My Childhood-Home I See Again
By, Abraham Lincoln

    My childhood's home I see again,
        And sadden with the view;
    And still, as memory crowds my brain,
        There's pleasure in it too.

    O Memory! thou midway world
        'Twixt earth and paradise,
    Where things decayed and loved ones lost
        In dreamy shadows rise,

    And, freed from all that's earthly vile,
        Seem hallowed, pure, and bright,
    Like scenes in some enchanted isle
        All bathed in liquid light.

    As dusky mountains please the eye
        When twilight chases day;
    As bugle-tones that, passing by,
        In distance die away;

    As leaving some grand waterfall,
        We, lingering, list its roar—
    So memory will hallow all
        We've known, but know no more.

    Near twenty years have passed away
        Since here I bid farewell
    To woods and fields, and scenes of play,
        And playmates loved so well.

    Where many were, but few remain
        Of old familiar things;
    But seeing them, to mind again
        The lost and absent brings.

    The friends I left that parting day,
        How changed, as time has sped!
    Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray,
        And half of all are dead.

    I hear the loved survivors tell
        How nought from death could save,
    Till every sound appears a knell,
        And every spot a grave.

    I range the fields with pensive tread,
        And pace the hollow rooms,
    And feel (companion of the dead)
        I'm living in the tombs.


The Garden of Love
By, William Blake
I went to the Garden of Love,
    And saw what I never had seen:
    A Chapel was built in the midst,
    Where I used to play on the green.

    And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
    And "Thou shalt not" writ over the door;
    So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,
    That so many sweet flowers bore,

    And I saw it was filled with graves,
    And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
    And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
    And binding with briars my joys & desires.


Sonnets from the Portuguese
By, Elizabeth Barrett Browning

    How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
    I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
    My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
    For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
    I love thee to the level of everyday's
    Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
    I love thee freely, as men might strive for Right;
    I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
    I love thee with the passion put to use
    In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
    I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
    With my lost saints,–I love thee with the breath,
    Smiles, tears, of all my life!–and, if God choose,
    I shall but love thee better after death.

 On the 13th of March we are leaving to go to West Virginia! I am so excited, it will be nice to have a vacation with Jesse. Last time we drove in it was a pretty sad trip. We are going to probably head back to Texas on the 31st. We'll be passing through Arkansas, Tennesee, Kentucky, and finally West Virginia. We may go though Virginia in route to see the New River Gorge bride, It is like the second tallest bridge in the world and is in a beautiful place. Havent decided if I have the guts to drive over it yet so we may bypass that and just head strait in.

Hopefully driving though Tennessee and Kentucky goes by fast, those are the worst of the two to drive though because they take FOREVER to get through. I am just thankful I finally have my license so we don't have to spend 36 hours on a greyhound bus!

 Valentines day was cool, Jesse got me a pink fondue pot. It was sweet. I got him some Lucky Charm PJ pants and told him he was magically delicious lol. The 16th was also our 7 year anniversary! We got together in Febuary 2001, it is hard to believe time goes by that fast, it seems like only months ago. In April it will be 6 years since we got married.

My websites are still struggling to make a good profit but I have continued to sell my graphics to other webmasters so that has helped keep us afloat. It is fun to work from home and all but getting paid for it takes the fun out of it, I know I am weird lol.

Well not much else is going on, I need to get on here and blog more. I used to do it every single day, my life must have gotton less interesting or something.

I finally added some photo's of Eema's puppies to my photo album, they are in the "My Babies" folder. They are getting so big! They just turned 8 weeks old on Monday, it's so fun having these babies around that time has flown by!

Here is the most recent picture of them, I just took it about an hour ago...

Chaunsey (left) was supposed to go live with my Mom when he turned 8 weeks but I havent been able to let him go. I think we are gonna work out some kind of joint custody because I am way too attached to him! HAHA I know I am a dork when it comes to my Animals but they are the only kids I have! LOL

April will be here tomorrow!!! I am so excited I may piss myself before the day is over LOL JK! She will be here for Christmas and New Years so that will be a blast. I will be flying her home around the 5th of January so I will be in Minnesota for about a week. It will be awesome to see some snow again this year. Last January I was up there it snowed alot so hopefully it does the same this year.

Not much else new going on, trying to get some work done on my websites so I can start earning a little more again. My hits are way down!

We have alot to do today, we have to mail out our 50 Christmas cards, put up Christmas lights, get Aprils toys out of storage and a bunch of other stuff to get ready for April. Hopefully ill have time to make some of Jesse's favorite cookies for the Holiday so I won't have to make them while April is here so I can spend the time with her. It is fun keeping busy though, most of the time we don't have a life LOL.

Can't think of anything else to write. I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday!

I am so excited!!!! I will post pics here or at my main blog at carrieware.com after she has them and I have time to post them.

Here is the Mommy Annie...

And here is the Daddy Hobo (Pit bull)...

So their puppies are going to be German Shepherd/Lab/Pit Bull puppies. I can't wait to see what they all look like.

Here are some of the fireworks we saw....

After a long wait we are finally taking a Vacation. We are leaving on the 7th and will get back on the 18th. We are going to West Virginia, Mostly to see my Hubby's parents and Family. Its going to be a blast!

It will take us about 28 hours to get to West Virginia, This is the only way we have ever gotten to West Virginia so we have been this route before and here is some of our favorite places that we stop.
We leave Texas at 11:15 June 7th
LITTLE ROCK, AR for 20 Minutes
MEMPHIS, TN  for 1 Hour
NASHVILLE, TN for 3 Hours
LOUISVILLE, KY for 45 Minutes
CINCINNATI, OH for 45 Minutes
COLUMBUS, OH for 40 Minutes
We arrive at our stop in West Virginia at 4:50pm June 8th
Coming home we go to all the places above except for Little Rock. I know coming back I will have had enough of being on the road so its nice that the layovers in these places wont be as long as they are going there.

This time around we have a digital camera so we can take unlimited pictures there and we can take pictures of the places we stop at. A couple of the cities listed are so pretty at night so they will make some good pictures.

I bought a laptop for the trip so I am not without a computer for awhile I am gone. I am on it now actually, I am still trying to get used to using it because its wide screen and the moniter is so close to the keys so its a lot different, Its really cool though and I have wanted one for awhile but I didn't really have an excuse to buy one until now.

Anyway's I just wanted to post about the trip just incase anyone wonders why I am not answering messages while I am gone. Ill still be checking my messages but I most likely wont respond quickly because I wont be online very much.

I am going to miss my Animals so much but I bet its going to be awesome to come home and see them so excited to see us. I wish we could take them with but we cant. :(

I may post some more about this later....