It's amazing how sometimes I read about people or things online and get so emotionally involved. I've known a guy from another site (the site shall remain unnamed lol), and become pretty good friends with him, he likes my advice on girl problems lol. Last week he told me that his best friend was probably dying of a brain tumor and he was really stressing out thinking he'd never see her again. The bottom line was that it turned out to not be as serious as they first thought, and the tumors are probably benign. We're trying to stay optimistic. The worst problem is that after he posted this on another site, people made ridiculously dumb and insensitive remarks, but that's not something I feel like getting into right now. We're really hoping and praying for his friend, and I know it's been something that's changed our perspective on life. I like the fact that I can make a difference for someone's life, even if I've never actually met him in person.

Well, I've had an interesting few weeks in a lot of ways, and I think things are finally getting back to normal. To follow up on my last blog, Chelsea is doing great now, pretty much back to full health. I had a very crazy two weeks at the end of August. My parents were going to spend a week in Michigan, and my sister and I were gonna go up there for a weekend, but the house was such a dump, my sister and I came home the first night and my parents came home the next day. Then the following Thursday, we had a really big storm, with tornadoes in the area, and we lost power for 3 days. That was the first time I can ever remember being without power for more than a few hours. It was also a sad time, cause one of my neighbors who I always thought very highly of died at the age of 92. I'm very excited cause the Cubs are in 1st place! I always say that everything's better when the Cubs are in 1st. I went to the game a couple of weeks ago. I'm very excited to see how the rest of the season goes. I have been working some ridiculous hours lately and having some challenging times at work, but things are getting better

I had a scare last week with my dog, Chelsea, she got really sick and almost died. Last Wednesday, my mom came home and found her barely responsive and when she didn't improve, she had to be taken to the animal hospital. Even though we feared that Chelsea might die, she was ok, and she came home Friday, even though we weren't exactly sure what was wrong with her. We recently found out that she had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, an infection spread by ticks, as well as an intestinal problem. She's also had kidney problems recently possibly associated with bad dog food and/or a congenital kidney problem common to Soft-Coated Wheaten Terriers. She's really a great dog, she continues to hang in there.

On the day before Thanksgiving 1999, we drove up to Wisconsin to buy her from a breeder, and the best part was that I got to skip a day of school to go. Ironically it was 3 years almost to the day after our last dog died. She's a great dog, the best pet our family has ever had. I always say she's like my little sister, cause that's how I feel about her. I would have felt really bad if anything had happened to her, it would have been much worse that when my last dog died, cause she means a lot more to me than he did. Here is a picture of Chelsea taken earlier this year.