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Hello blogging world. I have missed you.

Usually when people are gone from the blogging world they come back with exciting news.

I have no exciting news. It's just been one of those seasons of life where I have been crazy busy and don't really have anything blog worthy to talk about.

Nothing even worthy of a Weekly Weekend Update. How sad is that?

I have been crazy busy with work events and all of the house-hunting we have been doing.

We are trying to take advantage of the first time home buyer tax credit so we need to find a home ASAP.

I was supposed to meet a very special blog friend this weekend, but ultimately Luke and I decided that we don't have too many Saturday's left before the tax credit ends, so we needed to spend that Saturday looking at houses. I was only a little bitter.

I am not lying when I tell you that we drove around for nine hours house hunting. NINE. HOURS.

We could have driven to Alaska and back in that time.

It is obvious that Luke and I have different views of what a 'first time' home looks like. I have beautiful neighborhoods with a park and pool pictured, and don't forget those brick mail boxes that line the curbs.

I have quickly learned that is not what Luke has pictured.

This is one place where he took us on Saturday:

Do you see brick Mailboxes?

Do you see a park?

Wait, do you see ANY sign of civilization?? NO! He took me to dirt roads in the middle of nowhere.

All I could do was laugh, and of course take a picture.

This might be a long process.

Also, I have to share with you the best iPhone application ever.

It is a Starbucks app and it is amazing.

It will locate stores that are close by, and walks you through building your favorite drink and allows you to store it, so if you will never forget your favorite 'mixes'.

This is really going to help me as I go through all of your comments to find my absolute favorite Starbucks drink!!!

That's all I have for now! I hope you are all having a great week!

Thursday Thoughts

My brain has been incapable of functioning properly lately so I have to rely on random thoughts to get me through, please see below:


1. I am still utterly obsessed with goldendoodles and I totally want one.

2. I tried a skinny vanilla latte this morning. I determined to try every drink that was suggested on my blog post. I am going to make an excel spreadsheet with every drink and make a column for drinks I like, don't like, and still need to try.

4. Yes, I am a nerd.

5. I am so sick of house hunting. My husband is the pickiest man alive. One house that we loved he decided he didn't like because the master bathroom door was too close to the toilet. Excuse me....WHAT?

6. I am an event planner. I have decided that I love planning the event but I hate the implementation part. If I could plan an event for months and then be gone the actual day of said event it would be wonderful!

7. Excited for the Grey's premiere tonight!!!!!!!

8. I wish that Lost was starting right now.

9. I set out my fall decorations and I am still in need of some more pumpkins.

10. I want to go to NYC soooooooo bad. I told hubby if he wasn't going to buy a house anytime soon he needs to take me to NYC. I keep hoping he is planning a surprise trip there, when I told him this he laughed at me. I'm thinking no.

11. I have on a sweater today.

Happy Thursday!

How Much is that Doggie in the Window?

My whole life my family has had a dog.

When I was younger, if a friend didn't have a family dog I thought it was totally weird. What kind of family doesn't have a dog?

When I went to college I became completely obsessed with getting my very own dog. I desperately wanted a dog to carry in my purse.

When I want something I don't just want it, I become completely OBSESSED and that is what happened to me. I would go to the local pet store almost every. single. day.

And it didn't help that I went to the pet story on my birthday and the cute little puppy that I had my eye on was gone. I talked to the store owners about the person who bought it and they said it was a boy who bought it for his girlfriend for her birthday.

Do I need to remind you that it was my birthday that very day?

Naturally I became convinced that Luke had bought me the puppy.

All day I practiced my 'surprised' face when Luke would bring out the cute black and white puppy.

That night Luke gave me a rather large gift card to a local Spa for an all day massage/facial etc. etc. It was not a puppy.

All of the practicing my 'surprised' face went out the window. I'm pretty sure I just looked ticked.

I thought for sure I was getting a sweet cuddly puppy!

I still occasionally apologize to him that I was not very grateful for my gift that year. And despite my actions I am glad that he still chose to marry me.

We laugh about it today, however he doesn't really laugh when I remind him that I still haven't used the gift card (the gift-card doesn't expire at this particular place). It has been four years since that birthday. It is just too painful to use the money knowing that it should have been spent on a puppy!

Actually I'm just not a big fan of massages. They are kind of weird to me.

Anyways, since that birthday my deep desire for a puppy has sort of gone away. And the fact that our apartment doesn't allow animals has pretty much taken the option of getting a dog out of the equation.

But now that we are home hunting we have been bringing up the puppy option more often and talking about what kind of dog we would want to get.

When discussing options I thought I wanted a small dog that I could carry in my purse, and Luke wanted a big dog.

I didn't think I wanted a big dog until I saw one of these earlier this year:

Seriously, is that not the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Its a goldendoodle and I want one. Today.

A student was walking one of these on campus the other day and it was like a REAL LIFE TEDDY BEAR. I never knew I could have puppy love at first sight! But I did.

They are just the cutest things ever.

I am still trying to talk Luke into getting one of these when we get a house. I might even let him use my gift card money for a massage if he lets me have one!

So, are you a little dog person, or a big dog person?

Or perhaps, a cat person?

*I found this particular goldendoodle picture on the internet on several sites, so I don't know where the original is from.

M-I-A

Sorry I have been MIA lately. I have been busy trying out all of the millions of drink options that were left on my last post about your favorite coffee drink.

Seriously, so many options out there and I am determined to try them ALL.

A lot of you girls suggested the White Chocolate Mocha drink, which I tried the next day and it did not disappoint.

Very yummy.

Luke received a $20 gift card to Starbucks this weekend and being the awesome hubby that he is he told me I could have it to continue my quest to try every drink combination that was left on my blog.

That and the fact that he doesn't want to gain weight from drinking a fatty drink every morning.

I hope to post with my favorite drink soon.

I know, I know you are on the edge of your seat waiting.

Aside from drinking a lot of coffee this weekend, I also spent a lot of time in front of the TV. I watched Dirty Dancing and only cried 3 times and then watched the Emmy's and only cried once.

Ry Ry was totally robbed. He should have won for best host. End. Of. Story.

So that was my weekend in a coffee bean (instead of a nut shell, get it?)

I wish I had something more fun to talk about but I do not.

I have noticed that I have some new followers/commenter's so I just wanted to say hello.

Last year I did a question and answer post which you can find here. Just in case you want to know more about me. I am pretty much an open book.

Sometimes, too open which causes my mother and husband to cringe.

And because I have nothing at all to talk about if you want to ask me any further questions feel free.

Unless it is how I felt when Ryan didn't win the Emmy.

Because I don't want to relive that memory.

Your Coffee Drink

Thank you for all of your 'Perfect Wave' advice. I actually own a lot of the products that were suggested I just have never tried them.

This morning I tried the curl cream that is supposed to be similar to my magic potion but instead it came in a tube. It was ok. It made my waves nice and flowy and not stiff, which we all seem to like.

Getting the perfect wave is a lot of work.

As I have mentioned before there is not much going on in my life right now other than work and looking at homes. And neither of those are fun topics to talk about.

So instead I am asking every question I have ever wanted to ask but never had the chance because I was telling stories.

Here is today's question.

What do you get when you go to Starbucks?

I recently became a coffee drinker and realized I was missing out on this phenomenon called Starbucks.

Before my coffee obsession began the only thing I had ever ordered at Starbuck's was a hot chocolate. Sometimes I even got risky and got a mint hot chocolate. But it never went past that. I never ventured into the world that is coffee beans.

So now that I'm a coffee drinker I want to join the group of all the cool kids that enjoy a good Starbucks drink.

But it is so overwhelming.

You can get a pump of this.

Or a drizzle of that.

Or a shot of this.

Or you can get it double brewed, foam or no foam, extra hot or slightly cool.

SO many choices and I am SO confused.

So I want to know what everybody gets. Just tell me what your one favorite Starbucks drink is.

And for the record. I tried the pumpkin spice latte and hated it.

So, how do you like your coffee?

The Perfect Wave

During my college years I discovered something amazing.

Actually I discovered a lot of amazing things during college, and not one of those amazing things had anything to do with school work.

One amazing thing I discovered was the absolute perfect curl cream:

Seriously, this stuff was amazing.

And please notice that I said was. For some reason the people at Garnier thought it would be a good idea to STOP making the best curl cream ever.

Can we please have a moment of silence for the best curl cream ever?

.......................................................................................

Thank You.

I have mentioned before that I prefer my hair straight, but days that I do wear it wavy I always rely on my Garnier curl cream and it has never failed me.

Until the day they suddenly stopped making it for absolutely no reason.

Bitter, party of one.

So now I am on a quest.

A quest for the perfect wave.

And to obtain the perfect wave I need the most-perfect wave producing product. Well the second most-perfect wave producing product since they just quit making the number one product.

Seriously, not bitter.

So friends, those of you that were born with hair not so straight, but also not so curly, hair with just a bit of wave in it.

What do you use to get the *perfect* wave?

Please help.

My hair will forever be grateful.

Taco Soup Recipe

I have mentioned this before but I am a seasonal eater.

I like cool foods in the summer and warm foods in the winter.

And I know its September but today the temperature only got to 71 degrees and I consider that Winter.

So I knew I would want something warm for dinner.

The past couple of weeks, I have started planning my meals out on Sunday night for the entire next week.

And yesterday it was rainy and cool (to me) so I planned to make a warm meal for Monday night.

I have this great Taco Soup recipe that I got out of the Kraft magazine last Winter and it is a perfect, quick meal.

Taco Soup

1 lb extra lean ground beef (or turkey meat if you roll that way, I don't)

1 onion, chopped

3 cans (151/2 oz each) mild chili beans, undrained

1 can (14 1/2 oz) whole tomatos, undrained

1 can (14 1/4 oz) corn, undrained

1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce

1 p kg (1 1/4 oz) Taco seasoning mix

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/2 cups Shredded Cheese

• Brown beef with onions
• Add all remaining ingredients, except cheese. Stir breaking up tomatos. Bring to boil. Simmer on medium-low heat for 5 minutes stirring occasionally
• Serve topped with cheese

This recipe is so easy and super yummy and VERY quick. Thanks Kraft!

Weekly Weekend Update

I don't really have much going on for the Weekly Weekend Update

I went to two showers this weekend, but I didn't take one picture.

I went to a personal shower on Friday for a church friend and a baby shower on Saturday for my friend Faith who is expecting her second little boy.

A couple of weeks ago several commenter's asked about a Personal Shower.

I don't know if it is a southern thing or not but a personal shower is a shower for the bride. Everybody brings her lingerie and 'fun' things for the honeymoon.

I have been to some personal showers that were the same night as the Bachelorette Party and some that were a completely separate event.

They are always a lot of fun! Definitely my favorite type of shower to go too!

I hope that is a good explanation.

Yesterday (Sunday) Luke and I hung out with my parents and then went to dinner with some good friends and had fun. I watched the VMA's for the first time in several years and was quickly reminded why I despise all things MTV.

And that is where this edition of Weekly Weekend Update ends.

Yesterday a friend pointed out that I had been slacking in the blogging and tweeting area.

Truthfully, I have been slacking in the whole 'life' thing all-together.

I have been so absent minded lately. And feel very 'out-of-whack'.

I have been going non-stop lately and will continue to do that through the first of October.

Which, I'm not complaining, I love a fast-paced life. But if my blogging, commenting and tweeting are less than normal please do not be alarmed.

And sadly my blog and twitter account aren't the only ones who are being neglected. My poor little DVR needs so much attention its not even funny.

I definitely need to get it cleaned out before all the shows start with the new seasons.

Which I know a lot of shows have already begun they are waiting for me on my DVR. I just haven't had time to watch them yet.

And you know, if Megan isn't watching TV then she must be really busy. I always make time for my beloved TV.

Its kind of annoying when life gets in the way of important things like The Vampire Diaries. Which I still haven't watched so if anybody has a review I would love to hear it.

And now I must get back to these so called life events.

Plus I need to make time for buying pumpkins, you can never have enough pumpkins.

Happy Monday my friends.

I Love Pumpkins

There was a time when my mind was open and flowing and I had so much to talk/write about.

This week there is nothing going on in that mind of mine.

I have been crazy busy lately, so by the time I actually get home I just sort of crash. Which could be why there is nothing going on in my brain.

Or maybe its just a mini blessing in disguise.

I am a person who has been known at times (or all the time) to talk too much, and sometimes I exhibit that really ugly 'foot in mouth' syndrome.

There is a verse in the bible about "cutting off the flow of the mouth" and sometimes I'm pretty sure I can see the letters: MEGAN written in front of it.

So, I am embracing this new temporary quiet Megan.

However, my quietness could be caused by the amount of shame I feel over how much money I have spent on fall decorations so far this year.

And please notice that I said "so far". Because even though there is shame, I'm still not done with the shopping.

I think Fall decorations are the most amazing decorations ever.

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas decorations, but there is just something so

wonderful about Harvest and Thanks and PUMPKINS.

And I've gone Pumpkin crazy.

Usually I just reserve my pumpkin love for those amazing little candy pumpkins that I'm pretty sure are a mix of pure sugar and pure heaven.

But this year I have taken my pumpkin love above and beyond food.

I visit Hobby Lobby and Kirkland's daily.

And the Fall decoration buying has gotten pretty bad.

But tell me, could you really pass up this pumpkin platter for TEN dollars?

See, I knew you couldn't pass it up.

It would be illegal to pass up something this cute for that cheap.

And that is exactly what I'm telling The Hubs when he checks the checking account.

However NFL officially began tonight so maybe he will still be in Happy Football La La Land to even care.

Meanwhile, I will be purchasing more pumpkins. Love them.

To Do List

Every morning at work I create my daily To Do List.

And sometimes if I complete a task, but it wasn't on my To Do List I will totally write it on the paper just so I can mark it off.

And every list must be written in black ink with a gel point pin and marked off with a red fine point Sharpie.

I'm not high-maintenance at all.

So the other day Luke told me that he was reading a book that encouraged him to write down not just his daily/weekly/monthly To Do's but to think broader and write down everything you want to do at some point.

Sort of like a Lifetime To Do List.

So I joined in with him and jotted down some of my Life goals.

And by jotted down I mean I am on page three.

Neither of our lists are done yet (they will probably always be a work in progress) but we shared our lists tonight. It was so fun!

Some of the goals are short term, and some are long term goals. Some are serious and some are silly, but they are all truly goals.

Some of my goals:
- Buy a Bike
- Travel to Australia
- Get second wedding band for the top of my ring
- Host dinner for guests at least twice a month
- Build serving piece collection
- Build holiday decoration collection
- Send encouraging notes to friends
- Get laser eye surgery
- Buy a Louis Vuitton Speedy bag
- Learn to sew

Some of Lukes:
- Go on mission trip
- Visit Europe
- Build dream home
- Watch the NY Giants play on home field
- Visit Jerusalem and Israel
- Go to the eye dr. (obviously short term, and this may have been a hint to me because I have been saying that I will make our appointment for about the past 6 months)
- See Radiohead live
- Read to my kids The Bible, Lord of the Rings, and Bernstein Bears (this one made me laugh, my husband is so cute)
- Learn to Fly Fish

Goals we both had:
- Lead someone to Christ
- Buy home in next couple of months
- Buy a bike
- Sponsor a child overseas
- Buy new camera

When we made our lists we wrote down everything that came to our mind. Whether it was silly, materialistic (please see Speedy bag for reference) or seemed completely out of reach we wrote it down. We never want to limit ourselves to what we can do just because it doesn't seem 'do-able' at this moment.

Plus, even though it doesn't seem possible I learned more about my husband. Such as the fact that he wants hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars worth of music equipment sometime in the future.

I'm not sure if that will come before or after my Speedy bag.

So what is a goal you have?

Just the first thing that comes to your mind.

It can be something serious or silly.

Something that you can achieve in the next 24 hours or maybe its something you won't be able to achieve for several (several) years.

What is it?

I'm excited to see every body's goals!

Weekly Weekend Update

This was most definitely not a very productive/eventful weekend, but it was a fun one.

Friday night I opened a box that definitely didn't need to be opened. I re-opened my Dawson's Creek obsession. Apparently I think that I don't watch enough TV and I needed to watch a little more.

I own all seasons of Dawson's Creek and I have re-begun season one.

My friend Samantha asked me a very important questoin that I must also ask all of my fellow Dawson's Creek fans: Pacey or Dawson????

Saturday Luke and I had intentions to wake up and go hiking. Those were good intentions, but not what we ended up doing.

Instead we woke up and began our journey of house hunting once again.

Which felt like climbing a mountain itself.

We had taken a little break from house hunting to 'figure some stuff out' but now we are starting back up that mountain. That huge mountain! I will be so happy the day we are homeowners.

Sunday my mom and Maxton came to spend the day with Luke and me. I just love spending time with this little guy.

Here he is playing with Luke's ukulele:Notice all of the domino's behind him, those were the only "toys" I had for him. I think Aunt Megan needs to invest in some toys.

After my mom and Maxton headed home I decided to finally quench my craving of a hot dog. I have been craving a hot dog for a couple of weeks now, so weird I know. So we went to Sonic and finally got my hot dog! Yay!

I also have a new drink discovery to share with you: Diet Coke with White Coconut.

Oh my.

Simply amazing.

I got one with my Sonic Coney and it was delicious. My new favorite drink!!

Hope you had a great weekend!

I'm so glad I get to sleep in tomorrow!

It's Football Season Now....

It's football season again and that means that my cute hubby will turn into a crazy man yelling at the TV and jumping around stomping his feet.

He is a die-hard NY Giants fan and last year I recorded some of his antics during a game.

For his sake I didn't show the recordings to anybody, but if I ever need a good laugh I go watch them.

Football has never been my thing.

In middle school, if I went to the game, it was to hang out with friends.

In high school I went cause it was cool.

My senior year of high school I went because I was all sentimental and wanted to soak in every last bit of high school.

Then college came and I met Luke.

And Luke's brother played college football, which meant I went to lots of college football games.

It was time to take football seriously

Potential in-laws who are football crazy = Megan pretending to care about those men running around, and trying to figure out where in the heck that tiny ball is.

As time went on I actually started to enjoy the games. I had lots and lots of questions and Luke and his family were happy to help answer them.

I will never forget the time I asked where those yellow lines were.

Apparently those things are only on TV which completely complicates things.

So now I understand football and for the most part I enjoy it.

In fact I am very grateful to football because it is the reason I got to go to Hawaii. My junior year of college Luke's brother's football team played the Hawaii team so I of course had to go to that game.

Best game ever.

I was looking through my pictures and seriously I do not have ONE picture of us at a football game from our college years. I'm sure Luke's parents have some but I have none.

The only one I have is from our time in Hawaii:

See what I mean? It was the best game ever. Actually I don't even remember going to the football game, only the beautiful beaches!

So just know that I LOVE football if we are in Hawaii. If we are in Oklahoma, I'm just so-so about it.

If you had questions about my Prayer-Journal Tabs here are some answers. If you have any more questions feel free to email me!
The Tabs
Some of you asked about the tabs that I put in my prayer journal. I pretty much just used the basic: Praise, Confession, Thanks, and Prayer Request tabs. I added an Answered Prayers request because I think that those are important to keep track of just to see how God works.

I also made several other tabs that I have not yet put in my journal:

Notes: Because I want to be able to put notes that I take during sermons or while reading books in my journal so I can reference them if I need too

Daily Prayers: These are different than my prayer requests. These are prayers that I will always pray daily, which is just basically Luke, our future family and the members of our extended families. I will always go through these everyday.

Luke: I did make a tab for Luke, but I don't know if I will use it. I am currently reading "The Power of a Praying Wife" so I thought there might be things out of that book that I would want to put in the 'Luke' tab, but now I am thinking I will just put those under 'Notes'.

So that's basically my journal. My cute zebra print journal, I might add.

The Giant and Her Journal

Last night Luke and I were laying in bed and he was reading my blog post from yesterday.

He does read all my posts and all of my comments everyday. He says he moderates the comments to make sure there are no creepers out there.

So creepers beware, he is on the lookout.

And I'm pretty sure the only reason he reads the posts is so that he can find something grammatically wrong and correct me.

Between my grandma and Luke I am made aware of every grammar mistake I have ever made.

Everybody should have an English major and a former English teacher in their life. It really keeps you on your toes.

So last night we were laying in bed and Luke was looking at my post where I put a picture of me and Lindsey together and he said:

"Whoa!" "That girl is tiny, you look like a giant standing next to her!"

It's a good thing I haven't been worried about the extra pounds I put on lately because a comment like that just might have sent me over the edge.

Sometimes I'm pretty sure boys don't think.

But as long as he continues to make me breakfast and coffee in the morning I will let it slide.

And just so you know, it really didn't hurt my feelings, I thought it was pretty funny, only because it was true.

In other slightly non-related news I have been trying to find a way to organize the time that I spend with God.

Sometimes I just come to him ramble on and on and don't really adequately use time that I set aside.

I remembered that I used a journal format in college and it worked for awhile, so I decided to try it again.

So I used the very, very little crafty skills that God gave me and put together a prayer journal.

And by crafty skills I mean I cut up some paper and put it in a binder.

Clearly, I will be setting up an etsy shop soon.

I used this pretty zebra paper and I'm sure God loves the fact that I used zebra paper for my prayer journal. I am fully supporting God's beautiful creation.

I love all things zebra.

Except for zebra leggings, those are not cute.

Here is the inside of my journal with nifty tabs that I printed off on the computer and felt a little too proud of my accomplishment.

I even included a tab just for Luke, because clearly he needs lots of prayer in learning not to call his lovely bride a "giant."

Random of Sorts

Just some random thoughts:

1. Today I had a very special lunch date with my bloggy friend Lindsey who was in my town for a work event.

This was our third time to get together and each time we hang out, we have so much fun. She is so fun and just so cute! I think we could always talk for waaaay longer then time allows. I am glad to not only call her my blog friend, but also a real life friend!


We rode to lunch in my car where she got to see my broken key in full action. It totally made me feel ghetto fabulous. Maybe one day I will have a normal key again.

2. Last week Luke and I picked up our other end table and I found some cute lamps on sale at Kirkland's (seriously love that place). It's amazing how much those two tables add to our living room. It brings a sense of a 'home' feeling to our apartment.

This is a bad picture but its the only one I have and I figured I couldn't talk about the tables without pic.

Next item I need to buy is a painting to go above the couch. I thought we would only be in our apartment for 6 months, but now, since I figured out we are going to be here for a good forever I decided I should go ahead and fully decorate the ole APT.

3. Today I got my Kraft magazine in the mail and I am excited to try some of the recipes! There are some good ones in there this month. Although, I am convinced that the magazine contains some magic brain washing powder between the pages.

We went grocery shopping this evening and I kept grabbing Kraft products. I was not even doing it on purpose. And I suddenly found myself CRAVING Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese and a grilled cheese sandwich with Kraft cheese. That is marketing at its finest.

4. We have no plans for our Labor Day weekend which seriously stresses me out. We can't really do anything for the weekend because we have to be back for Sunday morning. Not having plans on a holiday weekend makes me want to cry. And then I realize that is dumb and I need to get over it. I am lucky to have a weekend that I can use to relax and spend time with my cute hubs.

5. Today I did not put my hair in a ponytail until 5:30. That's progress people! And I wore my new girly perfume!