30 Things (1)

1. List 20 random facts about yourself.

Hmmmm where to start....

1. My name is Nicole, but I go by Nikki
2. I turned 25 on May 8th.
3. My family consists of my husband Kenny, my four year old Hailey, our dog Pixie and our soon to be kitty Rosie!
4. My favorite color is pink, hot pink preferably and lime green.
5. I love, love, love stars!
6. I love trucks and cars, and especially going to shows. I know decent amount about them too!
7. I have a black Jeep Wrangler Rubicon that I LOVE! I don't think I ever will want to get rid of it.
8. I played field hockey through high school, and now play for adult teams. This time I am a goalie!
9. I have my associates in Social Science and I will graduate next year with my BS in Psychology. I am hoping to find a decent Master's program that I can afford. That's one of my goals!
10. I currently work for the federal government, but I think I was meant to do so much more. I want to be a psychologist with a strong focus in eating disorder recovery.
11. I played dumb in highschool to fit in with my friends, but I really was always on the honor roll!
12. I am a shoeaholic! I have sooooo many shoes, and most are from 9th grade and up. I just have ALWAYS taken care of my shoes. I can't tell you how many different pairs of etnies and DC's I have.
13. I worked in graphic designs and at a sign shop for 5 years. I can create, cut, and install lettering. I now do work on the side using my silhouette cameo.
14. I don't have a lot of friends, but the ones I have are the bestest.
15. I can own and can play guitar. I have an electric guitar, amps, and pedals from when I went through a rock band stage.
16. I love music! I mostly listen to rock, emo, and country, but every now and then I do a car ride catching up on some Pop music!
17. I am confident in myself, but I have ZERO self esteem. It's something I have struggled with forever and is at it's worse right now. Ask me what I like about myself, I bet I can't come up with an answer. Learning to love myself is on my things to work on list.
18. I am in love with makeup! I have a lot of it too. I love doing smokey eyes and multi color eye shadows. I like things that are bright and pop!
19. I like piercings and tattoos. I currently have 13 piercings and 6 tattoos!
20. I am easy to read like a book, my facial expressions tell it all sometimes!

So what are 20 random things about you?!? Now head over to Best of Both Worlds and check out other peoples random facts!

Stressing!

So I got good news........

Saturday we put an offer on a house and today we got word that they accepted the offer! Wahoo! That's great news considering we offered them $10,000 less then what they were asking for. We now have to have the home inspection done by next Monday, and then we can get everything rolling!

So that leads to me stressing......

I am excited about moving and think this will be a great fresh start to my life. It has been up and down for the past year or more. Things are finally starting to look up and I think this will be a great move for not only me, but my family. The only bad part now is the actual moving!

I am sad to be moving away from the only place I have really ever known. My friends are here and my family are here! I moved away to Baltimore without even looking back, but this time its different. This time it is hard. Maybe its because I am older and wiser now or maybe it's because I have a child and this is the only place she knows. The good part about the move is that we are doing it now before she goes into Kindergarten so that she won't have to move away mid year or leave friends she has gone to school years with. Hopefully this new area will be where she will grow up and she will be able to go to school with all her friends like I did. I graduated with kids who I have gone to Pre-K and up with. My best friends husband is one of them in fact!

I am sad about leaving my Mom, my Aunt and Jaime. I know I will still see them, but its different. I am not used to change. I don't see my Mom very often as it is, but I just feel sad knowing she won't be just 20 minutes down the road. And Hailey wasn't going to be able to go to my aunt's any more once she started school full day anyways. There would be no one to get her off the bus, so she would have to go to an after school program. And then there are my friends. I am sad about leaving Heather. I know I will still see her and our kids will still grow up together and attend all the Birthday parties and fun events, but I just feel sad about the whole thing. She expressed her feelings about me moving and how our friendship would change and I have reassured her over and over that it won't, which I honestly believe that it won't, it will just take a little more planning to get together and she will be stuck with me a little longer when she does get to see me! I know it will be okay, but then again I am just sad......

I like being able to know where I am going and I like being able to wave to people while driving and bumping into people I know when I am at the store. All that is going to change. I am not going to know anyone but Meagan and David over there and me being a social butterfly, I like to have friends! Where do I meet people?!?

Let me now put it out there that where I am moving is only an hour and a half away from Waldorf, if that. When I express how I feel to people they think I am moving hours away! I am not that far away! I drive further to work each day then it will take me to get to my family and friends. In fact I drive 2+ hours once a week one way to play field hockey. So I know I am not disapearing! And I know I will still see people! It's just hard the thought of moving. I am not a big person when it comes to change so this is a huge change to me!

I guess you can say its bittersweet! I am so happy, but so sad at the same time!

And then the thought of moving.......geeze! Where would I even begin?!? The good thing about this is that it will allow me to go through my stuff. To get rid of stuff! There is a lot to be gone though and so this is a good time to work on getting rid of stuff.

I know everything will work out, but it's just the fear of change! I know I will still see my family and I know (despite what she thinks :) ) I won't lose my best friend. I am just an hop and a skip and a tiny toll bridge away. It's not that far and everything will be okay! I just need to take a couple deep breaths and focus on the postive things! It will all be okay!

The Verdict Is In........

So I blogged earlier this week about a house we made an offer on. Well just got the final word and............

We didn't get it :(

There were 4 offers made this weekend so we were given until 3pm today to make our best offer. So we adjusted our closing costs a little. There wasn't to much more we could do due to the amount we got approved for. So we found out tonight that the winning bid offered more then asking price. So I guess it just wasn't meant to be this time, so we will just keep looking. 

In the mean time Hailey and I got our hair cut yesterday. She hates my hair cut. She said it makes me look not so beautiful anymore. I, on the other hand, love her hair cut. They trimmed it just enough to shape it. I love mine too. It's a little shorter then I originally wanted, but I like having a style verses just blah and poofy.

What's New With Me?!?

So here is a peak  on what has been going on in my neck of the woods......

We decided it was time for a change! We are moving (well we hope)

We have played with the idea for some time now. It was a given a couple years ago that we had outgrown our house. It has been a great house! We have been in it for five years now. It was an amazing first house to start out with when we were younger and I was pregnant. But five years later with lots of stuff, a very busy five year old, and a dog, it's just not big enough for us. There has been talk about maybe (no time right now) expanding our family, but we knew we needed more space in order for that to happen. Also another negative about this house is that we are in a very shitty loan. The agent we used was a friend that Kenny used to work with. I don't know what he was thinking at all, and with us both being young and expecting our first child, we took his advice and went with the flow. What we didn't realize was the amount of money we would just be throwing away towards interest. We got our house in February 2007 right before the interest rates dropped and the house market crashed. So we are literally stuck in a huge loan for a house that is worth $80,00 less then we owe. It's been a very hard situation to deal with, especially since it is all in my name, but we decided that it was deal with it now or wait and deal with it later. So here we were searching for a home!

We looked locally and found some nice houses. I don't know how we ever got on the topic of Fredericksburg, but one night when Meagan was here we started to think about the area and talk about how nice it was. We took a peak at the houses and were stunned to find HUGE houses that were going for so cheap! Many were foreclosures and shortsales, but we were still open to the idea or renivating. These houses were way less then what my house is worth and so much more space! So we decided maybe this was the area we wanted to move!

Meagan recommended her realtor who helped her find a house. We met with her two weekends ago and started looking at houses. She would send us daily emails of houses in our range. We had our own little webpage where we could pick the houses out and put them in favorites, possibilities, or discard them. Believe me! There were some funky houses!

The first weekend we went out we looked at 3 houses. The first one was very nice, but not for us. The second one was a dump and nothing like the picture showed. The third house was amazing, but it was very far out from the main road which would add a lot of time to our commutes. It also was in a not so nice neighborhood with a road that was full of potholes. It would add wear and tear to our vehicles just getting off the road. It was a shame though because we really liked that house. With in a couple days of looking at those houses the first one and last one both had contracts on them! So people were definitely liking them!

We decided that our next step before actually finding a house was to get approved for a loan. She recommend a guy she uses for me to contact. Pete was so nice and really worked with me to find out what was best for us. He answered all my questions and made things as clear as he could for me. We finally got our preapproval amount on Friday. We were going to Meagan's for the day anyways so we figured we would give Leigh (our realtor) a call and of course she was willing to meet with us for a little bit.

The first house we looked at is the one we really like! Kenny and I both go the feeling of this house being the "one". It was in a nice quiet neighborhood. There is a police officer that lives next door. The yards were all nice. It's a big change from what I am used too! The house didn't look so nice in the pictures but in person it was much better. It's rather plain, but I really like it. It just has a sunny welcoming feel to me! We looked around at this house for a while. We decided to check out some other ones even though we were pretty certain on this one.

The next house we went to was nice, but it was just creepy. It was apparently owned by an older person. It would be such a nice house to go see Grandma in, but not to live in. It really gave me the creeps. The next house was in a very nice ritzy neighborhood. The house was beautiful when we pulled up. We couldn't wait to look inside! Wrong! It was a disaster! It was filthy! Like sickening filthy. We actually left Hailey outside while we went upstairs. The place was completely trashed and apparently they had a big dog that peed everywhere. It was so gross that Leigh didn't even go in. It's a shame because it really was a nice house! The last house that we went too was very nice. It was a tri level house. It had been completely redone. We very much liked it but couldn't get the first one out of our head.

So we decided to sleep on it. It was getting late and we were all hungry. After we ate it was a long quiet ride home. We finally talked about what was on both of our minds and how we felt not only about the house, but moving. We both thought that the positives outweighed the  negatives, but we wanted to sleep on it and talk a little bit more in the morning. It seems to me that you always seem to view things differently in the morning. I guess it's the whole fresh mind thing.

So today we decided we wanted to go look at it one more time and make an offer! We decided to give them their asking price, but ask them to pay all closing. They now have the choice to accept our offer or to counteroffer. We then will either agree with their terms or make another offer. So right now it's a waiting game, but the documents were signed and we made the first move. We also took some time to really look the house over one more time and get some pictures.

The house originally was probably a foreclosure. A investment agency bought it and did some remodeling. The kitchen was redone. Hardwood floors were redone in the house. New carpet and new windows were also installed. There were some things that were flawed that we saw and some things they did cheaply, but they are really only minor repairs. The house is three bedrooms and two baths. It has an attached one car garage and a two car garage outside. I think it will be a perfect house to fix up and really make it ours! Even Hailey is excited!

And now for some pictures!

This is dining room:

 This is bedroom 1:

 This is bedroom 2: This is the one Hailey wants!

 This is third bedroom:

 Family room:

 Garage on house:

Second garage:

Mother's Day (Post 2)

 Mother's day continued......

I told you would be back after I uploaded some more pictures! So this past weekend was pretty uneventful. Meagan came up and we went and got our toes done. She spent the evening making crafts with Hailey and then we got dinner with Kenny. The Caps lost the big game, so we are out of the series (womp womp), so that was kind of depressing, but good food made up for it! Then we came home and went to bed!

The next morning Meagan got up with Hailey and worked on the finishing touches to their crafts. Kenny got us a dozen donuts and my favorite coffee drink from Dunkin Donuts! The Boston Creams were in heart shapes and said "Mom" on them! After Hailey showed me all her presents we ate our breakfast and Meagan left to go see her Mom. I putted around the house until 3 and we headed to my grandmother's for a Mother's day dinner. We just did hamburgers and hot dogs and chips. I brought a strawberry shortcake for desert. It was relaxing and we just hung out there. As you will see, I played with my camera some and let Jaime be my model! She has gotten so big and so sweet! I love my baby cousin! I love watching Hailey interact with her, they are best friends!

I ended the night on the couch watching Say Yes to the Dress Brides Maid edition. I had never watched those shows, but I think I got a new series to watch on Netflix!

Now for some pics!!!!

Mothers Day (Post 1)

A few pictures from Mother's day! These were the gifts I was given! The first four were ones that Hailey and Meagan made together for me. There is a pompom frog, a butterfly flower pot that uses her hands as wings, a colorful bouquet of flowers made out of coffee filters, and a bouquet of flowers they got for me. The final picture was a gift from Kenny and Hailey. It was the ring that matches my open heart necklace that I got for my anniversary/Christmas! I had sent him the link weeks earlier when I first saw it and I was very surprised he got it for me! They also got me a Tinkerbell card that sings. Everything was a very nice surprise and what I loved even more was the excitement that Hailey had when she was giving everything to me! I know she worked really hard on everything, even with keeping a secret!

So here are some pics off my phone and I will post more later when I get home and upload them off my camera!!!

I'm 25 now!

So this past Tuesday was my Birthday! Wahoo! I get very excited for Birthdays, especially mine!

This past weekend Kenny took me out for my Birthday dinner with him. My Mom watched Hailey so it was nice to just go out and enjoy some quiet. We went to the Japanese Steak house and had a yummy dinner then home to watch a movie. It was a nice way to start my Birthday week. Sunday I had had Birthday dinner at my mom's with both my parents. It's always nice to get a home cooked meal! Yummm steak and baked potatoes hit the spot, especially the broccoli and cheese!

I decided to take off of Tuesday, and believe me I needed it! It was nice to sleep in some, even though I still got up with Hailey. She got on the bus and Kenny came to spend some time with me. I made him go get me a donut and iced coffee and then we just sat and talked (about cars of course) for a little bit. Then it was off to get Hailey off the bus.

Kenny's present got lost in the mail so he decided to surprise me with an ice cream cake since he had nothing to give me. After Hailey got off the bus we got to cut the cake and eat some! Yummy!

After Kenny left for work, I decided to take a short nap. That short nap turned into a 3 hour nap. I was supposed to be working on my homework, but I liked napping better. I did work on my homework for a little bit before Hailey and I headed to my Mom's. She made me dinner and gave me my presents! It was a nice time. Then afterwards we came home and it was crunch time on my homework. I worked hours on one paper and then worked more on another. I have been completely overwhelmed with the last couple weeks of my classes. The amount of work has been insane, but I have slowly been knocking all my projects out! I finished up my one paper just in time to get everything ready for the next day and get in bed!

I had hoped to do more things on Tuesday. I wanted to go do some running around or something fun. It ended up being a really lazy, which I think was just what I needed. I will save my running around for this weekend when Meagan comes down to celebrate my Birthday! Wahoo!

Recently I have been doing a lot of self-reflecting on my life. I guess it has to do with me turning 25. I have a lot of things that I am unhappy with, so I think this year will be a perfect time to work on them! I need to get back on track of getting healthier. I want to get organized and I just want to become less stressed, worry less and smile more. So I will have to work on that and deciding exactly where to start. I want to start Monday with my first goal, so I will have to start figuring things out. Hopefully by making small goals and changes I can slowly figure out what works well for me! I have been dreading turning 25, but I am going to make sure that I make this year the best one yet! :)

Soooooo I was bad......

I try so hard not to really spend money. I will buy some makeup here and there, but never really anything big. I have been doing really good with my money and making sure I pack my breakfast and lunches. But I have been really thinking about buying this thing a lot. I have looked at several websites and finally I just asked one of my best friends what she could recommend for me since she has a better sense of these then I do.........Are you ready?!?.......I bought.......

A NEW CAMERA!!!!



It's a Nikon p510. It's consider a compact camera and it's part of the CoolPix family! My original camera that I have had for the past 5 years is a pink cool pix that I got in a bundle for Christmas from Kenny! Believe me it has done it's job! I still love that thing and plan on keeping it handy! And believe me, I have put it through a beating! But this camera is a HUGE step up for me! Even better was that I found it on sale, got a half price memory card with it, got 1% cash back, and was able to pick it up last night! I spent a lot of time reading the reviews on it and it's pretty much perfect for what I need! I wanted something that I could zoom in and get great picture quality!

Hailey got an award in school a couple months ago and I was saddened to see that my camera couldn't zoom in on her, in fact, my cell phone took a better picture. I look at all my friends blogs and posts on Facebook and see beautiful pictures of their children. My camera has always come in handy, but I feel like I am missing something. So this is my incentive to capture all the memories! Hailey has a field trip coming up, graduation, her dance recital, her award ceremonies, and so many other things so I just didn't want to miss anything!

I laid in bed last night and played with it for awhile. The picture quality is AMAZING! And it has some really cool effects! One that I LOVED was the ability to pull colors out of the picture! I will have to upload some of the pictures I took while I was just playing around! So hopefully I won't regret the purchase. I put all my Birthday money towards it, so at least I don't feel soooo bad about it! I think I will be happy with it! Yayyyyyyy!

So thank you very much Heather for your recommendations! Maybe you can teach me some things that I didn't quite understand! Please and Thank You!!!

HELLO 2011!!!!!

So it's offically a new year! I am glady welcoming 2011 and the changes it will bring. I am already working on my resolutions. Hopefully I will post them later!

New years eve didn't go as planned exactly, but still turned out fun. The plan was to have a little "party" like we did last year. Of course the guest were just Kenny, Hailey and I, but hey! it's still a party right! Thursday I went to the party store and picked up some decorations, a balloon, and a party kit with hats and noise makers. So yesterday I spent the day fighting the crowds at the grocery stores. When I got home I went ahead and rolled up pigs in a blanket, made some crab dip, and got everything set up for our party. We made last minute plans to go out with one of my best friends and his girlfriend to the japanese steak house, we have been talking about going since June! Boy, did we pick the wrong night! We were told a 45 minute wait, which was close to about right. Then we got seated and two of the people we were seated with requested the head chef! Ughhhh! So we wait almost an hour and a half to get our food! Needless to say we were all getting grumpy. Our short dinner turned into a 3 hour adventure. Atleast it was with people I love and hardly ever get to see because one hardheaded boy WON'T ANSWER HIS PHONE!!! lol ::end tiny rant::. So we ended up getting home at like 10:30. So our party didn't happen. Maybe today it will happen! The menu consists of pigs in a blanket, crab dip, steamed shrimp, bacon chedar potato skins, chips with slasa and cheese, and green frozen party punch! Yummy!..... sorry, got side tracked, back to my story.... So we got home and watched TV and got our hats picked out. I made Kenny turn on the count down shows around 11:30, he was not happy at all, but come on this only comes once a year, Pawn Stars are on all the time!!! So we watched that and brought in the new year with lots of noise! Hailey enjoyed that part the most! Plus I got my new year kiss from both Hailey and Kenny! We celebrated the new year with an ice cream Sunday, since we didn't get to have our party food! Hailey was just fine with that lol!

So here is to 2011!!! I am going to make a lot of changes this year, hopefully for the best! Yay!!

Now to get off of here and think of some resolutions that I can actually keep!!!

Christmas Recap

Before I start my new post, let me continue my old post for a second. I will give you a quick run down of our Christmas. Christmas eve was very busy! Kenny and I were both off work which was nice. We went to one of our friends to drop his gift off around 2:30. We were at Kenny's Aunt's house around 3:30 for their family get together. It was very nice, yummy food as always, and there were faces there that we normally don't get to see. Hailey had a blast getting gifts from people. She is such a lucky little girl! We met Amanda at 5:15 to do her and Hailey's gift exchange and then we went to my Mom's house around 5:30. We ate dinner with them and then did my family gift exchange and then left so we could get to Kenny's dad's house since he was leaving bright and early to catch a flight. We visited with him for a bit and he gave Hailey her presents. Then at about 10 we rushed home to get cookies started, Hailey into bed, and the wrapping begun! Christmas morning was nice, we woke up whenever and took our time opening gifts. Hailey was so excited! Santa was good to her. We went to my Grandmother's for our traditional Christmas dinner around 3:30, amazing as always! Then we just spent the evening with my whole family! Sunday we relaxed for a while and then went and had dinner with Kenny's Mom.

So all and all it was a very nice Christmas! Hailey really had a blast and appreciated everything, even the smallest things like a slinky! She has been having a blast playing with all her toys! Shes so amazing! She has been asking when Santa is coming again! LOL she has alot of waiting to do!!!