Summer Fun, Purple toilets, and miracles

Rocky loves his tigers.  This tiger is fully dressed (wearing star wars undies with his tail coming out of the fly) and all buckled up nice and safe.

 I scream, we scream, they all scream for ice cream!

 We love July 11 or 7-11 for free SLURPEES!!

 Ruby did a summer orchestra camp with her favorite orchestra teacher.  I love to see how much she likes to play her cello.

We love the Hampden Splash park and stream.  The kids caught a few frogs.  Turns out this particular one is NOT a prince.  

 This is my ROCKstar.  Love the sparkly pink belt to match his "lookie lay lee"

We were FLUSHED.  This lovely purple potty was sent to us by one of Coopers friends.  A $10 donation gets it removed, $20 lets us send it to a friend, and $30 gives us potty insurance so it never shows up on my lawn again.  The Purple Potty is traveling around town to raise money for cancer research.  It was started by a local family whose daughter passed away a few months ago.  I love that in their grief, they are doing good.

I am a cancer survivor.  My mom took me in for my kindergarten physical.  I was a healthy kid.  My parents had no clue that I had a tumor the size of a grapefruit growing in my little abdomen, I was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.  As a parent I can't image how devastating this must have been for my parents.  I remember my mom telling me that my dad looked green when he heard the news.  The surgeon, Dr. Matlack, told my parents that IF I lived through the surgery, there was a good chance that I would be paralyzed due to the proximity of the tumor to my spine.  He also told them that I would not live past 8 years old.  My dad gave me a priesthood blessing.  My friends from church fasted and prayed in my behalf. The tumor was surgically removed and plans for future treatments were discussed.  Dr. Matlack paged my parents at Primary Children's Hospital scaring my parents to death.  When he met with them he told them that a miracle had occurred.  The malignant tumor was somehow benign!  The doctor told my parents this was a 1 in 10,000 situation.  I did not have any further treatments, have 3 healthy children and am training for a marathon!  God lives.  He loves us. Miracles happen.  I feel so blessed to have this knowledge and to be here with my family.  When things are hard I remind my self there is a reason I am here.

I found this letter that my dad wrote to my brother Rob who was on his mission.

This fuzzy picture was taken right after my surgery.