Senior pictures of Beth and Jason

Congratulations to Beth and Jason for their completion of high school. Graduation is May 12. Here are some pictures we took of them to send with the graduation announcements.
This one you might have seen before. It was the first attempt at outdoor pictures of Beth. The sun was too bright for her glasses.

We took the rest one evening when it was rather cloudy, so the glasses didn't darken up as much. Beth is seventeen and graduating this year. She plans to stay home this next year and concentrate on Homemaking 101. School has been too busy for her to learn everything else she wanted to learn.







Formal Jason with his cello. Jason is graduating before he turns sixteen. He will be working full time making money for college at our local ACE Hardware Store.



A few casual shots of Jason




A couple tree climbing shots


Here are a couple of pictures of both Beth and Jason

Surgery date

Dear Friends and Family,
I finally have a surgery date for my breast cancer surgery. It will be Thursday, April 28 at 8:30 a.m. I would much rather have had it sooner, but the things which were out of my control were still in God's control. So I trust it is the very best date for the surgery.

Please pray for both surgeons to be careful, skillful, and wise. Pray that I will be safe from infection, bleeding, or reactions to the anesthesia. Pray that I will heal well and be a "good" patient for my husband and kids! Pray that my life will be a true reflection of Christ's life in me throughout the course of the journey.

I am humbled by and thankful for all the prayers already prayed, the cards I have received, the kind offers by so many friends. Please know that God has been answering your prayers by giving peace and calmness and direction. Many people I don't even know are praying for me! How wonderful to belong to the big family of God!

Janet Albertson

Miscellaneous pictures and happenings from March and April

On March 26, Beth, Emily, and I went to a Women's Conference in Greeley and got to hear Eric and Leslie Ludy speak on "Authentic Beauty," which was all about surrendering to Christ and really knowing God. It was a great conference.

March 27, we went to Colorado Springs to revival service and spent a little time with Uncle Alvin and Katie.

We love getting to see them every now and then.

Katie took this picture of our group before we left their house.

On March 31, I bound the edge of the newest quilt. I gave it to Jason for a graduation gift.

We need to get some good pictures of both Beth and Jason for graduation. Since Beth's glasses get dark in the sun, we haven't figured out how to do good outdoor pictures.

I still think the pictures are sweet, even with dark glasses!

Jason was needing a haircut this day; at least his glasses don't get dark. He's offered to let Beth borrow his for her pictures! :) We'll keep trying...

The mountains are beautiful this time of year.

Spring in Colorado! This was a short, fierce snowstorm we had last Sunday!

Fun times with Lincoln on the rope swing:


Lincoln looking sweet! He has a hard time smiling without making silly faces nowadays, so this was one of the only "normal" pictures.

Beth teasing Lincoln!

Jeffrey and I in the car on our way to Federal Heights telling a funny story.

Pastor Mike Yancey (from Lakewood Wesleyan Bible Church) and his family came up for the evening April 1. We had a great visit and enjoyable music time with him and his family. Mike didn't want to drown out the rest of the instruments, so he used a "high tech" mute: a dishtowel!

Classic picture of Jason playing his cello that evening.

An interesting artifact donated to our museum this week: a glass negative! I am planning to research glass negatives and find out about how old it is.

A picture of my sweet husband, whom I love very much!

This weekend, Emily's friend, Amy has been visiting. They have had a fun time together.

They made these yummy pretzels yesterday.

Starting on a new journey

I had a lot of medical events in March. On March 7, I had a mammography. Later that day, I was told that it was abnormal on the right side and I had to come back for another couple of pictures. On March 14, I did that, and then had an ultrasound. I was told that there appeared to be a mass about 1 cm-1.5 cm large. The next step was a needle biopsy, which took place on March 21. On March 22, I was told that the biopsy revealed breast cancer, grade 1. On March 24, Rowen and I went to see a surgeon about the lump. He requested a bilateral breast MRI. He suggested my having a lumpectomy and radiation. We have done a lot of reading, research, and praying. The MRI happened on March 29. That brings you up to yesterday:

We talked to the surgeon yesterday about having a double mastectomy with reconstruction. The MRI showed that the tumor is larger than the ultrasound had indicated. It said 2.7 cm. (A homeschool friend's was 2.6 cm. and she had to have chemo after her surgery.) Why do a lumpectomy when it is so big a lump, and the doctor wants to get 1 cm. margins around it? That would really make me look like I had a mastectomy over there! Then you have to have radiation if you choose a lumpectomy. Then if I had to have chemo too, because of the size of the lump...

To me it makes more sense to take them both off. I have always checked my breasts and found it very difficult to know what to be concerned about and what was normal. I had found this lump, but thought surely it was normal. My doctor could not feel it, and now I find out it is cancer. Last night I felt of the other breast and I feel lumps in it too. But the MRI showed that it was clear. So I think I would make myself crazy feeling of that breast and wondering if the lumps were normal or not.

The MRI showed no abnormalities in my armpit nodes, but something showed up close to the tumor. Not clear whether it is another spot of cancer, a node that has cancer, or a node that was inflamed because of the biopsy. So that spot would also have been included if we had chosen a lumpectomy.

I will see the plastic surgeon (who will do the reconstruction start during the surgery) next Wednesday. Then it is a matter of coordinating the two surgeons' schedules. April 12 Jeffrey is scheduled for his next gum graft surgery. April 13 and 14 are the other kids' achievement tests. Tuesdays seem to be a good day for both surgeons. Thursdays are also a possibility. I am hoping for April 19. We will wait to see what gets scheduled.

I feel like we have made the right choice with the Lord's help. I just hope everybody will find a way to be supportive. I know it is impossible to know just what you would do until it is you. Rowen and I have always said if we had cancer that could be removed, we would remove it. We also said we did not want to have chemo ever. But now it is me, and I am still young, and have three kids still at home to finish up raising (Jeff is moving in August), and precious grandchildren I want to know and love, and I have become willing to do whatever I have to do.

We won't know until up to 10 days after surgery whether chemo will be recommended, so we can't cross that bridge yet, but intellectually, I have to consider it.

Thank you for the continued prayers,
Janet

Emily's 13th birthday March 17, 2011

Amazingly, our "baby" girl, Emily, is now 13. We have four teenagers in the house, until July when Jeffrey turns 20. We celebrated Emily's birthday by opening presents while video chatting with Tim and Brenda the evening before her birthday. Then we had guests for the evening the day after her birthday. Emily hates secrets, even birthday secrets. She had figured out that I had bought Blokus for her birthday, even though I would not admit to it. So when she opened her gift, it was a different box than Blokus could possibly come in. She appreciated and loved all the little things in that box--a new hairbrush, a shaver of her own, a game of Phase 10, but I knew she was thinking "Is this all?" In this picture, I am whispering to Beth to go get the other gift out of my closet.

Emily was very happy when she unwrapped Blokus. Here she is showing it to Tim and Brenda on the computer that was in front of the game.

On Friday night, the Metien family and Ivanna Strubhar came for the evening to celebrate with Emily. Amy Metien and Ivanna are very good friends to Emily and they had a wonderful time together.

Emily requested blueberry cheesecake for dessert.

The kids played Capture the Flag and after it got dark, they played Hide and Seek.

Before our guests left, we had some music time. It was a fun birthday for Emily.

Penguin Ice Cream homeschool tour March 10

We love field trips where we get to eat yummy stuff at the end of the tour! We went to Penguin Ice Cream in Loveland this month with our Johnstown-Milliken Homeschool Group. This is actually a picture of the door decal's shadow on the floor .

There is a train that usually runs on the track up by the ceiling, but we didn't get to see it in action. We did love the neat Grand Central Station clock.


All the kids got to wear aprons for the tour. Some of the kids had not yet arrived when we took this picture.

We thought this little girl was so cute, sitting on her mother's feet, just like a good penguin! She was listening to our tour guide, who was explaining how to make ice cream.

Watching the lady showing us how to make ice cream in the back room.

Short kids got to stand on a step-stool to check on the ice cream's progress.

Ice cream is ready to eat, ten minutes later!

My friend, Fawn and her kids eating bowls of ice cream after the tour.