an amalgamation

1 a : the action or process of amalgamating : uniting b : the state of being amalgamated

 I am going to take several different completely unrelated topics and unite them in one blog post. Because I can...

First of all... Everette's grandmother is in the hospital. First first of all.... I have mentioned this before,  but since it can be confusing,  Everette has an uncle Everette. He is his mother's brother, and lives with his family in lafayette, You may remember his eldest was the hiker lost in the woods in Washington. just wanted to clarify so you know who I am referring to when I say Uncle Everette. also on that note, he has a mother Mary, a grandmother Mary, an aunt Mary Lain, which he also shares the middle name Lain with his father and one cousin. Who's with me now. Oh and his uncle Everette is John Everette which John was his father's name.  Thursday, I got a call from Everette's wife Sharon, telling me that Grandmommie was in the hostpital and she couldn't get a hold of Mary (Everette's mom)  or Uncle Everette (who was in Atlanta at the time). She told me Grandmommie had congestive heart failure. Which to me sounds really bad. Anything with the words heart and failure together sounds pretty bad. Thankfully my mom was with me when I received the call. She explained that while it was seroius, it was also pretty common and pretty treatable. So after several phone calls everybody who needed to know, knew, and I went back to waiting.  Everette's mom is in Alabama (where his grandmother's live) and she and uncle Everette are dealing with things as they come. The Doctors seem pretty hopeful.  The biggest issue is up until now, Everette's 90 year old grandmother has been living alone, and that just doesn't seem safe any more. So figuring all of those details out now will be difficult.

On another note... February is gone! Spring is coming whether it wants to or not.
We have ordered our seeds and we are setting up our makeshift greenhouse!

In other news... Jonathan drew his first unassisted circle this month.

and  I invented a new kind of pizza. It's Peanut Butter Pizza and it's delicious!

take a flatbread pita, toast it. Spread your favorite peanut butter (crunchy foor me). top with Bananas and matchstick carrots (or any other fruit veggie combo--the carrots are important because they look like cheese) and drizzle with honey!!!

and coming soon....

my mom has a hex on her. details to follow.

What in the world???

So here it is almost eleven o'clock  and I am watching a Help Haiti Live Concert sponsored by Compassion featuring some Christian bands..old school and new school and Alison Krauss (which I unfortunately missed!)
Anyway... they are having an auction and they are auctioning off some pretty cool things... a gibson guitar. tickets and backstage passes for Dave Matthews this summer. passes to Hannah Montana tapings (if you are into that).
However... by far the highest selling item on this whole dang auction is a three night stay at the Pioneer Woman's Lodge.  It is going for double the gibson guitar (the second highest item) for a whopping $1625.00 (with 9 hours left). Good Grief!!
Not to mention you still have to get to her super remote location in Oklahoma. I don't know why, but this strikes me as so strange... I mean great for her, and compassion, but she is up against Dave Matthews!! A year ago I wouldn't have had a clue who Pioneer Woman even was!
Her husband did take their oldest daughters on a Compassion trip to visit their sponsored child, which is cool.

Crazy Cuteness

Here is another video of Jonathan and his cousin Emily. We had the pleasure of watching Emily one evening in early January.  Again I realize that was over a month ago... but this is how I operate. You should all be kissing my feet because I am even taking the time to post them. Because it takes FOREVAH!!!!
When we found out my sister-in-law was pregnant and due only a few months after me, we all knew it would be so much fun to watch them grow up together, but in knowing this, I think, even we have highly underestimated the pleasure it brings.
Watch....
And try not to let your heart melt into a little puddle.

And please excuse Everette's belly shirt. It really isn't, even though it looks like one. And while it would be easy for me to poke fun, precious footage of a father playing with his son, and an uncle playing with his niece is worth far more than an easy joke.
In short, it is far more meaningful to me that my husband loves to play and takes time to play than how fashionable he is.  I love him. So I will refrain.


Jonathan and Emily--besties. from Megan Mills on Vimeo.

Something to watch

Since I have already confessed my shameless love of period movies (if you are new to this blog: 1. I am sorry and 2. you really should read this post as it will most likely change your mind about ever reading this blog again).... Here is my latest love.

I accidentally stumbled across it last Monday when Everette was at Bible Study and there was nothing good to watch on TV because everyone was showing reruns so we could watch figure skating on NBC.

It was a PBS Masterpiece classic. Usually I have a difficult time getting into those PBS dramas... they are a little too BBC for me.
But I had seen a preview for it earlier and my interest was already piqued.
It was Jane Austen's Emma.
It was awesome... if you happen to like those melodramatic (although this one wasn't too bad), fabulously costumed, non-salacious chick flicks.... And I do.

Check your local PBS listings or start watching it now right here!
It is three episodes. The first is two hours, and the rest are only an hour. I recommend you clear four hours in your schedule because once you begin, you will not want to stop.

I have watched it mostly twice, in random order.
I promise you won't be disappointed!!

In other news

In other news... Jonathan got a super awesome new Fort.

He and Everette assembled it last weekend.

Unfortunately it came with a bunch of new pots and pans.

Once they had emptied the boxes of their bothersome contents, they set to work duct taping each of the different parts together.

While mom was left to deal with those boring old pots and pans.

Those shiny... new... Calphalon... stainless steel...delightfully annoying pots and pans.

Those newly washed... ready to cook delicious food with....  pots and pans...

Yes, while Everette and Jonathan were "playing" in their new fort,

poor unappreciated me had to clean and put away those unwanted pots and pans.

such drudgery.

Not My wedding photos

So today is February 18 and way back in January (technically December 31st) my brother and his wife celebrated their 10 anniversary with an Orthodox Crowning Ceremony. An Ortho-whaty? Yes, My brother and his family (as well as my sister) are Eastern Orthodox. Please try to keep up people. Anyway, it is kind of like renewing your vows.... kind of.
Anyway, My sister and I took some pictures of the whole ordeal. But since it was in the middle of my back nightmare and the church was extremely dark, and I wasn't impressed with the pictures I promptly loaded them onto my computer and completely forgot about them. That is until my sister-in-law called asking to see them.
Not wanting to give her a bunch of uber dark, uninspiring pictures, I busted some photoshop moves on them and they didn't turn out half bad.
Michelle your disk is ready for you, but the rest of you can see them here!

more video

In case you were going through Jonathan withdrawal here is another video. It was taken before Christmas (as evidenced by the Christmas Tree in background-seriously people like I would still have my Christmas tree up). Anyway, Jonathan is even more verbal now than he was then, and is frequently bursting into spontaneous improvisational song.

Don't forget about the All Mills All the Time Channel on Vimeo!!


Musical Medley from Megan Mills on Vimeo.

Church Relevance

yes, that bottle of ketchup does say "church Relevance". That is what happens when you do a google image search while you are watching PBS, Masterpiece Classics :Emma and not paying attention.  I was going to secretly switch it when no one was looking, but Amber caught me. So I am totally busted. I have no idea why this bottle says Church Relevance,and I am not sure if its funny or offensive. Maybe I will write some sort of deep insightful blog about ketchup and church relevance. Or maybe not.
People put ketchup on everything, does that mean the church has lots of relevance?

Mary Poppins Was Wrong

It isn't a spoonful of sugar....
It's a medium sized blob of ketchup that makes the vegetables go down.

Tonight at dinner, Jonathan was dipping his potatoes in ketchup. Everette asked me, "how unhealthy is ketchup?"

Me: Well relatively speaking, not that bad. Assuming he isn't drinking it by the cupful.

E: well, I guess is it better for him to eat asparagus dipped in ketchup or not eat asparagus?
Me: Oh definitely better with ketchup than not at all.
E: Oh well then, (dipping an asparagus bite in ketchup) Here you go Jonathan.

Like I said, it isn't sugar, it's ketchup,  or maybe it's the sugar in the ketchup.

A double post

There is just too much going on to only post once today. I try not to post too many times in one day so I can spread things out a bit... but... oh well.
So over Christmas we had the opportunity to purchase our digital proofs from our wedding. And I have been going through them and reminiscing...
SO I will share...
First here are some of our engagement pictures...

This picture is to share how totally young we look. It is ridiculous. There is a picture of me when I was 8 with that exact same expression on my face.

See how happy we were! And look at Everette's super sexy watch!

As I looked at these pictures, I remember STRESSING about what to wear for them. For both of us... And I cannot figure out what the heck I was thinking. That top has zero color and I hardly ever wore it... Ever. Everette had some lame-o striped t-shirt. Who gets their engagement pictures taken in a t-shirt?  Someone should have staged an Intervention. But let's move on... there will be plenty of time to criticize wardrobe choices later. I promise.

I am however, digging my makeup... I should try to go back to that.... I wonder if I still have that in the bottom of my makeup drawer, six years and two moves later. Probably... is that gross? On a side note.. over the past six years, Everette's skin has gotten so much better, my skin has gotten sooo much worse. WARNING-A HAZARD OF SHARING YOUR BED WITH A MAN: at night hairs from his head crawl down his face and creep onto you and root themselves in your neck and on your chin.  It has to be true, I have no other explanation for what is happening to his head and my throat.
Please send help.

Speaking of wardrobes.. let's discuss pants. 1. Please forgive Everette's freaky stone washed jeans. It was the early 90's afterall.  No? It wasn't? It was 2003? Please forgive me, I know I picked these, but I am sure they were my best option. Everette's wardrobe makeover has been long and slow. Just keep in mind he wore rainbow colored sweatpants into middle school. Plus did you see the watch?
2. Let's discuss my pants. They are the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" pants. They are miracle pants. They were from Old Navy, and my sister had a pair, my sister-in-law had a pair and at least three of my friends as well. They looked great on everyone. I still have them, and sometimes I like to put them on and prance around, singing, "I Feel Pretty". And then I have a pillow fight with myself and watch The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.  Everette puts on his stonewashed jeans and joins me. He wears a blazer and I call him Blane.

You might notice that Everette was super smiley... There was a period of time in his life when he was smiley. It began soon after we began dating and ended when he had to start paying a mortgage and worry about supporting his family.

This is my favorite picture. It is so whimsical, Everette's shoulders look super broad and super strong and my hair... looks pretty amazing. Please take a moment to appreciate the wash of my jeans. I am telling you magic pants.