Some really awful and sad things have happened to my friends and family as of lately that has left me feeling so mournful and worried about them. Today I'm choosing to focus on something happy and tell my happy story not to forget about their hurt but to shine a little light.

On October 24, 2011 I got engaged!


Its about time I tell the story right?

Lets start two days before this. Mike and I had a little shopping to do downtown. As we walked in front of a jewelry store Mike said, "Want to go in?" I obviously said yes. So we went in and just looked at rings. It was unexpected and fun. We narrowed it down to two rings said our thank yous and walked out the door. Let me tell you, the whole time we were in the store two things were running through my mind. 1. Am I really here looking at engagement rings??? Yeee!! 2. Why didn't I at least shower before we went out in public?

The next two days were spent secretly telling my friends that we went to a jewelry store and wondering just how long I would have to wait. Turns out, Mike is just as impatient, if not more, than I am. I came home on Monday the 24th to find Mike home, instead of working his usual overtime. He had some van morrison playing and he was doing the dishes. A little suspicious, yes.

Throughout the day we were texting each other about how excited we were about that nights dinner, spaghetti. We obviously love spaghetti. I walked right in the door, used the restroom, and came out and grabbed the pasta pot out of the cupboard to find this inside of it:


That would be the blue ninja (from the post before this) drawn shakily by a nervous boy on the outside of a jewelry box. He made a very special sneak attack on me. I turned to find mike standing there with a sheepish smile on his face and I quickly opened the box and excitedly yelled, "Do you have something to ask me?" He did. I said yes (surprise!) and we spent the next couple hours drinking wine and calling friends and family. That spaghetti? We never even made it. Our engagement dinner ended up being a tombstone pizza and Riesling wine. So our style.

This past weekend was a long vacation weekend. Mike, myself and my Rachey made a trip down to Madison where we saw the band Primus and checked out Mike's old haunts in the place he used to live. After our very quick trip to Madison we headed back north to Michigan and revisited the resort we went to this summer. Just outside of Wausau we stopped at a truck stop to use the bathrooms. Rachel and I went into our respective room and mike in his. When we came out we found mike at the gumball machines purchasing a toy. This toy.

This is the blue alien ninja. Mike just HAD to have it (now's the time to insert how much I love him, right? I'm talking about Mike).

Blue ninja made the trip to the cabin with us and had a blast doing what ninjas do best...appearing out of nowhere. He ended up almost being eaten from hiding in the bag of popcorn. He hid in Mike's cigar case, in the m&m's and so on. Unfortunately, the weekend came to an end, but blue ninja came home with us.

Since being home he's been on some fantastic missions, like hiding in the salt bowl and my personal favorite coming out of the refrigerator's ice machine as Mike filled his glass.

The point of this story is, its is so. much. fun. The look on the face of the person that finds it is priceless.

Just two weekends ago Mike's baby sister got married. What made it even better (for me) is that one of my best friends (Mike's cousin, Kari) came all the way from Florida to take pictures for the big event. We had a really great time and here are just a few pictures from the wedding.

And this pizza right here, well its just one of the reasons. This is a Frankie's taco pizza and it is beloved in these parts. I never understood it until last weekend. Kari, my bff, if you will, was visiting from Florida for Mike's sisters wedding (more on that later) and it was a mandatory stop while she was here. Yes, that is absolutely Doritos on top of a pizza and they are amazing. I posted this picture to facebook and within maybe 5 minutes there were at least 8 likes/comments. People love. this. pizza. I guess I am now "people." Sigh. Like I needed another "excuse" to eat Doritos.

If you're into Doritos you should totally check out this hilarious post on best week ever's blog. It's called the 50 most delicious doritos flavors: from disgusting to cool ranch.

Back in 2007, when Brett Favre was still the Packers go-to guy, was the last time I made it to Lambeau Field. It was a playoff game against the Seahawks and it ended in blizzard like conditions. It was amazing, with the biggest "snowflakes" (think clumps of snow) I have ever seen. Holly was there and said that she's afraid to go to another game because there's no way another would top that experience. I'd have to say I agree. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to try...

I was just looking back at an article and here's what Brett had to say:

'"I've been hoping for that for 17 years," Favre said. "I was watching the weather all day and it's a shame, I'm like, 'Just give us one of those big snow games.'"

"I wanted to play where you couldn't see the field, and the snowplow comes out. It keeps getting worse and worse," he said.

With Lambeau Field looking like a snow globe, the Packers posted their biggest points total in postseason history.'

The snowplows indeed came out. But first they swept the yardlines as it started to snow, then they moved onto using shovels to clear the yardlines, and finally they had to move onto the plows. It was incredible.

Anyways, the point of this post was that obviously I'm pumped up for the season opener tonight and because of that game and this event that happened before I cannot get excited about football without hearing this sound in my head:

You see, we went to the game with Mike's longtime friend and his wife and we stayed in separate rooms. Mike went down in the morning to get some pre-game donuts at the continental breakfast and he heard someone exuberantly shouting out that sound. Mike came back and told me about it and we giggled (yup, Mike giggled). Just a few minutes later we heard it outside our door when there was a knock. Wouldn't you know it was Eli, Mike's friend, all along. So, from that point on we hum this theme song whenever we are excited about football and will forever remember that game.

This is out our kitchen window. Its quite a regular morning occurrence now as the birds are feasting on our sunflowers. We stared each other in the eyes and just this one time I was victorious as he and all his birdie friends flew away immediately after I took this picture. Normally, I'm the one creeped out by blackbirds. Yes, I find this picture creepy.


This right here is a cat who forgot to put his tongue back in his mouth. I implore you to click on it and make it bigger.


Finally, this is just one of the MANY monarch caterpillars that our garden was a host and home to.

My niece has turned 6. SIX!! She'll even be starting first grade on September 1st. Its unbelievable that she's grown up so much. McKenna is so smart, funny, so cute, loves to be active and creative, and is a great big sister! Happy Birthday, McKenna!

Oh! I forgot to mention how stylish she is! As you can see, she's passing it right down to her little sister as well.

Its unfathomable to me that people get to take "vacations." A week in another city, state, country? Maybe someday. For now we settle for two nights away in another state that only took us about 2 hours to get there. If this is what "vacations" are like, sign me up. We spent the weekend at the Wilderness Bay Resort. Mike has fallen in love with this place after he reconnected with a long lost friend from college whom he found out ran a resort (one his family actually built and later sold). This was Mike's 3rd time there and my first. I'm sure it won't be our last.

We went fishing in the morning for a few hours and this was pretty much the only catch. It was nice though, and I didn't get sea sick! We were even able to dock at a restaurant on the lake and have lunch. Also, the lakes were filled with all kinds of gorgeous wildlife.
Or this gorgeous loon. I don't know if there is a much more peaceful sound at night than a loon on a lake and there were quite a few of them.

Mike, my captain, was itching to get back out on the lake after a little break back at the cabin so out we went. We went through all of these little channels that would land us in a secluded little lake. Honestly, I can say it was one of the most beautiful places I've been with the lake that was like glass, as they say.


This just happens to be one of my favorite pictures. I've never seen so many lily pads in my life!

Towards the end of our trip my nervous self kicked into gear knowing that we had to go back through the very narrow channels and it was hinting at darkness. What if something happened and my very new captain (love you Mike!) didn't know what to do?



P.S. These are pictures taken with an iPhone. Who needs an actual camera?

So this weekend was a VERY BUSY and hectic time. It was the town festival that myself and a couple other people helped plan and execute. To say the week prior was a little stressful is a correct statement. All in all, the event seemed to go over well with a few things to tweak for next year.

Also, we held a surprise 75th birthday party for my grandma. I volunteered to make decorations. Why volunteer when I was already so busy with festival planning? Well, its because I love having an excuse to make crafts. So here some of what I made.

Remember the green, purple, and doily theme I decided to go with? Well I stuck pretty close to it with these "windsocks" which were spray painted coffee cans that had crepe paper taped inside.

I also made these little topiary type things for centerpieces on some of the tables. They are cupcake liners hot glued to foam balls in painted pots. Everything but the stencil for the pots was bought at the $1 store. YAY for that!


I also made this banner using doilies (of course) and paint chips that I cut and wrote on. This cost me about a dollar to make.
Use a picture frame, put some cute paper in it and write away with some dry erase markers. So SIMPLE!

So that's most of what I made. While I wish I could have made more, (so many more ideas!) time just got away from me. I think my grandma was pleasantly surprised and had a good time, even though she initially refused to get out of the car. Oh, Grandma :)

So here's what our garden looks like now:Actually this was last week, so its even bigger now. No. That's definitely not all ours. However, I am awkwardly standing next to our tomatoes. Mike wanted to know what I was doing. "Something weird, I'm sure" is how I responded. Our plot kinda starts from where I'm standing up until the tripod trellis for the pole beans and then across from it we have half of that for our pumpkins and cucumber and squash and whatnot.

Anyone have any good tomatillo recipes? I'm going to have quite possibly a gabillion of them if all continues to go the way it has been. Oh, and I'll have the first tomato from the whole garden ready today when I go home. Chomp.

I'm planning a surprise birthday party for my grandma that is happening at the end of the month. Want to guess what the theme is??


No, that's not a giant baby rattle, just the beginnings of a decoration and this is just one of the many things I'm making. I've been having a lot of fun making stuff I've found on Pinterest. I just love the idea of having a pretty party so now I'm actually going for it! I'll post more as I finish projects. Oh and the theme is pretty easy, purples, greens, and doilies. Hey, I had to have a direction!

For some inexplicable reason I fell in love with a garden statue. Yes, its ridiculous. I think that's why I liked it. Of course. However, I just wasn't willing to buy it. This statue came up in conversation one day with our next door neighbor and garden mate. Wouldn't you know it, yesterday Mike was looking out the kitchen window at the garden and says, "There's pigs!" Yeah, I sure didn't know what he was talking about. Turns out our neighbor had went and bought that ridiculous statue for us for our first garden. Sweet right?

If my yard ever starts filling with garden statues like this. I give each and every one of you permission to say, "You have enough, Nicole."

So we all know i'm a little...childlike. I can say it. I embrace it. However, I did kinda think I'd outgrow it a bit as I got older. Well, today as I took the GIANT clothespin off of my red nose I realized it might not be in the cards for me. You know what, I'm happy about it.

This all came crashing down on me this afternoon as I strung together a few things I've done in the office at work in these last two days. Yesterday as I was sitting with the office door wide open and in plain sight, I played the game "spin around in the chair while not using your legs" and later jumped and hopped down the hallway making sure I didn't step on any of the tile cracks without a second thought about it. Surely, by now I should think about doing those things before I do them, right? Eh well.

I think this demonstrates my point appropriately. P.S. This is probably the most fantastic photo I've ever taken of myself. P.P.S. My lips are not that red.

After looking at those pictures of those gorgeous strawberries, you might think that's why I asked that question. Not so much. You see this morning, before work (go me!) I went and picked those lovely things at my childhood friends father's berry patch. They are DELICIOUS. You kinda forget how "real" strawberries are supposed to taste after a winter of the ones in the plastic crates.

Anyways, back to the bit about heaven. When you pick strawberries at someone's field at the peak of season you are inevitably going to be picking next to someone. And that's just fine and dandy.

However, at 7:30 a.m. when I'm enjoying some relaxing strawberry picking, I honestly don't want to hear the question, "Do you believe in heaven?" from the man picking next to me. I have no way to get out of the situation. While he was certainly a lovely and kind man, I just thought, "Heaven, help me." That's probably wrong, right? Seriously, though, where did that question even come from? Sigh. I wonder if my blue toes and accidentally low cut top made it look like I needed saving.