Nicole Tasker Woods

We got all dressed up went out to dinner Christmas Eve and had a fabulous Italian meal. Here are some pics…

After our fabulous dinner, we went back to Ryan’s parent’s house, greeted all five dogs waiting for us, then changed into comfortable clothes and opened presents. First, the gifts had to be separated into everyone’s own pile and then from oldest to youngest, the gifts were opened. It’s the tradition that they have been doing for years and although it is not what I am used to doing with my family in NH, it was still enjoyable. It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve.

My office is hosting their annual holiday lunch today. It is a lunch / party that starts at 12:30pm at Cafe Bizou, a restaurant near to our office that has a preselected menu, wine at the tables and holiday music in the air. There is a couple of prizes given away to the lucky few who have their names drawn out of a hat at the end of the meal and then we all head back to the office for a Yankee gift swap.
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So exciting right?! We have a leaky roof, yay!!!

I’m totally pulling your leg right now and trying to be positive about a very negative situation. We have a leaky roof and most of the ceiling damage is in our blue room with the huge TV we’ve just about paid off. Now the floor is covered in multi-colored beach towels and a large floral print flat sheet hangs over the TV. We also have a chair positioned in the middle of the towels with a pitcher centered in the middle of the chair to catch the drips that have started up again since the rain last night.

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Saturday was as relaxing as I dreamed it would be. My mom landed early so I quickly zipped in to LAX to pick her up and then off we went to grab a bite to eat and then enjoy a few hours at Burke Williams Day Spa.

My massage technician was seeing impaired so she had a yellow lab named Mary helping her move throughout the hallways of the spa and to-and-from the massage room and women’s locker room. I never had a blind massage technician before but I guess that it wouldn’t make much of a difference if they were blind or not, they do not need to see you to give a good massage and she was pretty good! I didn’t have to worry about her seeing me naked either, which was one less thing to worry about.

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Tomorrow afternoon my Mom flies from NH to CA and I pick her up at LAX around 1:45pm. Can’t wait! We have lunch and spa day planned that day and then brunch at the Magic Castle on Sunday–what could be better than a weekend of full body rub-downs and then magic shows?

I really need some Mommy-and-me time so I am really looking forward to seeing her tomorrow and spending the afternoon together, just her and me. Unfortunately the weather will not be warmer than the high 60’s but I don’t think either of us will mind–there’s no rain in sight so we should be good to go!

I wish I could be home right now, getting everything ready and cleaned up for my Mom’s visit, but that’s going to have to wait until tonight. My body is exhausted from running twice a day since Monday so I need to use tomorrow to sleep in and get some strength back for the drive to LAX and then serious relaxing at Burke William’s Day Spa. Some really great news is that Ryan offered up his time to help me clean–yay! What a great husband!

Cali’s also readying herself for her Grandma’s visit: she had a bath last night and has a tooth-brushing and nail-clipping scheduled with me this evening. So hurry up and get here, Momma, we can’t wait!

I’m hating on Halloween today. I got to work 20 minutes early because Friday morning traffic is always so light here, go figure! Then, I had to wait for 10 minutes for the parking garage elevator to arrive, but after waiting for the 10th minute and still no elevator, I decided to forgo the wait and risk my life on the ramps that the cars use to access different levels of the parking structure.

When I got to the building’s lobby, I was able to jump right on those elevators to get taken up to the 5th floor where I work. But suddenly, I’m bombarded by 6 people, all of which are dressed up for Halloween.

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My mother and father brought to my attention some very upsetting things about my Halloween memories. Things that must have been so horrible that my mind has subconsciously blocked them out, protecting me from remembering some very unsettling things.

When I called my folks Sunday evening, like I do every week, I was telling them of my plans on Saturday (October 31st) to carve a pumpkin with Cali and bake her birthday cake. I was shocked to hear my parents protest that I should go to TJ Maxx or Michael’s and pick up a fake pumpkin so that I could enjoy the decoration but avoid the mess and blood. Blood!? That’s right, I said it, BLOOD!

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I am a fan of Thanksgiving because, let’s face it, food is awesome and the stuff that is featured at this holiday feast is just so incredibly good and everyone gives themselves a free-pass to over-eat. How great is that?

My mom and older brother, Curtis are coming out for Thanksgiving this year while my dad and younger brother, Kyle go kill deer in Canada. When weighing my options, I get stumped: over-eating or shooting a gun…hmm, how will I ever decide??? I’m excited to have my mom come out since I haven’t seen my family since August for the rafting trip and am unable to go back home to NH for Christmas this year. I know, so sad–Please! Dry your eyes! Don’t cry for me Tasker-ville! I know it won’t be the same without me, but somehow, you’ll get through it!

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I guess it should say something along the lines of “Holidays Are A-Comin’!” because the holidays were always here, it’s not like there’s a new one that was created. But regardless, here they come…

I have come to the realization that I do not like Halloween. I used to enjoy dressing up, trick-or-treating, eating candy (duh!) and carving pumpkins. My mom would set up a card table in the garage with newspapers spread on top so that the pumpkin guts wouldn’t get all over the place. I still remember the way my fingers would become numb by the time I was finished with my design. The cool fall air would slip in underneath the garage door and the slimy pumpkin insides were just about frozen. A couple of years we saved the pumpkin seeds, cleaned them up and baked them. I also helped decorate the upstairs and deck area so that the kids would know where to come to get the grab-bag of candy that we put together with 10 different bit-sized candy bars inside.

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Can you believe this!? I logged onto my twitter account and did what I usually do–look for Miley Cyrus’ latest post. I do not know why, but I am so intrigued by what she has going on. I think that getting the inside scoop on a celebrity’s life is totally awesome. One time she said she was taking voice lessons so she didn’t have a southern accent while singing her new song “The Climb.” This was so interesting to me. She used twitter as a way to update her fans, not just her friends, about what she had going on and it was never anything inappropriate.

This evening, I opened up my twitter account and could not find Miley’s tweets anywhere! I tried looking at older tweets and still, nothing. Then, Ryan saw what I was doing and said, “You didn’t hear?” I shouted back in a panic, “Hear what!?” He didn’t have to say anything, I knew what I had to google: “Miley Cyrus twitter” and there it was…

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Today is mine and Ryan’s fourth wedding anniversary and I just can’t believe it!

It seems like just yesterday my Mom and Dad were helping me pack up their car for the drive to Meredith, the site for our wedding. It was spitting rain and I was actually being very zen about the whole bad-weather-is-threatening-my-perfect-day thing. The days are a blur that fall between that drive and the day I walked up to my Daddy and then down the aisle holding his arm. The weather was wonderful–blue skies, bright shining sun and a beautiful lake as the backdrop.

I said to Ryan just the other day, “Can you believe it has been four years? We’ve accomplished a lot in four years: we’ve bought a house and cars, I got a new job and we both got a basenji.” Ryan laughed to himself and then when our eyes met, we knew we were thinking the same thing… Cali is the BEST thing that has happened to us.

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For the past few weeks, I have been getting up around 5:45 or 6:00 in the morning on the weekdays, stumbling out of the bedroom and into our guest bathroom where I change into my workout clothes. I make my way downstairs in the dark, throw on some headphones and a sweatshirt and run for 1.5 miles.

It only takes me about 20 minutes, but by the time I get to the front door after the run, I am dripping in sweat and wide awake. I grab a glass of water and do some stretches in the living room then make my way upstairs to shower, get dressed and ready for work.

Since I have determined that sleep is overrated, I am never too tired to get up when the alarm comes a-callin’ –I just get up and don’t think about it at all.
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