2nd In-patient Chemo and everything else I have missed

So, we did a few weeks of out-patient chemo in between our in-patient chemos. Then, on, Thursday, July 13th we started another 5 day in-patient run. We changed our chemo day to Thursdays so that we can do our in-patient from Thursday-Monday instead of Monday-Friday. We feel very lucky that Dan has as much vacation as he does. One year at work his vacation got bumped up instead of traditional raise and that has been one of our greatest blessings in this whole deal. Vacation days disappear really fast when you are in the hospital for a week at a time. So, now Dan only has to take 3 days off instead of 5, which makes a big difference. But, it also means we don't get weekends to rest up from the week in the hospital, but we decided the vacation days are worth it. So, everything went according to plan. Dan stayed the first 3 days and I finished it off the last night. I really prefer to be home so I can keep our home running like I normally do and the kids at home have consistency, but, I'm not going to lie, that night at the hospital was actually really nice. I was quiet and calm and I didn't have to wash dishes or the million other options of chores I have to do when I'm home. Dan will tell you that I can't sit still when I'm home and it drives him a little crazy. But, as my dad always says, "a woman's work is never done." And, let me just add that my dad only started saying that when my mom could no longer care for the house or herself and he started doing what was previously "a woman's work". He was running his accounting office full time while also doing everything my mom used to do, and caring for my mom. I'm still not sure how he managed that. We attribute it to angels. There was no other way. Anyway, it's hard for me to sit and relax at home without feeling the weight of everything I should be doing. When I'm at the hospital I have no choice. They don't let me do the dishes or cook there so it's a nice break. There are others things that come with staying at the hospital, but they are different than my normal jobs so it was really nice. I read in the middle of the day. Dreamy. We do chemo every week regardless of whether he had the 5 day chemo or not. I originally thought we got 2 weeks off when we do the in-patient chemo, but I was sadly mistaken. Logan had his echo and EKG on Thursday and will have his CAT scan on Wednesday. This is all to prepare for SURGERY!!! Yay! August 1st is the scheduled surgery day.off I'm happy to be getting this tumor the heck out of his body that I am way excited for surgery to just happen. I'm also dreading it. It's a week in the hospital for sure. But, more than likely, it will be closer to two weeks. After he recovers enough to start radiation we will start that as well. He has that every day for 2 weeks (no weekends). That means going up every day to Huntsman. We are so lucky to live only 30 minutes from the hospitals, but it just feels a little overwhelming as I sit here and type that out. My dad always tells us he was able to do what he did for my mom because he would just take it one day at a time (yes, he is wise, very wise), so I don't think about how long things are going to take very often. Believe it or not, Dan and I have never mapped this whole treatment plan out to see when it will, hopefully, be finished. We were just really trying to take it a day at a time. Last night we looked at a calendar to see when it will end. It made me feel a little crazy inside for a second. It will go until December at the earliest. That just feels like so long considering we are only 2.5 months into this and it feels like we should be finishing up. So, we stopped thinking about that and are just taking it a day at a time. When I get overwhelmed at what we still have left I just think about how good our prognosis is and I stop caring about the other stuff. The surgery will hopefully be just the removal of his "kidney" (which is just tumor, no kidney left). If there is still some tumor in the vessel that leads out of the kidney then they will have to do a bi-pass to remove that portion. We are just really hoping it retracts on its own before the surgery, but trust the doctors can take care of it regardless. The recovery time for the bi-pass surgery is longer than just the removal of the kidney so, if you are the praying type, pray for that. It will make the whole thing less worrisome. That's the update. Logan is doing awesome. We are still so grateful for everyone being so amazing. This is one of those things where we can't even keep on top of thanking everyone and we will never be able to repay you all, but we will pay it forward.

This was our second year riding in our town parade and it was so dang fun. We ride for our neighborhood golf cart gang under the guise of the golf course. Our family is getting a little large for our golf cart (2 seats will be added soon) so Aunt Natalie and Uncle Doug took Davis for us. We throw candy and spray people with water and get sprayed with people's hoses and it is just so dang fun. We will try to do it every year if they will let us.

I mean, come on! Have you ever seen a cuter Americana fairy?

Fireworks!!

He put stickers all over himself and then posed like that when I said smile. No prompting. Hilarious!

Dan and Logan had to get one of the O.C. Tanner Wagons to carry stuff up to his room. Dang, he is bald isn't he?

Logan hates them, Davis loves them.

Dan sent me this pic when I was out somewhere and it made me laugh so hard. He couldn't get the dog in there for one second but they played in there forever.

As I was driving home from the store I told Dan that when I got home he better have the kids sitting reverently and ready for FHE. We both obviously knew this would not happen because it has never happened. So, I walked in to total silence. I thought they were all downstairs and was shocked to see that they were actually "reverently reading church magazines". They all burst out laughing because they know it's funny.

Loves them!

Pioneer Day park activities. Mason has never had his face painted, but when he saw the Y he suddenly wasn't opposed. Logan and Jolie absolutely love this every year. We save up all year for those 3 face paints ;) (the penny pincher side of me had to just relax and let it go when we paid $4 for that Y). It's what the Pioneers would have wanted.

Boy Cheetah

Girl Cheetah

No one was around and I turned around to see this. We start the practical jokers young around here.

Mason's dreams came true yesterday. Jimmer was signing autographs for race entrants for the pioneer day marathon. Since, we have no interest in racing, my cute friend let us go pick up her packet so we didn't feel too silly waiting around for Jimmer. He was so nice and my boys were so excited. I'm totally okay with them having Jimmer for someone to look up to. They were standing next to the elevator when Jimmer walked out. How do you think he knew they were there to see him? ;)

Our adorable nieces came to visit us at the hospital and totally stayed and did crafts with Logan. They could have just popped in and left because I'm sure they had better things to do, but they stuck around and hung out with us. Sure love those girls. When they left Mason said, "I'm really sad they had to go. I wish they didn't have to." We miss our cousins alot!