A Dance and a birthday

Here are my girls - posing like normal. Samantha was so excited to go to her first High School Dance!

She and her friend Donna went out to a sushi dinner all by themselves and then I picked them up and we went to another friends house for pre-dance pictures.

Sam tried a new hair style. She straightened her bangs and poofed up the curls in the back.

Here are all the girls. They felt like they were on the red carpet. All the parents were taking pictures - the flashes were non-stop.

They all looked so wonderful and they were all so excited! None of them had dates, which I for one think was wonderful. They all went and danced with everyone.

Daniel went as well - he got ready at a friends house and had bunches of fun. They all went out to Bucca De Peppo's (a family style Italian place) then to the dance and then to another friends house for after the dance. He has promised to bring me pictures. When I get them I will post.

Today was Isabella's birthday. She woke up bright and early and got dress and asked when her friends were coming over (this was at 7:30am).

We had a pretty good day and picking up the house, cooking up some pork green chili for dinner and making a chocolate 'Little Mermaid' cake.

Here is Daniel making the cake.

Poor Ariel has quite a tan - but we did our best.

She picked a chocolate cake - the funny thing is that she really doesn't like eating cake.

She was just excited to open her gifts.

Look at my beautiful 4 year old! Here she is posing with her new jewelry box from Grandma Liz.

Isabella also got the 'Camp Rock' movie from Sam, a guitar and microphone from Daniel and an kid friendly MP3 player from mom and dad.

All in all she made out.

Her 'friend' birthday party will be next weekend at the Children's museum. I think it will be fun - the best part is that I can leave the clean up to someone else!

Well - sorry for the quick update tonight - I am tired and 6am comes quick.

I am looking forward to a nice quiet week - we will see if it works out or not...

Until then - Love to everyone!

80s Day during Spirit Week

It was 80s day at the kids high school today. Samantha was all excited to wear her pink tights! Daniel also showed his spirit wearing the short shorts and tank tops that totally fit in when I was growing up. However, today Daniel reminded everyone why they are NOT in style any more. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of him - I prefer to forget what he looks like in his outfit.

Sam fit right in at school, but she felt a bit different when we were walking thru the hospital going for her checkup with Dr. Heare today. She told anyone who would listen that today was 80s day at school. I don't know why she was so self conscience - she looks absolutely adorable!

Speaking of that - the appointment went as expected. Her ankle is still red and tender. Dr Heare is pretty sure there is an infection in her ankle. It doesn't look worse but also doesn't look better.

He and Samantha talked again about her options - either the below knee amputation or the 2 stage reconstruction surgery. Samantha asked a lot of really good questions. Dr. Heare said he is looking at the surgery to happen in December over school break unless the infection gets much worse then we would have to make the decision sooner. He wants to see Samantha again in a month to evaluate and in the meantime he is going to arrange for her to meet with a prosthetic specialist to see the a real prosthetic - see her options and ask questions.

If she decides for the amputation - the recovery would be much shorter - she would begin walking 6 weeks after the surgery and probably be walking just fine without crutches before summer.

If she decides to fight for the foot - the first surgery would involve removing all plates, screws and the cadaver bone. Then put the place holder in - during this time she would be in a cast - non weight bearing for 6 weeks. Then he would go back in and start over - we would be looking at 1 to 2 more years before being able to walk without crutches.

Samantha has been talking with one of her cancer friends who has an above knee amputation and was prepared for her conversation today. I was so proud of her!

We don't have to make the decision now - but Sam is leaning toward the amputation and getting on with her life.

Either way - nothing will happen for a while yet.

I have been dreading today - even dreaming of what the doctor would say and how Samantha would handle it most nights for the past few weeks. But on the way home (which, by the way, took over an hour because I got lost trying out a new route...) I came to the conclusion that I really don't want Samantha to have to do either option. Sam asked Dr. Heare what the chances were of her healing up and not having to chose one of the above options - he said about 1-2%. But since that is not realistic, I told her that either way, we would support her decision. Both roads will be hard. Sam seems to be much more in control now. I think that having the power to make this decision will help the emotional healing if amputation turns out to be the answer. She is such a strong and amazing young woman - she told me tonight - she just wants to get to a point where a persons first impression is of her - not her crutches. She really just wants to get past this.

After the doctors appointment and the adventure getting home - I had to turn around and leave immediately after dropping Sam off at home. It was parent/teacher night at Daniel's tech school tonight. I both dread and look forward to these nights. Most teachers like Daniel and appreciate his unique view of the world but I still get disapproving looks from a few. He is taking Graphic Design and is just loving it. Once I introduced myself to his teacher, she went on and on about how talented Daniel is and how much she loves having him as a student. His physics teacher was polite but I know that Daniel is a bit of a challenge for her.

This week so far has been kind of busy - Tuesday night was parent night at Isabella's school, Wed Jeremy had to work late - today of course we had the dr appt and more teacher meetings. Tomorrow Jeremy's dad is coming in and the kids have their homecoming game and then the dance is on Saturday night. Sunday we will be celebrating Isabella's birthday with a family and friends BBQ.

I am so looking forward to sleeping in a bit this weekend. 6 am mornings are hard for me - even harder when I don't get to bed until 11:30 pm...

Night for now - Love to everyone!!!

Music, School Spirit and Cauliflower

The title of this blog gives you a taste of what my day has been like today.

It is 'spirit week' at the kids high school. Today was c0llege day and Sam is super proud in her Gonzaga U t-shirt.

Daniel is at the Powder Puff game - where the girls play football and the boys are the cheer leaders.

Samantha spent most of the weekend planning out her outfits for the week. She is prepared...

I went out to my jungle of a garden to get some tomatoes for salsa and I was so excited to see a cauliflower!!! How fantastic is that? You also can see some broccoli, tomatillas (a Mexican tomato) and my one and only cucumber.

I made some fresh salsa - just waiting for chips.

It has been a while since I have used tomatillas - I decided to cook them a bit. I will let you know how it turned out. The last picture is my first fall picture - appropriate since today is the first day of fall. The pumpkin is a casualty - I was trying to get to my broccoli and I pulled up what I thought was yellow squash - but it was my one and only pumpkin plant. Oh well - we will have one green jack-o-lantern ...

Only one of my burning bushes is changing - the other 2 are still green. I don't think this pictures does it justice. The red is beautiful and vibrant!

Ellie and Leah were visiting tonight and the girls were singing - here is Isabella doing Demi Lovatos 'This is me' on You Tube. Too cute!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRc5MHg6IyU

Remember that you probably won't be able to watch this thru your VPN. But take a look when you get a chance.

Jeremy missed his connecting plane so we just got home and I am ready for bed.

What a day - life is good!

Love to everyone!

Miracle Party

What a wonderful night! We were a little bit late since Samantha had Paige's birthday party which ran until 5 pm. We picked her up a bit early then she quickly donned her party dress and we were off...

Just as we were walking into the party - they called Samantha's name. She went up for the introductions along with all the other cancer kids being recognized. There was music and dancing all evening.

All the kids had banners hanging thru out the room!

Here are all the kids looking so beautiful! Donna and Samantha wore masks (Donna took a break), while Isabella was a princess and Daniel was a pirate.

Notice the short hair on Daniel...

There was a lot of fun things for the younger kids to do... They had jumping castles, a dress up corner (Isabella spent most of her time there) and a pirate chest. They also had face painting. Both Samantha and Isabella took part in that...

I will put all the pictures from the party into an online album and post in the link section of the main blog page.

Pirate Daniel - he was a good sport. The music wasn't really his cup of tea and he would not dance with me at all - but I think he had a fine time any way.

Daniel got to see some friends from the cancer camps.

We also saw Dr. Ball and a couple of our favorite nurses. They were all amazed at how wonderful Samantha looked with her thick curly hair and pretty pick dress. She wore the same dress to her cancer free party although that is when she was super skinny. Now that she has filled in a bit the dress looks a bit different. (Dang it anyway!)

I can't wait until next year - I am hoping this will become a yearly event. What a wonderful opportunity to raise money and awareness as well as dance and party!

I know I talked last blog about the first ever National Childhood Cancer awareness day - but I thought I would post some of the pictures from the day.

Here are all the survivors that made it that day. Kori is giving a speech - she is the one who started Gold Ribbon Families - my mom's cancer support group.

Allison, Samantha, Jimmy and Kohl posed for a quick picture at Jimmy's lunch. He just graduated from the Young Marines program. He was a bit upset because he had to cut his hair. I think that is a re-occurring theme - after being bald for so long, they don't like getting it cut!

The next picture is all the survivors at Kyle's benefit concert - Mallory and Kennedy were able to join in this time!

Samantha is getting ready for her high school's spirit week while I once again tackle the house. Daniel asked today while Sunday is always cleaning day and I said - look around... :)

Jeremy comes home tomorrow evening and this next week we will plan Isabella's 4th birthday party. Grandbob comes in on Friday... Isabella is so excited - every day she wakes up asking how many more days until her birthday.

Well I am signing off for now - got to get to work. Happy Sunday!

Love to everyone!

Finally

So so sorry for not updating in a while. It has been 2 and a half weeks - and busy weeks they have been!

So I know everyone wants to see the pictures from Make a Wish - here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/layergal/MakeAWish# I also included it in the link section on the main blog page as well. We had so much fun - Samantha was so beautiful and handled herself with such class. She was a bit nervous and a little on edge but nothing unexpected. The day after she actually met the boys she was a bit disappointed. I think she wanted more time with them and it was probably a bit like the day after Christmas. But she talked with other girls that had a meet and greet too - they didn't even get to talk with them - no autographs - just a quick picture and move on...

She has a much more realistic view of their lives as well. I think we all thought if we actually met our crush - they would fall in love with us, Samantha understands the reality now but still loves the Jonas Brothers - it is now just tempered.

After we returned to Denver late Wednesday night we all got a quick nights sleep and headed to the hospital for Samantha's scans on Thursday. This was a good and bad day. The good news is that her lungs are still cancer free! They decided against a full bone scan this time. This was a bit concerning to Chris and I until we talked with the doctors. They are worried about the amount of radiation and have changed the routine. For most Osteosarcoma patients they are not going to do the scans unless an area of concern pops up. Now because Sam is not the normal - they don't want to stop altogether - so they decided 2 times a year instead of 4 (unless a site of concern shows up). But the most important site is the lungs and they will continue to do the CT scan every time.

Now for the bad news, Dr Heare began preparing us for the possibility of amputation. Samantha's ankle is taking longer than normal to heal and there is a strong possibility of infection. We have an appointment with the Dr next week. We have a couple options: if the infection is not getting better - Dr Heare believes it may exist on either the plates and screws or the cadaver bone (things that don't have blood flow so that the antibiotics can't fight it). So we can remove the plate and screws which wouldn't be bad because the bones in that area have already fused together. If that doesn't work then we could remove the whole cadaver bone (put in a place marker) and flush with more antibiotics for a couple of months and then start all over with another cadaver bone. If that doesn't work then she would lose at the least the foot and part of her leg just under the knee. This process would included at least 3 more pretty major surgeries and Samantha does not do well with surgeries. Or of course Samantha could opt to not go this route and get a mid calf amputation and start on that road. This would only be one more surgery and she would be walking sooner - but with a prosthetic.

In the whole scheme of things this seems minor - I mean she is alive right? But Samantha is having a hard time with this and I am as well. I will do what ever she wants to do, but it is so hard watching her battle with this decision. We so wanted all of this to be done - go a few times a year to get the clean bill of health and continue on with our normal lives. We fooled ourselves for a while and now the reality of cancer is back on our plate.

We decided to take a break from the heavy news on Thursday and Sam went back to stay at her Dad's house while I was off to Washington and a visit with Dianna. Samantha had her friends over on Saturday to watch all the Jonas Brother's - Chris said it was 6 hours of screaming...

Dianna and I stopped at this really cool store that just screamed DAWN DAWN DAWN on the way home from the airport. You pull up to loads of flowers and pots and beautiful colors then walk into a wonderful wine store. In between the wine displays is a chocolate bar, and olive bar, a cheese bar and fresh fruit and vegetables everywhere. There was also specialty pastas and all natural meats and fish. We had such a fantastic time there - I could have spent my whole month paycheck there if we stayed long enough.

On Saturday I got to watch Sal play in his opening football game in the Seattle' Quest football stadium. Of course his team won - it was pretty cool. Sunday we were off to a resort on the Washington coast - a total girls weekend with the beach, flowers, ocean, bloody marys, wine, great food, a massage and best of all uninterrupted conversation with my best friend. I have already started saving for next year! Here on some pictures - the first is the perfect meal, olives, cheese, chocolate and wine. The next picture is from our hang out spot on the pier and the last is the looking back to the shoreline. We wrapped up the long weekend with a visit to Dianna's favorite nursery and an Italian lunch before taking me to the airport. It was the perfect ending to the crazy weeks prior.

The following weekend was the first ever National Childhood Cancer Awareness day - Sept 13th!

We made it to the park to listen to a couple doctors speak and a representative from Senator Allard's office. One talk really hit home - he started off saying that our turnout (which was relatively small) was about the same size as the first ever breast cancer awareness day. So we have hope that Childhood cancer will get the kind of attention it deserves eventually. He mentioned that a better database management system is needed and of course money to improve the survival rate. But one thing really caught my attention - we are so focused on getting that cancer out of our children's bodies - and once it is gone we forget that they now have a life time of side effects to deal with. There really are no resources in place - no programs to work with the kids once they have survived. I know on caring bridge I mentioned meeting an adult survivor and her battle totally changed her view on life and she is still battling with the fallout. There is emotional and physical considerations that are not address right now and raising awareness will help them deal later on...

I just read where a new clinic opened up for adult survivors of childhood cancer. Just for regular check ups - now they have a place to go where their doctors have knowledge of the side effects from chemo. It is fantastic because most general practitioners wouldn't normally take these into consideration when aches pop up later in life.

Anyway the weekend was great - we hooked up with Jimmy to celebrate his graduation from the young Marines and then off to a benefit concert for Kyle who lost the battle last year.

Sunday was spent cleaning the house (it desperately needed it!) and this past week I tried to get caught up on work. I had Samantha's physical therapy on Wed, teacher's conferences for the big kids and Jeremy flew out to Tennessee to watch Damian race in the 4X4 finals. He was going to sneak out about 3 am Thursday morning to catch the bus to the airport, but he woke up late and I had to drive him instead at 4 am. Friday, the kids and I headed out to the mall to get Isabella her princess dress for the Miracle Party and Ughs(boots) for Samantha. I promised that I would buy them when both feet could wear them. :)

Then today is the MIRACLE PARTY! We have some last minute items to pick up - Daniel is getting his hair cut and Sam needs to pick up a gift for her friends birthday part (also today).

The party is from 5 pm to 10 pm and I think it will be a lot of fun. I didn't get to help as much as I wanted (they hired an event coordinator and decorator) but that is probably for the best. I don't know where I could have squeezed that in over the last month...

Sorry for the long blog. I won't let this much time pass again.
Sam's dr. appt is next Thursday. I will post pictures from the party tomorrow and keep everyone updated on Sam's decision about her ankle.

Love to everyone!!!

Wedding and a Wish

Ok - the wedding activities officially started Thursday evening - dinner and Mendie (Indian henna tattoo) party. Wonderful food and music and my hand was painted. It is so beautiful. That is one thing the women of India do well - the tattoo and gowns are so beautiful!

Then on Friday - we headed up to Winter Park and had another wonderful dinner - this time with Italian food and music. Jeremy found a big bike as well. The front tire is as tall as he is!



Saturday morning - after a quick bike ride - Jeremy got all done up - he was one of Ajay's men...

There was a prayer ceremony for the groom and his family then it is tradition for all those on the groom's side to dance him to the ceremony.








Here are my other 2 beautiful children - for once Daniel didn't make a funny face.

As you can see the day was perfect.

Here is Ajay riding the horse to ceremony.

Here are his men dancing in front of Ajay - the rest of the groom side guests are dancing behind.

Jeremy acted like he was going to just blend in and avoid it - but he was out there dancing up a storm - it was super fun. I talked to Gina's girls and they had to wait away from the crowd and make sure no one saw her before she entered into the ceremony.

I wanted to take more pictures - but Isabella was a bit crazy and could not sit still. Then Isabella turned on the camera and drained the battery.

The rest of the evening was super fun - another night of good food, music and dancing.

Sunday we woke up early - packed up and headed back to Denver. We made in plenty of time to catch the limo and we were off to the airport.

We made it into College State PA about 11 pm EST and finally got everyone in their rooms and asleep around 1 am.

Monday morning Isabella woke up and was in her swim suit before I could open my eyes...

So after everyone else was up and we got a quick breakfast, we hit the pool. Samantha's ankle isn't quite healed so she could not put her ankle in the water - but she found a creative way to still get into the pool and jacuzzi any way - the first time in over a year.

After the pool we were off again. Make-a-wish got the family tickets to a local amusement park. We all had a fun time - this was Isabella's first time and she found a favorite ride. She and Sam road the caterpillar roller coaster 3 times in a row!

I have pictures but I decided that I would put them all together in a slide show instead of trying to document all of them now - so stay tuned!

Right now it is late and tomorrow is the DAY! Good night and love to everyone!