Batter Up!

A little update on our favorite coach, Greg Yelland: his baseball team made it to the final four state championship this weekend in Battle Creek!

The Boys of Summer are at the park today and first up is Divine Child. Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend but will instead cheer from my cubicle today.

Never fear, he has promised pictures so I can post later!

Coverage of the Martian's win:

Must have been those awesome cupcakes that spawned success....just kidding...congrats to coaches Greg & Bob and the boys:)

More to come,

Nicole

Out of This World

Avid magazine reader that I am, I have a confession: I read Redbook. I love it. It may not be targeted toward my demographic, If not for it's thrifty decor tips (which I look forward to putting to use one day), definately for it's recipies.

One day while thumbing through, I found a true gem to surprise Greg with.

(a little backstory) Greg works at Goodrich High School and coaches baseball (mentioned below). Their mascot is the Martian - and while it's a different type of martian - I couldn't resist attempting the recipe I saw photographed here:

After seeing this, I couldn't resist the challenge! While mine may not have turned out as exact as this photo, I had a TON of fun making them, turning my clothes green from mixing in the food dye and even added a little yellow "G" for Greg/Goodrich;)

Here's how my project shook out:

Super green frosting that covered most of my shirt and the kitchen floor...oops.

My many "secret" ingredients for success:

Martians in the freezer to make sure the frosting will "stick"

My little green man as a finished product!

This was truely a messy but fun project. Greg had a good laugh, and I kept myself occupied for an evening.

Good game Redbook!

More to come,

Nicole

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Last month marked two interesting occasions in my life 1.) the night I slept on my bathroom floor and 2.) my bachelorette party. Oddly enough, they occured on the same evening.

Friends traveled from other cities, counties and in a couple cases out of state to make it. We had a great time thanks to the detailed plans of my BAMF MOH and BM's. Special thanks to all my girls who made it: Trisha, Rachel, Amanda, Jenny, Margaret, Jennifer, Bryn, Nicole B., Melissa, Lisa, Kristie and, of course, Jennifer!

We started out the evening with a delicious dinner Jennifer cooked up in our new kitchen, played some flipcup on our porch, had a pure romance party and got in the 14 passenger van to head to Royal Oak for a night out at Skybar, Memphis Smoke and Vinotecha. The best part of the night was having all my favorite people (or most) in one spot:)

(special thanks to Greg for giving the ladies the house and spending the night at Eric's)

*deep breath* Here are the photos from the night:

Since I told my sister phallic items were not welcome, she chose that as the theme for dinner as a joke..and there was a delightful mixture in the pitcher:)

Amanda setting up flip-cup on the deck..it begins...

More Flip cup...

Rachel and Trisha trying to figure out what positions the toothpicks were in...

Time to hop on the bus! The girls bond:)

Lisa and I celebrating!

All of us (most of us) out at Skybar in Royal Oak!


My sister and sister-to-be make faces....

Photos kinda dwindled towards the end of the night..but oh what a night it was. Thanks to everyone for making this a night to remember!

More to come!

Nicole

The Graduate!

As a proud alumni, I'm happy to announce the graduation of my younger sister from Central Michigan University! She's one smart cookie, graduated Cum Laude and even managed to get a shout out from the ceremony speaker. For Greg and I (both CMU alumnae), it was a fun excuse to go up and visit our alma mater on a nice Saturday morning.

This post is short but sweet - I'm one proud sister.


Congratulations Jennifer! Here is the emcee calling her name:

Here's Rose Arena inside the Student Activity Center (SAC) where the ceremony was held...look at that lovely maroon and gold flying!

Like the photo freak I am, I crept up and took some paparazzi-style shots to catch how excited she was for the day:) She's so happy!

Greg and I waiting outside the SAC to catch up with Jennifer for hugs and photo opps!

Finally caught up with her...on the lovely windy morning to get a sister/CMU Alum shot!

In short, it was a lot of fun making the trek up to CMU and watching my little sister not be so little anymore and receive her college degree.

More to come,

Nicole

Mr. 3000

This past weekend, the baseball team Greg coaches managed to accomplish a seemingly impossible feat: they won the Grand Blanc Tournament!

It was so exciting to see his kids meet this goal and exceed even their own expectations. Personally, I enjoyed going to watch the games and see it for myself. Most of the time, I get caught up in how often he isn't home and how frustrating it gets when he's wiped out from a long week of practice. Watching his games are always a nice reminder of what it's really about and seeing how much it means to him to be there.

I managed to get my hands on a couple photos from the day, the trophy presentation and the coach in his uniform.

The boys of summer and their coaches (Greg to the far left, his counterpart, Bob to the far right)

Greg accepting the trophy for the team from the Grand Blanc coach and former roommate, JD.


Coach and the trophy from the tournament. As you may notice, this photo was taken in our backyard...what you may not know is that he took that thing with him from room to room for the rest of the weekend. Proud but goofy.




I'm so proud of him and glad that I could be there to see it all happen.

More to come,
Nicole

A Little Help From My Friends

It's funny how family morph into our friends and our friends can morph into family. It's also pretty amazing when people come into your life and have had nothing but obsticles and offer nothing but a smile and perspective. Brandon is one such person.

Brandon came into the Yelland's life several years ago when he was a student in the elementary school special needs classroom that Greg's mom works at. Now 18 years old, Brandon has grown into a kind, smart and truely inspriation young man.

I met him only recently after Greg's family had experienced a time period without him around. I won't get into details, but the circumstances surrounding his absence give this kid every right to be the complete opposite of who he is today. Now that Brandon's back he's become a younger brother the Greg and his sister, son to his parents. Aside from becoming family to me, he's become a constant source of laughter and reminder to take one day at a time.

During one of his visits to our house, Greg and I learned that Brandon was taking a trip to see his most favorite thing ever: wrestling. Wanting him to be as prepared as possible, Greg and I got him outfitted in a bandana and practiced flexing before he went. The below photos are my favorites:

Brandon laughing his cheeks off:

Greg and Brandon displaying their best flex among giggles:

Brandon's story is certainly one worth mentioning as it's one that has become an important to both Greg and I this past year and it will last a lifetime.

More to come,

Nicole

Ticket to Ride

Spring is in the air...the snow is melted (for the time being)...and baseball has begun. How did I celebrate all of these things? I went to not one but TWO Detroit Tigers games opening week!

First, I took the day off with my old roommate, Amanda on Friday to go see the game thanks to her sister's, friend's dad's (with me, here?) season tickets he couldn't use. While the weather was a bit cooler than we would have liked and our team didn't win, we still managed to have some fun and were excited to be back in the stadium already this season! I must admit, there's something quite liberating about drinking a hurricane at 1 p.m.on a Friday afternoon.

Amanda and I in our fabulous (free!) seats on Friday enjoying a Tiger Stadium Hurricane

My ticket to the game

Next comes Saturday's game. My coworker, Nate had a friend doing a fundraiser for Relay for Life and selling tickets to the game. Naturally, I bought two tickets to the game (one for Greg and one for me!). We all met up at Greektown for lunch to take advantage of the free parking and delicious food before heading over to the Old Shillelagh for a beverage or two, then taking the short, green bus over to Tigers stadium...seriously, here it is:

and here's Lauren and I on the ridiculous bus:

All in all, it was a lot of fun (even though the Tigers didn't win at either game) and a great excuse to be outside watching baseball.

More to come,

Nicole