Brooklyn at Primary Children's

Brooklyn smiles for Sicily on Sunday. Her surgery was Friday at noon. She is recovering pretty well but has been wanting to go home for several days. Derek thinks they might be released today (Tuesday).

Prior to our visit on Sunday, Brooklyn has been grumpy/tired/upset at being hospitalized. She definitely knows what is going on a little better this time than last time. Angelie said she has pulled out all IVs except the one in her foot. This made the wagon ride interesting as Sicily has no regard for a hurt IV foot!

As documented in the pictures, Sicily absolutely will not leave her hair alone, that is the reason for the wild hair in the movie clip. Sicily had enough of people telling her to be careful with Brooklyn; so she decides to get out and pull. Sicily was happy with this arrangement... and so was Brooke! Brooklyn seemed more bruised on the face this time than I remember last time. (From laying face down during surgery). They must have restrained her a little tighter? We still have not heard back on pathology... so no word yet if this means more radiation or chemotherapy. Her surgeon was able to get the entire tumor. Originally it was thought that there were 2 tumors, but when they got in there they realised it was just one hooked together. The follow up MRI did show that the entire tumor was removed. I left with Mark on Sunday night, but my mom is still in Logan with Porter. Angelie is concerned that Brooklyn will be quite needy when they come home, so maybe mom will stay on an extra day to help get her settled with 2 kids to take care of.

Just a little background: Brooke's previous scan was in September and nothing was found, so this tumor grew to detection in only 4 months. That is pretty quick. As of Sunday we did not have an answer as to how big the tumor was when they took it out. I have heard Angelie mention that maybe it would be good to do a round of chemo just to make sure they kill any lingering undetectable cells so Brooke can be through with all of this. Time will tell.


The Walker family has high spirits and when I stayed at Derek's for the weekend there was just an overall good feeling in his home. We know that they are being watched over and the Spirit is present there. I can't think of a better atmosphere for Brookie to recover in.

Wouldn't it be cool if Brooklyn received TONS of Valentines in the mail from everyone who is rooting for her?
Brooklyn Walker
1736 S. 1150 W.
Logan, UT 84321

I will try to keep everyone updated as things progress and as I get more information.

IF

I recently ran across this poem and really loved it. Don't you just love a good thought provoking book, poem, or passage in the scriptures? I have been trying harder to edify and uplift myself with good literature instead of endless blog browsing, etc. I think it has made a difference in my daily routine. I sure love poetry. I wish we would read and discuss some poetry in book club. I will probably suggest that next month! As for general news, we are loving our new house, getting settled in, and Sicily is taking more steps every single day. You know it's grain harvest when you are changing the clean clothes to the dryer and the bottom of the washer is covered in grain. Was it in his pocket? Did he put it there on purpose? Funny.

"If"

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

By Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

Shock

I'm shocked at how fast this first year of Sicily's life is flying by.

I'm shocked at how much I love her, and I don't even have to work at "loving her" it comes naturally. I always knew a parent has a special unconditional love the instant they meet their child for the first time, but what a pleasant shock it has been to experience this firsthand.

I'm shocked at how blessed I am. I look at others around me and realize I am truly a lucky person.

Imagine my shock when I recieved a phone call from my brother Derek yesterday evening telling me that Brooklyn's MRI is showing some more spots. Needless to say I have a broken heart. I'm not much of a crying person, but today as I've reflected on the past 6 months, I weep. Shock doesn't even begin to describe how Derek and Angelie feel. So in 6-8 weeks Brooklyn will have another MRI to tell us how fast (or slow) the spots change. At that appointment the doctor will issue the next plan of attack. Until that appointment in 6 weeks here is what the Mark Telford family will be doing (and other members of the Larry Walker family)-- weekly temple trips, weekly fasting, fervent prayer, petitioning our Heavenly Father for strength, courage, comfort.... and a miracle.

Keep a prayer in your heart for us. We have seen miracles in the past, and feel that this should be no exception. But in the end, we know that whatever happens with Brooklyn will be the will of our loving Heavenly Father.

Thank You

Here is a recent pic of Sicily! This was taken by M'Lisa & Lance with their new camera! This is Sicily's "party outfit". She wore it to my mom's surprise party... my mom's favorite color is purple!

For those of you who don't know, we had a surprise party for my mom's 50th birthday. We actually organized a project of making 50 twin or queen size quilts to donate to the Humanitarian Relief effort.... one quilt for every year of her life. We had lots of family and friends of my mom make the quilts. We gave her the quilts- made in her honor, at the party. She will donate the quilts after the local newspaper finishes writing a story on the event.

We also had a brunch at the party. Kimaree planned the menu and it was DELICIOUS!

Here is what 50 quilts looks like! I still can't believe we reached our goal of 50! I can't thank all of you enough for taking the time to make these quilts. M'Lisa, Kimaree and I each made several quilts. Derek and Angelie had a farewell/work and they couldn't be at the party. They were missed very much. Dallin of course was in Fresno where he is serving his mission. The only thing that would have made the party better is if our 2 brothers could have been there also.

Here is mom with all of the quilts. After the party we unfolded each quilt and took a picture. They are all so beautiful. These are not just a thrown together quilt, everyone really took the time to make them nice. I just know that the people who end up receiving them will cherish them forever. My mom keeps saying, "I wish I could see all the faces when they receive the quilts." It still feels so awesome that we pulled our resources together and made this happen. I know my mom really does feel honored to have been given this wonderful gift. Words don't express the thanks we feel as a family to those that helped us honor our mom for 50 great years. I'm so glad we did it!

Scrapbooking and Teething?

M'Lisa,
Remember when you told me that this was a cute pic but it just needed the background taken out? Well guess what?!?! I took the background out, digitally scrapbooked it, and I'm now trying to post before and afters of the whole thing. Surprise, surprise, I can't figure out how to make the image compatible with blogger. AND- my cell phone is not working or I would text you all this. But I am really excited that I am getting so much better with photoshop AND scrapbooking with so much more ease. So..... if anyone knows how to save my cute files some other way so i can post.... let me know. Otherwise imagine how cool it looks! I am going to go get it printed out and give it to Mark for V Day. XOXOXO!!!
PS- I'm not really sure if Sicily is teething or not (never had kids before), but if I was a betting woman, I'd bet this fussiness and chewing had something to do with the whole process!

State of The Union Address

I just finished watching the State of the Union Address. Since Mark is not here to discuss this with me, I sat down to write out my thoughts. I guess he can read them later! Throughout my childhood my mom always was told me that the constitution would be hanging by a thread and the “elders” of the church would have to piece it back together. (Talk to Rex Rammel for the exact quote ha ha) Throughout my life I have been trained to have an opinion and be involved- so here I go… sharing my opinion with anyone who cares to hear it.

I think that the reason America is going through such rough times is because we have lost the personal responsibility as far as spending is concerned. This lack of responsibility is being passed down and becoming magnificently worse with each rising generation. This is why I disagree with the President’s wish to increase the credit offered for small businesses to stay viable. Why would we encourage our banks to increase the amount they will lend businesses who just aren’t making the cut? Is that not exactly what got us in the “mortgage” fiasco? Why does each and every solution the President proposes involve increasing spending power to those who aren’t making the cut? For example- cash for clunkers…. Why would we encourage people to get rid of cars that they could afford “clunkers” and encourage them to go out and get a loan for a new car? Don’t get me wrong, I understand how the money and spending cycle work; in order to get ourselves out of the ‘slump’ we must spend, but in the long run we will never get to the root of the problem: American’s are spending too much money on things they cannot afford. But as the President said, “he does not want America to be 2nd place”. This is the attitude a lot of people have with their neighbors and peers. I don’t want to be 2nd place in regards to my house, the type of car I drive, the clothes I wear, the activities I can afford for my children. That really is the typical American’s thought process. I would rather have America be in 1st place for values, trustworthiness, and fiscal responsibility. But that’s just me.

Also in regards to buoying up the small businesses: If we want to fix the unemployment problem faster; we will quit pushing all of our money towards small business. These big corporations that are laying off employees by the tens of thousands are the ones that should be getting our attention first. In a time of economic downturn people are less likely to jump into risky entrepreneurship. America would be nothing without its small businesses, but please don’t throw big corporations under the bus. If you read the news, you would see how the decline in big business is crumbling the economic stability of this country faster than the President can “spend money” to stimulate it.

“The best anti-poverty action is a world class education.” I found this statement by the President very intriguing. I agree, but part of the world class education being offered in this country is how to rely on the Government for our every need. We are teaching ourselves and our children to quit trying and sign up for all the free money out there. Why would anyone even want to become a small business owner? A more profitable occupation would be to learn how to qualify for each and every government program. (p.s.: the way to qualify is to not have a job and claim “out of this world” disabilities that prevent you from ever working a day in your life. Yes my friends, many of those poor American families the President was referring too don’t want a job. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to reap the blessings of unemployment and work an 8 hour shift.) Unfortunately our President and his Democratic Congress is defiantly giving the rising generation a world class education on these principles.

Debts forgiven on student loans, Universities cutting costs? I thought we were just talking about creating a world class education?!? Who in their right mind would want to become a professor when they could make more money doing something else? The only way Universities will cut costs is to pass it on to the salaries of the professors. Sad but true. (Or take a little from BSU’s head football coach- but let’s not get our priorities mixed up in this quest for world class education. If we didn’t have BSU’s team many Americans wouldn’t know that there was a State called Idaho!)

That’s how budgeting works? Really Mr. President? Usually when I budget it is for immediate solutions to my money problems. Please don’t joke around about how “budgeting” works. The American people know that budgeting starts today to make a difference in the future. Starting 1 year from now will be 1 year too late.

And what is with the undermining of: Scott Brown’s election, the past President, The Supreme Court, Republicans. I especially thought his Supreme Court comments were very in bad taste. Maybe you should take your smooth talking pointer finger and point it at yourself once in a while. President Obama is a good speaker, but obviously this quality hasn’t equated good leadership. I want a President to quit spending a major portion of his day blaming and start making America great.

And what was with Harry Reid’s clap? Seriously he knows he’s going to be on the camera a lot, so maybe he should practice his clap in the mirror so he won’t look so WEIRD!! If you didn’t notice it- seriously go back and watch it.

I am proud that the Republicans are saying no to everything. It means they are not selling my values for the pleasure and comfort of the President and the Democratic Congress. The reason they keep saying no is not that they just want to be difficult; it is because they don’t believe the legislation is good for me.

If you want to be enlightened on the current war, you should read the book “Three cups of Tea”. I knew very little of what was really going on until I read that book.

Speaking of enlightening books: the book “Love is Eternal” helped me to see how difficult living in the public’s criticism really is on the President and First Lady. And that book was about the Lincolns, they lived before TV and internet! I do feel bad about the criticism the First Family receives on everything from politics to clothing choices. I just wish I could be confident that the decisions President Obama is making will be good like the ones Lincoln made.

So to be totally honest- I think the President is an awesome speaker, and I don’t disagree with everything he proposes. I respect him and his office….. but I really don’t think we can have another President like him ever again. America will be in absolute shambles by the end of his 4 year term.
So what did you think of his address?

Shout out to my bro Derek

This post is dedicated to Derek, as he has been faithfully checking my blog to see these pictures of Mark's fishing trip on the Clearwater in Northern Idaho. He was fishing for steelhead and apparently he was successful as I now have 2 GIANT fish in my freezer. Anyone know how to cook steelhead? We're ready for our fish fry! I wasn't there so I really can't give any fun facts about the trip, so i thought I would give my own interpretation of the pictures. Too bad Mark isn't here to intercept this post and put the real descriptions on the pictures!

I thought Mark was on vacay!?!?! He looks the same to me as when he is working, same coveralls, same sweatshirt. At least he didn't catch a case of homesickness as the weather obviously was reminding him of his chilly Arco home!

Doesn't this picture look like a picture that could belong in a Walker child's scrapbook? When we were young kids fishing at Warm River Dad would always have to hold our fish for our picture because they were so nasty for us to hold!


Okay, Mark really can hold his own fish. I had to post this pic to prove it. That last picture just brought back memories of our childhood so I had to write it!

Mark really did have fun and he caught his limit every day! He enjoyed having a guide to show him exactly where to through his line. He also thought it was pretty sweet to not have to fix his own snags.... the guide would just hand him a new pole! You can only keep the fish that have notches in the fins, the native fish have to be released. (the notched fins = hatchery fish). I can't see the notch in the pictures, so I will have to ask Mark to point that out to me.