Gratitude Is In the Air!

November has got to be one of my favorites... in fact is comes in a VERY close second to December. (Which is a big deal considering I am a Southwick woman... we take our Decembers VERY seriously:)

I love it because gratitude flows so easily through all of us. I have an unusually long list this year.

First and foremost:
My healthy husband. He has not had treatment now for three months. Since the miraculous news of the pathology report from the nodules taken from his lungs, we have breathed a sigh of relief and our world no longer revolves around chemotherapy, surgery and doctors appointments. We still have the lingering thoughts and usual worries about the next scan, but it does not take away from the miracle we have seen.
Here are some pictures of us lately enjoying Dan's health:

(Disneyland)

(carving pumpkins with the Riches)

(Halloween Costumes. We were a nerd and a bully... don't read into that too much. We do not endorse domestic violence :)

(Dan at Denny's demonstrating his claw skills that won him this stuffed animal.)

Second:
Dan got a job!! And a GREAT job, too! He is now teaching seminary at Northridge High School in Layton, UT. If you don't know what seminary is, it's a class that high school kids can elect to take (though it operates independently from the high school) to study the principles found in the scriptures. Dan teaches these things to high schoolers day in and day out... and he loves it!! We feel very lucky because this career path is surprisingly competitive. We couldn't be happier with the job and the Spirit it has brought into our lives.

Third:
The above mentioned blessing required us to move. Luckily, we found a great little place pretty quickly. We love our little townhome! I'll try to post pictures later... we're still getting settled. We like Layton so far. We feel so lucky to live next to my sister and her wonderful family!

Fourth:
My new washer and dryer! We braved the 15 degree weather for four and a half hours and got our washer and dryer for half off!! Yay!! It's supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I can't wait. This was me and Dan's first time attempting to brave the Black Friday crowds and it was actually pretty fun. This is the "cold crew", consisting of me, Dan and Dallin.

We bundled up and took turns waiting in line, then warming up in the car with the heater. We found different ways to stay warm:




Last, but definitely not least:
Family. I get so happy every time I think about my family. I could not ask for a more supportive, wonderful, fun and loving family. I know those are generic words to use, but I mean every one of them. I love love my family! We had such a fun Thanksgiving season with the Southwick side, and we can't WAIT for Christmas with the Hedlunds! Grammy's cinnamon rolls, here we come!!

"What the heck just happened?"

That's what I woke up saying this morning.

First, let me preface this with... I have the best husband ever. Now let me tell you what he did.

About three weeks ago he started talking about this awesome date we were about to go on. He told me that he wanted to thank me for the past three years. He said that although I might not know, he has noticed everything I have done while he has been sick. I always tell him that it was a small price to pay for being the luckiest wife in the world.

So on the day of the date he tells me that we are going to do something at Thanksgiving Point that requires tickets. In order to keep it a secret, he had my mom buy them so we had to go to my mom's house to pick up the tickets. When I walk in the door I walked into a surprise luau. My family is all there and our good friends from Hawaii (who were there for general conference) to celebrate. Dan knows how much I love Hawaii so he told me that because he couldn't take me to Hawaii, he'd bring Hawaii to me! I thought it was the best, most random surprise party I'd ever had. I thought this was the big surprise and was loving it.... that is until Dan pulled out the big guns.

During dinner he quiets everyone down to read a poem he wrote. It was really sweet and basically just thanked me for taking care of him while he was sick. It had this line in there over and over: "how can i thank you for all you've done?". The last line answered the question with a surprise vacation to Hawaii! I freaked out! Then I looked at the date for the tickets and they said next week! We were leaving in 7 days! Then I really freaked out.

So, needless to say the last 2 weeks have been crazy, and that is why I woke up this morning saying "What the heck just happened". Being surprised like that was incredible, Hawaii was amazing. Life is so good!!

Here are some pictures.

This is us looking out over Makapuu:

There's no real reason to put this picture up except for that Dan looks really cute in it :)

This is right before we got in trouble for getting too close to the sea turtles. There were SO many!

Ask Dan what happens when you put a whole pot of rice down a garbage disposal. Rice + Garbage Disposal = An unhappy Joy because there's no leftover rice for fried rice. AND, a clogged up sink. Sorry John and Nancy!! But at least the plumber is your new best friend, right?

We LOVED our convertible. Sure, it screamed "I'm a tourist", but it was totally worth it. We had the top down all week and it was probably one of the best parts about the whole trip!

This is our favorite beach. It's called Cockroach Cove and sometimes you are the only people on the beach! Ugly name, beautiful beach.

The resort we stayed at in Ko Olina. Gorgeous!

This is us at the luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We weren't going to go there this trip, but just decided that we had to. It's way too much fun! Thanks John and Nancy!


We have the best friends ever!!! Thanks Joy and Kristen for taking off time from work to hang out with us. And thanks Drew for coming to the beach with us :)

THANK YOU Mom and Dad. This was the best graduation present ever! We had so much fun!!!!

Look Ma, No Hands!!

.... says Daniel.


We have an announcement! After 2 1/2 years of walking with some sort of assistance (via crutches or a cane) ... Dan is now walking like a big boy again!

I realize most blog postings about walking center around 9-12 month old babies, but for us this is a big feat. Here's proof:


Furthermore, I no longer have to carry, drinks, trays, grocery bags, his cell phone, etc. It is a big day! Watch closely in the video and you can see Dan has forgotten some of the things that come along with walking. Such as, swinging BOTH arms. I guess when you are used to using a cane it must feel weird to swing your arm again, but I had to inform Dan that it LOOKS even weirder than it FEELS.

We are also happy to announce the end of Dan's treatment. After lots of prayerful consideration, we feel very confident that this is the time to stop treatment and start getting on with life. I already posted about the great news of the last lung surgery. His doctors feel very confident that the chemo did it's job... while we feel very confident that we have seen a miracle from above. So we are pretty well covered on both ends of the spectrum :)

So, from here on out, they will follow Dan's lungs with scans to monitor any growth. He is also "testing" out his leg to see if the added stress of walking can cause it to fully grow into the grafted femur. We are anxious to see if it will grow in before the plate breaks from the added weight without the cane. Please keep your fingers crossed, as Dan wishes to put surgeries behind him.

We are so grateful for this new lease on life. We have really seen a difference in the past few days. We have a new focus. A normal life focus. And the strange part is... normal life feels abnormal. But we'll take it. We have our Heavenly Father to thank for this miracle, and not a day goes by that we don't recognize that. He really does guide the direction of our lives in more ways than we know.

The World's Shortest Post

It was all dead.

Everything they took out of Dan's lungs were all 100% dead cancer cells!!


We've seen a miracle... and I mean a BIG miracle!



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Bored? Try This...

So Dan and I were both in the office when Dan was writing an e-mail. I glanced over at the keyboard and suddenly felt very, very bad for it. Dan was hammering away on the keys like a woodpecker on a tree trunk. I suddenly realized that my dear husband is an incredibly fast typist and it was blowing my mind.

But if you know anything about me, you know I'm competitive. I challenged him to a duel. I thought to myself "Self, you're a pretty fast typist. In elementary school, you always won the typing competitions... don't let Dan intimidate you". So we googled "typing speed tests" and found a good one.


This is Daniel's score:

99 words


This is my score:

50 words
Yikes.... ouch. I'm a little rusty. So bloggers, we now challenge you. Here is the link:

Typing Test


Oh, and by thy way, the second time I took the test I got this:

1039 words(Although the second time, I figured out how to change my score in the HTML format before I posted it!)


P.S. - This blog posting took my approximately 4 1/2 minutes to type. That's gotta help me when I compete in the NCAA Women's Blogging Championships!

Laughter: The Best Medicine

Hello everyone! Daniel here! Well, this is officially my second blog posting. It's not that I don't enjoy writing the minute details of my life and sharing them with the masses, but I've always thought of blogging as a "woman's sport". And by saying that, I mean no offense men who blog, just like I also mean no offense to men who play to softball or volleyball (even though they're clearly girl sports, too). I guess if I had to put blogging in a category, I'd put in the same one as scrap booking. Once again...no offense to men who enjoy scrap booking.

Maybe they should make this a collegiate sport - Women's Blogging! The rules are simple: each team member has 20 minutes to create the best blog entry. They are judged on writing style, how cute the pictures of their kids are, how many times they make mention of their husband being the "best husband ever!" (pretty sure my wife would win that one), and they're also judged on how many comments they get on each blog posting. Let's make this happen, people! We could make the season stretch from June to September - since basketball and football are both in the off-season and the only thing on is baseball (which is horrible! Who has time to follow a sport where they play 160+ games a season?) Honestly, when I watch the Top 10 plays on Sports Center during these months, I want to shoot myself. Here's how it goes:

10: Ground out to first
9: Double play
8: Soccer goal
7: Ground out to first
6: Barehanded catch/throw to first
5: Manager gets ejected for yelling at the ump
4: Ground out to first
3: Walk-off home run
2: Soccer goal
1: By this time, I'm usually crying and I can't hear the top play over my loud sobs. But if I could, I'm sure it would be a.....ground out to first! BARF!

Anyways, I've gotten way off topic. The reason I'm writing this blog is because I wish to let everyone know how I'm doing after surgery. We've really appreciated all of your prayers and have found strength in your support. I'm honestly doing so well right now. I'm pretty much back to "normal life" (whatever that is) and I'm healing really well. And, although sometimes it feels like someone is kicking me in the ribs, the pain really isn't that bad most of the time. Strangers will come up to me in the streets and in the supermarket and say, "Daniel! We don't believe it! You're out and about already?!" to which I can only reply, "How did you know my name?" No, but honestly, if you were to ask me how I'm doing so well after the surgery, I would answer with one word: YouTube.

If you were to take all of the technological inventions of the past 10 years (HD TV, iPods, iPhones, BlueRay, Facebook, etc), and asked me to only keep one...without hesitation, I would say, "YouTube."

IT'S THE GREATEST INVENTION KNOWN TO MAN, PEOPLE!!!!!

Nothing can make me laugh like a good YouTube video! And so I've decided to post the six funniest YouTube videos I've seen in the past week that have contributed to a healthier, happier Daniel.

I tried to find some that you may not have seen before, but I apologize if you've seen any of these before. If you're like me - you won' t mind seeing them again!


#6.





#5.



#4.

Okay...disclaimer on this one: I truly don't enjoy laughing at other people's misfortune, but there's just something funny about people falling down!



#3.

The funny part about this isn't his fall (though that's funny), it's that he tries to continue with the video after the fall!



#2.
Be sure to watch the whole thing. It just keeps getting better!




#1.

Amazing.





Well, that's it folks. Hopefully you've laughed as hard as I did at some of these videos! And if you have any funny YouTube videos that you think I might not have seen or that you just love, please send them on to me!

This is kind of how Dan feels on percocet...