About Me

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the web!

A little about me?  All righty then…

My name is Nickie and I’m the 30 something mom of four- three sons ages 21, 19, and 6; and one daughter age 13 going on 30. I’m an apprenticing tattoo-artist and spend my time listening to music (love the 80s) and reading.
 

This is my family…

Meet the First Love of my Life… my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Without Him, I wouldn’t be who I am.  Without Him, I wouldn’t be happy.  Without Him, I wouldn’t be alive.  My faith is the most important thing to me, over anything and everything else; the Lord is first and foremost in my life.  He is my Father, I am His child.  Do you know Jesus?

And the second loves of my life, and most precious gifts anyone could ever receive:  the kids!

Meet my oldest, Nay, the 20 year old (and that’s his girlfriend there with him…lol).  He’s a kind and compassionate soul and makes his Mama proud!  He’s on his second year of college (YES!) and has plans to join the Ministry upon graduation.  Have I mentioned that he makes his Mama proud?  Oh, I did didn’t I?  lol

Meet my middle son, JoJo, the 18 year old, after a day of doing what he loves best– fishing!!  He is such a joy, always making me laugh at the silliest things.  He lives about three hours from me, since he’s all grown up now, and boy do I miss seeing his smiling face everyday.

Meet my 12 year old daughter, Priss, the singer and artist of the family.  She inherited all her talent from her Mama, of course   She has made it to Junior High, where her interests are in performing arts/chorus (she is Dorothy in the school play The Wizard of Oz), and she’s on the school’s Pep Squad.  She’s also an honor roll student!

And last but not least, or littlest… but he really is littlest *rambling*…

Meet my 5 year old, the baby, my Lil Man.  This one has made child rearing a whole new experience for me!  He tests my patience and proves to me every day that there is nothing like a Mama’s love for her children.  He’s so tender-hearted and loving, but can be such a spitfire at times!  (He doesn’t get that from me…much…lol)

Now that you’ve met my amazing family, let me tell you a little more about us…

We live in a small rural town in Mississippi- where neighbors know neighbors and are always willing to lend a helping hand.  We have one  pup, 4 months old, named Bella; one mama kitty, Maizy, who is 2 years old; and three 4 month old kittens- Gray Beard, Dusty Butt, and Yin Yang.  Strange names, I know…lol.  There’s a silly story behind it- when the kittens were a couple weeks old, we decided to nickname them, a way to tell them apart basically, until they were old enough to ween and find new homes.

Problem with that was… when it came time for new homes, we were all already attached to them AND no other names we came up with fit.  So the nicknames kinda stuck.  Gray Beard has a gray patch on his chin; Dusty Butt, when she was smaller, faded from dark black to a dark shade of gray toward her rear and Hubs said she looked like she’d been dusted with powder on her hiney, so Dusty Butt became her nickname; and Yin Yang is half black, half white, with a round white patch on his back, right smack dab in the middle of the black… so Yin Yang was a pretty obvious nick name.  Poor kitties…lol.  Hopefully, one day, we’ll shorten them, as long as Dusty Butt doesn’t then become just Butt.    I’ll update with pictures of the furbabies soon!

As for me and blogging…

I’ve been officially blogging since 2007- this is the second domain for my blog.  The first came about as a spin off of my hobby site, and was titled Perfect Insanity.  That blog died while I was on a very long hiatus, and was reborn as Southern Expressions.  FYI- nofse (the URL to this blog) stands for Nickie of Southern Expressions.  I’m not very creative with names.

I actually got my start in ‘blogging’ on LiveJournal back in 2001/2002. I grew bored with LJ pretty quickly and built my own ‘journal’ on a domain; using iFrames linked to an online ‘journal’ site (I would update and it would automatically show up in my iFrame; it was pretty nifty!) A couple years later, I found WordPress, fell in love, and started blogging proper.

I’m super happy you decided to visit my blog and I really hope you’ll stick around and come back often!

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100 25 50 60 Random things you didn’t want to know about ME:

1. I can NOT multitask.  Once upon a time I could, but now… no.  Can’t.  Forget it.  Won’t happen.  One track mind, don’t get me sidetracked.

2.  My favorite color is PURPLE. <3

3.  I love butterflies.  All butterflies.  Real ones.  Fake ones.  Digital ones.  Paper ones.  Metal ones.  Ceramic ones.  You name it.  I love them.

4.  I am a music FREAK.  And yes, I mean freak.  I’d rather listen to music than watch tv.

5.  I hate tomatoes and most vegetables.

6.  I could live off pizza and be happy.

7.  I’m OCD when it comes to my surroundings/cleaning.  I either overdo it, or don’t do it.

8.  I have been known to stay on the computer till my butt hurts.  I mean literally. Hurts. From sitting.

9.  I’m part Cherokee, and proud of it!

10.  I’m also part French, and also proud of it!

11.  I love dogs, especially Labs.

12.  I have a hard time saying no, so tend to take on too much.

13.  I’m trying to learn to say no, so I don’t take on too much.

14.  I’m obsessive about sunscreen; but used to be a tanning queen.

15.  My favorite place in the world (other than home) is anywhere there is sand, sun, and water.  Which makes me obsess even more about sunscreen.

16.  I’m a control freak.

17.  It drives everyone I know nuts.

18.  I’m a sucker for chick-flicks… romantic comedies.  Or romantic dramas.

19.  I love the Twilight Saga– and I’ve read the books.

20.  Team Edward!

21.  Jacob has a rockin bod, but looks like a little boy.  No thanks.

22.  I’m 5’3″ but hope to be 5’8″ by next year.  What?  I’d rather grow ‘up’ than ‘out’!!

23.  Unfortunately, I’m growing out instead. HA! I’ve lost 42 pounds so that no longer fits!! WOOT!

24.  I’m a net junkie.  As if you couldn’t figure that one out all by your lonesome. 

25.  This started out as 100 random things, but then I got lazy. 

26.  I came back here, the next day, to add a couple more…cuz my laziness went away. (for now)

27.  I am a HUGE football fan.  HUGE HUGE HUGE! 

28.  I’m die hard BAMA.  ROLL TIDE!!  Alabama Crimson Tide… I bleed crimson!

29.  I also like NFL (though I’m more of a college football fan)… “Who Dat?!”

30. See #4… I rarely listen to the radio, and when I do, I only listen to K-LOVE (http://www.klove.com).  I mostly listen to CDs… and have a wide variety of taste in music.  (from Casting Crowns to Ozzy Osbourne)

31.  I was baptized in 1988, at the church my grandmother has attended and been a member of since she was a little girl.  She is 76 now.  I was 14.

32.  I hope to one day go on mission trips, here in the States and overseas.

33.  I don’t really like potato chips or cookies or junk foods of those varieties.  But I’m a chocoholic.

34.  I’m completely, totally, 100% addicted to Coca~Cola.

35.  I sometimes yell at the tv, if something I’m watching gets on my nerves or makes me mad.

36.  I have a short fuse and a bad temper.  But I’ve learned to control it, somewhat.

37.  I am a survivor of sexual abuse.

38.  I am a survivor of domestic abuse.

39.  I am afraid of mice.  I squeal like a little girl when I see one.

40.  I love all things Native American and Southwestern.

41.  I collect celestial things (suns/moons, mostly suns).

42. I also collect Native American and Mexican pottery.

43.  I have more key chains than keys.  My newest one says “I Love Jesus.”

44.  I bought my first home, paid in full, at the age of 31.  Now I’m ready to sell it. 

45.  I love thunderstorms but have a terrible fear of them (strong wind/tornadoes).

46.  I can’t swim.

47.  I love horses and horseback riding, though it’s rough on my short legs!

48. I used to sell Mary Kay Cosmetics, but don’t even use the products anymore.  I use BeautiControl now.  It’s waaaay better.

49.  I don’t fear death because I know I have a place in the kingdom of Heaven waiting for me.  It just makes me very sad to think of possibly leaving my kids behind before they’re grown and have kids of their own.

50.  Every post on my blog is put into the category ‘I ♥ Jesus’ because I want those words to be the biggest ones in my category cloud.

51. I may finish this one day…

52. (maybe that day is today… 02/16/11)!)

53. I am terribly shy around people I don’t know.  And insecure.  Even around those I do know.  Though I’m pretty open and outgoing behind my nifty lappie monitor.

54. I am an Independent Thirty-One Consultant as of February 4, 2011. I love this company!

55. I’d love for you to shop with me!!

56. Up till December 25, 2010, I had never seen snow on Christmas day. Oh what a Christmas present!!

57. I’m a planner. I like to plan things well in advance. I don’t do well with deadlines and I’m not an “eleventh hour” type person. In fact, time-crunches make me crazy to the point that I can’t put a single coherent thought together.

58. I’ve watched the same two soap operas (on different networks) since I was 15 years old. I don’t watch regularly (usually two or three times a month) but it’s easy to keep up! lol

59. I’m a plant and flower junkie, which is a real pain when winter rolls around! Why, you ask? Because I have more plants and flowers to bring inside than I have room for! lol

60. And I have a bit of a green thumb! Good thing huh?

61. WOW! I made it to #60! Woohoo!