The Ups & Downs of life

Life has been a bit crazy the past little while and I just haven't had the time or energy to blog lately.

To begin, the boys have been in school now for almost two months and are enjoying themselves. Even though Dresden's best friends aren't in his class he still enjoys going to school and has been talking about a new friend from his class. It is always comforting to know that he is capable of meeting new friends even though he is sometimes shy. We have been trying to work on his reading and he just hasn't enjoyed it. He enjoys when we read to him but we just haven't found anything for him to read that he is interested in. I talked to the ladies here at work and one of our artists brought a book series for me to take home. She said her kids really enjoyed the series so I tried it with Dresden. He LIKES it! He read about Ancient Egypt and a Ghost Queen that lost her book of secrets. Anyway, last night he said, "who knew that reading can be so much fun when you have a notebook to write stuff in." I was so happy to hear that come from his mouth. The character in the book keeps a notebook and writes important facts in it. Dresden decided to write things on a notepad, too.

Logan is just so full of energy since school started. He has learned new behaviors that don't sit so well with me (hitting with a closed fist) but overall he is learning lots and meeting new friends. He enjoys school and I really think he could be challenged a little more, which I guess falls on my shoulders. I bought addition flashcards for Dresden but I think I will have Logan learn them too. I may as well teach two kids at once and Logan certainly loves to learn new things.

Our families have been in our minds and hearts a lot lately. My Grandpa Strong's health has been on the decline for the past 6 months or so. We finally thought we found the problem, a blockage of the carotid artery. He had a stint put in and things were looking up. Until he decided to walk around the new church house that was being built. He walked around the building under construction and fell hitting his head on the corner of a concrete walkway. A worker came to help him up, got him back on his 4wheeler and sent him on his way. Two days later when they came up for their trip to Jackson Hole with my parents his face eyes, side, and back were covered with bruises. His face was all scabbed up from hitting the concrete and he had a bump on his head that was enormous. The whites of his eyes were completely blood shot and swollen. He looked horrible. Early the next morning we had the ambulance come and get him. After a ct scan we found out he had a subdural hematoma. He has been in the hospital since September 24th. He has had his brain operated on and because of a catheter he had in for 2 weeks he ended up getting a UTI which seemed to be causing him to shut down completely. Since he has been on antibiotics he seems to be doing a thousand times better. Still not himself completely but better. My poor grandma has had to deal with so much emotionally. She is such a rock. I don't know how she gets through it all. Besides dealing with all the emotional stress of my grandpa she has the emotional stress of moving from her home in Ephraim into my parents other house up here. The doctors aren't letting my grandpa leave the valley so thankfully my parents have their other house that my grandparent's can move into. The family is happy to have them closer but I know it isn't easy for them.

Larry has the sweetest mom. She does so much for everyone else and loves her family unconditionally. She is so wonderful to our family and just adores our boys. Our hearts were broken when we found out that she has cancer again. She had breast cancer 5 years ago which was treated by having a mastectomy and has had clean screenings since. Over the summer she had lost some weight and for peace of mind she saw her doctor. Everything looked good but he couldn't explain the weight loss so he did a full body scan. The scan showed enlarged lymph nodes so they did another test to determine if the lymph's had cancer. If cancer is in the body it is supposed to show black for cancer or white for normal lymph's. The scans showed red. The doctor wasn't sure what that meant so he took the test results to a panel of oncologists. They suggested doing a needle biopsy but the prominent lymph's were located mostly around the heart so a needle biopsy would be too risky. They did find a couple lymph's near the base of the neck that they decided to biopsy. The tests came back positive. The test results came back the day our family was getting off the lake at Powell. We drove straight to her house and Larry administered a blessing. Bertha has been on pin and needles because she doesn't meet with the oncologist until Oct. 28th. We are hoping and praying for the best outcome possible. She is a fighter and I hope with the support from her family she will fight this cancer again.

We love our families so much and we hope we can give them the support they need.