Let me sum up...

Yes, it's literally been over a year now since I've posted anything- yikes!! So much has happened that I'll never catch up so "let me sum up" (Indigo, Princess Bride).

This was our Christmas letter which gives a good synopsis of life at the Larsens through 2012:

Larsen Family 2012 “Twelve Days of Christmas” Count Down

12- Length of Ammon’s long runs on Saturdays to prepare for the Ragnar Relay he plans to run from Wickenburg to Tempe, AZ in February. Also the number of relay members he will be splitting the 200 mile race distance run all day and all night. Ammon will compete in the 17 mile distance.

11- Years of marriage Ammon and Melanie celebrated in June. For our anniversary, we went to the unique Biosphere 2 right here in Tucson. It was quite an amazing tour and a fun way to celebrate our friendship and love.

10- How many months it took Ammon to finish building the tree house in our backyard. He worked on free weekends and evenings finally completing the last details just before Connor’s birthday party at our home in early September.

9- Months of the year we experience “summer” weather here in Arizona. We always enjoy any opportunity to get out of the heat to bask in more comfortable climates, especially in the summer months (see #6).

8- Connor turned 8 and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in August. Ammon performed the baptism by the power of the Priesthood of God and Connor’s great-grandfather Gordon Maughan confirmed him blessing him with the Gift of the Holy Ghost also by the power of the Priesthood. We have seen a change in our son as he’s learned to exercise and use this precious gift. He also started Scouts and continues to enjoy drawing, writing, and to complain about piano lessons ;)

7- Number of days Melanie was away in May on a young cancer survivor’s kayaking trip down the beautiful Nantahala River in North Carolina. She enjoyed learning the skills of kayaking a personal kayak from experienced guides, staying in the lovely log cabins, not having to cook all week where she could instead enjoy healthy vegan food prepared by personal chefs and the opportunity to mix with other survivors from around the country.

6- Road trips we took as a family this year. We took 3 to California all to see Ammon’s grandfather; the last trip was to celebrate his 90^th birthday at Thanksgiving time.  Two trips were to Utah, the first to attend the temple sealing of Ammon’s recently returned-missionary brother Jimmy in June and the second to attend October General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. We were present in the session where the Tucson temple was announced! Melanie shouted with joy, to which she received many quizzical looks from those around us until they realized that’s where we were from. The sixth trip of the year was to Texas in July for a family reunion. Along the way, we visited various cousins, aunts and uncles and Melanie’s great-grandmother in Oklahoma. We enjoyed our visit with her and were so ecstatic that our children were able to meet and spend time with their 98-year-old great-great grandmother! Once we arrived in Texas, we went on our first family cruise out of Galveston with Melanie’s family and loved it.

5- About this many inches of hair re-growth Melanie has gained since she completed her chemotherapy in February. As many of you know, Melanie is in remission from cancer! She is excited that her hair is growing back in and is adjusting to life as a short-haired brunette. Ammon still has a hard time picking her out in crowds as he often looks for the long-haired blond she used to be. What a welcome “challenge” to have a healthy, surviving spouse!

4- Kids in our house for the last 2 + months as we have opened our home to two foster children. We have known the family ever since we have lived here and when the opportunity came to bless their family and ours, we were willing and available. A larger family suits us well and we will be pursuing foster-adoption options in the new year.

3- Number of weeks to get our house back to normal following a water leak. The restoration company ripped out the wet sheetrock to the studs in the kitchen walls and ceilings necessitating days of noisy fans to dry out the wood and weeks of reconstruction as part of the “minor” remodeling project we underwent. As part of putting our kitchen back together, we decided to make a few cosmetic changes including adding new A/C ducts, higher insulation value in the walls and ceiling, recessed lighting, the removal of a wall and addition of a new archway and decorative arch niche, tile flooring throughout our downstairs as well as granite countertops and paint.  We also re-piped the house so the leak problem will not happen again. Three is also the number of months it took to finalize the sale of our home in Fort Collins, Colorado. We are grateful to no longer be long-distance landlords at this point in our lives.         

2- The age Amelia turned in February. She is a thriving toddler who is developing happily as she enjoys organizing by size most things she comes across, doing puzzles, curiously examining every crack in the sidewalk and scrutinizing every bug she finds, and of course trying to keep up with her big brother and the other big kids in our home. If this year ends with her being potty-trained, we won’t be disappointed ;)

1- New job for Ammon. In August he was able to change to a position he really enjoys doing family therapy work at a community counseling agency. His Spanish speaking ability has come in very handy in his work on a daily basis. He also was able to become a Reserve Chaplain in the United States Air Force advancing to the rank of 1^st Lieutenant.  He has enjoyed the opportunity to serve returning Airmen from war and their wives in marriage retreats a weekend a month for the last couple months. He loves the work so much and looks forward to the possibility of making this a full-time career in the future.

We wish all of you a blessed Christmas season and

A joyful New Year!

Love,

The Larsens

Ammon, Melanie, Connor, Amelia and remembering Abigail

UPDATE:

Ammon did run that Ragnar race and loved it. In fact, he's planning to run the trail race this Fall and the road race again next Spring. What can I say, he's a die hard. To commemorate all his running (and to keep him close while he's been away on training these 6 weeks) I made him a tshirt quilt from his old running shirts! (Yes, he knew I was planning to eventually do this.) Hope he's surprised!

Before he left, we had some family pictures taken. They turned out great. I'm working on getting my prints framed and my walls rearranged to accommodate all our nice shots. Our amazing photographer put them on her website Marissa Ettinger Photography.

The kids we had in our home for 3 months were moved to their permanent placement (we were only temporary since they weren't adoptable) in January which allowed us time to take the foster care classes to become licensed. We attended as a family twice a week for 3 months just finishing before Ammon went away for his Chaplain Basic Training in SC. The day we heard we were licensed, May 2nd, we received our first placement, a newborn baby girl!! We were highly surprised to get a newborn since we expected to receive older kids as we said we'd take kids 0-8 (no kids older than our own). God knew we really wanted a baby. Tender mercy. She looks to be adoptable but time will only tell. We pray to keep her.

I am still in remission. My most recent check-up, mid-April, showed my blood counts the best they've ever been! My doctor also said there's a new cancer blood marker for ovarian cancer, called the HE4, that I'll start having tested next time (in 3 months). That will help be a more precise indicator of recurrence in conjunction with the CA125.

Our life is crazy these days but we are so blessed. We're trying our best to live a good, well-balanced existence. It can only get better from here on out. We can surely concur with this sentiment:

"Life is good if we live in such a way to make it so" Benjamin de Hoyos, True Happiness: A Conscious Decision, October 2005 General Conference.