What a week/weekend....

Ok that's my newest webkinz. Isn't it cute?! I first saw it online I wanted it and now I have one! hehehe :)

Ok so my mom was in San Fransico all week, right and so it was a week of boredom really for me minus a few things. :) I will get to that here in a second! =o)

So I want to congratulate Marci on her two races 2 weeks in a row. I haven't heard about this weekend's one, but I know she did great! :) I dunno how she does it, but she's totally awesome! I love you girl!

So this week wasn't all that bad, as I may've said it was. I went out with Kate and her mom on Tuesday I think, may've been Monday, I forget which it was. But on Wednesday, to my surprise I got a post from Deborah about getting my thank you card (for dinner) and asked about doing dinner Thursday. I was confused, because I thought she went out of town, but it got cancelled and so I said sure, why not.

I can say this much, I was NOT as nervous this time around. I am excited that I wasn't too bad this time around, which means I am becoming relaxed. :o) But she was going to come and get me at 6 and so I got my hair fixed up, make-up fixed and wanted to take Sadie for a quick walk before leaving. Well heck, I got caught in the house, which I didn't want because Sadie goes mad and gets even more mad when you don't take her with you. So I wasn't outside waiting, like I said I would be, I also didn't introduce her to my dad (ok I am bad, shoot me), but we got out the door.

Let me tell you this, the first time I went out to dinner with Deborah, my nerves were so bad, that you would see my hands and they would've been twitching so badly. When I ate, my nerves went to my legs! LOL But this time I was like see I'm not as nervous this time! LOL Cause she knew how I was the last time and I was more relaxed this time around. I have enjoyed every moment I have spent with her learning about not only Flight 93, but her daughter. Again and again, 7 years ago, if you told me that this would've happened to me, I would've said you are NUTS! Period!

When I got back home it was then it hit me, that some of the (curiousity) questions I had may've upsetted her and it made me upset. I got worried about that and it was on my mind. I am relieved that the phone calls made didn't make her mad, hehehe. :o) But I was worried, trust me.

Anyways, thats it. TTYL!

Go Marci Go!

Hahaha I thought that get her attention, but congrats Marci on your race this weekend! :)

After all of the excitement on Friday, I was still telling people about meeting Deborah and I got to thinking this weekend about what more I could do to help with getting the Flight 93 memorial complete. I have some ideas in my head of what I am going to do on my own, but I want to do more than that. You know what I mean?

So yesterday my mom and I hung-out as she is left for San Fransico today. We went shopping and the mother she is goes, you need to get a thank-you card for Deborah and I am like ok mom. I let her think that was her idea, hah! I knew what I was going to do, its why I wanted to go to Hallmark! HAH! I got the webkinz fish, and its soooooo cute. I love it. :) So I went to Michael's after to see if they had the make your own x-mas cards kits in stock yet and they didn't, but its still early. I bought some at the end of last year and wish I bought more than one set. So we went to Wal-mart after that and headed home.

Meanwhile, the whole day I was thinking about the poor stray dog Deborah had in her yard and i was tempted to call yesterday, but didn't. So today, I checked to see if she e-mailed me an update and didn't. My friend was like just call and find out and its like no, but I then said if I heard about a dog 3 times today, I would. Well guess what? I heard about 3 dogs and I finally called! LOL The dog is back home, which is what I wanted to hear. I was worried I would hear she had to get her to the pound or humane society, and heard the better news about the doggie. At least if the dog shows up again, she knows who she belongs to. :)

So tonight my dad and I ran to the store to get pop (soda) and of course he ran into the guy that built our house. (TYPICAL) And such a typical man, he stood out in the parking lot and ran his mouth for 15 minutes. HAH! So I was standing the store and all I had was my cell on me and called to see if Marci was home and she kept me entertained while I was in the store. HAH But speaking of running into people, I saw one of our lifeguards from the pool tonight, which was a shock. hehehe But poor Marci heard me saying hi and how are you and didn't know who I was talking to! HAH! Sorry Marci!

So that was my boring weekend. HAH! I am going to get off here....ttyl!

Happy Birthday Natalie and Caroline!

Its a small world after all....God works in mysterious ways...

Ok I decided to delete the original post and redo this....

When we moved to the middle of nowhere in NC 3 years ago, I never imagined I would be touched by September 11th in anyway than I already had been. But when we went looking for the Catholic church here in Pinehurst, when we went there we stumbled across a memorial for 2 (3 people are part of it now) people were part of it. One was in the WTC and the other was on United Flight 93.

I walked away and tried to remember at least one of the names and I did. Hah! I remembered her first name but I knew where she was on that day. I got home and searched 9/11 memorial pages on google and found http://www.legacy.com/ and found the 9/11 tributes and guestbooks. Well I searched under Flight 93 and knew Deora and it turns out it was Deora Bodley. I read what was on the site and saw she was 20 years old and it was amazing to see she was my age. After a little more research, I found that our birthdays were 10 days apart and it was even more touching there. So I went on the legacy guestbook and left a message and found her mom had left posts on there and so I decided to e-mail her.

I heard back from Deborah and conversed back and forth, and have been for 3 years. Of course I tried to touch base with her around 9/11 and I touched based when I was in Ohio and my friend and I walked through a park and it reminded me of the memorial at the church. Well that was the last time I really wrote to her in 2007 and wrote something after the anniversary. This year I went to send her an e-mail and it came back. So I went back on legacy and wrote a message there and left my e-mail so incase she remembered me, she could get back in touch.

So I wound up searching through her guestbook on legacy and found a more recent updated post from her mom and rather than waiting I sent a message through there and heard back from her the following day. To my amazement she moved to this area and lives about 5 miles from me. She asked if we could meet at the memorial at church this weekend, but my mom is going out of town and my dad wouldn't go and I gave her my phone #'s and said to get in touch with me.

We got in touch and planned to get together and meet one another. Tonight my parents were gone and for the life of me, I couldn't remember what days she be free this week and I called to see and then just wanted to see if she was free tonight and wanted to get together and it worked out. :)

It almost didn't work-out because a stray dog was hanging out at her house and she was going to take the dog to the Humane Society, but the dog ran-off and so it was back on. Given my since of DIRECTION, at least my street is easy to get to here, or I would be screwed! So she found her way here, and we left and headed to dinner. The Chinese place here wasn't all that great, I couldn't remember where the stupid Italian place in Seven Lakes was, and I was like if we go into town I can find places there! HAH!

So we wound up going to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. We just talked about various things and I felt so bad for bringing up Deora and 9/11, but curiousity was coming out of me. She spoke at Kent State in Ohio before the anniversay this year and I was like if you speak at Ohio State you will have to let me know. ;) I told her where I grew up in Ohio, I graduated the same year as Deora...and I felt so bad on the way home saying that this coming year would mark 10 years since graduation and 20 years since I met my good friend Annie, and I slapped myself for saying that. I kept thinking I was saying the wrong things, I felt like I was doing that the whole night! So we ate dinner and I felt bad again for her paying for it and I was like lets go for dessert or something and I will pay for that. I am definitely picking up the next bill, next time we go out to dinner or paying for the gas, something! So we had ice cream at Artic Creamery and headed back here after that.

It was funny, I was talking to my mom about all of this and Deborah called and said that the dog was back and she brought her in for the night. She's going to take her to the Humane Society tomorrow....hey anyone in Foxfire Village missing a black lab, I may know where she is! ;) Times like this I wish we were wanting a big dog to be outside, cause I really miss our labs.

To end this....I never imagined this would happen to me, or I would be touch by 9/11 in this matter. I personally believe with my whole heart Deora and the other passenger's and crew stopped the plane from hitting its target in Washington DC and thank you doesn't seem enough. I am proud to say I donated $100 to the 93 memorial and feel honored to have this chance to meet a family member of one the heroes of 9/11. Please help the memorial become complete and donate to the Flight 93 National Memorial. Go to http://www.honorflight93.org/ to learn how to donate and see the design.

Thanks for reading and Thanks Deborah for meeting me. :)

The damage in Ohio...

Here's a picture of a 200-300 year old tree that was toppled over in Columbus during the storm that came through after Hurricane Ike hit. They have been without power since Sunday, my niece hasn't had school since last Friday, and the word is power won't be restored until Sunday! EEKS!

7 years later....

I am sitting here, forgot completely about last week being 7 years since 19 crazy boys (they were not men) took over 4 planes and crashed them in various places and killing 3000 people.

9/11/01 I was in Boulder, Colorado with my family visitng my brother and my now ex sister in law who was pregnant at the time with Gaia. 9/11 was my brother's 25th birthday and to this day I remember joking with my brother growing up that his birthday was 9-1-1 and how cool it was. My mom and I were flying back to Washington DC and were in the air when the attack first began. The pilot came on to inform us that we were being re-directed to Alberta, Canada and it was odd, but he didn't tell us until we got onto the ground what had happened.

When we got into terminal, thats when I saw the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center and that first image you never will forget. You won't forget what your first thought was when you saw that, and to be honest I didn't know what it meant. Then we heard that the Pentagon was hit by a plane and I looked at my mom and said to call my aunt and find out where my uncle and cousins were in comparison.

You couldn't take your eyes off the TV sets and watching what was happening in NY was just like a dream, nightmare more like it. Watching the twin towers fall, was unreal. I remember visitng 2 years before and being mesmorized by how awesome it was to be so far up in the air. Watching the TVs I never dreamt they would come down the way they did. And between those two, if memory serves me right, you hear about plane #4 crashing in Pennsylvania. Everyone around me was like America is under attack, and being 20 years old I wasn't comprehending what was going on and it was unreal. Even more unreal when the news came about my uncle...

Fastforward to 9/11/08....7 years later....5 memorials later....didn't want to get up and go to the ceremony, but I am glad I did. Trust me after 5 years straight, it got old for me, but this year they unveiled the permanent oudoor memorial to the victims of the Pentagon and Flight 77. 184 benches layed out like the shape (to me, might have been my imagination) of a wing of a Pentagon...and if you know what you are looking at it, you will also see the path Flight 77 took, there's a path and if you look straight ahead from it, it leads to where the plane hit. From the innocence of the children on board to the those who were in the prime of their life, it memorializes those who were taken from earth way too soon. It symbolizes them in life and death.

We mark the times that changed America forever each year on Setember 11th and we will never forget the events of the day, where we were that day and what that day might mean to people. It will always be my brother's birthday, it will always be the last time I saw my ex sister in law pregnant with my niece, be the day we joked that it would've been nice to have hit 2 birds with one stone if my niece was born on her daddy's birthday. There are so many thoughts/memories from that day, that have never gone away.

I don't think they ever will....

Finally posting an update!

There is one of the many pictures I captured of KoKo! We finally went and saw him last weekend! Isn't he cute? He tore into that bag trying to get his presents out of there. Sadie tried to help! ;)

The summer came and went so-so fast! I got a final few days in at the North side pool, and met Karen and Kate over there. :) I finally did something other than a front dive off their high dive...haha! Well thats because they cut the high dive down...so it wasn't as high! :) But yeah nothing really happened over there, minus me getting tangled up in the lifeguard buoy thingy. UGH! Ok I am sorry, when something is around my neck, I start freaking out and its exactly what happened! I tried to get off of me and was bobbing up and down like crazy, wound up in the deep end at the end too, but don't worry I got some help. ;) HAHAHA!

So last weekend we had Tropical Storm Hanna and then Saturday we went to see KoKo! :) Let me just say, he is the cutest cocker puppy! :) He's very very cute! Very indoorsy, doesn't like the heat and outside. (complete 360 of Sadie) Him and Sadie got along great! She took as much as she could before she started growling, but he backed off and started back at each other again. But it was very cute, they got along great! It was the best hour of my life seeing him and getting to see the new love of my aunt and uncle's. :)

So thats been basically it other than the weather being crappy during the week, its been HOT today and suppose to be HOT tomorrow! I am thinking about going to the lake to go swimming, hehehe. :)

Anyways I am off here...