{post d-day}

as little miss ella would say, "seriously guys!?" how does life get so good? seriously.  

life as been so good since the wedding day.

the wedding day was perfect. absolutely perfect.
i couldn't have asked for it to have gone better.  from the temple to the luncheon and finally to the reception, it was everything i hoped for and then some.

the honeymoon. oh the honeymoon.  it was a great little escape,
 however, travel plans did not go according to what we expected.

we were set to depart slc-int. at 11-something the morning after our wedding, but upon check-in, we discovered that our flight had been delayed to 1:20, arriving in lax at 2:15.  the problem? we needed to be checked onto our cruise by 3 pm.  45 minutes to get our bags and fight los angeles traffic all the way to the long beach port?? i was stressed to say the least.

brian called carnival to make them aware of our situation while i talked to the delta ticket attendant.  mr. delta had this "brilliant" plan to put us on standby on a flight that left within the hour to burbank.  he had our bags checked to go there....but when the final call for the burbank flight came over the loud speaker, the plane was loaded to capacity with happy travelers, and neither of us was one of them.

so what now? our luggage is going to burbank...but we're stuck in slc?!

after much investigation and schmoozing flight desk workers, we were able to ensure that our bags were unchecked from the burbank flight.  carnival assured us that if we were on the boat by 3:30 or 4 we would be ok.  but that didn't calm our nerves!  we decided that we wouldn't be able to rest easy until we were comfortably in our cabin, luggage in hand.

we talked to carnival and gave them our flight information.  if we were close, they wouldn't leave us.  we were to call them the moment we landed.

finally it was time to board our original flight, and while in line we met another pair of honeymooners who were also to set sail to el mehico on the same cruise as us.  we were all a little scared that our honeymoons would be ruined and that a lot of money would be lost.

we strategized a plan.  flight lands...call carnival...grab the carry on...rush to baggage claim...call a taxi...hope and pray that the boat doesn't leave us.

we flew into lax, i called carnival to let them know we all landed. and went to baggage claim.  in the distance we saw the most beautiful sight of the entire day:
a middle aged woman in a blue suit holding a sign that read "carnival"

hallelujia! if the transportation lady was still there, our chances of being left behind went substantially down.  we signed up for transportation and as we signed the papers our bags came around the carousel.

on the road we went, cruising easily through the nearly non existent sunday afternoon traffic.  just a few months prior i had driven through l.a on a week day and it took me 2 hours to go 30 miles.  what a blessing it was to not deal with traffic!

the port came into view..and the best sight yet? our boat was still there.

with tickets and passports in hand, we strolled up the gangway and boarded the carnival splendor, bound for mexico.  our only thoughts were, oh thank goodness...we made it!

good times, bad times, it was all an adventure no matter what.  we were miles from anyone we knew and had zero cell phone service, which was fine by me :)


tune in for the next few posts to hear about our honeymoon and the series of  fortunate and somewhat....unfortunate events...:) pictures to come!

don't that make you wanna fall in love?

sometimes i wonder if life can get any better.

i have a job that i love.

(most of) my students make me laugh in one way or another each day.

i live in a beautiful town.

i have an incredible family.

and i'm getting married to my best friend.

life is good.

i've accepted the fact that i'm just a mediocre blogger. i don't blog as regularly as maybe i should, but when something really important or good happens, i'm usually pretty good about posting about it.  so here's the something that's really important/good:

mr. brian steven cook proposed to me on may 3, 2012...and i said....."of course".  didn't say yes, just "of course" haha someday maybe i'll look back on that and think i should have been more eloquent in my answer, but for now, it's all a blur and i'm just unbelievably happy.  then again, he never said, "will you marry me?"  he instead said, "megan, i love you very much, and wonder if you'd be my wife?" 

do i care how he asked?

not in the least bit.

do i just care that he asked?

absolutely!

it happened at our end of year ffa banquet and our chapter pres. tiffany and vice pres alyssa, jason, wayne, and their wives were in on it.  here's how it happened :)

i asked brian if he would like to come to our banquet.  it's a special time for the kids to be recognized and it's kind of the last big thing of the year.

he said he'd love to come.

about a week and a half before the banquet, brian took care of talking to my dad and had emailed jason to get some input on how he could ask me the big question.

they came up with the idea to do it at the banquet in front of everyone.  which totally isn't like brian at all, but it sure was fun.

that day, i just stayed after school since we had banquet preparations and brian would just meet me over in brigham.  i texted him and told him that i'd be staying and i would love for him to come but he did not have to feel obligated, as he had a 7:30 am final the next morning.  (i felt bad for him!)

he of course said, heck no, i'll be there.  little did i know.....

in the awards banquet, we advisors recognize the officers for a job well done and present them with a little gift of appreciation.  the officers then recognize us as advisors and then the spouses to say thanks for sharing your husbands with us basically. 

after they had recognized mandy, jason's wife, and katherine, wayne's wife, alyssa said, "can we also have brian cook come up? he's megan's special friend." 

in my head, i was thinking, "awe, that's so nice of them to have thought of him!"

he came up to recieve a candy boquet.  in the middle of the boquet was a rose.  brian walked over to me and set the candy boquet and pulled out the rose.  in my head i thought, "awe that's so cute! he doesn't care about the rose so he's just going to give it to me! what a cutie."

then he started talking.

it was all a blur but when he got down on one knee and asked me if i would be his wife, it was one of the happiest moments of my entire life.  we hugged.  the kids cheered. someone yelled "kiss him!!" ha. yeah right...not in front of a hundred high school kids and their parents!
but gosh do i love that boy!

he is more excited than he looks...i hope!

the 2 sneaky helpers! (r) tiffany (l) alyssa

great little gals :)

with 2 of my roomies after it all went down!

august 11 can not come soon enough!

i'll be home for christmas....

I have just come to the conclusion that I'm not a regular blogger, I just blog when I remember. So I'll just catch up in a few small posts so as not to overwhelm my e x t e n s i v e list of followers.

I'll just give a brief overview of Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we were playing games at Mandy and Clay's house. We were just talking about how it seemed a little dead and boring and empty without Krista and Jason, and Angela and John. No more than 5 minutes later, there was a knock at the door....

Dylan went to get it and brought in a huge gift bag full of treats. As he started digging through it, Mandy noticed some snacks that aren't found here in the United States. I didn't clue in, but she all of a sudden just kept saying, "No way, there is no way!!!"

In my head I was thinking, well she probably just had it delivered here. (As in Krista sending stuff from Austria)

Mandy then ran outside (we all followed) and sure enough, there stood Krista and Jason on the sidewalk. We were all in shock but at the same time not really surprised that they did this.

We had a lot of fun together over the time they were here. It was good to spend time with them especially before Landon left.

They apparently just can't stay away from us for very long, and that's fine by me :)

i hope they call me on a mission.....

Well it's official. The Peterson residence is now an empty nest.

Landon left today for the South Carolina, Columbia mission.

What a bittersweet time for our family! I can definitely say that there is nowhere else I'd rather him be than serving the Lord on a full time mission. He has grown into such a great young man and I truly look forward to hearing the stories he has to share over the next two years.

Landon gave a great talk on Sunday for his farewell and he brought such a sweet spirit to the meeting with his testimony. He sure is going to touch a lot of lives :)

Although a lot of tears were shed last night when all the goodbyes were said, talk about an exciting time for Landon! He was so excited to get to the MTC today, not even nervous. I wonder what he's doing right now.....

i love.

aaahhhhhhh fall.

i love fall.

i love the colors.

i love the smells.

i love the holidays.

i love the clothes.

i love the traditions.

i love the crispness.

i love the decorations.

happy fall everyone :)

words of wisdom.

ahhhh. conference weekend. two of the best weekends of the year. i really love october conference. it seems like it just kicks off one of my favorite times of the year.

i love fall! and what a better way to start it out by receiving guiding words from the leaders of our church. i loved how back to basics this conference was.

{pray} . {study the scriptures} . {keep your covenants} .

{keep your standards high} . {follow the commandments}.

these are just a few of many great things that were spoken about during conference. my ward had ward conference last week, and our wonderful stake president asked that we pray specifically for questions to be answered. to go into conference with a question in our minds and hearts. to pray for an answer. he promised that if we did this in faith, our questions/concerns would be answered and our testimony of Jesus Christ would be strengthened.

i did. and did i receive an answer? you bet.

what a blessing it is to have such incredible instruction. here are a few things i loved from conference. please feel free to share your thoughts as well :)

{this is a very condensed list. too many great things!}

{1} scriptures are like packets of light that illuminate our minds that give way for guidance and inspiration from on high...elder richard g. scott

{2} our work knows no boundaries...elder l. whitney clayton

{3} do the right thing, at the right time, without delay...elder jose l. alonso

{4} take hold of your life and order yourself to be valiant...president boyd k. packer

{5} motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling...elder neil a. anderson

{6} let us be as quick to kneel as we are to text...elder ian ardern

{7} we must be bold in our declaration of Jesus Christ...elder l. tom perry

{8} deal with, learn from, and overcome storms through Jesus Christ...president thomas s. monson

{9} teach people, not lessons...elder matthew richardson

{10} it is never too late to choose eternal life...elder randall k. bennett

{11} lead the world in a return to virtue...sister elaine s. dalton

{12} be loyal to the royal within you...sister elaine s. dalton

i love my Savior. i love His church. we are blessed!

right where i need to be.

life's been a little hectic lately, therefore blogging has nearly stopped.

week number three has just started for my first school year as a real live teacher. it's been an incredible few weeks and i have come to the conclusion that i'm about as happy as a clam. {i never understood that phrase...like we know how happy clams are...} but still...i love love love my job. my kids are great. my co-workers are great. i cannot imagine being anywhere else right now. i have learned a few things in my short time surrounded by 7th graders, freshmen, and high school kids.

1. kids get restless come 1:00 in the afternoon

2. twelve + hour days are not uncommon as an ag teacher

3. twelve-year-old girls are not the twelve-year-old girls that i remember. they're more like twelve going on twenty-five.

breaks my heart.

4. high school boys are surprised when they find out that a girl knows how to use power-tools.

5. kids are kids. they need someone to love them.

i'll try to update at least once a week. if nothing else, it will be good for me so i don't ever forget this time of my life. being a brand new teacher is hard. it's time consuming. it's stressful. it's busy. but it's rewarding. it's satisfying. it's a blessing. it's exactly where i know i need to be.

oh and p.s. i have decided something.

patience=trust. trust=patience.