Life In Progress

Speaking of Birthdays....

 Mine was last week.....29.  I love this picture, he's holding my hand.  Too precious.  Looking forward to another fantastic year.

He is Three

I can't believe it.  I know every mother says that as her baby celebrates another birthday but it really is unbelievable, time that is.  I have been so elated this past week watching his excitement leading up to the day and finally his satisfaction and happiness shown over his cakes, his presents, his party and just plain being with his favorite people.  Turning three is pretty cool, according to Jackson. 

He helped to put together his goodie bags, he wanted to know which one was his from the get go.

 

He bounced with his pals.

  He opened tons and tons of presents.  His favorites including the dinosaur that you will see in every photo from here on out, his bubble mower, new "Cars" and dinosaur pajamas, a new bike, a helmet for the aforementioned bike, a new baseball bat and ball, a Cozy Coupe, and finally the ridiculous amount of dinosaurs Uncle Ryan was able to bring in one box.

 

He blew out the candles a total of 4 times for his third birthday: 1) at his party, 2) in his slice of watermelon at dinner after the party, 3) on his dino cake on his actual birthday, and 4) he helped me blow out the candles the next day for my birthday.  I think this was his favorite part.

 

The past three years with you have been the best three years of my life.  You are the sweetest little boy and I am so lucky to be your Mom.  Happy Birthday Jackson.

Summer and My "Nerdy" Book List

Yup, that's it over to the left, my virtual bookshelf.  All of the books I want to read this summer.  I'm currently reading "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, it's inspiring and unbelievably upbeat, that's a pretty big feat for a guy that knew he was dying.  There are so many (should I say, pessimistic) people that I know that could benefit from Paush's positive outlook and his value of every day he was given. 

Speaking of positive, I am loving my life right now.  I am working at a University conducting research under a grant for Reserach Experience for Teachers.  A couple of eye-opening observations have occurred:

1)  just being on a college campus can inspire you to think and bring you to great ideas

2)  I really was too immature at 17-18 when I began college, to truly get the maximum out of education, I mean I performed well in college, gradewise, but I don't believe that I put enough effort into my education.  I've learned more over the last 2 weeks than I think I would have in months when I was an undergrad.  I love that life has afforded me the opportunity to take advantage of the education experience before me now, kinda like a do over:)

3)  Developing and implementing these ideas that come to you can make you realize what your professional dreams and aspirations really are and that in itself is inspiring and a motivator to move more quickly toward those goals.

4)  I know I love teaching, but I kind of want to be a Chemical Engineer.  I want to start over as an undergrad and take all of the courses that they take, all of the projects, all of the research.  If making a salary, having benefits, and providing for our family were not  a necessity for me I would seriously think about it (see item #2 about 18 being too young to really know what I wanted to do)

Well if you're here you're probably expecting a craft project and you've endured all of this nerdy science talk so here's a new one:

Sunni is his way of saying sandwich, pretty funny stuff from that kid.  Thanks and have a wonderful week!

The Return

to blogging that is.  I get so annoyed with myself for not keeping up with it.  One of the main reasons why I started the blog was to feel more connected with my friends and family because I now live so much further away.  And, I really do want to accomplish that, so I'm challenging myself to create a blog I love and update often.  We'll see how that goes.

We went to the circus last week.  It was incredible, even for me and Chuck to see.  The only problem with going to the circus on Wednesday is that your 2 year old son feels that we should all go back to the circus to see the "lelephants" and "doggies" on Thursday.  He's kind of strong willed so that was a tough one to explain to him.  

I've got some major technical issues over here.  Both my camera and my vacuum are not working properly.  Is it more expensive to have them repaired, where can I even get that done?  Or to replace them?  Yup, I'm clueless on this one.

In the meantime, here's a new layout.  Have a wonderful Friday!

 

My Best Friend's Wedding

  Friday it rained, and poured, and rained some more.  But, the sun came out just long enough for the wedding pictures to be taken after the church but before the reception.  It was pretty funny seeing the limo driver take each of us girls out of the limo one by one under an umbrella....that took a long time.  It was such a beautiful wedding...my friend Jess looked absolutely gorgeous, so you might be asking yourself at this point, "Great, where are the pictures?"  Well, my flash on my camera broke,I managed about 3 photos of the entire day and they're all of the flower girls who sat by the window. 

 

Can you imagine how sad I was when my camera wouldn't work...it was horrible.  Hopefully, I will come by some pictures soon.  Just to give you an idea, of how bad it is here is an image right out of the camera followed by whatever editing I could do with it at picnik.com. 

 

Anyone out here in Blogland have any suggestions?  Can these be saved or should I give up?

In the meantime, here are some photos of a Jenni Bowlin project from one of her kits from about a year and a half ago that I just completed now.  I really love all of the products in here: the soda label papers, the bingo cards...and of course vintage buttons.  Note, nothing about this project is my own original idea, really just a JB Project Kit that was lots of fun. 

I think the roof of the house was supposed to be made with two additional bingo cards facing out, but I love the soda label papers so much that i had to make them show instead.  Remember, if you have any photo editing advice or you want to tell me it's hopeless when it comes to the photos above, leave me a comment.

One week to go unti Spring Break!...I'm so thankful for that.

Little Conversations

I've been spending most of my free time having little conversations with this guy.

 

It's pretty amazing to hear the little person who was once your little baby, having a full blown conversation with you, or anyone else who will listen. 

He knows exactly what he wants: most of the time that includes his Spiderman boots, a baseball cap (which he insists on wearing backward) and his Cars Pajamas or Hoodie. 

He can play outside for hours.  `

When he wakes up on the weekend mornings, he rolls over and kisses me on the cheek.

He loves to "help" me clean.

He watches "Cars" every night before bed.

He keeps telling me that he is a "baby" and not a "big boy."

He can hear and see an airplane way before anyone else does, I think he has some sixth sense.

He sits in the car and tells me the color of EVERY truck that passes by. 

Today, he woke up early, lifted his head off of the bed and saw me all ready for work.  He cried and said "No go to work Mommy.  Stay here, Lay down."  And, it broke my heart.  Even though I love my job, that little conversation made me so sad.    I'm pretty much at the point where I envy anyone who gets to stay home with their kids, and I know that  I shouldn't because I honestly do feel blessed to have the job that I do, but I miss him.  So I've got guilt coming from every direction.  Does it ever get easier? 

Strawberry Picking and Edward Cullen the Remix

IT'S FRIDAY!!!  And for the first time in weeks, we don't have any weddings, any showers, any rehearsal dinners, any family parties, any bachelorette parties, any birthday parties....we can just relax and relax we will.  Until the following weekend when the madness starts up again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that we have so many happy occasions to celebrate with people that we love but it's pretty exhausting. 

As promised the rest of the mini album, made from recycled chipboard and packaging.  If you want to see the whole album click on the sidebar. 

 Big plans for Saturday night over here...I'll be watching the Twilight DVD, eating popcorn, and drinking Diet Coke.  Seriously.  Chuck and I have a bet going, as usual, we are always disagreeing on the most mundane things, and then betting chores on them.  He told me last week that he would pick up the Twilight DVD for me at Blockbuster because he has store credit there, I said "What if it's sold out?"  He told me I was crazy and that the DVD would not "sell out" and he bet me $1 because I wasn't wagering chores.  And I said, "You're on Edward Cullen hater."  I'll let you know how it works out.  Thanks for checking in and I hope that you have a fantastic weekend. 

A Farmer's Wife I Am Not...

but I love the new paper line "The Farmer's Wife" from Jenni Bowlin.  About a month ago, I had a box of compasses (you know the ones that tell you direction) and I was trying to show another teacher how to use them to teach magnetism to the students. 

She says to me "Which side points North Nicole, the red or the silver?"

And I say, "The red."

And my favorite custodian who just happened to be in the room says..."Are you asking Nicole about how to use a compass?  She's a city girl, you think she's ever a used a compass out in the wilderness, the woods, camping???  You think she's ever been out in the woods?  I don't think so."

Everyone's a comedian. 

Here is my new favorite project, made with The Farmer's Wife.  Enjoy today.

 

  

   

 

 

More to come....must sleep.

ETA: Alexis Grace off Idol?  And not saved?   What is going on?

Idol Faves: Week Uno

Straight up.

My favorite by far...Alexis Grace.  Totally unexpected because she was not one of my favorites before, but she got my vote tonight for sure.  Yes, I'm 28 years old and I actually vote, my Physics students got a kick out of that today.  What's scary is that I actually share that information with people.

Other favorites: Kris Allen, loved him on the guitar

                        Lil Rounds, of course (she's been my favorite since the beginning)

                        Danny Gokey, he was awesome and I LIKED his dancing (yup I did)

                       Alison Iraheta, completely amazing, she made me love that song again

The three of us are perfecting our Simon and Randy impressions.  And I must say, Chuck is getting scarily close to the real thing.  I know we seriously need lives over here:)

I made this after Idol last night for a friend at work.  The baby carriage out of a scalloped circle is not my original idea, Margie Romney-Aslett used the punch to make carriages in a card class I took with her about a year ago.....ingenius right?  The photos is pretty bad, taken at 6:30 this morning so that I could have a photo to make some more when I have the time.  Sorry for the poor photo, priorities, ya know? 

Peace and love.

Sweet

 

A little layout I made for Jackson and his pals from last summer. I usually scan my layouts in to the computer but this time I just took a quick photo, I like how you can see all of the little odds and ends for other projects out on the desk. 

And my (sometimes) sweet little sister KT had her Sweet Sixteen last weekend.  It was quite an affair to say the least.  The details:

-She had Paris, France as her theme.

-She wore a pink dress and everyone else had to wear black.

-She made a grand entrance: she was carried in on a huge shoe (yup you read that right) by my brother's friends all wearing sunglasses.  I need to get a photo of that one.

-She had two cakes: one pretty classic birthday cake, the other an Eiffel Tower.

-She did a candlelighting ceremony where she said a little poem about all of the important people in her life and then had each come up and light one of her sixteen candles.

-My Dad gave a toast just like he did at my wedding, except he didn't embarrass her by saying "Nicole's had a lot of boyfriends" like he did at my wedding.

-She had both of her two year old nephews wear all black with pink bowties and pink cumberbunds to match her. Jackson tore his bowtie off after having it on for 30 seconds.  She wasn't too happy about that. 

-I'm pretty sure she had the time of her life.

-Happy Birthday K.T.Y.