We had a great Easter!  Hoping you all did too! We spent the day going to a wonderful Easter service, then to my parents for a day of celebration! We ate too much, played softball (look closely at the picture below, some may say it was the highlight of the day....I disagree) road 4-wheeler, went on a major Easter egg hunt, followed by a trip to the movies! 
My brother was able to come home for Easter, which was wonderful!  He had what we hope proves to be his last chemo on April 18th.  He had a bone marrow biopsy (BMB) on the 19th.   On Friday, his nurse called and said that his BMB showed "necrosis."  Well for you fans of Google.....I am no longer a fan, sometimes it's just not a good thing. This left us somewhat "hanging" over the long Easter weekend...
Necrosis is death of body tissue. It occurs when there is not enough blood flowing to the tissue, whether from injury, radiation, or chemicals  After realizing that there is 2 kinds of "necrosis" of the bone marrow....one of them can occur before treatment ever starts (it's bad), the other can occur after treatment...  Since you are killing cells with chemo, it kills the good, the bad and everything in between!  Meaning that they just are able to get a good biopsy....Troy's Dr. called him today and said, the biopsy was probably done too close to the time of the chemo (within 24 hours.)  Tomorrow he will have a body scan and in about 3 weeks, he will do another BMB, then we will know what these cells are doing, hopefully only healthy ones will be seen!!! Thank you for your continued prayers for Troy, we have felt them.
We have been doing well, busy with planning Morgans graduation party, boys in baseball, finishing Wednesday night programs at church, worship team practice and just focusing on  finishing the school year! We have 3 girls going to the CCS (school) formal this year and once again Troy and I are chaperoning the kids, this will be our 4th year doing this and it is a lot of fun!

The Girls-Beach Blankets from Grandma and Grandpa!

Beach Towels for the Boys!

Troy and Morgan



Getting ready for the Easter Egg Hunt!



Do not laugh...that is me..on the ground....I am alive...I face- planted into the ground while running to catch a ball...I tripped in a gopher hole!  The rest of the family was laughing so hard...some had to run to the bathroom while others grabbed a camera!

Kids Against Hunger

On Saturday, about 25 of our kids from the youth group at First Baptist Church were able to pack food for, "Kids Against Hunger." We are lucky to have a satellite facility in Cambridge, the kids packed 13 boxes of food, which equals 36 bags/meals in each box and each bag feeds a family of 6...so, what that means is that 468 families had a healthy, satisfying meal of rice, chicken flavoring, dried vegetables and a soy mixture of vitamins and minerals. They were able to taste the food, the consensus was that they would have all been happy to eat it for a meal! Troy and the boys had a great time!

If you would like to read more about Kids Against Hunger, check it out!

http://kidsagainsthunger.org/who_we_are.shtml



Seble is Seventeen!

Last week we celebrated another birthday in the family!!  Seble is 17!  What a complete JOY she has been to all of us.  I (we) cannot even begin to imagine our lives without her.  In May we will celebrate 7 years together and I can in all honestly say that she feels like she has been my (our) daughter always!  We were just looking through pics the other day, she was a young shy girl, when she came to us at 10, now we celebrate the young lady that she is.  Her smile lights up the room and our world!
A special gift that Seble received was a sweater set that my my grandma (mom's mom) made, probably 25-30 years ago.  She had given it to my mom, my mom gave it to Seble.  It is special - so many times we talk about something someone had made or given the kids and we don't have those little things to talk about or look at with Seb, Araya and Syfah.  The other cute little gift was a little baby doll, from my parents, she is sleeping with her every night...we had some good laughs...what girl doesn't need a little doll or stuffed animal?  right?  We celebrated twice..once with Troy's mom, on Seble's birthday!  It was a fun night with Chinese food and cute pink cupcakes!  We celebrated with my parents the week before with Pizza, and chip- n-mint dessert. ( my parents were in Fargo with my brother on her birthday)  It was a great week!

Happy Birthday Seble!  You are a blessing to many!

Another one...

Shelby got her drivers license!  Tuesday was an exciting day for Shelby, we celebrated with a Caribou after the test.
 As I type, Shelby and Seble are in town, running a few "errands."  Frightening but exciting!
 Seble is the next one, she has 2 more hours of behind the wheel, then her test!  She has not been quite as eager...so by the end of the summer we could potentially have another driver!
Congratulations Shelby!
p.s..Shelby, please leave the radio on one station, don't blow out the speakers, no texting and no talking on the phone and don't forget the seatbelt!!!!
Love ya~ Mom