New pets and cherries, among other things.

My goodness, we have been busy around here. I just do not get around to blogging as often as I would like. When you have cherries coming out of your ears, they kind of take priority over blogging about them- even though that would be more fun than actually canning cherries! But, I will talk about that more later. As an incentive to read on, there are pictures of Kenneth and his new hair do later in the post!!!

First, as a run down on how the children are doing:

Emma: is actually reading!!!! She read Go Dog, Go! all by herself and is reading so many other things! On Sunday, she read the scripture in Primary all by herself. I was so proud of her. She still wanted me to stand up there by her, but she did it all by herself!

Arianna: is writing her name- I love how she writes her a's with the little lines going up (and backwards). Today she practiced numbers. She really wants to do everything that Emma does! She is still in the phase where she wants to wear a dress everyday. So sweet.


Grant: is such a chatterbox! Last Sunday he talked the entire sacrament meeting. Yes, the entire time; Despite all my best efforts to help him to be quiet. He is very delightful, even though he is so noisy. I sure do love this age! One of the funniest things he says right now is "DO NOT!!!!" when he wants his sisters to stop doing whatever it is that's bothering him.

These kids just crack me up. They find the joy in everything. They do the funniest things with their food. Their mango slices doubled as family members- one slice was the dad, one the mom, one the baby. The olives said the prayer. Grant even played duck, duck, goose with his black beans on his plate one day. They also love to dress up with the random assortment of costumes we have received through the years- the other morning I had a dog, a cow and a fairy romping around here. I love that they all three play together now. Sometimes, of course, it's not so nice- like when I hear screaming and and whole lot of "DO NOT!!!!!"s. But, the good times really do outweigh all that. It's kind of like a miracle.




Here is a picture of Daddy and his girls on Father's Day. Arianna did such a great job writing the card all by herself! I was amazed! We love you, Daddy!

I saw the coolest card the day before Father's Day, which I did not buy, but I told Kenneth about it.
It said:
You are an incredible father and an amazing husband. . .

Inside it said:
I guess that makes me pretty brilliant for marrying you!

In other news, I was able to volunteer for a couple of hours at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life held here in our city. Kenneth came over with the kids at the end of my shift and we got to watch all the Cancer survivors making the first lap around the track and I got all choked up. I just feel so thankful that Kenneth is now a 'survivor'!

We have some new pets around here. No, they're not furry or scaly and they don't have feathers. They really are great pets- they even eat my garbage! But the best part about them is that the kids love them!
A couple of days before our trip to New York, I brought home some worms. I decided to start vermi-composting. My city even gave me a pound of them for free! Just for attending a 2 hour workshop on composting! (Normally that number of worms will run you $20!) When I told my sister about it her comment was, "I don't know what is more weird, the fact that your city gives out free worms, or the fact that you actually took them up on it and got them!"
The day I got them happened to be a bust day for us- Kenneth had some more free tickets to Great America and it was the only day we could use them before they expired, so I dropped Kenneth and the kids off and the park (I realized I didn't share any pictures from that day yet- look for them after the worm story!) and I headed off to the composting class. Two hours later, the worms and I made the short drive back over to the park to join in the fun. (I mean, I joined in the fun, the worms stayed in the car. Don't worry, it was a cool day, they were not in danger in the vehicle.) They did great in the van and that evening when we got home Kenneth brought the bag on worms in the house and set in on top of the refrigerator. I saw that he had done that, and thought to myself, I would not have chosen that spot to place a bag of worms, but then thought, well, at least the kids can't get to them up there and didn't think about it again. We got everyone fed and in bed and I, too, was ready for bed. The worms would have to wait until the next day to be settled in their new home (which I was too tired to create that night) In the morning, I being the first one up, came out to the kitchen and my first thought was, "How did these pine needles get all over my floor?" Then I realized what they were-

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Kenneth!!!!!!! There are worms all over my floor!!!!!!!

Sure, enough, those worms and wriggled as a one pound mass until the bag managed to move into a horizontal position rather than the vertical position of the night before and about 200 of the little guys did a little thrill seeking of their own and jumped off the refrigerator (maybe I should have brought them into the theme park to ride some coasters the day before!) The jump didn't kill them and they all started to spread across the floor. By the time I came out most of them had dried up and died. They were in my kitchen, dining area, a few even made it down another step into the family room. Of course, they also went under the refrigerator seeking a dark moist place. Dark? Yes. Moist? No. And there they died. So, that Sunday morning was spent picking all the dead worms off my floor, salvaging the few survivors and then thoroughly cleaning the floor. Yuck! And there you have the story of the beginning of our adventures in Vermi-composting.
Since that fateful day, we have made a very comfortable home for the worms (there were still a lot left- a pound of worms is a LOT of worms!) The kids love to go out on the back porch and check on them every week or so. They hold them and watch them 'flip and flop' in their hands, they give them rides on their bikes and try to make new homes for them. One time we were visiting them worms, they found a very small new baby and they said, "Oh! It's so cute!" They crack me up! After the kids play with them for a while, we feed them our fruit and vegetable scraps and give them some new bedding (shredded paper) and don't think about them for another week (besides saving my fruit and vegetable scraps for them!) That's my kind of pet!

Emma and Arianna holding the 'pets'

The worms in Arianna's hand

And now for the Great America pictures:






On to another subject: Cherries!

We are very blessed to have 2 beautiful cherry trees in our yard. The owner of the house came and took what he wanted and said all the rest were for us, so for about a week and a half, Kenneth was out there every evening picking away, while I was busy preserving them all. Cherries are expensive, so it was pretty cool to be able to do so many things with them! The final counts are thus: 14 quarts plus 1 pint of regular canned cherries, 7 quarts of cherry pie filling, 6 pints of cherry jam, 1 pint of dried cherries and 1 fresh cherry pie (which was very tasty!) My fingernails are still showing signs of my labor. It was a lot of hard work, but I feel good having done all of that. And I couldn't have done it with out Kenneth out there picking them all! I am also sure that the kids are glad it's all over. Emma had fun helping sort and pit a few times, but the other two just felt the lack of attention from mom!

Kenneth was the main picker in the operation

Emma was a great help with the sorting and pitting of the cherries.

Mom and Emma with the cherries!

The kitchen in the midst of the canning.

Here are some additional pictures of our adventures as of late:

Painting outside. When the paper was full they moved on to the donkey and their feet and hands and patio!!

A great park play day- playing in the creek

Emma and her friends at a park play day

Kenneth's sister, Karen, and her family are here this week. We are having a fun-filled July Fourth week with them. So, stay tuned for a full report after they leave!

Wow.

We made responsibility charts yesterday. I didn't know how excited the girls would be about them. They didn't end up falling asleep last night until 9 (Emma) and after 9:30 (Arianna). They were up a few minutes to 6 am wanting to do the things on their charts! Wow. What have I done?

With Very Grateful Hearts - It's clean! It's clean!

We met with the Oncologist to get the results of the PET Scan that Kenneth had on Wednesday and it's clean!!! The scan showed no sign of the cancer! It did show a few small, residual lumps, which are most likely scar tissue from the the large tumors he had in the center of his chest, but nothing to really worry about. If Kenneth were less reserved he would have jumped right up and clicked his heels on the way out of the doctor's office!

I don't know if 'relieved' and 'grateful' can even begin to express the way we felt this morning when we got the news. Speaking of getting the news, when the doctor came into the exam room where Kenneth and I were waiting he greeted us, shaking our hands, commenting on the return of Kenneth's hair and almost in passing mentioned that the scan was clean and everything looked great. The news came so quickly and in such a nonchalant way that Kenneth and I had to kind of double take to make sure we had really heard correctly! What a great piece of news to hear!

Kenneth doesn't even have to return to see the Oncologist for 3 months and even then it is just a check up with some blood testing. Unless Kenneth feels anything funny, or the doctor suspects something, there won't even be another PET scan. The numbers show that 75% of the time, this cancer, with the treatment that Kenneth had, is completely gone. Forever. Kenneth's blood counts have even returned almost to normal. He is still slightly anemic at this point, which is contributing to his lowered energy levels, but other than that he feels great! So, life is back to normal . . . and normal is good.

Thank you! Thank you all for the support, love, prayers and faith poured out on our behalf. We recognize this is a modern miracle made possible only by the incredible faith and sacrifice of friends and family and the medical expertise we have been blessed with over the last six months. We could not have made it through without all of you. We love you and sincerely appreciate all you have done for us.

Back from the East

We're back from our 2 week-long visit to New York State. Before I go into the trip I wanted to let everyone know that Kenneth is feeling great. His hair is even coming back, including his eyebrows and eyelashes. I'll have to post a picture of him on of these days. He will have the PET scan soon and I'll let everyone know the results when we get them.
Also, we did NOT get the house we put the offer on. Just as well. It really would have consumed our lives for the next couple of years. Maybe we will just stay put. We'll see!

Okay, back to the travel report. . .It was all around a great trip. Four of Kenneth's siblings were able to join us on the farm with his parents. We sure felt the absence of Karen, his sister, and her family. We also spent quite a bit of time at Kenneth's Sister's house near Syracuse. It was wonderful to be 'home'. Of anyplace I have lived, New York feels the most like home to me. Maybe because that's where my life really began (meeting and marrying Kenneth) or maybe because it's the only place we've owned a home, or maybe because in our married life we lived there the longest. Regardless, of the 2 countries and 8 states that I've lived in, it feels the most like home. We enjoyed experiencing Spring again; we got it once already in California and got to see the tail end of it in New York as well. Spring green is one of my favorite colors there is. I love to see the trees bursting with new leaves in that gorgeous color! Because I can't think of a better way to do it, I am going to just talk about the trip in bullet form:

• The kids loved the airplane ride. They were all very excited and generally did very well. They gave us a little trouble at security. We left pretty early in the morning, which meant we had to wake them all up to drive the 45 minutes to the San Francisco Airport. So, they were a little crabby and did NOT like the idea of having to get out of the stroller, much less take off their sweatshirts, and shoes and be close to strangers. But we made it through. In an effort to save money, we decided not to check any baggage. So, we were quite a sight walking through the airport with 7 total bags, 3 children, and 1 stroller. We actually got it down and were pretty efficient at navigating the airports. We had the infant carrier with us as well, so we could strap Grant on and both the girls had a place to sit in the double stroller.

Watching a video during our layover in Chicago.

Sitting on all the bags- they made a great couch!

• We all enjoyed the fresh air and open spaces of the farm. The kids loved seeing the cows, kittens, tractors and the farm dog, Sam. Arianna always wanted to know where he was and liked to just stand close to him checking him out. It was quite adorable. The kittens at the barn were a definite favorite. They could have spent all day with them! Kubota, tractor and 4-wheeler rides and walks up and down Larchar Road also made their favorite list.

View from the farm house. The poppies bloomed while we were there! The space is so lovely, especially after living in the DC area and the Bay area!

Same view with the cows grazing in that field.

Walks up and down Larchar Road

More walks- with Jenni and kids this time.

Grant and Daddy. Notice Grant's little boots- so cute!

How do you like these big boots!

Checking out the calves

Arianna loves Sam Dog. She mostly likes to keep a healthy distance, though.

The kids chasing after the kitten.

Playing with the kitten.

Taking turns holding another one on their laps.

Oh the joy a kitten can bring!


Uncle Scott giving the kids a Kubota ride. This is the best shot I got of a Kubota ride- sad!

Arianna and Grant having a tractor ride with Dad

Four-wheeler ride with Dad

• Kenneth graduated!!! We had already received the Diploma in the mail, so I guess it was already official, but going to Cornell's campus to be a part of the actual ceremonies of graduation make it feel very real. Kenneth's family was able to come to Ithaca and be a part of the Commencement. Hooray for Kenneth!

The Man himself!

At the Systems Engineering Ceremony

Here are the Systems Engineering Masters Graduates. If you look closely you will notice Kenneth is 'special'. They gave him the wrong color hood. Everyone is orange and he is yellow! Luckily, we got it switched out after this ceremony and before the Commencement the next day. He would have really looked like he was in the wrong place!

Kenneth and Heidi- happy that it's over!

Here is the whole family. When Kenneth started his Masters degree Emma was about 1 year old!

• Kenneth and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary during the trip. It is hard to believe it has already been so long! With all the family around, we took the chance to get away for one night alone. We had a great time together!

• There was an exceptional amount of rain in New York during the time we were there, so unfortunately, the boys were not able to do as much haying as they would have liked, but they did get done what they could.

Mowing the field near the house.

This is the tedder. From my limited understanding, it crimps the hay to help it dry out a little. All you Larchar men can correct me if I am wrong =).

Here is Kenneth wrapping the hay bales with white plastic.

• Great times playing with the cousins! Lydia and Emma were fast friends and had so much fun together.

Little buddies

The cousins all lined up watching Tangled. (Benjamin, Arianna, Grace, Lydia and Emma)

• We enjoyed Story time at the Sherburne Library twice during our visit. Sherburne has the best children's librarian, who just make story time so much fun.

Drawing with chalk on the sidewalk- part of storytime. So cool!

Lydia, Grant, Benjamin and Grace- they posed like this all on their own on the steps of the Library.

• For posterity's sake, I had to include this video of Arianna after the Commencement Ceremony. At this point in our vacation, the lack of sleep was catching up with Arianna, not to mention it was hot and miserable. Scott definitely earns the best uncle award for helping me with her! We were walking from the Stadium to meet Kenneth a couple of blocks away. I had Grant in the carrier and Arianna was inconsolable. Poor thing. Unfortunately, what you see in this video went on for about 20 minutes. At one point I was a little bit separated from Scott and Arianna in the crowd and I heard someone say, "Boy, that makes you want to have more kids, doesn't it!" Nice.
  

This is how she looked when we were finally in a quiet place (the bus taking us back to the parking lot):

• We had 4 great BBQ's. Two chicken BBQ's on the farm and 2 at Diane and Joseph's home. They have the BEST backyard for family gatherings and everyone had a great time. We especially enjoyed seeing Pat and Phil and Lori and their family.

Pat, Phil and Lori and the rest of the clan at Diane's house for a lovely BBQ. Joseph took the picture, in case you are looking for him!

Grant playing in Diane's yard and loving it!

Here is Arianna nearing the end of that long day. Sucking her thumb holding on to her dress. Still tired.

• We were glad to have the chance to see some good friends in the Utica Stake and also in the Liverpool ward. We sure miss you all!

• On Memorial Day Jenni had the great idea to go to the Columbus Cemetary. We visited Grandma and Grandpa Larchar's grave and also did some rubbings on some old headstones that were hard to read. I was glad to have taken the time out to remember those gone before on that special day.

The Columbus Cemetary- you can see Jenni, Caleb, Lydia and Emma over in the distance.

Emma with her rubbing

My wedding ring belonged to L. May, Kenneth's Great-Grandmother. It was neat to visit the grave.

• The day before we left New York the temperature rose to the 90's. 97 degrees if you took the humidity into account. Boy, were we ever glad to get back to California and weather in the 60's!Here they are zonked out on the plane ride home. We all had a great time! Sunday morning, our 4th morning home, Grant finally figured out we were back on Pacific Standard time and slept until after 6 again. Yeah! He was getting up at 5:30 every morning in New York. Up and ready to work when the sun got up! He's got a farm boy in him!

Update on Kenneth's Health

Kenneth talked to the Oncologist a couple of days ago and he sent him to have an X-ray done of his chest. As it turns out, he has pneumonia. I actually felt great relief with this news; it means it can be treated with an antibiotic. Kenneth was a little worried by the news, and understandably so. He is just ready to be done with this whole experience, not have one more complication on top of it all. (Not to say he is not completely grateful for how smoothly it really has all gone considering)
Here we are now a couple of days after starting the antibiotic and Kenneth does feel a little better. He still has some pain, but not like it was before. Last week he said it hurt so badly to sneeze his body wouldn't allow it to happen. It would stop the sneeze before it could start!

In other news, we had a special visitor last night! Many of our friends in New York will recognize this guy:

Scott H. reading to the kids

The kids took right to him, as you can see, even letting him read the bedtime story! It was fun to share a meal and visit for a little while. I guess its one of the perks of living in such a busy place; we often get to see friends and family who travel here on business!

Happy Fifth Birthday, Emma!

Wow! Five years old already!! Emma has had a great Birthday today! She chose all the food we ate all day: Baked oatmeal for Breakfast, Noodles with red sauce and cooked carrots for lunch, and Swedish meatballs and rolls and peas for dinner. We are having a little party for Emma on Saturday with some friends, so I hadn't planned on making a cake today, but Kenneth thought I should, so I whipped some up to have after lunch. I know what you all are going to say. . .didn't I learn my lesson last time?! But, before you think that know that I had at least made these before and knew we really liked them. I made cupcakes with avocado and cauliflower puree in the frosting. They were fantastic! (Unlike the cake I made for Arianna with the beet puree in it. At least she liked it!) Emma requested purple frosting. Someday I will learn how to not make it look so gray. Emma asked for a notebook and sunglasses for her Birthday, so that is what she got. She was delighted! Here are some pictures and a video of the day:

Opening her present this morning.

One very happy little girl!

Where did she get that pose?!

Enjoying her cupcake!

Here is her notebook. I took a regular notebook and designed a cover for it.

She has already written this much! I haven't talked to her about journaling, so I am not sure where she got the idea, but I think it is great! I taught her to write the date and she asks us how to spell all the words, but she came up with it all and wrote it herself. In case you can't read it I will quote it here:
"I have special sunglasses. They are not made to play with or they will break. And what I am writing in is my new notebook. I found it in my Birthday present. I went to Target yesterday and I went to the park. Am five years old. I went outside to check on my roly-poly but it was dead. I stay outside for a couple more minutes and we ate snack outside then I came inside. My mom has a notebook that is a cook book."

And here is her Birthday interview:

How old are you today?
5

What is your favorite animal?
a kitten

What is your favorite color?
purple

What is your favorite food?
Swedish meatballs

What is your favorite treat?
a jelly bean

What is your favorite book?
In the Piney Woods (we just read it for the first time last night)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A mommy

Who loves you the most?
Jesus

What is your favorite time of the day?
Going to the Park

Who is your best friend?
Natalie

What is your favorite activity, or thing to do?
Read my brother books

What is your favorite song?
Scripture Power

If you could choose to go anywhere, where would you choose to go?
To that fun place with the dragons and you can play a little game, you shoot the ball and see if it will go in the little hole. (The miniature golf course close to our house)

What kind of cake did you choose for your Birthday?
A dragonfly one with raspberry flavor and blue frosting.

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, the video of singing Happy Birthday! We love you, Emma!

They grow up way too fast!

Before I talk about the children, I will let you all know that Kenneth feels a little better today. He will still call the Doctor tomorrow and probably go in to be seen, so I'll let you know more when we know more!

These kids grow up way too fast! Grant attended Nursery at church for the first time today. He looked so old showing his coloring page to people in the hall after church! He is 20 months old exactly and we felt like it was time- chemo having ended almost 3 weeks ago now.

It was funny, tonight Grant noticed that Kenneth's hair is starting to come back. He had fun rubbing his hand over it and kept saying, "Hair." What a cute little guy!

Here is a random picture of Grant I hadn't yet included in a post, taken a couple of weeks ago. We were in the middle of breakfast when the garbage truck came on our street, so I whisked him up on the counter to watch out the window and while he was up there we decided to test out Dad's phone.

Arianna also went back to nursery. (She's been going to Sunbeams to stay out of the germy nursery) Boy is she ever happy to be back there! She's been very difficult in Primary lately. I am in there as the Music Leader and she is very difficult to deal with; she won't stay with her class, has to sit right next to me and come up with me when I lead a song (usually causing trouble while she is up there), and the last few weeks she is actually throwing herself on the floor and just being downright rediculous. I will say one thing for her, when she knows what she wants she will definitely put the pressure on until he gets it.
In good news about Arianna, she is learning to write her name! She wanted to earn a toy back (that was taken away because she won't clean up) and I off the cuff said that if she learned to write her name she could have it. I fully expected that it would take her a week or so to learn to do it. Up until this point I could barely get her to cross her A after I wrote the 2 slanted lines. She sat right down and with just a little coaching she did it!
I was so proud of her!!! She still has trouble doing it all on her own; she needs to look at it written and sometimes if I am not right there to coach her she will write it right to left, rather than vice-versa. A couple of days later, she wanted to earn back more confiscated toys and I challenged her to write her whole name. She did great!

Speaking of growing up fast, Emma will be five years old on Tuesday! How time flies! I can't believe she is getting so old. She is really becoming a wonderful little girl. A year ago she was at times painfully shy and would burst into tears in uncomfortable situations. Just today, she gave the scripture in Primary like a pro. The size of our ward and primary are major contributors to this, I believe. There are just a few children, and she knows and feels comfortable with all the teachers and leaders.

In other news, my sister, Sheri, and her husband came over for dinner today. They only had a couple of hours to spend with us, but it was so nice to see them! (My brother-in-law was in town on business)