Weekend

This has been one of the most exhausting weekends of my life. I worked a straight 28 hour shift Friday-Saturday.....but believe it or not, I loved every minute of it. My internship has been one of the coolest things I've ever done and I am learning some great things. Even though I sometimes work insane hours, I know that I am getting some of the best work experience out there. 

Luckily, I had this guy nurture me back to sanity, the poor kid had to hang out with me after 41 hours of no sleep.... I was quite delusional to say the least. 

Unfortunately, I don't get the day off today.... So even though more sleep would be greatly appreciated, I have to go to work :( 

Lovey Dovey

It's not my style to post lovey dovey stuff on this blog. But when a sweet boy surprises you with a candle lit dinner under the stars, I tend to forget why in the world I don't post these things! I wish I had a camera with me to document the awesome set up, but leave it to me to forget. Nevertheless, our candle lit Pita Jungle (my fav) dinner was the best. Thanks to everyone that helped my boy set everything up, you guys rock!

MIA

Work has consumed my life. Every. last. second. of. it. 

You will find me either passed out on the couch during my spare time, or smiling my life away with a certain someone. 

Life is fantastic right now. 

Alive

I'm alive! Just far too busy working to do anything with this blog! I'm sorry!

I'm putting in 60 hour weeks, and on the spare free hours I get, I've been spending them with good company!

I'll keep you posted, hope you guys are all having a great week!

One Year

A year ago today I was jetting across the Atlantic.

A year ago today I showed up on the doorsteps of 13 Hazel Close, only to be welcomed by the best people ever. 

I miss Egham more than anything, but I am so grateful that I was able to be there with such amazing people! I miss you guys more than anything! But luckily, Elliot will be making his way over here in March! 

Surprises

I got home yesterday and was welcomed with a lovely surprise in my room. 

A Christmas package from Elder Johnson. 

And I loved every bit of it.

Especially the lovely video he sent me. Even though I only understood half because my French has been slacking lately, sorry Ty. 

Tell me that wouldn't make your day??

Being Thankful

I may not be fond of decking out my house with thanksgiving decorations or getting extremely excited about eating turkey. However, I am fond of being thankful for all the great things that I have in my life. 

2011 has been an amazing year to say the least. So even though as of lately I have been feeling a bit down, I have to remind myself that I have a lot to be thankful for this year. 

Traveling: I was given an amazing opportunity to travel this past year. I visited many new places and came back with many beautiful memories and learned a lot of new things about this world and even about myself. 

Friends: Throughout my travels, I was lucky enough to become friends with some amazing people. I am so thankful that I got to meet every single one of them. I've also been blessed with some amazing friends throughout my life and even though some of them are thousands of miles away from me at the moment, they still bring a smile to my face and comfort me when I need it the most. 

Family: I feel like sometimes this is the part of my life that I take for granted the most, but I have a great family that is always there for me when I need them. 

Job: My job brings me so much happiness into my life. And even though at times it causes me a lot of stress, I always end up thinking of all my kids and I instantly feel better. My job gives me the opportunity to work with kids from impoverished areas and help them succeed in school. I could not be more thankful for the opportunity to be with those kids everyday. They have taught me so many new things and I love them for that.

Literature: My "go to" when I'm feeling sad, mad, happy, you name it. Literature has always been my relief. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have so many beautiful pieces of literature around me to help me through the bad and good. 

Church: My church has been an amazing blessing this past year. It has brought me guidance and support when I needed it the most and for that I could not be more thankful. 

I also have some silly ones:

Netflix: I don't think I have to say much more. You have been my bff lately, you rock.

Mumford and Sons: You have been the source of my jam sessions in the car lately. You make me want to play the banjo so bad it's not even funny. And your lyrics are pure gold. You rock.

Nutella: I would have starved without you. You rock.

Pinterest: I'm kinda iffy about you actually... you've made me waste hours of my life and made me realize I actually really suck at crafting/sewing/cooking/beauty. However, you're a great procrastination tool and lets face it, I love you for that. You rock.

30 Rock: Liz Lemon=hero. 

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Le Petit Prince

I recently received a very special gift from my good friend Ty who is serving a mission in France. Although I haven't taken French for quite some time now, I struggled and fought my way through some of the passages he loved. 

And I fell in love. 

I had no idea I would be learning such beautiful lessons from a children's book. 

The book is simply amazing, and I highly recommend it!

Here's my favorite excerpt from the English translation:

"People where you live," the little prince said, "grow five thousand roses in one garden... yet they don't find what they're looking for..."
"They don't find it," I answered.
"And yet what they're looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water..."
"Of course," I answered.
And the little prince added, "But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.

My Kids

They are the reason I pass out on my bed from exhaustion the moment I get home from work.

The reason I loose sleep planning their days. 

The reason I laugh endlessly at their wild crazy stories.

The reason I sometimes want to pull my hair out one second, and hug them the next. 

But most importantly, the reason why I absolutely love my job. 

We had an awesome day last week dedicated to writing letters to the amazing soldiers in service. They loved writing them letters!

Happy Veterans Day! 

Happy List

It's been a while since I've made one of these...

Things that are currently making me happy:

1. Monday nights with Taylor.

2. Marcos, one of my 1st graders at work. Cutest kid ever. 

3. My staff, they rock and make my job 100x easier. 

4. The Office re-runs on Netflix.

5. Dexter. Dexter. Dexter

My Job

I know I've been mentioning how busy I've been with work and school lately. But I haven't really taken the time to mention how much I love my job regardless of the fact that at times it makes me want to rip my hair out... Regardless, my job is one of the highlights of my week. I am the Supervisor for the Salvation Army Citadel America Reads/Counts program in Phoenix. To sum that all up, I run a tutoring site in Downtown Phoenix, dedicated to tutoring inner-city kids in K-6. Which means, I get to hang out with awesome kids all day, that honestly sometimes say some of the most ridiculous hilarious things. I've been lucky enough to be part of this program since I began school at Arizona State, and I cannot begin to tell you how much I love our program and the amazing service that our entire stuff provides to our community. I can hands down say I have some of the best staff members working for me, and we could not get half the work done without their help. Lately, my job has been really pushing my limits, but it has also made me realize how important the work I am doing is to me. 

Here's a couple of snaps we took on site today, although we made the mistake of feeding them pudding for snack (which resulted in major cases of sugar highs) they were all on a role today and I couldn't help but capturing their craziness today. 

 just a small section of my lovely kids and staff

Katherine, my lead tutor, my job would be 100x harder without this girl. 

Wowza

It's been a fantastic month. 

Mehico

We took off to Mexico for the long weekend for Taylor's delayed birthday present. 

We swam, tanned and ate tacos. A lot of tacos. And I loved it. Turns out it's awesome going to Mexico with your half Mexi (not really) bf. We sorta suck at documenting our lives though, so hopefully we can steals some pics from the weekend! I hope you all had an awesome Labor Day weekend! 

"The" Story

The other day I was re-reading old posts from the past couple of months, just reminiscing about London and all those good times when I noticed something pretty important....


All of a sudden there's all these references and comments about some kid named Taylor, I just threw his name out there plain and simple, but never even explained who this mystery man was. And I realized it would suck to look back on this blog and not have any mention on how this fantastic guy came about. 


So I'm telling our story. 


"That's so sappy and corny Maggie".
Trust me I know, and if you know me, you know this ain't my style. But I gotta do it for those times that I re- read these posts to reminisce about the past and be able to get a huge smile on my face as I'm reading it. 


So I apologize in advance for going all Nicholas Sparks on you guys, but perhaps you'll find it cute and awesome and maybe get some aww's in there, then you'll go off to London and meet the man of your dreams too! Or maybe realize that he's actually right next to you and you just needed some aww's to realize it. So either way, I hope it makes you realize that sometimes you find love in completely unexpected places and at unexpected times, but sometimes it's exactly how it's supposed to happen.




Every Story has a Beginning


December 4th was probably one of the craziest days of my life, it was an up and down roller coaster the entire day.  My flight to London left early the next morning, and none of my stuff was packed, and there were about a million things (at least it felt like it) I had to do before I had to leave. I had spent a vast majority of the day at the bank arguing with them about my money wire that was due that day for my new house in London, I started getting some major cold feet about the whole thing, and not to mention, my stuff was EVERYWHERE. So I drove around town that day buying some last minute things while hoping my money was going to make it over seas on time, so I could have some sort of home to arrive to in London. I made one last quick stop at Name Brand, a local store we have here in Mesa, sort of like Buffalo Exchange. I had cleaned out my entire closet and took all the unwanted stuff with me in hopes that I could make some last minute extra cash before the big shibang. I wanted this to be a quick stop, in and out with hopefully some cash in hand. So it came as a huge surprise to run into somebody from high school as I was getting in, I was so terrified/excited/nervous/anxious the entire day that small talk wasn't really on my agenda for the day, but nonetheless we talked. She had been an old high school friend and as we caught each other up on our lives, London came up and luckily for me, her older brother had just moved to London a couple of days before. Now to be completely honest (no offense Taylor!), this news didn't even phase me as she was telling me, there were about a million other things I was thinking about at the moment and finding my true love in London wasn't really one of them (well kinda, but I figured it was more of a huge fantasy than an actual reality). Nonetheless, we said goodbye and off we went in our own separate ways, I managed to get my money over to London and had a home when I arrived and somehow managed to pack my entire belongings in 3 suitcases (I youtubed the best ways to pack, saved my life!!) and the next day I set out for what would become the best decision/trip/experience of my life. And little did I know this random encounter would be the start of it all....


Cue suspense here because I'm totally leaving you guys hanging....


I'm doing this chapter style, sorry!

Day Trip

Taylor finally came home from Alaska! Longest summer of my life. So we celebrated with a very special day trip to Payson for some "fishing", although we failed miserably. But it was nice to get out of the heat and finally spend some time with my sea captain bf. 

(These pictures are after he shaved his gnarly captain beard, I'm sad I didn't get a picture with it.)

Such a perfect day!

Recap

I've really been riding the struggle bus lately with this blog, my apologies. 

Here's the recap:

Summer school sucks. 

We're moving into our new casa this weekend, holla. 

And throwing BBQ's like no ones business in our fly backyard, seriously, thing is legit. Pool partiesss.

And having the bf live down the road = some sweet homemade dinners, cooked by him of course. 

Also, moving really kinda sucks tho. I despise packing.

Only 13 more days left of summer and the semesters from hell begin.

But, it's also my last first day of college, legit eh?

I hope you're all enjoying the rest of your summer!  

The Beatles Say it Best

This is why I love you guys. You have a song for every day of my life.

Good Life

Have I mentioned how good life is right now? 

Let me explain:

1. The girls and I took one of the best trips to Last Chance today, we all scored pretty big. All shoes were 50% off, it was game over as soon as we realized that. We didn't even mind waiting in the line that wrapped around the store. The things girls will do for shoes..

2. London plans are coming along fantastically. I've finally figured out my schedule and I'm completely on track to graduate this May. I may go a little crazy getting there, but London next fall for grad school is looking great. Although, I might need to start working on not falling asleep as soon as I open my GRE book to study..

3. KaLyn and I have been busy making plans for our new house. We've got our move in day and we've been on the hunt for some furniture, so any donations would be greatly appreciated, hint hint.. 

4. Mexico trip to Rocky Point next month! 

5. Cali roadtrip with the girls in 2 weeks!

6. We're on the hunt for a dog. A cute dog. Preferably a chocolate lab, with green eyes. That can come to London with us and run around Hyde Park. 

7. And last but not least. Only 17 more days till Taylor gets home. And I have the best day of my life. 

the end.

Oops

Remember that one time I forgot I had a blog? My bad. I wish I could say that I haven't been blogging because I've been real busy. But who am I kidding? It's summer. There's been a whole lot of hanging out, relaxing and Lost watching. I'm not lazy, I promise. I'm just soaking up this peaceful time, before my back to back 21 credit semesters start, boo. But on the bright side, a year from now, I'll be packing up my bags to head back to England. 

So in the meantime, I'll be enjoying every second of doing a whole lot of nothing. At least until Captain Markham comes home. In 18 days! 

Big Girl Time

I turned 20 today, ouch. Time to be a big girl.  Thanks to my awesome friends who helped me celebrate by eating massive amounts of food today and playing violent, crazy games of Uno tonight. And also to the best boyfriend for celebrating with me all the way from Alaska, still loving me some skype dates. 

The big 20 has lots in store for me, I'm excited to start the new year!