Rosie's alphabet

A Working Woman?? Hah!

Well, it is true. I am looking for a job I can do from home. Some kind of internet job, I know there has to be something out there and I've been researching it the last few days. I just need to work a few hours a day on the computer. If anyone knows of anything please let me know. It seems like there are lots of opportunities out there, but how to distinguish between the legitimate ones and the scams? They all seem like scams to me and we can't afford to send each of these people $50 or $100 to each of these places to find out if they are legit.

So, anyone knows of anything that is legit, please let me know.

My Health

I have been doing pretty well. The problem now is that I need to rebuild the muscle in my legs and back. Lying flat on my back for 2 1/2 months just caused everything to atrophy - disgusting! I just got some more tests done; a bone scan and a CT and I'll have the results the end of the month so I will know more then.

A lot of people keep asking me when I'll be done with the Chemo and the answer is: Never. That is what is going to keep the cancer from eating up all my bones and organs, well, it won't stop it but it will slow it down. The stuff they have me on now is probably the strongest and certainly the newest stuff. I will stay on this until the tests show that the cancer is moving quickly again and then they will try me on some other type of chemo and that will be the game, switching chemo therapies trying to stay ahead of the cancer. My last tests did show the tumors in my liver are smaller - that is such miraculous news and not really expected. As I said, the hope is just to slow it down, stop it from getting much bigger very fast.

We have total faith in the Lord. Our struggle, as always, is trying to live the commandments, keeping the spirit with us all the time, and being the best people we can be. From time to time we get a big wake-up call that tells us we need to get back on track and that is where we are now. We know the Lord can't give us the blessings he intends for us unless we are doing what we are supposed to be doing too. We are grateful for all the prayers from all of you who love us. You have prayed life into me and kept my family going and we love you all so much.

Rosie Reads.....

Rosie loves reading letters! She can pick out about 1/2 of them. Her pronunciation isn't too perfect, but she has so much fun. She calls "r" roe-roe which is her name for herself and since r starts roe roe well that is a better name than "r". She is trying hard to pronounce her own name properly now too. It sounds kind of like ro-he, but still she usually says, roe-roe.

Today I put on a t-shirt with a lot of writing on it and she got so excited and started pointing out all the letters she knows. Her favorites are the vowels and she knows all of them. She has been making lots of two word sentences but yesterday she said, "More rice, momma". Three words! yea. I just can't wait to communicate better with her.

I have the cutest video of her "reading" but I can't get them to load. I'll try again tomorrow.

Sliding down the stairs..

This is great fun. Rosie usually finds entertainment on her own.

Christmas Day, later in the day...

Okay, I'm posting pictures backwards, sorry about that. This is Stewart and Scott playing with, I mean setting up this very cool music/marble run thing they got Sade. They wouldn't let Sade touch it (just kidding), but it was really neat. They attached an ipod to it and the balls and lights would coordinate with the music. They tried setting it up a few different ways - cool. I can't find a good picture of Stewart, but I'll keep looking. He is an amazing man too. He is in the AF and he also serves in the Bishopric at his ward, but really what I think he is so good at it being a father - his kids just light up whenever he talks to them or plays with them. I was able to see him discipline his boys a couple of times and he is just so evenhanded and calm with them. He and Erin complement each other so well and it was just a pleasure to watch them - they are a good example for Scott too -- HINT, HINT Scott-- I mean, no rush, but you'd be a great daddy and husband too!!

Here is a beautiful shot of Erin and Drew. She started to fade a few hours later and she and the baby took a short rest on the couch.
Scott and Stewart still hard at work.
This is the little inch worm Rosie got for Christmas. She loves cruising around on it.
Ethan and Sad playing one of games they got.

Christmas Morning

Well, I tried so hard to make this the best Christmas ever. I decided my kids really deserved a special Christmas; it truly has been a hard year for everyone. I also wanted it to be special for everyone else too, but didn't so much know how to do that, but it all starts with a tree, doesn't it.

Robert and I had our first Christmas together in 2000. It was the saddest Christmas; I had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer on Dec. 21 and besides that, Robert was really struggling with having Christmas without his children. I would often catch him with tears in his eyes as he would remember something Liz or one of the other kids would do on Christmas morning. It was really so sad. The other thing I remember vividly about that Christmas was that Alexander had had a Christmas Bazaar at school, I had given him about $20 to buy presents for everyone. I remember he got Robert (his brand new dad) a little, black, plastic watch. He got grandma a pretty pink rug for her bathroom, I got a candle and then the rest of the presents were for the baby. Baby? Yes, for the baby. Since mommy got married there must be a baby coming right? First, you get married, then you have a baby and then more babies. He got the babies lots of little presents. It was so sweet and it broke my heart too as I had just been diagnosed with cancer and was pretty sure our dreams of babies was gone. Well, that was our first Christmas.

The next year we bought the most beautiful, artificial tree at Sam's Club. A nine-footer, pre-lit, tall and gorgeous. Every year I have loved that tree. Every year Robert has dreaded lugging it up and putting it together because it was huge and heavy and difficult to put together - but he did it for me and I loved it. Well, this year we have a problem in our little house -- 7 feet ceilings! We were forced to buy another tree. Well, my superhero husband got up at 4am on Black Friday (or whatever they call the day after Thanksgiving) and stood in line at Sear's and got us this beautiful little tree for $100 - wow. It is a $300 tree too - we are so thrilled. The pictures are a little blurry, but you get the idea.


That is Alexander on the right, Max way in the back, he is the present handerouter, Rosie, riding her new horsey and that is Ethan (aged 5) peeking out on the left. Look at the loads of presents; we did have presents for 16 people though so it isn't really as disgusting as it looks!
Here you can see the grandkids better- that is Sade aged 8 (it is pronounced with a long "a") and Ethan and Rosie and Max still looking for gifts. The kids were all so patient.
Here you get a glimpse of Erin, Stewart's wife. She is the most amazing woman. She has three boys and her littlest one, Drew, who just turned one, doesn't seem to ever sleep. I have no idea how Erin got up each morning, especially on Christmas morning - I think she'd only had about 2 hours sleep. But we just love her, she is so upbeat and a great wife, mother, and a totally righteous daughter of God.
Here is my mom and that is Daniel on the right. If you see the ball game in the forefront of the picture - that was a little gift we got for Drew, but boy did Rosie want it. She never let the poor boy play with it and she was constantly keep her toys away from him and trying to steal his toys. Poor little guy had no idea what was going on. We weren't really expecting it either, since we don't really have any opportunities for her to learn to share, we were a little surprised by the whole experience.
Here is a better shot of Erin and Drew. Drew is just about as smiley as can be. He is like a little bulldozer - just going where he wants when he wants and getting very upset by any obstacles along the way. He is very attached to mommy and daddy, which we discovered when we tried to babysit for about 2 hours! But when with his parents he is just laughing at them and making the sweetest faces!

Scott gets the fun going in the backyard...

Scott is Robert's 20something son. We just adore him. He comes by once in a while with his really pretty and sweet girlfriend. He lives about an hour from us. Whenever he comes over all the kids and the dog climb all over him but he doesn't really seem to mind or he's a great actor. But he spent a lot of time in the backyard with them and they all had such a blast, Robert finally came in and got the video recorder - I wish he'd got more shots because I was unable to get out there. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of steps to get into our backyard, but I don't care because it is such a great yard for our kids and dog. Wow! We are so blessed.

Rosie's Antics...

This is Christmas Eve Day in our backyard. Scott was outside playing with Rosie and made her a nice path through the leaves - boy did she have a blast. Just look at that face!!

You may notice we missed the White Christmas - just leaves. It was actually pretty warm the whole week, which was nice for the sightseers I guess!