There and back again......

A chemo tale....  

So...even though I really meant to do much better at my blogging, here I am.  Almost two months since my last post.  Have I ever mentioned the kid fast-forward syndrome?  Once I had kids, it was like my life was on permanent fast forward.  The older they get (and consequently the busier they get), the faster my life seems to fly by.  This year we have a senior in high school, two eighth graders and a sixth grader.  The first six weeks of school was filled with getting back into the swing of things, after school programs, cross country practices and meets, robotics, youth group, retreats, bible studies, etc.  Now that most of those things have settled down and we've ditched a few of them, life seems to be evening out.  Of course, that's when I got to start my next round of chemo.  I did round 1 of the infusions two weeks ago and it was not pretty.  They increased my dosage and I was hit pretty hard with some awful headaches, shaking and nausea.  I did my second infusion yesterday so we're praying that the side effects are better this time.  It usually takes 2 to 3 days to start seeing the worst of them so we will see how I feel tomorrow. 

In the meantime, I've had a few fun projects and activities.  Our baby girl is starting to grow up and will be a teenager soon so we decided it was time to make her bedroom a little less girlie.

Before

After

  

We did the updates while she was at a retreat for church last weekend and she was so very shocked and pleased when she came home.  I still have some art work for her walls that we need to craft and hang.  We are also going to get a few of these baskets to store her stuffed animals in.  She has finally pared her stuffed animal collection down to the bare bones...the ones she or we bought for her on our trips to Florida, her Nightmare Before Christmas ones and her Skelanimals.

We surprised my parents with a 40th wedding anniversary dinner.  They knew we were taking them out but we added some of their best friends to the guest list.  It really made their night.

And finally, one Saturday while Aidan was at robotics Jimmy & I took Ani to Rockford for their fall festival.  It's such a beautiful little town.  I could totally see living there once the kids are out on their own.  

I'm looking forward to the next few weekends and the fun they will bring.  This weekend my bestie & I are getting together with our daughters for a day of crafting.  Then Ani's new BFF will be spending the night and we'll go see Monsters University after church on Sunday.  The following weekend both of our other daughters are planning on coming out to join us for our annual football/Halloween party and then after that is Halloween at Abby's and then the Michigan/Michigan State game at Lea & Tod's.  I do love the fall...the time of year, the holidays and the time we spend with our friends and family. 

There is a revolving door......

At the hospital for little ol' me.  You know it's sort of a mixed blessing when you get into ER and both the nurse and doctor recognize you.  The good side is that you don't have to go through your weird medical spiel all over again.  The bad side is that this means you've been there WAY. TOO. MANY. TIMES. 

I was admitted Saturday night for another attack of meningitis which is pretty scary considering it's only been less than two weeks since I was in there last time for the same thing.  Also, I was currently on 20mg of Prednisone which is supposed to keep the meningitis at bay.  Obviously not.  The only blessing of this trip is that they decided not to do a spinal tap so at least I'm not in a lot of pain now that I am home.  I was released this afternoon and it was so great to come back home.  I have a round of follow up appointments next week and hopefully that will get me closer to my referral as well as on some new meds that will do a better job of keeping the meningitis at bay.  

In the meantime, I am trying to be positive.  Some of you may know that due to this illness, I missed Christmas, New Years, my husband's birthday and my birthday with my family in the last 10 months.  We were supposed to carve pumpkins on Sunday and that hasn't been done yet. I highly doubt I will be up to doing it before Haloween itself.  I was also supposed to be the room mom for Ani's Halloween party tomorrow and I definitely won't be able to do that.  And finally, this will be the first time ever that I will not be able to take my kids trick or treating.  :(  

Halloween is coming!

One of our favorite times of year in this family is fall.  Fall means football, trees on fire in bright reds and oranges, chili in the crockpot and roast on Sunday, fires in the fireplace and the smell of pumpkin and cinnamon scented candles throughout the house.  Fall also means Halloween and our family really gets in to Halloween.  So much so that we seem to decorate for it earlier and earlier every year.  This years decorations went up yesterday and the kids are loving it!

First we have a new addition to my Boney Bunch collection

Then it is some of our Halloween night lights

The kitchen witch and other assorted cute things

Our new, dimensional bats 

And the rest of my Boney Bunch

Now it's time to light some scented candles and get down to some fall baking!