It's the end of May and in two days Neal will be graduating from high school. I can't believe that in a few months I will have a son in college. In celebration of our oldest child graduating and my good news of being in remission, we took the kids to Hawaii. Actually, it was more of a beginning of the end trip, since Neal's graduation is the beginning of the end of our family being young. We had a great time, I wish we had taken the time to do something like this more often. I think that we will always remember this trip and how much fun we had. The kids loved snorkeling and hanging out at the beach. Dallin's favorite was Pearl Harbor - no surprise there. Dave and I just enjoyed having our family together. It was so relaxing and that is something that we often lack in our crazy sport involved lives. The weather was quite rainy, but it was just enough to cool us off, and the rain showers never lasted too long. Fun times!

Anyway, we are super excited for Neal! He will be able to get 1 year of college in before he leaves on his mission. Dallin will be starting his junior year and is super excited for football season to start again. Eilene has started cheer again (it seems like it just ended) and almost has her back handspring down. And Mitch will start his first year in middle school. WOW! My youngest in middle school, now that makes me feel old.

I will finally be taking that trip to Holland with my parents and two of my sisters this summer! We are all very excited. And while we are gone, Dave is taking the kids backpacking. I will try not to think about it too much because I can't stand not being in control! Just kidding (well actually I have a little anxiety about not being there to watch over my kids...) I guess it will be good for me. Then there is every kind of camp you can think of...football, basketball, cheer, scout, girlscamp...And before we can blink the summer will be over...I hope that by then we will have some warm weather!

Wow! Time really flies when you are focusing on healing and getting your life back to normal. I can't believe that the last time I wrote I was just finished with my radiation treatments. It has been 3 & 1/2 months since then and I am doing great! I just got word from my doctor that my last Pet Scan (2 weeks ago) was great and I am officially in remission! I can't say how relieved my family and I are. Physically, I am doing pretty good. My hair is about 1 & 1/2 inches long and is slightly wavy. I have been working really hard at getting back in shape (wanting to lose the 10 lbs I put on during chemo is a big motivator) and am running 3-4 miles a day. I feel like quitting every day and have to really talk myself into it, but I am slowly growing to love the extra energy and strength that I feel from it. I still haven't seen the long awaited weight loss though, but i am still hopeful that it will come. I can't figure it out really, other than the fact that I have been very ill for a long time (1 & 1/2 years) and during that time I lost a lot of muscle, I can only hope that I have been building up lost muscle and will soon start seeing results! I have lost about 6 lbs so far, so I'm making snail like progress.
Yes, I did just say that I gained 10 lbs from chemo. I know it seems wierd, and I asked my doctors about it at the time. I thought that at least if I was on chemo I would finally loose all my baby fat from my last child. (I know he's eleven now, but he was a BIG baby!) Well, unfortunately for me, I am one of the many people who actually gain weight from chemo, probably from all the steroids they had me on during my treatments. My doctors told me it was very normal and that about half of their patients gain weight during treatments. Just my luck!
On another note, Dave and I are taking the kids to Hawaii for spring break. It will be our last big family vacation before Neal graduates. I am so excited! I am also a little sad...it marks the beginning of my children growing up and leaving home. I knew it would happen one day, I just never really thought that day would come so quickly. But I guess there are other adventures to have, like being a grandma, and according to my sisters, being a grandma is way better than being a mom. I just hope I don't find out about that for at least another 5 years or so!!!
Aloha!!!