Summertime in Sparta!

My plan was to update my faithful readers with frequent improvements and changes to our new house. Well As you can tell that has not happened but maybe sometime soon. The house is coming along really good. Of course from our last blog we have a new dining room table with China Hutch but also we have added a snazzy living room Suit that has got us set for furniture for awhile. I must say it looks pretty good. The cats have had to live with adjusting to life in the garage while we are not home in attempts to keep the furniture scratch free. So far it has gone pretty good but they are starting to learn to run from us because they know we are coming to lock them in the garage. In other house news, after about 150 bucks in fertilizer and lots of TLC our yard is looking more like a yard. It still has some spots that are barren but the back yard has become the new Home for Heady National Golf Club. Over the last month or so Tara has been freakishly busy with a two week compacted summer class and now in a more conventional month long summer class. Both of these with the goal of finishing next spring. My life tends to vary very little...People are still sick and complain alot. But my home life has brought on a new addiction. Gunbroker.com has brought me and ryan much happiness over the last few weeks. Ever since we got our gun carry permit we have been using the line "now i just need a gun to carry" We both have had our eyes on the Ruger LCP for a few months but after calls to Bass pro, gander mountain, academy and the Outdoor Junction we realized that we were on the trail of the hottest gun on the market. We quickly turned to our friend Gunbroker which is basically an Ebay for guns. The sight had an amazingly large amount of Rugers and then the chase was on. Last Friday we bite the bullet ( "rimshot" where are you at smitty?) and ordered two of the little Jewels. To our delight they came in today and we ventured over to the Outdoor Junction which I highly recommend if you live in the Cookeville/Sparta area. After a quick background check and checking of the father/baby arm bands we were able to take our new loved one home. The ride home to sparta quickly took us down to Hutchings College to try out our new purchace. We were certainly not dissappointed and also took this time to fire off some much cheaper .22 LR rounds. I have attached a few photos I snapped tonight to give you an idea of how small this gun really is. The second picture is of my regular 9mm pistol. I will leave you with these pictures and promise to update our blog with new house pics or to our flicker page.

Dining room table + china cabinet= Backache and possible Hernia

There are certain days in your life that leave identifiable marks on you forever. The inevitable's are your wedding day, the birth of your children and family vacations. Some leave a mark on you for other reasons... some are physical marks. Today was one of those days for myself, Rhino and the Don. As you know from previous blogs and word of mouth we purchased our house the beginning of January. We brought with us only a few articles of furniture to the new house. Over the last few weeks we have been searching for a Sofa/loveseat combo as well as dining room table. Strangely enough i think we have settled on them both but today was the homecoming for our dining room table and china cabinet. Over the weekend we went to D.T. McCall and found a really nice table that was onsale but we had to buy the china cabinet as well. They would not break up the set. So the weekend consisted of measuring from every angle and it was finally decided that the way our dining room was set up that it just wouldn't look right with the china cabinet in the same room as the table because the cabinet was just way to big. With both in the room there was essentially no room to get the table centered under the light and still have room to get chairs in on one side of the table. Well this weekend we learned that this particular set was a close out and they only had 9 sets left. It was going in their sale paper which covered about 4 D.T. McCall stores across middle TN. Flash forward to today where I called the Carthage store and they said they only had one left and it was on the showroom floor. So I had to make a split second decision to drive down to Carthage around 230 this afternoon to get our beloved table. Me and the Don saddle up the red mule and head down to Carthage. As it turns out we get to Carthage and my sales rep gave me some false information and turned out they still had some in the warehouse which turned out to be good because they were still boxed up and made it easier for transport. We arrived at the heady ranch around 530pm and then the real fun began. Table, chairs, lower section of china cabinet were a breeze. Unfortunately, the top part of the hutch must be lined with gold or concrete. To make a long story short the beast weighed about 270lbs. So me, don, and ryan grunt,cry, waddle and finally get this thing in the door with only one minor scratch on the front. As we near the end of set up we discover that we made one fatal flaw in our moving decision. Tucked inside the top part of china cabinet are the glass shelves for the cabinet. With the help of our friendly scale we discovered that each one of these weigh a little over 10lbs. So you do the math 10.5 x 6= ~63 lbs. Needles to say it would have still been a beast but we could have carried it with 65 pounds less weight which would have been nice. So all in all we survived a Don Nose bleed, a dent/scratch on the front and many strained low back muscles. I have attached a few pictures for your viewing pleasures. As you may notice, we ended up putting the china cabinet in our kitchen in a little knook. It ended up looking pretty good since we couldnt fit all in one room.

New House Pictures

Front yard

Side view of Garage












Side View of House












View of our back yard, You can see the established grass and then the new grass that has been sowed recently.












Front yard from cul-de-sac. Getting some green fuzz.










Another Shot of Front yard.

House Update...

Hello friends! The last 3 months have been a wild and crazy ride. As Most of you know we closed on our new house in early January and started moving in only minutes after we signed the papers. It definitely was a fun adventure looking at different houses but we new what we were looking for so that process was fairly short. I guess we have hit the market at a pretty good time for us but bad for most other Americans. We have locked ourselves into a really great Interest rate. One that is around 2 points lower than we started looking only a few months earlier. As most of you home owners know...some of the excitement started to fade when we started making our first payments. The cats have made the adjustment well with no major seizures or spasoid episodes. We knew that they were out of their element the first night cause they both slept in our bed for the first time ever and an event that has only happened a few times since then. They will be a year old in the middle of April and still have many crazy kitten moments. There have been multiple small jobs along the way and now we always seem to make a trip to Lowes for many $$$. Our last adventure has been watching grass grow...Yep. One of our Achilles heel with the new house has been our Yard. For the first 2.5 months it has been a large mud slide as we have been slowly been losing our front yard into the cul-de-sac. Finally about 2 weeks ago the day had finally come where we would start watching the seeds develop into little sprouts. We are actually starting to see a good amount of green now and a small part of me is dreading mowing the 1.13 acres that is now the Heady Estates. As most of you know my birthday is next month and I will gladly accept a 50in Zero Turn mower or accept donations to go toward one. hehe.. I accept cash, Money orders or i'm sure with some help from my IT department we could do Direct Deposit. We Promise to upload some pictures of the new crib soon hopefully with a growing yard.

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.