I love George!

And yes, my husband is aware of my love for this man. He is a man that few respect and love. Many have ditched him because he is not the "popular" guy anymore. My love however, has never waned. I respect him for the position he holds. I admire him for how he puts his faith into practice. By all means, he is not perfect. However, he never claims to be something he's not. He comes from a family deeply rooted in values and faith. He is none other than our President, George W. Bush.

Those who know me well, know that my love for George has been ongoing for many years now. I've read most of the books written about him and will watch any documentary about him or his family. When I was in college, he would often come to Waco so that he could go to his ranch in Crawford (just about 30 minutes from Waco). It was a goal of mine to meet him before I graduated from Baylor. Unfortunately, that dream never came true. So, when I learned that George was in Denver, I was excited at the thought of even getting just a glimpse of him. More than that, not only was he in Denver, but he was visitng the neighborhood I work in. So, when 5 o'clock came, I left work thinking that my dream might come true. The city barricaded the street just a block away from my office. So, I parked my car and stood on the street to watch the motorcade pass by. I chatted with the police officer there who was there to make sure we didn't pull out any guns. Most of the people there could care less about the President and only wanted to get home. However, I had my camera ready and was determined to catch just one moment with George. I waited about 30 minutes to watch him whiz by in his bulletproof car. It was such an exciting moment to think that the man who leads our country was about to pass by the very street I was standing on. After the 30 minutes, police cars and suburbans began to fly by with all their lights ablaze. I started snapping pictures and waited to see the President. Finally, he arrived in his car, American flags waving which let me know which car was his. You would think that I would be so pumped to see my hero, but all I could think about was how lonely and hard his life might be. Though he is surrounded by hundreds of people on a daily basis, I thought about how his own daughters probably can't just call him up on his cell phone whenever they want. I know that would bother me about my own dad. I thought about how he hears constant criticism from his fellow countrymen on a daily basis. I thought about how the weight of not only America, but the world is on his shoulders. And I thought about the upcoming election. My moment with George lasted only about 5 seconds. Though I didn't meet him, I feel my dream was semi-fufilled. I feel a deep sense of loyalty to him and to the office he holds. What a responsibilty that is?!

As I think about this upcoming year, I think about the changes our country is about to embark on. I myself am not sure who I will vote for. To me, there is no clear man who can live up to my expecations of what or who a president should be. I encourage all of you to become educated on who is running and to think about what really is important. To many, George Bush is a oil and war loving, money hungry man and an alcoholic who cheated his way into the presidency. To those people I say he is a humble, faithful husband and father, Christ loving, hard working, ethical man who stands firm on his beliefs. No, he is not the best communicator in the world, nor is he perfect. But he doesn't make excuses for who he is or what he does. You tell me who in the presidencial race even resembles just a fraction of his character?

It's been a while

Hey gang,

It's been a while since there has been a post on this blog and this is my first post to our TEAM COLEMAN site.
First off everyone on team Coleman is doing well. Jenny is no longer with Frontier Airlines and is now working for an insurance company in the Denver Tech Center. There is great potential with this new career path and it was an answer to prayer for us that she got a job like this. So far it's been pretty boring work and the jury is still out if it's where she wants to be ultimately but it's great for right now.

Sara is in the middle of her 6th grade year at Morey Middle School and is doing well there. She has had somewhat of a hard time adjusting to the new math and science but overall likes being there. She and I have been learning some new music together and she's playing the string bass in the middle school orchestra which is cool. They had their Christmas concert and Sara rocked the house!

Anna is whipping through the 3rd grade, she's doing well in school and is our family comedian she's always got a joke or two on hand and keeps us in stitches at home with her jokes, dancing and funny comments. Anna also participated in her school Christmas program although I didn't get any pictures that night. So here is a random picture of Anna from sometime in the past few months. Anna being Anna....

As for me I finally returned to work after laying on the couch for 3 1/2 weeks in mid December. I worked 1/2 days for the first couple weeks which was awesome. I'd really like to have kept that schedule but unfortunately I eventually had to go back to full days which was a let down but the way it had to be. I've been doing physical therapy on my knee for the past 3 weeks now and have seen major improvements. After 2 months of being on Crutches I am finally walking on my own this week. If I'm on my feet for a long period of time I still need to grab one of the crutches to help take weight but for the most part I'm done with them. I hope not to pick up another crutch for a long, long time after the end of this week. The crazy thing is that my right leg has almost no muscle left so I'm re learning to walk if you can believe that. It's a challenge but I'm excited about it. Also I'm exploring other work opportunities outside of Ball Aerospace where I've been working for almost 10 years. We'll see if anything comes of this exploration and if not I'll be happy to stay here as there are a lot of great things here.

Over the Christmas Holiday we had a lot of fun with family and friends. My sister Joanna and her family came from Minneapolis and stayed with us for a couple of nights which was a blast for all of us. Their 5 kids and our 2 kids had a lot of fun playing us adults had a lot of fun staying up until 2-3am each night talking and catching up. One day while they were visiting Pete (Joanna's husband) wanted to take the kids up to the mountains so we all loaded up and took a nice drive up to lookout mountain where it was freezing cold. Oh ya have I mentioned that I've been wearing shorts all winter due to my knee brace? Some days are worse than others with that whole shorts thing.


We also had a big COLEMAN family get together for Christmas and everyone of my 9 brothers and sisters were able to make it. We got the great news over the holidays also that between both of our families there are 3 new babies on the way! Dana Jenny's sister is expecting as well as my Sisters Michelle and Jenny Duncan. That was an awesome Christmas gift for everyone! Exciting!! So back to the Coleman get together we had 36 people at my Moms house including a few friends who came by to help celebrate Jesus birthday with us. Below is a few pictures of my entire family from that day.
We also got the chance to spend a day with Jenny's sister Kerri and some other members of the Peech family. We had a good time celebrating Christmas with them and learning some new Christmas traditions (South African) that we weren't familiar with. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them that day. No pictures of that one, sorry...

On December 30th we gathered many friends and family for the much anticipated Vikings game here in Denver. With our friends the Max's we drove down to the stadium and got there about 5 hours before kickoff. We hooked up the direct TV dish on the roof of the car fired up the TV cooked some brats and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was nice during the day but got pretty cold during the game. It was awesome to expose Jenny to the madness that is VIKINGS football and she had a good time. Unfortunately the Vikings lost to end their season at 8-8 but we had a great time before during and after the game. Oh ya and this was the first time being a handicap paid off for me, we got awesome parking and we ended up with great seats due to my situation. 50 yard line 21 rows up.



For New Years we went with the Max's to the Palm restaurant and had dinner and then hung around the downtown Westin playing card games and watching the fireworks out the window of our room and stuff. It was a nice relaxing new years celebration with great friends.

2007, came and went and it was an amazing year! We got married, traveled, got closer, got surgeries, spent time with friends and family and had a blast along the way.
We are so excited for what God has in store for us in 2008 I'm sure it will be an adventure for team-Coleman. Happy belated NEW YEAR to all of you!

On the Road Again

David is doing great and is on the road again to recovery. He is very tired of being on the couch but we're hoping that he'll only be there for a couple more weeks. Now that the scary stuff is over, I feel that I can post pictures of David before and after surgery so you get some idea of what is going on with him.

In the midst of all the medical chaos, we spent Thanksgiving with friends and family. We had much to be thankful for. And I got the opportunity to show off my Martha Stewart skills by making a pumpkin pie. I have to say that it looked a lot like a Martha pie.

David Update Part II

Hallelujah! David's infection is only on the outside of his knee. So that means no surgery. Woo hoo! We are supposed to leave the hospital sometime today. However, we are waiting on the doctor to check out is knee one last time. I think we're both getting cabin fever and ready to get out of here. Thanks for all your prayers!

David Update

Well, last night didn't get any better for David. At about midnight, we decided to head to the hospital to get him checked out. It turns out that he has an infection from the surgery. At this point it seems that the infection is on the skin and we won't know if it's actually inside his knee for a while. The doctor will return tomorrow morning to see what needs to happen next. If the infection is in his knee, they will have to do another procedure to flush out the bad bacteria that's causing the infection. We are praying this will not happen because it could potentially damage the cartilage implant that David had on Wednesday. So, that's where we are for now. Thanks for your prayers and support. We truly are blessed by our wonderful family and friends.

Even now as I sit and watch David go through this I am reminded that God is good. From our hospital room, we have a beautiful view of the mountains and right now the sun is setting behind them. I took pictures that I'll post when I get home sometime...it's amazing! It's definitely taken my focus off of the bad things and reminded me that God still knows what he's doing.

Wounded Knee

On Friday, David, his Mom and I spent a good part of the day watching a movie called Bury My Heart at Wounded knee. It's about Sitting Bull and the Sioux Indians. It's quite an interesting movie. However, what made it even more interesting, or maybe I should say ironic, is that 2 days earlier, David had surgery on his own wounded knee. Not until about halfway through the movie did we realize the irony of the title of the movie. Though it was funny on Friday, today is another story. Today, the pain of surgery has climaxed beyond belief. Watching David in pain has been one of the most heart wrenching things I have ever seen. I can't even begin to imagine what it feels like. I only know that it must be excrutiating because David has said several times, "just bury me in a hole." The first two days after the surgery David felt very little pain due to a pump that sent miracle drugs straight to his knee. That pump has been removed and now the pain has escalated greatly. So, if you are reading this blog right now, I ask that you will say a prayer that David will feel as little pain possible from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, that he will get rest (as he is very restless and hasn't been able to sleep at all) and that he will get through this difficult time.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

This past weekend we took advantage of the flight benefits and headed down to San Antonio. We went to celebrate Katelyn's first birthday. Sara and Anna had never been to San Antonio so we also played tourists for the weekend. On Friday, immediately after we landed we went to Alamo Cafe to have some tasty tortillas with family and friends. Saturday, we toured the Alamo and then had a birthday party for Katelyn. On Sunday we went to church and then took a tour on a riverboat.

Cole and Katelyn are as cute as can be and it was fun to watch them play with Sara and Anna. My parents were also there and it was great to spend some quality time with them and Cody and Dana. I think everyone else had a good time and Anna says she wants to live there. Of course that gives me hope that maybe we could move back, but I'm not going to hold my breath. For the first time since I've known David, not once did he say, "It's so humid!" We were blessed with wonderful weather and I was thankful that the Coleman's didn't have to stick it out in crazy heat.

Though it was a quick trip, I was glad we went. I miss my family so much and it still feels like home in a lot of ways. I hated to leave them and am already trying to plan when I can go back. I sure do miss that place. Go Spurs go!