It's written in the stars..

So for a while now it's been a debate with my future and what I want to do. I'm currently in school at VA Western studying human services and psychology. Don't get me wrong, I love anything and everything when it comes to these classes..and of course my love for patients and clients will never change. However..I have figured out that my calling is to teach and I've been denying it for years. When deciding what college to go to (the first time..haha) I chose Jefferson College of Health Sciences and the nursing program. I was then working at church court daycare with a pre-school class that I loved. I dont know what I was thinking when I decided to go to Nursing school..maybe it was because I was in a great Health Assistant class at my high school and I had a wonderful teacher that made it seem fun. Or maybe its because everyone in my family and pretty much everyone I knew was telling me that I was meant to be a teacher and I just wanted to defy them. Or maybe it was because I wanted to make a ton of money and wear scrubs all day. Who knows? BUT..I think that what I didnt realize was that maybe my teacher in high school was what I really loved. Maybe it wasn't the class I loved, but the way SHE taught the class. AND along the way I've realized that my family seems to always be right..and they know me better than anyone else. Two of my closest friends are now teachers and I love hearing about there day to day ins and outs of their job. Jenny teaches sixth grade and Jodi teaches Kindergarten. SO KIDS...I've decided to change my major to Liberal Arts (because there are no education majors in VA) When I finish my liberal arts associates degree I will be going to Radford or Mary Baldwin through the higher ed center and getting my bachelors degree in elementary and middle school education. I'm so happy that I finally figured out what I was meant to do! AND I can't wait to get started!!! actually I've already started..I cant wait to get finished!! YAY! Well..I'm of the gym..I wanna be a hott teacher too! :)

Girls Girls Girls!

This past weekend, Lee went to Winston-Salem to see his parents and brother before he went back to school. I couldn't go because I had to work Saturday and couldn't get out of it. I was really bummed but after I thought about it, it seemed like he SHOULD have this time with his parents and brother without me..he probably needed it. Needless to say, I took this rare oppertunity to spend some time with my girls!!..and I'm glad I did because I really needed it. Friday night I went to the mall and met up with Hope. I hadn't seen her in about two months!!! I'm always at Lee's and she's always at Bobby's or working..so it had been a long time. I think I had only been home twice to get some stuff..and even then it was only for a few mins. Yeah it seems like a waste of rent...but we're working on that ;) ANYWAY Hope and I went to dinner together and I let her choose. She chose Mexican so we went to EL Rodeo on Brambleton. That is my favorite one! It's sooooo good! I was really looking forward to it because I had been doing my diet all week. WELL, I ended up overdoing it. I got miserably full and ended up eating WAY too many chips/salsa (my favorite thing in the whole world) and ate only one bite of dinner, which mind you does not taste good re-heated. SO basically I was jipped! We were going to go out afterwards but I kid you not i was so full I couldn't move. SO instead, we went back to Lee's and vegged out and watched the office. I never get tired of watching it because it's like a show about my life. Hope stayed the night with me there and we had a great time! I love her!!
Saturday I got up and went to work and then headed to target to make some stuff for my girls party for that night. Jenny and Jodi and Ashley were all coming over and I was so excited!! I made some dips/had a variety of crackers and bread and such, a cranberry spritzer that I made..courtesy of Lee's mom and my famous patient access ham biscuits. I'd been a naughty girl the night before so I didnt eat to much of the food..but what I did have was wonderful. Jodi even brought over a better than sex cake and some games. We had a ball just talking, laughing, watching movies..These friends have stood by me through thick and thin. Jenny has been my best friend since we were very little and so has Jodi. We've drifted apart since College, Jobs, Jodi getting married..but The three of us will remain close and we have..its just been hard to see each other..and I think now we're all coming together again over the fact that we're getting ready for Jen's wedding! I LOVE LOVE LOVE them. They are true friends..I love you guys!!
Sunday I got up and cleaned a little and got ready to go to the lake!! Suzanne and I were going to go and spend the day together. Lee ended up getting back from Winston-early so he came along too. We had a ball laying out in the sun..catching up on work gossip and eating leftover ham biscuits...I love Suzanne. And she was there when I really needed her on Monday night..Lee and I had a little dispute. I wont go into it but I really needed her and she was there. She is also one of my greatest friends. Wow..I think I may have just created a bridesmaid line-up! :)
So today is my second day of classes...and im dreading it. My class Monday night was so hard...horrible...awful...Algebra 2. I passed Algebra one with straight A's..but I had an awesome teacher. This teacher sucks!! Not to mention the fact that they changed the book on me at the last minute..now I have to magically pull some money out of my butt to buy a new book. LAME! tonite is my second class..once again I'm bookless..and this teacher just goes so fast and is nothing like my last teacher (what I was afraid of) Wish me luck..I may be switching classes! UGH!!
This weekend I will be doing some overdue laundry, cooking, and studying. Lee's mom is coming!! Sunday we're having a family cook-out and she's coming to meet everyone for the first time! (fingers crossed!) I love Lee so much and this meeting is very important!! Who knows that the rest of the long weekend will hold..we'll see! Hope everyone has a great week!

olympians in the making

OK OK OK..if you're an avid reader of our blog then you are fully aware the Lee and I have been trying to diet and work out this whole year. Well..as far as dieting goes..we do pretty well during the week..and eat out a lot on the weekends..and as far as working out goes..three times a week if we were lucky..and sometimes not even. It was much too spiratic. Lee has been inspired by the olympics and his brother John spending the weekend with him. He has decided that if we dont do this and take it seriously then we'll never be as healthy as we want to be. I fully agree with him. We have not been taking it seriously. SO THIS IS IT. We headed over to Barnes and Noble on Sunday and decided to find a cookbook and plan our meals. We found this book on the Three Hour Diet. It's a diet basically about common sense..what we've all been told. Eat more smaller meals a day. He lets you make the meals you want and plan them out for your week and provides a ton of menu samples and recipes. All major meals (breakfast lunch dinner) are 400 calories each. a snack in between both of those must be 100 calories and at night you get a 50 calorie dessert. A total of 1450 cal a day. Meanwhile..eating these small meals raises your metabolism and leaves you feeling less hungry. I told a co-worker about it who said she knew someone doing the same diet and that its working very well! Not to mention the fact that we are busting our buts in the gym with cardio and abs and weight lifting. We have to get super serious about it now if we're gonna look good at that wedding. Its very exciting..and I will say that my arms are feeling like jello today..but its all worth it..and we can already tell a difference in our hunger and such. Well..thats it for now..gotta go..time for my 10 o clock snack!! :)

Sweet stalking

Well..we are officially back from PA!! What an adventure it was! Where do I start..this is going to be a long one! Well..we headed up there Friday after work. Got in around 8 or so..and decided to get dressed up and go out on the town! It was a beautiful nite and a full moon! I will say..that I was not impressed with Harrisburg's night life. They had a TON of places to drink and great deals..like dollar beer and such..but the atmosphere just had this weird sketchiness about it that I can't explain. So anyway..we ended up eating at this little Outdoor patio/bar that was way overpriced but the food was amazing!! I loved Lee's Veal Marsala and my crab pasta and my salad were over the top..however the atomosphere, service, location etc did not meet my standards. We were so exhausted and my feet were killing me from my heels..not to mention our bellies were full so we headed back to the hotel to do our favorite thing these days..the olympics! haha! Lee had to get up early on Saturday morning to go to some meetings..I took the oppurtunity to sleep in..in the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in! Lee's bed is like a ROCK and its too short ..my feet hang over the edge..and when I wake up..my whole body is in horrible pain..everyday!!! SO this bed..was amazing! I got ready to go and packed all our stuff and after his first meeting, Lee came back and we headed out to lunch. I HAD to take him to Bass Pro Shopped before he went ape and he decided..if you've seen one, you've seen them all. Thank God. My nerves could not stand another four hours in THAT place. We had a quick lunch and headed back to the hotel so lee could go to his other meeting. I dropped him off and headed to Strawberry Square and Market Street for some shopping.
I found a lot of cute little stores but didn't really buy anything because I knew we'd want to spend money in Hershey..and we're both a little tight these days! After some wandering I headed back to the Hilton to pick up Lee and off we went to Hershey. Hershey is somewhere that I've always wanted to go...but there were other places on my list that beat it out. This was a great oppurtunity to go because the hotel and gas were paid for by Lee's company..so it was a good way to get up there! We drove into Hershey with our windows down because we were told you could smell the chocolate! We were stunned when a few mins outside of hershey we passed the factory that was soley reese's and we could smell it in the air. Fresh Reese cups! Not a fan of the candy because they made me really sick one easter..but love the smell...yuuuuuummmmmooo!!
A couple more miles and we made it. The streetlights were little hershey kisses! The street names were things like..chocolate ave..cocoa st..it was so cute!! When driving towards Hershey Park and Chocolate world you see lots of chocolate restaurant names and the original chocolate factory and yes yes yes it smelled of pure milk chocolate..mmmmmm!! I couldnt live there..id weigh 800 pounds! Hershey Chocolate world was REALLY crowded! We didn't go to Hershey Park because it was late and the day and we could see the lines from our car...it was really crowded..probably because the weather was perfect up there! Not too hot..just right. Anyway..we rode the ride at Chocolate world that shows you how the chocolate is made and they give you a free sample of chocolate when you get off. Then you walk into this HUGE gift shop of nothing but candy and chocolate memorobilia. YES we got a 5 pound hershey bar! It's for one of the girls Lee works with..she requested it!! ITs about 2 feet long..one foot wide and it made my mouth water! I LOVE hershey kisses and those cows..so I got a milk bottle with the cow..and filled with hershey kisses. Lee went over to the cafe and got lots of homemade hershey cookies...THEY WERE AMAZING..they're still here and I dont want to eat them because they're so good and I dont want them to be gone!! ahhh! It was starting to get late..so we headed towards our last activity of the trip...ok ok..dont freak out..but I'm one of the biggest fans of Jon and Kate plus 8! The tv show! AND anyone whos a fan knows they live in "CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA." Ok being the huge fan that I am..I just had to see their house!!
My goal was to drive by it in the daytime to possible catch a glimpse of them and take a quick paparazzi pic! A few weeks ago (before I even knew about the trip to PA) I was surfing the net and looking at websites about them. I saw on one of the websites where people were trying to figure out what town they lived in. There were a bunch of different answers so no one really knew..until I came across their address on wikipedia!! I typed in their address and their house popped up! I KNEW this was the right address!! I SHOULD'VE written it down!! but I didnt. SO..when I found out we were going on this trip I said..omg I've got to get that address and write it down. WELL.. when i went back to the website it was deleted. I GOOGLED ALL over the place..it was nowhere to be found. I guess someone realized it was posted on the net..and deleted it!! I was so upset..i mean I really wanted to find it! :( The only info I had to go on was the town name. I remembered what town they lived in.( i wont tell you on here for safety and privacy reasons..but if you're REALLY that interested I'll tell you or email it to you!)
I thought..there is no way I can navigate in and around an entire town looking for this place!! NO WAY!! i decided..i had to give it a shot..if I left PA being this close..I would regret not looking for it. It was a one in a million shot but I couldnt resist..and Lee loves the show too..so he was all for it..even thought he thought it would be impossible and basically told me I was crazy..he still supported my dream! haha! First of all we werent exactly sure how to get to the town. We didnt have a map with us..we jsut knew basically what direction it was in..and headed that way. We tried to stay on the interstate that we knew would have exit..but randomly ended up on this turnpike that wouldnt let us off for about 30 miles! We were so far out of the way... We ended up finding the town..through back rds..and a brochure map of the county! DUMB LUCK!!
The town and surrounding areas were a lot bigger than we planned..it seemed hopeless. We knew the neighborhood they lived in didnt seem too populated or the houses arent exactly RIGHT on top of each other..so while driving down different rds we looked off into the distance for potential roads that looked like they may or may not have subdivisons that may or may not hold their house. I know i know..its crazy but when you're chasing a dream you must hold on people! It was starting to look like it was going to get dark..so we headed to main street in the town and called lee's mom as a last resort to see if she could search the internet and have any better luck. She didnt. Lee and his mom wanted me to stop and ask people in the town..but i just couldnt do it..i didnt want them to think crazy people were stalking them and have the police called on me. I got up the nerve to go up to this one girl at a gas station at a grocery store. My words were.." Is Jon and Kate plus 8 filmed in this town?? we overheard people talking and were just curious." She said..I think they film here some..they did film at the grocery store right behind you! I turned around and there it was. The GIANT foodstoore that I'd seen in the show!! I KNEW WE WERE SO CLOSE WE COULD TASTE IT..but again the town was so big and there were so may roads..id basically given up hope.
It was dark by this point and we were supposed to head back to roanoke hours ago. I didn't give up I kept driving through the town. It was 849 and lee said .."alright, Megan..this is crazy..I'm giving you till 900. I had 10 mins. I was like..no lets just forget it..lets go home. We stopped at a little gas station to fill up. I got out of the car to stretch and just happend to look beyond the gas station where I saw this neighborhood far off in the distance. It was really dark..but I thought..WELL..we have 10 mins..why not give it a shot. What did I have to lose?? I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach (THAT IS NOT A LIE) and i said lee..i feel like this is it. HE LAUGHED AND LAUGHED...i mean honestly it was crazy to even think it. We drove into the winding neigborhood and turned onto the first road. We drove up and down street after street and didnt see it anywhere..i was so sad..and in my head i knew there were tons of rds we hadnt tried and probably tons we didnt even know about. Lee freaked out when on his right hand side he saw a house with the garage open and he said..OMG thats their garage. I looked at the house and it looked nothing like their house. I was like dang it lee..have you even watched the show?? He watches it with me all the time and the house he picked out was CLEARLY NOTHING LIKE THEIR HOUSE!! WHich lead me to believe after all this time that I could've missed the house somewhere because he couldnt remember what it looked like!! I took a deep breath and sighed and barely turned my head to the left..AND THERE IT WAS!!! IT was on the other side of the street across from the house that lee thought looked like theirs!!! OMG i kid you not! I would've missed it if i hadnt yelled at lee and sighed!!! THE BIGGEST COINCIDENCE IN THE WHOLE WORLD! IT WAS THE 2ND TO LAST HOUSE ON THE STREET..RIGHT BEFORE THE FIRST STREET IN THE SUB WHERE WE TOOK THE FIRST RIGHT!!

I could not believe my dumb luck! i started screaming at the top of my lungs and shot past it. Lee was like..no.. no no no.. it wasnt are you kidding? i was LIKE NO LEE WOULD I HAVE THIS REACTION?? we turned around and drove back past it and sure enough..there it was..vans in the driveway..we could see the pictures on the wall in the living room..there was a lamp on. We'd found it!! it was amazingly weird how it happend. We really wanted to take pictures but we knew if we made the flash go off it would freak them out and they might call the cops. We decided to wait until it was a little later and they were possible asleep. We drove back into town and had a late dinner and then drove back and took four or five pics. NONE OF THEM TURNED OUT! I WAS SO UPSET. SO today when I uploaded them..i lightended them up all the way..its hard to see..but you can definetly make them out. FOR all of you out there reading this that think im crazy... IM NOT! I'm just a diehard fan..its not like id go up and knock on the door and freak them out..it just made me happy to know where they came from. Needless to say after all the choclate and "stalking" it was time to come back to roanoke. We got back here at three in the morning..ahhhhh.. but it was all worth it. Have a great week!!!! :)

Paula Deen and Mickey Mouse

So I found out this weekend that my mom is going to let us use her timeshare in Orlando in April for my birthday!! I'm sooooo excited. We are going to stay at Orange Lake Country Club which is just a short distance from Disneyworld. Lee and I have been wanting to make a trip down to disney for a while now! I have been three times but I've only been to the Magic Kingdom and I'm dying to go to the Animal Kingdom and all the other parks! We are getting the 5 day park hopper pass as well as heading to Downtown Disney! OH but don't think for one minute I'm driving to Florida without stopping in my favorite city (besides NYC) Savannah, Georgia. AND yes I WILL finally be taking the Paula Deen tour!! I love her..love love love love her and have been wanting to do it for a long time!! Lee loves Paula too so I'm sure he will enjoy this...haha :) I know its a long way off but I cant help being the little trip planner that i am..it will be all clearly thought out! yay!! :)

The greatest fear is fear itself..

Ahhhhhhh! So let me start by saying this weekend was over the top! On friday nite Lee and I met up with Hope and Chad and Carolyn..Richard had to work :( for dinner and drinks at Village Grill on Grandin! It was so good seeing my girls..I just love them! Happy Birthday Carolyn!! It was the perfect nite to sit out on the deck and listen to the music...Friday was straight up an autumn day..not hot..sunny and breezy! It was wonderful! After dinner Lee and I went home to watch the olympics!! He really got me into it. It truly is an amazing thing. All the countries coming together for this one huge event and putting aside their differences. The opening ceremony was insane!! There's no way America could top that! We've been recording it all and keeping up with it. I'm a huge fan of Michael Phelps for sure and rooting him on! AND I just love watching those gymnasts! We probably stayed up half the night watching the games! On Saturday we got up early and made breakfast together...I suck at making eggs. I mean who screws up eggs right?? Me!! always! Lee has to make those. After breakfast is when the fun started.
OK. So..Lee has been trying to get me to ride this motorcycle he bought for months now and I wont do it. I've seen too many horror stories..heard too many horror stories..and know a few people who have been killed. I have been pretty much against the whole thing from the beginning. Plus, he only has one helmet so I didn't want to risk riding with him. Well folks..saturday..lee bought a second helmet. I knew I wasnt going to get out of it. I knew I was going to have to try it. Yes I know im a huge baby but I was so scared. Anyway I finally got up the nerve to do it. I got on. He said we're going to drive down the street to a parking lot and do different moves so you can get used to them. DEAR GOD PLEASE HELP ME! It took me about 15 mins just to sit on it. It took another 15 for me to let him turn it on. Probably 5 for me to put my feet up on the bars.. and 5 more for me to let him go. He started going..not even a block and i started screaming and crying for him to pull over. After he calmed me down..we made it all the way to the civic center. I started to slowly get used to it but we got the hang of it..not bad at all. I'm still totally terrified but I know I'll get used to it more and more. Also his bike has a back passenger seat..but not back rest..so it hurts my back a lot and I always feel like I'm going to fly off the back. He is going to purchase a back rest and soon hopefully a more comfortable seat because let me tell ya my butt HURTS!! Sat nite we went out to dinner, rode the bike over to fresh market, bought some wine and came home and watched the other boelyn girl. We both loved it!! It was a very good movie. My roomate had read the book and said it was really good so I figured the movie would be too..and it was. After the movie we caught up with the olympics again and then I headed to bed. I was exhausted.
Okay, so after my big practice run Saturday, It was time to do the real thing Sunday. We finally took the bike up on the parkway! We drove almost all the way to the peaks of otter..and would have if my butt didnt hurt so bad! It was a beautiful day and we stopped at all the overlooks and if the camera hadn't died I would've been able to take more pictures. It was a great day. Anyway..that about sums up the weekend. We skipped out on the SFCS picnic and the beer festival. I knew it wasnt worth the money for a ticket because i dont like all those different beers...I'm a miller lite girl. And we almost went to the picnic..but lee was just too excited about the bike to do that. Wish me luck...the next few months are going to be so scary!!! hahaha!!