holy bananas has it been a long week!....a very fun good week but a long one...

last thursday my folks came to minneapolis and we packed up my car and got boom checked out of his dorm room for the summer...then we went to my house and parked my car and we loaded up into my folks' car and went to the wisconsin dells!...wahoo!!...so much fun!....i even got mom and dad to go down the Hollowing Tornado!!...which was hysterical!...it really scared dad...mom and i forgot about dad's anxiety issues and probably should have warned him about what we were doing, but nonetheless he and mom survived!...i'm so proud!....the next day we went to milwaukee for the day and wondered around there and then went to chicago!...we had a perfect saturday in chicago--sunny and warm!....we got tickets for a tour bus that took you all around the city stopping at certain places to let you get off if you wanted....very fun and informative!...best way to see the city that's for sure...we went to millenium park and navy pier and wondered around both for a while...after the tour we wondered around michigan and state streets and did  shopping and just watched the hustle and bustle of chicago...i was very thankful that dad didnt drive downtown...that would have been too much for me to handle!...arg....boom and i decided that the thing that chicagians do the most is smoke and honk their horns!...we had fun tho!...after chicago we crashed at grandmas place for a couple days of being spolied!...always fun....now we are back in williston and i'll be here for graduations and be back home on tuesday....lots of driving in a short amount of time but, it's been a really good vacation!  

yesterday was a good day!

for starters tony came up which is always a highlight for me....we went and helped our friends pack up their house so that they can move to north carolina....a lot of mixed emotions there!....dan's so excited about his new job teaching math and coaching, but he's also tony's best friend and i'm just starting to get to know dan, michelle, and baby josiah...it was a good time spent with them yesterday tho....guess we'll just have to make a roadtrip down there!....sounds like fun to me!

second i got to play mini golf!....regardless of how much i say i hate the game when i'm playing and it takes me about 7 tries to get the stupid ball in the hole, i really enjoy playing...tony and i played two games yesterday! both games i got a hole in one in!! that was awesome!....i did however lose both games BY ONE STINKING POINT!....arg....oh well, it was worth the sunburn that i got!....maybe next time we can get a bucket of balls and i can learn how to actually hit a golf ball!....fun times!

third, i finally got to taste the real cherry vanilla dr. pepper!....wahoo!!...jon told me about it, man, must have been back when we were living in terrace my first senior year--about three years ago, and i've wanted one ever since!...so as a final abs farewell, he brought the stuff and made me one!...oh man oh man! i'm pretty sure i have a new weakness! it was so amazingly tasty!...im not going to lie, it was a pretty sweet way to end a great three years of doing abs with jon....so, thanks buddy!...that was really great!

fourth, this weather, albeit hot, is AMAZING!!! i love shorts, tanks and flip flop weather!!!! nothing more to say there!

sigh! i love days like that!

my heart is broken....emily's (college roomie and sister) mom is dying of cancer...in other words, my second mom...we've known about it for a while now--maybe a year and a half, and it was bad news then, but everytime i talked to em about it, it sounded like something she could recover from with surgery and chemo....however, that will not be the case unless the Lord decided to touch her and heal her from this horrible horrible illness...i went to see jill, em's mom, today....i took her flowers...i knew it was going to be hard, but i didnt quite realize how hard it would really turn out to be....i hardly recognized jill....she's so thin, so weak....i was scared to hug her for fear that she would crumble into pieces...wow...i talked with her a while about things that have been going on in my life, about the weather and a little reminising of old college days spent at their house over holidays...i cannot even imagine how hard this is all for emily, aaron (her husband) and her parents....my heart is just broken and i am left feeling helpless and speechless....death and dying is one of the hardest parts about this life i think.....it's so hard to understand why crap like cancer has to happen....in romans it talks about how God works things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes....where is the good in death and dying and especially in this situation with jill?!....i've thought a lot about this verse and this topic a lot in the past few days...well, in jill's situation, there actually is some good--she met Jesus!...too bad there wasnt an easier way for that to happen...but nonetheless, i am thankful.....somehow it makes this all just a tiny bit easier to deal with....at least it gives hope....hey, and that makes all the difference right?!....i sure wish it would make this hurt subside....if you know emily, please lift her and her family before the throne of grace....they need all the prayers they can get...

so apparently there are some people out there who check my blog from time to time....awesome!...well i thought i would at least make it worth your while this time.....lucky you...ha ha...just kidding..

well, to be quite honest, my life is fairly dull...i moved in with the family i work for because i couldn't stand it at the other house i was living at....so, yeah that's good news...plus now my commute is walking up the stairs which is AWESOME...saves me a bunch of money which is always great....now the only driving that i have to do is when i hang out with my brother, going to church, and hanging out with tony....also, now, i get home-cooked meals at least once everyday!...REALLY AWESOME!...this move is only temporary while i wait for my roommate, kate, to graduate and find a job so we can move in together, which i am so excited about!...

so i just found out that my parents and brother and i get to go to NEW YORK for a few days in june! i am so excited!! i've never been to new york before so that''ll be pretty great!....plus a week after that, i get to go to ohio with the girl i work with and her mom to be ceritified to work with a service dog that we are getting for hannah, the girl i work with...WAY excited about that!...it'll be a very long and tiring two weeks but it will definitely be with it....

[edit]...plans have changed once again and new york is no longer happening...i'll just have to put that one back on the list of places to visit someday....*sigh*

so yeah...that's the lastest with me....i'm going to go and eat some strawberries...yeah summer fruit season!!