Then came Thursday. Thursday was great! Started off the day with another blood test - they wanted to check my counts again and sure enough I had dropped dramatically over night and so the wonderful nurse scheduled me for another transfusion on Friday. Good news: I was going to get an instant pick-me-up; Bad news: I had to wait another day. Oh well!
Around 3:30 we left our house and took the kids and Grandma to Old Sacramento to meet up with Aunt Tami's friend Wendy. Wendy is a photographer from southern California who travels and happened to be in Sacramento on this day and we were lucky enough to get a photo shoot! She is AMAZING. Okay, I haven't seen the pictures yet, but the ideas for shots were fantastic. I have seen other pictures that she has done and they are wonderful. I can't wait to see how our pictures have turned out. We haven't had family pictures done since Gloria was a baby - so it was WAY past time. In case you were wondering, I wore my red wig most of the time and switched to the blonde for the last picture. It was a lot of fun and the kids really liked posing and having pictures taken, although Helaman was a bit of a pill in the beginning, he finally came around thanks to Faith and her offer of Tech Decks! You can check out Wendy's awesome work at www.bluelilyphotography.com.
After the pictures we took the kids and headed to the Back-to-School picnic. It was chaos - ya know hundreds of kids, lots of parents, teachers, food, creek, etc. It was great chaos. We were there for a few hours and the kids got to meet their new teachers, play with their friends and I got to see tons of my friends. All around a good time. We love the picnic and are so glad that we get to visit with everyone before starting school.
Friday we made a decision regarding the move that most of you have heard about. If not, here it is in a nut shell: We had been offered a house at the same rent we currently pay. It is a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with a pool and in a nice neighborhood on a quiet street. Sounds great, huh? And it was a great deal, but after really considering the deal and praying about it, David and I both felt like it is a great deal for someone else. We need to stay where we are at. It is small, but we fit just fine and we love the environment here. We have a great yard - that we don't have to mow - and a playground and wonderful friends and neighbors. So, we are NOT moving. I must admit I was a little disappointed, but in the long run, this will work for the good of my family - I am sure of it. The Lord has never steered me wrong and He has His reasons for us to stay here, so I will make the best of it!
Friday morning I got to take Helaman to his Kindergarten class orientation - basically just a get to know the room and see where you get to come to on Monday. He had a blast. He toured the classroom, played on the playground, saw some of his friends, and even got to play on the computer. Wow! It was really a great morning and I had fun catching up with friends and meeting some new parents.
That afternoon I headed over to Kaiser for my transfusion. It seemed to take forever! I talked to the doctor while I was there regarding my hearing loss. He has determined that it is a side-effect of the chemo (well, duh!) and so they are going to be changing my chemo drugs. I'm glad that he finally is doing something, but now I am a little nervous about a drug change. I am going to contact the doctors that I contacted before for a second opinion and see what they thing about the new drug and go from there.
Right after my transfusion I got to go and see Faith in a play that she has been working on with 40-something other kids for the past 6 weeks. She did fantastic - big surprise! She sang a solo - here comes the bragging - according to the composer of the music, it was the hardest song in the play and Faith did it perfectly! The music was written by the lady who wrote the song, "I'm a Mormon" when I was a kid - some of you will know that song. It was a great play and the kids all did a great job. It is so cool to see your kid on stage being successful! She did great and I am so grateful to Brady, the director, Lisa and Denise, who drove Faith everyday, and all those other parents and kids who worked so hard on pulling this thing together! It was a very enjoyable evening. After the play we dropped Faith at her friend's house for a sleepover and got to go out to Leatherby's for dinner with my parents - HUGE THANKS goes out to Mom Cox for watching the kids through all of this craziness!
And that brings us to today. We didn't do much. Faith had a recording session today followed by a birthday party and the rest of us hung around here and then headed over to Del Norte for an end of summer swim. Mom made us patty melts that were divine and now the kids are all in bed. I am blogging and eating tons of candy - the doctors keep telling me that I have lost too much weight, so I am doing my part to put it back on!
School starts on Monday for the older 4 kids and I am not sure how I feel about that. I am glad that they will have more structure - I'm not so good at structure - and something to do all day and even get to play with their friends, but I am a sad that they will be gone. I am sad that this means for certain that they are another year older. Faith is in 5th grade for goodness sakes. That is only 7 years away from graduation and then BYU. SCARY!!!!! I know that they will enjoy school and I will enjoy the break, but I will miss them.
And a note to all you people out there reading this: LEAVE COMMENTS!!! I love knowing that you read this. I had no idea how many people were peeking into my little corner of the world. I hope that you enjoy what you read, I know I love reading other's blog (so if you have one, TELL ME) and I always learn from others' wonderful examples. Thanks for checking in!!
