Family Tradition

This weekend marked a huge mark in the Family Tradition book! Going back years our family have been avid hunters. The art has been passed from generation to generation and this week Justin made his mark. Justin killed his first deer ever on our family farm down in Perry County TN. I'm not sure who was more proud, he or us! I know its day he will never forget and I hope he carries on the tradition with his kids one day! Way to go buddy!

Happy Birthday Nickster & Halloween to all

Mr. Nicholas turned the big 8 this month! Again we had his Halloween themed Birthday Bonfire Party! It was a blast! I can not get over how fast you are growing Mr. Nick, but I am so proud of the little man you are turning into!! Happy Birthday Buddy!

And Happy Halloween to you all!

Toes in the Sand

Two words I love to hear, vacation and beach!! Ahhh We headed down to Panama City Beach last week for some relaxation! I loved having our toes in the sand and watching the waves move in! Oh how I could live by the ocean. And I think one day we will! Something about the saltwater and cool ocean breeze speaks to my soul. 

The kids had an absolute blast! They played in the sand, rode ocean waves, and even brought home a couple shelled critters. I think they hated leaving as much as us adults! But we will be back! Back to stick our toes in the sand and listen to the waves crash in!

This & That

A few random pictures to review the past couple months...

Justin took and passed his Hunters Education Course!

 

Emily LOVES to sing. She will make a microphone out of anything...

Nick is loving playing soccer. And he is really good at it. While taking his 8th Birthday photos he asked to put the soccer ball in some of his pictures!

End of Summer...

There are a few things that signal the end of summer for me.

One that sticks out the most is a trip to the county fair!

We LOVE the fair, but have missed the past few years due to all different kinds of reasons.

So this year when some great friends of us invited us to go with them, we leaped at the chance. This was Emilys first fair experience and she had a blast. The boys were finally tall enough this year to ride the big rides with daddt. I proudly munched on some yummy fair foods and cheered on my roller coaster riding loves!

The Big Pre-K

Well my last little baby has officially started school. Ems started preschool at a local church this past Wednesday. Its the same one her brother Nick went to. We absolutely LOVE the staff there and they treated us so good with Nick.

Emily was up bright and early with her brothers at 6am. To say she was a bit excited was an understatement. It was hard to make her understand that her school started later and that mommy would take her and that she wouldn't be getting on the bus with her brothers. So after breakfast and getting boys on the bus for school we got ready and snapped a few pictures.

Then it was off to school. I was so bummed that by the time we got to the school I realized my camera was on and in return now dead! So the cell phone is all I had at school.. But at least I snagged a few pictures!

After saying our goodbyes (btw I was a brave mommy and didn't cry, yet I did get that lump in my throat like it was coming at any moment) my brave little girl gave me a kiss and off I went.

Her teachers said she had a great day. The only "bump" was at nap time when she got sad and cried to go home. We will have to work on this, but in all reality Emily hasn't really napped since she was 1 year old... no joke.. So we will work on laying still and resting.

I'm so glad she had a great day and mommy did too. Its amazing how much you can get done without having to heard children with you. I got the car washed and tagged and took some clothes back and shopped at Kohls. I also got Joes numbers on the back of his new softball shirt and picked up chicken and dog food!! I even had lunch tucked away  in a quiet booth as I ate yummy soup and surfed on Pinterest! All in all it was a huge success..

No Words

Ok maybe I do have words, but they are not so nice.

I am about ready to ban all markers, crayons, and colored pencils from a certain little 3 year old.

I must say the girl has some pretty cute artistic skills, and momma loves her drawings. Just not on 4 walls in the house! I have hid the markers, then she comes up with crayons. I hide them and she magically finds a PERMANENT marker..

Ugh ok I give up.. Its a good thing she is cute! ;)



5th and 2nd

Well it is that time of year again and the kiddos are back in school. Wednesday was our first "official" day of school even though the boys only went for 2 hours for a meet and greet with their new teachers. This year I have a 2nd and 5th grader and it just doesn't seem right. Justin is maturing so fast before my eyes and breaking my heart with his little reminders like, "hey mom this is my last FIRST day of elementary school, ever".. Oh buddy don't remind me, mommy wants to to stay in elementary school for a few more years.. :)

And Nick is growing up in the blink of an eye. I look at him and think how in the world are you already in 2nd grade. Were is my little preschool boy that bounced out of the preschool doors when I pulled up to get him in the afternoons saying "mommy can we go get an ice cweeem cone".. Just look at him now, such a handsome 2nd grader!

And Miss Emily starts school next Wednesday and I will have more pictures of her first day. But for now she had to snag a pic with her "booooyzz" on their first day..

First Haircut!

So I finally broke down after 3.5 years and trimmed Emilys hair. Well honestly I have wanted to do it for awhile, but her daddy said no.. She has such fine hair that the long ends had broke and were getting into tangles. So tonight we took about two inches off! And yes mommy played hairdresser! :)

Before the cut...



All Done... So pretty!



Everything Went Good...

So I had my INFeD infusion today and I would say it went good. We got there around 9am and got checked in. They placed my line in and started giving me IV Benadryl & Dex. I also got some nausea meds too by mouth.After the Benadryl was in I felt crazy, like Suzie had one to many beers crazy. I guess I'm not like others because I HATE that "drunken" feeling. After we got all the meds in they brought a syringe of test iron. She slowly injected the iron over about 5 minutes. I swear it was like 1cc of test iron. Then I sat there and felt like a zoo animal with everyone watching me. After about 30 minutes with no major reactions they started the full infusion. The nurse came over to turn the pump on for the full shebang and Joe sweetly looks over and smiles and states "your doing good, no throwing up or headache". I laugh and said yea "also no cardiac arrest or death". The nurse just chuckled. Hey I look for the BIG positives!!!

Iron is going in...

So I snuggled in my comfy reclining chair and started my crossword puzzle. Do you know how frickin hard it is to complete a puzzle when your drunk on Benadryl. Well lets just say, it hard! Poor Joe didn't leave me for the next 3.5 hours. I tried to get him to go walk around the hospital, as he was stuck in a little old hard chair playing on the Kindle. But he never moved, except to get me a blanket, GOSH don't you just LOVE heated hospital blankets!!

Playing Drunken Word Cross.. :}

(I look like I have 2 black eyes...eeee)

So we are home now. I'm feeling super weak and came home and slept for about 3 hours. Now I just feel tired and my arms and legs feel heavy. Not sore or hurting, but like I have 5lb weights attached to all my limbs.. We go back in 6 weeks and that's when we find out if my body is doing what its suppose to and absorbing the iron and turning it into red blood cells. If not I'm not 100% sure what test will come next. As of now I'm going to snuggle on the couch and watch a movie with the guys. Night all!~

PS - I wanted to add I feel so incredibly blessed. Im so lucky that my situation is manageable. That I should recover from this and its not going to take my life. As we sat in the treatment room today I met 4 incredible people. They were in the chairs around me receiving their chemo treatments. All were so smiley, except one. A lady and her sweet husband whom sat directly in the chair beside me.They came in about an hour into my infusion. She had just received her breast  cancer diagnosis and was there for her first chemo treatment. The nurses were telling what she was getting and what to expect. She looked so scared and her husband never let go of her hand. Life is short and hard, but you gotta fight. I thank god every second of every day for my amazing family and friends. You don't know how much you mean to me. Family and friends is what gets your through hard times like these. Blessed doesn't even begin to descirbe my life!

Getting ready for school!

This week has been, well, a lazy one. After several months of no rain, it decided to rain every day this week! I am not complaining, my garden looks like it has life again and it sure was nice snuggling up with the kids and watching movies this week! It stinks though that the grass also began to grow again. Joe is out back finishing mowing as we speak! I bet when hes done he will do some more hitting with his make shift batting net stopper. I guess I need to break down and buy a batting cage net thing. Both him and Justin tend to share our baseballs with the neighbors!

This weekend we really don't have big plans. I plan to hit up a few more stores to grab some school supplies. Im trying to only hit the sales and save on the loot since we have 3 going this year. Yes Emily will only be in preschool, but she is still going to "school". Here she is trying on backpacks at Kohls...

And I found some cute preschool games for my kindle. So everyday we have alittle math and abc practice!

Well thats about it. I will post again Monday evening if I am feeling up to it about the infusion. I will leave you with Nicks face. Photographer Justin took it in the backseat. Guess thats what I get for leaving my camera back there.. Love their candid pics!

INFeD

So I wanted to give a quick update on me. I went to meet my Hematologist at the Oncology center today (loved him)!! I had bloodwork before my appointment so he could take the previous 3 bloodworks from March & June to compare to today. Well today my levels had dropped more. Basically long story short he is going to try IV Iron Infusions asap. Some have asked some good questions so I thought I would write a few down to help explain.

Type of Iron Infusions I will be getting?
 - INFeD (Iron Dextran) is he kind I will get (hints the title :) )

How many will you get
 - Right now we are playing by ear. I will have my first on Monday and then bloodwork in 6 weeks. If my levels drop again he said we would do more.

What is the process?
 - Joe and I will go to the hospital in the morning, I will get hooked up with an IV catheter and receive IV benadryl & a steroid. I will then be given a test dose of Iron. If I do not have any allergic reactions they will start the full infusion 30 minutes after the test dose. I will receive the infusion over a roughly 3 hour period. After that home we go to rest!

What are the side effects?
 - There is a possibility of a severe reaction, but its rare. Thats why they give the test dose. Afterwards for 24-48 hours I should expect flu like symptoms. After that I'm fingers crossed I start to feel better. (more energy, not short of breath or dizzy, etc)..

Are you scared?
 - Yes and No.. I'm sooo ready to feel better and like myself again at this point I will do pretty much anything to feel better. With that said I am scared of the prospect of the whole process itself and how my body is going react..

So there you have it. I will post after Monday on how it goes! Thank you again for all the prayers, text, and calls. You will never know how much it means!!

America gets another year older...

Happy 236 Birthday America!!!

Around here we celebrated the 4th just alittle different this year. You see we have had temperatures in the 102 to 106 range everyday for about 2 weeks! Along with very little rain in over a month we are very dry around these parts. That caused all local cities to enforce a no fireworks ban. While the boys were sad they didn't get to shoot off any fireworks they still had a good fourth! We went to moms and had a cookout with her and some good friends of ours. We also spent the day in the pool swimming and during the hottest part of the day they all rocked out to the Wii and rock band games!!

They even hit the pool up for a late night swim and got to watch a few fireworks. Apparently some of moms neighbors are not afraid of a little ol $2500 fine or 11/29 in jail... :/

Good news came though just the very next day in the form of a good soaking summer shower! But it wasn't a simple shower. Our neighborhood got pelted for over 20 minutes by the craziest hail storm I have personally ever seen. It started off as simple pea size but soon grew to thuds of quarter and nickle size hail.. It destroyed our canopy tent in the back and also dinged up our camper and Joes car!! But the garden and yard was sure thankful for a good drink of water!!!