I left on December 22, 2009 on an eighteen hour (according to Mapquest) car trip to South Carolina to spend Christmas with my family. Eighteen hours turned into a day and a half as I didn’t stop overnight anywhere and ended up getting an upset stomach half way there due to drinking two energy drinks. Bella did amazingly well and slept in her kennel the entire way with potty and food breaks when I had to stop to use the restroom as well. When we made it to SC, I crashed with exhaustion. I ended up staying until 10th of January 2010, so I had a good long break. I was also able to visit with my grandma and papa (my dad’s parents) in Columbia, SC. It was important for me to visit with them this time around as my PaPa has been battling throat cancer since last year. It was a year ago December 2008 that he found out about the cancer and it seems to be an up & down battle in regards to him being okay then not being okay. He can barely talk now because he has a hard time moving his jaw. He looked awful and it makes me sad to think that he may not be around next year. The biggest issue right now is convincing him to have the surgery on his jaw; I’m not exactly what it all entails or why he even has to have it but luckily he doesn’t have mesothelioma cancer which I’ve heard is alot more severe. My grandmother said if he had the surgery he has a great chance of recovery, but my PaPa just doesn’t want to deal with it. We’ll see though.