Doing Well Once Again

Hello there everyone. We are doing well now. Kelby is healing up just fine from her dog bite. We've had a good week except Mike and I been battling some serious allergies. Michael is especially having a hard time with his eyes despite all the medications he is taking. The girls don't seem to have a problem thank goodness! We went to the beach on Thursday night for a picnic dinner. It has been nice to get out of the house as a family lately. On Saturday I got to go shopping and out to lunch with some girl friends. That was a much needed break for me. The girls hung out with Daddy all afternoon. Kelby's been wading in her kiddie pool in the backyard a lot lately...the weather has been just beautiful...and a little on the hot side. (I know everyone in Arizona will laugh when they read that!)

Trooper is doing very well now. He'll let us stick our hands in his food while he eats without making a peep. He's come a long way in his obedience in the last week with some extra work by Michael. Kelby constantly hugs him and tells him, "I love you so much Trooper." Can you believe she can forgive him and give him all that undeserved love? I was watching her in the garage the other day while she loved and petted him. It occurred to me that she loves like Jesus. He loves us unconditionally, even when we don't deserve it at all. Trooper doesn't even realize that he did something that hurt her so badly...and he can't appreciate how much she loves him...we are all like that with Jesus sometimes.

The girls and I have been planning Kelby's birthday party. She's turning three years old on Thursday, June 27th. For us, it is a very special thing to celebrate another birthday! I'm trying to think of ways to make it extra special. I think that she's pretty excited about it. We'll be going out to dinner at Red Robin on her actual birthday, of course. Kari and Stephanie, the wonderful ladies in the neighborhood that organized the fundraiser for our family, brought over the money the other day and a gift certificate for Red Robin! They raised about $320 for us! That was just such a thoughtful, kind, and generous thing for them to do. Thank you to everyone that was a part of that. I'm sure Kelby will enjoy her dinner out for her birthday.

PS. For anybody that is wondering...Kelby's tummy seems to be much better!

Wow, Another Week

You guys are going to start thinking we are a cursed family. Sometimes we think that too. We had a great week up until Thursday. The rest of the weekend ended up great though. So, I'll start with the bad news and finish up with the good.

Thursday started out with a bee sting in the foot for me. Ouch! Then, I got another cold sore...for no reason after I just battled one for two weeks. Lame. We took Trooper in for his shots that morning. I had asked the vet about what to do when a puppy is protective of his food. He had been really grumpy when we'd stay over him and watch him eat. She told me to really make an effort to pet him and take his food away and give it back just to get him used to the idea. So this is what we were doing at about 4:30 on Thursday night. Finally I was done and I said, "Come on Kelby, let's go inside." I turned my back and walked toward the door. Trooper got really upset and barked and I turned around to see him jump up on the side of his pen to grab Kelby in the face. That's the only part of her showing as she was looking over it to watch him eat. I freaked out. Kelby had five cuts on her upper lip and a puncture on her lower. I called Mike's parents and they came over to watch Tegan. I called her doctor, and he told me to take her over to the hospital ER in Sedro-Woolley. George got here and took us over. Mike met us over there. She was very upset at first, but by the time we got to the hospital, she was doing okay. She didn't even bleed that much. The doctor there didn't want to look at it too much because it would upset her too much. They sent us over to the hospital in Mount Vernon were they could have an anesthesia team to put her under while a plastic surgeon cleaned it out really well and gave her fifteen tiny stiches to minimize the scaring. I'm thinking that the wounds weren't that bad. If they hadn't been on her face, she probably wouldn't have needed stitches. It was nice that they put her under to do the work so she didn't have to suffer through that pain. She's on antibiotics just to make sure she doesn't get an infection. Before she even got her stitches, she was happy and laughing. Her owies are already looking better. At first her lip was pretty swollen, but now it is fine.

Now I have to decide what to do with Trooper. We know that this behavior was instinct and doesn't mean that he is a ruined dog. So, do I put in some extra work to train him and keep him or do we give him away? We decided it would be up to Kelby. Even the day after the bite, Kelby said, "Don't take my Trooper" as Gramma Wright drove away with him. She was watching him for us while we went camping. She's not afraid of him or any other dogs. We saw some while we were camping and she still wanted to pet them. Can you believe that it didn't even scare her? So, we feel like it might be worth it to work on training Trooper because we think she would miss him a lot. Mike has been working with him and he seems to be doing better already. I won't leave the girls with him if I'm not there. This was mostly my fault for turning my back when he was already upset.

So everything else about this week was great! We went to the park again on Tuesday. Kelby played with the other kids. We just had a laid back week. Of course we had to still go camping because as Kelby was crying about her owie right after it happened, she said, "I still want to go camping." So we packed up and went on Friday afternoon. We went with two other couples and thier kids. Kelby just loved those other kids. They played with her and took care of her as they all explored the area around our camp site. Kelby loves the marshmellow roasting. She is a good little camper girl. She goes to sleep just fine. Tegan did pretty well, but she woke everyone up way too early both mornings. Kelby got to go on a canoe ride because our friend Paul brought one. Michael tried fishing, but to no avail this time. His Father's day consisted of a Egg "Mc"Muffin made over the campfire for breakfast. I think he liked it okay. We finally made it home yesterday...a little tired, a lot dirty, and very content. I appreciate my running water and electicity after camping. Kelby is already ready to go again! Tegan needs to learn to walk a little bit better, so she doesn't have to get so dirty. I think that camping is one of the best ways to spend time with your kids. We had fun, and it was a good way to overcome the trama from Thurday.

Hopefully Kelby's owie will get better quickly. She has her birthday coming up on the 27th this month! I had planned to get some nice pictures done of the girls at Sears this week, but it will have to wait a bit. I just want you all to know that we are doing just fine, so don't worry too much about us. Thanks for your continued prayers.

We Had A Great Week

It seems that if I don't write more often, I forget what we have even done. I do know that it was a good week. I talked to our usual doctor on Thursday. He confirmed what the other doctor said...that there are no visual signs of Kelby's cancer and they would consider her in remission. She'll have another set of scans in three months. As before, she is taking Accutane to fight anything that might be lingering. Her skin is now sensitive to the sun, really dry and peeling from the medication, but her spirits are still high!

As I think back on the week, it really seems like I did something, but I just can't remember what it was. Just in case anyone is wondering...Kelby is pooping well these days. Yeah!!! Oh, I remember...we went to the park on Tuesday afternoon for a picnic. A bunch of other moms from our MOPS group were there. The kids get to hang out and play, while the mommies get to hang out and chat. Kelby loved that. We'll try to do that every week as long as the weather is nice. It has been absolutely beautiful weather this week! On Tuesday night, I did a Stampin' Up! party for a friend. That gets me out of the house for my own thing. On Friday morning, I took the girls to a little street fair in Sedro-Woolley. It was nice and the girls loved their 25 cent donuts and free lemonade. Otherwise, I think we spent the rest of our time outside playing with Trooper. I really tried hard to keep the TV off. Today we had a family gathering that Kelby just loved. She ran around with her cousin Emma until she was completely exhausted!

Tegan is really walking now. She still falls down every now and then, but she's trying all the time to stay on her feet. I can't think of anything else to write. We are just doing great and giving thanks for Kelby's great results. Everyday is precious. She is feeling good and being a normal (almost) three year old. God bless.

 

Looking Good!

I know that everyone is wondering how Kelby's scans went today. It was a long morning. We drove down to the hospital at 5:00 in the morning. She had to be under anesthesia this time instead of an easier sedation. That required an extra couple guys to put her under and moniter her. She did just fine. It was about an hour of scans, then after she woke up and ate, we got to head home. I was pretty tired by then. The doctor called this afternoon and said that the scans look good. There is nothing new right now. Her jaw bone seemed to react to the radiation. It sounds like they'll do scans again in three months. Our other doctor will be back in to work on Wednesday and will hopefully call us after he gets to look at the scans too. Thank you for all that praying! I know it is helping.

These last few weeks have been more than a little stressful on me. It was not fear or loss of faith...that gave me stress. Having a suffering child and not understanding the problem was what brought me down. Now I can believe that Kelby's tummy problem is all related to normal constipation. Any mom would be worried about their kids if they were upset like Kelby, even without cancer. Moms just don't like to see their children suffer. I guess I am trying to explain why I have written more mellow, realistic updates lately...in case you've been worried about me. I'm not clinically depressed or anything. I may have lost sight of my positive, peaceful attitude for awhile in the mist of the stress, but I still have faith that God is in control. That's the hard part sometimes, because I like to have control of things myself. Of course, I just make a mess of things when I'm in control, so it's better this way! It's hard to be completely upbeat all the time...and I am just need to be honest with everyone about how hard this can be. I have appreciated everyone's words of encouragement through this time.

So, in the meantime, I am trying to fill our time with easy, fun things for our family to do. This weekend was wonderful. On Saturday I took Kelby out for coffee in the morning...Kelby had ice cream. Then, we went to a lake for a picnic lunch and to watch Michael ride around on a Jet-ski with a friend. Then we had a Bar-B-Que that night. The weather was perfect. On Sunday we made it to church, then relaxed a bit. That evening we went to a beach with some friends for a picnic. Kelby played in the water and LOVED it! We went out to dinner tonight at Kelby's favorite restaurant (Red Robin) to celebrate our good news from today. I'll try to post some pictures from these events later.

Just know that I am feeling much better. Summer is looking up, so we'll have to plan some picnics, camping, and fishing! I'll try to keep busy with the girls. I expect that since things are going so well now with Kelby's health, I won't need to update as often. Please do continue to pray and leave messages in the guestbook though. It means so much to me. God bless you all!