Finally a Doctor With Some Good News!

It was inevitable that with as many doctors appointments that we go to

we'd finally get a positive prognosis.

Before you get all excited-- he still has Cancer.

We didn't see an Oncologist today, we saw his E.N.T. (Ear, Nose and Throat doc).

And let me tell you, it was a beautiful thing.

We called from the parking lot and instead of waiting in their always

crowded with kiddos waiting room-- we went straight into the examining room.

The last time we went, I wrote about how this was one of the few perks of Cancer.

But hey, we are not proud-- we'll gladly take it.

Anyway, here's the scoop.  He lost the tube in his right ear some time ago

and we've been waiting until he was healthy enough to do surgery number four

 for ear tubes-- ug..

However, today we learned both of his inner ears are clear of liquid.

If, at his next check up in three months, they are still clear-- guess what--

we get to dodge the surgery bullet!!!!!

He did have a little problem in his left ear with some gunk growing around the tube

but it should be cleared up in two weeks with an antibiotic ear drop.

I know Kean doesn't look that excited in this picture with the good news.

He did not appreciate being held down and poked and prodded.

 At our next stop, our favorite pharmacy, Customedica to pick up this week's worth of drugs, look

at what we found-- Kean on the front page of one of the local papers.

Remember how he got drafted at the last minute to serve as the "poster boy"

for our friends who are offering free horse therapy lessons to

kids with special needs?  Who would've known he'd be so famous.

Party Central

Okay, the only way I survived tonight is because Pam Brown and Elly Moomey came over and helped me!

We threw Greer's birthday party tonight-- 13 girls.  We must be crazy (or trying to make up

for this insane year with Kean's health).

 Our neighbor brought over his water slide and even though it was a bit chilly and breezy,

that didn't stop these hearty girls.

 We also played a rousing round of "Minute To Win It".

The girls had 60 seconds for each task:  first up: stack as many dice as possible on a popsicle stick.

 Then it was shake eight ping pong balls out of an empty tissue box tied to their backs

(aptly titled "junk in the trunk")...

 Nxt, they has to see who could stack the most apples...

 stack dice on top of each other using red solo cups instead of their hands...

 and finally, move an Oreo cookie from their foreheads to their mouths

using only facial expressions.

It was by far the most entertaining part of the game.

Of course there were presents...

 And birthday cake (phew, this one turned out without any drama).

 And since it was a little cool, I gave the girls the choice between cake and ice cream

or cake and roasted marshmallows.

Smart girls-- they chose both.

 And of course it was just fine with me to let them get all sugared up

and then send them home.

Happy 10th birthday to our sweet GiGi.

p.s.  a special thanks to Dustin and Stephanie for partying with

Kean tonight so we could pull off this party for Greer.

Easy Riders

Spring in Idaho is all about if you don't like the weather right now, wait five minutes.

And that's how it has been-- one minute blowing, chilly and raining.

The next, it is sunny and gorgeous.

Byron took advantage of the window of gorgeous and

took the troops on a four wheeler drive up in the

BLM land behind our property.

They were gone a good hour.

And Byron said Kean could have likely gone forever.

We sure know what makes the boy happy!

Rock Star

I headed back to the girls' school today.

Greer did make it into the talent show

and today sang a solo (the old Nat King Cole song:  L is for the way you look at me....)

in front of her entire school and lots of parents.

And... she ROCKED IT!!!!!

She was really amazing.

And for some reason, this dang computer won't let me upload the video.

But trust. me.. she was fabulous.

We also passed out ice cream to GiGi's class to celebrate yesterday's birthday.

 And we did the same in Reese's class.

Her teacher assigned today to be the day to celebrate her summer birthday. 

Poor Reese though.

They had her come up in front of the class to sing Happy Birthday...

and I swear, if she could have dug a hole and hidden in it-- she would have.

She looked terribly uncomfortable to be in the spotlight.

Where did that come from?

Once again, Kean didn't even know I was gone.

He napped all the way through my absence.

But Reese made up for him having to stay behind with this neat little

trick and the swing.

The Birthday Girl

Greer has graduated to the double digits.

Ten, she is.

I'm still wondering how and when did that happen?

 Our little munchkin with the scrunchy face

has turned into a tall, leggy,constantly singing sweetie.

We think she had a good day.

It started with a little swim party at one of her best friends' Eliza's house.

Kean was even invited to the 'much warmer than the air' pool.

And let me tell you, he was a wild man.

Kind of like holding a slippery fish bent on getting back in the ocean.

Only thing I can think of is he must think the pool is just an over sized bath tub.

 Right after we got out and got him dried off and dressed, Eliza's dad

started up the ol' weed whacker.

You should've seen Kean's face-- he whipped around and knew immediately

what was coming next: 

yep, the lawn mower.

Poor Eliza's dad.  He didn't stand a chance of mowing alone.

And just look at what happened before he even finished the lawn!

 We had a pretty low key birthday soiree' for Greer tonight.

Her favorite dinner (ribs-- even though she considers herself a vegetarian),

a movie and of course, the much awaited opening of presents.

We're throwing a bash for her and her friends on Thursday night.

That is, if we survive the rest of the week.

It's the last few days of school.

Pure Joy!

Keanut was quite the slave driver on this Sunday morn.

Darn old jeep won't hold a battery charge worth beans... so

he's forced to force his sister into providing the get up and go.

 Unfortunately, her get up and go only goes for so long.

We finally hung the swing Kean got for his birthday last year but was too ill to use it.

If nothing makes you smile.

This will!

A Date With Cars



The Barker's played it a little fast and wild tonight and went out

as an entire family-- a very rare occasion.

We all went over to a party at the Moomey's house.

Mark had his farewell soiree'.  He's leaving

shortly to serve a mission for our church in the Netherlands.

We knew there'd be a ton of people there, so Kean got to hang out in the master bedroom

and watch... yep, you guessed it:  Cars.

It actually worked out quite well.  Byron and I took turns hanging with the boy.

Elly had made tons of Dutch specialties-- Kean macked on  two deviled eggs

but turned his nose up at most everything else.

At the end, when most everyone was gone, boy, was Kean excited

to get his run of the house and get out of his temporary quarters.

He's a social butterfly, this one.

Can't wait until he's healthy enough to party again.

"May"hem

I am so stealing this.

My friend called this month of May-- Mayhem.

Seems like we have more weddings, school activities, birthday parties etc.--

we are busier than during the Christmas holidays.

Case in point.

I made two more trips to the girls' school today.

This morning, Greer had her 4th and 5th grade program.

Greer played the recorder, her violin, sang...

 and even did the twist.

Surprisingly, it was quite entertaining.

 Then after a short break, it was back again, to Reese's 1st grade class.

All of the students in Reese's class wrote and illustrated their very own books.

The parents rotated around to each child to hear them read their books.

Then we got to leave comments about what a good job they did.

It was hilarious, Reese's was about a lost dolphin.  Most of the girls

wrote about princesses and pets.

The boys' books were about monsters and tornadoes.

 Kean had an exciting little field trip of his own.

He's doing so well, instead of having a friend come to our house,

I let him go over to my friend, Colleen Riggs' house.

When we walked in, he just looked up and down and all around and smiled.

 She took all these pictures of him on his great adventure.

Love this impersonation of him as a curmudgeon.

I think Colleen quite spoiled him.

She took him on an hour long four wheeler drive (she said he didn't want to stop),

a visit to their horses,

 and then for lots of swinging.

 She said he just giggled.

He had so much fun, I think he wants to trade me in for her!

 



Miss Fearless and Mister Patience

I took Kean over to a neighbor's house to buy some fresh, local honey.

Byron has toast every morning with (local) honey.  He started this little

routine 9 or 10 years ago and hasn't had a problem since with his seasonal allergies.

Kean, with his signs and sounds quickly made it known he wanted to ride their "motorcycle".

 That was heaven... until he saw this-- a big ol' John Deere.

I think he could've stayed there all day and helped

these farmers get their work done.

Yeah, right.

 Greer wins the super brave award for the day.

After school she joined a slew of kids from her elementary in auditioning

for one of just 15 spots in Galileo's annual talent show.

I don't know where she gets it-- both she and Holland have enough

gumption to sing a solo in front of their peers.

I'd have to be hopped up on Valium to pull something like that off.

And finally, I thought you'd like a little update.

Grandpa Bodily's swimming pool is finally fixed.

On our walk this evening, Grandpa Bodily proudly opened up

the pool cover and had us listen to the heater running.

Yippee...



A flat second after Grandpa Bodily opened his pool, Kean ripped his

socks off to let us know-- he's ready.

Patience, my little grasshopper.  Patience.

But we could be swimming by tomorrow night!

Pill

We had no repeats of the great poop incident of 2013 (thanks to my

new secret weapon of having him wear a onesie under his jammies).

I must be getting smarter out of necessity.

Kean's Physical Therapist, Andrea came this morning.

He was not into working out, standing or walking for her or me.

Pill.

This was about as good as it got.

Pill.

 Holland, on the other hand, has worked quite hard this year.

This afternoon she was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society.

 She is one great girl.

 After dinner, we headed back to the school for Holland's Middle School band concert.

 She plays the clarinet.

And wow... what a difference a school year makes.

She had never touched a clarinet until last September.

Tonight, they played several songs from the "Masters"...

songs we actually recognized.

It was great.

Epic

Introducing... the face of an angel-- not.

 Kean may look all innocent and sweet as pie but this morning he was quite the opposite.

Reese came screaming into my room a little before seven bellowing Emergency!  Emergency!

Evidently, our darling boy had done a little exploring in his diaper- a diaper that was more than

filled to the brim with -- need I explain more?

I'll just say his room smelled like there was a cadaver in the crib with him.

 By the time I got in there, he had poop smeared all over his hair, his face, and arms-- oh and don't forget the crib.

With Reese as my trusty assistant and expert garbage bag holder at my side, we got to work.

But here's the hideous part;  barely into the cleaning, I had one hand holding his legs up, and reached

for more wipes with the other.  In that fraction of a split second, the boy pulled the diaper out from under

him and promptly dropped it on his face.

And let me tell you, it was a diaper of colossal proportions.

He had eaten all of us under the table last night at Elly's- and there it all was in that glorious diaper..

(yes, this is all her fault)!

I can't begin to find the words to describe how disgusting

this experience was-- on the scale of epic, it was beyond epic..

One of those moments as a mother where you remind yourself that yes, you really are living the life!

Several loads of laundry later (and at least half a day of my house smelling like poop mixed with Lysol)...

we are back to normal.

Well, kind of.

Kean wouldn't eat more than a bite of dinner.

And here I thought I was the one traumatized!

By the way, it was no ordinary dinner-- it was fabulous.

Grace Gwinn (with her mom Carmen)

had to do a 4 hour service project for 7th grade.

She chose to make dinner for our family!!!

Homemade lasagna, an incredible fruit salad and a lemon pie...

a wonderful ending to a not so great start of a day.

Kean will get a second try at tonight's dinner.

Ymmmm... leftovers tomorrow!

The Fan Club

I thought I'd better introduce you to Claire, Kean's new Speech Therapist.

She'll be coming into our lives every Monday from here on out.

At her first visit, last week, Kean was a first class pill.

You'd think he was mute and handcuffed.  The only sign or sound he made

was when she walked out the door and he said bye, bye.

 Today was a completely different story-- or different Kean.

He was gabbing up a storm.

And in case you can't tell, he has this new trick of popping bubbles with his tongue.

I guess if he ever gets a potty mouth, washing it out with soap will have no impact.

 We spent this Monday evening with our bestest buddies, the Moomey's.

Mark is leaving in a few weeks to serve a mission in the Netherlands for our church.

The girls have practically grown up with Mark as their adopted big brother.

I don't think we've ever had a get together or camping trip where Mark

hasn't been surrounded by his little harem.

 And if the girls are the charter members of Mark's fan club-- Kean is the

President elect.

Guess who regularly gives the boy motorcycle rides?

 Oh, and there was a bonus tonight-- Elly gave him one too.

Love the jump start on these playful summer nights.