New Order

I finally got my orders extending my deployment through the end of April 2007. We’ll hopefully be heading back to Texas at the end of Feb. What a relief! I have been working to get my Army paperwork in order so that I can go up for the E-7 promotion board. I am hoping to get promoted to Sergeant First Class before I head back home.

I discovered today that my friend, Matt P, also had various pictures of Matt O’s wedding in St. Louis. There are several albums, so here they are: Album 1, Album 2, Album 3. He also has some pictures from Tacky Prom 2006.

There is a lot of rain heading our way tonight. It should all be gone by tomorrow afternoon though. We’re having a Halloween party Saturday night. I thought I had a costume set, but now I’m having second thoughts. Ideas anyone?

Wayne Rooney Mo-Cap session

Here's the ad that W+K created for EA Sports. It is basically a motion capture session for the video game. They made Rooney do a bunch of weird stuff and got it all on tape and then had him interact with things that were not there. Anyway, check out the other three players they did mo-cap sessions for - they're pretty funny. I think the best part is that almost every one of the guys asks during one point of the shoot, "Is this in the game?" The tagline for EA Sports is, "It's in the game." Enjoy!

Yeah... It's been a few weeks

Alright – back on the blog again. Ever since we got back from the wedding in St. Louis, we have been downright busy. Since then I have logged about 15 hours editing a video for church that we finished and showed this past weekend. It was hilarious and one of our best videos yet. I’ll have it posted to the internet soon. There are a lot of things that I am running behind on here on the blog: MRI pics, St. Louis trip pics, the video that was used in the ad… I’m going to get them on here soon enough. I do have pics from the wedding posted though – I was ushering and had to sit at the back of the church. We were pretty busy, so we got very few pictures during the wedding and while the group photos were being taken. We had a great time in St. Louis and Holly and I are enjoying watching the Cardinals lead the Tigers 4-0 in the top of the 8th inning. This game should put the Cards squarely ahead of Detroit 2-1 in the series. Here’s a link to the rest of the pics from the wedding. Congrats Matt and Julie!

Lots Going On

Wow – when it rains, it pours...

I’m finally getting over this cold and Holly and I are off to St Louis for a wedding this weekend. On top of working on a video for church, having very busy evenings after work and getting ready for this trip, even more important things have been going on.

A friend and co-worker of mine lost her father to Cancer two weeks ago. He was battling it several years before it took his life. I’ve had the opportunity to talk to her at work about it. We also talk sometimes on the train as we take the same one toward home and often get the chance to meet up. He was still in his 40’s, her mom is 42 (I think) and a widow. Please pray for her.

Here’s something I didn’t share with you for some reason. I sent this to our prayer announcement email list right after we got back from Nashville:

On Sep 3, during a church service at my sister's new church, they invited folks to come to the front for prayer, I was thinking of going down for more anti-tumor prayer when the pastor then prayed for a man named Mark Foster, who was in the hospital fighting brain cancer. It struck me and I heard my sister say, "oh my God." I think we all focused our prayer on Mark and that's when I realized that it was six months to the day since my surgery on Mar 3. Anyway, it was an amazing thing to happen on that day. I spoke to the pastor and asked him to pass my contact info to Mark and his family. I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but please pray for Mark Foster's brain cancer.

I never mentioned the six month anniversary of my surgery here since I felt like this overshadowed it. A week later I got an update and sent this out:

First of all - Thanks to everyone for your prayers for Mark Foster, the man with the brain tumors in TN. His surgery was last week and he came through with no lasting complications - and... they got all of the tumor!

Finally, my mom called me today with the following news:

I have an update regarding Mark Foster, the man we learned about while in TN that had surgery to remove a brain tumor. As I shared a few weeks ago, the surgery was a success and had no immediate complications. But in the past few weeks he developed an infection in his spine somehow and also got pneumonia while in the hospital. He was having trouble breathing over the weekend and suddenly passed away early this week from complications due to the pneumonia.
Apparently, he was doing very well, but his condition deteriorated rapidly. His death was unexpected and his family is having a tough time dealing with it. These are the only details I have at this time. Please pray for Mark's family, especially his wife as she tries to cope with this turn of events.

Yeah – so I feel like I’m in the line of fire with cancer sometimes. But it is a good thing, I guess. I helps me realize how human we all are and that I need to keep fighting for myself and for others who are also affected around me.

I never gave you an update on Holly’s dad and his procedures. He fared the tests well and no abnormalities were found. I think he heeds to get back to the doc soon for more tests, but I think his immediate problem was an infection of some type.

Lastly, my friend Matt’s mom, Sandy, had surgery for her breast cancer a few weeks ago. Here’s what she emailed herself to the prayer broadcast:

It's a real blessing to see prayers being answered every day! Even though I've always known of the power of prayers it's something totally different to feel them on a constant basis from so many dedicated prayer warriors & I thank you from the bottom of my heart… I am doing incredibly well. I am totally astounded that since leaving the recovery room I have had NO pain at all!! I certainly didn't expect to feel this well at this point & it didn't even occur to me to pray for being pain free after surgery so somebody must be praying overtime!! :) THANK YOU :)

Before surgery I was taking Vicodin every 4 hours in an attempt to kill the pain so this is a real blessing indeed. Praise God. Next up for me today----------a shower!! I think I will take a nap
first since I am still pretty tired. On Thursday I will call the surgeon to report my drain totals & hopefully they will be such that I can see her on Monday to have the drains removed. That's the best case scenario. Please pray that it happens that way for me. I will also be seeing the oncologist on Mon just for a regular follow up. I'm not sure when I'll hear about the results of my latest blood work but since I feel so well I tend to think it's a lot of nothing. That's it for me. I hope & pray you're all doing well. Please pray for a fast & complete recovery for me. Thanks so much. :)

I think that says it all. I get to meet this remarkable woman this weekend and I'll let you know how's she doing. I’m looking forward to it. Oh – and don’t forget… October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Ladies – you know what to do.