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!

Christmastime is Here

Well, after that pity party...

We had a great Christmas. Gordon was so awesome--taking care of everything while I ordered him around from my throne/bed. I have the best husband a gal could ask for.

As much as I've been tired and sore this Christmas break, it's been a great excuse to stay home and hang with the family. I'm grateful for the time I've been able to spend with Ian and Courtnie. My favorite memory so far is snuggling with Courtnie and having a "totally movie day" last Saturday. It was great.

So, here's our present run-down:

Gordon--PJs, razor (hint-hint), Police DVD, sweatshirt, a yard (yes, a yard) of summer sausage
Amie--a new crock pot (Polly broke my last one), Seinfeld "Scene-It," a snuggly hoodie, an electric blanket (ahhh!) and PJs.
Ian--skateboard, "sky box" skate ramp, shirt, PJs, Cardinals calendar
Courtnie--IM-me, Littlest Pet Shop playset, shirt, PJs, Hannah Montana calendar
The kids also got a new trampoline.

We had brunch with Josh, Kassie and the kids and then went to their house for dinner...deep fried turkey--YUM! The best part was having them close enough to spend the holiday with them. We missed not going to Gordon's mom's this year...maybe for New Year's.

I'm just so happy that I got to have an amazing turkey sandwich the next day--that made my Christmas! :)

Wish you all lived closer...we miss you!

Woe is Me

Time for another pity party...
It's been two weeks since I had surgery to remove my kidney tumor and I'm still hurting pretty bad. I guess that's to be expected when you have an 8-inch incision on your right side. Never mind that my kidney is healing from having a golf-ball sized tumor taken out of it. I guess I'm probably doing better than most. I can get up and around and am not completely helpless... :) *just a little!*

Something has been bothering me since my surgeon told me that the tumor was cancerous. When I had cancer the first time, I was at the tail end of my treatments when a CT scan revealed that the cancer was back. My mom panicked and called in Elders from a local ward to give me a blessing. They blessed me that the cancer would leave my body, and that--according to my faith--I'd never have cancer again.

Since I've left the hospital, I've wondered what that all means in light of the fact that I, once again, have (or had) cancer. The great news is that removal of a kidney tumor is all the treatment required (90% of the time)--so hopefully I won't need radiation or chemotherapy treatments and it shouldn't grow back. But the fact still remains that there was cancer in my body again.

Have I not been faithful enough? Was this cancer another test for me? I know that (like all of us--well, maybe not Bill) we all have things we can do better, and I'm not saying that God is punishing me by giving me cancer again. But what does it mean? I don't know if anyone can answer this one. I'm sure it's bothered my mom, as she was witness to the blessing in the first place.

I go to see the surgeon again tomorrow and hopefully he'll be able to answer a few of my questions. Is this tumor a result of the radiation treatments I had? What kind of cancer was it? What kind of follow-up will I have?

I'm so grateful for the prayers and thoughts that have been offered on my behalf. I have felt them, and they have helped me so much when times were tough for me. I'm so grateful to have good friends and a great family. They are truly the best blessing I could ask for.

Kinda embarassing, but I thought I'd share

So, I got names "Prescott Valley's Extraordinary Woman" for the month of September. One of my band parents nominated me. It's kind of nice, but kind of weird for me, as I'm just one person, doing my job...

Here's the link if you want to check it out. It's nice...

http://www.pvtrib.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=48408

Being a teacher is often a very thankless job, (as is being a mother) so it's nice to be recognized. I'm flattered. The good news is, I get my hair done next time for free, as I get a $100 gift card to my favorite salon! :) Yeah!

Dum da dum DUMB!

I officially hate the radiologist that did my biopsy. He sucks. (My dad always hated it when I used that word, but I'm going to anyway...sorry, dad.)

I had this biopsy done a couple of weeks ago on the mass in my kidney. It hurt like a mutha, and the only consolation I took in the entire painful event was that I would at least know what it was and what to do about it.

He (the radiologist) called a couple of days later to tell me that the results came back benign. (See my previous post...I already said this already...) Great, I thought. At least its not cancer.

Well...last week my urologist (Dr. Funk...cool name, huh?) called and left a voice mail that said that the biopsy was benign, but that the tissue sample was "inadequate." Whatever that means.

We played phone tag for the last week, and I finally heard from him yesterday. He said that the biopsy contained only muscle and fat tissue, but not ONE iota of kidney tissue--which was the reason we were doing the thing in the first place. ARGH!! I went through all of that for nothing.

Dr. Funk asked me if the biopsy was too big of a deal. I told him that it certainly wasn't pleasant.

Since we heard from him initially (the voice mail) Gordon and I had talked about my situation. We basically came to the conclusion that I'm going to be around for the next 20-40 years and do I really want to keep doing the whole wait and see thing for the rest of my life.

So...I talked to Dr. Funk about just taking it out. He said that that felt very reasonable to him, and, in fact, its exactly what he'd recommend to one of his family members. He thought my logic was, well, very logical.

I've already scheduled my surgery for December 16. This will give me Christmas break to recuperate. I'll need to take a week off after, but I'll miss as little as possible, which is good.

Well, I'm typing in the midst of mass chaos as we get ready for our homecoming game. Our football team hasn't won a game all year. Maybe we'll get lucky tonight. We were out practicing this afternoon and got caught in a HUGE downpour. We're all soaked, but happy. I love my job--I'm having the time of my life, and can't imagine being (or doing) anything else.

Love to all. :)