The WORD we have waited for............................

REMISSION!!!!

We got AMAZING news today when we saw the oncologist! Jeremy is officially in remission! We are so happy, relieved, emotional, thrilled, and I could go and on!!!

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is GOOD; for His loving kindness is everlasting

(Psalms 107:1)

Jeremy will go back in 3 months for bloodwork, 6 months for a PET scan, and another colonoscopy in a year. Dr. B was so pleased with all his results! Remission is one of those words we have longed to hear. 8 months ago I didn't know if we would ever hear those words. Not that we didn't have faith, not that we didn't believe the doctors, but we were scared and the journey seemed so long. Now here we are in a new year with a new start! God is good, God is faithful and so are all our amazing friends and family! Thank you for each and every one of you. If you are reading this, you know you are important to our family. You have given us the prayers, support, and love we have needed over the past 8 months.

Well what else is there to say, but we will now begin adjusting back to our regularly scheduled life ;).........................................

Snow Day!

For the first time in many years we had a white Christmas and then right after New Years we got another beautiful snow! Luckily this time it was cold, but not miserable. Jeremy and I decided it was a perfect Sunday afternoon to take the boys sledding! We headed over to Papaw and Tata's to sled on the hill I always sled on when I was a kid! This was Carter's first real snow day! He was too little last year and seemed to be sick most of the winter, not to mention that last year we had no snow only ICE! I am not sure who liked it better Ian or Carter, they both had a great time!

However Carter's first trip down resulted in a bit of a face plant! This is a picture of Papaw fixing his hats and gloves! He was a little scared after that, but didn't take him long to get over it!

Isn't it funny how it is so much fun going down, but much more work coming up! You can see Tata and I having to help everyone back up along with their sleds!

Papaw and Ian just beat every ones record on how far they went in the sled!

Did you know that playing in the snow is EXHAUSTING? Looking forward to our next Snow Day!

Thank you for riding our roller coaster......

I truly do hope we can let you get off soon :). Today we saw how faithful our loving God is! We got Jeremy's pathology reports back and the polyps came back as noncancerous. We are so incredibly happy, relieved, exhausted, elated, emotional, and overwhelmed. Jeremy had his PET scan today and I think it was kind of a comedy of errors because the tubing came out mid scan and sprayed this sticky gel all over him. He tried to settle up with them and call it even on the PET scan charge and the Houndstooth t-shirt replacement, but I am guessing they weren't interested......maybe they will contact us tomorrow and settle up :). We will get results from the scans at his appointment on Tuesday. However we can rest easier tonight knowing those pathology reports. A big thank you to Tata, Dr. H, and Peter for making sure we got the results today. Keep the prayers going, they are WORKING!!!!

Not the News we Expected

Well we got home a couple hours ago from Jeremy's colonoscopy. He is resting comfortably on the couch. How he sleeps with the tv blaring I will never know! We prayed for a clean colonoscopy and had high hopes of skipping home and enjoying our day. Well unfortunately the gastrenologist found 2 polyps that had already grown back within the 7 months of Jeremy's last colonoscopy. They removed both of them and have sent them off to pathology. We hope to get the results within 5 to 7 days. The waiting is always miserable. We are still hopeful and spending much time in prayer. The hardest part is that the polyps grew back in the exact same area of the colon resection. So basically in the same area as the first polyp that was cancerous. We are still pretty shell shocked, mainly because we were so hopeful that it would be completely clean. Many times we don't know the plan our Heavenly Father has for our life, but we are continuing to be strong and have faith. I promise to let you know the pathology report as soon as we know them. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers. Pray for healing, pray for a good report, and pray for us as we wait for the news.

Big TIMES before a Big Week!

Saturday night Jeremy and I went out with some good friends! We met up at a new place in town called J.J.'s, which has some GREAT hamburgers by the way! One of my really good friends Inger who also works in my classroom at school had her girls babysit the boys. So basically we had a blast and the boys did too. I think while we were gone they played with their big dog Bosco, made cookies, built a Spongebob Lego track, read books, and watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Carter got up this morning and asked if he could go back, can't imagine why!

So a few pics of our night out!

Okay on a side note I have to tell one funny story! We had planned this little night out, so that Jeremy and Inger's husband(far left) could meet, so we show up at their house and Inger's husband walks out and him and Jeremy have on the exact same sweater! It was hysterical! It was kind of at that moment we thought they would hit it off and sure enough once we got in the car it was football talk the rest of the night!

So we do have a big week coming up, in fact as I type this Jeremy is doing his prep for his colonoscopy(NOT FUN!). We have to be there at 6:30 in the morning and the procedure will be about 8. I will get to see the gastrenologist after the procedure to get the immediate results of the scope, but if they find anything it will have to be sent off. We are praying for a clean scope tomorrow. I got down on my knees this morning in some serious prayer time. There are so many things going on in our lives, friends lives, families lives, and all over the world that need prayer. On Wednesday Jeremy will have his PET and CT scan. We will get all the results at his appt on January 26. Please pray this week for good results and for the cancer to be gone! I have prayed so many times for a healing hand and that God will give us a fresh start in 2010. We really feel this is our year!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

P.S. Frosty and Santa came down this afternoon! So they have no heart decor in their future!

Dear Neighbors,

Please know that we promise you we will be taking Frosty and Santa down soon especially now that the temperatures have risen above freezing and most of the snow has melted! If they are not taken down by Valentines, I promise we will add hearts to their outfits!

I had to plug them in one last time for Carter! I think he will be a little sad when they are gone. I mean mid January, he probably thinks we are leaving them up all year!
Lots of Love,
The Jackson Family

Menu Monday

Okay so every week I create a menu and post it on the fridge. This is so I can plan ahead on groceries and know exactly what we are having each night. It allows me to not only plan ahead, but also know if I need to prepare something ahead of time or if I can prepare meat for 2 different dishes. Now our normal routine is each week Jeremy and I both get to choose a meal and then we let the boys choose one of the meals. Now if we let Ian choose a meal he will almost always choose breakfast I know. Isn't that wild! He loves having breakfast for dinner especially biscuits and gravy. Now sometimes he will go for pancakes, but there has to be bacon involved. Carter on the other hand loves pasta....any kind! He also likes hot dogs! Keep in mind he is 2, so we have to give him a little guidance in his choices :) I mean if not we would have Hershey bars and Dr. Pepper every night he got to choose!

So this weeks menus is:

Monday-Breakfast for dinner(a little fancier than our normal biscuits and gravy!)

Fritatta with bacon

Oven French Toast

Tuesday-Bean and Cheese burritos with Southwest Rice

Wednesday-Orange Chicken

Thursday-Spaghetti with cheesey bread

Friday-Chicken sandwich with fries

I am a planner and I love knowing what we are going to have for dinner each night. I think it is so nice to come home and not have any decisions to make about what we are going to eat each night. Gives me more time for all the fun stuff like baths and homework;)

"Push" Present

Okay so I am sure many of you are familiar with the famous "Push" present and some of you maybe not. However when I had both the boys Jeremy got me a "Push" present basically a thank you for hanging in there for 9 months and getting through all the ups and downs of pregnancy and surviving labor! When Ian was born I got a beautiful necklace with a baby blue stone and when Carter was born I got a sterling silver ring with his name engraved in it.

I decided a few months ago that Jeremy needed a "Push" present for finishing chemo. One day when I was visiting all my blog friends blogs I came across the perfect gift! I knew the moment I saw it that my search was over! I contacted the blog I found it on and they were so excited and gracious to help us with this gift. I don't know how I kept it a secret from Jeremy, but somehow I did. So on Christmas Eve when the boys got home we gave Daddy his "Push" present. I mean I know he didn't push per say, but in my mind he did, he pushed through each day, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Even when he wanted to give up he didn't, even when he was sick, miserable, and exhausted he kept going. On those days when he felt like it couldn't get any worse he would battle through. We are SO proud of him. He persevered through 6 very long months. He has been to more doctors than he has ever dreamed of going to. He has had more needles, shots, blood draws than I can ever begin to explain. Even though it got hard and even though he got grumpy and frustrated he did it. He made it! So this was our thank you to him.

Jeremy there are no words to say how proud I am of you. I know this past year has been tough and I know the upcoming tests and procedures are stressful. However the things you have done for your family and strength and courage you have endured are amazing to me. God brought us together and we truly do give one another strength, courage, and wisdom. You make me a stronger person than I could ever be without you. I know things are still tough and know it is still rough and there are reminders of that everyday, but we are making it! Praise God Almighty we have our faith, we have each other, we have our boys, and we have amazing family and friends. I cherish everyday we have together and I now take nothing for granted. So from the bottom of my heart thank you. This flag was symbolic of something you and the boys do together and something that we love to do and watch together as a family. It is something we will always have in our home and someone made it with their very own hands just for you. Thank you is not enough, but thank you for doing what you have for your family. We love you so much!

Christmas Day Pics

So Santa made quite a stop at our house. I am still wondering how he got all that loot down the chimney! You can see from the pics Santa brought Ian a Nintendo DSI and Carter a train table! They were both thrilled!Our stockings were so full Santa had to lay them out on the fireplace! They were busting at the seams!

The boys got a race track from Papaw and Tata. You can see that daddy is wore out from putting it together! They loved it and those cars go fast!

The boys (and also mommy and daddy) had a few surprises throughout the day. First up Ian got a new laptop from his Nana and Carter got a Handy Manny tool bench that he REALLY wanted! He would play with it forever every time we went to Target.

No worries Santa even remember to stuff Bella's stocking with some goodies!!!!

Can you believe Santa dropped a cookie on his way back out? No worries though all the other cookies were gone. Also did you know Santa likes regular milk and soy milk? Carter is allergic to milk, so Ian thought it only fair that we put out both kinds of milk to see which one he likes better. He drank them both!

On Christmas day another surprise drop off! Papaw and Tata showed up at the door with an electric scooter for Ian and Carter his very own Harley! Now keep in mind it was freezing on Christmas, so of course they had to try them both out in the house. They were having a great time until Ian's scooter went so fast he nearly slammed into the wall and decided he would wait for warmer weather! The boys love their new rides!!!!!!
So as you can see from the pictures we had an AMAZING Christmas!!!! The boys couldn't have asked for it to be more perfect! Not that the focus of Christmas is on gifts and the boys know that. However the memories that were made were wonderful! Christmas is such a magical time and we felt it the entire season!

Happy 2010!

Okay so my last week off from work I decided to get EVERYTHING in order. Housecleaning....check, bills paid.....check, drawers and closets cleaned out and organized........check, freezer stocked and menu made....check, laundry caught up and actually ahead...check, car cleaned out....check. The list goes on and on. Oh wait new pictures hung on the wall.....check, celebrated Christmas and New Years....check, and most importantly last chemo complete.....CHECK!!!!!
Ok so I did put some other things in the front seat. I didn't do much blogging, facebooking, emailing, etc. It is such a nice feeling when you have your house in order and get things back in order. I mean with 2 boys things are always crazy, but I am an organization freak. Everything has to have its place and a system, if it doesn't I go bonkers! So we started the year 2010 on the best foot! We have everything so nice and neat. Granted I know this won't last forever, but it feels so good to start the year on the right foot and to have a system in place.
For years since Jeremy I have been married I have been a Menu Maker. Every week I make a menu for the next week, this is so I know I have all the groceries I need and it keeps us from eating out and also saves money because I don't make a bunch of unecessary trips to the store. When Jeremy got sick and of course he wasn't eating much I got out of my habit and basically became a short order cook because I was fixing everyone what they wanted because I never knew what was going to sound good to Jeremy or myself. So the past 2 weeks the Menu Maker is back! I will post more on it later and post a few of my menus! I love the kitchen. I think it is a mom thing, but I love to cook and fix dinner while my boys sit at the bar and tell me about their day and of course eat dinner because they are starving by the time we get home and I start cooking!

Jeremy's last treatment is OVER!!!!!! Tuesday through Thursday of the treatment were rough, then on Friday which was Christmas day he was able to get up and actually enjoy the day with the boys. It was so nice because we had no idea how he would feel and we were so thankful that he was able to be up and play with all the new goodies Santa brought!!! Actually come to think of it Jeremy was the first one out of bed on Christmas morning! It was a wonderful day, we played, rested, ate, and relaxed all with a big fire in the fireplace.

We had Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas morning at home, and then Jeremy's family came for New Years Day. It was lots of fun and lots of celebrating. I love me some Christmas, but I can honestly say I was wore out by the time it was all over!

January is going to be a busy month as well. We continue to pray for good clean test results.

Wishing you all a Happy Healthy and Blessed New Year!!!!!