May

Wow, I'm really not very good at this blogging thing.  I love looking back over old posts, so I want to keep doing it.  But it's hard for me to make the time when there are so many other things I could be doing.  Like taking naps!

Let's see...I left off after my mom's first surgery.  The mass and one of her ovaries have since been determined to definitely have been ovarian cancer.  Luckily, stage 1.  She has since had another surgery where they removed her appendix (a lot of ovarian cancer starts in the appendix), 17 lymph nodes and did a whole lots of biopsies of tissue throughout her abdomen.   All the results came back negative, as in no other cancer cells, and she is free to recover!  No radiation or chemo needed.  She will have to go back every few months for check ups, but that's it. Her Dr. stressed how very lucky she is.  He said he rarely sees ovarian cancer earlier than stage 3, because most people have no symptoms until it's almost too late.  Thank goodness for that gnarly mass, it literally saved her life.  Recovery is still slow going, her core is still sore and simple things like sweeping and vacuuming really take their toll. But she is incredibly grateful and is now trying to figure out why God wanted her to stick around.  I said it's because she has 8 kids who still really need her.  Especially me.

We spent nearly a month in Utah and Arizona in May.  We drove to Mesa for Phil's brother Jason's wedding to Alexis.  My Dad and Kathleen drove down for their wedding.  They really adore Jason and were so happy they could come. We stayed in Mesa for a few days and enjoyed all of the festivities, then drove to Vegas where I dropped Phil off at the airport so he could fly home for work.  Little side note, on our way to Vegas Phil and I switched drivers at some dinky little gas station in the middle of no where and Phil starts driving.  After a little while he asks me if we're going the right way.  I ask him if he got on I-90 (not sure if that was the actual name) and he said yes so I said yes we're going the right way.  About 20 minutes later we see a sign that said, "Welcome to California"!!!  Keep in mind, we're supposed to be going to Nevada.  He had got back on the freeway, just going the opposite direction.  And I was supposed to be navigating, but figured he had just got right back on.  It was only about a two hour set back :-(
Anyway, after dropping Phil off in Vegas I continued on to St. George where I stayed with my Dad and Kathleen and one of Kathleen's relatives (her aunt?) for the night.  Then the kids and I woke up the next morning and drove to Loa.  We had Brighton's bridal shower, Julie's baby shower and Michael and Brighton's wedding over a two week period and it was so fun.  Phil flew back into Salt Lake the night before Michael's wedding, then the day after the wedding we made the trek back home. Whew! I was so sick of the car by the time we got home. Michael's wedding was the first time in 7 years, since my wedding actually, that all of us siblings have been together.  It's always fun when we get together, I just wish it could have been for longer.  I never get to see Nate-he had never met Jack-so that was extra nice.  I'm trying to get pictures of the weddings from Michael and Jason, because I didn't bring my camera to either.  Hopefully soon.

 saying bye to Nano and Zeus in Mesa

 Brighton's bridal shower

 trying to find a good spot for the picture... 

 haha! Brighton opened this and Jack went over and grabbed it and said, "oooooo" and brought it to me

  Evie kept trying to tell Livi to lift her pinky, but that girl will not be told what to do

 playing "crack the egg" on the trampoline

As always, it was great to be back in Utah for a little while.  I was really bummed I didn't get to see any friends while I was in town.  I was either in Loa or doing wedding stuff so never really had a chance.  Next time, I refuse to leave without seeing people though.