Sunday, January 31, 2010

Basketball, Tests and Grandpa Hamblin

Dane at his basketball game.
Dane is ready to get his wolf in Cub Scouts. He just needs one more requirement.

Oakley ready to "cross over" from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.
Most of the boys read things that represent the "Arrow of Light" that was written on arrows.


Devree all piratey for her "Pirate Day" at school. Noble was a pAARGHty Pooper!
Shay had to be in on it. Devree even drew a scar across her eye.

Todd and Devree. He always closes his eyes. ie next photo also.


Nobs fooling around with Dane at Walmart.

Monday for family home evening we went to Dane's first basketball game ever. It was the most hilarious game I have ever watched and we laughed and laughed and laughed our heads off. Those little boys and girls learning how to play was just the cutest!

Tuesday was Devree's digestive test at the hospital where they fed her these "radioactive" scrambled eggs. She asked for ketchup to choke them down. Then for 2 hours she laid on a skinny board and had an MRI machine from her nose to her knees watching her digest. I read her "The Hunger Games" which was ironic because we were reading the chapters all about the capitol and all of the fancy food they ate. I was getting hungry. We won't know the results of that test till Wednesday this week when we will see her gastroentoligist.

Many people have asked about Devree's hotspot on her right hip. The doctor's here want to take a CT scan and do a biopsy. I contacted St. Jude's and her doctor said if she is having pain to go ahead and do it here. Devree feels some pain in her right hip but she feels like it is a cut on the outer side of her skin. The doctors have still not scheduled anything. Devree and I go to St. Jude's in 3 weeks. I will let you know when we find out anything. It could be cancer in her hip bone, but I am not going to go there. It is in the Lord's hands and there isn't one thing I can do about it except pray and have faith.
Thursday was a sad day. The doctors told Todd's Dad that he had days to weeks left to live. Dad Hamblin got it into his head that he had 2 weeks to live. I immediately found a flight for Todd so he could fly out the next morning. Todd talked to his boss and his boss understood because he recently lost his Dad. We made the return flight for a week from Monday. At first it was like a celebration and a reunion because Todd is the oldest of 7 children. All were there except Paula. Todd and Paula are the only ones who live out west. Everyone else lives within less than an hour of each other. Dad Hamblin was energized to have everyone hang out with him and asked to do one of the things on his bucket list. You know things you want to do before you die. He wanted to see the movie "Avatar" and so Amanda Hamblin, who works in a theater made the arrangements. On Saturday morning, Dad's recliner was taken to the theater so he could watch from the comfort of almost home. He enjoyed it.

Today Sunday, Paula arrived. Dad has taken a turn for the worst. He is running a 101 temperature and he had to be picked up to be put back into bed after a bathroom break. Dad's sister Donna and her husband Eldon and their youngest daughter Mainette all flew out there to be with Dad. Theo Dewayne Hamblin, you will me missed. You have touched many lives and many people love you. I am so glad we came at Thanksgiving to see you and to be with you.

Monday, January 25, 2010

TOO much FUN!

Devree and Todd looking out over the beach.
Dane, Shay and Noble in the Coooooold ocean.

The three boys with Dane's smiling face in the bitter cold water.

Todd in the cold water but only went into the water knee deep.
Our hotel we stayed in.
Todd and Dane showing how cold and wet he is.

Stepping out on the cold powdered sugar sand.
Devree with glow sticks from Mary's (a 10 year-old cancer friend) birthday party.
We have been so busy that I haven't been able to blog. I want to make my blog pretty and I need Devree's assistance to help me. She has been a very busy girl too.

We had an awesome 4 day weekend for Martin Luther King Weekend. We took off as soon as Devree and Noble were done with their finals on Thursday. We headed straight for the beach in California. You know you can get an awesome rate on a Thursday night in the middle of January? We got a family suite in an older hotel but it was RIGHT ON THE BEACH! We came into sparkly lights shining off the pier on a clear night with the ocean breezes being just right.

The next day was perfect. Shay and Dane were so excited to be at the beach that they woke up at 6 am! Todd went outside with the boys and pretty soon they wanted to swim in that frigid sea! It was warm enough without a coat and even Devree took off her jacket. When the boys went to change, a few locals asked "Was the water cold enough?" Noble wished he would've thought of saying "Not as cold as Lake Tahoe!"

We continued on to Grandma and Grandpa Rice's and were surprised to see that Kalene, Cody, Chase and Chelsey got to come. Carson was off snowboarding. It was wonderful to all be there for Kolten's farewell. Many people came to Grandma and Grandpa's for the open house the had for Kolten. Kolten gave the best farewell talk ever!

Mom gave me a whole bunch of family history that I am going to start working on. I love my life! I want to have names to go to the temple and it will be great to feel like I am getting some geneology done.

Shay and Noble lost their Stake young men's basketball tournament. They were not too sad. Some of our ward's best players were playing BB for their schools. Oh well.

Devree went on a leadership field trip on Saturday. She is getting around quite well without her walker and she despises the cane. She says she trips on the cane. She has fallen and she gets the teachers at school to let her leave class early because she gets jostled in the hall and one boy knocked her shoulder and she fell. She is down to 99 lbs now. She is having more problems. She had a bone scan and they found a hot spot on her right hip. St. Jude's wants us to take care of it here. The doctor wants to get a biopsy to see what it is. Tomorrow we go to the hospital and they will do a test to see how long it takes her to digest food. We have to be there by 8:45 and Devree does not do well in the morning with any food. They want to feed her eggs.

Dane is so excited to be playing basketball. He is on a team that the 2 coaches are in our ward and then there are 5 other kids from our ward. their first game is tonight. He is so cute with his enthusiasm and he tells me "Mom I didn't know I was so good!" If only as an adult we could feel that way about ourselves.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Happy New Year 2010!

All the kids playing video games.
Ky and Todd at the puzzle table.

Tammie getting into the drums for Beattles Rock Band.


We went to the indoor ferris wheel and lunch at Fuddruckers. Megan, Tammie, Spencer, Teara and Devree



Shay running down the court at the basketball game.

Shay playing.

Finally done with the game.
Noble at the game.
Devree in her "Mrs. Manoil" costume.
We have been having an awesome new year. We celebrated with Ky, Tammie, Kolten, Teara, Megan, Spencer, Locey and Skyla. They came for skiing and snowboarding. We had so much fun playing "Beattles" Rock Band and Connect 4x4 and doing puzzles. Todd had made himself a puzzle box and everyone would go and do a few peices of the 750 peice puzzle and we started a new puzzle.

Devree had her play on Friday night. It was cancelled from early December because of the weather. Devree and her friend Allanah were the "shining stars" of their plays. We could actually hear them and their acting was funny in a bunch of deap pans.

Saturday was spent watching Noble and Shay play Young Men's basketball at the Stake Center. We laughed at the "Big" guys that were twice the size of Shay and his friend Isaac. The other team would hover 2 or 3 guys that were twice their size and sure enough Isaac shot the basketball low between their legs. Then one of our teamates threw the ball at on of the other Deacons and he was playing dodge ball I guess because he ducked out of the way. Then his brother tried to make a basket and the ball got stuck between the hoop and the backboard. But we still won.

I told the family that Costco only sells "Organic" ketchup now for an extra hefty price. Todd commented that isn't ketchup organic anyway? Then he reallized that the tomatos would not have pesticides. Devree asked "Why is everything have to be 'organic' now and why do we have the 'Hippy' style coming back with people wearing head bands and the clothing, peace signs etc. Todd commented "Everything comes back." Shay shot out "Elvis isn't coming back!" Then we started laughing and Todd commented "But there are those that say he didn't ever leave."

I just want to share what I just heard on the BYU channel. The speaker told the story of President Kimball how he knelt down and prayed that he would not break the Word of Wisdom or steal or break other commandments when he was 14. He made his decision and he didn't have to keep making those decisions when he was faced with them in the future because he had already made up his mind and he didn't have to worry about it in the future. That is what I am going to teach for Family Home Evening tonight.