Harvesting with Farmer Dave

This past Sunday, Ian's harvest dreams finally came true as he got the opportunity to ride in a working combine! My friend Jan, from the Illinois State Water Survey, has a brother Dave that farms & he was kind enough to let us come & visit (thank you - thank you - thank you!)



Shortly after lunch that day, Hadley, Ian, Grandma Janet & I set out to visit the farm. Dave was working south of Monticello in Piatt County, so it was about a 45 minute drive from home to get there and I think that all 45 minutes involved some sort of "Are we there yet?" comment. Ian was very concerned with what type of crop Farmer Dave might be harvesting because he hoped that he had the "pokies" on his combine (the corn head). He was also very excited because Jan had told me that Farmer Dave had a John Deere combine - his favorite! It was really hard to be patient with so much to look forward to!

When we arrived, Dave was working on corn & Ian was immediately ready to climb aboard. Actually, both kids & I got to ride along while Jan & Grandma Janet got stuck waiting out in the wind (sorry). As we went down every row, Ian kept saying, "I want want to go this many more (hold out all your fingers)." Hadley eventually tired of the excitement and climbed out to play, but Ian wasn't going anywhere!

When we finally did get him out of the combine, it was to climb in the tractor with Farmer George. He had a great time riding along as the combine emptied its corn into the wagon. The hardest part was when it was time to go - it broke his heart to leave. Once we finally did get home, he spent the next few days playing with his combine & tractor (the couch rows are his crop!)

Only in central Illinois...

This past weekend we went to the Philo Fun Fest. Philo, which also calls itself the "Center of the Universe" is a small town about 10 miles south-southeast of Urbana. The initial big draw was the fire department's pancake & sausage breakfast. These are some of Todd's favorite foods & so we have become connoisseurs of these fundraising events. But once we got there, we found that there had been an antique tractor parade & that they were still parked in a nearby field. Ian was in heaven! He and Little Pappa spent forever going from tractor to tractor for him to sit & pretend to drive (all accompanied by the requisite tractor noises...)


Then, at 11:00 they held a kiddie tractor pull. I signed up tractor-man Ian & on a whim asked Hadley if she wanted to participate. She said yes, so I added her to the 4-year old group. The sled they pull with the pedal tractor was pretty deluxe and got heavier the further they drove. Ian was all excited because the pedal tractor was John Deere (his favorite), but unfortunately, he didn't really understand that it was going to be difficult to pedal because of the sled & basically went nowhere. There were 4 boys signed up in his group and they gave trophies to first through third. Poor Ian came in fourth. Luckily he didn't even realize that they were giving out trophies though because he was off to sit on the tractors (again!)

Hadley's 4-year old group was up next & there were about 7 kids in her group. The organizers of the pull added an iron bar of weight to the sled for this age group, which made me nervous for her attempt, but she did really well. Some kids weren't even able to go at all (like had happened to Ian) and one little boy refused to even try. The end result was that Hadley came in 2nd! This was good because after her turn, I asked her if she wanted to go do something else & she told me no because she was waiting for her trophy. It is now sitting in a place of honor in my china cabinet. Ian, meanwhile, is in training for the next kiddie pull we hear of!

Ribbit!

I just had to post a cute thing Ian did today. Even though his birthday was earlier this month, they were actually just celebrating it today at preschool. As part of being the birthday boy, it was his day to do "Secret Sack" which is a fancy version of show & tell. You place an object in the secret sack (a nice sparkly bag) and write 3 clues. The teacher, Miss Anna, reads the clues to the child who announces them one by one to the class. After each clue, the kids get to guess what is in the sack & if they haven't gotten after the 3rd clue, they get to see what was there.

So last night, in preparation for the big day, we talked to Ian about what he wanted to take & his clues. He was very excited & definite that he wanted to take Ribbit, his stuffed frog. We talked about our three clues & came up with:
1 It's green
2 It hops
3 It says "Ribbit"

Arriving at school was very exciting this morning. There was a sparkly crown with Ian & the number "3" on it and he also got to sit on the special star carpet square. Then it was time for circle & secret sack. Like the big boy he is, he went up to sit on the secret sack chair with Miss Anna, who read him the clue "It's green". He was so excited about his secret sack that instead of repeating the clue to the class & letting them guess, he promptly announced "It's RIBBIT!"

Man, there is nothing better than a boy & his frog.

Cancer revisited...

Well, I had a scan yesterday and we got the disappointing results today. Unfortunately, the spot in the center of my chest wall has grown on this latest chemo.

I was kind of expecting the results, but it was still really hard to hear. Todd took the afternoon off work so that he could go in with me & it was wonderful to have him there. We are starting on a new chemo tomorrow and we'll just continue our prayers that God guides us to the one that works on my cancer. Each reoccurrence makes it harder & hurts my odds, but I still really have faith in God's plan for me. I also feel blessed that we've made it this far. Today was the funeral for Tony Snow, the White House press secretary who announced he had cancer last fall. It's been over 3 years for me now & I'm still going strong (or pretty strong). I don't always keep up with the kids, but I am not sure I would have even without the cancer. I was able to survive our trip to Disney in May & on a day to day basis we try to keep life as normal as possible.

Thanks so much for everyone's prayers and support though. We couldn't have done as well as we have so far without our families and friends.

My plan is to work on this blog at my chemo appointments so I'll try to do a better job. The cycle is two weeks on - one week off, so every week or so I should have an update. Talk to you soon!

New Year's Resolution

Well, my new year's resolution was to do a better job of keeping in contact with friends and family and here it is on January 18th that I'm starting my first entry of the year. Oh, well....

We had a busy but really nice Christmas. From the stretch of Thursday, the 20th through Christmas day, we celebrated 5 (yes 5!) Christmases. We got together with the extended Peters family, the King family, the Myler family, the immediate Peters family & then finally Santa came on Christmas morning! Whew!

I'm updating this at chemo this week & I'm actually done for the day, so I'll have to finish up later. Bye!

It's back...

Unfortunately, this isn't a great post. We just found out that the chemo I have been on since January has stopped working and that the areas that had cancer in January have reappeared on my latest scan as actively growing. Ugh!

Next up is some surgery in early December, some recovery time and then a new chemo in the new year.

Please keep us in your prayers.

My new year's resolution for 2008 is to keep in better contact with friends and family, so check back. I should be updating shortly (with pictures!)

It's been a good week!

Great news today - another good scan! It was a little spooky because there is an area on my chest wall that has been there since January and in my last scan 6 weeks ago, the radiologist that read it said that the area might be growing. This really kind of put us into a tizzy because we thought it was just scar tissue or something and hadn't really thought it was cancer. Anyway, his read was kind of wishy-washy as to if it had changed or not, so Dr. Johnson opted to wait until this scan to see if we wanted to change anything in my treatment. She said it could have just been how the scan slice cut through the area that made it look larger as opposed to anything actually growing. So, I had a scan yesterday and today we got the results that it was unchanged from last time, so she thinks that it was just his read last time & that I am still okay & clear. Whew! God has definitely answered our prayers this week.

In news about Todd's job, he has accepted a position with the IEPA Bureau of Air in Springfield and is to start on November 1st. The last day for the Champaign IEPA Lab is October 31st. We have decided that we aren't going to do anything about moving yet and that he is going to drive for a couple of months. There is a position on the books in the Champaign IEPA Regional Office that is currently unfunded & we are hoping that it becomes available in the next few months or so. After the new year, we will look at where we are at & what the job situation is & then decide if we want to move. If we do go, it will work better too because we will be putting our house on the market in the spring. All I know is that it will be interesting to see where we are at this time next year.