Feeling The Love

Needless to say...

My luck has turned around in 2015.

Work? Love it.
Home life? Peaceful.
Love Life? Terrific.

Gosh... it feels good to be in a good place. It has been so long, and finally I can just enjoy the ride for a little while.

As you may be aware of, I just passed another milestone. Birthday #42. 
My birthday falls just two days after Valentine's Day, which makes for interesting dilemma for the guys in my life. ;-)

My guy rose to the occasion.


I drove down on Friday afternoon and stopped by the main house at the farm. I spent about an hour chatting it up with his mother. She is a such a hoot to talk to. Very dry sense of humor. If this gives you any insight, my S.G. has her contact pic as Grumpy Cat. lol

S.G. arrived after work and we transported all of my stuff down to the pond cabin. This adorable cabin is one he and his father built together. It is located deep within the woods of the farm. As soon as I walked inside I broke out into the biggest smile. This is what I saw:

He and his daughters decorated the main room. Streamers, cut out glitter hearts, and dark chocolates were all over the place. It was the sweetest thing I had ever seen.

I was just so excited, I insisted on giving him his "man basket" I made for him. I also gave him a beautiful card with some very heartfelt sentiments written in it. After he read the card he insisted on sharing his card and gift with me. 

Well... I had a beautiful letter written by him that was hands down the most touching letter I have ever received. Yes. He said those three little words. Little did you know, we have not been moving overly fast with the sentiments, but he finally said it. He grabbed my face and said, "Nicole... I. Love. You." 

It was wonderful.

Then he whips out a small box. What he does next cracks me up.
"Now, just so we are clear, this is not a ring."

I died laughing right there. 

However, I opened and found the most beautiful necklace I have ever seen. It had belonged to his grandmother. How wonderful was that?

We ended the night by watching a mini marathon of True Blood.

On Saturday morning, I awoke to him cooking a wonderful breakfast. This man made me a recipe I had pinned on Pinterest. Yes - he picked something I wanted to try. WOW.

Then he got in the car and headed to Providence Canyon - also known as the Little grand Canyon. We were going for a Valentine's Day hike. 

After the hike - we headed over to the river for a picnic. 

Following the picnic - we headed out to Plains, Georgia and I got some delicious hot boiled peanuts.

That night for dinner, he spent four hours cooking Duck a l'orange. Seriously. 

Valentine's Day... as you can tell... was delightful!

Then that Sunday, we headed into Albany and saw the movie 50 Shades of Grey. (BTW - meh.)

Then we shot on over to his ex's house (who btw, was very gracious and kind to me) to pick up his kids and then we scooted over to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. That night we basically all crashed at the cabin.

On my birthday morning, his oldest daughter and I went out and bought sausage biscuits for everyone and just relaxed and talked. Later, the girls and I did what I call - Birthday Yoga. Everything was birthday this or birthday that. 

That afternoon the girls and I got into a hard core UNO marathon, complete with Sangria. (Just for me, of course.)

Then the surprise birthday dinner: The dining room was decorated and all of my favorites were served. Grilled beef hotdogs, a special marinated salad, s&v chips, etc. Complete with a delightful raspberry cake.

As for presents? Holy moly - I struck the mother load! 

Then of course I had to come back to reality! 

Check out my two latest articles in Macon Magazine:

And of course we had a wonderful event at the Cannonball House. My dad even taught calligraphy for the kids!

Finally, don't forget about Beards, Bourbon, & Bacon happening here on April 11th. Here is the inspiration for the event (yes.. one of our volunteers decided to pose with the book.)

Finally, I want to say...

I am happy.

Seriously.

Just happy.


The. End. 

Here Comes 42.

I am creeping up on the year 42. On February 16th, it will be here, and I have to admit, I am not even the least bit freaked out or disappointed. It seems like this decade is one that is setting me on my path. Back in my 30s, I thought I had it all figured out and was on my way to be where I was supposed to be. I think I made some decisions in my early thirties that sort of took me off my path, taught me a few lessons, then politely dropped me on my ass. At 38, I had hit the bottom (as close to the bottom as I can be,) and I had to regroup.

Who knew when I turned 40, that my life was about to be flipped upside down one more time. I sort of view the series of events like something I saw in a video recently. I went to Plains, Georgia, and later researched how people grow and harvest peanuts (a crop they are known for.) Here is this plant that looks nice and lush on top, and has deep roots. You pull the plant out of the ground and under caked on dirt, you see the fruit of your effort - peanuts. The farmer shakes the dirt until the peanuts are free. I feel like my 40s is the shaking process. Everything is sorting out and there is an incredible sense of peace enveloping me. 

No doubt, the growth and adjustment can be overwhelming from time to time. Things keep shifting, but at the same time, once the peanut has been dusted off, I find that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, with the people I should have on this journey, doing what I am meant to do. 

As I head into 42, I have been looking back over my year. Then I looked back another year. This has been my favorite decade thus far. I like who I am, I like what I am doing, and the best part of all? By the time you hit 40ish - you are typically accomplished career wise, have a solid group of friends you have known 20+ years, and you just don't give a damn what other people think.

Bring on 42! I can't wait. 

Kidnapping & Cheesecake

The element of surprise is always a wonderful way to make some one's day - especially if the surprise is a good one.

Yesterday turned out to be a really nice day. Granted, we had the toilet situation, which I am happy to report was corrected by 4pm. THANK GOD. Being able to flush toilets is a luxury many of us do not even realize we have.

I finally got dressed, grabbed my things, and headed into Macon with my mom. I dropped her off at the gallery for the Winter Arts Festival sponsored by the Middle Georgia Art Association. The pieces they had displayed were phenomenal. Mom says they gave out over a thousand dollars in prizes. Congrats to the winners! Want to learn more about MGAA? Click HERE . (Just a side note - many of you are artists, if you are interested in selling your goods, there is a HUGE Arts festival in town each spring sponsored by MGAA. Trust me, if you live in Georgia, you know about this festival. If you are interested in flying/driving down and participating (and I guarantee you will sell your goods,) just click HERE. My mom is the president of the organization that does this event, if you want to talk to someone, I can connect you!)

After perusing the art, I met up with my friends at Leslie & Philip's house. You have to understand, they were being super secretive about what was going on. Finally, we all head out to the car, and Phillip says, "If you need to go to the bathroom, do so now." I sort of looked at them perplexed, and said, "Okay.. where are you taking me?" Of course, no one would say anything.

While we were driving off, I was not paying attention to where we were going, since I was steadily trolling Twitter.. so I was unable to see if we were going north or south on 75, that is, until we hit a town outside of Macon called, Forsyth. I knew immediately, okay.. "I think we are heading to Atlanta - but where?"

Sure enough, Atlanta it was.. and we had a spectacular night. :-)

Buffalo Blasts - Shredded chicken with buffalo sauce deep fried in a crispy wonton wrapper!

Chocolate Coconut Cheesecake

Phillip & Leslie

Lisa & I

Trying for a different angle.. LOL

The flash was killing us!

Chatting as I opened presents!

Always a good choice. My other DVD had a scratch!

I love the back of it - reads, "This Amazon Woman Bows down to No Man."

 The fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta!

The book my sister gave me!

The journal my niece gave me...

The present from my sister

My mom gave me these cool shell ear rings she picked up in Key West.

The strawberry cake with strawberry icing my mom made. (Used Instagram for the cool frame.)

Finally, Mr. Lestat - much cuddle time with him!

Well folks, my birthday weekend is going pretty good. Had a great chat with the egyptian yesterday. He is still diligently searching for a job in LA - plus, tonight - what am I doing tonight???

For that mystery click - HERE

HAVE A GREAT SATURDAY!

A Picture Show

I LOVE video. I really do. If I see you guys posting a video - I run to see it. It just brings you and your lives .. well.. "alive." When I see you type LOL, I can actually imagine you laughing out loud - b/c I heard your laugh.

Well - I am about to share a few videos with you. They are from my Birthday party and my trip to Pensacola. Each are probably less than 45 seconds.. please take a moment and hear the funny banter, or see the images!

:-)

Another year of fabulous!

Here I am, another year old - and just a little wiser.

No doubt - I am fabulous - but there were definitely some hard blows today, and I think I handled them with the greatest of ease.

I spent a great deal of last night preparing all of the food and other goodies for my birthday party today. I realized, as I was hanging my little gold stars and placing my little gold napkins on the table that it is probably not the norm to decorate for your own birthday party. But - I figured (and this has been my philosophy all day) "If you don't celebrate yourself, who will?"

And that's the question of the day - "WHO WILL?"

I got to work and found one birthday card laying on my desk. It was from our SVP, Bruce down in Tampa - and I was so grateful. It even had a cupcake on it! That forced me to change my mood calendar from deprived to chipper. Thanks Bruce. **still no call from the egyptian yet...

My sweet intern came in with one cupcake for me (Devil's food cake) and she made home made Banana Pudding (Paula Dean's recipe.) I was so grateful!

I blew out my candle on my little cupcake (but saved it for later!)

Then the office presented me with a batch of home made snicker doodles. (My favorite cookie!)

Here I am - feeling the love!

Thanks team!

For lunch, Jamie hosted a birthday lunch for me. She made a spinach salad, shepard's pie and yorkshire pudding.

Laura took the pics. We had a great lunch!

Then topped it off with Strawberry cake with strawberry icing. This is the first time I actually ate any of the sweets!

I came home - and as I was putting the finishing touches on my items - I got a text message from my friend from home. She was not coming - which meant our trip to New Orleans was off..

Did I mention my famous cake I have telling you guys about all week?

These were the glasses I bought for our Thelma & Louise trip. Don't worry - I still used them.

Some of the goodies!

Hee hee - I hand wrote the items with a black sharpie. That was the napkin theme!

Sooo.. then I found out my other closest friend could not come.. (Crystal.) The one who lost her step father..

I was bound and determined to not lose my fabulousness...

***ps - still no call from the egyptian

My friends came and I cut that cake with a smile...

I am not bitter...

My friends Jamie and Laura

Patricia and Jamie

Cristina and Julie

Stephanie and I

See - Julie and I used the glasses!

Woot!

My friend Teresa sent me the sweetest package - a book and two notebooks (cocktail napkins) and a fabulous Wonder Woman bag!! I actually had these on my Amazon Wish List!

Julie gave me some yummy goodies

Cristina bought me a gift certificate to Ross Bridge!!

Over all it was great. Sure I was disappointed my friend did not come. She told me by text message that her daughter was diagnosed with mono. What do you say? Or with my friend who had to attend her stepfather's funeral? You don't get the luxury of saying - 'hey - it's my birthday.'

That's the beauty of living with family nearby or having children. You are on your own. My husband never wished me a happy birthday, two of my closest friends canceled.. BUT - I held my head high. I am not selfish enough to freak out over it. Hurt? Nah.. well.. maybe a little. A little disappointed- sure. But again - life happens. Their family is their priority. As it should be.

Me? I will still go to Pensacola tomorrow for work. And I will still go to Mobile for work. But instead of driving to New Orleans - I will come home.

I loss the use of the gift certificate. That's what makes me more mad than anything. It's too late to cancel. I only wish my friend would have told me her daughter was sick yesterday instead.. it could have bought me some time... to either find a replacement, or get the certificate back. Instead - my free night (valued at $250) is down the drain. That's the worse part.

C'est la vie.

I think between my two friends with their "big life" things, that they could not control and my husband not calling - I was almost a basket case. But - my co workers, my friend and my zumba instructor came over and I had a blast. I have to get to sleep now... I have a loooong lonely drive. I am sure I will be doing a lot of thinking... reprioritizing...

Time to make some BIG decisions.