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sorry...again, no pictures. you see, i'm in the process of trying to get the internet and losing 15 pounds. neither are an easy task. soon though friends, i promise. the past week has been quite a roller coaster. i've been thinking that i should explain why i haven't exactly been up to par on my blogging these days. two thursdays ago (may 1), jake left for his BYU rugby championship in california. i stayed behind to pack up the rest of the house and get everything ready for our roadtrip on sunday. i was out on saturday running some last minute errands when my dad called, telling me that my grandma passed away. she had been battling with cancer for a long time (the sad effects of smoking), so it was sort of expected, however she died a lot sooner than i thought she would. she was in a lot of pain though...so in a way, it was a blessing. and yes, i know she is in an incredible place and so happy to be back with my grandpa, but the human side of me is selfishly sad and wishing she was still here. such is life i guess. her death presented a challenge...the funeral was the upcoming wednesday (may 7) in florida...so we had to get from utah to DC to florida in just two days. jake got home from his trip on sunday around 1:30 p.m. (we had planned to leave at 2), and something wasn't right with him. as he smiled at me when he got home, i noticed that half of his face wasn't working. at first i thought he was joking around, and i kept saying, "stop making that face! what are you doing??" unfortunately, he wasn't kidding. he had lost all muscle control in the right side of his face. he called his mom, who is a nurse, and she said she was pretty sure it was bell's palsy (to read more about it, click here) and that we needed to get to the emergency room. so, off we went to the hospital where we waited for two hours to be seen. jake was so over it--he was just about to walk out when they finally called his name. we went back, and sure enough, he was diagnosed with a very mild case of bell's palsy. most people don't catch their symptoms until after 72 hours, which means it's too late to get some antibiotics to help it. well, jake's symptons had started the day before, so we were very grateful to catch it in time. he was given some medicine, and 3 hours later, we finally got on the road. needless to say, we flew across the country as fast as we could, feeling the pressure because my flight to florida was on tuesday night. we had to be in DC by 5 in order for me to make the flight for the funeral on wednesday morning. we got to DC at 5:30 last tuesday, and i literally got out of my car and immediately into katie's car to drive to the airport. we flew to florida where i spent the next day with a lot of family that i hadn't seen for awhile. it was an emotional few days for me, to say the least. we flew back to DC wednesday night. jake is so sweet and had already unpacked most of the house, so i didn't have much to do except unpack my clothes and do some grocery shopping the next day.

so this brings us to today, where my days consist of going to the gym, cleaning, cooking, and reading. i'm starting independent study classes next week, which will occupy a lot of my time (something i'm very excited about). i've also started my first book. yes....i'm writing a book. not only that, but i've decided to change my blog around a little bit. i think i'm going to turn it into more of a very, very honest journal...with pictures of course. anyway, i just have all these ideas burning through my skull and i'm going to do something about them. jake's face has improved a lot, and it's slowly getting back to normal. it hasn't slowed him down one bit, that's for sure. he's had a lot of success since we've been here, something that we're both really thankful for.

SO, now you all know why i haven't been posting very often. i will be better. until next time.