Thanksgiving !

We are blessed to have My Uncle John, Aunt Sharon, & Cousin Amber from Anchorage, Alaska visiting us for Thanksgiving. I took the week off work to spend with them and to kinda of catch up on stuff at home. Monday I started and finished a project that I have been putting off for close to a year and a half. A family friend of ours gave us a handmade photo album with lots of frills and lace all hand stitched on. I have been meaning to put all of our wedding/ wedding shower cards in them so I finally did it. It was nice getting a chance to look at them again and read notes from old friends. I cut the cards so that the front and note from the inside could be seen. Check out the pics below.







Tuesday I spent an afternoon of fun Shopping at Chandler Mall with Amber, Sharon, & Helen (Sharon's Mom).

Today brings a much needed cleaning and organizing day at home.

Thanksgiving we get to have two thanksgiving dinners the first one at 1 and the second a few hours later around 6 ish much turkey, pie, & family fun will be had by all!

Finally who could break the tradition of black friday shopping at 3 am at Walmart!!!
What a great week this is!!!

Complete list of free stuff!!!

Due to possible conflict with election laws in various states, most are not requiring proof of voting. The free offers:

•Coffee. Starbucks expects to hand out "hundreds of thousands" of free 12-ounce drip coffees (valued at about $1.75 each), says spokeswoman Jenny McCabe. "If everyone who votes comes in for a free cup of coffee, we'll have some lines," she says.

•Doughnuts. Some 85 of Krispy Kreme's 231 locations in the U.S. will hand out star-shaped, red-white-and-blue sprinkled doughnuts "while supplies last," says spokesperson Dana Hughens. The chain will give out about 200,000 doughnuts valued at 99 cents each. "People are definitely talking about the brand as a result of this," she says.

•Ice cream. Between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. in each time zone, Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops will hand out single-scoop ice cream cones (a $3.40 value). "What better way to encourage people to be politically active than to give away free ice cream?" asks spokeswoman Liz Brenna.

•Sandwiches. In a local market promotion, several hundred of the nation's 1,400 Chick-fil-A stores will hand out $2.70 chicken sandwiches to adults who show proof that they voted, says spokesman Jerry Johnston.

•Phone calls. Credo Mobile, a wireless company that donates money to progressive causes for calls its customers make, will offer free outbound calls to current customers during polling hours in their states. The cost could be about $250,000, says spokeswoman Becky Bond.

•Discount haircuts. Then, there's Cristophe Schatteman, a top hair stylist known for giving former president Bill Clinton a $200 haircut on Air Force One. His salons in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Beverly Hills and Orange County, Calif., will offer all services — including haircuts — at half price today. A $500 haircut from Cristophe will go for $250.

Free Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

Wow! I just keep finding more stuff that is free today. Ben & Jerry's is giving away free scoops of ice cream from 5-8 pm tonight. for those of you in Mesa there is one at Fiesta Mall.

Vote

Tomorrow is Election day don't forget to vote! After you vote you can go get a free tall brewed cup of coffee at Starbucks!!! So Join me in voting and free coffee tomorrow!

Pumpkins

Some of you may know that I have a secret love for Mr. Potato Head. When I found these Mr. Potato Head Pumpkin Kits I had to have them. I got the Princess and the Pirate, they had others but i figured two was enough and liked these the best. Sadly I can't find the Princess' wand I must have dropped it somewhere between church where I put them together (during pumpkin game night at youth) and home.

New phone

So my wonderful wife Nicholle finally agreed that I need an iPhone! And as I was browsing the app store I found a blog writing app and decided to share my joy with all of our readers.

When will they ever finish?

So looking back at my blog i announced in July that we were getting a new built in gas grill by the pool. Well guess what its still not finished. Welcome to October and now finally below 100 degrees and they are finally starting to make some real progress. I was hoping to grill down there and have a swim party but alas we only have about 3 1/2 more weeks of pleasant swimming weather here. I suppose we could make it a hot tub party. Apparently our pool is heated but its never warm enough for me to want to go in during the winter. Anyways the reason I brought this up is I took some sweet photos from my balcony of these guys way up in the air installing some kind of shade screen over the grilling area. There is also a guy down there putting tile on the table tops. I hope the guy doesn't fall he doesn't appear to be wearing any kind of safety harness he is just hangng out on the top of this beam.

3 years ago today

Three years ago today Colby and I started dating. Wow time flies when you are having fun. Here are a few photos from the past three years. Enjoy!


AZ State Fair 3 weeks after we started dating


campfire on the beach in San Diego


purple hair era


and who could forget the black hair and black finger nail phase


Disneyland


at Mingus the weekend we got engaged


Grand Canyon 5 weeks before we got married


The Best Day ever!


Last month in Boston. Ignore the baby on my back we don't have one of those yet, he belongs to a friend.

Mason's Baptism

Today we went to Mason's Baptism and 1st Birthday Party. Here are a few pics. I always enjoy going to other churches to see how other people do things. I really liked their pastor she gave a great sermon.

Boston Pics from Today

Here are a few pics from our day today. We are having a lot of fun. We are staying with Colby's college roommate Kara, her husband Louis and their son Mason. They are so nice. I met them yesterday but I feel like I have known them forever. We went to Fenway Park, Cheers, saw these cute Make Way for Ducklings statues in the park and went to a beer tasting.


Fenway Park


Kara, Louis & Mason


Louis & Colby in the Green Monster section


Kara & Mason went into an area not on the tour!


Cheers Mason passed out while I was carrying him in the backpack. We all took turns because he was heavy.


Make Way for Ducklings


Group Shot!


Quack


Beer Tasting


Me & Mason eating lunch

So Excited

I can't wait! Tonight Colby and I leave for Vacation to Boston. We are taking a red eye and should be there in the morning. I have always wanted to go to Boston and I keep trying to work it into the God & Country Tour but there is never enough time for it. I finally get to meet Colby's friends from college that I have heard so much about and see where he went to school. It has been a while since we have gone on vacation with out the youth group in fact it was over a year ago for our honeymoon, and we won't get to go anywhere next summer because the youth trip is God & Country which is 3 weeks long. So we will totally be enjoying time away and relaxation. Check back next week for pics of our awesome adventure.

Pampered Chef

So I have been selling Pampered chef since June and I am loving it. I just finished my 4h show last night. Selling pampered chef has really given me a lot of confidence in the kitchen. I have been making new things, testing out the pampered chef recipes and even changed some of the recipes to my taste. I’m really excited because the new season starts Sept 1st which means new products. I am absolutely addicted to kitchen gadgets which is part of the reason I started selling in the first place because I was spending too much money on it. Now I get to see all the new products in advance and buy it at ridiculously discounted prices yes life is good. Last nights show was especially fun it was for a lady who just moved into a new apartment two weeks ago. She invited all of her friends and family over to see her new place for the first time and to make a yummy desert. It was so fun and I only knew like two people there. I am totally coming out of my shell I’m not usually a person who is comfortable around strangers and I’m getting so much better at it. So if any of you want to invite your friends over and learn how to make something new give me a call and we will have an amazingly good time cooking with Pampered Chef.

Monsoon Monday

So last night we hosted a dance for all of the Methodist Church youth groups in the east district for the end of summer volleyball dance. I was organizing the event so I head to Wal-Mart to buy sub sandwiches and chips and that kind of stuff teenagers like to eat. The lady at Wal-Mart told me that a 6 foot sub would feed thirty people so I bought a little less than she recommended. Well turns out Wal-Mart must estimate on hungry men who are gonna eat a meal more than teens who may want a light dinner/ not eat a lot in front of friends. At the end of the night I end up with over 20 feet of left over sub I was like OMG what am I gonna do with all of this food? So Cindy a good friend of mine who is a youth leader from another church told me that every Monday during the summer she does “Monsoon Monday.” She takes her youth to a homeless shelter to serve food and then they swim and hang out. She said the shelter would be happy to have some of the food so I gave her like 10 feet and she took it to her event. So today I go to finish cleaning up the mess and I was like what am I going to do with the other 10 feet of this sub? So I took a little inspiration from Cindy to host our own Monsoon Monday. About an hour and a half before lunch time I sent a mass text out to my youth and come lunch time I had 7 kids and 4 adults show up to help me distribute the food. We had some water with our church info and a bible verse on them for an out reach project that we already had planned for next weekend along with the sandwiches into individual sizes and hit the streets of Mesa looking for hungry and thirsty people. We successfully found tons of people outside who wanted our water and food. Most of the people were Hispanic day laborers, I think we actually only found two homeless people. I think the kids really enjoyed the event because they felt like they were giving back to less fortunate people who really appreciated the food and especially the water in the 100 degree AZ summer day. What a Marvelous Monsoon Monday I had today usually Mondays are one of my least favorite days but not today! Thanks Cindy for the great idea!

Cheesy Road Trip Pics

Everyone has cheesy pics from places that they go on summer vacation. I especially love those crazy road side stops like worlds largest yarn ball next exit. While looking through pictures I came across a classic cheesy pic. Last summer on our way back from Colorado we stopped at four corners. For those of you who live under a rock, or aren't from around these parts that don't know what four corners is... it is the point where Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico all meet. The only place in the US by the way where four states touch each other. So everybody takes turns going up on the platform and taking silly pictures of being in four places at one time. Here is a pic of Colby and I ( just 5 weeks before we got married) holding hands across state lines. Lame I know but gotta love it =) We totally should have taken a pic by the giant dinosaur we saw last month on our road trip to San Francisco darn maybe next time.

Our First Anniversary! 7-21-08

Wow I can’t believe Colby & I have already been married for a year. Time flies when you are having fun. Monday was our anniversary; we decided to spend it at home since we have constantly been busy and on the go for the past few weeks. I made a candlelit dinner, set the table with the fancy tablecloth and napkins, and we drank from our bride & groom wine glasses. Then we snuggled up on our new couch and watched the 40 Year Old Virgin. Nothing too exciting but it was so nice to have a night to relax and just enjoy each other’s company. We decided not to go with the traditional “paper gift” for the first year. We decided to get a cute little patio furniture set so that once it cools off we can enjoy our balcony. It’s not the best picture but you get the idea.

Below is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding we are standing in the middle of the street and you can see that the street light is green, a car is coming, and the huge monsoon storm clouds are rolling in. Oh sweet memories!

New Stuff Day!!

I'm so excited today is officially new stuff day.

Our new Couch gets delivered today its so comfy I can't wait to lay on it. Its our first major furniture purchase that hasn't come from Ikea. We had this couch from Ikea picked out but just happened to see a Ashley Furniture ad and fell in love with a different one.

Then our dishwasher died a few days ago and the maintenance man brought me a new one today. It is so much quieter than the other one!!

Finally the most exciting new thing is that yesterday all of a sudden our pool was closed and these guys were hard at work building something out there. Turns out we are getting built in Gas grills with built in counters around them to set your stuff on with shade screens over them. No more crappy charcoal grills hooray. As soon as they are done I'm totally having a pool party with a BBQ!!!

YAY for new stuff day. It doesn't take much to excite me.

What the heck is a Nicolby?

So after much nagging from my friend Tanya we finally have a blog so you can hear all of the exciting things going on in the world of Nicolby. Funny story about how we got the name Nicolby... Kyle and Caleb (the boys who were ring bears in our wedding) couldn't remember what my name was when they were younger. They knew that Colby and I were together and so they started calling me Nicolby (part of my name, part of his name) and then eventually started calling Colby that as well. Now that they are older they don't say it anymore but we thought it was cute so I decided to name our blog after it.