an attitude of gratitude

vinny and i just read the article on lds.org called "an attitude of gratitude." it's awesome!

on this day of thanksgiving i just want to list a few of the blessings that i (megan) feel i have been blessed with lately.

first of all, i am so thankful for vinny and for the fun and silliness and strength that he brings to my life. he is such a hard worker and a wonderful husband. (not to mention he's sooooooo good-lookin'!) i count it my greatest blessing in life that i am married to him for eternity.

i am so very greatful for my parents and for the examples that they have set for me my entire life. they have provided me with unconditional love (even when i might not have been very lovable) and support. i am also blessed to have 2 wonderful brothers who set examples for me of how to be loving and spiritual. they have both married women that i am proud to call my sisters. and i am of course thankful for my nephews and my niece.

i am thankful for my two cats even though they are ususally very naughty.

i am thankful for my extended family - my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and all of my cousins. they provide me with endless love and entertainment.

i am very thankful to know that my Heavenly Father loves me. i am thankful to know of the love that my Savior, Jesus Christ has for me. i am so blessed to have this as the foundation for my life.

and i am thankful for all of you, my friends. even if we only "see" each other on our blogs, or on facebook, i am thankful for your friendship.

so much to be thankful for!

we all have so much to be thankful for. what are you thankful for?

blast off... new orleans!

well, we've made it here safe and sound!

new orleans is hoping that hurricane ida is not going to hit here! they are expecting a lot of rain, two inches tomorrow. living where we live vinny and i do not even own an umbrella - guess we'll be buying a couple of those today.

yesterday was spent in traveling here, we left our house at about 3:30 am, and hopped our first plane at 6:20. i had the good fortune to sit next to a lady that kept throwing up, claiming it was "just her diabetes." um, pretty sure it was more than that - if i get sick can i sue her? ha. ha.

when we were waiting to board our plane in atlanta vinny wanted to walk around for a few minutes. well, i waited while they boarded first class, then they boarded the next group, then the next. still no vinny. finally they had boarded everyone, and i mean everyone and vinny was still no where to be seen. they were getting ready to shut the door when he comes wandering up with a giant ice cream cone in his hand! how do you like that?

after landing in new orleans and surviving the wild taxi ride to our airport we got to check out our cool hotel. it used to be a rice factory or something like that. the room is very pretty and best of all the giant bed is very comfy!

right now we are waiting to get our table at the famous brennan's - excited to eat "the world's best egg's benedict"!

we're really looking forward to exploring the city every evening after vinny's conference.

hopefully we'll update everyday and hopefully have some cool photos for you, too!

tag - you're it!!! 8 things...

so, cammie tagged me on her blog so now i'm going to answer these questions (and then tag some of you)!!!

eight things i did today - not in order:

1. bought a strawberry cupcake for me, and a red velvet one for vinny

2. had lunch with my mom and dad. can i just take a minute to tell you all how incredibly awesome they are? seriously, they are so upbeat and positive and fun and funny and supportive and... wonderful! i realize how blessed i am and thank Heavenly Father every day for sending me to such a loving family.

3. returned a gigantic fleece sweatshirt we bought for vinny when we thought we was going to new york.

4. bought myself a zipper sweatshirt with a big star on the back (i'm a complete sucker for stuff with hearts or stars - i haven't outgrown being 9 yet) and a cute "twirly" white skirt that was only $4.99. i didn't even know it was on sale until i paid for it - yippee!!!

5. have done 3 loads of laundry so far and still have at least 2 more to go. sad? yes.

6. bought a present for vinny to try to convince him that he really does love country music.

7. made about a zillion lists of things to pack (because we are going to new orleans tomorrow!)

8. watched my man mow the lawn


eight things i'm looking forward to:

1. christmas

2. decorating for christmas

3. seeing family over the holidays

4. learning to cook (better)

5. learning how to sew on the sewing machine

6. our adoption (even though that may still be years away i am definitely looking forward to it)

7. meeting with an infertility specialist

8. going to new orleans with vinny!


eight favorite shows:

1. the office
2. 30 rock
3. the new adventures of old christine
4. everybody loves raymond
5. ace of cakes
6. laverne and shirley
7. sienfeld
8. ellen's talk show
9. gilmore girls... and of course,
10. i love lucy

eight favorite restaurants:

1. bruno's pizzaria
2. pf chang's
3. beni hana

i'm pretty open to restaurants, but those are my top three!

now i am tagging:

tiana
mindi
brynn
katie
angie
evonne
breclyn
beth

Bad Mood Rising

i have to wonder if they had a secret camera filming us to get the idea for this episode.

a little gem from everybody loves raymond

wish we would have done this at our wedding!!!

(sorry it's such poor quality... it's the only version i could find.)

some roly-poly little bat-face girl

classic - i could watch chevy chase just chew gum. but watch paul simon twiddle his thumbs. beyond great!!!

enjoy...

awesomeness...

two of my favorite girls. and one of my favorite songs. vinny and i used to listen to sarah a lot when we were dating.

please help me...... i'm going insane!!!

i need help from you fellow bloggers out there.

i am trying to write a new post with a bunch of photos. i want the photos in a specific order, and i want to write things above or below each photo.

i can't seem to do this.

every time i add a photo it puts it at the top of my blog and i have to drag it down to where i want it to go. but then it moves my writing all around. how can i add a photo where i want it to go? and put writing above or below it?

am i the only one with this problem? am i making sense?

drum roll, please...

here is the latest addition to our family! baby boy holladay (as we are calling him now) was born today, weighing in at 8lbs 2oz. he joins my brother scott, his wife michelle, and their two kiddos, micah and lauren. we are driving up to see them tomorrow. what a wonderful blessing!

mastering the art of french kissing... i mean cooking!

so, vinny and i went and saw julie and julia today. more like, i said "i will see that stupid g.i. joe movie with you if you will see julie and julia with me." and off we went.

i am now filled with the desire to concoct a chocolate souffle of some sort, or at the very least, poach an egg.

i adored the movie. i adore meryl streep. but the way she played julia child was just luminous. the flashes in her eyes, her infectuous laughter... i wanted to climb into the movie and hug her. mostly, i think that's because in her quiet moments meryl as julia reminded me of my grandma. her playfulness, her determination, but mostly her happy confidence in herself.

the movie actually inspired me. maybe not to write a book, but to find something that i love to do. and do it.

maybe i'll start with poaching an egg...

let us remember...

as we go about celebrating today, let us all take some time to remember why this day is so special. whatever our beliefs are about the war, memorial day is a day to celebrate the lives of those who were lost defending our freedoms and our country for generations.

i want to take just a moment to remember one young man who was killed in iraq. mark carter was a few years younger than i. we went to school and church together. he was a member of the navay seals and was killed in iraq. losing mark really put a face to this war for me. we can debate these wars forever, but the truth is that really good people are giving their lives for our country. may they never be forgotten.

"This Nation Will Remain The Land Of The Free Only So Long As It Is The Home Of The Brave." -- Elmer Davis

huge huge huge news!!!

yesterday was the two-year anniversary of logging our paperwork in with Chinese Children Adoption International. today we found out that the chinese government accepted our application!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

adopting from china is an extremely long process. we have been pursuing this adoption for over 3 years now. being approved by the chinese government is HUGE because now all we need to do (besides re-newing our US government papers and doing another homestudy, etc.) is kick back and wait to be matched to our baby girl!!! that will probably take over another year, but this is an enormous hurdle we just jumped over. we were notified months ago that our paperwork would probably be flagged and cause a problem in the chinese government. but it did not!!! this is just a miracle!

we have passed inspection!!!

we have been accepted!!!

china, here we come!!! (well, here we come in 2010 - which is our 10th wedding anniversary!)

we are so thankful for our blessings from our loving Father in Heaven! i don't think it was just coincidence that we were accepted on the second anniversary of our LID (log-in date). it think it was a little wink from above!

God is good!

yoo-hoo!!!

hi there everyone!!!

we have returned from our self-imposed blogging exile.

our neighborhood is having a community garage sale next month. we have set a goal to go through all of our junk and all of the boxes we never unpacked after moving here. (yes, we moved in 3 years ago. and yes, our garage is still full of boxes.) i want to get rid of tons of stuff and make some money...

i'll let you know what kind of crazy stuff we come across.

we went to las vegas again last weekend. carmella (vinny's mom) took us. it was the first anniversary of vinny's dad's passing and we thought it would be good to head out of town. it was her first trip to vegas ever... i think she thought it was a den of sin. but she liked the fountain at the bellagio and the bakery at the paris.

here i am at the bellagio:

the big 1-0! happy birthday mason!

happy 10th birthday mason durst! we are so proud of you and love you to pieces!!!

where oh where did we go?

where can you see all of the following places in a 3 day period?

an italian gondolier...

the eiffel tower...

a fantastic water display...

a tropical oasis?...

and the washington monument?

LAS VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!






we just love going to las vegas any chance we get.

happy birthday tiny ty!!!

happy birthday to our favorite tiny guy!!!!

too long

well, well, well. here we are again. just wanted to let everyone know that we are still here, alive and kicking. scott and michelle are here visiting with my niece and nephew, lauren and micah. alex got married last weekend. that's right! he got married...

i will post photos of scott's visit and alex's wedding asap.

just wanted to say hi to all of you out there in blogger land.

love, megan

misc comments

It was so great to see Grover and Katie and their 2 cute kids, Julie Anne and William. Wasn't that a great picture of them in the previous post??? Loved it! It was such a wonderful visit and I hope to do that again. Good friends are hard to come by and they are truly great friends. I served with Grover twice on the mission. He is a man of faith and guts. That makes for a very unstoppable combination. I hope that Megan and I get to meet them often.

This morning I rode the motorcycle back to Mom's house. It was a nice trip.
I must admit that I have been branded. It's true. It's a rite-of-passage. It's initiation. My right leg rubbed up against the hot muffler and i have a huge pipe tattoo. It's a bad one; the skin has already blistered and is ready to peel off. Oh well. Now it won't happen anymore; I'd say I've learned my lesson!

Mom and I met with her lawyer this morning, John Mcelyea. We find him to be a good man, of good character. I am sure Dad would approve of him. One thing I really liked about him was that he wouldn't even venture a guess or opinion regarding some questions I asked him that were outside his realm of specific legal niche. I think most egotistical lawyers or people in general, would take those questions and start sounding really intelligent by throwing out their opinions. I wonder if I do that sometimes, probably more than I should. He didn't- and I like that about him. I was a bit scared when I was selecting a lawyer, because we had options and were not sure whom to choose. He was recommended to me and then I did some research on him. Anyway, this was our first meeting with him and we were impressed. His staff has been exceptional so far and we hope all things continue to go as well. He made some very interesting discoveries about my Father's accident during his on-going investigation. I don't want to share them all here on this blog but those of you who are close to us, or care to call, I will share them with you. Suffice to say, the original police report drafted at the scene was not all that accurate. But I have great understanding. I know that the man that hit my Father had absolutely no intention to do so. While I am saddened by my Father's passing I am grateful that I feel no anger or animosity towards the man driving the car that struck him.

Dad's number was up. An accident happened. End of story. I wish it were different. But it isn't. The past is a lifeless, indestructible brick wall that is deaf, blind, and numb to all screaming, head-banging, and pleading. It travels on at 1041 miles per hour, mowing down the present with impunity. No helmet, no roll-bar, no seatbelt is going to save or secure you from it. See that? Here it comes....Did you see it? Did it blow your hair in your face?

The Parhams

Last night I rode the motorcycle over to my old companion's house (Elder Parham). He was an awesome companion when we served together in Salt Lake City. Dad knew him, too.

He and his wife, Katie, live in Titusville. They have 2 really cute kids! We stayed up all night talking about mission experiences and playing Pass The Pigs (which I totally won).

Then I crashed on their couch. It was a great night.

Katie wass in the Army and is now in the ready reserves. She served in Kuwait and is now keeping her husband in line.