Happy Friday.

Today is Friday and I'm excited.  Not because it means the weekend is around the corner, but because my family is coming to town tonight.  Long, meaningful talks with my Mom.  Encouraging walks with my sister.  Quality time with them both.  Laughing 'till my stomach hurts with my Dad.  Chillin' with the oh-so-cool Jason.  And of course spending time with Chad and Kaela and the cutest kids ever.

I am excited.

I am in desperate need of some quality time.  I am so excited to have people over to our house... this will be our first "official" hosting of our family after we've moved into our new house, and even though we're not even close to being done decorating or "setting it up", I am so excited for them to see what we've done so far and just to have people over.  I am in desperate need of encouragement after a long, terrible week and I know no one, other than my hubby, is able to cheer me up like my family is.

All about me.

I stole this idea from Angie - but regardless, I think it's a great idea for you to get to know me.  Maybe we've never met or maybe we see eachother on a daily basis, there's probably many things you still don't know about me.  So here goes nothin'.

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I'm Megan - my middle name is Lynn, just like my mom's.
I'm married.  Very happily married.  :)

I love Jesus and am reminded daily of His faithfulness.
I am playful.
I love laughing, acting crazy, and not acting my age.
I hate thinking that I have to act like an adult and be serious.
I'm a teller supervisor at a bank.  (Not a permanent job for me.)
I am shopping for a new church, again.
I love to sing.
I love to lead worship.
I love spending time in prayer.
I love taking pictures.
I like to make cards for people, and scrapbook occassionally.
I am musical.
I am talented.
I just bought a house and am proud of my husband and I for the good choices we've made.
I struggle daily.
I long for and need community.
My two love languages are words of affirmation and quality time.
I want people to like me.
I want friends.
I want people to come over to our house.
I need someone to tell me that I'm worth it.
My favorite food is mexican (that is recently discovered BTW)
I cry at good movies, but it's hard for me to cry when my heart is broken or I'm really upset.
I believe in best friends.
It's very hard for me to trust others.
I need to be told that I am loved.
I am thoughtful.
I hear it often from others that I have an amazing family. "Amazing" is an understatement.
My mom and sister are the two most amazing women ever.
I have had two miscarriages and am scared of getting pregnant again.
I love sunny, but cold, days. 
I day-dream on a daily basis.
I'm scared of death.  Not really sure why.
I'm also afraid of the End Times.  Again, not sure why.
I want to travel.  Tyler and I have an ongoing list of places we want to see.
I wish I was more optimistic.
I wish I had a better attitude.
I wish I didn't have a temper.
I'm working on those 3 things listed above. :)

I have braces and it's embarassing. But someday my teeth will be beautiful.
I like to blog but I'm not very good at it.
I'm working on being more vunerable.
I want to make people happy when they're around me.
I want to be remembered after I'm gone.
I want to make a difference in the world.

Need some encouragement?

I know I do today.

If you have 8 spare minutes, this video is sooo worth your time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/_e4zgJXPpI4&hl=en]

Meet my pups!

I just realized last night that I don't think I've ever talked about my pups on my blog!  How sad.

So, without further ado... meet Bailey and Stella! :)

The 10 Commandments of a responsible pet owner

1. My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years. Any separation from you will be very painful.
2. Give me time to understand what you want of me.
3. Place your trust in me - it is crucial for my well-being.
4. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up for my punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment. I have only you!
5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I understand your voice when it's speaking to me.
6. Be aware that however you treat me, I'll never forget it.
7. Before you hit me, remember that I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in your hand, but I choose not to bite you.
8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I've been out in the sun too long, or my heart may be getting old and weak.
9. Take care of me when I get old. You, too, will grow old.
10. Go with me on difficult journeys. Never say, "I can't bear to watch it" or, "Let it happen in my absence." Everything is easier for ME if you are there. Remember, I love you.

-author unknown
(saw this here)

Food for thought.

I stumbled across this verse tonight and simply cannot get it off my mind.

Proverbs 19:23
"The fear of the Lord leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble." (NIV)
"Fear of God is life itself, a full life, and serene - no nasty surprises." (MSG)

Let me just admit - I hate being vunerable.  I can talk to a friend and just absolutely hate spilling my guts.  I could be crying to my husband but still hate telling him the reason for my tears.  I also hate being vunerable on the internet, where anyone can read it.  But, because I have no other source for venting my frustrations tonight... here goes nothing.

My marriage with Tyler is in a dry spell.  I hate admitting that.  I love the thought of everyone believing we are happily-ever-after and never face trouble.  But, much to my dismay, that is not the truth.  Don't get me wrong, overall we are very happy.  But every now and then we hit these dry patches in our relationship that cause stress.  They cause unhappiness.  They cause discontent.  And if I were to ask *almost* any married couple, I'm positive that they'd say that they've been there a time or two, or maybe even dozens.  Ask me what causes it and I couldn't tell you.  It COULD be any of the following reasons, or maybe all of them combined:

• We just moved.  That is stressful in itself.


• Not only did we just move, but we bought a house.  Again, stressful.


• We are both working many many many hours of OT a week so we don't get to spend much down time together anymore.


• I'm not happy with myself (image-wise), causing me to be sad to begin with.


• I go to bed early because I'm tired which may be because I'm somewhat depressed, meaning we hardly ever go to bed together anymore.


• We wake up at seperate times, leave for work at seperate times, spend the entire day apart, come home at seperate times, and go to bed at seperate times.  See a pattern here?

I need some advice.  Not just "it'll be alright" kind of advice, but more like what you do when you and your hubby/loved one are in a rut.  You know... fighting a lot, walking on thin ice around eachother, not laughing and enjoying your time together like you used to, etc. 

So, lets here it!  Spill your guts!  What do you do?  Any advice?

I'm back...and still alive!

Yep, still alive.  That's good news, right?! :)  Here's a few pictures from our camping family reunion this past weekend!!!

           

We had a great time at our mini family reunion this weekend.  The weather was PERFECT... high 70's and NO humidity!!  It was awesome to see family again that we don't see very often and as always was fun to have all of the siblings/kids back together.  I am happy to report that I didn't see a single snake, and despite the really bad misquitos and the terrible sunburn I have, it was a perfect weekend.  We were able to spend most of the day yesterday with my Dad for Fathers Day, so that was great too.

On our way there we stopped at Tylers Moms house and before we left we drove through Parkersburg, Iowa to see the damage they had from the tornado a few days ago.  Here's a few pictures... try not to get sick to your stomach like I did. :(

     

Here's some pictures of the flooding going on in Iowa also...

       

Sure makes you thankful for what you have, huh? 

Hope everyone had a great weekend also!!

Storms are NEVER fun.

Don't get me wrong... I love falling asleep and sleeping when it's raining outside.  But I'm talking about a light rain, a drizzle maybe.  Not 50+ MPH winds, hail, and excessive lightning. 

We've had some scary winds and rain in the past few weeks here in Kansas, but my heart breaks for those in Iowa and other places in the midwest that have been hit by tornadoes.  Ever since all these scary storms started happening, I have been having terrible dreams about them.  In my dreams I'm thankful for our sub-basement, but I am never able to hold on tight enough to Tyler, and as stupid as it sounds, I can't ever hold on to both Bailey and Stella either.  I wake up so paranoid and a couple nights this storm season Tyler and I have actually slept downstairs.  I've never been in a tornado, but the thought of going through one and it tearing my house to pieces scares me to death.  Then this morning I wake up to the news of the tornado hitting western Iowa and killing 6 boy scout campers and injuring over 40 other people.  Totally devastating.

Today we are headed to Iowa for vacation for the weekend.  Iowa?  Really?  One of the states that tornadoes have been visiting frequently over the past few weeks?  Yep.  We are headed there for a family reunion... and we're camping.  Yes my friends, camping. 

To top it off, I googled "camping supplies" this morning to see what I should be packing today, and saw the words "snake bite kits".  WHAAAT??! 

I sound like a total girly-girl right now, but understand that I grew up camping on vacations so I'm totally not.  (Camping in NYC anyone??!!)  But I am truly terrified of 2 things in my life... snakes, and tornadoes.

This should be an interesting weekend.  Start praying!!!!

Ooooh la la.

Anyone have a clue what I'm growing here?  Cuz I sure don't!  I sure do love coming home and seeing these beauties in front of the house though! :)

  

 

My hubby has been working so hard on the deck every chance he can... it's been hard to because of the storms & rain we've had.  Today was beautiful and we're not supposed to get rain until Thursday, so we worked again on the deck tonight and it's just about completed.  Oh, and isn't my hubby the hottest thing EVER??!! :)

 

On Sunday afternoon we had my brother, wife, and kids over for lunch.  (Mmm...Casey's pizza!!!)  After lunch we put the kids down, the boys headed downstairs for Halo, so that left only one thing for Kaela and I to do... go shopping!  We headed to Home Goods just to "look" (hehe) and came out with quite a few things.  I had such an awesome time shopping with her... she's a great shopping buddy. :)  When Tyler & I originally were trying to figure out how to decorate in one of the guest rooms, he suggested a beachy/cape cod look.  I was hesitant at first, but after looking at some sweet Pottery Barn inspiration, I was hooked.  Here's a couple pictures of the start of one of the guest bedrooms.

 

 

And since the downstairs bathroom is basically attached to the bedroom, we went all out and got stuff for the bathroom too.  :)  In the last pic you can see the front of the Pottery Barn catalog that was our inspiration.

 

 

I still have a ton to do in the bedroom, but this is a good start.

Happy Monday!

I've been tagged!

I was tagged by the beautiful Brooke over at Living the Happily Ever After!  Here goes nothin'! :)

Rules: Answer the following questions about yourself. At the end of the post you pass on the questions to 6 other bloggers and list their names. Then write them a comment telling them that they've been tagged and ask them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know that you've accepted the challenge and refer to your post.

1. What did you do 10 years ago?
I was in Junior High.  I played volleyball and was a football/wrestling cheerleader.  I had really short chin-length hair and blue fingernails.  I was boy crazy and had a bad attitude.  My best friend was Angie Watts and we spent numerous nights staying up late watching movies, scrapbooking, and drinking wild cherry pepsi.  Ahhh... those were the days.  :)

2. Five items on your to-do list today:

• Make it through the day without throwing up (sorry, TMI - but I don't feel good)


• Go to the gym after work


• Make a nice dinner for the hubs


• Start packing for our mini-vacation this weekend


• Take some time to RELAX for once!

3. Snacks I enjoy?
Sun Chips, 100 Calorie Packs, and Apple & Peanut Butter
     

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?
First and foremost I would tithe.  Then I would pay off our house and debt, then give a big chunk of it to each of our family members.  Then we'd invest it and do something smart with it.  Any leftovers I would furnish and decorate my house compliments of Pottery Barn, then go on a small shopping spree. :)

5. Places I would live:
Well, obviously anywhere my husband & family is.  But if I could just up and move us and our families, I would choose:

Colorado Springs, CO


Breckinridge, CO


Minnesota

I'm not tagging anyone since I think almost everyone I know has been tagged.  So if you're reading this and want to play... TAG, you're it!