Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!

15 years ago tonight, I had my best friend from high school spend the night. We were freshman and spent the night gossiping and watching chick flicks - and naturally - staying up as late as possible.

I awoke to my mom nudging me at 5:45am…. "You should get up. Samantha is headed to the hospital." I immediately shot straight out of bed, and woke up my friend shouting, "Meredith, my sister is having the baby! You should call your mom now and go home, we have to go RIGHT NOW!!"

So I was a bit of a drama queen……so what!?

Paige Alyson made her appearance 12 long hours later. She was our first everything…my sisters first child, my first niece, the first Grandbaby, and my Granny's first Great Grandbaby - which meant she was destined to be spoiled. We didn't know the sex until she was born, but I was SO positive it was a girl, I used my allowances the entire time Sam was pregnant on dresses and everything pink.

When Samantha was in labor, she was only going to be allowed to have 2 people in the delivery room - which was my brother in law & our mom. As a 14 year old drama queen, I was heartbroken. The split second she was born, though, being the good brother in law, John burst out and shouted for me and said "Girl! Head full of black hair!" Mom wasn't so nice, who smugly came out of the delivery room and smiled…"Guess who was the first person ever to hold her????"

I say spoiled, and I meant it. Paige was downright spoiled ROTTEN. My sister worked with my father in his garage for the first years of Paige's life - which meant Paige stayed in the house with my mom & I M-F until usually after dinner. And when she was 3 days old, we implemented the "every Tuesday and Thursday Mommy & Daddy want to go out, so Aunt Nicole is baby-sitting and spending the night". I ate it up, and I wanted every single waking moment with that baby. If I spent the night, my sister never got up once, because the instant Paige cried, I was at her crib with a bottle.

Paige was 4 when I took her on her first road trip to Ashland, KY to see Patty in concert. She was always my little sidekick, and had me wrapped around her fingers since day 1.

I don't know where the time has gone….but she's grown into a beautiful young lady, and I'm so proud of her. Happy Birthday to my beautiful, favorite girl.

Granny was so excited to become Great Granny -- she couldn't get enough of visiting this sweet baby girl after she was born! 

with my beach baby!! 

Becoming a big sister! 

Sunday Recap

I can't believe this, but my sweet Paige is going to be 15 years old on Thursday. I don't know where the time has gone, it feels like it was just yesterday I would RUN to get off the school bus, so I could walk in the house and scoop her up.  But more on that on Thursday.... ;)

We had a luncheon at Sam's today to celebrate with family - which means we had a late lunch and then a ton of junk food because my sister cooked so many freaking goodies. And when I say goodies - I mean goodies. Paige loves Red Velvet, so last year we downed  Red Velvet cupcakes. This year, Samantha changed it up. What is it about Birthdays that give us an excuse to have nothing but junk?

As noted below....I ate horrible today....and I have no shame, these were incredible!

And made these yummy Red Velvet "Whoopie Pies" - um delish!? 

And then she made these brownies -- which had a piece of oreo in the bottom & a chunk of peanut butter in the middle. Heavenly. They are super tiny, since you know - they are chock full of fat :) 

The birthday princess was tickled with these. 

It was a pretty good day with the fam, and a good time with my girl. We ran to the store after a little while, and I've said it a million times: I have the best talks with the kids in the car. Paige has really brought her grades up & I'm so proud of her. Her English grade on her progress report in December was a 47 - today she brought me her report card and her grade was 88. Just about every grade has come up.

Aunt Nicole will be broke if she keeps it up, as an incentive when she started HS, I told her for every A she got - I'd give her $20. This time I told her I was so proud of the English grade coming up, I'd give her half for that too. She's worked really hard on getting them up. Kadin is such a whiz in school -- I'm sure glad I won't have them in High School at the same freaking time, I'd be working just to pay off their great grades! 

One of the English tests she brought home....

With my beautiful -- almost grown up --- girl. 

Saturday Ramblings...

I wanted to sleep in so late today, but....it's College Game Day!!! So, I was a lazy bum this morning and set my alarm so I could watch ESPN live in Kentucky to see my Cats - while laying in bed, and went back to sleep for a bit after. (Let's go Kentucky! I hope my Cats win tonight!!!)

When I rolled out of bed, Mom & I went to the Country Music Hall of Fame - she wanted to purchase a membership & today was Ford Day, so it was a fabulous special on the membership fees! Unfortunately, that also meant the museum was free admission today -- and the place was INSANE busy. Line all the way down the road, through the lobby. Crazy. Fortunately - I'm already a member, so once mom bought her membership, they gave us card holder tickets and we got to skip the line. They've got a special Dottie West exhibit that I've been dying to see - oh how I loved her, and think it's such a travesty that she isn't IN the Hall of Fame.

Everyone tells me I was born in the wrong generation...I know, I know. Don't get me wrong, I loved Country Music of the 90's - obviously, since PL is my fave. But the old school stuff - that's where it's at. I cannot stand the crap I hear on today's radio - and some of them are SO talented, but the songs are SUCH CRAP. (And others are just plain crap :P)

We were able to run into Phonoluxe afterwards, where I scored some new records (thanks Mom!), and had a light dinner. Pretty nice day with mom -- and tomorrow we're headed to Samantha's for the day to celebrate Miss Paige's 15th birthday! Ouch, where did the time go???

Anyway, some of the new Dottie exhibit highlights for us:

I love this....I love seeing all the stuff artists wrote. 

I LOVE this pic! 

Dottie is sooo under-rated, so seeing her accolades in the exhibit warmed my heart. 

And to end with two of my favorite guys in music....

Happy Almost Friday Y'all!

Can this week just hurry up and be done already? It's been a hell of a week....not just one of my credit card numbers was stolen this week, but TWO. TWO freaking cards? Are you kidding me? One was my debit card, and the other was my business card that --- apparently a merchant I've used both cards at in the past was hacked. I've had a card stolen before, but never two in the same damn week! Now the new ones just need to come on -- I am not a cash girl, and I continuously keep grabbing my debit card when I check out and then have a DUH moment when it's declined.

However, I did go to my mom's last night, who promptly made me dinner, sewed one of my shirts & a pair of jeans that needed fixing and did my laundry for me. These are reasons my mom is cooler than yours :P

But I'm still glad the week is almost over...... Because quite frankly, when the day is over tomorrow, my night is going to be all about:

Yes. Yes it is. 

So, I totally drafted up an entry last night for What I'm Loving Wednesday  and then just let it sit and never posted it. Boo. So guess what?! It's "What I'm Loving Wednesday" on THURSDAY this week.

Saw this on Music City Sarah and loved it. Um, I need this shirt.

WHY, in all my genius-ness....did I not think of this when my Paige was a baby!? I can already see her in this onesie rocking baby pearls. I mean seriously. 

Want to see the cutest thing ever? Betty White. In bunny ears. You're welcome. 

I introduced my Mom to Sweet Brown the other week -- she had never seen her! In showing her, we found this gem! We laughed so hard we cried - this guy made my day. 

Happy Almost Friday y'all!

Monday, Monday....

Happy Monday! I was woken up this morning way too early by my phone ringing -- and ringing -- and ringing. They hung up when I answered, and then I just hit ignore the other times, but it set the tone for my morning: I was not a happy person when I crawled out of bed. Considering I work from home Mondays, I probably shouldn't complain though :P

Since it's a Holiday, it appears there isn't much on TV today - what a bummer. I've got my Monday routine that revolves around Saved By the Bell, Boy Meets World, Designing Women & Who's the Boss. President's Day is throwing off my entire Monday.

Which means I wound up on Pinterest....naturally. Has everyone seen this "35 Things you will never see again, but will want to tell your kids about" pin? And clicked on it and felt ridiculously old?? You can see if here if you haven't checked it out yet...but here's my faves:

6. Anything with a sweeter, more delicious smell than these

Um, who didn't love Mr.Sketch markers?! Cherry and Grape, FTW.

11. A better cereal box prize

Totally had all of these. 

15. Anyone who thinks they're cool with one of these

Um, not only did I get the Raz'r, I got the PINK raz'r.

17. A greater selection of books than in these

I was totally the nerd in the family, and every time we'd have those "Read a Thon", I'd raise the most money in our class because as a nerd, what did I love to do? Read. The book fair coming to school was better than birthdays when we got cupcakes! 

24. A more effective way of collecting candy

Today's Halloween buckets are so lame compared to these. Weren't these from like McDonalds or something too? Or am I imagining that? I had the white & green ones.

I loved this whole list -- although they totally should have included the original Nintendo & Super Nintendo! I bought a Super Nintendo last year to show Kadin what Mario was like when Sam & I were kids....and he was so puzzled by our "huge controllers" that he said made it hard to play, hahaha.

Ahh, nostalgia....

Saturday "date" Day!

In continuing my "best aunt ever" role, my handsome date Saturday was this cutie pie:

We started the day off at Cheddars -- he insisted, because he is obsessed with their croissants. As luck would have it, when we arrived, they sat us in the booths kind of around the bar area, and what was on? Why yes, it WAS the Kentucky game! 

Yes, the god-awful Kentucky-UT game that was just horrendous & painful to watch. But as we sat down and I said "Ohhh they have the game on!", Kadin immediately turned to watch. Throughout our lunch I heard things like "What is Kentucky doing!? Why are they losing?!! They need to focus. COME ON KENTUCKY, WE WANT YOU TO WIN". At one point, he was so genuinely frantic about the Cats losing the game, the guy next to us said "You are teaching him right, go Cats!". While I couldn't have been more proud, I explained to Kadin we were reeeeally losing, and with 8 minutes left in the game, we just couldn't come back. Looking me right in the eyes, he goes, "Well, it doesn't matter if Kentucky wins or loses, because they will always be our best team!" Sigh. I love this boy. 

Watching our Cats!

From there we went to the movies to see Escape from Planet Earth in 3D -- which was seriously adorable. And who teared up at the end? Sigh. I cannot help it, why do they put such sweet messages in kids movies?  I recommend it, Kadin loved it, and they mixed a lot of sweet moments with funny moments - and the cast was great! 

As soon as we got in the car after the movies, he asked "So...where are we going next?" Haha, I'm totally whipped. We wandered all over Super Target before heading to K-Mart - he was on the hunt for a very specific Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toy. 

We checked out the TMNT Lego sets they have out now too -- when the hell did TMNT come back? When I said "your mom and I used to watch that when we were little!", Kadin seemed all kinds of shocked that it had been around that long, LOL.

And who walked out with goodies? This boy right here. And he's so impatient he had to open it in the car the split second we got in.

So, Kadin is really into wrestling, and one of the things he got was one of the Rey Mysterio figures that came with a matching mask for Kadin. It was a tight fit though - and I was thinking it might not fit him. But because he is impatient, I had a feeling he would try to force it to fit and wind up ripping it -- and he wanted me to help him while I was driving. I pulled into the next drive there was, which happened to be a gas station, and started to help him. As we worked on his mask, it dawned on me stopping at a gas station to PUT ON a mask in the parking lot wasn't exactly the brightest idea on the planet.

Sorry to any Tigermarket employees we might have terrified :) 

We got it to fit, and he was a happy boy! And then I got serenaded by the Rey Mysterio music the rest of the way home....

I brought him home and Paige said "I want to go on a date!!"....hahaha. Samantha is always quick to remind her that she's had years of me spoiling her --- and that we did. Since Samantha worked with my father, Paige was at our house during the day and part of the night almost 7 days a week so my mom & I could watch her, plus I went home with my sister two nights a week to babysit from time time Paige was 3 days old - we were never away that baby. That meant Aunt Nicole got all kinds of spoiling time in.

Now it's Kadin turn to be spoiled (but let's not lie, as I shell out $20 for every "A" Paige gets on her report card --- she's still a spoiled one) - and he is loving it.

It's a money spending Friday!

Happy Friday!!! Bring on a 3 day weekend! I've got a dinner & a movie date with my Mr.Handsome tomorrow - he's requested to see that Planet Earth movie, which really DOES look cute! I'm glad little man likes movies now, because I have an excuse to see all these adorable children's movies!

I just bought what's probably the cutest pair of boots you'll ever see in your life:

Adorable. Never mind the fact that the last time I wore rain boots was when I was like 6 years old and got yellow rain boots to match this rocking duck rain jacket:

Ever the fashionista, I also rocked purple leg warmers with my duck rain coat. Don't be jealous. And yes, when I pulled the hood over my head, it had a beak. I would blame my mother on this, but I not only loved this jacket: I ASKED for it for my birthday.

Anyway, the fact is the rain boots were adorable and I was completely convinced that I could not live another day without them. And every Cats fan should have these, right?? And it MATCHES MY UMBRELLA! It was a NECESSARY PURCHASE!

I have no clue why I buy some of the things I buy. Seriously, what possesses me to purchase things sometimes that I’m not going to wear much or --- even worse --- never going to wear? When I cleaned out the closet the other week (you know, when I claimed I was going to scale back, and then couldn’t part with anything?), I found multiple shirts that I remember buying, but have NEVER worn. And two weeks later – still haven’t! I am the most ridiculous impulse buyer, I will buy anything, whether I need it or not. After buying stuff on the SEC’s site, I headed over to Fred Flare – just out of random curiosity, and….now my cart is filling up:

In my defense, this is for my sister because I think it’s hilarious....and her birthday is next month! (Ehhh, lets hope she doesn't read my blog for a month, right? Hahaha Happy Birthday Sissy!)

Seriously, this is a shark oven mitt. Do I seriously need this? Am I ever actually going to USE this? It doesn't matter, because I just bought it.

This is one of my phrases at work that I say alllll the time. (Okay, one of the things that I frequent at work that can actually be written out!) If someone says ‘Just sayin’, one of the girls at work will tout, "Okay, now you sound like Nicole!" Which clearly means Nicole NEEDS these post it notes, right?

Okay, this mini robot is a vacuum! Um,  hello, is this not the most clever and cutest idea ever?! Does my purchasing it mean I'm going to become even lazier than I am now sometimes? 

I clearly need to get off this site before I buy even more crap that I do not need or have no clue what I'm going to do with. Apparently I just enjoy spending money, period. 

And since I mentioned my Cats earlier, are any of my UK folks as heartbroken about Tuesdays game as I am?! You know, the one where Nerlens did this? 

Ouch. Poor Nerlens. It was soooo hard to see on ESPN what he exactly did, but from his screaming, you knew that sucker hurt. Looking at this makes sense. I sure hope he has an easy recovery – 6 to 8 months is a long time. I am super super bummed that he is out for the season – it worries me on how the team will be without him, but we've got some great boys on there this year, so I'll remain optimistic. I'm not counting the Cats out yet! Love my Cats -- and hoping I see Nerlens on the team again next year! 

Web Nerd Ramblings...

Warning: The geek in me is going to come out in this post.

My new Mac arrived last week, and like any true computer nerd, I squealed and ripped it out of the box -- and yes, I left work early to come home and plug this baby up!

I love the world of a new computer --- but I forgot how much I hate getting my settings just how I want them, my color profiles in photoshop, re-setting up all my sites in FTP.... I haven't calibrated my new monitor yet either, and it's driving me completely batty. It figures that my calibration tool doesn't work on my new monitor, so I had to order Spyder4Elite so I can properly get it taken care of, and haven't been able to edit any photos. Eventually, this is going to be set up right & I can start doing more work!

So, in place of editing photos, I've been doing a lot of coding for a few sites....which brings me to some of the recent things I've found on Pinterest. (How did I find anything before Pinterest?!)

Yes, my fellow web nerds - this shirt exists. Cutest ever. I am on the verge of hitting the buy button too.

Annnd just when you think they couldn't possibly get any cuter....

I laughed. I love this. 

And this one is mine --- my new contacts case came today! I also ordered a Ctrl V & Ctrl C case too. 

And because it's Valentines Day, it's imperative I close with a photo of my Valentines! (I'm fully aware these statements totally make me sound like a mother. This is what happens when you're obsessed with your nieces & nephews) I was so tired tonight I didn't head over to my sisters, but my Saturday date night will be a dinner & a movie with this little man! 

My three Valentines! Love, Love, Love my babies!  I don't really care what's going on, how could you look at those faces and not smile?