Woo Hoo!

Back from the dentist already,and everything went fine:)

Sheesh...it's not Friday yet, and already two entries

Well, I'm off in a short while to get my chipped tooth that abcessed extracted...yee ha.

This has been an interesting week so far. Monday I had just finished reading an email from my mom telling me she is going to have to have surgery in May, an email from one of my sister's telling me she had an allergic reaction, and then Tony walked in the door holding up a bleeding right index finger that was cut to the bone and said "Um...you need to take me to the emergency room."

He got seven stitches, a handle on a lawn mower had slammed shut on his finger, and you could actually kind of flip the top part of his finger off (until they stitched it)....which was cool,but yucky. No, we didn't get pictures like two years ago, when he lost the tip of his ring finger in a work accident. (which actually those pictures came in handy later, as workmen's comp wanted to call it a 'laceration'....even tho I thought he was nuts at the time,for wanting pictures,lol....who gets the end of their finger chopped off and says 'oooo,get a camera!"?:) But anyways...I didn't think to grab the camera this time, people bleeding on my floor tend to knock that idea out of my head.

I embarassed him in the ER (every single one of my kids will relate to this one,lol) because I parked after I dropped him off, and when I went in, he was sitting at the desk registering. I said "What are you doing???!!" and he had just told them he cut his finger, didn't show it to the triage nurse.

So I went back to the desk, and said "Excuse me, his finger is cut to the bone, and he is bleeding through the towel he has wrapped around it."(Tony, of course, is trying to hide and act like he doesn't know me,LOL....hey, I get that reaction from my kids,too......hmm,is there a pattern here?:) But my being myself (embarassing to others,lol) expedited him getting sent back into the ER.....plus, they just don't like bleeding people there, either.

I am hoping this is not a portent for my tooth extraction...(something going horribly awry). and I hate going to the dentist,anyway. I already went last week, to find out it was abcessed.

So, I hope I will be checking in later, minus my tooth but without complications.

 

"And now, for something completely different...."

The phrase in the title should be well known to any fan of  Monty Python's Flying Circus .

This has nothing to do with supporting the troops, but hey...it's my blog,isn't it? :)

The picture is of my brother,Kirby Daley, of whom I am inordinately proud . He is a financial analyst for Asian markets (he works in Hedge Funds for a French bank in Hong Kong)

Besides being "the best brother in the world" (IMHO:) he is also easily the most famous member of our family. He's been a regular on CNBC World since December 2002, he appears on CNBC World on Sunday nights , and also sometimes appears on Bloomberg and CNN.

As my youngest sis says here on her blog 

Click here: A Red Thread to China: Kirby analyzing the Yen

 

"It's pretty cool to have a brother on international TV"

 

(although, like my sis....I don't always understand exactly what he is saying,LOL.)

 

Anyway, also like my sis, I was never able to catch him on TV...we don't have that channel in our cable package,either. So, we were very excited when he told us recently that we could catch him on streaming video online.

 

Here's the latest clip of him on CNBC World (copy and paste the link in your browser)

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=265962088&play=1

 

and then there's a longer clip on Bloomberg.com  (copy and paste)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aWVTiFOkTT70

(click under 'Related Media on Demand' on the right side)

 

Just wanted to do some 'big sisterly' sharing about my very special brother!!!:) Besides being a 'media personality", he's also just an all around great guy:)

 

Love ya,Kirb!!

 

Seems to be a 'Friday' thing?

For me to post here,lol.

What a horrible week this has been, with the tragedy at Virginia Tech. (and hitting Far too close to home, when the older sister of one of April's schoolmates is among the wounded.)

And I also had an abcessed tooth, which I Finally got on antibiotics for yesterday.

We've heard from Dustin...already it's changed, now possibly Afghanistan...but definitely either Iraq or Afghanistan. And AMEN, he WILL be able to come home for two weeks at least, before he heads to Hawaii.

(which will be a 'sweet' duty station, except he won't be there very long)

He's writing less, since he's in AIT and so is studying all the time.....but he did call his dad on the phone last Sunday and they talked about 20 minutes.

Kyle is putting in an application at the city police department.....wish him luck!!!:)  Kylewv04@aol.com

Sister Tracy has the 'skinny' on a way to see "International TV Star Brother Kirby",lol, I'll just give you the link to her post about it. 

Click here: A Red Thread to China: Kirby analyzing the Yen

 

Hope everyone has a good weekend:)

Based on my posting tendancies here,LOL....see ya next Friday?

 

More News from Dustin

Not the best news, but not unexpected. It looks like he will most definitely be heading to Iraq after graduation, possibly as early as July or August.

And there's also a question as to whether he'll have time to come home after graduation, before shipping to his duty station prior to shipping to Iraq. You can bet we are praying that he Will be able to come home for two weeks before going to his duty station!!

That's about it for now.

Please go show Tracy some love:)

Youngest Sis Tracy, and Brother-in-law Adam, got the latest referral news from the adoption agency yesterday

Click here: A Red Thread to China: 2 days, and Tracy is in a funk!

 

Please consider stopping by and offering them some encouraging words,they could use them!!

 

And, April's Youth Group at church has a website now (but our church still won't start one!!!Arghhh!)

 

Here's the link   

http://www.geocities.com/legolaswannab/

 

They are just geting it started, but thought you might like to keep up with her:)

 

Happy Easter!

and this is too funny not to share.....Dustin called his Dad last night, and said "DON'T send that much candy again!"

Seems the drill instructors made him eat ALL of it at once!

His Dad told him, "well, that's what happens, when you mention 'send candy 16 times in your letters"

It's not funny...and yet...I just keep laughing!! :)

 

Pics...and more from Dustin

Here's some pics we took on our last visit with Aiden....I LOVE the first one of April and Aiden together!!

And since I promised my family Months ago,LOL, that I'd send some pics of the house...there's a few of those thrown in as well.

We received two letters yesterday from Dustin:) and had to laugh. In both letters, he said "I would like some CANDY, please send me some CANDY"...and he went on to list exactly what Kind of CANDY....

King-size Snickers bars, Reese's peanut butter cups, "Scooby Snacks" a Whatchamacallit candy bar, and "caramel coconut cookies" (ok, we never figured out what the cookies were? have written for more info? does he mean like Little Debby cakes? Girl Scout cookies?)

To quote verbatim...he said "candy would be sweet,cause I miss it and I am a 'best of the best" so I can have it. Thanks."

and in another letter "please send as soon as you can,because I am down to 181 and I don't like it"......"everyone has  been getting candy and I 'ain't got any yet'(editor's note...holy cow! a high school graduate,LOL)...

or in another part of the note..."I'm starving".(way to go for the sympathy bid,Dustin,LOL)

Then he said "Please send me some this week, in a box NO BIGGER THAN A SHOEBOX" (yes, that's what you need to use:)

But the part that had me falling down laughing was that, at the END of both letters...just in case, I suppose, he thought we hadn't quite gotten the idea?.....he wrote:

"P.S. CANDY"

So, you guessed it....we went shopping yesterday, and we sent TWO shoebox size boxes of candy:) We also gave his list to the family friend that works at the post office, because she had been asking 'when can I send care packages?" and told her the time was definitely Now,LOL.

We also learned from his letters that he is both Squad Leader and Bay Leader, and that he is responsible for 25 others.

And he writes about training.....learning to 'secure a town',and 'bust out of Hummers' (Humvee vehicles) and this somewhat disconcerting (to me,anyway) exercise....."low crawling in barbwire and mud, while the Drill Sergeants shoot 50 Cal,M249 SAW, 240 Bravo over our heads by 2 feet so we can't rise up or we will be shot.LoL. It will be fun...."

(Glad that fits into His definition of fun,LOL, I don't think it would be Mine!!)

So, that's the latest word from Our Young Man In Basic Training. (Or "P.S. Candy", as I've taken to calling him:) He is Very grateful for all the cards and letters, he continually says so.

We told him in the letters we sent with our boxes, that we're not sure how much longer we can be sending CHOCOLATE....but that doesn't mean we can't send a few of the other things we threw in the boxes, like Starbursts, and Werther Candies:) And hopefully we'll find out what those darn 'cookies' are, so we can send some of those.

Well, that's it for today:)

Love,Kathi

 

Woo Hoo...heard from Dustin!

Well, he left a message on Tony's cell phone. Tony has had the cell phone within reach ever since Dustin left, so of course TODAY, when Dustin called? Tony had left it in the truck!! Argghhh!

Dustin said that he is SQUAD LEADER now,Woo Hoo! And he says he made second on the PT test "because I have a couple of broken toes".

He has made it through the first part of training, and has gotten his "values tag"

(From the website about his training)

VALUES TAG CEREMONY

If a Soldier meets all of the standards of Basic Combat Training and demonstrates that they live by the Army Values, they are presented with a “Values Tag,” signifying that they are now Soldiers in the United States Army.

and the link is here Major Event Information

and he is now in AIT (Advanced Individual Training) which is training specific to the  MOS(Military Occupational Specialty)he will have, 31B,Military Police.

WAY TO GO,DUSTIN!!