Round Two

This week started out round two of chemo for Ben. Well it's round two of his A cycle which means that he is 3/4 of the way done with chemo before he will be able to go in for his transplant!! Yay for almost being done with the misery of chemotherapy!

Monday Ben checked into the hospital bright and early and promptly got started with his chemo. Parker and I hung out at the hospital most of the day with Ben while the girls spent the day with Grandma Merritt. Grandma got really lucky and the girls managed to sleep in until 9:00!! They haven't done that in ages so I was glad that they let grandma get some extra rest before taking on a full day of extra entertaining kids!

Tuesday was split half and half between the hospital and being home with the kids. I think that method seems to work a little bit better for me and for the kids attitudes. I imagine that by the time I really start getting the hang of all of this scheduling and figuring out how best to juggle needing to be in more than one location we will be moving on to transplant and then I get to start trying to figure it out all over again! Yay for life! The girls spent the morning with Grandma Merritt and in the afternoon we spent the day playing at home and just being silly together. I also took all the kids over to the hospital for a little while to visit with daddy. We might have wore him out a little but it was fun to just be together even if it was in a cramped little hospital room! I have been trying this past week to be better at listening to the kids and at spending more time directly with them either in my normal tasks that need doing or in the fun things like crafts and playing games. This was one of those days where I actually felt like I didn't totally fail in my plans because it was a remarkably smooth afternoon and lots of fun!

Wednesday we went to Loveland for the day. I meant to get up first thing and head out but instead after the amount of screaming and lack of eating from a little man in this house we opted for a visit with the doctor instead. That was basically inconclusive. I thought he must have an ear infection with the way he would scream about eating and that turned out with nothing. The doctor agreed with me that something must be going on with him but we never did figure out what the issue must have been so we decided to just keep watching him and hopefully things would improve. The rest of the day was actually spent in Loveland playing with my mom! We took the kids out and did a little bit of shopping... bad idea after months of not doing any kind of pleasure shopping I ended up spending more than I probably should have but I did find some really awesome little shoes for Parker! He even got his first pair of cleats! They are awesome. don't argue because it wont do you any good, they are THAT cool!

Thursday we got some great news from the oncologist! We found out that Ben would be allowed to go home on Friday instead of staying for the full two weeks this time. He will still have to go in and do his other chemo treatments that would happen in week two as outpatient chemo but that will be so much nicer to be able to be at home in his own bed for the recovery after those! The rest of Thursday was very similar to Tuesday in the schedule. Grandma took the girls in the morning and I took over in the afternoon. We also got to go walk the Whitmill's dog... (translation: mommy got to go on a walk with a friend and the girls got a dog to play with too!).

Friday was a little crazy but I accomplished tons thanks to my mom! My mom came over that morning and we worked together to get my house spotless and sanitized again before Ben came home that afternoon. Parker was nice and slept for a good portion of the morning so it made working much more efficient. That and teaching the girls how fun it is to use Lysol wipes... Did you know that when you are 4 and 2 the wiping jobs are the most fun! I just love it. Ben got done at the hospital sooner than we expected but it made it so that my mom watched the kids while I went and picked Ben up from the hospital and brought him home. Then we went to the store picked up some things we needed (like more Lysol wipes) and dropped off Ben's prescriptions. Diane was awesome and picked those up for me that afternoon and spared me another trip to the store with all three kids in tow! Thanks! After a day like that we all crashed at the end of the night!

Saturday was another day of pure mayhem! Loveland hosted their annual corn roast parade. It is the BEST parade of the year and I love to go so I abandoned my overly exhausted husband and took the kids to the parade with the Waite clan. Eliza thought it was awesome that they threw candy at her and loved waving at everyone walking by. Alayna started to get the hang of it by the end and Parker thought that it was just some sick kind of torture every time anything loud went by. He would just burst out screaming and spend the next few minutes just trying to regain control poor kid! After a quick lunch and a short rest I loaded the kids back up and took them to the park to help with some of the set up for the Stake carnival. It's one of two events that my calling is assigned to plan. I called and 'quit' my calling after Ben was diagnosed but there were still some things we were providing so I made sure to show up to help at least a little bit. We got there at about 3:30 and left at 7:30 that night. It was an exhausting day to say the least I was completely wore out, but that is my favorite way to get worn out is by having too much fun! Ben spent most of the day just hanging out and taking lots of naps! He looked pretty green that day but that wont last forever!

Sunday has been good. We had a special stake conference today  because there was a visiting general authority. It was great to listen to the talks I actually got to hear. I missed the first two thanks to a starving baby and a 2 yr old who needed to use the potty as soon as I got back from feeding the baby but everything after that was wonderful. I even enjoyed the time that I had to spend standing in the back with Parker who was fighting a nap! Ben did not come to church #1 from exhaustion and #2 it's not super conducive to a chemo patient to sit in a very crowded building right after treatment. So for safety he stayed home and rested up!

 My cute girls and I baking! homemade french toast sticks, yummy!

 Poor boy, big sisters made him wear a pink hat! And he even thought it was super cool when they put it on!

 The one and only picture from the parade.... I want to know how he got on that bike! There were 3 of them all that size!

Pulled out a new toy for Parker... or maybe it was for the girls, I'm not sure because they seem to be the ones getting the most use out of it currently!

Randomness: I was told to start Parker on food sometime in the next two months. I am not excited about it... but Grandma bought him some teething biscuits (really hard cookie type things) they make a horrible mess but I have never seen that baby light up so brightly! He is a little bit greedy about them and gets very angry when they break or if he drops them. He also thinks watermelon is AWESOME! so I guess we better get started on some baby food in the near future even if I don't want to!

Happy 4 Months Parker!

Happy 4 months old to Parker! Yay for hitting another one of those ages when you take your baby into the doctors office and let them stab them multiple times! ... or not.

Monday was filled with lots of doctors appointments. Parker had his 4 month check up that morning. Ben watched the girls while I took him in for shots. That is a miserable experience to take all three kids with me for those appointments it always seems to be more traumatizing for the ones watching than the one actually getting poked! so it was nice to leave the girls home for that! We learned that Parker is slowing in his growth curve and has fallen down from where he was but we were kind of expecting that so it's not exactly a shock for us. His stats: 13lbs 13oz (30%) 25" long (50%) and same 30% head size it always has been! he is doing all those things that are expected at this age, rolling over, chattering and thinks the world revolves around him!

In the afternoon the girls went to Grandma's house while I went to the oncologist with Ben. It was good to hear that his counts were recovering like they expected and that he would not be checking into the hospital until Sunday instead of Friday to give his RBC a chance to come up a little higher before doing more chemo. Parker managed to save his massive blow out of a diaper for as soon as we were walking in the doctors office so he got to go to Ben's appointment naked because my spare outfit wasn't in the diaper bag! What a little stinker, we know he was just trying to show off for all the nurses who think he's so cute... naked must be even more adorable right!?

Tuesday was good. We started the day out meeting with State Farm, our insurance company to make some changes and review our current coverage which was nice. The front office staff at State Farm entertained the girls very well while we talked everything over I was very impressed with their apparent entertainment abilities with the kids. They even had them sitting there counting money! After that the day kind of went down hill. I was beat tired and moody by the end of the day I'm not exactly sure why that happened I just know that I was really grumpy by that night but thankfully I had a relief society activity to go to that I had forgotten about until Ben reminded me so it was really nice to escape to that for a little bit. Even if it did come with the cost of feeling like I am totally unprepared for any kind of emergency if we are to ever have one!

Wednesday I went to Loveland with the kids. I don't remember all that we did that day but it was enjoyable  because  I came home much calmer than I have been! Eliza has been really talkative recently and the drive home that night resulted in a 30 minute story telling session from the back seat! It took me back to the days when we used to have a paper route that we would walk with my mom after school and Rachel would make up these stories for hours it was awesome!! good times good times. Ben had a quiet day without us around and then went to the movies with Nate Ginn. They went and saw Total Recall, he said it was good. A lot more action and not much of a story line but that it was good.

Thursday was busy. Ben had his dentist appointment so that he can get approval for his transplant. That was long but successful which was good news! The kids and I went to the park in the morning and then spent the rest of the morning packing and getting the girls ready for their weekend with Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Mike. Lindsay came and got the girls and took them to a baseball game that night. It was a work party of some kind and she said it would be fun to have the girls. She said that the girls didn't think the game was that cool but it was a fun atmosphere and Eliza is apparently a bottomless pit of food consumption! She had herself a good little binge at the event and ate 5 mini pizzas and 2 hot dogs all in one sitting. I know she is growing but REALLY!? Ben and I enjoyed a quiet night at home that first night without the girls.

Friday was interesting. I don't really remember what it's like to just have one newborn or how awesome it feels to get everything done in just an hour or two and then the house STAYS clean! It's an anomaly that I will look forward to someday I am sure! Lindsay and the girls went to the store that day and then to the pool as well. I don't remember everything else that she said they did during the day but that night Lindsay took the girls on her ward's camping trip. She said they had a really great time which I do not doubt because those two LOVE to camp. Thank you Lindsay and Mike for taking them camping this year because we just weren't going to be able to make it happen ourselves this year! They stayed up way too late playing and camping but thankfully slept in a little in the morning to make up for it. Ben and I had a great day! We did a little bit of shopping and then went out to dinner. We went to Red Lobster for dinner which was excellent! I talked to the girls on the phone for a little bit and shockingly Alayna actually talked back to me on the phone, now if I would have understood even two words of what she said it would have even better but it was fun to just listen to her jabber on about what they had been doing!

Saturday was good as well. I went to Loveland in the morning and dry packed a ton of flour and sugar. I did 200 lbs for myself and another 200 lbs for my mom in addition to the other stuff that people ordered. It was fun but messy! After that I went home the girls came home (I missed them so I was really excited to get them back!). Ben replaced the breaks on the van and then we just had a nice evening together as a family. There was lots of squealing and story telling that whole evening before any melt downs started and we resorted to an early bedtime for the overly exhausted little girls! That night Alayna woke up and went looking for Ben and I and couldn't find us, so she went back to bed freaked out and bawling. It was one of those moments where my mommy heart broke a little and I crawled right into bed with her and snuggled her until she felt better, offering all those calming words of comfort that I could come up with to remind her that I am her mommy and I will always be there for her no matter what! So after my heart got that little crack of not being around enough for my kids it reaffirmed my desire and determination to spend a little more time with my kids, and one on one if I can!!

Just a fun one of Eliza swinging Sunday evening

Sunday church was great. Ben stayed for the full 3 hours for the first time since diagnosis and I think he was a bit wore out by the end of it! He was a trooper though. I got to sub in nursery for the 3rd hour which was fun but boy do they ever run a tight ship in that nursery! I've never seen kids that young (18mo-3 yrs) sit still for such LONG periods of time it was very impressive even if I don't love being expected to enforce stuff like that with kids that age. After church we had dinner with the Merritt's got a phone call from the oncologist who ask if we would wait until Monday morning to come in and start chemo (it had been a busy on call weekend for him). So the girls ended up having a sleepover at the Merritt's house so we wouldn't have to wake them up at 6:00 am to get Ben to the hospital on time. I was glad that I got to do the bedtime routine with them that night, it made me feel a bit more normal after days of not seeing them!

Match!!

 eating his monkey. It tastes like strawberry, I'm just sure of it!

 Bubbles!!

 Thanks Aunt Julie for the Playdough!! we love it!

 And Parker Loves his cloths... look at that cute face!

 Playing at Grandpa's work. Well, watching other people play is more accurate. Big chickens These two are!

 Finally going down the slide! Whee!

 Nom Nom toes!

 Parker and cousin Gavin in their very first jersey's watching their very first football game! It's a big deal, trust me!

Well our week was eventful! Most everyone who is reading this already knows... and if you don't know then you are either Eric on a mission or else you are totally out of the loop! I will run through the week quickly so as to get to the end faster because it's the part that is fun!

Monday Ben had a doctors appointment. Everything seemed fine other than his numbers tanking. His WBC was 0.7 and everything else mimicked that level. so... low, very low. But he was still feeling really good so we went to the store and did some of the shopping that needed doing (things like laundry were being stalled due to being out of soap!). The girls played at Grandma Merritt's house the whole time we were gone and they had tons of fun showing grandma all their cool tricks that they do while diving into the ball pit in the basement! Alayna is really funny when she does 'tricks' because it usually involves her running full speed into the edge of the pool (aka ball pit) and then face planting into a flood of balls. It has to hurt but we all think it's pretty dang funny!

Tuesday was nuts! Ben stayed home and watched the Olympics and napped while I went out with the kids. We went to a birthday party for a little bit and then we went to Loveland where Grandma Waite kept all the kids while I went and got my hair done. The girls were a little bummed about the complete lack of swimming pools in walmart but they had a great time playing the new game grandma bought instead... Did you know that it's really cool to ring the doorbell... That was part of the game, Eliza made a point to re-roll the dice every time she didn't get that color! What a goof!

Wednesday was a really quiet day. I don't remember if we even did anything that day. We may have just stayed home all day but I honestly don't remember. So if I did something with someone reading this, don't be offended I just can't remember! We did get a really fun package from Ben's aunt and uncle Ron and Julie. We had tons of fun playing with everything, thanks for thinking of us and of the kids, the girls LOVED everything especially those sticker books and bubbles of course! Parker is madly in love with the monkey teether too, it might be his favorite toy ever so thanks!
Thursday! This was the highlight of the week! I mean honestly this was the best day we have had in weeks! Ben had another doctors appointment and we found out that his hemoglobin (red cells) were borderline transfusion his platelets were 6 (mandatory transfusion) and his white cells were actually going up (I can't remember exact numbers). He also has a tooth ache so they put him on a new antibiotic that will hopefully get any infection cleared up before his dentist appointment next week. That afternoon we went to the hospital for the transfusion. Grandma Merritt was nice enough to keep all of the kids for that which was nice for me and probably not as nice for her since Parker is teething and grumpy so he screamed for a while at her which isn't very nice! Anyway while we were there we went to the wrong place and as we were being shown where to go instead we got THE CALL!! It's the call that we have been desperately waiting for the past two weeks! We got the call to tell us if any of Ben's sisters are a match for his marrow transplant!
Mallory Hutchins is a match for Ben! I am ecstatic! There is a series of 10 tests that the run on the blood to find a match. They run 6 initially if there are enough matches in those 6 then they will run the last 4 tests. Mallory's blood came back as a 6/6 match. This is VERY rare and gives us a 99% chance that she will be a perfect match for transplant! I cannot tell you how excited I am about this and how thankful I am to the hero's that those girls are for being willing to give him such a great gift! There was at least one moment (ok so maybe it was every time I told anyone about it for the first 24 hours) where I had a little squeal fest as I shared my excitement! The secretary who was showing us to the right place ask if it was ok for her to tell the other nurses (all of Ben's chemo nurses) that we got the call and of course we gave her permission to tell them! I wish I could have seen their faces but I was too excited to wait and tell them myself. Those are some very special and awesome women up on 5 West who take great care of us and especially Ben so I am sure they will be excited to hear that he is going to have such a great match!
That night was the first Bronco's kickoff of the season. We went and had a kickoff party at Mallory's house and took some really cute pictures of Gavin and Parker in their very first jersey's! It was the perfect day. Honestly perfect!

Friday was less perfect. But not bad at all just didn't have the same high as the day before, but that is kind of hard to beat so I'll let that one go! We puttered around the house and didn't get a whole lot done but it was nice to have a lazy day. The kids and I did manage a walk and trip to the park for part of the day. And we went to Grandpa's work to go test out one of the new products they are working on! It's really cool but the girls got scared by it when Grandpa turned it on and then refused to play in it until it was turned off again. Little stinkers!!

Saturday was odd. It was just an off day for us. Ben slept in until 11 then was exhausted all day long. I slept in until almost 8:30 which threw everything off too. It was just odd all the way around. I took the kids shopping for a little while and we had a lovely battle over cleaning the livingroom. In the end I won that battle and the girls did clean up their mess but boy was it exhausting to get through!

Sunday has been good. Parker woke up way too early, his sleep schedule is completely messed up... or just non-existant. He isn't getting enough sleep and I need to figure out a way to keep him on a better pattern so I can have my happy baby back! He has discovered the joy of the exersaucer and recently figured out that he can use the teether on it. He now has to take breaks from it to let it dry thanks to the excessive drool that comes with using the teether. Now we are heading off to the Waite's for dinner and I will upload some pictures before I post this! Thanks for all the prayers we are relieved and know that there are answers to prayers!!

When Ben Begins Worshiping False Gods

The girls got some new cloths from the Maxfield's we had a fashion show!! and that pink fluffy thing was the favorite, it took serious bribery to get it off of her for bed that night!

Parker sleeping... fingers in mouth, one arm over face "mom, turn the sun off please!!"

So a random detail I did not post about in my last post but this is one of those things that needs to be written down so that I have evidence for the future... Sunday night Ben was still in the hospital and he enjoyed his dinner right before his parents came in to visit but then as his parents were walking in the door Ben decided to begin his false idle worshiping... His first offering to the Gods was the gift of food as he returned his dinner to the porcelain god. He is a guy who can count the number of times he has thrown up on one hand so to loose his dinner that way was a bit brutal!

Monday was a busy day. I was looking forward to taking Ben home that morning but sadly Ben's numbers did not come back as high as was needed for him to be allowed to come home so he had to stay an extra day at the hospital. The kids were exhausted from a very long night.... and by very long night I mean that Eliza stayed up until 11pm and then got up at 6:45 am. It was a recipe for disaster so in talking with my mom I knew  I needed to call and take Alayna into the doctor because she had that terrible croup cough and the only solution to that problem is a visit to the doctors office. Well we had a great visit at the doctor, he established that Alayna is just funny shaped and that is probably why she gets croup so often but he still prescribed a steriod for her to help open her airway some! I had Grandma Merritt sitting at the house the whole time we were gone just in case Ben's medication were to show up (we had to sign for it and he is all out so it was a must have thing). Diane sat at the house bored for 2 hours and it never showed up. She then took Alayna to her house for some play time while I went to sit with Ben for a part of the day. By the end of the day both girls were begging for each other because they missed their best friend! It warmed my heart to know that they love playing together so much that a full day apart is hard for them!

Tuesday was a little crazy! First thing in the morning I went and got Ben from the hospital because his numbers were finally good enough to take him home! The kids all went and played with Emily Bade while I did hospital pick up! After I got Ben home and settled I got the kids and then we went to Loveland to play at Bounce (indoor bounce houses and slides!) with Aunt Rachel, Uncle Bruce and their kids Hailey and McKayla, Grandma Waite and Heather and Heidi. It was great to steal as much time as possible with Rachel and fam while they were passing through on their move to Texas! The girls all had a great time playing together and were plenty wore out after that much fun in a day!
On a random side note with that day... Monday night I never could get Alayna to take her meds but a friend of mine dropped off some essential oils for me to use they are an immune builder and I used them for the first time Monday night. Believe it or not Alayna quit coughing without the steroid and her symptoms have only lasted half the time they usually do thanks to that oil! I know it sounds crazy and I wouldn't believe it if anyone else told me the same story but I saw it work so I am now a full time believer!

Wednesday was a little crazy too! Ben was still pretty wore out from all the chemo so I didn't feel too bad packing up the kids and running away for the day. I loaded up the kids and we went to the Children's Museum in Denver with Rachel and the crew. It was tons of fun I don't think Rachel and Bruce thought that we stayed long enough but I think the kids had a great time so I don't feel bad at all about how long we were there! After that we had plans to go to Chic-Fil-A for lunch to support them in the 'eat in' thing (long story short, the CEO of Chick-Fil-A took a stance against gay marriage and there is a big hula baloo about it) So in our support of freedom of speech we went to enjoy some food... after seeing the frightening line we gave up that idea and went to panda express instead because standing in line for at least 1 hr after 1pm with 4 hungry toddlers is a really really bad idea! After lunch we came home and crashed for the afternoon. It was a busy busy morning. Ben went in for his neulasta shot that day as well which is a bit of a bummer because those always make him a bit sore but at least they bring his blood counts up quickly once they crash!

Thursday was a final last hurrah with Rachel and the kids before they headed the rest of the way to Texas. That morning we chose the Fairgrounds Park in Loveland. We were lucky enough to have my cousin Cami and her son come along as well which was fun! The park has a river to play in and a splash park as well! It's a much cooler splash park than any of the ones in Longmont so that was lots of fun for all of us. Eliza and Hailey loved playing in the river and Alayna mostly just played in the sand the whole time! I enjoyed some time to sit and talk with Bruce and play with Parker it was a great way to spend the morning! That afternoon was quiet. I don't remember what we did to be honest. Ben rested and hung out at home for that day!

Friday was a challenge of a day. Ben had his second intrathecal (spinal) for his 'B cycle' that day as an outpatient procedure. I was kind of looking forward to it today because I totally had my hopes up that they would let me watch but sadly they told me no when I ask. I was bummed and a little annoyed with the nurse for telling me no but what are you going to do. I know they have their reasons for saying no, I just think that kind of stuff is really interesting so I wanted to watch how it's done. Oh well such is life. Instead of watching I sat in the waiting room for an hour being bored. Good thing I have Parker to keep everyone entertained at the office! The procedure went just great there was one part where Ben concerned the doctor because as they were leveling out the pressure in his spine he felt the fluid travel down into his tailbone instead of up his back like it usually does so he jumped a little and scared the doc. But everything was fine!! They gave Ben some painkillers before doing the treatment to 'take the edge off' (not that it ever bothered him without them before they were just trying to be nice) but the painkillers gave Ben double vision and made him a little loopy. He was funny and gave the nurses a hard time just for the sake of teasing them he is funny when drugged! The rest of the day was uneventful for the most part.
The girls went to Loveland with Grandma Waite for  the day because Grandma promised to take them to the fair. They had such a great time. They were early to the fair but got to go check out the animals because they were so early which was nice. Eliza came home and told us " I saw a REAL cowboy!" did you know you can apparently tell that they are 'real cowboys' if they wear cowboy boots and ride horses! I sure appreciate all the help from family and friends these days it makes life so much more manageable thanks to them!!

Saturday should have been a quiet day... a day to relax and recuperate from the rest of the week. It definitely wasn't! We went over to the Merritt's house first thing in the morning and didn't go home from there until bedtime for the kids. We (Diane, Abby, Mallory, and myself) all worked on getting together some freezer meals to help stock our freezers as I am needing simpler meals and Mallory is going to be heading back to work in the next couple of weeks after having Gavin. It was tons of work but lots of fun at the same time. I am very very blessed! Ben watched the Olympics and helped his dad replace the water heater while the kids played and I cooked. By the end of the day I was pooped but it was worth every bit of work put into it!

Sunday was good too. It was a lot less overwhelming this week at church which was a nice change because I'm not sure how many weeks I could go through feeling as stressed as I did last week but it went great this week. The kids did great at church and the lessons were awesome so no complaints. We had dinner at the Merritt's house and I showed Mallory how to help Gavin's gassy little tummy with some good rubbing and squishing! It was a great a peaceful day!

Good Week

This week was the good week for Ben. He was really starting to feel quite a bit better more like a normal person less like he needed to sleep 24/7.
Monday was quiet. I took Ben to the doctor that morning while the girls went and played at Sara Maxfield's house. Sara said they had a really good time playing with Brady and that both of them were very well behaved so that made me feel pretty dang good! I am so relieved that my kids are so good and so mellow they really make this so much easier by not being a pain about how much they get passed around! We met with Dr. Barnett for Ben, his numbers were looking good and they decided that they wanted to him to check in for his B cycle of chemo on Friday morning.

Tuesday was good as well. It was a bit simpler just because we didn't have nearly as much we had to get done in the day so it was a pretty lazy day at our house. We went to the store and got Ben some cloths that will fit a little better and the girls and I enjoyed some time to just walk around and play together! I sure do enjoy casual shopping where I'm not the one looking for anything in particular! After that I took the girls to Loveland so they could stay the night at the Waite's house. They were pretty excited about that!

Wednesday was busy. Hard in some parts but it's all good things! We made the trip to Denver to talk to the transplant specialist there. We will be working with Dr. Nash (very well known apparently) and he seems like he is a fantastic doctor. We also have a financial coordinator and a transplant coordinator. Both of which I am sure will become our favorite people with all that they do for us! The news that everyone has been waiting for is here. We will start testing Ben's sisters to see if they are a match asap! They are sending stuff to Hailey to test in FL and Mallory and Abby will go to Denver next week to do the blood draw on each of them to hopefully get a match from one of them! The ideal situation will be to have his sisters match but if none of them are a match then we will go to the national registry to look there. Other than that there was tons and tons of information given to us and lots of it is going to take some time to digest. The biggest thing for my mind currently is that Ben will have to be in Denver for 100 days post transplant. The first 30 will be in the hospital and then the rest of the time he will have to be within 30 mins of the hospital and he will have to have a 24/7 care provider. That is very very overwhelming for me. I have no idea how we are going to make that work especially considering that Eliza will be in preschool 3 days a week and if anyone gets sick (me or the kids) then I can't be that care provider because we can't be near Ben if we're sick. So there are all kinds of technicalities that I would love to have laid out before me right now so that I would know how to plan but that isn't going to happen so I may as well buck up and learn to cope! It is just one day at a time I know that, so don't go and try to remind me to take it one step at a time when I have 3 months of scheduling to try to not panic over! Ok panic is done moving on.

Thursday was our last day of 'good day' freedom. So we made the most of it! We spent time together as a family in the morning then Ben went and saw the new Batman movie with Nate Ginn (friend from church) While he was out doing that I took the kids to the park to play for a little while and then came home did dinner and took the kids over to the Merritt's house for a sleep over! They were stoked to be going for a sleepover I don't know why the Grandma's are so much cooler than me... haha, wait yes I do know why they are so much cooler! They're the GRANDMAS!! They had a blast at the Merritt's Eliza crashed with grandma in her bed (lucky spoiled child!) but didn't go to sleep until almost 10:30 so she was beat the next day!

Friday Ben checked into the hospital bright and early 6:45 is super early anymore for us! We have enjoyed not having to get up so early in the morning! But they started right in with the chemo that morning. He did his methatrexate and intrathecal (spinal) and his cytarabine all that day. So it's 3 different kind of chemo drugs all in one day it kind of takes a toll on your body if you can imagine! I spent the day hanging out with Ben while the kids played at the Merritt's. Grandma took them on all kinds of adventures indulging going to the quilt store, chiropractor, and the balloon store all before coming to visit with daddy for a little bit and bring him some balloons! They were very excited because daddy 'shared' two of the balloons with them and let them take home the Hello Kitty and huge purple monkey that the two of the picked out! He kept the Rockies and Bronco's balloons though!

Saturday was good too. I spent the morning with Ben then got the kids from the Merritt's and we went to the park with Natalie and Jackson for the afternoon/evening. it was excellent to have some friend time for me and for the girls to just play until they couldn't keep their little eyes open anymore! So Thank you so much to everyone who has my kids so much this week I couldn't get through this without you!!

Sunday we woke up with Parker having a serious little yeast rash, Alayna had a horrible runny nose and Eliza was my healthy one! Church went well for the most part. I never made it all the way to sunday school thanks to everyone who wanted an update and wanted to talk to me. It's nice to know that we are so loved and cared for! I visited with Ben for about and hour before going to Loveland. We ended up staying the night there because Miss Alayna fell asleep and I didn't dare risk not getting her back to sleep once we got home so we opted to just stay the night. Sadly Eliza chose to stay awake until almost 11:30 that night so I am sure that today was a challenge but I left her in Loveland so I guess I wont know how it went until tonight!
That was out week hopefully next week will go smoothly!

Alayna and grandpa sacked out... buried under the pillows!

notice Alayna's positioning... imagine sharing a bed with her all night she's all limbs it's horrible!