Band Family Grows

MARK, JACQI, AND JULIA

As many of you know I have three sons, Jeremy, Jason, and William (Billy). Each one of my sons spent their time in the North Pulaski Band program in Jacksonville, AR. So as you can imagine my wife and I were very involved in the band program for many years, 12 years to be more precise. We loved working with the band and supporting our boys and the rest of the band. We took trips all over this state and extended our travels as far as Washington DC. One of the great things about being involved with the NPHS band program was that for those 12 years we had the same great band directors, Ms Kohler and Ms Dismuke. Ms K directed the middle school band and assisted in the high school and Ms D assisted in the middle school band and directed the high school. Another great thing about being a band parent was working with these kids and developing life long friendships.

One of those friendships that Shelley and I have developed is our friendship with the Haines family. Mark and I worked on the band trailer and any other maintenance that was needed for the band concession stand. Jacqi and Shelley managed the concession stand and kept the kids fed when we were at competitions and before major events for the band. Our friendship has developed to the point that our families spend Thanksgiving together each year. Mark and Jacqi's children refer to us as mommy Shelley and daddy Dale and we love those girls like our own. When Megan became pregnant Mark broke the news to me by telling me I was going to be a grandpa again. On Monday Megan gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Julia. We couldn't wait to see and hold Julia and we got our chance on Friday night. We love being a part of this family and having them be a part of ours. As our families grow so does the love between our two families. What started out as hard working band parents turned into a friendship that will last a lifetime!

Frustrated

What do you do when you try to help someone that needs help but they keep sabotaging themselves? I mean you know they need help, everyone around them knows they need help, they even know they need help, but they keep throwing a "monkey wrench" in the help you're trying to get them. Day in and day out I help veteran with various issues. Example; I have a veteran that tells me he hasn't received his medication that he is supposed to receive each month. Well the first time you order the medication that the veteran needs and explain to him that all he needs to do is as soon as he receives his meds he can go ahead an order his next refill, which will be suspended until it is time for him to receive them. Then the next month rolls around and it's the same picture all over again, and what do I do, I order his meds and again explain to him the process. I am his enabler, thanks mom.

Another example is an alcoholic. You know, everyone else knows, and even he knows that he has a problem. You convince him that he needs to seek help so he goes through the processes to get the help he needs until he gets to that last step. The doctor ask him if he has a problem and he says no. What's the doctor to do he can't force the program on him, because he has to want the help bad enough to follow through with getting the help he needs. Some see the light and eventually get the help they need some refuse and face the consequences they have in store. Which, in my father's case, was a very early grave at 47.

When you see your loved ones suffer through things and you try to get them help but they refuse, it rips your heart out. What do you do? Well, I'll tell you, when it comes to love ones especially, you fight! With everything that is within you, you fight and you pray! I believe that God answers prayer in one of three ways, (Yes), (No), or (Wait). Paul tells us to pray without ceasing and that is what you do and that is what I will do!

I feel a little bit better now thanks for listening!!

More Monster Pics

PaPaw and Landry at Monster Trucks 09

Landry and Dallas having fun at Monster Truck 09

A grand ol' time was had by Dallas, Landry, Daddy, Uncle Billy, Uncle Michael, and PaPaw!!

The Big Non-Event

I wonder sometimes how weather-persons manage to keep their jobs. For several days they had been predicting that we would get blasted with ice and snow all the way through Wednesday night with the greatest accumulation coming during the wee morning hours of Wednesday. I fully expected to wake up this morning only to be able to roll over and and go back to sleep because the roads were to bad to get to work. Didn't happen, I'm at work and because of the weather that the northern/southern parts of the state did get, we won't have a lot to do. I plan on playing catch-up! I can hear Maxwell Smart saying, "missed me by that much!" Oh well maybe next time we will have a beautiful snow fall!

If the weather persons call for it should I believe them, that is the question! We have employees that live less the 30 miles from that couldn't get in. We have had massive wrecks on the freeways just minutes from downtown LR, but the roads here are dry. I lived 15 miles further north I probably would not have been able to get out of my driveway today. Weather in central AR is very strange year round.

I was glad to see from my blogs I read that most of my friends have kept save and that is what counts!

Great fun with Dallas and Landry at Monster Trucks 2009!!

Weekend and More

First off let me apologize for not getting back to you sooner. It was a busy weekend and I never managed to get to a computer.

Anyway, the weekend was a blast starting off with the monster trucks. OMG my grandsons had a great time watching the trucks and the motorcycles. The youngest set with his daddy in the beginning and then ended up with PaPaw. Dallas acted like an old pro at monster trucks and was trying to tell his younger brother all about them. The funny part about the night was also disturbing. About half way through the night PaPaw slipped to the vendor store and bought his grandsons some checkered flags and a couple of monster trucks. Well anyway, I brought the flags back to the boys and they started waving them around and having a good ol time. Landry the youngest was sitting with his father at this time who was setting next to this toothless, (well not totally toothless, she did have about 4 in the front but it looked like one was going fast), redneck woman that kept asking my 3 year old grandson if she could borrow his flag as she was taking it out of his hand. The first time she did it we were so shocked that we just let it go, but after the second time she did it I had my son send Landry down to me. It amazes me how bold some people are these days. The second time she just sort of grabbed the flag and then asked if she could borrow it again, unbelievable! Well we still had a great time and Uncle Michael made sure the boys stayed awake on the way home by loading them up with cotton candy! It was a great night out with the boys!

Saturday was a trip to the cell phone store and $500 later the wife and I walk out with those new iPhone gizmos. I love mine but they still haven't created a way that they can send or receive pics. The only way I get pics in my phone is email them to my yahoo account. They say the a patch for doing this process is on the way soon. I hope! Saturday night Shelly and I watched the boys so my son and his wife could go to the bank Christmas party, yep that's what I thought, a little late for a Christmas party.

Sunday was birthday party for Dallas. He turned 5 on the 20th so we took the first weekend available at the Party Zone. It was a lot of fun, this place has go-carts, mini-golf, lazer tag, bumper cars, bowling, and loads of other games all under one roof. We ate pizza and cake and away we went to play. The children were too young to do the go-carts alone so a PaPaw had to ride with one grandson while Daddy road with the other. Landry was a hoot as we went around the track I told him to wave at Mimi and mom when we would pass by them and he would wave all the way around the track. The boys and my grand-daughter were grinning from ear to ear. I could go on and on about the fun we had but I'm sure you get the picture. I was especially glad that my grand-daughters were there for the party to have fun as well. I am also glad that Aunt Marcy and Uncle Michael stuck around for the party before they headed back to Alabama.

Monday hit and all the fun went away and it was back to work, uck!!

Monster Trucks

Well the day finally got here, it's Monster Truck Day!! Each year the monster trucks come to Little Rock and for the last three years I have taken my grandson Dallas to see the trucks. It just so happens that the trucks come around his birthday so this is PaPaw's birthday gift to Dallas. This year Dallas's brother Landry is coming along and I can't wait to see the expressions on his face when he sees and hears those big trucks. My son Jason (daddy) has told me that for the last couple of weeks the boys have been asking him if it's time to go to the monster trucks. This is going to be a great time! Next trip will be to the rodeo and then it is the grand-daughters turn with PaPaw! Skylar loves horses so she will be in hog heaven! I'll try to post some pics from the monster truck adventure!