circular?

i have been a consistent blogger for nearly one year now ... labor day weekend will mark the anniversary.

congratulations to me.

megs!

she's back in MN for three weeks for a med school rotation at the U!

huzzah!

we had dinner tonight with amanda; then they came over to my house and we looked at megs' africa pics and watched her camp videos.

WELCOME HOME, MEGS!!!!

emmaline!

i went to tracy's baby shower today, and it was lovely seeing her! i saw her for about an hour last october, and not since then, so it was nice to not only go to her shower but to spend a few afternoon hours with her at her parents' house too.

yay for old friends!

yay for baby emmaline joining us soon!

it's so waaaaaaaaaaaarm ...

blah blah blah.

write to me, people.

love,
jls

stunning

that's what jada was in her wedding yesterday.

sigh

i'm lonely for some of my friends right now.

twins, kiddos, and lana

My office went to a Twins game! This is me and Rhonda, one of our lovely student workers. Her eyes are not always like that.

Twins lost. :-(


My cousin Jim has four kids: Abby, Matt, Kate, and Tommy. Jim's sister Cathy has one: Liam. Liam and Tommy both turned one. We had a party. This is Matt.


My dad ("Uncle Tom" -- actually Tommy is named after him!) bribed the kids to hug him for $5. NO problem for Abby; she loves dad! Matt too. Kate ... hates everyone. All she had to do was shake his hand to get the money, and it nearly killed her. Notice how uncomfortable she is!!


Lana and I went to lunch!! We ate breakfasty foods at the Edina Grill and chatted, and it was LOVELY. Oh I love her so much! Afterward, we went to a couple stores, including Anthropologie, where we found this book.


Here I am, posing with "my" book.


Me and Lanners!!! She's soooooooooooooooo great!!!

i miss

eir.
camp.
whit.
dro.
kevy.
megs.
camp.
b'dewayne mcgirr experiment.
my mom.
eir.
camp friends.
rochester friends.
college friends.
tracy.
camp.
NWC peeps.
camp.
eir.

a 2nd go

today i sat by my friend anna (who just started working at NWC) during our weekly all-campus "Office Bites" get-together, and i had so much fun throwing out funny comments back and forth with her.

if you knew my story with anna, this would seem more special to you.

anna was probably my best friend my senior year of college, but we had a major falling out. we weren't holding grudges against one another, but we basically couldn't be around each other without fighting. i didn't go to her wedding.

just recently we started a writing group together, and it has been great having her in my life again. we had a great talk a few weeks ago where i got to apologize for being such a jerk. she said i didn't need to apologize again, but i wanted to, and she forgave me. it was actually pretty cool.

and so today, sitting beside her out on the nazareth veranda, quietly firing out these witty one-liners during a presentation, i thought about how FUN she is and i realize how BLESSED i am to get a second shot at this friendship.

pretty cool, eh?

blah, etc. (cont'd)

at least now i've gone jogging.

i feel bored.

i mean, i have more than enough to do, but i miss people. my life is more fun when i have opportunities to see my peeps.

b'dewayne. i have 7 meetings/intervies/appointments/etc. at work tomorrow. sigh.

blah blah blah blah blah

i miss peeps; there's not enough time in one day; i'm really tired; i need to go jogging; i want to write beautiful things.

and funny things.

backio.

today, back to the shanty.

tomorrow, back to work.

next month, back to CAMP!!!

right now ...
i miss eir!

i have quite a lot to do this week, and i feel a little stressed. i'll survive.

love love.

Sonshine!

Sonshine was a buh-LAST! :-)

i loved having so many of my worlds collide in one location!

sonshine

i'm there!

it's so fun!!!!!!

pray for us!

love,
jackie lea

update for chas

first of all ...



I GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL WITH THIS GUY! He's on Big Brother this season. And yes, Chas, I've been watching. It's so weird!

secondly ...

kevy is fighting forest fires in wyoming this summer after a year at Itasca Community College. found out today that it's not what he wants to do for LIFE, but he's enjoying his summer. GREAT KID. loves Jesus.

kristin is working in st. clizzy for Preferred Credit. i just hung out with her last weekend when we found Kev's stuffed squirrel "Slappy" -- we were sad that he left her for the summer, but mom told us later that it was INTENTIONAL so Slappy wouldn't get hurt or lost or something. HILARIOUS! tough firefighter, pshaw! ;-) Kristin's great. loves Jesus.

mom is great. loves Jesus.
dad is great. loves Jesus.

in general, i love my family and they love Jesus. and i love Him too.

life right now

yeah, i haven't been a very faithful poster lately, have i? sorry to my fans. hahaha.

things have been great. i went home for the weekend and hung out with my delightful family (sans kevy, who is valiantly fighting flames in western wyoming). i wish he coulda been there. we had fun swimming and chillaxing, and we took dad out for his bday/father's day (both late) on sunday. he wanted to go somewhere really nice, really fancy ... culver's. hahaha!

i got to visit with lana on the phone the other night, and that was lovely too (as is she). AND i talked to TRACY yesterday, who is mighty preggers with the lovely little emmaline. (btw, to update you on my other impregnated comrades: alison finally popped out shawn michael, stubborn little bugger, and bizzers' cutieface miriam is still chilling and maybe doing gymnastics in her comfy womb.)

more than you wanted to know, probably. as michael scott would say, "TMI ... too much information. i used to say, 'don't go there,' but that's -- pff! -- lame."

COMING UP ...

writing group tomorrow night, and PACKING for ...

SONSHINE thursday-sunday. i am kinda exhausted thinking about days of recruiting in the heat, BUT i'm really excited to see so many people i LOVE LOVE LOVE. IF YOU'RE THERE, STOP BY THE NWC TENT AND SAY HELLO!!!!

life seems so busy sometimes, like right now. i'm trying to cut back, actually, partly in preparation for grad school this fall. I'M REALLY EXCITED!!!

for those of you who are prayer warriors, please pray ...
for me and my Sonshine crew
for megan, one of my incoming students, whose mom was diagnosed with bone cancer in her jaw. there are a lot of kids in the family, and megan's mom is in texas for surgery right now
for hot springs, south dakota, and the fire there and for the other wildfires
AND
for the brave folks FIGHTING the fires, like my baby brother kevin whom i am SO PROUD OF.

love love,
jackie lea

4th of July

i had a WONDERFUL time in rochester for the 4th. whit's family took me out for lunch, and then later, the hemmers and dora and katie came over, and that was great! we watched the camp video (hooray!) and ate some good food.

then WES came over! YAY!

whit, dro, jill, kellie, and i went to the fireworks, and IT WAS SO FUN! dora, whit, and i made silly like comments and comparisons for every firework. :-) hahahahaha!

then we went back to whit's house, and WES came over again and played Apples to Apples with us girls for awhile! :-)

whit and i got brunch with wes the next morning too.

I LOVE ROCHESTER. I LOVE WHIT. I LOVE BEING AT HER HOUSE. I LOVE ROCHESTER FRIENDS. I LOVE THE 4TH OF JULY.