An Introduction, or a Refresh......take your pick!

One of the blogs I love reading is Hello Happiness and last week she did a post to re-introduce herself to new readers and I loved it! So I thought why not? You know I love jumping on the bandwagon! If you are a long time reader or a new reader I am so glad you stop by......let's get to know ME!

Name/Occupation/Age/Stats
Nicole (With NO H)
33 Years Young
Operations Manager at my husbands Farmers Insurance District! And he gave me that title not me! ha!
I have 1 Husband, 3 Dogs, 1 Cat, 1 Town Home in Denver and a partridge in a pear tree

Favorite Hobbies
Cooking, Reading, Watching TV, shopping, going to movies, trying new places to eat and lately riding my bike when the weather is cool!!!

Five Things I Can't Live Without
1/ Sadly my Tech! Phone, Internet, TV, Netflicks
2/ Good books! Tucking myself in bed every night and reading a book is my FAV!
3/ Coffee every morning is a must, it is more of a routine than a need!
4/ Family! ALL of our extended family!!!
5/ My Fur-children!
(This was in no particular order)

Favorite Fun Activities with Matt
We love every Sunday riding our bikes a mile to the Stapleton Farmers Market, getting breakfast at a food truck and enjoying the morning!!! I just love it! We love going out to eat on Friday night and catching up over a glass of wine! We also love snuggling on the couch with the animals and catching up on our DVR!!!!!

Biggest Pet Peeves.
I am a rather impatient person so when people are late or they do not follow thru with something they say they will do really gets me. Slow drivers drive me insane (pun was intended) and people who invade your personal space.....like hello! I am standing here can you please move away???

Typical Day
I get up at 7:15 to have coffee, breakfast and get ready for work! On the way to work I listen to a book on tape (currently the Maze Runner Series) and then I get to work at about 9!! I blog first thing in the morning at work and check my email of course!!! I eat lunch at the office with Matt and then I head home for the day around 3 or 4 and yes, I am so lucky! When I get home I clean up the house, cook myself dinner since Matt works late and then comes my favorite part of the day........... When I lay on the couch with the animals and watch DVR or Netflicks! So to sum this up, yes.....I am very boring!

Favorite Music/Bands/Singers
Kings of Leon, Incubus, oldies all day.......Chicago, Foreigner, Eagles, 70s music, Michael Buble', John Mayer........the usual suspects!

My Top 10 Movies
For the record this is SOOOO hard! So here is just 10 of my favorites!
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, The Devil Wears Prada, Rock of Ages, Lone Survivor, Zero Dark Thirty, Divergent, Prometheus, All Batman movies, Avengers, Twilight! haha! Very vast huh??

Top Reads (in no particular order)
Unbroken, Shanghai Girls, Twilight, The Story Teller (Jodi P), Winter Garden Kristin Hannah, My Name is Memory, The Time Travelers Wife, A Million Little Pieces

Other Q&A
What you wanted to be when you grew up: I wanted to be an Archeologist
Beauty secret: NEVER go to sleep with make-up on!!!!
Celebrity crush: Channing Tatum AND Charlie Hunnam!
Secret talent: Guessing! Really....I can guess prices of things, the time......pretty random but I am pretty good! ha

Quizee McQuizerson

Who doesn't love a good quiz??? I DO I DO! And I am sure these are exactly the burning questions that you wanted to know about me! ha! Just ignore the fact that it took me a VERY long time to figure out how to fill this puppy out right online (PicMonkey)! But hey, it's done!

I saw this on my friend Elise's blog today and had to steal it, you can visit her HERE!
You can get your own quiz to share in the fun HERE and it is also a fun link up!!!!

Strengths

The other day I got to catch up with a dear friend Becky (K) and she is always so insightful and I value her opinion greatly...she has a way of telling me about myself and getting me to see things differently. She was telling me that at a work conference her group took this course Gallup Strength Finder plus the Test....her results were dead on. I was intrigued and so yesterday I took the test to find my Top 5 strenghts. The test is only $10 and takes about 40 minutes but you get real reports on your top strengths and how to better use them. There are 35 total strengths that could be your result..... here is how it works....

YOUR STRENGTHSFINDER RESULTS

Decades of Gallup research has proven that when individuals have the opportunity to discover their natural talents and purposely develop them into strengths, the effect on individual and organizational performance is transformational. Your personalized reports and guides will populate in the sections below once you have completed a strengths assessment. Learn more about your strengths and the strengths of others by reviewing your reports today.

You can check out the website and take the test for yourself HERE!

I thought I would share with you my strengths and a little description of what they mean to me and yes, I thought they were very accurate. I also would have never picked out a few of these for myself but after reading about them it was like unlocking part of me. Each strength has pages on applying it and highlighting it in your life which was really neat to read. 

Here are mine ranked in Order:

1. Empathy
Shared Theme Description
People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations.

2. Activator

Shared Theme Description
People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.

3. Communication

Shared Theme Description
People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

4. Woo

Shared Theme Description
People who are especially talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person.

5. Developer

Shared Theme Description
People who are especially talented in the Developer theme recognize and cultivate the potential in others. They spot the signs of each small improvement and derive satisfaction from these improvements.

Pretty neat huh? Does that sound like me?

Here ya go Facebook

So this is ALL the rage on Facebook and I think just about everyone of my friends has posted their "lists" of things about them! I'm not sure who started this or why but I have enjoyed reading everyones posts......and now ME, me......my turn!

10 Random Things About Me......

* Growing up my Mom would wake me up by bringing me my morning cup of coffee in bed!

* My first car was a 1999 Red Chevy Cavalier which was then destroyed that same year by the massive May 4, 1999 Tornado that hit my school. I still have the rearview mirror that we tore out of the car before it was hauled away. 

* I am a natural blonde. My hair grows like 1/2 a inch a month so I have to color my blonde (with grey) roots every 3 weeks. 

* Sometimes I watch my animals while they are sleeping and think about how much I love them

* Growing up I use to play Teacher in my bedroom everyday to imaginary students.

* When I shower, put on make-up or even do my hair I HAVE to do things in the same order every time. If I say......put lotion on the right arm first and not the left, it would completely freak me out. #ocdmuch?

* I have extremely vivid dreams and nightmares every night. They are beyond my wildest imagination, completely weird and at times absolutely frightening. I have died in my nightmares many times.

* I miss dance everyday and I can not listen to music without automatically choreographing dances in my head to every song. 

* I get in my car at work and as I am leaving the parking lot at 5:02 exactly everyday I call my Mom and we talk until I pull into my garage at home. 

* Growing up when "Starter" jackets were cool.....circa 7th grade maybe...... the one I picked out for Christmas was the Charlotte Hornets jacket because of the blue and purple colors....... fast forward 12 years and I would become a NBA Dancer for the Hornets. Of ALL the NBA Starter jackets I could pick out and wear at 13 years old I pick the Hornets and 12 years later I wore those colors on the court......very cool huh?

Me, Myself and I

So stay with me on this one......I found this little "About Me" quiz on one of my NEW Favorite Blogs A Brew of Blessings and she did this quiz as a link up on Tuesday from another blog. But back to A Brew of Blessings....Tara is beautiful, just got married, moved to the Uk, she is a woman of faith and I love her blog....it's pretty much amazing! You can check her out HERE.....if you leave a comment tell her I sent ya over!!!
So back to the "Me, Myself and I".................

What is your favorite season and why?

Fall is my favorite season for so many reasons....... I think it all started with Fall being the start of a new school year, new hopes of what that year will bring. I love the colors of Fall....the oranges, yellows and reds and that is why I did a "Fall in love" wedding with all the touches of fall. I love all things spooky and paranormal!!! I love the tradition of Halloween even thought I don't participate anymore but when we have children Halloween will be more fun and meaningful again. I love that Fall is like the appetizer to kick off the Holiday season, I love all the new TV shows that start in Fall....I know I know I could go on and on....did I mention comfort food and pumpkins?

Talk about a moment that changed your life....

I think this is hard because there are so many moments in life that change you or your course. I think meeting my husband changed my life. Getting married to Matt altered my future in ways I couldn't have imagined. I would never have moved away from "home" and everything Oklahoma City is to me but we did, we did for Matt's career. And I can bet you that when I was saying my vows I would have never realized how much that would change me and my life.

If you could be any Crayola Crayon color, what would you be and why?

I would be black and not in a morbid sense! HA! I would be black because it is a classic and black can go with everything (even Brown)  I think I can be a primary "base" color and I can go with along anything and fit in well.  Hmm...make any sense?

Describe yourself as a superhero. What would your name be? Super Powers? Side Kick?

If I could be a super hero I would want to be a super hero that could make a change in people's lives. Like a cross between Robin Hood and...... Professor Xavier from X-Men. How so you ask? Robin Hood because I would want to be able to give people in need what they need wether it be money, medical care or a shoulder to cry on. Professor X because he can get into people's minds not only to read them but he can calm people and take away their anxieties! Yes, I am weird. I would also have the power to teleport so I can help more people in a day. Side Kick? Heck ya......all animals would be my side kicks...I would have a power to connect with all animals. Yup, that sounds about right!

If you had all the money in the world but could only shop at 3 stores for the rest of your life what would they be?

Well Target for one because you can get groceries, furniture, awesome outfits an anything else you need. I heart Target.
Amazon because once again you can get ANYTHING you could ever want on amazon including books and movies.
hmm....... I would say Kohl's or JCrew....haha, so different I know. I love JCrew but I can't fit into everything there all the time but Kohl's is a one stop shop and I love Vera Wang for Kohl's.

So friends.....You should do this ABout Me too...I would love to read it! TGIF!!!!!!!