xangelle.com

Oh Man….

well, life just keeps on flying by and I keep thinking I should post something and then, I have no energy to do so….

In bullet points:

– Geli started Chemo on Monday
– She got chemo shots into her thighs on Tuesday
– She went back to school on Wednesday (hopefully for a good portion of the next month)
– Jeremy is LOVING the newest Robot Camp
– Jeremy will do ANYTHING for a Lego mini fig (He cleaned the kitchen spotless is less than 15 mins and that is basically a Christmas Miracle)
– Xandra caught up on ALL her homework (because I bought the latest Maximum Ride Series Book and wouldn’t let her read it until everything was up to date)
– Geli is ALMOST caught up on her homework but she was really, REALLY behind.
– Geli is having a hard time adjusting to a “normal schedule” (She’s finding it hard to get to sleep at night and as a result is overly tired in the morning making mornings a bit tougher than they should be)
– I saw the psychologist at BCCH yesterday and cried too much (now I’m just trying to process everything and trying to figure out what I’m going to do moving forward)
– We are contemplating our living arrangements and trying to figure out is there is a better room allocation that would work for us.
– Jon’s scheduled appointment to give blood is tomorrow morning.
– Megamind comes out on DVD today and we are planning to watch it tonight as a family.
– Baby turned 8 months old yesterday and his cousins came to play and I have a bazillion photos to plow through today.
– I love my sisters. Am thinking of them lots today. They are AMAZING!
– I am having too many “I should be doing…..” thoughts and it’s wrecking my life….I need to think through and just “DO” and not get so caught up in what I should be doing. It’s harder to do than it might seem.
– About the previously mentioned room allocation….would you consider turning the basement into the “master bedroom”? Why or why not? Any thought?
-And with that I’m out….I’ve got a mountain (5 large loads) of laundry that I need to fold. Ick!

Oh Hi There……

So…….

It’s been a week, eh? Well, I will try to sum things up because I have only a few seconds and then I’m headed to bed.

Last Monday, was Valentines Day and we were just carrying along “trying” to make it through the days until Friday when Jon and Geli would be coming home. We were in the count down and while the kids were upset and falling apart that we hadn’t seen Jon and Geli in over a week…..it seemed like I was coming down with the plague that had swept through our family. I had managed to fight it off until then and I think that 10 days of “little-to no sleep” managed to tips the scales in the “virus’s” favor and my nose started running.

Later that afternoon, Jon messaged me to let me know that because Geli’s counts seemed to be coming up…although entirely WAY. TOO. SLOWLY. that there was talk of her being released on Tuesday and being put on an antibiotics that was given only once every 24 hours. That would have meant that they would come home and spend their days “hanging around” at home and sleeping at home and having to make a 2.5 hour round trip in and out of the hospital for a 15 minute appointment.

But to have them at home and to have them occupied and away for only 2.5 hours every day……it was such an amazing concept, BUT…..

We wouldn’t know until the next morning after her counts had come in AND after rounds….so I couldn’t say anything to the kids.

I had a Dr.s appointment that morning for Judah to check on his chest and his breathing and then I would either head into pick them up or go home and wait for a few more days.

The appointment for Judah was an absolute gong show and I might possibly share about that later, and just before we got taken into the exam room I got a call from Jon and Geli that I needed to come and get them.

Basically, we drove in to pick them up and came home and we’ve been going non-stop ever since.

It’s been ridiculous and insane and I really should be cleaning the house because it’s a disaster or sleeping because I’m exhausted but it’s been too long and I wanted to at the very least post a quick update. I’m hoping to have a bit more time to catch up on here soon, but we are kind of just trying to hold things steady over here.

Angelica just started her next phase of chemo today. We all drove into the hospital just so that we could “be” together. It was inconvenient and not the easiest, but it’s hard to watch Geli and Jon head out for a WHOLE day when we get left at home (the kids had a day off school today).

They have to go in tomorrow for the intramuscular shots of chemotherapy into her thighs and they’ll be leaving at 10am and not home until 4pm. It sucks, but then she’s “off” for the next 10 days after that. I will be going in to the hospital on Thursday to see the psychologist. Things have been so difficult around here and I just don’t know how to help the kids and I don’t know if what we are going through is “normal” for families going through cancer and if it is….how do we keep going on and on and on and on…… until this is all over.

I’m just feeling overwhelmed and I don’t know where to go from here.

Alright, well….we are moving into the verbal diarrhea stage of things and I really need to go to bed….so I’m off.

A Day In The Life…

We’re in our last week of being in the hospital for this cycle of antibiotics, so I thought I would share with you some of the good times and some of the bad times this trip so far.

Good Times:

Here and There
Patti and I have both had our BlackBerries die this year and it happens to be a contract renewal year, so we opted to move up to the iPhones. I did it because I am a Mac geek and Patti did it because of the 5 MegaPixel camera (shes all about the photos).

Patti decided to start sending me Hipstamatic photos of everything going on around the house, and asked if I would do the same, so we traded a lot of photos. It was fun and helped us feel a little bit closer together.Â Here are some of my favorites:

Patti and Judah at rest	Xandra ready for Red Day at school
Gelica Making a Silly Face	Siah in a bath... what a face.

Cooking
Gelica doesn’t really like the hospital food. Its a lot better than any hospital food you would get at an adult hospital, but still, it isn’t home cooking. When we found out that we were staying for 2 weeks, we set to work to “suggest” that they give us a room on the ward with an actual kitchen, borrowed a mini-fridge, made a menu plan and sent mom a shopping list.Â The end result was a nightly parade of nurses coming to see where the smell of heaven was coming from.Â So far we have had, among other things: roast chicken with steamed veggies, gravy, and mashed potatoes, quesadillas with seasoned chicken and sauteed veggies, home-style spaghetti… I think we are finally having crepes with fresh blueberries tomorrow am.

Cooking our own food, helps to pass the time, gives us exercise going to get the groceries, gives us better nutrition and it has flavor (which the hospital food doesn’t)

Cousins
In the absence of Patti and Alexandra and Jeremy and Siah and Judah, Aunty Michelle and Aunty Debbie and the cousins came in to make sure we had visitors.Â Its always nice to be with family, and missing our own family made their visits even sweeter.

Gifts and Surprises
I know that people are praying for our family and there are a lot of people that have done so much over this almost 8 months so far. But it never ceases to amaze me when we receive cards, or balloons, or gift baskets from unexpected places. It is such a huge reminder of how surrounded and covered we are.

Bad times:

Separated
As you can read in my other post, I like to be with my family and we function well together. Being apart just really sucks! I hate sitting here, feeling somewhat bored and hearing about Patti having a bad day and not being able to do anything about it.

Consoling over the phone
It was a shock to my kids when they heard that we needed to head into the hospital right away. It was more of a shock when they heard that we needed to stay and get further treatment. It was more of a shock when they found out that we were here until the 18th.

Add to that, that they were going to come in and visit on the first weekend… but someone was sick, so they would come in on the Wednesday… but someone else was sick, so they would come in on the Friday… but someone was still sick, so Saturday, or Sunday for sure… but now someone else was sick… so maybe we could just send Xan in for a sleepover on the Monday… but someone was sick.

Each one of these changes in plans has been an emotional event for Xandra and each one compounded on the others. I have had many conversations with my daughter now, where I talk to her on the phone and let her cry.Â I don’t like that…. at all.Â She is a precious girl and REALLY loves her family and wants us all to be together; she draws life from it. Having us apart leaves her gasping for air. Definitely bad times.

Nausea, Nighttime Vitals and Over Analysis
Coming into the hospital means IVs and medicine. It means that Gelica was sick, is about to get chemo (which normally means she is about to feel sick), or is going to have to at least smell the hospital food (I think there is some kind of conditioned response to the food cart from when she was really sick in here before, cause it doesnt small that bad, but she dry heaves every time it comes close). I don’t like watching my angel have to deal with nausea… its too much and it just ain’t fun.

Another thing that we are guaranteed during each visit is vitals about every 4 hours. that means temperature, blood pressure, etc. at midnight and 4:00 am.Â Add to that a bunch of machinery that clicks and beeps and has bright lights… its never really a restful sleep inÂ here, so we might be bored and have time on our hands, but we are still living with that over-tired feeling. (I won’t complain too loudly cause I think I’ve had about 100 times that amount of sleep that Patti had.)

Over Analysis is when you are constantly being checked, everything goes under the microscope and everything is a potential problem, or requires a conversation with a nurse, or could be a set-back to recovery. At home we wouldn’t have known that her temperature fluctuated by more than a degree during the day, and that would have saved us the conversations about whether there was a secondary infection and, and, and… its exhausting.

Reality Checks
On this ward, it is somewhat easy to focus on our own road ahead. Its not an easy road, but we will all be together, healthy and happy in the end. When you run into other parents here, some are on a similar road and so you compare stories.Â Some have children with incurable cancer, or severe complications, or you find out that a kid that you met a couple months ago has died. This is a reminder of what we fight and what we are beating.

This week a teenage boy was brought in that has been in and out of the hospital for the last few months with undiagnosed illness. They have thrown every test imaginable at this kid and they have no idea.Â He went home a few days after we got here, but then had to come back.Â He is currently in a coma on life support.Â I got to pray with and encourage the mother.Â But these “reality checks” are hard and humbling.

We are thankful for how far we have come, but this is a day in the life of a children’s hospital.

To All Who Stand By Us…….

We are all going through our own things in life. All of us….Angelica, Jon, Me, the kids….my parents, my sisters and brothers…..my extended family and even you. We are all going through things in our lives, some of them difficult, some of them painful, some of them uncomfortable or challenging….we all go through stuff.

While Angelica is weathering her own journey and we are there supporting her, encouraging her, championing her…..it’s her journey. She will continue on, through the good days and the bad days.

She will carry on through the good times, the hard times, the difficult times, the excruciating times and what may seem like the impossible times, but she will carry on….

Sometimes, she may need us to hold her up or even to carry her…..to catch her if she doesn’t feel that she has the strength to go on.

Just like her, we are all going through our own journeys. We have days that seem impossible and yet we know we must carry on and that we will get through this….even if it seems (or worse, if it FEELS) impossible.

I had one of those days yesterday. “Those days” remind me to be compassionate to others who may, themselves, be going through one of those days…..or maybe even a series of those days (or weeks or months)….

Some days are tough. Some days you just don’t feel like you have the strength to go even one more step and yet you must…..and so you do. Your limbs feel like mud. You are so tired and all you feel like doing is crying…..and so you do.

It’s okay. We all go through “those days”. You’re not alone. I’m not alone. We are not alone.

Earlier this week, someone from our community send me this video and I won’t lie, this week has been a rough one for me….and yet the words of this song kept playing on repeat in my head….knowing I’m loved and supported and championed and that I have so many who “stand by me” even when I feel like I’m too tired to go on. Knowing that I have those who will catch me if I stumble or fall….it’s such a huge thing…..Thank you! I pray that each one of you will see and know those who are there for you, in your time of need!

I Won’t Let Go

Itâ€™s like a storm
That cuts a path
Itâ€™s breaks your will
It feels like that

You think your lost
But your not lost
On your own
Your not alone
I will stand by you
I will help you through
When youâ€™ve done all you can do
If you canâ€™t cope
I will dry your eyes
I will fight your fight
I will hold you tight
And I wont let go

It hurts my heart
To see you cry
I know itâ€™s dark
This part of life
Oh it finds us all
And weâ€™re too small
To stop the rain
Oh but when it rains

I will stand by you
I will help you through
When youâ€™ve done all you can do
And you canâ€™t cope
I will dry your eyes
I will fight your fight
I will hold you tight

And I wont let you fall
Donâ€™t be afraid to fall
Iâ€™m right here to catch you
I wont let you down
It wont get you down
Your gonna make it
Yea I know you can make it

Cause I will stand by you
I will help you through
When youâ€™ve done all you can do
And you canâ€™t cope
And I will dry your eyes
I will fight your fight
I will hold you tight
And I wont let go
Oh Iâ€™m gonna hold you
And I wont let go
Wont let you go
No I wont

A Heavy Burden

Hi, this is Jon…. I am sitting beside Angelica tonight as she sleeps in her hospital room. She is still “neutropenic” which means that she basically doesn’t have an immune system, and she is getting antibiotics every 6 hours, but she is basicallyÂ healthy and not doing any chemo at the moment. She tested positive for a bacterial infection last Wednesday and went immediately on antibiotics. She had one day of feeling sickish, and then all better…. except we have to keep the antibiotics going until Friday the 18th (one more week). Its boring and there are lots of vitals checks and hospitalish things that break up any routine, but its boring.

It seems like the other side of the world, Patti is ‘hopefully’ sleeping with the other four kids and it is anything but boring.

Today, Patti called on the phone and cried. The kind of cry that there are no words for… you just hold them and be silent. I think that it is important to know that Patti is one of the strongest women that I know. She is determined, sometimes stubborn and she can bare a lot, but I think that she is at breaking point. I’ll sum up what is going on at home while I am not there, but I am sure that I am not anywhere close to doing it justice.

Everyone has been sick. Patti describes it as a plague that has hit our house. Xandra, Jeremy, Siah and Judah have all had a run-in with some sort of flu virus. This means that they can not come visit and I cannot sneak home to help. We are separated by a barrier that represents keeping Angelica safe until her immune system recovers. Most of the kids have gotten better, but Judah is still not completely clear.

Emotionally, Xandra and Jeremy got thrown when we left. It seemed like life was getting to a normal rhythm after the summer and fall of hospital stays and sickness and coming to grips with the battle of cancer. We were always tired, but life seemed like it almost settled a little. That was until we had to make an unexpected return. The two older kids came completely apart. I was brought to a new realization of how fragile things were, of how fragile they were. There were lots of tears, lots of things forgotten, and no real way to deal with it… dad and Gelica had to go again and the uncertainty for them returned. This has also had an impact on how quickly they respond to requests, which means Patti has to do more to keep them moving in the right direction.

Jeremy was diagnosed officially with a Learning Difference (used to be called learning disability), and the general consensus at that meeting was the he may fall within the definition of Aspergers. This requires a screen with a pediatrician and today was the day for that appointment. This has been something that I have normally taken care of, so Patti had to steal herself from everything else and get up to speed on what to say to the doctor, and take Jeremy to that meeting, which I had given her the wrong time for, so she was late and was scolded by the receptionist… tears flowed… the meeting did happen.

Josiah is a precious 3 year old, and he needs attention. Patti has realized that she hasn’t played with him or coloured with him a lot and realized a few weeks ago that he doesn’t even know how to hold a pencil. Although this might seem trivial in the face of everything else going on, to a mom, there is some guilt that important things are being neglected. Nana Karen (Patti’s mom) has been a real help with Siah… but there is added stress.

To top it all off today, Patti had an appointment with our family doctorÂ this morningÂ to look at her arm. Because Judah is such a big baby, carrying him is causing damage and a lot of pain (the kind of pain that keeps you awake at night) to Patti’s arm. Judah has been hit with the same bug as the older kids, and so we asked if the doc could see him too, which he agreed to.

When the doc walked in the room, he immediately asked if there is a family history of asthma, and indicated that he believes at first glance that Judah may have asthma….. On top of all the food interactions that we have found, and the digestive issues, and cancer, and ADHD, and Aspergers, and emotional instability and lack of sleep,andÂ Judah teething, and Judah waking everyÂ 45 minutes or so at night,Â and family separation, Patti was given a prescription for some steroids for Judah’s lungs that she had to go and pick up.

This is another brick added to the load, even if it turns out to be something else there will be days of thinking and stressing and learning… more things to carry.

As she sat outside the pharmacy, she called. She called and she cried. She cried and then she carried on. She ordered the meds, then picked up Jeremy, then went to the pediatrician, then she went in on time and was told that she was late, then she cried, then she made it through the rest of the appointment with a plan to go forward, then she went back to the pharmacy and picked up the meds, then she drove home and said hi to Josiah and left him for the night with Nana Karen, then she finally made it home to be with Xandra and finally she had some time to talk again about Angelica and her treatment and the infection and the next steps for her.

Patti is amazing and the mother of 5 amazing children, each with a special need for attention and it seems all need that attention right now… for good reason, but compiled, it makes for a heavy load. Patti is carrying it all, but just barely.

If you are able to take a moment to pray for her, she needs:
– sleep
– relief from pain in her shoulder
– healing from whatever is bothering Judah and his breathing
– healing and health for everyone in the family so we can visit each other
– Angelica’s ‘Neutrophil’ count to come up so she is not so prone to infection
– Jeremy’s Asperger screen to be prioritized high and for this process to not take too long
– Alexandra to feel emotional stability, and for the right tracks to open up for her to deal with all these feelings
– and for Josiah to not feel sidelined in our family.

Thanks,
Jon

Here and There (continued)

Well, I managed to update once yesterday and then it was time for the kids to come home from school and things just went downhill from there.

I forgot to give Jeremy his medicine yesterday and I can’t fathom why his teacher didn’t have him call home. If his behaviour after school was consistent with his behaviour during the day…..all I can say is, “WOW!”

2:59pm Xandra came home from school. My dad dropped her off but Jeremy stayed behind for “Robotics Camp”. Judah was SO excited to see her. He is always so glad to see the kids when they come home.

3:03pm We took this picture to send to Jon, just for Xandra to say, “I love you, Dad!”

3:45pm I find it so hard to believe that we generate THIS MUCH GARBAGE…..I sweep on average, 2-3 times a day and always manage to sweep up a decent mess. Man! Makes we feel like we’re pigs or something……

3:47pm Xandra worked on her homework! She is trying to catch up on a bunch of stuff that she fell behind on over Christmas and in January. She has one more project to hand in and then she’s done…..and then we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief. I’m sick of ragging on her to do her homework!

4:08pm I left Xandra and the computer to babysit and ran up to the school to pick Jeremy up from Robot Camp…..Josiah has watched more movies in the past 7 months than he has in his entire life. At this point, I’m just trying to survive….

4:12pm I had exactly 2 minutes of complete silence before I went in to pick up Jeremy!

4:16pm My Sweet Boy – He LOVES the Robotics Camp and we are so glad that he has found a hobby that he excels at.

4:24pm I managed to throw through a couple of loads of laundry today. Didn’t get them put away, but washed, dried and folded is at least 3/4 of the way through the process…

4:27pm On the other side of the world……here is the wall that is directly across from Geli’s bed…It’s all of us who can’t be with her….cheering her on, if only in picture! You’re never alone, Geli! Never alone!

4:28pm An amazing guy we know dropped off this mini fridge so that Jon and Geli could put decent food in it. The main fridge in the kitchen is always crowded and overflowing and so this is a HUGE blessing! Thanks, Reg! You Rock!

4:48pm Jon sent this picture through of Geli’s room all decorated for Valentines Day! I believe that she and her cousins made these???? Pretty, eh?

5:14pm What is it with 5 o’clock, anyway??? This was the start of many, MANY meltdowns in our family last night.

5:18pm Meanwhile, Jon and geli decided to go for a walk. They went to the Safeway just down the block from BC Children’s Hospital and also to the Dollar Store where they found this sweet pink hat with flames and the name “Angel” on it. They also picked up some socks! You never seen to have enough of something when you are at the hospital…sometimes its underwear, sometimes socks or shirts….something always gets missed in the packing. Unfortunately, we live too far away to just pop over to drop something off and usually they have to determine whether they can wait until we come in next or just go ahead and pick something up.

5:31pm We had soup for dinner, AGAIN! I’m trying to figure out how I can convince the kids to have it one more night. Maybe we’ll do cereal to shake things up a little. We’re living large over here, I tell ya….LIVING LARGE!

5:48pm While we finished up dinner, Jon and Geli walked “home” in the beautiful Vancouver dusk.

6:05pm We had some ice cream for dessert. These are little gluten free Oatmeal cookies with Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream in the middle for a delicious Ice Cream Sandwich!

6:15pm And I’m counting down the minutes until I can put the kids to bed. Don’t want it to be too early because then they get up too early and so I need something to waste some time…..

6:43pm A bath usually takes up a good chunk of time and it’s hard to be miserable when you’re in the bath.

6:44pm Siah’s faces are priceless!

6:56pm Jon and Geli made spaghetti dinner and said it was delicious…they even had seconds!

At this point, I was trying to get boys into bed and things were a little intense. By 8 o’clock, Siah was asleep, Jeremy had woken up Judah, Judah was crying, Jeremy was crying and then I started crying. Between Judah feeling sick with this plague that has swept through our family and cutting teeth, I’ve had less then 4 hours of sleep a night for the last week and those 4 hours……have been in less than 1 hour chunks. Apparently, I can sort of hold myself together for a week with next to no sleep and then…….and then I cannot hold myself together any more.

The house was a complete mess, the cleaners were coming the next day and nothing was picked up for them, the baby was still awake, Jeremy was crying himself to sleep and I was crying and messaging with Jon on my phone.

8:13pm It was a pretty sad moment. I sat on the edge of my bed and rocked and rocked and rocked this little one while messaging with Jon and my momma.

8:27pm And then he slept and then I crawled into bed and began what was to be another LOOOOOOONNGGGG night!

I have an appointment tomorrow morning with our family doctor to get Judah checked out. Xandra, Josiah, and my Momma are starting to do better after a week of whatever this plague is and I’m pretty sure that Judah will be okay as well, but he is wheezing quite a bit and while that’s probably just because his airways are so much smaller, I want to have him checked out before the weekend.

Here and There

Well, while my family is split up for the next little bit, we decided to send each other pictures of what we are doing so we feel a little less separated and a little more involved.

Here’s what Geli and Jon are doing at 9:46am. They made Eggs & Toast and are eating them in the Kitchen on 2B….We are so thankful that they are on 2B (the 2nd floor of the oncology ward) with access to a kitchen so that they can eat good food and not be stuck with the hospital food. While the hospital food is not “HORRIBLE”, it’s not “DELICIOUS” either.

Here at home, we had sent the kids off to school and were thinking about putting the baby down for a nap. But instead, we took a picture on the stairs.

This was my view at 11:41am…..I’m working on this post, Siah’s watching a movie and Judah’s just chillin’ and eating some steamed taro root cubes.

11:49am and Jon& Geli are up on 3B (the main Oncology ward) and are playing a little air hockey. Jon is WHOOPING Geli’s butt!

They’ve discontinued one of Geli’s Antibiotics. She was on two different ones and now she is only on the broad spectrum one. The cultures that they’ve been doing have all been negative since the 4th day in. Now we are just waiting out this round of antibiotics before she can come home. Aside from feeling a bit “off” first thing in the morning, she’s feeling fabulous. Her counts are still really low. For example, the number that indicates the amount of infection fighting “soldiers” needs to be over .5 for her to even consider going to school….as of this morning, that number was at a .08….so she really has almost no ability to fight anything off right now. We are praying for her numbers to come up quickly. She can’t even start her next round of chemo until that number is at a .75…..we got a ways to go before she hits that.

12:50pm Sometimes, this whole toilet training business is harder than it seems…. He called me to help him and this is how I found him…

1:13pm Judah’s playing with the Shadows on the floor. It’s so nice to see the sun out.

1:18pm Aunty Chelle and the Cousins visit. It’s so nice that they can visit when we can’t…..

1:47pm Geli and Brianna playing a game……

2:17pm This is what over tired, a sore throat and teething looks like….

2:31pm Sleep…..Sweet Sleep!

2:47pm Playing Air Hockey with Baby Zach (with a little help from Aunty Chelle)

I’ll be updating this post with the rest of today’s pics as they happen……

Oh, and if you haven’t yet, would you go here and help me out? Huge thanks to all those who’ve already left your suggestions, I love hearing what you all have to say!

Yo Help a Girl Out!

My Kitchen is in horrific need of a cleaning and it appears that I am the only one capable of getting that job done right now.

But, Here is where you could help me out…..

What are your favorite TV series? I’m looking for some new (to me) ones to check out….and please don’t say Jersey Shore – you can just keep that your little secret.

Are you local (to me) and do you have an amazing dentist? We need someone and I don’t know where to start looking?

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day? It’s not just for lovers, but for kids or friends or family…..it’s a day to show love! In my mind anyway!!!

Alrighty, hit me with your thoughts and I’ll catch you later…..

Sunday Night Ramblings brought to you by our iPhone(s)

Well, it’s Sunday night at 7:45pm and I’m looking at a ton of random photos from both mine and Jon’s phone…… These pictures sort of highlight the past few days of our family, both here at home and at the hospital.

Seeing as I’ve managed to get the 3 kids that I have at home down, I thought I might try to throw them up into a post along with some of my random “brain thingys……”

This was Jon’s chair bed……..and then he got upgraded to a cot, but it was horrid…all lumpy and wires and bars sticking up and out and totally uncomfortable…..

This is actually the lumpy nasty bed………..

He then took a few test rides on some of the cots in the empty rooms on the floor that Geli is on and ended up with a deluxe bed…….that pretty much looks exactly the same as the picture above. In fact, you’d never be able to tell the difference. And this is where you all start with the “Princess and the Pea” jokes for him right about now…….Ha Ha HA!

It’s amazing how the dynamic in the house changes when you add or subtract people and right now, we are 3 people short over here and Xandra and Jeremy actually “played nicely” on Saturday morning. Here is the Lego maze that they created. It was supposed to be a game board…..Not sure if they actually played a game or not?

We went for a walk on Saturday afternoon. Like I mentioned earlier, Siah’s been staying at my mom’s because he’s been a coughing, snotting, germy mess…..He’s missing us and I’m missing him dearly and so my mom suggested that we go for a walk and hopefully with all the fresh air, we wouldn’t pass the germs around.

What??????? Don’t you take your Lego robots for walks with you?

While we were playing and walking and doing a bunch of other boring stuff, Jon and Angelica slept in FOREVER and then they had some DELICIOUS hospital breakfast…….

Later, they got in a little exercise……you can see that she’s really going fast…look at the blur that should be her legs…

After a little clean up (cause riding a bike can be sweaty, sweaty work) they headed down to the kitchen to play some Monopoly. Geli must not be feeling a hundred percent because Jon KICKED HER BUTT! Like really, REALLY badly, and she ALWAYS wins! So Weird!

Meanwhile, we walked and walked and walked and walked…..you know, the whole theory that if you tire the kids out, then maybe they’ll sleep really good….ya doesn’t always work for my kids. SUCKS! Along the way, my strange kids were kinda creeped out by these Alien Pods – but I have no idea where they got that idea from….none at all!

But, we finally made it to the park….

The kids played and climbed and went on the swings and up and down the slides and onto the monkey bars and we only had to yell at them to avoid all the other children a half a dozen times…..by that point, the parents were just high tailin’ it outta there anyway…… (okay, all of that was totally made up…..There were ONLY 4 other pre-teen boys “hanging out” there and they only had the rescue Siah “once” from climbing up the tallest part of the tallest play structure…That child is seriously part goat and the other part is monkey….he’s amazing!)

We managed to deal with Little Master Siah McSnotterson. This way, you only have to deal with the snot once as opposed to blowing his nose a million times, and it totally saves the jacket from needing a wash too. Come on! You parents know what I’m talking about….if there isn’t a kleenex around the slug slime goes from one wrist up to the shoulder on both sides. BLECH! I’m shuddering just thinking about it.

Judah had fallen asleep while we were there, and it was so nice to just sit on the park bench and to not have to “do” anything. After we had been there a while, I loving asked Josiah, in the softest most gentle voice that I own to not do something that he was doing…..and Judah woke up. You’d think that it would take something more like a yell or scream to wake that kid up……you might be right? At least he wakes up happy, eh?

As we walked home, the kids all needed to express their inner Jackie Chan by doing “maneuvers” on the fence…This is Jeremy’s best shot of the “Despicably Crouching Tiger” Amazing, isn’t it? Such skill and finesse!

Xandra dropped a mean “Flowering Stork” on us…..

I tried to ask Siah which maneuver he was pulling off and the best I can gather from what he was mumbling behind those trailing kleenex’s was that he was really working on the “Dangling Walrus”. It’s a two person move as you can tell by the picture and my mom very graciously offered to stand in for him.

These pictures are really just bonus pictures just because I love them and they make me smile……..

This is a picture from before Geli and Jon went into the hospital, but I’m putting on here anyway. I love that its blurry cause he’s moving so fast, but you can see his two little front teeth sticking out and the nerdly glasses combined with the swooshy hair….this picture is priceless to me!

This picture CRACKS me up. The look on Geli’s face is amazing. You can almost hear her saying, “Huuuuuh?”

And in this one it looks like Judah’s trying to figure out who is ‘in” the phone.

Well, I ate a million gluten free oatmeal cookies with a cup of almond milk and called it dinner….I figure it’s exactly the same as porridge, right? Well if that’s the case, why do I feel SO GROSS! Yuck! Time for a millions cups of water and possibly an early-ish bedtime…..if I’m smart!

And with that…..I’m off! Hope you’re weekend was a good one! Care to share what the highlight of your weekend was?

I need someone to hear my voice

I asked Xandra if she would like to write a post and she said yes. Here are her words explaining some of her feelings……

So… My mom wants me to write a blog post. At the moment I really don’t know what to write about. Here we go. Well when we found out about Geli having to go the hospital I surprised myself. I didn’t cry or pout. I was fine. I did have trouble sleeping by looking at my clock. If your wondering why, it was because of the lines that make out the numbers.. I counted all of the lines for each number and well yeah. But the next night I cried and cried and cried and cried and cried because I found out that my Dad and my sister wouldn’t come home for 2 weeks, and until I get over this cough I can’t see them (Please pray for my throat)!!! It’s difficult to not know anything that’s happening to my sister. Yes, I do know that she is in the hospital, that she HAD leukemia and she is getting chemotherapy so she doesn’t ever get it again. I’m just not informed of what the side affects are for each medication or when she is going into the hospital for what drugs or procedures. I have talked with my parents about this and really they say they are going to get me something that I can read to know what is happening but they haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Something else to talk about is school. I love school and what there is to learn but during this season I’m finding it a little difficult. All I mean by difficult is that I have trouble bringing in my homework on time. I try I really do but it just doesn’t happen. That’s all for today

I love you all, Xandra

After she wrote and titled this, I asked her to answer three questions for me…..

1. What is hard about your Dad and Geli being in the hospital?

Having them be so far away. Not seeing them. I’m just used to having dad tuck me in at night and praying for me.

2. What is the worst thing about all of this (the Leukemia, the Chemotherapy, this past 7 months? everything)?

Well the worst thing is that Geli feels crappy lots of the time. It cinda makes me feel upset.

3. What is something good in your life that is happening right now?

Something good that is happening is that (I’m don’t mean to be selfish) everyone comes to see us to support us when Geli is in the hospital. It makes me feel loved.