Stranger

I have been a stranger to my own blog!!! It's been too long and I can't even begin to list all of the new things that have happened lately........

I'll start off by saying our little family is all healthy and happy.  We had Rosie visit a few weeks ago, and that was so much fun.  It's always so nice to have family around.

Bruce received a phone call from Boarder....he has his final final final step in the process, which is a polygraph test, on Tuesday.  We were both excited and surprised by the phone call, still trying to stay level headed and not get too excited.  But some extra thoughts and prayers would be appreciated.

Weight Watchers is great!! I missed two weeks in a row while Rosie was here and I wasn't feeling well one week, but back at it as usual.  :)  Running on the other hand has been put on the back burner because I keep telling myself that it's tooooo hot!!! BUT we all know that just a lame ass excuse so I have to start hitting the pavement again, I actually miss it and the feeling that comes a long with it!

Traveling this summer is insane.  I will be traveling home to MI FOUR times this summer and once in the fall.  Lots of weddings to celebrate! I am so excited to see everyone and celebrate all the love and happiness.

With the blazing weather it's so hard to stay inside or make time to be on the computer in general.  Kayaking, hiking, boating, fishing, camping, riding bikes, golfing......it's all so distracting ;)  But I promise to make an honest effort to resume my weekly updates and photos.  I am going to get back in the swing of things :)

We love and miss you all so much!!! And will be seeing you so soon! ;)

Love,
Nichole, Bruce, and Pudge

Life lately

SORRY!!! I know I have been slacking a bit on posting, it's been a busy few weeks ;)

Happy to report that we are all very healthy and very happy.  We have been gearing up for our next visitor!! Rosie will be here Sunday!!!! YAYAYAYAYAY!!!! We couldn't be more excited!!! We are looking forward to spending some much needed family time with her.

The weather has been amazing (except the one day of hail) and I have a good tan going.  Bruce has a bit of color also, for him anyways hehehe ;) He stilllll hasn't gotten his test results back, we are IMPATIENTLY waiting.  They said two weeks and it's been a MONTH! Hopefully soon.  We have been keeping busy with lots of outdoor activities......running, biking, hiking, golfing.....the usual summer activities.  And we are loving every second of it, especially Pudge.

Last week I lost 5.2 pounds at WW.........def back on track and it feels AMAZING!! I am plugging along and it feels incredible, inside and out.  :)

Well we hope you all are doing well.  We miss and love you all so so so much! I promise to write more soon!!!

Love,
Nichole, Bruce, and Pudge xoxo

Camping & Bishop's Castle

The weather turned out to be nice so we were able to head to the mountains this past weekend to camp.  We were the only people at Isabel Lake and it was SO SO SO relaxing!  We were able to walk around the lake, let Pudge swim (his FAV!) play botchy ball, and relax in the sun reading our kindles.  It was beyond peaceful, and we loved every second of it.

And speaking of kindles......I was completely consumed with Fifty shades of Grey trilogy.  I had read lots of recommendations, but really had no idea what I was getting into!  They are very sexual books, to say the least, which is why I was worried they were going to be the typical boring sex novels, but they weren't!  They were wonderfully written and had a fantastic story line that kept me hooked.  As weird as it is, now that I have finished all three books, I oddly miss the characters and story line.  So please please please bare an open mind and GO READ THEM, alllll three of them!  You won't be sorry!!

On our way down from the mountains we stopped at Bishop's Castle.  Mr. Bishop, owner of the property and castle, starting building it in 1966.  He has built this beautiful castle all by himself everyday with no help, and was in fact already hard at work when we arrived at 10am.  He is a self-described hard working man who is self governing.  He was a polite older man, a bit of a hippie ;), and a very talented.  He lives off of donations, which also help with the continued build of the Castle.  He plans to add to the castle until it wraps around the entire 2 acres he owns.  It was beautiful! We were awestruck.  And we were able to explore the castle, which was so fun.  If you're ever in that area, it is a must see!

Other than camping, not too much is new.  Due to camping I was unable to attend WW this week, ugggggh, but I vowed to be there next week.  I have my paid week off this week and am getting a lot done.  I was able to try a lot of home remedies for cleaning our appliances, such as our HE front loading washer and stove.  THANK GOODNESS for Pinterest, such wonderful home remedies.  We both went to the dentist and had my eye exam.  I am impatiently waiting for my new glasses.  Bruce is still waiting for his text results and the weather is lovely.

We hope you all had wonderful weeks and weekends.  We will leave you with some pictures..... Love and Miss you!!

Love,
Nichole, Bruce, and Pudge xoxo

Beautiful Lake Isabel 

 Pudge is off! :) 

 Bishop's Castle 

 Beautiful detail 

 At the top :) 

 Little Stairs for a big man 

 King of the Castle :) 

BFF's since 2nd grade

So as you all know Lindsey, my bff since the 2nd grade, came for a visit this past week. It was sooooo wonderful to have someone here on a daily basis to visit with.  I miss her more then ever now that she has returned home........But it was wonderful to have a piece of home here for a visit.

We did a lot of shopping and eating.....two of our favorite things to do! And Bruce took Saturday off so we could all go explore the Royal Gorge and cook out.   It was so beautiful! We loved it!  We also did some walking and exploring of other local attractions.  And the weather could not have been better, so sunbathing on the patio was high on our list of things to do also.  I dare say our house is quiet now.....but soon enough (next month) my wonderful mother-in-law Rosie will be out for a visit, we can't wait!

Luckily due to Lindsey flying out yesterday, I was unable to weigh in.....and after the homemade cheesecake and lasagna splurges and eating out, I am GLAD! HA!  But back on track it is and I will be weighing in next Tuesday.  Bruce took his test and felt great about it, so that is a wonderful sign! YAY BRUCE! And Pudge is loving the beautiful weather and being able to SWIM! :) I have a paid vacay next week, so we are heading to the mountains to camp, first time this season!! We can't wait!!!

We hope you all had as good of a week as we had!  Take care, love and miss you TONS!

Love,
Nichole, Bruce, and Pudge xoxo

Relaxing by the fire 

 Royal Gorge

 Lindsey on top of the world :) 

 Walking the Bridge

 View from the Tran Am

 Skyline Drive

The only pic of the three of us at the bottom of the Royal Gorge.  

Please excuse my crazy hair :)

 Bruce's man fire :) 

 The beautiful flowers Bruce bought and had waiting for Lindsey and

 I when we came home Friday.  They were originally in two 

vases, one for each, but we decided to blend them :) God he is AMAZING! 

Ready for SUMMER!

We are soooo ready for summer!! The weather is mostly in the 70's and this has us so excited and eager to ........travel, attend weddings, camp, hike, have bonfires, kayak, fish....the list goes on and on.  So with the nice weather came a wave of yard work duty.  We planted, weeded, fertilized, and cut all day Tuesday.  Our yard is beautiful and ready for summer! :) I also gave in and bought a ton of the wall sticky hanging things.  It makes me mad to think about the wasteful money part of it, but I am so much more in love with our home now that our photos are up.  In just the last few weeks we de-cluttered the house, organized the office and spare bedroom, and revitalized our yard.  And I figured since we did all of that, why not just go all the way?!  Our house is much more homie now and I love it, even after spending the damn money. :)

WW went pretty well this week.  I lost 1.6 pounds, not as much as I would have like to see, but it was something.  I have lost a total of 28.2 thus far, well on my way.  We made stuffed shells with ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese and homemade marinara sauce for my splurge meal this week, YUM! And to kick off our summer obsession we made angel food cake topped with strawberries and whip cream (all lite of course and you can't even taste the difference ;) So delicious! We ended our day off together by relaxing, studying, and enjoying the fresh air by having the slider open until we went to bed.

Bruce has his SGT's test tomorrow morning and he is camping out at home studying is butt off.  GOOD LUCK BRUCE!!! You will do amazing!

Friday I get to pick Lindsey up! I am so so so excited!! I will get her in the morning and we plan to hit up the mall right outside of Denver on our way home....COACH HERE WE COME! :) Then we will do a little more shopping in the Springs and have some dinner.  Saturday we plan on going to see the Royal Gorge and grill out in the beautiful weather.  I am beyond excited for this week and weekend :)

Pinterest made an appearance again.  I made an awesome planter for the front yard and some adorable gifts from idea's I got from Pinterest.  LOVE IT! :)

We hope you all had amazing weekends and an even better week! Miss and Love you all tons!
 Love,
Nichole, Bruce, and Pudge xoxox

Beach towel, magazine, travel cup, and tanning lotion
all tied together with ribbon. Loved this idea

Stacked pots.  I used a paint pen to write on the pots.  Except I didn't measure the wording very well on the top one, so if you're wondering it says "The Browns"....Oops.  But still love it.

Pudge and the new pots :) 

Front yard :) 

Random pic.  The lovely trail of cloths my hubby left me after our run.
Good thing I love him so much haha :) 

Garage Sale

So quick post about the garage sale.......IT WAS A SUCCESS!!!

It was pretty painless and I would go as far as to say, EASY! It took me about 2 hrs last wk to clean out the house (which I would have done anyway) and decide what I wanted out out out and maybe an hour Friday night to set it all out and organize it, with the help of my very patient hubby of course. ;)  I was open from 8:30-1 today.  I actually had people waiting for me to open the garage door because they saw me setting up the evening before.  People are serious about their garage sales!

We were able to meet lots of new people around our little town and it was so wonderful to see so much of our unwanted things make someone else so happy.  Someones trash is someone else's treasures.  We spent $4 on poster board and price stickers and got $30 to make change with, and with that all accounted for we ended up profiting $203 smakaroos.  Not too shabby for the spring cleaning pile and throwing this together so fast!  Bruce was so surprised, and he said we should remember this when we do our "spring cleaning" again.   Most of the stuff was gone by the end of the day and what wasn't I took straight to the donation center so it wouldn't make an appearance in our house ever again!

Next on the list for this weekend is to plant all of our flowers, vegetables, and grass seed/fertilizer.  Which means we will be officially ready for summer! We hope you all have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Love,
Nichole, Bruce, and Pudge xoxo

The final set up of the sale right as we were opening the doors. :)

New shelves and organized office

 You can actually walk in.... :)

Clutter free & chalkboard Love

So this past week has been primarily dedicated to getting organized and completely clutter free for summer. The spring cleaning bug has bitten again, except this time we hit all closets, rooms, and everything in between. We cleaned out every single nook and cranny finding so many things unused and collecting dust.  Because of these new discoveries we have (well I have) decided to have a garage sale this Saturday! Yes I said a garage sale.......and I am officially 90 years old! No offense.  I just have some really beautiful things that are literally brand new with tags, for example the brand new unused Oster stand mixer ($100) that we received as a wedding gift and never used because we also got our KitchenAid stand mixer.  I thought that instead of the usual trip to the donation dump I will try my luck and see what comes of it and whatever is left after Saturday will go directly into my trunk and straight to the donation center.  I just can't believe how much we can accumulate in just a year.......crazy.  So I got the cute little colored stickers and poster board and tagged everything and made some signs, the whole shebang! Wish us luck........

WW was definitely not as bad as I was expecting! I actually maintained, which means I didn't lose or gain a single ounce.  Which of course I am sad I didn't lose, but on the other hand after eating and eating and drinking and drinking and eating some more in CT & NYC I am glad that I didn't gain either!  My WW leader was so proud of me, which was nice to hear even though I didn't lose.  So back to work it is!  Time to get back on the losing wagon!

Bruce and Pudge are both back to being super duper healthy! Thank goodness.  Bruce finally has his SGT's test scheduled for next Thursday at 9am.  So he has about a wk left of studying, I am so proud of him!! Pudge's nail is healing and he doesn't even notice it anymore, so he's back to playing and running full speed!

I also completed another Pinterest project this week.  While cleaning out the clutter I found an old gold mirror that was hideous!  I painted the frame silver and painted over the mirror with chalkboard paint.  It turned out fabulous and I am so in love with it!  I immediately went out and got more of the wall sticky hanging thingy's and hung it up, chalk, and an eraser.  Bruce really likes it too, it's a great way to leave little notes to one another.  :)

So that about sums up our week.  We hope you all had a fantastic week also! We love and miss you all so much!

Love,
Nichole, Bruce, and Pudge xoxo

Completely rejuvenated 

 hung right outside of the kitchen :)