7 year anniversary of 9/11

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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.