It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

God exists in all of us, because, we first belonged to Him. He is our Heavenly Father, the Father of our spirits. And because I have a Father, I must almost have a Heavenly Mother, in order for me to be created. My favorite time of year is here. One of our family traditions during this season, is each night we gather together as a family and read a short story of a faith promoting act that encourages us to become better. These aren't scripture stories but modern day events that have happened. They may have an act for us to do throughout the week. I wish we shared more of these on social media to help us see the goodness and miracles that still exist today. Not to be looked at as a bragging board but to show God's love and light that exist every day.  

It happens all year long, probably more throughout the Holidays as we have reminders pasted everywhere over social media, stores, schools, etc... In our church we have a chance to bear testimony of such things on the first Sunday of each month called, Fast and Testimony meeting. Fasting is where we don't eat or drink. It's actually a commandment and was started in Adam's time. We pray, repent, study more about the Savior and recognize his blessings in our lives and pray and give to those who need miracles, comfort, and strength in their lives. Obviously, we pray and tend to others needs whenever it is needed. This is just a more focused time with all church members coming together at once. 

I will be missing our's today, which makes me sad but I thought I could still share something on here. I miss going to church. I really do. There's a strength that comes when you go to get spiritually refreshed together once a week.  You learn and grow from others testimonies shared. We learn most when we share our own. 

A couple weeks ago our family had Tithing Settlement at the end of the year. What is that? A Tithe according to the bible denotes a tenth, given for the service of God. In the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it is defined as a tenth of your income. In Num. 18:21-28, tithe's were directed to be paid to the Levites who then paid the priests in biblical times. A commandment but choice that you can choose to follow in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. These funds get used for the Lord's purposes in our church. Building and maintaining temples, church houses, sustain missionary work, educate church members, whatever the Lord needs throughout the world. For me personally, 10% of my income paid to Heavenly Father, is a small thank you for all the blessings he has given me in my life. But honestly hasn't always been easy, especially during hard times. But I know as we show faith and do as we're commanded blessings come. Remember the story of the Widow's Mite (Mark 12 41:44). Here's a cute little kids version to remind us:

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-05-004-the-widows-mite?lang=eng
(You will have to copy & paste this link onto another page to view)

Sorry, a couple explanations before I can share my story. So a couple weeks a go our family had tithing settlement and I have a pretty hard time moving. I haven't been anywhere for weeks due to bone pain becoming more intense and nausea as well. I wouldn't have to go to church, the Bishop could come to my home but I remembered a testimony given years ago in church by an older member in our ward. I can't remember what was wrong with her but she was in a similar situation of not having traveled for some time due to pain. But she decided that she would give everything she had physically so Heavenly Father could see her desire in all ways to follow the commandments. Why this stuck out to me then I didn't know why, until that Sunday two weeks ago. For that same reason I decided to go to church just for tithing settlement that day. It hurt a lot, even in a wheel chair. But because of that faith promoting example shared years ago in a testimony meeting, it gave me the courage to try myself. So I'm re-sharing this faith promoting experience from my own experience.

Also, this is the perfect time of year for such things to occur. I'm especially thankful to celebrate Christ's birth and remember one of his reasons for coming here, to atone for my sins. He made it possible for me to repent, so I can be with family forever. Right now there's nothing more important to me. What a wonderful plan our Heavenly Father created. Families and friends to help us get through this earth life. Some experiences are hard and he knew we'd need help a long the way. I'm grateful for the knowledge I have of the gospel, Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and that I can learn the truthfulness of those things from the promptings of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is my protector, my comforter, my friend. He never leaves me unless I send him away by choices I make and he helps me keep my family safe. 

I know all these things to be true because I've chosen to believe the promptings I've been given. "You Know Who You Are and Where You're Going" the spirit has told me. I can't deny words spoken to me from the Lord through the Holy Ghost. I believe Heavenly Father still talks to us today. I don't think he quit with the Bible. I believe he still directs us through a prophet and apostles today and that he runs his church the same way as when Jesus lived on the earth. He knows the earth. He created it. He knows the beginning to the end. We just need to decide who we want to follow. 

So many times we have been asked how is she doing? What can we do?

Honestly, nothing has changed since the last time I posted, it's just gotten worse. Except my hair has started to grow back evenly, so I'm letting it go. I would ask this, please just pray that I can endure until the end. We have received many acts of kindness. I'm sorry if I wasn't there to thank you in person. I sleep a lot! But know how grateful I am for every act done. As a mother it's hard to not be able to take care of your family but Shad is doing an amazing job with the house and helping the kids. 

I love you all and will hopefully see some of you throughout the the holiday season💋💕

Update Rebecca

Ok, so I've heard lots of complaints that I haven't updated my blog for a couple months. It's only been one month and you wouldn't want to update it if you were me either. Also, make sure you update or refresh your page if you're checking on your phones. I'm going to update this just with bullets because I wear out quickly.

Current Status:

- Body has definitely progressed in slowing down.

- I have not been able to hold down food or liquids for atleast 3 weeks. Has helped me loose 20 pounds but probably not the way I should be doing it.

- So everyday is a guessing game on food or liquids. I eat very little because I'm sure my stomach has shrunk, but I still try and take only specific meds now. There's no rhyme or reason to why some days foods or liquids work better then others but still it's small amounts.

- I rarely leave my bed. I have little to no energy. Just walking from my bed to the kitchen gets me out of breath.

- I went on vacation with my family this last weekend but I was in bed the whole time and very tired. Throwing up was ever present. Not sure why your body keeps trying to throw up when there's nothing coming out. Sorry if that was TMI.

- No medicine we've tried seems to work for the nauseous but we're thinking it's because I have a brain tumor pressing against my brain stem which can cause this reaction. I'm usually not nauseous until after I throwup in the morning. Then I'm good for 1/2 an hour, then nauseous the rest of the day. Not terrible just annoying.

- Pain is also ever present but I can control that pretty good with my meds. I basically hurt every where from my pelvis to tops of my shoulders. My ribs just ache all the time but some spots really hurt. I take methodone and aleve for that.

- I'm only awake about 6-7 hours of the day. I wear out quickly and then sleep 2-4 hours depending on the day.

- I know lots of people have wanted to visit. I just can't get every one in. I've had lots of family in town visiting for obvious reasons but I know we will need to have people come sit with me during the day while Shad's at work soon. Karyn Mcgary and Carol Whitby will be the one's to set up those visits when needed. I know a new food signup and two cleaning days will be showing up soon for next month.

Time to lay down. I'm also having a hard time keeping up with texts. Please don't be offended if I haven't got to yours yet. I woke up this morning with 36 unread texts and who knows how many I haven't answered. We love each of you and are thankful for the many prayers that go out in our behalf.

My Sport is your Sport's Punishment

I've heard this saying many times at my house.

I've got to watch my boy run a couple of races this year. Love to watch him excel in something he enjoys. Made more fun this year as his team is also doing very well. You can stand on one part of the course and not have to wait very long before you see all 7 teammates past that same spot. Could be an exciting year for these young men. Grateful for the friendships created here. Run fast Dallin, mom is cheering you on! You can do hard things. #ConnellBoysVarsityCrossCountry#1Team

Whoops... when I got on today, Ocotober 30th, 
didn't realize this hadn't posted from September 26th 

Medical Update

I've been asked several questions and thought I should probably update this with my current medical situation. I met with my Oncologist last week and confirmed finally that I will not be taking chemo. I can always change my mind but I won't. Because of that decision I also met with Hospice last week and will be meeting with my Hospice nurse in the next couple days to discuss the care I currently need. The nurse that meet with us was excellent and explained to us how when people first hear the word Hospice, people usually jump to thinking they have a week to live, because that's when they got called in the past. But Hospice is really Comfort Care, and the sooner you start after your diagnosis, the better chance they have to comfort your. That can be through medications, massages, hospital beds, medial equipments needed to move around, nurse weekly to your house, etc... The purpose is to  provide comfort care, to the patient, so they can have the quality of life they desire as they leave this world.  Once I start Hospice, hospitals visits

Currently I try to accomplish one activity a day because that's about all I can do. Usually about an hour in length. One activity could be, attending Dallin's cross country race, visiting with friends if it's a visitors day, work on finishing kids scrapbooks etc... It takes a lot of medication to help me do these tasks but hopefully the hospice nurse will help me find a good combination that will work better for me. This minds me of the Brian Regan joke about visiting the ER and saying "8".  (I shared the link below.) I kind feel like the end of this joke. 

I've noticed a lot of change just in the last week. More sleepy (medications add to this), more pain (night time is usually my worst time for pain, so I don't attend things at night), nauseous (this is just constant now, not terrible but always there), decrease in food intake (nothing sounds good because I'm always nauseous), and today for the first time I had a hard time having conversations. I know what I want to say but that's not the words coming out of my mouth. That was pretty frustrating. I'm having a hard time just writing these couple paragraphs. It's taken me an hour to write just this far.  It keeps showing me errors and I don't see it until I read it out loud and then I can't remember how to spell the world, so I ask "siri" just so I can spell it right. When I stand up or lay down I get a big rush of pain in my brain even on pain meds so I don't like change standing up or down.

My best time is usually in the mornings between 9-12 but not every day. As Shad says, "It's a new day" but... Every day is different and there's no explanation why. So, day by day is where we're at. I can't tell you what I'll eat an hour from now just because it's always changing. Same with ped meds. I always take the max amount I can take, but I'm still working mostly with over the counter pain meds. I hate how pain meds make me feel!!! So... enough about me.  Enjoy this funny youtube clip. Laughing, still the best medicine!

Peace I Give Unto You

I had the news on this morning and an interview was taking place with a famous country singer who I really enjoy. So I sat in front of the television to listen to what they were saying. The kids had just gotten on the bus and I was picking up the morning mess. A beautiful lady that has one child and just announced that she was having another and they were asking her questions around this topic. From everything I've seen in the past, she's a down to earth, religious, family oriented person. One thing that came out in the interview was that she had had three miscarriages before this pregnancy, and she had struggled with that. I totally understood this, as I've had miscarriages in the past and the grieving that comes with loosing a child when no one even knows that you were pregnant to begin with, is hard. It's hard to grieve alone and put a smile on your face in front of your friends.

Anyways, she was saying how this one night she thought she was having her fourth miscarriage. Her husband was gone, it was night time, and she went to lay by her son and she prayed like she had never prayed before. Pleading and sobbing with God, that she realized how blessed she was but she couldn't understand why he would keep letting her get pregnant but loose the baby. She said, she never had gotten angry but that night she did get angry. She said, "just shut the door or let me have a kid." She said, for the first time she felt like she had told God how she felt and that she feels like were supposed to do that. On Monday she went to the doctor and found out everything with the baby was fine and she felt like God had heard her. Not that he hadn't in the past but He heard her.

This got me thinking, and I'm assuming she didn't mean it this way; So does God only answer our prayers when we get what we prayed for? Does He only hear us when He answers with what we asked for? This is where Faith, Trust, and Peace come in.

3 Nephi 18:20

And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.

John 14:26-27

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

I shared this a couple weeks ago at Stake Conference. The first time I was diagnosed with cancer in 2002, I was alone in the doctors office when he told me I had cancer. I just laughed; I'm sure I was shocked. I couldn't believe what he was saying. I didn't even know what to ask. I had just had a baby 6 weeks earlier. I had four little kids at home. My oldest had just started Kindergarten. He gave me the run down for what would be happening next, told me he was sorry and sent me home. It wasn't until I was driving past CBC that it hit me. I started sobbing. All these questions and worries flooded my mind. I had an open communication with God as I drove home that day. I was driving home on 395 when I hit the intersection where Booker Auction is located and these words were whispered to heart, "You know who you are and you know where you're going." I have heard those words many times, but never had they brought as much peace to me as they did at that time. Like the scripture above states, "my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." There was a wave of peace that came over me that no one else, not my mom or dad, sister, best friend, even my husband, could have helped me feel in that moment.  Heavenly Father had heard me and I knew it because of the peace I felt through the Holy Ghost. I was no longer afraid of what was to come.

Since that time, I've been diagnosed several times with cancer. I have Faith and Trust in Him and with that Trust and Faith, I have felt His Peace over and over again in my life. He has blessed me with a loving, faithful and supportive husband, kids that try and love each other. We are far from the perfect family but as long as we keep trying and moving forward, isn't that all that he asks? I'm grateful for a family who tries. 

https://youtu.be/DwY2EpAgW-M

The link above is my cousin Dallin McAllister singing the hymn: Where Can I Turn For Peace

What Do I Say to Someone Who Is Dying?

I have had cancer multiple times and honestly, the diagnosis is never easy. Cancer is a scary word. It doesn't just affect the patient. Many people are concerned and want to help. I've found that many are uncomfortable and unsure of what they can do. Based on my experience, here are some things to consider when wondering how best to serve a terminally-ill person.

Find out what the family really needs before you inundate them with lasagna and cookies. A life-threatening disease takes time to deal with, so give the person and his or her family a chance to adjust. It's shocking news to get a terminal diagnosis; but just because the doctor gave me this news, didn't mean I was a different person then who just walked through the front door. For me, I really couldn't believe that I was that sick. Wait, did you just say your assigning me a hospice nurse? Isn't that what happens right before you die? I just walked in here and ate a burger at Wendy's before that. Took the kids swimming and cleaned the house that morning. It's surreal for everyone. Didn't I just see her at church? She seemed fine. I just talked to her in the halls at school. Is this for real? Trust me, I know. I've said those same things. Perhaps they won't need assistance at first, but it will come. Routines at home need time to adjust.

Check with the family to see what kind of service will be most helpful. It's ok if they don't know at first. Again, it takes time to adjust. After my appointment, I didn't just go home and lay in bed because I was told that I was sick. Life goes on and you want everything to be as normal as possible until change is needed. At least that's how I've felt.  Also know, that we love all of you and can't possibly reply to everyone's concerns, texts, emails, etc... fast enough. If you don't get a reply right back or at all, it's probably because I'm asleep or most likely, my phone is dead because I forgot to charge it the night before.

I also love visitors, I've just realized my body can't handle long visits or lots of visits in one day. Hence the reason for a visitor sign-up. Some people don't like that, you are more then welcome to stop by but I may not answer or if I do may only have a short time to visit.  Know that I'm not being rude, I've done this before and know how important it is to take care of myself or I can get run down really fast. I appreciate when people are willing to give of themselves - to truly visit with me and give me hugs.

When you visit, be yourself and treat me normally. I'm still the same person I was before my diagnosis. I still want to know what's happening and feel like I'm a part of things. I want to share in my friends and family's feelings and concerns as I always have. Laughter really is good medicine. Don't be afraid to share it.

There are lots of things you can do, just treat the person as normal as possible, and tailor your service to meet the person's needs. Things are slowly changing at my house. I sleep more because I'm more tired. Pain progressively gets worse. Sitting and laying down are actually the worst for me pain wise. Come to visit with your tennis shoes. I may ask you to go on a walk with me. Everything hurts but that's my new normal. Don't be afraid if I wince a couple times when I move, that's just where I'm at.

I'm just putting this out there because it helps all of us. There are only 5 people in this house, so if you are so kind to bring something over that you think my family will enjoy smaller is better. Meaning, we don't need a 9x13 of whatever goodness you make. An 8x8 is perfect! I am not a sweets person right now. My husband never thought he'd hear me say that EVER!! I've had some nausea this last week, not sure why, but sweets are the last thing that sound good to me right now, Shad really doesn't eat them and Dallin won't during running season. So just a small something is fantastic. Salty things sound good. Soups, breads, salads that's what sounds good to me. I don't just think it's the season but I love Fall too. My tastes are ever changing, the joys of illness.

Basically, tell me what's going on outside of my house. I know what's happening here. I'm here all the time. Let me know what's happening in the world around me. I want to hear about you and your life. I'm tired of talking about mine. I need to go lay down now, but know that we love every service that has been done in our behalf because we know it's been done with love. Love you All💗

Visiting Rebecca

Below is a google doc for scheduling visits to Rebecca-although she feels very loved with all the visitors she has received lately, she is needing a little more rest.  

There will be opportunities to serve and express our love to her shortly, in the form of housework and meals.  We will be sending out those google docs after her girls head off to college mid-September. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kt3gP4Q6rs00wJYVS0pMISahdodkf-2_s-yqhp08a4A/edit?usp=sharing