Thursday, June 28, 2007

Story in our paper today, about a local VA Tech survivor

"There's a Reason I'm Still Alive"

Heidi Miller sat across the aisle from us at April's last concert of the year. She was on crutches then, and when they called for alumni to come join the choir for the last song? She went up onstage and joined them.

I must say, I wept.

For what she had had to endure, and for All the others wounded that day, and most especially my heart hurt for those families who lost their loved ones that day.

But I also came out of the concert uplifted...by the power of the human spirit, to endure, to heal.....and to go up onstage to lift your voice in song, after surviving that horror.

 

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Nice Update on the Carlsen Twins :)

Remember them?  The conjoined twins who were surgically separated on May 12,2006.

The update is on their CaringBridge page here

Isabelle & Abbigail

and there are great pictures up :)

 

Friday, June 22, 2007

Adam's Pictures :)

Brother-in-law Adam, (one half of the blogging duo over at  A Red Thread to China  :)

is a 'biker' (the Other kind:) and has some pics up on Flickr.

 
Actually, you can check out All of Adam's pics here  
 
He's a great cameraman and photo taker!
 
 

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

You are Invited to a Virtual Baby Shower :)

(Friend and fellow troop supporter Trish sent me the following, please feel free to pass the word along!:)

----------------

I am planning a surprise long-distance baby shower for my friend and former adopted soldier, Martha. 
 
 
 Martha and Seth met while they were both deployed in Iraq. They now live in Kentucky and are expecting their first child (a boy) in August. 
 
 
Having recently moved to Kentucky, Martha doesn't have any close friends or family nearby so no one is giving her a baby shower. 
 
 Also, Seth was injured in Iraq, requiring several surgeries on his foot and ankle, and they learned he will be needing yet another surgery in the near future. 
 
 Martha is such a wonderful person, I'd like to do something special and lift her spirits a bit so I'm asking for your help.
 
Here is what I'm asking:
1)  I would love to get a bunch of cards to send to Martha, and I've also set up an email address if anyone would like to email instead.  The address is BabyShowerSurprise@yahoo.com  All emails will be printed out and mailed to Martha. 
 
2)  If anyone would like to send a gift or gift card (no amount is too small), that would be wonderful!  Gently used items and clothing would be gladly accepted.
 
3)  And, I don't want to leave out Dad-To-Be Seth.  Any cards, emails or small gifts for him would be welcomed. 
 
I am having all cards or gifts sent to me, and I will forward them on to Martha. (I don't feel comfortable giving out her address without her permission.)  I would like to have all cards and/or gifts no later than Tuesday July 10.
 
 If you want to participate or would like more info, email me at BabyShowerSurprise@yahoo.com and I'll provide you with more details.  Feel free to forward this onto your friends ~ The more the merrier!!! 
 
You can see a picture of Martha and Seth here:
page 4, line 55, second picture from the left
 
Thanks so much!!!
 
 

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Slide show of Dustin's Grad and Party

More on my Attempt to get to work yesterday

I haven't been able to find a news story yet about the wreck, but it's possible I'll find out more when I get to work today, as I work south of here and the wreck was closer to where I work than to where I live.

I was just going to share a little more about when traffic got stopped, as there was a brief very scary moment.

I had actually Just passed the exit ramp off the Interstate that is prior to the one I take to get to work, when I realized traffic was coming to a complete stop. So, I was between the two exits when I was suddenly just sitting,not moving at all.  And I was only a very short distance past the Entrance ramp from the previous exit....several cars began to come down the entrance ramp and then realized that traffic wasn't moving.

After I'd been sitting for a short while, I turned off the AC and the car. A young man in another vehicle that had just entered from the ramp had pulled over to the side. I saw him go back and talk to a trucker parked behind me, and then the trucker walked past me to speak to a trucker just ahead of me. The young man who had spoken with him, turned on his flashers and Backed up on the side of the Entrance ramp, to get off the Interstate.

(I considered trying this myself,LOL, but figured the odds were too great that someone would hit me, or I'd accidentally drive off the slight incline up the exit ramp while driving backwards.)

As the trucker began walking back to his own truck, myself and several other people leaned out of our cars to ask him what he knew, and he relayed that a tractor trailer had apparently overturned ahead and traffic might be delayed up to two hours. This is when I called my boss, and she said if I ever got out of traffic, I didn't have to come in.

The trucker was still standing near my driver's side, as I was in the right lane, and he was speaking with several other folks in cars around mine who had gotten out of their cars.

Another car came down the entrance ramp and right up next to us, apparently realizing as he came down that traffic was totally stopped.

This was actually the scariest part of the whole episode....as the man in the car, with windows rolled up, began Screaming and Cursing so loudly that we could all hear him, and Pounding on his dashboard.

The trucker's eyes got wide, and I know MY eyes were probably bugging out of my head, and I raised my eyebrows and quietly said "road rage" and the trucker just as quietly said back to me "THOSE are the kind of people that, if they have a gun in their car, heaven knows what they will do." I replied nervously "Yeah, I'm sitting here wondering if I need to duck, or just get out of the car."

(As I told Tony when I got home....when a big ol' trucker looks scared, I figure it's time to be scared.)  The man's tirade was Really UGLY, I won't repeat the cuss words, but he did holler at one point "If this is because of a wreck, I hope someone DIED!" Very disturbing. About 6 of us sitting or standing around were both trying Not to make any eye contact with this ranter, and also trying to keep a nervous eye on him at the same time.

I said to the the trucker "He's close enough that he could do what that other fellow did, and back up back the Entrance ramp....but I'll be darned if I want to go suggest that to him."

After several more minutes of shouting and cursing, apparently the ranter finally figured this out himself, and did just that....put on his flashers and backed up the entrance ramp.

Everyone around there breathed a sigh of relief, and myself and several others finally got out of our cars and we were just milling around chatting on the Interstate.  Our main topic of discussion wasn't the wreck, but the guy who had been going ballistic. No one could see any sense in getting THAT worked up, and we all agreed that it had been very nerve wracking and scary.

I spoke briefly with a young man who's serving in the military (go figure,lol:) and the trucker and a couple of other folks....April was saying 'how cool' when I got home and relayed the story, that we were all standing around chatting on the Interstate like we were at a picnic or something.

Finally, it looked like traffic ahead was starting to inch forward, so we all wished each other good luck and returned to our cars.

Just a brief interlude from my day yesterday.  I do hope the driver in the wreck wasn't injured, but since traffic was totally stopped for almost an hour, and then only moving very slowly, I don't think the news will be that good.

 

Monday, June 18, 2007

Pictures:)

I posted the link on my other blog, but wanted to include it here, to pics from Dustin's graduation, and party, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kasee102/

Enjoy! :)

I ALMOST made it to work today, I was only two miles from the exit ramp, when there was a very bad wreck ahead that totally stopped traffic.

When I heard from a trucker that we could be delayed almost two hours, and called my boss, she said "If you ever get out of traffic, you don't have to come in, we've got enough help today."

So, Woo Hoo! an extra day off:)

 

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Sunday, June 10, 2007

We're Gone this week

To see Dustin graduate from Army Training!!

Wishing everyone

 

(and this is a great graphic that a friend made and sent for Dustin:)

See you when we get back! :)

 

Friday, June 8, 2007

I may 'throw like a girl" but, apparently, I.....

I posted something about this over at my troop support journal  
 
but I thought I'd also post it over here, just because it totally cracked me up:)
 
I may 'throw like a girl", but, apparently, I write.....like a Guy??
 

My friend over at   Random Threads  had a post earlier this week "Does your writing give clues to your gender?" 

and if you go by and check her post out, you can test yourself.

Beware,though. I tested myself, 57 ways to Sunday,LOL.....and the results ALWAYS came back that my writing was MALE.

I know it says it's not 100% accurate....but this is really messing with my head:)

----

In other news, Tracy and Adam got the latest on when they might Finally get to go to China and meet and bring home the newest member of their family

not the greatest news, I'm so sorry.

And I'm working the next few days, and then we leave for Graduation!  The camera arrived!!YAY!!! (and Thanks! Bro:)  so expect lots of pics sometime after we get back!

 

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

NINE DAYS! till Dustin's grad:)

SEVEN DAYS, till we hop into the car and head off across the country:)

And leave Miss April here,LOL....(so she can go to Chincoteague with the church Youth Group.) 100 years ago (third grade?) I remember reading Misty of Chincoteague .Since we lived in  Parchment,MI  then ( Go,Panthers! ) I of course had no idea that someday I'd end up living in Virginia.

(and still have somehow never made it to Chincoteague, even after 29 years of living here!)

We made reservations last night for the hotel near  Ft. Leonard Wood   where we'll be staying, looks like we made them just in time....we had been waiting on info from Dustin and/or info from a letter we were supposed to get, with more info about graduation(which has never yet arrived). Well, Dustin had called his Dad last night, and seemed to have confused us with the independently wealthy,LOL...I'm not even going to tell you the price of the hotel He suggested we stay at.

And so when I got home from work, I said "I really think we need to go ahead and make the reservation NOW" and we proceeded to research hotels. Holy Schnike! Hotel after hotel said "SOLD OUT" for the dates we wanted,but luckily we were finally able to find one we could still reserve a room at.

Tony said "You really had a good idea" regarding my saying we needed to make the reservation last night...which should have made me feel good,ROFL, except that I'm still dissecting whether or not that was a backhanded compliment? because of the complete and utter astonishment in his tone of voice when he said that:)

If you want an idea of what we're going to be doing while we're out there? we finally went by the website and realized there was a posting there

Graduation and Family Day

(which perhaps is also the letter we never received?LOL)

In other family news...sheriff deputy son Kyle did NOT get to run in the Special Olympics Torch run this year, as he had to work.

And,did y'all realize that son Ben is a blogger also? Check out his blog on MySpace .

I am impressed with his writing ability:) and I have learned something (since I knew nothing about the subject matter prior to reading these:)

That's all for today.Love to all!

 

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Woo Hoo! My new niece is Here!

Congratulations! to my brother Kirby and his wife Takaho, on the arrival of their second daughter!!

Welcome to the World, Tabatha:)

Love from Aunt Kathi

 

Friday, June 1, 2007

My dorky life (episode 57)

OK, so sometimes I think a person can have Too Much imagination,lol.

Worked night shift last night. We have a part of the building that is very spooky and scary to go into, we All agree on that. Plus, there are the usual 'ghost stories' that you get when you work somewhere, about the building supposedly being 'haunted'.

So, I'm coming out of this scary back hall, and I Swear that I think I hear a ghostly voice whisper,very quietly......"Kathi".

I did not waste any time whatsoever to stick around and see Who (or What) could have whispered my name.(and I'm not even really sure at this point if I actually Heard anything? or if it's just cause I'm always freaked out by being in that part of the building,anyway?)

But I immediately slammed the elevator button and Jumped into the elevator the instant the doors opened,and took off for another floor.

(Yes, I am 46 years old,LOL....but I am a chicken:)plus, I think I've read too much Stephen King and Dean Koontz!

About 45 minutes later, I come around a corner and come across my Boss....who had come in early, and I didn't know it.  We were having a problem with the phones, due to an electrical storm. She says to me "I tried to find you, but I didn't want to yell with everyone sleeping, so I was walking around whispering your name."

And I am hugging her and saying "Oh, THANK GOD....I thought I was going nuts! I HEARD you whisper, but I ran away, because it totally freaked me out!"

And by this time, of course, both she and one of my co-workers are bent over laughing:)

I think it's funny now,too.....but I didn't when I heard that ghostly voice saying my name!!