The New Door

We had a french door leading out to our deck. It was leaky and let in too much heat from the summer sun. Opening the door took up way too much room in our small dining room. It had to go.

And on Friday, it did.



The kitchen looked really big with half the wall gone. The new sliding glass door is so much brighter. It doesn't leak wind or water. I think it makes the room look so much bigger and better.



It's true test will be in filtering the summer's evening sun. In just a few months we will see if it is up to the task.

A Penguin Named Soren

Lincoln has a fabulous little Children's Zoo; it's fabulous because you can get through the whole thing in an hour. Everyone knows I hate the zoo.

Anyway, two summers ago one of the zoo's two seals died after eating trash that had been thrown into the exhibit. Since seals are decidedly not solitary animals, the remaining seal was moved to a zoo that had other seals. In place of the seal exhibit the zoo debuted a brand new penguin exhibit the Spring. One of the new male penguins is named Soren.

Daddy was nice enough to take our little Soren to the zoo to see the new penguins. Although we aren't sure which one is Soren, it doesn't matter. They'll all be Soren to us.

Crafty Projects

To begin, I have to say that, again, the date of this post isn't the actual date it's being composed. I'm behind. Again. I want to preface this post thusly: Friday, April 29th I got sick as a dog. I did not gain any sense of normalcy until Sunday afternoon, May 1st. As such, my early preparation of the May Day baskets mentioned in this post was quite wise.

Moving on....

Evelyn wanted to make May Day baskets this year, so we drug out the Cricut and got to work. We made the baskets themselves and the tags, and we embellished them with ribbon. We filled them with clearance-priced pink Easter grass, seeds and a pinwheel.




I also made some more greeting cards. I picture myself Cricut-ing the day away once all my kids are in school. I'll have tons of greeting cards and catch up on 8 years worth of scrap booking. Only two more years...




P.S. Spell check is telling me thusly is not a word. Since when? If it isn't a word, it should be.

My Big Girl!

Evelyn has mastered on of the last items on the list of "I'm a Big Kid Because I can _____." She learned how to tie her shoes. She was so proud that we had to call Daddy at work. As you can see from her photo, she was absolutely thrilled.

Happy Easter!

For us, Easter came in three parts this year. First we celebrated at my dad and step mom's house the Sunday before Easter. Grandma Julie always has plenty of candy, an egg hunt, and egg dyeing. This year she also helped Evelyn make cupcakes.

The kids had a great time hunting eggs. Dade even got to hunt, but I think he's grown a bit tall for the whole thing.






We also had ice cream cake to celebtrate all the March/April birthdays we have in the family.



My step mom and little sister made a quilt for me out of the girls' old receiving blankets. I couldn't bear to part with them, but there really isn't any reason to keep a big pile of baby blankets around. The quilt is fabulous beyond words, and I am truly grateful for their hard work. I get to keep the baby blankets and still actually have a use for them.



Our next celebration was in Norfolk for Easter and Colby's sister's college graduation. Mostly the girls and I just played with our cousin/nephew Kort. I know the kids hunted eggs with Grandma Connie, and I know the Easter Auntie gave them gifts, but I don't have any photos of that. Only Kort.





Finally, we celebrated at home. The kids loved the gifts brought by the Easter Mommy, um, Bunny. However, Dade got out of bed about and hour and a half after his siblings and as such missed picture time.




Our Easter tradition is the giving of chocolate bunnies. Colby always received a chocolate bunny as a kid, so our kids will have the same.


On a more somber note, right after I took this photo Evelyn barfed on herself. She continued to barf all morning but was fine in time for Chinese food for supper.

Happy Birthday Party to Me! (part 2)

Now that I've got all the sappy parts of my birthday celebration out of the way I can discuss the food, wine, gifts, and bowling!!

The food at Green Gateau was delicious, as always. Nothing says HAPPY BIRTHDAY like two kinds of wine, champagne, and two desserts. Holla!




And the lobster bisque soup is to die for.



This year's white elephant gift exchange theme was "I saw this and thought of Nichole" or "I saw this and knew Nichole would hate it." Most people brought stuff they knew I'd like: wine, rap music cds, pink socks, and flowers. Sara brought something she knew I'd hate: a Toby Keith cd. I almost barfed when I opened it. See what I mean, she can read my brain? I ended up keeping the wine glass I brought, and Colby got stuck with Toby Keith. I actually hid it in under some stuff when it was sitting in our van so that no one thought I actually owned Toby Keith.



Cody got a rap cd and pink socks, which he wore bowling.


Once we were done eating we headed off to bowl. See how happy we are?! It was so fun!











Okay, maybe there were a few too many drinks being poured.....



I had way too many drinks (which I later found out were Jack Daniels with Dr. Pepper, thanks Babe) and dropped my bowling ball backwards. I also spilled a drink, which is a party foul, so I had to chug the next one.




Did I mention I dropped my ball....and I bowl on a league? Pretty sure this is a shot of me after I dropped my ball.



But only one of us was puking, want to die, hung over the next day. This year's winner....Dede. Congrats. I know you won't be drinking any beer for awhile, and Sara and Travis are happy to pass you their crown from last year.

Happy Birthday Party to Me! (part 1)

Okay, so I can't actually pretend like I'm writing this post on April 17th. The fact of the matter is that it's April 24th, and I am finally getting caught up on my blogging. I've been spending more time at the gym which is taking time away from blogging. It's a fair trade, but I find both practices therapeutic and necessary to my sanity.

Anyway, my annual birthday party was fabulous, fantastic, and um,...FUN! We started with supper and wine at the Green Gateau, as usual. Unfortunately, my brother in law and his beautiful wife couldn't make it this year because they have a new little guy who's still nursing and needs his mama. It's fine, and I accepted their absence, but they were missed. My good friends Keri and Scott also couldn't make it because they didn't have a babysitter. The lesson here: kids ruin everything: your fun, your plans, and your body. Kidding. Jessica and Jim Hoss couldn't make it again this year, but next year I'm sure they'll be there....right???

I am eternally grateful for all of my friends. I am blessed to have them, and I am thankful they can tolerate me. They are truly what makes me stronger, better, and more compassionate. They make me laugh. They make me cry. They even sometimes make me want to punch them in the face. That's what makes a family: love and conflict, laughter and tears. I want to take this time to honor them and their friendship.

My best friend, my partner, my baby daddy. We're celebrating 13 years of marriage next month. Seriously, we're getting old, Babe.


This is Lisa. She's fighting cancer, and she's a winner. Her disease was caught very early, and she'll only have to miss one night of bowling league while she's having a radiation treatment. I call her the Bionic Woman.


Amanda has been my friend for 10 years. She's talented, smart, and funny. She will always have my back and will never be afraid to tell me I'm messing up. Just don't piss her off.


Dede and I became friends through our now-2nd grade sons when they were kindergarteners. She is hands down the nicest person on the planet.


Sara and I met while working at ShopKo while we were in high school. For those of you who are counting, I graduated in 1997, so that's a looooong time. Sara is beautiful, strong, and dependable. That's how you last 15 years with me. She also likes wine and pretty much knows how my brain works better than I do.


This is Ja. She and her husband live across the street from me. They are the best neighbors ever. Ja is always there with an open bottle of wine or a margarita. Coffee, too, if that's how you roll. She and her hubby have made our life in the neighborhood very happy.


Travis is Sara's husband, and bearded Jon is Dede's husband. I also worked with Travis at ShopKo all those years ago. Great guys, great dads, but their wives really make them great. Sorry, boys!! :-)


Heath is one of my most recently acquired friends, and Cody is my oldest friend. Heath has the pleasure of gaining my friendship through his marriage to Amanda. Cody has recently reentered our lives, and we are so happy to have him back! Both of these guys are sweet, generous, and funny. They are two of my absolute favorite people to goof around with.


The best part about my birthday party is gathering my favorite people for a rally fun celebration of how important they all are to me. The party may be in honor of me, but it's really all of them that I cherish.

The World's Most Billionaires

I just read an article listing the countries with the world's most billionaires. Here's the list:

10: Canada (gives citizens free health care)
9: Japan
8: Switzerland (partially government-subsidized health care)
7: Hong Kong
6: UK (free health care, used to give people free college)
5: Germany (universal health care here, too - the world's oldest universal system, I think)
4: India (universal system that can't keep up with demand)
3: Russia (health care system is a shambles)
2: China
1: USA

So, I don't know a lot about economics and such. Here's what I do know: Countries that can support billionaires can also support universal health care. Countries with great disparity in rich vs. poor can also support billionaires.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This country is not broke. It's broken. We need to decide as a nation what we want to be. We need to decide what is important: supporting billionaires or supporting social justice.

New Hair

I went a little crazy at the hair salon today. What do you think?



I think I finally have the courage to draw attention to myself instead of worrying about how fat I am. I think it shows that I am strong enough to wear pink hair and not let it wear me. I think it's important for one's hair to be the same color as one's bowling ball/bag. Soren thinks I'm a rock star now.