beauty queen

My daughter is the prettiest. Imagine how fun it would be to spend your life with a person as beautiful as this. It is a pure joy and I hope this feeling never ends.

We had such a difficult time at the picture studio at Babies R Us when these photos was made. Eleana makes the strangest faces and every time the photographer set her up for a pose she'd switch her position as soon as the lady snapped the picture. These, believe it or not, are the best pictures she got of my babe.

note to all women

I would like to say something to all the women of the world.

It is enough. Whatever you're doing for your boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/lover, it's enough. Whatever you're doing for you daughter/son, it's enough.

Too often in life women chalk up their lives as mothers and wifes as simple and mundane. My life isn't mundane. Yes, I change diapers, do dishes, clean the toilet, do laundry. But I do so much more than that, too. So I don't have a job right now. So what. I have a life and that is truly what matters. In the end my daughter will appreciate the things I do and have done for her.

So ladies, please don't think you're not important. Don't imagine that there is so much more you could be doing. You're wonderful - we're wonderful - just the way we are.

(I tried my damndest not to sound like Christina Aguilaria.)

do the doo

I love this entry by Rick Crowley. It reminds me of when my mom and I had dogs of our own. My whole life I've had a pet of some kind, usually more than one. My favorite pets by far are the two cocker spaniels we used to have. We had one male, one female: Alfie and Ebony. These dogs were award winning dogs, though Alfie had been retired from whatever it was these dogs did because he was going blind and very deaf. Ebony was beautiful and her gaze reminded us of that of a baby harp seal.

The poop in the snow thing that Rick Crowley wrote about took me back to winter with Alfie. Once Alfie had gone completely blind it was difficult for him to live his life. We had to keep our furniture in the same place so he wouldn't get confused, and there were many times when he'd run into a chair that was out of place or a door that had been left shut. One winter we forgot Alfie was in the back yard because he didn't come to the door and scratch on it like he usually did. Eventually Mom checked on him and when she did she found him circling endlessly in the back yard. He couldn't find his way back to the house, the poor thing. He wasn't frost bit or anything, we just felt so bad for him.

Eventually we had to put Alfie down. Ebony, my first doggie love, was hit by a truck in my own driveway by a total stranger when I was about 15 or 16. The man who killed her promised he'd buy me a new black cocker spaniel. He never did.

Nichole is...

I got this idea from Hazel. To see how, see her site. It really is quite funny.

Nichole is lying but can't do anything about it.
Nichole is a weekly "outdoors" columnist.
Nichole is talking to God.
Nichole is new to salsa.
Nichole is from Metamora, Michigan.
Nichole is imitating Bob Dylan.
Nichole is still growing in her faith.
Nichole is bored.
Nichole is not Lorenzo's real mom.
Nichole is the best songwriter ever.
Nichole is a hungry boozehound.
Nichole is the hottie on the left.
Nichole is having problems trying to develop a good system for sampling mealworm populations.
Nichole is disabled and no longer sexually available.

So obviously none of this is true...well coincidentally perhaps some of it is true.

tired

I'm tired as shit and figuring out this blog crap is really hard. I can't even get a picture of myself to show up in the upper left corner. Oh well. I'll figure it out later I guess.

I'm dreading the sixth of January. Joe is deploying again at that time for a month and I'm worried I won't know how to function without him. He's been home for a long time, about two whole months which is normally out of the question with his current job. I love having him around though I feel sometimes I might be taking advantage of his company.

A lot of stuff is on our plate right now though at first glance it seems we have no worries at all. There is talk that his unit is moving in the spring or summer so we're stressed out about finding a new apartment in a different city. I love it here in Burlington so much. I really don't want to move yet. We also talk a lot about where we would like to move the next time we have to leave which will be in 2008. There are places we definately don't want to go like Virginia, Alaska, and Hawaii (though Alaska and Hawaii would be nice later on, just not right now.) We also don't necessarily want to go to Florida or Washington. Texas and Louisiana are also out of the question for obvious reasons (Katrina aftermath).

In the mean time we are always busy taking care of the peanut and just getting by in general, trying to find happiness in the smallest aspects of life.

Tomorrow we're hoping to visit Sharon at her home. Sharon and Rick are the two friends we wish we spent as much time with as we do our other two friends. They're good people and always so fun to be with.