Summer fun

Katelyn went to church camp last week. She came home Friday, and had so much fun! I love her time away to be with friends, play on a pretty cool lake, and learn more about God. This year continued on our VBS theme of heroes. She came home singing such a catchy song, "Jesus you're my superhero. You're a star. My best friend!" Imagine it with a super-fast beat and you might get the idea. Or, if you are around me, you will catch me signing it!

Leaving for camp...


And coming home!




She also came home with one pair of shorts that are going to have to go right into the trash. I think they were the pair she used to go slip and sliding. You might be thinking water, right, but Katelyn and the other 6th graders slipped and slid on mustard, ketchup, relish, baby oil, and I’m sure whatever else they had on hand!

Jake was gone all last week during the day at a literacy in-service for teachers. Jadyn and Bryn are taking swim lessons last week and this week. They are doing so well! Jadyn has really taken off. Bryn is also doing great. She did not want to even put her face in the water before lessons started. Now, she says that is her very favorite thing to do!

I got caught with a little virus last week. I had been dragging for several days, very tired and weak. Last Tuesday, I had a fever. Not high for normal standards, but pretty dangerous for someone on chemo—101.5. The fever held on for a few days and I was able to see my oncologist Wednesday. She put me on an antibiotic. She also ran blood work to find all my counts to be very low. She gave me a red blood cell boosting shot and told me to eat liver! I was pretty anemic, but I just settled for a steak! Actually, Dr. Hayley does not like liver either. I have been feeling more like myself this week.

I have been getting around very well, to me! I have stopped using my cane altogether. I walk a little slower than most, and have a slight limp. But, I feel good, which is the most important thing.

Saturday, our family went out to my sister Jennifer’s house in Granbury. She has a new house that has a pool, so we spend most of the beautiful day outside. We really had great weather. I also was able to visit with my step-dad’s sister, my Aunt Joanne, who is in from Arkansas. It was great to see her!

Here are some pictures of the kids by the fountain and having a blast swimming all day. The girl high in the air is Raegan with her strong Daddy (Russel) catapulting her into the air.







My cousins Mark and Ryan left for New York Monday. They have been with us for so long, it is weird to have them gone. I am sure their parents miss them, but they can come anytime!! We have had some fun filled weeks with them.

Katelyn and I are about to leave for Portland, Oregon to enjoy some time with my Dad and family! I am sure I have not taken a trip with Katelyn alone since I have been married (almost 9 years). I am very excited for the break! Jadyn and Bryn will not doubt have a blast at home with their Daddy!

Home again, home again...

What a week! We just came back from a family reunion in beautiful Broken Bow, Oklahoma. It was a week of firsts. First family reunion. First time in OK. First time on a jet ski. First time in a canoe. First time to go down a waterfall in a canoe. (Did I mention that I was not in the canoe at the time of said waterfall?) We had so much fun!!

It rained on us a lot, and we had a few bumps along the way, but I am so glad we went. We have not stopped talking about our adventures.

I came back a little early Friday with my mom to squeeze in my chemo treatment. The round went very well, and my counts were good. I have another round Thursday and then I am off for a week.

Today, my new furniture is being delivered!! Our recliner broke a few weeks ago so that the footrest will not come up. I have a hard time sleeping at night, so I use that chair a lot. Jake took me out looking for a new one before our trip to Oklahoma. After several hours of looking and sitting in every chair in the store, I fell in love with a chair and ottoman that I could sink into for days. It is a blessing that we are able to buy a new one.

Here are a few of over 500 pictures taken last week!

The Kaylor family of 5 in Oklahoma.


An example of shopping for breakfast for 32! (This was just the trunk; we also had the back seat and each of our laps fllled with bags.)


4 generations: Grandma and Grandpa, daughter Judy, granddaughter Hope, and great-granddaughter Ella Grace.


This is only half of our group in the kitchen at any given time!


Zander with a smore, our favorite dessert in Oklahoma. Some liked their marshmallows charred, others slightly brown. Either way, it was a sticky, gooey, yummy concoction we enjoyed several times.


Ella in her first swimsuit! Too cute!


Several went on a morning hike. Jadyn and Kaylee loved seeing the baby deer and turtles. Also on the hike, Jake, cousins Mark, Ryan and Austin, and uncle Gene (taking the picture!)


Jace is laughing so much now...and he is ticklish too!


The life and death canoe adventure! It was hard to maneuver among the rocks, aka boulders. However, Sandy and I, when faced with an open lake of nothing but ONE rock in the middle of the water... hit the rock! Our group took out 8 canoes. The name of the canoe company was "Ambush Tours" which was a fitting name as we were taken to the top of the lake, told to follow it to the end and given NO instructions at all. If this were an episode of Survivor, (which it seemed like as we canoed the last 30 minutes in pelting rain and thunder and lightening)...Sandy and I would be voted off the island! It was a true bonding experience.






Katelyn and her Grandma!



Jadyn drew a picture of our cabin, complete with a porch swing and hot tub. We had our own cabin, but the girls spent the night almost every night with a different cousin, aunt or grandma in thier cabins.


Swimming back in Texas: we take up half of the country club pool.


We might look like ants, but this is all 32 of us! I am so blessed to have such a big, loving family!

Family time

We had a great visit with Grandma Martinez and Judy. The girls all bonded quickly and we enjoyed their visit. All the girls came away quite spoiled with gifts and activities! One of the highlights was watching Katelyn and Grandma Martinez get their pictures taken together at Studio One in the mall. They looked like models on a photo shoot! It was so fun and the pictures turned out fabulous.

From left is Judy, Grandma Martinez and Katelyn.



Grandma Martinez, Jadyn and Katelyn




I was able to enjoy a weekend at a beautiful hotel with some of the ladies in our family who could get away. It was my off week of chemo!! We had a great, relaxing time, and I had a VERY good facial. One of the rooms in the spa was a "slumber room". It was dark, with a soothing fountain and super-comfortable lounging chairs. I definitely "slumbered".

On the left are myself and Sandy; my Grandma and mom are on the right.



There was also great food. During breakfast, a magician roamed amongst the tables and came to ours; he amazed us all! We are still trying to figure out his tricks.



One of the other nice things about the hotel was everything we wanted to do was indoors. That is a great thing because it has been raining non stop here in our area! We have had more rain this year so far than the average for the entire year. Here's a view from the hotel room of clouds rolling in yet again!




I start round 5 of chemo today. I had a good visit with my doctor (Hayley) who was pleased with my progress. In general, I have very little side effects to medicines she gives me. Sometimes she shakes her head saying, “No mouth sores, no tingling in the hands and feet? None? Nothing?” It is moments like this where I am so thankful and humbled at what little complications I have. At times, when I am feeling down, with a raw stomachache from chemo, I wish I did not have to ever feel like that again. But, then, days like today, I am feeling good and get to hear that I could be feeling a lot worse. Thank you God for big blessings. I can be thankful for chemo that works, and smart doctors who prescribe it. Mostly, I am thankful for one who gets me though the bad days. I serve an amazing God!

We had a fun 4th of July with family and friends. A lot of us went to the local parade downtown in the morning. A friend of ours always wakes up very early to save some great seats for the parade. The past two years we have joined them, and Jake wakes up early too. He says that it is pretty special to be up that early (5 AM!) and watch everyone setting up their seats for the parade. He also gets some good quality guy time!

Therefore, our seats were great: we had a great front row view, we were in the shade, had no rain, and we made some fun memories. 14 of our family were able to enjoy the parade this year. My favorite memory last year was when a clown came up to us and SO seriously said, “This is not a joke, where is the end of the parade?” I guess if a clown needs to ask a serious question, one must preface it with saying ‘This is not a joke!’ We could hardly keep from laughing. Well, this year, every time we saw a clown, I looked to one of my aunts and said, “I am not joking!”



More good memories were the flying Elvis’ on mini motorbikes, and critiquing the floats as we are planning to enter a family float next year (all 30+ of us, so get ready!) I am SO kidding!



Aunt Jacque with Kaylee and Zander



Jadyn and Bryn



Cousin Ryan in from New York



Family at the parade, cousin Mark (in yellow) is visiting from New York too!



Hope, Matt, Austin and Baby Ella




After the parade, we had a nice lunch at my Grandma’s house, followed by setting off fireworks. Usually we go watch fireworks, but we had the opportunity to set them off ourselves at Zander and Kaylee’s Nina and Grandfather’s house. It turned out to be so much fun! Jake and Matt (my sister Hope’s husband) were busy keeping all of us highly entertained. We have our favorites picked out for next year (the butterfly, the bumblebee, and the cuckoo are some) and hope it can be a new tradition!

Watching the fireworks!



Ryan, Katelyn and Corbin



Sparklers!--We were very careful--no burns!




Aunt Pam and Mark



Aunt Sandy and Jadyn




We are busy firming up plans for our first ever all-family vacation to Oklahoma next week. There will be 31, 32 of us…I loose count! We have 5 cabins by the lake. Right after I send this blog, I am going to make sure they are not flooded from all this rain we have received lately. My doctor said when I told her where we were going, that she heard every city in Oklahoma had been declared a national disaster area!! I’ll let you know ☺

I'm annoying!

I have been feeling much better over the last two days. Katelyn's Grandma Martinez and friend Judy came for a visit. We saw them yesterday and will again today. We have all had a good time visiting! I will post pictures later.

I was trying to talk to Bryn about what I wanted her to do, probably clean her mess, but I can't recall. Bryn went running to her room, and yelled back, "I'm annoying!" I said, "What??" "I'm annoying!" she said again. Jake and I looked puzzled and then realized she was saying "I'm ignoring!" Either way, I say ignoring me is pretty annoying, but pretty funny too!

Vacation Bible School

This past week we all had a fun time at Vacation Bible School. Jadyn and Bryn attended, and Katelyn and I helped teach. Katelyn was in with the three year olds. She is such a good helper. The adults in her room were so thankful to have her and I know the children had a fun week. I was with 3rd grade crafts. We have four 3rd grade classes that come to us each day to do a fun craft. We have back-to-back classes, but we have a lot of fun. I get the opportunity to work with some of my very good friends. And, this year I got the special treat of having my mother work with me. The theme was “Game Day”, a sports theme. We talked about heroes and how we can be a hero for God.




I had chemo Thursday, and now I have a week off. I don't have to go back until July 5th! It is a welcome break. This round was harder on me than the past two. I know they have a cumulative effect, but I am not too sure that I don’t have a little stomach bug mixed in for good measure. It is hard to tell.

My favorite story happened Saturday and it might be hard to retell. I was relaxing at my grandma's house in the afternoon, due to the before mentioned not feeling well. It was getting pretty hot in her living room and several of us that were there all took turns fiddling with the air conditioning control unit. It did not seem to be clicking on at all. We would hold the button down to lower the temp. We would press every button on the high tech control panel, but nothing happened. My grandma said that she always has problems with it, and she wishes that controls were easier to maneuver. We finally gave up and headed to a back bedroom where they have a different, and working, unit. I said that I thought she should have someone come out to look at it, and while they were there, she should go ahead and have it replaced. Grandma said so calmly, "Well, it's only 4 or 5 years old." She thought I meant to replace the whole unit; I wanted her to replace the control panel with something easier for her!!! I could hardly contain myself, with grandma thinking that I thought she should replace her air conditioning unit costing thousands of dollars after only 4 years :)

Laughter is often the best medicine. I promise I felt better after laughing so hard!

Records and Wackos

I had chemo today without issue. My counts were in the low range of normal. I will have my sister Hope give me the shots at home Friday and Saturday afternoon to boost my red blood count. I'll let you know how it goes.

We had a good day of running errands and dentist appointments...

We also had a good dinner with a friend and his fiancé. We ate at a Hibachi restaurant where the chef chops, cooks, and entertains you at your table. The girls have a lot of fun at these restaurants, only Bryn is a little frightened with the large fire displays. I can see why. We have preached at the girls their whole lives to not play with matches, and stay away from the stove and oven. Yet, here we are clapping along to a fire display just one foot in front of us!

We always read a story to the girls at bedtime. It was Jadyn's turn to pick a story and she came in with a well loved (used) version of Snow White. A few years ago, Jake's mom sent him a bunch of his old books, and I am sure this was one of them. Anyway, this happened to be an old book on tape, or more accurately, book on record. Jadyn came walking in with the strange, large, flat, black object in her hand. "What is this??" she asked us. We told her it is a record (a '45') which is like a CD that plays music and tells the story of Snow White. Jadyn repeated, "A record?" Bryn tried out the new word, "A wack-o?" No, a record...as in we were wacko to think records would last forever, and wonder how long CD's will last. Can mommy say Blue Ray disk?

Technology is passing me by...
Jess

Hoarse

If anyone has recently spoken to me on the phone, they think I have just woken up! That is because I am losing my voice and very hoarse, I think due to a cold. Yuck! It's hard not to talk so much. Actually, I don't think I have slowed down to much in the talking department; people just have to listen harder to hear me!

I go for chemo this afternoon. I am hoping that my counts are high enough for treatment and my cold has not affected things too much.

Also, I started back on my pain patch (I was able to stop all pain meds earlier) to see if my limp would improve. I don’t think it has, but I will give it a little more time to work.

Jadyn was mad at me yesterday. I am sure it was for a good reason, but I can't recall at the moment. We had just played the "I love to...game" in the morning (i.e. I love you to the moon; I love you to heaven and back...) and so when we were in the car later in the afternoon, Jadyn said "I am mad at you all the way to Mars!" I tried not to laugh at her sweet self! Then, she continued "Right now, I am rolling my eyes at you a lot!" I lost it! We all started laughing. I guess being in the back row of the van, she wanted me to know just how mad she was. My very verbal, emotional, sensitive, beautiful Jadyn!

Jess

Feeling great

Well, here we are on Sunday and I am feeling very good! Usually when I have chemo on Thursdays... Saturdays and Sundays are sluggish, yucky days. But, this weekend was nice. A direct benefit of fervent prayer! I was able to get insurance aproval to take shots at home. This week after chemo, I will be able to give myself red blood cell boosting shots instead of traveling to Dallas just for a shot.

We had a fun visit with Jake's mom who had a few days layover in the area. The girls enjoyed catching up. Grandma Satterlee brought the girls beads and stretchy string and they were entertained for hours...days even!

Katelyn finally got back from her (6th grade) D.C. trip. We all missed her terribly. She had a blast. Here are a few pictures from her Aunt Sandy who got to go too. I have Katelyn's pictures being developed now, however I can be rest assured that half of her multiple rolls of film involve people sleeping, random squirrels, and hotel room antics.






We have another fun week coming up. I hope you do too!!
Take care,
Jess

Doctor today

Today my Aunt Jacque went with me to the doctor! I loved having her along and catching up. We NEVER get to talk without the patter of little feet under foot!

Dr. Hayley said good news on the scan results…no new spots! She is always pleased when there is no growth in my organs. She saw minimal growth in my hip, and the other spots in my bone were still there, but remain unchanged. I went ahead and had a round of chemo this afternoon, my 4th. Because my counts are not high enough to treat with chemo for too long, I will get to have shots to boost my blood cells after round 5+. The good news is that these shots can be administered at home. I will probably ask my sister Hope to come over and give them to me (thanks nurse Hope!).

Dr. Hayley also took two vials of blood for another test called a circulating tumor marking test. She will get a baseline today and repeat with I see her in one month. She can then see if the markers are going up or down. From what I can tell, if they go down, we will continue on the same treatment. If they go up, we will reassess.

I have had a good last few days. I had fun swimming with Jadyn and Bryn early in the week and realized that I have a lot more mobility in the water. I will have to do this more often, as it felt good to play so much with them and be so active. We take little things for granted...

Jake's mom is coming into town late tonight and gets to stay for a short visit until Saturday. We are excited to see her!

Have a good weekend,
Jess

One more...

Okay, I realized that in an effort of fairness to all my precious girls, I should post a recent picture of Jadyn and Bryn. These were taken at a Hawaiian dress up day at church. They sang a few songs, and as always, posed for the camera!

Family, friends, and 'doubba-ya' too!

I know I told you that Katelyn "graduated" from elementary school, but I did not have time to post pictures. She got a little sad with her friend Katie. Then, there is a picture with a great group of her best friends. The last photo is of Corbin, Katelyn, Mrs. White (assistant principal) and Aunt Sandy (principal).





We have had a good week. I actually had a week off chemo due to a miss-count on my part. I am an English major, not math! Actually, the week I had to skip because my counts were low, I later found out, still counted as round 2. So, I was supposed to have this week off all along. It was a mixed blessing because I still had to make the trek to Dallas for radiation. I have decided that radiation wipes me out. I have very little energy. However, I now feel like I am on the upswing. The other blessing is that I did not have to have radiation (feeling tired) and chemo (feeling sick) on the same week!

Okay, enough about that. This week, was filled with time with family and friends. We had a fun Memorial Day cookout with our family. Then, I got to see my favorite babies Jace and Ella Tuesday. They are growing so quickly. Actually, Ella still looks smaller than my children were when they were born, but she is still growing! Jace looks like he could just sit right up, even though he is still so young. In this picture, the moms are holding each other's babies (in case that was not incredibly obvious!)



This weekend, one of my best friends from high school came into town. Nicole is a wonderful, inspiring artist and some of her work was opening in a Dallas art gallery. This work focuses on the Salton Sea in California. I am so proud of her! I was able to go to the opening Friday night, and then took the family to meet her and her mom for breakfast Sunday.

An interesting story of how I found Nicole, as we haven't seen each other for 8 years. I felt this urge to track her down and went to classmates.com and searched for her name. I did not have a "gold membership" (racket) to make any contact. So, I tried a few other ways without luck and decided her email was definitely worth the 3-month subscription price. Although I abhor the process classmates lures you into, I love that we reconnected. Growing up, I always had one or two close friends. (It's hard for me to understand my 12 year old Katelyn having dozens of pretty close friends!) Not me, though. I had many friends in different circles, but I spent the majority of my time with Nicole and Jennifer. I cherish our memories. I know that we will keep in contact. Here is a picture we took Sunday.



The other day, we were in the car and Jadyn was reprimanding Bryn on how to say "W". She said, "Bryn, don't say 'double-u', say 'doubba-ya'!" I started cracking up, which the girls do not like at all. When I could contain myself, I told Bryn that either way was okay! Jadyn said that she hears people say 'doubba-ya' all the time! Only in Texas :)

Have a good week!
Jess