Pictures from the past couple of weeks

Sorry, it's too late tonight to make any decisions about which pictures to post, so I'm putting them all up.  :-)

These pictures are of Mosey's chicken turtle, "Annie," which he got in Lake Austin when he was fishing a week ago.  He's made a home for it in a big plastic box with water and rocks in it in the backyard.  It eats crickets and bloodworms, and is a very pleasant-tempered and cute little thing.

My boy is pretty pleasant-tempered and cute, too.  :-)

And here are the NOT so pleasant and cute fish that the boys caught that same day.  A couple of bluegill and a catfish.  Joseph helped to clean them, and Ben cooked them for lunch.

I couldn't believe how big the catfish's mouth was.  And it was still alive, after being out of the water for a couple of hours!  I get the heebie-jeebies when it comes to dead (or almost-dead) fish, so I snapped these pictures and quickly made myself busy elsewhere in the house.  :-)

In honor of Pioneer Day, we attempted to make butter this afternoon, using store-bought cream and jam jars.  For some reason, the butter refused to come together.  It stayed in a thick creamy state even after well over an hour of shaking, and finally resorting to the hand mixer.  I don't get it!  The boys spread it on their biscuits at dinner anyway, and it was good, especially with peach mango jam.
Here's Joseph with Grandma, trying her luck in getting the butter to set up.

And here's the family letter for the week.

Hi everyone,
This week has seemed like a loooooooong week.  I'm really glad to be on this side of it.  I remember last week thinking about this week and how my Houston trip and MRI would all be over.
My trip to Houston was fine.  My friend Stephanie picked me up at 5:00 AM and we headed out 290 toward the big city.  We stopped at a CVS on the outskirts of town, and was met with the soggy, humid air that is Houston in the summer.  I laugh when people in Austin complain about the humidity.  Have they never been to Houston in the summer?  Anyway, I was nervous and sick coming into town, like I always am.  It's a Pavlov's response at this point, I think.  I'll probably be sick and nervous every time I drive to Houston, regardless of the reason.  My neurology appointments at Baylor were fine.  I did the 30 foot walking test (with crutches), the finger dexterity peg test, the math test, and then had a battery of other physical examinations with Dr. Hutton.  And 11 tubes of blood drawn.  Then it was off to MD Anderson.  I had more blood drawn there, and then a long wait until my appointment with Dr. Popat at the stem cell clinic.  I went to the hospitality center where they have soft couches and free cookies for patients and read and dozed for a couple of hours.  At one point a mother and her young-20's daughter came in and sat on the couch opposite me.  The daughter was obviously sick, and lay on the couch with her head on her mom's lap.  It reminded me so much of when I was there with Mama after my transplant, coming in every day for bloodwork and doctor's appointments.  I spent a lot of time sleeping, or trying to sleep anyway, on MD Anderson couches.  I talked to them for a while after she woke up.  She has lymphoma and is from Austin, not far from where we live.  She had just received good news, though-- her tumors were responding to treatment, and she got the go-ahead to continue her treatments in Austin.  Hospitals are such funny places.  No one wants to be there, but there is definitely a sense of camaraderie whenever you strike up a conversation with someone.  Anyway, my 2:00 appointment didn't actually materialize until 3:30 when I spent approximately 30 seconds with Dr. Popat.  I had to wonder how in the world he got an hour and a half behind schedule when he only sees patients for 30 seconds!!  (I'm kidding-- I am most likely his simplest case and I don't hold the slightest grudge against him.  Oncologists are a special breed and I'm incredibly grateful for all that they do.)  I did talk more at length with his P.A., Richard Lindsey, who has been there since my transplant.  It's fun to see people that I recognize that who recognize me.  As I was leaving the stem cell clinic, the fire alarm went off!  I have no idea what it was about, but they close all the fire doors between corridors during fire alarms, so I was stuck in the hallway for about 15 minutes until it finally went off.  I was up on the 8th floor and did wonder what I would do if there really had been a fire and all the elevators shut down.  I'd be stuck, along with lots of other people.  Do they have protocols for getting mobility-challenged people out of hospitals?  Anyway, right after that, I got a call from the Children's Hospital telling me that I could come in early for my MRI.  Yay!  They're also usually running behind schedule, so my hour and a half wait for Dr. Popat was made up for by the hour and a half boost for my MRI.  The MRI was fine.  The same guy is at the desk at the imaging center that has been there for the past 3 1/2 years, and he remembered me., of course, being one of 3 adult patients in the Children's Hospital.  :-)  The MRI itself was fine, although the movie goggles weren't working.  They did have headphones, so I got to lay there and listen to a pretty good lineup of '80's songs for the hour and a half I was in the machine.  I told them they better have the movie goggles working by the time I come back for my follow-up MRI next month.  :-)
The drive home was uneventful, and we got back to Austin right about midnight, which was much better than I had anticipated, thanks to them moving up my MRI.
The next two days were spent in agonized waiting for the phone call about my MRI.  Dr. Hutton's nurse told me if the news was good, she'd call me, and if there was a problem, Dr. Hutton would call me.  So when I finally saw that 713 area code on my phone early Thursday morning, I knew that the results would be clear depending on who was on the other end of the line.  When Susan's voice came through, you can imagine the wave of relief that crashed over me.  So, I'm done with all that drama for another year and I'm so glad.  :-)
We went to pick up Mama from the airport on Wednesday afternoon, and having her here has been so wonderful.  She's done so much organization and cleaning, and spending special time with the boys.  I sure wish we lived closer.  It was fun having her at church today, too, mostly because I get to listen to her insightful comments during the lessons. 
We had a little pioneer day celebration this afternoon.  The boys played some songs from the children's hymn book.  Mosey was particularly proud of himself for his right-hand rendition of the Oxcart song.  He's got a really good sense of rhythm.  We made peach cobbler in the dutch oven, and attempted to make home-made butter.  We shook the heck out of that cream for an hour or more, but it never turned into anything other than a really thick whipped cream.  I've done some online searching, and I think part of the problem was that the cream was cold, straight out of the fridge.  Also I think heavy cream, instead of regular cream will probably work better.  I used the blender on it for another 15-20 minutes with no effect.  So I'm putting it in the fridge tonight and we'll see if anything happens over night.  The boys used it as clotted cream on their biscuits anyway.
We're leaving for Utah on Tuesday, so tomorrow will be a big day finishing up our projects, plus piano lessons and flute lessons and packing. 
I probably won't be able to write another family letter until we get back in a couple of weeks, so meanwhile, I hope everyone has an awesome week!

Love,
Gabrielle

I love my mom

The boys and I went to pick up my mom at the airport on Wednesday afternoon.  It's so great having her here!  My mom is a whirlwind of energy, and she's barely been still a moment since she got here.  She's helping me (and by "helping me" I mean "almost entirely on her own") organize my house. 

She spent the first couple of days working upstairs.  Upstairs scares me.  I don't get up there too often, and when I do, I'm reminded why I don't want to go back up there.  :-)  Since January, the boys have been responsible for their laundry.  I'm happy to do it, but they need to bring it downstairs, and then take it upstairs and put it away.  This has been met with varying degrees of success.  Well, I should be honest-- it hasn't been very successful at all.  :-)  I don't think my boys have been putting their clothes away at all, so the clean and dirty clothes get mixed up and no one knows what is clean and what is dirty.  My mom brought down piles and piles of clothes and did probably 10 loads of laundry,  no lie. 
And then she totally reorganized all the rooms upstairs, organizing our food storage, the boys' closets, and helping each boy organize his room so all of their things have homes.  She helped them go through all their clothes and cull out the too-small, stained, ripped clothes that have persisted in their wardrobes.  This takes such a load off my back.  Even though I know I really can't do anything about the condition of upstairs, besides encouraging the boys to stay neat, it still stresses me out to know that things are not orderly.

Today while I took the boys to violin lessons, she cleaned out the under-the-stairs closet space, sorting through all our suitcases and duffel bags and random stuff that accumulates back there.  She cleaned and organized under the kitchen sink, and my entire tupperware/mixing bowls/water bottles/play dough/random stuff cabinet.  The biggest job, though, was the play room, which has needed purging for a couple of years.  We have boxes of give-away stuff, and boxes of throw-away stuff.  I now have EMPTY shelves in the play room!!  This is truly incredible.  It was a big job and took most of the afternoon.  She's also managed to keep the kitchen totally clean, wash down all the little boy finger and hand prints on the walls, read to my boys every night, and practice flute with Joseph every day.  She is amazing.  She really, really deserves a day of rest tomorrow.  :-)

Thursday night, in celebration of my clean MRI, we went out to eat at Jason's Deli, and then went downtown to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the IMAX.  That was awesome.  I loved the movie, but I left with definite bittersweet feelings-- no more books OR movies!  I wonder if there will ever be a phenomenon like Harry Potter again.  It's totally unique because it's totally deserved!  I'm sorry all you Twilight fans out there, but the Twilight books cannot hold a candle to Harry Potter.  The Harry Potter books will forever be my very favorite series of books.  And I read a lot.

Friday morning we went to horseback riding.  Brigham and Mosey were excited to show Grandma how they ride.  Joseph was content to sit next to Grandma on the couch.  Once we got home, I attempted to oversee practicing, but no one was very excited about it, and I ended up really stressed out.  I have some plans to lighten up during the school year, because seriously, the practicing is going to do me in.  I really can't sit with every child for every practice session every day.  It's going to drive me bonkers.  My mom saw that, and took over the last half of practicing while I went to decompress at Target.  :-)  I came home to find her making dinner for the boys, and then took them to a birthday party (a night-games party from 8-10 PM, such a good idea for 10 year old boys!).

I sure wish we could figure out a way to live nearer to my parents.  Maybe someday.  It would require us living in Southern California (with which I have a very seriously complicated relationship), but I think it would be just about worth it to be close to my mom and dad.

I am determined to take some pictures of my mom with the boys while she's here!  The trouble is that we're just so busy being productive, that I forget about my camera!  Tomorrow, for sure.

All's clear on the MRI front

I haven't written too much recently.  I've been just a little preoccupied with my 3 year stem cell transplant evaluation which was this past Monday.  I am always consumed with anxiety when these appointment come up, and my instinct is to withdraw into my turtle shell for a while.
But the physical exams all went well on Monday, and this morning the nurse called with the good news that my MRI scans are still clear-- no changes from before the transplant! 
So I feel like I can slowly start to poke my head back out and resume normal life again.  At least, for the next 11 months.  :-)

Rest in Peace, Mister the Dog

We had to put Mister to sleep on Friday.  It was so sad.  He had been doing pretty well-- thin, and tired a lot, but also happy to eat and lick dishes being loaded into the dishwasher, and howling along with "How Much is that Doggy in the Window."  And then on Thursday morning he woke up, and never really moved off his dog bed the whole day.  He barely lifted his head.  He wouldn't eat anything.  He couldn't get to his feet by himself.  That evening we brought him outside to try to cheer him up.  We sang the Doggy in the Window song and he couldn't even lift his head.  He tried so hard to howl, but barely managed little huffs.  Oh, it was the saddest thing.  I couldn't even keep singing the song.  We took some family pictures with him, and then brought him inside.  The boys wanted to sleep with him one last time, so we hoisted him onto my bed and everyone brought down their favorite stuffed animals to snuggle next to him.  I lifted him down from the bed to go outside to relieve himself, and that was the last time he walked on his own.  The next morning he couldn't bear weight at all on his legs.  He ate half a hot dog under the encouragement of Joseph, but that was it.  He couldn't even lift his head to drink water.  Ben came home early from work, and we all spent one last hour with Mister.  Joseph was inconsolable.  I was inconsolable watching my boy.  We cut some fur from his tail to keep in little film canisters, and finally, after a family prayer, we all got in the car to take Mister to the vet.  I wasn't sure that the boys should go in, but they all wanted to.  I didn't want to go in.  I stayed in the car and told them that if it got too sad, they could come out.  Ben carried Mister over to me for one last goodbye, and then he went into the vet's office and that was the last I saw of him.  The procedure didn't take very long.  He died very quickly surrounded by Ben and the boys.  Afterward Brigham closed Mister's eyes for him.  When they came back to the car, everyone was crying, even Ben.  I wasn't sure what to do.  My plan was to go somewhere out to eat, and then go see a movie to get everyone's mind off of it.  I wasn't sure what I should do in the car.  Is it good to try to distract the boys from their grief, or let them feel it?  After a few minutes, I decided there would be plenty of time for them to replay Mister's last moments in their heads, and right now they needed to feel some relief.  So I put on Harry Potter book 6 and we drove to Round Rock.  We ate at The Cracker Barrel, somewhere we've never been before, but that we all decided we'll go back to again!  Then we went over to the dollar theater (well, $2 theater) and watched Thor.  Harry Potter again in the car on the way home, and then it was time to go inside to an empty house where our dog will never come running to greet us at the door again.  As soon as we pulled into the garage, Joseph started crying again.  He went upstairs into his room and closed the door, but I could hear him sobbing his heart out.  I went upstairs and lay next to him on the bed with my arms around him.  I sent Ben downstairs to get the stuffed animal dog that had slept next to Mister the night before.  I talked to Joseph, trying to soothe him, but nothing I could say could make things be alright with him.  Finally I couldn't take it anymore and I tucked him into bed, turned on the bedside lamp, and read to him from "Brighty of the Grand Canyon" until he was able to breathe calmly again.  He drifted off after a long while, and then I did too.  After an hour or so, he woke up with a start and said, "Mom, I dreamed about Mister!"  He dreamed of Mister and Xander and Jacob and Isaac all together in Heaven.  I don't know the theology of animal souls, but I do believe that beloved family dogs have an eternal nature.  I really do believe that we'll see him again.  Joseph was able to fall asleep again, and slept soundly the rest of the night.
The other boys were sad, but not like Joseph.  Mister and Joseph had a special relationship.  Joseph loved Mister with all his heart, and Mister loved Joseph more particularly than anyone else.  If the boys were ever wrestling together, Mister always tried to get in and protect Joseph.  Joseph was the most faithful dog-walker.  Joseph bought Mister a Texas flag collar out of his own money.  Joseph never complained about doing any dog-related chores.  Mister's death leaves a bigger hole in Joseph's life than any of the rest of us. 
I'll miss that crazy dog, too.  We definitely had a love hate relationship (he loved me, I hated him-- LOL  (just kidding, I never really hated him)).  But the past couple of days it has been really sad not to have my shadow following me around.  No Mister to lick the leftovers out of the pans.  No Mister following me into the bathroom, into the laundry room, parking himself right behind my wheelchair wherever I am so that I nearly run him over every time I need to move around!  No sound of Mister's collar jangling at the door into the garage when we pulled in after church.  No Mister jumping up onto my bed and curling up at the foot of my bed always exactly where I need to put my feet.  He will be missed.

Lightsaber fighting

Lightsaber fighting is taken very seriously around here.  :-)

Vinegar and baking soda bottle rocket

It took a couple of tries to get this right, but once we did, it was great!

Fun and Games

At Target on Wednesday, I bought the boys new shirts.  I love having boys who don't really care what they wear, as long as it fits.  I just get 3 of whatever it is and call it good.  So on Thursday and Friday the boys thought it would be really fun to dress alike.  On Thursday they dressed exactly alike, and traded each other's shoes to try to confuse me.  Unfortunately for them, I don't depend on their shoes to tell them apart.  :-)

Here they are playing Othello at the kitchen table.  Othello has been something of a summertime obsession for them.

The next day they all wore the same shirt again (different shirt from Thursday, though!).  These pictures are typical of the life of the many block structures that get built in our playroom.

They spend lots of time meticulously building something really awesome.

Then they take great delight in destroying it.

Of course, making the biggest mess possible.  Ahhh.  Boys.  :-)

Cinderjoseph

Joseph doesn't really want me to post this picture, but it's my blog and he's my son, so too bad.  :-)
After very mysteriously managing to dump an entire mug of hot chocolate on the floor of my JUST MOPPED kitchen, he did a very good job cleaning it all up.  And I had fun calling him Cinderjoseph for the rest of the day.

And yes, he is throwing the dishtowel at me.  :-)

Lazy summer day

Today was a pretty great day.  We woke up, ate breakfast, Mosey and Brigham played through their violin songs, and we went to violin lessons.  (Brigham did great.  Mosey is a squirrel.  He played so beautifully at home, but once we were at lessons?  I don't know what gets into that kid!  After the first song, the teacher said, "Let me guess-- I asked you to play the one song you didn't practice, right?"  I said, "NO, he practiced this song!  He sounds awesome at home!"  He's allergic to the violin teacher or something.  More like his teacher's two cocker spaniels are too interesting for Mosey to focus fully on violin.)  We went home, stopped at Crown Donuts where Brigham got an apple fritter (squirrels don't earn donuts at violin lessons, unfortunately), and then home.  I thought about launching into piano practicing, and then decided to play hooky for the rest of the day instead. 
Instead, the boys played Othello and chess.  They changed into matching clothes (all 3 of them!) and tried to get me to call them by each other's names.  We went swimming with our homeschool friends in the afternoon.  Joseph ate a chocolate fudge popsicle and then painted eyebrows and a handlebar mustache on his face with the melting chocolate (where's my camera when I need it?).  In the evening, Joseph and Mosey went to Tae Kwon Do (Brigham came and sat next to me reading a book), and then we came home and ate leftovers for dinner and played games all evening.  Ben is teaching Mosey to play Othello.  The rules are simple, but the strategy isn't so easy.  Mosey didn't want Ben to help him, and Ben didn't hold back.  Mosey lost, but I think he felt proud of himself for doing pretty well against his dad.  We played Set and Scrabble Slam, and then ate watermelon until bed time. 
I think I need to schedule in one hooky day a week.  It was great.

Summer snapshots

Here are some snapshots I found on my camera from the past couple of weeks:
Lots of block structures.  The boys spend a LOT of time building with our rather enormous block collection.  They then take a picture of it to record for posterity and then gleefully destroy it in the most chaos-inducing way possible.
Here are some "before the destruction" pictures.  I need to take some "after the destruction" pictures.  :-)

I think this bridge is the one that Brigham got Ben to stand on-- it held his weight, but when he stepped off, the whole thing kind of exploded under his feet.  Blocks everywhere.  Brigham, my explosion-junkie, was thrilled.

A whole block city (or city block?).

Here's Brigham from yesterday morning.  All the boys collected bullet casings from the shooting range floor on Monday.  Brigham meticulously arranged his in order of type and size, all the while singing a little song that went something like this: "Sorting, sorting, sorting, sorting, sorting...."  He always has a soundtrack for his life going on in his head.  :-)

Chrissy from tonight.  She was in the weirdest contortion just moments before this picture.  Cats are funny animals.  Chrissy loves to sit right here, outside the back door, batting and flies and mosquitoes.

These pictures came off of Mosey's camera.  It has a cool "negative" setting, and I thought these pictures were pretty cool!

Love these Mosey toesies.  :-)

Castle picture that Brigham drew.  

Finally, this is from this afternoon.  We went to our friend's house to go swimming.  She has an enormous, adorable labradoodle.  This dog was so funny.  She went outside where the boys were swimming, and spent an hour chasing them whenever they set foot outside of the pool.  It was all in good fun, and the boys had the best time running away from the dog and jumping into the pool, trying to trick her into jumping in after them (she never did).  She reminds me so much of Sandy from the old "Annie" movie.

That's it for tonight!

Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!
Today we celebrated Independence Day by watching... Independence Day!  Because nothing says "America" like Will Smith and aliens.  No, I'm serious!
And then we celebrated by going to the shooting range!  Because nothing says "America" like the second amendment. 
And THEN we celebrated by going to the grocery store along with about 5,000 other people buying supplies for afternoon barbecues.  Because nothing says "America" like large-chain grocery stores.  :-)
And FINALLY we celebrated by going swimming and eating large quantities of meat and watermelon and rootbeer.  Because nothing says "America" like swimming pools, hot dogs, watermelon rinds, and rootbeer floats, right?  Right!
What a fun day.
Here are some pictures from the shooting range:

 Ben showing Brigham how to hold the gun.  We shot a .22 pistol.

 

We all looked super-stylin' in our protective ear and eye wear.  We were very happy for the ear thingamajigs, though, because it was LOUD in there!

 Ben showing Joseph the ropes.

 

I thought Mosey might be a little intimidated by the loud noise and the kick of the gun, but I needn't have worried.  He got right in there and shot like a pro.

 
We had a little family competition to see who could get the closest shots to the target.  We each had 10 shots.

Look!  Mosey got right in there almost on the bull's eye!

Brigham had 3 shots on the 9 and closer.

Joseph was going for head shots and got closer than anyone else.

 

 I thought I was pretty hot stuff--look, 3 nearly right on the bull's eye!

 

That is, until Ben took his turn.  It took him one test shot (upper right over the shoulder), and after that the rest of the shots were all bunched in close around the target.  He used to be in ROTC, though, so he's had way more practice.  :-)

It was pretty fun after I got over that mama-bear panicky feeling seeing my babies holding a mortal weapon.  They were safe and well-behaved though, and it was fun!
Our friend Traci and her son Joseph came over to swim and barbecue, and that was fun, too.  She brought Skip-Bo and Brigham schooled us all his first time playing the game!
I'm so grateful to live in this free country and this great state of Texas.  I'm so thankful for the founding fathers and the sacrifice so many brave men have made to preserve our freedom over the past 235 years.  I don't know why God has blessed me so much.  May proud and free Americans celebrate Independence Day for at least another 235 years!