Sam is out of Surgery

Sam is awake and watching Family Feud - we are trying to get a hold on her pain and then we will be able to go home.

Dr. Heare loosened up some scar tissue so that the skin won't pull as much. We are hoping these last 2 small sites will heal up.

All in all she is looking good. Dr. Ball (her oncologist) stopped by to say hi just after she got a dose of morphine - she started crying and said how much she missed him! It was cute.

She will be taking it easy for about 5 days and then should be back to normal.

I will post again in a bit - love!

Just a Touch Up - Sam's Surgery

Well Samantha is in Surgery now - just a quick touch up. She has been going strong with her physical therapy and overdid one of the exercises. Her leg was a bit swollen so we decided to have Dr. Heare check it out. When he did he also removed the last of her stitches. Well once the stitches were removed - the scabs fell off and she has a couple of places that did heal up together.

So Dr. Heare scheduled a quick surgery for her this morning to close them up again. It will be relatively quick - 30 minutes or so for Dr. Heare's part and then about an hour in the recovery room.

We are expecting the after surgery pain to be way less than she has experienced in the past - she may be a little sore but not for long.

It is such a weird feeling being back in the hospital waiting room - drinking hospital coffee. Everything familiar, even the old worries. I don't think I will ever get used to seeing Samantha go under.

I will post again as soon as I have a chance after she wakes up.

Love to everyone!

Fun in the Sun

Not too much to update - Thursday was Fair Days at Isabella's school, Adventure Montessori. They had one big end of summer blast complete with popcorn, snowcones, cotton candy, jumping castles and lots of games. Jeremy worked on putting the most of the games together and then went into Isabella's school and he and the kids drilled, glued and sanded.

Here is Isabella getting ready to race on her hobby horse.

Cowgirl Izi Lizzy!

Plinko game - That is Isabella's head peaking up!

Cowboy Dad!

Bean bag toss - the kids and teachers decorated all the games Jeremy and Iz created.

Below you see Jeremy and Isabella in the sack race - Isabella left Jeremy in the dust - She is just a blur in the second picture. Amazing!

Samantha super excited to be hanging with the kids.

The first place Isabella went was the cotton candy.

Then we finished up in the face painting room - Isabella chose a butterfly on her face and for her balloon animal as well.

What a fun afternoon - Jeremy did a fantastic job on all the games - the teachers loved it.

Friday Jeremy did some last minute running around to prepare for Ajay's bachelor party. Samantha had another physical therapy appointment and she is doing wonderful (although she has been a bit sore over the weekend).

Then for Friday night - Sam, Iz and I went out for Sushi and then I dropped her at her dads for the week.

Saturday I was able to fit in a bit of shopping - Daniel broke Isabella's Jasmine doll so one of the stops was to the Disney store. It was Isabella's first time and she thought it was the best. She had such a big smile - I have many birthday ideas for her now.

Saturday night I went to Gina's bachelorette party which was nice and relaxing.

Sunday was chores for me - but Daniel went mountain biking with his friend. This is his first time in almost 6 years. He really wanted to go - but really doesn't have all the gear needed. He improvised... He is wearing one of Jeremy's bike jerseys and under his pajama bottoms he has some bike shorts at least. But the funny part is that he doesn't even have tennis shoes - he is wearing his Vans.

Needless to say - his feet slipped a bit when trying to pedal up the trail. He came back confessing he puked once and proudly showing me his scraped up knee and elbow. (he didn't come close to winning - my 4th of July crash looked way worse!)

He has not been a real big fan of exercise so I think he was a bit surprised that biking was so hard - but he had fun and is planning on doing it again soon. We will be getting him some appropriate gear so he doesn't have to work quite as hard.

Boy - I guess I did have a lot to update. I am hoping this week will be quiet - I plan on trying to get out and ride my bike a bit - keep caught up on the house and wash. Jeremy's 100 mile mountain bike ride is on Saturday and get this - Lance Armstrong will be riding this year! I probably won't see him because I am there to support Jeremy - but I plan on bringing one of Sam's Flashes of Hope pictures for him to autograph just in case.

Then we are off to Cody to hang with the grandparents.

Ok - night and Love to everyone!

Eye of the Storm

The day started out pretty normal - but took a quick turn about 9 am this morning. Jeremy was packing up to head to the tipi, Isabella was angry with me because I wouldn't let her wear her dirty clothes from yesterday. I got them out the door when I got a customer call.

At one point I was instant messaging with 3 different people while on a conference call and encouraging Samantha to get dressed and ready for her physical therapy appointment.

I usually don't stress if I have to run out to an appointment during the work day because I have email on my phone. However, I am getting the royal run around from work when it comes to getting a replacement for my phone since I dropped it.

So I had to leave in the middle of my customer escalation. I ran Sam to PT then headed over to Panera Bread because they have free wireless. I checked my email there and then back to pick up Samantha from PT. Then I had to run to pickup Isabella before running to pick up Daniel. See Daniel had an appointment to retake his hearing test - Isabella had to come with since we only pay for school until 4:30 pm.

Well we made it to Daniel's test (which he passed with flying colors - no more excuses that he didn't hear me) only 2 minutes late.

After I had to hit the grocery store - we went to one that had the little 'shoppers in training' shopping carts. Daniel was pushing the regular sized one and Isabella had the smaller one. I only needed a few items - but I am sure you can picture Isabella - grabbing items she wants off the shelves - the funny thing is Daniel and Samantha were doing the same thing - they can just debate better.

We took over the store - there was one wide eyed gentleman - you could tell he didn't have kids - he just looked amazed as I repeatedly asked the kids to stop shopping and move towards the checkout.

There was one point on the drive home where all 3 kids had their bare feet in each other face - singing 'smell my feet' at the top of their lungs - I am talking about my 16 and 14 year old as well. I feel like I have been nagging the kids a lot lately so I decided since they were having fun and laughing I would just let the extra noise slide.

Now I have 2 out of the 3 in bed and I am looking around my house. The dogs were wrestling and dumped over things - the kitchen is a mess from dinner - Isabella was looking for her princess dolls and proceeded to spread every color book, crayon and sticker book all over the floor.

Tomorrow will be another busy day - lots to do on my list - but Daniel will be out working and Samantha is making plans to go to a movie. So I may have some quiet. :)

Jeremy should be back from the tipi in time to go with me to Isabella's summer fair days tomorrow.

I think I have expended all the energy I can tonight. Time to recharge.

I will post pictures tomorrow - and call my mom!

Love to everyone!

Courage Classic Day 3 - We did it!

Today's ride was about 33 miles. The little red dot was the finish line. You can see how the first 12 miles is all uphill. Jeremy was wonderful and stayed with me and we rode for a while - rested for a while - then rode some more. The only part that is wrong is the fact that on the map it shows it going downhill into the finish. It was NOT downhill - uphill all the way for last 6 miles - at this point I am not a big fan of uphill bike riding! :)

We did reach the Summit at mile 12 - I tell you the added 2000 feet really did make a difference. My legs felt great - my lungs however, were a different story.

It was very emotional for me today and I was trying to figure out why. I will apologize right at the beginning - I don't really like thinking super deep - but I think that over the past year there was so many things I wanted to do for Samantha. I wanted to take her cancer for her, I wanted to take away her pain - I wanted to help her walk and heal and not be sick. I couldn't do any of that, but I could ride my bike for 3 days for her. When we hit the summit (of the ride that I didn't think I could do) it was like I could finally do something for her. She is probably thinking - my mom is a freak - but that is it. Jeremy was very patient with me and was such a great support all day. It was a hard but really fun weekend.
Here we are crossing the finish line - Jeremy with his mom and me with Isabella. Almost immediately after I crossed the finish line - Daniel handed me Isabella. She was crying and I barely had time to grab my medal....

It was fantastic to see Samantha, Daniel and Isabella as we crossed the finish line.

We finished up rather quickly - got back to the condo to do a quick clean up and pack the van and then a drive back to Denver in the pouring rain.

Damian (Jeremy's brother) came up and made us a fabulous dinner while I drank some wine and Jeremy drank some beer and we relaxed. All in all it was a wonderful weekend.

Tomorrow is back to work for me but Jeremy is taking the whole week off. I will write more then - tonight I believe I am ready for bed.

Love to everyone!

Courage Classic Day Two

Today was a wonderful day - the ride was absolutely beautiful. I did about 40 miles and Jeremy did about 51. Today was family ride day so they had many different options depending on how you felt. the shortest ride was about 35 and the longest was 98. I felt good about doing something in the middle. The above picture is the 4 of us at the Dillon Dam aid station. It was a beautiful day. We left this location and continued onto Blue River which was another 14 miles - mostly down hill. I rode this section with Jeremy and I was able to draft behind him at a pretty good pace. It was the most fun for me yet. Then while Jeremy continued to the top of the pass (another 12 miles up and down) I had to make my way back - but this time it was uphill. One of the riders hollered out "what goes down has to go up!" She was so right. I prefer to go up first and then finish with a nice downhill. But I made it. Jeremy and I hooked back up at the Dillon Dam aid station again.

There is Jeremy after we hooked up at the aid station. The other picture is of the lake we rode around.

While Jeremy and I were riding. The rest of the family hit the outlet mall over in Silverthorne. After the ride we showered (the first thing Sam said to me when I got home was - you stink!) and ate a bit. Then we headed to Vail to hang out with some friends. We wrapped up the day with a couple of pizzas and some TV.

It is about 8:30 pm now and I am ready for bed.

Tomorrows ride will be a long hard uphill for about 12 miles, finishing at 11,300 feet. Then about a 14 mile downhill - another 4 mile climb and a quick mile downhill. The total mileage for tomorrow will be about 34. There is also an option to do a 10 mile loop around Turquoise Lake - but I think we may have to pass so we have time to get back and clean up the condo and back to Denver by 5 or 6.

I am excited to cross the finish line wearing our Super Sam shirts.

Until tomorrow - Love to everyone!

Courage Classic Day One

The course ride was 58.10 miles and I personally did 50 miles. Daniel woke up bright and early with us (6 am) and dropped us up in Leadville. There were 2 mountain passes and "Battle Mountain". The picture to the left was our route. The bottom graph is the elevation. The first pass was not easy but not too hard. Battle Mountain was super steep(the pimple on the elevation map) but only a couple miles long. But the last pass did me in. We ate lunch in Vail and from there to the top of the pass was 18 or 19 miles. I decided to save the last 8 miles of the climb for next year. There have vans called 'sag wagons' that come pick up and shuttle you to the next aid station. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't carry on but it would have taken me too long. I really wanted to do all the ride for Samantha - but my fitness level just wasn't there. The good news is that Jeremy, AJ and Gina all did the full ride for her.

Tomorrows ride is a relatively easy one - there is a bike path from Copper Mountain Ski resort all the way to Breckenridge (these are Colorado Ski towns). It will be a beautiful ride thru the trees. The mountain wildflowers are beautiful. I need to find my camera - I forgot it today. It is somewhere in the condo we are staying in but we have 7 people staying in a 2 bedroom place. So things are everywhere. :)

I am ready to hit the sack - so I will sign off for tonight. As you can see - Jeremy is already out. :)
Love to everyone!