Family Fast

I invite all of you to join us in a family fast this Sunday for Aunt Velma's upcoming surgery. We'll be fasting for her and her doctors. I wish we all lived close enough to break our fast together with a big family meal - but we will just have to make do with what we do have...this blog - so keep posting!

Better Late than Never

I forgot that we had this blog instead of the Scoop. It's about time I wrote something! Things are going well for me here in Provo. I have senioritis as bad if not worse as when I was in High School. I am living with a bunch of mission buddies in a house right next to campus. There are 10 of us, and I just got a text message that we bought a 15 foot trampoline today. That's in addition to our 42 inch flat screen, leather sofas and ping pong table. When you have the cheapest rent in Utah County you can afford to buy a few extra goodies :)

I love my classes this semester. I have a history course on the conquest and colonization of Latin America, another class on the history of Contemporary Italy. I am studying with a professor of Church History - our readings course is focused on 19th Century Mormon Thought. I also work for him as a research assistant. My other classes are Personal Finance (which has been especially interesting during the last few weeks of market freefall) and a church history religion course on Joseph's Era.

Women continue to confuse me and spend my money ;) But I cannot complain. There are several wonderful girls that I get to take out now and again, but nothing serious yet.

It's hard to believe that my 24th birthday is sneaking up on me!!! I don't know where time flies. I am very excited about my trip this weekend home to see Mom and Dad in Seattle. My roommate Robi, from Las Vegas, is coming along for the ride and for some of Mom's famous chocolate chip pancakes.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful October. Autumn was only here a month in Utah. We've already had snow and pulled out all the jackets!!!

The bump in the road is getting flatter!

My dad asked me to post this month, which is very appropriate since I am the one with all the time on my hands. In this time of recuperation, I am doing just that and little else. But I have gotten more mobile. I've gone from mostly wheelchair to mostly walker to an upgrade this week to a cane! My hobbling on the cane will lead to running soon enough. At my last doctor's appointment four weeks ago he said I was healing and that my bone looked "fluffy" in the x-ray, which is apparently a very good thing in the process of healing bones. In fact, I have a doctor's appointment next Wednesday, on the 15th. We are expecting that he'll say I'm pretty much healed and take my walker and wheelchair away. You know what? He can have them! After that, I am planning on spending a few more weeks at home until I'm ready to face the dreaded stairs in Stillwater at my new apartment. At this point, I have lots of dreams of huge staircases I can't climb up. I think it's because that's the one thing keeping me from being in Stillwater.

We had a great month in September. It started off, for me with lots of pain, and for my parents with lots of nursing, love, and patience. Aunt Mona came at the beginning of the month for her high school reunion. It was great to see her, even though at the time I was barely getting around. Wish you could see me now, Aunt Mona! My Granny came to stay with me for a couple days which was a real treat for me! I was getting pretty lonely and bored so it was nice to have her there to cook for me, talk to me, and keep me motivated to get better!

At the end of September, we went to the Tulsa State Fair. It was a big deal for me, since it was the first time I was really able to get out and do something. James and Shawnee met us in Tulsa and we brought Carol Hammontree with us. She's an excellent wedding cake baker/designer so we took her to see the cake show. My dad surprised me with tickets to see High School Musical on Ice at the Fair. He and I went, and it was so fun! (I'm a huge High School Musical fan. It's no secret now, I guess.) James, Shawnee and I took a picture with some kind of African wildcat. It would have been with a tiger, but the tigers were resting. Needless to say, I was still scared of the wild cat. Afterall, I wouldn't be running anywhere fast if he went on the attack. My wheelchair was too far away for comfort. At the end of the Fair day, we ate at Texas Roadhouse- my favorite restaurant. I had plans to eat there the day of the wreck for a birthday dinner, so it was something I had been wanting for quite some time!

My mom is great! Carol Hammontree has been a fill in cook at the daycare for the past couple months while the regular cook is taking time off for medical reasons. My mom loves having Carol there, she is a great cook and so creative! Having Carol there is taking a lot of stress off my mom's job. It would be so great if she could stay there permanently. My dad is busy, busy, busy. Half of his busy-ness is in taking care of his injured daughter. He's pretty overprotective of me, but he's really good at shuffling the wheelchair and helping me into bed and making sure I'm always comfortable. So is my mom of course! But I've never seen this overprotective and nursing quality in my dad. It's really sweet! What would I do without great parents?

Til next time, I'll be staying busy with scrapbooking, reading, painting my new dresser with a crackle finish, and watching too much t.v. I guess I should try to enjoy this down time.

Thanks for all your prayers for myself and my family during this bump in the road. We love you all and keep you in our prayers as well! Love hearing from all of you on the blog!

Kara

Conference favorites!

I just wanted to share about conference before I forget what I liked, senior moments and all that you know.
I loved Elder Bednar's talk Saturday afternoon on prayer. There were several others who also touched on prayer as well, must be something we need to hear. I particularly thought the part about not asking for anything but saying all we are thankful for was important. Sometimes I know I forget to be as specific about blessings (and needs) as I should be. I found his talk very helpful. I look forward to the Ensign so I can read it.
Kay

FILL OUR DAYS WITH THOSE THINGS WHICH MATTER MOST!

What a treat to hear Pres. Monson's Sunday morning talk. It made me cry as he spoke of days of having children in our homes that pass all too quickly. He encouraged us to make the most of today so that we can provide pleasant memories for the future. He closed by speaking of the Savior and gave us this quick summary:
1. Adapt to the changes in our lives
2. Realize what is most important
3. Express our gratitude
4. Find joy in the journey.
That's just one of my favorite talks. It's like asking me to name a favorite book. I have many! How about you, which talk touched you and inspired you?
Love,
Ramona

Australia

This is actually from August, but since this is my first entry, I wanted to tell everyone about our trip to Australia.

We left for Australia on Thursday July 31, and arrived on Saturday morning. First we went to Sydney so Wesley could attend the world SETAC conference. He presented a poster on his research at the conference and won the award for best student poster. When he wasn't in meetings we saw some of the sights of Sydney. We attended church there on Sunday. We visited the National Maritime Museum where we toured four historic ships. We also visited the aquarium and Wildlife world, where we saw some of Australia's unique wildlife including kangaroos, koalas and crocodiles. We took a ferry to the Sydney Opera House and walked around the building, admiring the unique architecture.

On Friday we took a train to Brisbane, where we were able to spend some time with Wesley's brother and his family. We also spend a day at the Australia zoo, where we saw even more wildlife, and even got a chance to pet kangaroos and koalas. But, we didn't pet the crocodiles! Finally, on Thursday we flew back to California.

I'm back at work now, in my third school year as librarian. Wesley's busy with schoolwork, but we do manage to find time for fun once in a while, like Friday night when we played The Lord of the Rings Risk with some friends in our ward.

Sunday Morning wih the Prophet!

Hi family,
Just wanted remind you to share some of your favorite talks and thoughts from conference right here on the family blog. We don't get to gather and watch conference together, but let's make this our cyber gathering space. I'm inspired by your righteous lives and examples. I look forward to our conference sharing time!
Love,
Ramona

Recuperation continues

Aug. 18
Recuperation continues!
We are happy to say that Ben has been to Church the last two Sundays with just his walker. He was also able to walk from the hospital parking lot to his PT appointment with just the walker. So he is progressing well! We haven't even had the wheel chair out of the car for almost two weeks.

Katie and Wesley returned from their trip to

Australia last Thursday and we had a belated birthday(since they both had their birthdays while they were away) celebration for them on Friday night. Katie blew out one of Wesley's candles!

Oct. 3
The past month and a half has been rather uneventful. Just more of the same, PT, dentist and striving to walk more. I have to say I have enjoyed not going back to work. I think I can get used to this retirement gig!!! Although at some point I might want to find a little more to do than reading Twilight books, I just finished all four! Ben is now on the first one.
I do enjoy hearing about all of your interesting activities.
Kay and Ben

Back to school

Besides writing about the hurricane, I haven't written since August 16th so its about time to give an update!

We are all doing pretty well. I am now in my 3rd trimester and getting bigger and bigger by the day it seems. In fact, my doctor thinks that by the rate I am growing the baby will be 9 pounds by her due date (Officially December 31st). At this point, he is aiming on inducing me on the 22nd. I wasn't planning on having her that early since my boys both came late, but it will be fun to have her here on Christmas!

Michael is back at school so is a lot busier, but it is going well. He is enjoying his fellowship working at an elementary school mentoring the students and helping the teacher 8 hours a week. He only has 3 classes this semester which is definately a plus and then he spends the rest of the time working at the lab doing experiments.

Aaron started preschool last month and absolutely loves it. We are doing a home-school type thing with 3 other moms so I teach one week out of the month. They went on a field trip today to the dentist and Aaron really enjoyed it (which is amazing because he hates going to the dentist). He is learning to read and write his letters right now.

Nathan is growing like crazy and trying to keep up with his brother. He likes to try and copy everything Aaron does and loves singing songs. His favorite song is "Once There Was a Snowman". We go to the park when Aaron's at preschool on the weeks that I am not teaching and he enjoys having me all to himself and seems to talk a lot more. He'll be two on the 13th so we are going to the Houston Zoo to celebrate!

Well, I hope you are all doing well! Oh, and if you want to see a cute video of the boys dancing after church one Sunday go to our family blog http://beccamikey2002.blogspot.com. They started doing it on their own so we had to videotape it!

Love,

Becca, Michael, Aaron, and Nathan