December and January?????

Does anyone know where those 2 months went?

They just flew by!

December was basically spent in and out of the hospital with my mom. She had a rough month. On the 7th she had her first chemo-embolization treatment which she didn't respond well to at all. She spent the next 2 weeks in and out of the hospital trying to manage her pain. She was home for about 8 days before she got a flu bug (or something) on Christmas day. She was back in the hospital in the ER on the 27th.

Kurt and I did our Christmas shopping all in one night on the 23rd. Nothing like waiting til the last minute! It was a small Christmas this year so the shopping was pretty easy and quick, thank goodness!

January started off very fun. On New Years eve we had friends spend the night with us (even though they live 5 minutes from our house). We put the kids to bed and then stayed up all night playing Wii. We had a great time. Well, the next morning the husbands got a crazy idea to go camping . . . that day! The wives, of course, where not quite as excited for such a quick trip but somehow, and we still can't figure out how, we ended up leaving within 2 hours. Thats right - 3 families, 2 camping trailers, all pack and out the door within 2 hours. That was by far the fastest, most spontaneous camping trip ever! It was quick too - only 1 night but we had a GREAT time! Pics to follow at a later time (too tired tonight).

Mixed in through Dec and Jan were several dr. visits, CT scans and numerous labs for me. Oh, the fun. More details to follow on that one as well.

In January my mom had her 2nd chemo-embolization treatment and we were prepared for the worst this time. Fortunately, it was unneeded preparation - THANK GOODNESS! The section of the liver they treated this time was smaller so they only had to use about 1/2 the chemo they did the first time so she recovered much faster. And, as you know from my last post, she is doing AMAZING! Love it, love it, LOVE IT!

AMAZING NEWS!

We got AMAZING news today - ALL my mom's labs have returned to "normal" range, they are not even on the high end!

Which means that HOPEFULLY she is FINALLY in REMISSION!!!!!

2 YEARS in the making!

Makes the horrible chemo-embolizations treatments all worth it!

I can't even begin to describe the thankfulness, the happiness, the "I-don't-know-what-I-feel-but-it-feels-great" feeling that I feel.

All I can say is "thank you Heavenly Father for answering our prayers!"

THANK YOU!

"A Touch of Understanding"

Kurt and I attended an assembly today at the girls school. It was a program that teaches kids about people with disabilities. We really enjoyed it and think they did a wonderful job.

The first part had 5 hands-on/interactive stations:

1. they had wheelchairs for the kids to push themselves around in so they get an understanding of how it would feel to be in a wheelchair

2. a table with a lot prosthetics for the kids to look at and touch and learn about

3. a table where they discussed "silent" disabilities like autism and dyslexia. They had long mirrors on the table for the kids and they had to look in the mirror and write on their paper to understand the frustrations of dyslexia and they had earphones where we listened to how it sounds for people who have autism.

4. a table where they learned about braille and were able to write their names

5. they had walking sticks and we had to walk with our eyes closed only using the sticks to find our way.

After that we went to another room where they had people talking with different disabilities. There was a girl, Anna, who was born with cerebral palsy and she spoke with the help of a talking computer. There was a guy, Mike, who fell off his roof at the age of 23 and suffered a serious brain injury. He has not been able to talk since his accident and he also had the use of a voice computer (synthesizer). There was a guy, Paul, who hydroplaned his car when he was 19 and suffered a brain injury. There was a 13 year old girl, Jordan, who has dyslexia. She sang 2 songs on her guitar and did a really good job. There was another guy, Mike, who was in a race car accident on the salt flats in Utah and lost both his hands. He had two electronic hands that were very impressive.

They did a great job explaining to the kids and showing them that people with disabilities are people too and that they want to have friends, that they have feelings and that they want to be loved just like anybody else. They also did a great job about teaching the kids to make the best out of every situation and that people with disabilities can do a lot of great things. It was an amazing assembly.

It was so neat to see an uplifting, educational, motivational assembly like this. We found out that they are located right here in Granite Bay and they are trying to expand locally, statewide, and someday, nationally. They are an amazing program and we hope they succeed. We think EVERYONE should go to this! If you are interested, their website is: www.touchofunderstanding.org.

Here is a video from their website:

Okay, so the video isn't working but you can see it on their website.