A Celebration of Life

The past few days have been a reminder of how precious our time on Earth is, and how important it is to celebrate the life we have now, and the life we will have one day in Heaven.  My roommate and best friend, Stephanie, called me on Thursday to inform me that her father had passed away.  As the news spread of his death among our friends, it became evident that all of us had every intention of being at the visitation and/or the funeral depending on each person's different circumstnaces.  With that in mind, our roommate Sarah came Sunday to attend the visitation and stayed overnight at my house to go to the funeral this morning.  We also met up with Tracy and some band members at the visitation.  Kayla's roommate, and our friend, Ali also came and stayed with Kayla so she was able to attend both the visitation and funeral.  It was amazing to see how many people came to support Stephanie, but also to show their respect to a wonderful husband, son, brother, father, etc.  Kayla, Ali, Sarah, and I all drove to the visitation together on Sunday evening.  We were surprised by the length of the line, but were so happy that several people were able to show their respect and condolences. 

We were at the visitation for around 2 hours and then decided to head over to Olive Garden to grab some dinner.  Oh how I love the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl.  While on a diet, however, it becomes a little harder.  Overall, though, I was happy with what I ate and decided to just bring my second bowl home.  The poor waitress at Olive Garden though.  We hadn't seen each other in a while and had many stories to share.  We laughed hysterically and changed our minds a million times, but had a wonderful dinner together.  After dinner the four of us came back to my house and played card games for a while until finally we couldn't stay awake any longer.  

This morning we woke up early and went to the funeral.  The service was beautiful.  The pastor did a wonderful job of celebrating Stephanie's father's  life, allowing each person to know how much he would be missed, while also being reminded of the peace and happiness he is now enjoying in Heaven.  I was so proud of Stephanie for her strength and courage throughout it all.  I know that these days have been hard, and that no doubt she will have harder days to come, but I admire the strength she showed throughout it all.

Following the funeral we grabbed lunch at the local Mexican restaurant and then went to a park for the afternoon.  We played some more card games while sprawled out on blankets.  The time we spent was so relaxing. The weather was beautiful and made for a perfect afternoon.  We even climbed the hill and some even enjoyed rolling down.

Ali rolling down the hill. Not quite as easy as it looked.

At the top :)

"The Sarah's" as we like to introduce ourselves

Kayla wanted to roll down after seeing Ali

 

I wish we would have gotten together under better circumstances, but I did have a wonderful time spending a couple of days with these guys.  We jammed out to Veggie Tales, laughed so hard we couldn't breathe, and became even more excited for the year ahead.

Love,

Sarah <3