One Year Ago… Part 22

After his grandma’s funeral, he had to leave to go back to Kentucky. On Friday he sent me the news that he was going to give his 2 weeks notice and he was moving home. I was super excited but I was worried. We are from SW MO, from a town that is one of the cheapest areas to live in in the country. He made good money working on the Army base… and he was choosing to give that up and move here. Here where he probably wouldn’t make what he did down there, not at least without a college education. My fears set in.

I had even somewhat contemplated trying to possibly move down there. I wasn’t as worried about me finding a job, even though jobs are hard to come by, facts are facts in this economy, but I have a teaching degree, I have experience waitressing, I have typing skills, etc. Not to say he doesn’t have skills. He was a computer techy, and those jobs come with wanting degrees. I was worried. Then he said the words that made me smile. I’m going to go back to school.

Even those words didn’t completely make me at ease because he still had a daughter to care for but I wasn’t nearly as worried. I can’t tell you what came over me but I wasn’t completely worried about it all, just a slight fear. I just knew we’d have some tough times ahead of us but let’s face it, I was head over heels for this guy, bring it on, we’ll face it together.

Saturday brought on dinner club. I wasn’t about to ask him to come home just to go to dinner with me, that’s a long drive just for dinner. Especially trying to save money so he could move home to me for good.

I had been taking a photography class with my friends Josh & Evelyn. Josh got a great idea, let’s get our friends Chris & Tiffany to pose for us and use this opportunity to practice taking shots in different locations. So Josh came by and picked me up on his way to Springfield and we rode up together. We talked about a lot of things but every time Prince Charming came up Josh instantly changed the subject. In my mind I thought, oh good, it hasn’t worked itself out yet.

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New Look

Ok I had to change my background. I’m not sure why but I did. So I played around with it, and this is what I came up with. I’m not sure I’m 100% happy but I think I kind of like it… What do you think?

btw, how hot is it?

Yep, the “Dog Days of Summer” are here! Stay cool my friends

(saw it in an email, thought it was adorable!)

 

 

Nicole

 

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The Living Room

…Also known by some as the family room.

Wikipedia’s Definition
:

A family room is an informal, all-purpose room in a house similar to a living room. The family room is designed to be a place where family and guests gather for group recreation like talking, reading, watching TV, and other family activities.[1][2] Often, the family room is located adjacent to the kitchen, and at times, flows into it with no visual breaks[3]. A family room often has doors leading to the back yard and specific outdoor living areas such as a deck, garden, or terrace.
The distinction between a family room, a living room, and a recreation room may be fluid. In homes with more than one, the living room is usually the more formal room, often reserved for guests, special occasions, and the display of items such as antiques or artwork. The recreation room is typically in the basement and used for games and playtime. In homes with only one, the terms are generally synonymous. It is not uncommon for someone who grew up calling such a room by only one term to have no idea of the distinction between the two.[citation needed] In floorplans, a “great room” is where the living room and family room are combined into one high-ceilinged room adjacent to the kitchen.[4]

So anyway now that you got your lesson today, someday when someone asks, you’ll be very informed 🙂 So who’s ready for some pictures after that ;).
Before Shots: (this is all the previous owners things)
So here are some progress photos:
Just put my Painted Pony collection up.
The fridge is in the living room because we were laying tile floor in the kitchen 🙂 It’s back where it belongs now 🙂
And Now for some Final photos (as for now anyway):

Eventually hopefully we’ll lose the futon and lose the feel of college student living but until then, hey it matches and it’s super comfy. Plus if we have extra company, they can sleep on it. My roll top desk was originally going to go in the MIL room but I thought it looked better in the living room. So again we’re still on the quest for something for that one wall in the MIL room.

On a side note: Tara over at That’s Why Her Hair is So Big… did a post on The 30 Day Shred Jillian Michaels. For $9 I thought I’d try it too (I tried P90X, didn’t have that much time to give up in a day, some days 1 hr, others 1 hr 15 minutes and one day 1 hr 30 minutes). For 20 a minutes a day I thought yeah I can give up that much time. Holy cow, My calves are killing me today. Yesterday was my first time. I might die but hey hopefully I can get my skinny on by my wedding… yeah probably won’t happen but a girl can dream right?

Peace, Love, & Family Living rooms 🙂

Political Correctness

I was in need of a laugh and I got one. It was actually quite funny so I thought I’d share it with you. It came to me in the form of an email. Please don’t hate me, hate the email. I just thought it was funny. So pardon my totally twisted sense of humor but please bare with me 🙂

Due to the climate of political correctness now prevading America, Kentuckians, Tennesseans, and West Virginians will no longer be referred to as “Hillbillies”.
You must now refer to them as “Appalachian-Americans”.

And Furthermore,
To speak about Women and be politically correct:

  1. She is not a ‘Babe’ or a ‘Chick’ – She is a ‘Breasted American.’
  2. She is not ‘Easy’ – She is ‘Horizontally Accessible.’
  3. She is not a ‘Dumb Blonde’ – She is a ‘Light Haired Detour off the Information Superhighway.’
  4. She has not ‘Been Around’ – She is a ‘Previously Enjoyed Companion.’
  5. She does not ‘Nag’ you – She becomes ‘Verbally Repetitive.’
  6. She is not a ‘Two-Bit Hooker’ – She is a ‘Low Cost Provider.’

How to Speak about Men and be Politically Correct:

  1. He does not have a ‘Beer Gut’ – He has developed a ‘Liquid Grain Storage Facility.’
  2. He is not a ‘Bad Dancer’ – He is ‘Overly Caucasian.’
  3. He does not ‘Get Lost All The Time’ – He ‘Investigates Alternative Destinations.’
  4. He is not ‘Balding’ – He is in ‘Follicle Regression.’
  5. He does not act like a ‘Total Ass’ – He developes a case of ‘Rectal-Cranial Inversion.’
  6. It’s not his ‘Crack’ you see hanging out of his pants – It’s ‘Trouser Cleavage.’

Hahaha Sorry I thought it was funny 🙂 Blame it on the cold, or my tacky sense of humor, I don’t care 🙂 Have a fabulous Hump Day Wednesday Evening!
Peace, Love & Laughs,

One Year Ago… Part 21

My parents, PC and I had plans to go eat dinner tonight at a Cajun restaurant called Bayou. It was her idea. She told PC if he came back Labor Day weekend we’d all go eat there. She proceeded to tell me that because we went to the movies the night before and dinner, my dad had spent way to much money since we didn’t buy anything for ourselves so we weren’t going tonight. I just stared at her speechless. It was her IDEA… but whatever.

 

Finally I said, we didn’t ask you to buy ours, we were going to.

-Well you didn’t jump up there to do it so we just figured we had to buy yours.

-No, you didn’t give us a chance.

-Well we’ll only go tonight if you pay for your own.

-That’s fine, we never asked for you to pay for ours anyway!

 

Boy this had me fuming mad. It just hit me funny. First off my parents have never told me anything like this so I was completely taken off guard. And secondly, well there was no secondly because this was a first.

 

I went upstairs just floored and called PC to tell him, make sure he still wanted to go. Of course I got him all worked up just like I was.

 

So yeah apparently my mom was back on the not liking him. Who knows. Like I said she’s never done anything like this to me…

 

Well wouldn’t you know, by the time dinner time came around she “wasn’t feeling good” and didn’t want to go. She didn’t want us going either but my dad went in, changed his clothes looked at PC and me and said, load up, let’s go. We jumped in the truck, more fun than staying there with someone who didn’t want us around, or so it felt.

 

When the waitress brought the bill after dinner PC went to grab it and my dad beat him to it. They fought over who was going to pay for quite a while and eventually my dad won out. When we got back home PC kept going I would have paid. I was even going to buy your dads. I said I know, I don’t know. I’m not sure if that speech this morning was coming from him or her or them. I don’t know.

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I'm sorry, I needed to vent

Okay I know I’m getting to the point here lately that I have almost 2 posts a day and this one will actually make 3 for the day and I’m sorry but I’m so frustrated. Sometimes this is an outlet and today this happens to be the route this is taking. And maybe I should just suck it up… I have for a long time but sometimes it becomes to much.

I am an only child. Always have been, always will be… LOL. On my mom’s side of the family, no cousins. On my dad’s side of the family there is one other grandchild. My cousin who is 1 year older than me almost to the day. She is 1 year, 1 month and 3 days older. There has always been some tension in my family and it started the year my cousin was 1 and I was about 6 months old. I guess the story goes (from what I’m told) that my mom bought a family present for my cousin, aunt & uncle instead of a present for them and one for my cousin. She was a year old so my mom figured. Well that started the rivalry between my aunt who pulled my grandma on her side and my mom. I guess it was so bad for a long time that my mom even refused to go to my grandparents. I have no idea, I was to little to know or care.

So my cousin and I being a year apart, there was always that rivalry it seems like siblings go through. I’m not sure, I don’t have one… so I’m just guessing but… my cousin was the taller, prettier, older one until I hit my growth spurt and grew almost 5 inches taller than her. She hated that. She also hated the fact that I am well endowed. One day I got sick of listening to her and blurted out, would you like me to cut them off and you can glue them on?

But I’ve always over come this. She was my cousin after all but I’ve always felt like I was second to everyone when it came to her. If it was between me and her friends, she went with her friends. She’s ditched me more than once for her friends. So when I was 15 and she was 16 she made me make her a promise that I would be in her wedding, she would be in mine. When my mom found that out she was pissed at me but I told her she was my cousin after all and hey at least I’d get to be in someone’s wedding right.

I told my cousin I wanted to know instantly when she got engaged. So when my cousin got engaged she called me one day almost 2 weeks after the fact to tell me 1st that I wasn’t going to be in her wedding. Only her friends were and 2ndly she wanted me to do her flowers. Well I was upset and so I told her I was a senior in college I wouldn’t have time to do her flowers for her wedding, sorry.

She unfortunately became sort of a bridezilla when it came to that wedding. I tried to stay out of it and told my grandma I didn’t want to know when she’d try to involve me. I did go to the wedding, she is my cousin after all, I even bought her a present. Well at that time in my life I was dating someone and had been for a while. She and her husband moved to Maine but before she moved she told me that no matter what, let her know when my wedding was and she’d make it a point to be here.

When she does come to MO she only contacts me through facebook which I’m weaning myself off of AND I’ve sent her message after message, this is my cell number, call me, text me, something. The last time she came here she knew weeks before, I saw from her status, she contacted me through facebook the day she landed about meeting up. She chose a time I had to work and couldn’t get out of work. This is what I’ve dealt with my whole life, I should be used to it. Heck I had to find out through facebook she was pregnant with her little girl a year ago. Come on… I am family, not some random bloke. (haha like my Aussie word :))

So when the love of my life and I got engaged we let her know. He’s even pretty sure we let her know when we set for the wedding date. So I sent her an invite and I got a card in the mail today from her that says they won’t be able to make it but here’s a $25 gift card to Lowes for our new house and there was a book on Love. I was disappointed in her. My dad said I should be used to it, it happens that way ever time. It’s always about her and I should have known better than that but I can’t help it, I was a little disappointed in her. Especially because I know she and her husband have gone all over the US to attend their friends weddings.

Just after her wedding, her parents split up and eventually got divorced. As her wedding plans happened she started disowning her mother’s side of the family, the side that I’m on. In fact I think I’m the only one on this side of the family that will even talk to her and she doesn’t really try to contact any of us. She will her mother every once in a while but I knew she was pregnant before her mother knew. Oh well whatever, I should be used to it. And I’m sorry to waste your time if you stuck through this and read with me. I was just disappointed and let down. What’s new. My wedding will go on and it’ll be beautiful!

I guess if you aren’t disappointed sometimes, you won’t truly cherish the GREATNESS in your life!

Peace, Love & Disappointment

Whatever it is….

…..It can go away now! 2 weeks ago I felt lousy (aka sick). Last week I thought I kicked it’s butt and was getting better. This week, ugh, I feel like crap again. Maybe even worse. It was all I could do to not keep myself awake coughing last night. 2 nights in a row of not sleeping worth a darn is really starting to creep up on me. I feel a little discombobulated right now. Where I work, we have a cafeteria so we don’t have to go out for lunch. They serve breakfast too :). Anyway they have a fountain machine but wouldn’t you know it is Pepsi products. I’m not a big Pepsi fan, I like Coke better. So on my way to work this morning I thought I’d run by the gas station and get a 32oz coke. I just really felt like Coke. Wouldn’t you know, I couldn’t remember if I unplugged my curling iron so by the time I ran back in the house to check and got back to the car, no time. So PC gave me a $1.25 to buy a Coke form the vending machine. It’s official, I prefer coke out of Soda Fountain machines better than Coke out of a bottle. Oh well he was sweet to offer and try to help me out :). I love you baby!

My dad had hay mowed down. Now if you don’t know anything about baling hay, you can’t bale it when it’s wet, and it’s not good to bale when it is too dry. It’s been so hot here lately that to dry isn’t really to hard to accomplish! So when I got home from work last night he asked if I’d go run the tractor and rake the hay for him (2 rows to 1, less laps around the field for the baler and bigger rows) while he ran the other tractor and baler. Sure no problem. Bad thing about that is the tractor is loud so you really can’t listen to music and I had one heck of an annoying song stuck in my head. Don’t get me wrong, love driving the tractor, just annoying when this is playing through your head…”Turning Japanese I think I’m turning Japanese I really think so.” Now try imagining hearing that going through your head for 2 1/2 hours :). It was so bad at one point to try and get it out of my head I started telling myself the Duck Joke. Sad I know!

I got done raking (because he started before I got home) before he got done baling so I took the tractor and rake on to the house and went and cleaned up. Then I became a bump on a log. I sat down in front of the TV around 8:30 and finished watching “The Holiday” that I had DVR’ed from a few months ago. I really like that movie and I’m not a Jack Black fan. He always plays weird parts but he was good in this movie.

I have to get my car licensed and inspected before next Friday which also happens to be my 27th birthday. So far, I’m thinking 27 is hitting me harder than any other birthday has. Weird I know.

I got an award from Jenna Renee over at Legally Brunette. Thank you! I will do all that goes with it, just right now my brain isn’t functioning. But I appreciate it a lot. Please don’t think I don’t, dang I wish this cold would go away. But you should all go visit her. She’s great! I don’t remember how I found her but I’m sure glad I did 🙂

Ok I just hit my funny bone, it wasn’t funny. On that note I might go crash and sleep somewhere! Ugh I hate summer colds or whatever this is parading around as!

Peace, Love & Cold Relief!!!

Tbug's Room

I am quite impressed with the way Tbug’s room turned out. She likes the color pink. Right now the pinks and browns and blues and browns are “It”. We decided we wanted a Blue and Brown bedroom. With that in mind and the fact that she likes pink, we thought, well heck, let’s give her a pink and brown room. Kind of keep with the same scheme of things. Then we thought we’d incorporate brown in the MIL room but then we went Black and white instead.

Anyway Here are the before shots of the house before it was ours: (so none of the stuff is ours)

2 of the walls in this room are concrete so it makes it difficult plus they had textured the 2 concrete walls which adds even more difficulty. That’s why we decided to just paint the entire room. Made it easier for all purposes.

Here is PC painting the brown. He used the roller and I stuck with the brush on the corners. His sister came over the day before and painted the pink walls for us. Now as you’ll notice he has no shoes on… they are in fact in the washer. He stepped in paint. Not a good idea… but we got it fixed 🙂 Makes for a good story too 🙂

As you can see we did opposites for the trim. Yes that was my handy idea. We did the same for the floor boards, wall plates, and light plates.

Setting up her bed.

You can see the Papasan Chair in the closet. Yeah I put her clock in there also. I wandered around the house for 2 days looking for the silly alarm clock. I found it when I was hanging clothes in her closet :). Go me!

Here was the original set up. I hated it! So after it was set-up, we rearranged. I like the set up now but here’s the original…

And finally, the finished product (from all 4 corners of the room).

She was at the house 2 weekends ago. It had been a month since she’d come to see us because she had been at camp. She walked in the room and I’m pretty sure she loved it. The girl was actually speechless. All she said was, “Oh Wow!” and the first thing she wanted to do was jump up on the bed. We are going to have to get her a step to get up and down off of it for a while because it’s a pretty tall bed but I think she likes it.

We are also putting a large cork board on the wall next to the Cowgirl sign so that if she wants to put anything on the wall, that is the only place but she is allowed to put anything there, well with in reason.. haha! No naked boys ;).

My mom made the bedding for her bed. She plans on making throw pillows for the bed for when Tbug isn’t with us but her sewing machine is broken and in the shop and they aren’t sure when it’ll be out so who knows when we’ll get the pillows but we have all the material. The curtain came from JC Penney. We need to re-cover the Papasan chair, blue really doesn’t go but until we decide what we are going to do, it’ll stay blue for now.

Next, I think I’ll probably show the living room.

Peace, Love, & Daughters

One Year Ago…. Part 20

-Good Night. I lo……. and stopped in mid sentence. Oh crap, please tell me he didn’t just hear that. I shut up instantly.
-What did you say?
-Nothing.
-No I heard you. You started to say something.
-No I didn’t. I tripped over a dog.
-Are you sure?
-Absolutely!
-Ok……?!?!
-Good bye, drive careful! Let me know when you make it home! If you need to talk later give me a holler.
-OK. Good ByeAnd we hung up the phone.

Oh. My. Gosh. Did I really almost just say that? Surely it was out of habit… right? I mean I haven’t said it to anyone other than my parents and grandparents in a while, but yeah surely that’s what it was. I hope he didn’t hear me. Surely not. I had him believing me anyway, it’s all good…. I think. Then I opened the door and walked in the house.

About 9:45 I gave him a call to see where he was. He said he was about 1 1/2 hrs or so from home. I told him I still wanted him to call me but that I was going to sleep. If I didn’t answer just leave me a message and we hung up.

***************************

The next day at work I struck up a conversation with my BOM (Brother of mine as I call him), Kalem. I told him what I almost said. He was shocked. I told him I was too. I told him surely it was just habit. He asked if I ended every phone conversation that way. No, I answered. I haven’t even been tempted.

So yeah that got me to thinking. But they say that guys are very touchy about this type of thing. Don’t say it to fast, don’t be the first to say it, etc. Surely I didn’t feel that way anyway, right? It didn’t help that my work day was rather redundant. I spent the entire day working on the same spread sheet and my eyes were going cross, but it was just cut and paste, cut and paste so it gave my brain lots and lots of time to wander and think.

Well heck, even if I did feel that way, I have to make sure this isn’t a rebound thing. It’s only fair to both of us, so I figured I’d ponder things a while longer and make sure my feelings were real. If they weren’t, well heck it was a mix up and it could happen to anyone right?

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One Year Ago… Part 19

I made it home. Told him good night and hung up the phone. The next day was Sunday. It was very un-eventful. He had to head home and make sure he got home at a decent hour. He and his daughter swung by to pick me up on their way for him to take her home. Again the anxiety attack happened… would I see her mother? What would she look like? I actually had to calm my nerves down because her mother was on a cruise. We were actually taking his daughter to stay with her step-dad and little sister. When he pulled up they jumped out and his daughter yelled, “I love you Nicole.” and gave me a hug. I told her that back and instantly my heart was filled with warmth.

Because he had to make it a point to be back to work on time the next morning he told me he was no doubt going to leave early in the afternoon. Especially since he had been away for 2 weeks. I told him I understood completely. We drove back to my house talking and reminiscing on all the fun we’d had the prior 2 weeks. When we got to my house I told him that I would drive over to his house and help him pack up if he needed. He told me that wasn’t necessary but if I wanted to come over I was more than welcome.

He left before I did. I told him I’d be over shortly. I ran in the house to tell my parents I’d be back, grabbed my car keys and headed his direction.

Suddenly sadness hit me. He wasn’t going to be there when I got home from work anymore. In fact I wasn’t going to see him again for a while. The next weekend was Labor day weekend and he contemplated coming home but wasn’t sure if he could or would.

When I got there I helped him pack up his stuff and take it out to his truck. He kept lingering around. I could tell he didn’t want to leave either. I finally told him I was leaving. I knew he’d stay longer if I didn’t and his parents and I neither one wanted him on the road that late. I told him I had to run to town after some things. I didn’t have to but that was my excuse. We both pulled out of the driveway, drove up to 37 hwy, I went left and he went right. I couldn’t help myself, I started to cry.

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