Happy New Year!

I can't believe the year is almost over. How time flies! This is a quick post to let you know how we are doing.

Michael still works for JBS (formerly EA Miller). It graveyards but it is a good job. His health is good, 31/2 years out from his last bout of cancer. Yay!

Aubeny is 12 and in 7th grade. She loves to dance! She is on the competition team & will be doing a solo again this year.

I still work at Nibley Elementary as a Literacy Aide. I just completed my first post-stroke semester at USU. It was challenging but fun. I ended with an A-, A- & a B. I also passed math! The new year hold more adventures for all of us. It's sure to be fun and exciting! We hope everyone has a very happy new year!

Sad for summer to go. :(

Hi this is Aubeny! I'm sad school starts tomorrow! I'm going into 7th grade! I'm not going to lie I'm nervous to go to school. But after the first couple of days I'll be fine. I'm also a little bit excited for school to! Blog to ya later!

On the 4th of July my sister Fiauna & I decided we were going to run in a race together. So we woke up bright and early, I picked her up at

6 A.M.

and headed to Lewiston, Utah. We ran the 5K part of the Lewiston Patriot Border Run. She totally beat me!

That's okay I'm just glad I am able to run. It was really fun!

School's out for the SUMMER!!!!!

Hi this is Aubeny again. It's summer time! I have gone swimming three times already! I can't get enough of swimming! One bad thing is I'm sun burned really bad on my shoulders. But I'm going to have a fun summer anyway.

A look from the INSIDE!

Last week I had a CT Scan to check my stint and this is actually my head. I couldn't figure out how to rotate the picture so it's sideways. Everything looks good, but they are worried about the end of the stint because it narrows. The doctors are going to keep an eye on it for now. It's amazing what they are able to do now. I'm so glad to be living right now! : )

Happy 6 Month anniversary!

It's amazing how fast time goes and how much can change. It's hard to think that as of yesterday it has been

6 months

since my stroke.

I decided to celebrate how far I've come by running a race, and what better race than Smithfield's Health Days race! I ran the 10K race (that's 6.2 miles). I really enjoyed it. The race takes you up into Smithfield canyon. It is a very pretty run. It was only fitting that I got the number 35 because that is my age!

Aubeny's Summer Plans

Hi this is Aubeny! I can't wait for summer! First thing I'm going to do is go to my cousins baptism. Then I'm going to get my tonsils out. Then I'm going to get braces. It's going to be a fun summer! I want to go to a dance workshop in july. I'm going to babysit try to pay for it.
Besides getting my tonsils out and getting braces, It's going to be a fun summer!

Queen for a day!

Hi! It's Aubeny. So I had a dance competition a few weeks ago on April 17th.

I won Queen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Queen is higher than first! It's the highest place you can get! I could not believe it! That's the highest I have ever placed! I was so proud of myself! Well blog to you later. Bye!

*Ignore the date on the picture, the camera wasn't set right.

What a difference two weeks can make! On April 6th our cat Pepper had her kittens. It was quite the adventure. As soon as we realized that Pepper was pregnant I set up a box for her. Throughout her pregnancy I would put her in the box hoping that she would know where to deliver her kittens. Well it worked! On the day she had the kittens she kept going to the box. Finally when she was really in labor she went in and stayed there. The only problem was that she wanted me to stay with her. She got really nervous if I left. So I spent 4 hours under my kitchen table helping her. It was really fun. The first kitten was the gray tabby and she is a girl. The second kitten was the black one and he's a boy. They are really cute!

Hi this is Aubeny again. Over spring break I have been at my cousin's house. We have been doing lots of fun things. Yesterday we played baseball. Today we are doing easter egg hunting. I had a fun spring break! But now I don't want to go back to school! oh well. Bye!

Hi, this is Aubeny. I'm the reason my mom has not been on here lately. I've been having dance competitions. I won first place! I was so proud of myself. Well, blog to you later. Bye!

Duct Tape fixes everything....Right?

Last week my in-laws came to visit us. They had just returned home from a mission to Russia and were visiting all of their children. Well I was backing out of my garage and I wasn't quite far enough over and I hit their car! What was a little scrape on my car, just about took the bumper off of theirs. I felt so bad! Luckily we were one of their last stops before they went home. So with some rope and duct tape they managed to get the bumper back in place. Their car is silver so it actually was a nice match. : )

Who needs a mountain?

We had a beautiful, sunny day today. So I dusted off my skis and decided to make the most of our snow. First Aubeny and I walked around the yard to make a path. Then we took turns skiing around in the path. It was so much fun! It will probably melt in a few days but until then I'm going to enjoy it! : )

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

Oh the weather outside is frightful. Okay, it wasn't frightful but didn't seem like March either. Just yesterday this was all grass, now we are standing in our front lawn in 18 inches of snow. I have to admit that I like it when we get tons of snow. I just hope it melts fast. : )

I love my sister! I have to say thank you to her. She helps me so much. Here we are at Angie's a local restaurant. They have a dessert called "The Kitchen Sink." It comes in a little kitchen sink. It's a huge amount of icecream with 4 bananas and the toppings of your choice. We took Aubeny, Brighton, Paige, Aiden and Keelie with us and we cleaned the kitchen sink! It was fun! : )

My Brush With Fame

As I struggled to find the doctor's office the other day, I ended up waiting for the elevator with a lovely young family. I noticed they were pushing a stroller with a tiny baby inside. I casually asked if I could see the baby. The young couple said, sure. I peeked at the little girl. She was cute. Then I glanced back that the baby's father to tell him his daughter was adorable, but what slipped from my mouth was the exclamation, "You're Kurt Bestor." To which the talented composer replied, "Yes, I am." Then we shared the awkward moment of boarding the elevator together. So much for my brush with fame.

P.S. At this very moment, Michael is having a PET/CT scan. I will keep you posted on the results.

If You See Me Riding a Rascal ...

Today as I drove to my doctor appointment I think I began to understand how the aging must feel. I got lost. I got lost trying to get on the freeway and ended up on the parkway instead. Then, once I arrived at the hospital, I got lost trying to find my doctor's office. I've been there before, I just couldn't remember where it was.

Next thing you know, I'll be eating at Chuck-a-rama at 4:00 in the afternoon. (I hear the fish is delicious). But stop me if you see me riding a Rascal scooter. Please.

Short Stories in Speech : )

I had more testing in speech therapy this week. In one of the tests there were three pictures. You had to create a story using them.
Picture 1 had people, animal & spaceships. It look hot and very dry.
Picture 2 was in space with the spaceships flying away from Earth.
Picture 3 the people, animals & spaceships were on another planet. There were trees and people looked like they were farming.

So I wrote something to this effect~

The Earth was very hot and dry. It hadn't rained in a year. NASA had finally made a spaceship the could safely transport people to Mars. So we gathered the animals, plants and seeds that we would need when we got there. We loaded the animals in their spaceship. We got in ours and took off. Just when we were out of the atmosphere the Earth exploded.
We travelled ten hours to Mars. As we were about to land we noticed lush, green fields and water below. We got the animals safely out and started planting our crops. We all noticed that we could breathe better than we had been able to in a long time. We knew life would be happy on Mars!

I don't know what it will tell them about me, but it was fun! : )

I had my last evaluation test in speech therapy today. Now they are going to go over everything to see what they can do to help me. The test I had today was one that they gave me in rehab right after my stroke. For one of the questions I had to name as many states as I could in one minute. I remembered it from the test in rehab. The first time I think I could only think of about 12 states. Today I started naming them by thinking of the 50 Nifty song. So when I was done the speech therapist was impressed at how many I named and that they was in alfabetical order. I thought it was funny. They also made me type at the computer so they could see what type of mistakes I'm making. The only rule was I couldn't use the backspace key. It was pretty bad. I guess we'll see on Thursday what they have planned for me! :)

We braved the weather and went to see Dr. Edgely today. It was good. He said my recovery is going really well and that my prognosis is good. Yay! : )

HI-HO HI-HO is back to work I go!

Hi everybody~
I started back at work this week. It's so fun. I get to work one on one with a little second grader teaching him how to read. I also have 2 little first grader to work with. I'm going to get to moniter the kindergarteners. I'm excited to be back.
Mindy : )