The Epic One

What a way to start Father's Day.

Reese first thing this morning told her Daddy "how lucky we are to 

have Dads that do everything for us.  You know, when we break things,

you can fix them and Dads can go to work for us...."

Byron said- "Great, so I'm nothing more than a slave-- she's already learned 

what every other woman knows:  men are just here to serve women!"

Smart girl, eh?

Kean was a little kinder.

Byron was trying to teach him to say Happy Father's Day.

We did get a few "Happy's" if you listen close.

Actually, I think he had a really nice day.

The Moomey's came over for diiner,

and the girls made him cool little gifts...

 like these minis-- a donut, a computer, an ice cream cone,

a caterpillar out of clay from Greer.

 He also got a book-- all about Kean's thing for cycle rides

and how all these angels came to the rescue after Byron broke his leg.

It's a keeper.

 But the best, perhaps, is the chocolate cake we let the girls

go crazy and decorate all on their own.

It's hard to read but it says something along the lines of

"You are an epic lady's man.  Happy Father's Day".

I don't think a day goes by-- that Byron doesn't tell

Kean they are lady's men-- as they sit at the table surrounded by

all us girls.

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there-- and

especially to the Dad's in my life:  my Dad and my husband.

They are both wonderful fathers, amazing examples

and incredible men of integrity.
Daily, they teach us to do the right thing through not only
their words but their examples.

We adore them both and count them among our greatest blessings.

Super Saturday

Another beautiful day in Idaho.

After the girls got their chores done and while Kean took a nap,

Byron pulled out the old Mustang and went and picked my

dad up to have the girls take him to lunch.

 I think my dad enjoyed it.

He is sometimes hard to get out of the house when my mom is on a trip...

but who can turn down a date with three crazy girls?

Meanwhile, Kean  wasn't left totally out of the fun.

"Motorcycle Bill" drove all the way over from Middleton

where he lives to take Keanut for a ride.

And a ride on a cycle was enough of an incentive to get Kean

back walking on those feet-- albeit, gingerly.

 One of our favorite friends, Mary K brought over

Goodwood's BBQ for dinner tonight and then we 

played games until Reese and Kean could hardly keep their eyes open.

It was a good day and a great Saturday.

Papa Bear

It has come to my attention that I never gave you guys an update on my dad.

Kean and I were over at my parents house today.

Kean was in heaven, he watched Cars, played in his "Lightning McKean" Car,

and snuck up the stairs to visit Grandpa on the computer-- to get jelly beans!

My dad looks great.

His scars aren't angry and red, they almost look like lines of distinction.

The scar on his cheek looks like a backward G... going from his ear, up along the smile of his cheek

and around down to his eye.  It's quite huge.

But as the doctor told my folks, they are pretty sure they got all that nasty cancer.

So now he will just have to go in every three months for check-ups.

I should have taken a picture... this one will have to do.

It's one of my favorites-- obviously from a few months back

when Kean was sporting his bowling ball look

Okay, and for all of you I'm driving crazy, this will be my last

plea for votes.

Please go to the following link, scroll over to page four,

look for the picture of the hand with the writing on it and the title:

BALD, BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL.

You can't access it from your mobile phone 

but you can vote ten times.

You'll be helping us get a grant for Baldapalooza.

https://www.facebook.com/idahopower/app_130660760316387?ref=br_tf

Voting ends Friday.

Scarface

Since many of you have asked about and kept my dad in your prayers,

I thought you'd like an update and a picture.

Don't ask my why it is sideways.

We just have to be grateful my mom figured out how to take a video

(she thought she was taking a picture) on her phone and send it to me!

I think my dad is actually doing better than my mom.

She was so exhausted that while she was napping, my

dad went in, changed his clothes and then went outside to

do some yard work!

He should be back to his old self in no time.

p.s.  Kean was a bit better today.

I'm learning patience through all this.

Snore, Snore!

Enough about bodily functions.

As much as I'd like a break from it-- I'll at least give you a break

from the "Poop Chronicles" (even though it wasn't quite as epic today).

Kean had two therapy sessions-- he was just okay and a doctor's appointment

with his ENT.  He had a lot of wax in one ear

and it took three of us to hold him down for the doc.

Trust me, he's much stronger than he looks.

Here's the good news:  even though he still has one tube in one of his ears

(it's not functional), the doc says we don't have to come in for SIX MONTHS!!

And if he is in good shape then-- we get to graduate from his office.

I can't tell you how nice it will be to have one less doctor on our long list.

When we got home... we had a surprise on our doorstep-- a package

from Lexington, Kentucky.

If you are a regular reader, you'll know that Kean is part of the 

I Run For group and has been matched with a runner who

runs and participates in races with Kean as her inspiration.

 Clair's 7 year-old daughter, Amanda made Kean his very own

Cars pillow.  Not only did he keep reverently saying Cars over and over again...

but he put his head down on the pillow and made a snoring sound.

We about died laughing!

 Thanks Clair for making a sick boy very happy.

He got Methotrexate today-- dang, just when he

seemed to be turning a corner!

As for my dad, he had his skin cancer surgery today.

The doctors told my mom all went well- they took

out pretty wide margins on his face and are pretty

confident they got it all.

Thank you for the prayers and support.

The Poop Chronicles

Oh my, what have we done?

Day two of the dam has broken.

The boy hasn't had any Miralax in a few days-- but those

triple doses are haunting me.

For those of you who would like to feel my pain... let me

share with you the highlights of my day:

I got a whiff of something that wasn't so sweet while Kean and I were out in the barn.

By the time I got him back to the house, he had "stuff" all the way down his legs and up

his back to his hair.

And I had it all over my pants and shirt.

Thank heavens nobody came to visit about that time.

They would've gotten quite the eyeful.

This picture is from the other day-- but he's feeling good and light as a feather!

My dad's big surgery is tomorrow.

He goes into the hospital at about noon.

One of the cancerous spots on his face is so deep, when it is

removed, his eye will droop.  So immediately after the cancer is

removed, they will take tissue from somewhere else and do some

reconstructive surgery.

Keep him in your prayers.

Land Locked

What kind hearted little girls I have.

Reese has been doing a "Pioneer Unit" at school this week--

today they hand churned butter and made yarn dolls.

She made a boy yarn doll and brought it home for Kean.

Not sure if he appreciated it as much as I did.

 Greer and Reese have been entertaining us as they surf the wild waves here in Idaho--

Please take note of Reese's arm stuffed down her shirt.

She likes to channel the girl from Soul Surfer who lost her arm to a shark.

(Hey, better to pretend to be her than a lot of other so-called role models out there).

On the dad- news front, they met with another doctor today, his primary.

Looks like he'll be meeting with the Cancer Plastic Surgeon on Dec. 2nd.

With the Thanksgiving holiday, that's as soon as they could get him in.

The doc today said it looks like it is Squamous Carcinoma and they should

be able to get it all out with surgery-- hopefully.

So that's good news-- and looks like we'll all be together for Thanksgiving after all.

Another big reason to be thankful. 

Mad At The World

Big sigh.

If you remember, we've had a heck of a time getting
Kean to stay on his therapy horse the past few weeks.

So this week, thanks to a most brilliant idea from his therapist,

we asked a wonderful friend -- Mari Tanner to take my place and

see if Kean wouldn't do better riding without wanting me to hold him the entire time!

And guess what?!?!?  It worked beautifully.

He stayed up (without trying to bail off) while I sat out in the car.

 He must have been feeling pretty proud of himself because 

he later rocked his Occupational Therapy session with Maureen.

 He followed through on all kinds of tasks and challenges, mimicked

a number of words and was giving us high fives and "knuckles" all over the place.

But then this afternoon, our great day just kinda fell apart.

And now I find myself a bit mad at the world.

I haven't said anything-- because we all felt like there was

no sense worrying about things until we had a reason to worry.

But my dad had a third appointment with a cancer doc today.

He had two suspicious growths on his face, had then biopsied and they came

back as cancer.

He had to go back to have them removed

and then today, he was supposed to have even more of the margins taken out.

But here's the thing, the doctor told him today, he has a form of Melanoma

that is fast moving-- deep and wide.  He has two choices:

plastic surgery to remove two big chunks of his face or radiation.

What is up with this insidious cancer and does it have to 

terrorize so many of my friends and family?

I'll tell you what makes me particularly sick-- my poor parents, especially

my mom has really suffered watching Kean go through all of this--

and now, here she is having to go through it with my dad.

Life just totally sucks sometimes-- or as it seems lately,

most of the time.

But I will say, my dad will likely go through this and be the strong one for us.

If you've never had the blessing of meeting him-- you're really missing out

on one of the kindest, most loving and giving men on this earth.

Say an extra prayer for my daddy tonight.

Star Pupil

First things first.  Kean had school again today.

After last week's debacle, yes, okay, I admit it, I was quite nervous

about his behavior today.

But our boy did not let us down.

When I picked him up, he was all smiles.

In fact, one of the therapists who worked with him last week (well, perhaps, I should say attempted)

and worked with him today-- said it was like night and day.

Yup, that's Steroids for you.

As I said, he's back.

And today, he even played with another child.

That's huge progress.  I'm so excited.

As you know, it was also Veteran's Day today.

The girls' school had an assembly to honor the children's relatives who have served.

Since my dad served in the Army, the three girls got pulled out of class

and got to go the assembly with their grandpa.

They had a slide show they put together

which included these pictures of my pops. 

 That's him in the center.  (Love the Stalag sign above him).

Happy Veteran's Day and thank you to all those who have served and continue to serve us... especially
my dad, my great grandfather and Byron's father.  Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.

p.s.  thank you for all the kind comments about Greer.  I told Greer about them tonight and she sure seemed touched.

I think she is so kind and sweet-- she sometimes just gets taken advantage of.

That's why we'll be arranging her marriage someday!!!

Secret Ingredients

Today was a pretty big day-

well, maybe not in Kean's estimation-- but in mine.

I took him to church.

Yep.  The first time since June 2012.

Today was the big children's program at church-- not only did Greer and Reese

have speaking parts but Greer sang a song with a few other girls.

And I didn't want to miss it.

Since Byron was out of town (as is my mom), I didn't have anyone to leave him with.

So I took him to church late, left early and we stayed in the very back -- away from most everyone.

My dad went with us.

I'm just not so sure how much Kean got out of the meeting.

About the only time he stopped telling me he wanted a motorcycle ride or to watch Cars

was when the children sang songs.  Thankfully, they sang quite a bit.

By the way, in the program, each of the children participate

with a speaking part.  The teacher of the class, Kean is supposed to be in got up

and said how Kean Barker is thankful for blessings and tractor rides.

It was quite sweet.

 Grandpa came back to our house for dinner and the after dinner making of cookies.

(Reese finally got 100% on her spelling test and requested peanut butter cookies).

 Only thing is, I'm not sure you'd consider Grandpa super helpful.

He tortured and teased the girls by sneaking popcorn, red hots and licorice candies

into the cookie dough.

Crazy Grandpa!

Byron and Holland made it home a little after 8.

They said the funeral was wonderful.

In Absentia

Kinda strange to have today be Reesey's 7th birthday

and she's not even here to celebrate.

I sure hope she had a special day up at Camp Rainbow Gold.

We sent a few little presents and cards up with the girls

so hopefully she won't recreate the pose in this picture.

We sent this out as a Christmas card many years ago

and it still makes me giggle.

 You know what Thursday means... another horse therapy lesson for Keanut.

Something quite interesting happened today though...

he was riding along happily when Reba the horse

did this giant shudder thing.  It must've felt like an earthquake to the boy.

He started to slip but with me on one side and Kevin on another, he wasn't

going anywhere.

 Still, it freaked him out sufficiently.

He had to get off the horse and be hugged until he stopped crying.

But get this, he got right back on and was happy again.

Super Boy!

We went over to my folks house this afternoon.

My dad is famous for sneaking the kids Jelly Bellies.

And of course, Kean is quite the convert to the practice.

I think because of these bribes... Kean has quickly learned

how to say "Grandpa".

Pretty cool stuff.

Here he is when it was time to say goodbye.

Yippee... the girls come home tomorrow!

 

50 Is Nifty



Holy Cow!  Byron has hit the half century mark.

I'd like to believe we are both in denial-- but hard to do that when Ron and Elly

Moomey put this on the street in front of our home first thing.

Our cousin just called to ask if Byron has been sufficiently humiliated

and I'd have to say yes.

Mark and Calene Borup came over bearing many, many gifts-- from

a big bag of Depends, to arthritis pills, laxatives to Fixodent.         

 Just look at them... looking all innocent.

My dad and the Bodily's also came over to give Mister Barker a hard time.

 We especially loved how the Bodily's wrapped their present

in the Obituary section of the paper.

Gotta remember that little trick.

 The Klinglers (Byron's cousins in Arizona-- but more like siblings)

sent him all kinds of goodies... including this Dr. Seuss book and a package of

rubber ducks -just like Kean gets each time he has blood draws at the hospital-

but these ones are on walkers and have grey hair and spectacles.

Instead of traditional cake, we opted for a tropical approach-- well maybe.

A blackberry and sour cream pie and fish tacos for dinner.

 The girls and I tried to create a little island feel... because

the big present is - we are planning to go to Fiji in the fall.

The Klinglers (Byron's cousins and our adopted parents) are serving as the president

of the Fiji Mission for our church.

One of my cousins, Spencer, has offered us free plane tickets

so we are CRAZY not to go.
We just have to work it around girls being back in school and
Kean's treatment.

By the way, during therapy today, Kean opened up a small photo album

and looked at a picture of us and said Dadda, Momma

and then Poppa when he saw his Grandpa.

This was a HUGE moment.

All of that was unprompted.

I say, what a great birthday present.

Winding Down

Wow, what a weekend we've had.

I'm needing another one to recover from this one.

We've just run from one thing to another.

Greer went to her best friend's birthday party the other night.. 

 a glow in the dark dart party.

 Reese went with her little friend, Morgan to their school's carnival- where

Reese informed me she is one lucky girl.

Guess we should take her to Vegas in that she won a prize at every game she tried.

 And then tonight we celebrated my (much, much, much older) brother's 50th birthday

and Holland's soon to be 12th birthday at my parent's house tonight.

 As for Keanut, he had his moments today but overall, is progressing toward

the happier boy we know and love.

At the beginning of this weekend, I would've bet I'd be making a trip to the E.R.

Thankfully, that didn't happen and life has continued on uninterrupted.

Love this picture of my dad giving him a jelly bean.

Somehow, he's trained every one of his grand kids to know

that Grandpa is always good for a treat.

This so reminds me of my childhood.



The Party Animals

Today we celebrated my dad's 80th birthday.

Yes, you read that right.  80. 

Crazy that we are all getting that old.

 My niece Katie made her magic with a pretty cool cupcake display.

 My dad's the type that would prefer to have his birthday's forgotten

But of course, the rest of us are the types that can't let an excuse to have a party pass us by.

But we did keep it pretty quiet-- just family and my neighbors, the Bodily's.

We got him one, yep, just one present.

A book -- one of those online scrapbooks-- that we filled with pictures

and letters from all of us, his wife, kids, grandchildren, siblings and in-laws.

 It took us quite a while, but each of us read our letters out loud (my dad is legally blind).

 We all wrote about our favorite memories or favorite things about Grandpa.

 Some of it was funny, some of it was touching.

 Kean, was in his own world tonight-- oblivious to all of this

looking back and remembering.

But boy, was this boy in a good mood (and easily entertained).

For a dad who didn't want us to do anything for his birthday,

I think he was quite touched.

Of Televison and Tomatoes...

I had hoped by waiting up this late that Channel 7 here in town would have a link to Keanut's television debut.

But alas, it will have to wait until tomorrow.

It is a nail biting experience to be on the other side of the camera and have to wait and

see how the reporter will portray your "story".

She did great but geez, after tonight I have lots of empathy for all the people I interviewed in

fifteen years of reporting.

Kean of course, looked darling.

We had a great day.

Byron stayed home with Boy Wonder while I took the girls to church.

We have some great, great women in our congregation that make me feel so loved and help me recharge

my batteries.

Tonight we went over to my dad's house for dinner.

Just take a gander at these tomatoes from his garden.

He was excited to use these to make BLT's. 

Yum.

But we missed my brother's family.  Two of their girls were sick

so had to stay away.

By the way, Kean ate great tonight and today. 

Phew-- we are keeping that ol' feeding tube far, far away.

The Hunger Strike Continues

I suppose trying to find the positive-- that it is better to go to the hospital three times in one week for IV's than have to stay at the hospital all week.  Yes,you guessed right; Keanut is still on a hunger strike. 

Our quiet Sunday afternoon was spent in the not so quiet E.R.

 Kean got a "booster" IV - one that will get us through to Tuesday morning... where barring a miracle

(which would be Kean suddenly decides to eat and drink) we will head back for tube feeding.

Kean had a NG tube when he was a premie... I can't imagine at this age, he will cooperate with

a tube snaking down his nose to his stomach.  I expect fun times in the future.

Today's E.R. visit was much shorter than earlier in the week, we were only there four hours.

So with all the time on my hands, I did snap a pic of Kean's sweet comb-over.  He's getting quite bald in the back but hanging on tight to the top and sides.

 The boy was happy, smiling and always charming up until the last hour when I think he just

got plum tired out.  Wish I could've joined him on the bed.

 His port and incision looked all red and icky (my term, not theirs) so the nurse took a marker and drew

a circle around the red area and told me to bring him in again if it spreads beyond that or if he gets a fever.

I think his skin was just agitated from the numbing cream because by the time we got him ready for bed, it looked

much better. Phew. Another bullet dodged.

 

One final note, since my mom is off gallivanting around the world (in Russia right now), Byron went and picked

up my father to have dinner with them. 

Of course, Reese took advantage of his full belly and lowered defenses and "fixed" his hair.

He's such a good sport.