Leaving on a Jet Plane…

On Sunday, Kevin and I booked our plane tickets to Lithuania. We are visiting Kaunas and Vilnius. Kevin went on his mission to Lithuania, so that is the main reason we chose to go Lithuania. However, as I continue to research Lithuania, I amazed by its rich history. It has many castles and museums, and while they are still trying to rebuild after living under the oppression of the Soviet Union, many of their national treasures are beginning to shine.

I am excited to go. It will be fun to spend this much time with Kevin. Plus, I haven't been outside of the country before (other than Vancouver, B.C. when I was 18 months old), so I am excited to experience a different culture. I'm not so excited about the length of the plane ride, Hawaii was long enough.

Until we go, I need to focus on getting in shape. We don't plan to rent a car, rather we are going to explore Lithuania on foot. I don't want to die on the first day, so I plan to visit the gym as often as possible.

Christmas Newsletter 2010

December 11, 2010

Dear Family & Friends,

Now that we are an official family, I guess it is time that we start participating in the tradition of a family newsletter. I've always enjoyed reading the newsletters of others, so hopefully ours is found enjoyable.

Kevin and I established our family on April 23, 2010 at the Salt Lake Temple. It was a cold and rainy day, and even snowed in Kamas where our reception was, but it was still a perfect day, and we were excited to be sealed together for all time and eternity.

We quickly fell into the routine of being newlyweds, which seems to consist of never seeing each other due to work and school. I am currently working on the postpartum floor and well-baby nursery as an RN, while Kevin attends school at LDS Business College, pursuing a transferable Associates degree in Business, and works as a Senior Account Manager at Discover Card.

We have found time to have some fun. In June we drove to Southern Utah to enjoy the scenery at Fish Lake, Capital Reef, and Arches. It was a fun break from the monotony of work and chores. Kevin also went to Rexburg for a quick trip to see friends. I unfortunately had to work. We also made a few trips up to Kamas which is where Rex and Lynette Hallam live(Megan's parents), including Kevin's first deer hunt with my dad where he shot a massive spike in the first 30 minutes of his hunt, probably less than 1 mile from my parents' house. While it isn't exactly a trophy, we have been told that it will be tasty by all and so far it is.

This summer I was called as the 1^st Counselor in our ward Young Women's Presidency. I have come to love the girls in our ward, and I am excited to get to know them better through girls' camp and youth conference. I am also excited to go to girls' camp and youth conference again. Kevin was called as a CTR 4 teacher in the primary 2 weeks ago, which he is not quite as excited about, but he is glad that he has a job finally.

In our spare time, we are trying to make a home of the house we bought last November. I spent a good portion of the summer weeding our many flower beds, and only made a dent in three of them, while Kevin has been the handyman around the house. We are both glad to be done with our apartment days, and to have our mortgage payment go towards building our net worth, rather than the net worth of an apartment owner. We are also enjoying our aquarium of about 10 adult cichlids, 3 other fish, 4 plecostomuses (sucker fishes), and lots of baby cichlids.

We hope you are all doing well and enjoying your holidays. As always we would love to hear from you, whether by phone, email, Facebook message, or even snail mail. You could also stop by our blog at meganhallam.blogspot.com to see what we are doing throughout the year.

Merry Christmas!

Love, Kevin and Megan Prause

Kevin and Megan at the Salt Lake Temple while taking our bridals, I love the swish of my dress.

Kevin and Megan on wedding day.

 The Hallams (Megan's Family)

The Prauses (Kevin's Family)

Capital Reef

Arches

 

 

La Caille

Yesterday our friends Alex and Kate were married in the Salt Lake Temple. This is the first marriage sealing I have been to besides our own. It was a cool experience.

After the ceremony and the pictures, we reconvened (I like that word.) at La Caille for the wedding luncheon. It was delectable. Before everyone arrived, the servers were passing out drinks and coconut shrimp skewers. I had some very yummy hot cider, and after trying a shrimp, I decided that they were actually kind of good. We started off our meal with a roll and salad, which were both good, but the roll was very hard on the outside, which made it difficult to follow the rules of etiquette while eating it. (I finally gave us and just buttered it and picked it up, everyone else at our table did as well.) For my main course, I had a chicken dish. It was to die for. I have never had such tender chicken before. It was almost like eating fish because it just fell apart in your mouth. It tasted good too. My main dish also included sun-dried tomatoes, which I have never had before. I had expected them to be kind of dry, but they were still quite juicy. To top it off, we had a tart, brownie, and crème brulee. All were very yummy, and I have rediscovered that I like burnt sugar, although the crème brulee tasted much better than my elementary school science experiments which resulted in burnt sugar. All in all, it was amazing, and I hope I can find some way to get another free dinner there. I am pretty sure that neither Kevin nor I want to pay that much for dinner.

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

It's been a bit since I have updated, but here are some pictures I took on 11/29/10.
After the blizzard (not "the blizzard of the century", but the heavy snowfall a few days later):

  Our Christmas decorations, and yes, I know they are kind of pitiful and sparse:

 I'm pretty sure that I got this Snowman as a White Elephant gift at a work party.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, Kevin and I went to my Aunt Marlene's in Talmage. We left for Kamas Wednesday after Kevin got off work, and then we went out to Talmage Thursday. This is the first time that Kevin has been to Thanksgiving with us, and pretty much the first major family dinner with my mom's family.

It was pretty crazy. Three of my cousins were there with their families, so it was a tight fit. Some of the kids had to eat in the kitchen because we did not have enough room around the main table in the living room. Even at that, we kept jabbing each other with our elbows.

After dinner we picked up a recliner from my Uncle Weldon in Duchesne for my mom. It used to be my Grandma Siler's, but after 20 years, it was still in good shape, although very 80's-ish in color. It will be very good for my mom to get a "new" chair since hers has been falling apart since I was in high school.

Yesterday, Kevin helped my mom with some electrical issues at the barn, so we got a late start back home, but all in all it was a good trip. It was fun to be with family for Thanskgiving, rather than with my coworkers and patients.

Newest Addition

Last Sunday, I was craving ice cream. I kept telling myself to ignore the cravings because ice cream makes me sick since I am lactose intolerant, but they would not go away. Finally around 7:30ish, I decided to give into the cravings and have a little bit of ice cream. When I opened the carton up to dish it up, the ice cream was soup-like. I quickly felt the ice packs, and they were melted as well. After grabbing Kevin to confirm my findings, we came to the conclusion that our fridge was dead. We had inherited it with the house, and I think it was the original fridge, so it was almost ten years old.

We grabbed all of our freezer stuff, and put it in our downstairs freezer. All of the fridge stuff was taken to Kevin's parents' house. We ended up saving most of our food, but some of the stuff we just threw away because it was old, almost gone, or cheap (eggs). That was about all we could do Sunday night, so I went to bed disappointed that I could not take my normal lunch to work since it requires refrigeration, but thank goodness for peanut butter and honey sandwiches and cans of fruit, otherwise I may have not been able to eat. (It is hard to guess when you are in the nursery whether you will have time to go downstairs for food, or if the nursery is going to be full when it is lunchtime, or if somebody can relieve you for lunch.)

Monday after I go off work, Kevin and I went to Lowes and found our new fridge. It is a stainless steel side-by-side with ice maker. It is bigger than our previous fridge and much nicer too. Plus, it hasn't been through two previous families, one of which may have possibly not believed in cleaning.

Here is a picture:

Favorite Song

This week has been kind of boring. The only exciting thing was going on a "shopping spree" on Monday. The rest of the week has just been a combination of work at the hospital and work at home, with visiting teaching, Young Womens, and a baby shower thrown in.

A few months ago, a friend from high school posted a list of blog topics you are supposed to blog on everyday for a month. I don't plan on doing that, mostly because I don't blog everyday, but I plan to write on the topics when I don't have something better to blog on. Some of the things are really random and not that important, but they are kind of fun.

To start us off, my favorite song. This is actually kind of hard because I like so many different types of music and there are songs in each genre that I like a lot, plus favorite songs change as a new and better one comes out. So as a cop out, I will go by genre.

Country: I love Taylor Swift. Every song she sings seems to apply to a certain part of my life. However, my favorite song is probably "Love Story."

Pop Music: This is harder because there is such a variety. One song that I like a lot because of the music is "Battlefield" by Jordin Sparks. I like her music a lot. "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield is another favorite because of the positive message that life is what you make of it.

Classical Music: Yes, I like classical music. I think it is very soothing. My current favorite composer is Chopin. I just wish I could play the piano well enough to play his pieces. I like the "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland as well. When I hear it, I picture myself doing some great thing like winning a gold medal in the Olympics. However, I think my all-time favorite is the "1812 Overture" by Tchaikovsky. You can go wrong when cannons are written into the score.

Inspiration/Non-Hymn: "Come, Thou Fount" is one of my favorite songs ever (especially the Mo-Tab and BYU choirs version). I wish they hadn't removed it from the hymnbook, although I don't know too many wards that could pull it off as well as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Favorite Hymn: "Be Still, My Soul" helped me through the last couple years of college. I was so dramatic, but at the time I didn't know how I was ever going to do everything on my plate. I had this song on my laptop, and every time that I was at the end of my rope, I would listen to it and be reminded that the Savior is close by and willing to help us through our trials if we just ask for His help. All of the hymns are amazing, but this one has had the most impact on me.

Writing

 

The other day, my mom went to a job interview at my elementary school. The interview was conducted by my 1^st grade teacher, who is now the principal. During the interview she asked my mom if I was still writing. This brought back memories of how much I loved to write when I was younger. I started writing in first grade and didn't stop until I started college. I wrote all types of stories in elementary school, all on my own time. I had quite the imagination, and I would come up with the strangest ideas for stories.

When I started middle school, my English classes became more structured, and I had to write according to the guidelines that the teachers gave us. Although my imagination was stifled slightly by the guidelines, I learned a lot, and some of my papers were really good. In seventh grade, my teacher liked one of my pieces so much that she included it in her book about writing.

In high school, I started to write more nonfiction type stuff, which stretched me further, but took me away from writing random stories. However, did write a few gems, including one about how a constellation came to be that I wrote one morning between Jazz Band (ended about 15-20 minutes before school) and First Period because I forgot about it. I did start working on stories again though. I found that Jazz band was an excellent time for that since I had a lot of down time.

The unfortunate part about all of my writing is that I started a million stories, but most of them I never finished. The only ones that I finished were the ones I was required to for school.

Once college started, my creative writing pretty much ceased. I was too busy studying and writing papers. I wrote three major research projects while in college, including conducting primary research and writing an honors thesis. By the end of college, I had perfected the art of minimizing wordiness and creating concise, tightly written papers.

I was complimented on my work, and my thesis may someday be published in a nursing journal, but I miss writing just for fun. Now life just seems too crazy to devote time to writing. I guess while I mostly have my blog for personal, and now family history, purposes, it can also create an outlet for my writing dreams. I enjoy reading well-written blogs, and I think my blog is okay, but I think it leans more towards the concise, technical writing that I mastered in college, rather than the narrative and descriptive writing I learned about in middle school. Plus, since it is about me, it isn't very imaginative because it is factual. I wish I could make my life sound much more fabulous than it is, but boring is much lower maintenance.

I'm also trying to incorporate writing into the list. I have a few ideas for stories right now, including a fantasy-like story and then vignettes reliving my college years. Plus, when something interesting happens at work, I write it down and save it on my computer. I'm not sure what I will do with it, but I can't post it on my blog because of HIPPA, so I need to put it somewhere. In fifty years, maybe it will be put into my book that inspires young nurses because I will be some really cool nurse that is a role model of an amazing nurse (Which, as a side note, I was told that I was an amazing nurse yesterday and that I was good at my job and should never quit today. That is always a good self-esteem booster). However, I don't spend a ton of time on these projects, so I don't know how much will get done on them, and I doubt I will ever get published since I don't want to put that much work into it, but it can be a nice stress relief for me, plus it helps me escape from reality.

Okay, I think I am done rambling. Every blog needs a ramble though every once in a while. It breaks the monotony of the report of our daily activities and such, and it feels good to just sit down and write this much. So I hope you enjoy, or you can wait for the report of our daily activities. Maybe in a few years when there are little Kevins and Megans, it won't be such a monotonous report. :)

A Day in the Life: November 2010

Time for my monthly post about a typical day in the life of Megan and Kevin. Once again, I don't have any pictures because we didn't do anything exciting that warranted pictures.

Kevin left for school at 7:00 am, and I pondered getting out of bed, but didn't do so until 9:00. I then got to work on my list, which is a never-ending chore because I put everything on the list. Some of the highlights of what I accomplished:

• I cleaned out the filters in our vacuum, something I have never done before, so I was proud of myself for figuring out how to do it.
  
• I cleaned the shower walls.
  
• I paid bills, and I finished paying off the bill for our washer and dryer, so now we will have an extra $100 each month.
  
• I watched an episode of NCIS and The Office on my laptop because I hadn't seen them on tv.
  

At 6:30 pm, I jumped in the shower, then made a baked egg, one of the few things I make that requires more effort than boiling water. Then I was disappointed to find that House was not on because of the world series, so I watched whatever else I could find. Then at 9:00 pm, I started making my lunch and getting ready for bed. Kevin got home around 9:30, we talked a bit, then I was in bed by 10:15, ready to work the next day. Kevin stayed up and played video games, did homework, and researched stuff for his car until who knows what time. I just know he was in bed when I got up at 5:00 am the next morning.

Yes, our lives are boring, but when I look back on this in ten years when we have kids and are super busy, I will probably miss my boring days where I stayed home and was able to actually accomplish things on my list. I think on December and January 1, I will be working, so maybe something exciting will happen at work.

First Deer Hunt

Kevin went on his first deer hunt last weekend, and it was successful. He only had two days, and it was supposed to start snowing on Monday, so my dad wanted to get done as quickly as possible. Plus, they were just hunting behind my parents' house, so they didn't have too much ground to cover. Anyways, forty-five minutes after they left the house they found a deer and Kevin shot it. It was small, but Kevin was mostly okay with that. At least he has lots of room for improvement. We are planning to eat the meat, so it is actually better that it was little because it won't be so tough.

Here is a picture of Kevin's "prize." If you can't tell he was thrilled about the whole photo shoot idea. A photo up on the mountain would have been better, but I chose to go to church rather than hunting since I didn't expect them to find a deer so quickly.

Back Home

After an almost four month absence, my car has finally been able to return to the garage. Apparently just in time for the snow. The Evo is nearing completion, so most of the parts that were covering the floor in my spot are now in the car. The rest are downstairs in the disaster zone (aka our basement). Being able to get my car back in the garage is a relief. I hate scraping windows, so I would be quite sad if I had to when I have a perfectly good garage. Now I just need a heated garage so my car is nice and toasty at 5:45 in the morning when I leave for work, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon, unless we win the lottery or something.

Craft Night

October 8, 2010

Recently, my ward's Relief Society had a Fabulous Friday, which is basically a night to make lots of crafts. This was my first time ever going to such an event, but it was kind of fun. I felt kind of young as it seemed that everyone was talking about their children and teenagers, but the people I sat by included me in their conversations, which I thought was very nice. I made a couple sets of blocks. I thought it would be easy, and I would be done in a couple of hours, but it took nearly 4 hours to put the paint and decoupage on the blocks, then I had to wait for an hour for them to dry. Even then, they weren't dry by the time that I left, so I had to worry about getting glue all over my car seat. Here are pictures of the finished project, now I just need to figure out where to put them.

Evo & Fish

Kevin has started to put his car back together. It has been in pieces since about February, and since June, it has taken over the whole garage. The engine is now inside the car/hood area (I really don't know the proper term.). I even helped him lower it today, although I'm not sure how much help it will be. I'm glad that it is getting done, but sad too because the sooner we get it done, the sooner we will be selling the Evo.

A Picture of us lowering would have been cooler, but we were both occupied at the time.

How we are able to lift and lower the motor. It is attached to two 2x6's in the rafters.


One of my coworkers was wanting to see pictures of my fish. I think she meant on Facebook, but this uploads to Facebook, so maybe she will see them. If not, they will eventually make it into an album. In case you have never photographed a fish before, they are hard to photograph. That is why the pictures are not fabulous.

The top left (and bottom right) picture is of one of the baby SP-44 cichlids that was born in May or June. The top middle picture is of the aquarium decoration I picked out. The top right picture is of our cichlid that kind of looks like a goldfish, but isn't. The middle left picture is the electric yellow. I like him because he gets picked on. I cheer for him often as he gets chased around. The center picture is of Jack, the Jack Dempsey Kevin brought with him from Washington. He is really big. The middle right picture is of the babies again. You can kind of see their daddy in the background. The bottom left picture is just of the fish and their habitat. The bottom middle picture is of the biggest Plecostamous, or sucker fish (at least I think he is the biggest).

A Day in the Life: October 2010

One of the women in my ward does a post each month where she takes twelve photos on the twelfth of the month, and then blogs about it. This allows the blog reader the opportunity to glimpse into everyday life. Plus, it provides a record of the little details that make up each of our lives. I liked the idea, but I don't take pictures, plus I don't think my life is quite exciting enough that I could take 12 pictures of my day. So I decided to modify the idea. My plan is to simply chronicle the activities of my day, and then add in whatever pictures I can. I plan to write about the 1^st of each month (even if that is not when I post). So here goes my first attempt.

October 1^st started out very lazy. Kevin and I spent the whole morning just hanging out together. We had finally got around to breakfast around 10:30 am, and I was begin to contemplate beginning to be productive when I was called into work at 11:00. Kevin also left for work around the same time I did. I spent four hours there, and only had two patients, plus I was getting paid time and a half, so it really was not that bad, despite my bad attitude. I tend to have one of those when I get called in on my on-call shift, but I try not to let the patients in on that, because who likes a grumpy nurse.

Since I was only there four hours, I didn't get lunch, so when it was time to go home, I was starving. I stopped at the cafeteria and bought a grilled cheese, fries, and a macadamia nut cookie with my birthday free lunch cookie. I then stopped at Papa Murphey's on my way home, and picked up the large Chicago Style Pizza and cheese bread I had called in earlier. This provides further evidence why I should not be allowed to get hungry.

Once I got home and had ate my grilled cheese, and did some cleaning, I spent the next several hours reading and finishing the new Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites Book, Sorcerers and Seers, while lying on an ice pack in an effort to stop my neck from hurting (It worked, it feels much better now.). I enjoyed the book, but I am bummed that the adventure is still not over, so I have to wait for the next book to come out. Oh well, I guess it leaves me with something to look forward to. After I finished the book, I cooked the pizza and cheese bread.

Kevin arrived home around 9:30 pm. After he ate some pizza and we did whatever, we went to bed around 11:00.

Birthday Shenanigans

My birthday was yesterday, October 2, but Kevin and I mainly celebrated it on Thursday. I was first woken up by Kevin almost putting my present, which was in a large box, on top of me. I had no clue what it could be, so I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box and found a sewing machine. 

It is electronic, and has a bunch of different stitches. I am excited to put it into practice by being domestic. My first project is to fix one of Kevin's shirts.

Our next stop was Walmart where we got my new tires put on. These were not a birthday present, but they happened to show up the day that we celebrated my birthday.

After the tires were put on, and I finally got dressed (I had drove to Walmart in my pajamas.), Kevin and I went to the temple. We then drove down to Lindon to pick up my wedding dress and the rest of our dry cleaning. We were expecting my dress to come in a box with a window, but it came in just a regular box. We were disappointed, especially since the website and the people at the store had told us we would get a window box. Plus, since touching the dress would make the preservation method pointless, we can't even look at it to make sure that it is okay. Such is life, I guess we will find out if we ever open the box up on some future date.

Later that night we went to Red Robin and got my free burger at Red Robin. I normally don't eat hamburgers there because my mouth doesn't fit around them, plus they do not make good leftovers, but the Guacamole Burger is pretty good. For some reason I have develop a taste for avocados.

My actual birthday was spent mostly at home watching conference, but that night I went to Café Rio with Kevin's sister and mom. Afterwards, we went to Tiffany's house and watched a BBC movie called "Wives and Daughters." It fit in the "Pride and Prejudice" category, but I found myself enjoying it. After the men were done with the Priesthood Session, we went to Kevin's parents house and ate cake and ice cream. Kevin's parents also gave me sewing stuff.

Today, my parents and grandma came down for lunch. It was my dad's first time to our house since we finished it, and my grandma's first time ever. It was fun to have them here. They gave me a really nice sewing kit, although half of the stuff was missing, so Kevin and I will have to take care of that. Hopefully one of the Walmarts around here will have a complete set, because it is really nice. We watched conference together, although we didn't get much out of it because of my dad's short attention span. I hope that they decide to come visit us more often.

Workout Queen

After a nearly 6 month hiatus, I have finally gone back to regular gym attendance. I first stopped going because my mom was worried lifting weights was going to make my wedding dress not fit. (Although I think that problem was more due to the difference in bras. Sports bras and padded bras are not equal.) Then I didn't go all summer because a) Kevin was still in bed, so I didn't think it was fair for me to have to be up when he wasn't, and b) I liked to hang out with him more than I liked to go to the gym. Now Kevin is back in school, so both of my excuses are eliminated, so I am renewing my resolve to be a healthy person.

I like to work out and I love the feeling afterwards, but I have no patience when it comes to the gym. I feel like a weakling compared to the other people on the treadmill who are running, while I am on the verge of an asthma attack and heart attack going at a brisk walk. Apparently walking up and down that massive hill at BYU did keep me in shape, because I was able to do a lot more in the gym while I was still in school. The weights also frustrate me, as I feel silly getting on the machines after a big buff man and adjusting the weight down 100 pounds.

This is a lot like how I feel about life. I feel like I should be able to do everything I want to now, but life doesn't work that way, and most of the time, we don't have the time to do everything that we want to. I just need to develop patience, and be happy in the journey and the progress I am making towards my goals. As long as I am moving forward, I want to be happy. Getting upset when I am not able to do one 100 pushups (I can barely do 10, if that.) is not going to make pushups any easier. Having that attitude seems to be easier said and done, but that is what I want to work towards most right now. Plus, I want to keep going to the gym. It keeps me from hitting a brick wall at 3, even when I am in the midst of a shift at work.

Peaches and Pears

Last weekend, Kevin and I went up to Kamas to visit my parents. Kevin and my dad mainly played (they went shooting and looking for deer), but my mom and I had lots of work to do. My mom had mentioned to me that she wanted to teach me how to can, since she was never able to do that while I was growing up (I was always at the barn helping my dad). She had already canned most of the tomatoes and other vegetables, but I wanted to can some peaches and pears for my lunches. She agreed, so we spent our Saturday bottling fruit.

In the process, I found that I strongly dislike the feeling of pear and peach juice running down my arms. I think I drove my mom crazy washing my hands and arms so much. By the end of the day I had 28 pints of fruit, plus my mom had 6 quarts of peaches, to show for our work.

RIP Firemouth

Yesterday one of our cichlids died. I was surprisingly concerned about his well-being, considering how I feel about fish, but this fish seemed to have personality, or better yet, an attitude. He was a firemouth cichlid, and had red around his mouth, which was very angular, giving him the appearance of a very cocky, ticked-off fish. He liked to pick fights, and Kevin things that was how he met his demise. Poor guy. I guess it goes to show that you should play nice with the other fish in the tank. We plan to buy another one, which will be smaller this time, so hopefully it won't pick fights. Hopefully no more die in the near future because I am getting attached to them in a way that I never knew was possible with a fish.

First Young Women’s Lesson

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to teach my first ever lesson in church. Usually we only have 3-4 girls each Sunday, but apparently they all decided to come out of inactivity this week, so there were probably eight or so girls there. Seeing that many girls kind of made me a little bit nervous, since I was only expected the usual 3-4, but it was good because one of the less-active girls answered all of the questions. It was definitely not the best lesson ever taught in church, but I think I did okay for my first time. Hopefully, as I teach more I can be less nervous, talk slower, and teach by the Spirit more, but I know that will take practice.

Football Season is Here Again

Once again I bought season tickets for BYU football. This is the eighth year that I have had tickets, and it keeps getting harder and harder to go, but I hope I can still go because I love BYU football.

Kevin was unable to go with me because he had to work, so I took my former roommate, Bethany, with me. We went to games for a few years when I was in school and in the pre-Kevin days. It was fun to watch the game together, plus it was good to get out and see one of my good friends since I hardly ever get to do that; mostly because I am a bad friend and never plan to do anything with my friends, plus I hate driving to Provo.

The football game was well as well. It was close, but not because the teams were playing at the top of their games. Both made many mistakes, but it was still entertaining to watch. I am glad that BYU is actually winning now-a-days, it makes games much more entertaining when we win. I am looking forward to the rest of the games this season, and I hope that Kevin can at least make it to a few, but if not, I guess that I always have Bethany.

New Calling

Today was my first day in my new calling as First Counselor in the Young Women's in my ward. It is a scary and exciting calling all at once. None of my previous callings have entailed this much responsibility, so that is daunting, but neither have any of my callings had this much potential for fun.

Our ward's Young Women's is very small. Most of the girls are inactive, so that presents a challenge. Only three girls were there today, so there were more leaders than girls. This is a big change from when I was growing up. We always had quite a few girls that came to church each week.

I think another challenge will be my schedule. We have set schedules now at work, and I set it up before I knew about this calling, so I work every Wednesday, which is Mutual night. I need to figure out if there is any way to tweak my schedule, so I don't have to worry about it. As is, I can probably go every other week; I will just have to make sure that I stay on top of my charting and work load. I always felt more respect and appreciation for my leaders who regularly came to activities, so I want to be that type of leader. I really want to be one of those leaders that is a good example and friend, someone they can come to when they need to talk. I had so many good leaders growing that I want to give back to the next generation. That last sentence just made me feel old, but such is life. J

This week's activity is a hike, so I am excited for that.

Riding Free

Kevin's dad recently bought a motorcycle, and Kevin has been bugging me about going on a ride with him since before the motorcycle was purchased. As I have a bit of a scaredy-cat nature, I just kept telling him no. I had also seen victims of motorcycle accidents during my clinicals at the U of U neuro floor, and I knew I didn't want to end up like that. However, on Sunday he told me we were going to ride his dad's motorcycle, and he didn't really give me a choice. I'm glad he didn't.

Even as we were getting on it, I was still nervous, and I remained that way for a while, but then I started to relax and realized that I was having fun. We went on a fairly long ride, which took us to Daybreak, and then out to Copperton. The only part of the trip that was not fun was the fact that every time we went about 35 mph, the wind would catch my helmet visor, and I would feel like I was going to blow off. My face also felt very exfoliated by the wind, and my but was completely numb by the time that we were done.

I have never been all the way into Daybreak, so it was fun to see all of the houses. It seemed like we had gone back East because they seemed to be like "back-in-the-day" type of houses, except you could tell they were new. Much better than the same boring vinyl siding split level houses that seem to dominate Utah. However, despite how cute the houses were, I don't think I could live out there because the houses are too close together and have tiny yards. When I upgrade to my next house, I would like more acreage, perhaps even enough for a goat. J

In contrast, it was fun to see the houses in Copperton because they truly were old. Most of them looked like they were from the 50's or 60's, and they had a lot of character. One house even had a historical site plaque on it. I also loved the park there, it had huge trees and just looked like a nice place to relax. I like the look of Copperton because it reminds me of Kamas, but it is much closer to Salt Lake and the conveniences that holds. When we were looking at houses, we almost looked at one in Copperton, but the previous owners of our house decided that they were in fact going to sell their house.

In all, the trip was fun, and I am looking forward to the next time that we decide to go for a ride.

Pioneer Day

For the first time in three years, I had the 24^th of July off, and Kevin had it off too, so we spent the weekend in Kamas. We got a late start because both of us worked on Friday, but we were able to make it for the end of the Bull Wars to see our cousins in the Wild Cow Milking. They didn't do as well as they had in the other events, which they won, but it was fun to see grown men chase around angry cows.

On the 24^th we went to the car show, which was a lot bigger than I expected. I thought that there would only be 20 cars or so there, but there were over 80. I enjoyed going, and I think my mom and Kevin did too.

The rest of our weekend was spent doing family stuff like barbecues and such. It was a pretty lazy weekend, but I enjoy lazy.

Sheep Sale, a Wedding, and Babies

Saturday, I was able to meet up with my parents in Tooele for a sheep sale. It was fun, and it brought back memories of my sheep showing days. I actually showed sheep there for five or six years, and we met quite a few good people and even some relatives (the extended Hallam family is not as close as other branches of my family). My dad ended up buying a ewe (a girl sheep), then we went to eat at a restaurant near the freeway. A word of advice, if the restaurant is in a truck stop, don't be too excited about the food quality. It wasn't the worst I have ever had, but it definitely wasn't the best. I did, however, enjoy the time spent with my parents. Now that I am married and both Kevin and I are working, it seems impossible for our schedules to coordinate well enough that we can visit them.

Later that night, I picked Kevin up at work and we drove to Kaysville for my roommate Sarah's wedding. It was fun to see her and my other three roommates. I just wish we could have visited longer, and that we saw each other more often, but such is life once you graduate from college.

In other news, one of our cichlids had babies…again. She had the first batch about two months ago, so we have lots of baby fish at our house. Kevin tried to take a picture of them, but since they are so small you can't really tell what the black specks are. When we get a good picture I will post it. Apparently this type of cichlid is super rare, so if the babies live to get big enough, we may be able to make some money off of them. The things Kevin does to make money.

Arches

Our final destination was Arches National Park. We hiked a little bit this time, but we mostly drove around to the various view areas. We hiked to Delicate Arch and Broken Arch. The hikes just about killed me. I need to get back to the gym, but so far I haven't made it. The scenery was very beautiful, but by this time we were suffering from a "rock-overdose," so I don't think we fully appreciated the scenery. I want to go back again when I am in better shape, and we have more time.

Broken Arch

Hike to Broken Arch

Fiery Furnace

I-70

In addition to going to Aurora, Fish Lake, and Capital Reef, we also went to Arches as well. So we made the four hour drive on I-70 from Aurora to Moab. There isn't much there, but it does have a certain beauty to it. There were many view areas in the San Rafael Swell area, and I talked Kevin into stopping at a few of them. Here are some pictures of us at the first one.

Me looking stressed out, not sure why.

I-70

Kevin's model pose?

Capital Reef

Last weekend Kevin and I decided to leave town and head south. One of our first stops was Capital Reef. I was amazed by the grandeur of the rock formations and the canyons. We drove on the scenic drive and hiked a little bit in Capital Gorge. It is amazing to think that they used to drive cars down Capital Gorge, especially when you consider the fact that it is a dry streambed that can become a river with a good rainstorm. Here are some pictures of our adventure:

Landscaping

A few weeks ago, I was feeling domestic, so I planted some petunias and a Shasta Daisy. I took some pictures of them, plus some of our other flowers around our house.

Memorial Day

On Memorial Day we went out to Tabiona for the annual Brown family Memorial Day Happenings. We decorated my grandparents' graves, as well as the graves of some other family members (we did this in Francis prior to driving to Tabiona as well). Afterwards we went up in the mountains past Hanna for a picnic and campfire.

I enjoy this event every year because it gives us the opportunity to see members of my mom's family that we often only see once a year.

Below is a picture of my mom and three of her siblings, plus a sister-in-law.

L-R: Marlene, Lynette, Marilyn, Weldon, and Judy

Personal Tulip Festival

I was surprised around the middle of April when I started to have an explosion of yellow tulips. The other colors soon followed. I've always been a fan of tulips, and I am excited that I now have lots of my own. Hopefully at some point I can get some other types of flowers, but we had a late start due to the wedding and we are just trying to de-weed everything now. Maybe next year? But for now I will enjoy the flowers I have.

Officially a Mrs.

As you probably know by now, I am officially Megan Prause. Married life is just as busy as single life, so it has taken me a while to get around to blogging (plus I got so far behind on everything while I was preparing for the wedding). Anyways, April 23^rd was the big day. I had stayed at the Plaza Hotel the night before with my parents because my mom didn't want to deal with having to get my dad ready at 4 am (which would be the case if they were in Kamas), and I didn't want to deal with getting ready and having to drive to Salt Lake by 8:30 (I'm not the biggest morning person, unless I'm at work). We woke up the rain pouring that morning, so I talked Kevin into picking my mom and I up so that we didn't have to walk to Temple Square in the rain. Our sealing was beautiful, and quite a few family members and friends of both Kevin and I were there, which I was very grateful for their support.

After I got in my dress and Kevin in his tux, we were greeted by family members and more rain outside of the temple. We only spent about fifteen minutes taking family photos at the temple since it was so cold and drizzly. However, Kevin, Karen, Bethany, the photographer, and I spent about 30 more minutes walking around the temple getting pictures. My dress was soaked, but at least the sun wasn't bright, so my eyes were open this time. I was very glad that Kevin came along for my bridals, or else we would have had very few pictures at the temple; however, the sun was somewhat bright that morning, so I am squinty eyed in all of the pictures.

After we changed into more comfortable (and dry clothes), we drove to Kevin's parents' house for the luncheon, where Karen and I spent about half an hour drying my dress with hair dryers. It stayed surprisingly clean. We then we drove out to our house and sent all of the cheesecakes with Karen. Our next stop was checking into the Parrish House Bed & Breakfast in Sugar House, where we planned to spend our one-night mini honeymoon. After we got that all squared away we drove to Kamas for the reception.

Unfortunately my mom's kitchen help was at the Weber State Graduation for my cousin's graduation, so she was terribly behind schedule, but we were able to get everything squared away before too many people showed up at the church. The reception went well, and a lot of people from Kamas and our families came, plus a few surprises from Provo and West Jordan. I succeeded in throwing the bouquet squarely on my uncle's head, but that was the only mishap. However, everyone left before we did, so we were unable to leave in a cloud of bubbles as I had planned. Oh well, we were at least able to be helpful. Also, my car escaped unscathed.

The next day was our open house at Kevin's parents' house. A considerable amount of people came, mostly from the hospital and our ward. I felt bad that not very many of Kevin's friends were able to make it down from Washington, but there were a few people down here who either live here now or were visiting.

We had a ton of food left over from the festivities, including our whole cake. We also have a million favor bags too. I guess I shouldn't have been so optimistic about how many people were coming, but it is best to overestimate.

We have basically just been hanging out at home since then. Kevin went back to work on Thursday and I on Friday. Married life agrees with me so far, and I like having Kevin around more since I barely ever saw him before due to work schedules. I did have trouble remembering what my name was today when asked at church, but I am remembering to sign Megan Prause at work.

I will post pictures once I get them from the photographer and get them all organized how I would like them, so it may be awhile.

Bedroom Set

Back in March, Kevin and I found an amazing bedroom set on KSL. It is a solid oak Thomasville set, which probably sold for thousands of dollars, we only had to pay $1000. It has four armoires, a dresser, and the mirrored headboard complete with pillow storage. I feel like it was a good find, even if it doesn't all fit in our bedroom. Sorry that the rooms look messy. I still haven't gotten everything back together after the wedding.

The Headboard and armoires

Another armoire and the dresser, minus its mirror and covered with stuff

The fourth armoire in our spare bedroom, which is now stuffed with wedding presents.

Work Bridal Shower

About two weeks before my wedding, a few of my coworkers threw me a bridal shower. It was fairly well attended, and I got some nice stuff. Below is a collage of the festivities.

Sheep and Goat Collage

While home for my bridal shower, I decided that the animals needed to have a photo shoot. The random bum poking out from the hay feeder is one of the baby goats. Apparently that was the most comfortable spot she could find in the barn. She wasn't moving even though I kept bugging her. It must be more comfortable that it appears, or else she is just being a goat.

Bridal Shower

Yesterday, my cousins threw me a bridal shower up in Oakley. It was fun. We had a fairly good turnout considering the weather conditions. Mostly family members came, but my former roommates Shannon, Kristy, and Elena came as well. I got quite a bit of loot, mostly kitchen stuff and lots and lots of spices. I feel like I am going to have enough spices to last ten years. I guess everybody thinks it's high time that I start cooking. My mom bought me a Rubbermaid full of food, including a sack of flour and sugar, which cracks me up because I still have not opened my little bags of sugar and flour from when I graduated and moved out on my own two years. However, Kevin likes to cook, so we will probably use it. Maybe if I have someone to cook for, I might cook something besides Minute Rice. It was fun to see and talk to everyone, especially those family members and friends that I never get to see.

Here are some pictures from the event:

I just discovered Picasa and learned how to make a collage. Much cooler than just putting one picture in at a time. :)

Brag Post

Yesterday Kevin surprised me with not one, but two bouquets for Valentines'. Lest you look at the pictures and think there is only one bouquet, Kevin bought the roses and did the arrangement himself. I kind of like the guy. Just a little.

Dressed in White….

…well, actually ivory, but you get the idea.

This past Monday I was able to purchase my wedding dress. I had planned to go to a few different stores, and I wasn't expecting to find a dress I like at Frenze because most of them didn't fit in the modest, but nice range, but I was able to find an ivory strapless gown with beautiful beadwork that converts into a modest dress quite easily by simply adding a jacket. Plus, they were having a sale that weekend so I was able to purchase it for half off the original price. With shoes, alterations, and the jacket, it cost about what I had expected to pay for the dress by itself.

My other wedding plans are going well. I have decided on my colors, hot pink and lime green (they surprisingly look good together, plus it fits my personality well), plus I kind of know what I am going to do for table centerpieces and such.

By the way, if anyone has any fabulous advice on how to go about buying bridesmaids dresses, I would appreciate it a lot. I am kind of at a loss on what to do, because I would like my bridesmaids to look classy, but I would like them to be able to wear their dresses to church. I haven't been able to find anything that fits the bill for both of those requirements, so any advice is greatly appreciated.

Kevin has already seen my dress, so I feel okay posting this on my blog. :)

Shiny Thing

I just wanted to let you know, in case you didn't already, that Kevin and I are officially engaged now. We are planning to get married on April 23, 2010, in the Salt Lake Temple. I'm super excited and glad that we are now moving forward. There will be a reception that night in Kamas, then an Open House the next night in West Jordan.

We really don't have an elaborate engagement story. I was with Kevin the day he bought my ring, so I already knew what it looked like, plus I knew when it would be back from getting sized. However, when December 30^th rolled around, the ring was still getting fixed because there were a few tiny dents in it. (Kevin didn't volunteer that information, I just couldn't wait, so I asked him on the phone while I driving home. I was kind of disappointed, but a little bit relieved because I felt getting engaged on New Year's Eve would just be way too cheesy. Anyways, after I got off work on New Year's Eve, I went straight to Kevin's. He was playing his X-box, so I started checking my email. After a bit, he handed the ring box to me. I was surprised because I thought it was still getting fixed, but he had been able to get it back the next day. I thought that was a pretty lame way of proposing, but I was just happy to finally have the ring. After a bit, I asked him if that was it, and then he asked me if I would marry him, and I said yes.

It wasn't until the next day that I found out that he wasn't planning to propose that night, but was actually just showing me the ring after it was sized and fixed. Apparently I was supposed to give it back after he showed it to me. Luckily he wasn't planning anything elaborate to propose to me, so I didn't ruin anything, but I find it a bit funny that I didn't give him a chance to propose.