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/