Treatment Tuesday

Well here we are for another week of treatment. Treatment number 8 is underway. It wouldn't be a treatment day if he wasn't grouchy right? :) Well no worries because he is! However he is taking it like a champ! Nothing new to report, but I have a week in review of pictures from all our exciting events last week. We had Pa Jack here for a visit, Ian had his Mega Party at school, and we went to a trunk or treat.

Mega Party

At Ian's school we do a Fall fundraiser every year and if the student's sell at least one item they get to go to a Mega Party. Then according to how many items they sell they get more prizes at the party. Ian, thanks to many of you was the top seller in the school! He got to build a tiger and choose an outfit, get tattoos, do all the bouncy slides, and got some cool prizes. Thank you so much to all of you that supported his fundraiser efforts! We now have a great new playground in the back of our school!!!!

Trunk or Treat

We went to a trunk or treat at Ian's taekwondo school ATA. It was so FUN! They had lots of games, costume parade, LOTS of candy, and of course trunk or treating. The boys had a good time. I will say this is the first time that I saw Carter a little nervous. He was a little confused at the costumes and seeing a witch in person and not on tv. He would just stand there and stare at all the people. Usually he is the "wild" child, so it was a little out of character for him. Mrs. Gray is so wonderful she had this HUGE spider on the ceiling and they knocked it down and candy went everywhere! It was like a HUGE pinata!

Ian drawing a pumpkin on a plate on his head!

Playing wrap the mummy with help from moms!

Ian and his friend Jordan

My adorable little pirate!!!!

Good Times with Pa Jack!!!! Pa Jack doesn't like getting his picture made, but I did get a few of him and Carter playing baseball with a flag as a bat! Carter was belly laughing, he was so tickled!!!!!

Well Carter is our kitty cat kid! Ian and Jeremy are dog lovers and I can go either way, I just love pets in general! However Carter loves kitty cats. He is begging for a kitty cat for Christmas and Jeremy was freaking out saying we are NOT getting another cat. I then explained to Jeremy that he doesn't want a real cat, he wants a Fur Real Cat stuffed animal that he saw on tv and he is determined that he is gonna get one! You think he will :)????? So this is Carter and our kitty cat Gabby. Gabby actually lives outside, but occasionally likes to make Jeremy really mad by slipping in the house! She is the biggest love bug ever and if Carter had it his way she would be indoor all the time!

My head is spinning!

Okay so this past week has been WAY busy and this upcoming week proves to be just about as busy. I always forget how crazy this Fall part of the year is. I mean with the everyday hustle and bustle of school and activities, you add in Halloween, parties, pumpkins, etc. This week has been a wonderful week for all of us! Everyone is pretty healthy again except for the occasional coughs here and there. Jeremy has felt great this week which has been SUPER nice especially for him.
We had our first Halloween extravaganza last night at ATA(Ian's taekwondo school). It was a trunk or treat and then a Halloween party with games and a TON of candy. The boys had a lot of fun! Ian had lots of friends there, so he jumped right in and had a big time. Carter on the other hand was a little unsure of all the costumes especially the grown people dressed up. He was so excited to see a witch, but only wanted to see her from afar! So needless to say we came home and pigged out on candy and it's not even Halloween yet!
Jeremy's sister is so sweet! She bought her dad a plane ticket to fly in and spend a few days with Jeremy. Jeremy and the boys picked him up from the airport on Thursday and he is flying back out today. It has been such a great visit for everyone. Jeremy and his dad have enjoyed their time together just hanging out and of course lots of eating! The boys have enjoyed Pa Jack being here because he likes to PLAY! They have wrestled, played ball, Playstation, and the list goes on and on. We will be taking him back to the airport today to fly back to Texas. Thank you Melanie for this visit! Jeremy has enjoyed it so much as well as me and the boys. You are a great little sister!
Tuesday is a chemo day and this will be Jeremy's 8th treatment. It is always so hard because right now he feels so good and then by mid week he knows he will feel so crappy. Keep sending those prayers that is what gets us through each week.
Be watching this week for pictures of a cute little pirate and a tough boxer!

Living with Karate Kid!

Ok maybe not Karate Kid, but taekwondo kid! Ian started taking taekwondo when school started this year and he LOVES it. He has counted the days until he could test for his orange belt and Saturday was the day. He of course passed with flying colors. So we are now officially living with an orange belt. He is breaking boards and everything.........scary I know! Ian loves to play baseball and basketball, but the thing I love about taekwondo is that it is all the time and he is very committed and dedicated to it already. I have to give a shout out to his wonderful instructor Ms. Gray. She is great with the kids and offers so many extra activities at ATA. So here are a few pictures of Ian from his ceremony! You can see in the first picture Ian is sitting like a black belt and the next picture is of Ian and Jett. Jett is actually who got Ian interested in taekwondo. Jett is also Ian's BFF! They have been inseparable over the past few weeks. They are actually very much alike and hysterical when they get together. A big thank you to the Loenneke family for all the fun Ian has had at your house the past few weeks and of course allowing his dream of being a walker after school :)

Okay so as many of you know I had to write War Eagle a letter asking them to please not tell my husband how much I spent at the craft fairs this past weekend! :) Here is a picture of a few of my goodies. Of course many are hidden until Santa comes on Christmas. Trust me I did buy quite a few things for myself and lots of Christmas goodies for others. My friend Brandy and I went and had a BLAST!!!! I have been counting down the days to this for weeks. I think Brandy and I will definitely make a tradition of taking off work and making a day of it! One of my favorite things I bought was my pot with Santa and the reindeer and also my set of granite wear bowls! I also got an adorable Kindergarten Rocks shirt, but I had to order it. Now don't think I just spent my money on craft goodies.......there was also a lot of food involved :)! We had pumpkin pancakes at Mimi's for breakfast, from there I had a big roasted ear of corn on the cob, corndog, tater twisters, and a lemonade. Very yummy and it was a special day so we went all out!!!

Ok so I have mentioned our saga with Carter's sleeping arrangement and so he has officially graduated to the big boy bed. Now I am definitely not saying that is an easy adventure nor am I saying that we are completely done with this transition however we are making baby steps. He has slept in the big boy bed for about 3 nights. However after we put him and Ian to bed he takes it upon himself to move to the stairway and lay there and listen to Jeremy and I watch tv. On Saturday I laid Carter down for a nap and came upstairs to get a few things done. I thought I heard him on the stairs, but then it got quiet. A few minutes later I went to the stairway and there he was sound asleep! The first night we had to send him back to bed like 30 times and every night the number has gone down. We will see how the week goes! The good news is the crib can now come down!!!!!! It's one of those things that is exciting and sad at the same time. My baby is growing up!

Ian is now feeling much better! The Tamiflu was a lifesaver for him and Jeremy both. Carter began getting very icky and snotty, so we started him on a z-pac and he is doing much better too. Thank goodness for great doctors!!!! Jeremy rested most of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. He was back to work on Saturday and we have enjoyed a great day at church and playing at home with the kiddos today. The good news we received this week was that Jeremy's CEA level went from 3.7 to a 1.7. Dr. B wanted the number to start going down and not up, so we are SO happy!!!!!!!! After getting good news form the PET scan this was definitely the news we wanted. Hope you all have a blessed and wonderful week!

You don't want to take me to Vegas.......

my luck runneth out! Okay so this has definitely not been the luckiest week for us. I mean as if Jeremy having chemo isn't enough we now have Ian sick with the famous swine flu. I mean seriously we can't catch a break! Ian has been running a high fever, coughing, and having terrible body aches. I took him to the doctor today and after being swabbed and checked out........Dr. F said swine flu. I sat there thinking seriously is this really happening to me..............yes it is! So off to the pharmacy we went for a bunch of Tamiflu and some heavy duty cough syrup. No breaks to be caught here! We had to have our heating unit checked out this week because a friend of ours that has a heat and air business came and checked it and was worried about it. Well rightfully so because they shut it down and unhooked it and told us we need a whole new unit. Wow definitely not what we wanted to hear, but so glad that we had it checked because that kind of stuff scares me. So now we are in the market for a new heating unit. I warned you at the beginning of this that it was an unlucky day.
Now in the meantime Carter has taken it upon himself to decide that his crib is a jungle gym. I tried this summer to move him from his crib to the bottom bunk in his and Ian's bedroom, but he would not hear of it. Well the past few nights we have had an escape artist at work. The funny part is he comes upstairs in a disguise so that we won't see him! He came up with a laundry basket on his head, a big quilt, and a football helmet. So after about 20 trips back to his bed last night I decided okay that's it tonight he is moving to the big boy bed. Well he was excited because I put the side rail up and moved his pillows and blankets. I knew it was too good to be true because as soon as the lights were out he was crying and jumping out of that bed quicker than you could blink. At one point he snuck out of the bed and went to the staircase and laid until he almost went to sleep. After about 10 trips tonight the house is finally quiet and I think he may have crashed. Well quiet except for all the people coughing in this house! I keep wondering at what point the cough syrup will kick in!
Jeremy came home about 2 today and has been napping and resting all afternoon. He is very red and said he just feels really bad. He will get his pump off in the morning and now will get to start Tamiflu. Praying that the next 2 days he will be able to rest and be comfortable. I know he won't feel great, but just to be able to relax and feel comfortable will be relief for him.
Well had to give a quick update on our misfortune this week! It will all be okay though and we will get through the flu, heater, coughs, etc. just a little bump in the road on our journey.

Happy Tuesday!

Well not too much to report today. Jeremy is getting his 7th round today and is very sleepy! For those of you that don't live in Northwest Arkansas apparently the sky has fallen out because we have had SO much rain it is crazy! I do enjoy rainy days, but please give them to me when I can be at home curled up with a blanket, good book, and my boys playing!

Wanted to share a few pics today. Here area few of Jeremy's lunch that I cooked for them last week. Can I just tell you that these men can eat! I swear I have never seen anything like it. They must have liked my food because they said I could cook for them ANYTIME!

I know I have said it so many times, but these guys have been so good to Jeremy. We praise God for them each and everyday. I know when I am at work and he is in the middle of treatment they are checking in on him all day. The funny thing of the lunch to me was I am so used to eating with women and when women eat together we sit and visit and eat and laugh.........well not them, they fixed their plates and many of them headed to their desks. No time for visiting for them, they had food to concentrate on! Too funny! I guess to them they have their priorities straight!

Ok well I have told you about my wonderful friend Melissa and all the meals, babysitting, Sonic, and love she has provided us, well on Sunday she brought us meals for the entire week. Enchiladas, soup, fettuccine, and lots of deserts and goodies. She is so good to us! Definitely takes a load off of me for the week and I also know that when Jeremy is home he will have good hot food to eat. Well on Sunday night we cooked the enchiladas she made and to say that Carter liked them would be an understatement because he LOVED them. I mean he dug into them like crazy! See pics below :)!

On Sunday we had a game day! We played Twister, Guess Who, Animal Soup, and watched 2 movies! It was a nice lazy cloudy day. The boys had so much fun and we did too!

Well Jeremy's pump is beeping which means he is about done, so we are both headed back to work!
Thank yous:

*Thank you to the Loenneke family for all the time Ian got to spend at your house over the October intersession. He had a great time!

*Thank you to Melissa and Ms. Linda for the yummy food and great desserts! we appreciate you two so much!

*Thank you to everyone that calls, emails, and checks in on us each week.

Purring Like a Kitten

You know how you have all those little projects and messes around the house that just seem to pile up? Then on top of that your to do list is a mile long???? Well that is exactly how I felt...........until NOW! I have had so many little messes that have piled up, kids stuff, my stuff, work stuff, doctor papers, etc. etc. etc. On top of that I have had a ton of errands that I needed to run, my classroom cleaned up, my van cleaned out, the refrigerator stocked, Sam's Club run, laundry, and the house cleaned. Well I was determined this week I was getting it ALL done, yes you heard me ALL of it! As I said in my previous post my mom came and did the house cleaning and laundry and once again Praise the Lord for her coming! I also cooked a meal for Jeremy's work as a thank you for all they have done for him and how supportive they have been to our family emotionally and financially through everything we continue to go through.
I really wanted to return to work tomorrow and feel a sense of accomplishment and I do. Our house looks better than it has ever looked. All the laundry for once is all put where it goes. We have meals for the week(compliments to my wonderful friend Melissa :). My classroom is ready for me to walk into tomorrow and hit the ground running. Thanks to my mom for giving me the entire day on Tuesday to get everything done I needed to, in fact her exact words were do not come home until you have to look for things to do! It was so nice, no pressure to rush and hurry up.
I am an organized person and I like for everything to have a place, so when things get piled up it drives me crazy! So tonight when I crawl into my CLEAN sheets :) I can continue to purr like a kitten and know that everything is in its spot. Carter better not play in the clean toilets and mess up my clean bathrooms!!!!

Here's the Downlow

Ok so things have been a little crazy around here because my mom came to help out with all the appointments we had this week and of course help me get the house in order. I don't know what I would have done without her here. My house is now spotless, laundry completely done all the way down to sheets and blankets, and groceries bought and put away. It feels wonderful!

Jeremy's appointment went well. We did get a good report on the PET scan. Jeremy will still have 6 more treatments of chemo. There is one blood level they are a little concerned about it is his CEA level. The CEA level is a blood test they use to monitor cancer patients, especially colon cancer patients. CEA testing is used to see how the body is responding to the therapy. Jeremy's level was initially 0.7, but has risen to 3.7. They want it to stay low and not go above 4, so they are going to test it again in 4 weeks. Dr. B says that if it continues to go up he will need to have a few more tests run. So we are saying BIG prayers right now are for this CEA level to go back DOWN. Praise God for the wonderful news on the PET scan! The lymph node they were watching had shrunk down to normal range and nothing new showed up, Praise God!!!! Jeremy will have his next treatment on Tuesday and continue every 2 weeks from there. As I said in the last post the one disappointing thing is that Jeremy will have treatment Thanksgiving and Christmas. However this is kind of a blessing in disguise because it will mean we will be able to get all his treatments in before the end of the year........which of course for insurance purposes is good. Dr. B is planning to schedule a PET scan before the end of the year, probably right after Christmas. He was very pleased with Jeremy's progress, but hated to hear that the treatments are getting harder on him. Jeremy has started losing his hair which of course is not an easy thing, especially when the temperature has dropped from 90 to 40 overnight....crazy weather!
This has been a good week for Jeremy, he feels good and has gotten to spend a lot of time with the kiddos because of us being off this week.

The house is unusually quiet, so I am going to take advantage and relax a little myself! Hope you are all doing well and staying dry and warm!

God is GOOD and prayer is amazing!!!!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Jeremy's PET scan came back good! The chemo is doing exactly what it should be. Jeremy and I both skipped out of there with smiles on our faces! The only bad news that we got is that Jeremy's last treatment will fall on Christmas, but we are not going to complain about that at all! Thank you for the continued prayers and support. I will post more on his appointment later, but wanted to give a quick update(from the parking lot of the Oncology clinic!) so you all would know how his appointment went.

Unexpected Road Trip!

For those of you that know me I am a PLANNER. If we are going on a trip I plan for months, if we are going to the grocery store I am a list maker, and at work I have to do lists everywhere. I can't stand to not be prepared and organized with things going on in life. So when Jeremy calls me on Saturday and says Dave has 4 tickets to a Kansas City Chiefs game tomorrow at noon, my first thought was uuuuuhhhhh NO Way I mean the house is a mess, laundry is not done, Jeremy had been not feeling well all week. Stop for a minute and put yourself in my shoes, I live with 3 boys and they all LOVE sports, so everyone was hanging on my last word. I paused for a moment and thought remember what we promised we were going to do, live day to day and moment by moment. I would be breaking that promise if I said no way. So I told Jeremy we would see him in about 4 hours and be ready to head out. Did I mention that at that moment we were at a swimming birthday party and about to get in the water! Of course there was no leaving a birthday party, so the boys had a blast swimming at the Jones center and then we raced home. The nice thing was 1 outfit for everybody and some toothbrushes and we were good to go. I was still worried because Jeremy had a very rough week with his chemo, but I knew he really wanted to go even if just for the boys, so I trudged on picking up toys, taking out trashing, finishing up last minute things around the house. Jeremy ended up getting off early and we pulled out about 6pm on Saturday evening. We got to KC about 9:30 and checked in our room. The boys of course were so excited to stay in a hotel, Jeremy not so excited about being cooped into a hotel room with 2 boys running wild!

We got up on Sunday morning had breakfast at the hotel and then went in search for a Wal Mart. As Jeremy said, "when in Rome doe as the Romans do!", so off to find some Kansas City Chiefs gear for the kiddos. They each got a sweatshirt hoodie(which they were happy about because it was chilly) and a hat. Off to find Arrowhead Stadium and once there join the massive crowds of tailgaters. So glad we got there early because there was LOTS to see and Ian would say LOTS of people wearing pajamas! Not sure why but a bring trend at the game is to wear KC Chief pajama pants and of course Ian noticed it right off.

Well unfortunately the Chiefs lost, but we had a great time! Carter wanted some chicken as soon as we got there, so we had chicken, fries, and as you will see from the pictures lots of popcorn! This was our first NFL game and they are WILD! The atmosphere is unbelievable, music, dancing, crazy people, it was a little bit of everything!

Before we went on this surprise getaway Jeremy had a really rough week with his chemo. His face again was extremely red and he felt horrible. By Saturday he was beginning to feel some better, but Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were rough. I was afraid we were going to end up back at doctor for meds and fluids, but he was a trooper and made it through. So when this offer came along we realized that God was putting a great opportunity in lives to get away and we needed it terribly. As soon as we pulled out of the driveway and pulled onto the bypass I think we both felt so relaxed and that point realized how much we needed a getaway even if it was just for one night.

As I type this Jeremy is back getting his PET scan and CT scan. We will get the results at his appointment on Wednesday. Please continue to pray that we will get good results on this scan. We are both incredibly nervous, but ready to get some results and see how well this chemo is working. Please continue to pray for Jeremy and our family this week as Jeremy has these tests done and waits for the results.

After the game we went to one of our favorite places for dinner. Joe's Crab Shack! It was so yummy and they have a big playground which the kids love. Carter again had chicken :) and Ian had shrimp. It was a yummy meal and we had a lot of fun! However we knew once dinner was over the party was over and we had the excursion home ahead of us!

Now I told you we got popcorn at the ballgame and Carter ate on that popcorn ALL day! Actually I think he is still eating on it today! For 10 dollars you got 2 drinks and that big bucket full of popcorn! Definitely got our moneys worth! He ate on it through half the game and then we stopped to get a snack along the way and he didn't want any candy he wanted the popcorn!

*A Big thank you to Dave for thinking of our family and giving us the tickets to the football game, they really couldn't have come at a better time for us.

*Thank you to the Lester family for the dinner you provided us last week when Jeremy was going through chemo. It was a rough week and couldn't have come at a better time.

*Thank you to Pa and Ma for the yummy peach cobbler and all the goodies you brought us from the grocery store.

*Thank you to Dad and Jannie for keeping the boys so that I could be with Jeremy for his PET scan.

*A BIG thank you to Sharon for always telling me to go and helping me to know that I do not have to be 2 places at once because work comes 2nd and my family comes first.