ode to p-town

this shouldn't surprise you but i am a small town girl and i love it. i love the simplicity of it all and the quiet nights and the friendly people. i lived in the same town all my formative years and have a lot of hometown pride. honestly, who would not be proud of a town that has an onion days festival and a scottish festival all in one summer? who would not be proud of a town that had one stop light all growing up until walmart came to town? who would not be proud of a town where this happens:
what the heck? who herds cows in the middle of town in the middle of the day? i sat there at a stop sign and waited for the cows and cowboys to cross. this is not something you see everyday in dc. maybe once a week. go payson (lions....roar.)

the end

this shouldn't surprise you but i am going to finish the trip to utah now. i think i left you at the river. we got back to payson and had to say goodbye to brant who was going back to san francisco. don't be too sad because you can still catch up on some of his adventures here. that night was glamour night!! we totally put on the ritz and did makeup and hair for our before and after glamour shots. they are funny but mostly a little too embarrassing to post anywhere on the internet. then we went to bed. there had been a lot of sun in our lives and we needed a rest. on thursday, we met for breakfast at magleby's fresh and had delicious french toast with delicious syrup. if you wanted a picture, picture all of us in the exact same clothes as seen here, with no makeup and no hair done and there you have it. after breakfast, we went to nakole's house and randi cut our hair and we all finally got ready for the day at around 4 or so. then randi and dani and kenz had to go and visit their other family and so we were bummed out. we went to dinner that night and missed our friends. on friday, we went shopping and to lunch. ADE AND EMILY!!! met us for lunch at cafe rio and then joined us for shopping which no one was really in the mood for. ade and em came to hang out at nakole's house where we were all suffering from giardia. maybe not but we felt crappy. that night we laid around and made a photo album and waited for our friends to come back but they took forever. they got back late late and so we hung out for a while and then went to bed because they had a plane to catch early in the a.m. so we said our sad farewells until next time which is probably so far in the future that it makes me a little sad. okay a lot sad. on saturday, my last day in utah, i hung out with elva deanne because i had hardly seen her ( sorry em and ade). we didn't do anything spectacular but it was still delightful to be with her. i love that little lady. mauri and nakole came over that night and we hung out all together for one last time. in the morning, it was off to the airport to head back to virginia. it was just the trip i needed. i am so lucky to have a great family and great friends whom i will be close to forever. i love that. thank you all for the fun.

utahr

this shouldn't surprise you but, hello loyal fan(s), i am back from my sojourn in utah and i had so much fun. i have felt the pressure to blog about this trip because of the enjoyment level and the sheer amount of pictures i have taken. it was a breath of fresh air and just what i needed to get over my crap attitude. my flight there was fine. i was excited and anxious to get there and the time flew by. i was picked up by marn and hen and max and amelia. this was mine and amelia's first meeting. i held her and she slept. this is how most of my first meetings go, so nothing new there. then i got to go to lunch with the afore mentioned four where we were met by two other faves, kenz and aunt trev, and had lunch at zubs which i adore. go springville. (if you were wondering if this was going to be a play by play, you bet it is.) that night i was sitting with the family at home and i hear someone talking to my elva and i thought it was my brother mike and so i walk outside and it was not my brother, it was brant!!!!! he had been telling me he could not come from san francisco because of work but that little sneak had been lying all along and had plans to come the whole time! it was a fun surprise and it made my mom cry just a little because of her love for brant. for this evening's activities, we went to marn's house and had a shindig so we could all be together. there was me and marn, hen, max, amelia, dave, elva, dave, nakole, adam, nash, lola, marg, and brant. there was clogging involved and even a little cheer but we will not see that performance again as it is retired. friday was the day we had been waiting for and why we were all convening in payson. MATT was coming home. we cleaned the house and painted a sign and then we were off to the airport to see our little missionary come home from thailand. elva deanne was so nervous to see her true love finally return. we waited for a long time and max kept asking if everyone in a suit was him because he didn't remember his face. he asked about all races and genders. "is that matt on the left? is that matt in the hat?" we were excited when he finally came! excited to tears. there were a lot of them. then we waited for bags and drove home where we were met by a barrage of visitors. it was a crazy night but oh so good to see brother again. saturday, matt was not released so he was no fun. he hung out with benny all day and did errands so i decided to take up nate and meri's invitation to go boating. it was loads of fun although we got hit by a tsunami wave and nearly capsized. good thing nate's boat is super fancy. they also had a sweet new tube
called the ion which is impossible to fall off of, so meri, nakole and i had a wild ride because we were the virgin riders and they wanted us off. sunday was the homecoming and beforehand was really funny because matt was a little awkward so it made for fun times for my dad and me. he is however a very eloquent speaker so it was good to hear his talk. after we had a shindig with tons of food and tons of folks at the house. it was fun to see everyone. randi and dani were finally here too so we cousins were all reunited! we played night games that night at adams and koley's house. we played sardines and hide and seek and steal the flag. it was so fun. hooray. monday we had a funeral for our uncle and it was the most interesting funeral i have ever been to. a tad white trash but it was good to see that side of the family. if you need to hear more about the funeral, talk to marnae; she took copious notes because of the oddness of it all. after the funeral, we went to kole and adam's and made dinner and played games. matt and mike joined us. tuesday was an interesting day. all the girls (minus marg) and kids decided to go and ride the ski lift at sundance and hike around and ride the ski lift back down. well that all changed at the top of the ski lift. we started a hike and then we saw a sign to stuart falls. of course elva deanne thought we should go there and it was only another mile so we went for it. we were ill prepared. we had crappy shoes and out of towners not used to hiking. it was funny and sad all at the same time. nash got tired so kole had to carry him and i carried lola. she is not a light girl but it was funny. she kept her arms open wide and would grab at anything. she got about 20 leaves and would try to shove them in to her mouth as fast as possible. don't worry, i got them all from her. all her hard work for nothing. i am a little embarrassed to say that all of us except elv and brenda had the sorest calves for days after. on wednesday, we floated the provo river. it was bitter cold but oh so fun. i fell in and lost all feeling in my legs for a little while. matt kept complaining about his boy parts but brant was brave. this is not the end of the adventure, but i have to get some work done and this post could already take years to read. sorry about the length but i had a lot of fun.

ninjas

this shouldn't surprise you but the other night, mark and i went to the coolest play in america. it was called by macbeth and it was performed by a troupe of actors called the tiny ninja theater. it was at the kennedy center and it was awesome. if you get a chance to see them, go! and if you get a chance to eat here, go!

sisters

this shouldn't surprise you but i want you to meet two of my favorite people in the world. here are sister mcclelland and sister clark. they are missionaries in the langley ward and i was a ward missionary with them and so i got to work with them and it was pure delight so i wanted you to see them here on the blog before sister clark goes home to sandy and sister mcclelland gets a new companion and does not go home to the bay area in california.

in this picture, sister mclelland thought that sister clark was mad at her after a meeting and when sister clark punched her, her suspicions were confirmed.

thank you sisters for all your hard work in our ward. we like you a lot. especially for a sister in law.

jannnneeeellllllleeeee

this shouldn't surprise you but my janelle friend had a birthday on sunday. she is one year older and wiser too. her parents were here for the whole week leading up to the big day and she had a fabulous week as seen here. her birthday was on a sunday so there were not as many exciting festivities as there could have been but we still had a shindig out on our patio and celebrated her day of birth real real nice. you may not know this but janelle and i share bunk beds. this is because we are very frugal and instead of both of us paying 450 or more in rent, we pay 225 and share a little room. it works out fabulously but there are not many people i would want to share a tiny room with. janelle, however, is a dream come true and we have had many an interesting conversation on our sweet ikea bunkbed. janelle and i met when she was my stuck up boss at dr. we worked together for about 6 months and then one day on a field trip, we decided we needed a change in life and so we thought we should move and we called my kelli friend and she had a place to live and so that night we decided to move across the country to dc. it has been fabulous and i am so glad that i had janelle to do it with. janelle is the queen of practical jokes so i always have to be on her good side or else i fear for my life and all my possessions. it is fun living on your toes all the time. some of my favorite things about janelle are: her ability to sing along with anything, her love of oreos, her love of smoothies from sicky robek's, her endless getting ready skills, her many many shoes, her propensity to bruise from mean looks alone, her double jointed toes, her boyfriend skills, her choreography, her generosity, larry and cheryl, and the list goes on and on. happy birthday j!!

me in letters

the abc's of megan:
a – attached or single: single.
b – best friend: i can't pick.
c – cake or pie: pie.
d – drink of choice: milk, water, juice, dr. pepper.
e – essential item: friends
f – favorite color: orange
g – gummi bears or worms: worms.
h – hometown: payson, utah 84651
i – indulgence(s): music, my camera, makeup, hair products, baby clothes for amelia
j – january or july: both please
k – kids: i like them.
l – life is incomplete without: my family. my friends.
m – marriage date: don't have one. february 10, 1969...worked for elv and dave.
n – number of siblings: three
o – oranges or apples: both
p – phobias/fears: losing someone that i love. being alone in the dark, horses lying down, clowns, deep deep water
q – favorite quote: "courage is fear that has said its prayers." --dorothy bernard. i like this one i stole from rachelle.
r – reason to smile: there are so many..
s – season: fall.
t – tag three: no thanks.
u – unknown fact about me: why would i choose this venue to tell that?
v – vegetarian or oppressor of animals: if god didn't want us to eat animals, then why are they made of meat?
w – worst habit: too many to name but i am working on them
x – x-rays or ultrasounds: i had a traumatic experience with an ultrasound so maybe an x-ray
y – your favorite foods: mexican, italian, corn on the cob, elv's cooking, indian.
z – zodiac: gemini

surprise

i just got this from a coworker's camera phone. this was from my surprise party for my birthday. i don't think you can tell but i was freaked out and my face is so so red!!

my work

this shouldn't surprise you but i have a job. i work for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. cool eh? around here we like to call it NRECA. basically, my title is awesome. i work in building operations/facility management which is so far from my degree, i wonder how i got here but i really like it. i get to do things like boss people around and get my way and spend money. not really but i pretend that i do that. a lot of times i email the day away because as it turns out, i have friends that can do that as well. desk jobs are great for email correspondence. don't get me wrong, i work hard and always get my things done, i am just very efficient. i keep this building running smoothly everyday. sometimes i draw pictures for people and i have no artistic skills. here are some examples. don't worry you can do this too with microsoft paint and some daily observations.

here are some other things that happen at NRECA....








we hide identities

we save lives









we love and nurture and we party!!!!


it really is a good place to work. such nice people and great benefits and good pay. i can not complain. rock on NRECA.

mattiodey

this shouldn't surprise you but this is my little brother matt. he is not really a cowboy, he just plays one on tv. he is the one with all his face showing. matt epitomizes cool. he will be home from thailand in ten days. i have not seen him for 2 years and i am so so so excited. he is the coolest. he likes old people as witnessed by the picture. he is an awesome rock climber and does some of the dumbest things i have ever heard of with his friends but that makes him cool and fun to be around. here is an excerpt from an email he sent home that made me wonder about him but also made me laugh a lot. "The Thais were dazzled by our American ways of doing things, like hitching our ropes to trees so we could pull them up roots and all rather than cutting them. Elder Long and I also tried to pull a tree out by hitching it to our bikes and riding off at full speed, but the result was a little less than successful, and involved torso-handlebar collisions. We made it out alright, though. One big bonus of the project was that we gathered about fourteen scorpions to take home. We’re not sure what to do with them but so far we have come up with a good system to put them on leashes and take them for walks around our compound. There was a large one, apparently full of egg s (our entomologist friend informs us that she probably had about 40 eggs in her) that we set aside in a separate container (with the intent of harvesting her eggs) but—much to our surprise—she has gone missing from her lair. A little unsettling but we don’t think she can make it upstairs to our beds." anyway, see you soon little hermy cat.

wrangler butts drive me nuts

this shouldn't surprise you but this weekend i went to a RODEO!!!! it was so much fun. it was far far away in libertytown maryland but oh so worth the drive. mark and i were hanging out and we got a call from dave and he told us there was a rodeo and so we were all over that! we went to meet the folks at dave's house and then we got a text that it was a women's rodeo and we were already late and so we almost didn't go. but...don't fret, we changed our minds and it turned out to be a regular rodeo and so dave, mark, becky piper and i got in the car and held on as mark drove like a bat out of hell to get us there in time for all the sweet rodeo action. we missed the ring of fear and a few other things but we did get to see us some mutton bustin' and some barrel racin' and some bull ridin' and it was oh so worth it. especially all the hottie cowboys in their tight wranglers and you should have seen the fans. oh my lands. we were definitely not in northern virginia anymore. we met jenny there and some of her friends from baltimore and there was one that i thought was definitely going to know all the cowboy questions that i wanted to ask him but his cowboy outfit was deceiving because when i asked him what latigo was, he just sang the song "rodeo" by garth brooks and then said he had no idea. that was not helpful because we had listened to that song on the way to the rodeo. i should have asked a real cowboy about latigo but instead i had to ask wikipedia. you might not have known this but i am super strong and can hold ginourmous men on my shoulders with the greatest of ease. that is all. sometimes it is hard to be as cool as me. well, it's bulls and blood its dust and mud it's the roar of a sunday crowd it's the white in his knuckles the gold in the buckle he'll win the next go round it's boots and chaps it's cowboy hats it's spurs and latigo it's the ropes and the reins and the joy and the pain and they call the thing rodeo.

geburtstag

this shouldn't surprise you but yesterday was my birthday. the big 2 9. i was not excited about it at all and all month i had been dreading it and decided to let it be low key and not really think about it. well.....that did not happen. on the day before, i, for some reason, decided to broadcast to my whole floor that my birthday was arriving. basically i got attention greedy. so the glorious may 31 finally arrived and i got up at my NORMAL time of 6:30 and got in the shower. when i got out, janelle was waiting for me with breakfast in bed!!!! i have never had breakfast in bed in my life. so... i climbed back in bed and ate away. then i got ready for work and went to work. i was anticipating a lot of loot so i drove to work. work was great. my company gives you a holiday for your birthday and you can take it any time. i opted to take it another time since i would have been home alone anyway. i am glad i went to work. all day,i got cards and such from the people on my floor. however, my department was a little absent and silent all day and i was getting a tiny bit suspicious. i got invited to lunch by a lady named phyllis for 1:00. at around noon, i got a call from my boss on the walkie talkie and he told me that he was having problems with work orders and he needed me to come down and talk to him. so i went with a tiny bit of trepidation and....they had a surprise party for me. it was scary and so cool. i scare easily and so the shouting was a bit firghtening but oh so worth it. they had decorated out whole conference room and ordered lunch so we all ate together and then i got presents. it was a lot of fun. i will post pictures of those festivities when i get them. then as i was packing up to leave the party and go back to my desk, i got a call from the concierge to come down to the lobby where i had flowers waiting for me. they were so so beautiful and from janelle, the best girl around. then i worked the rest of the day and carried all my loot home and when i got there, i had flowers on my porch and also the sister missionaries had decorated my door. it was so sweet. and i had mail from adriane! it was delightful. then i changed my clothes and went to the tyson's corner mall and got some makeup put on at mac. then i bought this little sweetie with some money from my parents. then i was off to meet my friends at p.f changs china bistro. yum yum. we had a delightful meal and janelle totally paid for me. she is like the best boyfriend a girl could want except she is a girl so that kind of sucks. seriously, boys need to take lessons from her on how to be the best boyfriend in america. here is the group of us, sara, annie, joy, me, mark, kelli, darin, janelle, and dave. after dinner, we went home and ate the birthday cake pictured above and opened presents and chatted and had a photo session. the picture below is representative of my squinty smiley eyes that annie and janelle felt they should try it out as well. although i was far from home this was a great birthday and i had to laugh a little when i remembered last years birthday and seeing the movie da vinci code and koley completely falling in the movie and spilling everything in her hands except her delightful hot dog from stadium cinemas in payson. she could not get up because of all the laughter and her pregnant self. so funny and throughout the movie, i would picture it and burst in to laughter. it was so funny! i also requested several songs to be sung by will and he totally came through i laughed until tears came to my eyes. i also got a sweet birthday song from brant and several from elv. lots of well wishes on my phone. and last but not leat, thank for the blog shout outs from janelle, meri, marg, and kole. thanks for the kind words ladies. happy birthdays are the best. this shouldn't surprise you.