Elle Woods

For those that are really close to me know my love for the actress, Reese Witherspoon. You know, the star for most famously "Legally Blonde" oh yeah, and that little movie she made as June Carter, kidding it was a huge movie- only to take home an Oscar in one of my Dad's favorite films, "Walk the line". But see, I loved her long before the character of Elle Woods entered the world, it all started with her in the Movie "Man in the moon" as Dani Trant. I would just ball at that movie when the boy died in the tractor accident. My girlfriend Joy and I would watch it over and over.......

I honestly don't even think I could rank my top 5 Reese Witherspoon movies, but I am going to attempt to think about it..... These are not in order of most favorite, but these are my top five...

Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama, Just like Heaven (how appropriate), Walk the Line and Man in the Moon. I really love these movies. (But don't worry friends, Mystic Pizza will remain my favorite movie of all time and sad but true, Reese Witherspoon is NOT in this film).

So back to Legally Blonde, the Elle Woods character grew on me--a rich, ditzy, blonde, sorority girl that turned totally smart and got into Harvard law school to chase a boy then came out to be a pretty incredible lawyer but also a very strong independent woman. And I'm not saying I want "my" Elle to follow in those footsteps, except for maybe the Harvard Law School part oh and strong woman and all, but I did name my daughter Elle mainly for my love of this character and Reese Witherspoon. (and for you Gramma, Elle is also short for Eleanor which reinforced that it was the perfect name).

So the reason for talking about this all started with an event that took place this afternoon....

Ted went to pick up Elle up from school today and he walked into the tadpole room and the teachers said to him, "we think your wife looks like Reese Witherspoon, and by chance was your daughter named after Elle Woods? because we call her Elle Woods here". Ted knew this would be music to my ears to hear these silly words so he had to call me right away. "You're going to LOVE this school even more now. The teachers think you look like Reese Witherspoon and apparently they call Elle, Elle Woods". Oh it did indeed bring music to my ears and I need music to my ears these days....But let's get this straight, I do NOT think I look like Reese. She is stunning and I look nothing like her except for one feature-my teeth. We have similar teeth, they "flare" out a bit and I swear that is the only reason why I have heard a few times of the resemblance. My own Dad even commented on it after watching Walk the Line and then quite frequently after as a joke. or various family or friends after watching Legally Blonde. Regardless if I think I resemble her even the slightest or not, the bottom line is I love that girl and teachers, for now anyway, you can call my daughter Elle Woods all day long if you want.........however, when she gets a little older we may want to tone it down a bit. She may one day turn on that flick and be disgusted with me that I would dare name her after such a character. One day, we may need to keep that a little quiet.

Today was one of those "good days". It was a good morning dropping Elle off , work was really fun-my presentation to management went great, I got to hold my neighbors new baby boy while Elle sat on her family members laps all smiley....today was the day that I fought through the pain and let myself enjoy my Day. I thought about my parents quite a bit, but right before I would start to think of "that day", I would stop myself or when I walked past their picture on the wall before entering into Elle's nursery, I stopped and smiled for a minute but wouldn't cry... but then after I put Elle down I did have to go upstairs and go through their file box to locate some bank statements and I pulled out my Mom's license. Darn it. And I wasn't going to cry today. But there she was-smiling and so happy and so young. Ugh...I miss them dearly........

YOUR Reese Witherspoon, Dad........