Happy-ish Trails

Greg recently treated me to a Ski trip to the Snowbird Resort in Salt Lake City, Utah. The leadership programs that he puts on in the summer are also held at Snowbird, and he's often said he wished that I could see it...and last weekend I got to! The mountains were breathtaking & covered in more snow than you can even imagine. The resort was also amazing, especially our room with it's nearly panoramic view of the ski slopes.

The first day we spent in Downtown Salt Lake City where we toured Temple Square, the Headquarters for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints which was simply enormous. The buildings, many of which were built in the mid 1800s were huge and nothing short of ornate. I'll post photos later...in the meantime you can visit the website.

The next day we got up "early" (it was vacation. let's be serious.) and set out to go skiing. We were all gussied up in our ski clothes & ready to hit the slopes. I rented skis and Greg rented a snow board. The combination of faulty suspenders & poor quality ski pants resulted in Greg trading the snowboard in for skis too. For the record I was very impressed with his snowboarding skills. Early that day Greg & I discussed whether or not I should take ski lessons and we decided against it since I'd skiid before (10 years ago). Although I remembered the basics, what I couldn't have predicted was that in the last decade I would have become such a major fraidy cat...and I am. As soon as I got my skis on and Greg let go I cried. Right inside my goggles. Embarrassing. I didn't give though! We skied a family slope for a while & I managed to get comfortable again. We decided it was time to move on to another family (easy) slope. Big mistake.

That slope wasn't QUIIIIIIIITE as easy as I'd hoped and the long & short of it is that after skiing what I considered to be too fast on too steep of a slope for WAY too long & falling down 1 too many times, I wanted to stop. And I cried again. Poor Greg. I was sitting on the side of a mountain telling him I wasn't having fun anymore & I wanted off this mountain NOW! What was he going to do? He gave me 3 options...either ski down (my least favorite), walk down (this also seemed dangerous) or scoot down the mountain on my bum. The OBVIOUS choice was to take off my skis, put them in my lap & scoot down the side of the mountain while poor, well meaning Greg stood watch to make sure I wasn't run over by ACTUAL skiers. When we reached a more level point a less than amused snowboard instructor pointed us in the direction of a foot path where we could walk back to the lodge where I promptly returned my skis, boots & poles, & went back about some more authentic Megan activities - drinking a bud light & listening to the live band.

Despite the fact that I freaked out & pitched a total fit we had a GREAT time! Later that same day we got in the hot tub and watched some other people ski. That's more my speed - although I promised to go skiing again next year. Greg has always done a good job making me feel special on my birthday (& most days actually), but this was the birthday trip of a lifetime! I know I brag on him a lot but that Mister of mine is GOOD!

The Latest & Greatest

Obviously it's been a while since I posted (St. Patty's was almost a month ago!) & I don't want to get too far behind, so here's the latest...

Zeta Tau Alpha International Office

We've been traveling a ton! We spent a super fun weekend in Indy with some of our favorite Sigma Chis & their partners a couple of weeks ago. One of the leadership program boards that Greg is on was meeting that weekend and we were invited by the Pendry & Hester families to make a weekend of it. Even Lilah got to go! Our hosts were fantastic - The Pendrys set me up with a tour of Zeta Tau Alpha International Office while the boys were meeting, which was a thrill & we dined at a great local Italian restaurant & had a great time together. I've always said that if I hadn't fallen in love with a Sigma Chi I would be jealous of the girls who had & weekends like that one make me feel so lucky to be part of the Sigma Chi family.

Looking through the WWII Monument

Last weekend we traveled to Washington, D.C. where Greg participated in the DC Fire Department's Burn Foundation Charity Hockey Tournament. Greg's participated for the last 3 years & I had never been able to attend before. This was the year! Greg played on the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department team with his child hood friend Jimmy Butler and some other great friends from back home.  Greg's Mom came down from Pennsylvania with the Butlers and all together we had a blast. Happily,  one of my best friends Allie also lives in "The District" with her boyfriend, Mik (whom I'd never met before) so we got to spend some time with them visiting the monuments & taking in the sights of DC. It happened to be the Cherry Blossom Festival that weekend which was a beautiful bonus.

DC Cherry Blossoms

I'm nearing the end of my 1st year of Graduate school - phew! I'm exhausted but energized by the approach of Summer break. I've got all kinds of wedding planning/shopping, sight seeing, block partying and festival going to do this summer. I'm even thinking of starting a little vegetable garden in the back yard - what Chicagoland vegetarian/Veganista doesn't want a self-made salad bar in her back yard?

Hyattsville FD 

The next few weeks are for surely going to be full of excitement with a trip to Salt Lake City Utah for my birthday trip, my 26th (gulp) birthday & the start of "visit Megan & Greg in Chicago" season! It all kicks off with the arrival of our second puppy girl, Sadie who joins our family this upcoming Monday. Obviously an embarrassing number of photos will be posted in the coming weeks. Don't worry.

Ok - enough of the gushy summary. The next post will be more current & less informational . As always, it feels good to feel lucky - Meggo


PS - Mik passed with flying colors. We just love him.

Irish-Vegan

Greg took his first turn at Vegan cooking last week for our St. Patty's luncheon at work. He made a delicious Vegan Shepherd's Pie & it got RAVE reviews from everyone at the office! My compliments to the chef.

Greg's Irish-Vegan Accomplishment

Recipe c/o ChooseVeg.com

ChIrish Challenge 2011

Chicago River - St. Patty's Parade Day 2011

On the Saturday before each St. Patrick's Day the City of Chicago hosts perhaps the best party in the history of parties. Yesterday was that day for 2011 & it didn't disappoint! We didn't make the river dying (at 10 AM) or the Parade, but we did manage to turn the big day into a scavenger hunt. We had some green beers, stole some shamrocks, ate french fry sandwiches, had a dance party, & even found a little "gold". If you've read any of my facebook statuses or talked to me in the last three years you know already how grateful I feel for the privilege of this life and all of the people in it, and yesterday was another in a series of great days spent with amazing friends & family. Too blessed to be stressed! 

365 Days To Go...

Today is March 10, 2011 and this time next year I imagine I'll be sitting in a sunshiny room with a bunch of women I love, drinking a mimosa, listening to my favorite music getting fancied up for my wedding day. Greg will be somewhere with the men he loves laughing & hugging & getting pats on the back for his big day. Later that day I'll get to marry the most handsome, brilliant, patient & kind person I know in front of the people that he and I both care about the most. When I get all caught up in the business of wedding planning all I have to do is go to that place, just 1 short year away, be there with the people I love & imagine marrying my best friend & suddenly I feel completely relaxed.

I'm so excited to celebrate for the next 365 days & I'm even more excited to know that this time next year I will be surrounded by the kindest, most loving and supportive people that ever lived. I am so lucky to call all of those people family, and even luckier that I'll be able to call one of them Husband.

Crafty Lady

Ever striving to be thrifty, I've been meal planning and grocery-list-making for the last two years or so, and a few months ago I was on the hunt for a weekly meal planner sheet when I stumbled across The Project Girl and TONS of organizational, crafty templates that I immediately downloaded. I'm using them at home, at work & even some in school. Today while browsing for a PIY (Print-It-Yourself) Birthday Card I stumbled across several other blogs and websites with templates, downloads and tutorials. I know it's not very "Renaissance Woman" of me to be so giddy about crafting and organizing, but I just can't help myself.

Here are a few of my favorites. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Craftily,
Meggo

Stay tuned for a Latchford-Morgan Wedding appearance for this one...

Tuxedo T-Shirt Template

Je T'aime Coffee Sleeve

I wish I had found these less-mushy valentines in time to use them this year

Ready To Shop...Sort Of

It typically takes very little to motivate me to shop, mostly online but sometimes in the store. Typically I just like to browse, and when I do actually shop in person I am notorious for picking up items of interest along the way, carrying them around the store & then thinking better of it & putting them back (read: on the closest shelf). Lately I've been doing a lot of Wedding browsing, but not for what you'd think. You'd think when the celebrated "Wedding Planning" phase comes around that you'd be buying Bridal things left and right, but the things that I'm most excited & anxious to buy are the things for other people. For example, I've already got my mind made up on what seems like 100 things I want to give my bridesmaids. There's an equally long list of gifts I want to give to Greg. The way I "carry around" these things is by printing off ideas & putting them in a file on my desk so I won't forget when its time to buy. I'm always afraid I'm going to forget. I seriously don't know how I'm going to keep this stuff secret for a year, but I can tell you if you're in my wedding party, don't look at any folders on my desk marked "Wedding".