Jennifer Nicholson's Blog

One of my very best friends (and cousin!) turned the big 3-0 in October. She decided that she wanted an 80s themed party – Nick was the DJ and I would set up the photobooth.  There is NO WAY I would miss this!  Everyone… including me dressed up. Now I never dress up! But I took my scissors to my favorite sweatshirt to get it ready for the party.  I needed to take scissors to it because it was turning out to be my gray blankie – and it was ratty and balled up. But come on! It was my soft, comfy, don’t go out in public sweatshirt and I loved it. But it was sacrificed for the good of the 80s flash dance look.

Devin looked SO cute in her rainbow bright colors. Her hubby LeAlan was Tom Cruise in Risky Business and Thatch was My Little Buddy. Her mom found all of her toys from the 80s – care bears, strawberry shortcake, and my favorite – freakin NKOTB dolls! I’m NOT even kidding. I couldn’t stop laughing!

On to some pics!

See! I wasn’t kidding with the NKOTB dolls. I never had the dolls but my sister would have LOVED to have them.

Some pics from the photobooth.  I had to put them in collages because there were WAY too many!

Boy George (aka Jonathan Wise) won the best costume! Can you spot Boy George??!  Hint… He’s next to Duckie.

Yea – these boys can jump.  One jumped right into the light! AS you can tell by the light baby blue color. I was seriously impressed!

Zane is jumping over Beth – his fiancee… soon to become Mrs. Kellogg.

This pic is too cute!  I wish I had the pic of when they were younger.  Krisi gave Devin this same exact look on her birthday when they were just kids!  They’ve been best friends since birth.

And the whole group in the cold – HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVIN!

I’ve been stuck between these walls for quite some time now.  First with the flu – my girls both ended up with the H1N1 virus and happily transferred this virus to their mom. I stayed at home with Hannah first then ended up spending another week at home with my youngest. We’ve been at home taking advil and our temperatures every time we turn around – just for kicks. I never thought following your temp would be something that would entertain us for so long but it did!

I’m still at home – waiting to visit my doctor to check out my ears. I’ve been having some balance and vision issues that he thinks is related to an inner ear problem. I just hope that there’s some meds that will kick in relatively fast so I can heal. I’ve also found that I am too often feeling a depression setting in – making me feel unworthy of anything. I know in my mind that this is probably related to the fact that I’m not feeling well AND that I feel like a prisoner in my home. But then again, I know that in reality-I do feel unworthy.

I know in my heart that God is with me. I know in my mind that God favors me. I know all this but I still have that teenage angst and fear of unacceptance. The thought that any minute now God will know the real me and not want to bother with someone as messed up and torn down as I am.  He’ll think why did I even bother? She’s a wreck. I feel an enourmous amount of guilt for not measuring up… and often times I do just give up. Especially when things become too much to handle. Too much stress. I tend to just throw my hands up to procrastination and self-doubt and just give up. There are people who, when faced with pressure, take out their armour and press on – defeat is not something they even imagine but… I am not like that. I tend to shrink when faced with too much – I try to just fade away.

I can’t even believe I’m blogging this but I want to be able to look back on what I’ve been going through and to see the strides I’ve made in my personal growth and spiritual growth. I’ve distanced myself from God recently because of the terrible self-doubt.  I’m facing these personal issues because the small group I’m in – OneVision – is focusing on self-hatred and rescue as the main theme for our art projects. This is a powerful subject and has forced me to deal. I’m turning to God – knowing as I was trying to distance myself, He was pulling me in. Helping me work through some deep seeded issues by first having me admit that they exist.

I’m headed out now. Going to my doctor’s appointment and praying that all will be well. But first I will have to speak positively – do not be scared of the scale Jenny!I’ll hold my breath and think – LIGHT AS A FEATHER…LIGHT AS A FEATHER. It doesn’t work but it drowns out the lady when she shakes her head and repeats what the scale reads because she doesn’t think I can see what it says! UGH!

In closing – here’s a pic that makes me extremely happy! Have a great Wednesday!

Grace and Peace y’all! LOL!

I have to post these pictures that Linda took of her dogs.  They are so cute.  Both are yellow labs from the same litter that Chewy came from (LeAlan and Devin’s old Lab). 

I had to edit some grass out of the shot but they are adorable!!!  Good job Linda!

We decided to go to the Bass Pro Shop for our family outing just a few days ago.  Now, we are not the hunting type and we aren’t incredible woodsy outdoorsy people…. at least not yet.  Nick has been hounding me to go tent camping for a while now.  Not sure why but I’ve always returned a solid – NO.  No way.  If I’m going camping, it better be in a nice rv or a hotel room (but I do realize that the whole hotel room thing defeats the purpose).  My attitude towards camping stayed true even when my friends Kendall, Staci and Jessica asked me if I wanted to join them on a cross country road trip to Forks, WA.  I really did want to go but funding and family just weren’t on my side this time around.  They told me they were camping and of course I asked if I did get to go, if I could sleep in Kendall’s Element.  Now you see, there are bears out there!  I do not want to become bear food… not ever!  My friends went off on their journey across the US last week and they’ve twittered and updated facebook everyday (thanks girls!) and that’s when my attitude changed.  They posted pictures of their campsite and they got to camp outdoors in Wyoming – in freakin Wyoming guys!  And the icing on the cake – they did not get eaten by a bear!  Thank GOD!  So I decided that maybe my fears are a little on the extreme side and that maybe…. just maybe… camping is fun.  That’s all I had to tell Nick… the rest is history.  It’s like unleashing Noelle on some chocolate.

Nick has been looking feverishly for a tent now that I’ve given him some hope that I will try it out and see if I like it.  That’s turned into plan after plan and park after park.  This should be quite the page turner.  My adventures in camping…

So our trip to Bass Pro Shop was quite funny.  People were staring at us as we used much of the store as props for our photo session.  We had fun though… too much fun!  There were stuffed animals everywhere, fish in tanks and enough camo to make me quite uncomfortable – I felt like I needed to wear my safety orange.  The store was so big we didn’t get to see it all – but we did find a tent and enough gear to make it all confusing… at least it was to me!

Welcome to the Bass Pro Shop!  ** I finally got my point and shoot back from my mom!  I love it but I am thinking of upgrading to the Leica or Lumix w/ Leica lens… shhhh… don’t tell my husband!

Yep fake stuffed deer everywhere!

Oh man!  We just missed the fish feeding frenzy… guess we’ll be back another time.

We got a ton of stares at this one but I thought it was hilarious!!!  See bears ARE scary…  and incredibly large.

And of course the stuffed skunks in the shoe department… what are they saying? hmmmm…..

I made her stand by the pig and she kept asking people… is this pig real?!?! She was squealing and wouldn’t touch it.  Why not? He looks so cute and cuddly.  Ummm no thanks. Don’t pet the pig.

And here is the shoe model.  She’s been watching too many episodes of ANTM.

Panic set in when a someone came by to check on us.  Hurry take the shoes off – she knocked Noelle right off the bench.  And we laughed again.  ANNNNNDDDD more stares….

They did find what they wanted to buy.  They want to drive up and down the driveway in them.  Riiiiiiight.  I think not.

I haven’t laughed so hard in a while.  What a fun outing… wonder where we’ll go next!