"I Left My Heart In San Francisco..."

I've been a little M.I.A. lately. We got some not-so-good news a week and a half ago. My dad had been quite sick for a while and my mom finally decided to take him to the hospital in Merced. They found a tumor the size of a lemon in his brain. Not good. They then transported him to UC San Francisco because they have a great neurological team. Kim, Andi and I all decided to fly up and see him. It was a great visit (under crummy circumstances) nonetheless. My dad talked a lot about his regret as a father. He regretted working so much. Not playing as much. All the coulda-shoulda-woulda's. I have NO regrets. None.

Now, it wasn't all tears last week. We had some pretty fun laughs, often at Kim's expense. My dad was on some heavy painkillers and we got to see a different side of him. He told me all about castrating horses with a pocket knife and some turpentine. We played the campout game and somehow my dad got out of alphabetical order and when it got to his turn (which was the letter D), he said he was going to take "Wong-Dong Tommy." Not quite the typical answer you'd hear from a Branch President, but it worked. It got a little raucous after that, you can only imagine all the nicknames for one body part, going down the row alphabetically. I thought Kim was going to pass out (she's the more angelic of the 3 sisters).

One of the evenings got a little too quiet for me, so I texted my mom (who was sitting right next to me) that we needed to pull a little prank on Kim. She was busy blog-stalking on the computer, so we sent my dad in to "go #2 in the bathroom" and my mom was going to "tell the nurse something out in the hall" while I was "going to get a phone call and take it out in the hall." You catchin' my drift? So Kim's all alone in the room with my dad, when he calls out for her and says he needs her help. He needs her to help him wipe. AND SHE DID IT! Well, not totally. She said, "Do you mind if I use a little more toilet paper than you normally use?" She really is the golden child, I tell you. She was actually going to wipe his butt! My mom and I were dying laughing out in the hall, when Kim comes out with a wad of toilet paper with a big brown schmear on it (from my leftover Oreo chocolate pudding surprise) and asked us, "Where should I put this?"

Ok, let's get back on track here. I couldn't have asked for a better father. I love his great example. I love the way he loves my mom. The doctors found a melanoma in his left eye, and have been toying with the idea of taking his eye. He said taking his eye is not even an option, because he needs to have both eyes to see my mom. How sweet it that?

I know it will be a very difficult road ahead for our family. I'm so grateful, more than ever for the gift of eternal families and am grateful to a loving Heavenly Father that listens to my prayers. I know he is very mindful of us.

Thank you for all your notes, visits, texts, flowers and phone calls. I love you all.