The end of Illinois and beginning of Wisconsin

Being home was nice. I enjoyed having a pillow, long warm showers, an actual towel, spending time with my parents, and friends. Although all that was great I really missed biking and sleeping in churches with my new best friends. When our team stopped at my house for lunch we had the chance to do a portrait on my friend Lisa. She went to school with me since elementary school. We played Volleyball, Soccer, and Basketball together for many years. After high school she went to University of Wisconsin Whitewater to play volleyball. She started having extreme migraines and just thought they were because of the stress of school. She continued through the pain and didn’t let it affect her life. Then in December after the alumni basketball game she passed out. When she woke up she was in the hospital and found out she had a tumor on the right side of her brain which affected the left side of her body. She is currently reteaching her left side and is making great progress. She has a positive attitude on life and I have no doubt that she will be walking by herself very soon. This portrait was very touching to all of us because she is our peer and it showed us that something this drastic and life changing could happen to us at anytime no matter how healthy you are.We rode out of Chicago with family and friends for the ride along, went to a picnic, and ended at Josh’s house where his parents provided us with lots of great food. We hung around there for a long time even went in the hot tub for a while. Later that night Kelsey and I went on a run through Highland Park.The next day we rode to Lake Geneva. After the few short rides and a day off this ride was pretty difficult for me. We stopped at Sean’s house along the way his family prepared bagels and fruit for us it was awesome! Kelsey, Jan and I jumped into the lake even though it was pretty chilly outside. We stayed at Brad Topol’s parents lake house and they made great food for us also.The ride from Lake Geneva to Fitchburg was pretty hilly and the weather was perfect. We had crunchy peanut butter and wheat bread! We went to Laurens Aunt’s house for dinner. I sat in for a portrait on Toni, who found a lump on her breast doing a self examination. The doctors wanted to put off the treatment and kept her waiting. She was 31 when she started the intense chemo that caused extreme nausea. The way she talked about it you could just tell how tough it was on her and how miserable it was to go through. She also told us that 1 out of 4 women will get breast cancer, and this was a huge shock to me.