We Are Back from Dismeyland!

We made it back late Sunday night. We had a great time in Disneyland. The girls just loved it all. We tired them out, but they were really good girls anyways. I think we really tired my mom and dad out too.

We left here on Wednesday and headed down to Seattle. After spending the afternoon at the zoo, we went and found our "hotel." I had found a place for us to stay near the airport that included 7 days of parking so we could leave our car there while we were gone. It was cheap, and needless to say, it was not a great place. We had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get to our flight, and Michael didn't sleep at all. It was noisy and uncomfortable. He was a tired guy. On the plane, the girls did great. Tegan slept almost the whole way and Kelby colored. We met up with my parents at the airport and they took us over to our hotel...which was the Grand California Hotel...the brand new one that was built with the new theme park. It was absolutely beautiful inside. It wasn't as "Disney" as the other hotels, but it was really fancy and amazing. It had an earthy, woodsy feel to it. Mom and Dad stayed at the Disney Paradise Pier Hotel which was across the street from our us. We checked in to our rooms and headed out to the parks for some Disneyland fun!

We didn't really know where to start. There were just so many choices...and the lines for the rides were really short! It was the perfect time of year because all the kids are back and school, but the weather was wonderful. Mid 80's was a bit hot for us Northern Washingtonians though. We went on little rides and big rides. Mom and Dad took Tegan and Kelby over to see Pooh and Tiger while we went on Splash Mountain (my personal favorite). Apparently, Tegan had the crowd's attention while she took her place on Tiger's tummy to sleep. I'll include the pictures soon. We hit the Tea Cups and the Dumbo ride...and of course the Rockets. Kelby loves those rides. She still got a kick out of those fountains too. By nap-time we were all exhausted. Mike rested with the girls in the room while my parents and I laid by the pool. Is everyone jealous? That evening we tried to fit so much in that we didn't get to eat dinner until after the park closed at 8:00, though we did get to see part of the Disneyland parade. Since we got up so early that morning, we were exhausted and went to bed right away. My parents went and bought us some peanut butter and jelly, so I'd have something to feed the girls. They are a bit picky, so it was nice to know we had something that they would definately eat.

On Friday morning we had our oatmeal and then went back to the park. This time we went to "Toon Town." Kelby got to have pictures taken with Minnie and Mickey. She rode on the kiddy rollercoaster after some coaxing. It tickled her tummy and she decided she liked it enough to back on it with Grampa. Tegan got to walk around and really enjoy the park this time. You wouldn't believe how much she loved all the characters! She just started saying "bear" in a cute baby-sort of way whenever she's talking about her stuffed animals...so of course, she pointed and called all the characters "bear" whenever we saw one. She wanted to go up and see all of them. We went back to the hotel early that afternoon to get some pool time in for the girls before they had to take a nap. Kelby loved the fact that there was a kiddy pool there...meaning a pool that is only about 2 feet deep. She could play in it without being too scared. Tegan liked the little squirting turtle fountain. It was a nice relaxing time. This time while the girls napped, my parents generously stayed with the girls so Michael and I could have some fun time alone. We rode all the fast, fun, new rides at the California Adventure park. There are some cool rides there including a really fast rollercoaster and a ride where you feel like you are flying over California landscape. When the girls got up, my parents came in and we showed them around the new theme park. It wasn't there the last time they were there. As the evening wore down, the park closed and we watched the Electrical Light Parade. We all loved the beautiful lights and music. Both girls were amazed by it. When the California park closed, we shuffled our way over to Disneyland to our special assigned viewing of Fastasmic. With our prize package we got special seating at the huge laser, light, water show. It was really neat for us adults, but a lot scary for Kelby. To calm her down, we went on more of her favorite rides before the park closed.

Saturday morning, we had to switch hotels. Our last night there was spent at the Disneyland Resort hotel. That was also a beautiful hotel. After the transfer of luggage, we made our way over to Disneyland and met up with my parents after a couple of rides. During nap-time that day, my mom stayed with the girls for their nap and Mike, my dad, and I went over to ride the fast rides. We rode the rollercoaster three times...until I was feeling a little sick. After just a few more rides, the girls woke up and we brought them back into the California park for dinner. We found a place that served popcorn chicken and happy face french fries...if you can believe it! Kelby thought that was pretty neat. The park closed shortly after dinner which surprised us because we didn't think it closed that early on a Saturday. After fitting in a quick viewing of the "Muppets 3D" show, we went back to Disneyland again. That day we had promised Kelby she would get to see "Princess Atta" from "A Bug's Life," but we never got to see her. Mike ran to find her a Princess Atta doll and then she is very happy. We didn't stay up until closing that night because we were all so exhausted. After one last ride on the tea cups and Dumbo with Grampa, we said our good byes to Disneyland and hitched a ride out of town on the Monorail.

The whole next day was ours because we didn't have to fly out of town until 6:00 that night. We took a leisurely stroll around the Disneyland Hotel grounds which includes beautiful waterfalls, Japanese Koi fish, and cool stores. Then, Kelby and I got our suits on and went down for one last dip in the pool. She was disappointed that the hotel didn't have the famed "kiddy pool" like the other hotel, but she settled for a dip in the hot tub. Then it was time to check out and we dashed off to find a beach. Kelby had so much fun at the beach. I did too! I rode the waves and got icky and dirty before the ride home in the airplane. It was a beautiful day on the beach. On our last trip, the day we went to the beach was dreary. This was so much nicer. Kelby played and played in the sand and waves with Gramma and Grampa. It is possible that the beach was her favorite part of the trip. After we washed up the girls (Tegan had rolled around in the sand and loved it!), we headed for the airport and said our good byes to my parents and sent them back to Billings. By that time, we were exhausted and ready to be home. The girls did great on the flight...Tegan slept the whole way and Kelby did as good as can be expected from an exhausted three year old.

Monday was a lazy day...Mike didn't have to go to work. We recuperated from the trip and now we are on to normal life. I am thankful for the trip...a celebration of a new beginning! Kelby and Tegan had a wonderful time....and so did I! Wouldn't it be nice if we could go to Disneyland every six months all the time! Bye for now.

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Everything Is Great!

I haven't been keeping you all updated as well lately, but that is because I am to busy enjoying our happy life right now! Everything is going great. Kelby is as normal as can be...and nobody has so much as a virus...knock on wood. :) The most exciting thing that happened was on my birthday Friday night. My wonderful friends had a surprise birthday party for me! I wasn't expecting anything. It was a really great time. The kids were all playing when Kelby came up to me and lifted up her shirt and said, "My tube broke." I looked down to see it was completely out of her little body. The "tube" was her catheter that she got medicine through and where they could easily take her blood. At first I was really worried, but after a little talk with the doctor, I relaxed and realized how great it was that it came out on it's own. Whenever Kelby took a bath or got wet with the tube in, I had to do an extensive, annoying job of cleaning it up and re-dressing it. Now I won't have to do that anymore! Since her scans came back clear, that tube was the one thing that still made her "different" from a normal kid. Now there's nothing sick about her. What great timing too...because our trip to Disneyland is coming up next week. She'll be able to play in the pool, beach and fountains with no problem if she wants! I think it was a little birthday gift from God saying, "Look Shawna, she's a normal kid." We didn't ask them to take out the tube this time because there was such a great likelyhood that we'd need it again. It kept her from having pokes when it was time to have scans, but that's not for another 3 months now. It's strange, but all of a sudden I feel like I can live like Kelby is a normal kid. I haven't been doing that. Life has been on hold until we know the final outcome of Kelby's cancer...but I don't need to know right now. It really is all in God's hands and all I can do is live in the hope that she is cured instead of living in the dread that she is not. God will get me through whatever is to come, but right now I have to live in the present and appreciate all the goodness! I am remember a quote that I found a while back, "One is given the strength to bear what happens to one, but not the one hundred and one different things that might happen." ~ C.S. Lewis. So I'll take all the strength that I can get right now and run with it.

Okay, so what else have we been up to lately? Wow, we just have so much fun when we can. My parents came two weekends ago. I can't believe I haven't even written about that yet. We had a wonderful time. Kelby was finally getting over her sore tongue issues, so she was ready to have fun with Gramma and Grampa. We went out to the beach on Saturday night. I took my parents to find a letterbox out at Deception Pass. Kelby just loves being out at the beach. Then we did a lot of shopping on Sunday..it was, after all, Labor Day weekend, so there were lots of sales to be had. Grampa took care of Kelby the whole time and throughly spoiled her. Mike and I learned how to play Pinocule from my parents. That is a hard game! I'm not too good at it, but it was fun to play together. After a relaxing weekend, my parents headed home on Monday morning. The girls had so much fun while they were here.

After the long weekend, it was a short week leading into the scans that Thursday. The news was great, so we had a great week! My birthday was the next day. I had a great day. We went out to dinner and I got to visit a scrapbooking store. Then we went over to our friends house under the guise of playing Pinocule with them, but there was a surprise party for me instead! We stayed up way too late, but had a great time.

Then, on Saturday morning, we packed up for a one night camping trip. It was the last chance for this summer. We met up with Gramma Debbie and Grampa George up at Newhalem. Mike and his Daddy got some fishing in and Gramma Debbie and I got some relaxing done. Kelby and Tegan had a great time. They are such good campers...you wouldn't believe it, them being girls and all. So, with the hiking, smores, fishing, and relaxing, it was another great weekend under our belts.

Now on to real life again. What is it like? I am working on my scrapbooking and stamping. The girls are playing so well together. We have friends come over and we got out to shop. Next month our MOPS group starts up again, so I am getting ready for that. I am the creative activity lady (crafts) this year!!! I can't wait.

Thanks again for keeping track of what we are doing. God bless you all. Take a look at the virtual "Smile Quilt" built just for Kelby at . There is a group of people that make these quilts to love and encourage kids that have terminal illnesses. They have kind hearts.

 

Thank You Lord

I realized after I read the guestbook today, that I didn't really give all the credit to God yesterday for the wonderful results of Kelby's scans! You are all so right to praise God for this. I know that all this time we have had and will have is from the Lord. He has been very faithful to listen to everyone's prayers for our little girl. Thank you so much for that Lord! I am singing praises to Him in my heart today. What a great birthday present...amen! (Today is my birthday for those of you that don't know me.)

If there is anyone that wants to be on my email list, you can email me at mommy@mikrowiz.com and ask to be on my website updates list. Everyone on the list gets a copy of my most recent updates right after I write them...then you won't always have to check in on the website every hour like some of you do...unless you don't mind. You still have to visit the website for pictures because I don't email those. That way no one's inbox gets bogged down with huge downloads.

God Bless to you all! Thank you for celebrating with us. Our life is a snapshot of "normal" now. I'll try to relax and enjoy myself a little more. I love Autumn, so I am really enjoying the weather! I'll try to get some pictures online soon from our last weekend, but not right now. I'm too happy to stay sitting at the computer for long!

Nothing There!

Well, we just got home from the doctor this afternoon. "The scans look great!" they said. There isn't anything in her jaw to worry about and the lymph nodes didn't appear to be abnormal. Whoo-hoo! I didn't know how to feel at first...it took me some time to process the information, but I am growing ever more excited as the day goes by. There's so much emotion behind this...we know that everything is okay right now...and that is what matters! We have lots of time to enjoy ahead of us.

At first I was just stunned to know that she is doing so well. Either way the scans turned out I knew it would be hard. It may not make sense, but even knowing that things look okay, I am still waiting on the "inevitable" relapse of this terrible cancer. I know that I need to get over that. I need to live everyday as best I can and let the rest be in God's hands, but I have the bad habit of trying to carry it all on my own shoulders. It is hard to have hope for a miracle. I do know that I am thankful for every day I get. I'd appreciate it so much more if I could just stop worrying so much. I think that God is working on me though. I feel like there is a lesson to be learned from the Israelites as they made their exodus from Egypt through the desert for 40 years. It seems like we are walking through a desert right now. I just need to realize that God is right there with me at all times. God provided just what his people needed when they needed it in the desert...He guided them with a pillar of cloud and light. If I could just accept my desert and learn to keep my eyes on the Pillar, maybe I can survive each day not even needing to know what the future holds. I am thankful for all that I have received and all that God has done through this desert and I am thankful that He is with me on this journey.

After these first emotions hit, I had a "deer in the headlights" reaction. It took some time before I could relax and really be thankful for this wonderful news. I am so excited for our wonderful, worry-free trip to Disneyland this month! Wow, I bet we'll have a wonderful fall and Christmas this year. The heavy heart is just getting lighter as I let myself think about the future in a positive way again. I wish we would have known this good news 2 weeks ago with the first scans. I am so glad that I was wrong about the bump I felt. I saw the scans myself, and I think I had been feeling a tooth that is in her jaw. I'll have to try harder to not jump to conclusions. The doctor that I talked with is the one that is the "realist" of the oncology pair at our hospital. I was glad to talk with him because I can believe him when he is positive, because he never sugar-coats anything. (Not that I don't appreciate our other doctor that is the "optimist." They are a great pair.) I asked him what I should do now and he said, "Just...live." Whew, that's a hard one, but I'll do my best!

Thank you for all the praying! Please continue to do so! I love you all and am so thankful that so many people care about our little darling. God bless. ~ Shawna