'Ello Govna!

And for posterity...

A photo of the Royal Bride...Kate Middleton.  She looks absolutely stunning.  Timeless, classic, breathtaking..

I know it has been super-hyped up and there are all kinds other issues in the world that should be addressed, but it still makes me smile.  Especially with the institution of marriage being questioned as it often is in our society, it's nice to see tradition and hope!

Title Disclosure: I'm not sure where I heard it, but I believe it originated in Oliver Twist.  The phrase is a Cockney accent for "Hello, governor".  Cockney is a type of British slang that is well know for leaving out h's. 

Danke Schoen...

Good morning friends!

Corporate Mafia
It's Friday and I'm wearing jeans to work.  I love jeans Fridays.  However, unlike most companies, we have to pay to wear jeans.  Rather, we have to donate to wear jeans.  We donate xx amount of dollars to the "Corporate Mafia" and can wear jeans on Fridays, I'm paid up through March of 2012.  First of all, I am all for charity and tithing - tithing is where I prefer to give my 10%, but anyway.  The "Corporate Mafia" is the United Way.  I am sure the United Way does fantastic things.  But I have just read too much about all the overhead and you wonder - what percentage of my donation goes directly to the people?  I donate to my church because I can see the good it is doing in the community.  It seems every large corporation is BIG on the United Way, and by BIG, I mean a BIG pissing contest, wow, that was vulgar, sorry.  It's all about which company can raise the most money.  My company has various activities throughout the year and we are frequently coerced into giving to the United Way.  I have no shame marking a big fat ZERO on my annual contribution.  If people are inclined to give to charity as I hope most people are, let them choose an organization that speaks to them, not "guilt" them into giving to the organization that will net their company the most publicity.  But alas, they got me with jeans.  I would pay to wear jeans everyday, so I guess the joke's on me...

Work
I have been pretty occupied with work lately.  I am a corporate tax accountant, and those of you "in the know" know that 1120s are not due until September, yet we have various "internal" (read: made-up) deadlines.  So May will be pretty busy.  Plus I am going to training next week.  I am actually kind of excited about this one.  I think it will be really good, and yes, I am a HUGE nerd.  It is at the Michigan State University campus and we are staying at the Kellogg center.  I am leaving Sunday and shall return Friday.  Do not worry faithful readers, I am sure I will manage to post while I am gone. 

Texas Motor Speedway
Jerod is currently on his way to the Texas Motor Speedway.  The ONLY time I have ever been out there was for a concert, I had to look up the details, but it was in 1997 and was called Rockfest - geez..14 years ago!  It was the summer before my junior year of high school.  I believe if you purchased a CD at a music store, you got a free ticket.  About 10 of my friends went out there for the day and all I remember were people...EVERYWHERE, it was EPIC.  It was sponsored by Blockbuster (did Blockbuster used to be a music store too?) and was estimated that there were 385,000 people in attendance.  The line-up included:  Matchbox 20, Bush, No Doubt, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, Jewel, and the Wallflowers.  Umm..I would pay money TODAY to go see that concert.  Anyway, yes, Jerod...  His company is one of the sponsors of the MS 150.  It's a two-day bike ride from Frisco to Sundance Square in Fort Worth.  He is out at Texas Motor Speedway (which I believe is a pit stop, so to speak) working on food preparation.  His crew is responsible for providing food for over 400 people.  He started with food shopping and last minute details this morning and will be there all day and spend the night!  I think it's awesome.

The Vegas
My dad and stepmother own the Tarrant County franchise of the American Poolplayers Association.  They run leagues of pool teams that compete for spots to play in the National tournaments in Vegas every year.  There are several formats including: 8 Ball, 9 Ball, Doubles, Jack and Jill, and Masters.  I have actually been on two teams that qualified to play in Vegas.  So if your team wins a spot - free trip to the Vegas.  Anyway, the parents go to the Vegas twice a year for conferences.  And this year --- they won League Operator of the Year!  This is a huge honor!  They both work so hard to run a successful, fun, and ethical league.  Congrats again Dad and Francee - I'm so proud of you.  Please check out the Tarrant County website for information on the league and let me know if you are interested in playing.  Teams can use players from all skill levels!  I started when I was barely able to make even a straight-in shot.  It's a fun league with great people!

Busy Bee
I have lots of fun stuff coming up!  A baby shower for one of my best friends, Mother's Day at Grandmas, the Wizard of Oz with Mom, wedding venue tours with Jerod, Rock of Ages with Cindy, brunch with a friend from high school that I haven't seen since high school, I can't wait!  Life is amazing!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Title Disclosure:  The first exposure I had to Danke Schoen was in the classic 80s flick - Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  Ferris highjacks a parade float and sings Dande Schoen on the float all because "Cameron wasn't having any fun".  I am giggling to myself just thinking about that movie now.  I need to watch it again.  The song was written by some German dude (obviously) but made popular by Wayne Newton.  Oh and Danke Schoen means Thank You in German. 

The reason for this song.... somehow (?) my blogger language turned to German (magic?).  Which was an annoyance, yes, but I could figure out where to go.  Until I was trying to leave a comment on a friend's blog and could not read the error message due to my lack of German language abilities.  Ironically, when I posted a help comment on facebook, the same friend I was trying to leave a comment for, helped me out!  Anyway, check out my friend Angela's recent blog post on Biodiesel, she makes a compelling argument!

ps. Something very cool may be in the pipeline for me work-wise, too preliminary to discuss, but say a little prayer for me that it all works out.

Tiffany is doing her First Giveaway...

Hey everyone!

Check out my friend Tiffany's blog.  Her blog is all about food, fashion, and interior design.  She has amazing style and I find myself gazing at the photos on her blog often, daydreaming...

Anyway, she had a similar cookbook experience like I did - browing through the bookstore and a cookbook caught her eye.  She sat down to read it and bought it - but instead of keeping it like I did - she's giving it away!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Disappear Here...

Friday afternoon

I had a really lovely weekend.  I left work a bit early on Friday afternoon and ran a few errands.  Then I tried out a new pedi place – Hawaiian Nail Bar in Las Colinas.  It was greatness – there were probably 10-12 Pedi options, I chose the Aloe Vera one.  I did not want to drive right away so I went for a stroll in Barnes and Noble.  The first book that caught my eye was Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing.  I sat in the café and drank a Chai Latte and skimmed through the book.  I LOVED it so I purchased it.  I want to be “greener” and live naturally.  There are really neat stories in the book so I read through it, it almost reads like a fun novel!  I highly recommend it.  The recipes and ideas are all simple - just showcase food that is fresh and seasonal, so awesome!

Saturday morning – early!

Saturday I joined my step-sister Erin at the Coppell Farmers Market.  As I mentioned in a previous post, this has been something I have wanted to do for a while.  It definitely did not disappoint.  I was hoping it would be like the Farmers Markets at Union Square in NYC where you actually meet and chat with the farmers.  I went crazy!  I bought salad greens, broccoli, green beans, sweet potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, fresh baked country wheat bread, fresh butter with herbs and garlic, a trout filet, a small grass-fed sirloin, and grass-fed chicken breasts – I’m probably forgetting something too.  My sister also gave me some salad greens from her garden!  Thanks Erin!

My Kitchen Skills

Jerod came over for dinner and he was in for a treat!  Our menu was: country wheat bread with garlic butter, salad greens, pan-seared trout, baked sweet potatoes, and green beans with bacon cooked in chicken stock – YUM!!!  I also made some homemade dressing for my salads. Ummm..I think I’m not a fan of tarragon.  I made a Green Goddess Dressing that was pretty simple, but the herbs were tarragon and dill – it was pretty stout.  I will stick to the balsamic vinaigrette that I have become quite fond of.

Non-traditional Easter Lunch

Sunday was insanely fun!!!  I went over to my grandmother’s and we all enjoyed lunch!   I did not take any photos, but I brought dessert.  I brought angel food cake, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and heavy whipping cream.  Mom got a fancy new Cuisinart mixer so we decided to make fresh whipped cream.  We beat one quart of cream with about 2 teaspoons and 1 packet of splenda –it was so good.  This dessert turned out really well and was so tasty and we did not feel weighed down and miserable – try it for yourself!

Mom's legendary homemade lasagna!

Yum! Salad!

Chocolate bunnies are a must for Easter!

Amazing Race – Family Style

Then it was scavenger hunt time!  We should have defined the guidelines for winning further.  Both teams collected all the items including the bonus, so it was “technically” a wash.  But my team – including my mom, Uncle Randy, and Grandma – finished first, so we really should have been declared the winners – but since we did not put it in the rules, we couldn’t count it. 

Our Scavenger Hunt baskets!

The Rules and List of Items

My awesome team - Uncle Randy, Mom, and Grandma

The other team bringing up the rear...

Our competition - Levi, Katelyn, Renee, Brandi, and Duke

Go Team!

All of our items!

Grandma's sweet dog, Dottie

Great Friends = Wedding Stress Relief

As I mentioned, my cousin Brandi is engaged as well so she brought over all her wedding gear.  Umm..she had a huge binder, magazines, all kinds of information – fail  for me.  However, I am so much less stressed out!  My friends are the best.  Ginger offered to help me plan and Heather has all kinds of ideas!  I am so relieved!  They rock!  And I really decided before I get bogged down in the details, I need to focus on my venue search first and I’m alright with that.  WHEW!

Wedding Whirlwind!

Check out Grandma, taking it all in!

We are getting together for Mother’s Day and everyone is bringing ingredients to make a huge taco salad.  I think the next game day in June might be a shrimp boil and there is talk that my cousin Brandon might be in town!!!

Keep it Simple Stupid

Last night I had the most amazingly simple meal.  Country wheat bread toasted with garlic butter, topped with kosher salted and freshly ground peppered tomatoes and thin slices of farmer’s mozzarella cheese. I placed it under the broiler for a few minutes and it was simply delightful.

On my bookshelf…err..Kindle

I have finished five books – 2 memoirs and a trilogy so to speak.  Jodie Sweetin’s unSweetined was pretty interesting actually, I liked it. She played Stephanie Tanner in Full House.  She was very candid and seemingly pretty honest so that’s always refreshing.  I love Tori Spelling.  I think if we met we would be besties.  I think if I wrote a book, it would be similar to the way she writes.  She is brutally honest and self-deprecating.  And all kinds of crazy stuff happens to her, just like me!  Anyway, I have read her other books and I loved them and this one did not disappoint – uncharted terriTORI.  Next up was the Crank trilogy by Ellen Hopkins. They are fictional books, but based upon the experiences of the author.  Her daughter is a meth addict and these books give a very vivid illustration of generational addiction.  The books are written not in a traditional style, so not your typical sentence structure, but rather by thoughts.  Sounds weird and takes a bit to get used to, but it grew on me.  I downloaded some free and almost free Kindle books to save some money, they are across different genres so maybe you guys will get to hear about some different types of books!  ALSO, I read that later this year, Kindle users will be able to borrow books from libraries.  I’m not exactly sure how the details work, but this is awesome.  It kind of broke my heart that I would have to start “paying” for books with the Kindle since I grew to love my local library.  

My Niece

I live with my step-sister Jenni and her daughter, Bella.  We have lived together for almost 2 years now.  Bella will be 5 in October so I have seen her really grow up.  I love this kid.  I really was not a huge fan of kids so much before her and really questioned if I would ever have that maternal instinct.  All that changed when I fell in love Bella.  I began to see that if I could love my niece so unconditionally, I think I could be a pretty awesome mother.  Many years down the road of course!.  I took this photo of her the other day.  She has the coolest personality and cracks me up all the time!

Superstar!

 Title Disclosure: This is the opening sentence in Bret Easton Ellis’ classic novel “Less than Zero ”.  The movie stars Robert Downey Jr and Andrew McCarthy.  I actually like the movie that came from this book which rarely is the case for me.  FUN FACT! One of my favorite bands, Bloc Party wrote a song called  “Song for Clay (Disappear Here)” that was inspired by the main character in the book/movie – Clay.

Love…

Weddingdoes not exist in looking at each other, it’s looking in the same direction…

First of all, I absolutely want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support I received when I announced my engagement.  I am so incredibly elated to know I get to spend the rest of my life with the man I love.  He is so amazing and I find myself in awe of the awesomeness of God.  If you surrender to His plan for your life, I truly believe that it is so much more than you could ever imagine for yourself.  I was not kidding when I said I didn’t think I would ever get married.  Especially when I lived in NYC – everyone dated or rather “dated”; and then just lived together and I really was alright with that.  See, I was never the little girl that had her wedding planned out in her head from the age of 5.  I’m not exactly sure why, surely I wasn’t cynical about love that young – thank goodness I have done a 180.  That being said, I know you guys come here for my honesty, well be prepared…I need to vent, seek advice, and hopefully not offend anyone, good grief.

One of my all-time favorite Dave Chappell-isms (freaking love that show, so he may make frequent cameos in the blog): What did the five fingers say to the face?

SLAP!

A slap in the face is what happened when I started glancing around at wedding stuff a month or so ago.  They may as well hold you up at gunpoint – HIGHWAY ROBBERY.  I am in the WRONG field.  So, sticker shock first of all.  I knew weddings were expensive, I am not that dense – it’s legal exploitation, but I figured that was for this huge, lavish affairs.  Whoa!  I was wrong.

I Had a Vision of Love

Good grief, there is something about Mariah Carey that annoys me.  And hasn't she been pregnant forever?  Seriously, it seems like it's been over a year.  So no idea why that title popped in my head, anyway, I digress…damn, I do know why – I figured out how to load music on my phone before our trip (I know, welcome to 2006 Nicole) – ANYWAY, I have it on random and BONE THUGS N’ HARMONY came up – that song Breakdown was playing where Mariah sings, blah blah.  Did you guys hear Krazy (sp?) is leaving the group?  Seriously, where was I? Ah yes…

Let me give you a brief glimpse at my vision: 50 people; a venue to support a ceremony and reception; I am thinking a vintage theme – so I would love a beautiful, simple chapel or modern space (I realize that does not fall into vintage, but it’s my wedding damnit!), really I’m pretty open venue-wise, I would like something a bit out of the ordinary; simple meal, perhaps even brunch; alcohol not required; not sure how I feel about a DJ; I do not particularly want a booze-fest; awesome, amazing photos are a requirement; and I want it to be an intimate affair.  And I am thinking Fall of 2012.

Control (read: Contro-ol in manner of Janet Jackson) – I guess I have a theme going tonight with the blog sectioning being music related - go with it.

I can be a control freak.  I am totally aware of this.  It is a constant battle.  See below, I have even read a book (I know, shocking!) about reining my crazy in.

I used to be a lot worse which contributed to a lot of my issues (I promise, I will get braver someday and give you guys a Reader’s Digest version testimony).  But I have gotten a bit better.  So, planning a wedding has already overwhelmed me.  I have decided that if I keep things as simple as possible I may be able to get through this without alienating myself from everyone, including my fiancé (ha!  I still like saying that!).

Band of Horses

I mentioned my love of this band on Facebook, but they are freaking awesome.  I can listen to them over and over and over.  One of my BFFs Brook is my music sage.  She always seems to have these great bands for me to listen to that I love.  I think I mentioned Cindy does the same.

So, I guess I can start some of my rant and anxieties and concerns, in no particular order.  I am pleading, begging you all, please give me feedback.  Did you guys deal with any of this?  Do you have any cost-saving tips that worked for you?  Am I being unreasonable?  Do you kind of want to punch me?  I want to hear it all!!!!!

I do not know if I want a traditional Saturday night party with lots of booze and dancing and all that.  I kind of think a Sunday brunch would be fun!

I am not creative.  AT ALL. I am Type A, right-brained all the way.  I see all these cool details in photos, who thinks of this stuff?  Where do they get these ideas?

I want a small, intimate affair.  Seriously, 50 people.  That means close family and only our very closest friends.  Here is where the controversy begins – I do not particularly want small children at my event.  It is absolutely nothing personal.  But I am going to be on a very tight budget and with some places costing $50 - $100 a person, an extra $1,000 or so for children can be present is a chunk of change.  Is that unreasonable?

I also thought about a beach wedding.  But then I feel guilty asking people to fork out money just to come see me get married.  I think this would have the potential to be as big of a cluster as a local wedding would be.  Coordinating travel for people = headache for me.  And I know people will complain.  Actually I can easily name the few people that would complain.  About the price, the resort, the food, the weather --- more stress.  And it seems a little risky to leave all the planning and coordinating in the hands of someone else.

I also thought about eloping.  Really just the two of us going away.  But I think that would break my mother’s heart.  And with my Daddy and I growing closer than ever since I moved back after years of distance, I really want him to walk me down the aisle.

How did you guys stay sane?  I feel like there is so much to do, some many details and so much to consider.

Does anyone have a great checklist they used that you wouldn’t mind sharing?  Or perhaps a budget spreadsheet?  Any helpful tools?  An extra Xanax prescription?  I KID!

What are the things I should really spend money on?  What’s a waste of money?  Who the hell knows?

I realize that people provide this awesome service called wedding planning.  But this girl does not have a wedding fund set aside so I am trying to be as frugal as possible as this will be a self-funded gig.  I would gladly hand the planning and coordinating of this event over to someone else, it just doesn’t look like it’s in the cards for me.

Thank You

Thank you all for listening to my ranting and raving.  Like I said, I am so incredibly happy to be engaged but this whole wedding thing is stressing me out.  Especially when everyone is already asking if we have a date set and what the details are.  And I appreciate your feedback in advance.  And I know marriage is not about the wedding.  I know the most important thing is starting our lives together and sharing something special between.  I guess that's why I am stressing.  I really do want to keep it simple and easy, but I'm not sure how that is possible...

Title Disclosure:  This is a quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupery from his novella The Little Prince.  We studied this book in freshman year Composition and I fell in love with it.  It’s a fable about Love and Loneliness.  I believe it is technically a children’s book but has very adult messages in it.  I highly recommend it.  In fact, I need to dig it out of one of my box o’ books and re-read it.

This Gun’s for Hire…

I love my family.

My parents are the most amazing people I have ever met.  Sometimes my heart aches when I think about how much I love them.  They have been loving and supportive throughout my whole life.  And I adore my brother Kyle.  We have always been close and always have a blast when we hang out.  But for the longest time, I did not realize that those 3 people were “technically” my immediate family.  I thought my immediate family was grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  See, my whole life, I grew up spending the majority of my holidays at my grandparents’ house (in GP).  In fact, when we were really young, we went over there every Sunday for lunch.  We were never really close my Dad’s family so this is all I knew.  Our family has definitely been through a lot.  But through thick and thin, I know I could pick up the phone and call anyone of them and they would be there for me.  I feel so extremely blessed.

Let me do the introductions.  There are my grandparents, my mom’s parents.  They were married 54 (I think?) years before my grandfather passed away 5 years ago which absolutely devastated my family.  They were definitely from a different generation, but in a good way!  They did everything together and were each other’s everything, I cannot imagine the pain she lives with every day without him.  My grandpa was an amazing man; he always made us all laugh.  They are both full Czech and still spoke the language.  

Then my mom of course and me and Kyle. 

Mom’s sister, Renee (that’s how I got my middle name!), her husband Duke and her kids Brandi and Brandon.  Uncle Duke is such a wonderful man, he just always puts a smile on my face.  Brandon is in the Navy and is currently in San Diego, he is 25.  I am so proud of him, our whole family is, he was just certified in something medical related.  Brandi will be 30 this year (welcome to the club!) and is engaged to Joel (who coincidentally went to GPHS, was a year older than me, played baseball and I absolutely cannot recall him from those days – Joel Depue).  They got engaged like a month ago.  We think it’s crazy.  Our moms have been waiting forever for us to get married and we get engaged a month apart and are looking at weddings around the same time frame!  Pretty cool.  Brandi has an awesome daughter Katelyn.    She will be 15 this year.  She is definitely becoming a young woman and has a lot of spunk and sass – just like her mama!

On those Sundays at grandmas, I remember several things.  Brandi and I called ourselves the M&M sisters. I’m not sure why but I am thinking grandma may have always had a candy dish full of M&Ms.   We loved the song Manic Monday.  My grandmother used to buy us these little spiral notebooks and we would write songs in them.  Too bad these were not archived for future entertainment – the making fun of us kind.  And we would always brush each other’s hair.  The random things one remembers.

Mom’s brother, Randy.  He lived in Oklahoma for some time and in North Carolina for a while, but he’s been back about 4 years.  The thing I remember most as a little girl about him – Randy and his first wife, Kay took me to Wet N’ Wild, I was maybe 5.  That big slide, the Der Stuka or whatever (and why do I remember the name?), well I was apparently bound and determined to ride it…until I got to the top (and by the way, isn’t there some kind of height restriction?)…where I told him I didn’t want to ride.  His response was something to the effect of – too bad, we are not walking all the way back down.  So I rode it!   Anyway, he has two sons.  Levi will be 12 this year and is involved in all sorts of activities and sports.  And Ryan is 23.  Ryan is an amazing kid (young man would be more age appropriate I suppose).  He has been in the Navy since he was 18 and is living in Connecticut.  He surprised the hell out of me by getting married, dang, last year or the year before to Jenn.  I think he might be the most responsible out of all the cousins – ha!

Mom’s other brother is John.  He freaking cracks us all up when we get him going.  His partner’s name is Terry – and he is a riot as well.  They are both super fun.

Like I said, we typically get together for every major holiday and even the not so major ones.  Over Christmas last year at my auntie’s (I like to call her that and pretend we are fancy southerners – ha!, I actually just like the way it sounds, not  pronounced ANTie, but AHHntie – hooked on phonics worked for me – good grief, back on topic), we played this game called Apples to Apples.  Which I believe is a family game.  But we got vicious, all in good fun of course and had a blast. On the way home, we thought…why don’t we do this more often?  Thus, Family Game Day was born.

We did our first one 6 weeks later.  We met at grandmas (of course) around 11A, ordered pizza and played games and talked and hung out through the afternoon.



Valentine's Day

Our next game day was the day before Valentine’s Day.  So we (my mom and her sister) decided we should decorate boxes and pass out Valentine’s Day cards.  They took this seriously as evidenced below…

It looks like Hobby Lobby blew up!

More craftiness (notice Jerod and Joel in the background not participating, tsk tsk!)

Uncle John and Uncle Terry

Katelyn!

Nicole and Jerod

Brandi and Auntie Renee



All the finished Valentine's Day boxes!

Smart Ass!

We had our last game day a few weeks ago.  I found this game called Smart Ass.  Jerod and I test drove it.  And then I took it over and Mom, Jerod, Kyle, and I played.  Kyle and I freaking loved it.   I am full of extremely random knowledge. I think it’s from all the reading.  So I love Jeopardy, Trivial Pursuit, etc.  And I may be a little competitive.  Just a bit.  So I thought it would be a hit.  But before all that, the food craziness.  The whole point is for us all to spend time together and not spend time cooking.  So we are all about simple meals.  One time it was pizza, the next was this delicious soup Auntie made.  We figured this time: Chick fil a nuggets, some store bought potato salads, easy peasy.  Well, no one remembered that Chick was closed on Sundays until 2 days prior.  So then we thought just grill hamburgers and hotdogs, but someone would still be cooking.  So we just did simple sandwiches with all the fixings and chips, it was yummy, here’s our spread:

I’m not sure if this is a traditional Czech dish or more German or what.  But I remember having this all the time at grandmas and I have not had it in forever, so I requested it special.  All it is – cucumbers, vinegar, salt and pepper:

And grandma made a German Chocolate cake from scratch.  It was AMAZING.  I detest coconut, I scraped all most of the icing and it was still delicious.

Here are some shots of us deep in game play.  Not sure if you can see the purple play piece in the middle, but that’s mine.  The WINNER!  Apparently, only myself and Uncle Duke liked this game, everyone else thought it was “too hard” – SISSIES.  Whoa, settle down Nicole.

Another popular game day activity -- reading the paper!

Brandi and Joel

Uncle John and Uncle Terry

Wake up Katelyn!



We discussed our Easter activity and we are doing a scavenger hunt.  I coined it "The First Annual Adamek Scavenger Hunt "Egg"stravanganza" - clever, I know.  Check back for details and pics soon.

Title Disclosure:  This is a line in Bruce Springsteen’s song Dancing in the Dark.   I was listening to music on my phone (am technical genius) and had it on repeat, so that’s what you got!