Birthday and Loosing weight

Shay getting some merit badges at Scouts from Travis Hughes.

Mr. Sample at the high school loaned this walker to Devree for her use. It is even fancier than Grandma's walker and has several compartments in the front and side and also storage in the seat. Devree calls it her "hot rod" because she can move alot faster.

Brother Jones went to Alaska for a hunting trip and brought back some "Alaska" socks for Devree. You can't see but they have moose, bear and deer on them and say "Alaska".

Well it was my birthday on Monday and it would have been nice if I lost the weight but Devree had to go to Urgent Care on my birthday. She is having a terrible time eliminating and was prescribed some drugs. Todd and the boys didn't remember my birthday that morning but made up for it the next and made me a delicious breakfast that I had in bed. I also went to lunch with Todd and he bought me a new blouse and earrings for my birthday.

That night was the Scout court of Honor and we celebrated Shay getting now 9 merit badges. I glued them on his sash so he will look spiffy for Noble's Eagle Court of Honor this Sunday.

Wednesday we found a new doctor for Devree because our wonderful doctor retired. We will miss you Dr. Bower. Devree is now down to 104 lbs. which is less than when she left the hospital. We ran out of her favorite drug that helps with nausea etc and the pharmacy said insurance doesn't cover it and it would be $500. for our part. We tried other drugs and all of the same. Insurance won't cover. St. Jude's said they would send more. i don't know if the part of Devree's brain that likes food or wants to survive is broken, but I know as a parent I am so ready for her to recover and truly be well! She just isn't logical when it comes to food and doing those things that will help her to truly become healthy. At physical therapy they are starting her on a cane, but she is still pretty unsteady.

For those of you who would like, we are asking for fasting and prayers for Devree. Please ask that she will want to eat and exercise and grow stronger. Our prayers were answered even today because we were able to get some of the drugs we needed that expired, but will still work for her nausea.

I guess I thought it would be down hill after we had stopped treatment for so many months. But we are still facing uphill battles that look like it won't end. I know that the Lord keeps blessing us, because Todd and Devree really wanted a nice walker and then all of a sudden someone lends us one. I was really worried about the expensive medication and then we are given some. The Lord is mindful of every hair on our heads (or lack of them) and hears and answers our prayers.

Enjoy this beautiful fall. I know I have been loving the colors and the beautiful weather we have been having.

Nevada Day aka Halloween!

Megan and a boy from their ward

Kolten, Grandma, & Granny

Locey & Shay

Megan, Devree, and Teara



Dane & Shay

Todd & Ky

Devree and Mom

I was able to help Dane's class with a little ghost craft on Thursday. Nevada became a state on October 31st so we get the Friday off before Halloween. We left at 3 pm from Todd's work. We decided to take a more scenic route that made 2 kids car sick but was very beautiful.

We had a fun day on Friday with Grandma and Grandpa Rice. The men and boys picked grapes after our swim in the hottest pool. We did water aerobics with Grandma and then Ky came and took Grandpa and Todd for one of Ky's work delivery.

We made grape juice. It was amazing! Out of 1 1/2 buckets of nibel grapes we got over 4 gallons of juice! It is way better than Welch's! Shay could drink it everyday. But we only have a little bit because it is the best laxative around. For those of you that want to know how we make grape juice, we don't stomp it. We wash all of the spider webs off and kill lots of little white spiders that crawl around in the sink. We put the vines and grapes in a steamer that pops the grapes open and juices them and the vines keep the grapes apart so the juice can drain through tiny holes so that no seeds or skins get in the juice.

I wanted to celebrate my birthday so I told Mom "For lunch, I want to go to El Tapitio's". I haven't been there for years and Shay and Dane were complaining that it was Mexican Food. But their barbacoa beef is the best I have ever tasted and after Shay and Dane tasted it, they decided it was the best Mexican food they have ever tasted.

That night we went with Ky and Tammie's family to their ward Halloween carnival, dinner and trunk or treat. They also had a spook alley on their stage. It was a great evening.

On Saturday we went to lunch at my favorite Italian cafe in Visalia and then we went and saw Skyla and Locey play soccer. After that we went and saw The Vampire's assitant with all of the cousins. Todd was able to visit with his cousins Ted and Linda Hatch and Paula came over to visit too.

Sunday we went to church at Lindsay Ward and had dinner with everyone before we left to travel back to Nevada. Noble had to stay at home all weekend because he marched in the Nevada Day Parade. It was the 2nd to the last marching performance for him. They still came in last. It has been very disappointing after all of the hard work to not have won any of the competitions.

Have a great week!

Trunk or Treat

Another busy week but fun! We had our Stake temple day on Thursday and Todd and I were able to go up in the morning to the Reno Temple. It was so wonderful to see all of the people we knew doing all of the work in the temple. I received some wonderful insight there to help Todd and I hopefully be better parents. We are trying to really look at our lives and think what will make our family be more united and celestial.

On Wednesday we went up to the Cancer support group in Reno. I didn't want to go but I was glad we did. Noble had band practice and the rest of us went. They had a psychologist, doctor and anesthesiologist there to answer questions. They divided parents from kids and the kids asked some pretty interesting questions. "If you were a super hero, what would be your super powers?" One of them answered "To cure Cancer". The doctor was interesting because he said the type of doctor he chose was to be a pediatric doctor because adults usually got themselves into bad health and weren't eager to change their habits to have good health! I laughed at that.

Friday was the Cancer Support Group Halloween party for the kids. Once a month there are activities for the patients and their siblings for about 3 hours to let the parents have a night off. Todd and I went and had dinner and came back early because we knew Devree would be exhausted and Noble already didn't want to come because he was so tired. But all of them had fun and brought home a 4 faced pumpkin.

Saturday was our last day of Soccer and we are excited to be done with that! On our way to see "Cirque de Freak the Vampire's Assistant", we were teasing Noble about his upcoming date that night. We were asking him about if he was going to kiss his date that night. Todd teased him and said "No teeth on flesh". Shay listened and said "That sounds scary!". We all laughed because we were going to see a Vampire movie. It was an awesome movie. Very creative with lots of scary parts. No blood and guts, but they did say the "S" word about 3 times. It was interesting. We hurried back to go to the Ward Trunk or Treat. We were about an hour late trying to get my chili warmed up and back into our costumes. We won 1st place for decorating our trunk and all we did was have our Halloween lights and blew up the "Boo Brothers". It is a blow up about 8 ft tall with a cauldron with 3 ghosts coming out of it.

Now this week we will celebrate Halloween finally! We will see cousins and grandparents. We are excited for Shay's band concert and the rest of the upcoming activities. Have a great week and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hamblin's Halloween

This is me before my Choir concert.

This is Noble with the Jazz Band. This is us singing.

This is Dane as a mad scientist.

This is Shay as Neo from The Matrix.




This is Noble, believe it or not.





Here's Noble the Scarecrow ready to scare party-goers.

Me as Ang the Avatar, the Last Airbender.

This is Dad as some guy from the '80's.

This is Mom as "Soooooooooooooooul train!"

So Noble and I had a Jazz/Choir concert on Monday. It was a lot of fun and we did really well. Mrs. Bum even said that at semester I'm going to be moved into ADVANCED Choir!!!

We had our traditional Halloween party last night and it was a lot of fun. Noble disguised himself as a scarecrow and sat on the porch to scare people. He usually didn't do it for the groups with little kids in it, but one time he scared little Jaiden Jones, a 14 month-old sweetheart, and she started crying. Noble feels really bad. I couldn't tell if my daddy was smiling with his mustache. Lots of people came and we had lots of fun. We played "Whoooooo's Your Daddy?" where all the dads went behind a sheet and the did a werewolf howl and all the kids had to guess which was theirs. Then we played "Which Witch is Which?" where all the moms went behind the sheet and cackled. It was a lot of fun and there were lots of cute costumes.

OOH! I am so close to being done with my Personal Progress! I have just 5 value experiences and 1 project left and then I'm DONE! I'll probably be done before Christmas! Yay!

Talk to ya later!

~Devree(Miss Alice)

Farewells,Football and Failures

Dane's leader, Katy Gardner, is a wiz at making cakes. She made him a bobcat cake.

Kallie Rice picture in your mind me singing to you in a silly operatic voice...."Happy Belated Birthday to You, Happy Belated Birthday to you, Happy Belated Birthday Dear Kallie....YOU ARE SO OLD! Happy Belated Birthday to YOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU! We hope it was happy and we love and miss you. I can't wait to see you play your electric guitar for us with your little tongue sticking out and expect a full concert in December okey dokey????

Well it was Senior night at the football game on Friday night. Todd had taken the scouts which includes Shay's age on a campout so I escorted Noble on to the field because they were asking for the seniors of sports, cheerleading and band. The parents escorted their senior and band had the most seniors. I told Noble I would stay and watch the football until half time so I could see him perform in the marching band. I am glad I told him I would only stay until half time because it was too brutal to watch. Truckee hammered the JV team 60-6 and the Varsity 61-6. I knew it would be bad when Truckee made a touch down in 1 1/2 minutes. The first quarter of 12 min lasted for 1 hour. That is why I don't like football. I'm sorry Cody and Ben. I know you don't read the blog too much so I feel safe in making that comment.

Devree had an experience in the high school bathroom this week. She tried to turn the lock and it wouldn't turn so she tried to shake the door in hopes it would loosen the lock. She was just about to fold up her walker and roll out under the door...when she realized that she needed to turn the lock the opposite direction! She had to tell us about her "blonde" moment. She does have some pretty blonde fuzz on top of her head. Actually we can see a faint dark haze on some parts of her bald head. She still is going to make a great Aang the Airbender for Halloween. We are having our annual Halloween party this Friday. Todd and I are going to dress up silly this year and I think Noble is going to join us. Devree will have a blue arrow painted on her bald head and hands and I have to sew our costumes this week!

Today I taught my gospel doctrine lesson and then we went over to Colby Brazell's farewell in Fernley. Colby is going to Washington, D.C. South mission. It was fun to see all of the friends we have known for more than 16 years. Noble was just 14 months old when we moved into our first house we bought on Hardy Lane in Fernley. Most of the boys I saw there today, I taught in cub scouts. They are married and having children of their own. Colby was only 2 when we moved into the ward. It was so great to see our friends in both wards. Our first bishop there is now the Stake president and it was fun to chat with him. He reminisced with Todd and I about how we moved to Fernley on Faith only. Todd didn't have a job and Bishop Eggbert asked us if we needed the ward to help us. We told him no. Little did we know that we have had to develop that faith more and more over the years. Just like Elder Scott said, Faith can be more confident than what you can see and hear.

I had to laugh because there was a young woman at Fernley that asked for Noble's phone number and told her mom that than repeated it to Todd that the daughter thought Noble was cute. During church Dane noticed this paper that a girl had written all of Noble's qualities on. This is the note that Dane wrote back, spelling and all with the girl's name omitted because too many people know who she is. Dane wrote" Write about ?" Noble replied "She's smart and serious about what she does." Dane replied "Fill out the hole page about ? and give it to ? PLEASE! I'm trying to get you a girl friend." Dane also came home a couple of Sundays and told us all about getting "consealed" in the temple. We listened to him go on for a few minutes and told him the difference about "consealed" and "sealed". It is always something.

Oh two new books that are awesome and made me laugh, cry and get frustrated with. "The Hunger Games" and "Catching Fire" are two books of a trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Awesome AWESOME reading. They are juvenile books but oh so good! Happy Reading!

General Conference Weekend

Our stake president wanted to know what families do on Saturdays. Our Relief Society President sent out an email and I replied. This Saturday we have two soccer games with Dane and Shay. Shay will get his pictures taken and Noble has an all day marching band competition. We will not go to the competition so we can run home to see general conference. Todd had to work in the afternoon of Saturday and all day Sunday so he will have to see those 3 sessions later. I felt sad that Noble, Todd and Shay missed the priesthood session. I asked Shay if he wanted to go with someone else and since he had a sleep over and stayed up till 1:30 am! He was cranky and needed to take a nap in the afternoon.

Devree is excited to have a part in the play. She plays an old woman so the walker will be appropriate. She is excited to be performing next Monday with the choir. Noble and Devree are excited to join a "show choir" that is after school with practices. Devree continues with her physical and occupational therapy and is improving in both.

Conference was very inspirational with several awesome quotes. I will leave you some of my favorites. Pres. Uchtdorf "Let us be known as those who love God and our neighbors." Elder Scot "Faith can be more than what you see and hear." I have experienced that one with this experience with Devree. I thought it was interesting to hear that Pres. Monson loves "O Divine Redeemer". That is one of my mom's favorite songs and when the choir was singing it I could hear my sister Teril singing it too, in my head.

My final quote to leave you this week. and the final conference words from Pres. Monson "Play our part well."

Eye lashes, eye catching and I

See my new eyelashes!

Noble, Selena the German exchange student, Manny and Maggie for homecoming.

Emma roasting a marshmallow.

Me holding Hallie and Dane getting in a cheezy grin.

Alyssa and Dan while we are camping.

Tanner enjoying a s'more.

Connie relaxing.

Shay roasting marshmallows.

Well Devree is growing hair everywhere except on top of her head. She is getting nice thick eyelashes. Her eyebrows are coming back slowly, hair on her arms and legs. But she still just has blonde fuzz on top of her head. On Thursday at the high school you were supposed to dress up like your hero and Devree wanted to be President Monson, the prophet and leader of our church. We looked at his picture and did the thinning on top and heavy around the ears and neck with 2 shades of eyeliner. She wore a white shirt, tie and suit coat of Todd's. She then didn't go to school because she hasn't been feeling well. There were over 150 students and staff out at DHS and Devree said there was a girl behind her in Spanish class that was spewing germs on her. We even know a girl in the other ward that got the swine flu but immediately went to the doctor and got some medication for it. Next Saturday we will be giving the whole family flu shots to help keep Devree safe. When the swine flu vaccine comes out we will all get that too.

Devree did see the doctor and found out she is up to 113 lbs. which means she is gaining weight since St. Jude's. She got some anti-biotics to help her with her cold. I think she has been overwhelmed and feeling a little depressed too. She will see the school psychologist soon to determine if she is clinically depressed. As a Mom I am worried that Devree may have to fight depression the rest of her life because of all of the things that have affected her brain. She continues to do well in school.

Noble had homecoming this last week and decided to ask the German foreign exchange student to the dance. He was so thrilled that she said yes. He doesn't have a suit but the girls made boutinere's for the double dating. Manny asked the girl in the band, that they know, who is hosting the exchange student and so they took them to dinner and then the dance. Noble said he tried to slow dance with her like the stake dance allows and she hugged him tighter! LOL

We went camping for one night and back in time to the Relief Society General meeting. That was an awesome meeting and dinner.

Today was the first day of my new calling as Primary Pianist and I had a terrible stomach ache and sweat bullets with the stress of it all. I know each time it will get better, but I was mostly one fingering it to get through. Thank goodness, Paula Huesser is going to play for the primary program coming up 2 weeks after General Conference. Even though I feel like I am turning so old at my next birthday, I guess an old dog can learn new tricks!!!!

Have a great week!