check this out!!! Pretty neat halloween house!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUAV_1jBJB4&feature=related

Light it up baby!!

On Monday we had Family Home Evening and had soooooooooooooo much fun with our activity. We were at Papa Lund and Grandma Karen's house, and after a great and very funny session of short films, we went into their backyard to..................light it up!!!!

 We busted out a whole bunch of light up sticks and had a heyday! And believe it or not, I did have a lesson behind it.........something about being a light in the darkness and letting your light so shine.

  We sure had fun creating pictures with the light sticks. Everyone had 30 seconds to create. here is my creation.

 Here is Cassidy's creation

 here is Lund working quickly to finish his artwork........

 The finished product was a yin and yang symbol.

 Will came up with an adorable face.

Sarah made a grave and even included RIP.

 
And Roman numerals from Cass.

Seriously you have to try this activity!! It was so much fun, and the best part was....... it only cost 3.00! Right now you can get 15 light sticks for a dollar at Micheal's or even the Target store, dollar area.

singing in the rain!!!

 In this end of the world, we can still sing in the rain even though it is late October!! Crazy!!!

I do miss the changing of the seasons that we saw when we lived in Idaho, but being able to still get wet in October sure has it's perks.

p.s. we are looking at 87 degrees for Halloween day. A little cooler might be nice, but it is still beautiful!

No explanation needed!

 Really this needs no explanation, but it is such a funny story. Will got this tag from something that he opened, and not knowing what it said, he put it across his mouth. He He He!! How true it was!!!

 But of course, he said he preferred it as a moustache instead!

And this picture has Will written all over it too! I am not even going to explain! But I will give you a challenge.... can you find Barbie's head? And where did my lunch box go? hummmmmmmmmm

Catching up and living with the flu, but not really....hummmm

hello all! I am trying to catch up on some memories from the past week.  Bear with me, it has been a rough day today because I started a new chemo regiment yesterday, and my body isn't loving it. I had to get one med for the cancer and another med to build my bone strength. Since I now have tumors in my bones, they have to strengthen my bones so that the tumors don't fracture my bones from the inside. Fun image, huh? Anyhow, the new meds are making me feel like I have a bad case of the flu. My bones are achy, my stomach is yucky, and my head really hurts. Bummer!  

 So, next let's go over some memories from last Saturday. We had a wonderful reunion with the Camp Kesem grew. If you remember, 3 of my kids got to go to "cancer camp" this past summer and had a blast. The reunion was a blast!

 Lund playing football with some of his camping buddies...

Sarah and one of her cabin buddies, Buttercup.

 
 Will really enjoyed decorating his pumpkin

  .........................it's a ghost........

 Will and I even made a ladybug pumpkin together...

 I love memories made with the kids!

 There was a playground at the park with very weird toys..... Is Morgan a giant turtle?! What are you supposed to do with this thing??? Hum, maybe I am just not smart enough to play on this playground...

 ...............and can you find Will's face as he lives in his adobe house???

Yes, all the kiddos enjoyed meeting up with good friends who are in the same boat as they are. Each of the kids there also have parents with cancer, and most of the counselors have parents with cancer too. What an amazing group. We plan on attending each year and Cassidy already states that she wants to be a counselor someday. That would be great!!!

Kayla plays volleyball and Pink makes an appeance

I am really behind in my posting, so I will just skip ahead to this week, and try to catch up with the rest later. As you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. I have attended tea parties and social events and a walk at the end of the month as well. Lots of good things happening, yet I am still waiting for my check from Susan G. Komen. I have decided that each of us diagnosed with breast cancer need to recieve a check, since they keep bragging about how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they are making to "help breast cancer". .............still waiting for my check..........

Anyhow, while I sit here waiting for my check, I will tell you of something else wonderful we attended this week. Kayla (my niece) plays high school Varsity volleyball, even though she is only a Freshman. I know, crazy huh? She has mad skills when it comes to volleyball and we got to attend her game this week. It was dedicated to breast cancer awareness and they all had pink warm up shirts and pink hair things and a pink tattoo on their cheek. I was proud to be in the stands, watching her work her volleyball magic and for a good cause. Thanks Kayla for inviting us!!

                Getting ready for the next play...

                            Here she is serving it up......Kayla style!

And in the stands you can always find........Alisha, Kayla's mom. She is my BIG sister. (actually I am bigger, so that is always fun)

oh look, you can even find my BIG shoes. Pink all the way!

And these two goofballs were playing in the stands as well. Grandpa (Randall) Wiemer, and grandson William Randall Johnson. If you ask Will what his whole name is he proclaims, "Will Johnson Randall".

Here are some gorgeous ladies after the game.....I'm pretty sure Kayla is now taller than me, and she is 14!

Now you can see the whole "pinkness" happenning........

On a sidenote: The basketball uniform that I am wearing in this picture was given to me by the Bagdad Sultan Girls Basketball team. They all wore these outfits in honor of me for a whole season. And let me tell you, I felt very honored and almost cry when I see the outfit in my closet. And really, when else can you wear an outfit like this if not to a "pink" volleyball game? Seriously!

A Date with Mom!!!

Since the kids are on Fall Break this week I decided to take them out for the day on a "Date with Mom". First we went to Sea Life Aquarium at Arizona Mills Mall. IT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!!!!

                                    Starfish tank..

                                  And our favorite part....you could touch them!

                             Cassidy and Will LOVED the starfish tank~

                   And I thought the sea cucumbers felt pretty weird!

 The kids also loved the bubbles they had everywhere so you felt like you were in the aquarium.

 This is true education! 

        ........and these huge things were really huge and creepy!!

                  Three kids in a bubble!

                                      Kids and fish...............

 Sarah's favorite sea animal..... jellyfish!!!

                                   ..........they are crazy looking!

                                   Will didn't mind at all that he soaked his shirt

     It was all I had dreamed it would be to spend the day with the kids. Exhausting, and wonderful!!!

Mr. Gallbladder, I wouldn't be sad to see you go!!!

Yes, Mr. Gallbladder, I wouldn't be sad at all if they took you out and sent you somewhere far, far away...... Like Antartica!!!
   You see, over the past month I have been to the ER a couple of times in SEVERE pain, thinking something was going on with the cancer in my body. After much testing and many co-pays of 100.00 a piece, the ultrasound tech let me know that the pain was coming because of my gallbladder. ARRRGGGG! I don't even need a galbladder, especially not one chock full of gallstones!!!
  So, I have decided that you need to hit the road Gally! I just haven't decided when, since it depends on my new chemo meds and the approval of my doctor. But, mark my words, you won't see 2012!!!
     P.S. A note to my surgeon: While you are taking my gallbladder out, can you just go ahead and take all the other useless organs out as well? Such as my appendix, and tonsils, and anything else that seems a bit useless and redundant!! Thanks!
     P.P.S Can you tell that I am having a gallstone attack as I write this.....much anger in me there is!!

Cancer update..

These "cancer updates" are never my favorite because a lot of times I have to give you  bad news. And this is exactly the case today, sorry.  I had a PET scan and MRI this past weekend and learned some not so great news... the tumors are growing and spreading. The study trial is no longer working for me, so I have been "kicked off" the trial.  We have a list of options ahead of us in this battle, and after talking with Morgan extensively, we are probably going to have to go with the medicine Eribulin next. It is a new chemo med that has had good results. Soooooooo, there you have it. It is ALWAYS a set-back when a medicine doesn't work, but we are always hoping there is something around the corner that is even better.

Birthdays and butterflies and food...oh my!

First of all, I had a birthday.....shout hooray!! 33, here I come!!!! Birthdays are kind of fun, because I am always very grateful for another year in mortality! Hooray for life!

I also love my birthday because October Conference is always right after my birthday and I get to spend the whole weekend in jammies listening to amazing speakers! Oh how I love General Conference!

 For lunch, we met at Joe's Farmhouse Grill. Yummmmmy! My sister Alisha and my mom and I.

                      And even my dad was able to make it since he had the day off. Wahoo!

 Oh, and there was cake!!! Oh baby, ice cream cake!! Thank you Morgan!

                                                     yummy!!! Maybe you should break it down a bit Will!

 Then, on Sunday we followed our tradition of making pot stickers on Conference weekend. This time we even had an assembly line created by Sarah.

 We made over 200 today, so it was good that we had company coming for dinner.

 And, we had a visitor this weekend....Dot!!! Warren (Morgan's brother), thought she was pretty awesome.

 Warren said that he had to see how heavy she was.  He was quite impressed! I think she is about 70lbs now!

 and...............it was time to let the butterflies go! Sarah has been taking care of her pet butterflies since they were mere worms from the mailbox. And today, it was time to let them free!

 Sarah is very good with all animals, and the butterflies all loved her! (In fact, most of them didn't want to leave and kept coming back)

 Hello, I am a butterfly!!! My tongue is called a probiscus! (Sarah told me that fact)

And here are some of our wonderful guests today... the Christensen family. They were a ton of fun and we enjoy Sunday dinner guests. We also had Warren and my parents over trying to help eat all the wonderful Japanese food. sooooooo yummmmmy!!!