March 29, 2008 by Melanee.

Saturday was chore filled. I spent 5 hours outside doing yard work. Now that the snow is gone my yard looked pretty ugly and I couldn’t stand it anymore. So, I got rid of our Christmas tree that has been sitting on the front porch. I picked up at least 100 cigarette butts off my front yard (along with a condom wrapper and small bottle of Jack Daniels) I don’t like that my front yard is a dumping ground. I filled a large black bag with all the yard’s garbage. My street is busy and I gathered evidence of what the world is indulging in.
Then I moved to the back yard and picked up two plastic shopping bags about 8 pounds of dog poop. After that I picked up about 250 pinecones.

Took a break inside and did 6 loads of laundry. Made two beds. That afternoon I went back outside and picked up the sticks from the front, side, and back yard. Then I raked the leftover leaves from fall that was piled on my side yard. I filled a tarp of leaves.

Hopefully I can start tackling the back yard leaves later.
( I even went to Costso to get milk, water, butter, and cereal)
Whew!
My list is long and still have more to do.
Get through the mounds of paperwork to settle Kev’s estate.
Get my windshield resealed on the car and dry out my car. That’s another story to share later.
Go through all the boxes in the basement and attic.
Then start figuring out what to do with Kev’s ham radio stuff and go through his computer room. Buy a computer and get Kev’s hard drive installed, because his computer took a spike a day before the funeral.
Figure out what to do with the Blazer that has been sitting in our yard for two years.
Then find a good home for my dog, Keona, that Leah gave me as a companion. I am allergic to her.
The list goes on and on.

Marlene was concerned about me being alone.
I told her I have a huge “to-do” list to keep me busy.

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March 27, 2008 by Melanee.

You have not heard from me due to the difficulty of writing a entry. The dark days of winter, all that rain, and cloudy days took a toll on me. Friends and family were very supportive during this time even though no one knew how I felt. I tried to keep a stiff upper lip and get through it. With spring here and longer daylight in the evening my winter blues are behind me.

What was wonderful, was having Mallory and Leah and her family come out for Easter. Mallory stayed with me three days and Leah was here till Easter. I had fun shopping for my grandchildren (including my future grand daughter) before they came so that Easter morning would be fun filled.
I never realized how family can influence how good I feel. Once Mallory arrived I was able to sleep deeply through the night and slept well through to the weekend. Anya was so fun to be with. She does get jealous if I give any type of attention toward baby Kevin. She says. ” Give Kevin to Mallory, this is my grandma”. So now I have to teach her that I love all my grand children all the same.
Anya was so cute Easter morning. She slept with me in my bed. (I forgot how little feet can dig into your side occasionally through the night.) That morning I said, “Let’s go downstairs to see what the Easter bunny brought you.” We held hands and both came downstairs together. Her eyes were wide open as she approached the large filled Easter Basket. Then she looked at everything very carefully and looked at me and said, “I have to thank the Easter Bunny.” This made my day.
The Easter Sacrament Meeting was inspiring. The chapel was packed. I wish is was packed like that every week. But, it was a challenge for me because last Easter Kev and Marlene were asked to speak on Easter Sunday. This brought memories of Kev’s very inspirational talk he gave. I asked him to record his talk which he did. I hope to transfer to a DVD someday and get copies made for my daughters, Kev’s family, and anyone else who wants a copy.

The Easter holiday was so wonderful to renew my testimony of Christ and His sacrifice he made for us. How His gift of the resurrection is very desirable now. I look forward to that day with gratitude in my heart to be reunited with my eternal partner. My desire is to live worthily of that blessing. I am so thankful for the peace and beliefs I have that help me through and keep me focused on what is important in life. Loving God, Loving yourself, and Loving others.

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March 20, 2008 by Ashley.

_____I’ve been meaning to write for a while now and figured it couldn’t wait any longer with all that has happened. Let’s see…
_____The biggest news is that a week ago we got a free 3D/4D ultrasound at our doctor’s office. It was again a bit rushed, but fun to get pictures of the baby. We got it confirmed that she is 100% positively a girl (which is good, because I didn’t want to suddenly be surprised at delivery). The way the ultrasound works is that they take a picture of an entire block in my abdomen and then digitally remove layer by layer (skin, muscle, placenta, etc) until they get to the baby. So that’s why the images look a little weird. You get really good pictures when the baby’s head is totally surrounded by fluid because fluid transmits really well. So if the baby’s head isn’t surrounded by fluid you get distorion from other matierals. Anyway, she was doing well at first but quickly decided she did not like the pressure of the ultrasound sensor thing and turned her head into the placenta and umbilical cord. She still kept her face showing, which was good but that’s why the pictures have a lot of distortion around it. Apparently she does not like pressure at all because the I could feel her kicking the entire time and you could see she had this little grumpy frown - it was so cute. Pat and I were happy to see her healthy and doing well. I’ve been gaining weight a little too much lately (unfortunately) so I’ve been afraid she’s getting too much to eat and I’m going to end up with a 12 lb baby on my hands :).
_____As I said before, she has been very active this whole time. I don’t know what I’m going to do in a month because right now at around 2.5 lbs she can be quite uncomfortable at times! A few weeks ago the doctor was trying to find her heartbeat and actually having a hard time of it because she was moving all around. But the doctor was like “We love active babies!”
_____On another note, we got another major blessing recently connected with the baby. A few weeks ago the woman we bought our house from, Heather, asked me at church if I was pregnant and so we were talking about that. She was like, “Oh no because I just threw away a bunch of baby stuff!” And in my head I was totally bummed about that because Pat and I have pretty much nothing for the baby. Well, Heather is best friends with my now next door neighbor, Kelly. They were talking one day and Kelly was saying how she really had to clean out her nursery because they were redoing the rooms and her husband wanted the furniture gone. It had gotten to the point where he just wanted to just give it all to the Good Will. At that point Heather was like “No! Ashley’s pregnant! Ask her about it.” So Kelly calls us up and offers us her complete nursery set: crib, changing table, rocking chair w/ footstool, car seat, and a futon-which really isn’t a baby thing… for free. Because this is my first baby, I really wanted the fun nursery, but finances are tight for Pat and I and with the economy the way it is, it just didn’t look like I’d be able to get any of that stuff. When she offered those things I was speechless. We are so excited to have the furniture. Especially because her youngest just barely turned 2 and so all the furniture is still good/not expired. We just got the furniture the other day (it’s nice that she lives right next door so the move wasn’t too exhausting) and we’re so excited to get it all ready. More than that though we have said and continue to say a lot of “thank you prayers” because I’m so amazed that we have such a generous person living next to us and it came at just the perfect time. Now we can save our pennies for that lovely hospital bill I know is coming.
_____Anyways, I should get to the best part: our ultrasound photos. The baby isn’t even here yet and I’m already that woman I hate where I share a million photos and brag about my child :). But seriously, Pat and I spent like 2 hours extracting the pictures and picking the top ones you “have to see” so humor us and check them out!

Pix 1-3 Some head shots

Pic 4 She’s punching herself in the face (the arm is digitally cut off - again there is computer distortion. Our baby isn’t montrous looking). Pic 5 Ignore the distorted droopy side of her face, but the other half shows her little frown. Pic 6,7 More head. With 6 you need to “look through” the umbilical cord that is in front of her face

Pic 8 (middle) We included this because you can see her hand reaching out
Pic 9 Head shot: Pat liked her mouth in this one

Pic 10 Her little feet Pic 11 Her knee is coming in from the side and you can she her fisted hand. It was kind of funny that her hands were always in a fist punching around. Pic 12 Hand shot compared to how it looks on a 2D ultrasound

Pic 13 You can see her right foot with her toes all spread and her hand near it
Video: I had to include this because if you watch it a couple time and take note, you can see
her bring her legs up and then pull them back down and just moving them around. I
thought it was just too cute to see her playing with her feet and jumping around.
Video <-- Click here to see Video!

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March 15, 2008 by Mallory.

Today (Saturday), I woke up late, like every Saturday. When I woke up, we said our morning prayers, and then while we were praying, we heard this screaming. I was just like, what on earth is that? So I finished praying and went to the door to listen. Then I heard this screaming that was coming from the apartment right across from us. I heard some hitting or something and I got really freaked out. Here in Memphis, you really have no idea what could go on, so Wendell and I were thinking, we have 3 options. We can ignore it, knock on the door, or call the police. I really didn’t want to deal with someone that was angry and hitting, so I decided to call the police. They came by, and when they knocked on their door, no one answered the door. We could still here the child screaming and crying. It also sounded like he was saying, Mom, get up and answer the door. We were really scared and thought something could be really wrong. The police tried to get a key to the door, but they couldn’t, so they knocked the door in. You know what it turned out to be? The boy was just stuck in the closet. He couldn’t reach the door handle, so he couldn’t get out. Of course, he was only 6 and shouldn’t have been left home alone, but luckily it wasn’t anything too serious. We were all just laughing that we were getting really worried and worked up about a little boy being stuck in the closet. But it’s better to be safe than sorry, I like to say. Life here in Memphis is turning out to be a little more exciting than planned!

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March 8, 2008 by Mallory.

Yesterday was Wendell’s birthday, and it was also the first real snowfall that we have had this year. It snowed 3 (or more) inches! Wendell was really excited that it happened on his birthday. Of course it is basically all melted today, but it was fun while it lasted. Of course everything was shut down, all the schools got out early(unfortunately we already had an early dismissal planned), and there weren’t many people on the road. Of course we’re used the snow, so we still went out to eat for Wendell’s birthday. We took a break from out weight loss program and went to this barbeque place that a guy in our ward owns. It’s called Fat Larry’s…oh my goodness, it is delicious, but I now have a testimony of eating healthy. That night I felt so gross. I haven’t felt that gross in a long time. This weight loss program is called Budokon and it’s more of a “change to a healthy way of living” kind of program, and you can definitely tell a difference. Anyway, for his birthday, I also made my first from-scratch cake. He said his favorite cake was Texas sheet cake, so I found a recipe online and made it. It was really good, but he said that he doesn’t think it’s his favorite. He said it was his favorite because he remembered his gramma making it and he remembered really liking it…yeah, I think his memory was a little blurred. But Wendell’s birthday was very good and exciting. Until next time!(oh…and when I tried to post pictures, they were really big and couldn’t see the whole things, so just click on the yellow link and you can see some pictures!)
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March 6, 2008 by Melanee.

Pancreatic cancer has raised its ugly head again. My heart aches for the Swayze family. But, my prayers are for him and all those who are diagonsed with PC. Even though approx. 30,000 are diagnosed every year it tends not to be noticed until it hits your family. Now that Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed we have seen more news highlights and doctors are educating the general public about the cancer. Unfortunately a couple doctors they have used on the network were not infomative or really up to date on the latest treatments and length of survival. The “Today” show could have used a better doctor for accurate information.

The statistics are the same and that is why we need more awareness. When Katie Couric’s husband was diagnosed with colon cancer. Katie encouraged all to get tested. Doctors called it “The Couric effect”.
Can we start a Swayze effect? Where his diagnosis will better inform and educate, then ultimately finance research for early detection and ultimately a cure for pancreatic cancer.
So sad that PC had to affect us to do something about it.

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March 3, 2008 by Mallory.

I have yet another amusing story. About 1 1/2 months ago, my eye started constantly twitching (yeah…it’s annoying). I tried getting more sleep, I’m not that stressed, I just don’t know why it’s twitching. Anyway, after a little while, my students started noticing. When they first noticed, one of my students said, “Mrs. Fackrell, what is your eye doing?” and another said, “yeah, why is it moving?” Then another one said, “Yeah! It’s moving up and down!” So I told them that it was twitching and that it’s been twitching for a couple weeks. Of course, after that, they always noticed when it twitched, and they would laugh. It slowed down for a little while, and it wasn’t as noticeable. Unfortunately, last week, it started the constant twitching again. Then my student said, “It’s twitching again!” and another said, “Oh no! It’s back!” So indeed, it is my quest to find a way to get rid of this constant twitching in my eye so that my students can pay attention to what I am teaching them instead of paying attention to my eye. Unfortunately, they don’t teach you how to get rid of twitching eyes in optometry school. Hopefully someday it’ll stop. Until then, I’ll just have to deal with my students telling me that my eye is twitching.

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