Catching up

I’ve been a really bad blogger lately. So I’m going to try to catch up in the next few days.

This summer we took the kids to Cliff’s Amusement Park here in Albuquerque.

John took the older kids on the big rides while I stayed with Charity. So almost all the pictures I have are of Charity. Charity’s favorite was the tilt-a-whirl. Go figure, the kid has always loved to spin.

The older kids went on every ride there. They loved the scary rides the most. I must be getting old because I rode the Rattler with the kids and did not feel well after. I used to love the scary rides, but no more.

I only had my cell phone so the pictures are not great but…

Charity was too short to ride the bumper cars by herself but the guy let her anyway. It was too funny! She couldn’t steer and push the petal at the same time so she couldn’t move. She was getting so frustrated.

The kids had so much fun!

California

A little late but here are some pics from our trip to California.
John and I went with our friends Jon and Stacy (crazy huh!) to
Oceanside CA for a week the beginning of June. It was so nice
and relaxing.
Beach in the morning
Lunch
Back to the hotel to nap
Dinner and movie, or golfing.

John was in heaven. I think it has been 8+ years since he has
gone surfing. He’s still very good. The waves were small but he
was happy to be out.

We also played tourist one day and hit Hollywood.
We saw the Chinese Theater, the stars and footprints
(my favorite singer's is below).
We went up to the Hollywood sign, hit Rodeo Drive
(didn't get out of the car though) and Beverly Hills.

A longer trip without kids is now a must every year.
I came back with so much more patience.
Nothing like having adult time for a whole week!
Loved spending time with our friends!

Chicago

Over Memorial Day weekend my mom and I went to Chicago for a girl’s weekend. My little sister lives there and we wanted to go see her.

I have to say Chicago is much nicer than I had thought. I loved the brick and stone buildings (no stucco or siding to be found) and it was so green.


(I think this is the Chicago Tribune building.)




While we were there we got massages, went up the Sears Tower,



(view from the 99th floor)


shopped the Magnificent Mile,



went to the beach, and Millennium Park,



went on a lunch cruise,

(view from the water)

and saw a Broadway show (Mary Poppins).


It was so much fun, but tiring though. Those people walk a lot. My treadmill didn’t prepare me well enough. I had shin splints the first day (and every other day).

Jarom

On Monday the 4^th Jarom had 2 more biopsies taken from his back.

These biopsy’s were sent to a dermatolopathologist here.

On Wednesday we met with a pediatric surgeon about removing the

2 initial bumps. Surgery was set for the 18^th but I changed it to the 26^th to give us more time to figure this out and avoid surgery.

The pathologist here could tell it was some type of condition, but sent it off to a dermatolopathologist at Sloan-Kettering in NY to narrow it down.

His dr decided to try to treat him for PLEVA (she thought it looked most like this), which is one condition it might be, with an antibiotic.

Jarom was sick for hours after taking the antibiotic so that didn’t work.

We had another appt with the dr on Monday to remove stitches. She was going to prescribe another antibiotic but decided to call New York first.

The pathologist has diagnosis it as Lymphomatoid papulosis or LyP.

She made him an appt to see a Pediatric dermatologist at UNM on Wednesday.

Here’s what I know about LyP:

It’s rare. About 1 in 1,000,000.

It is a disease of the immune system.

It causes papules (sometimes a few, sometimes hundreds).

Crops of legions may come and go for decades.

There is no cure but some treatments may help the spots heal faster or suppress new ones.

It is benign in that it heals it’s self, but it is made of cancer cells.
Many people with this condition are diagnosed with cancer and undergo chemo and radiation before they are properly diagnosed.

His dr. said some dr.’s believe it’s no big deal. Others think the patient should have bi-annual check ups. It increases your chance of getting lymphoma.

She believes we should take a more aggressive approach because of his age. (The longer you have it the higher risk you have of developing lymphoma. Although, the longer you live the higher risk you have of getting cancer anyway.)

She said if it was her child she’d have him seem at a clinic out east or in California. Jarom said he’d happily go to California. We’ll see what the dr. say’s on Wednesday before Jarom packs his bag.

Unfortunately Jarom may have to accept his spots or he may have to live in jeans and long-sleeve shirts all year long. Luckily the worst ones are on his legs and he’s ok with skipping shorts.

Take me out to the ball game

My dad got us tickets to the Isotopes game on Friday.
We had club seats right behind home base.
They were great seats!
Charity was having none of it though.
I spent the first couple innings at the playground with her.
The next 3 innings with Mads looking for what she wanted to eat.
Then 2 innings looking for the boy, who wandered off to look for dessert.
By 7th inning I realized I had watched a total of 5 minutes of the game.
I gave up and took Charity home.
She promised on the way home "next time I go to a baseball game
I will be a good girl". Haha!
I'm leaving her home next time.
The boys had a great time though.
Unfortunately the Isotopes lost. Maybe the next time.

Almost done

Our house was a fixer-upper when we bought it.
We've remodeled both bathrooms and the kitchen early on.
We have been working on the yard since.
Our yard was completely dirt and weeds.
We have been making gradual improvements as our time and $ allowed.
We still had this area of dirt that would fill with weeds.
So I though why don't we Just extend our patio (a small 10’ X 10’ section).
We ended up (by the time John finished planning) tearing out all the railroad ties,
hauling out tons of dirt, pouring 5 tons of concrete, and laying a 2’ retaining block wall. (Soon to build a shed also)
A huge change from my plan but now that it’s almost done it looks amazing.
I can’t find the pictures from our yard before (when we bought the house) but here are some of the progress.




We still have to stucco the wall and lay mulch. It’s going to be great.





Also, an update on Jarom.
The dermatologist called this morning and she’s got nothing.
The biopsy culture showed nothing so they sent it off to a national lab.
She also took a section to send to a dermatopathologist.
The pathologist said she had never seen anything like it and had no idea what it was.
So she sent it off to another dermatopathologist.
His dermatologist said if they don’t know it could be sent off to another lab and pathologist.
I think that means it could be a while.
Poor kid has spots popping up all over his body now.
Luckily they are slow growing and hopefully won’t get that big before we figure this out.
If they can’t figure it out they will have to cut them all off.
Jarom will love that!
He’s still insisting on wearing a long sleeve shirt to school so the kids don’t make fun of him.
He also won’t let me take out his stitches. He doesn’t believe I’ve taken out lots of stitches before and won’t hurt him.

another trip to the doctor

I took Jarom to the doctor yesterday morning. She decided we needed to double up on the antibiotics and add a topical. She also needed to do another culture since the last one was negative but he obviously had an infection. To do this she poked 3 holes in the sores. Poor Jarom, it hurt. Then she squeezed, and squeezed but no pus came out. (That hurt also) She said she wasn’t sure what was going on because there was no pus so she tells me she needed to call a dermatologist. They set up an appt a short time later.
We go to the derm and she checks it out, asked a lot of questions and tells me she needs a biopsy. Jarom was not doing well by the time she finished explaining what a biopsy was. He was still getting over the pokes. He was so scared. He insisted on having a pillow to shove over his face during the biopsy. They numbed the area with ice which helped. He did well and even looked at it when they stitched it up. We’ll see what the culture shows. He’s pretty funny. He had to tell everyone the story. I think he’s a little proud he did so well. No tears at the biopsy.
I know it sounds horrible but I am sooo glad it was Jarom and not Madison. We would have had to knock her out cold.