Life on the Ship

Here are some pictures on the ship. They said the food was very good with a very large variety of places and things to eat. One night Konley wanted Russ to bring him a snack - - I would say this qualifies.

Murals on the ship.

At this restaurant the pictures frames went from still life to animated cartoons from various Disney movies.

They saw different shows in the evening. This one had different scenes from various Disney movies. They saw Toy Story, musical of love songs, and several soon to be released movies.

This was a private meeting with Mickey and Goofy that was set up for Konley.

One evening the dinner theme was Pirates. They did some acts and had fireworks off the ship.

Beautiful picture of the full moon.

The Disney Trip

The next couple days I will be doing the "Disney Trip". Hopefully making several posts won't make it too long. For those who do not know, my stepson Konley, has a brain tumor. He originally was diagnosed at one year of age. The last 8 years he has been "cancer free" but this past spring when we went back to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, we learned that the tumor had returned. They have tried several types of chemo but so far nothing has touched the tumor. Due to the size and location they are not able to do surgery or radiate it this time. The Disney trip they took was his "make a wish" trip, but we actually went through another company called Dream Factory. They were able to meet our family needs (as a blended family) much better than Make A Wish could.

Their ship "The Wonder"

Russ, Kassade Keyton, Tamme (his mother), John (stepfather) and Konley boarding the ship.

These are a few of the gifts that Dream Factory had for Konley in his cabin.

Russ and Konley running through the safety drill.

Some brotherly/sisterly love in the cabin room.

The final count down to shipping off. Seriously, doesn't this look like a lot of fun for families? More to come of the trip. . . . . . . . . . .

TUESDAYS

Look who came to visit. Last Tuesday Russ called me at 5:15 PM and said he was on his way home. Already?? He also said that he had a surprise for me. When he walked in the door - look who he brought with him for the night - Konley!

Konley is wanting to spend some more time with us, so we have designated Tuesday night as "Konley Night". This past Tuesday we had spaghetti, watched the movie "Elf" and had "sticky popcorn." It was a good evening together.

I know many of you are wondering how Konley is doing. His mobility continues to decrease on a weekly basis. He has mobility in arms and able to do some daily activities such as feed himself, plays video games and get in and out of a vehicle. He is able to stand with assistance. He speech is a little slurred. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to have pain and has very few headaches. Hospice continues to come out several times a week to check on him and they have suggested to start him on oxygen only at nighttime. He seems to be okay with this. As you notice in pictures weight gain is a constant battle with the steroids but they help with the swelling of the tumor (which is the lesser of the two evils - you have to decide). He does have moments when he doesn't understand why this is happening and he wants to live. These are very difficult moments for Russ, but they talk about the issue and work through it together and move on.

Positives - Konley still wants to be involved in activities and tries very hard to participate (as you can see in my fall party post), London makes him laugh when she tries to be our helper when we are doing laundry or cleaning the kitchen, continues to have a good attitude, didn't cry for 6 days, and looks to Jesus to be his strength during those tough moments.

It isn't easy and there are good days/moments and some really crappy ones. We are so thankful for our supportive family and friends near and far. Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers - they are much appreciated.

Pleeeeeeease

keep the bathroom door shut!

. . . and they wonder why?

An Exciteful Moment

Dealings

One of the "joys" I have as a stepparent is dealing with the children's biological mother. I am most fortunate because most of the time I don't have any dealings with her. That is - unless one of my stepchildren asks me my thought/opinion on a family matter and if I reply with any mention or inkling of their mother - it gets "reported" back to her in some sort of form. The following day I will then proceed to get a whinny/poor me/you are so mean to me or nasty little email from her trying to tell me what I can and can't do. I have and will continue to stand my ground and not let her tell me what is right or wrong with my thoughts or my opinion on issues.

This has gone on for 6+ years, so I have learned to take it with a grain of salt and be the adult in the situation.

Today I received two emails from her and the second one stated "you are unbelievable" those were her exact words! Wow I am an unbelievable person! I felt the same way - I doubled check with my coworkers and husband and they also felt the same way. Did something in her heart towards me change?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I don't think she meant it as a compliment.

Fall Block Party

Our block knows how to party! We had our first Fall Block Party on Saturday. We had the most beautiful day, sunshine, warm, and everyone was ready to go. We did several activities . We had apple bobbing. Below is Craig verses Scott. We had several father/son teams race each other.

Keyton was so quick against Russ that I barely got a picture.

Amy did face painting for the kids. Next year we will need to remember to do AFTER apple bobbing.

On to the next event, which seemed to be the biggest hit with everyone. We did pumpkin launching. As you can tell on the expressions that they took it pretty seriously. Some of the pumpkins went the entire block.

Fun for all ages

Keyton and Lauren were at the other end trying to catch them. A blurry action shot. You can see the barricades behind Keyton - there were pumpkins flying behind them.

Waffle won the dog costume contest as Clifford the Big Red Dog. They spray painted him with red paint (don't worry it is washable). Our family got to judge the contest since we don't have a dog. Imme was a hula girl, Marley a skeleton, Miley a KC Chief's cheerleader and we had a pirate.

Keyton showing off some of his bloody horror.

London and Anne playing in the leaves

Check our the spread, we had five different types of soup, breads, smoked turkey, hot dogs to roast, and lots of desserts. (thanks meg for the picture). Man, our neighborhood is great at planning meals - no one ever goes hungry. Later in the evening after it got dark we had two fire pits going to stay warm. We also did "pumpkin bowling" in the dark. This seemed to be one of the kids favorites. After the adults were tired of setting up the pins, Talby took over. They used all sizes of pumpkins and carved jack-o-lanterns. The next thing we knew there was pumpkins guts all over the road and then the little kids were chasing the older kids (who were on their bikes) with pieces of pumpkins trying to hit them on their bikes. It was wild and crazy and only a few were ran over by bikes flying through the dark.

Thanks to all the neighbors for a great evening.

Fishing

Today while Kassade, London, Keyton and I stayed at home (doing mindless activities) - Grandpa Thomas, Russ and Konley went fishing. This is one of Konley's favorite activities. They had a perfect fall day to be out. We have had a run of several warm beautiful fall days.

Grandpa Thomas took them to the Halstead Golf Course (hence the golf cart) talk about fishing in comfort.

One fish. . .

two fish . . . three fish . . . four?

It was a VERY successful day of fishing. They brought home 15 blue gill/perch whatever you call them. They scaled them, whacked off the heads and gutted them. Now they are in our freezer all cleaned waiting to be eaten next time the kids come over. Grandpa swears that the tails will taste like fried potato chips . . . . Good Job Boys!