Grateful for the Brown Brothers

I was elated to see this sight as I approached my house tonight.

I have too many trees with too many leaves; I've even removed at least seven fruit trees. I dread when the leaves start to fall. It takes me hours to rake them all. Raking leaves is a two-person job and there is one of me.

The other day I asked the boys who mow my lawn if they would be willing to rake my leaves. Mr. J said he would talk to his brothers. Today they came and bagged up all the leaves. SO GRATEFUL. I don't know how much money I owe them, but it will be worth every penny.

Too bad there are still leaves on the walnut tree.

Life is good.

Grateful for Extended Family

With all the Christmas decor and associated bling in the stores, you'd think that we were only a month away from Christmas. Talk about holiday creep. But no, a month from today is Thanksgiving. This is one of my favorite holidays because besides spending lots of money on food, there isn't anything commercial about the day.  Between now and November 28th I thought I'd try to write about one for which I am grateful. So here goes.

I am Grateful for Extended Family

Until I was 16 years old, I lived next door and in close proximity to my extended family (five "T" brothers and their wives/kids). As a result we share a unique bond that most people don't understand. We keep track of each other. When something happens (death, accident, engagement, mission call, etc.) the news travels like wildfire. And we genuinely enjoy being together. The bond has continued from the first cousins to the second cousins, and first cousins once removed (or whatever we are). We just say we are family-- because that's what we are.

Last night I had the BYU cousins over for dinner. I started this soon after I came to BYU, over 13 years ago. The group has grown since then. I had to build an addition to my house to accommodate everyone. I sincerely LOVE having them over for dinner and games. I look forward having them come. I LOVE these kids. A few people have moved away; one is now on a mission. Some will never move away :) We've scared off a few boyfriends. Some have married and added spouses to our group; others have added spouses and children.  I love them all. They fill my life with joy. So grateful that I have the opportunity to get to know them while they are here at BYU. We take a photo at the end of every evening. I display them in a collage on my wall.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Last Wednesday my niece, Ms. C., and I attended a celebration dinner on BYU campus for all the recently promoted faculty. It was a lovely evening. The food was by Marvellous Catering and it was delicious-- beef tenderloin, garlic mashed potatoes with button mushrooms and gravy, asparagus spears, rolls, salad with cranberries, oranges and poppy seed dressing. The music was beautiful and VP Webb gave a short, inspiring message. The only black mark on the evening was a couple of comments that assumed every one there had a spouse. Um, no. That's why I took Ms. C with me. [would post pictures here, but don't have any]

Anyhoo. A lovely evening.

I came home and was on the computer doing some online banking paying my bills. The lights started to flicker like they were going to go out. I grabbed a flashlight just in case. The lights continued to flicker before they finally went off.

I walked downstairs and checked the circuit breakers. Nothing. Reset them anyway. Nothing. But I still had lights in the basement. Hum....

I called my brother. That's what I always do when something goes wrong at my house. He didn't answer. After four text messages and phone calls I texted my niece, asking if he was already in bed. Yep. He had been working the night shift, so was already sawing logs.

So I called the next smartest person I know- my brother-in-law. He was at a church meeting and not home yet.

By this time, it is nearly 10 p.m. and I know that nothing is going to get solved that night.

There were about three outlets working upstairs, so I got an extension cord and plugged my refrigerator in to one and my freezer in to another one. I also started the pilot light on the gas log on my fireplace, hoping the fan had electricity and would turn on.

A little after 10 my brother-in-law called. We still couldn't solve the mystery.

The next morning I called my brother. The Reader's Digest version is that after several phone calls, Mr. Sparky, an electrical company was going to come out to look at my problem between 2-4 p.m. I made at least 12 phone calls to my brother that day-- and probably that many text messages too.

I had to go to the office for a faculty meeting. I did the manual release on my garage door and headed to work.

Mr. Sparky called and said they could be there earlier. We met at 1:00. It didn't take them long to diagnose that the problem was with the ground wire. That required Rocky Mountain Power to come for a visit.

Rocky Mountain Power showed up about 5:00 and had the repair done by 7 p.m. The problem was a nicked wire (probably when my neighbor dug fence posts last summer) which caused the wires to corrode. This resulted in me having power to only one of the three legs (positive, negative, neutral) going in to my house.

When Mr. Sparky examined my breaker box outside my house they informed me that it needed to be replaced for safety reasons. The breaker box I had was from Federal Pacific, which went out of business in the 70s mainly due to law suit from lies when they developed their products and they weren't safe. And my A/C was wired to that breaker and it really needed its own breaker. And the three the legs were exposed at the bottom of the box- another hazard. So $2K later I had power back and a new breaker box.

I'm telling myself it could have been worse. The wires could have been under my deck and I would have had to tear up my deck. Or they could have had to tear up my new lawn. Or the power surge could have fried my computer. Instead it only fried my modem. A trip to Best Buy and $50 later I had a new modem and internet access.

Friday evening I texted my niece about the BOOMshakalaka going on at campus. When she responded, I couldn't read her message because my trusty flip phone had died. Literally. I opened it and it fell apart. I tried fixing it, but it just came disconnected. Died.

The one bright thing in the week was that while I waited for the electricians to do their work on Thursday I decided to write down all the phone numbers in my cell phone. I don't have a SIM card so I knew that when I eventually get a new phone the numbers wouldn't be able to be replaced. And I was thinking that sometime in the near future I'd need a new phone. I just didn't want it to be this week. REALLY---timing couldn't be worse. So I am grateful that I followed the prompting to write down the phone numbers. 140 people with multiple numbers. I wouldn't know how to get in touch with anyone. I just press "dial" and the phone calls. A downside to technology.

Saturday morning I am down to the cell phone store as soon as it opens.  A few hundred $dollars$ later and I have a new iphone.

I think I am the only person in the world who is upset that they now have an iphone. I am in mourning over losing my trusty flip phone. It did what I needed it to do. Life was good. Though I admit there have been a few days when I wished I had a smart phone-- like Thursday when my power and internet connection were out and I couldn't email my students telling them I wouldn't be in class that day.

I know I will eventually get used to it. But for now I am grumpy.

The week did end well. Saturday night I met my family in SLC at a nice restaurant to celebrate life. I had wanted to take everyone out to celebrate my promotion, but about the time I found out last May my mom got really sick. And then my sister-in-law started chemo for breast cancer. Timing wasn't working.

Then one day I realized it was the 10-year anniversary of Mr. J being diagnosed with a brain tumor. We needed to celebrate life. Celebrate Mr. J still being alive. Celebrate G almost being finished with chemotheraphy. And secondarily celebrate my promotion.

It was a perfect night. We had out own private room with a round table. We could converse and enjoy one another's company-- which we did. We were missing 4 people, but the rest of us had a splendid time. Mom and Dad are still talking about it today.

Though it has been a rough week, to say the least, it ended well.

Life is Good!

Celebrating Mr. J's Life

Ten years ago this weekend, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon much like today, I tried to coax my

October 2003

nephew, Mr. J, to go for a walk down to the school playground. Usually it didn't take much effort to get him to go outside and play. But that day he didn't want to go; he wanted to sit next to his mom with his head in her lap. When I asked why he didn't want to go, he couldn't give a reason-- just didn't want to.

In the previous few weeks Mr. J had been acting differently-- not being able to see the bottle of soap in the bathroom to wash his hands; incontinence; stumbling as he got on the school bus; needing help to zip up his pants. The pediatrician attributed it to separation anxiety since he just started kindergarten.

Call it a mother's intuition, a hunch, or whatever you want, but my sister knew something was wrong. And that afternoon so did my mom and I. We sat in the living room with tears welling up in our eyes, trying not to cry.

As I drove home that night, leaving I-84 and crossing on to I-80 toward Park City, I had the thought come to me that it was too late to develop my faith in God. I either believed that God lived and He would hear and answer our prayers and help Mr. J, or I didn't.

In the ensuing days, weeks, months, and years I have never prayed for anything so hard as I did for Mr. J.

The next morning when I got to my office I called my sister. I told her that I knew she was the mom, but there was something really wrong with Justin and she needed to call Dr. Sandy Friden. He was a family member and my parent's doctor. I knew that we could get in to see Sandy, soon! Mom called Sandy's office and got an appointment for later that morning. Within minutes of Mr. J being in his office, Sandy knew what was wrong. He sent my sister back to the hospital in Logan for more tests. Before she got home there was a message that Mr. J had fluid on the brain. Sandy had also scheduled an appointment with a neurologist at Primary Children's Medical Center (PCMC) for the next day. On Wednesday Mr. J had the first of two major brain surgeries for a brain tumor. His only question for the surgeon was whether he was going to take out all of his brain. Five year old innocence!

Mr. J also went through two rounds of chemotherapy, experienced a major seizure, had to take medicine to slow down his growth, and endured countless visits to the oncology unit at PCMC. Finally this year they told him to come back "in a year" for his next scan. Woot. Woot. The day we have been waiting for.

Fortunately, Mr. J doesn't remember much of what happened. And for the most part, he is a typical teenager, though more pensive and quiet. He was forced to grow up before his time. He has a scar on his head that is visible because he keeps his hair really short. Once in a while kids will ask what the scar is for. He responds nonchalantly that he had surgery. Missing the nearly the first year of kindergarten has made school challenging for Mr. J.  He works really hard for the grades he gets. He doesn't have vision below his eyes-- for example as I type this I can see my hands though I am looking at the screen. He can't do that. But we don't know if that is a result of the tumor or if it was always that way.

July 2013

Mr. J is extremely talented in art and music. He plays the piano by ear; he can transpose piano music for his viola. He can draw almost anything. And he is extremely sensitive and caring.

I love all my nieces and nephews like they are my own children. I am so grateful for God's tender mercies and kindnesses. So grateful that Mr. J is still with us. I love him.

In a couple of weeks we are going to have a celebration of life. We will celebrate Mr. J's ten year anniversary. We we also celebrate the fact that my sister-in-law G. is almost finished with chemotherapy for breast cancer. I now pray daily for her, that she will be healed, that she will have the strength to endure this trial.

Life is good. The gospel of Jesus Christ brings peace and comfort in time of sorrow and heartache. So grateful for my testimony of the Savior.

Life is Good!