Christmas in Utah

So we once again made the trek to Utah for Christmas. I have vowed never to travel again for Christmas after the hassle of trying to figure out how to celebrate Christmas early to avoid bringing more things on the plane than necessary but we have had a great time. The kids were great on the trip out so we can't complain about the traveling and no delays was nice.

The kids have been having a blast visiting their grandparents. Grandpa has all sorts of toys that Ethan loves. And by toys I mean the bow that Ethan got to shoot and the 4-wheeler. Ethan has had such a great time. Even Taylor has gotten into riding the 4-wheeler. She doesn't like to be left out.

We celebrated Ethan's birthday again with the family and Ethan loved the attention, and the cake.

Taylor is a huge fan of Cricket, Peyton's dog. I think Cricket was pretty ready to go home after all the attention she got from Taylor.

Peyton was such a great cousin. Ethan couldn't wait for him to come over and play. He was so patient with Ethan and Taylor.
Christmas was the day of the Pillow Pets. The kids have been begging for them for months so we gave in and got them each one for Christmas. The kids haven't let them out of their sight for more than a few minutes. I guess that means it was a good present. I love this video of them and their pillows.



Ethan pretending to be asleep on Taylor's Pillow Pet.

So we decided to try and take a family photo before church on Sunday. No wonder we don't have any family photos. What is Taylor doing with her face? That is her new look when she is making a "mean" face. Why would she choose it for the family picture?

"The look" up close.

Oh that is nicer.

This week we also checked out the museum at Thanksgiving Point. The kids had fun running around and looking at everything.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

First of all the Good, last night we found out that we are moving to San Antonio, Texas to do an Emergency Medicine residency. San Antonio was our first pick and we are really excited. I really enjoyed my rotation there, I got along great with the residents and staff, I like the set up and the construction that is going on to improve the hospital. I really hope the parking garage is done before we get there though. Also there are some great affordable housing options, the city is awesome with all kinds of things to do for the kids, and right now here in Christiansburg it is like 15 degrees so Texas heat sounds great.

Now for the Bad, I got the results of my scan done last Friday. There was some uptake in the front part of the neck which is expected, also some in the liver, again expected because that is where it is metabolized. The bad is there was some uptake in my left chest. The radiologist wasn't able to determine if this was from a highriding stomach which would normally have some uptake or if it has metastasized to my lungs. Either way the treatment for this is to have an ablation dose of radiation.

Now for the Ugly, the dose of radiation that I had last Wednesday was supposed to be an ablation dose. However the doctors office put the orders in wrong and I only had a scanning dose. So all the arrangements to have Meredith's parents watch the kids, and me taking my vacation month this month instead of in May (if it was May we could have found and bought a home in San Antonio where we are going for EM Residency, did I mention that, because that is where we are going and we are super excited) were for nothing. So right now I will have to do the ablation dose of radiation in January. This means we have to rearrange my schedule, and arrange to have Meredith's parents watch the kids again.

Lastly this post was meant more to inform everyone that we are really excited about going to San Antonio, the rest of it is just FYI. I also would like to say that I'm feeling perfect, I have some bad days but there aren't many. So be excited for us going to San Antonio and don't worry about the other.

Update

Dear Zeb,

Here is the adventure race course that I had in mind. I think that you can spread out the obstacles to suit your need. You can tell them that a Special Forces soldier and his son designed it. No need to thank me.

Abe

Recently Ethan has really gotten into doing family home evening. I thank Meredith for this because she has come up with some pretty amazing ideas of how to keep the kids interest. One of her ideas was about following commandments and so we made an obstacle course where the kids had to follow the instructions to make it through the course. Well Ethan loved this idea and decided that he wanted to make a course of his own. Most of the stuff he came up with on his own, pretty impressive.

On another note here is an update on what is going on. Right now I have good and bad days. I feel as if I have been very blessed that when I needed mostly good days I was able to have them. Especially since those good days that I needed where when I was doing interview rotations for residency programs that I wanted to get into. This also determines where we will be for the next three years. The next step in treatment is radiation therapy. It is a little different for thyroid than other cancers. First I have to have a couple of injection of thyroid stimulating hormone. This will cause any thyroid cells that are left to want to take in as much iodine as they can to try and make thyroid hormone. Then I take a radioactive iodine pill. This will be taken up by the thyroid cells essentially killing them off. There is a chance of recurrence with papillary carcinoma so in order to minimize it you have to get rid of all the thyroid cells. The radiation therapy is a onetime dose and then I have to follow up for a couple of years to make sure that I'm still clear. The worst part about it is that I can't have any contact with the kids for five days, so they are going to stay in Richmond with Meredith's parents. I will have the radiation on Dec 10th and then we will go from there. I'm looking forward to having this done and being able to move on. I also want to thank everyone for there support and prayers. It truly has meant a lot to me when people have told me that they and there families are praying for us. Thank you!

You know your kids is watching too much tv when...

So I thought it was time for me to write down a couple of my favorite recent Ethan sayings. I can definitely tell that the babysitter is letting Ethan watch too much tv when he is constantly quoting commercials.

- When Ethan saw a picture of some automatic broom he says "if you get this mom, you will have more time to spend with us." Later I saw the commercial with some mom sitting at the table with her kids while the broom worked saying it gives her more time with her kids.

- While looking through a Toys R Us ad at the house he pointed to some video game and said "mom that will really help me learn."

- While unloading the dishwasher (and complaining the whole way) he comes up with the plan that instead of unloading it we can just use the silverware straight out of it until we get to the bottom (I didn't mention that this is usually my plan with the clean laundry in the basket so I don't have to put it away. Maybe this is genetic.) When that plan was not accepted he decide that he would promise not to eat for a week if he didn't have to do them.

- The other day while I was distracted on the phone I see Ethan collecting some supplies for a "project". He had a rope and a hanger. After I got off the phone I listened to the conversation between Taylor and Ethan. Ethan was trying to convince Taylor to jump off the second story porch while using the hanger like a zipline on the rope. He promised her that he would catch her at the bottom. Thankfully Taylor wasn't into the idea. I have to keep a closer eye on that kid.

We have been enjoying the Fall out here. I will definitely miss Fall in the mountains. Even the kids are always pointing out the trees, the leaves and the mountains and how beautiful they all are. We spent the first Saturday Abe was home at the pumpkin patch. We had such a wonderful time with beautiful weather. Ethan had been waiting not so patiently for Abe to come back from being gone so we could get a pumpkin. It was well worth the wait.

Our search through the corn maze.

Taylor wanted to pick up ever kernel of corn she found in the corn maze. I thought we would never get through it.

Hard to imagine but Ethan really was having fun.

Ethan and Taylor with the animals. No fear from these kids.

Getting them both to smile at the camera at the same time with the bright sun was impossible.

Not to be out done by her brother's talkativeness Taylor is so good at keeping up with him. I love to hear all the things that she has to say. Although it often involves A LOT of attitude. I put in this video of her helping me "read" one of her favorite books. I love to hear her say the words.

Sometimes Ethan and Taylor can be so sweet to each other. I just love it! Sometimes they are all about giving each other hugs and being so adorable. The other night at dinner Ethan pulled Taylor's chair close to him and hugged her and said "mom, I just really love being beside my sister." Taylor leans over and says "I love you too Ethan." Too cute. Of course Taylor wanted some long hugs and Ethan was done with his sweet moment very quickly but it was still cute while it lasted.

Our Texas "Vacation"

The kids and their cousins

I call this a "vacation" because this week doesn't feel like much of a vacation. We planned to spend 2 weeks in Texas visiting Abe as he does two audition rotations for residency (in other words, a month long interview). We have been waiting for this trip for a long time and we were so happy that things worked out and everything turned out the way we planned. Some of Abe's family is in Dallas so we were super excited for an excuse to visit them. It had been way too long. So each weekend we spent in Dallas and the week days we spent following Abe around.

Julia taking the easy ride.

Ethan was a little overwhelmed by his cousins at first but he got over it relatively quickly. When we met Zeb and Leah at the airport Ethan was very quick to tell them "I don't like to be touched." He has just started using this phrase and I guess it's my fault. Recently he has been a little rude when people talk to him or want to give him a high five. When I asked him why he said that its because he is shy. We all know that this isn't really true but that is beside the point. So I told him that instead of just turning away that he could say "I'm shy". Instead he decided to go with the phrase "I don't like to be touched." He has definitely gotten into being too cool for kisses and wipes them away when he gets them. He can even be totally distracted by t.v. but he will still unconsciously wipe them away. So it became a game to try and give him kisses that didn't get wiped off. He still doesn't understand girls and their sillyness. Being one of 2 boys amongst 8 girls he was way out numbered. Sometimes he would just watch them from a distance trying to figure out the game and what in the world he was suppose to do. He has some concerns about people laughing at him so he doesn't like playing "silly" games when other people are around. At home one day he was pretending he was Diego, from his favorite tv show, and we were all different characters so he would call us by the characters name. In the car he said, "Mom, we have to stop playing this when we get to the store or people will know that we are playing a silly game." So when the girls were playing mermaids in the pool he couldn't quite decide if he wanted to play the game. At first he was taking the logical approach and when the girls would start screaming about something he would say "Girls, girls, girls, there are NO sharks in this pool" finally he decided to join them. But first he said "Mom, will you please not laugh at me if I play mermaids with the girls?" Of course I agreed but then he had to ask every other adult around to make sure they wouldn't laugh either. He is such a character. We had such a great time hanging out with family, eating great food, and watching the kids have a great time. We sure hope that we end up around here for residency so we can visit more often.

Ethan and Maren had the best time playing together. Maren was the only one willing to rough house with Ethan and allowed him to tie her up with his rope. I guess in return he was willing to play hair dresser.

Thankfully this brush doesn't get tangled in hair easily.

After a weekend in Dallas without Abe we went down to San Antonio to meet him and see where he had been for the last month. San Antonio was a fun place with lots of fun things for us to do. The roads are really confusing and I felt like I may never find my way around but it was definitely nice to be able to have lots of options of things to do. And to make things even better Abe ended up not having to work that week so it was like a real vacation. The heat was pretty overwhelming but we survived and were able to get out and do a lot despite the heat. We also didn't have the best sleeping arrangements since we just stayed in the extended stay where Abe had been staying. It was one room with a fridge and microwave. Unfortunately, that meant that once the kids went to bed we really couldn't do anything to make noise and we pretty much just hung out in the bathroom area so the kids wouldn't see us and want to stay awake. So we were definitely ready to upgrade to a bigger hotel once we got to Killeen.

Day 1 we checked out the riverwalk in downtown San Antonio

The kids loved the boat ride down the river.

The next day we headed to the zoo nice and early to beat the heat. It wasn't a big zoo but it was really pretty and well landscaped and the animals seemed so close. We didn't make it through all the exhibits but it was fun.

Ethan having so much fun. Actually he was but he refuses to smile for pictures. Which is fine with me as long as he isn't running away.

They had a little petting area where the kids got to pet the goats. The kids loved it!
Any time we asked Taylor if she was ready to leave she would say "No, I brushin'" She really loves doing some chores.
This goat starting pooping right as Taylor went to pet it and she was fascinated by the whole process. I wasn't going to put this picture in the post but Taylor saw the other goat pictures and kept asking to see the poop.

Possibly the only picture of Ethan smiling. I had to catch him coming out of his hiding spot to capture it.
Right down the street from our hotel, on base, was another house, like a Ronald McDonald house, that I stumbled on while running. They had an amazing play area with bikes and all sorts of stuff. The kids had such a great time. It was sad we didn't find it until the last day.


Downtown also has a nice Children's Museum. The kids had such a good time and didn't want to leave.

We also walked around the San Antonio Temple, which was just beautiful and went to several parks and found some good restaurants and shopping centers. We definitely felt like we could see ourselves living there. Not to mention the fact that Abe loved his month in the hospital there. So we will keep praying that we end up where we are suppose to be, and hopefully that is San Antonio.

After another weekend in Dallas we came back to Killeen,TX and it was hard adjusting to a totally different type of base. The base in San Antonio was small but the city was large. In Killeen the base is very big but the town is really small. There were no worries about getting lost but we were struggling to find things to do while Abe goes to work. It didn't help that Abe had to work and we only had one car so we always had to be around to get him. I can sum up everything we did with these 2 pictures.

We found a pretty unexciting park outside of town.

And there was an arcade at the mall that was thrilling, can't you tell?

Needless to say the kids and I aren't all that excited about the possibility of moving here next year.

Before we left we got to spend one more night with family. Josh and Carol were sweet enough to watch the kids so Abe and I could sneak out for dinner. It has been way too long since we got to do that. Ethan was so sad when it was time to go. He had such a great time with all his cousins. See Carol's post for pictures of the kids at their house. I'm pretty bad about pulling out my camera too :)

We survived the flights back and honestly I'm very thankful for how good the kids were on the flights. It's not easy to keep them entertained and by the end of the trip I felt like I should have gotten a standing ovation for my hard work. There was a cute old man that had been making faces at Taylor and as we got off the first plane he patted my shoulder and said "you are doing a good job with those kids." It was pretty cute. We are happy to be home and back in one place for a while but we do miss the fun of vacation. And we can't wait for Abe to come and join us at home in 2 weeks.

Life's a Rollercoaster

St. Thomas, Virgin Island as the hurricane was coming in.

Lately we have definitely been riding the rollercoaster of life, with all its ups and quite a few downs. I guess you have to take the good with the bad and we have had a lot of goods in our life so maybe it was just our turn for the bads. We have had some school set backs along the way but I think we did a good job of seeing the positive in them and bouncing back. I think we did a pretty good job of taking Abe's cancer diagnosis in stride and getting through what had to get done. But we were hoping that he had moved past the bad and were back onto the good. But we just got back from a vacation that just reminded me that there will always be some ups and downs.

Our hotel, we were in the top building.

Back a few months ago my parents had invited the kids and I to head to St. Thomas with them for a week. I'm not one to turn down a vacation and things worked out pretty good with work so we went. Once again I totally forgot that I have bad luck with traveling during hurricane season but dad assured me that he had checked the weather and there was nothing heading our way. The kids were really good on the trip down, both driving to D.C. to catch the flight and while flying down to the Caribbean. We arrived on Friday and by Saturday there was talk of Earl and how we were right in its path. We had a great time the first couple of days. The condo was lovely, with 2 bedrooms and a kitchen and living area. And the beach and pool were so much fun. Ethan and Taylor couldn't get enough of the water slide (which meant that one of us was stuck going down it a million times with them). But on Sunday everything started shutting down in preparation for the hurricane. The hotel was sending around notes saying that if you had a way to get off the island you might want to think about it. Having lived in South Carolina for a long time we weren't terrible concerned about a hurricane, especially when they said that path had changed so that we would only being getting the edge of the storm. And actually the storm itself wasn't that bad. It was very windy and the rain, at times, was so hard that you couldn't see anything out the windows. The kids thought it was pretty fun to be blown around in the wind and be allowed to walk out in the rain. It was all fun and games until the power went out, for 3 days!

The view from our condo

For the first day it wasn't that big of a deal. The hurricane was still blowing through so the room would get a good breeze if someone held open the front and back door. Although it was really strong so McKaylan got sucks out of the door once when a big gust came and she wasn't ready for it. We still had some charge in the computer and DVD players so it wasn't too bad. Dad went on a mission to find ice from a hotel down the road that had a generator so we had a chance at keeping the food cold that we had bought when we arrived. Food was crazy expensive on the island, like $9 for a gallon of milk, so letting the food go to waste made us just sick. So we made 2-3 trips a day to get ice. The hotel was set up on the side of the mountain so there were a lot of flights of stairs. So with no power that meant lots of sets of stairs. There were about 10 flights of stairs to go down to the pool, and another 10 to get back up. We got some great exercise and I was amazed at Ethan's ability to walk up and down them all, with some prompting. We sure were missing Abe and my dad when we had to carry all of our pool stuff and Taylor up the stairs. By 6:30pm on the first night it was dark enough that you weren't going to find anything without a flashlight and since there was one flashlight in the room for all of us there wasn't much to do. We felt like we were from the olden days when you went to bed when the sun went down and got up when it rose. By day 2 the thrill of the adventure was wearing off as was the breeze from the storm and it was hot and muggy in our room. We pretty much lived in our bathing suits and went to the pool for most of the day. I had decided to pack light and only bring 3-4 outfits for everyone and I was going to wash clothes in the condo. Of course the storm hit right as we ran out of clothes so our choices were limited to which sweaty outfit we wanted to wear. At least I had brought 2 bathsuits for each of us so at least they could sort of dry in between wearings. Poor Taylor usually didn't have on any clothes and her little curls never dried from all her sweating. We were even desperate enough for some cool air that the guy driving the shuttle around the resort offered us a ride in the van and we rode around for a couple of loops just to get the kids cool. We definitely met some nice people as we all sat around the pool chatting about how crazy it all was or gabbing while charging our electronic devices in the lobby, which had a generator for the lights but still no a/c. It definitely brings people together.

Dad felt pretty bad leaving us on Tuesday while we were still without power but his ticket had been bought for that day so there was no reason to stay around. We looked into getting out early ourselves but flights were full until Thursday and that was only the day before we were suppose to leave. I felt kind of sorry for the people that showed up to the hotel not realizing that a hurricane had just hit and most of the island was without power. I guess they have learned to do their homework before they show up next time. One couple said their first clue was the fact that on the plane the lady sitting beside them that had on a red cross shirt and said she was traveling to provide hurricane relief.

By day 3 we were threatening to make camp at the pool and sleep outside in hopes of getting enough breeze to sleep through the night. Taylor had been up from 2-4 since she was too hot to sleep. Crazy hot and no sleep made for a very crabby mama. Luckily right at dark on Wednesday night the power came on and there were cheers from all over the hotel. You forget how great a/c is until you don't have it for a little while. The island still was recovering when we left so we didn't see much, even on our last day there but at least our attitude had improved by then. And it definitely made me thankful that amongst all of us there wasn't a complainer in the bunch. We all just sucked it up and made the best of a tough situation and had a good time.

Hanging out in the park entertaining the locals and chasing the chickens!

This was easily the kids favorite activity.

The igunas take over the hotel. Taylor LOVED to chase them.

Taylor calling "come here, iguana" to the big one hiding under the chairs.

I just love this picture of Taylor.

Luckily we got in our beach time before the storm hit because the sand was pretty much gone after the hurricane.

Can you tell he was getting into something?

The calm blue sea was gone for several days after the storm.

Taylor loved the wind in her hair during the hurricane

Our post-hurricane attire

Oh how Taylor loved to watch the planes go by. She would say "Oh, plane, hold you."

Taylor found her favorite play spot in the closet.

Ethan happened to pack a small flashlight, when my sister McKaylan saw it she thought it was the flashlight provided by the hotel and was pretty concerned that it was all the light we were going to have. Thankfully not!

Nothing to do in a hurricane but to run the corridors half naked. Our redneck roots were really showing during this trip.

Ethan kept saying that he never wanted to go home, even when the rest of us were dying. He had such a great time!