Tree

There is a tree in my neighbors yard that I drive past every morning and just stare at. It is absolutely gorgeous. And quite the driving hazard. My eyes always manage to leave the road and sway up to the left for a few moments too long. I'm glad most of the neighborhood has already left for work by the time I do, or else I would probably be the cause of a few morning fender benders. I could just imagine the police report "woman driving was staring at a tree, not the road, and rear-ended driver in front of her." That would be an accident my mom would be proud of! I really wish I had a nicer camera, like a digital SLR, so I could take some decent pictures of this tree. Down here we don't get too many trees that have vivid colors when they change, hell we don't even have many that change at all! Most of our pines go from green, to brown, to green, to brown, on a cyclical pattern regardless of the season. The other trees seem to lose their leaves once the mercury dips below 60. Once it hits 59 they're naked. Well not this particular tree. I have had the absolute pleasure of watching it turn from green to firetruck red. Then after a week or so the red faded into a brilliant pink. Now a light orange has begun to creep in from the edges of the leaves. Each leaf looks like a beautiful sunset. Surrounded by dying green and brown, these leaves stand out easily. And I get to stare at it for a few seconds every morning.

It's amazing how something so small and trivial can be the cause of such happiness. I remember growing up in the North East, I loved the fall because it was so colorful. Driving to my best friend's house was so much fun. The dogwoods that lined her street would be throwing up shades of yellow and orange for weeks on end, eventually turning the sidewalks yellow as well. When I moved up to Boston I felt as though the fall would come and go all too quickly. If I blinked the leaves would be gone. Now, I get to see this tree turning for weeks on end! It's such a small thing, but I get to start off every day with a smile on my face, and that just can't be beat.

Terrible Blogger

I am such a terrible blogger. Ugh. I'm sorry. I've seriously been meaning to update this for some time now, buuut I've been meaning to do a lot of things recently and haven't gotten around to any of it. I blame that on my GNDs taking up whatever free time I have during the day. But I still love them lol.

Today is my last day of work until 2010!!! Wooooo!!! The holidays are going to be sooo busy, but I can't wait to get them underway! We're going to get to see a lot of friends over the next two weeks and I couldn't be more excited about that! I plan on taking lots and lots of pictures, so I'll post some when I get back :-) And I promise I will make more updates, although it seems like a lot of my followers didn't make it over from the blog move... hmm maybe I should update them.

Dear Rain

Why do you keep avoiding my house? I see you at work all the time, but then when I invite you over to my house you always so rudely decline. It's only a few miles away!! It wouldn't kill you to make the trip! Are you afraid of my dog?? I promise she's warming up to you more and more... ignore how she treats the sprinklers, they're completely different. Was it something I said? I can promise I never meant to offend you in any way, shape or form. If I did, i sincerely apologize!! I just really want us to get back to how it was in the old days.. like last year, pre-Ike! Things were good then. You'd come visit me, we'd have a great time, then you'd leave before over-staying your welcome. Why can't we be like that again?!?! Please, let me know how I can make it up to you! I miss you...more than you'll ever know.

With all my love,
Nicole

Sorry...

I'm such a hypocrite! I yell at Kristen for not updating her blog, then I go 3 weeks without blogging myself!! I promise it won't happen again...anytime soon...without advanced notice.

Soooo... what have I been up to in the past few weeks?? Not a whole lot... Probably the most exciting thing is our friends have all but decided to have a destination wedding!! In MEXICO!!!! Woooo hoooo!!! I'm wicked excited! We went over to their house a few weekends ago and Melissa and I were looking through all sorts of magazines getting an idea of where they might want to have it. It was kind of amusing... when we flipped to the Riviera Maya section of hotels I pretty much knew the pros and cons of ever...single...resort. She was amazed! I'm tellin ya though, I did my research!! They're thinking sometime in March or April of 2010. So it looks like we'll almost definitely be taking an anniversary trip!!! YAY!!!

We're also planning a trip to the Messina Hof vineyard in Bryan, TX (close to Texas A&M), possibly this weekend. This is the last weekend of their 2009 Harvest Festival. It includes picking grapes and stomping them! And of course we'll do some wine tasting as well :-) It should be a good time, the wines are good and I've never been to a vineyard!

Other than that, not a whole lot has been going on... last weekend we got our air ducts cleaned (apparently they really needed it!) and we got 2 rooms steam cleaned as well. Not too interesting, but man, the steam cleaning makes a difference!

On a side note, I'd just like to say that if I were to go outside right now, I'd have to wear my sunglasses and bring my umbrella... it's pouring, but sunny. I don't get it...

Ugh

Today is an "UGH" day. I almost feel like I'm in shock. I'm mostly confused though. And tired. Tired physically (last night's body combat kicked my ass!!), tired emotionally, and tired of all this crap/drama going on.

The family crap is getting real old, and I'm getting very close to my breaking point with it. Poor DH... I try so hard to put on a good face for him, but when it gets too much, Nicolezilla breaks loose (not lose ha) and no one's safe!! I wonder if/when people will get it... huh.

The work stuff is just ridiculous. I'm gearing up to try out option A, and thinking about option B and C. I think I've ruled option B out, but I would like to talk to my neighbor who is option B about it. If I can get my foot in the door at a decent place and make decent money like her, that would be a very nice option. I don't know if I could hack it with option C, but I can always apply and see how it goes from there.

I know that was all incredibly cryptic... but see, if I don't tell people my plans, I don't have to tell them when they don't work out/fall through/I get rejected!

Oh and finally, I'm tired of feeling overlooked by our families. That is one of the crappiest feelings EVER. Of course, my mom could never make me feel this way though. She really is the best and I'm SO lucky to have her! And DH couldn't either. There's no way he could ever do that.

On days like today I just have to keep reminding myself of all the great things I have going. I have a job. There are a lot of people out there who don't. And while I'm not where I want to be professionally, I know there are a ton of people would love gladly take my job! I have a wonderful and loving husband (who also has a job, yay!). I'm lucky enough to be married to my best friend and that is just AWESOME!! The list goes on from there, but then I'd sound like I was bragging ;-)

So the lesson of today: Stay positive!!!!

Happy (Belated) 4th Of July!!

"You know it really didn't feel too bad out there today. What do you think the high was?" I asked George. "Oh probably only about 102, not bad" he said "Oh no, that's not bad at all!" I responded.

That was an actual conversation for this past Saturday, the 4th. When the F did 102 degrees become "not that bad"??? That is really freakin hot!!! 85 degrees is not bad, even 90 degrees isn't *too* bad! But 102. That's bad!

My BIL (brother-in-law) Paul, aka Paulie Poodles, came down for the long weekend. He came in Wednesday morning and I picked him up at the airport. Thursday we ran some errands, got some shoes for toobin, and Andrew got off early from work (yaaaay!!) so we hung out with him and got stuff ready to head to New Braunfels the next morning. Thursday night we went to Sam's boat for dinner and drinks with our NE friends Chuck and Maria. It was F'ing H-O-T out! Just sitting at the bar outside made me all sweaty and gross feeling. We decided to eat inside so we got a table at, where else, but the actual BOAT inside Sam's Boat. Poodles absolutely loved this!! he had a great time buying the boys "boat shots" of JD (the girls volunteered to be the DDs). We stayed at Sam's for a little then headed home...I wanted to be on the road before 7:30 the next morning!

All of us in the boat

Friday morning we got to New Braunfels at a decent time and headed to Landa Falls for some tooobin on the Comal River. It was my first time toobing in Texas and I was NOT disappointed!! At first I was a little nervous about the water temperature, it stays about 72 degrees all year long (better than the Guadalupe which runs about 68!), but the water was sooo refreshing! It was definitely over 100 so the nice cool water felt amazing. We had such a great time on the River! We met up with Jamie, Melissa, Crystal, Blake, Brian, and Jamie and Melissa's dad Jim. It was really nice having Jim along for the ride, he grew up in New Braunfels and knew all the areas of the Comal to avoid. Because we've had NO rain for a bit over a month, the river was somewhat shallow in some parts, but I don't think it really affected the ride, other than making it a little longer than usual, which we were all more than ok with! Also due to the lack of rain, the Guadalupe (which is longer than the Comal, it runs into the Guadalupe) was very low. Normally they can open up the dam from Canyon Lake and let the river fill up a little, but it was too low even for that! So the Comal was a bit more crowded than usual.

I'd say the only bad part about the trip was when we ran out of beer! Next time we'll remember to bring more!

After toobing we went to Cooper's bar-b-q. Soooooo good! I love bar-b-q. I could eat bbq chicken all day long! Check out all the food Poodles got:

That, my friends, is what $30 worth of meat looks like! He had pork loin, prime rib, ribs, and sausage. Andrew and I split some chicken and brisket and our meal came to a combined $16. This place was pretty cool. When you walk in you're greeted by two bbq pits and someone ready to cut the meat that you want, then they weigh it, cut it up more, and give it to you either on butcher paper or in a tin like above. Just thinking about it now is making me salivate! This is where Poodles had his first ever Jalapeño... wow was that amusing!! Andrew ate one like it was nothing, so Paul thought he could too... bad idea Poodles, bad idea. He looked like he was in so much pain!!! The best part though, was Opi, Jamie and Melissa's Grandfather laughing his ass off at Paul the entire time!

After dinner, we headed over to Mike and Michelle's house on Lake Placid in Seguin. Holy guacamole was this house NICE!!! It actually belongs to George and Cathy (Michelle's parents) and they are nice enough to extend an open invitation to Mike and Michelle's friends and their friends. We hung out there for a little, went on a cruise on their pontoon boat and marvelled at all the other amazing houses on the lake. It was such a nice night out!! Absolutely no bugs too!! Not even mosquitoes!!

The next morning (the 4th) we headed back to the lake house for some water fun festivities. We went out on the ski boat and took turns on the tube. First Andrew and Blake went with Mike and Michelle's son Cade. Somehow, Mike managed to throw Blake off... we're still not sure how that happened... Next Blake, Paul, and Brian went. I was honestly amazed at how well they held on. Brian told Mike to kill them before they went, and man did he try! This was taken right before the whole thing tipped over and they all went flying off:

After that it was the girls' turn. We told Mike we did NOT want him to go as crazy with us as he did with the boys, and like any good gentlemen, he didn't. At first. We were having a great time and we got a little cocky and decided to all go "no-hands" at the same time. Yeah, bad idea. As soon as Mike saw that he floored it, and we went flying on the tube. We went over some HUGE waves, but we managed to stay on! By the end of that ride my arms were soooo tired! My favorite shot from our ride -

At that point, Jamie (left) and I (right) were getting tossed around like rag dolls!! After this picture was taken, I looked over to see if everyone was still on, and I saw Jamie's left leg (the one that's in the air) behind Crystal's head! She somehow managed to hang on though! I'm also, not actually standing up, I was just being bounced in the air. A few more bumps after this and we were done! We were all so tired and the water started getting really choppy. There was one bump where we could all feel our spines compacting. At that point we'd had enough!

After the ride on the ski boat, we took the pontoon boat and ski boat out to the middle of the lake in front of the house and tied them together. We hung out in rafts in the water for the rest of the afternoon and mingled with the other lakers who came to enjoy the day like us. We had such a great time!!! I have a ton of pictures, but at this point, I'm too lazy to put them up, so if you're curious, check out facebook!

Later that night we went back on the boat and headed out to the middle of the lake again to watch the fireworks from the water. For whatever reason (we're guessing the drought conditions) the fireworks were really low, and we couldn't completely see them. But we were all so tired/drunk/happy that it didn't matter anyway! After the fireworks the boys played Corn-hole for a good... ooooh 3 hours? Kailey (Mike and Michelle's 4 y/o) and Cade (5 y/o) took turns taking all sorts of hysterical pictures with mine and Jamie's cameras. They were so cute though!! I finally passed out around 12-1 when I was the only girl left, and I'm pretty sure the boys wrapped up their game pretty soon after.

Now I'm back in my office.... and it's raining. Which is awesome. It's been sooo dry and hot here for so long that everything is dying! I'm wishing I was still at the lake though. New goal in life... Do whatever George and Cathy did and get a similar house!!!

I'm a hoarder

I just realized the sad truth... I am a...a... a hoarder!! Of food only though. And maybe flip-flops. Mainly food. We got an e-mail sent out to our office that there were leftover sandwiches in the break room. Initially I didn't get any because I had a yummy yummy salad from Subway, but after the fifth wilted, disgusting, brown piece of lettuce was dug out of the salad, it didn't look so yummy anymore (NOT impressed Subway, not impressed at all!!). So I went down to see what sandwiches were left. There were only three, two that looked like they were probably chicken salad and one that was probably tuna salad. At first I passed on the sandwiches and just went for the amazing-looking pasta salad (sooo good, but I feel bad for whoever has to talk to me for the rest of the day...they did NOT go light on the garlic!), but then after someone came in and declared the chicken salad to be amazing I snatched one up. So I'm now sitting at my desk with a 1/4 eatten salad, pasta salad (and not a tiny helping either), and half of a (possibly) chicken salad sandwich. Why? Why in the world would I ever need this much food? Especially now that my summer appetite is in full swing (when it reaches 95 degrees it's just too hot to eat! I seldom get hungry in this weather and when I finally do, I could eat an almond and be satisfied). I'll tell you why - I'm a hoarder. I don't know if it's some sort of basic instinctual thing coming out in me or if I'm just selfish. Maybe it's a product of being an only child and never having to share (although I kinda doubt this one...). Or maybe, I'm just weird.

I've noticed this before in the past though. I was even like this even in high school! Going back to the days sitting in Renatos with my friends... when someone asked to have a cheese-fry I would always say yes, then glare the crap outta them when they picked up one that wasn't minimally covered with cheese. It's not like I need this food or even want it all! But here it is sitting on my desk. Don't I know that there are kids in India and Africa STARVING?!?! Hunger is even an issue in this country (is it not an issue anywhere??) but I'm here...being wasteful. Shame on me. I miss the days where I could just walk out the doors of the GSU and head down to the area in front of the Theology building and give my left over food to whichever bum was closest to the street. At least then I could justify ordering a large when I knew I probably wouldn't be able to finish a small.

I'm long past the days of eating out of guilt. I no longer surround myself with, or even associate with, people who will call me anorexic and make me feel bad for not finishing a meal that could clearly feed two people. And I have come to terms with the fact that, yes, Andrew is bigger than me, and therefore should eat more. So why do I still pile on the helpings?!?! Anyone have any insight??

I just gave the sandwich to my co-worker who I think is actually a garbage disposal in disguise. If I'm a hoarder, he's a million times worse! Although better at the same time... he actually eats what he hoardes! So there... I can justify my hoarding for today!!! I got the sandwich so I could give it to him, so he could save the food he brought for lunch and give it to his kids!! See, I knew I had a reason to do it! Oh, and I picked out all the good looking veggies and meat from the salad, but threw-out most of the lettuce. I'm just not into half-decomposed lettuce... call me crazy. So that wasn't a complete bust either!

Now I feel better about myself and can continue on with my day :-)