Relay for Life

Some kids in Chloe's school in Youth 2000 program, and some of them are our great neighbors did the relay for life for Chloe. They had this poster for her there and we are so grateful to all those who participated. We weren't able to go and see them because of how she is to stay away from crowds, but we wanted to let you all know how thankful we are for the work and all the walking you all did in the name of Chloe!
Chloe spiked a fever of 104 last night. They put her an another antibiotic because of such a high fever. She is fighting something we just don't know what it is yet. The cultures are growing something. She has an appointment with an orthopedic to look at her foot. The are ruling out a bone infection but want to see if she needs to wear some kind of brace for her foot. She has been on so many steroids and chemo that is might have effected her nerves and bone density. So depending on what it is will determine how they treat it. If it is nerves they just do phsyical therapy and if it is bone density they can give her a pill.
We are just kindof waiting to see what is growing so we will keep you posted.

Not as good as when it was better.

Just this morning I heard from Claires dad. Claire is a tough little girl from CO that just went through the same protocol that Chloe has been going through. Claire and Chlo correspond from time to time and so do her dad and I. Poor Claire had a really hard day yesterday and was flown back to the hospital. This is the second BMT patient I have heard about this week that is having a hard time. The other is a young man from Smithfield. After hearing about them both I thought to myself, 'Don't get too comfortable, Chloe could have problems at any time.' As nice as it has been to be home and for Chlo to be able to play and do more normal things, we're not in the clear. Just then Stacie called me from Clinic in SLC.

Ironically, Chloe is having complications today. Stacie took her down this morning to clinic. Her appointment actually wasn't until tomorrow (my mistake), but since they drove all the way down they saw her anyway. Chloe had just then spiked a fever. And, because her Broviak line shows signs of infection and she has a horrible rash around the site (a GVHD rash) we won a 3-5 day stay at the ICS. She was admitted at noon so I drove down to stay with her so Stacie could be home with Rhen. He's still a momma's boy. As Stacie mentioned before Chlo has been really favoring her ankle and has been having a hard time walking. We are about to go down for an xray to check it out. Dr. Pulsipher thinks there is a chance it could be a bone infection. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but it sure doesn't sound good to me. We're praying its nothing to worry about, but we're still worried sick. She has a fever of a 103 right now, and they started her on some antibiotics. Hopefully they will do their job and get rid of the infection. It could be worse.

On a posotive note, we scored and were admitted to a room with about 4 sq ft. more than the regular rooms and it feels huge. We just got the Planet Earth series on DVD so I guess Chlo and I will have some time to watch them all.

Hopefully Chlo, Claire and Chanse can get better and bust out of the hospital sooner than later.

Girl Standing on Bumper

My dad just posted this picture and it brought back a lot of memories. This is Stacie at 17 with my first cruiser. I bought her those hiking boots for her birthday and we drove the FJ40 up as far as we could get, then hiked the rest of the way up to a waterfall. We met when she was 16, i was 17. I was hooked right away and we've been pretty much inseperable since. We had a lot of fun in that old cruiser roaming all over the mountains around Ogden Valley. There was plenty of time to talk since there was no radio. Stacie got to listen to lots of dry humor and sarcasm, but we bonded. She still listens to it today, and loves it. 4 kids, 9 moves, and a couple of cruisers later and I'm still whipped. Stacie looks pretty much the same. I'm 25 lbs heavier and going grey. Love ya Stac. To me you're kind of a big deal.

Chlo update

So Chloe has been doing pretty good, other than the fact that the dang rash will not go away and that she is tired more often she is doing good. Her leg, that she hurt awhile back, she favors and doesn't walk on it right. When she walks, it looks like her ankle bone is almost touching the ground. She has never been able to walk or run very well. We have clinic apt tommorow and I want to see if they have a brace to put her leg upright. Her rash around her dressing is really bad and the dressing will not stay on! It is pussy and red all over and it is frustrating, I hope they will let her get her line out soon. And tommorow at clinic we will hopefully be told we can get off some of her meds!!

Lazy Sunday

One of our girls favorite treats. I say one of their favs because all they ever want are treats.

Cookie hot out of the oven + ice cream + chocolate/carmel syrup = crazy delicious.

Thanks to the Eskelsons and the Whites for hooking us up with a couple of these fancy pans a while ago. I think they are from Camp Chef if anyone wants one.

We love Elsie because she is glamorous, even at the dinner table.

Little Red Riding Hood

Today Stacie rode in the Little Red Riding Hood all womens ride here in Cache Valley. Money raised from the ride was donated to the Huntsman Center for cancer research. From what they say over 2500 women showed up to ride. There were several routes depending on how many miles you want to go - ranging from 36 miles to 102 miles. Stacie opted for the 36 mile route since she has only been able to ride her bike a couple of times this year. The pic looks sunny, but we must have gotten one of the few blue patches in the sky because it was a stormy morning. She was pretty cold and got wet as it rained pretty steady for the last 10 miles or so. Despite the rain and cold she had a lot of fun and plans to do it next year as well. The Wellsville mountains were beautiful this morning with clouds rolling over their snowcapped peaks and seeping down the green hills where the sun had lazily pushed it's way through the clouds here and there - made us grateful to live here.


Rhen and I went to see her off this morning. I don't think Wellsville has ever seen so many cars - or women for that matter. Later the girls and I caught up with her about 20 miles into it to cheer her on. There was a group of a few people on the stretch of road where we found her and Stacie happened to be in front of them so Chloe says, "Mom's gonna win the race - Unless Lance Armstrong is here, then he'll win it."

the toothless wonder

Chloe's two front teeth were pretty loose back in September when she started the BMT process. Her doctor told us not to pull them until after transplant because she could get an infection from the open wound and it would cause complications. So we've left them alone, but it's after transplant now and they were so loose that they were falling out themselves. Chloe pulled the first one out herself and after some convincing she let me finish off the second. She was excited and ran down to show her sisters when they came out. The tooth fairy came and took the teeth so that she could scatter them around her castle high on the hill that looks snow covered from all the teeth - at least, that is what they say. Supposedly.

So I mentioned before about chloe's dang magnesium pill, and the reason I refer to it as the dang magnesium pill is because it is a monster pill, and I always forget to put it in the daily pill container. Chloe is always saying, "What about my magnesium pill." To be honest, I hate to give it to her because it IS so monsterous!! So I thought I would post a picture of it. It is the size of a dime almost and she downs it like nothin.



I gave Rhen a cookie today, and not just any cookie, dad's favorite. E.L. Fudge cookies. He loved it but I had to take it away once it got to soggy for him to eat it.

boomarang.

Last week we were planning to visit my brother Josh's family because our girls and their girls are the same age and they love to play with each other. At the last minute we had to cancel because one of them was a little sick and we didn't want to risk it (sorry Josh's fam). The girls were pretty disappointed about it, but thats the way it goes I guess.

Friday night we thought maybe we'd make it up to the girls and head up to WY to see Grandma and Grandpa. It's been almost a year since Chloe has been up there. I took Addie and Elsie up once a few months ago, but they all keep asking to go. They love to go to Star Valley and stay at Grandma's, probably because Grandma and Grandpa spoil them as grandparents do. We used to head up almost once a month to spend the weekend, but for the past few years it hasn't been so much and the girls miss it.

So, we packed everything up and just before we left we found Chloe's broviak line was plugged. We were able to get it unplugged but the last time that happened she ended up staying 2 days in the hospital with a fever. We were worried about it, but couldn't tell the kids no after they were all packed and ready to go. We drove all the way to Mink Creek and then just had a feeling in our gut that we should stay home. The last time we went to WY and didn't listen to our gut, we ended up going right to the ER when we got there until 5 in the morning then straight to the ER in Logan the next morning and back down to SLC for a couple of days in the ICS. We decided to listen to our gut this time, so we had to tell the girls we were turning around and going home. There was a lot of crying in the car right then. Rhen and I didn't cry - until later when we were hungry.

It was one of those times when we knew if we went something was bound to happen, and if we stayed home nothing probably would. We stayed home, nothing happened and even though we wanted to go to WY we're just glad that Chloe is fine. We had a fun weekend anyway. Stacie and I did some weeding in the yard and still have a bunch more to do. We look forward to that. It's actually nice to just be at home and work on projects around the house together. I think Stacie just likes to watch me dig holes and stuff so she keeps getting plants that i have to get sprinklers to. We went on a bike ride with the girls last night and they all had fun splashing through a bunch of puddles in the street - Stacie included. Rhen loves to ride in his little bike trailer and watch all his sisters that have to pedal.

getting high, listening to Bob Dylan

High in the mountains I mean. Although, it's possible that Bob Dylan was under some kind of influence when he wrote Subterranean Homesick Blues - i don't know him very well so who am i to judge? It's probably just his unique style.
Rhen and I went for an early morning ride in the FJ Saturday. I let him drive a little but he slobbered all over the steering wheel. It was slippery. He likes to pose for pictures so I humor him. Might have to click on the pictures to see him he's so small.

Rhen really likes to go up in the hills and see the scenery. Must be the bouncy, rocking motion as we crawl up bumpy road. He's always happy when we get home. I guess it might be because he's 5 months old, likes to eat a lot and mom has food when we get home. Either way, he's seeing some nice scenery, and he gets to eat. It's a win, win.
Asparagus is an odd vegetable. It tastes decent enough - but it's skinny and looks weird.