U4ia: Sunday, September 16

So Miranda came home from her mission a couple weeks early to have some surgery, but I have this great excuse to still write our family history down, since her novio is still on his mission in Paris, France for the next year. So until May 9, 2019, I'll still write a missionary letter for our blog posts. =)

I'm waking up to ash and dust

So this song's lyrics are perfect for this week because Utah is on fire, and we, the DICER1 club, are literally radioactive from our xrays & ultrasounds.

Monday, we had our genetics' counseling appointment so we could get on their records and start charging our insurance for scans, etc. Carlie posted this on the way:

We hit Red Robin afterward. =)

Tuesday was a holiday you probably didn't celebrate over there in Paris. I took Derek to put up flags early in the morning, before school. Here's a FB memory that came up of those same flags when Connor was itty. WHERE ARE MY BITTY CHILDREN?!?!?!?

Some of my favorite memes/remberences of the day:

So I picked up that rockstar daughter of ours, and we went to a false chemo day. They gave her all kinds of prep, including some steroids that ended up giving her a boost of crazy energy for the day, but they didn't have her actual chemo there, so we rescheduled for Thursday.

We still needed some lunch, though. We were hungry. Thai it is.

This got posted some time during the day:

Derek has started tennis, and I needed some good pics of him. I'm so proud of my kids when they get out there and work hard at their sport.

That night, Carlie & Morgan sang in a special Patriotic 9/11 concert at the HS. It is always touching and beautiful. This year was no exception. Carlie:

I raise my flags, don my clothes

Then, Wednesday morning, JK! Studios launched. Natalie & the rest of the original cast of Studio C quit BYUtv and they're starting their own digital network of family friendly comedy content in January! Alex is going to be their CEO, and they're announcing everything now, while they're writing, producing, and recruiting for their network. It's so exciting! When they launched Wed. morning, they had 2600 followers in a half hour. =)

That night, all the kids had a combined back-to-school pool party for mutual. 10 points to Jeff for getting a picture!

And Payson caught on fire. It's a HUGE FIRE out there, and it's burning 10's of 1000's of acres. Thursday morning, Carlie got this picture from our front porch...

Also Thurs morning, JK! Studios was at 20.5K followers in 24 hours! Talk about a launch! And this is with no content on their network yet. This is just them announcing that they're GOING TO start putting out really cool shows in January!

I picked up Miranda, and she got her rescheduled chemo treatment... and a fun extra belly shot to boost her absorption of the drug. Eh... favorite part of the day for sure.

I met Carlie at Timpanogos Hospital for her ultrasounds of abdomen, pelvis & neck, as well as her chest x-ray.

Then I ran home and picked up the elementary kids, dropped them off at home, grabbed Derek & Morgan, dropped Morgan off at A-1 Driving School for his observation drive... funnest part of his week. And Derek & I went back down to Timpanogos for his round of ultras & x-ray. He was just as ticklish as Carlie was.

After fasting all day for his scans, he needed In-n-Out,

Whoa, oh, oh, oh, I'm radioactive, radioactive

And as soon as Carlie got Connor to Nathan's and H&K to their soccer practice, she picked up Morgan from his observation, and she needed some sustenance after fasting all day, too. Radioactive and starving.

Miranda's RA is taking a floral design class; they learned to package a flower as a gift, and she thought of Miranda... I am so grateful for these people surrounding Miranda. I cannot be there to pick her up and keep her smiling. Thank heavens for angels on earth.

After school, Morgan brought me this gem. We didn't order his school pictures ahead, and when the little thumbnail proof came instead of a package, I had to lol. Every Picture Tells a Story, huh? Yes it does. Let me tell you what story this picture of my son tells: Once upon a time, a photographer forgot to turn on his other flash umbrella. He told a boy to make a silly face, photographed the boy in the semi-dark, and tried to pass it off as a portrait for sale. The mother of the boy felt no need to order any of said portraits, and they will give said photographer a chance to redeem himself on the retake day listed at the bottom of this proof. They're right. Every school picture does tell a story, and this complete story is printed on this flyer.

And the fire is just getting completely out of control. It's raining so much ash, that my brother Allen's family in Mapleton had to take their little baby into the ER and admit her overnight at Timpanogos, and go stay with my mom & dad in Orem to be able to breathe. View of the fire from their house before it got super bad:

View of the fire at night from the News station:

By the time these pictures were taken, it had burned 68,000+ acres and was 2% contained... who comes up with that number? 2% is the same as 0% to me!! Tons of evacuations are in effect right now.

Friday morning, I went to visit my dad at his gunsmithing shop because it was his birthday and I was in the area AFTER MY OWN SCANS, of which I did NOT take a picture. I kept trying to imagine asking the ultra tech to take a selfie with me, and I just couldn't do it. Haha! But I was amazed at the signs my dad had up on his shop. It looks so nice. =)

So that afternoon, Carlie went down to Provo to get the rockstar daughter, and they saw this Hum-sine; pronounced Hum-zeen. Miranda said she needs one. Make a note.

Saturday, the smoke was so bad because of some wind shifts, that they cancelled all the soccer games in the whole valley for the whole day! Nice. I took a picture of Mt. Timpanogos. Can you see it? Neither can we.

We hosted a BYU football game party with Jeff's new business partners at XOnano & their families. The only pic I got was with a couple of their daughters & their twins... so here it is! BYU upset everything! They won over Wisconsin and shocked us all.

During it, Miranda ran to a wedding with Em:

This is it, the apocalypse

And Carlie ran to Sadie's with Cade. The theme was 80's, so naturally they went as astronauts & aliens.

While they were gone, this popped up on FB from Jeff's aunt Laura, who came across this picture. I had to share...

!!!!

Then, after the dance, Carlie's group came over for treats and hangout time:

Today, Miranda was still here with us, and had to miss church. Chemo takes its toll, whether you like it or not. But Jeff kept us apprised of the happenings we missed. Like Morgan leading the music in priesthood. Super handsome boy. Also, Deacons on their phones... poor boys are missing out.

When Miranda went out for some vitamin D to the trampoline, the dogs eagerly joined her, and I ran for the camera. By the time I came back, Chloe had immediately taken her post, and Zeus had taken his; he was searching the perimeter, checking the yard for threats for a while, before settling down in the shade to keep watch over them. Dogs are so funny and awesome.

This evening, my extended family came over to celebrate my dad's birthday (and it was little Esther's bday, too. When we can use the yard, we can host 32 people without feeling like we're going to suffocate. It was so nice.

All systems go, the sun hasn't died

Esther turned 10 today, and my dad turned older than 10! Actually, he's only 68... that's super not old for having 35 grandchildren. And that's with 3 kids who haven't even started having kids yet!