Unconvential MeTruths

 This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!


Or aptly named: Weird Things About Me.

Where should I begin? There's a lot of weird things about me. Not like, booger-picker weird. Actually, that's just gross. But you get it. Things that make you go "Huh, I wouldn't have guessed that about Meaghan". Ya know, those kinds of things.

1. I'm very happy with life right now, but I always identify with sad songs. So if I post sad, depressing lost-love lyrics, it's not how I really feel. I just love those kinds of songs.

2. Speaking of songs, I picked out a few years ago what song I wanted to be walked down the aisle to. It's called Life in Technicolor and it's by Coldplay. Listen:



But then the band came out with a continuation of 'Life In Technicolor' called ' Life In Technicolor II'. I was in love.



Except... I then started to listen to the lyrics. I guess a song that alludes to some sort of nuclear warfare and the end of the world isn't wedding appropriate. Poops.

3. I like almost all vegetables, except for onions. I hate onions. As for the rest of the veggie group, I either like it or haven't tried it.

4. I used to be really slap-happy about brand names, but now I don't care. This is mostly when it comes to food and other grocery store sundries. I'm not paying over $2 for a box of pasta. No way. Sorry Barilla. Hellooooo Kroger Dollar brand. Toilet paper? Angel Soft had been on sale for $1 for months and months and then this summer -- BOOM. $1.28. No thanks. 1-ply 88 cent TP? Please and thank you.

5. I have more lip gloss than any other person I know. I find tubes and sticks in purses, jeans, etc all the time. It's like Christmas morning when I find a long lost trusty gloss.

6. I love day planners. I had one that I kept up very regularly and it's almost all filled up. It had a leather dust cover and you could replace the pages inside. But will I? No. I think I'll make a new planner. Maybe.

7. I can't do my makeup to save my life. Dark colors make me look vampy. Pearl colors and sparkles make me look 17. Natural colors are wayyy to natural. What do I do? I guess Jarred needs to start make a lot more money so I can have my very own live-in makeup artist.


On another note, the wedding is only 16 days away! The ticker at the top of the blog is off by one day. For whatever reason. Sadly, it is one day short.

My Sweetheart

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Kudos to our wonderful photographer Joe!

Vacation Pictures

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

See? I told you I'd put some pictures up.

These are photos from Mom's camera, but there aren't that many. Here's a sampling!

Smoking cigars - a favorite past time. Except Papaw. He just liked sitting out with them.


Uncle firing up the grill for hamburgers and hot dogs!


K and Papaw :)

Aunt gave me a crown and light up diamond ring to wear for the shower. Jarred found it hysterical!


Showing off the crown and ring. The crown kept popping off my head - it was a little small!


What an appropriate cake!

The Best Gift

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

I didn't realize it back in December, but I think Jarred gave me the best birthday present I could ask for. No, not the engagement ring. Well... I guess that would be considered the best. But on a different level.

Ahem.

Anyway.

Jarred got me a gift card to my favorite spa in town. The gift baggie came with a brochure of all their services. I went straight for the 'manicure' page. One of my favorite things to do is get a pedicure, but I wanted to try a manicure. More specifically, I wanted to get artificial nails.

Point blank - I've always had super ugly nails. I've always been so embarrassed by them. I know so many women say that, but seriously, my nails were UGLY! I never knew exactly what was wrong with them and all the researching online did me no good. I couldn't find anything.

My problem? My nails were very curved and grew downward. The worst part was the deep horizontal ridges that would grow on my nail bed. I can't even search Google images for a good picture because nothing comes up as severe as my nails looked. I don't have any pictures myself because I was embarrassed. I never let my nails be photographed.

Anyway, I decided to get acrylics put on. I went to the salon by myself and had my favorite beautician apply the nails. I told her about my problem and she was very kind and didn't make me feel awkward. I had the nails painted a light pink color that I loved.

The nails only lasted 2 weeks, but I loved it. I loved having smooth, normal nails. They were pretty! My engagement ring looked even better with pretty painted nails.

I also had a pretty bad problem with picking at my cuticles. Sometimes I would even pick so hard they would bleed. The skin up to my first knuckle was always raw and red and bleeding from my picking habit. I couldn't stop and I didn't notice I was doing it half the time! With the artificial nails, my beautician had scrubbed my cuticles and softened them up, so there was nothing to pick at. The redness started to go down around my knuckles.

It took awhile to get all the glue off my nail bed after I took off the artificial nails. I think in those 2 short weeks, I had totally rid myself of my cuticle picking problem. My beautician had recommended a protein base coat to keep on my nails to help keep them healthy. I have religiously applied it.

I have noticed that the ugly ridges in my nails have begun to disappear. I really think that my constant picking was 'traumatizing' my nail bed and that's why I had those deep ridges. The last remnants of the ridges are there when I take off the protein base coat, but it's nothing like it used to be.

I decided to paint my nails tonight. This is the first time EVER that I have kept polish on my fingernails. I tried to paint my nails when I had the deep ridges, but I always thought it exaggerated the problem. So as quickly as I applied the polish, I would take it right off.

Jarred tells me he likes it when I wear pretty polish on my nails. Of course, he's never seen any on my before. We went out to the bookstore, out to eat, and to the mall tonight and I had my polish on and wasn't embarrassed!

So thank you Jarred! In a roundabout way, you gave me the best gift! It may seem a bit superficial, but to me, it's a huge feat to be able to wear polish on my wedding day.

Look Mom and Dad! No ridges!

J's Co-Worker Made Us Realize We're Getting Married!

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

As much as I have talked about the wedding on this blog and in real life, it hasn't felt real. I had yet to have a moment of "Oh my gosh! I'm getting married!" before today. I didn't feel it when I saw myself in the mirror with my dress and veil on. I didn't feel it when I went to the baker's to order my cake. I didn't feel it when Jarred booked the honeymoon.

But I finally had a moment today. And it came in a really unsuspecting place.

Jarred and I went to a retirement party tonight for 3 people that Jarred works with and people who I got to know when I temped at the same office over a year ago. It was nice seeing these people again after so long. They are all so nice and many congratulated us on our impending wedding.

But I finally had 'that moment' as we went to say goodbye to one of the retirees, who was also my boss when I temped. She congratulated us again and then, strangely, began crying. She said she knows we are going to have a very long, happy life together and she wishes us all the best because we are both wonderful people who found each other.

I tried really hard not to cry and Jarred can deny all he wants, but I know it choked him up as well.

I finally had my moment of "Wow! We're getting married!" and I'd like to thank the wonderful Mrs. B for giving it to me. Jarred and I get congratulations a lot, but we have yet to receive comments about how we're going to have a long happy life together and it's just beginning. I looked at Mrs. B with her husband and thought about what her wedding might have been like, many years ago. Now, she's on the verge of retirement where she and her husband get to spend however many of their last years together. They've been through a wedding, babies, children growing up and leaving home, and now, retirement. Crazy crazy to think Jarred and I will be there someday. And probably quicker than we would like.

We're getting married!

Happy Easter!

This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!

Happy Easter from M and J Hooray!

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies'." -John 11:25


Our church volunteers at Relay for Life. Beginning last year when my mom's best friend was diagnosed with breast cancer, all the ladies of the church wore hats to church on Easter to raise money for our Relay for Life team. Since Granddaddy passed away last year during Easter, we weren't able to participate. This year Mom, Kat, and I got some fancy hats and wore them to church.

Remember that Jesus is also the reason for this season!

Open Letter Concerning Why I Left

 This post was first featured on my now defunct blog, M&J Hooray!


I figured I'd write an open letter about why I left my job yesterday. I know it was completely out of the blue (well, not for me) but there was a lot of thought put into it.

Frankly, I had been unhappy at my job since around October, but thought it would be better to tough it out through the holidays because I would be making some good money. I didn't want to put Jarred in a position of having to support me (This is before we were engaged).

Christmas was very hectic for me. I had holiday activities that I really wanted to do with my family, but couldn't because I had to go into work everyday, just getting one day off each week. Now remember, this was a part-time job for me. I shouldn't have had to go into work that often.

I think from one stand-point, Christmas really did it for me. I know my boss was under a lot of stress, but I'd even say to her face that she should have learned how to manage her frustration better. There were a few episodes where she would blow up at an employee for something piddly. I got the worst 'tongue-lashing' of my life during the holidays because I forgot to fill in each employees time cards one week. My own parents have never yelled at me like she did that time!

I don't want to say anything bad about anyone I worked with because I liked them all. Yes, I did like my boss. But, as I told her yesterday, it's very difficult to work for someone who likes to micromanage everything. In the fast-paced world of retail, you can't micromanage, and if you try to, you'll eventually fall behind.

I'm sure that every employee would agree with me that Mondays suck for working. Our boss was very huffy and frustrated most Mondays. Everything you do is wrong, or you're not doing it fast enough, or you're not taking enough care when you do it. Again, micromanaging.

This past Monday was really no different, but my boss's frustration with whatever was evident from the moment I said hello to her. I got scolded about something as I was putting my coat away before heading out to the sales floor. I got scolded again right after I clocked in. The assistant manager and I were given our tasks. I didn't fully understand what I was supposed to do. Boss's frustration mounted substantially. I entered some inventory into the computer given to me on a sheet of paper. I printed off my finished inventory log from the computer. I put it away. Thirty minutes later, I began counting out a deposit and was asked if I had finished my inventory assignment. I said yes. Boss went digging, found the inventory sheets and dropped her head, chuckled, and let out a yell. There were customers in the store. She yelled for me to close the cash drawer and to please, for the love of God, finish what I start. I apparently had not manually written down the inventory as well as entering it into the computer. This was a new procedure to me. Boss didn't want to hear it.

And that's when I got really angry.

Monday wasn't the first time that same scenario has been played out. Not at all.

I just think my feelings about the store came to a head Monday. I was sick of it. There's nothing else to say besides for I WAS JUST PLAIN SICK OF ALL THE BULL!

I came home, cried to Jarred about how unhappy I was. That my 'misery' was affecting every other aspect of my life. I would come home from work and yell at Jarred about stupid things because I was physically and emotionally drained.

I got Jarred's permission to quit. I didn't know whether I actually would because I had tried to quit back in December and had pussed out at the last second because I was scared of my boss's response.

That next day, I was sick to my stomach. Mom came over to see Lukie (who got groomed!) and I talked to her about it. I had to go into work at 6 that night and was not looking forward to it. I had 60% made up my mind that I was going to march in there and quit on the spot.

Mom told me to go ahead and get it over with.

I decided not to let emotions get in the way. But I was still a nervous wreck. I don't remember being that nervous in a long time. I walked into the store around 4 in the afternoon. I asked Boss whether I could talk to her. She and I walked to the back. I handed her my keys and apron and told her that I just came in to resign. That I couldn't work in the store any longer. She asked why. I said that I was very unhappy working there and had been for 3 or 4 months.
I was under stress. I had other things that needed my attention far more than this (what should have been) little part-time job. Boss gave me a hug and said she understood, but was sad to see me go. I told her that I had enjoyed working here for the most part, but that there were more negatives than positives at this point in time.

I signed my AIF form and left.

I felt like I had made the wrong decision as soon as I left the store.

I called Mom. She told me I made the right decision.

I cried a bit.

I walked around the mall a little, bought a little purse to take with me on the honeymoon, and went out to the car to call Jarred and Dad.


Today I feel great. I know I made the right decision. I'm sorry that my leaving so abruptly affected other employees' schedules. But I had to do this for me, and I won't apologize for looking out for myself and my happiness/sanity.

I will work again. Just not retail, if I can help it.

But for now I am taking a break.

I would have left the store (on better terms) around May. The family is going on vacation during the summer, and we have wedding planning to do, and an actual wedding to go through. I wouldn't have had time to come into work. After coming back from a honeymoon, I'd like to see whether I could find a little job somewhere that would give me a few hours a week. That'd be great.

But for now, I am going to enjoy just being a student, doggie mommy, and house-fiancee. Haha.

P.S: It doesn't matter who reads this. Everything that was said in this post was discussed at my meeting with Boss.