We FINALLY Made It

One of the funnest things to do here in the summertime is go to the concerts on the Santa Monica Pier. We hadn't made it once until last night. Finally as summer is coming to a close, so does our crazy busy schedule. We met up with some of our friends the Lovetts. Love them! Soem reggae band was playing; Toots and the Maytals I believe. It doesn't even matter whose playing really it's always a good time.

With all of the fun things we've done with the Lovetts it's sad to think this is the FIRST group photo we've ever taken. Let's be honest, blogging has increased my picture craze about 100%--now I can be called a Bigelow, right mom and dad? :)

These are 2 of their 3 adorable chicklets. I didn't get an individual of Sadie. Dixie is 5 and starts kindergarten next Tuesday. She can hardly wait because she's "already used to her classroom." Clint is 18 months old. He's a lover. When I watch him it's hard for me to believe that in 9 more months Sarah will be doing all that he does. They really do grow up quickly. All of Marsha and Kim the boys kids have those stunning baby blues.

Rockin out to the reggae. SJ (what my dad and Cath call her and sometimes I think it's catchy!) loves to dance and thinks it's even more fun to watch her mom dance. She giggles like crazy!

The Unknown

Today I am just grateful to be one of the unknown here in LA.

I know it may come as a surprise to some of you, given my gorgeous face and long & lean model figure, but the paparazzi are not chasing me all over town documenting my every move; that's why I have to do it myself!

Yesterday Sarah and I were at our neighborhood park hanging out with some friends when I noticed that someone outside the park was videotaping something going on in the park. Then when I looked more closer I noticed there were paparazzi standing around outside the park EVERYWHERE! Then I spotted her, the poor actress that was just trying to play with her babies. When she'd push them on the swing, the cameras went crazy and when they'd go look at the ducks in the duckpond, the paparazzi ran, following close behind her.

Although the $$$$$$$$$ that comes along with that profession would at times be nice to have, I am so thankful that Sarah and I can go wherever we like and that I can play with her in the sand or push her on the swing, or make quacking noises at the pond, knowing that if someone's snapping a picture it's because I asked them to!

4 Generations--UPDATED!!!

Sarah's Great Grandparents, Papa and Grandma (Bill and Marcella Weldon) celebrated their 60th Wedding anniversary this month and to celebrate their children took them on a Mexican Cruise. Because they boarded their ship in San Pedro we were able to have everyone over for brunch when they arrived back on land. After my mom spent a few days with us here in Santa Monica we headed down to Carlsbad to continue the celebrations. 60 years deserves LOTS of celebrating! We went to a Padres Game and almost everyone (Sarah, Papa, MJ, and myself excluded) got violently ill with some sortof flubug. My Aunt and Uncle and PnG had to delay their trips home until they were better. Poor folks. I am just grateful we escaped it.

Grandma and Aunt Patty gave Sarah Jane a lemon. I think they wanted to see her cute face shrivel up from the sour...no shrivel! She LOVED it and couldn't get enough.

Whenever Sarah and her Papa are together they have a wonderful time. The were having a good time playing with Papa's Padre's hat before the game.

It was fun having Aunt Judi and Uncle John here. They had never been to our house before and we love visitors. Their grandkids were going to be at their house when they got home and I think Sarah was making them more excited than they already were to hug on them.

Come back everyone...we miss you!

Cameraless

Girls camp was excellent, AmAzInG even! I will write more details later. I forgot to take my camera out of my bag. Actually I was either too busy with other things or knew many of my friends were there taking pictures. SO, I am just waiting for them to post pictures on their blogs so that I can steal them and post them on mine. More details AND pictures to come! :)

**Hint, Hint MOH, Rachel (maybe yours are copyrighted), and Nicole!!!

Missionaries for Dinner

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. I enjoy having them in our home and they usually leave us with a nice message. Up until a few weeks ago we have had sister missionaries. They were amazing...Friendly, upbeat, hardworking, normal.

Well, now we have Elders and having them over for dinner was a totally different experience. Richard and I both kept thinking, "The church sends these boys to teach people the gospel?"

Let's see, where do I start?

**Elder Anderson offered the prayer over our meal where he proceeded to say, "Please bless the food that it may be healthy and low in calories." Followed by serious chuckles as he finished the prayer.

**Everytime he put out his hand to have you shake it, he would pull it back. I don't think we ever got a handshake.

**Sarcasm, sarcasm, sarcasm. Now, we will admit that maybe we perpetuated this, as we aren't the least sarcastic people on the block.

**He was trying to remember people in our ward and wasn't describing them in the nicest of ways. "Is he the one with the wierd hair, she's the Korean who's not Korean but she has squinty eyes, etc." It leaves us pondering what our description will entail?!

I do have to give credit to one of them. He seemed to have his head on straight but the poor fella has a delinquent companion. Bummer for him and the rest of Santa Monica.

I also realize I might get struck by lightening for posting this but it has to be said!

I'm supposed to be finishing my devotional for camp tonight as well as packing my bag. Sarah and I are heading back up to girls camp in little bit. Instead of doing all the things I NEED to be doing, I am blogging.

I just realized I never posted this video from our trip to Yellowstone and I love it because it shows how happy Sarah is when we are outdoors and just how talkative she is.

All Grown Up

Well, not all grown up, but sometimes it seems like it. Sarah Jane is almost 9 months old...where has the time gone?

Just today (and it's only 11:15) she has grown leaps and bounds.

This morning she crawled, really crawled. She has been army crawling and is speedy at it, but this morning she did the real thing!

Then when I went to re swaddle her because she was fussing and still needs to nap, she was kneeling in the corner of her bed, ready to pull herself up. (yes, she still has to be swaddled to sleep)

Looks like Richard has an assignment tonight---lowering her crib!

Oh and yesterday she got tooth number 2!

SWEET SIRRI

After 10 days, countless tests, 1 big surgery, lots of tubes and bandages, needles, and a full body scan today---Sirri Marie is on her way home! The body scan came back clean---there are no more tumors or cancer in her body. She will have to be checked every 3 months for the next few years, but that we can handle!

Sirri, we are SO PROUD of you and are happy you get to go home. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!

I'm Lovin' It

And I'm not talking about McDonalds!

Technology is my favorite right now. We were able to talk Sirri tonight via webcam. It was wonderful being able to see her sweet face, eventhough she had oxygen tubes, bandages everywhere, and was lying in a hospital bed.

We usually talk via webcam every week and I have missed our conversations. Lisa's friend brought her laptop to the hospital so they called us as well as Kendon and the kiddos. It was really wonderful for Lis to be able to see Connor and Meg.

Sirri was in good spirits; telling us jokes she made up, eating rice krispy treats, showing her bandages, and showing Baby Sarah which teddy bear she is giving her.

Can't wait until tomorrow--Michelle is leaving her computer and we get to talk again.

So much to look forward to!!!

First of Many

Girls Camp is just around the corner. Yesterday I received the first of many boxes from UPS. In this box there are hundreds of headbands and wristbands to go along with our theme. The colors really are bright and cheery. I think the girls will like them and they make me excited for the upcoming events. It's a ton of work to prepare for but well worth it when the girls bear their testimonies in the end. Until that night, these headbands make it worth it as well. TOo CooL!

The Good News Makes Me Giddy!!!

Just thought I would share the news. This is a post I borrowed from Lisa's blog. She explains everything so much better than I would since she's there and I am far too many miles away. My mom said that Sirri watched Annie the whole way through twice in the middle of the night. Wish I was there to keep her company.

Get better quickly little Munchkin!!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Breathe
For the first time in several days, I feel like I can really breathe. I am also feeling major "let down." My body has been in crisis mode for a week straight now and finally we have some answers and they are answers of good news!The surgeon, Dr. Meyers, "the master," as she is termed around here did a fantastic job on Sirri's surgery yesterday evening. She was able to do the whole procedure with the scope, meaning that Sirri's recovery will be less painful and quicker. The tumor was lying on her esophagus and "attached" to the aorta. Because of the attachment, there was a lot scraping done to remove the tumor that will cause Sirri some extra pain. The tumor (see how I can use that word so frequently now??!?! Aren't you proud? I used to call it a mass, cause that sounded less scary to me!!!) ended up being the size of a small potatoe (larger than originally expected) and is a ganglioneuroplastoma. That means that the cells were, "half chocolate and half vanilla." Of course when we refer to chocolate, we are refering to healthy, non cancerous tissue. (Chocolate could never be the bad guy here.) And so then, the vanilla is canercous tissue. Because she was able to remove the whole tumor, we are NOT going to have to do chemotherapy treatement. That is a big sigh of relief! We have not received the pathology results yet, but the only thing that could change after seeing them, is whether it is probable that this type of tumor will come back or not. Again, the doctor is optimistic that will not be the case.Sirri is in recovery now and is in quite a lot of pain, but is managing quite well. She has three spots where they used the scope, one incisision being just large enough to remove the tumor. She also has a tube coming out of her chest that is draining fluid. This tube will stay for sevarl days. The doctors have said that incisions in the chest and side like hers tend to be the most tender and painful. She is pretty sedated with morphine and that has helped her to be able to rest. We are having to get her up and moving four times a day. She made it to the bathroom and back this morning and we are proud of her.My mom has to leave today to go on a cruise with all of her siblings and parents for my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. We (especially Sirri) will miss her so much. She has been an absolute life saver. Kendon has to leave today as well to get back to work and more importantly to see the kiddos. I am certainly not ready for either of them to leave but so is life. The bonus is that my sister Cindy is coming this afetrnoon to stay through the weekend. I'm excited about that, and if Sirri coule GET excited, she would too!We'll continue to send updates. It is kinda nice to give me something to do while Sirri sleeps.I love you all and again, thank you for all your prayers. Please don't stop praying for us. We aren't totally out of the dark yet, but we can certainly see the light.As always, if I've left anything out, or you are confused about anything let me know. Sometimes it is hard to write a story as you are living it!

Grandma Adele's Eulogy Part III

Kiddos-

It's been far too long since I wrote about your Grandma Adele. I figure that since today is her birthday it is a perfect day to finish up the talk your dad gave at her funeral...

A couple of years after they got married was when Elizabeth was born. 19__. I don’t know. If you were listening when they rattled off the dates you can figure it out. And then, she became a mom. That was her calling, to be a mom. Five years after that she decided maybe she could do better so they had Mark. And then they still weren’t satisfied so a couple of years later they had Suzanne. Suzanne was close to perfection. They thought, well, this is really great. Let’s see if we can get better. So two years later, they finally got it right and they had the perfect child. Apparently I was pretty funny looking when I was born because my mom couldn’t stop laughing. They thought maybe they could duplicate it and four years later they tried again. They had Rozanne, so they gave up! (You guys asked me to speak.) The perfect one also had beautiful brown eyes.
When she got married she wasn’t that experienced in cooking and cleaning. Dad had a bad experience with pancakes soon after they were married. And a little while after they were married he suggested to Mom that she should talk to my Grandma Atchley and figure out how she used to iron his shirts. So, when we came along, she made sure that all of us did all the chores. We had duties. We had schedules. Sweep the floor on Monday. Set the table on Tuesday. Make dinner on Wednesday. Wash dishes (or load the dishwasher a few years later).

The kids, we all loved Canada. We grew up there. Five years later it was time to move back home but none of us really wanted to. She was ready to come home. She enjoyed Canada but loved her home country.

In 1981 her sister Anne died. I remember visiting Aunt Anne in Logandale. To me she was a very nice lady with about 18 kids, but of course she meant much more to my mom. She loved her dearly and missed her tremendously.

She was very close with all of her family. At one point she was sitting in the room with some of her nieces and nephews and she knew the birthdays of all of them. We were all very impressed. My grandma Christensen sent cards to all her grandchildren on their birthdays each year. When grandma died, mom decided to do that. I think it only lasted for a year or maybe two.

In 1984 was a pivotal moment in her life. Her life was so changed she became a grandmother! If anyone had a conversation with her they knew she was a grandma. That worked out pretty well for her. Grandkids liked to be held and she liked to hold them. Grandkids liked to be read to and she liked to read to them. Grandkids liked games and she liked to play games with them. Grandkids liked cookies, she made cookies.

I decided she probably made cookies twice a week for her whole life. He journal says, "I made cookies today for the High Priest party," "I made cookies today for Relief Society," "I made cookies for the school," "I made cookies for Richard." She would ask me what kind of cookies she should make and I thought that was the stupidest question ever. There is only one kind of cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies. It says right on the recipe to double it.

I would always know when I came home there would be something. She would make rolls for Thanksgiving and mashed potatoes, enough for Mark.

In 1994, her husband got a call to be the bishop. She was to be a bishop's wife. They received a call to serve, but that was nothing new. She had been a Relief Society president, she'd been a Primary president. She continued to do service. When dad was bishop she decided that she would make blankets for all the new babies born in the ward. She had a sewing machine that printed letters and she put their names around the edges of the blanket. She found out a few weeks ago that fifteen women in the ward were pregnant and she said, "It is a good thing I'm here!"

When my dad was bishop he would council older couples in the ward to go on a mission. He had always planned on going on a mission. He decided that if he counseled people in his ward to go then he should go too. That was something they both wanted to do. They had different ideas of what they wanted to do on a mission, and where they wanted to go. She thought maybe Nauvoo. He thought somewhere out of the country.

So, it got time for their mission. Then they got the call earlier this year to go to the Abidjan Ivory Coast Africa Mission. I came home and she told me where she was going and I laughed and she cried. I was laughing and she was crying and she said it wasn't funny. That one year of French that she took in college had come back to haunt her.

She lived a life of service. She lived a life of obedience. Somebody told me a week ago that if a person dies in the service of the Lord that their mission is secure. She is on a mission. This new mission is in the same language and she won't have to struggle with that now. She will continue on that mission.

She was married in 1957, in the house of the Lord. She was married for all eternity. As part of that covenant the children go on with her. She was able to see all five of her children grow to adulthood. She was able to see with one exception all of her children get married. Now they will continue to go to the temple and serve the Lord and I know that is what she wants.

I know that the Church is true. I know that because she taught me. I know the Book of Mormon is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I'm grateful that she was such a good mother to your dad so that he would be prepared to be such a wonderful husband and father. You all (myself included) really lucked out! Make sure to have daddy tell you more stories so that we will know her better.

I love you!

(Unfortunately, I used up the majority of my pictures in the beginning two. I will have to get more pictures of her from your dad's siblings.)

The Phone Call

I just received one of the phone calls I have been waiting for.

Let me back up however and fill you in briefly. I figure that there are some of you who read Lisa's blog and haven't seen an update on her blog since Monday and have sent well wishes and prayers my families way. I have let Lisa know of your love and it is greatly appreciated!!!

At Sirri's follow up doctor's appointment on Monday they found a tumor in her back and they had them leave for Primary Children's Hospital that day. They have been there since Monday evening running tests and figuring out what to do about the tumor. It is 2-3 inches in size. They have run many tests and everything comes back okay, which we are grateful for. The doctors can't really figure out what is wrong with her and think that everything will be fine once they remove the tumor. She is in surgery now. They are hoping to remove it lapriscopicly. The surgery will take 2-4 hours to perform. It may be the longest hours of my life. I can only imagine how Lisa Marie and Kendon must be feeling.

The next phone call I am anticipating is the one where they say all is well!!!

Our family has had a lot of peace and comfort throughout this adventure and everyone is staying very positive. I am so impressed with Lis and her outlook. She is upbeat and happy whenever I talk with her. What an example! It has helped me to look at life a little differently and to really see what is important. I have some work to do!

Sirri is doing well. After today it may be a little different but up until now she's been having ice cream for dinner, riding bikes up and down the hallways, watching movie after movie, after movie, coloring, playing doctor, and being spoiled rotten--just what she deserves if you ask me!

(Lisa has updated her blog I just found out and more details can be found here!)

WE NEED A VACATION FROM OUR VACATION

We've been on vacation for 11 days and we're sad to be home. We had a wonderful time with both of our families. The trip was jam packed and we truly enjoyed every moment; except the crying carseat moments but considering the length of our trip, a few of those were to be expected.

We drove to Rexburg first and spent 5 1/2 days with Lisa-Marie, Kendon, Sirri, Connor, and Meg. Grandpa and Grandma Bigelow and Aunt Cindy joined us for the weekend. Then we went to Heber Utah for the remainder of the week. All of Richard's family was there except for Emily our neice who lives in Madison, Ryan who is in the MTC, and their dad who has a cool new job and couldn't take the time off of work. We had a blast the entire time and here are a few of the highlights...

• On Friday after we recovered from our all night, 15 hour drive, we painted rocks for their rock garden. When my kiddos are older we will have a rock garden of our own because it rocks! HEE HEE


• Saturday we went to a parade in St Anthony for Pioneer Day. (Let me just say right here and now, I want to be a rural dweller. I absolutely loved all of the small town activities we went to and think it is time for me to get out of the big city.) We ate Mill Hollow sandwiches---YUMMY!! FYI--Mill Hollow was out of circus animal cookies to put on top of their tart raspberry yogurt the entire time we were there. Yes, I went to visit family but I was SOOO looking forward to that treat. Then we had a bicycle birthday bash for Sirri and Connor.


• Sunday we went to church and had to say goodbye to GnG and Cindy. BOO-HOO! Lisa and Connor showed us their skills.


• Monday we spent the day at the Spraypark in the local park. Sarah Jane LOVED it and couldn't get enough. She really is a water baby. Rexburg holds the International Dance Festival each year and this evening they had a parade down Main Street. The groups all performed a number. They are not great dancers but it was still fun to be there. Meggers fed Sarah snowcone and Sarah gobbled it right up. Later I discovered her trying to drink from a cup I thought I had securely hidden away from her. Sugar, she just wanted sugar! (I can't say that I blame her!) Lisa Marie and I got talking about this article I read about a father who had tested out all of the things they put their babies through, thus the swaddling and nose sucker pictures (both of which we do to Sarah often!) Isn't this what siblings do when they get together or are we teh only CrAzY oNeS!?!?


• Tuesday Richard, Sarah and I headed to Yellowstone National Park and Mesa Falls. What a terrific day. We saw lots of wildlife, Old Faithful, and hiked to the Natural Bridge. We're so happy that Sarah enjoys being outdoors and that we can continue to do that many things we enjoy.
• Wednesday we said goodbye to the Jensens and headed to Heber to meet Richard's family. I wasn't ready to go yet because once again, I was loving the country life. Luckily Heber is just as country but with a little more class. Sarah didn't travel too well from Rexburg to Heber. My arm was twisted into her carseat holding the pacifier in for most the drive.


• Thursday was spent in Park City riding the Alpine Slides and the Coaster. FUN, FUN, FUN! The girl cousins wore their purple polka dot shorts and the boys wore matching gray Old Navy America T's. Sarah's shorts fit her better now than when she received them, but they still looked more like pants than shorts. She will probably be able to wear them next year which is super cool.


• Friday Richard kayaked the Provo River and I took Sarah Jane to the doctor. She had pink eye and I wanted to get her started on her drops ASAP. She's all better now. Sarah's tooth poked through her gums today. She won't let us look at it though the litle stinkbug.


• Saturday we went waterskiing in the morning. Please if you ever go tubing, sit backwards---it adds a whole new dimension to the already insane adventure. We went to lunch with Sarah Zobell in the afternoon before she leaves for grad school in CO, and then we went to Sundance Theater for a performance of "A Mid Summers Night Dream"








• Sunday we had made the trek home. 13 1/2 hours. Traffic from Vegas to LA was torture, but we expected that!


• BTW...while in Heber we had 23 people in an amazing cabin plus all of these: JUST HOW I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO DECORATE!! :)