Crazy Summer Days

Wow, these last two weeks since we've been "done" with school have been crazier than ever.  I feel like we've hardly been at home, and what little time I do have here is to broken up into small pieces where I can't get much done.  I have all sorts of loose ends flying around and feel like the marbles have spilled out a little.  Hopefully soon some of our schedule will settle down and I can enjoy some summer respite.

My day typically starts early with a 30 minute or so Skype chat with Michaela.   While I treasure this time, there is no summer sleeping in.  It's been great to have that, but I'm ready for her to come home!  Plus, when she's home, I can multi-task...chatting with her and getting other stuff done at the same time.  :)  We Skype with her again in the evening when the family is all here.  This works out well with the 14 hour time difference. 

So the last two weeks we've had swimming lessons, volunteering at the Food Bank, archery, gymnastics, roofers and insurance here (hail damage), volunteer training, volunteering at Cedar Creek, swimming, Rubies program, our STL trip, and that's just the short of it.  Phew! 

We gave away our two kittens this week, too.  As cute as they were, honestly I was so glad to see them go.  It was just one more thing around here...it was an ordeal every time we had to back out of the garage or pull in to park.  Kids had to jump out and be on kitten patrol. 

We love the facilities at MU.  This is just the diving well end of one of the pool areas there.  Ami's class is in the front right corner.

She has done quite well and passed level 3, now on to level 4 next summer.  Good job, Ami!

Johanna and Ami had their closing program for Far Above Rubies.  We missed Michaela being there!  This is such a great group of girls and great program for our girls to be involved in.

As Johanna turned twelve, she is now able to volunteer at a therapeutic riding center not to far from our house.  This is such a great opportunity for her with her love of animals, and her servant's heart.  She and I went to the volunteer training earlier this week.  We were so impressed with this program.  They serve individuals with mental or physical disabilities in all ranges of ages.  They use a LOT of volunteers to run the program.  Johanna got to be a "side walker" on her first day "on the job".  She'll go once a week for 2 hours throughout this summer.  I'm sure she'll want to sign on for the fall session, too.  She was grinning from ear to ear the whole time, just as the riders were.  Loved it!

Okay, on to the next event.  Already had Skype and swimming lessons this morning.  Now on to archery, then gymnastics, then another roofer....I'm sure I'm forgetting something else!  But, tomorrow....NOTHING.  Can't wait for that.  :)

Sports

Our family isn't super huge on sports, but by the look of things recently you'd think differently. 

Ami is our last one still in swimming lessons.  She is doing great and the 17-foot deep diving well at MU hasn't intimidated her at all.  The best part for her is that we happened to sign up for the same session as the two neighbor girls that she plays with a lot.  Hopefully they are all paying attention to the instructor and not trying to get each others attention across the lane markers!

The boys are loving their archery class and want to continue through the summer.  Awesome for them....we happened to sign up for the same session as some friends of ours!   Benjamin and Aiden are really hitting the mark!

Elijah and Isaac are progressing nicely as well.

 

Ami and Johanna have started back up in gymnastics after being off since we left for Japan.  They are getting better and better on the balance beam.  Ami does these cute jumps while having to hold a bean bag between her knees.

One more sporting fun event....Chris's group at work had a day off for paintball.  He returned home quite sore and a bit spotted!

STL

We always try to make the most of Benjamin's appointments in STL, so this time was no different.  After a full day here on Thursday (swimming lessons, archery, gymnastics), we picked Chris up early from work and headed out to celebrate the end of the school year. 

We had booked a suite in a hotel where we have enjoyed staying in the past.  They even had dinner as part of the package!  After dinner the kids braved the pool (heated, but still not quite warm enough for the low 70 temps).  Even after a warm shower, Ami was still cold and had to snuggle in bed for a bit!

We splurged on junk food and enjoyed a movie night.

After Benjamin's appointments on Friday morning, we did a short walking tour of The Hill, STL's distinctly Italian neighborhood.  We bought deli sandwiches at an Italian grocery store for lunch.  Oh, so yummy.

This Catholic church is about 100 years old.  Neat statue of Italian immigrants out front.

This place has become a habit on STL visits.  Oh, so much mouth-watering goodness!

Not all of that was for us, we took home some goodies to our neighbor.

After The Hill we went to the zoo.  We hadn't seen the new sea lion exhibit and show yet, so we took that in.  Now we are well informed on the difference between seals and sea lions.  Fun stuff!

Chris's favorite, and slight obsession, was the capybara exhibit.  They are simply huge rodents.  Just sayin'.

We always love this hippo exhibit.  So fun to see them swim right by.  We can never seem to ignore the Madagascar songs that run through our heads while at the zoo.  Love all those characters!

We ended the day with a quick dinner at our favorite chicken stop before driving home.  Benjamin felt his day was complete..... cancer-free news, officially taller than Mom, treats on The Hill, Chick-Fil-A.  It doesn't get much better than that for a teenage boy!

I do have to say that I sure missed Michaela.  Family road trips and celebrations just aren't the same without everyone there.  Hurry home, Michaela!  We love and miss you!

Eighteen Months and Counting

Benjamin is looking good and cancer free!  Yesterday we spent the day in STL.  Last week Benjamin had his chest CT here in town, then he had his MRI of his knee yesterday.  Dr. G prefers to work closely with the radiologists at SLU, so for that reason and for consistency we will continue with the MRIs there.  The reports were clear!  We have been so blessed by Dr. G. and his staff.  They are wonderful.

We will return in six more months for the same routine again.  After year two is clear, then we will decide whether to continue with every six months or move to yearly follow-ups.  Because Benjamin's cancer is so rare (and a rare mutation of that) there isn't much research or protocol to follow.  In some regards we are confident that it won't return, but due to some treatment in the early stages of Benjamin's diagnosis we have reason to be concerned.  A couple of studies have shown that up to 60% of patients have had recurrence and metastasis in the chest.  Those recurrences have been 5-20 years later.  Ugh.  We have known that we are in this for the long haul, but each clear follow-up is definitely reason to celebrate.  We give God the glory for what has taken place so far.

The last couple of years have been rewarding to watch Benjamin grow and mature.  He has handled all of this with such ease and "coolness" and an amazing attitude.  We are so proud of him.  Speaking of growing...we had the nurse measure my height after Benjamin's.  It's official, he's finally taller than Mom!

Mom's Weekend Away

Ahhh, typically twice a year I get to enjoy a 3-day weekend with awesome girlfriends.  It started out as a scrapbooking retreat, but we do everything from scrapbooking to reading, to crafting, to sewing.  There is no schedule.  It is truly relaxing.  This time we tried renting a different place, a house on a lake.  It was wonderful!  I love hanging out with these ladies, going on walks, chatting way into the night, eating breakfast in our jammies, laughing, crying, relaxing. 

Um, with all the rain the dock was a bit flooded!

My view from the easy chair.  I spent most of the weekend reading Unbroken, an incredible WWII story that I highly recommend.

Meanwhile Chris held down the fort at home and took over some regular Mom duties.  He had to take Benjamin to the eye doc for a follow up on Friday morning.  Then in the afternoon he had to take Benjamin for his 6 mth CT scan (more on that later this week).  Then Sunday morning he had to take Elijah to Urgent Care for his poison ivy reaction.  Thanks, Baby!

Twenty Years Ago

On this day in 1993, Chris and I pulled into town.  Chris was driving our small moving truck which pulled his car.  I was following behind in my vehicle.  We communicated with walkie talkies.  We had just spent three days on the road traveling from our home in California, then we spent a couple of days with his family in Joplin before heading to our final destination.  We had only been married eleven months.

We had no jobs, no home, but were eager to settle in and see what adventures lay ahead.  We spent our first night at the Christian Campus House and eagerly began our apartment search the next morning.  By that afternoon we had signed a lease and were moving ourselves into a 2-bedroom townhouse.  We couldn't believe that for $370 we could get such a large and nice apartment.  We had been paying $550 a month for a tiny run down apartment.

The humidity stifled us and sapped our energy very quickly, but each morning we set out job searching and getting to know our new surroundings.  We signed on with temp agencies.  Our plan was to work for a year, save money, then attend MU grad school after we had become state residents.  God had other plans.

My first temp job was working the front desk at a doctor's office.  I remained there in various capacities until Michaela was born four years later.  Chris worked a few different temp jobs, but within that first month he temped at a small emerging company called Carfax.  There were twelve employees.  A special segment on the company had just run on 60 Minutes and they were expecting a deluge of phone calls to their 800 number.  Chris helped field those calls.  As the calls died down, the office manager kept finding things for him to do.  In October he was officially hired after working the 90 day temp contract. He's still there, one of about 500 employees.

We bought a house.  We made lifelong friends.  We gave birth to three kids.  We traveled.  We bought another house.  We adopted two kids.  We traveled some more.  We made more lifelong friends.  We never went to grad school.

We had no idea what lay ahead of us when we pulled away from that $550 apartment in California.  Now looking back we stand amazed.  First of all we can't believe it has been twenty years.  We still feel young, and at times it feels like yesterday that we were heading out for a day at Balboa Beach.  I never would have dreamed all that has happened, but this I know.  God has blessed us more than we could have imagined.  He has grown our family in ways we never thought of.  He has provided in amazing ways.  He has made us look forward to the next twenty years, whatever they may hold, wherever they may take us, however we get there.  Wow!

School is Out!

Well, we're mostly done!  Poor Michaela will have a bit more chemistry to finish up when she gets home, but it shouldn't take too long.  We will do some reading this summer, and possibly a bit more review for one kiddo, but we're calling this school year complete.  We now have a senior, freshman, eighth grader, seventh grader, and second grader!

We're moving on to some fun summer activities like swimming, hiking, archery, horse care, gymnastics, and lots of free time.  Woo hoo!

Last week after archery class we went to a nature center with friends for a picnic lunch and enjoyed a hike.  It was hilarious trying to get all eight kids up on the rail at once.

Unfortunately when you don't stay on the paths....you can end up looking like this.  :(  Poor kid learned the tough way not to tangle with poison ivy.  Chris had to run him to the Urgent Care Sunday morning while I was out of town.  The swelling is down, but he's still resembling a chipmunk a bit. 

Kittens

They are seven weeks old now and oh, so cute.  Time to find homes for them, although the kids are very reluctant to let these fluffy bundles go.  They are at such a funny and playful stage now....attacking blades of grass, batting their mama's tail with gusto, pouncing on a twig.  Fun!  Any takers?