1380 Miles Later...

Last Friday, my mom and I left for a 5-day trip to visit some friends of mine that I've met online. We left shortly before 1000 on Friday, and arrived back home about 1900 on Tuesday evening. All in all, the trip was amazing.  It was fast, and we didn't have enough time anywhere, but what time we had was tons of fun!!

Friday night we arrived my friend, Hannah's, house around 1900, where they had dinner waiting for us. We got to meet Mr. Greg and Miss Amanda, and their younger kids, Matthew, Caleb, Samuel and Noah. As it turned out, Matthew and I fit together like a hand in a glove. We have spent less than 2 days together, and we're finishing each others sentences.  It's like we've found our missing twins...except he's a couple years younger than me. Other than that, though, if I didn't know better, I would say we're long-lost siblings. Now, we're just long-separated siblings. ;) Thank God for Skype and texting!

Saturday morning we drove from IN to OH, to visit my very good friend, JP, who I met over three years ago, in an online Biology class. We arrived there around 1500 on Saturday afternoon. JP, his older brother, Nathan and I hung out that afternoon and evening.  We stayed there over night, then joined them for church the next morning, where they were playing a worship set. After that, we all went out to eat at the Golden Corral, then mom and I returned to IN for our trip to Kings Island amusement park on Monday.

Nate, myself, and JP, outside of Golden Corral.  Always so hard to say goodbye!!!

Monday morning we left Hannah's house at 0600, and embarked on our 2 1/2 hour trip. Once there, we met up with the others that were joining us - about 35 of us total - then Matthew and I spent the rest of the day avoiding roller coasters, while the rest of the group spent the day riding as many as possible....for some very strange reason!  We got back from the park late, but stayed up in their livingroom, recounting our experiences to Miss Amanda, who was not able to join us.

Matthew and I listened to Country music the entire 2 1/2 hour trip from their house to the Kings Island amusement park.  We treated the rest of the passengers to our own version of it, as we sang along with the earbuds. Hannah and Amanda, in the backseat, each borrowed one of our earbuds for a couple of the songs.

Tuesday morning came way too fast, and it was time to say goodbye. I was very proud of myself, as I did not cry...but it was a close call. Thanks to Matthew for his assistance in psyching myself out. And yes, there is much talk of another trip to be coming soon. :) 

Amanda

Hannah

Our group photo, before heading off to meet the rest of the gang

Matthew, while we were waiting for our group to get off a ride... it was a shot just begging to be taken!

My favorite picture from the weekend...a quick snapshot that somehow completely captured his personality

Lifest 2012

I spent last week with one of our family's oldest friends.  He and my dad have known each other for 30 years, as they each got married and had kids, we've stayed close with them.  On Tuesday, Uncle Ben and myself joined a few other friends and went to Oshkosh to set up camp for the youth group we were taking to Lifest the next day.  We had three vehicles driving up, each pulling a camper, and once there, we set up the several canopies, and a total of four campers.  We had three electrical sites, and then 16 'primitive' sites for all the students to camp on. 

Sunset on our way home, Tues. night

After setting up, several of us stopped for dinner at Golden Corral, then finished the journey home.  We got home about 2200, and settled in for the night.  We had already arranged for me to stay the night at their house, since I live an hour south of them.  When we walked in, U. Ben's oldest son, Coy, was sitting on the couch playing Skyrim. He turned, shocked that I was there with his dad, and U. Ben goes, "Oh, hey, I forgot to mention that Jacki's staying the night.....and she's sleeping on that couch."  And then he walks off.  :)  Yeah.  Awkward. 

Anyway, Coy and I sat and talked on the couch for a while, munching on fresh-baked cookies and milk.  Sometime, probably around 11, we went out and he showed me his truck (a very awesome vehicle!) and then we took it for a quick spin...driving 'around the block,' listening to the radio and catching up on the past five years.  He had been away at college for a while, and then home but busy with work and had missed most of my cancer saga, so I filled him in on some of the details, and then he filled me in on his college experience.  After we got back, we went back to Skyrim - him playing, and me watching while we talked.  We stayed up until 0300...er...maybe 0330.  ;) 

Coy and Tank, hanging out late Tues. night...or maybe Wed. morning!

Oh yeah, that dog?  That's Tank.  He's Coy's buddy.  He's about 5years old, and ever since he was born, he and Coy have been virtually inseparable.  Tank and I get along great, too, though...which was nice.  :)

Then next morning, Colton, U. Ben's youngest, left about 0515 to go to the gym.........aaaaaand, he forgot I was sleeping on the couch.  Yup.  Not even two hours later, I'm awake again.  I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but U. Ben was already up and getting ready to leave to go fix the brakes on his Suburban before we left again for Oshkosh.  I ended up getting up and talking to him and helping him get ready, since I couldn't sleep anyway.  He left about 0615, and I curled back up on the couch to try and get a little more sleep before my alarm went off at 0730.  About 0645, I heard someone else puttering around the kitchen, and fifteen minutes later, Miss Kayla (mom and wife) walked through and left for work.  I put a pillow over my head and tried to sleep, but gave up around 0715 and started getting ready to go.

When I got up, I had a voicemail from U. Ben, asking me to get Coy up and have him help me find a few things, but that didn't go so well.  Apparently, Coy slept much better that night than I did!!!  Lol!  So, I dug around and found the X-Box controllers, and a game for U. Ben, then packed lunches for him, Colton and myself.  Even with all the searching, I left right on time and made it to the church by 0830. 

They were already loading bikes, food, firewood and other things, so I jumped in and helped pack things into the vehicles.  Students started arriving about 9, and loaded all of their luggage into the cargo bays of the bus.  We left about 15min early, and were on our way to Oshkosh!  Since we left early, we were able to get everything set up in time for everyone to attend the first concert of the night.  (Usually, they're still setting up when the music starts!) 

The rest of the week, I made it to.....well, less concerts than I normally go to.  But, it was all good.  I hung out with Colton, and his friends Ryan, Devin, Payton and Luke. We had almost 70students up there this year, so there were plenty of people to hang out with.  I didn't sleep well all week - I went to bed around 0100 or so each night, and was cold most of the night, but then started sweating by 0600, so I signed up for breakfast prep every morning.....at least that way I had something legit to do while I wasn't sleeping!  It was actually pretty fun!

My favorite part of the week was easily the time I got to spend with U. Ben.  He's been like a second dad to me for years, but we don't really get to spend a lot of time together, as he's the youth director at his church, and the father of two.  He came and visited me in the hospital this spring, Sunday night when I first went in, but I wasn't really up for a lot of hanging out right away that night, if you can imagine!  So this past week was a huge blessing!

Saturday I spent most of the day sitting on the bleachers on the black-top near the food court, watching the boys play their 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament.  It was a tough competition, but in the end, they won!  We were all so proud of them!  After the tournament, they boys wanted to shower before the Thousand Foot Krutch concert that they wanted to attend, so I ended up with Ryan's phone, running all over the Lifest grounds looking for someone to give the team photo to, in order to get it on the daily recap video.  Thanks to the connections of one of our leaders, who was also the Volunteer coordinator at Lifest, we were able to meet with the Director of Photography and get the picture on the video!

Left to Right: Ryan H, Devin Q, Colton S, Payton S

We didn't end up making it to any of the concerts we planned on attending that night, because after we ate dinner, we ran into some of the other students from our group who were doing a flash-mob type thing.  We hung with them for a while, then Colton and I broke away to go to the Stephen Curtis Chapman concert. 

That's about all I have to say about the week....there was just too much awesomeness to try and describe it to you, so...here's some pics for ya!!

One of our youth leaders, Zach

Some of the girls, setting up camp

Setting up camp

Molly, one of my new friends

Still setting up camp

A friends' son, sleeping through a heavy metal concert. Love that kid!

Zach...taking a much needed nap!

Matthew West!

Uncle Ben and Sarah, waiting for Newsboys

Uncle Ben...being Uncle Ben

Matthew West's bass player, I think

Bob Lenz, head of Life! Promotions

Jeff Frankenstein, Newsboys' keyboardist

Duncan Phillips, Newsboys' drummer

My friend Stefan (in the yellow hat) and Chris (red shirt, with his back turned)

Michael Tait, Newsboys' lead singer

Duncan Phillips

Uncle Ben, preparing for his second talk to the youth leaders

On the panel

Colton, waiting for Casting Crowns.  Love this kid!

Left to right, Molly (I think) Zack, Olivia, Emily, Jake, Colton

Mark Hall

Colton and Molly

The Oldschoolers, our b-ball team

Flash-mobbing

Sunset I caught while flash-mobbing

Molly and Colton at Steven Curtis Chapman

Molly and Colton...falling asleep.

Molly and Colton, while Colton is 'staying awake all night'

Um...yeah....I really liked taking pics of Molly and Colton.  :D

Stand Up, Step Up, Step Out

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

All my life, these words have been a reminder of what this country was meant to be. That purpose is something that many today have forgotten about.

Flags above the Freedom Rock in IA

What happened to the days when the sight of the Stars and Stripes waving in the sky above us was enough to cause us to raise our heads high, puff our chests out and walk with more purpose than we were a moment before?  Where has our American Pride gone?

Oh, sure.  The people of this country are full of pride.  They're proud of their accomplishments.  They're proud of the their perfect hair, their perfect bodies and their perfect relationships.  All of which are, in reality, far from perfect. We're so proud, we can't see the rest of the world past our pointy, stuck-up nose. But we've lost the pride we once had as a people in who we were as a country.  Because we used to be able to take pride in who we were as a country. But now? What do we have to take pride in?

It's time that we,  as Christians in the United States of America, took a stand and did our part to bring this country back to something we can be proud to be a part of.  I've heard a lot of people say that it's too far gone.  That there's nothing that could bring us back from where we've fallen to.  And maybe they're right.  Maybe this is the end of the U.S. as we know it.  Heck, maybe it's the end of the world, and Jesus is coming back soon.  Or maybe, just maybe, God's waiting for us to stand up, step up, and step out. Maybe this time it's up to us to begin the journey back towards Him.  He does not expect us to make the whole trip on our own, but He's already taken the first step...now it's our turn.

Semper Fi

Niagara Falls, May 2011-Doesn't have anything to do with the post, but I thought it was pretty . :)

And the Results Are In!

As I mentioned the other day, I went in to UW-Hospital today for my follow-up PET scan. Praise the Lord, my scans came back clear! There are no active cancer cells, which means that I am officially done with chemotherapy! Dr. Longo has asked us to consider radiation treatment, to further insure that the cancer does not return, so we are meeting with a radiologist on the 19th of July to discuss pros, cons and other details. I'll keep you posted on that as we figure it out.

As it stands now, I am on no medications, have no drugs coursing through my body, and am hot on the trail of a healthy, happy life.

I was blessed this morning by a text from my cousin, Christopher, asking me to keep him posted on my test today. I was surprised...he rarely remembers to call me for my birthday, which happens every year - I didn't expect him to remember about my scan, but he proved me wrong. We plan to get together far more regularly than we have of late!

Good news for Kingdom Pen, too...tonight I began the revision of my article! Whoo!!

Well, we're watching a movie, so I should run. Will update more later!

Semper Fi,
Jacki

Graduation Day!

Well, today is Danielle's graduation party! Crazy! I feel so old right now!

My cousin, Christopher, came out last night to hang out and spend the night. We haven't done that since I was....7? Lol! We watched The A-Team last night, then Haniya and Danielle went off to bed.....and Christopher and I stayed up and talked until about 2am. :) We've never been able to do that!!! When he used to come out and stay with us, we were too young to really have a conversation... We had a lot to catch up on...We hadn't seen each other in 2 1/2 years, minus a couple hours at the hospital this spring. I had the best time!!!! :D

Got to go...people are pulling up!

Semper Fi

Almost a week....

I cried again today....almost a week later.  Hannah wrote a beautiful post about how OYAN feels like home.  I wish it weren't so true...it wouldn't hurt this bad.  Thank God for my friends from the Stingrays, and for Anna. 

Oh yeah, I also did a lot of critiquing today!  I ran some errands for dad - took the truck in to get it checked and spent about an hour waiting for it.  I got to spend all of that time working on Reagan's story.  I remembered how much I enjoyed critiquing!  I feel...inspired.  It's a feeling I don't get when I write.......I like to help people.  I know that now.  I love helping people. 

Just an update for everyone...I go in on Monday for my PET scan.  Prayers would be greatly appreciated... I'm not nervous about the results at all - that's in God's hands, and I believe I'm completely healed.  But walking back through those doors........sets my teeth on edge and makes my stomach church.  Even the thought makes me feel sick.  I'm gonna end up spending most of the day there, waiting for the tracer injection, then waiting for the scan, then waiting for labs, then waiting for the doctor.  So much waiting!!  Everything is so.....sterile.... The place stinks!!

Anyway, yeah.  Prayers are appreciated!!

As One Approved: There's Flowers

From a good friend.......What I needed to hear when I needed to hear it.  God is good!


As One Approved: There's Flowers: Yesterday I took a trip to meet my Dad for lunch, which eventually involved me passing inside a large local U.S. military installation. Af...