asian dave.

Yesterday we had a visit from my favorite Asian, Asian Dave.

This is the same Asian Dave who changed his name in my phone from "Dave Luangrath" to "Asian Dave" when we were neighbors in college.

The same Asian Dave who baked me a carrot cake and sang to me on my 20th birthday since I didn't have family around.

The same Asian Dave who still liked me even though I had braces.

The same Asian Dave who dressed up for the Institute Decades Dance with me (we both won prizes for best costumes).

The same Asian Dave who gives awkward head scratches.

I have some good memories with this Asian.

...

erik's homecoming.

When I was in High School, I was in a band with my two friends, Emily and Erica. We didn't play very many shows (maybe 5 or 6, tops), but we were the bee's knees. At least, we thought so. The perks of being in a band, though, were having friends who were also in bands. We played a few shows with all of our band friends, and went out to each with everyone after each show at the Denny's off the freeway in South Jordan. I think that was the only good part about High School.

A couple of weeks ago, one of our band friends, Erik, came home from his LDS mission. Emily, Erica and I went. I haven't seen those two for months, and it was nice to catch up and goof off with them like we did all those years ago.

We also got to see a few of our band friends (I'm just realizing now that we were the only girls in that group...) which was hilarious, because I'm sure at least two of them were high. Not that being high is hilarious... Especially at an LDS mission homecoming... Anyway... It was nice to see Erik after two whole years, and he was just as excited to see us. "Oh, no way! Emily, Megan, and Erica?!"

Welcome home, Erik! I hope your first few dates are as awkward as a tall, skinny, 14-year-old boy going through puberty!

...

a year ago, i got a ring.

Today marks my one-year anniversary of being proposed to.

One year ago today, Zac took me up to this place, dined me, and then asked me the question. Before he took me out, he (and my friend, Emily, who was in on the whole thing) had convinced me that he was simply taking me out on a normal date. Emily even mentioned that she thought he was "going to propose on Valentine's Day."

A little depressed, I took a nap in my bedroom after hearing this. When I woke up, I didn't redo my hair or make up, but rode with Zac up to Sundance.

We ate, and at the end of our meal, he proposed to me in a little room seperated from the rest of the restuarant by a heavy curtain. Then we took blurry pictures, because it was quite dim in that room (and I hate flash).

We met up with both of our parents to tell them the news later that night--my parents, in the parking lot of the Provo mall; his parents, at their house.

This time around, we are keeping the tradition of going to the Tree Room to eat. We have reservations tonight, and I am beyong excited! Happy One-Year Anniversary of being engaged, love! You are wonderful!

P.S. Last night for Family Home Evening, we made homemade salsa. What we learned from it: when everyone brings their best qualities together, they make a fantastic salsa.

Tomorrow's February! Love, and be loved!

.....

happy new year!

the new year has come--six days ago, to be exact. with all the business of going back to work, my grandpa's death and funeral, and zac being sick the other night, i've finally found the time to expound on last year's joys and memories. the year 2011 has been extra good, mostly because of a little something that happened in may. along with that, so many fun and exciting things have been going on, and we've learned so much. in 2011, i...

• got a diamond ring put on my left ring finger.


• watched moulin rouge on valentine's day with zac.


• made lots of meals from scratch.


• went to bear lake for the first time with zac's family.


• started the semi-semesterly mexican fiestaurant tradition with erica and rachel.


• celebrated my 21st birthday by going to bridal veil falls, and then los hermanos.


• celebrated zac's 23rd birthday by going to gloria's little italy.


• moved out of my student housing apartment, and into a tiny basement apartment.


• planned a wedding.


• walked around downtown provo on many occasions.


• got married.


• went to newport beach, and missed it every day since (if you're ever down there, try mama d's italy kitchen. divine.).


• went to a lot of free concerts.


• went to bear lake again and tasted the most wonderful chocolate-raspberry shake.


• went through 4 jobs, and eventually got the best one.


• started eating healthier foods.


• graduated.


• visited the swensons' cabin, where we ate s'mores, told ghost stories, and played many games.


• totalled my car in the middle of nowhere.


• killed a lot of spiders in our apartment.


• went shooting for the very first time.


• went to our annual family reunion at cherry hill.


• shot a few photoshoots with a few lovely people.


• celebrated holidays, watched movies, discovered new restaurants, started new traditions, carpooled to work with my love, switched up my style.


• put up our very first christmas tree.


• gained a greater testimony in the atonement and the plan of happiness because of my grandpa's death.

i already have about a million new year's resolutions going around in my head, but i'll only stick with a few, or else i won't stick with any. my new year's resolutions are...

• eat even more healthy foods.


• say my prayers and read scriptures daily.


• serve more. way more.


• buy a house (well, a condo, but house sounds cooler).


• blog more.


• find joy and be happy and positive.

we'll see if this happens. i hope it will. happy new year! i have high hopes for this year of 2012. i think it will be grand!

dear grandpa earl,

today you left me; you left our family. this morning i missed a call from my dad. i was at work when i found out what happened. immediately i left work, picked up zac, and drove straight to your house to spend time with the family, and to try to cheer grandma up. i cooked food and made cookies for everyone. then my siblings and i raked your front lawn, because grandma can't do that stuff. it was the least i could do, and i wish i could've done more.

the whole entire day, memories of you flooded into my mind, and i was surprised by how many i had. you are such a loving, selfless, and wise man. whenever i gave you a hug goodbye, you would always look me straight in the eye, and say, "we sure love you." whenever you were over, you would always put your arm around me and give me good advice, or tell me something that made me feel loved and special.

when i was little, i remember going to your house with my mom and little sisters at least once a week. there, it would be your job to pick up a papa john's pizza and bake it for us. i loved that. i remember playing in your basement for hours: riding pillows across the treadmill, playing the piano, and watching cartoons. today i went down there, and everything looked exactly the same. i wanted to lay on the couch and have another sleep over.

i remember, in the summers, going out to your garden and helping you pick blackberries and raspberries to eat. i remember playing in your backyard, and swinging on the swing under your back deck. i remember picking apples from the tree. i remember collecting nuts from off the ground under the tree, and going into the garage and cracking them with that huge, red nutcracker.

i remember when you and grandma would come over when we lived in our old house, and you would always call everyone "murtle." we thought that was so funny. and when you would give us a "squeeze," and not miss one birthday.

a couple months ago, in early october, when mom, grandma, steph and i were dropping grandma off after going to the general relief society meeting, i asked you if i could have a few tomatoes from your garden. you got me my tomatoes, but you also loaded me up with a bunch of other things, like extra tomatoes (i think i got about 10), a bag full of hazelnuts, and a head of cabbage.

on thanksgiving, we played bezzerwizzer, and you could hardly figure out how to play it. that made me laugh. you are such a funny old coot, and you always found the time to laugh at yourself, too. you were constantly looking for the happiness in life.

on christmas every year, you would make breakfast for everyone. you loved that; you loved serving. you are always doing something, whether it was helping a neighbor build something, or giving your garden vegetables away, or serving in the temple. you loved giving of yourself, your time, and your talents (and you have many!), which is why it doesn't surprise me that you died on your way to the temple.

grandpa, thank you for being an example to me. thank you for being my grandpa. thank you for being so strong in the church. thank you for supporting me, and loving me. thank you for raising my mom so she could raise me. i know i will see you again one day. i can just see you up there, doing exactly what you did here: being a missionary and serving people with all your heart. how does it feel to see your son, parents, and other family and friends again? how does it feel to meet the people you helped down here in the temple? i bet you're pretty famous up there. i can just imagine you laughing at us down here for being so sad.

i love you, grandpa. i'll see you soon, okay? :)

love, megan

Plunge.

The other day while hanging out in our almost-a-century-old basement apartment by myself, I decided to do some cleaning. Zac was at work, and since our little 500 square foot apartment can be totally cleaned in just a few short hours, I went to work. I started on the bathroom, since that's the room that always seems to get the dirtiest the fastest. Between my make up all over the counter in the morning, and Zac's occasional shaving, it doesn't stand a chance.

Growing up, my mom would make us kids (Daniel, me, Rachel and Sara, mostly, because we were the ones who were home schooled) clean the entire house every other Monday, instead of learning about History, Math, English, and any other expected school subject. She said that she wanted us to learn how to clean a house, an

d how to clean it well. While this was mostly true, there's still a part of me that knows that somewhere deep down inside of her, she really just wanted her house cleaned. It was fine with me, though, because we'd get to split up into teams of two, and do house work, and it was a lot of fun. Not to mention the pizza she'd always order for lunch every other Monday. Sure, sometimes we'd fight about who did what, but looking back now, it was fun, and the feeling of a clean house afterward was incredible. Not only that, but now I know how to "clean the shit out of a house." (Sorry, that was weird. I hardly ever swear, promise.)

My mom always taught me, when cleaning a bathroom, to always clean the toilet last, so as to not spread the germs that were on the toilet to the sink or the bathtub. So, I cleaned the sink and the shower first, and then moved onto the toilet. Our toilet has a hard time flushing stuff down. Usually, we'll flush, and then a while later, toilet paper will creep back up and sit at the bottom of the bowl. (I know you are all dying to hear this.) Since that's what happened in this very instance, before attempting to clean the toilet, I flushed, hoping the toilet paper would go down. It didn't. Instead, the water in the toilet bowl went up to the very top of the bowl, and just sat there. Our toilet was clogged.

Zac and I don't have a plunger. We're usually pretty good about not clogging the toilet. I'm not even sure that this little incident was our fault, because our little toilet looks about as old as the house is that we live in. Not knowing how to clean a clogged toilet (my mom didn't teach me that one), I waited for Zac to come home. When he did come home, he went and used the bathroom, flushed twice, and over flowed the toilet. I'm talking toilet water all over the floor of the bathroom, seeping into the carpet of our bedroom. I'm not going to lie--I was freaking out a little. I handed him two of our extra towels (thank goodness for people giving us an abundance of bath towels for our wedding that we couldn't return), and we wiped up the mess as best as he could. I stayed far away.

When he was finished, I told him that we needed to buy a plunger. We drove over to Walmart, and picked one out. We had to walk the length of the store carrying that stupid thing. It was kind of embarrassing. Everyone knows that if you're at the store, carrying only a plunger, and walking in a hurry, there's only one thing t

hat could've happened. Everyone who passed us was giving us weird, disgusted looks. I mumbled to Zac, "Don't look at us, don't look at us, don't look at us," as we made our way up to the self check-out lane.

When we got home, Zac took action and plunged the toilet. It took him a while, because our toilet is pretty crappy (haha, get it?!). But soon enough, the deed was done. Then I made him mop the floor with cleaner, and he did. Our toilet is working now, which is fantastic, because I really had to go that night.

In other news, we finally got our wedding pictures back after two and a half months of being married. I'll post more on that lovely day in a while. I guess I also still need to post pictures of our lovely apartment (and when I say lovely, I mean falling apart, bug-infested, smells like cigarette smoke). Stay tuned for that. I know you'll love it!

Full moon.

Today, I was on a roll. I kept busy from 7:00 in the morning, when I woke up, until just about ten minutes ago, when I finished getting ready for bed. That's over sixteen hours. I feel great, because I got so much done today. Here's how it went:

7:00am: Woke up, took a shower.
7:20am: Got dressed, made lunch for Zac to take to work, finished getting ready for work.
8:05am: Left for work [late].
8:10am: Arrived at work, and did my priestly duties.
2:00pm: Got home from work, changed my clothes, and started cleaning the front room. (There were tons of stuff everywhere, mostly our wedding presents.)
3:00pm: Zac called.
3:05: Continued to put stuff away, organize, find places for everything, iron the table cloth, sweep the floor, do the dishes, hang frames up on the wall, vacuum, fold clothes, make the bed and clean the table.
4:45pm: Zac came home and gave me a long, tight hug.
5:00pm: Continued to put things away and finish everything up, and then went and helped Zac take all of our boxes to the dumpster on the other side of the house. (Our whole porch was occupied with said boxes. Can you say white trash?)
6:00pm: Started dinner: homemade fettucine alfredo, while Zac played Magic: The Gathering.
6:45pm: Ate dinner.
7:00pm: Our new neighbors, Kristi and Scott, came over and introduced themselves. (I'm really quite fond of them.)
7:30pm: Decided to make cookies (from a mix--I regret it) for the Bishopric when they came over.
8:30pm: Bishopric came over and chatted with us, and gave us advice. (I'll extrapolate later.)
9:00pm: Gave cookies to our new neighbors, mentioned above.
9:15pm: Went on a walk with Zac around the neighborhood, and ended up at a park playground.
10:30pm: Came home and got ready for bed.

You see?! My day was filled with never-ending tasks. I kind of liked it. I've never been so busy before, nor so... not bored. I have a goal of becoming more productive. I've always admired my friend, Celeste, because she isn't afraid to get out there and get things done. I've always wanted to have that kind of attitude, but was always too lazy or too scared to start things. But today, I started (and finished) things that I've been wanting and needing to do for a long time, and it felt so good!

My favorite part about today was the evening. The Bishopric coming over and visiting us, eating dinner and meeting our new neighbors, and spending the night outside with Zac.

While the Bishopric was over, the Executive Secretary (I can't remember his name--it was a weird one) gave us some advice. He said to get involved in the ward, because the more you get involved, the more people get involved in your life, and you are able to bless each others' lives, and make friends, too. Then Bishop suggested that we both keep up on our home teaching and visiting teaching, because "it's like Heavenly Father giving you two people to take care of, just for you." Cool. I'm going to like this ward.

When Zac and I escaped out of our house (after the Bishopric had left, of course) to go on our walk, we first ended up at a gazebo just two blocks from our apartment. We talked about how we like being married so far. Then I had the idea of going to a park and watching the full moon come up over the mountains. We walked four more blocks, and came to Maeser Park. We climbed up on the playground, and talked about things we used to do as kids. For example, I used to jump off our old fort into the snow in the winter, and walk to the local Maverik gas station with my sisters to buy an Icee or a bag of candy, and walk in circles on top of the humongous tractor tire in our old backyard until my feet were black. Zac used to go to his church parking lot and skate board there for hours on end, and go to Fast Gas gas station and get treats. It was fun to get to know Zac a little more, because I never knew that about him. I kept glancing towards the east mountains, but never saw the moon come up. It started to get chilly, so we left for home. The air on the walk home smelt like lilacs and pine trees, which was a lovely plus to a great stroll.

You might be wondering what our apartment looks like now that I've got it all organized and clean. Let me tell you this: at first, our bedroom was clean and our living room was a mess, but now, our living room is clean and our bedroom is a disaster. I will post pictures as soon as I get everything situated. And as soon as I can figure out why there are so many bugs in this house.