mother dearest

"That best academy, a mother's knee." ~James Russell Lowell

Good gracious I should have done this on Mothers Day- but to heck. I don't need an excuse! To all you out there who know my mom, you know what I am about to say. She is perfect. I don't even know where to start. Because I don't have sisters I really appreciate this other feminine character in the Reed household. Although she is my mother she looks more like my sister, which I have heard from enough people at the grocery store, mall, costco, etc. so I know it's true! So she looks like my sister but is definitely my mom! :) I have gone through many phases of life, infancy, toddlerhood (is that a word), elementary school, middle school, high school, and now I am into college! My mom has always been there for me, from the moment I was born until right this second I have had a constant companion to help me through thick and thin and rain and snow and ice (yes this is a reference to Saturday's Warrior haha!)

She is proud of me even when I am not proud of myself. She tells me what I need to hear whether I like it or not, which is not easy at first but it shows how much she cares about me. She will do anything to help me, (which could be a lot of things- answering random questions, talk to me on the phone while I am walking to class at 8 A.M., leave dinner so I can go on a date, switch me out of classes when I have psycho teachers, give me advice when I have friend problems, the list goes on don't worry)

The truth is, a daughter like me doesn't deserve a mom like her. She is beautiful, stunning actually, and will never let her family down. I attribute every single accomplishment and every trait that I have developed to this incredible woman. I thank her for always guiding me and for teaching me the most important things in life, and for putting up with my drama (which can sometimes be an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10!)

I love you mom! You are everything a mother should be and beyond.

paradise

Here is another video worth watching, one of the best scenes from "Young Victoria" Any girl watching this will fall in love, you have to watch this movie! Its educational and very enjoyable! HAHA but seriously watch it!

my best friends wedding, i mean birthday

May 17th is my best friend Anna Hayes's birthday! Traditionally, Anna and I honor each others birthdays by gifting each other something extremely random- this year I decided to actually get Anna a present. Well I tried. I ended up getting her pokemon cards, water balloons, and a string of lights that kind of match mine. (They are for our dorm rooms in the fall- if we have cute dorms then we attract cute boys- if we attract cute boys we get cute husbands. Sold and Done.) So I made her a cake and then did my FAVORITE part of her gift. Because she is turning 20 (sorry Anna, I don't mean to divulge your age but in this case I have to) I wrote down 20 of my favorite memories with her. Some of them (most of them) are inside jokes you won't get, but go ahead and read on:

Megan and Anna's top 20 memories:

1. MTC (mutant tribe of chickens)

2. Bike riding in the flatlands

3. Lizzie answering "Regis Philbin"

4. Tomiyasu where all kids count (to 3...)

5. Miss Jackie and Bessie

6. Firefighters, Arizona Drinks, Cramps

7. Mr. Lincoln "neighbors?!"

8. Putting pirate braids in our hair

9. Newsies and Brian

10. Osama Bin Laden, Obama and yo momma

11. Finding oil and making bank

12. EFY

13. slo-mo

14. car tracks and Bishop Taylor

15. Love at Home

16. Not Schmidte! (Nicholas Nickelby)

17. Chainsaw and not getting candy... fools

18. Chalk mural and Snuggie walk

19. My first date and every high school dance [07'-08']

20. Lion King and blogging

Its not often that you have a friend for as long as I have had Anna. One incredible girl, time and time again she proves to me that she can do anything she sets her mind to. It is because of this that I follow in her footsteps with most everything she does! (It is awfully convenient that she is one year older than me!) I always have a good time with her, we have ALOT more than 20 memories saved up that is for sure! Anna had a cake already before I made one, it looked a lot better than mine! It tasted better too, haha at least mine had twenty candles on it! Now Anna is 20 and I am still 18, I always enjoy this two week period where Anna is seemingly two years older than me but SIKE.... I turn nineteen in 13 days.

Following cake we watched the movie "Young Victoria" which was really good! I highly recommend it to everyone to watch! I seriously love this movie, meaning I very seriously recommend it to you. Love you so much Anna and I hope you had a really good birthday! You are the greatest EFY counselor I know! (bah ha NOT) i mean yes.

a sister from another mister

We aren't blessed with many girls in the Howlett clan. I am the only girl in my family, my cousins Lauren, Alison, and Ruby are the only girls in their family and Tara and Gabby are the only sisters! My dad's side seems to have the same disease, one girl per family. At first this seems unfortunate, and often times I find myself wishing that I had a sister to do girl things with (because honestly, xbox gets old after about 37 seconds) But as of late, I have learned to appreciate our lack of femininity. My cousins ARE my sisters. Alison, is one of the most special girls in my life. I claim her as my little sister and she claims me as her older sister. (I don't necessarily like the term "big sister"- it sounds somewhat demeaning) Last night she earned her Young Women's medallion and her mom put together a slideshow of misc. pictures from Alison's whole life and watching it reminded me how much I care about her. I have to admit, when I saw her medallion I felt really old! They have new ones! Can't believe I'm already wearing the retired design and I graduated last year!

She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. ~Barbara Alpert

A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life. ~Isadora James.

sufjan stevens

About 3 times a year I decide to sit down and download all the songs I have written down in my "Notepad" on my phone. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised at what I find. This is my latest and greatest discovery, maybe one day when I save up $.99 cents I can buy it off iTunes. Sufjan Stevens has a unique style and he has a bunch of other good songs. NOW I know what to ask for on my birthday!

And James "Orville Wright" Reed wasn't to thrilled heading off to school this morning. He had to do a project about a famous person, you may be wondering why Orville Wright? Because, Wesley already did this project years ago- and we are trying to stick to our New Years Resolution by going green and recycling!

hakuna matata

International Student I.D. cards.

I want one of my own but unfortunately, have yet to be an International Student. Because Anna went to school in London this past semester she has a valid one in her possession for the remainder of this year, enabling her access to a wide variety of discounts and bargain deals available at many shows on the Strip.

Tonight we went to see the Lion King and got 168 dollar seats for 25.50 a piece! It was a great show! Incredible costumes and a beautiful set! I love the songs in this musical. Three things that I enjoyed the most tonight:

Anna Hayes

International Student I.D. cards

Las Vegas, Nevada

I love that I live close enough to Las Vegas where I can still go and see the shows and hang out on the strip but still live in an area that is not a busy city, and is full of people I have known my whole life. I am thankful for all of it!

P.S. the play had 43 black people in it... A.K.A. best show ever

babies?

Today while talking to a very good friend, we brought up the topic of naming babies. This is when I began to think about how important a name is.... if you are named Bonaquataejanae you automatically come with some baggage. Same goes for someone named... Bob. But the thought that most strongly came to my mind was the phenomenon of MORMON baby names. Names ranging from Abinadi to Zoram can be found all over Utah, and beyond! The most recent and common trend however, is combining one or more names. For example: Brandley (a mix of Brandon and Bradley) Taylee (a mix of Taylor and Haylee) You may not hear these names often but when you do hear them, you will know them! I am not saying these names are bad, just noting the trend! But I do want to say- some names are a bit preposterous. So, after all of this consideration I am left thinking about the baby names that I most enjoy and am even contemplating bestowing upon my seed. Now that I realize how much you can judge a person just by their name, I would rather you judge my children right now- before they are born. In order to prevent future embarrassment for me and my unborn babies, please be honest and frank about my taste. These are the names I am most considering at this point (the point at which I have no boyfriend and I am not even close to getting married, so yes thinking of names seems quite appropriate right now):

1. Maylee (yes I know this is a combo-mormon name but I like it....)

2. Crew (this name is HOTT)

3. Bella (please rid your mind of all vampire-like thoughts immediately)

lets blog

Today, May 10 2010, Anna inspired me to be a blogger!! Her, and elder sister Becky are EXPERT bloggers. I hope to be like them when I grow up! (or down if you are considering height) Anna and I spontaneously jumped into her pool today (clothes and all) without even thinking about it, and continued to experience our first summer tan together. Which, if you know anything about Anna and I, that is one of our favorite past times. Another momentous decision we made today was that we are going to go see LION KING in the strip this week... utilizing Anna's handy dandy International Student I.D. card to get a rad deal!! Looking forward to that- not only because of the great price we are getting but because I've heard great things about this show!

hakuna matata