The price of freedom

This is Dave Underwood. He is the husband of my best friend in high school. He was stationed in Iraq and was on a mission with his guys to clear a booby-trapped house and stepped on a pressure plate -- IED. He lost his left arm but is happy to be alive! He said he had to go out of command in style! He was flown to Landstuhl, Germany and then on to Walter Reed, Maryland where he presently is. He will receive a robotic arm to replace his real one. He is in good spirits and jokingly wonders if Rolex will replace his crushed watch since it didn't seem to hold up to a IED! He did sustain other injuries to his left side and also has superficial wounds on his right; but his body armor took most of the hit and his helmet prevented injuries to his head. In my eyes, Dave is one of the REAL heros of our country.

My red H2!

We found this beauty on ebay. We flew to Tampa, FL to pick it up and drive it home. We have a nice Nissan Armada for sale now!

Von Maur open for business again!

Von Maur opened its doors again today at 10am after two weeks of being closed due to the shootings. These are some photos of the store opening ceremony. All the employees were at the entrance gate holding hands. Several people said a few words including Mayor Fahey and then Jim VonMaur welcomed everyone into the store. There were so many people there that there was a line to get on the escalator! Also, I didn't include the photo, but there were 8 wreaths at this Von Maur entrance for the 8 innocent lives lost in the store. Pretty cool.

Von Maur Tragedy

These are just a few pictures of memorials around the Von Maur at Westroads Mall after the shooting on Wednesday 12/5/07 that killed eight innocent people. Some memorials are inside and some outside. Von Maur has posted wreaths at every door and entrance to their store. At one inside entrance, people have filled the glass doors with paper snowflakes with written messages on them. Outside, many people have left flowers and stuffed animals and candles. The rest of the mall opened today (Saturday, 12/8/07) -- three days later -- while Von Maur remains closed for an unknown period of time.

Celebrate Autumn in the Country!

Here are a few pictures from the fall pot luck at Calvin & Jacque Chipperfields. You are seeing the starting line for the trike races, the big bonfire, Vivian holding Brett Burgess, Charles Sterling with his marshmallow roaster, and Luke Burgess enjoying his caramel apple. Happy Fall!

Newest toy

Well we added another drill rig to the fleet. Here are a couple shots of it in front of the house.