The Years Fly By

I was just realizing today that Elise is 17.  17!  That means that in two years, she could potentially be LEAVING on her mission.

Somehow that hit me pretty strongly.  Last week she said something about preparing for her mission in two years and it didn't sink it until after her birthday.  Those days are coming up quick.

In 3.5 years, Elise could be returning from a mission (depending on when she decides to go but her plan is to go when she turns 19).  Monet will be about to graduate from High School.  Miles will be finishing 9th grade and Simone 7th.  Soren will be a little second grader.

3.5 years is how long we've lived in this house.  And it seems like we haven't been here long.

Oh my.  I feel better about not volunteering with all the elementary school stuff.  I've got like 10 more years of kids in elementary to make up for it.

Doppleganger

Miles had his cousin Jake ever and his friend Dallas over and we thought they looked like brothers!  Amazing how much they look alike and are not related.

This Week In September

This week:

This week Jared went on his first International doTERRA trip.  He is doing a big training in Chile.  I’m excited for him to see a new country!  And he got to go with my dad.  So fun.  It sounds like other than getting carsick, he’s been enjoying it and very impressed with the leaders there.  I’m missing him! 

While he’s been away, I’ve been juggling lots of things at home: Lacrosse games x4, Piano, Gymnastics pass offs, and cross country.  In addition there have been car repairs, still catching up from convention week on cleaning and after party messes, church responsibilities, lots of carpools, and the case of the missing pants.

Thursday was gym carpool for me.  So that meant drive Simone and friend to gym in Lindon.  Then rush to Sandy for Monet’s lacrosse game.  Go back to Lindon to get Simone and friend and take them home. Then back to Sandy for Elise’s lacrosse game.  Which was delayed by lightning and we didn’t get home until 11.  Meanwhile Miles is babysitting.  Thank goodness for Miles!  He has been so sweet with Soren. 

Soren had lost all four of his pants.  Four is not that many, because its been summer.  But it got cold this week.  And every pair of pants he owned was mysteriously missing!  I searched the house high and low.  No pants and most of his new underwear also missing.  So we headed to the mall to pray for 5 slims in stock.  Thankfully we came home with a couple pairs of jeans.  I did not expect to have this impromptu mall trip.  A mom’s life can become complicated by so many little details, like pants.  

Especially for a skinny kid with few options that fit.

One of the days when I made dinner, I had to go to the store four times to finish the recipe I’d started because I kept forgetting ingredients.  J  I had to laugh at my forgetfulness.  Can you blame me?  There are so darn many people to text and respond to and life feels very disjointed right now. 

I am helping our Lone Peak lacrosse organization by being the coordinator for all of the youth girls teams.  I get a lot of text messages about games and details and all of the accounting and forms and badges.  Its nuts.

And to top it all off, we have about 20 hours of work to catch up on with our business card website.  Our assistant stopped fulfilling orders at the beginning of the month because she got busy with school and didn’t tell us until right before convention.  Jared was super stressed about letting people down and knowing they didn’t get their orders and had zero communication.  But really with convention being our busiest week of the year, plus an international training, he didn’t have any time to hire someone and train them.  So we’ve been trying to catch up on that too.  Elise and Monet are going to take over the orders which will be a good job for them.  I’ve been trying to email the people to let them know what is happening.  But we have 87 orders to catch up.  Yikes.

By Friday I was exhausted.  Elise’s Thursday night game ended so late but I committed to waking up at 6 am for an exercise class taught by my friend.  So I did.  And I told myself I’d have a nap later when Soren went to preschool.  But then a friend called and asked me to go hiking.  Yes!  Hikes are what I need more of in my life.  I’ll take a nap when I get home.  Then Angela texted me when I was on the hike and asked me to go to Air Supply in San Diego.  Yes!  Dan offered to watch Soren (and any other kids).  I LOVE Air Supply and was so excited.  And I love my sister and my sweet brother in law.  Thank you Dan and Angela.  I have the best family.  It was such a fun spontaneous trip!  Left at 5.  Came home the next day by 10.  It was so fun!  Separate post for that fun adventure.

Phew!  I am excited for the less busy week that I hopefully have ahead of me!  Although life is busy, I am very happy with the way it is.  I love the friends and the connections that we have from sports.  I love the other parents on the teams.  Elise gets to coach Simone’s lacrosse team which is such a great opportunity for her.  She had lots of parents and a ref tell her yesterday what a great job she was doing.  That made her feel good.  Simone got to level up in gymnastics and will start competing in a few months.  She’s progressed from level 1 to level 5 since she started in March.  Monet is doing great at cross country and is usually about 6^th in the school after only three weeks of training and being a freshman.  She earned a varsity letter, and I love seeing her determination and goal setting.  She loves the training too and feels good with her accomplishments.  So its fun for me to see their progress.  I know that this period of my life will not last forever.  And I look forward to that.  Yet I am still happy with the way it is for now.  And now, I need to finish my Sunday School lesson. 

Cancer

At the end of last year, Jared and I were lying in bed one night talking about our parents.  We realized that at our age, odds are we are facing saying goodbye sometime in the not so distant future.  The idea of our parents passing was scary and something we weren't ready to think about.  But we wondered, how would we respond to that kind of news?  How does that feel?  I haven't ever experienced the kind of loss many people have been through.

The next month, I was driving to California for a lacrosse tournament, and I got the news that my dad had stage 4 prostate cancer.  He'd been having pain in his hips.  And it was hard for him to sleep.  He's a champ with pain and it takes a lot for him to complain.  So when he talked to Matt about it at Christmas, Matt encouraged him to get it looked at right away.  Turns out, there was a cancer mass in his hip bone causing a stress fracture.

I think when I initially heard about his diagnosis, I shelved it.  I couldn't think about it.  My mind just kept thinking that I wouldn't put too much energy into processing this information until we found out if they were wrong.  Maybe the doctors were wrong.  Maybe everything was fine.  But a couple days later the diagnosis was confirmed.

 I came home after the tournament and all the kids were in school and Jared was out of town with doTERRA.   It was quiet and I had too much time to think and feel.   And I started doing some research.  I found some sobering statistics that felt really surreal.  Like only 46% of men with stage 4 prostate cancer live past 1 year.  My dad looks fine, feels pretty good and is positive most of the time.  How can he be this sick?  But he has cancer tumors in his lymph nodes, shoulders, spine, hips, etc.  Suddenly it hit me.  I'm not ready for this.  And it began to feel so heavy.  And I found myself crying a lot that week at random times.  Feeling out of control and emotionally fragile.  So this is grief.  

Apparently my kids were feeling it too.  Miles was not himself at all at our tournament.  He was driving us all crazy.  But kids are funny.  They hear the news, but don't seem to really process it.  He was certainly acting out though.

A few weeks later we were in Salt Lake and we stopped by my dad's late at night.  Miles was with me and of course my dad was always so sweet and happy to see us.  We get back in the car and Miles asks me seriously, "So, Grandpa can get better, right?"  It was as if we'd never had the conversations in January.  Like he still didn't quite understand the prognosis, or maybe like me, his brain had just shelved it for awhile.  And seeing Grandpa again brought it back to the present reality.

We sure hope he can get better.  And given his positive attitude and how good he looks now, I'm hopeful that we have many more years ahead.  I want my kids to know him and remember him.  I want his boys in Jr High and High School to have their dad there at their games and hanging out with the family and sending them off on missions.  

I am grateful that he does not have to do chemotherapy.  He is doing radiation and hormone therapy.  But he is part of a study at Huntsman Cancer Institute and won't need to do chemo.  So glad for that.

As I'm writing this, my dad and Jared are in Chile doing a little mini convention for their Chilean team. I am so excited for all of the successes of this team so far.  They have some fantastic leaders and growth.  I'm happy that Jared gets to tag along and see South America with my Dad.