Ketchup

I am so far behind! Every time I think about blogging this week I seem to end up busy. But, it's been a busy week.

So, first things first. At the beginning if the week we celebrated my MIL's birthday. It was the first family BBQ of the season and boy, was it good! I love getting together with the nieces and nephews that I am still getting to know.

Ringing in the New Year

Well it has been a whirl-wind kind of weekend. Loads of fun and busy, busy, busy!

I enjoyed three of my favorite stores: The Quilted Bear, DownEast Home and Ikea. All of which produced great amazing finds.

I ate some great food.

I enjoyed a great deal, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Lightening Thief.

I enjoyed future plans.

All in all I rang in the 31st year with lots of great things. It is not over yet though...tomorrow is actually full of more surprises and fun.

I will share pictures and details about stuff soon. Right now my nyquil has kicked in...because the best gift I get each year is a sick. I have been holding it off with dayquil and nyquil, but I have a feeling that sometime this week I will crash. Then I will have lots of time to post pictures.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

It has been such a hectic and crazy week so far! I am trying to find spare time to clean my house and doing anything other than that seems to be dream. It is a good busy but busy!

I am enjoying my birthday week though. Fun has been had, will be had and is being planned.

I'll post some pretty interesting updates soon.

Stinky Face

Carrie and I share a birthday, same year and everything. It is always fun to watch her with her three completely adorable kids. Emily is the youngest and she is such a cutie. Unless she is not happy with you. If you say no, take something away or just plain doesn't like what is happening, she will give you her stinky face. It just kills me!

Oh Emily...one day these pictures may haunt you.

Mean

Sometimes I am mean. Sometimes I feel mean. And sometimes it is totally deserved.

Mostly I am a nice person, don't get me wrong.

Although I do struggle with a bit of road rage (thanks dad!) but believe me I am trying. I only complained out loud once today while in the car and I had tons of errands to run. So, I count that as a good day.

It can be frustrating and very anger-inducing sometimes. Everyone does this...it is not just me. I am not tire-slashing, hair-pulling, punch-throwing or profanity-slinging mad, just what-a-brat, seriously, and silent-treatment mad.

Things that are sure to trigger my frustration:

Self-righteous people who believe that they are perfect or always right

Self-centered people who believe that everyone must be jealous of them

Emotionally degrading people who never really are out and out mean, you know the kind who are always "just trying to help" and tell you all your faults but always follow it with a "but you are wonderful!"

Users who only want to talk/hang out with you if it convenient or useful for them

People who cut you off knowingly and those who breast-feed, text and drive at the same time

People named Jason Mesnick

And

People who don't think I am amounting to anything or that my life is boring and easy because of my marital status and lack of biological children

With that said and expressed...

I received the last of my birthday presents yesterday...a lovely jewelry set from one of my besties, Stacy...so wonderful. I will post pictures soon. A ended up having a great birthday this year. I got to share it with the people who mean the most to me...I had a great cake (or three), and got some great gifts!

And again...I love to run. I kicked some guys butt at the gym yesterday when he saw how much I ran he asked me how I could stand to run that long and I just smile and was super happy to say, "Because I love it." Yes.

Surprise

I have some great friends! They had an impromptu surprise party for me. Showing up at my house with a cake and candles was such a surprise. It was awesome. I felt so loved. Courtney, Rashago and Tony totally made my day!

Graced with a $25 itunes card...which is exactly what I wanted! Don't mind the hair in this pic...it was the end of the day and it looks crazy weird.

Birthday Bowling

Bowling was a blast! I have some great friends who made this a great day for me! Not the best picture of me but remember I hadjust bowled for the last two and a half hours. And Logan even let me win one.

As you read this, I will be somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley enjoying my temple 5k. Pictures to come.

Happy Birthday!

What a great birthday it has been so far and it isn't even over! My birthday extends through the weekend so you will hear all kinds of fun things in the next few days.

The girls at work made me a "better than sex" cake that was super yum and gave me a birthday card that play "She's a Brick House..." when I open it. I laughed when I got it. I work with some pretty amazing girls. It was a great morning at work.

I went and paid a ticket and renewed my Drivers License this afternoon. Yikes.

Then I went to dinner at Applebee's and got my favorite Asian Orange Chicken Bowl...so yum! And a molten lava cake for desert...so good!

Then ran to Old Navy to check out their sales and scored on a new winter coat in a beautiful blue to add to my collection, since we all know I am coat junkie. And got a running jacket too...and all for a whopping $3. Yeah, you heard me. The wool coat that is hard core awesome (pictures soon!) was $11 and the running coat was $6. My cute roommate Courtney have me a $15 gift card so I paid tax and walked out with some great new coats! My birthday rocks!

And now I am off to bowling! So much fun. And tomorrow is our temple 5k...and saturday is spa day....so much to do! I am loving it. See, birthday's are still fun! I hope you all had a good Feb. 19th...the best day of the year!

Etsy Love

This is becoming almost regular. But I just can't stop looking at all the great finds. So, here is my new batch of loves.

I love these! I can just see myself in these sassy little heels. Check them out here and drool with me. They are my size and everything.

I love this painting. It is calming and beautiful to me. Check it out here. I have the perfect spot for it too..ah.

I love this necklace. Crazy to me since I am not a big necklace kind of girl, but this one speaks to me. Check it out here.

I think this is so stinkin' cute! I could just see a room decorated around this adorable toy. I love it. A bug bedroom for an adorable sandy blond little boy missing his front teeth...oh, my imagination is running just a little wild. Haha. Anyway...check it out here.

Those are my drool-worthy finds of the week. Excuse me while I make some birthday plans. I'll share more on that tomorrow.

Not That Old!

I just needed to make mention that my birthday is right around the corner...I am excited and nervous at the same time. Logan and I were talking about my birthday and what I wanted to do for it and he suggested doing a cancer run or something and I in all my self-centered glory said, "um, no. this is one day when it is all about me, not other people!" (did I really say that? I meant it in a nice giving way...really). So he responded with a good compromise, he said we would have to do a "run to replace Nichole's hip." haha. I may have grey hair, not be able to stay up all night anymore, not as giggly and teenage-like, but my dear Logan friend, I am NOT in need of a hip replacement. Geesh.

Be sure to check out my friend Mariel's new blog, new recipes or ideas everyday! I have really been enjoying it.

And I am in need of ideas for our up coming Super Saturday. I am always trying to do lots of big projects, haha.

Excited!

I AM SO EXCITED!

So, for my birthday (in a few months!) a few friends and I are taking a trip. A trip to California! We are going to hit Disneyland (thank you for the free day for your birthday!), Universal, and some other random places. One of the highlights will be a session in a temple. Four of us are going and I am so excited to be sharing it with them! Tricia, Nic and Logan. All people I love (ok, so don't really know Nic enough to love him, but he is a great guy!) and I am excited to share my birthday with them!

I am just excited to go on trip and to just have fun. I haven't really been on trip for about a year and I am so ready to go and have some fun. So, bring on the planning!

Also, I got my hair cut today...AH! LOVE IT! I will take pictures and post them tomorrow.

German Chocolate Cake

This evening we started the celebration of my birthday. It was so much fun to know that I was heading to dinner later in the day, it made work entertaining. I left work early and we headed to Layton our first stop was Deseret book where I picked up a few things, mostly wedding presents. Then I found a pair of new work pants on sale, which is a great thing since I realized today that my favorite pair had a part where the seem has come undone. I don't seem to have enough work clothes. I can only pick up one item at a time it seems.

We then headed to our final destination, after a quick stop into our favorite shoe store, Red Lobster. We are all big seafood fans and we were so excited to indulge in one of our favorites.

I had a lobster and shrimp pasta with fresh tomato's and asparagus. YUM!

After dinner we headed home and enjoyed a most delicious german chocolate cake made by my dear friend and roommate, Melinda. I love german chocolate cake! They insisted that all 29 candles adorn the cake. It was fun but it created a good deal of heat.

Melinda gave me a herb garden kit for my kitchen which I love! I am so excited to plant tomorrow and watch as my herbs grow. And Emily gave me a hershey fondue pot. It is so cute! My camera battery died just as I went to take pictures, but not before this lovely little diddy. Hope you enjoy!

Tomorrow the birthday celebration continues.

Jello

Well I apologize for my long absence. I try to be more on top of my blog, but it was a crazy few weeks here. I will spare most of the details, not to worry.

I was one of the lucky few to be hit with Influenza A this year. It knocked me out for over a week, no work, school, play or anything else. And I also found out that I am allergic to Codeine. So it was a long few weeks for me. The good thing is today I finally ate slightly solid food!Raspberry jello and I have a great relationship.

Today is also a special day. I celebrate my 29th birthday. Well, technically at least. Because I have been sick I post-poned the celebration until I am on solid food and have enough energy to do something. I am looking forward to that day.