Today was a good day...in so many ways.

We had a get together  for Teina's birthday and it was so fun. I picked up Teina and we met Les and Brenda up in Ogden at Sears.  This was where we spent countless hours shopping with mum so it felt right to shop around there for a while.  That was the place mum liked to shop for a new dress cause they have a nice petite department.  We would look through all the racks, pulling out possibilities and showing them to her.  She had certain requirements that made it kind of tricky to please her.  She was super self conscious about the little hangy moles on her neck so she always wore a high collar or a turtle neck.  She liked  her skirts a certain length too, which was sometimes hard because she was so tiny, everything would drown her.  Anyway, we would take a load of things back to the dressing room for her to try on.  She would try everything on for us and we would give our opinions.  After hours in the dressing room, she would most often come out saying she didn't like any of them, but in desperate times when she really needed a new dress for an event, we could talk her into getting one of them.  Shopping for shoes was a whole other story.  Mum had terrible bunions on both feet that really limited the shoes she could wear.  We would help her find some wider shoes but it was pretty hard to find anything that felt comfortable.  She would mostly wear her cute little blue keds that she had broken in and were comfy.  In her later years, she would just wear her slippers unless she was going somewhere.

Anyway, after we had helped her find what she was looking for, she would take it home and think about it, then the next time we got together, she would take it back.  Now that I think about it...that's probably where I got my disfunctional shopping anxiety from.  I don't like to shop...at least not if I am pressured and have to find something.  It seriously causes me to break out in a sweat and full blown panic attack. Kelley says I'm the only woman he knows that doesn't like to buy something new for myself.

  Kelley's mom was the queen of shopping. When the kids were little, she used to call and ask me to go shopping with her. After a  horrifying drive to Fashion Place or Cottonwood mall (seriously the scariest driver I've ever ridden with...she would sit up on the edge of the seat with both hands gripping the wheel as if she could see better from there, with the air conditioner blasting so cold that it would get frost on the vents..then she would slam on the brakes for no particular reason, sending us all flying...that was back before anybody cared about wearing seat belts..Ha I'll never forget that!)  She could shop all day (she would keep a pair of comfy shoes in her purse to slip into when her feet would start to give out on her mid shopping trip)  She loved Nordstrom  and Dillards and would shop there so often, she would know just what was there and when things were going on sale.  She kept my kids in the cutest clothes and shoes you could ever find.  I think it gave her a lot of pleasure to spoil them. They were lucky kids to have a grandma like her.  Really so blessed to have her and mum in their lives all of their growing up years.

Anyway, I'm  really getting off track...So in mums honor, we shopped around in Sears and found some cute clothes.  They were having a great sale on their winter stuff and I found a cute coat for 15 dollars!  We walked around in the mall a little bit, then went to lunch over at Applebees.  The waitress asked if we were celebrating and we said yes and that it was Teina's birthday.  The next thing you know, all the workers there came out clapping and singing their birthday song.  Teina had a big birthday this year.  So lucky to have her for my sister...she is just the best!  So glad we can get together like this...these times are so special to me.

 

I made her this little picture for her birthday.  Kind of was a gift to me too.  Over conference weekend, I was feeling kind of blue...I guess it's just remembering all of the happy conference times I spent at mum and daddy's place.  I loved sitting there on the couch with her, taking in all the wonderful talks and singing along with all the songs.  It was a time when all the sisters that could, would gather there to watch conference or listen to it while we worked outside in the yard. It was just a time that I loved and cherished. 

 Anyway, everything is so different now, I listened to the morning session of conference alone cause Kelley and KC were working over at the shop.  While I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself, the words to the song "Home" started going through my head.  I decided to write them down.  Then as I read over the words, the picture of our house, the way it used to be, with flowers blooming all over the place, came into my mind.  So I drew what I was thinking.  Then when I saw it sketched out, I thought that would be a nice thing to stitch.  So I started stitching.  It was healing and comforting to my soul as I recalled and brought to life some of the details of the house that have etched a place in my heart.

As I sat and listened to the wonderful talks and music I was touched by the messages...words of hope, encouragment, and words testifying of the love our Heavenly Father and Jesus have for us.  Sure did comfort my heart and I didn't feel alone or sad anymore.

Kelley and KC came home and got cleaned up and ready to go to Priesthood meeting....nope they just can't smile for me. ( pretty handsome anyway)

Watching them walk out the door, I was struck with the thought of how very blessed I have been in my life...to have the wonderful memories  I have of my good parents and then to have my own incredible family that are more dear to me than life itself. I couldn't ask for anything more..  

Anyway, back to my really good day...  well I have to back up about a month.  I had gone to see Keelee to get my hair done.  She was going along coloring my hair and we were chatting away and all the sudden she stops and says " You have a really scary looking mole on your head...I don't mean to scare you, but a guy that comes to me to get his hair cut had a mole that looked just like that...I told him about it and he went to the doctor and found out it was melanoma and had already spread to his lymph glands." 

Well that's not what you want to hear!  I was kind of freaked out, so I called dr. Bradley when I got home to get an appointment.  The closest time they could get me in was when I was gone to Arizona, so the next time they had open was today.  I have to say this has been weighing on my mind quite a bit all of these weeks. I was glad to have the time finally be here though so I could get it taken care of.  ( I was pretty sure I was going to die)

I had tried to look at it myself, but couldn't see anything, so I just told Dr. Bradley it was somewhere on the left side of my head. I told him the story about how my hair dresser had found if and what she said about it.  Then he started telling me this story about a lady that had come to him with a similar story...except that her's ended badly.  Her hair dresser had found a suspicious looking mole on her head and told her she should get it checked out.  She just ignored her warning.  But every time she would go back to get her hair done, the hairdresser would tell her again that it looked bad and she really needed to get it checked out.  After about a year of this the hairdresser put her foot down and said I won't do your hair till you go see a doctor.  That's when she went to see Dr. Bradley.  When he did a biopsy and tests on her, they found the melanoma had spread to her brain and she was a goner.

In the middle of the story though, as he was looking at the mole, he paused and said, "to set your mind at ease, this is just a seboreah keritosis ( I have them all over me!)  Oh boy, what a relief!  He said just to be sure he wanted a second opinion, so he brought in the other dermatologist and had him look at it.  He agreed. They both said  with my history, it was definitely important to check out anything that looks suspicious.

 So Dr. Bradley froze it off and that was that. ( He did set up another full body scan appointment for me though so I have that to look forward to!  NOT!)

In my little mind, with big immagination,, I can work myself into a real tizzy.  And with all the dental work and xrays I have had done on that side of my head, it all made perfect sense for that to be what does me in.  Then with Keelee's story ( and believe me, I'm grateful to her for pointing it out to me!)  and my paranoiah and tendency to worry, I just figured this was my fate. 

Well leaving his office, I felt like I have a new lease on life.  All those promises I made to God if He would let me stick around a little longer...I'm gonna keep them.

To top off my very good day...we took the young women to the temple tonight to do baptisms for the dead.  They let Bonnie, Stacey and I go in the room with them while they were being confirmed and baptized...something they haven't let us do before.  It was pretty sweet to peek at the room full of girls in the middle of one of the confirmations and see them all so reverant with their eyes closed and heads bowed...all dressed in white, they looked like angels.
Yup, that was a good day.