Operation: Sticker Therapy

Your mission: to help bring happiness and distraction to toddlers fighting cancer by mailing stickers, sticker books, or happy vibes!

Hi! This is Abigail (my niece) the day before her 2nd birthday. You can see her central line and her surgery scar.

When she was 19 months old she was critically ill, and diagnosed with cancer--stage 4, high-risk Neuroblastoma.

She has been through a lot--with a lot still yet to go through. Abigail loves stickers and they offer distraction and entertainment during multiple hospital stays.

When kids are fighting cancer, they go through a lot of yucky therapies: chemotherapy, radiation therapy, antibody therapy, etc. We decided to call this project Sticker Therapy...a therapy they could look forward to!!

Our goal with Operation: Sticker Therapy is to receive enough stickers to be able to put some packets together to share with other children we meet who are fighting for their lives. We encourage you to donate some stickers, and then know that you are blessing the lives of some precious children.

Please mail them to:

To: Operation: Sticker Therapy
C/O Fans Across America Charitable Foundation
18521 E. Queen Creek Rd., Suite 105-187
Queen Creek, AZ 85142

Thank you for your kindness and generosity, and may it be returned unto you!

If you would like to make a financial donation to Abigail, that would be greatly appreciated. You can do so by visiting this site:
http://www.fansacrossamerica.com/assist_a_family/registry/families/families_in_need/abigail_goss_family.php

or by including a check payable to "Abigail Goss Medical Trust Fund" with your stickers. Thank you dearly!

NEW JOBS

Jon and I officially have new jobs!!!
Jon started working for the Department of Corrections last Tuesday.  He has 4 months of Police Academy ahead of him.  Ten hours a day of classes and physical training can be taxing, but he is much happier.  He loves being the provider for our family.
As for my job...I feel like the luckiest girl.  I am doing laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, shopping...etc!  But you know, even though the work is mundane and it can be annoying, I am so happy doing daily tasks for my family.  We have learned a lot over the past 2 years.  It has not been easy, and Im not sure I would want to do it again, but I am grateful for the lessons we have both learned.

Now, lets talk about Josie!!!  She is 22 months and a busy bee.  She wakes up happy, eats a big breakfast and then plays really hard until her nap, then she wakes up, and plays really hard until it is time for bed. 
She LOVES animals and she is an expert at animal sounds; puppies, roosters, bee's... haha, it's so fun.  She has such a cute personality and I am so proud to be her mommy.

BUBBLES!!!!

Yesterday we spent the best $2 of our life.  Walmart has this little bubble bottle that does not spill (Thanks Megan for telling me about it).  Josie loves it!!!  Not only are bubbles the best invention for little kids, but this bottle takes away any mess and spill.  SO AWESOME!!!

I have some cute videos but blogger isn't allowing me to upload videos right now ... ugh.  totally annoying. Oh well!  Here are some cute pictures.

NEW JOB!!!

Jon received a conditional job offer from the Draper prison!  We are soooo excited.  He just has to pass a drug test and a background check, and he is good to go!  He will start training on May 31st, at which point I get to quit!!!  Do you hear me singing and doing my happy dance?
Well ... that isn't the end of it!  There is a job opportunity down in Gilbert AZ that we are looking at.  We are going to go down the beginning of May so he can do some more testing and an interview....so we will see what happens there.
We feel so blessed with this job offer and we are so grateful for the prayers that were made on our behalf.

Crafty Dreams

I haven't posted in a while because I started another blog!  www.rcraftydreams.blogspot.com

I have always enjoyed sewing and doing simple crafts, even though I never really thought that I was very crafty.  Well, Jon has had a hobby for a long time that has allowed him to paint and use his crafty brain ... so recently I decided that I should start doing my own hobby.  There are many nights that we will turn on a movie so we can both do our hobby.  The only time we will say anything to each other is when we want to make sure that what we are doing really is as awesome as we think (I know...we are crazy!)

In my blog searching, I kept seeing cute ideas but I could never remember where I found it, or remember all the things I wanted to do.  So I started a craft blog for myself.  It allows me to keep track of all the awesome ideas that I find, and to keep a to do list of the things I want to do.  PLUS, when I finish a project I am able to show it off. This blog has given me a lot of motivation to keep up with my hobby ... and I find that the more I search, and do projects, the craftier I get.

----------------

JOB UPDATE --- I wish I had some awesome news, but we are waiting .... STILL!!!! We are going crazy! 

Jon took the psychological tests, and the polygraph.  Those were very mentally draining days for him, but we think he did a good job.  He doesn't have anything to hide, so we are praying that they will see how awesome he is.

We thought we were supposed to hear back last week, but we are still waiting.  We will let you know when we know.

Possible Job

I have been afraid to post anything about a possible job for Jon because I don't want to jinx anything.  But I decided that by posting this, I could also ask for you prayers on our behalf.  As you know, I am working full time, and Jon is with Josie full time.  Jon has been working really hard to get a job so we can switch roles.

So, here is an updated on what is happening----
Last month he applied for a position as a Correctional Officer at the Correctional Facility at the Point of the Mountain.  It is a really long process, and it requires me to have a lot of patience.  With the application he also needed to take the NPOST test (Pre-employment test), which he successfully did and passed with a 93%.
On March 8th, he had a physical test and interview.  He had to run 1 1/2 miles in 17 min 30 sec, he completed this in 11 min 30 sec.  He also had to do 7 consecutive push ups and 20 sit ups and a 16 inch vertical...haha, I know those sound so difficult!  He exceeded their requirements and he ended up being in the top 10%.  Interviews are always hard to gauge, but he felt like he did a good job.
There were a total of 260 applicants, and after the interview and physical training they cut it down to 150 applicants.  He made the cut and yesterday he took several psychological tests, this ended up being about 1200 questions.  Tomorrow he is going to take a polygraph test.  In about 2 weeks we will hear back with the results and if they still want him, then he will be asked to take a drug test, and get a physical from a Dr.  If everything goes our way, he will be selected to start POST training which will last 5 weeks.  He will have to pass everything with at least 70%.  After the training, he will then start the job on May 31, 2011.
WOW -- I'm tired just thinking about the process.

I have the utmost confidence in him, and I know he will do an amazing job.  It does scare me that there are still 150 people fighting for 40 positions.  If you could please pray for him to be noticed and to get the job, it would be greatly appreciated.  The experiences that Jon and I have been going through over the last year have been extremely difficult, but I have also learned a lot.  It is hard to live on Heavenly Father's time, but I have faith that Heavenly Father knows what is best for us....I just hope that this job with the Correctional Facility is IT!  Love you all!  I will keep you posted.

Grandma and Grandpa Goss

This post is dedicated to Josie's Goss grandparents.  They are on a mission in the Philippians and I thought it would be nice to post some pictures and make a special video for them to see.

SISHY!!!
A couple weeks ago we went to Walmart and stopped in the fishy isle.  Josie was so excited about the fish she ran up and down the isle saying "Sishy! Sishy!" and pointing to all the different fish.  The next week Jon and I thought it would be fun to bring a couple of the 'sishies' home.  We found a big enough glass bowl and went and bought 3 fish.  Jon named his fish Jimmer, I named my fish Zoe, and Josie named her fish Sishy (by default).  Here are some pictures.  You can just see how excited she was.

Sadly, the fish only lasted a few days.  I guess that is what we get for buying Walmart fish.


Jon's hockey buddies fixed up Utah Lake so they could play hockey on the lake.  Josie was also there enjoying the snow and the cold.

Look at how precious she is!!!

Last but  not least, here is the video of Josie talking to Grandma and Grandpa Goss.  Of course anyone is welcome to watch.  Josie is just too cute!  The only way I can get her to hold still and talk is by letting her watch the screen ... she just loves watching herself.