Life is short

My grandma lost her sister on Monday. That is the 2nd sibling she has lost recently, and I can't imagine her pain. I have no idea what I would do if I lost Rachel or Jeremiah.

I don't make a move without calling or texting Rachel. I mean seriously, we are ALWAYS talking to each other about the dumbest of things.

And Jeremiah and I are really starting to get close again. He's 18, so we went through the big sister is not the coolest time period. I can't blame him, at 16 you can drive and run around with your friends and when you can have teenage fun, who needs a pregnant sister hangin around.

I can't tell you how proud I am of both of them and who they've become. My sister is in the United States Air force, now reservist and at times I forget what an accomplishment that is. First off...boot camp would have kicked my tail!!!! But she made it through that, has since earned her Staff Sargent and has made it back home safely from two deployments...Iraq and Afghanistan. She worked on the munitions team assembling bombs, then loaded them on trucks to be used. I'm sure my military terminology is lacking but that's the jist of it. I can't even wrap my head around her doing this. It was a long hard time for all of us while she was gone, and I wasn't the one sleeping in a bunker, dealing with spiders the size of small animals, stuck in the middle of a desert. She is almost out, and hopefully she will make it all the way without another deployment. She is now in nursing school, which is not an easy task either, and will graduate in July. I couldn't be prouder of her.








My brother has graduated and gone on to represent the State of Texas as an FFA Officer. He is traveling the state meeting and hobnobbing with different political representatives, as well as traveling to schools for speaking engagements to encourage and further awareness of agriculture. If you are not familiar with the FFA, that might not sound like a big deal and to some it's not, but it's pretty impressive in my book.
Now when you think of agriculture you probably think corn, pigs and farmers :P This is true, but agriculture affects so much more, and this is the awareness they are helping to spread. Here is an idea of just how much taken from the official FFA page
www.texasffa.org

Are there any jobs in agriculture?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at least 22 million people in the United States work in one of over 300 careers that exist in the field of agriculture. While most people think of farming when the word agriculture is mentioned, there are agriculture-related jobs in veterinary science, marketing, food processing, retail sales and timber harvesting. It is estimated that one in five people in the United States are working in jobs connected to agriculture.

I wish I had a list of all the different people he has meet, or memories he has made during this journey, but I don't. I just have vague remembered details of them. One of him meeting a man from Iraq who own most of the countries oil supply in Basra. He was very impressed and is interested in Jeremiah and his team coming to Iraq to do their thing. Jeremiah and one of his friends were responsible for showing him around and the man had such a good time with them he needed to buy a TX cowboy hat to try and be a 'Texas' lol. I thought that was neat, but secretly hopes he NEVER goes!!! My brother also attended the Texas Top 100 dinner, for the richest people in TX. Micheal Dell was one that attended, who I had no idea was a college drop out that started putting computers together in his dorm room. He is now one of the youngest billionaires at 40 *could you imagine?!!!*. Jeremiah was chosen to give the speech in Austin at the Capital followed by lunch with Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchinson...together. He said that was pretty interesting cause they had their people relaying messages because they wouldn't speak directly to each other. That was kinda funny to me. Anyway,once he finishes his year of being a state officer, he will be going to Texas Tech to pursue pharmacology. I know he will succeed in anything he tries to do!




Not that you wanted or needed to know all this about my siblings, but it was just to say i'm proud of them. I often take it for granted the fact I can just pick up the phone to call or text Rachel. Wait for the weekends that Jeremiah gets to come home to listen to his new stories and what they have done. I know that your heart does not swell with pride the way mine does for them, but i'm sure it does for your own family. It doesn't take great achievements for us to love our family. Mine as of yet has simply been my children and I one day hope to add a college degree to that list. But if I never do, I know I am loved just the same.

We are not promised tomorrow, the next phone call, the next weekend full of stories. Life is such a precious gift that we take for granted. I don't want to 'hope' that my family and friends know how much I love and care for them. I want to KNOW they know because I made a point of telling them so.

So to each of you that read this blog, my friends and family,
Amanda
Casie
Glenda
Jeanette
Kisha
Tara
Tiffani
Tonya
and any one else that may stop that i'm not aware of, I love you all and thank you for being a part of my life!