Time sure does fly by

This is a picture of all the bottles of medicine my mom takes on a daily basis. Some of these pills she will take two or three of them. Sometimes I wonder if by taking all of these drugs we're keeping her sick. I often wonder about all the interactions etc... Heart meds, lung meds, cancer meds, blood pressure meds, anti-depressants etc... AMAZING.

I just thought I'd post a pic of my mom and the kids. Poor mom, this is how Eden plays with her. She has to sit there and just hold all of the stuffed animals as Eden plays. Mom sure does look thrilled don't you think? LOL What a good sport.

Covie saw Dean's Oregon Duck hat and had to try it on. Travis said he had a rash from wearing some Yucky Hat on his head. LOL Travis's family are USF BULLS. So the thought that we'd be warping his son is just repulsive. : )

Speaking of Travis he turned 28 last week and we celebrated at our house with some Chili Verde, and birthday cake. Eden picked out the decorations. We did some Scooby Doo. And of course she had to have her own birthday cake too.

Aaron, Kelly and Evan took some time out to go to Epcot for the day to see the flower and garden show. They had a great time seeing all the topiaries. And of course Evan LOVED the cars topiary. And Riley Matthew will be here very soon. He's dropped and is ready to make his grand appearance. His due date is May 11, unless he decides to come a little sooner.

This is Evan watching a Disney movie. He was all laid back in the kid's recliner. What a hoot.

Dean celebrated his 48th birthday in March and Ashley made his cake since I had surgery the day before. She was so upset because the cake fell apart on the ride over. It was a really yummy cake.

I cleaned out my fridge and I turned around to find Covie sitting inside. What a riot. He thought this was a grand adventure. I was having a heart attack.

Covie riding his little motor cycle. He loves to be outside.

Ashley and Eden doing girl things. Rolling hair to make curls, and painting finger nails and toes.

And now I have my own "Goldie Locks". I love this picture.

North Carolina Friends!!

These are a little backwards, but it's ok. Laci Strickland came down from North Carolina to visit family and friends. And she had a little time and brought the kids over to spend the morning with us. It was raining, so we played on the back patio and inside. It was so nice for the kids to have someone else to play with. Eden even remembered that it was her friend Ella. Thanks Laci for the fun morning!! We love you guys! After everyone was done playing, we came in and had a some cake and juice. I had Eden help me make a valentine cake. But I didn't tell her why. I had Ella and Eden frost the cake and then everybody got to have a piece. The boys loved it and wanted more, but they hadn't had lunch yet. So when we told them all done, they both whined a little.

Eden and Ella eating their cake.

Ella and Eden playing together in the playhouse.

Eden and Ella on the teeter totter. At one point we had all four kids on it. They loved it.

Noah James throwing the soccer ball at me. What a cutie pie. A little shy though. : )

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!! This is Eden and Ella sitting for a picture. They know each other from reading the blogs. Eden will always ask who's that. They are only 3 weeks apart on age and so is Covie and Noah.

Covie playing on the slide.

We had a hard time getting these rambuctious one year olds to sit for a quick picture. I wasn't sure it was going to happen. LOL

Covie and Noah. Finally got them looking straight at me.

Randomness

We decided since it was raining we'd get out the good ol' playdough and have some fun.

Covie loves to play with playdough, but it's always a chore when you have to keep him from eating it. YUCKY!

Eden and I made flowers for her mommy.

That's the green frog I made for cove. He loves to play and then he smashes them to bits. He's definitely ALL BOY!

Aunt Kelly brought Evan over for a play date. We have a lot of fun. We ate pizza and we colored together. Eden loves to have her cousing Evan come to play.

Say "Cheese".

Eden laid down to take her nap and I just kept her doll house out for her to play with when she woke up. Well, Cove woke up and he got his alligator and decided to play Florida doll house. He had the gator knocking on the front door and then he went around and had the gator playing in the house. I had to grab the camera fast because the next thing I knew the gator was eating the baby and Cove was growling. LOL

Cove playing Doll House his way.

Ashley's best friend Megan came for a visit and they went to a concert in Orlando. So I got to watch the kids for the night and Megan had brough her son Ryder with her. So I got to have a sleep over with Eden, Covie and Ryder. This a picture after I finally got them to go to sleep around 10:30 pm.

Adam got a chance to go try out for an indoor Football league team in Oklahoma City, OK. So he had to quit his job at Abercrombie to be able to leave. So his last night at work this is what he came out to find. His employees left him their goodbye messages. LOL Too fun. He went to OK tried out, he was the smallest one there, but he did get a position, but he injured his shoulder and decided he wanted to come home rather than do permanant damage. So he's home and currently looking for a new job.

In January, Dean had a managers meeting in Denver and so he took a few extra days and flew up to Oregon to see his mama and Daddy. And his sister Donna came down to buy daddy's truck for our niece Shannon. So I told Dean to get a family picture of all of them. Daddy's health is getting a little more frail each year so Dean needed to go out to see them and I wanted to have a picture of them all now. Every day is a gift from God that He is still here with us. I married into such a wonderful, God loving family and I am blessed to be a part of them.

Dean's daddy. Richard Frank LaFollette. He's 83 years old. What a wonderful man he is. He took a fall last fall and is in a lot of pain in his back. He doesn't do much these days except sit in his chair. I love that man.

Busy-ness

They put a permanant port in her chest to be able to do blood draws and IV's for her. But when we left the hospital they forgot to pull everything out of her. They left in all the IV access tubing. Not a good thing. But I'm glad we have in-home nursing to be able to care for it.

This is the bottles of medicine that she has to take everyday. Needless to say I feel like a pharmacist. Too bad I don't get paid like they do.

This has been a crazy month. We've had a lot going on.

Mom's surgery was on December 20th and all went very well. She did really great. As a matter of fact she had an easier time with the mastectomy than she did with the lumpectomy. All seemed to go really well. She was getting up and down by herself and actually had a great attitude. We found out that the cancer has envaded the nodal fluid. So for now we are treating her with some medicine that she takes in a pill form. But she is having a really hard time with this medicine. It has caused her to bloat really bad, and it's caused her arthritis to be unbearable. We had to put her in the hospital last week due to not being able to breath. And now that we have her home she is struggling with moving and getting up and down, breathing is more labored. She seriously cannot be left alone in the house because she can't get up and down by herself.

I know I struggle because she's given up on life. She doesn't care if she's sick, she does't care to socialize with anyone. She just wants to lay in bed all day and feel sorry for herself. I find myself getting angry with her because she just won't try to come out with the family, she won't walk and do the things she needs to to help me. She's given up and so it's putting a lot of stress on me. I'm havin to pull her up off the bed to get her to move to the comode next to the bed, I'm having to roll her over in bed because she won't do it. She won't even pick her own feet up to put them in the bed. I'm exhausted and I know it's the right thing to do to help her but at some point when do I say I've had enough. I feel so guilty thinking about a nursing facility, but she isn't willing to do things for herself at all and I'm afraid I'm going to get hurt tryin to lift her 400 lb body. If I get hurt than who is going to take care of her? But I also know that elderly people just give up if they're put in nursing facilities too. So what to do?

"Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne...and find grace to help in good time for every need (appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it.)." Hebrews 4:16 AMP

Dear Father, please order my steps and guide me through each day. Give me wisdom as I continue on this caregivers journey.

Surgery on Monday, December 20th

We went to the surgeon yesterday to get mom's staples out and to set the date for the mastectomy. We waited forever for this doctor. He's never on time. Anywho, he finally came in and looked at the staples and said we'd do the surgery the first Monday after the New Year and he'd send in the nurse to remove the staples and put on some steri strips and he left. So we were waiting in the room not more than 3 minutes and the door popped back open and it was the surgeon again and he said that he changed his mind and he wanted to do it immediately. So he said he would do her surgery on Monday morning. "What?" Well, ok. So she is off her meds again, Dean is back giving her shots until Monday. I've had to rearrange not only my schedule but Ashley's schedule to fit in this surgery. So please keep mom in your prayers as we go back to Brandon Hospital on Monday, December 20th for more surgery. This time he's going to do the complete mastectomy. No nodes, but he will take both breasts and lets hope we're done with it. After that it will be at least 6 weeks of radiation everyday and then 5 years of tomoxifin.

Papa's babies!

Playing at Grandma's house makes Eden very tired. Actually she woke up from her nap and was still tired so she climbed up onto the couch and fell back to sleep.

Eden has to be just like Papa. Dean and Eden relaxing after a long morning of playing.

Dean and his shadow. Covie loves to follow Papa whereever he goes. This time it was helping to make some breakfast.

Eden's finished Gingerbread house with Papa.

Placing a few more candies on her house

Oh, Pop it needs some more. These two are quite the team!!

Surgery Update

Sorry for not posting sooner, but I've been very busy since Thanksgiving.

Mom, had to be taken off her blood thinners one week prior to her surgery. So every night we had to go in and give her an injection in her hip. Me being a little not sure of giving one shots, I delegated Dean to this duty and he gladly took it on. We had to go to the hospital 5 days prior to her surgery to get her registered for surgery and in patient care. So, we sat and got all the paperwork, bloodwork, and took x-rays to the radiology department. On Monday, November 29th we had to be at Brandon Regional Hospital @ 5:15 am. YAWN, that was a rough one. But we made it and got her in her room. The nurse had a heck of a time getting a vein for my mama. She has small, rolling veins and they always have a hard time. It took all three of us to get one going, but finally got one. They took her up to the radiology department and inserted the wires around the tumors so that the doctor would know where to go and they brought her back to her room to wait for the anesthesiologist (sp?). He came in at 8:15, talked to her about the procedure and then wheeled her back to the OR. At 11:30 we finally got the call that she was out of surgery.

They kept her in the hospital until Thursday and then sent her home. She was still extremely weak and was almost unable to walk. She has had a rough time gaining her strength back. She is finally able to get up and down out of bed by herself but is not able to walk a long distance without help.

We went back to the surgeon this week and we got the biopsy report. It looks like there is still more cancer in her right breast and they are going to have to go back and take more. The doctors recommendation is that he do a mastectomy. Right now mom is waivering back and forth about what to do. We just need prayers that she make the decision she is going to be most comfortable with. I know God has it all in his hands and I continue to pray for the strenth to get through this. I'm blessed to be able to walk beside my mother during this tough time and be her support system.

I'm scared about what's to come next. I had already moved my mind past surgery and onto radiation and now I must get back into the surgery mode. Just pray for us as we endure more tough decisions.