Sandia Peak

Date night at the top of Sandia Peak...an absolutly breathtaking view of Albuqueque below. The tram ride was absolutly outstanding. We are headed back to Pearland in just a few hours and are super excited to see our boys. We had a wonderful time here but are definetly ready to kiss those chubby cheeks again!

Living Cancer Free

Living cancer free and loving life around here. Love this picture of my boys getting pushed around in the laundry basket. Anyone else think Nicholas looks just like Barretts baby pictures here??

Jacob has been working from home a lot these last few weeks and we are all incredibly spoiled by all of our quality time with him. This week he was sent to Albequeque and decided to take me with him (just me!!!). The boys are spliting their time between the grandparents and loving every second of it. I got a lot of happy pictures last night of the boys playing at Chuckie Cheese. Jacob and I enjoyed a nice lunch at the airport yesterday afternoon and our plane landed at three here in NM. We had a wonderful evening last night and headed to one of our favorite places to eat, Azuma. We met one of Jacob's co-workers for an after dinner beverage and then headed back to the hotel so Jacob could work and so I could get my beauty rest. Today I'm "stuck" in the hotel without a car relaxing and healing and enjoying every second of it. Its really strange to not have my two little appendages with me...kinda feel like I'm forgetting something all the time. Its been really nice to have this time with Jacob though, Lord knows we have had too much medical stress around our house lately and needed some kick back time to reconnect. Here we are out on the town last night... Tonight we are headed up the mountain to eat at High Finance, its gonna be awesome! I have yet to ride the famous trolley up the mountain and can't wait to experience it. I will post pictures sometime tomorrow before we head to the airport.

Renovations

Two major renovations going on here lately, one with my wardrobe (soul, mind, body, vanity...etc.), and one with our kitchen. We got new travertine tile back splash and new granite counter tops in the kitchens and new granite in both bathrooms as well. It looks absolutely stunning and we couldn't be happier with the final product.Here is my new bigger and better scar two weeks after the surgery at MD Anderson. I am feeling much better these past few days and have been able to survive off of Tylenol and Advil now while trying not to take my vicadin. Now the real trick is not overdoing it...I have been notorious for that lately. Two steps forward, over do, one step back...repeat.

Cancer Free!!!

I just got the call from my Dr. at MD Anderson and I am officially cancer free! Praise God! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I am so thankful that this journey is over! I will be screened every six months for the rest of my life at MD Anderson but other than that we are DONE! All my steristrips have fallen off so the scar is finally visible...and boy is it visible. I will try to post pictures soon (sorry for those faint of heart).

Recovery

Recovery...here we are again. I begrudgingly admit that we had about two great weeks of perfect health between the heat stroke and this surgery. I worry that everyone is tired of hearing about my health issues...heck, I'm tired of hearing about my own health issues!! I just have to get this all our of my head and into my "journal." I am so very thankful for all of the help we have received over the past week. I realized just how much help we are going to need last night when I attempted to heat up our families dinner. Our amazing friend Shirley brought us a delicious meal, all I had to do was heat it up. Jacob was on a telicon meeting and Jessica and Barrett were watching the kids. I decided to heat up the meal and have it on the table when the boys got home. Many extra vicadins and 15 hours later I am still hurting from lifting the plate into the microwave. Now that is humbling! The doctors of course explained this surgery in detail to me and I fully realize that my muscles and skin have been removed from the bone and then placed back. I realize that a lot of the tissue was removed and that there is a hole in my chest now. I realize that things are going to take many weeks before they are fully "stuck" into their proper place again. I realize I need to be careful to allow the muscles and skin time to reattach...but I didn't realize that included heating up a meal for my family. I can not explain how humbling it is to not be able to do things for my family. This is my vocation, my purpose, my life, my desire, and my joy. This is also not my role right now...but I honestly don't know how to do anything else. I am fumbling around trying to do things I can do, make online photo books, fill out baby books, pray, read, all in an attempt to feel like I can do "my job." Then I realized that this is EXACTLY why Christ has placed this "burden" on me. I need to be humbled. I need to accept my limitations. I need to allow people to help. I am ready and willing to accept help. I have very much "learned my lesson" about my limitations. I am so very thankful to have Jan here today loving the heck out of my family so I can lay in bed doped up on vicadin. I am glad that my stubborn self can actually feel the ramifications of my stubborn actions. I need this. I need this. I need this. Thank you God for the way that you work through my stubbornness. Thank you for the amazing support group you have placed before me. I am humbled! I'll leave you with a precious picture of my sweet, sweet, boys loving on each other as they wait for Daddy to drag them around the house in their burrito :) . I am SO blessed!

Its me

Hey yall. Its me. I'm taking it easy mostly relaxing in my big comfy bed. I get to take a shower today, you have no idea how great that sounds right now! Four more hours and I can finally wash this greasy head! I am struggling to stay on top of the pain right now so I am still working on adjusting the dosage schedule. We have been talking with the dr's and nurses often hoping to get to a comfortable level soon. The boys have been pretty fantastic and super gentle as they climb up on the bed to snuggle with me. They even brought me breakfast in bed this morning. Of course, Nick took a few bites of it before he handed it over :) I am so very thankful for all the friends and family who are helping us out with meals, play dates, and babysitting me. I truly don't know how we would do this without you!

Out of surgery..

We just talked to the surgeon. She is out of surgery, in recovery, awake but groggy, and a little sore around the incision. He said everything went as planned, and they will be doing a biopsy on the tissue that they removed. This is standard procedure, and the risk of any additional melanoma in that biopsy is very low, as they had margins on the orginal biopsy site. We should get the results early next week.

We haven't seen her in reocvery yet. It may be an hour before we get to see her. Thank you all for your prayers!