thanks

Blessings are in abundance in my life.  It's a wonderful thing.  Even though I'm stressed with school (finals are just around the corner), work has been busy as all get out (new assistant, tons of new cases, 2 cases went to trial last week), and cleaning gets me even more stressed (however, I have been keeping consistent with keeping the bathroom clean and keeping up with laundry. Small victories!).  Sometimes I find myself struggling to keep positive when things aren't going the way I want, plan or expect.  However, with the holidays approaching I am thinking about all of the wonderful blessings in my life.  So, here I go to try and list a few:

• My husband, he makes me so happy
• The Coca-Cola Company, for giving me the amazing opportunity to attend college.  I am a 2011 Coca Cola Scholar and part of an amazing family of wonderfully talented individuals.  20,000 applied, 250 were chosen.  I am lucky to be part of such a wonderful group.  After attending the scholar conference in Atlanta, GA and meeting scholars from around the country we interviewed for the various levels of scholarship awards.  I was fortunate to receive a $10,000 scholarship to attend college.  It is only through the Coca Cola Company that I am able to continue my education and earn my degree, even if I hate college sometimes.
• Diet Coke, not only is it putting me through college with money, it gives me the energy necessary to stay up until all hours of the night studying and accomplishing homework.
• Family, my siblings (both sets) are always there for me, I have the most gorgeous nieces in the world and I have the best parents (both sets) on the planet.  I'm also fortunate to be close with my cousins, aunts and uncles.
• Wyoming, I really enjoy where we live.  My parent's have been so wonderful letting us live rent free in the basement.  We both have jobs here.  I can attend college at a good rate here.  I like living in a small town.  I grew up in a small town, I hope to raise my children in a small (or at least smallish) community.
• This blog, it's small.  I don't have a lot of followers.  However, I love each and every person that reads.  It's a wonderful outlet to express my thoughts and hopefully others relate to me.
• Jobs, JD and I both have employment making us money so we are able to pay our bills and save for our future. 
• My faith, I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I am so happy I was married in the temple for time and all eternity.  I am so happy I have the gospel in my life.  I am so grateful for missionary work and for the opportunity to participate in the full and everlasting gospel in these latter-days.
• Friends, even though I live SO far away from my school friends and I miss them like crazy, they always keep in contact with me.  And it makes me so happy.  I also am happy to be making friends up here in Wyoming and to get to know the women in my Relief Society group in our ward.

Life is unpredictable.  Things ALWAYS change for the better, even when it doesn't seem like it.  Blissful contentedness is a wonderful thing.  And I'm happy to be finally experiencing it after a few weeks of heartache and frustration.  

it never ends

Homework, Lawyer work, Housework....It never ends. 

And I am 200% positive I've already written about this.  However, I recently read this post on the lovely Annie's blog and felt inspired.  I remembered being in her young women's and ballet classes and relating so well to her.  If you don't follow her blog, you should.  Because it is lovely, her children are lovely, she is lovely, it's just a bundle of lovely.

I think I've mentioned before, I'm a legal secretary.  Work lately has been crazy busy.  Our office moved, we have another assistant that was recently hired, and things have been so busy with 2 trials this week.  It's stressful, difficult and basically totally overwhelming.

Homework...sucks...I hate general education classes.  Why can't I just get on to my arts/education/whatever else degree?

And, my house is basically a wreck.  It looks like a bomb went off...and I don't have the time, patience or energy to do anything about it.  I'm a naturally messy person.  I have never been good at organization for myself, I've never been good about cleaning.  I generally only clean when I absolutely have too.  I've been depressed, frustrated, anxious and all around difficult to live with lately (sorry, JD).  And I can't figure out how to accomplish everything.  I never feel like things are clean.  I never feel like I'm doing enough.  I never feel good about myself, my home or my work.  The only thing I have been feeling good about: my marriage.  Which is why I so frequently blog about our relationship.  Because it is the one thing I feel like I am succeeding at.

Annie talked about her recent struggle with this same issue and I felt inspired.  As of today, I'm attempting to turn over a new leaf.  I created for myself a home management binder, which is my new favorite thing.  At some point I will share with you how it was created.  I'm going to be better about making myself a priority.  And I'm going to be better about keeping myself, my home and my schooling in order.

We'll see how this works...

bundle o' sad

Every once in a while, it's a good thing when your spouse locks you in the bathroom and shouts from the other room "You either relax and take a bath with the new bath salts and body wash I bought you or you sit and sulk for 20 minutes.  Your choice."  I'm hard-headed, but he always knows how to get through to me.  

Today, I have basically just been a big bundle of sad and emotions.  Work was terrible, homework sucks, I have a cold.  The odds are not for me today.  When JD finally got home from work, he promptly held me, let me cry for a bit and made me some toast.  Toast, it's kind of my comfort food.  Then I got back to trying to do my homework.  After being incredibly frustrated with every attempt he finally intervened after watching me struggle because of how stressed I was.  He took my laptop off of my lap, pulled me to our bathroom and closed the door.  My favorite thing to do at the end of a bad day is to basically sit in the tub for an hour.  Silent, warm, alone, ahh...so perfect.  Then the previous exchange occurred.  It was perfect.  However, I still had basically the suckiest day in the history of ever.  So, I've gone to youtube to drown my sorrows away.  Enjoy a few of my favorite sad day videos.


They're not all Sophia Grace and Rosie videos.  Even though they are adorable...and I adore them...

21 before 21

My birthday this year led me to observe what I'd done since my 19th birthday.  I completed my first year of college, I transferred colleges, I got engaged, I went through the temple, I got married, I moved twice, through two states.  It's been insane.  And I've loved every second of it.  However, I really didn't have any major goals for the year.  I just was doing what I wanted when I wanted to.  Lately, JD and I have been talking about our "bucket list."  What we want to do together before we bite the dust when we're 120 years old.  (yes...we have it planned out when we're going to die.  life now only needs to bend to our will)  I decided I wanted my own little bucket list.  21 things to do before I'm 21.  Do you have goals you want to make?  Join me on my experiment!  I'll keep the blog updated with my progress.

1. Go on a vacation out of state
2. Have consistent date night with the hubs (we, honestly, have been on very few honest to goodness "dates".  We're not very formal people.)
3. Complete my second year of college
4. Learn to bake and decorate (at least half as good as my sister) one awesome cake.  (Have you seen Coley's Cups and Cakes?  They're AMAZING.  And she just happens to be my sister.  I hope my children get some of her creativity genes, because she's awesome.)
5. Buy a bed spread (This one sounds weird, but JD and I are both blanket hogs, and we just never sleep with the same blanket.  We each have our own.  And we don't have a specific bed set, it's just whatever quilts we both feel like and our black sheets and mismatched pillow cases.  As I said before, we're not formal people.) 
6. Lose 30 pounds. (I absolutely know I can lose at least this much in a year.  And if I happen to lose more....YAY!) 
7. Get an elliptical.  (I love working out on an elliptical.  They're amazing.  And they're really not too expensive.  So, it's something I'd like to save up for.)
8. Own the entire Star Wars series on DVD or Blu Ray if we ever buy a blu ray player.
9. Move the Xbox out of our bedroom(...yes...I caved and let my husband bring his Xbox into our room...And now I think it needs to go back into the living room...This one will be done very carefully)
10. Sew myself a skirt or dress.
11. Decorate for all of the major holidays (Valentines, Christmas, Easter, St. Patty's Day, 4th of July, Fall in general)
12. Spend less time on pinterest (Yeah, I'm an addict...it's true)
13. Build a snowman
14. Have a snowball fight
15.Have a weekend getaway with the hubs
16. Make someone feel special
17. Dye my hair different then it's current color
18. Get closer to our goal of having a baby
19. Write a missionary once a month (I suck at this...even when the hubs was out and we were writing, he wrote me WAY more than I wrote him...also, any of my cousins can tell you I suck at writing them as well)
20. Go to Disneyland
21. Buy a ruffly apron (I know, it's anti climatic for the last one on the list.  But I am OBSESSED with aprons...I love them...and I've been envious for a ruffly one forever!)

A few highlights from this year:

Me, Cee and Teish Ushering and Tuachan.  Such a blast.

Moved my room in with this lovely lady and became her caregiver.  Miss her so much!

Got Engaged to my best friend.

 Saw the Hunger Games at midnight, out of state with these lovely people.  And I made our shirts.  Which were also awesome. 

 Moved to another state and got our home ready.

And, probably most importantly, I got married.

evolution

I think it's amazing how much people evolve as they age.  I had a great, long, amazingly wonderful conversation with my good friend Cody this week.  We go WAY back.  He's one of those life long friends I have.  No matter what either of us have gone through, we're always there for eachother.  No matter how long it's been since we've talked or anything, we still communicate.  And it is nice.

The glorious visit we had last year after not seeing each other for months...as well as a delectable lunch at Mimi's Cafe in Provo, UT

Outside the temple after my wedding. Cody was in our bridal party and there all day for us. Also, you can see how absolutely different I look with and without make up.  Crazy, right?

 During our conversation on my long drive back to Wyoming from Utah, we talked about his upcoming mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, updated each other on our lives and reminisced about our years and years of friendship.  How crazy we were in high school.  How crazy I was about getting straight "A"s.  How many hours we spent in the theatre at school.  We both mused at how much we'd changed since graduation.  Cody is going on a full-time mission, working and living in Provo, bound to do AMAZING things.  I'm married, living in Wyoming (trust me, high school me never saw that coming), working, going to college and preparing to start a family with my husband.  We've evolved into the people we need to be.  And it's a beautiful thing.

The whole point of my story (other than to feature how awesome Cody Annyong Adams is) is this: I celebrated getting a "C" on one of my exams today.  If I so much as got a "B" in high school, I hated myself for about a week.  Now, I'm celebrating over a "C".  Oh, evolution...how you changed me...

work, work, work

It seems there are three types of work surrounding my life.  And I can't ever seem to get all of them accomplished at once.

Homework.  Doing solely online courses, EVERYTHING is homework.  Let me tell you, it's super annoying.  I feel like I get no breaks.  However, it is convenient because I can work in my time frame and let school fit my schedule, not make my schedule fit school.  There's always pros and cons to the whole online education thing. But I am enjoying it thus far.  Once my English class begins I may feel differently.  But, so far I'm enjoying my two math classes and psychology.

Housework.  Otherwise known as, the bane of my existence.  I've never been tidy.  I've never been super neat.  I am organized at work, I am organized with school.  Because my career is literally keeping attorney's organized, when I get home the last thing I want to do is organize and clean my own house.  However, with JD starting to work full time and I'm only working part time, I know it's something I need to be better with.  He's so tidy.  He's so neat.  And I aspire to one day be as organized as he is.  Until then, I'll continue to watch The Office as I try to will myself to put the laundry away. 

Work Work.  My job, being a legal assistant at Blue Law Offices.  My boss is fantastic.  I absolutely love her.  And I love working with our clients.  It always makes me happy to have relationships with our clients, especially when most of our clients are going through difficult times.  Unfortunately, when most people are in need of using the legal system, they're going through difficult times.  It is rewarding to metaphorically hold the client's hand as he/her are going through difficult times. 

Although I work, work, work a lot of the time, I've got two awesome men in my life that make it all worth it.  I write all of the time about my best friend, partner in crime and eternal companion.  And this is our baby.  The sweetest, cutest, most darling black Labrador you'll ever see. 

This is Captain Morgan Belcher.

And he makes all of the crazy stuff I do worth it.  Ya know, and the hubs.  He makes it worth it too. 

back to reality

I will tell you something, my favorite thing in the world is the first week of school.  Even when I was in elementary school.  You're getting to know everyone.  There's hardly any homework.  You're getting an idea of the professor/teacher's personality and teaching style.  It's a wonderful, beautiful, simple week.  Almost like, the calm before the storm.

However, the storm has hit.  Today my math class and education class have finally "really" begun.  Fun fact, I thought math for elementary school teachers was going to be super duper easy.  I also thought teaching math to elementary school students was going to be super duper easy.  I was wrong.  It is actually quite in depth.  Today I'm working on learning about all of the different numeration systems throughout history.  And it's pretty crazy how much there is to learn about it.

We spent a lovely little weekend in Salt Lake City. Fun, relaxation, family parties.  It was wonderful!  And....we got to go to....(drum roll please) JIMMY JOHN'S!  When I lived in St. George last year, I was absolutely obsessed with JJ's.  It was just so delicious...the chips, the huge cookies, the amazingly delicious fresh baked bread and totally fresh ingredients.  However, living in Wyoming, we never, ever, EVER get to eat at JJ's.  Well, the streak ended.  And it was divine.

Here's JD in all of his Jimmy John's glory.  Can't you just see how excited he is (and how desperately he needs to shave?  Thank goodness we bought him some new razors in SLC)?!

Also, someday I'll have a good camera.  I'm getting closer to the goal....and hopefully JD will get a job soon so we can be a little more stable.   Maybe for Christmas (wink, wink...nudge, nudge hubby) I'll get the camera of my dreams. 

megan's mind

Today, I started my new degree program.  ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.  Which, I'm totally psyched about.  I want to teach Kindergarten mostly.  I'm a big fan of the little'uns.  I just love playing and teaching the little kids.  Getting to teach them to read, write, do basic math.  It'll be fantastic in 4-5 years when I get my degree done. 

I hate Facebook during election season.  There, I said it.  I don't care if you support Romney, I don't care if you support Obama, I don't care if you're a Nader or Ron Paul person. All I really want to do is stalk your pictures and status updates.  There, I said that too.   No matter what you put on your Facebook, whether it makes you look totally stupid and ridiculous or not, I don't care.  I just want to find out what is happening in your life a million miles away from me.  Also, I love Facebook for the fact that it has made my nosiness socially acceptable.  For that, I thank you Mark Zuckerburg. You've forever made my life easier.

For the last few weeks, I've been super sick.  I'd just get a bad stomach ache, some cramps here and there.  I figured it was nothing serious.  Then, the last few days, it's been nearly unbearable.  To the point where I hadn't eaten or drinken (I don't think that's a word...oh well) anything for almost 1 1/2 days simply because it would make me sick.  After a few days of uncontrollable throwing up (tmi?  Oh well...) I finally went to the doctor.  And it is looking like I'm gonna need to get my gallbladder out soon.  Tomorrow I get an ultrasound to look for any gallstones.  If they don't see any, then I get a Hida Scan.  Basically, I lay on a table for almost 2 hours while they inject my gallbladder with dye, then watch and see if my gallbladder can get all of the dye out. 

If you can't tell by this post I'm basically losing my mind.  My poor husband has been dealing with my persistent moodiness, as has my poor mother.  I really don't know how they put up with me.  I'm a lucky girl.  With so many things happening and so many things to do (i.e. clean our room, clean the living room, put laundry away, dust, vacuum....) I'm sitting on my computer. 

However, I did get my homework for my math for elementary education teachers and education class finished tonight.  It's the small victories, people.

someday

Someday I'll update and blog with more pictures.

Someday I'll get a new camera that actually works so said pictures aren't craptastic cell phone pictures.

Someday I'll have my home's construction finished.

Someday I'll pick a paint color for our bedroom that we both like.

Someday my husband will have a job that he absolutely loves.

Someday I'll fold our laundry and put it away.

Someday we'll finish unpacking.

Someday I'll take a lesson from my husband and get good at organizing.

Someday I'll have my degrees and won't need to stress about classes.

Someday is not today...