Life Goes Very Fast

I keep telling myself that I need to update the blog. I knew I should, but I put it off. I wanted to wait until I downloaded some pictures. I was too busy to really think about what I wanted to say. Somehow "Geez, I'm so busy I could scream." doesn't seem adequate as a blog entry. Accurate and very true, but not something anyone is going to want to read. So ... today I decided that I'm going to update, even if time is limited.

My school year is going really well. I have a great class, I like our new principal, and things are going pretty smoothly. Being at school is a nice place to be. Such a change from last year, and I am SO grateful!

We attended Spud Days in Shelley during the later part of September. Yes, a day in which Idahoans celebrate potatoes. There was a parade (which Bailee and her Studio buddies were in - dancing to Weird Al's "Addicted to Spuds"), tons of booths, and lots of entertainment. The girls danced in the talent show, and they did a really wonderful job. I will post photos, but not today. It was fun. Diana and I got quite sunburned.

Our lives center around Bailee's, which I think is how it should be. She's our child, after all. Raising her ought to be our number one priority. She is busy at dance - but it is definitely her passion. She always wants to go, and she is always happy and bubbly when she comes out. The girls at dance are all really tight, which is cool to see. They watch out for one another, and they are so supportive of one another. This is not something you always see in dance. I have heard lots of horror stories about how ugly and competitive some dance studios are. I am so thankful that our studio is NOT like that at all. Small wonder why Bailee loves it.

She was given the part of the bird in "Peter and the Wolf." It was hard at first, because she felt that she should instantly be as good as the 18 year old who did the part last year. Thankfully, she has now settled into the part and seems content. They will be taking the show to several area schools at the end of October and the first part of November. We've very proud of her.

Bailee also is in band this year. She is bused to Sand Creek middle school for practice twice a week. When they finish, she walks over to Diana's school for a ride home. She'd wanted to play the flute, but her braces were too big an obstacle. She switched to the clarinet, and is loving it. I cannot believe how well she is doing. We are so thankful for the fact that she has been doing piano lessons since kindergarten. It really has helped.

Last weekend Bailee and I went to the apple orchard just up the hill from our house and picked apples. It was really fun. Definitely the best part of my birthday. This weekend we picked our apples and plums (both of which need a really hard freeze to ripen). The apples are smaller this year, but there were lots of them. Now we need to preserve them. We'll dry some, make sauces, jams, and butters, and probably just freeze some for winter use.

Our dear friend, Mike, who is like a brother to us, has been fighting cancer since January. They've been treating the sarcoma on his leg, and finally declared the leg cancer free a couple of weeks ago. We all rejoiced, only to be sucker punched in the gut. They did a full body scan and when the results came back, they found that the cancer had migrated to his blood stream and has now spread. He left for the Huntsman Center in Utah today to start chemo and discuss future treatment.

Cancer is so cruel. Not only is it life threatening, it turns your life upside down immediately. It steals away normalcy and overshadows everything. We're praying like crazy for our friend and his family. Enduring the coming months of treatment is going to be hard ... and there are no guarantees that it will end up being worth it. You just hope and pray that it will be. I keep reminding myself that my cousin, Marie, has being fighting back cancer for twenty years now. There is always hope. Always.