My First Week Of... School

• The first week of school has come and gone and I'll never get back those 14 hours again it wasn't so bad. 
• I think my classes this semester will be the most homework-laden ever! challenging yet.
• My teachers seem determined to drive me to an early death to be passionate about what they're teaching, which always makes class not quite so boring a bit more fun.

• I was able to get my books quickly but they cost me an arm and a leg plus my firstborn so I can start on my homework now but I still have to get the rest out of my car.
• My classes are getting more ridiculously impossible advanced now, like the continuation of anatomy and physiology also known as death by memorization and sign language 2 which I know is going to be the only class I really prepare for my favorite class.

• I have so much dang homework already enough assignments due Monday that I thought a two-sided checklist might remind me why I want to finish as quickly as possible be helpful each week.
• The only thing carrying me through most exciting thing about this semester is I get to finally apply for PTA (Physical Therapist Assistant) programs and I killed myself finished my PreReq's and GenEd faster than the applicants who still have a life most other applicants!

~The end of my life for another semester End!

To My Wonderful Mother!

There's this woman I've known all my life and today is her birthday!  Happy Birthday, Mommy!  I want to share a little about my wonderful mother with you all:

She has taken on fears and challenges and come out on top!

She cherishes her family and her sisters are her best friends.

She gave up everything that got in the way of raising four children from young...

To grown ups (mostly...). Even to this day, we know she'd give us everything she is able to and work to get us more.

She's a wonderful grandma, not just once...

But twice!

She's encouraged our dreams from day one, never saying it's impossible or we couldn't do it.

She rests only after she knows everyone else is resting too.

To my wonderful mother, a beautiful woman full of love, encouragement and one of the most selfless persons I know: Happy Birthday! I love you!

A Quarter of a Century...

My birthday is officially over! I know, I sound like I'm rejoicing... Turning a quarter of a century is draining (just on the pride tho), particularly when I think back on where "teenager" Nicole thought "current" Nicole would be in life. Funny how it's NEVER the way we plan, huh? (I do believe there's a Bible verse about that...)

My day was very relaxed and I appreciate that particular aspect of it. I stayed up to greet my birthday the night before, so I slept in till noon (with the exception of my mom, aunt, and grandma calling to serenade me in the morning). My roommate had to wake me up (cause she was feeling guilty for sleeping so late as well) and we lazily got dressed as I went back and forth in my decision for which restaurant I wanted lunch at. I had a marvelous vegetarian sushi roll (I don't care that there was no fish- it was at least sushi-"styled") that I had been waiting almost a whole year to taste again. That alone made me very happy! Just when I thought we were done ans waiting on the check, two spoons and a dessert were brought out with birthday wishes. I honestly had not expected The Ginger (as she shall be fondly known) to tell on me, so I was mildly shocked until the deliciousness of the dessert made it all ok. There was many vintage shops in mid-town that we would've loved to explore, but The Ginger only had five quarters for the parking meter, so we had an hour total to get back to the car or else... We did have time to go to the vintage store right next door where I scored an amazingly awesome teal-ish waist belt for about $8. The Ginger has already informed me she's stealing it... Another friend dropped by after we got home and watched as The Ginger (I'm really enjoying calling her that...) and I cleaned some more of our room (still a work in progress, but oh-so-close!).

My other roommate (I shall call her Ramen Girl since she just might be obsessed with... ramen) arrived home after The Ginger and my other friend left. I was back to relaxing on the couch trying to figure out how to change the look of this blog (do you like the new look?) when she announced we had to go somewhere for my birthday. I was starting to thing people were conspiring against me staying home for my birthday like I actually wanted (The Ginger had originally planned to take me to San Fransisco, fun but I wanted to stay home), but they must've known better than me because I had more fun than I thought I'd have today. We ended up going to Color Me Mine.  I had never been before, but Ramen Girl had (I'm already plotting to go again, it's that awesome... for me...). It's a place where you can pick out a ceramic and paint it, they glaze it and fire it, then it's yours to keep, give away, lose, destroy, etc... I picked out a little plate that has a cupcake in the center, it's super cute and I think I did a marvelous job making it cuter (but you have to wait till I get it back to see the truth of my words since I didn't take any pictures at all today). Ramen Girl chose a mug that she painted these cute little characters on (from TokiDoki if anyone else besides her knows what that is). I finally figured out as we were driving home that she might be sneakier than I give her credit for since I concentrate more than I talk when I'm painting... Lucky her! We got home and had strawberry shortcake (delicious!) and watched totally ridiculous (but hilarious) videos on YouTube.

Such a silly, abnormal day for me, but I have to give a big thank you to both Ramen Girl and The Ginger for making this "turning a quarter of a century" thing not as bad as I had envisioned it'd be. Seriously, I just have amazing friends, what can I say? So, what are my plans for year 25? Besides more work and school and homework? I have grand plans!!! I just can't get enough of my friends and family, so seeing them and laughing with them and cherishing them more is so on my To-Do list, and growing closer to the One who cherishes me the most!

P.S-Just want you all to know I'm going to be tired tomorrow, especially since I have to get up in five hours...  That's what happens when you sleep till noon, even on your birthday!

P.P.S.- Although the room's not done yet, seriously MUCH better tho, I'll get pics up when we get everything rearranged (which is taking some serious math skills!). My mom is a true mother and wants to make sure I actually cleaned my room :-P I love you Mommy! :-D -THE END-

If Only You Had Children Like ME!

As I'm very good at procrastinating once I'm given the opportunity, I thought I'd share my plans for this week! The plans I'm currently not doing since I'm procrastinating... Thursday is my birthday and I wanted to give myself a nice gift since I'll only turn 25 once. I really thought long and hard about what I could use or what I needed. No matter how I looked at it, I really needed this one thing... Those who know me well might laugh since I'm sure they've heard this before, but I NEED and WANT: a clean room. Yep, one organized and one I can walk in and one that I want to be in instead of just sleep in! I was planning on taking pictures when I got home from work this morning, but one of my wonderful roommates actually de-messed the room... a little. She put together my new craft table as a much appreciated surprise and in doing so, the room already looks a little better since there's no 5-foot-long garish and huge table taking up a whole wall and floor space.

Do you want to see the pictures I DO have? They might be a little scary, please shield young or impressionable (or parental) eyes!


Yep... That's my room... See the huge table leaning against the wall, in between the closet and sewing machine? I'm starting to think that taking an axe to it might be fun... Anyone have an axe I can borrow?


These are some of the craft supplies I'm in the process of organizing... Remember the tornado known as "Nicole's craft mess"? Yeah, these are part of the culprits. They're actually pretty compressed into those bins right now...


My bathroom's not terrible, but could use some picking up, particularly my jewelry, which happens to currently be in a bowl... in my school bags... in my luggage... in my car... NOT in the jewelry box... Oops... Oh, I also have new pictures I need to find room for on that sink!


Ignoring the mess this time, I'm planning to not only clean but rearrange. I need a bigger bookcase as my bookcase is two books deep on each shelf and I currently use my car, closet and living room for extra shelves... Although you might not be able to see it, there are two beds there, the oak day bed and another bed on the floor with all the... junk... on it. I want to move each bed to it's own wall so there's walking space on the floor. That would be amazing!


Still ignoring the mess and also ignoring the bright light, I want to move the dressers, the (hopefully new) bookshelf and the craft table (seen in the very first pic and in this one from a side view) to one wall. The beauty of the craft table is it's on wheels and the part holding my sewing machine folds down so it becomes just a set of drawers! Genius, right? I'm also looking at new storage for the closet, which is where most of my craft stuff is kept. I currently have a dresser in there which is bulky and hard to access and not very space efficient, so Ikea and I just might be good friends this week. :-P

I know, I know, you're not thinking "how are you going to accomplish such a huge feat?" or "you've got a big job ahead of you!"... I know you're really thinking (especially my mom) "WHAT ABOUT ALL THAT LAUNDRY?!?!?!?" Yeah, I might get to that too...

So, now that you all know I am not embarrassed to put my messy room on the Internet, I'm going to stop my procrastination and get back to cleaning. My objectives for tonight is to finish getting the craft stuff sorted and tackle the monster...err..mess under my bed! Hopefully reason will return to me in the morning and I'll have to finish my room just to put up pictures of a clean and orderly room, like any 25 year old should responsibly have... (I'm trying not to laugh right now...) Have wonderful dreams tonight about your children growing up to own messy rooms! :-D

My Christmas Lists...

Happy Second Day of the New Year! :-D I had a wonderful Christmas (three of them actually!) and slept thru the "New Year" or the clock turning midnight... It's a tradition of mine to sleep thru it each year, I've only missed one or two years my whole life. Want to know what I got for Christmas? I know you do! Here's some of my favorite things:

-A Cake Pops mold and sticks (the good kind you actually use cake for!)
-A Shoe Cookie Cutter (Fashionable AND Edible, can it get any better?)
-The cutest apron (with shoes on it!)
-A Party Planning book (haven't had time to crack it open yet, but it's so on my calendar!)
-A small creative Cupcake book and a 30-minute Vegetarian book (both have GREAT ideas!)
-A marvelous and wonderful Craft Table (to save my room from the tornado known as "Nicole's craft mess")

And HERE'S my absolute favoritest presents of them all!

-Seeing my family and spending time with them!
-Hugging my nieces over and over and seeing their smiles meant just for me
-Seeing my brother in his Navy blue dress uniform walk down the stairs at the airport and feeling so proud of him
-Getting to tell everyone I hold dear that I love them at least one more time

I truly appreciate the money spent on presents for me, the fun stuff, the stuff I need, the stuff I want... The older I get, the more I realize the value of those tangible gifts are nothing compared to being hugged by my dad, laughing with my sisters, talking with my mom in the same room, having a conversation that no one else can follow with my brother or chasing my nieces and hearing their squeals of happiness.

As another year is heading my way (I'm turning 25 this week!!!!) I'm reminded more and more of my blessings and I hope to cherish them a lot more than I have been. I don't do "New Year Resolutions", and I don't plan to start. What I like to do is look back over the past year and take the time to thank Christ for my blessings. Here's some of my favorite's and biggest (or just the ones I remember...):

-My salvation thru Jesus Christ and His constant work in my life
-Another year of health insurance
-Making it thru my first whole year back at school
-The opportunity to see my family more often than in past years
-My job that allows me to go to school full time and work full time and have time for homework
-My co-workers who keep me sane during some days at my job
-Having my older niece for two weeks during the summer and being able to spend that time with her without other obligations
-Meeting new people and forming new friendships
-Having a car that is 10 years old, over 140,000 miles and still working
-The chance to see relatives I hadn't seen in years (anywhere from 2 years to over a decade!)
-Being able to attend my younger nieces first birthday
-Traveling to new places and out of state
-Keeping and deepening the friendships I have with my oldest and dearest friends (and now their husbands and some of them their children)
-My family
-My Mom
-My Dad
-My older Sister
-My younger Brother
-My younger Sister
-My older Niece
-My younger Niece
-My Grandma Penny and Donny
-My Grandma J and Papa
-My Aunts and Uncles and Cousins
-My best friend and my two closest friends in Sac-Town
-SO MUCH MORE!

I have so many blessings in my life! I'm slowly learning to take the time to enjoy them and rejoice in them as they are gifts from my Savior, but I still have a long way to go! :-P How was your Christmas/New Years?

P.S.- Believe it or not, this was not the blog I was intending to write! I was going to post pictures of my adorable nieces and tell about my holiday adventures... Maybe next time LOL