and marjoram; set aside. (i did this in the container the cottage cheese came in)
spread 1/2 cup meat sauce into an 11X7 baking dish coated with cooking spray. layer with half of the pasta, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. top with cottage cheese mixture. layer with remaining pasta, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
since i really feel like i'm on a cooking show right now, i'm going to share a few tips/facts about what goes on my kitchen:
1. whenever browning ground meat i almost always put some worcestershire sauce on it, mainly because i like the way it tastes, it gives the meat some flavor, and i like saying the word "worcestershire". my old roomie megan taught me how to say it and everytime i use it i hear her telling me "imagine an old black man saying 'what's-dis-here-sauce?' and you'll be able to say it."
2. i put cream of mushroom soup in my spaghetti sauce so the tomato sauce won't taste so much like...well, tomatoes. that's a trick i got from my aunt becky, who makes fantabulous spaghetti.
3. the best way to serve casseroles is with an old fashioned ice cream scoop - the kind with the bar that scrapes across the scoop to get all of the food out. this makes it easy to portion it out, doesn't make a mess traveling across the table to plates and keeps the casserole looking presentable (for when you're trying to impress company).
4. if you like spicy food then you need to try mccormick chipotle chili pepper powder on anything.
that's all for now! i'm off to clean up the kitchen, the downfall of my love for cooking.
-meghan
Sunday, June 20, 2010
joe bill
if you haven't met my dad before, it's really too bad for you, because he is a stinking hoot. one of my favorite stories for him to tell is where my name came from, and to this day nobody but him knows if it's actually true or if he made it up.
i was born at 12:45 AM on july 2. my parents didn't have a name picked out for me yet, and all my mom knows is that my dad walked into her hospital room a couple of hours after i was born and said "what about meghan murray?" murray is my grandmother's maiden name, but where he would have come up with meghan, she has no idea. however, here is the story you'll hear from good ol joe bill should you get to hear him tell it. he'll talk about how he was standing at the window of the nursery at the hospital looking at me when a tiny little cleaning lady walked by and started talking to him. she asked which little one belonged to him, and she replied "oh, she's so pretty, name her meghan!" when he pointed at me. then she started asking him about family names to peg down the middle name. "what's your wife's name? what's her maiden name? what's your wife's mother's name? and her maiden name?" the last question was what she was looking for. when he said "murray" the precious little cleaning lady replied "that's it, meghan murray. name her that."
whether it's real or made up, it's quite an entertaining story. he's a funny guy, and he passed on a good dose of his sense of humor to me. i also inherited the ability to belt out a monstrous burp, something which my mom is less than pleased with. joe bill can tell stories til the cows come home, but one thing i've never had to wonder about was whether he loved me or not. he is very self sacrificing, and should i marry that is a quality that i hope i see in my husband.
i love you daddy, happy father's day!!
-meghan
i was born at 12:45 AM on july 2. my parents didn't have a name picked out for me yet, and all my mom knows is that my dad walked into her hospital room a couple of hours after i was born and said "what about meghan murray?" murray is my grandmother's maiden name, but where he would have come up with meghan, she has no idea. however, here is the story you'll hear from good ol joe bill should you get to hear him tell it. he'll talk about how he was standing at the window of the nursery at the hospital looking at me when a tiny little cleaning lady walked by and started talking to him. she asked which little one belonged to him, and she replied "oh, she's so pretty, name her meghan!" when he pointed at me. then she started asking him about family names to peg down the middle name. "what's your wife's name? what's her maiden name? what's your wife's mother's name? and her maiden name?" the last question was what she was looking for. when he said "murray" the precious little cleaning lady replied "that's it, meghan murray. name her that."
whether it's real or made up, it's quite an entertaining story. he's a funny guy, and he passed on a good dose of his sense of humor to me. i also inherited the ability to belt out a monstrous burp, something which my mom is less than pleased with. joe bill can tell stories til the cows come home, but one thing i've never had to wonder about was whether he loved me or not. he is very self sacrificing, and should i marry that is a quality that i hope i see in my husband.
i love you daddy, happy father's day!!
-meghan
Friday, June 18, 2010
round it up to 30
it's almost my birthday (july 2) and i'll be turning the ripe old age of 26. i know you're just dying to get me a really cool gift, so here's a couple of ideas to help you out.
1. come visit me in nashville. my mom, her two sisters and LINDSEY(!) are coming to see me next month and i couldn't be more excited. that alone let's me know i'm going to have a happy birthday month.
2. a subscription to relevant, paste, or filter magazines.
3. amazon mp3 daily deals are a big part of my life. imagine how many $3 and $4 albums i could get with a gift card.
4. stockholm syndrome by derek webb on vinyl. this involves a bonus mp3 download of the album for you, so i highly suggest you give this one some real consideration.
5. make a donation to the university of michigan to benefit the cancer research U of M does on orphan cancers. the specific fund the link goes to was created in memory of one of my favorite musicians, spencer bell. after he abruptly passed away in 2006 of adrenal cancer his family has worked relentlessly alongside many others to find a cure.
i'm VERY excited about my first birthday in nashville!! and as if it's not already fun enough with my family coming right after, eclipse comes out a couple of days before!! it will be a very happy birthday to me!!
-meghan
1. come visit me in nashville. my mom, her two sisters and LINDSEY(!) are coming to see me next month and i couldn't be more excited. that alone let's me know i'm going to have a happy birthday month.
2. a subscription to relevant, paste, or filter magazines.
3. amazon mp3 daily deals are a big part of my life. imagine how many $3 and $4 albums i could get with a gift card.
4. stockholm syndrome by derek webb on vinyl. this involves a bonus mp3 download of the album for you, so i highly suggest you give this one some real consideration.
5. make a donation to the university of michigan to benefit the cancer research U of M does on orphan cancers. the specific fund the link goes to was created in memory of one of my favorite musicians, spencer bell. after he abruptly passed away in 2006 of adrenal cancer his family has worked relentlessly alongside many others to find a cure.
i'm VERY excited about my first birthday in nashville!! and as if it's not already fun enough with my family coming right after, eclipse comes out a couple of days before!! it will be a very happy birthday to me!!
-meghan
Monday, June 7, 2010
sandra mccracken
life in nashville is wonderful!! we are working hard at getting our apartment set up and box free. i am scouting craigslist in hopes that i will find a wonderful family that needs a nanny. our apartment complex is awesome, there are kids everywhere!!
oh yeah, and while we were driving around town today we saw sandra mccracken!! her and her husband, derek webb, are two of my favorite musicians and it was very exciting to see one of them during our first outing!! i thought it fitting that my music monday be about her. if you haven't heard her before, you've really been missing out.
here is sandra performing the title track from her new album "In Feast Or Fallow".
i could go on and on (and on) about her, but instead i'm going to go unpack the kitchen. happy monday everybody!!
-meghan
oh yeah, and while we were driving around town today we saw sandra mccracken!! her and her husband, derek webb, are two of my favorite musicians and it was very exciting to see one of them during our first outing!! i thought it fitting that my music monday be about her. if you haven't heard her before, you've really been missing out.
here is sandra performing the title track from her new album "In Feast Or Fallow".
i could go on and on (and on) about her, but instead i'm going to go unpack the kitchen. happy monday everybody!!
-meghan
Friday, June 4, 2010
nashvillain
today is moving day! imagine me as ross, and maybe you can get some sense of my excitement.
-meghan
-meghan
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
fearful
hillary, tori and i had fun naming our fears tonight. funnily enough, we couldn't find a name for what started the whole ordeal - my fear of aquariums/large fish tanks. i'm okay with being in water, but i don't swim under it, i don't like to stand close to the big fish tanks at the zoo, and the thought of walking through a water tunnel makes my palms sweat.
not all of these are full blown phobias, but they all rang a bell with me:
hydrophobia - fear of water
nyctophobia - fear of the dark or night
phobophobia - fear of fear
phigerophobia - fear of choking
dystichiphobia - fear of accidents
some of the ones that i'm happy i don't have:
geliophobia - fear of laughter
helminthophobia - fear of being infested with worms
panphobia – fear of everything
melophobia - fear of music
jackson rathbone was recently in a movie called "dread" where his character, stephen, and some friends made a documentary about asking people what they were afraid of. being that it was a horror movie, of course everything that they feared the most started happening to them. i don't like scary movies, so i didn't watch it, but i did skip through the whole thing to the credits to hear a song by one of my favorite bands, the stevedores. getting to hear "fearful" play and seeing the guys' names was very exciting!!
here's a video of spencer, ben, jake, adam and shawn performing "fearful."
-meghan
not all of these are full blown phobias, but they all rang a bell with me:
hydrophobia - fear of water
nyctophobia - fear of the dark or night
phobophobia - fear of fear
phigerophobia - fear of choking
dystichiphobia - fear of accidents
some of the ones that i'm happy i don't have:
geliophobia - fear of laughter
helminthophobia - fear of being infested with worms
panphobia – fear of everything
melophobia - fear of music
jackson rathbone was recently in a movie called "dread" where his character, stephen, and some friends made a documentary about asking people what they were afraid of. being that it was a horror movie, of course everything that they feared the most started happening to them. i don't like scary movies, so i didn't watch it, but i did skip through the whole thing to the credits to hear a song by one of my favorite bands, the stevedores. getting to hear "fearful" play and seeing the guys' names was very exciting!!
here's a video of spencer, ben, jake, adam and shawn performing "fearful."
-meghan
Sunday, May 30, 2010
you look like a monkey, and you act like one too!
i have another cute nephew with a birthday in may! happy birthday, my sweet jacob. i really hope you have tons of fun being 3 years old. be sure to live it up, one day you'll have to go to kindergarten and face the real world. i really wish i was there to sing the duck song to you today!!
isn't he presh??!!
-meghan
isn't he presh??!!
-meghan
100 monkeys
i'm sick and frantically packing for the move to nashville, but since i started music mondays only two weeks ago i didn't want to skip one just yet. monday is my nephew's birthday, so i'm posting this a day early.
since this is going to be a short post and i'm still going through bands i saw at the sbl concert, i figured i would go ahead and talk about 100 monkeys. out of all the bands they have the most exposure and have a huge fan base, so i don't feel so bad about skimping out on their post.
there are a lot of reasons why i like 100 monkeys, and if you know me at all you've probably heard some/many of those reasons before. one of the things i love about their concerts is their improv songs. they take suggestions from the audience and make up a song about one of the topics. this not only shows how talented they are, but it gives every audience something special that won't be played for anyone else.
when it came time for improv suggestions jerad went from one side of the stage to the other getting ideas. lindsey,tori and i were on the front and were able to yell "ellen degeneres" when jerad looked at us, and we were so excited when he announced that the song would be about ellen!! we've wanted to be able to suggest a song about her for a while (we think if she hears about it she'll put them on her show) and it made the sbl concert that much more memorable since their song was from our suggestion. out of all of the concerts i've been to of theirs, it was definitely my favorite improv.
if you watch the video below you can see me give the suggestion to jerad. the spotlight followed him around and landed on my face right when i talked to him!
-meghan
since this is going to be a short post and i'm still going through bands i saw at the sbl concert, i figured i would go ahead and talk about 100 monkeys. out of all the bands they have the most exposure and have a huge fan base, so i don't feel so bad about skimping out on their post.
there are a lot of reasons why i like 100 monkeys, and if you know me at all you've probably heard some/many of those reasons before. one of the things i love about their concerts is their improv songs. they take suggestions from the audience and make up a song about one of the topics. this not only shows how talented they are, but it gives every audience something special that won't be played for anyone else.
when it came time for improv suggestions jerad went from one side of the stage to the other getting ideas. lindsey,tori and i were on the front and were able to yell "ellen degeneres" when jerad looked at us, and we were so excited when he announced that the song would be about ellen!! we've wanted to be able to suggest a song about her for a while (we think if she hears about it she'll put them on her show) and it made the sbl concert that much more memorable since their song was from our suggestion. out of all of the concerts i've been to of theirs, it was definitely my favorite improv.
if you watch the video below you can see me give the suggestion to jerad. the spotlight followed him around and landed on my face right when i talked to him!
-meghan
Friday, May 28, 2010
j-biz is the shiz.
today has been fun. joy beth is here with her sweet friend lauryn and there are 5 mattresses stuffed into my room for a never ending (until saturday)slumber party. after a joyful reunitation last night we stayed up late acting silly and slept in (not too) late. we spent the day by the pool laying out, reading, listening to music and playing in the water. after that we came home and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, which were oh so delicious. we then played quelf and hilarity ensued. after that we had the first watching of new moon together. if you know us or like the twilight saga then you understand the seriousness of this. and now here it is 2:30 in the morning and we have spent the past several hours ranting about boys.
i really like it when joy beth is here.
-(barely awake)meghan
i really like it when joy beth is here.
-(barely awake)meghan
Monday, May 24, 2010
the kissing club
in keeping with my attempt to post about all of the bands i saw at the sbl show, today i think the spotlight will do well to shine on the kissing club. i already made mention of this one man band, aka jake miller, when i talked about the stevedores. i think what i said about him was "jake miller is so sick on his guitar i have no words." hard as it may be, i'm going to try to find some.
just listening to jake on tamuawok. (the stevedores) or his myspace is impressive, and seeing him enhances that many times over. if you watched the vid of the stevedores like i told you to, then you've already seen him flip out on his guitar, complete with head thrashing and body spazzing. what came after that during his solo set had a different tone and feel, but was still equally amazing and exciting. he came in jamming to a song about locomotives and went out yelling about dancing all night to the water in the pipes. oh, and he also made a cameo appearance during tin tin can's set on the bongos. anything you can't do jake? no? i didn't think so.
jake got started by playing "the displaced persons song" with ben johnson (100 monkeys) on the bass and zach arlan (drew & the medicinal pen) on the drums. can i just say, i absolutely love this song. it's one of my favorites for a couple of reasons, the first being the guitar break in the middle. secondly, the lyrics by thomas pynchon are really, really well written and continue building until reaching my favorite line. "we were made for song and sin" are the words that close the song, being sung over and over by a gravelly voice deep with conviction. the first time i heard that i thought it a good definition for humans, and to me song and sin translated to praise and depravity. i realize there's a slight error in my revelation - we weren't actually meant for depravity, but for praise. but God knew the fall would happen, and still used our sin to bring glory to His name.
a "message on the moon" later came "linden tree", which is absolutely one of the sweetest songs in the world. when i saw jake perform "linden tree" in birmingham it was done as a solo and i loved it, but the addition of molly mcdonough makes it that much better.
then came "i can't tell," followed by an amazing and heartfelt cover of spencer bell's "nerve damage." getting to hear spencer's songs played is something i always look forward to when going to see 100 monkeys, and i was so happy to see other bands perform some as well. i also really appreciated the seriousness of the moment amongst everyone there. towards the end of the song is when 100 monkeys comes out to join the kissing club, and usually there is screaming and cheering right in the middle of the song. the afternoon sbl concert was different - the lone song of spencer's that jake sings was finished uninterrupted.
after the monkeys came out, missy liu (drew & the medicinal pen) joined them for a party during "water in the pipes," which was an excellent ending to a rocking set.
how appropriate that today's music monday is about the kissing club, as just a couple of hours ago jake posted a new song on his youtube channel!!! it is from his upcoming ep hooks, which is due out in july!
i know it's a lot of videos today, but if you're a music lover you'll really be doing yourself a favor by watching all of them. you can also watch the kissing club's entire set from the show lindsey, tori and i went to by clicking here and skipping to 00:49:00. you're welcome.
-meghan
just listening to jake on tamuawok. (the stevedores) or his myspace is impressive, and seeing him enhances that many times over. if you watched the vid of the stevedores like i told you to, then you've already seen him flip out on his guitar, complete with head thrashing and body spazzing. what came after that during his solo set had a different tone and feel, but was still equally amazing and exciting. he came in jamming to a song about locomotives and went out yelling about dancing all night to the water in the pipes. oh, and he also made a cameo appearance during tin tin can's set on the bongos. anything you can't do jake? no? i didn't think so.
jake got started by playing "the displaced persons song" with ben johnson (100 monkeys) on the bass and zach arlan (drew & the medicinal pen) on the drums. can i just say, i absolutely love this song. it's one of my favorites for a couple of reasons, the first being the guitar break in the middle. secondly, the lyrics by thomas pynchon are really, really well written and continue building until reaching my favorite line. "we were made for song and sin" are the words that close the song, being sung over and over by a gravelly voice deep with conviction. the first time i heard that i thought it a good definition for humans, and to me song and sin translated to praise and depravity. i realize there's a slight error in my revelation - we weren't actually meant for depravity, but for praise. but God knew the fall would happen, and still used our sin to bring glory to His name.
a "message on the moon" later came "linden tree", which is absolutely one of the sweetest songs in the world. when i saw jake perform "linden tree" in birmingham it was done as a solo and i loved it, but the addition of molly mcdonough makes it that much better.
then came "i can't tell," followed by an amazing and heartfelt cover of spencer bell's "nerve damage." getting to hear spencer's songs played is something i always look forward to when going to see 100 monkeys, and i was so happy to see other bands perform some as well. i also really appreciated the seriousness of the moment amongst everyone there. towards the end of the song is when 100 monkeys comes out to join the kissing club, and usually there is screaming and cheering right in the middle of the song. the afternoon sbl concert was different - the lone song of spencer's that jake sings was finished uninterrupted.
after the monkeys came out, missy liu (drew & the medicinal pen) joined them for a party during "water in the pipes," which was an excellent ending to a rocking set.
how appropriate that today's music monday is about the kissing club, as just a couple of hours ago jake posted a new song on his youtube channel!!! it is from his upcoming ep hooks, which is due out in july!
i know it's a lot of videos today, but if you're a music lover you'll really be doing yourself a favor by watching all of them. you can also watch the kissing club's entire set from the show lindsey, tori and i went to by clicking here and skipping to 00:49:00. you're welcome.
-meghan
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
go shorty, it's yo birfday
happy birthday ben!! thanks for being the super sweet little boy scout that you are, you make a terrific nephew. i can't believe you are 10 years old now. oh wait, you're not 10? you're only 7, you say? you're just getting so big, it's hard to keep up. i love you and i hope you have a bentastic day!
-meghan
p.s. how cute is he?? i mean, seriously!
-meghan
p.s. how cute is he?? i mean, seriously!
Monday, May 17, 2010
drew & the medicinal pen
so i'm going to try and start doing a 'music monday' post. chances are it won't pan out, but we'll see how it goes.
my newfound love from the spencer bell legacy show is drew & the medicinal pen. i've listened to their songs and watched videos online for about a year, but seeing them live took me from thinking they were pretty cool to thinking they are the freekin bomb diggity. oh how i love DATMP, let me count the ways:
1. their sound can't be duplicated.
2. some of their tunes are mellow while others will have you dancing your little heart out, yet they are all cohesive with each other. there are so many bands out there that have no idea what they are all about, and often the result of that is crap. not the case with drew and co.
3. i have a girl crush on missy and anna. (for the grown ups that read my blog, click 'girl crush' and see definition numero uno.)
4. speaking of missy, i really like it when there's a classical instrument thrown into the mix of not so classical music. she plays the violin oh so well.
5. speaking of anna, all you have to do is watch her for .5 seconds and she'll have you jamming right along with her, whether you want to or not.
6. drew's lyrics are not simplistic, but they also don't leave you standing there going "what the hayfield did he just sing about?" they leave you thinking, and more often than not they are very relatable. and no matter the song, they make you feel something.
7. what can i say about zach that isn't obvious? drummers are always the coolest member of any band. fact.
okay, i'm going to quit counting now. clickity click to go to their myspace and listen to "hey chanae". it'll be stuck in your head after the first go round, promise. tori and i sang it all day long the day of the nashville flood and severely annoyed hillary with it. whilst we were in the car taking good ol joshy home for 4 hours i let her have a listen to it on my ipod. she said "oh, i do like it!" so go ahead, have a listen. the same thing will happen to you.
here's a couple of vids for ya. since i've gone on and on about this song, the first one is "hey chanae." the second one is "fish out of water," and i realize the sound isn't great, but i wanted to put a vid of everybody hopping around and anna screaming. i think i'm going to write a song just for the sole purpose of scremaing at the top of my lungs. enjoy!!
if you're hooked, then go here and skip ahead to minute 45. this is from the concert tori, lindsey and i were at. you're welcome.
-meghan
my newfound love from the spencer bell legacy show is drew & the medicinal pen. i've listened to their songs and watched videos online for about a year, but seeing them live took me from thinking they were pretty cool to thinking they are the freekin bomb diggity. oh how i love DATMP, let me count the ways:
1. their sound can't be duplicated.
2. some of their tunes are mellow while others will have you dancing your little heart out, yet they are all cohesive with each other. there are so many bands out there that have no idea what they are all about, and often the result of that is crap. not the case with drew and co.
3. i have a girl crush on missy and anna. (for the grown ups that read my blog, click 'girl crush' and see definition numero uno.)
4. speaking of missy, i really like it when there's a classical instrument thrown into the mix of not so classical music. she plays the violin oh so well.
5. speaking of anna, all you have to do is watch her for .5 seconds and she'll have you jamming right along with her, whether you want to or not.
6. drew's lyrics are not simplistic, but they also don't leave you standing there going "what the hayfield did he just sing about?" they leave you thinking, and more often than not they are very relatable. and no matter the song, they make you feel something.
7. what can i say about zach that isn't obvious? drummers are always the coolest member of any band. fact.
okay, i'm going to quit counting now. clickity click to go to their myspace and listen to "hey chanae". it'll be stuck in your head after the first go round, promise. tori and i sang it all day long the day of the nashville flood and severely annoyed hillary with it. whilst we were in the car taking good ol joshy home for 4 hours i let her have a listen to it on my ipod. she said "oh, i do like it!" so go ahead, have a listen. the same thing will happen to you.
here's a couple of vids for ya. since i've gone on and on about this song, the first one is "hey chanae." the second one is "fish out of water," and i realize the sound isn't great, but i wanted to put a vid of everybody hopping around and anna screaming. i think i'm going to write a song just for the sole purpose of scremaing at the top of my lungs. enjoy!!
if you're hooked, then go here and skip ahead to minute 45. this is from the concert tori, lindsey and i were at. you're welcome.
-meghan
Saturday, May 15, 2010
the music lives on
i'm late getting around to posting this, but i got back from texas to alabama one day, went to tennessee the next and then the flood happened.
last month i went to texas to visit my family for a few days, collect an ugly lamp to decorate my new apartment with and to get my face rocked off at a monumental concert. now that i'm back (and FINALLY blogging about it) i have to say it was an overall wonderful trip. i got to see my nephews a lot, which is good cause they are real, real cute. i have said hideous lamp here with me awaiting it's journey to tennessee, along with a gold statue of what i can only assume is a prostitute (she's holding tons of money in her low cut dress) and other knick knacks that are so outdated you wouldn't be able to find them anywhere but your grandparents' house that was decorated in the 60's.
and, as expected, the concert was completely amazing. evro, drew and the medicinal pen, tin tin can, the stevedores, the kissing club and 100 monkeys really put on an excellent show. (click the links to watch the entire concert.)
tori and i arrived in gilmer friday afternoon and immediately headed to la finca. after sharing a delicious chicken chimichanga with queso and plenty of chips, hot sauce and green sauce, we went back to my house and decided a (very long) nap would be a good idea. the concert was in the afternoon and we had plans to leave early enough to get a good spot for the show, right up against the stage. we were so excited about the bands and the concert in general we were practically buzzing and that alone could have kept us up all night. but when you throw in the fact that my cousin lindsey, who is one of my most favorite people in the world, ever, was coming over later that night to stay with us, it was obvious that sleeping after she got there was out of the question. i climbed into my bed at my parents' house that i love oh so much and went to sleep for almost five hours.
i woke up right before lindsey got there from longview, only to get in my car and drive back to longview for lindsey's concert ticket that she forgot. we did lay down for a little while eventually, but as soon as a storm passed through verry early saturday morning we left for dallas, stopping only for whataburger.
let me just take a minute and explain to you how big a deal this concert was. this wasn't just any old show, not a regular stop on the tour 100 monkeys has been on lately. this was a spencer bell legacy show. spencer bell was a musician and artist that 3 of the 5 monkeys were friends with when they were younger. on thanksgiving day in 2006 spencer was diagnosed with adrenal cancer (ACC) and passed away 11 days later. he was only 20 years old. adrenal cancer is very rare, making it hard to diagnose and hard to treat. since then spencer's friends and family have been putting on shows to raise money to put his music out and to help fund adrenal cancer research at the university of michigan.
the afternoon began with some words from dr. gary hammer, who heads up the ACC research at UM. his passion was very moving and hearing him speak about what we were all there to support brought about a sense of unity that can't be explained.
to avoid a super long post with lots of videos, i'm only going to talk about one band from the show in this entry and save the other 5 for later.
the band i drove from alabama to see was the stevedores. spencer was a stevedore, along with shawn, ben, jake and adam. they released only one album, tamuawok., while spencer was alive. they have all gone their separate ways now, and the only place to see the stevedores is at one of these legacy shows. before dallas i had actually seen them all play except for adam. ben is the drummer for 100 monkeys, so i've seen him in concert several times. last november in nashville i got to see shawn fernando play with the monkeys (on the trip i fell in love with the city!) and jake miller, aka the kissing club, has been touring with the monkeys and i got to see him in birmingham right before dallas. seeing them separate is a wholly different thing from seeing them perform together as the stevedores.
i've heard people go on and on about how unbelievable the stevedores are live, and now i get to be one of those people! ben johnson is like a different person when he's drumming for them while performing lead vocals. seriously, i have no idea how he does it. shawn fernando's energy as his hands dance back and forth across the keyboard is so crazy you can feel it, and his laugh for 'advice' can make anybody's day. dustin monk (of tin tin can) was absolutely amazing to fill in on bass for adam, who couldn't make it. he is made of so much win for learning their set and never missing a beat. and jake miller. jake miller is so flippin sick on his guitar i have no words.
just like anybody that has seen them, they blew my mind and i could talk about it for hours. trying to blog about music i really love makes me wish i were a better writer (this post has literally taken me several hours to write) so i could really do justice to the artists and their performances that i find so prodigious. i feel like a video can tell you how scrumtrulescent they are better than i can, so here you go. there are a few reasons why i chose this specific video:
1. it's from the concert that lindsey, tori and i were at.
2. legit, i strained my voice yelling after this song and was hoarse for 2 days.
3. shawn fernando laughs crazy during it, which is what spencer did.
4. it's really intense.
if you don't really like to rock out but still want a little taste of scrumtrulescence, skip ahead to 3:25.
-meghan
last month i went to texas to visit my family for a few days, collect an ugly lamp to decorate my new apartment with and to get my face rocked off at a monumental concert. now that i'm back (and FINALLY blogging about it) i have to say it was an overall wonderful trip. i got to see my nephews a lot, which is good cause they are real, real cute. i have said hideous lamp here with me awaiting it's journey to tennessee, along with a gold statue of what i can only assume is a prostitute (she's holding tons of money in her low cut dress) and other knick knacks that are so outdated you wouldn't be able to find them anywhere but your grandparents' house that was decorated in the 60's.
and, as expected, the concert was completely amazing. evro, drew and the medicinal pen, tin tin can, the stevedores, the kissing club and 100 monkeys really put on an excellent show. (click the links to watch the entire concert.)
tori and i arrived in gilmer friday afternoon and immediately headed to la finca. after sharing a delicious chicken chimichanga with queso and plenty of chips, hot sauce and green sauce, we went back to my house and decided a (very long) nap would be a good idea. the concert was in the afternoon and we had plans to leave early enough to get a good spot for the show, right up against the stage. we were so excited about the bands and the concert in general we were practically buzzing and that alone could have kept us up all night. but when you throw in the fact that my cousin lindsey, who is one of my most favorite people in the world, ever, was coming over later that night to stay with us, it was obvious that sleeping after she got there was out of the question. i climbed into my bed at my parents' house that i love oh so much and went to sleep for almost five hours.
i woke up right before lindsey got there from longview, only to get in my car and drive back to longview for lindsey's concert ticket that she forgot. we did lay down for a little while eventually, but as soon as a storm passed through verry early saturday morning we left for dallas, stopping only for whataburger.
let me just take a minute and explain to you how big a deal this concert was. this wasn't just any old show, not a regular stop on the tour 100 monkeys has been on lately. this was a spencer bell legacy show. spencer bell was a musician and artist that 3 of the 5 monkeys were friends with when they were younger. on thanksgiving day in 2006 spencer was diagnosed with adrenal cancer (ACC) and passed away 11 days later. he was only 20 years old. adrenal cancer is very rare, making it hard to diagnose and hard to treat. since then spencer's friends and family have been putting on shows to raise money to put his music out and to help fund adrenal cancer research at the university of michigan.
the afternoon began with some words from dr. gary hammer, who heads up the ACC research at UM. his passion was very moving and hearing him speak about what we were all there to support brought about a sense of unity that can't be explained.
to avoid a super long post with lots of videos, i'm only going to talk about one band from the show in this entry and save the other 5 for later.
the band i drove from alabama to see was the stevedores. spencer was a stevedore, along with shawn, ben, jake and adam. they released only one album, tamuawok., while spencer was alive. they have all gone their separate ways now, and the only place to see the stevedores is at one of these legacy shows. before dallas i had actually seen them all play except for adam. ben is the drummer for 100 monkeys, so i've seen him in concert several times. last november in nashville i got to see shawn fernando play with the monkeys (on the trip i fell in love with the city!) and jake miller, aka the kissing club, has been touring with the monkeys and i got to see him in birmingham right before dallas. seeing them separate is a wholly different thing from seeing them perform together as the stevedores.
i've heard people go on and on about how unbelievable the stevedores are live, and now i get to be one of those people! ben johnson is like a different person when he's drumming for them while performing lead vocals. seriously, i have no idea how he does it. shawn fernando's energy as his hands dance back and forth across the keyboard is so crazy you can feel it, and his laugh for 'advice' can make anybody's day. dustin monk (of tin tin can) was absolutely amazing to fill in on bass for adam, who couldn't make it. he is made of so much win for learning their set and never missing a beat. and jake miller. jake miller is so flippin sick on his guitar i have no words.
just like anybody that has seen them, they blew my mind and i could talk about it for hours. trying to blog about music i really love makes me wish i were a better writer (this post has literally taken me several hours to write) so i could really do justice to the artists and their performances that i find so prodigious. i feel like a video can tell you how scrumtrulescent they are better than i can, so here you go. there are a few reasons why i chose this specific video:
1. it's from the concert that lindsey, tori and i were at.
2. legit, i strained my voice yelling after this song and was hoarse for 2 days.
3. shawn fernando laughs crazy during it, which is what spencer did.
4. it's really intense.
if you don't really like to rock out but still want a little taste of scrumtrulescence, skip ahead to 3:25.
-meghan
Friday, May 14, 2010
nashville here we come
i just finished filling out apartment applications and have the check ready to be sent in for the deposit!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we found great, affordable apartments to live in that is busting at the seams with families - we visited 3 times and every time we were there we saw kids playing outside. and alison, the assistant manager is kind of awesome. i called her earlier today and told her we were filling out our paperwork online to send in and she let me know that they only had ONE 2 bedroom apartment available in the complex. when i called her again at the end of the day to tell her we were sending the deposit and we did want the apartment she said "oh good. people kept coming in and looking at it so i already kind of set it aside for yall."
i'm so excited to A. not live in a college town and B. not live in a complex full of college kids in a college town and C. not put up with crazy parties in my parking lot during football season.
now that i'm all set to move i just need a few things.
like one of these
and some of this
and definitely one of these
complete with stylish case, of course.
-meghan
i'm so excited to A. not live in a college town and B. not live in a complex full of college kids in a college town and C. not put up with crazy parties in my parking lot during football season.
now that i'm all set to move i just need a few things.
like one of these
and some of this
and definitely one of these
complete with stylish case, of course.
-meghan
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