January updates

1. Yes I still love winter and we received some beautiful white stuff yesterday and it looks wonderful.
2. I have really missed my father this Christmas I would find myself just thinking of him and how much he impacted my life and who I am.
3. How grateful I am for a wonderful husband who continues to take care of me. Going through 9 surgeries in our short 6 year marriage and he is always there for me..
4. I love my craft room. And now I'm connected to the outside world in there, I have a tv that has dish net..Yeah!
5. I'm grateful for all of the talented people that help us get our house looking prettier every year. The front room looks awesome...
6. I am so blessed to have wonderful children who have enriched my life and all of the grandchildren I have that remind me of all the fun I used to have with my grandma Gerwin.
7. Chad and I will be celebrating our 7th year knowing each other on the 14th of this month. Time goes by way to fast, but I love my man..
8. I miss not being with the little ones in the nursery at church. They sure are cute little people.
9. Excited to have two new grandsons joining our family this year.. Can't wait to see them. And they will be locals so a double yeah!
10 Christmas songs, especially when they are sung by the granddaughters.

Thoughts for January

1. I still love winters. Especially when I can look out my back windows and see the most beautiful snow covered mountains. Or when I wake up and see fresh fallen snow on the ground, and it's still snowing outside.

2. I am so grateful for the most wonderful parents I have. What they have taught me, and who I am because of them.

3. I'm sad to see my parents lose more of their strength and mental capacities, each time I talk with them. I wish I could be closer to them, or at least see them more often then I do.

4. I love those who serve our Nation in the military, especially my son Andrew who is serving our country right now. How brave and honorable they are to me, and how little respect they get for all they do for each and everyone of us.

5. I have come to the conclusion that I still do not like to give road tests to those who are not ready for road tests. I'm grateful to not be hurt today, because of people who think they should drive.

6. I'm grateful for my children and the joy they are in my life. All 8 of them.

7. I feel blessed to have so many beautiful and loving grandchildren, all 22 of them.

8. I would be lost and probably not be here today if it wasn't for the most wonderful man in my life, Chad. He helps me in more ways then I can even list.

9. I'm blessed for all the wonderful friends I have in my life and are truely my dearest friends who have helped keep my head above water, when I wanted to give up throughout my life.

10. I'm thankful for the Gospel in my life that helps me find the balance with all aspects of my life, and helps me be the best person I know how to be.

The New Year

Ok, so I know that no one really reads this but we are alive and kicking. This coming year Will Be Good, and we Will have lots of fun.
May the new year bring everyone a wonderful and prosperous year.

Snow Snow Snow

Just when we thought Spring was in the air. Lo, and behold winter returns again.

Now don't get me wrong I love snow but this is ridiculous. We were supposed to get rain, snow mix today, but all we got was a few flurries. But, the mountains got a lot. We couldn't even see them until way later today.

The crazy thing is, is that we have the most beautiful tulips out right now and they have already taken a beating from the snow last week. Mother Nature needs a talking to and tell her the joke is over.

Until we are out of the clear though I guess we will have to be grateful for the moisture.

I GUESS!!!!!!

I think the winter is finally over for me.

I loooove snow and I usually will hope and pray for one last snow just before Easter. Well yesterday my prayers answered and we got snow. All day long it snowed and through the night. It looks like a winter wonderland. Right in time for Spring and Easter. Go Mother Nature.
I'll try to post pictures.

Life in Utah

It's been a while since I've posted anything. But I will say my life has been anything but boring in the last few months.
Finally returned back to full time work after being off for 3 months then part time for another month. This past Friday actually was my first full pay check since mid September, so that was good.
Work lately is horrible, new federal regulations set for the (Federal Real ID Act) is slowing down our work and making the general public even worse to deal with then normal. I'm hoping to start looking for another job that at least pays more. Crossing my fingers on this one.
I have had to ponder many things over the last few months. Especially last week when the docs gave me another scare of the cancer, Luckily another false alarm. But, I have decided to not let the doctors get to me anymore. If I really think there is a problem then "I" will address it and not them get me all crazy about it. I have a wonderful life, with the most awesome husband who cares for me and loves me and takes care of me. I have children, even though most are quite far away, always check in on me and help me get through the times when I need that little boost of "we're here for you" or "I was thinking of you and thought I would call". Those are the things that in the dark of things helps me come out and smile again.
I'm also grateful for my close friends, once again out of state, who also check in on me and I on them. We keep each other going when all else is looking down we still have each other.
I truly have been blessed in my life with experiences and many friends and people I have met that have influenced my life in many good ways.
May the winter still shine on you wherever you are and that the snowflakes fall on you and make you smile. HAPPY WINTER!!!!

Love Utah in the Fall

This time of the year is so gorgeous. We have very mature trees, which are turning colors and then in our backyard we can see the amazing mountains with the snow top peaks. This is refreshing since most of my time is sticking around the house still recouperating.
I have an amazing daughter and husband who take very good care of me. If I didn't have them I would be going crazy by now.
Many sad moments over the last month. The biggest one was the lose of my dear friend Renee' Barr. She was a great example to me and taught me many life lessons. She will greatly missed in my life and I'm sure her family. Another thing was yet another surgery on the knee. It went well until the day that I was discharged and then ended up in the ER two days later with cellulitus. After 10 days the infection came back and those two episodes of infection has taken a lot out of me, more so than I expected. We also had a lot of unexpected medical bills that seem to come when it was least expected. So far the longest that I'm able to stay on the leg is now up to about 30 to 40 minutes, which is good since a week ago it was only 20 minutes.
Well as the ole saying goes, " When you dealt a bowl of lemons just make some lemonade".
So off to the kitchen to make some yummy lemonade.

News Update

The Palmer Family picture the day of Eliza's blessing. Little Lucy's personality sure comes through on this photo. But , that's probably Gramma's fault because, Lucy, Kady and Gramma were playing, "Beep noses" all week long. I guess Lucy wanted to see if Eliza's nose would beep like gramma's did.

This is our newest little joy. Eliza Rose Palmer, she is a very snugly baby, to bad her eyes aren't open, because she has the biggest dark eyes, just like her big sisters.

This was the little miss funny as I am, at Dr Samuelson's office today. I got a hold of an artificial leg and told him that this is still an option to amputate and that I already found a replacement. As you see I got a great reaction from him. The girls in the office thought that was one of the funniest things they ever saw. I have to find humor in this stuff because that's the only way I can get through some days.

Let me catch you up on the doc side of stuff. June MRI and EEG, everything came back good, Dr. Cook still worried something is still wrong. So, I do a 24 hour heart monitor, only to find out I have SVT (supra ventricular tachycardia). Long story short is my right upper chamber of my heart is not working right. I actually had a small 3 to 5 second heart attack, with 52 times where my heart raced. So now I get to see a cardio doc. Yipppeee!!!!

As far as the knee doc goes. I had to have several series of x-rays done on the 7th. He wanted to get a better look at the joint so he sent me to go get a bone scan, so off to that later in the day. Go back on the 9th to get results. It appears that the new knee component is loose. Next plan is to cast me on July 30th leave that on, until just before the surgery on September 2nd. This will tell us if there is any chance at all that the knee could heal on it's own. If it works, then I won't need to have the surgery. He didn't think it's going to work, but I'm willing to go one more conservative option before I go for the knife again.

Oh, the same day that I get the cast on I see the cardiologist. Before you know it I will have another cancer check. Oh, by the way that went well. The spot on the lung hasn't changed at all, but Dr. Gouw won't let me go on the 6 month program yet for at least another year. They think that this will more than likely grow into the cancer, but since mine is a low grade,(or slow growing) they want to stay close to it so if it does change they will get it fast.

I TOLD YOU THIS WAS NEWSY

If luck would have "IT"

Last Monday started with a visit with my MD (general doc), who has been concerned enough about some other problems I've had for the last 2 1/2 months. He ordered an MRI of the head, and told me to have the gals out at the front desk to set up a visit with a neurologist, (Dr Fleischer), he said it would take a couple of months to get in to him so if the MRI comes back clean I could cancel that appointment. Got to the front desk they call DR F's office and they just had a cancellation could I make it for Tuesday at 12:30. Of course I could.
I then went down to the radiology office downstairs from that docs office and set up the MRI. Yes, Wednesday in the AM for that.
Tuesday my orthopedic first thing in the AM, have to wear the immobilizer until July 7th when I get assessed again. Yippee, it will put me over 11 months with the knee crud. From there I went back to work and then during my lunch I drove to Ogden to see the neurologist. They did some blood work and then had enough reason to schedule a EEG test, so that is this Friday. The fun with this test is that I have to stay awake for at least 24 hours. So I get up at 5:15am on Thursday and stay up until at least 10am Friday for the test. Poor Chad has to put up with me all night long. I'll let him sleep though, I'm not that mean to keep him up as well.
On the bright side of things, we got the reimbursement check from the flood, so Kait's room will have new carpet and the family room. I can't tell you how great this company has been through the whole process. We are also looking forward to seeing Pam's new baby, and the other 4 grandkids in just about 2 weeks. FUN FUN FUN!!!!

"Will the grandkids keep coming?" stay tuned for more

I don't have postings of Pam's new baby yet, but little Eliza Rose was born June 2nd weighing in at 8lbs 10 oz, which is just shy of being smaller than Wendy's addition Addison Elizabeth who came in at a whooping 8lbs 14oz. Both are amazing mothers. Congrats to both.

This makes number 19 for Chad and I, we're in waiting mode to see who will make it an even 20. Will it be Amy, Biff, Steph or soon to be Andrew's wife Amber? We'll keep you posted.

We had so much fun with the kids, and Wendy always amazes me. She made the most delicious homemade bread ever. We just had a great time. The kids were great. Little Maggie watched me every morning get ready for the day, so of course I had to get the photo of her admiring herself in the mirror.

This was the main reason for going to Arizona. Addison is one of the sweetest babies ever.

Readers Digest version of life on the Ranch

Knee was doing well for a week after injections. Had a little incident with the bathroom and now I'm in an imobilizer for one month. UGH
Elizabeth (Biff to family) graduated from nursing school at the University of Utah today, we are so proud of her. She did so awesome. Way to go girl.
Chad and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary a couple of weeks ago. We are still loving every minute we can with each other. I can't believe how fast time is flying.
Our progress on the bathroom remodel is going slowly but we are to the point of painting. Next will be the tile and counter, we just need some extra time. Kait can't wait either so she can have her own bathroom again.
Kait bought her first car. Franklin the Ford Focus. She loves it, it starts, all the windows work, CD player, AC and heat. What more could a girl want.
Trip to the insta care unit this past Monday only to find out that I have another fun issue called benign vertigo. Trying to walk and not get dizzy and keep my BP down has been challenging (160/110) just a little high. Dr told Chad that the meds that I'm on aren't the issue, and this is more serious than he thought. I just want to stop ending up in the bathtub at 3am when all I wanted to do was flush the dang toilet, but that's a whole nother story. It is quite funny though.
We have been enjoying the most beautiful weather ever. I love when it's 75ish here in the valley and we still have snow on the mountains, there is something so amazing about that to me.

Life is Great

Life a funny way of turning a situation of bad luck to something fabulous.

I was supposed to fly to South Carolina to see Andrew graduate from Marine boot camp and finally meet his girlfriend Amber. But weather played my trip a different hand. I ended up in St Louis with no way to get to S Carolina. Bonus was I called my brother Dave, how lives in Illinois, and he came and picked me up from the airport. I stayed with him and my sister in law Linda.

I got the airline to fly me out the next day to Detroit, since I was supposed to fly out of Detroit on Sunday the 5th anyway from a lay over.

As you see I was able to visit a lot in the very short time that I was there.

I do miss all of the fresh water, especially Lake Huron, and all of the trees. But you can't beat the mountains in Utah.

Update on my knee. I was referred to Dr Samuelson in SLC. He started cortisone injections on March 31st and did the last series on April 9th. With a total of 10. April 7th was the first time in years that I was totally pain free in that knee. This week was the first time since the 7th that the pain has returned. What a miracle he has been. He is so personable and caring. I feel very lucky to have him as a doctor. I won't see him until the 28th of the month.

Will it end or will I end, That is the question

First of all, my cancer check was yesterday and so far so good. The docs are watching the same two areas, a spot on my liver and a spot on my lungs. So I will have to do the fun CT scan with the lovely berry contrast in June. I did come across an unusual thing this time with drinking the beverage, it tastes better with a swig of coke right after I finish the portion of contrast I have to swallow every 20 minutes. I've said this before too. it is starting to taste good, like I'm not even noticing the bad after taste. Scary huh!
I also was way hypertensive with a BP of 153/96 when the nurse first took my BP and a slight temp of 99.1, (which is high for me since I normally run 97.9). So the doc sat with us for a while to see if we could get my BP under control. But, when she walked out with us and stood there making sure the BP would be better, I kind of knew that it probably wouldn't, since my knee was acting up so bad by then that my pain level was between a 9 and 10. The new reading was 147/114 , she felt like it was the pain that was causing the high BP, since I have no history of hypertension.
Well, now the knee, leg whatever you want to call it. I am now beyond the patience level of it. The pain is now worse than before. Yesterday, it literally took me down to the ground 3 times. When I am out in public I use crutches and/or wheelchairs. At home I'm not as religous about it,but I'm not going around doing housework like I would like, actually, between Chad and Kaitlyn yelling at me to stop walking around and doing stuff, (which doesn't happen that often, the walking stuff) my life is pretty boring. Go to work, sit, go home, pj's on bed, ice 9x out of 10, dinner is made for me, cleanup is done for me. Sometimes, I'm lucky and get to go to Wally world or Sam's, but I'm in a wheel chair. And even with all of this for the past 7 weeks my leg is still not getting better. I try every once in a while to walk around or go without the walking devices and then I end up paying for it for several days, worse than using them.
I hope that none of you who read this blog have pain like this. This is going on for 8 months and it has kicked my tooty. You find so many reasons of not keep going when all you want is relief. Even one full day without pain would do the whole head good. I have been blessed with lot's of great people around me, especially Chad and Kait. They have been the most awesome, from making meals to driving me when I can't drive, to just sitting on the bed with me for hours talking or watching tv. My support from my ward family has been truely humbling. I'm the activities chair and we have a big ward brunch this Saturday, I have only two people on my committee 1 inactive, 1 works on saturday, but yet people in the ward have offered to help with every aspect of the brunch. I delagated and more have asked to help more. What a wonderful church I have, where people are so willing to help and most barely know me.
We are so excited next week to have Amy's wedding next week. Chuck is such an awesome guy and we are so proud of both of their accomplishments. We can's wait. We will have more kids in Utah, YEAH!!!!!!!!
One more fun positive point is, we almost have our bathroom remodel finished. I love handy men. GO Greg, Chad and Brett.

Life on the Ranch

The great hotel.
Cheese Factory and the view.

It has been way to long since I have updated my blog. I thought I was keeping up on it better, but oh well don't dwell, ei Kaitlyn's quote.

So. as time ticks on so do the 4 bedroom walls that I have gotten way to familar with over the last 13 months of my life. To my great surprize last weekend Chad has literally treated me like a queen, not that he usually doesn't, but he did exceptionally well last weekend.

First I was in charge of the set up for our Stake family activity on Friday (13th), Chad and some of the Bishopric members helped with that. I sat on the sidelines on a chair watching. That's a whole nother story. Then I get my hair cut, which needed bad. Took a nap, yeah. Back later to the dance at the stake center. Then to the movies, we saw "Yes Man" it was ok. Home. Saturday, slept in. He really surprized me and gave me a huge box of good chocolates and a gift card for a 1 hour massage. He's so sweet. Then Chad took me to or usual Valentines dinner spot, Timbermine, LOOOVE their prime rib, went over to his dad'd and shoveled snow, not me but Chad. Then back to the movies again, I finally saw "Twilight", I'm reading the series, in book 4 right now. Loved the movie. Home again snowing more. Church on Sunday then later that night Chad took me to Logan for an overnight. The hotel room was great. It had double sinks, a living area, nice king size bed, fridge, microwave. Can I say it just was awesome. We spent Monday just bumming around Logan. We even made it to Gossner's cheese factory and got some squeaky cheese. Love that stuff. We left Logan aroun 3ish and headed back home. And you never can pass up Smith and Edwards if you have time. So we trapest around that place for about an hour. We arrived home at 5pm. 24 hours after we left.

This little get away really helped me get my head out of my deep depression that I have been stuck in for the last couple of weeks. Which brings me to all my down days the last few weeks.

Quick run down. Can I say PAIN. I made my doctor listen to me and he finally ordered a bone scan back on 1/30. And lo and behold I have a stress fracture of the femur and a loose (new) knee replacement. I will be on non weight bear status until around mid March. So life in the pain catagory is limiting me once again. I just want it to get better.

Christmas 2008

This year we did things a little different. We did our traditional shopping after Thanksgiving. Which, I know there are some of you who think we are crazy, but we really do get some awesome sales and we usually have our family shopping done, sooo, this year we kind of shopped for ourselves.
When we arrived home with our packages, we looked at each other and said" Why don't we call this our Christmas and maybe just do stockings for each other. So this is what we decided on.
Kaitlyn had Diane, Diane had Chad, and Chad had Kaitlyn, even though Diane helped Chad quite a bit he did come up with a lot of stuff on his own. Our criteria for the stockings were, you couldn't buy anything over $5 and everything had to be wrapped individually, some of us even provided a small wish lists.
Well, each of us did go over on one item, but not by much, and Santa did bring one family gift. He brought us The Price Is Right WII game, way to fun for those who are wondering. It's like you're really playing on the show. Anyway, Christmas morning I find Chad and Kaitlyn jumping on my bed trying to wake me up, like hey, it's only like 11am leave me alone. But they managed to get me out to the living room and we proceeded to open our overflowing stockings. It was alot of fun opening all of these little gifts, most cost around a dollar, and it didn't break anybody's budgets. After all was said and done, we had agreed that we might do this again next year. It was low key, but we still had to think of things the other person would like or frequently used along with some fun stuff. It didn't detere from the Spirit of the day and I think I can speak for all of us we had a nice relaxing day.
We had our traditional Christmas breakfast. I have to say turned out great, all of the food was so good. We played, took naps and just enjoyed the day.
As the day rolled on, the snow storm came and landed around 6 to 8 inches on top of what we already had. It was so beautiful, we watched out of our front window, the wind blowing, snow coming down like a whirlwind of flurries trying to find a safe place to land, and we inside protected by the elements of weather. What a wonderful day to remember.

Life in Utah this week

Doctors, doctors.......Right now I won't see one until, umm January 8th, I hope. I am making a very quick blog entry because it is late but I promise I will give full details this Sunday, hopefully with pictures of our fun happenings on Saturday.
So stay tuned for further information..... Exciting isn't it!!!!!

Hit me with your best shot! Fire away!

I just want to start out with saying, even though I have had a whirl wind of medical issues this year, and they continue to happen, my life has been extremely blessed by the generous prayers and help of service sent my way.
I am now dealing with another turn of medical events that we are hoping will pan out to be nothing, but in this game of, wait and see if the cancer comes back or not, we are a little nervous to say the least.
I saw my regular doctor on Tuesday this week. My symptoms were very similar to the same ones I had before the surgery back in January. My first thoughts of what was going on were, "It's probably just a urinary tract infection". The nurse when I had said this was looking at me a little weird, but when I told her why I needed this to be the diagnosis, she could see why. I get in to the exam room and Dr Cook comes in and he's reading the screen on the computer of what information the nurse took. The nurse comes in and hands the doctor the results of the urine specimen. I quickly say to him "It's an infection RIGHT", he looks at me and says "no, you have blood in your urine," (sorry it's so explicit), I quickly come back with "maybe kidney stones?". He's sitting there pondering what it could be while I kept trying to say to him what I think it should be or might be. He looks at me and says I think we are dealing with something a little bit more serious than that. I'm like "what!". He then goes into "my gut feeling is that the cancer has spread to the bladder and we need to have you seen by a urologist, when is your next cancer check?", me "December 22nd, why?" ..."Who's your oncologist? "Dr Chen, I do have her number!" "Well, I want to call her and tell her what's going on and see what she thinks about this.".... So we're sitting together in the room and he calls the Huntsman center and gets through to her nurse Katie and explains what is going on and she connects him to Dr Chen's cell or something. He leaves a message with her and then tells me, "you might as well go back to work and then I will call you when I hear back from her".
I left for work and within 45 minutes he called me back and said "Dr Chen wants to move your CT scan up ASAP, so Huntsman will call you and tell you when it is". I didn't get the call until Wednesday and of all times they scheduled it for this Friday at 9:30. There was no way that I could do it, I have a Ward Christmas party to do, and my help was coming to set up at 10. We did get it rescheduled for the following Friday same time, so that works out so much better.
On top of all of this going on, Kait and I went over to Wal Mart last night to pick up a couple of things and fill up my gas tank for the weekend and we get in the car and the car won't start. I'm like "HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT! FIRE AWAY".
I'll update as I can, but no guarentee.

In the life of me

It's been a little while since I've updated my blog, so I figured I might as well do this before the Holiday's really begin.
So, "Graceful" herself, (me) kind of rehurt the lovely knee that I just got fixed.
The day before Halloween Kait and I were cleaning and low and behold I have Chad's slippers on because I was going in and out of the house to put garbage in the trash can. Well, my foot stays put on my step and my body goes forward. I didn't think much right at the begining, but as the weekend goes on so does the pain. I end up borrowing a knee brace from my Bishops wife and after 5 days of wearing that, I still am a basket case with the pain. Now, I have a lot and I mean a lot of knee problems in my little ol life, but I have never experienced pain in the knee like this type. I call my docs office and get an appointment the following week.
I see doc Rob PA on Nov 12th only to find out that I have a severely sprained ACL, not on just one side but on both sides of the knee. He tells me that if I'm not doing better by my post-op (Dec 18th) they will probably need to do more surgery to see if something else is wrong. I just about lost it right there. I am so done with surgeries this year you don't even know.
So, elsewhere in my life my step daughter Amy is getting married in March and we are so excited to have Chuck a part of our lives and it looks like they will be moving to Utah, yeah.
Next thing is I'm the new ward activities chairperson, yeah me. I have the Christmas party December 5th with the usual 250 in attendance. Everything is falling into place, considering I only have 1 actual commitee member who shows up for the meetings. Lori is awesome though.
The Grandma mobile is expanding again with Pam and Wendy due in May and June respectively. I warned Chad when we got married that I don't have kids that have babies by themselves and once again my children proved it. We are so excited for both of them. But, we sure miss having them around. Someday they will be closer and we can use the little play area down in our family room more frequently.
My birthday is tomorrow and I'm always exited about them. I always like the cake stuff. But, this year once again I am grateful for being alive and as well as I can. It sure beats the alternative of not having another birthday.
Since the next couple of weeks is going to be crazy I might not be updating for a little while. Everyone have a great and Happy Thanksgiving. Love you all

I Love Halloween

First of all we had Kensie, Elizabeth and Brett over early October and all
Kensie wanted to do was run, run, run. She's been walking since the end of July. She didn't turn 1 until October 30th. She's just smart. That's how all
of our grand kids are.


Kait and me got way into decorating our
pumpkins one night. It took Chad a few more days to finish his. We sure had fun

On Halloween we had a fun neighborhood party. No kids just some neighbors and friends. The ages spanned from 11 to 87. We did a calm version of "Fear Factor" and we were surprised that everyone participated. We gave them "vampires blood" to drink, mummies to build , bags of unknown food to eat and then skits to put on for the whole group. Lots of great food and friendships deepened as we got to know some of our neighbors and friends better. We already have plans for next year. Bring it on.

The party goers.

As you can see we had those in costumes

and those who came in street clothes

Either way we had a great time.