Just Breathe

I got these pretty flowers yesterday!  Why?  I had my four month check-up with my oncologist.  I am still cancer free.  I told my doctor I still get stressed out when these tests come around and he told me I am only aloud to be stressed 10% of the time.  What?  10%?  What does that mean?  He told me that I only have a 10% chance of it coming back and if it does come back it will be when I am much older.  I have to have faith that, it's true!  I am happy that it is going good.  In fact, they have decided to take my port out. I finally feel like I am closing this chapter in my life.  I still have some things I have to deal with and some surgeries I have to go through.  Some days I am tired, but I can feel my strength coming back.  I think I am still dealing with the emotional effects of being sick, but I know if I stay on this path, I will be fine!  Dealing with all the changes I have been through is rough.  I need to put it behind me.  Hopefully, this will be the start of putting it behind me and moving forward.  Like Elder Dube said in his talk, "Never look back.  Look a head at what we still have to do!"  I am so blessed.  I am so grateful for every thing!

Halloween Fun!

I honestly feel like we have been celebrating Halloween forever!!!  It started last week.  We went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat and then went to our friend's Trunk-or-Treat!  Aubrey had dance and had to babysit, so she didn't come with us.  Ian was there.  This year he was Dr. Who.  He loves that show.

We have two friends whose son's are serving missions in Las Vegas.  Lucky for us we got to visit with one of them.  He is serving in a ward that meets in the same building that our ward meets in.  We were super excited to visit with him on the night of the Trunk-or-Treat.  Don was his Mom's home teacher (in Connecticut) and years later, baptized his father.  Of course we had to take a picture for his parents and post it on Facebook!

Aubrey and the girls she dances with dressed up in their 80's gear for dance.  They love their 80's gear.

We went to our second Trunk-or-Treat!  Ian loved being with his friends.  Here he is with Ethan A.  Here is the funny thing about this picture.  Last year Ian was Where's Waldo and Ethan was Dr. Who!  This year they switched!

Ian also met up with his friend who was also dressed like a character from Dr. Who!

This ward puts on such a wonderful party!  They have wonderful decorations, food, carnival for the kids, and a great Trunk-or-Treat.(What is a Trunk-or-Treat?  It's when several families get together at the church building, park their cars in the parking lot, open up the trunks of their cars, and kids come around to each car to Trunk-or-Treat instead of going house to house to Trick-or-Treat.)

We love hanging out with our friends, the Albrights!  We are also sporting our Halloween shirts!

On Halloween we came home from school to start our pumpkins!  Ian did an awesome job carving on all by himself!

Poor Aubrey didn't carve any pumpkins.  She chose to study for a chemistry test.

Then they went out trick-or-treating.  Ian and his friend Ethan went out together and Aubrey went with friends.

Check out our finished pumpkins!  Not bad!  It was a fun Halloween!

Hike #2: Hiking Merit Badge (Blogged by Don)

On Oct. 25th (Nevada Day), Ian and I decided it was time to attempt our 2nd 10-mile hike for Ian's Hiking Merit Badge. Our goal was to complete two 10-mile hikes a year .....we have 6 hikes total to complete. This hike, Bridge Mountain, was located near Red Rock Canyon not far from where we live. About 10 years ago, I did this hike with a group of  Boy Scouts and I remember it being a very difficult hike. With this in mind, Ian and I began the hike very early in the morning. The first 3 miles of the hike was up a dirt road that was in terrible shape so we couldn't drive up it. This is a picture of Ian just after getting off the dirt road and beginning the actual trail to Bridge Mountain.

 

After hiking through the forest, this is our first view of Red Rock Canyon from the ridge line that we hiked up to.

                                     

                                                                                    

    Our first look at our goal: Bridge Mountain.  In the background you can see the buildings of  Las Vegas

 From the beginning of the hike, Ian kept asking why this hike was called Bridge Mountain. Every time I would respond by saying: "You will see....it will be obvious". Now our actual goal was to not hike to the top of the big, white-stoned mountain in the background, but to reach the place where the mountain received its name. If you look very carefully, you will see a natural, stone archway with a tree growing behind it in the side of the mountain....can you see it?

Another look at Red Rock Canyon.

Bridge Mountain again as Ian and I prepare to descend towards it.

Getting closer and closer to our goal.

Ian and I pause along a cliff behind me to take pictures just before we begin an extremely difficult part of the hike: the descent to Bridge Mountain. This part was so difficult because we literally had to climb over boulders, down steep cliff faces, and up and down crevices in the rocks. Our feet and legs were aching with the strain that we put on them. On our final climb to the rock arch, we have to mountain climb up a narrow crevice on the face of an almost vertical cliff. You can see the long crevice located on the cliff just to the right of my knee cap.

 

Scaling up the crevice was very nerve-racking and I was worried that Ian would freak out and not even try, but I was wrong and he did it!!!! Here Ian is sitting in a hollowed out area just underneath the arch.

Really awesome rock formation in the cliff by the arch.

A picture of the natural arch and the tree growing in the hollowed out area. To give you an idea how big the arch is, look at Ian who is sitting underneath it eating lunch. 

Flag Football Update

We won our game this week. It was kind of a boring game.  The poor team they played against has lost every game.  It is so sad.  We have had years like this and it is no fun.  We feel bad for them.  Ian played good.  He is hurting.  He started lacrosse practice and he is sore.  He loves it.  It is just hard doing two sports at once.  Football will be over soon.

 

Volunteer Profile

 

Last year I wrote about how we volunteer at Three Square here in Las Vegas.  We felt like we had to do more service in our community as a family.  Homeless shelters have a certain age you have to be to volunteer, so that left Ian out.  When Ian was in third grade he took a field trip to Three Square and I went along with him.  His class had spent a year having food drives and raising money for Three Square and now they were taking a trip to the food bank to see what happened there.  I was so impressed with this food bank.  They told me that Ian could come and volunteer there!  I had found the place the whole family could volunteer.  So four times a year we go and do various jobs for them.  One thing I like about volunteering there is that there are other families there too.  So it is a lot of fun.  Well, sometimes we are dragging the teenagers, but once they are done they are glad they came.  Plus Dad always gets them a Slurpee at the end! Nearly 350,000 of our neighbors are skipping meals or putting together meals that are devoid of good nutrition.  They are considered "food insecure".  If you don't think these are your neighbors, think again.  After looking at a map of where the people of Southern Nevada are going hungry (broken down by zip codes), I am shocked.  Yes, we are helping our neighbors!  So anyway, we got a call from Three Square saying they wanted to spotlight us in their news letter.  We were surprised.  We were pretty sure there were better volunteers out there.  I mean we only go four times a year!  They said, no.  They wanted to do a spotlight on us.  So here we are.  (I just had surgery three days before this was taken, so I am looking a bit sick.  Dang I didn't know I looked that bad!)  We were very humbled and honored that they asked us.  Unfortunately, Austin is not in the picture.  He is on his mission.

Halloween Sweets

Ian has been checking the door since October began.  I told him he had to give his grandparents some time.  When he wouldn't find the box he would start humming the sad Charlie Brown song.  Then yesterday, when we came home from the pep rally, we found the box.  It couldn't of come at a perfect time.  Aubrey was exhausted from homecoming week and Ian had a bad day at school.  This definitely put a smile on their faces!  My children do appreciate this act of kindness from their grandparents.

Dance Videos

Homecoming 2013

This year our homecoming experience was really different. When we had the boys in high school we didn't go to the lip sync, pep rally, or even the game.  The boys either went by themselves or went only went to homecoming.  This year Aubrey is on Dance the dance team for the high school.  This was a different experience for us.  First off, the dance team performs at the Lip Sync.  They put together a routine.  It was really good.  Mostly strong with dance.  They came in 4th.  They were pretty happy about that.  I guess in previous years, the team has never placed.

The guys that won were amazing!  This is a video I found of it.  It really doesn't do it justice.  You can't see them lip sync, but they were amazing.  Spot on!

 

Then for the first time in years, I went to the Homecoming Pep Rally!  I haven't been to one since Don taught high school.  It was a ton of fun.  The theme for homecoming this year was, Season's for the Dawgs.  (Ok, I hate that they spell dogs wrong!)  So the girl's dance incorporated the four seasons.  They did great.

Remember when this was hard for her!  Not anymore!

After the Pep Rally, we went home where Aubrey worked on homework and got ready for the game!  We went back to the school to decorate their "float".

Their "float" looked so cute.  The sophomores were winter.  You can see the winter door panel that Aubrey and the rest of the sophomores did.  They are a cute team.

They performed at half time and they thought they would have time to jump on their "float" before the parade.  Well the parade started while they were dancing!  So after their dance, they had to run across the field and jump on the truck!

This was the sophomore float!

Here come our girls!  Aubrey had so much fun this year.  She loved being a part of homecoming!

After the game some of her friends came back to the house to make s'mores and drink hot cider.  It was a great day!