We were nearly at the end of Small Group and our power went out.

Jack is doing great.

Bopper has become Jack Elliot Willis

He was born at 3:00 AM this morning with a very quick delivery. 22.5 inches and 8lbs 15 oz. Big boy. Momma and baby are doing great.

Cara had some contractions last night at about 11:15 or so. She went for a walk and took a shower. Around 1:45 AM her contractions were strong enough for her to say "Lets go!". Woke up Leesha and went to the hospital. We arrived and got set up in a room for the delivery. Leesha called both sets of grandparents to let everyone know. At about 2:45 the contractions were regular and strong and Cara said she felt the need to push. Everything seemed accelerated from here until the end. Leesha was sent out to the hallway to wait. 15 minutes later a boy came out. Cara needed very little assistance- no painkillers (not that there was time for them).

See the Jack Elliot show here.

Bopper is 1 week overdue, but they say we can induce tomorrow.

No Bopper, but Barriss

Still no Bopper.

I found out that the girl who played the Jedi Padawan, Barriss Offee, in STAR WARS Episodes II and III is a Christian according to this interview with her at STAR WARS celebration IV. I found her email address from her website and sent her a note. She wrote me back today:

Hello Nalini,

I am a STAR WARS fan and I really like the character you portrayed in the prequels. What I'm writing about is- I just saw the interview you did with Kelly from Weekendgamer.com on youtube and I wanted to say... You are great for being so bold with your faith. Praise GOD! I am also a Christian and I was so excited to hear your testimony. Thank you for your strength and God bless.

Jeffry

------------------------

Jeffry,
Thanks so much for the email, it can be so hard to remain faithful at time to Jesus, the world gets in the way, but if it weren't for emails like this reminding me then it would be so much harder.
Thanks and God Bless.
Regards
Nalini

She seems very cool.

Bopper is due today. Still waiting...

Mom and Dad are in MN
Mom and dad were in town to see Simon. We went out to breakfast with them today before they took off for home.

Spud started his own forum and I closed mine down. Spud also allegedly is opening a coffee shop in Eagle River.

I am fully into STAR WARS lately. I think I've forgiven Lucas for the quality of the new trilogy.

Goodbye Goldie

Leesha's goldfish died today.

Mom and Dad are in town to see Simon

Simon
Simon Lee Willis was born today. Mandy went through over 40 hours of labor with him.

Eric's dad died today.

I am a certified RTA with YTB!

Today I attended a class to get my certification with Your Travel Business. It was highly informative and I feel motivated. This company is remarkable. Starting my own business for $500. Best system out there by far.

Last Day of School. Kind of sad.

I got new glasses today. It was also Leesha's last day of school.

Sadie

I am surprised at my level of mourning for Sadie. Her health has been dropping fast and today she couldn't get out of her bed. So Matt and Krystin are taking her to the vet to put her down. She is gone.

Mourning is an interesting thing. I feel that I gave her the love a dog is due. I adored that little girl. I pray that the dogs I own in the future will be as good hearted as she was.

Dispatch called select drivers to see Don after routes. I was not one of the names called. Worried. After the day Don signed my time sheet and told me about a meeting on Thursday morning (even though I wasn't called). Not about Summer routes. Worried.

Full Full Weekend

Friday, Eric brought a lot of stuff for another garage sale. Put up signs after dark

Saturday, set up for garage sale. Went to get eye exam and new glasses. Came home to help with garage sale. Our neighbors, Mike and Amy, hung out with us. Sky got dark. Hustled everything into the garage. Eric and I sat down and listened to Leesha's and Dah's new mix CD. Then we hung lights in bedroom. Cara was gone. Worried. Called. She came home mad. She went to church with out a word. Had a talk.

Sunday Went to church. Hung out with media crew- Fritz and Rob. Greg Boyd's 50th birthday skit. Eric came to pick up garage things. Helped get grand table into basement and get air conditioner in window. Packed up his truck. He got called into work.

Memorial Weekend

Friday night we went to Willis West (Greg and Mandy's house) where we grilled out and ate in. It was a very good time visiting and playing with the dogs.

Saturday we slept in. Cara and Leesha went down to Ikea with Darlene to shop. Called me and I went to down to transport a cabinate. Pre assembled. Door open so took my time going home. Stopped at Hot Comics and found Uncle Sven's which the Source recently purchased. Hans was working there. We dug out Identity Crisis and marveled at how well it portrayed Deathstroke the Terminator. Found a bunch of Challengers of the Unknown comics for $.50!

Cara and I watched the first episode of the current season of Doctor Who before she went to be and I watched SNL.

Sunday we met at Uptown Bar and Grill for gyro omelets. We picked up Darlene at her church and went to Uptown to meet Greg and Mandy and Mom and Dad.

After that Mom and Dad followed us to our house and we all went to work on Bopper's room. Had sandwiches. Leesha slept in the living room while mom and dad had her bed. We went for a walk and sat outside and talked.

Memorial Monday we had some breakfast and shortly after that, Greg and Mandy came over as well as Trelevens. We spent most of the day in our back yard.

Steve & Holly to MN

My folks are coming to town today

Dah has ITP.

Garage Sale

Cara sold that old blue car at our garage sale! Also sold the couch and chair and also the old cat-smelling air conditioner.

I played D&D with Rob, Paul and Pat at Pat's house. Left early to do lights at church. It was the new youth pastor preaching, Seth his name is. His 2nd time preaching and I've worked both times. He's great.

McKeever writing Teen Titans!

Sean McKeever (who is now exclusively writing for DC Comics AND has been assigned to write Birds of Prey AND on the writing team for the weekly Countdown title) is now the new writer for Teen Titans.

Beechen’s move to the new miniseries does come with a cost – he had to give up Teen Titans, where he was recently named as the series’ new writer, stepping in for the departing Geoff Johns. Moving over to that series will be another member of the Countdown team, Sean McKeever.

McKeever will join Johns, Marv Wolfman, Mike McKone, George Perez, Todd Nauck and other creators for August’s Teen Titans #50 “jam issue,” and then head off on his own with September’s #51 with artist Randy Green.

“Sean’s is able to write in that great younger voice that the Teen Titans book really needs and a great sensibility for the characters, and again, like Adam, with his time working on Countdown, he was able to learn a lot about the interaction between them. When Teen Titans came free, Sean just seemed the most logical choice. Sean will be writing two of our team books now, with Titans and Birds of Prey, and he brings a great voice to both those books.”

You can read the entire article here. If you don't know who Sean McKeever is, then here is some context. He is a friend of mine from from back in high school. We became friends over our mutual interest of comics. I worked for his dad at the hardware store where Sean had his own comic shop set up. He helped with many of the video projects Greg, Orion, and I would do. His house became a haven for many of us. Sean is one of those really good friends you have. I'm so excited about his success.

The Girl Who Cried Wolf and Free Comic Book Day

Just before we left for Ms. Laura's graduation party, Leesha says her stomach hurt again. She was sick from school yesterday because she threw up on Thursday night for unknown reasons. I responded by telling her to lie down for a while which she protested about. It turns out that she happened to not want to go to the graduation party so she was making up an excuse. This upset me very much.

I'm finding it difficult to believe her when she complains about stomach aches or whatnot. I hate 2nd guessing her all the time, but this is what she's left me to do. The night before, she was at Jeremy's house and he said she was up late crying. Her reason for being upset were different for everyone she told. She told Jeremy one story, me another and Cara a third story. How can you believe anything she says? It is a thing I'm struggling with.

We all ended up going to Ms. Laura's graduation party at Como park anyways. Ms. Laura is the bus aid on my Murry Jr. High school bus route. She and I have gotten to know each other and discovered that both our families attend Woodland Hills Church. She has been studying to get her license in special education and invited us to celebrate. Leesha ended up having a blast and even cracked open the pinata!

After we left Laura's party we went to the Source for Free Comic Book day. The Source ran out of free comic book comics and ended up giving away cheap regular comics. They gave one bag to each of us- Leesha, Cara and me. Leesha's was 'screened' for younger fans. In her bag was a 1976 issue #1 of Kobra from DC comics. SCORE! I took that one for myself.