A Curious Way

You all must see these commercials that my wonderful friend Kelly showed me!

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/?restarting_medium

it’s true. Macs rule.

I think I’m about to experience empty nest syndrome for the first time.

Yes, I am only 23 years old.

No, I do not have any 18 year old children going off to college.

But yes… empty nest syndrome is coming

Thought I’d give you a little update on the birdies. The first picture that I posted of them (out of their eggs) was about a week and a half ago (you can scroll down to see that pic.) I went out there to check on them today and COULDN’T BELIEVE how much they’d grown so fast. They now have their eyes open and are very crowded in that nest. I guess they’ll be learning to fly soon.

So.. the other day I was mowing the grass… (which, this is beside the point, (but I’m going to tell you anyway) I happened to run out of gas when I had like two rows left)

see!

But during this mowing I found lots of fabulous things. I found this huge nail/stake thing in the ground, I found a beautiful spiderweb right on the perfect place, on the back gate(i dunno if you can tell)

I also found a pile of dog poop at the very back of my yard (which is odd, because I don’t have a dog, and my yard is completely fenced…) And no, I didnt take a picture of that one.

But my favorite find was this birds nest with four beautiful blue robin’s eggs in it!

So Tiffany and I were lounging in the backyard today and I wanted to show her the nest I’d found two days earlier… so I pointed her in that direction. She got to the tree and shrieked, and it took her a second to get it out, when I distinguished her saying “They’re birdies!! They’re birds!” So I scrambled over and we found these birds!

New life… opening their mouths for the food their mother will bring them. Their eyes were not even open yet. Two days ago they were eggs! And now they had little tufts of hair.

Later Tiff and I were praying together and she was reminded of the birds and how God cares for them and feeds them, and how much even more does He love us and care for us!

I just love springtime!

So, my family is all about traditions. Us kids are stubborn about certain traditions, and we just CAN’T abandon them. So, one of the things we do every Easter is ‘the easter bunny’ hides “The Big Egg” along with all the other eggs. The “Big Egg” is this big pink plastic one that I’m sure we’ve had for at least 10 years. So, if you find the big pink egg, it is basically like this really big deal and you have braggin rights for the year. The problem is, I NEVER find it. I seriously think I have maybe found it TWICE… EVER. A few weeks ago my dad found this picture from one Easter when I actually did find it and he saved it for me so I could scan it and put it on my website

anyways, again, sadly, (do you see how many commas I just used?) I again did not find the Big Pink Egg. My little bro found it (it totally had $20 in it too…)

So I thought I’d share some Nichols family Easter pics It was a great day!

The kids, after church…

Some pretty flowers!

Me bein silly

Dying eggs with grandma

Chris was definitely stretching out to get ready for the egg hunt! haha

Getting ready for the big egg hunt!

Chris found the big egg!

My basket… I totally scored!

amy and I are mad at chris for getting the big pink egg

Hope you enjoyed! Do you all have fun family Easter traditions??

So, one thing I love about St. Louis and about the spring/summer is going to Cardinals games!

We got a new stadium this year… and though it was a little sad to see the old Busch go, and at first I was resistent to the new stadium, my visit Saturday convinced me that I will love the new stadium! I saw Pujols, Luna, and Scott Spezio all hit homers, and a bunch of other great plays.

Here’s some pics!

My sister and I by the Stan Musial statue!

A view from inside the stadium. My cousin and his girlfriend had standing room tix, but ended up just sitting down here and never had to move! Incredible 20th row seats!

The amazing Pujols at bat. Check out that stance!!

And last, but not least, me and the fam (minus brother, Chris)

go Cards!

This is probably nothing really WORTHY per se of your time… but I had a blip on the mental energy line and so I thought I’d share. (I’ve been trying to wind down after this youth event we had tonight called Spatula. I was in charge of 100 kids running around doing a scavenger hunt and all kinds of other madness… AND the pizza place lost our order, and so the pizza was like 30 mins late… bummer when you are on a tight schedule anyways…)

So here is my really silly things that I think I should share.

I found some new musicians that I like last night when perusing iTunes. Here’s a list of some songs/albums I’ve been enjoying as of late:

“Such Great Heights” -the Postal Service
“Gamble Everything for Love” -Ben Lee
“Beautiful World” (Alternate Mix) -Colin Hay
“Down Under” (Acoustic Version) -Colin Hay
“Overkill” (Acoustic Version) -Colin Hay
“Tell Her This” -Del Amitri
Josh Kelley’s CD “Almost Honest”
“Grace” -Phil Wickham
“This is Us” -Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler
“When Did You Fall” -Chris Rice
“Someday” -Flipsyde
“We Belong Together” -Gavin DeGraw
“Sooner or Later” -Michael Tolcher
“Cathedrals” -Jump Little Children
“Seaweed” -Fruit Bats
“For My Love” -Bethany Dillon
“Better Days” -Robbie Seay Band
The ‘A Collision’ album by David Crowder Band
“The Beauty of Simplicity” -Telecast
The “Carencro” album by Marc Broussard
“Redneck Yacht Club” by Craig Morgan (so, I know, this totally doesn’t fit the list, but I love country!)
the “Mockingbird” album by Derek Webb
the “Ripen” album by Shawn McDonald
“When I get where I’m going” -Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton
“Travelin Thru” -Dolly Parton
The “Beyond the Sea” soundtrack -Kevin Spacey!!
“Folsom Prison Blues” and “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash
“Everything Glorious” and “Turkish Delight” by David Crowder* Band
and, always, the “Psalms” album by Shane and Shane

I’m sorry!! I just couldn’t stop!! Okay, everybody check these out, and tell me if you find a new song you like!!

Okay, on to the second part of my wonderfully random post…

Today at work a few of us decided that we needed a little stress relieving break, and thought we would take some pictures mocking senior pictures and all the incredibly cheezy poses they make you pose in. So here are a few of my faves

Yes… we are holding dandelions. I think we look like hippies or something in this one…

Tree girls..

We told Adam he should print this one and give it to his mom for Easter. hahahaha

Staff girl…

We liked this one so much, we had 4 of us all do the same one… I like how incredibly psycho i look…

haha.. he came up with this one on his own…

precious little parasol jessica

Just friends hanging out by the dumpster.. the perfect locale for a senior pic…

this last one i think we actually look really cute in

The End.

I love just slowing down to talk to people.. and enjoy people… like the two ladies in the Walmart fabric section this morning. One of them worked there, and she had a homemade Easter vest on… and the other one was a customer looking for lace trim. Apparently she was looking at maternity clothes for someone and she was ‘appalled at the things they want these young girls to wear these days!’ They were both funny.. used a lot of old fashioned phrases and stuff.

I think normally it is easier for me to be task-driven, efficient, and quick… but when I do slow down and enjoy people, I usually get the tasks done anyway, and its so much more fun and meaningful.

However, as I read all of these incredible blogs of you fellow bloggers out there, tonight I feel very hmmm… lowly. I feel like I dont have much to offer or say. Perhaps I need to connect with the Life giver a bit more…

Well… I thought I’d do a little photo journey of our past week on Spring Break. Let me tell you, the devastation was unbelievable. One house we were at told us about their neighbors who did not evacuate. The wave of water came over the highway 28 feet tall. This family quickly had to move upstairs in their houses, and they eventually were in the attic, with the water up to their necks. If the water rose any higher, they had no place to go. They would be caught between the roof and the water. The water stopped rising and they lived.

Here’s some shots of the destruction that still exists, 6 months later…

The remains of first baptist church- gulfport

This next pic is of a family owned Texaco that we gutted for about a day and a half. We took everything but the framing pretty much. We got to use sledgehammers and crowbars and all sorts of fun tools to remove lots of nasty stuff. Yeah we pretty much created that whole pile.

The place stunk tremendously. We had to wear face masks. Not only was there some sewage in the former bathroom area, but there was also all the old bottles of beer and soda and stuff in the old coolers, not to mention rats and mice and this next picture

Yep that is definitely 6 month old rotting meat that was in the frigerater with a family of rats. By the end of the day we were pretty used to the smell.. but by the time we got back to the church where we were staying and walked in, the other groups were like “WHAT is that smell??” and we were like, oh sorry, its us…

We had to wash all our clothes immediately and keep our shoes outside all week.

So that was Texaco fun. Here’s a few pics of us working there.

Looking at the project before us…

The finished product…

I was also on a roofing crew for a couple of days. Good times. Here we are

We were almost finished. We sent part of the crew back.. and then we realized we didnt have enough nails to the get the vent thing and ridgecap on. What?! We couldn’t not finish. So, we sent some people hitchhiking for nails, asking neighbors, Charity and I started hammering old nails out of some boards laying around, and we scraped some off the bottom of a toolbox. After about 2 hours, we got enough nails and finished!! While the boys nailed it down, here are some of us girls entertaining them by singing for them (into our ‘microphones’ )

Here’s a crew installing some insulation they got sweaty.

Okay now heres just a few for fun…

Jamie ‘feeds the birds, tuppence a bag…”

I thought this sink was amazing. It dispensed water, then soap, then more water, then blew your hands dry! all in one machine! apparently this is not new to many people, but i was obviously amazed enough that we needed to take a picture! By the way, I lost the glasses I am wearing in this picture somehow at the very end of this trip. I am highly saddened by the fact that I’m gonna have to drop a couple hundred bucks (or whatever they cost) for new ones. I am giving myself a headache right now squinting at my laptop b/c i already took out my contacts. annnnyways.

The boys on the trip (minus our incredible bus drivers…)

All prettied up for our nice dinner out at ‘catfish charlies’ oh man it was SO amaizng. All you can eat chicken or catfish and amazing family style sides…

Playing some spades on the 16 ridiculous hour busride home. Good times!! (We have a rematch with these guys on Friday tee hee..)

And lastly.. a pic with roomie and fellow Voxer Tiffany

Basically it was an incredible trip and it reminded me that “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” because, like happened to so many families we helped.. they lost it ALL in one day. Hold loosely to your ’stuff.’ It is only on loan, and the loaner expects you to make a worth investment of it while you have it.

The End

p.s. I wanted to make a link to Tiffany’s blog when I wrote her name (so ppl could clikc on her name and go to hers.. can someone tell me how to do this?)

Also.. how do you do that thing where you can make your entry shorter and say “to read more click here’ or whatever.

Thanks for reading

I’m all packed up and ready to go! A group of 46 of us are embarking tomorrow morning at 5:30 am :-O for Diamondhead, MS to do some Hurricane relief for our spring break. It feels so good to have all my loose ends tied up at work and to have the whole evening to relax, be with my wonderful roomies, scrapbook, eat good food, maybe watch a movie, and work on some other projects around here.

I’m excited to get to help rebuild people’s lives this week! I’ll let you know how it went…

some really cute China babies… up in the mountains…

Guys, I need help. My parents are about to celebrate their 25th anniversary, and my siblings and I want to get them something special. Any ideas on a creative gift??