Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at my work is absolutely insane! Our facility is the largest in the state (388 beds) and each Resident is given a bag full of gifts on Christmas Eve morning. Activity Staff is in charge of each of our floors and we have our volunteer troops to help us. For the last several years, Mom and Meredith have volunteered on my floor so as part of a standing tradition, they graciously decided to help again this year. One difference-Blake! Yes, they brought Blake with them dressed in his Santa outfit which my Residents absolutely loved. Meredith has traditionally come dressed as an elf so they looked really cute together. The gift giving starts around 9:30 a.m. and ends sometime around lunch. I'm telling you, it's crazy but the Resident's look forward to it as it's the only Christmas some of them get. We even have Santa visit each floor and wish the Residents Merry Christmas.

After lunch, Mom took Blake back home and I finished out the work day. I managed to come home with an awful migraine and had to lay on the couch with my eyes covered while mom watched Blake. I've been having a lot of trouble with migraines here lately and were are currently trying to find the cause. Margi, Brent's mom, got to our house around 4:45 or so and she started my mac n cheese for me so I could rest and take my meds for my migraine. Christmas with my dad's side of the family started at 6:30 at my cousin Wes' house so we packed up and headed that way. 

The kids loved Blake and invited him into their playroom to watch Baby Einstein which he thinks is the most interesting thing ever. Dinner was great and it's always nice to see family. After finishing up, we headed to church for our 10p.m. candlelight service. The guitar teacher at the Music Vault where I teach piano lessons agreed to meet me and we sang a Silent Night duet accompanied by guitar which I thought was really pretty considering we practiced twice! The service was nice and is always a favorite of mine. After the service we went home to get ready for bed and Santa!

Teefers!!!!

Blake is getting his two front bottom teeth! The one started coming up about two weeks ago and now the one next to it is coming through the skin as well. Two little white teeth! So cute! He woke up about three times last night crying really bad so I gave him some Tylenol but that didn't last long. Think I'll give him some baby Orajel tonight when I put him down to sleep. Poor little guy :(

Baby Jesus

Our church had it's annual Christmas pageant on Sunday, December 14th. With Blake being the littlest baby at the church, he was cast as Baby Jesus! It was so cute! Meredith got cast as Mary because the director knew that she could handle him and he is familiar with her. We had our pageant in the sanctuary and I was playing the piano. At one point, I sang and played "What Child is This?" and Brent walked Blake down the aisle and handed him to "Mary." I bout lost it while I was playing but I managed to make it through. It was so cute and I was glad that Brent could be a part of it as well. Blake did good and we made it through without incident. Whew!

Rusty

Most of you already know that our dog Rusty has been diagnosed with Leukemia. It's really chance that we discovered it and I am so thankful that we caught it when we did. Those of you who know me well know that my animals are also my children, they just have fur instead of hair and four legs instead of two. 

     I have always heard (as weird as it may sound to some of you) that if you notice a change in your dogs breath, it could be cancer. So in February I was at home one day and was thinking about how Rusty's breath had gotten worse. I thought yes, a bit eccentric but I would take him to the vet just to have it checked out. Turns out, I was right and wrong. His bad breath was mainly due to built up plaque on his back teeth, but when the blood panel results came back, his white cell count was high. This of course can mean many different things including infections, etc. So, we tried a few different meds for different possible things but to no avail. We went to the vet the month after and had another panel run. His white count was higher. Boo! Then we had another blood panel run and the sample sent to Colorado University. They specialize in veterinary cases.

When the tests came back from that, he had high lymphocyte counts and white blood cell counts. After we got these results we were referred to a veterinary internal specialist in Columbia. We met with the doctors there back in July and had Rusty's blood panel run AGAIN. His CBC count was 18,000 and his Lymphocyte count was 13,000. It was concluded that he did in fact have Leukemia and so we started him on chemotherapy (I can see some of you rolling your eyes but that's okay!). Since we caught it so early, we are able to put him on a pill form of chemo which he now takes every other day. He doesn't show that he feels any different than before. Chemo from my understanding rarely shows side effects in animals and nothing like it does in humans. 

I took Rusty back to the specialist right after Thanksgiving to have another blood panel run since he's been on chemo for 3 months. GREAT NEWS! When the results came back, his CBC count was down to 6,700 from 18,000, and his Lymphocyte count was down to 2,300 from 13,000!!!! Please continue to keep him in your prayers! We go back at the beginning of March to have another panel run and I will keep you updated! Thanks for all the prayers you have already said and please continue to do so!

Thanksgiving

Tootsie gives Blake a good sniff!

Blake and Daddy!

Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had lots of good food and it's always wonderful to be with family. Generally we do a traditional lunch with Brent's family and then we eat spaghetti or something different for dinner at mom and dad's. Blake was good all day and I was really excited for the family to see him and how much he's grown over the past few weeks. He really enjoyed seeing his cousin Collin and it was really funny to watch them together. They kept looking at each other and smiling. Then Janet (yaya) held them both on her lap for a little while. Collin wanted to "pet" Blake which Blake didn't mind until he pulled his hair. I hope they get to know each other and play together. All in all it was a wonderful day and we are looking forward to Christmas! Blake is going to be baby Jesus in the Christmas play at our church so he will be making his first big theatrical debut. Stay tuned for pics. He is also cutting his first razor-sharp tooth on the bottom so stay tuned for pics of that as well!