Jen and I are a year apart and I have so many good memories of her when we were growing up! She grew up in suburban Philadelphia and I grew up in very rural Texas...there were a lot of differences!
The cool stuff always happened in Pennsylvania first...Jen and her older sister, Stacey, introduced me to the GAP, Benetton, how to roll my jeans, friendship bracelets and Duran Duran. We spent hours playing Cabbage Patch Kids in the basement (even a basement was cool to this Texas gal!) We spent summers at the Jersey Shore and ate a lot of delicious homemade meatballs at their house. We would laugh at each others' accents...she made me talk to her friends on the phone and say "y'all."
Jen and Mark moved to California a few years ago and have created a great life out there! Visiting with them in Texas was such a treat since we don't see them when we visit Pennsylvania and we haven't made it to California...yet...but we promise to visit!
Jen is currently go through her second-round of treatment for breast cancer. I've struggled with how to write this post because I don't think I can do justice to everything she has been through. It is exponentially sad/awful/scary/dreadful and that just feels like the tip of the iceberg. But, even though she is going through treatment with her family across the country this time, she has Mark by her side and he is a wonderful husband. And, she has her can-do attitude and her smile...which is awesome...and when I think of our many memories together, she is smiling...smiling when we played pranks on Mike and Amy...smiling when she was cheering...smiling through nursing school...and smiling (beaming!) when she married Mark!
So, here we are during their visit to Texas...these pictures are from the Fort Worth Stockyards and the main attraction there is the longhorns. Jen is, of course, smiling! And we all smiled and had fun too!
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