Amazing April

We had a great April filled with lots of amazing adventures. We started this April off a great easter weekend. We had fun looking for eggs and eating easter dinner with Grandpa Whitesides.

We made trip to Los Angeles to see Aunt Laura and Uncle Joe get married. We had a great time visiting with family and we loved celebrating with Laura and Joe. It was wonderful to see them so happy and ready to conquor the world together. This weekend was actually filled with many other activities that the kids were suppose to participate in, after awhile it began to be a joke and we just had to laugh. Kayla had a ballroom recital, an EFY area activity, a piano recital and piano festival. Nathan had a piano festival and recital. Brittany, Cami, and Emily all had a Gymnastic "Olympics". It was a hard weekend for them all to break away and give up some of the things they were excited to do and had worked hard at but they were all so great about giving up these activities to be with family and celebrate with Aunt Laura and Uncle Joe.

We pulled out our summer clothes from the storage room and left for LA on Wednesday. we picked up Mike who went down for one last practice before the Ironman in St George. We got into LA and stayed with one of Laura's friends, Trina, our new adopted aunt. She was amazing and we were so grateful to her and her roommates for allowing us to stay in their condo in the amazingly beautiful Rancho Del Ray, CA. We stopped off at temple and got to see Aunt Holly, Grandpa and Grandma Kelly who were staying at some apartments at the LA Temple. We then proceeded to Trina's apartment for some much needed sleep. The next day we met up with all of mom's family at the Santa Monica Pier for some fun on the beach. We had a great time playing the beach and just being together. Afterwards, the girls said goodbye and went to bachlorette party for Aunt Laura. Waking up the next day we got ready for the wedding and headed to the Temple. It was wonderful to be with family, the people the mean the most to us on such a special day. It was a beautiful day and laura and Joe looked amazing, but more importantly they were so happy that I swear they glowed and couldn't stop smiling.

At the reception we had a great dinner and then had fun celebrating and dancing with our family. Brittany caught the bridal bouquet and held it all the way home. We had so much fun in LA and being with family.

Derek Redmond, Dad Help Son to finish the race (complete)

Easter 2010

This year Easter 2010 was filled with snow, spring break, LDS General Conference, Easter egg hunt, and yummy Easter Day food and fun. The kids, Kayla, 14, Nathan, 10, Britt, 7, Cami 4,a nd Emily 2, were excited for Easter. I think Kayla was even abit excited. The Easter Bunny hid their eggs the ones we decorated and their certain color, Kayla-purple, Nathan, Green, Brittany, blue, Cami, Pink, and Emily orange. The Easter Bunny left 5 clues for the kids to find thier Easter present, a trampoloine. The sad part was, is that it has been snowing for about 5 days straight!!! The kids are so sad that they can't put up the tramp and play on it. The rest of the day was filled with General Conference and playing with family. We made Easter cupcakes and we all enjoyed frosting and decorating the cupcakes, especially Emily who probably frosted and decorated over half of them and loved every minute of it! Saturday night everyone took a part of the Easter Day Meals and made it for us. Britt had Breakfast and made her favorite-Baked French Toast. Nathan made our 7 layer salad and Kayla made rolls. Cami helped make strawberry short cake desert and fruit salsa for snack on Sunday. It was a fun time in the kitchen and we enjoyed our Easter Sunday with all the yummy food and fun time together.

March Madness Continued

So more on our March Madness...

I have started a preschool, the Learning Express. I have always wanted to do this, and Cami and Emily are at the perfect age to participate and I don't have to pay for preschool. We started in February and I along the way we have added two kids. My original plan was to go Monday thru Thursday allowing for one day where only Pre-K kids would come. I did this for alittle while but I didn't get more kids and only had one pre-k'r so I just switched over to three days, Mon-Wed. This is really nice I feel like I can keep up alittle more on things that I need to do as a mom as well. We have been learning all kinds of fun things, even I have been enjoying them. I have loved the time to focus in on the kids. I love the feel of satisfaction when Emily comes and tells me her shapes or starts counting, or Cami starts telling me about the Artic or is so excited because she can write her letters. I have a feeling I will be doing this for awhile since both my girls have preschool coming up, so I look forward to this fun time with them.

Along with preschool, I have started reconstructive surgery. I felt it was time and I look forward to finishing completely my recovery from breast cancer. It has not been an easy process, I really didn't know what to expect but I guess any time you are trying to expand skin it probably will be a little painful. Mike has been great about it and tries to help where he can. I had an expander put in and the doctor will fill the expander a little at at time to expand the area until the desired size, I am thinking DD's-ha ha! My doctor is in Idaho Falls and I go down once a week. When the process is done the doctor will put in the implant and fix the other side to match. It is hard to know how long the process will take because we are moving very slowly since I have radiated skin, we are taking our time to make sure the skin has time to heal in between fillings. I do hope that I can wear a swim suit this year that looks symmetrical.

As you can see our March is really madness, but we are muddling through and having a great time anticipating spring and hopefully some warm sunshine soon.

Our Own March Madness

So it's not basketball but it's still madness:) We have been busy, with Mike's training, my preschool, the kids activities and starting my reconstructive surgery.

Mike is about ready for his Ironman in St George on May 1st. It is great to see him training so hard for something so big, he is amazing!! With only about 6 weeks away, we are gearing up for a great weekend. Mike has now swam for over an hour straight, biked 130mi. and ran 20mi. He will have one more big push before the big event and then he will start tapering his training about two weeks out. Amazing, he has really fought the elements and been determined in being prepared for this. Mike has been great about trying to plan his practicing around the time when the kids aren't home. He gets up at 5a to swim and then runs during lunch. He bike's his long rides on Friday's while the kids are at school. During the next big push we are going to get the kids a little bit more involved. I really want them to see dad pushing and working his way to his goal. Mike does these triathlons for himself, but also so the kids can see dad reaching and accomplishing his goals. I think I will wake them up at 5a some morning when Mike goes for a swim and then we will go ride our bikes with dad the last few miles of this big bike ride and go meet him on his next big run. Mike participates in these crazy races not just for himself but we are hoping it will inspire them someday to work for their dreams and achieve great things.

Along with Mike's training, the kids have had a great winter inside. They have been involved in a number of fun actvities. Emily is a monkey by nature, she is always climbing and wants to be cuddled. We get to participate in a mom & me class at our local gym and she LOVES it she is doing front rolls and handstands, flips on the couch and "table tops". She loves the tramp and yesturday in gym was trying to do a tornado turn on the tramp and the coach and I just started laughing. This turn is where you put your arms up in the air looking kinda like a rocket and then you are suppose to jump and turn all the way around at the same time. Emily actually did it- especially with her head!! When ever she tried to do it she would turn her head in circles hoping her body would follow, it was so cute and so hilarious but it worked and she did her little tornado jumps all the way down the tramp head turning and everything. Cami is also in this class and is loving all the jumping and climbing and swinging. She loves being active and loves the creativity. Brittany is in her element in gym. She loves the mix of dance and tumbling. It is fun to watch her progress and feel good about her efforts. Nathan has been in karate, he has always wanted to take karate lessons, but for some reason I had always been a little weary of it. He has loved every minute and is trying to figure out how to fit it in the schedule between soccer and swim team and pay for it himself by mowing lawns and snow removal. Nathan is still taking piano and has really gotten into playing some classical pieces, he started trumpet this year and loves the friends and music he is making in band. Kayla has been dancing her heart out in ballroom this year and has started swim team again. She has missed swim and is looking forward to getting back in the water. We finally found a piano teacher for Kayla who is just perfect for her, Kayla is really loving the music and her time on the piano, she sounds AMAZING!

As you can tell, we have tried to stay active this winter and stay warm inside having fun.

The heart of the shamrock

Today I did a first.

This month is muscular dystrophy month and Albertsons is selling shamrocks in "support" of the cause. I have NEVER bought any such thing before, to me is seemed like such a waste of money. I always thought why should I, the money just goes to peoples "corporate non-profit" wallets and hardly goes to the people. Today while I was at the store I was overcome with emotion as I read about 2 boys with a type of muscular dystrophy who were fighting the disease here our area. All of a sudden I wanted to buy every single one the shamrocks, it hit me like a ton a bricks, these shamrocks are not just for the money to help the disease, but to show them that people care and support them in their fight. I bought two and put my kids names on them that are their same age. I tried to tell Cami about her shamrock, I think she understood a little bit, and I plan on telling Nathan about his tonight at dinner. I hope that my kids will understand not only the importance of thinking about someone with a serious disease, but the action of showing support to someone who probably has fought and will fight for awhile.

What We Have Been Up To

It has been a little while since I last wrote. All my treatments are done and I have a nice head of hair back. My hair is still pretty short and straight!! but it is kinda cute. Brittany told me one sunday shortly after I decided to stop wearing my wig that she wouldn't go to church unless I put it on, she even went and got it for me. I love that girl, I am sure it is weird having a mom that looks like a boy. Brittany is my girl that would care. Kayla has been great about my short/no hair. She has tried many times to talk me into going "naked", which surprises me for a teenager. The only side effects that I feel like I am still dealing with is that I forget short term things or get confused really easy when I have to think quick. I have done some research into this it is called, chemo brain and in time it will get better. In the mean time I have learned to really try to watch were I put my keys, etc. I can go see a occupational therapist if I want to if it still bothers me in December. I also have a hard time sleeping at nights but we just have to get through that one. My treatment plan from here on out is to take daily a medicine called Tamoxifen. Tamoxifen keeps my body from producing estrogen. My tumor needed estrogen to grow so the theory is that no estrogen, no tumor and then after awhile if there is any cancer left it will die. There are no tests to test for reacourance, the tests they do have sometimes come back false positive which just causes stress. The doctor prefers to just have me come in every 3months for the first year and watch for any signs of reacourance. I figure that if there is a reacourance that is not a good thing no matter what test I take so I am fine with just watching for signs to catch it early so we can take steps to survive the disease, which would require me to be on chemo for the rest of my life to keep the cancer from growing. With all the procedures that I have gone through the doctor estimates that I am in the upper 90th percentile of being cured, so that is reassuring and I know personally that I have done all that I can so now I just move forward with faith. There have been a couple of days that I have worried about an reacourance but for the most part I have felt amazing. I am running, I am up to about 4 miles I am very please with my progress.

The thing that has been most difficult recently for me has been to trying to find a balance in life and to get organized. I am surprised at how hard it has been, I finally figured it out what might be contributing. It has been three years since we have moved here; the first year we were getting settled and worried about our house selling in AZ, the second year we had Emily, and the third year I have had cancer. So it really is no wonder that I feel a little behind. I have been thinking about how I should share my journey of finding balance in my life. It has been fun to see it develop over the past few months, but I do wish I could just figure it out. I decided to look at it as a journey not just trip with an end point. There will be uphills and down hills and easy roads. In the end hopefully I will have something good figured out. I know that some of you are probably saying "just stop doing too much" and "pick wiser priorities". Well that is probably the case, but it feels so good to be able to things again that I just want to do everything and I feel like everything is important. I have done a lot of thinking trying to figure out what my priorities are and what they really should be. I made a list of what I felt where the most important and I also figured that I have 5 hours (9a-2p)a day to do everything a mom/wife is suppose to do. In that 5 hours I have to do the "daily to-do's" like, cook, clean, put kids down for naps, and play with the kids. Amongst all the "daily to-do's" we have our "daily extra things", the things that you don't have to do everyday but still are my job like, paying bills, menu planning or grocery shop. I finally got to the point where I scheduled what I felt were my priorities. We all know that a mom's life can't be that scheduled but it gave me an idea of us of my time. I figured that if I got up at 5:30a that would allow me to exercise, read my scriptures and shower before breakfast at 7:30a. I also figured that if I put out breakfast and made lunches the night before that I would get in my "me" things in the morning. This would open up more time in my "crazy 5". We actually have started a pretty good assembly line with one child taking a portion of the lunch and making it and then each child just goes through the different lunch item piles and fills their lunch it seems to work pretty good. My plan has been working pretty good So far. I have felt better about getting all the priorities in each day and I feel like I am getting organized and being able to spend time with the kids and Mike plus take care of me. I don't remember life being this hard before cancer, maybe I am just realizing I want to use my time more efficiently and effectively than before not taking any day for granted.

Since the last blog we have done a lot of fun things, here is a short summary of events at the "Wacky Whitesides" and I will elaborate on them later.

Mike took first place overall at the Rexburg RUSH triathlon in the sprint division.

Nathan participated in the scouts pinewood derby and had a great time building his car with dad. They don't keep track of the winners here, but we think that he did very well and of course loved every minute of it.

We actually got to go camping. We thought this summer was one that we would have to pass by without a camp out, but we got to spend a fun filled couple of days in beautiful Island Park, ID.

August 26th first day of school. Kayla 9th grade, Nathan 5th grade, Brittany 1st grade, and Cami Preschool.

August 27th last day of Radiation and celebration party.

September 3rd-8th Mike and Jeni had a fun filled weekend in Boise.

Kayla tried out high school cross country this fall and loved it. She did so great!!

Jeni has been the canning queen with her friend Sunny.

Mike participated in a relay run that ran from the Idaho Falls LDS temple to the Rexburg LDS temple.

Nathan and Brittany participated in a kids tri that was amazing!

Emily turned 2, Brittany turned 7 and Mike turned 29 again.

We traveled to St. George, UT to let Mike travel the ironman course and the meet up with Grandpa and Grandma Mc Nett. On the way back home, the fun and nice Mc Nett clan in Salt Lake had lunch ready for us to eat and visit.

Coming up, we can't wait until Halloween. The little girls plan on being lady bugs, Kayla plans on being an 80's girl and Nathan is tentatively planning on being Eragon from the Eragon series. Kayla is planning a fun Halloween party and the other kids are excited to go trick-n-treating. I just hope the weather holds out.