Carol

Christmas 2009

2009-12-26T01:00:00Z

The deep sigh of satisfaction, relief, & contentment for just awhile; enjoy it while I feel it. Happy Birthday, Jesus! Today is a great day.

Thanksgiving Tree & Christmas Decorations

2009-12-02T02:19:00Z

Well, it's that time of year again. Decorating time. Not sure if I have ever been this overwelmed before. I am a month late with the Thanksgiving tree. The Christmas tree is up, but only decorated with lights and ribbon. I stare at the storage containers with all our treasures inside and wonder if I stare long enough, they will become truly magical and float to the perfect spot in which they belong.

Let me explain the Thanksgiving tree. When my Mom died, July 7, 2007, I felt empty. Of course I did, it's only natural when your Mother dies; her child to feel empty. Then I thought about all the family that has passed before Mother; Granddaddy Jack, Grandmother, Ma, Granddad Steve, Cookie, Uncle Ed, Aunt Jeanne, and all the other people I have come to know through my geneology research. I decided we needed a Thanksgiving tree. Thankful for bringing such wonderful, graceful, and truly passionate relatives into our lifes. Each person I named has a distinct attribute about them and only can imagine what Grandpa John from Ireland was like in 1720.

It's not only family, but friends as well. I give thanks for Howard, Debbie Clark, Mark Sutherlin, Paul Benavidez, Ricky Alba, Mr. Harris, Mr. Salopek, Pancho, Bill Moore and the list goes on and on.

In addition, it's not just about who has passed in our lives. It's also about who we have passed in living our lifes. Who has crossed our path and meant something to us, whether they realize it or not? Some are still in our life and some have moved on. That's ok, we all have missions in life; we just don't know what that mission is until we meet our Lord.

Now, for those storage boxes of decorations; they are staring back at me. I give up. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. Besides it's not what is in the boxes; it's what is inside that counts.

With blessings to all,
Carol Jean

Disclosing Our Souls on the Internet

2009-11-29T04:15:00Z

Do we disclose our personal lives too much today? We have instant messenger, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, Flickr, Digsby, Linked In......... I just googled my name, Carol Jean Evans and my information came up 9 out of the first 10 responses. Anyone with an internet connection can access my resume, personal life, relatives, photos, and even a map directing them turn by turn to my house (including pictures of my home).

With just a quick click, I can see the latitude and longitude, as well as feet about sea level of our house.

View Larger Map

Recently, I had an experience where someone sent unkind and unnecessary messages to my relatives. I am not sure of their motive but it was obviously to cause pain. People can take 10% of the truth and twist it to where they want it. What is sad is that people believe what they read. Why? Why don't people come to the person and ask for themselves. I have had one person come to me and tell me. I suppose it shows that even though we lay out our heart & soul to others; people like to hear the gossip and choose to believe that over real people and the truth.

I have a lot more to say about this, and will finish this at another time. I have a lot on my mind and it's starting to scatter. I know I miss my Taylor and my mom right now. Blessings to all

Parents, Educating Your Teens on Substance Abuse. Video begins when link is opened.

2009-08-18T21:16:00Z

Tools for Parents

The first year of college is a time of major change for your son or daughter. Your teen is in the process of making a transition from being a teen to being an adult. The demands and difficulties are considerable for both you and your teen. For example, it is entirely possible that your teen will be living away from home for the first time, meeting many new people, experiencing new economic and social pressures, and making adjustments to new and rigorous workloads. All of these tasks require your teen to develop new skills in order to make a positive adjustment to college life. In some cases, students will rely on other students for assistance; however, in many cases the students they rely on will also be new and inexperienced at making these adjustments. This is a time period where students could benefit from helpful and truthful information on how to make a smooth transition from high school to college. Parents can be an ideal source of information and support for their college bound teens."

Rob Turrisi, Ph.D.
Prevention Research Center
The Pennsylvania State University

159,000 first-year college students will drop out of school for alcohol or other drug related reasons.

Tips for Parents

We encourage you to retain positive communication with your child throughout his/her college experience. The presence of a supportive family can significantly improve the chances that your child will make responsible decisions. Keeping open lines of communication, being honest, and expressing your pride along with your expectations will make it more likely that your child will feel comfortable coming to you if something goes wrong.

Questions to Consider

We understand that talking to your child about alcohol or sexual assault may seem awkward. The following topics are only suggestions and may need to be modified to fit your family.

Regarding Alcohol:

What have you heard about alcohol at your school?

Where does alcohol fit in with your plans this year?

What would it take for you to think that alcohol was messing things up for you?

Regarding Sexual Assault:

What would you do if you felt like a situation was getting out of hand?

What kind of signals do you look for to know that things are moving too fast for your partner?

If something happens, do you know you can count on me to support you?

Alcohol and Sexual Assault Facts

Alcohol Facts

Binge drinking (In one session, 4 or more drinks for a women, 5 or more for a man) is associated with lower grades.
159,000 first-year college students will drop out of school for alcohol or other drug related reasons.
Alcohol is the #1 drug used to facilitate date rape.
Alcohol is a factor in 40% of violent crimes.

Sexual Assault Facts

1 in 4 college women will be sexually assaulted before they graduate college.
50% are virgins when they are assaulted.
Over 85% of sexual assaults involve alcohol.
9 out of 10 assaults are committed by someone the victim knows.
40% of victims will tell no one.

Talk to your child about difficult issues.

How to Talk to Your Child

Focus: Make eye contact with your child. Show your interest in the topic. Don't get sidetracked on tangents.
Chose a Good Time: Pick a time when your child is not distracted or rushed. Pay attention to your child's mood and avoid times when he/she is agitated, defensive or overwhelmed. Try for a time when you can both be relaxed.
Keep your goal in mind: Remember, you are trying to expand your child's thinking and prepare him/her for situations that might arise. You are both on the same side so make sure that you are maintaining mutual respect and not trying to "win" an argument.
Use Open-Ended Questions: Avoid turning the conversation into a lecture, which will likely be tuned out. Avoid questions that have a "yes/no" answer.
Listen: Active listening means you don't interrupt, don't judge, don't finish sentences. Do not agree or disagree -- just let your child speak his/her mind. When your child is done, paraphrase what you heard to be sure you are both on the same page. "It sounds like you are saying . . ."
Be honest: The key to productive and open communication is honesty.
Admit Your Errors: We ask our children to admit their mistakes and take responsibility for their actions and adults must do the same. Your child will see it as a sign of strength, not weakness, and will be more likely to respect your point of view.
Use Self-Disclosure: Self-disclosure conveys trust. You can help your child "open up" by doing the same. Discuss similar situations from your life.
Verbalize respect: Show your respect for their ability to handle these difficult years and difficult situations. "I'm impressed with how you are coping. . ."
Talk often: One conversation will not be enough. It is sometimes more effective to have frequent short conversations than a long one. These are on-going issues so creating an on-going dialogue will indicate your availability and willingness to take these issues seriously.
Agree to Disengage: If you or your child become emotional or angry, take a break from the conversation. You can resume when you are both calm and ready to hear each other.

Adapted from Dr. Rob Turrisi, Prevention Research Center, The Pennsylvania State University.

Warning Signs

Be conscious of warning signs that your child is in trouble.

Some indications that your child may be experiencing difficulties include:

Your child is avoiding your phone calls or avoiding long-term friends and/or obligations.
Your child is experiencing a sudden drop in grades, indicating his/her focus is not on academics.
Sudden change in friendships or behavior.
Social life appears to center around alcohol.
Lack of involvement in other aspects of campus life.
Friendships appear shallow and not based on mutual respect.

http://www.ncadd.org/

A Mother's Nightmare

Carol has enjoyed a close relationship with her daughter, but believes Bridget had more independence than she needed living between two divorced parents. Carol and her first husband divorced when Bridget was 3. For years, Bridget lived in two states, traveling back and forth to spend equal time with each parent. Carol believes Bridget had “user friends” in both states.

When Bridget was 15, she quit her high school volleyball team, a game that she had previously loved. Carol initially fought the decision, but soon accepted that her daughter was no longer interested in the game. Then Carol noticed other behavioral problems.

“I was surprised that she'd skipped a class,” Carol said.

Carol also noticed Bridget was often irritable and very secretive. Carol decided to take her daughter to the doctor.

Carol admitted, “I knew something was definitely not right, and my mother intuition kicked in.”

After the doctor's confirmation, Carol enrolled Bridget in her first out-patient treatment program. However, Bridget was still secretively using - a secret that would soon be revealed.

Two days after her first stint in rehab, Bridget went to a movie and didn't return home. Later that night, Carol found her daughter at a friend's house. She was high on prescription drugs and furious with her mother. Bridget physically attacked Carol. Onlookers called police.

“She was extremely aggressive, it wasn't her. She ran around the car and just started attacking me. She had me by the hair and wouldn't let go. My hair was coming out,” Carol said.

Police arrested Bridget for assaulting her mother, and three police officers. From her jail cell, Bridget was taken straight to the hospital for detoxification. Carol says Bridget had taken so many prescription pills, that she couldn't feel pain.

Carol added, “My daughter's chemistry doesn't know when to stop. She can't just take the one pill. She needs to take the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh and the eighth to feel the effect.”

Carol soon realized she needed more help to fight her daughter’s addiction. She admitted Bridget to a 90 day residential treatment center.

Bridget spends 24 hours a day in a controlled environment, where she can’t access prescription medications.

Living at home with her husband and two other children, Carol sometimes feels guilty about her daughter’s addiction, questioning, “Was I a bad mother? Had I done something wrong? Was I not in tuned to things?”

These questions still haunt Carol’s mind from time to time, but for now she looks forward to her daughter’s weekly home visits, and the day that her daughter beats her addiction to prescription drugs for good.

In the meantime, Carol tries to help other parents learn the warning signs of a prescription drug addiction. She also encouraged everyone to take preventative measures to protect metro teens, by locking up all prescription medications.

< Teen Addictions: The Untold Story
Reported by: Lisa Benson, NBC Action News, Kansas City

JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. - Bridget is a 16-year-old Johnson County teen. She has a loving mother, step-father and two younger siblings. She also has an addiction to prescription drugs.

Bridget’s addiction did not start with prescription drugs. At the age of 14, she experimented with marijuana, but considered herself a social user, only partaking when marijuana was available, never purchasing for herself.

The distinction of a "social" drug user changed when Bridget was 15. Bridget says a stomach ache at school prompted another student to offer her medication. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that was the beginning of her prescription drug addiction.

“He gave me this whole bottle and I think I took like 11 of them. That's where it all started. I knew prescription pills could mess you up, but I never had really done em'. I didn't have contact until then,” Bridget recalled.

Bridget fed her addiction through her mother’s prescription medications and her friend’s medicine cabinets. The accessibility of the prescription medications allowed Bridget to easily access the high she was looking for.

“You don't have to pay for them if you just steal them from your parents, or get your friends to like get their parents. You don't have pay someone and you don't have to call somebody,” Bridget explained.

Through a web of lies and deceit, Bridget was able to keep her addiction under control for more than a year.

“Prescription drugs would not be the only drug I would do,” Bridget stated.

Eventually, her mother Carol, noticed changes in her behavior, and a lack of interest in volleyball. Carol suspected drugs were to blame.

Carol took Bridget to the doctor for a check up, and her fears were confirmed. However, the degree of her daughter’s drug use was not clear until more than a year later.

Bridget was arrested for assaulting her mother and three police officers.

The Drink Wheel - On-Line BrAC Calculator

2009-08-18T21:11:00Z

The Drink Wheel
On-Line BrAC Calculator
About Disclaimer

I have had over a period of hour(s)².

I am Male Female (Explanation of gender differences in Blood Alcohol Concentration)

and I weigh Pounds Kilograms

and I live in (so that the result is displayed in the appropriate units).

About the Drink Wheel

The Intoximeters Inc. "Drink Wheel"¹ is a form that you can fill out. Upon completion we will instantly compute your estimated blood/breath alcohol concentration ("BAC") based on the information that you have provided and return that estimate to you. It is presented as a public service to Intoximeters web site visitors. Its primary purpose is to provide useful information about the responsible use of alcohol.

Why is it called a "Drink Wheel"?

We call it the "Drink Wheel" because it is based on various paper and cardboard BAC calculators that are given out in alcohol awareness programs, some of which are in the form of a wheel that you can spin around to calculate your estimated BAC based on what and how much you have had to drink.

Disclaimer

It would be extremely foolish for us to pretend that our "Drink Wheel" can tell you what your BAC actually is, first because it would open us up to an incredible amount of potential liability and second if it really did work accurately there would be no need for anyone to buy the instruments that we make and sell.

A person's actual BAC is dependent on many complex factors, including their physical condition (body composition, health etc...) and what they have recently ingested (including food, water, medications and other drugs). This site includes a more detailed discussion of the Pharmacology and Disposition of alcohol in humans.

The results that are generated are rough estimates of an average healthy person's BAC assuming typical beverage sizes, recipes and alcohol content. The BAC estimates generated by the Drink Wheel should not be used to infer anyone's fitness to work, drive or perform any other task or duty.

Susan Borman, A Woman of Inspiration, Dedication, and Understanding

2009-06-29T01:05:00Z

**UNFINISHED BLOG**

I cannot remember when I first met Mrs. Borman, but it had to have been in the mid 1980's. From the beginning, I knew she was extraordinary. She made me feel at peace when I was near her; welcoming, caring, and genuine. By knowing her, you would have no clue to the places she had been and the historical people she knew.

Susan, Bud (my father), Jacquelyn (my mother), Frank on adventure in one of Mr. Borman's planes.

A note Susan wrote me during a very tough time in my life.

My mother, Jacquelyn McCutcheon Richards, always taught me to call my elders by their last names; so even though I was in my 20's, I referred to the Borman's as "Mr. Borman & Mrs. Borman". Susan preferred me to call her "Susan" but Mrs. Borman always slipped out. As I learned more about Mr. Borman's background as an original NASA Astronaut, CEO of Eastern Airlines and

Valerie Anders (left) and Susan Borman hear their husbands from space

The Astronaut Wives' Club

By Sarah Cuddon
Producer, Astronaut Wives' Club

Isolation, divorce, depression - the cost of Nasa's mission to reach the Moon was borne heaviest by the wives of the astronauts. In their struggle to cope they formed their own support network.

"Nasa wanted perfect wives, perfect children, perfect homes. There was certainly some pressure there." Susan Borman, Apollo 8 wife.

At the height of the Apollo space programme of the 1960s, many would-be astronauts aching to be picked believed that their selection was largely based upon the success of their marriages. Marriage, it seems, was one of the rules of astronaut selection.

The adventures of the men have, of course, been told many times. They became heroes and household names. But the women who were left on Earth have, for the most part, remained silent about their experiences of this extraordinary period.

“I knew he would never be able to show me the love I needed or make me a priority and I became suicidal ”
Dotty Duke

Many of them formed extremely close friendships with each other which have endured to this day in the form of reunions for what must be one of the most select societies ever - the Astronaut Wives Club.

"It's interesting to me that the women have remained closer than the men," says Faye Stafford, former wife of Apollo 10 astronaut Thomas Stafford.

"There was just so much intense competition between the men I think it's still difficult for them to handle that."

But being the wife of an astronaut was often a fraught and lonely affair. Most of them had been military wives. When their husbands joined Nasa they suddenly found themselves thrust into a terrifying public arena. They were expected to attend fashion shows and charity events, offer political opinions on current affairs and act as role models for good Americans.

It wasn't for the faint hearted.

Media spotlight

"None of us were prepared for the exposure," says Ms Stafford . "I'm shy. I didn't like all the attention. And those dinners. I used to call them those 'casts of thousands dinners'. But you wanted to support your husband and so you did it."

Just as the media today pursue families of troops in the Gulf, for any sniff of a story, the Apollo programme, which ran in the 1960s and 70s, provoked a relentless and remorseless media frenzy.

Wives of astronauts had to maintain their composure for a worldwide audience at some of the most stressful moments in their lives. While their husbands were strapped inside a giant rocket, television crews and newspapermen would crowd the front lawns and build temporary towers to transmit the family's reactions to the world.

"Some of them actually moved into the home so they could photograph us watching the launches on television. We used to call it the death watch", says Susan Borman.

None of the women had careers. The astronaut wives' existence mostly meant you stayed at home and took the responsibility away from your husband so he could function in his highly competitive world.

"Most of us were still homemakers. I would have liked to have had a career. Especially once the children left home. It was isolating," says Ms Stafford.

Average pay

"Sometimes a protocol officer at Nasa would summon us to give us advice such as give your husband a good breakfast everyday and make sure you keep him away from stress at home. But on the whole we weren't given much support from Nasa," says Valerie Anders, Apollo 8 wife.

And contrary to what many people thought, astronauts were not exorbitantly paid; they and their families got by on military or government salaries.

"They were sending us into Houston society. It was all hats and gloves," says Ms Stafford. "I don't think they took into account that we were on government salaries and we really couldn't afford it all."

It was during this period that the Astronaut Wives' Club was born, a place where the women behind the Apollo astronauts could share the personal and emotional impact of the intense schedules and heavy public scrutiny they received and find the support they desperately needed.

They would gather for coffee or go and sit with whoever had a husband who was on a launch.

"We kind of filled in for each other when the men were away. We'd have dinner together and look after each other's children," says Gracia Lousma, wife of astronaut Jack Lousma.

But for many couples the reality of the space programme was a harsh one.

Far from being part of the "All American Dream", the Apollo programme was actually pulling them apart.

In the case of Dotty Duke, wife of astronaut Charlie Duke, the loneliness led her to a state of such despair that she considered taking her own life.

Suicide

"Charlie was a complete workaholic. The space programme was all he thought about. I knew he would never be able to show me the love I needed or make me a priority and I became suicidal," she says.

But there was a perception among some at Nasa that the image of the astronaut as family man, as good husband, had become so important to the public profile of being an astronaut that it was essential to remaining in the programme.

"There were many couples who were staying together merely to keep up the appearance," says Ms Duke. When the first divorce hit the programme it shook the astronaut community but it also opened the gates. Quite quickly more and more couples started to separate.

"I used to go outside and just look up at the Moon," says Ms Stafford. "It was hard for us wives to understand what the men were really experiencing. And of course they were treated like royalty. It was hard for them to come home. What could ever compete with that? I was lucky if I could come second."

"They had people looking into the background of the men, [and] they also had people looking into the background of the wives because they didn't want an oddball... it wasn't discussed, it wasn't written, but ... you had better be in every sense of the word, the All American Family in everything you say and do! We kept it like 'Leave it to Beaver.'"
-- Susan Borman, wife of Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman

Faith and Pragmatism
The women who married fighter pilots or test pilots understood that their lives could be shattered in an instant. Implicitly, they understood that they had to have the faith in their husbands' flying skills and go about the business of raising a family and running a household. "You worry about the custard and I'll worry about the flying," Frank would say to Susan Borman. But NASA was different. Wives of astronauts had to maintain that same composure for a worldwide audience at some of the most stressful moments in their lives. While their husbands were strapped to a giant rocket, television crews and newspapermen would crowd the front lawns, building temporary towers on suburban tracts to transmit the family's reactions to the world.

In the Public Eye
"We were very much in the public eye and nobody had been trained for that. We weren't trained for ticker-tape parades. Our children weren't trained for the public view that became part of their lives," Valerie Anders, wife of Apollo astronaut Bill Anders, remembered. "The astronaut wives' 'right stuff' mostly meant you stayed at home and took the responsibility away from your husband so that he could function in his world, which was a very competitive world. So we were there to do whatever was required. However, I was surprised at how many people thought that we had some kind of special help, because we didn't. We were military wives, we formed a corps of wives; we were close to each other, but there was no psychological help; there was no one preparing us for this life." And contrary to what many people thought, astronauts were not exorbitantly paid; they and their families lived on military or government salaries. When her mother asked her why she always wore the same dress on television, Anders had to tell her it was the only good outfit she had.

Public Relations
NASA arranged a contract with Life magazine early on that gave full access to the astronauts' personal stories to that publication but excluded all others. The tradeoff benefited both sides, especially since Life paid a stipend to each family and also provided a life insurance policy -- which insurers would not grant to anyone who listed "astronaut" as their profession. The weekly grind was difficult however, with the astronauts flying across the country visiting various contractors -- and then in virtual isolation on Cape Canaveral for two months before a flight.

Absentee Husbands
Valerie Anders: "You were, in effect, a single parent for the week. And when the men came home on the week-end in their T-38s [airplanes] they flew in and their first obligation was to go to the office at the Manned Spacecraft Center and catch up on their mail, do their business at the office and then come back and spend time with the family in the time that was left of the weekend, which was generally late Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday."

Supporting Each Other
The wives were formally and informally drafted into a support network. After all, who else could understand their situation? After Elliot See died in a plane crash, John Young called Marilyn Lovell and asked her to visit See's wife. She was incredulous. "You want me to tell her that Elliot was killed?" Young replied, "No. I want you to do something much harder -- not tell her. Somebody should be there with her right now, but she can't be told anything until I can come over and notify her officially. We don't want some overeager newspaperman knocking on her door." Similarly, after an Apollo 13 accident, before Marilyn Lovell was informed of the situation, the Conrads and other friends were on their way to the Lovell home.

Squawk Boxes
A few days before a mission, NASA would install a "squawk box" in the astronauts' homes. The box allowed the families to listen in on any communications between the astronauts and mission control. Jim Lovell figured, "Better than 90 percent of what families could ever hope to hear on this party line was incomprehensible -- a lot of numbers and vectors that even the flight controllers themselves occasionally found tedious." This did not keep the astronauts' wives from sitting around the boxes, waiting and worrying. Susan Borman remembered, "NASA had told us that if anything went wrong, they'd turn those boxes off so that we couldn't..."

Valerie Anders: "Some of the astronauts would come [to the house] for each important phase of the mission so that if the wife had a question, they were there with their expertise to say 'well, you may hear this on the squawk box but this is what it means.'"

Never Alone
During the mission, friends and family would arrive. Susan Borman: "During the flight times it was open house. People were coming in and out all the time. During Apollo 8 Frank's mother and dad were there. And it was just open house. But everybody's very thoughtful. They sort of leave you alone when they can see that you want to be left alone. Everybody comes in with a bottle starting in the afternoon, 'Let's have a drink.' And it was just standard operating procedure. Whoever was up there, their wives were having open house... There were people there all the time from sun up to sun down. Which is good. Oh, I was so always grateful for that."

On a Mission Together
The wives of the men who trained together shared a common bond. "We... the original wives of... the Gemini and Apollo program; we all keep in touch as much as we can," Marilyn Lovell says today. "But I think the gals themselves, some of us probably are closer than others... I think when your husbands are on a mission, you become very good friends with the gals because you're sharing a lot of time with each other knowing that your husbands are going to be doing something together. You're on a mission together."

Difficult Times
The fire in Apollo 1 that killed three astronauts shook the confidence of many in NASA's extended family. Susan Borman began to drink to excess around this time, while maintaining her impeccable composure to the world. Pat White, Ed White's widow and a good friend to both Susan Borman and Marilyn Lovell, committed suicide many years after the accident.

Strains on Marriages
The men of Apollo 8 had some idea of the burden their careers had put on their partners. Perhaps this understanding is why Apollo 8 was the only mission with intact marriages. Bill Anders: "We were working 18 hours a day. If I wasn't in the simulator I was at home studying diagrams. My family kind of lost track of me there for a little while." Frank Borman was honest in his assessment of his parenting: "I spent as much time with [my sons] as I could, but I was a part-time father, and it was Susan who bore most of the responsibility for raising our sons. My input was well-meant and sincere, but it was also too sporadic for me to take much credit for how well they turned out."

"We're In This"
Valerie Anders: "I knew my husband was skilled; I knew that he was a good pilot. I knew that he was competitive like all the others, and so I was cheering for him to be on a crew. And when that was achieved, I was really happy for him. And soon after he was selected for the crew of Apollo 8, the flight plan changed. And I did have some thoughts about this flight because it was, it was an adventuresome flight. It was the first time man had been on the Saturn 5 [rocket]. It was the first time man had left their home planet to go out into space. It was the first time anybody went to the moon or behind the moon. And I knew the consequences of all those steps not working well. So I thought about it, but I thought 'we're in this, this is a very positive thing.'

"I knew it was a Cold War tactic... and I knew that it was politically motivated. But when you're in it, and it's exciting, and you think that your people can meet all these challenges, you just get carried away with that. And that was what happened."

"I don't know that I could spend a month on a desert island with Frank [Borman]; we might tear each other apart before it was over. I might get two weeks in with [Jim] Lovell though."
-- Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders on his crewmates

When the National Aeronautics and Space Administration prepared to select seven astronauts for the Mercury program in the late 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower directed the agency to choose them from the pool of active duty military test pilots. This limited the program to white men in their twenties and thirties. The next nine came from a similar background, with extensive test pilot experience and engineering degrees. The third cohort of astronauts included Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, a Ph.D. in Astronautics an acceptable standard.

Veteran Pilots
As test pilots, the men all had quick reflexes and analytical minds -- and physical stamina. Frank Borman, commander of Apollo 8, wrote in his autobiography, "The NASA of more recent years got the idea that you could put almost any highly intelligent person into a spacecraft and qualify him as an astronaut pilot. Wrong. We took into those simulators the accumulated knowledge, experience, and seat-of-the-pants instincts derived from flying aircraft that could be even more temperamental and treacherous than a spacecraft. We were veteran pilots before we became rookie astronauts, and that made the difference." Their pedigree wasn't always on display when things went right, but was certainly evident when things went wrong, as on Gemini 8 when Neil Armstrong pulled his craft out of a spin that would have rendered an untrained man unconscious.

Many Duties
The duties of the astronauts involved more than their individual missions. They needed to understand every aspect of the systems that their lives depended on. Each man was assigned to become an expert on one component -- the environmental control system, say, or the spacecraft's instrument displays -- and brief the other astronauts on that equipment. They were assigned to explain ongoing missions to the families of the astronauts in space. And when an astronaut was killed, they were the ones who had to inform widows of the deaths of their husbands.

Astronauts at Mission Control
Astronauts filled supportive roles at NASA as well. The position of Capcom, the only person in mission control who communicated directly with the spacecraft during a flight, was manned by astronauts who knew how to translate and filter all the information from mission control into the data the men in space required. Capcom communications often had that dry, competitive astronaut humor.

Army vs. Navy
Most of the astronauts had graduated from either West Point or the Naval Academy and retained loyalties. During Apollo 8, Capcom Mike Collins relayed news and sports scores to the astronauts during their flight, including one that had been played weeks earlier: "Navy, fourteen; Army, twenty-one." Jim Lovell, a Navy man, responded "You're very garbled, Houston. I am unable to read and will call you back next year." Both Lovell and Collins knew only too well that Apollo 8's commander, Frank Borman, was an Army man, having graduated from West Point. One of the first messages between spacecraft consisted of a hand drawn sign posted in the window of Gemini 6, piloted by Naval Academy grads Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford, as it rendezvoused with Borman and Lovell inside Gemini 7. It said, "BEAT ARMY."

Borman: Mission as Battle
Frank Borman was a Cold Warrior, a commander focused on his mission. "I was there mainly because of the Cold War -- the Apollo program was a battle in the Cold War. That's why it was funded. That's why it was started, and of course it had a lot of other virtues, but it was a battle in the Cold War, and we won. That was my main interest. ... I didn't go into the NASA program to pick up rocks or to go the moon or anything else. I went in there because I was a military officer and that was the next notch in my profession." Jim Lovell said, "I think Frank was more anxious about seeing how we could get back home safely and accomplish the mission."

Lovell: Stargazer in Space
Lovell, like Borman, was a military man. He was also a longtime stargazer, well suited for his role as navigator on Apollo 8. During their courtship Marilyn Lovell recalled, "one of the things that [Lovell] would like to do, we'd climb up to the roof and watch the stars and he would point things out to me, you know, the constellations and what have you." Frank Borman said, "You know, Lovell was all interested in going to the moon. He had been a great fan of Jules Verne and rockets, and I never had any interest in that at all." Lovell was also more of an extrovert, with a sense of humor that sometimes masked his seriousness. Originally Lovell had been assigned to the Apollo 8 backup crew. But when Mike Collins had to drop out for surgery on his spine, Lovell was reunited with his Gemini commander, Borman, for Apollo 8. During his time in lunar orbit, Lovell scouted future Apollo landing sites.

Anders: An Explorer
The third member of their crew, William Anders, was as intense as Borman but with the love of exploration that Lovell had. "When I was a kid, I was an explorer scout. And even before then, always interested in exploration; read books about Lewis and Clark and John Wesley Powell and the climbing of this mountain or that. ... I was always willing to go ... see what was on the other side of the mountain. And so Apollo in general, represented a massive opportunity to explore. And my main motivation was exploration. It was not so much the flying or the patriotism. Those were big elements but the main thing was the exploration."

Anders had been trained as Apollo 8's Lunar Module pilot but delays in developing that spacecraft led to the change in Apollo 8's mission. Anders' job shifted to photographer and geologic observer, scrutinizing the surface of the moon for scientists on Earth. "I really hoped, not only to be able to go around the moon, but be able to walk on it someday. At least I got fifty percent of that."

Last Mission for Borman
Apollo 8's lunar orbit mission went exceedingly well and set the stage for Apollo 11 and future lunar landings. It was Frank Borman's last flight. "After Apollo 11 for me the program was basically over because I was there because it was the battle of the Cold War. I would have never volunteered as Jim Lovell did to go back on Apollo 13." Borman briefly advised President Richard Nixon on space policy before joining Eastern Airlines and serving as its president and chief operating officer.

Astronauts Turned Executives
Lovell commanded Apollo 13. On that mission, the explosion of an onboard oxygen tank almost cost Lovell and his crewmates their lives. Quick thinking, in space and in mission control, was required to return the crew safely to earth. Until the long-duration flights aboard U.S. and Soviet space stations, Lovell held the record for cumulative time in space. Following his service with NASA, Lovell served as president and chief executive officer of Bay-Houston Towing Company in Houston, Texas, and later as president of Fisk Telephone Systems, and an executive vice president of Centel Corporation.

Earth Bound
William Anders did not return to the moon, although he did take one of history's most famous photographs of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon. He left NASA to serve on a number of federal agencies: the National Aeronautics and Space Council, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He also served as ambassador to Norway. Anders later went to work in the private sector for General Electric and as chief executive officer of General Dynamics.

"Our arrival into Houston was not terribly glamorous. ... But when we arrived, we arrived to an area that was really not a commercial area. It had been a Girl Scout camp and it had been an area where people went for the summer. But this was now going to be the home of the space program. And it was pretty amazing to me that this little highway that was called 'Farm-to-Market 528' and later became NASA 1, could be the spot where this advanced technology would take place."
-- Valerie Anders, wife of Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders

Manned Spacecraft Center
NASA had always been managed from Langley Field near Washington, D.C. But the moon landing President John Kennedy envisioned required a huge expansion that was not possible at Langley. NASA managers realized they needed a new home for the escalating space effort, the facility that would become known as the Manned Spacecraft Center.

Money and Politics
Many employees and senior officials at NASA were happy with their headquarters in Virginia, but the Manned Spacecraft Center was going to spend a lot of federal dollars and there were politics to consider. Political maneuvering was a forte of James Webb, the NASA administrator, who asked Bob Gilruth, who would be directing the new center, "What has [Virginia Senator] Harry Byrd ever done for you?" California and Texas had powerful politicians who supported NASA. Among the several sites that were suitable, Webb chose Mare Island, California.

Johnson Picks Texas
The recommendation went to the chairman of President Kennedy's National Space Council, Vice President Lyndon Johnson. Johnson overruled Webb's decision and declared that the Manned Spacecraft Center would be situated in Houston, Texas, the sixth largest city in the U.S. at the time (and not coincidentally also the home seat of the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee).

Making the Decision
However, NASA had just purchased eighty-eight thousand acres next to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the launch infrastructure already existed. Johnson argued that Cape Canaveral was overcrowded with military rockets and declared that mission control should be sited at least 125 miles from the launch site. Florida partisans countered with Tampa. Johnson came back with a determination that the control center should be 250 miles from launch. The deputy director of the Space Task Group described the siting process: "It's as though you went through a maze, knowing all the time what door you were going to come out."

Donated Land
NASA asked that land be donated to the effort and Johnson's friends at Humble Oil gave a thousand acres to Rice University, provided the university lease the land to NASA for 99 years. Seven hundred engineers and their families moved from Virginia to Texas.

Simulators, Laboratories and Computers
The Manned Spacecraft Center consisted of administrative buildings, simulators, laboratories to study lunar samples (and to quarantine astronauts) and two identical mission control rooms so that one could prepare for an upcoming flight even as the other was in use for spacecraft in flight (a third, backup mission control was also built in Bermuda). There was also a huge space for computers. Historian Andrew Chaikin put it in perspective: "One of the things that they were going to have to do to make the mission work was get all their computer software together. We tend to take computing power for granted today. But in those days, mission control needed a whole basement full of computers to navigate and keep track of the spacecraft and you know, all the tracking data where they would home in on its radio signal and by very slight changes in the radio signals' frequency, they could detect the motion of the spacecraft, whether it was precisely on track."

In 1973, the Manned Spacecraft Center was renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

Contractors Nationwide
Texas had won the prize of mission control, but contractors for the Apollo missions were located in virtually all fifty states. The Saturn 5 rocket was built at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The command and service modules were provided by North American Rockwell in Downey, California. IBM built computers in New York and Draper Labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology programmed them. The Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina simulated the position of stars on various missions, and so on. Apollo was truly a national effort.

A Huge Team
Frank Borman was one of the astronauts who visited contractors all around the country. "I can remember going through a factory at midnight. We spent a lot of time going through factories and talking to people about zero defects, and one wonderful woman must have been a grandma (I bet she weighed 300 pounds), she grabbed me and hugged me and gave me a kiss and said, 'You don't worry, we're all on the same team and we're all going to do our job.'"

The Space Race that culminated in Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin's "one small step" onto the moon in 1969 began under a Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower; was accelerated by two Democrats, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson; and concluded with another Republican, Richard Nixon. Although some opposed the tremendous outlay of taxpayer dollers to put a man on the moon, most Americans united in support of NASA's work against a common threat: Soviet domination of space.

No Credit-Grabbing, No Flag-Waving
Before the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon, President Richard Nixon had to consider what he would say during a telephone call to the astronauts that would be widely broadcast. NASA had some suggestions that were flattering to the current administration but Frank Borman, acting as White House liaison to NASA, thought they were too political. "Look, Mr. President," he told Nixon, "you really don't have anything to do with Apollo 11. You're just the fortunate or unfortunate recipient of this mission, depending on whether it succeeds or fails. ... What you really should say is something very simple and nonpartisan, a few words of congratulations, and then get off the air." Borman also convinced him not to have the "Star Spangled Banner" played while the men were on the surface of the moon -- obliging them to stand at attention for two minutes of their short visit.

Call for Peace
In the end, Nixon's words to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were nonpartisan, and not even self-congratulatory: "Neil and Buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made from the White House. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become part of man's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth."

Cold War Battlefronts
Frank Borman shared his view of Apollo's impact: "In my estimation there were three [Cold War] battles. One was Korea. We tied it. One was Vietnam. We lost it. And one was the space program and we won it! And I think that the demonstration of the American technology, American management capability -- people overlook the fact that the management techniques that were developed in Apollo are extremely important to this country. So, I think that the Apollo was probably worth it for that reason alone."

Gemini
These goals required a new program to solve the key unknowns for the lunar program. The ten two-man flights of the Gemini program, which took place in 1965 and 1966, were NASA's training ground for the moon.

A Tall Order
There were many advancements to make. The engineers had to design a rocket with enough power to send the Apollo spacecraft to the moon. The details of the lunar flight plan had to be worked out. Software for computers aboard the Apollo spacecraft and in mission control had to be written. The lunar landing module had to be designed to land on the moon and take off again. And the techniques for making a controlled, high-speed reentry into the Earth's atmosphere had to be worked out; coming in at the wrong angle could mean burning up in the Earth's atmosphere, or skipping off the atmosphere and ending up being stranded in space. It was a tall order.

Rendezvous
The Mercury missions showed that astronauts could live in space for up to a full day. And the Gemini missions built on this experience to make spectacular progress. One of the most important advances came in December 1965 when Frank Borman and Jim Lovell crewed Gemini 7 -- "two weeks in the front seat of a Volkswagen," in Borman's words -- proving that humans could endure a flight the length of a round-trip to the moon. On that same mission, Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford caught up to Borman and Lovell in Gemini 6 and they flew in formation, the first rendezvous in space. The astronauts took the opportunity to exchange some light banter. Schirra commented, "There's a lot of traffic up here." Borman quickly returned, "Call a policeman."

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. ... in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon; if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there."
~ President John F. Kennedy, 1961

When, in his speech before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy set the goal of landing a man on the moon within the decade, only one American had been in space and much remained to be done. NASA had not yet put a man in orbit around the Earth. That would happen during the successive one-man missions of Project Mercury. But the Apollo project required a number of more advanced achievements before a lunar landing was feasible: astronauts had to show they could survive in space long enough to journey to the moon and back, requiring test missions of one to two weeks; two spacecraft had to rendezvous in space; the feasibility of docking two ships had to be proven; and astronauts had to demonstrate the ability to work in the vacuum of space, as they would on the surface of the moon.

Tumbling Through Space
On the next Gemini mission, Neil Armstrong and David Scott docked their craft with an unmanned Agena craft before a harrowing problem with the engine cut the mission short. Television newsman Walter Cronkite remembered the mission: "Gemini 8 began to tumble and they were working frantically in the spacecraft of course, but also on Earth to try to figure out how to stop the tumbling because otherwise you could not safely reenter. And it really looked like we were going to lose a couple of astronauts and have a tremendous setback to the program. We immediately seized the air, of course, and went on with the play-by-play of what was being done to try to save these men.

Interrupted Programming
"And from all over America we got complaints through our switchboards at local stations that we were interrupting the program in process at the time for this coverage. And you know what the program was? It was a science fiction piece called 'Lost In Space.' And there were audiences out there that wanted the fiction -- ignoring the tragedy that was taking place, we felt, out there."

In the end, Armstrong and Scott heroically righted their craft and made a safe landing. Later Gemini flights repeated the docking and confirmed the viability of the procedure.

Working on the Moon
Gemini astronauts tackled the goal of working in the vacuum of space with a series of space walks. Ed White had been the first American to walk in space, during Gemini 4, but NASA had difficulty replicating the ease with which White -- acclaimed by his peers as an exceptionally strong and capable astronaut -- accomplished the task. Three subsequent astronauts had been left frustrated, exhausted and drenched in sweat trying to work in space. As explained by Alan Shephard and Deke Slayton, two of the Mercury astronauts who oversaw the astronaut corps, the essential problem was, "How can we send men to the moon, no matter how well they fly their ships, if they're pretty helpless when they get there? We've racked up rendezvous, docking, double-teaming the spacecraft, starting, stopping, and restarting engines; we've done all that. But these guys simply cannot work outside their ships without exhausting themselves and risking both their lives and their mission."

Floating and Working
Finally on Gemini 12, commanded by Lovell, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent a total of five hours floating and working outside the spacecraft with no difficulties. Aldrin was equipped with some helpful tools, to ease his work in open space, including removable handholds and foot restraints that could be bolted to a workstation. Taking breaks between tasks, Aldrin completed all his work as scheduled without overexertion. He even had time to wipe Lovell's window. "Hey, would you change the oil, too?" his commander asked. Aldrin's spacewalking success crowned the final Gemini mission.

Mission Accomplished
Borman recalled the Gemini program as it related to the Space Race against the Soviet Union: "My personal sense was that we caught them with Gemini. Nobody really to this day gives enough credit to the Gemini program. It proved every single thing we had to do in Apollo. You know, long duration, extravehicular activities, rendezvous, and a guided reentry. We all did that in Gemini, and it was a very important building block. So, I felt that we were at least neck and neck when we came out of Gemini."

Though NASA expected their complicated machines would not always work right, the first deaths in the space program still came as a shock -- because the fatal mishap occurred on the ground. Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee had been selected as the crew for Apollo 1, the first flight of the next generation of spacecraft succeeding the Gemini program. On January 27, 1967, during a practice launch countdown, a flash fire erupted inside the sealed cockpit. Within seconds the men were unconscious; minutes later they were dead. Because of the pressure of the fire, and the fact that the spacecraft's hatch opened inward, there was no hope of escape.

Investigation of the Apollo 1 Accident
Extensive reviews followed the accident. Ultimately the cause of the fire was determined to be a spark from worn wiring insulation; once the fire started it had been fueled by the spacecraft's pure oxygen, high-pressure atmosphere and a large number of flammable items in the cabin. Only in hindsight did NASA realize that the fire had been a tragedy waiting to happen.

Top to Bottom Revisions
After Apollo 1, the space program continued with a renewed purpose and diligence. Frank Borman, the astronaut on the review committee, became the main liaison with contractor North American Aviation. Rather than fixing things piecemeal, the contractors made "maybe a thousand" top to bottom revisions and the spacecraft improved exponentially. Borman believed that "the fire enabled us to vastly improve the Apollo capsule, so I am convinced that the fire really helped in the long run. Because I am afraid if we had gone the way we were going, if we hadn't done the engineering and changed the capsule, we might have had a catastrophic event in space. So I would argue that the Apollo fire was an important plus. Of course, how can you say it's a plus when three people got killed, but their lives were not in vain, and the fire itself created a scenario where a vastly improved spacecraft came out of it."

Early Apollo Missions: Earth Orbit
Apollo missions flew unmanned until October 11, 1968, when Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walt Cunningham orbited the earth for ten days in an Apollo command-service module.

Apollo 8: Lunar Orbit
With the Lunar Module still in process and reports of Soviet advances in their lunar program, NASA decided to change the mission of Apollo 8. Rather than another Earth orbit and the scheduled Lunar Module test, it became the first mission to break Earth orbit, orbit around the moon, and then return to Earth. Frank Borman was commander, James Lovell navigator and command module pilot, and William Anders, who had trained to operate the Lunar Module, took photographs to establish viable landing areas for future missions. Their mission launched on December 21, 1968 and lasted for six days.

Apollo 9 and Apollo 10: Lunar Module Tests
The Lunar Module was completed in time for Apollo 9, the first earth orbit test of that equipment. On March 3, 1969, James McDivitt, Dave Scott and Rusty Schweickart went into orbit and they returned ten days later. Once both modules were known to function, Apollo 10 tested the equipment in the moon's orbit. During the eight-day mission beginning on May 18, 1969, Tom Stafford, commander, and Gene Cernan, Lunar Module pilot, came within 50,000 feet of the surface of the moon. John Young piloted the command module. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov remembered the Soviet reaction to Apollo 10: "We used to joke that Stafford, rather than just doing a maneuver, could have changed his mind and landed, but he is a man of discipline, and so he approached, descended, did the maneuver, and left."

Apollo 11: Moonwalk
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969. People around the world heard Armstrong's historic announcement: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." They spent just under 21 hours on the moon, including a two-hour moonwalk, before returning to orbit in the Lunar Module and docking with the Apollo 11 command module, which was piloted by Michael Collins.

Later Apollo Missions: Moon Explorers
With one exception, subsequent Apollo missions put ten more men on the moon. Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon and Alan Bean collected rocks from the Ocean of Storms on Apollo 12. Alan Shepard who had been the first American in space, commanded Apollo 14 and landed with Ed Mitchell in the Fra Mauro highlands; Stuart Roosa piloted the command module. Dave Scott, Al Worden and Jim Irwin were the crew of Apollo 15, the first mission to use the four-wheel-drive lunar rover. John Young, Ken Mattingly and Charlie Duke of Apollo 16 and Gene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 traveled ever farther and collected more moon rocks on their missions.

Apollo 13: Lunar Module Turned Lifeboat
In April 1970, an explosion in an oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 aborted that mission. Ingenuity and clear thinking in space and in mission control allowed the crew -- Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise -- to slingshot around the moon and return to earth safely, using the Lunar Module as a lifeboat of sorts. By that time, Apollo 20 had already been cancelled for budgetary reasons. Following the troubles of Apollo 13, Apollo 18 and 19 were scrubbed as well.

Twelve American men are the only humans to walk on the surface of the moon.

"Say something appropriate."
-- NASA instructions for the Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void."
-- Genesis 1:1

The broadcasts from Apollo 8 invited huge television audiences on board the spacecraft. The astronauts showed how things worked in the capsule and performed a memorable Christmas Eve reading. But the telecasts almost didn't happen at all, because of resistance from the mission's commander.

TV Camera vs. Extra Meals
Commander Frank Borman: "I said 'no' a lot, and the nice thing about it was that NASA gave the commander enough prerogative that they backed him up. I was overruled on one thing and that was because management was a lot smarter than I was. I didn't want to take the damn television camera with me. And they said, 'Let's take it,' and they were right. ... It turned out to be so important because we could share what we saw with the world. It weighed 12 pounds. We were cutting out everything, even down to the extra meals, which weighed 16 ounces or something like that. But I was very short sighted there, and NASA was right.

Making It Real
"It didn't add a dangerous amount of weight and the camera achieved the purpose for which it was intended: to give all Americans a real feeling for the mission and what it was accomplishing."

Greetings from Space
On their first television appearance, audiences saw Borman at the controls of the spacecraft, Jim Lovell making star sightings -- and chocolate pudding -- and Anders playing with his weightless toothbrush. Not everyone appreciated the telecast, however. "We did manage to get a great shot of Lovell's grinning face as he said happy birthday to his seventy-three-year-old mother, Blanche," Borman recalled. "We all hammed it up a bit, but after we got back I heard that when CBS interrupted the pro football playoff game between the Vikings and Colts for our brief broadcast Sunday afternoon, the network had been swamped with protesting calls. Maybe we should have thrown a football around."

A Message to Earth
During their second TV transmission the astronauts succeeded in showing the Earth a picture of itself, afloat in the blackness of space. But it was the show broadcast from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve that brought a spiritual dimension to the telecasts (a development that was later scorned by atheist activist Madeline Murray O'Hare, who brought a lawsuit against NASA). Borman: "I think the reason that it became spiritual, that Apollo 8 may have become spiritual, is because we read from Genesis, and I'd like to take credit for that, but I can't. Neither can Bill or Jim. We were told by NASA, this wonderful organization, wide-open organization, something like, 'you'll have a TV appearance on Christmas Eve. You're going to be seen by more people than anybody, witnessed by more people than anyone has ever seen before, and you've got to be prepared.' And I said, 'Well, what do you want us to do?' I remember asking [NASA Public Affairs chief] Julian Scheer, 'What should we do?' And the answer came back, I'll remember it to my dying day because to me this is the essence of America. The answer came back, 'Do something appropriate.' "Now if my name had been Leonov, they would have been saying, 'Extol the virtues of Lenin and the great Communist Society,' and all that baloney."

What Would Be Appropriate?
Astronaut Jim Lovell: "We found out that we were going to burn into lunar orbit Christmas Eve. All three of us decided that that would be a significant time to say something. But what can we say? We tried new verses to "The Night Before Christmas" and to "Jingle Bells" but nothing really seemed to be appropriate."

Something Significant
Anders: "So we wanted to do something significant, not so much religious as to give them sort of a shock in the psychological solar plexus, to help them remember Apollo 8 and humankind's first venture from the earth. And we all had various suggestions."

Focused on Training
The lunar-orbit goal for the mission had been decided in August, giving Borman and his crew only four months to train for their flight. Borman: "I was trying to learn how to reenter [Earth's atmosphere with] this spacecraft. I was trying to cover all these squares. So I called up a friend of mine, Si Bourgin in Washington who I had gotten to know, and he's a very sensitive intellectual guy, and I said, 'Si, this is the deal. I need help.'"

Genesis Verses in Flight Plan
Historian Andrew Chaikin continues the story: "Bourgin, in turn had a conversation with a reporter named Joe Laitin and Joe Laitin, in turn mentioned it to his wife and it was Joe Laitin's wife who said, "Well, why don't they just read from the book of Genesis?", and that filtered its way back through Si Bourgin to Frank Borman who thought it was a great idea. So he had the verses typed up on a page in the flight plan -- on fireproof paper, like every thing else they brought on board -- and he had this in front of them."

Technological Wonder, Spiritual Moment
Lovell: "Almost the whole world would be listening to us on Christmas Eve. But the whole world does not consist of Christians. Why don't we say something that is significant to the majority of the people in the world? That is how it came to pass that on the last revolution of the moon, we read from the Old Testament the first ten verses of Genesis which is the foundation of many of the world's religions." Bill Anders remembers that is was "not so much a religious reading, but more of a significant statement, that not just Christians and Jews would understand, but that all people, Buddhist, Hindu or atheist would react to in a deep and moving way to help them remember this event of exploration."

Just the Right Thing
Television newsman Walter Cronkite: "You know, I'm afraid that my first reaction was, 'Oh, this is a little too much, this is a little too dramatic.' Even, I might even have thought 'this is a little corny.' But by the time Borman had finished reading that excerpt from the Bible, I admit that I had tears in my eyes. It was really impressive and just the right thing to do at the moment. Just the right thing."

Sharing the Wonder
Chaikin: "The thing about Apollo that sets it apart from every other event in the history of exploration is that because it was happening live on television, humans could share in the event as it was happening. We didn't have to wait for the letters to come back from the western frontier, weeks and months later. We didn't have to wait until the explorers returned to hear about the adventure, we could see it with our own eyes and have our own experience. And that was an experience -- watching, when the world saw those TV pictures and heard those verses in Genesis -- that was an experience for all of us to share in. That was our piece of Apollo 8. That was the moment at which we felt like explorers. We felt the awe and the wonder that these three men were experiencing so far their home planet and that was something that set Apollo 8 apart from anything that had ever happened in the history of exploration."

The Apollo 8 broadcasts won an Emmy, the highest honor given by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

"[It was] the first time that humans had seen their own planet rise up above the horizon of another celestial body. It was particularly a poignant photograph because it shows this very stark, foreign, alien lunar horizon and our own home planet in all its color and delicacy. And to me, that photograph, along with the fact that Apollo 8, being the first step away from the planet, were one of the key things that brought home to the inhabitants of the earth, not just Americans, that this was a really a different activity than the prior space activities. But now we were really space explorers venturing away from our home, the Earth."
-- Bill Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut

Earth Rise
One of the most famous photographs in history was taken by Bill Anders from Apollo 8. In orbit around the moon, the astronauts looked down on the bleak, pockmarked landscape of the lunar far side, and then looked up to see the earth rise over the moon's gray horizon.

An Unscheduled View
Historian Andrew Chaikin reviewed the onboard audio recordings of the mission for his book A Man On the Moon: "If you listen to the voice tapes you hear Anders looking out the window and saying, 'Oh my God, look at that picture over there.' Frank Borman says, 'What is it?' Anders says, 'It's the earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty.' And Borman at this point gives Anders a little dig about being so rigid about the photo plan and says, 'Don't take that, that's not scheduled.'

In Color
"Then the two of them are just marveling at the sight and Anders realizes this is a picture to take and he asks Jim Lovell to get him a color magazine of film. All the while Lovell is rummaging around in a storage cabinet Anders is saying, 'C'mon, hurry up, we don't have much time,' and he's clicked off a black and white shot, and Lovell gives him a color roll. He slapped that on the back of the Hasselblad camera and took the picture that became probably the most famous picture of the decade -- if not one of the most famous of the century -- of the Earth rising beyond the moon. That is the picture that still sums up the electrifying experience of that flight."

The Earth in the Universe
Jim Lovell recalled his reaction upon seeing the earth from lunar orbit: "We came around the moon for the very first time and Frank and I were looking ahead as the horizon passed us and all of a sudden we saw the earth come out of a lunar horizon; and that was really a significant sight for me because I could put my thumb up to the window of the spacecraft and completely hide the earth. I realized that everything I had ever known, my home, my loved ones, everything that was there that I had known about is behind my thumb. I realized at that time just how insignificant we are in the universe."

A Call for Harmony on Lifeboat Earth
Journalist Walter Cronkite covered the space program for CBS. "I think that picture of the earthrise over the moon's horizon, that blue disk out there in space, floating alone in the darkness, the utter black of space, had the effect of impressing on all of us our loneliness out here. The fact that we seem to be the only spot where anything like humans could be living. And it, the major impression I think it made on most of us was the fact, how ridiculous it is that we have this difficulty getting along on this little lifeboat of ours floating out there in space, and the necessity of our understanding each other and of the brotherhood of humankind on this floating island of ours, made a great impression, I think, on everybody."

The Earth Steals the Show
Photographer Bill Anders summed up his feelings about the sight: "It was spectacular! And instantaneously it occurred to me: isn't that ironic? Here we came to study the moon, which after two orbits we convinced ourselves, already was just pounded beyond recognition by meteorite after meteorite. It looked like a battlefield, not at all friendly. Here we came to study that moon and yet, it was this gorgeous earth rise, this colorful, delicate-looking planet coming up that, in my view, was the most spectacular view of the whole flight."

"The back side [of the moon] looks like a sand pile my kids have played in for some time. It's all beat up, no definition, just a lot of bumps and holes."
-- astronaut William Anders

The astronauts of Apollo 8 were the first men to see the far side of the moon with their own eyes, without the aid of optical devices. From their orbital altitude of 69 statute miles, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders were able to describe the surface of the moon in detail.

The Dark Side of the Moon
As Apollo 8 neared its target, the spacecraft was turned so that its rocket engine pointed into the direction of flight. Bill Anders would later describe how he first became aware of the moon, as the spacecraft moved into the shadowed region where neither sunlight nor reflected light from Earth was visible -- what the astronauts called the "double umbra." As Anders recalled, "Suddenly, we saw millions of stars, more than you could see in a planetarium, to the point where it confused the constellations. So that was rather spectacular. And I remember looking at them because I was interested in astronomy, and then I looked kind of over my left shoulder and suddenly, the stars stopped. And there was this big black void, black hole. And that was the moon! That was the moon shielding the stars and yet not illuminated. It was as black as I've ever seen black. That was the only time in the flight the hair kind of came up on the back of my neck a little bit."

Black Velvet Sky
Jim Lovell remembered that after they fired their engine, "On the computer then it said words to the effect 'You are now in lunar orbit. Your orbit is 60X130 nautical miles.' We all looked out the window but we didn't see any moon. All we saw was black velvet sky. And then we rotated the spacecraft around 180 degrees and there, slowly slipping by, were the ancient old craters on the far side of the moon, just about sixty miles below.

A Big Beach
As they went around the far side of the moon, their radio connection to Earth was blocked by the moon's bulk. Their reactions to the far side were recorded on tape:

Lovell: Hey, I don't see a thing. Where are we?
Anders: It looks like a big beach down there...
Lovell: Hey, you know something; it's gray, huh?

Essentially Gray
Once they looped around the far side, they could once again communicate with mission control. Fellow astronaut Jerry Carr was acting as Capcom, the voice of Houston.

Carr: "Apollo 8, Houston. What does the ole moon look like from 60 miles? Over."

Lovell: "Okay, Houston. The moon is essentially gray, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand. We can see quite a bit of detail. The Sea of Fertility doesn't stand out as well here as it does back on Earth. There's not as much contrast between that and the surrounding craters. The craters are all rounded off. There're quite a few of them, some of them are newer. Many of them look like -- especially the round ones -- look like hit by meteorites or projectiles of some sort."

Lovell: "We're getting quite a bit of contrast as we appear -- as we approach the terminator [the line between night and day]. The view appears to be good, no reflection of the Sun back to our eyes; it appears that visibility at this particular spot is excellent. It's very easy to pick out our first initial point; and over this mountain chain we can see the second initial point, the triangular mountain."

Before the flight, Lovell had named that triangular mountain Mount Marilyn, after his wife, and the name stuck.

Vast, Lonely, Stark
Later, during their Christmas Eve broadcast, the astronauts shared their impressions of the moon with the television audience.

Borman: "The moon is a different thing to each one of us. ... I know that my own impression is that it's a vast, lonely, forbidding type of existence or expanse of nothing. And it certainly would not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work."

Lovell: "The vast loneliness up here at the moon is awe inspiring, and it makes you realize what you have back there on Earth. The Earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space."

Anders: "The thing that impressed me the most was the lunar sunrises and sunsets. These in particular bring out the stark nature of the terrain."

Data for Future Flights
The photographs and films that the crew of Apollo 8 took of the moon gave scientists valuable information and helped NASA plan future landing missions. Just as important, data on the orbit of the spacecraft allowed controllers back on earth to better understand the moon's gravitational field, allowing them to plan future flights with real data, rather than mathematical models.

Astronaut Families
All three crew members had children who experienced the race to the moon from the inside. They were asked endless questions, posed for photo sessions, tolerated the reporters who set up for business outside their homes, and shared the mixed blessing of growing up in a famous father's shadow.

What was it like to grow up in an astronaut's family? Read these questions and answers to find out.

How old were you at the time of the Apollo 8 mission? What do you remember?

Fred Borman: I was 17 at the time. It's hard for people to believe, but my brother and I were pretty much allowed to be normal teenage kids. My focus was playing high school football. We grew up in the Houston area, so NASA was huge. Being an astronaut was just what my dad did.

Gayle Anders Nuffer: I was in second grade. I remember that we did not go to the Cape to watch the launch. I found out later it was because, #1, they could not afford it (money was always tight with five kids and a military salary) and, #2, my dad did not want us all out in the grand stands in case the rocket exploded during the launch. How could my mother comfort five children if that were to happen? The big deal was that we got a new color TV to watch the launch!

Jay Lovell: I was twelve years old. I remember being in Florida. We were in the VIP area; there was a grandstand, I remember that, and the big clock ticking down. There's one photo of us, standing there together watching it take off. You're about three miles away -- you get the rumbling, the shaking of the ground. The Saturn V, that is one powerful rocket taking off.

Edwin Borman: I was in tenth grade. I didn't know much about my father's job, to be honest with you. He was just going to work, and he was gone a lot. I knew there were dangers and risks, but they were always training, and they were always upbeat, and they never showed their fears.

Did you listen to the mission on the "squawk box"?

Fred Borman: Listening to the mission on the squawk box, we were excited. It was obviously a big deal. We couldn't move because the press was all over the place. We understood the magnitude of it, and we were proud of what was going on -- and happy that everything worked out.

Jay Lovell: I thought the squawk box was cool. You could sit there for hours and just listen. It was a direct link between NASA and them in space. Whatever was said was going through. It was always on. It was basically like listening to a radio show, a drama or a mystery show. Of course, unless you knew the jargon you were totally lost. Everything at NASA was abbreviated. That's just how they talked.

Edwin Borman: During the mission, the main thing I remember was climbing over the back fence to get away from all the reporters, so I could go hunting with my buddies. It was a pain. The squawk box was there, but I didn't pay any attention to it. I tried to avoid everything.

Did you ever visit your father's office?

Edwin Borman: We used to go to NASA. I went to their gym and played sports, and their medical facility. But it was a closed facility. I never saw the rockets.

Jay Lovell: My father always worked late at night, and sometimes he'd take me to the office with him after dinner -- to get me out of my mom's hair, I think. One night he stuck me into the LEM [Lunar Excursion Module] Simulator. He's got the headphones on me, he's telling me which numbers to punch, I get all excited -- and I hit the wrong number. I crashed on the moon!

What was it like being a part of the NASA community?

Gayle Anders Nuffer: I thought that most fathers were astronauts because the next-door neighbor was an astronaut and the people that lived behind us, their dad was an astronaut, too. It did not really sink in until we had moved to D.C. and I began to understand the world was a bigger place than El Lago, Texas.

Jay Lovell: NASA took good care of the families. I had a waterskiing accident -- I hit a log in the lake, and the rope wrapped around my upper arm, and I got a huge burn. It was nasty. Our house was on a canal -- my sister was in the front of the boat screaming at me. When my mom saw me she threw me in the car and took me to NASA. She drove so fast we blew past the security guard. People were waiting when we arrived, and they rushed me in and started to patch me up. They took real good care of you.

Edwin Borman: You look back at the technology that we had at the time to put a man on the moon, and it's only a fraction of what we have now. It took so many people back then: the engineers, the mathematicians, the doctors, the contractors, and all the subcontractors.

Fred Borman: I think it was just amazing, the whole community effort. Everyone was totally focused and behind it. The three astronauts were the ones who got all the notoriety, but there were thousands and thousands of people who made it happen.

Glen Anders: We trusted our father, Air Force, NASA, and would be quick to fight anyone who might suggest that there was anything to worry about.

How did you feel when the media showed up on your doorsteps?

Jay Lovell: We had our own paparazzi. Being kids, we went out and had fun with them. I got in a fight in the front yard with some other kid, and the next morning it was in the Houston Chronicle: "Son Protects Home While Dad's in Space." My mom dragged me into the laundry room and said, "What is this?"

Gayle Anders Nuffer: I remember Life magazine taking our family pictures. We would all eat ice cream around the table or my dad pushed me on the swing. I remember thinking that this was a bit odd because we never really did that in real life. We did have family meals and we did things as a family (church, water ski) but not that often because my dad was either working at NASA or in his den at home, flying or doing yard work.

Eric Anders: I was the youngest at the time. I have memories of running outside when the press was milling around our driveway right before the launch. A picture of me smiling and with my thumb up ended up on the front page of some major newspapers with a caption something like, "Astronaut's Son Gives Apollo 8 the Thumbs-Up." The story I heard later was that I had been sucking my thumb, and then pulled it out when I was approached by all the reporters. A camera caught my thumb on the way down. I dispute this, of course.

Today, how do you look at your father's accomplishments? What do you think when you look at the moon?

Edwin Borman: I think it's pretty amazing. When you look back at the Cold War, and realizing it was a race -- this was one of the programs that helped us tear down the wall.

Jay Lovell: My dad's nickname was Golden Fingers, because in the Apollo capsule, you have to do your math, put your numbers in for navigation. My understanding is that he was faster than the computer. My dad's the only man who's been to the moon twice. Apollo 13 also has the highest altitude record. Things like that are cool, and what's even cooler is when your kids look in their history books and see granddad.

Fred Borman: When I look at the moon and the stars, I think without God none of this would be possible.

Gayle Anders Nuffer: My dad's career is so impressive. I read his bio and it still amazes me, but the truth is he could not have done it without my mother. Not only did she support him in his career with dinner parties, Sunday brunches (they were always entertaining -- today we would call it networking), she ran the household and it was always clean, organized and with good food on the table.

Anything else you recall about the race to the moon?

Eric Anders: Even at four, I think I had a strong sense that my mother had to hold a lot in. Later I would learn that that was standard operations for fighter pilots' wives at the time -- especially given how so many pilots of supersonic jets were dying due to how dangerous those planes were then.

Gayle Anders Nuffer: My sister Diana was the first baby born after a man went into space. They told them the radiation might make them sterile. I was delighted, of course, to have a sister since I was the only girl. My brother, Glen, thought of the name Diana: goddess of the moon.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/borman-f.html
http://www.nss.org/about/bios/borman.html
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990619021
http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_8/203000/203074/1/preview/BYTHELIGHTOFTHEMOON_LULU_12_PREVIEW6.pdf

Is it really March already?!

2009-03-08T18:15:00Z

Woah, how did it get to be March 8, 2009? Kind of leaves me speechless, which is not like me.

Daylight Savings Time started today. I am not a big fan of it for one simple reason, the kids stay up later on school nights because of the sun being up. They should have DST around the school schedule. But, it is good for baseball practice and playing/hanging out in the backyard.

This winter has seemed long and extra cold. Not much snow, but we did have four inches of it last weekend. My tulips and daffodils have started to come up; so spring isn't too far away. Yea!

William and I spent a few weeks in El Paso and Las Cruces over the holidays. We stayed at Tita's and had a great time. Then went over to Jane Ann and Dave's for the remainder of the trip. We drove the mini-van so we could bring back a few antiques of mom and dad's that were in storage. We are thrilled to have them, and I need to inventory them on my master list.

Dad is living with Steve. It's sad to see dad have dementia and still can't believe mom is gone (physically). Kind of humorous to see Steve and Dad together. Maybe it's good dad can't remember some things about Steve in his younger years; because paybacks can be a b!tch. William, Dad, Steve and I went to an NMSU basketball game together, and dad griped the entire drive there and back about Steve's driving. I had to laugh, it was funny. Steve handled it pretty well. Dad can't drive per the doctors orders and I know it's difficult to give that independence up. I didn't see as much of dad as I wanted but his patience isn't very good. He is lost without taking care of mom, and this next chapter of his life.

Taylor is finishing off her senior year in Las Cruces with Jim at LCHS. She spent about 50% of her high school years in Olathe Public Schools in Kansas, and the rest at LCHS. She isn't sure about where she wants to go to college but talks about NMSU, ASU, UMKC and Johnson County Community College here in Overland Park. Since she skipped a grade early on, I am not in a hurry for her to go to college at 17, like I did. Way too young to move out and experience life; especially in today's times.

Jack is doing great and he is growing too fast. He is the baby and sooo cute! Seeing him get on the bus every morning is adorable. He is a peer model in the developmentally challenged program at our local elementary school. The short bus comes to our house and picks him up. The bus driver is the same one William had in the program, Gary. When the bus gets here at 7:45ish, whomever sees it first shouts out, "Gary's here!". Jack puts his back pack on, and if it's cold, he has his coat on, and he walks slowly to the bus. It's a mental picture we will never forget and it's just as cute now as it was the first day. Ms. Melissa says Jack is a model student. He's not as talkative as William and listens more than speaks. As a peer model, he could probably be a bit more outgoing for the kids. Jack is in the morning class and here is a link to their website http://teachers.olatheschools.com/mthomaswg/

William just finished his first basketball season and loved it. Baseball is his natural sport, but he caught on to basketball. He is going to start baseball soon, and will be on the same team as last year. They have 7 lefties, which I think is unusual to have so many on one team. Friday was a beautiful day, and Tim took the boys out to Sunflower to play golf. He said they played great, especially considering they haven't been able to play since fall. William is doing great in kindergarten. His teacher says he even has wonderful manners. YEAH! A mother always worried about her child's manners. He's reading and it seems like that happened overnight. William rides the big kids bus and it gets here about 8ish. Kinders sit towards the front of the bus.

This took longer than I thought with all the interuptions from the kids. Will try to post more often!

Christmas 2008

2008-12-25T16:13:00Z

Merry Christmas!!!

We started off our celebration on December 23 with an Open House for the family at our home on Century Lane. It was bitter sweet because Taylor could not be with us as she was in New Mexico. We had lots of love and conversation with Susan, Paul, Garrett, Joliana, Ryan, Julie, Kevin, Kelsey, Kristin, Evan, Elizabeth, Eion, Bill, Karen, Carrie, Eric, Alex, Tommy, neighbors Denny and Jamie, and my friend Deanna. We ate casually, from the kitchen counter, a wonderful cut of sirloin roast from my friends at Arrowhead Speciality Meats; John and Elaine Telge. Again, we choose the Pedmontese beef. Lots of wine was drank and conversations were great.

Christmas Eve, we hung out around the house and I ran a few errands. We met Larry and Gayle at Community Christian Church, which is a church designed by the world renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I have to admit, he is a better home designer than church designer. The acoustics are fabulous though. It was a children's service and was beautiful. You can see the church at their website, http://www.community-christian.org/flwright.htm

We came home afterwards and had a difficult time getting the boys to stay in bed. They were so excited for Santa to come.

Christmas morning, the boys woke up about 8:30 and ran downstairs before I could put my feet on the floor, much less my contact lens' in my eyes to see. They saw the Wii first and kept screaming "a Wii!" The boys and Tim are playing the Wii still. I crept away to write this and will have to come back to finish in a bit.

Words of Wisdom

2008-12-07T16:52:00Z

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.

I Believe...

That we are responsible for what

we do, no matter how we feel.

"Life is short. Forgive quickly. Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh
uncontrollably. And never regret anything that makes you smile."

I Believe...

That just because two people argue,

it doesn't mean they don't love each other.

And just because they don't argue,

it doesn't mean they do love each other.

The best and most beautiful things of this world can't be seen or touched. They must be felt by our heart.

I Believe...

That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt

you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

I Believe...

That it's taking me a long time

to become the person I want to be.

I Believe...

That you should always leave loved ones with

loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I Believe...

That you can keep going long after you think you can't.

You pass this way only once so enjoy it while you can; Live A Lot, Laugh A Lot and Love A Lot!

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-11-27T21:01:00Z

This Thanksgiving we went back to Braymer, Missouri to be with the Evans family. Here are a few pictures I took with my mobile phone.

Three William Evans!

Three William Evans and a Jack!

Drew and Uncle Bill

Karen and Drew

Larry, my father in law talking about our family

Gayle, Larry and Karen

Jack and me

William, Jack and me

William doing his Gene Simmons impression, me and Jack

Pictures from Arrowhead. I didn't say Chief's on purpose, we're lousy this year.

2008-11-05T14:21:00Z

We have been to a few games this year at Arrowhead; Chief's and Pitt State. These are taken with my mobile phone. Has anybody seen our digital camera? lol

These pictures are from the Chief's vs Buc's game on November 2nd

These pictures are from the Chief's vs Raider's game. No, I didn't know the Raider's fans, was just having fun!

Halloween 2008

2008-11-02T15:07:00Z

A few Halloween pictures to share. The boys are Pirates and Tim is Captain Hook. Nancy came by and she was a clown

Pictures from Jack's class

This is Jack! Love the dreadlocks!

Taylor is 17 years old

2008-10-26T18:15:15Z

Click play to hear the Podcast.

Saving this on here, sad and hard for me to look at but wanted to keep it.

2008-10-20T12:14:00Z

Mothers_eulogy.pdf Click on the PDF for my rough draft of the eulogy I wrote for our Mother, it will open in a different Browser.

Jacquelyn McCutcheon Richards
(February 3, 1934 - July 7, 2007)

Jacquelyn McCutcheon Richards, 73, of Las Cruces, died Saturday July 7, 2007. She was born February 3, 1934 in Pecos, Texas to Jack and Ruth McCutcheon. She had earned a B.S. Degree from Sul Ross State University. Jacquelyn was a loving wife, mother and grandmother and sister whose passion in life was for her family. She also was in a club made up of her friends who called themselves the Hobby Club. She will be forever missed by all her family and friends who knew and loved her.

She is survived by her husband of 51 years Stephen T. “Bud” Richards of the family home; son Stephen Richards III and wife Terry of Las Cruces; daughters Jane Ann Day and husband David of Las Cruces and Carol Jean Evans and husband Tim of Overland Park, Kansas; sister Jane McCutcheon of El Paso, TX; grandchildren Christopher, Michael, Taylor, Alexandra, Tom, William and Jack and by many nieces, nephews and cousins. Her parents preceded Jacquelyn in death.

Memorial Services to celebrate Jacquelyn’s life will be at 2:00 PM on Tuesday July 10, 2007 at Getz Funeral Home with Dr. Gorton Smith of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church officiating.

Honorary Pallbearers will be Charlie Byrd, Bill Moore, Lamar Gwaltney, Larry Pickett, Delmon Hodges, Willis McCutcheon, Beau Duncan, Wallace Henderson and Kevin McGrath.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico 301 S. Church St. Ste. H, Las Cruces, NM 88001.

Guest Book for Jacquelyn McCutcheon Richards
(February 3, 1934 - July 7, 2007)




Ruby Davis Del Rio, TX July 17, 2007 2:38 PM

Sherman Monk July 16, 2007 9:01 PM		From 50+ years ago at Sul Ross. Rest in peace.

Mason Sitzes Pacific, Mo July 16, 2007 6:07 PM		Dear Bud, sorry to hear of your lost, you have my wife and my deepest sympathies. Wallace had called me, he told me that Jackie and Dick were good buddies, it gave me a closeness to your grief. Mason Sitzes

Susie Blakemore Brey Bullhead City, Arizona July 16, 2007 1:57 PM		Jane, I was so sorry to hear about Jackie. Please accept our sincerest sympathies to you and your family. I only knew Jackie from Balmorhea School and shopping at Toyahvale mercantile, but she was always so friendly and sweet. Blessings to you and your family...

Bethy Armendariz Gafner Las Cruces, New Mexico July 11, 2007 9:58 AM		Carol, I am extremely sorry to hear about the loss of your mother. God bless you (and your family)and may He give you strength during this time. Bethy (knew each other years ago and I used to work for Dr. Umberto Garcia)

Carol Allen El Paso July 11, 2007 5:17 AM		Jane, Life always seems too short, no matter how long God allows us to remain on earth. I know how much family means to you and I am so sorry for your loss. Remember the good times and be grateful that God chose you to be her sister.

Flori Jo Nunez Albuquerque, New Mexico July 10, 2007 8:07 PM		Jane, May God give you the strength to get you through this very difficult time. I am praying for each and every member of your family and send my deepest sympathies and love. Your beautiful sister was blessed to have you in her life, as I am. With much love, Flori Jo (Flo's Niece)

Jeff Imlay Overland Park, Ks July 10, 2007 4:19 PM		Carol, I am very sorry to hear about your Mother. I know she was a wonderful person from hearing you speak so fondly of her. We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers. Jeff and Becky.

Burt Rawlings Las Cruces,NM July 10, 2007 1:34 PM		I remember Jackie as being a warm, fun and friendly person, Anne & I had many good times with she and Bud in our younger, " Party " days. My sympathy is with you, Bud and your family. Burt

richard daywood jr. webberville,texas July 10, 2007 1:04 PM		my sympathies go to the family she has left but will meet again.your dictant cousin.


Connie Vaughan El Paso, TX July 10, 2007 11:09 AM		Jane and family, My thoughts and prayers are with you during this difficult time. May you find some comfort in knowing Jacquelyn is now at peace. May God keep you in the palm of his hand until you all meet again. Love and God Bless each of you. Connie Vaughan

Donna Montague Overland Park, KS July 10, 2007 9:58 AM		Carol, I am so sorry for you loss. May God bless you with wonderful memories and reflections at this time of great personal sorrow. I am keeping you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. Love and God Bless, Donna

Mark and Julie Lambertz Overland Park, KS July 10, 2007 8:34 AM		Carol Jean, Our love and thoughts go out to you and your family at this time. May God Bless and Keep you at peace during these difficult days. Our prayers are with you. In Him, Mark and Julie Lambertz

Dr. Ralph E. Harold, M.D. and family Overland Park, KS July 10, 2007 7:49 AM		Carol Jean Evans: I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Our family will be remembering and thinking of you.

Sally Knight Roswell, N.M. July 9, 2007 11:11 PM		Jane and family, My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I'm thinking about you during this most difficult time. Sally Knight

Mary Faith Nunez Roswell, New Mexico July 9, 2007 7:50 PM		Jane we are deeply saddened by your loss. Our prayers are with you. Love, Mary Faith Nunez (Flo's niece)

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Landes Independence, MO July 9, 2007 2:56 PM		Our deepest sympathy to all of Mrs. Richards family and friends. May you know Peace as we know that Mrs. Richards is now in the holiest of places in the presence of our Lord and Savior. We only know of Mrs. Richards through her wonderful daughter Carol Jean Evans and oh how we are sure that Mrs. Richards lives on as the song says "in her daughters eyes". May the Lord Bless and keep all of you in this time of loss. Love, Paul & Jacquie Landes Julie Brown

Jaymie Weiner Olathe, Kansas July 9, 2007 12:00 PM		May the wonderful memories of your mother’s love be with you and comfort you at this time. With Deepest Sympathy

Jim Foley Albuquerque July 9, 2007 10:23 AM		Bud, I am so sorry about Jacquie's passing that was so sudden and shocking. God rest her soul and may she enjoy the peace that has eluded her for so long. I know you will feel the loss of a constant companion. Eloisa and I have long been admirer's of the patience, care and love you have rendered to her for so long. God bless you and her soul. Jim

Debbie Pickett-Ramsey Plano, Texas July 9, 2007 9:39 AM		Bud - My thoughts & prayers are with you - Jacquie was a very neat lady that I enjoyed knowing. God Bless You and your family.

BARBARA CAROL RICHARDS GREAT FALLS, MONTANA July 9, 2007 8:52 AM		Uncle Bud, Janeann, Steve and Caroljean Your Mother had the biggest heart and best hugs a niece could never forget. My last visit with her in Potosi about 4 years ago, was nothing but a great conversation and laughter and advice. Aunt Jackie will be missed! I love you and hope we get together soon! Barbara Carol WE are leaving Montana soon and will be heading to Florida, but in the mean time, my phone # is (406) 964-8528 XXXXXXXOOOOOOOO I Love YOU ALL!!!

Tom and Rose Manning and Family Santa Fe N M July 9, 2007 8:49 AM		Bud, Jane Ann and Family, Heard about Jacquelyn's passing and want to extend our deepest sympathies to you at this most difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers our with you. God Bless you all, Tom,Rose,Lisa,David, and Mark Manning

Doug & Carolyn Conklin ( Flo's neice) Wickenburg, Arizona July 8, 2007 9:33 PM		Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Doug & Carolyn Conklin ( Flo's Neice)

Happy Birthday Jack!

2008-10-20T00:02:41Z

Press the play button for the Podcast.

Trip to the Book Store and Things that make me happy and thankful

2008-10-18T03:18:00Z

Tonight I went to the bookstore. Decided to look around and spend some quiet time. It's been awhile since I have been to the bookstore and it was always a favorite place for Taylor and me. I have never been overwelmed by books. In fact, just the opposite; I collect books, especially antique and family books.

Tonight was different. I was looking for a certain book but wasn't sure what or what section. I wandered the aisles, taking my time to examine the shelves. There were so many topics that interested me; so many subjects I wanted to learn more about or refresh my memory. Or was I looking for something familiar? I am still not sure what I was looking for. I opted to buy another edition of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I have given all my copies away and needed another. I bought a book about T. Boone Pickens so I could learn more about him.

Anyway, what I decided to write about tonight is things that make me happy and thankful. They will be in no particular order; just what comes to mind. I will try to tune out Sponge Bob Square Pants, coming from the other room. I thought they were going to watch the Discovery Channels DVD on the moon. Oh well. Here goes my happy and thankful list. And please post your favorite and thankful things! I want to hear yours.

My family
My childrens' laughter
Making people smile
Freshly mopped kitchen floors with Pinesol
Hot and long baths
The feel of freshly laundered cotton against skin
The sound of my 20 year old cat purring
The sound of my children snorring in their beds
My telephone ringing and caller ID showing it's someone I like and respect
Fall/Autumn
Tulips blooming
Sipping fine tequila, chilled
Dining with friends al fresco in easy clothes around a simply decorated table with candles, fine wine, grilled lamb chops with rosemary, roasted potatoes and greens. Followed by dessert, cigars and port. Picture a Ralph Lauren advertisement, lol
Horseback riding; either Western or English in the country away from civilization
Eggs benedict on the terrace or patio with the newspaper, pot of coffee and the one I love. No words, just eating, reading and enjoying the morning
A good steak at the Texas Club in Ruidoso or a Kobe or Pedmontese cut on my grill from my friends at Arrowhead Speciality Meats
A cold Ale
Fruit tarts or cheesecake
Black and white brownies
Motivational people
Optimistic people
Thoughts of my mother and father, back when....
Travelling with Taylor
Taking the boys to Disneyland or Disneyworld
Memories of Mexico, every single trip and moment
Vanilla
Freshly painted toenails
Smell of cut grass
Snow days
Good hair days
My family treasures
Precious metals against my skin
The feel of real pearls sliding between my lips
Soft jazz on the patio with a glass of chardonnay
Overlooking the rim of the Grand Canyon
Hiking in Sedonna
Driving through Balmorhea and Ft. Davis
Golfing anywhere, including beautiful courses to pasture golf with someone special
My children's paintings from elementary school
All my children tucked in to bed
Me tucked in to bed
Emails from old friends
Pocket money in my pockets
Thoughts of going to Ireland and Spain
Fitting in to my skinny jeans
New York City
Philadelphia
Washington DC (in that order)
Santa Fe, New Mexico; shopping, eatting, hiking, galleries, skiing
Driving through the Flint Hills in Kansas
The Pitt State Gorilla logo
Tony Gonzalez
Planet Earth from space
Colonel Frank and Susan Borman (my heroes and lucky enough to call friends)
Listening to Mr. Borman tell me about how Earth looked when he flew around the moon and saw Earth while looking at a pendant he had made for Susan with diamonds encrusting one half of the pendant; all while watching a college basketball game (This made me want to call them, so I just left a message)
Tailgating at Arrowhead or Pitt State
Volleyball, especially New Mexico State University when they beat Hawaii and Franklin High in El Paso, coached by the legendary coaches Jane McCutcheon and Flo Valdez
Jack playing when his brother isn't around to bully him
Taylor's hair, it is so beautiful
Staying at my sister's and brother's house (really brother in law, but he's more my bro)
Molly the Dog (sister's dog)
Rocketships
Private planes
Performances in The Midland Theatre, downtown Kansas City

Jack's Classroom Newsletter 10/9/08

2008-10-10T13:49:00Z

October 9, 2008 @ 11:20 am Toads and caterpillars…

We started the day by finding a toad right outside the door out to the bus. It was slimey’s brother, coming for a visit! we were going to put them both int here, but honestly, aren’t sure if there would be a, ya know….toad fight.

So, today was a cooking day..and of course, Ms. Melissa (who the kids have decided it’s more fun to call Mrs. Thomas) opened her mouth on what the rolled dough looked like:

Dog poop. well, it does. So the kids LOVED it, but they did continuously ask for ‘more dog poop’. So, that’s what we were feeding them if they mention it! HAHA!!! Ms. Carol was so glad I said that, I bet.

Okay….so, today, our main vocabulary word was ‘decompose’. I had my brother dig out different levels of his compost pile, and we used it to show the kids that 1st the leaves die and fall off of the tree, then they fall to the ground on top of dirt. After awhile, it starts to decompose and eventually turns into dirt! After that, they had a great time playing in the compost, where there were some worms, old paper, and we even found soem peanut shells. (Don’t worry, we washed our hands really well!!) I THINK that they got the idea, but we’ll see!! We’ll push it into their heads a little more on Monday!!!

Outside, the kids were out in the grass and found a fuzzy caterpillar! Well, of course, he had to come in. Slimey’s brother went back out the back door into the grass to go back to his family, and we instead made a habitat for our fuzzy caterpillar. Everyone held on to him and and we, of course, named him fuzzy.

William's first game of coach pitch baseball. First time up at bat and grand slam home run!

2008-10-06T01:35:00Z

These video clips are from William's first day playing coach pitched baseball. His first time at bat he hits the ball over the fence, foul ball. The second hit, he hits it over the fence again, but perfectly. Grand slam home run!

Visit to New Mexico in August

2008-09-07T02:04:00Z

A few weeks ago I flew back to Las Cruces with Dad. Stayed with Jane Ann & Dave and we had a good time. Saturday night was the Southern New Mexico Community Foundation Gala. Before the gala at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum, there were different dinner parties across town sponsored by different people. We attended the dinner hosted by John and Ruth Christopher. John is the GM of Comcast and Ruth is CFO of Citizen's Bank. The dinner was at the Double Eagle, which made it feel more like home to me. We sat with Tom and Jerean Hutchinson, John and Ruth and Dave, Jane Ann & me. We laughed the entire time. The Las Cruces Sun News was there and took a picture of Dave, Jane Ann & me which appeared on the online photo gallery of the newspaper. Of course, there would happen to be 14 wine glasses in front of us. lol They served a different wine with the four course dinner.

Here is the picture that was online:

Here is a picture of me, Leah Camunez Salas and Jane Ann when we were at the museum:
I managed to get in a few business meetings that were successful. It was good to get back to my hometown. It's also good to get back home to my own family.

I connected with my neighbor on Horseshoe Circle in Las Cruces through Facebook today. Her in laws were the ones that bought our home in Cruces. We really miss the layout of the house. It was perfect for the boys and Toby. She is doing good and it's a shame that we didn't get to know each other better before moving.

Had a chance to spend some time with an old friend, and that was fun. Saw Denise for a few minutes at her store, had a shot of Patron at Double Eagle and visited with John and Wyn Ritter, and barely made my plane home on time. Go figure, me running late.

Hi! I haven't posted in quite awhile........

2008-09-06T05:23:00Z

Hi there! I haven't posted in quite awhile. A lot going on that I am not wanting to share at this point. Maybe one day soon. I thank my Guardian Angels for keeping me going; especially Coeli Baker, the world's best prayerer. I made up the word prayerer, but it fits the scenario. I also think Robbi from Dr. Tenny's office for calling to see how I am doing. It's those random calls that help when I don't think I can take another step. They re-energize me.

Jon Gordon says in his book, The Energy Bus that 80% of the people who ask how you are, don't really care. It is getting more obvious to figure out who the 20% are. Are you part of the 20%? I am. When I ask how you are doing, I wait for the answer. Never trust a skinny chef and never trust a person who doesn't answer when you say 'hello, how are you?' If I take the time to ask, please take the time to answer. Short answer is perfect, it's an answer.

We have a new precious baby in the family as of 4:30 PM this afternoon. Eian Patrick Spatz was born to Kevin and Julie Spatz. Eian's siblings are Elizabeth, Evan, Kristen, Kelsey and Kaitlyn. Julie is Tim's sister. I'm so glad they had a boy. Life is good.

Thought I would share some quotes from one of my favorite icons in business history, Napoleon Hill. Hope he gives you motivation and/or inspiration as they do me.

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it. Write it in the sand near the water's edge.
All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.
Before success comes in any man's life, he's sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's exactly what the majority of men do
Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.
Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
Edison failed 10, 000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.
Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.
Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.
First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.
Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.
Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.
If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.
It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.
It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.

William's T-Ball games

2008-07-25T23:47:00Z

Taylor and Carol's trip to Milwaukee, July 2008

2008-07-25T22:17:00Z

Taylor and me in Milwaukee. We had a great time and stayed at the Pfister Hotel. The Pfister is part of the Historic Hotels of America and was built in 1893. It's gorgeous! It's the 2nd best hotel I have stayed in; 2nd to The Watermark in San Antonio (which is also a Preferred Hotel and Resort property).

Our Kansas office had 3 of the top 20 producers with Northwestern Mutual, a HUGE deal! Very exciting to see them on stage with 10,000 other NMFN Financial Reps watching at the Bradley Center, home of the Milwaukee Bucks. Monday morning we had the opportunity to listen to Rudy Guiliani talk about leadership. He only made one political joke and it was funny.

We also had the opportunity to hear from one of our own NMFN Financial Representatives whom is a survivor of the Columbine shootings in Colorado. What a true inspiration!

The top two pictures of Taylor were on Lake Michigan.

We were having dinner at Louise's in Milwaukee

WE LOVE YOU REBA! ha ha, Tim told us to say that

More pictures lakeside. Lake Michigan is so big, you really think you are on the ocean.

The above pictures are at the garden party at the Milwaukee Zoo. We had a great time and with the ultimate party people. In the group picture above is Tom Mulhern, Jim Porter (in his zoo pants, wears them every year), Kent Wilson, Taylor, Kent and Judy's daughter and her friend, and Judy Wilson. I especially like the picture of Taylor and me on the bus coming home from the zoo party. Neither one of us realized each of us were making a funny face.

Taylor and me at Mo's Steakhouse.

Mugging for the camera in our hotel room.

Reba McIntyre and Archie Manning performing/speaking for us. Reba was awesome. I knew she'd be good, but she was better than good. Very sweet and attentive to NMFN. Archie was good too, humble and couldn't mention a pro team without a section of the crowd cheering for their team being mentioned. He's not pro football player Archie Manning anymore, he's now Payton and Eli Manning's daddy.

Control Over Your Emotions - Weird timing if you read my post from yesterday

2008-07-04T00:20:00Z

Winner's Circle Network with Lou Tice - 7/3/08 - "Control Over Your Emotions"

When you hit your thumb with a hammer, you know what causes the pain. Do you know what causes the emotion?

All of us have nervous systems that cause us to feel pain. All of us have emotions, too. We feel happy, sad, angry, elated, hopeless, inspired. But where do the emotions come from? What causes them?

When you hit your thumb with a hammer, you feel pain. You may also feel some anger and maybe even some shame. We can safely say that the hammer caused the pain. But we can't say that the hammer caused the anger or the shame. If that were true, then it wouldn't matter who hit them on the thumb, every single one would feel exactly the same emotions.

So how come you get mad when the same situation doesn't bother someone else at all? They laugh it off without a hint of anger. You see, the truth is that you cause you own emotions, and you do it with your thoughts. Many centuries ago, Epictetus said, "We are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by our opinion of the things that happen." I want you to know that you don't have to let your inner feelings be dictated by the external environment.

You can, bit by bit, learn to handle any and every situation you want to. You can learn to change your opinion of the things that happen so that you control your emotions, rather than letting them control you. Can you see yourself taking charge like this?

Lou Tice

The Pacific Institute

www.thepacificinstitute.com

"TPI teaches people how to manage change, set and achieve goals, lead more effectively, and think in ways that create success."

2008 New Mexico State University Volleyball Highlights

2008-07-04T00:14:00Z

2008 New Mexico State University Volleyball Highlights, Jordan Bostic posted on Facebook. Great video!

July 2, 2008

2008-07-03T03:37:00Z

This morning Jack was lieing in my lap after he woke up and I was drinking my coffee and reading the news on the internet. I was half reading and thinking of mom at the same time. How did a year pass by already? My mom is dead. My mom is dead? What? When did that happen? Looking at Jack lieing in my lap, I realized he was looking at me, really looking at me and smiling. I thought, "gosh, Mom would just eat him up right now." I know what she would say if she was there. I know now, she was there this morning. She said, "He's in love with you, look at the way he's looking at you." Just then, out of nowhere and half asleep, Jack said, "Where's MoMo?"

Jack doesn't remember MoMo. He knows her pictures and knows of us talking about her, but he doesn't remember her. Yet he does know her and knew she was there. You can believe or not believe, but examine what happened. How could a coincidence like that happen this morning? No other explanation, my little angel Jack saw his big angel Jacquelyn, aka MoMo. I had a sense of calmness about me. I knew I was doing the right thing in taking time off from work. Mom didn't like my children going to daycare. She believed my place was in the home. I didn't realize I was going to take the time off this week, I was on a roll at the office. But something stopped me, and guided me home; where I belong for now.

Taylor comes home tomorrow. I know she is excited, and I am too. She's had a rough two months. I am proud of her, she has achieved so much in the last few months. I think she must be scared too, but won't admit it. I know I am scared, and I admit it with all I have. I am scared. Taylor and I talked about anger and emotions. She was honest about feeling. Doesn't she know that she can show other emotions? I am not much of a crier, but she thinks I am. I have had a lot to cry about these last few years, and I have never held my emotions back from her. She thinks crying is a weakness. "But honey, crying is not a sign of weakness", I said to her. She disagreed and we got in to a passionate conversation about it. We couldn't come to a conclusion. At least for tonight.

She needs her hair cut, so on our way home, we will go to the beauty shop (are they called beauty shops anymore?) and get her hair done. Nothing like having your hair done when you're not feeling good. After all, our hair is our crowning glory. Think about it, when you have a good hair day, all goes well.

We're in the middle of a thunderstorm right now. Loud roaring thunder, flashes of bright lightening strikes beam through the covered windows. It must be bad out if I can see the lightening through mini blinds and curtains. I think the storm is overhead. Toby is not happy and wimpering while lieing next to my bed. Jack is asleep next to me on the bed and William is lieing on the floor watching his favorite tv show, Two and a Half Men. I'm not a fan of Charlie Sheen but it is a funny show. My favorite show comes on next, Frasier.

Tim is in Las Cruces for Mike Jordan's wedding. Mike is a great guy, so glad he's getting married. Wish I could be there too, but it was bad timing. I hope Tim has a good time. He's staying at Jane Ann's. I told him to say hi to Molly for me, she's a good girl. (Molly is a golden retriever with beautiful graying hair that makes her look like she had her hair frosted at the finest hair salon.) Jane Ann and Dave are coming home from Mexico. Bet they had a good time, forgot where they went exactly but think I remember Mexican Riviera with an all inclusive resort.

After Las Cruces, Tim is flying to Brownsville to see his mom and John. We are buying a Mercedes, and I'm excited about it. I have never bought a car for cash before. Woohoo! What an exciting feeling it is. Pay to the Order of John Alberg.....memo line says purchase of Mercedes Benz. Wow, wrote a check in full for the purchase of a Mercedes; fully loaded 4 door sedan. Ok, so it's a 1988 Mercedes 560 SEL with 20,000 miles on it but why in the heck would I buy a new car and have it depreciate as soon as I drive it off the lot?
A few reviews on the car....

"Classic Luxury Benz"

1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL sedan

	8.0		Overall Rating

	8		Styling
	9		Performance
	7		Interior
	8		Quality
	8		Recommendation

Pros:

I had wanted this car for a very long time and purchase a used one 2 1/2 years ago. The ride is wonderful, and I liked the performance of the car especially at highway speeds. It certainly will do the speeds of the American highways.

Cons:

Of course like most people in this day in time, the fuel economy is horrible, but that is what you get for performance and a heavy car. The leather seats do not last like you would think in a $56,000 car but for nearly a 20 year old car I guess that isn't bad. Repair costs of course are high, but overall for a Mercedes not bad. When trading them in they are under valued, but certainly trying to buy retail they are over valued at most places.

Overall Review:

Overall, for the time that I have owned this car, I was impressed with the style, comfort and certainly the performance. Mercedes today are not built as good as the 80's models for durability and safety. I would own one again, but I wil look for one that is a 90's model to get the later version of interior.

"Great DB product"

1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL sedan

	9.2		Overall Rating

	10		Styling
	9		Performance
	10		Interior
	8		Quality
	9		Recommendation

Pros:

For such a hefty car, it can get up and go! It's a great car for road trips since it's reliable as [you know]!

Cons:

The stock stereo [They didn't focus on sound systems back then]. And maybe the color???

Overall Review:

I'm upset to say, but this is truly the last of the best from Mercedes. My particular car is a European model and I love it! I’ve owned three Mercedes since I was 18 [now 30] and wouldn’t think of not owning one. However, my next Benz will most likely be of the vintage variety. This one will run forever if you KEEP UP on the MAINTENANCE.

So, there is some new info on our life here in Overland Park, Kansas. Hope your life is going well, where you are living .

Blessings and love,
CJ

The Energy Bus, Jon Gordon

2008-06-13T00:35:00Z

Pictures from William's pre-school trip, field day and graduation

2008-06-08T01:44:00Z

Enjoy all the pictures below. They are from Deanna Rose Museum, Walnut Grove Elementary School field day, and the Early Childhood Education Pre-school Program of which William was a Peer Model for 1 1/2 years. Jack starts next year as a Peer Model and William moves on to kindergarten.

Saturday, June 7 2008

2008-06-07T18:02:00Z

Hello! Jane Ann came to town Monday - Friday. Short and exhausting trip for her, but glad she came. Tim went to Branson with Mike Hinkle for a weekend of gold. He needed to get away.

Getting ready to take William to his tball game.

That's all for now. I'm still around, just busy. Here are some random pictures.

Love,

UPDATE on my day,
The boys and I stopped at Tuesday Morning on the way home from T-Ball. (yes, William hit the ball over everyone's heads each time at bat again. As well as playing outfield like a pro). The boys got new swim trunks and eye goggles for the pool. I let them take the gogglies in the tub with them. First mistake. Second mistake, one of the boys got 80 Crest White Strips out from under my sink and through them all in the bath tub with them. I kept thinking I smell toothpaste and thought "great", the White Strips aren't water proof. Then looking at Jack, realized William had squirted an entire brand new tube of toothpaste on Jack's head. I rushed Jack to the shower before the toothpaste got in his eyes and burned them.

AND, I caught William peeing in the cat litter box.

Now, it's 9:30 PM and hopefully they will wind down soon.

If you are laughing right now, stop! It isn't funny.

Special Time of Year- Happy Birthday to Martha and me!

2008-06-01T16:17:00Z

June 1, generally the end of the school year and the beginning of the lazy days of summer. I always loved this time of year. It's not to hot yet, and the beginning of the summer. The excitement of Martha and my birthdays was the icing on the cake. So, Happy Birthday to Martha and me!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

2008-05-18T14:11:00Z

I am so happy that I got to talk to Cousin Sidnie yesterday. She is doing great, and in the Coast Guard. Who would think that a girl from the high desert would end up in the Coast Guard? I remember the first time I saw Sidnie, it was in 1989. Sidnie is Taylor's 1st cousin, if you are wondering. Sidnie went to elementary school with my nephew, Mike (Jane Ann's son). Never knew I had a nephew AND a niece in the same class. Taylor and Sid have a lot in common. I am so glad we've stayed in touch over the years. Now that they are gettign older, they can have a close relationship. Below is a picture of Sidnie. She's gorgeous! I think Taylor and her look a lot alike. They are first cousins. I can really see the Japanese in the both of them in these pictures. They are 1/4 Japanese.

We are having to buy a car, which is not making me happy. Kind of wierd how I turned out so frugal. Tim had me test drive a few cars yesterday. The fist cars were Mercedes C and E class cars. I like them both but preferred the E class because they are larger. Found some good deals, and one I wanted. Then he took me to the Hyundai dealership, which was mean of him. How do you go from a Mercedes to a Hyundai? Especially when I owned a Hyundai twenty years ago and it was a lemon. They have changed a lot and have a good report from Consumer Reports. We kept the Hyundai over the weekend to see if we like it. It is an Azeria or something like that.

Tim is mowing the yard. We are having company in a little while. One of the moms from Babycenter is coming over. They are in town and it's a great opportunity to meet. I haven't actually met one of the other moms from Babycenter. Most of us have been on the bulletin board for 6 years, since we were pregnant with our October 2002 babies.

Better go get ready. Have a great day! Until next time -- Blessings!

Notes and future reference

2008-05-10T17:03:00Z

March 31, 2008
Unblocking The Ally
Habitual Anger

Sometimes when we feel anger, it is coming from a deep place that demands acknowledgment and expression. At these times, it is important that we find healthy ways to honor our anger, remembering how dangerous it is to repress it. However, anger can also become a habit, our go-to emotion whenever things go wrong. Often this is because, for whatever reason, we feel more comfortable expressing anger than we do other emotions, like sadness. It can also be that getting angry gives us the impression that we’ve done something about our problem. In these cases, our habitual anger is inhibiting both our ability to express our other emotions and to take action in our lives.

If it’s true that anger is functioning this way in your life, the first thing you might want to try is to notice when you get angry. You might begin to see a pattern of some kind. For example, you could notice that it is always your first response or that it comes up a lot in one particular situation. If the pattern doesn’t become clear right away, you could try keeping a journal about when you get angry and see if you can find any underlying meaning. The good thing about keeping a journal is that you can explore your anger more deeply in it—from examining who in your family of origin expressed a lot of anger to how you feel when you encounter anger in others. This kind of awareness can be a formidable agent of transformation.

Anger can be a powerful ally, since it is filled with energy that we can harness and use to create change in the world. It is one of the most cathartic emotions, and it can also be a very effective cleanser of the emotional system. However, when it becomes a habit, it actually loses its power to transform and becomes an obstacle to growth. Identifying the role anger plays in your life and restoring it to its proper function can bring new energy and expansiveness to your emotional life.

April 1, 2008
Relating To The Negative
The Danger Of Repression

For the last several years, there has been a lot of focus on the power of positive thinking. Many people have come to misinterpret this wisdom to mean that it is not okay to have a bad mood or a negative thought or feeling. This can lend a kind of superficiality to their relationship with life and relationships with other people. It can also lead them to feel that if a negative thought or feeling comes up, in themselves or someone else, they must immediately block it out. When they do this, they are engaging in the act of repressing a part of themselves that needs to seen, heard, and processed.

When we repress parts of ourselves, they don’t go away so much as they get buried deep within us, and they often come out when we least expect it. On the other hand, if we allow ourselves to be fully human, honoring all the thoughts, feelings, and moods that pass through us on a given day, we create a more conscious relationship with ourselves. Instead of blocking out thoughts and feelings that we label as negative, we can simply observe them and then let them go. They only get stuck when we react to them negatively, pushing them down and out of sight where they get lodged in our unconscious minds. A healthier solution might be to develop a practice of following any negative thought we may have with a positive thought. This works well because positive thoughts are many times more powerful than negative thoughts.

Rather than setting our minds up in such a way that we become fearful of the contents of our own consciousness, blocking out anything that is less than 100 percent positive, we might resolve to develop a friendlier attitude toward ourselves, trusting in our inherent goodness. When we recognize our true inner worth, a few dark clouds passing through our minds will not intimidate us. We will see them for what they are—small, dark figures passing through an expansive sky of well-being and truth.

April 2, 2008
Setting A Limit To Sit With Emotions
How Long

Our emotions color our lives with varying palettes. Sometimes we feel a strong emotion in reaction to something that has happened, but emotions also visit us seemingly out of the blue, flooding us unexpectedly with joy or grief or melancholy. Like the weather, they come and go, influencing our mental state with their particular vibration. Sometimes a difficult emotion hangs around longer than we would like, and we begin to wonder when it will release its hold on us. This is often true of grief stemming from loss, for example, or lingering anger over a past event.

Usually, if we allow ourselves to feel our emotions fully when they come up, they recede naturally, giving way to another and another. When an emotion haunts us, it is often because we are afraid of really feeling it. Emotions like despair and rage are powerful, and it is natural to want to hold them at bay. Certainly, we don’t want to let them take us over so that we say or do things we later regret. When we are facing this kind of situation, it can be helpful to ask the spirit, “How long do I need to sit with these emotions, how long do I need to feel these emotions before they can pass?” If you ask sincerely and wait, an answer will come. Setting a time limit on your engagement with that difficult emotion may be just the technique you need to face it fully.

When you have a sense of how much time you need to spend, set a timer. Sit down and make yourself available to the emotion that has been nagging you. All you have to do is feel it. Avoid getting attached to it or rejecting it. Simply let it ebb and flow within you. Emotions are by their nature cyclical, so you can trust that just as one reaches its apex it will pass. Each time you sit with its presence without either repressing or acting out, you will find that that difficult emotion was the catalyst for much needed emotional healing.

Control of Your Life (Good one and appropriate for me right now)

2008-05-01T02:01:00Z

Winner's Circle Network with Lou Tice 4/30/08 - "Control of Your Life"

Do you ever feel like events in your life have gotten out of control? Some days, it's easy to feel that way.

No matter how diligently you set goals, visualize results, and affirm a positive outcome, every once in a while your life is going to feel as if it's gone a little crazy. Carefully laid plans go up in smoke - sometimes quite literally. People you counted on, bail out on you. A health or family crisis strikes. An earthquake or tornado puts you back to square one. Suddenly you feel as if you're completely off course, out of control, and lost at sea.

At times like this, there are a few things it may help you to remember. first of all, no one can control every aspect of his or her life, and adversity comes to all of us, no matter how moral we are, and no matter how good our attitude is. Bad things happen to good people all the time.

Second, it's important to realize that there is one and only one thing in life that is completely within your power to control, and that is your response to what happens to you. When you find yourself overcome with feelings of fear, helplessness, doom and gloom, you can put the brakes on these feelings by gently but firmly choosing to shift the focus of the thoughts that are running through your mind.

Your feelings are a direct result of the thoughts you think, and setting aside some time every morning and evening for positive visualization, affirmation, or guided meditation is a highly effective way of getting these thoughts back under your control again. Try it. I think you'll be surprised at just how well it works.

Lou Tice

The Pacific Institute

www.thepacificinstitute.com

"TPI teaches people how to manage change, set and achieve goals, lead more effectively, and think in ways that create success."

New - Self Portrait Photos of the Children: They took them, too cute! Guess which child took the pictures

2008-04-26T19:30:00Z

Weekend of April 25 - 27

2008-04-26T18:14:00Z

Hello! Crazy week and haven't had time to even read the news lately. Thought I would write a few things in no particular order, and update as the weekend goes along.

Last night Kevin and Julie popped over for a bit. We sat in the dining room, which we rarely do because normally the laundry is piled over the dining room table. We cleaned it off to set up the new 22 inch widescreen computer monitor that I need for work. The laptop monitor is so small and my aging eyes were going batty.

Taylor had a date last night with a boy I adore. Even Tim likes him! It is hard to find kids today with manners. When he picks her up for dates, he comes to the door, walks around to the drive way and up the walk. Most kids walk through the grass. He shakes hands, looks you in the eye and is genuinely nice. He goes to a great private school, works hard and A+ athelete, serious student, follows curfew, nice to the boys, and pets Toby. I think I need to tell Taylor we don't like him, just so she will. ha ha We weren't even worried about her coming in by midnight. Gotta love that!

I had a great night sleep, which was much needed. I think I fell asleep at 10:30 and woke up at 10:30 this morning. Training class has kicked my butt, literally. We all slept great. Tim and I layed in Jack's bed with him this morning and played a little game. I would say, "who loves their Daddy, raise their hand!" We'd all raise our hands. This would go on back and forth with me substituting names like "Mommy", "Taylor" "Toby" "Granddad" "Nana" ""Papa" etc......

I heard something this morning I never thought I'd hear in a sentence. Jack crying out, "William hit my privates with the carrot!" He cried and it hurt him for quite a while. Let me clarify that the carrot was not a vegetable. The carrot was a plastic baseball bat that Babysitter Lynda gave to the boys for Easter.

Another sentence I didn't ever think of, happened this morning. Denny and Jamie live next door. Tim and I have been lucky to have great next door neighbors here and in Las Cruces. Anyway, Jamie called and this is the conversation.
Ring Ring....Ring Ring...
Carol, "Hello"
Jamie, "Hi Carol, It's Jamie" I'm just calling to let you know that I sprayed for weeds in the side yard and didn't want the boys or Toby to play there and get sick."
Carol, "Thanks for calling! I will tell Tim. Yeah, my father in law sprayed his yard recently and somehow the dog got out and he got really sick from the chemicals."
Jamie, "One more thing I want to ask you. Can my dogs poop in your backyard today?"
Carol, "HA HA HA HA, you know we're good neighbors when you can call me and ask if your dogs can poop in our yard."
Tim, overhearing from the bathroom, "AH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Jamie, "Thank you, yes, we're good neighbors. When they have to go, we'll be in your back yard and I"ll have my plastic baggy to pick it up."

Tim and the boys just went to Uncle Billy's to watch the draft. For some reason the draft seems to be bigger than normal this year. I asked Tim why, and didn't know it was a big year for the Chief's pick. Tim told me yesterday that my 'boyfriend' was leaving Kansas City. Boo Hoo! Jared Allen is going to the Colts. I'm bummed because I was going to ask him over for dinner with us. And I am not joking, I was determined to invite him over for dinner. I'm going to ask John Buck and Alex Gordon too. Just you wait, they'll be over for a barbeque one day.

Can't believe it's already 2:15 PM. No wonder I am hungry.

I was reading my blog today and watching the video of mom and dad. I was bawling like a baby. I miss her so much. I miss my daddy too. I called him afterwards. He sounds so sad. I know I live 1000 miles away so don't know the whole story, or if his memory is serving him correctly but he said, "Everybody else around here seems to have their families come see them. Nobody comes and sees me here." That broke my heart that he feels that way. Whether or not it's true, he felt it at that exact moment. He's going to Potosi a week from Monday and we'll drive over the following weekend to see him. I also want to do some business there. I want to write one BOLI case this year. BOLI is "Bank Owned Life Insurance". We have the best product out there and I want to talk to Belgrade State Bank about it.

Well, that's it for now, I made a salad. I'll write more later.

xoxoxoxo

Quotes I have saved along the way....for us, for our children, for our familes, and for me

2008-04-21T02:37:00Z

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.
When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold.
They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.
We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them.
If you're in a bad situation, don't worry it'll change.
If you're in a good situation, don't worry it'll change.
It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
Keep smiling - it makes people wonder what you've been up to.
The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. ~Benjamin Franklin
If you want to be happy, be.
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.
"Some men are wise, and some are otherwise."
"Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone."
Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.
A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life.
A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart.
A mother's treasure is her daughter. Mothers and daughters are closest, when daughters become mothers.
A daughter is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present, and the hope and promise of the future.
A daughter is a day brightener and a heart warmer.
Friendships come and go, but families are forever.

The following is a poem that has been around for years.
Children Learn What They Live If a child lives with criticism, she learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, she learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, she learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, she learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, she learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, she learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, she learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, she learns justice.
If a child lives with security, she learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, she learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, she learns to find love in the world.

To Taylor, with love from Mom

2008-04-21T02:35:00Z

As I Watch You Grow Do,
you know how much you mean to me?
As you grow into what you will be.

You came from within,
from just beneath my heart
it's there you'll always be though your own life will now start.

You're growing so fast it sends me awhirl,
With misty eyes I ask,
Where's my little girl?

I know sometimes to you I seem harsh and so unfair,
But one day you will see,
I taught you well because I care.

The next few years will so quickly fly,
With laughter and joy,
mixed with a few tears to cry.

As you begin your growth to womanhood,
this fact you must know, You'll always be my source of pride,
no matter where you go.

You must stand up tall and proud,
within you feel no fear, For all you dreams and goals,
sit before you very near.

With god's love in your heart
and the world by its tail,
You'll always be my winner, and victory will prevail

Carol

Christmas 2009

Thanksgiving Tree & Christmas Decorations

Disclosing Our Souls on the Internet

Parents, Educating Your Teens on Substance Abuse. Video begins when link is opened.

Tips for Parents

Sexual Assault Facts

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Susan Borman, A Woman of Inspiration, Dedication, and Understanding

Is it really March already?!

Christmas 2008

Words of Wisdom

Thanksgiving 2008

Pictures from Arrowhead. I didn't say Chief's on purpose, we're lousy this year.

Halloween 2008

Taylor is 17 years old

Saving this on here, sad and hard for me to look at but wanted to keep it.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Trip to the Book Store and Things that make me happy and thankful

Jack's Classroom Newsletter 10/9/08

October 9, 2008 @ 11:20 am Toads and caterpillars…

William's first game of coach pitch baseball. First time up at bat and grand slam home run!

Visit to New Mexico in August

Hi! I haven't posted in quite awhile........

William's T-Ball games

Taylor and Carol's trip to Milwaukee, July 2008

Control Over Your Emotions - Weird timing if you read my post from yesterday

2008 New Mexico State University Volleyball Highlights

July 2, 2008

The Energy Bus, Jon Gordon

Pictures from William's pre-school trip, field day and graduation

Saturday, June 7 2008

Special Time of Year- Happy Birthday to Martha and me!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Notes and future reference

Control of Your Life (Good one and appropriate for me right now)

New - Self Portrait Photos of the Children: They took them, too cute! Guess which child took the pictures

Weekend of April 25 - 27

Quotes I have saved along the way....for us, for our children, for our familes, and for me

To Taylor, with love from Mom

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