Thursday, February 28, 2008

Because the caffeine caught up to me

Tuesday I had a dentist appointment to tackle a few cavities. More like a revenge of my former Dr. Pepper addiction I'd say. Which by the way I am 7 months Dr. Pepper free. My systems still on the mends from the caffeine running in my blood stream, but boy does it feel good to say..."Hi my name is Megan and it's been 7 months since my last Dr. Pepper". Very liberating indeed. Although I've been desperately tempted with fierce cravings for it's bubbly goodness for 212 days, 4 hours, and 34 minutes. But really, who is counting?

Back to my dental beating. I'd really say it is sort of the worst vengence because not only do they give you a shot right in the gums that brings tears to your eyes, but they charge you $200 for it and then you get to remain numb for hours and have to miss a meal because you can't feel the right side of your face. Why don't they rip out my heart and stomp on it and waive it in front a a Nordstrom's sale.

Needless to say I've learned my lesson and will continue to pass on the caffeine.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Tarje Boutique

I think Gary Chapman should extend his book and add in Target as a love language. Because that is for sure mine. Target's my therapy...oh how I love it so. I mean there is no other place on earth where you can purchase damask curtains and dog food in one place. I do believe I could spend a whole day there.

The other day I ran into Target for the essentials, toliet paper, paper towels, toothpaste and I just about fell over in the new converse aisle at all the new cute things.

Look at this darling top. Love it Love it Love it. Just with jeans not loving the skirt look and maybe a pair of the cute white converse shoes to match. The shoes are like the cherry on top, they're so fun.

And I might just need a pink pair as well. Because well every girl needs a pink pair of converse tennis shoes. Maybe with a cute pair of denim bermudas too.


Oh Target you are a dear good friend.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Why I don't play board games with four-year-olds

This weekend I learned that 4-year olds cheat at board games.

Okay maybe not all 4-year olds, but one in particular. I had the wonderful joy of getting to spend some time with my baby cousin, H. She's as cute as they come and we thrive at any chance we get to see her. She is pug's biggest fan making sure that on Christmas morning he is well aware of everything Santa brought her and refers to Dora's four-legged friend with a true southern twang. It's no longer "Boots" it's "Baaaooouuuts". She's such a love. This weekend boy went to a Star's hockey game with her mom, dad and brother and I jumped at the chance to entertain Miss H.

After a rather quick two bite meal we began the festivites with Hi Ho Cherry-O. A classic where you spin the wheel and it tells you how many cherries to add or remove. Simple enough until a certain 4-year old begins to change up the rules. In the end the game became "I spin for you" and "I win". I bite my tongue and reminded myself she is only four...she is only four.

Then after I had enough of "no I spin again" I suggested a new game, Candyland. My childhood favorite. I felt this would be amuch simpler game to play since there is no spinner involved. After spending 5 minutes deciding which color we would be and me getting stuck with the not-so-pretty-girl-color piece we began. After 30 minutes of a grueling Candyland game where we changed pieces numerous times, didn't want to pass by the "scary" licorice monster so we had to jump over half the board because those are the rules, we made it to the end with a very victorious 4-year old and a very exhausted adult with a bleeding tongue from biting it so many times.

God Bless you patient mommies out there.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Spam doesn't just come in a can...

it's also polluting up my inbox.

My word where does it all come from? I mean are people really sitting at their desk randomly sending out e-mails for crazy things? I might just never understand these fancy internet things.

Between 3 e-mail addresses I get a lot. So I really feel about a quarter of my day is spent deleting these e-mails. I have to weed through them because if I don't then an important e-mail slips in, get deleted and just messes my life up. But when I get desperately bored they provide some great entertainment. This one I just received could go into the hall of fame of spam funniness.

"Want to be a CSI agent?"

Hum well I don't know, maybe. Do I get to work with Grissom, Sara and the rest of the Las Vegas team ? I mean seriously. Folks we are in a load of trouble if our crime investigators are being hired from spam e-mails.

Now your turn...do share your spam hall of fame.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Note #2 to the pug


Dear Pug,
You need to have a talkin' to. Just because it is the winter months and you feel it is too cold to "go" outside does not make it okay to turn my dining room into a urinal. It seems as if every time you wonder off I find you in this position (see picture above). No I do not think it's funny to scrub urine out of wrought iron or carpet. Keep it up my furry friend and we may have to adopt a toddler that likes dressing up doggies and wheeling them around in play strollers.

Now stop giving me the cute face..it's not going to work this time. Okay maybe it will.

Love,
girl

*and yes sweet friends there is a new addition to the blog. the wonderful people at blogher have taken me on. i've been doing some writing for a few sites for nada and it has taken a lot of my time away from my family, so i feel this sort of can keep me going on all fronts. this blog is my heartbeat and will continue to be my heartbeat so nothing will change. if you need a deeper explianation feel free to e-mail me. love you all!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Big Yella Fella

Last week I was running errands and at a red light got stuck right behind a big yella fella. For those of you now lost....a yellow school bus. I sat there thinking I may need a bag to gag in as the rush of school bus pleather memories came rushing back. Oh the horrid smells of a school bus. The narly scent of faux leather, the foulness of smelly feet, the "big" kids who have not discovered deoderant and of course I always seemed to be on the bus with that one child who discovered they had motion sickness. But the greatest part was the bus stop. Oh your designated spot of cement where together you and your group of fellow journeymen prayed silently that maybe today would be the day that the bus would forget about us and we would no longer have to stand shivering in the snowy Chicago tundra.

One day the Lord answered that prayer. Oh yes He did. That bus filled with children scampering to finish their homework and little ones picking their noses and hiding it beneath the seat never appeared one early morning. So with no other choice the mom's loaded us up in a gloriously heated mini van and drove us to school. It was a true big yella fella miracle.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Because it now mocks me every time I sit on my rear


I dusted this little number off and pulled it out of the spare room and put is smack dab in the family room. I won't stop staring at me.

Friday, February 15, 2008

The e-mail's on the frits

I sure hope that is the correct spelling for "frits". According to the dictionary it has not heard of such a word, either that or I have butchered the spelling. Forgive me.

My blog e-mail is apparently under the weather and I've received some clear cut signs of failed e-mails, so if you have sent me an e-mail in the last 24 hours please send it again. That is unless the e-mail was regarding "pills for men" then please by all means those fine folks can keep the e-mails to themselves.

A Blonde tackles Photoshop

Yes ma'am we have a new blog header. I meant to point that out in one of my posts. My other life altering information on television and cupcakes just took rank over posting my new look.

I've been playing around with Photoshop for a few months and let me say that this is some fancy stuff...and rather addicting. I'm sort of feeling old because I'm sure a six year old has already mastered the basics and could teach me a thing or too. My college computer education reached only to Powerpoint and since I make wicked Powerpoint presentations every day for fun it's gotten me real far.

A few of y'all asked me what Photoshop I use and all I use is the Elements 4.0 for Mac. It's about $90 and it really does everything I need it to do. Now of course I would love Photoshop CS3, but I am not willing to refinance my home for it. The price is sort of shocking. Before Photoshop I was just using iPhoto. It's really VERY basic and great to twick your photos a bit. Now here's why I use photoshop. Before every picture goes up on to my blog I enchance, maybe crop it, or remove pug's "business" out of the picture (I had a talking to pug and told him that if he was going to continue to be flashy in pictures he had to wear pants). I know sort of tedious, but here is the difference.


The before image straight off the digital camera.


After...this makes it all worth it to load the image up. And now you can see that my table desperately needs Pledge.

Anyway, I am not claiming to be a pro just answering some questions. I think Elements is a great starter. It's a little overwhelming at first and reading the manual is like taking a Hebrew class so my best advice is just set the instructions aside a play with it. Pop a photo up and experiment, you can't break it. There are also some great tutorials out there for those of us who thought Photoshop was a shop to get your photos at.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

silly little cheers & jeers

-cheers to Big Brother 9! I could do a dance it makes me so happy, yet it is throwing me off a bit that I am watching while celebrating Valentine's day.
-jeers to the wind that two weeks ago made my car door go flying out of my hand and bang the car next to me for which the little dint is so tiny you have to stand back 2 feet and at just the right angle you are able to see it. Without a doubt my fault, but someone please tell me why it took them a week to decide to holler at my insurance and then forget the date and how it happened.
-cheers to the writers strike ending and now we can anxiously await "The Office" to return.
-jeers to the fact that for some odd reason I have the worst time telling the difference between actresses Isla Fisher & Amy Adams. I thought they were the same.
-cheers to my mother-in-law that brought a box of red velvet cupcakes over.

-jeers to the fact that is it obvious from this post I watch too much tv.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A Photo Meme

Erin tagged me for a photo meme. It's taken me a rather long time to get it together because it's really hard to choose just one favorite! Here's the rules.

Using the list of questions I have to use Google Images to answer to question. So here goes...I hope I answered them all.

1. A place you'd like to travel.

Bora Bora- just not quite sure how I'd get out of that hammock in the water.

2. Favorite Food.

Chips & Queso. It's a staple at our house.

3. Favorite Desert.

I love te Sorbet Fizzle from TCBY. It's sorbet with Sprite. It's purely divine.

4. My name.

I feel honored that Pottery Barn named their Megan chair after me. Okay no they didn't name it after me, but this is the Megan chair.

5. Favorite animal.

This is sort of a gimme isn't it?

6. Pet's name.

Well he's nickname is Dora the Puggy Explorer.

7. Favorite Singer.

Today...Christian singer Mat Kearney. This changes rather frequently.

8. Town you live in.

Around the Dallas area.

9. Current Job.

Small Business owner...so I look at this all day. Dream job: Assistant to the assistant to the regional manager. That would be fun!

10. Favorite Author.

This is a tough one cause y'all now I love to read. C.S. Lewis all time favorite though.

11. Favorite Color.

Okay I know it's more of shade. But I love black. It's classic it looks great on. I love it soo. Next up on the color list is sage and pink.

12. Bad habit.

wasting water...I'm sorry.

13. Favorite object.

My kitchenaid mixer. I felt my Bible was sort of a given so I got creative. I don't know if I could go without my mixer.

14. Favorite celebrity.

Kate Hudson

15. Favorite Song.

Sia's "Breathe Me" I am so loving this song right now. With this on my ipod I can run far. My second runner up is Journey's "Don't Stop Believin".

Anyone who wants to do this feel free...just let me know if you do.

Monday, February 11, 2008

The most beautiful zebra print plate I've ever seen

Y'all I never win anything! Okay I take a little bit of that back because at a bridal show I entered for a drawing for a trip giveaway. Got a call 4 days later saying congrats you sucker you've won a 3 hour lecture on pots and pans and for coming we will begrudingly give you a trip to the Bahamas for 3 nights. And let me tell you I could not drag boy fast enough to that Ramada Inn room where we sat for 3 long hours as we educated ourselves about the creme de la creme of cookware. Afterwards, boy made a comment about did anyone really fall for that? Then we looked around and witnessed people hurriedly filling out order forms and getting financed for some spiffy pots and pans. We laughed as we ran out the door with our gift certificate in hand. We never made it there by the way mainly because I'm a hotel snob.

But then...I'm so excited to tell y'all this. I won something fabulous from the bloggy giveaways hosted by Rocks in My Dryer. Look it came all beautifully wrapped...





Oh my word y'all it's even more beautiful in person. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw it posted on the bloggy giveaways because y'all know how much I love me some zebra print. The plate is from the Neutral Dwelling website and they have some more fantastic pieces, so do stop by and check them out. They also have a great blog with some great design inspiration.

Thank you Neutral Dwelling!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

A puggy quiet time

During a call this afternoon I noticed something rather unusal. Silence.

I realized that quite a bit of time had passed since I last heard a loud bang or crash.

This is never good and when I couldn't find him in his normal hangouts; I feared I'd lost me a pug.

I began my search and found this.


He's so sweet. A pug sitting on my Beth Moore Daniel study (awesome by the way). He looks like he's really camping out in some serious scripture.

And through the magic of my dear friend photoshop I was able to eliminate his "business" showing.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Hallmark's Finest

I love my husband more than I could ever begin to tell you. He is so talented in so many aspects.

However, cards shopping is not his strongest.

As Forrest Gump once said, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get". Well in boy's aspect. You never know what you're gonna get when he hands over a card.

My first point. This Card. This card was Valentine's 2005 right before we got married. I was shocked because this card actually came from the appropriate Valentine's card rack. You will later learn that many times I get a generic card or gas station card because of his wonderful ability to wait until the last minute or a simple explaination later that too many people were standing in the way of the Valentine's section. Oh the love isn't is glowing!

So let's get back to the monkey in the boxer card. Notice how he adds commentary to the card for a more personalized approach. How sweet and creative of him!

Now what you can't see is that the card does not open, hint the back. And nothing is more romantic than the word "hitched", is it?

Now let me back up a few years to our college days and tell you about our first Valentine's. My first true love and I clearly remember thinking this is going to be the most poetic card and I'll just treasure this one forever. Maybe even frame it. I opened it up and low in behold it's in spanish (explaination-slim pickings if you wait until the afternoon of Valentine's day) so he made do. Sadly for him I read spanish pretty well, shocking since I just got back from that class that afternoon. The card translated to "Happy Valentine's Day to my Grandmother". Oh yes ma'am it did. I could not lie about such things. I think my roommate wet her pants laughing so hard.

And then Valentine's 2006. Our first V-day as hubs and wife. I open the card and there is a picture of all these black goldfish swimming around and one bright yellow goldfish in the middle. You open it up and it says "I like you because you're different". How romantic?

I promise I've searched my house high and low to find these cards.

Now don't be jealous ladies of my Romeo!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Read anything good lately?

I always love hearing what y'all are reading, so do share. Here is what my list looks like right now. It comes highly recommended.

reading:

"Searching for God Knows What" by Donald Miller

just read:
"Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller- this book rocks as you can see I enjoyed the author so much I'm reading another one of his right now. This book will move you.
"The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold- everyone kept telling me to read this that it will go down as a classic. It was on the bestseller's list for some time. I finally picked it up over the Holidays and read it. Let me just say wow. It is a beautifully written novel. This book deals with some VERY rough and disturbing issues. This may not sit well with some of you so do be aware of this. I do believe it is coming out as a movie late this year.

will read:
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
"Remember Me" Sophie Kinsella- these is a hilarious British author. She wrote the Shopaholic series. These a quick and fun reads and I can't wait for her newest to come out later this month.
"unChristian" by David Kinnaman- on sale at Family Christian by the way.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

No pressure

I think it can be said that within minutes of spouses saying "I Do" some family member or friend will interrupt the bliss of the moment and blurt out

"so when are yous twos gonna procreate?!?!

we are from Texas so it was said similar to that, but I'm sure you could share your versions as well.

The look on boy's face was probably priceless if I wasn't the one getting a rush of nausea and panic.

Well almost 3 years later and the comments keep coming. This past Christmas on one side of the family there are 6 married couples. 2 of the couples are expecting and 2 announced they are expecting. I was more than thrilled because that means 4 new babies to hold at family events and baby Gap shopping trips.

Minutes after celebrating I could feel the wondering eyes on us.

No pressure though right?