Gerbil Sitting for the Nelson's.

When our friends, the Nelson's, went on vacation to Hawaii, the girls jumped at the chance to watch their gerbils for the week.  Meet Stoney and Pebbles.  The girls were thrilled. 

Below is a picture of their sanctuary.  The awesome part is the two pages of instructions that Hannah wrote out (lower left of picture).  When Rebecca asked us to watch them, I had jokingly asked if they would come with instructions.  Well, indeed, they did.  They came with very detailed instructions which outlined play time, sleep time, care and keeping, first aid and lots more.  Way to go Hannah!

The Little Things.

I have been making an effort to stop and appreciate the little things in life.  It is so busy and there are so many responsibilities that I can often get caught up in running from one thing to the next.  I took a work trip last week.  During my trip, I tried to focus on the beauty.  It was sunny southern California, so that was not hard.  The first evening I stayed near the San Diego Airport (which is conveniently located near the harbor).  This is the beauty that I woke to the next morning.

The following night, I stayed in Anaheim.  The last time I had been to Anaheim was with Kevin and the girls for our Disneyland trip.  When I arrived at the hotel, I learned that it backed up to Disneyland.  The bonus, I had a room with a view of the Disneyland fireworks.  I took lots of pictures and sent them home to the girls.

 

My husband is quite the decorator.  We had a patio cover installed last year.  It made a world of difference in the heat.  The patio became additional outdoor living space.  We spent lots of time out there.  He decided it was missing one small thing...lights.  We ordered some string lights from Costco.  They look beautiful!  Just a few more degrees warmer and we can start to really enjoy them.

Unplugged.

A few weeks back the girls called for a family meeting.  They scheduled it for a Thursday evening and came prepared with typed agendas.  Sidney called the meeting to order.  She went first with a fire safety talk.  She reviewed all of the fire information she had learned the week prior.  We then had to go over a fire evacuation plan and have two exit strategies from each bedroom.  She did a great job.  In reality, I found this to be very helpful.  It had been a long time since we had discussed any of this.

 

Kendall went next with a proposal for an unplugged weekend.  She outlined the rules, and we settled on a time.  The unplugged weekend ran from 8am Saturday morning to 8pm Saturday evening.  I must admit, the first few hours were very disconcerting.  I am accustomed to running out the door and touching base with Kevin throughout the day.  This required pre-planning.  After all, we still had lots of errands and kids activities to do.  After my initial adjustment, it was AWESOME.  By the time Sunday night rolled around, I was not entirely eager to turn things back on. 

The Icing on the Cake.

As if the spring break was not amazing enough, we had a bonus trip.  On the drive home from Oregon, we were a couple of hours out of Portland when Kevin looked over at me and said "We are not too far from your parents house.  Let's go see them."  What son-in-law suggests going to visit his in-laws?  As expected, I was giddy with excitement.  I love visiting with my family.  We took a turn north and landed on their doorstep just in time for Friday Night Pizza.  The girls were so happy to see their cousin Hallie.  She is so good to these girls.

 

Saturday morning, Jason had to clean the Baseball field.  The whole team worked from 9am until 1pm.  Kendall joined Papa and helped the team clean the field.  She was such a hard worker that Papa rewarded her with a Lakeland hat.

Sid chose to go shopping with grandma.  She put on her lip gloss, wore her best shopping shoes and took plenty of selfies.

 

The girls were over the top excited to see Boston.  I think they were in need of some doggie time, considering our current dog less home.

Aunt Stephanie took us by North Idaho College to see her new office, lab and classroom.  I am so proud of this lady.  She is pretty amazing!

My sister and I saw these beautiful necklaces at one of the shops we stopped into.  We each bought one.  LOVE! 

Though we had to leave for home first thing Sunday morning, I was grateful for the visit.  It was truly the icing on the cake.

Spring Break in Portland.

Kevin and I took the girls to Portland last week over their spring break.  I attended the Mass Timber Conference while they explored the city.  Here is a picture overload of all of their adventures.

 

SEASIDE, OREGON:  The cold and rain did not stop them from having a good time.

 

 

 

FORT CLATSOP:  This was a fan favorite.  Kendall is in fourth grade this year.  They are studying Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail, so this was particularly interesting to her.  Kevin said both the girls were fascinated and focused on earning junior ranger badges.  He had a hard time pulling them away from here.

 

THE OREGON ZOO:  I think this may have been Kevin's favorite.  He thought the zoo was very well laid out and had a lot of cool things to see and do.

Kendall was giddy with excitement to see the baby elephant.

THE OREGON MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY (OMSI):  Aunt Lisa, Chip and Kaden had taken a trip to Oregon that overlapped a couple of days with ours.  Kevin and the girls met up with them to go see OMSI.  I am pretty sure this would have been my favorite.  They saw an Imax movie, an incredible LEGO art exhibit and Kendall ate crickets.  GROSS!  She actually liked them.  She told us that they tasted like almonds.  I will let her be the judge of that!

This picture is just a glimpse into the weird world of Sidney.  We stopped at a chocolate store on the way home.  She used the glove below to select her chocolates.  She was obsessed in keeping the glove and proceeded to wear it for the next few hours.  Hmm.

Each of the girls had a few dollars for spending money while on the trip.  Kendall found this really cool kinetic wheel at OMSI and could not resist.  It is mesmerizing.

Mermaids, Geeks and the Lion King.

Aunt Sherry Pie came to visit a few weeks ago.  Grandma Terrell and Aunt Sherry spotted these cute mermaid blankets while they were out shopping.  They just could not resist picking them up for the girls.  The girls loved them.  In fact, they came in quite handy as we were leaving the next day for a trip to Portland.  These tails made the perfect car blankets!

I was going through my closet and found my "Go Geek" shirt from Cal Poly.  Some of you may remember the "Go Greek" shirts that were all the rage awhile back (a long while...probably).  Well, the engineering department thought they were pretty crafty in making their own version.  Kendall thought it was hilarious and has asked to borrow it indefinitely.  It is her new favorite.

I know I am quite the nerd, when the library is one of my favorite places to hang out.  In all seriousness though, Boise has the BEST libraries.  The Victory Branch held a Drama Night. that Kevin and I took the girls to.  It was put on by the Treasure Valley Youth Theater.  This group is the real deal.  They brought about ten of their youth actors along with a few adults and had a blast teaching the kids expressive acting.  The girls took a little bit of time to get into it.  Once they let loose, they had a great time.

 

The grand finale was an act out of the Lion King play.  They learned Hakuna Matata with plenty of motions and expression. 

An Update on Kevin.

Kevin had his first definitive scan since starting the immunotherapy treatment.  He had a preliminary scan right before Thanksgiving.  Though the results seemed positive, they told us it was too early to tell.  This last Thursday, he had a scan.  Typically, we do not hear the results until his appointment with the oncologist on Friday.  However, the nurse called us 30 minutes after the scan to tell us things looked stable.  The cancer had not spread, nor had it shrunk.  In the cancer world, in our world, that is a huge win.  Another gift of time.  Precious time. 

To give a rundown of the last few months in the world of Kevin, it has been very good, relatively speaking.  The side affects are quite minimal versus the chemotherapy.  In December, he developed a pretty severe cough that would not go away.  After trying a few different things, unsuccessfully, the oncologist put him on a high dose prednisone.  Kevin was not happy about that at all.  In this patient centered world of treatment, they took him off at his request.  After a few more weeks of VERY bad coughing, they put him back on.  Needless to say, Kevin was not happy about it.  Who can blame him? 

The prednisone subsequently caused him to be an insulin dependent diabetic.  For several weeks, he had to take insulin shots each day to control the high blood sugar.  Fortunately, once they were able to taper him off the prednisone, they were able to taper him off the insulin as well.

All that said, he will be the first to tell you that his quality of life has improved dramatically.  There are days that it is easy to forget he is sick.  There are an equal number of days, where it is clear that he is sick and has been through a tremendous amount.  We continue to take one step at a time.  Personally, I admire how hard he has fought for each and every day.  We just continue the course and wait to see where it takes us.  Your continued thoughts and prayers are appreciated!