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. 

A weekend in retrospect

I suppose that some could argue that since I stay home, every day is a weekend day for me (ask any SAHM and she'll tell you the truth!) but in reality, the weekend to me is the time I get to spend with my family.  I do enjoy some of the quiet time I get during the weekdays but I much prefer having my brood home.

Friday night is pizza night in our family.  I make my pizza dough from scratch (I make enough for four pizzas so I only have to make it every other week) and we nosh on cheese (for the girls & I) and pepperoni (for the boys).  Sometimes we do movies on Friday nights, others it's game night.  This past Friday night was girls night in for my baby girl and I.  We did manicures, pedicures and wallowed in girlie emotion while watching Sweet Home Alabama.  I love the fact that Annika is getting old enough to enjoy non-animated movies with me.  We've watched Diary of a Mad Black Woman (and she learned what sort of treatment one should NEVER put up with from a man), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (where we sobbed together and she learned of the hatred some humans can harbor for others), and The Help (where she learned that it wasn't too long ago in our American history where humans were treated less than human solely based on the color of their skin).  I love how she asks questions and really thinks about my answers.  It's amazing to me to see the young woman she is growing into.  

Saturday was a pretty quiet day.  Hubby had a big Honey-Do list and Ani and I had shopping to do for Halloween costumes and craft items to stock up on.  Of course, in the fall, Saturdays are also college football days but we managed to fit in a viewing of The Avengers in between two key games.  I almost regret not seeing that in the theater!  I  had been pretty unimpressed with Thor, Captain America & the second Iron Man so I stayed back from the theater viewing back in May.  

As always, church was uplifting and refreshing on Sunday morning.  I love our church.  Even though it could be termed a "mega" church, I love the familiarity there, the friendliness and the diversity.  We have an amazing church family.  After church on Sunday, Annika & I headed downtown for our first viewing of ArtPrize 2012.  In the years since I've moved to Grand Rapids, it truly has grown into a city I am proud to call home.  When I first moved here, I was appalled at the lack of a big city, the unimpressive food choices and lack of museums and big zoos.  The restaurant selection in town now is wonderful and our city outdoes itself with ArtPrize, which just happens to be the world's largest art competition.  There are art pieces on display on the city streets and in several of our downtown buildings.  Here are just a few pictures of the exhibits we saw this weekend.

And our very favorite piece, Song of Lift

It spun around, with the little mechanical "birds" lifting their translucent wings with a wonderful light and musical show included.  This piece is one of the top 10 and will hopefully win after voting is completed.

I finished off my Sunday with an awesome fried chicken dinner, football on the couch with my hubs and way too much time on Pinterest plotting out my next few projects.  I hope everyone else had a weekend as wonderful as mine!

Treatments that make you ill in order to make you better

I would call that an oxymoron, no?  One has only to think of chemotherapy to know that sometimes in the medical world doctors give you a treatment that makes you far sicker than you originally felt in order to combat your illness.  It seems backwards to me but I'm not the one with the medical degree.  I am currently on 2000mg a day of a prescription whose main job is to suppress my immune system.  Lovely! Just in time for flu season and I'm coping with my first cold since the medication started.  The only physical difference I've noticed so far is that it seems to be lasting longer than a normal cold lasts but it has made a definite difference to my social calendar.

Let me explain my husband for a moment.  Jimmy is amazing (of course, I am a bit biased), loyal, generous, caring and protective.  I can't even imagine how he suffered during my first hospital stay for meningitis.  I lost consciousness on Monday evening and didn't regain it until Wednesday.  He kept vigil over me, praying nonstop and pacing.  Our church family was wonderful and lifted us up in constant prayer which I know helped carry Jimmy through the ordeal as well as my best friends giving him all the support he needed.  You can imagine that my illness (as well as how lightening fast it struck) made him a bit paranoid.  Even worse, it continued to happen.  Our oldest kid jokes that I scarred dad for life.  He won't go visit his friends on the other side of the state unless a friend can stay with me (yes, apparently at 36 I still need a babysitter!).  

So...because we aren't sure what my colds will look like on this medication and we don't know if colds will morph into something like pneumonia, Jimmy has gone into full papa bear mode.  We had a weekend full of plans that we've had to cancel.  Instead of the high school Homecoming game last night, we stayed in and watched Snow White & the Huntsman. Today instead of doing a Komen 5K with my daughter and some friends, I made a batch of homemade yogurt, an Oreo poke cake and dinner rolls.  And finally, instead of celebrating my nephew's 8th birthday tonight, I've been knitting and watching college football.  I do definitely enjoy quiet weekends at home with my family, but I am sad that I had to miss out on all the fun stuff we had planned.  It is worth staying healthy but there are days when I just want to throw a temper tantrum.  Oh well....at least I've read three books in the last few days....that can never be a bad thing, right?

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!




 

Family Traditions

One of the things that is important to hubby & I is that we build fun family traditions to share with our kids.  Some traditions are small and simple, like going to church every weekend or having pizza every Friday night.  Others are typical like having a family game night.  What are some of the traditions your family has?

Thanksgiving is HUGE in our family.  We start the morning out with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  Then while I start the meal, hubs gets the Christmas tree out and starts to put it together. 

When we have Jimmy's girls for Thanksgiving, it's Rain's job to stuff the turkey. 

Yeah, her dad thought it was pretty darn funny...mainly because he won't touch raw meat. 

Ani bastes the turkey

Anii & Dez help Daddy put the tree together

Another tradition is that we have a football/pumpkin party every year with some of our closest friends.

 

She swears it tastes just like chicken!  Ewwwww

Then there is the same crew for a Christmas party that may or may not involve messy cookie decorating and ornament making....depends on the host!

While I'm on the topic of Christmas, we have the Christmas tree cinnamon rolls.  This was a tradition I grew up with and I love carrying it on for our kids.

And a tradition that Jimmy & I started with the kids...Jesus' birthday cake!

The reason traditions came to mind is that I'm going to start a new one with my baby girl tonight.  A brilliant (I think!) idea that I, of course, got from Pinterest.

I picked up this adorable notebook at my favorite store today and wrote a short letter to Ani in here.  I've slid it under her pillow & when she gets home from Youth Group tonight, I'll let her in on the secret.  We can take turns writing to one another and hiding it under our pillows.  I think it will be a great way to keep our relationship as close as it is now and it will be a great memory for her to have when my time comes.  She can share the idea with her daughters if she is so blessed to have them.