New Year's Resurrection

With 85% of chance, I would say "New Year's resurrection" when it really means New Year's resolution. Especially after working at the MTC for 8 hours talking about plan of salvation, it was way easy for me to start Family Home Evening lesson by saying "Today, we are going to make New Year's Resurrection!" That entertained MOM and my husband.
But if you think about it, like if you think you were going to resurrect on the New Year's day, that would be cool. You probably don't even need to make any more resolutions.
Since we humbly partook the fact that we most likely won't be resurrected yet, we made resolutions. Then, we shared one thing that we think we need the most help with to accomplish.
Interestingly enough, everyone's challenge was goals to attain a physical well-being. So we swore that we would help each other. We are OHANA. (It means "family" in Hawaiian. Yes, we watched "Lilo and Stich" today.)

MOM cooked delicious chicken with sour cream with breadcrumbs.

We love holidays.

Horrendous

"HORRENDOUS"

That's the word MOM used to describe the way up to SLC yesterday. There were 6 accidents and cars were going 30-40 miles/hour because you just could not see right in front of you due to the snow storm. Despite all those, she evidently made it to the appointment and came back alive.

We were so glad to see her smile as we came back home.

As you can tell from the picture, MOM and I hid ourselves in the dark and carried the project into action (Yes, we finally hang some presents at neighbors' doors).

We enjoyed it. We thought it was pretty fun and gained a little empathy for Santa.

Here is a little bit of Denver where my husband and I stayed for getting my new name (TUELLER) into my passport/vacation.

He fed a turtle.
Yes, a huge spider, which you can see in Indiana Johns, was alive and moved like a feather on my palm.
Downtown Denver was clean, cute, and kind to people (they had FREE shuttles every minute to get around in the downtown. I know, it's awesome, especially with this weather.)

Ready for Christmas!

These are bunch of pictures from a few days ago.

Today, we are going to see nutcracker. This is a birthday present for MOM from us. We are excited!!

She just finished decorating a Christmas tree.

We finished taking Christmas family pictures.

On Thursday, MOM and I attended R.S. Christmas open house and had different kinds of soups and breads.

And this is nothing to do with Christmas but I thought it was cute.

David is pouring his favorite drink (expensive grape juice, $5.99) into a bowl.

and drinking it.... yes, it is a imitation of Japanese way of drinking sake.

Except the real bowl for sake is super tiny.

I guess I'm in America.

"I" talk

We had a good one-hour chat with MOM today. She told us what she learned from the class that she attended today.

"I" talk. It means to take in charge of oneself. Do not be influenced by "you are ..." or, "you always..." But boldly say "I feel ..." or "I want..."

I thought that is so true and simple but I forget it sometimes and look for excuses on "someone did..."

In addition to the learning, she looked fabulous today. She smiled, slept well last night, therefore, we had a great time.

Just a little report but she is doing great.

Officially "MOM"

Well, my mother-in-law was in the period of sad moment. So, my husband encouraged her super hard and they came to agreement of going out for bowling!!! My response was "Can you throw a ball? I guess you can kick it."

Somehow, both of them forgot that she had both of her mastectomy taken out and was not allowed to lift up heavy stuff.

We shift the plan to go get ice-cream and see a movie, "Blind Side," which we enjoyed very much.

P.S. I officially got a permission to call my mother-in-law "MOM." There are a few reasons why I wanted.

1) I always wanted to call mother "MOM" since I have been calling my mother "oka-san," which means mother in Japanese.

2) Plus, "DeNeece" is a long name and you can't call her name when you are very in hurry.

These are photos from last two days.

She made a delicious corn pudding on Thanksgiving day.

Also, don't you love her smile?!

We went to donuts party at Smiths.

P.S.'s P.S. I discovered one of her daughter's (Marie) secret similarity with MOM; The tone of voice and smile when they face to a baby are exactly the same. A great family unity (within MOM and Marie).

I am grateful for babies who help the families unite.

trading

We have been trading our charities.

My husband and I took all to my mother-in-law's birthday dinner,

Marie took all to cafe rio and movie (Fantastic Mr. Fox),

my mother-in-law read scriptures a lot for her sons,

I bought her a long socks that go up to thigh,

she bought me a pair of leg warmers,

we made a bed for Cousin Sam,

and he baked some brownies.

So, we are having fantastic holidays.

Comforting stuff

It's been almost a week since my mother-in-law's daughter with 2 little ones left Provo. My mother-in-law was off course missing them. Through that time, I discovered, what I call, her little secret, "comforting stuff."

Her fluffy bed,

Three Fixed bathrooms,

and McDonald.

Oh, and off course beautiful roses and Godiva chocolate from her husband for her coming birthday.

Yes, her birthday is tomorrow, the 23rd!!

It may be a little late to ask but, let me know if there is any little thing that I and my husband can do to make her day special!

Halloweeeeeeen

My mother-in-law was a great giver for the trick-or-treaters. She greeted with smile and gave candies. Earlier that day, David treated her with ice-cream as well to prepare for the night.

Best one was Suzie who came in the pink dress. She had a dance to show us. So, she took off the nice fluffy jacket (it was a cold night) and danced. According to her brother, she had to take off jacket in order to dance. What a sacrifice in this cold! Well, we all clapped for her.

She reminded me of Luke 10: 27.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."

Great thing can be learned in Halloween.

Another highlight is my mother-in-law jumped, shook legs, and screamed for joy (that is I think she did in her head but I perceived from her facial expression) when I told that I got an internship. She is a great mother to me as well.

Her daughter drove half day and all night, and got here about 4:30am. Now, my mother-in-law is super active watching for the little ones. Good for her.

Son's Love

In front of the drink shelf at Days.

David: I want to help my mom and show her that I care about her!!!

Yaya: ok.

David: So, I need to get these!!

We had good dinner over the drink.

Change

There are a lot of changes in my mother-in-law as well as her surroundings. So, I will just post pictures.

Today after church, my mother-in-law sat on the stairs with the puffy jacket and supervised us to do yard therapy.

Aunt Jan and Anna came to wish her good luck with her new boobs and brought a gorgeous Venezuelan doll. We don't worship idles but the doll is on top of the fire place where we all see everyday. So, when my mother-in-law feels pain from boob expansion, she can look at her and think that's where she is shooting for. Yes, I am learning that getting something new usually requires sacrifice.

This is a sweater David bought for her. Off course, it's PINK!

Can't Miss

I can't miss this picture, not being updated. This is taken just before the surgery when her husband and son blessed her.

She is truly loved by Heavenly Father and people surrounding her.

Speed Recovery

I totally thought these cookies were some kind of creatures from universe, until yesterday somebody said these turtle cookies were yummy!

But off course, things that are more surprising than cookies are my mother-in-law's speedy recovery. She is up and taking for a walk. Today, her super visiting teacher who brought all kinds of gourmet sweets and let us borrow hundreds of DVD, came to take her a walk. My mother-in-law wears pink cute t-shirt that her daughter designed.

She is also having a lot of visitors to keep her busy. So, she smiles more. Yes, the end is near.

Can't you see?!

My mother-in-law' HAIR IS GROWING BACK!! Can you see this excitement? I think she is also excited and wants to show it to everyone (Today, she wore nothing on her head when we got boba drink.) So, I guess her body is preparing for this coming winter, too.
These are our angels. My aunt (my mother-in-law's sister), her children, and their cousin came to help cleaning our home. Now, we really feel the presence of the spirit even edified by General Conference. Until Sassy peed in my mother-in-law's bathroom. So, he may be the only one who feels strong peace and especially relieved.

Who waited this moment?!

Her feet were dancing the last ten minutes of the drops of chemotherapy. YES, she is done!!

Similar to how Booker was telling about his birthday to everyone three months ago, my mother-in-law was telling every nurse come by, "it is my LAST chemo treatment!"

She was getting anxious as the time approached to close, because nobody mentioned about the song that she had been desperate to hear.

Her emphasis on the LAST became even stronger and stronger.

However, nobody except me got it.

So, I simply asked them to sing it for her.

And you can also become happy by watching this.

Count down

She received two flower gifts today.

Her family members and friends, as well as my mother-in-law herself, have started counting down for the end of the cancer treatment.

Yeah hu-.

I am not big fun of winter but this year is the exception; I look forward the season to come.

P.S. I wish everybody could see her happy face in person when she found out the basket of flowers was from her husband and her son in Egypt.

Utah-Fall 2009

Thanks to my cousin's visit, we had a lot of opportunities to go around in Utah county. Today, we finished the day with the Heber Valley train ride -Sunset BBQ Train. As you might able to guess, it was cold. A lot of leaves started to turn the color to red. My mother-in-law, whose tempreture was lawer because of the cancer treatment, and us being Asians were freezing. But, we all enjoyed the beautiful scenary of Deer Creek Lake.

By the way, this was my mother-in-law's favorite picture of of the day: Her beloved son's butt with horse's butt.

Over the phone

Here we go. Everyone was talking to my father-in-law over skype. I thought that was such a cute picture and couldn't help myself not taking it.

My mother-in-law's cousins came to visit her with cafe rio as always. I am afraid that I might remeber them as "cafe rio persons."

Also, we cleaned the house for about one hour for preparation to my cousin's arrival from Japan. You know, everytime I clean, I swear that I won't ruin the efforts. As I was cleaning I began to wonder if we had had any kids to make that much mess. Well, at least we felt very accomplished after the cleaning.

I am HAPPY.

"I am happy."

That's what my mother-in-law SAID on the day she came back from the chemotherapy.

That truely made my day. If you talk to her, you know that word is still true today.

She has been the most energetic among three of Tuellers in Provo. She watshed a movie with us that night while folding the laundries so we stayed up till about 11:30pm together. and guess what?!

Following morning at 7

am we all are in the Provo temple!!!

After the temple, we went to get her shot. I finally witnessed the $5,000 shot that she injects ev

ery other week. It was small.

Today, she is the first one to ready for the church, she cleaned up the kidtin after my husband's Iron shef's cook, and she said she would cook dinner tomorrow.

Yes, she is doing great.

Thank you a lot, grandma and grandpa for providing fun stay for her.

Evacuation!

Today, my mother-in-law had to evacuate to grandpa's place because I got a little flu. Evey one including me thought I was a pregnant. So, it was funny to find out that I developed some kind of infection which causes nausea. OH, boy, I can't imagine having nausea every day. My mother-in-law is tough.

Despite of my illness, she is doing good.

Last night she spent over one hour preparing the FHE lesson for us. She taught us about the importance of reading scriptures with the experience when she was hit by a car.
Also, she went support group this morning and enjoyed herself.

I hope I can welcome her back when she finishes the second from the last chemo on Friday.

What pleases us and what exhaustes us

Here is the last piece of my husband's Pizza. I just could not stand watching the Iron Sheff on the fast Sunday. But sure enough, we had an Iron-Shef pizza for dinner thanks to the Iron Shef at home. So, my mother-in-law and I are very pleased with my husband watching something super productive, practical and bless our lives.


So, this picture is the outcome of what exhausted my mother-in-law on Saturday morning. Yes, Dannie is going to live in Arizona. She packed everything by herself! So, we just carried them. I like how she smiles when she talks about Dannie and how he is doing well recently. It tells me that the cancer does not destroy her motherhood.
She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. (Proverbs 3:15)
Yes, that is my mother-in-law.

We are back!

Off course, there are many excuses for how much I had to make you wait for my beloved-mother-in-law's update. But the biggest two were one, our camera was broken, two, we were on the vacation to CA. (and my mind was also set as vacation especially since Margaret planned me the idea of "taking a little blogging vacation." the difference was hers was a little and mine was continuous) Anyways, we are back and I am back.

Today's my mother-in-law's highlights are
-She cooked a week-frozen foods with sister Stice. So, now, she has all sorts of home-made frozen fun lunch.
-Also, after our afternoon classes, we three all went to get some really delicious boba drinks! This time, she got strawberry, David got blueberry, and I got Taro.

So, those are her today's highlights. Finally, I also had chance to talk with her over the dinner. We talked about the wonderful trip to California and how we are doing for the new exciting semester.

Well, this is kind of off topic, but allow me to share.

I am experiencing two major changes in my husband's life.
-One, he LOVES to watch Iron Sheff, therefore, he cooks AMAZINGLY. The best dish so far was baked fish in coconut milk. Ummmm....
-Secondly, he works from 7:45am for three days and 7am for two days in a week. So, like today, we left home at 6:40am. I think that is miracle.

Well, enough for today, I should get back to my homework. But thank you for your patience to wait that long. ALOHA.