Katelyn and her new teacher, Mrs. Gunn on the first day of school (all her 6th grade teachers dressed up like they were at the Oscars, and the students were the stars!) 

Katelyn enjoying her Grandpa Bob and Grandma Cindy in Oregon. 

Relaxing in Portland,OR on vacation this summer 

School Starts Tomorrow

Jess and I have agreed for one of us to post at least once a week now that school is starting back up again. Katelyn and I are a little excited about school starting. I would be more excited except that it usually takes me about a week to get back into the swing of things. For those of you who are not teachers it is kind of like having a week to prepare for waking up one morning and finding out that your darling child has been cloned and you now have 120+ kids which take turns (30 or more at a time) rotating through your house.

Jadyn on the other hand is very excited and very ready to start school. She will be going to afternoon Pre-K at Corey. I think the two things she is most excited is her backpack and the outfit she has picked out to wear the first day of school. Her eyes have been shining with excitement followed by extensive giggling whenever the subject of school is brought up.

The other big news in our lives is that Jess got a job with Texas A&M. The job is perfect for her. She is going to be observing four student teachers throughout the metroplex (each one is in a different school district) who all go to A&M. The two great things about this job is Jess will be able to use her degree and classroom experience and get to work with college students (which she loves doing).

A happy doctor, and a happy patient

Hi there!
I just went to see Dr. Hayley yesterday. I did not even know I had an appointment, but when I went in for an infusion treatment of Avastin, they said I did. I must have scheduled it a month ago and it just happen to fall on a time I was already scheduled to be there! How convenient. It was great to talk to her because she really helped me resolve some things with my shoulder. She looked over my scans again and did a hard (ouch!) physical exam of my shoulder and does not think it is cancer related at all! Yea!! She had some ideas for the swelling related to activity or my port. Both of which are not going to be treated. She did say massage might help (hint for Jake, Sheltons or Daired's:) Unfortunately, I think she just meant me massaging and icing it myself. I might have to get clarification! I do have a tumor spot on my clavicle causing some swelling, but she said the scans showed that to be so slight, she is not concerned about that either. She gave me some pain meds and I will have new scans in September. I am going to tell myself to get over it! Everyone has some aches and pains associated with....living, not just cancer.

So, my attitude is better, I am feeling good, and we are all going to be okay. (I am adding this line in there, because some people cannot tell how things really are and assume the worst. You can't tell how someone is saying something via a typed message. I am thinking about adding a pod cast, so you can see my smile!)

We are school shopping and trying to get used to a school schedule. I say trying because I am writing this at 7:30 Texas time and I am in a quiet dark house as all the girls are sound asleep. It is that tug of convictions...one, I love a quiet house; two, I know that starting Monday, we will have to be out the door by this hour. My mom took Katelyn out clothes shopping Sunday and I picked Jadyn up some school clothes yesterday, and little Bryn just put her dramatic hand over her eyes, buried her head in the pillow and cried, "What do I get to try on?" Not to worry, a guilty mom will be looking for a cute play outfit today while we are out!

Ahoy Matey

The tumor at the base of Jessa's collar bone has really started to bug her. It hasn't had much effect on limiting her activities-- it would have to be pretty severe to stop her, but it has had a noticeable effect. She and I have switched sides on the bed because it hurt to roll on her side and snuggle. Please pray that the pain abates.

Katelyn is starting 6th grade the week after next for her last year at Wood. We were also able to financially qualify for Jadyn to got to Pre-K at Corey Elementary (Wood doesn't have Pre-K). Jadyn going to Pre-K is absolutely wonderful because she loves learning. Just about every day we do "homework." We work on letter sounds and do math. Right now we're working on simple addition and the letter "x." I think she is going to do absolutely fabulous in Pre-K. Since Jadyn will be doing Pre-K in the afternoons, Jess is really looking forward to spending some extra time with Bryn. With three girls it's not often she gets one-on-one time with any of them.

Jadyn and Bryn got in a theological discussion a few weeks ago. I don't remember if I've already posted it or not. Jadyn thought that God was able to be everywhere at once (sound doctrine), but she also thought he had two eyes with which he could see everything. Bryn on the other hand thought he could only be in heaven and had only one eye. She covered one eye to demonstrate and said he was a captain. In other words a PIRATE captain. Jess and I of course that this hilariously funny from the funniest person I know, but today Jess found a passage in the bible that talks about God being a captain. I'll have to get her to tell you which one because I don't remember which one. I'm pretty sure however that it doesn't talk about him being a pirate.

3-0

We had a wonderful trip family get-away to Portland where we experienced three things foregin to us in Texas this time of year: snow covered mountains, low humidity, and pleasant temperatures. Jessa's dad and stepmom were wonderful hosts and made us feel like family (which is good because we are). Katelyn's favorite thing was a horseback ride, Jadyn's favorite thing was bike riding (she rode on an "alley cat" bike extension that attached to mine), and Bryn's favorite was eating ice cream.
I turned thirty last Friday which is pretty exciting-- I have a whole another decade of things to experience. One of those things was starting soccer Tuesday-- from which my legs are still sore from.
Jess started a brand new medicine on Monday-- one that has just been approved for her type of cancer. This one fights the blood vessels that the cancer cells have created to feed themselves. Pray strong for her as Jess is a strong fighter who needs you to fight alongside her.

The girls together.

All smiles in AZ! 

Happy Slurpee Day!

It's hard to have a bad day when you can enjoy a 7.11 oz free Slurpee from 7-11 all day long on today 7-11! Jess just spent the last 5 days with her aunts, mom, and grandmother in Scottsdale, Arizona. What an awesome time it is when treatment means facials and spas and not radiation and chemo. The trip I think was really good for Jess. UT-Southwest has goofed a little bit lately: they gave her a wrong scan (she didn't need a bone density scan) and gave her two weeks of radiation on her spine instead of two days on her rib. She also has two unwelcome tumors: one a little bit further up on her spine and one on her left rib. Dr. Haley was not very happy about the goof-ups she has always been adamant that Jess get the best treatment available. Jessica's medicines are going to be switched around a bit: there is a new medicine that has passed the clinical stages and it about to be released in the next few weeks.

We leave tonight for Portland, Oregon for ten days to see family. We are really looking forward to rest and renewal: both Jess and I have been exhausted. I appreciate so much your prayers: there has been a renewed movement of people praying for us the last two weeks. The really cool thing is that it hasn't been orchestrated by us, but rather God has been impressing on several people that now is the time to pray. Nothing is impossible with God, so ask BIG.

All done!

I received a certificate as I left the radiation office yesterday. It was for completing my radiation therapy treatments!!

I already feel better. I do not know if it is psychological or not, but my stomach feels better too. Jake asked me if it felt good to be done. I said it did, but I do have to make the trek to Dallas two more times next week. One for a muga test on my heart to make sure it is back to post-chemo/radiation condition. And one to meet with Dr. Hayley to hopefully go over all the tests I have been having and follow up with her on my continued treatment. Then, I cannot possibly go to any more appointments as I will be out of town until late July!! Yea :) I will love the break, and the kids are so excited.

During my last week of radiation, my mom would come get the kids and take them for dinner. It was a big help so I could rest after treatment. The girls, however, think it now happens every night. Last night Jake made dinner and Bryn said, "I want to go with grandma. I'll wait."

A cousin of a friend has been on my heart lately, her name is Jennifer. Her cancer is pretty serious; please pray for her, her doctor's and her family.

Radiation Week 2

This past week, I have been going into Dallas each day for radiation treatment. It has been okay. I have realized, however, that when people say radiation is easy, they are comparing it to chemo. It is easy when you think of it that way. But, I guess I was expecting no side effects, so when I came home Monday tired and with a little upset stomach, I was surprised. It is that whole expectations thing; it's all a mind game! I have gotten used to the side effects enough to expect them with a healthy dose of realism. I take it easy in the afternoons (my treatment is always at 2:45) and that seems to help. I have one more week, and I should be done.

My shoulder/neck area has been a little bothersome lately, some days much worse than others. I had a sonogram last week to make sure the vessels around my port were open, and they were. (My shoulder is hurting on my port side.) I have a scheduled bone scan on Wednesday so the doctors are having me wait until then to see what the scan looks like. Please pray for relief.

Speaking of relief...thank you for all your prayers concerning my feet issues. The chemo pills I take have a hand/foot disease symptom that made my feet feel bruised and numb. But, this week, I have had very little discomfort. Hardly any, actually! That is a big praise and answered prayer as I know many of you were praying specifically for this.

We had a great weekend with Jake's mother and sister coming down for a visit. It was wonderful to see them, and the girls had so much fun with new faces to entertain and play with. I don't think Sarah (Jake's sister) told them no once during the trip. This says a lot when after a full day of activities, children's museum visits, shopping, etc...Jadyn still wants to go play outside in 95+ degree hot Texas heat. (Did I mention that Sarah is 6 months pregnant!?) Still, she answered the girls every whim of cards, dress up, books, playing.... Grandma Satterlee made us yummy homemade tortillas for tacos and pizza from scratch too. Yummy! They left early this morning.

As we were on our way to church, Bryn said loudly, "Wait!" I quickly turned to see what was wrong and she said, "We forgot to see Sarah's baby come out!" I guess we will have to wait 3 more months for that.

Sorry for not writing in so long. Hope you have a great week. We will keep you posted.

All marked up

Just a quick note today...

I went to the radiation oncologist yesterday to have my scan and get marked up. I thought that it would be a small blue freckle tattoo, and it was. But, you cannot see the tattoo as it is covered by big sharpie marker marks. I have about 10 marks on my body to line me up for the x-ray and treatment next week. And just so the marker would not wear off, they stuck tape on each mark!

The facility was great and all the technitions and doctors were so supportive as they explained each step to me. I feel very fortunate to be in good hands.

Well off to VBS...
Jess

Guy Week

Katelyn went to Ferdie's Soccer Magic Camp in McKinney last week. It really helped on her foot skills. In fact when she came home she taught them to me. I plan on teaching them to Jadyn's new soccer team in the fall (she is moving to on all girls team with Arlington Soccer Association in the fall). Also, Katelyn and I will both teach them to her team in the fall. Katelyn will be a great teacher if she decides to do that as a career-- she has a knack for explaining things. I started summer school last week and so far it is been pretty easy. I think it is all about expectation: I expected my first year of teaching summer school at the junior high level to be really hard; if I had expected them to be the best-behaved, most industrious kids I might be pulling my hair out right now.

Jess didn't want to make the hour and half trip each way to McKinney, so she and the kids spent the week in a hotel. I think Jess might have fallen in love with McKinney, it has excellent parks, good shopping, and victorian style housing. My mom came into town for a short stay on the way back from a conference to spend the middle of the week with them. I made a few trips out there during the week, but for most of the week I had the benefit of an all guy house. Most nights went something like this what movie should I watch... hmm... action movie. At least for a little while our tv was void of Barbie, My Little Pony, and Care Bears. I really enjoyed some time to myself, but I was glad when they came home Friday.

Jess will have a scan this week. It won't determine the size of her tumors, but rather it will be a scan to help them determine how and where to radiate. We are little nervous about doing something unknown-- even with assurances from people who have been through it before.

A friend of ours (Jeremy) brought a keg over tonight and we're going to let the kids have some. Of course it's just Virgil's Cream Soda. I didn't even know they put soda in kegs, but I can't wait to try some.

I'm sorry for the long wait for the blog this week. Keep praying for us.

X-Ray vision

Hi all!

Well, chemo just was not enough. I thought that, after all, if I am going to go through with this whole cancer saga, I might as well feel what radiation is like! I wouldn’t want to miss out on anything. Okay, well that is not really how it went…

I went to the radiology oncologist yesterday. Her name is Ann Spankler, and she has one of the best bed side manners of any doctor I have seen. She sat and talked with me for the longest time, answering all my questions with ease. She did not use one “doctor-ese” term, just explained the procedure, benefits, and side effects very clearly.

She has recommended that I have two rounds of radiation on my lower back and spine. Her goal would be killing the cancer cells that have accumulated and ease my back pain. It is a very small area to radiate (about the size of my fist) and so my side effects would be minimal. She mentioned nausea and tiredness, but said she would not be surprised if I had little to no side effects. When they scan and map out the area on my back they want to work on, they will tattoo a small blue dot that is the size of a freckle on me to pinpoint the area to radiate. My friend reminded my that my skimpy bikini would be out for the summer. I am so dissapointed, maybe next year! ha, ha...

It is a preventative procedure, so I have a lot of say into when and if I do it. I think after talking to Dr. Spankler and my family, it makes sense to start. It will try to begin my treatment the last two weeks in June. It will be Monday-Friday each week. She said from the time I make it into the office, the procedure should only take 15 minutes. She doesn’t know, however, that it will take 2 hours and 15 minutes because of my commute into her office! At first, I was dragging my feet at the prospect of driving all that way for 15 minutes, but after meeting with this doctor, I can’t imagine going elsewhere. And, it is only for 2 weeks. God is clearly in control. I like the new Carrie Underwood song, “Jesus, take the wheel.” I’ll be saying that literally as I make the commute. I know the people that drive into Dallas every day are rolling their eyes. Sorry, I’m spoiled with most of my life being so close by.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers; it was a very clarifying and good appointment. I will keep you updated on the progress.

School's Out for Summer

It feels great to be out of school for the summer. Other than Thursday I'm off the whole week and then I start teaching 8th grade English in summer school only for the month of June. I'm glad I'm off this week especially because Jess has a radiation consultation on Friday, so she can start radiation. The tumor that is going to be treated is on her back but not on her spine. It's actually the one on her rib and although you might normally think of your ribs as just being in the front of your body the tumor is on the backside of her rib. As far as I know the radiation isn't going to completely eliminate the tumor, but it should make her back start to feel a lot better.

It is already been a nuts week already for us. My car died on the way back from a YMCA waterpark in Fort Worth. I sent Katelyn into the convenience store to get some drinks for her and Jadyn (Bryn had already crashed) and didn't think about my wallet I had given her until much later. Jess came and picked me up and dropped me off at the house. When I realized my wallet was gone I made several trips back to the car: to the search my car, to talk to the convenience store clerk, even to scour a dumpster (Katelyn thought I might have thrown it away when I threw away the drink bottles). By my third trip up to my car I was furious with Katelyn. I got home Jess was still out and Katelyn with her. I was scouring the cabinets for something to eat when both Jadyn and Bryn had an accident in the kitchen. Very frustrated, I cleaned it up and made dinner (cream of mushroom soup and spaghetti noodls). As I was eating dinner God told me "Even if Katelyn finds your wallet, you won't forgive her." Realizing He was right I told him right back that I would forgive if her even if she didn't. Immediately the phone began to ring. It was Katelyn; she had found my wallet... under her foot.

Bryn has been her normal funny self. Bryn was wearing her Mini-Mouse costume (playing dress up is the yikes favorite activity) and playing with toys. Unfortunately she made a big mess. I asked her who made the big mess. She looked down at the mess and said, "Micky did it." Then when Jess took the girls out to eat at Chick-Fil-A, Jadyn and Bryn made some friends. Jadyn told Jess the name of her new friend. Then Jess asked Bryn what the name of her friend was. Bryn said, "I named my boy Jack."

Thank you for waiting for this post. Either Jess or I will post another one on Friday and talk about radiation and her next scan.

Latest news

Hi there!

I went to the doctor on Wednesday for a routine follow-up and treatment. My treatment will stay the same and Dr. Hayley saw no new "bumps" (as a friend's children call them!). I told her my back had been hurting and since I had the same symptom on my last visit, she sent me for an x-ray after my appointment.

It showed that there was accumulation of cancer cells on my last rib. It is not a new spot, just an active one. So, she suggested I have a few rounds of radiation on my back. It would alleviate pain and diminish the cells. I will let you know when that new adventure begins. I am not too nervous. I have heard of some side effects of radiation, but those have all been from women that have had 30+ rounds. I get the impression it will just be a couple (2-3).

We have had a busy weekend. I got to go see a movie with some friends Friday. Saturday after church, my mom watched the girls so Jake and I could have a much needed date night. We went to see the local high school musical, The Boyfriend, (which was phenomenal) and out to dinner.

The girls are all happy and well, keeping us laughing all day long. School is out Thursday for Jake and Katelyn so we are all anticipating a good, long break.

3 Day Walkers and Jessica Front row: Cousin Mandy, Jessica, Aunt Dianne; Back row: Mother Judy, Aunt Sandy, Sister Jennifer (not pictured: E.J.)

Ponies, Trampolines, and 60 miles

I was playing a My Little Pony matching game tonight with Jadyn and Bryn when I realized what an unfair adavantage they had over me. The object of the game is to match the two My Little Ponies that look alike together. Since they are all practically various shades of pinks and purples the only chance I had of matching them together was took look at the very small tushy tattoo they each have. Needless to say Jadyn and Bryn did a much better job of distinguishing "Sweetberry" (what in the world does that tatto look like) from Wisiteria (again no idea what that tatto is suppose to be) than I did. It's times like these when I realize Jadyn knows not only all of the Little Pony names, but also every stuff animal's name (including the last several names it has gone through) that I wonder why it is so dificult to memorize the times tables.

Jessa's dear friend Allyson's husband knew someone at work that was trying to get rid of a trampoline complete with safety fence (or whatever they call the WWF-like ring that is supposed to make it safer). I called up a friend at the last minute to help me and we lugged it over to our place (amazingly only about a block away) (thank you Claudio!). The only thing I wonder is with Bryn's medical track record is if the medical insurance knew would they still be willing to insure her?

Finally, I am posting the link to the 3-Day walkers who are walking in honor of Jess. It is:
https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=131565&lis=1&kntae131565=6F105B8C3199442FA0705DFF55379D15&supId=0&team=1223117&cj=Y
Obviously you will need to cut and paste it, but you can also go to Aunt Jacque's link www.the3day.org/dallas06/jacquecurtis. I still cannot grasp what it is like to go 60 miles in 4 days.