20 months!

Wow! I can't beleive how fast time goes. Today is 20 months smoke-free! Yahoo!!!! I tell you, I still have days when I think a cigarette would be just what I needed (like this morning driving in the snow) but then I think "How would it REALLY be to have that smoke? It is really amazing to me that I made it this far considering that I didn't really want to quit; I liked smoking! Thank heavans for my sister who saved me!

Christmas dance

Tonight's the night for the junior high Christmas dance. We successfully found some clothes for Josh to be able to wear. I told him he better dance wirh a girl so the clothes will be worth it. I will have to take a picture of him all dressed up before he goes to the dance. It's not very often he looks like that anyway.

It's almost Christmas and I'm afraid I haven't been very good at keeping this blog updated.

We are just plugging along, or trying to anyways. Marlin had his neck surgery back in July and we have since found out that they messed up his diaphragm when they were in there cause now his diaphragm is paralyzed open and any time he exerts himself he can't breathe. Nice, huh? And the thing that's really bad is that the doctor at the VA that did his neck surgery won't even own up to it. So he's had to file for an increase in his permanent disability, which they declined the first time and he's had to appeal that decision. So, needless to say, he hasn't been working and will probably end up closing his business. Too ad, it was going really good till this came along.

Josh is still swimming and doing well in school. Still can't believe he's in the 9th grade now! He has already picked out the car he wants when he's old enough to drive. I told him he better start doing a lot more chores around the house and saving his money. He wants one of the new Ford Mustangs, bright green if you can imagine.

We are going to get our and get the rest of our shopping done on Saturday. We were supposed to go get it done last Sunday but he slept till 11 and by that time I had lost all my ambition.

He has a school dance tomorrow night and we have to go down tonight to get him some dress pants. I hope we can find some that fit him....

New tattoos

So here are my new tattoos. I got the purple ribbon for my sister, the rose for myself, and the butterfly for my mom.

First day of school already????

I can't believe it's here already! Where did the summer go??? Josh is now the Senior of the Jr. High.


Last night we went to back to school night and found Josh's locker (successfully opened it) and met all his teachers for this year. I think it finally sunk in Josh's head that summer is over and it's back to work. At 9:00 last night I told him it was time for bed and he got this look on his face that said, "What!!!!! Already? but it's only 9!!!" But he went anyway. When I went to wake him up this morning he sure was anxious to get to school. Marlin gave him a ride and when he asked what time Josh needed to be there Josh said, "The sooner, the better." Just a little eager huh? the first dance of the year is this Friday even. They don't mess around, do they?

Josh also got his first driving lesson yesterday from Marlin. They went up to the Stake Center and Josh reports that he only hit 2 curbs. Marlin said he did good. There was no talk of when they were gonna do it again but Marlin did tell Josh, "Next time let's try not to hit curbs." I guess that means they will be doing it again but you never can tell.

First 5K

I did it! My first 5K!!! Of course I didn't do it alone. I wrangled everyone I could to do it with me. I managed to get Josh, Taylor (Josh's friend), Aleca and her kids and Heather (a friend from work) to come suffer with me. Josh and Taylor took 2nd & 3rd place for their age group and they didn't even try (I don't think they did anyway). It was great to cross the finish line, though. I wasn't able to run the whole thing though so I think I'll keep trying.

While we were out running, Marlin went up to Deer Creek to do some fishing and wait for us to finish the race. He managed to catch one before it got too hot. When we got done with the race we joined him up there and bbq'ed some burgers and then he pulled the kids on the tube for a bit. It was a great day but boy was I sore from the race.

Medical update

Marlin was having some trouble breathing and got winded pretty easily so Friday he went back up to the VA and had his lungs checked out. Come to find out he developed a blood clot the entire length of his left arm and a pulmonary embellism at the bottom of his lung (don't know which one). Anyway, so he's back in the hospital and will probably be there until Monday. The doctors are mostly concerned about the clot in his lung; they say the one in his arm is in a small artery and will just disintegrate on its own. I went up yesterday after work and spent some time with him and took him some dinner since he got admitted so late. While I was there, we were sitting by each other, holding hands and watching TV. Marlin let go of my hand and buzzed the nurse and when the nurse came in he commented that he was having a tingling sensation on the left side of his chest and up the left side of his face. The nurse asked him if he had gotten this sensation before and Marlin told him that he had but had associated it to his neck issues. The nurse stated that he wanted to give Marlin some nitro to see if that helped and got the EKG machine out. The nurse got an EKG reading and gave Marlin the nitro. A couple of minutes later Marlin said that the tingling had subsided and the nurse told him that he would give the readout to the doctor and have the doctor come in & talk to him. The doctor didn't come talk to him till this morning but told him that there was no evidence of a heart attack. Quite the scare! As far as we know, he is still on schedule to come home Monday.

I'm back!

I know, I know--it's been a VERY long time since I've been here. Sorry. can't believe the cummer is almost over and a new school year is getting ready to start. Let's see if I can update on some of the things that's happened over the last couple of months.....

We actually took a family vacation this year! We spent 5 days on a houseboat at Lake Powell. We included my mom & dad, and sister, niece and nephew. There was a 80's high school reunion going as well which my sis & I attended but the most fun was the time at the lake (duh!). I got to spend some time with my girlfriend, Genia, and her husband; who was kind enough to bring his guitar and entertain us for the night. Marlin also invited some friends from Prescott to join us. We all had a great time!

Josh has been doing his usual summer stuff--early morning (5 am) swim practice, then home for a little nap, then maybe some chores, then computer games the rest of the day. Repeat, repeat. He did spend a week at scout camp up in the Uintah's where he earned 5 badges. He's really close now for getting that Eagle. He's now getting ready to start school (9th grade-can you believe it????)

Marlin has had neck surgery for some disk decompression. It's been 3 weeks now and hopefully it's getting better. He's just been holding the recliner down for now but hopefully he'll be back into the swing of things soon.

I am trying to train for a 5K that Wasatch is doing on the 21st of the month. I had set a goal for myself to be able to run the whole way but the way things are going, that's not going to happen. So, I will complete the 5K but I'm going to keep that goal for myself. I would like to be able to say that I ran the whole way for at least 1 race.

Well, here's the superstar! He is wearing the medal he got for State this year. It is for the 200 freestyle he swam. He came in 6th! The certificate is from the end-of-season party they had. His coaches named him "13-14 year old most improved" along with another young man on the team. YAY ME!!!

I can't believe it's halfway through April already. On the 20th I will have been smoke-free for 1 year! I've been thinking about it a lot and am having a hard time believing it's been a whole year already. Unfortunately the whole reason why I quit (my sister) is still in the same predicament she was in when I quit. We are all just keeping our fingers crossed for her and hoping for the best.

Marlin has been working in Prescott, AZ putting a a metal building for the man we used to work for in Parker. They now have a ranch there and he is erecting the building for some horses and putting in a couple of "apartments". He's home now for a couple of days for doctors appointments because he's been having trouble with his shoulders and tingling in his hands. he got a cortison shot in each shoulder and he says that they have helped. The real test will be when he goes back down to work some more on this building. They also did an MRI on his shoulders and neck and found that he has some degeneration in his neck and that is probably causing the tingling in his hands. So, he is on another pill to try to help with that.

Tomorrow is the big State swim meet!

Tomorrow we are heading of to Bountiful for Josh to be able to swim in the State Swim meet! He will not only be swimming the event he got the qualifying time for (200 backstoke) but he is also going to be on 2 relay teams! The first relay team he will be swimming the first leg of the relay and will be doing the backstroke. The second relay team he will be doing a leg of the 400 freestyle which is 100 freestyle. In addition to that, he decided to swim 5 events for the non-qualifying (aka BC) meet. He's gonna be one tired young man after this weekend!



My sis and dad are both doing well again. Dad got his soft cast off his foot and he's been told that as soon as the blister on his heel heals he will be able to get a special shoe and start walking! This has been LONG in coming but he's taking really good care of his feet now. And, since he's been in the hospital, he's lost some weight which is really great.

Deb had another chemo treatment cause her treatment team felt that the reason she's had such a hard time keeping her potassium level up is cause the tumors in her liver became more active. She did another treatment to calm them down again. I wonder how many more treatments they will give her before they explore the option of a "live" donor? After all, that's the main reason I quit smoking & I hate the fact that they are putting her life at risk by not having me tested and ready for being her donor just in case.

Phew-made it!

Well, I managed to make it through last weekend. Between swim meet and birthday party, the jury was out whether I would make it out alive. But I have overcome!

For those who don't already know, Josh got his very first state cut! That means he finally got a qualifying time to be able to swim in the state swim meet at the end of the season, not just the B-C meet. His qualifying time is for the 200 backstroke. It was quite the surprise because that event wasn't even one he had been trying to qualify for because he had so much time to drop. He managed to drop about 28 seconds and just made the qualifying time! I was so happy that I screamed and ran to him and picked him up and swung him around a couple of times. I'm afraid I made a spectacle of myself but I didn't care. I think I was more excited about it than Josh. I don't know, maybe he was in shock or something. He has another meet this weekend. It will be his last chance to get any more state qualifying times and he has about 4 other events that are pretty close. Should be interesting to see if he gets any more.

As for the birthday party--we had it right after the swim meet got over. He had a really good turn-out. We had hamburgers and sausages, cake & ice cream. He had about 8 of his friends that camped out on the floor and we had pancakes for breakfast. They had a Wii bowling tournament but I don't think there ever was a winner cause they all kept dropping out. They also kept the neighborhood awake till midnight playing "night games." But they had a good time (at least I think they did).

Another birthday!

Can't believe it but that boy of mine and Marlin's is going to be 14 in 2 days! UUUGGGHHH! How does that happen?!?! For his party this year we are having a gaming party at the house. If everyone invited (including adults show up) we'll have around 30 people. Yikes! Since we got a Wii for Christmas we kinda figured between that and the the DS's everyone seems to have now they shouldn't have ANY trouble keeping themselves busy. Some of them will be staying over, too, so it's pancakes galore.

Josh also has a swim meet this weekend so we'll be busy playing chauffer too. He actually starts swimming tonight and will be done before his party starts tomorrow. He's hoping to give himself a really good present and get a couple, or only 1, state cuts. That would be really nice!

So much for this resolution

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to be better at posting to my blog here. And here February is almost over and I'm just now doing it.

As I sit here and think of what's happened so far this year, I guess I know why I haven't posted anything lately. Really haven't had time. My other resolutions have been to of couse, lose the weight I gained back after LA Weight Loss closed their doors and get our finances under control. I have spent many weekends trying to get that done. I have almost gotten all of the receipts accounted for and broken down into the right categories so all I have to do is put them in the program I have for balancing the books. So, maybe I'll see that resolution to the end if not the others.

Dad and Debbie were both in the hospital recently. Dad had foot surgery on his right foot and then got pnuemonia. He ended up in the hospital with what the doctors think is a staph infection. While he was there he gave us quite a scare when he quit breathing and had to be put on a ventilator. He spent 10 days in hospital and had to get another blood transfusion. But he's back home now and seems to be doing much better.

Debbie's potassium got too low once again and she had to have a potassium IV which led to them finding that her calcium was low and getting a calcium IV. She ended up spending 5 days in Huntsman Cancer hospital for all that. The doctors also asked her if she would be up to doing another chemo treatment after the results of the MRI came back and they determined whether they thought that would help her at all. As of right now, I don't know if she's going to do it or not. Will have to find out when I see her next weekend.

I can't beleive Josh is going to be 14 next weekend! This year he's decided to have friends & family over to play the Wii and have hamburgers & sausages. He was thinking about going laser tagging but that's a little more than we can handle this year. His swimming is still going good. He has about 4 events that he's still SO close to getting his state cuts.

Well, it's over....

Another Christmas come and gone...can't believe how fast the last yea has gone by! Christmas was great for us. Josh let us sleep in until about 7 so that was good. After all the gifts were opened, we loaded everything up in my truck and headed to my mom and dad's house for more gifts and dinner. Yum! It was a great day for us all! I love being able to spend time with my family. Amber, Nate & Desi and Adam came up also. It was wonderful being able to spend some of Christmas with them, too. We did see Ty & Ashly later that night when they stopped by on their way home from their daily adventure. Carter & Jaxson were asleep so we didn't get to see them open their gifts but I'm sure they loved them.

WOW!!!

Where does the time go? I can't believe I haven't been here in such a long time!

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was great! Most everyone from Marlin's family was able to make it to Robert's (his brother) house in Alpine. We were all fat & happy when all was said and done. It was great to see everyone and be able to spend some time with them all. Thanks to everyone who helped to make it such a special holiday!

Marlin's father-in-law passed away earlier that week so along with Thanksgiving we all gathered to pass along our final farewells as he left this world and joined Arlene in Heaven. We will all miss you, Marcus!

After the funeral we drove up to Layton for an extended family wedding reception. It was all beautiful and I'm so glad we were invited!

Josh has been busy in the pool, too. He now has 2 "B" times. That means that there are certain times that you have to have to be able to swim at the Invitational meets or the B/C meets. Up till now he has had to swim in the B/C meets but he will be able to swim in Invitational meets for the 2 events that he now has! Yahoo! He's getting ever so close to those State cuts!

I am just busy trying to get ready for Christmas & keep my sanity. I now have 7 months smoke-free so I guess the sanity would be long gone by now if it was gonna go. Guess I'm stuck with it!

6 months smoke free!!!

Just a quick post - I am 6 months smoke free today!

Truck set him back

Talked to Marlin the other day and he informed me that I needed to get another job to help pay for his truck that he managed to wreck.

From what I could gather the story goes like this--they were in his truck headed back up to the cabin and he was trying to avoid potholes and ruts in the dirt road, hit some gravel on the side of the road and ran into a tree stump effectively knocking out his front right tire. The truck had to be towed into town and is estimated to be $7800 worth of damage. Thanks heavens for car insurance! We only have to pay the deductible and hopefully the premiums won't be going up. Apparently it's going to take 3 weeks to get it fixed so Marlin's plan is to finish the work on the cabin and then rent a truck to come home. Then when it's fixed he'll have to go back up to get it.

So, instead of being home this weekend, we're looking at maybe Weds. or Thurs., depending on how things go the next couple of days.

Is he coming home?

Talked to Marlin on Sat. and he tells me that he thinks he may be heading home next weekend! I'm not holding my breath cause it's still a week away but that's better than hearing, "Two more weeks." He says that things seem to finally be coming together and the weather has been helping them out so they've been able to get things done - finally.

The only bad thing about him coming home is the fact that I still haven't gotten the things done that I wanted to. Well, I guess they're not going anywhere so I'll just have to find the time somewhere else. I guess I need to quit reading books while Josh is at swim practice and start working on that "stuff".

Better go eat before it's cold.

Last weekend

Marlin is back in Montana after spending a couple of weeks in Idaho with Lynn. Hopefully he'll be home in a couple more weeks. What a long time it seems like he's been gone this year.

I haven't, of course, gotten any of the stuff done that I wanted to get done since Marlin's been gone. That doesn't surprise me, though. I never seem to get the stuff done then I resolve to get it done next time he's gone. Etc, etc, etc.

Josh spent Friday night on a scout camp-out up at Schofield. They came back Sat. about noon. He must have had a really good time cause he sure was tired the rest of the weekend.

When Josh got back from his camp-out we went up to watch Nikki in her pageant, the Miss Jr. Teen Salt Lake City pageant. She was SO beautiful! It was a really long pageant (started at 4 pm and ended about 10 pm) but great to watch her be able to participate in something like that! I remember when I participated in mine (many moons ago). It all seems like a blur but it sure was fun! I'm glad she got to enjoy it. Something like that may only come around once in a lifetime. We spent Sat. night and most of Sunday at my mom & dad's. Sure love spending time with my family!

Josh in school

Well, it's been a couple of week since Josh started school and I guess he's liking it pretty good so far. He has yet to have any homework but I think that will be changing soon. He can't really go the whole year without homework can he? He was picked to be a library assistant so he got to drop one of his classes that he originally signed up for. Some days he's not done anything but make a couple of copies and read! Wish I had classes like that when I was in school! I was a bad mom this year and didn't get a picture of him on the first day. Shame, shame!

I have been busy trying to figure out what we do with all our money (not that we get a lot of it) since Marlin has been in Idaho and Montana. So, I spend all day at work looking at the computer and come home and look at the computer some more. Fun huh?

Going to cut this update short cuz I'm pretty tired and am having a hard time thinking straight right now.

More later!