Summer 2012

Okay, I'm SO far behind that I almost haven't been able to bring myself to post anything the past couple of weeks. Then I couldn't get my browser to take me to edit mode in blogger, so it took even longer between work and getting kids ready and off to school again. 

But this summer is over. It was hectic, fun, and BUSY. Now that the kids are older, summer is different than the ones when the kids were little and you were in charge of keeping them entertained. 

Here's my attempt to catch up...

 I got to go to girls' camp again this year, this time as camp cook! (Prep time in June kept me busy...) Nels came up with me and was a priesthood rep for a couple of days, and it was cool. Kimberly loved having two parents there. We have an AWESOME ward and stake.

 In July, my parents were released from their another mission, went home to Ohio to be released and turned around and raced back to Utah to be here for a family reunion my cousin pulled together "with my help" - really she did most of it. It turned out FABULOUS. It was my dad's family, and ALL seven siblings were there, and many spouses. They had siblings come from Ohio, Utah, Arizona and Alaska to be there.

I had brought some things to create some water games, but just as my sister was wishing we had some spray bottles, the sprinklers got broken, and we had the most awesome light misting the whole time we were there, (about 5 hours, until we finally called dispatch.) If you look carefully, you can see puddles with kids in them, and wet kids - they had a BLAST!

 We had Scout Camps all summer long. This is the closing ceremonies for Timberline Scout Camp, a leadership camp that Samuel and Jonathan got to go to. They had a week of major fun, while I visited with my parents at our house, and let my dad fix this and that around the house. (It was even embarrassing all the things that needed fixing that he took care of! We seem to be masters at "making do.")

We had lots of family visits - Howletts, Whitfords, Wilcox's, Felts, Puckets, etc. When Samuel and Jonathan went off to Scout camp, I let Jason go home with my sister and family to Idaho, so we just had to go pick him up at the end of the week! So we stayed a few days and had some fun up there, including at a local lake, and at an international dance festival. Party on! And Kimberly (and Gregory & Daddy) drove to Northern California one weekend to rescue Grandad who's BMW motorcycle broke down, and she drove down to Southern California another weekend with Uncle Karl and Samuel to clear out Grandmother B's storage unit so she won't have to pay for that anymore. Lots of driving experience with those two trips!

We also FINALLY got our family pictures done - and we had a blast! Our photographer was a friend of mine from work/school, and she just hung out with us for two hours playing with her new camera and capturing us all - it was such fun. Find lots more of these on my Facebook page too. Thanks, Michelle!

Cute Beckstrand kids!

Cutest use of a dumpster ever, right?

Love these kids!

We are family!

Our family is FOREVER, and that makes us HAPPY!

Graduations - a month of WOWs

May-June 1st was a Month of Important Milestones:

Seminary Graduation

Gregory, Bishop Paulson and some of the graduating boys from our ward.
(Gregory, Taber Morton, Michael Elbaba, DJ Cook, Carson Hatch,
Bishop David Pauson)

We did it! Yeah! That's worth a smile!

Sixth Grade Graduation - Jonathan

Jonathan was one of the first Kindergarteners at our charter school,
this was the first graduating class. Congratulations, buddy!

Gregory sang a short solo during the Spring Choir Concert

Click on the video below, if you want to hear  his solo with
his choir that took straight superiors at state!

Sisters! My sister, Karen Lenore and her family came to join us
for graduation day, (and to pick up their son from EFY).

High School Graduation Day

This is a first for our family. It was pretty amazing!

It was an aha day - aha, they said if you blinked your eyes it would happen, and it's here!

Receiving the diploma 

If you look carefully, you can see Gregory (top row 4th from left),
and his best friends, Amanda (red head on left), and Kyli, (to the right
of the girl with long blonde hair third row down.)
Mr. Kennington, first director, is sitting in front row.

Exit processional

The 2012 Graduating Class of Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy

BFFs - Kyli McPherson, Gregory Beckstrand, Amanda Hobbs
(Kimberly is one of the BFF group too, but she didn't graduate.)

Happy bunch, good buddy Jared Banta horns in for the smile!

Gregory's first day of school
Kindergarten, 1999
(With little brother Samuel) 

First day of school and last day of school

Recovery, family, friends, prom, and no dairy?!

It has been OOOHH so long since I posted, and yes, we've been extremely busy.

During spring break Heather stayed with Mom B while the kids and I went up one day for a day camp up AF Canyon. We had a good time.

But the best news is that Mom Beckstrand is doing SO well. She went from coming home on hospice, when the doctors expected her to die in  two days to two weeks from kidney failure to her kidneys being completely well, and back into chemo treatments for her bone cancer. She is doing so well, she plans on driving herself to her chemo appt tomorrow herself! Friday was a red-letter day when she drove us home from her appointment to show that she was ready for the challenge. This was the first time, since late January, driving herself anywhere! My sister-in-law Heather left a couple of weeks ago, and we have missed her, but the timing was right. The neatest thing about this whole affair has been the frequent connection with extended family members. They're always coming in to help, or stopping by to see Mom. The LONG conversations Heather and I had while she was here for a couple of months were precious!

Nels & Heather

Heather saying goodbye to her dad

Heather & I relished the time to get to know
and appreciate each other like never before!

Kimberly went to the AF High School prom a week and a half ago. It was a fun process getting her ready. She met the boy at a stake activity for Priests and Laurels, and they've been having fun preparing for this activity. Kimberly was SO BEAUTIFUL, and it was fun to have her best friends come over and help her get ready to go. Thanks to Amanda for letting Kimberly borrow her lovely dress!

Best friends Kyli & Amanda help Kimberly get ready
for her date...hair, makeup, etc.

I had to capture the family and friends crowd
waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Kimberly to descend...

Ryan and Kimberly on their way to AFHS 2012 Prom

Then last Saturday was prom for their charter high school. Kimberly wasn't asked to that, and the girl Gregory finally got around to asking had already been asked, so they had a fun anti-prom party instead, with a couple of friends who did go crashing the party for a few minutes at the end of the evening. Hosting a bunch of teenagers is fun.

Another adventure we've been on for about a month now is trying a dairy-free diet. Kimberly has been having a hard time hearing very well, so we took her to her ENT who did her three sets of tubes. Dr. Heras said that K's head was so congested that the eardrums were sucked in, unable to move, thus hearing is a problem. She said that they could prescribe something, but that would probably only be a temporary fix. Her recommendation was that Kimberly go dairy-free for three months and see if it makes a difference. In her twenty years as an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist, Dr. Heras said, it was finally in the last couple of years that she's been learning the link between dairy allergies and E/N/T problems. So we began the journey. The more I researched, the more I suspected that I might have issues too, and we decided as a family to support Kimberly here in the home, and go non-dairy all of us. So now we have a diabetic, a gluten free celiac cancer patient that needs to eat whatever she wants to get enough food into her, and now a dairy-free opportunity too. I very much appreciated the kids' willingness to support the effort, because I was NOT going to fix two whole meals, and try to remember ALL the issues involved.

I found a lot of good info online. Sites like "Go Dairy Free" have been very helpful. I miss real butter most! Margarine is just NOT as good! Cocoa in homemade recipes fills in for chocolate, and soy and almond milks and yogurts are rather yummy alternatives, cheese is the next most missed food, but we just avoid cheese recipes and we're okay. But butter - no alternative there! :(  But it's worth it to try this full on. But I really think that we need to consider some kind of allergy testing so that we can pinpoint what/which parts of milk she/we might be allergic to, then maybe we CAN have our butter and occasional cheese! Wish us luck.

Next event coming up? High school graduation for my 18 year old! June 1st, here we come!

Now I'm late going to pick up my kids from school, but at least I'm a bit caught up here...

Cancer keeps a family busy!

As I briefly mentioned at the end of my last post, my mother-in-law, Carol, was diagnosed with a terminal form of bone cancer, Multiple Myeloma. But it has a high success of remission with treatment, and is also the cancer with the most progress in research. We brought her home to our house from the hospital back in mid February, and she's been with us since. (Except that she's in the hospital this weekend so they can watch her kidneys.) It's been a very busy time, and quite emotionally draining. I had no idea! So if I haven't posted, or don't post much, you'll understand a bit better why. I have been keeping an online blog for her care, so that loved ones can have detailed updates. For those of you who know Carol well, and want to be able to read those, let me know, and if I have your e-mail, I'll send you a link to that.

One of the most tremendous tender mercies during all of this was having Heather here. Yes, Nels' sister, Heather. She has lived in Japan for the last seven years. (Her husband, Curt is a patent law attorney there.) They love it. But I can't imagine how difficult this would have been for her to be so removed during all of this. So the Lord saw fit for her to be here already; her purpose for being here was a GMAT prep course she was taking at BYU. But it turned out that was the side purpose. The real reason she was here was so that she'd be here when her mother was diagnosed, and so that she could be part of the whole process. She's one of the main reasons I'm keeping the detailed updates, although even local family wants to know what the doctor said, what test results said, and so forth.

My boss has been very generous, saying "family first" and to take whatever time I needed, and my volunteers at the library have been wonderful too, filling in for me whenever needed so we could keep the library open for the kids. I've only had to take three or four times of an hour or or two off for doctor's appts, or whatever, but it really helps. (It also helps that I only work part time, T/W/T!)

Hopefully I'll get to post sometime about Kimberly's participation in the YW choir that will be singing in the General Young Women's meeting a week from today, 24 March. It's been a spiritual feast, and a busy experience in and of itself. If you have the opportunity to watch it, (you could always view it online after the fact,) watch for her in the choir, and know that the colored shirts have been an adventure, and there have been lots of stories along the way for many of the participants, and lots of spiritual preparation on their part. What a blessing to the girls and those who have been able to witness the practices...

So it's a busy time, but we wouldn't have it any other way. It's right. We've absolutely loved the way the family has pulled together during this time of need, that we've seen each other more than we would have, and feel closer to each other too. Isn't that the Lord's plan anyway?

Busy February!

It's been a busy month! It started out normal busy, then got crazy busy. Here's a bit of what's been going on:

First a baby blessing - it was awesome!

A beautiful family: Steven (Nels' cousin), Jolee and baby Noah

With both sets of happy grandparents.
Steven's parents, Uncle Kraig and Aunt Diane had just gotten home
from their mission to the Philippines. They missed the courtship,
wedding and pregnancy. It was GREAT to see them.

Mom B wasn't doing so hot, so we were checking up on her often, then all of the sudden she ended up in the hospital for a few days...finally some pain relief, but few answers yet. She checked out of the hospital and into our home for basic 24/7 care. Since I have a job, extended family has been pitching in regularly to make it work. She's doing okay, but needs help often. She will recover - blessings have promised that. It's just a matter of figuring out how. There have been a lot of tender mercies along the way, including the fact that Heather, Nels' sister, is in town right now with a GMAT prep course at BYU, so she was able to stay with Mom most of the time I was in Idaho, (see next paragraph)!

Me and my girls: Whitney, Amanda, Kylie and Kimberly

Meanwhile, in the middle of her hospital stay, I had to leave for Idaho, as I had previously committed to being a parent chaperone for a school ballroom dance trip. It turned out to be a FANTASTIC trip. I got to be the driver for the four girls, (including my daughter and two of her best friends, and a former Odyssey student,) and be there with my son and daughter as they spent two days in workshops. Can we say "SORE FEET" and "SORE MUSCLES?" Even with my ballroom dance background, I was learning things from the directors teaching the classes. The instructors were terrific!  It was awesome!

Dancing their feet off, and getting a warm hug from Gregory.

It was SO cold!
Amanda, Kylie, Kimberly, Whitney, Derek, and Gregory

We got back on Sunday afternoon, (after taking in a Sacrament meeting at the church next door to the Twin Falls temple, and a 15 minute stop at the amazing Shishone Falls), in time to take a nap, then go get Mom from the hospital and bring her home. Since then we've been busy little bees.

Yes, that's ice at their feet. The mist over everything froze in the cold temps.
The kids had fun, I stayed up top! Maybe a different time of year?

I had been filling in for the music leader in Junior Primary while she attended a 12 week Sunday School class the bishopric wanted everyone to attend, and I thought the last week was the week we were in Idaho. I had arranged for a sub for myself, (the sub), but as it turned out, yesterday was really the last week. So I had to really quick rely on the Holy Ghost to pull off another music time...whew! Thank heaven we don't have to do stuff like that by ourselves!

Author's update: We're back from the doctor's office - Mom's diagnosis is multiple myeloma, a form of bone cancer. The doctor fully expects for her to be able to be in remission with treatment. She had an amazing priesthood blessing a couple of weeks ago, and faith in that keeps us very optimistic. We're really doing just fine! Just tired from running around getting perscriptions, going to the doctor, and the mental hurdles of figuring out everything that has to be done when, etc. Can I go to bed early tonight?

Let the good times roll!

I was going to post more of these pictures in our Year in Pictures, but figured there must be a limit, because the few extra I was going to add, (like of Christmas and our trip to Idaho,) wouldn't add...almost like there was a limit to how many pics allowed. Is there a limit? Ah ha! While putting this one together, I figured out what I did wrong then...anyway, enjoy this little trip through our good times of December and into January.

December started out with a 14th birthday...

...then a birthday party, (two cakes, bonus!)...

A school choir concert - the junior high...

...combined with the High School, kids in both choirs.

And a school orchestra concert too.

A recital for the private viola student...

...look carefully and you might recognize the pianist!
(Yikes - first time accompanying anything like that!)

Stretching is a good part of life, right?!

Then we had a 12th birthday, (complete with
priesthood ordination following on Christmas Day!
Best of the Christmas presents.)

Christmas Eve was a BLAST. We had a traditional feast,
complete with goose, caviar, lots of unusual dishes.
Everybody, except the moms, had a food assignment
put together by grandmother. - Thanks, Mom!

We all dressed up fancy too, like the olden days,
and had a traditional sing-along,
then a neat testimony meeting.
We sure love our extended family!

 

Christmas morning at our house...should have taken
more pictures. Oh well.
After a lazy couple of days, (and another family dinner
 thrown in that I completely forgot to take pictures of,)
 we packed up and headed out of town...

...on our way to Idaho, we got sidetracked getting new tires, and stopped in SLC
and wondered around town. We stopped at the FH center and had this
fun family picture taken!

To Karen & Dan's house in Idaho,
the kids got to play with the cousins for days.
Games, movies, food, lots o' love!
Family is the BEST!

The "adults" went out for dinner; that included Gregory!
(Especially 'cause we wanted to drive past BYU-I so that
he could see one of the places he's interested in going to college.)

Sisters :)

Brothers-in-law

That Sunday outfit sure looks more like "Gangsta Wear"
with that machine gun in your hands, Gregory!

Green olives? YES!!!
(So fun seeing my niece in some of my daughter's
favorite old clothes!)

New Year's Day we had more cousins over, Andrew & Amy,
and their kids...

...for dinner!...

...and games - a serious game of Risk...

...and lots of fun visiting.

Susan's cousin, Andrew is a dork. Just sayin'...

Told you it was a SERIOUS game of risk!

Really serious!

Green olives are the best! "Nephens" are "bester".
(That's Karen's word for neices & nephews.)  :D

Kimberly wearing one of her Christmas presents
- a skirt that Susan made back in  high school
for herself! This is fun...

Now time to go back home and get back into the school routine...

 

...School science fair projects.
Did you know that cornstarch and water are really
fun to play in? You can roll it into a ball,
then if you stop rolling it...

...it turns back into a liquid! But try punching it,
and you can come away with bruised knuckles!
The kids in Jonathan's class are really enjoying this one.

Jonathan on his first deacon camp out - a cold January night.
Brrrr!
Bye, Jason! Stay warm, Jonathan!

Gregory enjoying his two best friends - what boy wouldn't?
These awesome girls are some of Kimberly's best friends too.
Love you, girls!

Let the good times roll!!