February 26, 2009 by Mallory.

So I’ve decided to give away my gerbils. I just don’t have time/don’t take the time to give them the love they need anymore. Also, I found my favorite gerbil dead yesterday while I was cleaning the cage. It was so sad. I really hate to think if it was my fault that he died. I have someone that said they would come and pick them up today…hopefully they’ll come. It’s really sad. I’ve had such a journey with them that it’s sad to think of them gone, but they’ll be happier with someone that gives them more attention and better care. Hopefully they will be happier in their new home. Goodbye my little furry friends!

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February 25, 2009 by Melanee.

There has been a huge change in my life that started shortly after the Christmas holidays. This change was something I never expected or was interested in. Due to an orchestrated circumstance this life change has come to pass.

Unfortunately, I have never mentioned that my roommate Gayle, whom I lived with for three semesters in my sophomore and junior year of college at Brigham Young University, passed away from a rare slow moving form of pancreatic cancer (two months after Kev passed). During our college years she was there to hear every word of excitement when I met Kev for the first time. She was great and fun roommate, who was very kind to me when I felt out of place. She is the only roommate out of 18 that kept in touch with me.

I found out about her diagnosis when yet another orchestrated experience leading me to a cemetery near my work and seeing a monument with her married name on it almost three years ago-prompted me to call her. I came home and told Kev I needed him to look up Gayle’s phone number because she had just recently moved. He assisted me and we were successful. During that phone conversation she told me of her diagnosis and treatment of a slow moving form of pancreatic cancer. One month later Kev was diagnosed with a fast moving pancreatic cancer.

We talked to each other a few times to give encouragement. I still have the email telling her of Kev’s passing and her comforting reply not knowing she was going to join him in about a month and a half. I even spoke to her husband at length once while she was traveling to MD Anderson in Houston, TX for her treatments. We discussed treatments and costs of care, etc.

Christmas 2008-I sent my usual Christmas note to friends and family members from my Christmas list. He sent me his Christmas family update and wrote a note to see if we could keep in touch and added his email.

I emailed him to see how he was doing and to compare experiences with our battles that our spouses endured trying to fight pancreatic cancer. He replied to my emails. Through time our friendship has grown through living similar refining experiences and living similar faith and beliefs. We have grown fond of each other and can’t believe all the challenges we have endured have come to this. Joy has entered our lives once again that we thought would never happen because both of us had wonderful marriages to fantastic spouses.
So, I have opened my eyes to those Orchestrated Circumstances and followed their courses. Plus we really think Gayle and Kev have something to do with this.

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February 23, 2009 by Ashley.

When I was really little I remember watching an episode of the X Files that completely freaked me out. I didn’t remember all the details, but I must have been pretty scared to be able to remember specific facts from the episode for years and years. So l’ve been watching reruns of the X Files and I came across the one from my childhood! And…it wasn’t that scary. I guess it’s sad how, first of all, we get so desensitized. If that episode showed on today’s TV, I don’t think it’d have the same “scary” impact on the current generation. And also, it made me realize how careful I need to be with what Lydia sees. There can be life long scarring from “second-hand TV watching.”

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February 17, 2009 by Ashley.

So I’ve been pretty discouraged trying to get rid of my baby weight. I mean, body image was enough of a struggle for me and then having a baby has made it so much worse. I’ve been trying to exercise regularly, but that’s a struggle for me in and of itself because I do NOT enjoy exercising. I’ve rarely felt those “endorphins” that people praise which then makes them look forward to their workouts.

Well, I’ve been doing a new workout where I lift heavy weights for short reps. The theory makes sense to me and I’ve actually been able to survive a couple weeks of it without completely giving up or switching to the next promising system. Unfortunately the numbers on the scale haven’t changed much, but I know muscle weighs more than fat (blah blah) so as I was getting ready to take a shower today after working out I had a crazy idea. I tried on a pair of pants that I know didn’t fit when I was pregnant and afterwords… and they fit! I wore those pants when Dad first got diagnosed (I believe summer 2006). I mean, I can’t do the splits in them or anything, but they’re not as tight as panty hose either.
I’m not anywhere close to being buff or even being close to my goal weight, but it means a lot that for once I have actually seen a bit of progress.

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February 13, 2009 by Ashley.

This past Tuesday Pat and I had a chance to go out to dinner. Our friend Sally offered to watch Lydia and so we jumped at the chance to have a date night. We have to especially thank Grandpa Webster because he gave us a gift certificate to a restaurant we enjoy for Christmas so we ordered an appetizer AND dessert, which is a major splurge for us. Dinner was delicious and conversation was great. It was nice to have Pat open doors for me again and get some time just for ourselves. Afterwords we went to pick up Lydia. Usually Lydia does really well with other people (just last Sunday she sat most of sacrament meeting with another family sitting behind us). Sally came to the door holding her and Lydia took one look at me and just lost it. It was so cute. It’s like it wasn’t until she saw us that she realized we had been gone for 2 hours. She gets so emotional that way. She even did that one time when I substituted. I came home and she started bouncing and got so happy that it quickly turned to tears. (It reminds me of when tweens see celebrities and they get so excited they start crying). It was nice to be missed but also it’s nice to know that she can enjoy a few hours without us as well.

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February 11, 2009 by Mallory.

So here are the details on my Wheel of Fortune adventure…
Back at the end of October, the Wheelmobile came to the Midsouth. Of course I just HAD to go!!! I love Wheel of Fortune and I watch it everyday, so if I had the opportunity to get on the show, I had to take it! So I went down to Mississippi to go to the audition. What they do is they have you fill out this little paper, then they put it in this big barrel thing (kinda like a giant Bingo turner) and they draw names to see who comes up to the stage to show their stuff…..Lucky me, I got picked! So I went up on stage, did a little dance, was 1 person away from solving the puzzle, and then went home. They said they would let me know within a couple months to let us know if we were invited to the final audition. It has been over 3 months, so I’ve just given up…but then last week, I got an email inviting me to the final audition!!!!! YAY!!!! It was today (Wed. Feb. 11) at 8:00 am, so of course I had to go. I took the day off, and headed down to Mississippi once again. They had us all sit in one room (about 75 people) and they put a whole bunch of puzzles up on the projector(one at a time, of course). Then they called each person one at a time to take a turn, call out letters, and have a chance to solve the puzzle. They gave everyone at least one chance, some people 2 chances (I was the last person to get 2 chances! And I solved the puzzle and won a tote bag!) Then they had us take a 5 minute written test to see how well we could solve puzzles. Then the filtering began. They only called about 25 people to stay in the room, give or take a few….and I was called to stay!!! Then we did some more mock Wheel of fortune games. We had to pretend like we were actually spinning the wheel. There were some people that were called up twice, some not…I was only called up once…..and then they said that we would get a letter in about 2 weeks to see if we would be on the show! So that’s how it goes. I got through the filter process and now I’m just waiting to hear! Hopefully I’ll get a letter and you’ll be able to see me win thousands (or maybe a million) of dollars, trips, and prizes!!! We’ll have to wait and see!!!

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February 6, 2009 by Ashley.

It’s very common for babies to pick up little cutsie nicknames. My dad called Anya, “Anya bug” and we’ve called Lydia “Lydi Bear” (Pat being Papa Bear and I being Mama Bear). Well, Pat has just christened her with another nickname that seems to be sticking. So not only will we refer to her as “Lydi Bear,” she will also be known as “Chicken Lydi.” I laughed the first time Pat said it and I still think it’s funny because of all the animals to be linked to your name, usually “chicken” is not at the top of that list. But it’s cute - so we’ll keep it.

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February 5, 2009 by Marlene.

Hey all so it’s been a little bit of forever since I’ve written- sorry about that guys. Let me catch you up a bit
I got engaged on January 3rd, 2009 while in Indiana visiting Stephen’s family. We’ll be getting married in the Washington DC temple on July 11th with the Connecticut reception that monday. I’m so excited.
I’m in a new semester full of new classes. They’re much harder and not quite as enjoyable as last semester but I’m warming up to them. Things can be a bit stressful at times but I’m doing just fine, plus Stephen’s been a great support to me. He’s helped out quite a bit with the wedding plans too. He’s actually catalyzed or finalized the majority of the things that we’ve gotten done so far if not all.
Yeah, life is life. Not too much more to it.
~Marlene

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February 3, 2009 by Mallory.

I know I just wrote a post, but something changed between then and now. So back in October most of you know that I went to the Wheel of Fortune auditions. They said within a couple of months, they would contact us to tell us if we were invited for the final auditions. It’s been almost 4 months, so I gave up on the idea and I basically just forgot about it. Well, today, I got an email that invited me for the final auditions of Wheel of Fortune!!!!!!! So I’m that much closer to getting on the show!!! Just you wait! I’ll let you know when my show will be on TV! (just kidding, I’ll let you know if I make it…)

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February 3, 2009 by Mallory.

It seems like there are a lot of things in my life that have been frustrating lately: getting my students to stop talking, trying to get enough teachers there for nursery each Sunday, etc. But there is something that is the most frustrating of all right now. I have been working really hard at trying to lose weight….ok…well I’ve been working really hard at eating healthy to lose weight. Unfortunately, my body has gotten to the point where I gain weight REALLY easily, but I lose it not very easily. I’ve been trying to eat really healthy and I’ve been trying to exercise enough every week, but not nearly as much as I should. Since last January, I lost 18 pounds, gained 10, lost another 12, gained 10, etc etc etc. Well, I was talking to Leah the other day and she said, Maybe it’s gotten to the point where just eating healthy isn’t going to cut it. So…this kinda turned on a light bulb in my head and now I am really determined to get my exercising in. I mean, every scientific study suggests that exercising is extremely important for pretty much every aspect of your life. I mean, there is RARELY anything negative about exercising, so I just have to get off my lazy butt and get exercising. In one of my exercise videos, she says that in order to see results, you really need to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and push beyond what you think you can do. Hopefully I can stick with it and see better results. Hopefully the next time any of you see me, I will be a healthier and smaller me!

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