opp..I did it again :)

I have to say that I have thought a lot about what I was going to write in February, March, and well then I looked up and it was April. SO...the adventures of grad school have been just that, an adventure! I can't believe that it was almost a year ago when I started this blog, and I also can't believe that I am almost finished with grad school! I am in awe in how fast this year has past and how much I've learned in the last few months! Besides being able to explain theorist, the reading process, assessments, interventions, and book talk more books than most libraries carry I have learned about myself.

For instance, my love for writing has blossomed (while you wouldn't know because I have neglected this blog). But seriously, my writer's notebook is full of, what I would consider, amazing ideas for books, characters, plots and so on.

I have also learned that life is predictable, but God is not. Just when I think that I have it all figured out and I know exactly what I am going to do with my life, GOD steps in and shows me that my will and His will aren't always the same, and I have to trust God that he will lead me to where I am supposed to be. The author of Ecclesiastes wasn't kidding when he said in chapter 3 that there is a time for EVERYTHING!

I have also learned that I am not perfect. While this might come as a shock for some, it is something I have known but haven't really accepted before my time in grad school. I have learned that as I reflected on my journey, the events that have happened this last year, and where my life is going is that God is the only one who knows the answers and Jesus was and always be the only perfect human being. Francesca Battesttli wrote a song called Free to be me, and well I think she wrote that song about me and while perfection can be my enemy, when I trust God I am truly free to be me!

While Grad school has had its challenges, so will life and I can't wait to close this chapter of my life and open the next one..hopefully it will be called the adventures of a first year teacher!

Welcome 2010..and I am already behind....

Well it has been a few weeks since I blogged, mainly because I wanted to blog about all of my Christmas break...little did I know that a LOT of stuff was going to happen over this break, So here is a little break down:

1st: We got a CAT! To many this may not be very exciting but I have been petitioning for a cat for a long time. It finally happened..literally right before I got home my parents picked up our new cat. His name you might ask is.....RICO! Rico belonged to a family friend who was taken from this world way too early but we know is in a better place. Rico was her cat but her parents, who had rico, are allergic to cats so my parents decided that if we were going to get a cat we wanted it to be special. And special cat he is..with a lot of corks and quite the personality...I mean a lot of personality. In fact as he has gotten more comfortable with us he has made it his mission to take on the dog, which for those who don't know, is a German Shepard.

2nd: Andrew and Whitney came to visit for a pre-Christmas event. I must say that this year was much more fun when opening presents with Eden because she likes opening them and everything is a great surprise like she won a million dollars.




3rd: Robert, Amanda, Carden, and Jeneveve came for Christmas. They got here at about 1:30 in the morning and you should be proud of me..I stayed up to wait for them which is quite a feat for me, since my normal bedtime is 10:00! I had so much fun playing with Carden and Jeneveve! They tried on Great-grandpa's hat, and had more fun putting their faces in the air of the ball popper than putting the balls in the ball popper! I enjoyed listening to them babble with each other and having their twin talk time! They left the Sunday after Christmas and suddenly the house got much quieter!










4th: I committed a crime, but I wasn't the only one that did that this break..but we will get to that soon enough. So over the break I babysat for the McCoulloughs (I was their nanny one summer) and the girls wanted to go to Target. I never decline a trip to target and while we were their we looked at all sorts of Christmas things including the Christmas CD's. Well the girls had more fun pressing the different buttons and dancing in the aisles than anything. Well they kept listening to the Disney Princess CD so I thought I should get them that for Christmas, but I didn't want them to know. Great plan!!!! Well we got to the checkout and I was trying to get them on the other side of me so I could put the Cd on the conveyor belt, but the cashier decided to talk to the girls and we got all distracted and she told me the total and we paid walked out got to the car and I looked down. Guess what was in my hand...the CD...and I really had to think about whether I paid for it or not. I thought surely I did because the alarms didn't go out, but my total was a lot cheaper than I thought it was going to be so I checked my receipt...I SHOPLIFTED! I know it is bad and as I sat in the car I went through all my options and decided that I needed to go back in. So I got the girls back out of the car and went back into target..where the alarms did not go off again. With a red face I went to the customer service desk told the girl, who was surprised I came back, and paid for the CD. But it doesn't end there, I felt so bad that I put a $10 bill in the Salvation Army bucket....and I felt better. That was a first for me and hopefully it never happens again...lol..

5th: It snowed! We had a White Christmas and New Years, which was wonderfully gorgeous, but made for some interesting driving conditions and something that probably won't happen again until I am 40..scary!

6th: the prior note leads me to my last interesting thing that happened while home for Christmas break: My mom hit a mailbox.....I mean a full 360 swerve going about 5 mph and straight into a mailbox...don't worry no one was hurt everyone is fine but it made me laugh really hard because we left in a hurry....so technically it was a hit and run, which makes my mom a criminal too. But don't report us yet, after my dad got off work he went by the scene of the crime and turned us in...lol...ie gave them our number and told them to call us with the damage...Fun times!

7th: TAEYLN arrived the weekend before I came back to Searcy! She was born January 8th, weighed 7lb. 10oz and was 19 and 1/2 inches long! She is gorgeous, I haven't seen her since she was born. I was supposed to go home this weekend, but that didn't happen because it decided to be winter and snow, but I will see her in a couple of weeks!

Last but not least, I thought I would share a picture of what I have been doing during my LAST SEMESTER of GRAD SCHOOL!!!!

Well, that sums up the main points of this break so far, but I still have a few days for more adventures to occur!

Babies, Bountiful Amount Food, and BOOKS!

Okay, Thanksgiving has come and gone, and so much has happened. I got to spend the first part of my break playing with my neice and nephew and in the process we got Christmas pictures taken of them and spent a lot of time playing with their favorite NutMeg!

On Wednesday of my break we made the treak to Hooks, TX for the Venable Thanksgiving, where we (Mom, Dad, twins, and me) met Robert, Amanda, Andrew, Whitney, Mark, Renee, and of course Eden. With a full house, Whitney did a great job of making sure everyone felt right at home and cooked some awesome meals, especially Thanksgiving dinner! The table was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun getting to visit with everyone, including Robert and Amanda's dogs! By the way, I think Andrew and Whitney might need to get a dog after how much fun Eden had with them...hint hint (your welcome Eden).

Last but not least was what I spent this weekend doing....drum roll.....SCHOLASTIC WAREHOUSE SALE!!!!! For those that are not familar with this grand event....a warehouse full of books + 50 to 80 percent off = Heaven on Earth. I worked 13 hours over two days so I got $130 dollars worth of free books, plue I spent some more money but overall I think I got about 200+ books for a little over a dollar a peice!!!! I had to share my treasure, so here it is!

P.S. More to come as Christmas and the end of my SECOND semester of Grad School comes to an end! I can't believe I am down to my last semester!!! Love ya bunches!

WHERE DID THE TIME GO!!!!

It feels like yesterday that I had screamed for help to save us from that gigantic snake, yet much to my surprise it has been almost TWO Months!!! So let me fill you in on what has been happening in my life for at least the last few weeks: Ready..you might need to sit down for this.....

Read, read, write, write, read, read, write, write, read, read, read, write, write, write, write, read, read, nap, read, read, road trip to Nashville, read, read, read, write, write, write, write, read, read, read, read, write, write, road trip home for baby shower, read, read, read, write, write, write, project, read, read, read write, write, write, read, read, read write, write, worry about my life, read, read, read, write, write, cable gets turned off, read, read, write, write, homecoming, read, read, read, write, write, corn maze, read, read, almost get a kitten, read, read, write, write, write, I think you get the picture :)

But seriously I turned in my first novel this semester..I call it a novel it was really just a case study, but it ended up being.....97 PAGES!! I wish it could have been an even 100, but I couldn't find three more pages of info to put in there...

But my life is about to get a little more interesting, this past weekend I got to meet Patricia McCormick, who is a very well-known young adult author, in fact we are now best friends. I say that because I was talking with her Friday night and she said, "Megan Venable," my first reaction was, she knows my name..then I realized that I had a name tag on...but we laughed really hard, so she signed my book "to the famous Megan Venable." Hilarious! And then on Saturday, she came over to my table and ate with me and told me that our little encounter Friday night will be her favorite story from the weekend! So..now we really are best friends..it doesn't help that he daughter is named Meagan too!

Also, this Thursday and Friday is the Arkansas reading Conference in Little Rock! I will be the first to admit that I am a nerd for being so excited, but I can't wait to see all the books, the classes, and listen to the keynote speakers! Fun Times, plus I get to hang out with the lovely Caroline who resides in Little Rock with her husband!

But it doesn't end there, then I get to go home for a few days and visit with my family, before we take a road trip down to Hooks, TX for Thanksgiving with the Venables!!! I know pictures, stories, and fun times will follow!

P.S. I can't believe I almost forgot..NEW MOON opens Friday too! You know I will be seeing that!!! Well, I will upload some pictures soon!! Until then Have a safe fun holiday!

Slugs....Snakes...and a whole lot of screaming!

Never a dull moment in the life of Megan....The last few weeks have been incredibly busy and a little bit stressful but more than that my house has been full of things that start with "s"!!!

First "s" is Slugs...that is right....SLUGS!!!! Our bathroom sink has been leaking a little over the last month or so. We called our land lord and he said he fix it later, and well later came the day I opened the bathroom cabinet and what should I see but SLUGS on the shelf and door! I couldn't believe it...I didn't know what to do except laugh! I told the girls to come see and well there were screams, and "you've got to be kidding" and "what do we do..." So we poured salt over the bottom of the cabinet and the floor, and then duck taped the doors shut...that should stop them..right?

Now on to the second "s"....Snakes...well one snake in particular...we shall name him Eve...cause it could have been a girl, but when I think of snakes I think of the devil...which in turn leads to the first sin...which leads me to Eve....anyways....

Aubrey, Camille and I had gone to dinner while Jennifer stayed home and worked on homework and stuff. So as we pulled into the driveway Camille got out of the car and walked toward the back door..when all the sudden all we heard was screaming. Aubrey and I thought it was a little girl but it was Camille...screaming because of what you might ask...because of a SNAKE..squiggling and hissing at her by the back door! We all screamed and Jennifer came out of the front door and had no idea what was going on and all Camille could get out was sn..sna..snake....as she jumped on the back of the car. Aubrey decided to take on the snake with a stick...until it tried to attack her, in which bravery tuned into fear and running and screaming...so..

I decided to size this thing up and decided that I needed a shovel, so Camille went over to Carmen's house (the only neighbor we know) to ask for a shovel. Once I had shovel in hand..I planned my attack. I tried to move it a little with the shovel and it was definitely playing dead until slowly it started moving its head up a little more and then it happened...it hissed and went to strike at me....which in turn I RAN AND SCREAMED to get out of there. Then Carmen asked what we were after and we said it's a snake...a snake. In turn Carmen yelled to the other neighbors..."guys...there is a snake!" And they came running...at first really fast, then the "barbarian", so we call him slowed down and started more of a prance saying I don't like snakes. But he grabbed the shovel and took charge, got the snake on the shovel and took it to the middle of the road. Then....Killed the snake! But it doesn't end there, because he said..I think it's a baby cotton mouth...WHAT!

So he called over all the other men in the neighborhood and they gathered around comparing notes about poisonous or nonpoisonous snakes..and decided it was just a water snake....

So without further ado....here is Eve...the dead snake and the friendly neighbors:

I'm behind....I know...BUT:

Okay I know it has been a month since I blogged...but honestly it hasn't seemed like a month..WHERE does the time go!!!! The good thing is I have a good memory..so I can recap where most of my time went...

School started...BAM...that should explain everything..right...
But seriously, I thought because these classes would be a semester that I would be more relaxed...WRONG....honestly its not that bad, but I can definitely say I will not be relaxing in the back yard this semester. I like all my classes, there is just a lot of writing and reading for one brain. I think I will be writing a lot of around 250 or more pages worth of papers and reading over 1000 pages(in textbooks) not to mention the 25 chapter books...but nevertheless I will enjoy learning and reading. In fact the last few nights I haven't gone to bed until 12:30ish because I have been reading books that I can't put done!

Another exciting thing that has happened this last month is my Brother (mark) and sister-in-law (Renee) are having a BABY GIRL!!! That makes three girls and one boy(sorry Carden)! They are so excited and so am I, but the pressure is really on now...I'm behind on this whole marriage having kids thing...Oh, well I will have a class of 20 kids next year and that should suffice.

Another great thing that has happened..(lots of great things in this month) HOME BIBLE STUDY! I am so blessed to get to be involved with our Wednesday night home bible study. I enjoy the Collins, Fullertons, Paces, and City's so much. They are such an encouragement to me and to my week. I can't imagine my week without it! (Thanks D.C. for reading this by the way).

And probably the next thing that has happened this month...GLORIANA! We, being the whole house, decided that we needed a night off, so we went to a concert for Gloriana. They are touring with Taylor Swift right now, but on their nights off they do small concerts! They were really good, and I can't wait to see them again in a few weeks..that's right....we are going to a ....

TAYLOR SWIFT CONCERT!!!!! Again the whole house is going..it's kinda a birthday present to ourselves! I am so excited to go! I'll definitely be blogging about that...

Well that's a quick recap of a month...I'll try to do better about blogging more than once a month! Well until next time...hopefully soon...

Nashville ready or not here I come!

This past weekend I decided that I would go to Nashville to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew..plus one of my really good friends, Jodi, was getting married...it seemed to be a great time to go! This was going to be my very first road trip by myself for more than three hours....this was going to take me FIVE! Now for most this doesn't sound like a big feat, but for me to voluntarily get in car and drive on highways and through bigger cities..this was a big deal. I printed off two maps with complete directions, put bottled water in the back seat, an extra umbrella and blanket, and a thing of chocolate chip cookies(for Robert and Amanda but you never know). I watched the weather the week before...it looked like rain going and coming..I really almost called this trip off. But the Lord had other things in mind, it cleared up and I was ready for this trip. I planned out stops along the way, and had checkpoints so I could set small goals for the trip ahead. Well, much to my surprise, my plans worked, I got there in five hours, sun shinning and ready to play!!

When I got Robert and Amanda's house, the twins were sleeping, which gave Amanda and I some quiet time to talk and catch up! She was such a great hostess! When the twins woke up, I went up stairs with Amanda to get them...they looked so confused when they saw me behind Amanda..it was like a "where did you come from" moment. But as soon as I smiled and said..who wants their Nutmeg...they were all giggles and smiles! I loved spending time with them and Robert and Amanda! They have a beautiful house and I am blessed to have a place to stay when I am there!

Also that weekend, I got to see my Uncle Robert and Aunt Lynn, who live down the road from my brother! We visited with them for a little while and Lynn came to church with us Sunday! Speaking of church...that was different. I am glad to see Robert and Amanda making an effort to make the church apart of their lives..especially with trying to get the twins up and ready. They have such good behaving babies..yes I'm bias, but it's true! For being babies they acted more like five year olds!

The other part of my weekend was to go see Jodi and Andy get married! This summer has been the summer of weddings...but I was looking forward to this one! They are such a cute couple and are so in love...She looked stunning! I loved the dress, flowers, candles, and other decor...and Andy looked handsome too! I was so glad I got to go! I saw several of my Harding friends that have graduated and I went to dinner with my friend Claire(Nashville native)...she was my driver for the night!