"Challenger" The Eagle

Beautiful video and music!! Gave me goose bumps. Well worth watching!!

Click here: YouTube - Amazing Free-Flying Bald Eagle "Challenger" (AEF)

Deb

Thank You

I wanted to Thank everyone for coming over yesterday. It meant a lot to Pat and I being able to tell everyone at the same time. Granted, it was not the nicest day out, it still worked out well!!

We do not have a date picked yet, but we are thinking Sept of 2010. Of course when we pick a date, we will let everyone know!

*Brandi & Patrick*

Before we told them
while telling them

After telling them, with my mom this time.

First Surgery....

I am having my first surgery on OCt 23rd at 7:30 am. It is going to be orthoscopically. I will thn have to have a pin in my wrist and a cast on. I am not looking forward to the cast part. I believe the doctor said the cast will be on 4-6 weeks.

Brandi

Others

The past few weeks have been stressful I have ran the office I work at alone for two weeks while my boss was in Europe. I am a little jealous because I feel that because he is never their and I pretty much do everything I should have gone also he called twice and complained that things were not the way he wanted them: concerning that they had no T.V. when they were in Portugal and could not make dinner reservations until 8:00 P.M. I would give anything to go anywhere no matter weather, country etc... to be with Jamie alone so we could explore and have the opportunity to learn of another's culture. ( by the way it was paid for by one of our Insurance Companies.) I know wah, wah, wah. I am over it now, have accepted it and have moved on. I feel great that I do not hold any resentment or grudge, yeah!!!!

On the other hand Jamie and I found out that a very dear close friend actually one of our best friends has Leukemia it is in the bones, as of right now we do not know
the extent of it and we just sit and wait for answers. His name is Pete Butler he's 51 and is one of the best people I know, he was adopted while an infant so he has no
family background of health history, I do know that if he does need bone marrow I will be one of the first to see if I am a match. Pete is one of those worthy opponents that Jamie has wrote about.

I got a phone call tonight from Jamie's brother telling me that Jamie's mom more than likely had a mini-stroke, is in the hospital getting test run. If you knew her like me you would think , what? Kathy, Jamie's mom, walks every-day eats pretty healthy works at night, and would do anything for her family, she is loving, forgiving, honest, fun. by the way she is only 57. Jamie and I have a pretty good idea why she is stressed to the max . Her daughter who is my age (for those who don't know I am 38 but look 28 hee- hee) has moved back home again with her two daughters, one who is 17 and the other is 2. Her daughter Barb has put Jamie's mom through the wringer worse than me to mom and dad and for those who think Katie has put Debbie through the wringer. 100's time worse!!!!!!!!!! Kathy does not deserve this, she now needs people to do things for her, the unfortunate part of this is that only Jamie and I see it and are the only one's to tell her too bad were doing this for ya whether you want us to or not. That is so fun when you can tell a stubborn parent : to back off man!!! She is a awesome lady!!

Uncle George has to start dialysis, his one and only U shaped kidney is not working very well, he cannot be put on a kidney transplant until he starts it.
I gotta hand it to Margie, I saw her the other day and is holding up very well, at least on the outside. George is okay but gets uncomfortable when he is in one position too long. He still says smart-assy things so that says something.

Debbie is sick had a tooth pulled that was infected and still is infected, she sounds like @@*#&. sorry Debbie!

Jamie is forever working way too many hours he is way beyond stressed and I fear that he will have a heart attack. He cannot sleep and is starting to get the "tick in his eyes" not good people. The last 2 days he has calmed down maybe cuz I expressed my concern of his health and that I would kick his ass if he got sick.

Tyler, well what do I say, he has been so respectful, grown-up, more caring and more attentive since he has gotten home, but he still stresses me out.
ya know the teen-age thing, where are going blah blah blah. who is that girl, where are the raincoats? Maybe it is me because I always have in the back of my mind that he will be leaving again in less than a year and it only makes it closer for him to go to Afghanistan, or Iraq or something to that nature. I am okay with it because that is what Tyler wants, but it is still freaky.

So after the stressful couple of weeks and news I have gotten, I feel pretty level-headed, I don't quite know if it is because I have finally learned to deal or if I am sub-consciously not dealing with it. I will have to talk to dad he seems to always be able to calm me down. that's weird huh?

David if you could, please mention Pete, Kathy, Uncle George, Jamie and yeah Debbie's tooth in your next sermon. I would greatly appreciate it.
and to whoever else, throw some positive thoughts their way. For they deserve it.


Thanks for listening or rather reading

Lots Of Love

Jodi

What makes a family

"Dad, what is meant by 'a family'?
Is it you and Mom, the others and me?"
"No son, it's more, much more than that.
It's little Sue's curls, and Mother 's new hat; Jackie's face when she learns she is able To help your mother in setting the table.
Your first little drawings that we store away To cherish and gaze at some future day; Your mother's lost look on your first day of school; Learning to live by the 'Golden Rule.'
It's fireside stories on many a night, The feeling we have that everything's right; The trials and errors, the laughter and tears That touch on us all, down through the years.
It's all of these things, it seems to me, Which, my son, make a family."

Red State Update

Check out the new site under "our other places".

I laughed until I cried.

Dave

*The Train Of Life

Some folks ride the train of life
Looking out the rear,
Watching miles of life roll by,
And marking every year.

They sit in sad remembrance,
Of wasted days gone by,
And curse their life for what it was,
And hang their head and cry.

But I don't concern myself with that,
I took a different vent,
I look forward to what life holds,
And not what has been spent.

So strap me to the engine,
As securely as I can be,
I want to be out in the front,
To see what I can see.

I want to feel the winds of change,
Blowing in my face,
I want to see what life unfolds,
As I move from place to place.

I want to see what's coming up,
Not looking at the past,
Life's too short for yesterdays,
It moves along too fast.

So if the ride gets bumpy,
While you are looking back,
Go up front, and you may find,
Your life has jumped the track.

It's all right to remember,
That's part of history,
But up front's where it's happening,
There's so much mystery.

The enjoyment of living,
Is not where we have been,
It's looking ever forward,
To another year and ten.

It's searching all the byways,
Never should you refrain,
For if you want to live your life,
You've gotta drive the train.