Are we ready for this?

 Yes!!!!

On Saturday we were able to go snowmobiling for the second time this year, and probably our last time this year, and during the ride Corinne Perry and Ryan Born got engaged.  It was the perfect place for Corinne, since she enjoys snowmobiling more than anything else.  Craig and I both knew it was coming soon. On Friday night Corinne and Ryan came down from Centerville.  Ryan had called me earlier in the week and told me of his plans.  I then needed to try to get Corinne out of the house for a while so that Ryan could have a talk with Craig and properly ask to marry our daughter.  I accomplished getting Corinne to the grocery store and Ryan took care of his business.  I had to ditch her a few times in the store to give them more time to talk, but that went pretty well also. 

After a sleepless night wondering how I was going to pull off a wedding, we were off to the mountains.  There is still a lot of snow up there but it is the normal snow conditions for April, hard and packed down.  But as they say, “The worst day snowmobiling is still better than the best day working”.  The good thing about spring snowmobiling is that you don’t have to worry about getting stuck in all of the powder, just the rivers, but we were careful and were ok. 

I knew of Ryan’s plan, so on the mountain I informed our neighbor, who went with us, “If you see Ryan and Corinne stopped somewhere on the mountain, just keep riding, he has a ring!” We continued to ride and soon Corinne and Ryan were not following us anymore.  The plan was hopefully moving forward.  About 30 minutes later we rode back and could see them in the distance.  We continued to ride quite a distance away in the trees.  They periodically could see us riding but still far enough away that we were not just sitting with them.  I found a place about 400 yards away in the trees and got off my snowmobile and crawled through some trees so that I could see where they were and took a couple of pictures, just so that they can have pictures of where it all took place.  If anyone would have seen me they would have thought I was a crazy lady stocking some wild animal.  I have hunted with Craig and knew how to stay low and out of sight.  I just giggled to myself thinking about what I looked like. 

After giving them about 45 minutes, we rode back over to where they were.  As I drove up I rode by and stuck my hand out and gave Ryan a high five, hoping that he had been successful.  We sat with them for a few minutes and nothing was said about what I thought had just happened.  They both looked very happy but they have looked that way for quite a while.  So we continued to ride for a little while longer.  I kept wondering if maybe Ryan had lost his nerve.  Corinne wasn’t saying anything to me and I was starting to wonder.  I could see that there was no ring on her finger.  We stopped to eat lunch and still nothing was said.  As we started off again I was able to ask Ryan if he had asked her yet.  It was a very quick conversation over the sounds of the snowmobiles engines, and he said yes.   I told him that I didn’t see a ring on her finger.  At that point I almost died when he told me that she gave it back.  After what seemed like an eternity, he said, “she didn’t want it to snag on the inside of her gloves and wanted him to hold it for her until they were through riding”.  It was done! It was official!  I was going to get a tall, cute, respectful, son-in-law, and my daughter was very happy.  So off we went to pack up and go home to tell Craig, the kids, and everyone else the good news.  It’s always good to go snowmobiling, but that day the experience that Corinne and Ryan had over shadowed the riding.  Corinne told me that when they stopped and were starting to talk, Ryan came over and wrapped his arms around her and she could feel his heart beating.  Her first thought was that they hadn’t even been riding very hard and he was all ready out of breath and his heart was beating very fast.  Little did she know that the riding wasn’t what was making his heart beat fast.  He said he was so nervous and was having a hard time controlling his breathing.

Ryan is a wonderful man, attending Weber State University and working two jobs.  He comes from a great family that love and support him very much.  It looks like the wedding will be sometime in August, before they are both back in school. 

We are very proud of our daughter Corinne for who she is and what she is trying to become.  Side by side they will do well.  They both have high goals and now “Together” they will achieve them.             

Spring Break

We are at the end of another week of chemo, and again special people and experiences have been put in our path.  At the end of each day when I look back at the people and things that happen to me and our family, I again realize that we are being watched over. 

On Wednesday, a friend of McKaye’s, McKay Jones, yes his name is really Mckay, received his mission call.  Oh, to share in his excitement was amazing.  He will be serving his mission in Honduras’s.  He is so excited he cannot contain himself, and his excitement is so contagious.  We are so happy for him and glad that he came into our lives to brighten it up.  It is our privileged to know him.  They also had some fun taking silly pictures. 

We have had a few problems with toilets around our house lately, and then Friday morning I was cleaning the kitchen sink and broke the faucet.  A little frustrated I got under the sink to start the process of taking it off to go down to Home Depot and be replaced.  I really thought that everything was going really well.   Dallin was helping me and I was feeling very good that I could handle SOME of the things that go wrong around the house without the men in the neighborhood.  Craig would call out every once in a while, “How are things going”, I would reply, “Good”.   I really thought that I was almost through and then some stupid hoses just wouldn’t come apart.  It was like they had been super glued together for 22 years.  Seriously, I started thinking that I was a light weight, and couldn’t pull stupid tubes apart.  Dallin then got under the sink and tried.  NOPE they would NOT come apart.  I then thought, well if I have to take all of the tubes with me to the store, then that’s just what I will do.  So I started on the other end of the tube and was able to get it apart.  Then, just one final fitting and I would be able to leave.  NOPE! I couldn’t get it off.  Just as I was thinking that I needed a “Superman”, or “Superplummer”, my brother-in-law, Rob, showed up.  He was able to get the last connection apart.  It was a little hard for me to admit that I needed help; I wanted to accomplish it on my own, but was glad he showed up when he did, because I was starting to get VERY frustrated.  Then I was off to Home Depot.  I thought I would make it a fast trip and just get an identical faucet and get home quickly and put it on.  I would like to challenge everyone to go down to Home Depot and look at how many faucets they have hanging on their wall on isle number 36.  It looks like FAUCET HELL! sorry about the language, but it is true.  I stood there looking at all of them and really wanted to cry.  I started going down isles looking for the little men that know about plumbing things that help ladies that are about to go bonkers, and they were nowhere to be found.  It was at that point that an angel was put in my path.  Another wife looking in the plumbing isle for something that she was frustrated with, Sharon Loveless is the wife of Boyd Loveless, who Craig used to work with at Utah County.  He built his own house and can build, and fix anything.  I didn’t go to Home Depot to cry, but that is exactly what happened when I saw her.  She told me that she was going to have Boyd come over and put the new one on for me.  After I was through talking to her I was able to find an employee to get what I needed.  I also knew that Ashlyn had wanted to plant sugar snap peas so I went to get the seeds.  That’s when I ran into another friend/angel, Lori Richards.  Who knew that you could cry twice in the same day at Home Depot?  We had a good talk about everything that has been going on in our family.  She did tell me of some ways that Craig could get rid of the nausea, but you will have to ask her about that.  Lori, thank you so much for the “Pot-ted” plants.  (For those of you wondering what those plants are, tulips and other flowers in a spring pot, I know what you were thinking)  Anyway…After an hour at the store, and a couple of return visits to get the correct size hose, we have a new faucet and we will be soon working on the toilets SIT-uations a little later.

On Saturday we went up to Weber State Institute program.  Corinne has been in the choir this year, and it was a wonderful program.  Craig was not up to the trip so Dallin, “GRACIOUSLY” offered to stay home with him.  The sounds of being gone most of the day from his friends to watch his sister sing were not on the top of his list, but he did help Craig.

We just finished our spring break week, a little different from the past years.  Last year we went down to Moab and hiked our tails off, it was so much fun.  We will shoot for a better one next year.  In the past years we have had a lot of fun on spring breaks, our kids are not deprived.  Bryce Canyon, the cabin, Green River, Goblin Valley, and a cruise just to name a few.  We kept Red Box in business this year, Oh! Yes and Home Depot.

What a Weekend, good and bad!

A week ago, March 28, Craig had chemo.  We both thought because he took a week off, now has a feeding tube, and was feeling so good, that the chemo would not be too hard on him.  We were completely wrong.  It was a week of throwing up, losing weight, and lots of pain.  The bright light was that we were able to have Corinne home and a few of our kid’s friends over on the weekend and watch the LDS conference.  Even with throwing up and not feeling too well it ended up to be a pretty nice weekend with the family.  At the end of the day on Sunday Craig said, “We have pretty darn good kids, and they have great friends.  Did we really raise these kids, or did someone just bring them to us this way?”  We all sat in our family room together watching conference and all of them had their journals and were taking notes on the different speakers.  Pretty impressive kids.  We have to thank good friends, church leaders, and extended family, for all of their help in making our kids what they are today.   It does take the whole village to raise a good child.  Many times we have received phone calls about one of our children being looked out for by neighbors.  Whether it is that they were up to something bad and need some guidance or thanking them for helping them out.  We are glad that we live where we do.  Many years ago, I believe, at around the age of 2, Dallin was out playing in the neighborhood riding his Big Wheel.  I continued to check on him to make sure that he was staying out of the road, and out of danger, and then would hurry and clean a little more in the house.  There soon was a knock at the door, where it was a neighbor laughing and telling me that he had just been escorted by Dallin two blocks away, riding his big wheel, with a line of cars following him.  Dallin would not move out of the middle of the road so he drove behind him to make sure that he made it home ok.   I just about died when I found out what had happened, but glad that my neighbor was watching out for him. 

We have such great people that live around us.  We try to do the same for them as they would do for us.  Some neighbors that have since moved, the Cyrus family, have a special needs son named Garrett.  We told the family that if ever they needed us even in the middle of the night, not to hesitate to call and we would be right over.   He is the greatest boy in the world, and really took a special liking the Craig.  We took them to the cabin when us two years ago and Garrett rode on the 4-wheeler with Craig.  We had to tape the buttons down for the winch because Garrett found the button while riding and soon the winch was dragging behind Craig.  Craig took the lead to keep the dust out of Garrett’s eyes and very often we would see Craig’s 4-wheeler swerving back and forth.  I thought that Garrett was getting a hold of the handle bars.  He wasn’t.  Craig found that when Garrett would stop holding on and start playing with the switches and buttons, if he started to swerving, Garrett would hold on tight again for a few minutes.  We could hear Garrett squealing, which is about the only sound he makes when around Craig, even over the sound of the engine.  We took them to church with us while we were up there.  They are not members of our church but we invited them to go with us anyway.  They were very worried that Garrett would be loud and they would be embarrassed.  We had no worries either way.  Craig decided to stay out of Garrett’s view because of the excitement that he shows when looking at him.  It was very cool to see him there at church.  We sensed that Garrett may have had an understanding of where we were at.  He was very quiet and sat in his wheel chair next to his Dad and only got big smiles on his face when looking at Craig.  He is one of our Heavenly Father’s choices spirits, and his parents are very blessed to have him as a son.

Ok…that was a nice side track of talking about Craig’s yucky week.  Now back to it.

He had a very bad night Sunday night and through the night, throwing up and with lots of pain.  I called the doctor Monday morning because of how he was feeling and was able to get an appointment that afternoon.  The way that Craig was feeling and the kind of night we had had, I decided to call a couple of our neighbors who are worthy Priesthood holders, to give Craig a blessing, and also myself.  It was great to have them come and help us out.  I, myself, was feeling pretty beat up and quite depressed about how everything was going.  By the time they left we all were holding our chins up a little higher.

That afternoon my Mom drove us to the doctor’s office.  She was pretty much our shuttle bus for the afternoon.  After seeing that doctor, and checking his weight, which had dropped from 157 to 149, he sent us to get an x-ray to make sure that there was not an obstruction in his stomach and also to check to see if the feeding tube was still in the right place after all of the problems he had been having through the past week.  After the x-ray we then went back to the first doctor.  I ended running in each time and getting a wheelchair for Craig.  After the first walk into the office he was exhausted, so the rest of the day he was being wheeled, and I’m not the best driver.  Funny how many bumps there are when you bum hurts.  The doctor could see from the x-ray that there was not an obstruction but that the tube was not in the right place anymore, due to the violence of throwing up.  I need to teach Craig how to throw up gently, if that is possible.  We were then sent to the hospital to have the feeding tube replaced in the proper place, and get some fluids to hydrate him again.  It always makes him feel better.  I do need to say, which I have said before, Timpanogos Hospital is great.  We have had the best of nurses and help there.  Maybe they can see it in our eyes that we need love and tender care, but they all have been so good to us.  My Mom came and picked us up and took us home about 8:30 at night.  Craig was quite drowsy from the medicine that they give him for the nausea so Ashlyn was there to help me get him into the bedroom.  We hooked up his feeding tube for the night and he went to sleep.  I think we both sleep pretty good last night, maybe just me because I sleep good enough that I didn’t hear Craig up, if he was. 

In the past years, I try to do something to the kids and or Craig for April fool’s Day.  That day started and almost went completely by without me knowing it.  I had planned on having corn beef and cabbage for dinner that night.  I cooked the corn beef outside on the patio in a crock pot so that the smell would not overwhelm Craig all day.  Because of the cold weather, it took too long to cook and was not ready when it was time to eat.  It had been a rough day for Craig eating and keeping things down.  I told him what I had planned on doing for dinner and that it wasn’t through cooking and asked him about making taco’s instead.  I guess just thinking about smell of the meat cooking rolled his stomach, he asked if I would just take the kids and go out for dinner.  The kids heard that and were more than willing to do as he had requested.  So I ran down and quickly pick up pizza.  I told the kids to meet me in the garage to eat and whispered that I had pizza outside.  They went out the front door and peek around into the garage to see what was going on.  They thought I was pulling an April fool’s joke on them, but all they saw was me sitting there eating a piece of pizza.  I didn’t even want to take it in the house.  When Craig is in that kind of mood, every smell gets to him. The kids and I sat there and talked about all of the April fool’s jokes that had gone on at school that day.

I'm trying to find some pictures to go along with this post, hopefully I will add them soon.