Nick Names

I have had many nick-names and given many over the years. I've never met someone with as many as me.

Mego
Fleo
Mego-Potato
Punkin
Nichol (Nickel)
Nick
Snick
Pinky
Manny
Megsagain
Meganopolis
Lady
Megany
Megs
Meggie (there are a select few that get away with calling me this and you are probably not one of them)
Mega-lou
Mega-toots (thank you, sister, thank you)
Ladybug
Querida
Boobs McGee, Hooty McBoob, Chesty Larou (all courtesy of The Simpsons)
Waffle
Mama


Nick-names I've given others:
Kear Bear
Mama-lou
The Rents
Popsicle
Beastie
Leather
Mister
Pickachu
Pookah
Pickalo
Poodle
Lisa-face
Christina-head
Hillstriff
K-John
Falafel
Manny
Stinks
Waffle
The Man
Papa

The Menu

This will be my second year  cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I am much better prepared this go around and am so looking forward to entertaining thirteen people. Being a child that grew up completely averse to cooking anything it still amazes me that this is something I enjoy doing.

On the menu:

Breakfast
Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

Pre-dinner snacks
Smitten Kitchen Sweet Potato Coins (sans pecans for my Pops and Sir Luke)
Our classic family Stuffed Mushrooms

Dinner at three
Martha's Winter Squash and Apple Soup
Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potatoes (with a heart attack on the side)
BBQ U's Maple Red Eye Gravy
Martha's Gingerbread
Classic family Sweet Potatoes
Martha's Roasted Maple Pumpkin Salad (with bib lettuce instead of arugula for Sir Luke)
Pioneer Woman's Cornbread Dressing
America's Test Kitchen's Green Beans Almondine
Melissa Boswell's Tasty Rolls (I don't even have to make them!)

For the Turkey
Pioneer Woman's Brine
BBQ U's Rub
Smoked with Hickory for twelve hours

Dessert
Stay family classic Pumpkin Chiffon
Costco's Pecan Pie
Betty Crocker's Lemon Meringue Pie

So looking forward to so much family coming to town! You'll get the low-down on the hits and misses post Thanksgiving. We've got a picky bunch getting together...so it could get interesting.

Fall Wreath

I never feel like it's fall until I need to wear my slippers. And last week it began. So to comemorate the beginning of my fall season I made a cute wreath to adorn our front door. I'm kinda in love with it.

 

You can make one too! Just go to this link for an easy how to. I will admit that wrapping the wreath in yarn took, what felt like, ten years and a day but was so worth it in the end. Total spent: $10.

The future

A family friend passed away this week. She found out she had lukemia while giving birth to her first child. It definitely put a lot of things in my life in perspective. I'm continually praying and thinking of the families affected by this tragedy.

Today I am thankful to still have these things to look forward to in the future.

Hiking to Machu Pichu
Learning to sail
Owning a bakery
Living in Texas
Going to the Almeda Flea Market
Scuba diving in Hawaii
Making cheese
Learning to play the banjo
Being a mother
Making a book of my photographs
Having a fine art show with my work
Inventing something new
Sewing a dress
Taking a boat ride down the Nile
Writing a short story
Publishing a children's book
Flying kites in Japan
Traveling the entire length of route 66
Going to the World's Largest Yard Sale
Taking ballroom lessons with Sir Luke
Getting over my fear of flying
Sky diving (I can't even think about this without being gripped with fear, at the moment)
Conquering depression
Running a marathon
Building a house I designed
Owning dogs
Spending Christmas with my whole family without fights or hurt feelings (dreams can come true!)
Water skiing
Owning an evening gown
Taking my kids to The Nutcracker
Baking a successful souffle
Reading the Harry Potter Series
Re-learning to play piano
Find treasure
Attend an opera in Sydney

That's all I got for now! What do you look forward to doing in your life? There are SO many possibilities.

Upular

Capree shared a video by Pogo with a remix of Snow White. So awesome. I remembered seeing Alice years ago and loving it. It seems that Disney has embraced these remixes because they promoted Toy Story 3 with them and also...this:



Is it weird that these all make me want to go running? I hate running. I love them all. BANGARANG

Halloween Haircut

Borrowing a Cruella DeVil and Dalmation costume from a friend for Halloween was deemed "out of the question" by Sir Luke. Being that I didn't want to buy anything and only use what we had he suggested Peter Parker and Mary Jane of Spiderman fame.

Thus I had to figure out how best to look like a comic book character and not Kirsten Dunst.

 

I think I did pretty decent considering all it took was a bottle of red dye and some scissors. Yes, my friends. I cut my bangs...again. I look like a cartoon character. But that was kind of the point.

**I did not use my fabric scissors I instead chose tiny eyebrow scissors that were barely sharp. I will next time use Luke's actual hair trimming scissors he has with his kit...oh hindsight.

Today

I decided I need to be more positive. It's funny what a small thing will set thoughts in motion that are destructive. I was watching In Plain Sight in marathon fashion while working on a project and I heard this song by Patty Grittin.



It was so beautiful that I bought it on iTunes. I knew it was her. I listened to her a lot in high school. Flaming Red was a favorite album at the time. Strong, beautiful and powerful. You should listen to her more.

And then a good friend's lady love left a comment on my blog and I went scoping out her blog and found these gems. And they are so different from Patty Griffin and instantly made me happy, just like she said they would.