To start off with she was born healthy and beautiful 9pounds 14oz baby girl she was a happy baby but there were times when she would get fussy and not want to goto sleep so I had a little trick I would take her for car ride and that would usually put her right to sleep and at that time I felt like that was a chore but oh how I would give almost anything now to re live those moment's and when she was about 2 she got a brother and she loved him and he loved her but as they grew they had there fights but always made up and in the end they did love each other.I remember her first day of school I was so proud of her she was so beautiful in her little dress and the first couple of years of her school she would make us stuff like cards and draw pictures i like getting stuff like that as she got a little older she joined baseball and she had alot of friends around the same time we started to go to the beach pretty often we would go clam digging and crabbing with are family she loved it maybe not so much about the digging maybe just the beach she was getting to love the outdoors stuff and she loved her friends too so before she was out of grade school we moved from spanaway to elma to the country I thought it was a good change for all of us and not long after that she made a bunch of new friends but she never forgot about her old friends she kept in touch with most of them she joined the elma girls soccer team and played a couple of years it was fun to watch her play and she also played girls baseball she was pretty innocent in those years then middle school came and things started getting different like boyfriends and bad influences don't get me wrong there were good kids to and then there was me and alcoholic putting my own bad influences on my daughter so I have to and I will take some of the blame for my daughters out come so getting back to Amanda she made some really bad choice in boyfriends not all. and somewhere in that time frame me and her mom got a divorce I stayed in elma and her mom moved back to graham and thats around the time Amanda started drinking and then smoking pot and things just got worse most of the time that was going on I was working in Tacoma and I usually worked long hours Which didn't help Amanda situation or my sons but as a single father I had to do it and as a father I have never neglected them when it came to providing them with food shelter or clothing but being there at times when I should have been i have failed a few time and for that Amanda I'm so sorry so Amanda started to bounce from my house and her moms and she was in and out if different school so finally she dropped out i believe the 11th grade but one of the conditions was she goto school and after she was eighteen she had to goto school or work to live at my house so she enrolled at the elma alternative school which didn't last long but while she was on her own and using she managed to get her GED I'm proud of her for that and the last time she lived with me she was working and doing good but started to hang out with the wrong crowd again and started using heavy drugs like herion and meth I know this because I came home from work and went thru her bedroom and found a needle and burnt spoon so I pack up all of her stuff and told her if she don't go and get help then she can't live with me and my fiance and I don't want nothing to do with you until you really wants to get help that was very hard to do to my own daughter so from that point on we lived like we were a million miles away but we both lived in elma I seen her from time to time but not much in past two years oh how i wish things could have been different between me and her.so just to be clear my daughter did not die of a drug overdose she died from pneumonia and mersa a couple of nasty little side effects from using meth and herion that was the cause of death due to her not taking care of herself and drug use she died on may 6th but i believe she died inside long before that cause the way she was getting by was not living and if you had a chance to know Amanda before she got into meth and heroin you would know she would not have live the way she was living and i am mad that she did not reach out for help when she had it all around and choices and it sickens me to know how much addiction can bring a person with so much potential down to the gutters . And for those that didn't know Amanda was a animal lover especially dogs.Remember Daddy has always loved you and always will