Raising my Ebenezer

We are always asking the Lord to provide for our financial needs, as we get further along in grad school and the kids are multiplying (!), so I want to make sure to say "thank you!" out loud, to "testify", for his answering of that prayer the other night. . .

During our Arkansas trip, we had our van in a privately owned parking garage near the Philadelphia airport, costing $50/wk, so of course we were aware as we stayed longer that our bill was racking up. The final bill would be about $250, a thought that kept making my heart sink. But amazingly, we drove away from there without paying a penny (beyond tipping) for parking. The Lord provided. When we arrived they couldn't find our key, and after a search it turns out that they had closed our account without making sure the van was gone from the parking lot, and we had a zero balance. So the guy just let it go, as if we'd never been there. We got out of there as fast as we possibly could before he changed his mind! Thank you, Lord, for providing for our needs in such a fun way!

And while on the subject of small miracles, I made my first grocery store trip this afternoon with 2 kids and have survived to blog about it. I had Harry in his carseat in the cart and Jackson sitting up front - both were completely surrounded with bread, milk, & swiss chard. :) The groceries may sit in the car all night, but we did it!

Knowing God's good grace up here in NJ,
Ruthie

Getting the Boys Home (Or, On the Road with a Wildcat and a Marshmallow)

Well, we've made it back to Princeton, finally. We didn't want to leave Hot Springs, but at some point you have to get back home and clean out the mold. Jackson went into the trip with two consecutive nights of significantly interrupted sleep--the first by a nightmare, the second by vomiting. So we knew it would be a long day, as he hasn't napped on a plane since he's been old enough to realize he's on one. He was relatively sane until Chicago. We kept the Cheese Nips coming, pulled out a new book (It took me 20 minutes to select a book for maximum longevity; he threw it on the floor in, literally, 45 seconds.), but slyly saved the cookies for the second leg into Philadelphia. At touchdown in Chicago, he was beginning to show signs of meltdown. This took the form of running around Terminal B in tight circles, repeatedly diving onto the floor. I corralled him from one gate to the next as smiles faded. Our flight was delayed, so we had to start mentioning that somewhere someone had cookies that might or might not be available to boys who were good. This had moderate impact, but in such situations, this is the most one hopes for. At any rate, he ate candy and choco-covered pretzels for an hour and a half to Philly. A lot of climbing around on the floor and seat, but no extended wailing. This is what terrifies me. They're starting to kick people off planes over this kind of thing. New book #2 lasted about as long as the first. The great triumph, though, was that we had something on hand with sufficient appeal to keep him eating during the descent. (Even though we give him decongestants, he still has problems with the pressure changes.) As we descended into Philly, he began to close his eyes while chewing Christmas gumdrops. Then he drifted off entirely with green slobber oozing from his mouth. 5 minutes of nap at touchdown--what a guy.
Harry was a delight. You smile at him, and he laughs and coos. He apparently adores air travel.
We drove the hour from Philly to home in amazement that it looked like we were going to make it back without major mishap. It's a clear and cold night. There's snow on the ground. Everything is in order. Jackson is thrilled with all his old toys. We read his favorite giant truck book with a dump truck and a tractor piled in the chair with us. He's also taken to instructing his stuffed animals on the finer points of farm equipment. We can't wait to see how he takes to snow. Harry returns to Princeton having proven his mettle. Bronchiolitis racked his tiny frame when we left. He now faces the bitter chill with tightly compressed rolls of milk fat, and he goes to claim his victor's wreath from the pediatrician on Thursday morning. What great boys both!

Brotherly Love, an After Christmas Post

Well, sadly (and Lord willing - with our track record, we'll see how it goes), we leave Hot Springs tomorrow morning. One last picture, though, I took with Sarah's camera that I want to post, because it amuses me (though no one else here thinks this is funny, odd people), and I find it a fitting picture of some of Jackson's brotherly feelings right now. The other day I was nursing Harry and on the phone with Kelly, paying no attention whatsoever to poor Jackson, who I now remember was trying to tell me something over and over again. Finally, he got completely frustrated, determinedly pulled Harry's socks off, stomped to the pool, and threw them in, then turned around with a look of satisfaction to make sure I'd seen what he'd done. My response? I took a picture.

It seems to me in his 2-yr. old mind those socks were just where he wanted them to be - mingling with the worms.

1/27 arrangements made

We hired two people to help us at home and signed up with Arkansas Hospice. We will bring dad home to the apartment Monday 1/29. The Hospice and the workers come highly recommended and I can thank God for the ease with which arrangements were made. BB

Lake Hamilton Basketball Homecoming

Becky gave Bill the honor of escorting her for homecoming before the game Friday night. Jackson and I attended the ceremony and sat with Beth, Paul, and Mikey near the band. Comments from Jackson on the evening are "Drums woud" and "hot dog burn", even though he only ate popcorn.

1/23 hospice and home

Dad had seizures today. He required a bunch of meds to stop them and was knocked out the rest of the day. John and mom were to talk to him about what he wanted to do about treatment but couldn't because he was knocked out, so the three of us talked it out.
Basically, he has the worst of brain cancer (GBM) in the worst of places (the dominant motor strip which controls motion of his right side). Further he has three very bad prognositc signs: a second site of tumor, seizures, and is in the hospital because he is too sick to be functional at home. Patients with just the last don't last through the radiation therapy. He is not making progress in rehab.
So we will hire someone to provide care--mainly bowel care but also feeding and watching against the possibility that he would be confused enough to try to get out of bed. We will enter him into hospice and bring him home. The process likely will be easy because he sleeps much of the time, doesn't eat much and has very few bowel movements.
His prognosis will be in weeks--four to six is my guess and in 30 years I have never been right. Towards the end he will be in coma or medicated heavily.
Mom will go on and make funeral arrangements with Phil Hale soon on a small simple scale. Mom is in a bit of a daze, but functioning well. I took her some poppers and she griped as she ate each one.
I will not be able to go to AZ in February as planned. I need to hear your thought and questions asap. BB

Aquinas on Stayin' Alive

Here's a thought on friendship from Aquinas' short treatise advising a king on good governance, De Regno. A tyrant, he argues, is worse off than a good king because he forgoes all the real pleasures available to a king (friendship chief among them) by making himself an enemy to his people. Then this:

"First of all, among all worldly things there is nothing which seems worthy to be preferred to friendship. Friendship unites good men and preserves and promotes virtue. Friendship is needed by all men in whatsoever occupations they engage. In prosperity it does not thrust itself uwanted upon us, nor does it desert us in adversity. It is what brings with it the greatest delight, to such an extent that all that pleases is changed to weariness when friends are absent, and all difficult things are made easy and as nothing by love."

The other (not wholly unrelated) thing on my mind: We happened across the movie Stayin' Alive the other night (sequel to Saturday Night Fever, this time Travolta takes Broadway), and I still have the Bee Gees bouncing around in my head. And of course, one also winds up with Travolta's denim-encased backside bobbing around too. This seems to be the point of the movie. But I can't help thinking that if I were walking the streets of New York City at night with such tiny, exposed flanks, I'd want a few friends around.

Snow in Phoenix!

Last night we had snow! The few pictures I got show snow mixed with sleet and nothing stuck, but in other parts of the city people were making snowmen. These shots show the dark clouds with a faint rainbow and the sun shining through the sleet from our backyard.

Hiking South Mountain

Here are some shots from our hike on the Pima Wash trail this Saturday.

Dangdang 1/20

"A cold, windy, overcast, rainy day is like a day without sunshine." Big Bill's second law of generals.
and such a day it was. I didn't build a fire because it was too cold to open all the doors and windows and turn on the exhaust fans, so we wrapped up.
Dad was about the same today except that he was nauseated and I gave him a quarter dose of medicine and it sonked him for several hours. Speech adequate but not 100% normal. no improvement in right hand function. BB

Wonderful Winston

Keri, Sophie, and I came down last night for my birthday present--the George Winston concert at Mesa Center for the Arts. It was a wonderful evening, introducing me to more of his music as well as the Hawaiian slack key guitar style and his harmonica music. He played two pieces from December which still is my favorite, but a number of other pieces put two other albums, Autumn and Forest, on my mustget list.
Winston's personal presentation was interesting; he has a reserved, matter-of-fact style that strongly contrasts with the highly evocative and emotionally charged nature of his music. He looks the part of Montana mountain man and reminded me strongly of a craftsman in his workshop using all sorts of noisy, bulky, and functional tools to create beautifully fluid, elegant furniture. The final product does not even hint at the process of production. Winston used all sorts of techniques--from the basics of his play which is brusque and almost jerky to his frequent ventures behind the keyboard, touching (and we couldn't tell what else) the strings to create numerous effects--my favorite being a whirring sound at the end of a piece inspired by pine forests that sounded very much like wind in the tops of trees. We had perfect seats to experience this, near the front and on the left of the auditorium, basically looking over his shoulder as he pounded away.

He also played the guitar in the slack key style, which is romantic and lilting and made me want more. His harmonica piece was played with a gusto that yielded harsh and least-favorite-of-all-I-heard results (though Josh and Keri really liked it).
We ended with my favorite ice cream, Haagen-Dazs Mayan chocolate, and coffee. It was a wonderful evening.

Thank you J,E,&B.

jan 20 late breaking blog

The news on dad isn't good. He has a glioblastoma multiforme or GBM (the longer the name the worse the prognosis). This is a bad actor. It is aggressive, but does respond to radiation. How well he is going to do physically is related to how well he recovers post op, not to radiation therapy (Radtx). Radtx only keeps the tumor at bay. It can shrink tumor but the tumor was excised and there is none to shrink so no improved function can be anticipated by radtx.
He was definitely improved over the past two days. His speech is understandable and he is moving his right hand some but without dexterity. He walked a few steps. We anticipate further improvement. News to follow in this space.
The newscasters are anticipating rain; I am anticipating the need for a fire; everyone else anticipates the need for smoke masks, fire trucks, oxygen, etc. they won't tell me why. the tension is building. More in this space. BB

Dangdang 1/17

Wednesday, january 17, the day we would hear about the final path report--has come and gone. I stopped in to talk personally with the pathologist, so I think he would have been careful to get the report e-mailed to my office. No report.
Dangdang is not really any better today. He seldom opens his eyes when I'm in the room, but I think that he is just mad at me. Not eating, hard to understand, yada,yada.
Otherwise the crisis is our Netflix cue is in sorry shape. All I've seen in three months is bird movies and cartoons (except for the shaft Emily typed in). BB

dangdang 1/16

Not a good day for Dangdang. He has poor right hand function and is not walking. He has trouble with word finding and doesn't finish sentences, but these are only worse-not new. He talked to me for 30 minutes straight and I don't have any idea what he was trying to say. He has what is called a fluent aphasia: fluent means the words are understandable as such, aphasia means the sentences don't make sense. Hopefully this is the low point in his predicted post-op slump. Path out tomorrow to be reported in these spaces.
Here is it cold, wet and windy. Worse, MAN vs WILD has not been on for two weeks. It is filled with useless survival trivia, but makes me feel safe and smug about staying home. BB

For Naynay

Dear Naynay, I miss you. I asked Mama to take these pictures of me so you could see how much I've grown. Here I'm almost 10 weeks old. Have you grown much lately? Love, Harry

dangdang 1/14

confused and irritable today. On steriods and swollen, which makes it worse. it is cool and raining here. I would build a fire but I used up all my kindling filling the house with smoke and we haven't gotten all the smell out yet. "No new fires until we have recovered from the last one." BB

Emily's Sunday Run

For my first post, I'd like to let everyone know that I survived the half-marathon and will live to run another day (although I wasn't sure at mile 11...). It was VERY cold this morning; temp at race start was 29! For the first 2 miles I couldn't feel my feet at all. But by mile 3 I was relatively warm and I spotted our friends, Jon and Mikeal and their 2 little boys, cheering on the sidelines. Then I had to hunker down until mile 9, where Josh, Benjamin and Mara were waiting to encourage me along. At mile 10 I tried my first 'goo' (yuck!), hoping it would give me an energy boost, but to no avail. So I slogged through the last three miles, never so happy to see the finish line: water, food, emergency blankets and my family! Hopefully next year I will find a running partner again (Ruthie, I've got my eye on you!)

New Family Blog

I'm about to make this blog private (requiring log-in), so if you're interested in continuing to view it, email me. I'll probably send an email to those who I know view it occasionally, so don't worry about it if you know I know you view it. Ha! Make sense? The reason for the change is that Matthew's brothers and families are planning to start blogging with me (yay!), and due to professional privacy, we thought it'd be smart. . .

Mistletoe love, "the boys", & attack of the 2-yr. olds

Sophie's 2nd Bday Party

I'm still up, so the posting continues. . .


Testing the cake batter the bday eve


Snowflake PBJs and an Igloo Icecream Cake for a January Snow Princess

Sophie, what creative and hard working parents you have! Many you grow up striving to be like them as they strive to be like Christ. Amen.

TWO, a day.

We're missing Cody and Keri around here, so in an attempt at consolation, I'm posting pictures of Sophie's birthday party. They're having their first annual Epiphany party tonight, so party pictures are even more appropriate!

The birthday girl herself

Party invitee Benjamin


An anonymous party participant

Party invitee Jackson

Now of age to drink coffee

Sophie is TWO today!

Happy Birthday, Sweetest Girl!