Wii would like to say Thank You!!!

WOW! Life got a little crazy and all of a sudden I am two weeks behind on our updates. In a nut shell - we are all doing fabulous and are completely enjoying our Minnesota Vacation. I have some fun stories and pictures to share, hopefully soon, but first I have to tell you about a group of people who have left us awed and speechless.

We have some wonderful friends, Nicole and Raul, who are moving to Puerto Rico and a couple of weeks ago we planned a last hurrah for our families. At their swimming pool we had the opportunity to meet some families from the neighborhood. Even with our friends preparing for their move we were so happy that they had found such a wonderful community of people to live next to for the last two years. After the pool we headed to the house of one of the neighbors to do some backyard barbecuing and, again, Brian and I commented on house nice and friendly the neighbors were that we were meeting. Dinner was amazing - even fighting the gusting wind that tried hard to steal our plates of food and wrestled with our napkins - it was fun to enjoy our friends and get to know some new people.

At the end of dinner, Nicole came outside carrying a big gift bag, and said that they (our friends and their neighbors) had a gift to help Jacob and Joshua during the next weeks and months. Imagine my boys delight and our utter...shock? Awe? Amazement? As the boys opened the present to find a Wii Sport and the Wii Play packed inside.

I am not often speechless. But there are really no words (especially in the moment) to describe what we felt as people we have never met or spent time with took time, energy, caring & money from their own life and gifted it to my boys and our family.

So to our friends

• Raul, Nicole, Matthew and Michael

And their Amazing friends

• Tracy, Tamara & Gregory
• Chris & Emil
• Karen
• Adam & Jennifer
• Mike, Lori & Mikey

From the bottom of our hearts - Thank You for living a life that reaches out and shows caring and for the very generous gift.

cancellation

Just a quick note - We will not be going to H20Brien Pool tomorrow (Thursday). The boys are fighting off a summer cold and we need to get them both over that!

I have lots of other updates - check back in tomorrow.

Change the date

So...

I just took a peek at the weather forecast for tomorrow and it is not looking promising for a pool play date. Probably I should have checked that first but hopefully there is truth in the saying - better late then never.

With that in mind - the boys and I are going to change our plans and we will be going next Thursday, August 14th at 10am.

Hopefully the added benefit of this is more friends will be able to join us!

You are invited!!!

On Thursday the boys and I will be going toH2O'Brien Pool in Parker for some end of the summer fun. Our plan is to get there around 10am and play until the boys are exhausted. If you are looking to fill a couple hours with family fun - we would love to have you join us there!

Hope to see you there!

It has been pointed out to us, by several wonderful friends, that we are very tardy with an update.

My husband is even now taunting me for "caving in" and was plotting ways to make it my turn to blog.

You see - it is not that we don't want to blog. This has been an amazing, wonderful and helpful outlet. In truth, we have just been really enjoying the normalcy of the last few weeks. Hot summer days, swimming, work and play, laziness, friends, watching movies, playing games, even just hanging out on the couch. Jacob has been feeling great and we are enjoying that blessing as much as possible.










I

If a picture is worth 1000 words - You are now caught up with the Carlsons!

Phase 3

Jacob's journey is moving on into phase 3 chemotherapy today - interim maintenance.

We had a slight speed bump in getting here, Jacob caught a virus last weekend and Dr Odom wanted to give him time to recover from that before starting back on the daily chemo. He is much better and as of last night he is back on the meds.

Interim maintenance will last for two months and consists of high amounts of oral chemotherapy and fewer clinic visits. Nightly doses of 6MP will continue and we are adding in a new oral agent, Methotrexate, which he will take once a week. The Methotrexate he has had previously in the liquid form via his spinal tap. In addition to this he will be back on the steroids for 5 day windows through out this phase. We are only scheduled to go to the clinic once (halfway through) this phase for a spinal tap. We are used to going every week so it was weird when we left on Tuesday to say "Have a nice month!" All of the ladies at the clinic hold such a special place in our hearts and we have gotten used to seeing them every week - they have been a definite perk in all of this.

The really cool thing about this phase is it allows for us to go ahead with Minnesota vacation plans. We leave in 28 days! At this point the only medical thing we are expecting to do while on vacation is a blood draw to get a CBC. You have no idea how huge that is. What a great window to rest and enjoy friends and family and to celebrate the wonderful life we have been given.

Once we return from Vacation we will be starting school and then in the middle of September we will start phase 4 - delayed intensification. For two months we will have, well, intense amounts of chemotherapy. I do not know the details yet but the Doctor mentioned that it will look a lot like induction did - numbers down to 0, dietary limits, isolation (he will miss some school), and very likely a re hospitalization.

We did not know we were doing this round until last week and it was very sobering. Jacob has been doing so well and with next to no side effects it has been hard to even think of him as being sick. In my mind I had us all the way to maintenance and cure. In my heart I think that is where God is taking us - this is just a reminder to walk the journey step by step. It has also been a reminder that for now my plate is already full in just taking care of my family - and that is where my focus needs to be. How lucky I am to be able to do that full time!

The smell of burning ...

The smell of burning hair is one of the worst smells there is.

Tonight we were doing our job as good Americans and getting ready to throw some beef on the grill. Brian had already fired up the grill and in answer to his wifes request - went out to give it a quick brush cleaning. Lifting the lid and not seeing any flame he automatically reached out and pushed the starter button.

Think ENORMOUS fireball.

And as bad as the smell of burnt hair is (eyebrows, lashes, hair) it is so much better then the smell of burnt flesh, which by all rights should of had us doing more then applying a little aloe.

You may call it luck... But I would like to say "Thank You God!" for protecting my husband tonight.