Wow, a vacation that didn't include an emergency room

Me with this gorgeous babe I picked on the beach

We just returned home from our "secret" cruise.  It was only four days but it was lovely.  We have had a lot of trouble with vacations for the last little while.  I realized when we returned from this cruise that this is the first vacation we have gone on in a year that didn't have to be ended abruptly with a trip to the emergency room.  We are so grateful!  We are getting a bit paranoid.  JoLynne even bought trip insurance this time, something that we never do.  If I had come down with problems it would have paid to have me transported to medical help and a few other things.  Boy am I glad we didn't use that insurance.

She even has cute feet

It was a simple trip.  We spent a day in Key west where we rented bikes and explored the island and played on the beaches.  It was really fun.  The next day we were in Cozamel Mexico.  That island was a bit too big for bikes so we rented a car.  We went to the bakery and bought yummy Mexican bread and found a restaurant with really delicious food and then played on the beach until the sun went down.

It was the super bowl on Sunday.  I have a confession to make.  I didn't even know who was playing. Our family is so into football.  So, just about everybody on the ship was watching the super bowl and we were playing rummy in the empty dining area.  All in all we just had a great time.

You know it's nice when you have garbage just for coconuts

We put our children on a plane to fly home and JoLynne and I are headed back to Houston to meet with our doctors again.  We should be home in Utah tomorrow night for about 10 days.  After that it is back to Houston again for a chicken pox vaccination.  It's kind of a cool idea.  They programed the DNA in my new T-cells so that when I get a chicken pox vaccine the new T-cells go crazy because their programed to be triggered by chicken pox but attack my cancer instead of chicken pox because that is all they are capable of attacking.  At least that is the idea.  We will get a scan at the same time that will tell us how effective this all has been.

I began reading the Book of Mormon again.  Sunday I read the story about Nephi and his brothers trying to get the brass plates.  Things aren't going too well.  Laban, who has the plates, isn't eager to give them up.  He has already told them no and stolen all of their silver and gold.  Nephi's brothers have seen and angel and still they murmur.  Nephi then makes a speech that I like.  He says, God can defeat Laban and his 50 men, for that matter he can defeat Laban even if he had 10,000 men.  Don't you remember Moses and the armies of Pharaoh?  Nephi then goes into the city, not knowing beforehand what he would do.  And God provides the way.

Pretty nice for January

So, first of all, God can defeat this cancer.  Statistics mean nothing.  What is too hard for God?  Secondly, we are going into this "not knowing beforehand" but we trust that God will open the way.  We just need to have faith.  So that is what we are working on, faith without any doubts.