Meagan Musing: November 2007

Meagan Musing

11/29/2007

Why Blogging?

It was about this time a year ago that my longtime friend, Emily, had her baby, Caleb. She started a blog to share Caleb's arrival and all his firsts with her friends and family. My mom passed the link on to me to check out. I might be an almost Gen Y'er, but I had no idea that anyone and everyone could just open up a free blog for all the world to see. It seemed like a really cool thing to do if you had something to say that people might be interested in.

I kept checking in on Emily and her new family and eventually followed some of the links to her friends' blogs on her blogroll. And from there, I was hooked. I can't tell you how in the world I ended up at some of the blogs I now visit on a regular basis. I visit blogs about weight loss, a new mom to quads blog, blogs to help me be a better entertainer, blogs about TV shows, and Beth Moore's blog. (I had never even heard of Beth Moore until I read about her in a blog - I know I'm a bad Bible studier). I even read a few blog entries from a woman who photographed her outfit everyday and told her reader the details of everything she had on from her mascara to her shoes. That one got old pretty fast.

I read a lot of different kind of blogs, but they're all well-written, engaging, and told by good people. I don't want to read about crazy things bad people do. If I'm going to spend time in blogland I want it to teach me something I didn't know or build me up.

I started this, my own blog, about a year ago, but I wasn't very good at it. I didn't have anything overly witty to say and my life was (is) not that interesting to perfect strangers. (Which Brian would say is a very good thing). I'd randomly post now and then, but I didn't even tell anyone about the blog for a while, and then I only told Brian, my mom and my sister. I took a few months off from my blog during the summer, but I kept reading everyone else's blogs. I realized I liked the sense of community these regular bloggers had, but I felt like I was kind of spying on friendships.

I jumped back in to my blog in September and have been telling more and more people about it. I've started commenting on other people's blogs even though they don't know me from Adam. It made me nervous at first - like the girl in 6th grade who moves to a new school and tries to make friends. But it's been fun, and I was silly to be nervous. I don't think one can completely fail at blogging. I never wanted to be a writer or anything, but I always thought I was decent so it's been fun for me to tell stories on here and let y'all see a glimpse of my daily life and who I am.

I don't have any other close real-life friends who blog, at least that I know about, but I've been trying to talk them in to it. I'd love to see Ally's blog. She could write about wonderful books and drives through New England. Mom could write about houses and all those architecture words I don't know. Bill could post his columns. (And he's a real writer so I'm sure it'd be wonderful)! Kels could tell us about her crazy teachers at design school. I'd love to know about life in DC from Jess and Julie. So come on in! It's fun, I promise! But I'm not at all responsible for the hours you'll spend reading everyone else's blogs!

Labels:

11/26/2007

Giving Thanks

*Edited to add a picture of Brian and me with Mom and Dad and Matt and Kelsey. Mom just sent it to me yesterday. I think this is one of the best pictures we've taken of all of us in a while. And we're not wearing togas! (We have an adorable picture of us on the Harmony wearing togas a few summers ago.)

Oh, what a Thanksgiving! We talked for hours, ate many, many times, sang funny songs and played games. It was a wonderful long weekend with the Reids, McCords, Skarbeks and Woodalls. We missed my cousin Katie and the boys though. Her oldest, Jack, came down with strep throat and they weren't able to come out on Friday. But Matt and Kelsey showed up with a karaoke machine so we were able to entertain ourselves.

We decided to take Christmas card/family pictures while we were all together and wearing cute clothes. Here are a few previews:



I really like the one of us with Janet and Dan, but I'm not sure about the Fenway pic. But doesn't he look cute with his fancy new haircut? He finally let the people at PetsMart cut his face hair just in time for Thanksgiving!



I tried to get pics of our Karaoke Experience, but the den is really hard to take pictures in because of the lighting. Here's the best one I could find of Mom and Dad. Yes, that's right, Mom and Dad karaoked!


Everyone karaoked! Mark and Cheryl were adorable on Going to the Chapel and Matt & Kels did Breakfast at Tiffany's. Brian's brother Dan took over the MC duties and was able to get everyone up to the mic. Janet and her boys did a few songs, and I thought Nana might run off with Brian after their duet!

It was so wonderful to bring all our families together to celebrate and give thanks for all that we have. We are all so blessed! It's good to have a day to sit down, remember, and say thank you for that. So thank you to everyone who makes my life so special! I am grateful for you all!

11/21/2007

Only in Texas

Meagan to Venezuelan co-worker: Franklin, are you sure my seven(!) dozen tamales are coming this morning? I have my cooler all ready for them. We can't have Thanksgiving without tamales!

Franklin: They're here, now let me translate for you. Queso = cheese, Pollo = chicken.

Whew - Thanksgiving can start. We have enough tamales to feed a small country!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Labels:

11/18/2007

Family, Football and Fenway

Mom and Dad came to Dallas on Saturday night to go to the Mavs game with us. They hadn't seen Brian and me or Fenway in weeks. I think Mom might have been most excited to see Fenway. She tried to get him to look at the camera, but he was way too interested in her.
















Matt & Kels came over to watch the Cowboys game with us this afternoon. It was a beautiful day and the boys headed out to the backyard to throw the football around during half time. It was a perfect image of boys, fall and sports don't you think? It would have only been better if I'd captured the beers they put down just in time to make the catch!


















Labels: , ,

11/15/2007

Work Emails

Meagan: Babe,...I’m off to eat the mashed potatoes I slaved over last night.
Love you!


Brian: ...Can you bring a cup of mashed potatoes home for me to try?
Best wife in the world = Meagan



Ahh...how cute is he?

Labels:

11/13/2007

Season, Interrupted

Have y'all heard about this writers strike? It's really messing with my world. Don't worry if you're a movie lover. They have plenty of movie scripts ready to go and you should have no problem catching Sex in the City: The Movie. But we TV lovers are just up a creek. TV show scripts are only complete a few weeks before they are set to film. Many sitcoms are actually re-written while they are filmed. And since there's no writing going on there's very little filming going on.

What does this mean? That we're already out of The Office and Back to You scripts. That we're going to run out of hour long dramas like House and Dirty Sexy Money by the end of the year. That Lost and 24 which were supposed to be back in February most likely won't even air this TV season. Dear Lord, what will I do? (That's a prayer, not a swear!)

The networks are going to air reruns and reality shows in place of regular, good TV. I can look forward to the newest season of Project Runway on Bravo and American Idol in January, but that's it. The rest of my week will be filled with CSI reruns.

I know y'all are saying, "Come on. Can't you just read a book?" But it's not the same! I'm crazy about good, well-written TV, and I still read lots of books. I'm thinking I'll ask for TV shows on DVD for Christmas this year. Things I haven't seen before so it's like watching new TV to me. There's got to be a bright side to everything I guess. But I'm going to miss my regular TV. :(

Labels: ,

11/09/2007

Haircuts




Fenway won't let the nice people at PetsMart cut his face hair when he goes for his shampoo and blowout. So he was getting a little long in the face. Brian and I have excellent scissor skills.

Labels:

11/08/2007

To Ski or Not to Ski

Brian loves to ski. He grew up with his family taking ski vacations on a pretty regular basis. Me, not so much. I grew up going on great sight-seeing vacations to the Great State of Texas, New England and Washington D.C. We even threw in a few trips to Disney Word. But I only went skiing once, and it wasn't even with my family. Kelsey was with me, and I think she had a good time, but I was mis-er-a-ble! It was cold, and then the sun was out, and I wasn't wearing any sunscreen. My face was so sunburned that the skin on my nose could be pushed in, and it would stick down like when you push in the nose on a stuffed animal. I still have the scars.

But the worst part was the COLD! I have a bit of a circulation problem, and when I get too cold my fingers and toes lose all their blood and turn a freakish white color. Then they get sore and achy and my fingers get lovely little knots on them. Sounds like fun huh?

So imagine how thrilled I was to find out that one of Brian's best friends is getting married in Colorado over the New Year. We've been talking about it for months. Should we just go to the wedding? Should we stay and ski? But Brian doesn't want to ski by himself. And it wouldn't be any fun even if I tried to ski with him because we'd have to hang out on the bunny slopes. I'm not even sure I could get up the nerve to sit on the chair and ride up the mountain wearing skis on my feet.

Then Brian's friends decided, yes, they're all going to stay after the wedding and ski. So that solved the problem of Brian skiing by himself. I thought about flying home right after the wedding, but Brian didn't want to stay without me. That would mean we'd be without each other on New Year's Eve and we didn't want to do that. Plus, it really wouldn't be very fun for Brian to vacation without me!

So we decided we'd go together, and I'd find a nice spa, a good book, a fireplace and some coffee and settle in for three relaxing days in the mountains and Brian could ski 'till his heart's content. Sounds nice to me! We got it all booked today. Mom even said they could watch Fenway for us! (Won't they have fun)?

I was telling my new female co-worker this story today and she had a look of astonishment on her face. She was really impressed that Brian and I were able to compromise and work together so easily. You know, I hadn't even thought of it that way. But it made me so happy! Brian and I do work really well together. I don't want him to miss out on skiing forever just because I don't like to do it. And he thinks I totally deserve a day (or two) at the spa.

I'm so blessed to have a wonderful husband who wants to spend time with me even on a frozen mountain! And this means I get to go shopping! I really need a new winter coat and pretty gloves, maybe a hat....

Labels:

11/07/2007

Commitment

I seem to have a commitment problem with my blog's look and layout. But the last one was hard to read and a little too blue for my liking. And the first one, long ago, was just too boring. So, I'm trying something new, and I think I'm going to stick with it love it for now! Any thoughts? Leave me a comment!

Labels:

11/06/2007

Seems Like Fall Around Here

We've finally fallen back into Central Standard Time. Thanks goodness! Somehow getting up and starting my day when the sun is still hours from rising is really hard to do. Shouldn't the sun be up and working if I am? Some people say that summer is over after Labor Day, but I don't think it's really over, at least here, until we 'fall back'.

A cold front blew through last night. It was almost 90 degrees yesterday, which doesn't feel a thing like Fall so I was happy to wake up to crisp, cool weather this morning. Fall, or at lease the idea of Fall, has always been my very favorite season so it's kind of ironic that Dallas seems to have about two weeks of it. But this year it really has been pretty. It's been a little warm, but we were still able to have a really nice fire outside on Saturday night with Matt & Kelsey. And it's about time to get the leaf blower and garbage bags ready. We learned last year that it's a lot easier if you pick up leaves a little bit every week rather than wait until January when there's not a single leaf left on a tree within a five mile radius.

The retail world is already finished with Fall. It's suddenly time to start buying Christmas presents. Really?? Surely I have more time before I have to worry about what to get everyone for Christmas. Can I at least enjoy the first two weeks of November first? That's all I ask. Then I'll break out the Christmas music and the shopping lists!

I'm supposed to go to a Sip 'n See this weekend for a friend that already had her baby. So we'll get to see the baby and sip on drinks, but do we take gifts? Does anyone know?

Hope y'all have a beautiful Fall day!

*No, Dallas has never actually had leaves as pretty as this picture, but I can dream right?

Labels:

11/01/2007

Happy November Y'all!

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English

30% Dixie

15% Yankee

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern


At least I don't sound like I'm from Min-e-sota! And I'm sure the 15% Yankee is straight from my loving New Englander/Texan husband who can say aunt all funny and y'all in the same sentence. I think it's funny that my accent only adds up to 95%. What happened to the other 5%?


Labels: