End of Summer, Gus's Birthday and a Visit from Shannon

Summer is over and kids have started school.  We are back to getting everything back into the school structure.  We had a few fun activities and visitors before school started again.

The first was the Amazon company picnic.  It is hosted at CenturyLink field (the football stadium).  We had a lot of fun as a family.

Dad Helping Gus up a bouncy house

Lilly Crawling through a bouncy house

Face Painted

Face Painted

Twiners

Gus and an Amazon mascot

Jess and Gus on a ride

Sarah coming down a slide

Jess's brother, Richard, and his family stopped by our house to visit.  The kids loved to play together and we hope that next time they can come and stay longer.  I was at work so I was unable to see them this time around, but the I heard none of the kids wanted to leave.

My cousins Anna and Victoria and Victoria's kids came to stay with us overnight.  Jess, Sarah and the cousins went to breakfast in the morning, and I went with them to a ropes course in the afternoon.  I had a little accident where I slipped and slid down ropes about 12 inches or so.  It caused a bunch of rope burns on my hands.  It was still fun despite the pain in my hands and the couple weeks that it took to heal.

Cousins

Ready to go

Picture of the course

Victoria coming down in style

Summer finished off with Gus's Birthday.  He turned four years old and we are still waiting for the terrible threes to stop.  He asked for a firetruck cake, but he wanted the firetruck blue (after changing his mind a few times).  He LOVED the presents that he got and plays with them a lot.  He got a set of monster trucks from one of Mater's Tall Tales, (the monster truck wrestling one).  He got a marble maze tower game.  And he got a remote control car.  He loves each of them and plays with them over and over again!

Gus's Fire Truck Cake

Gus and his marble maze

Blowing out the birthday cake

Gus doing his marble maze

The kids started school in the beginning of September.  They moved to a different school, Highland Terrace. New house = New school.  They get to ride the bus to and from school as well.  Lilly's teacher is Mrs. Williams and Sarah's teacher is Mrs. McCary-Smith.  Both girls like their teachers and they enjoy being back in school, even if it does cut into their play time.  Lilly is in class with a boy named Joseph from church, (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  Sarah is in class with a couple of girls that were in her kindergarten class at Parkwood Elementary last year.

First Day of School

Waiting for the bus can be crazy

We heard about one of the local fire stations getting renovated and they had an open house.  Gus and I stopped by to see the fire trucks and the fire station.  Gus got to sit in the fire trucks and was really excited.

Let's Go

Ready for the fire

Trying on the Equipment

I am in trouble if he thinks he can drive at 4.

Lastly, my sister Shannon visited us over this past weekend.  In July, Jess and I were looking at the theater and seeing if there was anything that we wanted to go to.  Brian Regan, Shannon's favorite comedian and one that helped made her smile during her recovery, was scheduled to come to Seattle in September.  We booked tickets and pinged Shannon to see if she wanted to come.  She jumped at the chance.  She flew in on Friday, when there was both a Sounders and a Mariner's game scheduled.  I ended up driving the car to work in the morning and taking the train to the airport to get Shannon.  

Shannon at the Airport

Brother and Sister

Jess, Shannon and I were able to have a fun night out.  There was another Mariners game on Saturday, so it took us an extra 30 minutes to get downtown.  That caused us to not go out to a sit down place for dinner but we grabbed something quick.  Shannon had scheduled for us to be able to meet Brian before the show (since he was leaving right after).  There were a bunch of groups that were meeting with him, so we only had a couple of minutes, but it was nice to be able thank him for bringing a smile to Shannon's face during some of her hard times.  Needless to say, but the show was hilarious! I know that Shannon knows most of his jokes by heart, but it was Jess and I's first show of his.  After the show, the three of us walked to the Cheesecake Factory for some cheesecake.  It was nice to get out and have a fun evening.

Don't forget that I am still looking for people to both run the Winter Pineapple Classic with me!!!  If you are interested, send me an email or sign up.  Also if you want to donate, see the previous post as it has the direct links.

Mother's Day 2013 - 10 years of Marriage

Wow, I have really slacked off.  It has been over a month since I posted.  Well it means that there is a bunch to write about.  Hmm.  I should split this into multiple posts. I will have a couple out today for the past month.  I back dated the Family reunion one, so if you haven't seen it, it is before this one.

Jess and I celebrated our 10th Wedding anniversary on Wednesday.  It has been an amazing journey these past 10 years and I am grateful for all that Jess has done for me.  She has given me strength to grow and become a better person.  I couldn't have dealt with the situations I have over the past 10 years if it wasn't for her.  She is an amazing women, and I am glad that she married me 10 years ago.

We went out to a Japanese restaurant on Friday to celebrate.  It was the first time that Jess really had sushi.  She liked some of it.  It was fun to get out to dinner with out the kids.  We are also taking a trip the end of the month to Newport Beach, California for a week.  It will be fun and we are looking forward to it.  My mother is coming to watch the kids while we are gone.

Sarah also started preschool this month. She goes twice a week for half a day to Meridan Park and another day for 90 minutes to physical therapy at Lilly's school.  We are trying to get her into full day kindergarten next year but we are on a waiting list, so it might end up only being half day.

Gus is busy as ever.  He runs everywhere he goes.  It reminds of characters in video games that don't walk but only run.  The weather has warmed up and he has enjoyed spending some time outside in the backyard.  If he had his way, he would probably live outside.  One of his latest cute things, is that when he is going to bed, and we read him books, he asks for ten books.  He knows that it is a lot of books and that is what he wants.

We are grateful for our support and the love that we have been given.

Surprise Visit and Field Trip

Sarah's appointment on Wednesday was good.  Her ANC had already started to go back up and was at 650.  That means that she can go to church and doesn't have to be quarantined.  It is possible the Vincristine that she got on Wednesday might drop it a little, but we are hoping that it comes back up quick.  Sarah needs to be above 750 on Tuesday, so she can continue with this round of treatment.  Tuesday is a check point and is the middle of consolidation.  It also means that the next two weeks will be back on the 4-5 appointments a week.  I guess that is how it goes.

Today, Jess and Sarah had a surprise visitor.  A member of the Shoreline ward dropped by to say hi and had a few presents for Sarah.  Her daughter had gone through a number of surgeries right in row and knows the feeling of being in the hospital "all of the time."  Jess and her had a good talk and Sarah enjoyed getting a new sticker book and more crafts to do.

Lilly continues to have fun in school and had her first field trip on Wednesday.  They went to Carkeek park and looked at all the art work.  She enjoyed it despite the rain.  More firsts for our family.  Each of these makes me feel a little older.

Thanks for all the love and support.  We are grateful for our ward who continues to bring us meals and provide other support.  It makes life easier especially on some of the stressful days.

Sarah's Platelets and Lilly's School

Sarah and I went to the clinic on Sunday morning to check her platelet levels.  They hadn't dropped much so we were sent home after the test results came back.  She did good to get her port accessed and she was glad to not have to be there too long.  Her ANC is below 500, so she is on isolation.  She still has to go with Mom to pick up Lilly from school but wears a mask to help protect her.

Lilly gave our family home evening lesson yesterday.  She is cute because she takes a story from the Friend and will tell it.  She gets most of it right, but takes a fair amount of artist license.  She also bore her testimony after the story.  She loves to be on stage and to be the center of attention.

Lilly's teacher talked to Jess on Monday when Lilly was being picked up.  She recommended that Lilly take the advanced placement test, to see if she would qualify to go to one of the advanced learning classrooms next year.  It was something that I did as a child.  There are a number of factors that would go into what we should do for her.  She is reading really well and knows basic math, both addition and subtraction.  I quizzed her on Monday night and she got 12 + 8 after a bit of thinking about it and did a number of basic subtraction problems that we gave her.  She kept asking for more problems that she could do.

We are grateful for all the love and support we have been given.

Monday - 9/12/11 - Lilly's First Day of School

Monday was Lilly's first day of school.  She had a lot of fun and was excited for the whole ordeal.  Jess had packed her a lunch.  When Jess picked her up, her lunch was still in her bag.  When Jess asked what happened, Lilly told her that she just went to lunch with her class and ate in the lunchroom.  She had grilled cheese.  We had to talk to her about how careful she needs to be so that she doesn't eat something with egg.

I also wanted to clarify Sarah's schedule a little since I had a few people asking.  Sarah has an appointment every day for the rest of the week.  On Tuesday, she meets with her doctors and she has a spinal tap.  Here in Seattle Children's, they do the spinal tap right in the oncology clinic.  Her doctor's appointment is at 10:30 and the appointment for the spinal tap is 1:00 pm.   On Wednesday, Sarah has a long infusion appointment.  She goes and gets 2 drugs through the IV and 4 hours of fluids.  On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, she has shorter infusion appointments.  She is only getting one drug and they don't need to have her on the fluids as long.  It should be an interesting week for the schedule.  Luckily Lilly is in school and it makes it easy to find a sitter or to take Gus with Jess.  Jess and I are still planning on both going for the appointments when Sarah sees the doctor, but are going to split who takes her to the infusion appointments.

Thanks for all the support and love that you have shown us.

Tuesday - 6 Sep 2011

My first day back in the office was Tuesday.  Jess was with the kids alone at home.  She got a lot done.  She talked to the clinic to see if Sarah needed any labs early this week.  They said that she probably didn't need to have any.  We won't know any further details until Friday then.  Sarah is in good spirits and is happy to be home.  We all are still adjusting to getting back on schedule here at home.

Jess is getting Lilly registered in school.  We were trying to get Lilly into a shoreline school but there wasn't enough room.  Because of Sarah's Leukemia, we hadn't done what we needed to in order to get Lilly registered for the local school.  Jess called and got the information she needed but has to go downtown and register Lilly in person.  Lilly will probably start school on Monday, even though the first day of school is today.  That is the way life goes sometimes.