Wax Museum

I've said it lots before, but the kids really do go to a great school. For a 5th grade history project the kids all had to research a "Famous Dead American" and write a paper on them, including a timeline and bibliography. There are 68 kids in 5th grade and they each had to choose a different American. Faith was so excited to learn about Elizabeth Blackwell - the first woman doctor.
She did a great job on her report and really enjoyed using the computer for research and then typing up her paper. After their reports are turned in the kids all portray their Famous Dead American in the Wax Museum. David snuck out during the Pinewood Derby and got to see the Museum. I stayed at the Pinewood Derby and got to tour the Museum the next morning. My parents were able to arrange their schedules to make it in the morning. Nephi even enjoyed it. It was amazing how 68 5th graders could hold so still and be so quiet.
The local news station even came! Here is the link: http://videos.apnicommunity.com/Video,Item,718520550.html.

Faith was so excited to be on TV!! The kids got to watch the video during school and thought it was very cool!

Faith made her own backdrop - she drew it and colored it in. I did go over her outline with a marker but she did the rest. I made her skirt and lab coat. It was fun for me and she sure looked great. We put her hair in a bun - which she thought was kinda fun, but had too many bobbie pins. It was a great project and the kids learned a lot.

Pinewood Derby

We had a great Pinewood Derby last week. The kids had a great time eating popcorn and the bake-sale treats. Here is a picture of them waiting on the "front lines" for the races to start!Nephi got a blue cupcake and you can see how much fun he had with it!! Vilate sure loved the bake-sale and moved right in to help with accepting payment from people and making change. She loves doing anything with money - who doesn't?
Hyrum's car is the black one with the pink sticker. He hadn't come up with a name before hand and so quickly named his car "The Unknown."
His car went really fast! He ended up winning for the Bear Den and came in 4th over all! It was especially great considering that 40 minutes before the race - 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave to go weigh in, one of our wheels got superglued to the car and wouldn't spin. David broke the wheel off and he and Hyrum worked on replacing it. Then we got to the weigh in and the car was over 0.3 ounces. Thanks to Mike Ducker for using his tools and removing those 0.3 ounces of wood just in time to meet the 6:30pm deadline!

Hyrum and Helaman were having a blast! They kept running around the cultural hall excited and running up to me saying, "Hyrum got 1st again!" I think he only came in 2nd in two of the races. It was really exciting. Below is the picture of the boys that won in the Bear Den. Pretty cool!!!

A Couple of Extras

I had the greatest time on Wednesday night. You see Faith is going to be Elizabeth Blackwell (the 1st woman doctor) in the Wax Museum on Wednesday night and Thursday morning at school. It is a great project that the 5th graders do at their school. Faith has to dress up to look like Elizabeth Blackwell and make a scene 3'x3' for the Museum. She will stand still for 20 minutes at a time while parents and students walk through the Museum. Fun stuff!!! So, back to my great time on Wednesday night - I decided to sew her costume and I had a marvelous time getting it cut out and prepared to sew. I had forgotten how satisfying sewing it. I absolutely LOVE it!!! I am making her a full skirt and a lab coat. I am now about halfway done and look forward to spending the next few days on them!

On Thursday night I had a great time with some of my church friends. Eight of us moms in the ward got together for a night of dinner (which I missed because of the Ancestor Dinner) and visiting. The visiting was great!! So nice to hang out with friends and not have to worry about what your kids are getting into or breaking up arguments!!

My Tuesday doctor's appointment went well. The latest scans show no growth - Dr. Cen called it "stable." That is really good news considering that I have had 9 weeks off of chemo. My blood levels are still a little low and that is concerning. Dr. Cen decided not to put off treatment any longer - but to instead give me a 50% dose of only one of the med and completely stop the other. So now I only take Etoposide and only 1/2 the dose - which makes my chemo now only 2 days a week and only 3 hours the first day and 1 hour the second. NICE!! The side effects should be considerable less - so we shall see. So far, so good. The biggest reason for stopping my Carboplatin is the neuropathy. It is awful. My hands and feet feel like they are asleep and tingle if anything touches them. My feet also feel swollen and numb and my balance isn't so good. I have fallen a few times, but never hit the floor - I am pretty good at catching myself. I am trying these socks now that are supposed to help with my feet and so far they seem to be helping - but I'm not sure if it is psychological or really helping. I guess time will tell. I hope the socks work - first because they are very expensive ($40 a pair) and second, it would sure be nice to not have my feet hurt!

All in all, things are going well. We bought David's books for school today and classes start on Monday. His schedule will be full - 5 classes, 15 units. He goes 5 days a week and we will miss having him around here, but I'm sure he will enjoy his semester. I have rediscovered my love of sewing and I hope to do more of it over the next few weeks. Other than that, we are just following the routine. I hope you are all doing well. Please know how much I appreciate your love and prayers, your thoughts and kind words - they totally keep me going, give me hope and make me feel great!! Having friends is a blessing that I have in great abundance! Thank you!!

Week in Review

On MLK Jr. Day my parents invited all of us to the movies - and by all of us I mean 17 grandkids and 7 adults (9 if you count G'ma & G'pa). We ended up with 16 grandkids and 7 adults. We saw "Fantastic Mr. Fox." The kids seemed to really enjoy it - I had to leave about halfway through with Nephi. We walked the mall and had a good time seeing all the things you can see at the mall.

Tuesday Gloria started preschool again and had a marvelous day. I must say, as much as I love this little girl, it was so nice to not have her talking to me for those 3.5 hours. She has so much to say all the time!! She has gone all week and loved making new friends, playing "pet store," coloring pictures, writing letters and getting stickers for working hard.

Tuesday was David's birthday. He is now 41 years old!! To celebrate we went to a doctor's appointment and then out to Leatherby's with my parents. Leatherby's is one of our favorite places and it was nice to visit with my parents.

Wednesday I was back in chemo. It was only 3 hours and I got a really nice nap. Thursday was more of the same - but less time. Then on Thursday night we went to an Ancestor Dinner for Vilate. She has been studying our ancestry for the past few months and as the culminating event we went to see her class sing some songs and then we all ate some really yummy foods from different countries. Hyrum was at scouts and we left the 2 little ones home with Grandma Eve. It was a nice evening,

Today we took Gloria on a school fieldtrip to the pet store. Helaman, Nephi and our friend Lorelei went with us. The kids got to pet a lizard, see the fish, pet a hamster and guinea pig and see some dogs getting groomed. They all walked away with a frisbee and had a great time.

So, we had a pretty busy week. Tomorrow is the Polar Bear Plunge - a ward activity where crazy kids and some really whacky adults jump into the Welch's pool. It is very entertaining! My kids look forward to it and the older 4 will get into the pool with the promise of a hot tub when they are done!

Happy 6th Birthday Helaman!!

Well, it's official - Helaman doesn't have to sit in a car seat anymore and I think that is his favorite birthday present! For his birthday we opened his presents - we got him a remote controlled dunebuggy and the Disney movie "Pete's Dragon." - then sent him off to school with Ding-Dongs to share with his class. He spent the day before his birthday at Kaiser getting x-rays on his right arm. Apparently Hyrum sat on his arm and it was still bothering him the next morning so I took him in. It is not broken just a little sprain, so he had to wear that splint for a few days. Good times!!We lucked out that his birthday was on a Friday night. We invited his entire class (with 23 kids), his cousins and some great friends to meet us at the church and we had movie night. We watched "Sharkboy and Lavagirl" on the big screen (thanks to Russ and Bishop Smith) with hot dogs (thanks Duckers), popcorn (thanks Tina), and licorice. We had a GREAT turn out and the movie was a good choice for all ages. We finished off the night by singing Happy Birthday, opening presents and cleaning the building. Wow - what a mess popcorn makes!!! Not the best photograph, but it gives you an idea of how full the room was. It was so much fun! Thanks to everyone who helped and everyone who came.
Helaman is a great kid. I love that he will share anything - as long as it's his idea. He loves to make people laugh and is the king of silly stuff around here. Helaman is a great baseball player and has been asked this next season to play with the older kids due to his skill and love of the game. He is so excited to be in Kindergarten and reading real books. He hates putting away laundry and cleaning his room and usually tries to sneak playing his DS when he should be doing his chores. He has a sweet smile - love the dimples - and his hugs are the greatest. I love you Helaman and I hope you enjoyed your birthday!!