For Becca!

Remember this picture I took of the sunset at your house this summer? I had so much fun visiting you! You live in a beautiful place that is even more gorgeous because you are there.

Here's the picture, Mom!

Would you agree that tying to chase this little bee at Grandma's house was like trying to pin a cloud to the ground? Out of all those pictures here are my top three picks. Let me know if you find out what kind it is.

My 2008 Shoes on My 2008 Carpet!

This summer we moved all our furniture around our house trying to clear out rooms to have them re-carpeted. (Thanks, Mom, for all your help.) The carpet in the front room is FABULOUS. You've never stepped on anything so padded and plush! Your toes are practically buried. People have commented about it even with their shoes ON!!! (Who cares if we break a sweat trying to push the vacuum over it?)

And...da-da-da-daaaaaa! My brand spankin' new Converse shoes! These are the lastest and greatest craze. Ever seen anything like them? Oh. Wait a minute. In the late 80's, my sister and I had a pair of turquoise and a pair of pink converse high-tops we shared. And...come to think of it...my mom said my dad had a pair while she was dating him in the early 70's. And...man alive! Didn't kids wear them in the 50's in that movie Grease? What the heck is going on here??? They aren't even that comfortable. . . unless you're gellin'. . . which I am, of course.

Thought I was gone forever???

Summer couldn't have been more splendid!!! We did everything possible from actually leaving the state for a vacation to riding the rollercoasters at Lagoon. Weekly, we helped with yardwork at the Farmhouse and swam at the pool. And, of course, we wish it didn't have to end. Man, I love spending time with my kids!!

Now we are into a great school routine. The kids are happy with their teachers. I'm doing some new things at work that are exciting. So even though we are busier than ever, we are happy doing it all!

In eleven days we head to Disneyland for a family celebration of Logan's progress. We've waited a long time! The best thing is that my friend, Shiralea, has volunteered to be our "park planner." By using her extensive knowlegde of Disneyland, CA Adventure and the program RideMax, she is scheduling our attractions to minimize waiting in lines and to maximize the fun!!! Thanks SO much, Shiralea!

LIFE IS SO FULL!!!

Wow, is summer break busy or what?

Julian learned to ride her bike!!! This is terrific because I've been trying to teach her for 3 summers now. All along I just wasn't doing a good job, because her awesome Burk Grandparents taught her in less than an hour and now she's a pro!
Here's Logan on his new bike. Mom, I need to pay you for that! Can't believe I forgot!
I took a geology class. The second day we took a VIP field trip of the Kenecott Copper Open Pit Mine and many of the factories that help to produce the copper as well as clean water and reclaim mined land. (Reminds me of a certain Burk Family Vacation...)

Can you see those little bumps toward the lower middle of the pic? They are dumptruck loads of crushed rock.

This is a tire that the dump trucks use, beautified by my friend Misha and I. I know. I look like a kook standing that way, but I'm not all the way used to my 'woman' body yet.

This is a shot of the dump truck compared to a semi-truck. Yeah. You read that right. A semi!
We had to wear hard hats, safety glasses and sometimes earplugs inside the plants. Don't we look swweeeeet?
The water treatment center recycles water. One stage in the process is the degasifier. Man, I could use one of those every now and then...
Here's the tail end of the conveyor belt that brings the crushed rock to the plant that processes it to retrieve the precious metals. It's about 3 miles long and goes mainly undergound. What a ride that'd be!

Here the metals are removed as they float on top of the bubbles of treated water. Miners' wives first figured out how to do this when they'd wash their husbands mining clothes! Here's the control center for the operation of this plant. "We have lift-off!"

Eventually, the copper collects into plate form by cathodes and anodes and is shipped all over the world. There's more, but I'm sure that was more than you bargained for! Ü

On June 19th Logan had surgery to remove his port. After we checked in, we waited.

After we waited, we were moved to a examination room where we waited some more and then met with the surgeon. Logan changed into his hospital clothing and we moved to another waiting room.

He looked like this through our watery eyes as he walked away chatting with the anesthesiologist.

Jarid, Julian and I waited in a yet another waiting room for him to come out of surgery and be moved into post-op. He wasn't very happy coming out of the anesthesia, but it was a wonderful step in the cancer process!

We couldn't keep his port because of new rules, but I took photos. It was bigger than I'd imagined. The big ones must be huge! If you look closely you can see marks where his port was accessed more than a hundred times!!

The day after Logan's surgery I took the kids, as I had promised, to the Strawberry Days Carnival. Logan wasn't allowed to ride the fast rides, but he still had fun. He's looking forward to Spanish Fork Days next months so he can ride the SpaceShip 2000!

Julian was a dare-devil and rode the Ring-Of-Fire all by herself, literally!

...And another crazy, twirly, upside-down ride. That's her in the upper right corner wearing orange! I miss my youth when I could ride without getting sick. Now all it takes is watching someone ride it!

So, now you have it! Some of the reasons I've been so busy! So much fun to be had and so little time to have it in. Make every moment count!

Last Chemotherapy!

Click to Play

Last Day of Chemo!!!

June 4th 2008

Logan's Port is accessed. We're waiting for the doc.After seeing the doc, we've moved to the Infusion Therapy room to get chemo. It takes a while to get the chemo from the lab and give it to Logan by IV, so we play with Grandma Patty while we wait.The nurses sing the "Happy Off-Therapy song!" Logan's been asking for it for a couple of hours now. It's on video. I'll try to post that later. Then we get out our chocolate cup-cakes to share with everyone!We share with the nurses and the other families in Infusion Therapy. Then we go into the "forbidden area" where the nurses and doctor do all the behind-the-scenes work. This is VERY exciting!After sharing cupcakes with all the families and nurses who are still waiting in the doctor's office portion, we come back to eat some ourselves.There's nothing quite like an "Off-Therapy Chocolate Cupcake!!!"

YOU DID IT, LOGAN!!!

We are very proud of you.

We LOVE you VERY much!!!

Kid Cancer Humor Ü

It's been 4 years and 7 months, minus exactly one week, since Logan was first diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia on 11/11/03. Today he and Julian and Grandma Patty and I are going up to Primary's so Logan can get his last dose of Chemotherapy!!! It's a BIG day. I'll blog about it with some pictures/video afterward. But this morning, I thought I'd share some humor.

Disclosure: If you haven't been around kids with cancer and their families very much, you may find this scary and not one bit funny! But, I figure those of you who read this blog know us well enough to know that we've been living in a different world for the last few years. So here goes...

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A PARENT OF A KID WITH CANCER IF... (TOP 49 REASONS)
(I know that sounds like a lot of readng, but come-on! Some of these had me laughing out loud!!! Besides, the original list was 100 ways and I cut it down to the ones that we identified with the most. Ü)

1. Kids with hair look kind of strange to you.
2. You don't realize the Sharps container is on the kitchen table until half-way through dinner.
3. You enjoy the drive to the ER at 3:00am because there aren't amy other cars on the freeway.
4. You can name all the equipment used in the ER.
5. You can diagnose patients in the ER before the docs do.
6. You hear a truck backing up and you think it's the IV beeping.
7. You are so proud when your baby finally gets hair (and he is 6)!
8. You can manuever a double IV pole with six boxes and a kid riding, on a tour of the hospital, and make it back to the room before the low-battery alarm sounds and the kid has to pee.
9. The nurses stop responding to the IV alarm, knowing you'll fix it anyway.
10. Your 2-year-old knows where all the medical equipment goes and how to use it.
11. You keep a bag packed at all times like you're 9 1/2 months pregnant.
12. You can eat with one hand while you hold the barf bucket with the other.
13. Your child's bedroom looks like a Toys-R-Us store.
14. You ask your CPA if bribe toys are tax deductible.
15. You correct the doctors spelling on the chemo meds.
16. You read the doctors prescription word for word and are asked to decipher it by the pharmicist.
17. You know medical terminology better than you family practitioner.
18. There are 4 new Mercedes in the doctor's parking lot due to your child's payments.
19. You have more meds in your cupboard than food.
20. You can read your son's chart better than his nurse.
21. You start teaching your daughter the parts of her body and she points to her chest and says it's her port.
22. None of the security guards on the pediatrics floor ask for your ID anymore and you're on first name basis with the Rapid Treatment Unit.
23. Medical students ask to borrow your notes.
24. You toddler refuses to sit on Santa's lap because he's too germy from all the other kids.
25. You wrap presents in packages with medical tape.
26. Your child is more familiar with CT scans and bone scan pictures than the portrait studio.
27. Your child uses legos to build MRI machines.
28. You don't have to ask, "What's that mean?" to the previous 27 items.
29. You know you are a friend of a family with child cancer when you call to check the chemo schedule and ask, "How will his counts be on, say, the 11th?" before you schedule a birthday party.
30. You have been asked by more than 25 friends and family members, "So when is the next reatment?"
31. Your 4-year-old's critique of the medical student's examination skills is the same as the physician's.
32. You think this list is really funny when most normal people either don't get it or start to cry.
33. When your 7-year-old starts to sound like Doogie Howser, MD.
34. When you walk down the hall in your house holding your baby and you feel odd because you aren't trailing an IV pole with the other hand.
35. When the siblings want to know what the child's counts are to see if they can go inside and eat at McDonalds.
36. Six months after intense therapy ends and the hair starts to grow back, someone in the grocery store stops you and asks, "I just love his/her haircut. Where did you get it done?"
37. When you send copies of this list to your cancer parent friends.
38. When your idea of funny is to ask, "Where's your line?" and then giggle while your toddler takes of his clothes looking for it even though you know it's just been removed.
39. You can reset the IV machines overnight in your sleep every 30 minutes without waking up once and still call it a good night's sleep.
40. You have a kid who did not wake up by 5:00am on Christmas morning.
41. Your kid takes more pills than you.
42. When your kid asks for a Happy Meal you don't say, "Wait until we get home to eat" rather, "Really?" (unless, of course, your kid is on steriods when you say, "A happy meal or a Super-Sized Value Meal?")
43. Your best friends buys you a relaxation tape for your birthday and you swear it doesn't work right.
44. You can not try aromatherapy for yourself because the smells trigger nausea in your kid.
45. The CK on your t-shirt stands for Chemo Kid, not Calvin Klein.
46. You draw smiley faces on your blue isolation masks.
47. Your kid has recieved enough get well cards to fuel a small bonfire.
48. Your kid receives so many toys at the hospital that at Christmas time you can open your own toy store.
49. Every little thing can make you cry in a heartbeat, but this list, on the other hand, has you rolling on the floor.

Another planet...?

This is where my baby brother, the Paleontologist, works! Can you believe it's only like 4 hours from my house? I just LOVE these pictures!

A Family Field Trip

Lucky you!!! You get to follow the Carter family on a virtual field trip to Red Cliffs. Of course, it wasn't virtual for us. Ü Jarid was taken to this little beauty while he was Field Training for Sheriff Patrol. Gotta know where the action is so you can help all those suckas who get into trouble, eh? (P.S. Jarid passed his 3-month Patrol Field Training in just 3 weeks!!! That's my awesome husband for ya!)

Back to the story...The lesser known areas he's been introduced to, like this one, are great finds and he offerred to take us to see them! This one is only about 45 minutes from our house.

Here Jarid is showing his boyish spirit by seeing how far he can climb up this crevice.
Julian quickly decides to follow in dad's footsteps. No prodding necessary! Logan makes a brave attempt to follow and I stay behind to take great pictures.
With a little help Julian is successful! She LOVES it!!!
Just a pretty picture of an arch.
After we hike on some trails, we walk across the street to a wide, rushing river. It's overflowing the banks. We sit on what Julian correctly identifies as conglomerate rocks and dip our feet in the cool water.
Whoa! That's cold!!! (See Logan's face?) We also find some smaller pieces of red rock with quartzite veins. We pick a sample to add to Julian's rock collection.

On our way back to the road, Dad points out an abandoned,

beaver-felled tree. See the teeth marks? Cool!After crossing the road, we notice a picnic area with more trails. Look! A whole wall with quartzite viens. Pretty!
Up the sandy trail aways, dad sees a cave above our heads. I have to stand on a tree limb and hold the camera high above my head to take this picture. Fancy stuff, eh?
Since we can't climb straight up the wall to the cave, dad seeks another route.

UP...then OVER the top of the cave...
...then BACK DOWN...and...
VOILA!!!
Then, of course, the kids want to get up in there, so I hoist them up to my shoulders (I know, I'm so strong!) Then Jarid reaches down, grabs hold of their hands and pulls them on their bellies to the top of the wall. Man! We are SO adventurous!!! Logan was a real trooper. It's good to see how strong he's grown this year.

On the drive home, we say good-bye to what Julian dubbed

the "gi-freakin-normous" windmills.

Thanks for sharing our adventure. It was great having you along!