Christopher Carrabba

If any of you have never listened to Dashboard Confessional then you are missing out. They are my favorite band and Julie's favorite as well. Back in the college days Julie and I would go driving and roll down the widows and sing until we couldn't talk any more...and Emily and I listened to them all one summer. Chris Carrabba is the lead singer, song writer, and guitarist. He is simply beautiful. His words have been there for me through good and definately bad times. He sings words that if anyone else tried to sing them I would laugh. He just knows what to sing...that is it. Julie and I have gone to see him 3 times now and I cannot wait until he comes back to Dallas...which may be a while :( Anyways, he also wrote a song about Bella from Twilight which makes him even more perfect that he already was. That is all I have to write about tonight. I am just listening to his beautiful, true, and passionate voice. It is the only thing that can make me relax when I am stressed. He makes my heart beat slow down to just the right amount of beats per minute....yes he is that wonderful. Check him out. You won't regret it. My favorite is screaming infidelities. http://www.myspace.com/dashboardconfessional

Breaking Dawn and Callie Update

1. First and most importantly I will give all of you who have so graciously prayed for Callie an update. She had the first chemo treatment and got sick. According to my sister-in-law Sherry she got sick a couple of days after and missed quite a bit of school. I hope and pray that her body will get stronger with each one being able to fight it off a little easier each go around, but I am no doctor and don't know how this all works. Her mom Sara said that Mike and I can go sit with her through a treatment so I am trying to prepare myself for that. Please continue to pray for Callie and her family. PUSH...PRAY UNTIL SOMETHING HAPPENS. P.S. All four of my nieces are going to the Jonas Bros. concert in May. I am excited to go with them and buy them some cool Jo Bro's "stuff."

2. Now on to the less important but still amazing BREAKING DAWN. I will admit I have taken around 3 months to finish this book...I think because I didn't want to end my love affair with Edward and hold your breath...Jacob. I never really got into it until this week because I was only allowing myself about 10 pages a day to drag it out a while longer. I did not like all the gory? parts...drinking it out of a cup...gross. I also did not like all the talk about the V group. I just kept saying in my mind...get it over with, but then it happened. Not to spoil for anyone who has not read, but then it happened. It did happen. Yes, I'm not crazy. It did turn out good. Forever is such a wonderful word. Forever means forever and ever and ever and I love that. FOREVER is my new favorite word. Stephanie Meyer is a genius and I would love to meet her and pick her brain. Julie told me today to set the record straight that she is not going to finish midnight sun, but said she doesn't know if she can give up the characters.....which quite frankly...i cannot imagine not hearing the rest of Edward, Bella, and Jacob's story.

Callie (hope I am spelling it right)

Hello everybody,
I am writing to ask for lots and lots of prayers. My niece Callie (Mike's brother Chris and Sarah's little girl) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. It is big and is close to her optic nerve so they are not able to operate to remove it. They think it is not cancer so that is good, but she will have to go through 12-15 months of chemo treatments. She will have one every four weeks and they are each 4-5 hours long. Then she will probably have to have radiation when she gets old enough. She is having surgery next week to put in tubes for the chemo. I think everybody is still kinda in shock right now. Nobody knows how to react. I talked to Sarah and she said she will need people at the treatments so Mike and I will be there for as many as we can. Please pray for Callie, Chris, Sarah, and Julie (little sister). It seems like this is going to be a long road ahead for them. Callie is only 9 years old. God can work miracles. I am one. Pray Hard, Love Mal
P.S. PUSH=Pray Until Something Happens. I heard this from Kat that works with Mike.