Megan's Personal Yearly Goals

I have never been one to set New Year's Resolutions, because I often think they often only set us up for failure.  However, today I read a blog that has encouraged me to make a list of personal goals (of course, stealing a few from the blog for myself!)...  but let me clarify, these are GOALS, NOT RESOLUTIONS.  I hope that these goals will help me take baby steps to being the faithful follower, wife, mother, friend, person I am called to be. 

Megan's Personal Goals 

• Get healthy... Yes, the perks of losing weight have a strong bearing on this, but it was not until I started Weight Watchers that I realized just how unhealthy I was.  It is my goal now, not to lose wait, but to become a healthier person. 

• Start each day by getting dressed.  (Ephesians 6:11)
  

• Call a close friend once a week, see one at least once a month.  I have been blessed in my life with some amazing friendships and I can honestly say that I am not always the best friend in return.  I want to make sure that my friends KNOW how much I care about them.

• Record a highlight, memory, or blessing from each day..  This one is going to be a toughy for me.  I am horrible about recording important events in our life.  As I watch my babies become, well not babies, it makes me sad that I have already forgotten the who, what, when, and wheres of important events in their lives.

• Have a family dinner at home at least three nights a week.  Even with the boys as young as they are I am already seeing the busy excuses creep into our family dinner nights at home.  The convenience of dining out often wins.  I think family dinners around the home table are super important and I want to make sure I don't let our hectic schedules take that away.

•  Save energy for my boys.  There are so many nights/weekends that I come home completely exhausted from work/friends/life/house chores/etc that my boys too often get my leftovers.  I want to make sure they get a mom that they know is always there for them first, no matter how tired she is!

• Plan one way to bless, serve, or encourage my husband.  Chad is my rock and my best friend and I need to make sure that I am doing my part of being a supporting and loving wife.

• Finish my Master's.  The classes are getting harder and harder and life is getting busier and busier, but I must do this!  December 2012 APSU Graduate - MUST BE!

I know that each of these goals in attainable, I just have to keep up the motivation to make them happen.  Prayers appreciated!  :)

Family Beach Vacation

This year for our annual family beach vacation we went to Destin, Fl.  Joining us on this family vacay was my dad and stepmom KC.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of firsts for the boys.  It was Noal's first time to go to the beach:

(unless you count while he was still in my belly last year!) and it was Trace's first time to go deep sea fishing:

which he absolutely loved.  They both were very well behaved the entire trip.  Chad and I feel so fortunate that both of our boys have always been great travelers.  Traveling is something that Chad and I both love to do and so the boys have been drug along by association since birth!  Our annual beach trip is something that I look forward to every year.

This year was no exception, work had been cRaZy to say the least and a week long vacation with no made plans was just what I needed.  They boys, while good travelers, are still very young and so we spent a lot of time, doing a whole lot of nothing, in the beach house with the boys.  Let me tell you, it doesn't get much better than that... not that I don't look forward to the days where we wake up and go, go, go. but it was nice just to have some quality time to spend with the boys and with my family as well.

The deep sea fishing trip was, well let's be honest, not my favorite.  I would normally leave that kind of thing to the men, but with Trace, I wanted to tag along to help.  Trace, on the other hand, absolutely loved the deep sea fishing trip and was awesome.  He spent time outside with Daddy and helped all of us reel in our catches and then was a very big boy and played on mommy's phone for entertainment on the two, yes two, hour trip back.  So even though the deep sea fishing wasn't my thing, I am glad that I got to share in such a special memory with Trace and Daddy.

 

I did enjoy getting to spend time with my boys on the beach.  Noal was unimpressed by the beach, but did enjoy it I think.  Trace LOVED it, he still wakes up asking if we can go to the beach.  He really surprised me because I thought he would be scared of the ocean, because for as much as we are out on our boat, he can sometimes get scared of the lake.  I just knew that if the lake scared him ocassionally, the ocean would be out for good.  Boy, was I wrong.  He loved getting in the ocean and playing in the waves.  Chad even got him to go out one day past where he could touch and he just swam around in his puddle jumper like a big boy.

Another fun thing that we did was take Trace to Alligator Beach at Fudpuckers.  For those of you who have been to Destin, you know that Fudpuckers is kind of one of those necessary evils.  It's the place you go that has the okay food, for the ridiculous long wait, and even more ridiculous prices.  However, Trace LOVES "cwocadiles" so I really wanted him to go see the alligators (they all look same, right?).  Luckily, we went for lunch and didn't have to bad of a wait and so while we waited Trace got to hang out at Alligator Beach and see the alligators.

Of course we had to have some family photos taken while we there and I learned that getting good family photos could pose to be a problem for the next few years; it seemed I was the only one interested in getting them done instead of playing on the beach... SHOCKING! (-:  I do have to say for the little amount of cooperation I had, we got some pretty good photos:

Overall, it was an amazing vacation and has already left me anxiously awaiting our return next year!

Sunday Funday

On Sunday afternoon Chad and I decided to take an impromptu trip to Murray, KY.  We both graduated from Murray State University and absolutely love the town.  Even though it is only about an hour away, we don't get back there as often as we would like.  We needed to make a Lowe's run for some house improvements before Noal's big first birthday bash, so we just opted to go to Murray instead of Clarksville for a change of pace.

We were meeting some great friends of ours for dinner at August Moon and finished with the Lowe's trip a little earlier than expected so we decided to take the boys to the park to play and had a blast.  The park was INCREDIBLE.  I couldn't believe how much the had redone since I had been there last.  It was a great time and we got some great family photos out of it as well!

Noal and Daddy

Go Trace Go!

Mommy and Noal

Movin' on down

What a cutie!

Gotta love my boys!

BIGGGG Slide!

Daddy and Noal

On your mark...  Get set...

Racin' Slides

Go!

---Blessed Birthday---

I had a wonderful birthday weekend and was so blessed to spend some quality time with so many of my friends and family.

On Friday, Chad and I went to Nashville for the night.  We went out to Cabana for dinner and they had the most amazing "sweet tea chicken" and sweet tea slushy that I have ever had.  The food was so good and the it was one of the best things I have ever drank.  Joining us for dinner were some of our favorite couples, I was so glad they could make the trip down to Nashville to join us.

Soon to be Megan Mitchell Squared (My future sis-in-law!)

The hubs and I.

The ladies, plus two...  Notice Nichole and Ash's lil bumps.

 After dinner, we went downtown to the Gulch, AKA the Gooch.  We had some drinks at Cantina Laredo and my favorite park was my birthday brownie complete with sparkler.

My birthday sparkler.

 On Saturday, Chad and I went on a little shopping trip to Green Hills and ate at Carabba's.  We loove Carabba's, it is our favorite and has become our staple date night/lunch place.  Although I really enjoyed my night out, I was very anxious to get back home to my two precious boys.

On Saturday night, we were able to celebrate Travis and Megan's engagement.  We are so excited for them and the engagement party was a great way to celebrate in this exciting time in their lives with them.

Chad, Megan #1, Megan #3, and Travis

Chad and I were both tired, so we left early and took our niece Ally Jane home with us.  So Trace had his first girl in his bed... Too bad it was his cousin.  :)  They are going to kill me for those pictures when they are older, but they were just too cute not to share.

On Sunday, (my actual birthday) we took the cousins to church and it was fun getting Ally Jane all dolled up.  I love my little boys, but getting her ready and curling her hair was a fun treat for Mimi!  After church we went to Gramps and MeMaw's for lunch and then headed to the lake.  My big sis, Jodi, came down and went out with us, Dan and Abby, Trav, Trace, and our babysitter Taylor.  We all had a blast and we rocked out some wakeboarding.  It was the best I had ever done!

All in all it was an incredible birthday weekend.  I realized just how blessed I was at dinner on Friday night.  Megan had got me a Dogeared wish necklace for my birthday and as I was thinking about what to wish for I couldn't even think of a single thing I didn't already have.  So my wish was for Travis and Megan to have the happiness in marriage that Chad and I share...  and I think they are well on there way!  I am so blessed with a great husband, two amazing children, and wonderful friends...  I am one very lucky girl. 

--- Britney, Doctors, and Life ---

These past few weeks have been awful busy.  There has been so much going on in our lives that my head is spinning...  To say that I am ready for September so life will start to slow down is an understatement.  So here is a little of what has been happening in the Mitchell household lately:


1. Mommy took a much needed girl's weekend to Atlanta with Jodi and Bridget.  Jodi and Bridget are two of my sorority sisters from college and two of my dearest friends.  The concert was amazing and I still stand by the fact that I would have paid the $25 I spent on the ticket just to go people watch.  We all had a blast and I can't wait to do another girl's weekend with them very soon.




Bridget, Megan, Jodi - Before the concert.





Just some of the interesting attire we saw that night.





BRITNEY


2. Noal went to see a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.  He has been wheezing since Christmas and Dr. Roads, our pediatrician, finally decided it was time to examine what was causing it a little further.  The doctors at Vanderbilt was amazing and even though it was scary to take your baby in under those circumstances, seeing the other kids there made me realize just how lucky we are to have two healthy boys.  Turns out Noal just has some loose cartilage above his vocal chords that rattle when he breathes, making it sound like he is wheezing.  It should clear up by the time he is two.  We were so fortunate that it turned out to be something so simple.
3. I have been having some severe chest pain for about two weeks, to the point that I can't eat because it hurts so bad.  Good for the waistline, but not good for my energy!  I went to see a gasteroenterologist to see what was going on and unfortunately had to have an EGD scope done.  To have the scope you have to be put under so I had to get an IV and I was scared to death.  I hate needles and through both pregnancies I had some pretty bad experiences with my IV's.  Luckily my nurse was awesome and basically I told her that was the best hour of sleep I have had in 4 years, prior to pregnancies and kiddos!  Turns out things are okay with me too!  I had some ulcers in my esophagus that are causing the pain, but they are curable with antibiotics.  Our family has been very blessed lately!

That catches up to speed on the Mitchell family madness for now.  In other family news, Chad's brother Travis recently got engaged to Megan Cleghern.  I am so happy for the two of them and I am really looking forward to having Megan as a sis-in-law.  Cheers to the Megan C. Mitchell's squared!!!

--- Roby Reunion ---

We spent this past weekend at Paris Landing State Park for the Roby Reunion.  The Roby family is Chad's mother's side of his family.  It was a wonderful time spent with family and outside in the sunshine.  The weather for the weekend couldn't have been more perfect.  It was warm and sunny, but managed to not be too hot.  For me, that is a huge plus because I am not a fan of the Tennessee heat and humidity!

Family Pic - July 2011 - Paris Landing State Park

On Friday, Chad played golf with the guys.  The boys and I arrived that afternoon and went out on the boat to do a little wakeboarding and swimming.  Then we headed down to the beach pavilion for a little BBQ.  We wrapped up the night by playing games in the family room and watching funny YouTube videos in bed.  (If you haven't heard of Epic Rap Battles of History, YouTube it!)

Ally Jane, Uncle Sam, and Trace - July 2011 - Kentucky Lake

Saturday morning we all slept in, even the boys!  That was a nice treat for Mommy and Daddy.  After everyone was up we headed back on the lake and stayed out all day.  Yaya and other family members were nice enough to watch Noal, so we could really enjoy the day on the lake.  Dan and Abby even came down from Danville to join us for a little while.  We spent the day wakeboarding, tubing, and just hanging out on the lake.  My perfect day.

Mommy and Trace - July 2011 - Kentucky Lake

Saturday night we ate at the Paris Landing Inn Restaurant and it was the prime rib buffet.  It was delicious as usual.  We then spent some time sitting around outside letting the kiddos play and just talking and catching up with family.  It was a beautiful night and we all had a really good time.



Daddy and Trace

Baby Noal

Mommy and Daddy

We had a wonderful time, as we always do, at the Roby Reunion.  Next year we are trying something new and not going to Paris Landing, but I am sure whatever we decide to do will be fun.  I just love spending quality time with family!