Sleep Tight

I would hate for this to ever come across like I am complaining.

Because I am not.

We have been so blessed on this journey.

I'm just trying to keep it real... and real means lots of up and even more downs.

Today was another rough one for Kean.

He's hardly eating, he's whiny and tired.



 In fact, bedtime couldn't come early enough.

He woke up from his nap and started signing he was ready to go night night about a half hour later.

On the bright side, boy, did he go to bed nice and easy tonight.

The Return of Grouchola

Well the Chemo has hit.

Kean vacillated from grouchy to snarky, cuddly to crying.

Not the whole day, mind you.

We went for a long walk and that made him happy.

Of course, nothing can really scratch the itch for him more than a motorcycle ride.

And bless that Holland and Greer--

they are old enough to take him slowly around the yard.

 They sure have saved my bacon the last few nights.

If it weren't for homework, dinner, bedtime and other necessities,

the boy would be out there slave driving the girls into

riding all night.

Popsicles and Pickles

For a boy who just had Chemo yesterday, Kean is doing amazingly well.

As long as he was outside today, he was happy.

Or eating.

He's back on steroids-- so Mexican food for dinner was a hit, plus

Popsicles and pickles for snacks.

Figuring out his palate has been quite the challenge.

Something he loves one day, he'll spit out the next.

Our other highlight...

Reese had her final ballet class and a little recital for the families at the end of class. 

 The Bodily's watched Keanut so we could make the "program"... that took

a whopping minute thirty max.

 It was so cute (and short), we had to ask the girls to do it again.

This was better than any Swan Lake anywhere--

and as a bonus, we didn't have to get all dressed up.



Miffed, Mad and Not Going To Take It...

Chemo today was, well, let's say, interesting.

Boy Wonder's counts were actually too high-- get this, they were in the normal range.

Which isn't great.

They want him between 1000 and 1500 and he was just over 2000.

So they'll watch him for a bit and if the counts stay that way, they'll up the doses

of Chemo he's on at home.



 He did get Chemo through his port today

and followed tradition with the ritual watching of the movie Cars.

He was a bit clingy... since I think he was traumatized during his appointment with the doctor.

If you remember, the type of Cancer Kean has (A.L.L.) likes to hide

in the testicles... so Dr. Camilo gave a thorough examination of Kean's privates...

and let me put it this way-- Kean was M.A.D. 

He threw a fit and continued to cry long after his junk was safely put away.

Dr. Camilo smartly decided to wait until Kean is under the magic of anesthesia

before pulling that stunt again.

 We had one of our favorites as today's Chemo date:  Melanie Clark.

And here's the good news I saved for last-- we do not  have

to go back to the hospital for a whole month!!!!!

We'll just keep him on home Chemo and Steroids (yuck)

until then.

After visiting nearly weekly since last July, I'm not sure

I will know what to do with myself.

Ahhh, life is good.

Tempermental Taste Buds

Kean is on a bit of a bender this weekend.

He's not eating... well, perhaps eating the way he normally does.

For breakfast this morning, he refused to eat-- that is, until and unless

Reesey was feeding him his blueberry waffles.

 Then for lunch he turned his nose up at just about everything...

everything that is but a big, fat dill pickle.

He ate the whole thing.

Gotta love how this Chemo alters the ol' taste buds.

Oh, one more thing... we were painting the girls fingernails

and couldn't resist giving Kean a little splash of color.

 Thanks to our friends the Borup's who watched Kean tonight,

the rest of us went to my parent's house to celebrate my brother's 50th birthday.

His actual birthday was last month but we were waiting for decent weather

to celebrate with all my cousins.

My brother Doug, is the oldest of all the grandchildren--

the first of many to fall over that 50th cliff.

Guess who's next month?

Byron!

Crazy. We are way too young for this.



Reunited

I couldn't quite tell who was more excited to be back home-- me

or the boy.

He just giggled and kicked his feet happily.

(I did the same).

 My mom, Saint Dee gave into the girls' scheme and helped them

make several dozen cookies Friday afternoon.

First thing this morning the girls schlepped down to our neighbor- Johanna's house

to "assist" with her garage sale.

Get this, our little entrepreneurs made a sign explaining the money raised

was going toward taking their brother to Disneyland and they made a

whopping $42.50 selling cookies and lemonade.  Wow.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (Barker Park as we call it), Kean

got his Dad whipped back into his routine-- a motorcycle ride and

two tractor rides.

Nirvana for the boy.

R

Hotlanta

Big sigh.

We wrapped up our trade show tonight and boy, are my feet thankful for that.

We did this show back before Kean was born and right as the economy fell off a cliff-- and

it was a colossal waste of time and money.

Coverings is the big, international tile, stone and marble show for our industry.

And this year, we opted to share a booth with our artist friend, Barbara.

She makes the hand made porcelain tiles in the front and we make the

solid metal tiles in the back (www.palomapewter.com).

We feel like it was a great show... time will tell.



 Just so you know, our booth was pretty basic-- these huge stone and marble companies

from Italy, India, Spain and Turkey come in and build these monster booths--

this one was just around the corner from us.

(You should see the wasted marble and stone that is just thrown in the trash after

these shows-- it is disgusting).

 After the show ended tonight, we headed across the street to CNN's headquarters

to catch up with my old buddy, Drew Griffin.

We worked to together in L.A.  and he's now one of CNN's main investigative

reporters-- he's mostly on Anderson Cooper's show.

 He gave us a tour of CNN's digs-- and if my feet didn't hurt before....

Geez, the place is massive.  3000 people work for CNN just in Atlanta alone.

This is part of one of the newsrooms.

 We visited, oh, I can't even count how many  control booths and studios

where they had live shows going and taped shows.

 Drew then took us to a series of small studios he calls the "confessionals".

This one is where Nancey Grace tapes most of her nightly shows (tonight she was

live outside the courthouse in Phoenix).  But this studio was tiny-- just a desk

a screen behind her and a robotic camera.  She shoots most of her show from here-- all alone

with a crew next door in another control room.  Crazy.

By the way, I hate her show.  She is beyond annoying- so don't take

this as an endorsement.  It's not.

On the home front, my parents are still alive-- and not yet drooling on themselves in the corner of some padded room.

The kids seem to be doing great and I've even learned Kean is doing just fine without me.

Our dearest friends, Ron, Elly and Mark Moomey came over tonight and kidnapped the boy

to take them to their place for some motorcycle riding with Mark and

four wheeler riding with Ron.

Love this and love them!

Yippee... we head home tomorrow.