Turkey Day

I wish I could say that our table looked like this but we have little kids! Maybe next year I will try harder with the table but for now it was enough for me to get everything on the table and still hot. We had Thanksgiving on our own again this year. We really do enjoy having our own traditions but today things didn't turn out exactly as planned. James got sick around 6:00 p.m. and has been in bed ever since. That really put a damper on things for me at least. We were able to salvage our tradition of watching a movie as a family and me and the girls enjoyed "An American Girl."
I have really enjoyed cooking and spending time with my girls this week. I am so lucky to have such fun girls to hang out with! Adam was moved into a "big boy bed" last night and he has done great! He wasn't very happy about it when he woke up at 5:00 this morning, but at nap time and for bedtime tonight he went to sleep without so much as a peep!
This Thanksgiving, I want to express my gratitude for the abundant blessings in my life! I am even grateful for the challenges that we have had over the last year. There have been many ups and downs for me and my memories are bitter sweet. No matter what happens, I now that I am blessed. I can look around me and see that there are so many that have greater challenges than I. The movie that I watched with the girls was about the great depression. In light of world circumstances at present, the movie was quite humbling. It could happen to us all! I am encouraged to know that the human spirit can endure much! My knowledge of the strength of faith and families and friends, takes away the fear of what we could possibly face in our life's journey.
I am looking forward to picking out our Christmas tree tomorrow and decorating our home. I love the way that our home feels at Christmas time! I do wish that it wasn't going to be 78 degrees tomorrow! It just feels more festive to at least wear a sweater and be able to have some hot chocolate while decorating the house! Oh well, such is life in Texas! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am grateful for all of the relationships that I have made throughout the years, both those that I have chosen, and those that were chosen for me! Love you all!

GOOD NEWS!!!!!

The Doctor called today and informed me that the pathology report revealed that the margins are clear (or negative)! The first margins that were tested in the OR still contained synovial cells but after they took out their second margins they were clear!! I am so grateful for the inspiration that the surgeon was given in directing him to test the tissue that ended up being positive. That knowledge lead the surgeons to re-draw their margins and give us this great result! We are all so relieved! We will just be watching to make sure that this will not come back! I cannot thank you enough for your faith and prayers! I know that it is by faith that all things are possible!!!

Rachel Bee

We are still waiting for news. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from our adventures in the hospital. As you can see, Rachel was not lacking personality.


Here is one from when Audrey came to visit.

Rachel tried crutches. She looked so cute but it is a little dangerous for a four year old! The walker was a lot safer.


The Carter Geriatric Center!!

Fired up!

I have never seen Rachel so fired up in all of my life. She has always had attitude but Whew!! She has been hot tempered since she opened her eyes. She is getting to the point where she just repeatedly says "go home!" and refuses to do ANYTHING! What a spirited little girl I have. She refuses to be coddled and cared for. Today she said that she didn't like me doing all of this "service" for her. It killed me that she actually used that word! As if I don't do "service" for her every day. I never realized that she was such a control freak. She has decided to single handedly make everyone's life on the medical staff miserable! I cannot do anything right! She wants me to lay by her but then I make her hot and "comfortable" which is bad. (Uncomfortable??) Oh boy! I anticipated that this would be hard but I thought that it would be tiring and emotionally draining, not that it would be difficult to take care of her. Everyone keeps telling me that it is this same "spunk" that will help her get better quickly. She came off of her IV in less than 24 hours of going into surgery and has really been just on oral meds today. Everyone is amazed that she was eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom on her own practically 12 hours post op, which is great considering that the surgery itself was about eight hours! James and Audrey came up to the hospital tonight and she was pretty ornery to them most of the visit. Poor Audrey is so sensitive that she had a hard time leaving her sister here under these "conditions." Rachel says that she hates our new "home!" She all but jumped out of bed and walked out the door with Daddy and Audrey tonight! We have had a few good moments. We ordered chocolate cake and ice cream and watched enchanted. Thank Goodness for CHOCOLATE! A girls best friend. (I don't know who came up with the idea that it was diamonds.) She was also happy for a brief period of time while we were coloring together. I am going to push the doctor to let us go home tomorrow. I didn't think that she would respond quite like this to being here. I think that she will relax and get a lot more rest if we go home because she will quit fighting everyone and throwing fits! I'm surprised that I can't see any red roots in her hair! Thank you all for calling and checking up on us. I think things will get better when we can go home. I am so glad that my Mom is here taking care of my little bud! Audrey has been at school most of the days but it is nice to know that she has had some normalcy. Besides, I think she likes Grammy more than me anyway. Goodnight!

4:00 a.m.

4:00 in the morning and we are up! I guess that happens when you sleep the whole day before! I was just glad that Rach slept from 11:00 to 4:00. I was so tired last night! The bed in here is SO uncomfortable, but hey, it is a bed and not just a chair! Rachel was such a bear last night! They said that anesthesia can make you irritable but it had never done that to her before. She had a lot more in her system from yesterday so that must have been what was going on. She was constantly shouting orders at me. It is so hard to watch her be so frustrated and uncomfortable and not really be able to do anything to help her. She has a cast the comes up passed her knee! She says that it is heavy and of course really annoying. She has been complaining the most about her groin area (right on her bikini line) where they took the skin graft. They had to take the skin on both sides. They just have some Gauss and small bandages on them but they are driving her crazy. Honestly, I am glad that we are in the hospital! It is a controlled environment and I can keep her away from dangers like my little two year old! Keep you posted!

Out of Surgery . . .

So we are out of surgery and in our room. It has been a very long day but things went really well. They were able to get by with only doing a skin graft. We will probably be here through the weekend but won't have to stay the full seven days. The surgeon had to take out almost twice as much as planned because after he did his original excision they tested some of the tissue and found the synovial cells in the tissue. Because of this he went twice as far and then tested more of the cells and they came back normal. They are only able to test a limited amount in the operating room and the results aren't 100% reliable. We will have to wait to see if the result come back negative (Negative is good) until next week. A negative result would mean that they got healthy tissue surrounding the area that they found the cancer cells. They spoke with us about the possibility of doing radiation if they do not feel good about the pathology report. I feel good about the way that things went. I believe that because of our prayers and faith, the Doctor was able to find the cancer cells during surgery and was able to make the decision to be more aggressive. Thank you for all of your prayers and support! We will keep everyone posted. Rachel is doing great! She is quite bossy but in good spirits. She is being a trooper as always.

Surgery Week!

This is the week of the surgery. Rachel goes in on Wednesday morning. We are hoping that they will only have to do a skin graft but we are anticipating that she will have to have a muscle graft as well. Please pray for the success of her surgery and a speedy recovery!! I am getting nervous as the day approaches, but I have faith that things will go well. Thank you all for your continued support.

Goof Ball

Adam woke up the other morning with the best bed head I have ever seen! I had to share!

Candy is too good!!

Halloween

For Halloween we went to the ward trunk or treat. We had planned on trick or treating in our neighborhood but when we got home, audrey wanted to get in the tub and they were satisfied. (Lucky us).

Audrey looked so cute as a witch! I love the way her hair turned out! We didn't even have to try to get it to do that.







Rachel wanted to be the little mermaid. I loved this costume on her little body. I had to post this sillouette.



Rachel cracks me up because she just decided that she is "over it." After she got four pieces of candy she came to me and said that she had plenty and she was ready to go.


This is Rachel's favorite babysitter Sarah. We would have her babysit every weekend if we could!

I love this picture of Rachel. She has such a sincere smile.

Adam was so hard to get a picture of! He hates dressing up! This is the only thing I could get him to wear. He looked really cute anyway.

Pumpkin Patch

The weekend before Halloween I took the kids to the pumpkin patch. We got away a little later than we wanted to and it ended up getting pretty warm! After an hour or so Rachel said that she was ready to go and get her pumpkin and go home. The kids had a good time riding the ponies but sometimes less is more. It was a short visit but we had a good time.
Here's my little poser.


Audrey has always loved horses! She would love to ride horses more.



Look at how prissy she is. She is reluctantly touching this dirty animal.

adam wore a look of consternation the entire time we were at the pumpkin patch. He hates it when the sun shines in his eyes. He needs a nice pair of shades. If only he would keep them on.