Called to Serve...

Michael has been called to serve in the Uruguay, Montevideo West Mission and will head to the MTC in Argentina October 7. Congrats Michael!! Uruguay is one lucky place...you definitely are going to be missed! But I'm so proud of you!

My life...

So I am waiting for the Family to call me for the call opening and thought I would give a little update on my Chicago life...It has been really hot the last few days with the humidity making my hair crazy and the zits come out but I am loving it here. Today is a lot cooler and I actually am sitting out on the balcony because it is so nice today it rained a few hours ago so now it is just cool with not so much humidity as there has been. I'm still the group cook and am enjoying that....
The view from here....Great for lightening watching (still one of my favorite things about this place)....

The place I call my home....(temporarily)

A recent creation...

BIG WEEK....

It is an exciting week at the Barton Home. I am sad I'm missing it...



It started on Saturday when our Carl aged a year. I love her so much and am so glad she is my sister. She has turned into such a beautiful teenager....she has such a big heart and is such an awesome example to me. She is such a Christ-like person and look up to her so much...



Then today was the next day of celebration..today is Heather's Golden Birthday! Happy 25 on the 25th! I am so blessed to have her as an older sister and for the path she made for me to follow growing up. We have had our ups and downs but I love her oh so much! She is such a strong person and I hope one day I can become just like her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRLS! HOPE THEY WERE THE BEST ONES YET....

AND last but not least.....

My "little" brother, Michael, has made the decision to serve a mission. I can't believe I'm old enough to say this but we are patiently awaiting a mission call to come tomorrow. I feel like just yesterday we were waiting for Ryan's and now here we are Ryan has been home a year and Michael is leaving. It has been fun to watch Michael through his High School years growing up and becoming the young man he is. It will be hard to not be there for the call opening tomorrow but am glad that we have phones. I'm so proud of him and the choice he has made to serve the Lord for two years....Thanks for the brother and example you are to me Michael.....I can't wait to hear who will be blessed to have you serving them for two years!


Being away from home and watching my family from the sidelines instead of being in on the action has made me realize how much my family really does mean to me and how much I couldn't live without them. I'm so blessed to have such amazing parents and siblings who are a constant example to me of who I need to become and they all make me want to be better each day. I love them all and am so grateful that I am able to call them my Family. I am one lucky girl!

What is happening to me?

I have become quite the little cook lately as you know and last night I started getting adventurous....I made shrimp enchiladas. It is a recipe I came across while blog hopping and decide to try it out. What is the worst that can happen? McDonalds is just around the corner.... I have never cooked a whole lot because since I haven't lived at home it hasn't been worth cooking something major for meals because I was only cooking for one so like most college students I would just do the usual sandwich mac and cheese, top roman, etc. Although I have watched and kind of helped my mom a whole lot, me being alone in the kitchen making a full meal has not happened very often and let alone every night of the week. But I've put on a brave face and decided to take on this task that 2 single men gave me two weeks ago and keep throwing people into the group....at first I felt over load and thought "how the crap am I going to be able to please all of these hungry people every night of the week? We can't have chicken and rice, and meatballs rice, with some breakfast for dinner every night this summer and that is all I really feel comfortable with!" But after a few minutes of stressing I decided this was a good chance to learn and we would be saving money because if it wasn't for me cooking me and my 5 sales people would be finding a restraunt at 9:30 every night when they get home from selling. So why not waste some time at night being productive? Although when this started I never thought that I would get brave and branch out from the things I feel comfortable making just because I have watched it done by my mom so many times. Is it Love? Boredum? My mother rubbing off on me? Growing up? I don't know but I like it! After a week of cooking I guess I'm feeling comfortable in the kitchen....BRING ON THE CRAZY IDEAS!! Watch out Chicago....Megan's in the kitchen....

After that little Ramble let me say what I was really going to say in this post I made Shrimp Enchiladas and every seemed to have liked them...McKay told me on a scale 1-10 10 being the highest they were an 8...maybe that was just McKay being McKay...I guess the real test is to see if they keep talking about them and I find myself making them again....But I thought they were good I feel good about the finished product...I was nervous while making them but I was happy with them....

Before they were rolled....

Going into the over...yes I had to double it that is how may people I feed.....

The finished product.....

My life...

Life is good! I love Chicago...especially the lightening storms! I have been doing a lot of taking it easy before I start working along with a lot of cooking....I have been assigned the cook of our dinner group (this includes 4 boys and 2 girls) it is much different than cooking for just me with McKay joining me on a rare occasion but I am enjoying it and feel it is good for me....I have part of my mother in me and love to spend time in the kitchen although I am beginning to notice I need to start collecting recipes...if you have any yummy recipes that are not too difficult (or time consuming considering the fact I'm starting work soon) I would love for you to send them my way. This weekend will be our first weekend here in Chicago and I'm super excited to hit the town! We haven't been downtown yet so I am excited about that and will for sure take some pictures.

Also some other great news...Some of you may know that ever since I have started dating McKay (over a year ago) we have had a constant walmart VS Target battle. He is a walmart shopper and I live for Target. It is nothing that hurt our relationship but it is a fun thing we do....try to battle out which one is better. So one of his big things is there is super target which is full of everything then there is target which doesn't have nearly as much stuff and Walmarts always have everything no matter where it is. Well I keep telling him that there are walmarts that are smaller and just like target walmart doesn't always have a huge grocery section or whatever and he then has gone onto ask me if I've ever seen a walmart without produce and all that jazz I would answer no but reassure him I haven't been in very many walmarts so it has to be out there somewhere...well I am happy to say yesterday I needed garlic bread and found a hidden walmart close to our apartment complex so decided I'd stop in for some garlic bread...I am excited to admit that this walmart was worse than any "TARGET" I have EVER been in! There was no produce, no bakery, a candy isle, and a cereal isle, and that was all the grocery was. I brought this up at the dinner table and had one of our friends admit that even though he does LOVE Walmart there are too any of those Walmarts that let people down....so Blog I am on my way to winning this year long debate....I'm getting closer....

And that is my life as we know it today...

Last but not least...

A lot of other stuff has happened to me since I last posted but the last highlight in the past few months is driving/moving to Chicago for the summer....It was my first road trip driving and it went pretty well. Everyone was worried about me but I think I did pretty well. We drove lots but made sure to throw some fun in too...we left last Thursday after my last final and got to Chicago on Saturday night really late. Thursday we drove 9 or 10 hours then Friday we didn't drive much because there is a zoo in Omaha that we drove by last year on the way home from summer sales but we didn't stop so McKay insisted he take me this year. So we did that on Saturday and it was worth the stop for a few reasons.....Friday instead of wasting the night sitting around we went to Winter Quarters...neither of us had been there and it was fun to see we even stayed at the Mormon trail motel just to get the full effect of the whole Winter Quarters stuff...


Across the street from the visitor center was the temple and a cemetery in was crazy to see all the old headstone and read the names and ages of the pioneers who died there....there were so many little babies buried there....





The Temple....


The ghetto Motel....



Everyone needs to go to the Omaha zoo at least once in their life! This zoo was so big and full of so many fun animals! Definitely beat the Hogle Zoo...SORRY UTAH!!






This zoo had the largest indoor desert in the world, one of the largest indoor rain forests, animals you could touch (in the rain forest there were monkeys you could get right up to), a HUGE aquarium including a section with the tanks that go over you, a butterfly house you could walk through and see hundreds of butterflies (I even had a few land on me), and much much more....you should book a trip to Omaha right now! We spend 5 hours in this zoo and didn't even see everything....


It was as fun of a drive as it could have been out here and now I'm just waiting to start working although loving some relaxed quiet time after a crazy past semester. See you all in the Fall! I'll try to keep you posted on all the fun here in Chicago! Come visit!

Cruisin'....

Since I didn't get to go with McKay on his cruise with his company he promised me he would take me on one and being the guy he is and always holding to his promises I got a much needed vacation for Spring break down to Mexico...It was SO much fun! We slept, ate, relaxed, played, ate, played, ate, ate, and ate some more all while enjoying some sunshine. I took quite a few pictures so here are just a few...

I LOVED watching the sunset...here is the sunset the first night on the ship...


Our first stop was Cabo...this was a fun stop. We got a water taxi and got a little tour around the arches which Cabo is famous for and then did some snorkeling and playing on the beach. We wanted to go to a glass blowing factory but it was closed so then we just wandered and shopped around a little....



Our second stop was Ensenada...my favorite out of the two stops...We rented ATVs when we got off the ship and headed up to "The Blow Hole"....thinking it was not too far it ended up being up and over a mountain but was so much fun and the favorite activity of the trip for sure...I took a video but McKay has better ones so I will post a video later when I have his camera so you can see what a "blow hole" is but here is the day in pictures...





Definately someone I would recommend if you are ever in Ensenada....It takes several hours but it was worth every penny and minute! Such a Beautiful spot....

Getting back on the boat to head home....


I fell in love with cruises.....can't wait to go on another one!
Thanks for the fun trip!