Puppies

I haven't updated in a long time, there hasn't been a ton to write about!  I spend my days driving carpool, working in my yard or the one yard I still do through my business, taking care of the dogs (yes, dogs, plural - I'll explain), trudging through dinner duties. I'm at Huntsman often, between infusions, acupuncture, therapy, shots, my group, etc.  My last scan showed no evidence of disease.  That's my 4th scan in a row showing no evidence.  Pretty cool!  But it's bittersweet.  My cousin in Arizona has been messaging me this week because she was just diagnosed with my same disease, Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.  She is in the terrifying beginning stages, she has a PET scan on Tuesday.  She already has MS and epilepsy.  Honestly, can't a girl catch a break?!

I had chemo today. My 30 minute infusion took an excruciating 3 ½ hours.  My port was plugged again.  They have to be able to put saline in and draw blood out before they can run the poison in through the port.  Sometimes the end will get plugged up with a tiny bit of tissue or whatever.  They inject something called TPA to try to dissolve whatever is blocking it, then you wait a half hour.  Today, it was still plugged after a half hour, so I had to wait another half hour.  While I waited the 2nd half hour, I was texting my friend Belinda in Spokane.  She is an amazing, faithful woman who said she would pray "right now" that it would unclog.  I know her well enough to know that she did pray for me right then, and it worked.  Shortly after that, there was blood coming back.  Belinda, You are Amazing!

Because the port has to be working before they can even order chemo from the pharmacy, I had another long wait for the chemo to even come.  It was such a long day, I came home and crashed while Mat made cream of wheat for dinner. We joked about it being lumpy.  It was home cooking and satisfying.

My niece Jessica asked me a few weeks ago if I would come and talk for their Relief Society activity.  She asked me to talk about Legacy, because that's been a big deal for me.  It's one of the early things I worried so much about - if I had to leave my family prematurely, then what could I do now to make sure future generations know as much as possible about me.

In a nutshell:

• I'm going to write Legacy Essays on topics such as honesty, integrity, work ethic, education, having hope, charity, faith, optimism, the Atonement (what it means to me and what it can mean for you), etc. etc. 
• I started writing my personal history, not chronologically necessarily, but in clumps, things about me that I think my grandkids would want to know.
• scrapbooking has always been important to me.  Prior to 2004, nothing of ours is digital.  I'm taking apart those big, heavy Creative Memories books to digitize, prioritize and simplify what I have.  I'm building books in Shutterfly online.  When it is all digital, that will be one more back-up of precious family memories.
• I'm going to make Legacy videos that I can upload to Family Search, so my people can see me and hear me talking about important things.  I have my first one done already, me and Mat talking about my childhood.
• I want to make digital scrapbooks with stories from some of our ancestors.  I have a friend that works at Family Search.  She showed me a book once she had made for her nieces and nephews. It was a compilation of stories and pictures about their pioneer ancestors.  It was so cool!  Which family members served missions in the early church?  Who was the first to join the church on each line?  Who sailed across the ocean to come to America, where did they settle?  What ship were they on?

I went to a class at RootTech last year.  A guy who works for Family Search said this:

• Share your memories with your kids.  Studies show that knowledge of family stories can help kids better manage stress.  Other studies show that those affected by trauma can find healing through family storytelling. 
• Children who know their family stories have a higher degree of self-confidence.
• Strong family narratives are the number one predictor of a child’s emotional well being.

We were never going to have a dog.  Now we have two!  We got Bentley a few months ago from friends of ours. He is a great dog, has been relatively easy to train, he doesn't run off anymore, he listens/minds sometimes.  :)  He basically fell into our laps!  We weren't expecting on getting a dog, not a big one!

I learned about the Havanese breed years ago.  The more I researched the more I liked!  Hypoallergenic, low maintenance lap dogs, no shedding, not yappy, etc.  I was pretty much in love.  When I first talking to Mat about it in February, he was shocked - because we weren't doing a dog again!  But we talked about how a little creature might be just the thing the kids need, to have a little creature to love and help them through what could be coming.  This week, this little Havanese fell into our laps.  She's a little older as far as puppies go, 15 to 16 weeks, so she's a little unsure about where to do her business (her birth home had a dog door, we don't have a dog door) and she had 10 other little friends to play and sleep with.  So sleeping by herself, in a kennel has been a transition. Reading her cues about potty is hard for us.  So many times we've taken her out because it seemed like it was time, she'll do nothing outside and come back in and do it in our bedroom.  So there are some quirky things about her, but she is so sweet and loves everyone.  She's doing good with recognizing her name (Pyper).  And Bentley is adjusting, slowly.  They'll be chums soon!  He's pretty funny about making sure HE gets more love and affection than SHE does.  We're doing our best, we don't want him to feel like he's been replaced.  It's an adventure, I tell ya!  but I don't regret it one bit.