Happy birthday to me!

In a couple of hours it will be my birthday. Yea....Happy birthday to me ;) Some new news for all of you, I just got a dog. Thats right. Her name is Koda, which means "friend" in native american language. She is an english bull terrier...AKA.. target dog, spuds mckenzie. She is 5 years old and I got her from a bull terrier rescue organazation. Im pretty sure this is one of the best decisions ive ever made! I love this damn dog so much and getting up early or late at night in the cold to walk her doesnt even bother me. I will post some pics of her on here in a few days!

Other than that my life has been the same. My art class has given me the inspiration I started to lack. Its a good feeling inside to know that I have not really drawn in eight years, but yet all the students in my class wont even sit by me now because they are intimidated by my work. Im not as good as i was years ago, but im slowly working on it.

I recently met Kerry wood! For all of you who dont know who that is he is one of our best pitchers for my chicago cubs. I waited on him and his family the other night. When they left I went to clear his table and noticed he left a note for me saying, nicole, best wishes and go cubs. kerry wood. It made my week ;)

It's life.....deal with it!

My feet are sore and bare from walking these roads. I would end up on the gravel path and not the flat smooth surface of a freshly paved road. I've been walking for some time now looking at all the beauty around me. The strong trees hang their low branches down to let their new batch of leafs get a good look at this bright new world. The sun is shining down on my face. I feel the warmth go right through my body as if I had just slowly gotten into a steamy bath I had just filled.
The birds are singing their favorite songs and I can hear the bumble bees working through the bright colored flowers humming the same tune. All is peaceful and so relaxed. I continue to walk down this path in a dream like state until I step an a sharp pointed rock. I look down at it and then at my feet. I notice the darkness all around me. I look up and look around. Its as if the sun fell right out of the sky but the moon has not come to save the rest of us. All of the trees are bare and beaten. Their is no movement around me and the chill of the air is now making my joints ache. I wasnt paying attention to where I was going. I believe I have just taken the wrong path.

Bring it on!

2008..... This is gonna be the year! I know it is, I can feel it inside me! I have started it off with a more than perfect job where I bring in more money than I ever had with anyother place doing the same job. I have made some new friends that I work with who are real and genuine and I start school again on monday. It is starting off well and I feel very positive about it. Which for once in my life is a very good thing.

I've been doing a lot of debating on what I would like to do though. Whether they are something I will do soon or in the future I'm not sure. The first one is that in the summer I will leave Arizona and move to santa monica. There I will look into more funding and open up a coffee shop of my own and take some time creating a business I enjoy, working for myself, and being able to lay on the beach or surf or throw a frisbee to a new dog I will buy.

My second idea is that I stay here till I get my RN, Then join the traveling nurse program for a few years until I find a place that feels like home to me. Maybe....MAYBE.... Once I get my RN I will join the peace corps for the 27 month period they keep you for, then I will sign again for the army reserves and become an officer nurse. Hm... not sure?

My third idea is that I get involved in a program where I can go over seas and help orphaned animals get better and be realeased into the wild. Maybe I can help with the endangered species of our world and keep their blood line going for many generations to see and appreciate. I would spend the years needed to be with an orphaned elephant day in and day out, sleeping in their stalls until the age of five when they can be introduced into a heard. Some thing like that would make me happy.

This year is dedicated to being true to myself. It is a year to do whatever it is that I find fullfilling, no matter what anyone says or trys to critize me for. I feel wiser than I ever have and have overcome many opsticles that haunted me the years before. Nothing can break the spirt I have inside of me at this very moment. It's not possible. So... for the whole universe to know...BRING IT, cause i'm ready!

My inspiration

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. Dalai Lama

I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe. Dalai Lama

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. Dalai Lama

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves. Dalai Lama

With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world. Dalai Lama

Life is Good

It's been a while since I've written in my blog. Probably because I only use this to get the bad crap out of my head and leave it here, so I dont have to carry it around anymore. Even though certain things have not gone my way I can truly say life is very good at the moment. Maybe its because I read the secret and it brought me back to where I was mentally about a year ago, or maybe its because Im moving forward a lot more faster than I thought I would. Im excited that the new year is almost here! I have so many things I wanna do and experience, so many things Im gonna do different and change about myself. It makes me smile to think about it. ;)
I can feel deep down in my soul that 2008 is going to be an extremly good year for me!

Back home in Illinois (Spring.. 1 of 3)

Im sitting outside right now under the balcony watching the rain come down. As gloomy as the sky looks at the moment, the rain is bringing in a sense of calmness to my body. Im cold, but my laptop is acting as a very warm lap blanket, so its really not bothering me as much. I honestly do like Arizona. Its beautiful and warm. The sun seems to shine about 95 percent of the time and Ive always wanted to live in a place with palm trees. Still though, a change of weather feels very good. I miss the seasons back home. The smells from each different one would fill my body with so many different things. Even the different sounds would make me smile…. of course along with the different animals I anticipated to see.

Spring back home is the beginning of life again. Its when nature has woken up from its nice long nap and starts to rebuild. I love the many different flowers and smells that fill the air. All the animals come out from hiding and you get to see baby deer and raccoons. And so many different butterflies! This is the time of the year when our house hold wold be blessed with orphans, many of them raccoons, but once we did have a baby fox and deer. And I cant forget the many chipmunks Id taken away from my cat. It was nice to see the little green sprouts of grass pushing their way out of the ground reaching for a bit of sunlight and warmth.

In spring I would get that excited feeling knowing that the warm weather was right around the corner. It was also a time when we would get the greatest rain storms, with thunder and lightning, which I absolutely loved. Spring back home reminds me of winter here in Arizona. Its around the same temperature. I miss all the flowers and baby animals.

Fall...2 of 3

I can sum fall up in two word......Beautiful Art.
Fall is by far my favorite season. I couldnt wait to watch the leafs change into beautiful shades of orange, red, yellow, green and brown. It was sweater weather and a nice walk after dinner was a gorgeous way to relax. I had my particular favorite spot deep within the woods. It was next to a very steady knee deep stream. I would cozy up next to a big thick elm dream with my sketch books and draw the amazing world around me. In the distance I could hear the shells of nuts falling from the sky as the squirrels filled their tummys. And once the leaves fell and covered the earth I would catch a fox pouncing on a lump of them trying to catch whatever was hidden beneath it.

The air smelled of crumpled leaves and fire places and every now and then the smell of a freshly baked pie would make my stomach growl. Decorations of Halloween, strawmen and pumpkins surrounded every house. I loved laying by the lake on my blanket watching thousands and thousands of geese and duck heading south and trying to avoid any hunters along the way. By the edge of the water hundred of clam shells lay from the raccoons filling there belly's before the cold winter came.

I dreaded having to rake all the leaves from our huge yard, but filling bags that looked like orange pumpkins made me smile along with picking up which ever sibling that walked by at the time and softly throwing them into the huge pile I had just made. Fall was a time of dirt bikes and mud up to my ears. It was a time of hay rack rides, corn mazes, and Halloween houses. I miss Fall back home.