Mom insisted I blog this... :) so here goes. My family left town on Thursday to take a couple-day boat trip to Wrangell because Dad needed some work done to the boat (pictures are upcoming... I still have to weed through them all - you know Carrie... she probably took a hundred).
We were still in Wrangell (living on the boat) on Sunday morning when I woke up with a sharp pain in my lower stomach. I ignored it. On Monday morning I woke up with much more pain. I mentioned it to the family (which didn't do much... you have to get pretty darn hurt around here to get any sympathy). The pain got steadily worse all of Monday. The work done on the boat, we left Wrangell at 2:00 on Monday afternoon and headed back to town (a good 10 hour boat ride). I started getting some attention about here (maybe due to my lying on my bunk writhing in pain all day... hmm... wonder if that rang some bells). :) :)
We arrived in town about midnight and Mom took me to the emergency room. They took some blood tests and x-rays but we didn't get any conclusions. We left the hospital to drive home, take a shower (hadn't had one in a while since we'd been living on the boat) and catch a few hours of sleep. Then we went back to the hospital early Tuesday morning. I had an ultrasound done (still no conclusions) then a CAT scan - yep, Appendicitis. On Tuesday afternoon I had surgery and my appendix was removed. The doctors also found I had a ruptured ovary cyst (painful but not dangerous).
I got to come home this afternoon (Wednesday) and am feeling pretty sore, but heading uphill. ...I'm kind of missing the hospital bed with that nifty button you can push that summons a nurse... here you have to yell "MOM" above the ruckus of four little noise-makers... oh well, it's more exciting at home... it can be pretty boring lying in a hospital bed all day.
Praise God for having His Hand through it all and for the successful surgery!
For my 15th birthday, my friend, Carrie and I took a 22 mile bike ride from our house (out north), across town, to my friend's house (out south of town). It took us about 4 hours. We were going going at a normal/slow speed, and took lots of breaks along the way (for snacks, to look at the lovely view...etc.) We had a great time!! 
This was taken on one of our stops. We stopped for a break and walked down to the beach. It was a beautiful day!! 
the victory jump... "we did it!!!"
