Yesterday I didn't get anything done at all...just kinda walked around in a daze. Mom took me to see the body at the funeral home...her right hand looked kinda odd...I think she must have broken it or something...whenever we taught bar she would point with her right hand and say "Look at the high bar!" I went to gym early last night and just sat around. I wrote out the chorus from "No night there" and placed it on the front desk for people to read...that song really helped me yesterday. The funeral in in an hour, so I'm going to get off now and go get ready.

And God shall wipe away all tears
There's no death, no pain, no fears
And they count not time by years
For there is no night there.



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Tamera Leigh Judd





Services for Tamera Leigh Judd will be 2 p.m. Friday, May 9, 2003 at First Baptist Church. Burial will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery, under the direction of Rice Funeral Services. Friends may visit until 8 this evening at the funeral home. Tamera passed away Wednesday, May 7, 2003. She was 18.

Tamera was born in Tulsa on Nov. 23, 1984. Her parents are Bruce and Valerie Judd and Laurie and Mike Hixson. She has lived in Claremore all of her 18 years and was looking forward to graduation from Claremore High School later this month. Successful at whatever she undertook, Tamera was an all-state gymnast for five years, a member of the all-state honors choir for three years, and also played soccer. At the age of 15 years, she began as a gymnastics instructor at Gymnastic City. Though not a cheerleader, Tamera was such a skillful gymnast that she was offered a full cheerleading scholarship. She was also considering furthering her education at RSU.

Tamera was tender-hearted, caring and giving. She had a particular fondness for children and animals. Her happy nature, ready smile and concern for the welfare of others endeared her to so many who called her their friend.

Tamera is survived by her parents, Bruce and Valerie Judd and Laurie and Mike Hixson, all of Claremore; her brother, Eric Judd of Oklahoma City; sisters, Stephanie and Andrea Judd, both of Claremore; her step-siblings, Charlotte Richardson of South Carolina, Sam Hixson of Claremore, Nathan Hensley and wife, Amanda of Broken Arrow, and Chad Hensley of Tulsa; paternal grandparents, Earl and Shelba Judd of Claremore; maternal grandparents, Jim and Beverly Watts of Arkansas; maternal great-grandmother, Geraldine Ashby of Arkansas, extended family members and many friends.

(If you haven't read the post below, read that before reading this)

Tonight was tough. Some of the kids didn't seem to quite get it...others just wanted to talk about her...other just needed to be hugged. Everybody working there is taking it hard...several teachers just stood around and never actually got out on the floor and taught. After the lesson were over we all just stood around for an hour and talked and cried.

Below is the article from the news papper.

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A Claremore teen-ager was killed in an early Wednesday morning wreck south of Claremore.

Tamara Leigh Judd, 18, was dead at the scene of the 1:10 a.m. single vehicle crash.

A Claremore High School senior, she is the daughter of Bruce and Valerie Judd and Laurie and Mike Hixson of Claremore.

Matt Wild, Claremore police officer who investigated the wreck, said Judd was northbound on Highway 66 in a 1993 Dodge Saturn when she apparently fell asleep at the wheel, according to a witness who saw the crash.

The wreck occurred just south of the Travis Boat Center, officers said.

Police said Judd�s vehicle veered off the roadway and into a ditch then traveled for some distance parallel to the roadway without Judd taking any corrective action.

The vehicle vehicle then struck the earthen raised portion of a culvert and went airborne for approximately 118-feet.

It landed on its rear and nosed in, flipping end-over.

Police said the vehicle then traveled forward sideways and struck the south entrance curb of the business parking lot entrance and rolled over, coming to rest on its top.

Officers said at some point during the wreck Judd was ejected from the vehicle.

Services will be 2 p.m. Friday atFirst Baptist Church.

Arrangements will be under direction of Rice Funeral Service.

So many things to write. So many thoughts swimming through my head, I can't think what to say. Tamara is dead.

Dead.

How can this be? I talked to her last night. I taught bar with her. Now she's dead.

I went to work with the home school class this morning and everything was normal. But as soon as I walked in, Tammy called me into the back room and told me that last night Tamara had fallen asleep at the wheel, rolled the car and died. It happened about 1 o'clock. I can't beleive she was up that late...she looked so tired when I had been working with her last night that I had asked her if she was ok. Latter while teaching bar she told me about breaking up with her boyfriend and the mess that had resulted from it. She'd only had an hour of sleep the night before...why didn't she go home and get some sleep?

How am I going to teach that class next week? Some of those girl have had her as their teacher for a couple years.

I had to teach the home school class myself: Tammy was making phone calls and just wasn't emotionally able to handle teaching. It was so strange...I was teaching bar and all of a sudden it would hit me: I'm standing right were Tamara stood last night. My hand is resting right were hers was.

I'm going to go to work early tonight and see if I can help any. Everybody is taking it really hard and I don't know how things are going to go tonight.

Good heavens! Bad Samuel! Bad! Behave! I can't beleive I haven't posted in so long! I have no excuse.

I just found out something really cool though...our filter now lets us look at stuff hosted on blogspot.com! Which means I got the first look at my blogger in about 8 months! WHOPPEE! And I just finished reading 'nika blog, first time I've done that in forever. I really need to start reading blogs more consistantly. I need to start keeping up on James' blog as well. He always has the most interesting posts.

Saturday we went to watch a karate tournament in Sand Springs. We stayed several hours and had a real good time. Several friends of our were competing. Our Sensi was promoted to 5th degree black belt the same day as well and his son was walking around telling everybody about it...he was obviously very thrilled! Our school did pretty well in kata: we got two first place medals and two second place medals. Most of our others students did well too. But in fighting (at least what I saw) we didn't do that great. Two of our students were doing very well in their fights but lost them because they hit the other guy in the face twice. :( It's a shame, 'cause they were both doing really good in their fights.

It's turtle season again around here. I saw one yesterday while out for a walk: they're so cool! I also saw a really small yellow chested something or other bird that was very interesting. I don't think I'd seen any like it before.

Let's see, work is going well. I'm working four classes and enjoying them all very much. I can now teach vault and bar by myself. I think I could probably teach floor by myself but we always do floor together, so I've never actually led it. The only problem is that my boss hasn't paid me for the last two months...I think I might mention that to her next time I see her.

Thursday we went roller skating with the home school group. I hadn't done that in many, many years and so I had many an impressive looking fall. All those years of pretending to die and falling from great hieghts as a kid are actually coming in handy. I still didn't manage to save my knees or my hands from getting pretty bunged up, but I had a great time anyway.

I just finished reading through all the minor prophets. Man, after reading about the prophets telling the people to change and then they didn't change and then God judged them, the book of Haggai is like a breath of fresh air. God said to do this, they did it, God blessed them! Cool! :)

I've heard rumors that we might be testing at karate tonight. If we don't we'll probably be testing next week. I'm really hoping we do it tonight, cause I'm ready for the test and want to get on to learning some new stuff.

I need to get off now. Bye! God bless!