Besties

Oh to be eleven again!

Grandpa Bodily's great granddaughter is visiting for the weekend--

and she and Greer have hit it off.

They spent half the afternoon holed up composing a song--

a song they sang for the entire family this evening.

The two girls are trying to figure out how Greer can

attend a certain somebody's birthday party in two weeks--

just a short 6 hour drive away!

Knock, Knock

There are not many things cuter than watching Kean knock 

on our neighbor's door to see if Grandpa Bodily can come out and play.

 We are determined to keep this boy walking to build up his

confidence and his strength.  And every day he goes a bit further

on his own.

Oh he pays for it... with sheer exhaustion.

Who would have thought that walking would wear a boy out...

but on this day, he was still walking 

when Reese on her roller blades was tuckered out!

Progress, sweet progress.

Not A Fluke!

Kean is not a one-trick pony.

He walked again today to get to Grandpa Bodily's tractor...

and boy did he--- clear across the driveway!

I can't think of a better way to reward him than for him to

get to go on one of his beloved motorcycle rides.

Motorcycle Jeff has a booked holiday weekend so guess who

contacted us and

came to the rescue-- his boss, Motorcycle Bill.

And Kean was more than willing to show off his new skills...

 to get to the coveted Harley.

 My only concern is... will he walk when there's no

motorcycle or tractor as his goal?

 Ah, we can worry about that another day.

 For now, he's doing some walking...

and some riding.

Drum Roll please......

Get ready to applaud widely.

Or even shed a few tears.

Kean's therapist, Andrea and I sure did.

He put in a few laps with his walker today

and we felt he was ready to take it to the next level--

using Grandpa Bodily on his lawn mower as the carrot, the stick,

the reward, the goal-- you name it.

Here is attempt number one and it's a stunner!!!

But wait, that's not all folks!

He did it again for round two

and yes, even round three--

and wait til the end to see his face.

Proud, proud, proud!

Ladies and gentlemen... we are on our way!

(Finally).

Bald Again

Many of you know I'm up to my ears in Baldapalooza again.

Last year we put on our little family friendly music festival

and raised a good pile of money for the hospital where Kean

spends way too much of his time.

We are creating a Hall of Heroes to tell the stories of some 

of these brave warrior children fighting cancer and beating the monster.

Here's Kean's photo that will be used as the "example".

It will have his story and a bit of advice for other families

just climbing on this roller coaster.

My friend Fabiana took this and has offered to take all the 

other photos for the Hall of Heroes.

Anyway, this year, we are doing Baldapalooza again--

much bigger and hopefully, that means we'll be 

raising even more money.

This time, proceeds will go to Camp Rainbow Gold.

If you read this blog, you already know how much I LOVE

this organization.  They have healed our family's spirits

while the doctors have worked to heal Kean's body.

Today, I went with one of our musicians down to the local

NBC station to do a little press for the festival.

Desirae Bronson is a country artist who just opened

for Trace Atkins and the month before that, for Joe Nichols.

She was wonderful and I can't wait to hear her belt it out on our stage.

 Here's our line-up for this year's Baldapalooza.

Our headliner -- we think is a big, big deal.

Ashley Monroe is another country musician-- her  Like a Rose album

was named the top country music album of 2013 by
Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times

and Billboard Magazine.

Not too shabby, eh?

Did I mention she is also one of the members of the Pistol Annies?

(Ashley is one of three members-- Miranda Lambert is another).

It should be a night of great, diverse music...

yummy food, a giant Kid's Zone

and hopefully, a triumph in the fundraising department for 

Camp Rainbow Gold.

So... if you live anywhere near the Boise/Eagle area--

buy your tickets now.  We have a promo going on--

only ten bucks for 18 and under.  20 for adults.

And if you don't live close enough to join us,

go to our website:  www.baldapalooza.org

and make a donation!!!!!

This all came about to help Kean-- we just expanded

it a bit to help all of his friends who are fighting cancer too!

p.s.  We just got word the other night that former NFL great

Steve Young's foundation,Forever Young, will be our 

presenting sponsor.

Guess those old days of emceeing his golf tournaments in Phoenix

have come around to help out!

Porky Pig

Our boy is just coming off his week of Steroids and 

my, oh my is he into power eating.

No exaggeration here... he is eating all of us under the table.

Let's see, today alone he had two large pancakes, a full glass

of juice, 9 fish sticks, a bowl of mashed potatoes, a large bowl

of fruit, a mango and yogurt smoothie, a bowl of vanilla yogurt,

a piece of bacon, four pieces of pizza, a bunch of grapes, a slice

of mango, a bowl of cantaloupe, several strawberries

and some watermelon.

My stomach hurts just watching him pound that down!

Oh and we finally caught his latest trick on camera-

even though this isn't his best.

But at meal time when we go to pray, he typically says "prayers"

with as much gusto as Jesse Jackson at a Saturday night revival.

Scar Face

First day of school pics to add to the flood of all the others I've seen.
Holland will be in 8th, Greer in 6th and Reesey is in 3rd.

 This is a much more accurate picture of how we all

fell about summer ending and school starting.

Plus, Reese gets to make that oh-so-important first impression

with a scratched up nose, lip and hamburger for the inside of her mouth.

This weekend,, she and her sisters got the ol' snow sleds out.

Why should the fact here is no snow stop them?

They surfed down the hill on the pine needles--

and unfortunately, Reese's surfboard stopped and she didn't.

Two words

My friend Pam just sent this to me....

Listen for those two magical words:  "horsey ride".

The Amazing Spider Man

My super friend Pam is back in town... which means

spoiling time for the Keanut man.

 She brought him this Spiderman shirt for his birthday...

and yes, he is pretty amazing!

She also took him out for a milkshake and to horse

therapy.

Yep, he's not the only one who is amazing!

The girls registered for school today.

Holland will be in 8th grade.

Reese in 3rd...

 And Greer in 6th.

She got her first locker ever... big stuff and big day!

Heaven help us... we are going to have two girls in middle school.

Let the raging hormones take over!

Hercules

I'm so proud of my little guy.

In spite of having heavy Chemo on Tuesday

and in spite of his feet bothering him from the drugs,

he gave us a Herculean effort today for physical therapy.

 He walked up and down Grandpa Bodily's 

drive way... not once but twice.

This follows yesterday when I could hardly

get him to even use his feet!

I guess that just shows us how badly he wanted

to ride with Grandpa Bodily!

 Our sweet girls (and neighbor Jaymie) surprised

us by making dinner tonight and then serving us outside

on the lawn.

 We are pretty spoiled, if I do say so.

Speaking of spoiled, I have to record this (for my shoddy memory).

We've been having some problems with the Chemo Kean takes

nightly.  It has been clumping up.  We spent nearly an hour

yesterday waiting at the hospital to pick up this latest bottle.

Finally, the pharmacist came out and said she wasn't happy

with how it was turning out (it is a complicated process

of breaking the Chemo down from pill form to liquid).

So she was going to have to re-order and start all over again.

Get this, the pharmacist didn't want me to have to drive clear

across town again, so she offered to meet me near my home

on her way home from work.

I have decided there are a lot more good people

in this world than there are bad.

We sure have met some of the kindest.

From Down Under

Kean got a belated birthday box in the mail.

And I don't know who was more excited-- the boy or his gaggle of sisters.

 The box was from his runner, Clair and her family.

Clair is a pediatrician in Lexington, Kentucky who was

paired with the Keanut man as part of a Facebook

organization called I RUN 4.

Since Kean doesn't run (let alone walk)-- Clair runs for him

almost daily and once in a while participates in marathons and races.

She sent him a medal from her latest race.

He's getting quite the collection.

She also sent all kinds of goodies and gifts--

a few favorites?  Hats for the girls from Australia

where Clair is originally from.

And this little guy--

a fighter she said-- for our fighter!!

Cancer Still Sucks

Today was hospital Chemo day...

and somehow, once again, we got through it.

Lucky for us, we had Elly Moomey along as our date

and a bonus-- Reese came too.

 It's always a long day.

Between vitals, blood draws for counts, a thorough meeting with his

Oncologist...

 and then the waiting for and the getting of the Chemo

and the picking up of his meds.

But Reese helped out with feeding Kean lots of crushed ice

(the hospital has the best), snacks, making crafts and of course,

watching Frozen.

Kean looks good (except for his counts being really low)...

a huge difference from last week when he was so sick

and lethargic.

 The saddest thing was when I was waiting at the hospital pharmacy

to pick up this week's meds and ran into one of his cancer nurses--

dressed in shorts and a t-shirt.

She was off-- there to pick up her own medications.

As we waited (forever) she told me she has just been diagnosed

with lung cancer - (and may I point out, never smoked a day in her life).

So scary, so sad and yes, let's all repeat together how much we hate cancer!!!

We hope to see her back sometime in 2015.

On a much brighter note, Motorcycle Jeff came by

to help Kean forget about all the junk they put in his body today.

He was much happier this evening after that wonderful ride!

Overloaded

The non-stop partying for the Barker girls continues

(school starts next week)!

Today, one of our besties., Mary K took the three

Barkette's to the fair for a day of sugar, sensory

and thrill ride overload.

 Greer is our fearless one-- and yet, look

at these pictures of Holland up in the air on the bungee.

I guess Reese was about two inches too short

for all the big rides.

And Kean?  He did pretty great at his little therapy class-

but tuckered out big time for the last part of it.

Tomorrow is his big Chemo day.  

Say a little prayer for our brave boy.

Double Feature

Just what the doctor ordered-- well, at least in my dreams....

a nice, quiet get-a-way from all the stress and pressure

that has taken over our lives the past few weeks!

We all headed up to the Bodily's cabin (with our dear friends

the Moomey's) for the weekend.

We ate way too much and relaxed while the girls

tore up the beach and the lake.

Kean, who can't get near the lake water, kept all of us

entertained getting Pete, the dog to play fetch.

 We figured all that getting up and down on the bench to throw

the ball was the best therapy for those skinny little ankles.

Plus, it was pretty darn entertaining!

I was so relaxed, I hardly took any pictures-- except

for the traditional whipped cream mouth squirts!

This is all Elly's doing!

 Honestly, I don't think my girls know that canned whipped

cream is supposed to go on food and not straight to the mouth!

 And clearly, it is never too early to start the whipped cream

etiquette training!

I expect Kean will be as addicted to this little ritual as the girls.

The Belated Birthday

Great news!  Kean finally felt good enough to celebrate his 5th birthday.

I'm still having a hard time he is the big five.

Greer helped me decorate the sacred motorcycle cake.

 It is certainly nothing professional but Kean seemed

to know that it was a "cycle, cycle, cycle" cake-

and truly, he's the only critic we were worried about.

 We had a small gathering... my family, the Moomey's, 

the Bodily's and Kean's favorite therapist:  Momma Gump

and her husband, Jim.

Kean didn't quite get the blowing out thang...

but his sisters sure did and were more than willing to help.

 He kind of got into the presents and opening of cards...

 especially the two pounds of bacon the Bodily's brought him

(tradition)!

 He was most spell bound by a card from the Moomey's

that made truck sounds.

His rough start to his birthday turned out quite sweet.

Probably too sweet with all that cake and ice cream.

We're just glad he's back to his snarky old self.

Did I tell you his new favorite word is NO?

Light?

Another rough night for out little man.  Not only did he start with the fevers

again... but he was quite lethargic most of the morning.

 However,  and this is big-- about an hour after he woke up

from his nap, he started to perk up and even got down on the floor

to play with one of his favorite. cars.

Ladies and gentlemen... I think we are headed in the right

direction and life may just get back to our crazy version of normal!!!

Meanwhile, I did sneak out with Reese to the doctor's

to get her staples taken out.

 She was quite brave and only cried over one staple that

was a bit stubborn in letting go and saying goodbye.

Here's hoping we are saying goodbye for a long, long time

to all these doctors offices, hospitals and Emergency Rooms.

Okay, well, at least until next Tuesday when Kean has heavy Chemo.

But we'll take that one-- it is scheduled and on the calendar!