Happy New Year everyone!

First, I want to thank NHRA and the National DRAGSTER staff for inviting me to be the latest NHRA.com blogger. I am thrilled to be able to keep you guys and gals posted on the happenings of my world. I am sure that you will quickly learn that I have a normal life just like you do and the ups and downs of juggling a personal life with a public career can sometimes be difficult.

I am really excited about 2008 because I know it is going to be the best year of my life. There are many reasons why I believe this and I would love to tell you about a few of them.

First of all, starting with a new team is always exciting. I am really looking forward to working with my new team owners Karl and Kim Klement. I have realized in a very short time that these two people are not your typical business professionals. They are down to earth, goodhearted individuals who really care about the wellbeing of everyone on the team. They want to see me succeed personally, professionally, and financially just as much as they do themselves. I am very lucky and blessed to have them in my life. My new sponsors, Rush Racing Products, are the same way. They are a fun and easy going group of people that I look forward to working with them and winning races. I can’t wait to bring them to the winners circle to celebrate and show them my appreciation for their support of me and my team.

Getting new team colors and designs are always fun and exciting for me too and this time, finally, my sponsors and team owners are giving me permission to be GIRLY! So look out for the bling! Girls, you are going to love it!

I will be switching to a V-Twin which is going to be a really different ride. I have raced Suzukis since I was six years old and I am sure it will be a whole new experience for me. I still own my Suzuki dealership, Performance Suzuki of Houma in Houma, La., and will remain a Suzuki girl at heart, but for now, on the race track, it’s going to be the power of the S &S V-Twin that’s going to make my heart pound!

On a more personal level, things are really going good for me. My family members are all doing well. I am blessed with a beautiful healthy loving family with my mom Abigail; dad David; brother Rickie; sis-in-law Chandra; nephews Logan and Landon; and my wonderful boyfriend Seth Drago and his absolutely great family that I just adore. Lynn, Greg, Rayna, Rusty, Landon, Dallas, Savannah, Scott, Tricia, Gabe, Nick, Shelley, Jacob and Kaitlyn. What a beautiful bunch they are!

Best of all will be the highly-anticipated arrival of the most precious little girl in the whole wide world and her name is going to be Abigail Jolie Sampey. My angel, my gift from God, my future, my heart … my little girl from China. I have been working on adopting her for over two and a half years now. The wait is almost over. I should be getting her in the next three to six months. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I already love this little girl and I haven’t even met her yet. I won’t know her age until I get her but she is going to be somewhere between six and 18 months old. Everyone in my life is so excited to get her. Even Karl and Kim are anxiously waiting to welcome her to our lives. They will be her extended racing family. Uncle Karl and Aunt Kim.

This is going to be so much fun!!

On a little bit of a sad note, I will be moving my pet monkey Andy from my home to Jungle Friends, a primate sanctuary in Gainesville Fla. Jungle Friends is designed to provide a permanent, safe haven for monkeys around the U.S. who have been abused, confiscated by authorities, retired from research, or whose owners can no longer care for them. I have realized over the nearly seven years that I’ve owned Andy that monkeys simply do not belong in captivity, they should NOT be pets. Andy is now what they call human imprinted and could not survive in the wild so I have chosen to place him at Jungle Friends where he will live in a realistic jungle habitat with other monkeys just like he deserves. His new enclosure is costing me $5,000 but will be well worth it to see him run, swing, climb, jump, and play like monkeys should. I will get to visit him as often as I want to and I am going to dedicate a lot of my time to promoting the non-profit organization that runs Jungle Friends. You can learn more about them by viewing their website at www.junglefriends.org. This year at the races we will be selling stuffed animal monkeys in my apparel and souvenir trailer and a portion of the proceeds will go to help Jungle Friends to take care of Andy and the other 115 monkeys that currently live there. We will also be holding an auction on eBay to sell a few of my very prized possessions like helmets, leathers, uniforms, etc. to help cover the cost of Andy’s new home and also the very costly adoption of little Abby Jo. All of the proceeds will go to the adoption and to Jungle Friends. Seth will be running the E-bay auction and it will begin on Monday January 14 if any of you are interested in bidding.



Although I am no longer sponsored by the Army I am very happy to still be affiliated with them through Seth. He is a combat medic in the Louisiana National Guard and this past weekend we attended the annual “Dining Out” ceremony for his company. It was nice to be surrounded by soldiers again. Being in a room filled with these selfless American heroes is such an honor to me. There was a GROG ceremony which is always cool and sometimes very funny to witness.

GROG: A mixture of drinks often concocted as a tribute to things past, present, and future in a unit's lore. It is a time-honored tradition to concoct a grog at different military functions, and it can often get outrageous by including chili sauce or raw eggs for effect. Everything added is symbolic and the ceremony can be very entertaining as well as sobering for the fact that our fallen heroes are almost always paid tribute to. The grog ceremony is concluded when the "host" of the evening makes a toast, taste-tests the concoction, and declares the grog fit for consumption.

It was a really nice way to start the New Year and to remind me that my relationship with the U.S. Army will be a life long one in which I promise to continue my support of each and every soldier and to always pray for their safety and their safe return home for those who are away. I hope each of you will do the same.

Well that's all I have for you guys right now. Thanks for reading and God Bless!