It's snowing!

...and it's actually accumulating! Yeah!!

Thank god for girlfriends

This is just one of the pages I completed this weekend at the "I Hate Shopping" crop that I participated in. It's a fine example of the female friends I have in my life. The gals in my life are getting me through this. We are spread all over the US but we have each other nonetheless. It would take too long at this hour to find pictures of them all and I would be afraid to forget one but girls, know I'm so grateful for you right now.

Thanks for being there ladies. It's not easy right now but I know you are "here" for me.

Hello out there?

Damn it...every time I have had to call someone b/c I'm in tears in the last month no one will answer. Nothing but answering machines. Seriously.

Things aren't good, relationships are hard and right now suck.

Thankful for the weekend

I wasn't looking for to this weekend. Wednesday night I was in tears. In spite of myself I had a great four days though! I had fun watching the Packer's game and the pizza with homemade salsa and guac for the chips, plus the veggi tray and such were good. The brandy slush was excellent. I even played the Lego Star Wars game on the Wii and had fun. We went geo-caching in the snow flurries out in the woods too.

Friday I avoided the morning crush of shoppers to instead sleep in. I got up in time to get a bit of the house cleaned in preparation for putting up the Christmas tree before meeting the group for lunch at Macaroni Grill. I then was brave enough to shop just a little at Barnes & Noble, Bath & Body Works, and Ann Taylor Loft. That night I went grocery shopping for the turkey dinner for two I had planned.

Yesterday I treated myself to a whole "me" day, complete with a Peppermint Latte, 12 hours of scrapbooking, hot apple cider, and an early night to bed. I got all but the first and last pages of my Glacier Park scrapbook complete. This is the same book I started back in August when my girls' weekend got ruined by the flood. It turned out pretty darn cool. When I have tonight's turkey feast off the table maybe I'll lay it out and take a few pictures of my picture book.

Today I completed prep for Christsmas tree decorating and finished a touch more shopping at Kohl's. The house now smells like Christmas candles and turkey. Not bad at all. I'm thankful the weekend turned itself around and that I participated in spite of myself. Happy Holidays everyone!

Around the house...

I spent today doing a little cleaning in preparation for decorating for Christmas the rest of the weekend. I squeezed in a lunch with the boyfriend's family as well as a little solo shopping but not until later in the afternoon when it wasn't as busy. I went to the grocery store too and picked up the fixin's for a turkey dinner for two to be had this Sunday.

As I was wandering around the house I started to think about what my house says about me. I've been in it for two year's now and as was previously documented here, I put a lot of work into the appearance of the place in spite of it being structurally sound. What about the rest of the place though? You know, the little things that get "settled" after you have lived some where for a while?

What does my house tell others about me if they looked carefully?

• Take a look just from my bed
• I like natural things...my bed is a maple slatted sleighbed
• Books are central...the bookends span the top of my dresser but the books have started to pile on top of the span in between them
• I miss Montana..."Montana: The Last Best Place" hangs over three 14 x 17 pictures from "The Park".
  
• Avalanche Gorge
• Heaven's Peak
• Lake McDonald from the back porch of the lodge
• My cats have a home...check out the indentation in the pillow at the foot of my bed
• What do I see from the couch?
• A few "meese"
• A stuffed moose in a laid Christmas sweater
• A "recylced" moose made from Chenille
• A Carroll College clad Moose Saint
• A moose navity...complete with Mary, Joseph, the Babe and two dangling meese with wings
• The places I've lived
• A springtime in Montana picture of wildflowers in front of snowcapped peaks
• A Sedona desert sunset
• A spirit to watch over me
• A collection of Dreamsicle Angels on the mantle piece
• A picture of Mom and Dad on top of the stereo
• Warmth
• 5 blankets that I can see and count from here
• Candles...plain vanilla on the mantle, Spiced Apple on the coffee table, Ginger Peach in the dining room
• My escape...trek up to the third floor for a distraction if you wish
• Warm walls: Maple Leaf and Cocoa Puff to be exact
• A hobby
• Shelves of Stampin' Up stamps, paper galore
  
• Projects here and there
• A Denver Broncos album from September
• My recipes and a maple box to put them in
• A "me" scrapbook not yet started
• An office
• Piles
• Piles
• Did I mention piles?
• Cork boards covered in pictures and quotes. Lots of quotes

I'll have to keep looking and see what I learn about myself. This could be useful.

What does the decor of your residence say about you?

Give Thanks Today...

Today is not the day I am use to. Today will be full of new traditions. I'm not use to that and to do it all without my mom is harder than I had anticipated. But, you know what? I have to be thankful for what I do have. I'm sitting in my jammies with a cup of coffee watching big flat snow flakes fall out the window while I am cuddled on the couch with my kitten in my lap watching the Macy's Day parade. There are a lot of my favorite things in that sentence. The rest of the day will be new but I will be with "family" and for that I'm grateful as well.

To you and yours: Take a moment to be thankful for whatever little things you can today. Happy Thanksgiving.

It's a Monday...and it's begun

The rat race is upon me. I heard the patter of it's feet about 10 days ago but now I'm right in the middle of the pack. The holidays and all I have to do BEFORE the holidays are upon me. I agreed to present a retreat at our church on Mary, the Mother of God and the Rosary for our annual Advent retreat. I agreed to this last spring but now I have around two weeks to get a final format ready.

I am hosting my annual Stampin' Up Christmas Card Extravaganza too. 40 cards for $40. I put the supply order in today and as soon as it arrives will be cutting out the parts for 240 cards (I pre-cut everything for my customers so the assembly doesn't take all day). I also possibly will be doing the same set of cards with multiple high school students to include in boxes for Hometown Gratitude gifts to the troops.

Hockey season in Minnesota has started and between now and Christmas week the team I cover for Sports Medicine has a Tuesday and Thursday night came every week but this week (just Tuesday this week). They at least take Thanksgiving off. Can't really get much done at those games other than watching and waiting for someone to get hurt.

Of course, I have to add into that the various work events, monthly Bunco, cleaning house, etc. We all do this to ourselves though and we always get through, right? My question is...why do we do it?

Have a great week everyone!

HNT...Fall Colors Revealed

It's that time of year. The leaves are changing, the air is getting cooler, a little sharper.

Time to do the same on my end. The colors have changed, I'm feeling a bit edgier, there is an anticipation in the air...I'm ready now.

Remember a Veteran

That's my grandpa.

He passed away 10 years ago and this picture's a few years older than that but I'm still proud of him. My grandpa was in the US Navy during World War II and fought off the USS Yorktown. Not a lot of his crew came home and even fewer are left today.

As navigator he led his pilot and himself on bombing runs over Iwo Jima.

He attempted to help out a commanding officer on R&R once but was told to "f--- off". The commanding officer was sunning himself on the beach while intoxicated. The commanding officer was court marshaled for damaging government property when he return to ship with his second degree sunburn and was sick. I think my grandpa probably chuckled.

His ship ran out of fresh water and the country bumpkin from the farm in Nebraska knew it was silly to drink salt water and was one of the few of the crew who did not get sick.

His squadron was returning from a mission and the lead pilot took the group the WRONG way back to the ship. My grandpa quietly convinced his pilot to take the lead and get the group of planes back to the ship. It worked.

Those last three stories he told me about, the bombing runs over Iwo Jima I didn't know about until we packed up his dresser two summer's ago at Grandma's house. We found his flight log book. Perfect handwriting, detailed without being wordy. 'Flight to "so and so" today. Bullet damage to right wing.' Yeah, scary!

So take a moment today and the rest of this week after Veteran's Day to remember those who fought for us and those who are fighting. Cherish the stories they told you and take a moment to consider what they didn't tell you. These young men and woman did things most of us can't even consider doing.

For them...THANK YOU!

For Grandpa...MISS YOU! Take care of mom, will ya?

Something to do

1. What time did you get up in the morning? 6:20 am

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds!!!!!
3. Favorite movie? Silence of the Lambs

4. Favorite TV show? Bones

5. Where did you graduate from? Isabel High School, Carroll College, and Arizona School of Health Sciences

6. Did you ever fail a class in school? Nope

7. What food do you dislike? Oysters

8. What is your favorite food at the moment? Apple sauce

9. What kind of car do you drive? Mercury Mariner

10. Favorite sandwich? turkey blue cheese and tomato

11. Favorite accessory? Any chunky jewelry

12. Favorite item of clothing? Hooded sweatshirts, big wool sweaters

13. If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go? Italy and New Zealand...

14. What color is your bathroom? Light sage and lavendar

15. Favorite brand of clothes? New York and Company for dress pants and suits, pretty much a free for all for everything else

16. Where would you retire to? Montana

17. When was your most memorable birthday? Probably this last one more for a sad memory than anything

18. Favorite sport and sports figure? Volleyball to play and Karch Kiraly. Football to watch and John Elway.

19. Last time you attended a sporting event? September when I went to both a Broncos and a Rockies game in Denver

20. Who was your real first kiss? Adam at gifted camp

21. Was it a good one? In retrospect, no but at the time I thought it was wonderful

22. Favorite saying? Hang tight

23. When's your birthday? 10/07/77

24. Morning or afternoon person? Definitely NOT a morning person

25. Pets? Cats now, would love to have a dog too, have had horses in the past

26. Shoe size? 8

27. What is your favorite thing to do on New Years? Fancy parties with glitzy clothes with the boy

28. What did you want to do when you were little? A doctor

29. What was your first job? Other than Farm Slave? Babysitting.

30. Favorite candy? Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

31. Favorite flower? Yellow roses with red tips

32. What is your favorite holiday dinner? Thanksgiving

33. What is your full name? Nicolle Kahl Hendrix

34. What do you like to do on a rainy day if your not working? Stay in flannel jammies, curl up in a big blanket and read a book

35. What are you listening to right now? TV

36. What was last thing you ate? Curry chicken sandwich with chicken gumbo soup

37. Do you wish on stars? Yes!

38. If you do what do you wish for? Usually just to get by

39. What is the temp out today? Cold, how exciting

40. Last person you talked to on the phone? Nurse on 7 Joseph

41. Favorite soft drink? Squirt

42. Favorite restaurant The Windbag in Helena, MT. Local—City Cafe

43. Are you a beer, wine or liquor person? BEER, but none of that domesticate stuff

44. Ever eat bugs as a kid? Doesn’t every kid?

45. Favorite toy when you were little? My John Deere tractors in the sand box

46. Favorite day of the year? The first snowfall

47. Summer or winter? winter

48. Hugs or kisses? both

49. Snacks? Salty or Sweet? I’m a big fan of all the new sweet AND salty snacks but I like them crunchy

50. Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla

51. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? yes

52. When was the last time you cried? Probably this weekend sometime

53. What's under your bed? Enough hairballs to make a whole new cat

54. Who's the friend you've had the longest? Jami Huber

55. What did you do last night? Not much, I crashed at 8:55 pm

Uhhmmm...life is good!

Simple things in life can bring a smile to your face if you pause to reflect on them.

I treated myself to an upgrade on the simple things this weekend. I admit, I'm addicted to the morning cup of joe. Gotta have it. I walked out on joe once in my life and I did okay; until I took a job in a coffee house and realized what a pain in the ass it is for a barista when a customer orders a decaf shot of anything! Back to the fully leaded stuff I went and haven't quit.

The gals at work and I went together for an office coffee pot and we take turns bringing in the goods. I treat them to Montana roasted beans once a year when I go to Montana. I enjoy the java house atmostphere. I loved the smile on my customer's faces as I handed them their morning shot of "go juice". I like sitting outside on a crisp fall day with a warm cup of joe in my hands. Just the smell of a freshly opened bag of beans makes my eyes perk up and a soft sigh come out.

The "Brew Station" has arrived at my house. This wonderful machine will have my coffee ready for me before my feet hit the cold hardwood floors in the morning. The machine keeps my coffee warm inside the machine without it sitting in a carafe getting bitter on the burner. I simply press my cup to the release button and I can pour a six ounce cup or a "4 cup" mug. It's a gift from above, just for me from me. It's perfection...