Interesting Diagnosis

As most of my readers already know, Ashley is small. Tiny small. I just weighed her this week and at five and a half years old she weighs in at a whopping 28.5lbs! Small. Jake who is three years younger weighs ten pounds more that than.

Ashley was born at 7 pounds 8 ounces, perfectly average but has become a peanut over time which has been somwhat concerning to us. Last year we put her through some tests (blood work, colonoscopy, etc) to see if there was a reason for it but everything came back perfectly normal. We just know she eats like a bird and likes healthy foods. Imagine that. Maybe there is no problem!?

Last week my friend convinced me to take Ash in to see her father who is a homeopathic chiropractor of sorts. He turned out to be very impressive and through lots of different "energy feeling" and checking her body out he came to a surprising conclusion!

He said that he could feel that her little stomach was hooked up over her diaphram muscle and it had created a natural stomach staple! The amount of her stomach that was filling with food was just a tiny part -- which explained SO MUCH!! Why she says she's full after eating so little, asking for snacks so often and eating only a little bit!! I couldn't believe it! So he pushed on her belly as if he were trying to rotate a breach baby and that almost made her cry but she was brave. He said you never know how long it will stay where it is supposed to be, BUT when we got home that night she ate THREE SLICES OF FROZEN PIZZA (small ones but still that is unprecidented)!! I could not believe my eyes!

All week she has been eating so much more. Saying she is hungry a lot more and eating at least double the amount of food she used to. Roast and potatoes, bean burritos, grilled cheese, bagels and cream cheese, and not just a couple bites! ... I keep wondering if I am crazy, but the change has got to be legit.

I am excited to start weighing her on a more regular basis to see how this helps the her to grow. I figure if she can take in an addtional 300-500 calories a day she will begin to put some meat on her bones. Plus she's supposed to be taking lots of good vitamins he recommended like B6 B12 and iron which we are teaching her to gag down in grape juice.

Interesting, huh?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And while I'm at it, I'll share this about Luke too. He has been a kid who comes down with fevers almost everyone month for a couple of days his whole life. It is sad and also perplexing. Once I heard what this Dr found was wrong with Ash I had him look at Lukey too. The main point of what he told me what to STOP giving the tylenol/IBprophen during his fevers (I was faithful about it). He said that I have to let his fevers run full course, even as high at 104 105 only using baths to cool him in order for his body to finally be able to kill what it is it's fighting. He said that if I let his nest three fevers go untreated they should stop entirely. Wow.

It is his belief that Luke has had a mild upper lung infection since he was born that his body keeps trying to get rid of, but never gets the chance because I lower the fever. Hum. makes me feel really smart.

Relay for Life: SUCH a cool night!

Relay for life was so much better than I ever imagined! From the moment I arrived at the field at 6pm I felt overcome with emotion and so thankful to have taken part in something this special. Everyone there had been touched in someway by cancer and it was easy to feel an immediate bond with perfect strangers. The crowd was the perfect size. The the mood was a mixture of ward campout, school carnival and testimony meeting all mixed into one!! Teams had been formed by extended families with children who stayed the whole night, groups of girl friends, work/company friends, and older people (one even from a retirement home and they stayed up all night, too!)

For the opening ceremony the lady in charge of the Queen Creek Relay gave a speech and then they released doves into the air symbolizing hope and love. I couldn't get a hold of my mascara as I felt a closeness to my dad and watched sweet Raschell interacting with her family. Ugh. Cancer is the worst!

From there they had the survivors walk a lap which was another tear-jerker but very cool. I didn't know this before hand but Relay for Life is held globally and in most cities in the US and all cancer survivor are welcome to walk the survivor lap and enjoy a free dinner afterward (Texas Roadhouse provided ours) regardless of whether or not they participate in the relay. So cool - spread the word!

At 9pm they turned off all the lights for the luminary lap. It was again so cool, as they asked everyone to refrain from talking and let each of us walk quietly in remembrance of our loved ones. By then my tears had dried up so I was fine. I just liked that part a lot. And when they went to turn the lights back on, guess what song they played!? Tim McGraw: Live like you were Dying, my dad's! It was neat.

All night long was a party; we ate and ate, played games, danced, talked, laughed, snoozed here and there, and took our turns walking our half hour shifts. Only about ten out of the 23 of us made it all the way through the night (many headed home about 1 or 2) and it was worth it. It's definitely been a while since I stayed up to watch the sun set and the sun rise in the same night. Knowing I had done it, at 6am, felt invigorating! I am so grateful to be alive and healthy.

I highly, highly recommend getting involved with your local Relay for Life. Look it up, check it out. Next year I plan to do it again with the same group of girls only I want to involve Tyler and my kids more and have them stay the night in our family tent with me. I'm telling you, the kids who were there had a ball playing games all evening in the beautiful weather and for a good cause that made them feel good. My kids can decorate their own luminary next year for their grandpa. It will be great.


Marie, my dear friend who was our team captain and made this whole thing come together, and her family - in our shirts designed by Raschell
The doves circling the field
Ty and I when he brought the kids to visit me
Raschell and another friend preparing to walk the survivor lap

The site


Decorating my dad's luminaria
Our tent hangout







The sun's come up

We made it!!

Relay for Life

I spent an hour blogging yesterday, but there is still one thing more I wanted to post about which is my Relay for Life event which is tonight!! Several weeks ago I decided to join a relay team in support of a friend who is battling lymphoma and also to remember my sweet dad. Many friends and family were very generous with their donations to the American Cancer society, under my name and for our entire group. THANK YOU!! As a team of 23 girls, we have earned over $4,200 so far which will help researchers as they explore new cancer prevention techniques, treatments and hopefully a CURE (and sooner, rather than later!)

As I said, tonight is the big night we have been working towards. The event is held at a high school track with all of the teams camping out along the inside ring on the football field. It begins at 6:00pm goes all night long until tomorrow at 6:00am. We start with a survivors lap and then take shifts as a team walking the 12 hours. Since our team is so large we each only end up walking an hour with a friend, and I will be walking from 8:30-9:00 tonight and 5:30-6:00 tomorrow morning. From 9-10 it is the luminary walk where they line the track with engraved luminaries of the names of people who are being remembered or honored (so cool). There are some big corporate sponsors like Papa Johns Pizza who will come and deliver pizza to everyone at mid-night, and there will be music and activities going on throughout the night. I am looking forward to it.

So thank you again aunts, uncles, parents, in-laws and friends who have contributed to this for me. Cancer is definately something that touches everyone's lives in some sad way. And I am happy to be doing something to fight it!

Click here to visit my site, and make a donation if you want to. It's not too late - yet!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09GW?px=9254355&pg=personal&fr_id=14863&fl=en_US&et=j8FjHIt0BTNWLoxAmtNVqw..&s_tafId=263904

The House we now call HOME

I walked through the house this afternoon with my camera and took pictures of the house in its natural state. Ali and Maddie have been asking me for pictures. It is so great to be here and settling in. We are sad that we didn't make it up to Utah to live closer to family, but feel like we were led to this home and ward and neighborhood and feel grateful for the blessings that are coming into our lives because of it.

That's Arizona for ya.

In Washington we have slugs on our sliding glass doors. In Arizona we have lizzards on our gates. It's pushing 100 degrees everyday this week and I think summer has arrived. Yes, this is living in Arizona.

She must be the cutest T-ball player I know!

Recently we were invited to some friends' house for family night and ended up playing a fun game of wiffle ball together. Ashley had a great time and decided she would like to try playing t-ball this year. I put her and Luke on a 5-6 year old team together and they had their first practice this week (however Luke was out, not feeling well). I thought Ashley was darling and hung right in there with the rest of the team. Their first game is tonight and folks, I think we've got a heavy hitter on our hands.

Ashley's Let's Play Music Recital

All year Ashley has been working really hard in her music class. They have learned a lot about the basics of music - singing and playing in preparation for playing the keyboard. She has become a beautiful singer and a cute little performer. We are proud of her.

Easter Egg Decorating

I must not have taken any pictures on Easter morning (shocker) so these are our Easter memories for 2009. In our underware and Christmas pajamas. Ah well, such is life.

The Happiest Place on Earth!