Texas Trip

We finally made it! The flight down was great, the kids warmed up to us real quick. When people ask me what I saw in Texas over the weekend, I tell them "Two cherubic little faces." Clark scored big on his birthday getting both an elephant and a trike. Eva has a cute personality and she loves to talk...in some language.
We gave Ben and Jan an opportunity to do some jogging without pushing two kids along in front of them, and we went to a pre-rodeo fair, I could have taken my hat!
The flight back was delayed in Dallas, but we finally got home and got to bed by about 1:00 AM. Thanks Em for being our driver.

diagnosis

I swore off these blog things because I didn't see much point to them. Generally what I have to say I'll say to the individual that is interested in listening. But just for kicks I think I'll follow up on my last blog in April and inform the uninformed world that I finally discovered what might have triggered that chest congestion back in April. It was a long and complex puzzle, I went to 3 different doctors because I just couldn't get over the bronchites stuff. I also had to limit my running because I went from doing a mile every other morning to doing 1/2 a block then having to walk because I couldn't get enough air. Then my feet kept falling asleep. I would lay down at night and my feet would go numb and feel cold from the inside. The next exciting complication was feeling a hard lump in my left side under my ribs.
On Dec 22 I got an appt with Dr. Durrans, he checked me over. They sucked some blood and set me up with a CAT scan for the next morning. The 23rd I went into Orem Community Hospital and got the scan about 7:30 (after drinking copious amounts of cranberry juice laced with something). By 10:30 Durrans was calling me and suggesting I come back and see him and bring Susan, she was at work so she couldn't come. He informed me that my spleen was a whopper maybe 5 times the normal size, thus the pressure on my circulatory system and the lump. He had also discovered from the blood work that I had 220,000 white blood cells per something when I was only supposed to have about 7,000. He had already set me an appt for an oncologist, which I soon discovered was a cancer doctor.
This time Susan met me at the Central utah Cancer Clinic, they sucked some more blood. Did a little exam, then placed me face down on those little tables and stuck giant needles in my back, and into my hip bone to suck out some marrow. By 5:00 I was downing some chemo pills and had been partially diagnosed with CML. Chronic Meg..... Leukemia, which I was told was "the good kind".
Since the 23rd of Dec. I have been taking oral chemo with no apparent side effects (I still have my hair) and I actually started jogging again and got clear around the block!! I also played basketball with the guys I've been playing with the past 17 years and they said my game had improved with the disease, which indicates where it was before.

Half a fun trip

We had quite a time in the East. We went to Canada, where they sell gas in liters, so the prices look really good, initially. We saw the lights on Nigagra Falls, they are pretty impressive. We saw all the holy sites around Palmyra and got to do a temple session. We drove lots of backroads and really got a feel for the countryside.

Then I got walloped by a nasty chest congestion, cold, bronchitas, phenomenia (I'm sure I had them all). We were able to go on with the aid of modern drugs until we got home then I hit the wall. I finally got some antibiotics running though me but spent the next 2 days pretty much in bed, trying to breath, feelling my cranium expand and contract when I had a coughing fit, and drifting between chills and the sweats.

I'll put more up here when I get some help downloading my fine phone pictures onto this site.

New Baby

Sorry to report that everyone dropped one step on the cute scale with the birth of Anna, she takes the top spot now.

A snowy day

Sunday we got about 6 new inches and since our cul-de-sac had never seen a snowplow getting into the road was a risky thing. This morning we heard this constant and repeating roar and finally Susan said, "It sounds like the paper boy is stuck." So I got my boots on and found them in one of those little box cars with about a 3" clearance down by the Black's house stuck. Luckily there were two of them a young man and supposidly his wife, they spoke spanish more than english. Their method of getting out of the snow was to push the gas pedel in as far as they could so the tires could spin really fast. After trying a few things I finally got into the driver's seat and was able to gently rock the thing back and forth until I could get a run at it and push thru the deeper snow.
So I was feeling pretty good until I went to the shopko shopping center to mail Thad's computer cord and headed home. The light made me stop as I was going up toward University Ave. When I tried to get going again I just started slidding backward. Most people saw my dilemma and went around, but one lady pulled up behind me and then another car behind her, I just shrugged and kept drifting back toward her until she finally backed off enough for me to get turned sideways. When I finally got moving I realized how many muscles one uses when trying to make a vehicle move.

In the beginning

Yesterday was ward conference, which isn't too big of a deal (after being involved in 10 of them) expect for the part about being one of the speakers in Sacrament Meeting. I gave a talk about families and even used the ole suggestion box and clown collar as examples on how to use mealtime and traditions to increase communication and teaching opportunities. I also went into the creation and the first couple and I came across a concept that I hadn't noticed previously. If you look into the Pearl of G.P. Moses 5, it discusses the creation and if you look at how the creation is presented it looks as though the spiritual creation happened the way we usually learn about it: Light & Dark, Water & Land, Flora, Fauna, then Man. But then it appears that the physical creation is a little different with Adam being the first flesh into which the breath of life was given, followed by the animals and finally Eve.
There are a few talks available from that information.

sub-zero fun

This week, Wed-Fri, I got to go up with a couple of teachers and about 20 students to the Alpine outdoor camp at Clearcreek which is by Scofield Res. It was very pretty but I'm not sure the temp ever got about 0 degrees. Luckily they had heated cabins and warm water and I scored big by sleeping in the headquarter cabin WITHOUT any of the students in it. So I got some sleep while the other teachers were babysitting until 2 or 3 AM. We did some crosscountry skiing, played a form of football in 24 inches of snow, and did some school work. It was a nice diversion.

I noticed that the Orem CompUSA is going out of business, I guess that means that this computer will probably die in the near future. Luckily I have the employee of the Year in Computertonics on my team. Ben Can Fix it!!