Happy Birthday Ethan!

Happy 7th Birthday Ethan!

Can't believe you are already SEVEN!

Love your expressions here.

So you.

Love your sense of humor and fun-loving self.

Love your sensitive side.

Love your love for us and others.

Love your generosity.

Love that you'll play any sport and love it.

Love you!!!

 

major league party

Ethan wanted to have a backyard baseball game for his birthday party this year.

Brian told the kids we could sing the National Anthem before we started.

Guess who had to sing most of the song by herself?

The first pitch of the game.  The birthday boy got the honors of first at-bat!

I think most of the boys could have played for hours.  It was a lot of fun to watch them.

Waiting patiently in the dugout for their turn at bat.  This is probably the most that were ever sitting there at one time.  Most of the time they were over in the snacks or getting a drink.  They were starving after all of that baseball playing :)

We played relay games, too.

One of them was "dizzy bat".  I think we should have made them run around the bat a few more times because none of them seemed too dizzy.  Maybe that's a good thing, though.

Another crazy face getting ready to blow out the candle on the cookie cake he requested.

So glad that Ethan has such great friends.  I love each of these kids and the blessing that they are in Ethan's life.  Thanks for celebrating with us!!

best of missouri market

Last year I waited months to get to go to the Best of Missouri Market at the Botanical Gardens.  It's this huge spread of vendors from all over Missouri showcasing their items and products made or grown here in Missouri.  Yes, that had my name written all over it.  I can't remember now exactly why we didn't get to go, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with rain and cold weather.

So this year a friend mentioned on Friday that they were going Saturday.  I had forgotten about it this year with everything else going on.  We debated for a while about whether to go, since Elliott's sleepover was the night before and then we had Ethan's soccer that morning also, but in the end we decided it was a beautiful day and just to go for it.

And we did not regret it for one minute!

We probably walked about 10 feet into the first tent when Elliott turned to me and said "I love this!"  There were all kinds of food vendors - salsa, fudge, bbq sauce, wineries, jams, jellies, bakeries, meat markets and more.  And each booth had samples.  I think they sampled almost everything!  And we came home with two kinds of bbq sauce, jalapeno pepper jelly, and a mini pumpkin pie (and empty Fitz's bottles).  It was almost torture for me, because I still didn't feel like having anything in my mouth, but I just loved being there in that atmosphere with all of those handmade, local-grown items.

They had a kids' area behind the Children's Garden set up with a pumpkin patch, crafts, etc.  This is Ethan grinding some corn.  They both also got to make apple cider with a cider press, and one of them even milked a cow.........

Ethan didn't want to try it.  He thought it was disgusting.  Elliott was game though.  Brian and I passed too.  I'm sure I got to do that at Grandpa's when I was younger so I didn't need another turn.

Honestly, this was one of a handful of events like this that I can remember that all four of us really loved.  We will definitely go back next year......with backpacks to carry more stuff and with my true tastebuds to start the sampling again!

campout (or camp-in) party

Elliott wanted a campout party this year for his birthday.  Brian said he would campout with them so we went for it.  It was tons of fun even though it turned into a "camp-IN" party.  The mercury dipped into the lower 40s that night so they all camped in the loft.  The boys were disappointed for a few minutes and then got over it and played TRON with the glow sticks I gave them. 

We ordered pizza and ate out in the blustery wind.

They made trail mix.  This was a last minute thought on my part, but they really enjoyed doing it and it gave them something to snack on and they had plenty to take home the next day too.

One of Elliott's friends had a 3DS that took 3-D pictures (very cool), and he was quite the photographer while Elliott was opening presents :)

Okay, so I really like to make their birthday cakes.  I just enjoy coming up with the ideas and seeing how it all plays out.  I don't do it every year, and I figured I might not be able to this year.  But I had found a camping cake that looked really easy that I was going to do.  So I asked Elliott what kind of cake he wanted, and he said a cookie cake.  Really?!  So disappointed not to be able to decorate the camping cake, but in reality this was the best scenario cause I did NOT have the energy to even BAKE a cake, let alone decorate one.  But I did build a tent out of graham crackers and a campfire out of pretzels and candy corn.  That counts, right?

a peek out the window

Last Thursday Brian came home from work, ate dinner with us, tucked the boys in, and then went back outside to put the tent up in the backyard for Elliott's birthday campout the following evening.  We had the boys' windows open cause it was such a nice night out, and when I walked by Ethan's room this is what I saw.

I thought maybe he was talking to Brian, but he was quiet.  I finally asked him what he was doing, and he said he just liked looking out the window.  He liked the view, he said.  And he liked all the sounds.  It made me think of how I like to sleep with the windows open and listen to all the sounds too (well, as long as they're just nature sounds).  Maybe we need to do this more often.

radiation

Today we met with the radiation oncologist.  It was somewhat of a short visit, but informative.  He was a very nice guy and explained everything really well (not that I remembered everything as well as he explained it though).  So here is what will be happening.

My last chemo cycle will begin on October 12th, and about 3-4 weeks after that I will get a CAT scan to make a "map" of me to determine exactly where the radiation will be focused each time.  That mapping will take a week to 10 days, and then after that is completed radiation treatments will actually begin.  So, it will be mid-November at the earliest before treatments start, and we're still not sure if they will last for 6 or 7 weeks.  That will be determined by the mapping from the CAT scan.  And we may wait until after Thanksgiving at that point, just so that I can enjoy some normalcy over one of the holidays.  It all just depends on a few things that we need to discuss.

So all this time we've been thinking that the big treatments - surgery, chemo, radiation - would be finished by the end of the year, but that's looking uncertain now.  But that's okay.  It will still be over soon. 

Other than that, he explained that the treatments are everyday, Monday - Friday.  And that each time would take about 30 minutes at the most.  No surprises there.

Side effects most likely will be a sunburn-type of skin irritation and fatigue, both more likely to come at the end of the treatment period.  Again, things we had expected.

At one point he asked about my appetite. I said it was okay. I think what he heard was "I really haven't been eating much because my mouth and stomach are all messed up and it's too much trouble to try to fight it". Because he started telling me how they really don't want me to lose any weight right now, and how your body actually needs extra energy in order to heal. And how no one really ever gains weight while going through this, so I have a free ticket to eat whatever I want. Whatever sounds good. Whatever tastes good. McDonald's, whatever. I nodded and said okay that I would do that. Inside I felt guilty because I should have told him I threw nutrition out the window months ago when I started eating ice cream shakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner cause that's all that would go down and stay down :)  The funny thing is that I immediately got a craving for a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from McDonald's.  And, yes, I ate potato chips and lil smokies for lunch.  See, I'm a great patient.

one off the to-do list

I like making lists.  Somehow it helps me to remember things if I write them down.  Possibly because I can actually look at the list and not rely on my memory?  Hmmmm.  Anyway, we, probably like most other people have an ongoing list of things that need to be done around the house.  I keep ours in a notebook, organized by room so that I can find it easily and add it to the honey-do list when I can (Brian LOVES that list).

One of the things that has been on the list for the kitchen ever since we moved in was to get crown moulding put on the top of the cabinets.  The builder wanted something like $900 to do it when we were building.  At least I think that's what it was - I do remember that it was a crazy amount of money for the one section of cabinets that you can see in the picture and then another 4 foot section above the refrigerator.

So I finally ordered the crown and even got a little crazy and ordered a piece for the bottom of the cabinets, too. (It has a name, but it eludes me at the moment).  That was about January.  Then a few weeks ago our friend, Tim, from church installed it for us.  I was so excited!!  It was fun watching it change and look totally different.  He did a great job (and he brought homemade toffee - yum!!).

But what I'm most excited about is that we get to cross it off the list - yay!!!  I know, I'm strange like that.  I get a lot of satisfaction from drawing that line of ink through all of those faded letters after 4 years, and I'm not afraid to admit it!