Christmas Hope

You might remember back in August a post about a special event that was coming up that our family was going to participate in called the Festival of Trees.  My sisters and I had decided to donate a tree in honor of Mom.  It was to be called Christmas Hope.  Since then we made plans on what kind of tree decorations, went shopping for them, and put them all on the tree to make sure it was exactly what we wanted. We had so much fun doing all this knowing it was in honor of a fantastic lady and for a great cause. 

November 29th was decorating day and the excitement grew even more.  We spent a good 4 hours making the tree structurally safe, wiring all the ornaments and other decorations on, and sometimes just goofing off.  So there it was......the last three months of planning, shopping, crafting, worrying all done.  And it was beautiful!

On opening night, the first thing we wanted to do was see Mom's tree.  It sold!  We were so excited. 

Later that week I took my cute little family back to Festival so they could also see the tree.  By then, they had posted who was the purchaser of the tree.  We wondered if it might have been a friend that knew about our donation.  It was a complete stranger which surprisingly made it even more special to our family.

I was told that donating a tree to the Festival would help bring our family together even more during this hard time.  It would bring the Christmas spirit deeper into our hearts.  If you have never donated a tree to the Festival, you might not understand the feelings that surround the whole idea.  I was not expecting what I learned and felt. 

Christmas Hope....what does that mean exactly.  When we decided on the tree, the meaning was dual.  The best present that Christmas could bring was a cancer free mother which brought our family hope.  Many people hope for a Christmas all to together.  We submitted a story about our tree.  It stated how Mom had hoped and survived many things in her life.  Even now with her battle with cancer she believes there are only two things that can get a person through.....Love of family and faith in God.  She says, "if you don't have faith in God, is it worth the fight?"

My final thoughts came to me yesterday while enjoying and listening to testimonies being said at my church.  Christmas hope started before our decision to donate this tree.  Christmas hope started before my mom was diagnosed.  Christmas hope started when Christ came to this earth as a baby with the plan to become our Savior.  My mothers hope to survive cancer came from this baby boy.  My hope that she will live a long happy life comes from this same baby boy.  Our life on this earth is given hope through the baby Jesus.

Never-Slowing November (family)

Carina, you just finished the hardest year ever without a husband!  What'll you do next?

I'm going to Disneyland!

Come on....you can't be surprised....we are addicted to DL. 
Our thought process is as follows----->
Do we really want to remember 2010 as the year Andy was always gone, that Mom/Grandma was diagnosed with crappy cancer, and we were all really lonely and sad? H*ll no!  We need a vacation!  We left for DL the Friday after Andy got home.  We drove all day and stayed in Ontario, CA.  A word to the wise.  Ontario is the hood.  While trying to get settled for bed, we heard this really loud noise and our room started to shake.  I thought maybe a car driving by with a stereo?  Nope....we were right next to a car stereo installation store!  It was 10 PM!  What are ya thinkin!  We demanded a new room and called the cops.  Good thing we were only there one night.

We spent  Saturday, Tuesday , and Monday at the park.  It was never very crowded.  We walked onto most rides.  By Tuesday, they weren't even giving out fast passes.  Couldn't have asked for better weather! It was anywhere between 75 and 80 the whole time (sorry Melissa). 

We went to Huntington Beach on Sunday.  We try every time to make it to the beach but run out of time.  I am so glad we did!  That was the day it was 80 degrees.  We had lunch at a quaint little surf side shack, ate under straw umbrella's, and soaked in the Cali atmosphere.  They had a surf contest which brought in a fabulous people watching crowd.  We even saw a pair of dolphins!

Tuesday was my birthday.....I know right!  How awesome is that to spend your bday at the happiest place on earth!  I wore a button saying it was my birthday. Complete strangers wished me happy birthday all day.  I had an enormous hand dipped corn dog for lunch. I shared a piece of mile high chocolate cake with the fam while watching the fireworks.  Perfection!

Enjoy the slide show (watch for the hidden mickey's!)

Never-Slowing November (Andy)

The next big event with the start of the new month was our daddy was finally coming home!  He had decided to stay an extra two weeks so his plan was to fly home November 8th.  That made it 8 weeks total this time that he had been gone.  That's 2 months people!  Ugh....hard Mim.  But, we fought on.  We also decided that this would be his last time in Alaska.....at least until the spring.  He gave his notice and said that he was going to try to find something at home but if not he would be back if they would take him.  They really liked Andy and had no problems with that. 

Good, a door left cracked.

We never got a bad feeling about giving notice.  We felt like it was right.  That Heavenly Father had things to help us at home.  That it was time to have our daddy back.  And sure enough......with a little faith and prayers we have found some things to keep us busy for a bit.  Isn't the spirit awesome!  We are still  praying that more will come. 

Andy did have a heck of a time getting home.  Alaska is an Arctic tundra and we thought that weather in November might have an effect on Andy's travels.  It was the right thought.  His plane leaving Barrow, Alaska broke down and he had to take the later flight to Anchorage.  His flight from Anchorage was delayed because the pilots were on another flight that was delayed by weather.  He missed his flight home and had to stay the night in Seattle.  He finally arrived home the morning of November 9th!

It has been so great to finally feel like a real family again.  To send Andy to work, kids to school, and we all come home in the evening to have dinner together at the table.  To have a second person to set and maintain rules.  To not have to schedule when I can talk to my own husband.  To have someone to fix things right away.  To not be lonely.  To have my best friend back. 

I have always said that I have been blessed to be married to a person that takes pride in providing for his family.  He has worked seconds jobs, long hours, and in harsh weather.  This last year with him taking out of town work has made me realize even more how amazing he is.  He lived in places with terrible weather, lived in houses that were filthy, worked two weeks straight without a day off, left his family for weeks, sometimes didn't have a familiar face around.......all for US.  His family.

Thank you Baby.....you are one AMAZING HUSBAND.

Never-Slowing November (Mom)

You all have heard of March Madness?  Well let me tell you about my Never-slowing November......(And I will be splitting into parts as to make it easier on the reader.) 


After that dreadful holiday Halloween, it was the final count down to many exciting things!  Firstly, Mom had finished her chemo and the next step was surgery.  We did celebrate her end of chemo with a lovely dinner at Sizzler and a round of mini golf .......adults only.  We sure were excited to have Mom finally feel a little better!  Her surgery was scheduled November 5th.  She did amazing and was home from the hospital by Saturday afternoon!  In fact, I had a Sunday dinner at my house and they came!  She is such an amazing and strong person!  They told her that the pathology results would take to till the end of the week.  It took till Thursday November 11th to hear that they got all the cancer in her breast, the perimeters were clear, and only 1 of the 9 lymph nodes taken showed cancer in it!  Wow!  What a fantastic day.

Mom is cancer free! 
She fought like a girl...........kicked cancers ass................
She is a survivor!

Right now she is gearing up for the holiday season.  Thanksgiving is at her house.  She's been Christmas shopping.  She will go with you to do errands.  She is alive again!  Her hair is growing back, she can taste things again, and has so much more energy.  They will decide next month about radiation but for now......All I can say is she is one AMAZING WOMEN!

Do I Really Have to

"Do I really have to do Halloween?" This was what played in my head for the whole month of October. Halloween is more of Andy's holiday anyway.....he's not here so I have a "get out of Halloween free" card right? Well the guilt crept in and soon SOME of the Halloween decorations went up. I drew the line in putting new batteries in the talking skeleton! We did a few traditions that there was no way out of like the corn maze and the cousins Halloween party. This is what you get in way of pictures for Halloween.....

My attempt of making the corn maze fun. We finished it in a half hour! Guess we need to find a harder one next year.

I love how boys can take a very nice and pleasant costume and add gore and death to it! Poor Mario and Luigi never new what hit them.

Janae made a self portrait in her cookie decorations.....so clever

As you can see, no pictures from Halloween. I did take them. One of Drew and one of Zach. Lost them while downloading! Why am I not surprised!

My Inner Most Debate

As the title states, I have been having my inner most gut wrenching debate for a couple of days now. Many know how much I loath posting pictures of myself. My self image lands pretty much somewhere between zero and zilch. I mean really.....my weight loss doesn't have to be public knowledge.

But, after a very not-appreciated comment made from unnamed silly man, I feel that if I leave my "horn tooting" to only be heard by him, I will never get what I need. Plus, I have this deep down fear about "public horn tooting". I fear that I will jinx myself and there won't be enough wood in the nearby Wasatch Mountains to knock on to dig myself out. But here it is......in full color .........for all to see.

Before

After

After

I've been working my arse off for the last 5 months and have dropped 30 pounds! I am almost half way to my goal and I finally feel like it should be noticed. I have even dabbled in a little jogging and played volleyball for the first time in three years! I am down two pant sizes and can wear a normal XL shirt (not a plus XL). What kind of prize would you give?  Unnamed man got it all wrong.

p.s. I think I am in love with the brunette seeing it side by side with the blond.

p.p.s. Please humor me and knock on some sort of wood after reading this post. My skinny jeans thank you!

Bringing the "A" man home

Yes!!!!!!!! We made it through yet another 6 weeks with dear old Dad being gone. And I use the word "made" loosely. It was definately harder this time then last. At least the first time he was gone we had no idea what it was going to be like. This time.......we knew it was sucky!

With the kids in school, we didn't plan a trip but did do things around town. We went to the zoo, the movies, swimming, mini golf, to lunch, to dinner, hung out with friends (which we didn't do last time), went to the BYU home opener, BBq's, bottle rockets (with only two near car misses,1 saved life when Drew sacrificed himself by taking the blow from the falling rocket, and 1 Grandpa hit!), and a trip to Pocetello for a family reunion. Still, it went by way too fast. He is gone again and might even be staying 8 weeks/2 months this time. Uggghhh-------------> Miss him already.