i am happy because ...

1. i'm in north carolina and there are mountains here
2. i'm at my parent's house with them and my little brother
3. my mom made me homemade pancakes and bacon this morning
4. i got to see my grandparents, aunt, cousin and her new baby,my brother and his fiance, and my godparents and their daughter last night
5. i got to spend some time with my lifelong best friend this morning - rachel :)
6. i got to eat my favorite thing in the entire world last night - cornbread dressing and gravy!  yum!  3 helpings baby.
7. there is a homemade key lime pie in the fridge for me (one of my other favorite things)
8. i get to see my other great friend amanda today
9. i sold something on ebay
10. we got our taxes done yesterday, and thankfully we'll be getting some $ back 

yay!

so, just like my post last year i am thrilled they are back; my favorites ... 

SWEET TARTS CHICKS, DUCKS, AND BUNNIES!

my family =)

random update monday

it's been a while since i've done a list of random updates.  so ...

• i worked this weekend.  sat/sun.  usually weekends are a bit slower, but not this one.  i had some pretty sick kids (both of which had some wicked diarrhea) who kept me super busy.
• we've got a bunch of adorable babies on the floor.  3 of which are less than 5 months old.  man i love it when i get to take care of them.  i love love love babies.
• i slept in until 1030 today.  oh and it was so delightful! 
• brandon has started giving guitar lessons.  he's already got 6 students and he's doing so well.  i'm so excited he's getting to do this (something he loves) and work at the church instead of having to get a part-time job elsewhere.
• the bachelor "women tell all" is on tonight!  i know it's the farthest thing from reality, but i love it.  i am a little upset my favorite girl went home last week.  i mean common, what was that about?
• we're going home to north and south carolina this weekend, and we are so pumped!  can't wait to see our families!  if you live close enough to just see your families whenever you like, take advantage of it!  i'm hoping for some warm weather in sc :)
• i finally decided what to use my visa gift card on that brandon's dad got me for christmas.  thanks jeff!  my cool new boots came in the mail today, courtesy of amazon.  i'm so excited about them!  brandon likes to make fun of knee-high boots; he says i look like i'm going horseback riding or something.  i like them anyway :)
• we're joining a gym today when brandon gets off work.  hopefully we'll get back in the rhythm of working out.  farrah dragged me to a class at the Y last week that frankly i had no business being in.  i was probably the youngest person in the class, but i was dying!  my muscles are still sore!  ha ha.
• i'm glad i'm off today.  mondays are extra busy on the bmt floor.  lots of extra labs to draw and everyone gets stool samples taken.  fun fun :)
• hope you all have a great week!  happy monday!

so cute

is this not the cutest nursery ever?  as another wife of a guitarist, i especially love the guitar fabric.  our friends david and lauren are about to welcome levi into the world in just 2 weeks!  they've been waiting so long for him and have an amazing story to tell.  we're super excited for them!  congrats guys!

when it gets to me

i had a really rough day at work yesterday.  i think some people think that because i see kids of all ages with rare cancers and immune deficiencies fighting for their lives every day that somehow it doesn't get to me.  and although most days i can come home and relax; some days i can't.  sometimes the magnitude and hell these kids go through gets to me and breaks my heart.

she's 13.  she should be shopping at the mall and talking about boys with her friends.  instead she's confined to either a bed or a chair with a bipap oxygen mask on at all times.  without it she cannot breathe.  we keep having to increase the amt of O2 needed because she's getting worse.  she has compression fractures in her back due to the huge amounts of steroids she's gotten over the past 2 years.  she can't bend her arms, fingers, or legs.  she can't stand.  her entire body is filled with fluid that they have a hard time keeping down.  it's gotten so bad that the insides of her eye lids swell to the outside.  it takes 4 people to move her from the bed to the chair.  needless to say, she breaks my heart.  and she is so freaking sweet.

i had to sent her to the PICU yesterday.  she was getting confused and just not acting right, and her breathing was getting worse.  i told the doctors and we drew some blood gases.  her CO2 level was in the 120s.  normal is 35-45.  trouble.  as they were telling her she had to go to the ICU, she started crying and screaming.  she looked at me and said with tears running down her face; "will you please go with me?  it's scary up there!"  i assured her i would go with her, to which she replied, "can you spend the night with me and hold my hand?"  BROKE MY HEART.

sometimes i just can't leave stuff at work.  sometimes it gets to me and it hurts.  

happy valentines day

today i had the day off and brandon didn't have practice/lessons/meetings/etc.  we had the day together, and it was so nice.  it seems our schedules have conflicted a lot lately.  it was a lazy, wonderful day ...

• brandon let me sleep in until 10:30, and it was wonderful :)
• we went to target together
• i had my first independent (without b's help) sale on craigslist today!
• we went grocery shopping together
• we made dinner together - bacon-wrapped grilled mushrooms, fillet mignon, sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus, and oreo shakes for desert.  yum!
• we exchanged cards.  brandon even got one from maya :)
• we've spent a lazy evening at home relaxing.  a great valentines day indeed.

things i love about my husband

• i love how he makes me feel safe.
  
• i love that he takes me to barnes and noble after dinner dates just because i love walking around looking at books so much.  he usually buys me a book too :)
  
• i love how he watches all my reality and drama t.v. shows with me.  i know he likes the bachelor, jon and kate plus 8, and grey's anatomy.
• i love how he holds my hand in his sleep.  he won't admit it, but he does.  it's sweet :)
• i love how he loves to walk around target with me on any given night just brousing.
• i love how he can sell pretty much anything on craigslist or ebay.
• i love the fact that he had to hold back tears when we went to see marley and me.
• i love how he acts all tough and manly going to the gun range and hunting and playing sports.
• i love how excited he gets about saving money.
• i love hearing him snore at night beside me.  i like knowing he's there.
• i love how funny he is.
• i love how i'm the first girl he ever said "i love you" to.

i love being married to you brandon.

things i love about my family

• mom - she is my best friend in the entire world.  she is intuitive, caring, and compassionate.  she never says anything bad about anyone.  seriously.  she is so patient.  she has a heart for the kids she teaches (she's a special education teacher).  she's a great cook.  she loves me, my brother, and my dad more than anything and i know would do anything for us.  she's beautiful and looks about 10 years younger than she really is.  i want to be like her when i grow up.

• dad - he takes care of his family.  he works hard and sacrifices a lot.  he has true passion for seeing people come to know and grow in the Lord.  he is burdened for the people he pastors.  he loves nature and taught andrew and i the same.  he always let me park in his spot in the garage when it was cold outside so i wouldn't have to scrape my windshield before school.  he changed my oil for me.  he was always there for us growing up and never missed an important event.

• andrew - he is seriously funny.  he has a huge heart and would do absolutely anything for the people he loves.  he always talked to me about girls.  he takes me for rides on his motorcycle.  i always felt safe with him down the hall.  he wasn't ever embarrased to hug his big sister and tell her he loves her.  he still calls me and updates me on his life.  he picked a great girl that he is going to marry in august.  a real stand-up guy.

i seriously have the best family any girl could ask for.  i am so blessed.  i love you mom, dad, and andrew!

things i love about my girlfriends

• rachel - we've been friends since we were in 3rd grade.  we grew up together, lived at each other's houses, shared everything, both went to nursing school, and got married 3 weeks apart from each other.  and now that we live 6 hours apart, we still make efforts to talk frequently.  it's not a one-sided friendship, and she is one of those friends that will always be your best friend.  oh, and she is probably the funniest person i know.  seriously, she's hilarious.  oh my goodness, we have SO many good memories together and SO many good stories :)
• amanda - we met each other in college when we both began nursing school at gardner-webb.  we are pretty much complete opposites, but we hit it off right away.  we get along so well.  by chance, she ended up meeting one of my childhood friends, and a couple of years later, she married him!  they are now expecting their first child together.  she now lives in my hometown, also 6 hrs away, but we talk pretty much every week.  she's great.
• kristana - she's my cousin, so we've pretty much known each other our entire lives.  through growing up together and through many silly fights when we were younger, she will always be one of my dearest.
• kristina, ginger, cherie - i met the 3 of them when we moved here to ohio.  they are all about my age, and we just have a great time together.  it's been so nice to find friends that you connect with in your area that you can just do life together.  i pretty much hang out with them every week.

my friends may not be wildly abundant, but they are true and real and i do not take them for granted.  a girl needs her girlfriends :)

love week

i loved this idea from holly furtick, so hopefully she won't mind, but i'm going to copy it this week :)

some random things i love ...

• i love my dansko shoes.  i have four pairs - white, black, brown, and purple.  i mostly wear them to work.  as a nurse, i wanted shoes that would hold up under a lot of wear.  i also wanted shoes that would keep stuff out that may happen to fall on them (blood and other body fluids).  especially being a pediatric nurse working with little kids all day.  just being honest.  :)
• i love my new LG front-load washer and dryer.  holy cow.  i know my clothes are cleaner, we're using less water and less energy.  i don't ever want to go back to a top-load.  i also like to wash them spin my clothes around and around.
• my husband is going to laugh at me and probably roll his eyes about this one, but i love the smell of books and magazines.  old ones and new ones.  i wish they made perfume or a candle that smells like a book.  :)
• i love fresca.  hands down best soft drink ever.  period.
• i love to hold and rock babies.  when i come into work and see i have a patient under 2 i get so excited.  i just love babies in general.
• i always loved the show family matters.  i was drawing labs in a patient's room last week around 4 am, and it was on.  definitely brought a smile to my face.  
• i love cook books.  any kind, but only if they have photos.  i always spend hours looking through them.  now if only i could spend hours baking and cooking what's in them.
• i love getting my hair done.  since moving to cincinnati, i found the BEST hair stylist i've ever had.  his name is sam, and he is amazing.  i now have dark, dark brown hair that i get compliments on all the time.  he is good.  i even convinced brandon to go to him, and he agrees with me. 

great day

we had a great day at river's crossing.  we had baptisms today.  8 people - 5 women and 3 men.  they each had a short video clip before their baptism explaining how they got to this place of making the decision to be obedient to the Lord in baptism.  brandon and i both were crying through the entire thing.  it was beautiful.  it made me think of mine and brandon's baptism.  i was 7 at my home church (antioch baptist church in nc), and my dad baptized me.  for brandon it was the year before we got married on a saturday night.  just me, my mom and brother as the audience, and my dad baptized him too at the same church. 

to make it even better, 8 people accepted the Lord today!  1 for every person baptized.  i am telling you, God is doing HUGE things at river's crossing.  each sunday we end up having more people than we had the week before, and since christmas, we've had salvations every sunday.  praise God, You are truly good and obviously alive!

it was a beautiful day!  after weeks and weeks of bitter cold and crazy snow accumulation, we climbed into the 50s!  and finally we can see grass again.  well mostly mud due to all the melted snow, but still it's great.  i'm tired of snow.  brandon and i spent the day cleaning and putting stuff away.  unpacking is an ordeal!  we got our dining room completed today, and it looks awesome.  we promise to post pics and a video tour as soon as we get it all settled.  maybe another week or so.

mike and annie had us over for dinner tonight.  hands down the best meat i have ever tasted.  mike grilled deer and antelope fillet that he killed himself.  i had antelope; holy cow it was amazing!  i could cut it with my fork.  he also made homemade bread (yum!), annie made asparagus and beans, and we brought rosemary potatoes, salad, and break-apart cookies.  it was a good meal indeed!  but better than the meal was the company.  it was great hanging out with them and their 3 adorable boys.  we had a great time.

headed back to work in the morning.  i'm back on days for 3 weeks.  promises to be busy i'm sure, but as usual, rewarding.  love those kids.

hope you all have a great week!

meeting the neighbors

today a very nice couple and their adorable toddler came by and introduced themselves.  they live 2 houses down from us, and brought us some welcome-to-the-neighborhood valentine goodies.  it was so nice!  a card, a list of all the names and numbers of the people who live on our street, some candy, homemade sugar cookies w/ icing, and a beauty and the beast valentine signed by the little girl.  for a wonderful moment it was like i was down south were people are a bit more friendly :)  

i love our new neighborhood! 

change

i'm in the process of switching my website.  the new site will be www.megangilliam.com  this name wasn't available last year when i tried to get it.  so anyway, if you notice a change sometime soon, go to the new address!

snow. lots of snow.

some snow pics from last week at our old rental house ...

fast video

paul, jeff, brandon and jos made this video to end the fast and played it last week at church.  so funny; you must watch :)

(i couldn't upload it here, but go watch it on the church website here)

i'm still here

okay well first of all, i know i've been a terrible blogger for the past week or so. but if you knew our month of january, you'd understand. some updates for you, because i'm not feeling that creative :)

• the day we had planned to move last week, cincinnati recieved it's biggest snow storm in quite a while. definitely the biggest snow i've ever seen. we had around a foot in just 1 night! needless to say we couldn't move that day. or the next day.
• finally the third day, we gathered up some real friends and moved. at 5 pm. no sight of grass on the ground. they couldn't even back up the truck to the house, so the guys had to carry all of our furniture down the front path to the road. we poured some sort of sand/salt mixture to melt the snow.
• apparently you need a snow shovel up here. brandon and i were not aware of this, and as a result, we slid up and down our driveway at our new house for several days. no fun.
• there has litterally been snow on the ground every single day for the past month. it's starting to loose it's charm.
• we don't have cable or internet at our new house until this friday - hense the absence of snow/house photos. hopefully i'll get to post some soon! it really stinks missing 2 episodes of grey's, biggest loser, and the batchelor! we will be watching them all on the internet this weekend i'm sure!
• i've been working a lot lately too. i'm actually there right now. it's the only place i can check my email/blog.
• it took my usual 45 min. drive 2 1/2 hours tonight! needless to say i was late for work d/t 8 inches of snow falling in just 3 hours! the roads were terrible. even the highways. this southern girl is not used to this kind of weather that's for sure!
• the fast officially ended sunday. i can say that brandon and i haven't felt the devil's attack like we did for these past 3 weeks. between sickness, an eye infection, moving, snow, fatigue, and some other hard situations we've gone through this past month, we have found out for sure that when you try to be obedient with something like a fast the devil attacks full force. thank goodness for prayer and His sustanance.
• we've got this new store here in cincinnati called the container store. i can't wait to go. sounds like the perfect place for a type-a organizing freak. whoever that is :)
• my little brother turned 19 yesterday! happy birthday andrew; you're the best brother anyone could ask for!