Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my amazing husband and incredibly loving dad!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mommies today. I am extremely blessed to have two beautiful children who are the absolute love of my life. I couldn't imagine my life without them. The love a mother has for her children can never been explained with words. Today is going to be a good day spent with my kids. Happy Mother's day to my mom too. She is an amazing woman who would lay down her life for me. She has taught me so many things and I could not thank her enough. I love you mom!

The only thing that could make this day better would be for Wade to be home. Only a couple of more days though and he'll be here with us.

Catch Up

I'm at the hospital with Wade tonight. I didn't post for a while after this last time. He did pretty good last time. We've just been enjoying having him home. During the time, both kids were sick. I ended up going to the doctor three times (in two weeks) and I called them two times (one time because Reagan's fever wouldn't go away and they filled a prescription and another time when Reagan had pink eye...I begged them to call it in so I wouldn't have to go back to the doctor). Both of them had a viral infection with very high fever. One night Kaden's fever got up to 103.7. So, one time I took Reagan to the doctor and another time I took Kaden. Then, I took the kids one day to play at McDonald's and some crazy kid bit Reagan. It was a HORRIBLE bite!!! I called the doctor and they wanted to see her. The doctor visits don't count the one day we went to the beach, came home and Kaden threw up three times. Seriously, this all happened in two weeks!!! But, we all spent good time with one another.

So here we are again. Wade went back to the hospital Monday. He will probably be in here until Wednesday. It's hard when we're not all together. The kids miss him so much. It won't be much longer though.

On a bright note, I took the kids swimming for the first time the other day. We didn't last very long. It was pretty cold. However, it took a lot to get Reagan out. She loved it!! She had a while to prepare. For about 3 weeks, she literally puts on her bathing suit and wears it around the house. She even begs to take a bath in it. So imagine how excited she was when she got to wear it in a real pool!!! Haha!!!

Another cool thing happened. As I said before, I was nominated for Teacher of the Year at my school. Well, I am now chosen as 1 of 4 finalists for the DISTRICT!!!! I'm so excited. My principal and assistant principal came down during class with roses and a cute card to announce it. My kids were so happy! I go Monday for an interview in front of lots of people! I'm EXTREMELY nervous so I can't imagine what it will be like Sunday night and all day Monday. Either way, I'm happy with where I am. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Fever, Fever, Fever!

Let me back up a bit to Saturday. I came up to the hospital to spend the day with Wade. I brought him Arby's (his request) with horsey sauce (yuck!!). I would stop to get him anything he asked as long as he eats. Eating is a big thing. Probably 20 minutes after he ate, he began having severe chest pains. He tried sitting up, walking, laying down...nothing was making it better. They took it seriously and immediately had one of his doctors come in. They ordered an EKG, chest x-ray and blood work. All came back clear. He was in pain for the longest time. He said it was the worse pain he's ever felt and that if had to guess, it had to feel as bad as a heart attack. It was pretty scary. His pain medicine didn't even touch it. After a couple of hours, he was at least able to sleep. They think the cause was the horsey sauce!!

Today he started running a fever. It is currently at 100.3. They took some cultures and now we just wait. They're giving him antibiotics for the fever. He's been sleeping a lot. His doctor came in and is giving him the option to stop the chemo for now and go home. They said he got the biggest part of it and it may be best for him to stop. I guess once they get the fever under control they'll prepare for him to go. I'll find out tomorrow what the final decision is.

Reagan's been running a fever since Friday. It was pretty low grade until Saturday night. She was complaining that her ear hurt so I was pretty sure we were facing an ear infection. I took her in today and they had to clean out one of ears three times (she was amazingly tough). Her ears ended up being clear. Her chest and her throat looked good too. She does have a yucky cough though. So they're thinking it's viral. I just wish her fever wasn't so high. This morning it was 102.5. Saturday it got up past 103. Fever is sooooo scary. But the good news is that she's okay for now. If her fever stays above 100 by Wednesday, I have to call the doctor. I just hope and pray that fever stays down. Unfortunately, I had to take off today and tomorrow. Financially it's not the best situation to be in right now, but I keep telling myself things really good be worse and I should count my blessings. The good thing is I get to spend quality time with the kiddos. Kaden plays outside all day and by the end of the day, he pretty much blends in with the dirt pile. Like I said, things could be worse!!! :)

Yay For Fridays!

I love Fridays. I really like Thursdays. This is because when it's Thursday, you know the next day is Friday. Then on Friday, you know have the weekend. Saturday's great don't get me wrong, but by the end of the day, you're dreading Sunday which only leads to a day of preparing for another long week. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job. But weekends are GREAT!!! Does anybody else think like this or is it just me? Am I crazy?

Today is Wade's third day in the hospital. It feels like he's been there for weeks. He's been sleeping a lot but eating pretty good. He said other than being so tired, he feels okay. As of today, he has completed 2 treatments. Apparently each treatment is the same as taking two, so technically he's finished 4 treatments. He has 7 days of chemo which equals 14 doses. He should be finished Thursday, but won't come home until Saturday. A lot of people always ask me why he stays in the hospital because most people they know do the chemo and then come home that day. He's done this before too. However, because of the high doses, he has bad dreams, becomes extremely confused about where he is and he doesn't realize some of the things that he does. Also, because of the steroid induced diabetes (his sugar get very HIGH only when doing chemo) they monitor him closely and are able to give him insulin when he needs it. Plus, the commute has always been hard on him. However, we are extremely blessed to live so close to a hospital that millions of people come to from all over the world. I will be going up there tomorrow to see him. I can't wait to see him.

As far as the kids, they're doing a little better. We've been able to talk to Wade on the web cam so that helps a little. They still miss him terribly though.

I hope you all enjoy this BEAUTIFUL weather and of course the weekend!!!

Here we go again!

As Wade begins his chemo again, we once again fall into the routine that seems all too familiar. I wish I could say we're getting used to it. That sounds awful to say I know. I feel like we're in this constant cycle that will never end. But strangely enough, I don't get used to it. It's like our life is put on hold for months. The kids are away from Wade for days and it seems like months. If Reagan asks, "Where's Daddy?" I tell her he's at the hospital getting medicine to make him feel better. Then Kaden begins to cry. It's heartbreaking. All I do is tell him I know how he feels and I'm sad too, but he's there to get better. As time passes and another round of chemo begins, the kids are a tad bit older and are now understanding more. They love Wade more than anything and are missing him more than ever. He stays in the hospital for 9 days at a time. They're hitting him hard with the chemo and in order for it to not make him completely out of it, they're spreading out the doses. More on this as the days pass.

So here we go again. Lots of traveling, parking, parenting, exhaustion, lonliness, stress. But mostly praying, patience, and being there for Wade no matter what. No doubt it's hard on us, but it's even harder for Wade. He's an amazing man and he's incredibly strong. More to come in the coming days.

On a MUCH brighter note, we enjoyed our Easter with our family. Here are some pictures to prove it!!!

On to Wade

As some of you already know, Wade went to the doctor on Thursday for an update. But I want to back up a bit because before this, I haven't posted much on his progress. Wade's last round of chemo was at the end of November. This gave him a much needed break and a chance to really enjoy our holidays. Boy did we!?!? We had a great Christmas and it was nice not having to worry about much. When he went back for a checkup in January, the tumors were shrinking and they decided to take out his chest port. It was great news!!! He hates that thing so it was one less thing for him to worry about. The best thing was that his last treatment was in November and they were still shrinking.

Now back to last week. They found that one of the tumors has grown a bit and in order to stay on top of it, they want to do more chemo. Because he only did 4 out of the 6 rounds last time, they want to go ahead and finish off the last 2. After that, we'll see. The good thing about it all is that there aren't any new tumors and only one has grown. We'll take any good that we can. He will begin his treatments hopefully on Monday. He's still waiting to hear from the doctors. They wanted to start this week, but he wanted to wait until after Easter. I will continue to give updates through all of his treatments.

People are always telling me that they are thinking and praying for Wade and our family. We are extremely blessed and thankful for all that care so much for us.