Starting to get back to NORMAL!

Started my third week of radiation today.  The weeks seem to be flying by, hard to believe that at the end of this week I will officially be half way done with radiation!  Then I will have an MRI about a month after to see what this tumor looks like.  Praying that it responds well to the treatment but they say to expect the tumor to appear larger at that first check because there will likely still be swelling so that first MRI isn't always a good gauge of how well treatment went.  ANYWAYS... we are ALMOST to the half way point, hooray!  I don't think I have mentioned this before but favorite song my song since this all happened has been Timber by Pitbull and Ke$ha.  It is on the radio ALL the time but ALWAYS at the right moment.  When Jamie and I went to Froedert in December after my brain surgery to get my biopsy results, I was in tears in the car in the Froedert parking garage and the song came on....

It's going down, I'm yelling timber

You better move, you better dance

Let's make a night you won't remember

I'll be the one you won't forget.

- Ke$ha 

Then after our appointment Jamie and I were feeling so good, we had just gotten word that it was a grade II tumor, so although not benign, not cancerous as of yet either.  Basically great news in our minds, I was so happy and we got in the car and the song was on again.  We blasted it and sang, the chorus to me that I quoted above is pretty much me telling my tumor it's GOING DOWN!!!!  So anytime I am having a bad day I simply put that song on and dance, usually I make Jacob and Owen dance with me and it always cheers me up.  So now everytime you hear the song you can dance and picture me dancing too!  :)  What is it about music that can snap you out of a funky mood so quickly? 

Things are slowing getting back into a routing around here which is nice.  Yesterday we got to spend time celebrating my nephews 18th birthday.  Fun to get Owen and Jacob together with all their cousins.  Owen and Cooper both played Lego Batman on their iPads most of the day.  It sure is rough being 5. 

Today was a really nice day too.  My good friend Beka was here all day to help with Jacob and then with Owen when he got home from school.  She was so good with Jacob and they became good buddies really quickly!  I was lucky enough to get to spend some time with Amy L, a mom of one of Owen's school buddies.  We met up after dropping our boys off at 4K and we had some time to kill so we went to Einstein bagels and then she was with me for my treatment today.  It was so great getting to sit and chat about our boys, they will be going to the same school for kindergarten next year so I know we will be friends for a long time.  So thanks again Amy for a wonderful morning, you are so sweet!  When I got home I laid down for a nap and was shocked when I woke up and saw it was nearly 4pm!  I had slept for over 2-1/2 hours, I must have really needed it and it felt great!

Treatment today was good, I am always amazed at how quickly it goes.  I swear I spend about 10 minutes in that room and most of it is my chatting with my amazing team. Then I met with nurse afterwards and complained about how bad my scalp hurts.  It's hurts A LOT.  Like a REALLY bad sunburn which is basically is.  She encouraged me to use the spray lotion they gave me.  So I tried it tonight and it definitely helped but it's literally lotion that you are spraying onto your hair and scalp so my hair is GREASY!  Imagine just taking a huge handful of Jergens body lotion and rubbing that into your scalp, that's what I look like right now.  I better pray I wake up early enough tomorrow to shower or I am going to be a hot mess tomorrow.  At least my scalp feels better!  

I am SO excited, my little sister Abi comes into town with Piper on Thursday!  I was supposed to be the very first person in my family to fly down and meet Piper and now I am the only one in my family that hasn't met her yet!  Even my dad flew down to Phoenix last week to meet her.  So I am BEYOND excited to have like 10 days with them!  Yes, they were wearing tank tops today while we were getting a snow storm!  Yes, I am a bit jealous!  

 Tomorrow Jamie's mom is here for the day, I am going to radiation with my good friend Christen who I feel like I haven't seen in forever.  I think we are doing lunch and maybe a quick trip to the mall afterwards and then I will head home to nap before Owen gets home from school.  It's nice that we are getting into a more normal routine.  The kids seem to be doing better too although I can definitely tell they don't totally understand why we constantly have someone else here all the time and why mommy is always having to leave.  Jacob is definitely acting out a bit but he may have done this anyways. I think they call kiddos like him "spirited".  I like to call him feisty and he definitely keeps us on our toes, SO different than Owen was at this age.  Owen seems to be doing really well on his new seizure medication.  He is back to enjoying school which makes me SO happy and is still into EVERYTHING superhero.  He's in bed sleeping right now in some fleece Avenger pants and a batman pajama top.  

We watched a few home videos tonight with the boys that were just taken last summer, a few videos of Jacob learning to crawl, Owen fishing and just them swinging outside on swings.  Made me really excited for summer.  I though the videos would maybe make me sad but they didn't.  Just really made me think about all the fun things I am going to do with the boys.  Made me realize how much nicer it is when we can get outside and get fresh air every day.  I can't wait to go for our early morning walks, we did that a lot this past summer.  We would toast some waffles and grab cups of milk and both boys would eat breakfast in our wagon while we went for a long walk at like 7am.  Such a simple thing but SO fun.  Bike rides, fishing, a million trips to the zoo, running through the sprinkler, I could name a million other things too!  I just can't wait for warmer weather!  For now we will just keep doing little projects and crafts to pass the time being stuck indoors.  Jacob loved this little coloring book yesterday.

 I have good news to report on sweet little 5 year old Piper.  For those of you that didn't see my Facebook post, a childhood neighbor of mine took their daughter into the pediatrician last week for some things they had been noticing, the doctor wanted an MRI done.  So on Thursday they took her to have the MRI done which showed a brain tumor the size of a plum.  Piper underwent surgery today, the surgery went as well as they could have hoped.  They believe they were able to remove all of the tumor and they are pretty sure it was benign, they won't know 100% until biopsy results come back.  Piper is going in for another MRI tonight to see if all the tumor was removed. My heart was so heavy for them all day today and still is.  Piper was very nauseous after the surgery and was not enjoying all the IVs and wires she had all over.  So thanks to all who have prayed for this sweet girl and keep those prayers coming that she gets a good nights rest and wakes up feeling a little better.  For any parent who has spent time in ICU with a child that age, you know how heart wrenching it is so please also pray for Piper's mom and dad that they get a little rest tonight and find some peace in the good news they received from the doctor's today.  

I also want to send a big thank you to everyone that has been proving meals for us lately!  Kay, Julie, Amanda and Beth.  Greatly appreciated!  Special thanks to Beth who even came out tonight in this terrible weather!  Also thank you to the Christman's who came and plowed our driveway today!  So nice of your!  And a big thank you our neighbor Tom who comes and shovels for us all the time and yells at Jamie if he sees him out there.  We appreciate it so much Tom!  I also missed a few names of people that donated such amazing things to me while I was in Madison for the day with Lindsey.  Thank you to Tara, Michele, Missi,  Marah & Marissa, Jennifer, Damian, Henry, Ethan and Nolan.  

Man, I am one lucky person to have so many people to thank!  My goal for this week is to get in contact with some people at Froedert to talk more about my random acts of kindness idea.  I have LOTS of giving back to do.  I also am trying to catch up on emails and facebook messages.  I may never catch up, I am so sorry if I don't personally respond.  I am trying my best but I am swamped.  

Alright, hope everyone has a great night!