Happy Birthday ♥

It's my stepmomma's 40th birthday today!  & to say she's being dramatic about it, is an understatement.  So my sister, my grandma and I are all feeding off of that.  

My grandma cut these flowers off of our tree, and then attached efferdent and a hearing aid, that was Wednesday.  Then she asked me to pick up black ribbon for her next fortieth birthday surprise, which my mom opened last night and that had a blood pressure machine & cheater bifocals, as well as a sympathy card that said, lean on Him in your time of suffering, such a sweet grandma I have.  

Mady wrote on her wall this morning: 

Happy birthday Mom! 
Make sure to check you blood pressure when you wake up every day & don't forget to clean you dentures! 
P. S.... 40 isn't THAT old.

& I wrote,

Happy Birthday Mom! Just checked the mail & your personalized AARP card was there!  

Did anybody else have a parent who was "dramatic" about turning a certain age?  

Have a great birthday Mom! Love you!  

The Outhouse Story...

A few weeks ago, I posted this picture on Instagram.

& before you think I'm so a weirdo who likes to pose in front of bathrooms without plumbing, let me explain.  When I was around 6, my grandma and grandpa decided they didn't want to live in the 'burbs anymore, so they bought some land up in Northern Minnesota, and so did my Grandma's uncle Philip, while they were building their respective houses, they obviously didn't have indoor plumbing, so they built this outhouse on my  great uncle's property for their personal biz.  The story goes that when my dad would bring my brother and I up to visit the building site and eventual house of my grandma and grandpa's that I would tell my Dad that I didn't want to stop and go to the bathroom that I would hold it til I got to their house so I could use the outhouse.  Well this continued until I was probably 11 or 12, and then they got rid of it pretty much after this picture was taken, I was probably 15 or 16.  & that is my Meghan is a weird child story for the week.  #awkward #keepinitreal

ABCs of gratefulness..

So when I saw Marquis from Simply Clarke was having a one-day linkup for the ABCs of gratefulness, I knew I had to join up...

So without further ado, here are my ABCs :)

A is Apple products.  Love my iPhone! 

B is for Brown...I am so blessed and grateful for my family :)

C is for Country Music, it's the way I communicate when words fail me.  

D is for Dogs, I love my furbabies like they were humans!

E is for evenings, my favorite part of the day, from about 7 to 11p.  It's my unwind and get ready for bed time. 

F is for friends. I'm so grateful for all of my friends. 

G is for grandparents.  They're pretty much my favorite.  

H is for Home.  Home is my safe haven.  

I is for Instagram, I love documenting my life through snapshots of my days. 

J is for Jesus.  Without him, I would have nothing to be grateful for. 

K is for Kindness.  I'm grateful that my parents taught me the importance of kindness and caring when I was young. 

L is for Love.  Like Marquis said, I love love.

M is for Mady.  Mady is "my person" as they say on Grey's.  She and I are trouble together. 

N is for Naps.  I love the random mid-morning, afternoon naps I sneak in. 

O is for outside.  I love laying out and just relaxing with the sun on my skin. 

P is prayer. 

Q is quiet.  The moments when I first wake up.  

R is for Reading.  I have always been grateful that I love to read.  

S is for Summer. 

T is the small things. Biggest memories come from the smallest moments. 

U is for USA

V is for Veronica, my first blog best friend. 

W is for Walmart, I am so grateful for my job! 

X is for an eXtra shot of mint in my favorite drink from Starbucks. 

Y is you! All of you.  

Z is for sideways zigzags otherwise known as chevron.  

(also linking up with Marquis for #wildcardwednesday!)

This Weekend I...

Linking up with Syndal and Sar for another round of This Weekend I...

This weekend I... joined my community in praying for a little girl who went missing from a campground right on "our" river.  After a two-day search, they did end up finding her in the river. She was only a few days away from being two, and I can imagine her family is heartbroken. Please join in praying with me. 

story

This weekend I....watched my Grandpa pull an oven out of a hole in our backyard, no really.  My stepmom hit a piece of metal whilst mowing and she started to dig, just to see if it was big, and it was, so we called my grandpa over & we continued digging and then he hooked a chain to his pickup and we pulled and WALAH! My stepmomma has lived here for the last 15 years and has never hit it before.  Wanna see? 

This weekend I..third wheeled with my parents on a date to Texas Roadhouse since my sister was out in Colorado with her dad & Ryan was up north with my Grandma&Grandpa. 

Hope y'all had a great Memorial Day weekend! 

Grandma Time.

My phone rang this morning, my Grandma, "do you have bread?" 

"I do.  I can bring it over?"

"Wait a half hour, I'm making cookies and you can have some."

"Okay."

One of the many perks of only living two houses away.  When one of us needs something, the other usually has it, and I can pop over for a visit & cookies!

I finish putting a load of clothes in, and the phone rings again,

"I need to get dressed, but I'll be over in five." "That's fine, can you bring some peanut butter too?" 

"Yup."

I head over, we chat for awhile until she's ready to put the peanut butter cookies in, 

"You can bring the peanut butter back home & come back."

"All right, I have a load of clothes to switch, so I'll be back in ten minutes or so. "

We talk some more once I run back over, about books we're reading, Mady, work, life happenings.  

It's not a lot to some people, but I'm so blessed to have such a great grandma & I love spending one-on-one time with her.  

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day Weekend! 

Stay safe!  

It's Okay.

It's Okay to shrug off the last week and a half(almost two weeks) of not posting. 

It's Okay to hit mark all as read when your bloglovin' count is at 3200. 

It's Okay to be super sad that this is the last It's Okay with Neely & Amber. 

It's Okay to love country music.

It's okay to countdown to payday like it's your birthday

It's okay to really hate payday when all your money goes straight to bills. 

It's okay to still be praying for Oklahoma, guys, I LOVE storms, and I've always followed tornado aftermaths as well, I remember Joplin, I remember Tuscaloosa, I remember them and think about the people that lost it all, but Moore and Shawnee, there's something about it that's hitting me HARD!  I don't know if it's because I have friends from blogland that I love dearly that live down there or what, but just know, Oklahoma, you are in my prayers! (Sorry for the tangent!)

(Nashville spoiler ahead!)

It's okay to scream at your computer as you are watching last night's season finale of Nashville, I mean c'mon! That's just not right!  Pretty sure I yelled at Duncan when he was in the bar, when he ordered another one, and when he took Advil and swallowed with whatever that was he swallowed with. GRR!  I did love the scene between him & Rayna when he found out Maddie was his daughter. 

(end Nashville spoiler)

It's okay to love losing yourself when you are writing a story. 

Thank you Neely & Amber for hosting this linkup for so long! Love you both!! 

What's okay with you(one last time!)

In My Momma's Eyes.

So I saw Faith interviewed her Mom in celebration of Mother's Day, and I totally wanted to do it, so here's my take on it, hope it's okay I stole it Faith :)

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out in blogland tomorrow! 

1.  I'm your favorite child right?

1.  Never make a parent; especially a mom, choose a favorite. But since you asked here goes it: you are my favorite because I was blessed with you first and you are a fighter.  You have overcome so many obstacles and I pray I made your life a little bit easier. I tried my best to teach you that God doesn't make mistakes and that He never gives us more than we can handle with his help.  2. Matthew is my favorite because he is the one I can count on to do many tasks and he makes me laugh.    3. Zakery is my favorite because he continued to get up each morning and went to school; even though he was bullied weekly. He, like you, is a fighter. He also has a gentle soul.  4. Olivia is my favorite because she sees the good in all and I love to listen to her play piano.  5. Rebekka is my favorite because she never complains when asked to do something.  6. Nik is my favorite because he says what he thinks. 
You see Meghan, at one point each of you were my favorite for many different reasons; I am truly blessed with 6 favorite children. 

(She's just being nice, I am in her phone as favorite daughter, which I may or may not have changed myself :D)

2. What would your perfect Mothers Day look like?

Perfect Mother's Day for me would be grilling in the park with Papa and all of my children; followed by lawn games and a relaxing walk. To finish the day, I would like to watch Float Hopes with a bottle of wine and just Papa. I saw this movie in the theater by myself when your Dad and I were going through our divorce and I was at a very low place.  This movie and Papa gave me hope that things I would be all right. 

We call my stepdad Papa, and she means Hope Floats, which also happens to be one of my favorite movies as well.  

3. What is your favorite nickname I've given you (mamacita, momma, mommy, mommy dearest?)

3.  I love it when you answer your phone, "Hi Mommy!" So I guess this is my favorite nickname from you.

Why yes, I'm 21 and I still call my mom Mommy sometimes.  

4. Since we know the best day of your life was april 2nd, 1992, what was your second best day?

4. Second best day:  I try to find a reason that every day was the best day; but if I must give an answer it would be the day Papa came home from serving in Iraq. 

At least she didn't dispute the fact that my being born was her best day teehee.  But yes, I agree that was a pretty awesome day, when Papa came home! 

5. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

5. How boring would that be?  I guess it would be pizza. 

I agree, but if I had to choose, it would either be my stepdad's homemade pizza, or my granny's chicken and dumplings.  

6. If you won the lottery, what would you do with it?

6. Lottery:  set up college funds for all of my children, give some for kidney disease research; invest some, by a house Costa Rica and be a volunteer nurse there for a while; cut way back at work and travel. 

Can I have a puppy? 

7. If you could be 21 again, knowing what you know now, would you do it again?

7. I don't want to be 21 again, and I wouldn't change my life, as each part of it has made me the strong woman that I am. 

I like this answer.  

8. One piece of advice for my bloggy friends?

Words do hurt people; so be kind in what you write/post.

I agree!  My momma is a smart person.  

9. What's a random fact that I don't know about you?

 That I almost didn't have Grandpa walk me down the aisle. My heart was telling me to have my former teacher give me away; but my head told me that I needed to have my Dad walk with me. 

Nope I did not know this, but I know how much you looked up to Mr. Filipich and how much he meant to you.  

10. What's your favorite thing about me? 

My favorite thing about you: you are strong and you have an abundance of faith!!!

Aww thanks Mommy!

Pieces of Happy!

This week had a lot of small little happy moments, so I thought I would link up with Kenzie once again!

--getting tweeted by Brian McNamara aka General Holden on Army Wives, not once but twice!

--laying out in my yard re-reading The Last Song

--finding out that I get to go to see Tim McGraw in concert with one of my cousins in September

--dancing in the rain on Wednesday

--late night Culvers run with my brother and sister and grandparents and laughing so hard we were crying and my grandma telling us to get out of the car before she peed because we were making her laugh so hard. 

--my sissy is going to her junior prom tomorrow :) 

So what was something that made you happy this week? 

xo. 

Three Things Thursday

linking up with Myranda and Kristyn for Three Things Thursday, which the theme this week is three favorite things about your mom.  

I have a mom & a stepmom, so we're going to do it for each one!

1) I've always known how much she loves me, she's always telling me she loves me higher than any mountaintop and deeper than any sea.  

2) She's not only a great mom, but she's a great nurse, and she's really caring not only at work, but with us kids too!

3) She calls me all the time, even when I don't call her back, and is always checking in on me.  I've never had to wonder if she cares.  

& my stepmom.

1) She has NEVER tried to take my mom's place, and that's probably my favorite thing about her.  She's never told me I had to call her mom or that she was my mom or anything like that.  

2) She makes me laugh! 

3) She has no filter, she tells it how she sees it & I wish I was more like her sometimes!  

p.s. I hate the word stepmom, she's way more than that to me, when I was looking on Pinterest, I was like, um, why am I looking for stepmom stuff, I don't have one of those! She seriously is just like another mom to me!  

Smile. Giggle. Snort.

Sometimes, my sense of humor resembles that of a teenaged boy, I try to keep my Pinterest humor a little more mature though lol.  

Here are some that had me laughing pretty hard! 

linking up with michelle for:

& shanna for:

Sunday Social!

linking up with the beauties known as Ashley & Neely for another week of Sunday Social!



1. 4 favorite things to do on a weekend

-go to the cabin!

-movie night with Mads

-sleep in!

-watch the race

2. 4 favorite things about your best friend

-she can make me laugh

-we have the same sense of humor

-she's ALWAYS there for me!

-she keeps me grounded

(this could go for any of my besties!)

3. 4 things you would do with $100,000

-buy M&G's with George Strait, as well as Blake Shelton

-pay off the rest of my school bill!

-put some towards a house!

-donate to a good cause!

4. 4 favorite books you've ever read

-The Ryan White Story by Ryan White(the only book I have read more than twice!)

-The Baxter Series by Karen Kingsbury

-One Call Away by Brenda Warner

-Safe Haven--possibly because of the live tweeting I got from my best friend about it! (anything by Mr. Sparks usually makes me cry though!)

4. 5 favorite snack foods

 -dried fruit

-pizza rolls(I don't really count these as a meal by themselves?)

-combos

-puppy chow

-wheat thins with top the tater!

6. 4 things that you must do daily

-pray

-talk to Mads and Lynn

-check my social media..

-give my puppies lots of love!

Instalately

I started Project 365 on my birthday(4/2), so I thought I would share the first month of it, if you want descriptions of the pics, you can find them here

linking up with Jenn for Instalately!