Chattaboogie

Okay, so the blog is not back as much as I anticipated.  But there are so many blog worthy moment lately that I am going to backtrack and the move forward in double time.  (or at least I say:)

But in February we went to Chattanooga (Chattaboogie as we call it) with some very good friends of ours for a little weekend trip.  We had such fun and it was so nice to get out of town and away from all the responsibilities I left behind in Nashville for 2 nights.  Our friends, the Ballews, have twins, Minor and Maston, Hunter's age and then a little boy, Bowen, who is turning 2 this month.  So that means, we had 5 boys 4 and under.  If you have a boy then you can sympathize immediately!
But we started out leaving after the Daddys got off of work on Friday.  Chattanooga is only 2 hours away (door to door) so we got there in time for dinner and had adjoining rooms so after we ate we put a movie on for the kiddos in one room and we hung out in the other.  This is what we found...

I mean seriously?  How adorable/unbelievable is that??  Those were some major sleepyheads!

But then next morning we were excited to get to the Aquarium (or Acreamium as Drake called it)

And the first stop was the sting rays...and we even got to feed them!  Check out the boys faces and hands...

Sheer excitement and Fear!

Me feeding a sting ray, NOT a highlight of my life! (check out Hunty's face)

I love the boys faces here and the fact that Drake started grabbing the leg of the wrong man

Drakey Beiber

Then on to the Butterfly Garden which Hunty loved and STILL wants to go back to all the time.  Drake on the other hand was terrified.

And next stop: the Penguins!  As cute as they were, however, I couldn't help but think of the movie "Happy Feet" which made me instantly sad to be in there with them.  But they boys of course loved them

A typical attempt at a picture of those silly boys!


But then...on to find the SHARKS!!!!!

Sweetly Looking...

Sweetly Looking...

Silly Fish Face with Mommy...

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! And then they were hooked! (no pun intended) Nothing will ever be as cool as the sharks.

And the boys sure kept looking for more sharks (and I love this picture of Lee with the boys crawling over him)


And even though we were officially out of the salt water and into the river water so the sharks were gone, it was even more fun to pet some fish!  

Always fun to see alligators...

And the adorable turtles (I loved this pic)

And at the very end the boys each got to pick out one thing from the Aquarium store (under $10).  Hunty picked out this cute sea turtle that he named "Snowy".  Drakey picked out a plastic alligator - no name yet.

Next Stop - Ruby Falls...except the little brothers had fallen asleep.  Oh boy this was a looooong cave tour!

Then the little guys woke up a little just in time for the 90 minute tour.  And a typical silly expression from Hunty

Some views from our walk through the cave. 

 It would have been much more fun and kid friendly if we were not required to go through the cave on a tour....frequent and long stops to listen to stories is NOT what little boys are made of!

A Stalagmite 

And THIS was what we ventured through the cave, carrying children, listening to whining and crying to find... (Que the cheesy music and light show)
Da da da taaaaaaaaa..a waterfall.  


Note: the large letters leading up to the tiny letters in the waterfall depict exactly how we felt when we came to it.

Finally on our way back!

WE MADE IT!!!!!! Drakey was very very happy to be going back out of the cave and to some fresh air on the playground.

We ended the little trip to visit the Chattanooga Choo-Choo (another activity I may not recommend)

EXCEPT for the fact that it was the Dungeons and Dragons Convention that weekend so we saw some awesome characters!  Sadly we did not get pictures of our favorites, but we did sneak some pictures of these crazy cats!

All in all it was great to get out of town!

Divot Update #1

Well today sweet D had his first round of chemo.  I dropped him off around 8:30 and then picked him up at 4:30.  They had to run more X-rays just to make sure they still couldn't see any spreading throughout his chest and it was clear.  At least to the human eye.  
I'll back up real quick.  Around September I felt a lump on his shoulder.   But he has a ton of fatty lymphomas (I think that is what they are called) so I didn't think too much of it.  But a month or so went by and it was not going away and he seemed to be gnawing on it an awful lot.  So I took him to the vet.  Dr. Rodgers, whom we adore, said it might be a mast cell tumor.  Which is a cancerous tumor, but very common and easy to treat.  Typically just with surgery.
So D had surgery a few days later, right after we moved into our new home, and Dr. Rodgers was confident he got it all so we all assumed that was that.  But they send these tumors off to the lab just for safe measure.  Well thank goodness for that because it came back stage 3 of 3 with a horrible prognosis.  Essentially it read 3-6 months without chemo, 6-12 with chemo.  Of course Kyle and I were devastated as was Dr. Rodgers...but we caught it so early and he got the whole darn thing and then some out during the surgery.  If it did not look like the cancer had spread anywhere, which is does not look like it has, then chemo is a safe step to take to make sure it has not planted little bitty seeds that we cannot see yet.  The type of tumor D had is one that is very aggressive and more than likely has planted itself somewhere else.  But the fact we caught it so early is hopefully a good sign that we can nip it in the bud.

 We did not want to put D through chemo to extend his life for a few months, but to try and extend his life to a normal life expectancy.  He just turned 9 so he has got some good years left in him and I cannot fathom the thought of life without D right now.
 He got to take his "baby"(which is the panda pillow pet Santa brought him for Christmas) to the vet, and was just as happy and as jolly as he could be when we picked him up.
I week down and 12 to go!!!!!!  These next few pics are all D and his "baby"  I have to get  video of him walking around the house with it.  He is so proud of it and walks around with it in his mouth but it is so big he trips on it all the time.  Oh he is so darn cute!

The Blog is Back Baby!

Well, I do realize that we have been gone for quite some time.  We moved houses (when we were not really on the market but found a home too good to pass up...more on that later); then renovating the "great deal" of a house we just bought; Divot had surgery and then we found out it was cancer and is starting chemo (more on that later as well);  we have had strep throat 3 times, a double ear infection, stomach bug, the flu and bronchitis; fundraisers; teaching Sunday School and more volunteering than we probably should be doing.   With all that to say it was midst the holidays and I hate that I have missed so much documenting for my own sake.  But it is just going to have to go into the homemade album and not the blog.  I do realize there are people way busier than we are, but I suppose I am just not talented enough to keep it all up.  Thats okay...I can live with that.
But if you have heard anything about Nashville lately, then you know that is about all we have seen since December:

My Sweet Baby Girl....gosh I should put pink ribbons in her hair and paint her nails.  Then she would be complete.  I think it would fit her perfectly!

My sweet D...you are the gentlest doggie in the world!

You still think he is sweet and gentle right?   Actually this is quite ironic because they are actually playing and he truly is the gentlest doggy in the world.

Our first snowman who my children named "Minor" after  one of their real life best friends

Our second snowman (picture taken after some melting) whom my children named "Baby Tummy" which is funny because I AM NOT PREGNANT but now everyone thinks I am since they tell their teachers at school and Sunday School their snowman's name.  

Good Ole Fashioned Snow Angels

(And yes, that is Kyle in the first picture with the facial hair.  He was growing it out for his duck hunting trip he just took and shaved it all off....but to be honest, I actually loved it).   It has snowed literally more than it has not in the past 6 weeks.  The "magic" of snow, has officially lost its magic and worn out its welcome.  I feel like I live in Seattle.