Grandma Marsha

I haven't ever posted about our latest family trial and it's almost over. But I had a feeling today as I was looking through old pictures, that I should post about our Grandma Marsha, Brandon's mom and what she has been going through. Right after this picture was taken, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and has now gone through chemo treatments and is a month away from being done with radiation. We've only been able to see her once and it has been so hard on all of us. The kids don 't truely understand why, they just know that Grandma has no hair and is sick and that we pray for her every day. We are so excited for the summer when we are able to do a family vacation with them. I've never been so closely affected with cancer before this year. My Aunt Debbie also went through and survived it this past year. You never really think it can happen to your family. Many things this year have sent me into "real life". I'm not so sure I like "real life". I want to go back to being seven and thinking nothing bad really happens. This does help me with the kids though. I've tried to put down what I'm doing and go on walks, read books, or just dance with the kids more. There has been alot of stress on them lately and I hope their carefree smiles continue. We were watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" the other day and Raymond was stressing out over having to talk to his little girl about "why" we are here. The girl was asking and he thought she was asking about babies and she wasn't, she was basically asking about the purpose of life. Brandon looked over to Hanna and asked her why we were on the earth. And she simply answered, "So we can learn. We make good choices and then we get to go live with Heavenly Father again." How grateful I am in these times of chaos, we know that we just have to keep on going and it's how we handle the hard times, not IF we have to, that determines what kind of life we live. Ok let me wipe away my tears, now I'll tell you about what we've been up to. Hanna has gone to Broadway Jr. camp at the gym this week. The group will be putting on a small play at the end of the week with parts from Sound of Music. She has come home every night and practiced on her little stage that she has made. She also goes around saying, "Alizah pretend to hit me, then I'll be like this.... (acting like she's hurt)" Then she'll say, "THAT'S ACTING!" She loves "acting" sick, hurt, sad, etc. We've all learned what acting is this week! They are doing an amazing job with them. Alizah has been doing her Hot Shot class and is counting down the days until Thursday for the Aquatic Center. She can't wait!! She's my "very scheduled" child to say the least. Every day when she gets up, we have to number the events that will happen throughout the day. Get up is 1, eat breakfast 2, play is 3, etc. Then she feels comfortable knowing what will happen next. Piper just follows us all and seems happy to do!! I guess you can tell I've a had a little more time on my hands by the length of this post. I should probably go fold the mountains of laundry I have!!