ONE WOMAN SHOW... MY TALENTED FRIEND BROOKE

Can I just tell you that when I first saw this I nearly lost it. Tears of joy and loud meg laughter consumed me.. I watched it again and again and even though I knew Brooke was brilliant.. I can now show you how brilliant that she is!

Brooke is the wife of one of the EFY Session Directors Brother John McClay.. the two of them are amazing! They keep me laughing that is for sure. Brooke has more energy and more creativity on one hand than I have in my whole body!

Well here is the wonderful scoop! Brooke entered a cooking contest for Solo foods.. I have no idea what that is since they live in Colorado.. but it was to cook something and be creative in doing so.. this is what she came up with!!!

Happy Birthday Jilly Bean!!

Jill is not a stranger to my blog. You have all read about her in my hero's tribute to her and her 2 daughters Jacqueline and Emily.

Jill is a woman of faith and I have looked up to her and watched her grow into the woman that she is since I was 12 years old... she was 4 years older than me.. but I knew how cool she was in the Student Body and all :)

I never understood how deeply I would really look up to her in the years to come and had no idea how deeply I would love the very children that would call her Mom.

One of the most treasured times of my life would be the months that I was able to help them with their children during Emily's first stay in the hospital. There are few times in my life when I felt so guided by the spirit on how to comfort and help those sweet kids. I am forever endebted to Jill for trusting them with me and allowing me to love them with everything I had to give.

All of you that know Jill and have watched how she has handled these years with her famil, will all agree that she is strong, faithful and thankful through the trials that have been placed before her. She takes each obstycle with grace and is so real about the things that are hard but doesn't give up!

I've been so amazed that admist the constantly changing health of her baby she still takes the time to invest in her calling as a Sunday School teacher. Most people would use the hardships as an excuse but not this woman.. she uses her lessons to strengthen her and give her power to overcome fears and have the faith to get through the trials. I wanna be more like that!

I love this quote by Sister Nadauld.. I think it sums up what a Woman of God is and what Jill shows each of us by her actions:

"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough
women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who
are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we
need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need
more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough
vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more
purity."

The Joy of Womanhood
Margaret D. NadauldYoung Women General President

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILLY BEAN!!!

HOPE YOU GET THE CELEBRATION THAT YOU DESERVE!

DISCLAIMER: I know that I have missed some very important Birthdays.. don't think that you aren't loved by me.. you will see yourself here, just wait and see!***

THE BIGGEST LOSER FINALE

Ok.. so for those of you who don't believe in reality shows I am sorry for boring you.. but this is one reality show that I will continue to support. Although working out on a ranch day in and day out for 100 days and then going home for 120 more isn't what most of us would ever experience in reality.. I must say that these contentants win my approval for being hard working.

As many of you know this season has had 3 real hard to love people on and I was over watching this show if one of them won because they were just there to win and not to change their lifestyles!! But integrity prevailed and our sweet MICHELLE won!!!

I actually missed the finale and I am so sad about it but I had a bowing date with me nephews which was more important.. but here is the ending of the show tonight...

Thankful Thursdays: Sealings

The Blackwells
Brandon, Kylie, & Irelyn Est. October 2007

Sealed: Oct 25, 2008

I just wanted to give a shout out to my cousin Kylie, Brandon and baby Irelyn for their sealing in the Manti Temple! They are forever now.

At the Sealing dinner I got Ire to try a lemon... she loved it! She is absolutely ADORABLE!!!The next day they blessed Ire at Jamie and Lukes house. It was an AWESOME weekend!

LOVE YOU BLACKWELL'S! Thank you for letting me be part of your special day

Happy 55th Birthday Dad

I have been blessed in my adult life to be able to re-connect with my Dad and I am so glad that we can spend time together and that I have been able to spend holidays with him and the Gazaway side of the family. Almost two years ago we got to spend a straight week with our Dad in Utah with us and had so much fun together. Here is the evidence!


Happy Birthday Dad!

I love you!

Memory Monday:Sleep Study or Discomfort Study...... I don't know!

For years I have struggled with sleep problems. This year it has just increased and gotten really annoying. I went to see a sleep doctor who diagnosed me with night-time anxiety and also ordered an overnight sleep study at a sleep center her in Provo, Utah by Wills pitstop. I was to check in on Saturday night at 8 pm. Also to have dry hair, a clean face with no lotions or cleansers on it and that is about what I knew about it.

What an experience!! You can't go into this sleep clinic and be prepared for what will take place! It was CRAZY yet pretty humorous!

I checked in at 8pm and buzzed the office door bell. A very nice nurse came and introduced herself to me. ( I wish I could for the life of me remember their names.. they rocked!) I noticed that this office was in the same complex as Dr. Pledgers office so jokingly I said to the nurse.. when I go to sleep tonight do you do a 2 for 1 treatment... tummy tuck and sleep study? She laughed and we were instant friends from there on out.

She took me to a bedroom that was so nicely decorated and welcoming. (minus the hospital equipment there) They advised me to switch into my jammies and prepare myself the way I normally do for bed and when I was done to open my door and they would be in to start the process. I folded down my bed and got myself all comfortable and then opened the door and the process began.

The two nurses came in with a cart of computer looking wires. They had glue, sticker type bandages things, colores pencils you name it. One proceeded to mark up my head and measure it in every sort of way. The other started working on my legs, chest and and such. We had a great conversation and started laughing and carrying on. By the time I was done and looked in the mirror I was astounded at how many wires they had hooked up in 1 hour! I told the nurse that I needed to most definately blog this experience! She was so much fun. I was making faces and we were laughing! Then I layed down in one of the most comfortable beds that I have ever slept in and watched Tommy boy on TV. It was good comedy relief. It was getting later and later and although I was relaxed.. I was NOT tired. At 11:10ish there was a knock at my door and the nurse said time for sleepy! She came and added EVEN MORE wires and contraptions. She put something on my finger, a nose tube on my nose and another contraption over my nose that would gage the temperature. For about an hour and half.. I sat there flipping, flopping, figgiting because I was uncomfortable and not tired enough to fall asleep. I even got tangled up in my cords so much that the nurse had to help me get untangled.. we got a good laugh about that.

I was trying so hard to sleep, hello! That was the whole purpose I was there. The nurse came it at that hour and half mark and said, "Megan, you are breaking my heart watching you struggle so much to sleep!" I said welcome to my life every night! She then had me sit up and said here is an Ambien (sleep pill) this should help you right away. She then turned on the air conditioner unit and that is the last thing I remembered. At 6am she came in to wake me up and told me that she got some good results to tell my doctor that would hopefully help me get some answers to my sleep patterns. She had me get dressed, wash my face and go home. Aparently I went home and went right to bed. I woke up at 12:30pm and was in my own bed and wondered how I got there and was not at the sleep clinic (it took me a few hours to remember being woke up and sent home), sleep medicine is SCARY!

UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER PARTY

TIS THE SEASON

My long time EFY friends have Christmas party every year and this year was the first that I was able to attend.. it was themed Ugly Christmas Sweater party! I loved every minute of it and two of my best friends and I took it to a WHOLE new level!

Jen looked SMASHING in the outfit she didn't even have to doctor up!! It was way PRECIOUS!

Stace won the award of the night!! She went over and beyond in he dress up abilities from head to toe.. she jingled ALL the way!I would like to thank KMART for this lovely sweater score! For only 12.99 I was able to pull off this ugly, gotty sweater vest! (I hope no one that reads this has this sweater!)

Kev and Natalie looked great in their sweaters complete with Shoulder pads.

Some fun Dancing went on.. Stace put on her hip hop and Bret went to town!

A close up of my Shirley temple, foam roller hair design!

These next two picture are the white elephant exchange items. This is what I won! And Alissa's was my favorite of the funny ones.. Jen picked this one out... It was complete with a pink poinsetta.

I have the dearest friends!! I am so blessed with friends who like to have GOOD, CLEAN, FUN!

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES MY YPM-ers

(YPM= Young Popular Mormons... we aren't so young anymore!)

Families are Forever... even Elf ones!! :)

My nephews and I had a sleepover tonight... we just had too.. It gave us LOTS of LAUGHS!

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A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAR ALICIA LEWIS

This lady is one of my dearest friends. She took such perfect care of me as a missionary in Englewood/Dayton Ohio. Her home was a safe haven for me in the last 6 months of my mission and her family continues to be such a beloved part of my life still today.

On Prep days on my mission countless times we spent them at her house (she wasn't even home) she let us come in and do our laundry and our email or letter writing to our families. I created many newsletters in her basement for my family and friends. When we would come to our house she also would leave us fresh baked bread to take home with us... she was SOOOO loving and accepting and willing to serve us! We knew that she loved us!

Since being home she has welcomed me into her home on several different occasions even with guests to stay at her home. On my second visit back she even gave me use of her car!!

Alicia has so many awesome talents. She is a great communicator. It is rare that you meet someone so talented as to so naturally have great communication with people that they have never met. We would take her on exchanges with us and the people loved her because she so openly honest and loving to all she meets.

Alicia is also a loyal. If you are in her heart she will do anything for you. She loves her family and friends so deeply and worries about them... not based on what people "may think" but based on true principles and love and concern for their spiritual well being.

She is a woman of faith and many miracles have happened in her life because she never ceased to pray or stop believing in the fact that they could happen.

Most importantly she is a great example of love, charity, devotion and compassion. She is one that I have and always will look up to. She is a mother of wonderful, loving children. A wife of a equally wonderful husband and a friend in all times. I love that in life we can have friends from all different ages and backgrounds and that we can all learn from each other. My life is blessed greatly through the talks that I have with Alicia. The encouragement we give each other and the love and wisdom that she can teach me!

Happy Birthday my sweet Alicia!! I DEFINITELY celebrate you birth! YOU ARE LOVED!

A FEW OF MY ROOMIES AND I.....

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