Port Aransas, Rangers Game and everything in between...

Last MONDAY, Go Rangers...
April 9th, the firm gave us tickets to their suite. It was awesome.
We invited a few of our friends and had so much fun! We LOVE the Rangers.



My boys LOVE their sports!!
Atticus is wearing his personalized Rangers jersey. Thanks Tiff!!

Atticus.. Emery.. Ethan..

The Qualls.. Stevens.. Hansens.. and us!

The kids watched maybe 5 minutes of the game then played played played!

Nacho time...

Two of my sweet sweet friends: Tori and Jocelyn (we missed you Jene)

Our Ranger lovin' family...

..LOVE..

Chunk was in a particularly goof mood this night!

 

You can't help but be happy around this boy!

 

Last TUESDAY...

Mrs. Cherry dropped off Cosmo! Atticus was so excited.

He and Mrs. Cherry created a special caterpillar wave!

Last WEDNESDAY
Isaac has decided that he is a big boy and that he can and should climb stairs wherever he sees them. I fear I am going to have my hands full with this one! He is waaaay too brave! 

 

 

 

last THURSDAY
Port Aransas
April 12-15th

When we made our "Adventure List" we had no idea that we would get such an incredible response to it. And did NOT expect or anticipate so much participation. Our ice cream truck adventure, totally taken care of... we just showed up. Our sea world adventure... we just showed up. Our beach adventure... we just showed up. I don't know if we will ever be able to properly express the gratitude that fills our hearts! We are so very thankful. So so thankful.

Mrs. Cherry (have you noticed she is our newest family member...) informed me a few weeks back that a sweet sweet family whom wanted to remain completely anonymous wanted to provide our family with our "beach adventure." OK, seriously that doesn't not even begin to scratch the surface. They got us a beach tent, beach chairs, hot dog roasting sticks, marshmallows, firewood, beach toys, bubbles, activity books for the kids for on the drive, the most incredible beach house, AND arranged for a photographer to take family pictures on the beach Saturday evening! Are you completely shocked? I was and still am.  I cried my eyes out when she told me. A perfect stranger went through all this trouble taking time out of their lives to arrange everything everything for my family and went through great measures to make sure they stayed anonymous. Pretty incredible. Kind hearted Christ-like people still exist and we have been lucky enough to have them bless our lives. 

Attn: sweet family.... there are HUGE stars by your name in Heaven! And humungo-bungo stars in our hearts! We love you.

The amazaing Beach House...

 

Atticus was beyond excited! It may have been 1 am when we got there but it didn't matter. This boy was EXCITED. Once we pulled in the drive way, he woke up... eyes wide eyed and said with much enthusiasm, "We're at the BEACH!" We went inside checked out the house and he said, "Look!! It's our own kitchen and our own TV. And look mom, our own place mats!" Then he said, now keep in mind it's about 1:30 am now, "So fam.... what should we have for dinner?!" Eric and I busted up!

Unfortunately, our beach adventure didn't work out as planned. We got to Port Aransas around 1am Friday morning. We were all excited and partied until 2am then went to bed! We woke up around 8am. Atticus was pretty emotional. His head was really hurting him. I gave him his morning meds and  got him some Tylenol then we decided to walk to the beach before breakfast. The beach house was only 5 houses away from the boardwalk! It was beautiful. The sand was so soft. It is one of the only beaches that still allows cars to drive on the sand. A few people were camped out; Atticus thought it "cool." It was pretty windy and sand was getting in Atticus' eyes which was frustrating him so we didn't stay too long. Just long enough to dip our toes in the water, chase a few birds, and watch the bulldozers move some sand! 

Chasing the birds....

He was very impressed with the big sand hills!

"Hooray! We made it to the beach!"

 

 

The boys...

Isaac made himself right at home and went straight for the stairs.
By the way... he and that toy screw driver and inseparable. He LOVES it.

 

Atticus and his silly personality.
He cracks all of us up- including himself!

 

So here's the bummer.... As soon as we got back from the beach and about 10 minutes after these goofy pictures were taken, his head started hurting more and got the chills. He was freezing. We got him comfy on the couch cuddled up in a blanket next to daddy and I started breakfast. Then came the vomiting. I don't even know how many times, but it was a lot. It scared him. Poor guy couldn't get a break to breath! I stayed calm but inside I was panicking. All of his symptoms can be symptoms of hydrocephalus (swelling of the brain- they have been concerned of that in the past). He has been really tired this week. Like excessively tired. Napping 2-4 hours a day and going to bed early sleeping 12+ hours. But no fever, runny nose, stuffy nose, yucky eyes.. so we weren't too concerned. Anyway, we called the Oncology office. Thankfully Amanda (Onc. RN) has a lot of patience because not joke, I dropped the call 5 times. So annoying. She spoke with the Doctors and they said that if we were in Sunnyvale at home they would have us come in but since we weren't to DOUBLE his Decodron (steroid) hold off on the Temodar (chemo) and Valproic Acid (seizure med) until he is seen. They said we could stay and try to enjoy ourselves but when Atticus threw up again, we knew we couldn't. If Atticus did need to go to the ER we didn't want to go to one that was unfamiliar. We wanted to go to Medical City where we know them and they know us. We really didn't want to leave but felt it the right thing to do. We wanted to play at the beach, build a sandcastle, roast marshmallows, get family pictures, but Atticus' health comes first and we needed to go home. So... Eric bathed the boys, I cleaned up vomit and re-packed the cooler and food bin and we said our goodbyes to the beach. At 12:45pm we were backing out of the drive way and heading home.

Thankfully (I guess thankfully) Atticus slept almost the entire way. He felt so crummy.

We had a throw up bag ready, meds easily accessible, and lot's of movies.
He's one incredible little boy! We are so proud of him

Isaac? Such a blessing. He is such a good baby. Dang near perfect. He did great. A few fits here and there but considering we basically just got out of the car to get right back in, he was super!

 

The drive home took us a little longer (more necessary stops) and got home around 9pm Friday night.

We were in Port Aransas for 7 sleeping hours and 5 waking hours with a grand total of 12 hours. We were in the car 17 hours round trip! Not so fun. BUT it was a great opportunity for Eric and I to catch up and we talked and talked. 

last SATURDAY

I know I say this a million times and  Im sure will say it a million times more but I have the most AMAZING friends. Like friends you can only dream of. One of my sweet friends text me to let me know that Atticus had a surprise in the backyard, that since we couldn't go to the beach, the beach came to us! Im such a bawl baby, Im totally tearing up typing this. It seriously made Atticus' day. His exact words were, "Look Mom! The elves came! And they brought me the beach!"

I love you Jene, Tori, Kayla, Kaity, and Meagan.
 Thank you for putting this smile on my boys face!!

 

 

Let the fun begin!
At our "beach" undies are totally acceptable!!

 

He was pretending to be a pirate digging for buried treasure and told me he was digging all the way to China. He kept saying, "Be this the Spanish main?.... No! It's North Beach!" He was quoting the book, "How I became a pirate" from his cousin's Parker and Emmie. It's a favorite.


Double trouble. Chunk had a great time too. And he only ate one handful of sand, realizing it doesn't taste too good!

I LOVE this one (below)... this makes me really emotional! I hope Isaac will have some memory of Atticus and how much fun they had together and how much his big brother loved him. Now Im really crying. Sometimes my heart just breaks. I don't want this to happen. I really really don't. But on the same hand Im grateful I know in advance that's its happening so I won't have any regrets. Or hopefully won't. I LOVE my boys together. I love them so much. So so much. They are my world. I wish so much I could take Atticus' cancer from him. I would do it in a heart beat. I would do anything to save him from this. Oh you guys, it breaks my heart. I never knew a heart could break like this. Please pray for strength. I need it. I need my Atticus and need strength to make it without him.

 

Sorry about that little break down.. It happens quite frequently :)

 This is my first time growing tomato's so I am very excited that they are a success.
Unfortunately Atticus was also excited and he picked every last one!  

TODAY: MONDAY April 16th

Atticus is doing much much better. He is still really tired but his appetite is coming back and he has not thrown up since Saturday. We visited with the docs this am and He just had a bad stomach virus. They gave us the go ahead to start chemo and seizure meds  and want to see them next week. This weekend was a reminder that no matter where we are, we have to be ready to pack 'em up and move 'em out. Everything revolves around Atticus' health. It takes first priority. Always.

In all honesty... I do not want to start chemo again. Im dreading it in fact. It has been so nice having a break from it. It complicates things.

Here's why...

1. It has to be taken on an empty stomach so we have to "close" the kitchen by 5:30-6pm so that he can take it right before bedtime 7:30-8pm. Steroids and no eating are not a good mix and we just had to increase the stupid steroid.

2. Twenty minutes before he takes the chemo he has to take Zofran to help with the nausea. SO.... Monday-Wednesday he has to take 4 medications in the morning and 5 medications at night. Thursday- Sunday: 3 in the morning and 4 at night. And that's not including Tylenol or Lortab as needed. Just incase you are wondering, I have a spreadsheet that I print off each week so I can check off the meds as he takes them. He's basically a walking pharmacy :)

3. We have to start worrying about blood counts again and what he is exposed to. Nasty germs!

4. Last but not least, He hates it. He of course takes it like a champ but each bite he shivers with yucky taste and gets the chills. 

At least this time its not every night, just five nights of the month. SO... get your thinking caps on and pass on any good ideas to make med time a fun time! Leave a comment or email me!

Just a side note, the Valproic Acid prescribed (seizure medication) is not because seizures are a side effect of his cancer but because studies have shown this particular medication to have a positive response on the DNA. So we are giving it a shot.

FUNNY/CUTE things ATTICUS has said...

1- In his prayer, "Please bless all the people in the world that they can stay healthy."

2- Another time in his prayer when Uncle Dustin was here, "Please bless Daddy and Uncle Dustin to wake up happy and not fussy!"

3- "I know!!! Let's cook something on the grill!" It was 7 AM.

4- He was being my sous chef and always tries to convince me to give him a real knife, "Mom, you know what? I don't think my little white knife (a plastic kid knife) is sharp enough for this job!"

5- "Ohhhh! I LOOOOVE my pork products!" And its true. He really really does :)

6- Playing baseball with daddy, he runs back in the house and said to me, "Hey! Do you want to be my water girl?"

7- We were playing and he wanted to battle with the light sabers so I started singing the Darth Vader song when he said, "Hey... don't sing that song. Your princess Leia!"

8- I need to preface this one with this, Atticus has an incredible ability to turn on "accents" at any given moment. And it is Hil-arious... So, He was eating breakfast when he said, in his southern drawl, "Bathroom break time. Then you can wipe my bottom! (the blessed job of mothers).... "But first-- I need to show you THIS ..." (he pulls down he shorts exposing his green lantern undies and proceeds to stick his booty out and shake it).  I laughed so hard I cried. Where does this kid come from! He seriously cracks me up!

Our next adventure is Broken Bow, Oklahoma. My sister Stacie and her family come in Tuesday (tomorrow!!!) my mom and brother come in Wednesday then my sister Jenny and her family come in friday night. We rented a cabin from Thursday to Monday! It is going to be So-Much-Fun! I cannot wait. After that we are going to get a sense of norm back and fingers crossed get some good naps in!

Oh... one more thing! This has been on my mind A LOT. I have tried really really hard to send thank you cards to those who have sent Atticus and our family cards, pictures, packages, and well wishes. I know I have missed people. More than I would like and the guilt is killing me. SO.. If you have sent us something and did not receive a thank you card from us please know how grateful we are! They have been days when Atticus has not felt well and your letters pictures and packages have been the only thing to lift his spirits. We are truly grateful. So very very grateful. 

What made me think of this was watching Atticus at church. A "Stranger that is now Friend" sent Atticus his very own scriptures and he loves them. Then I got a huge pit in my stomach, "I don't think I sent them a thank you card." 

I love all of you. Your love and support gives us strength you will never know. Please don't think us ungrateful. If I could squeeze each and every person that colored him a picture or sent him a post card or gift I would. I would tell you what a difference you have made in our life. How you have made me want to be a more giving and selfless person. How you have brought happiness to my Atticus and Isaac (Isaac is all about the boxes!!) Thank you! From the bottom of my heart thank you.

xoxo, Cindy