Summer in CHICAGO!

So I was thinking about all of you today and wishing that we all kept in touch more. So I decided to come and update you all about what's been going on in my life. Since a LOT has been going on, I think I'll settle with only writing about one aspect, the most important thing I've done this last month or so.

So, back in, I think October of last year, I applied to do this summer camp for inner city girls in Chicago. After a tough application and an intense interview I was accepted and the preparation began. After two semesters of preparing CHICAGO SUMMER JAM 2009 finally came. So, you ask what I've been doing for the whole month of August? Well, tearing up Chi-Town of course! My new favorite city.

This is Grace. A 10 year old girl who is 5 foot 6 inches and could probably kick my trash anyday. She pretty much threw all of the counselors around every day. In fact right before this picture was taken, I feared for my life as she got so excited she put her arms around my neck and started squeezing. I'm telling ya I could not breathe--partly from laughing so hard. So in this picture she's still choking me but it's all in good fun, right? She was also the one that told me the very first day that she hated me and didn't want my talking at all. Everyday we had new stories about Grace. I could go on and on about her. I chose to post this picture because it says a lot more than meets the eye. Grace and her...lovely personality was classic.

This is me with all of the girls. You can barely see my head because it's being squeezed by one of the girls. But I'm in the middle, about the 2nd row from the front. All you can see is my head.

The girls that came to Summer Jam came from difficult backgrounds and difficult home lives, and did I mention this was the SOUTH side of Chicago? Yeah and when I say south side, I really mean south side. We stayed with some people from church that lived in the town, Hyde Park, and the street behind our house was...shall we say a street we were NOT allowed to go near. So anyway, these girls are tough, thick-skinned, outspoken, blunt girls. If they didn't like you, they'd let you know--oh and they did! They were the type of girls that were told never to smile or cry because you were seen as weak.
So we ran a day camp for them for two weeks. It was a chance for them to get away from their crazy hectic lives and be children again in a safe environment where they were loved. We had various activities planned throughout the day and fed them lunch--which was for some the ONLY meal they'd get that day.

When we weren't doing camp, which ended around 3, we went into the city to tour. HOLY COW! I love Chicago! It is now MY city. We went on a Segway tour (amazing!), a boat tour, went to a White Sox game, saw Cirque Shanghi, went shopping, ate Indian and Thai food, went to Chinatown and Little India--got our eyebrows threaded in Lil India!, and basically just had a good time in the city. Oh and used public transportation for everything. Intense that's all I will say. Imagine, 16 white girls all walking down the street together in a predominately black neighborhood. we got a lot of attention and as such had to act a certain way for fear of actually getting hurt. Let's just say Chicago was an interesting, wonderful, amazing experience that I will never forget. It took me out of my comfort zone and it was amazing to be able to help those wonderful, adorable girls. I won't ever forget them.

HEY GIRLS!!!

I'm so glad all of you are doing well! Congrats to everyone that graduated this year! I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I miss all of you tons and think about you guys all the time.

Ok, so I guess it's my turn to update you guys on what's up with me. For the last 6 months life has been pretty uneventful. I have had the last semester off and have been working for a contracting company and a golf course. So pretty much just working, hanging out, and wakeboarding on Sundays. I officially got accepted to pharmacy grad school here at UOP and will start school in August. I'll be in year round school for 2 years here, and then my 3rd year will be internships. I know it's going to be really hard, but I'm excited to get the ball rolling again and FINISH. Andy and I are doing great. He is still at Les Schwab in Jackson which is about 45 minutes away. He lives in a house with a couple other guys there, and I live in a house here (in August I will have no roommates and a house all to myself!), but we pretty much live together between the two places right now. In December when our leases are up we are going to get a place in Stockton together and I'm super excited! So, I guess that's pretty much it for me. I miss you guys and hope everything continues to go well for everyone. I'm so glad we have this to stay in touch with eachother. Love you guys!

Finally!!!

I must be computer retarded because I just figured out how to sign into this thing again! I've been reading all of your posts and pouting because I haven't been able to write anything! It always makes me smile to see you all doing well and enjoying life. I miss you all, and you stay in my thoughts :)
I'm back in Santa Rosa, Ca right now. I've been here for about 8 months just working and having fun. I have a new boyfriend, his name is Jesse. I know funny right? Don't say it's cute either or I might gag, I got enough of that when we first got together!! lol. We're doing really good. He makes me very happy. :D I'm also trying to go to culinary school in the fall, so we'll see how that goes. I guess that's about it. Miss you guys and I hope we get to see each other soon!!!

-Jess

Susanville?

Hey All,
I'm going to be in Susanville for a week around the 4th. So if you are in town let me know! I miss you all.
Much Love,
Jenay

Hello!!

Me and my boyfriend (I know right?!?!) He is amazing!

Me and my best girlfriend from college Ashley. You guys would love her!

Me and my cousin Ronny graduated together

Me and Ash and Ronny before the ceremony

Hey girls!

So sorry I haven't posted anything yet on this, but I love to read your updates! And the pictures! 

Well I just graduated from Cal Poly this last weekend. YAY! I don't think it has hit me yet.. Oh well. It was a really great weekend though and a lot of my family came up to watch! So now I am just hanging out for two weeks and then I leave for my Euro trip for six weeks! Ill be going to Dublin, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Barcelona, Florence, Munich, Prague, and some other places yet to be determined. I am really excited and starting to get nervous. 

After that I have 5 weeks to find a place to live in San Francisco where I will start a job on September 15th with Triage Consulting Group. I love the company and I cannot wait to start (and start making a real paycheck). I will get to travel a lot around the western part of the US so maybe I will be coming to a town near you!! 

Well thats me as of right now.. let me know if any of you will be home these next two weeks or sometime in August. Hopefully we can all get together again soon! Miss you all!!!!!

Quick Update!

Hey guys! 

Things are going really great but so busy! I have 16 days until graduation so life right now if full of school and work. I have a final projects due for psychopharmachology and costume design class. An acting excerpt from "Bus Stop" for my acting class that I get to perform in a couple of weeks in front of 500 students and some finals and then I am DONE!!!!! Well for the summer and then I am going to grad school at NNU. I will be going to get my masters in school counseling. Brian and I are doing really well and we are living in a house in La Grande with Tucker! We are currently working on landscaping the yard in-between classes and work. I am still working at Safeway about 35 to 40 hours a week splitting my time between the pharmacy and working in other departments. It isn't too bad (most of the time) but it will be nice to not always have to work in retail:D I hope you are all doing wonderfully and I would still love to get together this summer if it works with everyones schedules! I will be in Susanville/Lake Almanor during July5th-10th, so if any of you will be there please let me know! I hope to hear from you all soon! I love you and miss you all dearly!

Court

Hello?

Hello? Anyone out there? I know you are all busy with the end of semesters, some graduating, some preparing for more school and some preparing for babies. But let us know how you are doing!!

Trison is trying to walk. He has taken a couple steps, but not more than three at a time. He is growing up so fast. He makes the cutest little sounds all the time, trying to talk. He LOVES to be outside and never wants to come in the house.

Jack and I are doing very well. We look forward to the weekends, NO WORK! And we are so glad summer is finally here! As soon as the pool opens up we will be taking Trison there a lot.

Here are some pictures I took today.

Some friends bought a pool and shared with Triston.
He had a lot of fun with his little friends.

Update

Hey, I just wanted to update everyone. Jessa's husband Brandon was admitted to the hospital because of severe abdominal pain. They discovered three good sized blood clots. One of which blocked a major valve into the liver. They also found something growing in his lungs. The doctors thought it was cancer. But after a painful biopsy, the blood work and biopsy results came back benign. So no cancer, just a tissue disorder. He is now home from the hospital, 26 pounds lighter because he couldn't eat for 2 weeks, and a little weak still. He is doing great, though!

While Brandon was in the hospital we had Jessa's 3 boys here in Elko. Hunter is 5, Deacon 3, and Logan 6 months. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. And I had my 2 sisters here in town helping out too. We took turns. Anyway, I just wanted to update.

Now We are home and things are getting back to normal. Except I pulled something in my back, so I can barely pick Triston up without pain. It's fun, let me tell ya! We sold our Druango a couple weeks ago and now are planning to buy a car this weekend in Salt Lake City. Hopefully we can find something we like!!

Triston is getting so big! He has two teeth and another one coming. He has been sick too, but is still very active.

Triston and I just hanging out waiting for Jack to come home from work

Hunter and Deacon making cookies at my house.

Triston was crawling around with this hanging out of his mouth. He looked like a little puppy or something.

My life as of now

Hey girlies!!

My life is...to put it simply, BUSY! But I wanted to send ya all a quickie---it's been a while since we all talked. So just to let ya all know what's been up in my life as of late.

I'm a little behind in school, so while this SHOULD be my last semester...it's definitely NOT. I'm about 2 semesters behind. :( Thank you Disney! It's okay, I"m not ready to leave yet so I'm okay with it. This semester I'm only taking 4 classes-3 major ones and a dance class. PLUS a class for a program I'm involved with. OH i'm SOOO excited for it! The school organized a group of girls to go to Chicago and host a day camp for two weeks for inner city girls. Girls that live in the ghettos of Chicago and have seen some...interesting things it their lives. Anyway, we go and have a camp for them for two weeks, to kinda get them away from their lives and get them out to have a little bit of fun, when we're done for the day we get to tour Chicago! AH! And we get to go on a segway tour, and a boat tour, and see a broadway play, a baseball game, and LOTS more. I"m SOOO SO SO excited. It's gonna be amazing.

I'm also the current "Managing Director" for another program on campus that helps students from "disadvantaged backgrounds". Theres a big scholarship involved with it and basically we just help students out that have some sort of disadvantage. It's also pretty amazing. Being the Managing Director basically means I'm in charge. It's ALL completely student led so I'm over other students who are involved. It's complicated to explain and would be lengthy. Basically it's time consuming and worth it.

I still work on campus at the 'lovely' testing center. Not much fun but it's a job.

Um um...I don't know what else to say. I keep pretty busy and I'm usually gone from 7:45 am till at the very least 6:30 or 7. Then I hang out with my AWESOME roommates.

Here's a couple pics of them. We have fun---even though it's FREEZING here!!!
Well girls i LOVE you dearly and hope you got through all that. Sorry it wasn't very entertaining. Just wanted to update ya'll. LOVE YOU!! MISS YOU TONS AND TONS!!!

Oh the things a boy will do.

Triston is now a pro bowler.

Mommy's little "helper"

He dove into the spoon while eating peaches.
Thanks for the big Auntie Courtney and for the jammies Aunt Stevie!

He loves to watch the dryer, so I put him in a basket of clothes so he could be closer.

Our family