"Squirrels in my Pants"

Devree singing in her Advanced Choir competition Dayton High School got a minus after the BIG highschool of Douglas. So we say little ole Dayton won!

This is the ward talent show with the 3 Fraser boys rock'n out. Little Mallory is their first "groupie" and she was dancing and dancing. When we clapped for the band, Mallory thought we were clapping for her. It was so precious.

This is our family dressed up like "gangsters" with our white T-shirts with S.I.M.P on the boys back. We lipsynched to "Squirrels in my Pants" from "Phineas and Ferb" from the Disney channel. We had lots of fun.

We had "squirrel tails" attached to our backs.

Noble's girlfriend Beth took the pictures and we forgot to get a picture of Beth.

This Jacob and he did a dance all by himself. He was awesome.

Then there was a free for all with all of the kids dancing on stage.

Devree is saying "No it isn't purple nail polish." She slammed her finger in the car door.

Dane is excited to be on the "Mormon" baseball team. There are 5 kids from the other ward on his team and he is loving it.

Yesterday Todd went to about 3 hours away for a Scout meeting and I was anxious to pick up some new furniture because we had borrowed a trailer from someone in the ward. We had the trailer for a week and I wanted to give it back to them. I got my tax refund back and our other couches had big holes in them. So I thought Noble and I could pick up the furniture ourselves about an hour away. Well it ended up that the only way the furniture would fit is to stand it straight up and Noble and I tried to tie it down. Well we were going about 45 miles per hour on the shoulder of the freeway and one of the peices blew out and rolled into the middle of the freeway. We were very blessed that no one got hit or no one hit the furniture Two men were very good samaritans and parked their cars so that they blocked traffic so Noble and I could go out and pick it up. We rearranged the furniture and tried again to tie it down but the rope wasn't holding. The trailer could hold 3 peices but the last peice was still too high. We pulled over into a grocery store parking lot, and then we decided to pray for some help. As soon as the prayer was over, I got the inspiration to call our good neighbor and friend and see if he could drive our little pickup to help get the furniture home. He came and we arrived safely home and the furniture was not damaged because it had been heavily wrapped in plastic.

I was able to tie this story into my Sunday School lesson and believe me, I have learned my lesson and will wait till I have Todd that has much experience tying down things.

I feel so blessed. Devree is gaining more weight and Noble and I were protected and not killed on the freeway! I even had nightmares last night of being on the freeway with cars swerving around us.

Julie is one of the people from Northern Nevada Childrens Cancer Group that shaved off her shoulder length hair for a good cause.

Sorry I haven't blogged for two weeks because it just didn't seem like much has happened. But boy we are in the thick of things now. Devree did gain 5 lbs. and now only has 10 lbs to go to what her gastro doctor wants her to be at. At that weight she will not hopefully have so many endocrine problems. Devree did have to have a blood and urinalysis on Friday because St. Jude and her Gastro doctor are worried about her endocrine system.

We went to St. Baldericks on Wednesday which is a huge fundraiser for childhood cancer here in Northern Nevada. The "shavees" get people to pay them to shave their heads and it gets donated to children's cancer. IGT (International Game Technology) is one of the big sponsors and they raise in the Hundreds of thousands for these kids.

Shay has started soccer and Dane starts baseball this week. Yesterday was the annual big fundraiser for the scouts and the young womens this year. We thatch and aerate lawns for one day only. So it is a pretty big deal with phoning people and getting them lined up and then renting the equipment and they worked from 7 am till 7pm. So the leaders and the boys are really exhausted today.

Noble also had a track meet yesterday and he was happy because he has got up to 9 feet. Also yesterday Devree, Dane and I went to a baptism for a new family in our ward and then we went to a funeral. The funeral was for a mom who is only 2 1/2 years older than me who died suddenly of a brain anuerism. She has one 16 year old daughter and an adopted son of just the last 2 years and the son is 19 years old. She took care of her 90+ year mother and her husband is a long distance truck driver. It was so sad. It made me realize that we just never know if one day we are here and the next day we may be gone.

Church was awesome and I am really excited for General Conference in 2 more weeks. We will be at my parents house enjoying celebrating Easter with them and watching Conference. Then we will go to the beach and stay and enjoy some even nicer warmer weather than we have been having here lately. I hope that you will enjoy this next week.

Devree's DRIVING!

So I had an idea that we should try to see if Devree could drive without her braces. She has been doing her exercises at home and can push down pretty good on the right side. Todd is the designated driving teacher at our home. So I asked Todd to take Devree out and see if she could drive the truck which is a stick shift. She was a bit scared to try but they went out in the boonies and Todd said she did GREAT! She can do it! So now Devree is studying her drivers book so she can go take the written exam and get her permit. Boy is she excitied.

Another busy week and it looks like the whole month is going to be that way. Noble was very excited to tell me that during the Band Festival this week that the Concert Band got 1+ and the Jazz Band got 1- which means superior rating with 1 being the best and 4 being the worst. It is the highest rating that Dayton has ever achieved. I was very happy for him.

We had our stake conference this weekend and it was 2 wonderful meetings on Saturday and Sunday. The adult meeting on Saturday was very funny in parts. One man gave us a talk on how to make our marraige better. He said he and his wife found this study that said men speak about 10,000 words a day vs. the women that speak 20,000 words per day. His wife said "Well that is because I have to repeat everything to you!"

Have an awesome week.

Home again. Home Again Jiggety Jig!

Noble and Shay playing Hacky Sac.

Dane fighting with the sword in his favorite shirtless way.

Well we got back from St. Jude and right into the business of it all. Thursday we flew in and Todd was home sick and stayed home the next day because that was his furlough day. The lovely day he has to take off without getting paid once a month.

On Friday I was not feeling very well either. It takes it out of me to fly to St. Jude's and not have my own bed and the 2 hour time change there and then back, my body has a hard time. The air in the Target House is on all of the time, blowing at your face either cold or hot. I just can't hardly sleep. But it was a good trip and everything was positive except for a couple of things. Devree really wanted to get her leg braces off. Her right foot needs lots more motion to let her drive. She has some new exercises where she needs to visualize with her mind for her to move her foot. She is supposed to put a cloth under her feet and wrinkle it with her toes. Driving is a high motivator for Devree and I figure if she can tell her brain to move her toes, she should also visualize her ear hearing, her right side of her face showing expression, like raising the eyebrows, squinting her right eye and smiling with both sides of her face. She is feeling really well and eating wonderfully, so now it is time to work on these things that bug her. Todd said maybe she should start massaging her scalp and telling her brain to grow hair too! It is a matter of faith too. So we will all work on that.

Todd and I had to talk in sacrament meeting today. Lots of people told us they enjoyed it. We had to talk about "Lifting where we stand" and accepting callings and magnifying our callings. Mine was telling experiences of my past which were more humorous and that my kids didn't even know. Todd was more spiritual and talked about Gideon in the bible that magnified his calling to get rid of the Medionites. (spelling?)

As we were having our Sunday dinner today Dane started singing "Feel me up...Princess Buttercup." I started laughing because we had just watched "Princess Bride" and the words are really "BUILD ME UP...Buttercup." When we explained to Dane what "Feel me up " means, he became sickened. So we reminded him of the real words so he wouldn't make that mistake.

Have a glorious week and I hope the weather brings us spring. I did see some buds just about to burst so we can start singing "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot tree".

3rd Day of 2nd checkup.

Tayzia's car is the big potato but Devree's is just potato wheels. Jackson enjoying G-Force. He can smile but he can't take his eyes off the screen.

Devree and I went to eat at Olive Garden last night. The last time we took her here she smelled the food and didn't eat. Last night she had 2 helpings of salad, 2 breadsticks and half of her main course.

Then Devree went to the Mutual activity where they raced potatos. Devree said she had fun and it was good to see The Germantown ward youth.

Jackson and I played Go Fish and then he wanted to watch G-Force. Kallie was not feeling well so she stayed in her room.

Today I am anxiously awaiting to see if Devree's physical therapy assesment will let her have her braces off and allow her to get ready to drive. Devree really wants to drive and wear cute shoes. Well the news was not what we wanted. She will not be able to get off her braces for awhile. She doesn't have reflexes or movement enough to drive a car on the right side. Terry did tell us about some exercises to improve her muscles that she lost due to chemotherapy. It is disappointing though. She really wanted to be able to get out of her braces.

The endocrinologist sent his nurse and she was much more pleasant and we did have good news there. After her blood work, we were able to see that Devree's hormone levels are getting much better than the last check up and we are encouraged that once Devree gets more weight that she will start to cycle again and she may still be able to have children some day. That is our hope and what we are having faith for.

We are excited to fly home today. I really missed out this time because Noble had his Honor Jazz concert last night. Todd drove to Lovelock to see it but I haven't heard the report because the concert got over so late, in Memphis time. Looking forward to seeing all of our boys in a few more hours.

Today is

2nd day of 2nd checkup

Devree and Celest at lunch.

Ethel and Brenda joined us for lunch at the cafeteria.

Today is Wednesday and that means tomorrow we fly back home. We had a wonderful dinner and game night at Breck and Celest's. Celest fixed us a luscious meal and it was still wonderful even though Devree and I got lost for an hour trying to pick up Breck from work. We really need a GPS for this city. We saw a billboard that told us "God Loves Memphis" and we were glad... because at that moment we did not.

Jackson had us playing "Hi Ho Cherrio". I am not a good player for any game that makes you go back to the beginning. But I was a good sport. We played "Catch Phrase" and then we had to get back to Target House 2 before curfew.

Here we sit for the endocrinologist. He is the doctor that said it will be unlikely that Devree will be able to have children. That is why we don't like him.

Dr. Armstrong just called us and said that the Lumbar Puncture came back clean. He did take a close look at her MRI's and said that her spine is "spiney" and there is a bulge. This is common in patients that have had the radiation like Devree. Dr. Armstrong said exactly what our Ortho doctor said and that when she has pain, Devree will have to get shots and she needs to continue to exercise. Also he said it was too early to know if Devree will get more hair.

Today we will have lunch with Brenda, Ethel and Celest here at the hospital. Devree is seeing the "Alien" eye doctor as Devree calls her. She thinks she is an alien because she never smiles and her eyes are big and slanty like an alien. Also Devree will be seeing her Psychologist Elizabeth who she loves and the Endocrinologist. We don't like that guy either. He has nothing but bad news for us. We will try to stay positve for today though.

Devree had her Occpational Therapy Assesment yesterday and we won't probably have that again till another 6 months. We had to reschedule her Physical Therapy appointment till tomorrow because they scheduled her right after waking from anesthesia yesterday after her lumbar puncture. Devree is hoping they will let her not have braces anymore. She is looking forward to wearing "Pretty" shoes and DRIVING!

Life is good and wonderful no matter what and we are going to focus on the good, the excellent, the superior and the miracles. We are going to remain hopeful, positve and FAITHFUL! May you also focus on the good things of life.

First Day of 2nd Checkup

Devree happy to be in a "flowery" room instead of "Bob the Builder".

Well here we are back at St. Jude's. We had both of our flights delayed. So Devree and I were starving because we didn't get lunch and it was past dinner by the time we arrived. Celest had made signs with the kids and Breck were all at the airport to greet us. Celest had a bag of valentines and goodies for us. What would we do without Celest's thoughtfulness?

We rushed straight to the hospital and went to the Medicine room for them to measure, weigh, do vitals and bloodwork. Today we started the MRI's at 6:45 am this morning. For those of you in the West that means I go up at 3:30 AM Nevada time. There was no room in the inn (Grizzly House) so they put us in Target House 2 again for our stay. That kind of bites if you don't have a car because it was too late for the shuttle to get there last night and it was too early to get to the hospital this morning for the MRI. So Thanks again Ethel and Brenda for the car. It is wonderful to have wheels. We have no food in the apartment so I need to go shopping. But there are no dishes so I guess we will eat out. I like that. Devree says she is up for Olive Garden. YEA!

Today is the busiest day for appointments and tomorrow will not be so bad. Still waiting for the results of everything.

Finally the MRI's are clean and clear.