Stroke Awareness

Has everyone heard about Mary, John's wife? She had a double stroke and is paralyzed on the left side. She needs your prayers! In response to that, I had this saved and thought I would post it here for everyone.

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters...

S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK, to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE. (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today.)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out their tongue . if the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke. If he or she has trouble with any one of these tasks, call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

Junior Grand Champion

Nathan took the Junior Grand Champion award at the Southern Appalachian Science and Engineering Fair at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, March 7, 2007. He also received the outstanding science project award from of the Office of the U.S. Army, the Naval Science award from the Office of the Navy/Marines and the Tennessee Energy Division award from Dept. of Energy. Nathan is eligible to enter his project in the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Competition this fall in Washington, DC. Middle school students from across the nation who have won in their regional fairs will be competing for 40 spots at the competition. Nathan competed against approximately 270 entries in the East Tennessee region. Nathan's project was "Fuels of the Future". Nathan modified a two stroke engine and ran hydrogen through it.

Article in the local paper about Rod

Click to read an article in the local paper about Rod.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007702270367

Semis stranded in Adair, IA

This photo was sent to me from a high school friend in Adair, IA. She said semis were parked in front of her house and all around the block in front of her house waiting for I-80 to open. This particular photo looks like a side street off main street in Adair.

I also heard on the Weather Channel Friday evening that Atlantic, IA had 8 feet of snow. Mom said the the snow banks on the farm were so deep that Dad was able to walk over the fences in the yard to feed the livestock.

No snow in East Tennessee. We had temps in the mid 50's on Friday and Saturday. The daffodils in our front yard bloomed yesterday. We were lucky on Thursday not to have the tornadoes that ripped through Alabama and Georgia. We had thunderstorms and some lightening.

Winter's Last Blast (We Hope)

I wondered how everyone has been doing surviving this midwest blizzard? Those in the Carroll area have been hit the worst I think and I'm sure you will have some fun stories to tell. Here in Council Bluffs we have had about 9-10 inches. It's been a while since we have had such severe blizzard conditions I think. Driving home from work on Thursday in white-out conditions was certainly an adventure! What's very remarkable to see though is the line of semis along the interstate waiting for I-80 to reopen. Miles and miles of them. We have sunny skies this morning though but still windy conditions. Hopefully the road crews will be able to make some progress and transform Iowa out of this stranded and desolate looking winter "wonderland". It really is pretty if you can look past the wrecks and stranded vehicles!! :)

I'm afraid I didn't venture out to take pictures in this storm. This picture of the interstate is from our newspaper. You can also go to this website where one of the tv stations is posting photos from people...so here's some storm pictures from mainly the C.B./Omaha area.

http://www.ketv.com/weather/11160264/detail.html

Banishing The Bad Spirits

Did you know that it was once believed that your birthday was a time when the bad spirits were able to harm you and that the only way to keep the bad spirits away was through the good wishes and presents from friends and family. So here's to a year of good fortune and health, fun times, and happy memories for our March birthday babies!

1st - Aaron (Debbie & Sid's son/Merle & Mary Lou)
7th - David (Annette's husband/Merle & Mary Lou)
10th- Ashlyn (Tony's)
11th - Dawn (Marv & Fran)
13th - Sherri (Dan's wife)
18th - Brannen and Braden (twins of Rod//Marv)
22nd - Bob (Patti's husband)
29th- Charlotte (Dawn//Marv)

Those are the birthdays I know. I think that we don't have a lot of regular blog traffic because with a family our size, it seems like we're probably missing a few.