The Glass House of Nicolerene

E and Me at the beach... with a little update and some exciting news

 

Hi... It has been such a long time since I have been able to sit down and work on anything without falling asleep. We have just been so busy with Easter and Spring Break. Today I was finally able to get MOST of my pics on the computer and organized. I think I still have about 300 to go. HELP PLEASE... I take so many photos that I get overwhelmed if I do not work on them daily. In a weekend we can take around 200 easy. It is more then just transferring them to the computer. I have all photos organized by day / month/ year and I have to go through them and see what I am going to use or not. It just adds up and I get so overwhelmed and then I procrastinate it. So here I am after a month of crazy, trying to catch up. 

Yesterday was kind of my first relax day... even though I was still going none stop. My nephew came down to visit so Ella and I took him to the beach. It was a gorgeous day. I was having so much fun taking pictures. I am hoping to go back one evening this week to get some more. There is great light there in the evening. It was a nice day and Ella enjoyed the water. (Ella has become a water baby in the past month.)

So over the past month we have been super crazy. Getting ready for Easter/ Spring Break was a huge job for me. For some reason the past few years I get really into Easter. I think that it must be something about Spring. I spent a lot of time preparing for it since we had so much planned. I just love it.  We went to the pools every day. We went on boat rides in the evenings. Kyle went golfing (he got a set of clubs for making Honor Roll). Ben and Kyle went spear fishing the night before Easter and caught us some Hog Fish for Easter dinner. That night alone turned into a crazy, everything that can go wrong will and did kind of night, but we all made it through it and laughed afterwords. Easter was beautiful. We ate breakfast and dinner on the porch. We had an egg hunt and Ella enjoyed getting her eggs. Then Ben came with the good news. One of his clients just happens to be Dolphin Cove. So he arranged for the kids to swim with the dolphins. It was absolutely wonderful. The kids were so excited!!! It was a great experience for them and they are looking forward to doing it again.. We also went to the beach so the kids could go hunting for Hermit Crabs. Since we can not keep the ones from the beach we let the kids each buy a land Hermit Crab.  It really turned out to be a great week... even with a few attitude problems. ;)

With everything that we have been doing the last month you can imagine that I have a TON of pictures and since I have not been posting them on here I have so many that I could never put them all in a post. So today I made the March and April photo albums for the blog and started to put up pictures. So to see everything we have been up to go check those out. 

_{I was able to get about 60% of the pics up today but over the next few days I plan to have it finished. Make sure to check back for new ones.} 

_{I am hoping to do a post with the swimming with dolphins pics so those will not be going up on the album yet. Dolphin Cove was so kind to do photos for us and I think the disk has about 160 on there so I still have to go through and pick my favorites to post and that will not be easy.} 

 

So now the exciting news of the day... After weeks of waiting, Ella's first tooth finally broke through today!!!! We are so excited. Most babies get bottoms first but Ella is pushing out the tops and they have been so swollen for weeks. In a few pictures it looks like she has teeth because the gum was so white and swollen. Today was the big day and we have made a huge fuss over it. 

 

I am hoping that as busy as I will be the next few weeks getting ready for a little someones first birthday, that I will be back to regular posting. As for this little girl turning one, well I am NOT ready for that. I do not want the year to be over yet. I am enjoying this so much and I really think this was the quickest first year out of all of them. I feel like I was pregnant for 3 years and now the first year is over in just a few months. So I am trying to enjoy every last minute of the first year and I am working on a small but sweet little party for the sweetest little baby girl...

Goodnight everyone...

XOXOXOXOXO

Nicole

 

Treasures...

 

Some of my treasures from my neighbors... 

It's so exciting to come across such wonderful things...

 

Have a great Thursday!!!!

Nicole

 

 

Our little camping trip...

 

 

The best weekend ever!!!! 

Our little camping trip turned out to be the most amazing family trip, weekend, just the best everything ever. We will never forget this and we can not wait to do it again. Ben has declared that this is now an annual St. Patrick's Day camping trip. I second that!!! We all want to go back to our little island in the river and stay there forever. It was paradise. The island we camped on had a sand bar that stretched out into the water and made a little cove like area. Just around the time we were eating breakfast the first day, all of a sudden there were dolphins jumping up out of the water playing in our little cove. I was so excited... the kids were too but I almost cried happy tears because it was just so beautiful. I told Ben that he had to buy me the island and that the dolphins would be mine forever. The dolphins continued to play throughout the day... HEAVEN... After a while of playing around we went on a boat ride down the river. We went down to the area where everyone goes and hangs out on a sandbar and we came across the coolest thing ever... a ice cream boat... just like an ice cream truck but obviously way cooler. They had snacks and hot dogs and french fries and it was yummy. So after hanging out there for a while we headed back to our island and Ben and the kids went to one of the marina's near by and picked up Grandma and Grandpa to come out for a little bit. We all went exploring for a while and then Ben went and picked up my Mom and Uncle for a bit. The kids found lots of hermit crabs and sea snails and Kyle made friends with a lizard. Ella did great. She had her first experience with getting dirty. She had a blast playing in the sand and in the river. We had perfect weather and perfect children and just could not have asked for anything more... except for the trip to not end.

We were all very happy campers!!!

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend as well and that your week is off to a good start. I am looking at a porch full of camping stuff that I do NOT want to put away. Eventually I will get it all done...

XOXOXOXOXO

Nicole

 

WARNING: There are a million pics below... I couldn't help myself... I had to share them... 

 

 

Flashback...

 

December 2005

 

 

"The Royal Fit"

Lee Canyon, Las Vegas, NV

This is Austin... This is Austin throwing a fit...

On a vacation to Las Vegas to visit Grandpa we went to the Las Vegas Ski Resort so that my brother could go snow boarding and the kids could go sledding. We were all so excited to go see the snow. We packed up the car and bundled up the kids and headed up the mountain. When we got there my brother went to go snow board and my dad and I tried to get the kids situated but all of the areas where there should have been snow for sledding were lacking in the snow department. I thought the kids would still like to walk around over in the snow areas and play with it but no... They just complained about gloves and mittens and this and that. Austin who is very very good at throwing fits was just not happy with mittens or cold hands and she let us know. We hung out as long as the little ones could last. Not that long since Chesney was only 4 months old and we went to the car to have some snacks and juice. Then it started to flurry a bit so I took the kids back out for that and we tried to make the most of a snow-less sled day. 

 

For us it was a big deal. I have lived in FL since I was 6 and I have not seen REAL snow since before that and so for some kids from FL this little bit of snow play time was good. They do not remember any of it but I have the pictures to prove to them that they have seen snow. 

That night at my dads we sat around laughing about the day and named this picture "The Royal Fit". 

The kids will see REAL snow eventually. At some point we will make it to WI to visit Ben's family and we will get more snow then they will know what to do with.

 

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

Nicole

 

 

My weekend...

I was able to get and keep my house clean... Bathroom construction was moving along... I made some more candles for my Mom... I was able to finish 2 craft projects I have been slowly working on... I started a new one... I made lemon cheesecake for Ben... My laundry basket was happy... 

and...

I hit a vintage goldmine when we noticed that the house behind us that has been empty for a while was being cleaned out. All of a sudden all of this awesome stuff is being brought out into the backyard and I am in my house drooling. So Ben went over and made some small talk and I walk away with some pretty cool items. I was promised an amazing vintage patio set but the guy sold it an hour after he said it was mine... I was very upset this morning when I found out. I was steaming mad. In the end the guy was able to get me back one of the pieces. I am very excited about my new things and I can not wait to take some pictures and share...

But for now, I am going to bed. It is super late and I am tired. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend... 

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Nicole

_{I leave you with some lemon cheesecake :)}

 

 

Flashback... (then and now)...

 

October 2002

 

This is Kyle and Kelsey. 

A long long time ago in a land far far away I left my home in FL to move to GA. Shortly after moving there I made a friend named Jennifer. She was a mom of 3 young children, Denver, Cole and Kelsey. Jennifer and I became close friends and she was the first and one of the few good friends I made there. I have a lot of silly memories of her and I trying to figure out this life while our husbands were always gone. We had fun trying to shove a TV that did not fit through the door opening into the back seat of her car and she rescued Kyle and me when I forgot a pot of baby bottles boiling on my stove until the water was gone and all of the plastic and rubber melted and filled my house with horrible smoke. It seems like a million years ago in my other life. I had my Kyle and I adored Kelsey. She was such a happy baby and her and Kyle would baby play together. They were very very cute and they became baby friends. I loved how Kelsey would hold her bottles with her feet. I thought that was just the coolest thing ever!!! Many years have gone by... Jen and her family moved away because that is what happens in the Army and we lost touch for a while. Now years later I am back in FL and she is in MO but we are still friends and we get to share pictures and story's about our kids with each other. We were so much younger then and we had little babies. Now they are so grown up and it is crazy. I am still in contact with some of the other friends I made during that time and I am really glad that I have been able to keep these friendships. 

They are special to me...

Now Kyle and Kelsey were baby friends and have not seen each other since they were under the age of 2. They do not remember any of this. But any time I see a picture of Kelsey I can not help but to think back on these kids as babies. Wasn't it just yesterday they were sitting in that chair being babies??? It gets me every time.

Above is a picture of Kyle and Kelsey then...

Below is Kyle and Kelsey now...

CRAZY!!!!!!

Look at these kids... our little babies growing up so fast. 

...Time flies so enjoy every moment and cherish every memory...

Have a great weekend!!!

Nicole

~ Thanks so much Jen ~

Pass it on...

Watch the video here 

Make a Donation here

Pass it on!!!

 

_{I know you have probably seen it already but lets keep it going!!!}

 

Day by Day...

Hi Hi Hi

Another busy week moving right along. Okay, when is it not busy around here. I always have 5 million things going on at once, but I guess I would get bored if I didn't. I DID IT!!! Yep I had my yard sale on Sat morning. I did not want to. I am not a people person at all so I rather scrub toilets at a bar then go out and deal with people at a yard sale. ( ok ok yes that is to some degree an exaggeration but it makes my point... I DO NOT LIKE TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE ) So when the alarm went off Sat morning I wanted to pull the covers over my head and say NO NO NO I AM NOT DOING IT but I got up like a big girl and went and did it. My sister came to help me and my mom came to help me with Ella. ( Ben had a mid-term for school so he was in study land ) In the end... I did it, and if the weather allows I will do it again next weekend. We did not get rich but it was not the worst sale I have had and I got some stuff moved out of my garage and into someone else's. 

Then Sunday came... and I spent the entire day in Lowe's and I am never ever going back... no that was not me at Home Depot last night... that was just someone pretending to be me... I swear. We bought almost everything we needed to do the bathroom and it was long and I had to think a lot about matching tile to this and stain to this and light fixtures and hardware and how will this look and this and that. UGHH, it starts out fun but by the end of the day its like LETS GO NOW!!!

Other then that its just been daily life around here. I looked around after the yard sale and discovered that my house was a wreck, so I have been cleaning and doing a little of this and a little of that. I am trying to start some basic planning for Easter and Ella's first birthday. I do not want to plan for her birthday yet but if I do not start now I will become overwhelmed at the last min and nothing will work right. We are going to have Easter in the Keys since it is part of the kids spring break. I do not know why but I love making a big deal for Easter. Last year we had a scavenger hunt for the kids that my sister in law put together and it was AWESOME!!! The kids loved it and everyone got a good laugh when I hid in a closet and got stuck because of my huge pregnant belly. It's going to be Ella's first Easter and I think she is at a great age to enjoy it. I still have Chesney's dress from her first Easter and I think Ella is going to wear it. I went to a thrift store yesterday that I had never been to and it ended up being a good one. I found some super cute things and my wallet and I both left happy. 

 1) Miss Serious... 2) Sleeping Beauty... 3) A thrifty pot... 4) Little baby finds... 5) A candle I made for my Mama...  6) Drain work... 7) A fixed drain... 8) Just a hole in the ceiling

 

So for now its just life day by day. There are a million things going on but everything is running smooth at the moment. 

Hope everyone is doing well...

Nicole

Flashback...

 

October 18, 2009

 

Ko Samui, Thailand

An island in the Gulf of Thailand

I love this picture.

I love this memory.

I love this story.

 

This is the story of an incredible journey. To me its a magical story. A fairytale of sorts. The kind of thing doesn't happen to a girl like me. 

 

To tell this story I am going to go back even further. Lets say the summer of 1992...

There was this boy who just moved to FL from WI. I met him because there was a new girl in my 4th grade class. We found out that her and I rode the same bus and lived in the same neighborhood and we became wonderful friends and she had a WONDERFUL brother. Oh was he wonderful. I was in love... I was madly in love. The school year ended and my mom worked and my new friends mom stayed home so I was able to spend the summer at their house so I did not have to sit home alone all everyday. This was great. I got to have a wonderful summer with a new friend and my CRUSH. By the end of the summer I was going to marry this boy. Well time goes by and we are all friends and then we go to Jr. High. I am still madly in love. I think at one point he agreed to be my boyfriend but then stopped talking to me so I figured I was never going to get this boys attention. Then one night I had some friends over and this boy was over and OMG he kissed me. AHHHHHH!!! ( now I am 14 at this time so yes this was a AHHHHHH moment) But then... nothing... So my first serious boyfriend ended up being one of his best friends. Then that ended and not well so I went on with life down another road and made new friends. And I didn't see this boy anymore. I thought about him. The years went by. Before we know it I am 19 and getting married and moving away. I came back to visit. And for some reason even though I knew he was grown up as well I would still drive by his parents house whenever I was in town. I never ever forgot this boy. Time keeps going and I am divorced and living back at my moms house, back in the neighborhood we grew up in. I move back out on my own again with my munchkins and then I ran into another old friend. I hung out with this friend and we took a walk in the neighborhood that we grew up in with my kids one day. So of course we were talking about everyone. And then we walked by the house that this boy grew up in. He said he talked to him and his sister sometimes and we talked about memories and went along. But I went home and I could not get this boy out of my head. I just wanted to say hi. So what do we do when we want to talk to someone from long ago??? Facebook of course... Now until 3 weeks before this, I did not have a Facebook. 3 weeks before my favorite cousin was visiting and I said what the hell, whats it going to hurt and made a Facebook. Well this could not have been at a better time. So I looked him up. And I found him and sent him a message...

 

He responded. 

 

And the stars must have been lined up just perfect. 

 

And we talked on Facebook and found out that we were both divorced and we talked about things from when we were kids so hey why not get together this weekend. 

And we did...

And the weekend after that...

And the weekend after that...

So now here we are in September 2009. Every weekend this boy would come up from his job in the Keys and spend the weekend with me. Well... one weekend in September he came to my house and said that he had received a phone call saying that his cousin was going to be going to Thailand in 2 weeks and was wondering if he would want to go. He wanted to go all right but we were falling madly in love with each other and he was having a hard time knowing we would be apart for so long. Well the end of the weekend came and out of nowhere he asks me to go to Thailand with him. ARE YOU CRAZY??? I HAVE 3... DO YOU HEAR ME, 3 KIDS AND A JOB AND NO VACATION TIME AND ARE YOU CRAZY? I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PASSPORT OR MONEY OR OMG ARE YOU CRAZY? I CANT GO TO THAILAND. WHATS WRONG WITH YOU? ( now... as I am freaking out I am obviously on cloud 9 just for the fact that he wanted me to go ) The next day I had to go pick up the kids from their dad and while I was driving along down the highway asking myself if this really happened, I called my mom. I asked her a big question... I thought she would laugh at me and then yell at me for being crazy to even think... but I asked. 

Me: Mom, if by any chance I can get 2 weeks off of work and a passport, can you watch my kids so I can go to Thailand with this boy I was madly in love with from the ages of 10-14 and that I am currently sleeping with now at age 27

Mom: Yes

( ok so obviously not exact words but really it was amazing that she understood this was a once in a lifetime chance and was behind me to help ) 

The next day was Monday and I went to work and sat down to ask my boss a big question. 

Me: I know that we are in the middle of a huge company merger and the largest change goes into effect at the end of the month and that I do not have any vacation time but can I please have 2 weeks off with no pay so that I can go to Thailand

Boss: Its okay with me... Lets double check with my boss. I will let you know when I hear back. She is out of the office so it may be a few days

Me: Awesome, great, okay

Well 2 HOURS later I receive an email from my boss saying that as long as I am back by a certain date I am free to go. So I called the local passport office and they said sure just pay an extra $50.00 and you can get a rush passport in time to go. 

UMMMMM..... OMG!!!!!! IS THIS REALLY ALL HAPPENING... IS EVERYTHING ACTUALLY WORKING?????

 

 Midnight October 13, 2009 (this is also my 28th birthday) I am landing in Bangkok, Thailand. PINCH ME NOW PLEASE. OH STOP THAT HURTS...

This trip was incredible. Just getting there was amazing but the trip well... There are not words to describe the most amazing 2 weeks of my life. *

After spending some time in Bangkok we took a 8 hour bus ride in the middle of the night to another part of Thailand and then we took a boat to go spend a few days on one of the islands. We then went to another island and spent one night there and that is when this picture was taken. We then flew back to Bangkok and spent a few more days there and then headed to Tokyo for 3 days.

_{I will over time write more about things from this trip. It was an amazing time for me. Something that just does not happen to a girl like me. But it did. This happened and it is really hard for me to try to describe it. Should I make this more about the actual trip? Probably but I think the fun in this is how I got there and how this memory came to even happen. I know there is a part of me that still does not believe that this trip ever happened. It seems like such a dream.} 

So there is still what happened with the boy and me...

Everyone that we talked to before leaving to go on this trip joked that we would come back married. It really was crazy but everyone said this.

We didn't...

But 2 weeks later we took the kids to the courthouse and eloped. And that is how I became the Mrs. to my Mr.

and

that is how 17 years after I met him and fell in love and declared that I was going to marry that boy...

I DID 

 

XOXOXOXOXO

Nicole

* Amazing 2 weeks of my life  is meant to be most amazing 2 weeks of my life not counting anything related to my children. They are better then any trip to anywhere with anyone... I just had to say this because I am weird and I feel weird writing that something other then my kids is the most amazing thing in my life. 

 

A bathroom re-model and a yard sale...

Hi... ahhh... what a mess we have over here at our little house. There is no turning back now. We have started demo on the master bath today. I can't believe it really happened, that this day is here. I bought my house 2 and a half years ago when I was still on my own. It was not the best house but for a single mama of 3 kids, it was PERFECT. Well its not so perfect anymore and it keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller. I bought the house knowing that it needed new bathrooms, flooring, and a kitchen. The house did have a newer roof and AC unit and those things as a single parent are much more important then the pretty kitchen and bath that we all want to have. So here we are down the road a bit and since we are not rolling in extra money at any time we are just now getting to bathroom numero uno. 

_{At this time I want to thank my Mom and my Aunt and Uncle for helping with this project. Without you guys this would not be happening. We have had a lot of CRAP in our lives the past few years and without our family we would not have made it through. So a BIG GIANT thanks to ALL of our family who has helped support us through all the hard times.} 

So my Uncle has come down from Ohio for a few weeks to help us out and I think that is pretty AWESOME!!!! The other GREAT thing is that Ben gets to work out of the local office for the rest of the week so we have him home tomorrow and Friday like a normal 8-5 kind of husband. WOOOO-HOOOO!!!! Of course I put him to work on the bathroom and the rest of my very long "honey do list". He is a champ and between work and school work he does amazing to try to get as much scratched of that list of mine. Well now that the shower is completely gutted out we need to pick out tile to replace it... I know, I should have done this already but...... this is the hard part. See I picked out tile for the bathroom when I bought the house but we will be moving soon so I need to find a lower priced look. I do not want anything crazy expensive but it was definitely out of the budget for this project. And why spend all the extra for what you really want when you are not even going to be living in the house. The object here is to make the bathroom nice for when it gets rented out. I need to find the tile and then we are going to refinish the cabinets we already have and make them look like new, put some fresh paint on the walls and then there will be an updated bathroom and that will make a happy homeowner and future tenant.  

And...

I want to have a yard sale Saturday. I hate having yard sales. I used to love doing it. When I lived in GA yard sales were money makers. Every time I have had one in Florida... well... they just SUCK. I always put so much work into it and then make nothing. I hope that this house has good traffic. My signs are made  and I am trying to get together the easy stuff. ( Ben has a mid -term Sat morning and wont be around to help me pull this one off. ) I am just going to pull out the big stuff and the easy to price stuff. I hate pricing... UGH its horrible. I am trying to keep myself excited about it and not become overwhelmed because we need to sell all of this stuff. I am not moving it... I will not, I can not... So I have my fingers crossed and lets see if I can pull this one off.

Oh....... did I mention that I am NOT a morning person at all... HELP...

 

 

Here are a few pics I snapped of the bathroom today, and one of Ella when she got into Mama's ribbon basket. :)

 

 

I sure hope everyone is having a great week!!!! 

Nicole