America's Favorite Past Time

The weather here in Gilbert right now is perfect for kicking off the 2012 Little League season. Today was Opening Ceremonies and both of the boys had a game. I love, love, love watching baseball so I am pretty happy this season is here. (Especially when the weather is dreamy!)

Lund is a Yankee this year and had an early game today, so I didn't catch very many pictures. He is the one up to bat.

 And..............Send in the clowns, guess who is playing T-ball this year? Yup, that crazy man, Will!

 I am pretty sure everyone can still remember their 't-ball days'. Go #10!

 What an adorable kid! And Will being himself...................

......................was the only kid who decided to wear a pedometer to the game to see how many steps he took. He cracks me up!!! And the number of steps taken by a six-year-old during a T-ball game is........ 3,484! (This even includes the extra steps taken when he ran to 3rd base after hitting for the first time. He ended up taking the scenic route over to 1st.)

I am not a huge fan of drugs, but sometimes a little Benadryl in your port is very nice. (And not the "port" you drink, silly!)

This post will contain ramblings at best and probably nonsense or pig Latin at worst.
  It is 12:30am after a long day of chemo and exhaustion, and now I sit here, not being able to sleep. Oh, the irony that is cancer! I started a new chemo medicine today that has more side effects than the last med. The one I am LEAST looking forward to is losing my hair again. I know that is petty and really doesn't matter in the scheme of things, but it matters to me. It is my connection with "normal". It is the separation of being accidently called "sir" in a department store, no matter how many necklaces I wear! And the worst part is, I know that the kids hate it as well. Yeah sure, they are just glad to have me around, but when it comes right down to it, I know they are embarrassed by how I look when I am bald. How everyone "notices" me in stores and makes "nice" comments about how I need to keep fighting, and want to talk all about cancer and how many people/relatives/friends they know who have had cancer and more importantly who has died from cancer.
 I have had people come up to me with the best intentions and say, "if the Lord calls you home, it must be your time to go." And on one rough day, I responded, " I think the Lord is calling YOU home!!!" (not the most polite answer, I need to work on that!) Anyway, I just think that so many side effects of my cancer I can pretty much "hide" from the world and all they see is a busy mother toting 4 kids around. But when it comes to the hair, its just too hard to hide. And yes, I have tried wigs and I think you all need to try to wear a itchy polyester thing covering your entire head when the heat rises to 120 degrees here in Phoenix. It is just as fun as it sounds!
 I can still remember over two years ago, the very first time I went into "public" with my hat on and no hair. I entered Target and not five minutes into my excursion a 4-year-old stopped in the aisle right in front of me, blocking my path. He pointed to me and loudly declared, "Look mom, that lady has NO hair! That is funny!" And as I looked for the nearest hole to crawl into, my heart also went out to that poor mother. I mean her kid was only telling the truth, can you really punish him for that! And actually I much prefer the kids to the adults who constantly stop my progression down the aisle and want to "talk to me". It really is hard for my kids as well because ALL the attention is focused on mom. Oh poor mom!! Wahhh! Wahhhh! My kids can perform a circus in front of them (and often do), and all the stranger sees is me, with the bald head and death sentence. I think I have decided that if this chemo works, I will put down the big bucks and get a "real" wig made from "real hair" that is soft and looks, well....."normal". And really, I do this mainly for my kids' sake and the sake of others, so we can all just get on with life.
  I think I have laid too much seriousness on your plate for one night, so I will exit stage left.
 P.S. The caption about Benadryl is because I really like the feeling of getting Benadryl put in my port right before chemo. I know this is petty, but since my port goes straight to my jugular vein in my neck, the response from the Benadryl is INSTANT! Today I was doing some research on my computer when the Benadryl hit me and I looked up and said, "oh, it's the Benadryl", and instantly my mind went from being in control and intelligent to fuzzy and losing consciousness. I put aside my computer and said, " I think I will take a nap now" and immediately laid my chair back. They brought my lunch right then and I just looked at it because there was no way I could get my mouth to chew up and down for any period of time now. Good ridance food. Good ridance anyone else who was trying to have a polite conversation with me........ Benadryl controls my world. (And that means I don't have to!Smile!).............Goodnight~
P.S.S. I just wish I could get some of that stuff at home at night when I am laying awake in my bed reading away the hours. Regular Benadryl just doesn't do it. I mean who has time to wait for your stomach to disolve the pill, etc,. etc.

Was I Dreaming??

The temperature today is in the low 50s and it is cold! I can't believe that it was just last week that we were swimming and the temps were reaching 90!!! But, I will let the pictures tell the story!

 Now, I do have to tell you that the water was heated by our neighbors, and we greatly appreciated that!

 Elliot and Lucy loved swimming during Spring Break, you sure can't do that in Idaho!

 You have to watch out for this guy!!

And while we watched the kids have a good night swim, Archie decided to cuddle with his dad. He wasn't feeling good for some of the trip, poor guy!

 And we snuck in another day of swimming before the Hynes flew back home.

 Lucy had the time of her life on the slide! We sure had a great week.

And, just to top it all off, Cassidy and I bought new swimsuits for this summer!! Too cute, thank you Modbe for your modest designs!!!
And you can see the tents behind us, that will lead us onto the next day, so stay tuned!!

Tuesday Times!

 On Tuesday, Morgan made good on an old promise to his daughter and took her ice skating. They had a blast and she even taught Morgan how to spin. (And he never fell down, believe it or not!)
And while they were on their daddy daughter date, I took the younger kids to my sisters house to see their new pet.

 Aunt Becky and cousin Brody were a lot of fun as well.

 An adorable poodle puppy, Daisy! Sarah was in love, but she had to fight Raelynn for her love.

 And I must admit, that is one cute dog!!!

I think Sarah would have lived there if I let her. She LOVES animals!!!  Another successful Spring Break day!

Ridin' Along in my Automobile!!!

I mentioned earlier that all the kids got to pick out a cool thing since we didn't get to go on our cruise. While most of the kids chose something that they could hold in their hands instantly, Will decided to go with a particular Power Wheel that took patience. Morgan had to order it online, and then he had to wait............. and after it arrived, we had to charge the battery for 14 hours, so he had to wait................again...............

 He decided to start waiting inside his car..................

 Poor guy, learning patience is hard!

 But the rewards are ten-fold!

Come-on, what six-year-old girl wouldn't want to go cruising around town with this guy?!!
p.s. it is handy that it is a two-seater because his cousin Elliot and he had TONS of fun riding together all week!!

Week of Wonder....Where to begin?????

Our Spring Break week has been sooo packed with fun, and I am going to try to cover it event by event.

 Have you seen one of these before? Maybe not because it was created by Lund! He got the plans online and he drew it up himself and made models and then Morgan got into the mix when he decided to buy all the hardware and then the guys worked together to create an awesome trebuche (French word for an awesome catapult)

 The adjusting and launching commenced. And Spring Break had begun!

 My favorite part was watching my boys working together!

 Lund tried launching the pumpkin that he grew in the garden recently. It was a bit too heavy and lopsided.

 We were all in awe!

and then the boys figured out the best size and shape...

 A water balloon! Sarah is holding a champion water balloon that wouldn't pop even after being shot out of the trebuche repeatidly.

 Everybody took turns launching water balloons.

 Dot didn't even seem to mind all the craziness. She was just happy for the warmth and the green grass to eat.

 And if it is going to be this warm, we had better let the "pale skin ones" get some sun!

 wahoo! my sexy boys!

 And their favorite thing was trying to catch the waterballoons as they were being launched from the catapult.

 These two went head to head, but all Cassidy got was a face full of water.

 Cousin Lucy, who is visiting from Boise, decided that she wanted to get wet too. She just figured she would pop the balloon on her own...

 It took quite a few attempts, but it finally gave in. Welcome to warm AZ!

These two cousins are only four months apart, and they have had such a great time this week playing together.

 In recovery news: I am two weeks out from lung surgery and everyday gets better. Lungs are sure hard to heal! I have oxygen here at home that I sleep with at night and my home health nurses come to visit twice a week. But other than that, life is back to normal! Stay tuned for more Spring Break news!

Spring is in the air!!

 Spring has sure found the Valley of the Sun!!! It is citrus season, which is one of my favorites. You can smell the orange blossoms, and you can taste the sweet navels off the trees. Oh boy..........

 As you can tell by the size of our trees (in previous posts), we don't exactly have a lot of fruit yet, but a lot of our wonderful neighbors do and they are always willing to share their overabundance.

 And the kids LOVE climbing to get the fruit, and then dropping it all down on our heads.

Thank you Carters for letting us partake of your wonderful citrus trees!!

Who will grow faster, the citrus or the kids?

 Today after church I was out back with the kids and noticed the baby orange tree next them. It got me to thinkin', who will grow faster........

 the beautiful trees...............

or our beautiful children?!

"We Didn't get wet!"

 Sarah and Will and their cousins were instructed to "not get wet". Somehow, they felt that if they sprayed the ground and then got muddy, that didn't qualify! hummmmmm

 Their punishments were to go get the mail, the lost dog, and let mom hose them off outside in the cold hose water.

Our Hawaiin Suprize!

 Our surprise Hawaiian leis. Hurry and snap a picture by the ocean before the tide turns!
Are you confused yet? Today, a florist dropped up some beautiful, freshly made laie necklaces for everyone in the family. The note read, "So sorry to hear you had to give up your Disney cruise.  We hope these Hawaiian leis will make you feel better. We each picked out a special one and went to the beach for some pictures! (Actually our backyard, but still a memory that we will never forget!) Thank you Jack and Judy in California, how thoughtful!

The Hawaiian hotties!

 catching some rays on the beach!

 All my beautiful Hawaiian babies!

 So sophisticated Lund!

Update: Obviously we had to change our cruise plans due to the extra days in the hospital and ICU. We are still tying to replace our family vacation with another one in the summer. But since kids can't wait that long and are VERY sensitive and disappointed/devastated, we decided to "buy off" our own children! I mean why not? Isn't that what every good parent does?
   After telling our kids the devastating news about moms surgery/no trip/ and everything else depressing, we told our kids that they could each pick out something that they had always wanted, but were unable to attain.
 Cassidy opted for an Ipod 4.
Lund bought a huge remote control airplane
Sarah picked out a blue Nintendo Ds with some animal games
and Will waited patiently for his Power Wheels Jeep to arrive.

We will have to touch more on my awful parenting tomorrow, but when you are sitting in a hospital bed, just having shattered your kiddos hopes again ( two years running), giving them something monetary doesn't seem like such a bad idea at all!

Exhaustion has overtaken my body and I must comply, but I am back home after six days in the hospital and ICU, bringing home an oxygen tank in tow. My lung still isn't "fully recovered" and it will take some time and a lot of lung exercises to completely refill my left lung. My right lung is still collapsed at the top due to the tumor, so we will work on that after I recover from surgery. But alas, Spring Break is upon us and we will surely find some wonderful things to fill our time.