Loquacious Lady

On this Friday Favorite, I’m going to focus on my favorite store in Suwanee, La Ti Da. It is my go-to store for cute gifts. And…well, ya know….for things I want for myself. Every now and then. And it’s also where I got my giveaway item (keep reading)!

La Ti Da is a boutique-style store that carries a wide variety of items.

They have super cute baby gifts.

And gifts for kids.

They also have gifts for grown-ups…

Cute things in black and white

Or if you want to unwind with a drink

Or get some new Vera Bradley (hopefully, only if you’re female).

They have funny and inspirational books.

They have Game Day items…and they don’t even discriminate.

They’ve got aprons that I want but didn’t photograph for some reason. I really want them. Actually they have a lot of fun home decor items as well as things for the kitchen. Below are just a few.

I definitely stand in the store reading things and laughing to myself…by myself…every time I go in. And I definitely gave this decorative dishtowel on the right to a friend for her birthday. It fit her and her hubby so well.

Oh, and they have funny napkins and cute paper plates for parties.

And, speaking of paper…be still my heart. They have invitations, stamps you can personalize, stationery, cute pads of paper, address books, and more. I was in paper product heaven. They even have a table where you can sit down and look through the invitations (especially if you’re picking wedding invitations).

They have a sale section, that’s actually filled with great stuff.

Here’s the cute little canopied entrance, with a few more sale items out front.

And they do complimentary gift wrap. I know, because I buy most my gifts there.

And I bought one for one of you.

This little bird is so sweet, it’s kinda hard to part with it.

Even it’s little bum has a flower on it.

If you don’t think that this bird is quite your style…or you’re a dude, guess what? There’s probably someone in your life who would love to take it off your hands. So win it for them! And mother’s day is coming up. I’m just sayin’. You could give mom something you won, something cute, and something that cost you nothing!

Here’s how you win. Leave me a comment telling me who would end up with that bird if you were to win it and why. If it were me commenting, I would definitely say me. I wouldn’t give this away except that I love you guys so much. And why?  Because I love the colors and the flowers on it, and how happy it makes me when I see it. But if you win it, I want to know who will get it (including if it’s you) and why. Just curious.

To be entered a second time (or third if you do both), copy and paste this into twitter and/or your facebook status:

Tell @meghanmcfarlin that I should win the giveaway at http://loquaciouslady.com/

You can enter until Sunday at 7pm. Winner will be announced Monday!

~Meghan

Tom and I love sunsets. And sunrises, though I tend not to get up that early anymore. It always amazes me to see the way the sky can look so different twice a day, every day.

The other night, I was putting plants into our window boxes, and I looked up. The sky was so pretty, and I called Tom out to see. I had to go get my camera too. It wasn’t the most amazing sunset I’d ever seen, but I loved seeing it anyway. It was still pretty. It wasn’t full of fiery oranges and pinks. What struck me more was the way the color of the clouds contrasted with the light. I decided not to touch these up, crop out my neighbor’s house, or enhance the colors. This is what the sky really looked like that evening.

It’s funny because when I see things like a sunrise or sunset…my heart feels closer to God. For me, it’s a blazing reminder that God loves us enough to give us beauty–free beauty–to enjoy in this world. And, if you know me well, this won’t surprise you, it makes me feel like singing. I just hear praises in my head…This is the one that came to mind when I saw this.

O Lord my God,

When I in awesome wonder

Consider all

The works Thy Hand hath made

I see the stars,

I hear the mighty thunder,

Thy pow’r throughout

The universe displayed;

Then sings my soul,

My Saviour God, to Thee,

How great Thou art!

How great Thou art!

Probably not everyone who reads this blog is a Christian. And some who read it are Christians, but they aren’t the kind of people who randomly feel the urge to sing praises when they see a sunset or when they hold a brand new baby or when they look up at night and see stars all over the sky. I know that to some people that this post will even seem a bit cheesy. That’s cool. I’m just built a little differently.

~Meghan

I know that there are countless things we love about our friends, family, and significant others. There are big things that make them essential to our lives. But oftentimes, it’s the little things that I find matter the most. In the words of Good Charlotte, back when I was a teenager and they hadn’t yet sold out:

The little things, little things they just won’t go away

The littles things, little things made me who I am today

Here are some little things about my hubs that, were he to stop doing them, I find I would miss oh-so-much:

*Hearing him play the guitar. Tom is a great guitarist. He also knows way more about music than most people I know-both about music itself and about songs and bands. He really understands music and loves it. He’s played guitar since we were in middle school, and it’s always been one of his passions. I love when he brings his guitar into the kitchen while I cook …and, yes, we have little sing-alongs. And not just when I cook. I am not ashamed. I love rockin’ out with my husband.

*How much he loves sweet tea. I have to say, I make some darn good sweet tea (if you like it really sweet). And he always wants it with dinner, except on the weekends when we have soft drinks. I feel like, even if I couldn’t do anything else in the kitchen, I’d feel good knowing how much he loves my sweet tea. Every time we run out and I make a new pitcher full, I’ll hear the most satisfied sounding, “Oooh! YES!” when he sees it. I love that.

*He puts up with my “what if” questions. Tom does not exactly love the fact that I have a twisted, warped brain that means I need to know how he would react to all kinds of unlikely situations. For example I have covered numerous ways I might be killed, including a variety of murders, as well as all kinds of questions about our future kids, and he still answers my questions. But, usually, not without letting me know how stupid they are first.

* He is awesome with kids. Okay, that might not be a little thing, seeing as we plan to have kids someday. But it’s just awesome to know that he actually enjoys spending time with kids and babies. And he’s good with them. They love him. I’m pretty sure my niece would have hijacked my wedding and married Tom  herself if her mama would have let her. She settled for being the flower girl.

*He’s a goof. We both share a goofy sense of humor. And we get each other. I love that I can be totally stupid around him, and he’ll laugh. This also means that he gets that I break out in dance randomly, accepts that I sing parts of my sentences (or entire short sentences), and finds it amusing that I walk around, talk about what I’m dreaming, laugh and cry, occasionally attack his feet, and kiss him (that one only happened once) in my sleep. Even though he really prefers to sleep straight through the night, he manages to laugh about all my weird nighttime activities.

*He actually tells me what he’s thinking. I mean, not every minute. But some men just don’t discuss how they feel about a sermon, a conversation, or their day (or almost anything). Tom used to not share so much. I didn’t notice it at first because we were together all the time. He didn’t have to let me know what was going on because we were never apart. Then we went to separate colleges, and it drove me nuts. It was something we both had to work on. But now he’s an awesome communicator, and our relationship is all the better for it because I don’t have to guess what he’s been going through at work or how he feels about a given situation. He just tells me.

*He’s a geek. Which is great, because I’m a geek too. Between my bookworming and Tom’s computer skills and love of video games, our kids don’t stand a chance at avoiding the dweeb gene. (By the way, did you know that the official definition of dweeb is “mega-nerd?” I just learned that, despite using that word for years.) My favorite games to play on my phone are hangman and puzzle games. I love text-twist for a game to play online. His mom and I both subscribe to crossword magazines and love to do them together. He is okay with my geeky obsession with words. And puzzles.

* He loves to keep his car clean. And his desk. And everything else, too. As someone who isn’t naturally a neat-freak, being married to an almost OCD organization-lover has been all about meeting in the middle. But I really love that he appreciates organization. When I clean the house, he notices. He appreciates it. And he compliments it. It makes doing the same chores over and over again a much more cheerful prospect.

*He loves comic books. We both are fans of The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. Marrying him meant we have a pretty much full collection for the latter. It’s awesome.

*He listens to me when I ask him to change something about his outfit. It sometimes annoys him, but he does it anyway. I like that he trusts me. And I’ll even ask for his advice on my outfits sometimes for picking shoes or earrings or something (and actually take his advice, which he loves).

Okay, I could go on all night. I’m stopping because I don’t want to drive you all permanently away from my blog with my never ending list of reasons my husband rocks. Those are some (just a few!) of the little things that make Tom who he is to me. And the little things…they matter.

I would love to hear some of the little things about your significant other that you appreciate. Or some of the little things about you that you know your friends/spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend appreciates.
~Meghan

Tom and I have busted our behinds for the last few weeks to revamp our yard. All of the things we’ve planted are quite new, so many of them are tiny and most have no blooms yet. Just keep that in mind as you see the pictures.

We’ll start in the backyard. I have to just get this over with. *Big Breath* OK. The other day, I got home from work, grabbed my tools along with some soil and plants, and I went into the backyard. Under the hot, Georgia sun, I tore up all the grass in one corner, dug up some monstrously huge rocks from the clay we have for dirt here, and dug holes. I threw into them a bit of nice soil (that is ridiculously expensive for the cheapest dirt in Home Depot, I’m just sayin’), and placed plants in the holes. I filled the rest of the holes with nice soil and covered that with clay. Then I hauled rocks from our garage to the backyard to surround it all, and I covered all the dirt around my plant-babies with mulch. Then God said it was good, and I agreed with Him. Also, Tom came home and totally dug it.

Then our dogs were possessed by demons and attacked. I am fairly certain that it was foolish of me to leave them in the backyard while I worked. They were incredibly interested in my hole digging. Liam lay on the ground beside me the whole time I worked. Sam would lie in the shade and come check on my work every few minutes. I can only assume they thought I had found an awesome hole digging area and celebrated that fact by making the ground very pliable and filled with plants that are fun to rip up. Because after they got into a serious wrestling match that ended up with them stumbling into my little backyard garden, they decided to trample the impatiens, rip up some cala lilies, and tear the butterfly bush limb from limb. And I cried. As pathetic as that may be, I really did cry. DADGUM IT, I worked hard on it. And sweat a lot. And got dirty. And now there is a stupid baby gate surrounding my backyard plot of plants.

There is still a butterfly bush. It’s just hard to see it in this picture because there are only about 5 leaves now. Anyone looking to adopt some dogs….?

Okay, now that that’s over with, and I find myself still, against all odds, loving my pets, let’s move on. Tom and I also got some window boxes to go outside of our bay windows in the kitchen so we could have some color there during the summer. These contain impatiens and some plants in the middle of each that I don’t remember the name of. Hopefully the mystery plants will do well in shade…and window boxes. We’ll see. They’re also in the backyard. Be merciful, Sam and Liam.

If you go through the gate in our backyard, you will now find a little flowerbed in the corner where our fence meets the house. Before it was just grass. And rocks. So boring. Now, it has a bush (again, I can’t remember what kind) in the corner, tiger lilies (those are the tall ones) along the house, and snapdragons along the border of the bed.

On the other side of the gate, I planted some plumbago auriculata, which should look like this once it grows a bit. (picture borrowed from it.gardening.eu)

If the trellis looks familiar, it’s because it was once on our dining room’s china cabinet…before I ripped it out. I saved it to use for some kind of vine, so we’ll see how it holds up under its new purpose.

So, looking down the right side of our house, you’ll see our (hopefully not dead) baby crepe myrtles, our vine (on the right, against the fence), and our new little flower bed (on the left). You might also see some dirt outside of all the new flower beds, because we had to hoe up all the grass, and red clay was everywhere. We’re hoping it will wash away soon and show the grass again.

In the front yard…well, let’s just have a before and after of that.

Before, it had humongous bushes that made it impossible to enjoy the little porch or to even see it from the street, which made it difficult to see out either. Not to mention the bees and wasps (and SPIDERS) that enjoyed hanging around those monster bushes.

And there were weeds growing up all through the little bushes in front of the monster bushes.

They had to go. So we got rid of them. And instead had a dirt plot. Beautiful.

And then, FINALLY, we were able to hoe up the weeds and some grass, dig out a billion rocks, and plant. We planted five bushes (that I can’t remember the name of…hmm, this is starting to show a bad pattern), along the back, which we can keep pruned down to a manageable size once they grow some more. We put a small topiary-style tree on the corner with some pretty pink flowers on it (and some little white ones that popped up later).

In the middle of the front bed, we put some gerber daisies.

And all along the border of the front bed is lilyturf. And beside the loveseat is a pot with some mint in it. That didn’t go in the ground because I read that mint takes over gardens. I don’t want a mint-yard.  Just a bit of mint will do.

You can even see our little porch from the street!

And by the front door is a small hydrangea in a pot. Just to make the entrance a bit more cheerful.

Alrighty, continuing around the other side of the house, we have three small hydrangea plants that we are hoping will grow to be huge over the years. I love blue hydrangeas. And in front of them are three little dahlias.

And if you walk past that area to where our fence meets the house again, you’ll see my little herb and vegetable garden. Though, the only veggies are tomatoes, which are really fruit, so it’s actually a little herb and fruit garden. But I’m going with veggies on this one. It’s my garden. I’ll call it what I like.

Joining the tomatoes are these herbs: rosemary, basil, oregano, and parsley. All the plants (except the rosemary) in this garden are pretty itty bitty right now. I’m hoping they’ll grow quickly.

Do you like my leaning tomato cages? I got them for free (and used) from my parents. I’m okay with that.

Alrighty. That’s it for now. Next up is getting seed for bermuda grass. Our rye grass is starting to die out, and we’re ready to get our lawn looking lush and green again.

Until then, I’m just battling the Southern sun with plenty of water for my baby plants. (Not to mention defending them from whatever demon possesses my dogs when they are near my little backyard plants.) Are any of you gardeners? Any tips or suggestions or brands you want to recommend to a newbie in this area?

~Meghan

Here are the books that I read this month:

Rilla of Ingleside was a great book. I love historical fiction, and this story is set from right before World War One all the way through to its end. The main character, Rilla, is Anne and Gilbert’s youngest child. When I told my mom that I was going to read it, she said that it was her favorite of the books about Anne of Green Gables and her family, and she said that Rilla had always made her think of me. I was only about one chapter in at this point, and I didn’t particularly love how Rilla (who is only about to turn 15 at the beginning of the book) was so unconcerned with anything but having fun despite the approaching war. So, I obviously didn’t love hearing that at first. As I read the book though, I realized my mom wasn’t trying to insult me. I was actually kind of flattered. Rilla matures throughout the book. She takes care of a baby whose father is at war and whose mother has passed away. She raises him for three and a half years until his father returns. She starts a junior red cross group to get girls her age involved in supporting the soldiers. She writes to her brothers and friends who are fighting for four years. She is a source of comfort to her parents. She faithfully turns down all suitors while waiting on the person she has loved since childhood to return from fighting. She is a heroine. And when I got done reading the book, I wanted to hug my mama for telling me that Rilla and I had similar personalities.

I don’t know if you’ve read Nicholas Sparks books, but if not, I can tell you this: he has a habit of killing people. Usually someone you really like in the story gets killed in the end. His books are generally good for a cry. But this one was refreshingly different. I think he knew that his readers expected one of the main characters to die, because he wrote the last chapter in a way that lets you think one of them did until the last page or two. Then you realize that he (*gasp*) actually let that person live. Someone does die though. You’ll have to read it to find out who it was.

This book was a quick, fun read. It’s set in 1989 in Australia. The main character tells the story, and I found myself laughing out loud a few times, especially when she brings up Huey Lewis and The News and the song Power of Love. So funny. But the story is basically about this girl who is about 17. Her parents drop a bomb on her that Nick McGowen, a cute guy at her high school who has gone through some hard stuff and is acting out, is going to be moving in. She’s horrified, but has to deal with it. It’s all about that year and how they go from basically being strangers to being friends.

This is the second of three books about this group of friends in their fifties. It’s set in Georgia, and it’s hilarious. I have actually read the third book, and now the second, but not the first. I don’t usually do things backwards, but that’s what happened this time. Regardless, these books are funny, and if you’re from the South, you’ll like them that much more.

This was another quick read. It was okay, but not my favorite. It’s so obvious that the main characters will end up together and that the bad guy is her ex-husband and some other guy that he’s friends with…it’s really something you read more to see how they get to the end than you read because you can’t wait to see what happens.

This book was great. I really couldn’t put it down, and I think I read it in under 24 hours. I can’t wait to check out more books by Sarah Dessen, the author. The main character, Annabel, has a normal family with problems that really happen affecting them. The story isn’t depressing, but it’s very real in that life isn’t perfect nor such a tragedy. It has it’s highs and some major lows. And this book captures that really well. The characters are interesting, and the situations are believable. I don’t want to say more because it would give too much of the story out. Go read this one.

That’s it for me. Only 6 books this month.  What are you reading?

~Meghan

I came across this video a few weeks ago via an article that was on my Google Reader homepage. The person who wrote the article works for Google, and they were writing about how many posts blog subscribers read and what some of the most popular things subscribed to were. This video was one of them. So I won’t be surprised if you’ve seen it.

It makes fun of many of the movies that are attempting to take home one of these:

It’s funny. It’s clever. And it’s spot on. So, of course, it’s this week’s Friday Favorite. Even the comments on youtube are hilarious. Go check them out if you have time.

What do you think?

~Meghan

I’m not doing a fabulous post today. I apologize in advance. I just spent the day (Wednesday) focused on our garden. At 9:20 PM, we just got finished doing the bed in front of our house, and we are tired. So, because I’m tired…I’m doing a post not on something that happened or a project or my thoughts on something. But on someone. Someone I don’t have to talk to in order to know stuff about.Me. (I told you it wouldn’t be a wonderful post. Sometimes the brain is tired and the ideas just aren’t there.)

So, here are 10 things about me you might not know:

1. I am exactly 5 feet and 2.75 inches tall.

2. I love all things cowboy. I have about 4 cowboy hats, and my cowboy boots are some of my favorite shoes.

3. I have a thing for animal prints. It’s not like I wear it every day, but I do love the way it can make something pop. And that’s why we have a zebra print style rug in our living room.

4. HGTV, Disney Channel, Animal Planet, and Food Network are some of my favorite channels on television.

5. I love action movies as much or more than I like romantic comedies and chick flicks.

6. My favorite things to buy are books, shoes, and paper products (stationary, cards, cute notepads, etc. I love it.)

7. I am the youngest of four kids. Also, my parents never meant to have four kids. hahahaha, God totally got them.

Yep. That's my dad, holding me in the nursery at the hospital the day I was born.

8. I am the one who wanted (and bought) the one power tool we own. And I wish we had more.

9. I avoid Target because that store carries so many cute things that I never knew I wanted until I saw them.

10. I absolutely love musicals. I would go to The Fox every week to see plays if I could afford it. Of course, while I’m dreaming, I would just go to Broadway.

Okay, those are 10 things you might not have known about me. Your turn! I want to know you better. Fill me in!

~Meghan

Tom’s brother, Ben, proposed to his girlfriend, Lana, this past weekend. And we were in Panacea, Florida to document it and to help celebrate. Because most girls (and some guys, admit it!) want to know how people get engaged, I thought I would share a quick recap.

Ben and Lana met when they were 18 and attending Valdosta State University together. They became friends and had a group of mutual friends they would hang out with that year. After their freshman year, Ben decided college was not his thing and moved back to Covington to work for his dad with plans to one day take over the business. Lana continued her time in Valdosta. But all of the group of friends still stayed in touch with Ben, and the friendships didn’t die out despite the distance. (Like all that alliteration?)

Fast-forward a few years to late 2009, and Ben and Lana find themselves hanging out with friends…and decide they are both interested in making this friendship something more. They began dating, and knew very quickly that this was it. They had known each other for years, so they didn’t feel like they needed to date for a long time. They wanted to get married in 2010. So they begin to make the long treks each weekend to spend time together as well as to get to spend time with each others’ families.

Five months in, and they get engaged. This is how it went down:

A little while ago, Lana gave Ben 101 hearts, each with a different reason on it that she loved him. She said to him that she would bet he couldn’t come up with that many reasons why he loved her. He said he could do WAY better than 101 reasons. Right before he popped the question, Ben reminded Lana of her challenge. He said that in the couple of months since, he had thought of more and more reasons each day. But it would take too long to write them all down because the list doesn’t seem to end. So would she spend every day for the rest of their lives just letting him tell her the reasons?

And of course, she said yes.

I have to say that I consider that one of the sweetest proposals ever. It is so sweet, so genuine (you should see the way they are around each other), so perfect for them. And that’s what makes a proposal special- asking in a way that fits the couple.

So what about the rest of the story?

Ben had invited his family, her family, and several of their friends to help him surprise his bride-to-be by being at a local restaurant, Angelo’s, to celebrate the proposal. He had a pretty big turnout. But before that, he had to propose. He had asked me and Tom to help document this special event but to remain unseen.

Tom’s parents have a condo in Panacea, and the next door condo houses some sweet friends of theirs, Don and Sandy. They were kind enough to sneak us into their condo, let us change for dinner there, and to go out on their balcony to hide behind some lounge chairs to take pictures (me) and to stand behind the sliding doors to the balcony to take a video (Tom) as Ben proposed on a dock over the water. Then they snuck us over to Angelo’s without Lana seeing so that we could document her reaction when they came over for dinner and she saw all of those people waiting to congratulate them.

Amazingly, no one spilled the beans, and Lana was completely shocked to first be engaged and secondly to see everyone there ready to celebrate with them. There were a few tears and a lot of laughter as parents, brothers, and friends made toasts to the newly engaged couple.

It was a beautiful night, Ben did a great job, and Lana said yes! =) We are so excited to have this sweet, funny, beautiful girl joining our family. She is such a prize, and I couldn’t be happier to have her as a sister-in-law. Tom and I have always been very close to Ben, and the woman he was to marry was of great interest to us. I will never forget the first time that I met Lana, I told Ben later, “You need to marry that girl. I wouldn’t mind being related to her. She’s pretty awesome.” Of course, he was like…19. So that was not on either of their minds back then. But I was engaged and thought in marriage-mode. And, look, I was right! =)

Tom and I were more than exhausted after that weekend. We got up and drove the dogs to a kennel in Conyers on Saturday morning, then we drove to Florida. We immediately changed, took pictures/video, went to Angelo’s, took more pictures, ate, hung out a bit, went to bed, got up very early Sunday morning (6:30 for me), drove to Covington, spent time with my family while my sister, brother-in-law, and their new baby were in town, drove to Conyers to pick up the dogs, then drove back to Suwanee. In two days. Exhausted. But worth it. I wouldn’t think of trading being a part of Ben and Lana’s engagement night or seeing my family on Sunday just for a little R&R.

Here are a few shots from the night Ben and Lana got engaged. Keep in mind that these were taken from quite a distance with a non-telescopic lens, then cropped.

There are some things that a lot of people I know think that just aren’t so. I used to think some of these things too. I thought I’d share a few.

1. When I graduate from college and am working, I will have so much more time to do whatever I want to do.

False. I thought that because I wouldn’t be working on homework, papers, research, etc. that I would have more free time. But I didn’t. I worked all day without a break (except for lunch). So I wasn’t caught up on emails, phone calls, or anything else when I got home. Plus there was housework, laundry, cooking, grocery store runs… A lot to do.

2. When I get married, I’ll have even more time to hang out with friends because I’ll see my spouse all the time since we live together.

Nope. We live together, but we are busy during the day. Tom’s at his job, and I’m either at work or at home cleaning or out running errands. When he comes home, the time is eaten up with side jobs, working out, making dinner, and many other things. We do eat together every night, and we do spend time together, but it’s not like all we do is sit on the couch and talk the night away. So when the weekend comes, we are ready to have a date night. We usually have one night of the weekend reserved just for us. If that means turning down something with friends, we do it because we want our marriage to be nourished with time together.

BUT we do want to see our friends and family. And we do seem to see someone or some couple one night almost every weekend. The problem, though it’s a good one, is that we have a lot of friends and family. So we always feel like we are dropping the ball on seeing someone. We especially feel bad when our unmarried friends feel like “you’re married and see each other all the time, so why can’t you make time for us?” It’s hard to explain that we don’t hang out all the time, and that we have to make each other a priority, yet we miss seeing them and want to see them, just like we want to see all of our friends. It just takes time to see them all.

We talked about this recently and decided we’re going to quit beating ourselves up over that. We love our friends. We see them as often as possible. We just can’t feel bad when we can’t make it to every event. Otherwise we’re going to start seeing people as an item to check off a “to hang out with” list. We want to enjoy spending time with our friends and not feel guilty about it when we can’t.

3. Getting dogs in your first year of marriage is a horrible idea.

We both grew up as dog owners. We love dogs. But everyone and their mom warned us not to get a pet our first year of marriage. I was pretty adamant about it. Tom and I knew we wanted to get a dog eventually. But I was hardcore about not wanting any “responsibility to tie us down” that first year.

That lasted about three months. Tom and I started to talk about dogs. We missed having pets. We missed having a furry friend to pet and love on. We missed having someone with floppy ears and and a waggly tail in our lives. So we started to talk about “just going to look” at some shelters. We had some rules, though. Only a girl (easier to train, usually), no terriers (too much energy for an apartment), and not too big (again, we were in an apartment).

We got there, and Tom insisted on looking at these cute puppies. I tried to talk him out of it because I knew they were terrier mixes. When it comes to puppies, I hold one and want to take it home. I knew it would all be over if I picked one up. So I wasn’t going to pick one up. Until Tom talked me into it. Next thing I know, I’ve talked him into bringing home two puppies, a boy and a girl, both terrier mixes.

And it was awesome. They had (and still have) high energy. They were about the same to train, each surpassing the other in different areas. At least they weren’t too big. They’re medium/small dogs. But we love them so much, and I can’t even imagine our first year of marriage without them. Those 2AM potty breaks gave me and Tom something to bond us even closer, and we love them like they are our babies. We don’t regret it at all.

And, to counter all the myths, here’s a fact: Bears eat beets.

Sorry, that’s really just for fans of The Office, and not relevant at all. I don’t know if bears eat beets or not. But I couldn’t help thinking of that sketch from The Office when I wrote “False.” under the first myth. =)

I’m sure there are more myths out there that are commonly accepted as truths. There are probably some I have about being a parent, but I don’t know they aren’t true because I’m not a mom yet. Do you have any thoughts that proved to be myth later on?

~Meghan

I was recently asked to share the story of how Tom and I met. So that’s the blog post today.

Tom and I met when we were 13 and 12, respectively. When I was in the seventh grade, my parents decided that my brother and I would be switching schools from our fairly large private school in Athens, GA to a teeny tiny private school in Monticello, GA. (Both were about an hour’s drive or bus ride from our house; we didn’t ever live in Athens or Monticello.)

I went with my parents to visit the school we were transferring to, and I hung out with the class I would be in while my parents toured the school. One of my best friends was already in that class. At lunch, she and all the girls were at one table while all the boys were at a different table. (I’m not sure why they separated themselves out like that back then, but we all sat together the years I attended.)

I heard a boy’s voice calling out, “Hey! You! Come’ere!” I looked over and saw a boy with a bowl cut standing up at the boys’ table. He was staring at me and waving me over. I walked over, thinking he looked familiar.  He cleared that up by asking me if my brother was Jordan who went to UMAS Karate. (I had spent a lot of time waiting for my brother to be done with karate lessons, so I guess he recognized me from the waiting area.) He was in some classes with my brother, and he was also in some of the classes my brother taught. He told me his name was Tom, and I told him my name was Meghan. We found out we both were from Covington, GA. Then I said something along the lines of, “Okay, I’m gonna go sit back down now.” And I walked away.

I should probably also mention that I did NOT try to look cute at all that day. Who knows what went through my 12-year-old head, but meeting my future classmates apparently didn’t qualify as a situation where I should dress to impress. I am embarrassed to admit that I owned and was wearing a green sweatshirt and green sweatpants. The worse part? I’m pretty sure there was a graphic of teddy bears on the shirt. And I had on my glasses instead of contacts. I did not own cute glasses back then. Just the super thick, ugly ones. I think I had my long hair left all straggly and pulled back in a ponytail. And that was how I met my classmates. Oh good gracious.

So my first day of school, I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me that all the kids in my class looked at me like I had sprouted antennae. I wore contacts and make-up. My clothes were a lot cooler (for 1998). And my hair had been cut short. This basically translates to my oh-so-much-more-mature (riiiight) 13-year-old self caring more about the actual first day of school.

Here’s what we looked like when we first became classmates (and no, I’m not going to photoshop these at all):

Okay, so we went into our eighth grade year as people who had met briefly. We became friends quickly. We sat next to each other in our English class, in the back corner of our classroom. We would swap our “Wordly Wise” paperback workbooks so we could doodle or write notes. Tom LOVED Metallica, so he would write out my name with the font they used. He was learning to play guitar, and I loved that about my friend.

We had a mutual friend, Haley, who called me up one night. She said that Tom had been talking to her and was curious to know what I would say if he asked me out. I said, “WHAT? NOOOOO! He’s like my brother! NO! Tell him NOT to ask me out. That would mess it up.”  So, he didn’t ask me out. Obviously. This happened again early the next school year with the same reaction from me. So we remained friends (for a while).

In between those situations though (and after them), we both “went out” with other people. I had a few boyfriends that I “went out” with for a few months each. He had multiple girlfriends that he “went out” with for a few weeks each. And then they would break up, and he would date someone else. Or the same girl as before. So it wasn’t like I’d broken his heart. He does like to claim that I just shut him down, and that that’s why he went out with other girls. Whatever.

Anyway, fast-forward to the end of 9th grade. We were hanging out after school before the buses left. I had been giving him a hard time because I’d never heard him play guitar, but some of our other friends had. He had decided to play it for me and played the song “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None The Richer. We were both “free” at that point, and I remember thinking, “…Hmm…I wonder why he picked that song.” I was, by that point, starting to look at Tom a little differently. I was finally starting to see that he was the kind of guy that I wanted to date. A cute, smart, friendly Christian guy who played guitar and had a sense of humor. Yeah, I was finally starting to see that.

Problem was, HE was positive I was not interested. I had only made that clear, twice, right? So, what does a 14-year-old girl do? She starts talking to the guy more often than she did before. Or, that’s what I did. We would sit near each other on the bus, at lunch, on breaks. Finally, our hanging out led to another conversation with Haley. She, again, asked me if I was interested in Tom because he was interested in me. And this time, I said yes. Then she told me that if I would be at our high school football team’s scrimmage game that Friday night, he would ask me out.

Well, I was there. Haley, Tom, our friend Davey, and I all hung out the entire night, and towards the end Tom said, “Hey, um…so..I was wondering…if maybe, youwannagooutorsomething?” To which, I burst into laughter. I know that’s not very nice. I wasn’t trying to be mean. It was just so funny the way he asked. He took that as a “no.” He said, “You can just say ‘no.’ You don’t have to laugh at me.” I said, “No, NO! I didn’t mean to laugh. I’ve just never heard of anyone being asked out like that before. But I would like to go out.”  So, May 19, 2000, Tom and I became an “item.” We would hang out at each other’s house to watch a movie and eat dinner with each other’s families. We couldn’t actually go on a date until I was 16.

And the rest is history. It’s fun to date one of your best friends. We went out all throughout high school.

Tenth Grade

(Oh, yes. There were braces. On both of us.)

Eleventh Grade

Twelfth Grade

(Tom and I both wore promise rings. That wasn’t a wedding band.)

Senior Prom

Graduation

We continued to date all throughout college. Tom chose to start out at Oxford of Emory because he couldn’t decide between doing Math at Emory or Computer Science at Georgia Tech. After a couple of years, he leaned in the direction of computer science.

We may have been in college, but we were still total goofs.

(By the way, Tom says I have too many clothes and should never shop again, but look below! I’m wearing the same shirt I had on in the 11th grade picture above. I don’t go shopping too often!)

It was pretty funny because we then went to rival schools. Tom graduated from Georgia Tech, and the only school I even applied to was UGA. We will tease each other a bit during football season, but other than that, we don’t really rib each other about it. We’ve both seen people take it too far and offend one of us or someone else, and we don’t ever want to do that. Especially because we just really support each other and are proud of each other. We know we both went to good schools, so football is the only thing about each others’ schools we pick on.

Our senior year of college, Tom popped the big question. He took me to Centennial Olympic Park to where the fountains are, and he did the best proposal for me. =) He even had a friend hiding in the park with a telescopic lens on his camera to take our picture.

Then he took me to eat at The Sundial, a rotating restaurant at the top of the Westin in Atlanta. We could see where he proposed from our seats.

Then we drove out to my parent’s house, where his parents, brother, and my parents were all waiting with champagne and cake to celebrate. They had also printed out the picture of Tom proposing and had it framed, sitting on the coffee table. It was great.

And then the wedding planning began. Woo Boy. We had a long engagment. A year and a half, I think, is actually too long. If you’re newly engaged, I recommend planning to be engaged no longer than a year, if you can help it. We couldn’t, due to all the big things going on with different graduation dates and all, so a year and a half it was. Probably my favorite thing about being engaged was doing our engagement pictures. We loved our photographer. She’s awesome, and she’s so laid back and fun.

Then, finally, we had our wedding on April 5, 2008. It was a day almost 8 years in the making. We were so excited, and it was a great day. We had so much fun, especially at the reception. We could just relax, eat, dance, and hang out with all the people who were there to help us celebrate. It was a pretty big wedding. We had about 300 guests show up, including all the people who stood at the front of the church with us or helped the guests (12 bridesmaids, 12 groomsmen, 2 ushers, a ring bearer, a flower girl, 2 friends handing out wedding programs to guests, 2 friends who read scripture, 1 singer, 1 organist, and 2 preachers).

We went to Jamaica on our honeymoon. It was the best vacation either of us has ever been on, and we would love to go back.

That’s basically our story. Anything since has pretty much been blogged about, so you can check out the archives if you want to know more. To see any more wedding pictures or honeymoon pictures, just add me as a friend on facebook. They’re all there!

Thanks for the interest! And if you’ve managed to read this far down, thanks for the stick-to-it-iveness!

~Meghan