thankful by megan

thanksgiving is approaching…and i am so very excited. i can’t believe the holiday season is upon us. it’s my favorite time of the year. everything just seems…right. people are kinder. love just seems to radiate. atleast, that’s how i find the holidays to be!

with thanksgiving so near, i’ve been thinking of what i am thankful for. but there is so much i don’t even know where to begin. so, here’s a brief list

• God and my faith…where would I be without God?
• family & friends & my church
• finally enjoying life: friends, food, family, school, happy times, sad times, laughter, learning, making mistakes…hitting bumps in the road and relying on God’s strength to get me through!
• new orleans
• being me…and just me. simple as that.

of course, there are many more things i am thankful for…but those few stand out right now!

look at this thankful turkey craft i found…

how much fun would it be to make him? i would love to have a thanksgiving craft party with each and every one of you! because, i am so thankful for you! my readers…the very small amount of you 🙂 y’all have been with me since the blogging days of health, fashion, happiness! and i am so thankful to have y’all as friends!

enjoy your monday!

weekend by megan

oh weekend, how i love thee.

i had a sleepover last night at my best friends house. we were supposed to work on our student teaching portfolios for many hours, but instead we ate tomato, artichoke, and feta pizza (n0 sauce) from rotolo’s and made brownies with homemade icing.

we made the icing with lots of powdered sugar and several tablespoons of skim milk. oh and a tsp of vanilla extract. the icing melted on the brownies and it reminded us of oreos. so yummy.

we also watched dan in real life, and i am officially obsessed with sondre lerche. every single song in the movie was sung by him, and he is wonderful!

but, now i must work on my student teaching portfolio…since i did not last night. it’s still a happy saturday…

…so enjoy your day!

tomorrow, tomorrow by megan

tomorrow is the women’s conference at my church and i am so looking forward to it. elyse fitzpatrick is guest speaking…author of such books like:

because he loves me

love to eat, hate to eat

idols of the heart

…and many more. i read love to eat, hate to eat and it changed my life regarding my eating disorder and just eating in general (oh! and my 1 year anniversary was nov. 1…that was the day God changed my life, and i haven’t looked back).

i can’t wait to spend time with the fabulous women of my church this weekend! growing in our relationships with each other and with Jesus!

before the conference my best friend and i are going to an early dinner. we have so much to talk about….we’re both literally bursting with things to share! love when that happens!

tomorrow is friday! do y’all have any fun plans for the weekend?

excuse me, but i must retreat to my bed…grey’s anatomy is on!

thankful by megan

today i am so thankful…for my family, health, happiness, and friends. and for Jesus, always thankful for Jesus 🙂 yesterday was a tough day for my family & i. it could have been much scarier than what it was..but God was with me and i stayed strong. without God i don’t know how i would get through tough situations. they just pop up on us all the time, don’t they? it’s so much easier to put my trust in God! he is so faithful.

last night i went to my friends house to bake a pie. a pecan streusel topped pumpkin pie to be exact. from the december issue of southern living.

our pie looked similar to this one. it was delicious! i love pumpkin pie, and i am definitely thankful for pumpkin right now!

tonight i am attending a wedding for two of my dear friends…i got a manicure + pedicure earlier, and now it is time to finish getting ready. two of my friends are doing my hair later. i am so blessed to have beautiful friends who are good at playing with hair and curling it, because i have not a clue what to do with my locks!

enjoy your friday night!

joy by megan

I have recently been doing a lot of thinking about what makes me happy…what brings me joy. There are so many ways to answer that. God has blessed me with so much, and I am not one to sit around and let things go to waste. Questions about my life/career/future after I graduate with an Early Childhood degree in May 2010 have been popping into my head lately, and I do not know the answers to any of them. But the awesome thing is that God has the answers, and he is praying for me…he’s praying for you, too 🙂

But, I do know that if I want to accomplish anything I simply can not rely on my faith on alone…I need to use the creativity & determination God gave me. Dreaming and pondering a career in fashion has been on my mind for the past 2 weeks…opening the boutique I’ve been wanting, writing about fashion (ie. a blog), or even working downtown at Saks Fifth Avenue for a little while. Those are all careers I dream of…I don’t dream of teaching. Is that terribly not right since I have spent so many years in school studying how to become a teacher?

I don’t know! I just know that I want to wake up every morning so excited to go to work…to do my job with a smile on my face.

Until then, until everything is figured out, I am going to continue working hard on my education degree, studying for the big teacher certification test coming up, and working on my field portfolios. I am going to continue feeling joyful for this life, waking up to read my bible each morning, serving my church, allowing God to have control, enjoying the fall season (apples!!!), and loving my friends & family.

The fall semester is almost over…lots to do in preparation for it. And, hopefully, my dreams will become realistic and some more writing will appear on this little blog…fashion writing…we shall see!

Happy Thursday…hope your week has been full of JOY!

p.s. thanks for reading 🙂

very forgetful by megan

Hi y’all! Happy Saturday! So far my Saturday has consisted of this…

and this…

This would be the Pumpkin Spice Latte I had after the mentally draining/horrifying PRAXIS…more on that in a minute. But, Starbucks made my day brighter 🙂

Today has been SUCH a day. It was PRAXIS day. Meaning I have been up since 5:15. I was on my schools campus by 6:51…super early for the 7:30 entry time for the test. I thought I was all set…I had my sharpened number 2 pencils (Ticonderoga, the best!), my non-graphing calculator, and my admission ticket. Sounds like I had it all, right? Wrong! I did not have ANY picture ID on me. No student ID, no license, not even a credit card with my name on it. Nothing. A picture ID is required to enter the testing room and to take the test. I did not realize this until my friends and I lined up to enter the auditorium. Y’all I was totally freaking out! I drove to school (a good 40 minutes) without a license!! God was definitely on my side though because my Daddy jumped out of bed when I called him (at 7:20 am on a Saturday) in a panic and delivered it to me in the nick of time (in stormy weather conditions). Seriously. My Dad is such a blessing 🙂 I’m sure y’all must be wondering where my ID’s were, right? They were in my gym bag. I keep my ID’s and such in a cute little Vera Bradley ID pouch and always just throw that pouch in my gym bag instead of bringing my entire purse with me plus my gym bag to the gym. I am usually so good about taking the pouch out of the gym bag and placing it back into my wallet in my purse. God totally taught me a lesson today! I always thought I would never be “the girl who would be so absentminded to forget her picture ID on the day of the PRAXIS”. I mean who could possibly do that? Haha, oh it can happen! Phew…it was close though and definitely had me nervous for a minute!

Anyway, the test was difficult as I expected. But, I’m not going to stress about it. It does not do any good to stress or worry over it. I prepared as best as I could and I took it. It is in God’s control now. I feel so much better knowing that God has it under control for me, too. He always does what is best!

This has been such a rainy and gloomy day. It’s a perfect day for staying in and reading. I even tried to get started on some major school work, but my brain is seriously not capable of thinking. The PRAXIS took a lot of brain power. Oh, it was so rough! Tonight I am heading to a friends house…a very relaxing evening!

Enjoy your night!

busy bee by megan

Hey y’all! I’m back 🙂

I had such an amazing weekend at the beach, but it is nice to be home! There were 9 girls in my parents 2 bedroom condo…it was crazy and SO much fun!!! You would think with 9 girls there would have been drama…but not with us. We all got along so well and we each had our own little moments together. It was such a wonderful weeked! Oh, and my modified Funfetti cookies were loved by all, as well as the scones! Yippee!!!

I have an extremely busy week ahead of me…the mini vacation took away a lot of time to get school work done, but oh well! Today I am studying for my first Bio quiz tomorrow, preparing for my first visit at the preschool Beary Cherry Tree, and heading to Alpha tonight to have fun with the kids at church. The rest of the week includes a lot of work for an assignment in my HRT class and studying for the PRAXIS on Saturday morning. I am very nervous about taking this test…it determines whether or not I will be a certified teacher. Of course, if I don’t pass I can take it again…but I want to pass this Saturday! Prayers and good thoughts sent my way will be very appreciated. Thanks, friends!

Before I go absorb myself in Biology notes I want to show you my new hair! I mean it is my natural color, but it’s still new to me. It was shocking at first, but I’m glad I went back to my dark hair. I just feel more like myself 🙂

Happy Tuesday!!

southern living by megan

Hi! Gosh, I don’t know what is up with me today but I am feeling a million different things all at once… I’m energetic, sleepy, snacky, happy, anxious. I just don’t know what my deal is!

This morning I had an early class…it was a one time meeting type deal. It’s a course we have to take the semester before student teaching. Basically I will spend the entire semester compiling a huge binder full of artifacts from my years spent in the College of Education. My artifacts have to meet a certain set of standards. This binder is better known as the “Tier III Assessment Portfolio”. Thinking about it makes me very anxious, but it is definitely something I need to think about because I can not wait until the last minute to start this monster of a portfolio. My plan is to work on it bit by bit throughout the semester. Wish me luck!

After class my friend and I hit up our campus gym…loved it! I hadn’t been to our gym since way before Hurricane Katrina. The fitness center was beautiful on the inside with a lot of equipment and huge windows overlooking campus, but my treadmill was a bit old. There was not even a spot for me to put my iPod or my water bottle. But it really was no big deal, I dealt with it! I rarely workout with a friend and it was a nice change 🙂

Tonight my mom and I are going to a Southern Living party. I am so excited! My mom has been to a few, but I’ve never been to one. I am really looking forward to it. It will be something nice to do with her!

My mom has her eye on this (I love it, too!)…

The Royal Street Urn. I love the arrangement in the urn, as well. My mom is going to have it made. There are going to be so many pretty things to order tonight…it could be dangerous, haha!

The party is at my friends home and I am bringing a dip…Eight- Layer Mediterranean Dip to be exact. It’s another recipe from my Whole Foods iTouch app (love that app!), but you can also find it here. Doesn’t it look yummy?

I am making it later this afternoon and I can’t wait to try it tonight! I love every single ingredient that is going into it, especially the pita chips used to scoop it out!

Happy Friday, y’all!