Update on my dad...

Okay, so the latest news is that nobody knows anything yet. Or they know that what they biopsied is not any cancer that they know of or ever see here. So in a way it's good news, but not. They just don't know what the lump in his throat is or the spots on his lungs. So dad has an appointment at the Huntsman Institute this coming Friday. They've already sent his samples to a cancer specialist, but it's going to take more time to try and figure out what is going on. So, patient and supportive I will be. Hopefully this trip will yield some results. Thanks to all of you for your love and support. It really means a lot to me! I love you all!

Scary....

So we've kinda had a scare in our family this week. Yesterday I found out that my dad is going through some tests. I'll go back a little and explain. A couple of months ago, my dad woke up and had this huge "bump" (for lack of a better word) on his neck. After a couple of days, he finally went into the doctor to see what it was. It turned out that he'd slept in a bad position and it was a burst blood vessel that was the culprit. The doctor just had to drain it and it was fine. So Monday he woke up and kinda had the same thing on the front of his neck again and just figured it was the same thing. So he called the Dr.'s office and was able to be squeezed in late that afternoon. After the Dr. looked at it for a little bit, he knew it was not the same as before, so he sent dad in for an x-ray. When they looked at the x-ray, they saw a bunch of "spots" on his lungs and something in his neck. The Dr. was very concerned and sent dad up to the hospital to get another x-ray done so they can compare and get another opinion. After they looked at the 2nd x-ray, the Dr. wanted to get it set up as soon as possible to have some biopsies done of the lump in his neck and of his lungs. They got it set up for Tuesday afternoon.....that's pretty darn quick in the medical world. Well, the urgency of the Dr.'s really got to my dad and he was having a hard time with all of it. Mom was there and trying to get ahold of a family friend to help my younger brother give dad a blessing Monday night, but he wasn't able to make it. Just as mom hung up the phone with him, my older brother gave mom a call and asked her why she was at the hospital, he was just parking by her car outside. Mom was shocked! Things just happened to fall through for some other people to bring some awsome Krill/Omega-3 pills up to a doctor at the hospital, so Nate happened to be the one that brought them up. It never fails to amaze me how things just happen to work out when you need them. So Nate was able to go home with mom and dad and, with the assistance of my little brother Matt, gave dad a blessing telling him that he would be able to fight off what was happening in his body because he was still needed to be here with his family to teach and lead them. What a comfort that blessing is to all of us. So yesterday, dad went in to be tortured for most of the day. They drew blood, stuck a needle through his back to get samples out of his lungs, and took a sample out of his neck so everything can be tested to see exactly what it is we're dealing with. I Know that everything will end up okay, but the not knowing what it is exactly and how hard or long it will take to "fix" it is scary. The word cancer and lymphoma have been thrown around a little bit, and no matter what you believe and know in your heart and soul, those words still make me nervous. I love my dad so much! He has been one of my best friends my entire life. I have always been a daddy's girl, so this is kinda getting to me a bit. I really hope we get the results back by the end of the week. I think it'll help to know what it is so we can know what to do about it. I just really needed to get this out there so that it helps me heal and be strong and ready to help any way I can. I'm feeling a little better already. Plus, last night I made homemade chicken noodle soup with mashed potatoes and took it over to my parents' house so they had a nice homecooked meal after dealing with Dr.'s and the hospital all day. Nothing like cooking/baking therapy! When I know more, I will definitely update everyone. Thanks for listening!

What a Great Weekend!

So this weekend was a really good one. We got so many things done and spent some great time as a family. Saturday morning we got up, put together lunch stuff in coolers and headed to Rexburg. We borrowed a neighbors horse trailer and went and dropped it off at my Father-in-law's so he could bring up his mules and a horse to our campground later. After that, we picked up a few things at Gary's brothers house and then headed to my parent's house. We picked out 6 railroad ties there and loaded them into the pickup. Then we headed up to the farm. Gary has SSSSOOOO many plans for that place! Saturday was the day to start another one. We took everything up there and started building a corral for the mules and horses so we have a place to put them for a weekend when we go up there camping. We dug out the corner posts and a couple of side ones. It was hard work, but the kids were such good helpers. It was really nice too that the dirt up there is so fertile and soft, they were some of the easiest holes we've ever dug! No rocks!! The corral is going to be about 30'x 40'. It's in a nice little place at the bottom of our campsite in some nice grass with trees there for shade. I really wish I would have taken my camera with me. There were so many great pics I wanted to take while we were up there. After we got done setting the posts, Gary took the kids for a ride. Gary rode the mule named Stetson while leading Joe on the mule named Lucky. Sierra and Grace rode the horse Star Fire together and took turns being in front. They had a great time! After their ride, it was time to go home. Loading the mules and horse into the trailer was not the greatest experience. The mules actually went in pretty good, but Star Fire wanted nothing to do with the trailer. At one point he ripped his rope out of my hands (I had taken off my work gloves by then and regretted it!) and by doing so, he gave some pretty good rope burn on my fingers and hands. I won't lie, it hurt! When we headed home we decided we left just at the right time because we had some pretty good wind and lightning storms moving in. We went home, all got cleaned up and into pj's and sat down and watched a movie together and then went to bed. We were all exhausted, but we'd had a great day together. Sunday morning we got up and Sierra, Emma and I got ready for church. Grace, Joe and Gary all got dressed and headed up to Victor to pick up our boat. At church I had the pleasure of teaching the Young Women's lesson. It was kinda nerve wracking, but turned out great. We have such awsome young women and leaders in there. I'm so priveledged to get to be a part of that program. I love it. The lesson is based on one of my Personal Progress lessons I've had put together for awhile. We talked about the roles of women, being sisters, daughters, wives and mothers and how those things we learn carry with us throughout our lives and into all our different relationships. We then talked about the qualities they would look for in guys that they want to date and eventually marry and then looked to see if these were qualities that they already possessed or strived to obtain. It was such a great lesson and I had great input from all the girls and leaders. After church, we got home and Gary and the kids had the boat and lunch stuff ready for us. So we changed and all headed up to Ririe Reservoir. It was a beautiful day to be on the water. It was sunny and warm and there weren't a ton of people. We found an empty dock and had some lunch while the kids were splashing their feet in the water. We decided to head back to the middle of the lake where they have a grassy picnic area and a long dock were the kids like to play and swim. When we got there, there was a family that was having trouble with their boat. Needless to say, Gary went and tried to help them get their boat going. The kids were able to play on the dock with all of the other kids there and had a great time. At one point, Sierra, Grace and I got out and swam from one dock to another and then back. That was lots of fun. The other boat never really got going again, so we were loading most of the kids up and getting ready to tow them back over to the other side of the lake where they had put their boat in. Well, the local Sherriff's office was out patrolling and stopped to ask if they could help. They ended up towing the other boat back for them, after giving us all a warning about how many people we had in our boats. The other family had 3 adults and 7 kids all together, but when they showed up, they only had 6 people in their boat and we had 8 in our boat and pulling two of the bigger boys behind us in their tubes they had. Gary thought for sure we were going to get a ticket for having too many people, even though we were only over because we were helping someone out, but that warning was as far as it went. After we dropped off the kids and made sure they got their boat out okay, we headed back to the other side of the lake to load up our boat. The clouds were starting to move in and we didn't want to end up in a lightning storm like the one that rolled in the day before. So we headed home. It was a great day. I love weekends like this. Working and playing together as a family, what can be better than that?! Well, now it's time for the clean up from all the work and play, but that doesn't bother me too much. Most of that we'll get to do as a family too! ;)

Ugh, I am frustrated....

Ok, so I haven't updated for awhile because Gary's laptop hasn't been letting me download any pictures are anything, so I haven't wanted to post. So, enough is enough. Time for some updates. We've done all sorts of things in the last month. Sierra had her end of the year violin concert which was great. She is really loving playing to violin and is so excited to get to play in the orchestra in middle school. We had our end of the year recital for dance in which Sierra, Grace and Joe all danced. It was long, but so much fun to watch all of the routines from the year. Sierra has decided that she is done with dance. She wants to have more options available, like playing basketball and maybe trying out skiing this winter. Grace Loves dance and will definitely be doing it again. Joe also loves his hip-hop class too and wants to keep it up. Because Sierra is not doing dance, I will probably let Emma start this fall. She'll be so excited. She keeps asking me when it'll be her turn to dance, so here it comes.
We've been camping twice this year already and have had a great time. Gary started digging out, leveling and cutting down trees on some of my dad's farm to make a family campground. He has all sorts of ideas that are just awsome. He has a site dug out and about ready so that we can put a picnic shelter there. He buried a big, old metal 1/2 barrel type thing for the fire pit. He brought in a bunch of dirt and we've leveled out the area all around it. Now we are looking for some nice big flat rocks up there that we can sort of trim around the edge of the fire pit. There is so much room up there to hike, ride the dirt bikes and 4-wheelers, shoot our guns and just hang out and not have to worry about camping neighbors. I was even really brave this weekend and let Sierra and her friend take turns driving the pick-up around the farm. Most of our families even came up to camp with us or eat and visit for awhile. It's always so nice to get to see everyone.
Hopefully one of these days I will get the whole computer/picture thing figured out again, but till then, I will still try to keep up with what is going on. It's just really hard for me to do it without any pictures, I am a visual person and love/need to have those there for me more than anything. Plus it's easier to remember and tell more about all the details to you guys with what all is going on around here. Oh well, one of these days it will happen.

Time for an update

So it's been awhile since I've updated what's been going on with all of us.....just to warn you now, this may get a little lengthy, but I'll try not to ramble too much. So, Gary's Grandpa Bagley passed away. We are all saddened by it, but we are also grateful that he is back with Heavenly Father and his beloved wife where he is not suffering anymore. So the weekend before this last weekend, Easter weekend, the kids had their spring break and were out of school Friday through Monday. It turned out to be good timing because the veiwing was Sunday and the funeral was Monday. So it wasn't the greatest Easter weekend ever, but we did all get to spend a lot of time with family and see many relatives that we just don't ever see anymore. It was really nice to catch up with everyone and see how everyone is changing and growing in their families.
This last Friday, the 17th of April, my oldest child, Sierra, turned 11 years old. She is growing up so fast and becoming a such a beautiful young lady! I cannot believe how grown up she is becoming. She is such a big help and is so talented in so many ways. I'm so lucky to have her in my life. I don't have many pictures from her birthday this year because we had a girl's day out on her birthday. I took her out of school early and my sister Amanda, Sierra and I all went to lunch together. After lunch we ran to Chesbro Music and got a new book for Sierra and her violin, then we went to D.I. We were there for at least an hour. Amanda and I just kept picking out clothes and more clothes for Sierra to try on. They have the best selection of jeans in women sizes for the best price, so needless to say, that is where we go first for Sierra's clothes anymore. We had a great time there and found lots of cute clothes for Sierra. We then headed to I.F. to go to Kohl's and Sam's Club. Again, found some great deals at Kohl's and Sierra actually has pants and some new clothes that look really great on her. Saturday, Sierra and Grace had Dance Festival for part of the day. Naturally they both did great! Afterwards Sierra went over to her friend's house and ended up staying the night there. Sunday was a pretty nice day. We all went to pickup Sierra, then we headed to Rexburg to pickup my dad's snowmachine from a friend's house and take it back and park it in his shop. We visited there for a little bit. My cousin had brought back from Texas pictures that my mom had sent her mom through the years. It was fun to look through those again. We did a lot of laughing at what we used to look like! Then we headed home the scenic way! Any of you who know Gary knows that he doesn't like to take the same or most direct route anywhere! It was a nice Sunday drive with the family. When we got home, I finally finished my dishes and then started working on making homemade pizzas, breadsticks and fruit pizzas for Sierra's family birthday dinner. It's been a good weekend. This week is supposed to be nice weather and I'm so glad the spring is really here. I really need to work out where I'm going to put my garden and getting the lawn covered in the weed n' feed that I have. I'm so excited to get to spend more time out in the beautiful weather. I'm also thinking of all the deep cleaning I need to do in the house too. All in good time I suppose. One other thing that I'd like to update you on is that I've lost 11.2 lbs in the last 4 weeks!! Woohooo. I didn't do real great this last week with my weight loss, but I'm still losing and I'm so motivated to keep it up, thanks to all the wonderful people around me, cheering me on. I hope all is well with everyone and I will try to keep up a better for you and for me.

Pics of my new front room and couch!

Okay, here are the pics I promised! First of all, thanks to our friend, Travis, for being so helpful to us in buying our couch. The one we ordered was here yet, and we needed a couch for this weekend because we had friends coming over to stay with us. So Travis let us take the one on the showroom floor home so we had our couch. Thank you Travis. If anyone is looking for furniture, Oakridge is Rigby is the place to go!!

The next person I'd like to thank is our awsome neighbor Matt. He came over and helped Gary move all the pieces of the couch from the pickups to inside our front room. Thank you Matt, we love having you for a neighbor! I would also like to thank my brother-in-law Garin for showing up at just the right time so that he could help Gary move all of the furniture around the room till I decided how I liked it best. Love you Garin!

So here is one end of my couch...................

Here is the middle of the couch..............

And here is the other end of the couch! It is so big! It's also very comfortable. We spent a lot of time on it this weekend and we are very happy with it. So now we get onto some pics of my finished room......okay, technically it's not finished. All of the white trim is going to be replaced in the next couple of months. Gary is going to bring home a few of his tools for me so I can start making some of the trim for the room. I can't wait to start that project, I think.

So there's my front door/entry way and piano.

There it is from another angle.

See all the room we have to walk between the couch and the wall. It looks worse here in the picture than it really is. But the couch does take up most of the rooom.

There is my accent wall. I really do love these colors that I put on the walls. I think everything in here just goes so well with all of it. I love to be in this room now. Also, you guys should check out my other blog and check up on my weight loss goals that are happening.

A sneek peek

So I have been painting my front room in anticipation of the new couch that is coming this weekend! I'm so excited! Also, in the following weeks, I will be attempting, with Gary's help, to make our own trim and crown molding to hang up in there too. Slowly, but surely, I'm going to get my house updated.