PHEEEEEWWWWWWWW!

I have been keeping something from you. I've been scared. I have been having trouble breathing the last couple weeks and have had to stop exercising. I couldn't get up the stairs without feeling like I was suffocating. It wasn't like before and that made me feel better but I was feeling a tightness in my chest. I thought it was probably not a big deal but always and probably forever I will have this scary doubter in the back of my head whispering,"cancer is back. cancer is gonna gitcha!" (He is spooky, huh?) Anyway, I went in an got a full scan today and cancer IS NOT back. Phew! I have a condition called Radiation Pneumonitis... maybe not spelled just like that. It's like pneumonia, but not from an infection and it probably won't get worse. It'll either get better on its own or I'll have to go back on steroids (just in time for baseball season!). Let's all pray that it'll go away on its own because I hated the steroids more than anything.

So anyway, now that everything is fine, let's all eat some krispy kremes.

"I look like June!"

That's right, folks. He's potty-trained.

Hard Work

I have been overwhelmed with the amount of work I have had to do every day since our house went on the market. We've had three showings and it is exhausting to try and keep it that clean. I was feeling really sorry for myself last night and the thought came to me - what about the people around you? Have you noticed how much they have had to do lately? How true it is! Take Preslie, for example. Every morning she has to overflow her diaper and soak her bed. Then she has to hurry and eat half a banana, use the other half like a chunky-slimy chapstick and kiss every glass surface in the house. Before the other kids even leave for school, she has to empty their laundry bins - always making sure to shove their underwear in my saucepans in the cupboard. She is very detail-oriented and a hard, hard worker. She makes certain that every bit of her cereal ends up on the floor and that there is always some kind of mystery food in her hair. The cushions must be removed from the couch and the toilet paper from the rolls. It is no wonder to me that she needs a long nap every afternoon and I should stop feeling sorry for myself and my short list of to-dos.

Freezing Garage Sale

We had a freezing garage sale this weekend. It was 30°. People still came! What a crazy place I live. Friday was 68° and that made us hopeful. It was about 50° at 7am when we started, so we were still hopeful. Then it was 30 and too late. Everything was out. Amy Cima was nice enough to do the ultimate solid of letting us have the sale at her house. She has a great location and our realtor wouldn't let us have it here. Now all that stuff is gone. We hauled away everything that didn't sell. I might become a bulimic just because it feels so good to PURGE. Ahhh. Clean house.

It's good that it's clean, too, because there are only 200 houses just like ours one the market in our area right now. Sheesh. I'm not going to get my hopes up. I'm already tired of keeping everything perfect. I feel like those guys at disneyland that walk around with the broom and dustpan waiting for people to drop something. Their job is never done and neither is mine. But at least they get a churro now and then.

i'm LOST

I have been watching LOST from the beginning. Now it's a little ridiculous. Am I right? For every answer, you get five more questions. Not to mention my biggest question,"Who is waxing their eyebrows?" Poor island dwellers with their perfect perfect eyebrows and their 2008 trendy clothing that happened to be in the luggage of a 2004 plane crash. I liked seeing Walt at the window last night. They probably had to have him kneel so he wouldn't look like he was now six feet tall. Maybe not a good idea to put a kid as a main character in a show where it takes 4 years to tell us about 4 months on an island. Perfect eyebrows. That's just stupid.

Another thing I like to do is "liken" tv to my daily life. So here is what I do: whenever I fly anywhere, I look around the plane and play "this is who would be on my island". So far I haven't seen any Sawyers, Kates, Claires... any of them. I definitely haven't seen anyone baby-carry a John Locke on to any of my flights - and I watch for it! I might have seen a Hurley or two. But mostly pudgy bald business men. Old ladies. Scruffy teenagers with loud iPods. Hardly a good cast for our crash. Who would save me from the black cloud? Or the polar bears? Nobody. At least I won't have to worry about cancer coming back though, hey?

Alex Passed Away

Our friend Alex passed away early yesterday morning. He was blessed enough to fall asleep Sunday morning and slip away peacefully. He had started having seizures on Saturday and we all prayed he wouldn't have to linger. Jaymeson went to say goodbye Sunday night and said there was a sweet spirit there. He told Alex we'd never forget him and I know that we won't. He was one of those guys that didn't go with the flow. He let himself be who he truly was. Those are my favorite people. He had such a strong testimony and knew the Lord had work for him to do. I'm so happy that he is is with his Savior now and can rest from the yuckiness that is cancer.

It is so strange that even though we have known since late last spring this would happen - even though we have prayed that he wouldn't have to suffer long - even though we know he is so much happier now - my heart is heavy and sad. I am being bombarded by emotions from all sides. From memories of my dad's last days that I didn't know I had to even more gratitude for the enormous blessings I have received this past year. Not to mention the reality of cancer and what it's capable of. Emotional times, my friends.

Please keep his family in your prayers!

a blue dress

So the other day Mason was practicing his ballet while watching Little Einsteins. He turned to me and said,"I want you to go to the store and get me a blue dress." That made me laugh. A nervous laugh. But my smile widened when I thought of telling Jaymeson about it later that night. Ha ha. His only boy. Actually, I thought Mason would just forget about it and move on. Nope. He has asked me for three days for a blue dress. I was telling our friends about it at a wedding luncheon on Saturday and they said, "Maybe that's the bribe you've been waiting for. Tell him you'll buy him a blue dress if he goes in the potty!" We all laughed - Jaymeson's was a nervous laugh. I figured I'd try it. Why not? I have already offered him a million dollars and he didn't care. In fact, I have already offered him a horse, a tractor, a ladder that goes all the way to the moon and even a spoon that would be only his - one his sisters could only dream of using. It didn't matter what I offered. He didn't care about being in diapers forever (ever! ever! ...that's an echo) So I said,"Mason, if you go pee pee and poopoo in the potty, I'll buy you a blue dress!" He went in the potty EIGHT times today.

Of course, the way I see it, we'll just deal with one problem at a time...

visuals - for karen

The kids at Hogwarts... or MoyeElementary




This is Hedwig. She was the belle of the ball. Strangers took pictures of her. It was really funny to watch her walk in that costume because she flaps her little wings. SHe likes dressing up.





This is our new house!




This is Jaymeson, Preslie and a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. Gross. They had a bunch of weird animals in the "care of magical beasts" area at the Harry Potter night.

I fixed your blog

Now super tech savvy girl - you can have this unlovely ocher color if that was what all this was about - but I personally hate it.

I broke my blog

i'm so sad about it. I lost the good quotes and all the prettiness. I have to go back and re-add all the links and stuff again. I shouldn't have tried to do anything with it. I shoulda left it to Mel. Shoulda coulda woulda.

Oh, also...

I will pay you $200 to potty train Mason. That is what it is worth to me today. I don't want him going on his mission wearing diapers. Your house, my house - whatever. Just do it.

Thanks in advance.

ummm.... ummm.... i don't know

Hi. I get to feeling real guilty that I don't write on here very much anymore. That is because my life is busy and boraphil... er, boring. I'm trying my hardest to get his house ready to go on the market on the 20th. I hope it will happen. We have been working very hard. I've also been going to the gym and meeting with my friend who is getting her personal trainer's license. I dread going, hate it while I'm there and feel like dying afterwards. So that's good. I'm looking into hiring some little elves to come and help me sit down without falling because my legs hurt so much. They would have to sign a major non-disclosure agreement form.

I got to spend last Wednesday running around my house without the owner there. I was having an inspection done and it was really fun. I found a laundry shute. shoot. chute. There it is. Anyway, I'm sure my kids will have a blast putting Preslie down that. It is a fun fun house and I hope we spend the rest of out lives in it. We found out that our lake has snapping turtles. Hopefully that will deter the kids from drowning in it. Or maybe they will drown while being bitten by turtles. Great. Now I have a whole new scenario to keep me up at night.

With all of this going on, I'm afraid I've had to cut back on my Guitar Hero time and will probably have to move my tour to he spring, instead of the fall like I had hoped. I'll let you know when advance tickets go on sale.