Dancing Queen

Darby had a dance recital in December. How do you think it went?

You are right.

She ran off the stage the whole time and the crowd was laughing so much at my darling little girl just hamming it up. She totally stole the show! I don’t know why I was surprised that it was Darby who ran off the stage the whole time. Man, isn’t she beautiful? She chose that pose all by herself; nobody was coaching her or anything. She is just so precious.

I have to give credit for the photo to Kristi Ellingson. I have to because I said I would. I encountered a heck of an ordeal trying to print this photo for my family. I don’t have a copy right, I just bought the digital file. Apparently the woman at Wal-Mart used to be some sort of law enforcement official because she gave me some trouble because I didn’t have proof that I bought the copy right. Anyway, it was lame but it worked out.

Let’s not forget the issue at hand: Darby is so precious. This was her costume for “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Next recital, her class is going to be dancing with their daddies to “Someday My Prince Will Come.” Now THAT is going to be so, so sweet!

Sneaky-Sneaky

I don't know what to tell you. She gets it from her father.

I was writing an e-mail to my sister and when I was done, I found Darby at the kitchen table eating the last piece of ice-cream cake (from my birthday). She sneaked it out of the freezer whilst I was out of the room. Can't you just imagine her thought process? She saw her chance and she took it! I wonder how long she had been waiting for me to turn my back. You'll notice an apple, the snack she was supposed to be eating, looking on in jealousy.

She was very proud of her successful endeavor. I was pretty impressed myself!

Darby, Darby, Darby. How boring my life would be without you! I love her sneaking little face!

Transgression

Today, Darby gave the Article of Faith during the opening exercises in primary. Why would someone call on a 3 year old to give the second A of F? Some adults have a hard time with the word "transgression"! Anyway, Darby did great. Especially with the words "punished" and "transgression."

Go figure.

Aside from her devious tendencies, isn't she so adorable?

The Hand of God

I know, I know. You are so sick of reading about MS that you could barf. Hang in there; I’m almost done. I have a really cool story for you. We all know that I like to joke and tease, but this is serious for real. The orchestration of this series of fortunate events leaves no room for questioning the hand of the Lord in our lives.

So, I was starting my new ms therapy, but the company had yet to send me the injections or the special injecting tool (which is so cool, by the way). They are sent separately for some reason, so I had to wait for the arrival of both before I could schedule an injection training. I’ve injected myself with my other meds before, but it is a totally different type of injection. Anyway, upon speaking with someone from the specialty pharmacy, I learned that they sent the injecting tool to our old apartment, so they just sent me a new one. The following day, someone from the pharmacy called me, telling me that they had a woman (Aisha) on the phone and she had received the first tool they sent. It was a conference call, so I could hear both the pharmacy woman and the woman from the apartments. The pharmacy woman said, “Aisha, Hillary has already received a new one, so you can just throw that one away.” I felt bad; I didn’t want her to feel dumb for doing a good thing by calling the company. So, I said, “I’d actually like to come and pick that up, Aisha, if we could set up a time.” So, we set up a time for me to stop by and pick it up at her apartment. A weird thing was that the company put my phone number as the apartment number, so while all the apartment numbers (in that complex) are 3 digits, they put “1634” on the package. Then, the brilliant man at fed-ex delivered it to apartment # 264. Anyway, I wanted to give her a little treat for being so courteous, so I brought her some cookies. When Darby and I arrived at her apartment, I took one look at her and said, “Well, I brought you some cookies, but I can tell by looking at you that you don’t eat cookies.” She smiled and said, “No, I don’t eat sugar; I have MS.” I was like, “Shut up! That’s why I’m here; this is my autoject!” Anyway, we started talking and I asked her what therapies she’s been on and she said that she hasn’t been on any. She has only done natural things and that she has had NO disease progression (she was diagnosed the same summer I was). I was on meds for 10 of the 20 months that I’ve had MS and I have had mild to moderate progression (which is better than it could be, of course). So, I asked her what she is doing to remain so well and she wrote down books for me to read and homeopathic doctors for me to see and it was so awesome! So, I went home and researched a little about what she does and learned that the diet she follows (not for weight loss, just for health benefits) has been studied for over 30 years and that those who followed the diet showed no significant deterioration in all that time. Is that amazing, or what?

I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us. More and more I recognize those “tender mercies” we hear so much about. I usually feel so insignificant in the grand scheme of things and then I am shown the hand of God in my life and I am so amazed and thankful that He knows I am here and that I am made aware that I matter to Him. I know we all do.