Princess Spoon, Sagwa Spoon, Little Mermaid Spon

Lauren and Kenzi... I'm doing my best to remember funny little things when you were little since I can blog about funny Cameron things...

When you were about 2-5 years old we had 3 spoons that reminded you of princesses, Sagwa (that cat show on PBS) and the Little Mermaid. Every morning we had to find one of the spoons and you would fight over them.

Happy Father's Day

I have been bless my entire life with wonderful men in my life. Starting with a dad I always knew loved me and would do anything for me, brothers who adored me and have always been there for me, and a fabulous husband who is such a great dad to our kids. Grandfathers who I didn't know well (Grandpa Bevan died when I was 2 and Grandpa Wall when I was about 7 or 8) but still had an impact on me.

So in honor of these great men... a few thoughts about each of them.

Dave: Was always the uncle everyone loved (and still loved). Does the best barn door, told the greatest reader rabbit stories,

School is Out for the Summer.....

Great year for everyone!

I couldn't have mapped out a better 7th grade year for Lauren if I had tried. She had enough failures and stress to make her stretch and grow (an unfair grade, but enough successes academically, socially and spiritually to keep her excited and positive.

24th of July

I love the July holidays... fireworks are my favorite. The girls were in the parade this year with their choir and Cam managed to entertain everyone while we watched the parade by waterfighting with Uncle Rob and everyone else for 2 hours. (He definitely spent time in heaven with Grandpa Bevan because I have never seen a 4-year old love to water fight more than him!)


The Handcart Days were a hit as always, and the choir sang down at the park as well.

We enjoyed parties with the Spencers and their friends and family, and a cul-de-sac firework show as well!

Singing, Snakes and More Summer Fun

Global Warming?!

Ok -- so it is October 13th and Cameron spent most of the day outside sledding... yes, sledding. The strangest part of the picture was that as he went down the hill he hit into the garbage can and knocked over all of the tomato plants. The same ones we had just pulled out after getting the last of the season tomatoes. (I guess I'm just not use to putting sledding and fall gardening in the same weekend.)

The snow is mostly melted now, but Kendall built a great snowman in his yard and now all of the snow around it is melted, but it still stands with green grass and beautiful plants all around it. (Ok... so the Hess kids snowmen looked more like snow ghosts -- but they still had fun building it!)

Note -- can't find the picture.

Happy Thanksgiving -- 3 Days in Heaven and 4 Days in Hell

Happy Holidays 2009

Had a wonderful Holiday Season... so sad to see December come and go so quickly. More great memories created this year and so grateful for the family, friends and great feelings of the season!

Wall kids on Santa's lap.

We loved Santa Chad this year.

The annual Cory/Lauren/Santa picture.

Brooke & Dave having a great time together. The White Elephant was particularly great this year!

Kerri & Cam on the hayride...1st hayride for several years at the Bevan Party!

Josh & Meggan Perkins

Nothing like singing Christmas carols snuggled in a blanket, on the hay, driving through the streets of Tooele.

Cam & Paige building a snowman. The kids spent hours in the snow at our house and cabin this month.

Lots and lots of choir performances this year -- finishing the year off with their own concert and one at the Conference Center.

Rapping Cousins

Nighttime Rituals

Cameron: All tucked under the covers we sing two songs as we snuggle.
When We're Helping We're Happy -- we each take a verse and can only fill in the "name" on the verse the other is singing.

Next song -- My Heavenly Father Loves Me. As I sing the words Cameron makes little comments: "oh really." "how beautiful." "nice."


Kenzi: All evening long -- me sitting on a chair.

Lauren: "PM... PM mom?" (Perry Mason). Lolo, I wish you weren't such a night owl!!

Temple Cleaning

Tonight I had the chance to clean the Bountiful Temple. I was assigned to vacuum upstairs in the celestial room and endowment rooms. It was so peaceful. Most of the lights were off and I even while vacuuming I could feel the spirit. I am in awe of the beautiful temples we have and am so grateful for the calming spirit I feel there.

Lauren turning in the skis -- 2010

Dave and the girls decided to pass on the skis and snowboard this year. It looks so fun... until they fall and get up complaining about their tail bones.... a place I don't need help injuring.

Canyons had a sweet deal where they took lessons and they all are doing great. On the last ski day of the year Kenzi decided to take a ski day again... Lauren stuck with the snowboard. Note to ourselves: spring snow is much more suited for skis than snowboards.

Couple of winter notes:
1. Edgie Wedgie good when you have it. Not good when you can't find it. Just ask Cam and the lady who skiied by us when he was laying on the hill screaming, refusing to go down without it. After lunch and I had bought another one the same lady skiied by and told me it looks like "you are having a much better day now!"

2. Lauren and Christian were going through a terrain park and Christian went up a "thing" and fell off. Lauren was laughing hysterically! Until... she went up the same ramp/slide and splatted worse than Christian did. She had a good sense of humor though and laughed all the way down the hill.

Best in Class

Cam has been taking karate for the past couple of months. His intensity every action and word makes it one of the funnier things I get to watch each week.

At the end of every class he gives a "Best in Class" paper trophy to whichever student(s) work the hardest. When a student gets 10 they can turn it in for a prize from a basket.

Cam gets one pretty much every time and was able to turn in his first 10 and pick a prize. I wish I would have had a camera as he went to "Master Shaun" to turn in his papers and pick out his trophy.

He was so proud of himself and takes his karate very seriously. I love Cam's intensity and passion!

Most Unique Candy Bar Poster Ever

After my surgery I received this awesome gift from my handsome nephew Adam -- who happens to be a PA and is very, very creative.  There is a bit more to the story (I'll share later), but needless to say, receiving a uterine shaped candy bar poster with fallopian tubes and Cadbury eggs for the ovaries had me laughing all day!   Stacey said he had it a little more anatomically correct, but she made him change it. 


I'll bet you've never seen a candy bar poster with a can of corn and beets on it -- and to top it off -- it was in "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue" rhyming!


 Dave said he will never be able to eat a Cadbury egg again!

Chemo was a go... Feeling pretty good right now.

Yeah... Started chemo again yesterday.  (Who would have ever thought I'd say that!). 


Dave and I waited about an hour for the doctors to contact each other and make the final decision as to whether to go ahead or not -- then when we got the go ahead my sweet friend Sue sat with me for 5 hours while they did it.  It was a long 5 hours, but laughing and talking with Sue made it feel more like a girls night out... ok maybe that is a little too over the top, but it was great laughing and talking and catching up. 


Chemo doc was a little leery because of the size of the new hole, but apparently my surgeon feels good about my progress.   She said she has never had a patient get an infection at the port incision site, so this is new for her.  (Hmmm.... makes me feel not too confident.)  But my surgeon has had a couple of other patients with similar situations.  They don't know if they will feel comfortable using the port again because of the chance of spreading infection.  I wish there were more cases to fall back on.  I searched the Internet on ovarian cancer sites and haven't found anyone who had the same situation.


She explained that when you get an infection (the initial one I got in my surgery incision), the infection likes to travel to the weakest point in your body.  In my case, the IP port, which a foreign body my own immune system is probably irritated with.  The blood flows differently around foreign objects in your body and they want me to watch the other port to make sure the infection doesn't try to go there.  


The chemo regimen for now goes from the aggressive IP chemo, to the standard Ovarian Cancer chemo.  I have taxol and carboplatin on the same day -- and then come back 3 weeks later.  Wow... that is a walk in the park compared to what I was doing before.  It makes me nervous because not only is it not going directly in my abdomen, but there is one less Taxol treatment I get each time.  My Dr. explained that when they do IP most of the chemo is absorbed and doesn't go into the bloodstream, so they can do one shot there and one shot in the veins.  But now that it is veins only 2 treatments in a cycle with the carboplatin would be too much on my body.  


As for venous chemo only -- sooooo much less harsh on my stomach!  I kept asking my nurse which nausea pills I should take on the way home and if they were going to give me steroids like they had planned for the next IP chemo, and she assured me that this treatment would be so much easier on my stomach.  When I did IP chemo within about 10 minutes of starting it I would get sick.  She said that is because the chemo immediately hits the nausea nerve receptors and it is direct.  The venous kind takes 2 hours - 2 days to really get through the whole bloodstream so by the time it gets to the nausea nerve receptors it is so much more diluted.


If I hadn't had IP chemo before, I would be whining today.  I am tired, have achy hips and legs and my face feels flush and hot.  But I told Dave I don't feel like I can complain when I compare it to what I felt that last round.  Which is good because I don't feel like I'm going to die -- but bad because I know I'm killing less cancer cells and not getting as aggressive of a treatment.   i cried when I asked the Dr. if not using my IP port was going to change my chances for survival.  She told me that what I am doing now is standard OC treatment and is what most people get since not a lot of women are able to do the IP port.  She did assure me that I did get one of the IP treatments in at a minimum.


I have a scripture hanging on my bedroom wall that says "Be Still and know that I am God."  That is all I can do.  I can't control how my body will heal and honestly it makes me nervous that the Drs. decisions as to keeping the port or taking it out may literally be a life or death decision for me.  I realize this is in Heavenly Father's hands and just pray he will guide the Drs. in their decisions and know that I have done everything I can do and I have turned it over to Him.