Graduation

The Processional:


(With his chair, Dr. David Hailey)


(Inside)


(Then outside)


(Back inside)


Getting Hooded:

Leaving:





The after party:




(David awarded his honors stole {award for individual who made a major difference in his degree completion} to Maggie for her herculean effort over the three months I was out of commission to step in as the house cleaner and dishes slave so he could write after he took care of the major things and dinner. She appreciated it.)


(With Dr. Keith Grant-Davie.)


(David was inducted into a few honors societies during his time in the doctoral program. The medals, stole, and cords represent the different organizations that invited him to join. It is nice to have a husband who takes learning seriously and see him recognized for his effort.)


(Success: a family affair.)

One last look at campus:

Convocation

Graduation ceremonies are streaming at:

aggiecast.usu.edu

on Friday at 1:30.

David recommends the Mormon Channel would be more entertaining and a better use of your time. :)

In the news...

http://english.usu.edu/htm/stay-connected/news/articleid=30977

Bee A Beekeeper Kid Round 2

Tonight was our family's second opportunity to share essays written by the children on why they'd like to be a beekeeper. The videos are unfortunately not uploading. So here's the written form:

Amirrah:

Flowers are really important to bees because then they can get the pollen from the flowers so that they can make honey for us to care for our allergies, our sore throats, and many other reasons. When I studied beekeeping, I figured out about the different flowers that help make edible honey. Some of the flowers in early spring are rosemary, thyme, coconut palm and clovers. Some of the late spring and summer flowers are blueberry, lavender, thistle, and tulip tree. Some of the plants for late flowering are fireweed, sunflowers, and ivy. I will be watching throughout the seasons the bees and which flowers in our yard they go to the most (we have planted many of the flowers mentioned above, as well as a wide variety of wildflowers). I will also watch to see if they go to our peach, cherry, apple, and pecan trees. I will then know which ones the bees most and I can encourage my neighbors to plant more of them so we can help the bees a lot. That is why I would like to be a BAB kid.

Timothy:

If I get a hive this year I will be doing an experiment about which of a variety of scented water works best. I learned from my research that I have to be keeping the water source full, I would have to have a landing pad for the bees, I can use distinctive scents, and if they can’t find it, I can use sugar water to bait them. For landing pads, in the past year of helping with beekeeping, I have found that the wood, even if it gets wet, can still work, even in the shallow feeder we had. With the buckets I use for the experiment, it may be good to use sponges or continue with wood chunks. Another possible way I could possibly bait them, and give the bees scented water was I can trickle the scented water over the hive frames so they look for the source. I will be putting: mint scented, lemon grass scented and various other scented water in buckets. I will be putting them all out at the same time over a period of one week to see which one they will go to most. After recording those results for a week, I will study the data and, for the rest of the year I will use the type of water that worked best. By using the things that help my bees, I think that they will likely survive better. If I see other bees there, I will possibly be helping them, I will leave that scented water out so I can be helping other native bees. Thank you for listening about what I will be doing this year to help honeybees and native bees by providing good water.

Both presented well and got high compliments from other parents. But the competition was stiff with only 7 awards available for the 28 contestants (last year, 60% of contestants were awarded!).

This year, Amirrah was one! We are so excited for her to have her own pet(s!). She is, too!

Cancer-free for 182 minutes and counting... or maybe 6 weeks...

I'm having David type this since I'm still slightly medicated (morphine is yummy), so expect spelling errors. Here is a bit of an update.

This year my immune system gave up. Threw in the towel. Called it quits. 18 years on immuno-suppressants can do that to a person. Since then I have had to limit my contact with those who are sick, and limit physical contact with people outside my immediate family. I don't even share drinks with my kids anymore.

About three months ago my energy dropped significantly. Exercise, eating well, and extra naps were not helping. I could not figure out what was wrong.

Then I got an infection that led me to visit my OB/GYN. That little infection turned out to be a major blessing and little miracle as the doctor found that the cyst on my right ovary had returned. She scheduled a ultrasound.

A couple days later, the ultrasound technician caught something out of place and did additional tests. We were contacted shortly thereafter and informed that I may have ovarian cancer. All the symptoms fit. Because of my other health adventures, they sent me to the top gynecologic oncologist in the State (though some claimed he is the best in the western U.S.).

Between these appointments, many of our closest friends and family fasted and prayed for me. Within days of their various fasts, I started to feel significantly better. My energy increased a bit, and things did not go as poorly.

When I visited with the oncologist, he ordered bloodwork. The new results indicated that the mass was now nothing more than a tumor. He gave us various options about how to deal with the situation, and we counselled with him, God, David, and my five other various specialist doctors. We opted for surgery.

This morning, I went into the hospital to have the problem and problem areas removed. The surgeon brought in four additional doctors to assist with the procedure. My hubby says it is because I'm special.

There were some slight difficulties in the procedure due to the scar tissue from my many other surgeries and to the physical anomaly of my blood vessals (3x the normal size). Once the doctors took care of those circumstances, they went to explore the area of the tumor. My oncologist became "extremely concerned" because (hopefully I explain this right) all of the tissue and tumor indicated that the cancer was malignant. They prepared to take everything, lymph nodes... etc.

They took out the tumor, and had the pathologist do a quick biopsy to see what it indicated before search out where it had spread, only to find out that it seems it was now a low-malignant-potential type of cancer tumor.

When explaining this afterwords, the Doctor seemed perplexed about the indicators, though he was very pleased with the results.

After some pondering and inquiring, here is what we believe happened: I had ovarian cancer. The faith, fasting, and prayers of family and friends stopped its progression and altered it to a non-dangerous state long enough for me to have a hysterectomy and remove the problem. That's how wee see it.

So, thank you to all those who have prayed for me, fasted for me, and keep up on the blog enough to know what's going on in our lives. Hugs from afar.

P.S. The doctor came in and just informed us that with how things are, they are going to do some additional tests, and they may send me back in to remove everything else in a couple months. But that is unlikely.

FYI: Aqua ribbons are for ovarian cancer awareness.

Milestone for Susanna

First loose tooth was keeping her awake. So I pulled it.

Here is a photo timeline of her emotions:

7:32:42 PM Freak out that the tooth is gone.

7:33:46 Smile for the camera.

7:33:53 Looks like happy but freaking again. Look at the wet eyes from tears.

7:33:59 Laughing at her milestone.

7:34:13 Slow the bleeding.

7:34:17 Thinking this might be a good thing.

7:34:27 Taking a look at the tooth.

7:34:40 Start to freak again.

7:35:03 Amirrah told her to put her tongue in the hole.

7:35:10 That's a funny feeling.

7:35:15 It doesn't hurt any more.

7:35:24 This could be alright.

7:35:46 Just when we thought all was well, freak out...I've never had a loose tooth before!

And now you don't have one again!

7:33:50 AM --Ah, tooth fairy dad delivered. 

A foot of snow on the ground makes for many more in the air.

The most fun on Christmas?

Presents?

Nope! Later on...

9 people.
8 helped.
7 whined.
6 hours.
5 pieces of plywood.
4 neighbor compliments.
3 three to five foot high snowball fight forts.
2 big storms.
1 awesome snowball fight.

(Only three people left in tears, that's an unqualified success!)

Broadcast in High Def

I was invited to speak at the Church Research Forum International Broadcast.

I always thought it would be something like speaking in Sacrament meeting or regular academic conference; to say I was surprised at the difference in feel and magnitude would be a significant understatement. Want to watch it? I start around 9 minutes in. 

http://bcove.me/gsdnt2xk

Here are some pictures taken from the broadcast. Voting for which to use to update my six year old social media pic allowed...

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