you are loved!

I am giving fair warning for what will happen next month. Get ready for it...I am coming to Michigan on February 10th. If that doesn't knock your socks off (if you live in Michigan, of course) then this will. Forest is coming with me! Yes, I really promise this time, we got our tickets last night. I've been promising for the last 4 trips that he would be coming with me. I may just be more excited than anyone else and the only reason I am ever going to want to leave is because I will undoubtedly miss Gracie.

On a side note, today Grace was crying at Jennie for no reason (as usual) but she had her cup of Cheerios in her hand. She handed them to Jennie, who told Grace "you can only have these if you are happy". Grace immediately started laughing, but it was so obviously a fake laugh. We were cracking up, it was so cute. She's doing a lot better, I know that she understands a huge deal of what we say to her. If she starts to cry and we tell her we're going to ignore her, she usually stops. Another fun story, I picked her up from school yesterday and if she hadn't been buckled into her chair she would have jumped clear out of it to get to me, it was so dang adorable. Things like that make me so happy that I'm doing what I'm doing, it's fantastic. Who else gets that kind of love from their employers?

Off the top of my head, I really can't think of much else that is going on. I'm really excited about our trip though, I haven't seen my sister in almost two years, I haven't seen Rob in over two years, so it will be great to see them. I realized that Rob and Forest haven't seen each other in over 5 years, long before any of us got married. A lot of things have changed, haven't they? We are planning to take a trip to Frankenmuth sometime during our visit and we're going to try to stay the night at the Bavarian Inn. It's a huge hotel will 5 indoor pools, including an adults-only pool and hot tub. It also has indoor miniature golf and a huge game room where I'm sure we will spend a lot of time. Their chicken dinners are so amazing, I think that is what I am looking forward to the most. I will just have to try not to overeat...

The weather here has been CRAZY! It had been pretty cold (even for me) for a few days then all of the sudden on Saturday it was beautiful. We hit a high somewhere in the 80's and it lasted for three days. It got a bit cooler yesterday and this morning it was cold again. I had to use an ice scraper for the first time in 4 years or so. I'm glad Dal left one for me or I would have been sitting there for a while heating my car up. I can't wait to get a garage... So, because of this weather, my fibromyalgia has been all over the place and I've been feeling stiff as a board but I take it all in stride. I move around a lot hanging out with Grace and that helps keep me from locking up. I'll suddenly feel dead tired in the middle of the day but that is another thing remedied pretty well by my job so I'm grateful for that. I can't believe I am willingly visiting Michigan in the dead of winter, at least this time I'll have a proper coat.

I also haven't updated on Courtney's progress in a while, in case you were all wondering. She is doing very well! She finally got to come home after her bone marrow transplant just after the new year and got to enter it officially cancer-free. We still continue to pray for her and hope that life can get back to normal as soon as it possibly can.

no more tears

I had a good day yesterday. Jennie came to get me around noon and we with McKay and Alexa to see the Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D. It's really fun to see on the big screen again and the girls enjoyed it. Afterward was Family Fun Day at Reata Rehabilitation. Grace does horse therapy at Reata once a week which helps her balance and muscle control. She's pretty adorable up on that horse. Once a year they have family fun day where they have games for the kids, a cake walk, food and other fun things. Grace was part of a little program which was very cute. There was a boy there, his name was Byron, who rode before Grace. His smile alone made me feel so much appreciation for all of God's children. He was probably my age, if not older, but has Cerebral Palsy and had caused severe problems with his motor skills. His parents were there and he hadn't seen them a while. He was so excited he nearly jumped right off the horse to get to them. I think about how some kids my age treat their parents and don't appreciate them at all, but Byron has endless love for his and will never feel anything else. He is so happy and that is really all that matters.

Today, well, I've been very emotional today! Sometimes for good reasons, other times for reasons that I wish weren't happening.

I woke up today at 9, mildly freaking out because we were supposed to leave for church at 10. I then realized we hadn't turned our clocks back an hour yet, so I laid there for a few more minutes before I finally got out of bed. We had a short meeting with Michelle Reed about the Christmas Party the three of us are planning for the ward. She has some excellent ideas, it should be a very fun night, so all of you in Trophy Club Ward be ready to be dazzled ;)

It was fast and testimony meeting and although I had a mild feeling to go up and bear mine, I decided that if I did no one would understand me due to my crying. I have so much to be grateful for right now, Forest and I are in a really good place in our relationship, with our jobs, with our lives. Courtney is doing fantastic, or as fantastic as she's going to be with her second round of chemo (she's still in remission, this is to just make sure she stays that way). The outpouring of blessings on her family have been abundant. I know their faith in Heavenly Father to watch over them is probably a huge reason they are doing so well emotionally with this burden and I know that they can handle it with his help. So many of us who have the gospel take it for granted, not truly knowing the miracles that can happen with faith.

I'm so glad Courtney is doing well and that this horrible thing is finally on it's way out. My happiness is mixed with sadness though, as my Uncle Richard is quickly losing his own battle with cancer. Words really can't express how I'm feeling right now. All I want to say is that it's not fair. I know that if I didn't have the faith I have now, I would not at all be able to handle this at all.

a great day

Somehow my great day also included vomit. Let's start from the beginning...

I woke up around 8 feeling pretty good, although my husband was freaking out because he was supposed to be in downtown Dallas by 8 for work today. Apparently I didn't set the alarm clock...although I did, but for me. He has his own alarm clock specifically because we usually wake up at different times. Nice thing about him working on Saturdays is that he could probably not even show up and no one would even notice. At any rate, I got up and ate pancakes for breakfast, along with some apple cider I got the other day. I took a huge swig of the apple cider and immediately noticed that it tasted like alcohol! It was horrible. Shortly thereafter, I got a slight headache, I had a little bit of a tummy ache and I was feeling hungry. I snacked on a few things, but the headache got worst and I started to feel nauseated. I laid around for a few hours trying to calm my headache, but nothing worked. I eventually got sick, which of course is never fun, but within a minute I was feeling totally fine. My headache and stomach aches were both gone. I don't think it was a flu or anything, I am pretty sure I just can't hold my fermented apple cider! It was a very bizarre turn of events, but I am SO glad I got feeling better, because I had a very good day.

Tonight was our Ward's Trunk or Treat. It's become a tradition in our ward, but I've never been before. The families line their cars up in the parking lot and pass out candy to the kids. I went with the Dendys to help with Grace. I went as a witch and she was a spider. It was quite a bit of fun, especially since I got to march around with a cute little spider all night. I also have never seen so many children in my life, it was actually overwhelming!

Jenny the Witch, McKay the Alien, Gracie the Spider,
Alexa the Flower and Dallas:

I got to see Courtney tonight! She was there with her little ones, which was fantastic to see. I can't believe a week ago she was so weak she couldn't do much of anything. She really is such an amazing woman, she isn't letting this get her down. I didn't want to spread too many of my germs on her, so I only got to talk for a minute, but that was more than enough for me considering it's been 7 weeks since I've seen her.

Courtney and her adorable family:

In other great news, my friend Crysta had her baby boy today! I don't know all of the details, but he was born around 7am this morning and his name is Spencer Jaxson. He joins his big sister Grayce. Congratulations Crysta and Chris!

popcorn worth it's weight in gold

Forest's sister Laura got a $20 gift card for Dale and Thomas Popcorn in a movie she bought a few weeks ago and gave it to us. I am pretty much addicted to popcorn and I have always heard their popcorn is really good, so we figured we would try it out. After shipping and the gift card, we still ended up spending 10 dollars, not a big deal. We got 6 bags of popcorn at 3.75 ounces each. For 10 dollars, that was a really good deal and this popcorn really is fantastic. But, without the gift card? And I thought movie theater popcorn was overpriced! Right now they have a special where you can get two free bags if you pay the shipping (I think it's about $6). To me, 3 dollars a bag is still a good deal, it is VERY good popcorn...I just have to try to share!

Some good news about Courtney, she got to come home on Monday! I'm so glad for her. Thinking back on my Dad's stay in the hospital, I know all he wanted to do was to come home and be in his own bed. He was only there for a week too, I couldn't imagine being away in a hospital for an entire month. It does sound like Courtney had very good care and I'm sure that made all of the difference in the world. So it sounds like Courtney is on the road to normalcy, now that she is in remission we just have to pray hard that she stays there. The love and support everyone has shown makes me never want to leave this city. I know that if Forest and I ever had something like this happen to us, we would be well taken care of. I'm glad I have such a great friend to support as well, she really deserves it.

It's calmed down the past few days, not much has been going on with Forest and I, other than work and grocery shopping. Forest is working 6 days a week for a little while, so we're trying to squeeze the things we do on Mondays into the little chunks of time we have after he gets home from work. It's been interesting but thankfully it's not forever! The fact that he gets paid overtime for 8 hours a week makes it all worth it.

I have another hour before I need to head back over to Jennie's, so I'm going to go enjoy my popcorn...and try not to eat the entire bag!

why i can't live without the internet

It has been an incredible two weeks. Long, sometimes frustrating, but overall rewarding. It pretty much started last Friday morning. I was picked up by Jennie to watch Grace, but the elementary school only had a half-day. Grace was picked up by the bus at 10 and we went over to the blood drive for Courtney. It didn't take very long for my donation, I must have good veins ;) I didn't feel too out of sorts the rest of the day and me and Grace had a quiet little evening while Jennie was out throwing a birthday party for her oldest. Saturday morning was spent with Grace then in the afternoon I went to help at Courtney's booth at Celebrate Roanoke. I cannot believe the outpouring of love and willingness to help in our community. It was really fantastic and I am glad we were able to help Courtney while strengthening our friendships. I even got a cute picture of me and Forest taken! That never happens!

So, Sunday morning rolls around and I have to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting and finish the bulletin before we leave. Sometimes writing your talk just before you give it opens you up to a lot of inspiration. Thankfully I had access to the internet while writing it, because after the storm we had on Sunday night, it decided to stop working.

For 5 days, our internet went up and down and Charter finally came on Friday to fix it. I know this doesn't say a lot about me, but I have a hard time without the internet for that long! The most important reason was that I couldn't post here and I had so many great things to talk about.

This Saturday was the 2nd garage sale for Courtney, where we raised over $1200! I was helping with the Bake Sale which went very well. We sold pretty much everything that was donated. It was another great day to get together as friends and help another. It makes me really grateful to be part of this community and this ward that has such amazing people in it. I can't see us ever leaving.

One more very important note. Courtney was tested on Friday to see where she stood and she is officially in remission! Prayers and thoughts are appreciated by all of us, especially Courtney, Todd and the kids. She was scheduled to come home today, but possibly tomorrow. Keep sending happy thoughts her way so she can continue to overcome this!

sisters rejoice

I noticed that quite a few of my friends weren't able to make it to the Relief Society Conference on September 29th, the first of which of course was Courtney. Meredith had asked if I could post the video I made for the program here, but I was scratching my head about how to do that. Thankfully I have a resident computer geek hanging around here all of the time! I really do want everyone to be able to see it, so I got Forest to sit down and show me how to successfully reformat the file into something I could upload onto one of the many video sharing sites.

For those of you who might not know which video I am talking about, I was asked to gather photos from our Stake to show at a program the Stake Relief Society put together just before the General Relief Society Conference. I took me quite a few weeks to gather the photos and it turned out really fantastic. I had to compress it quite a bit to make the file small enough, but it still looks pretty good! Enjoy!

Sisters Rejoice

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negative, again...

I have been feeling kind of gross the past three days. I think it has something to do with my sugar, but I haven't been able to find my glucose monitor for a little while. I need to just buy a new one! I am feeling hungry, when I am well full, but it doesn't feel like my sugar is high either. I've been doing good on my sugar intake and have found really great replacements for some of my favorite snacks. I found these amazing sugar-free popsicles from PhillySwirl. I haven't found a sugar-free popsicle that I liked remotely well but these are beyond fantastic.

Anyway, I was sitting here on my break today, with this weird headache and feeling overall just rotten when I suddenly felt compelled to take a pregnancy test. I bought a pack of them a while ago and I've been so fed up that I haven't even thought about getting pregnant or counting my cycles or anything. So, I took it and it was negative. I'm not sure what compelled me to do that, maybe it was my deep deep inner wants playing tricks on my fragile mind. I'm fine with the outcome though, I've been through this many times and will many times in the future. I have been blessed the last few months and I constantly think how lucky I am to have a job that I love, a job I wouldn't have if I had children of my own right now. I think God needs me to be with Grace and Jennie right now and I am glad I have such a good place to be before he calls on me for another job.

I keep forgetting to mention the Relief Society conference last week. Thoughts from that night keep floating around in my head and I've been putting off talking about it. I produced a video for the program that night which featured photos of the women of our stake. It turned out better than I could ever have hoped for. I came early to set up my video and help set up the food for dinner. We even had a visit from the fire department. I do hope I'm never in that building if a fire were actually started... So, we had a lovely dinner and program before the conference began. I felt it only necessary to dedicate the video to Courtney, who I had thought of often during it's production. I had forgotten to tell my fellow Trophy Club Ward sisters that the last picture was Courtney and her baby, which caused the floodgates to open for everyone Courtney has touched. I apologize for this, but it's safe to assume everyone would have needed the Kleenex anyway. The conference was very amazing, I hate to admit that I have slightly felt spiritually empty. I really needed to fill my cup and after the last week, it is truly running over.

close to home again...

I found out some very devastating news this last week. My dear friend Courtney was diagnosed with Leukemia. I have known Courtney since we moved to Roanoke 3 years ago and has been someone I have looked up ever since. Her and her husband, Todd, have 3 young girls and a little boy who is about to turn two. I never had a chance to be one of those people that said "That would never happen to me or someone I care about". I learned at a very young age that bad things happen to everyone for what seems like no reason. I am eternally grateful that I have my beliefs, because these bad things seem to always have a reason for happening. I know that Courtney has many people looking out for her and has a very powerful alley on her side. Aside from the peace I am feeling about her situation, it is hard to accept another person I care about has to suffer from cancer. It it such an ugly monster and no one should have to worry about it, especially not someone as young as Courtney. If you'd like to follow Courtney's journey as I do, please visit her blog at http://www.courtneysbattle.blogspot.com.

I will always remember the first day I really met Courtney. I was dropping off some gifts for the Secret Santa the Stake does each year for Christmas. I had intended just to drop them off and head back home, but we got to chatting. I ended up spending most of the afternoon there, she welcomed me into her home like an old friend, although we were only just getting to know each other. I got to spend a lot of time with her between her being my Visiting Teacher and Forest and Todd being Home Teaching companions. I am truly going to miss seeing her every Sunday making sure that we are all doing great in Nursery. I have asked several of my family members to remember her in their prayers, but I will be asking for this favor until Courtney is well again. She truly does deserve a miracle.

The day I heard about this tragic news, I tried my best not to become emotional. I was sitting with Grace, feeding her dinner, and I started to tear up. Grace is a very perceptive little girl and she gave me a quizzical look, as to say "what's wrong?". I told her I was sad and she pouted, then giggled. Although I'm not sure she knew there was something wrong or not, I almost instantly felt very peaceful. She's my reminder that God works in mysterious ways but he always has a plan for us, even if we don't know what that plan is. She is a blessing to everyone she meets.