My sacrifice led to her being a model.....

I knew at an early age that I could crush the opportunities of everyone in my family.

I did not want my family to miss out on talent, smarts or beauty....
....so I sacrificed my perfection for their future.

I decided to stay short.
I decided to grow hair that would never be tamed.
I decided to wear sweats, t-shirts and jeans...daily....
which would eventually blind me to all fashion sense.

I decided to be happy doing the minimum amount to finish EVERYTHING...

My niece, Nicole, can thank me now...


She is appearing in the December/January issue of Justine Magazine.....GO BUY IT!

(that is not her on the front)

THIS is my beautiful niece!

As I was purchasing my items at Target, the checkerouterlady asked "are you buying the magazine?"

"YES! My niece is in it!" I said excitedly.

But perhaps too excitedly because my outburst earned me a look that you would give a scary, crazy talking, homeless person in a dark alley.

"otherwise, I wouldn't be buying a TEEN magazine", 

the words unfortunately kept diarrheaing out of my mouth....

I turned to the shopper in line behind me..hoping for a smile...

SHE was buying 3 teen magazines....sigh

I finally shut up. HOWEVER, I wanted to tell them how my 17 year old niece is so thoughtful, a really great cousin to my two sons, a smart, mature girl that has a heart for missions, SUPER funny...and gorgeous....

I wanted to open the magazine and show everyone around me all the pages that she "owned" with her brilliance! BUT...it was raining and cold and I did not want to post about me being escorted out of Target......not this time.

 As I thumbed through the magazine, I saw a story on the "One And Only Queen".

"huh, Nicole must have told them about her favorite aunt.....me", I thought...

I read further..
..."you are pretty stiff, pretty uptight".....
..."controling"....

My heart began to beat faster as I searched for my name...or my picture....

WHAT??? dern, they were talking about queen latifah.....