Shine On Award

Samantha over at Where the Love was Found nominated me for the Shine On Award!

Get it? The sun is shining on me....

Can I just say how absolutely flattering this is? To have someone who has never physically met me, like my blog enough to recognize it for an award is awesome, so thank you Samantha!!

As a part of the nomination I am supposed to share 7 random, interesting things about myself. I can't promise they'll be interesting, but they will be random!

1. I HATE peanut butter. Every aspect of it is incredibly disgusting to me, the look, the smell, the taste, the color, EVERYTHING. 

2. I can't watch animal movies, even cartoon ones. Lion King used to be my favorite movie, now I can't bear to watch it. The thought of any animal being sad or hurt gives me anxiety. I don't know why, but it's kinda annoying. Even when I watched "How to Train your Dragon" I had a mild anxiety attack. Couldn't even get five minutes into "Rio" before I was crying hysterically because the bird was stuck in a box in the cold. 

3. I love to sew and I like to make quilts, mainly baby quilts. I even set up my own Facebook page for it a while ago, Quilts by Nicole. I'm no professional, but it gets the job done. 

4. I taught Nibbler and Squishee how to "kiss" on command and immediately when you pick them up. They just put their nose up to your face and kiss you. I totally take advantage of this. Most nights, Dave will hear me walk around the house, "Squishee!!! Kiss, kiss!" 

5. I like my ice cream microwaved for a bit before I eat it. Before you say this is weird, I'd like to point out that my microwave has a soften button that includes an ice cream setting, so I can't be the only person. The frothy goodness is so delicious!

6. I proudly declare myself a cat lady. Should you choose to insert the "crazy" in the front is fine with me. 

7. I am a certified SCUBA diver and have gone on dives in Jamaica and Turks and Caicos. I loved diving so much, I paid buku bucks for Dave to get certified too so it's something we could do together.

And now, here are the amazing bloggers that I nominate!

Hima of Hima Hearts

Angie Mae of The Aspiring Southern Housewife

Sherrie of Sherrie's Scriptorium

SHINE ON, FRIENDS!

The Shine On Award rules:

1. Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Acknowledge that blogger on your blog, and link back.

3. Share seven, random interesting things about yourself.

4. Nominate up to 15 bloggers for the Shine On Award, provide a link to their blogs in your post, and notify them on their blogs.

End of the Week Roundup

I'm not going to lie guys, this week wasn't very good. I was actually worried I wasn't going to have a legitimate round up for you...luckily that was not the case.

1. Saturday was a gorgeous day. My town held its community yard sale so Dave and I set up "shop" with our neighbor and spent most of the day hanging out with her, making a quick buck. Then we headed up to my Aunt Penny's house for dinner, which is always a good time. 

Gorgeous, I tells ya!

2.  Thursday I had lunch with Lauren, or Lola as I affectionately call her. We finished lunch early and headed back to work and hung out in the parking lot, chatting. I noticed she had the new Paramore CD in her car and our chat sesh turned into an all out karaoke moment, hair brush microphone and all. You know when the brush comes out, it's serious. It was so fun, almost like she and I were in high school again just being our silly selves. No picture of this moment, because you can't ruin a good sing along by saying, "wait, wait, wait, let's take a picture!". Instead, here is the song:

3. I got an email from the dean of my university stating that my advisor recommended me to meet with the chair of the Middle States Commission. The MSC is a huge deal for my school and for them to choose me to be one of the representatives for the College of Lifelong Learning students was a huge honor. Sadly, the chair is coming to my school on the 16th, which is when I'll be in Vermont so I had to decline. Which totally stunk, but I'm still super flattered that my advisor and the dean even thought of me in the first place. 

4. This week's weather has been amazing for Pennsylvania this time of the year. I decided to roll the windows down and just let my hair whip around (insert "I whip my hair back and forth" joke here). It felt so good to just let go. 

Then I got home and let the neurosis kick back in and brushed my hair out immediately.

5. Nibbler and his arch nemesis, The Fly. Whenever one of these suckers gets into the house, Nibbler runs around making these weird meows at it, then grabs it with his paws, stuffs it in his mouth and eats it. 

Yeah, I think it's gross too. 

That's it for this week. How was your week?

Follow: BLOGLOVIN ::  FACEBOOK

Linking up with Lauren and Lauren!

Do It For Them

I'm not sure I've ever mentioned it on here before but I'm a huge Simpsons fan. HUGE. I even had a Simpsons themed wedding. 

Don't worry, it was super classy, but super fun too. 

Anyway, my all time favorite episode of the Simpsons is in the sixth season, it's called "And Maggie Makes Three". It's about Homer and Marge finally paying off their house and Homer quitting his job at the power plant and working at his dream job, the bowling alley. They find out that they are expecting Maggie and Homer has to literally crawl back to get his job. Burns then puts up this sign at his desk:

There are some days that I feel like that. I'm stuck at my job forever. It sucks. I want nothing more than to leave and start my career. I'm at my job for a paycheck, not for fulfillment. Most days, I long for that fulfillment. Or at least some semblance of happiness for the work I do. 

So how do Homer and I connect? Where am I going with this post? Homer responds to this sign by doing this:

Those days that get really bad for me, I look at the two pictures I have on my desk. One of Dave and I and the other of Nibbler and Squishee cuddling and I think to myself, "do it for them". 

And that gets me through the day. Every day. 

Someday I will have a job that will make me happy and provide me with the fulfillment I so long for. But for now, my little family provides me with the happiness and fulfillment I need to get me by day after day. 

I do this for them. 

Follow: BLOGLOVIN ::  FACEBOOK

Blogtember: Something Old

Share a photo of something old. Maybe something that has personal history for you, that was passed down to you, and that has special meaning to you. Tell us about it and why it's special. ................................................................................................... A few months ago I lost one of my grandmothers. It was a tough one (when aren't they, right?) because it was completely unexpected. It was my ex-step dad's mother and even though we weren't "blood" relatives, we still treated each other like family. She always made it clear that I would be her granddaughter no matter what. 
The "something old" I decided to share today was a picture of her and her first husband that she gave to me when I was sixteen. 

The really odd thing is that for the past twelve years it has sat on my bookshelf, something I was aware of but never stopped to really notice. That is, until the Wednesday before her passing. I was driving home one day and thought of the picture and questioned whether or not it truly belonged to me, if I was something I was supposed to hang on to or not. So I called my mom and explained all this to her. My mom said that Grandmom Maxine gave it to me and that she always considered me one of her own so it was exactly where it should be. 

That Sunday she was gone. 

This tiny little picture frame has suddenly become so much more to me. It holds the memories and the life of a woman that I cared so much about. It's no longer a little trinket on my bookshelf, its my reminder that I was blessed to be a part of such an amazing woman's life, someone I'll never forget. 

I'll never forget her smile, the way she said "oh Pickle" when I said something she found amusing, her laugh, her mistakes, her perfections....her. When I pass by the picture I stop every time.

It's my little connection to her. 

Follow: BLOGLOVIN ::  FACEBOOK

Blogtember: Facebook Rant

An anonymous letter to your Facebook friends. Be as snarky as you'd like. (but don't include people's real names.)  .............................................................................. Okay, so normally I prefer to stay positive on this blog, but for today's prompt, I will make an exception. I felt these e-cards said it better than I ever could.

Someone seriously tried using this excuse on me. I might have been born at night, but it wasn't last night!

Kind of a pet peeve of mine. I don't mind seeing one every now and then but this crap literally fills my feed everyday. Get Pinterest people!!

Follow: BLOGLOVIN ::  FACEBOOK