August 2022

 On August 1, we went to the FSY Registration that was held in the basketball courts at the I-Center. We had fun greetings kids and parents and saw lots of people we know. Later that day was the opening session and Kory introduced the both of us and later did a devotional. He does a great job. On the 2^nd, we had a dance at the I-Center and Kory did a devotional. On the 3^rd, I got an emergency massage because my neck and back were all messed up and my fingers kept going numb. I think it was related to getting the port put in, because everything was knotted up around it. On the 4^th, we had a devotional and then Kory and I went to one of the testimony meetings they had in smaller groups. We had another dance on Thursday and some kids came up and asked Kory for his autograph. Overall, we enjoyed hosting FSY. I would like to be more involved if we do it next year—but my health problems kind of interfered. I was finally able to go in during the week to my chemo training and they told me what to expect for my first session. On August 6, we went to the zoo with Kenzie’s family and Caleb and Alex. On August 7, we went to Kenzie’s for cake and ice cream for her birthday. Later, Kory and my dad gave me a blessing for my chemo treatments to go well.

On August 8, Kory and I went to my first chemo treatment. They give you an IV of things to help you tolerate the chemo and then the chemo is a two-hour drip from an IV. After that, they hooked me up to a pump that would put another chemo drug in me over 48 hours. I had to carry it everywhere, sleep with it, etc. In general, the side effects were not too bad. I felt really, really tired. My stomach felt weird for a few days, but they have good anti-nausea meds, so I didn’t throw up or anything. The cold-induced neuropathy was most noticeable early in the week and then sort of faded away. When I went on Wednesday to get the port taken off, I told them that my symptoms hadn’t been too bad, and they said some people don’t get super sick. So, we will see if that trend continues. I felt back to normal on Friday and Saturday, for the most part and really good Sunday. So, it looks like I’ll have a week of feeling sick and a week of feeling normal.

On August 13, Kory and I went to the Aquatic Center in Idaho Falls and watched Andy do a mini kid’s triathlon. It was cute and fun to watch.

On August 15, we officially sold our house in Idaho Falls. It was nice to get it taken care of, but as we ran into neighbors and things for the last time, we knew we would miss the great people we got to live by. Chloe also officially started her online high school work on that day. She is a Junior.  On the 16^th I went to lunch at my friend Heidi’s house, and it was great to catch up on things. On the 18^th I had Amy, Kristi, and my mom over to my house for a birthday lunch for Mom. It was a little early, but I had chemo scheduled on her birthday and she had surgery a day or so after that! On the 21^st, we had our usual Sunday visits and my friend Jenie from high school came over and we reminisced and sang a bit together, just like old times.

On the 22^nd, I had my second round of chemo. I was tired for a couple of days and then felt mostly fine. Really, it’s mostly digestion issues which are side effects of the anti-nausea meds and the chemo drugs. There is still cold-induced neuropathy mostly in my hands and I can’t eat really cold things. 

On the 25^th, Phoebe graduated from Austin Kade Academy with her cosmetology training. She’s been going for about a year. She still has one more test to pass to get her license, and then she can cut hair and do nails, lashes, color, etc. It will be fun to see what she ends up doing. 

That afternoon I went to the hospital to be with my mom after surgery and then took her home. She was still pretty woozy and out of it, so I ended up spending the night to make sure she was okay. On the 26^th I took Chloe to a job interview, and she ended up getting hired to work at Lil Mike’s Barbeque in Rigby. We hope it will be a good part-time job for her. That afternoon I had lunch with my cousin Heather at Fresco’s in Rexburg. She recently moved to Rigby from California, and we only live a few minutes apart!

On the 28^th, we went to Kenzie’s and had a birthday party for Quinton! It was fun to hang out and visit and the kids and Kory had fun playing some classic video games—Donkey Kong, etc. We were joking that Kory still remembers all of the ins and outs of the games after all these years. I guess some people have channels of them playing video games and we agreed we would definitely subscribe to watch Kory play Donkey Kong and make all of his funny comments and random words. Only the family knows this, but Kory makes up really weird words that he throws into his conversations. For example, “Is it a klinkerty klunk or a minkerty munk?” We have all adopted these words over the years and we all know how and when to use them. It cracks me up.