The angels are always near to those who are grieving, to whisper to them that their loved ones are safe in the hand of God. ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book

August 22

The angels are always near to those who are grieving, to whisper to them that their loved ones are safe in the hand of God.  ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book

On Monday night we received the sad news that Marisa and Kayla’s friend, Jeff Hasara (16 yr old), had lost his battle with cancer. They were devastated. I think our whole ward was. Jeff was diagnosed last year with a bone cancer when he received x-rays for a broken arm. Many boys in our ward shaved their heads along with him when he started chemo. Eventually he had to have his arm removed hoping that it would get all the cancer out. It didn’t stop Jeff. He was snowboarding, surfing, skiing, and even hunting. The tumor returned and became so large it broke through the skin. The doctors finally said there was nothing left for them to do. His testimony is incredibly powerful. If you go to this website you can read his testimony and see his pictures.

Portraits and testimony

Family website with pictures

(Jeff surfing)

On Wednesday, a huge benefit was held for him at the Mongolian Grill called “Hu Hot”. The youth from all 3 wards were there helping to sell leis and Hawaiian shirts (all Jeff’s favorites). All the profit from meals and products they sold that night went to the fund to help the family pay the enormous amount of medical bills.

We went to the viewing on Thursday. Tyler and Alayna had never been to one before and I felt it would be a great teaching moment for them. When Jeff’s dad came to give me a hug he broke down in deep shaking sobs and I just lost it. All I could think about was how much this family was hurting, but how grateful I was for this amazing, inspiring teen whose influence will last in my girls memories forever. Once again, I never want to know how it feels to lose a child.

At YW this week they had leaders there to talk with the youth. On Wednesday, the 1st day of school, all the teens wore black ribbons around their wrists in his honor. The girls went to the funeral and I think it was good closure for them. The entire chapel and gym were filled with family, and friends from the high school. The family is burying him in Utah on Tuesday.

Causing a scene at the hospital

I took the girls to get their physicals and flu mist the day before school started. They did fine until they had to get the finger poke done for the blood work. Now, the last time we did this Marisa passed out at the doctor’s office. So, she looked woozy, but I was watching her very close. As we headed down the skywalk to the parking lot, both girls sat down at the same time on a bench. Like I said, I was watching Marisa because I was afraid she would faint. I looked over to check on Kayla and saw her eyes flip up in her head; she tipped over slamming her head into a pole, and collapsed into a heap wrapped around the pole before I could even get to her. It scared me to death, but I think it scared her even more. People were rushing to help us and a cop and nurse were on the scene within minutes. That’s the advantage of passing out in the hospital. They wheeled her up to the dr  in a wheelchair and she looked exactly like her vampire picture but without the golden eyes. When we got to the room they checked her blood pressure which was only 80/56! It was at that point I realized Marisa wasn’t with us. I found her in the lobby, slouched in a chair looking super pale. What the heck? Anyway, they kept both girls there for about 30 minutes until they could get Kayla’s blood pressure up and stabilized.

School started

School started on Wednesday and we were all still in shock that it’s that time of year already. Seriously, where did my summer go?? Everyone was excited, but nervous. Everyone reported a very successful day and we are all looking forward to a fun filled adventurous year.

I took some pictures of my classroom too.

(Helping set up the classroom)

Saturday

Bob made some awesome homemade pizza sauce (7 small jars). We also canned 4 jars of just tomatoes this week. I think they are starting to slow down. We deep cleaned the house, mowed both lawns, did the grocery shopping, etc. Its always such a busy day. We also went to out to exercise: Bob and Alayna rode bikes on the nature trail while the rest of us played tennis (trying to get Tyler ready for Monday).

And the summer comes to an end…

August 15

Teen Week

The girls had another fantastic teen week at the Harts in Illinois! I am so proud of Marisa making the long trip there and back and Kayla being the awesome navigator (using the TOMTOM of course!) Here’s what they did the few days they were there:

Sun. - Arrival (finally all together about 4:30), played a few games, planned our week, dinner

Mon. - Temple (each of them performed 10 - 11 names, 64 all together), lunch in park, Nauvoo Scavenger Hunt, Visitor's Center and movie, Adventure Zone (go carts, video games, table tennis, pizza), BYU International Folk Dancers, Play Station American Idol.

Tues., - Service Project (lifting and transporting old mattress to dumpster), Photo Scavenger Hunt, lunch, American Idol, BB Gun shooting, Mystery Theater, dinner, 5 min. Masterpieces, watched last year's Teen Week DVD, Make Me Laugh Game, Latter-Day Night Live DVD.

Holey Moley! More canning!

We started out the week making 7 jars of spaghetti and 5 cans of tomatoes. Yesterday we made 10 more jars of salsa! I’m excited that we will have all these during the winter! Speaking of looking forward to the cold…

And so it begins…

Our first day back to school (as teachers), my room had no AC. It was unbearably hot (at least 100 degrees I swear) and I couldn’t open the windows because we were under a heat advisory and the temperature outside with the heat index was over 100! Do you remember the wicked witch in “Wizard of Oz” when she gets water thrown on her and she starts screaming, “I’m melting! I’m melting”? That was me. (It was all dramatic like that too!) If I had had the pointy hat and the cape on, the kids would say that it matched my personality that day as well.

The temperature was much better the next day and my room is all set up and looking great. I have been working hard getting everything organized for those 1^st few days of school which start this Wednesday.

The end of summer

Our kids are trying to live up their last few remaining days of freedom. I have this gut feeling it’s gonna be a long year! We went to cold stone one night and tried out Zoe’s pizza on another. We went walking too, but it was so hot we almost had more “melting” incidents.

(Does this scream Iowa or what?)

My marvelous magnificent magic migraine shot

I have been having migraines for quite some time. This time, the headache lasted 6 days and I knew I needed to get into a doctor quick when I started spending my day thinking of all the ways I could detach my head from my body. Bless that doctor’s heart- he gave me a shot of Immitrex which made the headache go away. I almost jumped over the table to give him a giant hug, but I thought better of it. Anyway, now that I’ve been diagnosed, I will be going into meet with my doctor to come up with a preventative plan. That will be super-awesome!

Swimming lessons

Alayna finished up her swimming lessons. She got brave enough to do the diving board on the last day! She even went 4 times! I had to work so I didn’t get to see it, but Marisa took some pictures for me.

(Alayna on the diving board)

Tyler, the comedian

Tyler is one of the funniest kids I know. He is like this walking beam of joy. He said a couple of really funny things this weekend that I just have to share.

Friday night, we watched this movie called “The Invisible”. The main girl character wore her hair up in a knit cap for most of the movie. At the end, she took the cap off and Tyler said, “Why would she wear that dumb hat when she has such beautiful hair?” We all stared at him with our jaws dropped and then started laughing. He made a good point!

Yesterday, while canning salsa, I put on my new favorite song called “Like we used to” by Rocket to the Moon. It’s kind of a sad song where this couple broke up, and the girl has a new boyfriend and the old boyfriend wants to know if she does stuff with the new boyfriend like she used to do with him. (How’s THAT for an explanation?) Anyway, at the end of the song, while peeling tomatoes, Tyler said, “I have NO idea why she broke up with that guy. He sounds like such a nice guy!”

So, between that, and him crump dancing to a slow 80s song, he keeps us very entertained!

How much can you pack into one day?

We should win some sort of prize for all we accomplished yesterday! We made 10 cans salsa and 6 frozen meals for when school starts (2 enchiladas, turkey broccoli casserole, manicotti, shell noodle casserole, etc). We deep cleaned the house, mowed the front and back yards as well as weeded them. We made PB cookies with the kisses on top. We watched a movie. I did about 4 hours of work for school (like taping spoons on my pencils so I can deter students from being pencil-stealers!) We did the laundry, the dishes, and finished off a giant list of things to do. Sometimes we totally rock!

(Taking a break from canning to dance)

And this sums up how we all felt when the day was done (I didnt get to bed until 2!)

"If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers." - Edgar W. Howe

What do we do to fill those last days of freedom?

10. Yes! We can can!

We used a super secret formula on our tomatoes and guess what happened? Well, we have tomatoes coming out of our ears! We love it! This week we made 10 cans of salsa:

(Official Jalapeno chopper)

(adding cilantro)

And 10 cans of spaghetti:

And 7more cans of salsa:

If you ask me, they TOTALLY rock! I smell like tomatoes now. So, I was tempted to wear red today so I could smell AND look like a tomato. But, I refrained.

9. Alayna learned to dive in the deep end this week!

8. Book Marathon

I have finished 16 books for ITA. Working on the next 3. I have lots of great book recommendations if anyone wants any.

7. Modesty Project

Marisa and Kayla had friends over to help them with their massive modesty project for personal progress. They have been cutting out pictures in magazine to show how you can be modest despite what the current trends are. I think they are up to 12 posters. I will take a picture again when it’s all done.

6. Train for a 5K in the rain!

I swear that running in the rain is so amazing! Its refreshing and you don’t feel like you will pass out from sweating like a piggy. Marisa and Kayla went with me. We came home soaked, yet refreshed!

(Soaking wet from the rain)

5. Family night at the pool

One night we decided to go to the Noelridge pool to celebrate the end of summer (even though we don’t want to celebrate it, we want to PROLONG it!) Bob and the kids had fun going down the slides and off the diving board. I lounged on a chair, reading more of my books in perfect weather!

4. Mother/Daughter Personal Progress Night

We had a fun mother/daughter night! I even had 2 extra daughters that night! They went over the new program again and the girls shared some of their projects that they are working on. Did you know they are encouraging all moms (and even grandmas) to go through the program again? So, my girls are trying to get me to join them in their quest. We made these adorable certificates to go along with the new bookmarks they can earn.

3. A SUPER date night

Marisa and her friends, Meg and Alyssa, planned a fun group date for Saturday with Jordan, David, and Garrett. They rotated who their date was throughout the night which I thought was a cool idea. They started off here at our house making cookies. They were allowed one glance at the recipe and then they had to measure it and mix it with their hands. It was a competition in teams. Then they played Book of Mormon trivia down the stairs (moving 1 step as they answered correctly) to go watch Brian Regan . Then they went to Wal-Mart and did a food scavenger hunt. After that, they went to dinner at Wendy’s and then watched Monty Python at Alyssa’s house. I heard they all had a wonderful time! Maybe we adults should plan dates like this!

2. Summer is where the girls go barefoot and their hearts are just as free as their toes

The girls decided to hang out with friends on Monday (as if they haven’t been hanging out with each other all summer!) They went to the mall (and played UNO in the middle). They watched “Elf” and even had a sleepover at our house. This group is inseparable.

1. My last days of freedom

The kids helped me unpack most of my classroom this week. I was super organized so it was pretty easy. My first official day back is Thursday!

Girls left for teen week. I know I’m an overprotective mom, but I do worry about Marisa driving into another state for the 1^st time!

(Putting up the bathroom shelf)