The Goods, the Bads, and the Uglies

Bad but Good:  It's great to turn 60, just ask my mother-in-law, Darla.  A surprise birthday party with family and friends, awesome glasses, a fashionable necklace, a cool new monitor, surprise visit by her sister and mom all the way from Nebraska, great food, some prunes, depends, cane, a beautiful cake, and grandkids being hyper and crazy, all this just for her.  She must be pretty special huh.  She is! We love you Grandma D! I also have to mention a great play that Kole created and had his cousins Ankara and Ellie act out. Here's the summary: Ankara,"It's great to be 60." Ellie,"What?" Ankara, "It's great to be 60!" Ellie, "What?" Ankara, "I said it's great to be 60!" "What?" says Ellie holding up her arms. Ankara, "I'm leaving."  It is much cuter to see than to read check out my sister-in-law's blog called Button and Bug.

Ugly: This scene: Ryan's brother, Shane, either wrestling with Kole or checking Kole's shorts, we aren't sure.

The Goods, the Bads, and the Uglies

Good?  What do you do if it's cold and rainy outside? Well, my boys like to go outside, set up a tent and sit in it. They couldn't do it by themselves so dad helped them.  They got the tent all set up and dragged at least 10 blankets into the tent and settled in. They had plans to sleep there all night. What kind of a mom lets her kids sleep in a tent on a cold rainy night? Come on, I knew they wouldn't last more than an hour. To prove my point, 15 minutes into "Tent Time," the sprinkler came on right underneath their tent and the water sprayed all over inside the tent.  This ended the "Tent Adventure"......but according to Kole, if the sprinklers wouldn't have come on, he would have stayed in there all night.  Too bad they had to settle for a warm fire, hot chocolate, and a warm bed.

Good: My mom and dad came out to see us.  Our schedules finally aligned. Yeah! We had a lot of fun shopping, eating, watching football, going through model homes, and enjoying Braydon's soccer game.

Bad: as in Bad to Bone. That's the way Bray plays soccer.  His team made a come back and tied the All-Star team.  Bray had 3 goals. He may be little, but he is tough.

Amazing: Ok I know this isn't a category, but my dad, the rock of our family, has been in remission for almost a year now.  What an amazing story of faith and willingness to submit to God's will. He was diagnosed with a very aggressive type of cancer known as Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL) in August of 2007.   I'm sure most of you know, but just in case, cancer has 4 stages 1, 2, 3, 4.  The lower the stage number, the more likely that the cancer can be erradicated from your body, and that you will survive.   My dad's cancer was diagnosed as being in late stage 3/early stage 4.  Which means the cancer had spread to many parts of his body, including some of his organs, this would make it much harder to treat. The prognosis wasn't great.  As we were all falling apart trying to deal with this, it was my dad who stayed strong and tried to make us feel better. My mom was amazing and her faith never wavered either. My dad didn't believe that it was his time to go and he had faith that he would be healed.  I would ask him, what if was his time to go.  He would tell me that if it was his time to go that he wasn't afraid of dying. He had lived such a good and amazing life that he was at peace if it was his time (my words not his). How many people can say that? I know that I can't.  Thankfully the chemo worked and my dad has beaten the cancer, without having to go through a bone marrow transplant.  He was and still is in a  European study that uses an investigational drug to prevent the return of NHL. This leads me to why I wanted to tell this story.  We were eating dinner with them last week, and we started talking about the investigational drug he is taking, and when he would know if he was taking the real thing or the placebo.  He said he didn't know and may never know because he was the only one in the state of Utah to be on this drug.  I asked him why.  He told us that to qualify for this study you had to be diagnosed with NHL, be in late stage 3/4, and be cancer free after finishing chemo.  He was and is the only person in Utah diagnosed NHL stage 3-4, that qualified for the study because he was cancer free.  How amazing is it, that my dad was healed and that his last cat scan showed no signs of cancer?  While he was going through chemo, I guess I didn't realize or want to admit how rare a full recovery would be.  I know I don't always show it, but I do realize any time that my kids and I have with my dad now is borrowed time and thank Heavenly Father for that time.

The Goods, the Bads, and the Uglies

Bad: I know, I know crazy cat lady, but this picture was so cute!

Bad: After a day of shopping with my mom, we were too tired to play with the boys.

Good: The boys decided to entertain themselves by attaching a bunch of their stuffed animals to a kite string and pulling it across the two railings upstairs. They called it their most amazing invention ever! Huh???? I don't understand the appeal, but they loved it and it kept them busy for an hour.

Good: The boys moved to sledding down the stairs. Amazingly neither of them got hurt, and this entertained them for awhile too.

Bad: The pictures are a little, okay a lot blurry, but you get the idea. (Jess, I need your help)

Good: I decided that sledding down the stairs looked like a blast and I decided to try it myself.

Bad: A face plant right into the wall between the two pillows.

Ugly: Me with my nose smashed and throbbing, my lip bruised and bleeding. The black eyes were not part of the ride, just some left over make up. Hot I know.

Good: The ride was worth it! It really was so much fun. I felt like I was flying until I flew into the wall.

The Goods, the Bads, and the Uglies

Good: I finally got the Back to School Pics up

Bad: The Back to School pics are two weeks late.

Good: The boys were very excited for school.

Bad: The excitement wore off after just one day.

Ryan and the boys. Aren't all my men so handsome?

The boys and me at school. They couldn't wait to get to their class. They were almost late for their first day because I had to get pictures. Come on Mom!!!!

Big B-Dog going to 2nd grade (Ms. Jarboe's class)

Super big K-dog going to 4th grade (Mrs. Love's class)

Bad: I missed them so much the first day. I couldn't wait for them to get home.

Ugly: I waited and waited for them to get home. I cleaned the house to pass the time, not because it needed (ha ha). They got home, messed up my clean house and drove me crazy....how is that possible?

The Weekly Goods, Bads, and Uglies:

Good: I was talking with Kole about how big he was getting and I asked my soon to be 4th grader, where all the time had gone, he patted his heart and said, "right here." Isn't that enough to make an already emotional mom cry?

Good: My brother A.D. and his wife Serene, came over to Denver for a visit. We had so much fun. I have a real soft spot for my baby brother and his wife is cool wife too.

Adrian with Kole and Braydon.

Good: Swimming fun with Uncle A.D.

Adrian and Kole under the water. Can you see them?

Good/Bad: The swimmer who can't stop for photos, previously known as Kole.

Good: Braydon loves to pose for pictures. I'm definitely not a photographer, but I do love these pictures, perhaps it is the subject.

Good: We went to Elitch Gardens. It was more fun than we remembered.
Did you realize that part of the roller coaster is shaped like a heart? I didn't, my perceptive Braydon did.

Only $30 and we won these amazing stuffed animals that we had to have. Where are they now? In the basement.

Waiting in line. What do you see up so high Braydon and down so low Kole?

Braydon's favorite ride. He had to wear his sneakers with the tallest heal, and a hat that was propped up on his head so he could get on the "big" rides. He did inform us that he is going to eat more now so we don't have to do this next year.

Ryan loves loves loves the Merry Go Round.

My two scary boys.

Ugly: My baby brother posing in his swim trunks and the Texas Cape he won at Elitch Gardens, while I'm saying "you're a tiger." The people walking by didn't know what to think. I don't know what to think now either. Okay A.D. I'm sorry I called your photo session ugly....I'll now just call it BAD.