10/21/09

My apology for the hiatus this website took. Life went crazy on this end in the form of becoming a Brownie leader and I needed a couple months to figure out how to balance everything. Not since starting this website have I done something that reminds me so much of Allison, and which makes me wish for her advice and help so much on a daily basis. Her memory has given me strength, though, especially on those days where nothing has gone right and I am about to start a meeting. It helps to remember how much she loved Girl Scouting, and know that even on those days - especially on those days - she put the girls first and never let them know anything was wrong. I am playing with the idea of using her as a character in a children's book for my Brownies - kind of the idea of a wood fairies (for those of you who knows Camp Tapawingo lore) to teach about various things, and to have some fun with something I always found magical.

Anyway, I digress. Last month, I finished this page and then found I couldn't upload it. And so, a month later, I finally have it working again. Thank you for your patience. Please know I have not forgotten about Allison - that I think of her daily still and continue to be committed to keeping up this website.

Thank you for your patience and dedication.

Peace,
JKF

6/22/08

Wow - over a year since I updated this note. Please forgive my silence.

3 years since we lost our Allie, our Pippi, our Boo, our daughter, friend, and angel. 3 years she's spent with her Savior, happier than we could ever imagine. 3 years we've spent without her, trying to fathom her life ending so far ahead of expectations.

This day is obviously hard - but I hope it also brings with it reflection of some of the healing that has happened in these three years and the hope that someday we will again get to see that wonderful smile.

Pages - this year's focus is on new media. 2 videos - one Joyce Fuller was kind enough to put together using moon photos from all over the world, and another set to Wicked's 'For Good.'

The thing I'm really excited though is Picasa. All the photos I have of Allie have been moved online so you all can have complete access to them as well. Please download and comment away!

Also, if you have pictures you would like to upload, let me know through email or the contact page and I'll send you the username and password for the account.

I will have a couple Picasa tutorials together soon to help with navigation.

Again I echo my wishes from last year - may you have peace and happy memories this day. My prayers and thoughts are with all who loved this wonderful woman.

In His Love,
JKF

6/16/07

Well, it would seem June 22 is upon us again.

It is so hard to fathom she's been gone for 2 years and the world has continued to spin.

I'm updating this note now (instead of Friday) because I will be working as a counselor from the 17th - 22nd and will be unable to update Friday morning. So the pages I'm talking about below will not be visible until the 22nd.

For the graduation page, if you have graduated this year and would like to be included - or if your name is featured but your picture isn't - please send a note through the 'contact us' page and I will reply with an email address pictures can be sent to. Same goes for the favorite sayings page - it would be great to have more!

For the year in review page, please feel free to send me pictures and details of weddings, births, or other special celebrations or significant events in the lives of Allie's loved ones (aka, you!). I'm hoping to have a similar page in the coming years, so please feel free to send them to me as they happen. I'll put a call out next year at the beginning of June as well.

May you have peace and happy memories on this day.

In Him who loved us first,
JKF

3/22/07

Updated!

The photos page has been updated. The final page of Pippi's Pics is up and running. Stay tuned for more pages (once I update my software at school).

Thanks for your patience and support.

Grace and peace to you,
JKF

2/10/07

Dear friends,

Allie's birthday has come and gone and I hope you all had a chance to look at the slideshow that has been up these past 5 days. If you haven't gotten to see it yet, it is attached to the end of 'Allie's Birthdays' under the 'Memorials' page.

I heard from a few people that there was trouble loading the slide show. If this was the case for you (and you didn't get to see the slide show in its entirety, which was signaled by a slide that says 'Happy 22nd Birthday Allie!") please let me know so I can try to get you access as soon as possible.

Finally, for one of my classes I had to create an RSS feed (which was over my head, but with some gracious help from my prof, it's up and running). I configured it for this site and am doing some testing right now to see how it will work, as well as the information I will need to pass onto all of you so it's useful.

As always, please let me know if you have questions, comments, concerns, content to add, or anything else.

Peace,
JKF

1/3/07

Hello friends,

Between computer problems and finishing up school, I've be rather silent and I apologize for that. As you know, I've focused most of my time from the website on the monthly anniversary pages (listed under memorials). Thanks much to my mom for assistance in loading pages for me while my internet connection was down (for months) and for making pages at the last minute when I lost track of time.

I still have pictures, lyrics, etc. pages in my head, so look for them soon. Please know that this page is still incredibly important to me, just as Allie will always be.

If you have any ideas for either anniversary pages or anything else, please let me know. I would love to have your work on the page.

Peace,
JKF

3/22/06

Updates on the way......I promise.....

....and a huge apology for being silent all this time.....

Peace,
JKF

1/22/06

Hey hey,

Well, it's been over a month since I've updated this note, but luckily the site has seen more progress. Another picture page has been added as well as lyrics. It's not as much as I had hoped to accomplish during this time, but it's something.

A question for Allie's Greenville friends. I've received a picture of Allie's bench (thanks Tressa!) and I think it would be really neat to make a page with stories about her and her bench, or what you remember about her going there, or even different people's descriptions of why she went or what it meant to her. Just an idea....please let me know what you guys think.

Other than that, workng, as usual, on things I've promised are coming. Keep looking....

Thanks again for your patience!

Blessings on this day especially,
JKF

12/21/05

Hey all,

This is going to be short because I’m in process of working on a page for tomorrow, but I just wanted to say hi and assure you all that I am working on new stuff.

Finals were more brutal than I could have imagined and I barely had time to sleep at all, which means I had no free time to work on the page. Sorry for that.

But, I am home now with lots of free time in the day, so I will be working as hard as I can to get more things up and running.

Thanks again for all of your patience and contributions. Look for new things coming very soon!

Peace,
JKF

12/4/05

Hello hello,

Well, updates haven't happened this week until today. A memorials page has just gone up and a new poem is on its way. I am assuming I will have little or no time this week to work on the site, but finals week should dawn with more time than I know what to do with...so fear not, updates will happen soon.

If there are any pictures on the site that you would like to have a copy of and I haven't linked to a bigger version, please email the 'Contact Me' form and I'll be more than happy to either email it to you or place it on the site. There are some pages that are split into parts for quicker loading, so if you attempt to copy a picture off of them, you may only get half of it. Most of the pictures on the site are linked to bigger, whole versions if you click on the picture, but there are some rare occasions this is not the case. One example is the picture collage on the memorials site. In this case, I will be adding a 'whole version' link at the bottom of this page momentarily. If there are any others like this and you would like a copy, please let me know.

Thanks! Wishing you all joy and blessings this Christmas season!
JKF

11/28/05

I hope everyone had a blessed and peaceful Thanksgiving. It was nice to have a break from school. Now that I'm back, I'm planning on getting some pages done in between cramming all the last minute stuff into these last 2 weeks before finals. A couple memorials pages have been added as well as lyrics updated. Other than that, I am hoping to attack the Pippi's Path pictures as well as finish off a couple of the pictures sections that still say 'coming soon.'

It seems I phrased things wrong in my last note and left some people with doubt. Let me try again. I did not 'lose' anyone's submissions...yet in the avalanche that is my inbox, I was concerned I may have missed something that was sent to me and I didn't want the sender sitting out there to think I was just refusing to put their submission up. Sorry for the confusion.

I wish you all peace in this crazy time before Christmas and joy in the season and in the reason for the celebration.

In Him,
JKF

11/20/05

It's been way too long.....

Hello again. Well, the play is over and I actually have a chance to sit down and emerge myself in something other than Amish culture and actor drama.

The site has been updated a bit lately on the lyrics page (thanks to my mom!). But other than that, I haven't had a chance to work on it. My sincere apologies. As I'm sure you all are aware, there's much left to do. I am hoping to work on it while home over Thanksgiving as well as in the last couple weeks I'm at school and on Christmas vacation.

Within the time I've been amazingly busy, I've seem to have lost some submissions people have made. This is my request to all of you. If you have submitted something that has not got up on the site, could you submit it again with a note saying 'second time sent' or something to that effect? I just want to make sure I haven't missed anything. My 'system' is now under construction and will come out much more organized soon.

Other than that, thank you for your patience during this incredibly busy time. Thank you also for the support the site has received over and over again. I am blessed by you all.

So keep those submissions coming and I'll put my nose back to the grindstone to get it done.

Blessings and peace,
JKF

10/31/05:

Happy Halloween!

Well, as promised and in spirit of today, both pages of 'Crazy Costumes' are up and running, so be sure to check those out. Other than that, updates have been few and far between. I've received emails of lyrics lately that will be posted soon. The other picture pages are coming as promised, yet as tech week of the play looms nearer, my time is being stolen away quicker and quicker.

So, here's the deal. After the play, I'm expecting to have more time than I'll know what to do with. So, if you could all just bear with me for the next couple weeks, I'll get back on schedule.

Keep those additions coming and continue to visit the page, as I'll be getting random bursts of time and opportunity to work on it. As always, please let me know what I can do to make this site better.

Thanks much for everything. I hope Halloween is good, safe, and sweet for you all.

Blessings,
JKF

10/23/05:

Hello,

So the updates since the last note have been almost nonexistant. For that I apologize. There is much I am working on that is not yet ready to be uploaded, so stay tuned. A costumes picture page will be up in time for Halloween and I am moving page priorities around a bit to get the pictures from the memorial this past weekend up (Pippi's Path and Pippi's Point - see the memory book if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Midterms hit this past week and studying prevented me from working on the site as much as I would like to, and now tech week of the play is coming which will give me even less time, but trust that anything you send will be put up as soon as humanly possible. I'll be anxiously awaiting your new additions while I'm working on mine.

Blessings,
Jamie

10/6/05:

Wow I'm behind this week. It's Thursday and I'm just now getting an updated note going...so this will be for this coming week too. Instead of updating this, I have been working on updates for the site. I finally caught up on my emails that included more lyrics and poems to be added. So, check out the new lyrics as well as the two new additions to Written in Allison's Memory. New pictures have also been added (finally!), so don't forget to look at A Sister's Love under family photos. Picture pages are always on the way, as are memorial pages...so be sure to keep checking back. Let me know if you have anything to add.

Blessings and peace to you all this week,
JKF

9/25/05:

Greetings,
Updates this week have been sporadic and somewhat hidden, but they are there. Lyrics are always being added and this week is no exception. The other area that has been updated is poems. Both "Words of Comfort" and "Written in Memory" have been updated. The wonderful poem that was on the front page on the 22nd has been moved to "Written in Memory" along with another addition. It is my hope that another picture page of some sort will be completed today...but I can't make any promises at this point...as much as I would love to sit here and work on the site all day, homework must come first...for some reason they expect that to be completed...but I will be making time this week to get new things up and running.

I think that's all I have at the moment....keep the content coming and I'll keep working away.

Thanks again for everything.

In Him,
JKF

"Never let school get in the way of your education." - Mark Twain

9/17/05:

Hey all,
This week has been insane at school and updates to the site have been minimal. My apologies. I believe my multiple schedules are set, so life should start to slow down a bit, which will give me opportunity to work on the site a lot more. The lyrics page has indeed been updated, so check it out sometime. Other than that, I am working on new picture pages and waiting for more emails full of poems, quotes, lyrics, memorials, etc. Those who have sent me things, be sure that they will be up soon. I know I keep saying that, but I feel it's getting closer. I think that's all I have for now...so keep checking back. Thank you all for helping keep Allison's memory alive by your additions, thoughts, prayers, and visiting. It is a greater blessing than I could ever describe.

Blessings,
Jamie

9/10/05:

Good news! We're back in business! My computer (his name is Hank) is up and running...it's a beautiful thing. Hank and I will be returning to school tomorrow afternoon...everybody keep their fingers crossed that I have internet access. Either way, new pages are and will be in the works very soon. I'm home for the weekend, so I took some time to get pictures scanned in and a new page up and running. Be sure to check out "Pookie's Pictures" sometime. Other than that, more lyrics and a couple memorials pages will be coming very soon and more picture pages are always on the way. Thanks so much for your patience. I'm glad to be back. Oh! I almost forgot. We've added a 'contact' page instead of an email address. Please don't be afraid of it...my uncle Mick (who was amazing and took over the server) wanted to make sure the email stuff was secure so spam didn't get in. Everything works the same...it's just safe now. If you have something to email me and have my email address, feel free. If not, just use the contact page and I'll write you back with an address things can be sent to. Confusing huh? Yeah well...that's why my uncle's the computer whiz and I just go along with what he says. :-) Please keep sending things in...the more that comes in the more I can do. Thanks again for your understanding and check back often for new content.

Blessings,
JKF

Note from JFK 9/8/05 :

Have you noticed there have been very little updates to the site this week? Never, ever plug a computer into the on-off outlet for a room. Got the computer to school, set up and working and then left for work. When I returned at 11 pm, the computer was not working. Not sure how many times it went on and off before it said "enough -- I'm taking a break!" It went home last weekend and luckily, it just needed the technician to switch on the "secret" reset. While it was at the computer doctor's, they decided to keep it overnight and check it out and everything is fine. I should have my computer back at school this weekend -- and hopefully I'll get a chance to work on the site this weekend when I'm home!

JKF

First Note:

Hello all,

First, thank you so much for the support this site has received! It has been such a blessing to be able to share this with all of you and to receive help and encouragement everywhere I turn. I am truly blessed by all of you and extremely grateful.

Second, a lot of changes have been happening with the site lately -- some good and some bad. The bad news was that I had GREATLY exceeded my space allotment for the site...by almost double (*guilty grin*). Because of this, any new content I developed was not showing up online. Another bad bit of news was that some of you have been having problems viewing the site when we use a certain tool to hide our web forwarding (if you didn't get what that meant, I'm not really sure either...just bear with me here). But have no fear -- the good news is on its way.........

To remedy all of this, we have changed servers as of Friday, August 27 (a big thanks to my Uncle Mick in Arizona!).

You might have noticed a new "Contact Us" form in place of the email. My Uncle thought it would be wise to stop spam before it starts by getting the e-mail address off of the site. He also did not like the thought of unsolicited attachments, so if you have pictures, use the form and I'll let you know where to send the pictures. We're doing our part to stop spam.

If you see any broken links, etc., please contact let us know.

By the way, the change in servers also means more space for me to fill with the hundreds of pictures I have sitting on my hard drive (..and I'm not exaggerating).

Third, I would like to ask for patience. I am indeed a college kid and I will be heading back to school very soon. This site is incredibly important to me and I will continue to work on it and update it as long as I have content and material coming in. But, my time will be greatly limited at school and new content may not appear as often or as quickly as it has been thus far. I only ask that people continue to submit things and trust that I will indeed get them up on the site as soon as I can.

And finally, this is your site. I am here only as an assembler. If you have any problems with the site, find something that doesn't make sense, see an error (I'm sure there's many), or just blatantly don't like a choice I made in design and have an idea you think would work better, please contact me using the Contact Us form. My design skills and creativity are limited to what God has blessed me with. It is through all of us working together that this will flourish and give Alli's memory the proper honor it deserves.

With great thanks,
JKF