Walther P22...The Wait is over.

For a long time i have been trying to pull the trigger on buying a neat little gun for recreational shooting. I have spent many hours looking on the net and reading reviews. Many times i just came back to the one that looked cool. I guess my gun passion has been sparked even more the last few weeks since I will now be able to carry my gun basically where ever i want. Sunday we loaded up and headed to Opry mills in Nashville for a long and grueling day of Christmas shopping. We walked around the mall like 17 times and finally made our last stop in Bass Pro Shop. I had actually been there earlier in the day and drooled over most of the guns. I was looking for a little bit larger caliber gun that would be a potential carry size gun to leave in my car if i ever needed or if I was actually walking down a shady street one that wouldn't pull my pants down its so heavy. I initially started looking at a few springfield armory ,taurus , and Smith/Wesson pistols. As i was looking a voice from the heavens came saying "go with the springfield" (well actually just a nice guy from KY but he sure did know guns) Then my friend "Corky" came along who was the head dude at Bass pro shop. Corky was a rather large man but had a gun sized heart of gold. He began talking with me about different calibers and differnt guns that he liked. I asked him just for fun to let me hold the Walther P22 .22LR caliber pistol. Needless to say it was love at first sight and touch. The one i had read so much about was finally coming home with me. I decided to go with the .22LR for now since it was more economical to shoot and it is small enough that Tara can shoot comfortably. Maybe down the road I will jump to the next level but fun of shooting ranked at the end of the day. The process was really easy and after a 15 min background check I was on my way home with my new gun. Flash forward to today and I actually got to shoot the gun. The anticipations were high and in the end i was not disappointed. Initially I was a little concerned because one particualar brand of shells we had it did not seem to like them but the other two brands it shot with out a flaw. Its so light and easy to shoot. We shot thru about 200 rounds of ammo in about 20 minutes. I have attached a video just for fun of the new gun in action. Get your stop watches out.... I have clocked it at about 10 shots in 1.8-2.0 seconds. Pretty darn fun. The video is not great since its on a cell phone but you will get the idea.

Load 6...Fire!!

Well tonight was the culmination of alot of years waiting and conversations talking about a hand gun carry permit. It is something that Me, Ryan and Timbo had talked about doing for quite sometime but just never got the time or nerve to go do it. Our good friend "dead eye" Jones has had one for a few years and he was the envy of our group being able to feel the warm touch of the gun barrel whenever he desired. Last night Me,Ryan,Tara and the Teter Man loaded up and headed for 'Bend of The River' gun club in Cookeville to begin our 2-night journey. We all road back into the woods of cookeville to the club with a little bit of anxiety because of the unknown factor that laid ahead. Needless to say it was an adventure last night as we listened to the modern day Wyatt Earp tell us who we could and could not shoot. Just to give you a visual on our instructor....picture your favorite crazy uncle Buck in a black leather vest with khaki pants ,work boots and a holstered gun on his right hip. At one point he proceeded to pull about 6-7 guns out of every possible crevice and from every extremity he had. It was quite impressive to say the least. As usual me and ryan had the maturity of 12 year old girls and giggled thru most of the instructional video as it depicted potential "self defense" situation. The night was topped off by somewhat of a tricky 30 question quiz and then we were off to think about the Friday night shooting festival. Tonight, Me,tara, and Ryan loaded up again to go take our shooting test to conclude our class. As we walked up to the lodge the sound of multiple guns firing would make you think of a Vietnam setting. All you could hear in the cold,crisp air was gun fire. We were greeted in the Lodge by a lady I will just call Bertha because i'm unsure of her name... bertha says" you here to shoot and you know where the gun range is?" Somewhat of a smirk came across our faces because any breathing human could find the range seeing how the raging gunfire was only about 50 yards away. Just in case you werent in Middle Tn tonight the temperature was about 22-24 F as we approached the shooting range. We were all still a little nervous as we walked into the outside range and our Wyatt Earp "Sarge" was barking orders at some of our fellow students in the class. As our extremities became numb the nervousness continued to rise. As the first 5 people finished up our hope was to go as a threesome and shoot in the same group. We decided our 6 shooters were not going to be the best gun for this fast paced shoot off. So we opted for the quicker load semi-automatic. I ended up using Tara's borrowed gun and went the group before tara and ryan. If you have never shot when its 22 degrees then you are missing something special. Hands feeling numb makes it hard to load the clip... and the instructor barking "load 6 and fire on the Whistle" It was a little faster paced than i thought it might be. Needless to say when the smoke settled it was more than enough to make the passing grade. After my group was done there was only three shooters left. Ryan,TAra and a 80 year old Northerner. I was quite proud of my little shooting girl. She did really good- I think she ended up with 49/50 and 50/50 in the black. All that keeps us from the coveted piece of paper is $115 bucks and a trip to the DOT for registration and fingerprinting. So overall it was a good and easy process, Hopefully our good friend Mr. Obama will not abolish our little permit and take our guns away from us.

Bro. Harold

(i'll go ahead and apologize to mom for this picture! Its the only good one i had on my computer)Two year is along time in many ways but oh so short in many others. In many ways Nov 20, 2006 is a day like the day kennedy got shot or 9-11. I remember the phone call oh so well.... with those words time stood still and a man like no other was gone. He was many things to many people but he was a man that i truly respected and loved. I have many memories and stories that i think about often and will never forget. There are so many things i wish we could have shared together... another christmas eve, my wedding, our first house, our future kids... so many things that will never happen in reality but will always happen in spirit. Every where I go "papa" is always with me because of how he shaped my life in so many little and big ways. I guess this blog today is more therapeutic for me than anything. It doesn't seem like two years should have passed by me this quick however the quicker time goes here on this Earth the sooner we will all be together again. I love you Brother Harold! I gotta believe they will have dark rimmed glasses in Heaven.

Exciting times!!

Winter is not always my favorite time of year but every year November/December I always get excited for the obvious turkey day and Christmas. It seems like most people are in a good mood for the next few months with the childlike excitement of food,family and fun. Two years ago to the day (Nov. 9th) It was an exciting day around and above Sparta. For a few months i had tried to figure out a way to ask Tara to marry me without her being suspicious of what was going on. I could never figure out a way to get to NC and prepare for a cool day without her knowing. So luckily for me she decided on a whim trip to Sparta and the stage was set. Most of you were involved and you know the rest is history. In many ways it seems hard to believe that 2 years have come and gone. We have been married for 1.5 years now. (NO time soon---for all you thinking when will the next little heady kid be running around?) Well the next exciting stage of our lives has been house hunting. Even though the economy is in the toilet and seems to be swirling to the sewer we have tried to go forth with this stage in our life. We have been looking casually for many months now but seriously looking for the last 3-4 weeks. About a week and a half ago we started our official tour of homes. We picked our top 10 or so homes and headed out with our agent. I guess finding a house is somewhat like finding a spouse. In many ways i guess you just get that warm fuzzy feeling inside and know that its the one that you want to be with. We definitely have found that one that is the front runner. Initially we didn't think we would like the area or subdivision but when we drove thru it just seem to click. The one we are looking at is just down the street from our friends Dustin and Anna. It is still currently being built and has approx 6 weeks till completion. Its all fun and games taking the little tours but when you sit and crunch the numbers it becomes a little bit more depressing. If anyone has any spare gold around...hint hint Dr. Jones..you can forward your contributions to our current address. I will post a picture of our current top choice and let me know if you like it. Remember she is not finished.

The "C" Word...

Well I know most of you were thinking that it would be many weeks before you saw me blog again but I couldn't keep the throngs of adoring blog readers waiting anymore. In November of 2007 I began working At Cumberland Family Care part time. It was then that i met a skinny,young marathon runner named Daniel. He was a Nurse Practitioner who graduated from Vandy almost the same time I graduated from Trevecca. Over a few months We came to realize we shared some common things..... mutual patients, shared offices, our wife/girlfriend were both named Tara (his actually was spelled Terra i think), gossiped about American Idol, and most special we were brothers in Christ. Because of the hectic nature of a medical office and the nature of our schedules there were very few times we could just sit down and chat. But when we did it was always neat because it was as if we were from the same army platoon or something. We were co-laborers, fellow Peon mid-level providers in a most commonly MD driven arrogant profession. One day after work we talked about a spot that he had on his tongue. He had it for many months and was being followed for it but it was not improving. Finally He found himself at Vanderbilt for a biopsy. In April, days before the pathology results were back I remember him sitting in the office and telling me "Cameron, I don't think its cancer but If it is I know God's In Control." Daniel passed away yesterday at the age of 34. He was a true testimony of Jesus Christ to the very end. He never wavered from the statement: "If God wants to heal me I know that He can and Will but if not I'm ready to go home". Yesterday I was thinking about the last few years and the friends/familys of my inner circle that had passed away from cancer. Three names in particular come to mind, Erin, Crystal, and Daniel. I added all their ages up and it comes to 92. If you divide that by three its an average lifespan of not even 31 years old. Sure i know thats a little bit of a stretch and those are only three cases. But it makes you think..I'm going on 27. Yes, still very young. But this time last year Daniel was running marathons and over the course of a year he couldn't even go to the bathroom by himself. I'm not trying to be graphic but it truely rips my heart out. I know God is in control but it still doesn't take the wondering thoughts away. I know this is turning into a Grandpa Simpson blog much like i threw Ryan under the bus for. haha. But for real, If you remember to over the next few days Remember Daniel Smith's family and Cumberland family care in your prayers. The world and our office has lost a good Christian man and a wonderful medical provider.

Whittaker Weekend!!

This past weekend was the Whittaker yearly trip to Sparta, NC. It is usually somewhere around the third weekend in October. Both Scott and Tara's birthdays are around that time. This year I found myself rushing thru a busy Friday afternoon of patients to try and get on the road. Time travel is not too much different than mocksville. With a few stops along the way we arrived in Sparta,NC around 1030-11Pm. Traditionally on Saturday the family takes a hike from WildCat Rock down to Caudil Cabin (all along the Blue Ridge Parkway). The hike is usually a large portion of the day and then Saturday night is met with a good meal and then relaxing as a family. This year took on a little bit different theme because of little baby boys and rotator cuff injuries. Most of the day was spent frolicking around our cabin in the great outdoors. The leaves weren't quite as pretty this year but the temperature was ideal. Later on in the afternoon we loaded up in the car for the tradition of hitting golf balls off one of the scenic overlooks (Wildcat Rock). If you have never hit golf balls off one of the overlooks along the Blue Ridge parkway then you have never lived (You will get some funny looks as well). Saturday night Scott, Julia and Solomon packed up and head back to Mocksville. That left us with Taras dad, her brother Tood his wife Connie and Austin. Most of the night was spent in a heated battle of Canasta. Sunday brought on more leaf gazing and relaxing. Tara and I stayed Sunday night too after everyone had packed up and left. Monday we drove a good portion of Blue Ridge Parkway from Sparta, NC to Blowing Rock,NC. It was a nice little stroll but one i wouldn't want to take everyday because of all ups/downs and curves. Not much else is going on in the Heady world. Tara is still chugging along with TTU and the occassional Ben Lomand day. We did make my biannual "find some dress pants" adventure tonight. For quite some time i have made a vow not to buy new pants while it was in my fat stage. I have squeezed into the ole pants for quite some time and subconsciously i feel like i'm starting to look like someone in baby blue pants from the 70's that are now high waters. Well tonight i slipped into embracing my new "fat" nature. Sure its not what i would like but hey I just bought 3 new pair of pants so I can't be dropping any pounds anytime soon. A few years ago i would have looked at the pants with the little "expand-a-band" and said "sheesh! what a loser" but now that little extra give seems to just hit the spot on what i need. So I encourage all of you kids out there struggling...just buy the bigger size with the built in expansion. If they are a little too big it will at least make you feel like you lost weight.

There's a New Mac in town...

It has truly been a lazy and relaxing weekend. My weekend started after a morning in the Saturday urgent care clinic. All went well and it was not to busy. Since that times its been constant comfy clothes and couch lounging. Saturday found us with some exciting games and some not so exciting football games if your a UT fan. Saturday night I found myself struggling with an unwanted stomach rumbling that left me feeling uneasy through most of Sunday as well. After sleeping late this morning I found myself settling in for some exciting Ryder Cup action as well as a little TN Titans action. Even though i wasn't feeling 100% it is always some what nice to just sit around and do nothing on Sundays. I know that throws me into the slacker sinner category on Sunday but hey its not like i do it everyweek.

Earlier In the week, we had a new addition to our family. Small-sleek, cute, cuddly and amazingly smart. It sounds like a Heady doesn't it? Tara's birthday came a little early for her this year. As many of your know she is currently attending TTU trying to finish up her degree sometime within the next few year. There had been a few times where the conversation led to "It would be a good time to have a laptop while at school." Conveniently enough Apple has been running a special where if you buy a Mac for school you get a discount and a free Ipod touch. The special was only running till the middle of September so I had to pull the trigger about a month early. Needless to say this week has been quite the exciting experience playing with the new gadgets. Even as we speak my lovely bride is using it in a group meeting for a presentation they are doing next week.

On the lighter side of things...... If you believe in "kitty prayers". Our cat Scofield must have been constantly petitioning the Big Cat lover in the sky this past week. We were scheduled to have both our cats fixed on the recommendation of our good friend Bob Barker. We were scheduled to drop our cats off with Dr. Mark Burke in Smithville on Tuesday morning. Tara drove down to Smithville only to hear "I'm sorry Mrs. Heady. Dr. Burke is in the hospital with Kidney stones." If we could understand cats i'm sure you would have heard an emphatic "Praise God!" from the little cat carrier in the car. Unfortunately for them we have another appointment this week and I don't think it could come a moment to soon. Without getting to graphic for our young blog readers I think our cats have found that being brother and sister doesn't bother them to much. We noticed Nala doing an interesting little girly dance last night. We had to seperate the little devils last night to try and prevent something crazy happening in the dark hours of the night. We will keep you updated as this story develops this week.

And a good time was had by all!

Heady update! Alot has happened since our last transmission. Trips to the beach, summer ending, and the county fair. The beginning of August we loaded up and headed to Jekyll Island, Ga for a week at the beach. It was a good week just to get away. If you have never been its nice relaxing destination filled with lots of cool history. IF your looking for wild parties and crowded beaches then Jekyll Island is not for you. There is not alot to do on the Island other than relax on the beach and learn about the former exclusive Hunting club that was the vacation home to 1/6th of the worlds weatlh. Names like the Rockefeller, the Vanderbilts and J.P. Morgan were some of the founding families of the Island. It was an invitation only experience for their lucky friends. The first trans-america phone call was participated in by president of AT&T from Jekyll island in 1915. In other news, tara is part-time at Ben lomand and full time at TTU. She has full load of classes with 17 hrs. She has some pretty neat classes and few skanky ones that will be just trying to get through. As for myself, I am officially full time in good ole Spencer Tn. Good news came my way a few weeks ago when i was accepted for the NHSC loan repayment program. My 2-year contract started on July 30 and will result in about 90% of my remaining loans to be eliminated. so that was a big praise report. The transition has went really well and things are settling in quite nicely. We recently spent a few good days with Judy (Tara's Mom). It was a good time to relax and catch up on lost time. This time of year would not be complete without good stories from the Local white county fair. The fair is always the marker in time where the summer comes to a close and in my mind fall officially begins. Seems like every year it always gets cool during the fair and is a nice crisp breeze in the air. The fair is always a good time to see an illustration of the Worlds melting pot. You have a culmination of some of the world's most interesting people. Lots of money, a few good candied apples and a good time was had by all.
On a more serious note before I close, I would like to open up the prayer doors of the blogging world. I would like you all to pray for my friend and colleague Daniel Smith (age 34) . He is a nurse practitioner who works in the same office as i do. A few months ago he was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma on his tongue. Originally he had a fair prognosis of a 40-60% cure success rate. Recently he was basically given a 0% medical cure rate as new scans showed his cancer had metastasized to bones and lungs. Without a Miracle from our Savior the doctors have given him a probable 6-9 months. He is a fellow believe and amazing testimony to the peace and love of Jesus. If you have some time here is his blog: http://patdanielsmith.blogspot.com/ I can assure you if take time to read his blog you will be blessed. He is a great guy and I know he would covet your prayers.

We Are Alive!!

Its good to be back with you all here in cyber land. Unlike other times in the past my absence from blogging has not been by laziness but reliance on an oh so heavenly WiFi connection. The internet has not been available here at the ole Heady household in probably a month but magically it came back yesterday stronger than ever. So i will update you on all that is going on with us since the last time i wrote.... I'm still working more than I would like but work life is good. There are many days where i feel like i'm in a good medical groove and I actually do know a few things about what people need. I occasionally still get that weird new deer walking feeling that makes me uneasy somedays. I'm anxiously awaiting some time off at the first of August which will be a great relaxer. Tara is doing great. She is still slowly taking over Ben Lomand one day at a time. She will soon be registering for classes which she should have done 2 months ago. I think her classes start in late August. For all of you Non-Sparta kids she is sporting a new hair cut that is quite nice. She got it cut short about three weeks ago and it looks really pretty. At least now i don't have to hear "ugh this hair is so hot" Our kitties Scofield and Nala have grown to actually look like real cats. They are really a mess. We had one close call with Nala running away last week but for the most part they have been pretty good about staying around. I didn't expect to like them this much but they really are fun to play with and watch them interact with each other. I see the wonders of Gods human creations everyday but often I find myself watching these cats and saying "Wow! these are really pretty intelligent creatures and God is so neat" For the most part they live normal little kitty lives. Occasionally after long naps they switch over to what we have coined "Crack Kitty" mode. Scofield will lay his ears back and get this weird gleam in his eye and he is off to the races....climbing on chairs, running and jumping up the wall. It is sometimes more fun than any HD program.
On a more serious note....as most of you know since the last time I wrote We found ourselves in the awful place of saying goodbye to another family member and friend Crystal Hutchings. We all know Crystal didn't really die but ultimately just began living....True life... I must admit it doesn't seem real. There will forever be etched in my mind a few memories from the funeral day. One of those only a handfull of people saw but truely ripped my heart out. As the funeral ended there was a little bit of a delay till they moved her to the gravesite...Most people left and only a few people remained. All other 6 kids had already been swept up by MiMi but Daniel was left standing alone...under the tent with steve as they brushed some dirt off her casket before closing the vault. As he stood alone at the age 10 or so it was as if he was transformed into a man. So many responsibilities were ahead of him and so many things he would have to deal with that he doesn't even know about yet. I'm not sure if I will ever see anything more heartbreaking but I know great things are ahead for those Hutchings kids.
On a final note, I mentioned our vacation. The first week of August we will be heading to Jekyll Island ,GA for a week of life on the beach. We will end our journey with hopefully a few days in South Carolina with my cousin Jon and his wife heather. Hopefully we will get some good fresh shrimp and even catch a shark or two off his boat.

Cats? Surely Not!?!?

Hello My friends! Well as we enter the Dog Days of summer the Reign of Cats has entered the Heady house. Yes, I know its quite the surprise for those of you who know me personally. I have never been the cat lover but my beautiful wife has beaten me into submission and subsequently Two cats have arrived at our house. They were compliments of the Other Heady house hold. I think Ryan was giggling as we carted off two from his fold. I like the kittens the size and personality they are right now. Its when they become old,large,clingy and annoying that turns me away from the feelings towards the felines. The first night has went well so far. Tara is all smiles and the two are snoozing in out kitchen floor right now. They have showed no signs of shock so far. The gold/yellow one is quite the curious cat...he played with tara most of the night but the other one is a party pooper and has just slept after eating. This brings us to the obvious question...What are their names? Well, right now their birth certificates just show baby boy and baby girl Heady. Thats where we need the faithful readers to give us suggestions for their names. For you Prison break lovers, Schofield and Linc are in the running for the boy name and Tancredi or variation is in the running for the lady. So if you have a favorite please let us know. Well I just wanted to share the newest additions to our family.

Happy Anniversary!

Well I once again find myself 2-3 weeks from my last post. I appreciate your patience. The last year has been a fun ride. Tara and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary yesterday!!! I have always heard from so many people "oh the first year is the hardest, If you don't kill each other you will be good" Well I can honestly say the first year has been a breeze. Sure we had our moments but those moments were like a passing breeze. It really has been a great and memorable year. We spent most of our dating life 5.5 hours apart so we had so many things to learn from just being around each other every day. Tara truly is fun to be around all the time. We are always giggling like school girls and I never feel out of place no matter where we are at as long as she is with me. Over the last year I have watched more "flip this house" "Diners Drive ins and Dives" and other various Food Network/HGTV shows than i probably would have ever watched in my life but it has been traded off with many Golf afternoons and action movies. I know this sounds crazy but our anniversary kind of snuck up on us. I have been working more than i would like and sometimes planning is not our strong point. We found ourselves not really having any plans and too late to make any big plans over the memorial day weekend. So after chilling for most of the weekend we jetted to Evins Mill in Smithville for a nice getaway. You can see above we happened to run into our friends the Musical Frogs who were performing outside the mill. We basically had the place to ourselves seeing how there was only one other couple there. After a nice supper we settled down in our room to watch our wedding video and engage in the ceremony of eating the wedding cake on 1 year anniversary. I will say i was quite skeptical about the adventure and it ended up living up to our expectations. It was mostly just dry cake with hard icing that tasted like it had been frozen for a year. Tuesday morning we slept late and then headed to one of the main attractions on the Ground of Carmac Falls. The waterfall is beautiful and has a fall of about 100 feet. It was a nice end to a nice peaceful get away. I must say as we enter the summer months i have been quite excited for the many possibilities of long weekends and only part time hours. Well unfortunately those plans have changed and I will find myself inside working many more hours than i was wanting. Its okay though because I'm being able to step in and fill a gap that I know God knew was going to happen. One of the Nurse Practitioners on our team has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition and will be on leave for about 2 months. So please pray for him if you remember. His name is Daniel. So hopefully we will be able to slip away for a few days here and there and enjoy the summer sun. Well hopefully this gave you a nice glimpse of whats been going on with us. This picture to the left is of us with the beautiful Carmac falls in the background where we hiked this morning. I will hopefully have all the other pictures on our flicker page real soon.

Heady National Golf Club

Greetings to you and yours! I guess i will start off with a big ole "Happy Birthday" to me. As most of you know yesterday was my birthday and the ole "2-6" is now behind me. It was a good day really. I was scheduled to work for Dr. Webb on Monday but the beautiful weather slowed the world down and I was able to leave early around 2pm. I spent most of the rest of the day frolicking outside and soaking up the sun. Me and my lovely bride were then off to supper for my birthday meal. This past weekend we spent a few days in Nashville and had a few really nice meals so we decided to go simple and hit the El Tap. Tara treated me with a great relaxing back massage as we chuckled to Jay Leno. Today was a great day as well. I was off and enjoyed sleeping late till about 10am. The rest of my day was spent making the final preparations for Heady National Golf Club grand opening. All of the grounds were mowed and trimmed today. The course has been taking shape for the last few days but has officially hit its peak playing conditions. Some will say its just a flag,an open field, and a little boys dreams but I want to urge you that its so much more than that. I have just spoke with the marketing department and the Brochures are ready to be sent out. Please feel free to check it out at the link below. The quality has been lowered for internet viewing purposes. Feel free to drive by and tour the grounds. If you would like a higher quality brochure just let me know. We are currently experiencing some tecnhical difficulties with the link going to our brochure. It should be two pages but only the first page is showing up so we will continue to get these things worked out. thanks.
http://www2.headys.us/downloads/Heady-National-Brochure.pdf

Happy Birthday Abby!

Well tonight was Abby's official celebration for being on this earth for the big 1 year. 365 days. Time really is a funny concept to try and put your mind around. One year seems so long but it always seems to vanish like a ninja right before our eyes. Anytime i start to think about time and contemplating the cosmos I usually end up getting wigged out and my eyes glaze over. With an estimated life expectancy of around ~70 years just for example. Abby has a little over 25,000 chances to see the sun rise and set again. Thats a large number but by my calculations i have 9,482 of those days already in my personal history bank. So i have to ask myself...What have i done/accomplished in those days? What do i spend all my time doing? Well I'm not gonna go in depth about how our days here on earth are numbered but as we celebrate such a sweet innocent young life maybe you can take a personal inventory of your "days" calculator. In that I'm sure you will see what you really hold important. So as long as Your Sun shines tomorrow you always have a chance to do something special. I have posted all of my pictures from tonights party on our flicker page. Please go check them out and if you want a better quality of one just let me know. check them out here www.flickr.com/photos/camtara/

Tree Rats meet The Pumpmaster

Once again i find myself apologizing for a long break in my blogging. All has been well since my last transmission. Easter was a tiring but a good getaway to NC. Everyone in NC was doing good and it was great to catch up with everyone again. Solomon is the starting center for the Davie County diaper football league. He has went from a preemie to a beefy stud in just 4 short months. On Easter Sunday afternoon, we had some fun family Gene adventures as 7 people piled into his truck and roamed his land along with the surrounding farms. Once back in sparta all has been well. Tara continues to go to school and become Ben Lomands most outstanding employee. I have submitted all of my Loan Repayment papers and will be awaiting an answer over the next few months to whether i will be winning the 50K dollar jackpot. Not many things are certain in this world but no one else is being considered for the position and the Spencer clinic is rated as one of the higher rural health needs in this area. The NHSC gives favor to clinics with the highest rating of needs so if i don't receive the money no one will. This past weekend we got to spend some time with out good friend Bignate before he ships off to serve our country in Afghanistan. In a way i'm fighting my own little war here in Gillen once again. My little squirrel friend has started to respect me a little more and is an infrequent guest at the bird feeders. However the dark warrior tree rat clans have started taking my feeder to the bank. The black birds have raided us and are laughing all the way to the top of the trees. Last year i can't recall one black bird getting on our feeders but now they are like a bad motorcycle gang appearing every time you turn around. While in NC Gene gave me a flash back to the past when me and ryan were little boys. Gene had bought a Pellet gun from walmart for general plinking and when he walked out my eyes lit up and I said I had one just like that when i was younger. In fact, we had two... one for me and one for ryan. As i shot it it brought me back to so many good days shooting fence post and aluminum cans. When i returned back to sparta i went to walmart and found that the ole Pumpmaster 760 was only 30 bucks. So obviously i couldn't turn it down. the design is still the same....the empowering feeling of pumping it like 50 times when the book only recommends 10 times is still the same. Granted my eye sight must be worse or i haven't sighted him in yet cause i have yet to hit one of our Tree Rat friends. They just laugh all the way back to the top of the trees but they won't be laughing when i hang one of them over the tree branches for all his brothers and loved ones to see. Last night I once again found myself crunching numbers and dreaming about the future. If you ever want to have fun or get your self depressed ( you can choose) go to Dave Ramsey's website and play with his investment calculator. It was actually pretty amazing to see how much you could make long term with only starting out with a little bit of money. If you play with it you will see this but i will describe it anyways. It gives you the ability to change your initial investment, your monthly investment and how long you want to invest for. Then you can choose to see what your investment gains would be roughly in so many years. Most of the bars are blue but there is one special "yellow" bar that tells you when you would eclipse the One Million Dollar mark. I decided to go unrealistic and see how quick i could get to my One million dollar yellow bar. Granted this is a little far fetched but i gave us a marked initial balance because we said Tara would work like two years and then all that money would go towards this fund. Then it turns a little crazy hahaha. If i put most of my salary in this fund for 10 year growing with interest every year I would reach my million dollar mark in like 11 or 12 years. So I would be sub 40 years old have have a million dollars in the bank. Nice to think about but sure its unrealistic for the most part but its definitely possible to still have a lot of money down the road if you start early and do things right. Well I'll leave you with that little toy to have fun with. Click on investment calculator on the right.
www.daveramsey.com/etc/investmentcenter/

Eastbound On Easter

Happy Easter!!I just wanted to write a quick blog to all my followers before we pack up and head east on I-40 for about 5 hours. We are looking forward to a few days with family and friends. Of course for you sparta kids we will be able to fellowship with The Kings but me and tara will also get to see our little nephew who we haven't seen since Christmas. He is in the ballpark of 4 months old now so i'm sure he looks nothing like we remember him. The little NC weekend trips have transformed alot in my eyes over the last year. In the past I would be chomping at the bit to go and 5 hours however a long trip I always had my lovely friend waiting for me so my mind was always focused on her which passed the time nicely. Now since my lovely bride is always with me its alittle hard to get motivated to pack up pretty much every pair of socks/underwear i have and drive 5+ hours for only a few days time then turn around and do it again. All will be well though, I have my XM radio all wired up and ready to go along with the fantasies of being a race car drive as we weave thru the NC mountains. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and Hopefully i shall return with crazy stories with Tim and "jumping man" furches.

Winter Wonderland!

What do myself and Donny Haley (WC School superintendent) have in common? Well 99% of the time I would say not awhole lot but this morning I got a little jolt of the power that comes with snow falling. Many of you know that for the last few months i have been working the Saturday Walk-in clinic here in Sparta. It has its good and bad sides. It was really good when we were out of income for 2 months. Well yesterday afternoon I talked to the practice manager and she informed me that in the event of bad weather It was my call whether the clinic would be open or not. At that moment i knew that I was doomed and the great power had lots of potential to corrupt me. This morning I was to call my nurse and secretary to see if they were able to make it in. I called the nurse first and she had already talked to the secretary. I heard the words, "Mindy is not 100% sure she can make it but its your call and she will get there if you want to work." and at that moment I was already in another world watching channel 4 Snow Bird scroll across bottom of screen saying "Cumberland Family Care Walk-in Clinic closed Saturday morning". Sure i could have made it work but was not at all fully stoked about going into work. So This morning I was giddy like a little school again just like all those days when school was closed. As i write its still spitting some snow and quite beautiful. On the ground i would say .5in to 1.5 in. Never the less its enough to make my heart flutter with excitement. In other news, yesterday i found myself giddy like a little school girl again awaiting a package from UPS. I'm not sure which one is more exciting...awaiting a good snow? or awaiting a anticpated package arrival. I'm just glad God has blessed me with those two back to back. The moment me and Don got done filing my income tax papers i started to think about all things i would like to do with that money. For about 3-4 weeks now i have been trying to decide between the Newest Nikon release D300, new lens and flash or new lens and older Nikon body but upgrade from my current camera body. Much like Jones flip flops on dome vs. hanger I was up in the air with my decision. Finally after many internet recommendations i decide to drop my money into a flash and nice "glass". Photography lingo for good lens. My day was a little anxious cause the package needed a signature and i knew UPS route ran around our house around noon. which was a problem and keeping the Pizza hut appointment. I called in the Don for back up as i ran to the Hut but it turned out our UPS guy was a step ahead of me and dropped it off at Tara's work cause he thought no one would be home. Which is why I love ole Greg Winton!! God Bless that little brown suited man. The lens is really amazing. It has Vibration Reduction built in which automatically takes away hand shake and essentially giving you more sharp,crisp pictures. It allows you to get pictures in low light and longer zooms that you probably wouldn't have been able to get unless with a 2-3k dollar lens. I have taken many test shots so i will try and pos some on our flickr page to illustrate the difference.
I do have one other bit of exciting news that i will pass along in this every growing blog. About 4 years ago when i was deciding which Graduate schools to apply to. I decided that i would go against some peoples logic and only apply to one school. Most people apply to 15-20 schools at minimum. I wanted to stay local and in making that decision I inherited probably one of the most expensive PA schools in the country. Trevecca being a small Christian school and the graduate PA program being the most expensive program on campus above all doctorate and undergrad degrees makes for a painful debt. Not uncommon for Grads to walk away with total cost well reaching over 100K in only 2 short years. Luckily i was not that bad via help from my family. In October when i was jobless for 2 months I started looking at many loan repayment jobs that would allow me to sign a contract to work and get my loans repaid. We seriously looked everywhere from the Caribbean Islands, snowing Colorado and Indian reservations in north Carolina. Almost pulling the trigger to pack up and leave for 2-3 years just to get this weight off our backs and have a good adventure at the same time. While looking I stumbled on an opening in Spencer,Tn. Intrigued I emailed just wondering if this was true. I got a response back saying it was not available but it was Dr. Ty Webb clinic from here in Sparta. The loan repayment position turns out wasn't available at this time. I started talking to the practice manager and she told me there was a good chance it would become available in about a years time. So that possibility is what led me to take my current job. Because I thought it would be easy for me to slip into that position if I was already associated with the practice. Well it looks that may very well happen. I had a meeting this week with our Practice manager and she said she wanted to make it happen for me that my loans would be repaid. currently i work in Spencer one day a week but to be eligible to start getting money in January 2009 I have to log so many hours in that clinic in 2008. So over the next few months I will begin to take over more responsibilities in the spencer clinic. I'm really excited about the chance to get paid and get my loans repaid but also I have grown to love the flexibility and freedom of only working 3-4 days a week. But hey i wouldn't be able to find this opportunity anywhere else close to this area cause i have looked. It will probably mean i will become only a honorary member of many lunch meetings but will still be there in spirit. i will let you know more as this story plays itself out. Well I have said to much and I don't wanted to be blasted as a long poster.

Cam and Tara update!

Hello friends and neighbors! I hope is all and well in your parts of the land. I just wanted to make a quick post and update everyone on whats been going on around the Heady home. The last few weeks have been good but different. As many of you know we have said farewell to our friends the Kings and are adjusting back to Sparta life with out them. My work is going really well right now and I really enjoy the group i'm working with alot more than my last place of employment. I still have this lingering question in the back of my mind sometimes whether i really want to do family medicine forever. Family medicine is a neat thing and gosh you basically see a little bit of everything walk thru the door. There is a lot of the same that can get boring but so much diversity that ultimately i think thats what makes me want to move on. I think deep down i have a desire to be really good at a few things. In family medicine lots of times your just pretty good at a lot of things. I would ultimately like a mix of medicine and not medicine employment i think. Find something that i just absolutely loved like a hobby that i could do while being a PA and still get paid some little something for it. Well on to my lovely wife... The last few days have been a struggle for my bride. Around 5pm on sunday night, I heard the dreaded words of..."My stomach feels funny" those words then progressed to "I think i'm dying" Much of her sunday night was spent looking very pale laying in the bathroom floor. yesterday was spent just vegging out on the couch with an occasional rumbly stomach but no throwing up so that was good. She was off to work today not a 100% but much improved. On a lighter note, many of you know that we have become quite the little bird ranch. We have two regular bird feeders, a finch feeder and a woodpecker suet. Well this morning i come and sit down at the computer only to see a little squirrel on top of bird house raiding our feeder. Not uncommon for that to happen really but don't want that going on here at the Heady Bird Sanctuary. So I grab my little Air Soft pistol and run to the door to fire off a shot. (okay squirrel lovers its not going to kill him so calm down) My first shot was horribly off and i figured well it will scare him off for awhile. Well evidently squirrels have like 3 minute memories cause he was right back almost before i got sat back down. Once again i missed horribly mostly because i was having to throw the door open and shoot before he moved. As most of you know i'm smarter than the average squirrel, so i propped the door open just enough to get my gun thru the door. Sure the first time like that i missed again but oh the second door shot Hit Center Mass. I think he was stunned actually that i hit him cause he sat there for like 2 seconds and then jumped to run for his life. I'm pretty sure if you flash forward 50 years this is what i will be doing all day then too. Course then i will just blow up the bird house cause i won't be able to see any detail just large fuzzy objects. I will let you know how the great squirrel adventures go but i think i have shown him who is the sheriff around these parts already. I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon and try the new poll feature. so please vote.

All Hail The Kings!

Settle down my little Cameron babies!! (props to Conan O'Brien on that line) I know many of you have been just anxiously awaiting another overflow of thoughts from my large brain...well wait no more. I will try to keep this posting as upbeat as possible but i fear that it will turn into the melody of one Dave Teters Dobro exhibition on Sunday night. I am giving my farewell to the Kings blog like much of my fellow bloggers have done this week. Today started off much like alot of other days in the recent past... me, tim, and ryan off on some crazy adventure. This has been a recurrent theme over the last oh 2,375 days and become much more about the ride than the actual task at hand. But today we were marching to the beat of a different melody, unlike so many other constructive adventures that have gone before today we found ourselves disassembling the Kings life here in Sparta. Its a weird thought that has really hit me hard today. I have spent more time with the Kings over the last ~7 years than many members of my blood family and in that same breath they have become as family to me. Barring some multi-million dollar blessing and this side of Our Eternal Home....these next few days will be the last days that our crews will ever actually live in the same little circle. Like everyone else who grows older I have experienced many difficult things: divorces, personal and profession medical tragedies, and many personal struggles. The Kings exodus will definitely fall into the very difficult category. Sure life will go on just like it did for my some ~20 years before the kings came but most definitely life will be different. worse? no! better? definitely no! But most certainly different than before i met them. I remember everything from the early desk assembly with Tim, Daniels "Be Silly Shoes", the quiet reserved Wenge and yes the life before Emma. So many adventures, so many silly talks, so many serious discussion, so many dreams shared, so many memories that will last forever. Tim has become like a brother, Wenge a 2nd mom, Daniel and Emma I have become to love and brag about like they were my own kids. I won't really miss the Tim as the youth minister of FBC but by far more the close friend who is at multiple weekly lunches and late night secret ops missions. I could go on and on about the many stories of affection for the Kings but the one that will stay with me forever is my beautiful wife Tara. As many of you know Tara is from tim and wenge's hometown of Mocksville and they played a huge role in our dating and our marriage. Long before Tara would even acknowledge my existence i sat with Tim on multiple occasions expressing my unexplainable attraction and love for this girl for all intents and purposes I knew nothing about. Many years later i learned that Tim could have maybe been a little better friend to me by telling me that he was having similar conversations with Tara at some points in time but thats a whole different blog at a different time. So whenever I tell my grandkids about how papa and nanny met each other the story will always be tied to the Kings on their adventure thru Sparta,Tn. Well if you Kings actually read my blog I want you to know that I really do love you and I will truly truly miss seeing you most everyday but it will only make other gatherings that much more special. I feel confident with both our family's in mocksville our paths will cross many times just in passing but it would still be nice to have you right down the road. I wish for you that all your wildest dreams come true and hopefully we both won't fall into The Bignate blog curse so we can still know all that is going on across the 340 miles of I-40.

Night on the Town with the Big Al

Today turned out to be a pretty good day even though it started out with great rage and frustration for me. The last few nights i have went to bed with pounding sinus pressure and drainage. I did not sleep well at all last night...i tossed and turned all night and could not get comfy. I figured it was just from sinus stuff but maybe it was my conscious trying to urge me out of the bed for other reasons. It may have been better that i didn't make it up and look outside because it would probably have resulted in a dead man laying out in my drive way before the sun came up. As i got in my car to go to work I noticed that something was not right. The ole mule has been faithful to me for almost 8 long years. so i'm pretty in tune with the inside. As i scanned the scene i realized that someone decided they needed my XM radio more than i did. yes...somewhere between 6pm friday and 8am saturday the ole faithful soldier of almost 2 1/2 years was snatched from its loving docking home. Well as you can imagine i was pretty hot and baffled that someone would do that here in ole Gillen. Almost immediately a suspect came to mind and all you faithful readers and followers can insert that well known name into the blank now........ But after calming down i gave the police a heads up knowing that they could do nothing really. The story ends with a new discounted XM radio and free home and car kit on its way to me this week. So if the stealer of my XM radio is reading this blog...please beware... I have enough ammo in the house to hit you as long as you want to run or at least scare you to death if i miss. The last part of the day ended with great fun. Tonight we got to get the big Al and go out for a night of fun. Ole predictable allie picked chick-fil-a for her place of dining pleasure. So about 530 or so we set our course towards the big chicken hut. I guess Al has a pretty set menu and knows all the rules that she must complete to get in the big fun zone. It worked out good cause there was about 5-6 other kids in the play area that she played with for about 20-25 minutes. As we were ordering our real food she put her sites on a brownie that she wanted and i gave her the typical oh we will eat first and play next speech. Thinking that she would prob forget about it we went on but as soon as her little crocs were back on her feet out of the fun zone she was screaming for that special little treat. After eating and wearing alot of her brownie we were out the door and headed for our next adventure. We settled on something that Allie had never even heard of I guess but decided it would be fun times. We headed to Bowling World to play what allie now calls "rolling". It was fun times and she had a blast. I think she was alittle confused at first but by the end she was really in to it. We got some good pics that will be up on our Flicker page. We returned home for a nice bath and then a little hair braiding time with Sarah C. and Tara. It didn't take long for her to crash out with her bobo. She is a pretty cool little gal and will amaze you with some fun sayings. Well i'm off to crash for the night myself. Remember kids.....lock your doors and cars. Evil loves the night.

Corn and Cardinals

This past week has been quite the interesting week. I welcomed today with open arms as it was a day off for me. Up to that point i had worked 7 of the last 8 days which was totally cramping my style of trying to follow Dr. Jones methodology. It never ceases to amaze me how your day off seems to fly by but the ole work days crawl by at a snails trot. All in all life has been good though and i'm back on my normal schedule. The last week has also brought us into the corn making business. Wenge finally revealed the true caramel corn recipe and we have already made a few batches. I will have to say that it is delicious and pretty easy to make. Granted that its just one more thing that is gonna hold me back from losing the 10-15 lbs that i need/want to lose. I have shared a picture of our yummy goodness as it was basking in the warm oven's sun. There has been one other creature that has made a glorious appearance to the Heady Estate over the last week or so. Over the summer we added a hummingbird feeder and a regular bird feeder. We had pretty good success but over the last week we have changed our feed to Black oil sunflower seed and have seen a 100% increase in our Cardinal population. We rarely ever saw one on the other feed but now we have a large Cardinal Sanctuary. After seeing the numerous beautiful creatures in our back yard, i began to see the world in pictures again and drummed up the idea to get another bird feeder to place outside the front window. With the new front window setup i have the Nikon D50 perched on its tripod and pointed right at the bird house with the hopes with the little camera remote that we will catch some great pics to post on the web. Only a few hours in operation we had our first visitors but it was already starting to get dark and was not able to get a good picture. As always, I can never just have one opportunity at a good shot so i have added another hummingbird feeder along with a Finch feeder to hang on the same pole as the new bird house. Check back in a few days and hopefully you will see one of our pictures from our new bird window.

Sarah BB game...

Tonight was lesson one in photographing basketball for ole man Heady . Like alot of things in life you learn as you go and tonight shooting pictures was no different. It was my first indoors low light test with my lense and as far as lighting goes i have no complaints. I pulled out the big zoom lense and right away noticed a big difference in being able to focus and not get dark pictures. Just looking at the pics on the computer tonight i have already learned a few things that will hopefully make future pics better. My little sister Sarah played pretty well tonight like all the nights we have seen her play. Unfortunately her team just never seems to put it all together while we are there. Sarah had 5 threes tonight but it could have been more like 8-9. she had a few just rim out. Out of the teams 38 or so points she had 15 so i would say that is pretty stout. Like always if she ever wants to see someone rain down some threes and put her in her place she can just come knock on ole C. Heady's door. hahah i will have to give it to her she is pretty deadly from behind the three and if she doesn't hit the three she might just hit you in the eye. She is pretty intense and quite often can be seen burning a hole thru someone with her cutting looks. All in all it was a fun night. Like all photographers there is comfort in numbers and i shot prob about 150 shot tonight to turn out with a few good ones. I will share a few here and you can catch some more at our flicker page. Have a good week.

Happy New Year! First post of 2008

Greetings to all you loyal and faithful readers. I will echo the cries of other fellow bloggers that the Holiday Season brings a new degree of difficulty to blogging. But hey i'm not gonna ride that excuse hah. Christmas was great once again. Once again just another reminder of how blessed we truly are. Even though this year was a little different with Me and Tara taking a journey to NC it was all good. We had a great few days with Tara's family and getting to meet the Newest whittaker was pretty cool. he is a cutie. We had both her mom and dads Christmas gatherings on Christmas Eve and then we set sail around 9 oclock Sparta time setting a blazing trail towards TN. About 20 Miles into the 340 mi adventure i was having my doubts. I 'm not sure i have ever been more tired in my life but like all good running backs and race horses i got stronger as the night wore on. By the end it was just me and andrew peterson rocking down the road till we finally arrived at about 2am at Nanny's house. I had never drove at the wee hours of the morning on Christmas but it was pretty wild to see what other people are doing. Random bonfires by the house, late night bar crowds and the occasional random drivers. Christmas morning found us with the traditional breakfast and then just chilling out the rest of the day till daddys party that night. Our Christmas was concluded with Mom's gathering on Wednesday night at her house which was also a Celebration of Sarahs 16th Birthday. Since that time i have found myself playing with new little gadgets and working like a borrowed mule. This year i find myself on the bottom of the ladder and with 3 other providers that want to take time off around the Holiday...that left good ole Cam to fill in those days. All in all it has been good and I will never turn down a pay check. Tara has also entered the work force where she is working for the local phone company while one of the regular employees is on medical leave. Now that she has hit the gold maybe i can cut my schedule farther back to reflect my friend Mr. Jones schedule. The last few days i have found myself toying with something that i bought for myself after the Christmas holiday. I have really grown to love photography and playing with all the different settings to see what i can come up with. Not really sure where this hobby came from but its one that is pretty neat once you get into it. Over the last few months i have found myself learning some of the technical blab that is associated with photography. My recent purchases was a little Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens. Photography is much like alot of other hobbies The more money you have brings more little bells and whistles you can put to use. Well unfortunately i don't have alot of money to throw around but this one i couldn't resist at just over 100 bucks. Its neither the latest nor the best but it has some great potential. All readers other than Bignate will have probably checked out by now but i will explain whats so fun about this little jewel. Even though its a 50mm lense, with the new DSLR digital sensor it essentially has a 1.5x crop factor that makes it the equivalent to a 75-80mm lens. I now have 3 lens which all cover the 70mm range at some point on their spectrum. The lense 28-80mm, 70-300mm zoom and now this 50mm (=75mm). Each one has its limits and one of them is called the fstop or how big the hole in the lense gets that lets light come thru. My new lens goes down to f/1.8 where all my other lens at that same focal length were prob 4-4.5. Which
really just means its alot faster and works better in low light. here is a little test i did to show you the difference with 3 lens all set at the same exact settings (as close as i could get on focal length) but oh look at the results. I hope you enjoy. first pic is with 70-300 zoom lense. then my new lens in the middle and last pic is with 28-80mm lens. As you can tell lighting is quite different. This makes it a great indoor lens when you don't want to use a flash or if you do just a good fast lens even though its not a zoom lens. hope you enjoyed! have a great day.