Please remember these Santa Anna folks that are serving our country in military combat, training, or support: Maricela (Marty) Siller, Clay Stewardson, Eddie Dawson, Ike Garza, James Watson, Austin Voss, Randy Casey, Mike Montgomery II, Mark Rutherford, Allen Tucker, James Culpepper, and Shane Watson.
The Front Page
The Risk is Real - Serving our Country
Remembering those that have served and those that are serving our country.
You know sometimes it doesn't hit you until it is personal.
1565 American soldiers or sailors have died in Operation Enduring Freedom as reported by the Department of Defense and the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. Pray for our country, its' leaders, and our soldiers and sailors.Please remember the many serving as volunteers for various groups and those that may be working for the media or one of the many Department of Defense contractors that have employees in support roles in Iraq including Santa Anna's Jason Dane. These folks are serving an important part in the rebuilding of Iraq and the danger is just as great if not more for them as it is for soldiers.
The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count has also tracked the deaths of 83 American contractors working in Iraq so the risk is real.
Many service men and women return home safely. Operation Tribute to Freedom Homecoming Photographs.
Santa Anna High School OAP to Regional Contest Saturday
The one act play from Santa Anna, along with the play from Miles, will be advancing to the Regional One Act Play Contest on Saturday April 23rd at Hardin Simmons University Auditorium in Abilene. The contest will begin at 4:00 and the Santa Anna play will be the third out of six performances. With each lasting about 45 minutes 5:30 is the approximate start time of the Santa Anna play. As always, contest rules will apply throughout the performances with no one entering or leaving the auditorium during a performance so be sure and come early or you won't be allowed to enter the auditorium. Young children, cameras, cell phones, and pagers are also not allowed during a performance. Other schools in Saturday's competition will be Benjamin, Roscoe: Highland, Lindsay and Saint Jo.
The competition will be very good as Lindsay is the defending State Champion from 2004. The cast from Santa Anna will need lots of support so we will see you there.
"Break a Leg!" from the Peltons and SantaAnnaNews.com.
This year's Santa Anna OAP performance is titled "Livin' De Life" by Ed Graczyk and is set in the past at the Briar Patch and the Creepy Crawly Forest. The Cast of Characters in order of appearance is Tasha Zarate as Brer Tarrypin, Rudy Enriquez as Brer Coon, Jessica Pelton as Brer Rabbit, Raelee Watson as Brer Fox, James Singleton as Brer Bear, JeLisa Kirven - Aunt Mammy-Bammy, Michelle Wetsel as Miss Meadows, Mayra Dean as Sis Buzzard, and LeaAnda Bennett as Miss Goose. The crew is made up of Jessica Bennett - Alternate, Bianca Dean, Kendra Cannon, Kristle DeLeon, and Becca Fellers. This year's play is directed by Kathy Walker with assistance from Amanda Ellerbe and Orabeth McIver.
You might be from Santa Anna if..
You might be from Santa Anna if.. you ever wore a band hat like this one:
You also might be from Santa Anna if you know who this is!
The first reader that knows who this is will win a free subscription to SantaAnnaNews.com.. and save themselves from similar embarassment maybe..
Whatever Happened to..?
I wonder.. whatever happened to this unidentified Mountaineer Band member?
You might be from Santa Anna if.. and Whatever Happened to..? Part II
I wonder.. whatever happened to this unidentified Mountaineer Band member?
There were four readers that were able to identify this Mountaineer Band member. Tom Guthrie was the first one to get it correct. Congratulations Tom on winning the free subscription to SantaAnnaNews.com!
I forgot to mention that it is a lifetime subscription.. my lifetime and not yours..
I think Tom must have got some help from Lane or Sharon since it was before his lifetime began!
Jessica said that the school's web content filter was blocking SantaAnnaNews.com Thursday for some reason. She said it was because it was pornographic and I had her convinced it was because this person had become a porn star. She bought it for a little while until Cindy and I couldn't stop laughing.
I told her it was probably because someone at the school probably was mad at me for some reason, didn't like the picture, or maybe one of the Funnies was a little too off color. Or maybe because of this week's testing or too much traffic to SantaAnnaNews.com.
Jessica prodded Cindy and I until Cindy went to bed and the Jessica started digging out the annuals until she found the one with the picture in it. Cindy was in the Second Grade and is also pictured in the same Mountaineer annual. Still unsure she went through it until she had looked at every page at least twice. The band member is not identified in the annual either and there aren't any individual band pictures in it.
So who is it?
And you thought I was going to tell you today? Not me, but maybe Tom will..
OK, Cindy and I will give you the same hints we gave Jessica: his first name is Ricky and he won the John Philip Sousa award one of the years he was in band.
Good luck guessing and have a good weekend!
Lets Talk About Cars - Part III
I saved the one of the best (other than right here in town at Glenn's Car Sales) and the last car deal we made for last in my series about the Peltons' automobile purchases.
A few weeks ago, March 5th through the 11th to be exact, I mentioned some of the car deals and maybe almost (is that a double maybe Mrs. Guthrie?:) all the car deals I have made over the years except for the last one. Back during Volleyball season we started looking for a little newer car for Jessica. We were looking for one that would last her through college and possibly one that I would not have to do a lot of work on to maintain.
We looked at first at 84 Auto Sales and wanted something a little newer than what they kept. The Herrods don't deal much in cars so we were started looking around Brownwood, Goldthwaite, and Abilene. After a day of searching the lots in Abilene we(Jessica) narrowed it down to two very specific cars. I insisted on one thing.. that it had four doors and preferred that it have a V-6 if a GM car. A V-6 GM car because the 4 cylinders don't last as long and have more mechanical failures. Four doors because of the insurance rates of an under aged driver in a two door car.
We narrowed it down very quickly to a Pontiac Grand Am or an Oldsmobile Alero. Jessica preferred Silver over other colors but insisted that it was not red or white. Once we got the color, model, and make it really helped a lot. Most of the 4 door Pontiac Grand Ams and Olds Aleros that were one or two years old were in the $15,000-16,000 dollar range which was a little over our budget and none were very interested in Jessica's Kia. I kind of leaned towards to Oldsmobile Aleros for a couple of reasons. My Grandad, Ernest Coder always liked his Oldsmobile and our old Delta 88 lasted for a long time. Cindy's Grandad, Robert Robinett was not too fond of the Pontiac Grand Ams and we had a Pontiac that was not very reliable when Cindy and I first got married.
We had pretty much given up on getting Jessica a newer car and had her OK with driving the Kia for a while longer when Cindy found exactly what we were looking for on the Internet at Toliver Brothers in Ballinger. Cindy said it looked like a good deal - 2004 Silver Olds Alero with 4 doors, a V6, and less than 10,000 miles for about $3000 less than what we had been looking at.
We happened to be going through Ballinger that Saturday on the way to Water Valley for a volleyball game and thought we would stop and take a look. Saturday came and it was cool and raining. We also had Patrick along and almost didn't stop. We had gotten an early start and thought we could at least take a look so we pulled in and made the deal. Come to find out it was about $3000 dollars less than what we thought it was going to be because they had a hail storm and all of the cars had some slight hail damage. The whole deal only took about an hour and we drove it on to Water Valley to surprise Jessica.
All the way we kept trying to think of how we were going to surprise her and worried about what if she did not like it. We decided not to tell her before the game as we were almost late anyhow. After the game was over we waited by the door and made the last minute plans to not tell her and just walk into the parking lot looking for her Kia which we had drove to Ballinger and left for possible trade in. We were kind of wandering around the parking lot as Cindy and I explained to Jessica how we could not afford a newer car and that she would have to drive the Kia for a while longer.. even though she works to pay for it! We were walking towards the Alero when Cindy said "It looks just like that one there.." and Jessica and her walked over and were looking in the window when Cindy handed her the keys and asked her if she liked her new car!
Of course Jessica just started giggling and Patrick was real cool about it all.
Here she is with Cindy and Patrick checking out her new Alero for the first time.
We stopped back by Toliver's on the way back through and signed some paperwork. All the folks there were extremely nice. Our salesman's name IS Steve Cole and I can't say enough about him. Note that I said IS, and not WAS, our salesman because I am sure I will do business with him again. He was straight up from the get go and not pushy about anything. He is a hometown boy and good as they get. He sent Jessica and I both birthday cards and Christmas cards and a free oil change card for Jessica.
If you want to make a good deal on a new GM or used vehicle and can't find it here in Santa Anna I would highly recommend Toliver Brothers' in Ballinger. Ask for Steve and tell him the Peltons and SantaAnnaNews.com sent ya!
Last Moment Wishes
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the need for living wills and medical directives and such.
I don't claim to be even knowledgeable on this topic of discussion but death is something I think about more and more as I get older. I haven't yet fully researched this yet but I will share some of the sites that I have found out about that have more information which can help you make an informed decision about what can be done in the case where you can't make decisions and what will be done if you don't make your wishes known.
I encouraged you to seek out your own information but it is something that is easily put off and I must admit that I have done so except for a little bit of reading in a Newsweek magazine at work from a month or so ago.
Here are some web site links from that article that have some good information for helping you make informed decisions:
National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
Santa Anna Man Dies in Fall..
A 56 year old Santa Anna man, identified as Jay Douglas Brown, was killed in a bizarre accident this past week when he fell from the new water tower that is being built on the West Santa Anna mountain.
Brown had lived in Santa Anna for about five years and has done carpentry work for several in Santa Anna. He grew up in Coleman, graduated in 1967 from Talpa, and served in the Navy.
Brown was apparently attempting to hang from a rope and harness off of the front side of the tower when he slipped through the harness and fell to his death. Brown was not employed by the contractor building the tower and was found there by workers that were sandblasting the tank on Thursday morning around 10. It is believed that the accident occurred between 5:30 Wednesday evening and 8:00 Thursday morning as he was attempting to paint something on the tower as there was a can of paint found at the site.
A memorial service was held at Steven's Funeral Home in Coleman on Sunday.
An investigation is being conducted by the Coleman County Sheriff's Department and the body has been sent for autopsy.
Gone Fishing..
..or camping, boating, or golfing.. whatever you chose to do this past weekend the weather was certainly cooperative.
I never have been much of a fishing person. I am not sure that I have ever taken my kids fishing.. I think I may have told you this before. Oh well, if I have you get to hear it again and if you missed it well here ya go! Please remember that I am getting old and forgetful..
I guess my fishing experience as a child was limited because my Dad and Step-Dad were not big fishermen. Having all daughters sometimes left me out when it comes to the "guy" things like hunting and fishing. Fishing was always a little too slow paced for me too.
My lack of love for fishing could be because once when I was pretty little, probably about 6 or 7, I was visiting my Uncle Lester and Aunt Bobbie Pelton when they lived near Rowlett.. back when Rowlett was out in the country! They lived in a travel trailer on a man by the name of Frank Moonie's place. Mr. Moonie took me fishing on his tank and about the first cast of my Zebco and I caught Mr. Moonie's eye lid with my hook. You talk about scare the crap out of a little guy! Anyhow he got it out but that was about all I ever wanted to do with fishing.
I remember another time right after Cindy and I got married and one of my best friends, Ernest Deleon, got a hook stuck in his eyebrow and he came over to my house because he knew I would know what to do for it. Well I knew from Scouts that you have to push it on through and either cut the barb off and then pull it back, or cut the eye off and push it on through. Either way it had to push through and we just couldn't do it so he went on to the Coleman Hospital's Emergency Room.
My middle daughter Jennifer and her boyfriend, Josh Rambo, love to fish. Jennifer was the closest thing I had to a boy.. in a good way of course! She always loved the outdoors.
Jenn and Josh went camping and fishing this past weekend and I am not sure exactly how many they caught but I did hear about a 5 pound yellow cat. I am holding out for the fish fry!
My idea of camping has always been a little different from my wife and kids too. I guess that is one of the reasons we never have gone camping too much as a family. They think a travel trailer, motor home, or cabin is involved and I think more about tents and backpacks.
A couple of years ago Jessica and I went out to Hords Creek Lake when my Dad was out there in his motor home. Hords Creek Lake is one of his and my Step Mom's favorite places to go. This year should be great there since the lake is pretty full. Anyhow Jessica and I stayed in an old tent that we had and well it had lots of air holes! Of course it started raining and we got a pretty good soaking before we gave up and went in the trailer.
We still had lots of fun. We should go again this Summer.
Speaking of getting old..
This past Saturday was the SAHS Prom and my baby is old enough to go. Well she went once before but she wasn't old enough!
I am sure I will get in trouble for this but she sure is pretty isn't she?
Here she is ready to go and Cindy and I out in front of the house.
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