Chain letters!!!  Some people need a hobby instead of writing retarded things that say at the end you'll be cursed if you don't follow it or send it to people.  Well I have news to all the chain letter writers.

1.  Heaven will not close their gates on me because I failed to send an e-mail saying I believed in God.  God knows I believe in Him and His Son my Lord and Savior.  They are always in my heart.

2.  I refuse to believe that I will encounter ten years worth of lost loves just because I won't spin around while drinking a glass of milk saying the man's name I admire. 

3.  There is nothing wrong with Coke.  What else are us non-Pepsi drinkers suppose to drink.

4.  If I see someone following me that I don't think are the police even though they have a light on top of their unmarked car, I'll go into a crowed parking lot and call the police, not some * number that doesn't work.

5.  I will not encounter years of bad luck just because I delete a letter.  How much worse can my luck get anyway?  Oh, I know, another chain letter in my inbox!!!

6.  I already have great friends that care for me as I do for them and I doubt my years of friendship are going to go down the drain.

These letters are pointless fabrications to make people feel paranoid in their lives.  For those of you that answer these chain letters here's what you do.

1.  Want to see a miracle?  Visit a hospital's maternity ward or go for a nature walk or go see the Rain Forest and deliver much needed Humanitarian goods(Lisa will help you get there and support you 100%) 

2.  Want to get to Heaven?  Open your Bible, join a Bible study group, ask Christ into your heart, and pray for your enemies as well as the people you love.

3.  Don't like Coke?  Drink something else!!!

4.  Is someone following you pretending to be a cop?  Pull into a crowed parking lot, go to the police station, or call the police.

5.  Don't want bad luck?  It's concept bad things sometimes happen to good people.  Don't do anything to put yourself in a jeopardizing situation, and don't try to win a Darwin Award.

6.  Want rewarding friendships?  Talk to people and don't be forceful when you do it, join clubs or other recreational activities and groups, get out and be yourself.  If someone doesn't want to be your friend than they're not worth your friendship. 

7.  Want love?  Put an ad in the paper, do internet dating, ask for your friends' help.

I just noted some chain letters but there are numerous ones out there.  Come on people we are smarter than this.  Have we been set back so far we have to allow a letter to dictate our lives?  I think not. 

Sorry for the long blog but I just feel that someone had to address the issue.

God bless and take care,

Jen

Twenty - four years ago today my mom walked down the aisle to my father to be together in holy matrimony forever.  My parents always had a strong love for each other and are dedicated to one another.  They are one.  They finish each other's sentences and often times act like newly weds.  They love one another so much and it's so precedent that on lookers from the street can see the glowing admiration they hold for one another in their eyes.

My parents met at work on their lunch break and my father saw the most beautiful woman in the world sitting at a table dining.  This striking handsome man asked if he could join her and she said yes.  My parents seduced each other!!!  They engaged in conversation and my father ended up eating half of my mother's lunch, and the rest is history.  It could be said that it was love at first bite.

My parents are celebrating twenty-four years of love, warmth, and affection.  They deserve the very best this day and I'm very pleased for them.  True love and soul mates do exist, my parents are living proof.

  

                               02 Aug 1980

It's now that time for my weekly blog of "Family Member of the Week"

This week I decided to devote me blog to my little brother Jason.  Jason was born 04 January, 1983 in Johnstown PA, yes we are 15 months apart.  During childhood we played numerous practical jokes on each other and our parents.  More so with our mother, which our father encouraged.  Jason is a really cool person.  He loves people as if he has never had his heart broken, holds no grudges, and treats everyone like he wishes to be treated.  He's a gentle soul, but in no way is he a sissy.  Jason's interests include fishing, hunting, tearing things apart and putting them back together again, and just having fun with the people around him.  He's the type of person that will give anyone the shirt off his back and never ask for a favor in return. 

My fondest memory of Jason is Christmas day of 1988.  We kissed our mother goodbye for work and were told we could eat the candy canes off the tree while we waited for our father to return home from work.  We come from a two parent working family and most holidays were like this one.  Jason and I watched our mother pull out of the driveway and we raced each other to the couch.  He always beat me in races.  We then sat very quietly and watched our tree change colors with the motion lights dad put on it every year.  Jason then turned to me and told me he was getting a candy cane.  I always had to mess with my brother so I told him to be careful or he would get electrocuted since the tree was on.  He stopped dead in his tracks.  "What do you mean I'll get lecturecuted?", he asked me concerned.  I told him simply he would light up like the tree if he touched it.  This scared him and he walked back forlornly to the couch.  We stared at the tree until our father came in from the bitter cold with a big smile on his face and Merry Christmas rang through his shattering teeth.  We jumped off the couch and greeted him and then Jason looked at him quizzing.  "Dad, mom said we could eat the candy canes off the tree, but Jen and I are scared that we're going to be lecturecuted."  Dad burst out in a big ball of laughter and went to take three candy canes off the tree, except when he went for the last one he pretended to get a shock and scared Jason half to death.  Poor Jason, took so much abuse from my dad and me it's a wonder he still loves us or isn't messed up.

Jason is the greatest little brother I could ever ask for.  He stuck up for me like a big brother and no one ever messed with him or I would step in.  We were always great friends and being related even made it more wonderful.  Sure we had our quarrels, but blood is thicker than water.  Right now Jason is a airborne combat engineer, and we talk occassionally.  Jason my little brother, family member of the week.

                                           Infant Jason

                         My favorite pic of Jason and me

                     Jason today

Lisa is writing about the experience she had in Iraq which is really cool, so when you get the chance check out her blog.  However, I will not be writing anything about Iraq, it's redunant since Lisa and I are in the same company and many of my experiences deal with Frank and who wants to hear about him?  Anyway, I will be writing about my most cherished memories growing up and the present.

Tracey the best est friend God bestowed upon me

I started Kindergarten in the fall of 1987 and was very excited about going, but at the same time melancholic about the time I have to spend away from my parents and little brother, even though it was only for half a day.  I didn't know what lie ahead of me and I was a little scared.  Who would I turn to if things didn't go so well? 

I got into my classroom and it seemed everyone but me was talking to someone.  How could these people already know one another, and I haven't seen any of them before?  Was I really that sheltered from the outside world?  I sat down at a table all by my lonesome and it seemed to me as if I was invisible.  No one talked to me, and I never talked to anyone unless they initiated the conversation first.  Unfortunately, I have yet to grow out of that little flaw. 

Our teacher started class and I discovered that she was a real nice lady and we did get along very well.  She released us for playtime and all the kids found an activity to do.  I sat at the table for a few minutes debating whether or not to talk to Tracey Altemus playing in the kitchen.  I just wanted to play in the kitchen, how we got to talking was purely coincidence.  I walked up to the play kitchen and stood there watching her mixing in a bowl and she looked at me and smiled.  I returned the gesture, and then she asked me if I liked to help her make an apple pie for our teacher.  I told her I liked cherry pie and despised apple.  What a great thing to say to someone you just met, "I think your pie sucks."  Unbelievably this did not start an argument.  Instead we compromised.  We made a half cherry/apple pie.  Impressive for five year old brains!!!  Since that day, Tracey and I were inseparable. 

We have done everything together and our families saw us grow up.  When I left for the army, Tracey's family threw me a going away party and they all cried and so did I.  I thank God everyday for Tracey being in my life.  We've been through good times and bad and no matter what stuck together.  She's my confident, best friend, and blood sister. 

I'll post up stories about our misadventures later. 

  

                         Tracey and me Aug 2002

Tracey and me in PM Kindergarten

I'm in teddy bear shirt and Tracey is sitting in front me in the dress with hearts.

I feel as though I will never get out of this love turmoil I'm in.  No matter what I do I always think about Frank and of what we shared.  I have to try endlessly to push out all those good times out of my memory and keep reminding myself about the wrongs in the relationship that was suppose to last forever. 

Last night I dreamt of him and was overcome by this terrible longing to be held in his embrace while I was lulled to sleep with a heartbeat lullaby as my head nestled across his chest, that upon awaking I was feeling for him in my bed and was disappointed to discover my raccoon Rax (he's a stuffed animal) nestled precariously in my arms.  I almost cried knowing I'm alone and that there is no one with me to tell me everything is going to be all right and just hold me and wipe the tears flowing from my eyes.

I do miss him very much and I loved him so much and it hurts me to even think of moving on.  Those wicked questions pop in my head now and again, "Will I love the new man the same as I did Frank or will I love him more or worst, less?,  Will I be able to trust my heart again?"  How can I start a new relationship with the old one preoccupying my mind? 

My self control is weighing thin.  I miss, oh do I ever miss the love that was once mine.  Being safe and secured and naive of ever breaking up.  I truely miss that.  I miss the cuddling, kissing, teasing, and warmth.  I miss it all.  Maybe even some of the petty arguments that were resolved in a lover's embrace and kiss with tears of joy falling down between two sealed mouths because they were so happy to have one another.

Love sometimes have a bitter ending in stored.  It taught me to view it as both enemy and friend.  It pains me to say that, but it's true.  I often wonder to myself had we not been in Iraq together would our love have survived?  The pressures and stress from the deployment added by the constant torment of co-workers day and night helped in the seperation process, but they didn't make Frank into the control freak.  He did that himself.  How long would it have been before his true colors showed?  Would I have gone through a divorce instead of a broken engagement?

I do not know the answers to such questions, and some questions are better left unanswered.  All I know is my heart and soul are slowly mending for the next love that should walk into my life.  Though I ask myself, was Frank the only one and am I destined to be a spinster?  I never want that question answered because if the answer turns out to be a yes, I will surely die. 

Got this from Lisa's site who got it from MaryEliz.

Your soul is STEADFAST. You are a fiercely loyal
person who would never cross a loved one.
People always know they can rely on you and
your dependability is well-known. You're
probably a little on the quiet side, but your
faithfulness is never doubted, and you always
back up your kith and kin whether they want or
need it or not. You are a dependable and
trusted soul.

What Is Your Soul's Trait?
brought to you by Quizilla

If All Your Friends Jumped Off a Bridge Would You?

      I grew up in a small trailer park in Johnstown, PA and my friends and I during the summer would go swimming in a small hole that was filled with ice cold running spring water about a mile down the road.  We called this little summer haven "the swimming hole".  In the summer of 1997 we were having the hottest summer of my life, and my friends, boyfriend, and I decided to go for a swim.  We were all having fun dunking one another when Rob announced that he was going to jump off the bridge above us into the water.  This bridge is about ten feet high and the water, though we didn't know at the time is about five and a half feet deep.  We tried to talk Rob out of it but he was persistent and climbed up the stony embankment.  Everyone got out of the water for Rob's spectacular feat.  His back was up against the guardrail and he ran the little distance between that guardrail and the edge of the bridge and leaped into the air into the water feet first.  He shined a golden smile of victory at us and this began the chain of us bridge jumping.  

     I wasn't going to jump, I thought everyone was crazy for doing it, but my best friend Tracey asked me if she jumped would I.  Being that we've been best friends since we were five and knowing Tracey has an innate fear of heights I told her sure.  Big mistake.  My height fearing friend had the best leap and landing out of the whole group.  I stood on the side in awe and after getting over the initial shock that it was now my turn I made my way up on top of the bridge. 

    I was shaking all over and to make matters worse my boyfriend was watching me.  Now there was no turning back.  I took a deep breath, pushed myself off the guardrail, ran off the bridge, fell like a baby laying in a cradle, and splashed in the water below.  What my friends didn't see was when I made contact with the water, my head made contact with a rock and my back scraped along the bed.  Once I broke the surface of the water again, my hand shot up to my throbbing head and I shouted out that I hit the bottom and hard.

   My back was scraped up and I ended up with a goose egg on the back of my head that lasted for almost a month.  The worst wasn't over, now I had to tell my parents why their daughter that they raised to have common sense jumped off a bridge and almost killed herself in the process.  My parents were disappointed in and me and told me to never do a stunt like that again.  I told them I wouldn't, and since that day I haven't jumped off a bridge since. 

   I was shy of fifteen when this occurred and still during my remaining teen years my mother popped the question, "If all your friends were to jump off a bridge would you?"  I would look at her with my biggest grin and laugh out, "You know it!"

 

Lisa's a little upset that she is gaining a little weight.  So, today I decided to look up weight lost techniques that help the person lose weight and tone up.  The internet is full of star studded first hand accounts of miracle diets and machines.  Out of all the excersise equipment I have seen in my life this one takes the cake!!!

I'm sorry but if anyone had me sit on this contracaption and expect me to balance myself and do office work, they're out of their mind.  Lisa, you're more corridinated than me so this chair might just be for you.  It's $68.89 at the Discovery Channel Store.  Here's to healthy working, lol.

God bless you all and take care,

Jen

I've decided once a week I'm going to share a member of my family with the internet world.  So, if any of you want do the same feel free.  It'll be interesting to see the people in our familys living or deceased and why we love them so much.  Disfuctional family members count too.

I called my Bubba(Grandmother in Polish) today and had a great conversation with her.  The woman is absolutely amazing I lover her so much.  She is my maternal grandmother and we're both close.  She's been through so much crap in her life and pulled through like a true trooper and the stories she tells about when she was growing up or when my mom was growing up are both hilarious and cool.  Well today we were talking about the weather and the deaths in our family past and present.  My Bubba hates the weather.  She could talk hours unend about the weather.  Right now in case those of you haven't read my father's blogs(jayjay157) is really crappy.  It's rainy and cold in PA and on some days it gets up to 95 and then gets real cold again.  This weather change is of course really tough on my dad who has had several surgeries and has heart disease and for my Bubba who is elderly.  But, the weather isn't that much different in CO.  Right now we're in a drought and have flash floods.  Go figure that one, lol.

Next we talked about the deaths in our family.  My Bubba is now the sole survivor out of her birth family.  My Aunt Kate died in May and my Uncle George died last month and now she's the only one left.  I find it incredible with the back to back loses of her sister and brother she's still the vibrant lady I remember her as.  She's just plain awesome!!!

She has diabetes and has already dealt with the horrible "shingles".  She has also dealt with cataracts which was really scary for her considering she had perfect vision until she was 69.  She is the Libra sign and our birthdays are 7 days apart.  How cool is that?  She knows some Polish but can speak perfect Solvic in our church.  We're Russian Othrodox.  She is both involved in the church and is a member of the Ladies Auxillary.  She's an awesome cook and man she makes the best no-bake cookies I've ever had(sorry mom), and the best french fries.  She taught me how to make my first scrammble egg and how to dance to the Polkas.  Every year when one of our birthdays came around they would announce over the radio station.  She's caring, fun loving, and did I say awesome?

My fondest memory of my Bubba is Christmas Eve dinner.  She would wake up 0430 and prepare a feast for close to twenty people(count them dad) practically all on her own and even kept this tradition alive when my Pappap died.  We would all gather round the dining room table and she would lead us in grace and we would have a great time eating, joking around, watching my older cousins take shots, and just being a loving family without any cares in the world.  No one talked about work or school or anything that would cause the slightest bit of stress.  After dinner my mom and her sisters would help my Bubba clear the table and do dishes and of course there were always left overs.  Then after dessert would come, apricot and poppiseed rolls and presents would be unwrapped.  One per person.  She would repeat this dinner performance come Easter Sunday. 

My Bubba doesn't dwell on things either.  If someone pisses her off she tells them and the whole thing will be forgotten by the week's end if the person forsees it.  Now, I said she doesn't dwell on things, but she is stubborn like a mule(I get it more from you than her dad).  Once her mind is set on something that's it, there is no changing it.  Other than that my Bubba is the sweetest, kindest, and willingest person on Earth.

What else can I say, except I love my Bubba.

Here's a pic of my Bubba, mom, and Pappap

I think mom stole her chair. Lol.

God bless you all and take care,

Jen

 

I don't understand some people.  You try to help out and be a friend but instead they think you're badgering them and you end up making them pissed off and hurting them worse.  I told Elisa time and time again she needed to practice her run so she'd be able to pass her pt test and all she did was blow off.  Well pt test day came and she failed her run by 1min 16sec.  She blames it on the traffic she encountered and a formation that cut her off, but there is no such thing as an excuse for failing a pt test.  If there was then a lot of soldiers would fail and carry on without any consquences and there would be no need for a pt test since it would be so easy to get out of.  Pt is a very important part of the army and not passing isn't a choice.  Elisa is just weak minded and won't listen to any advice.  Several times I offered her to come run with me and her excuse was I run too fast for her.  Okay, 2min is a lot, but I wouldn't have pushed her, I'd just tell her to run 3 miles and call it a session.  She keeps her mind fixated on her miniums and crys when she doesn't past. 

Now she's upset she's on remedial pt, but she needs it.  Now she's forced to do it and she complains daily her struggles during a regular pt session because she's tired.  Good night, she doesn't even push herself at remedial pt.  Everything is an excuse with her and it's nerve racking. 

Yes at one time in my life I was an apft failure for push-ups during AIT.  Yes, I hated remedial pt but had to do it.  I pushed myself day and night until I passed those suckers, and now I can almost max my worst event.  Sit-ups were always my best event and I can almost max those.  I was just about at my run max until coming to FT Carson and having to adjust to the air.  Still I practiced to get my run back and when I was just about to hit 16's again I got hurt and bad.  Everytime my profile was up I pushed myself on recovery and got hurt worst and continued this cycle three more times until my favorite Sfc, Sfc Peters told me that if I continued to not allow myself the time needed to heal, I'd never heal.  So, I had to do something I hate doing, baby myself.  It was this point in time Elisa came to the company and she just thought I was like her, a not so good runner.

Appearances can be decieving.  I recovered and she is now marked the slowest runner in our plt.  She hates the fact that I'm faster than her, but I look at her on the runs and see me in a different time, struggling to keep up, crying out in pain (mine was real, I had achilles tendonities), and just wanting to finish a run with the plt or wanting to finish without the plt turning around for me.  Elisa's running ability is all in her head. 

Today we ran up NBC hill and she began slacking off and crying like usual, this time it's her ankle.  The plt holds no sympathy for her.  Especially me my parents didn't hold my hand when every little thing went wrong in my life and I refuse to do the same for anybody else, with an exception for children.  I tell Elisa each time she whines to me, she will not get any sympathy from me, and she still continues to whine to me.  I get so tired of her that I could just scream at her.  Anyway she fell out of the run and we were going slower than a 9min mile.  I could've walked and still kept up.  This why I hate formation runs.  We were all about ready to kill Elisa because we had to turn around and run extra distance over her inability to keep up with the pace she set!!!

Tomorrow we're running NBC hill again, and it's just going to be a repeat performance from today.

To those of you wanting to join the army and those already in, for goodness sake if you really believe you're hurt GO TO SICKCALL AND QUIT HINDERING THE PEOPLE WHO CAN RUN, WE'RE SICK AND TIRED OF TURNING AROUND OVER YOU!!!  Don't take this personally, I'm just highly pissed off about Elisa's crap already.  I'm just glad I'm not her nco, because I couldn't put up with being blamed for her pt performance.

God bless and take care,

Jen