I Believe...

I Believe in the power of Prayer

I Believe that Faith can Move Mountains

I Believe that a Positive Outlook can do a Body Wonders

I Believe that if you take care of yourself the Best way you know how, your body will Respond

I Believe in Miracles

Yesterday I received a phone call from my Dad. His oncologist had Good News for him!! Some of the cancer spots on his bones had miraculously disappeared. Now, we call it miraculous because my Dad hasn't been doing any chemo or radiation treatments in the year since diagnosis. He's been taking medication and hormone treatments to inhibit further growth of the cancerous cells, but nothing to kill it. He's been on doTerra's vitality pack and some la'au (hawaiian herbal medicine), with the hopes that this would help in his Quality of life. He also stays as active as he can and has a very good outlook on things and the way he wants his life to be. We are a very religious family so we always leave it in God's hands, with His will being done in all things. We, and many other family members and friends have had him in our prayers. Yesterday when my Dad got the news he knew that God had a hand in it. He still has cancer in parts of his hip bones and thighs but a lot of it has disappeared.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but today brought us another day with Dad ~ our Miracle Man ~ a big reason why my kids believe in the Power of Prayers.

We Believe!

A Year Ago today...

A year ago today, will be another one of those "I will never forget" days. I was downstairs folding the laundry after the kids had gone off to school and my sister Mona called to say "Hey!! Are you watching the news?" to which I replied "No, why?" She said "Turn it on right now! There was a huge earthquake in Sendai and then they got hit by a Tsunami!!" I turned it on and all I could say was "Oh my gosh.....oh my gosh....oh my gosh....." My hands were shaking and I couldn't take my eyes off the TV. I sat in unbelief as a HUGE Tsunami devastated areas of Tohoku and wiped out entire towns. The reason my sister called to check was because I had served my mission there and she knew that I would be worried about the people I had grown to love while serving there. I was in a state of shock all day. With all of the images and little news clips that kept coming in, I kept hoping that I might here from some of the people I knew. In the next few days, I did hear from one friend who lived in Fukushima and she said that they were doing alright and were only concerned about the nuclear plant nearby (which I am STILL concerned about). A piece of my heart will always be with those dear people of Sendai and other surrounding areas I've served in.

If I thought that was going to be the only bad news of the day, I had another think coming. Later that afternoon, my dad called me with news from his oncologist; his cancer had come back (he had been in remission from prostate cancer for 2 years) and had spread to his bones. My heart broke. It was one thing to live so far away from the people of Tohoku, but at the same time I felt safe in the knowledge that help was on it's way. It's quite another thing to get a phone call from your Dad and not know how bad things really were. I couldn't drive over to hug him. I couldn't go over to help my Mom through the news ~ I felt absolutely helpless and was so sad for a long time after the news. It wasn't until a few months later when my mom called and told me "You know, Dad and I are taking this one day at a time. And your Dad told me that he doesn't want to do treatments this time around. He is ready to go. He misses his Mom & Dad." I imagine that would break most people's heart but for me, it was a breakthrough. It really was a testimony builder for me and a reminder that my Dad will be my Dad forever!! Me and my family may not be able to be with him everyday to make memories that my kids can keep of him, but we have Eternity to do that. I have to be grateful for whatever precious time I have now and make the most of it, but I don't need to be so hard on myself for being so far away and unable to help as much as I would like. My Dad knows where my heart is and he knows that if I could, I would be there with the grandkids and Aaron.

I Am GRATEFUL For ~ a Strong, Courageous, Super Spiritual, Smart, Silly, Hard Working, Loving Dad! A year ago, it felt like somebody had hit a dreadful Timer when he called to tell me that he was diagnosed with cancer, but here we are a year later and I feel like he's taken the Timer and thrown it out the window! I could wish for so many things right now, but my Biggest Wish is that my Dad will always know how much he is Loved by all of us!!!

Still Unpacking

So here we are in Elko, Nevada, the end of Week 2, and we are STILL UNPACKING! Nobody tells you the kind of trash you can collect when you've lived in a house big enough that you don't even notice you had all that junk to begin with (and really, at our old place, it wasn't junk, it was TOTALLY usable stuff...right?)!! Anyhoo, in unpacking, I've been able to DEJunk our Funk and it's been fun, but it's also taking me forever!! Yes, that does mean that we had a LoT (probably more like "mostly") of junk in our home. This also means that when a moving company moves you, even though you think it's great because you don't have to do a thing, it also sucks big time because once you unpack you realize they packed A LOT of stuff you would've otherwise tossed, had you done the packing yourself.

So anyway, this all to say, that I don't have too many fun and interesting things going on right now, but the kids and I are adjusting and I think Aaron likes his job pretty well. If it weren't for his bad back that he's had for the last 3 weeks, I think he'd be liking his job even better. Here's to more unpacking, and maybe more fun posts :-D!

{and here's a picture just for fun, of the kids on their first day of school here}

Farewell Bridger Valley

I'm posting from my phone and as such am unable to post any photos :(. This week I just wanted to bid a very Fond Farewell to Bridger Valley. Farewell to my dear friends who in just 2 1/2 years made me feel like a part of that little tight knit community. I will miss the "girls" (the librarians who I became dear friends with)at the libraries. I'll miss the workers at Benedict's. I'll miss all the "characters" that I'd run into at good ol' Benedict's. I will miss my Fire Auxiliary Girls and all the fun get togethers and meetings we'd have. I'll miss my little church playgroup - what a fun bunch of moms & kids! I'll miss the kids i got to watch - Max, Sam, and Bo and of course I'll miss there adorable mom Heidi!! I will MOST DEFINITELY miss the elementary school my kids got to go to. Urie Elementary has amazing teachers who absolutely love the kids they work with and you can tell that they LOVE TEACHING!! My kids still cry just thinking about their wonderful teachers and friends. I'll really miss my Fort Bridger Ward family who loved me for the crazy person that I am and who also helped in making me a better person. I'll miss my friend Shallen ~ we started a tradition of eating at the one and only Mexican restaurant there is in the valley, for our birthdays. Because I'm not going to be there for my birthday this year, she took me to lunch right before we left for Elko - yep, I'll miss my Mexican food eating partner!

Most of all, I'll miss how safe I felt in that little ol' valley - I'll miss our big house, and I sorely miss my Sam and Oscar - a family couldn't ask for better pets! Bridger Valley, Farewell until we meet again - Elko....may I grow to love you as much as I did that small little western town.

Week 4

Week 4 brings us closer to Elko! Which means that there won't be a post next week because I doubt we'll have internet for a while. This past week we celebrated my youngest lil monkey's 4th Birthday. Our Henry is such a funny little guy and I can't believe he is already Four Years Old ~ time flies so quickly and before I know it, he'll be embarrassed to be anywhere near me. But for now, he wakes up every morning and marches straight over to me for a few minutes of cuddle time with Mommy ~ I will cherish these moments because soon he won't fit in my lap. Between him growing and my chubby belly getting in the way, one will soon take over and my lap will no longer have room for his bum to cuddle up in..I should probably go on a diet! HaHaHaHa!!

Another fun thing that happened this week is that we had cousin Analee with us and boy was I grateful to have her here. The kids just LOVE her to pieces...they love her so much that they all crashed out on the bed and futon mattress in the guest room just so they could sleep by her.

For those of you unfamiliar with cousin Analee, she is a cousin to us on Aaron's side. A beautiful Tongan girl adopted by the Christensen family, her adopted great great grandmother is Aaron's great great great? grandfather's sister. And so it goes, in the pre-existence we told each other that we'd find each other somehow ~ so Analee and I always say to people that Heavenly Father said "Alright fine, but YOU, Ardis, will have to marry a white boy, and You, Brown Sugar, will need to be adopted by a white family. And so it goes that bff's in heaven are reunited again on earth!! :D

Anyhoo, with Aaron in Elko this past week I decided to go and "steal" Analee away from her family. She is an amazing organizer and a bit OCD when it comes to cleaning. {what? even she will admit that about herself} so I knew that stealing her away to come stay with us for a week would be critical in helping me get our place prepped up for our move this upcoming weekend. She did an amazing job keeping the kids and I on task when it came to dejunking toys and to wiping down walls. AND she also did an amazing job at keeping me up late with singing songs while she played the uke OR having some late night heart to hearts.

I'm also grateful she was here because she provided some much needed comic relief. This week had it's Up's and Down's ~ we started the week out with having renters, and then we didn't, and then we did.....and then we didn't. Every time something went wrong, I could rely on Analee to make me smile or laugh! Yay for Brown Sugar Stand Up Comedy! As we speak, I think we have renters...you'll all know for sure when I post again in, Oh say, a month or so?? :D

We also had Aaron's sister "Bob" stop by with her kids. She was a HUGE help in getting trim painted and taking a lot of stuff that we won't be able to take with us to Elko. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my in-laws? I have the best in-laws in the world!!

Anyhow, I just thought I'd post up another weekEND blurb and keep you up to date on the latest happenings around here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Week 3

I'm sure anyone who's following the recent posts may be wondering to themselves, "Are the titles to her posts going to be anymore creative?"...my answer ~ "Maybe..after I'm done stressing out over here!" :D

This past week we went to Elko. We took the kids with us so they could get a feel for their new home not knowing how stressful the trip was going to be. Thank goodness Elko has a McDonald's because the kids got to play in Playland, oblivious to anything that was going wrong on this trip.

So the purpose of this trip was to find us a place to rent. We had an idea that there was a rental shortage in Elko but figured we'd have more luck if we actually went out there to look. Every call we made to apartment complexes and every neighborhood street we drove down that had NO For Rent signs, told us we were wrong. Needless to say the end of Day 1 had us frustrated and a little confused as to whether Aaron had made the right choice in signing on with Barrick.

The next morning, we went into Barrick's offices and explained our situation to them, telling them that without housing, we may just have to look elsewhere for work. We found out that temporary housing would actually be in an apartment unit that they held a contract on so that eased our minds a bit knowing that we wouldn't have to live in a hotel for 60 days (although that might have been fun the first few weeks, after a while, I'm sure we would've been sick of living in such small quarters). We went back to the hotel still a little concerned about what we'd do after the 60 days when Barrick called us back and told us that they actually had a little house that they had a contract on also. We went to go look at this cute little house and decided that this is where we wanted to be! It is seriously tiny (well, maybe about 10 sq.ft. bigger than our student housing apartment we lived in at USU), BUT it's in a great looking neighborhood, AND allows for our kids to run around like crazy without us worrying about making noise for neighbors downstairs. WOOOT! The most important thing though is that we all get to be together. No more commuting back and forth for Aaron (which is what he was doing with his job in Idaho Falls) and we get to drive Aaron crazy everyday instead of just on the weekends!

Looking forward to New Adventures!!!!!

Week 2

Had two sick boys this week and a lucky girl that never caught whatever it is the boys had. Hallelujah!! She stresses out whenever she misses school....which makes me hope that this next week will go alright because we are taking the kids out of school to go House Hunting this upcoming week in Elko. Heaven Help Us, I hope we find something because there seems to be a Home/Apartment Shortage out in the middle of nowhere Elko...go figure!

Anyhoo, to end this short post I want to pose a question to whomever may read this - to preface it, let me share a little something that I overheard on Friday while eating lunch at Subway with my family...there were a bunch of business guys eating at a table right by us and they were having a discussion/lunch meeting about Customer Service and how the company's reps might give better service. It was a pretty intense conversation. Anyway, at the end of the conversation, one of the guys says to the other, "Gosh, I'm so sorry. I hope I didn't depress you. It really wasn't my intention to depress you with all that we've talked about today", to which the man he's speaking to replies, "Oh no, you didn't depress me at all ~ That's my Wife's job!" *chuckle, Chuckle, Laugh, Laugh* Needless to say, I was about to turn around and give that man the Stink Eye, and then punch him in the eye!! I was so UPSET! Aaron on the other hand found my anger a bit amusing because he says that the guy only meant it in jest. So I asked him, is that something men find funny??? Making wives the brunt of a joke? It also got me to thinking though , how many of us Wives whine about our husbands behind their back? I made a promise to myself right then and there to only speak about the good in my husband (which I think I already try to do..well, most of the time) and that if I ever run into the guy again, I really will Punch him!! {c'mon, y'all know I won't}. Oh and my question to you all is, "How often do you find yourself complaining about your spouse behind their back, even if it is only in jest?"

P.S. I know the picture has NOTHING to do with the post, but I find I like posting pics up with a post, better than not. :D It was a picture taken this week so I guess it is somehow related...right?