Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts

Monday, September 19, 2016

The Huge Highs and the Little Lows

It is funny, I used to be so good about making near daily
posts on this blog.  Now that Kean is finished with treatment
(and hopefully cancer forever) I'm lucky if I check in once a week.
So here goes:  our week in review-- and what a week it has been.
We had a church/neighborhood Rodeo-- the real thing.
From 3 legged races...
 to jump houses that Kean didn't ever want to leave...
 to massive egg toss competitions (come now, doesn't every
rodeo have an egg toss)?
 The highlight had to be the pig chase--
yep, picture 100 kids madly chasing after a good sized
hefty, squealing pig with fifty bucks taped to its hind leg.  And they
did it twice with two different pigs!
Byron and I even ran into an old friend from our single days in Arizona-
Maurice Matsumori. 
 Kean had a ball.... riding horses...
and deciding after all that Cotton Candy is a good thing.
 I cursed him by telling everyone how well he's been doing.
The next night, we spent most of the night in the E.R.
 Poor boy got a double whammy-
Croup and Stridor-- both respiratory issues.
He's fine now, thankfully.
 Greer and I spent much of Saturday at the Music Theater of Idaho's offices
building a bathtub as part of the set for The Little Mermaid.
Then we raced home, scraped the paint off of our hands and arms
and did our best to clean up.
Our family was invited to the big Make A Wish gala event.
 It was in the Stueckle Sky Building-overlooking
BSU's football stadium.
The views were stunning of our fair city (and
Greer looked just as stunning-- so grown up)!
 My mom kept Kean and brought him up later
for the program.  I was the keynote.
But we had a blast leading up to the dinner.
The attendees all buy "wish bucks"-- think monopoly money
they pass out to BSU athletes who pull off the craziest antics
to earn money.
 They have players from all the big sports teams at BSU and
they compete to see which team can earn the most.
This guy was from the wrestling team.  He showed off
a talent only a mother could be proud of-- he drank down a
water bottle through his nose.
Ick.
 The football team sang and danced...
 Reese's favorite was the gymnastics team--
they did back flips, cartwheels and all kinds of
bendy things down the hallway.
 Holland was adopted by the Track and Field team
(she runs track for Eagle High)...
 And this tennis player serenaded the family in French.
 In fact, I think we had every team do something for our family
What a fun and crazy night.
All of a sudden, the BSU marching band came streaming out
of the elevators- playing their fight songs full blast.
They literally pushed everyone into the room for dinner to be served.
 Once inside, some of the coaches spoke, we had more
players do some pretty crazy things
and we had a lovely dinner.
 Well, the little bit I ate tasted fine.
I can't eat a ton and then get up and speak.
Suffice it to say, the speech went well, there were tears
in the audience and most importantly, people gave generously
to Make A Wish when all the talking was done.
 We treasured our trip to Disney World, Universal and Sea World.
Looking forward to it kept us going for those three plus dark
years of Chemo, surgical procedures, vomit and hair loss.
And now, we have those memories-- and what amazing memories they are--
to always fall back on.
Thank you Make A Wish for an incredible evening and
a trip of a life time.


Sunday, July 10, 2016

And They Are Off.....

We live on one speed at our house:  whirlwind.
Our company that stayed with us for ten days flew home
on Saturday morning.
Man, oh man, was it ever quiet.
We picked Greer and Holland up from church Girl's Camp
Saturday night.
It sounds like they had a blast.
One of the leaders sent me a couple of pictures of Holland
with her friends.  (Sorry, none of Greer).
 They got home exhausted and with bags full of dirty clothes.
 We hurried and washed everything...
and then packed it all again.
First thing this morning, the three girls
loaded up and checked in to go to Camp Rainbow Gold's
Siblings Cancer camp.
 Each of them had to have a thorough check over--
temperature, blood pressure, 
 and don't forget- lice and Athlete's Foot check.
Reese is the only one who wouldn't kill me for putting
on a picture of this.
 It was reunion time for the girls-- seeing some of their
dearest friends from camp before.
We are pretty sure this is one of their favorite times of the year.
Camp Rainbow Gold is magical and wonderful and, and, and....

 We all looked like drowned rats by the time they loaded onto the buses.
We have a week of having an only child at home
and they will have a week of heaven.
Win, win.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Back In the Saddle Again

Blue skies and bearable weather (actually beautiful weather)
means it is that time of year again.
Time for Kean's Hippotherapy sessions.
 We even have Clark joining us...
to not only lead the horse but more importantly,
help keep Kean in the saddle.
You should have heard our boy giggle non stop
when we started trotting.
Not sure he was laughing with glee at going bumpity bump
or laughing at Clark and I trying to keep up.
 Holland has some big news-- finally, finally (she's been 
excited about this day forever), she got braces.
 Her mouth is a little sore but so far, so good.
 We also had Kean's second session with  the Neuro Psychologist
at St. Luke's.  If you remember (from my past rants), the state
is requiring Kean have a lengthy IQ test to make sure he
is still eligible for therapy services (read still has Down syndrome).
 Dr. Deidrick is one of the good guys.  She thinks this testing
is as ridiculous as I do-- but has slogged through getting 
Kean to cooperate (with lots of breaks).
 And she thinks she has enough for him to pass (or fail)
depending on how you look at it.
Yes, he will qualify for services again.
 And finally, after spending the day at the hospital, I got  to
spend the evening with Miss Reese.
Our church held a Luau for the girls around Reese's age.
 The party featured a yummy dinner, hula lessons,
 a hula performance for the mom's,
 games, the limbo and lots of fun with friends.
It was the perfect way to unwind and relax after such a long day.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Maiden Flight

It has been a long haul but I thought you'd like to know
Kean is finally, finally looking and feeling better.
His rash has really settled down and his horrific
nose is not so gooky.  
And to make things even better, Kean is so much
happier (and less edgy)-- life is getting back to normal.
In fact, we all went as a family to church today-- all of us and all of it (for the first time in years).
 Kean was even decent for the children's singing time
(he petered out about half way through).
 We had a big day on Saturday.
We are leaving soon on Kean's big Make A Wish trip--
so his "Wish Granters" took the family out to
lunch to celebrate.
Grammy is going with us- so she got to come to the lunch.
 The pictures turned out really dark but this is Debbie
(one of Kean's Wish Grantor's) with Greer.
 And I got to sit next to his other Grantor- Melissa.
What wonderful, wonderful women
(and what a cool volunteer gig they have)!
 We had a lovely luncheon,
 Kean surprised us with how well he did-
and it got us all incredibly excited for our upcoming trip.
It's gonna be (to quote Greer) epic!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Warning: Real Wound-- Not A Halloween One.

Kean is definitely feeling better and looking better.
He even got to go to church today-- his first time
in years at our congregation.
Let's just say, it was an exhausting experience.
Kean and I left halfway through and he immediately
fell asleep in the car.
(Wish I could have)!
 Byron stayed home and rotated from the bed to the couch.
He's already bored out of his mind.
Warning-- if you have a squeamish stomach-- 
but his swelling is holding steady and the "slice"
has stopped bleeding (finally).  He's grouchy
but doing fine.
 I have totally lucked out.
Holland learned just this week how to change
bandages at school (remember she goes
to that special medical high school)!
She has done most of the dirty work.
 In case you haven't overloaded on Halloween pictures,
I took the kids (plus one neighbor) out.
We visited a few of our favorite friends--
the Bodily's...
 the Kwids... (Gina was H and G's 2nd grade teacher),
 the Borup's (our dear, dear friends)...
 the Brinton's (oops, no picture) and Nancy Suiter
who lived next door to us until her home burned down a few
years back.  We have to keep tradition alive and visit
her each Halloween.
 Kean's not a huge candy man-- but had fun getting out
and high fiving every one.
He looked dang cute in his biker outfit-- complete
with tattooed arms and chest hair.
Guess he'll be giving most of his treats
to his dad (who is a candy man)!