I walked in the house last night and couldn’t find hubby. So I set all my stuff down, seeing the light on in the kitchen walked in there. Nope, no hubby. So I stood there trying to imagine where he was because there were no other lights on in the house. I proceeded back into the bedroom and there he was… laying on the bed. This is how our conversation went…
Me: What are you doing? Hubby: I’m inspecting the back of my eye lids. One of them is needing an alignment. The other one has a bent tie-rod and the horn is wired backwards. M: I think someone is a little sleep deprived. H: Why are you tired? M: No you’re the one talking about tie-rods and you don’t have tie-rods in your eyes. H: But I do have rods. M: You have cones too. H: Yes, that was the problem. The tie-rod hit a parking cone and everything went downhill from there.
And on that note, I’ll leave you with this fabulous song I heard as I was driving home last night. It’s an older song, but I still felt like sharing :).
Where were you 2 years ago? What day would that have been? What year? Can you answer any of those questions? I can.
The day of the week would have been a Friday. The year would have been 2010. Starting at 8am in the morning I was making phone calls left and right. First to the bank, then to the hospital and back again. The Hospital said I didn’t pay a $25 co-pay bill (that they make you pay in advance before they’ll do anything to you) from 2008. The bank wanted to charge me $28/hr to research and find the check I had written. I was arguing with the hospital that they wouldn’t see me without paying the co-pay. I was arguing with the bank that I wasn’t going to pay $28/hr to find a $25 check.
The bank finally reasoned with me that that wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do. I finally proved that I paid the $25 co-pay but the hospital didn’t credit it to my account for a while, so therefore they thought I hadn’t paid it. Gah and people wonder why I don’t go to the hospital/doctor!
About 10am I was mad. I had been so shook up because I am one to PAY MY BILLS. The mail gal came by and saw my face was red and talked to me for a few minutes and then went on her way. Just as she left Nancy at the front desk called me to tell me I had a beautiful package sitting on her desk. I told her I’d be up. I started to do the mail real fast and said, nope, screw it.
Would you like to know what I was wearing? My husband says I have a steel trapped mind sometimes. I know what I was wearing this particular day. One of my favorite pairs of Lucky’s. My Red Nike Shocks. A t-shirt that said Tbugs Cheer team on it. And my Fight like a girl sweatshirt. Sorry I can’t tell you what bra and panties… I know you’re bummed about that right?
And this was what was waiting for me at the front desk.
Now I had already told the boy, Don’t get me flowers. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like them. What girl doesn’t like flowers, even when she says she doesn’t want them. :).
I called him on my trek back to my desk to give him fits. He didn’t answer his phone. Odd because he was just talking to me via g-talk. That’s fine, whatever I’ll go hit him up when I get back to my desk.
In Life the First Act is Always Exciting, But the Second act, that’s where the depth comes in ~Grown Ups
You are everything, I never knew, I always wanted ~Fools Rush In
The Truth is I gave my heart away a long time ago…. -And I never really got it back ~Sweet Home Alabama
Never lie, steal, cheat or drink But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away. ~Hitch
Look, I guarantee there’ll be tough times. I guarantee that at one point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you’re the only one for me. ~Runaway Bride
The hardest thing is loving someone and then having the courage to let them love you back. But if you know her shit and she knows yours, and at the end of the day if you still would rather give up than try, nothings ever going to be worth it. ~The Wedding Date
Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes I have to sit in my blue chair and just think or drop to my knees and pray. Sometimes life is hard, but I make it through everyday with the Lord, my wonderful husband and my fabulous family.
So the other weekend when Tbug was over at the house, I woke up every morning wanting a cookie. I’m not really sure what my deal was, but by golly I wanted a cookie, and I wanted a cookie bad. Sunday morning when I woke up and told hubby, he asked why I hadn’t said anything prior to then? I dunno, I figured if we had them, I’d eat them :).
That morning we got out of bed, called his mom and asked if she’d come over and watch Tbug so we could run to town to get part of her Christmas present and then when we got home, Tbug made cookies.
Yes you read that right…
Don’t worry, I didn’t just completely turn her lose in the kitchen, I stood around and helped, I stayed one step ahead of her on the recipe, so if she got off I could have her go back and re-read it, I helped make sure ingredients were measured correctly, I took the cookies in and out of the oven & when she got tired of scooping them out, I helped there too. BUT, I’ll have you know, she did most all the work! Seriously. I gave her the recipe and the ingredients and she went to town. I have visual evidence too.
See, I told you.
We used my mother-in-law’s recipe. And while the recipe listed below isn’t the recipe that we used, this is one of my all time favorite cookie recipes.
I actually received one of those emails with this recipe. You know, the recipes where you verify it against snopes.com because it said that some lady wanted the recipe and had to pay $225 or something like that for the recipe. Snopes says the email is false, but the cookies, oh they are good alright!
You’ll notice it says it makes 112 cookies. Yes, it makes almost that. I think one time I got like 100 and another time it was like 119. It really depends on the size of your cookies. At my aunt’s house, she has 2 ovens so it makes it extremely easy and fast to make that many cookies, but the recipe can be halved. trust me, I’ve done it :).
One thing about it, everyone raves about these cookies & if you make the whole batch, you are set for your Christmas cookies. Just sayin 🙂
Neiman-Marcus Cookies Makes 112 cookies. This recipe may be halved.
2 Cups butter 24 oz chocolate chips 4 cups flour 2 cups brown sugar 2 tsp Baking Soda 1 tsp Salt 2 cups sugar 1-8oz Hershey Bar (grated) 5 cups blended oatmeal 4 eggs 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp vanilla 3 cups chopped nuts (optional)
Measure oatmeal and blend to a fine powder in blender or food processor.
Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Add chocolate chips, Hersey bar, and nuts. Roll into balls and place 2″ apart on a cookie sheet.
Husband: I’m going to run to Lowes, do you want to go with me? Me: Sure. Husband: I’m ready to go, just waiting on you {I’m running around the house in shorts and a t-shirt} Me: You’ll have to give me some time and let me get dressed. So I head into the bedroom and start brushing my teeth. This is the next thing I see: Husband: Here hunny…
So our company is big in helping the United Way every year. A couple weeks ago one of our departments was holding a silent auction and one of the items was a trip for 2 on the Showboat Branson Belle. Oddly enough I had my cell phone on me, so I called hubs and told him. We decided upon a dollar amount we’d spend and we actually got the tickets for cheaper! I’d never been and neither had he so we weren’t quite sure what to expect….
Oh. My. Gosh. was it awesome! Definitely want to go back. This time, since we’re close to Christmas this was their Christmas show so I’m curious to see what say spring and/or summer shows are like, but either way it was amazing!
On our way to Branson we stopped in Springfield at a CVS pharmacy to look up Salma Hayak’s new line of make-up. I heard about it so I wanted to try it out. So far, loving what I bought!
Then we went and used our season pass to go in to Silver Dollar City just to see what the Christmas Celebration was all about. That and our tickets for the Showboat Branson Belle weren’t until 8pm anyway.
You had to be there 1 hour early for loading.
I thought this was just too darn cute! Yes those are fake geese 🙂
This is how you exit.
Here is the boat… or what my iPhone would capture of it. I left my big camera at home and my point and shoot was dead.
It is a paddle wheel boat. I got a funny video of that too… kind of like Hawaii where I stuck my tongue out…
This was up on the top looking back at the land.
This was after dinner. Oh goodness dinner was awesome. We had bread with seasoned butter (garlic and spices… oh yum!), then a salad with sweet onion dressing, then Roast Beef with brown gravy (to die for), a Focaccia breaded Chicken, Mashed potatoes with white gravy & green beans… all fabulous. To top it off we had a Lemon Berry Torte. It’s a wonder I could even fit in my clothes Sunday morning… LOL. Then you had the option of Tea, Coffee, Lemonade, or water. All of it was so good!
Here we are out on the upper deck after dinner but before the show started. Yes it was 40 degrees out and we didn’t have coats on, what’s your point?
Hubby wouldn’t look at me at first… LOL so ha! I showed him!
Hi, my name’s Nicole and I’m a dork 🙂
That’s the big wheel that operates the boat.
Back inside waiting for the show to start.
And like most places, they took our picture and then try to sell it to us.
Then Sunday we went to Table Rock Lake Dam. It’s friggin ginormous!
Well hello… my arm got us all in 🙂
This was the fish hatchery and it looks like they had to put the cages on there so the turkey buzzards would stay out of their crop….
Then we went to lunch. This was the wall at the restaurant. I wish I was this talented. I’d paint my whole house this way. Ok maybe not my whole house and I’ll bet with that comment hubby is glad I’m not this talented 🙂
We’d actually never eaten here before. It was excellent!
We love Bread with Olive Oil and seasonings 🙂
I got Chicken Pesto
Hubby got the Trio Sampler.
No neither of us ate everything either. In fact I have enough for 2 meals (after I ate some for lunch).
When we were finished and full, the waitress came by and asked if we’d like more to drink. We both declined. Then she offered dessert. Now normally we’d decline that too, but…….. she didn’t just offer dessert, no she started with the word Tiramisu. Yeah, we were suckered in. So then she brought it to us and I asked for more to drink. Before she could get our drinks back, hubby and I devoured this. Yes we shared but it was hard to share, it was that good 🙂
After we left there we went to Stonehill Winery to take a tour. This was a cute set up out in front.
This was some of the old machinery used when Stonehill was started back in the 1800’s.
Then I got to come home and study for an Anatomy & Physiology test. I so can’t wait until I never have to say that again, I’m just sayin! 🙂
Here are some interesting facts about Branson & the Showboat Branson Belle Total Population: 10,500ish (a little smaller population wise than my hometown) Visitors per year: 8 Million The Wheel: 10’2″ tall and weighed in over 600lbs It took 130 gallons of paint to paint the exterior of the ship It only took 25 gallons to paint the inside of the ship The ship displaces 95,062,500 cubic feet of water The paddle wheels are 25′ in diameter It moves at 12 knots or 8mph The paddles turn 8 times per minute, 480 times per hour.
Somewhere along the way we had a terrible fight. The worst fight to date as a couple. A day I’ve tried to forget. Somewhere along the way it was so bad we almost just said screw it and went our separate ways, but we didn’t. Real love is worth fighting for and fight for it we did. Real Love Stories Never Have Endings!
Day 323 – We attended our first wedding together as a couple
Some of you may remember back to this post I wrote to my {step}daughter on my wedding day.
I was driving to lunch yesterday and the song by Darius Rucker came on, “It won’t be like this for long.” That song hits me on so many levels. The first time I heard the song was late 2008, driving down the road, I believe I was in the truck with my parents, and yes I had tears running down my eyes.
I saw my dad/parents in the guys shoes… and me as the daughter.
He didn’t have to wake up He’d been up all night Layin’ there in bed listenin’ To his new born baby cry He makes a pot of coffee He splashes water on his face His wife gives him a kiss and says It gonna be OK
It won’t be like this for long One day we’ll look back laughin’ At the week we brought her home This phase is gonna fly by So baby just hold on ‘Cause it won’t be like this for long
My first day of Kindergarden they tell me my dad had a hard time… I didn’t want him to take me to school, I was going to ride the bus with the “big kids”. By 2nd grade I had to change schools and I almost cried when he just wanted to drop me off and wouldn’t walk me into the school. He didn’t ever get out of walking me into the school building again until late late grade school or junior high.
Four years later ‘bout 4:30 She’s crawling in their bed And when he drops her off at preschool She’s clinging to his leg The teacher peels her off of him He says what can I do She says now don’t you worry This’ll only last a week or two
It won’t be like this for long One day soon you’ll drop her off And she won’t even know you’re gone This phase is gonna fly by If you can just hold on It won’t be like this for long
As a teenager, I guess I got along fairly well with my parents. Not to many fights broke loose at our house until my senior year when I was freaking out about going on to college. College seemed like 2nd grade all over again, new school, bigger school, new town, dorms, so much to change, I was freaked out! In fact toward the latter part of my senior year all hell broke loose at our house a few times when I missed deadlines for college applications, scholarships, etc, or trying to make sure I didn’t miss deadlines.
A lot had happened to my family during my high school years and I was just extremely nervous to move on. I wasn’t ready. High school was good to me and college scared the crap out of me.
Some day soon she’ll be a teenager And at times he’ll think she hates him
But we made it through high school, the teenage years and even college too :). I was out of college for 3 years by the time I’d heard this song and at that time in life I wasn’t in a good place… I was in a relationship that wasn’t the best but I hoped would get better and as we all know it didn’t. But the best thing happened, I got into a great relationship, one that my parents loved the guy and the guy treats me awesome and I went on to get married and while I was at it became a {step}mom to a great girl.
Then he’ll walk her down the aisle And he’ll raise her veil But right now she’s up and cryin’ And the truth is that he don’t mind As he kisses her good night And she says her prayers
He lays down there beside her ‘Til her eyes are finally closed And just watchin’ her it breaks his heart Cause he already knows
It won’t be like this for long One day soon that little girl is gonna be All grown up and gone Yeah, this phase is gonna fly by So, he’s tryin’ to hold on
‘Cause it won’t be like this for long
It won’t be like this for long
It won’t be like this for long
Every time I hear this song I break down in tears thinking of my dad (& mom too).
But
I was driving to lunch yesterday and I heard this song come on the radio and a different scenario popped into my head for the first time and of course the silly song proceeded to bring tears down my eyes again.
I may not have given birth to Tbug, but she is very much mine. A couple weekends ago when we bought her new boots and then went to go ride horses at my parents, she went to put her spurs on her new boots and they wouldn’t fit. I told her to bring them with us and I’d figure something out when we got to mom & dad’s house. I went in the house and grabbed a pair of my old spurs, pulled my old straps off of them and put her straps on my old spurs and they fit.
We put them on her boots and I asked hubs what to do with her old spurs and he told me to put them in the truck, we may need them again someday and silly me as I was walking to the truck with her “kid” spurs in my hands I started tearing up. He grinned at me and I told him to shut up and walked on. But even days that we have to take her back to her mom, driving down the road my silly eyes well up with tears. I miss that I wasn’t there for her birth, her first steps, words (although sometimes I wish she didn’t know how to talk), etc… but I’m here now.
I still remember that she told her dad she didn’t want an evil step mom so she didn’t want him to re-marry for that reason, but he married me and I hope she never thinks of me that way, but I can’t help but admit that I’m afraid someday she’ll hate my guts. When that time comes it’ll break my heart!
So I’m sorry this was a really long post today and a very deep but this is how I feel and some of the things I’ve been dealing with lately.
