Last post (for a while)

Mom, we heard that you arrived at Cairo safely. I saw Margaret's blog and it seemed that you had great time with them. Well, you deserve it because you have suffered and fought this cancer long. So, congratulations!!

Nothing has changed here in Provo. Sassy was looking for you and sleeping on your bed for the first few days after you left, hoping that he might find you and be pet, but I guess he finally realized your absence and now he comes back to our bed.

One new thing, so to speak, is that we just discovered a new kitchen equipment at home(We found a mixer thing). Last night, we made a delicious pizza from scratch and David is excited to bake some cookies tonight.

We hope to see your big smile again when you come back.

We love you and enjoy the warm weather!!

One more day.

Can you believe this? My mother-in-law has only a day left here with us.

Tomorrow (=Monday) and she is gone.

Wow. It was quick. Well, it must had been very long days for Mom.

She looks good, proud, happy, and excited to go home.

She will be leaving on Tuesday morning to Arizona, Idaho, and then Cairo.

This picture was taken last week when Margaret and Clark came for a date...

Clearance!

Finally finally, mom received a clearance from State Department.

She is on the way back to Egypt in any time!

Congratulations mom!!

Report: at least 2 people touch her hair and 5 people comment on her hair to be cute and curly when she goes church.

My internship exhausts me good each day. But, since I got out 30 minutes earlier, I feel somewhat alive.

This is what David purchased recently to contribute to MOM.

They turned out to be really cute. We like going to color me mine.

David uses his cup everyday.

Mom never used her coaster yet.

It snowed about 10 days ago. Since then, Provo is pretty blessed- no snow, warm sun shine.

So, David and I went for sliding.

Then, two Tuellers in Provo got sick.

Both recovered now.

Mom deep cleaned kitchen today.

She may be leaving here in couple weeks. So, we sang "America the Beautiful" as an opening hymn for the Family Home Evening last night.

Certificate of Merit

I wish you could all see how happy she looked holding this certificate of merit in completely-cancer-themed clothes. (Margaret's cancer T-shirt with pink pants, I love them!)

Last night, we went to Color Me Mine for Family Home Evening Activity by using the gift card that we gave to MOM for Christmas.

Then, we celebrated "Last-day Eve" for radiation therapy with her favorite ice cream. And we have already decided what kind of ice cream we will get on her last day of Provo, too.

Radiation Therapy

This is how Radiation Therapy is done.

A patient lay down under the gigantic machine.

Medical staff will adjust the point with the red ray.

Once radiation starts, all staff but the patient leave the room. (Those walls are made thick concrete.)

Monitor the patient while the machine goes around her.

Check the breast and shoot for the white space in the green graph by the radiation.

After radiation, the patient gets red skin but is happy for burned cancer cells.

4 bowls of love

MOM has been cooking more since we started school/internship. Last Tuesday, she made delicious enchiladas but she had to pour the source and the enchiladas four times to find a pan, just right size. Last week, she had been gone a lot with her cousin and relatives on her side.

Tonight, Aunt Anna (always so sweet) invited all for pancake night. Aunt Rachel gave a lesson about scriptures and she suggested an activity, in which we picked a story/parable from the scriptures and did skit. I was bad thief with Aunt Rachel, Grandma was a dramatic poor Jews, grandpa was a good Samaritan, and David was a narrator (New Testament). MOM was Esther, Sam was Mordecai, Uncle Bernell was a king and Aunt Anna was Hyman (OT). And the Smith played Nephi's family (BOM). I loved how MOM(Esther) said "such a time as this" with clear and stunning voice.

It's always fun to get together.

Hair report

On Sunday morning, I saw MOM moving her hand up and down around her head with a hairbrush. Indeed, she was combing her hair.

Her hair looks a little curly from the back and has two patches of white grayish color in front which I never really notice until she says so.

But most of all, her radiation therapy will come to a conclusion next Tuesday. Yeahooo!!

My goal is to visit her radiation place and take pictures before she ends.

She is in the Newspaper!?

Yes, she was in the Newspaper. (Front page)

This is the close up of the picture.

And here is the electronic article.

MOM is, in my eyes, doing wonderful = cooks dinner every day since yesterday.

David started new semester on Monday. But he's been already stressed since Sunday.

I started Therapeutic Recreation internship. I could not sleep on Sunday night because of nervousness. But, I begun LOVING my internship as soon as it started.

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas and a New Year.

We celebrated MOM's birthday (Nov. 23rd-24th).

We bought wii (Nov. 30, yes, it was our Christmas present).

We went to ward Christmas breakfast (Dec. 5).

MOM begun radiation treatment.

MOM attended a cancer group Christmas party (Dec. 8).

We saw nutcracker (Dec. 12).

Somebody started dropping off 12 days of Christmas with candies and fruits and good stuff.

We went to Grandpa's place for Christmas Eve.

We came back and opened one present each.

We also read a Christmas story, since David insisted it was a bad idea to watch "it's a wonderful life."

All aunts who were there at grandpa's: "Yaya, you haven't watched 'It's a wonderful life?' You should watch it tonight."

When we came back home...

David: It's such a depressing movie. He (the character on the movie) tries to kill himself.

MOM: BUT, Angels save him!!!! It's great!!!!!! We should watch it.

David: No, it's SAD.

I think they repeated this conversation at least three times. By then, I learned "it's a wonderful life" is a Christmas movie which contains life problems and angels.

On Christmas day, we woke up (David woke all up) and opened presents.

We took sassy (our lovely cat) for shaving (Dec. 31).

We went aunt Jan's for soups and games like everybody th

ere said.

While MOM was having a nap, David and I did count down and celebrated the New Year.

MOM woke up shortly after, at 1am, right after we went to bed.

We ate breakfast together!!! (It is a big tradition in my Japanese family on the New Year's day.)

We ate mochi for breakfast.

And, we just came back from a movie (AVATAR).

MOM treated us with soup and salad/sandwich.

Thanks to all the family members and friends, MOM and we are having great holidays.

I was especially touched with all the Tueller aunts who always make us feel welcomed and loved. And off course that wouldn't happen without grandma and grandpa's great examples.

So, thank you.

2 more days until we get back to life again!

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!