Happy Birthday Pops!

Yesterday was Pops' birthday...so let's just pretend like I am on top of things and had this posted yesterday morning. Happy Birthday Pops!! We hope you have a fantabulous day! The kids called him when we were in the car on the way to school...Hayden even attempted his version of the happy birthday song, that was quite hilarious. I'm not sure Pops even knew what he was saying, but it's the thought that counts. Thank you Pops for all you do for us...we love you!!

Things have been trucking along around here. Riley had her blood counts checked this week, and everything was good. Her white count was low at 1.7, but her ANC was 935...so they weren't too worried. I am currently waiting for Dr. Dreyer to call me back, she is trying to schedule Riley's port replacement surgery. She's hoping it will be in 2 weeks when we return for the next clinic appointment...that way we can do everything at one time. We shall see, though. Have a great weekend!!

P.S. I have the best big sister a girl could have. She rocks!!

Ace of Hearts

Ever since Riley was diagnosed in 2007 and we spent that week in the hospital, she has been sleeping with us in our bed. At that time, it was a comfort for me to have her beside me...you know, just in case. Now...not so much. It wouldn't be so bad if she would sleep in one position, but she will flip sideways and then flop upside down...it's always special to wake up and find her feet propped up on your face. And I'm sure you've noticed that she has grown, just a bit, during these short 16 months...she takes up a lot of room. So, we decided enough was enough...we wanted our bed back. We set a date, which just happened to be Valentine's Day, and built it up that this was the day she would begin sleeping in her own bed. She was very leery at first, so we threw in an incentive...if she slept in her own bed, we would get her a puppy of her very own!! She loved this idea!! Bribery works, people...you should try it!!

We happened to be in Brenham over Valentine's Day, and then she spent the night with Nani on Sunday night...so Monday night was THE night. She was excited at first, but as bedtime grew closer she began to get nervous. All we had to do was remind her that her puppy was on the way, and off to bed she went. It was great...until morning when she woke up, and there was no puppy. Oops! Guess I should have planned that a little better! But, she has slept in her bed all week...and last night she finally got what she has been waiting for. Meet the newest member of our family...Ace!

Ace is a 4 year old Bichon we adopted from our friends Kristin and Reinhard. We were happy to snatch him up, and the kids LOVE him!! But, guess where he slept last night...you guessed it, MY bed. Seems we replaced a kid, with a dog...at least he takes up a lot less room!! We also tried to adopt this little cutie below...but his parents weren't budging on that one. Can't really blame them...check out those gorgeous blue eyes Lane has!!

One last thing, please keep Paige in your prayers. She was all set to begin her Stem Cell transplant this week, but they detected a small case of the flu in her blood work...so they were sent home and will try again in a few weeks. Oh, and a shout out to Paige...she and Dustin got engaged over the weekend!! Congrats Guys!! And guess who is going to be their flower girl...our sweet little princess!! Can.Not.Wait!!

Steroids+Princess = Ogre!

Once again we are enjoying the fun week of steroids, and you better believe the countdown clock is always on. We're holding our breath, talking softly, and walking on eggshells until it's over. There have been a few bright moments in the weekend - she will pop out and be her usual bright and cheerful self - but those times are far outnumbered. A couple of saving graces have been some of the treasures we picked up at the Disney Store in Austin. With the exception of about a 4 hour window, she has been wearing this Sleeping Beauty "dress" (a.k.a. night gown) all weekend. Said night gown has been seen with a coat, with a t-shirt (though the t-shirt had to go underneath so that it wouldn't cover up Sleeping Beauty's face), and with crocs. Here it is jumping on the trampoline.

She also got an Ariel beach towel that has covered her babies, gone to bed with her, and served as her blanket during her long rocking sessions in the rocker with Mommy and Nana. In addition to the unpredictability that comes with the steroid/chemo combination, we've been nursing a burn on her hand where her chemo was injected on Wednesday when they couldn't access her port. This has been the "sign" and confirmation we needed to decide that we will have her port replaced vs. doing IV's and injections for the rest of treatment. It's crazy to see what those drugs have done to a layer of skin. She started complaining about it late on Thursday night, and it's gone from a red dot, to a puffy red inflamation about 3" in diameter, to a true burn with scar tissue that is now sore and itching. We called and spoke with Dr. Dreyer on Friday, and were prescribed a regimen of Motrin and warm compresses, and some TLC. Better believe they've all been served regularly.

We are going to go get our heart shaped cookies out of the oven, and will continue the countdown until the end of this steroid round. Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day filled with the ones you LUV!

When You Wish Upon a Star.....

We spent a lot of time on the road last week, and were somewhat tentative about making the trip to Austin on Friday. I mean, really --- was this four year old going to talk on the radio?? And if she didn't was I going to have to?? But, in the end.... we made the trip, had a blast (and a couple of stage fright moments), and are so thankful that we did it. The Team at Make-A-Wish and KASE 1o1 were wonderfully hospitable for all of our entourage, and we're very grateful to IBC Bank for making our princess' wish come true. WE'RE GOIN' TO CINDERELLA'S CASTLE!

To recount the day - we got an early start from Brenham and landed at Lakeline Mall a little after 11am. We sat in the parking lot for a while trying to get my nerve up, because I knew in my heart of hearts this little girl wasn't going to talk, leaving me to take up the slack. I am NOT a public speaker. KASE had a big setup and there was a silent auction going on alongside the radiothon where several tables of volunteers were taking calls. We set off to make a lap around the mall to see what kind of goodies we could find for speaking incentive. Low and behold -- The Disney Store to the rescue. Riley found a stuffed Cinderella doll that she couldn't do without, and we found several other things worthy of bribing power. We knew what needed to be done, and it was time to do it.

Once we got onstage, you could see Riley's eyes light up. All of the attention was on her. She wasn't ready to give a full performance, but she did make sure everyone knew she wanted to go to Cinderella's Castle. She officially had her wish granted live on the air by the President of IBC Bank, and he even gave her a Cinderella barbie. She was excited, we were excited, everyone was excited that she was excited. Excitement all around! I can't imagine what it will be like for her to actually see Cinderella or the huge castle, or Minnie Mouse, or......WOW - those will make for some great memories. Thanks to everyone at Make-A-Wish and IBC Bank. Little girls' dreams do come true!

Happy (almost) Valentine's Day!!

Yesterday Riley had her monthly chemo appointment, and it was also time for another spinal tap. Our appointment was at 7, so I was fairly certain we would be in and be out. I should know better than to EVER think that. The morning did go fairly well, Nenni went with us so we all had a good time being silly. Until we discovered that Riley's port was not cooperating...they couldn't get blood return.

I'm going to backtrack a bit, but promise it will pertain back to the story - Tuesday night of last week Riley and I enjoyed a late night trip to Texas Children's Emergency room. Riley had a fever of 101, which means an automatic trip in for antibiotics. We got there around 10:30, and were immediately escorted to an ER room...this was one time I was actually thankful that Riley is a "cancer" kid, there were people out there waiting 6 to 8 hours just to be seen by anyone. "Cancer" kids always get priority treatment...but that was where the "special" treatment ended. Everything else seemed to move in slow motion from there on, which was understandable after seeing the mass crowd of people waiting...meaning there were even more already in rooms needing attention and tests performed. So, long story short they did a chest x-ray on Riley because she had been having a persistent nagging cough...so they wanted to make sure there wasn't pneumonia or something else going on. There wasn't, and her counts were high enough...so at 4:30 Wednesday morning we were released back out into the real world.

Now, back to present day. After Riley's port would not work her doctor mentioned that on the chest x-ray report from last week, they had mentioned seeing a calcification on the end of the catheter that is inserted in her chest. This was why they could not get blood return. Dr. Dreyer was able to perform the spinal tap and could give the sedation medicine through her port, but had to give the chemo through a vein in her hand...there has to be blood return to be able to give chemo so they know the chemo is going into a vein, otherwise it could cause severe burns. They then scheduled Riley for a line study...meaning they did a flouro exam on Riley's port where they flushed it with contrast and watched on the "inside" if it was working. They radiologist did notice there was a fibrin sheet (I think that's what they were calling it, I never did get it clarified...so please don't correct me if I am wrong) covering the tip, but never said if it looked calcified. Dr. Dreyer ended up calling me once we were home, and said it was confirmed and Riley's port will have to be removed...it is basically useless to her right now. This calcification is caused by platelet particles creating a clot-type formation, and being that it has been there for a while without being noticed or taken care of, it calcified. So, now our decision is do we replace the mediport or just use IV's in Riley's hand for the remaining chemo treatments. There is a possibility of this happening again, if we do insert another one...but it's hard for me to justify not trying, versus Riley having to be stuck for an IV every month. And then if, God forbid, she has to be inpatient for anything - that would mean needing a couple of IV's. Dr. Dreyer said for us to discuss and let her know next week...there is obviously no urgency to get the mediport removed right now, so we have some time.

Other than that everything is going great. Riley's counts had dropped a little this week, from what they were last week in the ER. Her ANC is 800, last week it was 2200...but it was high enough to still receive her chemo for the month. There were some other numbers that were high, so this led them to believe the numbers were all on their way up. Here's hoping!

Tomorrow we are headed to Austin, Riley has been asked to speak on air during the Make-A-Wish radiothon. Please say some prayers that she will cooperate, because if not they said I will have to fill in...that will not be happening. They plan on buttering her up with some presents first, so let's hope that works! If you are in the Austin area listen to KASE 101 around noon or a little after tomorrow (Friday the 13th...yikes!), for Riley's big radio debut!! I will try and get a little video of it, for those not in the Austin area. Wish us luck!!

**I almost forgot to mention our favorite moment of the day - they had just finished her spinal tap, and Riley was feeling PRETTY good on her "sleepy"medicine. She looked up at me and stared for a while, I thought she was just trying to focus...but out of the blue, so serious she says "Mommy, when I look at your eye...I see 2 of them!!" It was hilarious!! I still laugh, just thinking about it. The girl cracks me up...

Riley and Nenni

Picture pages...

A couple weekends ago, the kids and I rode with Josh to fill some feeders at his deer lease. Riley and Hayden were so excited to go see the deer and other animals...so excited, in fact, that this is how they enjoyed the first few stops -

They finally woke up in time to fill the last feeder, and got to spread some corn for the deer to come and eat -

This past Thursday was Open House at Riley's school. She enjoyed showing us her classroom, and Hayden enjoyed playing in her cubbie -

This is Riley with her teacher, Mrs. Bludau (pronounced Blue-duh, for all you city folk)

Playing on the trampoline at Nana and Pops' house...their favorite thing to do! Riley even said she wishes she could buy 100 trampolines

Aren't they so cute...and check out all this hair Riley has been sporting!!

Nana and Pops got a new puppy, Molly, for Christmas...and she and Riley are best buds!!

Have you guys ever read the book Pinkalicious? In the book, the little girl eats too many pink cupcakes, and when she wakes up the next day she is all pink. She calls herself Pinkerbell, and Pinkerella...here is our own version of Pinkerbell. Riley is so pinkalicious, we could just eat her up!!

Today, my Hubs and I have been married for 6 years. It is truly hard to believe that is has already been that long, but then I look at all we have accomplished as a married couple. We have 2 beautiful children (I'm not biased at all), and 1 of those is in the middle of beating Cancer. Not many young adults can say that, now can they?! So, Happy Anniversary to us!!

I found this picture while I was searching for pics of Josh and I...and wanted to post it, just because. This was the day after Hayden was born...SO CUTE!!