Lovin' my beautiful kids right now.

I was just looking at a picture of the kids and noticing that my girls are beautiful and my boys are way cool! Just wanted to share that bit of information with everyone. I love my kids a ton and I sure hope that they had a great Christmas/New Year break and are enjoying being back at school.

December starts with a BANG

Traditionally we have our "Christmas Kick-off Day" the day right after Thanksgiving. This year we were in Utah so we had to come up with a different day. So, we decided to do it on the 1st Saturday in December. Friday night was spent putting up the Christmas tree (it's fake so David and I had to put all the branches in), stringing the lights and making the cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next morning. David ran out and got us some dinner from a restaurant. We ate, put the kids to bed and started in on all the prep work for the next morning. Then around 10 we headed to bed.

At 3:10am I woke up with the worst stomach pain EVER!! Oh it was awful. It was followed by numerous bouts of vomiting and diarrhea and painful stomach cramps. We were up for an hour, my sweet husband gave me a Priesthood Blessing and then sat up with me. At 4:15ish I was finally able to go back to sleep. Shortly thereafter David was woken up by our boy Nephi and they went out and slept on the couch. Nephi was so excited about the Christmas tree. David said when he flipped the switch and turned the lights on, Nephi's eyes grew really big and he was so happy and excited! Cool!! I stayed in bed all of Saturday morning still having episodes of vomiting and diarrhea and trying, when the pain would let up, to get some sleep. David, the great father that he is, cooked the cinnamon rolls according to my instructions and made the frosting - both of which he had never done before. I was grateful and the kids said they turned out wonderfully. They then set up all the Christmas decorations and, after waiting as long as they could for me to join them, went ahead without me and decorated the Christmas tree. I was still miserable in bed.

Occasionally I will get sick and be in bed for a while, but it usually only for a few hours and then it passes. This time it wasn't getting any better and in fact seemed to be getting worse. Around 2:15pm I had a deep impression that I should go to the ER. I immediately called for David and told him he needed to get me an ambulance because there was no way I could make it out to the car - I was so weak. He called 911 and then went out to warn the kids that the ambulance was coming to take me to the doctor, but that I would be okay and there was no reason for them to worry. The paramedics came and whisked me away - off to Kaiser we went. David loaded the kids in the car and went to pick up Eve, his mom that lives nearby, and then dropped them all off at home and hurried over to the hospital. My parents were also in route.

When I got there and they hooked me up to the monitors the nurses started becoming concerned. Apparently my heart rate was down to 32 beats per minute - not a good thing. My heart was also in a weird rhythm they referred to as By-jimineys. That means instead of a regular beat it was going really fast and then would stop or slow down in an erratic fashion. In fact, they told us after ward that they had a crash cart right outside the room for me. In came 3 nurses and 1 doctor and they administered Atropine (I think that's what they called it) to jump start my heart. It worked and I started feeling much better. They ran multiple EKGs and did some X-Rays. We realized how serious it was when they started to ask in a round about sort of way if I had a DNR.

They then decided it best for me to remain in the hospital so I was admitted. Over the course of the next few days they gave me various different drugs and I continued to improve. By Monday I felt like a whole different person and they let me come home on Tuesday. I was so excited to see my kids and they sure seem happy and relieved to see me. Huge thanks go out to my sister, Jenn, for coming to sit with me most of the day on Monday so I didn't have to be alone. Also to my parents for hanging out with me until I was admitted and then my mom coming to the hospital on Sunday and staying with me for a long time. I am so grateful to my wonderful husband. This was probably the worst time for this to happen as he is in the middle of studying for finals - but he has been so great and has ALWAYS put me first and has been doing great with the kids. Thanks to Eve for spending the weekend at my house so that David could come and go as he needed and could visit me whenever he could. And finally a huge thanks to all of you for your prayers and happy thoughts. I couldn't make it through this without you.

So now I am home and am still recovering. I have to make sure to sit down and rest regularly. My body is slowly gaining strength - very slowly. I am so grateful that we called the ambulance when we did - they suggested that if we would have waited things could be much worse. I am sure that I was inspired to call for the ambulance and thank my Heavenly Father for his healing power. I know that my time is limited, or might be by this disease that I have, but I am not going down without a fight and it seems as though God is on my side in this fight - so I think I am here for a long time to come.

I came home to a very wonderfully decorated house and I am so excited to celebrate this Christmas season. I am thankful for my Savior and I love celebrating his birth. This is my favorite time of year! I hope that you all have a joyous holiday season. Merry Christmas!!!

End of November

The week before Thanksgiving I took Faith and Hyrum to see the new Harry Potter movie - the midnight premiere of course!! We went with my parents and met up with my brother, Jarrod and 3 of his boys. It was a blast. Before we went in I was waiting in the car because it was so cold and my parents were waiting in line with the kids. After a few minutes of waiting in the freezing cold, my mom took the kids up to the lobby and asked if we could wait inside due to the fact that I had cancer and the cold is hard for me. They were very nice and said that we could. When they came back to the car to get me, Hyrum said, "Man! Cancer Rocks!!" with as much enthusiasm as a child could muster. I turned to him and said - "Hyrum! It doesn't rock, but there are occasional perks." He immediately agreed with me. It was hilarious!!

The day before Thanksgiving, we loaded a rental car (a beautiful black Suburban) with tons of stuff and headed East for Alpine, Utah. We only had 4 stops, but with crazy traffic it took us 15 hours to get there. We arrived on Thanksgiving morning at 1:30am. We had a fantastic visit with David's family and then on Saturday with my family. The only thing we didn't do - and now I'm kicking myself - is that we didn't get any group pictures! UGH!!! Oh well. We did get this great family picture on Friday afternoon when we took the kids into Salt Lake City and walked around Temple Square.

On Sunday after church the kids and David got all dressed in David's Mom's extra snow clothes and went outside and played in the snow. They thought it was so fun and some of them were out there for hours.

We headed home on Monday morning and it took us only 2 stops and 11 hours later we were home! We had a great vacation and I just want to make sure all who helped us get there and/or planned things so that we could see everyone know how much I really appreciate all you did! It was a great trip and we couldn't have done it without The Dream Foundation, our Mission Family and other friends and family. Thanks for making our family's Thanksgiving Day the best it could have been!!

Not much happening

We have had a pretty uneventful month! Which is wonderful. As I look back over the calendar though, I think more happened than I realized!

I had 2 doctor appointments. One with my oncologist and one with my radiology oncologist. Both had similar outcomes. The scans that I had at the end of October and beginning of September show that my cancer is stable. Good news, huh? The bad part? There is nothing they can do right now. I guess that it is not so bad. I really don't want to have chemotherapy - it causes such lousy side effects and I just don't like spending my time there. So, we just wait and pray for the best. We exercise the two things I am not so good at lately: patience and faith/trust in God.

For those of you who know me, you know that I am by far NOT the most patient person you will ever meet. I also like to do things on my own. This is my trial. So I push forward and practice patience with the Lord and this stupid cancer while learning better to trust God and have faith and confidence in Him. What a struggle this is becoming for me. You would think that as this experience goes on, I would get better, but I feel that I am falling behind. It is easy to get complacent. It is easy to forget on a daily basis to turn to the Lord. Instead I find myself only looking to Him when I need some relief from the pain or aches. I need to break this habit NOW!! It is vital to my eternal progression. It doesn't matter in the long run what my kids get this Christmas if I am not there in the Eternities with them. I have to keep reminding myself of this. It is so important!

As for everything else, things are going well. The kids are now on Thanksgiving break and loving it. We are planning on leaving for Utah on Wednesday, early in the morning, and driving across Nevada to visit David's family and some of mine as well. The kids are counting down the days until we leave. They are so excited to see their Grandparents and Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. I hope the drive won't be too difficult for us all. We did all survive the trip to Disneyland in March, so hopefully that is a good indicator that this will go well.

This Christmas will be a busy one. We have 3 concerts in 2 nights the week before Christmas - not quite sure how we are gonna pull that one off. We also have many school festivities and reports due. David and I have finals and then some much need time off! So things are filling up on our calendars but in a good way and we are excited to celebrate this joyous time of year. I love Christmas and have already started playing some Christmas music here and there.

We hope that everyone enjoys their holidays beginning with a Happy Thanksgiving!! I know that I have TONS to be grateful for!!

Happy Halloween