THANK YOU CHRISTMAS LOVERS!

Yay! We won! We sure showed all of those Scrouges didn't we!! I am so excited to decorate for Christmas I can barely contain myself. Thanks so much for your votes :)

As most of you have heard Dan's scans were all clear last Monday. Three more months of remission... and I have a feeling there will be many more months to come as well. Thanks so much for your prayers, as always.

Although I did enjoy winning the vote, I knew that this would only be a victory for this year. So Dan and I decided to strike a deal. Dan hates dressing up for Halloween and I am always begging him to do some cute couples costume. So... we decided that if I promise never to ask him to dress up for Halloween, then he will let me decorate for Christmas WHENEVER I want!! It souded fair to me, so I agreed. I have a feeling this might be the best thing we've ever done for our marriage.

My First Blog

Hello everyone. Daniel here.

I thought I'd post a blog for the first time ever. I don't know how to do this, but as far as I can tell, I just write random things about my life and hope that you all find it interesting enough to write a comment on my blog that says something like, "OMG! So funny! Call me sometime! We need to get together and play!" So it is with those high hopes that I write this blog. Only don't say "play" cause that's just weird.

I remember getting off my mission and hearing everyone talk about blogs. Since I'd just spent the last two years in Peru, I had no clue what it was. I thought it was some pandemic that had broken out while I was in Peru and everyone had it. When I heard someone say, "Did you hear that Jason got a blog?" I remember thinking, "Poor Jason. I really hope he's alright."

When I was a kid, I went to a grade called T-1. It stands for transition-1st grade. It was a grade in between Kindergarten and 1st grade. There were only nine kids in my class. I swear I was a smart kid, so I have no clue how I ended up there. Maybe I was too smart for my own good. I'm sure that's it. I remember there was a little blue swimming pool filled with rice that we used to get to play in. It was called the ricebox. Kind of weird now that I think about it, but it sounded fun at the time. Maybe that's why I was in T-1.

I would really like to go to Japan someday. If you gave me the choice between Japan and China, I would definitely pick Japan. But then again...I did go to T-1.

So the other day at work (I work at the Missionary Training Center), I was standing there helping a missionary when I heard someone come up behind me and say, "How's the leg?" (Because I'm on crutches) So I say the same thing I say to everyone: "It's there." Right after I say that I turn around and I notice that the person who asked me was sitting in a wheelchair without a leg. (Insert foot in mouth here). Of all the things I could have said, I said, "It's there." I mean...I could have said, "Good" "Fantastic" "Excellent", but no....I said, "It's there." Simply amazing. It would seem that I didn't learn anything in T-1 (except for how to build rice castles).

Now, I'm going to post some pictures (because I think that's what you do on a blog). At the end of the pictures, please note the dramatic captions filled with way too many exclamation points.

Me when I was a kid! SOOOOOO CUTE!!!!

The CA-UTE little puppy dogs in Peru!!!!!!!!!

CUTE RED CUPS!!!!!!!!!

I hope you're all liking this blog posting so far. I'm having quite an enjoyable time writing it. I'm actually surprised that you've made it this far. Congratulations.

That reminds me of that scene in Elf when Buddy is walking along the streets of New York and sees a sign that says, "World's Best Cup of Coffee" and he runs in the store and yells, "Congratulations, everybody! You did it! World's Best Cup of Coffee!" That's a great movie.

Speaking of Christmas, my wife is so excited for the Christmas season. Almost too excited for her own good. I think she would already have the house decorated if I let her. She wants to decorate after Halloween, but I say that she has to want till after Thanksgiving. So we're at a stand still. So this is what I'm going to do...I'm going to add a poll to my blog and we're going to let you all decide. I strongly urge you all to vote for after Thanksgiving. SEE POLL AT RIGHT.

OK...well, I'm done. I've run out of things to type, and my wife just walked in the door. So before she has a chance to read this and censor what I've written, I'm going to post this.

Bye.

Remembering to breathe

BEWARE!!! This posting contains a picture of Dan's surgery incision that's not for those with weak stomachs!!!


In case you haven't heard, Dan's surgery went well! They replaced the broken screws and made sure that the plate was in good shape. The doctors also wanted to make sure that Dan's leg is as strong as possible so they put another smaller plate on the front of his femur where it is having trouble incorporating. This is also where they put some of Dan's hip bone hoping that it will trick Dan's femur into thinking that the donor bone is part of his own body. It's really incredible. So my husband is now completely bionic.

The surgery went great and these next few months will be very important in determining if it was a success.... I'm sure it will be.

Besides some pesky fevers the recovery also went well. Dan had to go home on oxygen because every time he starts to go to sleep his oxygen saturation would drop drastically. Most people hang out around 95%, but anything above 90% is okay. When Dan starts to fall asleep it drops below 70% so we have our old friend the oxygen tank to help. I have now themed this whole week our official "remember to breathe" week. I was constantly reminding Dan to breathe with big deep breaths. And at the same time he was reminding me to breathe as I am a constant worrier (thank you, mother).

I think there is a lot of wisdom in that phrase. It would be good for all of us to step back and just breathe once in a while. Sometimes life feels like it's just happening all around me and I'm not really taking part. So I am going to remember to breathe and feel truly present.

Anyway, that was a weird tangent. At the end of the day Dan is in remission with one more surgery under his belt. We are so incredibly blessed. Sometimes I think that one of these days we are going to just max out on blessings. We are constantly asking for more and more miracles and they keep coming our way. I'm so glad that Heavenly Father doesn't require us to earn our blessings. All He asks is that we try our best, but our best efforts don't have to equal the amount of blessings. That's just amazing to me. We are so loved.

Well, I thought I would post some pictures for your viewing enjoyment... or at least my posting enjoyment :)

Paul and Dan

This is what Dan's hip looks like... ouch!

The zoo was a blast. We did this a couple weeks ago. Dan has been promising me forever to go the zoo and we finally went!

I thought this was a cute picture of Dan surrounded by Lauren and nieces and nephews getting a look at his iPod touch... Dan loves audiences

Smiles

A day full of these....




With just a little of this ...

Well, Daniel's scans came back all clear yesterday! That means he has officially been in remission for four months! We have all witnessed a miracle. We continue to be so blessed.
The spots in his lungs that they saw three months ago have actually shrunk!! This means that they probably weren't even cancer, just scar tissue that was left over from the surgery that took out all the cancer. Wonderful wonderful wonderful!!! We are so extremely happy.

Some small bad news came. Some of the hardware in Dan's leg has broke. Two screws have broken and our Dr wants to operate. When he said that, I was thinking we would plan the surgery for sometime next month... but the doctor wants to do it next week!! The news hit us like a truck. Normally you can prepare for a major surgery like this, but we literally have no time to prepare. I guess it's good though: a week of worrying instead of months. So August 5th is the big day. He will have a surgery to repair the hardware in his leg. Dr Randall will also take a piece of his hip bone and fuse it to the donor bone in hopes that Dan's femur will better incorporate the donor bone and strengthen his leg. The doctor says this surgery has about a 60% success rate. We're crossing our fingers that this is the final piece in the puzzle and Dan can fully recover.

So all in all, it was great news. Dan's cancer free... all the rest is just maintenance. I know that there is someone looking out for us. Our path is being guided by a loving Heavenly Father. Thanks for your prayers. I KNOW that the pleadings on our behalf are a big reason why Dan is in remission. Now we are praying for a safe and successul surgery next week.

Lots of smiles... LOTS of them.

Aloha...

Aloha in this case sadly means goodbye to the most beautiful place I've ever been!!! I miss Hawaii!

Sorry it has taken so long to get some pictures going (....Emily!) But here are some for your viewing enjoyment, although they don't do the place justice!!

Dan and I had never been to Kauai so when we were there LeeAnn (Joy and Kristen's mom) was a great tour guide. We saw all of Kauai in those two days we were there. Our time on Oahu was very relaxing, so it was nice to stay busy touring on Kauai while we were there.

This is us in Kauai, this picture is overlooking a big coffee plantation. I swear it's not a green screen.

They call this Hawaii's little Grand Canyon because of how big the canyon is. It's weird because it also has red sand like in the Southwest so it's not typically how you think Hawaii is supposed to look.

This is the sign for Queen's Bath. It is a warning that lists Queen's Bath drownings and says "unexpected large waves will knock you off the rocks and sweep you off to sea". So, why wouldn't we hike out and go see it?


More beautiful Kauai...

This is a cool church I found on North Shore in Oahu



Walking to Kipu falls. It was seriously in the jungle. I got about a million bug bites but it was totally worth jumping into the waterfall!! So fun!This is where we went gliding. It's an airplane with no engine. We got towed up by a real plane then the tow rope was released and we glided back down after a 10 minute glide. So fun!!! But look how sketchy the place is! It's seriously just a shack and we were supposed to trust this place. I was so scared, but it was totally worth it.

I HIGHLY recommend parasailing. It was probably my favorite part of the whole vacation
Thanks so much Monahans!! We miss you!!

Easter Pictures

It was a very fun Easter weekend! Lots and LOTS of plastic eggs! Thanks so much mom and dad! I just wanted to post a few pictures of my adorable nieces and nephews. Brag time!

The Long Road Behond Him

I was going to write a long post about how awesome I think he is, but I think this picture I took says it all...

I'm so proud of where he's been and more importantly, where he's going!

Thanks so much Liz for this fun camera! Emily and I took some pictures of our cousin Chelsea and her fiance with it. You can check them out at elmtreephotography.blogspot.com