Nycole's Life

Callused knees

2010-09-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

One of the things I enjoy about my job is all of the different kinds of people that I get to meet. Especially in the economic times that we are in it seems like there is no end to the spectrum of people that walk through the door at work. I love hearing their stories and offering some kind of help. More often than not I am humbled and sorrow filled by the trials these people pass through. Nearly every day I meet someone that I end up pleading for in prayer because their stories break my heart. The pain in their eyes nearly brings me to tears.

The other day this week a man came in. I asked him if I could help him and he began to tell me his story. My heart ached for him. He was at his end and didn't know where else to go or what else to do. As I listened I wished there was so much more I could do for him than listen.

The thing that touched me most was he was telling me all of the different things he had been trying to fix his dire situation. At one point he pointed at his knees. They were seriously callused and he said that most of his time not spent on his feet was time spent on his knees. I thought of how much time I spent on my knees and pleaded with my Father. It was kind of a reminder of what I should be doing. The only time I have ever gotten calluses on my knees was on my mission. I plead so much, especially in the beginning, that my knees got serious calluses. I want to be like that again...pleading with the Father with sincerity in all that I do.

38^aPray always, and I will ^bpour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing—yea, even more than if you should obtain ^ctreasures of earth and corruptibleness to the extent thereof.

D&C 19:38

Africa!!!!!

2010-09-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

So, last summer I had the wonderful opportunity of going to Africa. It still seems so amazing that I would have been able to go and actually live there for a couple of months. On top of the opportunity to go there, I got to go there for an amazing reason. What an adventure!

In May of 2009 I got on a plane flew to Ghana. I was excited and nervous and had little idea of what really awaited me on my grand adventure.

Yeah, I had been on a plane for a long time and didn't look so good. A plane is never the best way to sleep, but I was still excited to be there. Ghana!!!!!


Here are my flight buddies, Kelsey and Brynn. Little did I know how much I would come to love and appreciate these girls! Here is the view off of the airplane. Akwaaba means welcome. I remember walking off the plane and thinking it was hot and humid and I had no idea what was ahead. More of the Africa adventure to come!

2010-08-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

Well after taking a two year, yep count them, ONE, TWO, break from blogging, I am back! I have so much to catch up on and fill in from the past two years but I am determined to do it! Hopefully, you'll enjoy and I can get people to believe that I am actually blogging again. So stay tuned!

Seems like this is the story of my life!

St. George trip

2008-07-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Roommates!

2008-03-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my awesome roommates! I really lucked out living with them and we all have such a blast together!

Megs and me! She has been such an amazing blessing to me. I love living with her, we have such a blast!

The roommies all decked out to go to an institute dance. Aren't they such gorgeous girls? Alisa Oba, Me, Megan Shaw, Elisabeth Havens, Brittany Cahoon.

Bella decided to actually be in this one so I have a picture with all of my wonderful roommies! They are the best ever!

Can't you see why I am in love with Megs? Who wouldn't want to not be friends with her?

Susan's Baby Shower

2008-03-24T11:07:00.001-07:00

One of my high school friends and college roommates, Susan Fredrickson, is having a baby boy! Juli Aird got a bunch of us together and had a baby shower for her. We went and got pizza and chatted about what has been up with us since we last saw each other. It is crazy where life has taken us since high school. It was a lot of fun and really good to see everyone. Congrats to Susan!

This is the gang! Megan Shaw, Julie Deng, Katrina Strong, Susan Fredrickson, Tori Kohlieber, Juli Aird, me.

Ooooh! Is there a baby in there?!

Presents!

You can never have too many diapers!

A beautiful blanket, thanks to mom!

The Office attack!

2008-03-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

So my roommates, who are amazing, decided to cheer me up when I was having a rough day by decorating my room in office quotes! It turned my day around and I was laughing. Really living with these girls has been such a blessing for me and I am so grateful for them and their love and support. Thanks girls!

Cabela's

2008-03-20T09:33:00.001-07:00

Well I know that I have been a major slacker on posting on my blog so I am trying to catch up! Here are some pictures of when we took Korban and Savannah to Cabela's. Korban was super cute and had a blast looking at all of the fish and stuffed animals!

Korban loved looking at all of the fish in the tanks at Cabela's. He just kept running back and forth, it was sooooo cute!

Cute little Savannah! Isn't she adorable!

Korban was so cute while we were walking around looking at all of the taxidermy animals. He would always point at them and say, "Is that scary?" Here I got him in the middle of the act.

Snow Shoeing

2008-01-03T17:18:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Day I went snow shoeing with the Shaws at Donut Falls. When we got out of the car it was a whopping 4 degrees! I am pretty sure that in the shade it was colder than that. I don't think I have been that cold since I got home from the mission! I was really missing the sun in Southern California as we started out!

Wendy, Megan, and me. This was before we were covered in frost from the precipitation from the air we were breathing.

We made it to Donut Falls! Getting there warmed me up pretty good.

I really enjoyed snow shoeing and as you can see the trail was beautiful. If it hadn't been for the bitter cold it would have been perfect.

For part of the hike we had to blaze our own trail through a couple of feet of snow. It was quite the workout! The whole time it felt like being on the ultimate stair stepper! So if you want to know of a good workout just go snow shoeing in fresh snow. I was quite proud of my achievement and had to pose next to my accomplishment.

Christmas Day!

2008-01-03T16:45:00.001-08:00

Christmas was wonderful! I was very blessed and received a lot of wonderful gifts from a great family. The best part was watching the little kids open their presents and talking to Elder Tylka out in Northern California.Marinda was delighted to find spam in her stocking(he he). It has been a favorite of hers since she tried it on our Hawaii trip.

Korban had a lot of fun helping Savannah open her presents, while Savannah enjoyed the boxes the presents were in.

Korban had a lot of fun opening his presents!

Korban's favorite present was a Thomas the Tank Engine trainset from Grandpa. They had a lot of fun putting it all together and Korban could hardly wait till it was ready to go.

Nothing like watching a train go around in circles. Korban never got bored of it!

This is one of my favorite pictures from Christmas. Grandpa and Korban look so cute! They had a lot of fun with the new toy.

Christmas was wonderful because of the time I spent with my family. They are truly one of the greatest gifts given to me. The greatest is the atonement of Jesus Christ because that really is everything to me. Merry Christmas to all of you!

Christmas time at the Tylka house

2008-01-03T16:31:00.001-08:00

We had Troy, Kim, Korban, and Savannah come over to decorate some cookies. It was a lot of fun and eating the cookies was always nice! This is Kim showing off her beautiful reindeer!

The best part of decorating, eating the cookies! All that was left of Rudolph was his head! Nummy!

Look at the fun! Korban especially loved the train cookies, but had a hard time when it came time to eat them.

Looks like Santa is getting a lot of good looking cookies this year!

Sister Megan Shaw comes home!

2008-01-03T16:26:00.000-08:00

One of my best friends, Megan Shaw got home from her mission on the 21st. It was so nice to see her again! I have missed having her around and now we can both talk about our missions!

Sister Brittany Burket comes home!!!!!

2007-12-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

Sister Burket is home! I have been waiting for this day for 6 weeks! Now it is finally here! It was so nice to see her and get to talk to her. As you can imagine after not being around each other for 6 weeks we have a lot to catch up on. It was also nice to hear about the mission. I sure miss it a lot, but life will be better now that Sister Burket is around! Sister Burket and her parents June and Rick

Sister Burket and me! We are finally reunited! It is so nice to have her back!

My Hawaii Trip

2007-11-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

Aloha! So it has taken a while but here are some pictures from my Hawaii trip! They aren't really in order but enjoy!

So our trip consisted of a cruise around the islands in which we encountered an oil spill and an outbreak of the Norwalk virus. After the cruise we stayed on Oahu.

This is my parents, sister, and me in front of the Laie, Hawaii temple. It was beautiful and we even caught a gorgeous sunset!

This was my first time on the sand and in the water for a really long time! I just had to get a picture of it!

This is the Kona Hawaii temple on the Big Island. During the cruise there was an oil spill in Maui so they ended up changing the day that we were supposed to go to Kona. We ended up not having a car so we decided to hike around until we found the temple.

This is a man who used to be one of the counselors in the Kona temple presidency. My parents met him last year when they were in Hawaii and he shared some wonderful stories with them. We ended up running into him again and I loved talking with him! He is such a wonderful man who has been willing to sacrifice everything to do what the Lord would have him. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip to listen to this man's wonderful stories of the blessings of the Lord.

This is a picture of the Napoli coastline in Kaui. Our cruise ship sailed around the coast and I got a lot of great pictures. It was so beautiful! I think that of all the islands, Kaui is my favorite.

While we were in Kaui we got to go snorkeling which is one of my favorite things to do in Hawaii. We were just looking around when my sister found this sea turtle. We then started following him around and this is one of the pictures I got! It was pretty awesome to swim with a sea turtle!Kaui also has this beautiful canyon called Waimae canyon. It was beautiful but we couldn't help having a little fun as Marinda tried pushing me over the edge. I guess there is only so much she could handle of me being home!

Marinda and me at the Polynesian Cultural Center Laua enjoying a smoothie! Delicious!

We went to the Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. We were walking around some steam vents and this field was full of sulfur smelling ones and it was awful! We had to leave because we couldn't breath.

The all famous place to get those macadamia nuts.

When we were in Oahu we went to church in Honolulu. I was so excited because I found out that they had a deaf group that met there. I ended up running into Bridgette Nelson and her fiancee! Bridgette served in my mission and it was fun to get to sign with her and meet her fiancee.

Me on top of an extinct volcano, it was about 11,000 feet high!

I think we like to try and push each other off really high things in my family!

Nothing like sitting one top of an extinct volcano and pondering about the world!This is my Dad clearly not reading the sign!

Now he has to suffer from not paying attention! (J/K No one was harmed in the taking of this photo.)
This is a very rare flower that only grows in very high altitudes and can only be found at places like this volcano.

Here I am at the top of Diamond Head in Oahu. This has become a tradition for my family to hike and see how fast we could do it. Just before you get to the top you have to climb a million stairs, so needless to say I realized how out of shape I am once I reached the top.

This was the view from outside one of our hotels in Waikiki. I looked outside and there was this beautiful rainbow! Hawaii just seems to have so many wonderful picturesque moments.

This was just a little picture of the beautiful Kaui. Just driving along there was enjoyment enough.

To end this little view of my trip I thought I would put one of my favorite pictures up. This was the sunrise one morning on the cruise ship. Every morning I would go workout and I usually went running with my camera in hand to get some pictures and I got this one. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and Aloha!

Halloween

2007-11-02T22:53:00.000-07:00

I know that these entries are going to be out of order but I wanted to get them posted. Here is Halloween at the Tylka house. Korban was spiderman and Savannah was a mermaid! Aren't they adorable! I had a fun time taking them around trick or treating. Korban was very excited that people were giving him candy and he probably has enough to last him the whole year!

Jonathon & Karlie Alldredge Wedding

2007-11-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

A Bunch of former missionaries!

Last night I got to go and see the newly weds! They had a scottish theme to the wedding as everyone was wearing kilts. They even had a bag piper playing the pipes. It was also fun to see a couple of people from the mission. I guess that is what happens when an Elder and a Sister from the mission get married. Karlie looked beautiful and they both looked so happy. Congrats to them!

The amazing people who changed my life!

2007-10-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

Meet some of the wonderful people I met on my mission!This is a bunch of wonderful people from Placentia 3rd Ward who came to say good-bye to me at my departing fireside. Aren't they the best!

This is some of the members from the deaf branch, but don't get too confused most of them are hearing but have accepted the call to help out in the deaf branch and they are greatly appreciated!

This is the wonderful Relief Society in the deaf branch, they are such amazing women and I admire them!

This is me with the two most wonderful people, President and Sister Harmsen. They are the best people I know and they helped me out so much on the mission! I don't know what I would have done without them, thanks!