Prayer Request

Former Cheerleaders and dear friends,

Please pray for one of my former cheerleaders Audrey (Lave) Meadows and her two little boys. Her husband was crossing the Little Sioux River outside Onawa Friday AM. It was icy and he slid off the road and rolled several times. Unfortunately, he did not survive. Audrey lost her sister to cancer this year. I can't tell you how awful I feel for her an her family. PLEASE lift them up in your prayers, grant them peace and strength and help them get through this. Ask God to remind her that they are in His hands and that He will never let them go.

James 5:13-16
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Old School; Go Big 'Red'

Here's a picture of BV Cheer Alumn, Audrey and one of her boys. Below is a letter she recently sent me. Please keep her sister and their families in your prayers.

Hi everyone. How have you all been? Everything is going pretty good here.

For those of you who don't know, my sister Joy has to go back and have another bone marrow transplant. My mom is going up there to be with her this weekend and will be there for at least a couple weeks. She had an idea to see if we could get 10,000 paper cranes made before Joy has to leave the hospital. I would love to see how many we can all get done. If you know how to make them great. If you don't attached are some instructions. I thought if we could each make 100, we could reach the goal of 10,000 in no time. I started yesterday, and have 30 done so far. You can either send them to Joy yourself or give them to me and I will send them for you. Here is a little story about Sadako and the paper cranes. Well, not the whole story just a summary of it (Just so you understand why we want to make them). After the story there is the hospital address where Joy will be.

Sadako Sasaki was an ordinary 11 year old Japanese girl, that had survived the Hiroshima bombing when she was 2 years old. Nine years later, she had a dizzy spell on the playground at school. She was brought to the school nurse and she told Sadako’s family that they should have her checked out at a hospital. So they did and sure enough Sadako had luekemia, “the atom bomb disease”. She was shipped to a hospital for people with diseases, mostly luekemia, and while she was in the hospital, her friend visited her and gave her a crane she had folded. There is a Japanese tale that if a sick person folds one thousand paper cranes, the gods will make them better. Her friend taught her how to fold them and she got started. For a long time she stayed in the hospital, folding cranes. She got over 600 folded, but she died before she was done. Her classmates folded the rest and buried them with her.

You can send the paper cranes, your cards and mostly your prayers to
Tamesin (Joy) Goodchild
University of Wisconsin Hospital
6th floor-Cancer wing
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53792

Not quite so "Old School"

Four of the Six members of my first squad at Boyer Valley in 2000-2001.

Left to right: Audrey (aka "Big Red" ala the stupid "Bring it On" movie) she was a good leader (and not near the bitch in the movie) Now she's a mom, a farm wife and a part time college student, hopefully still someday to become a world famous chef and not nearly the wild child that she was in school. I always enjoyed talking with her and though she'd make a great coach someday. She could fly, base, jump, MC a pep rally, teach chants to rookies, and man could she yell!

Next is Christina Rose, also a decent leader and helluva yeller. Also a bit of a wild child, but then I'm pretty much a prude. Great sense of humor and a patient teacher. Last I heard, she's working on her coaching endorsement but has her eye on Drill more than Cheer. Her baby brother has worked as mascot for us some this year.

Then there's Jenn. Sharp, accurate- great backround in Drill/dance/even ballet. Man, could she kick! She's now at Georgetown working on a degree in Sociology. She and I could talk forever about Art and politics. I wish I could hook her up with Kenny, who was mascot the year of this picture, you know how you always want to get 2 people you care about together so you'll be more likely to stay in touch with both of them longer? But alas, he wants to move back and farm and she wants to stay in DC and save the world.

And then there's Sadie. She's just a wee Freshman in this picture so she'll probably hate me posting it. She went on to become every bit the leader that Red was. Between me and some melodramatic squadmates, she put up with a lot. She also became an awesome Yearbook Editor too and can she draw and paint! She had just enough Texas in her to make her a great cheerleader too. Everybody loved Sadie. She had a huge crush on Presidential candidate, NC Sen John Edwards. She is an EMT and was pre-nursing in college, but the rumor mill says she has a boyfriend in Missouri. I hope she sticks with it and gets a Bachelor's Degree and I hope he is worthy of her because she deserves the best.

Not pictured are Iris the Art goddess, Candace the tiny, and of course Kenny as Cujo

Big Red Weds

Matt "Stubbs" and Audrey "Big Red" at their wedding Saturday, Aug 27, 2005 in Moorhead, IA