All in all, a good week.....

What a long week!

*On Tuesday, my BIL had surgery on his hip.  His surgery went very well and he's resting at home.
**My FIL had heart surgery on Wednesday.  His surgery also went well and he's already out and about.  Not sure if this is necessarily a good thing but I'm glad he's feeling and doing well.
***Last night someone broke into my car.  I only noticed because everything that had been in center console was thrown onto the passenger seat.  I don't think they got anything valuable because I don't keep anything of value in there.  Frickin people.
****I can finally eat regular foods again.  Yay!  I was getting really sick of mashed potatoes, pudding, and ice cream.  Ice cream and I don't get along so now I'm feeling really bloated from eating it so often.  I'm sure you wanted to know that, you're welcome!  Plus I packed on 4 lbs in a week from my wonderful carb & sugar packed diet this last week.  Lovely.
*****My hometown is fighting flooding.  The National Guard and some prisoners were called in to help sandbag.  My parents have been running two sump pumps at their house.  I think they are in better shape than some of the other residents in town.  I "stole" some pictures of the flooding off my friend Hillary's FB page...I'm sure she wouldn't mind....hope not anyway!  :o)

About 2 blocks from my parent's house.  If you look towards the middle of the picture you can see the part of the road that isn't flooded.

My brother's employer's land....his house is also on this land.

Country road

Same spot...you can really see the road washout in this picture...

The good news is that of this morning the waters seemed to receding.  Bad news is that there may be more rain on the way.

******We are currently under a tornado watch .  Just a watch for now though.

*******I think that's been all of our "excitement" for the week.  :o)

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

They're gone!

My last two wisdom teeth were removed yesterday morning.  I'm so glad to have the surgery part over with.  Now I just have to wait for the swelling & pain to go away and I'll be all set to enjoy the rest of my summer!



Hope you all have a great weekend!

::life is beautiful::

I've been playing with my Cricut for a couple weeks now.  Mostly I've been playing around with the Make The Cut! program and cutting out random shapes.  My mat has been too sticky to really use anything that I've cut so it's just been good practice.  I decided this past weekend I'd be brave and try a project with vinyl.  I don't know why but I was a little nervous to try it.  I guess I thought it would be more difficult than it turned out to be.

Anyway, I bought this wooden plate thing at Goodwill a week ago for $1.  It's big - about 14 inches or so across the middle.  I wasn't really into the red though so I sanded it down then pulled out some of my spray paint.

Luckily we had a small break in the rain so I had time to get it painted.  I brought it back inside just as it was starting to sprinkle.

Then I just cut out a shape and some words in vinyl and just slapped it on.  It really is that easy too.  If you're looking for computer software to use with your Cricut I would highly recommend Make The Cut!  It doesn't take long to figure it out and you can use most of the fonts that are already on your computer.

Anyway, this is what I ended up with:

It was so simple!  Eventually I'd like to hang it on the wall but that'll have to wait til I find some sort of plate hanger.

I'm linking up to The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday.  Check it out for some frugal inspiration!

PS - Make The Cut! has no idea who I am.  I just really like the product.


PPS - If you're looking for a good deal on vinyl, I bought mine from Print on It.  It was the best deal I could find when I was looking.  If you've found a better deal, could you let me know?  Thanks!

Random

It's not every day a helicopter lands in your backyard.  Actually, our "backyard" is the middle school track and field.

Dave and I were sitting in our living room when we heard a helicopter fly over, which doesn't happen very often.  I went out to see if I could still see it and there it was landing nearby.    The state fire school started yesterday and it is being held at the middle school.  They must have been doing some sort of practice or class using the helicopter.

A few of the trucks that are over there now:

They have a parade planned for tonight so hopefully the weather holds out.  We've had so many rainy days and storms over the past week or so.

We don't have too much planned for the weekend.  Hopefully we'll have some breaks from the rain so we can get out and do a few things. 

Hope you all have a good weekend!  :o)

I'm officially old....

Tonight as I was sitting at my desk, I noticed a few teenagers walking through our parking lot.  One of them stopped by our neighbor's fire pit and started pulling on pieces of it.  I was thinking "What the heck is that stupid kid doing?"  Next thing I know he had a slab of the firepit (like a piece of slate) in his hand and he was walking away with it.  I wasn't sure what to do because I knew if I went out to yell at them, they'd be gone by the time I got out there.  So instead, I started knocking loudly on the window and pointing at them.  A couple of the kids heard me and said something to the stupid kid.  By that time they had walked behind a parked SUV and I couldn't see them anymore.  The kid must have dropped the piece though because he wasn't carrying it anymore when they came back into view.  I haven't gone out to see though.  I figure as soon as I go out there to put it back my neighbor will drive up and wonder what the heck I'm doing with her firepit.  And, she's a cop.  So is her boyfriend.

My name is Nichole.  Otherwise known as the old lady who raps on the window if you're being naughty.

P.S.

Ok...a P.S. on my Free Christmas post.  If you decide to join either Swagbucks or MyPoints and want a few pointers on how to get more points, leave me a comment and I'll get back to ya.  There's a very small learning curve on each.  I'll try to save you some time and help you out as best as I can.

Good Reads

***Sorry about the crazy spacing of this post.  For some reason blogger doesn't like me tonight***

I'm kind of a sporadic reader.  I recently read 2 books that I really liked but I don't think I had picked up a book for 2 or 3 months before that.  I really like to read so I'm not sure why I stray away from it so often.  I thought a book club might be a good thing because then I'd have to read at least one book a month.  I tried to join one a few months back that one of my friends from work is a part of.  I thought I'd really enjoy being part of book club but this one just wasn't for me.  For the most part it was a bunch of women sitting around talking about their personal lives.  I think they discussed the book for maybe 5 minutes out of the two hours I was there.  Not so fun when you don't know the people they are talking about. 

Anyway, I was going to give the book club another try so I read their choice for May which was The Help.  I LOVED this book.  I actually found myself slowing down at the end because I didn't want it to end.

source

Synopsis from Barnes & Noble:
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town...



I wasn't thrilled with the ending of this book.  It felt like the author was tired of writing so she just wrapped it all up quickly.  But it's definitely worth reading.  I'm giving it 5 out of 5 stars on my rating scale.

Bonus: a film adaptation of The Help is currently in the works!  I just hope they do it right!

The book finished last week is Hissy Fit.  This was a fun, quick read.

Synopsis from Barnes & Noble:
Keeley Murdock's wedding to A.J. Jernigan should have been the social event of the season. But when she catches her fiance doing the deed with her maid of honor at the country club rehearsal dinner, all bets are off. And so is the wedding. Keeley pitches the hissy fit of the century, earning herself instant notoriety in the small town of Madison, Georgia.

Even worse is the financial pressure A.J.'s banking family brings to bear on Keeley's interior design business. But riding to the rescue — in a vintage yellow Cadillac — is the redheaded stranger who's bought a failing local bra plant. Will Mahoney hires Keeley to redo the derelict antebellum mansion he's bought. Her assignment: decorate it for the woman of his dreams — a woman he's never met.
Only a designing woman like Keeley Murdock can find a way to clear her name and give her cheating varmint of an ex-fiance the comeuppance he so richly deserves.



This book had a pretty predictable ending, but I would have been disappointed had it ended any other way.    I'll give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Have you read either of these books?
Do you have any recommendations for good reads?