Edward "Bob" Foster

This week my grandpa turned 93. Wow. We're still glad to have him around. My grandma led him to the Lord about a month ago. She's been praying for him since they met in 1941. They married in 1945 after only getting to know one another through letters. They only had one date before grandpa was shipped overseas, and it was only 2 months from the time they reunited in 1945 until they married.

Here are some more fun facts about Bob.

He was born July 6, 1913 in Hamilton, Iowa. I've been to hamilton, it's not much more than a spot in the middle of the road.

He ran away in his teens several times, and in the 1930's moved to Southern California to wrestle professionally. He wrestled under the name Thomas Timothy O'toole. He was a pretty tough guy. After that, he refereed wrestling matches until WWII and again after he returned from overseas. I was watching a special about wrestling once on TV, and the guys that inspired Hulk Hogan and some of the older wrestlers, they were all friends of Bob. Guys like "Killer Kowalski" and "Gorgeous George"

In WWII, he was in the army air-corp, the 117th bomb group. His position was navigator on a B-26 bomber named the "Coughin' Coffin", which is the plane that inspired the famous song "Coming in on a wing and a prayer" because it had landed once with only one wheel down. Since he was the navigator, he has lots of pictures of bombing sites taken from the airplane. He also gave me pictures when he toured the Holy Land in 1944. He also has pictures of death camps that his unit went through. I think Eisenhower wanted everyone to see what Hitler did.

After the war he joined the Polk County Iowa Sherriff's Department where he was a deputy from 1955 to 1979. He was always assigned as head of security when an important person came to Des Moines. He has a big frame on the wall of his house with pictures and letters from all the famous people he guarded. Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, and other governors, senators, etc. My favorite is of Him and then Senator John Kennedy (1958)

Then in 1979, he started to play golf everyday. And he did until about 10 years ago.

The many faces of Jenny.

Our friend Jenny is a deep, multifacted human being. The following is just a few of the 87 different emotions of Jenny on Facebook. Enjoy.

Happy

Sad

Elated

Exhausted

Perplexed

Worshipful

Celebratory

Inquisitive

Loyal

Hungry

Depressed

Suicidal

Hopeful

Bashful

Sleepy

Dopey

Sneezy

Grumpy

Doc?

Mischievous

Angry

Melancholy and the infinite sadness.

Worried

Friendly

Anxious

Proud

Safe

Alegre!

Trendy

And Scared

There you have it.

Silly Shirt Sightings

Danny E. Hay: March 26, 1952- May 8, 2006

I have to tell you, this whole situation is quite strange. For a person like myself who is usually in control of their emotions, and has a fairly firm grip on reality, this has thrown me for a loop.

I've figured out that there is no "standard" for grief. Everyone grieves differently. I've discovered that I can hold it together when I need to, in public or at memorial services. But in private tears are random and frequent. Just the littlest thing can set me off.

At the memorial in AZ, I didn't hardly cry a drop. I was worried everyone thought I was strange for not looking upset. In fact, my uncle and I were joking around alot. I guess that's how we deal with pain.

Denial aint just a river in Egypt. I understand what this means now. Your mind knows what happened, but your heart won't believe it. It's like I have to tell my heart over and over again what happened, and everytime, it acts surprised.

His story is a great testimony to the power of Jesus. I shared at the memorial that Dad and I didn't get along when I was young...that's an understatement. Then about 6 years ago or so, he accepted Christ.. Talk about a complete 180. He became the Dad I had always hoped for. Sure, he still had his faults, but the last 5 years have been the best ever. We did stuff together, talked stuff out, prayed together, and said "I love you" pretty often... amazing. My mother said at the memorial that she didn't know the guy everyone was talking about. (They divorced 11 years ago) She's right. That's how big of a change he made.

So many people were in tears looking at me. It was a little strange. That's because I look alot like my Dad, and have many of the same manerisms. I remember when I was a kid I hated the fact that my name was the same as his, and resented it when people said we looked alike. Now, I couldn't be more proud to pass on the high forhead, no butt and Santa belly.












My earliest memories of my father was watching him work on his 1938 Chevy. He bought it in 1970 when he still lived with my grandparents. It was all original and somebody had painted it blue with a brush and roller. I think he said he paid $400 for it, to which my grandpa thought he was nuts paying that for it. It was a rust free car (rare in Iowa) and it was sold new at Fletcher Jones Chevrolet in Phoenix, Az. That's ironic because we lived in Iowa, and eventually moved to AZ.

He finished hot rodding it in 1982. The following year we drove to OKC to the Street Rod Nationals. There were 12,000 cars there that year, and Dad won a Top 25 award. That means the car was judged as one of the top 25 at the show. He was very proud of this because all the other award winners were red Fords, and he had a purple Chevy.

He did everything to the car himself in our garage except stitch the upolstery. He put every amenity that new cars had on this one. Power windows, door locks, cruise, tilt wheel, automatic trans, automatic headlights, power antenna, power seats A/C, power steering, AM/FM Stereo...It has a 327 V-8 from a 69 corvette. Even though the restoration is more than 25 years old, you can still look closely and see Dad's attention to detail. That car is as shiny and clean on the bottom as it is on the top.. many of the brackets and pieces he made himself because he couldn't afford to buy one.

Miss you Dad.

He said I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on a dime
and I spent most of the next days
looking at the x-rays
Talking bout the options
and talking bout sweet time
I asked him when it sank in
that this might really be the real end
how�s it hit you when you get that kinda news
man what'd you do

and he said
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

He said I was finally the husband
that most the time I wasn't
and I became a friend a friend would like to have
and all the sudden going fishin
wasn't such an imposition
and I went three times that year I lost my dad
well I finally read the good book
and I took a good long hard look
at what I'd do if I could do it all again

and then
I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

Like tomorrow was a gift and you got eternity to think about
what'd you do with it what did you do with it
what did I do with it
what would I do with it?

Sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named fumanchu
and then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I watched an eagle as it was flying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.
To live like you were dying.