My Mom and Me

I was cleaning through the basement and found this great picture of my Mom and Me. As most of you know my Mom, Patti, died 9 years ago this passed Christmas Morning. She was my everything and for some reason I am having a hard time with her being gone lately. I'm reading a book called Motherless Daughters, which is helping me work through this latest wave of grief. I've been praying a lot and reading my Bible, which is also helping. I think I figured out that my son losing his first 2 teeth probably sparked it this time. Please enjoy this picture of my Mom and Me. It has a glare on the picture, but it is a great one. :-)

Fun in Michigan Part 2

At the end of my Fun In Michigan post I put that you had to stay tuned for the highlight of the trip for me, so here it goes.

Parker has been dying to lose a tooth for the longest time and a couple of months ago he lost tooth #1. Recently he had been telling me that another tooth was loose. The Morning we were leaving for Michigan he showed me how loose his tooth was so we gave him an apple. No luck. I thought for sure he would lose it at school, but no such luck.

Afterschool we headed off to Michigan knowing that he would lose it on this trip. He was wiggling it with his tongue, but was getting to a point where he was starting to not eat because it hurt so bad. Daddy had even spent some time wiggling it for him.

At the end of our trip we went out for Ice Cream with Aunt Kelly and Uncle Jordan before leaving town.

After we were done with our Ice Cream we were sitting there visiting and I noticed that they sold ROCK CANDY so I bought the kids some telling Parker to bite down on it and his tooth will come out. He didn't want to, so finally I said, "Let Aunt Kelly take a look at it. She's a dental hygenist." So he actually let her wiggle it and pull it out. This picture is of her in action and the funny part was I closed my eyes while taking it because I couldn't look.

This picture is afterwards. Check out that smile!!

He was telling people the next day that his Auntie yanked out his tooth. He will always have this fun memory with his Auntie. Thanks Aunt Kelly for being a fun Aunt to our kids.

My Buddy in Iraq has been hurt and is on his way home!!

I wish this was a post about my kids or my triathlon training or how my weightloss is going, but it isn't. It's to let you all know that my friend, Chris, has been hurt in Iraq. If you have known me long enough you know Chris is a household name which is spoken daily. Tonight I logged on my computer to find an email that Chris had been hurt in Iraq. This was his 2nd deployment. He left before Christmas and was supposed to be there a year to a year and a half. Well, he is on his way home via Germany. Here is the blog post from his wife, Melissa.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

He's going to be okay.....
Hello again,Well, I guess this isn't the best way to inform everyone. I just didn't know how else to get this done in a timely manner other wise. I received a call from Chris this morning. He is in Baghdad waiting transfer to Germany then onto the states. He was out on patrol yesterday (it was around 3 a..m. My time) and his humvee was hit by an IED. His tank crew and him are fine. His driver had minor injuries. His loader has burns on his face and various parts of his body. His gunner who was standing up out of the top of the humvee has a pretty messed up ankle with burns to his face and some to his hands. Chris has burns to his neck, hands, shoulder, and various parts of his body. He had to get 18 stitches on the back of his head from where debris hit him. He is in pain but has lots of medication right now. He still has his up beat happy go lucky personality and trying to stay tuff for his guys. He said I am Superman I can't die....so you know he is hanging in there.From what I know right now they are sending him on to Germany tonight or tomorrow. Then he will be coming to San Antonio for burn treatments after that. I don't know what they will do from there. He said it all depends on how bad his burns really are and how fast he can recover.I am sorry to post like this but I just wanted everyone to know what is going on and I will post as soon as I get more information that I can share with you all.


I wanted to share some pictures with you so you could put a face with a name. Here is Chris with his kids the morning he left for Iraq. Blake and Destiney are hanging on to him and Mason is next to him freezing. It was 4:30 am. The next picture is of Chris and a 26 day old Iraqi baby. Sorry the picture is so tiny. This was how his wife put it on her blog and I don't know how to make it bigger. Keep scrolling down.
Here is Chris and the Iraqi police that they work with. Chris is the American that is kneeling down.

Here is Chris with a group of Iraqi kids. It's amazing how quickly they will follow you when you are feeding them sweet tarts. Look how beautiful these children are.

I just got done IMing Melissa, Chris' wife. I let her know how much I love them, how much I am praying for them and that I am letting all my friends and family know, so they can keep them in your prayers. Please pray specifically for her as she tells her children. She has not told them yet. She wants them to finish out their school week. Thank you so much for letting me share my friend with you. Please scroll down for a poem I wrote.My Internet Soldier turned friend-By Melissa

I have a friend named Chris, who is serving in Iraq

He is like a brother to me, but it wasn't like that when we met

See he was just a name in a computer data base

and I was a civilan in the crowd with no face

I signed on to a website, it was just another day

Said I wanted someone in Iraq that I could support in every way

The next day my email read, we've got a soldier for you named Chris

I read it over and over, no detail to miss

I started writing letters and sending packages to him

He responded back and that made me grin

I started talking and emailing his wife

I could tell after a while this was going to change my life

See as time marched on our friendship grew

I not only supported him, I supported his family too

Even after he got home after his first time there

We stayed in touch, we were friends now, we all cared

We talked about the kids and Chris' BIKE

We talked about Church and the things we liked

That's why when he got the call to go back

It was a lot harder, we had all become attached

See I used to tell people I met this soldier on the net

But not anymore, he's a friend and that's that

Fun In Michigan

This past weekend we went to see my little brother, Jordan and his wonderful wife, Kelly. They move to Toronto this next weekend. Jordan got a job for MLB.com as their beat writer for the Toronto BlueJays. I am really proud of him, but will miss Kelly and him when they move. WE had a lot of fun seeing them before they move.
The pictures are a little out of order, not sure why that happened. :-( We started off at a Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun. A highlight for me was going in the basement of the museum where they were having career day and getting to talk to a naturalist. After he was done talking he asked if anyone was scared of snakes. We answered no and he grabbed this huge python out of a rubbermaid container. That is my sister-n-law in the black sweater, Parker on her right and Tricia on her left. Keith is on the end in the striped shirt.


After the museum we went out to lunch, to some cute stores in downtown St. Joseph and then on to the bowling alley. Jordan and Kelly have a fierce rivarly going on at the lanes. Here are our results.

KELLEY'S LANES - ST. JOSEPH, MICHIGAN
GAME 1 Adults with no bumpers:FIRST: Kelly 129, SECOND: Keith 112, THIRD: Jordan 94, FOURTH: Melissa 74
Kids with bumpers: FIRST: Tricia 81, SECOND: Parker 80
GAME 2 Adults with no bumpers:FIRST: Jordan 123, SECOND: Kelly 116, THIRD: Keith 107, FOURTH: Melissa 78
Kids with bumpers:FIRST: Tricia 72, SECOND: Parker 68

No comments, I never said I was a good bowler and for the record the kids had bumpers so they did not beat me. :-)

Tricia waiting to see if she has success. Tricia and Parker were so cute. Parker would do these dances after throwing the ball. I think he was trying to will the ball towards the pins. We would clap even if he only got one pin down and he would cheer. He was soooo cute.
Parker back at the Museum having fun in a kaleidoscope mirror. I look at this and think, "AWW man, am I glad I don't have triplets."
Kelly and Jordan waiting for their turn. AWWWW aren't they soooo cute!!
Jordan in action. Just look at that form. I'm impressed. Jordan is so fun to bowl with. When he is not doing well, he gets all pouty and ticked off at himself. When he does well he gets this little grin. We are so competitive in our family. Luckily I just stink at bowling, so I didn't have to worry. :-) If you would like to see more pictures of our weekend in Michigan check out Kelly's Blog www.kellybastian.blogspot.com or for a more in depth coverage of our bowling see my Sport Journalist, brother's blog at www.jordanbastian.com and click on MY BLOG.

The highlight of the trip came right at the end. Stay tuned. . . .