I love Utah

I finally got to fly up to Ogden Utah to see Carolee and Jeff and thier new home. It's beautiful and they live in such a beautiful neighborhood!  I had such a great time. I traveled up to Utah with my grand daughter Julia. She had such a blast being with Brooklyn and Trenton. 

We made yummy cinnamon rolls

We had a fun day going into Salt Lake and doing all the touristy things,

This is Jeff's FIRST day of official Work.. We are so proud of Jeff !

And this is thier beautiful new home

Bill and I look forward to going up to Utah and being with them again.

Carolee has plans to do some beautiful things to the inside of the house. Will be fun to see.

Where did the Summer go?

Did your summer go by as fast as mine did? 
In June Candice and Lyla and Jackson came for three weeks so that Troy could stay back in Arizona and study for important tests without the distraction of little ones.
In July our family along with everyone except the Biehns and Palmers stayed at a fantastic beach house in Newport Ca. We had a blast being together, and made wonderful memories. Our grandchildren love being together and it's such a wonderful time building memories.

August, Candice and Troy came back and we had the Biehns come too! It was so fun to be all together. Our family sure loves each other for which I'm so grateful.

and now it's September all ready!  
I flew up to Utah to see Jeff and Carolee's new house in Ogden. It's a dream! I love it here. The mountains are so beautiful.  I'm so happy for thier family and thier new live.

Life is good, it does have challenges, but I'm grateful for all that our family has.

Jeff and Carolee my Heroes

I"m so happy and excited for Jeff and Carolee. Tomorrow is Jeff's last official day of his fellowship program. For those who aren't real aware of what that is, when  you become a doctor if you "specialize" in your area of expertise it's called a fellowship.  Jeff decided to not only be an orthopedic doctor but to specialize in spine surgery.
I cannot imagine of what it's really been like for them all these  years. When they first got married Jeff went and graduated from Chiropractic school ( Three  Years). Soon after he was finished he felt he needed to go on a become an Orthopedic Doctor.    He was lucky to be accepted into Western School  in Pomona. That was a four year program of grueling hours and hard tests! I can account many Saturdays he stayed up in his bedroom and studied. I remember telling him that my head would have exploded!  He was so dedicated to his school work!
After four years at Western, and two weeks before his joyful graduation he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. We were all in shock and so very sad and scared. But Jeff was a real man and pushed through getting his surgery done and radiation treatments during his month off before he started his rotations at the hospital.  About 5 months later he ended up needing more surgery to remove lymph nodes in his neck.  The day after he was released from the hospital he was flying a "red eye" special to go interview in Chicago. He pushed through and kept his appointment. and the following Monday morning again at his rotation.
After his first year of residency here in California he then was accepted to his Ortho program in Erie , Pennsylavania, where it was a difficult program because MOST of the time Carolee and him were separated. He lived at the hospitals becasue he was on call and it was too far to drive back  home. Carolee was left for months at a time by herself with the three children.  Winters were tough in Erie, digging out the car with the huge snow drifts.  They lived in Erie for four years.
His 6th year they have been living in Plano Texas where his spinal training has been.
So add up the years
3 years college
3 years chiropractic
4 years medical school
5 year residency
1 year fellowship
16 years of hard hard work!
Carolee and Jeff are my heroes! 
They have a great new house, a great new job and I wish them the very  very best. I know Jeff will be a wonderful caring doctor and his patients and fellow doctors and nurses will appreciate his skills , his intergity and knowledge. 

I wish they could live next door to me, but I"m excited for thier new home in Ogden, Utah.
And while they have done all that, they have had three of the cutest , most well behaved kids in the world ( well sometimes Brady is a pill, but he's so cute )
I sure love you guys.
mom

June is already over

Summer is flying by already, For the month of June, Candice  Lyla and Jackson came to stay with us without Troy so he could stay behind and study study study. Whew, having little ones is fun but oh at times exhausting.  The last week ended up being pretty difficult. First Jackson got sick and then Bill got sick, then I got sick and then Candice got sick. My ol My, it was the pitts. none of us felt like doing anything. Poor Candice she really suffered. We all feel this is the worse summer cold any of us had ever had. Candice is back with her hubby now and so happy to be home. I"m happy that my nose is getting un plugged. Isn't that a grand thing?

We also had another cousin get married in the San Diego temple. that is always fun to be with loved ones and to experience a wedding. Congrats to Jeffrey and Jessica Pehl.

so much for them being upright!

Yesterday we had our little grandson Mack get baptised. He sure is a sweet little guy, it was a priviledge to be there with him.

We are looking forward to our Beach trip coming up soon

Never a dull day

Ryan was talking to dad tonight on the phone , and he was wondering if we get board...

 

hmmm, not really, life is good for us, I told Ryan 20 years ago I didn't have much free time with doing 6 trips a day to schools, piano lessons, young women's, scouts, school open houses, doctor appts,  church callings, visit teaching..

 

shopping and feeding a family of 6 kids!  trying to keep the laundry up, and working at Dad's office about twice a week... hmm back there I was never board, well maybe because some of what I did was routine!

 

now my life is great!

I love that I don't have to do anything if I don't want too.... sound selfish, well a little, but what I love now is that I have freedom. whoo hoo.. and of course the freedom to try and always do good things, Every night in my prayers I ask Heavenly Father to help me to find someone who might need my help , I love that I can do genealogy stuff, I love that I can help a neighbor who needs dishes washed or laundry done, I love that I can drive someone who needs me to take them, I love that I can help my daughters when they are overwhelmed,

I love that I can volunteer at the temple. I feel blessed that I have good health.

 

so life is good, even though we do miss our kiddies.

 

tomorrow I"m going with dad to his dr's appt.  Tuesday I'm going to baby sit for Taryn while she takes Macy to her dentist appt. Wed. I'm going out to lunch with a   friend!   Thursday I"m getting my nails and toenails done.. Friday I work at the temple..  Yep, Not much , but it's great, and of course if I want I get a 30 mins power nap ( I LOVE THOSE)

I water my tomatoes and  get excited to see them growing , my house improvements will be done and that will be nice.

well, nope we aren't board,  Life is good,

mom

 

my next genealogy project is maybe doing Grandpa Lo's life , if not I'll think of something, I want to learn and do.

oh the possibilities.

A quick trip to Arizona

Since our family celebrated Easter a week earlier I flew down to Arizona to help out Melissa and Candice for a few days.It's always good to be in AZ, I love that place! I love the smell of orange blossoms this time of year.
It was a busy week for me one of these days my girls are going to have to realize that I"m getting older and can't do as much as I ( they) would like!

It's good to see the grand kids, they are growing up so fast, especially Jackson, he just turned 6 months old and he's crawling!  He's such a happy kid to, so fun. Lyla loves for me to be there, she's with me every minute and even took to wanting to sleep by me in the twin blow up bed!  Funny  thing I guess my snoring bothered her becasue she told me I was "too loud"  ha ha

I'm getting anxious for Jeff and Carolee to move to Utah. It has been a long very difficult road to become a doctor, but they have done well. He is going to be a spine surgeon in Ogden Utah with two other doctors in a clinic there. We are very proud of the both of them!

Jake is going to Brazil on his mission June 12th. wow, wasn't he just a little boy? and Trevor went on his first date.

Bill started shaking a little on his right hand so we went back to the Dr. and he upped the "juice " in his battery which stopped the shaking, He says he feels a little unbalanced in his walk but it's a better trade off than his shaking. He still feel so grateful for everything.

I've planted my garden and sure look forward to those fresh tomatoes! 

I love spring, I'm really enjoying life!  I feel very blessed

Brain Surgery

Yes February 27th was when Bill went to UCI hospital and had Deep Brain Stimulation surgery.
We were nervous but anxious to have this procedure done. Bill has been shaking more and more with his Parkinson's disease. We however feel that we were blessed to find two wonderful , smart neurosurgeons willing to help him in this endeavor. Dr. Frank Hsu is wonderful!
the night before surgery Ryan came over and gave Bill the most beautiful blessing ever. It gave us so much peace and hope for a good future. Thank you Ryan!
The morning of surgery we had to be at the hospital at 5:15 am. for 7:15 surgery. As we walked in to the waiting room there we were met by Bill's childhood friend Scott Grove. Oh,  how we love Scott, just his surprise visit and him being there lifted our spirits so much. He waited with us the two hours, he kept us laughing about old times with Bill as a teenager. ( he was a character)  Joy also came early  to see her Dad off.
so sweet to have her there with me, it  helped to pass the time so much easier.
Each one of our kids have been so concerned for thier Dad, it is so sweet to have them call us and tell of thier love and prayers for him and me.
Many friends and ward members were also praying for Bill's successful surgery, We appreciate it so much, and believe me we have felt those prayers.

Originally the surgery would have lasted about 4 1/2 hours, well, 7 hours later Bill was still in surgery! Whew, worry time, but I did feel he was in good hands and that they were just trying to be extra careful and exact. He was a guinea pig in that normally they do this surgery in two procedures but they wanted to do it in ONE.  After nine hours I was able to see him and he had a smile on his face when I saw him, he felt wonderful, thank goodness for good drugs! 

I however was spent! nine hours of waiting did me in, I stayed with him for a couple of hours and then I went across the street to the Ayres Hotel and crashed! 
Unfortunately during the night Bill got very nauseated and threw up and was miserable.  I wouldn't have been able to stay with him because he was in an  ICU ward.
I got back to the hospital at 8:00 am and he was still sick to his stomach, ( not much pain in his head though)  after he threw up they gave him a shot for nausea and he fell asleep, then he was able to eat and started feeling better.
We left the hospital around 3:00 pm and we were both so happy to be home.
Bill has been so strong to go through all of this, We feel very blessed that we got the surgery and that he doesn't seem to have any effects from surgery other than nausea and some pain from his chest where they inserted the battery pack,
here are some pictures from this day,
by the way, Bill was soooo happy they didn't shave him bald.

the last picture is of us LEAVING for home