Blessed

It's been a long time

I just want to share that John's scan in Dec was good. Everything was the same. His Doc said that everything was stable and that he didn't want John doing the Chemo right now. That Chemo was not fun! John threw up every single day!! He was still throwing up months after he stopped it.

We are so glad he is feeling better and we have been able to do some fun things as a family.

John will be going back to work toward the end of April. I know he is not totally pumped about it, but I think he is ready to work again. He will still be doing his Avastin treatments every 3 weeks. This may be a problem with his work, but hopefully they will still be understanding.

2012 has been a really good year to us so far! We are looking forward to the rest of it and hoping things just keep going up for us. I know that people are still continuing to pray for John and our family and we always appreciate that! Knowing that Lord is comforting us is what helps us to get through our days.

We have been blessed and are grateful for it!

(Right after Church on Christmas Sunday)

So much FUN!!!

We had a great time on our trip. We got to do everything we wanted to do and more.
Our first stop was in Pocatello to drop off Mack, we had a great dinner with John's Mom and two sisters and their families, and also my sister Chelsey came. Then I got to meet my cousins baby Savina. Such a cutie pie!!

The next morning we left early and stopped in Boise for breakfast with John's sister and her family.(John's sister Jenny and her family)

Then we stopped at my Brother house and went to dinner with him and his family. We never get to hang out, so that was fun!

It was great seeing family we don't get to see a whole lot! So happy we made those stops!(Carter, Roxy, and Bailei my niece and nephew)

(John, Paul my Brother, and I)(My sister in law Kristi and I)

It was a long rest of the drive to where my Mom lives. We didn't get there till really late. I drove almost the whole way and I couldn't see by the end. I slept good that night!
At my Mom's we went to a few parks and played with my sister and her kids. John got to fly on Mike's (my Mom's husband) airplane. He loved that!!! Mike let John take the controls for a while and said John was a natural. John gave credit to all the video games he plays. haha

My Mom made tons of good food! Sunday we went to her church.(The girls with their cousins, Julio and Vanessa at an awesome park!)

(My big sister Breck and I)

(Another park)(John and Mike after they got off the plane)

We left Monday morning and drove all day!
We didn't get to Sacramento till 1am. Woke up the next day and drove some more!
We finally got to our hotel in Anaheim on Tuesday.
We went to Disneyland Wed and Thursday. It was so much fun! We got a medical pass for John and for Shay so we were able to ride all the rides we wanted to ride on. and Roxy was just tall enough to go on almost everything. If you have little kids I suggest taking them there. The girls both had so much fun and they were on there best behavior. :)

(Thanks to Dave for meeting us both days to let us in!!!!)

(Perry the platypus)

(They fell in love with Winnie the Pooh there!)

Friday we went to Huntington Beach, we loved that. Shay wanted to be in the waves and the Ocean the whole time and Roxy loved playing in the sand too! I loved the water, but not the taste. Yuck! We came to realize that we didn't have to worry about people getting into our things. It was the seagulls we had to watch out for, they were pecking all of our stuff and looking for food. Luckily we didn't have any.

We headed towards Las Vegas Sat Morning, when we got to John's Dad house his step Mom had a wonderful meal prepared for us. She made great food while we were there as well. That night we went swimming in their pool. Always a good time. We went on a train ride in Boulder City, it was neat and fun, and it was hot. John and I went to David Copperfield and John got to go up on stage, but was just a person checking the magic trick. It was fun and we were pretty close. The only thing is, the sodas were $6.00 and the popcorn was $11.00 for a bucket. They were robbing people. It was crazy! Still worth it!! Thanks for watching the girls!!!(On the train, John's Dad, the girls and John)

(John's little brother Wyatt and the girls waiting for the train to start)(At David Copperfield)

We took the girls and John's little brother downtown Las Vegas. We went to eat at Denny's(Shay's favorite), then we went to the Coke and M&M. Lots of fun stuff to look at! Then we stopped and went to an outlet mall and found a sweet deal on some tennis shoes for the girls for this next school year.(Tastes around the world at Coke store)

We left the next morning and stopped in St. George for lunch with John's Grandparents. It was great to see them!

Then we drove home. We were all getting anxious and tired of the car. It was a lot of driving, but well worth it!!!
Thank you Everyone for making it possible for us to go! It was so wonderful not to have to stress about all the things we have going on. I will be eternally grateful to all of you!!

Our Trip

John only has one more TomoTherapy radiation treatment and the tumor in his pelvic bone should be gone. Not sure when they will be doing a CT to check it. I started working full time so right after work I would take John to his appointment. We were busy for a bit, but my Mom was here to help for a lot of time. She helped a TON! So glad she could come down here from WA and spend some time with us too!
We cannot wait to go on our trip. We are so excited to get away from all the stresses that have been in our lives for a long while. Although some people were discouraging about it, we made a decision to have John wait to do his chemo after our trip. If they only knew the tortures of chemo they would understand. I am happy with our decision and complete fine with putting off John getting very sick from chemo for a few more weeks. I am not looking forward to those days, and I am so thankful for the opportunity others have given us to have some fun together!
So we are leaving on the 4th of August, we will be heading to Pocatello after I get off work to take Mack (our dog) to the in laws. Waking up early the next day we are going to drive to WA, to see my family, stopping to see my brother Paul and his family, and then toward Seattle area to see my Mom and Sister and her kids. My Mom and I planned a few things while she was here, so I know it will be fun. I am excited to go up there, John and I lived up by Tacoma when we were first married. I loved it there! I can't wait to see the beautiful green trees again!! Maybe we will drive by our old apartment. :)
After that we are going to drive down to CA, stopping in Sacramento to split the trip into two days. I don't feel like putting ourselves through that much sitting in the car together. If you met my children you would know why. They hate each other only in the car for some reason. haha
I have a few things planned for us to do once we get down to Anaheim. We are going to go to the Aquarium down there, Disney Land for two days, we are going to eat Breakfast with Mini and friends, and Roxy really wants to be turned into a Princess. She wants to go to Pixie Hollow to meet Tinkerbell. I think we will find lots of things to do there. The girls are excited about that part! We are going to go to a beach of course. Roxy keeps telling us how she wants to see the ocean. I am sure we will find lots of other fun things to do once we get down there. Can't wait!
Once done in Cali, we are heading up to Henderson, NV to see John's Dad and more family. We are looking for shows for John and I to go on a date downtown while we are there. I am trying to talk him into going to Chippendale's, but we will see. We are going to head downtown with the girls one day too, they love it there. Probably go see the dolphins again and go to the arcade at Circus Circus, maybe the M&M casino, I have never even been there! I just glad we will have time to do lots of fun stuff on this trip.
It's going to be weird not working for almost 2 weeks, and not going to doctor appointments and not cleaning my house! But it WILL be fun!
Thanks to everyone for making it possible for us!

Avastin again

John is starting up the Avastin again, he has a treatment today. He also has to get his TomoTherapy(radiation) today. Luckily they are in the same building. His friend from work Lee is going to be taking him, and I will pick him up when I get off work. He likes to go by himself sometimes, so he can rest.
It makes him really tired. So he will be resting for a few days. He is doing well. He is getting stronger and stronger every day. He's just really tired. Hoping after this week he can start feeling a bit better.
He gets some of his staples and stitches out on Wednesday. He is nervous about it, but it will be good to move on from that stinking biopsy!

The plan so far

Yesterday was a fun 4th of July, we spent it with John's family in Idaho and had a blast!! They did a ton of work and it made for a great experience!!! Thank you all!!!(John's sisters rented a bouncy house! It was awesome!)
(All the cousins and Aunt Missy, cut some on the side, sorry boys!)

(Mack and our niece Erika)
(Even Mack went down the slide a few times, haha)

(John's brother in law Adam, John, and Missy)

Today John starts his first day of TomoTherapy on his tumor in his pelvic bone. We need to make sure, but he is supposed to be getting 15 treatments done. He will be going to an office in Layton every business day for 15 days. The treatments are short and painless. The side effects should just be fatigue. I keep thinking about when John had his radiation last time(3 years ago), and how he had to get 33 treatments in a row and how it was down in SLC at the Huntsman and how gas was $4.33 a gallon, and how John got so sick that he lost tons of weight and had to get hyrdrated after by the end of it. and how I had been taking Shay to her therapies at that time and I had Roxy who was a one year old. It was hard and crazy busy but we did it!!

Last Friday John had a CT scan and we will find out the results on Wednesday, (tomorrow) if he is feeling well enough and his doctor okay's it, he may get his Avastin treatment that day. Also tomorrow he has to go up to the hospital and get another xray and blood work to make sure everything is going ok after his stay in the hospital. At his appointment with his oncologist tomorrow we plan to talk with the doctor about the results from the lab in California and decide which chemotherapy drugs he wants to try. It's going to be a long day full of doctors and hospitals. Wish us luck!!

How great thou art!!!!!

Over these past few months I have continued to be amazed at all the acts of kindness and service that has been shown to my family and I!
First John's friends from work did a fund raiser for us to go on a family vacation. His friend Greg ordered these cool rubber bracelets that say "Casper against Cancer" They are blue for John's sports teams Yankees and Giants. He surprised us one day, by calling us to meet him on his lunch and handed John an envelope through our car windows. (hopefully no police were watching) They want us to go on a trip with the money. Thank you Greg and family and Tyson and everyone at Comcast who donated!!
Then another friend from John's work gave us a voucher for a discount stay at a hotel in California. Thanks to you!!!

Also John's sister set up a donation link on a website for him. To help with medical bills. Thanks Jenny.

When John decided to try all that natural stuff, our families really pulled it off to help us out to be able to afford all of it! It was a nice reminder of how important family is and how they will do anything for us! We love you all and appreciate everything you have done for us!!!

John's Dad's cousin Tami helped us out by giving John the information about the tumor testing place in California, she may have helped to save John's life. Let's pray it works!! Which I will blog about later, we got some results from there, but waiting to see which kind of chemo his oncologist wants him to take. Also Tami's mother send a wonderful card and check for John!

I have some pretty amazing friends down here in Utah who secretly set up a fund raiser for us to go on a trip as well. I figured it out right after because I am not good with secrets that they had done a yard sale in our neighborhood. (thanks Nancy for letting them use your yard!) I heard it was really wonderful all the people who came and helped and who donated items and donated money. I wish I could have been there to personally thank every single person. Also they set up a bank account for people just to donate. So last night a bunch of people from the neighborhood showed up on our lawn with a huge check, (literally a huge check with Yankees background, thanks Kimble!) a huge bouquet of balloons, a large card signed by lots of people, (so cute, thanks Kirstan) and smiles on their faces!! I felt really special and loved by all of them! I feel so blessed to be in such a wonderful ward and to have such special people around me at this time is very overwhelming!! Thank you all so much, I don't even know what to say! I love you all!!!!! Another post is soon to come with our vacation details. :) Oh ya, and I almost cried but didn't want to look like a big baby!! haha I couln't stop smiling!!! I know John was excited too!! Shay loves the balloons.

My neighbors brother works for a radio station here in Utah. 104.7 the Zone!! He produces and has a show too. How cool is that! It's a sports talk station, who doesn't love sports?? So my friend Kirstan and him it up for him to mention John's blog on his radio station. So one day a few weeks ago him and a few people stopped by my house to drop off a generous check from some gentleman who drove to the radio station to deliver the check. He didn't want to put his credit card online, which is understandable. What a sweet man, a stranger to do this for our family! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts! and a shout out to Will Smith for mentioning John and his blog!! (radio style) Seriously, thank you! It means more than you know!!!

I have a neighbor behind me that is an angel!! Well she and I had planned to do this joy school with her little girl, for Roxy and some other moms in the area. So how it works is we take turns teaching the kids. So if there were 5 kids I would take a turn every 5 weeks. Well I was very stressed about Roxy's preschool this year for some reason and I kept worrying about it because I don't want her to be bored while I work. So I had plans to put her in an LDS preschool 3 days a week here in Kaysville, and then do the Joy school with the ward. So after we heard news about John, I decided that we couldn't afford the LDS preschool, which is fine, and that I wouldn't have the time to do the Joy school, because I just don't know what the future holds. I felt horrible to tell my friend that Roxy wouldn't be able to join the class. I called her and apologized and she was so nice and said she understood. So the next day she called me up and told me that she talked with the other Moms and they all decided that they wanted Roxy to be in the class still but I didn't have to worry about taking a turn teaching. I told her I would feel bad not helping out! But she was persistant at calling me and letting me know that they wanted to do it to help us and that they just love Roxy. :) What a sweetheart she is, and all the other Moms too!! Also she called me the other day and told me that her husband knew a way to get us free tickets to Disney Land. He stopped by and told me that it was all set up and that we were getting two days if we would like. It's amazing!!! You two are so nice and wonderful examples to me! Thank you both!!! We love you!!! We can't wait for both!!!

Last Saturday our Bishop and his family came over and did all our yard work for us! They planted some beautiful flowers and put mulching in all the flower beds. It's beautiful!! They acted like it wasn't a big deal, but it was a huge deal because I wasn't excited to mow the lawn. I made my sister do it last time! hahahaha Thanks Bishop and family and thanks to Brynne too! So thankful them!!

The ward has been such a great help. What a blessing it is to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They have been brining us meals in. There has been so many people calling me to offer to babysit and help us out in any way! I cannot express the graditude I feel for all the kind people who are helping, have helped, and will help in the future!! Thanks so much Kaysville 1st Ward!!!!!!

I have some amazing friends who have helped out tremendoulsy by helping me out with my girls. We don't have family close by us and so I have to rely on my good friends to help me when John has appointments or whatever. I know they are all busy and they have their own things going on. So I want them to know how much I appreciate every single time!!! Also I want to thank everyone who has offered to babysit as well. it's been so overwhelming all the people who want to help!! Love you all!!!

We have these neighbors who are so nice. They are this cutest old couple and they live in the cutest little house and they take such good care of us!! They are always calling to check on us and always offering to help in any way. I just love them and I love how they make me want to be better. They are wonderful people and I wanted them to know that!!!! Thank you two for all your love and support!!! I hope we always have such amazing neighbors as you!!

I am just feeling very blessed and loved by all of you. I keeping thinking how I hate cancer and what it is doing to John, but how lucky we have been to have experienced all this greatness!!!! Thank you again to all!!!!! Oh ya thanks to everyone who came to see John at the hospital!! I gotta stop now, I could go on and on........... This is all the recent things that have happened to us. It has been years of people doing amazing thing to help!!!

John's second return home

Whew! John finally was released from what I would call a crap stay at the hospital. It got a little crazy at times with the doctor. Some of those nurses were amazing and took really good care of both John and I. We wanted the cool ones to stay and hang out with us, but they had other patients that were in need. We heard about this one guy who wrecked on his motorcycle and broke a lot of bones, so between him and John his nurses were busy! Luckily John's sister was able to come down and help with the girls, she and her kids came down from Idaho right away and helped out tremendously! I don't even know how to thank her, she was a busy bee for the whole week!!!

Luckily John got to come home on Wednesday. John sister Missy and I had a little celebration planned. We were so excited, and the kids were too!(Before John got home)

I am so crazy lately I forgot to bring John a shirt to come home in. I felt bad he had to wear his gown home, but he made it look good. haha Missy and the kids made posters for John and wrote cute notes on the windows, they decorated with green because that is John's favorite color. It was way cute, Thanks MISSY!!!!!!

Here a few more pics of the party!!!(I think Mack was the most excited to see John)

(Not great of the kids, but still precious!)