my life wondedring where the frick my friend is

It's been a rough week for me emotionally. My friend Mark is missing. He went to San francisco for a conference and was supposed to return home early afternoon last Wednesday. He never showed and no one has heard from him.
Here's what I do know:
He checked out of his hotel in the morning
He never boarded his flight/never landed- a mutual friend Jason was supposed to pick him up and after realizing Mark wasnt on the flight, spent 4 hours trying to find out all he could from the airport.
He never switched flights/never changed his tickets/never reembersed his ticket/ it was basically an unclaimed ticket.
Before he left he was laid off and therefore doesnt have tons of cash to just buy a new ticket.
At the conference they team you up with a group that you spend the whole week with/do everything with/become very close. so a friend here called the conference people, found out who his group members were and contacted everyone. As far as they all knew, he was in a good frame of mind and was intending to return home on Wednesday.
I went to Guatemala with Mark and we became very close, he is a charactered guy, never irresponsible, always eager to help others. Mark would never take off to play or whatever without telling someone. He would never leave his friends and family at home worrying where he was on purpose.
Mark is a Kindergarten teacher at church and loves it! he loves those kids, and he was scheduled last Sunday. Another thing he would never skip. He's very dedicated.
He planned to run a small group this semester, one he has been talking about doing forever. Seriously, I cant count how many times he's talked to me about it.
Anyway, he sent me a few really great emails before he left which were amazing. so sweet!! So anyway, its a helpless feeling, what can one do? Everyone is freaking out!! Last I heard, his parents were filing a missing persons report. I ask everyone to pray for him. Sorry, I got a phone call in the middle of this and lost my train of thought. I'll keep you posted.
PICTURE: mark, myself and Ryan

My life being a Deetee

Spring is sprung!!! Stupidest phrase ever!! Haha....so yeah its getting all warm and stuff and today I am wearing flip flops!!! Yay flip flops!! April has been crazy with easter, events and trying to find time with friends and family. It actually has been going better than I thought it would. It seems like everyone has been so busy lately, finishing school, working on big projects, working nights blah blah blah, so its good to know I'm not the only one!!

I decided yesterday that my neice Shana is pretty much the greatest little person alive. Heath was volunteering at the church so I decided to drop in to the childcare and see Shan. She is so great because she gets so excited when she sees me and yells "Deetee" which means Auntie.LOL. She then wants up and I have to carry her around while she hugs me and chatters away in "shanspeak". She was trying to stick a sticker on my eye and kept sayin "hahaha oh deetee, eye!" lol...so cute!!! It's hard to believe that in like 15 days I will have a new nephew and then in September Heath will have another one!! It's great being an aunt!! Illian and I were talking about how you just love your neices and nephews so much that its crazy but you dont have to do all the disciplining stuff that their parents do, then the kids just thing you are the bomb!! LOL. He was saying that he used to tell his Uncle that he wished he was his dad. Anyway, Shan is great, funniest smartest kid.LOL

So........Anyone watch American Idol this week>? I wasnt going to watch it because I hate country week and I was pretty sure no one would do good at country, but Illian came over and he wanted to watch it so I did. Man....yeah Melinda was great, shes not my favourite, I pretty much love Blake (yikes, there's a phrase I never thought I'd say ;) lol ) So last night when Blake was in the bottonm 3 I was a little concerned and upset because of the whole votefortheworst.com thing. but then....a miracle happened!!! I couldnt believe it!!! Sanjaya was actually, finally voted off!!!Oh man...I cheered!! The little freak actually looked surprised, and Simon looked ecstatic!!LOL...so I slept awesome after that, and now I can once again enjoy American Idol and not worry about Sanjaya!!! Oh happy day!

My life seeing better and having as much fun as possible

So people are starting to complain that my blogs have been few and far between, I try my best, I really do! I have a freind who keeps bugging me to write about the status of my eye, I havent actually told anyone online any progressions. Basically I went to my Specialist last week and he looked at my eye and did some tests and he said that its not normal that I am seeing so good. So thats a great report! I have gone from appointments everyday, to once a week, and now I dont have another one for a month. Yay!!! So thats the dealio with that, I am still doing steroid drips and the sight is a tad bit hazey but not enough to even notice most of the time.

It's busy times right now with work stuff and events, events and more events... I was able to make some time on Saturday to go to the Famous Elmira Maple Syrup festival. A group of 10 of us went. It was pretty cold but we made it as fun as possible. We were so hyper and just having way too much fun. I actually didnt have any maple syrup, which apparently is kinda the point. Jason and I did stop for some Maple sausages which were amazingly good. After that we all went to Harvestmoon for brunch. I dont know why we go there so much, we always forget about the snarky server who is like the nastiest person alive!! I'm just glad she wasnt around when Jason spilled my ice tea and water all over the table, some boys just need to settle down!!

On Saturday night Jason and I went with my parents to an appreciation dinner for Campus for Christ sponsors. It was great!!! The food was amazing and they have quite the heart for missions, it was inspiring. It was hosted by Margie and she had a table reserved for us, also at our table was Nathan, Ryan, Sarah and Alice, so it was great!

Anyway, not much else is new, I'm tired because the weekend was not used for relaxing. I'll post a pic if it works this time. This is of Jason, me and Robb on the hayride at the Maple Syrup festival and the other is of me and Jay at the dinner.