Hey Stranger!

Oh hello. It's been a while, no? I actually have a bit of a free evening. I am prone, in bed, and enjoying food Steve has served me in bed (chicken, pasta, and broccoli followed by a dessert course of a mini cup of chocolate ice cream and two Thin Mints.) I am warning you now, this should probably be broken down into multiple posts, but we all know how good at updating I am!

Work has been INSANE lately. Not only do I have newer responsibilities, I am still doing the work I always did in the past, and on top of that we are BUSY. What the hell, people? Stop dying for a bit and let me get a breather. I am now responsible for paying the funeral home bills as well as writing all of the checks for services (ministers, musicians, newspapers for obits) and I always have a bit of a panic when we get really busy. I am scared I'm going to get so caught up in my other, funeral-related work that I will forget to pay bills and we will get the power turned off and the gas cut. I will have a MOUND of paperwork on my desk that I am trying to weed through and my manager says "oh here Megan, more bills!" and HAHA OH MY GOD STOP. It's not cool. So! You know, a really long way to say I'm busy as shit at work.

Hey, did you hear? I'M GETTING MARRIED IN 54 DAYS. Holy crap. We have so! much! already done, but man, it still feels like we are behind on some stuff. Invitations have been sent out, we are getting responses in the mail daily. One shower is under my belt, with a party Steve's bosses are throwing us coming up on the 13th. They have been so nice to him and to us.

I have so much to talk about (still) so we're going to list form:

• We still haven't met with the preacher who is marrying us. We have to meet with him 3 times and our schedules are just giving us a bunch of difficulties. Hopefully we can get together with him for the first time this week. Apparently there is a questionnaire we have to fill out. Steve is already looking for ways to cheat. 
• I have my third dress fitting this week! I had to get it taken in quite a bit, then hemmed, and this one will be to check the hem and then do the bustle. Here, want to see me in it? Shhh! Don't tell Steve.
  
  I have a weird non smile on my face because I was trying not to move my head. My hair was being held in a half up do with one measly bobby pin and was threatening to fall down. I do have them making a lace jacket thingy just in case I want to wear it to give myself a little arm coverage. I am having a hard time accepting the loose skin/wobbly upper arms. I mean, sure, I'm glad I lost 185 pounds, but I wish that came with firm upper arms. 

• I had a shower on the 23rd of March and it was lovely. If we are Facebook friends, you might have seen some of these pictures. Let me share!

My twin sister, Bevin, my mom, and me.

So in the above photo, let's just ignore my mother's weird eye. She had a facelift in February and is recovering.

I think we are starting to look more like twins as we get older.

I got some good stuff.

And more stuff..

and OMG where am I going to put all of this stuff??

Things that are done for the wedding: booze (!!), food, cake, chocolate fountain, photographer, photo booth, favors, sparklers for getaway, bridesmaid gifts, groomsmen gifts, bridesmaid dresses/shoes/jewelry, tuxes picked out, rehearsal dinner location booked, rehearsal dinner dress purchased, honeymoon tickets purchased/hotel booked/rental car booked, flowers, hair/makeup appointments booked, wedding rings purchased

Things that are NOT done for the wedding: parents gifts, rehearsal dinner menu, ceremony harp music selected (the harpist is booked, though!), meeting with minster, hotel for wedding night, getaway car, ceremony program, first dance song picked

This is kind of what the cake is going to look like. Simple, white, every other tier quilted and then the scroll work, but our scroll work will be closer together and a little more detailed.

We are probably going to throw on a couple of orange flowers.

We got simple bands for our rings right now. Steve got a Tungsten one because he is certain he is going to lose at least one band. He is not used to wearing a ring, so he needs one to break him in. I am having a hard time finding a wedding band that goes with my engagement ring. I am going to have to get something custom made when I have enough time to find someone to do it AND when we have the money to drop on that. Plus it'll be nice to have one I can wear to the beach or pool and not worry about losing any diamonds.

So, really, it's not THAT much left, huh? I feel good about it. I feel like I can handle it...with the help of my mom.

Some other things I have been doing:

• Making the three hour round trip drive to see my nephew play baseball. He's so good! I also got a new camera from Steve's sisters and I have been practicing with him. 

That was a homerun! (Steve says not really because there was an error, but Logan made it all the way home, that's what counts!)

He is so TALL and skinny.

Also, the new camera? The first 20 photos on the memory card look like this..

Dinner of champions..Happy Meal, Girl Scout cookies, Diet DP

I need to be on the alert at all times thanks to the stupid huge lens they got us. Steve is going to capture my nose hair if I'm not careful.

• Trying to spend as much quality time with Steve as I can. We went to the Houston Rockets game not too long ago with my family. We went to seven games last year and only one this year. Our lives have gotten too busy to be good fans.

Logan is not being a good fan. My dad (on Steve's right) looks really bored.

• Steve's mom has been cleaning out a lot of his junk as they try to streamline their lives and home.When she does that, I get gems like these:

I get my very own Steve button!

• Hey! I won my family's NCAA March Madness bracket pool. Steve won second! So not only does my dad get to help pay for an expensive wedding, he owes me $200 and Steve $100. I mean, he can't just NOT pay. That wouldn't be cool, DAD. So I'm waiting on that check. It's always nice to get some random cash when you least expect it! We did our brackets with 20 minutes left after my dad sent me a text saying "You and Steve haven't submitted your brackets. You have until 11." AHH panic and pick at random, and imagine that! We won!

Well that about wraps it up. In a nutshell: busy at work, wedding planning coming along nicely, I still love Steve. 

Let me bum you out..

SO! How was your Thanksgiving? It's been a while, eh? I've been buuuuuusy. Work, trying not to let our house go to shit because we both are working a lot, that kind of thing. This is the busy season at Steve's work, so he's home late a lot too. Anyway, enough about that nonsense. I really wanted to talk about something I tweeted a couple of days ago (was it yesterday only? geez.)

Steve and I were on our way to his company Christmas party dinner and I asked him "if I died and you had to describe my body, what identifying marks would you say I had?" This is a risky game, y'all. We've been together 5 years, we are getting married in 6 months, and the man failed. He FAILED. Well, I'm sure he could have given them a good enough description. But no, nothing definitive where the investigators could say "oh man, yep, that's her, that is EXACTLY what we found!"

Let me give you a little tidbit of info you might not know. The medical examiner in the very large county I live in (I don't want it to be able to be searched for on the google, but yeah, you guys know what big city I live near) has a procedure to identify every single body that comes through. They take your fingerprints and send them electronically to the Department of Public Safety and compare them to your driver's license. You don't have a driver's license? Maybe you have an ID card. Not that? Maybe you have a license in another state? They will contact that state. Maybe you are from Canada and they will get with the horse riding Mounties up there. They will find a way. I could show up in their building with my name, social security number, date of birth, and mother's maiden name tattooed on my ass and they would still wait until they had confirmation of positive ID from the state agencies.

SO! The instance where Steve would have to identify my body would be SUCH a rare one, but c'mon, it's fun to think about, right? (I know!) Here's what I did. I started ticking off a list of things he could tell the cops should I become unidentifiable in other ways (what if my fingers get cut off? what if I am so badly decomposed only my frog tattoo on my foot is visible?) Oh, if that's the case, he would totally fail because he had to think way too long to GUESS which foot the tattoo was on (and he had a 50% chance of getting it right anyway! It's the left, if you were curious.)

So here is my list and I wanted to see what YOUR list looks like.  If something happens to me, just print this list off and send it to the local authorities. Don't rely on Steve. For real, I won't ever get identified.

• small frog tattoo on the top of my left foot
• very light birthmark on the left side of my mouth/cheek area (I asked Steve where my birthmark was and he said I didn't have one. I will let him have a pass on this because even my dad used to try to clean it off of my face thinking it was dirt. It's very light.)
• scar across the top of my right hand (flew over the handlebars of my bike and skidded across sidewalk..continued to pick at it for a week straight. 
• 4 scars on my belly from laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery (one is in the belly button, ew, and the others are just thrown about)
• one scar in the middle of my back from a questionable mole, one scar on each upper arm from questionable moles (go get your moles checked!)
• 2 piercing holes in each ear but only one that goes all the way through per ear
• very small toenails on my pinky toes..like almost nonexistent
• greenish blue eyes (though if my body were so badly decomposed they needed this list, my eyes would be LONG GONE)

So really, my list is pretty pitiful. Aside from the frog tattoo, I think I could be mistaken for a lot of tallish, average sized girls with brown hair. (Side note: do you know how hard it was for me to not put CHUBBY? My mind is not catching up to my body. I am AVERAGE, especially in this country.)

I am curious if you have ever played this morbid yet fun game with your partner? Could you identify them based on unique characteristics? I like to think this is all fun and games because NOBODY should have to do that. But, you know, horrible shit happens and people have to do this type of stuff everyday.

Blathering Video

Because I am nothing if not a joiner..

Brain Dump

I realize I could probably spread a lot of this nonsense out over a couple of posts, but let's get real here, I don't post often enough and I would forget about it.

Several things of note:

1. The company I work for has been sold and I will be employed by a new company. There are still a lot of unknowns, but my understanding is that we will all still have our jobs, but we will get the added bonus of actually having benefits! Insurance! Retirement! Sick days! I'm excited to see how things turn out, but man is it stressful right now. Things should all be transferred over within the next couple of weeks, and we were only told a couple of weeks ago, so it's all happening very fast. The good news in this is that if they DO decide they need to cut people, I have an advantage because I'm young and I'm cheap. There's not a lot I can do at this point, so I'm just going about my daily work as usual and taking the changes all in stride. But that doesn't mean I'm not STRESSING out a little.

2. Steve and I bought a car yesterday! It was pretty exciting for us because it was the first time for each of us to buy a car and not have help from or a parent there guiding us in the process. His car was 10 years old and mine is 6 years old (mine is a Honda Accord, his was a Cadillac Seville) so we used his car as a down payment.  We just started out going to test drive a GMC Terrain and a Lincoln MKX because we didn't know which one would have the most room. We actually both loved the Terrain much more than the Lincoln. My requirements were seat heaters (which required leather seats), at least satellite radio ready, and it needed to have enough room for a baby, baby's shit the dog, the dog's shit. The car we test drove had all of that, plus back-up cameras, bluetooth hands-free calling, sunroof, etc. AND, those crazy people approved us and let us drive it home! We were both actually kinda surprised at how good our credit scores were (we hadn't checked yet this year) and they gave Steve what he wanted for his trade-in, which made it kind of a no-brainer.

It looks big, but it is actually shorter than my Accord. Weird.

So this was our first big together purchase. It feels pretty good. We just have to figure out who gets to drive it. I guess if I leave for work first I get to steal it and drive it and leave him the Accord.

3. My wedding planning has stalled. I have bought the wedding dress, picked out bridesmaids' dresses, booked the venue thing, booked officiant, booked honeymoon tickets and hotel (condo), and set up registries. I still have to do stuff about flowers, invitations, cake, menswear, children's clothing, favors, and other assorted little shit. I figure I pretty much got the main stuff out of the way and the other stuff doesn't need as much time. Plus I think we just needed a break from wedding stuff every day we had off. We ARE going to Austin on Thursday this week to get our engagement pictures taken. I need help figuring out what to wear. Times like these make me wish my sister lived closer. I think we will just do two outfits. For one, I am thinking my new skinny jeans (!!), boots, and a sweater, and then for the other outfit, maybe a maxi skirt and sandals? or a maxi dress? what do you think? Do you think I can do a more casual outfit with more casual jeans and sandals instead of a dress/skirt? I need to pick out what I'm going to wear so I can get Steve coordinated. We will be bringing Penny and she will be in a couple of the pictures, so she got a new collar, of course.

4. I am signed up to do the Crappy Day Present Exchange! I'm very excited about it and who I have been assigned. I have already started accumulating stuff! I need to do a little "about me" question/answer thing for that person, so I am gonna do it right here. Sorry for everyone else who was not assigned to me. You can skip this part.

• What is your favorite color? I like green.
• What is your favorite season? Fall, which we don't really have in Houston, but I like it when it's cool enough to wear sweaters and jackets.
• What is your favorite treat? I will eat almost anything chocolate, but I only like milk chocolate, not dark or white. I like chocolate/peanut butter things, chocolate/caramel things.
• What is your favorite scent? Eucalyptus and spearmint
• What is your favorite ice cream coping mechanism? If I'm feeling particularly bad, I like to get into bed with my heating pad (whatever, it makes me feel cozy) and read a book or a magazine, or I'll get a massage or a pedicure.
• What do you like to do in your free time moments? See above question. I like to cook and bake, shop (I need to stop that), take my dog to the dog park, and lay in the hammock (when it's not 100 degrees).
• What do you not enjoy doing, and why, but have to do anyway? I don't like cleaning bathrooms, but if I don't do it, Steve will do it and it won't be done right or well. I don't like putting clothes away. I will do all of the laundry, but I won't put clothes away. I usually make Steve do it, but then he puts my clothes in the wrong drawer and it frustrates me. 
• If someone gave you money with the instruction that you had to spend it on something frivolous for yourself, what would you buy? Maybe a facial (I've never had one) or new pajamas
• Do you have any decorating themes in your home/office? Cocks and Clocks. HEHE.  No, really. My grandmother gave me a small collection from her LARGE collection of chickens before she died. So I have chickens in my kitchen spilling over into my dining room (paintings, pitcher, small ceramic one on my windowsill, nothing crazy) and in my living room and other areas of the house, I have a multitude of clocks of all sizes. Steve has embraced my collections. I think I have around 10 clocks in the entryway/living room area. I love them.
• Is there something that you REALLY, REALLY like?  (Burt's Bees, horses, cats, fairies, unicorns, birds, patriotic stuff, babies, chocolate, Diet Coke, etc....) hmmmm. I really don't know. I can't think of something (except for the chickens and the clocks above) that I REALLY like. I like to eat (bread is my favorite), I like to watch tv, sports (football and basketball.)
• What is the VERY! BEST! present you have ever received and why was it the best?  (The purpose of this question is to give people another idea of the sorts of things that make you happy.)Oh maaaan these questions are hard! Last Christmas was the year of keeping Megan warm. I got awesome warm pajamas (that I happen to be wearing right this minute), long underwear (I live in Texas, I am just always cold), and this seat cushion for my car that plugs into the charger outlet that makes it into a seat heater, AND an electric blanket. This was all from like 3 different people. Everyone must have gotten together and said "ok Megan is always cold, let's fix that!"

Magical Meatloaf

I mentioned on Twitter that I should have taken photos of the meatloaf process.  That way, I could turn this post into this pathetic Pioneer Woman rip off post with poor quality cell phone photos of raw meat and my dirty kitchen. But I'm nicer than that. I'll only give you the recipe (with my commentary) and one finished product photo. You're welcome.

Meatloaf is dirty y'all. You gotta get your hands in there and not be scared of raw meat or eggs..or dijon mustard that you would never EVER eat normally. You gotta just go with it. 

I'm going to give you a secret recipe. Secret in that it is in a published cookbook that you can buy in Marble Falls, Texas at the Bluebonnet Cafe. But most of you will never ever go to Marble Falls, Texas. You really should though..Texas hill country, lakes, etc. Very nice place

So, here's the recipe...get ready.

For the meatloaf:
2 lbs. (85%) lean ground beef
1 T. butter
1 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. chicken broth
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp. unflavored powdered gelatin
1/4c. tomato juice
1 T. soy sauce
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. dried parsley
3/4 dried thyme *It doesn't say 3/4 of WHAT, it just says 3/4, so I just throw some in*
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. pepper
2/3 c. crushed saltine crackers
1 c. grated Monterey jack cheese (I use shredded, no big)

Ok, pause. I KNOW this looks like a lot. It totally is, BUT, you get into a rhythm.
Start by preheating your oven to 375. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and and place a rectangular cooling rack on top. Then place another piece of foil ont he cooling rack and poke drain holes in it. poke holes in it. For this, I just use my broiler pan, line it with foil and poke some holes in it. This pan eventually needs to go into the broiler, so if you have a gas oven like me, the broiler is on the bottom! The first time I made this, I had to transfer from a baking sheet onto the broiler pan, and that sucked. You can figure out what works best for you.

Next step, chop up the onions and celery (I use a slapchop thing by Pampered chef so they get nice and tiny because I don't want chunks) and then saute them in the tablespoon of butter in a pan, but don't brown them too much. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl (not really that large), pour in the chicken broth and beaten eggs, sprinkle the unflavored powder gelatin on top and allow to stand 5 minutes. Then add the remaining ingredients along with the sauteed onions and celery. I just mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, then add to the meat in a bigger bowl. You are going to need a big-ish bowl to really mix everything together well. Form a nice looking (not really) meatloaf, about 2 inches high, smooth the top and sides with a spatula (who cares what it looks like??) and cook for about an hour.

Here is what makes this meatloaf!!
The glaze!
Ingredients for the glaze:
1/2 c. ketchup
1 tsp. Tabasco sauce (more or less depending on how much heat you like)
1/4 c. cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
3 T. packed brown sugar

Put this all into a small saucepan on the stove when there is about 5 minutes left and cook this until it is a little thick and syrupy. It WILL stink a little, but that's because of the vinegar. Get over it, it's so worth it. When the meatloaf is done in the oven, turn your broiler on. Pour the glaze over the meatloaf and put it under the broiler for about 5-10 minutes, or until you see it all bubble and browning on the edges. Let it sit about 10 minutes before cutting it.

Now there is a "sauce" as part of the recipe, but I have never once made it. It doesn't need it! I usually serve this with mashed potatoes and a veggie. The potatoes are good because it's tasty to get the glaze on them a little.

The sauce is something you are supposed to kinda serve on the side of it, or something like that, I don't really know. It's not needed, but I'm nice so I'll include it.

Ingredients for the sauce:
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
1 15 oz. can chopped stewed tomatoes
1 to 2 T. beef base
1 c. water
1 tsp. garlic powder

Saute the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan until mixture is thick and bubbly. Serve along with the meatloaf. It's so boring, right? Don't even bother!

Somebody please make this and report back. It really is so good. It's moist, it's meaty, it's delicious! We usually make at least 1 1/2 of the recipe so Steve can eat meatloaf sandwiches for awhile, plus we always take some to my mom.

Oh here's the picture of the final product, minus the sauce. Steve likes to make extra glaze so it's all over the place, but usually there isn't this much of the glaze around the edges.

The picture does not do it justice.

I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!

Hi! Guess what?? I'm getting married!! It finally happened!! I know, it's about damn time, right??

Let me tell you the story..I'll start from the beginning..

Last Friday, my mom's side of the family trekked down to Galveston Island for a family reunion and to celebrate my uncle's 70th birthday.  My mom is the youngest of 4 kids, and her only brother is 12 years older than she is. My cousin owns a house on the beach, my aunt rented the one next door to her, and my mom rented a house two over from that. My other aunt and uncle own a house about 10 minutes away from that, so we pretty much took over the west end of the island. It was great. I think at our peak, we had about 50 people. The big event was a birthday party on Saturday night for my uncle.

My uncle is the one in the white shirt next to the kid in orange (who is his grandson).

Anyway, we had cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. all gathered around enjoying each other's company. It really was a fun time. My aunt (the one standing in white, my uncle's wife) is really just the greatest lady ever. They live in Poteau, Oklahoma and I haven't seen them since last February when my grandma died. My grandma's brother (in plaid) likes to come hang out with us whenever he can.  There were a bunch of old timers that made the trip down to the beach to catch up on old times and stuff. Everyone had a blast. On Saturday night before the party, my aunt had arranged for a photographer to come and take a big family picture, as well as individual family pictures. We all had to wear white shirts and jeans.  I got one with my Steve, but we are looking at the professional, not at my sister who took this photo.

I think he's pretty handsome.

 

 

 

 

 

 My sister and her husband took one (Oh look it's a BEVINHEAD appearance!)

Bevin and her husband Brandon

 Also, here is a picture I took of everyone standing around waiting for the group shot. Bevin is looking at me like a dork. I promise she doesn't look like that all the time (well, you can tell by the picture above.)

My mom is the one standing against the pillar next to Bevin. Isn't she so pretty? I love my mama. I've had people tell me that as I've lost a lot of weight, I've started to look more and more like her. We'll see!

My sister holding the cup, my oldest brother sitting with sunglasses on, my mom leaning with her arms crossed, the front of Steve's face (from left to right, excluding extra family members.)

 So! After the pictures, we had a little party, good food, barbecue, yumminess! The next couple of days were spent at the beach playing with cousins and family members we don't get to see a lot. My nephews actually spent some time together and didn't kill each other.  They are 12, 9, and 8, (Braden, Peyton, and Logan)

Playing in the sand..and seaweed!

Oh, we also ate an obscene amount of food. We like to joke that our family works on 2 hour feedings.  That's pretty much the truth. Here are Braden and Peyton (brothers) cracking and eating crab claws.

Side note: Peyton was diagnosed with Leukemia (ALL) when he was 3, did chemo for 3 years, and is now completely cancer free and only goes once a year for testing. So YAY!

MMMM Crab!

At night, we would get together and play board games or cards. Also, I had the brilliance to get a 1,000 piece puzzle to keep going at our house so that kept a lot of people busy. It was a lot of fun to just have random family come over and work on the puzzle and play games. I got to play board games with my cousin's 14 year old daughters and actually have adult conversations with my cousins. Bevin and I are the youngest of the grandchildren, and the oldest is almost 50, so it is only a recent development that we really had anything to talk about. Plus, the oldest of the grandchildren live in Oklahoma, so we don't see them as often as we'd like. We all had such a great time, we've talked about doing this every year from now on. 

Playing paper football (or something?)

Another side note: There are a lot of glow in the dark necklaces in the pictures.  My aunt decided to get a gross of them from Oriental Trading, so each night we all suited up with glow necklaces and halos. It helped to spot our group when anyone went walking on the beach at night.  My brother also rented a golf cart that held 6 (or 10, but who's counting?) people, and each of the kids got to drive. I even took my 7 year old second cousin out for a spin! 

Puzzle workers..and glow necklaces. BEVINHEAD spotting! (on the left)

 So! It was all a great time and I'm so glad I went. My nephews are definitely a handful. Boys that age are just insane to begin with.  Add sugar, and excitement and there's just no stopping them. 

But you guys don't really care that much about my family vacation, as awesome as it was, right? RIGHT?? Let's get to the important stuff!!!


I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!

Here's the story:

Sometime in June, I don't remember when exactly, Steve and I went and looked at rings at several places, and he knew the 2 or 3 rings I would be completely happy with.  Apparently after looking at one of them, he went back two days later and put the deposit down so nobody would take that specific diamond because it was an ideal or some bullshit (whatever, I don't really care.) So he has had this ring in his possession since JULY 5!! He has had two hiding spots in our house and I never knew it (obviously.) 

He came down to the beach on Friday, but had to go to work on Sunday afternoon because the schedule got screwed up and he was the closest one or whatever.  Then he came back Monday morning and went home Tuesday afternoon. Lots of driving, but oh well. He apparently talked to my mom on Saturday morning when I was still asleep and told her he brought it and asked for her blessing. (My mom is the one who has pretty much raised me, my dad and I didn't have a relationship of any meaning until later on in high school.) He had no idea when he was going to do it, but he brought it just in case there was an opportunity.  Well, apparently he didn't get one while he was there the first time. Before he came back on Monday morning, he called my dad, but my dad was taking his dog to the vet to have surgery, and he couldn't go talk to him in person, so he had to do it over the phone. My dad, of course, gave him his blessing and blah blah, they all love him. When Steve got there on Monday, we all loaded up our golf cart and went to the beach. Our whole family was playing in the water, playing beach volleyball (my aunt and uncle set up a net) and just having a great time. Multiple times that day, he said something to me like "when are we going to take our romantic stroll on the beach Meggie?" and I said well we can go later I guess. We didn't feel like eating with everyone because they were having enchiladas and I don't like those, plus Steve's stomach was bothering him (looking back now, maybe he was nervous, I don't know?) so we went down the road to a little seafood joint and had dinner.  He said he had it in his pocket the whole time. When he got back to the beach house he asked again if we could go for a romantic stroll (kinda joking, so I didn't really take him seriously) and I said we should go be social at my aunt's beach house since the group from Oklahoma was going to be leaving in the morning. BESIDES! We had been warned by the beach house rental company that there were RATTLESNAKES IN THE SAND DUNES. The same sand dunes that you walk across to get to the beach!!

Apparently I was just not cooperating with his plans. When we finished visiting there, we went back to my mom's beach house and I was sitting at the puzzle table with a couple of cousins and my aunt, chatting and working on the puzzle. I heard Steve come in and say to my mom that her sister wanted to talk to her, and we all joked "ooh you're in trouble!" because her sister is kinda large and in charge. APPARENTLY all he wanted to do was get my mom outside and ask for her help in getting my ass to go down to the beach with him!! She came back inside and motioned for me to come over to her, so I got up and I was like Oh shit what did I do?? My mom said, "I left my good sunglasses down on one of the volleyball stands on the beach, will you and Steve go find them for me? They're my prescription ones and I can't afford to lose them." I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your mom, but any time my mom asks me to do something, I do it. She rarely asks me to do anything, so of course I was gonna go find them!

I made Steve lead me down with the flashlight app on his phone and kept squealing any time I thought a snake was going to jump out and get me.  When we got down to where the volleyball net was, he said you take my phone and check that stand, I'll check this one. So I was looking and didn't see them, so I started to walk over to where he was and I noticed he was on his knee but it looked like he was looking in the stand (it was like a tire holding a pole to support the volleyball net) and I walked up and was like "Nope they aren't here!" and he opened up a ring box that had a DAMN BRIGHT led light in it. He said "well, since I'm already on one knee, how about I ask you to marry me" Or something like that. I honestly don't even remember what he said. I DO believe the words "wanna get married and stuff?" were said at one point. I just kinda started at him and started laughing because I was really kinda caught off guard, but I thought that I saw him pull something out of his pocket, so I felt like MAYBE I kinda knew? I don't know! I got all teary and I was like "UHH YEAH!!" And he got up and we hugged and kissed and stuff!! And then he kept blinding me with the damn led light! I hugged him again and he said "oh crap I think I dropped it" but it didn't fall out of the box! I finally got it out of the box and put it on and it fit perfectly. I was kinda laughing/crying/giggling like a fool and finally I said "OK LET'S GO BACK AND SHOW EVERYONE!!"

We went up to the beach house, where I thought my mom had already spilled the beans.  I guess she hadn't because when I stuck my head in the door, my cousin saw me and said "did you find her sunglasses?" and I smiled and stuck my left hand up in the air and they all squealed and jumped up.  It was really cool to be able to have everyone there.  My mom made me go to each beach house where some stragglers were (only two others) and show everyone. Then we had to make the phone calls to Steve's parents and sisters, plus my dad. He had told them when he bought the ring, but they didn't know when he was going to do it. We got on facetime and it was fun to see his sisters' faces and hear their reactions. His poor dad couldn't figure out how to get his facetime to work, but we got to talk to them. 

My nephew, Logan, who is 8, and who is the one I have the closest bond to, was hilarious. He saw my ring and said "oh that looks like my mom's ring, but hers is a real diamond!" and we all just about fell over laughing.  Also, when he was going to sleep, he asked my mom, "BB, so now Mimi and Steve are situated?" and my mom kinda paused and said "you mean....engaged?" and he said "oh, yeah, I thought it was situated." Oh man he cracks me up.  I'm kinda sad because I think he might be too old to be my ring bearer.

Oh and let me just say how ROUGH I was looking when he proposed.  The wind and humidity at the beach do not do nice thing to my hair.  But I did tell Steve that we needed to get a picture of the night we were engaged..so here are those gems..

He wouldn't take the damn grape out of his mouth.

I told him we needed to be able to see the ring.

We celebrated that night with an exciting game of Mad Gab with my nephews and other family..

They love him. I'm so happy.

Oh and I think most of you already saw this picture on Twitter, but here is a close up of the ring. I absolutely love it.

Don't mind my snausage fingers.

My next day off is August 15 and since Steve makes the schedule at work, he's going to take that day off and hopefully we can go look at some venues! If we like the place I'm thinking of, we will try to see what they have available in April or May and we might have ourselves a date!! Yay! I am so excited you guys.  If you have any wedding planning advice or tips or just anything to add, please leave a comment or send me an email Map7185 at gmail dot com. 

Built in Best Friend

So you know how everyone freaks out about twins..well I have a twin.  We are not identical.  She lives in Dallas with her husband and I don't see her nearly as much as I would like. And like my title says, she is my built in best friend.  It wasn't ALWAYS butterflies and roses.  Put two hormonal teenage girls together ALL THE TIME and see if they don't try to kill each other at some point.  Especially two girls who know exactly how to push each other's buttons.  Oh I guess maybe someone is wondering who came first, etc?  I was born 9 minutes before her.  My mom delivered us naturally. I came out first, she was breach so they went up in there (WITH THE DOCTOR'S HAND EW) and flipped her around, then she was delivered.  Add my two older brothers she delivered naturally, and my mom has the pelvic floor disorders to prove it.  I was 5lb 11oz and she was 6lb 13oz.  I have no idea the lengths.  I had a very intense hair growth pattern because my head was situated on my mother's pubic bone for a good 8 months.  She didn't even know she was going to have twins until the last two months or so.  SURPRISE! She gained 80lbs with her pregnancy, and on a very thin to normal sized woman, she just looked enormous.

We are very different, yet there are so many things that make us so similar.  We are such saps, both of us.  So many things make us cry.  And if one of us is crying, you can bet the other one starts crying too.  We both played basketball in high school, and I remember one day she hurt her hamstring. I had to go on to class after practice (WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO HAVE PRACTICE FROM 6-8AM BEFORE SCHOOL?) and she went to the training room.  She was crying because she was in so much pain and I just couldn't NOT cry with her.  I didn't want to leave her but I didn't have a choice. The summer after our senior year, she had knee surgery and I remember laying around with her while she recovered.  Her knee would be ok, but when it would get bad, my ELBOW would hurt. She thought that was just the funniest thing ever.  I can't STAND to see her in pain, physically or emotionally.  I don't what I'm going to do when she has a baby. 

We can go a long time without talking, but when we both know that if something is bothering us, we can just pick up the phone and the other is there for us.  Many times I have answered the phone to "Meg? ***SOBBING***"  It kills me that she lives so far apart. I think this is the longest I have gone without seeing her, because she hasn't been home since Christmas.  I am planning to go to Dallas to see her soon, so we will be up to our old tricks soon enough.  She is my partner in crime and is usually up for anything.  And she also makes me laugh like no other.  Growing up, she was always so silly and goofy, and I was the serious one.  She is just quirky and I guess I have more of a dry/witty sense of humor.  The story that makes me giggle the most is when we were in junior high, we needed to get physicals so we could play basketball.  My mom took us to the local doctor that we had been going to since we were little.  He's just a general family physician, not a pediatrician.  We were all 3 in the room, and Bevin (that's her name, sorry) was going first.  My mom and I were sitting there quietly while she got her physical.  The doctor turned off the light and was using his little eyeball examining thing (I don't know?) to look into her eyes with a light.  He would start out far away then come close to her eyeball.  I don't know WHY, but she got the giggles. Then I got the giggles.  She tried SO hard to keep it together, but every time he would come right in her face, she would snort and start laughing again.  My mom couldn't stop laughing either! It wasn't like we were intentionally being little shits, it was just hard to stop once we had started! Well, that doctor (who is an old fart ANYWAY) got all testy and WALKED OUT.  We thought it was hilarious, but we just sat there waiting to see what we should do.  Eventually, he came back and said "are we ready to be more mature now girls?" and she finally held it together to get examined.  P.S.  My mom never took us back to that doctor.  By this time, my cousin was finished with med school and we just got our physicals from her in our living room.  I pass his office every day on my way to work and I smile almost every time thinking about that.

We ran around with most of the same people in school, although the schools did make it a point not to put us in the same classrooms.  We had 1 history class together in elementary school and 1 Spanish class together in junior high.  (Humble brag alert!) I was also in the gifted and talented program, so I took mostly different classes anyway, so it wasn't really a big deal.  But hey, she's the one with the college degree now, not me, so it obviously did me no good. Funny story about that actually.  Since junior high we were always told we wouldn't be able to walk across the stage after each other when we graduated high school because there was a girl named LAKURSHA with our last name and she would go between us (in between B and M.) Well, at our school, they called all the students who were graduating with honors FIRST, then all those other losers (kidding!) so she got called, then I got called! Our entire family made up a huge cheering section, so it was an extended hooting and hollering and I'm sure nobody even heard my name. 

I still fret over her and worry about her.  I worried about her a lot in college because she was partying more than I thought she should.  Although I guess it was about the same as any normal college girl was, just not ME.  I rarely drink and I never partied, so any extra partying to me looked excessive.  I SUPPOSE she turned out alright.  Heh.

I was her maid of honor (OF COURSE) in October of 2010 and she will be mine once I get my damn ring and get my wedding planned.  I don't really remember much about my speech except something like "I've had the privilege of being Bevin's best friend for the last 25 years, and now it's your turn. It's a great honor to have. It involves lots of shopping, lots of sniffing every shampoo bottle to make sure you get the right one, a lot of laughter, but most importantly, a lot of love." Or something sappy like that.  Shocking, she cried.  So did I.  Here, let me show you how I was crying during their freaking vows.  (P.S. I don't like the way I looked in that dress, and I have lost more weight since then, but I will still be a good sport and show you pictures. GAH)

I was trying so hard to keep it together.  I couldn't.  She was sobbing just coming down the aisle.  Killed me dead.

 

 

Ok anyway, I guess I will show you more awesome pictures of us growing up.  We never did the whole dress alike thing.  I was more of a tomboy growing up and refused to let my mom brush my hair for a long time, so I had a boy haircut, and she had cute curls. You can usually pick me out because I had blonde hair until junior high. I also have blue (or green, depending on the day) eyes and hers are some sort of hazel-ish.

I'm on the left.

Us with our brother, who is 3 years older.  Me on the left again.

One of my favorite pictures ever. Me and my grandmother forcing Bevin to potty train.

Her on the left with cute curls, me on the right with a boy hair cut. Whatever.

Us with one of our brothers (we have other halves).

Us with one of our cousins. 

See? Different personalities.  She was a dancing hippo.  I was a..bug or something?

 We will skip over the incredibly awkward phase that every girl goes through.  Just imagine me extremely chubby and her with wiry frizzy hair. 

Ok here is us at 16 just after I had my wisdom teeth removed.  She kept me company...and laughed at me because I couldn't stop puking up blood.

I look thrilled to be alive.

16th Birthday pictures.

Us with our oldest brother, before our senior year homecoming dance.

My mother's four children at Bevin's wedding.

HOPEFULLY I will have pictures at MY wedding soon to show you all! I will be much skinnier by then :)      So do you have any questions about TWINHOOD?  It's really no different than having a sister.  I mean, she's my best good friend, but a lot of people can say that about their regular sister too.  I'm lucky I had someone growing up.  She may have pissed me off to no end sometimes, but I'm glad to have her.  I'm extremely proud of her and all that she has accomplished.  She's worked hard and she and her husband have a very successful gym in the Dallas area.  So, you know, if you need to  get in shape and you live up there, I'll give you the details.  Oh and thanks to Kammah for kicking my butt and telling me to actually WRITE something!