Our Busy Week

All last week, Avrielle and Chandler went to Vacation Bible School at Grace Baptist. They loved it! This picture was taken on the morning of crazy hair day. Each day they memorized verses from the Bible, had a teaching time, did crafts, ate snack, sang and played games. They were totally exhausted each day when they came home. Avrielle really bonded with her table leader, and I am really thankful for all the volunteers there that care about teaching the kids God's Word.
On Friday afternoon, we went to Castaic Lake and let the kids ride on the intertube. It was their first time this year and they were much more brave than last year. Instead of hanging on for dear life, they both entertained us by dancing like rock stars or trying to stand up and surf.
On Saturday, Chandler participated in his first swim meet of the season. Each summer they have a special meet for kids that are 8 and under to get them used to how a meet runs. He did really well, and we are looking forward to the rest of the meets this summer.
Right after the meet, we all headed to Vista Valencia for our 3rd golf lesson. I was hoping it would have gone better, and as I am typing, I am still feeling the effects of holding the club too tightly. Ouch! Chandler was so worn out from VBS, tubing, and the swim meet that he decided to take a golf break and crash in the shade. A few minutes later, David told the instructor that he had just had chemo a few days earlier, and he was getting dizzy, so he took a break too. That left only me. So I basically had a 2 hour lesson hitting one ball after another on the driving range in the middle of the afternoon, with no lunch. I was getting so shaky, I thought I might faint too. I wish I could say I improved after all that, but I'm not sure if I can go that far.
Later that night, my friend Charissa, Avrielle and I went to see Taming of the Shrew in Hart Park. I was so proud of myself that I was doing something educational for Avrielle during the summer, until half way through the play she leaned over and whispered to me, "Mom, I like the play, but which one is William Shakespeare?" Boy, do I have a lot of work to do in that area:)
On Sunday, we went to church and our pastor Scott preached an amazing sermon. It was just what I needed to hear. If any of you are in the middle of hard times and weren't able to hear it, you have to take some time to listen. You wont be disappointed. The sermon was called The Great "I Am" in the storm. If you are interested, first click on Placerita Baptist on my side bar, then on Audio downloads, from that menu, click on Mark, and from there you can listen. It was so good and definitely worth your time.
Today, Aunt Laura is going to watch the kids while David and I go to see the doctor from his work. We are hoping that this doctor will say that his cancer could have been caused from all the things he has been exposed to there and then he will get his sick time back. That would be a huge blessing to us now, and if it should ever reoccur in the future. Tomorrow, we are going to see the doctor at USC, so I will try to keep you posted.

Done with # 11. Lord willing, one more to go!

Today David finished Treatment #11. On the way there I asked him if we could stop at Starbucks so I could get some coffee. When I got in the car, I told him that stopping at our Starbucks on the corner in the morning makes me feel like we are going on vacation, since that is what we do when we go out of town. He was already beginning to feel nauseous thinking about going to treatment, so we played a game all morning and pretended that we were on our way for a week long trip in the Caribbean, and instead of going to the hospital we were driving to the airport. It worked for a little while until we stepped into the hospital lobby and David silently disappeared to the restroom. The rest of the day went downhill from there. The good news is they gave him a medicine in his IV which made him sleep through most of the treatment and take a good nap this afternoon. He was pretty loopy though. As far as getting all our records for our new doctor, everything went smoothly and I was able to finish before David was ready to go home, so he didn't have to wait any longer than he had to. The insurance department will have to mail all the records because their copier was broken, so I hope it arrives before next week. Next Monday, we have an appointment with a doctor from the city to ask about getting some of his sick time back from work, and on Tuesday we have our first appointment with the doctor from USC who we saw for our 2nd opinion. I wrote about how we found her in an earlier entry, and I was reminded about God's faithfulness in that circumstance.

Doctor Suggestions

If anyone who is reading this lives in my area and has any suggestions for doctors, please e-mail me, or leave a comment. Don't be shy! We need to look for a family practice doctor or ob/gyn for me and a pediatrician for the kids ASAP. Any recommendations would be really helpful!

What A Trooper!

David is taking a rest right now, and boy does he deserve it! I can tell he has back pain because he took a few Tylenol today. The shots he gives himself every other week cause bone pain because they are raising his white blood cell count. He also gets dizzy every time he bends his head down or sits and stands up. Today we had our second golfing lesson at 1:00 in the afternoon in 110 degree heat. I am telling you this to mention the fact the never once did I hear him complain. He can complain if he wants or needs to and I would completely understand, but he doesn't. I just think it is amazing that he is handling all this with such a great attitude. I love him so much. Pray for him on Tuesday, as it will be our 11th and final chemotherapy at Kaiser. On July1, our insurance changes and he will finish his treatments with a new doctor in a new hospital. The last treatment was rough in the nausea department, so pray that he wouldn't have anxiety about that. On Tuesday, I will be trying to gather all our records again from the insurance department, pathology, radiology, etc to bring them with us to his new doctor next week. I hope it all goes smoothly and I am able to do that while he is getting his treatment. If you could pray that I can be done before he is finished, so he doesn't have to wait there in the hospital when he is feeling sick, that would be wonderful. It is a simple request, but I know that would help him a lot. Thanks.

Gone Fishing

On Monday, David took us all out fishing in the Ventura Harbor. We caught 14 fish in about an hour and a half. Poor David was running around the boat baiting all our hooks and taking them out of their mouths. He said it was fun for him to watch us get so excited. His new motto is, " You can take the family fishing, but you can never fish with the family." That was definitely true on Monday. I don't think he ever got a chance to pick up a pole. One thing as far as the cancer goes is he is dizzy a lot now, so I am always impressed at how he can manage to do all this activity for us.

First Golf Lesson

Today Dave, Chandler, and I began golf lessons. Up until today I had never swung a club, and boy do I stink!!!! Golf is a lot harder than it looks. I pretty much looked like I was bowling the whole hour with the exception of about 10 hits. Growing up, my dad was always super serious about everything he got involved in. When I was young it was tennis, so every weekend he dragged us out to the courts to play so he could get his workout. If we weren't at the courts, then we were hitting balls against the handball courts at the local high school. He would practice his tennis swing in front of the TV every night. Later as I grew up, that passion turned into golf, and he ate, slept and breathed golf. After having three daughters, he finally got a grandson. So as soon as Chandler got to be around five years old, my dad started taking him to the driving range. Even though they weren't able to go that often, golf became Chandler's passion too, and every time he talked to Papa on the phone, his first question was, "Papa, when are you going to take me golfing again? My dad offered to pay for Chandler to go to a week of golf camp last year, and he was going to do the same this summer. Neither David or I have ever golfed, so when my dad died, the chances of Chandler getting someone to take him golfing were pretty slim. We just didn't know what we were doing. Katja gave my dad's golf clubs to David a few weeks ago, so we all decided to take a set of group lessons together. We were at the range, and Chandler was lined up in the middle of us. If you can picture it, David and I were rolling all of our balls, and Chandler was effortlessly hitting them all in the air, far off into the sunset(not really, but you get the picture.) People were staring to stop and stare at the three of us because we were such a sight, and I was starting to sweat! (Not because it was 1:00 in the afternoon on a 100 degree day,) I was totally embarased! One guy said to me, "Don't worry, I'm not watching you, I'm watching your little guy" After an hour, we then moved to the putting green and I was finally able to hang. I've heard the game is won or lost on the putting green, so maybe I have a chance after all. I really wanted to call my dad afterward and tell him how it went since he would have been so excited, but since he isn't here I can write about it instead. I know he would have encouraged me and gave me a few tips...well maybe a lot of tips, and told me to stick with it, and tell me how much I'll love golf one day, so that's what I'm going to try to do. Hopefully before my next lesson next week I'll be able to hit some more balls actually in the air. By the way, if any of you golfers out there have any advice, feel free to let me know. I need all the help I can get!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I chose this picture because it is one of my sister Tracey's favorite ones of my dad. (If you're reading this Tracey, I'll send it to you soon.) Avrielle chose the song to play on the blog, and actually wanted to sing it at his funeral, but I told her to wait until his birthday. This picture was taken in Mammoth with his dog Kato. Mammoth really reminds me of my dad because we used to have a vacation condo there when I was growing up, and we would go up almost every month. He taught us how to snow ski in the winter, and during the summers we hiked, fished, and played tennis. We miss you dad!

Happy 13th Anniversary

These pictures were taken for our 10 year anniversary. I was
going to tell the story about how we got engaged, but I'll save
that for another time, since it is getting late. David had Chemo
#10, and it was hard again today, but thankfully he only has
two more left. Kristen Wells brought us our favorite family
dinner to eat tonight which we really enjoyed. What a treat!
I'll try to write more later. Bye for now!

This Next Week

We have a lot going on in the next seven days. On Tuesday, David will be getting his 10th chemotherapy treatment. We will also be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary. On Thursday, it would have been my dad's 65th birthday. This will be the first time we won't have him here with us to celebrate it. Katja, Carissa, and my Nanny are coming over for dinner, so at least we can be together as a family and share stories about him. It would be weird for me to do nothing and just have it be like any other day. Their wedding anniversary is next week. As you know, this Sunday is also Father's Day, and it too will be my first one without my dad. So, if you could pray for us that would be great. I just want to be emotionally balanced even though we will be all over the radar with the different events. I want to celebrate our marriage on Tuesday, even though it isn't how we would have planned that day to be. I want to celebrate David as a dad on Father's Day and still I know it will be hard missing mine. Mostly, I just want to honor the Lord and rest in his sovereignty over all these special dates this week.

Weekend at the Beach

David and Chandler about to go fishing in the surf.

Avrielle and Chandler playing at the park

Chicken Fight!!!!

George Washington Hairdo's

End of the School Year Pool Parties

Bethany, Megan, Kelsey(the birthday girl), Allison

Chandler and his friend Henry

Chandler's teacher Miss Bently

Avrielle swimming with her girlfriends

Same friends, different pool.

Happy 95th Birthday Nanny!

Nanny and Ivan(Katja's dad) enjoying a good laugh!

On Friday night we celebrated my Nanny's birthday. A lot of her nieces and nephews came to celebrate with her. She is the youngest of nine children, so she has quite a few relatives! We all enjoyed dinner together and cake too!

Week of Ceremonies

This week there were two awards ceremonies at the kid's school. They are always such a fun and encouraging time to recognize the special talents and gifts that each child has been blessed with. I honestly enjoy hearing each of the other kids in the school get their awards in addition to my own children. It always reminds me that we are so unique, even the children, and how we all need to use the abilities God has given each one of us to serve Him and help one another.