Busy, busy, day.
Suitcases half packed. Waiting.
Anxious hearts hoping.

Dear Homestead Air Base,

Thank you for letting me know I would need a police report prior to showing up in your office for an ID card. Having to go and get one after waiting forty-five minutes would have completely messed up my schedule.

P.S. Yes, that was sarcasm. P.S.S. Sargent ______, You were sweet. Working on machines as slow as yours would drive me bananas. Considering my husband has done your job-I don’t know how he hasn’t gone bananas. You are awesome. Your machines are not.

Dear Children,

I love you. Seeing your enthusiasm for all things life has in store warms my heart. It is also exhausting. I love each and every second, even though I may not always show it.

P.S. SLUSHIES!

That is why we went to Sonic. No, I don’t know why anyone would want beer or wine when they can have a slushy, but apparently putting the word “beach” in your name has something to do with it.

Dear Me,

You checked off everything on your to do list. Your bags are light enough. No, you’ve not forgotten anything…At least I don’t think you did. Getting your kids to take pictures of you in your “outfits” is pointless. They’re boys. They rather take pictures of boogers.

Dear Amtrak,

I’ve never taken a train in the summer. I hope your cabins are nice and cold and I hope even more no one forgets their deodorant.

Dear Sister,

Please don’t be late. Your nephews can’t wait to see you. I may need a drink when I see you. I’m pretty sure I would have had some wine. Bring me more.

Dear Husband,

My fingers are crossed. Are yours?

Like this post? It was inspired by this wonderful blogger named Kelly.

Where has this summer gone? The days have seemed to fly by. It’s hard to imagine in less than a month, my boys will be in school. Yes, both my boys. Evan is going to pre-school, something Michael didn’t do. I’m looking forward to the “me” time-a.k.a. undisturbed writing time, that will allow, but it’s also sort of bittersweet. However I think Evan will greatly benefit being in pre-school, his personality is so much more gregarious, that I think he needs the “practice” for the real deal.

I did most of our back to school shopping last week because I wanted to beat the crowds. I also hope to be spending the better part of the next few weeks overseas visiting with my husband while our boys enjoy some quality time with their Nana and one of my sisters.

Evan, being in pre-school didn’t require much outside of his school uniform and a lunch box and bag. I saw a few Lego themed ones I knew he’d like so I took him to Toys R Us so he could choose. He was so excited to choose his Lego mini-figure back pack and Lego Star-Wars lunch box. I was planning on getting Michael a Jansport backpack or ordering one from Landsend but he found one he liked at Toys R Us too, so I let him get it. His lunch box was a ninja-character, that was quite cute.

For the rest of Michael’s school supplies we headed over to our family’s favorite “big box” store, Target.

Target has some awesome back to school deals, and their store-brand products in my opinion are super! I also took the opportunity to stock up on the more heavily used items like pencils and erasers. God how I love the smell of a box of pencils!

Because we’re moving in the middle of the school year, I’ve decided that Mike can still use his uniform from last year. I’m just going to toss in a few new shirts to replace some of the more worn ones. Right now Target is having a Back to School Uniform Sale – Polos are $6, Most Bottoms are $11, and Up to 10% Off Assortment which adds up to even bigger savings when you add in coupons and use their store “debit” card. You link it to your bank account. No fees like a credit card but you save 5% on every purchase. Because we’re going to be out of town, I think I’m going to order the things I couldn’t get at Target (like a recorder) from Amazon - Back to School.

love & back to school,

nicole

One of my favorite things about summer in South Florida is that it’s mango season. Many homes have trees in their back yard like we do, and if you happen to be one of the people who don’t, you will often times find people out in front of their homes selling their mangoes or other street vendors from local farms.

This summer I’m pretty sure I’ve consumed my weight in mangoes. They are my favorite fruit and everyone knows it -so I’ve even had some of my husband’s family bring me mangoes from their trees.

Sigh. They are heavenly. They really are.

Today was one of those lazy rainy days. We hung out in comfy clothes and watched television. Around lunch time I got to thinking about what I should feed my little boys. There wasn’t much in the house as far as food because we’re going on vacation in a few days and I figured we’d eat what we had on hand.

With that in mind I scoured our pantry and came up with this home made macaroni and cheese recipe that was actually pretty good. In fact my son Michael said it was “the best mac & cheese…ever!”

I had four different types of cheese on hand -but none was enough to make much of anything, so I combined them.

Here is what I used to make what I’m calling my Pantry Hacked Mac & Cheese recipe. I’m pretty sure you could do the same, with things that are on hand in your pantry!

• 1 cup Half & Half
• 1 cup Milk
• 1/4 cup margarine/butter (I used margarine.)
• 2 oz (approximately-I eye-balled) hand shredded Gouda, Romano, Parmesan, Colby Jack, and Cheddar Cheese
• 3 tbs flour
• 1tbs white pepper
• 1tbs Adobo seasoning
• 1 box-16oz of elbow macaroni
• 1/4 cup crushed Garlic Parmesan Pretzel Crisps (I didn’t have croutons or even bread on hand to make croutons, so I figured I’d give these a try.) they worked out really well, the flavor meshed perfectly and the crunch was a fun surprise!

To prepare:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cook the pasta until it’s “al dente”.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate saucepan melt the butter/margarine. Slowly whisk in the flour to make a roux. Once the roux is nice and pasty, slowly whisk in the milk/half and half mixture. Add in the pepper and Adobo seasoning. When the milk mixture begins to simmer, slowly stir in the cheese. Continue to stir until the mixture thickens. By this time your pasta should be ready to come out of the pot. Drain the pasta then return it to the pot and stir in the cheese mixture.Combine the two then transfer to a casserole dish.

Sprinkle the crushed pretzel mixture on top of the macaroni and bake for 15 minutes.

Buen Provecho!

xo,

nicole

Season 10 of Project Runway begins tomorrow night! I’ve already set my DVR. My favorite thing about Project Runway is seeing so many talented people in one room who are reaching for their dream. It’s so inspiring. I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the fashion. One of my favorite things is to see what the designers are wearing and weather or not their fashion sense-or sometimes lack there of translates into their designs.

Photo: via @ninagarcia‘s Twitter feed.

Last week I shared my news about finishing the first draft of my novel. Since I spend so much time, looking at the same view, I thought I’d share my workspace.

This is my first official post -as in one that hasn’t been imported from writespell.com and I am so pleased. I’ve been contemplating switching over to this domain for months-if you’re a regular to my blog you already know my blogging has been pretty sporadic of late. The reason is because I’ve been writing. I’ve been writing so much I can actually say, “I did it! I finished my book!”

It is still very rough. Like, super-gritty sandpaper, road-burn rough. But it’s done. It’s taken me four years to finish. The bulk of that time was spent not writing which is the biggest contributing factor to it taking so long, but-and I’ve been thinking about this a great deal; I think the underlying factor was due in part to my not giving myself permission to really do this. Going after one’s dream can be a daunting task, and I think I had to come to it slowly. Add in, an MS (manuscript) written in first person and I think I was setting myself up for failure. Months ago I contemplated changing to third person, but I was half way through. So I plowed on. It proved to be a good practice, but there are still a few holes in the story, that I know would best be told from a different point of view. In retrospect I don’t think I’ll make that mistake again-not getting the POV wrong, but the not following my gut mistake. Either way I’m feeling pretty good right now. I’m excited to begin the re-write and I’ve given myself a strict timeline.

To quote Steve Jobs, “real artists ship’. I’ve got UPS on speed dial. Nearly there.

Here is a little glimpse of my writing nook. It’s a chalkboard I made, where I write little inspirational quotes or thoughts on.