Blow off the dust...

I has been a long time since I have blogged about anything. It seems summers I hit it hard and keep going until around the holidays when other things take over and then it's down hill from there till summer hits again. Funny thing my weight goes up and down the same pattern. I think it's the end of school year stress as well as winter dull drums. Not that this year was very dull. We really didn't get a lot of snow and it was rather pleasant. So because I am not the best with taking pictures I don't have a real good photo journal of what we have been up to, but I have tried to put together something so here it is. (by the way I bought us a new quick shot type camera and I don't love it so some of the pics are not great blame the camera people!)

Last minute decided to run a 5k with my cousin Amber Kate. Boy did the wind blow!

This 5k was in Feb. I think. Run Like a girl. I had such a side ache this time ouy! I am grabbing my phone as it fell down my leg. ha

80's party at Greg & Julie's. Yea I wore those pants in the 80's.

This is one to blame on the camera. McKoy Whitney Kyra and Scott. Preference 2012

Kyra & Nate Jr. Prom 2012 again blame the camera

Kyra & mom before she heads out to pick up her date for Grads 2012

One more 5k. THis one was for my school cvms. I have recently dicovered I have allergy induced asthma. YUCK! I hate it have to start all over again. My body doesn't like spring however fall is better much better.

THe little eye poking out is the mommy mourning dove sitting on her nest in our back yard. Can't wait to see the babies. Hope Maggie our dog doesn't see them first.

Dum dum tree made for sharing time but then realized it was fast Sunday so it sits on the table.

Summer has finally arrived and this is what I have been up to. One of my best yard sale finds.

One of a few bracelets I have made for Kyra. the rest are at efy with her in Provo for the week.

I discovered I love these little mushrooms they make me smile. Such a fun little easy craft. Yes I made them.

Made these too. I wanted to have a little fairy garden so I made some little fairy flowers out of baby shells I found at the di.

Finally got the garden in now if it will just take. We built these boxes this year and I love them. May need to add one more next year.

I have been planting lots and lots of flowers in pots. This is when I wish we would have had more rain or snow though because it is hot hot hot. Hope I can keep things alive.

Saw this on pinterest and had to do it. I love copper! These are pennies I saved as a kid some of them are painted gold because they were glued to my night stand and painted when I was a teen. the blue if you can see is from them aging in a paper wrapper for the past 15 years. I am making more of these but a little different. I love summer I  can create new things and improve old ones. I have many projects as usual planned for the summer. I love the warm nights and that the sun doesn't go down till after 9.

Where has the time gone?

I am not even sure where to begin. The past 3 months have been full. As you know Kaden left for the MTC on Nov 2. I could write about that for a few blogs. But it might be best to just give you the best parts. Preparing someone to be gone for 2 years is not an easy effort. All the needed items seasonally and for Kaden bedding where crammed into 2 suitcases. Hopefully he can figure out how to pack it all back in there when he leaves the MTC for Texas. Once you get the packing stuff figured out there is the setting apart. Can I just tell you how grateful I am for a Stake President who prepares for setting apart on bended knee. He sure made us all feel so comforted. It's weird because in that few hours of having a missionary in our home we had such a enveloped feeling of peace and calmness. The spirit was strong. I called it the bubble feeling it lasted for about 2 weeks till the feeling of I can't last, this has been the longest 2 weeks of my life feeling took over.

When we arrived in Provo we went to lunch with Klint's brothers family as they were also dropping off a missionary. We took our pics at the temple and said our last goodbyes. Dropping him off wasn't that bad and you can get out of the car. People had told us you can't you can get out and give a last hug.  The next few hours were difficult as we thought of not having Kaden around for the next 2 years. Yet we all knew he was going to be doing a greater service and would be a blessing to so many.



Thanksgiving came this year and boy was it different. We normally have dinner with our moms and Klint's brother and wife and there 4 children.Well his brother has a son out and we have Kaden so down 2 right off the bat. Kevin, Klint's brother, has a daughter Diane who had come hom efor the holiday and woke up with a fever so she stayed in St. Georg with her dad Kevin. And to top it all off Kyra had just had her wisdom teeth out the day before and had a little snip off the frenum ( the skin that connects your lip to your gums) on both the top and bottom. Boy was she miserable and so so swollen. So we had myself, Klint, my mom, Susan (Kevin's wife) their daughters Kimmie and Miranda. With Kyra sleeping in the basement.

With both of us having missionaries out I thought it would be the perfect time to put together a 12 days of Christmas for the boys. It was so much fun to wrap these small gifts for the boys. When we finished Kimmie took the boxes down to the car and locked the keys in the trunk.HAHAHA! If you know us and know us well you know this kind of stuff just happens a lot. 2 hours or so later they were headed back to St. George.  You should now that this was the only key they had as the car was a rental because Kevin had gotten in a car accident just a couple days before.

Kyra hasn't had an exactly easy time healing from all that she had done. The first day was hard, she went into a bit of shock since she didn't have anything in her stomach and a lot of meds to anestitize her etc. With a little food she got better that day. Her face swelled from top to bottom. We didn't take any pictures because she looked so sick and pale. After a few days and some bumps along the way she is getting better, but still has a lil bit to heal.

Klint has had this radio frequency done on both sides of his back. Can I just tell you there's always hoopes to jump through and they can really stress a person out. Wheh you do radio frequency it takes 4 or more appts to do one side. First they just  meet with you then the next appt. they shoot you with lidacaine in the nerves they are hoping to affect. It lasts for 15 min. THe killer part is you get a call the night before usually saying the insurance co. might not pay. Then you go back this shot lasts 6 hours. you can really tell with this one if it's gonna work. If it does you schedule the big one where they burn the nerve. Again the call comes saying your insurance says you don't need this and you wait for a Dr. to tell them you do. Now Dr.'s are busty people so as the clock gets closer and closer to 5 you hope to get a call saying alls a go. Then you get that one usually in the morning or at 5:40 pm. then it's the day they burn your nerves. One more appt to see if all is good. If it is you start the whole process again for the other side. Klint has had both sides done.  The last side didn't take as well as we'd hoped. So hopefully they can do it again. Since the 6 hour shot worked really good on that side.

People always ask me how Kaden is doing and then say now how are you? Well I have good days and bad days. I miss his voice I miss the peacefullness he had about him. Letters mean a lot to us now. Thursdays are his p-day. So that day is good and bad. I changed his stocking to look like a shirt and tie and pants. I have a missionary tree with tags on it. I know he is safe. I wouldn't want him anywhere else. I am excited to hear his voice on Jan. 3 when he leaves the MTC. But there's this gnarl in my stomach. They grow up so fast. These little boys don't come back as little boys they come back as men. It's just gonna take some time to wrap my head around. He will always be my little boy. Family is so important.

So that has been what we have been up to. I am sure I missed some stuff as usual. Here's some photos of whats been goin on.

Kanarraville Falls

Kaden & Sumer 

Passing of the t-shirt

A place to stop for a min.

heading into the slot canyons. Kaden has decided to skip from rock to rock to avoid the water. LOL!!

One of many butterflies. Sumer even caught one.

This is my favorite hike!

I truly love this hike! It is about 2.5miles or more and amazing. My favorite thing to do is pack a sandwich and a fresh summer peach and hike up up up. There are rocks to climb, waterfalls to hear roar, canyon walls to marvel at, and ladders to climb while freezing in the water. It is just a great hike. Just remember if you go to bring $ to park your car. Sigh!

Laundry Wall paper Gone!!

I recently watched a show where the people had redone their laundry rooms.They were bigger than mine and had more $ than I. But I was inspired to see if the wallpaper I hate would come down. Sadly on the first pull all I got was the top piece of paper and not the under part. To my dismay I thought it had been glued like all the other nasty wallpaper that used to lurk in my home. Even sadder I can't share the horrible photo of that old dingy wall paper. But here is what happened. I had a master plan of painting a saying on the wall in big block letters. you know the one: Make it do fix it up wear it out or do without. I spent hours figuring out the placement and measurements and marking the wall only to find out that I had forgotten to keep in mind space between the letters. So not wanting to waste any more time I painted stripes. I really like  the way it turned out. I have been hesitant to post about it yet because I wanted to find some cute baskets etc. and make it all nice but it is taking to long. So here it is. Voila!

R.I.P. Topanga Josephine

The past 5 weeks or so have been so hard with our sweet Topnaga. We had worried that one of her fatty tumors may be growing. SO off to the vet we went. He decided to shave her to take a sample. He cut into her skin with each buzz. She was bleeding profusely. He the stuck a needle in and said yep looks like there's blood in it. Basically we went home knowing that she was an old dog with a tumor that may have arthritis. She began limping a little when the tumor started to grow.
Within 2 weeks of that visit it had more than doubled. We noticed that a spot was bleeding. Much of the hair had grown back and I was unable to see where she was bleeding and began to shave it down. I immediately noticed that blood had seemed to be pooling at the bottom of the tumor. We took her into vet #2 he basically said the same thing as the prior vet. So we watched it and I would say it grew everyday. The visits almost seemed to aggrevate it even more. Suddenly it seemed enormous and was oozing. We went back to vet #2 he noticed it was growing rapidly and thought it may be infection. So with anitbiotics in hand home we went again. By the next evening it had doubled That vet visit was on a Fri. and by Sun she needed to go see the emergency vet , vet #3. She could barely walk and was shaking.The tumor that had started on the outside of her upper hind leg had know consumed her entire leg both sides and slowed her blood flow causing edema in her paw. We thought oh infection= fever. The vet didn't feel that way, she felt it was all a irritated tumor and inflammation. She did feel that surgery was necessary. Huh, all the vets before said no to surgery because she was too old. With more drugs to help the infection etc. we went home. Monday morning our sweet topanga seemed to barely be able to move. The tumor had started to grow up her chest. By the time I got home from work it was going into her front leg. We knew surgery wasn't an option as if any was left behind it would continue to grow. After work I took her back to vet #2. We had decided to put her down. The vets office was so kind and nice. I have seen many others not so kind.
We have decided to cremate her. We will be spreading her ashes at 2 of her favorite spot no not my bed, our camping spot up the mountain where she loved to run and  possibly in a sunny spot in the back yard where she would sun bathe.

I am writing about this because I have recently become aware that a few other people that I know have been dealing with a similar situation. There is little information on line about dog health care. I still don't know what exactly this thing that grew so fast was. But looking back I wish 1. I would never have taken her to the first vet.  it was dirty and gross there. 2. I would have listened to the inner voice telling me to run when I saw the conditions of the vets office.3. I would have known what questions to ask. 4. I would have had a true biopsy done in the beginning.

It isn't silly to treat our pets as family. If you knew Topanga you knew she thought she was human. She was a sweet, fun ,loving, gentle dog with ears of silk.

Elder Kaden Keller has been called to serve...

July was full of excitement around the Keller house. Kaden sent off his papers, received the melchezdik preisthood, ordained one of his friends to the aronic preisthood, and moved out.

Kyra went to girls camp, practiced hard and long hours for soccer, and worked this summer as a maid at a local hotel.  She made lots of $ to pay for all her school clothes etc. She made the soccer team but isn't exactly on JV or Varsity she may play either. However we kinda wish and hope it will be just varsity, the running a lot kills her scoliosis.

Klint works and works so much that we don't really see him a lot. He is facing having another back surgery. The artificial disk in his back is causing more trouble than it's worth. So his pain has been excrutiating. We are trying to get things worked out for him to have the surgery needed to help fix the problem.



As for me I am sad and hapy to be going back to work soon. I have tried to keep busy all summer but haven't always felt like I am doing enough. There are several changes in teachers at my school this year so it will be interesting to see where I end up. I think next summer though I will apply to be a maid like Kyra did. It will keep me busy and help pay bills.

So when Kaden was a little boy it was important to my Klint and I that Kaden choose if he wanted to go on a mission as soo many of our friends and people we knew went for their [arents or for some bribe. Kaden has chosen to serve the Lord for 2 years. We have always known he will be a fantastic missionary. he is easy to talk to has a good spirit about him and knows that the gospel is true. When he was growing up we always thought he would go to the polynesian islands. I don't know why we just did. Patially because they have big hearts there. However it's not up to us.

The Lord has chosen .......Fort worth Texas for Kaden to serve  a 2 year mission. He will be going to the MTC on Nov. 2. Along with his cousin Jake who is going to Billing Montana. Kaden will be learning Spanish while there. I know this is where the Lord want him and he will do great things. A woman in our ward calls him Elder Cowboy. She says those cowboys have big hearts and so do you. I know he is meant to be there.

Hot Hot hot!

Graduation and then some..

I really thought I would be a mess for some reason when Kaden graduated but instead I beamed with smiles. It was such a wonderful day. Not only was Kaden graduating but many of the kids he went to school with I have had the joy of working with and love so many of them.

Kaden has had a busy month, he graduated seminary,ran every weekend and by the way our boys track took 2nd at state! graduated high school received some awards etc and is preparing to put in his mission papers. I am sure I am leaving out a lot of the stuff but you get the idea.

Klint and I have been hiking for the past couple of weekends. This tree is a mini example of the many that had fallen on our first hike. We had to climb over and under and over and under. There were trees every foot or so it was crazy!

I had a summer to do list a mile long and boy did I get to it that first week off. I would like to get a job but not having the best of luck finding one at the moment. Kaden has a 2nd job he works with a 9 year old boy that is living with a condition similar to cerebral palsy his name is Hyrum. Kyra is working at a local hotel cleaning. THey are both busy busy, Kyra has also been busy with soccer they played in the summer games and are currently at suu soccer camp she plays 4 games a day for a week give or take. Exhaustion!

Kaden is busy working and preparing papers appt. and interviews to go on a mission. It isn't just fill out papers and go. Klint has had some luck with Dr. # ? he discovered he has arthritis in his hip and hardly any cartilige there so we are working on getting that better and then seeing about the back with a cat scan and then go from there. did I mention this DR is in California. He saw him once and then after all these tests he may go back we will see. 

I found an amazing taffy recipe at skiptomylou.org and can I say it is addictive. I love this recipe I have never made such perfect taffy. Well summer has been busy and full of great things so far. I have left out a few things like Grad night Kaden's Lake Powell trip Jean moving in and moving out and probably a few more things but I think this is enough of an update for now. Always know there is more.