leiomyosarcoma and love.

What an amazing outpouring of love for my Mom this last weekend...

For those who don't know. My Mom has a rare type of cancer called LeioMyoSarcoma. They found a large mass of it wrapped around her ureter last summer when they were doing a surgery for something completely different, removed it and had her go through chemo in the hopes that it wouldn't come back. 3 months after she got done with chemo they found that the cancer had grown back around her ureter and in 2 new spots; one on her liver, and one wrapped around a major artery leading to her leg. So they have decided to put her through chemo again to try to put this cancer in remission.

Because of her cancer she can no longer work, so she really started to worry about her bills and stuff like that. So some of her friends from high school decided to throw her a benefit to raise money so that she doesn't have to go through financial distress along with the side effects of cancer!

And it was

AMAZING.

So many people were there to support her. I never expected so many people to be there for her, and the proceeds to everything went to my Mom. Some of the auction items went for $500, and there were probably thousands of raffle tickets sold! I know that she will have nothing to worry about for a long time, which is very encouraging, she totally deserves it.

12

3

My Mom is such a beautiful woman. I love her so much, and I know she's gonna beat this. With all this support and all the prayers for her being said, I have no doubt in my mind that this cancer has no chance at winning this fight!

What I'm listening to: Rolling Stones (for my Momma) :)

Pictures: 1-My Mom with my grandma.

2-My Mom and her ex-boyfriend Bill, who Courtney, Chloe, and I grew up really loving!

3- The woman to my Mom's right, Mary, hosted the event, along with another guy named Todd. Both of them were awesome!

shirts and responsibility

I have felt so grown up this last week! I swear I have a small business out of my mailbox/room.

OK, so here's the story. Since I'm sure you'd love to hear about it!

Freshmen at my college are required to take a freshmen reading class called Paideia. Everyone dreads it because we read awful books that are related in the most faint ways, and then middle of second semester we are forced to write an 8-12 page long research paper that requires the entire freshman class to live in the library for a few weeks.

My friend Fred was a little frazzled after writing his paper (for good reason, we all were) so he decided to write "The 10 Commandments of Paideia" on the white board in the study lounge he had been working in. Then he took a picture and tagged 50 of his closest friends that he knew would understand where he was coming from.

Sorry about the swearing, but like I said, we were all a little frazzled, and pissed off at Paideia.

So as you could guess, people started commenting on this picture saying things like this:

"i LOVE this!!!"

"PERFECT"

"Agh! So true, so brilliant!"

and then people started commenting things like this:

"make this into a shirt... please"

"Great idea for a shirt!"

"T shirt please"

Because I was tagged in this, I was getting notifications every time people commented on the picture. So I saw what people were saying, and thought to myself..."Why not make a shirt? That would be AWESOME!" So I messaged Fred asking him what he thought of the T-shirt idea, and he was all for it.

So we designed a shirt,

and created a facebook event for it, got an estimate, and started selling. And it has seriously become a little business. I went door to door selling, and have been getting order forms and money in my SPO every time I go and check. Between the three of us that have been selling the shirts, we probably have about 100 sold, have about 50 people that are sending in money.

This grown up feeling feels good, I like the responsibility I have attained through this whole thing. Maybe that means something... I need to graduate from college, figure out what I really enjoy doing, and maybe that involves business! We'll see...

Oh! And while I'm at it I might as well throw this out there.

Shirts are $10.

If you go to Luther, send $10 in an envelope with you shirt size, room number, name, and email to SPO # 1560 by tomorrow at the latest (we're taking in the orders on Monday)!

Listening to: "Circles" -Switchfoot

baby and boyfriend.

There are 2 people worthy of being noted today. The first, is my adorable niece,

Haven Grace.

The second, is my boyfriend,

Jack.

Today is a special day, because Haven Grace turned 2o months old today, and Jack is turning 19 in 5 days!

Lets elaborate on these two people. Because they're worth it. :)

Haven Grace was born on August 20, 2008. She is the sweetest baby in the world. I can't get enough of her. She's happy, smart, beautiful, and vibrant; and every time she says the word "TESSIE!" (Chelsea in Haven-talk) my heart melts. She has such a personality and every one that meets her just loves her. I still can't believe how old she's getting!

Next up to talk about is my wonderful boyfriend Jack. We've been dating for a little over 2 months now, and he is more than I could have ever imagined. So... I guess you should hear the story about how things happened between us, cause I think it's pretty dang cute. :)

We met during our J-term* class this year, which consisted of class 3 times a day for a grand total of 3 hours and 45 minutes of class a day... With all that time together, we really got to know each other, and the other 7 people in the class.

So after that class was over and we hadn't seen each other for a little over a week we happened to bump into each other at Scoe's** the night before Valentine's Day. We hung out most of the night just enjoying each other's company and dancing. At one point he started pulling packages of Sweetheart Sweet tarts out of his pocket and sharing them with me. One of the package's he opened happen to have nothing but "Be mine" hearts in it. So he showed them to me and I said,

"That's got to be a sign! Of COURSE I'll be your valentine!"

and gave him a big hug. The first one he pulled out of the next package he opened was "I'm yours". And THEN he found one that said "Kiss me" and showed it to me. You can imagine what that one led to! :)

A while later he walked me back to my room and we ended up hanging out in my room just talking and kissing until almost 6 in the morning. Sometime within that 6 hour period he asked me to be his girlfriend, and I, of course, said yes. Who could say no to such a sweet guy? So our anniversary is Valentine's Day(which he said he planned, cause he's horrible with dates, and said it would be easy to remember... turd), and it's been a great couple of months so far!

He's a great guy, and I plan on making this birthday one of the best. :)

Happy Birthday in 5 days baby, so happy I get to celebrate it with you!

* J-term is where everyone at Luther takes 1 focalized course for the entire month of January.

** Roscoe's: The Local Bar in town. This is the place to go on Friday's and Saturday's.

"Careful" -Paramore

family.

How can family members look so alike sometimes, and other times look so different?!

I feel like I'm the family member that is the odd person out. I don't look like my mom, I don't look like my dad, and I don't look like my sisters(or at least I don't think so, some people think we all look identical). I just don't see it.

But here's some pictures so that you can make your own opinions.

Me and Mom

Me and my sister, Courtney.

OPPOSITES

Me and my Dad.

Me and my sister, Chloe.

Only thing we have slightly in common? Face shape... maybe.

Other than that, they all are pretty much the same (other than my sister and her naturally blonde hair...). They all have blue eyes, are taller than me, and I think they look alike.

Hmm... I don't know! Maybe its just me, but I swear I was secretly adopted!

So you tell me, what do you think?

"Dez Moines" -The Devil Wears Prada

hair and hinges.

I want to change my hair... reeeeeeal bad.

If you know me at all (or at least high school me), you know that I like to change my hair a lot. Throughout high school my hair was always going from blonde to brown and then back to blonde again. Ever since I got to college I haven't had the time or opportunity to change my hair as much as I used to, probably because my personal hair stylist (my sister) lives four hours away from me, and blonde Chelsea hair requires some major upkeep that would require me to be going home more often than I have the time or money for. But I miss my blonde hair! So I think its about time to make the commitment to go through the long process that is making my hair blonde.

You can just imagine how long it takes to get from this...

to this.

Believe me, it's a long process which requires numerous and regular high lighting sittings, due to the fact that my hair is naturally pretty dang dark, resulting in some pretty nasty looking roots. But like I said, it's a commitment I'm willing to make!

Next order of business...

My hinges are getting rusty. I never thought I'd be saying that I have joint problems at the tender age of 19. But... I have joint problems at the tender age of 19... dang. I noticed it the other day when I was stretching in preparation for cheer tryouts in two weeks (I figured I've been out of practice, and it was about time to get a little bit more flexible so that I don't tear something while doing a toe touch... ouch). So I swung my leg up onto my lofted bed and held it there for a minute, and when I went to take it down again, my hip and knee decided not to work like they were supposed to. Instead of letting me just drop my whole leg to the ground, I had to lower it slowly, and in the mean time my joints were screaming,

"WHY DID YOU THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA??"

It threw me off a little bit! Even some easier stretches that I used to do weren't agreeing with me.

I guess I can blame my joint problems on cheerleading and track. My competitive cheerleading career lasted for 7 years, 4 on Iowa Allstars and the 4 on my high school cheerleading squad. The mix of jumping, flipping, stretching, and spraining (at least on my part), on nearly a daily basis, did not leave my body in good condition. And on top of that I did track for 3 years of high school, and now I'm working out hard core for my college track team. I guess I'm not the nicest to my body, but it's worth it to me to enjoy my body while I still can. Let's just hope my knees and hips can hold up for a couple more years!

"Rude Boy" -Rhianna

sperry's and straws

So yesterday was the first day I attempted to wear my Sperry's that I got on my Spring Break trip back in the middle of March. I've been meaning to wear them but have been so obsessed with my wonderful $2 target flippy floppy's that I almost forgot about them! But since today was a little chilly, I decided it was the day to try them out. So I chose an outfit that I thought would do them justice.

Sperry's

Target Shorts

F21 Tank

J. Crew Cardigan

Only problem with this outfit(and I actually worried about this before I left), was that it would look like I wasn't wearing pants from behind, because the cardigan is pretty long. Ends up I'm not the only one that thought that, cause one of my guy friends proceeded to point it out after one of my classes... great. Oh well, I still got to wear my Sperry's! And that was the point right?

I decided after taking the first picture that you couldn't see my Sperry's very well and don't

have a surface that was the right level that would show them, so after about 20 different attempts to get a good angle, this is what I settled on.I figured it was the epitome of a college student picture, lofts, desks, fleece blankets, bright colors. You know how it is!

On another note. My roommate tends to get very interesting treats for our room. She is constantly is getting packages from home with baked goods and candy and coffee and all sorts of other stuff. Today, she offered me a straw that makes your regular 2%, skim, or whatever white milk you have, chocolate. So I tried it out and it was absolutely delicious!

Here's what the straw looked like, it was cinched on the sides so that it could hold in the little chocolate balls that reminded me of cocoa puffs.

(And don't judge my mug, I'm in college =P )

And here is me being pleasantly surprised by how good it was!

I want them, all day every day.

Seriously...

They were that good :)

You need to try them out. I'm not sure what they're called, but I'm sure you could find them. Or who knows, maybe on your next birthday you'll get them from me... that is, if I know you, and love you, and you're not lactose intolerant. Cause then they would be a little pointless =/

Oh! Thought I'd throw this in. I got distracted from taking pictures of my outfit, so here is me loving Edward who is conveniently placed to intimidate my boyfriend when he is sitting on my futon with me. :)

"Empire State of Mind" -Jay-Z

mess and music.

So, yesterday, after I finished my last post, I got on a total cleaning kick.

As you may well know, college students have tiny rooms.. so you can imagine how impossible it is to navigate across that room if it's a mess. My room yesterday was about the equivalent to this...

I didn't manage to get a picture of how our room actually was yesterday, and my roommate told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures of her mess and post it on the internet, so... this will have to do. But seriously, either way.. it was bad! So I cleaned (with a few short breaks to obsess over my new iTunes purchases... i'll tell you more about them in a minute) and ended up with a mostly clean room! And then I came back to seeing that my roommate had cleaned her part of the room too! score! So here's the results to all my hard work!

This is our newly cleaned futon, we have far too many blankets, so they tend to pile up on there and make it hard to sit on, so organization was necessary on this one.

And this is my newly organized desk. No joke, I couldn't see the floor in this area for awhile... maybe cause it probably a good 10 square feet of space in a little corner of the room, or maybe just cause I'm a messy college student... either way, I'm just glad I can find stuff. Even if there are still towers of books on my dresser ready to collapse at any minute.

Oh...

And this is me being happy about my clean room!

Now my next topic of discussion. My new iTunes purchases! My mom got me a $25 iTunes gift card for my birthday, so I decided to buy all my top 40 hip hop/R&B songs that I have been listening to through my roommates iTunes library, figured it was about time I add them to my iPod. So anyways, I have been OBSESSING over the New Boyz and all that "jerkin" music ever since Sean Kingston and the New Boyz came to Decorah(believe it or not, our student concert association is pretty awesome, Augustana and Ingrid Michaelson will be here in a few weeks thanks to them!) Sean Kingston wasn't that great... but the New Boyz knew how to put on a show! And they were young and fresh, and super hot(they all ended up without shirts by the end of their show). So now I love them. And have listened to them non-stop since yesterday, not to mention, all the days that Mari(my roommate) played their stuff.

Here's Sean Kingston being awful, but still having a concert in Decorah, making him awesome(or possibly desperate?)

And here's a really bad picture of the New Boyz being awesome, and putting on one of the best shows I've ever seen! Way to go New Boyz!

So as you might have noticed yesterday, I added a little "Song of the day" to the bottom of my profile. I did this cause I figure I have a pretty diverse taste in music, I like pretty much everything(except for most country) and thought it would be interesting to share with you all and show you what I have been listening to lately.

-Chels

Song of the Day- "Cricketz" -New Boyz

Enjoy!

About me.

So here starts my blog. Time for you to find out who you'll be reading about (if you don't already know me!)

I'm Chelsea :), I'm a 19-year-old student at Luther College in NE Iowa studying to become a vocal music director... for now. And I love it here (minus the small town part). I grew up in Des Moines and went to a small christian school there for 13 years, where I participated in cheerleading, track, music, and anything else I could get into! I love singing, which is the main reason I decided to come to Luther, not to mention the fact that EVERYONE here is super nice(well, maybe not EVERYONE, but mostly everyone). I also knew that by going to a small school I could still be involved in the sports I loved in high school

. So I run and jump for the Norse and have loved it so far, and I plan on cheering next year for football(try-outs are in a couple weeks, I'll try to keep you guys posted about that one!). Hmm... Oh! Back to the people, I have already made some really lasting friendships here at Luther after only being here for a semester and a half. I found my roommate for next year, Jennie(I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about her), my boyfriend Jack(maybe even more about him...) and SO many other people that are all amazing. I can't even imagine transferring out of this school. It'd just be depressing.

So now that you know a little about me, you should know a little about my intent with this blog. I really want to keep updated with my friends from home. Like Luther, DMC was full of people that I made long lasting friendships with. Last summer I had a group of friends I lovingly called "The Nasty Nine", even though there were more like... 11 of us. We were basically inseparable, and then we all proceeded to go to colleges that were spread up and down the middle of America, Baylor University in Texas, Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, Norwestern College in Minnesota, Pitt State in Kansas, Mid-America Nazarene University in Kansas, and of course Luther College in Iowa. The closest person to me? 2 hours. Farthest? 16... so you can imagine, I miss them a lot. I feel like I've disconnected with them, so this is a small attempt of keeping them updated on what I've been up to.

Also, Decorah is just about 4 hours away from Des Moines. And I miss my family! I would usually go and hang out with my sister or mom or grandma(who all live within 5 miles of each other) and just hang out. But being 4 hours away makes that a little bit more tough. So this is also for them and keeping them updated on my life as well.

Other than that, this might end up being a place for me to vent my thoughts(which tend to wander), and a place for me to talk about myself and help understand what I might need or want to do with my life. Whether you want to read this or not is up to you. But anything you do regarding this is appreciated!

-Chels

My sisters, my niece, and I

Just a couple of the nasties

Song of the day: "Vipers, Snakes, And Actors" -Norma Jean