This Recipe Will Make All Of You Brussel Sprout Haters Love Them!!

I come from a family of excellent cooks. We all have our specialties, tho we can all whip up anything you'd like. Mine is meat, since as children, my sister's didn't like handling the meat and my mom appreciated the help. My older sister's is baked goods. My younger sister, due to her career in the hospitality industry, has in my opinion required a knack for making high quality dishes that might be served at fine dining establishments.
Most recently, my younger sister mentioned that she'd made Honey Sriracha Brussel Sprouts for her husband and made him a believer. Today, I made them and I can attest that it was one of the best decisions I've made all day. The flavor was excellent! The honey helps to mask some of the green leafy veggie taste than many detest (tho I love) and the sriracha gives it a little kick and really adds to the overall flavor.
To all of you brussel sprout haters, I recommend that you try them. You won't be sorry!

Photo by Maggie Gorman

Welcome To Your Fifteen Minutes

"Welcome to your fifteen minutes." That's the first thing my friend Kat said to me as I was talking to her about how everything has changed since I was nominated to the US Paralympic Team.
It's been a hectic week of work, training, endless phone calls, and interviews.
I really can't complain right? This is the culmination of years of training and petitioning to get snowboarding in to the Paralympics. This is what I've been training for, so why does it all seem so overwhelming?
Maybe it's because all of this time I've been pretty incognito. Nobody knew my name. I was just a southern girl living in a world of snow.
Not to mention the fact that I'm a full time engineer at a large company. The last couple of years have been extremely difficult since I've had to work long hours to make up for the time I take off to train. Now throw on interviews and countless emails on top of that. Sometimes it feels like too much, but then I remind myself that I took 19 credit hours my senior year in college so that I could move out to Utah quicker. It seemed impossible at first to do everything, but I practically slept with my planner, prioritized every activity, and got in to a nice flow. I'll just treat this experience the same way.
I've got this. I'm Megan Harmon. I can do anything! That's what I tell myself while I'm in the start gate along with a few deep breathes.

Paralympic Dreams

Six months after losing my leg in a motorcycle accident, I was back on the snow. I may be from Alabama, but snow is no stranger to me. My Dad first took me skiing when I was 7 as part of my girl scouts program, and I was hooked! After I lost my leg I thought that I wouldn’t e able to do anything, but my Dad found about the National Ability Center at Park in Park City, Utah.  The NAC teaches people with disabilities how to ski and snowboard. Of course, I tried skiing, and honestly, it was terrifying! I switched to snowboarding, and it was exhilarating! For the first time since my accident, I could do something just as well as other people. Regardless, I never imagined that I would be asked to join Team Utah Adaptive Snowboarding a year later.

This last January, I moved to Utah to train full time with the team. Being only one of two girls on the team, I spent most of my time trying to keep up with the boys. By the end of the season, I would say that I had gotten pretty good at it. In April, I competed in the Canadian ParaSnowboard World Cup. It was easily the most challenging and technical boarder-cross course I’ve ever been on. To top it all off, I was sick as a dog and could barely keep my food down long enough to run the course. I still managed to come in third though, which put my world ranking for this season at fourth place.

Making the podium at the World Cups is amazing, and I’m extremely proud of my accomplishments, but I’ve had my eyes set on even greater things ever since the International Paralympic Committee announced the inclusion of ParaSnowboarding in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

I would have never made it this far without support from family, friends, and people I’ve met along the way. Once again, I need everyone’s help to make my dreams come true. My journey to the 2014 Winter Games won’t be an easy or cheap one, and I will need all of the help and support that I can
get.

I have several goals to meet in preparation for the coming season.
A New prosthetic knee and liners: $7,500
Training Expenses: $5,000
Competition Travel and Expenses: $10,500

Please share this with your family, friends, coworkers, organizations, and companies that might be interested in sponsoring a paralympic athlete.

Thank You,

Megan Harmon 

Crowdfunding