State Wrestling Tournament

So, here is Ian wrestling in his last "winning" match of the tournament. Here's how it ran down:

1st round: Lost to the returning state champion. (He got pinned in the first period.)

2nd round: Moved to "losers" bracket--best he could hope for would be 3rd place. He won this round by pinning his opponent in the first period.

3rd round: Pinned his opponent in 28 seconds. (I missed it...was out getting lunch.) :(

4th round: This is the one you'll see above. He pinned his opponent again.

5th round: Lost by points after three periods. A tough match!

He has had the time of his life this year in wrestling and has truly fallen in love with the sport. He wants to make wrestling his main sport from now on and is looking for opportunities to keep wrestling year-round. His goal is to be a state champion...I'm sure he can do it. He has a lot of natural talent for it--Gordon is always saying that he has the head of a wrestler and has come up with his own moves that seem to work very well for him. I'm just so excited that he's found something he loves and is good at.

I'm also SO jealous of him, as the phrase "can't chew gum and walk at the same time" applies to my abilities in any kind of sport. I always wanted to be good at sports and PE, but I was always the one to be picked last or to fail my physical fitness test. I'm just always in awe of Ian and his abilites.

He gets the priesthood in one month. I can't believe it! Where does the time go?

We Are the Champions

Ian took 3rd place in his 2nd wrestling tournament ever. We were so proud!

He won his first match in triple overtime--it was a TOUGH match! The second match he lost, which put him in the bottom bracket and the best he could hope for was 3rd place. He had a bye the 3rd round, and then wrestled for 3rd place in his next match. He wrestled the SAME kid he won in the first round and pinned him in about 30 seconds! It was awesome.

Ian continually amazes me with his athletic ability. As someone who has struggled with even chewing gum and walking at the same time, I am envious of Ian. Things seem to come so easy for him in that area. I'm so proud of him and the fact that he's having such a great time doing this.

Almost better that him winning 3rd place is the fact that we FINALLY got him to get his hair cut. You can see his eyes now! :)

80 Degrees of Separation

We got the "bug" to come to Chandler this weekend. It's been a long time since we've visited Gordon's family and we figured it was about time! The ride down was tough for me--I wasn't comfortable AT ALL!! But, it's good to visit with family.

Josh is taking the opportunity with us gone to camp out in our back yard. How funny. I wouldn't want to camp out anywhere that it gets to 20 degrees at night, but whatever...20 bucks says they end up in my living room by 10:00. :) He and Kassie got a HUGE dog--now, when I say HUGE, I mean HUGE!! It's a Great Dane/Mastiff mix and it's bigger than Ian. He brought it over on Thursday and it was fun to watch Molly and our little Polly play together. We thought for sure it would be a disaster, but they got along very well.

I went to see Dr. Funk on Tuesday. He gave me a copy of the pathology report and told me about follow-up we'd need to do for the next few years. The pathology report said it was "renal cell carcinoma" (cancer.) I'll have MRIs in 3 months, 6 months and then every 6 months for the next four years. I'll also need blood tests and a chest x-ray every time, as the cancer (if it spreads) will most likely manifest itself in my lungs or blood. I'm sure I'll be fine.

He said that he has had one other case like mine. A young man was being treated for testicular cancer with radiation and years later developed cancerous tumors in the lower part of his kidneys that were exposed to the radiation. Interesting--it's good to know that we may have an answer to where this came from. Dr. Funk didn't know if I'd get more tumors or if this is it--time will tell, I guess.

I was thinking on the way to Chandler that it's been a rough two years for me. It all started about two years ago with my gallbladder pain. What a blessing it is to have modern medicine that allows us to "find" these things that would otherwise go un-noticed until it might have been too late. Kidney cancer doesn't usually manifest itself on its own, so I feel fortunate that it was found early.

Bought new garments today--woo hoo! There's nothing like new garments! I even bought a size smaller...see--there's always something worth celebrating!

Happy New Year!