Happily Ever After

It's been 5 months since my last post

2011-11-02T23:05:00.000-04:00

OK, that title just made me flash back to my Catholic Church upbringing and confessions.... but that is another story for another day. It is true what they say, that the years go faster the older we get. It is now officially more than one year in dialysis and it has indeed been a roller coaster ride! I must say I love, love, love working 3 days, off 6 or 7 days and work 3 days, have 1 or 2 days off and work 3 days and the cycle repeats. I now have so much quality time to spend with my family!
I can't believe we are once again nearing the holiday season. I am flirting with having Thanksgiving at my house this year. If my schedule works as I've planned, I will do it. It has been a couple of years since I hosted last and it was so great to have the WHOLE family here. Bob and I are the only ones from his side of the family without grandchildren. I love seeing all the in-laws with their grand babies and catching up with the family I rarely get to see. I have recently been thinking that though I'm not in a rush to become a grandmother, I no longer fear becoming one. This thought got me to thinking just what I want my future grandchildren to call me. My mother is Abuelita or Ita for short, Bob's mother is Grandma and I don't think either fits me. So when the time comes I will have to pick up this book. I am kind of curious what name I will think fits me best. Anyway, what I was trying to get around to saying here is I can't believe how fast time is flying and that it is once again time to focus on Christmas. Last year was such a blur what with the new job and so little time off, with that said even though I have more time off this year I know the time will fly even faster and it is likely it will be months before I will return for an update.

8 months

2011-06-25T17:39:00.002-04:00

I have officially passed the 8 month mark working in dialysis. Just 4 months ago I didn't think I would make it here. I also thought I would never like much begin to love this job. It is a stressful specialty as I've said before but I have found my comfort zone. It is wonderful the connections I have made with many of my patients.
Just a few weeks ago one of my patient's (she is like the grandmother I never had) son passed from a long illness. She told me it would mean so much to her if I would go to the viewing. She went on to tell me how she has loved me since very shortly after I began working there. When Bob and I went to the viewing her family made a fuss over me and explained how, (let's call her Grandma B) she spoke of me often. It was so nice to know that what I do makes such a difference to my patients. Six months has made all the difference! Grandma B., said she saw my potential from the beginning. It is the little things that mean so much.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

2011-06-18T21:33:00.000-04:00

     As father's day approaches I have of course been thinking of my Dad. Truly I think about him often, but today it has hit me really hard how much I miss him. More than anything I'm sorry that Brandon never had the opportunity to know him.   I realize that the woman I am today is in great part due to my Dad. I am strong because he always told me I could do or be anything I wanted. I didn't believe him then. I didn't believe in myself. Today I know he was right. Today I also realize the difficulties he and my mother both had leaving everything they knew to leave communist Cuba to make a better life for themselves. They believed in the American dream and they found it here in Virginia.

   Dad worked very hard in a factory as did Mom to start their family. After 4 years of living in Virginia and working very hard I came to be. As a child and young teen I didn't understand just how hard they worked to provide me with a sound middle class up bringing. It's true I didn't have designer clothing, or live in an upscale neighborhood. What I did have was food on the table, clothes, records, stereo, my own room in a very nice brick rancher in a middle class neighborhood. I never wanted for anything that I didn't get.

     Dad always had great expectations of me. Sadly I don't think I met those expectations before Dad died. He never said that of course but I never felt I lived up to what he thought I should become. Maybe a doctor or lawyer or something like that. I do think he would be proud to know I did finally become an RN. I only wish I'd done it sooner so he could have been there at my graduation. I do feel that even after his death he is still with me. Dad and his words are still with me, "You have to do, what you have to do." Simple words that are so very true.

   I know in my heart that Dad is looking down and smiling on me and my family. I know one day I will be reunited with him and that gives me a great deal of comfort. Right now, I just miss him. I wish he were here for me to say these words to, though reality is I probably would not say them to him. It is much easier to tell this to strangers on the world wide web that it would have been to ever say them to Dad. Why is that? So Dad it is here in black and white that I type these words and I pray you can read them or know that I think them. Happy Father's Day Daddy, I love you and I miss you!

UPDATE on van funding

2011-04-29T17:11:00.000-04:00

I was pleasantly surprised this week to find a check for $1,000 for the repairs on Nickie's van. The donor asked to remain anonymous even though I would love to shout the name from the roof tops, I will honor the request. We now have $1,300.00 from donors, towards the $5000.00 we need to add to our own $1,000.00 to have all the repairs on the van. I want to thank all our donors and a special thanks to our anonymous donor! God bless you all!

Change in funding goal!

2011-04-25T09:11:00.001-04:00

Goal to fund repairs to our accessible van. I was able to find a mechanic that can replace the transmission, as well as a company to repair the lift hydraulics, regular maintenance to the lift and the leaking lift entry door seal for a total of $7,800 which is a much more reasonable goal than a new accessible mini-van or the original quotes I received of $15,500 to $18,950. We have $2,800 as our own personal goal to add to the GoFundMe goal we have of $5,000. We currently have saved $1,000 towards our personal goal. Please share the information on your blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. We can't do this without your help! Thanks

The Supernatural

2011-04-23T18:33:00.001-04:00

Today I was catching up on some blog reading and decided to visit Murray's blog. Murray has a wonderful way of telling a story. He isn't blogging as frequently or as in depth as he once did several years ago however I do enjoy his blog very much. I especially loved it when he would have a voice blog and I would get to hear that wonderful Australian accent of his!
The above mentioned blog post had me thinking about the time when I was about 14 or 15 and I was in what was being used as a den back then in my mother's house. There was still blue shag carpeting from the original owners, a French Provincial style sofa with some gold pattern in it and my most cherished procession my stereo system. It was a very dreary day with bursts of pouring rain that slacked off to a drizzle. My mother wasn't feeling well and had gone to lay in bed. My father had left to see some friends and I was listening to my, I'm almost ashamed to say this, Shaun Cassidy album. I was playing the album rather loudly and singing at the top of my voice when I heard the side door entrance open and slam shut. I heard foot steps down the hall way to my mother's room. I turned the music down called out to my father and looked out the door of the den.
There was no response, so I returned to the room turned the music back up and began to sing again. Several minutes passed when I again heard footsteps from the hall and the side entrance door open and slam shut again. I walked out of the room again calling for my father. I walked to the side door and looked to see if his car was in the driveway. I stood there a little confused and walked down the hall to mom's room. She was still resting but I asked her if dad had just come home and left? Her response has been something that has always bothered me. She replied, "No, but some man spoke to me in a language I could not understand, he walked into my room yelling at the top of his voice. When he was done he slapped me on my behind and left the room."
I didn't understand how she could remain so calm. She said it wasn't the first time someone or something had contacted her like that. She explained that she had visits like that several times in her life. I am still not sure I believe it but I can't deny the things I heard. My immediate response to that situation was to drop to my knees and pray that God never let me have the ability to see or hear that sort of thing again. I never have at least not really. I have since met more people than I can count that truly believe. One wonderful acquaintance that believes I have the ability to have contact with the supernatural but because I asked God to protect me from that I do not see/hear them around me.
I have like I'm sure so many of you have felt the hairs on the back of neck stand straight up for no apparent reason. I've sometimes felt a rush of wind pass me inside my house when there were no open windows or fans or logical explanation for that. I've seen out of the corner of my eye what looked like some sort of blurry something go by. I always explain it away as something in my eye or any excuse I can use to wish it away. Ultimately I pray to God that he not let me see, feel, or hear any such thing if it does exist and of course protect my family and I if there is indeed such a thing.
What is it that you believe?

Happy and Sad

2011-03-12T17:30:00.001-05:00

In less than one month Jackie will be moving into her first apartment with her fiance Jason. I'm happy for them both and yet at the very same time I'm sad to see my girl go. Jackie has been a huge help to me while I was going to school to get my RN degree. She was a tremendous help with her brother Brandon. The last months since my graduation and her getting her first job and getting more independence has been bitter sweet for me.

I'm happy that she is no longer afraid of the world and has in the last year gotten her driver's license, gotten a job and had Jason move in here with us. Though I know she is ready for this next step and I truly thought I would be ready as well, I'm learning I'm much more worried about her move and her future than she is. She will be moving to Richmond a full 1.5 hours from home. I know that isn't so far yet it seems like a million miles away.

Shaun moved out years ago and somehow that wasn't difficult at all. He never was a Momma's boy, he was always such an independent young man. I'm not sure Jackie knows just how much I'm going to miss her or if she will even miss us at all. As much as it shames me to say this, I was so happy to leave home when I did I didn't miss home, mom or dad at all. Granted I was only a few minutes from home when Bob and I married and moved to our first apartment. Looking back now I'm not sure how I handled the sudden change. I'd never been away from home before and yet from the first day Bob and I began our lives together it never felt uncomfortable. Honestly it was as if we had been living together forever. It was the most natural experience. I'm sure it is just like that for Jackie and Jason. They do seem perfect for one another and I could not have picked a nicer young man for Jackie.

This change may be harder on me than anyone but I do wish them the very best and pray that God gives them the strength, knowledge and where-with-all to handle everything that comes their way. I also pray He gives me the strength to get through this change and the poise, knowledge and support that they will need from me. Yes as I type this tears are welling up into my eyes (sniffle, sniffle) thinking of how quickly the years have gone by and how my beautiful baby girl has grown into a beautiful young woman.

Aren't they a beautiful couple!

The above photo is one of my father with Jackie in his arms and Shaun by his side. I can't believe how long ago that was.

And here I am with my girl. I'm so proud of her! Jackie, I love you more than you will ever know! I wish you and Jason the best the world has to offer!

UPDATE: Change in plans Jackie and Jason will continue to live here at home until they both find jobs in the Richmond area.

Celebrations continue!

2011-02-12T07:29:00.000-05:00

In January Bob and I celebrated 27 years of marriage. We had an awesome weekend in Williamsburg! Time alone with the man I love, walking in the brisk night air after a romantic dinner at Captain Georges. Last weekend was my birthday and my entire family was here celebrating with me. I have been so blessed. Bob and I are looking forward to several getaway weekends with Brandon and Nickie this year. So we are going later today to the RV expo to see if we can find an RV that works with a wheelchair. We think the "toy" carrying type might fit the bill. We may however decide to continue using hotels, condos or looking into time shares. Not sure just yet what is the best fit for us. We only know we want to enjoy as many weekends and vacation time that we have together. Making that happen when you have a wheelchair is complicated to say the least. I'd love feed back from those of you that have experience traveling with a motorized wheelchair. If you have done it with an RV tell me what you did to make it work.

Happy Veteran's Day

2010-11-11T07:40:00.000-05:00

I'd like to thank our veteran's for all that they do to secure our freedom and keep us safe. I also wanted to share the Red Skelton piece on the Pledge of Allegiance. He explains it so well.

Nursing Is Not For Wimps!

2010-11-03T19:22:00.000-04:00

I've known for many years that I wanted to become a nurse, twenty years, to be exact. When everyone else in my family was afraid to learn what was needed to care for Nickie, there I was. I had many fears but I knew I had to overcome them to give my baby girl a chance to survive. In a few short weeks I became an expert on her care. Over the years I let my insecurities and the ups and downs of everyday life keep me from getting back on the road to nursing school. I must give thanks to God, my family and friends who reminded me daily that I could do it.

Today I know without a doubt that nursing is my calling in life. I know I make a difference to my patients. I know that it won't be peaches and cream and I will have far more frustrations in this profession than not. I also know that one moment can erase all those frustrations. One hug from a patient, one smile, one gentle hand squeeze. When you can turn the light bulb on for a patient through education, those are the moments that make up for all the back breaking, every muscle aching, days.

I'm going through my training for my new job in dialysis and there is so much to learn! It is a little overwhelming, but we have some awesome patients that encourage me, that look forward to my being there and if I can bring a little laughter with the care and kindness and education then we all have a better day! I hear dialysis is a tough specialty (I believe it!) and burn out occurs quickly (I can see that too!). I hope I will be able to see that in myself and get out before it affects the care I provide my patients. God willing it will be a place for me to hang my hat for a long while. If it turns out that is not the case, then I will take with me some wonderful experiences to the next job.

Exciting weeks since last post!

2010-10-06T20:38:00.001-04:00

Praise God! I passed the NCLEX-RN (state boards) with flying colors! I'm now officially a registered nurse! I have never been so scared of a test in all my life! The computer cut off on the minimum number of questions which can mean either I failed it royally or I passed it really well! It was the 3rd most agonizing 24 hours of my life. The 1st and 2nd both being times Nickie was so very sick in an ICU that we didn't know if she would survive. I had 2 interviews within the five days after passing the state boards and again I praise God for two job offers!

Bob and I spent hours going over the pros and cons of both offers and I'm happy to announce I accepted a job in dialysis. I begin soon with five weeks of dialysis training in Roanoke. I'm excited about today and the future!

Long summer, many trials

2010-09-24T21:04:00.001-04:00

So much has happened since graduation. Some wonderful, some very frightening. In May Nickie went to the prom with her boyfriend Ryan! It was awesome! The entire junior and senior class gave them a huge welcome to the prom!

Ryan and Nickie dancing!

Ryan, Linda (Nickie's nurse) and Nickie!

Nickie gave us a big scare when she aspirated a feeding and had to go the ER via ambulance to the local hospital. She was admitted to the ICU and long story short, they didn't listen to me or her nurse when we said that she needed to be on humidified air while ventilated. This caused extensive damage to her lungs and honestly there was a time there that we almost lost her. I wish I had requested a move to a more qualified hospital but I didn't and on the 4th day the Dr. suggested we move her to another better equipped ICU. She went to MCV and by the grace of God she is now fully recuperated. The staff at MCV was awesome! It was difficult having her so far from home but she was in the best hands there. I'm thankful she pulled through this and grateful for God's grace. With all the weeks of hospitalization and continued recovery at home testing for state boards was placed on the back burner.
I'm happy to say I was finally able to do that yesterday and again by God's grace I can now say I'm officially a registered nurse! A job that was on the table at graduation may still be in sight.... more on that soon.

Vote for The Silver Star Families of America in the Pepsi Refresh Project!

2010-06-03T09:43:00.000-04:00

whirlwind of excitement.

2010-05-17T11:34:00.002-04:00

Pinning ceremony was the 11th and it was a fantastic night! We left the next morning for the Outer Banks and had a glorious mini-vacation to celebrate graduation. Now my search continues for a J O B! I'm so thankful to God for getting me through school and for my family, friends and all the experiences that have made me who I am today. That includes all the bad things from my past, for without them I wouldn't be where I am today. Those bad experiences which include people that pretended to be friends to my face, were placed in my life for a reason. It wasn't fun at the time, I did indeed learn valuable lessons. Fortunately I have not lost my trust in mankind and did find some of the best friends in nursing school, friends that I know will last a lifetime!

RN Class of 2010

2010-05-06T11:50:00.024-04:00

Today I am an RN graduate. It is official! Pinning ceremony is Tuesday and I will post pictures. I can hardly believe the journey to become an RN is over. It is by the grace of God that I have been able to do this and it is in His honor that I will dedicate my work. I want to thank also my wonderful instructors, Jackie Daniel and Lisa Bennett as well as my class for the encouragement and support that you all provided to me. I must also thank my family for putting up with all the craziness that is nursing school and for not kicking me out when the stresses were so high. Now the next stage begins.... finding a JOB.

9 weeks

2010-02-26T22:21:00.000-05:00

Even as I type that I'm in complete shock, 9 weeks till graduation. These last 2/12 years have truly flown by. There is so much to do to prepare. So much work still to do. So many tests, exams and NCLEX. I've been applying everywhere and my head is spinning trying to figure out where to go and sort through what offers there are. It's happening so very quickly. Tick, tock, tick, tock. For right now, its spring break and I am going to try to relax and enjoy. Until next time!

"Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking, ticking, away.."

2009-11-14T15:17:00.004-05:00

Just as the lyrics above state, time is ticking away. I truly can't believe how quickly another year has flown by. My family and I have been blessed with so many things this year and we are now looking forward to a Thanksgiving with all of my husband's side of the family...close and extended. We expect to fill our house with 20-30some odd family members and some friends. I haven't figured out the logistics of that many people in the house but one thing is for sure no matter how cold it may be outside it will be toasty warm with body heat inside. At first when my husband suggested hosting for that many people I panicked, I thought there is no way I can feed that many people nor do we have the room. I've solved the feeding part by asking everyone to bring a dish and a few beverages of their choice. The seating part we still have to work out but God willing the weather will be nice and we can enjoy the outdoors as well.

School has been a jumble of stress, joy, eventful experiences and so much more. My grades have been holding up well and our clinical experiences have been very interesting. We have been all over the place seeing all aspects of nursing from hospitals, clinics, schools and health departments. There are countless opportunities for an RN. Even though graduation isn't until May 2010, I've been offered positions at several clinical sights as well as 3 of the home health agencies that I've used for Nickie over the years. I have received several letters of recommendation from professors, nurses and my supervisor at my externship at the local hospital. I never knew I would love being a student nor the nursing field as much as I do.

Age old question...

2009-06-10T17:22:00.002-04:00

Why is there so much HATE in our world? Today's shooting at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC was apparently stopped just in time, they found explosives in the shooters car. You can read about it here. I pray for the family of Stephen T. Johns I hope they will be able to recover from this tragedy. I also pray that the haters of our world find peace not hate. We don't all have to agree on anything really except that life is a precious gift and no matter how much we disagree with anyone we have to learn to stop the HATE and learn to live our lives the best way we can.

Interracial couples

2009-06-05T22:15:00.002-04:00

Today while reading the Yahoo headlines I read, Dating 101: Dealing with the RACE fact. Which lead me to a little investigating. I wondered just what the definition of interracial was. In doing so I found that we all have our own ideas just what that is.

The most basic definition I found was: A relationship between people of different races.
OK, that seems straight forward but what exactly are the races. Caucasians for example are whites right? Is an American Caucasian the same as a Greek Caucasian or an Italian Caucasian or Hispanic Caucasian?

I read several posts and articles on the WWW that left me as confused as I was when I began my search for an answer. Here I read a post from a couple that some might consider interracial however I would have just considered intercultural. I always wondered just what others thought of Bob and I. He is Caucasian and I'm Hispanic. Whenever we or should I say I got those stares I thought it was because people in our Southern state confused me for black or mixed due to my olive coloring and their ignorance. Now I'm not so sure that is the case. This article seems to lean to more acceptance of racial mixing with Hispanics and whites and Asians and whites over blacks and whites.

Truth is I guess it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. We've been married for over 25 years now and though we have both made many mistakes (like most couples in a long marriage) we are still going strong.

But surely you jest

2009-06-01T10:24:00.004-04:00

Half of this year 2009 has come and nearly gone and I have not visited my blog in all that time. So much has happened and I've been so busy with life that I have forgotten to mention any of it here. A quick run down of all that has happened since my last visit.

Part time job at the Hospital
Start of the 2nd semester of RN school (whew)
25th wedding anniversary
Bob had surgery
44th birthday
Bob had surgery again
Bob's 50th birthday
Jackie turned 21
The end of 2nd semester! Hip Hip Hurray!
Celebration of the completion of 1st year RN program!
The start of summer
Foot surgery to remove a cyst that has been aggravated by being on my feet all day
Many other things I don't have the time to share or would rather keep to myself : )

I'm amazed at the swiftness that this year has taken. I know the older we get the faster the years go by. However, I'm not getting older I'm getting better! Like a fine wine! I have been so blessed with great family, friends, classmates and co-workers. There was a time I had regrets and now I see only successes. Everything in my past has brought me to this present. This glorious here and now that the Lord Almighty foresaw so long ago. For all the mistakes and the heartaches I am stronger, more insightful and grateful than I've ever been in my life. I know it is due to the road I've walked thus far and the education I gained along the way that has strengthened me to be the mother, wife, student, employee, daughter, etc that I have become. I still have a long way to go and the Lord it forever molding me. I look forward to the coming school year and my continuing education post graduation. I'm sure it will be sometime before I post again as I don't seem to have the time to do this, I think this is a good thing, but I will stop in from time to time.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T17:38:00.002-05:00

2009! May we all have a healthy, happy and prosperous 2009!

Whew!

2008-12-27T15:43:00.003-05:00

Now that Christmas is behind me I can begin to breathe! We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends! Though the build up to Christmas was hectic and crazy with finals, shopping, baking, and such, it has been one of the most enjoyable and peaceful years that I can recall.

I made it through the first semester of RN school! I've been blessed with the best instructors. I have a great bunch of classmates and I had the best clinical group I could have ever asked for. I've made some wonderful friends that I hope will be in my life for a very long time. Thanks to the recommendations of my instructors I will be working in the new year in a part time position working as a nursing assistant at a local hospital. This will provide me with a TON of experience. I am very excited about this new job. It will mean of course that it will be that much more difficult next semester to keep up with my studying but I am very determined and I know I can do it!

I hope each and everyone of you had a blessed Christmas! I'm looking forward to the new year and ending this year by forgiving all those that in my past I felt had wronged me in some way. I also ask that anyone that feels I may have wronged them would also forgive me. I am wiping the slate clean from this point forward! God bless you all and may 2009 bring us all peace, good health and prosperity!

7 year anniversary of 9/11

2008-09-09T11:04:00.003-04:00

I can't believe we are fast approaching the 7th year anniversary of 9/11. I'm posting this a little early because I'll be in the middle of a HUGE nursing test that morning and may not have the time to post all the things I am feeling. I find it difficult to even use the word anniversary as I always think of that word as a celebration for a happy event. Celebration of course clashes with the events of 9/11. Seven years later and I still can recall the gut wrenching fear I felt that day. I didn't personally know any of those that lost their lives that fateful day and I know my losses don't compare to those that did lose a loved one. Like the rest of the Americans, true Americans I should say, I lost a sense of comfort, safety, and many other things that I can't begin to articulate.

Seven years have passed and like many other Americans I have gone about tending to the things in my life that needed to be tended to, caring for my family, working, schooling, and so on. The events of what happened on 9/11 though not in the forefront of my mind on a daily basis is still never far away. I just wanted to say that though on 9/11 I will be sure to take time to pray for all those that were involved that were injured or lost their lives that day, for those that were involved in taking down a plane or saving people from burning buildings, for those doctors, nurses, emergency personal, firefighters and all the countless others I'm not mentioning, remember them. I pray too that we will be able to soon find all those involved with that horrible act and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Please don't forget on that day of remembrance to also pray for the men and women risking their lives to find those evil men and women that were involved with the acts that culminated in the attack that day. They need our prayers each and everyday.

I MADE IT!

2008-08-05T17:34:00.002-04:00

It's official! I've been accepted to the RN program at my community college! The next 2 years will be tough! I won't have much time for blogging, eh, I know I haven't blogged much anyway, I won't have much time for much else. I can use your well wishes and prayers. I'll try to post when I can. I'm off to enjoy the few weeks of free time I have between the end of summer classes and the start of the most rigorous time of my life! I'm off to the Lake!

After some long hard thought

2008-06-30T10:37:00.006-04:00

And reading and answering so many emails from my readers I decided it was silly for me to abandon this blog. I never should have let a few unscrupulous people move me from my blogger home. I promise to blog in my "true to my heart style" as my long time loyal reader Victoria put it. If the truth stings then so be it. And that is all I have to say about that.

This has been a GLORIOUS summer thus far! We have spent days at the lake soaking up the sun and enjoying the cool water (in between my studies, of course!) I was taking a 5 week Microsoft class that I completed last week. I had a wonderful instructor that gave us tons of work but made the class interesting. I'd never worked in Excel before and though it was at times frustrating, I hope to use some of that knowledge in at home budgeting. I'm in the middle of my Sociology course, as a matter of fact I have to take 2 quizzes later today. This class has proven to be very enlightening though I won't bore you with any of the details. I'm hanging on to a 4.0 so far.

I must mention here about a young man that I had the privilege to meet, spc. Dean Schwartz. I had the opportunity to meet him on the day that Dean was being honored for his sacrifice for our great country. We can all take lessons from this young man. He has lost so very much and still has a wonderful outlook on life. It was a pleasure meeting him. I was so happy to present to him the Silver Star Banner and certificate on the 19th of June. He was completely surprised by the event as his mother and father had kept the night a surprise from him.
Above Dean is receiving the Golden Heart award.
Below Dean's father is presenting him with the Who's Who award. Finally here I am presenting Dean with the Silver Star Banner and Certificate.

I hope and pray the best for Dean in his future. He will be getting married next month so he has plenty of change in his near future. Below I have added some links on more about Dean.

Defense Link News
Soldier Ride (scroll down to July 3 to see Dean's picture)
America Supports You ( see Harrisonburg, VA)
Far From Virginia
It's a Long Road Back For Injured Soldier
Blogger post

The list goes on but here were just a few to give you a glimpse of the kind of man SPC Dean Schwartz is.

Need Feed back

2008-03-02T12:49:00.002-05:00

OK, I know I said I wouldn't post here and that I'd found another home for my blog and the latter is true. I'm only posting this cause I want some feed back. Please leave comments as I'm confused as to why the blog is continuing to get so many hits each week when I'm not even posting anymore. Can someone enlighten me? I can see from my site meter that some of the hits are from the same people that drove me to find a new home for my blog and I'm wondering why they would continue to come here at all. It is OVER people. As to the rest of you... care to enlighten me? You can leave your comments, they will remain private as I'm not posting them to the site but I'd love to hear what you have to say.

OH! One more thing tonight is the airing of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition that features the Lucas Family. Check it out! Check your local listings for time.

Christmas memories 200

2007-12-26T16:38:00.000-05:00

Santa was sneaky! He was quiet and he stuffed things so far under the tree that when Brandon and I came down it was apparent he had visited but we couldn't tell the extent of the items. There were so many items back behind the tree that we couldn't see when we came down. It wasn't till Brandon was sitting down on the floor reaching for what he thought was the last item that he caught a glimpse of the packages still in hiding. It was like a treasure hunt! The kids were so happy and that was the biggest gift I could get! In what seemed like minutes but was more lie an hour and a half later all the gifts were opened and the only thing was to try it all out and clean up the mess. I hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas!

Beautiful Christmas love story

2007-12-23T12:14:00.000-05:00

Below is a beautiful Christmas love story that I recently received
in email. Its a tearful but beautiful story, have a tissue ready.

One beautiful December evening Pedro and his
girlfriend Rosita were sitting by the side of the ocean.
It was a romantic full moon, when Pedro said,
"Hey, mamacita, let's do Weeweechu."

Oh no, not now, let's look at the moon!" said Rosita.

Oh, c'mon baby, let's you and I do Weeweechu.
I love you and it's the perfect time," Pedro begged.
"But I wanna just hold your hand and watch the
moon." replied Rosita.

Please, corazoncito, just once, do Weeweechu with me."

Rosita looked at Pedro and said, "OK, one time,
we'll do Weeweechu."

Pedro grabbed his guitar and they both sang.....

"Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, Weeweechu a Merry
Christmas,
Weeweechu a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year."

OK, so I needed the tissue cause I laughed so hard that I cried...I just thought I'd share!

Merry Christmas to all!

2007-12-22T16:31:00.000-05:00

Its been a hectic month here in our neck of the woods. I am sure you all know how that is. We are done with the shopping and wrapping of gifts and looking forard to Christmas eve dinner and all the excitement of Christmas day. I think we were able to find all the right gifts for those on our list. Last Saturday we went to the local tree farm and cut down a tree, all of us: Bob, Shaun, Jackie(and her nurse, Linda), Nickie, Brandon and I piled into 2 vehicles. It didn't take us long to find the perfect tree. Nickie and Brandon lined up for the required photo.

Jackie and Brandon decorated the tree this year with Nickie's supervision! They did a fine job!

Brandon decorated the Christmas village all by himself!

Bob and I presented the kids with an early Christmas gift for the entire family. I'd like to present Rikki, the newest member of our family.

Many years ago we had a ferret and I'd been saying for sometime that I wanted to get another one when we had the space. If you've never had one of these guys for a pet you have no idea how much fun they can be. They love their people and the mischief they get into is tons of fun! Rikki is showing a little more personality each day. He already seems to have a routine. Each morning either Bob or I goes down to see if he is awake and he is usually up early each morning. If I get him then I place him in the bed with Bob to wake him up. If Bob gets him he does the same to me. After a few minutes of play I take him to Brandon's room to wake him up. Rikki seems to enjoy his job and its a much nicer way to be woken up then say a buzzing alarm!

I can't wait to celebrate with my whole gang in one house. I wish you all the happiest Christmas! May the spirit of God be with you all and may you stay safe!
Love to you all!

Silver Star Families Organization

2007-12-16T10:26:00.001-05:00

Some months ago I was asked to help my friend Trish in contacting our Governor Tim Kaine to sign a proclamation to make May 1st Silver Star day in VA. I believed in what the organization was standing behind and felt compelled to help out. I was more than a little excited when I received the signed proclamation in the mail from Gov. Kaine's office. You can find a copy of the proclamation here. I have to admit I was very pleased with myself for having accomplished the goal. I promptly made a copy of the proclamation for myself and along with a beautiful thank you card I received from Trish and one from the Silver Star families I have set them aside to properly have them displayed. I was reminded last night when I received an email from Trish asking me to join the Silver Star Families organization. It seems they still need a representative for Virginia. I'm in the process of reading the rep requirements and by laws. I would love to be involved with this! I'll let ya know what happens.

in an email from Trish today!

2007-12-15T21:49:00.000-05:00

I had sent my dear friend Trish a Christmas card a few days ago and today in my email I got the below... See this is the way it is supposed to be... those of you that read my "inner circle" posts know just what I'm talking about.

I recently got this note in a Christmas card:

All I did was forward a wonderful e-mail sent to me in hopes of finding that one special family to receive this wonderful gift!! Click on the link below, and see the photos - It IS amazing - and what a joy to know this family is getting this done for them - they have a son who is autistic, and as you all know, my Lucas (grandson - age 5), is also autistic - so, this 'really' has a lot of meaning to me!! God bless this family and THANK YOU, Lillie!! Love you!!

Check this out!

Speaking of the show, rumor has it that Ty Pennington was kicked out of our Farmville Mulligans for drunken behavior and there is also a rumor that he got a DUI that night as well. I've heard this on the radio as well as from many of the locals. I've also heard conflicting info from those that were able to meet him in person. Some say he was a heck of a nice guy, while others said he was a complete jerk. I don't know what the truth is but I'll continue to believe that he is a nice guy until he proves me wrong. I'm sure rumors will continue to abound around here for years to come. It isn't often something that exciting happens in a small town like ours.

Till next time!

Move that bus!

2007-12-10T19:59:00.000-05:00

The kids and I had talked about going to the Extreme makeover home edition site and had decided over the weekend after reading in the Farmville Herald that the shuttle buses were handicap accessible, that we would like to go and see them move the bus today. We made some new friends and saw lots of other friends there as well. We had a great time! We got there early before 10 am. We were entertained by pirates with some song and dance. They were pleased to see Brandon in his pirate shirt.

They spent time with Nickie too.

Jackie and I even got a picture ourselves. We even considered becoming pirates ourselves after watching them have so much fun!

It was interesting seeing all that goes on behind the scenes. There is a lot of hyping up the crowd and practice runs of everything.

There is even a test run of "the family" coming out of the limo and hearing the crowd say "move that bus". They used a fill in family to do the practice run. I wonder just how tired the cast gets of doing it over and over again. We met James Brown, no not that James Brown, this one.
He was a really nice guy. He made a fuss over Nickie. The EMHE that ran Sunday night was of a family in Vermont with a 2 year old that has the same condition that Nickie has, Arthrogryposis, and James said he wanted to meet her. So he talked to her and this really made Nickie smile. She loves to get attention from a good looking man. She is such a flirt, she even winked at him!
By 1 PM we were exhausted and hungry and after hearing that the reveal had been moved back to 3PM I made the executive decision to go home. Brandon was thrilled, Nickie was too since I think the huge crowd kinda freaked her out. There is a chance that she may be in a shot of the practice run of the move that bus, that was done. I think it was a wise decision to leave when we did since the parking lot was filled with tons more people making their way over to the site and the street had overflow parking filled up and down both sides of the road.
This of course means I didn't get to see the Lucas family's reaction, seeing the house for the first time but we will all get to see that on the air. I understand from some of the others at the site that the family was also given a beautiful quad cab 4x4 truck. You may be able to see a glimpse of it parked to the right of the house in one of those pictures above. I can't think of a more deserving family. I wish them a lifetime of happiness in their new home.

And the numbers roll in...

2007-12-08T19:51:00.001-05:00

Wow, I'm amazed! Apparently the posts (The "inner circle") that I have now restored to the site, brought in a record number of readers! I generally get one or two hits a day. Last week brought me a total of 77 hits! Again I say, WOW! I guess drama is what this site has been missing. Trust me drama isn't missing from my life I just never knew that it would interest the readers as much as it did! Well OK I did get a clue from the comments that were left and from the emails that were sent to me that there was an increase in readership but seeing the actual numbers just boggled the mind. Yeah I know that isn't that difficult to do but you can pretend it is and just flatter me here....OK, I'm waiting!

OK, so I finally got my classes lined up for my first semester back to school beginning next month! I was hoping to carry a full 12 credits but I had a conflict with one of the classes so I'll be carrying only 8.... LMAO only 8. After nearly 10 years of absence since I last attended a college class 8 is gonna be a complete shock to the system!

Bob and I stopped by the VIP tent of the Extreme makeover home edition and picked up VIP passes to visit the site. I was amazed that on our visit Friday the house was already practically complete on the outside. Demolition of the existing structure took place on Wed. and directly following that they began construction of the new structure. The local paper says that it is approximately a 2,500 SF home. There is also a small structure that is being built as a museum for Michael Lucas' very large Civil war memorabilia. I have decided against going on Monday for the "move that bus" or reveal portion of the show. For one Jean still has no idea of the crap these people have said, at least I don't think she knows. Jean and the family are in Orlando, FLA visiting Disney World and won't be back until Monday. I haven't wanted to spoil any of this for Jean and the family so I won't be telling her about it.

Funny thing is I ran into another home school family that had tried to become part of this group and got an interesting story from them. They were sited as not being welcome to the group because they felt they were transient people and they feared for the safety of their children and the children of the other members... Yeah guess who relayed this message to that family... you got it Nicole* There is a pattern here! Anywho... I have a busy weekend as I've not even begun to decorate nor to purchase any gifts! I guess I better move my butt! Till next time!

Thanks for all the GREAT comments!

2007-12-04T13:06:00.000-05:00

I got some great comments and emails on my 3 part post of the "inner circle". I really want to thank you for your perspectives! I've chosen to remove the original post as it did serve my purpose, I vented and OMG how much better I felt to have done that! Great to know that so many of you agreed with me on the topic. I chose not to post any of the comments but I assure you all that not only do I have a copy of that post but also a copy of all the emails saved for my personal use! Again ty all!

I'm thankful for.....

2007-12-03T12:14:00.000-05:00

1. Extreme Home Makeover, picking Jean and her wonderful family for the show!

2. my wonderful family.

3. my wonderful new church family.

4. my true friends, you know who you are and be assured I love you all.

5. another day!

6. my hardships for they make me truly treasure the good stuff.

7. my home.

The "inner circle" part Three

2007-12-03T07:41:00.001-05:00

part one and two.

After receiving Jean's email I immediately sent this to Trish:

Trish,
I wanted to let you know the link you sent about Extreme home makeover may well be helping a family in my home school group. Below is her details of a day of filming, with any luck she will make it to the top 5 and hopefully be the family picked for the show in the end. Keep Jean and her family in your prayers!
Lillie

She wrote me back:

Oh, Lillie, thank you for letting me know - I'll definitely keep them in my prayers- let me know, ok!?! Love you!!

I was so happy for Jean and her family that I also emailed my friends to let them know the good news!

Friends,
I wanted to send you an email sent to me from my friend Jean. I forwarded a link to extreme home make over that was sent to me by my friend Trish. EHM was looking for a family in our area to help out and I'd like to ask you all to pray for Jean and her family and perhaps she will be blessed and be picked. There was a time a good friend of mine, Ruppert, was doing his best to get us some help from this same show. God had other plans for us and saw to it that we got this wonderful house we are now in. Though not the perfect set up for a wheelchair it works well and I surely feel very blessed. Thank you Ruppert for everything you've done for us! Anyway, I'll be sure to keep you all updated on the results.
Lillie

Suffice it to say I was more than a bit happy for Jean! Fast forward to last Friday. I'm on my way home from a trip to Richmond when I receive a phone call from Linda, telling me that there is a buzz around town about Extreme Home makeover. Apparently on Thursday night reps of EHM had been to a local church, New Life, and they were hyping up the group about a local family they were going to be helping. Wow! It was really going to happen! As soon as I got home I emailed Trish with the good news! I checked my email to see if any "official" word had come from the inner circle. Of course there was none. I was able to verify via a friend at New Life that the buzz was true and that the house was being built for Jean and her family in Rice. How exciting! In our conversation I found that through a friend of a friend she had information that my old HS group had sent out an email of the good news... just they didn't see it was necessary to let me know about it. This of course lead me to write to Nicole*:

Nicole*,
I heard via Nickie's nurse that EHM did come to Rice so I can only assume she was picked! I wish someone had let me know! I feel so left out and I was the one that sent the link! Oh well.
Lillie

Nicole's* reply:

EHM has not contacted anyone in this group to my knowlege. I talked to Jean on Wed and she was not even sure she would be selected. It has not happened. Until it does (if it does) I wouldn't be very inclined to contact anyone about it.
Nicole*

Now remember this is Friday I'm writing to her, this is important to remember as you will see:

Nicole*,
interesting cause its all over town that something happened at New life last night to kick the event off. . Now I can't be sure its about Jean but it is in Rice and that is where her house is being built. However since y'all wouldn't have known about them looking for a military family in need without my email to you all it's interesting that I'd be completely left out of the good that came of it... Now, I'm not blaming you Nancy that isn't my intention, however it would have been nice to know about it.
Besides I've also heard through the grapevine that the group has been aware since sometime this week. I'm happy for Jean and her family! I'm just sad that I was left out of the celebration. Yeah it is nice to be recognized for getting the info to you all and it helping out one of the group, but I suppose that isn't gonna happen.
God bless,
Lillie

Drive by her house in RIce and see for yourself.I believe you will find everyting as it was when Michael left for Iraq. I will repeat, no one in this group has been contacted by EHM to my knowledge. Let me commend you for sending the link. I can now check that off my todo list.

I was at home in bed last night. If anything happened at New Life, it did not involve anyone in this group to my knowledge. There were a few people in the group instrumental in getting EHM Jeans info, a couple more so than you. I have not heard one of them say anything about needing to be recognized for their effort. That is absolutly selfish. Punching a couple of computer buttons does not quite qualify you for an award. Or anything else.

No one, as far as I am aware, has been asked to be a part of the show, nor has anyone "known" anything since earlier this week. I'm not sure where you are getting your info and I really don't care. However, you should recheck your sources. I am going to end this email now before i get ugly and will not engage in this discussion anymore. When I do hear any news or official information, you can bet, I will not be sharing it with you, although I may have before this evening.

Nicole*

I have had a very hard day.

Please do not bother me again this evening.

Ummmm Yeah of course if I were to drive by her house, even if I knew where it was, on any day prior to today, 12/3/07 would see the house in the same condition it was left in on Michael's deployment. Duh!

OK, I'll admit my use of the word recognized was not perhaps the correct word to have been used. What I had meant was I didn't want to be left out of the loop. I only wanted to be informed. Those of you that know me, know that I'm a happy go lucky person. I like to laugh and I'm a big kidder. I joke all the time. Most of what I say has to be taken in that context. I'll admit however, I wasn't in a joking mood when I felt I was being left out of the loop. Fortunately for me I didn't receive her reply to that email till I got back online today. Poor Nicole* and her very hard day.

Nicole* Wow! If you weren't trying so very hard to flat out lie to me Nancy I

don't think you'd be so angered. If you wish I can produce via a contact at New Life the original email from Lindsey. You know what a small town this is. So you all were well aware of this by I believe it was Thursday last week. I don't know why you feel like I wouldn't want to know. I'm so very happy for Jean and her family. And let me explain my recognition statement in the prior email. What I meant was not wanting or needing a pat on the back but recognition for being part of the group.... part of the process. I admit to not knowing Jean's family's situation so I was not able to nominate her. I had hoped that the information I had sent to the group would benefit one of the members or at a minimum one of the military families that you might know. Anyway, you've proven everything that I ever suspected of you to be true. I can't believe you can take a simple question like the first one I'd asked at the start of this email to this level. God bless, Lillie

Lillie, Your statement was that we had know from earlier that week. We
only found out Thursday late in the evenning. Like I said in my email.
It is not my responsability to see that you are informed of anything.
If you want to say I lied, feel free, that is subject to your own
interpretation. I feel fine about and stand behind  my actions and
statements. You seem to have been acting very selfishly and implying that the
group "owed" you something. We owe you nothing. Had you approached this
in a different way, I think you would have had a much better result.
However, don't think you are going to jump on me with both feet and see
me play nice.    This seems to be an ongoing problem for you. Acting
like a victim and blaming everyone for your own hurt feelings.

It had nothing to do with my thinking you wouldn't want to know. I
really wasn't thinking about you at all.

If you want to be a part of EHM, volunteer like anyone else, they don't
care what "group" you found out from.

And by the way, don't call me a liar and bless me in the same email.
N

And the truth shall set you free!  Now you tell me was Nicole flat out
lying to keep me out of the loop or what?  The evidence is before you and
I ask you to be the judge!  I find it very telling that she likes to twist my
words into something to suit her needs.  Something to justify the fact she told
a huge bold faced lie.

She sent this last bit just after sending the last one above.  Now, I'd say her
anger is a direct result of having her hand caught in the cookie jar.

And by the way. Whatever you have suspected to be true about me and has
been confirmed now by this communication is BS. I have always been
nice to you. I have tried to be a friend to you. I have always been
sincere in my friendship. So whatever....grow up! N

Just one more note... I was talking to my friend at New Life about the emails
and she made a valid point.  Nicole* could have easily taken my first email and
taken the higher ground by replying that she was sorry she hadn't thought to
contact me with the details.  This would have admitted her "mistake" without the
added lie.  I would have just thought OK so they forgot me, not, they purposely
left me out.  Again I will let you all be the judge.

The "inner circle" part two

2007-12-01T19:26:00.001-05:00

find part one here.

In October of 2006 the group got together for a Halloween event at Red Hill , the home of Patrick Henry. They had fun stuff for the kids to do and treat bags at each station, not to mention a haunted hay ride. The whole gang came together from Stacy's* house as we had celebrated her oldest son's birthday party and followed one another to Red Hill to go as a group. We all stuck together and went from one activity to the next and finally went on the hay ride. After the hay ride we started making our way back to the parking lot. On the way back to our cars the group stopped near another stand and talked. Brandon wandered over to the stand and tried his hand at the fishing game. When he was done I turned to find the group had left. Brandon and I walked back to the car and found the rest of the group had left us. No goodbye, no nothing. I get to my car and find that somewhere out in the dark of Red Hill I'd lost my car keys. It was dark, people were leaving in droves and I was terrified Brandon and I would be left out there with no way to get home.

We ran to the office thankful to find some of the employees still there. I explained my predicament and asked if I could use the phone to call home. I wasn't looking forward to the phone call to Bob. It was late, I was more than an hour away from home and I knew he would already be in bed since he had to work the next day. Fortunately, he hadn't quite fallen asleep and thankfully, Linda, Nickie's nurse hadn't left yet for the night. He asked her to stay until he returned from picking me up. Linda really is a great nurse and agreed to stay. Bob and Jackie loaded up in the van to make the trek to get Brandon and I. The wonderful people at Red Hill waited in the office with us until they arrived over an hour later. Bob took my directions but in the dark got lost. Finally he found us and brought me his key to the car so I could drive it back home. It was well past midnight when we finally got home. Lets just say none of us were happy about it at all. Maybe its just me but whenever I've gone anywhere with a group I always like to know that all of the group left together. I feel responsible for them. Again I guess that is just me.

By now this group has lost most of its appeal but for Brandon's sake we attended group on occasion. Since we were still fairly new to this area and we didn't know any other children for him to play with, we continued. The only reason I did this next group event was again for Brandon. Before the Red Hill fiasco I had promised him that we would go Trick or Treating with the group. I had suggested to Brandon because of the Red Hill events that we not go trick or treating with them, but the look on his face told me we did have to at least do this one thing. I had asked the group in advance if this neighborhood that they were planning on trick or treating in had curb cut outs so that Nickie,who is in a wheelchair, could enjoy the nights events also. They assured me that it did and that they thought it was a great idea to take her too. We got there and I know you probably aren't surprised by this and in retrospect I wasn't either, they went on ahead of us. The only ones that hung back with us were Jean and her family, notice I didn't change her name in this account since I'd like her and her family to receive acknowledgment for their good deed and in later installments of this saga you will see exactly why they are integral to this story. If not for Jean and her family I'd have only bad memories of this night.

Some months later I hosted again. OK, call me stupid. At this point we have built our chicken coop and my young chickens that had just started to produce some eggs are out enjoying the longer days of spring. Everyone was admiring the coop ( the basic design of which I got from Nicole*) and the chickens. Again the moms came inside to converse, eat and drink coffee. I was pleased that a few more came this time than the last. It was just warm enough for the kids to play outside again and so they had the run of the out doors. I had no idea what a bad idea that had been.

After they left Bob and I go to lock up the chickens and in the dim light see that not all is well in the coop. Its much too dark to access the damage but I can see that eggs have been thrown about the coop and busted all over the inside walls and the fake ceramic eggs that I had just purchased to encourage my young chickens to lay eggs in the laying box and not out in the woods, had been broken as well. Let me explain that it takes a bit of force to break these eggs. They aren't as fragile as a real egg. I was heart broken. I didn't know if my chickens had been harassed in the process and you have to understand these chickens were my babies. I had raised them from day old chicks and I was concerned for their well being. I locked things up and had to wait till daylight to find out the full damage.

That night I had a restless night. I couldn't sleep thinking about how this great home school group that had such well behaved children could have caused so much damage, OK if you can't tell I'm being sarcastic. I ended up drafting an email that I had planned to send to the entire group about my disappointment when Bob came down asking me what I was up to. I explained that I was just furious and that I was emailing the group about it. He asked me to wait before I sent the email. I finished the email and left it as a draft in my account. I went up to bed and was finally able to sleep.

The next morning we went out to assess the damage. I was glad to find my chickens were no more the worse for wear and though it was a very disrespectful thing that had been done the damage wasn't as bad as I had feared. I cleaned the coop up vowed never to have the group at my house again. I never sent the drafted email just figured I'd not have much to do with the group. Later that same day I did receive a phone call from Stacy*. She told me her oldest son had confessed to her on the way home the day before and that she was punishing him by withholding allowance for a couple weeks and she promised to replace the broken eggs with eggs from her own hens. I assured her I didn't need the eggs. She put her son on the phone and had him apologize to me. This was a start though I do believe in person would have been the best option. I was very kind and told him all was fine that I commended him for confessing to his mother as I knew that was very difficult and that I'd like him to respect my property in the future. He agreed and the next time I saw him in person I again told him I was proud of him for coming forward. Stacy* then tells me that she is aware of the name of one other child involved in the destruction and that she would talk to that mother. I was very appreciative of her for this and she also assured me that if anything happened within the group not to hesitate to talk to her about it since she was the founder and she would deal with the issues. The other child it turned out was one of Nicoles* children. Yes, can you believe that? I never received even a phone call about the matter. Weeks passed before she had him say, " I'm sorry." Nothing more. What a great lesson he learned! I suppose being a lessor home school family we didn't deserve more? What the heck? Perhaps since we aren't a perfect Catholic family. We are Southern Baptists, by the way and proud of it!

By now I'm much less active in the group and only bring Brandon to play group maybe once a month. Jump ahead to fall. I receive an email from a good friend, Trish, we were part of a soldier support group some years ago and have managed to keep in touch even though both of us have left that organization. See the email below:

Subject: FW: Extreme Makeover Home Edition *** MOBCOM ALL ***
Extreme Makeover Home Edition is looking for an inspirational, heroic
family
that America can really root for in an upcoming episode. The show
suggested
a family with either the mother or father suffering from PTSD or TBI as
a
result of their service in Iraq or Afghanistan. This family has to live
in
Virginia, West Virginia or Delaware, must own a single family home that
is
visibly in need of improvement, and have children. They must be able to
show
producers how a makeover will make a huge difference in their lives.
They
will be screened by the show's producers before being picked. The show
would
like to identify candidates by early next week. If they are picked, the
show
will air early next year.

I don't know anyone that might fit the bill so I send this email to the group:

I don't know if any of you all would know of any military families that would benefit from this but if you do please forward this info. Would be great if someone, one of us knows could get the help. Lillie
Of course the email I received from Trish was attached.

Fast forward a few weeks and I attend the new co-op that the group has started and Stacy* thanks me for sending the link, and tells me that Jean had been nominated by one of the other group members. I was tickled pink! By this time Jean had already been contacted by EHM and they were in the midst of talks to interview her and her family.

When I got home I emailed Trish to let her know that someone in our group was going to be interviewed for EHM and that as soon as I knew more I'd let her know. She was so excited to know that the link was benefiting someone I knew.

The next email on the subject came from Jean:

THE TOTAL EXTREME MAKEOVER CASTING EXPERIENCE! Quintin Strack filmed from 2:30 to 9:30pm! For my community contribution (they ask for that) I said I wanted to help Joe's Occupational Therapist get the Autism therapy center that she is writing a grant for. So we were at the hospital for 2 hours filming OT Jason, OT Katie, the CEO, therapists I didn't even know, Joe having a pretend therapy session. Then we went to the land for 2 hours. Thank goodness Katie watched the boys for me at the land while he filmed me. Could not have done it without her. There he filmed me telling about our situation. I had not been out there at the land since Michael left because I knew it would be depressing. Well, it was. It looks awful. Now I know--that show is soooo staged! Everything they make you say is true, but between takes he is telling you exactly what to say and how to say it and exaggerating it greatly. And he keeps making you do retakes until you do it pathetically enough. I do not feel like I was good on camera. I feel like I rambled a lot but I guess that is what editing is for. He was so nice and enthusiastic and must be the most patient human on earth. They could not pay me enough to do that guy's job. I didn't see him eat or drink all day. I don't even know if he took a bathroom break. It was unreal. I've never seen anyone with that much energy. Not even my kids! Telling the world how pathetic we are and wallowing in self pity (which he makes you do) for 7 hours was tough. Just know if this ever airs, I'm not the big blubbering dope that it is going to look like I am. They really do push until they get you to that point. That is good television! He was here at the rental house for 2 1/2 hours. He told me he really wanted to see Michael's Civil War stuff. He said Michael should have a museum and I told him that Michael would love to. Then he told me to say this whole "build my husband a little museum on our land so we don't have to share our bedroom with his collection anymore . . ." thing. He told me to say it in a "cute" way. His idea, not mine. To me that was totally too much to ask! I was so dead tired at that point, and having worked with him all day, I knew that if I didn't say what he wanted, he would just keep doing takes until I did. If he had told me to climb out on the roof I probably would have if it would have meant no more takes. He knows what he needs on film and he pushes until he has it. I had to do my "plea" and the man went through at least 2 tapes of takes because he was not leaving until I cried for it. And for some reason I couldn't cry. I was just so tired that I was numb I think. Plus I still don't feel deserving enough at all. Anyway, finally he got me to cry like an idiot and he was happy and said that he had everything he needed. He didn't want food but I gave him a bottle of gatorade and he left for DC. We will see. At the house we had to do the shout-out thing--Hi abc we're the Lucas family . . . and Joe was not into it. When we got to the house, though, Quinton was getting some Joe footage and Joe looked right in the camera and said "Hi ABC". It was cute! Then he had him sit in the floor and show him all of his pirate toys. By the time we got here I was just saying whatever he told me. Who knows how it will be edited. I'm sure they will pick all of the parts I thought were stupid. Like when he saw some little prints I have in our living room of one of my ancestors and of a castle that belonged to another ancestor. I do some genealogy and he made me say "I'm a history buff too. . . " I felt like an idiot. Anyway, we got it all done. I'm just warning you guys that if we get chosen and it airs, it is extremely exaggerated (the truth, but just more pathetic)! It is like being in a soap opera. I totally have a different respect for actors now. We will see. I'll hear on Friday I think if we are top 5. If we don't get chosen, almost getting on Extreme Makeover is still a neat story to be able to tell people. I will let you know what happens. Thanks ladies. Thought I'd let you know we got through it. Jean
Now that is some exciting stuff! OK so now I'm thinking this is great! She's really in the running! I can't wait to hear more..... To be continued.

The "inner circle" - part one

2007-12-01T10:03:00.001-05:00

I have bitten my tongue or slapped my hands to avoid posting anything about this subject in the past but I just can't keep quiet a moment longer. I had mentioned in the past about the home school group I was involved with and how much I appreciated them. I refrained from telling you about the horrors that I went through with the group, with the exception of a couple of the mom's, this group turned out to be a nightmare. I found the group through an online search for home school groups in my area. I found one local group that apparently didn't have much activity to the web page and the mother that started her own group sent me a message to tell me about her group. I looked it up and joined the yahoo group she had told me about.

When I first met them back in 3/06 they of course put on their best home school mom faces. They appeared genuinely interested in us when we came to the first play group and also seemed interested in Jean and her family who came for the first time on the same day. Both Jean and I have children with disabilities and they seemed interested in the challenges that those disabilities brought to our lives. Unlike most of the mom's in the group I had not been a home school mom from the start of my children's school years. Little did I know that this made me a lessor home school mom in their eyes. I know that my choosing to home school my son when I did was for reasons that I felt were best for him at the time. I'm not of the belief that home schooling is the best choice for all children, all families or that the choice to home school can't change over time. I don't feel home schooled children are better than any other children nor do I believe the opposite is true. I do believe that children that are either in public school, private school or home school still need the guidance of their parents. A public school education can be fantastic or it can be lacking but in either case with a parents involvement any deficits can be made up and for those lucky enough to have great teachers still need their parents support.

What I found almost immediately was that these mothers seemed to speak badly of parents/moms of public schooled children (PS). Heck they spoke badly of each other when ever they had the chance to do so. The sad truth is women are notorious for back stabbing. Let me assure you this isn't what I'm attempting to do here as you will see by the end of the coming posts that this is about telling the facts as I know them.

The "inner circle" is composed of 3 moms in particular. *I've changed their names to protect their identities. Nicole*, (Catholic home school mom of 6 children, yeah Catholic, but not the "perfect" Catholic that she seems to portray). I won't go into the specifics cause that would be airing dirty laundry. Stacy*, married (to a man that at least one of the mom's says is a hottie) home school mom of 2 young boys (Catholic wanna be from what I understand). Mandy*, wife and home school mom of 3 girls (not sure of her religious orientation or if she has any). I'm not giving the religious info for any reason other than giving some background of each. We are all sinners, we all fall very far from the example that was set for us by our creator and I know this includes me. This isn't a Sunday school lesson so I'll stop there. Just the facts, here. This "inner circle" keeps each other informed of the goings on of its other members. Speaking as if they are of higher power. Better than the rest if you will. The truth is they are no better than any other person in the group or on this earth. We are all equal. I learned fairly early on that I shouldn't talk about anything more than myself and my home school trials and tribulations. It wasn't long that I'd hear things that I had confided in one mom being repeated to me by another mom.

One afternoon I hosted the group at my home. The moms settled in the house for coffee, cake and other goodies set aside for all to enjoy as well as the usual conversation. Now mind you the group is pretty large and I have a modest home only about 1,800 square feet and the moms and children I numbered above were only a small part of the group. At one point Stacy* sees Bob, my husband, arrive home and he greets everyone and runs upstairs to get cleaned up. *Stacy remarks how cute he is. I thank her and tell her I thought so too. This get together went fairly uneventfully except for the mess left outside from the water balloons and plastic cups and such and the mess in Brandon's room.

A few play dates later and Stacy* mentions to me that she can't understand how I could stay married to Bob. Apparently she had a short conversation with him outside at the previous meeting at my house and he spoke to her about his wish to get out of his current profession. In that 5 minute conversation she had decided he was impossible to live with. Of course the fact that Bob isn't a drunk, abusive in anyway or the fact that he is a wonderful loving husband and father unlike her own comments about her husband made him impossible to live with. I suppose we have different ideas about what a good husband and father should be. I sat there in complete shock and though I should have said something like, "oh yeah a husband that drinks till he's drunk every night is the GOLD standard. I'm not sorry I didn't aim that high!" Instead I had no reply. Again I bit my tongue cause everything that came to mind was going to be hurtful. Believe it or not I do try not to be hurtful. Not to say that I haven't opened mouth and inserted foot on more than one occasion....
To be continued......

Help for a Hero!

2007-11-28T12:03:00.000-05:00

I'd like to ask for your help in spreading the word about Bill Krawczyk one of our American heroes! Read his story here. I received an email today from a good friend and a reliable source that this is legitimate. In addition to what you can do for him at the above site, his friend Monica is helping him to collect used cell phones to get money for his cause. Anyone that would like to help with that please contact me so that I can get you into contact with her. Please take a few minutes and read his story and share it with as many people as you can. Remember this man placed his life on the line to protect our freedom. Let's do what we can to help him in his time of need.

You have to read....

2007-11-28T08:59:00.000-05:00

Ammie's blog! She's writing about some great stuff! I've enjoyed her blog for several years now and this particular set of posts, in 4 parts, strike a chord with me! I of course have the weight problem but for at least the last 12 years or so have come to terms with it. The only reason I really worry about my weight is for health reasons. I used to think that all men wanted a tall, white, skinny, beautiful woman, usually blond and blue eyed. I'm not blond. I'm not blue eyed. I'm not even white, I'm olive. I'm certainly not tall. I'm not skinny and never have been, so for most of my youth and early adult life I felt I had nothing but strikes against me.

I was pleased to learn that not all men like skinny women. Some actually like curves! Some love Latinas! Great! Though I felt like that was misleading too, since though I am Latina in blood and in looks I don't act like one at all. I don't have the Spanish accent I don't act like a typical Latina. I am as I've noted on here before American, born and raised here. Finding out that there were men that weren't looking for that "perfect" girl that the advertisers push at us constantly, helped me to realize that my hubby really did mean all those wonderful things he said to me. Calling me beautiful and telling me incessantly that he loves me. Funny how I started not to believe him until I realized that others saw beauty in me as well.

Now I know I'm as much of a Diva as any white, skinny, blond bombshell. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I know there are plenty of men out there that will say I'm fat and ugly but that is really doesn't matter since the only man that does matter, is the man I married and he will argue that with you till the death! Till next time!

Thankful posts

2007-11-25T12:08:00.001-05:00

I'm going to try to get on here and post as regularly as possible 7 things I'm thankful for in my life. I thought I'd start today by picking my daughter Jackie as the subject and pick 7 things I'm thankful for, that I fail to tell her often enough.

1. Jackie's kind heart!

2. The way she takes care of her sister Nickie.

3. I love her beautiful smile. I wish I could see it much more often.

4. Her laugh.

5. Her trust worthiness.

6. The way she is willing to be there for anyone when they need it.

7. The love she has for her family and friends!

Thanksgiving memories

2007-11-24T08:17:00.000-05:00

: Whew! It's been years since I cooked Thanksgiving dinner myself. Now I remember why! I spent hours preparing the meal. While everyone else was enjoying talking to family I was slaving over a hot stove! The funny thing is I really enjoyed it this time. You see usually I take a huge short cut and buy a Ukrops turkey dinner. You know the kind you only have to reheat. Their dinners are delicious but I was kinda tired of the same old sides and said this year I'm gonna do it the right way!
The menu was as follows:
Turkey, glazed ham, homemade stuffing, sweet potato casserole, broccoli and cheese casserole, string bean casserole, hot rolls, country ham slices, mac and cheese (brought by a friend), potato salad (my husband's specialty) and homemade gravy (made by a friend). Actually all the above was completely homemade. I did buy store bought pumpkin pies. It was all so good even if I say so myself.
It was great to see everyone. We ended up feeding 12 but had expected 18 so I had lots of extra food for everyone to take home with them. Its so difficult to get everyone together anymore. I remember in the early years when we would all gather at my grandmother in-laws (is that even a word? I dunno!) , Nana's, all hubby's siblings and their kids and his parents would meet at her house for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Now we hardly ever see them all anymore. Sometimes that isn't a bad thing. The kids are grown and spread all out and a good number of those kids now have kids of their own. Not mine, mind you... and they better not anytime soon. I've threatened them within an inch of their lives if they think of making me a grandma anytime soon. My oldest son says not to worry he isn't ready for kids yet, he's 23. My oldest daughter isn't seeing anyone yet and isn't sure when or if she wants to have kids. My youngest recently said he wants to live with us forever and if he does marry he wants her to move in with us... take into account he is 9. I'm just happy he loves us so much that he doesn't ever want to leave. I know this won't be the case in his teen years. Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This should explain the lack of posts...

2007-11-20T16:06:00.000-05:00

OK, any of you that have visited here with me for any length of time, know how I go through spurts of blogging. I ran across the below comic in an email and thought it should explain why this is.....

Not that most regular bloggers don't have a life... I surely don't mean that! A perfect example is MM.

The man has his hands full and still manages to blog not only frequently but in length! Though I'm typically long winded I'm not a great story teller, as you can tell. I do thank those of you that still come to see what is going on in my life!

update part 2

2007-11-07T10:27:00.000-05:00

OK so sorry to have taken so long as Naomi pointed out to me in comments.
First and most importantly, Tia, has gotten a clean bill of health from the oncologist. So thank you all for the prayers and support!

Nickie is back to school! She isn't having any hip/leg pain and is so happy to be back! She has been asked out on a date by her classmate, Brian. He too is a special needs kid. He's so adorable and so sweet. He asked me to pick him up and take him and Nickie out on a date. I suggested a movie. So I have to contact his parents to see if they will let him go on a chaperoned date with Nickie and I. I will most certainly be blogging and taking many pics if and when this happens.

I was offered the teller job but I decided not to accept it. I feel that I will do much better in school if I can focus on that and not be concerned with a part time job. I thanked them many times for considering me for the job and I even went into the branch to talk to the head teller that interviewed me. We hit it off really well and she said she was sorry that I didn't take the job but completely understood my reasons. She said she thought I was the best person for the job and they had even offered to pay a little more than the usual start up pay and even increase the benefits package. It feels good that they wanted me so badly. I really thought being out of the real work force for 18 years would have hindered me. I see that it did not! I mean I knew it was impossible for them not to want/need me. I'm so darn lovable and all that but of course I may be a little biased.

Out of the mouths of babes!

2007-11-02T10:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday while on a car ride home Brandon asked me about Nickie's learning to drive a car. I explained to him that Nickie's disabilities prevent her from driving a car. This made him really sad. So he said, "Mom, how will she get to go anywhere when she moves out on her own?"
I explained, "Brandon its not likely Nickie will move out on her own. She needs people to take care of her since she can't do it on her own. So whenever she wants to go somewhere I will be the one taking her."
"So she won't move away when she is grown up?"
"No baby, she won't, unless she decides to move to a place where they help people like her to live kind of on their own. It's called an assisstive living facility. They have people there that help others to live on their own. I think Nickie will want to stay home with us because we love her and take the best care of her."
"Mom, when I am old enough to drive I'll take her places."

"Oh Brandon that is so nice of you. Nickie will love that."

Then after a long pause he says.....
"Mom?"

"Yes, Brandon."

"Do I have to move away?"

"No, Baby you can stay with Mommy and Daddy for as long as you want to."

"Good I want to stay with you forever."

"I'm so glad you feel that way! I would love for you to stay with us forever. I know you feel that way now baby but when you grow up and don't depend on mom and dad any more you will want to start a life with a wife of your own."

"Well she can come live with me at our house, can't she?"

"Well, she could but I know you will both want to live on your own and start your own family. That's still a long way down the road for you and we will just have to see what happens."

"Mom, if I don't forget about this when I grow up and I hope I don't. I will just live with you and dad forever."

Now you tell me... isn't that the sweetest thing you ever heard? I love my boy

Update on things

2007-10-14T13:52:00.001-04:00

My aunt, Tia, had a complete mastectomy on Wed. She had at first opted for a lumpectomy but after speaking to many friends decided for the complete removal of the breast. She was in a very up beat mood and I'm sure this in and of itself was what helped her to get through the surgery so well. I saw her again 2 days after surgery and the woman was up mopping her kitchen floor. Wow! Is she ever a tough one!

Nickie has been doing well with no hip pain and the school is making accommodations for her to be able to get back to school and have a place to lie down a couple of times a day to get her off her hips and rest. We hope this will keep her from having to have any more surgery.

I'm filling out applications locally as well as trying to find some legitimate work from home. This means Brandon will have to go back to public school, he's really OK with that idea. It will also mean some added income. I've been out of the "real" work force for so many years I'm sure it won't be a simple task to re-enter. I could really use your good mojo, happy thoughts, prayers etc. I'd also love any job ideas any of you might have for someone out of the work force for 18 years.

crazy busy here!

2007-09-28T22:11:00.000-04:00

I'm tired just thinking about all the stresses of the last few weeks.

A few weeks ago I found out that my aunt, Tia, received the results from a biopsy that came back malignant. The dreaded cancer had once again found its way back into my family. I didn't really know what to say to her except that I was so sorry to hear about the diagnosis and that I'd be there for her any way I could. I offered to go with her to see the oncologist on 9/13/07. I would have to help her interpret what he had to say. Though she's been in the states longer than my 42 years she still has a lot of difficulty with the language. She and Mom came here from Cuba together but Mom faired much better in learning the language than Tia did. So the plan was for the three of us to go together.

Nickie receives a brand new spiffy power wheelchair.. this is the first time she has ever gotten a new chair that didn't require weeks of getting used to it. She loves this one and so do the rest of us. Its capable of much faster speeds and turns on a dime. Look OUT!

Then we made it home from our vacation and I noticed Nickie was having pain in her left hip/leg. She seemed fine as long as we didn't move her, well except for the fact she was contracting the leg or guarding it. Any position change or toileting caused her to scream in agony. I thought perhaps the storm that caused our quick departure from the beach, the fact that we had to grab her up and literally had to struggle to get her into the wheelchair that was already loaded into the van, perhaps we damaged something. I thought back to our departure and subsequent night stay at the hotel in Nags Head and I realized that Nickie didn't complain at all when I moved her into the bed, positioned her and did the reverse in the morning. So I don't think that is what caused her pain. We arrived home the next day and that is when the screams of pain began. I did everything I could to make her comfortable including giving herTylenol and Motrin but none of those seemed to help. I tried heat and cold and again no relief. So after a couple days I called the orthopedist to arrange for an X-ray. I couldn't get an appointment with her regular pediatric orthopedist in Richmond so I called on a local orthopedist in Farmville.

I should have known better. The minute he saw Nickie I think he panicked. He did take an X-ray but said he could see no problems and referred us back to her pediatric orthopedist. It took a few more days to get an appointment with Dr. Sharps but he decided to also X-ray her spine. He found nothing wrong with either x_ray and decided she should have a CT scan. guess what happens next?

Yeah you got it more days pass before we get notice of the date of the CT scan. We finally get notice that they would like to see her for the CT scan on 9/11/07. Since I already know I have to go to Richmond on the 13th for the oncologist I decide to stay in Richmond at my Mom's for the duration. This means I have to make arrangements with Nickie's nurse Linda to stay with us as well. Linda is a godsend! She agrees to stay with us and this helps me out tremendously!

We go to the CT scan on Tues. We are grateful to find out that she doesn't need to be sedated. (The doctor first suspects we might need to sedate her to keep her calm and still.) Thankfully the techs and nurses decide to try it without sedation first and it was successful. The staff was fantastic and we were in and out of the lab quickly... getting the disc with the results however took much longer than the actual procedure. Finally we get the disc and I have to carry it over to Dr. Sharps for him to read it and tell us what we are to do next.

9/12/07 Nickie's birthday, she's 17 today! We celebrate by going shopping for her birthday gifts. She picks out some Game Boy games and clothing and jewelery. She takes off in her new wheelchair leaving Linda and I in the dust. Linda takes off after her in one direction and I do the same in another trying to cut her off. No such luck we both turn our perspective corners and can't find Nickie anywhere. I pop into a couple stores to see if she darted in to one but no one has seen her. Linda proceeds to go down the mall and ask if anyone has seen her.. no luck. I spot security and ask them to help us to find her. Some 15 minutes later we find Nickie is in a nearby store shopping for video games. After giving her a stern talking to I agree to purchase the game she found. This would not have happened had it not been her birthday.

48 hours and still no word so I call the office to ask when I will hear about the results of the CT scan. I was shocked to hear that I won't get an answer till sometime early next week. I'm sick that Nickie has to deal with her pain that much longer without some answer and possible relief.

9/26/07 I finally here from the orthopedist today. He has some scary news... he is seriously contemplating surgery on Nickie's hip due to the deformity she has there. His nurse Tina explains the various options. There are several different surgery options from a total hip replacement down to removal of the hip with no hardware being installed and finally a wait and see approach. I update Tina on Nickie's condition at present. She is in no real pain at this time though she has been out of school for 6 whole weeks now, which allows her to rest her hip in bed. She decides to give this information to Dr. Sharps and promises to call me with his thoughts on what is best to do.

9/28/07 I hear back from Tina and Dr. Sharps agrees with me on waiting it out. He would prefer not to do any surgery on Nickie unless it is absolutely necessary! Yee Haw! Nickie has had far too many surgeries to date and I had hoped we might avoid having any others. They will be asking the school to provide a place for Nickie to take 2, 20 minute breaks each school day to rest her hip. We hope this will provide her enough of a break from sitting in the wheelchair for hours at a time and prevent the pain from returning.

I'll update soon on my aunt's progress and with any information regarding Nickie.

Until next time.

quiz time

2007-09-28T21:35:00.000-04:00

I always knew I was cool! Now I have test results to prove it!

Beach memories

2007-09-14T22:10:00.000-04:00

OK this should have posted on 8/23/07 but didn't for some reason...I just realized it didn't...

Yes they are memories now but great ones! We left for the outer banks of NC last Wed. This was our long overdue vacation. I'm sorry to say its been over 3 years since the last one. This trip more than made up for the time in between. However I hope not to have to wait as long for the next one.

The weather was fantastic for most of our trip, with mostly sunny days in the 80's. We took a trip to Ocracoke Island. The Ferry ride over was great. Both Brandon and Nickie held up crackers to feed the seagulls. I was able to capture one picture of a gull coming down to Brandon's cracker. I think I'm putting that one on the wall.

We spent most of the day walking through the town and shopping. Both Nickie and Brandon enjoyed the stroll and the final outcome which of course was souvenir shopping. Nickie scarfed up on some wonderful beach jewelry. Brandon got some pirate stuff, can you say ARRRRRR! We ate at the Jolly Roger which is our favorite spot to eat on the island. Its an open air covered deck area at the marina. Every other year we have gone the heat made it nearly impossible to enjoy the meal... notice I said nearly. The food there is really good so not even the heat would keep us from eating there. This time though with the temperatures as they were and the constant ocean breezes it was truly divine. The Pelican pictures I posted are from the deck. It wasn't until I got home and could see the pictures up close did I notice that the Pelican had a hook stuck in him. It didn't seem to affect his flight in anyway, though. Despite the detail(when seen in full size) in that picture he truly was a good distance away from the deck so the hook would have been impossible to see with the naked eye.

We rented a 4x4 to make the drive out onto the point in Buxton. This is the only way we can get Nickie out on the sand as her wheelchair would just bog down in the sand and since even those beach wheelchairs cost a fortune this was the least expensive way to go.

Post Secret video

2007-08-12T12:44:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned a couple times at least what a great site Post Secret is, now there is a video you have to see. What a difference he's made to thousands of people. Go check it out!

View from dining room window

2007-07-19T07:29:00.000-04:00

Feeling BETTER!

2007-07-03T18:05:00.000-04:00

Just a week ago, though I was trying to keep my spirits up, I was finding it hard to see the end to the nerve pain. Thank God its gone and I pray never to return. Bob is also feeling better though still on a liquid diet. He's all skinny now. That's fantastic, though I must admit I'm jealous as heck! I could stay on a liquid diet for a full year and not lose what he did in less than 2 weeks. I have been trying to eat more healthfully and Jackie and I started going to the Y last week. Something I've been thinking about doing since February.

Yes I know call me the queen of procrastination. That's me! Now that I finally got the motivation what do you think has happened? Nickie's nurse has quit. Yes, the story of my life. She didn't even have the nerve to tell me about it. I had to hear about it from the nursing agency giving me less than 2 weeks notice. I've said it a gazillion times I HATE nursing care! In general I hate nurses, with the exception of the nurse that will be taking the full time position beginning in August. She really has been a Godsend. Nickie loves her and she really seems to love Nickie as well. We've had only maybe 4 nurses in the course of our 15 years of experience that have been truly great people and nurses. You know the type that went into nursing to help people! Most are in it for the almighty dollar and let me tell you this isn't the business for that. OK, I'm stepping down off the soap box... for now!

I'd like to wish you all a happy 4Th of July! Don't forget to thank a veteran for your freedom! Say a prayer for them all! If I have any luck I hope to have some pics from our celebrations. We are going to our town's celebrations, I hear it is a ton of fun. The truth is we haven't attended a fireworks display in I can't tell you how many years. Let's just say Brandon has never gone to one and he will be 9 on the 17Th of this month. Its sad, I know, what a terrible mom! Well we will correct that tomorrow. Till next time

Pain, pain and more pain

2007-06-21T20:38:00.000-04:00

Over the last couple of weeks Bob and I have been falling apart. First I started having pain in my left shoulder and arm and I'm sure in an attempt to have the bigger, badder pain, Bob begins complaining of severe abdominal pains. Well you all know how men are. Nothing is worse than a sick man. Am I right or am I RIGHT? Yeah I'm right! Or so I thought.

Last week I had moped around complaining of the pain in my left shoulder and arm feeling quite sure that I had a pinched nerve that was causing all my pain. I had decided that if the pain continued through the weekend I'd have to break down and see the Dr.

By Friday night Bob began to have severe stomach pains that kept him up all night and kept him doubled over in pain throughout the weekend. All weekend he moaned and groaned and made my moaning seem unimportant. As the weekend continued it was obvious he was going to need a Dr. as well. We scheduled an apt. with our old Dr. back in Richmond as we had to make the drive to pick Jackie up anyway.

What a mistake that was! Dr. "Doofus", I won't call him what I was originally thinking, didn't so much as take any blood or spend more than 2 minutes with either of us. His diagnosis for Bob was to take some magnesium citrate, a colon cleansing drug and don't call him in the morning. His answer to my pain was to take 3 Advil every 4 hours and he gave me a sample of some anti-inflammatory drug that didn't help in the least bit except to make my glucose level go through the roof. Thank you DR. Doofus.

So the following day I took Bob to the local Dr. and she did blood work and sent him to the ER for more testing. We hadn't been to this hospital before and were happily surprised to see no one waiting in the waiting room and he was taken into triage right away and back to the ER in moments. "Wow, maybe its a good thing to live in the country and have a small community hospital?". Bob said.
"yeah! Looks promising!", I said.
We went back to a room and the nurses quickly came in to start an IV and have Bob drink that tasty contrast to have a CT scan done. We were informed we had a 2 hour wait for the contrast to work its way through his system before the CT scan could be performed. We were thankful this little community hospital had a tiny TV screen we could watch for that 2 hour wait. Surprisingly the 2 hours went faster than I had imagined it would. They nurse came in to take him to his CT scan and promised to have him back in 10 minutes.
"Viola!, he's back!", said the nurse when she returned.
"Just as you promised!", I replied.
We patiently waited for the results of the scan. One hour passed, then two and our patience went out the window. The Nurse practitioner came in to say the specialist would be in to discuss the results. Fear set in. Why in the world do we need a specialist? Hesitantly the NP said they saw Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas). Soon every nurse, NP and DR came in to ask how much alcohol Bob drinks. He isn't a drinker. He may have some beer with an occasional dinner out, ie: all you can eat crab legs or on some special occasion. They made us both feel we were telling less than the truth. How rude!
After spending more than 6 hours in the ER the specialist shows up to tell us he normally would admit a patient in his condition but if we would go back to our PCP in the next 2 days he would release him. He suggested an ultrasound to rule out gall stones. We agreed to his terms and went home.
Two days later we saw the PCP who did more blood work and told Bob he needed to go on a clear liquid diet for 2 weeks.
"2 weeks?", Bob and I said in unison.
"2 weeks!", said Dr. R.
Dr. R then wrote a prescription for pain and we were on our way.

Thursday will be 1 week and I'm surprised at his will power to eat, ummmm. drink a clear liquid diet while the rest of us eat as usual. I'm coping with my shoulder pain and it does seem to be easing up a bit. I have no doubt that my reading Joel Osteen's book "Your Best Life Now" has helped me to get through this. Joel is a great motivational speaker. If you haven't seen him look for him on Sunday mornings. I highly recommend his book as well. Till next time!

Harpers Ferry, WV

2007-06-11T10:01:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my sis-in-law, Linda and her email about this festival. We planned a spur of the moment camping trip to Harpers Ferry, WV. It was a beautiful town.

The area is rich in history. We didn't have enough time to see all there was to see and we will certainly return someday when we have more time to see it all. We will also have to make time to visit the Charles Town races just minutes from Harpers Ferry for some horse racing and some slot machine fun. Many years ago Linda and Ronnie introduced us to the horse races but we haven't been back and we have yet to try our hand at slot machines. Some day we will do just that.

At the festival we saw some amazing things! Here is a picture of some awesome masks made from leather. I couldn't afford any so this was the next best thing.

Braving the hot sunny day was my diva Nickie.

Nickie was intrigued by a man in a power chair that painted with a mouth stick. I wish I'd taken a picture of her intently watching him. I was just as amazed! His paintings were beautiful and reminded me a lot of my friend Theresa. She paints with a mouth stick also and was born with the same condition, Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita, Amyoplasia, as Nickie has. She does some amazing work. Those two make me feel even the more inadequate due to my lack of talent even with the full use of my hands and feet. That was the one thing I kept feeling walking around so much talent at that festival, how I lack talent for anything. I wish I could paint, draw, make something creative. Something I loved and did well. Something others would want to purchase! Alas, it isn't to be.
Here is a shot taken by master photographer known only as "Brandon",
That's Linda, Ronnie, me, Bob and of course Nickie.
Bob found this to add to our living room.

They call them rocks on fire! I couldn't resist purchasing one.
Well I'm off to plan our next camping tip!

Paco the singing dog!

2007-06-06T07:59:00.000-04:00

While visiting Diane last Saturday I got to see in person, Paco the singing dog. Now you can see him too.

Do you see any resemblence?

2007-05-19T16:30:00.001-04:00

Thursday I had to have some work done on my van in Richmond. Mom met me and picked me up so we could have lunch with her. Jackie, Brandon and I piled into her car and decided to see if my aunt would also like to go. We swung by her house and switched cars since Tia's car is a bit larger. We decided to go to the Spinnaker's restaurant at Chesterfield Town Square. We were greeted and promptly seated. Our waiter arrived and took our drink orders while we decided what we wanted to have for lunch.

Mom made a comment to Jackie about the fact that our waiter was handsome and how she should wink at him to let him know she liked him. Well if you know Jackie you know that isn't going to happen. She is entirely too shy for that sort of thing. I hadn't really looked at him so of course I had to make sure I paid attention on his return. I don't know how I could have NOT noticed it before, because except for the difference in hair color our waiter, Brian, looked almost like my son Shaun's identical twin. Well if he actually had a twin. I had to ask Brian if he minded if I took his picture to show to Shaun and Bob. Here they both are. You tell me what you think.

Mother's day

2007-05-13T18:54:00.000-04:00

Happy first mother's day to Diane! Happy mother's day to all mothers. I was lucky to have all my loved ones with me today. Shaun and Alexis came and brought me one of those great Hallmark musical cards as well as a 2 pack DVD set of Grease one and two. I love those movies, especially the second one. I love the music in that one the best. Jackie bought me a 3 CD set of the 50's and 60's hits and a 3 CD set of the 80's hits. This should complete my collection since I recently bought a similar set of Cd's for the 70's. So now I have a really nice collection of the songs I love best. Brandon and Nickie worked together on a home made card and my loving hubby bought me the item I'd been wanting for a few weeks, a DVD recorder. Now I can transfer all our home videos to DVDs, YEAH!
On a slight twist of the traditional mother's day. My mom came and prepared dinner for all of us. A traditional Cuban feast, black beans and rice and pork. It was delicious and as usual we all ate too much. The food and the company was fantastic! I hope you all had as nice a day as I did!

Congratulations Diane!

2007-05-09T08:56:00.000-04:00

On the birth of your beautiful baby girl, Annabelle Leigh! Born 5/5/07 8lbs 12.6 oz and 21 inches long. I can't wait to see her and hold her. Mom says she is doing well and getting into a routine. You can find her pics here.

Sad blogging news

2007-04-28T12:36:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry to report my fave blogger MM's parents were both killed on Thursday in a horrible car accident. They were on their way to see their new granddaughter for the first time. I can't begin to imagine what MM, HLS and the children are feeling. Send your good mojo and prayers to them.

military request

2007-04-26T09:45:00.000-04:00

From the men and women on the war front is an online petition for enlisted to sign.
http://www.appealforcourage.org/

From my inbox

2007-04-22T10:14:00.000-04:00

I received this email from a friend who is forwarding it along as requested by a Lt. Col.

I'm Tired

Two weeks ago, as I was starting my sixth month of duty in Iraq, I was forced to return to the USA for surgery for an injury I sustained prior to my deployment With luck, I'll return to Iraq to finish my tour.

I left Baghdad and a war that has every indication that we are winning, to return to a demoralized country much like the one I returned to in 1971 after my tour in Vietnam . Maybe it's because I'll turn 60 years old in just four months, but I'm tired:

I'm tired of spineless politicians, both Democrat and Republican who lack the courage, fortitude, and character to see these difficult tasks through.

I'm tired of the hypocrisy of politicians who want to rewrite history when the going gets tough.

I'm tired of the disingenuous clamor from those that claim they 'Support the Troops' by wanting them to 'Cut and Run' before victory is achieved.

I'm tired of a mainstream media that can only focus on car bombs and casualty reports because they are too afraid to leave the safety of their hotels to report on the courage and success our brave men and women are having on the battlefield.

I'm tired that so many Americans think you can rebuild a dictatorship into a democracy over night.

I'm tired that so many ignore the bravery of the Iraqi people to go to the voting booth and freely elect a Constitution and soon a permanent Parliament.

I'm tired of the so called 'Elite Left' that prolongs this war by giving aid and comfort to our enemy, just as they did during the Vietnam War.

I'm tired of antiwar protesters showing up at the funerals of our fallen soldiers A family who's loved ones gave their life in a just and noble cause, only to be cruelly tormented on the funeral day by cowardly protesters is beyond shameful.

I'm tired that my generation, the Baby Boom -- Vietnam generation, who have such a weak backbone that they can't stomach seeing the difficult tasks through to victory.

I'm tired that some are more concerned about the treatment of captives than they are the slaughter and beheading of our citizens and allies.

I'm tired that when we find mass graves it is seldom reported by the press, but mistreat a prisoner and it is front page news.

Mostly, I'm tired that the people of this great nation didn't learn from history that there is no substitute for Victory.

Sincerely,
Joe Repya,
Lieutenant Colonel , U. S. Army
101st Airborne Division

This needs to get all over the U S A.

I agree with him 100%

Virginia Tech slayings

2007-04-16T17:50:00.000-04:00

I've been watching the news all day today with the tradedy that has unfolded at Virginia Tech. Below is directly from the VA Tech website.

Campus remains closed; convocation Tuesday at Cassell

04/16/2007, Updated 4:45 p.m.

Two shootings on campus today have left 33 dead. Thirty-one, including the gunman, died at Norris Hall; two died at West Ambler Johnston Hall. Fifteen other victims from Norris are being treated at area hospitals.

Counseling assistance for students is available at West Ambler Johnston and McComas halls until 9 p.m. tonight. Students are encouraged to utilize these services.

Counseling for faculty and staff is available in the Bowman Room on the fourth floor of Jamerson Athletic Center, accessible from Jamerson or the Merryman Athletic Facility.

The university will remain closed Tuesday. Essential personnel are to report for work. Classes are canceled.

A public gathering will be held Tuesday at Cassell Coliseum at 2 p.m.

All students are urged to contact their parents as soon as possible to let them know individuals are safe.

Students, faculty, and staff who have any information related to the incidents are encouraged to go to the Blacksburg Police Department to make statements, or call 540-231-TIPP (8477), or 231-6411.

Get more details and a statement by President Steger >

I can't begin to imagine the horror they faced with a madman aiming gun(s) at them. I pray that those that survived will be able to go on with their lives and live "normal" lives. I pray also for the families and friends of the deceased that they be able to find peace, that God help them through this most difficult time.

Here is coverage from our NBC affiliate in Richmond
Please pray for these students, faculty, friends and family.

here's what bloggers in the area have to say:
SWVAblogs

Hill Billy Savants

High Desert Wanerer

The worlds biggest egg!

2007-04-15T17:18:00.001-04:00

>

OK maybe it isn't the worlds biggest chicken egg but it is a huge egg. See for yourself!

Its 3 1/2" long. When we cracked that hummer it had 3 yolks... yes I said 3 yolks! Honestly when we found that egg I imagined I'd find a dead hen somewhere close by. I mean poor hen!

In other chicken news we added 6 hens and an older rooster to our coop. He's a beauty! We now have 4 Araucana hens and a rooster, they lay the blue/green eggs. I'm now getting 10-12 eggs a day and taking orders from friends and family in Richmond for our fresh eggs from our free range hens. There really is nothing like a fresh egg.

What's new with you?

2007-04-14T15:38:00.000-04:00

We've been busy, busy, busy! What with finishing up our homeschool year, taking care of the ever growing farm family, the painting business, taxes and adding a new dog to the family it's been busy. I have made time to catch up on my newest obsession, Grey's Anatomy. OMG, why didn't someone tell me what a great show I was missing? I mean all the Hunky Doc's are a huge plus! Dr. McDreamy, Dr. McSteamy and such. Well I didn't take the time to start watching episodes till about Dec. Luckily for me my good friend Linda, Nickie's nurse, had both season 1 and 2 on DVD. I've spent several weeks watching those 2 season's and learning what all I missed. Seems I missed a whole lot. I'm in love with Denny, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I know he's dead but damn that man makes dying look dreamy! I love his teeth and his smile and OMG his charisma is undeniable. So I've been going to the officail Grey's website and I just took a quiz to determine which character I'm most like and to my disbelief I'm most like Callie. I suppose I shouldn't be so shocked. I look most like her and I suppose I do act more like her too. I don't think I'd be initially attracted to George but as this season has moved along I do find him more and more attractive.
I suppose though I wish I were more like Izzy. She's beautiful and has a huge heart, a perfect body and all the things I'm not. I'm not complaining, mind you, I have a great life with a wonderful man that loves me the way I am. We have great kids and a life that is a near perfect as possible. The only thing we lack is money and as the song says, "can't buy me looooooooooove".

Here is a picture of Jackie's new dog, Adel.

Here's my boy on his favorite rock.

The momma in me.....

2007-03-07T09:48:00.000-05:00

I know it's the Mom in me that has me worried about one of the chickens once again. Golden, as we call her has been listless and well to be graphic has the runs. Yellow runs at that. I'm patiently waiting for the results of a poop sample. If you had asked me 2 years ago if I'd ever be this concerned over a chicken I would have emphatically said, NO!

I've come to love my chickens. I mean who wouldn't? I raised them from day old chicks with lots of TLC. They feed us a beautiful array of colorful eggs. My extended family is loving it as well since I keep them in free eggs. I've lost more than a few now to snakes, weasels, dogs and illness. I'm praying Golden will be OK. The thought is that she has a simple case of parasites and if she doesn't die before the diagnosis I should be able to cure her easily. I just need to know what to do. I met the animal doctor at the Animal health facility in Lynchburg. Mostly they diagnose what animals died from. I'm hoping she will be able to help me before that happens here. The Dr. was a great resource for me. Though she readily admitted she didn't know much about chickens she was far more helpful than the local vets. Seems the local vets don't know crap about chickens. I thought living out in the country would mean the vets here would know about farm animals. As is usual with assumptions, well you know the saying.

Let me just say that I'm completely exhausted after deciding to clean the coop alone. After shoveling and lifting bails of straw and hay and 50lb bags of lime and pushing the wheel barrow from the van to the coop like a million times I practically had to crawl up the steps to the back door. Then to top it all off I couldn't get the zipper to unzip on my coat. So in my weakened state I tried to lift my coat over my head to remove it. Well, my arms were so sore that I think it took me 30 minutes to get out of that coat. How sad is that? So I'm taking a leave of absence for a while. As if I could.

There is a MOUNTAIN of laundry to do,3 toilets to clean, dishes to wash,sweeping to do, floors to mop, carpets to vacuum, cooking to be done and school work to be taught. I'm sure I'm leaving out lots but you get the idea. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do all those things when I can't lift my arms above waist level.

My journey to Alzheimer’s

2007-02-25T18:50:00.000-05:00

After getting dressed this morning I headed down stairs with one thought, I need to make some coffee. On my way out of my bedroom I notice the glass of water I had taken up last night and I think to myself, I’ll save myself a trip if I get this now. I continue out my room and down the stairs having to pause for a moment to think, what did I want in the kitchen? Oh yes I wanted coffee. I look around for the coffee pot and realize it must be in the dishwasher… which of course it is but I must have forgotten to run it last night so I reach in for the coffee pot to hand wash it decide to take a quick peak around the downstairs for any cups that didn’t make it into the dishwasher last night.

In the living room I notice a glass and a coke can that were left on the end table. I pick them up go back to the kitchen drop the can in the recycle bin and notice the cats not so patiently waiting for some food. I place the cup on the counter and proceed to feed the persistent cats. I pause after doing so and think, what was it I was supposed to be doing before I got distracted? I see the cup I left on the counter and I put it in the dishwasher and start it up.

I realize that I’ve still forgotten something. Hmmmmm, I know I came down here to do something, what was it? Oh wait there in the sink is the coffee pot I still need to hand wash. Good now I can make that pot of coffee that I wanted. I set out to make the pot when I realize that my darling husband hadn’t said if he felt like decaf or leaded. So I yell upstairs to ask which he’d like. “Leaded,” he says. As I typed this the pot is finally done and it only took most of the morning to do it. My family may have to start looking at nursing homes form me real soon.

Homeschool 101

2007-02-17T13:49:00.000-05:00

Today I was in the process of posting items for sale on a local area yard sale group and a free item on our local freecycle group. I got a couple of immediate responses to the free Power wheels jeep I offered on freecycle and ended up on the phone with someone that was very interested in coming to pick that up. We got to chatting and I told her how I was a stay at home mom and I also explained that I home school my son. She was very excited to hear about a home school mom. She has some interest in homeschooling her children but didn't know anyone that did that.

I was of course thrilled to give her any information that would help her to decide if it was the right thing for her. I promised to send her some helpful links to begin her research and I visited one of the home school groups I hadn't checked out in sometime and found this interesting article. I thought it was a great read and it enlightened me to think from the non homeschooling perspective. I'm not sure if I was guilty of thinking this way prior to my home school days but it sure was interesting.

Check it out for yourself.

A day of Firsts and forty-seconds...

2007-02-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

Today Nickie started her job training program at STEPS. She was so proud to be starting a job. Though her paychecks will be minimal she will start to have a few dollars to spend each month. She already has plans for the first paycheck. She wants to buy a new blue shirt. When Nickie arrived home she was beaming telling me all about her co-workers and her day. I never thought she would be able to work so this is very special.
Today Jackie, Brandon, Bob and I were headed to La Parota to have lunch when we passed one of the cattle farms and noticed a woman pulled over and had a blanket over something inside the fence. We turned around to see if we could help and found 2 women now at the side of a new born calf. Now as you all know we are new to the country life and though we're learning daily about goats and chickens we know nothing of cattle. So this woman insisted the calf was freezing to death. So I got out my cell phone and called animal control to tell them what was going on. I had knowledge from a previous incedent that they had a contact number for the owner. I explained what was going on and that someone needed to call the owner to come tend to the calf.

While I'm on the phone with animal control one woman jumped the fence and tried to pic up the calf. She had her back to the momma cow and momma didn't look happy at all. Bob and I told the woman to get out but she wouldn't listen. Momma snorted and lunged forward a few times I was very nervous and worried that the wooden fence was as substantial as a toothpick fence to this momma cow. I began to worry that she would tear down the fence.

The first woman declared she wasn't able to lift the calf and two seconds later the other woman was over the fence and she hoisted the calf up and over the fence and expected Bob to take it from there. He grabbed the calf after her insisting if we didn't get it into a warm place soon that it would die. So for fear of the calfs life he took the calf, she jumped back over the fence and opened the back of her SUV for him to place it inside. All the while I'm on the phone with animal control telling them what is happening. I'm told that one of the officers is going to call me in 30 seconds or less so hang up wait for his call.

The officer calls me in 2.2 seconds and demands that the calf be put back. I place the woman on the phone with the officer who explains to her that there is still a cow rustling law on the books in VA and she could be charged with a felony offense. He explains she is to remain there untill they arrived. She assured us she would wait for them and we left to go to lunch.

We arrived at La Parota for my birthday lunch.
The food was great, the company even better and turning 42 was no more difficult than 24. At the end of the meal I was given a photo opportunity I couldn't miss. Here it is....

Just after that lovely polaroid was taken as we were walking up front to pay the bill I receive a phone call from the animal control officer...She explained that the woman that had the calf in her car didn't wait on them. Fortunately they were able to convince her to return the calf and avoid CATTLE RUSTLING charges. Yeah that law is still on the books here and Bob and I would have charged with the same. Fortunately I was able to remind them I was the one that called animal control in the first place and ummmm we didn't have the cow in our posession either... So thankfully I didn't add the first arrest to my list of firsts, today.

pretty Ice

2007-01-22T21:18:00.000-05:00

I woke this morning to a beautiful icy morning. Its something I love to see but not something I like to have stick around.

I do love to see the beauty from inside the warmth of my home. Though I did venture out for a short just to get some pictures.

Tonight most of the ice is gone and I can't say I miss it. Especially since I have to make the long drive to Ashland tomorrow morning. I hope the roads won't be an icy mess.

Happy Anniversary!

2007-01-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

Now I know you will all find this shocking information but it's true, today Bob and I celebrate our 23 anniversary. Yes that's right 23 YEARS! I can't believe it myself. Today as it turns out is very much like this day 23 years ago. We had a light rain which turned to sleet and back again to rain. I remember arriving at the church that damp cold day. I wasn't about to allow the weather to dampen my spirits. I was filled with the joys and expectations of a life together with the man I love. Having no idea what the future was to bring.

Today here we stand as happy as we were all those years ago. Ready to face the challenges that are still to come.

**not sure why this pic is on its side since its upright on photobucket ... as usual I am having technical difficulties.

problems with the school lunches....

2007-01-20T17:00:00.000-05:00

I've been getting reports from Nickie's nurses about problems with the way Nickie's lunches have been prepared. You see for her to eat by mouth her meals have to be pureed. She doesn't chew her food so essentially they need to be pre-chewed. I've met with the cafeteria staff to explain this giving them an example of medium oatmeal consistency not too wet, not too dry. I thought that would be simple enough to understand.

I guess I expected too much of the cafeteria personnel. Her last meal at school last week looked like this.....

Do you see any resemblance to puree or medium consistency oatmeal?

I didn't think so either!

sunrise

2007-01-07T22:09:00.000-05:00

Speaks for itself

WE HAVE EGGS!

2007-01-05T23:15:00.000-05:00

Goodbye 2006 Hello 2007

2007-01-01T17:34:00.000-05:00

It's been a year of many things to be thankful for, not the least of which a full year in our home in the country. We quickly made the transition in this last year from being city dwellers to still learning country folk. Raising baby chicks to chickens ready to begin laying eggs soon. Let's not forget Aldo
and Frankie our goats.

We've made some great new friends in our community. Brandon has his homeschool friends and I have the wonderful mothers of those children. I've had ups and downs with the nursing care but in the end now have some wonderful nurses that are caring for Nickie. Some I'm proud to call friends as well.

We've had some set backs with some bouts of depression, though very minor, and our dealings with OCD which has become less of a daily issue with the help of medication. Though today the first day of this new year has been a dreary rainy day I refuse to believe it is a sign of things to come. I pray the new year will bring us happiness, health and prosperity. I wish the same for all my blogging friends and family.

Happy New Year!

I wanted to share this with you all!

2006-12-26T21:28:00.000-05:00

Friends,
I received a copy of an email from a dear friend of mine, Karen. She is a huge supporter of our soldiers. She shared with me a letter from a Maj.Mark Aitken, I can't begin to express this nearly as well so with out any further hesitation here is his email.
Wolverine "5" Christmas Message

Yesterday, December 20, 2006, I sat down to write a Christmas message to all who have supported the officers, non-commissioned officers, and troopers of the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment (Wolverines), but was distracted by our President’s news conference and the plethora of bad news emanating out of Iraq. It disturbed me greatly to learn that our country is losing patience with the progress or lack thereof to date. These statements motivated me to alter my Christmas message from one of hope and support, to a message requesting one thing, "Time."

The United States Army, "Your Army," has a distinguished history of overcoming insurmountable adversities eventually resulting in decisive victories. There are many heroic battles, but none more famous than when the Continental Army under General George Washington, during the Revolutionary War, reversed the tide of British victories in 1776 by crossing the frozen Delaware River on Christmas Eve to defeat the Hessian Garrison at Trenton, New Jersey. This tradition continued through the years, and was again illustrated during World War II during the Battle of Bulge when elements of the 101st Airborne refused to surrender to advancing German Forces. General McAullife’s response of "Nuts" to the German Commanders request for surrender was a stroke of genius that motivated our soldiers to stand their ground against overwhelming odds. These are only two examples of the many heroic and valorous acts performed by our Armed Forces during the Christmas season. Many of our fellow countrymen believe that this is only in our history, but I remind you that our men and women in uniform continue these fine traditions and epitomize the values of what it means to be an American!

Therefore, this Christmas I am asking for "Time." Time for us to do our jobs and bring peace and stability to the country of Iraq! We don’t need tanks, airplanes, artillery, or even more soldiers; we just need "Time!" We need "Time" to develop the Iraqi Army, improve security, and eventually show the local population how to enjoy the privileges of freedom. I know it is difficult to fathom but in the years following World War II, our country maintained large numbers of troops in both Europe and Japan in order to sustain peace and stability. It is interesting to note that even today we retain troops in both of these countries. I doubt that either Japan or Germany would have flourished and grown as democracies if we had abandoned the "Marshall Plan" and withdrawn our troops because of setbacks or casualties.

In closing, I would like to remind everyone of a conversation between General Washington and Congressman Benjamin Rush on the eve of their crossing the Delaware River. They were both concerned of the state of the militia army and their capability to execute a nighttime attack in extremely bad weather. During the course of the conversation Congressman Rush noticed General Washington holding a small crushed piece of paper in his hand. When queried regarding the contents of the paper he showed there were three words, "Victory or Death." This note, while profound during that time, affected me deeply here in Iraq. While most Americans today can not fathom or understand that kind of dedication, our troops serving in Iraq fully understand its implications. If we fail here, we may not perish, but all the good that we have accomplished over the past five years will wither and die! With that, I wish all a Merry Christmas, and pray that God grants our government and people the patience in order that we, the men and women of your Army, can emerge victorious.

MAJ Mark Aitken

1st Squadron, 89th United States Cavalry

FOB Striker, Iraq

We began something we need to finish. I agree with this man 110% and I only wish I could thank him personally for all he has done for this great country.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

2006-12-23T20:50:00.000-05:00

I'll return soon with pictures from our Christmas! I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year!

Diva Lunch!

2006-12-15T18:31:00.000-05:00

Today Bob and I had lunch with the Diva herself! I was able to prove that she in fact does exist in more than my imagination. I speak of the Diva often but Bob had no proof that she was real until today! I'm not sure if he thought that she was imaginary or if he thought "Diva" was the code name I'd given my boyfriend. I can assure you if I ever have a boyfriend he won't be a Diva! Besides we know my boyfriend is busy with Angelina these days! Some years ago Bob and I made a pact that the only people we could have affairs with would be, Brad Pitt and Meg Ryan. I haven't heard that Brad is secretly craving plump Latina's, yeah I know I'm being kind using plump but well I'm nice to me that way!

Our lunch time flew by and Bob agreed the Diva is all I've said she is. She's a cutie and he admitted conversation didn't lag a bit. My next trip to Richmond I hope to see her again perhaps I'll be lucky enough to meet her better half, if indeed he does exist! Just kidding Diva I know he does. Diva is half way through her first pregnancy and I have to tell ya she is just glowing!
We stopped for a picture together as we departed! The Diva and the Diva wannabe! It was great seeing you D!
I can't wait to see that bundle of joy you are carrying, I need to get my baby fix and remember any time you need me Auntie Lillie is just a call away!

Christmas has come early for me

2006-12-14T10:11:00.000-05:00

Though it is not customary for me to receive a present early DH thought I'd waited long enough since the death of my last digital camera. I had to agree with him! I made my decision after hours of research. I decided on this.
I love this camera! I will get the chance to break it in a bit tomorrow. The Diva herself is traveling out to my neck of the woods to meet for lunch at Ruby Tuesday's! I'll have pictures of the blogger meeting to post tomorrow. I should be back to a more regular blogging schedule now that I have a camera to inspire some posts. I'm sure you are all excited.

Proud to support....

2006-11-26T17:16:00.000-05:00

My family is proud to be supporting our military by adopting a soldier. We just received the name and address of a soldier in Iraq. I can't and won't divulge any information here I just wanted to say I'm so happy to be apart of this. I've just sent our first letter of introduction. I'm not sure that I will receive any information from him in time for the holidays so I'm searching for some tasty items to send as well as generic items I think he could use. I'd offer to bake some items myself except I can't bake and I don't think he needs to be a guinea pig in addition to the horrors of his day. I was forwarded a couple of wonderful blogs written from the perspective of Marines. The most recent posts describe Thanksgiving from the perspective of soldiers so far from home. I thought you might like to visit them. first there is http://www.sandgram.blogspot.com/ and also http://www.onemarinesview.com/one_marines_view/

Digital Cameras

2006-11-15T11:03:00.000-05:00

I've narrowed my search down to 2. 2 very different cameras and I was hoping anyone that had experience with either could chime in here for some advice.
1. Olympus sp500... this is not the compact model I'm used to but it has a 10X optical zoom, I think zoom is very important.
2. Canon SP600 or 630... very compact but I'm hearing some negatives on the sturdiness of the battery door and USB port
Also if you have any other suggestions please tell me those as well. I'm trying to stay in the $400 or less price range. Feel free to email me or leave your responses in the comments.
Till next time!

another interesting blog

2006-11-15T10:14:00.000-05:00

OK ,I found this new site via an advertisement on One red paperclip, Joe apology it has much the same premise as Post Secret, only here you post your apology anonymously. I think its a great way to get the ball rolling. It's cathartic! Some have posted that its a lame excuse for an apology... and maybe on some level that is correct. I think however, that it can be the first step to voicing your apology and or secret. Maybe its like confessions at the Catholic church only much easier. I know as a child growing up in the Catholic church I was not able to confess my true sins. I knew the father knew me and I didn't want him to know the awful truth about my sinful ways. So I made much more menial things up to confess.
I've long sense left the Catholic church partly because of confessions and the strictness of the religion though honestly I'm not a true practicing Baptist either. I don't attend church but I don't feel that keeps me from being a Christian. I try to do unto others as I'd have them do unto me. Even though they don't usually do the same. I can tell you some stories but I won't bore you with the details. Anyway, I had not intended to go into religion I just wanted to give you a great site to check out.
Till next time!

As we were watching the Animal Planet

2006-09-30T17:38:00.000-04:00

The other night we learned that flamingo get their pink color from the food they eat. So we got to talking about Jackie turning green cause of all the pickles she's been eating. Bob and Brandon started mentioning different things they like to eat and the colors they would turn if that was all they ate. Next thing I know Brandon says... "It's a good thing I didn't turn to chocolate, because then I'd have to eat myself!" We burst out into laughter in unison.

Thank God for this great country, the USA, that we live in.

2006-09-23T17:26:00.000-04:00

Today in an email alert from the Home School legal Defense I received the following:
From the HSLDA E-lert Service...======================================================================Urgent! Calls Needed to the German Embassy Next Week(Updated with Contact Info for the German Embassy)Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:The German government is persecuting homeschoolers like never before. Armin Eckermann, president of Schulunterricht zu Hause (School Instruction at Home--SIH), the homeschool legal defense association of Germany, states that there are over 40 homeschool families in court in Germany!The families are being heavily fined; the parents are being jailed; the children are being threatened with being seized and placed in the custody of the state; and families are being forced to flee to Austria and other surrounding countries.Here are a few current and frightening situations:1) The Rudolph family: They are diligently homeschooling their six children in Hamburg. The father, Andre, was jailed for a week for refusing to send his children to public school. Like many of the homeschool families in Germany, they are evangelicals. What is even more surprising about Andre Rudolph being put in jail for homeschooling is that he has a degree in teaching! He and his wife have been fined 840 euros ($1,090) for homeschooling. After Andre's jail time the authorities tried a new weapon and began to forcibly take the children to public school each day. Their plan was take custody of these six children and make them wards of the state. One day, however, the authorities came to take the children to school, but no one answered the door. The Rudolphs fled to another country in order to homeschool their children according to God's ways.2) The Plett family: If you recall, last year we asked you to pray and contact the embassy about the seven Baptist homeschool families of Paderborn. One of the families, the Pletts, have continued to homeschool their 12 children. Last week, a female plainclothes police officer rang at the Platt's house. When the mother opened the door, other police officers who were hiding in the bushes forced their way in. The mother was able to inform her husband by cell phone before the police took her to jail. The husband then fled to Austria with the children. She was given a 10-day prison sentence and is facing heavy fines and more jail time.Of the seven Paderborn homeschool families from last year, two have fled to Austria and five have enrolled in a Christian school in Heidelburg. They all still have pending cases against them.3) Three homeschool families from Saxony have been taken to court and convicted. One was fined 3,000 euros, one 6,000 euros, and another 10,000 euros.4) The Bauer family: This family in Hesse are American missionaries for the last 15 years. They were prosecuted about five years ago and have exhausted their appeals and have sought review by the Human Rights European Court that covers all of Europe.There are now eight cases pending before the European Court, most of which the SIH organization has brought, along with Ronald Richert, a renown Constitutional law attorney who has handled some of the SIH members' cases. The problem with the European Court, is that it all cases are discretionary: there is no right of appeal. If the Court decides not to rule on them, the case will not be heard. Another problem is the Court has no particular deadline of when they have to decide to take the case or not, so some of these cases have been sitting for three to four years, with no resolution in sight.5) The Herrmann family: This family from Baden-Wurttemberg was facing prosecution for homeschooling their twins who have many medical problems. They have been forced into hiding and are seeking asylum in the United States and other countries. The Maisch family, also from Baden-Wurtemberg, has been convicted of homeschooling. For the past three weeks they have faced increasing fines.Schulunterricht zu Hause (SIH), the legal association that HSLDA helped establish, is being worn out with defending all these families in court. They have approximately 150 members in their association that are all homeschool families, many of whom are underground, and almost 40 in court.Appeals have been exhausted time and time again, and money is running out. The German homeschool families are pleading for your help.Will you take a moment and contact the German Embassy?ACTION REQUESTED1. Please contact the German Embassy and give them this message:"German governments need to make homeschooling legal. Over 40 families are being prosecuted in Germany merely for teaching their children at home. These families have been given huge fines, some parents have been jailed, some have been forced to flee to other countries, and they are all being threatened to take their children into state custody. This is deplorable and unacceptable for any free nation to persecute Christian families who are providing an excellent education for their children. We ask you to stop prosecuting these families like the Maisches, the Pletts, the Bauers, the Rudolphs, and the many others. Homeschooling needs to be legalized in Germany."This message can be put in your own words, along with a story or information about the success of your own homeschool.The German Embassy can be contacted at:Wolfgang IschingerAmbassadorGerman Embassy4645 Reservoir Road NWWashington, DC, 20007-1998(202) 298-4000The embassy can be e-mailed from its website: http://www.globescope.biz/germany/reg/index.cfm 2. If you want to support homeschoolers in other countries--and causes such as Schulunterricht zu Hause in Germany--you can make a donation to the Home School Foundation's international fund. For more information visit http://www.homeschoolfoundation.org/ .3. Please pray fervently for these poor families facing incredible pressure and fear.We cannot give up. Our brothers and sisters in Germany need us and have their back against the wall.BACKGROUNDHomeschooling in Germany has been illegal in Germany for a long time. In fact, according to some newspaper accounts it has been illegal since Hitler banned it in 1938. Five years ago we helped establish Schulunterricht zu Hause as a way for Germans to receive some legal defense. However, even though the determined lawyers defending the families have worked for free and many attempts have been made to battle to make it legal, homeschooling is still outlawed.We have had tremendous success in many countries in the past to influence their parliaments to legalize homeschooling and even release people from jail. When Americans and homeschoolers in other countries have contacted the German Embassy, officials there have communicated the thousands of calls back to their national government and it makes a difference, even in policy considerations.We have been successful in help legalizing homeschooling in South Africa and Romania and in stopping bad legislation that would destroy homeschool freedoms in Ireland, Australia, Czech Republic, and other countries.Thank you and God bless you for your willingness to make a difference. Sincerely, Christopher J. KlickaHSLDA Senior Counsel
I'm thankful that here in the US of A we have the right to homeschool our children with little interference from the government. I know there are many cases where the government tries to cross the line beyond their legal rights, we aren't a perfect government nor a perfect society. We do however have the HSLDA to stand behind us and help us fight the good fight. I'd like to ask you to contact the German embassy and ask them to protect the God given right of every parent that wishes to home school their children, that they may do so without persecution from the government. Please join me in doing the right thing.

Thank you!

2006-09-16T14:22:00.000-04:00

Thanks to World of bloggers for linking me to their site. Now my friends those of you with experience on Blogger and or HTML expertise, I need help with the side bar links. I've never been able to follow Bloggers instructions to add links to the side bar and I need someone that can help me out with this ASAP! In turn I will add all my favorite bloggers as well as the one that successfully helps me to add links to the side bar... I don't know how helpful that will be to your traffic but it is all I can offer in return for you help. HELP!

16 candles!

2006-09-10T18:59:00.000-04:00

Princess for the day! Actually if you ask her she is princess everyday! Today of course we all had to agree she was a pretty, pretty, princess!
Every year that passes is another miracle! This daughter of mine was not expected to live past her 6th birthday! A full decade later and she is going strong! I knew the doctors had no idea the strong will of this young lady.

It took both Shaun and I to light those 16 candles! Seems we couldn't get a single lighter to cooperate and I feared the cake would melt before we got them all lit but thankfully we
finally did.

Nickie hit the makeup jackpot and can you tell just how happy this made her? She also has a bunch of new jewlery and clothes to impress her new boyfriend, Brian.

Frankie and Aldo!

2006-09-03T17:53:00.000-04:00

Indroducing our newest family members, Frankie and Aldo. Frankie is the smaller tri-colored goat and Aldo is the older more mischeivous tan and white goat.

Silly Us

2006-09-02T08:39:00.000-04:00

Last month Bob's parents celebrated their 50th anniversary. I don't know how it escaped me to blog about it. I was looking through some pictures on my computer today and found the one above that was taken of Bob and I at the party. Are we cute or what? OK, don't answer that if your answer is something other than a resounding yes!

It's hard to believe that anyone can make it a half a century. They are an inspiration! I hope Bob and I can make it to 50 years and be happy and healthy and still in love.

;

50 years? I can't believe it has been 50 years!

The Original gang

Here they are the original gang! From left to right, JoAnn, Patty, Frank, Bob, Linda and Scott. Frank and Patty created these monsters that in turn created a gazillion others. I've lost count on how many grandchildren and great-grandchildren they have. Fortunately my monsters haven't yet added to the gang as of yet. God willing I won't be a grandmother too soon. I'm not ready for that yet.

Good and bad news!

2006-08-27T17:51:00.000-04:00

First the good news! My friend Mollie has Nigerian dwarf goats and they began giving birth earlier this month. Brandon and I went over to her house on Wed. to see the babies and I can't tell you how adorable those babies are. Brandon along with Mollie's girls Becky, Laura, and Katie fed the babies bottles of goats milk and of course all I heard that day was PUHLEASE mom can we have a baby goat? I promise I will feed it and love it and play with it and ... Well you have the idea. We drove home and the idea was to tell Bob of our adventure and well honestly hope that we'd be making the drive back to Mollie's again soon to pick up a baby goat.

Bob was not really excited cause he knew it would make work for him to build a pen and housing. Brandon didn't give up though and by Friday Bob was on board with the idea. Saturday we picked up the needed supplies and off to Mollie's we went to pick up not one but 2 baby goats.

The bad news is by 3 am this (Sunday) morning I came down with a stomach bug and well was not feeling up to caring for the new babies at all today. So I had to have Brandon do most of the work today of feeding and watching after them, while I napped and moaned and made the mandatory RUN to the bathroom. He is a champ I tell you! He also managed to check on me and ask if I needed anything.

The other bad news is the fact that my digital camera decided to go kaput on me. I found it wasn't worth replacing it and I can't afford a new one right now.
So unless I pick up a throw away 35 mm camera and have the film developed in this century I won't be able to show any pics of the babies at least not until Jackie returns from her trip to visit friends in Richmond. I'm having digital camera withdrawals even as we speak.

Sorry ...

2006-08-07T12:28:00.000-04:00

For the lack of postings of late.... I have been having difficulty getting my pictures to upload once again. I suppose I should just post and not worry about it but for some reason I get frustrated and don't post at all.

I had a rough week last week. After all the love and care I gave to my baby chicks when it was time to take them out to the coop they were able to enjoy a few days in the coop till 2 of the largest black snakes made their way in and killed half of the babies and traumatized the other half. Bob was shocked to find 2 5 1/2 snakes in the coop and ran back to the house to get his .22 and kill them nasty snakes. I think we've fixed every possible entry point now and I've ordered some more babies.

The neat thing is this time around I found some chickens that originate from my parents homeland, Cuba. So I ordered 3 of those to go with the replacement of my other chicks. I hope we don't lose any more babies cause I'm really not liking this circle of life that everyone keeps reminding me of. To heck with the circle of life.

The week of Brandon's birthday!

2006-07-24T10:29:00.000-04:00

Monday we had a small cake and celebrated with just the 5 of us at home.

Wow I got what I asked for!

On Tues. he had his homeschool friends over for a celebration.

Then on Saturday we had a family celebration with Grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. We've never celebrated a birthday so completely! Nor do I plan to do it this way ever again! I had to clean up what seemed like a gazillion times.

Happy birthday Brandon

Brandon turned 8 on July 17th and we celebrated for most of the week.

2006-07-24T10:24:00.000-04:00

Birthday bash with the homeschool gang!

Vote for MM!

2006-07-23T09:55:00.000-04:00

OK, I can't say enough good about MM and his writing style. So it is now up to us to vote for him over at this blog for blogger of the month. Even though I think he should be nominated for blogger of the year, no decade or maybe century! I guess I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. Anyway, do your duty! Vote!

2006-07-16T20:27:00.000-04:00

We found a couple of interesting items that popped up on their own out back. Several of these beautiful white flowers popped up in the lawn.

We also found this bright red mushroom back behind the newly constructed hen house. Makes me wonder if the Smurfs haven't started a new colony in my back yard. Either that or we have one of those varieties of mushrooms that I've heard speak of. No worries, I won't be smoking or eating this variety! However I will take bids if you wish to try it! OK, not really but I sure was tempted! Damn the devil to hell!

Life on the "farm"

2006-07-16T20:04:00.000-04:00

We've been busy here on the "farm"! Cloud, our bunny moved into his townhouse. He is very happy moving out of the one room apartment he had before. Now he has a roomie place with 2 floors.

I'm not sure what he will think of the new neighbors when they move in but I hear they will be a house full. I haven't had the heart to break it to him yet cause he's used to living a nice quiet life. I'm sure he will have 911 on his speed dial complaining about the noisy neighbors but it is something he will have to learn to live with.
Here are just a few of his new neighbors. I ordered 8 guinea fowl and received the 8 along with packing peanuts as they are so lovingly called, 13 baby roosters sent to keep the gunea babies warm. Anyone want a rooster chick?

Here is a better view from left to right of a baby guinea and a baby rooster. In a week we will have 16 baby chicks of different types and one rooster. I wish we could keep all the roosters but that is way too many roosters for our small flock. So if you live in or around Farmville, let me know if you want a free rooster chick! Ya hear!

#1 son turns 22 today!

2006-07-09T18:18:00.000-04:00

I can't believe 22 years have past since the birth of my first born. This is one for the record books indeed since I'm barely over 22 myself. Well that's my story and if you are wise you will agree with me on this one!
Shaun came out to visit us yesterday and we had a small celebration in his honor. I'm not sure how he has spent this day but I wish him the happiest of birthday's and that the rest of this year and the years to come be filled with love, happiness and riches.

Jackie, Nickie and Brandon were so happy to see their big brother and share in the celebration with him.

After a long day of fishing he passed out for a short while on our sofa while the rest of the gang watched TV.

I love you Shaun and want you to know just how proud I am of you. Being on the Dean's list is quite an accomplishment and I know juggling work and full time school is one of the hardest things to do! Keep up the good work!

Sad news from Magazine mansion...

2006-07-03T09:18:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned in a few posts the wonderful blog of MM and how much I enjoy reading his blog. His family is having a crisis. They lost their beloved family member Blaze. MM has posted about this the latest saga of his life in cliffhanger fashion which is his style. This time however it is out of necessity that he does so. Go back to the post, "In which I am 0 for 2" to learn of the details.

I have never met him in person but I surely feel I know him through his blog as I'm sure all of his regular readers will attest. I certainly am sending all the good vibes, mojo and prayers for him and his family that they may bring Blaze back home to them unharmed.

UPDATE: I'm happy to report Blaze is home! MM, I'm so happy to have read you were able to locate Blaze and I know you need some time to recoop. You most certainly have to be the bravest person I know!

What do you get......

2006-06-27T19:48:00.000-04:00

When you mix an 18 year old that is bored with a willing 7 year old victim?

Why you get a fauxhawk of course! You've been warned!

Next blog!

2006-06-23T08:32:00.000-04:00

I spent an hour or so a couple of nights ago hitting the next blog button and I found a few that I really liked:

The Ironic Catholic I like the humor and this man's spin on the Catholic religion. Though I'm not a Catholic now I grew up as one and I thoroughly enjoyed this site.

Fat girl camp This woman has been on a voyage of discovery and I find her insights interesting. I will visit this one regularly.

4th Ave. Blues This blog requires some background reading into the cast of characters, whom are all very interesting. Here is an opportunity to read about a life style that most of us ignore. There are homeless people, those with mental illnesses, drug addictions etc. It certainly makes you think.

The book Bitches This site may be a bit risque for some of you but let me tell you I laughed my butt off (OK maybe I didn't laugh my butt off, cause as I caught my reflection in the mirror this morning I see its still there) I like their sense of humor and the post "A very naughty secret garden" I must applaud their choice of subject in the photographs. Is he Hot or what? Kudos, ladies!

This speaks volumes!

2006-06-23T08:20:00.000-04:00

If only all the entertainers thought like Sarah Mclachlan! I didn't know a video could be made with such quality for only $15.00. You Go Sarah!

Beautiful sunset!

2006-06-22T08:32:00.000-04:00

Sunset from my deck!

This picture doesn't even remotely capture the beauty I saw from my deck last night but I did want to share it anyway! Isn't it wonderful how seeing God's beautiful sunset can melt away all the problems of the day!