Reading A Banner is Unfurled

I wanted to share a part of the book that I'm reading.  This book is about my pioneer ancestors and I hope you get the chance to read it.  On my mom's side, we are descended through Benjamin Franklin Johnson, and his second wife.  His brother, Joel Hills Johnson, was the eldest son of Ezekial and Julia Hills Johnson.  Joel is also the one who wrote "High on a Mountain Top" and built a sawmill in Kirkland that is still standing today.  This part of the book that I'm about to share talks about Joel Hills Johnson and his thoughts after reading the Book of Mormon.  It touched my heart and I wanted to share it.

"As he studied and prayed, he came to four conclusions.  First, that as all protestant churches had sprung up from the Church of Rome, they had no more authority to administer in the ordinances of the Church of Christ than the Church of Rome had.  Second, that a supernatural power did attend the Mormon church.  It had risen independently of all denominations.  Therefore, its origin must be of heaven or the devil.  Third, it seemed unreasonable to Joel that God would suffer the devil to bring forth a work with the gifts and blessings of the ancient Church of Christ, corresponding to that which He promised to bring forth in the last days for the gathering of the House of Israel.  Fourth, the principles taught in the Book of Mormon corresponded with the Bible, and the doctrines of the Church were the same as those taught by Christ and his apostles, with signs following the believers.  As Joel voiced these conclusions and recorded them on paper and in his heart, great peace filled him.  He embraced the work of God with his whole soul." (pgs. 128-129) 

Although, Joel would not attend meetings for a period of time, he allowed Annie (his wife) to go.  He writes that he "never would abridge any ones liberty in religious matters" (J. H. Johnson, Diary, 6).  He did use his personal Bible to compare the teachings of this new sect to the ancient Church of Christ.  The actual words, the four different points of comparing doctrine, are taken from his journal.  He was baptized on June 1, 1831.

I wanted to record these 4 points so I could remember them.  I'm not able to go to church today so have been doing some family research, and doing some studying on my own this morning.  I was so excited when I read this part in the book, but realize not everyone who reads my post will agree.  My blog is my journal and I hoped to remember this as a point of reference for myself. 

Radioactive Iodine

My apologies for anyone that has had to be around me the past 4 or 5 days.  I've been having my blood drawn weekly to check the TSH levels in my blood, trying to prepare to take some radioactive iodine.  I've been off my medications for a few weeks now and each week that has gone by it feels like I'm dragging more and more.

Sunday rolled around and I could tell I was very much not myself anymore.  Mind over matter really does work though, I'm pretty amazed I was functioning at all.  A week ago Monday, my TSH levels were at 24 and I needed them to be at 50.  This past Monday and Tuesday got really hard for me and I knew my levels were to 50.  The nurse from the radiation oncologist office called me this morning and said your levels were at 213 yesterday and we need you to go tomorrow to the hospital to get this done.  I asked her if 213 is high and she said that's extremely high and started laughing at me.  Not a courtesy laugh mind you, like a shocked laugh.  I laughed back and said "Oh, I guess that's why I'm not feeling well huh?".  She agreed and said lets get you in. 

I"ll go to the hospital tomorrow to take the radiation then I'll finish up the week radioactive at my mom's house.  I still have to stay on my low-iodine diet until the nuclear scan is done.  My mom read and studied up on the things I can and cannot eat so hopefully she can help me because I've been a little bit of a mess yesterday and today.  Between my mom's, mother in laws, and my friend Jolene's books, I think I'll have enough reading material to keep me sane for the next week.  My hope is that I'll be concious enough to read them.

Melody was a huge blessing to me today.  Today was an early release from school and when she got home she sat down to do her homework at the table and kept an eye on the babies for me.  I was dead to the world and pretty close to being in a coma if you ask me.  She kept the house running until Christian came home from work.  Thank goodness Bestamor is coming tomorrow to stay with the kids. I love my hubby, but I struck gold when I married into his family and got my mother-in-law.

Next Thursday I'll have my nuclear scan uptake done and I'm hoping to close this chapter of not feeling well, shut for good.  I'm hoping to feel great just in time for summer so I can play hard.

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

Christian surprised me with a trip to Tombstone, Arizona.  We had been wanting to get out of town just the 2 of us and I didn't think that we'd be able to.  He pulled it together and got a day off work so we could go.  It was a really nice surprise!  We checked into a really cute motel and the room we reserved was the Doc Holiday room.  We got a jacuzzi tub in our room that was about 2 feet from Christian's side of the bed.  A little weird...but still a really cool place to stay.  I guess back in the day, John Wayne used to stay at this motel and couple other famous people that I cant recall at the moment.

  

We took a ghost tour that night and learned about the "Town too tough to Die".  That was kind of fun.  Our tour guides said if we snapped photographs we might catch a ghost...I don't see any, do you?

 The next day we walked around tombstone, got some homemade fudge, watched the reenactment of the okay coral shootings, took an old time photograph together.  Oh! And Christian bought me a very cool cowboy hat to wear around town.

 Thanks for the fun trip honey! Happy 5th Anniversary!

How I'm Doing

I've had some interesting experiences these past couple of months.  After many months of testing and trying to figure out why I haven't felt good, my doctor was able to diagnoise me with Papillary Thryoid Cancer.  It's been a positive thing though and I'm not worried in the least about it.  I'm actually very happy with the real possibility of feeling better again, now that we know what we're trying to cure.  It's been lots of doctors appointments this past year trying to figure me out.  At times I felt like I was making it all up and I just needed to eat better, and excerise and would mentally tell myself to get up and get going even if I was exhausted.  Everything I've felt seemed explainable too, like I'm exhausted because I have a wonderful calling and little babies at home.  Its been a couple of months of more blood work, ultrasounds, a nuclear scan uptake, and most likely a surgery in the next few weeks.  My doctor is very involved with doing medical research concerning thyroid nodules and has asked me to take part in some genetic testing since my sister and my mom are both experiencing the same things I am.  I told him I'd do it and then I found out he was going to pay me to take part in it...well of course I'm going to do it!  I was trying to keep all of this to myself because I didn't want any attention.  My mother-in-law has been to my house to help me with my kids so I can go to appointments, and friends like Brian and Karleen Sirrine never hesitate to help me with transporting my kids to and from school if I need them.  Friends are sending me emails, and leaving me phone messages which are always spirit boosting when I'm having a particularily emotional day or experiencing lots of fatigue.  Ward members always seem to be there when I need them most in taking care of my babies during Sacrament meeting, Sunday School, and Relief Society (thank you Roberta Bugbee, Barbie Richner, Mandy Bailey, Lynette Austin, Brianna Lee, Ginger Coleman, and Esther Hoffman for the help during the last few Sunday).  I think the most alarming symptom I'm experiencing right now is the loss of feeling in my arms so having sisters step in to hold babies has been such a relief.  Sometimes my arms feel like the strength goes right out of them and they tingle, shake and go completely numb.  I'm not really sure why that is but apparantly I could be feeling that in my legs as well and I'm not...so thank goodness for that.  My doctor thinks this has been going on for the past 2 years and maybe as far back as 5 years.  I had a sweet sister in my ward, that I don't know very well, send me a long email with the nicest things to say about me and about having faith, and then she knitted me an afghan which is beautiful and it made me feel very special because she felt I was deserving of such a beautful gift.  My friend Jolene calls me and checks on me to see how I'm doing and I feel like she's got the entire ward praying for me, and it's such a feeling to know that so many people want to see me feeling better.  I've got my friend Tiffany, and my sisters Laurel and Christi, who believed me all year long when I'd tell them I wasn't feeling well and they were my best cheerleaders in telling me to keep going to the doctors until something was found.  (haha, now I feel like I'm giving a speech)  I guess what I'd like you to know is that I'm okay, and I'm going to be feeling even better soon.  Mostly I want you all to know that I appreciate everything you've done for me.  At times I don't feel deserving.  Thanks Mom, Karleen, and Laurel for being available to answer my questions when I've wanted to know more about what I'm experiencing.  There's going to be some more interesting weeks ahead and I'll update my blog with how my appointments are going.  Christian has really stepped up these past few weeks in helping me with the kids and the house.  There are days where he finds me walking around in circles because I don't know what to take care of or because I can't remember what I was doing.  I feel very blessed right now and it's because of all of you.  Love ya,
Emily

Reactions to my new Haircut

My friend Amber cut and colored my hair for me this morning.  I was needing my hair cut and colored for such a long time now and I'm really very excited to show it to you all.  These were the reactions I got from my family today.

Dane: He was with me at Amber's house while she was coloring and cutting my hair. "I don't like your hair (would walk away and come back), I don't like your hair (stares at me and Amber), I don't like your hair".    He didn't like the way I looked at all when I had the hair dye on.  In fact, he brought me a popcicle for me to open for him and wouldn't come any closer than he had to.  He was leaning back but stretching and reaching to hand me his popsicle so I would open it for him.  I must have looked really scary.

Christian: I texted Christian when I got out of the hair appointment to say I'd got my hair cut, and it was now chin length.  Here's his text word for word.  "Sweet, send me a pic of it and be topless in the pic."  So I took a picture of my hair (with my clothes on) and sent him a picture of my new haircut.  Then he said "Hey, it looks really good." 

Melody: (Picking Melody up from school)  She sees the van so runs over and hops into the front passenger seat.  She turns and looks at me and says very surprised, "Mom!  What happened to your face?!?"  My reaction..."What!, What's wrong with my face??" Then Melody, "There's something very different, Oh!! you cut your hair!!"  Oh good, so there's nothing wrong with my face.

Aaron: (7:00p.m. at night)  Aaron has said nothing at all about my hair so I finally ask him at the dinner table.  Aaron, do you like my hair cut?  Aaron says, "You got a hair cut?" 

Here's a not so glamorous picture of my hair cut.  I'll post a better picture of it later.

How does your garden grow?

I finally planted a flower garden at my house...YAY!!! It only took me 2 1/2 years to do it. We had our ward's enrichment activity this month on gardening. At the activity we all planted a whole lot of things in our egg cartons. I planted various things but I planted a lot of sunflower seeds in one of my egg cartons. I kept it on our window sill above our kitchen sink and I'll tell you...those things grow really fast! All of a sudden I needed a place to plant them outside and I hadn't prepped anything outside. So the last two days I've been digging, and digging, and shoveling, and mixing dirt in the back yard by the wall so I could finally plant those little flowers. I bought a nice cheap border to go around the whole thing, I bought 10 packets of various flower seeds, and a few potted flowers that were being clearanced at Walmart. You can get some really nice flowers for $1.50 at the Walmart by our house right now.


Here's the pictures of what I've been working on the last two days. You can see the flowers that I purchased from the store but what you don't see yet are the tons of seeds that I threw out there that hopefully will start growing. I'll do some updated pictures later on. I can't wait to see how the whole thing fills in...at least hopefully it does. What I should have done was take a before and after pictures of this.

Now I just have to work in the side yard where I want the vegetable garden to be. I'll do some before and after pictures of that project. And just like Sis. Snyder quoted us at enrichment night..."The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

Yay!!! Darn!!!

This morning I woke up at 4:00 AM like I have the past few nights....darn. So I watched the morning buzz at 5:00 AM and the news and heard all about Michael Jackson's death again.

So then I thought to myself, what could I do before all the kids wake up this morning?....hhmmm. I know! I'll paint the front door! I'm weird like that. So I grab my pale of red paint and start painting the front door. Yay! But I run out of paint at the very end...darn. Well, I can't leave my door only mostly painted or else I'm sure to hear from the HOA. So I wonder to myself again..."I wonder if adding water to the can helps....hhhmmm". Well it works out, kind of. The paint, being very thin, runs down the door as I'm trying to paint and is doing so at a very fast rate. It's good enough to get me by though.

Then I get to admire my front door! From the porch, then from the street. Hopefully it doesn't stand out to much or look weird. I make a mental note to grab more paint TODAY, or else I'll never do the touch up paint.

The kids and I have a pretty uneventful day which is nice. I like having those every once in a while. We met friends at McDonalds and sat for a long time, talking and playing. When we leave, the kids and I decide we're going to buy daddy a betta fish for his fish tank and pick up the same red paint from Walmart while we're there. The cashier lady lets me pay with the rolled coins that are weighing down my purse. I had 6 rolls in there and they were heavy! But I'm grateful because she saved me a wait at the bank with all the kids to deposit them into my account. Lol....I'm so embarrassed to having admit that.

Then we get home. Dane has fallen asleep in the car and the kids have run inside the house, leaving all the van doors open for me to close...again. That's so irritating! Close the darn door on your way out of it! It's not that hard!!! So I grab the fish in one hand, put my arm through the plastic bag loop that's carrying the red paint, and grab a sleeping baby from the car.

Now being my lovely, pregnant, and tired (4:AM remember) self, I lean down to put the red paint can on the living room/dining room table. It falls. DARN!!!! Dane wakes up and there's a nice pile of red paint on my living room floor. (I never think to take pictures while I'm in the moment.) I wish I could have shown you guys this scary pile of red paint. I'm trying to scoop it up and not drip anywhere. I'm wetting all kinds of old kitchen towels but ya know...red paint doesn't exactly soak up into anything. I spent the next 3 hours on hands and knees scrubbing at this sucker, talking to Christian on the phone saying we either need to re-carpet or buy an area rug..."no dice" he says. Darn!

But good news, the red paint mostly did come up. YAY!! Not with carpet cleaner mind you...nope, that stuff just made it into a dull pink, kool-aid looking stain. Spray and Wash did the job. So great news Christian!! I won't be calling Express Flooring after all.

Now I'm really exhausted. Looks like frozen pizzas for dinner tonight...the kids won't mind.

Red Paint

OUR PAINTED FRONT PORCH BENCH...CUTE HUH?

The kids and I had a fun time yesterday painting our chicken coop and our park bench red yesterday. During the day we let our nice, docile chickens out to walk around in our backyard. So we let them out while we did our painting. Helloise had to stay inside the coop though because she's a crazy chicken and the kids were a little nervous painting with her so close to them. That's why the perch inside is still unpainted. Helloise, can be a little scary. Even Christian is a little frightened of her. You can guess why we named her Hellouise.

HELLOUISE

THE CHICKEN COOP BEFORE

THE CHICKEN COOP AFTER

Speaking of Hellouise...we just acquired her and her 10 baby chicks. She joined the rest of our chicken brood only about a week ago.

My husband and I spent last Saturday trying to catch her and her babies. NOT an easy task. She was running lose, along with a rooster, and her 10 chicks on my grandma's acre property. They just decided to wander over and live there I guess. I wish we had taken some video or something to show you how funny we looked trying to catch these birds. Did you know that chickens really can fly? Well, we didn't want the rooster so he's still marching around over there. Anyone want a rooster? No? How about some baby chicks?

9 of the 10 Baby Chick-ies

I had my mom come over on Monday and we trimmed all 11 chicken/chicks wings so all they can do is fly around in circles now. Just kidding. Trimming wings sure calmed them down a lot though. The chicks are living in a little cage in our kitchen until they are big enough to add to our chicken coop. We've named most of them...the one's we can tell apart.

Spot, Mike, Stripe, Piggy, Dozer, Beaker, and Mario. So the chicks are pretty cute and the kids like to take them out and hold them every chance I'll let them. We'll keep a couple hens when we figure out what gender they are and then we'll be looking for homes for the rest.

We get brown and white eggs every day! It's a pretty cool deal.

Still a Mystery

My recommendation is... don't schedule a late appointment on a Friday. Our technician didn't even try to find out the sex of the baby. She took measurements and we were out of there in twenty minutes. Christian thinks she was in more of a hurry to finish her work week then in giving us a thorough ultrasound. The baby was moving a lot and flipping over when she went to take measurements so I know it was hard for her. Good news is they're going to need better pictures of the head so I'm going to get to go back for another one. I've never had that happen before. Usually I'm in for 30-40 minutes and they give us lots of pictures to take home. That was not the case this time. Baby Hughes is still a mystery...stay tuned. And my mom-in-law thought it was really neat regardless. She said she was greatful the technician was pointing out different things because she had a hard time telling what things were.

Boy or Girl???

We won't know for another 4 hours whether baby Hughes is a boy or girl. I'm so ready for my appointment!!! By the way, staring at the clock just makes it move slower in case you ever wondered. Anyways, I'm betting on a girl this time so I'll be sure to let you all know if my pregnancy intuition is correct. So far I've guessed right on my other 3 pregnancies. My appointment is at 5:00. That way my hubby could be there since he couldn't take any time off work. I also invited my awesome mom-in-law to be there since she's never seen or experienced an ultrasound before. This could be her only opportunity and ultrasounds are so neat! The 3 of us are really excited to see the baby. Hopefully baby Hughes cooperates. I have girl names already picked out and narrowed down to 2 that I really like. If she turns out to be a he...then I've got nothing and I'll be taking baby boy name suggestions. Stay tuned folks!

My Retreat

So last minute I decided I was going up to a retreat in Show Low with all the girls who pulled together the "Two Sisters One Heart" fundraiser. I wasn't planning on leaving until a little later Saturday morning but got a phone call saying lets go earlier! So I quickly finished packing and loading the van and made my rounds of picking up some ladies. I got to pick up and ride with Mandy Bailey which was really neat. I got a chance to get to know her better on the long long van ride up there.

We got to Jamie Kieta's family's "cabin" which was so cute and just perfect for such an occasion as this. We talked, ate, played games, Carol documented everything about our trip which was WAY cool by taking pictures of everything. For dinner Saturday night we went to the Mexican Restaurant and made a rucus. I think some of the ladies in our group even told the servers to put us away from everyone else because we were gonna be loud. The ladies in my ward are fabulous and I grew to love them even more.

How neat that not only being in a ward family but having this fundraiser was able to bring such a neat group of women together. We learned about all of our own highs and lows. I was surprised to learn that even the woman that I thought had everything together and in my mind were perfect had their own struggles. All of your testimonies made my own just that much stronger.

I missed Jamie's devotional Friday night because I couldn't get up there that early. Carol was in charge of Saturdays devotional though and it was magnificant! We went from laughing hard, to crying, to laughing, to crying...

What a wonderful weekend ladies...and sorry I was such a party crasher Saturday night.