Good-bye to a friend

Christmas and New Years have been wonderful but not for everyone. While we were at my parents house we really enjoyed seeing Kim Boothe. Kim is a dear family friend from Modesto who has really helped me and my sister, Sarah, get through our teenage years and with our testimonies. She was my Sunday school teacher for a long time and a friend for even longer. She also has been suffering from breast cancer. Months ago she moved in with my parents in South Jordan so she could get treatments. Things looked like they were going well but then things took a turn for the worse after we left. I wasn't there but my sister, Sarah was. I've copied this from her blog so you can all have the facts. I love Kim and will miss her terribly.


"This past week has been very...emotional. Michael, Ellie and I were going to house-sit for a week starting the 5th for the Nielsen's while my mom went to Arizona to babysit for my sister. We got a call on Monday the 4th asking if we could come a day early because Kim (my friend - she has breast cancer) was needing help and was thinking about calling Hospice. We went over and it was decided that Kim would go to the doctor on Thursday before deciding what she wanted to do.

It was immediately apparent that Kim needed help. We took over her medication to make sure that she was getting what she needed and when. We also realized that her right arm was too painful to move so we made a sling and started helping her change her clothes, etc. She seemed very uncomfortable and at times incoherent. Thursday arrived and we took the trip to the doctor's. After much discussion about possibilities and pain we took an x-ray of Kim's arm. We learned that her upper arm was indeed broken and that she had cancer in the bone, at that site, about the size of a golf ball. No wonder she was in so much pain.

That night I noticed that her breathing was extremely labored - like she'd been running a marathon. At about 5 am I couldn't take it anymore and asked my dad what should be done. A chest x-ray was scheduled for Friday. It turned out to be pneumonia and/or cancer in the lungs.

We admitted Kim into the hospital Friday night. Her 3 boys and 1 daughter-in-law drove through the night from California to be with her on Saturday. On Sunday we got the news that Kim has cancer in her lungs. She left for California on Wednesday.

Kim is a wonderful person. She taught me the gospel and helped my testimony grow in a time of my life that I desperately needed it. She wasn't the only one, but she was pivotal. I feel blessed to be a part of her life and blessed that I could give service to her in her time of need. It's an unpleasant feeling, knowing that you are truly saying goodbye to someone for the last time. I feel grateful that I had that chance. I really don't know what I'd do if I didn't know what was coming for her. If I knew I'd never see her again. But I will. I will see her. It's only goodbye for a little while. I wish her well in her journey."

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Andrew and I are so happy with the way our lives are right now. We still have plenty of stress and sleep deprived nights (sometimes weeks), but we feel SO blessed. We’re still madly in love with each other, we are constantly trying to improve ourselves and help uplift each other—which is very rewarding. And we have our beautiful little baby Ebby. Though every day he seems less little baby and more toddler. I love it when Amy sections her Christmas letters by family member so I’m going to do the same.

Ebby has both bottom front teeth and is acting like he’s teething again. He learned to crawl over Christmas break and just today I found him pulling himself into an almost standing position with the aid of the furniture. I cannot believe it. We had no idea he’d progress this fast and we feel a little unprepared. But such is life, right? Ebby loves to explore. One minute he’ll be across the room playing with the DVD’s and the next we’ll find him under our chair. He also loves to sit and concentrate on a single object. It’s only for a few minuets but he’s EXTREMELY focused. He obviously likes to learn and I love seeing him try to figure things out all day.

Andrew is liking school but is sometimes overwhelmed, I think. And who can blame him—it’s med school. I love seeing him come home from his perceptorships with his face aglow as he tells me about his day. I know it’ll all be worth it in the end. I also like it when he teaches me what he has been studying. It’s a refreshing change of pace for me, I know it helps him and it’s nice to see a glimpse of the awesome doctor he’s going to be at the end of all this. Apart from school (and of course computer gaming) Andrew and I enjoy playing Dungeons and Dragons. It’s a pencil and paper role-playing game. Andrew DM’s and makes the terrain (game board) and I paint the figurines. We play with four friends here in College Station and introduced it to the Nielsen/Babcock family over break. I think everyone really enjoyed it.

Most of my days are spent trying to keep the house and our little Ebby out of ‘trouble’. I never new being a stay-at-home mom could be so demanding and exhausting. I definitely have a new found respect for moms everywhere. I’m so grateful both Andrew and I have such wonderful examples to try and emulate. Currently I’m trying to find us an apartment in Temple. We’re moving this May. I’m excited but am not looking forward to all the work of moving to a new city.

Hope all is well with y’all!
May the Lord bless you!

Joy, Andrew and Ebby Beesley

This is the first book Ebby's actually taken an interest in. We hoped to get it on film. It was the cutest thing. He went crazy when we unwrapped it. Thanks Sharon and Rulon for the wonderful gift!

Ebby and Ellie had a wonderful time playing together. There were a ton of wonderfully cute moments. Here's just one.

Here are some fun videos

I have no idea where Ebby got this side-to-side head thing. At first I thought it was his way of scratching his head but then he started doing it while sitting up. Funny baby.

Andrew loves 'surprising' Ebby and Ebby loves it too.

Fun Christmas

Andrew and I have loved playing Dungeons and Dragons in Texas and Andrew thought it would be really nice to try and share that with my family. We were so excited to see so many in my family try it out. I believe some liked it more than others but we ended up playing a lot of D&D. When I finally thought to take out the camera we were on our last session. My apologies to everyone who played who isn't in the picture (and yes Jared, you're family). It was so nice to sit down and have some quality time with so many people. Next time we need to convince Grannie and Pops to play. :)


Ebby found my parents' stash of toy cars. He was in heaven! We definitely have a boy.

Ebby hadn't quite figured out how crawling can work to his advantage at this point. He kind of shimmied his way under the credenza and couldn't figure out how to get back out.

Yeah! I finally have a picture of Ebby and Julia. It's about time. During our trip we were able to see Andrew's family a few times (thanks to James and Jess for getting married and to Sharon and Rulon's decision to stay in Utah for Christmas). This was when we went to see Princess and the Frog. Good movie.

This was at Grandma and Grandpa Beesley's for Andrew's birthday dinner. We wanted to see Grandma and Grandpa Palmer latter in the week but both Andrew and Ebby got sick. Andrew still has a little cough but thankfully Ebby is back to normal.

We're finally back!

Things are finally starting to settle down for us. YEAH! Ebby's not sick anymore and Andrew's much better. Ebby's kind of back to his normal schedule. And I got my D&D painting done for the rest of our last encounters. SAD! Now that I feel like I have some semblance of sanity I can finally update our blog. The thing is there is a lot to update. I'll have to do it piecemeal but I'm sure I won't get any complaints, as long as I actually update it.

My first has to be Ebby's crawling experiences. Here are two videos. The first was at my parents’ house over Christmas Break. I know it'll be hard to believe but Ebby was fighting a 104 degree fever when I shot this. It's his first 'crawl'. Go Ebby. The second was a couple of days ago. It's amazing how much the kid can learn in a week. (And how much baby-proofing I need to do.)