Playtime

Byron and I escaped this afternoon to meet up with some friends for lunch.

Kyle and Amy Benson live a few hours away and have a little girl

who is about six months younger than Kean.

And like Kean, she was blessed with that extra chromosome

and cursed with cancer.

 We met at Tucanos Brazilian Steakhouse for the yummiest lunch we've had in a long time.

That meat is incredible!

Last night, we also went out-- for the most relaxing

and loveliest evening on the lake.

 Oh, and side splitting, heavy duty belly laughs--

'cause look who we were with-- our dear friends, Calene and Mark

Borup and Marc and Monique Warner.  

 I was a wuss and didn't even try... but Byron got 

up skiing...

 and criss crossed the lake-- which we almost had to ourselves.

Boy, did we both need those breaks!

Rodeo Barker Style

Ahh, what a long way I've come from my days in New York and L.A.

Should've seen me last night... chasing down a cow in my flip flops!

Greer and I came home from getting her hair cut to find Byron

and Holland trying to round up our remaining two cows and a baby.

 We joined in the chase... helping to get the Mama and the other cow

in the trailer.  You'd think the calf would be a cinch to lasso.

Um no.

You'd have laughed yourself silly watching all of us running

back and forth across the pasture to 1. wear the calf out

and 2.  get him close enough to Byron so he could lasso him.

 And Byron tried so hard and came so close- many, many times.

Like, a hundred times.  Or attempts.  No joke.

It was hilarious and exhausting and everything else.

 Finally, the planets aligned.  Or the calf got too tired.

No matter, Byron got him on a dead run.

And got a horrific rope burn to show for his efforts.

But we got them all loaded, locked and moved

to our friend's greener pastures

where they will get nice and fat.

 And... hopefully, a little action.

They are now back in the company of our neighbor's bull.

And I think I'll just leave it at that.

 Oh, and by the way, Greer got 8 inches cut off.

That girl has enough hair for half the country.

The Den of LOVE

There is no way we have been married for seventeen years!

Part of me feels like it was yesterday

but the bigger (and more tired) part of me feels like

we've been married for centuries.

Oh, how I love this guy. 

 And out crazy girls.

They sent us out on a date last night

with homemade fabric wallets (courtesy of Reese)

and twenty bucks inside each of them.

 We went and had yummy Thai food on them

and then a movie (The Martian-- which was great-- intense but great)!

Look what we came home to-

as Byron referred to it:  "the den of love"!

 The girls went streamer crazy in our room...

left chocolates and other treats on the pillows

(well, in front of them anyway)..

 I kinda had the theme from Mission Impossible going through

my head-- our room looked like we had infrared beams all over it.

 This was my favorite part-- we thought it was a B with an L

through it- but it is actually the "&" symbol.  There are tiny hearts

on each side:  one says husband, one says wife.

 And then there was the 17 years sign...

 the chocolate hearts all over the floor...

 and this little gem:  Anniversary Barbie with an old

photo album they dug up from my bridal shower!

 Oh yes, and one glass of sparkling cider to share.

It made our night...

and the seventeen years we've been married

worth every minute!

Ah, the Lengths We Will Go....

A glimpse at the glamorous life we lead:  

on Tuesday, one of the PICU doctors said

Kean was quite constipated after feeling around on his 

abdomen.  So like a good mom, I plied the kid with

Miralax-- just like I did every time he had Chemo.

Well, it hit today and hard.

The boy woke up early from his nap, came out of his room

buck naked and covered in (um, you can guess).

Poor Greer was the only one home and got stuck helping

me clean the very smelly boy up.  I took care

of the room, the bedding, the bed, the hall, the toys etc.

Fast forward about an hour to when I had to go and pick

up Holland from school.  I'm almost there when I get a

phone call with Greer crying that Kean has done it again.

Sigh.

I called Byron, who was out in the barn, told him the situation--

and just look at how he came to the rescue.

 Of course, this was after he and Greer got

Kean cleaned up again.

I can tell you it worked:  Greer traded

her tears for giggles.

 And Kean?

Well, he got a few of his favorites (baths)

and hopefully a better feeling gut.

Itsy Bitsy, Mary and the Dream Crusher

We all (except for Kean) went out to an "off, off, off Broadway" play

this evening.

Our friends daughter (she'll be a senior in high school) writes and

directs a play each summer.

This year it was a musical with a new spin on your favorite

nursery rhymes.

Greer had a solo-- playing the Itsy Bitsy Spider 

who was so sad and lonely because she scared everyone away.

 Reese played Mary (who had a little lamb).

 It was darling-- and we all can't wait to see what the director

makes of herself.  That's her on the right passing out awards to the cast.

We all hope we can talk her into doing "just one last year".

 The other "drama" of the night came from this little kitten

the girls have named Butterscotch.

They've petitioned, begged, cajoled and pleaded to let us let them 

keep this little girl.

It is so not going to happen for several reasons.

So they've resorted to calling Byron Dream Crusher.

And I swear they've called him that at least 40 times over the past two days.

It's so bad, I've had to stop myself from calling him that.

Ay yai yai.

What drama.

A Love Letter

I wish I could reach out of this computer and hug each and everyone of you.

Thank you for the beautiful comments, phone calls and pep talks.

Really, I could never have survived all of this stress over the past several

years without your support

and love.

Thank you again and again.

It has been a good day.

A new day.

And that has made all the difference.

Kean was a dazzler at therapy this morning--

he actually said "I want Mommy"-- which is huge.

I went and had a long scheduled Mammogram-- and told

myself it was just a version of a massage (a very focused massage)-- ha, ha.

And Byron and I escaped tonight for a much needed date.

We went and saw a movie.  

We left the three girls-- doing facials and watching Kean.

Oh the Shenanigans

I have seriously been dreading today-- April Fools Day.

Holland has been researching, plotting and conniving.

So of course defensive maneuvers had to be employed.

Reese helped me make sandwiches for Greer and Holland's lunchbox today--

hot dog buns with a big carrot in the middle, smothered in ketchup and mustard.

Yum, yum.  Tasty.

Plus a few other lunchbox surprises.

 Reese got caught up in the spirit of things and came up

with this one all on her own.

She wrapped her ankle, donned crutches, 

 smeared black marker on her toes and told 

everyone at school she had broken her foot

and was to get a cast later today.

She got away with it royally!

 When I dropped the girls off at school, I was greeted

by the friendliest drivers-- lots of waves and honks.

It continued clear to the dentist's office

where Kean got a check up today.

By the way, this time he didn't bite the dentist

(only nibbled his hand).

Progress, I guess.

 It wasn't until I got home that I discovered why

today of all days everyone was so doggone friendly:

look at what Holland plastered on the back of my car!

That girl.

She also put a cardboard cut out inside the toilet

with a hole about the size of a nickel.

cut into it.

On it, she wrote "Expert Level"

and poor Byron had to try and aim into it.

Lucky us, he made it.

Lucky you, I didn't take a picture of it.

The Girls Chase the Boys

What a Spring Break we've had--- we played hard at the lake

for the first few days and then nearly killed ourselves off the second half.

My dear husband (many of you know I call him McGyver- because he 

can do everything) decided we were going to refinish our wood floors.

Holy cow-- what a lot of work!!!

Our wood floors actually are an old gym floor from a high school

in Arizona-- true hard wood, and I mean hard.

We sanded on those darn things for years it felt like.

 We put not one, but two coats of the hardener on it, plus

the top coat (with sanding and cleaning each time in between).

Let's just say we put in some incredibly long hours and I'm pretty

sure I won't be able to move tomorrow.

 We also carted the kids over to my folks house and ended up

staying there-- due to the mountains of dust and the

toxic fumes.

Last night we celebrated my dad's birthday and the birthdays 

of my parents' neighbors-- Janice and Bob.

(Janice is our dear miracle-- she wasn't supposed

to survive her cancer and yet is still with us and fighting hard).

 And as if we don't have enough on our plates with cleaning 

everything-- and I mean everything-- and moving it all back

into the house... we had to move Sadie and her baby, Rudy

down to the back pasture with the other cows.

 I swear it is a good thing there aren't cameras to capture

all of us chasing and hollering after these dumb cows

trying to get them to go where we want.

 Thankfully, we got them in with no extra drama

and it was crazy watching all the seven of the girl cows

we have chase Rudy around and check him out.

Byron, of course, said that is exactly how he and Kean

feel all the time- since they are "ladies men".

 I guess that makes us the chasers.

The Weigh In

Good news to report from plague central.

Byron got out of bed for about half of the day!

He even went down to his office for paperwork for a few hours

(before coming home to crash).

But he is most definitely on the mend.

And please don't let me jinx it, but all the other Barkettes

are so far just fine.

If I had money, I think I'd invest in Tamiflu.

Had to share this cute pic of Greer.

She is auditioning for a special arts school on Saturday.

We've heard her sing "Popular" from Wicked-- oh,

about 2463, nope make that 2464 times.

 And as for the Keanut-man, he's in great form.

Mostly happy today and still eating above and beyond.

I think I failed to tell you he gained nearly a pound

in the week between doctor's appointments.

Which is all the more shocking when you realize

he would hardly eat anything for the first four days

following Chemo.

He's more than made up for the fasting-- and is now

only a few pounds shy of Reese's weight.  

The Bug

I'll spare you a running tally on the food intake today.

This picture from breakfast will give you a "taste" of

what life is like at the Barker ranch.

And I'll really spare you about his "roid rage"-- man

was he on one this evening.

 We spent half of of the day at the hospital.

Look at who saw himself on display in the lobby of

MSTI (Pediatric Oncology clinic).

 So, other than eating his way through the appointment-- here

are the cliff notes.

We had some problems getting blood out of his port for a sample.

But luckily, it worked without going through the rigmarole of

having to administer meds.

 And after his counts were so scary low last week-- they

were unbelievably high today.

From 540 to 2314.  

We all about fell out of our chairs.

The doc said we can thank the Steroids--

and that his counts should plummet again after tomorrow 

when he takes his next dose of Methotrexate.

 Kean and I also started on Tamiflu today in the hopes

of not catching Byron's plague.

We notified the girls' pediatrician and if they so much as

cross their eyes funny, they'll go on it too.

As for Sickie, we thought he was turning a corner-- he even

walked the girls (kept at a safe distance) down to their bus

this morning... but was so exhausted he went straight to bed when he got back.

He does seem a bit better but then it comes back with a vengeance.

This is one flu bug we all want to avoid.

Nas---teey.