So the spring break is over (back to life at Cedarville: starting my Med/Surg rotation and preparing for ministry in Togo, West Africa this May), but, hot-dog, how good it was!  Road tripped it to the immensely long and beach-ous state of Florida with the man-friend and 6 other amazing people of the Appalachian Bible College flavor.  God provided all along the way through some of the most generous and gracious people I have had the privilege of being blessed by.  From Jacksonville to Melbourne to the Keys to Tampa, the beaches were many, the meals were tasty, and the fellowship was above average.  

But pictures say it better, so here goes my attempt at technological advancement... 

Preparing to surf the waves at Paradise Beach...whoohoo for the Ducky...

I wish I could say that I won, but this picture is deceptive...(p.s. he started it)

In search of many, many "maninees" (with great sadness I must report that we failed to find those beautiful pacifists of the sea...aka manitees)

Martha, Beckie, and Annie

Walking through water in the Florida Keys

             TGIF.  Do you remember what that used to mean?  Imagine for a moment you are once again 8 years old...

             Back in the day, when the momma first started working again, she'd always take the Friday night shift.  This meant several things for the Schrank household, but the most important thing was that Friday nights were Daddy's territory.  Dinner usually consisted of hamburgers, pizza, or cheese steak subs accompanied by oven-baked french fries and homemade applesauce.  Choices from the vegetable group included ketchup, mustard, or pickle-relish.  From the diary group we had "plastic" cheese (Kraft) and ovaltine chocolate milk.  Best part was that we didn't even have to eat in the kitchen.  We'd set up the tv trays and fight over seats in the living room and laugh until ovaltine chocolate milk came out our noses while watching classics like Family Matters (oh Steve Urkle, how I miss thee), Full House, and Step by Step. 

            Then as the night wore on, Dad would get us all riled up and we'd have wrestling/tickle matches on the living room floor (usually during commercial breaks and usually knocking over a tv tray).  A little before midnight someone would see mommas headlights through the window as she came up the drive way and the next 60 seconds would be bedlam as Dad threw dishes into the sink and we made a mad dash to the bunk bed.  We'd lay with our heads under the covers, stifling giggles with fists and pillows, and hear Dad kiss Mom and say, "the kids are all in bed..." 

So my friends, I hope it's a TGIF kind of night for you :o)    

As I sit here eating rice chexes (how to do you make chex plural?) and Mr. Good bar chocolate, reveling in the luxury of casual dress on a rainy Friday, I can't help but anticipate with great excitement the soon and very soon arrival of my family.  That's right folks, Southwest flight 1629 will be bringing the daddy-o, the little woman, and the Fungus to me in approximately 6 hours...oh boy :o)  Can't hardly wait to play.  On the agenda (or schedule if you prefer, but you have to say it "shed-uol"):

1. Dinner at Young's...mmm...sweet potato bread...

2. Swimming at the hotel...hopefully the water will be chunk-free and our presence will scare off any other guests

3. Air force Museum...because in all honesty that's really why they come..."visiting Beckie" is just code for looking at big airplanes and making boy noises

4. Men's basketball game (if we can ever escape the vortex of the AFM)

5. Third day and David Crowder concert (or as the Fungus would say "David Chowder")

Wherever you are this weekend, keep on keepin' on.

Maybe I'm just a slow learner, but at 20 years old there's a part of me that still can't understand people dying...and in this part of me that can't understand, there are certain people that will just always be.  I mean, I watch my parents getting older but I figure at some point they'll petrify and remain indefinitely and the bubble wrapping us all together will still be intact.  But even as this remnant belief in immortality lingers, time and experience are chipping it down to a token of childhood...

Really it's more like a sac than a bubble...an amniotic sac, if you will.  Just a paper thin wall of blood vessels and the like separating the perishable seed from it's imperishable future.  It's already been 4 months since Uncle Steve was delivered from the dying womb of this world into the eternal life of the kingdom that's coming...seems so very long for us to be separated, but really it's just the breath between contractions and then a rush and then praise God! In the words of Johnny Cash, "one of these days and it won't be long, we're gonna join him in a song, we're gonna join the family circle at the throne...no the circle won't be broken, by and by Lord, by and by..."