It's my party...

First of all....I just said last post how excited the teenage fangirl in me was about this Nsync reunion, and that was no lie. It was short but sweet & totally worth squealing totally freaking out over.

I mean, THIS SERIOUSLY HAPPENED PEOPLE!! 

So, it's officially the big 3-0 birthday week, which basically means it's time to party right? So Saturday sis, bestie & I trekked up to Kentucky for my party.

hitting the road with my girls! 

All was like normal....the girls dropped stuff off inside, and we headed over to Denny's to eat dinner, when Rita tells me I can't drive over to the club and get the room key yet because Metcalf has this "large present" for me that she is afraid he will be getting out of the car when I go over.  We hang in the parking lot for a short bit before I get the okay to go up to our room. Once ready, I wasn't allowed to go down to the club before Metcalf text Rita with an "Okay". 

We head down the steps and into the bar, and everyone gives me a loud "Happy Birthday", and I round the corner and see the twin cousin! She drove down from Cleveland that morning to surprise me for my party. 

First of all, I WAS super super surprised - which doesn't happen often. Secondly, I'm more surprised folks were able to keep it from me. My bestie isn't the greatest secret keeper, but she definitely kept this one! This was also Emily's first visit to our beloved Dolphie's, so she finally got to see what we talk about all the time!

I've said so many times, but I am so so fortunate to have such amazing friends -- and even more fortunate a couple of those folks I'm related to. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday party than to have my bestie, sister & cousin all there with me. And of course, to be with so many of my other friends we love to party with at Dolphie's. 

Before I share a little pic spam, I must say: The twin cousin & I totally rocked "Material Girl", just like we did as children at our family reunion. (And then we did a little "Goodbye Earl", because we've decided to be the next Dixie Chicks. And yes, this was a decision we made while sober!)

So now, tons of pic spam (a mix of camera & iPhone shots, of course!) of my favorites from the party!

Friends decided this year to go on an "Opry" theme to make a nod to my ridiculous love for vintage country music. I don't think this could have been any more adorable! This cake PERFECTLY describes me. Not to mention, it was amazing - if you're in Nashville, seriously, get all your cake needs at Nashville Sweets!

We started off with birthday shots!

with the bestie! love love love this girl! 

my sister decided to buy all this get up....and I voluntarily put it on briefly  -- before we started drinking! Am I a good sport or what?!

with my sissy! (I might be 30, but I'm forever the baby sister, and I still get to refer to my sister as my sissy all I want!)

Rita & Metcalf

cousins 

posing with the cutest cake ever! 

On the way to Kentucky, Rita text Metcalf to get candles. Apparently he thought he'd get a lot - so we could have 30 candles on the cake (31, they gave me "one to grow on")

Major props to my twin cousin & bestie for making sure I didn't catch my hair on fire while leaning in, blowing out my candles. 

So my cousin knows my insane love for Concord wines, and picked this gem up for me at a winery in New York. Let's see how long this lasts at my house. (Maybe I should have opened it and said "Challenge Accepted"?)

Love this girl!!! (Wait, should I hashtag that? Only this girl gave me a birthday card that not only included terms of endearment like bitch, but wrote hashtags inside!)

And my favorite from the night, of me with my favorite girls! (in my favorite place!)

Amazing party -- and a fabulous time with everyone.  There's nothing better than a night out having drinks, singing, and laughing with my favorite people -- and yes -- we all practiced our Nsync dance moves too!

Here we go....

Can I just take a moment to say that the inner 14 year old fan girl in me seriously squealed when I saw Nsync was reuniting at the VMA Awards this weekend? Okay, Okay, so it's RUMORED at this point & "in the works", but not yet confirmed. 

Let’s stroll down memory lane for a minute here. I was 14 years old when Nsync came on the scene, and like most teenage girls my age, I was in love. In that “OH MY GOD, LET ME PLASTER THEIR POSTERS ALL OVER MY WALL!!” kind of way. When I ran out of space on my walls, I put posters on my ceiling. I meant serious business with my poster-hanging as a teenager.  And oh, I was going to marry Lance. (You know, the one who finally announced he was gay a few years ago. Sigh.) – even though at the time he was totally dating Danielle Fishel & I had the “Ugh I hate Topanga!! My life is so unfair!!” attitude.

Thankfully, my big sister dug Nsync too – which meant when they came to the Ryman that December, my sister had no hesitation in going with me, and waiting out back in the Ryman Alley. And that my friends is when my big moment happened and I met Lance Bass. (Who, despite their incredible popularity, was one of the sweetest people we’d ever met!) It also happened to be the night we met Britney Spears, you know, pre-umbrella shaved head breakdown.

We saw them every time they came to Nashville, and I headed to Knoxville with my friend & her mom to see them.  And whenever they came to Nashville, we scoured the town trying to find them. Yes, we were like tiny teenage stalkers. In our defense, they were always spotted around town and we just knew one day we’d run into them. The craze got so insane though,  and we weren’t the only girls scouring the town – it was like a scavenger hunt all over Nashville.  And then the moment came when we were walking down the road near Loews Vanderbilt and spotted JC walking. And after we got a picture and a hug – he was swarmed and whisked away as quick as possible.

Wow, rocking a Lance t-shirt AND butterfly clips in my hair!

Should I admit towards the end of their popularity, we got my mom hooked & the very last Nsync show we went to was my mom, sister & I? Or that my sister & I could PROBABLY still do the entire dance to “Bye, Bye, Bye”?  

All this leads up to….

I’m freaking stoked the thought is even out there about Nsync is reuniting for the VMA's! I don't even need a tour. I just want this one performance to re-live my adolescence, and then I’m good.

The expensive life of an aunt....

Monday, Monday. While I've gotten a ton of work done & gotten the laundry out of the way, I still feel like I've been dragging all day long.

This week is probably going to drag anyway....Saturday is my birthday party, and then next week it's a super short week at the office, so I can celebrate my birthday the rest of the week! I am ready to see my friends & party with the bestie -- and I'm so so excited my sister will be with us! I envision my sister & I will definitely be just like Kitty & Sarah in Brothers & Sisters:

It was a much tamer weekend this past weekend. I kept the niece on Saturday so we could spend the day together. You know, when the kids were born, no one gave me the warning "Hey, being an aunt is expensive!" Of course, I kind of give them whatever they want, soooo I suppose it's my own fault, right? But I mean, they shower me with kisses and reiterate the "you're the best aunt ever", and even after 15 years, I can't resist spoiling them.

So we did a little shopping at Opry Mills...

my girl is growing up! 

We grabbed dinner at Macaroni Grill -- which was actually a place Paige hadn't been yet. I really wanted to go to Mafiaoza's so she could hit a local Nashville place she hadn't been to before, but it was just easier to stop inside the mall.

Dinner was followed by Marble Slab....

The mall wound up being a great place to go, because we got in a lot of talking during our walk & dinner. Boys, Gossip, School, Drama, and of course -  a sweet 16 party in 6 months. Love my time with my girl. 

And then because I'm a sucker, we stopped at Dave & Busters for a little bit to kill time before our movie. I loaded some $$ on the card, and after some games, Paige randomly decided to try this wheel game and won 1,000 tickets! Everyone we had watched play only won 100, 200 - so Paige had some serious good luck!

We headed to the theater afterwards & went to see "Paranoia" with Harrison Ford and Liam Hemsworth. It's getting pretty terrible reviews, but I thought it was a pretty good movie. I mean, it's not Harrison's best movie of all time or anything, but it had a good plot and we were entertained. Paige is in love with Liam Hemsworth so she had zero complaints about watching him for two hours. 

Of course, we wound up back at Dave & Busters after the movie so she could finish using the $$ on the card and redeem some of her tickets. When we ended up leaving, she had redeemed her tickets in for a few pieces of junk (candy - of course!), and had 400 something credits left on the card. 

I stole the card long enough to play some skee-ball! 

As she got in the car she said, "That was really awesome." 

Teenage girls are hard to please - even when you know them like the back of your hand. Clearly, Aunt Nicole is still doing something right!

I MIGHT be a TV Junkie....

TV might be ruining my social life. I spend waaaay too much time with my iPad, watching Netflix. Seriously, the best $8 bucks a month I've ever spent. If it's not ruining my social life, it's definitely killing my sleep schedule, since I can't seem to put it down at night sometimes.  And 9 times out of 10, at night I'm watching one of my favorite shows like Ally McBeal, Once Upon a Time or Brothers & Sisters - so I've seen the episode 01921021 times - yet I STILL just hate to turn it off.  And you know if I'm not watching Netflix, I'm watching my current shows -- TV is ridiculously addictive. Sigh.

Lately, I've watched more Ally McBeal than anything - because that show is still one of the best. (I was so bummed when it was cancelled!) And, of course, in season 3, Ally turns 30! While she freaks out waaaay more than I have (because I totally don't care what age I'm turning - I'm just all about celebrating & partying for my birthday!), I turn 30 in 2 weeks so I've been totally amused watching these episodes. And of course - who DIDN'T love the dancing baby?!

One of my best friends sent me a box for my birthday that arrived today and one of the great gifts was the boxed set of the entire series of Ally McBeal - clearly, my friends know me well.

Anyway, recently when I can't find anything else on, I'll put on the ID channel. And then I get sucked into the most ridiculous shows. When I was in Ohio, Emily & I had to repeat "we are turning this off at 11:59 on the dot so we don't get sucked into the next episode" while watching "Dates from Hell". These over-dramatizations are incredible stories -- and so terribly dramatized that I cannot help but watch it. Some of the shows though, like "The Will" are amazing. This show is how I discovered this channel -- when I tuned in for the Tammy Wynette & Conway Twitty episodes. Look them up, they're so well done.

I added two shows to my Netflix queue -- and as I scrolled down today I spotted this in my suggestions area:

Sigh. There goes my weekend.

Ohio: Grand Finale!

My last night in Ohio, we had a cook out at my Uncle Scott and Aunt Faye's house. To prepare for this, Emily and I went grocery shopping together and bought food for like 12 people. And let me say, this was ridiculously different than either one of our normal grocery trips. And clearly, throwing big parties at home is not on either one of our resume's, because the conversation went something like this:

Emily: "Okay, so we need hamburger and hot dogs."
*both stare at all the hamburger options*
*throws one pack each in the cart*
Me: "And buns!"
*throws one pack of each in the cart*
.......
Me: "Hey, do you think we might need more than 8 buns???"

But whatever. We had enough food for everyone, and we congratulated ourselves after our stressful shopping trip by getting ice cream. And then we had a fabulous time playing with the kids while my Uncle grilled out some of the yummiest burgers we've ever had. Probably one of the best ways to cap my trip - loooove my family, and I can't wait to visit again in December. (And I type this with one tab open to Blogger, the other looking up flights!)

My aunt & uncle's back yard is so intense --- my aunt has the most INCREDIBLE garden, so I had to snap a few pics before the cookout....

I like to call this the "OH MY GOD, I JUST REALIZED WE'RE RELATED TO THESE PEOPLE!" shot. Baby Luke and Jacob are just so precious. I love these babies!

We wanted to get pics of all the boys - and wanted Em to get a pic with all the boys. As soon as Em sat down with Jacob, Gavin just HAD to have him. It was probably one of the cutest things ever.

It was like an all-american family cookout. Uncle Scott grilling, Aunt Faye playing with the kids....

Em & her favorite boy! So cute...(no, she doesn't spoil him or anything...)

I wanted to get a family shot of my cousin Danny's family. It's hard to get 4 kids so young together, but they really did great to at least give me a couple good ones! And Gavin's face here is soooo great. And Jacob totally looks like he's waving. Hilarious. 

with  my sweet Uncle Scott. Love love love him. 

You know how some folks dread having to be around some aunts and uncles? Yeah, I don't have that -- my Aunt Faye & Uncle Scott are top notch. 

Mom & Aunt Jan arrived as we started to eat, so they were able to take over baby duty & let everyone eat together. Shortly thereafter, Emily and I took Aidan and Gavin over to the park. (Yes, when you open the back fence door, it's a park!)

but we had just as much fun as the kids! (well, after we got rid of the kids smoking pot on the playground. Yes, you read that right.)

Aidan is one of the best kids you would ever want to hang out with. 

And Gavin has more personality than you have ever seen in someone so young! 

This one kind of melts my heart, because they were playing on this solo up until this point, and as I went to snap the pic, Aidan looked over at Gavin and it was just so precious. 

My aunt & uncle came over at some point, and when they went to go back to the house, Gavin spotted them walking away and shouted "HEY!!!" -- but didn't want to leave the park. Aunt Faye successfully enticed him back to the house in no time though. (Seriously, the most amusing grandma ever. If she lived here, I'd be hiring her to go to sessions with me!)

I truly hated to leave Ohio this time, even though it's always nice to come home. Although I talk to my cousin Emily every day, when we're together it's like we're still 6 year olds playing with our Magic Nursery dolls.

One thing that did make me laugh was my uncle needing my keys, so he said "Nicole! Can I get your keys!?" and I said "Oh my god, I am getting old, I have never heard Uncle Scott call me something other than Nikki before in my entire life!"  

A great week....to be repeated again super super soon.

Ohio: Part Deux!

Serious picspam ahead, because the last two days of my Ohio trip were pretty epic. So epic that I'm going to break it down into two entries. All the pics really don't even cover the two days totally, but they give a quick glimpse! If you're on my Facebook, you've seen a lot more :) (And most of these are posted on there too, so you're getting a double dose.)

The twin cousin & I hit wineries on Saturday - and when I say we hit wineries, I mean we went wine tasting at 7 wineries in a span of 6 hours. Do we get some sort of award for this?! We were pretty proud of this....

And after all that, we still had the energy to go to one of our cousin's gigs and hang out with family for a little while. Bad ass, we are indeed. But one of the best days ever. Everyone should be so fortunate to have a cousin they grew up with & are still best friends with almost 30 years later!

We started the day off by -- surprise! Taking a self portrait in the Target parking lot!

If there was only one photo to describe our day, it would be this! This first winery even gave us goldfish! 

The gorgeous background behind us at winery 2, 3....I can't even remember!

What I DO remember there though is this stuff. Iced Concord.  How much do I rave about my beloved concord wine?! And this is ICED?! Total heaven. I could have had this all day! 

But, we had plans, and had to head off to the next winery --- and even in the rain, we found gorgeous places to hang out outside to enjoy our wine! 

At some point during the day, we stopped at the restaurant at the winery & got some food. And our appetizer was this awesome bread with Olive Oil & Balsamic tasting tray. Have you ever seen a better idea in your life? No, you haven't. It was agreed that White Balsamic & Roasted Garlic were the winners!

On the way to one of the wineries, we stopped by one of my childhood homes! We lived here when I was a little shit, before we moved to Florida, and I still remember it. 

When we made it to the Firehouse Winery on Geneva on the Lake, it was only slightly raining, so we got to sit outside & listen to a seriously terrible musician! But we totally got a cute video out of it, so it was worth the torture, right? Also, this stuff we got with our wine cups was some sort of wine with like sprite & something else. It was one of the best drinks you'll ever have. 

What's that? Another cute picture of me and my cousin? Yes, yes it is. 

For our grand finale, we stopped at the Spring Hill Winery (which I INSTANTLY recognized. Props for a good memory! My mom used to buy apples at this place!), and got wine SLUSHIES! Heaven, I tell you. Brainfreeze too.

A short time later we were hanging out with our family at my cousin Nick's gig -- visiting with my Aunt Cookie & Uncle Paul!

three of us cousins

with my cousin Nick

Nick doing his thing!

Sooooo much fun, and so great to catch up with more of the family. We ended the trip with a cookout at Uncle Scott & Aunt Faye's, so that's up next!