Lovely Traditions

This ward has a wonderful tradition to welcome young women into Relief Society. Each spring the Relief Society and the Young Women get together to tie a quilt for each female graduating senior. The girls take their quilts to college and have a part of their home Relief Society with them while they're away from home. The families of the girls provide the fabric, batting and yarn and the ward provides the quilting frames, needles and loving labor. This year we had three senior girls and that same evening we tied a quilt for an elderly sister who is leaving our ward. One thing about this activity I really like is that the quilt is bound before it is tied so once you take it off the frames, it is completely finished. I'd never heard of doing that until I moved into this ward but it's quite common here. Sister Janell Kincaid offers to do this every year for the young women and her work is fabulous.

Each young women was also presented with a basket containing the Relief Society manual, a picture directory of the ward Relief Society sisters, the ward cookbook, a set of measuring spoons (to take to college) and other goodies. The Relief Society president also encloses a personal note for each young woman. What a great way to transition into Relief Society! It's a really beautiful activity and so fun to see the fabrics the young women pick. You can really learn something about their personalities just looking at that. Summer's quilt is pictured above and here is a close up as well.

Virginia Beach

Summer performed in the All-Virginia High School Choir held in Virginia Beach a couple of weekends ago so we all drove down to hear her. We had never stayed in Virginia Beach before and were charmed by the town, the lovely boardwalk, the quaint shops and the stunningly beautiful weather. We definitely plan to go again. Here's Adam from the balcony of our hotel with the calm Atlantic in the background.

Fabulous News!

Alex and Maggie called with great news last week: they're going to be parents! Maggie is about 11 weeks along and is due around November 12. She has been feeling well and went to her first prenatal checkup last week where she had an ultrasound and heard the baby's heartbeat. We couldn't be happier. I'm going to be a grandma!

Life has gone on...

You'd think from the number and content of the posts on this blog that we've all been sitting around watching my hair fall out all winter. I don't know what it is about chemo but my brain goes kind of foggy and all ingenuity ceases. We have had lots of good things happening which I will attempt to chronicle over the next few days.

First of all, as everyone knows, senior year is plagued by the pesky college applications. Summer spent most of Thanksgiving and all of Christmas break writing essays, filling out college apps and applying for scholarships. Now the waiting period is over and the results are in... (I need to take a moment here to explain that although Summer would have loved to go to an Ivy League school, it was never, financially, an option--especially with our medical bills mounting. Still, she's very optimistic and wanted to give it a try.) These were her choices:

Brown (her all time favorite adorable university), University of Virginia, BYU-Provo, Cornell, Penn State and BYU-I. She was accepted at all but Brown and UVa and will be heading off to her parents' alma mater in August where she will join her two siblings for the first time since kindergarten. I almost wish I could be there, too!

Another VERY EXCITING event in our family is that our smart and beautiful daughter, Maggie, will be graduating this month with her Bachelor's in Psychology.

We're so proud of her and are still a little stunned that she chose our family to be a part of for eternity. Alex, you are SOOOO lucky! Congratulations, Maggie!

Almost Out from Under

Summer made me a cake to celebrate my last chemo session which was Thursday, March 31. Pretty soon we'll have the worst behind us and can focus on other things. I want to thank everyone whose prayers and thoughts have sustained me and whose gifts of cards, time, food and flowers have lightened my load. I have truly been blessed.

As far as the prognosis goes, the chemo seems to have worked quite well having shrunk the tumor considerably. The next step will be surgery around the end of April, recovery for about a month, radiation beginning around the beginning of June and ending about mid-July (when Sabrina gets home!), recovery for as long as it takes (with my skin it could be a couple of months) and then reconstructive surgery in the fall. I'm hoping to get it all in on this calendar year for insurance reasons :). Then I'll be looking for a job since we'll be nearly empty nesters and have lots of little ones in college.

Again, thank you all for your support. My oncologist called me "low-maintenance" Monday and I'm sure it's because of all of you!