the little things

awww shucks!

Well, I'm sad to say that trick or treat tonight was a bust.

Last year there were SO many kids, I have no clue what happened this year?

We had several, but not nearly like last year.

We had a TON of candy left over & we were extra generous to the kiddos...sucha bummer!

Maybe the McCain sign in the front yard sceered em' off? ;)

We did have a group of teenagers go by our house "trick or treating" complaining that we weren't voting for Obama & they "didn't want our candy"  how nice. I'm not a fan of disrespectful teens. not at all.

Anyways, in other chipper news: we caved & turned on the heat yesterday!  I just couldn't take it anymore. It was way too cold for my liking!

I have come to the realization that I am boring person. LOL. yikes!  I have so much I want to do & no oompf to get it done! I also have purging to do, emails to write, a scrap table to clean & re-organize, photos to scrap, a few DVR'd episodes of one of my favorite shows of all time, Roseanne to watch & plenty of sleep to catch.

I am, however getting pretty excited for the holidays! Every year I tell myself not to rush it. Don't start Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, don't decorate too soon, etc, etc...but I aways fail miserably at that stuff. (!)

I hope you have a fabulous weekend, I'm offt to lounge before Nate gets home!

freezing fingers!

Holy Toledo, it's COLD in this house!

why? you might be asking.

because we haven't turned our heat on here yet! ack!

Nate & I are trying to wait til Nov. 1st...Saturday.

I'm freeeezing! Well, my fingers are freezing...not really the rest of me, because we ordered these! from QVC last week!

Love them!

I got moss green & Nate got red. They came yesterday & we loved getting all wrapped up in them & had the warmth of the fire place on us while we watched The Biggest Loser!

What else is new? It's been a few days since I've updated!  We had a great weekend, aside from me getting a BAD bloody nose (aren't all bloody noses bad?!) on Monday afternoon IN THE CAR! Yuck!  I was fine until it was over. Then, I almost passed out!  It was like 50* here in Ohio that day & I had the window down & the seat set all the way back. I couldn't breathe..it was pathetic! lol  Poor Nate he wasn't sure whether to pull over or keep going or go home or what! hehe. I had just had a visit with my dad, who I haven't seen in months & the last time we talked about 3 weeks ago, it was nothing but hurtful words.  I'm not sure if seeing him (which was actually a nice visit to my surprise) had something to do with it or not. Crazy!

I got an evening to scrap Saturday. Love that! Here's a wonky scan of one I did. The other one is a 12x12 & I'm too lazy to take photos of it tonight! haha!

Our neighborhood trick or treat is this Friday & I am so excited!  Nate & I bought a ton of candy to hand out & my mom, Megan & step dad are coming over to help me hand out-it should be fun!  However, Nate thought he was "helping" by opening all the candy. Too bad it's super tempting just sitting there calling my name! lol I'm happy to say I've done really well with it there tho. Only snuck one tootsie roll! ;)

Speaking of-the eating stuff is going well.  It is hard not being on a set plan tho, but I'm hanging in there!  I am completely addicted to organic cereal & Horizon organic milk!  I love having it in the evenings when I want something sweet.  It's delicious & you eat just a bit & are so full!  I also found all natural strawberry yogurt & organic applesauce that taste sooo good!

Dinner is the hardest to plan for/make.  I haven't found many good recips yet, but I'm still (slowly) looking!

Well, my fingers are officially freezing! LOL

Here's to 2 more work days & freezing indoors!! ;)

PS-the new gallery is up at the AC blog AND they're having an awesome fall giveaway-so check it out if ya'd like! :) 

hearts :)

i am in love with the fun heart (actual name:flirty) paper from American Crafts! it makes me happy!

i miss scrapping. i haven't done it since this page, which was weeks ago.i i plan on doing lots of it saturday!   welp, lunch is over-back to work i go!

kids do not lie

While we were on vacation, we got to spend a day with Nate’s dad & step mom & my small sister in law, Lauren, who is 7-going on 27!  She is wise beyond her years & had me laughing the whole time.

She is seriously such a sweet kid. So loving & friendly.

But, she said something that had me in tears that night (not intentionally at all, of course), but just because she’s 7 & kids tell it like it is.

We were all in her new “life size” playhouse shortly after arriving to their house & after many hugs & “I can’t believe you surprised me’s!” she looked up at me & said in her sweet litte southern drawl, “Nichole, you’re much bigger than you were at the wedding!”

 

Talk about feeling “small.”  My heart just sank.  She didn’t mean to hurt my feelings, she was making an observation. An innocent observation.

Her mom (Nate’s step mom) quickly stopped her from saying anymore & made her apologize.  Which wasn’t necessary.  I knew what she meant & I knew she didn’t mean it to be rude or disrespectful.  I had no words & I still can’t remember what I may have even said, but I do remember how I felt.  I felt HUGE. I felt ugly. I felt like a failure.

I still feel that way.

For the rest of the day I tried to push those words back into my mind. I tried to not let it ruin my time with family. But, no matter how hard I tried I was so down.  Lauren was so right.  I am much bigger than I even was at my wedding (and I was even big then!) and people notice.  I notice.  Nate notices.  I am so blessed that he never says anything. He loves me for me & I am thankful for that, but I know deep down he would love to have a beautiful, thin, sexy wife (hello. Who wouldn’t?!).

Anyways, I’m grumbling.

Megan & I are going for a walk tonight when I get home from work. I’m actually kind of excited about it!

Oh, and thank you so much for the words of encouragement & special shout out to Kim for the GREAT tips to help get me started!

One thing I have on my side is I don’t drink pop. I haven’t for almost 6 years. Water & I are best friends. Too bad I don’t feel the same about fruits & veggies & all that jazz! Heh.

Here’s to half the week being over!

 

funny how that works out

Today is Day 1.

Day 1 of not just grabbing anything I want & eating it.

Day 1 of starting a walking routine.

Day 1 of a “plan” that I’m not even sure is a plan.

 

Today was also the day to weigh myself.  Get that dreaded “starting number!”

Until I pulled the scale out from the bottom drawer in the bathroom & kept stepping on it & stepping on it, only to find out the battery is dead!

 

I guess God just knew I wasn’t ready to see what it said! ;)

So funny how that works out.

 

Even tho I have no “set” plan right now (Weight Watchers? South Beach? Regular diet & exercise? Organic?, etc) I feel confident I will accomplish some major goals.  I just feel miserable.  My appearance is even worse. Even tho I don’t feel good, I still never fully realize just how big I am really am until I see myself in the mirrors or in photos.

I’m 24. I’m a pretty happy, jolly, goofy person. I love my life. I just want it to show inside & out, 24/7.

 

At work this week, we’re doing a Mystery Goblin exhange (think Secret Santa). I came back to work this morning to find a cute little Halloween house & socks with witches on them…and a cute pumpkin mug with one of my favorite candies in the entire world- Rolos!

It about killed me not to eat the whole thing!  But, I decided I could have 1 & that was it. Afterall, one of my greatest mottos is: It’s not what you eat, it’s how much of it you eat.

 

I have so many things other than myself to think about when I make food choices. Nate. Our future children. Our life. Both of us, eating healthy.

 

One thing I noticed in Charleston (and joked about quite often) was how many people we saw jogging, running & walking. Unreal.  I’m not kidding when I say every other person we passed on the street was doing some sort of exercise! 

I was jealous at how GREAT the women looked & how fast they would pass our chubby behinds!  But, now I get how it is they can look & feel so good.  They put effort into it.

I mean, who knew?! ;)  They weren’t the ones gulping down fried shrimp, rice & caramels. They weren’t the ones getting winded walking all of 2 blocks around the Market.  They weren’t the ones eating at Sonic & then stopping at Jack’s Cosmic Dogs!

 

Ummm hello!  I know I was on vacation, but I would absolutely be lying if I said my eating habits were different here at home. Because, they’re not.

 

I eat whatever I want, whenever I want.  And I know it has to stop. In order to have all I’ve ever dreamt about having-I have to get this addiction under control, once & for all.

 

I hope to find some healthy/good recipes & will share them when I do.  I’d love to hear any tips you may have or recipes you may have to share!

For now, I’m off to spend some time with Nate & watch The Biggest Loser!

 

The best time

We've been home almost 2 days & I'm just now starting to find some "free" time! What an awesome 10 days it's been!  I do not want to go back to work tomorrow, therefore I refuse to think about it.

We had incredible time at Isle of Palms/Charleston (I would go back right now if I could!), got to do SO much fun stuff, had a wonderful time with Nate's family in South Carolina (he has the cutest sister, ever! I must admit it's a little funny to say I have a sister in law who is 7 :)), we made amazing time coming home & decided to venture up to Findlay when we got back into Ohio to see Nate's mom.

She got us one of those down comforters for our anniversary. So sweet!

I am so anxious to get to scrap! We took over 300 photos, so I'm just trying to narrow down a few favorites to scrap tonight.

Tonight is also my last "hoorah!" for eating whatever I want. Tomorrow starts a new plan. A little bit of organic, whole wheats, lots of protein & lots of fruits & veggies.  I'm kind of excited, but have to admit that I got pretty down & out last night at the grocery store.  This whole "mess" of my body & health just really stinks.  I'm going to try & keep as positive as possible, tho.  I'm hoping to blog through the process.

I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of vacation photos over the next few posts, I apologize in advance! ;)

Alright, I'm off to scrap!

(sunny morning on our anniversary!)(having a yummy coffee dessert at lunch @ the noisy oyster!)

Live! From the ocean! :)

We have had such an amazing day!  I think we're both pretty exhausted from our day in Charleston! We're back at the hotel-on the balcony listening to the waves crash ashore & reeeeelaxing! :)

 (us at Ft. Sumter-such a neat place!)

I can't believe it's been 2 years since our wedding!  The time has gone by so fast.  Nate got me THE sweetest anniversary card! I cried during breakfast reading it this morning! He always says just the right things. 

We arrived to Isle of Palms in awesome time yesterday...it has been gorgeous here!  We are so thankful for this amazing time together!  God is so, so good!  Oh! And the weather was so nice, that the ocean was warn enough to go swimming-but, as you may remember, I couldn't find a suit a few weeks ago & decided against it. Well, big mistake! haha. SO, we ran to Target, I found THE cutest black (with built in skirt!) suit!  I was so excited!

So, after Target, we jumped in the (kind of cool water! ha!) & had a blast!  We love it here!

Anyways, I'm going to run, but just wanted to say hello! We made it! And are having a blast!  We're doing a carriage tour & plantation tour tomorrow & I cant wait!

OH. I almost forgot!  We did have a teeny tiny mishap this afternoon.  As we were driving out of the aquarioum parking lot, we were backed into! Yikes!  Thankfully, no one was hurt & neither car was damaged at all! Thank the Lord!  The guy who hit us felt so bad & we exchanged info just in case. He just didn't see us!  We've gotten a good giggle out of it today-our anniversary-only us! haha. You have to laugh in situations like that. I'm just glad no one was hurt & our car wasn't damaged! Nate & I have looked at it a million times-not a scratch! 

Ok, I'm really going!  Hope you are well & I'll write more soon! :)

i see why people take vacations!

Good grief, I am pooped & we haven't even left yet!

I wasn't even sure I would get here before we depart, but I finished up with the "chores" early so I thought I'd drop a few lines. :)

Thank you for the sweet words about our home. We really do love it here & are thankful everyday that the Lord has provided us with such a comfy nest. :)

This past week seemed to have gone so slow. Gee, I wonder why? ;)

Let me just say, I was not sad to say adios to work last night! haha. 

Today was so busy. We got up early to get ready, I cut Nate's hair, we had to go to the bank & Kmart for some pillowcases for travel (because I am a total germ-a-phobe like that!), then we had church pictures for our directory (that we actually really liked this time!), had a yummy lunch at Panera Bread because I hadn't eaten all day & it was after noon.  Then, we came home, Nate washed the car, I cleaned & swept out the inside of the car & some of the house...by the time all that was done, it was time for Nate to go to work. After he left, I did all the laundry, packed up a few things, remembered I forgot an anniversary card & my prescription, so I ran to the store for that stuff...came home, watched all my DVR'd reruns of Roseanne & Cosby & here I am! 

Nate is in his last couple of hours at his work & then our vaca starts!  Tomorrow we'll be going to church, then to mom & Phil's for a yummy dinner with the whole family!  I am really excited because we haven't all gotten together for a while-we're long overdue!  Plus, I love being back "home"...it reminds me of such goodness.

I'm also excited for mom to give me one of her good manicures/pedicures! hehehe.  I am THE worst nail painter ever...so I asked mom if she would be so kind to make them pretty for vacation! 

After mom & Phil's, the game plan is to come home, pack up pretty much everything (which, oh my...it's a lot. I just know it!  I'm talkin' I can't ever travel without like 5 pairs of shoes & enough clothes for 2 weeks! Nate can't stand it! LOL), finish up a few things around the house & then bed for some sleep (but, let's be honest; we're gonna be like kids on Christmas Eve-so excited for what's about to come!)...and then up & on the road by 3 a.m.!!  yeyyy!

I am also really excited to take the Mac baby with us. The hotel is supposed to have free internet, so let's hope! :)

Well, I'm totally falling asleep sitting here, so off to take a bath & wait for Nate to get home!  Have a great rest of the weekend!

Ps-this is my excited/going crazy/lots to do face!! ;) hehehe.

something about fall takes me back

...to when I was living at home. Late teens, early twenties. Single. losing weight. feeling great. No cares in the world. Having good times partying. Finding out who I was. Having only 2 bills to pay. My life revolved around boys, money, scrapbooking & friends. How few decisions I actually had to make. The list goes on.

I love it.

I never want to forget who I was or how I felt.

Fall brings out different things in me for some reason. The true reminiscer in me, if you will. :) *sigh*

Anywhoo.

Can I just say what an amazing husband I have?

Well, I do. :)

Yesterday, I came from work to find a freshly mowed lawn & this: 

I walked into the house to find it spotless. As I walked further, I found all the clothes washed, folded AND put away!  I even found our sweaters & other winter clothes freshly washed because, and I quote Nate, "they smelled like Goodwill!" hahaha. & ready to be organized into the closet. Dinner was delish. Seriously, so good!  He also made "Aunt Kim's potatoes" as a side-yum! After dinner I did some stuff online & we got a little silly in Photobooth! (I promise I wasn't mad at him, nor was I trying to bite his head! haha)

We had a lovely evening curled up on the couch watching some shows.  I love to cuddle! We ended it with the boring presidential debate. still voting for the same person I was before, even if I was bored to death by both candidates! ;)

I am so blessed. :)

As I was waiting on Nate to finish up the grilling, I snapped these of our new mums :) 

Hope your week is going good!  Only 2 more days of work for me before vacation!!  I am getting so excited!

I shall call him owlie :)

Since Nate won't let me get a turtle (that I have already named "Sheldon"-unique, I know ;)), I have found a new buddy that can't smell up my house & that he can't not allow me to have!

Meet Owlie! :)

  I was having some fun in picnik today when I found this cute little guy. ;)

I had such a wonderful visit with my grandparents last night. Gram-cracker hemmed my new work pants, she also made a yummy new organic soup & waldorf salad (holy goodness with grapes, raisins, pecans & apples with a yummy whip cream coating!), I laughed so hard at my grandpa trying to kill a fly that wouldn't leave the tv alone, we enjoyed looking through the Phipps Family History book-grandpa loves to share history about his family from 200+ years ago! I always stay for hours. last night, I was definitely there for 7 hours!  The time just flies when I'm with them. I am blessed.

Side Note: I'm back on Two Peas some more & tried to change my avatar, but it keeps coming up as a ?...can anyone help me?!  I got kind of impatient & decided to try later. LOL

I'm hoping to go scrap here in a minute. Vacation is a week away!!!  I am so, so super, super excited!  This week better fly by! haha.

Here's one I did last weekend-I missed working with all the bright colors-this one was so fun to do!

And another one from the WIP Guest Designer this month & a card! Write it down, I did a card! :) 

Hope your weekend is going good!  I'm off to get some stuff done!