Sunday, August 07, 2016

First Half 2016

The first half of 2016 has been a wild ride.  To make is short, I took a new job with PMT as a technical sales person.  My official title is Account Manager but I really am tasked with the job of finding new sales opportunities.  I have been blessed to have been let to this job.  It is helped our family in more ways than one.

In March I went to see the dermatologist about a spot on my calf.  It turned out to be Melanoma Skin Cancer.  My world changed at that point and a process was started.  I was referred to the Huntsman Center where I underwent 2 surgeries to try and catch the cancer before it had spread too far.  With the faith of family and friends, after the second surgery I was considered cancer free.  I simply had to heal from the surgeries and go on with life.  I am currently participating in a clinical trial of a drug that possibly would fight off melanoma.  So, every 2 weeks I go to the Huntsman Center and undergo shots and blood work.  Not a big deal.

Savanna has had a summer of travel and fun.  She has been to Girls State, Key Club Convention in Atlanta Georgia, Girls Camp, YASE camp at BYU and a High Adventure Camp.  I think she is happy to be home for a while.

Katie has been working on her Volleyball skills by attending a few camps this summer.  She is excited to become a 9th grader at Twin Falls High School but she is a little worried that the classes might be too hard.  She has also started Drivers Ed.  Yikes, she will be driving us around soon.  I'm sure she will be great.

Andy left on a mission in January.  He was called to the Nebraska Omaha mission.  He has been serving in Lincoln for the past few months and recently was transferred to Council Bluffs Iowa.  He was asked to be a trainer of a new missionary.  He was also asked to "white wash" the area so he has triple duty.  New area, New companion, senior companion.  That is a lot to take on all at once.  I hope he isn't overwhelmed.  He seems to be doing well and he seems to be loving the work.

Coby finished off his first year at BYUI.  He had school from August of 2015 till July of 2016.  He was studying electrical engineering but has really liked his programming classes so he has switched to computer programming.  He enjoys what he is doing and learning.  He is now home for the summer and has found 2 jobs.  One is working for a local Physical Therapist that needs his help creating and editing and organizing medical forms.  He has a second job working for Agri-Service where he will be working in the IT department as a help desk tech.  This is right down his ally.  He should get tons of hours and have enough money to get back into school starting January 2017.

Deanna has been driving Clint back and forth to Salt Lake City the last few months for his surgeries and follow up visits.  She is totally sick of the drive but has been a trooper to help Clint though this very difficult time.  She has also kept working as a Kindergarten Teacher.  She even kept her job teaching summer school for some extra money.

I almost forgot, with all of this going on over the last 6 months, we also moved out of our house on Chase Drive and got it ready to put on the market.  It has been for sale for a couple of months now but has not been sold.  We now living in my parents house at 526 Monte Vista.  The girls love it here and are happy for the move.  We are also in the 1st ward now and enjoy a full ward.  We have been blessed beyond measure even though we have had some hard times.  I am currently working on a story about what has happened during my "cancer" months to let everyone know the blessings we have received even though I did have cancer.  The Lord was watching out for us and had put all of the pieces in place for us to help us survive.  There is no doubt in my mind that we had divine intervention in multiple times in multiple locations.

I am teaching a seminary class today about family history.  I hadn't posted something here for quite a while so I thought I would update it.  I do consider this a little bit of family history.  Someday a grand kid or great grand kid will look this up and say, "I didn't know grandpa had cancer"!  What is cancer anyway?  Hahahah, it will probably be a non issue at the point in the history of the world.