Thursday, April 29, 2010

High School Registration for .... (gulp) Jackson

I feel so old, I have a child (you remember Jackson the one who was an infant yesterday) going to HIGH SCHOOL in the fall.  HIGH SCHOOL, surely it will be better than I think, right?  You all remember how I felt about Middle School, I had nightmares that he would come home from the first day of sixth grade with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  But he didn't , he is still a sweet innocent boy.  But HIGH SCHOOL, how can any teenager safely navigate High School with their innocence intact?  High School also means just four years left with this boy in my home.  I feel like I am facing a ticking time bomb, and boy howdy time is 'awasting.  I need to go wake him up right now, teach him everything he needs to know about the gospel, then how to do laundry (without a red crayon going through a load---ruined probably $200.00 worth of clothes in that load, this week--I overload the washer it's a sin) and teach him how to balance a check book, (actually with the laundry and check book stuff we might need guest instructors)  I need to teach him about cleaning, cooking, shopping, social skills, girls, roommate's, scheduling, insurance, his medical history, driving, and whatever else I haven't taught him.  Yikes, I might really need to wake him up.  Then lets talk about his health, his future, his abilities, his prognosis---Nope let's not.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Kindergarten Registration, for.....(gulp) Carter

The night before Michael reminded Carter that "tomorrow he would signing up for Kindergarten", Carter said, "Oh crud, I need to learn to read".  He then brought me four books and demanded he learn right then.
Carter playing a math game with his future Principal, Mrs. Eilers, let's hope their interactions are always this friendly!
I couldn't even get emotional about my baby registering for Kindergarten, look at his face he is sooooo excited.I love how he sets his mouth when he is working hard.
Carter needs to learn how to act cool about it all from his buddy Detton!
These two aren't excited for next year at all--I could be wrong (it's happened once before!) but I don't think Cougar man will be a frequent flyer to the office like Sierra.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Make A Wish Send Off Party


Sammi and Sierra, you can kind of see Tara and Lori in the background.

We got lucky and Uncle Brian was still in Royal long enough for the party. Here he is with Grandpa Kent and Tanner Christensen.

These two have been best friends since before they could walk. I remember visiting Mom and Dad going to church in Royal some weekends and Tanner and Jackson would crawl to each other in the foyers! In fact we tried to claim Tanner as a son but Make a Wish said he has to live with us FULL time not just part time!
We haven't said a lot about our Make A Wish Party, for 1 we don't want to sound like braggers, for 2 we feel like if we could trade we would one million times rather have Jackson healthy again (one hundred kazillion times), and 3 like my friend Heather said it is overwhelming to be the recipient of such a generous gift. But we are grateful and so excited. In fact Sierra said to Michael, "Dad I'm so excited for our trip that I'm afraid I will explode!". Our Make a Wish coordinators, Tara and Lori are wonderful. They are best friends, and both so kind. They sacrifice rare free time to do this for US. Love those Ladies. The longer this chemo goes on the more tired of it and the harder it gets, so the timing is PERFECT. We are going to Orlando, Florida and we will stay at Give Kids the World Village which is a vacation in itself. Check it out at http://www.gkwv.org. We get 3 day passes to all four Disney parks in Orlando, a 1 day pass to Sea World, and a 2 day pass to Universal studios. Can't wait, the getting there will be crazy because Jax has chemo May 5th thru the 8th and we will leave Seattle drive to Royal grab the rest of the Family drive to Spokane check into a hotel for the night and be at the airport by 4:30am the 9th!! YIKES. But I bet we won't complain AT ALL!!! So excited,so excited,so excited. I will post some pictures my Mom took but the ones I took are on Mom and Dad's "old fancy" digital camera, that they kind of forgot they had when they bought the "new fancy" digital camera. But when Sammi took the digital "card" out of it it's the size of a deck of cards (not quite --- I exaggerate for dramatic effect) and in no way will fit in my Modern day laptop, perhaps Dad can solve this new age techy problem.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Lovely Ladies

When my Mother in Law was here I was cutting out pictures of the kids who have recent photographs to send with her. She said she hadn't seen the ones of Sammi and Zoe which means I neglected to post them on my blog. My bad, but wasn't it worth the wait?!










In other news Jackson hasn't had the best week post chemo. Felt sick to his stomach a lot this week but each day seems a bit better than the last, too bad he had three baseball games this week, hasn't been easy.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Chemo round 8 day 3 & day 4

This time Grandma Beve came with us to Chemo. She got to see the cute picture when Jackson was four on the bulletin board. She also got to see how tough Jackson is and how good the nurses and Doctors are with the kiddos at Seattle Children's. As you can see from this picture she also got to see Jackson not comb his hair!

For dinner that night we went to the Crab Pot on the Pier, we didn't have a great view of the water but we did have a great view of a big ship next to us really moving with the waves, we were glad to be in a warm restaurant. Jax loved having a mallet to smash his dinner with. None of us loved have the shrimp heads on--their eyes made us feel guilty!

She also got to drive home with us in a blizzard---not a highlight---snow in April should be illegal.

I complained about the snow enough on Thursday that my Dad drove to Wenatchee put new tires on his Tahoe and Michael drove Jax and I back on Friday---the roads were completely bare and dry---roads in Seattle are never dry. Like Michael said he couldn't even find a puddle to drive through, figures. It was fun to have Michael come though, and his favorite little chemo patient from when he went with Jax in January was there in the room next to us. This poor little girl HATES to have her port accessed. Just like Jackson did when he was four, in fact it made me cry just hearing her scream and beg, reminded me too much of when Jax used to do the same thing. But Michael loves her clarity and persistence, she yells, "I hate needles, I hate chemo, I hate band aids, I hate screaming, I hate crying, I hate EVERYTHING"! Then she cries to go home, and when they finish and get her done she doesn't want to leave, she wants to finish her cartoon, and get lunch at the hospital and pick out a movie at the hospital, the poor Mom looks like she has run a marathon.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Chemo round 8 day 2

I have some pictures to post from today and last night, but it would include walking downstairs, and I just walked upstairs sooooo maybe later! Yes and the stairs indicate we are home, but not for long. We did Chemo at 8am this morning and were out of the hospital and on the road by 9am. A loooong 4 hours later we were home. Why so long, you might ask?? Because of a BLIZZARD in April I would answer. Snow in April is like taking a bite of a brownie only to find out it was made with creamed spinach or sweet potatoe or something other deceptively deceptive (and ther was no typo I didn't mean to put delicious, I meant deceptive!). We crawled over the mountain at 10 miles an hour, and were happy to do so because we were grateful we weren't the ones off the road stuck, or in the many fender benders we saw. Surely in May there will be no more bad pass conditions--right? We drove home because Jackson really wanted to play in his baseball game tonight, 1. because his Grandparents from Utah are here and they don't get to see any games of his---and 2. Because his team needs him, they only have like 9 players or so. We were home about an hour when we got the news his game was cancelled because of the 40 mph winds! Jax was disappointed, and I was too, I mean what Mother doesn't love to sit in 40 mph winds and watch their sick, fatigued son play ball while exposing her four other children to extreme weather?? But we played games with Aunt Mindy got to see all the kids and be HOME so even if the roads are bad again tomorrow I'm glad we did it. A couple of nurses expressed their delight that Jackson's counts went up so much in LESS than 24 hours, I gave all the credit to all of you---best prayers ever. Thank you so much for them yesterday, today, and always.
In other news, Sierra lost a tooth at school, and has fallen asleep twice at school this week---she may be partying a bit too much with our Utah relatives, I will admit they are fun people! Zoe is making up her own language, it's cool I like it. Don't know what she is saying but it sounds like a winner lingo and I think she should try to get it to catch on. Carter has his wii games back and all is good in his world---ohhh except for an infected toe, but it hasn't stopped him from bouncing around like Tigger so no worries. Samantha is loving having Aunt Mindy here, Aunt Mindy is 16 now and can drive so she is uber awesome. I hate it when kids start driving and I can remember exactly where I was when I heard they were born, makes me feel old. Some would say I am old, but those people are just plain mean. Michael is designing away, sometimes he can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and sometimes he wakes up at night sure he is about to be run over by a speeding locamotive! I on the other hand am trying not to remember that I have to talk in Church on Sunday and do sharing time, if I remember it I start to panic, so I think I'll just think about that tomorrow---very Scarlettesque of me.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

8th grade History Day & Chemo round 8

Here we are starting round 8 of Chemo. It's been 2 weeks since I blogged last. In my defense it was spring break and I started a couple of home improvement projects. I have discovered I can clean out cupboards, paint trim and baseboards, and install them, and take the kids to the mall and movies, and clean for company, and cook. However; I can't do all that and blog too! Jackson's blood counts March 31st were low, ANC 400, which I thought might be good since we had time before Chemo for them to come up. Then yesterday his results came back with his ANC at 600. He has to be 750 to have chemo. So the fasting and prayers began and today we were relived that his ANC was 926 and Chemo was not delayed, PHEW. Michael's parents and youngest sibling, Mindy are in Royal this week since it is their spring break and it's been so nice to have them. I think I could keep a clean house with another grown woman working alongside me everyday!! Thanks for all the prayers, they really work.
Jackson and BrittanyJo Hebdon had their History day presentation the last of March, they did great. I loved walking around seeing all of the kids "come to life" and teach us about their Washington notable. Jackson made a great Apolo Ohno, and never broke character that I saw!

Jackson, I mean Apolo in his stance waiting to come to life for his presentation.



Here is a close up of Apolo Ohno, notice his cutie little beard!