Appreciate The Simple Things

New year = new blog

gnielsen78 — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:32:01 +0000

I realize that this is like the 10th time I’ve moved the blog, and I can’t promise I will never move it again, but I’m headed back to blogger. I find it much easier to add pics and videos there, not to mention the fact that you can change your background whenever you like! I hope that you will follow me there, and if not well then it’s been real. I’ll catch ya on the flip side…

www.seewhatlifesgonnahold.blogspot.com

Chillin with the Goddaughter

gnielsen78 — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:52:37 +0000

Jason and Janine went to the Blues game last night and I had my own little play date with baby Kendall. I had so much fun! She’s such a ham when she sees the camera. What a cutie!

Check out my new threads!

gnielsen78 — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:38:09 +0000

Merry Christmas from our fam to yours

gnielsen78 — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:10:39 +0000

I had a wonderful Christmas this year, and I hope you did too! I can honestly say that this was one of the best Christmases I’ve had in a long time, and I truly believe it’s because I am not in CBA anymore and therefore not forced to work all that overtime at the end of the year. That OT leads to a LOT of exhaustion and apathy over the holidays – trust me. Not this year though – this whole month has been SO enjoyable for me! In addition to the AOH show and Journey to Bethlehem we did a couple weeks ago, I got to go to White Christmas at the Fox with my mom last week, then also had the pleasure of going to see the Nutcracker for the first time, courtesy of Express Scripts. I loved it!

I got off work early yesterday and headed straight out to Dean and Stacey’s where we did the annual Christmas cookie decorating then went to the Christmas Eve service at their church. The program wasn’t your typical candle light service, it was more like a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. They even made it snow out in the audience several times! Pretty impressive. Today we went over to my parents house where we did gifts with them then ate a yummy Christmas dinner together. We had a lot of fun visiting and playing games together. I love them so

Decorating cookies

In addition to a plate of cookies and mug of hot chocolate, Carson left Santa the following note. (PS – his pillow has a bunch of Santas riding on motorcyles)

Carson in his new Christmas jammies.

Caught under the mistletoe!

Santa Paws isn’t gonna like this

gnielsen78 — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:09:41 +0000

Someone’s on the naughty list this year - it’s not Lenny, it’s not me, and it’s not Bella. It’s Jax! Santa Paws brought Jax 2 new squeaky toys for Christmas, and they were nicely wrapped and put under the tree last night. I was in bed and heard a faint sqeaking noise coming from downstairs, but figured he was just playing with some of his other toys. Lenny came up to bed like 30 minutes later and I heard him say “You naughty boy!” as I saw Jax crawl under the bed and hide. Lenny asked if I was asleep but by that time I was kind of awake. He said “Look who got into the presents!” and shows me a squeaky toy with half the wrapping paper missing. That lil turd!!! How did he even know which presents were his? It’s not like this squeaky toy was bacon-scented or anything. It was just a plain ol rubber squeaky toy. Weird. Needless to say, those two presents have been hidden until Christmas morning.

As if that isn’t bad enough, I was planning on making french dips the other night so I went to the store and got some hoagies and a few other ingredients. I was downstairs for a while wrapping presents and when I came back up, Jax was slinking off into the living room with half a bun in his mouth. I hollered at him and he dropped it and ran away. Then I went into the kitchen and saw that he had gone into the pantry, got out the hoagies, ripped the bag open, and ate 2 of the buns. What a freakshow! What kind of dog eats plain bread? Seriously. It’s not like we don’t feed him?! Maybe he’s not gonna get those 2 squeaky toys after all. He better be on his best behavior this week if he ever wants to see that rubber bunny again. And that is all I have to say about that.

The official start to the Christmas season

gnielsen78 — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:29:31 +0000

This weekend marks the official start to the Christmas season for us. Last night I went to the community band’s Christmas concert with my family at the Foundry Arts Center in downtown St. Charles. I am not big into “band-type” music (which I consider to be almost all live music without words), but Carson asked me to go and I have a hard time saying no to him for some reason. It’s one of the difficult things about holding the Favorite Aunt title – you get worked over a lot.

Tonight we are going to the Ambassadors of Harmony Christmas show at Touhill. My parents always buy a big group of tickets for this, but I guess they did it too late this year because we don’t all get to sit together. Lenny and I will be sitting with his parents, who are coming for the 2nd year in a row, but I’m not sure where the rest of the group is sitting. Oh well, at least we all get to see this spectacular show.

Tomorrow isn’t really a Christmas-type activity, but it’ll be fun nonetheless because we are going to pick up Bella in the morning and then we’re headed to Kendall’s 1st birthday party! I still can’t believe she is one. Sheesh. That year flew by! It seems like just yesterday that Janine was headed to the hospital and telling me she wasn’t supposed to be texting because it might stress her out and raise her blood pressure. Ha! I still remember how we all thought it was a boy the entire 9 months, and my jaw HIT THE FLOOR when I got the text saying, “It’s a girl.” I’m so glad it was though, Kendall is a sweetheart! Can’t wait to celebrate with her tomorrow.

Sunday evening we are planning on going to the Journey to Bethlehem live nativity at Harvester Christian Church. We took Bella to this last year and she really enjoyed it so we’re hitting it up again.

I am thouroughly enjoying the holiday season this year. When I was in CBA, this was our busiest time of year and we were working 10-14 hours of OT for several months straight. We weren’t allowed to take any PTO during the month of December, and it got old quick! I was always stressed out and so exhausted when I got home that I didn’t even want to THINK about doing Christmas shopping or any fun holiday activities. Things are quite a bit different this year. Yay for Christmas and being able to spend time with your family and friends!!!

Mystery Shop Central

gnielsen78 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:45:18 +0000

So Lenny and I are into something new these days…it’s mystery shopping! He has registered online with several different companies, and we’ve done quite a few shops over the past month or so. It’s a great way to make some extra cash in the evenings. Last night was probably my favorite one we’ve done so far – we went to 54th St Bar and Grill and got a free dinner. Our assignment was to go to the bar and get a drink, taking note of the cleanliness of the bar area and we also had to listen for specific phrases from the staff members. We then went to the restaurant part where we had to order an appetizer, 2 entrees, AND dessert and once again note specific things about the appearance of the dining room and the effectiveness of the wait staff. If you are wondering why we gain weight in the next couple months, this may be why.

Another assignment we did over the weekend was at Seattles Best coffee shop. Our assignment? To ask the barista what his favorite coffee was, hoping he would recommend one of their specialty coffees. Then we had to order a small white chocolate mocha and see if he tried to upsell. White chocolate mochas happen to be one of my favorite coffee drinks, darn the luck! I LOVE this job!

Anywho, if you’ve ever thought about doing something like this, I recommend going for it. It’s pretty cool. Each company works a little bit differently – some reimburse you for what you purchased and others reimburse you and then pay you a fee on top of that. It just depends what kind of shop you are doing. It’s funny because everywhere we go now, we are on top of our game and notice little stuff like tables not being clean or employees who don’t make eye contact and greet you. Ya never know when someone is watching your every move…if you work in a job where you may have mystery shoppers, beware!!!! I might write a bad review about you if you aren’t nice to me. And then I’ll go enjoy my free white chocolate mocha.

Oh deer what can the matter be?

gnielsen78 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:05:52 +0000

Some moms are into cooking. Some are into cross-stitching. Others are into gardening. Not mine! No siree. My mom is into hunting. Yup, that’s right. As in, dress up in camo, wake up at the crack o dawn and go out into the woods, then sit and wait… and wait… and wait until you see a deer. This year she was lucky enough to not only see a deer, but got to take a shot at it as well and she hit it right in the broiler room. BAM! Soney – 1, Deer – 0.

Now, why someone would want to shoot a poor, innocent, cute deer is beyond me. I mean, can you just imagine how that sweet lil deer felt when he looked up and saw a gun pointed at him? His whole life probably flashed before his eyes and he probably was thinking, “I want to go to deer heaven, but I don’t wanna go now!” Aww. I feel sorry for the poor fella. I could never murder an animal like that. I mean, after all, deer ARE your friends. To each his own though, right? Here is a shot of Soney with her trophy deer. I am looking forward to seeing the deer’s antlers mounted on the wall in the next few months.

10 things I’m thankful for

gnielsen78 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:53:17 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Since today is Thanksgiving, I thought it would be appropriate to think of some things I’m thankful for. I have so many blessings in my life, I feel like this is just the tip of the iceburg. However, I DO have some cleaning and cooking to do, so I have to put a limit on this somewhere. Here we go:

I’m thankful for my parents’ good health. ‘Nuff said.
I’m thankful for the roof over my head. Do you ever take a minute to step back and think about what you would do if you didn’t have a place to go home to? It’s awfully cold out there today, and I consider it a blessing to be sitting here in my warm house instead of being outside huddled around some fire trying to keep from getting Hypothermia.
I’m thankful for my job. I’ll admit I complain about going to work sometimes, but after seeing what Brian is going through, I’m happy to be driving into work every morning!
I’m thankful for Thanksgiving food!!! I love, and I do mean LOVE, food. Just take a look at my waistline! And I plan on expanding that waistline today.
I’m thankful we get to spend Thanksgiving day with Bella this year.
I’m thankful we got to pick Bella up from her daycare this week. It was such a treat to meet all her little classmates since we usually don’t get to see her interact with too many children her age when she’s here.
I’m thankful for the smell of Scotch tape. Random, I know, but can you IMAGINE a world with no Scotch tape?
I’m thankful for our dog Jaxon. I just love his personality! He’s always there to cheer us up and bring a smile to our face when we need one. Plus he’s soft and snuggly.
I’m thankful for my ghetto car. Once again, something I complain about quite often, but it DOES get me safely from place to place. Most of the time anyway….
And last but not least, I’m thankful for my wonderful fiance Lenny. It’s been a long road with some unexpected twists and turns, but I’m thankful I went down that road because it let me straight to Lenny. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I’m looking forward to being able to call him my husband someday soon. He truly is my rock.

Jay’s 30th bday/MU game

gnielsen78 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:42:38 +0000

To celebrate Jason’s 30th birthday on Saturday, a group of us headed over to Mizzou to do some tailgaiting and go to the football game. This was my first time tailgaiting. Ever. I had never done it at a Rams game, Cardinals game, college game, nuttin. To quote Facebook, Gretchen likes this (thumbs up). Since I had never been before, I didn’t know what to expect, so I have to admit I didn’t come well prepared. But I was covered, because between Janine and Jen, they thought of anything and everything everyone could have wanted throughout the day. We had more snacks and food than we knew what to do with. Hand sanitizer to use after the port o potties? Yep, they had it. Camping chairs to sit in in the parking lot? Yep. Antibacterial handwipes for wiping your hands off before you eat? Check. A small charcoal grill to heat up pulled pork sandwiches and beans? Yup. Cupcakes to celebrate J’s bday? Yup. An extra roll of tp for when the Johnnies ran out of it? We got cha covered. Seriously. They thought of everything! I was so impressed! I definitely took some mental notes for next time we do this, when it will be my turn to supply everything and let them sit back and relax. Sheesh.

Anyway, the game was fun – we had awesome seats right in the endzone. Unfortunately I did not get any pics from the field. Whoopsies. I’m a girl! What do you expect?! Here are a few of my fave pics from the day. Thanks to Jason and Janine for getting the tickets and inviting us to spend the day with you – we had a great time! And happy birthday again Jason!!! Hope you enjoyed the day.