What a weekend!

We had an great Thursday through Saturday that we can't wait to share. It all began Thursday evening with Michael's first basketball game of the year. He's waited anxiously for this year, you know, the big 8th grade Middle School sports year, and couldn't wait to get on the court. His team did well as we had all hoped and Michael had a great game. Of course, we think that Michael is a fabulous player, no prejudice there, but he did score several points and had lots of assits. They won by a lot (I can't remember the score, but it was big). It looks to be a great year for RMMS.

Melissa is on the student council and got to sell concessions at Michael's game. She actually enjoyed the job and will be doing it again this season. Unfortunately, as the mom ,you feel like you need to buy junk when your child is the one selling it. Everything your children do seems to cost you money!!!

Then John took off for Cross Country state in Sheridan and Melissa and I drove down to Lander for Emily's regional volleyball tournament. I'm still so excited about our volleyball team that I'm shaking just typing this. They got third place and qualified for state. The last time Rocky Mountain qualified for state was 2003, and that downer info can really stick in your head. The girls really worked hard, and with 6 seniors on the team, it all payed off. My voice is a little worse for the wear today (lots of yelling encouragement) but boy is our house one happy place to be.

Here is our awesome child going up for a kill. Yes, I was yelling "That's my girl" over and over during these games.Here is the whole team looking very excited. Emily is a team captain along with Kelsey (who is holding the trophy placard with her). This is a great moment!!And these are the 6 seniors - the girls who stuck it out all four years to get here when it really mattered most to them. To make a great weekend even better....Emily got to meet Josie for the first time. Johnathan and Becky came to watch Emily play and we got to enjoy the baby. She is growing so fast and is just adorable. My highlight was walking around to show all the people from Rocky my beautiful and precious neice. She is a keeper.

Essential History

For quite awhile John has created a blog with a collection of cool history facts. He finally told me about it. Here it is for all of you to see:

http://essentialhistory.blogspot.com/

College Fun!

I am still havin' a great time at Utah State! On my last night as a teenager, some friends and I went to the Homecoming Paint Dance on the hyper field. People were dumping paint on our heads left and right while we were dancin' around, but it was dang fun. It definitely made for some great photo opportunities, and getting it out of my hair wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I miss my family and Cowley Wyoming tons!

Michael's mission training

Michael has never had to learn how to tie a tie. I've either gotten him zipper ties (when he was little) or he has had his sister Emily tie them once and he's never taken the knot out. Well, today he had to break down and learn the process since Emily was too busy to help and he had to get to church. I loved this teaching moment between father and son. It reaffirms to me how lucky I am to have married such a great guy and father. He loved showing Michael the ropes and made him do it a couple of times for "insurance" that he had it. They have developed such a great relationship these last couple of years that it confirms to me the cousel from our leaders that children need 2 parents, 2 parents that take active roles in their lives. I could never do this without John, because I couldn't care less about sport scores, college rankings, running in the "wild", and all those other boy things that are not interesting to me. Luckily for both of them though I do care what color of pants Michael passes the sacrament in and how long his hair gets. See...it really does take 2 parents.

Emily's Senior Pictures

A right of passage of the senior year was completed this week. Emily had her senior pictures taken. It was really fun once the stress of what to wear, what jewlery to use, and how to do her hair was decided. We decided that she needed a jacket for her fall outdoor pictures, so we went to Billings and hit Kohl's for the first time. It was great, lots of cute choices and we were early enough that we had the whole store to ourselves. The earrings took the longest to find - but that is a fun search. We then came home, laid out all her "outfits" with accessories and shoes and planned the order of the sitting. Hitting the outdoors with Kendy Richards, our photographer, we planned our backdrops and got to it.

It's always so interesting to me how nervous my girls are to have them done, how important they feel those pictures are, and how much fun they actually have doing it. Kendy makes them feel beautiful, which I agree, they are. Here are some pictures I took while Emily was working with Kendy.

This is the last picture of the day - she was a little sick of "give me a smile"!! But don't you agree - it was a beautiful day and a beautiful girl.

We Can't Forget About Marie!

My appologies for not mentioning our cat Marie. We've had her for about a year. We found her as a stray kitten near our home. She's a 50 / 50 indoor outdoor cat. She's a picky eater. She is named after Emily's middle name and the Disney cat.

Emily Rocks

Emily had a great game this Saturday when we played against Riverside. As usual the first game was not so hot for our team. We seem to need the first one to warm up, but after that Emily got a little mad and she was good. We still lost, but when Emily hit the net she got many kills and blocks that were incredible. I found myself jumping off my seat cheering each time she did something I felt was incredible. At one point, my friend next to me, said "You need to yell, 'No.13 is my daughter' real loud". Of course I didn't, but I was real excited to see her play so well. Fortunately Emily is smart enough to be happy about her successes and not dwell on the loss for hours afterwards.

Since I haven't quite figured out how to post multiple pictures in the order I want them yet, I'm also putting in this great picture of John and Michael after the race. See...they're both still smiling.

The Day We've Been Waiting For.....

...has finally happened. Yes, Michael and John ran a race in Billings Saturday morning and Michael beat his dad legitamately!!!! John knew (hoped) the day would come, just not quite so fast. There was about 2-3 inches of snow and it was snowing the whole time, not great conditions, but non-the-less, Michael is now the fastest Bernhisel in Cowley. I guess it goes without saying that Michael is pretty excited - and rubbing it in all the time. He better watch out because John swears there needs to be a rematch.

Senior Night with Emily - notice that Wade Brost is holding a Wheaties box with Cassie's face on it. Way fun!

Happy 12th Birthday Melissa

Proof that Melissa is 12 - the ears are pierced. Julie Ann was a great sport to do it for her.

Today was a big day in the Bernhisel household. Melissa turned 12!! No longer a little girl - and just to prove it she got her ears pierced (our family rule that they have to wait until 12 to make that choice) and she asked for an electric razor for her legs. Now I have never had something that fancy, but since that was all she asked for, we caved. So Melissa woke up early, got hooked up to her IV drugs (continuation from the hospital) and shaved her legs. Michael was pretty disgusted - as was her dad.

To continue the day, I cleaned madly because my in-laws were coming, and tried to work at the school also. School ended, I took Melissa to her "ear piercing" and we all went to Emily's volleyball game at the high school. It was Senior Night, which means all the seniors and their parents walked out on the gym floor to let others know who would be leaving soon. The game was fun to watch (I always like to see Emily kill the ball and get some awesome blocks) and then we rushed home to Melissa's birthday dinner and cake and ice cream. Whew! Lots going on here.

But through the whole day, I was very proud of myself, I never cried once. My baby is now in Young Womens, Middle School, and shaving her legs - and my Emily is one step closer to leaving me. I sure do hate "growing up" somedays. And then to top it off, Alyson called to wish her sister Happy Birthday which never felt right last year, and still doesn't feel right this year. It just seems like she should be with us-here.

Well - there are my thoughts for the evening.....hold those babies tight, they really do go way too soon!

Saying Goodbye was Sweet

Nurse Ginney with Melissa just as we were leaving.

Tara - the lady who worked Melissa over the most and taught her things that will hopefully keep her out of the hospital for a long time.

We left Denver at 10 am, saying goodbye to Tara (Melissa's respitory therapist who was incredibly helpful), Nurse Ginny (who was very kind and signed us out fast!), and drove home. Returning at 7:30pm, Cowley looked like heaven. My house was clean (thanks to Emily, Michael and John working on it) and my bed felt wonderful. Melissa found that her room had been decorated by her friends and was very excited. She really missed them and had looked forward to every email and post that they sent her, so thanks to Mikayla, Sarah and Maddy for being such good friends to Melissa.

Today Melissa is anxious to go to school and hopes to, but we have to wait for the people in Powell to come and train us on how to care for her picc line and administer IV drugs for the next week. After that she's good to go. Thanks to everyone who sent us posts, called us, and feed my children who were left here at home. It's good to know we have great neighbors, friends, and family who will come to our rescue when needed. We were definitely blessed and served this past week.

We're coming home

Yes - the news from the tests are that Melissa is getting better. Officially we go home Sunday, thanks to Dr. Wagener who really had to push to make it happen. I get to give Melissa IV drugs for the next week, but it will all be fine if we're at home. Boy does Cowley, WY sound good to us right now!

Three cuties!

Visitors and Friends

Melissa has been lucky enough to have more than just Taylor visit her. Kylie Jones came to visit last night and Melissa was thrilled. Kylie brought fruit snacks and talked for most of the evening. She made Melissa feel loved and special which we really appreciate. Melissa has also made friends with her "neighbor" Amanda. Amanda is 4 years old and can relate to what Melissa is going through here in the hospital. She was a doll and we loved having her around too. See, you can make friends when your in rotten places doing rotten things - one of lifes many blessings.

Taylor and Dad!

Taylor is here

Taylor and her mom and dad arrived this morning. Taylor was so excited, it seemed like she was on her way to Disneyland, not outpatient surgery. After jumping up and down, showing us her new coloring book, wipe off board and lip gloss, they wisked her off and Melissa went up to do another pulmonary function test. This was the deciding factor - higher results meant going home Sunday, no change and she would have to stay until next Sunday. We'll blog later with the results.