Caleb's 1st...hAiRcuT!

Today was a monumental day in the life of Caleb and Mommy...Caleb has had some minor hair trims in the past but today I pulled out the buzzer and cut it all off! I left an inch on his head and I cut off a good 2+ inches! He had loooong hair! He was such a trooper through the experience too...he didn't even jerk and make me mess up! I'm kinda sad now...I'll be honest. I feel like my baby is a little boy now and it breaks my heart. But I can't hardly complain because he just gets cuter and cuter everyday!

Remembering the past...

Loving the feel of the clippers on his head...

Daddy needed his hair cut too!!

Kiel wanted to sport this cut for awhile but...

The final product! 2 handsome mans :)

Coupies

Hello all you fabulous people! Could you do me a huge favor? My really good friend is creating a coupon website that allows you to create a profile and based on your shopping preferences provide coupons for stuff you buy regularly. It will also have a search engine that will allow you to search for any other coupons as well. This will be helpful as we are all trying to save money at this economically challenging time! So if you have about 12 minutes to spare could you help us out and take this survey so we can know how what features will be most useful to you? Also, you could refer your friends to my blog so they can take the survey as well...the more people that take it the better idea we can get of how to make the site as useful as it can be! Thanks guys, I know these can be inconvenient so I appreciate your help and hopefully it can help you in the near future!

https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_cZqwVVln8r6TaYs&SVID=Prod

iLLegAlLY bLoNd

Yes it has finally happened! I finally put away all my fears of ruining and frying my hair forever more and got highlights!...Thanks to one of my bestest friends, Missa, who convinced me it would be cute and highlighted my hair for me. Didn't she do a great job??! She did it exactly how I wanted it, natural looking and not too much. She has talent! Thanks Missa :)!!

ThEsE aRe A FeW oF My FAvOrITE tHinGs!

MUSIC

INTERIOR DESIGN

MY FAVORITE PARFUME: Ralph Lauren Blue

BROADWAY

MY FAMILY

FLOWERS!!!

My Bedroom Flowers...

My Bathroom Flowers...

My Living Room Flowers...

...And My Kitchen Flowers

SHOPPING

SANGRIA SCENTSY

A GOOD BOOK

I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad!

The latest update on Mom

This is the latest email my dad has sent out. I thought I would share it with those of you who are wondering what the latest on mom is. This was actually sent out a few weeks ago so I will keep you posted on the test results.

Family and friends:

My wife was seen by the oncologist at Mayo yesterday and we received some good news. He has her scheduled for 8-10 additional tests over the next three weeks, but he feels that unless these tests show something new he gave us a prognosis based on his experience with her type of cancer.

Even though she has cancer in the liver and small bowel it is a slower moving cancer. It does its dirty deed, it is just slower in doing it than the type that was initially suspected. He said that the average life expectancy for patients with this type of cancer is 8-10 years. He doesn't know how long she has had it, but he is guessing 5 years or so. That is his best guess.

There is one drug that he is interested in trying unless the rest of the tests contraindicate. It works on some patients and doesn't on others. It is completely random. If it does work it can provide a few additional years.

It is amazing how much perspective impacts things. If a month ago a doctor had told me that my wife had 3-5 years to live, maybe more if a drug therapy was successful, I would have been struck by the short amount of time. However, from the perpective of someone that was looking at a few months, years sounds wonderful!

We completely trust the Lord and know that we are all in His hands.

We appreciate your love, faith and prayers.
Mike and Ruth Ann Petramalo

NOTE: Mom had her echocardiagram test and pelvic ultrasounds yesterday which told us that her heart is fine and that the cysts on her ovaries are not cancerous...YAY!!!! On Tuesday she will have a florescent test to see if there are any other types of cancer mixed in with the carcinoma carcinoid cancer and to see where else she has cancer and on Friday she will get a CAT scan of her lungs.

Saka! Part 2: Maui

The best part about Maui was that Kiel met us there! I missed him sooooo much!!! I had already been gone for a week and a half from Utah so we hadn't seen eachother for way too long. Maui was absolutely amazing. The beaches were so soft and beautiful. The water was fairly warm...but not warm enough for me. I hate swimming in anything colder than 75 degrees!

Our house we stayed in was across the street from the ocean so we would walk over everyday and walk on the beach. We went to the Big beach which is the most famous beach there for a very good reason. Kiel really wanted to go to the Little beach but I said no (the Little beach is the nude beach :). One day we went on a Quicksilver snorkling tour. I had tried to snorkel previous to this excursion but I was so clausterphobic I couldn't do it! But I got over it very quickly on this trip. We went to Mulikini which is known for having sharks sometimes! Happily, we never saw any but there were so many beautiful fish and coral! It was so so cool!!! The water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom of the ocean, which was about 250 ft, from the boat. Kiel wasn't feeling very good and he went snorkeling for a little while here but then got out and started throwing up. What a great fish attractor! He'd throw up and I'd take pictures of the swarm of fish it brought. I did feel so bad for him tho...he missed out! We snorkeled there for an hour and then went to Turtle Town. That's an actual bay and there were lots of turtles! That was so much fun! I got to swim with these giant turtles that were so friendly. The reef coral was beautiful too. There were big red and black spiky things and all different colored corals in different shapes and sizes. I loved it! They then fed us some awesome BBQ on the boat and then we headed home. On the way home we saw TONS of whales! We were so close to them so it was really easy to see their features (that is if you were looking...Kiel was still throwing up in the back of the boat and missed all this :( We saw a baby whale which our guide said was probably about 3 days old and it's mommy and an escort whale. They were ginamo!!! And when they hit the water with their giant tails they really made a splash. On the way back we also passed by a beach that is commonly called "celebrity beach" because there were homes belonging to Oprah Winfrey, Jack Nicholson, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and like 10 others I can't remember right now. I think I actually saw Michael Jordan on his giant veranda overlooking the ocean. All together the scuba trip took about 5 1/2 hours. It was too much fun.

On our way to go snorkeling

Michelle and I were snorkeling buddies when Kiel was sick

Tiger Wood's beach house

A turtle

The other thing I enjoyed so much- as is typical of any Petramalo- was the great food! Our favorite place was Kihei Cafe with their banana and macademia nut french toast covered in coconut syrup. It was delish! Howards bakery was pretty amazing too.

All of us at Kihei's Cafe

The day before we left we did the road to Hana. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive! We pulled off at some point and walked one of the trails that led to a waterfall. It was so serene and it had some crazy plants! Next time we go back I want to do more of the hikes and make it a day thing.
Walking on a trail on the Road to Hana

And of course we spent a lot of time just enjoying the beach.
I took this pic and I'm proud of it!It was whale watching season while we were there and there were whales EVERYWHERE! You could always see them from the beach.