GOOD NEWS

Liza and I at the registration desk ( I work with her at Wilford Hall Medical Center).
My baby, Dylan, got diagnosed when he was 15 months old, now
almost 3 and in remission for a year!
Yes, there is something in my tooth, and no one told me! This is Alicia, I love her!
Liza and Alyssa... just made it through to remission!
Me and Dylan doing "big eyes" for the camera! (Mom, you met him
and his family while you were here....

It is Sunday and I just got Home Taught, I have the most amazing teachers... anyways, I was thinking about all of you and how blessed I am to have y'all in my life. I love you all so much, you mean the WORLD to me. I can't wait to see most of you in just a few days! I know that we will just have such a good time celebrating the accomplishments of one of our family members. I am just so grateful for the examples you are to me and how much you have helped me progress in this life...

On another positive note... I PASSED MY CERTIFICATION!!! I don't have the specific results back in the mail yet, but online it says my original certification date, and mine was labeled as 4/06/2008... so, it will be coming shortly in the mail. All that worry for nothing, but I know that the prayers given on my behalf were what made the difference, for that, THANK YOU! This also means that I get a bonus from work, I get reimbursed for taking the test, and I am now, Carlyn Cusack, RN, BSN, CPN!!!!

I am going to post pictures from the Little Heroes Prom two Fridays ago... my babies are growing up so fast, I love them dearly and hope you can fall in love with them too!

Tonight, I am going to a dinner get together after church at one of thie girls I used to visit teaches' house. It should be so fun, I don't know who all else is going, but regardless. I went on a date on Thursday, it was good, that was our 3rd date... so we'll see what happens next! Kyle and I just got done planning our summer trip for June, so we'll fly into Dayton, then drive for a week to see all of the church history sites east of the Ohio River. Then, we'll come back to Dayton by Thursday (which is the day Cason and Kaela fly in) and Kyle will fly home and I'll stay the weekend for Bigga's graduation!

That's about enough for me now! Oh, last night was a dance - dress up in your favorite decade, I was a Grease Lightin' girl (PINK LADIES!)... I'll show a pic of that too if I have one!

Love you all,

Carlyn K.

Visit with Grandpa

Hi,

This is the time in March when Becky and I went to visit Grandpa. He seemed very glad to see us, however, due to his Altzheimers, he could not remember any of your names, so I pulled out pictures of you all and we went over all the names throughout our lunchtime. I sent him home with a few pictures of you all and our family.

Sunday

Hello all,

We had quite a surprise at church today--we have a new Bishopric! We just had a new set sustained in Nov, '07. However, the Stake President stated that they needed our Bishop to be on the High Council, bc they feel he is the only one to work on the welfare issues. Our new Bishop is Dan Brazelton, 1st counselor is Tom McMurtry and 2nd counselor is Stacey Busch. I am so happy with the choices the Lord has made-I know we will once again have strong leadership.

Love you all,
Mom

a big weekend!

Cason and I had a busy weekend (although I think Carly takes the cake-how do you pack it all in?!). Yesterday we went to the gym, he worked, I ran errands and cleaned, we ate a nice late lunch at Macaroni grill, and afterwards we even had time to play some baseball with Cason's friends. They let me bat too! We also saw National Treasure II, and by the end of the day, I was EXHAUSTED. I can't believe we made it through the movie.

Today is filled with many wonderful things too. We had church this morning, and we completed our final temple prep class! We are a little sad, our teacher is so sweet, but now we get to do the fun part-pick a date! I'm sure we'll be discussing this some with those of you who will be out here soon. We also went today to get my patriarchal blessing from our wonderful Patriarch Lambert. He is also a sealer in the Provo temple so he talked to us a little about temples. He is a wonderful man and very close to the spirit. We really enjoyed talking to him beforehand, and the beautiful things he said in my blessing. He was an english teacher at BYU I think, so I am sure the Lord has chosen him specifically for his way of articulating his feelings and promptings. I can't wait to get the copy so Cason and I can review it together.

Tonight, Cason's business writing group is coming over to finish their project presentation. He hasn't told them yet, but his teacher e-mailed Cason to let him know their group got an 'A' on their paper! (this is a BIG deal) It is about one of Cason's latest business ideas-you'll have to ask him next time you talk to him so he can fill you in. Although they will be doing some school things tonight, we will also have chocolate fondue (our Sunday night tradition) and play a game or two. Cason said he is the only married on in the group, so I guess they are curious to meet me!

Sorry for the long post-I had better wrap up. We are sending Cason's graduation announcements and party invitations out this week, and Alicia has done a great job planning things. We are looking forward to seeing those who are able to make it, but we will miss those who can't be here (Todd & Cory).

We love you all!
Kaela

Catchin Up!

This was Downtown...since I can't get a real boy to kiss me! :-)
We got a ride in our PJs from a man riding a bike, he pulled us in this carriage! It was awesome!

If everyone doesn't know already, I was in Denver, CO last week for a nursing conference. It was hosted by the Society of Pediatric Nurses (which I am now a member of!) and it was wonderful! I learned so much, and it also rejuvenated and remotivated me to go back to work. I had been having a hard time at work, not because I don't love my job, because I am over the AF. Anyways, we shopped along 16th Street, ate very delectantly (is that even a word?! idk), went to the Denver Aquarium, which was amazing- I got to touch a Stingray!, went to the Tattered Cover- where Cason and Kaela just were a few weeks ago, played games all day at the ESPN ZONE, went to a see a comedian perform at Comedy WORKS, and spent lots of money! All in all, it was very liberating to see the mountains and breathe the cool, fresh air. It was such a nice break.... and then, I had to take my certification test. This couldn't have gone well, I have no idea how I did and won't know for three weeks, but we left there feeling really bad about it. The funny thing is, we paid to take a review course the first two days we were there and we didn't really feel like it helped us out a lot. So, please don't ask me how I did, if I passed, I'll let you know, otherwise, worse comes to worse, I'll just have to take it again:-). I am getting really excited for the trip to Utah. Also, I am attending a Little Heroes Prom... a dance held for all of our cancer survivors (so all of my little babies will be there!) on Friday night. I will post pictures afterward. I can't wait, some of them I haven't seen since they have been in remission, and they will be all dressed up! I love you all and here is some pics from Denver...

We had lunch in one of the open air huts. The only thing we had to pay for this vacation were our lunches and alllll our drinks, including water- between breakfast and dinner. An 8 0z bottle of water cost $3.20 and a can of pop was $4.20! We went on a kayak/snorkeling excursion which was a blast--this time I didnt even tip the kayak over. The sights were beautiful, we saw cool rock formations & sea lions. The water was 70 degrees so when we went snorkeling, I had goosebumps the whole time. The water was murkey, so hopefully my pictures turned out of some of the fish we saw. During two separate mornings, we could see whales in the distant ocean. Our hotel room was spacious and beautiful. During our entire trip we were surely spoiled by the hotel and Napa staff--this was an enjoyable, leisurely trip--however, Todd and I would comment often on how we wished you kids were with us. Cory would have pigged out at the breakfast buffet with all the bacon!

Down on the beachfront there were beautiful rock formations and we heard that there were tons of crabs all over them. So you know Todd--we had to go adventuring. We put on our beach shoes and went exploring. We had so much fun! There were hundreds of crabs sunning themselves, but when they sensed we were there, they either crawled or jumped away quickly. They were different colors and sizes.

That same evening there was a wonderful band playing and Todd and I were on the sand, cutting it up--we had a blast. In this picture we were doing the dance, "The Bump"

This evening for dinner, we had a "beach party". It was gorgeous!

We checked in our sandals at the gate and we walked on the beach, had a lovely and huge buffet dinner and we played alot of games and earned some "Napa Bucks" that we could redeem for prizes.

We had so much fun playing in the ocean with the huge waves just
about pulling us back into the ocean-something I'm sure Cory is
used to.

Our Vacation

This is the view from our balcony-looking out into the ocean. This hotel had 5 separate pools and they were so warm and relaxing and the atmosphere was fantastic

Our weekend

We had a wonderful weekend in St. George at the Colbie Callait concert at Tuahcan. I have attached pictures so you could see the red rocks behind the stage and when we looked up, there were stars! Cason did a great job planning this weekend. We also visited the Decampos (from South Bend). They are so sweet! We enjoyed breakfast with them, blueberry pancakes, eggs, sausage, and special Colombian chocolate. We also watched the first half of Saturday Conference together, and they gave us a tour of their house and told us about the area. They even sent us home with cookies and a lunch! We hope they are able to come up for Cason's graduation party to see a few more of you. They enjoyed the wedding and family photos we showed them.

We are ANXIOUS to see and hear about the Mexico trip...and the Denver trip! It was a traveling week for this family :) Here are some photos we took...

Colbie Callait concert-see the red rocks in the back!

Brother and Sister Decampos with us-view from their HOUSE.

Brother and Sister Decampos in front of their home. They are so cute!

Cason and I in front of the large volcanic rock pill that is hundreds of millions of years old-it used to be just one large rock, but over time it shattered into a pile of smaller rocks. Brother Decampos took us on a brief tour of the neighborhood, and this rock was so large that they just build the road right around it.

Our weekend

Hey guys

We wanted to let you guys know that Kaela & I are going to a Colbie Caillat concert in St. George this weekend. It will be held at a cool natural venue called Tuachan Ampitheater. You should look up pictures of it on the Internet. We have arranged a visit with the Decampos's who now live about 30 minutes from there. It will be very nice to see them. We'll be driving home Saturday afternoon. We are looking forward to General Conference this weekend.

21 more days until graduation!!!!!

Can't wait to see those of you who are coming out.

Love you!

madre y padraste

they are in mexico! mom called me today and just went on and on about how beautiful and tropical it is there...you know how she is! She said they have a huge shower and bathtub in their hotel room, a balcony with an ocean-front view, and three large swimming pools with palm trees all around them. she wishes she could have brought all of us with her! they aren't allowed to go near the ocean, though because the waves are too dangerous. they are just relaxing by the pool all day today and they had a great mexican fiesta last night (food). If there is anything you guys want me to tell her let me know cause she will be calling me again and she has been asking about you all...
love you!
CAtey