a day in the life of nicoley

November 30, 2011

2011-11-30T20:52:00.001-08:00

One month without a post?! Boy have I been busy. Here are some photos of little Toby (getting much bigger). I have more photos, but they are on my iPhone, so I will have to upload them later on.

When I have some more free time I will have to catch you all up with what has been going on in my life!

Pardon the mess-- this was from the day I was moving into my new apartment! Toby is very protective of his mommy- as you can see by his paw placement! Hahaha

One of Toby's favorite lounge places-- my laptop. I often come back to "ajdfakjsd;fada;jadf;" typed in my documents if I forget to close it! I think he likes it because it gets really warm. I have been taking pictures of him frequently laying on it, because it is a good way to show his growth compared to the computer!

This is Toby's favorite place to lay. He generally likes tight places like dresser drawers, boxes, etc...

October 29, 2011

2011-10-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

Our Haunted Gingerbread House!

The little Toby hotdog!

My costume, Mrs. Jason!

My best friend Amanda, Sam & Me

October 28, 2011

2011-10-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

October 21, 2011

2011-10-21T13:39:00.001-07:00

Here are the pictures of my apartment I promised! It is a little messy, but hey! Its college. ;)

October 10, 2011

2011-10-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures I got from Nana & Papa's 50th Anniversary Party at Bahama Breeze in Schaumburg, IL. Dinner was great and we had a lot of fun! Everyone did a great job getting things for the party together and making it a great night. I will post/email the videos from the party when I get a chance this week.

October 6th, 2011

2011-10-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Its been three days since my last post, but I've been extremely busy! The last few days I've been teaching at Kingsley Junior High in Normal for my C&I 306 class. This involves me teaching a 6th grade student in a one-on-one setting. We got to pick the topic of our curriculum so I chose Outer Space. It has been interesting being able to finally come up with professional lesson plans and implement them-- it finally feels like all my hard work has paid off and I'm finally putting all of my education to use in a school setting. I'm glad we're getting to do this because it was getting quite frustrating taking all of the pointless general education classes. At one point it was almost discouraging because I'm in my third year of college as an education major and I've only been in the schools once. It seems like my classes have finally reached the point where I will be in the schools. I'm not sure about my classes for Spring of 2012, but I know that my Fall 2012 classes and Spring 2013 classes will have me in the schools for almost 8 hours a day. FUN :)

This past weekend one of my best friends came to visit, and we went mini-golfing, AGAIN! It seems like that is the only thing to do around here haha but it's fun! At one point we were on a course with a little (fake) pond and all three of us managed to get our ball stuck in it. This is a picture of me trying to save the balls with a tool they had by the course.

Megan & Me

And of course, there can't be a blog post with out a picture of Toby! He's quite the character. Last night Sam & I went on a walk, so we took Toby with us and carried him so that he could get out and experience the noises of the town. He generally gets a little scared but we want him to get used to it so we take him for short walks. Well, on the way there was a girl about our age and she wanted to pet him. Toby is usually very friendly and loves when people pay attention to him, however I think because of the situation and him being a bit scared of the outside noises, when she pet him he swatted at her. It was very funny though because he is so tiny and she laughed too. What else is funny about him getting angry is the fact that he isn't very good at hissing, instead he sounds like a little cobra! Here are a few photos from the other day when he made a fort in my dresser drawer!

October 3, 2011

2011-10-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

Happy October! I can't believe its fall already, but I love it! We took Toby outside yesterday to play in the leaves for a few minutes, but he wasn't really sure what to do. (Don't worry, we were inches away from him at all times to make sure he didn't run away.) Here is a photos of him out in the leaves-- he looks so tiny and confused!!

After he played in the leaves we went inside and took a nap while I did some homework. He is the deepest sleeper! Sometimes when he sleeps we move his arms around and put him in funny positions like the one below:

His new favorite place is my dresser which is pretty funny

October 2, 2011

2011-10-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

September 30

2011-09-30T08:25:00.000-07:00

I signed for my apartment! YAY! The lease begins May of '12, but since its a college town we have to sign leases far in advance. I also got lucky because for some reason they never got around to charging me a deposit, and I didn't need a co-signer which made things easier because there was less paperwork involved. I'm leasing through Redbird Property Management which I was happy about because it is a small company that really gets to know you (they know everyone who rents through them by name). Out of the two apartments I was between I chose this one because of its location to campus. The other apartment which was only $20 more a month was much more spacious (larger bedroom, closets, bathroom, living room AND kitchen) was much further from campus and I didn't really like the neighborhood as much. The apartment I'm renting is a 1 bedroom that is right in the center of campus so it is a short walk from everything. Below are photos of the outside of the building, my apartment is the lower left window. (The two things I don't like about this apartment is the bushes in front of the living room window and the fact that the kitchen is very small and has an ancient/tiny stove.) But hey, I'm in college, I can't have it all.

This once again reminds me that I should show you some photos of my apartment. I'll take some photos today and post them for you all to see. The apartment I'm living in now is a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom so moving to a one bedroom will be a bit of a change, but I think I'll like it a lot more.

September 27, 2011

2011-09-27T10:05:00.001-07:00

Good Morning! (or afternoon, whenever you're reading this). I'm currently sitting in Einstein Bros. Bagel with a little time before my next class so I thought I would update early today! This morning I woke up extra early for some reason so I played with Toby for a bit and took this picture with him. I love his face, its like he's saying "MOOOOOOM YOU'RE EMBARRASSING MEEEE!!!" Yesterday when I got back from class he seemed to have missed me because during the time that he normally spends by himself he was glued to my side! He even cuddled with me! Normally he likes to lay by my feet. His new favorite spot to hang out is our living room, because while I'm gone he is confined to my bedroom (unless my roommates want to play with him). Once I get home and open my bedroom door he dashes out and starts playing under our table. After we cleaned and put away all of our Wii games and DVDs he found a new place to play like a mountain lion:

Time to go to class! I might post again if I get any good pictures. I realized I haven't posted any pictures of our apartment so I'll have to take some and give you a little photo tour of my place! I'm also looking at apartments for next year (beginning in May). Apartment shopping on a campus is so exhausting since you have to sign leases a year in advance. I just moved in to this apartment and I already have to look for new ones! So far I found a one bedroom apartment that is closer to campus. I'm looking at once bedrooms because all of my friends are going to be doing student teaching/internships second semester of next year and I don't have to because I am essentially doing a double major which will take me a little longer to complete. So I would be stuck living with strangers then, and I'm not really interested in that. I think a one bedroom would help me concentrate more too. I found one that I really like so I'll hopefully sign for it this week!!!

September 26, 2011

2011-09-26T12:00:00.001-07:00

This is the cute little ball of fluff I woke up next to this morning! Doesn't he look so innocent? We bought him a spray bottle, a new toy, and some wet food can covers yesterday at the dollar store, woo woo! So far he hasn't really understood the concept of the water bottle, every time we spray him after saying "No Bite" he runs away, then runs back to bite us again. I think we are going to keep trying for awhile but if it continues not to work, we will have to go to a different method. Cross your fingers for us!

September 25, 2011

2011-09-25T15:15:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!! Good news! The pictures that mysteriously vanished from Sam's phone mysteriously reappeared again! I made sure to put them on my computer before they went away again, so here are some photos from when we went to Downtown Bloomington and Miller Park Mini Golfing!!

Sam & I Mini golfing in the Miller Park mini-golf course I didn't even realize we had! He found it and surprised me with a mini-golf/zoo date! We also explored some of Miller Park that I had never been to and we came across this big leaf bug!! Sam held it so that I could get a good picture with his phone. (Note: if you click on any pictures on my blog they will expand to their original size and you can see more detail)

Next we went Downtown Bloomington and found this statue of Abe!

After our adventures we found toby asleep in Sam's bed. It looks like he had a nice relaxing day, haha!

I hope you all are having a great beginning to fall! We are planning a trip to Peoria to go to a farm where there is Apple Picking, Corn mazes, petting zoos and other fun things :) I love fall!

September 21, 2011

2011-09-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

Toby's Dinnertime!

We began painting Sam's apartment today! The girl that lived there before him painted over the lime green walls with a dark blue, but she didn't finish so parts of the walls were green and parts were blue! We started priming it! Hopefully this will make the room feel better and bigger!

Now I get to spend the rest of my night watching the premiere of Modern Family, studying and eating the home made chicken noodle soup Sam is making. mmmmm, its good to be dating a cook!!!

xoxo, Nicoley

September 19, 2011

2011-09-19T09:33:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!! Sorry to have not posted yesterday, but between studying and cleaning I didn't have much to post, or much time to post it. My roommates and I did go see the movie Bridesmaids last night, which was a lot of fun because I loved it the first time I saw it, and since it was an older movie, the theatre was playing it for only $1! What a deal!

Other than homework, I have been focusing a lot of time into trying to train Toby not to bite. Unfortunately his calm demeanor seemed to only be his baby-side that liked to cuddle and sleep. Now that he is 6 1/2 weeks his main hobby is biting and scratching-- Hard!! I'm trying to distract him with toys, and it seems to be working until you walk away, thats when he likes to pounce and bite. I'm going to try and find some new toys for him today. I read online that ignoring the kittens help them to not bite, but he seems to like being left alone, and I don't want to get him used to being a grumpy loaner and grow up to being a fat mean cat, haha.

If you saw the pictures above, you saw the .5 seconds I was able to calm him down to take a picture haha! I wanted to get a picture of his little pads, because he has a few pink and a few black on his hind legs while his front leg's pads are all black!! What a cutie... when he's not trying to eat us!! Since it's 11:45am, I may post later tonight if I got any other picture/interesting things to post.

xoxo, Nicoley

Sept 17, 2011

2011-09-17T17:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Keeping to my word I'm trying to update daily, and I took some pictures today when Sam & I went mini golfing at a little place by Miller Park Zoo, however his phone mysteriously deleted them!! How weird!! Anyway, I beat Sam at mini golf (as usual haha), and we spent most of the day doing that and walking around the park. We even saw a giant leaf bug that we took pictures of-- I still don't understand where those pictures went-- ARGGG!! The rest of my weekend will be spent studying for exams next week, fun fun!

Since I didn't have any photos I thought I would post some fun old ones!!

A funny photo I took of Chi-Chi in 2010, she looked very bored haha

Spencer & Me circa 2006!

Rachel, Dana & Myself circa 2004??

Speaking of old pictures, who is this crazy kid?!?!

September 15, 2011

2011-09-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

No, I haven't joined a terrorist organization, it is just really cold out today.

Walking a mile to class in 49 degree weather is not fun stroll,

but regardless I'm glad fall is here...

I just wish I didn't leave most of my fall clothes at home.

Looks like its time to go back for a weekend visit! Haha.

BIG YAWN!!!!

Toby is getting bigger, or at least furrier, and his new stage is the:

"I'm going to climb on everything I can" stage.

This means that I can't even put on a pair of jeans without

him climbing all the way up to my back pockets in 2 seconds.

He's a little climbing machine!! Luckily I have kitten-proofed

my room, and he can climb on mostly anything. The only beef I have

with the little guy is that his other obsession is chewing cords.

Doesn't he know he'll end up like the cat from the movie "Christmas

Vacation"? I guess not. Anyway, he has gotten pretty familiar with the

word "no" when I see him chewing, but I still don't trust him when

I leave for the day, so I try to put all cords un-plugged and out

of his reach. I still have to take him to the vet to get him checked

out, but I haven't found a time that mine and Sam's schedules line up so that

he can drive Toby and I to the vet. It looks like it will have to be this weekend!

Old Photography

2011-09-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

I found some of my old photography photos from Photography 1101 and 1102 (the College of DuPage courses I took in High School) so I thought I'd post them

xoxo, Nicoley

Oh Hey Everyone!

2011-09-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! So, basically, I'm making this so that people (mostly family) can see what is going on in my college life!! I'll mostly be posting little bits of my day as well as photos on here because they're so pesky to attach to emails, especially because on here I can add captions!! Woo Hoo!! What I first want to do is add a few pictures from summer to catch you up on some old photos and then I can start from today on! I hope you enjoy! :)

xoxo, Nicoley.

Chi-Chi and Buster after Buster's brand new haircut!! He looked like a whole new dog!

My friends and I playing in the pool over summer!

Papa and Chi-Chi hanging out in the shade

My beautiful mother and grandma on Mother's Day

The White Sox Game in June

Toby's new (temporary) home... he loves it!!

Butterfly picture taken at the zoo

Toby cuddling with is new toy

Toby sleeping on Sam

Me at the zoo in Bloomington, IL

September 10, 2011

August 27, 2011

September 10, 2011