September 2023

-0r54t;.'t/My incision sites right after surgery.  The tumor ended up being 13 mm.  They also removed 3 lymh nodes.  The doctor said the tumor was stage 1 and that the reports looked good. 

My coworker, Amber, brought in a meal for us the day of my surgery.  My sister Kimberly had Crumbl cookies delivered to us, my brother Derek's family sent a Door Dash gift card and my friend Cindy delivered flowers and caramels.  So nice!

 

For Labor Day we went to a local park for a car show.  Emily went on the slides and Tyler and Megan rode a mechanical bull.

  

We came home and had tinfoil dinners for dinner.

Emily had a rash and was having trouble breathing so we went back to Instacare.  It was "only" dermatitis.

Emily did tennis again in the fall.

We had a reunion with Darrell's friends from his single days.  It was good to see everyone and visit.

 

We went to a picnic for the Valley Journals.  (Darrell is a writer for them).  The girls enjoyed the cotton candy.

We went to the State Fair--the butter display.

Emily and Piggy with a huge pumpkin.

The kids enjoyed going to the "little farm" like they did when they were little.

 

Their friends were at the fair with their military mom.  They kids got to sit in a helicopter.

 

 

We enjoyed going on the big yellow slide and getting shaved ice.

 

We visited my brother Derek's family at their new house for dinner.

 

Megan and Tyler went ice skating with the young men and young women.

My sweet aunt Dianne, who is a breast cancer survivor herself, sent me this care package of "pink" form her and her kids.  

I had an appointment with my oncologist.  She said the tumor was Grade 3 and that they would do more tests on it to see if they needed to do anything more aggressive than radiation.  I also met with the breast surgeon for a follow up and he said everything was looking good. The scars are healing nicecly.

 

Emily had a tennis match and my parents and nephew, Nathaniel, came to watch.

 

 

Kitty pictures.

 

August 2023

The first week of August was "Camp Week."  Tyler went to Young Men's Camp and the Emily and Megan went to Oakcrest, a church camp for 13 year olds.

Dropping the girls off at the church to take the bus to Oakcrest

The postcard the girls sent us from Oakcrest.

Darrell and I went to see Newsies at the Hale Centre Theatre.  It's one of my favorite musicals.

Because I knew the kids were going to be gone for the week, I scheduled a colonoscopy. As I was in the check-in process for the colonoscopy, I received a call from the breast care center about a biopsy I had in July.  I called the care center back while I was in the waiting room for the colonoscopy.  I found out the biopsy showed an 8 mm tumor.  So while I waited, the care center scheduled an MRI and a consultation with the breast surgeon. I was trying to process the news when they called me back for my colonoscopy.  I went into the bathroom to give a urine sample for the pregnancy test and I just kept saying to myself, "It will be OK.  It will be OK."  When the anesthesiologist asked me how my general health was, I started crying and said, "I just found out I have a little bit of cancer.  It's going to be OK, but it's just new news."  The sweet nurse gave me a hug and said, "Your tears are justified" and gave me tissues.  I was very grateful to find out that the colonoscopy was clean and I don't need to go back for 5 years.  This picture was taken later in the week when Kitty just came and slept on me for an hour.  I appreciated her love during the week.

Picking up the girls after Oakcrest.  They had a great time.

We went to visit my niece Olivia who had her such bad scoliosis that she needed to have her spine straightened.

Darrell and I went to see Cinderella at the Empress Theater.

Emily came to the school and helped me on one of our teacher work days.

Our annual trip to Hokulia shaved ice

The first day of school 2023.  We got donuts to celebrate.

It was a different first day of school.  Megan had to be to the school for dance company at 7:00 a.m., but Tyler and Emily didn't need to be to school until later, so our first-day-of-school pictures were a little different.  

Megan (8th grade) before school and after school.

 

Emily (8th grade) and Kitty.  Emily wanted Zelda to have a first-day-of-school picture too. 

  

Tyler (10th grade) at the end of the day and me.

 

I love the tradition of having a "New Year" party in my class on the first day of school.

The kids enjoyed a stake youth activity.

Darrell and I went to see Jenny Oaks Baker and Family Four perform "American Mosaic."  It was really good.

Poor Emily got super sick.  She got a breathing treatment and an antibiotic for an ear infection.

The Young Women hiked Ensign Peak for an activity.

I had my breast cancer surgery on August 31.  Everything went well. (And the best part was that I only had to do sub plans for 1 short day because the the next day was a teacher work day and then it was Labor Day.)  Emily left me a note with Chelsea.  So sweet!  It says, "Dear mommy, I your surgery goes good!  I you need someone to snyggle in the hospitial I am sending Chelsea with you, becasue I can't be there and she helped me in the hospital.  I love you very mch!"

 

There were just too many cute Kitty pictures to include this month.

She loves yarn.

Her artwork.

 

Enjoying the linen closet

Under the clothes in the closet

Playing in the water