111218 (Preston)

How embarrassing ... Secret Santa got missed again today. Maybe after reading through the post you'll understand though.

This morning Rory surprised us all by coming to Sacrament Meeting! We never thought that she would ever feel good enough 2 days after a chemo treatment, but apparently the combination of slightly less "medicine," tricks with ice, and new prescriptions are doing some good. I felt bad having to "run interference" against everyone who wanted to touch, hug, shake, or otherwise get too close to her tonight, but everybody was very glad to see her. And I think in many ways she was glad to be back. She started feeling sick again part-way through the meeting, so I whisked her back home after the first meeting.

She enjoyed some leftover potatoes and carrots, which were both soft but did require some chewing. It's nice that her mouth sores are not nearly as bad this cycle as they were last time, so she can eat "real food."

After church I took Caiden to home teach another family. He finished out the visits well, going 4-for-4 on lessons and 0-for-4 on prayers, which was his hope. He also scored some M&M's, which made him very happy.

My parents arrived at the house shortly after Caiden and I got back, and chaos reigned. It was AWESOME. For 30 minutes. That's when we packed mom & dad on to choir practice. The little kids were very worried because they thought grandma and grandpa were staying for a whole week, but were worried that they were already leaving! Choir went well, and mom got to sing Tenor on the Hallelujah! Chorus for the first time. If they aren't able to attend with us next week, at least they got to hear the music.

We tried to get computers and phones and emails and calendars set up for awhile, and then our home teacher stopped by. Rory's latest post was read in Relief Society today, and they were apparently sent over to collect what our favorite family recipes were, to find out what our kids WILL eat. It was probably the least structured, loudest, most chaotic, but perhaps the most productive home teaching visit we've ever had.

Uncle Sean got to the house and set to work making his gourmet hamburgers. Think what you will; I can say with certainty there IS such as thing as a gourmet hamburger. He and the girls and John prepared 10 pounds of meat (not all as patties) and included spices, oats, and who knows what else. Obviously it was very good because by the time I was able to get Rory up for some dinner, there was only one patty left for us to share. Kids had eaten several each, the missionaries (who most likely just came from a dinner appointment) were fed, and mom & dad took some on their way out the door. It's gonna be a GOOD few days of enjoying his cooking!

Got my dad, mom, Julie and Jo all set up on the calendar. Did some school training. Played with an iPhone (mostly unsuccessfully) for the first time. Revamped upcoming published schedules. Helped Rory eat some real food and participate with family time. Good day.

Unfortunately after all of that, we forgot to catch up on Secret Santa. Will have to remedy that situation tomorrow for sure.

Thanks to everyone for all the love, support, meals, cards, emails, and everything else. It's been amazing so far!