Our Holiday Weekend

When Morgan and I received the devastating news on Thursday about the progression of my cancer we were at a loss. We were thinking that maybe we wanted to "get away" for the holiday weekend, or take someone up on an offer to watch the kids and go sit on the beach in California holding hands. But after much thought and reflexion, we knew we needed to stay here. The kids needed us, and they already had plans that they were excited about and they needed stability, not parents who run away to be by themselves on a far away beach.
So, we ended up having a terrific weekend "staycation", even though temperatures reached a million and more! (o.k. maybe it was only about 110 degrees, but honesty, this is FALL and those temperatures sure aren't "fall"ing!)
Scroll thru the pictures to see what we did this extended weekend...
The girls were invited to a Camp Rock 2 party and had such a blast!! Thank you Jackson's for hosting such a wonderful (noisy) bunch of girls! Here is Cassidy and Sarah with their friends from school, Chloe, and Emily.

I love this picture because Sarah did NOT want to be in the picture all cuddled with the rest of the girls! Just look at that expression!!

And here they are being goofy!!!! What an adorable bunch!

So, what were we doing while the girls were at their party and the boys were hanging out with grandma and grandpa? Oh, we were enjoying a date of our own!! Here we are toasting our Italian soda and Diet Coke!

And would you check out my hot date!!!! Wahhhhoooo!!! And the food looks pretty wonderful as well!

And here I am hiding behind a huge slab of lasagna... Thank you Bucca Di Bepos!

And when we went to pick up the girls, everyone was rocking out! Even Will and Lund got in on the action!

Here you get a better view of what they are doing... playing "Just Dance" on the Wii. Such a fun game! We will have to get that one sometime, it is quite the workout!

And then the next evening we had another great experience!! We had an amazing BBQ with Buck and Judi Shumway and Buck's bum legs! We had Martinelli's to celebrate the holiday weekend and steak, hamburgers and yummy chicken as well!! Oh and shrimp and really great potato chips from Costco... and a melon salad and cookies... You get the point--It was AWESOME!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our last weekend here in the apartment, but we are really, really excited to move into our new house (finally) on Thursday!!!

Oh, poor bum legs!!!! Buck did enjoy floating around the pool for a bit. I think it helped to put the weight off his legs for a while. He also developed "kankles" while we sat there! I thought only pregnant women could pull that off!!!

Half way through our swim, Will decided to strip down and run around in the nude!!!! Oh boy, I had to catch him and make him put his trunks back on while everyone at the pool got quite a chuckle. Don't worry, I don't have any nude photos!

Then I got to do something EXTREMELY AWESOME!!! This is Breanna Pena who is fighting a very aggressive form of leukemia. She is the daughter of an old high school friend and we have been following her fight via the computer and her web page, (leukemiasucksbreannarocks.com), and she has been such an inspiration to me!!! This little gal, who is so beautiful and has the skin of a porcelain doll (can you tell I am a bit jealous about that), is such a fighter!!! On Monday morning, we got to go visit them at their home on a rare sabbatical from Phoenix Children's Hospital. I LOVED talking to her and just hanging out and understanding each other, and comparing different ports and comparing experiences... What a family, and what a girl!!!!!!!

Here we are together! She looks so tiny next to me! I bought her the hat that she is wearing and a made her a bunch of interchanging flowers like the one she has on, so she can have fun with hats like I do!! She put the hat right on an picked out the Sun Devil colored flower to start off with. And let me just tell you, she has the MOST BEAUTIFUL bald head I have ever seen!!! Truly, she could be a bald model!!!!

And while Morgan and I were visiting with the Pena family, Alisha graciously had volunteered to watch the kiddos overnight!! Thank you a million times over!!! Here they all are hanging out together!

.....and being goofy, which is their specialty!!!

Then we headed over to Bishop Brock's house for a BBQ and swim date!!! How fun, thanks for letting us be part of your evening!!! We are truly blessed with the greatest friends and family EVER!!

I just wanted to let you know that we had a marvelous weekend and feel soo blessed by the love we feel from all of you! Calls, emails, hugs, offers of service-- how truly blessed I am!

We are working with MD Anderson in Texas and might actually be flying out there for a consultation at some point in the near future. And if you didn't notice, after much deliberation on the phone on Morgan's part, we will be moving into our home this Thursday!!!!! Wahhhhooooo!!!!

I hope Morgan is ready to carry me over the threshold!!!!

Cancer News.... Not wonderful today folks.. be pre-warned!

Hello all... I wasn't up to posting yesterday because I was out of it mentally after my doctor's appointment and shocking news. You'd think by this point, nothing that comes out of the mouth of my doctors would surpize me, but alas, I was startled once again yesterday. I feel very blessed that Morgan was able to get time off of work to be there with me during my appointment!
Alright, here is the news.... They have upgrated by cancer to stage 4 breast cancer! What does that mean? Well, that means that my cancer began as breast cancer, but now has metastisized to my right lung and lymphnodes deep in my chest. It will always be called "breast cancer" even though they will be treating different areas of my body. What next? Well, it looks like the next step is to have a small surgery where they make a slit in my throat and go down my throat to try to reach the enlarged lymphnodes. They are doing this proceedure, just in case (5-10%) chance that they have misdiagnosed it, and it is not more cancer. But, they are pretty certain it is. They took my blood last week and did some "cancer tests" on it and my cancer markers were elevated telling them that I still have cancer in my body. So, this basically means that even though I went through 6 months of chemotherapy and 2 months of radiation, the cancer was still able to live through it, although it may have stunted it's growth a bit.
How will they treat me? They will start me on a "new" therapy plan that will probably include a new chemotherapy regimen and other possibilities as well.
Did I cover everything medically?? I think so. Basically, it means that I will never "beat" cancer, the best I can do is be in "remission" for however long (hopefully about 60 years!)
I feel like everything is a bit out of my control, and we are back to the "waiting game" again. Waiting to see what the biopsy says. Waiting for a new chemotherapy schedule? Waiting patiently while my computer seems to underline EVERYTHING! ARRRRRGGGGG!!!

Oh, and to make the day really out of our control..... The sellers think we are "stalling " for some reason on the close of our house, so they got mad at us and relisted the house and told us that if everything is not finished by next Friday, then they are pulling out.......... I wish they could see how much we are not "stalling"!!! We would LOVE nothing more than to already be in our house, but for some reason Bank of America is processing the last bit of this REALLY slow!!! I am trying to learn patience or anger control or some other wonderful virtue... so I need to just take a deep breath and let whatever happens, happen!!

Enough Debbie Downer stuff... The kids had school pictures this week and I tried to snap a few pictures of them before they left. They were NOT happy and here are the results.... I thought it was hillariouis!

I got a few smiles out of Will, but he was sooooo WIGGLY!!

See how happy he was to get dressed up for school pictures!!

.... Love the "mug shot". he was NOT happy with being photographed! He was also very upset about living in Phoenix this day... wanted to go "home" to Bagdad!

.......Much better, you just have to get him to laugh a bit!

Sarah has a hard time being grumpy... she is just too smiley!! Even when she tries to be grumpy, she has a bit of a smile on her face!

Cassidy was also exceedigly "not excited"!!!!

I hope the Lifetouch people had better luck than I did!!! he he he

Flagstaff was HEAVEN!!

I don't need to write too much today, because the pictures tell the story quite well. Going up to Flagstaff for a little "break" was just what we all needed!!! Kids and parents alike were refreshed and recharged! Will even turned to me while we were sitting on the couch at the Fox's and said, "I think we should just pick this house. This is our house now!" Well said Will!

Will loved the dress-up clothes and being outside. Here he is a "bat" flying around on the tramp.
Sarah loved finding slugs with Caleb and Aaron. They found and accidently "loved" a lot of slugs to death......
Can you find the bunny hidden in the flower garden??? Susan's flowers were gorgeous and actually, Kevin (their 18-year-old son) is the one who planted all the Dahlia's. He has even won a blue ribbon for his efforts.

This is such a great representation of Cassidy's and Lund's relationship. I was taking a picture of Cassidy all dressed up, and Lund jumped from behind and tried to tease her...

She didn't even miss a beat and just reached over and pinched him, while still posing for the picture!

Cassidy is the "maid" to Jenna (Aaron's daughter)

Here we are gathered for morning prayer!! Can you think of a more powerful feeling than being in the presence of all of these wonderful Spirits?

The grandkids knew where all the good toys were and they soon found the "Barbie cupboard". thanks for sharing all the secrets of the toys with my kiddos!

Cassidy was enamored by the flowers as well and grabbed my camera and took lots of pictures. This was my favorite.

And, oh my goodness, there was a BRAND NEW baby there!! Adalynn was only 2 days old!!! And the cutest little thing!! And Aaron's wife KellyAnne was there and she looked AMAZING! You would have never guessed she just had a baby a mere two days prior. Paul's wife, Robyn, was ready to have a baby any minute as well..

then, I tried to pose the boys for a photo op by the beautiful aspen trees. Just watch the series of pictures. Will was being sooo goofy!!

Oh well, I tried!

Then we went for a hike on one of my favorite trails. We used to go there often when we lived in Flagstaff and it was wrought with memories! Morgan showed the kids the cattails...

And then he demonstrated how you can use the cattails for tinder when making a fire. They were entralled and had to repeat the process countless times. Very fun for all of you who haven't had the chance.... the "down" feeling fluff is very fun to play with (and get in your sisters hair).

And I was reminising here because this used to be my "running trail". When we lived in Flagstaff, I used to run on this trail, and I even ran 8 miles once (my all-time high), and when I got to the end, I told Morgan to drive over and pick me up...... I was finished!! I don't think that I could even crawl 8 miles today...

Flagstaff was beautiful and the weather was spectacular!!!!

Look how green it is here due to all the monsoon rains ......

Oh, and we can't forget to find critters!! Sarah found countless grasshoppers ....

And Will wanted to take home EVERY rock and stick he found. I finally told him that he could only keep what he could hold. That limited his collection considerably...

And then Lund found a snake.......

It wasn't too big, so we weren't too worried. We did make him let it go in the forrest, even though he wanted to smuggle it home in his pocket.

And Cassidy decided to conquer her fear of heights and enjoyed a good climb...

Way to go Cassidy.. As she claimed, "Johnson women are Strong!"

Then the food!!!!!! Morgan and Andy Fox got together around the BBQ and made some award winning BBQ ribs............

..................Yummmmmmm..............

Jana dug in and loved EVERY bite!!!!!! She is soooo adorable!!! The kids just loved playing dress up, and computer games with Jana, and Sarah and Jana played "animals" for hours!!

Thank you Fox family for a weekend we won't soon forget~~~