WHEW!!!! I can BREATHE again!!!

I got the best call yesterday from Dr. Harrelson! He informed me that the "thing" in Ethan's mouth is a NON-CANCEROUS cyst!!! He is confident that the cyst will go away on its own and that no further treatment is needed. He called me like two minutes before I had to start teaching piano so I was texting like mad there!!! Great news! Many prayers and priesthood blessings answered!

Jon Schmidt!!!

SUPER crazy but SUPER exciting weekend! Chris was out of town this weekend and so thank goodness my mother-in-law could help me out because this weekend was jam-packed! Carlie and I have been in rehearsals every Thursday night for this past month for this big event! My music teacher's association (Desert Valley Music Teacher Association--DVMTA) hosts this event every year--Cavalcade of Rhythm--and it just happened to be the organization's 25th year so it was a big one! I'm on the board for DVMTA so I had the opportunity to meet and work along side Jon Schmidt for the event. Jon Schmidt is a personal piano hero of mine so I was WAY excited to say the least! Carlie and I performed a duet version of one of his most famous pieces--Waterfall. So here is basically how my weekend went:
Thursday, March 4th: Piano rehearsals from 8-8:30 p.m. *then take Max to urgent car for ruptured ear drum (NOT fun). Get home around 9:30 p.m.

Friday, March 5th: Get kids to school 8 a.m. Primary Presidency meeting 8:30 a.m. Lecture with Jon Schmidt 10 a.m.--meet Jon and get his autograph! Decorate Mountain View High School Auditorium noon--get to listen to Jon warm-up on piano! Pick up kids at 3 p.m.

Saturday, March 6th: Rehearsals AGAIN up at Mountain View High School--Carlie meets Jon and gets his autograph. Personal errands along with an eye appointment for Carlie. FINALLY two concerts to perform in--one at 5 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. Go home and COLLAPSE!!!

Both shows were sell-outs and Jon was a super nice guy and fabulous to work with!

Ethan's 8th Birthday

Well it's been an emotional roller coaster here at the Meeker's this past month--and my reason for not blogging in over a month! Ethan developed a hematoma (blood blister) inside his left, lower gum of his mouth. The dentist (Dr. Jared Welch) referred us to an oral surgeon because he didn't like the look of it. Well...the oral surgeon (Dr. David Harrelson) didn't like the look of it either. He is concerned that it may be cancerous. Sooo.....what does that mean?! Well, that means we were in the office this past Tuesday, March 2nd, for Ethan to undergo full anesthesia so that a biopsy could be performed on the area. Ethan did amazingly well. He was really loopy right after surgery--we took him out of the office in a wheelchair and out the back door! I guess they didn't want to scare the other waiting patients! After a few hours, Ethan was up and going again. He of course got to stay home from school the entire day and I had plenty of popsicles, pudding, and ice cream for him! He could have asked for just about anything that day and I would have given it to him! He was feeling soo great on Wednesday that he went back to school. We should know the biopsy results this week--how do you spend your time waiting for news like this?! Believe me when I say that I had my super-freak out days earlier last week so I think I've got everything into perspective now--I hope. Ethan has been in absolutely NO pain this entire time. He's amazing!


Now, on to the better part of the month--the big "Star Wars" party!!! Ethan is on a big Star Wars kick right now so it seemed the perfect thing for an 8 year-old-boy party! So Ethan was Darth Vader, Max was Darth Mal (why do my boys like the bad guys?!), and Carlie was Princess Leah (hair buns and all)! Tatum kept changing her mind, Leah, Darth Vader, Storm Trooper, whatever!


So we had only boys over this time. We had "Galatic Pizza" and "Yoda Soda." Then my hubby put together the best obstacle course! The boys had such a great time trying to beat each other times on the course.

Ethan is not a cake eater and he really wanted a "Cookie/pizza" cake. So I found one and then we decorated it with some of Ethan's Star War figurines.



Then the best part of all---unstructured play time!!! We had boys swinging light sabers, popping balloons, walking on water barrels (which were part of the obstacle course--not used that way in the course), and just having lots of fun like only boys can. We had such a great time AND no one was hurt!!! I can't believe my Ethan is 8!!!




The dogs weren't invited! Soo sad they were!