Bitter Sweet

Joe, Tim, Michael, Dad, & Jon

Yesterday at Church, one of the speakers compared life to a golf coarse. On a golf coarse, there are a lot of hazards. If there weren't any sand traps, water, trees, slopes, etc...we may always get holes in one. Would that be as interesting or as much of a challenge? Would it be as fun? I am not saying that trying so hard to avoid the hazards or challenges in our life are fun but what I am saying is that I understand that there has to be some bitter to experience the sweet and to improve upon our testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ and his atonement. Our weekend this weekend was an example of this.
I know that most of you know that my dad has had cancer for over 6 years now. It has been a well fought battle and he has been such a trooper and my mom has been a saint! All of us knew that this cancer would take dad's life at some point. The timing was always the unknown. It still is. However, he has been getting progressively worse and it seems like just lately, things have been happening so fast. He has been spending a lot of time in bed lately-and things that he once was able to do have now become almost near impossible without help or without a great deal of pain. It has been hard to watch, but incredible to see his faith and his continued love for mom, his family, and the gospel and the opportunity that we all have had to spend with him.
On Friday, my mom called me to borrow my crock pot and started crying when I asked her about dad. I dropped Mack off at school and went directly over there to see what was going on. I found her crying in the kitchen and we just held each other for a while and that is when she told me that they were sending Hospice over. Dad had been in such excruciating pain that she didn't know what else to do for him. It has been a huge relief for her and for all of us to have Jill-(the nurse) checking in on him and bringing them whatever they needed and making him comfortable with the pain meds that she can give him. It has been hard to watch him go through this and it was hard for me to realize that we are getting to the end. This weekend two of my brothers came up from Utah to spend some time with us and we had such a good time. Even though it has been an emotional weekend, it was so great to all be together. Ben and Sara were the only ones that we didn't get to spend time with and we missed them dearly! Michael showed off his "rocket show" on Saturday and my favorite part was watching each one of the kids shoot the rocket off and then run as fast as they could do go and retrieve it. It started getting windy and so even when they would run the way they thought that it was going, they ended up turning in the opposite direction to go and get it with the wind change. We did some shopping, some sleep overs with the cousins. played get the Oreo in your mouth by only using your facial muscles and gravity, and ate a lot! We mostly all just spent time together and talked and had such an amazing time together. Friday night dad did perk up a little and was able to come out and visit. He also visited a while on Sunday after the sacrament was brought in for him. That day before Jon went home, he gave dad a blessing with all of the boys standing in and then mom said a family prayer with all of us there. Lots of tears, but lots of love too. The spirit in my parent's home has been so strong. I know that Heavenly Father is watching over all of us and wants us to know that he is there. What an amazing family I have. I am sooo blessed to be able to have a relationship with all of my siblings and to feel of their love-especially at this time.

Michael the Rocket MasterMack and Seth-the Launchers

Jon & Kyla at the Rocket ShowThe kids at the Rocket Show
Get the Oreo in your mouth only using your facial muscles and gravity. Start it out on your forhead...

Eyelashes are useful while the Oreo is lingering around the eye area.


Almost There!!

Got IT!!! So hilarious!! Oh what mormons think of to entertain themselves!!

Jeff and I taking a picture of ourselves because no one ever takes a picture of us!

Aren't these boys just dang adorable??? I am not sure what they were looking at on the laptop-but I was hearing a lot of "DUDE". Kyla said that that was Max's computer talk.

Maddie and Calli-always cute!

This is a horrible picture of it...he didn't want me to take it very badly, but this is a small gash that Mack got right under his eye this weekend. With 11 adults and 13 kids crammed into mom and dads house, it's a wonder that we didn't have more than this and a bloody nose and a few bonked heads periodically. He got this from a piece of licorice-while going to grab some licorice from his cousin, that other cousin was trying to bite his piece and because it was hard, it flicked when the bite released and it hit Mack's cheek just right to give him this litle gash. When I sent him to school today I thought that it will be a really funny story for him to be telling eveyone. I am not sure that they will quite believe him that he got it from licorice!