the silver lining

Today started out rough but in the end it was GREAT!
No complaints.

I might have not gone to the gym or read the good word but I was social.
I just sat down and read a few pages. 
I also still struggle with morning prayers but it is a work in progress.
Everyday is just going to be a new learning adventure.

So, in the end... I give myself a pat on the back.
Way to go day 2!

I will be social. Even if it kills me.

So, that might be a little dramatic but I have been pretty antisocial lately.

Part of my little life changing goal is to be social.
This should be easy.
I do live in a college town. Stuff is going on all the time.

Goal 1. Go to at least 3 social gatherings a week.
Goal 2. Read my scriptures everyday.
Goal 3. Morning and night prayers. (night is easy. morning is a stretch.)
Goal 4. Exercise. It was so much easier to do when my drill Sargent Becca Dow was here.
Goal 5. Keep updating my blog because then I will have to be accountable.

Those are my goals for now. I will keep adding as days go by.
People keep telling me it is going to take months to move on. I sure as heck hope not.

I am just trying to make the best of it for now.
Oh, and my Sunday school lesson went AWESOME today. 

three years and coming

Cameron Clausen once told me after I got into a fight with my parents that, "Girl, you need to learn to control your emotions." Of course that just made me even more mad but it always stuck with me. He also told me to take some acting classes or something to help out with that. I thought his advice was useless.

I can control a lot of things in my life. 

I control where I am. 

I control how clean my bedroom is. 

I control how long or short my hair is and what it looks like. 

I control what I wear. 

I control what I learn. 

I control who my friends are. 

I am still struggling with controlling my emotions.
Especially tonight.
I should have taken Cameron's advice.
Maybe I would be in better position.

There is basically one thing this post is all about. It is something that I am trying to let go of and it is already super hard but I know I am strong and I know that I can do it. I just had to vocalize it and put it into writing. 

I, Megan Emily Butler start a new chapter tonight as I finally let go and just try to push forward.

As Brother Pitbull says, "Reach for the stars and if you don't reach it at least you're on top of the world."

i can tell that we are gonna be friends.

Kevin came to visit me. It is a miracle. It was his idea too. I was so excited to see him. He drove the whole way from Arlington, Washington to my house... all by his lonesome. 

That is dedication. 

The first time I saw him was quite the rush of emotions. I was so excited and also nervous that he might be a different person. I had no idea what it was going to be like. I was expecting the most awkward first few days of my life. It was just like back in the day.

Everyday I had a plethora of activities planned for us. 

It all started on Friday. 

I had planned out for us to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and off we went. It was a lot longer of a drive then I remembered. We were still super awkward. When I say super awkward, I mean extremely. 

After the aquarium we went to Santa Cruz and just watched people at the beach. It was so cold. There was no way we were going to get into the water. The highlight of that beach trip was the man who was using his metal detector in the sand and was wearing socks. 

We went home for dinner and other things and then ended up back at the beach for a midnight stroll. 

The next day was Saturday. 

We went to the A's verse Mainers game. It was awesome. The A's won. Of course. Kev got himself a hat. Thank heavens for Kathy. She hooked us up with free tickets and free parking. It was a dream. 

After the game we went to the temple. 

It was kind of on the way home. Kev always told me that the Oakland temple was a sinner temple because there is no Moroni but he quickly fell in love with it. Why wouldn't you love this temple? Is there any other temple that you can walk on? We also went into the visitor's center and you know those sister missionaries flocked to us like none other. We were blessed to get hooked up with Sister Taylor from London and Sister Capener from Boston. They were amazing. 

After the temple we went clubbing in San Fran. 

Naturally. 

I think going clubbing was the best idea we ever had. We did not really want to go in the beginning but the second that we got there it was the best experience of our life. We got these bracelets that said "drinking age verified." We knew it was going to be a great night after we noticed that. We were all over the bar and then we hit the loft. We found some classy drunk people. As soon as the dance floor opened my heart was full. We got our groove on for hours. You can't even fathom how great it was. Right before we were going to leave they had the dance off. Incredible. Life changing. I was so happy. 

Until we went to where the car was parked. Yeah. 

So, I encouraged Kev to park in a lot that got locked up before we came out of the club. Luckily, Kaleigh was there in a different car and had room for the two of us. 

Post clubbing. We were tried. He was hungry.

Sunday rolled around. 

(technically it rolled around while we were getting our groove on at the club)

We woke up at the crack of dawn and drove out to San Fran to get Kev's car and got home before my family was even awake. By the time church came around we were ready for a nap but we sucked it up and went. We went to 2 hours at the home ward and 1 hour at the singles ward and peaced out. 

After church is the traditional going over to grandma and grandpa's for dinner. It was delish like normal and then I wanted Kev to see the Redwoods. We mapquested how to get there and basically gave up and found a new state park to go to. It was quite a disappointment. 

This was the largest tree there. Pathetic. Well, the drive was fun on the way there and then we went home and crashed. We crashed hard. 

Monday. Aka Labor Day aka Kaleigh's Birthday came about. 

To celebrate the great day we went to the beach. Again. Along with the rest of the bay area. 

There was definite rip tide and he is definitely a lot taller than me. He took all the cold water and huge waves like a man and I just could not handle it. I was done after I got sucked under the first time. I could hardly stand. 

It was a really short trip to the beach but I am glad we went. 

After we did the traditional stop off at Maryann's Ice Cream. 

So delish. 

That night was Kaleigh's party. We went shopping for her present and missionary packages. We just won't talk about that. We came home and helped with the preparations. 

After sleeping in more than we were supposed to, it was Tuesday!

What do you do on Tuesday? 

Go to San Fran of course!

We did all the touristy things. We went to Pier 39.

We saw Alcatraz.

He ate a clam chowder bowl at Fisherman's Wharf.

I hate seafood. I got something else.

We went to Ghirardelli's Square and then took the cable car to Union Square. We shopped around a bit. I got 2 cardigans from H&M and a scarf. 

After Union Square we headed on back to the car without stopping off at a random shop and snagging a sweater for Kev and another scarf for me.

On our way out we hit up the Golden Gate bridge. It was so stinking foggy. We walked onto the bridge a bit and then we headed back home. 

I will tell you what happened on Wednesday once Kev brings over his camera for me to steal his pictures. (so Kev brought over the camera)

We had a late start but we made it up to the temple. Kevin brought family names for us to do. We first stopped in the Visitor's Center to see our favorite sister missionaries and also to discover that Addie was there too!

We would have loved to stay and chat longer but we needed to get down to the Lord's business. 

Kev baptized me for a plethora of his family and then he got baptized for the males. It was quite awesome.  

 After we meet up with Addie again. This time we went to Fentons. They have the best ice cream on the planet. I love their caramel the most. You might recognize the name of the ice cream shop because it was at the end of the Pixar film, Up.

After Oakland we hit some killer traffic on the way home. We got to San Jose just in time to babysit 11 children. I seriously left Kevin outside with a couple of kids for maybe 30 minutes and when I come back his elbow was all bloody and a child lost a tooth.

On Thursday we started our road trip back to Idaho.  

We had two problems. 

#1. Kevin got on the wrong freeway. I have no idea how it happened but all the sudden we were not on 80 anymore and we were driving on 50. After a short hour to two hour detour and a stop off in Fresh Pond, we found our way back. 

#2. Kevin's car started to fall apart. Well, not really but the plastic stuff around the window wasn't sticking like it should. We did the smart thing and just super glued that isha back to where it is supposed to be. We didn't have any problems after that. 

We had a pretty good trip. Nothing too crazy happened. We made it alive. 

I have no idea how to flip pictures.

 We also had a few run ins with this Mountain Dew can. It went all Pepsi or Coke with Mentos on us in the car when we poured Sour Patch sugar into it. It liked to tip over a lot. Basically anything that could have gone wrong with that Mountain Dew did.

To end it: He is my best friend. We are basically attached at the hip and I love his guts. 

Peace and blessings. 

World Domination

I am thinking about the next year of my life. I turn 22 at the end of this one. I never thought I would make it to this age so quickly. You think it is a joke but I am for real.

I am going to start the year on December 26th when I jump on a plane and head to London to catch another flight back to Kenya. Once you go black, you never go back. I will be in Kenya for 4 months. I am just so excited I could pee my pants.

My family is getting together for Auntie Kat's unveiling in July in New Zealand. So, I thought to myself, "Self, why turn around and go home if you are just going to fly to the other side of the world in a few months?"

This is how my planning began. My wheels in my brain started turning.

I want to go to India so bad.
And Thailand.
And Nepal.
And Fiji.

I am young.
I am not scared of traveling.
I have a passport.

I connected all the dots and everything is working out like a dream. No joke. Thank heavens for this job and miles I have from the first time I went to Kenya.

Here is the plan:

San Fran to London- Dec 26th

London to Nairobi- Dec 27th

Nairobi to Delhi- April 16th

Delhi to New Zealand- June 30th

New Zealand to Fiji- ?

Fiji to home-?

While I am in India I will adventure up to Nepal and then over to Thiland. Then, while I am in New Zealand I am hoping to do a study abroad. In India I want to work at a leprosy colony. In Fiji I would love to build homes and just help out where ever is needed.

 I am so excited and nervous and whatever else emotion you can feel. 

Making Up for Lost Time

So, I think you have all realized that I am not the best blogger. Since my last blog post I have done so much. I decided that I wanted to leave school a week early to be a 2nd year girls camp counselor. It was the best choice I have made in a while. I had to majorly crunch everything together and get stuff done in a jiffy. Most of my teachers were cool with me taking the final a week early but one. I got all my packing, projects, finals and whatever else done in time to go home. It was a miracle. I was home for a day or two before I got whisked away into the Santa Cruz mountains for 1 week of pure girl outdoor goodness.

I was a co-counselor over the 2nd years. There were 13 girls in that group. From the second I met all of them I knew it was not going to be a breeze of a week. I got a peep talk from my mom on the way up because of some of the girl's family problems and home situations. I had no idea what to expect. The week started out rough. There were a lot of personality conflicts and girls who just did not want to listen. It got progressively easier as the week continued and the girls learned to love each other as people and not to really focus on each other's faults. It was an amazing week. I would not trade any of my girls for the other girls at camp. I loved them all. They were so precious. By the end of the week all the girls were BFFs and totally tried. It was truly great week and it was made obvious at testimony meeting the love that was there.

One of the highlights of the week was the talent show. I don't know how it really happened but Marisa, Tabitha and I preformed. It went kind of like this, "I'm funny. You're funny. Let's do a skit together." None of us really had talents. Marisa thought it would be funny if we did a jump rope routine but none of us knew how to or had ropes. We just went with it and did exactly that. We did a jump rope routine without ropes and just with music and funny outfits. We were laughing so hard when practicing that we did not even make it through the routine once before we had to preform it and Tabitha nearly peed her pants every time we started to practice. It was a hit. Everyone was laughing so hard.

I had no time to rest after girls camp because the following week I started working. Beautiful. I have been working everyday since then. I work at a uniform store called Scholar Wear. It provides uniforms for the Challenger Schools. It has been nuts but I have a lot saved up to go on adventures and what not. I worked there when I was a junior in high school. A lot has changed since then but my desire to try them on had not. One day the store was really slow and so Michelle, Monika and I tried them on. We are SO hot in these fashion forward uniforms.

Being in weddings is the story of my life. I love being a bridesmaid and I love going to weddings. This last few weeks there have been about 10. I only made it to a few. I flew down for a wedding in LA. Justin and Kelsey got married. Kelsey was my roommate this last semester and thus Justin was basically my roommate too. I love these people. They are just so lovely.  

The wedding in LA was crazy and there was a lot of driving in the worst traffic I have ever seen in my life but I got the opportunity to play with Vernie for a day. It was so so so fun. I have cuts on my legs to prove it. I love this girl. I am so glad we got to be roommates.

Once when I was home I got wrapped into making pasta salad. We had moose shaped pasta. I put it to good use.

As soon as I got home I turned around and went back to Southern California. This time I was headed to San Diego. I had another wedding to go to. Raven and Andy were tying the knot. This couple I had been rooting on since day one. I love them together. Vernie's friend Eden picked me up from the airport and then Vern and I went on adventures, for sure. We found the Nauvoo temple in her church parking lot. This is the second time that has happened to us.

Then in the morning she jetted off to Vegas and Jenn came and picked me up. We went to the San Diego temple and waited outside right after we stopped off at Starbucks for a morning pick me up. 

We waited outside the temple for hours. There is not surprise there. She looked extremely gorgeous. I have never seen her look that good. Jenn was such a good sport about the whole thing. She even got to jump into the front of the huge group picture because grandma made her. It was so funny. Inbetween the temple and the dinner Jenn and I made a quick trip to the movies. We had a few hours to kill. We thought, "What the heck? Why not?" We had to leave to movie before it was done to rush off to PF Changs. It was so delish. 

In the morning I had to jump on a plane and head back home. I got to met the famous Talyn that I have heard so many stories about and already loved so much. He was just as wonderful in person and I expected. As soon and I got home I jumped right back into the work scene. It has been really exhausting but worth it. 

I went to girl formally known as Megan Haley's wedding yesterday. It was so lavish. It was so her. I am so excited for her and I just love Mark so much. I just think it is so crazy how everyone is getting married. I swear that everyone is. It is a new trend or something. I guess a husband is a girl's best accessory. 

Addicted

My roomies this semester have me watching SYTYCD. This gem is the highlight of the show for me. I love this dance routine. I just cannot get enough of it. 

This is another one I really like.