WHAT HAPPENED?

Much has happened this past week, and without time to post each separately. Sorry it is such a long post. (I can't just leave it out!)

HEALTH:
Terry had a doctor visit Monday, a CAT scan Tuesday, and another doctor visit Wednesday. The report is that he starts a new chemo treatment Monday the 15th of Dec. This set of treatments is called fludarabine, will be given once a day for five days in a row, every 4 weeks, for about 6 rotations. They say that this should be easier on him than the last chemo he had, so we are anxious to find out if that is the case. Each treatment should take no more than an hour, where the last kind took him anywhere from 9 hours to about 5 hours each. We will have to drive every day for this kind, and that isn't too exciting if there is snow. These treatments can be done in Wenatchee or in Moses Lake, depending upon our request and their availability at the time. Moses Lake is more limited, with only 3 chairs, but Wenatchee has at least 18. Nothing new about the stem cell transplant, except that we plan to have a consultation set up for sometime this spring.

WOW!
Elaine got her hair cut. Not too newsworthy, because the style didn't change too much, but it is quite a change since she got about 12 inches taken off. It still lays slightly over or at the shoulder, and used to be to her waist.

TRAVEL / COLLEGE / COUNSEL / FAMILY:
We left for Rexburg after school Thursday, spent the night in Ontario, and went the rest of the way Friday. Friday night we attended BYU-I graduation. It was very satisfying to have our children there among the graduates. Megan - Political Science, and Brandon - Construction Management/Architecture? Megan is done, Brandon will continue until Spring. The ceremony was beautiful, not in decor, but in Spirit. Such wonderful advice was given, I had to write it down. I'll share just a bit here, cause it's important for us all, and I want to remember it.

President Clark - 1. Do not let the world get into your heart, pay a full tithe and a generous fast offerings..., 2. Always accept and always magnify callings, and always volunteer (be the first to say "Here am I, send me!")...., 3. Keep the Spirit with you, don't drive it away.... You have a marvelous destiny.

President Uchtdorf - Don't be guided by your fears, be guided by the Lord. 1. Draw near unto Him. You need Him, He wants to help you..., 2. Continue learning, by study and by faith..., 3. Organize yourselves and prepare every needful thing. Establish a house of order.... Establish divine priorities. Never compromise your devotion to the Lord. Eliminate all unessential. You sow what you reap. Make your life an eternal success story. You have the potential to raise a righteous, eternal posterity. You can do this. GO FORWARD AND BE GOOD!

I really enjoyed the graduation and the goodness that we felt there.
Equally satisfying was the fact that we saw family. Of course, we saw Brandon and Megan. Gregory and Adena and their kids came too, so we enjoyed being with them for a short while before they move to Blythe, California the end of this month. We were able to meet more of Megan's family and see her parents again. And, we got to visit with Bryan and Sherri and their children for about an hour before heading home. Family is where it's at! Another thing they said at graduation was - don't focus on money, family is most important! We agree!

We left Rexburg Saturday afternoon because of the snow storms, but got out of the snow about a couple hours or so out of Idaho Falls. We had good roads then the rest of the day, and stopped at Mountain Home for the night. It snowed that night and we had snowy roads all the way to our home, taking us about and hour and a half longer than normal to get here, but we had no problems of our own, though we saw a few other vehicles with some issues. It was a great visit, and we are glad we were able to go, but we are happy to be in the comfort and warmth and safety of our own home.

PATRIARCHS:
Elaine's father has been released from the Stake Presidency in Longview, and is now called as the Stake Patriarch. This has brought with it a great feeling, one almost of rejoicing. It is so satisfying to know that our father / grandfather is worthy and willing to accept such a responsibility. We know that our Heavenly Father loves him and trusts him to fulfil this calling well. We too, know that he will. This call makes us want to be a bit better, and someone that he can be pleased to call his daughter, his son, his grandchild. We are certainly pleased to call him our father / grandfather. We do not want to tarnish his name. We love him. We hope to rise to the occasion, and we ask for forgiveness for our weaknesses and short comings.
Now, equally important is our mother / grandmother who is at his side and supporting him in this new responsibility, just as she has been for over 50 years now. Much will be required of her with this calling, and we know that she will be an angel at his side, still.

GREETINGS:
We are loving the Christmas greetings that have been sent our way. We are finding a few more family and friends with blogs and are enjoying checking in on them occasionally. Blogging is awesome! It is one of my favorite ways to send and receive greetings, even if it is somewhat limited in audience. I don't require much for an audience :) It's probably best to have only a few :) And, it only has to be viewed by those who want to view it. Our newsletter this year was quite simple and not so informative of what happened for the year, but we have been blogging for most of the year now and hope that others can keep updated thru that venue. We do enjoy sending Christmas greetings, and hope that our newsletter did or does accomplish that.

FRIENDS:
We were happy to attend Jake and Portia's ward last week for Conner's blessing. We are so excited for their family. We went to their house for lunch after church and found a pleasant surprise. As we were all introducing ourselves a familiar name was said, one that is not very common, so it tugged on Elaine's heart and reminded her of a good friend in school - all twelve or thirteen years of school. It was the same name, and surprise - even the same person - Dee Dee was there with her husband and couple children. What a welcome reunion it was. She is still a wonderful person (of course), and she has a great family. We hope that life continues to treat them well.