Speed bumps

It’s kind of funny how we go along interpreting the information that comes to us within the realm of our own reality without really considering anything going on outside that realm.

Like many of you, I listened to President Uchtdorf’s talk during General Conference in October and thought about how it applied to my situation as a wife, mother, Seminary teacher, sister, etc. I tried to limit the amount of time I spent every day preparing my Seminary lessons so I could create a home more conducive to the Spirit (i.e., cleaner) and planned how I should spend the hours my family was away so I could have more time to spend with them in conversation when they came home. Having checked that nicely off my list, I moved on to President Eyring’s talk about sustaining church officers.

Then on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. When they first tell you something like that with no tests or proof to back it up, it doesn’t seem real. I went through the Thanksgiving holiday really pondering all my many blessings and, without a clearer prognosis, wondering how many of them I would continue to enjoy for any length of time. What a perfect time to get news like that! It really focused me on what is most important. When I realized that what I would really miss would be holding my grandchildren in my arms and seeing my daughters married in the temple, I was grateful that those blessings can be mine thanks to Jesus Christ. I can hold my grandchildren’s little resurrected bodies with my own arms and am already sealed to my beautiful daughters for eternity. He’s thought of everything.

Well, enough of morbid thoughts. All the news since that day (and there’s been a lot of it) has been very good. The cancer appears to be isolated and unambitious. After two biopsies, several mammograms and sonograms, bone scans, CT scans and a MUGA scan, I started chemotherapy December 16th. I’ll go through chemo every three weeks for six cycles, which will take me into April at which time I’ll have a mastectomy and then undergo radiation therapy. The prognosis is good and although life is very tired these days (I’m on day five of my first chemo session and never knew I could feel so tired and still be alive) I will recover and get to hold those grandbabies this side of the veil after all. (Bernice—promise me you won’t let Mario plan my girls’ weddings. I’m not sure even a temple sealing could survive that!)

I was released from Seminary yesterday—a great sadness to me since I have the cutest class on the planet—but they’ll be getting a great teacher and they won’t have to worry about me falling over on my face some morning when I didn’t get enough rest the day before.

Life is good. I am so blessed to have the time to stay home and recuperate well, the family support to get me where I need to be and pick up all the pieces behind me and the insurance to pay for a great deal of this very expensive treatment. Summer is doing well. She’s a little more stressed than I would like but as cheerful as ever. Mario has been enormously supportive and even went to chemo with me last week. (Any of you who know how he handles medical stuff will realize what an enormous sacrifice this constitutes. He did have to spend some time in the hall when they stuck the needle in my mediport but he did quite well over all.) I’m not sure how much Adam understands—he’s just Adam: calm, imperturbable and even keel.

I won’t keep a boring list of symptoms or side effects; really, who wants to hear all that? I am grateful for the prayers I know many of you have offered and will continue to offer on my behalf. I truly believe prayer makes a difference and that’s why this has turned out so well in the long run.

Have a Happy Christmas and hold your loved ones a little tighter this year.

Cutest time of year!

Our ward held a Trunk or Treat today and I could not stop smiling. What adorable kids!

Some of the adults looked pretty cute, too!

Outer Banks

Finally getting around to our family vacation this year! Where does the time go?

After living for so long where there are no beaches, we had to go to the beach this year for vacation. We used to go to this campground when the kids were little and decided to go again this year although we were able to stay in a much nicer cabin this time around.

This one has a bathroom in the cabin and air conditioning as well as a small kitchenette! It was heaven.

We got up early to see a beautiful sunrise...

...drove the go karts...

...saw a spectacular sunset as well...

...and even drove down to see the lighthouse.

We only got a little burned and were through peeling within two weeks!

Cutest Bags Ever!

Every ward does things differently and this is no exception. I really like some of the traditions I inherited as a Seminary teacher and have gotten really good advice to get things to work I could never get to work the last time I did this. One of the things this ward (stake, really) does is to hold Seminary by high school. The students from two public high schools and a private high school all meet in our building every morning and then head straight to school from there. It gives us a really good critical mass to work with. Another thing I really like is that the students have bags for their scriptures, scripture mastery cards, folders, living journals, etc. Normally we buy the mesh laundry bags but they're not very attractive and get ratty looking kind of fast since they're white. I decided for my class of Freshman this year I would make denim bags for their things. They ended up costing about the same (not counting the supplies I already had on hand) and turned out WAY cuter. The other benefit is I hope they'll last all four years.

I found the camera!

Since Summer had so many activities these last few months, I had loaned her my camera and she took tons of pictures but then the camera went missing and (until I had a desperate need) I couldn't find it. (Funny how that happens.) Now I have it back I can update a few things...

First of all, Summer went to Kirtland for Youth Conference the day school got out. She roomed with one of our favorite people, Christina...

...saw wonderful things

...felt even more amazing things...

and got to spend some time with another of our favorite people, Rachel!

What a great trip! Especially before she begins her study of the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History this year in Seminary. WOW!

The 4th (sort of)

On July 5th, we were blessed to have Russell and Marion Pack in our home for dinner. They were called to serve a mission here in the Washington DC Visitor's Center and had been here about ten days when I was able to see them at the Visitor's Center and invite them over. How sweet of them to give up some of their precious free time to spend with us!

Of course, being the 4th of July celebration, it was too hot to breathe outside so we enjoyed our air conditioning and talked about doing something special next year (if the weather cooperates).

Ready to move (again)

We spent a few days in Rhode Island this past week and fell in love with it! The weather was perfect, the scenery gorgeous and the mixture of old and new delightful. Mario had a meeting with his Santa Maria crowd and Summer wanted to check out Brown University so we all piled in the car and headed north.

We stayed just outside of Providence so we could get to Brown's information session early the next day.

We were able to go on a campus tour and get all our questions answered. Summer is ready to attend.

The campus is a nice mixture of older and newer buildings and is full of greens and trees. Her favorite part is how students design their own educational programs.

On Saturday we left Mario to his meetings and went to visit the children's museum in Providence. We had a great time and kept thinking that Sabrina would have loved it!

In the afternoon, we drove down to Jamestown to drop Mario off at another meeting and we drove over to Newport. We are officially in love and ready to move there.

This looks like a good place. We'll take it!

I Heard What You Didn't Say

Many years ago I read an article entitled, "I Heard What You Didn't Say." It was about communication, especially between couples and family members who share a history. For example, a husband and wife are seated in a restaurant and the wife says, "The fish looks good." Innocuous, right? But the husband throws his menu down on the table and storms out. His wife has been nagging him for years to stop eating red meat and to lose weight so he interprets her remark as yet another attempt to change his behavior. In other words, he heard what she didn't say. I have since thought of this communication between close friends and family to be fraught with innuendo and double meanings and have many times wished that amnesia protected me from hearing what (I assume) they didn't say.

At the end of last month when I finally got around to preparing my visiting teaching message (because, heaven forbid I get it done one week earlier than required!) I remembered it was May and, therefore, the message was to be taken from the conference talks. Before picking up the magazine, I started to think back over what I remembered hearing and Elder Nelson's talk jumped out at me--the one about Dear Ruby and family history. I recalled that during his talk I had written two goals down in my journal: 1) to write my personal history and 2) to write a family history for the Perez family. I even had the idea that it would be great for all the adults in my family to write their personal histories and exchange them for Christmas. I assumed I had taken note of what Elder Nelson said but, when I went back and read the talk so I could present it to my sisters, I discovered that he didn't say any such thing.

I have frequently taught the importance of going to General Conference with questions. I have even told stories of people who have received answers to problems they have struggled with for years during General Conference but this is the first time I can remember it specifically happening for me. Thank heaven we are sometimes allowed to "hear what they didn't say"!

No More Braces!

Summer got her braces off! Yeah! She (and her dad) is really happy with the results. Now if she will just wear her retainer...

Here is a picture of Summer with her Seminary teacher.

Tonight is the Mormon Prom and Summer went with a great group of youth from our ward. Some did not want their pictures taken but those who did are shown below.

The Stake President held a reception for all the youth at his home tonight so that was the launching site. Hope they have a great time!

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Adam turned 27! What a blessing he is to us and what a great person. He had asked for a tripod for his video camera so he can stage his movies more easily and he also wanted Pokemon. Happy Birthday, Adam!

The Best Visit Ever

Maggie and Alex came to visit this last week and it was really wonderful to have them here. They did lots of sight seeing in downtown Washington and we were even able to get a temple session in.

 The weather was pretty good--it only rained a few days. One of the best things we were able to do is visit the University of Maryland where Alex is thinking of getting a Masters. We were lucky that it was their annual open house the week the kids were here.

All of us went and even Adam found something to smile about.

(Well, sort of.) We're really hoping they'll be able to come often to visit. We had a great time.