Leaky Creek Farm

John Pershing Smith II- Obituary

John Pershing Smith, II

Born: November 09, 1973

Died: July 21, 2009

Services will be held at: the Community Fire Company of Rising Sun, MD, 300 Biggs Highway, Rising, Sun, MD on Saturday July 25, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. Visitation times are: at the fire company on Friday July 24 from 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm John Pershing Smith, II, 35, of Rising Sun, MD, passed away July 21, 2009 at Union Hospital after a battle with melanoma. A lifetime resident of Rising Sun, he was born in Elkton, MD on November 9, 1973, the son of the late David Pershing and Ann McCardell Smith. He was 1991 graduate of Rising Sun High School. In 1990, he joined the Community Fire Company of Rising Sun and also worked as a dispatcher at the Rising Sun Police department. While with the Community Fire Company, he rose to the rank of Captain and was active in securing multiple grants for equipment and training. He was also on the committee for purchasing Truck 861, Rescue 871 and Engine 815. John began his career with the Annapolis Fire Department in August of 2000, graduating first in his class, and achieved the rank of firefighter first class. While with the Annapolis Fire Department, he was assigned to the special operations team and was an instructor for Annapolis recruit class number 1. He enjoyed cycling and was a strong supporter of the Lance Armstrong Foundation. John was an avid Baltimore Ravens fan. His first love was being a dad and will be dearly missed by family and his many friends. He is survived by his wife Mary and his son Nathaniel, both at home as well as numerous aunts, uncles, and other family. A funeral service will be held at the Community Fire Company of Rising Sun, MD, 300 Biggs Highway, Rising, Sun, MD on Saturday July 25, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. Friends and family may call at the fire company on Friday July 24 from 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm. Burial will be in Brookview Cemetery. Charitable contributions in John�s memory may be made to Nathaniel Smith Scholarship fund c/o R.T. Foard Funeral Home, P.A., PO Box 248, 111 S. Queen St., Rising Sun, MD 21911.

John Pershing Smith II, November 9, 1973 - July 21, 2009

It is with great saddness that I report that John passed away July 21, 2009. If love could cure cancer, he'd be alive and well, but sadly that is not the case. John embodied "LiveStrong." He was a fighter till the end and like everything in life he gave it his all. John was also a very simple man, when asked about his cancer he'd often say, "it is what it is." Throughout his illness, he never lost his sense of humor and he was always concerned for Nathaniel and myself. He will be greatly missed by everybody who knew and loved him. My life will never be the same, but I'm a much better person for having known him and he'll always be the love of my life.

A look back on my LIVESTRONG Challenge

First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long to write this final summary of my LIVESTRONG Challenge experience, which took place August 24th near Philadelphia.

As you may remember, the LIVESTRONG Challenge is the Lance Armstrong Foundation�s signature fundraising event inspired by the hope, courage and perseverance of Lance and the nearly 12 million Americans affected by cancer. Each year thousands of people take the Challenge, uniting individuals to stand together to fight cancer. This was my first year participating, and I chose to ride the 100 mile option. It was both a personal challenge and a way to honor those affected by cancer.

I learned of the LIVESTRONG Challenge last year, in the aftermath of my surgery to remove the malignant melanoma from my chest and as I was becoming very interested in cycling. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to take my new found love and use it, not only as a way to show cancer that it cannot defeat me, but to honor the memory of my parents- both of whom I lost to cancer, and to do something to help eliminate this terrible disease from the face of the Earth.

So I registered in January 2008 and sent out my first round of emails to friends, family, and coworkers. The response was tremendous and by the end of the month I was well on my way to my fundraising goal. As the year went by, I continued to send out updates of my progress as I worked on building up my cycling endurance, and the donations kept coming.

It was my goal not just to finish the Challenge, but to do so strongly and in a reasonable time. My first ride of the season was on March 23rd and I did my best to ride as often as possible. I rode into work each shift along the B&A Trail, from Glen Burnie to Annapolis which would take about an hour and each week I tried to get in a longer ride that I had the week before.

I was doing pretty good until July when cycling took a back seat as the birth of our son Nathaniel approached. As Mary got closer to her due date, I quit riding the bike into work in case I needed to make a fast getaway. Prior to the day of the Challenge the only ride I had on my bike in two months was 80 miles on August 9th as I participated in the Kent County Lions Club's "Ride to See" which took me from Galena to Rock Hall and back.

Nathaniel Pershing

Here's a quick annoucement & pictures from the hospital's online nursery. Sorry if we haven't talked in person yet, but we'll get to you. We'll edit this story too and make it a little better.

The down & dirty.....
Went for weekly OB appointment Tuesday afternoon (15th) the day after his due date, Mary had lots of edema and her blood pressure was up. Doc thought it might be the beginnings of preeclampsia and told her the she just bought herself a trip to the hospital. Sent us home with instructions to pack our bags and head to Bel Air.

Got to the hospital, direct admit around 8:30 or so. Got settled in, they let Mary eat something and started her on Pitocin around 10:30pm and slowly built up the amount overnight. Shortly before 4am her water broke and she went into active labor. She got an IV shot of Nubain pain killer around 5am, decided on the epidural at 6am. By 10am she was fully dialated. At about noon she felt like she had to push. Doc & nurse came in and she started pushing. By 12:15 she had the hang of it and was pushing really well. 12:54 Big Nate burst his way into the world.

Mary was cut & torn & ripped and they went into hurry up mode to try & get her stitched back together. Poor girl, I think that part was worse than the labor on her. The unnamed at the time Nathan was whisked away by the hospital pediatrician to be checked out because Mary had meconium in her amniotic fluid and they wanted to make sure he hadn't inhaled any.

All is well with both. Breastfeeding seems to be going well. Mary seems to be holding her own.

Everybody was released from the hospital and came home on Friday the 18th, after meeting John's aunts. We're settling in and getting the hang of things- so far - and looking forward to welcoming Gramps & Gramma Brown this weekend.

Check out the gallery pics!

Leaky Creek goes green!

Today, we received our recycling bin from our trash company, Independent Disposal Services (IDS). A few weeks ago, John called to set up recycling. IDS just recently started a recyling program- they do charge extra for it and they only collect every other week, but hey... it's a step in the right direction. Every little step helps.

I'll feel much better to be reycling, for years it has bothered me at the amount of trash that we throw away that could be recycled.

We try to conserve energy and be environmentally concious when we can. We also have solar charger for our electric fence and a few solar lights around the flower beds and front walk. Composted manure is spread back on the fields. I suppose you could also say that some of our grass is "cut" by the horses in the back field. We also have a digital thermostat & keep the temperature a little warmer than most people in the summer & a little cooler in the winter. We also go "paperless" with a number of our bills.

With the price of gas being so high, I've made a very concious effort to combine trips, so I'm conserving gas. I also think 'is a trip necessary?' before I make the drive. Often, I decide to just stay at home. John saves gas, gets exercise, and has a lot of fun riding his bike part way to work. He does this almost every shift when the weather is good!

Both of our jobs are involved in helping the environment as well. Annapolis Fire Department has a recycling program and has seen a drastic drop in the amount of trash that is disposed of. Bank of America has paper and soda bottle recycling programs. They also have drastically reduced the amount of paper memos that were produced by sending memos via e-mail. Most of their education classes are also conducted online instead of having printed packets. Bank of America also encourages customers to go paperless. In 2007 they rolled out a $20 billion dollar, 10 year initiative to address climate change & help the environment- more on that can be found here- http://www.bankofamerica.com/environment/ -- if you're interested.

I hope in the future we can find other ways to help the environment. If we do our parts and look for more ways to help the environment then hopefully our son can reap the benefits.

Amber is in training & for sale

I backed Amber in November. She was a super star! Quiet, relaxed, confident, and happy. In fact, of all the horses I've backed she felt the most balanced and confident underneath me... this is suprising because she's also the smallest horse I've backed! She loved all of the treats that she got for her stellar behavior. Shortly after that I discovered I was pregnant, so I didn't think it was a good idea to be riding green horses.

I would like to get Amber sold to a great home before my baby arrives, so when the weather broke in March, I started her in training with Shawn Bigley. Shawn & an assistant come out a few times a week (weather permitting) and are getting her started under saddle.

She's just had a few rides and is still on the lunge line. She's making more progress with each lesson and is trotting quietly under saddle on the line. Keep your eyes on the New Photos page to see updates in her progress.

Amber is a 2004 buckskin AQHA mare, registered as LC Special Light. Her pedigree is available at http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/lc+special+light Her bloodlines show potential as a working western horse- cutting, reining. She's certainly athletic enough... as a young foal she loved doing rollbacks & working on her fast circles! I sticked her at 14 hands 1/2 inch, so it looks like she should stay a large pony... her movement gives her potential as a large pony hunter. She's been free jumped and looks like she should have good form over fences. Amber also could do well in lower level dressage. Amber also enjoys when I lead her on trail walks, so I could see her being a great trail horse as well. She's super intelligent and athletic, so there are many different directions she could easily go with proper training.

Amber has been show in hand, western, hunter, & dressage breeding. She won Quarter Horse class at the 2005 Fair Hill Dressage Sport Horse Breed Show and has placed in all in hand classes she's been entered in.

Amber is located in Rising Sun, Maryland. Currently she is priced at $3000. The price is negotiable as I'd like to find her a great home before the baby is born. However, she is also in training and showing a lot of potential, so it is possible that her price could increase as her training progresses. With just a few months of training, she'll be ready to be winning ribbons under saddle! If you are interested, please contact Mary through the feedback form.

We're expecting a boy!

The ultrasound tech said... "without a doubt, it's a boy... you can go ahead and paint that room blue!" So... we're assuming she's pretty certain... she showed us a grey blob that didn't make it very clear to us, but then a few minutes later, she showed us something that really looked like a "boy part." We still haven't decided on a first name, but we'll probably go with Pershing as a middle name. It's John's middle name, as well as his father & grandfather's middle name. So, it would be a nice tradition to continue. Had the baby been a girl it would have had Ann in her name in memory of John's mother.

Unless we follow the horse naming trend in which case we'd need L______ C_____ Smith... lol... The name would need to be dignified & distinguished to go along with Remington, Winston, & Wilson. Somehow I don't think that would go over too well... I have more than one friend who's banned "W" names... since we have Wilson, Winston, Willow, & Winnie already... speaking of that... Wilson's PHR papers came in the mail today... he's officially LC Grand Surprise!

And back to painting the room... I want to extend thanks to my parents who very generously spent their time on Saturday, April 5th, painting the baby's room. I chose a light blue and green. The theme of the nursery is going to be farm animals/ baby animals & kiddo will probably end up some of my horse artwork in his room. I figured blue & green were nice to represent the grass & sky... plus they're my two favorite colors.

So... baby shower is scheduled... room is painted... now we just need things like... a crib... a name... childbirth classes... a pediatrician... a babysitter/child care... and I'm sure a lot more... in just 97 days or so... eeek... 97 days is just a few months away!

We're expecting...

Well, we haven't posted an official story on it yet, but those who know us or who have looked in the gallery have probably picked up on the fact that we're expecting a little one soon.

We just came back from our second ultrasound and so far everything is progressing well. It's still a little too early to tell the gender, but we have another OB appointment on Monday and expect that they'll want another ultrasound in a couple weeks at which time we should be able to find out what color to paint the nursery.

It's pretty wild to see the little bugger's heart beat and arms move. The still picture doesn't do it justice.

Mary & I are getting used to the idea of having a little one. We still don't know exactly how we're going to handle it, but I supposed things will fall into place. It was a bit of a surprise to us, since we had been told that Mary's PCOS would most likely prevent her from getting pregnant.

Turns out that doctors can be like meteorologists sometimes and here we are about 18 weeks later... Wish us luck! And as always, be sure to check back here for updates & pictures along they way.

Oh, and feel free to contribute to the Kiddo's Nursery Fund!

2008 LIVESTRONG Challenge

I have registered to participate in the 2008 LIVESTRONG Challenge that will take place in August near Philadelphia, PA. I will be riding the 100 mile bike ride portion. It will be my second century ride, after doing the Seagull Century last year.

The LIVESTRONG Challenge is the Lance Armstrong Foundation's signature fundraising event, raising funds and awareness for the fight against cancer. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, the LAF unites people through programs and experiences to empower cancer survivors to live life on their own terms and to raise awareness and funds for the fight against cancer.

As many of you know, not only did I loose both of my parents to cancer but I am a cancer survivor myself having been diagnosed with melanoma in December 2006. This Challenge will combine my new found love of cycling with the desire to do something to help others who find themselves victims of cancer.

With an agenda focused on Prevention, Research, Access to Screening & Care, and Improvement in the Quality of Life for Cancer Survivors I believe that the LAF is the best way for me to do so. They are routine contributors to such Maryland based initiatives as the Active Survivors Network, the Ulman Cancer Fund, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Maryland.

Please visit my Fundraising Page to show your support and make an online donation to help me meet my goal ... or if you prefer download a form to make your donation by mail or phone!

John rides in Seagull Century

Over the past weekend I successfully completed the 100 mile Seagull Century bike ride hosted by Salisbury University. It is the 19th annual event, which has become a nationally acclaimed bicycle tour and serves to finance student programs, scholarships, and charities.

I have my buddy Menassa from work to thank for dragging me back into cycling. I've always had bikes and have ridden off and on, but never very frequently. I think that has to do with falling into the whole mountain bike rut that the world is in right now. Like many folks I've bought several mountain bikes with no intention of ever going off paved surfaces with them... this, of course, lead to frustration for a guy who prefers to see the world as a blur (at least when it comes to going from one place to another.)

Once I finally decided to ride my bike to work in the mornings with him, and after having him push me down the B&A Trail two or three times, I broke down and bought an outright road bike. The Trek 1500 I chose is actually a racing model and�it's aerodynamic riding postion & skinny tires let me cruise along at a pace that let's me really feel as if I'm going somewhere, which keeps me happy as I pedal along. Much nicer and less frustrating... the right tool for the job, so they say.

I think Menassa is actually using me as an excuse to ride more himself, but it has gotten me out exercising which I've never liked to do, but really need to do more of (don't we all?) It has also given me some personal�goals�to try and acheive and that certainly comes in handy when trying to meet those needs Maslow always talked about.�I've certainly noticed a difference in the last few months as we've biked to work and riding the first two-thirds of the Civil War Century�was a great accomplishment.

But the goal starting out has always been the century ride in Salisbury. I pre-registered in August as rider 2564 out of an eventual 5,400 and booked a hotel room in nearby Seaford, Delaware with the intention of Mary & I making a weekend out of the event. She lined up horse-sitters and on Friday afternoon we packed up and hit the road south. Along the way we visited one of Mary's friends in Smyrna, who fed us some awesome lasagna, and arrived at our Quality Inn room�around 9:30pm...