Trip to Florida...

We are back home from our trip to Florida. Everything went very well. We only had to stop once on the way up and back to feed Jakey and take him out of his car seat for a while. I'm sure sitting in one place for a long time gets old now that he's used to crawling around and going where he wants. Jeremy gave his presentation in Pensacola and even won an award for it, so I am very happy for him. He was nervous about it because it's not really his area of expertise, but he impressed the experts, so I know he did a good job. 

-We got to take Jakob to the beach on Monday. He slept for probably the first 20 minutes we were there. After he woke up we took him to the water, it was really really cold, like ice so he didn't care for that too much. He sure did love the sand though! He was eating it by the handfuls, I eventually gave up on trying to keep it out of his mouth. I'm sure a little beach sand never hurt anyone :) I also got to visit with Jill on Monday evening. It was so good to see her. It is so hard to know that one of my best friends is going through a hard time and I can't be there to support her. I know there's nothing I can physically do to help her feel better, but there's so many times I wish I could just hug her and be there with her and I can't. It was wonderful to finally get that hug! Tuesday we went to Destin and went shopping. Of course Jakob's grandma's made sure he was going home with some new summer clothes, which I am grateful for because the "little" guy needs 12-18 month clothes for the summer!!! Yes, he is wearing shorts and shirts that are 18 months and they are not too big on him. I definitely wasn't prepared for that. Most of the 12-18 months that we have for him are for cold weather, because that is when he will be a year and a half. 

-On Monday Jill had told me that she was losing alot of hair, and that she knew it would happen, but she was surprised that it started happening so fast. I told her that I didn't know how she would feel about it, but from what I've seen women seem to feel better about themselves when they go ahead and cut off their hair once it starts falling out very heavy. Of course I would never tell her what she should do, everyone is different, but it was just something to think about. Tuesday Jillian called me. She was ready to go ahead and cut all her hair off. She said she was pretty sure that by Wednesday most of it would be gone anyways. I told her I'd come over once we returned home. As I hung up the phone I felt like somebody punched me in the stomach. I know that hair is just hair. As a former hairdresser I've had good haircuts and bad, I know that it grows back. I also know as a woman that it would be hard to lose your hair. I didn't know what kind of emotional state Jillian was in, we'd only talked for a few seconds. I didn't know if she was emotionally ready to handle this or not, she's had so much sprung on her in the last couple of months. I knew that with or without hair Jillian is beautiful. She has a beautiful spirit about her. I was dreading what this would do to my friends spirit. When we got back to Niceville I dropped everyone off at my mom's house and headed to Jills. In the car I was praying and asking God for help. I knew that if Jillian was sad about this process that it would break my heart, it would be hard for me to do this thing. I needed to be strong for her. I asked God to give me the words of encouragement to say, help me not to say anything I shouldn't . I prayed the whole way. When I reached Jills house she was somber, but not emotionally distraught. She seemed ready emotionally to take this big step. I was so relieved to see her and as I cut and we talked I was just amazed at the grace God gave to her. I told her that her hair would look cute in a pixie cut, she told me yes, now I will get my way, as her hair grows back in it will be short (I like her hair short!) We talked about how you don't really understand what it would be like to lose your hair until you've been there. How we as women complain about things like a bad hair day, or thin hair not understanding what some women have had to go through. When we finished I looked at her, and it was still Jillian. It was still my beautiful friend, and as we sat and talked she may have even looked more beautiful than I've ever seen her. She had a glow on her face and she radiated beauty that I believe comes from her closeness to the Lord. Jillian has not blamed God with her cancer. I'm sure there are questions, as there are when any of us go through a trial, but she trusts God with them. She has been given the "grace to help in time of need." I have been praying for Jill, and trusting God to heal her, but I came away from Florida with a peace in my heart knowing that my friend is trusting God, and he is providing for her. 

-Wednesday we took Jakob to a park in Niceville. There must have been a sailboat club meeting that day because there were 50 or 60 sailboats out in the bay. It was a gorgeous day and Jakob had a lot of fun playing with his aunts.  We went to Danny's fried chicken, which was the one place Jeremy said he "had" to eat while we were in Niceville. :)

-Thursday we spent some time with Jeremy's mom and then headed to Niceville and saw my family for a couple of hours and headed home. I think I got more of a vacation than Jeremy did, but in all his running around he did get to see friends from work so he had a good time too. While he was at the conference he was offered a job or two, but that's another post for another time.

That was our trip in a nutshell. I don't have many pictures because my batteries died in my camera and I never replaced them. My mom is supposed to e-mail pictures and I'll try to put some up. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Love you all