Dancing With the Stars

Friday night we went to one of our all time favorite events.

One we have been blessed to be a part of due to Kean's cancer.

(Another one of those few but incredible perks).

Get this, they had 950 students sign up to dance from Friday

afternoon straight through to Saturday morning-- all to raise

money for St. Luke's Children's Hospital and the Children's Miracle Network.

(This is Friday afternoon when everyone is first arriving).

All the dancers are assigned to dance for a certain honored child--

that's Kean's picture first on the left.

When we first arrived, Kean was given his Pink team "Champion" t-shirt.

 I wasn't sure how he would handle himself- especially with

all the loud base-driven music thumping all night.

But let me tell you, the kid was in his element.

Of course, who wouldn't be when constantly given attention.

He loved the bounce houses...

and was totally in love with the music.  Well, to be honest,

was likely in love with the fact that he danced much of the night

away with several pretty co-eds.

He particularly fell hard for this lovely girl, Kendra.

In fact, she ended up joining our family on stage a couple of times

because he didn't want to let go.

So, welcome Kendra to the family!

Here's a picture of Kean up on stage at the beginning of the evening--

as they introduced all of the "champion" kids.

It was so cute.  They introduced them like they would a world famous boxer.

They said things like:  "weighing in at 42 pounds... "

  

 I don't think I saw much of Reese the entire night.

She was off jumping, dancing and eating the entire campus

out of cotton candy and all the other yummies they had around.

 All too soon (according to my girls) it was time to leave

and say goodbye.

 The best part though, came right before we all headed home

leaving the kids to keep dancing.

They lined up-- at least 700 of them and formed the longest

human tunnel I've ever seen.

All the champions and their families ran through the tunnel

getting high fives and lots of love and encouragement.

Kendra carried Kean the entire way with me behind.

It went on and on-- first I can't believe Kendra's arms didn't fall off

and second, it was so very touching.

You go to something like this and your faith in the future

of our country is completely restored.

(Clearly, I need to stop watching election coverage).

These students are not only sharp, driven, organized and

real go-getters.  But wow, do they have heart!

Their goal for the evening was to raise 80 grand.

They shattered that goal (I'm not surprised at all) and raised

a whopping 114 thousand dollars-- all to help kids like Kean.

Pure Panic

Okay.

Today was a doozy of a day.

But I'm gonna have to take it in chronological order to have it all make sense.

First off, I got up at way dark-thirty for our latest Baldapalooza television interview.

Pam Brown came over to watch the sleeping children and get them up and ready for school.

My other dear friend, Lori Renn picked me up and chauffeured me to Channel 6's studios

(thank heavens-- I'm not sure I'd be safe driving at that hour).

We met the band Waking Jordan there

and unlike Monday's interview with the NBC station where they wanted

pictures, links, suggested questions and a background write-up.

This morning's was a total fly by the seat of every one's pants.

But I think it went well enough.

We got most of the information across.

Here's a link

http://www.kivitv.com/multimedia/videos/?bctid=2664932415001

 

Hopefully, everyone will head to www.baldapalooza.org for tickets and info.

I get home about 7:45 to find the girls ready for school and lunches made.

Thanks Pam!

But I was surprised to find that Keanut was still sleeping.

He is my little Rooster-- up with the sun.

Reese didn't make my wondering go away when she told me he was "kinda up earlier and he

was burning up" so she took off his pajamas.

Of course, I couldn't get up the stairs and check on him fast enough.

And thankfully he had no fever.

But he kept sleeping and sleeping.

Finally a little after 9 o'clock I went to wake him up since he had therapy at 9:30.

When I went in his room, he was awake but staring vacantly off into space.

I couldn't get him to respond to me or even look at me.

When I scooped him up, he felt like a bag of jello-- he was totally lethargic and had no tone.

I took him downstairs and set him on the couch where he just crumbled.

Two times I tried to get him to sit up -- but he couldn't.

He just slumped down on the couch.

By this time I was completely freaked out of my mind.

I kept thinking back to one of our friends from the hospital -- a teenage girl

who was in the very phase Kean is in and had a Spinal Tap with Methotrexate

a drug she had had many, many times.

But this one time she had a horrific reaction and suffered something along the lines of a stroke.

She was paralyzed -- couldn't move or speak for two weeks.

When we met her she was relearning how to walk and talk.
Kean had a dose of Methotrexate yesterday (not a Spinal though) and then wouldn't eat.

So of course, I'm fearing the worst.

To make a very long story short-- the new therapist showed up (his old one had her baby yesterday)

and the nurse I had on the phone from the Cancer Clinic had her assess him.

He didn't have a temp-- quite the opposite. He was 97.2.

His Nystagmus (shaky eyes) was much worse than usual and he had a bit of what sounded like gunk in his chest. 

Plus, his skin was more mottled than normal.

Thankfully, within an hour he was coming around quickly

and by the time his Oncologist was consulted, Kean was back to about 80 percent of his energy.

So we dodged the big bullet and didn't have to head to the hospital.

What a strange day.  He's happy and seems fine this evening.

The only thing it may be is low blood sugar.

He wouldn't eat any dinner last night and only drank half of his Pediasure at bedtime.

Who knows.

I just know I'm one thankful momma to have all of us at home tonight and not trying to sleep in the ol' hospital.

Sleep in my own bed is hard enough right now with all this Baldapalooza stuff going on!



Bittersweet

As is our family tradition, we spent Sunday evening at my folk's house.

Kean has a new passion-- Drum Stick Ice Cream with a fudge center.

Given a choice of bacon or a Drum Stick-- I'm really not sure which he'd choose.

 We also crossed the street to visit our dear friend Janice, her husband Bob and her mom, Crickett.

Janice, if you remember, has an extremely aggressive form of Cancer.

Months of brutal Radiation and Chemotherapy have done nothing.

The tumors in her stomach have doubled in size and the doctors

here have told her there is nothing more they can do.

So she and her family are heading to the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Ohio

with the hopes of having surgery and getting on some type of experimental treatment.

The girls have sung for her in the past and she has "claimed" to love it...

so they went over tonight with a big poster they made for her and put on a show.

 Here's a little taste of their repertoire.

They really tried to keep it fun and entertaining.

We hate to see them go... but we know this is her one shot at saving her life.

Keep her in your prayers.  We will.

She's a pretty special lady and we sure hope her positive attitude

will put her over into the beating Cancer category.

Giddy-Up!

Our quiet Saturday turned out to be quite exciting for Kean.

A friend of ours owns a ranch where she boards horses and gives lessons.

She's decided to offer free horse therapy lessons one Saturday out of each

month for special needs kids.

I helped her out by sending out a press release and by hooking her up with

the Treasure Valley Down Syndrome Association.

Today was the first offering and there evidently was a miscommunication.

One of the local TV stations showed up at 10 but the Down syndrome kids weren't coming until 11.

Since the photojournalist could only stay for half an hour, my friend Teri called me in a panic

and asked if I'd rush down with Kean.

By the way, Kean has been cleared by his doctor (with some special rules and circumstances)

to start private horse therapy lessons next month.

So this was a good test to see if he'd like it.

And guess what-- he LOVED riding the horse.

 I actually was the one holding onto him as he rode on his maiden voyage for the news guy.

(I just wanted to get some pictures of him here).

The moment he got on, he broke out in a huge smile and was

trying to push my hands away-- he thinks he's ready to go on his own.

 Here's a super short video clip.

By the way, our little "Hollywood" was on the 5 and the 6 o'clock news.

However, I think the girls were more excited about his new found fame than he was.

Here's a link to the news story.

http://www.ktvb.com/news/Horse-therapy-volunteer-program-helps-kids-with-special-needs-208021771.html