Fireworks, Parades, Taz, Birthdays, Movies, and Mr. Hong Kong and Family

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Saying good-bye is hard....

This has been a year full of challenges and changes and although they have not been the most pleasant life experiences, the saying, "It is better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all," comes to my mind.

Erik and Amanda embark on a great adventure to Maryland this week. They have been the closest friends Daniel and I have had. When we first moved to Pahrump, we came for my job. I L-O-V-E-D my school and Principal. THOSE were the ONLY reasons we moved here. The first year here was the hardest. We didn't have any friends or people who were our age who hung out with us. Occasionally we would do things with acquaintences/friends, but we hadn't yet found people who enjoyed the same things we do and doing them ALL THE TIME and into the wee hours of the morning. It wasn't until Erik came to Hafen in 2007 that we found what had been missing in our lives. When I first saw Erik and Amanda touring Hafen Elementary School, I remember thinking, How can I get Erik to hang out with Daniel? They could play basketball or something....then Amanda would have to hang out wiht me and we could have friends! We got more than just a friend for Daniel, we found friends we will have for the rest of our lives.

Right now I'm feeling a big hole in my heart, but I am trying to think positive and see that this short meeting was just an opportunity to develop a friendship that will last forever. I will miss Erik and Amanda so much. They have helped me in more ways than they can even imagine. I don't know how I would have survived Daniel's deployment without them. May God bless them in everything they do and keep them safe and watch over them. And although they are forced to leave us and moving on to bigger and better things (;P) we are grateful to have loved them and lost them for the moment. We'll be missing you Erik and Amanda, You hold a special place in our hearts.

Harry Potter Summer!

Watching Harry Potter tonight totally helped me feel happy. I was very excited because Amanda was so excited. I even snuck in some Nielsen's Oreo Custard. YUM! YUM! YUM!! I can't wait for the next one. I guess I better read up. I only read until the Order of The Phoenix. For some reason I had a hard time getting in to them, but I've LOVED the movies, so I've been inspired to read them when Erik and Amanda move (the 27th of July =( ). This picture is of my cousin, "Duck." He was about 5 or 6 and LOVED putting spelles on people, so we'd paint up his face and give him a chopstick and WALA! Magic!!

What a day!

What a day....I got up so early and was going to go to aerobics...but unfortunately my body is older than me and I my neck and back and knee hurt so much. I feel like my body is not aging the way I need it to. For heaven sakes I'm only 25!! Anyhow, I finally got over to my school and started on my classroom.....luckily Marcy showed up to save the day because I was getting so overwhelmed that I just sat and looked at my room for a while. We did a lot of work, however only dented the amount of work I need to get my room ready...AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! Well, to top my day off, I officially broke my phone in half! It WAS hanging on by a ribbon, now it's totally separated! YIKES!!!!! Tomorrow cannot come quick enough. I need my new phone and a good massage!

Broken Phone and other things....

0h my goodness! What a crazy and HOT day! I got rid of almost everything at the garage sale! HOORAY!!! Now both of our cars fit in there!! HOORAY!! But the sad thing was that my phone snapped in half!! Can you believe this!?! It's being held together by a little ribbon that is still allowing me to talk to people. SCHWEEW! because it's my only line to the outside world! I don't even have a land line! This would have screwed me over so bad!! Anyhow, at least my replacement phone will be here on Tuesday. I am mad that they make phones so FLIMSY!! BOO!!! I remember the good ol' days, my phone didn't have a camera, but it haad reception in all the best places, AND it was dropped in a mud puddle, run over by a car, AND STILL WORKED!!!! However, I was forced to get a "new" phone eventually, and now I'm on my THIRD NEW PHONE and they all SUCK!! (I'll get off my soap box now.)

News: Garage Sale! etc.

So right now I am sitting outside on my little lounge chair trying to get rid of all this junk. I've gotten rid of a lot of things. I'm strinking all sorts of deals to get rid of it all. It's fun. I really like haggling. And I like trying to see how much stuff I can get one person to take. I managed to get this one woman to take like 10 bags! I was pretty impressed with my skills. It's not exactly fun, but I have been pretty bored...even though I have tons of stuff to do!

Ooooh! Good news! I will be able to get my room set-up this coming week because the custodians got my room ready so quickly!! Can you believe it!? I can't. It took them only a few days! THEY ARE SO AMAZING!! Anyhow, it's nice to be able to get into my room because I'll be so busy the end of July until Holly's wedding on the 15th of August. And then school starts for teachers the 20th and the kids come back the 24th!! YIKES!

Summer is flying by so quickly! I've been trying to enjoy it and get as much as I possibly can done before school starts up...but it seems like things get messier. I cleaned the garage a days ago and now it seems like my living room is cluttered with the things I brought in that I've been wanting to have in the house. I have too much stuff!! I say it all the time, but I don't know how to be simple or condense all the things I have. I look at something and I'm like, I NEED it. I know, I know, I don't NEED it, but it sure feels that way. I mean, how can I live without my lovesacs? My 200 shoes!? My millions of childrens books!?! I couldn't!! I wouldn't be able to! And here you have, a confession from a shopaholic and pack-rat. I'm too sentimental to get rid of some things....then I get sad when I see people take away my things during the garage sale, but OH WELL. I'm learning to be less sentimental and to keep only what I THINK I really NEED (even though I need it all). :) Well, I can't wait for this to be over. Then I can get more things done that REALLY need to get done! (LIKE EVERYTHING!)

Daniel Update: Daniel is finally in his final point in Afghanistan. It's been really interesting for him; He says there are like 600 men stationed there and there are only 8 bathrooms, 5 shower stalls with curtains and 3 shower stalls WITHOUT curtains. Seems like a pretty horrible little base. We'll see though. I hope they treat him good there! He says they aren't allowed to have ANY lights on after dark, which is a scary thought. Keep him in your prayers!!

Daniel Update

Besides the fact that Daniel misses me so much, he's doing okay. He is having a very hard time adjusting to the time change. He said that at one point he was just sleeping all day and waking up to eat or shower. On his plane ride to the base he's stationed at (we'll call it destination A, he's not allowed to really talk about certain things for security reasons), he said the landscape was amazing! Even Lamoille Canyon didn't come close to the beauty! The mountains were big and beautiful and the trees are so green with calming white bark. He said he'd never seen anything like it. He still has not arrived at destination A. His unit has made many stops at other bases because it is such a long trip. He should be there soon though. As of right now he has been sleeping in big tents with hundreds of cots lined up inside. I imagine it is pretty rugged.

He told me a funny story about a friend of ours. He was walking back from the computer room and decided to walk through the bathrooms to get back to the tents sooner and when he's walking through the bathrooms, out walks Alex Wilson. Alex is a good friend of ours. We've both known him since elementary school and he was even the Chaplin that married us. I was glad that Daniel got to see him because he's sounded so sad, and I think seeing an old friend helped to cheer him up. Alex is in the Air Force and he and Kathleen were deployed for 6 months to Afghanistan in December. Alex was on his way out of Afghanistan as Daniel is on his way in. Lucky Alex! Well, as for an update, that's all I have for now. If you would like Daniel's APO Address just ask and leave your email and I'll send it to you.

A funny July 3rd....

Hahahaha....so today I got a good laugh. Just what I needed!! I went to the pre-Fourth of July Fireworks. Yes, there were fireworks tonight and they have them tomorrow as well. =) Now while I was there I saw some interesting things. First, I saw a goat. Now this wouldn't be unusual in the town of Pahrump. In fact, I've seen this little goat at Wal-Mart, tied to the back of a truck...hehehe.... But while we were there, the goat got onto the back of a guy!! It was so hilarious, mostly because he was telling Amanda and I about how the goat is defensive when she (her name was Bambi) is up there, so we should not touch her. Well, along comes this little girl and touches the goat! Bambi turned and tried to head-butt her! I almost started laughing...instead my "teacher side" came out and I told the little girl, "You should remember to ask people to pet their animals before you do because it can be dangerous." Yes, I know...it's the summer! I just couldn't help myself-a learning moment presented itself and I took it... Anyhow, the fireworks were great too!! They were so loud that this person's car alarm went off THREE times!! Kids were crying everywhere. The dog next to us wouldn't stop yapping. The guy behind us wouldn't stop screaming, "YEAH! Woo Hoo!! That was a good one!" All in all, it was a good night.

Should be cleaning...

I should be cleaning right now....but instead I decided to look at a mysterious CD that I found while cleaning. Someone had apparently given it to me, but I've never looked at it before. It was labeled to me, and had tons of pictures from when I was in this dance group, ROC/MSU in college. The pictures put a smile on my face. It's fun reminiscing. I don't remember what we are doing here, but I imagine it was before the REALLY COLD show that we did outside and had to change into costumes behind the bus in the dark! We look like we're totally having fun, huh!

How cute are we! L to R: Shaela, Crystal, Mario, Summer, Andrea, Me, and Ginni.

This was just funny. I think they were doing the Haka....of course.

The boys always wish they could wear the false eyelashes and so we let him.

Hiking up to the Y.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Sleep. What is that?

~So very tired today....must take sleeping pills.....I haven't been sleeping well since Daniel left again. In fact, I've had this completely horrible splitting migraine! I wonder how I'll do tonight when the fireworks go off?? (Yes, they are having fireworks tonight and tomorrow night. I dunno why?)

Blast from the Past!

I was looking through these Cd's I have (from before the convenient and affordable portable storage devices) and found wonderful pictures from my trip to Washington DC. This was over six years ago in 2003! I would love to go back as soon as Daniel gets home. He's never been! Can you believe it!? Well, it's funny seeing how young I look and how very much the same my parents look! They haven't aged a day!I loved all the War Memorials. They were building the WWII Memorial while we were there. I loved these rocks and truly agree with them! I HATE WAR!

Me and my mom. Look at how much taller I am!

My dad and I are so very talented, and we wanted to show off our leaning abilities in this picture. haha, it was nice to stick my hands and toe in the water, I don't think I could live somewhere that is humid!

Ed Freeman

I received some of this information in an email and feel it was fitting to put this on my blog in honor of all the men and women who selflessly serve. Words cannot express how I feel about stories such as this. I hope that as you go about your business on the 4th of July, you will remember the sacrifices that have been made on our behalf. The Author's of our Nation's Declaration of Independence, Soldiers of past and current....all have sacrificed on behalf of freedom for people here in the USA and in the world.
Ed Freeman's Story:
What I received: "You're a 19-year-old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter and you look up to see an unarmed Huey, but it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out, through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses.

And he kept coming back, 13 more times, and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out."

Facts:

He was a veteran not only of Viet Nam, but of World War II and Korea.

He was the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on November 14, 1965, at Landing Zone X-Ray, in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam.

During the Vietnam War Freeman served as a helicopter pilot with the rank of Captain in US Army's Company A, 229th, Assault Helicopter Battalion, First Cavalry Division Air Mobil. On November 14th, 1965, a US battalion was surrounded by the enemy. In the heat of the battle when all hope was lost, an unarmed helicopter came to their aid, bringing water, much needed supplies and ammunition.

According to survivors of the battle the unarmed Huey returned more than 21 times with supplies, evacuating the wounded each trip. That day, more than 70 soldiers were flown to safety by Captain Freeman.

Freeman was decorated with the distinguished Flying Cross for his act of bravery but for decades those who survived this battle felt that a higher honor should be awarded to the helicopter pilot. On July 16, 2001, Congress awarded the Medal of Honor to Freeman with the persuasion of Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Crandall, other survivors who were rescued by Freeman, and Senator John McCain. That day, Freeman and his wife, Barbara, were invited to the Whitehouse where President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Medal of honor before witnesses consisting of Vice President Cheney, the secretary of defense, secretary of veterans affairs, the joint chiefs as well as members of the Joint Chiefs, Senator John McCain, Senator Craig, Congressman Otter, and Congressman Simpson from the delegation of Idaho.

On August 20, 2008, Major Ed Freeman passed away from complications of Parkinson's disease at the age of 80 and was laid to rest at the Veterans Cemetery in Idaho, where he settled.

In March of 2009, the United States Congress bestowed one more honor to Major Freeman. They designated the US Post Office in his place of birth McLain, Mississippi, the "Major Ed W. Freeman Post Office."

Rest in Peace Ed Freeman. Thanks for everything!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

There must be light at the end of the tunnel, otherwise I'd be getting pastier.

Leaving, on a jet plane.....

Right now I am overcome by a wave of sadness. Daniel flew out today. He's been deployed since April 15th, stationed in Indiana. Now he's on his way to Afghanistan... I added two songs to my little music player: 1-Feel Good Drag by: Anberlin, 2-Angel by: Jack Johnson. They're some of his top songs right now and listening to them somehow comforts my crushed soul, makes me feel close to him even though he is miles away. Wish him well, send your love and prayers.
~xoxoxo