The Bomb

We averted a near disaster this morning.

Reese evidently helped Greer take care of the bunnies last night-

unlatched two door, instead of one and forgot to mention that little detail.

First thing this morning, there was only one rabbit in the cage, not two.

We roused the girls out of bed and off they went-- all teary

to search for what I would have sworn was a lost cause.

(We have hawks, owls, coyotes, foxes etc. on our property-- everything

except lions, tigers and bears.

And wouldn't you know it-- the Lord answered their sweet little prayers

and the escape artist, Thumper was spotted and caught!

 Our friend Trent was over helping Byron with some weeding

and thankfully, he was able to help the three damsels in distress.

 I had to include this picture of Reese sporting her "sheepish" look.

 All's well that ends well, right?

And what a perfect ending to a good day.

Motorcycle Jeff took not only Kean for a ride

but his sister Reese.

Who knows why she's not in these pictures.

Probably because she got muscled out by the Photo Bomber- Greer.

 Whoops, there she goes again!

The Ladies Man

Kean is at it again--

surrounded by beauties.

Actually, Ally and her friend, Katie offered to come sit with Kean

this morning so the rest of us could go to church together.

Let me put that another way,

today was the first time in nearly two year (23 months)

that Byron and I have gone to church together!!!

What a lovely thing to do.

The Great Escape

Ahhh, to get out of town and away from the craziness.

Just after lunch we (along with the Moomey's) drove up

to Grandpa Bodily's cabin just up from Lake Cascade.

 This was the view from his deck.  Lovely.  Absolutely lovely.

 Little Kean seemed happy to have a change of scenery.

I think he gets as cooped up as I do!

 The girls made themselves right at home, finding games to play...

 and horsing around.

 After dinner we all took the short walk down to the lake.

 Uh, yeah, kids, water-- they were in it in nothing flat.

 The girls played and played and built sand castles

(well, more like forts).

Poor Kean isn't allowed to touch the water-- but he

seemed mostly content to watch the girls and like his mom--

enjoy every second of being out of the house!!!

Unimpressed

Yippee.  It came.

Kean's Gait Trainer finally arrived.

I have high hopes for this contraption to get the 

boy off my hip and walking on his own.

 The guy from the medical supply company came out to show

me all the nifty features and fit it to our boy.

Unfortunately, Kean was not nearly as excited about this

special delivery as I was.

In fact, he was downright unimpressed.

 I'll chalk it up to him still feeling miserable from the Chemo

and we'll try and take it for it's maiden flight when he's 

feeling better and willing to put weight on those little legs.

But trust me, we will be logging the hours on this little puppy.

This boy has got to get walking!!!

Dysfunctional Relationship

So I have this full on love-hate relationship with Chemo.

My head knows it's helping to kill the cancer cells in Kean's body

but my heart breaks to watch him so miserable.

 He whimpered and whined all afternoon-- and he has bitten his 

thumbs until they are raw.

Stupid side effect of one of the drugs he takes is jaw pain

and he gets it like clockwork.

 Don't know what I'd do without his big sister to dance with him

and give me a break for a few.

 He did pull it together for this morning-- he had horse therapy

and did great- even after his horse got spooked, lunged to the side

and nearly tossed him.

He held on.  I held on and he somehow stayed on.

We giggled and made a big deal out of how fun that was

(even though I was freaked out on the inside) and he

bought it-- and carried on.

My sweet, little, exhausted but brave boy is in bed now.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be better for both of us.

It is a pretty tall order to ask a parent to try

and comfort a boy who is clearly suffering.

Keep swimming, keep swimming, right?

p.s.  our dear neighbors, the Kwid's brought by

brownies and a sympathy card to remember our lost dog, Zoe

and my friend, Candace Riggs brought by a big ol' bag of cherries

she picked.  Nothing cures the blues like chocolate and fresh cherries.

Thank you.

The Leg Model

Ohhh, how I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in

the doctor's office when Byron went in for his leg appointment.

Byron said it went something like this:

Doctor:  Where are your crutches?

Byron:  At home.

Doctor:  Where is your boot cast?

Byron:  At home.

Doctor:  Why?

Byron:  My leg feels great.

Doctor:  We'll see.  Let's take a look at the X-Rays.

Evidently, the X-Rays looked great

and Byron was told to be smart, be careful-- no running, climbing ladders etc.

His leg, by the way, is looking much, much better.

Unfortunately, his leg modeling days are over though.

Greer and her friend Jaymie were on dinner duty tonight.

I had to show you how cute they were... with their pasta, fruit salad

and homemade Texas toast.

The service was fabulous-- the cleaning up?  Not so much.

 And as for the Keanut-man?

He didn't feel so good today, wouldn't eat or drink much of anything

but did get -- thank heavens  -- a motorcycle ride

with Motorcycle Jeff.

Bless that man's sweet soul.

Funeral Number Two

Honestly, I thought today would be an overly emotional one for the girls

after burying Zoe last night.

But they were in a pretty even zone.

Byron had found several old pictures of our sweet dog,

so they started out the morning remembering and oohing

and ahhing.

I had to share this one-- it cracked us all up.

Back in the day, Byron was involved in scouts and

Zoe regularly went out hikes and camping excursions as his assistant.

She had her own pack and carried her own bed roll.

She was totally in to it and all serious about her duties.

 We had our second funeral in two days-- the funeral for

our dear friend, Anthony Moretti.

He was only 12 and died of brain cancer last week.

As we loaded into the car this morning, Greer told me

she didn't think she had any tears left to cry.

We were glad we went though, Anthony was a spiritual kid--

one wise beyond his years.

His dad told the story of how that how after months of Chemo

and thinking he had beat it-- pain in his hip and a subsequent MRI

showed the cancer was now in his spine.

Anthony was understandably angry.

Yet, as his father said how he wished he could change places

and how he wished he was the one with the cancer--

Anthony said no, I'm glad it's me.  I wouldn't want anyone

I love to have to go through this.

Kind of gives you an idea of his character and strength.

In his short life, he definitely touched more lives than most of us do

in a long lifetime.

The church was packed with his friends, classmates, teammates etc.

Meanwhile, my mother and our friend, Melanie Clark took Kean

for his Chemo procedure (the one where they put the meds in his brain and spine).

I was so nervous and torn to not be with him-- but my prayers were answered

and things could not have gone any better.

And I swear, you'd think the doctors shot him up with "happy juice"

instead of Chemo--

he was in the best mood this afternoon.

All giggly, cute and yummy.

It started hitting him a bit tonight, but whew, so glad

things went so well.

What a blessing.

The First Funeral

I guess our family is doomed to continue to ride the roller coaster

we affectionately know as life.

Remember our sweet dog, Zoe?

The one, Kean used to chase around the house with his Harley?

The one Reese used to go out and read bedtime stories to?

(Please notice the title of that book:  "No Biting").

 The one Holland tucked in every single night

with a lullaby (usually outside).

 Our Zoe was with us before the children.  We

actually had her trained to fetch a clean diaper when Holland was a baby.

It was a beautiful thing....

She's sure gone down hill though the past few days.

We even had to tie a rope around her since she started wandering off.

Friday night we heard howling and found her clear down in the middle

of the neighbor's pasture-- lost and too weak to walk back.

Holland spent the night sleeping next to her on Saturday.

And we were all surprised Zoe made it through the night.

 Then the three girls bedded down beside her last night.

And once again, she somehow survived.

But at nearly fifteen, it was her time.

We had the one Vet in town who makes house calls

come out to the place and quietly put her to sleep this evening.

Grandpa Bodily was there-- he gave each of the girls a

beautiful rose for the grave.

Greer wrote and sang a tribute song--

and other than buckets of tears, the girls were pretty brave.

Holland (and Byron) will have the hardest time with her being gone.

It will sure be strange and sad without her around

but she was so old and so tired.

Let's hope we all get some rest before we go to Anthony's funeral tomorrow.

Clearly, we should have invested in a larger supply of Kleenex.

p.s.  Saint Dee (my mom) is taking Kean to his big Chemo

appointment so I can go to the funeral with the girls.

That was a really hard decision as to where I was needed most.

What would I do without my mum!

Easy Rider

Whoo hoo!
Fasten those seat belts,
grab some popcorn and settle in for this little 13 minute ride.
Here's the link to Motorcycle Jeff's video of Kean on the Hog!
And here's a picture of Kean watching "his" video first thing this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQnnZx0NhGs&feature=youtu.be

The Big Screen

We finally celebrated Byron's birthday tonight

(since he had a work training meeting on Thursday).

 We also celebrated Ray's birthday which was earlier this week.

Byron's cousin, Linda and Ray have been visiting this weekend

and spoiling us rotten.

We've loved getting to know them.

 But Kean, perhaps, got the best present---

not only a Harley ride with Motorcycle Jeff...

but also the grand premiere of the music video Jeff

put together of their rides into the sunset.

 It is fabulous--- so fun to see how Kean reacts and what he's doing

during those long rides in the wind.

Half the fun tonight was watching him watch himself on the screen.

I have a feeling this will be played over and over and over and over again

in our house.

Stay tuned... I'll link it when I get it loaded on YouTube.

It is priceless!

Super Stars

All this week the girls have been attending a little drama camp

at a friend's house.

They practiced each day and then tonight put on High School Musical

for all the parents and families.

Reese had a few speaking parts and was on the basketball team-- 

go figure-- the tiniest munchkin in the family!

Greer-- who would have preferred to have one of the lead roles

played a few small parts--

 including Amazon cheerleader girl- look how tall she is.

 It was cute and the girls had fun-- that's what counts, eh?

 The gal who produced it is only a junior in high school (next year).

She's been doing these summer camps since she was in 7th grade--

pretty impressive.

She gave each of the kiddos a certificate and homemade trophy-

including Miss Holland who worked as her assistant this year.

 Greer informed us she did not want flowers given to her on stage

at the end of the play-- instead she preferred donuts.

(They get their sweet tooth from Byron, not me)!

 One fun footnote, Byron's cousins from Spokane are visiting for the

next few days.  This was my first time meeting them and they are

wonderful!  I'm not just saying that because they came bearing

the most beautiful gifts.

Ray is a professional artist-- a potter and made all these

pieces for the Barker's.

Wow, we take them to see the girls' play

and they give us these gorgeous works of art.

Hmmmm, wonder who got the better end of the deal!

Jam Packed

You know Thursday is gonna be a good day

'cause it is horse therapy day.

Kean got to ride Romeo again and have the

lovely and talented 7 year-old Loryn as our lead.

She even got up early and did her hair all cute for Kean today!

 And the day just got better for Keanut.

Two motorcycle rides two nights in a row.

Tonight, Motorcycle Bill-- Jeff's boss drove over

to get his fix and give a fix.

We also headed over to my parents house for a few hours.  

My Aunt and Uncle are visiting after spending a year in the Ukraine.

My uncle was the mission president for our church over there and

with all the craziness and unrest-- they had to evacuate all their missionaries

and then about 3 weeks later, they had to get out.

Good thing-- the violence really escalated two days after they left.

Also, my mom's older brother and his wife just returned a week ago

from serving in Hong Kong.

Talk about interesting stories all around tonight.

I didn't want to leave.

 But we needed to get home to Mister Handsome Sr.

It is his birthday today-- but not much of one.

He was stuck all evening at a work training seminar

that concluded with a test.

Yuck!

We promise to party this weekend.

Happy birthday honey.

Anthony

I just heard our friend Anthony lost his battle

with cancer today.

I love this picture of Anthony and him mom, Cindy.

They both look angelic to me.

He is finally out of pain-- but oh, how his mom, dad, brother

and two sisters must be feeling tonight.

Please, please keep the Moretti family in your prayers.
We love this family so very much.

No parent should ever have to outlive their child.