introduction

Many of you know how the Todd Family feels about journeys. We try to keep an eternal destination always in view, while focusing on finding joy in the way we choose to get there. We are so grateful for the knowledge we have about where we want to ultimately be... in the presence of a loving Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, who made it possible for us to achieve that destination. We have been sent to this earth to see if we can reach our potential, becoming all that Heavenly Father wants us to be. Sometimes the journey back to our Heavenly home takes us through wide, gentle paths and sometimes the road is treacherous and unknown. Regardless, we feel that with every step we take, we should be looking for the beauty around us... learning from our fellow sojourners and relying on the maps that were provided to us to get through. Sometimes it is easy to happily skip along, but often we struggle, wondering if we will make it, and recognizing in the end that we can do hard things that we would have not previously thought possible. These are often the stretches of road that bring the most joy... the difficult ones. We have recently found ourselves on “a road less traveled” and, since we can’t turn around, we have decided to find joy in the opportunity to go there... to become better for having trod this new path. We hope that none of you will have to take this route, and can instead experience the vistas through us as you follow this blog. Here we go... Remember to enjoy the journey!


Thursday, June 14, 2012

Pausing to let the Grass Grow Under our Feet


I noticed that in my last post Derek was in the middle of Chemo Treatment #5.  Today he is in the middle of #8... just like that!:)  Time has a way of moving right along, ready or not!  He will have another CT scan next week to see if further progress has been made in shrinking the existing cancer cells.  Chemo is definitely an uncomfortable and yucky treatment, but Derek is doing great.  Some side-effects are no longer as big of a deal to him, he just expects them and knows how to handle them, while others have gotten slightly worse, and still other new ones keep popping up.  The doctor has told him that his body has held up really well so far against the effects of the chemo.  His blood pressure keeps rising, so they have him on a prescription for that, but he doesn't even really take some of the other prescriptions they have given him for pain and nausea any more.  His hair was already thinning, and seems to not be growing very fast, but it has not fallen out!  He eats all the treats and food he can in an effort to not look emaciated.  He takes naps on occasion, but he tries not to let it slow him down much.  Saturday, he put in a full day of work in our new yard... not a task for the weary, that's for sure.  It looks much better, but will still require a lot of time, effort, and probably a landscape designer:)

Which brings me to the next discussion item... the "new" house.  We went to Colorado over Memorial Day and packed up everything that hadn't been boxed up before we left in March.  We thoroughly enjoyed the meals, conversations, and graduation parties we shared with our Colorado friends (who really feel more like family) while we were there.  We cried when we left the dream house... okay I cried again when we left again, but we kept driving anyway, and soon we were across Wyoming... just like that!:)

On the day after Memorial Day, workers arrived at the house we had just purchased and began tearing out all of the carpet.  The next day, while a Colorado friend was supervising the movers who were loading up our stuff there, we had some dry walling done and a laundry room moved to a temporary location and my sisters, an aunt, and I started painting the two girl rooms on the main level of the Utah house.  After more painting and some completed trim work and a door installation, the carpet was laid on the main level.  I LOVE THE CARPET.  It made such a huge difference in making the house feel more like our own.

On the Thursday after Memorial Day, the kids finished school and we moved out of our temporary condo.  Since we didn't have any carpet in the bedrooms yet, and since most of the beds we had been using belonged to my parents anyway, we spent a few nights in Kaysville.  After some weird painting stress (what a surprise!--wink), and a lot of help from my sister and my aunt, all improvements on the main level were completed just in time for the moving truck to arrive with our stuff from Colorado on the following Monday.  We have been attempting to find places for things ever since.  This is harder than it should be since we haven't had all the renovations completed in the basement yet and we can't move anything down there.  Our contractor will be back next week and will hopefully get moving on that quickly so we can lay carpet and move everything else in from the garage.

Our Yellow Labrador, Bailey, was staying with my sister for two and a half months, while we were in temporary housing, but we picked her up on Sunday and she is gradually settling in as well.  It has taken some time, but we now have our whole family and all of our worldly belongings in one place... just like that!:)  It is nice to be here.  The house definitely needs some beautifying, but we are doing what we can to make it feel like home.  We are happy with our neighborhood and are so grateful for all of our friends and helpers.  I just keep telling myself that as long as we are making forward progress, we are doing well.  Getting settled in a home that we hope to be in for a while, feels like forward progress.  It is fun to think about making new friends and having new experiences, while getting reacquainted with our Utah family and keeping up with our teenagers.  Derek is excited that buying this home gave him an excuse to get a nice, new lawn mower and a chainsaw.  It is fun to have growing trees and grass to take care of again.
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