I'm Engaged!!

Ed and I got engaged Friday before our trip to Chicago! I had no idea because he kept saying he hadn't talked to my dad yet. Well, he lied. HA So Friday we met at my house at 4pm to go to the airport. When I got out of the car, I heard a low, deep voice say, "Ma'am, I'm with homeland security and I have someone who needs to speak with you. Please come with me." I turned around and there was a huge security guard with a black suit, bald head and black sun glasses and he motioned me toward the white stretch HUMMER in the street in front of my house....I was freaked out. Then he opened the door and Ed was on his knee with the ring!!! It was georgous!!! I was totally in my Arkansas t-shirt from work. Not looking good. But it was super special because he caught me off guard and I had no idea!!!!! So we rode to the airport in the limo and had celebration drinks at Tootsies before our flight!



Our trip to Chicago was a blast! The hotel was AWESOME and overlooked the shops on Michigan Avenue and the water! Saturday we shopped, took a segway tour (most fun, EVER!) and then had dinner at MK. They had printed special menus that said congratulations on your engagement. We had a wonderful dinner and then they brought us dessert with congratulations written in chocolate and champagne! Then we went out and met up with some friends for drinks! The next day we went on a shopping spree to try to find my wedding shoes but no one had my size!

Overall, BEST WEEKEND EVER!!! :) Everything about it was perfect and just confirmed I'm the luckiest woman alive!!

National College Apparel Day

Every year to kick off football season our office lets us wear college apparel. As usual, I woke up this morning and slipped into my Kentucky Wildcats t-shirt...GO CATS!! But much to my surprise, I walked into my office and found an Arkansas Razorbacks t-shirt hanging over my desk chair. I just knew "the girls" were up to this and wanted to break me in for my upcoming move to "the Natural State", but then they came out of their offices and they were wearing them, too!!! Almost everyone in my dept had Arkansas shirts on and they said, "If Megan is moving to Arkansas then we are team Arkansas"! How precious! I almost cried!! It's been such a fun day "pretending" we are all Razorback fans and snorting around the office. Soui!

*Disclaimer: No one in my office is ACTUALLY a Razorback fan and I appreciate them sacrificing their team pride to make me feel special (plus it cut down on the massive amounts of tacky orange)!

New Adventure in Arkansas

Hi friends! I'm sorry I haven't written in a while but life is upside down! I just finished my CPA exam (please keep your fingers crossed that I'm done!), got a new job with my same company that is moving me to Arkansas in October and I have to sell my house, find a new house, etc. I am really excited about the opportunity (my first day there is Oct 18th). I will be the controller of a 3 hospital market and am looking forward to the challenge!! I went to Arkansas two weekends ago to interview. There is one exit that is sort of like a city with restaurants, shopping, etc. They have Abuelos (upscale mexican)so we'll be going there when you visit! I'm pretty sure I'll live off that exit and never leave that exit because the further I drove away from that, the less oxygen I was getting in my lungs HA. I found a few nice condo places that looked "Nashville-ish" but then there would be a cow field next to it. Oh brother! The people are SUPER nice there, but some have those weird ponytail braids down to their butts. We're gonna have to do something about that! I visited a church which was super cool and the music was great....but it was no Cross Point. I'll miss that ALOT. Please pray for me as I go through this transition. I'll have one weekend to go out and nail down my living situation, etc. and I'm going to be really busy as soon as I get there! I would love to get together with you before I leave so please call me and let's grab dinner/coffee!!!

Issues

Clearly I'm having blog issues. I guess my blog decided to look like my life. Dark. Drab. Tired. For real. All I do lately is work and study so maybe my blog is tired, too. Hopefully I can get this problem resolved but it won't be until after my test, Saturday. Then I get my life back. Hallelujah! More to come....and hopefully a new blog background....anyone who loves to create beautiful blogs, feel free to comment right now with your contact info.

Less than $1.25 a day will buy you.......

....the joy in knowing you TOUCHED a young child's life. I am blessed to be the sponsor of Sergio David Rodas in Honduras. He is 11 years old and is precious! His birthday was in March so I sent extra money that month so they could buy him something as a gift. I will admit, I was a little skeptical that the money wouldn't reach him in the way of a wrapped toy with a bow but I had hope. It wasn't until yesterday when I received this letter that I realized that hope is all it takes to change the world! Here is the translation from Spanish:

Hello my dear sponsor, Megan Walker. How are you? I hope to God that you are well. I am really happy and grateful to God and to you for blessing my life. It made me really happy to receive the football, the 2 t-shirts and socks. Thank you. May God bless your life more and more. I always play with my little brother Cesar. I thank God for allowing me to be part of the student center. I ask that you pray for me and my family always. Receive many kisses and hugs from my part. I bid you farewell with much love and affection. I also send you a photo of me receiving the gift at the project. God bless you. -Sergio



Um, can you say PRECIOUS?!!?

Hogs, Bonkers and Big City Lights

One of my dear friends, Ashley, just started a guest series on her blog called "A Childhood Summer". I was lucky enough to make the first guest appearance!! You can read all about my childhood of hogs, bonkers and big city lights here! Keep checking back on her blog to catch many more hot Summer stories from many of our closest friends. Hope your Summer is off to a great start!! Here is a sneak peak of my favorite childhood memory:

Yard Sale brings in almost $500!!

Last Saturday, I had a yard sale to raise money for flood victims, specifically a dear friend's mother who lost pretty much everything! With the help of many friends and shoppers, we raised almost $500!! In addition, Ed agreed to match the proceeds by giving to Cross Point's Flood Relief Fund! I can't believe that the "things" that were worth nothing to us, could bring $1,000 in relief to families in need. God is good!

A special thanks to Cross Point small group members, many friends, and specifically Ashley and Ed for helping make this such a success! I couldn't have done it without your donations, time and effort!

Yard Sale for Flood Victims

This Saturday I'm participating in my neighborhood yard sale from 7 am-2 pm and I'm giving all proceeds to Nashville flood victims! If you have stuff you were going to give to Goodwill or that you are no longer using, please contact me and I will arrange to pick it up! Also if you want to come buy things, leave a comment and I'll email you the details! There were so many who lost EVERYTHING in the flood so the least we can do is sell the things we don't want so they can buy things they NEED!

The Flood

This weekend Nashville had one of the biggest floods in its history! The remarkable 13+ inches takes the record for the most rainfall in decades. Many lives (and cars) were turned upside down in less than 24 hours. Houses were flooded, businesses ruined and many were stranded for days. PLEASE pray for those affected by this flood who lost homes, family members, cars, jobs, etc. It will take MANY months to rebuild what was destroyed. Nashville also lost many landmarks and historic places that will never be the same: Opryland Hotel, Grand Ole Opry, downtown Nashville, etc. just to name a few. Here are a few pictures of the devastation: This last pic is from I-24 about 4 miles from my house. That building is floating down the interstate with the vehicles! Insane!

Out of Touch with Reality

One of the biggest problems outsiders claim to have with the Christian faith is that we are judgmental and out of touch with reality. I would agree. There are many Christ followers who preach at others in an attempt to "scare" them into faith when in reality they scare them away. Others send a vibe of arrogance and superiority which sends people running in the other direction. Sometimes, we become judgmental of others and we don't even realize we are doing it.

Those of you who know me, know that I don't watch much TV at all, I only listen to Way-FM radio, and I can barely put an actor's face with a name. I'm just REALLY out of touch with reality. Period. I never thought that had anything to do with me being above it, just the fact that I don't have TIME to watch TV (due to studying for the CPA exam), it doesn't really interest me (because I can't sit still for very long), and I don't have any more brain cells left (again, studying for the CPA exam) to remember names of people who don't really matter to my life. Hear that? MY life. My self-focused life.

I just read a blog post by Jonathan Acuff titled "Bragging about being clueless about pop culture" that REALLY put me in my place....and made me laugh hysterically. I am SO guilty of bragging about being clueless about pop culture, although usually followed by embarrassment when I don't know things like Tom Cruise = Jerry McGuire (yea, that was bad). I just never thought others might see that as me claiming to be in this world but not "of" it or being better than them.

After reading this post, I've realized that even though I might not say the things he mentions in his blog post, I may be thinking them. This comes back to a heart issue. Trust me, I'm not saying I have a problem with a little Family Guy, etc. After all, I have seen every episode of Sex and the City on DVD. I'm just realizing that sometimes I am guilty of giving Christians these horrible perceptions and I don't even realize it!

So, to all you TV buffs, keep doing what you do. And when I brag about being clueless about pop culture, just know that I am not judging you for how you spend your time, I'm really just embarrassed that I can't even contribute to the conversation or that I'm so busy studying for this exam that I keep failing to watch with you! :)

Please check out Jon Acuff's blog for more posts about Stuff Christians Like. To read another one of my favorites, Click here!