The Slow tortoise wins the race, right?

Ok, I am officially the slowest blogger ever. Well, maybe not officially. Oh so much has been going on since I last posted. Let's see. It was July of last year when I last checked in. In October one of my BFFs and I opened a shop. It's called Retropolitan we sell lots of fun home decor and furnishings that we find and turn fabulous. Here are a few of the beauties you can find there.

We threw another fun fantastic Halloween Party this year. So many family and friends turned up in their finest halloween attire.

At the end of September, Mike ended up in the ER with major pain in his side. After three hours of blood tests and MRI's and scans the result was no idea what the cause was. He was sent home with a few pain meds and told to come back if it didn't go away. It did, so not much else was thought about it.

Just before a surprise Vegas trip for Mike's 40th Birthday, Mike felt a little pain again, but this time he also felt a lump.

Well most of you know that the end result of that little discovery was the big bad "C" word. A lovely little thing called Synovial Sarcoma. We are now waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Finished with the tumor removal, and 30 treatments of radiation. If the next PET scan shows no spreading we will be good until the next scan 3 months later. If that scan is clean, we wait another 6 months, and so on and so forth. If a scan ever shows that there is any spreading we will get to explore the exciting option of Chemotherapy. Yuck.

And during all of this fun and excitement, Merrell broke his arm on Christmas Eve and I bruised or possibly broke my tail bone. Luckily Merrell and I are all healed up from those fun events and the whole little fam is plugging along. All of the usual; homework, piano lessons and practicing, karate, chores, homework and more practicing.

Summa, summa, summa time

Wow, It has sure been a busy summer so far. Its not over yet. I was called to be the Young Women's Camp director. Big job. Let me just say, "Be Very, Very careful what you wish for." When I was in Young Women's (about a million years ago) I had such wonderful leaders and such a great experience at camp every year. I used to think, " I want to be in YW when I get older, I would love to go to camp and maybe have a little influence on the young women." Well then I had three boys, and so the cub scout and primary callings kept on comin. Then when the YW call came, I was scared. Totally out of my element and totally out of practice relating to young women. It was alot of work and scary at first, but I am so glad I was able to go to camp with the young women of my ward. I may not have given birth to any daughters, but I feel like I have about 21 new daughters.

We are now and have been for a while preparing for my niece Ariel's upcoming nuptuals. She is marrying a wonderful young man named Steven Martin. He is so sweet and perfect for Ariel. She has graciously let me butt in and help with the wedding plans, I went to the dress shop when she was picking one out, she has let me help with the party plans and decor ideas. I am so excited for her.

Also I have has not one, not two, but three fabulous girl trips to St. George. In March I went with friends Taryn Jessen, Karissa Gardner, Erika Brendle, and Jen Utley to Taryn's parents home for a weekend of movies, eating, shopping and fun. Then in May, the sisters, Mom and I took our annual Mother's weekend away to St. George. We has such a great time. Melodee, Mom, Julia, Liesl, JoDee, and Ariel joined me for some great food, a bike ride, shopping, and movies. And in June I went with friends, Eli Berrett, Karla Stone, Buffie Finke, and Linda Wilcock to Eli's southern home. We had such a relaxing time. Lots of fun talking and lounging and the occasional morning run. I would love to take these trips on a monthly basis, not so sure that I could get Mike behind that idea though.

Hunter is now 14 and getting ready to attend the National Jamboree in Fort Hill A.P. virginia. He is going with his cousin Chance who lives in Delta Utah, so the troop he is attending with is from down south. He is a little nervous to be going away for 15 days, but I think he will have a fabulous time. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It only happens once every four years and you have to be between 14-18 to attend. This year should be great since it is the 100 year anniversary of Scouting. After the Jamboree, his troop will be touring some great spots back east. I think it will be hard for me as well. My baby boy gone from home for that long.

Then the end of this month is our annual Jackson Hole River trip with the Rowleys. Can't wait.

Whew! And with all of that I have converted one of my craft rooms into "Girl Haven" I had so many girly decorating ideas floating around in my little brain, I thought I would put them into action in my craft room, (didn't think that Hunter, True or Merrell would appreciate them for their rooms) I have now found that I have a little problem. It is a DI problem. I go searching for little projects to start. My hubby has pleaded for me to stop, he wants his garage back.

OH yeah, I did!

I actually did it. Finished the half marathon. It took a little while, 2 hours 49 minutes, but that includes about a 15 minute porta-potty break. I ran the whole thing too! I don't think I could have done it without the fabulous encouragement of my great friends. My two super hero mommas. Thanks you so much Eli and Pam. I was feeling great until about mile 10, that's when my knees and ankles started to complain and revolt. Those joints of mine are definately not used to that much running. They better get used to it, cause I might just run one a year. (Maybe more, but don't quote me on that.)

I caved!

For all those who know me well, you know that I spend quite a bit of time at the gym. Not that it shows. But I have some great friends that I met at the gym. A few of them have been wanting me to try running with them. Well after years of persuasion they have succeeded. I am entering the Salt Lake Classic Half Marathon. YIKES! I know I thought that I would never volunterily run for 13.1 miles. We shall see how it goes. I haven't really trained other than my usual classes 6 days a week and I ran a few times outside. My longest run being about 8 miles. I think I may be finishing about the time the full marathon runs come in. I will probably be pasted by several. I will post about the results. Wish me Luck.

New Moon

Hello, just when you thought Twilight couldn't get any better, New Moon comes out. I LOVED IT! I know that it helped that there was a bigger budget for this one. I was always a big huge Edward fan from reading the books, but I am swaying to camp Jacob after watching the movie. Can we say what a Cutie? Anyone who knows me, knows that I was on this Twilight band wagon long before there were many on board, and I am just as big a fan as ever. Well I can say that I know some that have far surpassed my enthusiam (Jen). But I have seen New Moon twice in the first two days it was open.

Wake Up Call!

For all those who are in the dark about the latest goings on at the Memmott household. A few weeks ago, Mike was feeling kind of sick at work and his co-workers noticed that he was slurring his words, missing words and brought it to his attention. He didn't think he was, he thought they were mis-hearing. Finally one convinced him that he wasn't talking right and called the Dr. that he happened to have an appointment with later that day. After describing his behavior, the Dr. told him not to wait for his appt. and to go straight to the ER. After several hours and several tests, there was still no diagnosis. The ER said he needed to make an appointment with a neorologist and he was sent home. This was on a Wednesday, and I (his wife) was kept in the dark about these details. Thursday we were supposed to be headed to our annual Jackson Hole, Snake River Rafting trip with the Rowley family. Mike said he would need to come up after work and I should go ahead of him with the boys. He had filled me in on a few details by now and I didn't think it was a good idea for him to be driving alone for about 5 hours. I went to his office to give him 3 options. 1. I would wait and drive up with him after work, 2. He would find someone to come up with him. or 3. He would have to skip the trip this year. But before I even got to the options, he said he didn't think he would be able to come. The neurologist had called and wanted him to get a MRI right away. He convinced me to go ahead and take the boys on the trip and he would keep me posted. Well to make a long story short, the trip just wasn't as fun as usual. I was worried about what was going on with Mike and the weather wasn't very cooperative. After 4 MRIs and several other tests they determined that he had had a stroke. AHHHHHH. Also after seeing a stroke specialist, they think it was caused by a tear in an artery in the back of his neck, which was probably caused by lifting too much weight. With the artery tear, it is from the inside out, so the platelets in his blood were catching and causing blood clots that would then break off and travel through his brain. It was determined that he has had about 6-9 of these with 2 or 3 with noticable damage. So needless to say we now have a bathroom cabinet that looks like it belongs to an 70 year old.
After all this we do feel very blessed that it wasn't worse. We know that many times after a stroke the patient is left partially paralized or many functions such as speech or mobility lost.
Lessons learned: Don't take your health for granted and take care of your bodies.

Summer do!

Mike took Merrell to get a haircut for the summer. The results are somewhat unorthodox. I think someone is living vicariously through their child. I think its is fun for the summer but come school I think we will be back to my little blonde boy.