Leaving Fort Worth tomorrow

We will be heading back home tomorrow. :)
My Mom came home from the hospital today. :)

For all the people who protest...

I found this on a soldiers site. Thank you Chris! And to all our soldiers out there!

Tips To Manage Stress

In our hotel room here in Fort Worth I woke up sick. Not flu sick but stress sick. I couldn't sleep so I decided to get up and sit quietly in front of the laptop to get my mind off things and try not to wake up my family. The following is what I found here and the comments I added in my own words are noted in this color .

Don't sweat the small stuff! This is something my husband is always saying to me.
Don't try to ignore feelings of aggravation. Acknowledge them, then look beyond them to specific solutions. If that's not possible; then know that in the next hour, day, or week, the situation will change. Keep your perspective. Are the crises of two years ago important now, or have they been forgotten? Small stressors loom large in the present, but fade quickly if you let them. See them for what they are: small irritants, not earthshaking crises. Mark Twain used to say, "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which have never happened."
Don't let guilt get to you. Guilt is destructive and can be a major source of unrelenting stress. If you have regrets, and it is possible to apologize to someone or repair some damage done, then do so and move on. Don't let others manipulate you using guilt. Do what you need to do, to make sure it doesn't happen again and be grateful for the lessons learned.
Develop coping strategies. Learn that you are not helpless in the situations that trigger stressful responses. Use these triggers to develop more resourceful and useful responses.
Learn to accept and adapt to change. Learn to have faith and practice being optimistic even in uncertain situations. Recognize that even the darkest clouds have a silver lining. Look for the opportunity to learn and grow and become more flexible through adversity. Take a leadership approach to problem solving. Don't let your problems immobilize you.
Change the way you look at stress. Stress is not an external force. It is the way you react to people, places and things. You have control over that. Look for choices and alternatives. Don't let fear take over. Break the problem down into small chunks that can be managed. See difficult situations as a chance to improve your problem solving skills. See them as enjoyable and challenging. Remember that things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.
Develop a support system. Everyone needs at least one person who acts as a sounding board. Choose some one you feel safe with, who you know you can share your hopes and fears with, without being judged. Just verbalizing feelings can be a great source of relief. Friends multiply joy and divide sorrow.
Learn to accept the things you can not change. The serenity prayer says it all: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Patience plays a large role in learning to accept what you can not change. Practice it often and it will become easier with time. Patience is sometimes putting up with people you would like to put down. Don't confuse acceptance with becoming helpless. Keeping busy and understanding that life is cyclical and ups and downs are all a part of the process will help.
Develop a personalized anti-stress regimen. This regimen should emphasize a healthy diet, exercise, and relaxation. It should be convenient, time effective, inexpensive and most important of all, enjoyable. Experimentation can provide you with one that is just right for you!

I can tell you now one of the things that works for me is my alone time to read my Bible at the end of the day in the quietness of my room where there are no distractions. I can tell when too much time goes by and I have not taken the time out of my day to do this. That is when the headaches come on etc... Satan provide distractions and problems of things that seem so important at the time that by the end of my day I am exhausted and forget to take out the me time. It is a constant battle to prioritize every day.

Don't take it personally. Fate doesn't single you out. When you are the target of someone else's bad day, just remember that if you weren't there, someone else would be the target instead. By not taking other's negative behavior personally, you can break the stress cycle. You shouldn't accept unpleasantness passively, but assert your right to be treated with respect, or temporarily remove yourself from the situation.
Believe in yourself. You are your own best friend. Remember that courage is believing in yourself when no one else does. Know that you have all the resources within you to make the changes you need to make and to meet all the challenges that life presents you with. This doesn't mean you have to do it alone.

Sometimes when I am in a stressful situation I find myself subconsciously holding my breath which usually gives me a migraine headache. I am going to try these breathing exercises and see if they work for me.
Take A Breath

Fort Worth

Well we are in Fort Worth, Texas now. We got in about 11:00 am today. We made a last minute decision to drive our truck instead of flying. The company gives Ken a small rental car and it just would not have given us much room for all our luggage plus this way we were able to bring our cooler etc...
When we got here the girls went exploring and found they had an outside pool and hot tub. Gonna be too cold to swim and the hot tub is more like a cold tub. Bummer! They did however find the have a nice workout room.
Our room is really nice with a small kitchen fridge, microwave and even has a fold out sofa.
After we got here we went looking around to find a Walmart etc... Then we got something to bring back to the hotel to eat since we all were really tired. (Hadn't been to bed since the day before)
We all laid down and rested and woke up around 8:00 pm
Then both Kendra and Kari got sick. Kari had not been feeling too well before we left. Not sick but just laying around. Most likely a 24 hr bug of some kind.

Happy Valentine's Day

For God so loVed the world,
That He gAve
his onLy
BegottEn
SoN
That whosoever Believeth
In Him Should
Not perish,
But have Everlasting life."

John 3:16

DUST OFF

This is true... taken from here.

First, I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were #2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it.

He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs.

I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they won't.

I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF . Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them.

On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.

On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work.

He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was n his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM.

I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no.

Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas, heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out that's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU!

The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE. It's Russian Roulette. You don't die later.

Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in, if not you die within 2 seconds of finishing 'the hit.'

That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why it's more accepted.

There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known.

It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it.

I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.

After Kyle died another story came out. A probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there.

They don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this 'new' way of getting high they found, they hid it.

The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house.

We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some 'professionals' do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it.

April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I can't help but wonder if I died and went to Hell.

This Officer is asking for EVERYONE who receives this email to forward it to everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers.

Even if you do not have children, you can still forward this to friends who do.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO FORWARD THIS......IT COULD BE YOUR CHILD, OR GRANDCHILD WHO IS EXPERIMENTING. THERE ARE NO TELL TALE SIGNS.

This is too cute

I thought this was cute...

A nurse on the pediatric ward, before listening to the little ones chests, would plug the stethoscope into their ears and let them listen to their own hearts. Their eyes would always light up with awe, but she never got a response equal to four-year old David's comment. Gently she tucked the stethoscope into his ears and placed the disk over his heart. 'Listen', she said...........'What do you suppose that is?' He drew his eyebrows together in a puzzled line and looked up as if lost in the mystery of the strange tap - tap - tapping deep in his chest. Then his face broke out in a wondrous grin and he asked, 'Is that Jesus knocking?'

We Defend Our Freedom

Our mission in Iraq is clear. We are hunting down the terrorists. We are helping Iraqis build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror. We are advancing freedom in the broader Middle East. We are removing a source of violence and instability — and laying the foundation of peace for our children and our grandchildren.

The terrorists know that the outcome will leave them emboldened, or defeated. So, they are waging a campaign of murder and destruction. And there is no limit to the innocent lives they are willing to take.

In the past year, we have made significant progress:

One year ago today, we restored sovereignty to the Iraqi people.

In January 2005, more than eight million Iraqi men and women voted in elections that were free and fair — and took place on time.

We continued our efforts to help them rebuild their country. Rebuilding a country after three decades of tyranny is hard — and rebuilding while at war is even harder. Our progress has been uneven — but progress is being made. We are improving roads, and schools, and health clinics ... and working to improve basic services like sanitation, electricity, and water. And together with our allies, we will help the new Iraqi government deliver a better life for its citizens.

After September 11, 2001, I told the American people that the road ahead would be difficult — and that we would prevail. Well, it has been difficult. And we are prevailing. Our enemies are brutal — but they are no match for the United States of America — and they are no match for the men and women of the United States military.

Thank you. And may God bless America.

+PRESIDENT BUSH+

Did you vote in the Primaries?

It is our constitutional right to vote. If no one voted and had the attitude that it wouldn't make a difference if they voted or not what condition would our country be in? As an American you should exercise your right and vote!

Go Huckabee ... Go McCain!

When It Rains... IT POURS

Our Impala is down again! It is in the garage and it will be down for a while. The differential went out in the rear end and Ken is working on it. I asked him what would it cost if he had to buy the part to fix it. He said it would cost about $600.00 to fix it so that is why he is doing it.
Then our heating/ac unit went out yesterday. With Oklahoma weather you never know what to expect. The other day it was 84 degrees and then the next day (when the heater went out) it was 31 degrees. So we slept by space heaters last night. Ken said I do not want to know how much that one is going to cost.

So the saying "When it rains ... it pours" must be true at least it feels like it sometimes. I know you have had those kind of days. Just remember it will get better. I am glad I have Christ in my life. Jesus is the Light at the end of my tunnel.
Still hanging in there!

East To West

Good song by Casting Crowns!

Praise You In This Storm

We all feel like we are in the middle of a storm in our life. The important thing to remember is we are not alone through the storm!

Human Statue Of Liberty

"On a stifling July day in 1918, 18,000 officers and soldiers posed as Lady Liberty on the parade [drill] grounds at Camp Dodge." [This area was west of Baker St. and is currently the area around building S34 and to the west.] "According to a July 3, 1986, story in the Fort Dodge Messenger, many men fainted-they were dressed in woolen uniforms-as the temperature neared 105 degrees Farenheit. The photo, taken from the top of a specially constructed tower by a Chicago photography studio, Mole & Thomas, was intended to help promote the sale of war bonds but was never used." (Grover 1987)

Check out the story here.
Also check it out on snopes if it is true.
Other people pictures here are pretty cool too!

Verichip