Neal A. Maxwell Sees Our Day in 1978

Of Neal A. Maxwell, President Gordon B. Hinkley said,
"I know of no other man who spoke in such an interesting and distinct manner. His genius was the product of diligence. He was a perfectionist determined to exact from every phrase and sentence vivid imagery that brought the gospel to life. Each talk was a masterpiece, each book was a work of art. I think we shall not see one like him again."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMMu4Sv0-QI

Two Years

Today is the two year anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis. And even though I didn't feel anything physical until much later - after that diagnosis, the emotional rollercoaster was quite a ride from that day on. I am happy to say that I feel 1,000% better today than I did a year ago and I only hope to continue an upward path. Thank you to all family and friends that have helped me through the past couple of years. You are the best. And please, take the advice from my little penguin friend (thank you for the graphic, Dan) - early detection can definitely be life saving. I am a survivor.

I Miss Leah

Tonight Leah went back to Grandpa and Grandma Layton's house, and I miss her already. So I'm posting a bunch of photos from our weekend together that will help me remember our fun times together. Posted in no particular order - just a look at some of the fun things we did.

Leah can wash her own hair and is a maniac in the bathtub!





Leah loves pasta with a little maranara sauce. Hence (da, da), the need for the above hair washing.












Leah played hard every day, and became a master at standing up to play.













She gave us a piano recital every day, and make no mistake . . .

. . . she let us know that her hands were the only hands allowed on the piano keys.

"I fly solo, Grandpa, solo."

Love the curls as Leah is dressed for Church on Sunday. Yes, we went to church and she was a champion. Maren, we spent 2 hours of the block in the nursery and she LOVED it.

"Leah Toast" is now the official name for wheat toast with a little butter. Gotta have it every day.

Leah LOVES to swing - it's great to have the tree swing in the backyard.

Leah, ready for church with Grandpa Richard, and . . .

. . . with Grandma.

Hair washed and dressed for church, Leah wanted to look at the family pictures Maren had put in her card for the day before. She loves and misses her mommy and daddy.

We took a walk every day. On Friday we walked to the Bonneville trail head so Leah could get a good look at where she will someday run with her mommy and grandma. (we can do it, leah. Someday we'll both run!)

Leah was full of very cute faces . . .

. . . and very cool faces. Oh, yea. We went in the stream, but the water was pretty cold, so we just got the toes wet. Mostly we just sat on the lawn looking very, very cool. Bishop Lowder even came over and talked to us.

Looking at all these pictures just makes me excited to pick up Leah again next Thursday. We'll have another great weekend and be ready for Maren to join us. In the meantime, Leah says, "Have a great time Mommy and Daddy! I love you and I'm being very, very good."

Leahlicious

Little Leah is having a vacation in Salt Lake while Ryan and Maren are in China. She has been with her Grandma Layton for about a week, but yesterday I picked her up so that we could play for a few days while I'm not working. She hadn't had her afternoon nap yet, so when we got home - she crashed - and slept like this for about 1-1/2 hours.


Maren made a card for Leah to open every day while they're gone. Each card tells Leah something that her mommy loves about her and includes a picture. This is Leah opening her card for Thursday, August 7th. Mommy loves Leah's little feet.









After eating some yummy strawberries and fresh snap peas, Leah and I went to the annual Relief Society summer party at Doris Peterson's house. It was a "pool" party and Leah really wanted to jump into the pool, but we held her back. She ate 1/2 of Doris' dinner and 1/2 of my dinner - watermelon, pineapple and chicken. Everyone LOVED Leah - and wanted to know where Maren was. (Notice the pig tails? I don't know how Maren does this - it's tricky.)









After partying for a couple of hours, it was time to come home and get ready for bed. Leah had a bath and splashed like a maniac. She got a shmoj masshage and helped put on her cute jammies. Then it was time to brush teeth, say prayers, and hug pink dollie. night-night!









Leah slept good all night (in spite of a smoke alarm sounding once - no smoke, no fire, just random) and when pink dollie started to "talk" at about 7:15am, Leah played for about 1/2 hour then I went in to get her. These are the beautiful eyes that greeted me.










Breakfast was Grandma's good apricot meusli (fresh apricots from our trees) with strawberries on top, and some "leah toast". I am amazed at how happy she is - so verrrrry much fun to play with.









We've had another bath now and she wanted to spend more time with pink dollie - she scooted to the bedroom where her crib is and knew exactly where she was going. Glad I had a chance to post some pictures while she naps and hope that Ryan and Maren can see them while they are travelling. We love them and miss them lots, but THANK YOU for letting me spend some time with little leahlicious!

The Lovely Month of May

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, so I decided to get as much in this post as I could. Here's the month of May . . .

It started (well, sort of in the middle of the month) with the annual Koman Race for the Cure 5k. I decided to try for a personal best in a 5k and was feeling pretty good. But I hadn't anticipated that it would be quite so emotional (or crowded). It is the largest race in Utah, with more than 17,000 walkers/runners this year. I couldn't believe how long it took to move that many people down the street. So I weaved in and out of baby strollers, wheel chairs, families holding hands, and all ages, while reading sentiments of hope pinned to shirt backs. Yes, I cried a couple of times, and I didn't get my personal best, but I didn't do too badly either - 34 minutes.

This was my view from the start of the race. It took me 5 minutes just to get to the start line - the pink balloon arch. And while you go through the arch again on the way back - it's not the finish line - oh, no. Finish is down the street, around the corner, around another corner, and through the Gateway. Psych!









Mid-May was time for another hair cut. I have to keep the mullet under control. So, to keep you updated, here's the side view . . .












. . . and the back view. If the sides would just catch up to the back, well, no complaints. Any hair is a good hair day.













Over Memorial Day weekend, Richard and I took our annual trip to Jackson Hole. The weather was generally rainy, but it was so nice to get away from the city and work, and breathe fresh air. The parade on Saturday morning was Jackson typical - there is always at least one goofball float . . .






The hike on Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. It was the best weather day of the weekend, and even through we slogged through snow on about 1/2 of the trail, it was a great 8.8 mile hike. We hiked a trail around Jackson lake and found an occasional clearing with great views of the lake and the Tetons.








Overlooking this view of the lake, we stopped to eat our "lunch". No roasted hot dogs this year.








And we couldn't leave the Park without taking the annual "picture by the side of the road". We never saw the top of the Grand the whole weekend - this is as close as we got. Beautiful, nonetheless.









On the last day of the month we celebrated a family wedding. Tabitha (my sister, Judy's daughter) was married to Nick Geer. Here's the happy couple coming out of the Jordan River Temple.












It was a good time to gather with family. Scott and Marisha brought their cute kids . . . Arianne . . .














. . . and Wesley.












Patsy was a trooper the whole day. She was at the wedding in the morning and lasted through the whole day to the reception at the end.

Todd brought a friend we had not yet met . . . Raquel. They make a very cute couple.

Don't ya think?

SLC Half Marathon

Birthdays

Last week I celebrated 2 "birthdays". Sunday, March 2nd was my 1-year cancer free anniversary, and it's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since my last chemotherapy infusion. I'm so grateful for the time that has passed and how much better I'm feeling this year than last.

Kelli conspired with many, many people to put together a surprise for my cancer-free birthday. The photo above shows me and kb holding the digital scrapbook that she created with pictures of family and friends as well as their thoughts about my journey this past year+. I'm pretty composed in this photo, but the night before, when I open the gift, I was a complete mess. I cried and laughed while reading the book, and so many memories flooded back to me. Thank you, thank you, kb, for the hours of work on this incredibly thoughtful gift. I love you.

And though my real birthday was on Monday, Sunday was the best day for family visitors. Scott came with all the fixin's for a great lunch and we had lots of time to play with the kids. Wesley and Arianne were all dressed up from church and ready for a picture with Grandshmoj.

Wesley had his eyes on the jelly beans - and I'm glad that it's as much fun to play with the gumball machine as it is to actually get the candy. He was content to play. . .

. . . and play . . . and play. One of these days he will use those long fingers to really play this piano.

Dixie and Ken were in town - on their way home from Phoenix - so they stopped by for a fun visit. We don't get to see each other nearly enough, but when we do there is plenty to laugh about.

And we got Richard on the front end of the camera this time. For my birthday, Richard cooked me dinner - bacon wrapped filet mignon - yum! And my gift from him was a BOSU ball. I know it sounds kind of weird, but I'm a bit of an exercise freak and using the BOSU ball during strength training at the hospital was really great. Now I can continue those workouts at home. Fun stuff.

And a birthday wouldn't be complete without a photo in front of the closet doors. Happy "star birthyear", Karen!

Real Hair

In one and one-half weeks I will be officially one-year cancer free. I took these photos to help me remember, and to answer the question, "how long did it take for your hair to grow back?" Last night I had a hair cut that I could finally say it was an actual hair cut - there was enough to shape and do something with. Now maybe I can let it grow . . . longer?

The side view lets me know that apparently I still need to work on my posture. It's definitely better than 6 months ago, however.

The back is my favorite - enough hair not to have a "mullet". Yea!

Much Needed Vitamin D

Last week, Richard and I took a much needed and very relaxing trip to Mexico. It was a great opportunity to add to my understanding of the Spanish language (although if you ask Richard, he will tell you that I need to speak it more) and to just get away and forget about day-to-day tasks for awhile. It takes about 3 days to really unwind - Richard looks pretty relaxed here, doesn't he? It was definitely a nice respite.

One of the things we enjoy doing in Mexico is visiting ruin sites. This time we went to Coba - a site we have not previously visited. Coba has the distinction of having the tallest ancient temple in Southeast Mexico. This photo doesn't do justice to the height.

Climbing to the top of these temples is great - once you get to the top - because you really have a birdseye view of the surrounding "wilderness". the jungle is extremely thick. I always have a greater appreciation for reading the Book of Mormon after seeing these sites.

Climbing up a temple is not nearly as difficult for me as climbing down - I have eased my fear of edges somewhat, but it's still difficult for me. Ancient feet were definitely smaller than mine and the footing is not terribly sure on these decaying stones. But I do love it and I'm always glad to have made the journey.

As we drove through the jungle back toward Cancun we came into a clearing - a small town about 45 miles east of Cancun. The markets and buildings are still very simple and usually quite dirty, but we were surprised to see this building in the middle of town - clearly the nicest building. Look closely at the sign and you'll see why we were so surprised.

And to remember this great time of rest, I took this picture of my feet in the white sand. I can still feel the cool sand as I sit here at my desk.