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

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

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

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

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

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

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