New Blogger

Many of you know Peggy Clements, here are her kids as pictured on her new blog. Peggy welcome to the community, we look forward to hearing from you!

Peggys Blog

Back from OK

We got back from Oklahoma Saturday night. It was great to spend some time with all the family. I hadn't seen my sister Sandy for almost 2 years. My brother Tom wrote about the trip in his blog and published a picture of the whole clan. I decided to post a picture of what I will remember and that is some very joyful, full of life youth of the next generation ;-) It was a great time, and one that comes way to seldom.

Here is a picture of Sandy and Rons two kids

Skinny Santa?

Just finishing Thanksgiving and now the news is that Santa is too fat, so there is a move on to slim him down. after all he is a role model. I don't know, but I think leave the jolly ole man alone!

Johnny Cash Thanksgiving prayer in song

The funny thing about Thanksgiving, or any huge meal, is that you spend 12 hours shopping for it and then chopping and cooking and braising and blanching. Then it takes 20 minutes to eat it and everybody sort of sits around in a food coma, and then it takes four hours to clean it up. ~Ted Allen












Yep, we did it, Thanksgiving at the Cracker Barrel. It was not a unanimous vote by any means, some of the family thought is was a fantastic idea, others thought we had totally lost our minds. Since I am not one of the cooks I was just glad to eat ;-) I had the uncle Hershel's favorite (breakfast) others had the traditional meal. The day to me is not about the meal, but about sharing time together. We left the restaurant the family headed to Lori's I headed to MEMS first to check on how the crews were being fed. At MEMS I visited with those souls that work the holidays so you and I can have the care we need "in case of emergency". I had the privilege of spending time with Ron, he is my friend who "died" a few weeks ago, that visit put the meaning of the day in focus for me.

New Blogger

A new Blogger joins the team. My brother Tom has started posting on his own Blog. Check it out!

http://baseballboys.blogspot.com/

Someday....

When you tough it out, hold the line, and stay the course, I promise you, there will soon come a day when you look back over your shoulder, shake your head in dismay, and seriously wonder what all the fuss was about.

Celebration

Sunday we celebrated Thanksgiving as a church as well as the Birthday of Brad (sorry for the bad pictures, my camera had a bad day)
It was such a pleasure to share a meal together. We spent some time talking about the things we were thankful for in our lives and the things we sometimes take for granted. Let me say again, I am very happy to be a part of this community, I watched us yesterday I believe we sincerely enjoy each other's company. Again, one of those things we sometimes take for granted, may we no more.

“A friend is someone who understand your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Meal

Our Thanksgiving meal will be this Sunday @ 5PM. Come join us for a great time.

Shoes needed!

One of the NLR attenders has raised our awareness to a need in the Philippines. We have a group there trying to start sports programs but the children have no sports shoes. We are looking for children's tennis style shoes from size 4. If you have any and would like to donate, please bring them to church or drop me and e-mail and I will send the address to where they can be sent.
Thanks!

e-mail:
gthompson@metroems.com

Another heart break

The Razorbacks, along with Joe T Robinson Senators (Friday night 55-7) are not the only ones to face some heart breaks. You got to see this video.
On a cool evening in November of 1994, two high school football teams clashed in one of the most exciting games ever played. With 2:42 left in the game and down by 24 points to John Tyler, fans on the Plano East side of the field had given up hope. After all, how could their team score 4 touchdowns in two and a half minutes? And then their team pulls off the most amazing comeback in football history. There’s nothing left to say at this point but to let you watch this amazing video.

New NLR Blogger

Just noticed that another NLR church goer is Blogging (you have got to try this sometime) This new blogger is no stranger to writing she is just choosing a new venue. Oh by the way, this new writer just happens to be my mom. Check out her Blog.

http://livinglifeafter65.blogspot.com/

Some sick, sick humor...

You have to read "my explanation" first to get this one, but this is a copy of my work Blog post from today.

Jay, Stewart, Louis and myself had the privilege of eating lunch with Ron today. He got permission to put on street clothes remove his telemetry unit and go to the cafeteria for a bit. Honestly it was a strange feeling to be with him at first. I told him that he needed to get use to people staring at him, he laughed. We talked about a lot of things, as well as went over the events of "the day". Seems he doesn't remember anything about the day, only the day before. After the initial awkwardness of the moment we learn very quickly that his sense of humor is in tack and more wicked that ever.

Ron spoke about his eventual return to work:
Stewart said “No hurry. You’ve made it quite clear you don’t want to work radio.”
Ron replied “Oh no, I’m dying to!”

It went down hill from there, he started cracking one liners about his "near" death. When I asked him what I could Blog he gave permission to share some of our laughter, for example:

When a nurse saw Ron in the BMC cafeteria and went on and on with surprise to see him and how good he looked:
Stewart: “Ma’am, who are you talking to??” And Ron then gave his best ghost impression.
Added Louis: “Ma’am, you’re the only one who can actually see him.”

When nurses, seeing the rest of us in EMS uniform, asked Ron what he does:
“I’m a paramedic too,” he said.
Greg: “He’s been a medic a lo-o-ong time.”
Stewart: “Yeah! He was even a medic in his former life!”

After questions of whether he remembered anything from the experience (lights, long lost relatives, hovering above us watching us work, etc.)
Stewart: “To the dismay of so many who have hoped against hope, can you confirm that Elvis truly did die in 1977 ?”
Ron: “That I can! He did die in ’77 and he looks the same as he did then!”

Ron, on the suggestion of sharing his experience:
Ron: “What do I say? Hello-o-o-o! I couldn't’t remember anything for days, and they say I was dead, but hey! Here I am! Hi! I’m back!”

There were tons more that I have forgotten, he mentioned maybe a "Ron was dead" contest to see who could come up with the best one liner, and offer a dinner for the winner that he would chose. I don't know about that one, maybe that is a bit far...

As you can see it was very dark and sick humor, (that he initiated) but we laughed and enjoyed each others company and forgot the utter fear, panic, loss and sorrow that we had felt just a short week earlier.

For a medic, we get to tell these stories way too seldom, but I am so grateful we get to tell it about one of our own! Welcome back Ron!

My explanation

I have been slow this past week in posting, I want to give you a copy of what I posted on my work blog as an explanation. I realize you wont know all the players, but you will understand the story.



On Thursday Nov. 1, Ron was sitting at the dispatch position in Communications. It was known he had not been feeling well for the last few days, and in fact was up most of the night before with that he believed was heartburn. Because he had not been feeling well he almost did not come to work, but his wife Chris suggested he might feel better getting up and around, so Ron decided to go ahead and come to work.

Ron dispatched a call in Vilonia at 09:44, and sometime after that transmission, Ron laid his head down on his console. Jay came in to bring Ron some Halloween candy when he noticed Ron had his head down. No one thought much about it at first because he had not been feeling well, but when Jay could get no response, they knew then that something was really wrong. Jay felt for a pulse and found none. At that point Jay, Joe and David Turner got Ron out of his chair and laid him in the floor where Jay started immediate CPR. Joe then called out in the hallways for help. At this same time Ralph (just by chance!) walked into dispatch carrying a monitor. Jay asked if it worked, and Ralph answered yes, just needs batteries.

There was a meeting going on in Swanson’s office involving Stewart, Greg, Tammy, and Jon. At Joe’s calls for help, the group rushed to dispatch. Upon entering, we saw Jay doing CPR and knew that we needed equipment. Simultaneously, Greg ran to retrieve an ALS pack and returned to begin ventilations, while Stewart connected the monitor for a quick-look and subsequent shock. Louis and a host of others went to retrieving and setting up other necessary equipment. Then, as we all worked on Ron, Joe and Dana Burnett continued their duties at their dispatch positions and performed well with this all right there beside them!

Ron presented with V-Fib, and was shocked once, CPR was then continued, an IV was established etc., and within a short time, we saw occasional complexes on the monitor. These turned into a string of complexes with a pulse and respiratory effort. Ron’s efforts continued to increase as we traveled to BMC, where he was seen at the ER and diagnosed with an anterior MI. He was then sent to the cath lab where he received 3 stints. (From down time to cath. lab with vessels open @90 minutes or less)

He currently is in CCU at BCM in critical condition. This a.m. he did wake and follow some voice commands. His pressure is low but stable; his heart is a normal sinus currently. Long term looks good as long as he dose not develop any complications.

This is a brief overview of the events.

Please keep Ron and his family in your prayers during this time. I will be passing on updates as I get them.

Taking Membership to a New Level

I found a very interesting article on church membership.

Forget your Members Only jacket. At Vintage21, a church in Raleigh, North Carolina, it's Owners Only. The church is eliminating the concept of membership entirely in favor of what they believe is a more appropriate description for the body of Christ: ownership.

Gyms and clubs have members. Vintage21 contends that these memberships are "painless to obtain and even easier to discard." "Ownership," on the other hand, springs from the fact that followers of Christ are co-heirs of the Kingdom, and as such, possess a piece of the church. Vintage21 hopes each person will feel responsibility for the church and want to be more intimately involved, rather than just coming to services and taking off. They hope to ditch a consumer mindset and move into an investor's outlook.

"An owner makes the organization happen. Jesus wants his followers to make the church happen—go out and love people, nurture each other, and serve with your whole life. Ownership is a higher call than membership," Vintage21 explains.

Our only question is, will they call the offering a property tax?

Time Change

Remember to turn BACK your clocks one hour when you go to bed this Saturday night for Daylight Savings Time.