Calling in the Troops . . .

"The troops" in this case, being a one woman army, better known as MOM. I went to the plastic surgeon today to discuss Rachel's surgery in more detail. After sitting there a few minutes I text my Mom and said, "you may need to come down here." She wrote back and said, " I can be there in three hours!" I really do not know what I would do without her. The surgeon said that they may have to do a muscle graft as well as the skin graft. This would require for Rachel to be in the hospital for up to seven days. It is a lot more complicated than I had originally thought. We just have to get through this surgery and I think we may come out on the other side! I am so grateful that I can depend on my Mom - even from this many miles away! If she is here, I know that we can get through anything!

Rachel Update

Just a quick post about Rachel's bone scan. Today was a good day. We are getting more used to going to MD Anderson and the sights that I see there aren't as shocking as they were to me in the beginning. I saw a sweet family that I met my first day today. The first time I met them they had just found out that their daughter has Leukemia. As of today, she just finished her first round of chemo (three weeks) and is already in remission! I was so happy for them - I gave her mom a big hug! They still have a few treatments ahead of them but they will be less aggressive. Their little girl is the same age as Rachel and has long, brown, beautiful, flowing hair as well. Her hair was really thinned out today but she looks really good and is handling the Chemo really well. This makes me feel better if we end up on that path as well.
Rachel had a bone scan today. She tried so hard to hold still! She did a really good job after the first five minutes! She was given an injection of radioactive something or other! I was all worried about being in the room for the scan while pregnant because of the machine and then they informed me that my daughter was radioactive and that she was the one I needed to be concerned about getting to close to - YIKES! Rach is much more informed about what is going on. Today she informed my friend Stacie that she couldn't play with her little girl anymore because she has a tumor in her foot with yucky stuff that is going to make her very sick! Yuck! (Not something you want to hear your child say - and not completely true) I have never heard her say the word tumor. I have been trying to explain things to her. She understands that we are going to the hospital to keep her from getting very sick. She has a good attitude but I can see signs of her anxiety. I am trying to keep things light and "normal." Anyway, her bone scan looked normal and her doctor had encouraging things to say. He looked back through some of the other cases that they have had like Rachel's in the last several years and they are all doing great! Yeah! I just keep praying that cancer will not scare us for her whole life!

Object Lesson gone wrong . . .

Monday night for family night I decided to get creative and do something fun. We made two batches of cookies, one following the recipe and the other without. I let the girls have at it with all of the cookie making ingredients. They got to put in as much as they wanted of whatever they wanted. I think they had three or for eggs in there and a cube of butter, a little more salt and baking soda than necessary but with butter and sugar you can't go too horribly wrong. They were tasting the dough and were quite impressed with themselves. I then let them blob the dough onto the cookie sheet as haphazardly as they desired. We stuck them in the oven and I think they were quite pleased with themselves. We then had a lesson about how the Lord has a "recipe" for happiness that He has given us to follow. We talked about the components of that plan; faith, prayer, going to church, giving service, etc. We talked about how you can make up your own recipe or you can follow the one that our Father in Heaven has layed out for us. (You get the idea) We then went to check out the final products. When the girls saw what had become of their creation they were mortified! Rachel hung her head and with deep understanding said, "we didn't follow the recipe." Then they became angry! They were so upset with me for allowing them to make a mess out of their cookies! Audrey said, "you just wanted your cookies to be the best!" Then the girls asked James to taste their cookies and when he didn't like them they were beside themselves! Rachel informed us both that she was going to "break up" with Daddy because he didn't like her cookies. We had two unhappy girls! Can you say estrogen?! The moral of this story is, if you are going to use this object lesson, have the kids follow the recipe and Daddy make the yucky cookies!

Audrey in Action!!

Trailing behind . . .

Gaining on 'em . . .

Pulling out ahead . . .


Going for the Goal!

Ultimate Determination

The Face of determination (A better look at the picture above)

The strength . . .

The agility . . .

The coordination . . .

The speed . . .

. . . of an athlete.

I love this game!


Having a little fun with Audrey on this post. She is so into soccer! In this case the apple falls very far from the tree!!! Those of you who knew me in my childhood can appreciate just how far.

The Fam

Last night, we all went out to Dinner at Pappadeaux. Brittany was missing her boyfriend Garrett but we had a great time. The food was excellent and the company was even better. We ate way too much!

It's nice to get a shot of us when we get the chance.

Me and my gals!

My cute parents.


They had a live band and so Brittany and my Dad were dancing. My Dad is so much fun to dance with all of us. He has always done that. He danced with the girls while he was here and they ate it up! It makes you feel like such a princess when you are a little girl.

These two have become buds. We are really going to miss Brittany around here. She moved out this morning! We are so sad. The house feels quieter and there is a void for sure! I wish we could have kept her forever but she needs to move on to the next step.

This was taken in Hawaii. All of these were on my little digital so this one got a little out of order. It's a little close because we took it of ourselves but I liked it anyway.

Grandad!

My Mom was so great to watch the kids (and Britt). Unfortunately, we never got any pictures of her with the kids - ugh! We got a surprise visit from Grandad. Grandad visits are a little more rare so I guess that it why we caught a couple of photos of him. I love my family so much and miss them every day. It was great to have them around me and feel their love and their strength!

Hawaii Highlights!

This was at the Luau that we went to. It was great!









My cute hubby in our jeep! We had so much fun cruising the island, listening to regae, with the top down.

James coming back in from surfing.





On the road to Hana we stopped at this little village and got smoothies. They were amazing! I can't believe that so few people live in this little community - how did they get so lucky! It is Heaven on earth!

Paradise!



This was the view from our deck the last night we were there.

Waterfalls on the road to Hana.




The sacred cove where James surfed!

Thank You!

I have the best girlfriends in the world! Thank you girls so much for sending me these beautiful flowers! I was very surprised to receive them and it made me cry! It has been such a strength to me to have all of your love and support! You are the best! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Love you all!

Surfing!

Here are some pictures for the girls! James has been having a good time surfing. The waves have been small and a little inconsistent but it has been fun. The last picture is of a rainbow that we saw this morning from the balcony of our condo.