Surgeries Stink!

On Wednesday evening, Greg and I returned back to Springfield after a road trip to Utah. Unfortunately the reason for the trip was not a happy one--Dad had to have surgery on Wednesday the 15th. Greg and I arrived in Utah the day before the surgery. It was so wonderful to see everyone--we just wish it had been for a happier occasion! This was the last thing Mom and Dad needed right on the heels of Mom's thyroid cancer surgery this past spring. Dad was diagnosed with bladder cancer at the end of August, and the doctors realized that action needed to be taken immediately. Mom, Dad, and I took this picture just before Greg and I took them up to Salt Lake for the surgery. Poor Dad was then in surgery for six-and-a-half hours as the doctors removed his bladder. The good news that came out of all of this is that pathology reports showed that the cancer had not spread beyond his bladder! So hopefully the surgery took care of everything. Dad will have a long road to recovery, but thankfully additional unpleasant experiences (cancer treatments) are not on the horizon.

The surgery left Dad in pretty rough shape. Having your stomach sliced open and your insides moved around/removed is never a pleasant thing! But Dad has been very brave throughout the whole process, as has Mom. Greg and I were sad to have to leave this past Tuesday--especially with Dad still in the hospital and not yet able to eat/drink--but we have been glad to hear of the progress he is making. Today he was able to eat solid foods! If I had to go without food and drink for over a week, I would turn into a monster, but Dad didn't. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him.

Though we spent most of our time at the hospital, Greg and I still had time to have some fun with the Barrett girlies. They are so cute and funny! They are excited for Grandpa to come home from the hospital so they can take care of him. On Sunday evening Lindy, Nate, Richard, the girls, Greg and I had a fun trip up Provo Canyon to see the beautiful fall leaves at Sundance. I love the mountains and miss them in Illinois. As you can see, the leaves were awesome!

On Monday evening the girlies invited us to their school carnival. It was quite the happenin' place! The kiddos made a haul with all of the prizes they won. Here they are with their winnings. It was so nice to see friends and family while we were there in Utah. And we appreciate our Illinois friends Crystal and John agreeing on last-minute notice to take care of Tiger Lily while we were away (the doggies went to the doggie hotel, but there isn't a kitty hotel around here). We returned to find Lily as chubby and happy as ever. We wish we could have stayed in Utah longer, but we are so glad that Dad is improving, and we hope that he can come home from the hospital very soon!

Off to Utah

Greg and I will be putting Baron von Bowles to the test tomorrow and Tuesday, as we take a road trip to Utah. Unfortunately the reason for our trip is not a happy one. Poor Dad has to have some serious surgery on Wednesday, so we're just going out to do what we can to help. Please keep Dad in your prayers!

Baron von Bowles

For the past few weeks, Greg and I have been contemplating buying a new car . . . and today we did! Unfortunately Greg's Grand Prix was having some serious problems, so we decided to be proactive and do something about it before it totally died. My Stryder (that's the name of my green Chrysler) is still going strong (knock on wood), but this very cool, red, 2010 Ford Fusion will be our new family car!

One of the car's many features is the Microsoft Sync system, which allows the car to access your cell phone, iPod, and many other devices. So you can just say, "Call Mom," and it will dial Mom's phone number--and you can just talk to the car instead of talking in the phone! To set up our Sync account, we had to provide a nickname for the car. We came up with "Red Baron," so I have decided to call the car Baron von Bowles.

And, since the football season has officially "kicked off," Greg and I decided to celebrate by dressing Little Spike up as a football! Doesn't he make the perfect little football? He's the perfect size and color. He actually really likes wearing his football outfit--except that Big Spike thinks it's a real football and chases him around the house.

Meet Us in St. Louie!

It is so fun that Sarah, Joel, Eliza, and Leo now live in Carbondale--just three hours away (waaay better than 13 hours away in S.C.)! And, St. Louis is the perfect place for us to meet--about a two-hour drive for both of us. Since yesterday was kind of "Mormon Day" at Busch Stadium for the Cardinals vs. Reds game (the St. Louis Mission bought a bunch of tickets for all of the missionaries and Church members in the area, but unfortunately we weren't able to get tickets), Sarah and Joel were bringing the elders over from Carbondale. So we met up with them in St. Louis for a fun, beautiful day!

Greg and I went down a little early to check out some cars. We were wanting to compare prices to the dealership here in Springfield. We started out in O'Fallon, Illinois, but then all-of-a-sudden, I saw this giant catsup bottle up ahead, so I knew we must be in Collinsville, IL! I have been wanting to see this ever since coming to Illinois, but we've never had a reason to visit Collinsville. We test drove the new Ford Fiesta in Collinsville, but it is kind of a funny little car.



We then went over to St. Louis. We were going to meet the Agates and elders at the famous Crown Candy Kitchen for lunch, but there was a long line out the door, and we were kind of in the ghetto, so we went to a cool place called Blueberry Hill instead. Greg then took the missionaries over to the stadium for the game, and I went with the Agates to meet Greg at the zoo. But the zoo was busier than the baseball game! So we went to the very cool St. Louis Science Center instead. Eliza kept saying, "I want to go to the science experiment place." So we did :-) Here she is with Mars. We were walking down the hall, saw this model of the planet up ahead, and she said, "There's Mars!" She is so funny!

Eliza loved exploring all over the Science Center. She is a natural little scientist. She especially loved going to the Discovery Room with Joel and Leo. While the three of them were discovering the world of science, Sarah, Greg, and I saw a cool IMAX movie about the Hubble Telescope--it was really good! Sarah thinks it would be good if the kiddos become astronauts, so the St. Louis Science Center is a good place for them to begin.




Leo thought it was all pretty great--there was so much to see and hear! He is such a happy, cuddly guy. While Greg went to pick up the missionaries at the game, I rode in the Agates' car and taught Leo how to sing "Meet Me in St. Louie"--he is an excellent singer and thought he was quite tricky to learn the song so quickly.





We all met up at St. Louis' famous Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. This is my new favorite place! The custard was delicious. Eliza ran over to me and exclaimed, "Tiffers! We get to have ice cream for dinner!!!!" She had never heard of something so wonderful before. We had such a fun day. Thank you for meeting up with us Agates! We look forward to another St. Louis adventure in the near future.

"Race Relations"

Aaaaarghhhhhh. I must vent for a moment so that my head does not explode from frustration. This morning we had our monthly all-staff meeting at the Lincoln Home. Said meetings usually involve reports from all divisions, a message from the superintendent, and a short safety presentation. Today's meeting, however, featured a "special guest" invited to the park by none other than Jason Boyd--the tyrant ranger whose reign of fear and unfairness nearly ruined about three months of my life. (Though Jason is no longer our direct supervisor--thank heavens!--he is still the park's "Outreach Coordinator," meaning he can come to work and leave whenever he wants and not do anything all day.) So someone made the mistake of allowing Jason to schedule a guest speaker for this morning's meeting. The speaker, an African-American gentleman, got up in front of our entire staff and said he was going to speak about "race relations" in Springfield. He proceeded to, for the next 45 minutes, basically chide us for all being racists and not doing more to promote African-Americans at the Lincoln Home. He said that Springfield is the most racist city in the country. Are you kidding me? This guy was off his rocker. He said (I'm not kidding--this is his exact quote): "Black people have always been and are still denied any power and privilege in the United States." WHAT? Has he looked outside lately and seen who is President? If that's not power and privilege, I don't know what is. How many millions of dollars do African-American football and basketball players make each year? And has this guy heard of Oprah? Then he said, "You all don't do enough to incorporate African- Americans into the story of Abraham Lincoln." We tell people why he was assassinated--which, in a nutshell, was because of his idea that black people should have freedom! And I know that none of the rangers here sugar coat the issue of slavery. Slavery was very bad, but it was stopped, and Abraham Lincoln and 620,000 soldiers died in the process. If you ask me, it is people like our guest speaker this morning who cause racial problems in our country today. Okay, I feel better now after getting all of that out.

On a happier note, today is a beautiful fall-like day! We have a high of 75 and a nice, cool breeze outside. If only the weather could stay like this forever.