Crazy Winter 2011!!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to take a minute to document the Crazy Winter Storm of 2011, because I know that 10 years from now, people won't believe that the entire DFW area shut down for 4 days!! And I took some hilarious pictures of Preston that I wanted to post!

So it started in the EARLY morning hours of Tuesday February 1st: it sleeted for around 3 hours straight! We awoke that morning to 1.5-2.0 inches of ice on ALL of the roads in the area! Schools were cancelled throughout the metroplex (which means no work for me) and most business shut dow. I was somewhat excited about the idea of having a day off of work. I had no idea that it was the beginning of being locked in my house for almost 4 straight days!

On Wednesday, schools were still cancelled and David's office was still closed so he worked from home for the second day in a row. We did venture out Wednesday night to meet some friends for dinner because I was already going stir-crazy!

On Thursday, schools were still closed (which meant a one-day work week for me), but David did pack up and head to work on Thursday. I guess I should make a point of saying that even though there had been no precipitation since Tuesday morning, nothing was melting because it didn't get above 20 degrees until Saturday!

So overnight Thursday to Friday, DFW was blessed with 6-8 inches of snow ON TOP of the ice that was still covering the roads. So again, schools were cancelled! BUT, I had a continuing education course down in the Medical District at UTSW, so I left the house a little before 6 Friday morning to make it down there at 6:55 (the course was supposed to start at 7). A coworker of mine had called all morning to find out if it was cancelled--because EVERYTHING was shut down again--but no one answered. I checked my email after pulling into the parking lot, only to find an email sent at 6:57 saying that the 7:00 course was cancelled for the day. I was NOT happy. It took me another hour to drive back home and when I got home, there was another email saying that they were actually going to start at 11:00 that day. Needless to say, I didn't make another trip down there. So Friday was a beautiful day of peace, quiet, and snow in the metroplex. By Saturday afternoon, the temperatures had risen to the mid-40's and the sun was out so everything was much better by that afternoon!

It was a crazy, fun, adventurous week and other than exhausting my PTO supply, it was kind of fun! I'll leave you with some pictures:

A cute little bird in the tree:

Snow Ice Cream on Friday--YUMM!!

Snow the berries in the backyard:

Preston couldn't hold back the terrier in himself so he kept sniffing the snow which meant a face that often looked like this:

Super Preston!!!

Mom, it's in my eyes!!!
Preston The Ferocious LOVES the snow!!


Thanks for reading everyone!! Hope you all had some adventures during the crazy winter storm!!

Change of plans for dad....

Alright guys--thank you for sticking with me as we navigate this uncharted territory as far as dad's status goes. There is more to update as of this morning! I would have posted earlier, but I just sat down for the day--lots of little errands and things to do after work today. But you don't want to hear about that, so on to dad:
Dad does NOT have spend the week in the hospital after all. He found that out this morning. He will go to an infusion center monday-thursday of this week to receive 2 of the 4 chemo drugs. The other 2 will be administered through a computerized syringe that he can be hooked up to at home!! So he's still getting the same "treatment", he just doesn't have to be stuck at a hospital to do it. Another bonus to this set-up is that it allows dad to continue the radiation of his elbow with the same people that were doing it before. Now, regarding the chemo drugs he will be on: they are the same protocol treatment that would be done for any soft tissue cancer of the GI-ish systems (ie. pancreatic, stomach, liver, esophagus, etc). That's what I understand at least. He will then have approx. 2 weeks off before repeating the cycle (if all goes as they are planning). I don't want to share certain details because dad hasn't necessarily wanted to divulge everything (and I definitely want to respect that), but his doctor gave him some insight into the odds of dad responding well to this treatment. While, we would love for them to say there is a 100% or even a 95% chance of this taking care of what's going on, that's just not realistic. But dad did say that he felt encouraged by the odds, and felt more positive and uplifted than he had in a while. So that's great--I love to hear dad say he is feeling "good" or "better" about ANYTHING these days!
Another thing contributing to dad feeling better today is the new anti-nausea meds that they started him on today. They wanted to get him started on something as he was beginning a new chemo cocktail, and so far it has made him feel SO MUCH BETTER today than he had been for weeks. In fact, he ate smoked turkey from Rudy's BBQ and cobbler for lunch, ANNNNND (drumroll please), when I talked to him tonight, he was eating chicken fried steak from Home Plate Diner with green beans and mom was making him a Coconut Cream Pie at his request! We'll see if he regrets these decisions tomorrow! I'm just glad he has an appetite for SOMETHING! Please pray in complete faith that the Lord will use these new drugs in a mighty mighty way to obliterate the cancer! Thank you all SO SO SO SO SO SO much for continuing to check-up on us and pray for our family! We feel tremendously blessed to be surrounded by such a faithful and God-trusting community! Much love to each of you from all of the Hyde/Forbess clan!

24 Weeks!

So, I'm going to give a 24 week update a couple of weeks late: because that's the way I roll. If you know me, you know that already! I also don't have a belly picture for this update, so I'm sorry. But it was definitely bigger than the previous picture so use your imagination: just please don't add a lot of weight to my face--that's rude. Our 24 week visit took place on Friday, January 28th. So where were at 24 weeks?

Baby's Stats: He measured 9 inches from crown to rump (but let's be honest, our kid is probably a little behind on the height chart) and weighed somewhere around 1.5 pounds. HE WAS AN EGGPLANT!!

Baby's Development: This week was all about circulation and breathing! He's developing more and more blood vessels under his skin and in his lungs. He's also beginning to develop surfactant in his lungs which will keep them from collapsing once he enters the world! His nostrils are also no longer plugged up so he can practice breathing through his nose (even though right now he's just sucking goo up that nose).

Weight Gain: UGH!! At my 24 week visit I had gained 14 pounds, I think. I don't exactly remember, I just know it has gotten out of control since then, so I'll have to pray about disclosing that info after my 28 week visit.

Pregnancy Symptoms: OUCH! I have been having a lot of back pain lately! It happens mostly when I have to sit down for a prolonged period of time (ie. more than 20-30 minutes). If i'm up and moving, I'm usually feeling pretty well! I'm also starting to have some heartburn here and there--it has actually woken me up a few times lately. The worst part about being woken up by heartburn, is that I'm having a really hard falling asleep in general. I usually have to take a Benadryl to fall asleep at night. I will just lay there and my mind will race thinking about the most random things!!

Cravings: All I want for breakfast is blueberries and vanilla yogurt--yay healthy!!! I also usually want a big glass of cold milk at night before I go to sleep--yay, still pretty healthy!! I also have eaten a lot of Brach's Conversation Hearts--Whoopsies! But if you know me at all, you know that I can't resist them--don't judge me.

Maternity Clothes: I finally found a pair of maternity jeans that earn at least an "acceptable" in the cute department and a "YES MA'AM!" in the comfort department. They're awesome--I'm a huge fan of the full belly panel and I may never go back to those muffin-top creating squeezers. I am still squeezing into my swimsuit at work when I do pool therapy, but I'm not sure how much longer that's going to last. I also continue to learn that tighter is better when it comes to maternity tops: if it doesn't hug you, you look like "Big Bertha Under the Big Top"--getting a mental picture??

Nursery and Name: WE ORDERED BEDDING!!!! Thank goodness. It only took months of looking at hundreds of pictures (literally) and many nights staying up late trying to envision the perfect nursery to realize that I needed to chill out-lol. So we ended up choosing a set from Land of Nod that's not anything like what we had originally pictured. But I'm growing to love it, and I'm excited for it to all get here. We also got our crib, dresser and hutch in a few weeks ago--but most of it is still in boxes because the nursery still isn't cleaned out. In the name department, we've narrowed it down to 3. And his middle name will be Porter. That's all we can confirm at this point.

Belly Button: It's ginormous and it's starting to poke out. There's no hope of it staying in anymore. Oh well!!

Since I have no belly picture, I tried to upload our sonogram video from 24 weeks. After waiting for 25 minutes for it to finish, I gave up. Maybe next time??

Waging the War...

I want to start by saying a huge THANK YOU and sending hugs to everyone who has sent me an encouraging message over the past few days. I also want to thank EVERYONE who has been and continues to keep my family in your prayers!! I have not responded to any of the messages yet and I didn't want anyone to think that your encouragement has gone unappreciated--I have loved reading all of them and could not be more grateful for all of your support. We've just had a rough week, and the hits keep coming. That being said, there's more to update about on dad.
I'll start by telling you what the plan was as of this past Thursday. They had decided to hit the spots in dad's elbow with radiation 5 days a week; so, a special "brace" was made so that it could be taken on and off for easy access to the elbow. They also decided that dad would have gallbladder surgery this Monday (tomorow) because of some large gallstones that had been found: the hope being that this would alleviate some of dad's GI issues and let him eat and digest with a little less trouble. He would rest Tuesday, and have a scope (EGD) done on Wednesday to look at the spot in the esophagus. They wanted to see if the spot in the esophagus was healing (this would be a huge YAY) or if it was growing or not changing at all. Then they would make a plan based on those results. So it was going to be a rough upcoming week, but there was a plan.
THEN, the insurance finally approved another PET scan, after denying it initially, so we could get a global picture of what was going on in dad's body. The scan took place on Thursday. We got results on Friday, and they weren't good. Not only was the spot in the esophagus NOT healing, but there were more lesions there. They also found metasteses on dad's liver. So it's continuing to attack his body and it's not limiting itself to anywhere in particular. They still don't really know where the primary lesion is which is more frustrating than any of us can put into words. So all of the plans changed. Everything is being put on hold and dad is being admitted to the hospital tomorrow morning. He will stay there through Thursday or Friday and have continuous chemo using 4 drugs instead of just the 1 they were using.
It was a huge blow to everyone, especially dad, and it was compounded by dad having a not so great week at work. Without going into details, some things happened at work and the higher-ups weren't overly understanding or supportive. And there's a lot of unknowns about how much dad will be able to work over the next few weeks/months and this is creating a MASSIVE financial strain on mom and dad.
So, David and I decided about 5:30 on Friday to drive to lubbock for a quick trip. Dad had the weekend off (after working overnight at the ER at Lubbock's Heart Hospital on Friday) and Mary Kate was also off. So we were able to spend some time just hanging out. Dad was in good spirits, but I can tell this is all starting to wear on him. His silly, joking nature was still there, but it was interrupted by moments of weariness and fatigue. (One of my favorite one-liners from dad this weekend: Me:"One of my friends is just really freaked out about the whole process of giving birth." Dad: "Yeah, me too. That's why I made mom do it.")
So right now, as everything stands, there are a lot of unknowns. In fact, almost everything is unknown except what is happening this week. I'm sure it will be a hard week on dad: physically draining, emotionally exhausting, and just overall not feeling well. It will also be hard on mom because I know her, and she will take it all on herself too and she won't leave dad's side. We need this treatment to ravage the cancer growing in dad's body. We know and believe that our God is mighty to heal and we are anticipating a cancer-free dad. Please continue to cover mom and dad in prayer. Pray for healing, strength, and for the extraneous stress of the future (especially financially) to be lifted off of them. Thank you so much!! In the words of dad, "the ante has been upped" and we are preparing for battle.

Update on Dad

Hey everyone who might be reading this, I just wanted to give you all an update on how dad's doing. I don't remember exactly what I posted in the last update (I know it's been a while) and I don't want to go back and read it (because I don't like to re-read about this). I will try not to repeat things and also not leave any major gaps in the timeline.
Dad was having radiation and chemo done for a second round: this time they were radiating all of the areas that were originally of concern (the skull, the tibia, the ischium, the rib and the vertebra). They did a bone scan and all of the areas were showing improvement (the tibia and the spinous process were pretty much completely gone)!! But dad was having some GI issues so he underwent some extra testing just to see what was going on, and a spot was found at the base of his esophagus. They took tissue from 8 different spots and 1 of the 8 spots came back positive for cancer cells. So, they found more cancer, but it wasn't huge. The debate on whether or not to radiate that area began (one of the big cons being the high risk of strictures) and continues to go on today. Meanwhile, dad had been experiencing right elbow pain that had been getting worse over time. It had been bothering him for several weeks, so they took a look at it, and again the answer came back positive for cancer. Another new area--ugh! That was where we were last week.
That brings us to today. It's been a rough week. Dad has lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. He is having a really hard time eating anything. Not for lack of appetite, but because everything tastes and smells wrong and it makes him sick. So he and mom have been searching for the things that he enjoys eating and can keep down so he won't continue to lose weight at such a fast rate. It has been a frustrating and saddening experience for both of them. Then this morning happened: dad's elbow fractured due to the weakened bone surrounding the two small areas of cancer cells. It might not have been such a deflating and heart-sickening event except that he fractured it trying to open a protein shake (one of the few things he can keep down). My dad is not a weakling, he's the strongest man I know. And he broke his elbow opening a bottle.
So, they are going to radiate that area while he wears a brace to try and keep everything in place so it can grow back together. He goes in tomorrow and they will decide whether or not to start chemo again. We are all a little beaten down right now. Dad is frustrated and his frustration is multiplied by the fact that it's his right elbow-the one he uses for everything. He doesn't tolerate being "handicapped" well at all. He is a go-go-goer, NOT one to take a lot of rest. I, personally, feel like there's something they're missing. I'm sick of hearing that the doctors "aren't impressed" with that new spot, or "aren't too concerned" about this area. I AM IMPRESSED with it--it's not going away and new spots are showing up. To me that means there is OBVIOUSLY something we need to "concern" ourselves with. I wish I could make my dad's health and his life mean as much to the doctor's as it does to us--but it's humanly impossible. And that's ok...I just want them to keep looking and keep pushing and keep making my dad better!! Sorry for the rant, it's just been a hard day.
Please pray for my dad: for healing, for physical and emotional strength, for peace, for him to be able to keep food down, and for him to be strong for my mom. For my mom: peace, understanding, patience, and for her to be strong for my dad. For the rest of the family: for peace and that we will know how to best serve my mom and dad right now. Thanks for reading-I feel blessed to have each of you in my life. Baby post coming soon!

I feel ya, baby!! (and see ya too)

So this has become one of my favorite things to say!! Sometimes when I'm sitting at home, and I feel the baby move that's exactly what I say to him, "I feel ya, baby!". I can't wait to have something to call him other than "baby" or "my little man". But we're having a pretty hard time finding a name that we think is just perfect for him. FORTUNATELY, we both agree on and like the same names!!! So if we could just narrow down our list from 5 to 1, we would be in business! Until then, "baby" it is!

A name is not the only thing we are having trouble making decisions about! I had NO IDEA how man options there are out there. We have only scraped the surface on the registering process and already feel extremely overwhelmed by the decisions we have to make! Some seem silly (I still cannot find bedding that makes me smile) and others seem really important (what kind of car seat should we get for after he outgrows the infant seat--not a specific brand, but should we get a convertible car seat or a 3-in-1). We want our precious cargo to always be safe and secure and loved! The loved part is COVERED (we already love him more than I could have imagined), but the safe and secure part requires a lot of research and education on our parts! Hopefully we will get it together soon!

I also wanted to make sure and mark a milestone that we reached this week (and this is the only place I'm documenting these things). Today, I was able to see him move from the outside!! I probably could have seen him early, but today was the first day that I just sat there and watched. And what's really awesome is that David was able to see him too!! It's exciting for me to see David get excited about all of these things too!

So that's about it for now-aren't you proud of my short(er) post?!?!

Alot to update!!

Well hello there!! I cannot believe that it has been so long since I posted something! There's been a lot that's happened since the last post, and I definitely don't want to try and put it all down right now. So here's a quick, detail-lacking look at the past few months (with the ups and the downs): 1. An old friend from high-school was shot and killed for basically unknown reasons 2. A couple of weeks later, a precious precious family lost thier daddy, who was a State Trooper responding to an accident, leaving behind an absolutely beautiful 7 month old little girl and her amazing mommy along with the rest of thier families. 3. Dad's treatment is going well and the doctor's feel he is responding well to what they are doing so far. He is undergoing round 2 of chemo and radiation, and there is not a whole lot else to report on that so far. 4. We had great holidays in Lubbock!! We spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas in Lubbock with our families and enjoyed getting to see everyone!

5. We are expecting a baby boy to arrive somewhere around May 18, 2011!!! This is what I really can't believe I haven't posted about! This is huge and exciting news, and though I have posted about it on facebook occasionally, we haven't shared ANY of the details! So I will try and recap the past 21 weeks!!

September 7th: I took 3 pregnancy tests--all of which were positive!! I have always wanted to find some creative way to tell David when the time came, but when it really happened, emotions took over and I just wanted him to know!! So, I ran to target, bought some plain white onesies and wrote the most ridiculous poem ever on one of them! In my defense, I wrote in about 5 minutes after I told David I was going to take a quick bath! It was so fun to see his face when he pulled back the covers and saw it lying on his side of the bed!

September 8th: *Note* this is less than 24 hours after finding out we're pregnant. I was working on jumping with a 3 year old that I work with and she decided to rocket-launch herself off of the mini-trampoline into my stomach. I said, "Hey!! You just jumped into my belly!" to which she responded, "You got a baby in that belly?". I had no idea what to say!! It caught me completely off gaurd! I hope she was just asking b/c her mom had recently had another baby, and not because I was already showing at 4 weeks!

September 17th: First time that I straight up lie to a friend's face when she asks me if I have anything that I need to tell her, "like that you guys are having a baby?". Sorry Shannon!

September 30th: One of the mom's of a little boy I see says to her son, "Look how cute! She has a baby in her tummy." I don't know if she was talking to me or what, but I completely ignored the comment!! We hadn't told anyone, and I really don't think I was showing yet!

October 8th: First Dr. Appointment with Dr. New at 8 weeks. We hear the heart beat and it's 172 bpm. We also get to see our little gummy bear for the first time!

October 15th: We tell our families that baby Forbess #1 is on the way. Everyone was very excited for us! Especially since David's sister and her husband are expecting too, and are exactly 10 weeks to the day ahead of us!

November 5th: Second Dr. Appointment at 12 weeks. Baby's heart reat was 167-168 ish. We also realize that Dr. New does sonograms at every appointment!! What a blessing to be able to see the baby at EVERY visit!

December 3rd: Third Dr. Appointment at 16 weeks. Dr. New tells us that he is pretty sure he sees a "turtle" sticking out even though the umbilical cord keep getting in the way. We hear for the first time that IT'S A BOY!!!!!

December 23rd: At 19 weeks, I feel the baby move "for sure" for the first time! I had heard that it would feel like butterflies or fluttering, but it didn't! That's probably why it took me so long to figure out that's what it was. It felt more like a "thump" in my belly. David is anxiously awaiting the time where he can feel him move from the outside!

December 30th: Fourth Dr. Appointment at 20 weeks. Dr. New says "Did I say it was a boy last time? Because unless that thing falls off, it's a boy!" So it's officially a BOY!!! Heart rate continues to be in 160s and the Dr. says the baby is growing just like he should and everything is measuring right on target!!

That brings us to the present! I am a little over 21 weeks right now. I plan on updating ever 2-4 weeks so that I have something to look back on and see what was going on at each stage in the pregnancy! Here are a few things I will keep updating:

Baby Size: He is about 8 inches long and somewhere around 12-16 ounces. He's a SPAGHETTI SQUASH!!!

Baby Development: We are already beyond the point where all of the baby's systems are in place. He now has arms and legs that are proportional to his body size! At first his little legs looked like cricket legs!! He is able to grip things now (noteably the umblical cord), and can perceive light and dark through his fused little eyelids. His eyelashes and eyebrows are formed now, and hopefully hair is growing in on that head of his!!

Weight Gain: That's right, I'm going to try and keep this updated unless it becomes too embarrassing! So if I suddently stop posting about this, you'll know why. As of now, I've gained between 7-8 pounds.

Pregnancy Symptoms: I spent the first 4 months completely unable to breath through my nose! I had to take a lot of sudafed just to make it through. Then I got a nasty sinus infection and Dr. New said I was far enough along to take an antibiotic. I have a whole new nose now and I am loving being able to breathe now!! Lately, I've been having a LOT of SI joint pain (right side only) and pain in my upper back (left side only). Weird, I know!

Cravings: Hmm...the only thing I have really CRAVED is Lemongrass Chicken from Saigon Cafe in Lubbock. So when I was in town for Thanksgiving, I ate it 3 times in a week!! And I ate it again over Christmas. I have also eaten more cheeseburgers in the past 4 months than I have in the previous 4 years!! I have also wanted to eat a lot of fruit lately!

Maternity clothes: I bought my first pair of maternity jeans last week. YIKESIES---maternity jeans are NOT cute unless you want to spend $150+ on designer jeans. Fortunately, I can still button my american eagle jeans so that's mostly what I wear. They just started getting uncomfortable when I sit down a few days ago. Other than that, I've only bought one maternity shirt and I LOVE IT!!! Anyone with some tips on where to buy CUTE but CHEAP maternity clothes, please do share.

Nursery and Name: NOTHING. We've got NOTHING!!! Ugh, this is the only part of this that has stressed me out at all. We still haven't been able to decide on anything! It's a lot harder than I thought! We will definitely update this part as we go along. Well, I guess we actually do have something. We know his middle name will be Porter. That is David's dad's middle name and the last few generations of Forbess men have been named after their granddads.

Belly Button: Still in, but it is BARELY hanging on. I have always had a little outtie inside my innie! It never showed before, so I didn't think much about it. As my belly button is getting stretched out, my outtie is getting closer and closer to the surface. It shouldn't be long now!

I will leave you with a picture of the belly at 20 weeks.

Rangers, Raiders and Radiation...

...and we're 0-3! On Friday night, David and I went to the Rangers game--he went for the game, I went for the fellowship and fireworks!! Some friends of ours from small group had tickets to a suite, so we were blessed to eat all of the hotdogs and chicken fingers we wanted!! I've discovered that baseball is one of those sports that I do NOT want to watch on television, but can enjoy watching in real life! I am also completely ok if I happen to have good friends with me at the game that keep me completely distracted from actually watching the game--thanks girls!!! The fireworks after the game were awesome (I still get just as excited about them as I did when I was 10), but the poor rangers couldn't pull out a win, 0-1 for the weekend.

Saturday we had our sweet friends, Jessica and Clay, over to grill out and watch the Tech game. The food was awesome!! We had Chipotle Lime tumble chicken from Market Street, fresh vegetables from the Coppell Farmer's Market (including 8-ball zucchini-YUM!), and homemade mashed potatoes!!! It was delicious!! I refuse to talk about the Tech game, 0-2.

As far as the radiation goes: here's an update on dad. The biopsy he had done showed that the lesion in his hip is definitely a tumor. The cells were not differentiated. So, we know that tumor is NOT a primary bone lesion and it came from somewhere else. What we don't know, is where the primary lesion is. Dad has had multiple tests done, including a PET scan. The PET scan didn't show anything that we were not already aware of. It lit up in his pelvis as well as the other bone areas we had previously been concerned about. All of his bloodwork has revealed nothing. The only other area that might possibly be of concern is a small area on his liver--but no one seems too concerned with it right now. Dad's liver enzymes have been elevated for a while apparently, and those haven't shown any recent changes. So what to do?? Dad had a port placed on Thursday (I think) for chemo. He was supposed to begin radiation last week, but due to a lack of thorough communication, it has been delayed until Monday (thus making the three R's 0-3).

So this coming Monday, the plan is to radiate the area in his pelvis as well as one lumbar vertebrae. He will also have his first of two chemo treatments which will be spread out over a few weeks. They will repeate the PET scan in 2 months to see what changes. Please continue to keep all of the family in your prayers! I think dad is ready to actually start doing something about it--so that's exciting! Mom and dad have been very blessed by the support and encouragement they have received from everyone!!! Thank you all--I will update when I know more. I also think mom is going to set up a Caringbridge page for him. When that's officially up and running, I will post the site so everyone can stay informed that way. Hope you all had a great weekend!

The Last 10 Days with my Daddy!

I wanted to write an update about what's been going on with my dad for all of you who are curious. I will try and keep it short, simple, and chronological:

My dad has been having hip pain for the past couple of months. He thought it was probably bursitis or something equally benign, and he's pretty dang toug; so, he just kept on living life. Well, I didn't know it, but on Thursday, September 9th my dad went in for x-rays because it wasn't getting better. The x-rays showed something of concern, so my dad went in for a bone scan on Friday. Again, I didn't know any of this. My mom called me Friday evening to tell me that they had found a lesion on my dad's pelvis. That was all that they really knew, other than the fact that all of his lab results were normal despite what they were seeing. I cried.

Because of the way the lesion lit up on the bone scan, they scheduled an MRI and a CT scan for the following Monday. On Monday, my dad was diagnosed with Primary Bone Cancer in his pelvis with small metasteses on his tibia, 4th lumbar vertebrae, 1st rib and skull. It was a pretty disheartening diagnosis. It could have been worse: they were originally throwing out everything from multiple myeloma to metastatic renal cancer.

So Tuesday, my dad met with an oncologist in Lubbock. Two things really stuck out from that meeting. First, my dad needs to go see a specialist in Dallas, at UT Southwestern of all places. There are no orthopedic oncologists in Lubbock, so my dad is scheduled to see a specialist, Dr. Maale (pronounced "Molly"), this coming Tuesday the 21st. The second thing that stuck out from meeting is that the oncologist in Lubbock was "not impressed" by all of the secondary areas. He is not convinced that those are true metasteses. So we are holding out hope that those areas are nothing but "junk".

So that's where we are now. Waiting. We have been so blessed so far, in that we haven't had to wait. Everyone has bent over backward to help my dad and get him in to see whoever he needs to as quickly as possible. So the waiting is ok. We'll take it. We have been surrounded by prayers and encouragement and couldn't feel more supported than we have been. Thank you all so much!!! Please continue to pray for the doctors and my family, especially my mom and dad. They are such an amazing team--I feel blessed to watch them attack this battle together. We are still believing that my dad will be completely healed or even better, that this won't be cancer at all. Either way, we're armed and ready for the fight. The Lord is without a doubt a POWERFUL healer!!

Road Trippin'

This entry will serve two purposes:

1. Let you in on my extremely limited perspective of the TEXAS TECH season opener.

2. Tell you a little about our adventure returning to the LBK.

So to start, I will tell you what I thought about the game. Here is my *disclaimer*: I am a girl. I have never played football in my life. Not even powderpuff football. I'm pretty sure my volleyball coach banned our volleyball team from participating--or maybe that was just the excuse I invented to avoid looking stupid (I HATE looking stupid), but that's how I remember it. Not only have I never played football, but I DO NOT know all of the rules. I know most of them, don't get me wrong, but I would never claim to be an expert. I do NOT check RedRaiderSports.com or DoubleTNation.com EVER, and I don't read any other sport-related pages. I occasionally watch ESPN for fun, but mostly it's only on Saturday mornings during college football season. Please do NOT read my opinion and then immediately act on your need to defend the team to me!! I LIKE Tech, I am a Red Raider, and I support my team---but that doesn't negate my right to have an opinion. So here it is:

I give them a hooray with a side of yuck. Not "YUCK", or "YUCK!!!!!!", or "OMG--they're terrible!!"....just a simple "Yuck." I mean, I think I was overly optimistic that somehow we would come out of last season's debaucle, through the off-season's tumultuous overhaul, and come out on the other side smelling like roses. Well, we didn't and we don't....hence, the Yuck. We won--HOORAY!! We had several bright shining moments: interceptions that weren't thrown by our QB and Leong. While I have no objective critiques, I just thought overall, some areas of play could use some major reworking (ie. our ineptitude on the "special teams" end and our sweet sweet QB who tends to get a little too "deer in the headlights" for my liking. Let me take this opportunity to say that I LIKE Taylor Potts. I am a fan of Taylor Potts! I WANT TAYLOR POTTS TO SUCCEED!!! I also want him to learn how to run--I'm not asking for a Vince Young, just move your feet, son! Overall, I just really really hope that we get a lot better in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, Wreck 'Em Tech, beat the Lobos, and get to practice!

Now on to the exciting part of our trip: We almost died! Ok, not really--I tend to exaggerate! But seriously, we drove into a massive storm Thursday night! I should clarify that "we"= me and David and our great friends, Jess and Clay. It started as just an absolutely incredible lightning show. We could see the lightning starting 25-30 minutes before we actually got to the storm. It was amazing; just constant lightning strikes across the sky. A beautiful display of the Lord's awesome power.

And then we hit Seymour. YIKES!! It was actually about 5 miles outside of Seymour when the torrential downpour began. I'm talking, visibility of about 14 inches. Cars were trying to pull off the road, but no one could see where the side of the road was. So we followed the flashing tail lights of the car in front of us at about 15 mph for probably 15 minutes. When we finally got to Seymour, that sweet little town was completely under water. The water was over the curbs, filling every parking lot, and even lapping at the front doors of the homes off the main highway. We had to pull over into a half-submerged parking lot at one point to watch and see if the cars ahead of us could make it through the water. After seeing a couple of smaller cars make it through, we decided to give it a try. When we started driving, water was flying up from the tires 2 feet ABOVE the hood of David's car!!! It was crazy. It became absolutely ridiculous, when we saw the 18-wheeler headed toward us at about 30 mph from the other side!! You got it: he splashed water complete over David's car, and the wake he cause actually lifted our car off of the road and moved us over to the side a few inches. Praise the Lord that he placed us safely back on the ground and got us to the other side. David said at one point, he saw his headlights dip under the water--now that's scary!! But we made it to Lubbock in one piece. The only visible damage was David's license plate and holder being bent at a 90-degree angle from the car and the small tree sticking out from underneath! Fortunately, we had Jess and Clay with us--that made it a little less scary and more hilarious!! Either way, we were glad to get to Lubbock!

We had a great weekend and loved catching up with the friends and family we were able to see. We have season tickets this year, so we'll be making that trip frequently this Fall! And with the looks of it, I'll be making it a lot in the Spring for baby and wedding showers for my friends and family!! Love you all-hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!! I'll add picture tomorrow, so check back!