Thursday, July 21, 2016

Watson Reunion 2016

The Watson reunion was held in Boise to stay close enough for Grandma and Grandpa to attend as much as they could. Grandpa has always aged very graciously, if at all, and for the first time I'd saying he's looking a bit old and tired. Grandma looks good and has taken up a wheelchair because of pain in her tailbone. Since the last reunion we were missing Jordan who passed away and it was nice to recognize him and his family. It was so nice to see everyone! We've been blessed with such wonderful family and ancestors who've paved the way in the gospel. What debt we owe them and I hope that as I try to live my life obedient and faithful to the commandments and covenants that I've made, that all the sacrifices they have made will have been worth it. I believe the numbers are: 36 grand kids, 118 great grand kids, and 1 great, great grandchild.


We usually left the house at 7:45 am and didn't get home until 10pm with no naps. The kids were SO tired!

 Sunday afternoon Grandpa and Grandma both gave a devotional about Being Strong (theme).

As soon as Grandma stood to speak to us all, little 18 month old Austin ran up and gave her a big hug. It was so sweet and made me cry. It's nice to see all the great grand kids so close with Grandma and Grandpa and to appreciate their legacy.

At the end of the devotional, Grandpa asked for a priesthood blessing and invited all worthy melchizedek priesthood holders into the circle. Joseph anointed while Jared blessed him. It was a moment that I wish those who couldn't make it to the reunion could witness, it was such a humbling and spiritual sight.



Marty's Funeral and Cousin Fun

Our trip to head to Boise for the Watson reunion started a few days earlier than anticipated. Our dear friend, Marty Meyers, passed away leaving his wife Emily with their five children ages 6-1. Marty had written his own funeral and asked Lance to give the prayer. Luckily on Memorial weekend when Lance was in TF he had the opportunity to visit Marty and say his official goodbye in person. I wanted to share the song lyrics of In This Very Room that was sung at his funeral. Marty was an old soul with a generous heart and a genuine spirit. We will certainly miss him!

In this very room
There's quite enough love
For one like me
And in this very room
There's quite enough joy

 CHORUS:
For one like me
And there's quite enough hope
And quite enough power
To chase away any gloom
For Jesus Lord Jesus
Is in this very room

In this very room
There's quite enough love
For all of us
And in this very room
There's quite enough joy
For all of us (Chorus)

In this very room
There's quite enough love
For all the world
And in this very room
There's quite enough joy
For all the world (Chorus)

April 20, 1981—June 15, 2016

TWIN FALLS • Martin “Marty” Robert Meyers, 35, of Twin Falls, passed away peacefully at his home on June 15, 2016 at 10:25 a.m., after a courageous battle with cancer.
Martin was born on April 20, 1981 to Robert and Kathi Meyers in Twin Falls, Idaho. He was welcomed into the family by his big brother Morgan and his big sister Monica. Family trips to Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean laid a foundation for Martin’s love of lifelong travel.

Martin loved and excelled at music. He played the piano, violin, and bagpipes. Martin had a beautiful tenor voice and sang with many groups, weddings, and funerals. Martin was a skilled dancer. In Junior High he and his partner won 4th place at Nationals with their waltz/quickstep dance.
Martin was instrumental in getting the family cabin by the South Fork of the Boise River built. He loved the mountains and was grateful for any time that he could spend on the river. Martin enjoyed hunting and fishing with his dad, brother, grandpa, and uncle and was very skilled with a gun.
Martin was an artist in many different ways. He loved to doodle and draw, he wrote music, poetry, and a book. He loved classic literature and appreciated fine art and architecture. He used his many talents to help with the designing and building of his parents home.
Martin attended Twin Falls schools—Sawtooth, O’Leary and Twin Falls High, graduating in 1999.
After graduation Martin continued to Rick’s College for one year. He served a mission to Bucharest, Romania from 2000-2002. He grew very fond of the Romanian food and culture and he dearly loved the Romanian and Moldovan people.
After his mission Martin studied with his brother at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Martin then graduated in 2007 from BYU-Idaho, with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with an emphasis in Finance. He also studied abroad in Scotland for a semester at the University of Stirling.
On April 11, 2009, Martin was married for time and all eternity to the love of his life, Emily Manning in the Twin Falls Idaho Temple. To this union were born five beautiful children; Eleanor Marie, Sophia Golda, John Robert, Lydia Dorothy, and Evelyn Sarah Meyers. Martin adored his family and took great pride in their accomplishments.

Martin was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served in many callings. He firmly believed that we are ALL children of God, that he is aware of us and loves us. Martin was kind and thoughtful to everyone he met. He felt humbled by the Atonement of the Savior and grateful for Eternal Families.
Martin is survived by his loving wife Emily and their five precious children. His parents Robert and Kathi Meyers. His brother Morgan (Robyn) Meyers and his sister Monica (Trevor) Ware. His grandparents Larry and Shirley Hulme. His in-laws Bill and Brenda Manning. Additionally many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, relatives and friends.
He was preceded in death by his paternal grandparents John and Sarah Meyers of Buhl. He was privileged to know great grandparents William (Ed) and Golda Roberts, May Jensen, Ralph and Thelma Hulme who also preceded him in death.
Services for Martin will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21st at the Stake Center by the Temple located at 2085 S. Temple Dr, in Twin Falls. Bishop Mark Lambert will officiate. Visitation will take place prior to the funeral at 10:00 a.m. Burial will be at 1:00 p.m. at the West End Cemetery in Buhl.
Services are under the direction of White Mortuary, “Chapel by the Park,” in Twin Falls.

After the funeral Lance flew back home for work while the kids and I stayed in TF for two more days. Two days isn't long enough to see all the family and friends we wanted to but it is certainly better than nothing. One day we got the pools out for the kids. Kimball had such a blast being around so many boys! Charity planned an entire afternoon for all of the girls including a fashion show with a red carpet, nail painting, she made cards and candy for everyone, etc. It was so cute! This was the first time Cora has ever had her nails done and she LOVED it!

One afternoon all the sisters plus Tara and all the cousins got together at Thomson park for lunch. Valarie brought a stuffed animal on a leash and pretended it was her little pet and of course Cora really thought that was pretty cool. So Cora picked it up and was playing while Valarie wasn't watching. Once Valarie found out, those two started a tug-of-war with the animal and as Valarie let go, Cora tumbled a few feet backwards into the ditch (filled with water), about 4 feet down. I was the only one who saw her go in so I exclaimed and jumped up and quick thinking KoLei was right by the bank and jumped in there to pull Cora out. Thank you KoLei! Cora cried for a while because it scared her but she was just fine. Another adventure, I guess.





 

 Little Avery, isn't she the cutest?!

Saturday, June 18, 2016

So Come What May

We seem to be surrounded with lots of young family and friends who've been diagnosed with cancer. A month ago my friend from Jerome, Cami Bingham, lost her little two year old to neuroblastoma.

Lance went to school with Marty Meyer and as they stayed friends Marty sang in various quartets with Lance, taught him to play the bag pipes, and after he got married they became our neighbors. Emily and I had play dates and picnics all the time with our kids. He passed away with stage 4 melanoma cancer at the age of 34, leaving Emily a widow at age 26 with five little children ages 1-6.

Our brother in law, Charlie, was diagnosed this year with liver cancer. I'm always stunned to hear about people with cancer but when it's family it brings it to a whole new level of fear and anxiety.

We have been praying and fasting for these families for the past year and they've each witnessed many miracles. Even though Kenzie and Marty passed away, the miracles were still there and prayers were still answered. Answers to prayers aren't always about 100% healing and even though we pray for healing, we always end with the Lord's will.

It's interesting to think about cancer, I watched a PBS documentary on it which was so fascinating. Basically cancer has always been a part of life, thousands of years before Christ was on the earth people still had cancer. Cancer isn't a new plague in this modern era, we just have more advanced medicines and technologies to detect it. What's interesting is that cancer isn't biased. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old, highly educated or simple minded, or anything. Cancer strikes all walks of life. No amount of money in the world will ever be a guarantee of survival. Cancer is awful. There's so much red tape in the medical world surrounding treatments and images and testing and drugs.

I wish there was a metal detector device used for cancer. Like, here, just walked through this scanner-type-doorway everyday you get home and when you hear the beep you know you've got the beginning stages of cancer and need to seek treatment right away. Then the survival rate would be much higher and it wouldn't cost your entire life's savings and retirement just to get a prescription, and the quality of life would be much better during treatment. For those that don't want to know if they have cancer they can just turn the scanner off. Easy as pie. And I wouldn't charge a dime for the scanner or to have the scanner installed, because everything in life should be free.

But life isn't easy as pie and nothing in life is ever free and if Heavenly Father wanted a device like that then one of the millions of brilliant minds on this earth would've invented it already. I don't know why cancer is so selective in who it takes captive nor why some people survive years with it and others die suddenly.

But I do know this: Jesus Christ is the Savior and Creator of everyone and everything. He knows the end from the beginning and is omnipotent. He is love and everything that is good in this world. I see Him while looking at Cora's little toes to tasting a juicy raspberry to hearing Lance sing beautiful music to feeling the wind on my face. He is in everything. He is in control and wants nothing but to see us be happy and to return to Him one day. As the hymn says, "I believe in Christ, so come what may."

Girlsfriends!

I'm sure I've blogged about these friends before, but these are the five of us (Jean was in the other room) who met and were all in the same ward. We each were born the same year, married the same year, and had baby girls the same year. Left to right is Chris with Sydney, me and Cora, Julie and Maraea, and Liz and Audrey.

Chris and Jean now live in the valley, Julie lives on the South Hill, Liz lives in Mead (10 minute drive), and I only moved a mile so I'm the only one who stayed in the ward. During the season we got together every week to watch the latest Downton Abby episode and indulged in all sorts of yummy food. We still get together about once a month for girls nights, or to browse Burlington, or to get ice cream. There are 11 kids between the five of us and I love the fact that we still make it a priority to spend time together despite the 30 minute drive it takes us to get to each other's houses. Our activities are usually planned around the kids, being that we are all stay at home moms, and there's always delicious food. We always surround ourselves with food. I sure love them, we have such fun together!!!

Fun on Wheels

When the weather warms up we usually ride bikes or walk down to the high school so the kids can ride around in the spacious parking lot. We finally found a helmet small enough (although it's still quite big on him) for Kimball and Cora. When it came in the mail, Kimball wore his helmet everywhere that day; speech, Cora's school, pharmacy, grocery store, etc. He loves it and it's been fun teaching him about safety.
This particular day I asked Kimball to go potty before we walked to the high school to which he refused multiple times. Of course, 10 minutes after riding his bike he had to go potty. The high school was locked and I told him he had to wait until we got home. He said, "But Mom, I can just go on that tree over there." So we had a discussion about what "public" means why we can't just pee on any tree that we see. I allowed it this time and acted like I didn't know whose kid that was across the parking lot.

I Miss Grandpa


Making Super Heroes



Barbershop BBQ

Last week we attended the annual barbershop barbeque. We were the only young ones, the next youngest were in their 60's with the majority being in their 80's. We met at this beautiful house out on the Palouse and although it was a bit chilly, we still had a really good time! (Cora wasn't interested in wearing a mustache).


Friday, June 10, 2016

Cora's Update

Cora had another swallow study last week which didn't show any aspirating OR penetration!!! Great news but we're not out of the woods yet. It's a bit risky for her to go from nectar thickness to regular water so we've reduced the thickness to half nectar. Her speech therapists are doing several exercises to get the back of her tongue and those corresponding muscles strengthened with a heightened awareness. I'm really excited for her. Although we're not off the thickener completely, she's still making progress. I couldn't ask for anything more.

I also had a meeting with her Family Resource Coordinator (Carol) and the school district to talk about her transitioning from the Guild School in the fall. Her scores for speech were quite low so she qualified for that. The OT scores were .1 point below for qualification, and I can't remember where she scored with social or PT. She needs to have two areas that are two standard deviations lower than average to qualify for the school district's special education preschool. We meet with them again at the elementary school at the end of September to be retested for all areas and get a more accurate reading of where she's at overall. If she doesn't qualify then we'll continue to find speech, OT, PT, social, and cognitive therapies through a private practice.

Her rash is looking a lot better and very minimal so for the past two weeks I've been giving her bits of gluten here and there. Mostly just snacks - regular pretzels, regular graham crackers, waffles or pancakes, etc. So far I think she's tolerating it well but I'll keep it at a slow pace and eventually work up to regular breads and muffins, etc.

Lets Go Fly A Kite

Last night for a family activity we flew kites which was a first for the kids. Kimball absolutely loved it, his kite was Star Wars. Cora had zero interest whatsoever and didn't want to have anything to do with it at all.

Sunday Show

Don't let their cuteness fool you. It was stake conference and the kids were awful! You know it's bad when on the way out of the chapel a man grabs your arm and says, "Hang in there Mama, you're doing a good job." Great. That means everyone seated behind us watched our circus.

More On

I thought this was a great picture of Grandpa!

Two Wheeler

I finally convinced Kimball that he's too big for a tricycle. He loves this little bike and is very dependent on those training wheels but he sure has a good time on it!

Fun in the Sun









Girls Weekend & Man Trip

For memorial weekend, Cora and I had a girls weekend together while Lance and Kimball went on a man trip. Cora and I got shoes, went to a few parks, took naps together, lots of reading time, snuggles, and she enjoyed bathing alone without brother splashing her all the time.








Lance and Kimball went to TF to visit Kempton and Bonnie while they were in town. It was a quick three day trip and they loved it!
When Kimball got this sticker at the airport he said, "Hey, this is the same sticker the policeman gave me when he gave mommy a ticket!"