Nicole’s Life

Well last week was my birthday; turning 27 wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. I am in a much better place then I was 5 years ago. I am finally comfortable. I am happy with my life. I love my husband, family, house, job (most of the time), and most importantly myself.

In the days leading up to my birthday I started thinking about all these things and that is when I realized I have spent most of my adult life saying what I wanted to do and then why I couldn’t. That is no more!!! There is a site www.43places.com and www.43things .com both are incredible sites that let you put in writing what you want to do. My brother introduced me to these sites about 6 months to a year ago and now I am hooked. I have always had a list of places I wanted to go before I died and things I wanted to do but there were always in my head. In what I will now call my “birthday epiphany” I looked at that list and decided I need to have at least something checked off before my 28th birthday. I told my husband about my “wish”, he must think I am nuts most of the time but he supports me in everything I do. So we already had a trip planned to go to Disney World in May and I new that I could complete one of my things in Florida, soooooo we will now be swimming with the Manatees in May. Then he agreed to go skydiving for our 1 year anniversary. So here are my 43 things in no order:
Swim with the Manatees
Swim with the Sharks
Dive the Great Barrier Reef
Go on and African Safari
Skydive
Cruise Alaska
Cruise Panama Canal
Visit the Galapagos Islands
Visit Russia
Open a restaurant
Learn to Dance
Go to the Kentucky Derby
Hike in a Rainforest
Horseback ride on the beach
Get my CPA
Learn Russian
Live by the beach
Relax
Be more Patient
Get Organized
Go to a NASCAR race at Talladega

My 43 Places I want to go:
Botswana
Australia
Russia
Alaska
Egypt
Italy
Greece
Cuba
Costa Rica
Fiji
Madagascar
Galapagos Islands
British Columbia
Wyoming
Malta
Great Wall of China
Romania
Zanzibar
Kilimanjaro
The places will be a little harder to accomplish because they are a lot more expensive! I am trying to get to Wyoming this summer.

I can’t tell you how insane my family and friends think I am most of them just make the list and never try to fulfill them. My theory to those lists is “Talk is cheap”.

At least I figured out how much I love my life and how LUCKY I am on my 27th birthday and not my 80th!

I wanted to update this last week but unfortunately I was at work late every night!! The worst day was Wednesday, when we stayed until 10pm. At least I can say I learned alot!!!

So back at the ranch… I wanted to say that on January 31 I finished my book!!! Yeah!!! On February I started my new book and I am already getting sucked in. The book for February is “A Million Little Pieces”, it is funny because I received this book for Christmas and now after all the controversy I just want to read it that much more. I may not think of it as a memoir but it is still a good read.

On another great note I am down another size, this means I have lost a total of 4 sizes. My birthday is this week and it feels great to buy the size I was wearing when I met my husband!

If that didn’t make my week then the envelope I received today did!!! My brother’s friend Paul sent me a bumper/window sticker for my truck of the South Carolina flag. It was perfect timing considering it is soooooo cold here!!! What a considerate person, how very thoughtful of him.

On a different note, I loved the “Sheep Streaking” commercial on the Super Bowl last night.

Things to do this week:

Write to Nicole - and send picture

Send Package to Amber

Send Picture to Tatum

Scan Mee Maw’s pictures in

Buy Card table
Ok I think I will go read some more of my new book!