Update on michael Land

Well I haven't wrote since just before Thanksgiving. Life has been full of bumps and bruises the last several months.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Chuck's mom, dad & step mom, and his brothers family. I love having my mil come to visit. It is a laid back time. She helps out if i am having a bad day and need to lay down. Well I had one of those days and both of my mil's both jumped in and cleaned the kitchen and were just amazing! Thank you guys for all you do.
Everyone seemed to have so much fun working on a puzzle the whole weekend I have decided to start a new tradition and get a new puzzle for Thanksgiving weekend for everyone to work on. We just set it up and leave it up all weekend.

Christmas was so relaxing. It was just our little family of 7. This was our first in our new home. We had fun trying to figure out where we were going to put all of the trees and decorating. I couldn't do the parties I wanted to. I really hope to be better prepared and able to this next holiday season. we were able to get our new couch and chair for the living room. I love them! I think they are quite comfy.

Alice is such a big girl and such a huge help! She announced she wants to go away to BYU Idaho, I will be sad to see her go. She has had some issues with classes transferring from Aloha, but it seems to be worked out now. She is on track for graduating and doing quite well in school. She is having some issues with her feet again. So this has meant more doctor visits. a job is on hold till we get this figured out. She is dating a really nice young man too. He makes her light up with the biggest smile. Sigh.... to be so young again.

chad got to go on his honors band trip. He really enjoyed it. He has been playing the trombone for 2 years now. He is really good. He was the only trombone player in his school till recently. He is enjoying 8th grade and looking forward to highschool next year. He has been on a couple of campouts with the new ward and had a great time. He comes home happy and smelly. They recently went snow camping. I guess that was quite the experience for him.

Rachel just turned 12! We will have a party next week and I will try and share pics soon. She now gets to go to Young Womens and girls camp. She is really excited. 12 is a big kid age in our home. Her boundaries are bigger now so she is looking forward to going to hang out with her friend more and on her own. She gets to stay up later to give her more time to write in her journal and read scriptures. She is just thrilled to be so big.

Grace is having jealous issues. She thinks it is not fair Rachel gets to turn 12 and have all these new experiences without her. We keep telling Grace she will be 12 soon enough. All the 5th graders just participated in a school wide science fair. Grace's project was to see if finger prints were genetic. I think she decided that they are not. She worked hard on this big project. She has been playing the clarinet in the beginning band this year. She is doing really well with it and enjoys it. She wants to play drums in beginning band next year and clarinet in the advanced band. We will have to wait and see about that.

Jill is loving 2nd grade! she has a great teacher. She comes home every day happy as can be. She has made several friends and loves to talk about her day. They just had a field trip to OMSI. Chuck got to go as a chaperon and that made the day extra special for her. She has been having monthly sleep overs with her bestest friend Elizabeth. These girls have been besties since birth, at least. I love to see them together. It is hard to separate them. Can't wait for them to have their next sleepover

Chuck has been working hard. he loves his job. He interviewed for a manager position, but didn't get it. He likes the position he is in now, but wants to move up the ladder so to say. He is still working for DHS, but his division will be renamed become part of a new agency the state is creating about public health. I know he has told me a million times what it will be called, but I haven't retained it.

I have had some real excitement. I have been sick off and on for months with one thing or another. Well I spent nearly 2 weeks really sick and in and out of the doctors. They told me it was side effects of the meds I am on for uterine cancer. I went home and tried to swallow that. Nope this is different than what I normally feel. Finally they told me it was stomach flu and I would have to wait it out. Nope still not that. That was just over a week ago Thursday. That night I woke up with horrid stomach pain and laid or sat there all night crying. The next morning Chuck went on that OMSI field trip while I thought I would die from the pain. When he got home he reluctantly took me to the doctor. I had been in and out of the doctors or on the phone with them for over a week. So 1 more trip seemed like over kill. Anyway they gave me a shot of mega dose ibuprofen and did a CT scan of my tummy. I was feeling fine after that shot. the pain was gone. So the doc came in and said we know what the problem is. The scan showed you have acute appendicitis. I just looked at her and said "seriously? don't I have enough going on?" She said sorry the ambulance is on the way you have to have surgery now. SO I had that nasty bugger out by emergency surgery. They were able to do the laprascopic version. So that was in the middle of the night Friday night/Saturday morning. When the doc made rounds around 9 he said I was really lucky the thing hadn't burst because it was huge and ready to go. I feel very blessed to have the Priesthood in my life. It has really helped out in so many different things. Heavenly Father has really blessed us all.

so that is about all that is going on here. The "big girls" are getting ready to have a fundraiser for girls camp. They are having a carnival and silent auction. I am crocheting an afghan for it. Should be fun!