Good Day, Bad Day

Work has slowed down a lot in the last couple of weeks. We have one more job this summer and my role is fairly limited in it. I am helping out where I can. I have an all day training session this Friday covering Grade Checking and Layout. Sounds fun, huh? It will be fairly close to home so my commute will be short that day.

Yesterday was cruising along and around 2pm my mom called with some bad news. A good friend of mine who I grew up with has skin cancer and it is not looking good from what I have heard. I won't say the person's name because it is not my place to spread the word, but it has really affected me more than I thought something like this would. This person has a family and is a great person and since we got out of elementary has been a good friend to me. I hate cancer in all of its forms.

While we're on the subject though, an update on my brother Scottie. If you don't know him or his story, he was diagnosed with Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) at the beginning of last September. It is pretty rare for a kid his age (14) to get it. It usually hits before age 11 or later in life. So his case is one many are interested in because of its uniqueness. It has also probably helped get him extra funding and grants to pay for his treatment I am guessing.

Scott is doing okay. His chemotherapy has slowed down and he is getting ready for radiation treatment to his head. His website with the best updates by my mom is http://www.ldschinese.com/scott/. His latest passion is bass fishing. Dad got a boat for them and after some mechanical setbacks it seems to be working fine. His hair is back for now and last I heard, he and Sam are getting along.

After a couple hot weeks, last night's thunderstorms have settled in and are cooling things down. It is a good relief from the hot weather. The thunderstorms in the afternoon are fun to watch. I've seen some of the best lightning ever here in Denver. That is coming from a guy who lived in St. Petersburg and Tampa, FL.

Rusty's Growing

Little Van is doing great. He sleeps in his crib next our bed at night and even though I'm not the one waking up with him, Janna said he has been going about 4 hours between feedings. I am a pretty deep sleeper and don't hear him when he wakes up since he does not cry. His cord fell off yesterday and it made him a little fussy before bedtime, but I would probably be the same way. I still haven't had a chance to bring the camera to work to upload recent photos. We don't have the net at home so we either have to go to the clubhouse or I do it at work on my own time.

Rusty sure is getting big. Recently we have noticed he is getting really thick, or what the rest of the world calls "normal." In my family normal means tall and thin. All of the boys who have hit puberty are all between 6'2" to 6'5 1/4." We are hoping Scottie's leukemia and all of the chemotherapy will not be a deterrant to his height and growth. They have had to pump him full of so many different drugs that you can only wonder how it will affect him.

For those of you who don't know my brother Scott, 14, born 7th of 8, was diagnosed with ALL,
Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia. He is the one on our laps in the picture. You can read about ALL at: http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=7049&viewmode=print. Many of the signs you won't even realize are signs of it. The local paper just did a story on him and the football our great uncle Gene got for him. The article does a good job of catching Scott's dry sense of humor. You can read it at: http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2007/05/10/sports/sports01.txt. The football was signed by the entire 2006 MWC Champion BYU football team and Coaching Staff. Uncle Gene is friends with the BYU Alumni Director who we also want to thank, and they got it done. For updates on Scott's health: http://www.ldschinese.com/scott/. My brother Josh maintains the site and my mom (and sometimes dad) post updates.

I have to say that as a brother who lives so far away I often have an ongoing battle in my head. Scott is my Mini-Me. We look like twins born 14 years apart. Our pictures when we were young show that. My battle comes from wanting to be there as a brother and support him and help where I can, yet having my own family to care for and support. We live 1000 miles away and there isn't a lot I can do to help. I won't get into it any more than that, but that is one of my internal thought processes.

My other battle comes from trying to balance my time. I am gone from 6am to 6pm every day, sometimes 7pm. I have not been able to make time to exercise the past couple of months and it is bugging me. Part of it has been my hamstring bugging me and a sore ankle, but I think most of it is just lack of motivation. I played on a flag football team this spring and that was good motivation but now I am lacking that except for pick-up ball on Saturdays. And we won't be able to go to the beach house in Newport this year, so I lost that motivation as well. If anyone has some motivation besides just not wanting to be fat and die young of heart disease, let me know. I have a good attitude about it earlier in the day but by the time I get home I am too tired to work out and I need to be there to help with the kids and dinner. Other than that, Life is good.