Together Again

Candles lit in honor of Papa Jack and Grandma Helen

Jaime and I visited Grandma Helen in L.A. We stayed with her all through the weekend and then finally came back to Washington. Naturally, we got paged right when we landed at the airport saying she was gone. Without a word, we booked another flight to continue on to Florida, where the funeral would be held.

The service was excellent. Jaime was one of five speakers. Grandma Helen brought us all together at this time to enjoy each other and even played one last prank on us all: she almost missed her own funeral by not coming to Florida until last minute. There was no better-fitting way to honor her than to be here.

Grandma Helen always said with such conviction, "Dark chocolate is good for you!" How appropriate, then, was it when we pulled out this chocolate piece at her funeral luncheon to find this message inside.

Link Click here to see more pictures on web album

107th Army Nurse Corps Anniversary Celebration

Prayer of An Army Nurse

Hear my prayer in silence before Thee as I

ask for courage each day.

Grant that I may be worthy of the sacred pledge of my profession

And the lives of those entrusted to my care.

Help me to offer hope and cheer in the hearts of men and my country,

For their faith inspires me to give the world

and nursing my best.

Instill in me the understanding and compassion of those who led the way,

For I am thankful to You for giving me this

life to live.

Jaime and I went to this event to run a 5K race for fun. Turns out it was an excellent idea because I became acquainted with two nurses at Madigan Army Medical Center, both who put in a good word for me. One was being deployed just as I was getting on board. The other one was trying to help me get a leg up in this process by giving me ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) brochures in advance so I could be studying those and make up somewhat for my lack of hearing directions. How nice of both of them to do that!

In Memory of Beauregard

(Dec. 16th, 1993 - Dec. 20th, 2005)
Beau was Jaime's dad's Great Dane. Danes are quite a large presence in anyone's life already; plus the fact that he was the first Dane I ever met made his impact in ours even greater. Huckleberry really looked up to his Uncle Beau. Out of all of us in the house, Huck wanted Beau's attention the most. We still think of him often!