Hi! I am Nicole...

And I am in the throws of self pitty contemplating how to get thru the day here at my desk...

Ah yes, this is kinda funny I will let you laugh becuase that is the best way to get thru tough times... here is exactly what my head feels like.... like someone ripped off my skin, poured hot coals all over my skull and implanted a pulsing beat box into my brain causing it to swell and then they were kind enough to put my skin back on my face. Thanks! I hope you all know I don't talk this way for your pitty also, I just talk about it because this is my life and has been for 7 years and this blog is my life pretty or not....

This & That

So I thought I would do some catching up today and talk a little about this and a little about that... First up I read a book this week "a long way gone" by Ishmael Beah the memoir of his life as a boy solider in Sierre Leone. I researched this book a bit on Monday before starting and there are accusations on the web that Ishmael "enhanced" his story or that not all the facts are true but most of these accusations of falsehoods come from people within the Sierre Leone goverment and they would have obvious reasons to call his story false. So... I choose to read this as fact and this is not a read for the weak stomached, I actually never read this book before bed because I was worried about these images seeping into my dreams. This book is eye opening, sad, tragic and makes me want to "do something" even though this problem is bigger than me and bigger than we know. This was a good quick read and I recommend this to anyone who likes history and learning about other cultures no matter how awful they are. Any thoughts on what my next book should be?
Tonight Matt and I are gonna take it easy we have had a busy summer and we are gearing up for an even busier fall. I am getting my hair done this afternoon, gonna get a spray tan and then we have plans to grub down on some Mexican then plant our full stomachs on the couch with a movie!! Now this is an experiment I say, my family saw this the other night and has assured me it is very scary but ghostly scary and no blood and guts... so I am up for it, we are gonna rent the Haunting in Connecticut tonight and I am hoping that this movie also does not make it's way into my dreams tonight...we shall see. You know this is "based" on a true story and I have done some research on it and found there is a documentary out on the real family which I would like to see, you know this interests me! I will let you know what I think next week, count on it!

SO an update on my Migraines this week and life with no meds! First up I finally have an appt set up with a neurologist but they could not get me in until the first week of Sept and I am assuming I will be undergoing a MRI, brain scam and what not ...so hopefully that will shed some light on my situation. Now, this week has been full of prayer by me, my friends and family and I THANK you all soo much! Now, knock on wood this week has been ok, ok until today that is... right now I am not doing so well and I kinda want to cry at my desk, yes me the "I never cry girl" but I think this onset of potential tears is a combination of the pain, the stress of all this and the constant worrying if tomorrow will be a good day or bad. Now, I know you are not suppose to share prescription meds with people but I was desperate so my mom gave me something to try today and I took it an hour ago, so I am waiting to see how I am react... will I get tired, weird, loopy or nothing at all? Who knows but I am hoping to find out soon! Another weird thing happened Tuesday night and I have never got anything like this but I got so dizzy or it might me called vertigo that before bed I could barely wash my face at the sink without falling over, and when I made it into bed the room was spinning like a top... that kinda worried me because new symptoms are never good!! I hate talking about my migraines because it gets old to me and to my friends and family..........

This weekend Matt & I have a baby shower to go to and errands to run... and it locks like I wont be back to the blogging world until Tuesday.... Monday I will be out of the office! Matt & I are going to be moving my Dad's mother from her current assisted living center to one closer to my parents house. So me and my huge muscles and Matt's brawn will be moving on Monday and setting her new room up so she can be transferred on Tuesday.

Well guys thanks for listening to my randomness... I hope everyone enjoys their weekends!

SYTYCD & SBTB

No, I am not talking code I am talking about a MEGA post with two of my favorite things .. one is a current favorite and one an all time favorite!!! First up, So You Think You Can Dance Top 6 and before I reveal my favorite dance I want to talk about "Lil C".... I love Lil C I think he is "Buck" but but last night he was crazy and not crazy good!!! He was talking in circles, saying stupid stuff and talking entirely too much! I am not sure if they told him to stretch it out to fill the 2 hour show or if he just decided to go rogue but whatever the case Lil C I am giving you a C-!! ha!
Now on to the show, I am not gonna lie picking Brandon & Kayla's contemporary number was easy easy not only because it rocked my world but because everything else I thought was a let down. I mean don't get the wrong the other numbers were good but we are talking semi-finals people and nothing made me want to pick up the phone and text a friend because I couldn't believe how good it was?!?! The dance below is great, they have emotion, power, technique and my favorite move is towards the beginning when she is on his back and does a split in the air.... perfection!!! Speaking of perfection how about Brandon in his booty shorts? WOW, he needs to be pictured while dancing and put into a dance magazine because he has the perfect male dancers body! Maybe Brandon should call Ed from the Bachelorette and borrow his green booty shorts??

Now............SBTB...............SAVED BY THE BELL!!! This is this weeks cover of People and all sorts of emotions came flooding back to me, I mean I LOVED this show... no I don't think you are hearing me I mean I LOURVED this show more than anything. And it appears that I am going to have to kick Tiffany Amber Theissans butt because she is the ONLY one who says she is "too busy" to appear in a reunion movie??? Too busy? doing what? We should petition!!!!

SO I not only loved the show "when you wake up in the morning..........." I loved the specials like the one below when they went to Hawaii and Kelly dated the creepy older dude and they had to save Kelly's relatives place? Yes, I remember! ALOHA!!

Oh yes.... you know it I loved the college years also, the silly unrealistic college years where their "dorm" was a huge coed dream pad! HA! And their dorm advisor was the dude with the mullet? Love it!

And yes how could we forget "The Wedding" I wonder how many kids they would have now? They are so "All - American" they would prolly have 4, 2 girls and 2 boys all Blonde! ha! Oh Zack & Kelly!!!

Now, for your viewing pleasure a wonderful montage with a song we can all sing along to you know I am ..... "Friends Forever" by the Zack Attack! And you are very Welcome!

If this reunion comes true you can bet I will be first in line for tickets!!

This is how I roll...

Last night I finally found out what all the fuss about Bunco is..... it is pretty fun!! I mean for literally just being a roll the dice game we had a ball!! Last night Junior Hospitality Club hosted a bunco night for potential new members to come and get to know us and the reason why we picked Bunco is because you have to rotate tables!! We had a ton of people over at my friend Lacy's beautiful home and my friend Allison came and had so much fun getting to meet new people!

We had TONS of food, this is just one space... we had dips, wraps, desserts, pop, wine and we ate and chatted until we were full!!! And I made my mean "Semi Homemade" brownies, I blogged the recipe a week or two ago and people ate every last bite!!!

My great friends at JH are so special to me I am so blessed to have them, you would think that in an organization of all women people would be snobby or rude but I feel like everyone is so open, mature and the friendships I am forming with this group of girls will be irreplaceable!

You all should head on over and check out the JH blog!!!http://www.jhokc.blogspot.com/ that's right we are on top of things you can even find us on Facebook and Twitter!! This year I have prolly mentioned this before I am the Community Outreach Chair so I plan all our volunteer events each month, monthly service drives, and I work closely with our big partner The Care Center whom we give a grant to at our May Giveaway! You can check out some of the organizations we work with on our JH Blog!! OK, moving on........

It is Wednesday so T-Minus 2 1/2 days until weekend freedom! WooHoo!! Tonight is my favorite night of TV (right behind Sunday) because it is So You Think You Can Dance and Ghost Hunters!!!! I am very excited! Last week Ghost Hunters International was soo great and the history behind this place was so insane I wanted to blog about it so bad.... but it was rather intense so I decided not to scare off any of my loyal readers! But what you can expect is my SYTYCD recap tomorrow! Have a great Hump Day Blogger friends!

Get to know my Matt...

So I was thinking... I mean you all know my husband Matt, see his picture and read about him but I decided to share some interesting facts about my love Matt with all of you.....
1. He is pretty stinkin cute!!! It is pretty hard to image but this ladies man once had long hair during college and earrings?? I know! ha! I told him I would not of dated him like that so I am glad that was just a phase!
2. This is very special... this picture was taken while we were dancing at our wedding, I had made a huge 20min video montage that played on the screen at our reception and without knowing anything our photographer Sara (Sara's Photo creations) captured us dancing with Matt's late mother's picture behind us. Each photo was only on the screen for 5 seconds so it is more much more than good timing that this picture turned out the way it did!
3. Matt was a High School & College baseball player! Nowadays he gives kids in junior high private pitching lessons (contact me if your interested..wink wink) and he also plays in a softball league!

4. This past year Matt has taken up a new hobby .... Dirt Bike riding! I don't get it but he loves it, this is Matt ready to roll all done up and on his bike!!

5. Matt is silly, just like me he is not afraid to laugh at himself or even occasionally join in when I am singing to the animals a silly made up song!(Don't tell him I told you)

6. GOLF, Golf, golf!! Matt is a avid golfer he plays about once a week as well as in a golf league. (who knew they had those?) From what I hear he is pretty gosh darn good!! But I hold my own at Mini Golf! This is Matt is Branson and he says he Birdied this hole!

7. Tattoos.... I know when you see Matt in a suit you would NEVER guess in a million years that he has both arms done in 1/2 sleeves and then 2 other tattoos! I never use to figured myself for a tattoo girl but when I met Matt he already had 4 so what is more I say? I actually gave him the work below for Valentines Day 2 years ago I think! He already had the arm band with his initials and I thought it could use a little something something! And on his other arm he has a 1/2 sleeve with portion devoted to his mother.

8. Matt is sooo good to our animals! I am lucky enough to have found someone who loves them as much as I do and they love him more than you know! I love love this picture below it is soo cute and makes me smile! It is Matt with Ralphie last summer!

Those are just a few tidbits on my hubby so know you all know him a little bit better! Heck he does not even read my blog ... this would embarrass him!! **Toodles**

Twilight Tuesday

It has been awhile my fellow Twilight fans but I have finally decided to post some new movie stills that are floating around the Internet...... Here is a new one with Jacob & Bella....
(insert crazed tween twilight screams)
You all have prolly seen this before but this is the official Wolf Pack picture.... on the new "official" movie website that is now up and running you can learn more about each of these guys and it gives some great movie quotes... www.newmoonthemovie.com

And here is the much anticipated Volturi and now after seeing these actors in full on vampire mode I think they fit perfectly with what I would have imagined them to look like!! Dakota Fanning looks amazing and grown up!!

I plan on reading the series again this September or October before the movie comes out in November, I am excited about that because something about this series reminds me of fall. It may be that Forks is cold, the fact that I read them for the first time last fall or that the movies have come out in fall but to me the books seem warm and cozy and it is always nice to tie in feelings or memories with a book, song or movie! Whew, that was long winded huh?

Now, I must say to all you Twilight haters out there in the past couple of months 3 friends of mine who were ANTI Twilight caved and read them.. even protesting throughout their reading of the books and then wham they LOVED them!!!! So it is never to late to jump on the bandwagon!!!

I need a drug dealer.

** Warning** I am angry.........

So.......... we all know by now I have Migraines and not just the "I have a headache" kind but the doctor diagnoised full blown I want to die occasionally kind, this news is not new to you. But what is weird is that researchers have not fully come up with a ton of migraine meds so we are treated with other forms of medicine that can lead to results for migraines... I have tried SOO many I have even been on a medicine to lower my blood pressure much lower than normal to not induce a migraine ( how that worked, not sure) but I was a walking mess, I couldn't even stay up past like 8pm for a year. Then I tried Topamax which works for some but I was so sick to my stomach it was brutal. Many doctors want to put "us migrainers" on anti-phyc meds to lower certain chemicals in our brains which may help with the frequency of migraines but that is not for me either! So a couple of years ago I was prescribed Maxalt it is a take at on-set of migraine and this is the tricky part... Some stupid guy in a stupid suit at some stupid insurance company (Health but auto/life/home for that call my wonderful hubby) decided that we are ONLY Allowed 10 PER MONTH!!!!!!! And keep in mind the directions say take every 2 hours as needed (no more than 3 a day)! I know I know this is a narcotic but this is complete BS! And so when I have a migraine I have to think "should I take it or is this one I can suffer thru" ????????? Well last week was really bad for me and I went thru 9 in ONE WEEK and when I called to re-order my prescription this weekend I was DENIED! I have to pray that for the next 10 days when I am allowed to pick it up that I do not get one migraine and if I do I have to suffer! I am IRRATE! And no nothing else works, over the counter is CRAP and why should I have to go to the doctors office pay my co-fee while having a migraine to then beg for a free sample? I mean 10 pills in one month? I could see maybe a narcotic limit on 20 but heck you can get like 50 Lortabs? So what gives?
So anyone know a good drug dealer?

Busy Weekend...

Hello Blogging World!!! Happy Monday to you all!! Don't fret the weekend is here is T-Minus 5 days! Woohooo..... I had a busy weekend and wanted to share with you all the fun that was had!
The pictures are out of order because I uploaded them wrong I guess and I decided to just let it be!! So looks like I will start with Saturday night......
This is me and my great friend Becky at her casa, she invited over the Board of Directors from Jh and our hubby's for dinner and it was so much fun! Becky has an amazing house I literally could just pack up and move in and be as happy as a clam!
This is a picture of all the girls in Becky's front room we kicked the guys out back! ha
After dinner we had to rush on over to meet up with Allison and her Birthday extravaganza!! This is me & Al the Birthday girl.. Happy 29!!!!!!!!!

Matt & I at Cafe Nova during Allison's party! ps.... the music there is SOOO loud it was insane we could not even talk, does this mean we are getting old complaining about loud music?

Now it looks like I am jumping back over to Friday night... I am just keeping you on your toes! I had book club and this time we grabbed snow cones and relaxed in the park it is always a great time! After book club 5 of us caught the late show of the Ugly Truth and even though this romantic comedy was super predictable it was still a cute movie. The R-rating was not necessary if they would of lost a couple of bad words it could easily be PG-13! And Gerald Butler is not bad to look at either!

Ohhh... looks like we are back at Saturday afternoon!!! You all keeping up?? My mom, myself and Marissa all hosted a Bridal shower at church for my mom's best friend Kathy, her daughter! You got that? ha! We did cupcakes, brownies, mints, punch, dips and a chocolate fountain and we had about 35 people show up! I think it was a great success!! In the picture below I guess mom & Marissa didn't tell me the color scheme was pink & orange!

This is my little sis and me!

One of the three food tables!!!!

Sunday Matt golfed all day and I did the usual clean, grocery shopped followed by laundry (boo) and then last night I made a new meal.... Turkey Milanse from Giada with pan fried potatoes it was soo yummy!!!! We then ended the night with True Blood and this vampire show is insane and I love it!!! Below is a picture of my LOVE Isabella.... when we got home on Saturday night she was chilling with her brothers and I had to snap a few photos! Yes, she is beautiful isn't she?

So you think this week was a disapointment?

So I am not going to get too deep in this post because I could go on for days but this week was a HUGE let down..... Katie Holmes? They have been pumping this Tyce choreographed dance up for a month and this is what we got? Some shimmy's? a little hip action? And not only did she not sing while dancing she did not even show up to the taping? Ok some people say it was a Judy Garland tribute....why? This is SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE and her dance was CRAP! Could she of not of given us 1 turn? whatever!

The rest of the 100th episode I kept waiting to see Twitch, Benj...anyone? And what we got was the bench dance? I dunno........they should start working now on their next "Big Event"

Home...

Sick...Migraine....

Salmon & Shorts

So the other night I made a new Rachael Ray meal called "Well Dressed Salmon" and it was great, Matt even said it was his favorite Salmon dish's so I had to pass this on with PICS of course!!!!
Crispy Potatoe Cakes
HINT: 1. I used the new Oreda frozen Idaho potatoes, real potatoe's you microwave then finish like real potatoe's. 2. I may add a bit of 1/2 & 1/2 to this recipe if I were you I thought the cakes were a tad dry!!
Ingredients
2 large Idaho potatoes, 2 pounds total weight
3 to 4 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 scallions, very finely chopped
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 egg, lightly beaten
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
Directions
Peel and dice potatoes and add to a large pot. Cover with water and salt the water. Bring to boil over medium heat, and cook until tender. Drain the potatoes and return to hot pot to dry. Transfer potatoes to a bowl. Soften cream cheese in a microwavable bowl and microwave the cream cheese for 20 seconds on high. Add to the potatoes along with sour cream, scallions, zest, egg, salt and pepper, to taste. Mash potatoes to combine mixture.

Heat the oil and butter in nonstick skillet over medium heat. Drop 2-inch mounds of potatoes into skillet and gently press down to flatten a bit. Crisp potatoes until deeply golden on each side, about 7 to 8 minutes total. Mixture makes 8 golden cakes.

Well Dressed Salmon
Hint: I added finely diced Jalapenos to the veggie mixture and it was faboosh!
Ingredients
1/2 seedless cucumber
2 small plum tomatoes
1 shallot or 1/4 red onion, finely chopped, divided
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus a drizzle
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh dill
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets
Seafood seasoning (recommended: Old Bay)
Directions
On a cutting board, dice cucumber into 1/4-inch pieces - to peel or not to peel is up to you. Seed and dice the tomatoes into 1/4-inch pieces. Combine the cucumber, tomatoes and half of the shallots or red onion in bowl and reserve.

In a small bowl, whisk together mustard, sugar, and white wine vinegar and remaining half of the shallots. Stream in extra-virgin olive oil while continuing to whisk. Stir in dill and season dressing with salt and pepper, to taste.

Season the salmon with seafood seasoning and a little black pepper. Heat a nonstick skillet with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Place salmon rounded side down and cook until golden and a little crispy at edges, 3 to 4 minutes. Flip and cook 2 minutes more for a pink center, 4 minutes for opaque fish.

Transfer salmon to dinner or serving plates, top with the cucumber-tomato relish and cover with a liberal amount of dill dressing.

OK, now you all have been wondering what "Shorts" have to do with salmon and I don't want you to have to wait anymore for this slice of cuteness.............

So.... in the mornings when Matt gets dressed for work and he takes off this gym shorts (easy easy on the mental pic, HA) Oscar has always made a mad dash for the shorts and then runs with them, well one day he started crawling into them and then being real stiff as if he was waiting for us to take them away.... well it is so cute that now when pup crawls in the shorts we yell "Pup in Shorts, Pup in Shorts" and he gets so excited, his tail goes 90miles an hour, and he lays there waiting for us to come & tickle him!! And this morning I just so happened to snap some pics....

Please notice the wittle pink tongue hanging out..... Looks like a crime scene huh?

Well Hello to you Oscar!

Anyways you may think it is stupid but it is one of "our things" and it brightens my morning when without me knowing I walk out of the bathroom and see "Pup in Shorts"!!!!!!!

In the trench Tuesday

!!Warning!! Random thoughts ahead............
So lately I have been pretty down in the dumps about my Migraines, I am coming off a torture some week and it is hard to stay positive. I mean I wake up most days with some sort of headache and last week it was a daily migraine but life does not stop because I feel awful, so the constant pain and me just trying to get thru the day bums me out. So I am pretty much a Debbie Downer lately and no one likes that but everyone is entitled a little time to feel sorry for themselves? NO? Well I had it and yesterday I decided to take my doc up on her offer to be referred to a neurologist so I called my docs office and I am STILL waiting on a call back. I know doctors are very busy but my doctor is so busy I feel as though when I am talking she does not listen but instead is pre-thinking about what to tell me so she can move on. Whatever, hopefully this neurologist will be different and I am scared he or she will say you have Migraines deal with it... so pray that there will be some new options to try like maybe a lobotomy? HA! Moving on.... Tonight is OKC Thunder Girl finals and I am going because I A. want to support my friends and B. I like to watch the dancing! It is still bittersweet for me knowing I could be up there but all good things must come to an end, no one wants to be the oldest on the team and heck say I tried out I could very well be 11 YEARS older than some of the girls, talk about depressing!!!
Tonight my good friend Chelsea is going with me, she just got back from Italy on her honeymoon and I am so excited to hear about everything. Below is one of her wedding pics and they are TO DIE FOR!!! So to check out some more you can go to Chelsea's blog on my blog list it is the Coty & Chelsea one!
So speaking of being in the trenches this morning started off bad......... I was driving to work and low and behold were two dogs a German Shepard and a yellow lab were running across 134th Street by Penn (busy road if ya don't know) and both had tags on. SO seeing that I am on a mission to save animals I was thinking if these were my dogs I would pray someone would stop, check their tags and call me so... I hop the curb and pull into the field, impressive huh? I get out of the car and yell for them, walking thru the thick brush and I can tell they must of just gotten out because they were hyper and playing like fools..... so I call them and walk towards them and they just kept running the other way so I don't know what to do but I am also late for work, people are looking at me like a crazy person and I am only 1 girl what will I do with two huge dogs... so with a broken heart I left. I mean really, what to do in that situation? If I had on running shoes I would go after but I didn't! It makes me super sad, I don't know why God shows me these animals if I can't help!!!???

I shall Leek you

It is no surprise that I heart animals in a BIG way and my one woman crusade to rescue them as I see them is a tough one! But everyday I come across these amazingly cute video's from one of my favorite websites www.cuteoverload.com and I wanted to share this one...... like other videos I have posted prior this shows the true love, compassion, caring and big hearts animals can show towards one another. I know this is just a silly video of a deer kissing a kitty but it really shows how animals don't discriminate and how they can truly love and make friends. I hope this makes you smile like it made me......

My Wicked Weekend

As you know this past Saturday me and my girlfriends went to see Wicked the Musical and it was perfect! It was dazzling, funny, dark and wonderful! The sets were insane and added so much to the musical and the cast was so talented it was pure joy to watch!! Camera's were not allowed during the performance (darn) and I did not want to take any chances because once when I was told this during a Justin Timberlake concert they actually took my camera and erased my memory card so I was not gonna let that happen again!!
Some of the girls waiting in line to be seated!!!!!

Kelly, Kelsie, Shannon, Becky, Jeana, Natalie and myself!

Cheesy - YEs! Good pic- Yes!

Sunday Matt & I went to the mall and I bought a new dress to wear to my HS Reunion coming up in a couple of weeks and I spent some time working on Scentsy stuff!!! And before I knew it, here it is Monday morning again!!

Week Wrap up and the Weekend ahead!

It has been a long week for me, I have been plagued with migraines daily and I have been kind of down in the dumps about it... but I am sure you don't want to hear about my migraines for the millionth time so moving on........ Tomorrow I am excited to be spending the day with some girlfriends from Book Club, we are hitting the road and heading to Tulsa to see Wicked the Musical in the afternoon and ending the day with dinner before heading home! Stayed tuned on Monday for some pics!!!
So I taped this new show on Bravo and we watched it last night, Miami Social and it was like the gay, older, Miami version of the hills! Seeing that I dislike the Hills it is weird because this show was so over the top and silly it may be a summer indulgence. Most of these people are reality TV cast offs from the Apprentience and Big Brother who became friends and now have another show about them. The men of the show swear they are like 30 but I think they look closer to 40... I looked at Matt and was like OMG they are only 2 years old than us do we look that old? He assured me we don't, I hope he wasn't lying! Anyways this show is on Tues on Bravo and you should see how the drunk and rich act ...kinda silly!!

Now, last week my Brother (pictured below) asked me to drive from Oklahoma to San Diego with him and Condo hunt with his roomies and since I was give like 12 hours to think about this and make plans to take off work for a week I regretfully declined! Well Curtis and 2 other room mates found a place they loved 12min from San Diego and 12min from the Pendalton Base and they just found out they got it! And let me say I can not believe my little brother will be living in a 3.8 MILLION dollar pad ON THE BEACH! Do the math and divide by 3 and yes it is more than I make in a WHOLE month or two! (wink)HAHA!

This is the back of the house which is all glass and opens up onto the deck onto the beach! It is 4,000 sq ft!

This is the front, weird I know but homes are all backwards there looks like the back but this is the side that faces the street!

This pic is taken while standing on their OWN deck!!! Can you BELIEVE this???

This is the Living room with a vaulted ceiling and I love the exposed beams! It has multiple fire places, the kitchen is covered in granite and open... I am sad that no one will be using the beautiful kitchen....... I may trade my cooking skills for a week of lounging on his deck!!!

Anyways I wanted to share that with you and he is one lucky duck.... he is an Officer in the Marines and yes ladies he is single!
I hope you all enjoy your weekends and if you have nothing to do you should swing by a book store and pick up the Time Traveler's wife! Adios!