Smooches

Ah Romeo.

He came through for the boy.

And if you had been at the arena today... you would have 

seen Pam, Candice and myself making major fools of ourselves.

We sang every horse song under the sun and even made

up plenty more.

Kean loved it!

 And check this out...

It is a fake horse outside my brother's store.

Kean didn't want to get off-- he was so at home.

(That's my nephew Derek with him).

Then this afternoon, Grandpa Bodily rode up on his lawn mower

just to say hi and to see if Kean could come out to play

(and go for a spin).

What would we do without him?

 One more bit of good news.

My folks are home after being gone for nearly a month.

Kean has been asking to go over to Grandpa's house every day!

Tonight he got his wish-- and got lots of kisses from his

beloved G and G.

(This picture is from when he was in the hospital the last time--

but he sure loves to smooch his Grandma!).

Casablanca

Oh the joys of finally having a daughter old

enough to babysit!!!

Holland stayed with Kean while Byron and I went

to Greer's Orchestra Concert.

It was one of those rare nights out together

and it was wonderful!

 Meanwhile, I have to share with you all the love

Kean's been getting lately.

Super cool Maria Proudfoot (from my church congregation)

invited the Keanut-man over to ride her horse Buddy.

 He was so very happy to be outside and on another horse.

This kid likes anything that goes fast-- so Maria and I

got our exercise trotting along side Buddy and Kean.

Kean just giggled.

 Then if that wasn't enough, Alex Hill from our congregation

came over to hang with the little man.

He took him for a long four wheeler ride around the yard...

 and then taught him the fine art of racing cars.

It was so funny.

Kean's car was painfully slower than Alex's.

So what did Kean do? 

Take his slow car and give it to Alex.

Don't ever tell me my boy isn't smart!

To quote a certain movie- "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

One Day At A Time...

I honestly don't know if we have it in us to get through 

another year of this.

Poor Kean.

That dang Chemo hit him hard last night and all day today.

I didn't even walk the girls down to the bus for school 

this morning. Kean just wanted to be held and to whine.

 The internal debate was on as to whether he should 

go to horse therapy.  Thank heavens I opted to gamble.

He did just fine for the most part--

30 minutes of moderate happiness on ol' Romeo.

The Flower Boy

My friend Pam Brown has been taking Kean to

his horse therapy on most Fridays--

(this adorable pic is from last week).

 But today she called in sick (has the same gunk

that we've all had- poor soul).

So I got to go.

Kean is getting more and more confident with his horse

riding skills.

We spend half of the session trotting (which

translated means mama is trying her best to keep up).

His new trick today was to take the plastic flowers

that decorate the jumps-- hold them for a second,

then toss them and watch Candice or I play fetch.

 And if I do say so myself, we are both pretty good at playing fetch.

Two words

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

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

Sister Wives?

Okay, just because I'm Mormon, don't read anything into this
(and I can't believe I'm  actually writing this).

But I can kind of see one of the benefits of Polygamy.

My dear friend Pam Brown came over this morning

and not only helped us pick 30 gallons of blackberries,

helped me clean my house for company

but also took Kean to horse therapy so I could keep

picking.

Look at this sweet face- one happy boy on his way home from

riding Miss Reba.

 And look at the happy, smiling face of Reba!

Kean's horse therapist sent this to me to say

how much she (actually both Candice and the horse)

like Friday mornings with the Keanut man.

Big smiles all around.

The Bandaid

We had a tiny vacation from Kean feeling and acting completely miserable.

He had horse therapy this morning

and the entire time he was on Romeo.. he was happy and content

oh, and don't forget smiling.

 This momma sure got a work out.

I don't know what it is about speed-- whether motorcycles

or horses -- but the boy loves to go.

 Candice, her daughter and I just did our best to run alongside Romeo

and keep up with our little cowboy.

 This afternoon, while Mister Bronco took a nap, my new neighbor, Shelley

came over to learn how to make jam.

We made four batches of blackberry and apricot.

Yum!

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.

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.

Musical Rooms

Big sigh over here.

Kean was back to his normal self.

Still don't know what yesterday was all about...

but I'm relieved it's in the rear view mirror.

We had horse therapy today...

Candace's daughter joined us to help lead Romeo.

She's this tiny thing that just muscles that big ol' horse around.

Amazing.

 We were excited to hear that Kean's old regular ride--

Reba is with child.

Can't wait to see a little one next Spring.

As for the rest of the family?

We are EXHAUSTED.

A month ago, Greer and Reese put together a presentation-

complete with charts, sketches and outlines-

to convince us to shake up all the kids' bedrooms.

So as of tonight, Kean is back in his own room (yippee),

Holland has moved from the big room downstairs to

Reese and Kean's old room

and Reese and Greer now have the big room downstairs.

Hope you followed that!

Trust me, it was a lot of furniture moving.

Wild Kingdom

Kean started off his morning with a ride on Romeo

for horse therapy.

Our boy has really turned a corner-- he now

loves to ride.

Today, we tried trotting for the first time

and he was all smiles-- big ones.

(my camera skills, however, won't make you smile.

I haven't quite mastered holding the phone up and out,

holding onto Kean's britches

and running alongside a horse).

After therapy, we took a short walk through the neighborhood.

We were stalled out for a while after we came across

a big ol' snake slowly making his way across

Grandpa Bodily's driveway.

I was too freaked out to get a picture.

But we did get a picture of this wild little bunny in the neighbor's yard.

That wasn't the end to Kean's day of wildlife...

we saved the most ferocious one for last...

the untamed, wild Harley.

If you won't count that, the boys

did see a dead snake on the road.

Today, Jeff had us grab one of Kean's 

favorite C.D.'s to jam to as they rode...

These two guys are about as cool as they come.

Tongue Tied

Mom got a break today... when Pam Brown came over

and took Kean to his horse therapy.

 He did great with Romeo again... giving him lots of hugs.

And he must have worked hard, he came home absolutely exhausted.

Meanwhile, I got lots of bills paid-- all uninterrupted.

 After his nap, it was cycle time with "Motorcycle Jeff".

Look who climbed up on the bike all by his big boy self

(don't worry, we were right there).

 Kean and Motorcycle Jeff had a grand time-- lots of clapping

as usual.

 But what wasn't usual, was when he got back, he all of a sudden acted totally freaked out.

It wasn't until much later, when he was still acting so off

that we examined him and found that Kean had bitten his tongue.

Poor little guy-- wish once again, he could talk.

Just so you know, he's in bed and seems fine.

Horsey Hugs

I was wrong.  Delightfully so.

Here I thought after yesterday Kean would definitely have a difficult day today--

but for the most part (he had his moments) he did great!

He also had his first horse therapy lesson since last fall.

 I wasn't sure how he'd do..

if it would take time to warm up to the horse again.

But he was so excited and kept saying "horse, horse".

Kean wasn't confident enough to ride Romeo by himself

so Pam Brown, who went along with us today hopped up

to provide moral support.

 Kean had a ball-  he rode inside the arena and then outside

since it was a perfect, perfect day.

By the end of the session, he was giving Romeo hugs!

It was the best.

This evening, Robyn Gines came over and watched the boy while

Holland and Reese were at the school's science fair.  Greer

and I went to a Mother/Daughter dinner at the church.

We played a version of Family Feud-- with mom's and girls

facing off against other moms' and their daughters.

 Greer was a hoot to hang out with.

We had a blast.

Sure love my kiddos.

And my friends for helping out.

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.

Horse Play

 This weekend, the three girls took part in one of their favorite activities:

the Breyer Model Horse show at their aunt and uncle's horse store: Flynn's Saddle Shop.

 You've never seen anything like this-- all these girls bring down their model horses

and make sure they are polished and clean.

They then compete in categories such as Thoroughbred, Arabian, Western, English,

Paints, Morgans etc.

There are even professional judges.

 They won two firsts, two seconds and one third.

But they didn't win any of the coveted grand prizes-- new Breyer model horses.

Perhaps, next year.